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Purpose The purpose of this study is the detection and comparison of distinctive features of Gazelle firms (GFs) at three stages evolution outside the typical boundaries.Design/methodology/approach The study uses Analysis of Variance and logistic regression to tests the performance of 2427 gazelles for (GFs) a five-year period (2015–2020).Findings The study found that GFs prediction probability is low. In their second and third stages of evolution (initial growth and continuing growth), the gazelle growth effects appear. They are more effective in terms of profitability and turnover due to increasing sales and size.Practical implications This study shows that stakeholders should give preference to GFs that demonstrate long-term (steady) growth. Such firms are more efficient and financially stable than firms with high short-term growth.Originality/value The present study identifies patterns in the generation and development of GFs in high-tech industries outside the typical boundaries.

This study analyzes the nexus between tourism and regional real growth for European regions at the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), level 2, for the period 1995-2019. The study uses the dynamic panel threshold model to analyze complex relations between variables. As the dependent variable, we chose real growth rate of regional gross value added at basic prices by NUTS 2 regions. The independent variable is regional arrivals at tourist accommodation, while the control variables are health, household income, and employment at NUTS 2 regional level. The study found the threshold variable for 95% confidence interval. The marginal effects in the low inflation regime are higher compared to marginal effects in the high inflation regime. The study results support tourism-led growth hypothesis, indicating tourism as a one of the main drivers of regional growth. This research contributes to rare literature in application of dynamic panel threshold model in tourism. As an implication, this study can be used as a methodological approach to analyze the impact of different variables (not only tourism, but also innovations, technology, well-being, etc.) on regional growth, especially in countries with high regional differences, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Latin America, etc.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint influence of two factors (companies’ performance and growth) on the company’s capital structure and to determine the conditions for financially sustainable competitive strategies in the coordinates profitability and growth. Design/methodology/approach The study sample includes 1,996 companies from 6 high-tech industries in Russia (panel data: 7,984 observations). The authors use regression models with random effects and carry out a three-dimensional visualization of the resulting dependencies. Findings The study found that profitability improves the capital structure (reduces the share of borrowed capital) and, on the contrary, the growth of companies (assets growth or sales growth) increases the leverage ratio. In the case of assets growth, the combined influence of two factors reduces the negative effect of assets growth. The results have shown that the outstripping growth of most high-tech companies requires an increase in debt capital and deterioration in the capital structure and financial stability. Practical implications In general, based on the results of this study, the authors have identified groups of fast-growing companies that need financial support, and have defined the main areas of impact (reducing the loan burden and increasing profitability) that will allow these companies to maintain high growth rates and demonstrate advanced development. Originality/value The relationships (which the authors identified between the control variables, the studied variables and leverage) were obtained for the first time for a sample of companies in high-tech industries and services in bigger transition country (Russia).

The main objective of the paper is to investigate the analysts’ recommendations’ value and to determine on which market the analysts have more predictive power that can be defined as an extent of a stock price’s reaction around a particular recommendation what leads to abnormal returns of the security. Such recommendations are significant in decision‐making whether to buy or to sell a particular stock. We observed 1,881 events from 168 companies traded at the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange in a period between January 1, 2016, and April 31, 2019. We used an event study analysis and classical one‐factor market model to determine expected returns for a particular stock in an estimation window. It was found that both American and European Union markets are feasible to be outperformed by the analysts but it is impossible to highlight any of the markets as they behave almost identically around positive, neutral and negative recommendations.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the role of human asset in firm performance and its implication for firm valuation. To do so a modified five-factor model with human asset designed for capturing the size, value, profitability and investment in average portfolio returns that performs better than both Fama–French (1993) three- and Fama–French (2015) five-factor model. Study redefines CMA factors as CvMAv that includes human assets in it. The main problem with the modified five-factor model with human asset is the microcap with conservative investment stocks whose returns behave like that low-value unprofitable firms.

