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This chapter on animal ethics, animal rights, and animal welfare is a logical sequence to and ontological consequence of the arguments in earlier chapters. By respecting Mother Nature in all her ecosystems and biodiversity levels, especially by recognizing animal rights and their uniqueness, autonomy, and intrinsicality, we actively contribute to natural sustainability and animal welfare. Our anthropocentric economic models that are profoundly insensitive to the complex interdependencies between human and nonhuman behavior systems and their irreversible environmental challenges endanger both animal rights and global sustainability. Philosophically, we confront epistemological and anthropocentric structures that uncritically privilege humans disproportionately to nonhumans and unwittingly rationalize, moralize, and commodify meat production and consumption such that animal rights and welfare get seriously compromised. To achieve animal welfare, however, we need to seriously rescale Nature's hierarchies first by dethroning ourselves from self-appointed and self-serving, uncontested and critically unexamined presumed human superiority over the nonhuman world and restoring global equality of being an opportunity for all.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges and opportunities presented by the Metaverse and Meta artificial intelligence (AI) for libraries in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and to propose strategies for libraries to adapt and innovate in response to these disruptions.

This paper employs a qualitative approach, drawing upon literature review and analysis to explore the disruptive impact of emerging technologies, including the Metaverse and Meta AI, on libraries in HEIs.

The findings suggest that the convergence of the Metaverse and Meta AI is reshaping library services, altering user expectations and transforming information retrieval and management. While these disruptions pose challenges such as bias in AI algorithms and privacy concerns, they also offer opportunities for libraries to enhance user experiences, foster collaboration and expand their reach beyond physical boundaries.

The findings of this paper highlight the need for libraries in HEIs to embrace change, prioritize user-centric design, foster innovation and promote digital literacy education. Following this, libraries will continue to fulfill their mission of supporting teaching, learning and research in the digital age.

This essay contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the disruptive impact of emerging technologies on libraries in HEIs. The paper explores the intersection of the Metaverse, Meta AI and library services, as well as offers original perspectives on the evolving role of libraries in the digital era.

There is still an ongoing debate on the value relevance of capital structure and its determinants. Recently the issue has been explored in family firms after being explored in mature firms. This paper investigates the role of institutional investors and the firm's innovation activity in influencing the firm's decision and ability to acquire debt capital.

A large sample of 700 privately-held family firms in Italy from 2010 to 2019. Two analysis techniques are used: panel analysis and path analysis. The value of debt and the debt ratio are used as leverage measures. The value of patent (as a proxy for innovation) and institutional investor are the explanatory variables.

The results show that institutional investors have no relationship with financial leverage measures except when controlling for an interaction variable (Institutional investors × Lombardy region). The patent value is positively correlated with debt; however, the ratio patent-to-asset is negatively related to financial leverage indicating higher risk exposure. The nonlinearity test demonstrates a turning point when the relationship between patent value and debt inverts.

Firms should monitor their innovation activity since excessive innovation increases risk exposure and affects financing opportunities and value. The involvement of institutional investors does not always enhance value.

Existing literature focuses separately on family firm innovations and financial leverage as outcome variables, emphasizing the role of institutional investors in both fields by adopting agency theory and socioemotional wealth framework. In this study, the authors go further by merging both relationships, investigating the dynamics of the institutional-family firm innovation relationship in influencing the firm's capital structure. The authors contribute to the ongoing debate by providing original findings on capital structure, governance and innovation, supported by rigorous methods to enhance family firms' decision-making.

The present study reviews the literature on the history and evolution of investment strategies in the stock market for the period from 1900 to 2022. Conflicts and relationships arising from such diverse seminal studies have been identified to address the research gaps.

The studies for this review were identified and screened from electronic databases to compile a comprehensive list of 200 relevant studies for inclusion in this review and summarized for the cognizance of researchers.

The study finds a coherence to complex theoretical documentation of more than a century of evolution on investment strategy in stock markets, capturing the characteristics of time with a chronological study of events.

There were complications in locating unpublished studies leading to biases like publication bias, the reluctance of editors to publish studies, which do not reveal statistically significant differences, and English language bias.

