Our study commemorates this event by presenting a retrospective of the publications related to the use of mathematical tools for the analysis of economic, ecological, and environmental phenomena. We analyzed 1257 scientific publications using bibliometric techniques to examine the most productive and influential authors and their contributions in the economic, ecological, and environmental fields. Co-authorship among the top authors and countries, co-occurrence of the keywords, bibliographic coupling of the documents and authors, and author co-citation were analyzed by applying network analysis techniques using VOSviewer software, identifying the intellectual structure of the research and the collaborative networks in the fields. The results show that mathematics has grown impressively in terms of publication and citation. The contributions come from all over the world, but the majority are from the People’s Republic of China and Spain. The results also show themes and trends in the economic, environmental, and ecological fields and a predominant use of mathematical tools in optimization processes in order to rigorously substantiate the decisions of investors and policymakers. Thus, our study offers support for any researcher to understand the current state of the art and develop a comprehensive understanding of journal publications.

No abstract

One of the most important goals of humanity has always been happiness. In our daily life, happiness is conditioned by different variables, such as relationships with certain groups of individuals, health, security values, expectations, etc. Over the years, technology, especially digitalization, has revolutionized the world and changed our lives. In this context, empirical research on digitalization has grown enormously during the last decade; however, studies on the relationship between digitalization and happiness remain limited. As such, the objective of the present paper is to present an empirical investigation on the relationship between digitalization and happiness in the European Union (EU) during the period 2019–2021, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, the link between the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and World Happiness Index (WHI) globally for all EU countries, at the level of each WHI variable and at the level of geographical groups in the EU was analyzed using correlations. While the DESI indicator acts as a basis for policymakers, governments, regional administrators and public officials to invest in areas of priority with an evidence-based approach, the WHI indicator can be an important tool for guiding public policy and measuring its effectiveness. The results show that there was a positive and significant relationship between the two indicators at the level of EU countries in all three years. The results also show that in the Western and Northern regions of the EU, the relationship between the two indicators was stronger compared to the other regions. Thus, our study offers supporting arguments for the digital transformation of happiness and provides alternate methodologies and perspectives on the interactions between digitalization and happiness. Moreover, it can help policymakers direct their attention to the importance of digitalization for people’s happiness.

Digitalization and sustainable development represent two highly topical subjects, each of them being primarily debated in the literature. Although it is evident that digitalization brings new opportunities and challenges for the management of organizations and for meeting their sustainable strategies, there are relatively few studies analyzing the relationship between the two. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to analyze the relationship between digitalization and sustainable development in the European Union (EU) countries, between 2019 and 2021, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. On this matter, the link between Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), on one side, and Sustainable Development Goal Index (SDG Index) and Spillover Index (SS Index), on the other side, has been analyzed using correlations. While DESI refers to the monitoring of digital advancement of the EU member states, SDG Index and SS Index are based on many indicators and give a multidimensional perspective regarding sustainable development. Results show a positive and significant relationship between DESI and SDG Index, and the effect gradually decreases during the analyzed period. Regarding the relationship between DESI and SS Index, the correlation was negative, but significant in 2020 and 2019 only. At the level of each geographical region, the relationship between DESI and SDG Index was positive, with a larger effect in the Northern and Western region and the Southern region compared to the Central and Eastern region, but this effect was not statistically significant. In addition, the relationship between DESI and SS Index was negative and significant at the level of the Central and Eastern region and the Southern region but positive and not statistically significant at the level of the Northern and Western region. In addition to previous papers on this field, this study adds the analysis between digitalization and the Spillover Index. In addition, while previous studies seek to identify the relationship between digitalization and sustainability at a single country level or region, this study presents the correlation analysis at the EU level and compares the results for each EU region. Following the results, our study gives arguments for reshaping the concept of sustainable development given that digitalization is becoming an essential business component.

Public Accounting is one of the very rising sectors in the industry. The aim is to produce bulk of financial information that can be further used for making informed decisions by the stakeholders. The wrong information or might jeopardize the involved businesses and thus it is necessary to protect this sort of information from outside and vulnerable attacks. As, the transparency and accountability of financial statement is very crucial for the stakeholder’s trust as well as the investment, the security of financial information is very essential for the relevance, validity, and reliability of the financial data. However, there is always a lingering risk of security breaches such as brute force attacks to get the information. The main focus of this paper is to examine the security systems and the strategies used by the public accountants in Lebanon to secure the financial data and relevance of financial reports. To carry out this study a quantitative methodology was applied and a survey was conducted with a representative sample of accountants, who are currently employed in the Lebanese governmental sector. The survey questionnaire was prepared to measure their perceptions regarding the security of the public accounting in Lebanon and to also evaluate their efficiency in protecting the data as well as detecting threats. The research conducted is likely to determine the quality of financial data protection in public accounting in Lebanon and suggest possible solutions in increasing security. As, the security measures are an integral part of the IPSAS implementation process this study highly contributes to both the theory of the IPSAS adoption and the practice of aligning local accounting practices in accordance to the international standards by doing exorbitant efforts to strengthen the security management in Lebanon’s Public Accounting Sector.