María del Carmen Valls Martínez

• PhD in Economics and Business
• Lecturer at University of Almería

This research aimed to determine the factors that predict financial insolvency scenarios in natural stone companies operating in Spain and Italy. The analysis was carried out in 173 Spanish and 225 Italian companies over a period between 2012 and 2020. Using a logistic regression model, the study identified that negative results from the previous y...

This article examines the relationship between sustainability and gender equality by analyzing how the percentage of women on the board of directors (still less than 50% in most cases) influences a company's commitment to green building practices. For this analysis, we estimate 30 competing multivariate pooled and panel data logistic specifications...

The teaching–learning process has undergone a profound transformation in recent years. The traditional lecture-based classroom model is increasingly being replaced by innovative methodologies that promote student autonomy, while still benefiting from teacher guidance and support. This shift is largely driven by the development of information and co...

Universities are committed to training students in competencies that extend beyond professional knowledge. Sustainability is a new paradigm that seeks to build a better world for today’s generation as well as those to come. The main tool for building this objective is training. A group of teachers from the Department of Economics and Business at th...

This study analysed the behaviour of both economic and financial profitability of credit unions belonging to segment 1 in Ecuador, as well as its determinants. For this purpose, data from the financial statements of a sample of 30 credit unions between 2016 and 2022 were used by means of a multiple linear regression methodology using panel data wit...

This chapter examines the evolution and development of the main lines of research focused on the study of information asymmetry based on a bibliometric analysis from 1979 to 2021. Likewise, the sociological foundations that have given rise to this term are highlighted. The application of several bibliometric models has made it possible to point out...

Las cooperativas de crédito son instituciones clave del sistema financiero de un país tanto para el desarrollo económico de su región como para evitar la exclusión financiera de una parte de la población más desfavorecida. En este trabajo se analiza la gestión financiera de las cooperativas de mayor tamaño de Ecuador, en comparación con los bancos...

In recent years, there has been a growing concern for achieving sustainable development, emphasizing the necessity to balance human needs with the preservation of natural resources. Auditors play a pivotal role in influencing companies’ sustainability practices through information evaluation, regulatory compliance, advice, and the promotion of best...

Sustainable buildings are a requirement outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals to protect people and the environment. In this sense, companies within their corporate social responsibility actions should promote the construction of green buildings or the adaptation of old buildings to new sustainability standards. It is precisely corporate go...

CALL FOR PAPERS: We present this special issue of the journal Electronic Research Archive (JCR Q1) and invite you all to participate with your contributions to using PLS-SEM. http://www.aimspress.com/era/article/6440/special-articles Deductive and inductive research methods, based respectively on pure reasoning and experimentation, have allowed t...

This research paper aims to demonstrate that relationships play a pivotal role in fostering inter-organizational cooperation, both at the corporate and individual levels, within the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) distribution industry. Despite the extensive body of literature on relationship management, its impact on such a unique and important...

Research background: Audits are intended to ensure the reliability of financial statements, as this is fundamental for different stakeholders. However, both auditor tenure and audit fees could affect the earnings management of companies. In 2014, the European Union established a mandatory audit firm rotation policy. In the United States, although t...

Gender equality is included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and in the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization. Many countries, especially in Europe, are incorporating legal quotas into their legislation to oblige companies to increase the presence of women in the highest positions of responsibility. This measu...

There is significant concern about earnings management practices by companies due to the negative consequences they have on the economy. For this reason, auditors are expected to maintain their independence and avoid this type of accounting manipulation. This research aims to determine whether auditors' tenure in the audited company and the fees th...

This research employs the Random Forests methodology to identify the relationship between the betas and 13 variables of financial and non-financial nature for the stocks listed in the S&P 500 index throughout the period 2015–2019. Our findings reveal according to the Relative Importance criterion that the ESG Scores constitute the main variable on...

