Empirical Survey Research Articles

Do accountants' participation in accounting information systems design enhance perceived accounting information quality: Evidence from Ghana

AbstractThis study examines how accountants' participation in accounting information system (AIS) design can improve their perceptions of the quality of the information provided by the system. An empirical survey of 333 chartered accountants in Ghana was used and the research model was tested using covariance‐based structural equation modeling. The results indicate that accountants' participation in AIS design is positively associated with perceived accounting information quality. Additionally, autonomous motivation was found to mediate the relationship between accountants' participation and perceived information quality. In contrast, accountants' perceived usefulness of accounting information does not mediate the relationship between participation in AIS design and perceived accounting information quality. This suggests that accounting information quality is enhanced when accountants participate in AIS design hence play a critical role in information system design. However, accounting information quality is not enhanced through perceived usefulness of accounting information.

Data-driven human resource and data-driven talent management in internal and recruitment communication strategies: an empirical survey on Italian firms and insights for European context

PurposePrevious research assumes that technologies 4.0, particularly big data, may be highly relevant for organizations to increase human resources (HR) communication strategies, but the research provides little or no evidence on whether and how these tools are applied in employees and labor market relations. This study intends to offer a first insight on the adoption of data-driven HR/talent management approach, contributing to the ongoing debate on the Industry 4.0. This study aims to investigate the use of 4.0 technologies in HR and talent management functions, focusing also on the adoption of big data analytics for internal and recruitment communication.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis of the literature enables to define the research questions and an exploratory web survey was carried out through a structured questionnaire. The analysis unit of the empirical survey includes the communication and marketing managers of 90 organizations in Italy, examined in the Mediobanca Report on the “Main Italian Companies.”FindingsFindings highlight a lack of the use of 4.0 technologies and big data analytics in employee and labor market relations and reveal some sectoral differences in the adoption of 4.0 technologies. Moreover, the study points out that the development of HR analytics is hampered by short-term perspective, data quality problems and the lack of analytics skills.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the exploratory research design and the circumscribed sample from a single country (Italy), further cross-national evidence is needed. This study provides digital communication managers with useful insights to improve the data-driven HR/talent management approach, which is a strategic asset for ensuring a sustainable competitive advantage and optimizing business performance.Originality/valueThe study offers an overview about the use of big data analytics in internal and recruitment communications. Considering the alignment between Italian and European trends in the use of big data and in the adoption of HR analytics, the study can provide insights also for other European organization.

Anchoring effects in the assessment of papers: An empirical survey of citing authors.

In our study, we have empirically studied the assessment of cited papers within the framework of the anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic. We are interested in the question whether the assessment of a paper can be influenced by numerical information that act as an anchor (e.g. citation impact). We have undertaken a survey of corresponding authors with an available email address in the Web of Science database. The authors were asked to assess the quality of papers that they cited in previous papers. Some authors were assigned to three treatment groups that receive further information alongside the cited paper: citation impact information, information on the publishing journal (journal impact factor) or a numerical access code to enter the survey. The control group did not receive any further numerical information. We are interested in whether possible adjustments in the assessments can not only be produced by quality-related information (citation impact or journal impact), but also by numbers that are not related to quality, i.e. the access code. Our results show that the quality assessments of papers seem to depend on the citation impact information of single papers. The other information (anchors) such as an arbitrary number (an access code) and journal impact information did not play a (important) role in the assessments of papers. The results point to a possible anchoring bias caused by insufficient adjustment: it seems that the respondents assessed cited papers in another way when they observed paper impact values in the survey. We conclude that initiatives aiming at reducing the use of journal impact information in research evaluation either were already successful or overestimated the influence of this information.

