Abstract: In order to identify the determinants that influence the credit risk of Peruvian municipal savings banks, this quantitative research uses a nonexperimental design and a longitudinal sample to analyze monthly data corresponding to macroeconomic variables and microfinance institutions’ internal variables from 2011 to 2020. Using multiple linear regression, the results show that the interest rate, unemployment rate, and liquidity ratio positively influence the credit risk of Peruvian municipal savings banks; the study also shows that gross domestic product, efficiency of administrative expenses, solvency, and coverage of provisions exert a negative influence on credit risk. It is concluded that seven of the eight independent variables studied influence the credit risk of Peruvian municipal savings banks; only the inflation variable does not significantly influence credit risk.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: In Indonesia, natural disasters cases have significantly increased from time to time and have the largest impact on economic losses. To avoid losses in the future due to natural disasters, the insurance company needs to estimate the risk and determine the rate of premium that would be charged to the policyholder. In conjunction with the present issue, this study seeks to determine the premium rate and estimate the size claim of insurance by considering the mitigation fund reserve decisions using The Collective Risk Model (CRM). The data was analyzed using the Poisson process with Weibull distribution to determine the natural disaster frequency and losses. The distribution of losses is estimated using Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), and the magnitude of losses was estimated using the CRM. Also, the mean and variance estimators of the aggregate risk were used to estimate the premium charged. The results indicated that expectation and variance of the frequency of incident claims have the same value, i.e., 2562. Also, the loss claims follow the Weibull distribution with the expected value and variance of 5.81309×10¹⁰ and 2.5301×10²², respectively. The mean and variance of the aggregate (collective) claims are 148,931,365,800,000 and 7.35×10²⁵, respectively. In conclusion, this study has successfully determined the efficient pure premium model through the Standard Deviation Principle (SDP). SDP provides a much cheaper premium than the Expected Value Principle with the same loading factor. In addition, SDP considers the standard deviation of the collective risk of natural disasters. The implications of the results of the premium determination are expected to be the basis for decision-making for insurance companies and the government in determining insurance policies for natural disaster mitigation.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: Vulnerability is one of the prominent features of rural areas due to their distinctive characteristics, such as remoteness, geographical conditions, and socio-economic dependence on primary sectors. Addressing the vulnerability of rural areas in terms of the rural development paradigm is both urgent and relevant. This study aims to address this issue using the current state-of-the-art machine learning method, using the socio-ecological framework and integrated vulnerability index of villages in Lampung Province in Indonesia. The study attempts to predict and classify villages' vulnerability to be applied for better planning and rural development. Based on random forest classification and decision tree algorithm, the results show that the village governance system represented by rural water management and the level of education of village leaders are suitable prediction variables related to the low vulnerability index. This study can draw lessons learned to improve rural development in developing countries.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: In deciding to invest in stocks traded in the capital market, investors need to predict which stocks provide the prospect of return and the risks to be faced. This paper aims to predict the return and risk of stock asymmetry using a time series model approach. Predicting stock returns and risk is based on the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average-Glosten Jagannatan Runkle-Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARIMA-GJR-GARCH) model. In contrast, the largest risk potential measurement is performed using the Value-at-Risk (VaR) model. The data analyzed are the best ten stocks according to the criteria that apply on the IDX, the period between 17 December 2018 to 14 December 2021, which includes the names of stock BBCA, BBNI, BBRI, BMRI, ASII, ICBP, PGAS, PTBA, TLKM, and UNVR. The analysis results show that of the best ten stocks, based on the ratio between the predicted values of the average return and Value-at-Risk, those with relatively better performance are PTBA, TLKM, UNVR and BBCA stocks. Based on the results of this analysis, it can be used as a reference in making investment decisions for investors, specifically investing in the ten stocks analyzed.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: COVID-19 is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that attacks the respiratory tract. On August 14th, 2021, 653,741 persons had been proven positive for COVID-19. The number of patients tends to increase as the number of COVID-19 cases grows. The more infected people, the more cases of COVID-19 there will be. The Bed Occupancy Ratio (BOR) in West Java reached an all-time high of 91.6 percent in June 2021, far exceeding the WHO recommendation of 60 percent, before gradually declining to 30.69 percent in August. Because of the new cases mentioned, the rate of spread of COVID-19 in West Java, the forecast of new cases is very strategic. The number of new cases in this study was predicted using a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). The data used in this study were sourced from the COVID-19 Task Force. The data is the number of positive and new cases from 34 provinces in Indonesia from March 2nd, 2020, to August 14th, 2021. The results of the evaluation using test data on the number of active cases in the last 19 weeks, namely April 10th - August 14th, 2021, The MLP is accurate in forecasting the number of new cases 18 times for both forecast periods with APE < 15%, with the value MAPE, RMSE and MAE obtained were 5.52%, 1157,61, and 706.811. The results of this study can be helpful for the government as a reference in conditioning hospital bed capacity to deal with active COVID-19 cases in West Java in the next two weeks so that the hospital rejects no COVID-19 patients because the hospital is full.