El libro Nuevas perspectivas en Educación, Innovación y TIC" brinda una nueva mirada, mostrándonos la importancia de la innovación y las TIC, así como su papel crucial en el necesario cambio de la sociedad y el ámbito empresarial. La transformación digital de la educación no es solo una cuestión de incorporar tecnologías avanzadas en las aulas, sin...

El libro Nuevas perspectivas en Educación, Innovación y TIC" brinda una nueva mirada, mostrándonos la importancia de la innovación y las TIC, así como su papel crucial en el necesario cambio de la sociedad y el ámbito empresarial. La transformación digital de la educación no es solo una cuestión de incorporar tecnologías avanzadas en las aulas, sin...

The current study aims to determine the moderating effect of customer relationship on supply chain risk management and organizational performance, specifically for Pakistan’s logistics sector. The logistics sector is selected for the study as it has considerable significance in the country’s economy and also having substantial growth due to the Chi...

This chapter explores how the irruption of plastic materials in contemporary society, in the same way that it facilitated a wide range of human activities, eventually degenerated into a global danger through the contamination of rivers and seas, damaging the human food chain. In doing so, the historical background of this situation has been outline...

In recent decades, there has been a growing demand for companies to take responsibility for the adverse social and environmental effects caused by their activities. As a result, they are no longer only accountable for their economic performance but also their corporate social responsibility. An important pillar of corporate social responsibility is...

This research analyzes the influence of COVID-19 and public health spending policies on the economic sustainability of Spanish private hospitals. Moreover, it explores the relationship between public health spending policies and the spread of COVID-19 in Spain. Private health care is an understudied sector, yet it is fundamental to the health of ci...

The natural stone sector is an important driver of the Spanish and Italian economies, which underwent internationalization after the financial crisis of 2008 as part of a survival and development strategy. This article aims to study the financial and economic profitability of this sector in the two leading European production countries, as well as...

The health systems of developed countries aim to reduce the mortality rates of their populations. To this end, they must fight against the unhealthy habits of citizens, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and sedentarism, since these result in a large number of deaths each year. Our research aims to analyze whether an increase in health...

Gender equality is included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and in the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization. Many countries, especially in Europe, are incorporating legal quotas into their legislation to oblige companies to increase the presence of women in the highest positions of responsibility. This measu...

This paper aims to analyze whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be considered as a mediator variable on the relationship among Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) adoption and SMEs performance in the hotel industry due to the lack of general consensus on the direction of this relationship. Furthermore, future expectations...

Synonyms Bioenergy; Biomass; Bioremediation; Green sustainable technology; Metal-contaminated soils and waters; Sustainable management Definition Currently, a common denominator of practically all nations, developed and underdeveloped, is the presence of a huge surface of soils and aquatic basins highly contaminated by the presence of elevated conc...

Well-being inequalities arising from different healthcare expenditure public policies is currently a hot topic at a national scale, but especially so at a sub-national level because the inequalities in question are among citizens of the same country. Spain is an optimal study area to carry out research on this topic because it is considered to have...

Credit unions are one of the most widely established corporate entities in the financial systems of most of the world’s nations. Their historical support to the financing needs of small savers, as well as their assimilation into the framework of contemporary microfinance, gives them an important specific weight in the economic-financial literature...

Research background: Companies are required to implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies to mitigate the adverse social and environmental effects of their activities and gain legitimacy in the eyes of society. Sustainability initiatives are costly for companies but, at the same time, they are important value-creation drivers. Retail...

In recent years, public authorities have invested large amounts of public money in trying to reduce waiting times for consultations and operations with the aim of improving the quality of the healthcare system. Our research aims to analyze the effect of these investments on patient satisfaction through the mediating relationship of waiting times fo...

This paper aims to explore whether the female share on the boards of directors of companies influences CO2 emissions in both developed and emerging markets. Furthermore, the influence of cultural diversity on the board of directors on CO2 emissions is analysed. A sample of companies belonging to the MSCI and MSCI Emerging Market indices in Europe o...