성별이 영어 부정극어 습득에 미치는 영향

In this study, an empirical survey was conducted on Korean secondary school students to understand the effect of gender on the acquisition of English negative polarity items(NPIs). Age and gender were classified to find out the frequency rate of NPIs in the subject and object positions. Looking at the commonalities of male and female students, first, the frequency of NPIs was higher in the object position than in the subject position. These results indicate that Korean secondary school students have a high awareness of NPIs regardless of gender. Second, The frequency of NPIs was high in the first graders, who were in the lowest grade in the subject and object positions. This suggests that age has an effect on the acquisition of NPIs. Looking at the differences between male and female students in acquiring NPIs, a significant difference between first and third graders was confirmed in the case of male students as a result of the post - hoc test in the subject position. In the case of female students, there was no significant difference in subject and object position across all grades. In summary, first, it was confirmed that there was a difference between male and female students in the frequency of NPIs. Second, there was a difference in the frequency rate of NPIs according to the grade. Third, there was a difference in the response rate of NPIs according to subject and object position. It is hoped that the results of this study will serve as a reference for the education of male and female students related to NPIs and negatives in the field of English education. In order to generalize the results of this study, insufficient samples and cases should be supplemented in subsequent studies.

Improving Competitive Advantages of Higher Education Institutions through IT Governance, IT Excellence, and IT Innovation: A Case Study in School of Informatics Management & Computing in Indonesia

School of Informatics Management & Computing (Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Informatika & Komputer - STMIK) in Indonesia currently needs to improve its competitive advantages, which are inseparable from capabilities to empower Information Technology (IT) for management activities. The research aims to develop IT innovation theories by studying the influences of IT governance, IT excellence, and IT innovation on the competitive advantages of STMIK in Indonesia. A sequential explanatory model is applied to collect and analyzes quantitative data in the first stage and qualitative data in the second stage. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) method is also used to receive respondents’ statements to strengthen the research findings. The analysis unit involves private STMIK in Indonesia with heads of schools, deputies, and heads of study programs. Quantitative and qualitative research dimensions and an empirical survey, with the active participation of 85 schools, are implemented. The results emphasize that IT maturity is insignificant as a moderating variable between IT innovation and competitive advantages. Similarly, IT governance is also insignificant for the improvement of competitive advantages. However, competitive advantage is directly and favorably impacted by IT innovation initiatives. These findings demonstrate how much easier it is for universities to improve their competitive edge using their greater IT innovations. This circumstance demonstrates the enormous potential of STMIK’s IT innovation capability in Indonesia, allowing institutions to implement novel strategies to generate value by introducing new services.

An Empirical Survey of Individualized Consideration on Talent Management Practices: Lessons from Insurance Companies in Kenya

An Empirical Survey of Individualized Consideration on Talent Management Practices: Lessons from Insurance Companies in Kenya

Performative Quantification: Design Choices Impact the Lessons of Empirical Surveys About the Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles

In recent years, researchers have emphasized the relevance of data about commonsense moral judgments for ethical decision-making, notably in the context of debates about autonomous vehicles (AVs). As such, the results of empirical studies such as the Machine Moral Experiment have been influential in debates about the ethics of AVs and some researchers have even put forward methods to automatize ethical decision-making on the basis of such data. In this paper, we argue that data collection is not a neutral process, and the difference in study design can change participants’ answers and the ethical conclusions that can be drawn from them. After showing that participants’ individual answers are stable in the sense that providing them with a second occasion to reflect on their answers does not change them (Study 1), we show that different conclusions regarding participants’ moral preferences can be reached when participants are given a third option allowing AVs to behave randomly (Study 2), and that preference for this third option can be increased in the context of a collective discussion (Study 3). We conclude that design choices will influence the lessons that can be drawn from surveys about participants’ moral judgments about AVs and that these choices are not morally neutral.

The Return of Decentralization Greek Local Government Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the greatest crisis faced by humanity. It had a significant negative impact that affected public health, the society, the economy, and the performance of public administration. Although national administrative system's response to COVID-19 pandemic was set up, the performance and the resilience of strategic management patterns at national and local level was also initiated. This paper focuses on identifying and evaluating the strategies and models adopted by Greek local government to build resilience during the COVID-19 crisis. The results of the research are based on an empirical survey conducted in 27 municipal authorities in Greece, which showed that despite the various government policy initiatives and funding provided during the last decade and the formal introduction of crisis management and resilience focused planning models, urban resilience is downgrading due to the continuation of important implementation and compliance gaps in strategic planning and performance measurement adoption from the municipal authorities and the lack of an effective model of multi-level coordination among policy’s stakeholders.

