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Background & Aims: Innovation, which is the result of the joint work of university and industry, is an initiative that improves the efficiency of innovation. This type of cooperation, i.e. collaborative innovation between university and industry, is called collaborative innovation. Collaborative innovation brings dynamism and vitality to companies and causes economic growth and expansion. (1). In fact, one of the important factors in innovation, and one of the important factors in economic growth and development, is the transfer of knowledge that takes place between universities and industry because this cooperation makes commercialization in companies easier (2). On the other hand, one of the things that has always been very important in knowledgebased companies is the commercialization process. This process has three separate phases, the ideation phase, the technology/product development phase, and the commercialization phase. First, an idea that has a demand in the market is created and cultivated. In the development stage, this idea becomes a product or technology, and commercialization is technological knowledge that has entered the market (9). In our beloved country of Iran, knowledge-based companies active in the field of medical products have succeeded in reaching self-sufficiency in the field of medical products to almost 40% in the past few years, but they have been very unsuccessful in the discussion of commercializing medical products for export to other countries. . Now, according to the capacity of our country, we can earn up to two billion dollars a year from the commercialization of these types of goods, which has a positive impact on the national economy. Therefore, the researcher seeks to solve these problems by presenting a model for commercialization. Therefore, the main research question is, what is the commercialization model of medical products for knowledge-based companies? Methods: The current research is of an exploratory and expansion type, which was conducted using a qualitative method. The statistical population of this research is experts with practical experience in the field of commercialization of products of knowledgebased companies in the science and technology park of Mazandaran province, and professors of the University of Medical Sciences and management professors of management faculties of universities of Mazandaran province, who are aware of the subject of the research. 12 people were selected as samples from among them by snowball method until full saturation. Then a semi-structured interview was conducted to collect data from them. Interviews were held one by one with each expert. After conducting the interviews (audio recording), the texts of the interviews recorded from the experts, on the same day of the interview, were transcribed word by word on paper and typed as research data., was used. The research data are analyzed on two levels, the textual level and the conceptual level The textual level includes the coding of the data, the conceptual level emphasizes the construction of the research model including establishing a relationship between the codes based on the Strauss and Corbin model. Also, in order to ensure the validity of the model, the strategy of analysis and review by knowledgeable people (multi-view) has been used. Results: To design the model using the foundation data method in the first step; Initial coding was done using the text of the interviews. In this step, one hundred and nine primary codes were extracted. In the second step; Axial coding was done. In this step, thirty-two axial codings were obtained from a total of one hundred and nine initial codes. In the third step; Selective coding Selective coding was done based on the results of open coding and axial coding in this step, which is the main step of theorizing. Thirteen codes were obtained. Also, the validity of the research model was done by using the analysis and review method by knowledgeable people, in this method, to check the validity of the research model, all the data and primary extracted codes were sent to other experts who are familiar with the issue of commercialization of medical products in knowledge-based companies. They were informed and experts were given and they were asked to modify and approve the designed codes, and all the codes were approved, thus the validity of this research was proved. Also, the reliability of the research was checked with Kreppendorf's alpha method, and the agreement of five experts on the codes was equal to 89%. Considering that this amount is more than 60%, the reliability of the codings of this research is confirmed. Conclusion: In this research, the causal conditions for the commercialization of medical products, four factors of human capital, technology, digital