Issue #4 (Volume 21 2024)

The capital market has increasingly become a pivotal avenue for enterprises seeking additional capital for expansion or operational enhancements. In raising funds through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the company must publish its risk disclosure in the prospectus. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of risk disclosure on the initial return of Indonesian companies undergoing IPOs during the pandemic. Using data from 136 out of 164 companies that went public between 2020 and 2022, sourced from the Indonesian Stock Exchange and company websites, the study employs the ordinary least squares method to estimate the impact of risk disclosures on initial returns during the pandemic. The findings reveal that external and overall risk disclosures significantly influence IPO initial returns. Specifically, Indonesian investors were particularly attentive to external and overall risks when evaluating IPOs during the pandemic. This heightened concern suggests that comprehensive risk disclosure can affect investor behavior and financial outcomes for companies going public in uncertain times, highlighting the importance of transparency in risk communication to support investor decision-making and market stability.

Acceptance and implementation of international financial reporting standards ensure a wider scope for financial transparency, accountability, and comparability on a global scale. Against this backdrop, this study looks at the implications of these standards on Hungary’s financial transparency by evaluating panel data from 716 private companies over the period 2013–2023. The Hausman test results suggest that Fixed and Random Effects models should be used.
The analysis indicates that, on average, the sampled companies have improved financial transparency by 75%. Key determinants include standard adoption (0.025 coefficient, t = 8.333, p < 0.001), cost of implementation (2.400 coefficient, t = 24.000, p < 0.001), investor confidence (0.035 coefficient, t = 11.667, p < 0.001), and legislative changes (2.450 coefficient, t = 24.500, p < 0.001). Moreover, it is possible to obtain significant positive effects on the centered variables for implementation costs (coefficient = 2.498, p < 0.001) and government efficiency (coefficient = 0.036, p < 0.001).
These results demonstrate a positive effect, which is significantly created by adopting these standards on financial transparency. They underline increased investor confidence and government efficiency as drivers of these improvements. Applying these standards in Hungary’s financial reporting system is classified as a strategic tool to foster economic stability and attract foreign investment, which ensures Hungary’s good standing in the global economy.

This paper investigates the influence of financial knowledge, financial attitude, financial skills, and financial behavior on the financial literacy of Saudi Arabian MSMEs. The sample is 341 MSMEs that are clients of Islamic banking institutions. The paper employs the PLS-SEM method to analyze the collected data. The findings reveal statistically significant and strong positive correlations (p < 0.05) between financial knowledge, financial skills, financial behavior, and financial literacy. This implies that MSMEs with a strong foundation in financial knowledge, proficient skills, and positive financial behaviors tend to exhibit higher levels of financial literacy. Among the variables studied, financial knowledge exerted the strongest influence on financial literacy. This shows the importance of enhancing financial knowledge among MSME owners and managers to improve their overall financial literacy. Interestingly, the study did not identify a statistically significant relationship between financial attitude and financial literacy. This suggests that simply possessing a positive attitude toward finance may not necessarily translate into higher levels of financial literacy without complementary knowledge, skills, and behaviors. By prioritizing these areas, policymakers and Islamic banking institutions can contribute to improving financial literacy levels among Saudi Arabian MSMEs, ultimately fostering their growth, performance, and resilience.

Bitcoin remains a popular investment choice despite the regulatory obstacles and failures of many crypto firms. This intriguing behavior of investors necessitates calls for more in-depth research. This study explores the underlying motivations behind the intention to invest in Bitcoin by considering inaction regret aversion, overconfidence bias, herding, risk affinity, profit expectancy, perceived ease of investing, and social media influence in shaping the investors’ attitude towards investing in Bitcoin and consequently on behavioral intention to invest in Bitcoin. The study employs PLS-SEM and mediation analysis on a sample of 439 individuals from India with no history of cryptocurrency trading or investment. Path analysis demonstrates that inaction regret aversion, risk affinity, profit expectancy of Bitcoin, perceived ease of investing in Bitcoin, and social media influence are significant positive predictors of attitude toward investing in Bitcoin. Notably, profit expectancy remains the most relevant variable in the stated context. Attitude toward investing in Bitcoin positively and significantly influences the behavioral intention to invest in Bitcoin. The current study also indicates the significance of attitude as a mediator in the mentioned context.

