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This paper aims to demonstrate the causal relationship between the new Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI) and the inflationary movements occurring at the global level. The primary focus of this research is to identify patterns and correlations that emerge between these two economic indicators, thereby attempting to mitigate the effects of inflation by analysing indices directly related to global merchandise traffic. Therefore, the terms and concepts used are clarified in the first section within a broader framework, to underscore their relevance within the scope of the paper, as well as to facilitate their further exploration for a more profound comprehension of subsequent scientific and specialized references. The second section provides a brief overview of scientific works on this topic, which have served as the scientific foundation and have prompted us to undertake our study to contribute to the body of scientific knowledge on this relatively underexplored subject, given that the GSCPI is a concept that emerged only in May of the year 2022. Furthermore, in the second section, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to discern trends concerning global supply chains and global inflation, as well as the correlation between them. The result is to provide a deeper understanding of the novel concepts and the prospective utilization of GSCPI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the indicators that have been used to measure industrial sustainability. A systematic literature review was conducted to explore indicators published in peer-reviewed articles that are relevant to industrial sustainability performance measurement. A total of 1013 indicators were identified and analyzed: 277 for economic, 402 for environmental and 334 for social dimensions of industrial sustainability. The majority of the indicators were used only once, implying a lack of consistency and consensus on their application for measuring industrial sustainability, and invites an ongoing debate on how sustainability should be measured in different industry contexts. On the other hand, few indicators such as profit, research and development expenditure, product quality, revenue, material cost, labor cost, water consumption, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, material consumption, employment/job opportunity, employee turnover and work-related injuries were consistent and frequently used for measuring industrial sustainability. The consistent indicators have been used to measure industrial sustainability performance associated with financial benefits, costs, market competitiveness, resources, emissions, wastes, employees, customers, and the community. This paper provides a comprehensive view of indicators considering the triple bottom line dimensions of sustainability. It will contribute to future academic and practitioner work on the measurement of industrial sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: the purpose of the research paper is to observe and analyse how major companies in the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) behave during the last business cycle in terms of capital investments in order to identify different investment management strategies across various countries and industries in different business cycle phases. Research paper analyses whether companies adapt counter-cyclical or cyclical behaviour during different business cycle phases taking into account GDP indicators for each country. Approach: statistical analysis from year 2007 to year 2012 encompassing 1387 largest businesses in the Baltics by their operating revenue. In the research paper clustering and mainly comparison methods are applied in order to identify how businesses are reacting to different business cycle phases. Findings: In summary dynamics are more evident during the capital investment activities in different business cycle phases. More activities in counter cyclical behaviour can be seen in all countries but somewhat rarer in Latvia. In comparison with previous analysis of inventories, hiring habits and collection period Lithuania has shown more counter-cyclical behaviour. There is an indication for further in depth analysis for Lithuania and Estionia during crisis period as these two countries had significant counter-cyclical behaviour and arises question whether this behaviour has provided competitive advantage against their peers. Research implications: research paper demonstrates that various industries adapt different strategies during the business cycle and there are differences both on country and industry levels that opens door for further research in order to develop a holistic instrument how to adapt to different business cycle phases. Originality: first research paper that summarizes in-scope major Baltic state companies behaviours during the last business cycle on both country and industry level as well as provides comparison between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the economic development of construction companies in the monitored period during the crises. The economic development is performed with the financial indicators, which express the performance and the financial stability of the construction company. Financial indicators are represented mainly by the Return on Equity (ROE) and indebtedness of the company. The methodology is based on the collection of information from accounting statements (the balance sheet, the profit loss account and the cash-flow statement) of selected Czech construction companies, on their analysis and then synthesis using mathematical methods. Methodology used within the paper follows current principles of the financial analysis, which will be in the paper adapted to special area of construction sector. The paper elaboration is based on the detailed present state analysis including the appropriate journal and the conference papers investigation. The expected result of the paper consists in the determination of the development of the selected financial indicators in the Czech construction sector within the economic crisis and testing of the reliability of results. The results are supported with the case study including above mentioned analysis of economic data from the representative sample of selected important Czech construction companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars foresee the relevance of local custom compliance with the environment as a source of competitive advantage for hotels. The relationship between the environmental proactivity of hotels located in the provinces of local custom compliant and their economic performance levels has been studied. The paper analyses the current issues and challenges of business survival and presently halal tourism. The movement business sees the generation of energy for the halal movement businesses both from the point of view of industry and policy makers. The Halal movement business can be summed up by actions that are sensible to use or participate in the movement business as demonstrated by Islamic exercises. In this way, the achievement and advancement of halal's business movement objective must be guided by the establishment of Islamic exercises and guidelines in all parts of the business operations. This paper suggests that the possibility of hoteliers to utilize their business components to fit into requirement of local custom compliance. In addition, the odds and difficulties of making and advancing halal business operation has been impetus to their survivability are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is inevitable to write a paper on any economic issue during the time of pandemic and not assess the effect of the pandemic itself. The Covid -19 pandemic as a medical crisis has been associated with economic crisis, which analyzed historically, is the first time when medical crisis has caused economic crisis as well. A decade after the Global Financial and Economic Crisis (The Great Recession of 2007-2009) we are facing an atypical health and economic crisis that has surprised the world in many respects - both in terms of speed of expansion and scope. Undertaking different way of interventions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 has brought to many tasks