Issue #2 (Volume 17 2019)

In order to ensure profitability for shareholders, optimal contracting recommends the alignment between executive compensation and company performance. Large organizations have therefore adopted executives remuneration systems in order to induce positive market reaction and motivate executives. Complex compensation schemes are designed by Boards of Directors using strong pay-performance incentives that explain high levels of executive pay along with company size, demand for management skills and executive influence. However, the literature remains inconclusive on the pay-performance relationship owing to the various empirical methods used by researchers. Additionally, there has been little effort in the literature to compare methodologies on the pay-performance relationship.
Using the dominant agency theory framework, the purpose of this study is to establish and examine the relationship between firm performance and executive pay. In addition, it intends to assess the characteristic of model specifications commonly adopted. To this aim, a quantitative analysis consisting of three complementary methods was performed on panel data from South African listed companies. The results of the main unrestricted first difference model indicate a strong non-linear relationship where the impact of current and previous firm performance on executive pay can be observed over 2 to 4-year period providing support to the optimal contracting theoretical perspective in the South African business context. In addition, CEO pay is more sensitive to firm performance as compared to Director pay. Lastly, although it affects executive pay levels, company size is not found to improve the pay-performance relationship.

The rapid spread of information technologies and other phenomena in the new economy causes significant changes in the social and employment spheres. The objective is mainly to analyze and systematize the peculiarities of labor and payment for it in the new economy. In this paper, the analytical grouping method for characterizing salary functions, as well as changes in the social and labor sphere that take place in the new economy, correlation-regression analysis to determine the relationship between average income and factors affecting its level are used. The results of the paper show three important findings. Firstly, the gradual changes in the content of labor and forms of its organization that happen in modern conditions under the influence of dissemination of information and communication technologies require new approaches to income adjustment, management of employment of the population, development of professional education system. Secondly, the authors also found that the fair employee compensation, ensuring productive employment in modern conditions, is a challenge not only of the national, but also of international scale. Thirdly, the prospective directions of reducing inequality and social tension in society are the guarantee of the basic unconditional income, progressive tax on all types of income, reduction of the length of working time while maintaining payments and improving productivity. In addition to avoiding social dangers, it would be a proactive progressive function of expanding human development opportunities.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of regulatory changes on financial reporting quality and audit fees and to further test whether this effect was moderated by firm characteristics (i.e. abnormal audit fees, political connections and overlapping directorship) in Nigeria. This study utilized the data of 90 companies listed on the Nigerian stock exchange over the period 2008–2013. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique that takes into account the endogeneity nature of financial reporting quality and audit fees model, the results indicated that financial reporting quality improved in the regulatory changes period. However, abnormal audit fees, political connection and overlapping directorship deteriorated the effect. Accordingly, future regulatory reforms must be cognizant of these factors. Even though there are abundant empirical studies on financial regulatory changes and their effects on financial reporting quality, this study provides additional insights into the regulatory change literature by investigating how firm characteristics (abnormal audit fees, political connection and overlapping directorship) moderate the effect of regulatory changes particularly in Nigeria, one of the less developed and underresearched capital markets in the world. Further, the findings of this study are robust with respect to the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, which previous studies had failed to consider.

Transport infrastructure plays an important role in promoting the socio-economic development in most countries. In particular, the development of road infrastructure is the basis for promoting enterprises development through expanding market access, lowering logistics cost and inputs cost, etc. The focal point of this paper is to estimate the impact of road infrastructure on firm performance through an empirical research in Cuu Long delta area, Vietnam. By applying the econometric models, the results from this study show that the positive relationship between road infrastructure and firm performance in Cuu Long delta area, and that the level of impact is different across business sectors.

This paper aims to understand the relationship between personality traits, work-life balance (WLB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB) among individuals in education sector. It is hypothesized that big five personality traits are positively related to different components of WLB and further components of WLB are positively related to different components of EWB. Data were collected from 504 business school teachers through a structured questionnaire from national capital region (NCR) of India. Analysis is done using structural equation modeling. The result indicate that big five personality traits influence all the dimensions of WLB and, hence, are important predictor variables. Finding also suggests that work interference with personal life and health dimensions of WLB significantly impacts EWB. Whereas personal life interference with work and work personal life enhancement dimension of WLB were found to have significant impact on some dimensions of EWB, the outcomes have practical implication in dispositional job design, developing supportive policies, work-life culture and eudaimonia oriented interface for maximizing individual and organizational outcomes. The study reflects towards work-life balance in a novel socio-cultural context and promotes possibility of the mediating role of WLB to the relationships between personality traits and EWB.

