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This study aims to present a model for detecting and predicting creative accounting in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).

The authors conduct this research in three stages. First, the authors review the literature to determine the dimensions, components, indicators and techniques of creative accounting. Second, the authors conduct semi-structured interviews with experts using the fuzzy Delphi technique to obtain screening and reach a consensus. Finally, the authors develop a model to predict creative accounting by classifying the financial statements of the sample companies into two groups based on the use or non-use of creative accounting techniques, measuring the indicators determined in the previous stage, running various machine learning algorithms and choosing the superior algorithm.

The results indicate the usefulness of accounting information for detecting and predicting creative accounting and the relevance of several financial attributes as important predictors. The results also indicate the superiority of extremely randomized trees over other algorithms in predicting creative accounting and suggest that the primary purpose of creative accounting in Iran is earnings management. Contrary to the political cost hypothesis, large Iranian companies use creative accounting to inflate profits.

The present research also has several limitations that must be considered, and caution must be exercised in interpreting and generalizing the findings as specified in the revised manuscript.

This study’s implications are significant for policymakers, standard-setters and practitioners. By recognizing the detrimental effects of creative accounting on financial transparency within companies, policymakers can address existing gaps in accounting standards to minimize the potential for earnings manipulation. Consequently, strengthening internal and external mechanisms related to a firm’s financial performance becomes achievable. The study provides evidence of the need for audit firms to recognize the importance of creative accounting and consider creative accounting in their audit plans to prevent insufficient or even misleading disclosure by companies that extensively use creative accounting practices in their financial reporting. Moreover, knowledge of creative accounting techniques can help auditors assess audit and detection risks and serve as a valuable guide for reducing audit costs and improving audit quality.

Given that creative accounting practices distort the true or real accounting results, curbing creative accounting practices reduces corporate failures and could lead to the reduction of job losses and other social consequences.

This study uses a unique database in Iran to determine a model for predicting creative accounting using a mixed-method methodology, qualitative and quantitative, to identify creative accounting techniques and run various machine learning algorithms.

Due to their limited capacity for adaptation and dependence on natural resources for economic growth, developing countries (DCs) tend to be more prone to climate change. It is argued that climate finance (CF) is a significant financial innovation to mitigate the negative effects of climate variation. However, the heterogeneous impacts of CF on environmental sustainability (ES) and social welfare (SW) have been masked. Thus, this study aims to investigate the heterogeneous effects of CF on ES and SW in 80 CF receipt DCs from 2002 to 2018. This study also aims to investigate the effects of CF on ES and SW based on population size, income heterogeneity and the type of CF.

The method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) with fixed effects is utilized. Alternatively, the fully modified least square (FMOLS) and dynamic least square (DOLS) estimators are used for the robustness test.

The findings revealed that DCs with the lowest and middle quantiles of EF, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and human development exhibit large beneficial impacts of CF on ES and SW. In contrast, the positive effects of CF on ES breakdown for countries with the largest distributions of EF and CO₂ emissions. Besides, the impacts of CF on ES and SW depend on income heterogeneity, population size and the type of CF.

This study calls for a framework to integrate CF into all economic development decisions to strengthen climate-resilient SW and ES in DCs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effects of CF on ES and SW in a wide range of DCs. Thus, it complements existing related literature focusing on the effects of CF on ES and SW.

The paper investigates the dynamic relationship among the stock markets of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Daily time-series data of four SAARC countries: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, from February 13th, 2013 to March 31st, 2021 are used. The study considers stock prices prior to the blowout of COVID-19 and during the onset of the pandemic. The novel estimation procedure of the autoregressive distributed lag model is used while the results are also confirmed by post-estimation techniques.

The study confirms that the COVID-19 contagion has adversely influenced the stock returns of SAARC countries. The findings signify that the pattern of cointegration has significantly different regularities in the pattern of causality in the long run and short run during the COVID-19 crisis. Overall, the study revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has weakened the dynamic connection among the stock markets of SAARC countries.

To dampen uncertainties generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities and central banks should be equipped with efficient strategies and guidelines to cope with the crisis created by the pandemic. Further, governments should focus on assuaging the panic faced by investors and enhancing the confidence of domestic as well as foreign investors. Further, the weakened integration of financial markets during the crisis offers opportunities for speculative and arbitrage gains for investors.