transformability of the company and environmental factors have been stated. (Shirvani, Tulai and Delavi, 2019 limited the causal conditions to digital technology. Considering these factors by the companies residing in the science and technology park, they can take into account all the effective factors in creating a successful business for their products and Don't just focus on technology. The strategies of this research have been identified in three dimensions; Financial strategies, market orientation and attracting cooperation of the University of Medical Sciences. Every business unit needs capital in order to set up and start its activity, and in order to develop and continue its activity, it needs new investment, which must be provided through financial resources (24). Access to financial resources is one of the important factors in the success of companies and one of the important concerns of companies at different stages of their life (25). Market orientation can be defined as a stage of organizational growth or as a level that reflects organizational maturity (26). Kotler has looked at market orientation as the final stage of the development of a business organization and believes that the market orientation is created along the development of different business orientations. Market orientation is based on marketing thinking and marketing thinking forms its philosophical foundation. (26). However, marketing thinking as a foundation and philosophical foundation is not enough. Because market orientation focuses not only on customers, but also on competitors, different organizational issues and many external factors that affect the needs and preferences of customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the exchange rate on stock market indices of four main sectors in Turkey. For this purpose, the paper uses monthly data spanning the period between 06/2008-11/2020 and employs the panel GMM estimation method. This method instrumentalizes the past observation values of the dependent variable to control the endogeneity and provides efficient results. Considering that firms operating in many sectors in Turkey are affected by the volatility of the exchange rate, the paper takes initiative in understanding how stock market indices of four sectors react to the fluctuation in USD and Euro prices. This study contributes to the current literature, performing the panel GMM estimation method, unlike studies that only examine the causality relationship on the link between exchange rate and the stock market. The results show that there is unidirectional causality from the exchange rate to stock market indices. According to our findings, the USD/TRY exchange rate negatively affects stock market indices, and the Euro/TRY exchange rate positively affects stock market indices. The findings obtained from the analysis results confirm prior knowledge acquired from Turkey's foreign trade structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the role of investments in agriculture at the macro level, observing 13 countries over ten years. The countries included in the research are the Central-Eastern and South-East European countries. The importance of investments in agriculture is seen through their direct impact on the increase in production in agriculture, i.e., through the increase in gross added value in agriculture. The primary objective of this research is to determine, using the SPSS program, which independent variables affect the gross added value in agriculture. In other words, it aims to select variables for developing and evaluating the model that will show a significant relationship with the gross added value in agriculture. Due to the nature of the research subject, the dependency technique was applied in the paper, specifically, multiple regression analysis, which determined the correlation level of the selected variables with the increase in agricultural production. As for the qualitative methods, the statistical method was used to collect, process and present the results, while the comparative method was used to compare the collected data and draw certain conclusions. The research results indicate that investments play a significant role in achieving gross added value in agriculture, which means that investments largely determine economic growth in the agricultural sector. By applying the appropriate model, it was also determined to what extent variations in gross value added in agriculture can be explained by variations in total agricultural investments. By developing the obtained model, it was concluded that, in addition to other included variables, investments have the most significant impact on the gross added value in agriculture. More specifically, the most important investments are the ones that directly affect agriculture and investments in research and development.

