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Data assets and digital resources (DADRs) are among the world’s most valuable resources, yet their economic value is often underrepresented in GDP statistics and corporate financial statements. This underrepresentation stems from several factors, such as the complexities of valuing data assets, the absence of standardized accounting principles for data and other intangible assets and conflicting views on the need for such accounting. In this study, we strive to reconcile conflicting views by empirically investigating whether such accounting is necessary from the perspective of investors, namely, do investors care about the accounting treatment of DADR?

We leverage a unique event and adopt a well-established event-study approach to examine investors’ responses to a recent regulatory announcement regarding the accounting treatment of data assets. In August 2023, China’s Ministry of Finance introduced the Interim Provisions on the Accounting Treatment of Enterprise Data Resources (hereafter referred to as the Interim Provisions), marking the world’s first formalized framework for data asset accounting. This event provides an ideal context for this inquiry.

Our findings indicate that markets respond positively to the announcement, particularly for firms with more DADR proxied in different ways. However, the positive market reaction is significantly smaller for companies with higher levels of intangible asset intensity. This result aligns with the emerging literature, suggesting that firms with high intangible intensity experience greater information asymmetry and reduced value relevance of financial statements due to inadequate accounting treatment of intangibles. Moreover, the economic implications are notable. A long–short portfolio strategy, which involves buying stocks of firms in the top quartile of DADR proxies and selling those in the bottom quartile, yields an annualized cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of over 3.00%.

The novel insights from this study help reconcile conflicting views on the need for accounting treatment of data and other intangible assets because investors care about the accounting of data assets. Moreover, our research indicates an urgent need for the development of clear accounting guidelines for data and other intangibles, which would improve the consistency and reliability of financial reporting, benefiting all stakeholders. Finally, our findings hold important implications for regulators and accounting standard setters, especially given the ongoing debates regarding accounting for intangible assets.

The core notion of this study is to examine the change in tariffs impacts of Pakistan Sri Lanka Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) on the micro-level financial factors like profits, debt ratios and dividend payments.

The investigation has been conducted by using regression analysis. The data of 157 listed non-financial local and international firms are collected from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE).

The results depicted that because of modification in tariffs, various firms are facing trade contest experience, a decline in profitability, surge in debt ratios as well as reduction in dividend payments. However, several firms improve their productivity by importing contemporary technology and other firms, which surge their exports leading to enhanced profitability, reduced debt ratios and surge in dividend disbursement.

To the best of my knowledge, this study is unique in a sense that it identifies the potential exports sectors of Pakistan and helps the decision-makers to develop the trade agreements with other South Asian economies. Moreover, the financial managers are able to create a financial policy for the multinational company to compete in South Asia.

Money laundering has affected the economy in different ways, where the fraudulent activities are either domestic or abroad, resulting in financial instability globally. Anti-money laundering (AML) system is applied to detect and report any suspicious transactions. There are numerous approaches, techniques and algorithms in AML that are applied to fight against money laundering. This study aims to understand, identify and document the AML techniques applied to detect and prevent money laundering activities.

A systematic literature review is applied for searching articles based on methods used for AML from the electronic database platform. For review, data is considered from journal articles, books and conference proceedings with a time framework from 2014 to 2024.

In total, 53 papers were selected in the domain of money laundering concepts, issues and techniques of AML. The review articles are on the techniques of AML, such as machine learning, data mining, graph networks and artificial intelligence, which are applied to detect and prevent money laundering issues.

Money laundering, being a global issue, is a threat to the economy and society. Detecting money laundering activities is utmost required; this study contributes in selecting the articles that are involved in the application of techniques of AML in detecting and preventing money laundering activities. The results of this study can provide support instruments to identify the better AML techniques that are useful for practitioners and industry experts working in the AML domain. Further research can be explored with other AML techniques.

This paper aims to investigate what are the managerial measurements for cloud computing’s cybersecurity from the users’ perspective, and whether the users’ perceived importance is aligned with the actual performance. It also examines whether different user groups perceive the importance of these measurements differently.

This paper proposes a research framework, develops hypotheses, then conducts a large-scaled survey to test empirically the research model and hypotheses. It uses paired samples t-test, importance-performance analysis and ANOVA for the data analysis.

The results from analyses indicate that users’ perception of the importance of cloud computing cybersecurity measurements are mostly aligned with the performance of those measurements. There are three measurements that are significantly different from importance to performance, and they are “integrity of data,” “confidentiality of data” and “security and privacy.” The importance performance analysis of the data shows that there are two measurements that need to be “concentrated on,” namely, “preventative plans” and “enforceable contracts.”

The study developed cloud computing cybersecurity (CC) alignment formulae that could help theoretical and practical development of the cloud computing cybersecurity field.

