Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

The Impact Of Sustainability Orientation And Practices On Financial Performance: A Combined Sufficiency And Necessity Logic Approach, Pei Yew Mah, Francis Chuah

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study aims to examine the interplay of corporate sustainability orientation and sustainability practices, namely social and environmental dimensions and their impact on the financial performance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) using Stakeholder theory. This study empirically tested 126 valid questionnaire responses received from the SMEs’ services sector in Malaysia using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The result reveals that corporate sustainability orientation and social dimension influence financial performance, while the environmental dimension does not. The supplementary combined importance performance map analysis (cIPMA) analysis indicates that the environmental dimension is necessary for the financial performance outcome, …

Artificial Intelligence And Employee Well-Being: A Systematic Literature Review, Dombagaha Pathiranage Marian Shavini Medonka Peiris

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming modern workplaces by offering opportunities to enhance employee well-being while simultaneously introducing significant challenges. Although scholarly interest in the intersection of AI and well-being is growing, empirical research in this domain remains limited and underdeveloped. This study's primary objective was to assess the current knowledge in this domain, with a secondary aim of identifying critical research gaps to inform future investigations. Adhering to PRISMA guidelines, this systematic literature review analysed 23 empirical studies published between 2015 and 2025, sourced from the Lens.org and ProQuest databases and was guided by the Job Demands Resources (JD–R) model. …

Exploring The Pathways Of Artificial Intelligence And Sustainable Development In The Era Of Industrial Revolutions: A Bibliometric Analysis And Future Research Agenda, Xu Bin, Teh Sin Yin, Sajal Saha

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly pivotal role in driving innovation and promoting sustainable development across various sectors amid the ongoing wave of industrial revolutions. However, the existing research lacks a systematic and quantitative overview of how AI contributes to sustainability goals. This study addresses this gap by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 101 articles from the Web of Science Core Collection, using the keywords “sustainab*”, “artificial intelligence”, and “industrial revolution”. Analytical tools such as VOSviewer and Scimago Graphica were employed to generate keyword co-occurrence maps, publication trends, and research collaboration networks. The results show that scholarly interest in …

Proactive Strategies, Absorptive Capacity And Competitive Advantage Of Small And Medium Enterprise (Smes) Firms In East Java Indonesia, Ardianus Laurens Paulus

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Proactive strategy and absorptive capacity are crucial components in building a competitive advantage, particularly in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) sector. This study examines the moderating role of absorptive capacity in strengthening the relationship between proactive strategy and competitive advantage among SMEs in East Java, Indonesia. The sampling technique employed was non-probability sampling, specifically a purposive sampling method, involving 65 SME owners as respondents. Data were collected through surveys and analyzed using Smart PLS. The findings reveal that a proactive strategy significantly positively affects competitive advantage, and absorptive capacity reinforces this relationship. This research provides theoretical contributions and practical …

Gamification Strategies And Customer Churn Reduction In Entrepreneurial Retail Firms: An Empirical Study Of Millennials, Si Chong En, Oo Yu Hock, Nor Azila Mohd Noor, Zheng Feei Ma, Khairul Nizam Mahmud

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study investigates the impact of gamification strategies on customer churn reduction in entrepreneurial retail firms, focusing on Millennial consumers in Malaysia’s Klang Valley. Customer churn threatens profitability, particularly for emerging enterprises, and gamification has emerged as a potential tool to enhance customer engagement and retention. Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory, the study examines three gamified marketing interventions: membership programmes, contest rewards, and personalised discounts as direct predictors of churn reduction. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed, using a structured questionnaire distributed to 180 Millennial consumers through purposive sampling. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation …

Accelerating Technological Advancement And Financial Inclusion Through Automotive–Takaful Collaboration, Lee Hui Shan, Kuang Kee Seng, Low Choon Wei, Liew Ping Xin