that policymakers have to undertake to lessen the effect of such measures. Different countries across the globe have been faced with the challenge of balancing between the aggressiveness of the approach implemented and the economic impact or the cost of given approach. The aim of this paper is to provide a broad picture of the effect that Covid-19 has on the economy, with special emphasis on the case of Republic of North Macedonia. Specifically, the aim is to provide forecast of the macroeconomic indicators in RNM including the change that the 2020 has brought to the historical data. The methodology used is forecast of all individual macroeconomic indicators through first order autoregressive model. The results of the forecasts of the public debt data show that in 2060 is predicted to be 65%, which is higher than the optimal threshold explained in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main development directions in modern power engineering industries are related to increasing the output power and improving the economic and ecological performance of the engine. The group of pistons inside the engine highly affects the reliability of the reciprocating engine and its power and economic performance. This paper presents a mathematical model developed by the authors to calculate the hydrodynamic characteristics of the oil layer, taking into account the transverse motion of a two-piece piston, piston skirt deformations and variable viscosity of the lubricant in the interface. The conducted research is aimed at developing a piston design that will provide liquid friction in the piston skirt-cylinder junction during the entire operation cycle. Particular attention is paid to the evaluation of the accuracy of the obtained results. The results of the study of the computational mesh size in the numerical solution of the elastic-hydrodynamic problem on the accuracy of calculation of the hydrodynamic characteristics of the oil layer in the piston skirt-cylinder junction considering the piston skirt deformations are presented. This paper provides an example on studying the influence of the piston skirt profile on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the oil layer and the lateral movement of the piston skirt. The calculations were carried out using program codes developed by the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product (GDP), consumption, investments etc. is one of the most important tasks in predicting business cycles. Problems arise from the fact that many macroeconomic indicators are available only as lower frequency data and forecasting models generally require data to be of the same frequency. For example, GDP data is sampled quarterly, money and inflation are sampled monthly, while most interest rate data is sampled daily. Mixed Data Sampling (MIDAS) regression estimation technique overcomes these problems, enabling data sampled at different frequencies to be used in the same regression. Therefore, in this paper, Croatian quarterly real GDP is forecasted using monthly monetary aggregate M1 data and the MIDAS approach with the Beta and Almon weighting methods. An estimated MIDAS model using the Beta weighting method shows that monthly monetary aggregate M1 has an overall positive effect on quarterly real GDP, but the effect disappears quickly in lags. On the other hand, the estimated MIDAS model using the Almon weighting method shows that the overall effect of monthly monetary aggregate M1 on quarterly real GDP is also positive and decreasing in lags. However, in contrast with the Beta weights estimate, the lag coefficients show a linear pattern. In addition, computed static forecasts from MIDAS models show that monthly monetary aggregate M1 can be used for predicting Croatian quarterly real GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the focus of this paper is influence of the different depreciation accounting policies on the final financial statements. An integral part of the analysis is the comparative analysis of the above mentioned influences on the basic performance indicators. The whole procedure is carried out using real database of Croatian production company AD Plastik d.d. taking into account all the regulations of Croatian Accounting Law. Namely, this law permits use of twice higher and twice lower depreciation rates, in relation to those prescribed by the Law, and that kind of depreciation cost will still be tax-deductible. In the paper, the comparative balance sheet as well as the profit and loss account show the value of assets and liabilities in the case that company used the twice lower or twice higher depreciation rates instead of the actual ones in the reviewed year. Impacts on the performance indicators are also integral part of comparative analysis. Results have leaded us to the conclusion that application of twice lower or twice higher depreciation rates had the statistically significant influence on financial reports. An important contribution of this paper is the analysis of different influence of such depreciation policy on the certain performance indicators. Some of them are more sensitive to the various depreciation rates. That is why complex analysis has to take into account particular influence of various depreciation rates on a certain performance indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of spatial spillovers in the economic growth process across 245 NUTS (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics) 2 EU (European Union) regions for the 2003 - 2014 period. The main methodological basis for our analysis is spatial extension of conditional beta-convergence model. The estimation results confirmed income convergence among the EU regions and have suggested that examined R&D (research and development) indicators (patents applications and human resources in science and technology) play an important role in regional economic performance in the EU regions. Performed calculations of direct, indirect and total impacts and their spatial partitioning indicated that there is not only the link between R&D indicators and economic growth within the region but in addition, the innovation and knowledge spill over to neighbouring regions and influence the economic performance of these regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of green supply chain arose from the successful execution of production activities while taking care of the environment. The subject of this paper refers to describing activities within chain in specific segments in order to examine the ways in which satisfactory financial performances can still be achieved in combination with environmental performances. The aim of this paper is to identify the business implications of the correlation between green supply chain, environmental, ecological and economic performances. Therefore, purpose of this paper is to give comprehensive overview of green supply chain management and theirs main parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper is prepared in connection with the H2020 IMPACTOUR project on "Improving Sustainable Development Policies and Practices to access, diversify and foster Cultural Tourism (CT) in European regions and areas". It addresses the development of indicators for the management of accessibility in European CT destinations, responding to the growing accessible tourism market as a driver of sustainable tourism strategies. Methodology -- The paper describes the development of tools, indicators and metrics for gathering accessibility information, which DMOs may use as part of the IMPACTOUR CT destination management system. It reports on global and European destination management systems and tools, and describes key requirements for accessibility indicators, namely: 1) Validity, 2) Reliability, 3) Universality, 4) Availability, 5) Scalability and 6) Operability. Findings -- A set of "core indicators" and additional "optional indicators" are selected for initial testing in the IMPACTOUR Destination Pilot Sites in various EU countries. Pilot destinations and representative groups of citizens and visitors will be engaged in testing and validating the accessibility parameters of the tool and demonstrating how tourists with access requirements can be suitably catered for within the overall framework of sustainable destination