Search

In the optics of attention was the story of the Japanese writer Komatsu Sake "Paper or hair", written in 1963. According to the content, the loss of paper changed the usual way of life of people, becoming a source of existential fears. As we believe, the artistic narrative anticipates the events of our time associated with the spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19. An artistic description of the situation by a Japanese writer, a phenomenological immersion in reality and theoretical reflections by M. Heidegger's work on the existential of fear helped to reconstruct the psychological States of people in the context of a pandemic and to identify the structure of fear. In modern life, fear manifests itself in three aspects: before-than fear, fearfulness and about-than fear. As a result of the all-embracing nature of fear, the fearogenicity of being is born, which violates the stability of the individual's existence, its being in, dwelling in, and mastering with. The above leads to the individual's awareness of the direction of life towards death, which forces him to adapt to new conditions. As a support of the personality in its opposition to fear, we can call hope and effective manifestations that perform the role of care.

This paper discusses the latest data on the production of selected paper and paperboard, plastic, glass, wood and metal packaging. During the study period 2016-2020/2021, there was an increase in the production of selected paper and paperboard packaging compared to 2016. There has been an increase in the production of paper sacks and bags, cartons made of paper or paperboard other than corrugated and cartons made of paper or paperboard. Among plastic packaging, the production of plastic bags and sacks played a significant role and has been growing steadily since 2016. The production of glass packaging (clear glass bottles with a capacity of less than 2.5 liters for beverages and food) increased between 2016 and 2021. Flat pallets were the dominant product among wood packaging in 2020. The decline in box pallet production was significant not only relative to 2019, but also relative to 2016. In the group of metal packaging with a capacity not exceeding 300 liters, the highest production was recorded for barrels and similar containers for any material (excluding gas), made of aluminium. It reached 93228 tonnes in 2020 and was 2.4% higher than in 2019. The packaging market in Poland and worldwide has been gradually increasing its value over the past years. The production of packaging in Poland in the coming years should grow dynamically, although not as fast as before. Undoubtedly, today the biggest challenge for the packaging industry is the rising prices of raw materials, which can negatively affect the profitability and liquidity situation of manufacturers. In particular, the prices of plastics have gone up considerably, but the costs of pulp, metals, wood and glass are also increasing, so the raw material pressure is now affecting the entire packaging industry

The article substantiates the possibility of using R\S analysis for currency market research. The work is aimed at researching the currency market. The issue of research using R\S of the currency market is a new scientific direction. The study of the foreign exchange market, its regulation, influence on the financial systems of the countries of the world is gaining relevance these days. Foreign exchange transactions are often equated with the process of buying or selling securities. The paper analyzes the behavior of currency quotes on the foreign exchange market by determining the dynamic changes over time of the Hurst indicator, as one of the tools of R/S analysis, within the framework of the fractal market hypothesis. Calculations of the Hearst index were carried out according to the adjusted formulas of R/S-analysis, which allows to compare the value of the indicator on the foreign exchange market of Ukraine in different economic conditions. In a stable economic situation, the Hearst indicator tends to maintain its average value, while it is an indicator of events that directly or indirectly affect the state's economy and the rate of its national currency. The purpose of the work is to study the behavior of exchange rates of currency pairs by monitoring the Hurst indicator, as one of the tools of fractal analysis, within the framework of the fractal market hypothesis. Forecasting the future behavior of exchange rates is very important, as it allows to reduce currency risks and ensure the improvement of the effectiveness of various decisions in the field of international financial management. The Hurst indicator is widely used in time series analysis due to its stability. Its calculation requires minimal assumptions about the system being studied, and based on it, time series can be classified by memory type and depth. It can distinguish a random series from a non-random one. The paper provides an example of calculating the Hurst index using Mandelbrot's method. This indicator is used as an indicator of the long-term memory of time series. Hurst's indicator as a tool for fractal analysis of systems allows you to determine the degree of persistence of financial series, the presence of long-term memory in the currency market. Daily data on the exchange rate of the hryvnia to the dollar and the euro are taken from the official website of the NBU. It turned out that periods of stability of the hryvnia exchange rate relative to other currencies are observed in different years. Accordingly, the fractal dimension of the series also changes. For most periods of the hryvnia exchange rate, anti-persistent series were found, that is, when the decline is most likely replaced by growth. R\S analysis techniques analysis is a key tool for market analysis, which allows you to understand when and which assets should be bought and when to sell.

The paper deals with behavioural finance as a stream of finance challenging the principles of classical finance by adding psychology to the reasons that could explain observed anomalies within financial markets and which, at the same time, are caused by real human behaviour. The aim of this paper is to explore investors' behavioural, biases and their disturbances of rationality, focusing mostly on the factors of loss aversion, cultural influences, and overconfidence, and how these elements influence investment decisions. It is based on empirical data and behavioural experiments, which help to show how such biases deviate from efficient market theories; this work also tests some methods that can mitigate these negative effects, therefore providing insights on how to integrate the teaching of behavioural finance more effectively into the decision-making process of investors and experts within finance. Precisely, this work is aimed at attempting to provide a model of psychological behaviour for Moroccan investors, based on an investigation carried out in the field among 93 regular investors in the Casablanca Stock Exchange. The main findings of the study underline how behavioural biases deviate from predictions by efficient market theories. This paper has only focused on the specific context of Moroccan investors, yet giving insight into how psychological factors impact investment decisions through new insights into life where these financial behaviours take place. There is, hence, uniqueness to the research through the theoretical and practical approaches integrated therein, with the use of empirical data and behavioural experiments that sustain the discussion on behavioural finance. Presenting the case of Moroccan investors adds a significant contribution to proposing a context-specific model, which may bring important implications for financial decision-making within the region.

This paper examines the economic and financial advantages of improving international collaboration between Ukraine and Poland in the development of alternative energy projects. It conducts a thorough evaluation of existing and forthcoming renewable energy generation technologies, using expert, Delphi, and methods based on statistics to identify the most promising and universally applicable solutions. The calculation of the payback period for small-scale green energy projects pays particular attention to the actual duration of the period in the case of small business ventures. The findings are summarized with a vision for the future Ukrainian-Polish cooperation in the scope of green energy cooperation and specific instruments and processes that could contribute to the success of the collaboration. The article outlines the potential approach that involves the isolation of the cooperation between Ukraine and Poland in green energy relying on the creation of investment and venture funds, public support for the manufacturing of a renewable energy component, and the establishment of non-volatile industrial complexes. Additionally, measures such as independent small alternative power plants and the initiatives for the development of the Ukrainian-Polish joint network of alternative energy are mentioned. The current war between Ukraine and Russia has drawn attention to the crucial need for energy security and diversification, making Ukraine-Poland collaboration on green energy projects all the more important. Ukraine may minimize its reliance on the Russian energy supply by focusing on renewable energy programs, while Poland can invest in sustainable energy to boost regional stability and economic progress. The article points out that the continuation and advancement of green energy initiatives require international cooperation. The paper offers detailed guidance on how the financial, economic, and technological opportunities and relations between Ukraine and Poland may be enhanced.

The continuation of warfare in the territory of the country causes many economic, environmental and social problems. That is why it is important to study the influence of critical risks on the mechanism of managing defence resources, which the state’s ability to withstand in difficult times and to ensure the protection of state borders depends on. The main purpose of the paper is the evaluation of scientific and practical principles of determination and analysis of critical risks in the defence industry. Subject to the foregoing, the paper investigates the main scientists’ approaches to the definition and classification of critical risks, which affect the mechanism of defence resource management. It also provides a multiple-factor analysis of critical risks, which affect the mechanism of defence resource management. An effective system for managing critical risks that affect the mechanism of defence resource management was developed in the work. It gives recommendations aimed at reducing the degree of influence of critical risks on the mechanism of defence resource management. The study uses general and special methods of scientific research, in particular, the method of scientific abstraction to timely find and use in practice the indicators of evaluation of critical risks and effective methods of their reduction; the methods of comparative and structural factor analysis to evaluate the indicators under study; the method of logical generalization to provide directions and recommendations for reducing the influence of critical risks on the defence resource management system. The paper is the first to comprehensively analyze the influence of critical risks on the mechanism of defence resource management. The authors highlighted the concepts of responding to critical risks that influence the mechanism. The practical importance of the paper is that the introduction of an effective critical risk management system will allow improving the efficiency of this mechanism.

The article assesses the development of retail e-commerce under the influence of global digitalization processes. The authors prove that current trends in the global economy reflect key aspects of the development of the digital economy and, accordingly, retail e-commerce. Under their influence, significant changes are taking place in the living conditions of society, market conditions and in the scientific sphere, and there is an increasing demand for highly qualified workers. The paper emphasizes that under the influence of profound and extensive changes brought about by digital technologies, conceptual models of business development and social communication are transforming, and the role of the state in the new digitalized environment is being reconsidered. These transformations require participants to be highly adaptable, develop new skills and competencies, and be ready to take advantage of digital transformation. The paper emphasizes that there are potential risks of negative impact of digital transformation, which are manifested primarily in the need to adapt to new conditions, such as the inevitability of displacement of outdated professions by new technologies or artificial intelligence systems, the disappearance of traditional markets, as well as the threats of personal data leakage and the need to protect copyrights and other aspects. The authors prove that e-commerce encompasses more than just online advertising or launching a virtual retail store. Successful enterprises in this area are based on reliable technologies of interaction with consumers, which arise from the experience gained in the early stages, sound business schemes and a carefully developed infrastructure for servicing business processes. The main advantage of using digital technologies in the field of online retail is the ability to predict demand and thoroughly study consumer needs.

