The Impact of Commitment to Implementing the Governance on Disclosure of Social Responsibility of the Companies Listed on Palestine Exchange

The study aimed to demonstrate the impact of commitment to implementing corporate governance represented by the principles :(Ensuring the basis of an effective corporate governance framework, the protection of shareholders and investors, the equitable treatment of shareholders, the role of stakeholders in corporate governance, disclosure and transparency, the responsibilities of the board) on disclosure of social responsibility of the companies listed on the Palestine Exchange. To achieve the study objectives, the researcher designed a questionnaire, and it was distributed to the study population of (49) companies, and the elements of social responsibility were measured by using content analysis through creating an index to measure the level of disclosure of social responsibility in the annual reports to the year 2019 of companies listed on Palestine Exchange. The results showed that the highest percentage of total disclosure of the elements of social responsibility was in the bank sector, and the lowest was in the industrial and investment sectors, and there was a positive impact of some principles of governance represented (Ensuring the basis of an effective corporate governance framework, the role of stakeholders in corporate governance, disclosure and transparency, the responsibilities of the board) on disclosure of social responsibility of the companies. The researcher has offered many recommendations, the most important ones are: enhancing the interest of corporate administrations, especially the industry and investment sectors, with social responsibility and its disclosure, and the necessity of activating the laws governing which oblige companies to apply the principles of corporate governance according to high measurements, and directing companies to disclose social responsibility through the formulation of legal frameworks for social responsibility

Real time ear recognition using deep learning

Automatic identity recognition of ear images represents an active area of interest within the biometric community. The human ear is a perfect source of data for passive person identification. Ear images can be captured from a distance and in a covert manner; this makes ear recognition technology an attractive choice for security applications and surveillance in addition to related application domains. Differing from other biometric modalities, the human ear is neither affected by expressions like faces are nor do need closer touching like fingerprints do. In this paper, a deep learning object detector called faster region based convolutional neural networks (Faster R-CNN) is used for ear detection. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is used as feature extraction. principal component analysis (PCA) and genetic algorithm are used for feature reduction and selection respectively and a fully connected artificial neural network as a matcher. The testing proved the accuracy of 97.8% percentage of success with acceptable speed and it confirmed the accuracy and robustness of the proposed system

The impact of applying the target cost and continuous improvement (Kaizen) on achieving the sustainable competitive advantage of Palestinian industrial companies

Purpose – This study aims to examine the impact of implementing target costing and continuous improvement techniques in industrial companies operating in southern Palestine on achieving sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The study mainly assesses the level of application of these techniques by Palestinian industrial companies (PICs). Furthermore, it evaluates the extent to which the integration of these two methods can impact SCA, by producing cost-effective and innovative products that meet customer demands and needs, while simultaneously achieving continuous development of the company and an SCA. Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive analytical approach was used to study the target costing and continuous improvement techniques employed by industrial companies in southern Palestine. A questionnaire was administered to 415 companies in the southern West Bank to collect data on the application of target cost and continuous improvement and their impact on SCA, measured through market share, differentiation and cost reduction. Control variables, such as company age, size (measured by the number of employees) and industrial sector classification were also included in the study model. Findings – The findings of the study revealed that the PICs apply target costing and continuous improvement at a high level. Furthermore, all dimensions of achieving SCA were found to be achieved at a high level, with market share being the most prominent. The study also found that the integration of the target costing and continuous improvement had a positive impact on achieving SCA in the PICs. However, the study found no impact on company size, age or industrial sector on achieving a competitive advantage in terms of market share or other results. Research limitations/implications – The current study was limited to the application of strategic management methods to companies within the industrial sector only. This may constitute a limitation because it neglected other sectors. Likely, another limitation was the difficulty of obtaining the quantitative numbers needed for some quantitative variables that pertain to that type of industrial companies, which are mostly family companies that could not be regulated by the local companies' law to disclose their financial statement. Practical implications – If industrial companies have ambitions to reduce production costs from the planning and design stage to set the target selling price. It is based on the understanding and awareness of customers' desires while maintaining the quality of products according to the best methods of improvement and innovation; therefore, this can be achieved by using the target costing and the continuous improvement techniques through reviewing the current study and its results. Social implications – The current study sought to link two methods, simultaneously and complementary, with each other of the strategic methods of managerial accounting, which helps the companies to offer their best to attract customers, develop the product or service and maintain their continuity in a changing labor market that enables it to achieve sustainable and competitive advantage. Originality/value – This study is unique in that it explores the impact of the integration of target costing or continuous improvement techniques (Kaizen) on achieving SCA in Palestine industrial companies. While previous studies have examined either target costing or continuous improvement techniques separately, this study enhances the integration of these two methods to achieve SCA