PurposeThe paper analyzes the effects of the capital structure on company performance (return on assets). The analysis is conducted in a large sample of high-tech manufacturing and service companies in the transition economy (Russian Federation). In addition to the aggregated analysis, separate investigations are conducted to scrutinize the impact of company age, size and location factors (the effects of agglomerations). This research postulates the existence and variability of the optimal capital structure and its dependence on economic crisis.Design/methodology/approachWe utilized a large sample that includes 1,826 enterprises over the period from 2013 to 2017. The estimation was performed using the panel-corrected standard error estimation technique (Prais–Winsten regression) to account for the panel nature and distributional properties of our data. The existence of the optimal capital structure was assessed based on a curvilinear (quadratic) function.FindingsThe results are consistent with the Static Trade-off Theory and show that this theory is applicable to countries with transition economy. They demonstrate that effective management of the capital structure can increase return on assets by 16–22%. The optimal share of borrowed capital is higher for small businesses compared to larger ones and for enterprises located in agglomerations compared to those located in other regions. A greater increase in profitability can be achieved by larger firm companies compared to smaller ones. High share of borrowed capital leads to negative profitability, i.e. to losses by enterprises. No significant differences in profitability growth were identified between young and mature enterprises. The optimal share of borrowed capital that maximizes return on assets is in the range of 0–21%.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the SPARK policies, our access to the data has been limited to a five-year window, which imposed certain limitations on the choice of econometric methods we could have employed and somewhat limited our ability to contrast the effect of the crisis period with the period of stability. In this sense, although our results pertaining to the effect of the crisis could be treated as conservative, future research should consider extending the panel to include more years into consideration.Practical implicationsWe identified significant differences between optimal capital structures and actual capital structures for high-tech enterprises. The contribution of this study is that the calculations were made for a country with a transition economy under crisis conditions. Countries with transition economies and developing countries tend to be characterized by a high level of interest rates on loans and a high proportion of borrowed capital in total assets. This poses difficulties for companies relying on borrowed capital to finance their operations. At the same time, our results demonstrate that in transition economies, enterprises in high-tech industries do have an optimal capital structure that allows maximizing firm performance. That is, Static Trade-off Theory is applicable to transition economies characterized by high interest rates on loans.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study lies in the detailed analysis of high-tech industries in Russian Federation. This analysis makes use of sophisticated econometric techniques for the first time in this context.

Purpose This paper study regional attractiveness through passive portfolio investment based on duration, immunization and convexity (in case of higher interest rate volatility) of municipal bonds by using data from Standard and Poor’s. The massive variety of financial incentives to promote regional investment attractiveness is dependent on governmental strategy. Municipal bonds are the one of the most efficient ways of direct investments in the region, however, it is still a question of a good balance between a certain rate of return and an adequate risk. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the investment opportunities in municipal revenue bonds. Design/methodology/approach This study developed a model of investing using municipal bonds with the case of their immunization and analyze attractiveness of such investment. The theoretical model assumes a situation where the local government finances its capital projects through municipal revenue bonds. Such situations influence strongly on regional or local competitiveness provided by local government policy. Findings An analysis of the municipal bond market indicates that both municipal general and revenue bonds had stable and good level of yields to maturity in the past ten years. Their standard deviations were very low and in the past two years almost approached the level of standard deviations of treasury bonds. With the duration of 4–6 years on 5-year investment in municipal revenue bonds and their immunization, it is possible to provide good returns for investor. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this study concerns theoretical situation where local government will use non-market-based policy to reduce the interest rates and that will influence on rise of municipal bond liquidity premium (price distortion). This situation will make municipality bonds less attractive for investing, especially because of lower liquidity on secondary market. Also, this model is applicable in regions that have developed financial markets. Practical implications This research suggests governments a sustainable framework to use municipal bonds as a strategy for capital targeting in regions. Social implications This research is related to professional investors’ strategy with projects that have the highest investment potential; this is good way for an adequate allocation of resources (regional competitiveness). Originality/value This paper analyzes very rare subject involving local government strategy of finance and portfolio investment in municipal bonds. There is a huge gap in the literature on this issue. Also, this study provides the model that can be used as a case for higher local competitiveness.