The present study attempts to bring up eco-destination which is until now still under-researched. Especially, it puts interest in the relationship between image and identification, which is absent in tourism literature. Combined together and tailored to its purpose, it develops new constructs, that is eco-destination image and eco-destination identification. In order to represent the real nature of Wakatobi as eco-destination, it also develops another two constructs as the antecedents of eco-destination image and eco-destination identification, that is perceived eco-support and need for uniqueness. By doing so, it puts together interactively some theories that previously stand mutually-exclusive, especially those of image, uniqueness, subjective norm, and social identity theories. This mixture becomes its conspicuous novelty. The population covers domestic and international tourists over 25 years old. It applies convenience sampling for questionnaire distribution. It applies SPSS for data analysis. The results would be that perceived eco-support has significant effects on destination image and eco-destination identification, while destination image has a significant direct effect on eco-destination identification, which makes destination image only serve as a partial mediator in the relationship between perceived eco-support and eco-destination identification. Need for uniqueness should have an insignificant effect on eco-destination identification, but significant effect on destination image. It means that destination image serves as a full mediator in the relationship between need for uniqueness and eco-destination identification.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a meta-analysis of the relationship between determinant factors and tax evasion based on deterrence approach. Using the meta-analysis method, each statistical result of empirical studies is converted into r-pearson as standardized effect size, and then synthesized into a mean effect size in order to increase power and to resolve uncertainty. Theoretically, increasing audit, tax rate and tax penalty will decrease tax evasion. However, the results show that only tax rate has a significant impact on tax evasion. Synthesizing totally 478 outcomes from articles published between 1978 and 2018, there is a robust conclusion that decreasing tax rate is an effective tool in combating tax evasion. On the other hand, audit and penalty are not significant in influencing tax evasion. In addition, the results of heterogeneity analysis suggest that national culture and income level of the country are useful in explaining the impact of audit, tax rate and tax penalty on tax evasion. These findings should be of interest to policymakers. First, instead of sacrificing more resources in conducting audit or imposing more penalty, tax authorities should consider setting the tax rate as low as possible to diminish tax evasion. Second, considering that culture and income level influence the impact of audit and penalty on tax evasion, policymakers should consider national cultural values and income level condition when designing audit techniques and setting penalty structures.

The paper aimed to identify the obstacles of Human Resource Planning (HRP) that affect workers in delivering quality services to public within the customer centres of the municipality located in South Africa (SA). Since, HRP is well known as a tool that resolves the existing and future organization obstacles by confirming that the right employees are placed in the right positions at the right time. The investigation of the paper used mixed methods, which encompasses both qualitative and quantitative methods in its data collection. From the target, only 45 workers completed a questionnaire and only seven supervisors participated in one-on-one interviews. Results reveal the lack of both internal and external factors, which include a shortage of workers to perform the duties of the municipal in the customer centres. This includes demographic issues, lack of education qualifications, recruitment policies, insufficient working tools, working environment and career growth. The recommendation is to implement a strategical recognition for good performance to workers and to look for other venues with enough space to deliver quality services. Lastly, there is a need to establish and implement strategies of promotion and growth within the municipality.

Managing capital structure is an imperative decision made by all firms. The manner in which financing is organized is a strategic financial decision and managers must settle on the amount of debt in relation to equity that it requires to maintain. Despite many empirical studies investigating the choice of capital structure for large corporates, minimal research has been conducted on capital structure decisions in small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs). This study identifies major factors influencing the capital structure of SMMEs in a developing economy and enlightens owners/managers on the importance thereof. This investigation used a quantitative research approach, which was cross-sectional. A convenience sampling method was adopted, and data were collected from 136 respondents, only confined to the retail and whole sector, which is the second largest sector in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The partial least squares structural equation modelling was utilized to determine the statistical results. It was discovered that managerial factors such as individual goals and financing preference of the owner/manager, network ties, attitude to debt, maintaining control and asymmetric information; and firm-level factors such as size of the firm, profitability and firm age are major factors that influence the capital structure of SMMEs. Therefore, capital structure decisions are made motivated by the attitudes of the owners/managers.

Sustainability is a key area of concern for manufacturing firms’ long-term success. However, the manufacturing industry has not been fully conscious of the potential sustainable values across manufacturing system. There is a need to better understand how companies can improve sustainable value creation. Recent research and practices have shown that sustainable operations can be one way to create sustainable values (e.g. economic, environmental and social). This review article focuses on the available empirical studies on the impact of lean and sustainability practices on sustainable performance from 2000 to 2018 in the context of manufacturing firms. Integrating lean and sustainability practices into manufacturing system confrontы operations managers with paradoxical tensions of sustainability objectives. Theoretically having paradoxical mindset will help firms’ managers make sense of and responв to such paradoxical tensions. In the context of sustainable operations studies, the issue of paradoxical mindset has been given less emphasis. Therefore, through the lens of the paradox theory, this study has developed a new conceptual framework for future research to investigate how paradoxical mindset moderates the impact of lean and sustainability practices on the sustainable performance of manufacturing industry. This study may add to the understanding of the circumstances, under which lean and sustainability practices impact sustainable outcomes.

The study examined the nature and structure of alternative supply of electricity in Nigeria. It has been observed that all the efforts of the Nigerian government to improve electricity supply and promote access to electricity have been proving abortive and households at various levels are confronted with the challenge of searching for alternative supply of electricity. Also, state government and some private organizations are interested in solving this challenge, but they lack appropriate empirically grounded information on the choice of alternative source of electricity. The study, which is a pure exploratory one, used primary data through well-structured questionnaire from a sample of 4,758 households across 16 local governments in Ekiti State of Nigeria. Applying descriptive statistics, the strengths and weaknesses of various alternative sources of electricity supply among households were analyzed. The results indicate that rechargeable appliances, electricity generating set, inverter and solar/inverter are the four major types of alternative sources of electricity supply common among the households. It was also revealed that out of all the positive ratings such as regularity in supply, ease of maintenance and capacity, solar powered source of alternative electricity supply appears to be the best. The only rating that is unfavorable to the solar type of alternative sources of electricity supply is in the area of affordability. Government and interested private organizations should embark on establishment of solar powered stations for some communities or distribution of solar panels and inverters at subsidized rate to households to improve their socio-economic well-being.