The Extent To Which Jordanian Commercial Banks Rely On Electronic Disclosure Of Accounting Information To Rationalize Their Credit Decisions In Light Of The Corona Crisis

This study aims to identify the extent to which Jordanian commercial banks depend on electronic disclosure of accounting information to rationalize their credit decisions in light of the Corona crisis. The study population included all (23) Jordanian commercial banks, and the sample consisted of (81) respondents from credit officials and workers in the credit departments in these banks. The study concluded that Jordanian commercial banks rely on electronic disclosure in the statement of financial position, the income statement, the cash flow list, and the list of shareholders' equity published electronically to rationalize their credit decisions in light of the Corona crisis. The study recommended that Jordanian commercial banks pay more attention to displaying data in the statement of financial position, in which accounting information is disclosed electronically on an accrual basis, and to show the main groups of company accounts and their obligations towards lenders and owners

Earprint recognition using deep learning technique

Earprint has interestingly been considered for recognition systems. It refers to the shape of ear, where each person has a unique shape of earprint. It is a strong biometric pattern and it can effectively be used for authentications. In this paper, an efficient deep learning (DL) model for earprint recognition is designed. This model is named the deep earprint learning (DEL). It is a deep network that carefully designed for segmented and normalized ear patterns. IIT Delhi ear database (IITDED) version 1.0 has been exploited in this study. The best obtaining accuracy of 94% is recorded for the proposed DEL

The use of forensic accounting techniques in reducing creative accounting practices of Palestinian shareholding industrial companies

This study aims at identifying the techniques of Forensic Accounting represented in procedures, activities, investigations and the evaluating processes that help the forensic accountant confront the practice of creative accounting methods, this can be achieved by relying on the point of views of the forensic system, the internal and external auditors of public shareholding companies listed in the Palestine Exchange. The study was based on the analytical descriptive approach in the presentation and analysis of the results. A questionnaire was designed for this purpose, and it was distributed to and a sample audience has been surveyed; a sample of (129) form were handed out, of which 105 were retrieved. The results showed that the courts relied on external auditors and financial arbitrators to resolve financial disputes. The results also showed that the practice of creative accounting techniques in the financial statements was generally weak. It showed that the highest practice of creative accounting was in the statement of changes in equity. The surveyed unanimously agreed to a high degree that the procedures, activities and investigations and evaluation processes help the forensic accountant face creative accounting practices, and the results concluded that there are no statistically significant differences for the role of forensic accounting in confronting Creative accounting practices due to the type of the audit firms (Big4), and there were statistically significant differences due to the variable of return on assets. The study suggested a number of recommendations that the external audit firms are interested, when carrying out auditing tasks for public shareholding companies, pay sufficient attention to all the elements and components of the financial statements to identify all potentially applicable creative accounting practices, especially the statement of changes in Equity

The Effect of Audit Quality on Reducing Earnings Management Practices: An Applied Study to Palestinian Banks - Public Shareholding

This study aimed to investigate the existence of the earnings management practices of the public shareholding Palestinian banks listed in Palestine Exchange (PEX), and tests the impact of auditing quality factors represented by the audit fees, audit size (Big 4), size of bank and leverage ratio of bank on reducing the earnings management practices. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used Modified Jones Model, which focuses on measuring the total accruals of the measurement of earnings management practices. The sample of the study consisted of the six public shareholding banks in Palestine during 2014-2016.The results of the study revealed that the public shareholding banks have been exercising earnings management during period of the study, in addition to having variable relationships among audit quality ingredients and earnings management. The researcher recommended emphasizing the necessity to provide high-quality audit environment, through the compliance with the guidelines of the performance quality standards, encouraging the Palestinian auditing firms to deal with the public shareholding companies, especially the banking sector, adhering to the strict standards of quality, and paying attention to the size of auditors\u27 fees commensurate with the effort, volume of operations and audit risk