The larger context of our research is the impact of the Romanian transportation infrastructure development on the nation’s economy. In this paper we focus on presenting the inland waterways, canals and maritime transportation infrastructure, the volume of goods transported and some economic implications. The scope of the present study is to analyze data regarding the volume of goods transported on the inland waterways and maritime transportation infrastructure. The considered time-frame for this paper is from 1990 to 2019 and the data was collected from sources such as annual reports of Governmental Agencies, Eurostat and the National Institute of Statistics. We found that there is severe lack of reported data or even data inconsistency between authorities. As economic policy implications we mention the need for investments in maintenance, development, and modernization of infrastructure to stimulate the positive trend in volumes of goods transported.

Unemployment represents a negative phenomenon in almost all countries of the world. It is a complex phenomenon that has multiple causes and important economic and social-human consequences. This paper aims to analyze the correlation between the unemployment rate, respectively the number of unemployed persons and some of the influencing factors. Therefore, we identified the main influencing factors of unemployment in Romania based on an econometric model using the multiple linear regression. This model allows forecasting the future economic trends of the indicators highlighting the level of unemployment. The result showed that the growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product, the volume of foreign direct investments and the exports, as well as the inflation rate are significant factors influencing the unemployment.

Due to the specifics of the political and economic system in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in the recent history of the country it has not been possible to approach the problem and challenges of economic security comprehensively and seriously. The given circumstances reinforce the need for research and analysis of economic security in BiH in order to show the real situation. This paper analyses economic security as a part of national security, with the help of relevant indicators, and then the connection of economic security with the economic development of BiH. Methods of analysis, synthesis, compilation, correlation and linear regression were applied for research purposes. The aim of the research is an empirical analysis of economic security indicators in terms of determining the degree of interconnection of key variables of economic security (public debt, availability of financial resources, technological progress, investment in fixed assets, unemployment, military investment, foreign exchange reserves, budget deficit, GDP growth rate, etc.) for the period from 2008 to 2018. The results of the research clearly reveal that economic and national security are mutually interrelated, and that economic security is a precondition for national security, which confirms the main hypothesis of this paper.

The aim of this paper is interrogate various perspective such as Investments, Infrastructure, Governance and Macroeconomic factors and how they influence global value chains in sub Saharan Africa. Data was derived from 37 sub Saharan Africa countries for the period 2003 to 2018. Panel corrected Standard Errors estimation model was adopted in analysis. Both the direct relationships and controlled relationships were tested. Macro-economic factors such as GDP growth rate, exchange rate, inflation rate and Interest rates were used as controlling factors. The paper established a significant influence of Investments on Global value chains and that it can explain up to 45 per cent of the variation. Similarly, infrastructure has a significant influence on global value chains in sub Saharan Africa and that it can explain up to 67 per cent of the variations. Governance also has a significant influence on global value chains and it can explain up to 10 per cent of the variations. The overall model was significant with a 76 per cent explanation of the variation in global value chains in sub Saharan Africa. Therefore, the paper recommends for a promotion of value added manufacturing, and an integration in global value chains. Further, the paper recommends for enhanced resource allocation to infrastructure development to aid in the reduction of the production cost and to stream line governance.

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Product development is a high-risk undertaking, especially so when investments are prioritized for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where markets may be smaller, fragile, and resource-constrained. New HIV prevention technologies, such as the dapivirine vaginal ring (DVR) and long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA), are being introduced to these markets with one indication, meeting different needs of groups such as adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and female sex workers (FSWs) in settings with high HIV burden. However, limited supply and demand have made their uptake a challenge. Economic evaluations conducted before Phase III trials can help optimize the potential public health value proposition of products in early-stage research and development (R&D), targeting investments in the development pathway that result in products likely to be available and taken up. Public investors in the HIV prevention pipeline, in particular those focused on innovative presentations such as multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs), can leverage early economic evaluations to understand the intrinsic uncertainty in market characterization. In this perspective piece, we reflect on the role of economic evaluations in early product development and on methodological considerations that are central to these analyses. We also discuss methods, in quantitative and qualitative research that can be deployed in early economic evaluations to address uncertainty, with examples applied to the development of future technologies for HIV prevention and MPTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spa tourism has experienced full recognition in international tourist flows in recent decades. This fact points to a significant development opportunity for the Republic of Serbia for more complete utilization of tourist potential in spa towns. One such area is Vranjska Banja in the southeast of Serbia, where the warmest hyperthermal water in the world springs. Apart from therapeutical waters, this tourist spot has preserved tourist values that qualify it to become an ecological oasis in this part of Serbia. Accordingly, the subject of research in the paper is the tourist potential of Vranjska Banja, which has not been sufficiently utilized for the needs of tourism, nor is it sufficiently promoted through digital media. The aim of the work is to identify the impact of tourism on the overall economic development of Vranjska Banja. Qualitative, descriptive, statistical and comparative methods were used in the research. The results show that adequate valorization and promotion of tourist attractions and greater investments in tourism and hospitality activities would lead to faster development of tourism in this area, which would have positive effects on the local economy. The contribution of the work is reflected in the identification of appropriate solutions that can be the basis for formulating the economic development strategy of Vranjska Banja as an ecological destination.