The research work is an innovative effort to analyze the impression led by COVID-19 on the SAARC stock markets integration.

Recent global catastrophic events, such as the Russia–Ukraine War and the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to several policy uncertainties in the global economy. Due to increasing financialization, these policy uncertainties have had a ripple effect on the global financial system, urging investors to search for alternative safe-haven financial instruments. To understand how these uncertainties influence Indian green financial markets, the present study seeks to explore the impact of US monetary policy uncertainty, energy policy uncertainty, oil price uncertainty and climate policy uncertainty on the Indian BSE Green and BSE Carbon indexes.

In order to achieve the stated objective, this study employs the autoregressive distributed lag model alongside the Bayer and Hanck cointegration tests and the Granger causality test, leveraging monthly data spanning from December 2012 to April 2024.

Empirical evidence states that there exists a strong cointegration between the explanatory and outcome variables, and US monetary policy uncertainty, energy policy uncertainty, oil price uncertainty and climate policy uncertainty exert a positive and significant influence on the Indian BSE Green and BSE Carbon index. Furthermore, the Granger causality test confirms a unidirectional relationship between US monetary policy uncertainty, energy policy uncertainty, oil price uncertainty and the Indian BSE Green and BSE Carbon indexes, as well as a bidirectional relationship between the Indian BSE Green and BSE Carbon indexes and climate policy uncertainty.

This study offer practical implications by suggesting that investors can use Indian green index as a hedge and safe haven against the aforementioned uncertainties. Investors should consider these dynamics while constructing an optimum portfolio to avoid losses caused by rising uncertainties.

The study unveils a unique relationship between green indices and various uncertainties, a topic not previously explored in the literature. It provides valuable policy recommendations aimed at elucidating the implications of green markets for sustainable development and the formulation of risk mitigation strategies.

This paper aims to explore the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions through which equipment manufacturing enterprises can capture market value from digital transformation, with a specific focus on the roles of knowledge search and knowledge recombination.

This study uses a double fixed-effects model to test the hypotheses, using a unique data set of “firm-year” observations from 739 publicly listed equipment manufacturing companies in China, spanning the period from 2018 to 2022.

Digital transformation drives market value creation in equipment manufacturing enterprises through both breakthrough knowledge recombination (BKR) and progressive knowledge recombination (PKR). In addition, the analysis of marginal conditions reveals that diversified knowledge search serves as a substitute for digital transformation in promoting BKR, while also positively moderating the relationship between digital transformation and PKR.

Grounded in the knowledge-based view theoretical framework, this study introduces the novel concepts of BKR and PKR and systematically examines how digital transformation impacts market value in equipment manufacturing enterprises.

This research investigates the complex relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU), energy consumption and institutional factors in the Gulf region. The purpose of this study is to examine how institutional factors moderate the impact of EPU on energy consumption in Gulf countries.

This paper uses the dynamic panel autoregressive distributed lag (PARDL) method, over a period stretching from 1996 to 2021 in the Gulf countries.

The results show that, only in the long term, EPU has a positive and significant impact on energy consumption, suggesting that increased EPU leads to increased energy use. Furthermore, this study found that, only in the long term, government effectiveness and regulatory quality have positive and significant effect on energy consumption. Accordingly, the two institutional factors play a moderating role in the EPU−energy consumption nexus.

This study highlights the importance of considering the time dimension when formulating energy and economic policies in Gulf countries. Policymakers should take into consideration the nature of these relationships to make informed decisions that promote energy efficiency and economic stability in the region.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study examining the relationship between EPU and energy consumption in the Gulf countries while incorporating the role of institutional factors as potential mediators.

Innovative technologies have gained popularity in recent years as a means of improving workers' general well-being at work. Among these exciting new technologies is virtual reality (VR). With a focus on enhancing individual performance, this chapter explores the application of VR as a human resource (HR) intervention to improve spirituality in the workplace. To offer a theoretical foundation for comprehending the possible effects of VR interventions on workplace spirituality, this chapter thoroughly evaluates the literature on mindfulness, quantum consciousness and workplace spirituality. By integrating VR technology with the ideas of these theoretical frameworks, HR professionals may create interventions that foster employee effectiveness, resilience and personal growth. It has also been suggested that HR managers employ VR mindfulness and meditation sessions, virtual retreats, values alignment workshops, empathy-building simulations and spiritual reflection spaces as practical VR interventions to enhance workplace spirituality. To illustrate the usefulness of VR in enhancing workplace spirituality, a few companies that have successfully implemented VR therapies are also cited. Lastly, the challenges and moral dilemmas associated with utilising VR to promote workplace spirituality have been examined. These include privacy difficulties, possible biases in VR content and the requirement for ongoing evaluation and feedback techniques. This chapter highlights how VR has the potential to be a game-changing tool for improving workplace spirituality and boosting individual effectiveness.

