Issue #3 (Volume 17 2019)

Today’s organizations need energetic and engaged employees, those who are interested in their jobs. Generally, the engaged ones love their job and do their job tasks well. If there is no engagement in the organizations, the organization is encountered with serious problems in this ground. This study aims to design engagement assessment model in the organizations and its applied purpose is creating new theoretical basics in the maturity of engagement in the organization and this helps the organizations for better perception and consistency of organizational goals with the goals of employees. The employees of the National Iranian Oil Company constituted the population for this research. The National Iranian Oil Company was selected as the context, because employee engagement has emerged as a critical problem confronting this sector. 356 employees of this company were selected by simple random sampling method and data were collected using a questionnaire. The researcher attempts to answer the question how we can design an engagement assessment model in the organizations. The different dimensions of engagement are identified at individual and organizational levels and then based on the findings, the employees are classified based on the individual and organizational engagement and the results of this study can help the researchers for better recognition of this internal variable and this helps the better understanding of researchers to use it.

The modern system of global marketing communications is not ideal, that is why management of international enterprises needs to use creativity in their attempts to predict the results of the marketing activities. They often fail in forecasting, because specialists do not have necessary practical models and data.
The article deals with the questions of developing a model of the “rational” system of global marketing communications, which will be ready for the implementation into managerial processes of the Ukrainian firms. The model in the research is based on one-factor and multi-factor equations with calculations on the example of the well-known American company Nike, which works in the segment of apparel and footwear industry and can be a bright example of building a strong marketing communication strategy. Methods of linear and polynomial trends, smoothing average and exponential smoothing were used for the development of the proposed model.
The examination of the correlation between global income, costs on marketing communication activities of the international company and index of satisfaction by this enterprise on the market in the frames of the econometric model’s work showed the dependency, which can become a basis for future analysis. The invented model of the “rational” system of global marketing communications shows how managers can calculate the resultativity of specific marketing instruments, which they plan to accept as appropriate. Different indicators can be used in forecasting the effects of global marketing communications on the performance of international enterprises. The article shows that the more indicators are used in the model, the more accurate is the result.

One of the main conditions for improving the overall competitiveness of the country is the formation of its sustainable logistic potential, since logistics is responsible for promoting the country’s products, both in the domestic and foreign markets. This is also characteristic for agricultural companies of the main countries of agricultural production in the world, which need to manage their logistic business processes effectively. The business processes of logistics sphere include the processes of warehousing, transportation and further distribution of agricultural products between the entities of the agrarian market (warehousing, traders, wholesale and retail trade network, consumers) at the national, as well as international level. Internationalization of agricultural production includes the formation of cooperative industrial relations in the agrarian sphere between the countries in the chain of “production, processing and marketing”, and the management of business processes in the logistics sphere. The latter is characterized by the business process management of the warehousing, transport, distribution areas at the national and international levels and food safety, which represents increasing demand for food in many countries of the world. These are some of the main signs of sustainable logistic development at the national and international levels. A methodical approach to assessing the logistic potential of the main countries of agricultural production in the world is improved; this method is characterized by a set of competitive elements and includes the assessment of logistics management of countries by blocks: product safety, internationalization of production and logistics, management of business processes. The result of this improved method of assessing the logistic potential of the world countries is a developed criterial basis, which allows making effective managerial decisions at the interstate and state levels regarding the logistic development of agrarian productions.

Education is considered an important pillar of economic development and a vital factor for nation building in post-1994 South Africa. Higher education (HE) is offered by government-subsidized universities and colleges, while there has been an increase in the number of private higher education institutions (PHEIs), which offer more expensive, unsubsidized tertiary education. While all state bodies and public entities are required to apply the provisions of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act, this is not (yet) seemingly a requirement for PHEIs. This study used an adapted version of the “5 Star” research methodology to explore the potential financial impact and influence of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) black economic empowerment (BEE) policy on PHEIs. The research shows that the BEE policy has the potential to financially impact and influence most of the components of the total quality service (TQS) framework for PHEIs in terms of preferential procurement from suppliers, company ownership, appointment of executive, middle and junior managers, employment of academic and administrative staff, and throughput of black student graduates. Management at PHEIs should be alerted to the fact that it is probably not merely a matter of IF, but rather WHEN the policy will start impacting on the financial stability and viability of PHEIs as BEE compliance becomes mandatory.

Creation of a strong agricultural insurance market in Ukraine as an effective resource and instrument to strengthen the agrarian sector of economy from the point of view of minimizing the risks affecting the commercial performance is one of the key stages in the development of the Ukrainian insurance protection system in the agrarian sector of economy. At the same time, the Ukrainian agricultural market is still in the stage of formation and develops randomly, with no well-defined development strategy and proper state support. The aim of the paper is to assess the current trends in the operation of the Ukrainian agricultural insurance market. The authors study the peculiarities of the formation, the current stage of functioning and further development of the agricultural insurance market in Ukraine. The results of the study reveal the principle of the structural formation and functional characteristics of the agricultural insurance market services in Ukraine – its mono-component was discovered – in view of the fact that it is represented only by the system of insurance of agricultural crops and perennial plantings (with the domination of field crops) and the optional functioning of the latter – one third of the market forms formal compulsory insurance in the context of state finance programs for farmers. The authors summarize the complex of reasons that keep the development of the Ukrainian agricultural insurance market grown and systematize its peculiarities that are typical for this stage of the agrarian sector development. Researchers note the sufficient development of agricultural insurance market tooling in Ukraine at this stage – the market uses a sufficient set of insurance products that according to their qualitative characteristics meet international standards in terms of both classical and parametric insurance schemes. Thus, the conducted research allowed to form the directions for the development of the agricultural insurance market in Ukraine. The key one among them was its further institutional development within the framework of private-public partnership, which is proved by positive international experience and stimulate interests’ unity of this market participants.

