No abstract

The future of work of both external and internal auditors is exciting and promising, as well as, in the same time, threatening and extremely demanding. The exciting and promising part is connected with lots of possibilities for auditors’ professional career developments and specialization, while the threatening and demanding part is directed towards the ongoing demand and need for continuous education and upgrading their knowledge base and skill sets in order to be able to stay up to date with all developments and changes in their and their clients’ internal and external surroundings. Today these surroundings are characterized by big data and usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs), among which the blockchain technology (BCT) is described as the most pervasive and promising one. This paper is primarily driven by the scarcity of literature and conducted scientific researches regarding the specialized educations and expertise that auditors need to attend and possess in order to be able to exist in the blockchain-based business environment. Therefore, the main research objective of this paper was to determine critical external and internal auditors’ expertise that they need to possess in order to be relevant and successful in the blockchain-based business environment. In order to achieve this main objective, desk research and survey research were conducted. Survey research was conducted on a sample of external and internal auditors in Croatia. In general, results of the empirical research showed that both external and internal auditors in Croatia think that they need to possess high level of expertise in advanced analytical procedures (APs) in order to be able to audit blockchain-based business operations. Consequently, this then instantaneously increases auditors’ demand for specialized education in fields of BCT, APs, and data analytics (DAs) in general.

In today's chaotic, complex, unpredictable, and extremely dynamic business environment, it is more than ever essential to operate in a way that will ensure sustainable operations and demand for companies’ goods or services. Employing contemporary corporate governance, advanced information technology, and adequate financial management are significant foundations for sustaining high profitability and adequate financial stability as crucial objectives that ensure adding value for companies' owners. Covid-19 is an excellent stress test for every entity, as for micro-companies, so for the largest multinational corporations. Nowadays, in the era of the world Covid-19 pandemic, companies challenge to maintain business operations and going concern assumption. However, in every crisis or adverse situation, some companies take enormous benefits of it. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can be characterized as the major players during this last, still actual crisis. Their role can be observed from two angles, first as a provider of necessary drugs for curing Covid-19 patients and from the other side, as a developer of effective and efficient vaccine which will ‘save the world’ and brought us back to the ‘old normal’. This paper seeks to investigate financial determinants that are the most significant for the profitability of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The question is how those companies coped with the Covid-19 crisis, and what is the impact on their profitability in 2020 compared to previous operating years? Another question is how is the development of the vaccine financed and are R&D expenses significantly increased in 2020? Therefore, the objective of the paper is to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the profitability of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The research covers 52 entities on the global level for the period from 2010 to 2020. Data will be analysed by applying adequate panel data analysis and moderator regression analysis. Keywords: profitability ratios, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Covid-19

Kriza uzrokovana respiratornom bolešću COVID-19 promijenila je i iz temelja mijenja privatni i poslovni svijet, čemu u prilog govori činjenica da će se u budućnosti govoriti o svijetu 'prije' i 'nakon' pandemije COVID-19. COVID-19 predstavlja disrupciju koja nepovratno mijenja interno i eksterno okruženje poduzeća, neovisno o njihovoj veličini, djelatnosti ili državi u kojoj posluju. Kao što je kroz povijest već nekoliko puta potvrđeno, u kriznim vremenima potvrđuje se važnost i ističe nužnost postojanja učinkovitih i djelotvornih internih i eksternih nadzornih mehanizama korporativnog upravljanja koji stvaraju razliku i doprinose uspješnosti poslovanja poduzeća, pri čemu upravo interna i eksterna revizija predstavljaju ključne mehanizme. Prema tome, suvremeno doba postavlja brojne nove izazove pred djelovanje interne i eksterne revizije, odnosno cjelokupne revizijske profesije koja mora sve više proaktivno djelovati predviđajući sve moguće scenarije utjecaja disruptivnih događaja na poslovanje poduzeća i predlagati prilagođena rješenja za pojedinu situaciju. Utjecaj pandemije uzrokovane respiratornom bolešću COVID-19 na djelovanje interne i eksterne revizije je dvojak. S jedne strane, mijenja se poslovanje poduzeća koje predstavlja objekt revizijskih angažmana, dok se s druge strane, mijenja i sam način djelovanja interne i eksterne revizije. Da bi revizijska profesija stvarala dodanu vrijednost i unaprjeđivala poslovanje poduzeća pružanjem pravovremenih i proaktivnih revizijskih i nerevizijskih angažmana, primarno je važno da se interna i eksterna revizija prilagođavaju suvremenim uvjetima poslovanja i novim izazovima s kojima se susreću u svojem djelovanju. Pri tome se, u uvjetima 'revizije na daljinu' (engl. Remote Auditing), posebice ističe važnost integrirane revizije, odnosno zajedničke suradnje interne i eksterne revizije radi premošćivanja svih izazova i nedostataka u radu bilo internih, bilo eksternih revizora, a sve radi osiguravanja sinergije djelovanja internog i eksternog nadzornog mehanizma korporativnog upravljanja koje vodi opstanku poduzeća i stvaranju dodane vrijednosti njegovim interesno-utjecajnim skupinama u suvremenim izrazito neizvjesnim uvjetima poslovanja uzrokovanih pandemijom COVID-19. Ovim radom nastoje se dati odgovori na sljedeća istraživačka pitanja: S kojim se sve izazovima susreće revizijska profesija u eri pandemije uzrokovane respiratornom bolešću COVID-19? Na koji način navedeni izazovi utječu na djelovanje interne i eksterne revizije? Kako interna i eksterna revizija trebaju odgovoriti na rastuće izazove da bi ispunile svoje svrhe postojanja? Da bi se odgovorilo na postavljena istraživačka pitanja, definirani su i ciljevi rada: 1) dati pregled utjecaja pandemije COVID-19 na djelovanje interne i eksterne revizije, 2) analizirati i predložiti moguće odgovore interne i eksterne revizije na rastuće izazove s kojima se susreću u svome djelovanju uslijed pandemije COVID-19, te 3) analizirati i utvrditi mogućnosti zajedničke suradnje interne i eksterne revizije radi povećanja njihove značajnosti kao nadzornih mehanizama korporativnog upravljanja u eri pandemije COVID-19. Radi ostvarivanja postavljenih ciljeva, provedena je analiza sekundarnih izvora podataka, pri čemu su primarno korištene znanstvene metode analize, sinteze, deskripcije, klasifikacije te komparacije.