Urban planning is critical to managing rapid urban growth, particularly in African regions experiencing high urbanization rates. This study focuses on Bol, Lake Chad Province, a city facing significant challenges due to inadequate planning frameworks compounded by recurrent humanitarian and climate crises. It fills an empirical gap by analyzing how local planning mechanisms respond to these socio-environmental complexities, with a focus on the interplay between institutional structures, legislative frameworks, and resource allocation. The study assesses urban planning practices in Bol to identify challenges and opportunities, with the aim of improving institutional effectiveness, aligning policies with realities, and integrating climate resilience strategies. Using a qualitative methodology, it combines field surveys, stakeholder interviews, and document analysis, using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and PESTEL (Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Environmental, Legal) frameworks for data analysis. The findings reveal that ineffective institutions, poor inter-sectoral coordination, outdated legislative frameworks and resource constraints hamper sustainable urban development in Bol. To address these issues, the study proposes to strengthen local institutional capacities, foster stakeholder collaboration, and modernize urban planning policies through participatory approaches. The study highlights the need to integrate resilience strategies into urban settings to mitigate climate change impacts and improve governance. These measures not only address immediate challenges, but also advance urban planning theory and provide a basis for future research on adaptation strategies in crisis-prone regions. This study offers practical insights for policy makers and contributes to developing more sustainable and resilient urban planning systems in similar contexts.

Using company size as a moderator, this article examines the MENA region’s gender balance on boards and how it influences capital structure. The study uses the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimate technique to analyze data from a sample of 556 non-financial organizations across 10 MENA countries from 2010 to 2023. The results show that a lower debt ratio is connected with a higher percentage of female board members. Further steps towards debt reduction include increasing the number of independent female board members and decreasing the board’s overall size. The opposite is true for larger enterprises, more profitability, more expansion opportunities, and macroeconomic variables like inflation and GDP growth, which tend to raise the debt ratio. Capital structure decisions in the MENA area are influenced by gender diversity on boards and business characteristics. Therefore, Companies in the MENA area would do well to support initiatives that increase the representation of women on corporate boards. One way to achieve this goal is to establish gender diversity targets or launch programs to increase the number of women serving on boards of directors, particularly in positions of power.

One significant importance of street vending in South Africa is its role in providing livelihoods and economic opportunities, especially for marginalized and vulnerable populations. However, Street vendors, particularly those selling agricultural commodities, face numerous challenges. Street vending in Moletjie Mmotong is a vital source of income and employment, offering affordable goods and services, including food, clothing, and household items. One potential solution is online selling, but there is limited knowledge about it in the informal sector. This study aims to analyze the factors affecting street vendors’ willingness to sell fruits and vegetables online in Moletjie Mmotong under Polokwane Municipality. Data was collected from 60 street vendors using a questionnaire and simple random sampling. Descriptive statistics identified and described the socio-economic characteristics of the vendors, while a binary logistic regression model analyzed the factors influencing their willingness to sell online. The study found that age, education level, gender, household size, and access to online selling information significantly influenced their willingness to sell online. The findings highlight the potential benefits of online selling for street vendors, such as increased sales and a broader customer base. The study recommends that governments provide training and workshops on online selling, develop educational programs, distribute educational materials, and create marketing strategies to support street vendors in transitioning to online platforms.

This study examines the compliance between the accounting standard for Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) and accountants’ practices in terms of disclosure and measurement, in order to determine its levels and drivers. Based on the assumption that a higher level of compliance is associated with a higher quality of the accounting information system, compliance indices are proposed and econometric regressions are used to analyze the determinants of this accounting compliance for Portuguese firms. The empirical evidence shows that compliance is not high, and that it tends to be higher for disclosing rather than for measuring. Moreover, the results suggest that firm size has a positive impact on compliance, both for measurement and disclosure, consistent with larger firms being subject to greater scrutiny. Liquidity, on the other hand, tends to have a negative effect on compliance, as more liquid firms are less dependent on external financing. Furthermore, while leverage tends to have a positive effect on measurement compliance, profitability has no effect on accounting compliance. Therefore, this study adds evidence straight from the perceptions of practitioners who interpret and apply accounting standards and then influence the quality of financial reporting, providing valuable insights that have the potential to affect confidence in firms.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved, transforming industries and addressing societal challenges across sectors such as healthcare and education. This study provides a state-of-the-art overview of AI research up to 2023 through a bibliometric analysis of the 50 most influential papers, identified using Scopus citation metrics. The selected works, averaging 74 citations each, encompass original research, reviews, and editorials, demonstrating a diversity of impactful contributions. Over 300 contributing authors and significant international collaboration highlight AI’s global and multidisciplinary nature. Our analysis reveals that research is concentrated in core journals, as described by Bradford’s Law, with leading contributions from institutions in the United States, China, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Trends in authorship underscore the growing role of generative AI systems in advancing knowledge dissemination. The findings illustrate AI’s transformative potential in practical applications, such as enabling early disease detection and precision medicine in healthcare and fostering adaptive learning systems and accessibility in education. By examining the dynamics of collaboration, geographic productivity, and institutional influence, this study sheds light on the innovation drivers shaping the AI field. The results emphasize the need for responsible AI development to maximize societal benefits and mitigate risks. This research provides an evidence-based understanding of AI’s progress and sets the stage for future advancements. It aims to inform stakeholders and contribute to the ongoing scientific discourse, offering insights into AI’s impact at a time of unprecedented global interest and investment.

This study examines the determinants of inflation in Tunisia from 1998 to 2023, with a particular focus on the role of fiscal policy. The study analyzes the long-run and short-run relationships between inflation and key macroeconomic variables, including government expenditure, government revenue, money supply, balance of trade, and budget deficits using ARDL model. The empirical findings reveal that budget deficits have a significant and positive impact on inflation, underscoring the critical role of fiscal imbalances in driving price instability. In contrast, government expenditure, government revenue, money supply, and balance of trade do not exhibit statistically significant long-term effects on inflation. The results highlight the importance of fiscal discipline and effective coordination between fiscal and monetary policies to achieve price stability. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers in Tunisia and other developing economies facing similar inflationary pressures, emphasizing the need for prudent fiscal management and structural reforms to mitigate inflation volatility and ensure macroeconomic stability.