Unstable external environment, unfavorable market conditions and escalating global competition necessitate developing new management technologies to overcome the disproportionality in the economic systems functioning. The polystructural properties of the national tourism system (NTS), as a significant component of the national economic system, require multisubject management. The mutisubject management process ensures a balanced interplay of its constituent elements and the coherence of economic entities’ interests. Accordingly, the purpose of the article is to study the essence of multisubject NTS management.
It is revealed that multisubject NTS management is the process of forming and developing mutually coordinated and effective interaction of subjects of the public and private sectors, as well as consumers for the consolidated creation of tourism product based on constructive inter-subject communication.
The main groups of entities that have a managerial influence on the national tourism system, that is form multisubject management, are identified. On this basis, the configuration of multisubject NTS management and the structural and logical scheme for coordinating its participants’ interests are proposed. Given the NTS polystructural properties, the definition of the synergistic effect of integrated cooperation in the format of multisubject management is proved. According to the study results, a step-by-step procedure for estimating multisubject management is proposed, which determines the interaction level and the vector of equilibrium of the NTS entities.

This paper is devoted to measuring the efficiency of the higher education of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The data envelopment analysis method was applied, considering the number of enrolled students, budget financing, co-financing, self-financing as inputs, and the number of graduated students according to the field of education as the output. Measuring the relative efficiency of main fields of the higher education system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authors found that the agriculture is the most efficient field of higher education in this country. However, the engineering, manufacturing technologies and construction field have the lowest efficiency score due to the high consumption of budget expenditures, but the lowest education results. The hypothesis of the growing efficiency of the higher education system of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not confirmed. The downward trend in the total number of publications indicates a twofold deterioration in the scientific efficiency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the six-year period. Comparison with neighboring countries showed relatively low scientific efficiency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conclusion is that currently the higher education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is relatively inefficient and its efficiency falls down.

The aim of this study is to analyze and measure the factors that influence competitive advantage seen from the quality of services, Islamic work ethics and information systems. The population of this study was all patients of BPJS participants in hospitals in Kuningan, West Java. This study uses a proportional random sampling technique to determine the sample. The respondents of this study were 115 respondents. Analysis was carried out using Partial Least Square (PLS). Results of the study prove that Islamic work ethics are positive and significant to competitive advantage. Competitive advantage can also be influenced by the hospital information system. Service quality also has a positive and significant influence on competitive advantage. Islamic work ethics, information system and service quality is a factor that can build competitive advantage in hospitals in Kuningan.

The public sector is facing multiple changes. In a constantly changing environment, that is more and more demanding in terms of innovation and performance, the concept of leadership is of particular importance, as it is one of the few tools available to public managers.
Based on the transformational leadership theory, the aim of this study is to explore how transformational leadership characteristics influence organizational change within the public sector in Lebanon. To serve this purpose, a qualitative approach is adopted based on a series of semi-focused interviews conducted with ten public managers running 10 public administrations. These administrations have undergone significant changes over the past five years.
The results point out the importance of transformational behaviors adopted by public managers in leading change within the public sector in Lebanon, despite the multiple obstacles. They confirmed the role of two transformational dimensions related to idealized influence and inspirational motivation in the successful implementation of organizational change. This study contributes to better understanding of the role of transformational leadership in promoting change in the public sector.

Since the beginning of the administrative and territorial reform in Ukraine, the financial decentralization process has been intensified. It aims at optimizing the budgetary resource redistribution in order to make communities financially independent. This significantly increases the financial capacity for self-organization and self-development of a united territorial community, which determines the need to apply valuation methods to increase the territory’s investment attractiveness.
The article outlines the peculiarities of the united territorial communities (UTCs) management under fiscal decentralization, taking into account the need to apply current methods of value-oriented management. At the same time, the use of SWOT analysis as one of the methods of value-oriented management made it possible to evaluate the efficiency and attractiveness of UTCs under decentralization. The financial activity of 665 UTCs was analyzed and the model for managing the united territorial community was created. It is emphasized that the modern understanding of financial support for united territorial communities remains unresolved today, and the expediency to introduce changes in the UTC, which envisage using the subsidiarity principles, is not justified.
The key directions for managing the UTCs are identified. This refers to communities that began their activities and already faced the first challenges: management of available resources, provision of needs and sustainable development of the community, changes in the ratio of their income and expenditure components, increase in the budget income per capita.
It is recommended to focus on tools of value-oriented management in the united territorial communities in order to attract investors and increase the financial capacity of local authorities.

This paper examined the impacts imparted by ethical leadership on both the performance and well-being of management accountants employed in public shareholding companies operating in Jordan. The mediating effect of psychological well-being was also examined. In testing the study hypotheses, analysis was performed on 93 obtained responses. The structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used. From the outcomes, the ethical leadership level has significant impact on the psychological well-being of management accountants, while ethical leadership indirectly and significantly affects job performance, but only by way of psychological well-being. All these lend support to the mediating role of the psychological well-being of employees in the delineation of the link existing between ethical leadership and employee performance. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed. The directions of forthcoming studies are proposed as well.

The aim of this current study was to analyze recent development of talent management among public service managers in Malaysia. The study brings understanding on talent management and broader human capital issues within Malaysia context by analysing the comprehensive literature. Government of Malaysia is emphasizing on development of talent in the public sector, as it is the most significant resource for the public service. The study found that the government has invested in various programs and initiatives to develop and produce key talented human capital within the public sector. However, despite the initiatives taken by the government, Malaysia is still short of talented people and struggling to develop talent, and talented skilful people are leaving. The study also indicated that year after year increasing number of graduates are being produced at the public universities, but the education system is not producing the right skilful individuals for the particular position or task, resulting in talent mismatch. Another key issue is the incapability to retain talented people that led to poor innovation and creativity within the country. Is key issue is part of the factors discussed in the 10th and 11th Malaysia Plan, and is a concern, as it plays a role in preventing the progress of Malaysia in achieving a developed nation by 2020. As one of the key aspirations of Malaysia is to enrich public service in Malaysia as a citizen centre that is having talented human capital. The study revealed that there is a need for in-depth quantitative and qualitative further research to discover new insights on talent management and retain talent among the public sector managers in Malaysia.