Increasing market volatility and the profound impacts of climate change require a comprehensive understanding of how weather affects stock market performance. This paper aims to investigate the effect of eight weather conditions (clear sky, precipitation, pressure, temperature, relative humidity, specific humidity, wind direction, and wind speed) on the returns of major African stock markets (Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia) over the period from January 2, 1998 to December 30, 2023. Using daily data and a GJR-GARCH (1,1) model with an AR process, the findings reveal that weather conditions influence all African stock markets. Specifically, the markets are categorized according to their sensitivity to weather conditions into three groups: highly affected (5-7 coefficients with 0.001≤ p <0.05), moderately affected (3-4 coefficients with 0.001≤ p <0.05), and slightly affected (1-2 coefficients with 0.001≤ p <0.05). Mauritius and Uganda emerge as the most weather-sensitive countries, with significant impacts (0.001≤ p <0.05) for seven of the eight weather conditions studied. Understanding the relationship between weather conditions and African stock markets enables investors to adjust their strategies and better manage their portfolios to optimize return opportunities. Ultimately, this study provides essential insights for investors, portfolio managers, and financial decision-makers, aiding them in better assessing the risks and opportunities associated with weather conditions in African stock markets, thereby enhancing their decision-making and investment management.

Investors are showing a growing interest in emerging economies due to several compelling characteristics that make these countries attractive for investment. The objective of this study is to examine the factors that motivate individuals to invest in emerging markets. This study employed a quantitative research methodology, specifically utilizing a survey method and online questionnaires to collect data from asset managers in South Africa due to their investment expertise. This group is specifically for a limited number of investors and/or asset managers who have the ability to provide the required information. Data analysis entailed the application of descriptive statistics. The findings revealed multiple justifications for investing in emerging economies, such as higher returns, risk diversification, capitalizing on emerging markets, expanding prospects, maintaining a well-balanced investment portfolio, hedging money, and ensuring anonymity. Among these arguments, only four are crucial when contemplating investment in emerging economies: augmented returns, risk diversification, capitalizing on emerging markets, and expanding prospects.

The basic human need for housing makes property investment safer than other sectors because demand tends to be stable despite changing economic conditions. The decision to invest is influenced by various aspects, including economic variables, including GDP, property credit growth, non-performing loans (NPLs), interest rates, exchange rates, and money supply, which are then examined for their influence on the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) in Indonesia through this research using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) with quarterly data from 2003 to 2022. The findings show that GDP, interest rates, and money supply have a significant long-term impact on the RPPI. In the short-term, GDP and property credit growth have a negative impact on RPPI, while NPL and exchange rate do not. Causality tests indicate a bidirectional relationship between NPL and GDP with RPPI, with probability values exceeding 0.05. This study provides valuable insights into the monetary factors affecting residential property prices and suggestions for future research.

Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge Ahmad Dahlan University for the support and facilities provided in conducting this research. They also greatly appreciate the academic resources that supported the data collection process and careful analysis of our findings. Besides, the authors express their gratitude to Bank Indonesia and Badan Pusat Statistik for their invaluable contribution to the data used in this research.

Given the growing significance of the capital market, investors tend to steer clear of stock price crashes. This study aims to examine how idiosyncratic risk affects the likelihood of a stock price crash and how discretionary income smoothing affects the relationship between them. This study uses a data panel to empirically examine the hypothesis. This study uses a data panel to empirically examine the hypothesis, using 1,203 firm-year observations from non-financial companies publicly traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2021. The results show that firms with greater idiosyncratic risk do not significantly generate higher stock price crash risk. Nevertheless, this study also discovered that managing discretionary income smoothing is essential to increasing the risk of crashes. The test shows that the coefficient of discretionary income smoothing is 0.153 and significant with a t-value of 2.104. Moreover, the investigations also indicate that greater use of discretionary income smoothing can amplify the impact of idiosyncratic risk on the likelihood of stock price crashes. This is shown from the results where the moderation of the two variables has a positive coefficient of 0.087 and is significant at 10% with a t-value of 1.446. Based on the findings, this study concludes that the presence of idiosyncratic risk by itself may not substantially impact the probability of stock market crashes. However, combined with discretionary income smoothing, it can worsen the potential negative consequences. It implies that how a firm reports its income can affect its susceptibility to stock price crashes.

