Information Agency Research Articles

Message from the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Education and Science, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2021

Dear readers and authors, It is a great honor for us to publish the International Journal of Education and Science (IJES) for the fourth year in a row. There were some organizational and technical changes at the beginning of 2021, of which we would like to inform the readers and authors of the IJES. Changes in the IJES co-founders composition. The co-founders composition changed in March 2021: Information Agency PROK, Latvian Republic – Ukraine and Melnyk Yuriy Borysovych, Ukraine were replaced by a new co-founder Kud Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, Ukraine. Re-registration is taking place in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. Expansion and specification of scientific directions of the IJES. Today’s realities required combination and specification of scientific directions in the field of social and behavioral sciences the IJES is dedicated to. Such scientific directions as Social and Behavioral Sciences: Education, Economics, and Law were specified to ensure further more in-depth professional specialization of the IJES. Thus, the IJES remains a scientific periodical peer-reviewed indexed journal providing a scientific platform for presenting and discussing new trends and problems in the social and behavioral sciences. For the previous three years, the IJES was published only in two languages (English and Ukrainian). In 2021, the Editorial Council decided to publish the IJES in three languages, namely in English, Ukrainian and Russian. Changes in the format of scientific papers in the IJES. Due to the change in the number of languages in which the IJES will be published, as well as new trends, including regarding the references format (APA Style (APA 7th)), the requirements for paper format have been changed. You can read about the changes both in the online version on the IJES website and in the printed version at the end of the last issue.

The Value of CSR in Acquisitions: Evidence from China

In this paper, we aim to test whether and how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is valued in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. Employing multiple regression and logistic regression methods to examine the CSR in China’s domestic M&A market from 2007 to 2018, we reveal the following: (i) acquisition targets with higher social performance can attain higher acquisition valuation, especially when the acquirers are also socially responsible; (ii) high-CSR acquirers are inclined to choose equity payments, while high-CSR acquisition targets prefer to be paid in cash; (iii) high CSR performance boosts M&A success rate. The findings are robust, due to adopting two-stage least squares method to tackle endogeneity, substituting variable measures and data sources, and winsorizing variables at high levels to eliminate outliers. The value of CSR in M&As possibly results from the role of CSR in reducing information frictions, agency concerns, and corporate risks and is primarily associated with activities which are friendly to suppliers, customers, shareholders, public welfare, and natural environment, as well as being higher in developed regions and irrelevant to corporate ownership and nature. The study is of vital significance to the valuation and decision making in M&A deals.

Political uncertainty and allocation of decision rights among business groups: Evidence from the replacement of municipal officials

A firm trades off information transfer costs and agency costs to determine the distribution of decision rights to lower-level management. Using the replacement of municipal officials as an exogenous shock of political uncertainty, we find a business group is more likely to delegate decision rights of cash resources to subsidiaries when political uncertainty is high. The association is only evident among non-state-owned-enterprises (non-SOEs) and not SOEs. Additional tests show that the delegation of decision rights is more pronounced among firms with weak internal control and those located in cities where local governments have replaced their party secretary. We also find that firm decentralization can enhance investment efficiency and the marginal value of cash in the presence of high political uncertainty. Overall, our findings support the decentralization theory, and provide causal evidence on how political uncertainty influences allocation of decision rights among listed firms in an emerging economy with large state ownership.

Knowledge Management: Key to Partnerships, Learning Outcomes, and Resourcing a Learning Community

This paper provides an understanding of the concept of knowledge management and its role in the creation of an integrated information environment for effective learning in schools. It presents findings from a research project being undertaken at the University of Technology, Sydney that seeks to identify from the perspective of librarians, including teacher-librarians, the significant dimensions of knowledge management, the key understandings and skills required for effective knowledge management, and the role of librarians engaging in knowledge management processes in libraries and information agencies. The implications for teacher-librarians are examined in this report.