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Insurance coverage and risk mitigation have become vital in the automotive industry. This case study aims to explore how the partnership between Tan Chong Motor Holdings Berhad (TCMHB) and Takaful Ikhlas General Berhad (TIGB) in Malaysia supports technological advancements in the automotive sector and promotes financial inclusion for underserved communities. The approach includes a thorough analysis of data sourced from TCMHB and TIGB's annual reports, alongside market reports from the automotive and insurance fields. The results indicated that this collaboration allows the automotive firm to drive innovations in areas such as vehicle safety and security features, significantly enhancing the quality …

The Influence Of Digital Competencies On Employability: The Mediating Role Of Digital Empowerment And The Moderating Effect Of Socioeconomic Status, Fraz Arshed Butt, Abdelhak Senadjki, Hui Nee Au Yong

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The rapid growth of the digital economy has reshaped employment trends, demanding new digital skill sets to thrive in the modern digital economy. The current study examines the impacts of three essential factors of the digital economy, i.e., Digital Marketing Literacy (DML), Access to Digital Platforms (ADP), and Digital Literacy Awareness (DLA), on the employability outcomes in Malaysia. Based on a multi-theoretical framework, the study investigates the mediating role of Digital Empowerment (DE) and the moderating effect of Socioeconomic Status (SES) on employability in Malaysia. A quantitative study with a cross-sectional design was employed to collect data from 400 participants …

Sectoral Shockwaves: Examining Bursa Malaysia's Sector Indices Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Alyssa April Dellow, Hafizah Bahaludin

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is becoming a widespread concern, as it is causing a decline in economies and negatively impacting stock markets worldwide. As the Malaysian government implements the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of the deadly virus, the Malaysian stock market is rapidly impacted, becoming volatile and unpredictable throughout the pandemic phase. Thus, this study aims to analyse the structural correlation patterns of the Bursa Malaysia Sectoral Index Series using the threshold network approach. The data utilised in this study are the closing prices of all 13 sectoral indexes, spanning from January 1, 2019, …

Understanding The Happiness Journey Of International Students Through Maslow's Lens: A Qualitative Study Beyond Academics, Kyra Law Ley Sy

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This research investigates the factors contributing to happiness among international students at a Malaysian university through a qualitative, semi-structured questionnaire administered to 10 students (5 female and 5 male) from nine countries. Four key themes emerged, aligning with Maslow’s Hierarchy: 1) Personal Achievement and Academic Fulfillment- happiness derived from educational success and career progress; 2) Social Connection and Belonging- the importance of relationships and cultural integration; 3) Health and Environmental Comfort- adaptation to climate and living conditions; and 4) Internal Reflection and Emotional Regulation- the impact of mindset and coping mechanisms on overall happiness. The research demonstrates that international student …

Firm-Level Political Risk And Earnings Manipulation, Hui Liang James, Thanh Ngo, Jurica Susnjara

Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, and Business-Law Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using recently developed proxies for firm-level political risk and earnings manipulation, we test the limited attention theory. Contrary to Hirshleifer and Teoh’s core prediction that investor attention is associated with less managerial manipulation, we find that firm-level political risk, serving as a proxy for investor attention, is positively associated with manipulative earnings management, using both accruals and real activities. The results are robust to alternative proxies for political risk and earnings manipulation, various techniques addressing endogeneity concerns, and subsamples of firms with different earnings manipulation incentives. Moreover, we find that the negative relation between earnings manipulation and subsequent operating performance …

Assessing The Influence Of Audit Committee Characteristics On The Effectiveness Of Risk Management Practices In Public Statutory Corporations In Tanzania, Gerald J. Soi, Siasa Issa Mzenzi, Said Suluo

Business Management Review

This study was conducted to examine the influence of audit committee characteristics on the effectiveness of risk management in Public Statutory Corporations (PSCs) in Tanzania, and the moderating effect of the size of an entity on this relationship. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, which was completed by 424 chief internal auditors and directors of finance from PSCs across various Tanzanian regions, and analysed using SmartPLS (PLS-SEM) version 4.0. The findings indicate that the expertise of the audit committee and the frequency of meetings with a substantive risk agenda positively influence risk management effectiveness in PSCs. Conversely, the …

Corporate Disclosure Meets Natural Language Processing: Topic Modeling, Disclosure Strategy, And Audit Implications, Wanxin Yu

2026

Corporate disclosures serve as a critical channel for firms to communicate their financial performance, strategic initiatives, and firm-specific risks. In recent years, rapid advances in natural language processing (NLP) have provided powerful new tools for extracting insights from the growing volume and complexity of corporate disclosures. This dissertation consists of three studies that explore how advanced textual analysis can reveal deeper insights into corporate disclosures, managerial behavior, and auditor practices.