The aim of this paper is to assess the views of market participants concerning the institutional investors’ role in implementing book-building pricing of IPOs as Nepal seeks to implement it. A total of 125 market participants were approached for data collection using a structured questionnaire that took a six-month period from January to June 2020. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the collected data. The study found that the role of institutional investors in the prevailing stock market is brutally meager because of the restrained regulatory provisions. Market participants opined that institutional investors play a vital role in developing the stock market and executing book building. Implementation of book building demands a rigorous amendment in the existing regulations that allow institutional investors to enter and play in the market. A precise classification and definition of the potential roles of institutional investors are essential so that the application of the building pricing mechanism could be expected to be more effective. Market participants believed that the active participation of institutional investors will help lure manufacturing and real sector companies, trading houses and hotels into the capital market for public offerings. Issue managers, portfolio managers, share registrars, and stockbrokers agree that the role of institutional investors is inevitable in implementing book-building pricing.

This empirical study examines the impact of auditor attributes and firm size on financial reporting timeliness among listed firms in Nigeria. The study employs an ex-post facto type of research, with a quantitative design covering a ten-year period (2013–2022). The sample size comprises sixty-six (66) non-financial firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). Based on data extracted from the audited annual reports of the sampled sixty-six firms, the robust regression model results reveal that joint audits contributed considerably to shorter financial reporting lags, underscoring the value of collaborative audit efforts in streamlining the audit process. Audit fees maintained a positive significant effect on the reporting lag of listed Nigerian firms. However, audit switch, client firm size, audit opinion, and audit firm size all maintained insignificant effects on the financial reporting timeliness of the Nigerian listed firms investigated. Therefore, the study recommends that listed firms should rather opt for affordable joint audits due to their efficiency in streamlining the audit process. Equally, the study recommends that listed firms should maintain long-term relationships with auditors to leverage increased familiarity, yet remain cautious of likely complacency and breach of auditing ethical guidelines that can arise from prolonged engagements.

Eighty percent of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria (4 out of 5 firms) had negative and fluctuating returns on equity eighty-three percent of the time (5 out of 6 years), while inexplicable fluctuations in philanthropic expenditures, labor costs, and creditor days correspondingly occurred during the 6-year period under review (2018–2023). This study looks at how social initiatives affect the value of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Its specific goal was to determine whether a firm’s value (measured as return on equity) is influenced by the cost of corporate giving, the cost of employee well-being, and the time taken to settle creditors. Data were obtained from the financial reports of 5 companies. the sample of which was judgmentally drawn from 16 listed companies using a quantitative method of research. EViews statistical package was used to analyze data. It was found that investments in social initiatives as supported by corporate giving {B1 = 0.010162, P = .2691 or P > .05}, employee well-being {B2 = .012285, P = .3836 or P > .05}, and obligations to creditors {B3 = .012018, P = .8327 or P > .05} are not value-enhancing in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector. In light of the above, it was concluded that listed companies in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria are not legitimately and strategically investing their resources in social initiatives, and corporate value is consequently not enhanced and maximized.

Understanding the interconnectedness of cryptocurrencies based on their underlying technology is crucial for effective portfolio management and risk assessment. To establish the tail dependence structure and risk spillover between cryptocurrencies, this paper used the daily closing prices of the top eight proof-of-stake-based cryptocurrencies and the top ten proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies from September 22, 2020 to April 7, 2023. This study applied the C-vine copulas and CoVaR measures. The outcome of the copula findings for the proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies illustrates that Ethereum exhibits strong resilience during market downturns, acting as a buffer for other proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies with pairwise tail dependence coefficients ranging from 0.45 to 0.67. Bitcoin Cash emerges as a portfolio diversifier within the proof-of-work ecosystem, absorbing 45% to 75% of volatility spillovers. However, from the proof-of-stake CoVaR analysis, ETH, DOT, and MATIC rank highest in systematic importance before April 2022, signifying their significant risk transmission role, and for the proof-of-work CoVaR analysis, Bitcoin (BTC) is the primary risk transmitter in the cryptocurrency portfolio, having a positive CoVaR of 0.15. Ethereum and Bitcoin are identified as the dominant risk transmitters within their respective groups, highlighting their potential to amplify systemic risk. This study provides valuable insights for investors and policymakers navigating the increasingly complex cryptocurrency landscape.

