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The sustainability of South African automotive component suppliers faces increasing pressure due to global supply chain disruptions and heightened buyer demands. Within this competitive environment, traditional differentiators such as price and product quality are largely prescribed by buyers, leaving suppliers with limited strategic levers. Relationship quality has therefore emerged as a crucial factor in building trust and securing long-term customer retention. The central research question is: What is the correlation between trust and relationship quality in buyer-supplier exchanges within the automotive supply chain? This article reports on a quantitative study that examined the relationship between supplier–buyer relationship quality and the development of trust. A directional linear relationship between these constructs was tested to determine the extent to which relational factors contribute to sustainable partnerships. The findings indicate a strong and significant correlation, suggesting that supplier actions during sourcing interactions can meaningfully influence levels of trust. Trust, in turn, enhances perceived customer value and contributes to customer retention in an industry where competitive advantages are narrow. The study underscores the need for South African automotive component suppliers to prioritise strategies that strengthen relationship quality with their buyers. By fostering trust through relational practices, suppliers may achieve more resilient business outcomes and sustain their market position within a challenging global supply chain environment.

Employee promotion in State-Owned Commercial Bank (SOCB) and Private Commercial Bank (PCB) depends on Key Determining Factors (KDF). The study aims to identify these factors. The objective is to compare the impact of KDF on employee promotion between SOCB and PCB. The study finds that Education, Qualifications, Job performance and Skills do not impact promotion in SOCB, whereas Experiences, Tenures, Work ethics and Dependability determine employee promotion in PCB. Social relationships and interpersonal relationships both influence employee promotion at PCB. Bias and Favouritism exist from a certain level in SOCB, whereas the study unveils a strong presence of Bias and Favouritism in PCB. There is no presence of Age, Gender and Ethnicity in employee promotion in SOCB, while PCB experienced a mixed influence of Age, Gender and Ethnicity on employee promotion. While there is no influence of Union Status, Firm Size on employee promotion in PCB, an indirect influence on employee promotion has been observed in this study. Luck and External factors both influence employee promotion in SOCB and PCB. Seniority is maintained up to a certain level in SOCB, after that, both merit and seniority is considered whereas performance plays a pivotal role in employee promotion in PCB.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) -related information has become a primary non-financial consideration for investors. Carbon Auditing has emerged as a significant accounting framework for providing ESG information. As climate change intensifies, the demand for transparent and accurate carbon auditing has risen. This Study aims to understand how emerging carbon auditing could proactively prevent future scandals, e.g., Volkswagen's Diesel gate Scandal, and mitigate environmental risks. This paper examines the level at which carbon auditing effectively curbs emissions, considering Volkswagen's "Dieselgate" scandal as a case study. It assesses how well carbon auditing works in controlling environmental risks and discusses how enhancements in carbon accounting in the future can help avoid such scandals. The Study was conducted through case study analysis and scenario analysis. The Study found that the Diselgate Scandal reduced share prices, raised awareness through Academia, and produced some policy implications. Scenario 1 analysis shows that a lack of carbon auditing triggers environmental degradation, leading to financial losses. On the other hand, in scenario 2, the Study shows that continuous monitoring leads to long-term financial stability.

Taxes are essential in protecting the infrastructure as a great portion of government spending comes from taxes. Understandably, factors like taxpayers’ religiosity, tax amnesty, and tax sanctions have a bearing on taxpayer compliance, an important aspect if the optimal tax required for financing infrastructure is to be maintained. This study seeks to determine how taxpayer religiosity, tax amnesty, and tax sanction influence tax compliance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. A quantitative research method was applying using several liner regression analyses, with three variables as independent focusing on taxpayer religiosity (X1), tax amnesty (X2), tax-sanction (X3), and one dependent variable taxpayer compliance (Y). The research was within MSMEs, and a random sampling technique was used in drawing the sample. Questionnaires were used to elicit primary data while secondary data was collected through literature reviews such as journals, books, and other published materials. The two tests were ascertained and the hypothesized constructs were tested using SEM techniques within SmartPLS. The results of this research show that, 1) Taxpayer Religiosity has a positive and significant effect on Taxpayer Compliance of MSMES in Indonesia. 2) Tax amnesty has a great impact on taxpayer compliance amongst MSMEs in Indonesia. 3) Tax sanction significantly affects taxpayer compliance amongst MSMEs in Indonesia. The research shows that taxpayer religious beliefs, tax amnesty, and tax sanction leads to high levels of tax compliance amongst the MSME sector in Indonesia. It aids in the formulation of necessary moves by the concerned authorities that would in one way or the other address the issue of compliance among the MSMEs.

The goal of this research is to determine how financial literacy and financial attitude influence financial management behavior in Culinary MSMEs in Rawamangun, East Jakarta City. The type of research used is explanatory research. The sampling method is probability with area sampling. Samples were collected from 50 Culinary MSMEs actors in East Jakarta's Rawamangun Urban Village. The primary data used are questionnaire responses on a five-point Likert scale. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to analyze the data, aided by SPSS version 25.0. Based on the testing results, the two hypotheses show that financial literacy and financial attitudes positively and significantly influence financial management behavior in Culinary MSMEs actors in Rawamangun Urban Village. Theoretically, this study recommends further research to analyze in-depth other variables that shape the financial management behavior of Culinary MSMEs in Rawamangun Urban Village. Practically, this study highlights the need for education and literacy to strengthen the financial management behavior of culinary entrepreneurs, with the aim of improving the economy and business through insightful activities such as education, and training courses that focus on savings, loans, investments and insurance.

This paper addresses issues about how gamification can provide a breakthrough marketing strategy for Garuda Indonesia Loyalty Program. Garuda Indonesia is a well-known national airline in Indonesia. However, the survey found that the Garuda Indonesia loyalty program and does not attractive enough for consumers. Garuda Indonesia should maintain its loyalty program to attract more consumers. Moreover, the frequent flyer program is one way to differentiate the products offered by an airline from other competitors. Answering that phenomenon, Garuda Indonesia launched a mobile application that has several offers for consumers. However, Consumers still tend to choose other mobile applications. Garuda Indonesia’s marketer should encourage consumers to use the mobile application with the loyalty program inside the mobile application. The study suggests that Garuda Indonesia can add the gamification concept to the Garuda Indonesia Mobile application to increase loyalty to GarudaMiles users.

 This paper utilizes the Least Squares Dummy Variables (LSDV) technique in investigating the effect of financial depth on economic growth within a sample of middle-income countries, over the period 2005–2017. The research finds that financial depth has a negative impact on real GDP growth within middle-income countries. This result is robust to the use of alternative measures of financial depth, the use of per capita GDP growth as a proxy for economic growth, the inclusion of dummy variables to control for the 2007–2010 global financial crisis, the exclusion of countries with high average growth as well as across income levels. Based on its findings, this study recommends the need for robust regulations to ensure that the credit facilities of domestic financial institutions are channeled towards productive investments rather than debt servicing.