DORA

DORA (De Montfort Open Research Archive) is De Montfort University's research repository. It forms the primary public and institutional record of DMU research outputs. The breadth of research at DMU means that these outputs include articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, and other material available in a digital form. The record for each item contains descriptive information as well as, where possible, a version of the final research output. DORA also provides access to DMU PhD theses. This includes most PhD produced from 2009 onwards.

 

Recent Submissions

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Navigating the Boundaries between Technology and Social Change – Evaluating Acceptance of Visible Tattoos in the Workplace: The French Exception?
(Taylor and Francis, 2024-03-14) Lichy, Jessica; Dutot, Vincent; Stokes, Peter
This paper examines how tattoos are challenging and renegotiating social norms in the French workplace – from hiring to everyday work life – and the role of social media technology. The workplace reflects the complex interplay of relational and social processes that form societal attitudes. France remains a highly conservative and centralised national context traditionally resistant, due to its republican values, to external markers of identity such as, for example religious artefacts. The motivation for the present paper is exploration of how the nuanced interplay between technology, social factors and organizational attitudes, impact on the gradually changing perceptions and acceptance of visible tattoos in Gallic work contexts. Using theories of socio-technical systems and identity-driven consumption framed by the postmodern concepts of liminality and communitas, we employ a mixed-methods approach to examine tattoo consumption and acceptance across a range of workplaces in France. Findings suggest that social norms, interacting with social media peer pressure, continue to push cultural boundaries, with online consumer behaviour frequently shaping offline consumer behaviour and employee/employer attitudes. These processes are often informed by the pursuit of ‘self’ and reflect several ‘tribalistic’ aspects of society. Through analysis, we articulate and contribute six interpretations of how tattooing is partially accepted by recruiters in the workplace in France. We also contribute to the understanding of liminality and communitas as applied to socio-technical spaces. Overall, we reveal insights that can inform researchers, managers, and practitioners in anticipating future changes and preparing for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
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Securing the remote office: reducing cyber risks to remote working through regular security awareness education campaigns
(Springer, 2024-01-29) Angafor, Giddeon Njamngang; Yevseyeva, Iryna; Maglaras, Leandros
Cyber security threats, including risks to remote workers, are varied and diverse, with the number of scams and business email compromise breaches increasing. Firms and their staff are experiencing mass phishing attacks, several typical precursors to more sinister attacks like cyber-enabled fraud, ransomware, and denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Threat actors are leveraging new technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver sophisticated scam and phishing messages that are challenging for users to identify as malicious. Several businesses are increasing technical efforts in critical areas, including network hardening, robust patching, anti-malware, ransomware detection applications, and multi-factor authentication to detect, prevent, and recover from potential threats. Despite that, these measures provide only a partial solution if the users who access the systems do not have good security awareness training. In this study, we review some cyber risks related to remote working and detail how they can be remediated through regular security awareness education campaigns (SAECs). The study presents the results of a proof of concept (PoC) experiment conducted to establish the value of regular SAECs in the fight against scams and phishing attacks against remote workers. The pilot results confirm that securing the remote office requires a robust SAEC. It argues that to be successful and help staff protect business systems and data, SAECs must be regular and varied, providing opportunities for staff to understand what to look for in suspicious scams and phishing emails. Moreover, they must provide opportunities for staff to practice their knowledge and understanding through practical exercises such as spam and phishing simulation exercises, which could help users avoid falling victim to spam and phishing emails.
ItemOpen Access
The Effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the Angiopoietin/Tie Axis and the Vascular Endothelium
(MDPI, 0024-03-11) Janchivlamdan, Dolgormaa; Shivkumar, Maitreyi; Singh, Harprit
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause potentially life-threatening coronavirus disease (COVID-19). COVID-19 is a multisystem disease and is associated with significant respiratory distress, systemic hyperinflammation, vasculitis, and multi-organ failure. SARS-CoV-2 causes the deterioration of numerous systems, with increasing evidence implying that COVID-19 affects the endothelium and vascular function. The endothelium is important for preserving vascular tone and homeostasis. The overactivation and dysfunction of endothelial cells are significant outcomes of severity in patients with COVID-19. The Angiopoietin 1/Tie 2 pathway plays an important role in endothelium quiescence and vessel stability. The disruption of Angiopoietin/Tie balance affects the vessel contact barrier and leads to vessel leakage, and this in turn causes endothelial dysfunction. Although vascular instability through SARS-CoV-2 is associated with endothelial dysfunction, it is still not understood if the virus affects the Angiopoietin/Tie axis directly or via other mechanisms such as cytokine storm and/or immune response associated with the infection. This review provides an overview of the impact SARS-CoV-2 has on endothelial function and more specifically on the Angiopoietin/Tie pathway.
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The impact of political uncertainty on the cost of capital
(Springer, 2024-01-20) Kwabi, Frank; Owusu, Andrews; Ezeani, Ernest; Boateng, Agyenim
We investigate the impact of political uncertainty on the relationship between foreign equity portfolio flow and the cost of capital. Using panel data from 40 countries from 2001 to 2016, our results show that the year before a national election is associated with a higher cost of capital. Further analyses show that the relationship between international equity portfolio flow and the cost of capital is sensitive to political uncertainty. In line with the institutional quality channel, we find that checks and balances interact with political uncertainty to reduce the negative effects of political uncertainty on the cost of capital. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that foreign investors strategically reduce their equity portfolio investment to the recipient country before a national election which reduces risk-sharing between domestic and foreign investors.
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Why Do Female Lead Auditors Charge a Fee Premium? Evidence from the UK Audit Market
(Elsevier, 2024) Owusu, Andrews; O'Sullivan, Noel; Kwabi, Frank; Holmes, Mark David
Existing research documents a fee premium for female partner led audits (Ittonen & Peni, 2012; Hardies et al., 2015; Burke et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2019; Hardies et al., 2021). We take this work forward by investigating a possible justification for the observed premium by examining how auditor gender is related to audit report lag and whether the female partner audit fee premium is driven by audit report lag. We find that firms audited by a female lead auditor have a significantly shorter audit report lag but pay a significantly higher audit fee. In further analysis, we find that the fee premium for a female partner led audits is higher for clients receiving a more timely audit opinion. Our findings are consistent with female lead auditors delivering more timely audits and audit clients being prepared to pay a premium for such timeliness. Our study extends our understanding of the importance of gender in the auditing process and the value clients see in audits led by female auditors. Given the relatively low proportion of female lead auditors, our findings should also encourage audit firms to appreciate the economic value of female lead auditors and to actively facilitate their progression to senior roles.