To achieve the optimal investment decision, people should have better financial literacy. A better understanding of stock investment can be obtained through having experience investing in the stock market. Besides experience, influences from financial socialization agents such as family, friends, education, and media will improve financial knowledge. Hence, it will determine investments wisely. The aim of this study is to determine the degree to which financial experience, family, peers, formal education, media, and financial literacy have direct on impact investment decisions and furthermore to determine the role of financial literacy as mediating variable between financial experience, family, peers, formal education, media, and investment decisions. Investors who have already registered on the Indonesia Stock Exchange are the respondents to this study. Only those investors are allowed to invest in the Indonesian stock market. There are 716 respondents who were analyzed using self-administered questionnaires and structural equation modeling (SmartPLS). Findings show that peers and financial literacy have a direct positive impact (p<0.05) on investment decisions, while financial experience, family, education, and media do not (p>0.05). Additionally, financial experience, peers, education, and media have a significant positive effect on financial literacy (p<0.05), while family does not (p>0.05). Financial literacy is shown to mediate the relationship between financial experience, peers, education, media, and investment decisions (p<0.05) but not with family (p>0.05). This implies that having financial experience improves financial literacy, which leads to better investment decisions. Furthermore, peers, education, and media all play an important role in increasing financial literacy to make optimal investment decisions.

Acknowledgment
We want to express our sincere gratitude to Universitas Multimedia Nusantara for providing the grant to support this project. Without the generous support, the successful completion of this project would not have been possible. Additionally, we extend our appreciation to the editors and reviewers for their valuable input, which significantly contributed to enhancing the quality of this paper.

Tax compliance is the determining factor in tax report submission, enhancing tax awareness. A low level of tax compliance (TC) directly affects the government revenue and low inflow of information regarding taxpayers. This study uses descriptive and explanatory research approaches to identify determinants of residential rental income tax compliances (TC) among property owners in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal. A total of 1,129 structured questionnaires were distributed among the households of Kathmandu Valley for the cross-sectional and primary data, and only 500 (44.29 percent) useful responses were received from the respondents as the population was unknown. The response rate exceeds the estimated sample size of 384. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of tax rate on tax compliances (r = 0.329**, P<0.05). Fines and penalty (FP) and tax compliance (TC) found a positive and significant association depicting (r =.398**, P<0.05). Similarly, there was a positive and significant relationship (r = .612**, P<0.05) between attitudes and perception (AP) and tax compliance (TC). Moreover, a positive and significant association was found (r =.410**, P<0.05) between tax knowledge (TK) and tax compliance (TC). Furthermore, tax policy (TP) was positively and significantly associated (r = .440**, P<0.05) with tax compliance (TC). This study enhances taxpayers’ knowledge and helps to execute the policies to increase the efficiency and transparency of the tax system in Nepal.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Prof. Dr. Achyut Gnawali and Mr. Prem Bahadur Budhathoki, Associate Professor, and Dr. Gangaram Bishowakarma, Assistant Professor of Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, for extending warm support towards the research work through the academic inputs.

This study employs a panel data model to examine the impact of sustainable business practices on profitability in the Indian market, focusing on 49 companies listed in the S&P BSE ESG 100 index from 2015 to 2022. Sustainable business practices are measured by ESG composite scores and individual environmental, social, and governance scores. Profitability is represented by return on equity and return on assets. Utilizing the Panel Corrected Standard Error technique to address data issues like autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity, the study finds that sustainable business practices insignificantly impact profitability. However, the social pillar has a significantly positive correlation with return on assets, with each unit improvement in the social score resulting in a 0.1323 increase in return. Conversely, the governance pillar negatively impacts return on assets, with each unit increase in governance score resulting in a decrease of 0.1527 units in profitability. Interestingly, larger companies experienced reduced returns on both assets and equity, as financial risk also lowered returns. These findings emphasize the relevance of companies’ socially responsible behavior, suggesting that managers and investors should prioritize sustainable practices for long-term benefits. Additionally, the findings advocate for robust regulatory frameworks focused on sustainability.