Considering the war in Ukraine, it will be necessary to restore the tourism system. The use of foresight as a means of predicting the future will ensure the formation of conditions for its development. The study aims to assess the functioning of the tourism system in Ukraine under martial law and to develop foresight scenarios for its development. The analysis of the main economic indicators of tourism and hotel entities during the war period indicates potential opportunities (a stable or growing trend). The volume of tax revenues to the state budget in 2023 increased by 15.6%. 2023 hotels’ KPIs (RevPAR, ADR, Occupancy) for the main destinations compared to the same period in 2022 increased by 206.0%, 66.0%, and 44.0%, respectively. The study scans the horizon within which the factors affecting the development of the tourism system are determined and assesses the levels of their potential impact and probability of occurrence. The BANI method is used to identify possible α- and β-scenarios of development, and the matrix method is used to interpret the strategic development directions. Industry factors are combined into four groups: development trends, the state of the market, technologies, innovations, and professional competence of staff. Thus, α- (optimistic) and β- (pessimistic) development scenarios future states in the tourism development. A prognostic vision of the future in a situation of prospective uncertainty makes it possible to determine the factors for mitigating the effects of military actions in the post-war period. It stimulates finding alternatives for strengthening the cohesion of the tourism system. Acknowledgment The paper shows the authors’ results within the frameworks of the study, performed in 2021−2023 at Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics at the request of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine “Digital transformation of trade, economic and tourist systems in Ukraine” (state registration number 0121U112231) and “Forecasting the impact of the tourism system on the country’s economy” (state registration number 0122U001559).

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are essential to South Africa's development and economic progress. Information technology (IT) expenditures have become crucial for SMEs to stay competitive in the quickly changing digital market. The purpose of this study is to examine the variables affecting IT investments in South African SMEs. The paper provides a thorough examination of the literature, the technique used, the findings, and a discussion of the implications through a conceptual study. The study's findings were derived from an analysis of 15 of the best and most relevant journal articles out of a total of 200 that were obtained and evaluated through Google Scholar that are related to factors impacting IT investments in South African SMEs. The objective was to aggregate the views of many scholars on the issues affecting IT investments in South African SMEs from their writings. The study's findings indicates that financial constraints, perceived return on investment (ROI), industry-specific factors, technological complexity and skills, perceived risk, outside influences, organisational culture, and leadership are among the factors that affect IT investments in South African SMEs. With regards to the study's findings, it is recommended that SMEs should work to understand and address the factors influencing information technology investments in South Africa so they can make informed IT investment decisions, and policymakers should foster an environment that encourages the uptake of technology and the expansion of this industry.

The aim of the article was to identify ways to increase the attractiveness of the business environment in Romania. In order to achieve the goal, it was resorted to comparing the attractiveness of the business environment in other countries with the one in Romania. The comparative study was carried out by analyzing the factors that influence the business environment and determine its degree of attractiveness. The legislative, fiscal and institutional factors, which represent the levers through which the state acts on the business environment, influencing its attractiveness, were analyzed in chapter 4.1. of the paper. The economic-social factors, which represent the effects of the implementation of government strategies, are the object of study of the chapter 4.2.

Abstract The fund allocation in agricultural sector in India is heavily tilted toward input subsidies provision; however, researchers seem to favor investment expenditure instead. The present paper seeks to compare the usefulness of input subsidies as compared to investment with regard to agricultural productivity so that policy makers hit the right tool and avoid less productive state expenditure. We investigated a total of four regression models using autoregressive and distributed lag cointegration in a time series framework covering period from 1983 to 2019. The first model considers all input subsidies in aggregate form, and the rest three models take input subsidies in disaggregate forms, namely fertilizer subsidy, irrigation subsidy and power subsidy, respectively. It is observed from the results that input subsidies still contribute more than what public investment does to agricultural productivity. It is also found that power subsidy is the most effective component of input subsidies followed by fertilizer subsidy. Hence, government expenditure on input subsidies is justified on the ground that it ensures all farmers to have access to affordable agricultural inputs. Targeted subsidies combined with adequate investment in agricultural infrastructure could deliver long-term agricultural development in India.