Recruitment and retention of pregnant women in prospective birth cohort studies: A scoping review and content analysis of the literature

Longitudinal cohort studies present unique methodological challenges, especially when they focus on vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the existing knowledge on recruitment and retention (RR) of pregnant women in birth cohort studies and to make recommendations for researchers to improve research engagement of this population. A scoping review and content analysis were conducted to identify facilitators and barriers to the RR of pregnant women in cohort studies. The search retrieved 574 articles, with 38 meeting eligibility criteria and focused on RR among English-speaking, adult women, who are pregnant or in early postpartum period, enrolled in birth cohort studies. Selected studies were birth cohort (including longitudinal) (n = 20), feasibility (n = 14), and other (n = 4) non-interventional study designs. The majority were from low-risk populations. Abstracted data were coded according to emergent theme clusters. The majority of abstracted data (79%) focused on recruitment practices, with only 21% addressing retention strategies. Overall, facilitators were reported more often (75%) than barriers (25%). Building trusting relationships and employing diverse recruitment methods emerged as major recruitment facilitators; major barriers included heterogeneous participant reasons for refusal and cultural factors. Key retention facilitators included flexibility with scheduling, frequent communication, and culturally sensitive practices, whereas participant factors such as loss of interest, pregnancy loss, relocation, multiple caregiver shifts, and substance use/psychiatric problems were cited as major barriers. Better understanding of facilitators and barriers of RR can help enhance the internal and external validity of future birth/pre-birth cohorts. Strategies presented in this review can help inform investigators and funding agencies of best practices for RR of pregnant women in longitudinal studies.

The Cost of Financial Flexibility: Information Opacity, Agency Conflicts and REIT at-the-Market (ATM) Equity Offerings

Using a sample of publicly traded U.S. REITs, we examine the impact of at-the-market (ATM) equity offerings on participating firms’ cost of capital. While ATM programs can improve a firm’s financial flexibility, capital market access, and market timing capabilities, they also may engender agency conflicts and increase the information opacity of the firm’s operations. Consistent with these adverse effects, we document a positive relation between ATM program availability and the implied cost of equity capital. These core findings are most pronounced for firms that are relatively opaque, thus providing further evidence of an information-based channel for the cost of capital effect.

An Approach of the Current Cuban-Russian Relations in the Content on the Online News of the Russian Information Agency "RIA Novosti"

An Approach of the Current Cuban-Russian Relations in the Content on the Online News of the Russian Information Agency "RIA Novosti"

Detection of untreated sewage discharges to watercourses using machine learning

Monitoring and regulating discharges of wastewater pollution in water bodies in England is the duty of the Environment Agency. Identification and reporting of pollution events from wastewater treatment plants is the duty of operators. Nevertheless, in 2018, over 400 sewage pollution incidents in England were reported by the public. We present novel pollution event reporting methodologies to identify likely untreated sewage spills from wastewater treatment plants. Daily effluent flow patterns at two wastewater treatment plants were supplemented by operator-reported incidents of untreated sewage discharges. Using machine learning, known spill events served as training data. The probability of correctly classifying a randomly selected pair of ‘spill’ and ‘no-spill’ effluent patterns was above 96%. Of 7160 days without operator-reported spills, 926 were classified as involving a ‘spill’. The analysis also suggests that both wastewater treatment plants made non-compliant discharges of untreated sewage between 2009 and 2020. This proof-of-principle use of machine learning to detect untreated wastewater discharges can help water companies identify malfunctioning treatment plants and inform agencies of unsatisfactory regulatory oversight. Real-time, open access flow and alarm data and analytical approaches will empower professional and citizen scientific scrutiny of the frequency and impact of untreated wastewater discharges, particularly those unreported by operators.

Spatial dynamic of land surface temperature in ciliwung watershed

Land surface temperature (LST) is one of critical element in urban climatology study, especially on urban heat island (UHI) mitigation and water balance. Urbanization in Ciliwung watershed continuously erodes open areas and considerably significant affect the surface temperature within watershed area. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to explore the potential contribution of land surface rising between elevations, vegetation and built-up index. Landsat 8/OLI satellite images use to derive LST, normalize differences vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized differences built-up index (NDBI) in study area on 2014 and 2018. Furthermore, elevation derive from DEMNAS raster provide by Geospatial Information Agency (BIG). In summary, there were LST increases from means temperature from 28.52 Celsius (2014) to 29.10 Celsius (2018) along with land cover changes (LCC). Meanwhile, LST spatial distribution is very closely related to the distribution of NDVI and NDBI. Statistical test results show high correlation (R-squared = 0.89 - 0.91) between LST, elevation, NDVI and NDVI. This indicates elevation, NDVI and NDBI factor play a significant role in LST dynamics.

