Economics, Business, Accounting & Society Review

The Mediating Role of Lifestyle in Strengthening Financial Management Behavior of Gen Z

2025-10-09T10:08:49+00:00

The rapid evolution of digital technology has profoundly shaped the consumption patterns and financial behaviors of Generation Z, a cohort characterized by high digital exposure and instant access to financial services. Despite their familiarity with financial information, many Gen Z individuals still exhibit impulsive spending and poor debt management, reflecting a gap between financial awareness and behavioral discipline. This study aims to examine the influence of financial knowledge and financial attitude on financial management behavior, with lifestyle serving as a mediating variable. Employing a quantitative research design, data were collected from 410 Gen Z students in Medan through an online questionnaire and analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) method. The findings reveal that both financial knowledge and financial attitude have significant positive effects on financial management behavior, both directly and indirectly through lifestyle. Furthermore, lifestyle demonstrates a partial mediating role, indicating that sound financial knowledge and positive attitudes are more effective when internalized into disciplined and goal-oriented financial lifestyles. This study contributes to the theoretical enrichment of the Theory of Planned Behavior by emphasizing the mediating role of lifestyle as a behavioral mechanism linking cognition and attitude to practical financial management. Practically, the results highlight the importance of promoting financial education programs that integrate lifestyle adjustments to foster responsible and sustainable financial behavior among the younger generation.

Integrating Financial Education and Digital Innovation to Enhance Financial Behavior in Heritage-Based Microenterprises in Malang City

2025-10-15T02:29:45+00:00

The rapid growth of digital technology and the increasing importance of financial literacy have redefined entrepreneurial behavior, particularly among small business owners in developing countries. In Indonesia, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) continue to face challenges in financial management and technology adoption, especially in heritage-based economies such as Kampoeng Heritage Kajoetangan, Malang City. This study aims to examine the relationship between financial education, digital innovation, and financial behavior among micro and small entrepreneurs operating within this cultural and economic setting. This research employs an explanatory quantitative design using survey data collected from 50 SMEs. The data were analyzed through Partial Least Squares (PLS) to test the structural relationships between the variables. The results reveal that both financial education and digital innovation have positive and significant effects on financial behavior, with financial education demonstrating a stronger influence. Entrepreneurs with higher financial literacy tend to exhibit more responsible financial decision-making, while digital innovation enhances financial efficiency and accessibility through technology-based operations. These findings underscore the complementary role of education and digital innovation in fostering rational and sustainable financial behavior among SMEs. The study highlights the importance of integrating financial literacy programs with digital capacity-building initiatives to strengthen entrepreneurial resilience. Policymakers are encouraged to design targeted interventions that expand access to financial education and digital infrastructure, particularly in cultural tourism areas where micro enterprises play a key role in local economic development.

Synergizing Digital Transformation and Human Capital: Pathways to Competitive Advantage and Sustainable Growth

2025-10-01T02:41:06+00:00

In the era of digital economy acceleration, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) face increasing pressure to sustain competitiveness amid dynamic technological and market transformations. For culinary MSMEs in Ambon, digital transformation and human capital quality have become decisive factors in ensuring business resilience and sustainable growth. This study aims to examine the effects of digital transformation and human resource quality on competitive advantage and MSME competitiveness, and their subsequent implications for sustainable economic growth. It also seeks to identify the mediating role of competitive advantage in linking organizational capabilities with long-term sustainability outcomes. A quantitative explanatory approach was employed using data from 63 culinary MSME owners collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed with Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS 4.0). The results demonstrate that digital transformation significantly enhances competitive advantage through efficiency optimization and innovation, while human resource quality serves as a complementary strategic driver. Competitive advantage strongly influences MSME competitiveness, which subsequently contributes to inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The findings underscore that integrating digital technology with skilled human resources is essential for strengthening MSME competitiveness and regional economic resilience. Theoretically, this study extends the Resource-Based View by positioning digital transformation and human capital as synergistic capabilities. Practically, it provides actionable insights for policymakers and business stakeholders to design digital training programs and ecosystem support for MSMEs’ sustainable advancement.

Improving the Creativity and Competitiveness of Craft MSMEs Through HR Training and Digital Marketing

2025-10-17T17:22:42+00:00

Human resource quality and digital readiness are increasingly recognized as crucial foundations for strengthening creativity and competitiveness among Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). However, many craft-based MSMEs still struggle to optimize human resource potential and adapt to technological changes in marketing, resulting in limited innovation and slow competitive growth. This study aims to analyze the influence of HR training and digital marketing on the creativity and competitiveness of craft MSMEs in Pengkolan Village, Cikidang Village, Lembang District, West Bandung Regency. A quantitative method was employed using a descriptive and verification approach, with survey-based data collected through purposive sampling of MSME actors. Data were analyzed through validity and reliability testing, multiple linear regression, and the coefficient of determination using SPSS version 29. The results reveal that HR training has a significant positive effect on MSME creativity and competitiveness, indicating that improved knowledge, skills, and attitudes directly contribute to stronger innovative capacity. Digital marketing also shows a significant positive influence, demonstrating that effective online promotion enhances consumer reach, purchasing tendencies, and overall market responsiveness. Together, HR training and digital marketing explain 67.4% of the variation in MSME creativity and competitiveness, indicating their substantial combined contribution. These findings imply that strengthening human resource development and digital marketing adoption is essential for advancing the innovation capabilities and long-term competitiveness of craft MSMEs.

