This study was initiated to isolate the microorganisms removing phosphorus (P) from domestic sewage and to investigate the effects of environmental factors on the growth and P removal of the isolated bacteria. Microorganisms isolated from the sewage were identified as Chryseobacterium sp., Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Bacillus licheniformis. Among them, Bacillus licheniformis was selected as the P removal microorganism. The environmental factors considered in this study included initial phosphorus concentration, temperature, pH, and carbon source. At initial P concentrations of 10, 20, and 30 mg/L, the P removal efficiencies were 100.0%, 84.0%, and 16.5%, respectively. At 20°C, 30°C, and 40°C, the P removal efficiencies were 0%, 75.8%, and 60.6%, respectively. The removal efficiencies of phosphorus according to pH were 1.6%, 91.7%, and 51.1% at pH 5, pH 7, and pH 9, respectively. Using glucose, acetate, and glucose + acetate as carbon sources yielded P removal efficiencies of 80.9%, 33.6%, and 54.1%, respectively. Therefore, the results from the study demonstrated that the P removal efficiencies of Bacillus licheniformis were the highest when the initial P concentration, temperature, pH, and carbon source were 10 mg/L, 30°C, 7, and glucose, respectively.

본 연구는 강소성 해외직접투자가 지역기술혁신에 미치는 영향을 실증분석을 하였다. 그랜저 인과관계 분석한 결과 해외직접투자가 모국의 기술혁신에 대한 촉진효과를 나타내고 모국의 기술력상승이 해외직접투자에 긍정적인 영향을 미친 것을 입증하였다. 벡터오차수정(VEC)모형을 통한 분석결과는 양자가 장기적인 정(+)의 관계의 갖고 있는 것으로 나타났으며 단기적으로 보면 전년도 기술력상승은 해외직접투자에 대한 촉진효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 실증분석 결과를 토대로 향후 강소성의 해외직접투자 활성화 방안도 제안하였다.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Denpasar City still face low mastery of technology and financial management, one of which is the application of technology-based accounting information systems (e-commerce) for small and medium enterprises. The research objective was to determine the relationship between environmental uncertainty, trust and ease of information technology moderating behavior in accounting information systems. Research with a quantitative approach, the method used is multiple linear regression with moderated regression analysis. The study population was 816 small and medium enterprises. The sampling method technique was the incidental sampling approach and the Slovin formula so that a sampling of 100 small and medium enterprises that had used e-commerce was determined in the city of Denpasar. The results of research that have been conducted determine the relationship between user behavior in accounting information systems that affect individual performance, the relationship between environmental uncertainty affects accounting information systems mediated by individual performance, while the ease of information technology and its ability to be mediated by individual performance has an effect on the behavior of using accounting information systems. The application of accounting information systems in small and medium enterprises is expected to improve individual performance so as to increase income.

The role of customers has changed from that of passive users to value co-creators. Therefore, it is important to understand how customer learning takes place and how it affects customer experiences with services and products. However, while past studies insist on the importance of the issues in designing customer experiences, they do not empirically address these issues. This study investigates the support processes for customer learning, and their impact on customer learning, which in turn influences customer experience. To test the hypotheses, we employed the survey method. Target informants were the actual users of Apple iPods. A total of 200 survey questionnaires were distributed and 146 were collected. Among these, seven erroneous responses were excluded, leaving 139 usable ones. The proposed model was empirically analyzed using the Covariance-based SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) technique. The findings of this study suggest that, among the three support processes in customer learning, learning-by-doing support and learning-by-investment support positively affect customer learning, which influences customer experience. This study contributes to the literature by identifying different types of support for different kinds of customer learning processes and by empirically testing the impact of the support for the process on customer learning, and in turn, its impact on customer experience.

This study was conducted on financial data of 38 economic groups listed on Vietnam’s stock market for the period 2009 – 2019 and it aims to provide an empirical evidence on the impact of working capital management policy on performance in all phases of the economic cycle of Vietnamese economic groups. The study uses FGLS estimation method with 2 dependent variables ROA, GOP, independent variables including INV, AR, AP, CCC, dummy variable representing different phases of the economic cycle, variables Control includes CAT, CR, LEV, SZ, GR. Research shows that the greater the level of investment by companies in liquid assets corresponding to a certain level of activity (shown by average days of inventory (INV), average days of collection. (AR), cash flow cycle (CCC)) the lower the rate of return on assets. The study also provides additional evidence of the negative effects of economic crisis on the performance of economic groups. The study also shows that the number of short-term asset cycles has a positive impact on operational efficiency, and the level of debt use has a negative impact on operational efficiency. This result implies that the managers of economic groups can increase the efficiency of businesses through a reasonable working capital policy.