This paper is devoted to the investigation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure regulation process and its possible connection with countries’ competitiveness as an integral part of countries’ Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) poliсy. ESG disclosure regulation criteria were examined according to their classification on Pension Fund Regulation, Stewardship Code, Government Corporate ESG disclosure, and Non-Government Corporate ESG disclosure by UNPRI in 2016 and for developed countries and developing and emerging countries separately. In order to find the relationship between ESG disclosure and the countries’ competitiveness (describing by Global Competitiveness Index), variety of statistical tests was applied (Student’s t-tests, ANOVA analysis, Mann-Whitney tests, simple average analysis and regression analysis with dummy variables). Research hypotheses about statistically significant differences in ESG disclosure regulation between developed countries and developing and emerging countries and the influence of ESG disclosure regulation on the overall competitiveness of the country were proved. ESG disclosure regulation became an effective instrument of countries CSER policy and tools for increasing their competitiveness.

The management of the company must be capable of providing better financial information for the users of the financial report. The users of the financial report notice the performance of the management from the financial report. The financial report provides information related to financial positions, performance, as well as the changes in financial positions that are beneficial for decision-making. Income smoothing is generally conducted by the company to see the company’s capability and show the investors or investor candidates that the company is in stable condition in generating profits for the increase of share value and giving dividends, so that the investors are attracted to invest in that company. Income smoothing has been a debatable topic, especially among practitioners and academicians. This study analyzes both the direct and indirect effects of profitability and corporate debt on income smoothing. It also examines whether tax rates mediates the effects of profitability and debt on income smoothing. The sample consists of 12 property and real estate companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013–2017. The sample was selected using purposive sampling technique. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis tool with the WarpPls application. The results show that profitability and debt, as well as effective tax rates, affect income smoothing. The effective tax rates can mediate the relationship between profitability and debt and income smoothing.

Economic changes create a strong need for the reconsideration of the system of financial and budgetary knowledge and paradigms already created in developed countries regarding the possibility of their use in the countries with developing economies. In this article, the authors clarify that the process of formation of the efficient and mutually agreed budget policy with strategic tasks of the social and economical development of countries requires development of the budget strategy. Its essence is the dynamic realization of the system of goals, principles, directions, tasks of state authorities, co-ordination and adequacy of their long-term regulatory measures to internal and external changes in the economic environment and social transformations aimed at ensuring macroeconomic stability, accelerating economic growth and improving the well-being of the population. The principles of budget strategy development have been clearly defined: scientific substantiation; integrity; efficiency; systematic approach; adaptability; variability; interdependence; purposefulness; sociality; legitimacy. The share of government expenditures, budget deficit and public debt in the gross domestic product in the EU and Ukraine has been estimated. The priority directions of budget strategies in the conditions of economic transformations have been defined, in particular, regarding the increase of efficiency of public expenditures and establishment of restrictions on their level of growth; improvement of the mechanism for managing budget deficits, public debt and guarantees and reduction of their limits. The research has demonstrated a huge influence of the budget strategy on the social and economical processes and on the development of the social relations.

This article contains an exploratory study of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) funded by venture capital in conditions of the Slovak Republic. Their features specifically the number of employees and the affiliation to the industry branch in compliance with technological or knowledge demandingness were investigated. For that purpose two scientific hypotheses were verified. Verification of hypotheses was performed by the exact tests on the research sample consisted of 61 venture capital funded SMEs in the Slovak Republic in the time period 2001–2006. According to affiliation of enterprises to the category of micro, small and medium sized enterprises in our research sample, our assumption that the micro and small sized enterprises are more venture capital driven than medium sized enterprises was confirmed. The results showed that the majority of venture capital funded SMEs are micro-enterprises representing 60.66% and small sized enterprises with a share of 27.87%. According to affiliation of enterprise to the industry branch in compliance with its technological or knowledge demandingness in our research sample, our assumption that venture capital is related especially to the enterprises in high-tech sector was not confirmed and we can conclude that venture capital is related more to the enterprises operating in low-tech or medium low-tech sector than to the enterprises operating in high-tech or medium high-tech sector. The share of enterprises in high-tech sector was the lowest (only 3.28%) among all the sectors (low-tech, medium low-tech, medium high-tech and high-tech).

The global financial crisis highlighted the limitations of the mainstream economic thinking. The post-crisis reflection has not resulted yet in any new paradigm, however, several new, still separate, innovative approaches appeared in the field of public finances and economic governance. The aim of the paper is to provide a structured presentation of these new innovative approaches, which can serve as a potential basis of a new way of thinking about economic and financial governance and the innovation of public finances. The paper reviews the relevant international literature published after the global financial crisis and, as a result, presents the innovations, especially in respect of the role of the state, the renewal of central banking, the reassessment of the stability and geopolitical aspects of economic policy, the relevance of confidence and cooperation in public policy, the increasing role of the public sector concerning the sustainability of economic development and the renaissance of institutional economics. Based on these new approaches, the paper concludes that the smart, inclusive and sustainable, innovation-led growth requires the rethinking of the role, the functions, the objectives and the instruments of public policy and economic governance.

