Political patronage has become a notable concern in the South African public sector, often compared to a new epidemic because of its adverse effects on governance and public administration. This phenomenon involves by political leaders offering rewards and appointment people for key government positions and allocating resources to them based on their political loyalty rather than their abilities and qualifications. This intensifies corruption by fostering a culture in which competence is subordinate, resulting in inadequately qualified individuals assuming key positions and receiving benefits, thereby amplifying opportunities for unethical conduct. In turn, this practice undermines the effectiveness and integrity of public sector institutions. The purpose of this article is to offer a broader analysis and implications of political patronage and how it fuels corruption and governance in the South African public sector. This article employs a secondary research method through the review of existing literature to examine the nature of political patronage, its nexus with corruption and misgovernance in the public sector, drawing reference to contemporary, renowned corruption cases. This paper submits that overcoming these challenges necessitates a holistic approach that involves the professionalization of the public sector, robust measures to combat corruption, and improved transparency. The objective is to establish and promote a public service that emphasizes competence, responsibility, and the fulfilment of governance functions in order to serve the wider interests of citizens.

Sports competition is one of the important contents and forms of sports activities and physical education. It plays a full range of valuable functions in promoting the all-round development of college students. Specifically, it can better help college students enjoy fun, enhance their physique, and improve their physical fitness during physical exercise. Personality and tempering the will. Countries around the world attach great importance to youth sports competitions, and use national strategies as the top-level design and sports events as activity carriers to create a series of youth sports competitions such as graded competitions, championships, and campus events, providing more opportunities for young people to watch and participate in sports. Opportunities and platforms for competition. College student sports competitions are an important part of youth sports competitions and shoulder multiple missions such as physical health promotion, competitive talent training, and sports industry development. In recent years, the development of college sports competitions around the world has achieved remarkable results, and the scale and quality of Chinese college sports competitions have also been significantly improved. However, compared with developed countries, overall, there is still a weak awareness of participation, poor competition experience, and competitive competition. Prominent problems such as low levels and high activity withdrawal rates have, to a certain extent, restricted the high-quality development of college student sports competitions. In fact, it is not as easy as imagined for college students to participate in sports competitions regularly for a long time. In addition to requiring college students to possess certain basic conditions such as time, energy, and skills, it also requires support and promotion from all walks of life, especially It is inseparable from the material, spiritual and technical support provided by family, friends, coaches and other important groups. Just as the social ecological model believes that individual physical activity behavior is closely related to social support at the interpersonal level, especially social support from important groups such as family and friends has a positive impact on individual physical activity behavior. At the same time, although social support is very important, not all social support received can promote college students to form good sports competition behaviors. Self-determination theory emphasizes that only effective social support can regulate and optimize individual sports motivation by meeting the individual’s basic psychological needs, and ultimately promote the formation of positive, long-term sports behavior. However, most of the current sports academic circles continue the research context of traditional college student sports management, focusing on the contemporary value, practical issues, system construction, etc. of college student sports competitions. They are more subjective qualitative theoretical research and relatively lack the influence of social support. Empirical research on the sports competition behavior of college students, so that the internal mechanism of social support affecting the sports competition behavior of college students is not clear enough and understood. Therefore, from the perspective of social ecology, this study explores the internal mechanism of social support affecting college students’ sports competition behavior, in order to provide certain theoretical reference for improving the level of college students’ sports competition behavior.

Introduction: Chatbots are increasingly utilized in education, offering real-time, personalized communication. While research has explored technical aspects of chatbots, user experience remains under-investigated. This study examines a model for evaluating user experience and satisfaction with chatbots in higher education. Methodology: A four-factor model (information quality, system quality, chatbot experience, user satisfaction) was proposed based on prior research. An alternative two-factor model emerged through exploratory factor analysis, focusing on “Chatbot Response Quality” and “User Experience and Satisfaction with the Chatbot.” Surveys were distributed to students and faculty at a university in Ecuador to collect data. Confirmatory factor analysis validated both models. Results: The two-factor model explained a significantly greater proportion of the data’s variance (55.2%) compared to the four-factor model (46.4%). Conclusion: This study suggests that a simpler model focusing on chatbot response quality and user experience is more effective for evaluating chatbots in education. Future research can explore methods to optimize these factors and improve the learning experience for students.

Investors and company managements often rely on traditional performance evaluation indicators, such as return on equity, return on assets, and other financial ratios, to explain changes in a company’s market value added (MVA). However, the effectiveness of these traditional measures in explaining market value fluctuations remains uncertain. This research aims to investigate the impact of various profitability measures, namely return on equity, gross profit margin, operating profit margin, and return on assets, on explaining changes in the MVA of pharmaceutical and chemical companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. To achieve the study’s objectives, we analyzed the published financial statements of a sample consisting of 14 industrial companies out of a total of 53 companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange during the period from 2008 to 2022. Relevant financial indicators were extracted from these statements to serve the purposes of the study. Correlation coefficients were employed to measure the extent to which the independent variables (profitability measures) could interpret changes in the dependent variable (MVA). One of the most significant findings of the study is that three dimensions of profitability measures have a statistically significant impact on explaining changes in the MVA of pharmaceutical and chemical companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, albeit to varying degrees. This suggests that traditional profitability measures still play a crucial role in influencing market perceptions of a company’s value, despite the potential limitations of these measures in capturing the full scope of a company’s performance and potential.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education has both positive and negative impacts, particularly in term of increasing plagiarism. This research analyzes Indonesia’s plagiarism regulations and offers solutions. It uses doctrinal methods with legislative, case, and comparative studies, revealing that plagiarism is regulated but not specifically for AI involvement. The results show that plagiarism in scientific work has actually been regulated through several regulations. On the other hand, there is no regulation governing the involvement of AI in the process of preparing scientific articles. Comparative studies show that the US, Singapore, and the EU have advanced regulations for AI in education. The US has copyright laws for AI works and state regulations, Singapore’s Ministry of Education has guidelines for AI integration and ethics, and the EU has the Artificial Intelligence Act. To tackle AI-related plagiarism in Indonesia, the study suggests enacting AI-specific laws and revising existing ones. Ministerial and Rector statutes should address technical aspects of AI use and plagiarism checks. The Ministry should issue guidelines for universities to develop Standard Procedures for Writing and Checking Scientific Work, using reliable AI-checking software. These measures aim to prevent plagiarism in Indonesia’s educational sector.

Due to the bounded rationality of decision-makers and the substitution effect of non-green products, retailers are not always profitable when selling green products. To assist retailers who may be disadvantaged in the game, this study constructs a two-stage green supply chain game model, considering the bounded rationality of decision-makers and the substitution effect of non-green products, and analyzes the impacts of two operational strategies that retailers can adopt—price-cutting strategy and early replenishment strategy. The research reveals that retailers tend to lower prices in the second stage when price reductions stimulate consumer purchases, enhancing their profitability. However, strategic retailers may raise prices in the first stage to create room for discounts later, potentially harming consumer interests. Contrary to expectations, anticipating future demand does not always improve supply chain profitability in the early replenishment strategy, which mainly depends on the market environment. Early replenishment deprives retailers of negotiation leverage in the second stage, and bulk orders may lead manufacturers to over-invest in green innovation. Therefore, this strategy is effective only when green innovation costs are low, consumer environmental awareness is high, or price sensitivity is low.