Digital skills composition and adult learning: Human capital in the knowledge economy

Adopting International Financial Reporting 9 is critically relevant as it significantly transforms accounting practices, particularly in credit risk management, for banks in Jordan. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the impact of implementing International Financial Reporting 9 on the financial performance and credit risk management practices of Jordanian banks. A quantitative analysis was conducted using the Difference-in-Differences approach and Fixed Effects models on data from 19 banks operating between 2012 and 2022.
The results indicate that the adoption of International Financial Reporting 9 led to a substantial increase in loan loss provisions, with a mean increase of 0.25 (t-value = 18.00). This increase in loan loss provisions negatively affected profitability metrics such as Return on Assets and Return on Equity, which showed mean decreases of 0.0857 (t-value = 4.22) post-implementation. Despite the negative impact on profitability, the findings also highlight improvements in financial transparency and stability due to more accurate credit risk assessment.
While the adoption of International Financial Reporting 9 imposes operational and financial challenges, it enhances the robustness and clarity of financial reporting in Jordanian banks.

This paper studied the influence of strategic human resource management on human capital development through the mediation of employee commitment. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 514 participants (medical staff) from five hospitals in northern Jordan. The hospitals involved were from different sectors, including governmental, private, and university hospitals. Several analysis methods were used in the study: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), discriminant validity, and composite reliability. Direct and indirect hypothesis testing was also utilized using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study showed that the practice of strategic human resource management had a direct positive impact on employee commitment; the practice of strategic human resource management had a direct positive impact on human capital development; the impact of employee commitment on human capital development was positive and direct; employee commitment has a partial mediating effect between both of them. Accordingly, HR managers in hospitals should move from “softer” responsibilities and traditional HR activities to a more strategic level (i.e., developmental strategy), where HR strategies are aligned and reinforce the hospital’s vision and mission and link organizational strategy to HR strategies. Healthcare managers should invest more in human capital through formal education and training.

Acknowledgments
The Deanship of Research at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) in Jordan is acknowledged by authors for providing facilities through the research No. 488/2020 and research environment to accomplish the goals of this work. The authors thank Professor Fareed Nusair at the Department of Health Management & Policy, the Faculty of Medicine.

This study aims to investigate the relationships between economic development and environmental degradation regarding the emissions of CO₂ and SO₂ in Southeast Asia (SEA). The pooling data consist of 10 countries, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, in the period 2003-2012. Furthermore, income elasticity of CO₂ and SO₂ emissions is computed for each country to observe the sensitivity of environmental degradation through the emissions of CO₂ and SO₂ brought by economic development.
The results indicate that CO₂ displays an inverted U-shape pattern, whereas SO₂ has decreased at an increasing rate since 2003. It is expected that SO₂ will increase as the SEA economies further develop. The turning points for both CO₂ and SO₂, indicate that the current SEA income level has not reached the turning point. The income elasticities show that income elasticities for CO₂ are positive for all 10 countries. Both Singapore and Malaysia are classified as countries with high income. However, Singapore, with 0.64%, has the highest income elasticity, and Malaysia, with 0.15%, has the second lowest. There is no indication that wealthy countries have a significant impact on CO₂ through economic development. Income elasticities for SO₂ of each country are all negative. This suggests that SO₂ is an inferior good. Brunei, with 8.41%, has the most sensitivity toward change in SO₂ emissions, whereas Myanmar, with only 0.58%, is the least sensitive to SO₂ emissions.