The study investigates the information-related challenges as well as the practices adopted by early-career researchers during transitions between roles and institutions. Its primary goal is to delve into how information behaviors serve as scaffolding during significant life shifts. Moreover, the research aims to provide actionable insights based on this scaffolding concept for individuals navigating transitions.

This preliminary and exploratory study took a phenomenological approach to examine the role of information seeking and personal information management (PIM) behaviors during life transitions. In-depth semi-structured interviews were held with 15 early-career researchers from various disciplines, who were about to finish their PhDs or had recently graduated.

By employing information seeking and PIM practices, participants were able to address three main information challenges that arose during the transition process: the timing of information behavior, the nature of information and the social components of the transition. The use of networked and independent information seeking/validation practices enabled to establish a sustainable network of transition-related information, reducing uncertainty. PIM practices helped planning the transition, maintaining information over the long-term and gaining control over personal information.

This study underscores the significance of information behaviors, encompassing both information seeking and PIM, as scaffolding mechanisms during crucial life transitions. It offers essential insights that can guide the creation of impactful interventions and resources. Additionally, the research illuminates the pressing demand for more in-depth exploration in this domain.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the usefulness of the “publicness” and “privateness” concepts in examining childcare policy reforms. Understanding them as having multiple facets, this paper challenges the way in which childcare-going-public is often simply assessed based on the coverage of publicly-funded childcare services. Instead, it highlights that the process should be more thoroughly examined by considering who pays for whom to provide childcare, where it takes place, how it is regulated, and what kinds of normative ideals it works towards.

The research design is two-fold. Firstly, it coins the concepts of “publicness” and “privateness” based on existing literature on welfare pluralism and public administration. It then unpacks the key facets constituting this conceptual twin within the childcare context, which are utilised to craft four models of childcare production. Secondly, this framework is analytically applied to explore 21st-century South Korea to track the changes and continuities in its childcare production models across four governments.

The analysis shows that while South Korea's childcare publicness increased in terms of funding, its privateness was bolstered in regard to the location of childcare, the way that publicly-funded childcare services were regulated and delivered, and the manner in which childcare was partially consolidated as a familial responsibility.

This paper proposes a new conceptual framework to analyse the complex and multi-layered process of how childcare goes public, which is analytically applied to a cross-governmental comparative study of South Korea.

Building on the relationship marketing and stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the integrated store service quality (ISSQ) on the omnichannel customer lifetime value (CLV). The mediating role of customer commitment (affective, normative and continuance) and relationship program receptiveness with the moderating role of customer relationship proneness were relied upon to better understand the omnichannel customer profitability metric (CLV).

The study is descriptive and relies upon the cross-sectional data collected using the self-administered structured questionnaires from 785 omnichannel shoppers. A purposive sampling technique was performed in the study. Structural equation modeling was performed using the SMART-PLS 4.0 software to analyze the data.

The results indicate that omnichannel customer commitment (affective, normative and continuance) differentially mediates the relationship between ISSQ and relationship program receptiveness, subsequently impacting the omnichannel CLV. The customer relationship proneness significantly and positively moderated the relationships between different dimensions of customer commitment and relationship program receptiveness.

The study relied upon the cross-sectional data from the Indian population aged above 18 years for testing the proposed model. Further studies could test the model across different populations to generalize the study results.

This study addresses the need to investigate the omnichannel retail store customer profitability and their relationship performance with the store. By testing the customer relationship management model in the omnichannel retail store context, this study is the first to show that ISSQ will impact the customer profitability and relationship performance metric (CLV) through omnichannel customer commitment and relationship program receptiveness. The moderating effect of customer relationship proneness on a few proposed hypotheses was also tested to give managerial recommendations.