The Influence of Customer Orientation and Product Innovation Capability on Customer Satisfaction Medan City Sociolla Store

2025-11-13T03:29:40+00:00

The cosmetic industry in Indonesia has experienced rapid expansion and has emerged as a strategic sector contributing to national economic growth. This development is accompanied by rising consumer expectations regarding product quality, service excellence, and immersive retail experiences, particularly within modern beauty store environments. This study examines how customer orientation and product innovation capability shape customer satisfaction at the Sociolla Offline Store in Medan City. A quantitative, associative research design was employed, involving 96 purposively selected respondents, with data analyzed using multiple linear regression. The findings demonstrate that customer orientation plays a central role in elevating customer satisfaction, as reflected in the effectiveness of personalized guidance, product education, and attentive interactions offered by beauty advisors. Product innovation capability likewise contributes meaningfully to the formation of satisfaction, particularly through the presence of diverse product assortments, frequent updates, aesthetic interior design, and experiential store concepts. Statistical results further show that customer orientation constitutes the more prominent determinant, while both variables collectively account for 86.2% of the variance in customer satisfaction, underscoring the robustness of the proposed model. These results highlight the necessity for beauty retail firms to strengthen customer-centered service practices while continuously advancing innovation in product offerings and store experiences to maintain competitiveness and respond to evolving consumer expectations.

Enhancing the Digital Literacy of Bank NTT Customers in Protecting Personal Data Against Cybercrime Threats

2025-10-30T01:38:23+00:00

The growth of digital banking has reshaped customer interactions with financial institutions, offering greater convenience yet simultaneously exposing users to new forms of cyber risk. This research explores how digital literacy, perceived ease of use, and digital literacy education influence customers’ awareness of personal data protection, while also identifying effective approaches to strengthen cybersecurity awareness among Bank NTT’s clients. A mixed-method design was employed, combining quantitative surveys with in-depth qualitative interviews to capture both measurable patterns and contextual insights. Statistical analyses, including reliability, correlation, and multiple regression tests, were complemented by thematic analysis of interview data to reveal behavioral tendencies and cognitive perceptions related to digital safety. The findings highlight that higher levels of digital literacy substantially enhance customers’ understanding and awareness of data security. Moreover, perceptions of ease and usefulness of digital banking services, along with consistent digital literacy education, foster more preventive and responsible online behaviors. Experiences of or exposure to cybercrime incidents were also found to strengthen customers’ motivation to safeguard their personal information. Overall, this study emphasizes that building cybersecurity awareness in the banking sector requires continuous digital education, user-oriented service innovation, and practical learning experiences to cultivate a culture of data protection and trust in digital financial ecosystems.

Integrating Economic, Environmental, and Social Dimensions: A Green Accounting Framework for Local Food-Based MSMEs

2025-10-02T18:29:39+00:00

This study aims to develop and validate a Green Accounting Model designed to strengthen the capacity of local food-based micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in South Konawe Regency to support sustainable economic development and regional food security. The model was created through a combination of Research and Development (R&D) and Participatory Action Research (PAR), ensuring both methodological rigor and active engagement of MSME actors throughout the research process. Data were collected using surveys, interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), participatory observation, and model trials with five selected MSMEs representing diverse food sectors. Initial findings reveal that MSMEs predominantly relied on simple cash inflow–outflow records and lacked systematic documentation of environmental costs, resource use, and social contributions. The proposed Green Accounting Model integrates economic, environmental, and social components into a modular and user-friendly structure. After expert validation and revision, the model was tested in the field over one month. The results show a substantial improvement in MSME recordkeeping capacity, indicating an effectiveness level of 78.2%. Qualitative insights further demonstrate enhanced sustainability awareness, routine documentation practices, and increased attention to resource efficiency. User perception scores averaged 86.2%, reflecting strong acceptance and the potential for long-term adoption. The findings confirm that a contextually adapted, simple, and integrative accounting tool can effectively bridge the gap between sustainability principles and daily MSME operations. Research implications include opportunities for broader model adoption across MSME sectors, integration into local sustainability policies, and further digitalization to enhance accessibility and impact.

