The role of accounting information systems in firms’ performance during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper investigates the influence of accounting information systems (AIS) on firms’ performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they help enhance employees’ performance and the external auditing process. This paper is qualitative in nature using the inductive approach. In-depth primary data were gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted in the year 2020. Due to the pandemic, the interviews with ten auditors were done online through the Zoom software application. The empirical findings of this paper show a positive impact of AIS on firms’ performance and a more significant influence on employees’ performance and the auditing process. AIS reduces costs and human errors, eases operations, speeds up work tasks, and increases employees’ productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also show that there is no direct impact on firms’ overall cash flow/revenues. This paper increases our understanding of how AIS can influence and improve firms’ performance and the significance of implementation factors such as training. It provides practical guidelines for regulators and managers to utilize accounting information systems to perform better.

Impact of the government size on economic growth in the Western Balkan countries

The Keynesian theory states that economic growth is positively affected by government spending, while Classical theory states that economic growth is negatively affected by government spending, as is stated by neoclassical public choice theorists (Nyasha & Odhiambo, 2019). Based on these theories, many authors have carried out research on the impact of economic freedom on economic growth by analyzing various empirical cases. Bergh and Karlsson (2010) with the findings from his paper confirmed that the countries with the highest government size have an elevated growth in the globalization index of KOF and the Fraser Institute’s economic freedom index. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the government size impact on the growth of the economy in the Western Balkan in the time period 2000–2017 according to Fraser Institute’s data, incorporating the following econometric models: fixed and random effects, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), and Hausman-Taylor IV. With these models, this paper analyzes a government size and its components: government enterprises and investment, government consumption, transfers, and subsidies. The results illustrate a relationship between the size of the government and the growth of the economy in the Western Balkans that is positive. 1% increase in government size affects 0.29% gross domestic product (GDP) growth per capita. According to the Hausman-Taylor instrumental variable, 1% growth of government consumption is affected by 0.69% the decline in GDP per capita. The growth rate of transfers and subsidies affects 0.17% of GDP growth per capita and 1% of government enterprises and investment affects 0.54% GDP growth per capita.

The CEO’s foreign experience and the CEO’s share ownership: Does tax aggressiveness matter?

This study investigates the association between the CEO’s foreign experience and the CEO’s share ownership with tax aggressiveness. The research data is sourced from financial reports and annual reports of non-financial sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2016 to 2019, obtained from www.idx.co.id. Based on purposive sampling, the total sample in this study amounted to 88 observations. Hypotheses testing in this study employed multiple regression analysis for cross-section data. This study concludes that the CEO’s foreign experience is negatively associated with tax aggressiveness, and CEO’s ownership is not associated with tax aggressiveness. Returnee CEO can adequately analyze the costs and benefits related to tax aggressiveness, and it is found that if they carry out tax aggressiveness in Indonesia, the costs incurred will be greater than the benefits received. Meanwhile, the CEO’s ownership in Indonesia is still low, so it cannot affect the tax aggressiveness level. This research indicates that the Indonesia Tax Authority need to pay attention to the CEO’s experience when conducting audits and need to cooperate with the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) to measure how the company behaves in running its business, whether the returnee CEO carry out all business ethics only or adequately those related to tax aggressiveness.

Income inequality, regional characteristics and household’s conspicuous consumption: An empirical study in developing market

This study aims to analyze the effect of income inequality and regional characteristics such as ethnicity and religion on conspicuous consumption for visible and invisible good types of households in the Indonesian regions by dividing regions into regions with low and high-income inequality levels based on the value median Gini index in Indonesia. The data set deployed in this study were pooled data collected from households provided by the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics 2017 and 2018. Employing the OLS method, we find that 1) income inequality has a negative effect on visible goods, and positive effect on invisible goods, 2) ethnicity and religion give an effect on visible and invisible goods. The government should pay attention to the phenomena of conspicuous consumption because numerous problems will likely arise if this conspicuous consumption is ignored. High conspicuous consumption would tend to lead to a materialistic lifestyle causing a higher inequality. In addition, the crime rate could equally increase given the high risk of conspicuous consumption in attracting others’ attention to individuals’ wealth.

A comparative study on surveillance and privacy regulations (the UAE vs. the USA and the EU)

Surveillance is becoming the norm in today’s life, especially with the pandemic of COVID-19. Surveillance of public crowds and activity is a controversial issue that can contradict the privacy of individuals (Federal Decree-Law No. (5) of 2012). This paper presents a comparative study of surveillance and privacy regulations and law in the UAE compared to the USA and the EU. The objective of this comparison is to highlight the amendments that have been adopted to improve laws and regulations, the need for further improvement, and the strengths and weaknesses in each of these countries. A discussion of different acts adopted in these countries and comparing them can help security experts to cooperate with legislators in order to rectify shortcomings and improve the acts adopted in their respective countries. Furthermore, we think that such a comparison can help system developers to find an easier way to accommodate the differences in security measures that they have to tackle and incorporate when they are serving customers in these countries and especially in the UAE. A legal framework has been proposed in order to define the maturity level of regulations adopted by a government in regard to surveillance and privacy laws and acts.