PurposeThe paper introduces a resource-based linear programming model for resource optimization in small innovative enterprises (SIE).Design/methodology/approachThe model is grounded on resource-based view on the firm and dynamic capabilities approach. Linear programming technique is used to provide the actual framework to the resource-based model.FindingsThe paper introduces a new resource-based linear programming model for resource optimization in small innovative enterprises. The conceptual model is grounded on resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities strategy. The RVB of firm and firm strategy is based on the concept of economic rent. Linear programming technique is used to provide the actual framework to the resource-based model. In developing the versatility concept, study suggests a distinct sight regarding resource fungibility. Study classifies resources into multipliable, rentable and expendable resources to increases adequacy of the model. The developed model includes both tangible and intangible assets such as human capital. The survival rate of SIE in the early stages of life cycle is very low due to the competition among SIEs. In this regard, the greatest advancement of the developed resource-based linear programming model is its simplicity and versatility which is much desirable for the SIE especially in their initial stages of the life cycle. Kelliher and Reinl (2009) argued that micro firms have unique advantage over bigger firms in following term: rate of learning or redeployment of strategy in micro firms is faster than the rate of change in their environment. One very significant feature of the developed resource-based linear programming model is that mathematically the proposed model could easily be transformed into mixed integer or stochastic linear programming models to meet the time variant requirement of small firms especially when it expands its operation.Research limitations/implicationsThe survival rate of SIE in the early stages of life cycle is very low due to the competition among SIEs. In this regard, the greatest advancement of the developed resource-based linear programming model is its simplicity and versatility which is much desirable for the SIE especially in their initial stages of the life cycle. Kelliher and Reinl (2009) argued that micro firms have unique advantage over bigger firms in following term: rate of learning or redeployment of strategy in micro firms is faster than the rate of change in their environment. One very significant feature of the developed resource-based linear programming model is that mathematically the proposed model could easily be transformed into mixed integer or stochastic linear programming models to meet the time variant requirement of small firms especially when it expands its operation.Originality/valueOne very significant contribution of the present study is that the study develops a new resource-based model for SIE especially for the SIE in the initial stages of the life cycle, to gain competitive advantages. Furthermore, the present study contributes to the existing literature in strategy at least in three senses as mentioned below: 1. further addition of SIE research based on the RBV and dynamic capabilities in the strategy literature 2. in developing the versatility concept, the study suggests a distinct sight regarding resource fungibility and it classifies resources into three categories as follows: multipliable, rentable and expendable resources to increases adequacy of the model. 3. Finally, the study introduces a new resource-based linear programming model for SIE resources allocation. To the best of author’s knowledge, no such similar model is introduced by any previous studies for small firm. The greatest advancement of the developed resource-based linear programming model is its simplicity and versatility.

PurposeThis study aims to examine whether the publication of analyst recommendations has reaction in the Russian stock market. This study also aims to determine the other factors that influence the reaction.Design/methodology/approachEvent study analysis (ESA) and regression models are used in this study.FindingsThe study finds that Russian stock market significantly reacts to analyst recommendations publications. Then study deeply investigates about the influence of other factors on the Russian market when an analyst's recommendations are published such as changes in recommendation levels, companies' size and general economic situation. The analysis done in the context of three types of recommendations: “buy,” “hold” and “sell.” The study finds that the market reacts not only to separate forecasts and subsequent recommendations, but also to the changes in recommendations' levels as well. Interestingly, the study finds that the impact of crises is not found to be a significant factor in the context of the Russian market.Research limitations/implicationsAnalysts used to spend much more resources on conducting a fundamental analysis than ordinary investors do. Therefore, they usually possess valuable privileged information that is supposed to influence stock prices when published. However, the present study argues that the direction, extent and period of a reaction of an analyst's recommendations are highly complicated and depend on what factors are under consideration in a particular research. Very often, the authors who dedicate their papers to develop and study markets choose a couple of (or even one) factors and delve into them. Nevertheless, to the author's best knowledge, few frequently cited and well-conducted research focused on such an emerging market as the Russian one. Thus, it seems reasonable that there is a gap in the literature that needs to be filled while considering other important factors. The study findings have a significant investment policy content.Originality/valueIn several senses, the present study is unique. First, it investigates whether analyst recommendations sufficiently affect the Russian stock market; second, it determines whether the significant factors such as changes in recommendation levels, companies' size and general economic situation have influence on the reaction. Finally, the study discusses about whether there is an impact of crises in the present study findings.

The Sharpe ratio emerges as one of the most popular metrics used in the evaluation of investment performance despite the wide range of alternatives that have been proposed by academics and practitioners. In the proposed research, risks and returns are analysed on the European Monetary Union bonds market, with different bonds ratings and maturities, in the period from 2005 to 2017. The past and current trends and patterns in bond returns are defined using the methods of statistic correlation and econometric analysis. It was shown that the bond returns are not normally distributed, and that the return on distribution depends on bond maturity and the economic situation in the market. The relation between volatility and bond maturity and the Sharpe ratio appeared to be non-linear and inconsistent over time. However, the hypothesis about the inverse relation between the Sharpe ratio and bond maturity is not supported by the evidence. Finally, with the help of time-series models it was proven that in the period from 2005 to 2017, the returns on European Monetary Union bonds market declined over time. ARIMA models were used to analyse the residuals from the bond returns.

