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This chapter presents the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the course of studies and life career skills development of undergraduate students at the University of Macedonia, a mid-sized public Greek University. It describes a multivariate methodology research that investigated how the students, first-hand experienced the unexpected changes from face-to-face on campus to synchronous online education during the lockdown and how they coped with these changes. Change is considered and described as a main component within current life and career trajectories addressing chaotic and unpredictable circumstances while Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC) offers the theoretical background of the chapter. The research followed the mixed methods paradigm: a multilevel embedded sequential explanatory design including a participant selection model and multivariate data analysis methods. A survey (N = 621) was conducted; individual interviews and focus groups’ discussions further explained the quantitative findings. The emerging clusters of students revealed similarities in feelings, motivation, adaptation, and life career skills development. The first cluster comprised of older, digitally high-skilled students, with the required technological equipment, adaptable to change, self-regulated, strongly in favor of synchronous online education; in the second cluster were grouped the younger, digitally medium-skilled students, who regularly participated in both modalities, critically recognized the advantages of either one, feeling strongly in favor of a combination; finally, the third cluster included digitally medium-skilled students who found serious difficulty in using online platforms, dissatisfied with social isolation and distant interaction, strongly preferring face-to-face instruction, valuing direct physical contact, social connection, and networking.

Prior studies include auditor‐initiated (AI) and client‐initiated (CI) auditor changes together and conduct research as though they were the same. This paper aims to hypothesize that AI and CI changes are driven by different interests and to examine factors that could explain and predict them.

Based on the prior literature, the authors classified factors into AI and CI categories a priori, and then developed hypotheses that aligned with the classification. The data source is AuditAnalytics.

The univariate and multivariate analyses support the hypothesis that CI and AI separations are driven by different interests. The empirically determined prediction model (a classification and regression trees (CART)‐generated six‐step process), which performed better than other multivariate models, classifies AI and CI auditor separations with an accuracy rate of 68 percent.

The findings suggest that future research should incorporate the differences between AI and CI separations into their studies. One intriguing issue is the lack of importance of the variable audit fees to total fees in the CART model. Though statistically significant in some of the multivariate analyses, the variable is not important in the CART model. This issue merits further investigation as it could provide important insight into dependency issues that are presumed by current audit regulation.

The paper has important implications for practice. It offers insight into factors that drive CI and AI auditor separations. The CART model may serve as a decision aid for both auditors and regulators as they contemplate and evaluate auditor change decisions.

The paper provides original insight into AI and CI auditor changes when considered as distinct issues that are driven by different interests.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the methodology quality of the literature search protocols of systematic reviews and to assess the relevance of the search filter that applies PubMed for retrieving this type of publication of the MEDLINE database.

For the selection of the document type, a literature search about nutritional and metabolic diseases was carried out in MEDLINE and the PubMed filter was used for retrieving “Systematic Reviews”, selecting “Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases” from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database as Major Topic to determine the area of knowledge. Data analysis was carried out using “External Logistic Biplot”, a novel multivariate statistical technique in the field of medical documentation.

The results highlight the large variability of the methodology used in the literature search protocols of the systematic reviews analysed and confirm the low precision of the filter used by PubMed for the recovery of systematic reviews.

The Logistic Biplot used in this research allows an optimal categorization of the different documentary typologies and classifies the documents by their methodological quality, demonstrating its usefulness for the future development of the bibliometric analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption of Islamic finance products (murabaha, musharakah, mudarabah, salam, ijara, istisna and Qard Hassan) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Cameroon, a non-Islamic Sub-Saharan African country.

It used primary data collected from a cross-section of 1,358 SMEs in eight regions of Cameroon using self-administered structured questionnaires. To facilitate the analyses and interpretation, these products are grouped into four groups based on certain characteristics. A multivariate probit model is estimated to take into account the interaction between these different Islamic finance products.

This study revealed that the desire to comply with Sharia law, awareness, attitude and intention were critical determinants of the decision to adopt Islamic finance products by Cameroonian SMEs. The least influential factors were perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, enterprise characteristics (size, age and location) and socio-demographic characteristics of the entrepreneur (gender, age and marital status). The extension of the multivariate approach permitted us to compute for predicted probabilities which revealed that there exists a synergy effect between the different Islamic finance products. That is, Cameroonian SMEs combine different Islamic finance products at the same time based on their needs. This is especially the case between the partnership-based products (musharakah and mudarabah) and manufacture/rent products (istisna and ijara).

Policymakers are encouraged to develop stakeholder-oriented strategies to promote effective consumer education in Islamic finance products which will boost awareness. Also, Islamic finance institutions should endeavor to develop innovative financial products that are Sharia-compliant and economically beneficial to the individual and business needs of SMEs. Moreover, policymakers and management of Islamic finance institutions should ensure the putting in place of effective governance structures to guide Islamic finance operations. Finally, policymakers should endeavor to take into account the possible synergy between the different Islamic finance products in their quest to develop this activity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyses the adoption of different Islamic finance products while taking into account the possible synergy that exists between these products.

Drawing on configuration theory and adopting a holistic perspective, the authors aim to explore strategic supply chain elements' interaction with internal and external contextual conditions. Specifically, they evaluate multivariate co-alignment of supply chain's capabilities (agility, adaptability, alignment), adhocracy organizational structure and environmental uncertainty (dynamism, munificence and complexity) that lead to superior performance outcomes (supply chain cycle time, financial performance, market performance).