The study aimed to identify the level of practicing the human resources staffing process and the level of the employees’ job involvement in the Irbid District Electricity Company in Jordan; it also aimed to examine the impact of human resources staffing process on the employees’ job involvement. The study adopted the descriptive, analytical method, since it determines the characteristics of the phenomenon, describes its nature accurately and then determines the quality of the relationship between its variables. The study population included all the individuals in the senior and middle administrative levels by 100 individuals. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers prepared a questionnaire to examine the study variables. One hundred questionnaires were distributed to each manager, deputy manager, and department head in the Irbid District Electricity Company out of which the researchers retrieved 97 questionnaires valid for analysis. In order to analyze the data collected, the study relies on the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) where the descriptive statistics for all the fields of the study were estimated. The correlation matrix was also used to determine the relationship between variables. Furthermore, multiple regressions were used to determine the impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The findings showed that the level of practicing the human resources staffing process and the employees’ job involvement at Irbid District Electricity Company (IDECO) was moderate. The findings of the study showed that the process of human resources staffing was positively associated with the job involvement where the Pearson coefficient was r= .851 and at level of significance of 0.00. The research data have also indicated that the human resources staffing process had a positive impact on the employees’ job involvement. The study recommended that the procedures of staffing in all organizations should focus on achieving the fit between the employee and his job through focusing on choosing employees whose knowledge, skills and abilities correspond to the requirements of vacant jobs and also through implementing different tests and selection interviews, which help choose the person whose traits fit the job requirements. The study has also indicated that the recommended organizations should also pay attention to the job design process where the focus is on designing jobs in a way that creates a challenge, and enables employees feel independence and joy during the job; in this method, the employee can be more involved and can work in an effective way.

Sustainability and green practices are in the frontline of issues organizations globally are concerned about because of the consequences of climate change and its challenges. The objective and key question of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between knowledge of green human resource management (HRM) practices and its implementation within the organizations. The study followed a methodology of triangulated empirical research approach with a combined method of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Human resource practitioners from human resource divisions in higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, formed the population surveyed. Interview schedule and questionnaires were instruments used in data collection. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data collected from interviews. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used to analyze quantitative data collected. About half of HR practitioners indicated minimal awareness of the concept ‘green HRM’, but reflected moderate knowledge and understanding of green HRM activities. Overall, the findings revealed a moderate application of green HRM principles in HRM activities in the institutions. There was no policy framework in the form of green HRM policies to drive green activities within the HR divisions and institutionally. Findings also revealed that there is a relationship between knowledge of green HRM activities and its implementation within the organization. Also, a strong correlation was found to exist between green HRM policies and implementation of green HRM activities in the organization. This then led the researcher to recommend that organizations who aspire to go green, be resource efficient and sustainable will need to have green HRM policies in place, they will also need to ensure that training and awareness workshops on green HRM are conducted to skill and equip all stakeholders involved.

The article is devoted to a comprehensive assessment and improvement of the level of regional development on the basis of determining the effectiveness of the mechanism of sustainable development of the region, developing methodical principles for the formation of regional and local strategies for ensuring sustainable development.
The purpose is to substantiate the methodology and means of integral assessment to implement the principle of equalization of sustainable development of regions in the aspect of information and innovation support by means of theories of social development, systems, clustering of the economy and economic information theory.
A methodological approach was proposed for assessing the level and trends of sustainable development of the region, based on the analysis of declarations, program and final documents of UN conferences on economic, social and environmental issues. The approach is based on the use of an integral index whose evaluation and analysis results can be used to solve problems and are implemented in the process of making sound management decisions. This approach made it possible to formulate, by means of factor analysis, a refined system of indicators that characterize economic, social and environmental sustainability parameters.
The typical groups of industrial regions of Ukraine were identified and the level of socio-ecological and economic development was assessed. This made it possible, based on the procedures for reducing the dimension and constructing generalized indicators, to calculate the rating for each calculated integral indicator as a generalized estimate. The calculations that have been carried out make it possible to determine the trends of sustainable development of individual regions on the factors of development and to justify promising directions for effective growth and negative trends, which require the greatest attention from the state authorities and local self-government bodies.

Upon nearly twenty years since the beginning of commercialization of the Ukrainian higher education system, the intensity of discussion of its purposes, results and possible amendments did not decrease neither among experts nor among the interested public. Supporters and opponents of commercialization note that education is the social branch, which participates in the formation of prerequisites of economic growth. The main point of the article is to disclose the essence of the phenomena of economism and commercialization. Economism is seen as part of globalization of education, a global corporatization of education provides training for the global labor market, using human capital economic theories. As noted by George Spring, the human capital, economists argue that investments in education lead to economic growth, reducing income inequality and increasing employment.
The article confirms that the state educational policy as a component of social policy is one of instruments of influence of the state on formation of social structure and is directed to the solution of problems of societal level. It performs relevant sociological examination of transformational processes in education and, in particular, results of commercialization. Thus, it is possible to claim that the educational system tests the uncommon influence of globalization, forming and building a peculiar system of the relations and interaction.