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: The aim of this study is to identify the influence of food attributes, perceived value, consumer trust and nutritional health behavior that contribute to consumer repurchase intention of foods with health claims. Descriptive Statistics was used to analyze the demographic profile of the 313 sample of respondents. Path analysis was conducted for analyzing the causal and effect relationship between variables expressed by means of a path coefficient. The results showed that there were only indirect effects between food attributes and Intention to repurchase. However, perceived value was shown to have both positive direct and indirect effects on intention to repurchase, which were significantly mediated by nutritional health behavior and consumer trust. Research results suggest food managers develop the value of food products and monitor the customer trust and the changes of market on the food with health claims for the competition in a current environment.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: Although the critical success factors might be different between the pre and post-adoption stages of mobile wallets, there have been few studies conducted to examine those factors for the post-adoption stage when compared to the number of studies conducted to examine those factors for the pre-adoption stage. Yet, the post-adoption stage of mobile wallets is crucial to the success and sustainability of the mobile wallets’ ecosystem. Thus, this study developed and examined a model by integrating relevant factors into the Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM2). Data were collected from 578 mobile wallet users in Jordan using an electronic questionnaire. A structural equation modelling approach was utilized to analyze the data. The results revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have statistically significant positive direct effects on the intention to continuous use of mobile wallets, while subjective norm does not. In addition to that, results indicated that trust, security, and ubiquity have statistically significant positive direct effects on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and, in turn, on the intention to continuous use of mobile wallets. Moreover, this study found that perceived ease of use and subjective norms have statistically significant positive direct effects on perceived usefulness, and, in turn, on the intention of continuous use of mobile wallets. While risk does not have a significant effect on perceived usefulness, it has been found to have a statistically significant negative direct effect on perceived ease of use, and, in turn, on the intention to continuous use of mobile wallets. The findings of this study should help stakeholders to develop more effective consumer retention tactics and formulate appropriate marketing decisions.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: The study provides the forecasts of expected returns based on cross-sectional estimates from the Fama-Macbeth regressions in the United Kingdom. We collected the data of listed firms on the London Stock Exchange on the DataStream from January 1980 to December 2020. We analyze the data sample by employing three cross-sectional models' ten-year rolling estimates of Fama-Macbeth slopes. The empirical findings demonstrate that an investor can derive a composite estimate of the expected return by integrating various company-specific variables in real-time. Model 1 indicates that the expected-return estimates have a predictive slope for future monthly returns of 95.07%, with a standard error of 0.1981. Moreover, model 2 and model 3 report the predictability of returns are 77.57% and 76.94%. In short, our empirical evidence suggests that investors and stakeholders may consider using model 1 to estimate the cost of equity due to its simplicity and effective prediction capability. Our findings are consistent with trade-off theory and prior literature.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: With the complication of the business environment of commercial economic activity, competition intensifies, which threatens the bankruptcy of enterprises, the prevention of which requires quality monitoring and timely identification of crises using methods of comprehensive assessment and analysis of economic security. This research is aimed at conducting component-by-component and, as a result, integrated assessment of the state of economic security of the enterprise. Methodological research tools include analysis of the main components, causation and vector regression modeling. A resource-functional security model is developed (which consists of partial indicators and components of economic security of business) and a resource-functional approach to calculations is also applied. Using the data of the expert survey, the values of indicators of structural components of economic security of the enterprise are determined. Using the resource-functional approach, the integrated values of sub-indices and the integral values of the general level of economic security of the enterprise are calculated. According to the results of the assessment, it is established that the integrated level of economic security of the enterprise is 7.04 (sufficient level of security). However, the components of economic security identified critically low values, namely - the financial component (0.452), the information component (0.554), the institutional and legal component (0.647). The results of the study are of practical value for the development of technological schemes - algorithms for strengthening the financial, informational and institutional and legal security of the enterprise, making sound (using economic and mathematical tools) management decisions to ensure the trajectory of sustainable economic development.