This study examines the pricing of municipal bonds before and after a currency shock in Switzerland. Two approaches are used to decompose the municipal to treasuries bond spreads into liquidity, maturity, and default risk premiums. The first approach is the model of the cross-sectional instrumental variables, and the second approach is the model of the instrumental variables with panel data. This study examines the composition of spreads for both approaches, in three scenarios: before, throughout, and after the currency shock. The study performed Durbin-Wu-Hausman tests for each decisive model to verify endogeneity issues, including the Lagrangian Multiplier test, the Cragg-Donald Wald F statistic to confirm the relationship of instrumental and endogenous variables, and the structural break test (Bai-Perron test) to determine the existence of structural breaks in bond distortions. This study finds that the currency price distortions of the Swiss franc in January 2015 made long-run changes in the composition of the municipal bond spreads. This research contributes to the understanding of municipal bond pricing by showing that default risk accounts for a large portion of the municipal bond spread, while maturity risk plays a lesser role. According to our empirical findings, unexpected large currency price shocks may have long-term implications on the municipal bond spreads.

Purpose The starting premise of this study is that women's empowerment is the goal for self-realization and that the support that comes from local tourism stakeholders represents an adequate base. In many rural areas, women have established self-help groups (SHGs), which facilitate the interaction with a wide range of stakeholders. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of SHGs on female entrepreneurship and self-employment in tourism. Design/methodology/approach To examine the research question, this study adopted a quantitative research that included a sample of 513 women in a less-advanced rural area in Serbia. For the data analysis, the generalized linear regression model (GLM) was used. Findings According to the results, self-employment is the leading goal of women's empowerment. Research limitations/implications The main limitation in the research and the authors’ suggestion for future research is to increase the sample size of female respondents, so examination of their attitudes and role in the travel business in their local settings might reach higher significance. The second issue that the authors would like to point out is a highly local character of our study, so the future research should involve other rural areas in the country and from abroad (e.g. similar undeveloped countryside with noticeable, active women's role in local entrepreneurship). Practical implications The most important practical implications of this paper are twofold: (1) the results of the research have shown that the tourist potential of rural areas can be enhanced through local tourism stakeholders' support; (2) women without professional interest or jobs in rural areas, especially in the areas where the population is traditionally dominated by men (husband/brother/father), have a chance to earn and to be economically more independent. This research can affect future studies to investigate other aspects of empowerment depending on the difference of regions, from one side, and also alternative opportunities for tourism and local development in less-advanced rural areas, from another side. Originality/value The study analyzes the tourism potential of the rural areas (which are less advanced and mostly very poor in developing countries, such as Serbia). In this case, there are opportunities to increase employment, social inclusion of women, development of new tourism strategies, implementation of destination marketing, etc. Moreover, it contributes to future research in the field of stakeholders in tourism strategies.

The present study investigated whether the crypto market is a safe haven. The study argues that during the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis, gold and oil, as typical global commodities, could have been diversifiers. The study developed a unique COVID-19 global composite index that measures COVID-19 pandemic time-variant movements on each day. The study used OLS (ordinary least squares), quantile, and robust regressions to check whether the COVID-19 crisis has had any significant direct influence on the crypto market. The OLS, quantile, and robust regressions estimates confirmed that there was no statistically significant direct influence of the COVID-19 crisis on the crypto market in the first wave period. However, the study found spillovers from risky assets (S&amp, P 500) on the crypto market, with Tether as an exception. Due to this special characteristic, Tether might present a safe haven within the crypto market.

Employee satisfaction is the main factor achieving high work performance, providing quality services in the tourism sector, which directly affects the increase in productivity and commitment to the organization. The research is focused on determining the factors of job satisfaction and commitment to the institution by the female workforce. The authors conducted a survey in tourism companies in Novi Sad (the second-largest city in Serbia), based on a sample of 610 women in total, using a standardized MSQ questionnaire for job satisfaction, and Meyer and Allen’s organizational commitment scale. Three multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between job satisfaction factors and organizational commitment factors. The results confirm the existence and strength of correlation between satisfaction factors and types of organizational commitment, and the fact that the position of women in the tourism sector is not at an enviable level, and that they remain in the same organization because of the small number of alternatives and moral obligations.

