Volume 32 (2022): Edition 2 (June 2022)

This study investigated the impact of energy consumption on human development in South Africa, using annual data from 1990 to 2019. The study used disaggregated data on energy measures namely: oil products consumption; electricity consumption; renewable energy consumption; natural gas; coal and lignite; and total energy consumption at an aggregate level. Human Development Index (HDI) was used as a measure of human development. By employing autoregressive distributed lag bounds test to cointegration and error correction model, the study found the impact of energy consumption on human development to be positive in the short run when renewable energy was used as a proxy, but insignificant in the long run. When oil products, natural gas and total energy were used as proxies for energy, a negative impact was confirmed in the short run, while an insignificant impact was confirmed in the long run. When electricity, coal and lignite were used as proxies for energy, an insignificant impact was confirmed, irrespective of the time frame considered. The results revealed that the positive impact of renewable energy on human development is not big enough to offset the negative impact of other energy sources. This suggests that South Africa has to continue to expand renewable energy if a positive impact of energy on human development is to be realized.

The pulp and paper manufacturing industry is currently facing sweeping changes due to the fact that supply and demand are dominated by different global players. These changes have significant effects not only on the paper and pulp production of countries but also on world economies thanks to the high level of trade between countries around the world. Based on the historical development of paper, our study examines today’s production around the world economies, shows the latest commercial trends in the paper and pulp trade, and makes a prediction on the effects of the data belonging to this sector on the trade of countries through using panel regression models. According to our results, we determined a significant relationship between the total world paper and cardboard production in Turkey and the European Union and the amount of pulp. On the other hand, a partial relationship was found between the European Union and Turkey’s paper production. In addition, we concluded that the amount of pulp used in paper and cardboard production was the factor causing the total paper production in the European Union and Turkey. In other words, we have established as a result of the analysis that as the amount of pulp used in paper and cardboard production increases, paper and cardboard production also increases at the same rate.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role that can play ethical training in increasing auditors’ level of ethics. Therefore, this research will test any significant differences between the two groups through a multi-group moderation analysis. The first group represents auditors who took an ethics course before, and the other group represents auditors who did not previously take any course. This comparison will be performed based on the relationships between the variables in our model, namely ethical judgment, ethical intention, moral identity centrality, and perceived moral intensity. The sample of this study is mainly external senior auditors operating in audit firms in Morocco. We could obtain 125 usable responses, and we processed data with SmartPLS software. The results show that auditors’ moral identity impacts their ethical judgment positively and significantly, and the effect is more substantial for the group of auditors who took an ethics course before. Moreover, taking an ethics course seems to moderate also the positive and significant relationship between auditors’ ethical judgment and their ethical intention. However, the results were opposite to what we expected concerning the relationship between perceived moral intensity and auditors’ ethical judgment. Thus, ethical training seemed to moderate the positive relationship negatively.

Bankruptcy or default is a situation, in which, a business company or enterprise gets unable to pay its debts and cannot meet its obligations. Different reasons can cause bankruptcy that mismanagement seems to be one of the most important reasons for bankruptcy. This study aimed to examine the effect of managers’ narcissism on bankruptcy risk among companies operating on the Tehran Stock Exchange. This is a quasi-experimental research of post-event type, which falls into the field of positive accounting research based on real information. The final sample of this study was chosen using the systematic elimination (screening) and non-randomized sampling method, including 177 companies in a period of 8 years from 2013 to 2020. The research data were extracted annually from the Codal website, which were entered in the EVIEWS10 software following calculations in EXCEL software to examine the research relationships and hypotheses. The results of testing the research hypothesis revealed that the managers’ narcissism has a significant impact on the bankruptcy risk. The results obtained were consistent with the results of previous empirical studies indicating that improving the ability and characteristics of managers can enhance the performance of the company.

This research paper aims to investigate the competition in the banking sector in Kosovo. For the research purpose, the secondary data from the Central Bank and commercial banks of Kosovo are used. Besides, the comparison methodology is used to analyse the banking sector for the years 2013-2017. The participation of commercial banks in the banking sector in Kosovo was compared and described, and the competitiveness of the banking sector was measured, using the HHI index and Concentration Ratio (CR₄). Based on the research results, we can conclude that the competitiveness in 2017 was at a moderate level, in 2016 at a low level. Whereas, in the previous years, there was no real competition in this sector.