Enterprises develop and interact with the global environment. Their activities are influenced by various factors, and timely identification of the degree of their influence allows forecasting business development and reasonably choosing development strategies. The work is based on the hypothesis that in the global environment, under the influence of internal and external factors, tools can be developed for enterprise assessment and business strategy formation. The puprose of the paper is to develop a toolkit for evaluating an enterprise in a global environment for choosing a development strategy. In the article, the authors conduct a study of the influence of factors of the global environment on the development of the enterprise, propose a model with the help of which it is expedient to forecast the metastate of the enterprise and put forward proposals for choosing an effective development strategy. A structural and logical model for ensuring the stable development of business systems has been proposed. In the process of research, the authors developed a system of indicators that form an integral index that characterizes the effectiveness of the development of business systems. The basis of the integral indicator of the metastate of the development of business systems is a set of indicators for assessing the development and changes in the state of business systems in a dynamic global environment. The economic and mathematical model of estimating the metastate of business systems is considered as a reflection and formalization of the main, essential parameters of business systems development (production, technological and property, personnel, social, financial, material and supply, marketing, foreign trade. The integral metastate index of business systems systematically reflects the effectiveness of the Kharkiv machine-building business systems and allows determining strategies for their development. The selected machine-building enterprises have been grouped by the following types of development strategies: a rapid growth strategy aimed at ensuring the development of enterprises, offensive positions; a strategy of moderate growth and stabilization, characterized by stable parameters of business systems development, adequacy of resources for development, aimed at saving resources and costs, market expansion and development, product upgrades, innovative development; a strategy of curtailment, reduction, which is characterized by negative development trends due to lower profits, reduced assets, reorientation of consumers to other products or markets. As a result of the research, a methodological approach to the assessment of trends in the development of business systems has been developed, which will allow obtaining additional advantages in the global environment. Determination of benefits becomes a basic characteristic for monitoring information provision regarding the organization of enterprise activities in a global environment. The paper makes a contribution to the research of the methodology for assessing the development of enterprises that can be applied to other enterprises, not only to the Kharkiv area. In the event of a change in the influence of global environmental factors, the degree of influence should be specified. The work offers an opportunity to develop further research from the point of view of strategic management, the concept of six sigma, and production optimization.

In the context of low provision of Ukraine with forests, its uneven distribution and low level of forest cover of the territory, and, as a result, forestry reserves, it seems promising to determine the priority areas for the development of the forest industry and mechanisms for effective management of the modern forestry industry complex, taking into account the experience of the structural policy of the countries with the forest fund that is similar in terms of extent. The aim of the article is to provide an in-depth analysis of the status and tendencies in the development of the forestry industry complex of Ukraine in the pre-war period, taking into account its integral components. The article analyzes the status and tendencies in the development of the forestry industry complex of Ukraine in the context of uneven distribution of forests and the extent of the forest fund in different regions of Ukraine. An in-depth analysis of the components of the forestry industry complex in the pre-war period is carried out, in particular, such as: woodworking industry, production of paper and paper products, furniture production. At presence, the woodworking industry of Ukraine has a low level of provision of mainly coniferous wood for forest consumers and the needs of the domestic market, which, in turn, leads to inefficient use of wood resources in conditions of low rates of reproduction of forest plantations. It is determined that the woodworking industry is a priority industry for most of the western regions of Ukraine and can further become a driving force for the intensive development of their economy. The activity of enterprises of the woodworking industry is also characterized from the standpoint of their number, net profit (loss) and profitability. An analysis of the foreign economic component of the development of the woodworking industry of Ukraine is carried out. It is proved that the prerequisite for the further development of the forestry industry complex of Ukraine in the post-war recovery period is its existing potential, which, under the conditions of an effective and systematic State policy in the field of forest management, will achieve an increase in competitiveness and growth of production at the regional level.

This article explores the implementation of Lean management principles to optimize operations in healthcare facilities. Lean management, a philosophy made famous by the Toyota Motor Company, focuses on continuous improvement and the elimination of waste to maximize quality and safety for patients. The primary objective of this paper is to examine how Lean tools and techniques can be adapted to the unique environment of healthcare institutions to enhance their productivity and service quality. The article begins by outlining the core principles of Lean management, emphasizing the importance of value stream mapping, Kaizen, and the 5S methodology. Value stream mapping helps identify and visualize the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a consumer, which in healthcare translates to patient care processes. Kaizen, a practice of continuous improvement, encourages small, incremental changes that collectively lead to significant enhancements in efficiency and quality. The 5S methodology—Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain—ensures a clean, organized, and efficient work environment. The paper then delves into specific Lean practices that can be applied within healthcare settings, such as reducing patient wait times, improving the flow of patients and information, and minimizing unnecessary movements and processes. By focusing on these areas, healthcare facilities can reduce bottlenecks, streamline operations, and enhance patient care delivery. For instance, implementing Lean techniques in patient scheduling can lead to more efficient use of clinical resources and reduce the time patients spend waiting for services. Furthermore, the paper provides a critical review of existing literature and studies on the application of Lean management in healthcare, highlighting successful implementations and the challenges faced during the process. It discusses real-world examples where Lean management has significantly improved operational efficiency, patient satisfaction, and overall healthcare outcomes. For example, a hospital that adopted Lean principles reported reduced patient wait times, lower operational costs, and improved staff morale. The article also addresses the potential obstacles and resistance to change that healthcare facilities might encounter when adopting Lean principles. It offers strategic recommendations for overcoming these barriers, including leadership commitment, staff training, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Leadership commitment is crucial as it sets the tone for organizational change and ensures that the necessary resources are allocated for Lean initiatives. Staff training is essential to equip employees with the skills and knowledge required to implement Lean practices effectively. Fostering a culture of continuous improvement involves engaging staff at all levels, encouraging open communication, and recognizing and rewarding contributions to Lean projects. In conclusion, the paper argues that Lean management principles, when effectively implemented, can lead to substantial improvements in the operational performance of healthcare facilities. It calls for further research and collaboration between healthcare professionals and Lean management experts to tailor these practices to the specific needs of the healthcare sector. The successful integration of Lean management into healthcare operations not only enhances efficiency and reduces waste but also improves patient care quality and safety. By adopting Lean principles, healthcare facilities can create a more efficient, patient-centered environment that supports high-quality care delivery. This article highlights the importance of a systematic approach to implementing Lean management, considering the unique challenges and opportunities within the healthcare sector. It underscores the need for ongoing evaluation and adaptation of Lean practices to ensure sustained improvements and long-term success.

This paper deals with higher education students’ career and family plans based on a quantitative pilot research conducted among students studying social sciences at a research university in Eastern Hungary. According to one type of career models, namely the self-directed, protean career concept, organisations should adapt to employees’ own career interpretation, values, and attitudes, furthermore, according to the Kaleidoscope Career Model, individuals nowadays adapt their careers to their life stages. Due to this, this paper deals with students’ family plans besides their career plans. The novelty of the research is that it examines the plans of Hungarian students studying in a specific field (social sciences) and analyzes their career and family plans in parallel. The research inestigates what family and career mean to students, what influences these, whether family or career is more important to students, how students time these, and to what extent they consider these to be compatible. Research methods include descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. The results show that career goals often preceded family goals and, in accordance with traditional gender roles, career was slightly more important for male students than for female students. According to the factor analysis, students found it the most important to meet their own expectations. Furthermore, many students, especially females, interpreted career as a form of self-fulfilment. These results are in line with modern career models (the self-directed, protean career concept and the Kaleidoscope Career Model). An important implication of the research for prospective employers is the need to adapt their HR strategies to young people’s family and career plans. The research also highlights that students’ career goals are already emphasised during the studies, so employers should strengthen cooperation with universities to support students in acquiring professional experience during their studies to help them achieve their career goals.

Public support of socioeconomic reforms is one of the most important factors for their successful implementation, and conversely, lack of public approval doesn’t allow achieving the expected effect and may result in negative externalities. In this regard, it is relevant to study the origins of people’s opinions and factors affecting their evaluation of social and economic policies. This paper is devoted to the following aspects of this multidimensional problem as partisanship and partisan bias. Their research has been actively promoted by foreign scientists, but so far presented extremely limited in Ukrainian literature. In this paper the critical review of foreign scientific papers devoted to this topic is presented; the main hypotheses about the influence of party identification on public opinion and the effect of partisan bias are highlighted; features of the methodology are noted and research results are summarized. The methodology used by foreign specialists for research of this problem is based on experimental methods, among them the main place belongs to laboratory experiments. A laboratory experiment means observing people’s behavior (participants’ behavior) under strictly controlled conditions when the influence of uncontrolled factors is limited to a minimum. In foreign studies of partisan bias and its influence on citizens' evaluation of socioeconomic policies, laboratory experiments serve as the main tool for testing hypotheses. The results of the research give evidence, on the one hand, that the partisan bias mechanism provides wide possibilities to manipulate the people’s opinion and public opinion in general, on the other hand, that correct objective information about the policy content and goals can significantly weaken the partisan bias effect. Foreign studies prove that party signal influence depends on the people’s properties, policy content, political systems, and party characteristics. In Ukraine, there is a lack its own research in this field, however, as democratic institutions, civil society, and people’s political consciousness and activity develop, these studies become more relevant to the political and economic life in Ukrainian society.

