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This paper identifies the relationship between changes in oil prices and the returns of the world's highest-producing oil companies. Oil companies are divided into state-owned (national) and private companies. This paper focused on three different time periods to identify the relationship between changes in oil price and stock market returns by examining the specific backgrounds of each period. The results revealed that during oil's bearish market, it was more beneficial for investors to prefer state-owned companies to optimise their portfolios. The risk analysis focused on systematic risk, and the beta coefficients confirmed that state-owned companies are less sensitive to market shocks. State-owned companies are supported by governments during periods of downtrends in oil prices; therefore, they are less likely to go bankrupt. However, these companies do not have as much flexibility as private companies to cut their costs; therefore, they are more negatively affected by market movements not defined by shocks.

The aim of the paper is to determine the preferred forms of online shopping and preferred device for online shopping for different product categories by the youth consumers. The research showed that the smartphone plays not only an important role in the consumer behaviour of youth consumers, but they also frequently shop using this device. The paper also identifies the situational and demographic factors affecting online shopping based on which consumer segments were created. Cluster analysis using the K-means algorithm formed consumer segments in the online market in the Czech Republic. Four segments were defined – economically decisive from a city, emotively decisive, rationally thinking from a town, economically active. The results can be purposefully used in creating recommendations for e-shops and for their marketing management.

The aim of this paper is to measure the magnitude of profit shifting in the Czech Mining industry. The paper source data from AMADEUS provided by the Bureau van Dijk for the 10-year period 2005-2014 to seek evidence of profit-shifting activities and measure the magnitude. The paper applies panel regression model in the analysis to seek evidence and measure the magnitude of profit shifting using random effect model estimations. The paper therefore analyses tax effects on capital structure of subsidiary firms as a means of profit shifting and the results was that, there is substantial evidence of profit shifting with different magnitudes in separate model specifications.

The aim of the study is to identity the main factors that affect claims amount paid by insurers in case of road accidents and to predict losses from valid third-party liability insurance (MTPLI) policies until their expiration. Such an assessment is essential to adequately cover MTPLI policies and ensure the sustainable development of insurance companies. The geography of the study covers the MTPLI market of Europe in the main areas, but a deeper analysis of the impact of various factors, interactions, and interrelationships in MTPLI product is focused on Latvian market data due to availability of high-quality primary data. The research is based on the analysis of primary Latvian MTPLI policies data of more than 128,000 road traffic accidents that have occurred during the time period from 2014 till 2020. Risk driver selection was performed based on the existing scientific studies and correlation analysis of the sample set. Both linear and nonlinear forms of relationships were used for modelling. A multivariate modeling was used to identify significant risk factors and to quantify their impact on loss of incidents. Statistical stability of the models was tested using chi-squared, t-tests and p-values. Validation of models calibrated where done using prediction errors measurements: mean square error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) assessment both within sample and out of sample technics. The results indicated that the driver’s behavior (penalties and Bonus-Malus) as well as vehicle parameters (weight and age), had significant impacts on crash losses.

The clarion call for reform in bank regulation that ensures sound financial system and better performance following the financial melt-down of 2007–2009 across the globe has made it necessary to identify reforms that ensure these objectives are achieved. Using the most recent Banking Regulation and Supervision Survey of the World Bank and showing through empirical evidence, this paper adds to recent literature on the assessment of the impact of bank regulation on the profitability of banks across the globe. An Orbis financial database for 7535 banks observations in 114 countries over the period 2011–2018 is used for this study. The study shows that stringent capital requirement has positive and very significant impact on bank profitability. Same result is reported for Accounting/Information disclosure implying that regulations that strictly enforce information disclosure by banks to stakeholders eventually impacts positively on profitability. However, regulation on discipline/Problem institutions/exit has very significant and negative impact on bank profitability. Finally, the study again shows through the  results that restriction on banking activities has positive impact on bank profitability though not significant just as expected.

In Vietnam, Land-Use Right Certificates (henceforth referred as LURCs) can be issued to either individuals or households. If the land and asset are defined as common property of husband and wife, both have the right of land use or asset ownership. In this study, we assess the impact of land use rights on household welfare using Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys 2004 and 2014. We find a strong effect of jointly-titled LURCs of residential land on formal and informal credit. Having jointly-titled LURCs increases the amount of formal credit by 35.1% and informal credit by 18.9%. We also estimate the effect of having jointly-titled LURCs on per capita expenditure. Jointly-titled LURCs of agricultural land and residential land help households increase per capita expenditure by 1.6% and 2.5%, respectively.