The article contains the analysis of scientific approaches to understanding of organizational development in the field of educational institutions management as a complex of successive educational changes. Scientific researches on the change of education managers’ behavior in the course of changes are presented.
Types of education managers attitude to changes and their quantitative expression were determined and revealed based on the data of an empirical research. Almost half of the surveyed education managers are represented by such types as “traditionalist” and “realist”, which indicates the insufficient orientation of education managers in introducing innovative changes in educational institutions. This indicates a low level of education managers’ readiness to provide the organizational development of educational institutions.
The results obtained can be used by the government in developing and implementing the programs for the professional development of education managers. The authors offer the most practical tools for implementing the concept of organizational development. It is proposed to distinguish between special requirements for both professional and personal qualities of education managers.

The increasing turmoil in the external organizational setting or business environment has focused attention on capabilities and resources as the primary source of competitive advantage. Obviously, this statement points to the application of the resource-based view (RBV) of organizational management. Nevertheless, what constitutes RBV remains an illusion in many quarters of organizational management, as scholars have managed to put up their personal ideas, and managed to converge on phenomenon-driven theories, in addition to RBV. This paper reviews the concepts of RBV in light of knowledge management to highlight some critical pitfalls that might have eluded the research community on the subject matter of RBV. To this end, this paper’s educational value lies in the fact that it simplifies the concept of RBV to the new researcher in a fashion that is capable of appealing to his or her level. A cross-sectional qualitative research approach was employed in an effort aimed at understanding the role of RBV in creating a sustainable competitive advantage and key competencies. A total of 20 relevant articles were searched from different databases and search engines, including Scopus, EBSCO, ABI Inform, IEEE, PubMed, Science Direct, SABINET, IEEE, Bing, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. The findings indicate that RBV plays an important role and assists organizations not only create, nurture, and maintain competitive advantage, but also understand the collective resources needed to compete favorably in a globalized and highly competitive market. With expert knowledge workers at its core to provide support for knowledge creation, sharing, and utilization, the RBV principles discussed in this paper promise to guarantee a methodological step geared towards the achievement of competitive advantage. It, therefore, makes an incremental contribution to the RBV to attain modest improvement in organizational settings.

In light of increasing relevance of strategic considerations in the nonprofit sector, this study investigates the entrepreneurial orientation of nonprofit CEOs and its linkage to strategic decision-making. The study provides initial insights into the types and effects of CEO entrepreneurial orientation, corresponding strategic choices, and differences in the implementation of strategies through managerial control in nonprofit organizations. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with the top managers of German nonprofit hospitals. The interviews were evaluated using qualitative content analysis. The findings are consistent with upper echelon theory, which considers management characteristics to be a determinant of strategic decision making, acting as a mediator between the external environment and strategic choices. The analysis includes two levels: (1) the entrepreneurial orientation of nonprofit CEOs at the individual level and (2) strategic choices on competitive strategies and their implementation at the organizational level. The findings show that the competitive environment evokes different types of entrepreneurial orientation that influence the approach of nonprofit CEOs to strategic decisions and implementation processes. Highly entrepreneurial CEOs prefer prospector strategies over defender or reactor strategies. CEOs with low levels of entrepreneurial orientation tend to use controls diagnostically, whereas CEOs exhibiting medium to high levels of entrepreneurial orientation use controls interactively. This study extends the existing literature by providing evidence of the types of managerial entrepreneurial orientation in nonprofit organizations and the resulting effects on strategic planning and implementation processes. This paper thus sheds light on a key determinant of strategic decision-making and implementation in nonprofit organizations.

The study examines the peculiarities of the impact of public debt on the economic growth of states. The aim of the study was to analyze and identify the determinants of the impact of government borrowing on economic growth. The following research methods have been applied: analysis and synthesis of data and theoretical work, comparative analysis, statistical, correlation, cluster and discriminant analysis. According to the results of the survey, it is established that the growth of government borrowing can have both a negative and a positive effect on the economy, provided that it implements as the share of government debt to GDP, does not exceed 60% and is implemented in the form of financial investments (golden rule of public finance). The state’s deficit is allowed provided that state assets grow; current income from investment fully covers current expenses. The results of clusterization allowed to allocate 3 groups of states: states that demonstrated the economic downturn; states characterized by slow economic growth; states that were characterized by high level of economic growth. The first group of states (the countries with economic downturn) observed a negative high level of government debt and GDP. The results showed the low level of domestic borrowing development in low and middle income countries, which in developed countries allows governments to finance the investment projects on the basis of local loans (municipal bonds, infrastructure bonds, mainly medium and long-term), increase the debt burden in terms of economic recession.

This research is oriented to SME’s innovation activities, its management system and competitiveness based on innovations. Research is focused on causalities between innovative controlling, audit, enterprise innovation activities and the results put in context with ROA, ROE, turnover. Data for this research were collected in 317 European SMEs by researches by using questionnaire and analyzed by advanced statistical methods. The aim of this research is to identify key factors for successful innovation enterprise activities, to define weaknesses and common mistakes. Secondary aim is to design controlling process for SME’s innovation activities. The findings of this research are opening up topics for further research.