The first paper (co-authored) develops a topic-based approach to measuring the substantive content of risk factor disclosures. Using an embedding-based topic modeling framework, we identify 30 interpretable risk topics and …

Impact Of Attention And Yield Curve On Term Structure Of Equity, Matthew C. Aved

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the term structure of equity and specifically focuses on the impact of term spread and market attention. The paper builds on prior work that developed the concept by adding behavioral explanations for differences between the short-term and long-term returns while also attempting to link the term structure of equity and the bond yield curve. The study examines these influences by running t-tests and regressions on dividend strip and S&P 500 return data (1996-2017) and attention data collected by Bloomberg (2010-2017). The results provide some insight into how these variables influence short-term and long-term returns; however, limited instances …

Auditor Independence And Its Impact On Debt Financing Outcomes, Harry Zhou

CMC Senior Theses

This study investigates whether perceived auditor independence, proxied through proportions of non-audit service fees and client dependence of the auditor, is associated with the outcome of debt contracts. While prior research examines how these proxies relate to auditor independence itself, and other strands of literature assess how audit quality influences debt contracting, few studies evaluate whether lenders interpret auditor independence signals in ways consistent with auditors. This study aims to contribute to the broader literature by examining the auditor independence proxies and its direct relationship to debt contract structure holistically. Two OLS models were employed to investigate the relationship between …

Audit Fee Spillovers Following Sec Scrutiny: Evidence From Auditor Portfolio Effects, Rakhshaan R. Adamjee

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines whether audit firms reprice clients that are not under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review when a greater share of the auditor’s other clients face SEC scrutiny. Results indicate economically meaningful pricing spillovers. In the full sample, a ten-percentage-point increase in auditor-level exposure is associated with approximately 2% higher fees for non-scrutinized clients. The effect is stronger for Big Four networks: the Big Four slope is about 3.6% per ten points, and a Big Four only replication yields roughly 8.9%. Among Big Four, measuring exposure at the signing-office level also produces a positive but smaller association (~0.4% …

Does A More Functionally Diverse Top Management Team Make The Financial Statements More Comparable?, Md Mahmudul Hasan, Audrey Wen-Hsin Hsu, Sayan Sarkar, Tsung-Hsuan Joey Yang

Accounting Faculty Publications

We examine whether top management team (TMT) functional diversity affects financial statement comparability. Drawing upon upper echelons theory and the information sharing perspective in diversity research, we argue that TMT functional diversity produces more comparable financial statements due to better information sharing and integration. Using a sample of US firms, we find that financial statement comparability is positively associated with TMT functional diversity. We also find that the positive relationship between TMT functional diversity and comparability is more pronounced in firms with a poor information environment. Our findings remain robust after addressing endogeneity concerns. This study contributes to the existing …

Heartbeats: Sustainable Practices In Business, Natalie Pham, Shareef Awadallah, Lily Lisco, Logan Blissenbach, Nikolaos Verginis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

HeartBeats Co. LLC is a premier audio and software technology brand that brings renewed character and performance to a stagnant space, revolutionizing the listening experience by engineering a digital music platform and headphones that possess distinct style and exceptional performance. While our team identifies and tracks trends in the market, we strive to establish market trends rather than to follow them. We are a company founded on innovation, redefining the music streaming market by combining the importance of wellness with the latest audio and software technologies and innovative functionalities. This document outlines a ten-year plan for efficient and impactful scaling, …

A Strategic Analysis Of Project Learn Of Summit County, Alex Kennedy, Tyler Hutchinson, Haley Guest, Zach D. Thomas, Lizzie Sisler

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our group is working with Project Learn of Summit County, a GED and ESL assistance program located in the Akron Public Library. Our group will be performing a strategic analysis and providing them with a strategic plan, to be presented to them at the end of the term. We aim to increase awareness for the program, point out areas of growth, and increase functionality.