This study contributes to our understanding of how the emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic changes the global Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) landscape. Before the COVID‐19 pandemic, BFSIs corporate strategy was solely aligned to the quest for operational efficiency. However, during the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic, global BFSIs are forced to adopt digital transformation in their operations due to a rise in transaction volumes. The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic already triggers holistic innovations concerning the global BFSI's product, process, concept, trend, or idea. Thus, the BFSI cannot survive without efficient and innovative system software for global operations. The study plots the hype cycle to identify relevant technologies to deal with real‐world business problems. The hype cycle indicates that the need for advanced data integration is growing and COVID‐19 pandemic has already triggered it. The study argues that the incorporation of data integration might be challenging initially for BFSIs but eventually it may result in an efficient model to handle these types of pandemic or unexpected circumstances.

The present study is on the five cryptocurrency daily mean return time series linearity dynamics during the Covid-19 period. These cryptocurrencies were chosen based on their influence on the market, primarily driven by its market capitalisation. Tether is included as the most important stable coin on the market, nominally pegged to the U.S. dollar (USD). The reason to investigate it is that there are some inconsistencies in its behaviour as opposed to the other four cryptocurrencies. This study found that the behaviour of Tether cryptocurrency daily average return time series pattern is highly nonlinear and chaotic in nature, whereas the other four cryptocurrencies (namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Bitcoin Cash) daily average return time series were found to be linear in nature. To further study Tether&rsquo, s nonlinear time series rich dynamics, this study deployed one category of the regime switching models popularly known as the threshold regressions. The study estimates fairly suggest that both the threshold autoregression (TAR) and smooth transition autoregressive (STAR) models with lag 1 are adequate to capture the rich nonlinear and chaotic dynamics of Tether&rsquo, s daily average return time series.

Two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has adapted to the new market conditions that coexist with this global phenomenon [...]

Research background: Institutional investors such as: commercial banks, pension funds, and insurance companies are constantly looking for low-risk stable investment opportunities, whereas one of the solutions can be a simulated portfolio. This research takes a look at the incentive to invest in government debt portfolios, as it can outperform the returns of deposit accounts. Purpose of the article: This study considers several classic methods of portfolio constriction and includes the basis of debt instruments that have not been a research topic for a long period of time. At the same time, this paper analyzes the classic methods of modern portfolio theory with a Sharpe ratio as an indicator of efficiency. Methods: The constructed portfolio consists of four elements from different countries: two government obligations and two bond indexes, aiming to employ international diversification. All the data was collected for the period of 12 years in order to represent the consequences of accrued recessions. Findings & Value added: The past two severe financial crises created a higher demand for stable investments, and more investors are ready to compromise a higher return for it. There-fore, the results of this paper represent a simulation of low-risk hedge fund portfolio construction with the use of highly rated debt instruments.

Increasing accuracy of the data analysis of remote sensing of the Earth significantly affects the quality of decisions taken in the field of environmental management. The article describes the methodology for decoding multispectral space images based on the ensemble learning concept, which can effectively solve important problems of geosystems mapping, including diagnostics of the structure and condition of catchment basins, inventory of water bodies and assessment of their ecological state, study of channel processes; monitoring and forecasting of functioning, dynamics and development of geotechnical systems. The developed methodology is based on an algorithm for analyzing the structure of geosystems using ensemble systems based on a fundamentally new organization of the metaclassifier that allows for a weighted decision based on the efficiency matrix, which is characterized by an increase in accuracy of the decoding of space images and resistance to errors. The metaclassification training algorithm based on the method of weighted voting of monoclassifiers is proposed, in which the weights are calculated on the basis of error matrix metrics. The methodology was tested at the test site ‘Inerka’. The performed experiments confirmed that the use of ensemble systems increases the final accuracy, objectivity, and reliability of the analysis.

In this paper authors developed Cube Online Analytical Model (COLAM) which should anticipate various restrictions and hazards in river transport system. The aim is to construct a theoretical model which will predict certain delays in transport time caused by topographic and hydrographic constraints, natural hazards (such as ice, floods and droughts), economic and political constraints (tariff barriers between the countries, operating costs, terminal costs and sanctions, the threat of war, etc.) and different technical accidents. COLAM integrates hydroinformatic and hydrologic base of knowledge with real time and gives possibility to provide information for economic queries with different hierarchy of time. COLAM is methodological and practical instrument for this challenge. It integrates hydroinformatic and hydrologic base of knowledge with real time. The model in each concrete case is created to receive information about possible changing of navigation periods on the base of multi-dimension all of three groups of risks (natural hazards, social and technical hazards) as also their combinations.