This study seeks to evaluate customer perceived value in housing in order to increase the construction of housing value from the consumer’s point of view. A total of 240 houseowners in the middle to upper housings in Medan city, Indonesia, participated in this study. The data analysis used in this study is the Partial Least Square (PLS) approach. The results indicate that the perception of consumer value is strongly influenced by the economic value of the housing and the location function of the housing. Housing offered should be able to meet the needs of consumers and has the good mobility and accessibility. The emphasis that needs to be put in encouraging the perception of consumer value is the ability of the product in general, namely housing units in answering the needs of consumers.

The environmental information disclosure of enterprises listed on Vietnam’s stock market has been mandated by the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam according to Circular No. 155/2015/TT_BTC. Therefore, enterprises need to be responsible for announcing and interpreting financial and non-financial information about the environment to meet the needs of the Government and stakeholders. However, the level of environmental information disclosure depends on their business, company characteristics, compliance of the board of management, etc. This paper investigates and assesses the level of environmental information disclosure of the listed companies on the stock market in Vietnam. The study was conducted with 170 listed companies on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) through descriptive statistics and value testing methods and an in-depth interview. The research results have shown that in Vietnam, the level of enterprises announcing environmental information disclosure is still low. For example, materials and construction industry, food and beverage industry have less than 55% of enterprise disclosing environmental information. At the same time, the enterprises from environmentally sensitive sectors such as materials and construction, electricity, petroleum, gas, chemicals, etc., have more environmental information disclosure than other industries, and the environmental information published only focuses on the environmental debt, the amount of resources consumed, the number of environmental violations, environmental policies and objectives, etc.

Corporate accelerators are on the rise and established companies from a diverse set of industries and regions have set up such startup support programs to predominantly pursue strategic goals. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the benefits of corporate accelerators from a corporate perspective and that of the participating startups. In order to do so, this in-depth single-site case study investigates the SAP Industry 4.0 Startup Program building upon an inductive research design with explorative nature. The authors qualitatively examine a newly established corporate accelerator program of one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies and provide valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars engaged in corporate accelerators. The benefits for startups participating in corporate accelerator programs can be linked to operational go-to-market acceleration in regards to product development, sales acceleration, as well as skill and knowledge development. Moreover, the startups receive benefits linked to strategic business development acceleration in the areas of strategy and business model improvements, pitching, financing, and strategic partner development. At the same time, corporate accelerators overall aim to increase the competitiveness of established companies running such programs by developing a product ecosystem and the brand, infusing startup culture into the organization and developing customer relationships.

Rapid economic reforms and proper GDP growth in China has affected the regional development of Chinese provinces. This study aims to estimate the degree of economic and environmental disparities within Chinese provinces for developing policy recommendations of regional transformation. The reduced log-linear specification of endogenous growth model is used for the estimation of convergence rates within Chinese provinces. The empirical results prove that an increase of 1% in GDP per capita basic year reduces the economic growth rate by 0.1% in the reference year. Thus, the ratio of the average per capita income in the wealthiest group to poorest provinces accounted for the factor 9.6 in 1995 and factor 4.1 in the year 2015, which means a reduction of disproportionate development. Environmental convergence trends were also found and less polluted provinces eventually increase emissions at higher rates than the initially polluted ones. With the pass of time, all provinces do move to the same steady state in environmental parameters. The speed of the economic and environmental convergence in China provinces is rather slow, and the economic growth was achieved by great sacrifices of an environment, since all provinces are striving to the same steady state in terms of pollution increase. The industrialized regions due to the presence of significant financial resources should pay more attention to the protection of the environment using all the available economic potential. At the same time, both initially poor provinces and rich have to develop more profoundly agriculture, tourism, recreation, and other environmentally friendly industries to improve economic performance.

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the relationships between the determinants of start-up SME success, namely start-up awareness and management skills, and the finance suppliers. This study has proposed a framework that improves the ability of start-up SMEs to access external finance. Through descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of data from a survey of a sample of SMEs in South Africa, it was ascertained that the framework which maps the entrepreneur’s start-up awareness and requisite management skills with the finance providers’ requirements will make up a tool to assist start-up SMEs in developing optimal financing options to grow their businesses.

The world tendencies of spatial development, namely the availability of limited resources (primarily water) and the growth of the world’s food needs focus on the resource specialization of the region. On this basis, the purpose of the article is to study the impact of the water-capacious economy on the economic development of the country and its regions. The study used the traditional and special methods, including: historical and logical method – to analyze the functioning of regional socio-economic systems under limited water resources; and system analysis methods – to evaluate the impact of the water-capacious economy on the economic development of the country and its regions. The research results have important implications for the management of the territories. The authors show that the production specialization of the regions of Ukraine on the export/import of water-capacious products is not determined by their water supply. They also suggest that stimulating the region’s water-efficient activity should lead to a minimization of the water capacity of gross regional product and the reproduction of water capital, taking into account the water security of the regions. The authors also show that the water resources of the country and its regions and the natural water potential of the territories in the current situation become significant restriction to the economic development of territories, which allows to state the need to change the approaches to the regulation of regional development based on limited water resources.

