Initial public offerings represent one of the most information‑dense and uncertainty‑laden stages in corporate finance. Although regulatory frameworks require firms to disclose extensive risk information, long‑standing questions remain about whether investors genuinely understand these disclosures or simply navigate around them. This study examines the relationship between investor awareness of IPO risk factors and the risks that issuing firms formally disclose. Grounded in behavioural finance and disclosure theory, the research explores whether a meaningful gap exists between what companies communicate and what investors actually comprehend.

The study draws on survey data from a multi‑country sample of IPO investors and uses structured Likert‑scale analysis to assess awareness across seventeen categories of macroeconomic, regulatory, financial, and firm‑specific risk. These categories reflect the breadth of risks typically highlighted in prospectuses and

provide a detailed basis for evaluating how investors interpret disclosed information.

The findings reveal a high degree of alignment between investor awareness and the risk categories disclosed by firms. This challenges the common assumption that retail investors routinely misunderstand IPO risks or are overwhelmed by disclosure complexity. Instead, the results suggest that investors engage selectively but meaningfully with the information they consider most relevant.

The study contributes empirical evidence to ongoing debates about disclosure effectiveness, investor cognition, and market transparency. It also offers practical implications for regulators seeking to refine disclosure requirements, for issuing firms aiming to communicate risk more effectively, and for investor education initiatives focused on strengthening informed participation in IPO markets.

This paper explores the effects of international standards on auditing on the professional growth of the auditors. It tries to outline the advantages as well as the obstacles that can be faced by auditors in implementation of these standards using a descriptive and analysis framework to examine the correlation between compliance and skill development in the regulatory world. 

To meet these objectives, an electronic questionnaire was developed using a theoretical framework that exists. The instrument was distributed to a purposive sample of university professors, researchers and professionals within government organisations specialising in auditing, finance, accounting as well as administrative science, and thus generated an informed response of the items. Thirty-nine respondents were engaged in total and their data were worked out with the help of the SPSS in order to provide opportunities to make the rigorous statistical inference. 

The conducted analysis has produced a strong positive correlation between the implementation of international auditing standards and the enhancement of auditors competences, which serves as the proof of the direct association of the said standards with accuracy and dependability of the audit process. 

The research, therefore, advises the public and the private sector organisations to set up periodic training programmes to provide auditors with a detailed knowledge of latest international standards and their practical use. In addition, academic programs should be modified to include international auditing material in a systematic manner where graduates in the future will be well equipped to manoeuvre the international audit practice.

The article covers the main concepts and categories of the digital economy. In particular, the development trend of the digital economy in the Republic of Uzbekistan during the pandemic is analyzed, a system of indicators representing the digital economy is studied, as well as related theoretical and practical issues, and recommendations are made.

The rapid diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing has transformed how firms design, personalize, and disseminate persuasive messages across global markets. However, limited research has theorized how consumers develop trust in AI as an active source of marketing communication rather than as a background analytical infrastructure. This study introduces algorithmic trust in interactive marketing as a multidimensional construct that captures cognitive, emotional, ethical, and institutional confidence in AI-generated marketing messages and the socio-technical systems that produce and govern them. Drawing on trust theory, technology acceptance research, source credibility theory, and cross-cultural institutional frameworks, we developed a conceptual model explaining how cultural values, regulatory environments, and transparency strategies shape the psychological mechanisms underlying trust formation and its behavioral outcomes. The framework advances interactive marketing theory by repositioning AI as a relational actor in consumer–brand communication. We derive six theoretically grounded propositions and outline a research agenda to guide empirical investigations into transparency, governance, and human–AI interaction in marketing contexts.