Climate change poses a serious threat for aquacultural productivity. Employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, this research aims to evaluate the economic impact of climate change on aquaculture in Vietnam, drawing on time series data from 1981 to 2013 and including aquaculture yield, acreage, investment, labor, temperature, rainfall, and damage costs to aquaculture caused by natural disasters. The results show that aquaculture yield depends not only on the current value of inputs, but also on their lag values and the yield itself. The results also show that rainfall, storm surges and tropical cyclones negatively affect aquaculture production. After any natural disaster, it takes at least two years to recover from the repercussions for productivity and return to the previous norm. To reduce the vulnerability of aquacultural communities, this study suggests that the state could establish a climate resilience fund specifically for small and medium-scale aquaculture farmers, providing special financial support for those affected by natural disasters.

In this paper, we empirically investigate the effect of short selling on market volatility during exogenously-induced uncertainties. Using the Covid-19 pandemic and the onset of the Russian-Ukraine Conflicts periods as event study, we employ the asymmetric EGARCH model. We show high persistence and asymmetric effects of market volatility during the pre-covid outbreak and post-covid outbreak periods. We find evidence that short selling increases market volatility during the pre-covid outbreak period while the period of the Russian-Ukraine conflict is characterized by reduced volatility. We find no evidence of short selling effect on market volatility during the post-covid outbreak period. Our findings provide significant implications for short-selling strategies during crisis periods.

Globally, the financial industry in the recent times has witnessed various forms of fraudulent activities in the financial markets creating dilemma for the professionals, and the auditors who owns responsibility of ensuring accuracy and transparency. This article aims at finding the emergence of Big Data technology to fraud and forensic accounting by practitioner accountants in India. A research model and hypotheses has been developed to examine the relationship between the awareness level of forensic accounting, Big Data and intentions to use it for fraud detection using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that awareness of forensic accounting has a positive influence on practitioners’ intentions to its use for fraud detection. Big data technologies mediate the relationship between awareness and intentions to use for fraud detection. The results of the study are useful in implementation of Big Data technologies into the forensic accounting domain that can facilitate combating fraud.

The automotive industry has reached a very high level of international integration. It expanded in Russia at the end of the first decade of the century. The paper aims at describing the problems encountered in the first years of the process and how car manufacturers and their suppliers have evolved and adapted over a period of almost 10 years. Using a qualitative inductive methodology, based on interviews of Western European and Russian participants to the expansion, and using a case of failure as an extreme situation, the author identifies a certain number of influencing factors and describes how they have evolved trough the years. Finally, the paper concentrates on two phenomena that need more investigation, i.e. the reason for a small representation of Russian suppliers and the generic subculture of Russians working for foreign corporations. The results provide also a model of the implantation process on a new market that can be used for further research or to train and support managers involved in international projects.

This paper deals with the definition of micro-undertakings in the Visegrad Group countries (V4). To define micro-undertakings is a task of EU Member States with effect from 1 January 2016. The goal of the Directive is to create better conditions for undertakings and make them more competitive, in particular by reducing the administrative burden. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the level of criteria adopted for defining micro-undertakings in the V4 in relation to the intended reduction in their administrative burden. In addition to the V4, Germany is also researched as a representative of an advanced economy. The study was based on data from the Amadeus database and it was found out that most companies in the V4 belong to the category of micro-undertakings. To achieve the goal of the Directive, it is necessary to reduce their number. As the submitted proposals suggest, their number should be reduced to a level comparable to that of Germany.

A model for managing strategic alignment and dynamic capabilities (DC) of Supply Chain Management (SCM) information systems (IS) has been developed and applied to a traditional German steel company and a highly innovative Austrian steel company. Different concepts of leading researchers have been combined to get a holistic and detailed view of IS capabilities' impact on strategic fit. The model enables companies to identify ideal levels to strategic fit needed from SC integration and its antecedents for predefining architectural artefacts as sources for dynamic capabilities. The study contributes to new insights into the IT productivity paradox, where possibilities from IS investments remain unused. Essential concepts for optimising SC performance by reducing SC complexity and increasing SC agility have been identified and integrated. The study highlights value enabler and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods of digital SC models and how the model's ontology can be used to increase alignment autonomy. Finally, the approach supports organisational learning and development of cognitive profiles through collective assimilation and sensemaking effects.