A survey research design is adopted to collect primary and secondary data from 182 international firms. Cluster analysis and profile deviation techniques are employed first to derive a taxonomy of strategic supply chains and then examine multivariate co-alignment.

The analysis reveals that four groups of triple-A supply chains could emerge. It is found that strategic supply chains exhibit a flexible/organic/fluid organizational structure and a high level of triple-As in their processes. These supply chains perform superior to a higher level of environmental complexity, munificence and dynamism.

This study's results provide insights for practitioners by informing their investment decisions for developing strategic supply chains. Specifically, this research highlights the contextuality of triple-A supply chains and offers best practices to capitalize on strategic supply chains.

Executives in organizations require a holistic understanding of various elements to ensure that the organizational system as a whole performs effectively. This research offers insights into the interdependencies of triple-A supply chains with other organizational and external environmental elements. Noteworthy implications for scholarship in operations/supply chain management and supply chain practitioners are presented.

This study aims to statistically verify the links of income and education with information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion across 191 countries of the world taking into account a total of 9 indicators best representing the socio-economic variables.

Multivariate regression analysis was used as a prime method to rigorously test the relationships of income and education with ICT diffusion across 191 countries. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (V. 22) was used to analyze and predict patterns in the data.

The results support the hypotheses that income and education are positively related to ICT diffusion. The findings statistically confirm that poverty is a leading cause of digital divide worldwide.

Academic, policy and practice groups should work in collaboration to fight against digital divide. Present results also imply that digital divide shall never end but rather it can be controlled to an extent with multiple collaborative efforts.

Prior research assignments on the digital divide concentrate on exploring the links between few socio-economic and ICT variables in select few regions theoretically. The present work addresses this literature gap by developing and testing two hypotheses to statistically investigate the relationships between a broad set of socio-economic and ICT indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to discern the impact of main behavioral factors that could affect the decision of adopting IFRS in developing countries (DCs). In other words, this work looks to identify the different variables that are likely to influence the adoption of IFRS in these countries.

The methodological orientation of this research is to highlight and analyze the correlation between the cited factors and the IFRS adoption in DCs. Tested models are functions of logistic regression. To assess the parameters of these functions, the commonly used method is not that of ordinary least square but the maximum likelihood technique. In short, this study followed a hypothetical-deductive methodology by referring to the application of a logistic regression for each of the variables presumed to be analyzed. The authors implement this empirical model by using the neo-institutional approach and basing on a sample of 108 DCs.

The empirical results show that there exists a bidirectional causal relationship between the majority of the developed behavioral variables and the decision of whether adopting or unadopting IFRS by DCs. They also indicate through multivariate analysis that the selection of IFRS by DCs is primarily legitimized by institutional and social pressures (institutional isomorphism).

It is essential to indicate that some limits might be assigned to the study. They are attached principally to the use of a dichotomous dependent variable which presents a restriction in a sense where the robust inequality at the level of the numbers of the countries of sub-samples can relatively weaken the findings. There are also few studies that jointly analyze the behavioral dimensions within a country and the adoption of IFRS. Institutional theory emanated from the research has proved useful in escaping this limit.

These empirical insights are of particular interest to local accounting standard setters of the selected countries since they can provide a better discernment of factors that can encourage the adoption of IFRS. Indeed, the research can be a reference for governments to better identify the economic, political and institutional obstacles that have an impact on behaviors which could compel countries to flee the adoption of IFRS. This paper will also be helpful for future research studying the links between human behavior and accounting in a general way. It should be noted that the results will be significant for future studies looking for real behavioral factors that drive a country to adopt an accounting framework. The studies will be able to use the empirical variables as a starting point and then they can extract new measures to identify the impact of behavior on decisions to adopt any standards.

At the present study, the authors strive to provide input to the literature by focusing on the determinants of the choice of an accounting practice in a DC reverberating to a new dimension which is the behavioral attribute.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and map the intellectual structure of biofuel research.

The study attempts to present the structure of biofuel research through document co‐citation patterns of core references. Document co‐citation analysis was performed using the Web of Science of the Thomson‐ISI database. A sample of 26 cited references was identified and the co‐citation frequencies were analyzed and represented them systematically within groups of similar researched topics.

The study shows the co‐citation analysis method suitable for depicting structure of biofuel research in document clusters by performing multivariate analysis: cluster analysis, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and network analysis.

The study is limited to research articles and co‐citation data for the first author only. For the co‐citation analysis, the cited references rather than the cited authors were used as the units for analysis.

Co‐citational analysis using multivariate tools provides a useful technique to explore and document the development of the field supplementing the insights normally available from the routine co‐citational analysis.

Specialties in biofuel research are identified and this may provide a valuable building block for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to create a profile of the modern American academic librarian through the content analysis method of job advertisements.

One hundred thirty-four advertisements were analyzed in various ways, e.g. salary, skills, qualifications, duties, followed by a multivariate analysis.

Most significant findings include the importance of communication skills for all academic librarians, the significance of the Library and Information Science (LIS) degree and that applicants should expect a salary of $40,000-60,000.

This paper builds on the previous studies in the field to verify that communication skills are among the most, if not the most, desired skills for a modern librarian, and that an LIS degree is still an asset.

This article aims firstly to show how the introduction of new computer hardware can bring considerably more power and control to data processing for marketing researchers. Secondly, it discusses the use of basic statistical techniques as an aid to effective marketing decision making. Thirdly, it comments on the effective use of multidimensional and mutivariate techniques. It concludes that, given that the major expense in marketing research is often data collection, it is essential that data analysis be effectively used to unveil the true marketing implications of the findings.