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: Demand elasticity is the sensitivity of changes in the number of goods demanded by consumers due to changes in the price of goods. This paper compares the price elasticity of demand with and without memory effect using fractional-order derivatives. This study is designed using the development theory of fractional derivatives for the economic field in determining the price elasticity of demand. The result of numerical simulation using the value of α and p indicated that the price elasticity of demand with memory effect is more accurate than without the memory effect. Furthermore, this study concluded that the price elasticity of demand does not only depend on the latest price (current price) but changes in all prices from a specific time interval. The findings of this study suggest future studies can examine the phenomenon of market equilibrium using fractional-order derivatives.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: In this article, we analyse whether the management structure of a company plays a role in the sustainability of companies. More specifically, we study the impact of occupied outside directors, outside directors sitting on several boards of directors, on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of the company. We collect information about board characteristics, information about the board and management from MSCI ESG Research and financial information from Compustat. The study collects data based on panel data, which ranges from 2014 to 2020. The final sample consists of 550 US companies over a five-year period and contains 3850 firm-year observations. The study finds a positive relationship between busy outside directors and ESG performance. Busy outside directors have a positive impact not only on the overall ESG score, but also on individual ESG components. The environmental score is most affected by busy external directors, while the governance score appears to be little affected. Contrary to the theory that busy outside directors are overly engaged and degrade the fixed value, the findings support the theory that busy outside directors improve a company's sustainability performance because of their engagement, experience and the ESG performance.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: Dementia is a neuropsychiatric brain disorder that usually occurs when one or more brain cells stop working partially or at all. Diagnosis of this disorder in the early phases of the disease is a vital task to rescue patients’ lives from bad consequences and provide them with better healthcare. Machine learning methods have been proven to be accurate in predicting dementia in the early phases of the disease. The prediction of dementia depends heavily on the type of collected data which usually are gathered from Normalized Whole Brain Volume (nWBV) and Atlas Scaling Factor (ASF) which are normally measured and corrected from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs). Other biological features such as age and gender can also help in the diagnosis of dementia. Although many studies use machine learning for predicting dementia, we could not reach a conclusion on the stability of these methods for which one is more accurate under different experimental conditions. Therefore, this paper investigates the conclusion stability regarding the performance of machine learning algorithms for dementia prediction. To accomplish this, a large number of experiments were run using 7 machine learning algorithms and two feature reduction algorithms namely, Information Gain (IG) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). To examine the stability of these algorithms, thresholds of feature selection were changed for the IG from 20% to 100% and the PCA dimension from 2 to 8. This has resulted in 7×9 + 7×7= 112 experiments. In each experiment, various classification evaluation data were recorded. The obtained results show that among seven algorithms the support vector machine and Naïve Bayes are the most stable algorithms while changing the selection threshold. Also, it was found that using IG would seem more efficient than using PCA for predicting Dementia. These promising results open the door to a new era of early prognosis of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD).

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: After the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwan has implemented rigorous border control and taken specific measures such as virus detection, contact tracing, and quarantine since 2020. Its epidemic prevention performance has been quite outstanding. Even in May 2021, when the epidemic situation worsens, the people in Taiwan fully cooperate with the government’s control measures so as to successfully alleviate and control the epidemic in less than three months. Among them, the detection policy has played a pivotal role. We analyze and discuss the false positive and false negative problems from rapid antigen and PCR detection in the screening policy as well as the timing of using these two instruments. This paper provides theoretical verification of the appropriateness of screening policy in Taiwan, offering a few feasible suggestions for related policies in other countries or regions at different stages of this and other potential epidemics.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Abstract: With increasing concerns and challenges to climate change in recent years, green operations management (GOM) has gained significant attention from society for achieving sustainable growth. GOM is a set of practices that can be applied in production processes to produce goods with improved productivity and significantly reduced threats of carbon emission to the environment and Mother Nature. GOM mainly includes green manufacturing, green design, green logistics, and green purchases. In the paper, fuzzy best-worst method (FBWM) is used to determine the best and worst criteria affected by GOM practices. Thus, the paper attempts to explicitly analyze and highlight the significance of GOM in preserving the environment and manage the triple bottom line for achieving overall sustainable business operations.

	© 2010 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the license. Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)