Construction map model of water location permits in the implementation of licensing for marine space utilization

Based on the results of the identification and inventory of existing laws and regulations, there are 12 ministries carrying out sea space utilization activities consisting of sea surface space, sea column space, and seabed space. The 3-dimensional marine space is influenced by dynamic characteristics of the sea which makes recording and administering Marine Space Utilization Location Permits more difficult than recording and administering permits on land. This study makes a Water Location Permit Map model that describes the location of marine space utilization objects and their utilization boundaries. Water Location Permit Map is made using a coastal environment map and a marine environment map from the Geospatial Information Agency, as well as a zoning map of the coastal area from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. The results obtained that the Water Location Permit Map that was made using existing maps cannot yet describe the object of sea space utilization. A larger input map scale is needed, one of which is by taking remote sensing satellite image. Visualization of sea space in 3 dimensions can be displayed by classifying Location Permit Maps into 3 layers based on different sea depths namely sea level, sea column, and seabed.

Risk assessment of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, December 2020

Objective To assess the risk of Coronavirus disease 2019（COVID-19） pandemic worldwide in December 2020 and the risk of imported cases posed to China. Methods According to the daily COVID-19 data published by Johns Hopkins University, combined with the policy stringency index published by the University of Oxford, an epidemiological description method was conducted for the comprehensive and timely assessment of the global COVID-19 pandemic risk in terms of general overview, comprehensive assessment of the pandemic trends in WHO regions and key countries, as well as comprehensive analysis on the pandemic and prevention and control policies in 14 land-boarding countries of China. The assessment results for each country were expressed as 'countries with global concern', 'countries with general concern in WHO regions' and 'land-boarding countries with special concern'. Results Compared with November, 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 13.33% and deaths increased by 25.14% worldwide in December 2020. European region had the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, and the African region had the rapidest increases of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths compared with last month, both incased by 130.10%, indicating that close attention should be paid to these two regions. Globally, there were trends that it took much less time for a 10 million case increase and less time for a 500 000 death increase. European region and the American region (north) contributed most to the global high incidence fluctuation in December 2020. In 14 land-boarding countries China, Russia and Afghanistan showed high incidence fluctuation in December, to which special concern should be paid. Conclusion The pandemic of COVID-19 is still serious in the world. It is necessary to continuously monitor the situation in countries with global concern, adjust entry control policies in time and establish a communication mechanism with relevant agencies for information sharing and timely warnings.

Identification of M2 tidal velocity and energy in the eastern waters of Aceh based on numerical simulation

The influence of the M2 harmonic component in the waters of East Aceh is more significant than the other components. It is due to the fluctuation in M2 amplitude, which affects the tides. This study aims to compare the model currents velocity simulation results with data from the Geospatial Information Agency and TPXO7.2 and find the tidal energy extraction value of M2. The modeling method used is the non-hydrostatic method. The research location is in Aceh’s eastern waters by taking two research stations, namely Lhokseumawe waters and Langsa waters. The resulting tidal flow velocity in Lhokseumawe waters is 0.8344 m/s, while in Langsa waters, it is 0.8485 m/s. The tidal current strength in Lhokseumawe Waters is 1.2223 x 104 kW and Langsa Waters 1.2854 x 104 kW. Based on these results, Langsa waters have a tidal current speed higher than Lhokseumawe waters, which is 0.0241 m/s, with a tidal current strength of 6.31 x 102 kW. Due to differences in the depth layer or friction movement of the bottom of the waters and the characteristics of Lhokseumawe waters, which are wider than Langsa waters.

SIPADU MATURITY LEVEL EVALUATION USING COBIT 4.1: CASE STUDY OF GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION AGENCY

Public financial management transparency and accountability is one of the implementations of good governance. The Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) has developed the Integrated Budget Implementation Information System (SIPADU) application to monitor the government's financial management to achieve accountable and transparent financial management. SIPADU has been built and used, but its implementation has not yet achieved an optimal function. This study found that it is related to the SIPADU management evaluation, maturity level, and SIPADU governance improvement. This study aimed to analyze SIPADU maturity level using the COBIT 4.1 approach. The sampling method used was purposive sampling, and the respondents were users and administrators of SIPADU. Interviews were conducted, in addition to the questionnaire results measurement. The data were calculated to determine the maturity level. The results showed that the SIPADU maturity level was still level 3 below the expected level, namely level 4. The agency's management is recommended to develop SIPADU. Keywords: COBIT 4.1, Level of Maturity, SIPADU