Social media impact on trading behavior: An examination among Indonesian young adult investors with capital market literacy as a mediator

The decline in financial literacy about capital markets among Indonesians raises concerns that the growing number of investors is at risk of financial fraud. This study introduces a novel approach to comprehensively examine how Indonesian young adults make investment choices, mainly when influenced by social media and their different literacy levels about financial markets in the digital age context. The central and dual roles of capital market literacy as an independent and intervening variable expand upon the existing framework of related studies. An empirical online survey with a valid sample of 314 respondents from Indonesia is used as the primary data for the study. Using the partial structural equation model, our results indicate that both social media and capital market literacy directly and positively impact investors' trading behavior. This suggests that a deeper understanding of capital market literacy, coupled with the influence of social media, plays a crucial role in shaping how investors engage in trading activities. Furthermore, this study also found that the mediating role of capital market literacy significantly affects trading behavior, indicating its importance in explaining how social media influences investment decisions among young adults.

Identifying the drivers of private flood precautionary measures in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract. Private flood precautionary measures have proven to reduce flood damage effectively. Integration of these measures into flood response systems can improve flood risk management in high-risk areas such as Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Since uptake of such measures is voluntary, it is important to know what drives householders to implement precautionary measures. In this study, we developed a framework representing the uptake of private precautionary measures based on protection motivation theory and the transtheoretical model. Using empirical survey data collected from 1000 flood-prone households in HCMC, we implemented lasso and elastic-net regression to identify the drivers of private precaution. The measures were classified into structural measures and non-structural measures based on whether structural changes to the building were required. The households were classified into proactive and reactive households based on whether their decision to reduce risk (i.e. uptake of precautionary measures) was preceded by experiencing a flood. The data-driven model revealed that the household's level of education, the degree of belief in the government to implement regional flood protection measures and the degree of belief that in case of flooding one has to deal with the consequences of flooding by themselves positively influence the proactive uptake of non-structural measures. Among the households that experienced flooding before implementing the measures, the uptake was found to be driven by the severity of the experienced damage. For the same group of households, perceiving a high severity of future flood impacts was found to negatively influence the uptake of structural flood precautionary measures. These results highlight that efforts to improve the implementation of private precautionary measures should consider the socio-economic characteristics of the members of the household, their past flood experience and their perception of flood risk management for communicating flood risk and incentivizing private precautionary measures.

An Empirical Survey of Data Augmentation for Limited Data Learning in NLP

AbstractNLP has achieved great progress in the past decade through the use of neural models and large labeled datasets. The dependence on abundant data prevents NLP models from being applied to low-resource settings or novel tasks where significant time, money, or expertise is required to label massive amounts of textual data. Recently, data augmentation methods have been explored as a means of improving data efficiency in NLP. To date, there has been no systematic empirical overview of data augmentation for NLP in the limited labeled data setting, making it difficult to understand which methods work in which settings. In this paper, we provide an empirical survey of recent progress on data augmentation for NLP in the limited labeled data setting, summarizing the landscape of methods (including token-level augmentations, sentence-level augmentations, adversarial augmentations, and hidden-space augmentations) and carrying out experiments on 11 datasets covering topics/news classification, inference tasks, paraphrasing tasks, and single-sentence tasks. Based on the results, we draw several conclusions to help practitioners choose appropriate augmentations in different settings and discuss the current challenges and future directions for limited data learning in NLP.