management. Contribution -- The paper describes the development of information tools supporting CT destinations in managing the demands of the growing accessible tourism market. The use of accessibility indicators in destination management is part of the holistic, data-driven approach promoted by IMPACTOUR, aiming to ensure inclusive cultural tourism for all visitors and citizens in the host communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of data simulation for managing digital projects of information audit of enterprise processes. Based on the study of the main business processes of the enterprise, key indicators of the IT-audit are determined. The mathematical formulation of the task of conducting the IT-audit is presented. The system dynamics method is applied to model key indicators of IT-audit of business processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper determines the influence of the permissible injection advance angle on the economic and ecological indicators of automotive diesel engines in operation. A series of bench motor tests was performed on the engine to examine a case of altered injection advance angle under the conditions of constant injected fuel quantity and constant speed, and, on that account, a constant air-fuel ratio. Many engine parameters were measured during the test. Based on the results obtained for each mode of operation, the indicator and effective engine parameters have been calculated, as well as those characterizing the process of combustion. The development of the combustion process is illustrated by the diagrams of the instantaneous in-cylinder pressure, the rate of active heat release and the instantaneous amount of active heat released in two characteristic modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the diversification of agricultural enterprises, which seeks to extend basic farming activities to products of a higher degree of sophistication, such as the provision of catering and tourism services and the provision of entertainment, sports, educational and other facilities. The fundamental purpose of diversification is to ensure the growth and stability of farmers' businesses and to contribute to the rural development. The main objective of the paper is to identify factors of diversification and their correlation with socio-economic indicators. In addition to determining the extent to which they are present in improving the performance of agricultural enterprises and affect rural development. The results of the research will confirm the assumption that the inclusion of diversification in business practices of agricultural enterprises is a means of strengthening their performance while encouraging rural develompent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has been high on the agenda of funders such as the European Commission (EC). Encouraging the use of indicators to further implementation of RRI has been a prominent feature in EC RRI funding calls. However, we provide evidence that using indicators for institutional RRI work is far from unproblematic. Indicator use vary considerably along national norms and organizational cultures. Whereas RRI indicators may have advantages in institutions generally governed by indicators, we show that in other settings, indicators may cause outright resistance to RRI and may be seen as curbing learning. If used, indicators should facilitate learning and take up as few resources as possible with respect to reporting. We further show that evaluations that include users, are a viable alternative to indicators with respect to implementation of responsible research and innovation. We finish the paper with practical advice on working with RRI indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature recognizes that the gradual countries' involvement in the economic globalization has generated competitive environments that stimulate innovation and economic growth. Yet, globalization has also apparently led to the increase of inequality, contributing for waves of populism and discontent, claiming for justice in sharing these benefits. Thus, it is not surprising that the interaction globalization/social justice is paying attention to politicians and academics, seeking to identify if there is reason to fear that the globalization leads to increase inequality. The paper deals with the link between globalization and social justice, measured by updated indicators that improved the data quality and broadened their baseline. In what globalization concerns are applied the renewed KOF index, including de facto and de jure perspectives. Concerning social justice, are used the latest "EU Social Justice Index". Structural unemployment trends, such as the long duration distressing people's skills and motivation, as well as youth unemployment, which has stimulated immigration and led to the departure of skilled young people, have greatly reduced their potential for growth. GDP declined, corporate failures increased, as did unemployment and poverty. Governments have greatly limited their spending, particularly at the social level, in order to meet the targets, set in the adjustment programs. In addition, countries no longer have financial conditions to implement measures to stimulate the economy, in order to promote a faster recovery. It has recently been surprising that the escalation of globalization has put people in a precarious employment position, who felt they were protected from the competition of low wages. This paper, also, reflects on the effects of the recent global financial crises in the EU members, which especially hit the Euro zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment (FDI), especially inflows, has been seen as an important source of technology spillover, improvement in efficiency and growth from the recipient country point of view. FDI plays very significant role for the development of countries of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) since they help to reduce the economic and social costs of transformation. There are many different factors which are considered as possible determinants of FDI. The Doing Business (DB) indicators provided by the World Bank are one of the groups of the comprehensive factors for attracting FDI. The aim of the paper is to identify the most relevant DB sub-indices essential for the investment attractiveness of CIS countries and to prove their significance to FDI performance in those countries. The research methods used in this paper are scientific abstraction, comparative analysis, statistical methods including correlation and regression analysis. The paper concentrates mostly on empirical issues and presents the results of analysis of the trends of FDI inflows to the CIS countries comparing with the world as a whole, the results of correlation analysis between DB overall index, FDI inflows and FDI inward stock per capita in the CIS countries, the results of regression analysis using the most relevant DB sub-indices and FDI inward stock per capita in the CIS countries. Using correlation and regression analysis the author established that there is a strong link between DB sub-indices 'Resolving insolvency', 'Protecting minority investors' and FDI inward stock per capita in the CIS countries at the post-crisis period (2016-2018). The findings may help CIS countries to improve their business climate in terms of the particular areas of ease of doing business, in order to attract more FDI. It advances understanding of the determinants of the FDI inward stock and may be particularly useful to international organizations seeking to do business in the CIS countries. A proposed logical framework of the analysis might be useful for the conducting similar studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that many manufacturers incorporate refurbishing into current business strategies, it is worth noting that these endeavors are typically accompanied by a critical interest in refurbished items cannibalizing new ones. Several manufacturers have implemented a "two-roof policy" to address this issue, in which new and refurbished items are marketed in separate locations. In contrast, certain manufacturers have a "one-roof policy", where both products are marketed via a single channel or chain. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of how differentiated roof policies affect refurbishing operations in terms of sustainability issues by developing two models whereby manufacturers can market refurbished and brand-new products under a two (Model D) or one roof policy (Model S). The main conclusion is that if manufacturers are committed to environmental sustainability, offering both items under one roof is wise. For companies worried about economic performance, a two-roof policy is advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper was focusing on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agriculture sector on the growth rate of the selected African countries. Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria and Morocco have been selected by the researcher in this study. The researcher selected this country due their highest contribution on growth rate (GDP) among the African countries. To see the relationship between foreign direct investment in the agriculture sector, employment rate, capital and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the country with higher amount of GDP is more suitable to analyse. It is because of high sensitivity between this variable. The writer focus on African region because of the various economic problem that happened within this region. At the end of this research, the researcher hope that the result will be help the government and the other investors to improve economic performance of this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the shortage of phosphorus fertilizers, hydrochloric acid processing of phosphorites of the Central Kyzylkum (CK) by the method of separating the insoluble residue (i.r) is of great importance for the production of fertilizer precipitate. The use of the chemical energy of this acid to produce precipitate will improve the technical and economic indicators of the processes of obtaining chlorine-free fertilizers. Fertilizer precipitate can be produced from the phosphate waste of thermal enrichment of CK phosphorites and hydrochloric acid. Taking into account phosphate fertilizers' drawbacks can be solved and expanding the range of mineral fertilizers. In addition, the study of the elemental and salt composition of insoluble residues makes it possible to determine the area of its application. The paper describes the study of the separation process of insoluble residue and the establishment of their elemental and salt composition by modern physicochemical methods. For washing the insoluble residue, water was taken in the ratio of phosphate raw materials: H2O=1.0: 0.1; 1.0 : 0.2; 1.0 : 0.3; 1.0 : 0.4; 1.0 : 0.5; 1.0 : 0.6 at a water temperature of 80-90°C. According to the analysis results, an insoluble residue of the following composition was obtained: P2O5total. - 5.05-7.80%; CaOtotal - 11.86-16.25; SiO2 - 44.28-48.60%; Cl - 2.55-4.25%; Al2O3 - 6.32-7.16%; Fe2O3 - 5.26-6.01%; SO3 -7.15-8.61% from the mineralized mass (MM) and P2O5total. - 4.78-7.38%; CaOtotal -12.51-17.15; SiO2 - 43.57-46.52%; Cl - 2.71-4.48%; Al2O3 - 4.95-5.61%; Fe2O3 - 3.66-4.18%; SO3 -4.93-5.94% from phosphorite powder (PhP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving sales is an essential for long-term business activity on the market. Sales information represent a valuable source of information for business management and hence for its future managerial decisions. These decisions are essential to achieving the company strategic goals that are part of the long-term strategic management concept of the company - valued information concerns especially the sales and the expenses development. Development of sales company's values can be predicted to a certain extent by applying mathematical methods. If business management has predicted sales growth, it can adequately respond to this upcoming development. The aim of the paper is to perform the prediction of sales growth to selected construction companies using mathematical methods, such as time series method and regression analysis method. This prediction will be performed retrospectively when the prediction outputs will be compared to actual sales values of selected construction companies. Within the paper predicted sales development will be compared with values of actual reached sales. Based on the results of the paper, it is possible to conclude which mathematical method best describes the prediction of sales development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining projects are capital intensive and practically irreversible endeavours with long, but often limited economic duration. Twangiza Mining (TM) is the one of the most advanced gold mining projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). TM, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Banro Corporation, launched a project in 2012 to address the production hurdles and challenges that prevented the company's process plant from achieving the design target of 1.3 Millions Tonnes/annum (MT/pa). The Twangiza Mining Optimizing and Expansion Project (TMOEP) aimed not only to address the processing plant challenges but also to expand the plant to process 1.7 Mtpa. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of TMOEP on the processing plant production and economic key indicators from the commissioning of the processing plant to December 2015. This case study uses documentation review and the direct observation of the researcher as research methods in order to achieve the aims of this paper. The research finds that the process plant ore throughput has significantly increased to achieve 1,714 MT/pa. This paper also finds that the moisture content of the ore has been reduced even though the plant recovery is still struggling to improve. Moreover, the processing plant economic indicators analyzed, namely the cost per tonne milled and the cash cost per ounce, are both showing a positive trend. Although these results are satisfactory, the research recommends to sustain the momentum gained with the implempentation of the TMOEP. Sustainability recommendations are made based on international best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues of increasing the socio-economic efficiency of industrial real estate reproduction based on the industrial parks construction as a top-priority segment of the national industrial construction market responsible for the sustainable development of the Russian economy based on the priority implementation of the eco-industrial development concept are investigated. The relevance of this field of research is determined by the significant demand for improved use of global trends in sustainable development, green construction and environmental development applied to modern forms of industrial construction i.e., the industrial parks, in the course of construction, reconstruction or modernization of competitive industrial real estate. The purpose of the study is to elaborate methodological approaches and practical recommendations for structuring efficient industrial eco-development models as investment and construction systems for efficient management of multi-format industrial real estate facilities' reproduction in the course of industrial parks construction within the framework of public-private partnership models. The study focus is on industrial construction systems as industrial eco-development structures responsible for investment projects management in industrial parks at all stages of the life cycle of operation. The scientific results given in this paper: the peculiarities of the industrial parks' market formation and growth in Russia and abroad, as well as the analysis of organizational impact methods related to the state priorities of the national formation and development of industrial parks; the experience of global and domestic implementation of the sustainable development, green construction and eco-development concepts in relation to the industrial parks' construction; the author's functional and structural modeling of industrial and construction systems as institutions of industrial ecodevelopment of industrial parks, as well as the determination of the life cycle sustainability integral indicators in these ecodevelopment models; graphical interpretation of the predicted ecodevelopment sustainability indicators as the economic reliability of the life cycle functioning of industrial