So far, little is known about the Business Model Canvas development in the energy sector. In this paper, we fill this knowledge gap and modify the Business Model Canvas. Based on the cause–effect analysis combined with the literature searching method, we suggest that Osterwalder's Canvas for energy enterprise should be modified because the available Canvas adaptations cannot fully capture the energy enterprise's business model or realise its business operations combined with the public interest. We propose a new original Canvas adaptation by adding two crucial blocks representing the mission, energy accountability, and impact on stakeholders in the Business Model Canvas. The findings make two main contributions. First, they contribute to developing entrepreneurship theory. We formulate an original definition of a business model, first showing the limitations of current definitions. We verify Chesbrough's functions of business models. Second, compared to earlier business model frameworks, the new model clearly points out that accountability in firms' everyday businesses is at the core of business development. Moreover, this article formulates future research avenues in the energy sector and provides a helpful planning tool for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A blockchain is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Using this technology, participants can confirm transactions without a need for a central clearing authority. Potential applications can include fund transfers, settling trades, voting and many other issues. Blockchain, sometimes referred to as distributed ledger technology (DLT), makes the history of any digital asset unalterable and transparent through the use of decentralization and cryptographic hashing. The purpose of this paper leads to an analysis of the question: if Bitcoin is already here, why have thousands of additional cryptocurrencies been launched? The answer is that several other cryptocurrencies aim to compete with Bitcoin as general purpose currencies. Coins and tokens - all except Bitcoin are known as altcoins - and their purpose is to meet specific needs.

In this paper, we investigated the impact of financial leverage on investment decisions on a sample of 811 firms from ten emerging South-Eastern European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Romania, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey). We apply a panel regression model involving investment ratio as a dependent variable, leverage as independent variable, and control for several firm characteristics that closely determines the corporate investments. The results of the analysis show that leverage is negatively related to investment in the companies in SEE. But only long term debt has a stronger negative impact on investment for firms with low growth opportunities than for firms with high growth opportunities. These findings show supportive evidence of agency theories of corporate leverage, especially with the debt overhang theory, but did not give strong validation that leverage has a disciplining role for firms with low growth opportunities in SEE emerging markets. In addition to leverage, we found that corporate investments in the SEE countries decrease significantly with tangibility and the company size. Corporate investments in the SEE countries increase significantly with cash flow, sales, non-debt tax shield and profitability. Overall, the results slightly defer with those from the research on the case of developed markets.