100 Conversation Starters To Develop Student Critical Thinking In Intermediate And Financial Accounting Courses, Joe B. Hoyle

Bookshelf

INTRODUCTION

Why create a book containing nothing but accounting problems?

The genesis of an idea is often difficult to recall, but I can trace the creation of this project to a single sentence found in a specific book.  One recent summer, to help prepare myself for the upcoming academic year, I began reading Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham.  On page 16 of the dog-eared copy I acquired on the Internet, I was drawn to a key sentence like a moth to a flame.  The words were buried rather unobtrusively within a long paragraph but, for me, …

Design Thinking For Corporate Social Responsibility Program Proposal Creation, Michelle "Mindy" D. Danovaro

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study used action research to explore how the use of design thinking engaged employees in the creation of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program proposal in a small- to medium-enterprises (SME) in the Sacramento region of California. The purpose of the study was to assess whether employee participation in a design thinking exercise could improve employee perception of engagement, inclusion, and reciprocity during the CSR program proposal creation. The study was grounded in social exchange theory, stakeholder theory, and design thinking methodologies. The iterative research process followed action research cycles (i.e., plan, act, observe, and reflect) integrated with …

Lease Capitalization And Financial Flexibility: An Empirical Investigation Of Asc 842’S Impact On Liquidity In The Us Telecommunications Industry, Caleb J. Martin

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Measures of liquidity are some of the most important financial ratios to analyze when measuring a firm’s overall financial health and its ability to pay both creditors and dividends. The US telecommunications industry is an industry that has become synonymous with dividends, mergers, and acquisitions, all of which are possible due to industry wide and firm specific liquidity. With the implementation of ASC 842 and the new standard of placing operational leases on the balance sheet, additional research may be warranted to determine the effect ASC 842 may have on firm liquidity. This study investigated whether there was evidence to …

The Investor Perspective Of Materiality, Sam Lessinger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Often auditors are asked to adopt the reasonable investor perspective in their materiality evaluations however, there is no consensus regarding what investors deem to be material. This can lead to confusion in the markets. In fact, past studies have shown how taking an investor perspective can backfire and may result in more leniency and fewer misstatements being deemed material by auditors. This leniency can, potentially, result in financial statements that mislead investors. The aim of this paper is to address the reasonable investor perspective to achieve a more complete understanding of an investor’s viewpoint. This study also incorporates the effect …

Well, If You Put It That Way Three Studies On Contract Framing In Incomplete Contract Environments, Garrison L. Nuttall

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation contains three studies examining contract framing, with implications for how organizations structure and frame performance-based compensation systems. Across all studies, I compare penalty contracts to bonus contracts with gain framing and bonus contracts with loss framing. My first study examines how managers prefer to frame performance-based compensation systems on average and identifies how the traits trust propensity, empathy, personal norm of reciprocity, loss aversion, Machiavellianism, and critical thinking disposition are associated with certain preferences. I find that mangers prefer bonus contracts to penalty contracts on average and that empathy is positively associated with this preference. My second study …

Awareness And Decision-Making In Cryptocurrency Investment Among Students In Guwahati: A Comprehensive Study, Rituparna Roy Dr, Anupam Chanda Dr, Bidangsha Basumatary

The Indonesian Capital Market Review

This study investigates the awareness and decision-making processes related to cryptocurrency investment among students in Guwahati, Assam. Cryptocurrency, a form of digital money designed for online transactions without government or bank oversight, has initiated significant shifts in the global financial sector. The decentralization of cryptocurrencies offers transparency, security, and efficiency, challenging traditional financial systems. Despite the growing global interest in cryptocurrencies, their adoption faces barriers such as limited technological expertise, regulatory uncertainty, and security concerns. These issues are particularly pronounced among students, a demographic increasingly interested in digital currencies but often lacking foundational financial knowledge. The research aims to fill …