Individual investors and portfolio managers use among their decision criteria the corporate social responsibility scores awarded by large financial valuation firms such as Thomson Reuters or Bloomberg. Notwithstanding, a fundamental parameter of any investment is its level of risk. In the case of listed securities, the risk is given by volatility,...

The United Nations has established 17 Sustainable Development Goals with the purpose of caring for people and the planet, which include Goal 5, Gender Equality, and Goal 13, Climate Action. It is important to highlight the promotion of gender equality on boards of directors, which are the highest corporate control and decision-making bodies in the...

La pandemia de Covid-19 ha afectado a todos los ámbitos de la vida, incluida la educación. Las universidades se han visto obligadas a impartir sus clases en un entorno semipresencial u online, lo que ha llevado a los profesores a adaptar sus metodologías tradicionales de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Los profesores de la asignatura Matemáticas de las Oper...

Today's society requires companies not only to make profits, pay taxes and create jobs, but also to broaden the dimension of demands in line with sustainable development and the improvement of society in general. In this context, Corporate Social Responsibility is a fundamental strategic tool to be applied by companies. In the following paper we ha...

La tecnología está ocasionando un cambio en los métodos tradicionales de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Las clases presenciales se están sustituyendo de forma progresiva por docencia online, donde el alumno es cada vez más autónomo. Los profesores estamos obligados a innovar y poner a disposición del discente los medios necesarios para facilitar la asimila...

Sustainable development is a priority to the United Nations. Moreover, investment managers consider environmental, social and governance score as an important variable in portfolios selection. The fifth goal in the 2030 Agenda is gender equality. Besides, European countries have established gender quotas on corporate boards to reduce the gender gap...

This article analyses Spanish pension plans, which have had growing trend over the last years. They are considered a complement to the public pensions offered by the social security system, and many companies, especially large ones, set up pension plans for their employees as a measure of corporate social responsibility. The aim of this paper is to...

Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) represents a new-generation statistical data analysis technique that, despite its recent creation, is exponentially gaining popularity in academia. It has attracted the interest of scholars for its use in various methodologies, becoming a dynamic and constantly evolving technique. In toda...

Pension systems are one of the fundamental pillars of the welfare state. The ageing of the population caused by longer life expectancy and low birth rates has led to a crisis in the public pension system in developed countries. Changes for the system’s sustainability are necessary, and the scientific literature on the subject is abundant, especiall...

Healthcare decision-makers increasingly face a changing and ever-evolving landscape, forcing them to formulate public policies based on the results from different scientific investigations. This article evaluates the field of research on patient satisfaction as a basis for health policies. The analysis was carried out with a sample of 621 articles...

(1) Background: The growing number of banking entities linked to the field of banking since the 1980s requires a preliminary classification of this sector in order to identify the main stylized facts of this wide conglomerate of institutions oriented to financial sustainability as well as the establishment of an effective differentiation that can o...

As living organisms, companies follow a three-stage life cycle: they are established, they grow and develop and, at some point, their life ends more or less suddenly. Business Failure is defined as liquidation, inactivation and legal declaration.

The different financial interlocutors are increasingly concerned about attracting investments in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which means that, in recent times, investment in financial assets related to this area has guided the new generations of investors, who are aware of the socio-sustainable aspect of those companies whos...

The aim of this research is to determine whether people take into account factors such as the amount, the term or the sign when making their decisions in intertemporal choice. To this end, the interactions between different anomalies of the discounted utility model: the delay effect, the magnitude effect and the sign effect; both in deferred and an...

The problems caused by economic development have led to a greater awareness of the adoption of social and environmental responsibility practices by companies, so it has become a requirement to achieve legitimacy in the financial markets. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between the degree of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its...