Business transformations are critical to making a giant leap to create an outstanding customer experience and dominate the market. This study explores how companies with different Continuous Improvement Maturities manage the people side of a business transformation, focusing on establishing a Continuous Improvement culture. A semi-structured interview with 28 different companies and 30 interview partners from 21 different industries will explore the People Excellence approach’s differences in People Engagement, People Enablement, and People Empowerment. The study also investigates the different views on Continuous Improvement Systems and their impact on the organization. The focus on people, culture, and Leadership to achieve significant and sustainable business results from companies with a strong Continuous Improvement System will be evident, compared to companies with no structured Continuous Improvement System or a fragile Continuous Improvement System.

This study evaluates the impact of influencer marketing on consumers. Although online influencers are long established in German B2C markets, research in the field is scarce. Marketing managers are unsure how influencer marketing strategies should be drafted and which influencers should be recruited in order to maximize their marketing efforts at the consumer level. Based on a review of previous theoretical and empirical literature, a mixed method empirical study comprising semistructured interviews with three German fashion influencers and a consumer survey (N = 385) among the followers of these influencers are conducted to evaluate the impact of influencer activity on consumer followership, brand awareness and purchase intention. Results indicate that the intensity of influencer network involvement, intrinsic influencer motivation, authenticity of communication style and the real-life character of influencer posts increase the dependent variables. Hence, the empirical study has contributed to identify the most important determiners for the German B2C fashion influencer segment. Marketing managers are strongly advised to select influencers adequately and organize their marketing strategy in correspondence with their company and products.

The purpose of this paper is to compare several approaches to Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and show how different criteria can be used for dividing the IPA matrix to decisionmaking fields. The authors performed the IPA analysis basing on the data collected in customer satisfaction survey in health care sector. The survey was conducted from January to April 2016 in selected dentist's surgeries in cities Żywiec and Bielsko-Biała (southern Poland). Over 200 questionnaires were distributed, 100 of them returned. The study may facilitate the selection of appropriate form of matrix used in customer satisfaction surveys. It may be useful in future studies on adequate approach to IPA analysis. The paper is based on unpublished, own study.

Scarcity, or limited resources, is the fundamental economic problem the humanity faces continuously. Without it, economics would be meaningless. Science-fiction literature depicts societies where abundance is becoming persistent feature. Humans no longer participate in the production process itself, machines become sentient thanks to artificial intelligence and everyone has access to all goods and services desired. Scarcity as a multiple-born phenomenon, namely originating with labour and land, has been eradicated. Everyone is fully satisfied, exchange is non-existing, the medium of exchange - money - is no longer required. This paper compares some of the most representative economic thoughts in science - fiction genre since 1910s. Main purpose is to identify whether the societies have really achieved post-scarcity or they are only transitional theories, suffocating from still-present scarcity. Results of the paper suggest that even though the societies look like and are presented as they achieved post-scarcity, they are still experiencing scarcity in certain forms and use a medium of exchange to redistribute resources. This implies that these theories rather depict a socialistic utopia than a fully emerged post-scarcity society, even in the most progressive novels scarcity still occurs. Only the Culture series indicate signs of fully developed post-scarcity era.

Although venture capital is considered crucial for promoting economic development and innovation, not much has been done regarding the use of complex financing contracts in venture capital backed investments. In this study we investigate the use of convertible securities and control rights covenants for a sample of 15 Portuguese venture capital firms. We use a relatively new methodology in business and management sciences - fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis - that considers both quantitative and qualitative factors for obtaining a solution that best fits the empirical data. Our results show that the use of convertible securities is affected by the anticipated severity of double-sided moral hazard problems. On the other hand, only a weak support is provided to the agency predictions regarding the use of control right covenants. Interestingly, the results reveal that convertible securities, unlike control rights covenants, are the most apt instruments to reduce costly double-sided incentive problems of a venture capital relationship.

One of the important issues for companies is liquidity from domestic and foreign trade. The market is classically defined by the number of available markets. Globalization and free trade zones set up the foreign market, which becomes increasingly important - even for SMEs. This paper analyzed approx. 60,000 bank transactions with foreign reference of Northern German SMEs by using Chi-square test and correlation analysis. The analysis proofs that an increasing number of foreign transfers increases the number of foreign currency accounts per company. The results also show that despite the existence of currency hedging tools, a significant proportion of SMEs continues to expose themselves to currency risk. The willingness to manage currency risks increases with the increase in value per transaction. Transactions with a value of less than EUR 10,000 are often transferred abroad in EUR instead of in foreign currency.