The paper aims to assess changes in the public perceptions of European Union values in Ukraine in the conditions of external aggression. It explores how conflict escalation affects the public views in different groups, and changes attitudes and beliefs regarding adopting European Union values in society. The paper analyses the concepts of value and demonstrates the devaluation of cultural and social values in some population groups. The methodology applies a survey based on online interviews and descriptive statistics methods. The Schwartz methodology in the World Values Survey 2020 is used to create a survey questionnaire. An online survey of Ukrainians’ worldviews of European Union values perceptions was conducted for Ukrainian citizens in all regions except for the territories, occupied in 2022. The survey results highlight the trend of commitment of a major part of Ukrainian citizens to European Union values. The research demonstrates the inconsistencies in the importance and satisfaction of social values and stereotypes, compliance with the law, personal freedom and human rights, level of economic freedom, and commitment to European integration. These contradictions will be resolved through the development of favorable conditions and of beliefs and convictions of people that support the adoption and dissemination of European values.

This paper aims to analyse and evaluate the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of international business in the transition economy based on the evidence of the southern region of Ukraine. The tasks of the study are (i) to identify the presence of components of the international business ecosystem and their quality depending on the level of development of the transition economy (policy, markets, finance, human capital, culture, support); (ii) to assess the current state of the components of the international business ecosystem; (iii) to identify constraining factors for the functioning of the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem for their further consideration when adjusting the trajectory of the development of the transition economy. The model of Isenberg was used to observe the structure of the ecosystem. The international ratings (KOF Index of Globalization, Global Competitiveness Index, Doing Business, etc.), the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, national laws, etc. were used for the qualitative measurement of the ecosystem performance. An online survey was conducted to assess the current state of the ecosystem and to identify the restraining factors of its functioning. The research results demonstrate that all domains of an international business ecosystem are in the process of formation. 80% of respondents rated domains’ performance at three points on a 5-point scale, indicating poor functioning the ecosystem. The respondents of the survey represent several industries but mostly agro-industrial complex. The restraining factors are ineffective government policy; business-unfriendly legislation; limited access to the infrastructure; insecurity of property rights; inefficient business support systems, etc. The research results show that almost all components of the ecosystem are less efficient in Ukraine than in Europe, except for the entrepreneurs’ intentions of networking and collaboration development. The paper proposed original research on the institutional context of the ecosystem in the transition economy. The study is built on the idea of the specific regional peculiarities of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the impact of transformational processes of the economy of the country. The results of the study can be used as a basis for a scientific focus on the policy of improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The article empirically expands the knowledge of entrepreneurial ecosystems and shows the potential and benefits of a complete integrated ecosystem for overall regional development.

The article analyzes the features and factors of the international market of transport and logistics services and new trends caused by the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine. The market of transport and logistics services of Ukraine in terms of production and financial performance of its participants has been also studied. Moreover, the paper presents a comparative analysis of the process of forming a strategy for the competitiveness of a transport and logistics company in peacetime and in wartime. It is noted that in wartime a company should be aimed not so much at increasing market share, but at preserving its position. In this aspect, the end-to-end monitoring of the financial performance of a transport and logistics company plays an important role. The authors identify seven main stages of formation of a strategy of competitiveness of a transport and logistics company in wartime, which are analyzed in detail in the work. The paper also emphasizes that the main parameters determiming the competitiveness of transport and logistics services are complex parameters of quality, price and compliance of the product with certain standards. The analysis has identified key evaluation indicators for each of the above parameters. The conclusions of the authors are illustrated by the scheme of ensuring the competitiveness of the transport and logistics company. Thus, ensuring competitiveness is a complex mechanism of interaction of a transport and logistics company with other market subjects, the formation of competitive advantages and ensuring financial stability, differentiated by time, manifestation, structure and is the basis for determining the efficiency of a transport and logistics company and its real competitive position on the market. A promising area of research is the development of measures and tools to ensure the efficiency of transport and logistics companies by identifying and implementing their key competitive advantages in military conditions, the formation of alternative strategies for competitiveness.

The paper is devoted to the analysis of modern foreign economic strategic priorities of Ukraine, features of their implementation in the context of the key purposes of economic development of the country. Emphasis is placed on the need to use modern tools to support domestic producers and limit import expansion in the context of the formation of a new export strategy of Ukraine. Ukraine is a small open economy that makes extensive use of external factors of economic development both in the context of markets for its products, especially the agricultural sector, and attracting important resources of critical imports, including oil and natural gas, electronic equipment and more. From this point of view, the analysis has revealed the role and importance of two key players in the world market – the United States and China – in ensuring Ukraine’s external economic balance. The paper empirically examines the dependence of certain macroeconomic indicators of Ukraine on similar indicators of the United States and China (the so-called ‘large’ and systemically important economies for Ukraine). Vector autoregression models were used as a research tool to explore the dynamic interdependencies between macroeconomic indicators in the case of explaining their present values by the previous ones. For this purpose, percentage changes in gross domestic product and consumer price index compared to the corresponding period of the previous year for the USA, China and Ukraine were selected. As a result of the research, impulse-response functions from ‘large’ economies showed the dependence of indicators that characterise economic development in Ukraine from them and their long-term absorption, both in the context of economic growth in these countries and inflation imports from abroad. Moreover, it should be noted that the influence of China is more significant than that of the United States, especially if we consider the impact of fluctuations in the consumer price index in China on economic growth and inflation in Ukraine. This necessitates further research on this issue in line with the formation of scientifically sound foreign economic strategy and policy of Ukraine. The impact of economic growth in the United States and China on Ukraine’s GDP fluctuations is positive and almost the same (peaking in the second quarter and gradual levelling over two years). In turn, the variance decomposition of forecast errors for Ukraine’s GDP shows that in the long run about 52% of its variability result from modelled external factors, which in our opinion is due to significant openness of Ukraine’s economy and, consequently, ‘large’ economies. Finally, paper emphasizes the need to assess their international economic policy to minimize risks in the implementation of the country’s foreign economic strategy.

The article deals with the development and implementation of a financial model of exports in the context of strategic planning of foreign economic activity of enterprises. The model described in this paper aims to measure, analyse, evaluate and propose improvements to administrative processes by identifying various variables involved in strategic foreign trade planning. This paper is a survey that is being developed for export activities in Ukraine. Exports in Ukraine were analysed to test the methodology and to build an additive model. The model empirically shows the links that exist between the internal functions of a company and its ability to generate performance management indicators and business dynamics as a way to improve processes in strategic foreign trade planning. Some relevant findings from the first two stages of the empirical research conducted to date are presented. Validation has proven that the use of the methodology of strategic planning of foreign economic activity allows you to compensate for investments in new resources by increasing the number of operations carried out eliminating delays and attracting new customers as a result of improving the client's perception of the quality of service. During the audit, it was possible to determine that the delays created in the activities of support systems increase their negative impact on the process, consuming the slack of many actions of the central system and delaying their implementation, negatively affecting foreign economic activity. The model will be useful for enterprises engaged in foreign trade.

The reform of economic management systems should be recognized as a long-term process, with gradual enhancements and innovations made in practical application, ultimately promoting sustainable enterprise development. This study delves into the internal mechanics of enterprise economic management innovation, primarily examining the aspects of planning and organization, within manufacturing enterprises like Midea Group. This paper extensively explores the relationship between the formulation and management of long-term and short-term plans, the philosophy of management, the current state of production management, and the overall development strategy within the field of enterprise economic management. It primarily emphasizes the following three points: 1) Enterprises must adjust their management philosophy to align with their development trajectory, the dynamically changing market competition landscape, and the evolving contours of the contemporary environment; 2) The trajectory from low-efficiency to high-efficiency production management is closely linked to the production budget and decision-making processes of enterprises; 3) The prevalence of internal strategic management within enterprises and the optimization level of resource allocation play a pivotal role in measuring the innovation quotient of internal planning management. Simultaneously, this paper places significant emphasis on the analysis of organizational innovation structures, indicating that enterprises should establish sound management systems to enhance internal efficiency and competitiveness. Moreover, enterprises should align themselves with market dynamics and trends, avoiding risky behaviors to ensure the long-term success of economic management practices. Additionally, enterprises must continually innovate and adjust organizational structures to adapt to market changes and development requirements, thereby achieving sustained growth.

This article delves into the strategic imperative for Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs) to align with the European Education Area (EEA), a process underscored by the Ukrainian Strategy for the Development of Higher Education for 2022-2032. The integration into the EEA promises manifold advantages for Ukrainian education, economy, and society, including adherence to European standards, accreditation recognition, and expanded opportunities for students and educators. This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of recent research and publications, highlighting the need for innovation in higher education to enhance the competitiveness of Ukrainian science in the European context. The article stresses the role of HEIs in forming an innovative infrastructure that interlinks their internal structure and external relations, thereby enhancing educational outcomes. The article identifies key unresolved issues, including the systematic and purposeful process of educational innovation required for effective integration into the EEA. The paper sets objectives focused on creating conditions for seamless integration into European educational standards and approaches. It also presents a detailed analysis of the European experience in innovation, highlighting various programs and areas that aid in the integration of European higher education. Furthermore, the article discusses the negative factors impacting innovation management in Ukrainian universities due to European integration, ranging from funding discrepancies to the impact of war. Conversely, it also outlines the strengths of Ukrainian universities, such as their resilient adaptability and strong STEM foundations, which can be leveraged in the context of European integration. In conclusion, the paper argues that the integration of Ukrainian higher education into the EEA is a strategic step that requires a comprehensive and systematic approach. It calls for future research to analyze the synergies and discrepancies between European and Ukrainian educational standards and to examine international risk management practices in educational governance.