Trends in the global social development increasingly clearly demonstrate their relation to the processes of socialization of the global economy. Countries around the world are creating a global socio-economic space in the framework of integration and globalization. Global development of social economies in the world serves as the basis for further cooperation of the countries in addressing global problems and ensuring decent living standards of the population. It also applies to the countries with transition economies. The main problem of development of the process of economy socialization is its financial support, which makes the search for potential sources of financing more relative.
The article’s aim is to assess the source base of socialization of the economy of Ukraine as a country with transition economy with identification of strengths and weaknesses of financial security of social processes in the country.
Method of investigation was the correlation-regression analysis of the source base of socialization of the Ukrainian economy with construction of a multifactor regression equation. The main result of the article is correlation-regression analysis that has found that the amount of income of the population is significantly affected by two indicators: financing of scientific and technical works and the amount of loans provided by the Ukrainian banks to the residents. In the article, it is proposed to stimulate the innovative activity through increasing the funding of scientific and technical works from different sources that can be practical recommendation to the government politics.

The use of value management tools in non-management and non-business domains appears to be high, as exemplified by numerous studies conducted on the subject matter in the construction based disciplines, but understanding how such essential tool works in the consumer based domains seems lacking, this study becomes relevant in this regard. The aim of the study therefore is to understand how consumer based and construction based firms differ with regard to the use, focus and control of value management on a firm-by-firm basis, locational basis and on the basis of industrial typology. The researchers adopted a survey research design using a 16-item questionnaire instrument administered to 509 respondents across 10 firms: 5 being consumer and the other 5 being construction based firms. The formulated hypotheses were tested using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney’s U-test for non-parametric comparisons. The results obtained showed that consumer based firms ranked higher than construction based firms, both on a firm-by-firm (CSB = 256.9, CTB = 247.4, ; CSB=264.6, CTB = 234.3, ) for focus and control, respectively, and on an industrial type (CSB = 267.65, CTB = 235.93, ; CSB = 268.71, CTB = 234.33, ; CSB = 269.21, CTB = 233.58, ; CSB = 268.38, CTB = 234.83, ) comparison basis on actual usage, perceived usage, focus and control of value management, respectively. For the locational difference, there were no statistical significance. The study concludes that there is a case for a multidisciplinary study of value management as it appears more present in consumer than construction based firms.

In recent years, deoffshorization is a trend and dozens of countries have already started an open fight against offshore accounts. Ukraine is moving to complete deoffshorization in accordance with the new rules for exchanging information on financial accounts and BEPS rules. The purpose of the study was to search for optimal solutions for further improvements in the field of deoffshorization of the national and regional economy of the Eastern European contries, in particular Ukraine. The following methods were used to solve the problems in the work: induction and deduction (in the study of offshore types, the definition of interconnection and interdependence between them), abstract-logical (in generalizing the theoretical foundations of economic deoffshorization ), econometric-statistical (in assessing the state and dynamics of export-import operations of Ukraine with offshore jurisdictions), statistical analysis.
On the basis of theoretical and empirical conclusions, the main consequences, which are the result of the study of global deoffshorization in conditions of financial control and its influence on the national and regional economy of Ukraine, are presented. The article provides a correlation analysis of the dependence of the export index to the UK from Ukraine with export, import and balance of offshore countries. A study was conducted on the presence or absence of a relationship between the volume of balance, exports and imports from Ukraine to the United Kingdom with the macroeconomic indicators of the national economy of Ukraine.

Family business is the largest global source of jobs in the private sector, whose multigenerational nature strengthens the stability of individual economies. A competitive small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector into which family businesses are classified is an essential prerequisite for the full-fledged integration of any economy into the global economic space. For the Czech economy, the importance of foreign trade is increasing, and is dependent on the capabilities of companies to expand to foreign markets. The goal of this article is to identify involvement of the generation of successors to export activities of family business, focusing on diversifying export territories in relation to structure of the industry A secondary goal is to discuss the demand mechanisms for SMEs/family business oriented toward export. The scientific hypotheses defined are focused on demonstrating a dependency between the diversification of export territories, the involvement of the generation of successors in the management of the company and structure of industry. Authors have demonstrated that family businesses managed by the first generation of founders export primarily to the territories of Slovakia, Germany, and the EU. Companies where the next generation contributes to management diversify territorial risk and also export outside the EU countries. A significant correlation was demonstrated between automotive industry and Germany, Slovakia and country outside the EU and mechanical engineering and country outside the EU. The uniqueness of this article lies in the topicality of the real transition of Czech family businesses to the next generation, which carries out foreign trade to promote the further development and sustainability of the family business for future generations.

This article presents a literature review of 49 empirical studies on key audit matter (KAM) disclosure in audit reports. The study involves a structured literature review on KAM disclosure based on the reactions of stakeholders. The limitations of former studies and useful recommendations for research are stressed. Five major streams of empirical research that analyze the impact of KAM disclosure on stakeholders’ reactions are focused: (1) shareholders (e.g. investors’ perceptions of auditors’ responsibility and litigation, value relevance and investors’ decisions); (2) debtholders (e.g. loan contracting terms); (3) external auditors (e.g. audit processes and audit fees); (4) boards of directors (e.g. earnings management); and (5) other stakeholders (e.g. informational value for suppliers and customers). The authors stress that most of the included studies use experimental or archival data and analyze the impact of KAM disclosure on investor reactions in a US-American setting. As the international standard setters assume a positive impact of KAM on stakeholder reactions, mixed empirical results are found. Although there are some indications of decreased earnings management behavior, most studies find no significant changes in auditor behavior. Furthermore, there are many insignificant results with regard to shareholders’ reaction in line with our stakeholder and behavioral agency framework. The literature review is especially useful for management decisions, because firm reputation may be positively or negatively influenced by KAM regulations.