When starting a new business, entrepreneurs used the acquired experience, skills, and competencies. The paper aims to determine opinions on the most important competencies that entrepreneurs need to start their business. The research is based on the questionnaire to survey entrepreneurs and students of economics. We try to determine the differences in their opinions. We assume that the views of entrepreneurs already running a business near reflect the competencies’ real usefulness. We used the questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. When comparing entrepreneurs and students, statistically significant differences are in most competencies. Students evaluated entrepreneurial competencies significantly less important than entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs’ opinions on competencies do not depend on enterprise size. Similarly, students’ views on competencies are not related to their gender. Our study suggests a significant discrepancy between students’ opinions on the importance of various competencies and reality.

In this article we evaluate three chosen restaurants in Nitra city from the perspective of visual proposal of chosen communication tool, which can be effective for influencing of restaurant's guests to visit each restaurant. It might be done through techniques and methods used in neuroscience. The consumer neuroscience is the area of marketing that studies the sensomotoric, cognitive and affective consumer's reactions on different marketing stimulus. In this article, we use Eye Tracker as one of biometric methods and we research, how restaurant's leaflets can be attractive for guests and in the conclusion we suggest some tips for marketing communication doing for three restaurants in practice. Means of biometric and neuroimaging technologies it's found out, how the consumers do the unconscious purchasing decisions and what's part of brain is responsible for these processes that 95% of human thinking and activities become just real in subconscious. This paper is a part of Scientifics project VEGA 1/0874/14 (2014-2016): "Using of neuromarketing in the food visual merchandising", solved at the Department of Marketing and Trade, FEM-SUA.

The research on the banking efficiency all around the world has been one of the main topics for the international financial sectors over the last years. The special case is in Europe. Some of the countries are in the European Union. The European Commission creates the rules for safer and sounder financial sector in these countries. In the past, these rules brought a lot of controversy whether they help to all countries in the European Union or just some of them. The purpose of this article is to determine the development of different types of efficiencies for banking industry in the Visegrad Group. Generally, the development is measured by the Malmquist approach. Different type of index is used in this article, more precisely the Hicks-Moorsteen Total Factor Productivity index. It is one of the alternative indexes. The results have showed that the model with the variable return to scale assumption is better for the use in banking industry in the Visegrad Group, as this model is more precise about the results.

Rapid progress of information and communication technologies (ICTs) affected the evolution of sexual harassment. Cybersexual harassment can be exposed via social media but as well might be a tool for harassers to attack or stalk individuals after anonysmously. This evolution of phenomenon enter to virtual reality require changes in differenr levels: individual, enterprise and state to counter the hybrid threats. The proposed conceptual framework reflects the main vulnerable groups, consequences. These main aspects trigger for the development of ICTs in order to change organizational policies, political and security regulations.

The study analyses the economics intuition that the domestic savings may determine the investments in a country. The assumption is tested on domestic savings between 1982 and 2016 in Southeast Asia economies in a panel regression framework. The hypothesis is that domestic savings stimulate economic growth through investment financing and, thus, the high savings rate observed in Southeast Asian countries can contribute to the outstanding GDP growth in the region. The tests sort out the significant determinants of investments. The analysis successfully indicates the significance of domestic savings beside other variables, and confirms the hypothesis, namely, the domestic savings affect investments and indirectly the economic growth, while FDI does not prove to be significant.

This study explores how supply chain management (SCM) information system (IS) capabilities can lead to superior business performance, and what are the detailed capabilities and methods to master volatility and uncertainties in business environments. Key concepts in SC modelling have been identified for decreasing SC complexity and increasing SC agility and key methods for supply network planning and synchronisation for optimising business performance and objectives that are often contradicting at the same time. The study developed a best practice recommendation for profit-optimised SCM for companies with capital intensive and capacity constrained resources such as in the steel companies and others of the industry, and for managing their integration between SC domains and between technological and organisations' needs simultaneously. Finally, the study shows how Industry 4.0 innovations such as Smart Services and blockchain technology can provide new value potentials such as cross-organisational network effects and increased autonomy in SC ecosystems, and concludes with suggestions for further research in needed rules and semantics for SC ecosystem collaboration.