More Than Just Water: The Role of CSR in Building Trust in Short and Long Term Toward AQUA in Surabaya

2025-10-01T01:59:04+00:00

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has evolved from a peripheral activity into a strategic component of sustainable business management, particularly in industries where consumer values are closely tied to ethical and environmental considerations. In Indonesia’s bottled water sector, CSR initiatives are increasingly recognized as instruments for building consumer trust and strengthening long-term brand relationships. This study aims to examine how CSR influences short-term and long-term consumer responses—specifically purchase intention and client loyalty—through the mediating role of brand trust. It further seeks to identify which CSR dimensions most effectively drive consumer trust and sustained behavioral engagement. A quantitative research design was employed using purposive sampling among 100 AQUA consumers in Surabaya. Data were collected through structured Likert-scale questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 22, including validity, reliability, and regression analyses to test the causal relationships among CSR, brand trust, buying intention, and loyalty. The results reveal that CSR exerts a significant positive impact on brand trust (β = 0.605), which subsequently influences both short-term purchasing intentions (β = 0.480) and long-term loyalty (β = 0.855). While CSR’s direct impact on immediate purchasing behavior is moderate, its influence on sustained loyalty is substantial. Theoretically, this research advances CSR literature by distinguishing temporal effects on consumer behavior. Practically, it underscores CSR’s strategic potential as a brand differentiation mechanism that fosters trust, loyalty, and emotional connection in competitive markets.

Enhancing Employee Wellbeing in the Digital Era: The Influence of Digital Literacy and Affective Leadership in Addressing Digital Burnout

2025-10-15T04:04:21+00:00

Digital burnout has emerged as a critical global workplace challenge, particularly in digitally intensive environments where constant connectivity strains employee wellbeing. This study examines how digital literacy and affective leadership shape digital burnout and employee wellbeing within the Department of Communication and Informatics of Padang City. It also assessed the mediating effect of burnout on employee wellbeing. An explanatory, cross-sectional survey design was employed, and data were analyzed using variance-based structural equation modeling. The measurement model meets conventional standards for convergent validity, construct reliability, and discriminant validity, with a noted conceptual proximity between digital literacy and wellbeing that warrants attention. Structural findings indicate that affective leadership is negatively related to digital burnout, whereas digital literacy both reduces burnout and strongly enhances employee wellbeing. By contrast, the direct paths from affective leadership to wellbeing, from burnout to wellbeing, and the indirect routes through burnout did not show significant effects. Overall, digital literacy emerges as a central lever for improving wellbeing and curbing technology-related exhaustion in digitally intensive settings, while leadership contributes chiefly through preventive influences on fatigue. Practical implications include tiered digital upskilling, responsive technical support, and digital wellbeing policies aligned with empathic leadership. Future work should refine indicators, explore contextual moderators, and adopt longitudinal designs to strengthen causal inferences.

Key Performance Indicator for Intrinsic Motivation in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Padang City

2025-10-22T03:39:10+00:00

This study addresses the gap between the conceptual frameworks of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their practical implementation in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). While KPIs are widely adopted in large corporations as strategic performance measurement tools, their application in MSMEs remains inconsistent and underexplored, particularly in relation to owners’ intrinsic motivation. This research analyzes how KPI implementation influences the intrinsic motivation of MSME owners in Padang City through a quantitative approach involving 100 respondents. The results showed that the simultaneous application of KPI had a significant effect on intrinsic motivation, as shown by the test value of F (15.961; Sig. 0.000). The value of the determination coefficient (R² = 0.459) indicates that 45.9% of the variation in intrinsic motivation is explained by five KPI methods: BSC, SMART, Benchmarking, Participatory Approach, and Data Analytics. However, the results of the partial test showed that only Data Analytics had a significant effect on intrinsic motivation, while the other methods had no effect. These findings confirm that MSME owners are more driven by the practical and evidence-based implementation of KPIs, especially through data analysis, rather than conceptual frameworks. The novelty of this research lies in the emphasis on data analytics-based KPIs as a determinant of intrinsic motivation of MSME owners. This research provides a theoretical contribution by expanding the MSME performance management literature as well as practical contributions in the form of recommendations for MSME owners in strengthening intrinsic motivation and ensuring the long-term sustainability of MSMEs.

When Intention Is Not Enough: Post-Adoption Use Behavior of Islamic Mobile Banking within the UTAUT2 Framework

2026-01-10T13:58:58+00:00

This research investigates the factors influencing usage behavior of the Muamalat DIN application, an Islamic mobile banking service provided by Bank Muamalat Indonesia in Padang City, by applying the UTAUT2 framework. Specifically, the study evaluates the effects of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions on users’ behavioral intention, as well as the impact of behavioral intention on actual usage behavior. Additionally, it examines the mediating role of behavioral intention and the moderating effect of user experience on the relationship between intention and use behavior. A quantitative research design was employed, with data collected through a survey of 105 Muamalat DIN users. The data were processed using Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings demonstrate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions exert positive and significant influences on behavioral intention. Behavioral intention, in turn, significantly affects use behavior and serves as a mediator between the antecedent variables and actual application usage. Moreover, user experience significantly moderates the relationship between behavioral intention and use behavior, suggesting that the influence of intention diminishes as users accumulate greater experience. In summary, the sustained use of Islamic mobile banking services is largely shaped by users’ perceptions of usefulness, ease of use, and the availability of adequate supporting infrastructure. This study extends the UTAUT2 literature by offering a post-adoption perspective within the context of Islamic digital banking and provides practical insights for banks seeking to improve service quality and user experience in order to foster continued usage.