construction in relation to the industrial park "Severny Almaz" in the East Siberian region at the early stages of its planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays is mandatory to have at least a basic ICT education in order to perform adequately at your workplace. In this paper we have analyzed the situation of the employed persons with ICT education in EU countries enterprises. The ICT education statistics are part of the ICT training domain, which is one of the domains in the wider concept of Digital skills. ICT education indicators are based on the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) microdata [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of calculating the reliability of switchgear schemes using an improved model of reliability of circuit breakers. An additional impact of the installation location of circuit breakers in switchgears for technical and economic indicators of these schemes is analyzed. Conclusions about the effect of circuit breakers and their functional purpose on the reliability of switchgear schemes are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is becoming more important in boosting competitiveness of enterprises. It will not be possible to ensure rapid economic growth of Latvia without competitive innovations and without their introduction into business practice. The object of the present research paper is innovations. The subject of the research paper is analysis of the technological business environment and innovations in Latvia. The objective of the research paper is to study the integration process of micro and macro business environment and innovations problems, to elucidate the technological business environment factors influencing innovations, to develop proposals for solving problems and for innovation management mechanism by making use of relationship between these factors in investigation of innovations in Latvia. The tasks advanced in order to reach the objective: to identify the concept of business micro and macro environment and their main economic indicators; to carry out analysis of the factors influencing innovations in the process of micro and macro environment integration; to carry out analysis of indicators characterising innovations. Theoretical study methods are reported analysis of business micro and macro environment, innovations, management, marketing; study of correlation between technological business environment factors and innovations. Empirical pilot methods are observation for the purpose of studying mutual influence between technological business environment factors and innovations; study of documents regulating innovations in Latvia; economic and statistical analysis of the innovations indicators; economic and statistical analysis of business environment indicators; study of public and non-government institutions data in Latvia. Research basis are innovations, business and its environment in Latvia. The research period is from the year 2008 till the year 2018, separate themes have been studied for a shorter period of time or by way of comparison. This is the first research on the analysis of factors influencing innovations in the macro and micro business environment integration process by making use of innovations factors, regularities of business environment and innovations development have been revealed, legal and economic aspects of innovations of Latvia have been evaluated, economic indicators of business environment, innovations and the mechanism for management of innovations of the Republic of Latvia have been developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific risk of a particular enterprise consists of a risk resulting from the industry, that the enterprise operates in, as well as of a risk resulting from internal specificity of the enterprise. The objective of this paper is to propose author’s method to translate the operational and financial effectiveness assessment into a number, which would reflect a specific risk premium. The paper assumes that specific risk in the enterprise composes of an operational and financial risk, which are a derivative of the effectiveness assessment of the enterprise’s performance in the operational and financial dimension. Depending on the preference, the criteria to assess the effectiveness may be freely selected. These criteria influence the assessment of specific risk, this way creating a set of the so-called diagnostic factors (indicators). In the presented method, it was assumed that the operational effectiveness is measured on the level of the whole enterprise, using a traditional indicator of financial leverage, return on sales and return on assets. On the other hand, financial effectiveness will be characterized by such financial indicators as: degree of operating leverage – DOL, debt-to-equity ratio – D/E, degree of financial leverage – DFL and times interest earned – TIE. The specific risk will be based on scoring assessment, which consists in ascribing a concrete score to the particular criteria. The parameterization of diagnostic factors focuses on comparing them with their average values in the industry, represented by a defined cluster of enterprises, and ascribing a score to them, which corresponds to the particular class of specific risk. The research included statistical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political risk has a strong influence on the investment in infrastructure projects of Chinese enterprises in the countries along “The Belt and Road”. It is necessary to make assessment and judgment on the political risk in the early stage of investment. This paper establishes an indicator system of political risk by referencing literature and the reports of consulting companies. Then the author applies the catastrophe progression method to quantitatively evaluate the political risk and optimizes the method by using the intuitionistic fuzzy set with IFWA operator and a new score function while ranking indicators according to importance. On the basis of the study above, more objective and effective political risk evaluation model is established. Finally, the author applies this model to Singapore and Malaysia and verified its effectiveness through calculating and comparing the results. This study contributes to proving reference for the investment decisions of Chinese enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Circular Economy is an important alternative to capture environmental profit from polluters and increase the competitiveness of productive sectors. This study aims to analyse how the Circular Economy (CE) indicators can contribute to improving the sustainability of recycling aluminium beverage packages in the Brazilian scenario. A literature review was conducted about CE indicators in aluminium-recycling context and a set of CE indicators were found and criticized in the context of sustainability. According to results, beverage packages have alternatives to be more circular, with correct ways to measure improvements and develop the sector, decreasing environmental threats and increasing recycling content. This study provided information to the metal industry, metal users, and the recycling industry of aluminium beverage packaging in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the evolution over time of the trade with meat and organs, in Romania, important foods for a balanced diet. Statistical data indicate that, although Romania has large productions, it is deficient in terms of ensuring meat consumption, especially with pork, which occupies the first position on the list of imports of agri-food products. The analysis was carried out with the help of statistical indicators: the evolution of imports and exports for the period 2010-2020 and the trade balance. The conclusions resulting from this work underline the importance of the livestock sector development, constituting an essential element for ensuring food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic dimension of the agricultural farm is intensively studied both by agricultural specialists, who usually want farms as large as possible, but also by agrarian economists who measure the profitability of the factors involved in obtaining agricultural production at the scale of the economic dimension. In addition to established technicaleconomic