The paper aims to explore the determinants of total volatility connectedness of nine super sectors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) market from 3rd January 2006 to 31st December 2021. These sectors are Automobile and Parts, Chemical, Telecommunication, Technology, Energy, Health, Finance, Insurance, and General Industrials. The paper applied Diebold and Yilmaz connectedness matrix and the time-varying parameter – vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model to determine the sectorial total volatility connectedness index (STVCI). After that, the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL) was used to determine the asymmetric effects and the drivers of STVCI. It was found that the partial sum decomposition of the South African volatility index (SAVI) and Economic Policy Uncertainty Index (EPU) are the key determinants of the STVCI both in the long and short run. However, domestic market return (DMR) shows no significant asymmetric effect on STVCI. The study concluded that SAVI and EPU are the key determinants of volatility connectedness among the JSE super-sectors. The results unveil important implications for sectorial investors and policymakers on potential regulations and stability of the significant determinants of spillover risk.

This study aims to examine the direct and indirect impact of IFRS adoption on the financial performance of Moroccan companies listed on the Moroccan financial market. The analyses are based on data drawn from the financial statements of 21 Moroccan companies listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange. By measuring financial performance using three stock market measures, namely the Mariss ratio, the Price Earnings Ratio, and the Tobin Q ratio, and using the structural equation method with SPSS AMOS software, the results indicate that before the introduction of the cost of capital variable, IFRS significantly affect financial performance, with an estimated coefficient of 0.395 significant at the 5% threshold. By introducing the cost of capital variable, the results show that the direct and significant relationship between IFRS and performance disappears, recording an estimated coefficient of 0.241 with a non-significant probability level of 0.243. On the other hand, the results show that the estimated coefficients for the indirect effect of IFRS on financial performance are negative, i.e., a coefficient of –0.099 estimating the direct effect of IFRS on the cost of capital and a coefficient of –2.621 estimating the direct effect of the cost of capital on financial performance, significant at the 1% and 5% thresholds, respectively. This confirms the hypothesis that the transition to IFRS indirectly and totally influences financial performance via the cost of capital variable.

Tax avoidance, often driven by managerial discretion, remains a critical issue in corporate governance due to its implications for financial transparency and regulatory compliance. This study investigates how Transfer Pricing, Thin Capitalization, Leverage, and CSR Disclosure – strategies employed by managers – affect Tax Avoidance and examines the mediating role of Financial Reporting Aggressiveness. Grounded in agency theory, the study analyzes data from 20 firms listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2023 using PLS-SEM. The findings reveal that Transfer Pricing (β = 0.062, p = 0.002), Leverage (β = 0.046, p < 0.001), and CSR Disclosure (β = 0.061, p < 0.001) significantly increase Tax Avoidance, with Financial Reporting Aggressiveness acting as a mediator. However, Thin Capitalization does not significantly influence Tax Avoidance (β = 0.028, p = 0.422). These results suggest that managers exploit these mechanisms to minimize tax burdens, often at the cost of long-term shareholder interests. The study calls for stronger corporate governance and stricter oversight of CSR reporting and financial transparency to mitigate such practices.

Indonesian stock market is dominated by young and relatively inexperienced traders who often depend on the recommendations of influencers or bloggers in social media. This will then make them dependent and conduct frequent trading, which also means higher transaction costs that diminish their profits and increase their risks, thus decreasing investor satisfaction. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the impact of perceived investor sophistication and social media influence on investment satisfaction mediated with perceived investment return as a mediating element. The analysis focused on young investors aged 18 to 30 who have invested in shares on the Indonesian Stock Exchange for at least one year. A quantitative method was adopted using questionnaires to collect data from 344 respondents. Furthermore, data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling – Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) with SMART PLS 4.0 software. The results showed that both perceived investor sophistication and investment return significantly affected investment satisfaction with beta coefficients of 0.416 and 0.358, respectively. Perceived investor sophistication also significantly influenced perceived investment return with a beta coefficient of 0.557. Additionally, social media influence significantly affected perceived investment return with a beta coefficient of 0.103. This social media influence did not directly impact investment satisfaction but through the perceived investment return, which was further found to fully mediate the impact of social media influence on investment satisfaction. Perceived investment return also partially mediated the effect of investor sophistication on Investment Satisfaction.