This paper focuses on the case of “Iron Gates” National Park located along the Danube between Serbia and Romania and discusses the opportunities and prospects for developing geotourism. Apart from being an area of natural beauty, this park comprises a wide range of spectacular geological sites, historical and cultural monuments. The authors also examine the concept of geotourism and show its connection to other types of tourism such as nature tourism and adventure tourism. Using statistical methods and methods of comparative analysis, they analyse the data on tourism development in Đerdap (Serbia) and Mehedinţi County (Romania) in 2015. Such indicators as the number of tourists and overnight stays, the number of accommodation facilities, the coefficient of functionality, and so on are considered. The conclusion is made that the national park “Iron Gates” holds significant potential for the development of sustainable tourism in the region if the park’s geoheritage sites are consolidated into a single tourism route “Iron Gates Geoheritage”, which would be highly likely to become a successful product in the tourism market. This product could be presented either directly, as a tourist destination, or indirectly, through event tourism, excursions, transit tourism and so on, and offered to both domestic and international tourists. Эта статья посвящена национальному парку «Железные врата», расположенному вдоль Дуная между Сербией и Румынией, и в ней рассмотрены возможности и перспективы развития геотуризма. Помимо того, что район парка отличается природной красотой, он включает в себя широкий спектр впечатляющих геологических, исторических и культурных памятников. Авторы рассматривают понятие геотуризма и показывают его связь с другими видами туризма, такими как природный туризм и приключенческий туризм. Используя статистические методы и методы сравнительного анализа, они анализируют данные о развитии туризма в Чердапе (Сербия) и округе Мехединцы (Румыния) в 2015 г. Рассмотрены такие показатели, как количество туристов, ночевок, количество объектов размещения, коэффициент функциональности. Сделан вывод о том, что национальный парк «Железные врата» обладает значительным потенциалом для развития туризма в регионе, который будет реализован, если объекты геонаследия парка будут объединены в единый туристический маршрут «Географическое наследие Железных врат». Данный продукт с большой вероятностью станет успешным на туристическом рынке. Этот продукт может быть представлен либо напрямую, как туристическое направление, либо косвенно, посредством событийного туризма, экскурсий, транзитного туризма и т. д., и он может предлагаться как внутренним, так и международным туристам.

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]

This research analyse the US and the EU money markets interdependence from 2004 to 2018. The study explains to what extent the volatility of the chosen money markets instruments in two regions is inter-correlated before, during and after the financial crisis of 2008. We apply the econometric analysis and estimate time-series models of class GARCH to study the historical dynamics of interbank rates and bond returns. The study demonstrates that correlation between returns of analogous money market instruments in the EU and US is not stable over time. We find that correlation rises in periods when countries are exposed to the same external shocks as global financial crisis. Wavelet coherence analysis suggests that investors do not get any advantages of portfolio diversification investing only in US treasuries with different maturities for more than 256 days and do not get any advantages at all investing only in European bonds.

In this study, we analysed the income structure of the 30 largest banks in seven Balkan countries in the period before, during and after the global economic crisis. Considering that the structure of income primarily consists of interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing income, we analysed whether the crisis has affected the change in the structure of banks’ income in the Balkans. To analyse this, we used panel and quantile regressions models. The study additionally implemented quantile regression for checking the robustness. The results show that there is a more significant correlation between non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing income, while the correlation with net profit is more moderate. According to our results, the interest income grew in the period when reference interest rates fell and when the negative effects of the economic crisis were most pronounced. The banks in the region of the Balkans built their profits more on interest-incomes in the period before and after the economic crisis.