Russian war against Ukraine turns to challenge for the whole world. The full scope of consequences is difficult to assess now, but some of them have been already clear. As a result, the world economy is under exposures of inflation, disruptions on GDP growth, food and energy crises and further supply-chain pressures. Energy prices volatility adds uncertainty to the whole system of socio-economic relations. Energy turns to weapon against the world stability. The paper concentrates on the idea that current situation in the energy sector calls for a prompt reaction on challenges, including war consequences. That, in turn, requires sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) and financial innovations for immediately energy transformation, which is an essential element for sustainable competitiveness of countries. It is also crucial not to lose a track for net zero emissions by 2050. Such investment which combines financial goals with ecological, social and governance issues are covered by umbrella term “sustainable investment”. Sustainable investment became a strong trend on global financial market, which is popular with institutional and private investors. Investment in renewable energy is a part of SRI and countries’ sustainable competitiveness depends on the SRI volumes. The research is aimed at studying interconnection between SRI and energy transformation on the way to sustainable competitiveness. The processes on the global energy market are investigated and main weak points which are sources of risks for the world economy are defined. Three significant energy-related weak points turned into risks for the world are highlighted: the level of dependency from imported gas (for European countries dependency from Russian gas in particular); energy prices volatility; energy structure (nonrenewable vs renewable). It is generalized governmental approaches in the sphere of energy transformation driven by a combination of energy security concerns and climate ambitions. The paper contains an assumption about correlation between SRI and countries’ sustainable competitiveness.

Relevance of the research topic. The globalization threats of modernity determine the extreme urgency of the problem of ensuring the national security of any state. A new large-scale challenge for national security of Ukraine was the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a large-scale war that began on February 24, 2022. Under conditions of military aggression, the role and significance of the further development of security are enhanced. Formulation of the problem. Given the relevance and need to deepen the theoretical foundations of security, especially in the context of current warfare, as well as the conceptual definition of mechanisms (tools) for ensuring security in various areas, scientific intelligence of individual components, in particular, economic and financial security, their multi-stage and multi-level nature as economic security studies are required. Analysis of recent research and publications. Such scientists as O. I. Baranovskyi [1], T. H. Vasyltsiv [5], О. А. Grishnova [12], D. V. Nikytenko [8], S. V. Onyshchenko [9], Yu. M. Kharazishvili [12], S. M. Shkarlet [11] and others devoted their works to the study of the problems of economic and financial security. The results of our own scientific research on the problem of economic and financial security are given in [2-4]. Highlighting unexplored parts of the general problem. Despite the existing scientific developments in solving these issues, the relevance and the need for their early study and solution, the issues of multi-stage and multi-level security of Ukraine, in particular, economic and financial security, appropriate and full-fledged scientific studies have not been received and considered mostly fragmentary, which actualizes the topic of research and is (should be) the further development of economic security. Statement of the problem, and the purpose of the study. The subject of the paper is the theoretical, methodical, and methodological aspects of Ukraine's multi-stage and multi-level security, particularly economic and financial security. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the essence and substantiate the theoretical foundations of the multi-stage and multi-level security of the state on the example of the economic and financial security of the state. Method and methodology of research. In the process of conducting scientific research, both general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge were used. In particular, scientific research methods were used: dialectical — to substantiate the content of theoretical provisions; abstract-logical — to determine the essence of the security of the state and its main economic and financial components; hypothetical-deductive — to build the main working hypotheses about the multi-stage security of the state; system-structural analysis and synthesis — to identify the multi-level composition of economic and financial security. Scope of the results. It is expedient to use the obtained scientific conclusions and results in scientific activities and further study of the actual problems of economic security, in the educational and scientific process of higher education institutions in the preparation of specialists in the specialty 8.18010014 "Management of financial and economic security", in the field of economic and financial security. Conclusions. The role and place of economic and financial security in the system of national security in globalization threats, in particular, in the conditions of military aggression, are determined and disclosed. The author's definition of the science of economic security as an interdisciplinary science about the essence, regularities, and ways of effective protection of national interests from real and potential, exogenous and endogenous threats is given. The multi-stage and multi-level security of the state is determined by the example of the economic and financial components of the security of Ukraine.

In terms of the formation of the world trade multipolar system, the issues concerning the implementation of a protectionist trade policy appear especially acute and are the primary focus of both theorists and practitioners. This paper primarily aims to explore trade protectionism in the global economy in conditions of multipolarity, to identify the vectors of the war in Ukraine's influence on policy in the sphere of food trade, to determine the origins of the WTO crisis in the system of multilateral regulation of international trade and to assess the prospects of further ensuring free trade doctrines, which is based on combinatorial approach and included the calculation of quantitative indicators of foreign trade restrictiveness and estimation of qualitative parameters of shifts in foreign trade policy. The empirical findings indicate high dynamism of increasing new trade restrictions, in particular export ones, caused at first by the COVID-19 pandemic and later by the war in Ukraine; slow but constant increase in import restrictions, so that at the end of 2022 9% of global import was affected by import restrictions; growth in export restrictive measures on food, feed and fertilizers as a response to food security challenges, caused by the war in Ukraine. The current paper reveals the necessity to take into account import dependence indicators and import capacity of export in formulating vectors of transformation of foreign trade policy towards national production support in the context of economic nationalism ideology. The authors emphasize the importance of the WTO dispute settlement system and the failures in its implementation call into question the possibility of organization functioning in the existing format, particularly as the number and spread of RTAs surged. Prospects for further research in this area are the assessment of macroeconomic effects and threats of the unilateral opening of the Ukrainian economy for imports against the background of the protectionist policy of "main players" of the world economy, determination of the potential of the protectionist policy of selective types of economic activity implementation in the conditions of post-war recovery.

The paper highlights the results of scientific research on the issues of training highly qualified logistics and supply chain managers, justification of directions, and development of practical mechanisms for its improvement. The paper is based on scientific literature analysis, comparative analysis, and case study research. It is established that modern global trends and changes in society and the economy lead to the emergence of more extended requirements for the training of highly qualified managers able to effectively perform specific types of work in accordance with the needs of society and the labour market in the field of logistics and supply chain. In this context, the issues of applying a competency approach when training future logistics and supply chain managers and the formation of a competency model that meets the modern requirements of the labour market are considered. A review of scientific literature has been carried out regarding the main theoretical foundations of forming competences and competencies in the process of professional training of logistics and supply chain managers. Attention is focused on the need to form basic core competencies, including models of basic professional competences and competencies that are key ones in the professional activity of specialists. The main models of competencies of the company's specialists, which make it possible to ensure effective management of modern companies, are highlighted. The experience of training future logistics and supply chain managers in Ukraine is studied. The expediency of applying a competency approach when training future logistics and supply chain managers in Ukraine is substantiated. A conceptual model of a multi-level national system of professional training of logistics and supply chain specialists is proposed. A T-shaped model of the competencies of modern logistics and supply chain managers is developed.

The article assesses and forecasts the impact of corruption on the state's economic security. By using theoretical and historical analysis the paper substantiates the relevance of studying the corruption influence on the state's economic security in war conditions and establishes the importance of such activity in the conditions of Ukraine's European integration aspirations. The article reveals the main reasons for the high level of corruption and the corruption of the highest-level officials. Moreover, the article offers a methodology for assessing the impact of corruption on the economic security of the state and forecasting the level of this impact. The methodology consists in calculating the values of several indicators that reflect the impact of corruption on public activity and the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures and forecasting the value of these indicators for the future period to establish the level of influence of corruption on the economic security of the state. Because of using the methodology, the paper calculates the index of perception of corruption in Ukraine in dynamics and contains a forecast of its value for the period of 2023-2027. Therefore, the study determined the level of the shadow economy in Ukraine and the forecast for the period of 2023-2027. Moreover, the article calculated the index of ease of doing business in Ukraine, and its forecast for the next 5-year period. The final stage of the analysis was the establishment of the dynamics of the index of economic freedom for business representatives in Ukraine, in addition to the feasibility of forecasting this index for the period 2023-2027. The results of empirical calculations made it possible to establish the level of influence of corruption manifestations on the state's economic security during the war. Accordingly, forecasting the values of these indicators makes it possible to assess post-war trends and their impact on the state's economic security in order to counter potential threats and eliminate them in a timely manner.

The paper examines the risk-return ratio of the ESG ETF as a basis for developing an investment strategy that has become necessary due to the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. ESG Investing is taking into account environmental, sociological and governance factors along with financial factors when making investment decisions. ETF Investing means an index fund whose shares are traded on an exchange. Research has shown that almost 75% of respondents around the world integrate ESG and ETF into their investment approach. The ESG segment demonstrates an increase in investment attractiveness mainly due to the assumption of sustainability. Therefore, the hypothesis of stability in the shock period was a prerequisite for our study. One of the methods used was comparative analysis. Different approaches to risk assessment helped to analyze each group along with the expected return. Among the basic concepts of measuring financial risks in the theory of expected utility, the concept of variability, the concept of sensitivity and the concept of losses in adverse situations, the study focuses on identifying variability and assessing losses in adverse situations. The results were evaluated and compared before and after the shock. This paper also studied a pair of indicators characterizing the shock period, namely the depth of shock and the level of recovery to assess the risk-return ratio directly in the shock period. The results showed differences in risk assessments. The main overall consequence is that ESG ETFs are likely to be affected by shocks, but in the post-shock period there is a fairly rapid recovery. Applying risk-return analysis methodologies, we came to the following conclusions: ETFs show an increase in risks, the pandemic did not change catastrophically, which contributed to a rapid recovery. The study has shown that the dynamics of the risk-return ratio for investments with high implementation of the principle of E, S, G is growing. The results obtained can be applied in the practice of forming portfolio investment strategies.