Trust is a fundamental element in financial interactions, particularly in the advisory sector, influencing investment decisions and overall client satisfaction. This study aims to explore the impact of trust-building strategies on investment decisions through the financial advisor-client relationship. The research employs a structured questionnaire to gather data on trust-building strategies, the advisor-client relationship, and investment decisions. The study found that trust-building strategies, such as transparency and competence demonstration, positively influenced investor decisions. Specifically, 78% of investors reported increased confidence in their investment choices after engaging with advisors who prioritized transparency and expertise. Moreover, 85% of investors indicated a preference for advisors who demonstrated reliability and ethical conduct, leading to a stronger advisor-client relationship. The findings underscore the importance of trust in financial advisory services and suggest that enhancing trust through transparent practices can lead to more informed and collaborative decision-making processes. The study emphasizes the evolving nature of investment decision-making and proposes integrating technological innovations like AI and robo-advisors. The study provides valuable insights for financial institutions to invest in advisor training and guidance, benefiting all stakeholders involved.

Family firms play an important role in the economies of developing countries such as Indonesia. Proper working capital management is necessary to support the sustainable growth of family firms. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of sustainable growth and working capital management of family firms. The study analyzes family firms by comparing them with non-family firms listed in the LQ45 index of the Indonesian capital market. Using quantitative methods, logistic regression is used to test the hypotheses. The survey sample covers 280 companies from 2015 to 2022. The results of the study show that the elements of sustainable growth of family firms differ from non-family firms only in the leverage element. Family firms tend to have lower leverage than non-family firms. Family firms tend to have more conservative working capital management policies for investment and financing than non-family firms. Family firms also have longer days of accounts payable outstanding than non-family firms, while days of inventory outstanding and days of sales outstanding are not significantly different. This study suggests that family firms should implement a moderate working capital policy to strengthen sustainable growth rates.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Head of Research and Community Service at AKI University who has supported funding for this research. Thank you also to fellow Faculty of Economics and Business lecturers, AKI University who have helped provide the facilities needed for this research.

This study delves into the dynamic interplay between economic value added (EVA) and dividend payout among listed firms in India. Leveraging data spanning from 2013 to 2019 for 564 Indian-listed companies, the study employs a fixed effect panel regression model to meticulously examine the intricate relationship between EVA and dividend payout. The findings decisively indicate a significant and positive correlation between the two, underscoring that an augmented EVA is associated with an elevated dividend payout ratio. Notably, a compelling insight emerges, revealing that a 100 percent surge in EVA corresponds to a noteworthy 5 percent upswing in firms’ dividend payouts. To fortify the robustness of these findings, the study employs the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) methodology, corroborating the initial results. In essence, this paper solidifies the notion that heightened economic value added translates to increased dividend payments, providing valuable insights for both practitioners and researchers in the realm of corporate finance.

Cryptocurrency trading has gained significant adhesion in financial markets, making it essential to understand the factors influencing trading intentions. This study investigates the psychological and knowledge-based determinants of trading intentions towards Beldex coins among crypto traders in India. This study aims to evaluate how risk management, hedonic motivation, investment desire, market knowledge, peer participation, and earning desires impact trading intentions. A survey was conducted with 369 crypto traders in India, and multiple regression analysis was employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that all six factors significantly influence trading intentions, with risk management (β = 0.342, p < 0.001) and earning desires (β = 0.378, p < 0.001) having the strongest impact on Indian Cryptocurrency market arbitrage. The regression model explained 53% of the variance in trading intentions (R² = 0.53). Cryptocurrency market information is analyzed through the CoinGecko tool that provides charts, market capitalization, and blockchain data; multiple regression analysis is utilized to test the hypothesized relationships. This study reveals that traders’ investment decisions in cryptocurrencies are primarily driven by financial motivations, including potential high returns, diversification, and inflation hedging, as well as technological factors of decentralized finance, blockchain technology, and digitalized transactions.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to convey their gratitude to Prof. Balakumar Pitchai, Director/Research, Training & Publications at the Office of Research & Development, Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science & Technology (Deemed to be University), India for his suggestions to improve the language of the manuscript.