This study analyzes factors affecting the efficiency (profitability) of enterprises in foreign, joint and domestic ownership in countries with unstable economy. The novelty of the study is that for the first time this kind of analysis has been carried out for the manufacturing industry in Russia, whose economy is characterized by the instability (crisis), external sanctions, and the internal trend for import substitution. Using a panel data on 6134 enterprises operating across several industries in Russia over the period of 2012–2016, the article suggests that generally production efficiency and scale efficiency positively affect profitability, whereas the share of borrowed capital, share of fixed assets and rising interest rates exert negative effects. The contribution of external financial factors is minimal, except for foreign and jointly owned firms. Production efficiency has a particularly pronounced effect for the automotive industry, machinery and equipment manufacturing, and in the metal industry. In contrast, in the chemical, electrical and optical manufacturing, and in food processing industries, internal financial factors emerge as a powerful predictor of performance. Firm ownership does not exert a significant effect on the relationship between the variables of interest when the share of borrowed funds is below 50%. When the share of borrowed capital exceeds 50%, internal financial factors emerge as a particularly prominent predictor of profitability.

In this editorial text, we point to the importance and development of disciplines that closely link economic sciences with ecology. Drawing on the most important literature in these fields, we have highlighted the trends that are popular today in both fields (double eco features). © 2019 by the authors.

The study analyses the role and impact of the event "Danube Fair" (Eastern Serbia) in the tourism progress of the less-advantaged border area. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the significance of the role of events in the tourism development of rural settings and the attraction of domestic and foreign visitors with the specific offer of this part of Serbia. The tourism valorization of the event “Danube Fair” was done according to the geographical and economic criteria, and it was determined that it belongs to the category of regional events. In the paper, special attention was paid to the analysis of tourists’ satisfaction with this event as a geographical criterion, especially in dependence with the visitors’ origin, since it is what the positioning of an event on the tourism market depends on, both on the local and on the international level. “Danube Fair” presents the example of a relatively small-scale event, which can become a basis of tourism growth, with proper valorization and affirmation of local products and services, and their introduction to the international tourism market. © 2020 Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved. 17-22-07001-ОГН Authors would like to thank Russian Foundation for basic research for the financial support provided within the project No. 17-22-07001-ОГН (Complex algorithm for cultural regeneration of minor industrial cities within the context of agglomeration processes in Russia and Europe).

This chapter analyzes the role of regional development institutions in the social and economic regional development of the Russian Federation. The essence and content of the notion “the institute of regional development” is specified. The main types of the regional development institutions existing in Russia are identified, including those that are at different territorial levels. The main functions of the regional development institutions are considered taking into account the specifics of the Russian Federation. The formation process of development institutions in the regions of the Russian Federation, which indicates their spatial concentration in several regions of the Russian Federation, is analyzed. The main problems of the effective functioning of regional development institutions, including those connected with the disagreement of legislatively assigned functions for different levels of government (regional and federal), are summarized. The directions for increasing the efficiency of their functioning have been developed on the basis of questionnaire survey conducted for the heads of development institutes of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of the scope of powers and degree of independence in support of investors and interaction with them, priorities in the choice of running projects for the development of investment and social infrastructure, as well as problematic issues that hamper their effective work.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of wine tourism on rural destination development. Consequently, this study attempts to develop contemporary insights on this under-researched area such as residents’ perceptions of wine tourism and its impact on the rural destination development. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors used a structured survey questionnaire from a random sample of 318 respondents based on the Fruška Gora Mountain in Serbia. Research also used structural equational modeling for empirical econometric testing in this data sample. This technique is appropriate for multivariate analysis. Findings Personal resident benefit associated with wineries is positively related to resident perceived economic impact (H1) R2=0.624; socio-cultural impact (H2) R2=0.685 and environmental impact (H3) R2=0.716 of wineries on local communities. Looking at the path diagram, the authors concluded that personal resident benefit associated with wineries is strongly related to resident perceived impact of wineries on local communities as regression weights are higher. Other findings relate those residents’ positive perceptions of wine tourism to increases in sales revenue, environmental protection, intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. Research limitations/implications The positive attitude of the local population is an essential link of development. Such understanding of residents’ perceptions optimizes destination management in the future and, more importantly, local sustainable development. This has high policy implications. Originality/value The present study contributes to the scientific circles by connecting perception research with wine tourism.

The term “smart city” has recently become greatly widespread in academic and political discourse. Nevertheless, this is rather a marketing term that unites a number of technological (and other) areas: Internet of Things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), communication networks. The latest generation of networks is essential for the development of digital ecosystems of smart cities. It has been assumed that the smart city and 5G networks form an emerging technological area. The goal of the work is to study the structure of the development and implementation of new technologies for the urban environment on the sample of 5G-based technologies. For the analysis of new technologies in the selected subject area, a study of patent landscapes and scientometric analysis of the topic field has been conducted. The object of the scientometric analysis is the study of citation patterns. The use of the patent landscape is based on the information systems and databases of patent information developed by patent offices and commercial companies and consists of visualizing the logical connections between various indicators of patent activity, on the one hand, and technological and market trends, on the other. Together, the scientometric and patent landscape show the most promising areas of technological research. The results of the study can be used in further theoretical and applied research, in the formation of government policy in research and development, as well as in decision-making in the field of urban management.

