Search results

This study aims to examine the accounting skills required in Industry 4.0 to assist higher education institutions in developing Industry 4.0 accountants in Namibia.

This study adopted a qualitative approach for data collection and analysis. The participants (accountants and finance consultants) were selected using a purposive sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire (open-ended) was administered to 120 participants. Useful information was retrieved from 99 participants in the participating accounting firms in Namibia. The data was analyzed using non-numerical content analysis via Atlas.ti, version 9.0.

Findings revealed the need to teach soft, technical and digital skills by higher education institutions in Namibia to enhance accounting graduates’ employability in Industry 4.0. The practical implication for higher education in Namibia is to do more in curriculum retooling.

There is a shortage of literature on the competency framework for Industry 4.0 accountants, particularly in Namibia. The outcomes of this study contribute to the extant literature and assist higher education institutions with helpful information for accounting programs review and enhance graduates’ employability in Namibia.

Agency theory motivated this study, posing that leverage mitigates the agency problem. The aim was to examine whether leverage influences the relationship between executive-employee pay gaps (EEPGs) and firm performance. The study was conducted in the mining and retail sectors between 2012 and 2021.

Two EEPGs were featured based on their executive fixed pay and variable incentives accumulation. Proxies of firm performance were headline earnings per share; return on assets; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; and return on stock price. Data were collected from 76 JSE-listed firms in the retail and mining sectors and analysed using the two-step generalised method of moments.

The results revealed the hybrid implication of the pay gap for firm performance in the retail and mining sectors of South Africa, depending on the performance measures emphasised. More importantly, the study shows that with the moderating effects of leverage, firms can improve their performance while shrinking the pay gap.

The results have implications for policy addressing income inequality, debt management, executive compensation and regulatory reforms in South Africa concerning productivity and remuneration decisions.

The article provides specific literature for retail and mining industries on pay gaps, shows that it is possible to reduce the pay gap without compromising performance and suggests a new measure of performance that is more attuned to pay gap effect measurement.

Understanding which market to invest in for a well-diversified portfolio is fundamental in economies that are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in exchange rates. Extant literature that has considered phenomenon hardly juxtapose the markets. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of exchange rate volatility on the Stock and Real Estate market of South Africa. The essence is to determine whether the fluctuations in the exchange rate influence the markets prices differently.

The Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity [GARCH (1.1)] model was used in establishing the effect of exchange rate volatility on both markets. This study used monthly South African data between 2000 and 2020.

The results of this study showed that increased exchange rate volatility increases stock market volatility but decreases real-estate market volatility, both of which revealed weak influences from the exchange rates volatility.

This study has implication for policy in using the exchange rate as a policy tool to attract foreign portfolio investment. The weak volatility transmission from the exchange rate market to the stock and real estate market indicates that there is prospect for foreign investors to diversify their investments in these two markets.

This study investigated which of the assets market, stock or housing market do better in volatile exchange rate conditions in South Africa.