The objective behind this paper is to explore the main sources of resistance to change and how that resistance effects the whole organization. Employees' duty and overseeing resistance effectively are basic essentials for forceful change management. This paper implements qualitative approach to observe the employees' resistance to change in one of the government organization working under Ministry of Industries of Pakistan. This is a qualitative study in which sample of 10 interviews have been conducted from the managers, deputy managers and executives working in this government organization. As indicated by Kurt Lewin's force field analysis this study shows, a manager looking for to "push" the procedure of organizational change must put all push to decrease the impact of preventing forces while expanding the impact of main driving forces and along these lines work with resistance of employees towards change.

When China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, it also accepted some trade commitments in the area of state regulation, which have influence on the liberal free trade. The object of the paper is to highlight the changes that occurred in the selected areas of state regulation in the period 2001-2015, and to find out if China fulfilled its WTO commitments in the selected areas of state regulation. The aim of the qualitative research carried out in the area of state trading, price controls and state enterprises was to show the fact that although China liberalised its market in compliance with its trade commitments in the WTO, some strategic sectors of economy have remained under the influence of the Chinese state all the time.

In the context of business performance assessment, current research often focuses on evaluating effects of innovation projects with start-ups. Subsumed as corporate venturing (CV), investigating the impact of these projects is becoming increasingly important. Thus, the number of studies on the ex-post value of corporate venturing projects (CVP) has steadily increased over the last years. In contrast, this research attempts to cover the evaluation of CVP in the period between from the contract conclusion to termination. By conducting interviews, this research primarily aims at identifying indicators applied for evaluating CVP performance during the cooperation of subjects in the automotive industry. The results obtained show that evaluation is mostly based on subjective criteria and that no formal indicators are implemented to manage CVP during the collaboration phase. This research contributes to literature by revealing practically applied CVP performance indicators during the collaboration phase and by discussing their weaknesses.

The demographic shift in the age structure has the effects that many ageing employees work in organisations. Migration can slow down the ageing of population but could not stop it. More and more people with immigration background work in organisations. Therefore, the question is whether diversity sensitive attitudes count for all diversity aspects. The central aim of the study is to deal with the problem fields of multicultural teamwork. Thereby, the focus is on the collaboration of employees with and without immigration background. The interviews with employees with and without an immigration background of various company branches were conducted. The results show that employees with an immigration background have more contact and feel comfortable with persons from different cultures than employees without an immigration background. The qualitative analysis indicates that there is a high need of competence development, especially intercultural and social competences in organisations. The results of the study reveal that personality traits and characteristics of employees play a role to what extent they accept diversity and are willing to work with persons from another culture. Age is not important regarding intercultural competence development.

This study was focused on application of perceptual carrying capacity concept in the environment of trade fairs. The main contribution of this study is exploration of customers' attitude towards overcrowding at trade fairs as there is not known any study with focus on these events. For this purpose, the eye tracking experiment was conducted, where different images depicting different level of visitors were used. In addition, the aim of the study was to identify what is at the centre of people's attention when looking at photographs taken at trade fairs. The study was conducted with 30 respondents from generation Y. The results imply that the number of people is a very important factor in deciding whether to attend these events (in this case trade fairs) or not at all. Simultaneously the in-depth interviews showed that people tend to have more of a negative attitude towards both overcrowding and a low number of people perceived at an event. This study also suggests that the optimal number of people at trade fairs is not extreme, not too low or not too high.

In many transition countries, a considerable part of economic activity takes place in the informal sector. On the other hand, tax evasion constitutes a major problem and causes improvements to all levels of the informal sector in which the volume of the informal sector in transition countries is much higher than in developed countries. Previous works have examined separately both the determinants of the size of the informal sector and the determinants of tax evasion for transition countries. But, this paper complements these significant works by examining cross sectional analysis based on firm-level data for South Caucasian countries. In addition, our paper has a new contribution to previous works by providing some empirical evidence for informality and tax evasion with the quality of business environment. Building on a simple analytical framework, we test the channels affecting the degree of informality in South Caucasian countries and vice versa, the channels affecting the degree of tax evasion. We use instrumental variable OLS and find that the extent of informality is determined by tax evasion, as well as the extent of tax evasion is determined by the informality for these countries. In addition, we find that the business environment has implications for both informal economy and tax evasion. These results suggest generally ameliorating the business environment in South Caucasian countries, while strengthening an access to land and financial sources, adequate provision of public capital such as telecommunication, transport and electricity infrastructure will reduce informality, reigning the corruption, tax administration and labor regulation will reduce tax evasion and ultimately lead to increasing government revenue collections.