This research fills the research gap for cybersecurity in cloud computing, as it is, to the best of the author’s knowledge, one of the first studies to measure users’ perception of the cloud computing cybersecurity’s actual performance and compare them with the users’ perceived importance of those measurements. The research framework and model developed in this research will help enhance the knowledge of the cybersecurity and cloud computing fields, and it has managerial implications, as it provides understanding from the users’ perspective as to the important managerial measurements for cybersecurity in cloud computing. The study developed cloud computing cybersecurity (CC) alignment formulae that could help theoretical and practical development of the cloud computing cybersecurity field.

This research aims to investigate the motivations of adults for postgraduate studies in Hong Kong among general master, EMBA/MBA and doctorate students, focusing on the self-actualization need under Maslow’s model. The questionnaire surveying and related statistics methods are used. The Brief Index of Self-actualization (Sumerlin and Bundrick, 1996) is applied. The findings are: doctorate students have higher self-actualization motivation than Master students; age only slightly partially supported or largely refuted to covariate with self-actualization motivation; there are no direct results to show that females have higher self-actualization motivation than males. However, on Factor 3 curiosity (Sumerlin and Bundrick, 1996) females score higher than males. As this is a factor that measures self-actualization, we could argue that females show higher self-actualization needs than males indirectly in this analysis. Fourth, there is significant support to show that income covariates with self-actualization motivation.

This research investigates the motivations of adults for postgraduate studies in Hong Kong among general master, EMBA/MBA and doctorate students, focusing on the self-actualization need under Maslow’s model. The questionnaire surveying and related statistics methods are used. The Brief Index of Self-actualization (Sumerlin and Bundrick, 1996) is applied.

The findings are: doctorate students have higher self-actualization motivation than Master students; age only slightly partially supported or largely refuted to covariate with self-actualization motivation; there are no direct results to show that females have higher self-actualization motivation than males. However, on Factor 3 curiosity (Sumerlin and Bundrick, 1996), females score higher than males. As this is a factor that measures self-actualization, we could argue that females show higher self-actualization needs than males indirectly in this analysis. Fourth, there is significant support to show that income covariates with self-actualization motivation.

The major limitation of this study is the time period is too short to conduct thorough meaningful research within actually a few months. If there is more time a more thorough study could be conducted. The second difficulty or just another major difficulty is the availability of participants. It was not expected at the beginning of the research of the great difficulty to get participants particularly reliable participants. To my surprise, the academic institutions in Hong Kong are not cooperative at all including a number of my former alma maters. They either said it is not convenient or there may be privacy problems.

This would help academic institutions to fix their course strategies, and the government determine its education policies for full-time student and adult education facilities.

This could help to encourage Hong Kong adults to pursue more studies to enhance their ability for their woks and also for promotion of their interests in life.

This is an original research that hopefully would bring new light to the topic of the research.

This study aims to provide foundational information about the nature and extent of calls responded to by a university co-responder team to better understand how these teams are utilized by the university community.

We use data collected from the University of Florida Police Department (UFPD) co-responder program from 2022 to 2024.

We find that UFPD co-responder teams respond to a diverse population. Use of force and arrests are low frequency events.

Little is known about how campus police agencies adopt co-responder teams and how encounters involving people with mental illnesses are resolved.

This study is dedicated to investigate why Mainland Chinese students pursuing higher education in Hong Kong are more likely to return to first-tier cities in Mainland China rather than stay in Hong Kong after graduation, despite Hong Kong’s increasing efforts to retain them as talent. By identifying the rationale that leads them to make such a choice, a critical gap in talent retention strategies for emerging education hubs can thus be addressed.

Through semi-structured interviews among 20 Mainland Chinese students have recently graduated from Hong Kong institutions, this study analyzes the two-way push and pull factors between Hong Kong and first-tier cities in China, elucidating how international students are influenced by various factors and make the common decisions to go to first-tier cities rather than Hong Kong after graduation.

The study reveals that while Hong Kong’s favorable visa policies and sector-specific employment opportunities serve as significant pull factors, they are outweighed by the comparative advantages of first-tier cities in mainland China. The comparative advantages of first-tier cities in China, including stronger economic incentives, better social integration prospects and more attractive talent recruitment policies, ultimately determine students' destination choices.

One major limitation lies in the relatively small and specific sample size, which may not fully capture the diversity of experiences among the targeted population. Moreover, the potential destinations of graduates are not limited to Hong Kong or the first-tier cities in China.

This research extends the traditional two-way push-pull theory by integrating comparative advantage analysis, offering a nuanced framework to evaluate international student mobility and talent retention dynamics. The research simultaneously provide insights for policymakers and higher education institutions to refine talent retention strategies, enhance the appeal of emerging education hubs and better align policies with global student mobility trends.

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of big data analytics capability (BDAC), knowledge management (KM), corporate sustainability strategy (CSS) and sustainability design (SD) variables that affect the innovation performance (IP) of companies in the information technology (IT) sector. Taking these variables into consideration, the authors aim to highlight the key factors necessary for the sustainability and success of companies in the IT sector.