This study established the relationship between transformational leadership and social responsibility practices in women’s organizations that produce special coffees in southern Colombia. To measure these variables using Likert scales, two questionnaires were applied: the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X short version (MLQ-5X) to measure transformational leadership, and a tool developed by the researchers to measure social responsibility. Cronbach’s Alpha (α) values for the two variables showed excellent consistency (α = 0.95 and 0.90 for transformational leadership and social responsibility, respectively). For the analysis of the information, the structural equation model was used to validate the hypothesis using the SPSS AMOS software. The results indicate a significant and positive correlation between the transformational leadership practices and the perception of social responsibility, especially in the dimensions of idealized influence (behavior and attributed) and intellectual stimulation of transformational leadership, and in the dimensions of labor issues and social responsibility. These findings are consistent with existing literature, and complement aspects not addressed before (e.g. correlation between transformational leadership and social responsibility practices in women’s organizations) in the framework of gender in non-conventional organizations.

Critical to the sustainability and continuous success of every organization is the performance concept. Hence, the cardinal goal of every organization is to achieve sustainable progressive performance for their organization. Several factors have been found to contribute to the performance of an organization. While empirical evidence indicated that innovativeness is one of the major determinants of organizational performance, many fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) were slow in their demonstration of innovative capability and it has been noted that the performance of these companies has not been impressive possibly due to the slow pace of innovativeness in the industry. This study thus investigated the effect of innovative strategies on the growth of selected FMCG firms in Lagos state, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 1,337 top and middle level management staff of four notable players in the FMCG industry in the state (Honeywell flower mills Plc, Dangote flower mills, Unilever Nigeria Plc, and Cadbury Nigeria Plc). Through proportionate stratified random sampling technique, 400 out of 1,337 were sampled for the study. Four hundred copies of a validated questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient ranging from 0.731 to 0.956 were administered to the sample with a response rate of 84.25%. Data were analyzed using both descriptive, as well as inferential statistics. Finding revealed that innovative strategies had a significant effect on growth of FMCG firms in Lagos state, Nigeria (R2 = 0.724, β = 0.887, t = 29.663, P ≤ 0.05). The study recommends that FMCG firms management need to initiate policies that will enhance innovativeness possibly through creation and proper funding of the research and development department to effectively drive growth of FMCG firms.

Several systems of budgeting have been introduced into practice over the last fifty years. While more popular budgeting systems such as incrementalism and Planning Programming Budgeting Systems (PPBS) have seen continued popularity and resilience as budgeting systems, zero-based budgeting (ZBB) has experienced a resurgence in popularity, as governments and public organizations alike seek to control wasteful spending within their departments. The aim of this article is to provide users with a step-by-step guide to designing zero-based budgeting for public organizations. This article begins by describing the foundations of zero-based budgeting, as well as providing a brief comparative exploration of ZBB alongside other contemporary budgeting systems. To gain a deeper understanding of zero-base budgeting and the potential, as well as the drawbacks that this type of budgeting system holds, this paper examines the actual experience of several organizations that have implemented the zero-based budgeting method. This is accomplished by conducting a critical review of all the research and case studies that have been conducted on this topic. It is the hope of the author that both public sector and non-profit organizations will benefit from the findings of this paper when considering the implementation of their own zero-based budgeting, resulting in better planning and performance evaluation.

This article is devoted to researching the peculiarities of the competitive environment at the markets of various types of commodities (goods). Competition analysis allows making conclusions about the effectiveness of the market to identify the factors of development, market infrastructure weaknesses and provide recommendations to address these problems, and to identify priorities for the market competition development. This, in turn, will contribute to finding ways to improve the competitiveness of products. Timely and adequate assessment of the level of competition is not just a part of analytical instruments for the research of the market environment; this is a necessary condition for effective activity of market participants. The peculiarities of competition at the markets of various types of goods were analyzed: the flower market, the juice market and the market for consulting services. In the course of the research, there were determined the factors that influence the competition, also were identified the main trends of its development.

Gender representativity in political and managerial positions in local government in general and women empowerment in particular remain contentious issues. Although an extensive statutory and regulatory framework for gender equality was established and despite the fact that specific equity targets are set, it is evident that much more needs to be done to facilitate women empowerment in the local government sector. The purpose of this article is to reflect on findings of an empirical survey conducted amongst female politicians, managers, and experts in the local government sector with the aim to design the parameters of a competency framework for women empowerment. The results support the fact that a women empowerment competency framework should incorporate various dimensions and elements, notably sector-specific job requirements, registered gender-based formal programs in the tertiary education sector, as well as content of women empowerment initiatives taken by non-governmental organizations.

The variability of companies stakeholders’ engagement forms, communication channels, approaches to disclosure of companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategies for CSR achievement cause the formation of benchmarks – patterns of responsible behavior of these companies. Determination of companies’ CSR patterns plays is a ground of (plays a role or is a ground of) improving their strategies for responsible activities. These patterns were highlighted on the basis of comprehensive three-component indicator that illustrates the combination of parameters: models of companies’ communication with stakeholders, approaches to the disclosure of information on CSR and strategies for incorporating CSR and Sustainable Development Goals. Positioning of 22 Ukrainian companies for the period 2005–2017 was made. Results of positioning allowed to determine such clusters of the companies in accordance with the pattern of responsible behavior as А – innovators, B – leaders, C – pursuer, D – followers, E – starters, F – outsiders; to develop the measures on the improvement of their CSR activity.