Practitioners can refine investment strategies by incorporating behavioral finance insights and recognizing the influence of psychological biases. Strategies span value, growth, contrarian, or momentum indicators. Mitigating overconfidence bias supports effective risk management. Social media sentiment analysis facilitates real-time decision-making. Adapting to evolving market liquidity curbs volatility risks. Identifying biases guides investor education initiatives.

This paper is an original attempt to pictorially depict the seminal works in stock market investment strategies of more than a hundred years.

This paper aims to examine the effects of the 2014 European regulatory reform on auditors’ activity, the audit outcome and the audit market, with a focus on the Spanish market.

The research is based on in-depth, semistructured interviews with partners of the main audit firms operating in the Spanish market. This qualitative approach provides a precise identification of the cause-effect relationships of the new measures introduced by the European audit regulation.

The findings indicate that, based on auditors’ opinions, the costs of the main regulatory changes outweigh the benefits. The European Union (EU) Audit Regulation imposes more demanding provisions, such as an extended auditor’s report, mandatory audit firm rotation, more banned nonaudit services and stricter quality controls, resulting in substantial side effects on audit activity and the audit market. This could undermine the objective of enhancing the quality of audit services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the effect of the 2014 EU regulatory reform on audit activity, audit market and audit outcome based on auditors’ perceptions. The findings may be of interest to academics, professionals and regulators alike, as they offer valuable insights for assessing the effectiveness of the new audit provisions. Additionally, the qualitative methodology used facilitates a causal analysis of the key elements introduced by the regulations, potentially paving the way for future research avenues.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention to use smartphone diet applications within the emerging market. Specifically, it focuses on the Privacy Calculus Model constructs, encompassing perceived risk and perceived benefit, as well as the pivotal elements of trust and self-efficacy. It also explores the moderating influence of experience on the influencing factors and intention to use a diet application.

In a survey with 572 respondents, data analysis was conducted using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that perceived risk exerts a significant negative influence on behavioral intention. Conversely, perceived benefit, trust and self-efficacy exhibit a positive impact on behavioral intention. Moreover, the study delves into the moderating role of users' experience, which is found to significantly influence these relationships, suggesting that user experience plays a pivotal role in shaping the adoption dynamics of diet applications.

The limitations of this study may include the sample size and the specific focus on the emerging market of Saudi Arabia. The implications of the findings are relevant for scholars, developers, marketers, and policymakers seeking to promote the use of smartphone diet applications.

This study adds value by exploring the determinants of behavioral intention in the context of smartphone diet applications, and it is a first attempt to test the moderating role of users' experiences, providing valuable insights for various stakeholders in the field.

We aim to ascertain whether and how an individual’s social comparison affects their self-gifting motivations (SGMs).

We survey a North American sample comprising 619 Canadian and US respondents. We apply partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine relationships between social comparison, attachment orientation, parenthood, and self-gifting motivations.

We find that social comparison positively impacts self-gifting motivations. Additionally, we find that attachment orientation and parenthood can moderate social comparison’s impact on positively valenced SGMs and negatively valenced SGMs, respectively.

We elevate and expand existing scholarship on consumers’ self-gifting. Through the current study, we contribute new, empirical evidence illuminating how individuals’ attachment orientation (i.e. secure v. insecure) and parenthood status (i.e. parent v. non-parent) serve as agency-oriented moderators to temper social comparison’s influences on SGMs.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of forensic accounting techniques to prevent and detect fraudulent activities in firms in Pakistan.

A descriptive research approach has been adopted in this study. Primary data has been collected through structured questionnaires distributed to professionals from investigating firms, professional bodies and field researchers. The independent variables that were analyzed included fraud investigation, litigation support and dispute resolution, whereas the dependent variables were fraud detection and prevention. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences has been used for data analysis to derive objective results.

This research reveals that forensic accounting techniques such as fraud investigation, litigation support and dispute resolution have a positive impact on fraud detection and prevention in Pakistani firms.

Firms should train staff on forensic accounting techniques, implement fraud risk management and anti-corruption policies, conduct regular financial statement audits and develop a whistleblower protection program to encourage employees to report fraudulent activities. The government should develop regulations and guidelines to promote the use of forensic accounting in firms.

This study is covering the gap in literature on financial fraud and forensic accounting practices concerning emerging economies such as Pakistan. This study can serve as a valuable resource for firms and policymakers to strengthen their fraud prevention efforts and build a more robust culture of financial integrity.