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Economics and business journals focus on publishing papers coming from the fields of applied economics, corporate finance, financial investments, markets, institutions, industrial organization, international trade, marketing and similar.
Business and Economics
Abstract
The focus of the paper is how social professionals perceived their profession and its external judgment or recognition before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse social workers' comments in online professional communities on social media platforms. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the investigation of the Hungarian social sector has received little attention compared to other human services professions, especially healthcare, and the analysis of social workers' online discourses is unprecedented nationally and seldom encountered internationally. The web-based content analysis covered a three-year period including the pandemic, and it is based on 6,692 online comments. According to our results, the entire comment stream is characterized by a mixed tone with a strong critical edge. The content analysis showed that Hirshman's theory provides a productive analytical framework to observe loyalty and voice and frame different levels of dissatisfaction and corrective mechanisms. Thus, we found four overarching phases and attitudes with moderate, strengthening, strong, and fading voice. Different intensities of loyalty and voice mirrored different stages and waves of the pandemic. Though the results of the content analysis resonate with previous research findings based on more conventional methods in many ways, they added further depth to domestic and international knowledge. While social workers' perception of their situation and prestige of social work was overwhelmingly negative, a method of coping with their burdens was through professional pride, solidarity, cohesion, self-compensation and compassion for their clientele.
Abstract
In our rapidly changing world characterised by globalisation, economic crises, a pandemic, and regional integration, the structure and functioning of welfare states have undergone significant transformations. These forces have shaped and continue to redefine welfare state models worldwide. This study examines the trajectories undertaken by European Union member countries regarding their welfare state models, particularly focusing on the transformative experiences of former communist states. Based on a critical assessment of previous research by a bibliometric analysis, our study comprehensively investigates five categories of factors (fiscal, economic, social, institutional, and political factors) influencing the configuration of welfare state models. Considering these five categories and using cluster analysis, we split European countries into five welfare state models. Our main contribution is the investigation of the migration of European Union states across various welfare state models during the 2003–2021 period. Policymakers can use these results to increase the well-being of former communist states within their clusters.
Abstract
Although the Feldstein-Horioka (1980) puzzle has been one of the most widely discussed problems in macroeconomics literature, long-run evidence regarding the validity of the Puzzle is missing. To extend the existing literature, we revisit the Puzzle for the case of the United Kingdom (UK) using data that covers almost two centuries, 1830–2016. We analyze the data using conventional and novel econometric methods to capture the stochastic properties of the variables and ensure robustness. To this end, well-known autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and recently developed nonlinear ARDL and Fourier ARDL (FARDL) models are implemented. The coefficients derived from the ARDL, NARDL, and FARDL are 0.58, 0.64, and 0.56, respectively. All results show a long-term relationship between investment and savings rates in the UK. The obtained empirical results indicate that even in the long run, there is evidence for the existence of the Puzzle.
Abstract
This study investigates the technical efficiency of insurance companies in five Western Balkan countries between 2015 and 2022, using a two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA). In the first stage, bias-corrected DEA efficiency scores are calculated. The second stage employs the bootstrapped truncated regression to investigate relationships between firm characteristics and these efficiencies. Our findings indicate that insurance companies in Serbia exhibit the highest level of technical efficiency, while their counterparts in Albania display the lowest level. Five key drivers of insurer efficiency are identified: firm size, specialisation, growth, solvency, and profitability, while the effect of ownership structure is not statistically significant. Further analysis of returns to scale indicates that most large and medium-sized insurers in Western Balkan countries operate under decreasing returns to scale (DRS). In contrast, most small insurers exhibit increasing returns to scale (IRS). This research contributes to a better understanding of factors influencing the efficiency of insurance companies in developing countries, with implications for insurance regulators, strategic management within the industry, and future research endeavours.
Abstract
This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion surrounding the influence of institutions on the distribution of entrepreneurial talents across productive, unproductive, and destructive activities. Existing literature suggests that societies can exhibit purely destructive, unproductive, or productive entrepreneurship characteristics. Employing a game theoretic framework that integrates insights from entrepreneurship and institutional studies, we explore the dynamics of entrepreneurial talent allocation. Introducing an institutional parameter into the Prisoners' Dilemma Game, we clarify the mechanism by which a society transitions between different forms of entrepreneurship, contingent on the value of the parameter (ranging from −1 to +1). Our findings underline a continuous transition, revealing the prevalence of either a predominantly rent-seeking society or one characterized by productive entrepreneurship, with variations based on the proximity of the institutional parameter to perfection or imperfection.