The influence of sustainable innovation on financial entrepreneurship performance: Growth and prediction in an emerging market

This study aims to perceive the effect of financial entrepreneurship performance (FEP) over sustainable innovation (SI) disclosure in an emerging market. Jordanian banks are tested based on a multiple regression analysis for the periods 2008 and 2018 and a time series forecasting webinar analysis for the period from 2019 to 2029 based on data ranging from 2008 to 2018. Innovation is indicated through disclosed intangible assets (IA), and items related to research and development (R&D) costs. As organizations anticipate stability by concentrating on technological awareness to influence higher innovative performance (Guo, Guo, Zhou, & Wu, 2020), this study came to converse the relationships between previous literature variables; Hussain (2015) as well as Lassala, Apetrei, and Sapena (2017) revealed through the regression models that there is a relationship between FEP and SI. Meanwhile, bank FEP is directed by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). Results reveal that bank FEP affects SI disclosure in a positive manner for the period 2008 and at a higher significant level than 2018. In the meantime, the growth prediction analyses divulge that both ROA and ROE are expected to decrease rapidly within a coming couple of years and then increase promptly.

The ignored tool of corporate governance rating: An overview of the corporate world in the emerging market

Generally, the interest of stakeholders is to see the growth of their entities, also they benchmark their entities through business performance metrics or tools like return on equity, return on assets (Mishra & Kapil, 2018), earnings per share, gross profit margin, employee productivity, sales turnover, ratings given by prominent credit rating agencies, such as Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA), Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL), Standard and Poor, etc. In addition to this, internal governance mechanisms, board of directors’ characteristics, their independence, transparency, concentration, and presence of employees in the ownership structure also influence financial and stock market performance (Braendle, Stiglbauer, Ababneh, & Dedousis, 2020). However, assessing the performance of entities through some of these limited angles is not always possible. One more criterion for assessing the performance of entities is corporate governance rating (CGR). However, it is not widely used as a tool to assess a firm’s performance in emerging markets. The present research paper is intended to address the scenario of corporate governance rating in Indian corporate world to assess a firm’s performance. With the help of majorly secondary sources of data, this study was conducted from 2003 to 2021 based on the CRISIL’s rating pattern. The results revealed that only 20 companies adopted the process of corporate governance rating. The findings showed the significance of corporate governance rating, its adoption and future research in the development of the rating mechanisms in India as well as in other emerging markets.

Chair-CEO age variation and insurance risk-taking behavior

Based on data of all listed insurance companies in Jordan over the period of 2008-2018, the study investigates the effect of chairman of the board of directors (chair) and chief executive officer (CEO) age variation on risk-taking behavior via different chair-CEO age variation proxies. Risk-taking behavior is measured by total risk, a proxy set up on the market’s risk perception. Thus, the study finds evidence that the chair-CEO age variation tends to decrease risk-taking practice in Jordan’s insurance companies, only if a generation gap exists. It doesn’t matter whether the chair or CEO is older. These results are consistent with Goergen, Limbach, and Scholz (2015) and Zhou, Kara, and Molyneux (2019). Different robustness tests (CEO-firm fixed effect, random effect, and dynamic panel estimation) confirm results. Overall, this study contributes to corporate governance literature; thus, enhancing the internal corporate governance mechanism is essential. Finally, it has a practical implication for stakeholders, policymakers, and researchers.

Theft of public assets in developing countries and the ineffective legal frameworks on cross-border asset tracing and confiscation

In most developing countries with weak rule of law and fledgling democratic institutions, theft of public assets by public office holders is rampant and has a strong correlation with the excruciating level of poverty and underdevelopment that besiege these countries (Ijewereme, 2013). While a myriad number of reasons may be responsible for this situation, the absence of a mature legal framework as well as the scant availability of sufficiently trained government personnel to trace and recover stolen assets, hidden domestically and abroad, arguably remain contributory factors. Granted that corrupt public office holders are typically enabled by porous (domestic) legal frameworks that provide them wide escape routes for their crimes, contestably however, the laws bordering on confiscation of assets in many foreign countries (safe havens) seem intentionally designed to frustrate any recovery of stolen assets by developing countries. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of stealing public assets by public office holders in developing countries is foreseen to rise astronomically and is likely to deepen their existing levels of poverty and hopelessness (Ayode, 2020). Using Nigeria as an example of a developing country, the paper critically examines the underlying defects in the cross-border legal framework on asset recovery and confiscation and proffers suggestions on how these defects could be remedied.

Skills mismatch in the labor market: The future of work from the viewpoint of enterprises in case of Kosovo

The transition path from education to employment is a key determinant of sustainable economic growth and development. A poorly trained workforce penalizes companies when they try to grow (Cojocaru, 2017, p. 25). It is generally accepted that university graduates as workforce are the key driver of economic growth and development. The main aim of this study is to identify the difficulties faced by enterprises in the Republic of Kosovo to provide the necessary profiles with adequate skills. Employers say students don’t have the ability to think critically, innovate, solve complex problems and work well in a team (Alsop, 2015) In order to analyze the problems that companies face during the selection process, the necessary training, and also the projections for new employments for the coming years, this study uses the primary data provided by the face-to-face questionnaire. The program used for data analysis in SPSS. We came to the conclusion that enterprises find it difficult to ensure the right skills they require, the university graduates lack practice experience and soft skills. The right person with the right skills in the right workplace is the driving force behind the well-functioning of the labor market. The study comes up with further recommendations for the well-functioning of the triangle higher education institutions, policymakers, and enterprises.