In emerging markets such as the Lima Stock Exchange, characterized by lower liquidity and market depth, investors face unique challenges in maximizing returns and mitigating risks. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of technical analysis on the Lima Stock Exchange, focusing on 14 stocks from the S&P/BVL Peru General portfolio selected for their broad spectrum of economic sectors, high trading frequency, and consistency in the index, totaling 9,802 quotations during the period from June 21, 2021 to June 21, 2024. The results, excluding transaction costs, show that technical tools such as Momentum, Moving Averages, Stochastic Oscillator, and Williams Oscillator offer superior returns compared to the buy-and-hold strategy, especially in short periods of 5, 10, and 15 days, with average excess returns of 24.28%. However, when including transaction costs, only eight of the 14 stocks achieve excess returns, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), Bollinger Bands, and Moving Averages standing out as the most efficient tools, especially over longer periods. These findings underscore the importance of careful management of transaction costs to optimize the benefits of technical analysis in emerging markets.

Investors expect internal control reports to improve disclosed information credibility by demonstrating effective risk management, compliance, and transparency. Investment culture influences these expectations by shaping risk perception, emphasizing long-term stability, and setting standards for corporate governance. Thus, investment culture emphasizes robust internal control to enable a more thorough evaluation of investment opportunities. This study examines the relationship between internal control reporting and investor perception of disclosure credibility mediated by investor culture. The survey approach involved 166 respondents from 57 Jordanian brokerage firms. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used for analysis. The results showed that investor perception of disclosure credibility was influenced by internal control reporting as PV 0.000 and that investor culture positively mediated between the two variables as PV 0.000. Investors thus rely on internal control reporting to ensure the credibility of disclosure and aid their investment decisions. This study provides foundational knowledge to policymakers to design successful internal control reporting policies and support systems.

Acknowledgment
I’m indebted to the University of Tabuk – KSA for the support of this article.

Savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) are crucial institutions in promoting financial accessibility. SACCOs provide financial loans to individuals who may not have access to traditional banking. SACCOs take their own risk to get loan defaults from the offerings because member loans are approved without checking the members’ credit background by SACCO committees. This study aims to investigate factors influencing loan defaults of savings and credit cooperatives in Thailand. Based on the savings and credits cooperative database in November 2023, the cooperative has emergency loans, regular loans, and special loans totaling 11,441 contracts. In this study, all loan contracts of this cooperative were used to analyze. The data were divided into two categories of debt classification, including (1) non-default status and (2) default status. The data were analyzed using logistics regression to select the highest accuracy model. Furthermore, the finding reveals that the highest accuracy model, at 99.78%, contains five variables, including interest rate, collateral value, remaining contract duration, outstanding debt, and installment amount. The savings and credit cooperatives institution should adjust the loan interest rates according to economic conditions. Moreover, closely monitoring members with high remaining debt would help the institution prevent loan defaults, and the institution should also create a conservative loan approval policy to reduce its loan default.

Acknowledgments
The research for the work featured in this article is funded by the Prince of Songkla Savings and Credit Cooperatives, Limited.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the financial performance of various sectors across the globe, including the Indian pharmaceutical industry. This study aims to evaluate the financial performance of ten Indian pharmaceutical companies listed in the S&P BSE Healthcare Index over two distinct periods: before COVID-19 (2018–2020) and during the pandemic (2020–2022). A hybrid multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, integrating the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), is employed to assess companies based on five key financial dimensions and several performance indicators. Results indicate that profitability, valuation, and growth ratios were the most critical dimensions, with weights of 0.21 each, followed by liquidity (0.19) and efficiency (0.18). Furthermore, among the companies evaluated, Divis Labs and Abbott India emerged as top performers, both during and before the pandemic, with Divis Labs registering closeness coefficients of 0.871 and 0.814 during 2020–2021 and 2021–2022. The findings highlight the financial resilience of these companies, offering valuable insights for stakeholders in formulating strategies to sustain financial stability during future crises.

