Relationship between Corporate Sustainability and Compliance with State-Owned Enterprises in Central-Europe: A Case Study from Hungary

State Ownership and Accounting Quality: Evidence from State-Owned Enterprises in China

The inherent problems of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), such as the lack of external monitoring, may harm their accounting quality. However, the results from prior research are not consistent. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of state ownership of SOEs on accounting quality, measured by earnings management. Using the samples of listed SOEs in the A-share market in China from 2009 to 2017, the results indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between state ownership and earnings management. Furthermore, the results show that higher competition within the industry can effectively inhibit the negative effect of state ownership on accounting quality. Interestingly, the positive relationship between state ownership and earnings management has weakened in recent years, suggesting that the recent mixed-ownership reform of SOEs is effectively working. Collectively, current study extends prior research by focusing on SOEs in a planned economy and by combining the mixed-ownership reform with earnings management. Consequently, this study provides practical implication to regulatory bodies by showing that state ownership plays an important role in the accounting quality of SOEs.

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)-Based Aggregation Mechanism for Resilience Measurement: NATO Aggregated Resilience Decision Support Model

Resilience is a complex system that represents dynamic behaviours through its complicated structure with various nodes, interrelations, and information flows. Like other international organizations NATO has also been dealing with the measurement of this complex phenomenon in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the civil environment and its impact on military operations. With this ultimate purpose, NATO had developed and executed a prototype model with the system dynamics modelling and simulation paradigm. NATO has created an aggregated resilience model as an upgrade of the prototype one, as discussed within this study. The structure of the model, aggregation mechanism and shock parametrization methodologies used in the development of the model comprise the scope of this study. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a multi-criteria decision-making technique is the methodology that is used for the development of the aggregation mechanism. The main idea of selecting the AHP methodology is its power and usefulness in mitigating bias in the decision-making process, its capability to increase the number of what-if scenarios to be created, and its contribution to the quality of causal explanations with the granularity it provides. The parametrized strategic shock input page, AHP-based weighted resilience and risk parameters input pages, one more country insertion to the model, and the decision support system page enhance the capacity of the prototype model. As part of the model, the decision support system page stands out as the strategic level cockpit where the colour codes give a clear idea at first about the overall situational picture and country-wise resilience and risk status. At the validation workshop, users not only validated the model but also discussed further development opportunities, such as adding more strategic shocks into the model and introduction of new parameters that will be determined by a big data analysis on relevant open source databases. The developed model has the potential to inspire high-level decision-makers dealing with resilience management in other international organizations, such as the United Nations.

Operators' Load Monitoring and Management

Due to the introduction of highly automated vehicles and systems, the tasks of operators (drivers, pilots, air traffic controllers, production process managers) are in transition from "active control" to "passive monitoring" and "supervising". As a result of this transition, the roles of task load and workload are decreasing while the role of the mental load is increasing, thereby the new type of loads might be defined as information load and communication load. This paper deals with operators' load monitoring and management in highly automated systems. This research (i) introduces the changes in the role of operators and requirements in load management, (ii) defines the operators' models, (iii) describes the possible application of sensors and their integration into the working environment of operators, and (iv) develops the load observation and management concept. There are some examples of analyses of measurements and the concept of validation is discussed. This paper mainly deals with operators, particularly pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCOs).

Attracting European Funds in the Romanian Economy and Leverage Points for Securing their Sustainable Management: A Critical Auditing Analysis

Against the backdrop of Romania’s successive negative performance in attracting European funds (coming last in the EU top), as indicated by audit reports for projects that have been funded so far, this paper proposes a new approach in relation to analysis and performance improvement in securing EU funds, while identifying viable solutions for the betterment of the current situation. Furthermore, the authors develop a new audit performance analysis model (NOP), described as a dynamic and flexible model, based on reducing the fraud and error risk in the structural fund management of European-funded projects. The analysis methods encompass literature reviews, observational studies, database management, statistical analysis, and the synthesis of the whole findings. The main conclusion of the analysis is the critical necessity of integrity improvement in the context of managing the non-reimbursable funds through audit activities based on ISA805, the international standard on auditing European-funded projects.

Corporate Sustainability and Intangible Resources Binomial: New Proposal on Intangible Resources Recognition and Evaluation

This study argues that the context in which an organization adopts the principles of corporate sustainability and is guided by a culture of sustainability will determine the development of the components of corporate intangible resources. However, in trying to evaluate the impact of adopting the principles of corporate sustainability on the development of the intangible resources held by a company, we encountered a major problem, namely that there is no consistent and internationally accepted methodology for assessing such resources, despite theorists’ and practitioners’ efforts to develop intangible measurement techniques. The main research objective of this article is to propose the creation of a simplified model for the assessment of intangible resources, which depends only on publicly available information for each of the components of the model. This model can therefore contribute to the practical implementation of intangible resource management by offering an autonomous and objective instrument that uses only publicly available information, thus facilitating comparisons between organizations.

Supporting the Sustainable Development of Railway Transport in Developing Countries

Generally, the development process of the railway transport system is determined by the market pull effects initiated by the economy and society and the market push effects induced by technological progress. The policymakers can provide a balance between these two effects; this results in more effective, safer, and greener future railway systems. In developing countries, the railway systems lag compared to the developed economies. Therefore, the supporting management tools and legal supports for policymakers and strategic management play significant roles in the development of future sustainable transport systems. This paper deals with such required tools and the potential legal framework that support the development of sustainable railway systems in developing countries. The major novelty and advantages of the introduced methodology is the harmonised interaction between society, economic demands, technological development, and regulation. The proposed tools are applied to the Kenya rail system development.

Sustainability Evaluation of Municipal Solid Waste Management System for Hanoi (Vietnam)—Why to Choose the ‘Waste-to-Energy’ Concept

According to decision no. 491/QD-TTg signed in 2018 by the Vietnamese Prime Minister approving adjustments to the national strategy for the general management of solid waste until 2025 with a vision toward 2050, Vietnam has committed itself to move toward collecting, transporting, and treating 100% of non-household waste by 2025 and 85% of waste discharged by households by 2025. This paper aims to determine which is the best sustainable solid waste management system out of those that have been formulated by World Bank experts for Hanoi until 2030 for implementing the national strategy. The paper compares four distinct solid waste management enhancement alternatives, namely, “Improving the current system for waste collection and transportation”; “Reducing, reusing, and recycling waste at source”; “Mechanical–biological treatment (MBT) plants for classifying, composting, and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for the cement industry”; and “MBT plants for classifying, composting, and RDF for waste-to-energy/incineration plants”. The comparison was made using an analytic hierarchy process. As a result, the research indicated that “MBT plants for classifying, composting, and RDF for waste-to-energy/incineration plants” has the highest ranking in terms of a sustainable solution for the municipal solid waste management system. Therefore, it should be applied for managing the current situation in Hanoi. At the same time, the sustainable development of the system must seek to decrease the waste-to-energy ratio continuously and significantly through the planned reuse of materials that can be recycled to industry. According to the literature, in major cities in Asia and Africa, development programs are moving toward waste-to-energy solutions. The EU’s circular innovation programs and action plan may be in the opposite direction to this trend.