indicators, such as: gross product, profitability, labor productivity, which show the overall efficiency of the factors, specific indicators are also used that show the separate efficiency of the factors through the marginal profitability, calculated with the help of elasticity coefficients. The paper used data provided by FADN-Eurostat, to calculate the elasticity of the capital and labor force, consumed in the agricultural holding, for the period 2007-2020, calculating the Cobb-Douglas production function. The coefficients of elasticity were calculated and compared for the six classes of economic size of the agricultural holding, from the South Muntenia Development Region, in order to draw conclusions regarding the profitability on capital and labor force, at the scale level. The authors aim to continue their studies with the analysis of elasticity coefficients at the level of the development regions of our country and their comparison with similar indicators from farms at the level of some regions of the European Union countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the solution to the problem of developing a digital twin of a business process. The apparatus of GERT networks are used to predict the parameters. BPMS ELMA was used as a technological platform for the solution. The prototype allows you to forecast any additive indicator of the business process model - duration, cost, labor intensity. The parameters of the predictive GERT model were updated based on the data of the digital trace of the business process collected in ELMA BPMS databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the NRNP in our country has become a prerogative for companies wishing to plan their production processes with a view to the circular economy, in order to achieve the decarbonization inside economy. The case study proposed here investigates the current events of the Environmental Energy Plan envisaged in the Sicily region, and then focuses on an experimental project born in Sicily, focusing, in particular, on the potential of geothermal energy that can be exploited by the volcano Marsili. It is a volcanic layer composed of 80 minor eruptive centers, located in the subsoil of the Mediterranean, near the Sicilian coasts. The contribution of this paper is the analysis of the technicaleconomic feasibility of the project and the technological innovations involved, evaluating the costs and hypothetical future revenues, inherent in the installation, maintenance and properties related to the production of geothermal renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an automated mathematical algorithm is proposed for assessment and evaluation of some of the Bulgarian financial and economic indicators. In order to achieve it, we consider the respective indicators of the most influential European Union members. We have employed the harmonized index of consumer prices, business climate indicator, gross domestic product at current market prices and EMU convergence criterion. (S)ARIMAX and NARXNN time series analysis tools are applied to model and forecast the future indicator values. The data is gathered from Eurostat (European Statistics Office). A robust and easy-to-implement algorithm for automated prediction is suggested and a detailed explanation about the design of the steps is given. The forecasted values are justified and an interpretation is provided for their economic significance. The paper is concluded with important remarks for the future development of the economic and financial environment of the Republic of Bulgaria as a member state of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the factors that affect the status of NEETs in European countries was presented in the paper. NEETs are young people between the ages of 15 and 29, who are no longer in the formal education system and are unemployed or otherwise out of the labour market, and who represent a group at high risk of social exclusion. NEET research is a field in the literature gaining importance given the problems young people face during the transition to adulthood and more severe conditions for adequate labour market inclusion. The hypotheses examined in the paper refer to three groups of influencing factors: economic indicators of countries, level of education, and institutional and labour market indicators. The data analysed in the survey referred to 31 European countries and were observed in the period 2015-2019. The results confirm that all examined groups of indicators impact NEET rates and indicate those indicators whose impact is the most significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations audit in this paper is analysed as an assessment of the existing innovativeness level of Industrial clusters production and production-related processes to determine whether specific technologies and the totality of production processes correlate with technological developments in the relevant field. It should be noted that there is no commonly encountered economic approach to analyse the innovations and technologies in industry clusters. By using Analytical hierarchy process modelling, paper covers definition of Innovations (technology) audit meaning, provides systematic approach to the Economic indicators of auditing and the proof of concept on Technology and Energy consumption audit performance is analysed through the case of recent EU funding calls in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grey literature consists of documents of very different types. There are some types typical of grey literature, such as scientific and technical reports, and also some types which evoke different opinions. This latter type, such as DZS documents (documents pertaining to society), standards and patents, can be included in grey literature only because of the specific point of views held in these documents. There are also some specific types of grey literature mentioned particularly by Polish authors and collected by Polish libraries. There are a variety of different historical, economic and social reasons for this. The discussion of these documents' difference from other grey literature begins with a definition of grey literature. For an effective discussion of the different types of grey literature it is important to have an exact definition of the group of literature. A well-known definition was adopted outlining that grey literature consists of those publications "produced at all levels by government, academia, business and industry, both in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishing interests, and where publishing is not the primary business activity of the organization." Based on this definition, different types of documents can be identified, starting with prohibited (underground) literature, particularly that originating from the 1939-45 period of German occupation and the Communist period. Second, economic-focused materials useful for small business allowing them a quick technology transfer. Third, documents such as unpublished translations into Polish and fourth, articles published in small but locally important journals inaccessible outside of a specific area of the country such as a town or an even smaller locale. Every identified document type includes a description of the document's origin, its role for users, its level of 'greyness,' and its organization and accessibility. Different information systems, both traditional as well computerized, concerned with the types of grey literature outlined above are explored in this paper. The main goal of this paper is to describe different, and rarely mentioned, types of grey literature examining them from several points of view including the degree to which they fit the grey literature definition, the reasons for their production and use, and the reasons for their local importance. The paper will conclude by highlighting the differences in grey literature types revealed by my research, differences resulting from the varied local needs of non-official communication. Some of the types are stabile and do not tend to disappear. They are usually documents used for technical and economic development. Other documents, resulting from abnormal situations in which there is a lack of legal opportunities to publish social and political, as well as philosophical and