The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the volatility spillovers from global economic policy uncertainty and macroeconomic factors to the Islamic stock market returns. The study focuses on the Islamic stock indices of emerging economies including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey. The Macroeconomic factors are industrial production, consumer price index, exchange rate. EGARCH model is employed for investigation of volatility spillovers. The results show that the global economic policy uncertainty has a significant spillover effect only on the returns of Turkish Islamic stock index. Similarly, the shocks in macroeconomic factors have little influence on the volatility of Islamic indices returns. The volatility of Indonesian and the Turkish Islamic stock indices returns is not influenced from the fluctuations in macroeconomic factors. However, there is significant volatility spillover only from industrial production to the returns of Malaysian Islamic index. The results suggest that the Islamic stock markets are less likely to influence from the global economic policies and macroeconomic factors. The stability of Islamic stocks provide opportunity for diversification of portfolios, particularly in stressed market conditions. The major price factors of Islamic markets could be firms’ specific factors or investors’ behaviors. The findings are helpful for policy makers and investors in formulating policies and portfolios.

This study analyzes human development convergence and the impact of funds transfer to the regions using σ and β-convergence analysis method. Observations were made in all Indonesia’s provinces in the period 2010-2019. The coefficient of variation calculation shows a dispersion in the inequality of human development, which means that convergence occurred. This is also documented by the clustering analysis results developed in the study. The results are in line with the hypothesis of neoclassical theory, which shows the tendency for provinces with lower human development levels to grow relatively faster. The dynamic panel data approach with the GMM model shows that a model built with explanatory variables for transfer of funds to regions may lead to the process of convergence of human development – 2.21% per year or 31 years to cover the half-life of convergence. This is a consequence of the Special Allocation Fund and the Village Fund, which positively impact the convergence process, and the General Allocation Fund and the Revenue Sharing Fund with negative signs slowing the convergence process. This evidence opens opportunities to review the justification of the weighting component in determining the amount of funds transferred to the region to accelerate the convergence process of human development.

Currently, radioactive waste for disposal has been restricted to low and intermediate level radioactive waste generated during operation of nuclear power plants, and these radioactive wastes were managed and disposed of the 200 L and 320 L of steel drums. However, it is expected that it will be difficult to manage a large amount of decommissioning waste of the Kori unit 1 with the existing drums and transportation containers. Accordingly, the KORAD is currently developing various and largesized containers for packaging, transportation, and disposal of decommissioning waste. In this study, the radiation exposure doses of workers and the public were evaluated using RADTRAN computational analysis code in case of the domestic onroad transportation of new package and transportation containers under development. The results were compared with the domestic annual dose limit. In addition, the sensitivity of the expected exposure dose according to the change in the leakage rate of radionuclides in the waste packaging was evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, it was confirmed that the exposure dose under normal and accident condition was less than the domestic annual exposure dose limit. However, in the case of a number of loading and unloading operations, working systems should be prepared to reduce the exposure of workers.

This study aims to examine OL as a potential mediating variable in the relationship between IT and organizational performance. Organizational learning (OL) has been proposed as the mechanism to accomplish this task. Existing empirical research demonstrates that OL may indeed act as a mediator for the effect of IT on organizational outcomes. Also, existing literature discusses the use of technology in the organization, and the case for OL as the key knowledge process, and the intersection between technology and OL as a knowledgebased means for improving organizational performance. Many studies use a descriptive measure of OL despite the theory suggesting that a normative measure may be more appropriate. This study aims to address these concerns in a setting by using structural equation modelling (SEM) to compare the effectiveness of descriptive and normative measures of OL as mediating variables in knowledge-intensive organizations. Survey results support OL as a mediator between IT and organizational performance in addition to normative measures of OL outperforming descriptive measures. Implications for research and practice are discussed. To test the model, we will apply (SEM) structural equation modeling in the analysis of a moment structures (AMOS) on the empirical evidence collected from 218 Pakistani CEOs and top managers.

Quality internal audit (IA) plays a crucial role in accountability, transparency and preserving public properties. This paper gives a brief background of the IA system in Yemen and examines its impact with regards to financial performance in Yemeni commercial banks based on five factors: (i) independence of IAs, (ii) adherence to IA standards, (iii) governance principles implementation, (iv) size of the IA, and (v) frequency of internal audits committees’ meetings. The primary data for the study were collected through a questionnaire prepared for this purpose. Fifty questionnaires were distributed out of which forty-two were retrieved and valid in the analysis process. For the empirical analysis, descriptive analysis and T-test were used for verification of the research hypotheses. Results revealed that sticking to standards internal audit, internal auditors’ independence and quality governance have significant impact on banks’ financial performance, while the size of internal audits committees, as well as their meeting, frequently has insignificant positive impact on banks’ performance. Moreover, the country results show that the use of automated internal audit in banks has an impact on improving financial performance. This article provides avenues for further studies, mainly in developing countries, including Yemen, in quality internal audit and financial performance.

The study aims to investigate the impact of debt on corporate profitability in the context of Vietnam. The paper investigates the impact of debt on corporate profitability in non-finance listed companies on the Vietnam stock market. The panel data of the research sample includes 118 non-financial listed companies on the Vietnam stock market for a period of nine years, from 2009 to 2017. The Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is employed to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. In this research, corporate profitability is measured as the return of EBIT on total assets. The debt ratio is a ratio that indicates the proportion of a company’s debt to its total assets. Firm sizes, tangible assets, growth rate, and taxes are control variables in the study. The empirical results show that debt has a statistically significant negative effect on corporate profitability. The result also shows this effect is stronger in a non-linear (concave) way, we show that the debt ratio has nonlinear effects on corporate profitability. From this, experimental evidence shows that the optimal debt ratio is 38.87%. This evidence provides a new insight to managers of the non-finance companies on how to improve the firm’s profitability with debt.

