Search

This study examines the issue of understanding management accounting practices in Romanian financial and accounting service firms, a subject of significant relevance due to the influence of accounting on organizational decision-making and strategic planning. The research examines 21 distinct management accounting practices, utilizing hierarchical clustering analysis refined by the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) to discern patterns and classifications within these practices. The findings indicate eight unique clusters, distinguished by differences in cluster size, withincluster heterogeneity, total within-cluster sum of squares, and Silhouette scores, which explain the diversity of practices and their organizational implications. The research enhances the literature by delineating the present state of management accounting practices in Romania and providing a more refined comprehension of the interrelationships among these practices, as guided by institutional theory. This method surpasses other attempts by emphasizing the diversity within clusters, uncovering distinct traits and strategic consequences. The findings indicate that various groupings of practices demonstrate particular patterns of adoption and utilization, which might affect firms' strategic decision-making processes. These insights facilitate future research focused on examining the drivers and effects of accounting methods across various institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advancement of Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed management accounting practices, necessitating a reevaluation of job profiles and skill-sets required for professionals in this field. This study explores managerial accounting practices in Romanian contexts, examining how digital technology aligns with competitive strategy, managerial efficiency, human resources constraints, and limited resources constraints. Grounded in technology determinism and the resource-based view theory, this research identifies factors influencing the successful implementation of and challenges associated with managerial accounting practices. A sequential mediation analysis investigates pathways wherein investments in human resources and constraints related to limited resources influence managerial advancement through digital technology and competitive strategy. This study emphasizes digital technologies' role in optimizing costs, enhancing operational processes, and facilitating strategic decision-making. This study's conclusions show that, even in situations with limited resources, digital transformation projects greatly improve managerial effectiveness and competitive strategy. The participants included 406 professional accountants from the Romanian accounting community. Practical implications for companies include the necessity for strategic planning in digital implementations to mitigate constraints and capitalize on opportunities for sustainable growth and competitive advantage. This report provides a path to optimize the potential of digital technology and gives practical recommendations for researchers and business leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban development has come to play an essential role in establishing and growing future sustainable cities, or smart cities, which are urban areas that have an optimum carbon footprint, are nature-friendly, and are smart enough to enhance energy efficiency. This study is based on qualitative research in which data were collected from interviews with real estate development specialists. The interviews were addressed to a total of 30 real estate developers from Romania between July and December 2022 and were conducted using the Zoom interface. The aim of this research was to analyze whether familiarity with the smart green concept influences the decision to implement the IoT on a large scale at the organizational level through the perception of specific determining factors in choosing the development of green building projects considering the operational costs. The results revealed a significant indirect effect of green building knowledge on large-scale IoT implementation through the mediator of the perception of operating cost factors, supporting our hypothesis. The direct effect in the presence of the mediator was not found to be significant anymore. Hence, there is full complementary mediation by the perception of operating cost factors on the relationship between green building knowledge and large-scale IoT implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of social stratification on trust in recommender systems. Recommender systems have become an essential tool for users to navigate vast amounts of information online, but trust in these systems has become a concern. The focus of this study is to investigate whether social stratification, defined by socioeconomic status, affects trust in recommender systems. We first review the literature on trust in recommender systems and social stratification, highlighting gaps in the current research. We then describe the methodology used in our study, which involves the analysis of valid and consented responses received from 487 participants from different socioeconomic backgrounds, registered in an online survey. This study aimed to investigate the influence of social stratification, specifically income, on trust in recommender systems. Results showed a curvilinear relationship between income and trust in recommender systems, such that moderate income levels were associated with higher levels of trust, while both low- and high-income levels were associated with lower levels of trust. These findings suggest that income plays an important role in shaping users' trust in recommender systems and highlight the need for future research to examine the complex interplay between social stratification and trust in technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence vaccination options, including vaccination against COVID-19, in order to develop a management algorithm for decision-makers to reduce vaccination reluctance. This paper's primary objective is to empirically determine the relationships between different variables that correlate to non-vaccination behavior of the target population, as well as the implications for public health and situational management strategies for future vaccination intentions. We created a questionnaire to investigate the personal approach to disease prevention measures in general and vaccination in particular. Using SmartPLS, load factors for developing an algorithm to manage vaccination reluctance were calculated. The results shows that the vaccination status of an individual is determined by their vaccine knowledge. The evaluation of the vaccine itself influences the choice not to vaccinate. There is a connection between external factors influencing the decision not to vaccinate and the clients' motives. This plays a substantial part in the decision of individuals not to protect themselves by vaccination. External variables on the decision not to vaccinate correlate with agreement/disagreement on COVID-19 immunization, but there is no correlation between online activity and outside influences on vaccination refusal or on vaccine opinion in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting preschool teachers’ intention to adopt qualitative and inclusive early childhood intentional behaviors represents an important research field. The objective of this research is first to develop and validate a scale to assess the integrative-qualitative intentional behavior (IQIB-ECEC) of preschool teachers in order to achieve SDG4.2’s objective of ensuring that all children have access to high-quality pre-primary education and then to systemically analyze the relationship between variables with Network Analysis. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) describes key individual beliefs (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control) that affect people’s intentions to engage in a certain conduct and has previously been used with success in evaluating people’s intentions to adopt a certain behavior. This research represents one of the first Romanian attempts to use the theory of planned behavior to study the Integrative- Qualitative Intentional Behavior in Romanian Preschool Education and systemically analyze results with Network Analysis approach. This study used a randomized 300 Romanian preschool teachers enrolled in a National Training Program entitled Qualitative and Inclusive Early Childhood Education managed by the Romanian Educational Ministry. Data were collected via an online questionnaire. The scale validation followed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The fitting of the IQIBECEC 19-item scale showed that all coefficients CFI (0.942), TLI (0.920), SRMR (0.0452), and RMSEA (0.0451) bring strong evidence in the favor of the statistical validity of the scale. The final IQIB-ECEC 19 items and 8 factors scale obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.77. The systemic Network Analysis approach was used in interpreting data. The centrality of the network model was further investigated and the clustering coefficients index were calculated. According to the results, perceived power/control beliefs and behavioral intention were detected as the most important dimensions, whereas behavioral beliefs were less important. These findings were discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]