Relevance of research topic. In modern conditions of globalization and strengthening the international integration processes, the enterprises foreign economic activity (FEA) acquires strategic importance for their further development. Formulation of the problem. Today, one of the problems facing business entities in their foreign economic activity is the lack of an effective mechanism for its financial regulation. Taking into account the leading role of financial and economic factors in the management of the foreign economic activity, such a mechanism would allow enterprises to implement effectively their foreign economic strategy and improve their competitive positions in the foreign markets. Analysis of recent research and publications. The problems of financial mechanisms and financial regulation are the subject of research in the professional scientific literature on the theory of finance. Certain issues related to the financial regulation of enterprises’ foreign economic activity are studied in scientific papers on foreign economic activity, financial management, foreign economic activity management, strategic management of the foreign economic activity. Selection of unexplored parts of the general problem. A thorough study must be conducted on the specifics of financial regulation of foreign economic activity at the level of business entities, as well as on the creation and functioning of a financial self-regulation mechanism in foreign economic activity. Setting the task, the purpose of the study. Developing a mechanism of financial regulation of business entities foreign economic activity, and studying its components, taking into account the peculiarities of financial regulation of foreign economic activity at the micro-level. Method or methodology for conducting research. System and structural approach, method of logical analysis, method of graphic analysis, method of comparison, method of structuring. Presentation of the main material (results of work). The paper substantiates the feasibility of creating a separate mechanism on the enterprises carrying out foreign economic activity, aimed at its financial regulation. Based on the analysis of the domestic legal framework and scientific research on foreign economic activity and enterprise finances, the features of financial regulation of business entities foreign economic activity are determined, which should be taken into account when building an appropriate mechanism. The mechanism of financial regulation of business entities foreign economic activity is developed and its components are investigated. The field of application of results. Scientific research of the problems of financial regulation of business entities foreign economic activity, the educational process (in the preparation of the relevant sections of textbooks and tutorials for courses "Finance", "Foreign economic activity"). Conclusions according to the article. When forming the mechanism of financial regulation of business entities foreign economic activity, the peculiarities of such a regulation at the business entities level should be taken into account. The structure of the mechanism of financial regulation of business entities foreign economic activity is built based on its belonging to the general mechanism of enterprise management, the mechanism of foreign economic activity management, the financial mechanism of enterprises, and the monetary-financial mechanism of foreign economic activity. The structure includes financial management of business entity foreign economic activity as a set of target, functional, providing, and management subsystems, as well as a subsystem of financial levers through which the influences on foreign economic activity are made, and a direct regulation subsystem. Along with the key role of state regulation, the enterprises’ managers must make and implement independent decisions, develop their own systems of financial regulation of foreign economic activity at the corporate level.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the issues of openness and transparency of the budgeting process in the defense and security sector in Ukraine, which results in effective spending of budgets. After Russia started a full-scale war against Ukraine, the international community is providing Ukraine with numerous financial support packages and ammunition. Therefore, one of the most important issues is strengthening the democratic control over the budget process in the defense and security sector of Ukraine, taking into account the new principles of information openness and its classification as a state secret. Here, the need to develop standards for transparent budgeting and the introduction of an open indicative system for monitoring and evaluating the budget process in the defense and security sector is particularly relevant. The article provides an empirical description, uses data obtained from expert discussions and multidimensional evaluation approaches on openness and transparency of the budget process in the defense and security sector to enhance the effectiveness of military budget spending. The paper develops conceptual approaches to ensuring the efficient use of budgetary resources in the defense and security sector by generalizing the practical implementation of the open and transparent budgeting principles, development of effective mechanisms for budget oversight, and compliance with standards of public accountability. The paper focuses on the need for the implementation of budget transparency standards referring to the priorities of the Military Security Strategy of Ukraine with particular attention to the issues of openness and transparency of financial reporting at budgetary institutions. The study proves the prospects for the introduction of transparent budgeting standards in the defense and security sector, which is a fundamentally new approach able to strengthen corruption prevention and, in combination with other hybrid defense tactics, the military provision. The study is performed under the project “Openness and transparency of budgeting in the defense and security sector of Ukraine”, supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The article analyzes and systemizes current studies of leading world scientists on maritime economics and seaborne trade with the aim to reveal current trends and venues for future researches in this field. Special attention is paid to researches evaluating how the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic impacted shipping industry as a main global supplier of goods. All studies under review are conceptually grouped into two main branches. The first branch comprises papers focused on the world seaborne trade data dynamics, including official maritime reports. As opposed to Ukrainian and Russian maritime economics papers which predominantly describe and portray the statistical data available in official maritime reports issued by international organizations and shipping services providers, leading world scholars use this statistics as a baseline for individualized researches, mainly focused on investigation of correlation between various shipping indicators and prediction of same. The second branch comprises papers investigating trade of certain types of cargo, such as containers, crude oil, dry bulk. Several general peculiarities of both branches of researches are defined. Almost all of them attempt to provide an insight into the nature of a freight rate and to forecast the development of either general freight market or specific cargo related one. The utilized methodology is also identical. Depending on the aim of research and data availability, scholars employ various models of regression analysis, a standard tool of statistical modeling, which estimates the average relationship between two or more variables. No matter which freight market is under investigation, studies usually try to examine the connection of this market with others by evaluating the spillover effects between vessel types and vessel sizes. Distinguishing features of researches lie in the target stakeholders who could benefit from, either the industry in general or particular groups of market participants. In addition, nowcasting trade data is a real problem raised by the industry to modern science, which tries to tackle it by proposing innovative digitalized solutions.

The paper focuses on the acute problems of systemic financial risk in the economy of China posed by the real estate sector. In the event of collapse, the world's second-largest economy of this Asian giant, deeply integrated into the global system, can trigger spillover effects and a new global economic crisis. It is therefore important to deepen understanding of the internal mechanisms of systemic financial risk accumulation in the Chinese economy. We research the microfinancial roots of systemic financial risk and macroeconomic mechanisms of its accumulation and materialisation after it has reached a critical level. Microfinancial roots of systemic risks are connected with excessive growth of financial leverage. We suggest a mathematical model of the optimal level of financial leverage and its safety threshold for the companies in the real sector including the construction and development sector. On the macro level, the paper presents a comprehensive dynamic scheme of non-linear relationships in the real estate industry, which unwind self-reinforcing cycles and lead to the accumulation of systemic financial risks. The main driving force of these processes is the institutional mechanism that we call collateral accelerator. Under certain conditions, it plays the role of a powerful internal destabiliser of the economic system and provokes the unwinding of self-reinforcing cycles in the real estate market, the households’ finance, development companies, and the banking system. The results of the research can help shape the optimal macroprudential regulatory measures to minimise systemic financial risks and ensure financial stability without suppressing economic growth.

The paper assumes that deportation is one of the kinds of migration, particularly forced migration, e.g. refugees. The necessity of research arises as millions of people were affected by deportation last century and much more previously. Even nowadays, deportation still occurs. Nevertheless, it has little attention from publicity, specifically from political and scientific communities. Therefore, the paper aims to provide theoretical justification and reveal historical evidence to describe this practice, its purpose and scale, and its impact on deportees. We pursue that deportation has to receive more attention, especially from international organisations like the UN and IOM. Special bodies within this organisation have to be created to help victims of deportation, similar to refugees. The paper starts with building up the theoretical justification by analysis of definitions of "deportation" provided by other authors, its characteristics and peculiarities. Further, we continue with the comparison of deportation and other types of forced migration. Finally, we provide a definition of deportation. The second part of the paper reveals historical evidence of deportation from ancient history to modern times, including nowadays.

Under modern conditions, the problem of achieving marketing and business goals is actualized for companies in all sectors of the economy. Digital marketing plays a key role in effectively solving this problem. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the features of the development of digital marketing tools in the context of product promotion on social media platforms. The article highlights the features of planning and implementation of digital marketing in the context of the tasks of promoting goods and services in the digital space. The key role of digital marketing in the implementation of the company's marketing and business tasks is emphasized. The paper highlights a number of trends in the development of digital marketing tools in the context of digitization and changes in the socio-economic environment. The importance of considering the evolution of digital marketing tools in the context of the development of the exogenous and endogenous environment is emphasized. The directions of changes in the digital marketing paradigm are outlined in historical retrospect. The stages of the evolution of digital marketing in the context of marketing and market management are formulated. It is proposed to consider digital marketing as a new paradigm of company management in the conditions of comprehensive digitalization. The peculiarities of digital marketing in terms of individual social networks have been revealed. It is proposed to profile the main social media according to close criteria, which made it possible to place them in priority places in the configuration of the digital marketing company's complex. The most advanced toolkit of digital marketing is considered. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the efficiency principle in the development of the company's digital marketing complex within the framework of the tasks of promoting goods and services in social networks. The results of this study may be useful to practicing marketers, marketing directors, top managers and owners of small and large businesses, and researchers in the field of digital marketing. Prospects for further research are the analysis of the features of the use of digital marketing tools to strengthen the integration of digital channels, as well as the identification of the features of digital marketing tools during a period of significant socio-economic turbulence in Ukraine.