This paper examines the impact of a key source of wealth (the stock market) on road traffic collisions. Using data on over 2 million road accidents we do not find a linear relationship between stock prices and road crashes (fatal or otherwise) in Great Britain. However, we do find a V-shaped effect – collisions respond to the absolute change in stock market returns. The results are robust to a series of falsification exercises that potentially support a causal interpretation. We also examine another source of wealth that has not previously been examined – house prices. Similarly, we do not find that changes in monthly house prices have an impact on accidents, but a symmetric V-shaped is also shown for slight and serious accidents. • We examine the impact of stock price changes on road collisions in Great Britain. • We use administrative data on road collisions by type: fatal, serious and slight. • There is not a linear relationship between stock prices changes and collisions. • Collisions instead respond to the absolute change in stock market returns. • Using another source of wealth, house prices, we find a similar V-shaped effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of medical care, technological advances, and the ageing of society have led to rising medical costs. As a result, there is a demand to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery systems, including public healthcare institutions, in order to ensure the sustainability of healthcare functions. In 2004, as part of national civil service reform in Japan, national hospitals were merged in order to form the National Hospital Organization (NHO). The NHO used new public management methods and was required to be self-financing and to maintain critical functions under a five-year management plan. The objective of this study was to examine whether the NHO was able to maintain its key function in the national infrastructure in terms of management. An analysis of the business conditions of the NHO was performed based on the financial statements from FY 2004 to FY 2018 using evaluation indexes. In the first and second periods, the NHO achieved its targeted management improvements. However, since FY 2014, even with the utmost restrictions on capital investment, the profits have not increased, and the free cash flow has been negative. Our results suggest that further organizational reforms are needed in order to sustain the NHO infrastructure in the long term and to withstand health crisis management during periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Businesses are increasingly addressing their natural capital impacts and dependencies, which will require credible, consistent data that a lot of businesses do not currently possess in house or know how to access. • The lack of standardized, high quality, and regularly collected data is a major obstacle to businesses' efforts to measure and report on natural capital. • Currently, SEEA-aligned natural capital accounts (NCA) are not widely used to inform business decisions but have the potential to help meet some of the business community's natural capital data needs related to a range of critical decisions and actions. • Businesses may also be able to support the advancement of SEEA-aligned NCA by providing information and supporting and/or participating in collaborative efforts to compile and maintain the accounts. • Several areas are identified for strengthening and further developing SEEA-aligned NCA in the US so that the accounts will be relevant for a wide range of uses and applications by businesses. Global understanding of the interconnections between the environment and economy has increased, driving the development of frameworks and standards that support the measurement and valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services by both governments and businesses. This paper outlines how businesses can use natural capital accounts (NCA) aligned to the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) standard described in this special issue to support identification, management, and valuation of natural capital not typically listed on corporate balance sheets. Such accounts have direct applications for business strategic planning, investment decisions, supply chain management, operations management, risk management, and corporate reporting. Businesses also have important roles to play in advancing SEEA-aligned NCA by providing information that would be useful to include in the accounts and by helping to shape accounts to provide decision-relevant information for both the private and the public sectors. Current pilot SEEA-aligned NCA data and analyses developed for the United States can help address some of the common challenges that businesses face in using natural capital data such as accessibility, quality, and credibility, important for business decision making. However, improvements are needed to fill data gaps and produce more frequent and timely estimates aligned to the temporal resolution needed by businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring fiscal sustainability in the Member States of the European Union has become an extremely important goal in the current economic context. The formulation of appropriate policies can lead to fiscal consolidation, and the manifestation of a fiscal shock with direct implications on national budgets and can be mitigated by a rational approach. The aim of this paper is to examine issues related to ensuring fiscal sustainability and to identify the necessary fiscal policy instruments in this regard. Using a data set for EU member states for the period 2000–2019, we researched fiscal policy objectives for economic development and the volume of public and private investment. The error correction model (ECM) was used as a derivative of the autoregressive model with distributed lags (ARDL) to assess the short-term variation of Gross Domestic Product under the influence of seven fiscal indicators. The study highlights the aspects of fiscal policies at EU level as well as the correlation between economic development and the fiscal behaviour of the authorities. We contribute to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the existence of a direct relationship between economic growth and the volume of private investment. First published online 01 March 2022

The article focuses on investments as a tool for solving economic development problems of the national economy. Based on the analysis of macroeconomic systems' development factors, it is concluded that it is necessary to accelerate economic development to ensure national competitiveness within the current global economy. The necessity of forming the organizational mechanism for the country's economic growth at a transitional stage of development is substantiated. The analysis of foreign investments in Ukraine is carried out. The paper defines the key points, tools, and measures for forming the corresponding mechanism on the example of Ukraine as an economic system in the transitional stage of development. The organizational scheme for economic growth by executive authorities is proposed. One of the critical roles in this mechanism is assigned to the Investment Department and Independent National Science Council; tasks and functions of these units in the structure of the agency are described.