The responsibility of the government of any economy cannot be overemphasized. Likewise, the resources generated and infrastructural development helps to boost the economic growth of any nation. There has been overdependency of Nigerian economy on the oil sector, the major source of revenue. However, this sector has experienced several challenges ranging from devaluation in naira and fall in prices of crude oil in the international market. This serves as a revelation for the Nigerian government to seek an additional source of income. To this end, the main aim of this paper is to examine the impact of total tax revenue on agricultural performance in Nigeria. The study uses Engel and Granger approach to cointegration to establish the long- and short-run behavior, it was found that a positive and significant relationship exists between revenue obtained in the agricultural sector, capital in agricultural sector proxy by loan and agricultural output, while employment and total tax generated are not significant in the short run. In the long run, employment, capital and total revenue are statistically significant with agricultural output, while tax is insignificant. The implication of the result showed that tax has not yielded desirable result in promoting the agricultural sector in Nigeria. To promote pro-poor growth, long-run employment and improve overall welfare, there is a need to incorporate benefit from tax into agricultural performance. The study recommends among others the need for a systemic approach, given a significant percentage of the total tax generated to boost the development of the agricultural sector.

Rewards are a function of job satisfaction and morale. As a result, it is generally accepted that dissatisfaction with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards offered by the employer results in employee reduced job satisfaction and morale. This paper endeavors to contribute to an understanding of the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on the job satisfaction and resultant morale of employees in an organization. The paper focuses on a case study organization that adds value in the South African context. The paper reviews theoretical and empirical rewards literature and their relationship with the job satisfaction and morale of employees (n = 265). A quantitative research design approach which is rarely used in this type of research was adopted. A self-administered Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was utilized in collecting data. The JDI measures people’s satisfaction with five (5) different aspects of the job, which are detailed in this paper. Data were processed using Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The study revealed that both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards significantly influenced the job satisfaction and morale of public TVET educators in Western Cape public TVET institutions. Besides extrinsic rewards such as pay and bonuses, intrinsic rewards such as the job itself, supervision, career progression opportunities and relationships among principals and staff, and among educators and learners were found to be also instrumental in enhancing the job satisfaction and morale of educators.

Inventory management costs are often high and it is necessary to introduce appropriate methods that cause their optimization. For this purpose, various types of methods supporting logistic processes are introduced. Joint activities within group purchasing organizations are also popular. Companies gain a possibility to reduce costs, in addition, when enterprises introduce appropriate quality management systems, the process of cost optimization and an improvement of inventory management efficiency should be even more visible. The purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of standardized quality management systems on inventory management. The research was conducted on a group of 68 enterprises operating in commercial group purchasing organizations. The enterprises were divided into two groups: into the companies using quality management systems and into those that do not use such systems. The analysis showed that the most frequently standardized quality management systems were used by large enterprises and the results of inventory management efficiency were at a similar level as compared to small units that do not apply quality management systems. The analysis based on selected financial indicators allows concluding that the introduction of quality management systems improves the efficiency of inventory management. The introduction of such systems allowed large enterprises to organize their warehouse management and reduce stocking reserves, which positively influenced the costs of managing them. The research period covers the years 2015–2017.

Managing and evaluating the probability of bankruptcy of Ukrainian enterprises is one of the most complex and relevant problems of the economy and management. In the context of Ukraine’s integration into the international space, there is an arising issue of assessing the bankruptcy of Ukrainian enterprises that meets international financial standards and allows administering this process. A qualitative assessment of the bankruptcy of an enterprise is possible only using artificial intelligence methods – the fuzzy sets method, which allows including qualitative and quantitative indicators to the model for assessing bankruptcy of enterprises in Ukraine. The aim of the article is to improve the existing method for assessing the probability of bankruptcy of Ukrainian enterprises on the basis of the fuzzy sets method, which will include indicators of international financial reporting and allow more efficient administration and management of this process. The subject of the research is the process of formalizing the method of the enterprise bankruptcy assessment in accordance with the indicators of International Financial Reporting Standards. The study offers a mechanism for a comprehensive assessment of the probability of bankruptcy of Ukrainian enterprises with the use of the methods of fuzzy sets, which is based on international financial indicators: current ratio, payable turnover ratio, equity turnover ratio, return on assets, equity-to-debt ratio. The mechanism allows quickly managing bankruptcy conditions. In order to administer the economic activity of the bankrupt enterprises, based on the theory of a fuzzy sets, a system of enterprises management takes into account the international financial reporting.

Dual quality goods have been present in Europe for over 30 years. But only recently this problem has become current. More and more EU citizens complain about its presence in the united European market. In several countries, product testing, as well as population opinions, were conducted, but the results were not uniform. The European Commission itself acknowledged the existence of dual quality and began to address it. It has developed a common testing methodology and is also preparing legislative changes. In this respect, the examination of the situation in Slovakia as one of the EU countries is up to date. The aim of this research is to examine the opinions of Slovak consumers on the dual quality of daily consumer goods in the EU and its economic aspects, to compare them with the results from abroad and to formulate conclusions and recommendations. The survey used a questionnaire method, which examined the opinions of Slovak consumers on a sample of 919 respondents. Subsequently, the hypotheses were tested by the binomial test and Pearson correlation coefficient. The study provides an overview of the results of product testing carried out in Slovakia and abroad, as well as the results of a questionnaire survey of the opinions of Slovak consumers and their comparison with abroad. In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, more than 80% of respondents disagree with the existence of dual quality. The results of the study support the demand of Central and Eastern European countries for dual quality in the EU to be banned and eliminated.