As a result of this research, a model was developed and a quantitative analysis technique was adopted. By applying PLS- structural equation modeling, the data were analyzed in the SmartPLS 4.0 program and focused on the population of companies in the IT sector. Middle and senior managers working in these companies were reached. The main reason for choosing this sector is that the variables in the research model are very important in the IT sector.

The analysis results are supported by the hypotheses that BDAC, information management, CSS and SD have positive effects on the IP of companies in the IT sector.

In terms of research limitations, data was collected by survey method from companies operating in the IT sector in Istanbul, ensuring that participation was voluntary. Because Istanbul is the most developed city in Turkey, and hence where IT companies are located, the sample population consists of companies in this city. It is recommended that future research should develop the research model, taking this limited situation into account and contributing to the literature by collecting data from companies in different sectors by using the comparison method.

To benefit from the potential of big data, it can be predicted that companies in the IT sector should strengthen their infrastructure, increase their performance by better managing their knowledge and experience, realize innovations by achieving sustainability goals and create an environmentally friendly image by increasing the sustainability of their products/services and thus become a company that gains an innovative competitive advantage. Considering these variables collectively can help companies in the IT sector to be more efficient and sustainable.

Because the studies in the literature do not have sufficient empirical findings in examining the relationships between variables, companies are offered a limited perspective on how they should approach big data initiatives. Therefore, in addition to research conducted in different sectors and different types of companies, examining the impact of BDAC as independent variables and sustainability and KM as mediator variables in companies in the IT sector will contribute to the theory.

There are many studies examining the relationship between BDAC and information management. However, examining the mediation variable effect of sustainability, which is one of the three goals of businesses, together with these variables, is important in terms of contributing to the literature. Because we are in the age of digitalization, companies are now renewing and developing strategies for the future. We can see data science, innovation, information and sustainability as the most important concepts of these strategies. Therefore, this study uses original research that can be referenced for both academics and companies.

This study aims to investigate the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and the cost of debt financing (CODF) in Malaysia. It further explores whether the potential impact of CSR performance on debt pricing is moderated by the females’ representation on board and female directors’ foreign experience.

The authors use a sample of 845 firm-year observations from 2017 to 2021 and apply various regression techniques, including the pooled ordinary least squares (POLS), the Heckman two-stage self-selection model, propensity score matching (PSM) and quantile regression, to test the study’s hypotheses.

The results show that socially responsible firms incur lower costs of debt. Similarly, female directors and female directors with foreign exposure are negatively associated with CODF. However, their impact becomes positive when these two variables are interacted with CSR performance. The study findings are robust across alternative measures of board gender diversity, different model specifications and approaches addressing the endogeneity problem. In additional analyses, we find that the positive implication of CSR on CODF is more pronounced for firms with higher CSR performance and less financial constraint. Nevertheless, the results reveal that only firms with lower CSR performance but a high proportion of female directors and female directors with foreign experience exhibit lower CODF. This underscores the likelihood that female directors and their foreign exposure may substitute CSR practices in mitigating the cost of debt.

Existing literature generally emphasises the importance of CSR performance to corporate financing decisions, often neglecting the role of female directors and their attributes in financial institutions’ creditworthiness evaluation. This study is among the first to address this gap by examining the moderating effect of female directors and their characteristics on CSR–CODF relationship within an emerging economy context. The findings contribute to the literature on CSR and board gender diversity, indicating that CSR performance and board gender diversity function more as substitutes than complements. Despite the unexpected consequences of interacting with female directors and their foreign experience with CSR, the study affirms the significance of CSR practices and board gender diversity in shaping borrowers’ financial decisions.

To argue current calls to address grand challenges like income inequality are unlikely to succeed until the academy acknowledges how accounting is constitutive of these problems. We demonstrate how accounting is part of the problem because of its adherence to a legal model of the corporation erected on false suppositions.

Using multiple disciplines, e.g. history, economics, law and philosophy, pertaining to the nature of the corporate form, we present a logical argument that the official telos of accounting obstructs any fruitful effort to address grand challenges.

The global legal concept governing corporations (an aggregate of members) makes corporations a major cause of the grand challenges humans face. Adherence to a legal theory of the corporation leads accounting policy to rationalize income and wealth inequality by subsuming the legal powers of corporations to expropriate wealth into a singular maximand labeled “earnings.”

Though accounting is essentially “of” law, scholarly efforts to understand accounting’s social role are based on an information metaphor. We provide reasons for skepticism of any efforts addressing grand challenges until accounting acknowledges the legal nature of its social role as a regulator of business conduct. There are no accounting solutions to grand challenges without acknowledging how the accepted legal nature of the corporate form makes the corporation the cause of the grand challenges we face.