COVID-19 has led to abrupt changes in work norms and practices. Despite receding pandemic restrictions, the popularity of remote or hybrid work has not subsided. As employees around the world continue to call for more flexibility and autonomy in the way they work, human resource leaders must continuously consider and evaluate decisions based on ever-changing sentiment, balancing the interests of employees and employers alike. In this perspective article, we review the current state of work in the Southeast Asian region, focusing on Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, and present preliminary results from a region-wide mental health assessment that was conducted in late 2022. We argue for the continuation of hybrid work in the region and elaborate on the mental health risks that come with remote working.

Given the growing significance of the metaverse in research, it is crucial to understand its scope, relevance in the tourism industry, and the human-computer interaction it involves. The emerging field of metaverse tourism has a noticeable research gap, limiting a comprehensive understanding of the concept. This article addresses this gap by conducting a hybrid systematic review, including a variable-oriented literature review, to assess the extent and scope of metaverse tourism. A scrutiny on Scopus identified a reduced number of relevant documents. The analysis exposes theoretical and empirical gaps, along with promising opportunities in the metaverse and tourism intersection. These insights contribute to shaping a contemporary research agenda, emphasizing metaverse tourism. While this study offers an overview of current research in metaverse tourism, it is essential to recognize that this field is still in its early stages, marked by the convergence of technology and transformations in tourism. This exploration underscores the challenges and opportunities arising from the evolving narrative of metaverse tourism.

Japan’s investment in the domestic construction industry has fallen to less than half its peak in 1992. Given the country’s declining population, Japanese construction companies must go global to remain profitable. To what extent the Japanese government and Japanese companies can contribute to meeting the growing infrastructure needs in the region is unclear as Japanese companies have long been operating primarily in Japan. The Japanese government has in recent years passed a series of new laws that encourage private sector participation in financing, building and operating public infrastructure. Through involvement in such public projects, Japanese companies have developed the skills and technologies to build a variety of infrastructures that are resilient to natural disasters and adaptable to various geographical conditions and social and economic development. But the major challenge for Japanese companies is to transform their business model drastically from one that relies on the domestic market to one that contributes to the social and economic development of third countries.

Using company size as a moderator, this article examines the MENA region’s gender balance on boards and how it influences capital structure. The study uses the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimate technique to analyze data from a sample of 556 non-financial organizations across 10 MENA countries from 2010 to 2023. The results show that a lower debt ratio is connected with a higher percentage of female board members. Further steps towards debt reduction include increasing the number of independent female board members and decreasing the board’s overall size. The opposite is true for larger enterprises, more profitability, more expansion opportunities, and macroeconomic variables like inflation and GDP growth, which tend to raise the debt ratio. Capital structure decisions in the MENA area are influenced by gender diversity on boards and business characteristics. Therefore, Companies in the MENA area would do well to support initiatives that increase the representation of women on corporate boards. One way to achieve this goal is to establish gender diversity targets or launch programs to increase the number of women serving on boards of directors, particularly in positions of power.

Indonesia has ratified United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS 1982) through Law No. 17 of 1985 concerning the ratification of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, thus binding Indonesia to the rights and obligations to implement the provisions of the 1982 convention, including the establishment of the three Northern-Southern Indonesia’s Archipelagic Sea Lane (ALKI). The existence of the three ALKI routes, including ALKI II, has led to various potential threats. These violations not only cause material losses but, if left unchecked and unresolved, can also affect maritime security stability, both nationally and regionally. The maritime security and resilience challenges in ALKI II have increased with the relocation of the capital, which has become the center of gravity, to East Kalimantan. The research in this article aims to identify and analyze the factors influencing the success of maritime security and resilience strategies in ALKI II. The factors used in this research include conceptual components, physical components, moral components, command and control center capabilities, operational effectiveness, command and control effectiveness, and the moderating variables of resource multiplier management and risk management to achieve maritime security and resilience. This study employed a mixed-method research approach. The factors are modeled using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with WarpPLS 8.0 software. Qualitative data analysis used the Soft System Methodology (SSM). The results of the study indicate that the aforementioned factors significantly influence the success of achieving maritime security and resilience in ALKI II.

This study focuses on the problems of imperfect internal control effectiveness, insufficient information transparency, and plummeting stock prices. The study selects the data of non-financial main board listed companies in China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2012 to 2021 as a sample, and adopts an empirical research methodology, which reveals that the effectiveness of internal control is negatively related to the trend of share price crash, and efficient internal control is positively related to the transparency of corporate information environment. The findings suggest the impact of internal control on the risk of stock price crash at the individual stock level and provide empirical support for listed companies to manage their risks. This study has practical value in guiding listed companies to strengthen internal control, improve information transparency, mitigate the risk of stock price crashes, and provide a decision-making basis for the healthy and stable development of the capital market.