What If Moms Quiet Quit? The Role of Maternity Leave Policy in Working Mothers’ Quiet Quitting Behaviors

This study aims to examine the effects of various maternity leave support on the quiet quitting behaviors and mental health conditions of working mothers across industries during the post-pandemic period. Through an empirical survey method of 310 valid responses from a panel data, the study results indicated that working mothers who took maternity leave were less likely to adopt quiet quitting behaviors when they returned to work after childbirth and showed better mental health at work compared to their peers who did not take maternity leave because of childbirth and/or childcare. Additionally, paid maternity leave was not found to have a significant effect on quiet quitting behaviors and mental health of working mothers across industries, but the duration of maternity leave was found as a significant factor in impacting working mothers’ quiet quitting behaviors and their mental health conditions. Moreover, peer workers’ quiet quitting behaviors and supervisors’ support for childcare (e.g., flexible work schedule) were found significantly to improve working mothers’ quiet quitting tendencies at work. Lastly, there exist significant differences in age and race in the working mothers’ quiet quitting behaviors at work.

A comparison of business student perceptions in Kazakhstan and the United States regarding ways to enhance the online learning process

The unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic renewed interest in the success of various pedagogic practices across populations to determine the universality of their importance. This article contrasts the findings of research conducted among Kazakhstan business students, and recently reported in the Journal Eastern European and Central Asian Research, to a population of business students at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Our empirical sample survey of 112 undergraduate students reveals a.) a greater satisfaction with online education, b.) the potential for a longer attention span, c.) agreement on techniques to improve pedagogy, and d.) better perceived online experiences versus Kazakhstani findings. This report shares additional actionable suggestions for lessening the instances of low online involvement, as well as suggestions for improving asynchronous online education, which is again found to be preferred to a synchronous modality. Insights provided by students from a different culture and hemisphere enhance understanding of student perceptions and ways to improve the online learning experience.

THE STRATIFICATION OF FAMILY-OWNED HOUSING ASSETS

This paper argues the role of family owned residential properties in the reshaping of social class. As homeowner societies mature with the ‘familisation’ of owner occupied housing, the distribution of housing assets over generations acts as a progressively significant mechanism in widening inequalities. Following Forrest and Hirayama (2018), this paper draws on my empirical survey conducted in Japan as a mature home owning economy to explore social cleavages between accumulating families which further accumulate multiple property assets over generations; ‘dissipating families’ which undergo a decline in the value of their property assets; and perpetually renting families which are increasingly excluded from property based society.

Promoting the associational power of workers in globalized production networks: A missed opportunity

The author discusses the capacity of labour NGOs to strengthen the associational power of Chinese workers in globalized production networks by using their leverage to pressure multinationals into launching programmes to elect workers’ committees in factories. Based on an empirical survey conducted between 2012 and 2019 in southern China, he shows that such programmes helped to raise workers’ awareness of collective action and strengthen their agency, but that they ground to a halt in the face of the structural inequality of the production system, the lack of institutional protection for elected representatives and a hardening regime.

COOPERATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND AUTONOMIZATION OF RURAL WOMEN IN COTE D’IVOIRE

The objective of this article is to analyze the influence of cooperative entrepreneurship on the empowerment of women in rural areas. To this end, we have conducted an empirical survey with 200 female cooperative members in Côte d’Ivoire, successively identifying the factor structure of the variables studied (family, free, community, neighborhood and friendly groups) and then testing their reliability. Further tests were then performed using a linear regression model. The results show that the family, free and community group models positively and significantly influenced the empowerment of women. However, the neighborhood group had a negative influence, and the friendly group had no significant influence.

An Empirical Survey on Explainable AI Technologies: Recent Trends, Use-Cases, and Categories from Technical and Application Perspectives

In a wide range of industries and academic fields, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent. AI models are taking on more crucial decision-making tasks as they grow in popularity and performance. Although AI models, particularly machine learning models, are successful in research, they have numerous limitations and drawbacks in practice. Furthermore, due to the lack of transparency behind their behavior, users need more understanding of how these models make specific decisions, especially in complex state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. Complex machine learning systems utilize less transparent algorithms, thereby exacerbating the problem. This survey analyzes the significance and evolution of explainable AI (XAI) research across various domains and applications. Throughout this study, a rich repository of explainability classifications and summaries has been developed, along with their applications and practical use cases. We believe this study will make it easier for researchers to understand all explainability methods and access their applications simultaneously.