Machine-building complex is a system-forming element of Ukrainian economy. Functioning of other industries in many respects depends on the results of its activity. Harsh conditions of globalized economic environment and geopolitical changes taking place in the country have negatively affected the state of machine-building enterprises and determined the need for increasing the level of their economic sustainability. As a result of using the systemic-structural approach, which is being developed in the context of the provisions of systemic economic theory, systemic-structural analysis of economic sustainability of several machine-building enterprises was performed. The study was conducted based on a sample of 16 machine-building enterprises and covered the 2015−2016 period. Economic sustainability was analyzed by way of defining in the structure of enterprises, econometric modeling and assessing the state of four subsystems with different space and time localization and further defining the level of mutual balance. The set of individual parameters for modeling every subsystem was determined mainly by way of regrouping of baseline statistical indicators, as well as expert assessments. Using such an approach enabled to determine structural peculiarities of machine-building enterprises development during the analyzed period and their effect on formation of volatility and stability properties, which ensure their sustainability in space and time. During the analyzed period, the determined disproportions of the subsystems in the structure of enterprises had systemic nature. The identification of economic manifestations of the determined disproportions enabled to formally define non-trivial dependencies between the economic phenomena, which took place in machine building, and to define the nature of their influence on the mechanism of economic sustainability formation. The risks affecting every subsystem under study had volatile nature, that’s why the issue of systemic risk management remains relevant.

This critical analysis seeks to explore the inclusivity and feasibility of the legal application of organizational governance principles related to limited liability companies (LLCs) in Indonesia, which are considered essential pillars of Indonesia’s economic stability. The investigators employed the non-probability purposive sampling to select 150 study participants from a population of 250 administrative panel members working in PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia and PT Bank Mandiri. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were constructed and distributed online through emails. The subjects’ responses were coded manually, using the NVivo software for ease of analysis. The result showed that (1) 84.5% of participants believed that ineffective relationship building approaches, corruption, and inadequate information disclosure mechanisms among internal and external shareholders formed the main challenges to implementation of corporate governance principles in Indonesian LLCs, (2) 97.8% of the respondents believed the Indonesian Company Law (ICL) had achieved significant milestones in guiding the application of sound corporate governance principles by explicitly outlining the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and providing sufficient protection for minority stakeholders, and (3) 78% of participants agreed that the ICL has introduced and reinforced critical rights and protections to shield shareholders from unfair regulations internally formulated by a company. In its findings, the investigation confirmed that poorly structured information sharing systems, fraud, and ineffective relationship building were the main factors that contributed to current inadequacies. 84.5% of the respondents believed that ineffective relationship building approaches, corruption, and inadequate information disclosure mechanisms among internal and external shareholders formed the main challenges, trends, and issues to the implementation of corporate governance principles in Indonesian LLCs. The study also confirmed that the implementation of GCG related legislations had reinforced the professional duties and obligations of stakeholders, alongside offering legal protections for minority business actors.

The article is devoted to the improvement of the water resources management system at the territorial level. The article covers problems in different countries of the world, which are described in the water supply with an increase in the population of a harsh climate. Today, the existing trend shows that about two-thirds of forests and wetlands have been lost or degraded since the early 20th century, the soil was destroyed and deteriorated in quality. These trends predict floods and droughts, which in turn affects our ability to adapt to climate change. The analysis of the literature on the peculiarities of determining the main elements of influence on the use of water resources in the world is carried out. The article used a dialectical method, which is due to the need for analysis and generalization of certain aspects of scientific knowledge that analyze the availability of water resources in different parts of the world. Structural-functional analysis of the principle of systematic study of phenomena and processes is applied. With the help of the system-analytical method, the maintenance of the territories (areas) of Ukraine by local water resources is calculated, on average, per year, this m3 per person, based on the resource of surface water, as well as the exploration and catchment of groundwater. The decomposition of criteria for assessing the effectiveness of water resources management at the territorial level based on the integral territorial index is developed. According to the numerical value of the integrated territorial efficiency index, it is proposed to combine regions into homogeneous groups depending on the proximity or distance from the average value of this index.

The study reveals the peculiarities of modern global production development due to global value chains (GVCs) formation that allow both developing and developed countries to integrate successfully into international production networks. This research is aimed at identifing key factors responsible for the upstream movement of Ukraine through GVCs and determining locations for production capacities, as well as at developing an institutional mechanism for facilitating the successful integration of domestic producers into GVSs. To achieve this, a multiple linear regression reflecting the interrelation between manufacturing industry share in exports value added and the institutional and economic indicators is analyzed. Three scientific hypotheses are tested and two of them are verified. The multiple linear regression results disclose a significant impact of institutional factors on the country’s ability to participate in GVCs and justify the first hypothesis, namely the higher the government effectiveness and regulatory quality are, the higher the manufacturing value added in exports is. Better governance and administrative functions performance enhance companies’ export potential. The model also verifies the second hypothesis that emphasizes better ability to join GVCs with low and medium technology product than with a high technology one. The model outputs contradict the third hypothesis on the protectionism: high tariffs for imports significantly matter in exports promotion. However, this result should be considered while accounting for the global trend of trade liberalization and Ukraine’s international agreements. The article proposes policy recommendations for improving the positions of Ukraine in GVCs.

