Rapid urbanization and climate change have increased flood risk in urban settings. Risk perception is a vital constituent of flood risk management and risk communication. It has become important to understand risk perception so that appropriate disaster risk reduction strategies can be initiated. Socioeconomic factors influencing risk perception have a direct impact on potential adaptive capacities and disaster preparedness. This study gives an insight into psychosocial aspect of multifaceted risk in flood prone urban communities of Punjab, Pakistan. Three urban communities at high flood risk were selected from urban centres of different population size. A sample of 210 was collected using household surveys. Flood risk perception index was constructed using relevant indicators, and classified into high and low perceived risk. Logistic regression model was used to identify determinants of flood risk perception. The results show that past experiences and hazard proximity significantly influence risk perception. The determinants of risk perception also varied among the communities, depicting spatial variation. Findings of this study can help understanding flood risk perception and its determinants, in order to design proper risk communication strategies and flood risk management plans. In addition, this study can also support understanding multidimensional flood risk and its spatial dynamics from a social science perspective.

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Purpose Corporate governance is a crucial factor when considering excessive corporate risk-taking. Since corporate boards play such an important role in corporate governance, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of board composition and further board characteristics on excessive corporate risk-taking. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates listed firms from Germany and the USA from 2004 to 2015 based on data from Thomson Reuters Data Stream. The authors apply the fixed effect and random effect estimation method to demonstrate the impact of board composition on corporate risk-taking. Findings This study provides empirical evidence that an increase in the proportion of independent directors is associated with less corporate risk-taking. These effects are stronger among German firms. Lastly, the effects of board size and audit committee effectiveness (AUCE) on risk-taking have mixed results. Research limitations/implications The results favor continued efforts to strengthen the composition of corporate boards and improve the effectiveness of audit committees to curb unhealthy corporate risk-taking. The recommendations from the research will provide regulators and corporate management with the necessary information needed to design an appropriate independent board structure, and board size (BOSI). The research will, furthermore, fortify the indispensability of financial experts on audit committees. Originality/value This study contributes to the agency theory debate with these findings. Stronger board independence enables a better monitoring of the CEO, which leads to decision making based on a more appropriate level of risk.

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Concentrated ownership has been speculated to play a direct role in leading firms to focus more on long-term sustainability. Concentrated ownership, however, can take many different forms, with some forms more common in certain countries, and we posit that the specific form of ownership mediates the impact on sustainability. Additionally, we posit that firms operating at different scales have fundamentally different characteristics which can further impact this relationship. Analyzing a sample of firms from the USA, UK, and Germany using Arellano- Bond GMM, we investigate the relationship between ownership concentration, firm growth and sustainability measures comparatively. Our results show that these relationships are not linear, but are rather dependent on the prevalent form of ownership concentration (determined by country) and the scale (small, medium or large) of the firm. Approaches to sustainability appear to be influenced by not just the owners / investors but also by the type of control and broader contexts, explaining differing national trends.