Young people are a traditional risk group for radicalization and involvement in protest and extremist activities. The relevance of this topic is due to the growing threat of youth radicalization, the expansion of the activities of extremist organizations, and the need to organize high-quality preventive work in educational organizations at various levels. The article provides an overview of research on the topic under consideration and also presents the results of a series of surveys in general educational institutions and organizations of secondary vocational education (n = 11,052), universities (n = 3966) located in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The results of the study on aspects of students’ ideas about extremism are presented in terms of assessing their own knowledge about extremism, the presence/absence of radically minded people around them, determining the degree of threat from the activities of extremist groups for themselves and their social environment, and identifying approaches to preventing the growth of extremism in society. Conclusions are drawn about the need to improve preventive work models in educational organizations towards a targeted (group) approach.

The study investigates the impact of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots on brand dynamics within the banking sector, focusing on the interrelationships between AI implementation and key brand dimensions, including awareness, equity, image, and loyalty. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis on data collected from 520 banking customers, the study tests eight hypotheses to explore the direct and indirect effects of AI-driven interactions on brand development. The findings reveal that AI chatbots significantly enhance brand awareness in banking services, demonstrating moderate positive effects on both brand equity and brand image. Notably, while brand awareness exerts a strong influence on brand image, it does not have a significant direct effect on brand loyalty. Instead, the study shows that brand loyalty is primarily developed through the mediating effects of brand equity and image, with brand image exerting a particularly strong influence on brand equity. For banking practitioners, these insights suggest a need to integrate AI chatbots within a comprehensive brand strategy that merges technological innovation with traditional relationship-building approaches. Limitations of the study and potential directions for future research are also discussed, providing avenues for further exploration of AI’s role in brand management.

Purpose: This research aims to examine the influence of intellectual capital disclosure and the geographical location of universities on the sustainability of higher education institutions in Southeast Asia. Design/methodology/approach: This research is quantitative and uses secondary data obtained through the annual reports of universities that have the Universitas Indonesia Green Metric Rank. This research uses two stages of data analysis techniques, namely the content analysis stage to determine the number of Intellectual Capital disclosures and the hypothesis testing stage. The analysis tool uses the SPSS version 23 application. The population of this research includes all universities in Southeast Asia that are included in the UI Greenmetric World University Rankings. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling technique, which resulted in 86 analysis units of higher education institutions in Southeast Asia. Findings: The research results prove that the geographical location of universities has a negative and significant influence on Universitas Indonesia Green Metric’s performance in Southeast Asia and human capital has a positive influence on UIGM’s performance in Southeast Asia. However, the structural capital and relational capital components do not affect the UIGM performance of universities in Southeast Asia. Originality/value: The originality of the research is the use of higher education sustainability variables with UIGM proxies and modified IC indicators for universities and geographical areas that have not been widely used to see whether there are fundamental differences in the disclosure of intellectual capital for higher education institutions in Southeast Asia.

To fight inflation, European Central Bank (ECB) announced 10 successive interest rate hikes, starting on 27 July 2022, igniting an unprecedented widening of interest rate spreads in the euro area (ΕΑ). Greek banks, however, recorded among the highest interest rate spreads, far exceeding ΕΑ median and weighted average. Indeed, we document a strong asymmetric response of Greek banks to ECB interest rate hikes, with loan interest rates rising immediately, whilst deposit interest rates remained initially unchanged and then rose sluggishly. As a result, the interest rate spread hit one historical record after another. Greek systemic banks, probably taking advantage of the high concentration and low competition in the domestic sector benefited from key ECB interest rate hikes, recording gigantic increases in net interest income (NII), and consequently, substantial profits (almost €7.4 billion in the 2022–2023 biennium). Such excessive accumulation of profits (that deteriorates the living conditions of consumers) by the banking system could be called the inflation of “banking greed”, or bankflation. This new source of inflation created by the oligopolistic structure of the Greek banking sector counterworks the very reason for ECB interest rate increases and requires certain policy analysis recommendations in coping with it.

Perceptions of women’s roles and leadership in urban governance vary from country to country and culture to culture. While women are represented and participate fully in political decision-making in some countries, in Togo women’s participation in local governance is still limited. The aim of this research is to analyse perceptions of women’s leadership in urban governance in the communes of greater Lomé. Specifically, the study of the influence of general perceptions of the role of women on the development of their leadership in the urban governance of greater Lomé (i) and the implications of these perceptions on the participation of women in the urban governance of greater Lomé (ii). Semi-structured interviews were conducted in all the town halls of the thirteen greater Lomé autonomous district communes with 222 women and 162 men, i.e., a total of 384 people. The corpus created from the interviews, which were transcribed in their entirety, was analyzed using the theory of social dominance developed by Sidanius and Pratto to explain power relations and inequalities between social groups. The results show that perceptions of women’s participation in urban governance vary and are generally associated with several significant implications. The general perception is that women are not as competent or legitimate as men in political and administrative leadership roles. However, there is a growing recognition of the value of gender diversity in urban governance, with a growing awareness of the importance of including women in decision-making processes. From the point of view of the significant implications of perceptions, positive perceptions favor increased representation of women, innovation, and creativity, strengthening legitimacy, reducing inequalities, and presenting women as positive role models in urban governance.

This study investigated the relationship between telecommunications development, trade openness and economic growth in South Africa. It determined explicitly if telecommunications development and trade openness directly impact economic growth or whether telecommunications strengthen or weaken the link between trade openness and economic growth using the ARDL bounds test methodology. The findings reveal that both telecommunications development indicators and trade openness significantly and positively impact South Africa’s GDP in the short and long terms. The study also found that control variables like internet usage and gross fixed capital formation significantly and positively influence GDP. Conversely, inflation was found to consistently affect GDP negatively and significantly. The findings from the ARDL cointegration analysis affirm a long-run economic relationship between the independent variables and GDP. The study also established that telecommunications development slightly distorts trade in the foreign trade-GDP nexus in South Africa. Despite this, the negative interaction effect is not substantial enough to overshadow the positive impact of trade openness on economic growth. From a policy perspective, the study recommends that South African policymakers prioritise enhancing local goods’ competitiveness in global markets and reducing trade barriers. It also advocates for improving the accessibility and affordability of telecommunications technologies to foster economic development.