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The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to analyse the extent to which global financial institutions are using Web 2.0 technologies and social media initiatives to transform the way in which they perform their corporate disclosure, that is, if these entities are opening a real corporate dialogue.Design/methodology/approachThe web sites of 132 major global financial entities – in Europe (54 entities), the Asia‐Pacific region (55) and the Americas (23) – have been scored according to a Sophistication Index, considering various relevant Web 2.0 technologies and social media implementations. The analysis, by means of least squares and logistic regression models, is consistent across both techniques.FindingsWeb 2.0 technologies and social media are not fully available in the corporate reporting arena. Nonetheless, a significant influence is detected. The size of each entity and the region in which it operates influence the scored utilisation of Web 2.0 and social media initiatives.Research limitation/implicationsWeb 2.0 tools and social media initiatives have been researched via corporate web sites. Corporate visibility in the major social networks, and also the use of advanced web metrics, will remain topics for further research.Practical implicationsA lack of strategy for implementing an effective corporate dialogue is clearly observed. Based on these findings the banking industry and the supervisory authorities, which are under special scrutiny due to the recent global crisis, can take much greater advantage of the potential of social media to open a real corporate dialogue, increasing the level of transparency.Originality/valueAs social media are becoming more useful and ubiquitous, both academics and practitioners need some initial and reliable background data on this preliminary situation. The extraordinary role of protagonist that the banking industry has played in the recent economic upheavals justify its selection as a first sample for this exploratory study.

The goal of this research is to know and compare the emotions and reactions to confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents with high abilities and community samples. This is a mixed study with an exploratory reach that is descriptive, and which combines survey and qualitative methodologies to examine the emotions and reactions to confinement experiences of children and adolescents aged between 5 and 14 years. An online poll was designed with 46 questions, grouped into three sections: (1) General Data, (2) Reactions to the health contingencies of COVID-19, and (3) Positive and negative emotions. This last section was included the Oros’ positive emotions questionnaire (2014) and the scales of the negative effect of the PANAS Schedule positive and negative affect on children and adolescents between 8 and 14 years old (Sandin, 2003). Data were collected online with a convenience sample. Quantitative data were analyzed with the SPSS statistics program and qualitative data with Alceste software. Among the main findings is the fact that there are no significant differences between the groups by ability in terms of reactions and emotions; however, there are differences between age groups and sex. The study discusses the implications for educational intervention in situations like the current pandemic.