Predicting cutaneous leishmaniasis using SARIMA and Markov switching models in Isfahan, Iran

Objective: To determine the potential effect of environment variables on cutaneous leishmaniasis occurrence using time-series models and compare the predictive ability of seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models and Markov switching model (MSM). Methods: This descriptive study employed yearly and monthly data of 49 364 parasitologically-confirmed cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Isfahan province, located in the center of Iran from January 2000 to December 2019. The data were provided by the leishmaniasis national surveillance system, the meteorological organization of Isfahan province, and Iranian Space Agency for vegetation information. The SARIMA and MSM models were implemented to examine the environmental factors of cutaneous leishmaniasis epidemics. Results: The minimum relative humidity, maximum relative humidity, minimum wind speed, and maximum wind speed were significantly associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis epidemics in different lags (P<0.05). Comparing SARIMA and MSM, Akaikes information criterion (AIC), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) in MSM were much smaller than SARIMA models (MSM: AIC=0.95, MAPE=3.5%; SARIMA: AIC=158.93, MAPE:11.45%). Conclusions: SARIMA and MSM can be a useful tool for predicting cutaneous leishmaniasis in Isfahan province. Since cutaneous leishmaniasis falls into one of two states of epidemic and non-epidemic, the use of MSM (dynamic) is recommended, which can provide more information compared to models that use a single distribution for all observations (Box-Jenkins SARIMA model).

Governance and Success in U.S. Equity Crowdfunding

We propose three governance mechanisms pertinent to equity crowdfunding and campaign success through mitigating pronounced information asymmetries and agency problems. First, unlike IPOs for which the effect of Delaware incorporation has declined or disappeared over time, we propose Delaware incorporation matters a great deal for success in the new setting of equity crowdfunding. Second, we propose that security design is a critical tool for equity crowdfunding success and even more important than the limited 2-year financial statement disclosure. Third, we propose that platforms as intermediaries between entrepreneurs and investors play an important role in mitigating and sometimes exacerbating information asymmetries and agency problems. The population of equity crowdfunding campaigns from market inception in May 2016 to Q2, 2021 in the United States provides strong support for these propositions.

Исламский капитал в экономике Казахстана

Over the last decades Islamic Finance has been expanding its role in the global economy, including in the Post- Soviet Area. Who are the key players of Islamic Finance market? What are their investment strategies here? This paper considers above questions by investigating more than 250 deals involving Islamic investors over the period 1991–2020 in Kazakhstan Republic. The data on deals gathered from two main sources: i) M&A database Zephyr (Bureau van Dijk), and ii) open sources (information agencies, company annual reports, press-releases, presentations, interviews). We are analyzing the growth of the Islamic Finance industry in Kazakhstan, and dependency on two key investors – Islamic Development Bank and Abu Dhabi Government. Then We study the structure of Islamic Finance investments by the type of investors. We found that despite the small share of Islamic banks and Islamic leasing (ijara) companies they have become an important factor of the financial sector in Kazakhstan. We saw that the potential for issuing sukuk and developing Islamic insurance (takaful) have not yet been realized but Islamic Finance became one of the six pillars of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). In addition, we have identified several factors critical to further Islamic Finance market development in the Central Asia. In conclusion there is a question whether Kazakhstan financiers and policymakers will be able to apply creative approach to Islamic Finance that not only allow to adopt the experience of other countries, but also bring something new. Acknowledgements. This study is funded by RFBR, project number 19-310-60002 “Islamic Finance in the Post-Soviet States: challenges and opportunities for investment growth in the CIS countries”.