This paper reports the results of neuromarketing research for artworks. It was conducted among young people, students of non-art specialties, for nine different widely known art pieces with the help of eyetracking and emotional scanning equipment. The aim of the experiment is to determine (1) whether viewers concentrate more on the representational art compared to abstracts art, (2) whether any correlation between the viewing time and the evoked emotions exists, and (3) whether there is any difference between the monitored emotions and those people articulate (in other words, to what extend artwork viewers tell the truth). The result demonstrates a slightly higher preference in looking at the representational paintings. But we do not notice any correlation between the subjective liking of the painting and the time spent looking at it. An essential difference is recorded for the emotions fixed technically and those reported by the viewers. The paper also suggests several implications for gallery marketing.

The aim of this article is to reveal the main reasons for the irrational behaviour of economic agents during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in terms of behavioural economics and opportunities for change such a behaviour. The article reveals the approaches that were used in 2020 and continue to be used today as the main ones to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection. Despite the existence of such prescriptions, the infection continues to spread and causes negative socio-economic consequences. Thus, the main reasons, the resistance of citizens to the measures recommended by governments around the world and the manifestation of deviant behaviour among the seemingly “rational” economic agents were analyzed. The main reasons and possible factors for changing such a behaviour are the postulates of behavioural economics, such as the effect of reinforcement effect, conservative bias, confirmation bias, conditional cooperation, the preference of beliefs consonance. In addition, this paper provides a brief overview of some post-material values of Ukrainian society based on global research and offers an assessment of the dependence of these values on the incidence of COVID-19 and an explanation in terms of behavioural economics. The article notes that the presence of certain established views on the “normality” of preventive antivirus measures may affect the propensity or the lack of propensity to adhere to the necessary protective behaviour by economic agents. The research methods are descriptive, analytical, methods of synthesis and comparison. As a result of the analysis, the article proposes a comprehensive approach to men’s behaviour during the pandemic according to behavioural economics. The study concludes that the main task to improve the effectiveness of preventive measures for the spread of COVID-19 today is to understand the causes of irrational behaviour in new circumstances in terms of behavioural economics and apply the theory of “pushing” or “nudging” to form positive social economic change. It is suggested to use this paper for further and deeper practical research of certain aspects of changing people`s behaviour for better work effectiveness and wellbeing.

The work is devoted to describing an application of the DeGroot model in the following analysis: is it possible to establish a consensus of opinions of members in a social group (a society). This model describes the process of changing the agents’ opinion about a certain event or statement, factoring in the effect of interpersonal trust between agents, which is modelled by Markov chains. Agents’ opinions are represented by the probability of them showing their support to a given statement (event). The interpretation of the DeGroot model is quite broad. It includes, in particular, the study of economic decision-making, the influence of public opinion on people and the fact of achieving a consensus. The paper considers the conditions under which the process of updating the opinions of agents, belonging to a social group (network), converges to a certain limit value - a consensus, i.e. a case when all agents in a social group have the same opinion on a particular issue. We also show some generalizations of the DeGroot model, namely those that concern adding time dependency to the rules of updating the opinions of agents. To test the DeGroot model, we implemented the two-dimensional case as a dynamic Microsoft Excel workbook. The paper describes 2 types of problems related to reaching a consensus, solved with the model. The first kind of problem constitutes an analysis of possibilities of obtaining the desired consensus with a given matrix of trust (interpersonal trust of agents), whilst changing the initial group members’ opinions vector about an event (statement). We also discuss a solution of the inverse problem: find the trust matrix such that the iterative opinion update process converges to the desired consensus with a given initial vector of opinions. The results we obtained may be used for analyzing the process of managing public (collective) opinion concerning certain economic decisions in a social group (network).

The paper discusses the applicability of the two main methods for solving the linear regression (LR) problem in the presence of multicollinearity – the OLS and the ridge methods. We compare the solutions obtained by these methods with the solution calculated by the Modified OLS (MOLS) [1; 2]. Like the ridge, the MOLS provides a stable solution for any level of data collinearity. We compare three approaches by using the Monte Carlo simulations, and the data used is generated by the Artificial Data Generator (ADG) [1; 2]. The ADG produces linear and nonlinear data samples of arbitrary size, which allows the investigation of the OLS equation's regularization problem. Two possible regularization versions are the COV version considered in [1; 2] and the ST version commonly used in the literature and practice. The performed investigations reveal that the ridge method in the COV version has an approximately constant optimal regularizer (λ_opt≈0.1) for any sample size and collinearity level. The MOLS method in this version also has an approximately constant optimal regularizer, but its value is significantly smaller (λ_opt≈0.001). On the contrary, the ridge method in the ST version has the optimal regularizer, which is not a constant but depends on the sample size. In this case, its value needs to be set to λ_opt≈0.1 (n-1). With such a value of the ridge parameter, the obtained solution is strictly the same as one obtained with the COV version but with the optimal regularizer λ_opt≈0.1 [1; 2]. With such a choice of the regularizer, one can use any implementation of the ridge method in all known statistical software by setting the regularization parameter λ_opt≈0.1(n-1) without extra tuning process regardless of the sample size and the collinearity level. Also, it is shown that such an optimal ridge(0.1) solution is close to the population solution for a sample size large enough, but, at the same time, it has some limitations. It is well known that the ridge(0.1) solution is biased. However, as it has been shown in the paper, the bias is economically insignificant. The more critical drawback, which is revealed, is the smoothing of the population solution – the ridge method significantly reduces the difference between the population regression coefficients. The ridge(0.1) method can result in a solution, which is economically correct, i.e., the regression coefficients have correct signs, but this solution might be inadequate to a certain extent. The more significant the difference between the regression coefficients in the population, the more inadequate is the ridge(0.1) method. As for the MOLS, it does not possess this disadvantage. Since its regularization constant is much smaller than the corresponding ridge regularizer (0.001 versus 0.1), the MOLS method suffers little from both the bias and smoothing of its solutions. From a practical point of view, both the ridge(0.1) and the MOLS methods result in close stable solutions to the LR problem for any sample size and collinearity level. With the sample size increasing, both solutions approach the population solution. We also demonstrate that for a small sample size of less than 40, the ridge(0.1) method is preferable, as it is more stable. When the sample size is medium or large, it is preferable to use the MOLS as it is more accurate yet has approximately the same stability.

The paper explores the potential of CRM as a strategic element (along with performance, customer and bank perspectives, and demographic changes) for employee retention (using the Indian banking system as an example). The banking industry was chosen for this study because it is a service sector where transactions involving sensitive products (financial instruments) attract maximum attention from both employees and customers in the long run. To achieve this goal, the authors identified the main factors of customer relationship management that make it effective. The study investigated the relationship between CRM practices, the efficiency of banking operations, and the retention of bank employees. The analysis showed that bank employees have a much greater potential to influence the effectiveness of its activities than clients. Therefore, banks’ management should pay more attention to the recruitment of personnel, not only to the CRM system. The article specifically investigated the rationality of the relationship between CRM, bank branch efficiency, employee retention, and demographic variables. This allowed for several options for banks’ strategies in forming a stable staff of employees to be proposed. An important result of the study was the justification of the modification and addition of the ISM (Interpretive Structural Modelling) mechanism, which received a new name - RISM (Rational Interpretive Structural Modelling). Without violating the basic rules of ISM, the new mechanism allows to achieve better results, as it enables the development of a strategy for independent variables with a more accurate prediction of results.

Most publications justify that digitalization is a source of economic growth, to a greater extent in the countries with higher levels of economic development. However, some papers fail to find empirical evidence supporting this claim, attributing it to digitalization being in its initial stages or to the presence of the digitalization paradox. Economic literature exhibits a degree of ambiguity in its conclusions regarding the role of the digital economy in growth. Researchers employ different measures of digitalization, country and year samples, control variables in regression equation, as well as different regression methods, which can provoke ambiguous effects on the parameters of digital variables. The purpose of the article is to identify the role of digitalization in economic growth by justifying an economic growth model with the digitalization index and providing detailed discussions on our sample of countries over recent years, along with options for regression estimators. The article utilizes statistical data from the World Bank, European Commission, and Heritage Foundation. Methods such as system analysis, statistical analysis, and the regression estimator of panel data with fixed effects are implemented to identify the role of digitalization in economic growth. We have designed an economic growth model incorporating the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) of EU member states for the years 2017-2022, utilizing available data. The results reveal a positive and significant causal effect of digitization on gross output growth. Specifically, a 1% increase in the digitalization index results in GDP growth of almost 0.2%. Moreover, we observe the important roles of capital, labor, trade, human capital, and intellectual property rights in driving growth, consistent with the theory of endogenous growth. Proving the importance of digitalization for economic growth can be an argument for policies aimed at promoting digitalization. We suggest further research on the role of digitalization at a more disaggregated level of industries. However, our study does not demonstrate a statistically significant effect of research activity and institutional quality on gross output. We have discussed possible reasons for this and propose further research in these areas.