Abstract
This paper, using the OECD DAC's ODA (Official Development Assistance) database and UN Comtrade's trade data, empirically demonstrates that donor countries can utilize development aid as an instrument to build stable trade relationships and expand trade with recipient countries by strategically directing aid to targeted recipients. The empirical results indicate that a bilateral donor-recipient pair is more likely to establish a stable trade relationship and experience greater growth in bilateral trade flows than in the absence of such aid. The effects of aid on trade stability persist across various settings: whether the trade type is export or import, whether the traded goods are final or intermediate, and whether the aid is provided as loans or grants. The impacts of aid on fostering bilateral trade growth are also significant. Particularly, concessional loans are far more effective than grants in promoting donor-recipient trade growth, especially in stimulating the recipient's imports from the donor. These findings suggest that donor countries can leverage development aid as a strategic measure to mitigate the risk of global supply chain disruptions and secure overseas export markets during external trade shocks, such as the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
The paper decomposes the real and nominal exchange rate volatility using the component GARCH specification to examine their impact on foreign direct investment (FDI) in 23 transition economies at aggregated and disaggregated levels. The paper employs instrumental variables within the SYS-GMM estimation procedure to provide the results' reliability and consistency. According to the results, the impact of long-run real exchange rate volatility on FDI differs among economic activities. These findings may be explained by the fact that the key motives of foreign investors entering the manufacturing sector will likely differ from those of foreign investors entering the financial intermediation or transport and communication sector. On the other hand, the short-run real exchange rate volatility and the long- and short-run nominal exchange rate volatility are not significant determinants of FDI in the transition economies covering the period from 2000 to 2023.
Abstract
Millions have adopted tools like ChatGPT in recent years, yet indifference and resistance among employees remain. This qualitative study employs monodramatic projective techniques to explore employees' hidden assumptions and unconscious beliefs in a division attempting to integrate Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI, GAI). Through pretensive work, soliloquy, symbolic representation, modeling with intermediate objects, concretization, and role reversal techniques, the interviewees' internal representations of GAI and trust were materialized in physical artifacts, such as a ball of straw or a potted plant. The study identified three principal themes: GAI's appearance as a Janus-faced presence, unmet performance promises, and avoided proximity. Findings highlight ambiguities in acceptance and show that adoption was driven more by industry hype and normative pressures than genuine organizational needs, leading to disorganized implementation dependent on individual employee characteristics, mistrust, and disenchantment. The study's main contribution lies in refining human-robot interaction (HRI) models and psychodrama methods for GAI, emphasizing the significance of physicality and embodiment in technology-mediated relationships, identifying trust as a complex phenomenon with potential reciprocal causation, and emphasizing the importance of affective attitudes, illustrating how adoption projects can falter despite cognitive openness – all insights crucial for understanding self-driven, bottom-up GAI adaptation in an organizational context.
Abstract
The green transformation of oil and gas companies is necessary to tackle climate change. Most of the green transformation related activities have been launched since the Paris Agreement was ratified. The main purpose of this article is to highlight how oil and gas companies handle the pressure of shifting their fossil fuel-based portfolio by analyzing their divestment trends. In our sample, six large, medium, and small oil and gas companies – Shell Royal Dutch (UK-based), British Petroleum (UK-based), OMV (Austrian), PKN Orlen (Polish), Neste (Finnish) and Orsted (Danish) – are assessed regarding the maturity of their green transition via the lens of their divestment figures between 2017 and 2022. The biggest leaps in green transition have been taken by small companies with the support of their governments. The majority of the divested portfolios were purchased by companies outside of the European Union (EU). This research offers a significant contribution to the literature on green energy transition, focusing on the divestments trends of oil and gas companies.
Abstract
Theoretically anchored in the Resource Based View of the firm, this study investigates the effect that customer involvement has on innovation outcomes. Our results, based on structural equation modeling of survey data from 296 Hungarian firms, show that involving customers does not lead directly to better financial incomes, instead the link between innovation performance and customer involvement is mediated by innovation novelty. This finding contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how customer involvement helps innovation outcomes. The findings highlight the role of contingency by showing that differentiation strategy positively, and knowledge sharing negatively moderate the positive effect of customer involvement on innovativeness. The study concludes with valuable theoretical and managerial implications and suggestions for future research.