Recent global economic and social challenges confirm the existence of a number of systemic problems in socio-economic relations. Thus, the spread of the concept of sustainable development, which combines social, environmental and economic aspects, became a characteristic feature of the global development trend in recent decades. Highly developed world countries are currently implementing the principles of social economy (a special state management model for socio-economic development) in their policies with the aim to overcome abovementioned challenges and to reach the millennium development goals. The implementation of these principles, realized by the state management in these countries during the last decades, enables us to evaluate the available results and highlight the characteristics of individual national business models of social economy. The study of the most important social and economic global indicators by means of modeling, clustering and regression analysis made it possible not only to emphasize the most important indicators characterizing socio-economic development, but also, taking into account the establishment of interrelationships between social and economic parameters, to single out separate groups of countries (exclusively the European region has been selected for the research) united by common principles and methods of social and economic policy and its implementation outcomes. The obtained results allow us to predict further trends of socio-economic development of separate groups of countries taking into account the available material and technical resources, the situation on the labor market and the level of competitiveness of national labor resources, the features of the functioning of the monetary and tax systems, etc. Given the results of clustering, it was possible to identify both specific models for socio-economic development specific to certain groups and their inherent tendencies of functioning. Besides, a set of specific methods and mechanisms of government control which are common and the best suitable for these systems is determined.

This paper elaborates on the theoretical and methodological fundamentals of a tradable green certificates system to foster renewable energy development in Ukraine. It proposes a management mechanism premised on the classical market model of tradable green certificates aiming at increasing the share of electricity from renewable energy sources in the country’s energy mix. Organizational stages of the mechanism formation at the national level and a methodological approach to assess green electricity generation cost are developed. The modeling has shown that the annual increase in the cap for green electricity consumption by 1% will raise the electricity tariff by 3%, which is not a significant financial burden for consumers. The proposed changes in the tradable green certificates system can be an effective management tool to achieve the required amount of electricity from renewable energy sources in the country’s total electricity consumption and to foster the development of the Ukrainian renewable energy sector.

Investment and innovative development of industrial enterprises is driven by the influence on the sensitive indicators of their activity, which characterize technological singularity. Therefore, it is expedient to define them using adequate economic and mathematical methods that will identify the development and growth points that are characterized by the accumulation of information and are a manifestation of singularity. The purpose of the article is to determine the main sensitive indicators of the investment and innovative development of industrial enterprises, which are the points of technological singularity. The article proposes conceptual provisions for evaluating the investment-innovation activity of enterprises as a basis for their development. These provisions consider the activity of economic entities according to three states (functioning, growth, and development); evaluation of investment and innovation activities, both individually and in conjunction with the official statistical reporting of enterprises using a well-founded minimum sufficient system of partial indicators defined through the multidimensional factor analysis and combined into integral and summarizing indicators; determination of technological singularity points as a result of prediction of partial and summarizing indicators’ values via the neural networks method. A methodological approach is developed to substantiate the technological singularity points, the managerial influence on which is provided by the development of enterprises. The methodological approach is based on considering the investment-innovation activity nonlinearity, both explicit and latent tendencies of development, situationality and variability of its goals, strategic orientation and possible technological singularity of an enterprise. The proposals submitted were implemented based on statistical reports of the machine-building enterprises for 2014–2018.

Insurance is the most important institution for social and financial protection. Therefore, the development level of the regional insurance market not only determines the volume and quality of this protection, but also influences the social and economic development of the region through the coverage of risks and the provision of additional jobs. In turn, many factors have a significant impact on the development of the regional insurance market itself. This study is aimed at developing a model for governing the development factors of the regional insurance market, which (governance) focuses on improving the development efficiency of not only the regional insurance market itself, but also the socio-economic development of the relevant region. In this regard, the model for governing the factors of development of the regional insurance market involves solving the following scientific problems: identifying national factors for the functioning and development of the Russian insurance market that influence the development of the regional insurance market; determining regional development factors affecting the regional insurance market; identifying the impact of the regional insurance market on the socio-economic development of the region; developing recommendations on the effective impact of national and regional factors on the regional insurance market development and, through it, on the socio-economic development of the region. Implementation of the proposed model for governing the factors for the regional insurance market development will increase its efficiency and strengthen the socio-economic development of the region.

In the context of neo-protectionism and in terms of WTO membership, regulatory mechanisms for promoting the national producer and country’s external expansion require an institutional basis. This paper primarily aims to explore the resource and institutional component in promoting Ukraine’s exports to Chinese market and to identify the level of Ukraine’s export promotion system effectiveness based on combinatorial approach, which includes the calculation of quantitative indicators of foreign trade in the form of international production and marketing cooperation and estimation of qualitative parameters of export promotion effectiveness. The empirical findings indicate following: high dynamism of increasing mutual trade volume; enlargement of trade flows asymmetry caused by the negative trade balance of Ukrainian economy; limited list of commodity groups of Ukrainian exports in mutual trade with China with stable relative advantages; dominance of low-value-added commodities among export priority groups; absence of beneficial effect of such a factor as “long-term partnerships” in the mutual trade flow. The paper reveals that national export promotion system in Ukraine can be characterized by low efficiency and strong potential for growth. The authors emphasize the importance of intensifying the projects and mechanisms of financial and investment support for exporters with increasing the level of their innovative orientation. Prospects for further research in this area are as follows: the assessment of macroeconomic effects from the introduction of export promotion tools for the national economy of countries of origin of goods and importing countries; detection of anticompetitive risks in the implementation of selective support programs for exporters.