The rapid digitalisation of financial services has fundamentally transformed the regulatory landscape, compelling regulators and regulated entities to rethink how compliance, supervision, and risk governance are designed and operationalised. Regulatory Technology (RegTech) has emerged at the intersection of law, finance, and data science as a response to mounting regulatory complexity, accelerated innovation, and heightened societal expectations regarding transparency, fairness, and accountability. Drawing exclusively on the provided scholarly and institutional references, this article develops an integrated, theory-driven examination of RegTech as both a technological and normative project. It situates RegTech within broader traditions of principles-based regulation, risk-based supervision, and data-driven governance, while critically analysing the implications of artificial intelligence and machine learning for regulatory compliance, financial stability, and fundamental rights. The article adopts a qualitative doctrinal and conceptual methodology, synthesising insights from legal scholarship, financial regulation, political philosophy, and information systems research. The findings suggest that RegTech is not merely a tool for efficiency gains, but a transformative infrastructure reshaping the epistemic foundations of regulation itself. However, this transformation introduces new challenges, including algorithmic opacity, fairness concerns, data protection tensions under regimes such as the GDPR, and asymmetries between large incumbents and smaller organisations. The discussion highlights the need for a recalibrated regulatory imagination that aligns technological capability with principles-based norms, democratic accountability, and institutional resilience. The article concludes by outlining future research and policy directions aimed at steering RegTech development toward socially legitimate and systemically robust outcomes.

This study evaluates the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to GDP growth in advanced economies and identifies the main mechanisms through which SME development influences macroeconomic performance. The research is based on a comparative and econometric approach that integrates regression analysis with country-level statistical data for Germany, the United States, Japan, and South Korea over the period 2020–2025. Key variables include SME share in GDP, employment, exports, productivity, investment, and innovation indicators. The findings are also interpreted in comparison with Uzbekistan to identify structural differences in SME-driven economic growth.

The results demonstrate that SMEs contribute approximately 45–55% of GDP in advanced economies and have a statistically significant positive impact on economic growth. Innovation, export orientation, and productivity are identified as the most influential channels through which SMEs affect GDP dynamics. Germany and South Korea exhibit export-driven SME growth models, while the United States demonstrates innovation- and entrepreneurship-based expansion. In Japan, SME productivity and investment play a decisive role in ensuring economic stability and supporting GDP growth. In contrast, SME contribution to GDP growth in Uzbekistan is primarily employment- and domestic-demand-driven.

Although the study is limited to selected advanced economies and relies on aggregated macroeconomic indicators, it provides important practical implications for economic policy. The findings highlight the need to strengthen innovation capacity, improve financial accessibility, support technological modernization, and promote export integration of SMEs to enhance their macroeconomic contribution. The study offers a comparative regression-based perspective and provides new insights into differences between innovation-driven and employment-driven SME development models in shaping GDP growth.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operate in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments characterized by rapid technological change, intensifying competition, regulatory pressures, and shifting customer expectations. Within this context, traditional static models of strategy and consulting have proven insufficient to sustain firm survival and growth. This article develops a comprehensive and integrative research-based analysis of strategic agility, dynamic capabilities, and consulting-driven organizational transformation in SMEs, with a particular emphasis on complex consulting models as articulated in contemporary scholarship. Anchored in the complex model of business consulting for SMEs proposed by Kovalchuk (2025), the study positions consulting not merely as an advisory function but as a systemic, capability-building mechanism that reshapes managerial cognition, strategic processes, and organizational learning trajectories.

Methodologically, the article adopts a qualitative, theory-building approach grounded in interpretive analysis of extant literature, enabling a deep examination of causal mechanisms and boundary conditions relevant to SME contexts (Dess & Robinson, 1984). The results section presents a structured interpretive synthesis identifying key outcome patterns associated with consulting-enabled agility, including enhanced strategic responsiveness, improved resource orchestration, and increased survival potential under conditions of temporary competitive advantage (D’Aveni et al., 2010).

The discussion advances a multi-level conceptual framework linking consulting processes, managerial agency, human resource practices, and strategic outcomes, while also addressing limitations related to generalizability, measurement, and contextual heterogeneity. The article concludes by outlining future research directions and practical implications for consultants, policymakers, and SME leaders seeking to operationalize strategic agility through sophisticated consulting interventions (Kovalchuk, 2025).

The article examines the economic content and essence of the financial condition of an enterprise and addresses the issues related to assessing its structure. In this regard, the efficiency of equity capital, including its return level, as well as the factors influencing changes in turnover ratios, are analyzed. The results of the study make it possible to ensure the financial stability of enterprises through the effective use of equity capital.