This paper analyzes the factors that contribute to the government obligations yield to maturity on the EU and US markets. Both, the bond characteristics and macroeconomic factors are taken into account, and the magnitude of each of the factor is provided which compose the average yield to maturity. Due to a severe financial crisis in the past years, economies are still recovering from the effects what makes investors to look for the stable investment instruments. Results of this study are a good fundamental for private investors that desire a stable return with a low-risk exposure. The factors and obtained coefficients included in the paper, can be used by investors, both private and institutional, to understand the magnitudes of the premiums that they can take on by varying the bond characteristics which account to the bond yield to maturity. Investors can decide at which premiums they are willing to focus, to obtain the desired expected returns.

This study analyzes a neural networks model that forecast Sharpe ratio. The developed neural networks model is successful to predict the position of the investor who will be rewarded with extra risk premium on debt securities for the same level of portfolio risk or a greater risk premium than proportionate growth risk. The main purpose of the study is to predict highest Sharpe ratio in the future. Study grouped the data on yields of debt instruments in periods before, during and after world crisis. Results shows that neural networks is successful in forecasting nonlinear time lag series with accuracy of 82% on test cases for the prediction of Sharpe-ratio dynamics in future and investor‘s portfolio position.

The article investigates the opportunity of the development of a new transnational transport corridor on the base of the NSR, which is much shorter and faster than the usual one. The basis of this project is Sabetta seaport, which is considered as a potential transnational transport hub. The authors investigated the opportunities for the development of intermodal terminals and new services/goods for the East-West and North-South international transport corridors. They design this idea on the base of multi-modal transportation approach for the development of a global innovation project of NSR Transnational Transport Corridor. Using classical methods of analysis, they conclude that the port of Sabetta, as well as other ports in the Yamal Peninsula currently does not have direct rail access to the Central Russia regions and it can be good potential for regional development in Ural and Siberia. The research was limited by the official statistics about NSR dynamic of cargo volume. The results of research can provide the development of new multimodal transnational transport corridor and can be the basis of regional development in northern Russian regions. The implementation of the idea can provide a significant amount of new jobs and an enormous amount of international investments. Mainly in international scientific literacy authors examine the question of North Transport corridor by logistic and geographical aspects. The article investigates this question in more complex aspect by a multimodal approach with involvement in the NSR another means of communication like a river, railway and motorway transportation.

The competitiveness of the region is ability to be productive and maintain a high standard of living. In this paper, we have created Snowflake model of regional competitiveness considering not only economic and social factors, but also infrastructure, innovations, geo-natural variables, institutional factors, culture and tourism. This model can be applied in any country or group of countries. The model shows the competitiveness of the region in three ways: 1) quantitatively - by the index of regional competitiveness, 2) ranking the region compared to other regions and 3) it possesses visual characteristic - represents snowflake of competitiveness. As part of our analysis, we measured the regions of Serbia. The reason is that Serbia has the largest regional differences in Europe, which was an additional motive to test the model.

The research deals with the sustainable development of the Serbian and Slovenian countryside, under the influence of tourism progress. The article identifies the main rural tourism competitiveness in Serbia and Slovenia, as one of the essential factors of rural development in both countries, analyzing the main contributions and making a series of proposals to guide the future research agenda. The aim of the paper is to clarify around one obviously defined objective—to point out the competitiveness of sustainable rural tourism in typical post-socialist settings. The data for this study were collected using the Integrated Model of Destination Competitiveness to observe Serbian and Slovenian competitiveness in tourism. Determinants were assessed using a survey evaluating four demanding factors and 20 supporting factors, based upon a five-point Likert Scale. The results indicated that the friendliness of residents towards visitors, easy communication between them, together with quality of infrastructure and health facilities show the highest level of statistical correlation. These are the main propositions to start an initiative for the authorities in local communities to actively participate in sustainable rural development. The findings provide tourism stakeholders with relevant respondents’ perceptions pertaining to the tourism development in non-urban areas.