The purpose of the paper is to study the current state of capital investments in Ukraine, to identify areas to improve investment attractiveness. Methodology The theoretical and methodological basis of the study are modern theories of market economy. The following methods were used in the research: inductive, deductive, analysis and synthesis, historical and logical, graphic. Results. It is established that the economic activity of individual economic entities, regions and the country as a whole is largely characterized by the volume and forms of investment. Development of the state is impossible without a sufficient level of investment, their focus on priority sectors of the national economy and effective use. Investments are an important factor of progressive development of any economic system. The obstacles to the effective implementation of the investment mechanism are indicated. It was found that the volume of investment in the domestic economy remains low due to an unfavorable investment climate caused by an imperfect legislative framework, underdeveloped stock market and financial and credit system, strong tax pressure, inefficient use of depreciation deductions, and low level of transformation of savings of the population into investment. The analytical assessment of capital investments in Ukraine, the dynamics of their change, by types of economic activity in 2016-2020 was carried out. The volumes of capital investments in Ukraine by types of assets in 2016-2020 were studied. The sources of financing of capital investments and their structure are characterized. The directions of increasing investment attractiveness are defined. The most priority directions are replacement of worn-out machines and equipment, automation and mechanization of the production process, reduction of production costs and environmental protection. Practical implications. As a result of the study, priority areas to improve the investment attractiveness of business entities, which will contribute to investment security, through a balanced and sound public policy to support investment activities and implementation of the proposed recommendations for businesses and public authorities.

So far, little is known about the Business Model Canvas development in the energy sector. In this paper, we fill this knowledge gap and modify the Business Model Canvas. Based on the cause–effect analysis combined with the literature searching method, we suggest that Osterwalder’s Canvas for energy enterprise should be modified because the available Canvas adaptations cannot fully capture the energy enterprise’s business model or realise its business operations combined with the public interest. We propose a new original Canvas adaptation by adding two crucial blocks representing the mission, energy accountability, and impact on stakeholders in the Business Model Canvas. The findings make two main contributions. First, they contribute to developing entrepreneurship theory. We formulate an original definition of a business model, first showing the limitations of current definitions. We verify Chesbrough’s functions of business models. Second, compared to earlier business model frameworks, the new model clearly points out that accountability in firms’ everyday businesses is at the core of business development. Moreover, this article formulates future research avenues in the energy sector and provides a helpful planning tool for practitioners.

Background and Statement of the problem: Protecting the purchasing power of investors' wealth is one of the key goals pursued by money and fund managers. As such, the hunt for investments, assets and commodities which can shield financial market participants from the ravaging effects of inflation is always on. It is claimed that infrastructure investments are characterized by superior returns, less volatility and inflation linked returns relative to comparable assets. This study examined the extent to which infrastructure investments (as a new asset class) can act as a hedge against inflation in emerging markets. Research methodology and data: Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was adopted to capture the long- and short-run hedging ability of infrastructure investments. Data were obtained from MSCI Global and Central Banks of 24 emerging nations. Research findings: In the short run, listed infrastructure investments proved to be a good inflation hedge. In the long run, both listed and unlisted infrastructure investments proved to be poor inflation hedges. The results imply that both listed and unlisted firms do not adjust their revenues in line with inflation trends in the long run. Policy implications: Investment policy designers are therefore expected to look beyond infrastructure investment in their quest to hedge inflation in emerging markets. Investors need to be cautious given that regulatory regimes are dynamic and that previously monopolistic infrastructure firms might lose their edge as well as their pricing powers. Investors and fund managers are encouraged to include both listed and private infrastructure in the same portfolio as they play a complementary investment role. JEL classifications: C50, E31, G10, G11, G14, H54 Keywords: inflation hedge, investors, infrastructure, emerging markets, ARDL Contact author's email address: rmagweva@gzu.ac.zw, INTRODUCTION All investments are characterized by different levels of risk. Risks such as inflation and exchange rate deter investors from realizing their short and long run goals. Capital preservation is [...]

An NBER conference on Investments in Early Career Scientists took place April 29 in Washington, DC and online. Research Associates Donna K. Ginther of the University of Kansas, Bruce A. [...]