The focus of the research is to develop recommendations of smart specialization (SS) for Ukrainian policymakers using European approaches. The authors revealed that the main SS projects are presented in such sectors as agri-food, industrial modernization and energy. More than 12 EU countries were the plot for conducted analysis of SS, as a result of which the level of activity of each country was determined. The creation of consortiums, including SMEs, associations, universities and other participants, disclosed the successful way of SS realization. The structure of SME’s innovative potential in Ukraine was identified underlining their main characteristic features like types of innovations and innovative activity, differentiation according to enterprise size, their regional distribution. The authors explored lack of innovations on regional and national level and significant territorial disparities, which could be eliminated through policy implementation of regional SS. The existing legislative norms for possibility of SS implementation in Ukraine were analyzed due to correspondence with the EU ones. The analysis provides the opportunity to consider them only as general framework documents without any action plans and sectoral prioritization at all. The weak points of these law documents are emphasized. As a result of research, the authors developed recommendations presented by direct action plan for Ukrainian policymakers, which include such activities as underlining key priorities (especially ICT applicability in every SS project) and their correspondence with the EU ones; eliminating regional imbalances by focusing on innovation development and reorientation of some regions according to SS priorities; respecting regional existing capacities; providing organizational mechanism for cooperation of stakeholders and financial mechanism for SS support through the EU structural funds.

The use of mobile learning, or M-learning, has been increasingly appreciated by educators due to its sustainability potential in different facets such as finance (i.e., affordable cost) and flexibility (i.e., time and pace of learning). However, it may not be effective in all situations. This study explored the feasibility of using M-learning for students’ self-study of mathematics in the context of Vietnamese high schools. Using 542 student and 40 teacher responses to two surveys, the study showed that the use of M-learning might not be feasible for students’ self-study of mathematics due to difficulties related to accessing mathematics websites, the quality of mathematics website content, students’ low level of self-learning ability and learning disengagement. This study suggests that the use of M-learning may contribute to the sustainability of education; adopting it should be based on a critical examination of contextual factors, especially students’ self-learning ability and engagement. M-learning can be promising and beneficial to students due to its capability to equip students to prepare for the fast-changing and technological-driven world. Educators have increasingly appreciated the use of M-learning, because it becomes more affordable and flexible. Nonetheless, there is still a question about near-future adoptions of M-learning due to unavailability of and inaccessibility to quality contents from trusted maths websites. The propensity of student engagements in M-learning is also an important issue for future research.

The relevance of the research presented in the article is based on the results of studies of the last few decades, which show the increasing involvement of volunteers in various social and cultural areas of activities, but it should be emphasized that the involvement of volunteers could be even higher. However, there are considerable challenges in the area of volunteer work management, especially when analyzing the issues of emotional intelligence education, development of intercultural competence to increase work productivity.
The aim of this paper is to establish the guidelines of integrated management solutions for the increase of work productivity via the development of emotional intelligence and intercultural training of volunteers.
The aim was achieved not only based on the analysis of scientific literature, but also on the results of previous researches carried out by the authors of the article, i.e. a qualitative study interviewing individuals working with volunteers coming to Lithuania from foreign countries (N = 7) and a quantitative study in which the volunteers were surveyed (N = 174).
The paper, as a result, presents guidelines for the development of emotional intelligence and intercultural competence based on the concept of the expanding efforts by organizations that send, receive and coordinate volunteers. Four intersecting pairs of criteria for emotional intelligence and intercultural competence have been identified, the integration of which could serve to increase work productivity of volunteers in foreign countries.
The value of the article is based on the proposed new idea of integrating emotional intelligence and intercultural competence in order to increase work productivity of volunteers; additionally, it presents their development guidelines for organization management specialists. This study is focused on the integration of emotional intelligence and intercultural competence and identification of interrelated components. For this reason, it would be beneficial in the future to elaborate on the mechanism of how volunteers are prepared for foreign missions with the help of activities by the coordinating, sending and receiving organizations.

This paper seeks to examine the role of factors originated from outside (economic, political, competitive environment and relationships) and within (entrepreneur’s attitude) the organization on the business risk perceived by entrepreneurs. To test the hypothetical relationships, an ordinal regression with two link functions was applied on an original dataset of 641 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic. The analysis revealed that not only economic factors can predict business risk, but along with them are political and competitive environments, relationship with supply chain actors and entrepreneur’s attitude. Consistent with prior research, it is found that an unstable economic environment leads the business to expose themselves to business risk. Also, a friendly regulation framework and quality education contribute significantly to reducing the level of risk. The research triggers the interest of policymakers who design policies aimed at improving the business environment by reducing the level of risk that firms face in doing business. Also, this paper is useful for managerial perspective, since entrepreneur attitude was found to be a predictor of business risk.

Economic development of any country depends on its natural resources, as well as availability of human resource. Every aspect, actions and activities in an organization involve people. Out of various resources, the human resource management has become critical resource for gaining the competitive edge. Today, most of the countries are giving attention and putting their effort to the development and training of their human resources. Training is effort initiated by an organization to foster learning among its workers. Training and development are a continuous effort designed to enhance employee learning, as well as his/her creativity, which is helpful in improving employees’ competence and organizational performance. The present research work examines the moderating and mediating role of organizational climate between employees training and creativity. In a survey of 324 employees working in various SME of Dehradun area, it was found that both employee creativity and employee learning foster organizational climate. Further, the mediation effect of organizational climate on learning and creativity is different. The study shows that creativity is partially mediated, but learning has no significant effect on organizational climate. The study suggests that companies must focus on training their employees so that employees become creative and learn new practices for improving their competencies at work. The study also suggests finding the means of improving organizational climate because of its rich contribution towards improving employee creativity and learning.

