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- Digital-distance-education: a step back?Publication . Bastos, Susana; Moreira Silva, Manuel; Santos de Oliveira, Helena Maria; Caggiano, Valeria; Poza-Lujan, Jose-LuisIn recent years, educational research has focused on implementing digitalization in education. However, the imposed practice of distance learning due to COVID 19 has shown that distance teaching still has a long path to follow to evolve. The digital platforms and methodologies available for use are still far from promoting real interaction and a way to manage emotions at a distance - the essence of face-to-face teaching. Based on the last months' challenging experience of distance teaching, it is clear that HEIs have to rethink their actions in this field and plan ahead. To help build an answer, we have developed a study to assess the impact that this time of digital distance learning has had on the lives of students and teachers and the results it has brought to academic and social life. The study was developed using questionnaires and interviews with students who, in the last months, have experienced distance learning with synchronous classes and whose evaluation was almost exclusively carried out at distance.
- Are family firms financially healthier than non-family firm?Publication . Ntoung, Lious Agbor Tabot; Santos de Oliveira, Helena Maria; Ferreira de Sousa, Benjamim Manuel; Pimentel, Liliana Marques; Bastos, SusanaThis study examines the whether or not family firms are financially healthier than non-family in terms of capital structure and leverage. It therefore takes into consideration the existence of any significant differences between the leverage and risk choices of family and non-family firms. Using a panel data set of 888 firms and 7104 firm-year observations of unlisted small and medium size firms over the period 2007–2014, we present that family owned businesses have lower financial structure than those of non-family owned businesses. This indicates that most family firms use less debt financing than non-family firms, and as such maintain a lower level of debt. Secondly, family firms demonstrate lower risk as illustrated by the Altman Z-score. The Altman Z-score scale illustrates a contrary relationship of significance with respect to family firms and their counterparts in terms of the operation aspect of the business’s risk factors. Family firms managed their business operations with lower risk and are generally healthier financially than their counterpart firms. Lastly, findings from the robust tests for the hypotheses using a sample of bankrupt firms in Iberian Balance sheet Analysis System (SABI) reveal that the proportion of failure of family firms as opposed to their counterpart firms is relatively low. Analyzing the bankruptcy files of firms from 2002 to 2014 shows a considerably low ratio of family firms at the 5% significant level. This affirms that the low risk illustrated in the Altman Z-score regression is consistent to the lower ratio of family firms that were declared bankrupted over the study period, which makes Spain an important case in this study.
- Transition to the revised OHADA law on accounting and financial reporting: corporate perceptions of costs and benefitsPublication . Fossung, Micheal Forzeh; Ntoung, Lious Agbor Tabot; Santos De Oliveira, Helena Maria; Pereira, Cláudia; Bastos, Susana; Pimentel, Liliana MarquesThis paper examines the ongoing transition to the revised Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa Act on Accounting and Financial Reporting for companies in general and to the International Financial Reporting Standards for listed and group companies with a particular focus on recent institutional developments and corporate concerns. The study used 80 professional accountants, most of whom were members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Cameroon and academics. Using the descriptive statistics, the study shows that the transition to the revised OHADA brings about a high level of comparability and transparency of the financial statements, that the International Financial Reporting Standards cannot be implemented in Cameroon (but not fully), and that the benefit of the transition exceeds the cost.
- A reinvented education in Business and accounting using a GBL approach for soft skillsPublication . Bastos, Susana; Moreira Silva, Manuel; Poza-Lujan, Jose-LuisThe vulnerable, dynamic and digitalizing working environments of the 2020s obviously propose new types of ‘newcomer’ skills. The character of these ‘soft skills’ is inherent, whereby their learning forms a challenge for educators. Researchers around the world are on the same question: how to make the learning tools and rebuilt the classroom (virtual and face-to-face) in order to cope with this digital generation? This change needs to incorporate new Skills; these skills, called Core Skills, are changing the way to teach and to learn. Motivation is the essential key to have in mind. Creating mind-sets under a strong cognitive engagement is education for the future of professionals. Gamification, Game-Based Learning (GBL), Simulations, Virtual classrooms, digital platforms with contents and many other methods are in use all around the world to change, with motivation, the perspective of students towards their own learning path. The VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world brought Higher Education Institutions the discussion of the future for an education of excellence. This article intends to present a case study as a solution to combine Simulation and GBL to promote the Core Skills that students and teachers need to achieve success on the process of teaching and learning. The solution is innovative due to the main scope: the perfect connection of humanity and empathy through the use of Simulation-GBL in higher educational institutions.