historical literature, cease to be developed after the overall situation has changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: the purpose of the research paper is to observe and analyse how major companies in the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) behave during the last business cycle in terms of inventory management in order to identify different inventory management strategies across various countries and industries in different business cycle phases. Research paper analyses whether companies adapt counter-cyclical or cyclical behaviour during different business cycle phases taking into account GDP indicators for each country. Approach: statistical analysis from year 2007 to year 2012 encompassing 1387 largest businesses in the Baltics by their operating revenue. In the research paper clustering and mainly comparison method are applied in order to identify how businesses are reacting to different business cycle phases. Findings: research paper findings show that Baltic States companies cut inventories during recession however companies do not increase inventories in anticipation of a recovery, as there is little evidence that companies actually do it. Overall result show that inventory management in Baltic States is carried out quite conservatively and there are few exceptions in counter-cyclical behaviour of inventory management particularly in Latvia during lowest point of economy where counter-cyclical behaviour was more apparent. Research implications: research paper demonstrates that various industries adapt different strategies during the business cycle and there are differences both on country and industry levels that opens door for further research in order to develop a holistic instrument how to adapt to different business cycle phases. Originality: first research paper that summarizes in-scope major Baltic state companies behaviours during the last business cycle on both country and industry level as well as provides comparison between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction of the negative nominal policy interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) in June 2014, there have been concerns about their impact on bank sector and hence on the financial stability. The prolonged global economic recovery, political uncertainty, low interest rates, and the changing regulatory landscape shape the environment for banks globally and influence their creditworthiness in recent years, with implications for banks' earnings, profitability, and asset quality. The key objective of the paper is to analyze the effects of the negative nominal interest rates on the bank sector on the example of six banks from three euro area member states - Germany, Portugal and Italy. The empirical study covers the period from 2012 to 2016. The paper has the following structure: introduction; research methodology - hypotheses and data; theoretical and descriptive part; empirical evidence; conclusion. The introductory part presents the scope of scientific research and the addressed issues. When describing the research methodology of the paper, the following methods are used: theoretical and methodological study, descriptive analysis, comparative study, empirical analysis and critical analysis. Three hypotheses are tested in study: the first hypothesis is whether the ECB's negative interest rate policy (or NIRP) causes a disintermediation risk, which poses a threat for the banks' survival; the second hypothesis is if there is a growth in bank lending and whether negative interest rates could lead to excessive risk-taking by banks or an unbalanced asset portfolio; the last hypothesis is that the policy of nominal interest rates below zero might have negative effect on bank profitability, which could put at risk the banks' survival in the long term. In the theoretical and descriptive part the ECB's unconventional monetary policy and especially the NIRP are analyzed. The reasons for the ECB's decision to implement negative nominal rates as a tool for achieving its macroeconomic objectives are explained. The historical trends for key policy interest rates in the euro area for the last decades are reviewed. Some consequences of the nominal interest rates below zero are also examined. The next section presents the empirical evidence of the study. Firstly, the participants in the research are chosen with a view the impact of the negative nominal interest rates under different macroeconomic environment to be explored. In the paper the countries with inflation rate below, almost equal and above the average for the euro area are examined. After the countries are determined, the banks for the research are selected. In fact, six banks from Germany, Portugal and Italy are chosen based on the amount of their total assets according to each country ranking. After that, some proper balance sheet and income statement indicators are analyzed, reflecting the impact of negative interest rates on the euro area bank sector, in order to give proofs to the previously stated hypothesis. The ultimate goal is to conclude if there is a risk for banks' survival in a prolonged period of negative nominal interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financialization is a phenomenon that when applied to non-financial entities means the increase of importance of financial motives in the decision-making processes of enterprises. It is about generating a dominant part of revenues within financial operations, and not within the operational and financial activities. The ideas discussed in this paper is the issue of Polish businesses activity financialization. The goal is the attempt to assess whether financialization concerns Polish non-financial entities. The analysis of financial statements of non-financial entities, published by Central Statistical Office for the years 2010-2016 was used for the purpose of the research. The analysis makes use of financialization indicators developed for the purpose of this paper. The research results confirm that non-financial entities carrying out their activity in Poland are characterized by increased engagement in financial operations. It is indicated by the increase of assets and liabilities financialization indicators to the level exceeding 20%. In the recent years, the indicators of profit and cash flows financialization were at 10%. However, taking into account the fact that financialization of enterprises is discussed when the dominant part of revenues is generated within the financial sphere (exceeding as much as 50%) in Poland such a phenomenon is not observed yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life quality and human well-being is a very important topic in the science of economics. Economic security of individuals is often analysed in the context and framework of life quality, yet still there is no common approach for this kind of analysis. Previous research about economic security in the Baltic States in context of life quality is very limited. The aim of this paper is to describe and systematize theoretical background of economic security as part of life quality framework and to analyse the economic security in the Baltic States in context of life quality. The authors have done literature review about life quality and economic security and created a framework for analysing economic security in context of life quality, drawing attention to the main applicable statistical indicators. Authors have also analysed these economic security indicators in the Baltic States based on the above mentioned framework for the last nine years. Authors have concluded that there are differences in the economic security situation between the Baltic States. Authors have described and analysed the various situation in different aspects of economic security in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Authors have indicated the fields where improvements are necessary to advance economic security and life quality of individuals in the Baltic states. This research paper contributes to theoretical and practical research of economic security as there have been very few research papers about this topic in the Baltic States. The paper also contributes to the ongoing discussion about economic security and life quality interconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years, quality