The development of companies is characterised by the adoption of certain stages of business development, the availability of resources and outcomes. This developmental process is inherently cyclical, requiring companies to remain flexible and adaptive continuously. Each phase of the life cycle is characterised by unique challenges, perspectives and inherent features that require strategic modifications to maintain and enhance competitiveness. A holistic interpretation that integrates both life cycle phases and strategic approaches is necessary for a thorough understanding of a company’s success and market performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore the correlation between the dominant strategy employed by industry leaders, known as “inflexible hippos,” and the various stages of the organizational life cycle. The research objects are the dominant strategy “inflexible hippos” and the ten phases of the organizational life cycle: Courtship, Infant, Go-go, Adolescence, Prime, Maturity, Aristocracy, Early bureaucracy, Bureaucracy, and Death. The subject of the research is to verify the existence of a connection and its type between the research objects. The objective of the study is to ascertain the existence and nature of the connection between these research objects. The research methodology employed morphological, analytical, statistical assessment, and comparative analysis techniques. By comparing morphological statements formulated with expert input, evidence was found regarding the existence and significance of the correlation strength. The study revealed that the correlation between competitive strategy and the phases of the company’s life cycle is strongest in the “Maturity” and “Aristocracy” phases, which dictate the sequence of organizational development. The tightest connection with direct independent mutual influence is observed in the “Go-Go”, “Adolescence”, “Prime”, “Reconstruction”, and “Bureaucracy” phases. The context dependence of this correlation characterizes ongoing change processes: the company retains old features of organizational development while simultaneously acquiring new ones. Evaluating the timeliness and efficiency of managerial decision-making based on the alignment of competitive strategy with the company’s life cycle, influenced by both external and internal factors, is a critical stage in the company’s development process. This study can help companies to develop more effective competitive strategies that respond to their current needs. This can lead to improving companies’ competitiveness, selecting appropriate and effective project actions and their success in the market.

In today’s conditions, we can observe distinctive features of soft and hard skills, which are presented for specialists of different professions. The purpose of the article is to develop an innovative approach to managing specialist qualifications by defining a skills index. Based on this goal, the paper solves the following research tasks of the article: - generalization of research to substantiate the characteristics and components of soft, hard, self and digital skills of a specialist; - substantiation of the conceptual foundations of the specialist skills index to determine the level of knowledge and skills. Professionals across various industries often wonder what essential skills are needed to grow and prosper in business. Debates continue about the choice between collaboration, adaptability, or professionalism with technical skills. The development of personal and professional skills through education, training and meaningful work are key factors in the economic success of the state, individual well-being and social cohesion. The methodological foundation of this study relies on a systematic approach, enabling the examination of a specialist’s skills index. To calculate this index, it’s imperative to construct a questionnaire comprising four skill groups: soft, hard, self, and digital. This will allow us to summarize the results and make calculations. Skills enumerated in the questionnaire are appraised for their importance via expert evaluation method. The list of skills and the weighting criterion should be adjusted for a particular study. The skills index of a specialist will range from a minimum of 0.5 to a maximum of 1. Lower values of this index indicate a lack of necessary skills, and it is also possible to see in which group of skills there are «bottlenecks». After assessing the skills index, specialists, experts, or employees are divided into three conventional sectors: blue, yellow, and pink. The Blue sector includes people who have a wide range of skills (the index is greater than 0.5). Once in this sector, employees receive many benefits, such as bonuses, social packages, gifts, etc. This area continues to be actively developed. The «pink sector» encompasses people with an index value below 0.5, typically representing critical limits due to minimal skill levels. The intermediate sector consists of «promising employees» who constitute potential reserves and are actively engaged in developing their personal talents and abilities. It is undeniable that a well-formed set of soft, hard, self, and digital skills in a professional activity will ensure competitiveness in the labor market not only presently but also in the future.

Relevance. Enhancing the development of the machinery manufacturing sector significantly contributes to realizing sustainable economic development goals, thereby fostering sustainable growth opportunities across various scales, ranging from local to global. The active advancement of the machine-building sector, which serves as the foundation for sustainable societal progress, demands careful consideration of key factors for the effective operation of machinery manufacturing enterprises with investments being one of the foremost. This highlights the imperative for comprehensive research into the tangible impact of investments in securing the sustainable growth of machine-building businesses. Objective. The paper targets the conduct of analytical research on investment practices and approaches adopted by machine-building enterprises in European Union countries to specify the key investment factors for their sustainable development. Methods. The research is based on both general scientific and specialized methods of economic theory, including methods of theoretical synthesis and comparative analysis. Throughout the research, statistical data from the European Union regarding the operation and performance of machinery manufacturing enterprises were utilized and processed using analysis methods, including comparison, grouping, calculation of averages, and absolute growth. Furthermore, a rating methodology was implemented to identify European Union member states exhibiting the most favorable indicators about the status and dynamics of the machine-building industry. Results. A comprehensive analysis of contemporary scholarly advancements regarding the examination of the role of investments and effective methodologies for their implementation within the machine manufacturing industry was conducted. A grouping of 22 European Union member states was undertaken based on the criteria of the number of machine-building enterprises and indicators of its absolute growth over a ten-year temporal span. The 22 EU member states are grouped by the parameters of the number of machine-building enterprises and their absolute growth over a tenyear period. The average revenue and gross income per enterprise in the selected countries of the European Union’s machinery sector were studied, and based on the results, a ranking was conducted. Utilizing the established ranking of the top selected countries, a comprehensive analysis of key investment indicators was conducted, focusing on parameters that include investments in tangible assets, machinery and equipment, as well as human resources. An overview of investment practices by machinery manufacturing enterprises was undertaken, resulting in the identification of their respective strengths and weaknesses.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of freight transportation, the key management systems and outsourcing strategies should be developed for best results, including the whole process optimizations, costs reduction as well as market competitivity improvement. In this paper, the authors seek to explore via in-depth study the subtle intricacies of the link between Supply Chain Management (SCM) decisions and the choice to outsource, in order to unearth unique considerations that will guide important strategic choices in the industry. This research first embodies a systematic literature review and theory and empirical study as well as practical cases from the real world. Finally, the authors present multi-dimensioning implications and practical policy recommendations for supply chain management related to outsourcing initiatives. This research emphasizes the criticality of coordinating the SCM and the strategy for outsourcing to businesses that may be major players in the road and rail freight transportation sector. Strategy mapping generates both operational efficiency and adaptability as well as robustness which becomes a tool to tackle the complications of international supply chains thus allowing the enterprises to respond gracefully to dynamic markets. However, the research also highlights three factors of collaborative partnership, technological integration, and continuous improvement that determine the management and the supply chain outsourcing. Through creation of collaborative governance models, the deployment of advanced tech tools including AI, IoT and blockchain in addition to providing a culture a learning and improvisation, businesses can enhance their supply chain and outperform their competitors in the market space. This research is a contributory factor, revealing the strategic consequences of balancing SCM and outsourcing for the businesses, policymakers, and stakeholders of the industry. It is a point of discussion related to a demand from enterprises for strategic planning processes and governance arrangements to take into account the SCM and outsourcing synergies. Moreover, it emphasizes the fact that administrators should be able to put in place regulations seen to enhance collaborations, discoveries, and funding to the technological projects. Lastly, this research covered deeply all SCM-outsource aspects in this industry freight transportation. Through the extensive observation and the change of the suggested strategies, companies can create new openings for development, innovation, and sustainability in the midst of the world’s supply and logistics environment that is ever changing.

The article explores the strategic importance of intellectual property (IP) insurance within the rapidly evolving technological and digital landscape. By emphasizing the novelty of applying IP rights insurance for Ukrainian enterprises and the insurance companies themselves, the authors examine the prerequisites for the emergence and development of IP rights insurance in Ukraine. The research was conducted through a detailed study and analysis of the operational experience of transport and logistics companies. The paper underscores the critical role of IP protection in transport technologies, which is essential for ensuring the competitiveness and innovative development of companies. The authors analyze the specific situations in which transport enterprises should implement IP insurance. They highlight that, especially during wartime, companies face substantial risks of loss due to destruction, theft, or cyber-attacks on their intellectual assets. To manage these risks and mitigate potential losses, insuring intellectual assets is recommended. The authors explore various scenarios where transport company owners can utilize this contemporary business tool effectively. Additionally, the article presents an analysis of the global patent landscape within the transport sector, which provides valuable insights into current trends and developments. The growing demand for IP insurance services in Ukraine reflects the increasing awareness among business owners and top managers regarding the importance of protecting innovations and managing associated risks. The article also discusses trends and modern tendencies in the creation of new insurance products and the expansion of coverage for losses related to the infringement or loss of IP rights. This demonstrates the continuous adaptation of insurance companies to the evolving technological environment. Furthermore, the study identifies the challenges faced by insurance companies in the IP market, emphasizing the necessity for ongoing research to address these challenges. Such research is crucial for ensuring effective protection and fostering the development of innovations on a global scale. The authors conclude that the strategic implementation of IP insurance can significantly contribute to the sustainability and resilience of companies, particularly in high-risk environments. This, in turn, supports broader economic stability and growth by safeguarding the intangible assets that drive innovation and competitive advantage. The need for further scientific exploration and development of specialized insurance products tailored to the unique risks associated with IP underscores the importance of this field in the contemporary business landscape.

This study would be significant, especially for Trade Unions and shipping lines, and to make newcomer professionals more aware of the nature and alternatives available for labour compensation. This paper contributes to readers’ empirical and practice insights on maritime labour, law and professional practices, including management issues and implications. In addition, professionals involved in maritime labour matters like maritime lawyers, mediators, Insurance professionals and Trade Unions. Practically, this paper is structured as a teaching case study. It provides case-related descriptions, industry practices, legislative frameworks, and fundamental teaching rights facilitating as a teaching material, especially for domains on labour tribunals, maritime law, and labour compensation in related human resource aspects. The following objectives were taken into consideration in this teaching case study paper: to follow and assess the gaps where legislation has to meet to receive compensation for seafarer families; to create awareness of the current situation regarding compensation; to determine the future recommendations to make Union work more strategic. This teaching case study would observe the gap between the legislation and what is occurring in the practical scenario after seafarer recruitment during compensation policies. To present this case study, several relevant institutions, programs and scientific research were considered to increase union efficiency. The main conclusion of this paper highlights the importance of the union and the other programs, policies and strategies that should be adopted to make awareness of these issues.