Case Study and Exploration for Legal Protection of the Rights and Interests of Credit Information Subjects Under Chinese Law

Credit investigation report is an important social name card for individuals, enterprises and other information subjects. All kinds of wrong information in the credit investigation report will cause negative evaluation and actual losses to the information subject. Through the relevant cases analyzed by the people's court, the rights and interests protection of the subject of credit information involves the subject of credit information as a civil subject, the agency of credit information and the provider of credit information including civil and administrative subjects. It is still unclear how does the information subjects choose civil and administrative proceedings to safeguard their rights and interests. This is not only due to the imperfect legal provisions on the protection of credit information subjects in China, but also due to the uncertain boundary between the government's disclosure of personal information and personal privacy. For this, the author suggested to improve the legislation to Enhance the Responsibility of Regulatory Authorities to Protect the Rights and Interests of Information Subjects, set up the individual credit dispute arbitration mechanism host by the credit supervision authority, and participated by the information subject, credit agency, credit center or the information provider, processing the credit objections through the form of administrative arbitration.

From venture capital towards venture firm innovation performance: evidence from SMEs of China

Based on information asymmetry, agency theory and resource-based view (RBV), this study investigates the impact of venture capital (VC) on venture firm innovation performance, ascertains the extent to which VC affects venture firm innovation performance and finds the mediating effect of management incentives. Constructing a sample of a novel panel dataset of firms listed on the SME Board of China, we examined a sample of 927 start-ups between 2008 and 2017, showing a notable negative relationship between VC and Patent, and a positive relationship between VC and total factor productivity (TFP), providing stable evidence that VC could not spur firm patent directly, but facilitate the commercialization of innovation. Moreover, it shows that management equity incentives (MEI) and management cash incentives (MCI) playing significant positive mediating role between VC and TFP, while there is no mediating effect between VC and Patent. Findings of this study strengthen the experience of VC and suggest how practitioners of SMEs to enhance the commercialization of innovation, considerably extends our understanding of the impact of VC on venture firm innovation performance.

THE PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE WORK: MODERN APPROACHES (FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF ACTIVITIES OF THE JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA DEPARTMENT AT BORYS GRINCHENKO KYIV UNIVERSITY)

Conducting career guidance work is an important stage in the formation of a competent contingent of students for every modern institution of higher education. The scientific work analyses modern methods of career guidance work from the experience of the Department of Journalism and New Media of the Institute of Journalism at Borys Hrinchenko Kyiv University. The winning vector of the work is considered by the authors as one that is aimed at helping young people and is designed to help make a certain choice of future profession, to identify special abilities and talents of high school students aimed at the media industry. The scientific article considers the methods of conducting professional activities of professionally-oriented work, namely: webinars, workshops, media festivals, which during 2020 and 2021 the department conducts as traditional. Attention is paid to online meetings with entrants and their parents, the programmes of events are analysed, a system of practical tasks, master classes from practitioners’ media are presented. The aim of the scientific article is to study the existing effective concepts of formation of career guidance work of the Department of Journalism and New Media at BGKU. During the period of 2020-2021, the Department of Journalism and New Media conducts active career guidance work among high school students, actively cooperates with media schools, school editorial offices and circles of the YUN-PRESS Information and Creative Agency. The general policy of the department is not focused only on Kyiv, but forms a target audience from all over Ukraine. This is confirmed by the number of participants in marathons and webinars-workshops from different cities of our country: Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Kropyvnytskyi, Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, etc. This format became possible in the conditions of distance learning, which made it possible to expand the geography and made it possible to conduct online meetings.

The Investment Game in Private Equity

Private equity investing and the relationship between the general partner and the limited partners are plagued with the risk of information asymmetries and agency costs, so the markets have developed several mechanisms to align the incentives of the funds and the investors, most importantly through disclosure requirements and protections in limited partnership agreements. However, such agreements may not always deal with the most important asymmetries or agency conflicts, especially the hidden effort problem. From the fund’s perspective, there are also other relationships that affect its internal dynamics. They are the need for interest alignment between the fund (and the general partner) and the managers of the portfolio companies, the risk of financial agency costs and the risk of strategic creditor actions. All of these relationships are regulated primarily by contracts. In this paper, I evaluate the game-theoretical framework, Investment Game, based on the analysis of the general-limited partner investment-effort relationship supported by a brief analysis of the other relationships. I argue that, in most cases, the limited partners are able to solve the general partner effort maximisation problem, making part of the fund regulation unnecessary. However, private ordering may not work in some cases. Despite these situations, the Investment Game enables, even when the limited partners cannot affect the fund terms, an analysis of the general partner effort level and the level of undisclosed private benefits. Therefore, the Investment Game also sets a framework for a data analysis of private equity investing.