Given the current turbulences on the European capital markets, as well as the expectations of a new recession, it is possible to expect that the risk of individual countries and their capital markets will increase significantly. This is particularly the case of those countries, which have long-term problems with economic instability and imbalances. The basis for country risk quantification is the country credit rating and credit risk of the government bonds. The market-based methods react often differently, as their reactions to the actual market developments are more flexible. The purpose of this paper is to compare various methods of country risk measurement. The study is focused on the country risk of Italy, a country that experienced a turbulent economic development over the last two decades. The results show that the CPFER method and sovereign ratings show a similar level of country risk, while the market-based methods show a higher level of country risk.

The desire and ability to apply the concept of social responsibility is directly proportional to a culture that is formed due to the relevant knowledge, skills and qualifications. It is believed that university education is able to interest future owners, experts and clients of insurance companies in running socially responsible activities.
The purpose of the study is to determine the role of universities in disseminating the social responsibility practices in the insurance sector.
The main method of research is the survey conducted among 536 full-time students-financiers at domestic universities in September and October 2018. This method allowed to identify peculiarities of students’ perception of the social responsibility concept in the insurance sector of Ukraine. The case study method was also applied to reflect the social responsibility practices used by domestic insurance companies.
As a result of the combination of the methods proposed, the low level of students’ knowledge of social responsibility in the insurance sector and the low interest of insurance companies as compared to foreign insurance companies have been shown. That is why, in the process of training, it is important for universities to focus on the proper world-view positions and value orientations, dialog and ethical cooperation that will enhance the professional training of students and develop modern professional competence among them that will meet international practices and requirements.

Technological changes that come with industrial revolution have largely affected businesses, as well as society. With the current technological shift and Fourth Industrial Revolution, many questions arise regarding the impacts and effects on current ways businesses operate. This study presents a retrospective analysis and overview of previous industrial revolutions. The aim of the retrospective analysis is to identify common characteristics that may lead to lessons learned for the forthcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution and thus complement the current debate on technological change. All previous industrial revolutions have led to change in business environments and new challenges for managers and owners. The findings show that all previous revolutions have led to increase in the number of service jobs created. The key approach of successful countries during the times of industrial revolution has included education as the source of new skills and knowledge necessary for adaption. Countries that were able to produce high skilled people could not only invent, but also adapt to new technologies sooner than others. Similarly, these approaches included introduction of new managerial practices in order to be able to utilize new technologies and new skilled workers effectively. The research article processes secondary data together with literature review on this topic.

The stable development of Ukraine as the agricultural state actualizes a complex of economic, organizational and legal issues, which are concerned with an implementation of the land relationship. The maximum usage of rental tools is the most effective among the existing budget filling mechanisms. The aim of the article is to conduct a research of land relationship by mechanisms of improving the agricultural lands rent management. The object of a study is the interaction of state institutions at different levels of land lease management. The basis of the study is a cognitive method in the patterns of development of the land relationship. Therefore, in the article, the alternative version of the organizational and economic mechanism for the implementation of land relations was proposed with the aim to improve the existing practice that will facilitate the additional financing of local self-government authorities. At the state regulation level, it is proposed to create an informational electronic database, which should display cadastral numbers and location of land plots, as well as information about land plot owners. Measures of control should be fulfilled by such state authorities as State Geo Cadastre and Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. In order to follow a principle of openness, it has been proved that this database should be public. As a result, methodological and organizational tools are based on the algorithm of lease relationship management as the main source of budget filling for local self-government authorities and main tasks for implementation of administrative-territorial reform that were declared by the government.

Actuality
The concept of output gap plays an important role in traditional macroeconomic theory, applied research and monetary policy.

Goal
The paper reveals analyses of the potential economic development in Ukraine and in some countries of the world under limited information. Thus, the practical goal is to consider the best modelling approach for the possibility to regulate GDP in Ukraine, as it has been experienced in other countries of the world.

Method
The research is realized with the help of economic-mathematical modelling of GDP gap based on the analysis of the production function, statistical methods of distinguishing the trend component, one-dimensional filtration, multidimensional filtration.

Results
Practical importance of the paper includes implementation of methods for estimating potential GDP and the GDP gap, in particular, the authors proposed to use an approach based on the production function for the potential growth of European countries modelling. The model reveals that for the Eurozone countries, in the short term, it is not expected that the economy will reach its potential level. The negative forecast is explained by the fact that the Eurozone has been severely affected by the debt crisis. There has been a significant increase in the gap in production volumes, which in turn led to deflation. Despite the uncertainty in the assessment of potential GDP and GDP gap for Ukraine the multidimensional method provided the best modelling result. Thus, it is disclosed that Ukraine is under the growing wave of the business cycle, but not in the synergy with the EU dynamics.