The basis of better organization of production, strengthening the competitiveness of the business entity in the market, the formation of its image in the socio-economic environment is marketing and marketing communications. The article considers the theoretical foundations of the complex of marketing communications of a special purpose airline with consumers of agricultural aviation services. The target consumers for the special purpose airline in the market of agricultural aviation works are agricultural enterprises. This paper proposes the use of aviation method of plant protection, which is effective for both special purpose airlines and agricultural enterprises. The main component of active influence on the target market of agricultural aviation services is the marketing support of a special purpose airline. Using the «four P» and «four C» models in the development of marketing strategies, a set of marketing elements for a special purpose airline is presented and the impact of marketing communications on the activities of a special purpose airline is determined. Each participant in the market of agricultural aviation works gets the effect only when the consumer benefits from the provided aviation services. The paper proposes a scheme of interconnection of participants in the market of agricultural aviation works, which shows the components of the effectiveness of the process of agricultural aviation works for each of its participants. Thus, marketing support for the effectiveness of agricultural aviation work is a measure carried out by a special purpose airline to attract potential consumers (agricultural enterprises) to services developed, implemented and provided in the field of agricultural aviation agricultural aviation works and aimed at attracting consumer attention and information, persuasion, reminders. ways to meet their needs and quality of services, which allows you to compare similar services, stimulate consumer demand. The scheme of realization of a complex of marketing of the airline of special purpose at performance of agricultural aviation works is developed.

The paper reviews information on the formation and development of a new form of employment — digital one — and identifies its impact on the country’s place in the global dimension. The overall objective of the study is to verify the trends of digital employment in Ukraine and assess its place and role in the global distribution of the digital workforce. The literature review indicates a lack of research on the gap between the level of technological development of the country and the use of digital employees in the national economy. This is particularly imperative for developing countries, which technologically remain far behind, and to which Ukraine belongs. The scholars used a certain sequence to conduct the study of this issue, particularly: at first, in accordance with the characteristics of digital employment, the authors identified the types of business where the largest number of digital workplaces is concentrated. Secondly, the researchers analysed the statistical indicators of digital employment in Ukraine for 10 years and revealed the development tendencies of this segment. Thirdly, the study compared the data on employment, wages and the obtainability of the favourable domestic talent development environments for the country of reference and a neighbouring country with a higher level of economic development. Fourthly, the research identified the factors influencing the spread of digital employment and defined the place and role of Ukraine in the global digital landscape. The study uses methods of analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalisation in the verification of digital employment trends, statistical and analytical methodologies in the study of the state and trends inherent in the digital segment of national employment markets. The knowledge base of the research consists of the official statistics of Ukraine, Poland, analytical materials of UNIDO, The World Economic Forum, OECD, Eurostat. The object of the study is the digital segment of the labour markets of Ukraine and Poland, as these countries have similar preconditions for economic development, they are geographically located in Eastern Europe and border each other. At the same time, Poland has a higher level of economic development and is a recipient country for Ukrainian migrant workers. The paper presents the results of empirical analysis, which showed that technological lag is the major precondition for the low demand for digital employment in Ukraine. Accordingly, this determines that Ukraine is basically a resource colony in the digital global environment, which supplies highly qualified digital workers. The experts and practitioners can use the results of the study to elaborate a strategy for the development of Ukraine’s economy in the context of digitalisation.

Agricultural enterprise foreign investment is not only the key to improve the competitiveness of international agricultural products, is also an important measure to ensure national food security, but also conform to the requirements of the national implementation of agricultural enterprise foreign investment strategy layout, and carry out foreign direct investment is an effective way to realize the development of agricultural enterprise foreign investment in our country. This paper uses SWOT analysis to analyze the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and challenges, then select data from 2012-2020, to explore the special law of foreign investment and enterprise internationalization, will help to provide theoretical guidance for the internationalization of agricultural enterprises, research has important theoretical value and practical significance.Agricultural enterprise foreign investment is not only the key to improve the competitiveness of international agricultural products, is also an important measure to ensure national food security, but also conform to the requirements of the national implementation of agricultural enterprise foreign investment strategy layout, and carry out foreign direct investment is an effective way to realize the development of agricultural enterprise foreign investment in our country. This paper uses SWOT analysis to analyze the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and challenges, then select data from 2012-2020, to explore the special law of foreign investment and enterprise internationalization, will help to provide theoretical guidance for the internationalization of agricultural enterprises, research has important theoretical value and practical significance.

Abstract. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed significant structural flaws, caused deterioration of living and labor conditions, and slowed down economic growth paces for both regions and the country as a whole. It makes the domestic economy vulnerable to various stresses that, in turn, increases the vulnerability of financial systems and reduces their financial resilience. The paper aims to analyze the trends and factors causing financial imbalances of regions in economic instability and substantiate the consequences for their economic growth. The theoretical foundations of financial imbalances are expanded by decomposing financial stability, financial vulnerability, and financial instability. The interpretation of the concept of financial imbalances is expanded. The financial imbalances of Ukrainian regions in 2015—2020 are detected based on the suggested algorithm using the selected indicators. Depending on the year and type, the paper reveals the regions with a consistently low level of financial imbalances, high negative level, and a noticeable accumulation of financial imbalances. The causes of their emergence are explained, including the low capacity of the state to secure a sufficient amount of revenues and thus the budget balance, the low quality of planning and executing the budgets, weak relationship between budget programs and strategic priorities of regional development, domination of consumer expenditures over the development expenditures, inadequate public regional policy, falling volume of capital investment and poor investment attractiveness, declining production and thus deteriorating financial results in basic types of activity in the region, falling income of the population at the background of aggravated social tension and growing unemployment. The author suggests arrange of measures to prevent the emergence of financial imbalances and a set of efficient tools to regulate them. The paper emphasizes the need to develop a unified system of indicators in Ukraine similar to the scoreboard in Europe to measure imbalances on both macro and regional levels in order to detect prospective risks of imbalances emergence and expand the opportunities for their elimination or regulation. Keywords: financial imbalances, regional development, financial instability, financial capacity, financial vulnerability. JEL Classification H73, O40, R13 Formulas: 0; fig.: 2; tabl.: 2; bibl.: 16.

Abstract. The article is devoted to the study of the essence and peculiarities of the growth of tax competitiveness of the country in the conditions of a significant amount of shadowing of incomes and legalization of illegally obtained funds. The object of the study is the levels of shadow economy and tax competitiveness of the country. In the paper the 5,348 publications in the Scopus database and 2,036 publications in the WoS database on tax competitiveness and 3,095 and 1,063 publications on the problems of shadowing, respectively, were analyzed. The time horizon of the research was in 1992—2021. On the basis of bibliometric analysis the main directions of research of tax competitiveness and shadowing of economy are defined, the comparative analysis of tendencies of change of quantity of publications on these questions is carried out. It is concluded that the level of research on these issues in international scientometric publications has been significantly intensified since 2003 and 2005. With the help of VOSViewer tools, the main economic categories that are most closely related to the country’s tax competitiveness are identified. Based on the results of the analysis, a hypothesis about the connection between the level of tax competitiveness of the country and the shadowing of the economy was put forward. The article identifies the leading scientific journals indexed by Scopus and WoS databases, in which the most frequently published research questions. It is determined that the majority of the papers on tax competitiveness have been published in high-ranking journals in the first and second quarters. A methodical approach to assessing the relationship between tax competitiveness of the country with the level of its shadow economy is proposed. On the example of EU countries a significant negative impact of economic shadowing on the competitiveness of the country’s tax system has been proven. It is concluded that the implementation of shadow schemes of concealment of income and legalization of illegally obtained income causes significant damage to the amount of tax revenues to the budget. The methodical approach to estimation of losses of the economy from shadow activity is offered in the work. According to the results of the study, measures to de-shadow the economy in the context of increasing the country’s tax competitiveness are proposed, in particular: bringing the domestic regulatory framework to the requirements of the international community, reducing corruption, reducing time spent on filing and filing tax reports, optimizing the tax burden. Keywords: tax competition, shadow economy, state policy, money laundering, bibliometric analysis. JEL Classification O17, E26, H20, H71, F38 Formulas: 1; fig.: 4; tabl.: 4; bibl.: 21.

The paper's main aim is to investigate the relationship between the ESG activities scores and profitability metrics of 33 public companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. By utilizing the Refinitiv methodology, we answer whether a company's environmental, social and governance performance perspectives positively affect the ROA, ROE and ROC ratios or whether there is a negative relationship. A secondary objective of the research is to investigate the relationship between profitability and the magnitude of aggregate-based earnings management in the tested sample. The moderating effect of earnings manipulation on the links between ESG performance and a company's profitability metrics is a research gap that has not been well-studied to date. This research demonstrates contradictory results: a positive relationship between the social dimension of ESG activities and the financial performance of companies was observed regarding ROE and ROC ratios. The negative impact of the environmental pillar rank on the ROA ratio was captured only in selected regression analyses. The governance pillar score did not statistically affect the tested profitability metrics. On the other hand, we gathered evidence that public companies with a high range of non-financial disclosures tend to alter earnings via accruals, and discretionary accruals statistically affect the ROA, ROE and ROC ratios. This finding contrasts previous research claiming that the earnings management phenomenon is a typical agency problem and that the policy of non-mandatory disclosures following the ESG assumptions could constrain the asymmetry of information and managerial information advantages.