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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
In this paper we investigate the drivers of efficiency of Central and Eastern European schools as a function of their inputs, outputs, and the environmental factors that influence their efficiency. The data contains 3,608 schools across 17 countries in the Europe-East region. We use a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis approach with a double-bootstrap truncated regression in the second stage to achieve our objectives. Our results show that on average many countries seem to have bottlenecks in their schools' performances in math subjects while reading subjects seem to be a major positive contributor to their efficiency. Moreover, food insecurity (as a result of financial troubles) has a severe negative impact on our sample's efficiencies, a similar effect was observed as well for the average level of parents' education.
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
This study explores the diversity in the personality profiles of solopreneurs in high- and non-high-tech sectors during the initial business phase, driven by the need to determine whether sector-specific personality traits are crucial for entrepreneurial success. Utilizing the Big Five personality traits (BFPT), we analyze data on 4,470 solopreneurs from the IAB/ZEW Start-up Panel (2018 and 2019 waves). This study incorporates comprehensive Big Five personality, exploratory factor, cluster, and heatmap analyses. These methods reveal significant differences between solopreneurs and the general population, particularly regarding openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The analysis identifies three main industry sectors that reflect the range of entrepreneurial approaches. Despite sectoral diversity, Big Five profiles of entrepreneurs are homogenous, challenging the assumption that different sectors require distinct personality profiles. The findings underscore the importance of self-awareness and accurate self-perception in fostering innovation and making prudent decisions during the early stages of entrepreneurship.
Abstract
The paper employs a cross-sectional data set comprising the main dimensions of the European Union's International Digital Economy and Society Index (I-DESI) and utilises grouping methods based on objective weights to evaluate the relative digital readiness of Hungary and other Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states of the EU. The objective was not to establish a total ordering (ranking) of the countries in the data set, but rather to identify the most appropriate means of grouping the CEE countries into homogeneous units, utilising multivariate statistical and decision-theoretical techniques (tiered DEA, partially ordered sets and clustering). Despite the disparate methodologies employed, the findings are consistent in that the CEE countries (including Hungary) exhibit a general resemblance to one another and demonstrate comparatively lower levels of digital readiness than Northern and Western European countries. The notable exception is Estonia, which exhibits a distinctive level of digital advancement.