The Conditional Nature Of The Value Premium: Interaction And Cross-Sectional Evidence Across Market Regimes, Samuel L. Klein

Honors Thesis

This thesis examines why value-based investment strategies generate strong returns in some environments yet weaken or collapse in others. Regressions test whether the performance of the book-to-market ratio depends on the investor’s perception of financial health as defined by F-Score and accruals. Across additive regressions, interaction models, cross-sectionals, and heatmap visualizations, a consistent mechanism emerges. The book-to-market effect is strongest when financial information is neither highly reliable nor severely distressed. In these “moderate-quality” environments, investors struggle to fully distinguish the transitory components of earnings from their persistent counterparts. This makes valuation ratios particularly influential. Accrual intensity and financial strength jointly …

Beyond Compliance: Rethinking Ethical Accounting Through Ai And Esg, Rafael L. Portillo

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

With the increasing adoption of these modern technologies in world markets while maintaining these ethical principles, there is an increasing need for alignment between technology development and ethical responsibility. For instance, in the world of accounting, there is an increasing demand to maintain alignment between technology development and ethics. It is for this reason that these researchers have chosen to explore the link between Artificial Intelligence, ESG, and financial reporting ethics.

The goal of this study is to look at new concerns and moral risks that appear when ESG expectations, AI systems, and accounting practices interact. Earlier research usually studies …

Riding Attention Spikes: How Analysts Respond To Advertising, Minjae Koo, Annika Yu Wang, Yin Wang, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Product market advertising, while containing little new information, triggers spikes in investor attention. Using weekly advertising data, we find that sell-side analysts issue optimistic earnings forecasts in response to heavier advertising in the prior week. This effect is not driven by confounding earnings or product news. It is more pronounced for experienced analysts and analysts affiliated with brokerages relying solely on trading revenues. The optimistic forecast bias intensifies the impact of advertising on investor trades, especially on retail buying, of the underlying stock during the following week. Overall, analysts appear to issue optimistic forecasts to exploit retail investor attention spikes …

A Study On The Impact Of Ceos’ Financial And Technical Backgrounds On The Innovation Strategy Of The Enterprise, Jianyu Cheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Amid regional economic integration and market competition, innovation has become a key driver for enterprises to gain competitive advantages and ensure sustainable development. As primary decision-makers in corporate strategy and resource allocation, chief executive officers (CEOs) impact the selection and implementation of innovation strategies through their financial and technical backgrounds, which influence their strategic cognition and risk preferences, leading to heterogeneous innovation behaviors. While existing research has examined the relationship between CEOs and corporate innovation, studies have inadequately explored CEOs’ diverse background characteristics, particularly the interaction between financial and technical backgrounds. Given the rising trend of CFOs and CTOs advancing …

From Discrete Manufacturing To Continuous Manufacturing: Examining The Relationship Among Digital Capability, Organizational Learning, And Enterprise Performance, Demu Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In 2018, Company J launched its intelligent drive digital transformation project, which was completed and entered operation in 2021. That December, the project obtained certification under Zhejiang Province's "1353" system for the future factory enterprises, marking a successful transition from discrete to continuous manufacturing. To address the asynchronous flows of logistics, information, personnel, capital, and value indiscrete manufacturing enterprises, as well as pain points such as lowper capita output, long product delivery cycles, and low annual inventory turnover rates, this study, based on organizational learning theory, constructs ananalytical model encompassing digital capability (independent variable X), organizational learning (mediating variable Z), …

The Impact Of Value Co-Creation On Organizational Resilience In Small And Medium-Sized Traditional Foreign Trade Enterprises, Dan Yan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Against the backdrop of increasing uncertainty in the global business environment, international scholarly attention to individual, group, and organizational resilience has risen significantly. Chinese export trading enterprises—especially small and medium-sized export trading enterprises(SMETEs)—face disadvantages such as small scale, weak financing capacity, limited access to information, and low brand strength. After experiencing shocks from digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, and the European energy crisis, these firms have been compelled to reconsider how to enhance their organizational resilience in order to adapt to an increasingly turbulent external environment.

First, this study selects Company H as a representative case of …