Georgia still faces urgent problems of women employment, level of raising women’s qualification and restricted career opportunities. It impacts economic indicators as well.
Proceeding from the topicality of the problem, the goal of the research is to study the attitude towards the role of women in present-day organizations, applying complex methods of information gathering and analysis, quantitative methods of research.
The conducted research and analysis of outcomes led to the conclusion that, despite progressive changes in the state and society attitude towards gender equality, still there are many controversial issues. It is a typical situation for many countries. Although women represent half of the able-bodied population worldwide, their portion in GDP is only 37%. It indicates that full utilization of women’s potential is not or cannot be accomplished. It is significant to identify the hindering reasons.
The research results show that the hindering factors of women’s self-realization and career advancement in Georgia are: 61% – family, 27% – education/less qualification, 25% – stereotypes, 34% – inflexible work schedule and inconvenient conditions.
The authors think that, in order for the state to make maximum utilization of women’s resources as a valuable economic and political asset, it is necessary that government work out efficient ways to create convenient conditions for women. At the same time, all companies must have labor management strategy that can bring success if all aspects of women’s work in each component will be actively applied.

In human resource accounting, personnel recruitment cost is an important issue. High turnover of employees triggers this charge. This research focused on the non-financial issue in employee turnovers for various professions. This study examines the effect of job enrichment, a self-development process on the working environment, to the employee’s engagement and organizational commitment, as well as the intention to quit in a different profession. The respondents of this research are 154 workers who have worked at their institution for at least two years. Using moderate regression analysis and testing two models, the first with linear regression, and the second with moderate regression analysis, this research shows that in the first model, job enrichment and employee engagement affect organizational commitment directly. However, in the second model, this study shows that employee engagement cannot moderate the effect of job enrichment on organizational commitment or the intention to quit. This research also finds that employee engagement affects negatively the intention to quit at work. The research findings strengthen the theory that a self-development process capable of generating employee engagement can assist management in controlling employee turnover rates.

Currently, active work is underway to introduce a project-based approach to the management of new product production processes. However, even if the need to implement project management is undeniable, the question arises of the pitfalls in implementing these innovations into the defense enterprises. Based on this, this work aims to determine organizational problems of implementing project management system into an enterprise of the defense industry. The following methods were used to collect data: in-depth interviews with employees of the company, taking a direct and key part in the PM processes; study of internal regulatory and other documentation on the research object; conducting a survey of employees. The research revealed the use of project management tools that are developed mostly in procurement management. The main problems of project management implementation are in scheduling, communications and integration management. The weaknesses in terms of the support provided for the implementation of projects by the enterprise include such areas as the availability of standard project management software and the organization of permanent trainings on project management. Based on the problems revealed, some recommendations are made for implementation of project management system in the enterprise of the defense industry.

The main purpose of this investigation is to distinguish the problematic tendencies of the health insurance market development in Ukraine and the competitive positions of the leading insurance companies on it. Accordingly, the issues of complex analysis of key indicators of the insurers’ competitiveness, and the issues of establishing the factors that determine the level of competition in the market become very urgent. The first 30 insurers out of 50 were taken for the study, and they received about 90% of insurance premiums for voluntary health insurance in Ukraine in 2017. The authors have made the assessment of the competitive environment of the health insurance market of Ukraine using the concentration index and the indicator of market competition, which resulted in defining the advantages and disadvantages of their application. Taking into account that the abovementioned indicators for assessing the competition in the insurance market can provide only approximate results, which indicates the inadequacy of the conclusions about the effectiveness of business processes management on it, the authors offered a scientific methodological approach to assessing the market environment with the use of an integrated indicator of the voluntary health insurance market competitiveness. Herewith, such an integrated indicator is calculated in terms of three segments of the market: sickness insurance; voluntary medical insurance (continuous health insurance); medical expenses insurance, simultaneously taking into account the behavior of two indicators – concentration and market competition. As a result of the research, it was found that the highest level of market concentration is typical for sickness insurance and it indicates a high monopoly in the market in terms of this segment. Thus, the integrated indicator allows to make a comprehensive investigation of market behavior of the market participants and to reveal the problematic tendencies of its competitive environment.

The sphere of local self-governance in Ukraine deals with a need for thorough researching and solving problems concerned with enhancing the effectiveness of financial and economic regulation of land relations on account of the expansion of the decentralization reform. The decentralization has led to gaining additional powers by bodies of local self-government. These powers entitles bodies of local self-government to ensure the increase of local budgets of newly-formed territorial units –united territorial communities – owing to carrying out financial transactions with land plots owned by local communities. In the process of research, the authors determine financial and economic efficiency of revenues of local budgets of perspective territorial communities by each region of Ukraine, taking into account variants of the normative monetary evaluation of land and the standard of capitalized rental income of agricultural lands located beyond their built-up areas. The authors substantiate an opportunity to create budget-forming sources of revenues for local budgets of perspective communities through the exercise of powers of bodies of local self-government regarding indicating the value of such lands and a right to lease, as well as terms of paying a single tax for the use of such lands for agricultural activity by taxpayers belonged to the fourth group of the simplified system of taxation.

The article presents the author’s view of the impact of globalization, internationalization, transnationalization on the development of the international tourism industry with the substantiation of the features of institutional transformations caused by large-scale, structural and other changes in the world economy, in particular, the analysis of the development of the tourism industry of the leading countries, which are centers to attract tourist flow (France, USA, Spain, China, Italy), as well as Ukraine. As a result of correlation and regression models, the potential of the industry and its investment attractiveness were established. It is proved that within the countries’ economic activity, the tourism sector makes a significant contribution to the creation of the gross national product. Characterizing the coefficients in the multivariate regression equation, it can be stated that the most significant impact on GDP is the factor of “Income from international tourism”, since for all countries, it has a positive value greater than one. As for such a factor as “Total investment in the tourism industry”, for all but Ukraine, this factor is characterized by a negative impact on GDP, which determines the high costs of infrastructure development, which are not always paid off by the income of the incoming tourist flow in the short term.