The study aims to examine the impact of risk factors of Ukrainian advertising and marketing companies on their financial performance (ROA and ROE). The study was conducted using ordinary least squares regression analysis based on an examination of the activities of 435 companies in 2022. The total number of risk factors (Risk Total) and the ten most common risk factors (10 fixed risk factors) associated with the activities of Ukrainian advertising and marketing companies, calculated using the YouControl database, were selected as independent variables. 10 fixed risk factors were interpreted as dummy variables, which allowed incorporating qualitative information about risk factors of Ukrainian advertising and marketing companies into regression analysis models. Control variables (company age, company size, financial leverage, population at the place of company registration, and total solvency ratio) were added to enhance the determination level of the models. Of these, the statistically significant ones were Company size, which increases ROA and ROE; Financial leverage, which increases ROE; and Company age, which decreases ROE. Of the 11 independent variables that characterized companies’ risk factors, only three were confirmed to significantly impact financial performance indicators (risk factor “Location in the housing stock” reduces ROA and ROE; risk factor “Frequent institutional changes” increases ROA; risk factor “Found match by full name with a politically exposed person” reduces ROE).

Audit committees play a critical role in governance as financial disclosures are scrutinised. This study examines the effects of audit committees on the quality of financial reporting among Vietnamese listed firms, as well as how the efficacy and features of audit committees affect the accuracy, dependability, and transparency of financial reports. The study uses Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (SmartPLS) to analyse the association between audit committee features and financial report quality using a sample of 259 listed Vietnamese businesses across different industries. This approach was selected due to its capacity to manage complex systems and yield reliable outcomes. The results indicate that better financial report quality is correlated with more substantial audit committee features. In particular, it is thought that maintaining financial reporting accuracy depends heavily on audit committee members’ independence and financial knowledge. Furthermore, audit committee activity, including the frequency of meetings and thoroughness of reviews, enhanced financial reporting transparency significantly. These findings suggest that companies prioritizing robust audit committee structures may experience improved investor confidence and compliance with international reporting standards. This study adds to the expanding body of literature on financial reporting standards and corporate governance, focusing on the context of emerging economies such as Vietnam.

This study examines the downside risk, measured by semi-standard deviation and lower partial moment, and downside risk-adjusted return, measured by the Sortino ratio and Information ratio of Bangladeshi mutual funds. The study aims to explore the effect of macroeconomic variables such as deposit rate, broad money supply, GDP growth rate, remittance, exports and imports payments on downside risk and risk-adjusted returns. Month-wise downside risk and risk-adjusted return measures of 27 mutual funds are computed using the 12-month rolling window method, covering the period from January 2016 to December 2023. Here, the random effects model is utilized, and the results show that semi-standard deviation has a significant and positive relationship with deposit rate, broad money, and GDP growth rate and a negative relationship with export and remittance. Another downside risk measure, lower partial moment, is significantly and positively related to export and remittance but negatively related to deposit rate, broad money, and GDP growth. On the other hand, the risk-adjusted return Sortino ratio has a significant and positive relationship with the deposit rate, remittance, and GDP growth rate but also has a negative relationship with exports. Furthermore, the information ratio has a significant and positive relation with deposit rate, import and remittance, and a negative relation with GDP growth rate. Overall findings suggest that when broad macroeconomic factors performed well, mutual funds face reduced downside risk and increased risk-adjusted return, and vice versa. Practitioners and institutional investors can use this evidence in their decision-making in an asymmetric market situation.

Many researchers attribute the vulnerability of African banks to poor innovation and technology adoption in the continent. While many studies suggest that Fintech adoption can mitigate instabilities/risks, this study argues that adopting Fintech brings both challenges and opportunities. Consequently, the study examines a monotonic connection between Fintech and bank stability in a panel of 26 African economies from 2004 to 2021. After measuring bank stability with the bank Z-score, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to generate an index of Fintech using various digital payment indicators. The results of the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique reveal that the relationship is U-shaped in the short run but monotonic in the long run with greater magnitude. Hence, an oscillatory divergent relationship was implied for the entire period. That is, Fintech improves and worsens bank stability intermittently over time. The result is still valid with the inclusion of bank-specific and macroeconomic variables but it was improved with the inclusion of institutional variables in the model. Furthermore, the U-test analysis employed as a second-order robustness check for the U-shaped relationship confirms that Fintech adoption will first worsen bank stability before improving it. The study concludes that Fintech’s ability to improve bank stability depends on the extent and quality of institutional development/regulations in the region. The study therefore recommends institutional development and Fintech regulation to guarantee steady financial/bank stability through Fintech adoption.