Effects of negative emotions and information perceived value on residents' risk perception during the COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical survey from China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly and heavily hit the globe, and the mutation and transmission speed of the coronavirus have accelerated so that the world is still in danger. Thus, this study aims to investigate the participants' risk perception and explore the associations of risk perception of COVID-19 with negative emotions, information value perception and other related dimensions. A cross-sectional, population-based online survey was conducted from April 4 to 15, 2020, in China. A total of 3,552 participants were included in this study. A descriptive measure of demographic information was used in this study. Multiple regression models and moderating effect analysis were used to estimate the effect of potential associations of risk perceptions. Those who showed negative emotions (depressed, helplessness, loneliness) and perceived video information in social media to be useful were positively correlated with risk perception, whereas individuals who perceived experts' advice to be useful, shared risk information with friends and thought that their community made adequate emergency preparation reported lower risk perception. The moderating effect of information perceived value (β = 0.020, p < 0.001) on the relationship between negative emotion and perception of risk was significant. Individual differences in risk cognition during the COVID-19 pandemic were observed in subgroups of age level. Furthermore, the role of negative emotional states, the perceived usefulness of risk information and the sense of security also contributed to improving the public's risk perception. It is crucial for authorities to focus on residents' negative emotions and to clarify misinformation in accessible and effective ways in a timely manner.

Nurturing Teaching Methods of Entrepreneurship in the Development of An Entrepreneurial University

The nurturing of an entrepreneurial university is essential since it creates an important place to teach the key themes of entrepreneurship. This paper provides a literature review and discusses the various definitions of the entrepreneurial university and its development factors. This paper uses [Kearnay’s (1999). Enterprising Ways to Teach and Learn, a series of books, Enterprise Principles. Enterprise Design Associates. Tasmania, Australia: North Hobart] pedagogical approach on the development of the entrepreneurial university to create an empirical survey administered to 250 university professors in Tunisia. The results of this study illustrate that Kearnay’s pedagogical approach [Kearney, P (1999). Enterprising Ways to Teach and Learn, a series of books, Enterprise Principles. Enterprise Design Associates. Tasmania, Australia: North Hobart] (responsive, experiential, reflective, and cooperative pedagogy) positively influences the development of the entrepreneurial university. We conclude with an original teaching method framework to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit in university students to facilitate an entrepreneurial university.

A historical survey of the African Neo-Pentecostals’ response to digital transformation

The ongoing digital transformation (DT) in our world has not only brought change to secular systems but also to how things are done in the mission and ministry of the Christian faith. Although before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, some churches were interacting with DT, the post COVID-19 experience has shown that many more Christian organisations, especially, the African Neo-Pentecostal Churches (ANPC), have carved their niche in the digital space. With South Africa and Nigeria in view, this article investigated how the ANPC interacts with DT to improve missional work and the possible implications of doing so in the last 15 years. In the process, three strategies were applied. Firstly, a literature review and some online investigations were undertaken to articulate how the ANPC have engaged with DT in the past. Secondly, as a primary source, a quantitative empirical survey was conducted through data collection from 109 Neo-Pentecostal leaders to assess the current development in the use of digital technology (DTECH) by the ANPC. Thirdly, the article applied Albert Humphrey’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) framework to analyse the implications of the interaction. The outcome showed that the strengths and opportunities of digital interaction such as the wider and easier reach of audience, online training, online giving, improved sound and light technology and advertisements among others are helpful in missional assignments. Nevertheless, some observed Weaknesses and Threats need attention. Most importantly, the lesson from the findings is that ‘techno church’ practices come with gains; however, interaction with DT is not sufficient for missional services.Contribution: Aligning with HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies’s focus and scope, this article contributed to an interdisciplinary religious aspect of research as it brought forward the interactions of African Pentecostalism, Historical Theology and Information Technology.