of life has been associated only with the economic development, and the gross domestic product has been considered as the main indicator of the quality of life and human well-being in particular region. In last decades, new approaches for evaluation of this phenomenon have been defining. The main goal of this paper is to analyse the European citizen's subjective perception of the quality of life in the context with economic indicators. For this purpose, data from European Union Statistics on Income and Living Condition (SILC) has been used together with national accounts. Subjective data from SILC have been compared with objective economic indicators. By means of geovisualisation, a spatial distribution of the quality of life in European countries has been evaluated. In the results, a dependence between analysed dataset has been confirmed. At the same time, the paper pointed out the need to extend the analysed dimensions beyond the economic indicators, in connection with ongoing European activities dealing with the topics of a quality of life and human well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to empirically select and prioritize suitable sustainability indicators for measuring and managing sustainability performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To achieve this objective, we applied a comprehensive methodological approach, which includes (1) conducting a systematic review to identify potential sustainability indicators in the literature, (2) designing a questionnaire based on the identified indicators, (3) pre-testing (pilot testing) of the questionnaire with selected industry experts, scholars, and researchers to further refine the indicators prior to data collection from the Italian footwear SMEs, and (4) selecting and prioritizing the final indicators using fuzzy Delphi method. The findings of the present paper show that the selected indicators emphasized measuring industrial sustainability performance related to financial benefits, costs, and market competitiveness for the economic sustainability dimension; resources for the environmental sustainability dimension; and customers, employees, and the community for the social sustainability dimension. The paper provides sustainability indicators considering the triple bottom line approach. The results of the present paper have significant academic, practical, and policy implications for measuring and managing industrial sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing complexity of international supply chains, the rise of consumer power and technological development have all brought about a clear change in the position and role of supply chain members. The port as a key factor in these international supply chains has been largely influenced by certain movements, including increased cooperation, mergers and integrations. In this context, the Supply Chain Management organization appears to be an essential lever to improve the performance of ports. However, despite the increasing attention given to the study of port logistics chains, the contributions remain modest compared to those observed in other sectors, notably the automotive and aeronautical industries. Most of the research on performance measures of port logistics chains actually focuses on measures of the internal performance of a terminal port. Indeed, the lack of consensus on the definition of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and the complexity of the relationships between supply chain agents in general and the port supply chain in particular make it difficult to study the performance of the port supply chain. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the study of the influence of the SCM organization on the performance of the port supply chain and on the elements of a tool for measuring the performance of port networks. This paper approaches port supply chain performance from a multidimensional view, integrating a financial dimension, a commercial dimension, an internal process, and learning and innovation. This article also has the advantage of integrating the perspectives of the different stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the correction of the Cobb-Douglas production function, this paper empirically analyzes information and economic growth in Shandong province from 1991 to 2010. The empirical results show that: information plays a positive role in promoting the economic growth of Shandong province, but its impact is less than that of capital and labor. Finally the paper draws the corresponding conclusions and proposes appropriate policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If we become interested in the area of trading on the financial market and predicting the future price development of financial instruments, we will come across a wide range of methods and procedures. One of the most widely used methods is technical analysis, which attempts to predict future price movements by studying past market prices and volumes. Within technical analysis, mathematical indicators are very popular. One of the first and basic mathematical indicators of technical analysis is the moving average. Our article will focus on moving averages and their use in the analysis of financial asset prices. The aim of our article is to verify the efficiency of using the moving average as the main analytical tool. In the first chapter of our paper, we have built the theoretical foundation needed for our further research. The second chapter is focused on defining the necessary procedures and variables needed for the research itself. We identify the time interval of the application, a suitable market for the realization of the research and the actual setting of input variables necessary for the calculation of the indicator. In the third chapter we publish the measured values and results of the research together with their interpretations. In the last chapter, we reviewed all our research and further research opportunities in this area. We believe that our research will be a valuable asset of research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In This Paper, we will present the analysis of the main indicators of financial development and economic growth in the Comoros, Morocco, Tunisia, Rwanda, Mauritius and Senegal for the period 1980-2016. The descriptive analysis of the statistical data shows an evolution in terms of financial aspect and economic growth, but relatively, economic growth depends not only on these indicators but on other factors too. These relationships have already been tested in other developed countries, but we are in African countries where their financial systems are organized in a capitalist way. The endogenous variable of our study is the rate of economic growth and financial development is measured through five indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our paper is to assess the impact of human capital on innovation depending on institutional conditions. We use the data from the Business Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) for the period from 2012 to 2014 for 1564 Russian manufacturing firms from 37 regions. In addition to financial and innovative indicators, the survey contains a rich set of institutional indicators. Based on the probit model, we analyze the interaction term between personnel training performed by firms and the institutional indicators that go beyond Doing Business rating. In addition, we include components of Doing Business in the model using principal component analysis and compare the effects of the institutional indicators. Our main hypothesis is that trained employees of firms located in unfavorable institutional conditions experience difficulties in innovation activities. The results show that trained employees contribute less to innovation, when crime, transport and inadequate employee education are serious barriers to firms' activities. Our research shed light on the aspects of business environment not taken into account in Doing Business Index but still affecting business activity. The results will be useful for the local and regional authorities interested in improving the institutional environment in which firms operate, as well as for the business analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]