This study investigates the impact of bank regulation and supervision on the efficiency of banking sectors on 108 Islamic banks from 26 countries offering Islamic banking and finance products and services. The technical efficiencies of individual Islamic banks have been analyzed using the data envelopment analysis method (DEA). The ordinary least square estimation method is employed to examine the impact of country supervision and regulation on the technical efficiency of Islamic banks. The empirical findings suggest that supervisory power, activity restrictions and private monitoring positively influence the efficiency of Islamic banks. The study revealed that Islamic banks that are operating in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and middle-income countries are more technically efficient given the less stringent rules on capital requirement and we found that there is statistically significant evidence that higher capital requirements are negatively associated with the efficiency of Islamic banks. The empirical findings of this study are expected to help policy-makers and government officials to better understand how their decisions affect the performance.

Globalization has led to an increase in foreign banks’ penetration. It is argued that the presence of foreign banks may affect the banking sector of the host countries in several ways including their competition level. It is mentioned that the presence of the foreign banks could heightened the level of competition in the banking sector. Nonetheless, the impact of the foreign banks on competition could be influenced by the degree of information sharing in the banking industry. This study investigates the role of information sharing in moderating the impact of foreign bank penetration on host banking sector competition in selected developing countries. We employ panel data samples of 54 developing countries during the period from 1998 to 2016. The estimation is carried out using the two-step system of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regression technique. This technique is adopted due to its robustness to all forms of endogeneity. The findings of this study show that the presence of information sharing could affect the relationship between foreign banks’ penetration and competition. They suggest that improvement in information sharing by a host country may help foreign banks to improve monitoring and reduce the moral hazard and adverse selection problem.

The present research intends to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and leadership initiations among the marketing executives in Delhi NCR (INDIA), and seeks to uncover the predictors of leadership initiations within personality traits. The data are collected through online survey method using different social media platforms. A sample of 233 (male =136 and female =97) marketing executive’s responses were included. The data collected with the help of self-reported Big Five model inventory and leadership initiation test. The collected data were analyzed statistically by using descriptive statistics, correlation. and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that the age of respondents inversely correlated with leadership initiation. Neuroticism revealed significant inverse correlation with leadership initiation, whereas significant positive correlations were found between extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and leadership initiations, while openness to experience revealed insignificant positive correlation with leadership initiation. Extraversion and conscientiousness appeared as the most dominant personality traits among marketing executives, irrespective of gender, that positively influenced leadership initiation and appeared as the predictor of leadership initiation. In male executives extraversion and age emerged as the predictors of leadership behavior, while in female executives extraversion and openness to experience personality traits appeared as the predictors of leadership initiation.

The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of ownership structure on the performance of listed firms in transition economy. Buiding upon agency theory, hypotheses on such relationship are proposed. A detailed panel data of 502 non-financial companies listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and Hanoi Stock Exchange over the period from 2013 to 2018, and the system generalized method of moment estimation are employed to test the proposed hypotheses. To ensure the reliability of data, this study excludes companies that violate information disclosure regulations or that are subject to special supervision by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam. Some firms with inadequate information, firms that lack the financial data required for creating variable or firms that have inconsistent construction are also re-screened. We only collect the data of enterprises that have ownership structure of two or more components. Estimation results reveal that state ownership has an U-shaped relationship with the performance of Vietnamese listed firms, while foreign ownership and the degree of ownership concentration have an inverted U-shaped relationship with listed firms’ performance. The article provides governance implications that Vietnamese listed firms should decrease state ownership and foreign ownership to improve firm performance in order to boost investors’ confidence.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has developed geological repository systems for the disposal of high-level wastes and spent nuclear fuels (SNFs) in South Korea. The purpose of the most recently developed system, the improved KAERI Reference Disposal System Plus (KRS+), is to dispose of all SNFs in Korea with improved disposal area efficiency. In this paper, a system-level safety assessment model for the KRS+ is presented with long-term assessment results. A system-level model is used to evaluate the overall performance of the disposal system rather than simulating a single component. Because a repository site in Korea has yet to be selected, a conceptual model is used to describe the proposed disposal system. Some uncertain parameters are incorporated into the model for the future site selection process. These parameters include options for a fractured pathway in a geosphere, parameters for radionuclide migration, and repository design dimensions. Two types of SNF, PULS7 from a pressurized water reactor and Canada Deuterium Uranium from a heavy water reactor, were selected as a reference inventory considering the future cumulative stock of SNFs in Korea. The highest peak radiological dose to a representative public was estimated to be 8.19×10-4 mSv‧yr-1, primarily from 129I. The proposed KRS+ design is expected to have a high safety margin that is on the order of two times lower than the dose limit criterion of 0.1 mSv‧yr-1.