This work aimed to determine which key indicators of the national health system positively influence population mortality to provide helpful information for management decision-making. A total of 29 variables were considered for each of the 17 Spanish autonomous communities. Data were obtained from the statistical portal of the Ministry of Health,...

The application of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices entails companies' costs, increasing their risk and reducing shareholder remuneration. Indeed, the consideration of a company as socially and environmentally responsible also involves a series of advantages derived from its legitimization in the eyes of the markets, among which we c...

This research estimates the determinants of the probability of business survival of micro, small and medium enterprises in Ecuador using a probit model with data provided by the Superintendence of Companies, Securities and Insurance in the period 2014-2016. Among the results of the research we find that size and age are inversely related to busines...

Evidence has shown how the archaic linear economy has pushed the planet to such pollution limits that soon it will be unsustainable, causing environmental degradation and impacting the health of human communities. There are very few alternatives, which nominally implies the creation of an authentic circular economy, which is within all people's rea...

This study aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of business failure research, recognise the main existing research topics and establish future research challenges. The results, based on a sample of 588 articles, show that the number of published papers and citations has grown steadily, especially in the last 14 years. The most productive and rel...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all walks of life, including education. Universities have been forced to teach in a blended or online environment, which has led professors to adapt their traditional teaching–learning methodologies. The professors of Mathematics of Financial Operations at the University of Almeria (Spain) have created video tutor...

INTRODUCCIÓN La desigualdad social en absoluto se trata de un problema tan solo circunscribible a Guatemala, o a cualquier otro país encuadrado dentro de las naciones de renta media-baja: Ya en los tiempos de la Repúbli-ca Romana, los hermanos Graco encabezaron un movimiento de protesta destinado a que los bienes y tierras obtenidos por el Estado f...

1. INTRODUCCIÓN La responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC) incluye la implementación de prácticas sociales, medioam-bientales y de gobierno corporativo. Las empresas deben responder de los efectos de sus actividades sobre la sociedad y el planeta. Hoy las empresas son juzgadas no solo por sus resultados económicos, sino también por su responsabili...

1. INTRODUCCIÓN En el entorno actual, caracterizado por los cambios constantes, los gestores de las organizaciones no pueden permitirse basar sus informes únicamente en análisis de información del pasado. En 2008, empresa-rios y académicos se reunieron en Half Moon Bay, California con el objeto de reflexionar el significado del "Management" en tiem...

Since 1990s, companies have had a growing interest in developing social and environmental responsibility measures, after several scandal and disasters that damaged their public image (Velte, 2017). Nowadays, it is usual than companies publish corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports along with the financial statements (Fernández-Gago, Cabeza-G...

Sustainability is a concern in companies in the last decades. Economic development implies negative consequences for the environment and causes social changes that are not always desirable. In this sense, and because of the scandals produced by large corporations regarding polluting activities, the exploitation of workers, etc., a code of ethical c...

La salud es un aspecto fundamental en todos los países, por este motivo las autoridades deben ocuparse de que el sistema de salud sea capaz de brindar un servicio de calidad y promover su mejora continua (Hussain et al., 2019). Sin embargo, al ser cada vez más frecuentes las restricciones presupuestarias, será necesario hacer un uso eficiente de lo...

This article aims to provide information to public agencies and policymakers on the determinants of health systems and their relationships that influence citizens’ health–disease status. A total of 61 indicators for each of 17 Spanish autonomous communities were collected from the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services, and Equality between 20...

Many institutions are calling for public and private pension systems to be restructured. The OECD and the World Bank, among others, are advocating a remodeling of these systems. Classic solutions have not worked. Today, there is a threat of economic, demographic, and financial risks that threaten the sustainability of these systems. New problems su...

Purpose This paper aims to examine the functioning and organizational structure of the historic Andalusian water courts, institutions of Islamic origin whose basic model should be considered in light of the regulation of modern Islamic banking and finance. Design/methodology/approach The methodology of this study has been focused on the contextual...