Issue #2 (Volume 18 2020)

The quality improvement of state audit system is vital and relevant for all post-Soviet republics and Kazakhstan particularly. On the whole, it is grounded on the old notions, and is not suitable for the contemporary economic situation and numerous private enterprises’ growth. The article aims to highlight the advantages of the audit systems in the USA and the UK for the contemporary state of the audit system in the Republic of Kazakhstan. In order to achieve the stated purpose theoretical bases, statistical data, legislative and regulatory official documents were analyzed. The analysis shows that the most perspective approaches to the internal audit system development are risk management and budget planning. The main problematic areas are the legal support, staff of auditing departments and services, the quality of revisions and competence of state auditors. It is substantiated that training and education for the auditors are highly demanded. The internal annual audit reports can be used as the effective instrument of the governmental control as well as the marker of the most undeveloped spheres.

At the beginning of 2020, the world faced the most frightening threat to the population’s health – COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, the international institutions, governments of countries and various organizations are forced to use unprecedented restrictive measures in many spheres of activity. As a result, the economies of the countries all over the world are significantly affected and are on the verge of crisis. This paper presents examples of economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic for different countries of the world and analyzes still few scientific works, which study the influence of pandemic on their economies. The article generalizes the legislative and anti-crisis measures of the Ukrainian Government, as well as the National Bank of Ukraine and other state authorities. It is evidenced that at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, Ukraine witnessed a significant decrease in GDP growth rate, reduction of industrial production and electricity production. The financial indicators also underwent significant losses, particularly the unemployment rate increased as thousands and thousands of labor migrants have returned to Ukraine from European and other countries. The article proves the inconsistency and unprofessionalism of such restrictive and regulatory measures. Finally, the necessity is substantiated to combine the methods of market economy and state regulation. The compulsory steps are offered, which would minimize the losses of the state and its population during this economic crisis.

Industrial development in any nation plays a vital role in the strengthening of the economy and employs human resources as per specifications and directly towards the mainstream of the nation. In Saudi Arabia, there was rapid industrialization for four decades. Some manufacturing industries performed well, while some internal and external business environment factors influenced the others’ performance. The study focuses on historical development, as well as recent trends of well-performing and poor-performing industries of Saudi Arabia. Small manufacturing industries in Saudi Arabia are underdeveloped and need more attention to attain sustainable and progressive growth rate in the form of the number of establishments to enjoy the potential. Manufacture of tobacco, computer, electronics and optics, pharmaceuticals and transport equipment are the deprived and underdeveloped industries of the manufacturing sector. There should be some easy credit schemes for the development of deprived or underdeveloped manufacturing industries. To attain sustainable growth and development of the manufacturing sector, a positive attitude of the government towards underdeveloped manufacturing industries, favorable labor laws, and entrepreneurial awareness, technical and financial assistance are necessary. The growth and development of the manufacturing sector of Saudi Arabia will be helpful in the attainment of goals of Vision 2030.

This study aims to investigate the effects of professionalism, competence, and role conflict on the tax auditors’ performance. This study also needs to investigate the moderating role of locus of control. The sample consists of 139 tax auditors at the Riau Directorate General Taxes Office-Indonesia. Data analysis techniques include multiple regression and moderated regression analysis. The results show that professionalism, competence, and role conflict affect the tax auditors’ performance. A tax auditor who is professional, has competence, and does not feel there is conflict in carrying out his/her role, will have better performance. Besides, this study also found out that locus of control moderates the effects of professionalism, competence, and role conflict on the tax auditors’ performance. Internal locus of control will further enhance the tax auditors’ performance with high professionalism, satisfactory competence, and reduce low performance resulting from role conflict. Internal locus of control will improve the performance, which decreases due to the occurrence of role conflict with the tax auditors.

Even though psychological capital has been identified as an important issue in the workplace, little research has focused on it through organizational support. Drawing on leadership theory and conservation of resources theory, this article examines the mediating role of organizational support in the relationship between leadership behavior and psychological capital in insurance companies in Jordan. The questionnaires were distributed randomly. Out of 350 questionnaires, 335 questionnaires were effective for analysis, after analyzing the data using the statistical program SmartPLS version 3.2.6. Based on the theories, a significant impact of organizational support on the relationship between leadership behavior and psychological capital of employees was found. Thus, the study recommended maintaining the interest of senior management in the insurance companies operating in Jordan to identify and educate the managers of these companies in choosing the appropriate leadership behavior in accordance with the company’s data and the circumstances surrounding it at the right time and place.

Greening the economy requires green innovations, and innovations require investments. Most countries of the world are still relying on conventional (fossil-based) sources of energy. The transition toward green or renewable energy sources is an effective and innovative way to meet ever-increasing demand as a result of the rising population. Another reason for innovations in the field of green energy is the need to mitigate climate change and avoid pollution, especially in developing countries. The monitored investments into renewable energy sources are usually public. Therefore, this paper aims to determine whether the selected countries of the world produced renewable energy efficiently, considering the investments made by public financial institutions and installed electricity capacity for renewable energy sources, for the period 2013–2017 (for a deeper analysis, the year 2017 was chosen). For this purpose, the Stochastic Frontier Analysis model in the logarithmic form of the Cobb-Douglas production function is used, which helps to judge the competitiveness of countries based on effectively transforming the inputs into outputs. Results suggest that the effect of the first variable “installed electricity capacity” on electricity generation was highly statistically significant, and the impact of the second variable “public investments” was characterized as statistically insignificant. The monitored countries were divided into 10 groups according to the different range of estimated output-oriented technical efficiency from 0.00 to 1.00. Most countries should increase the renewable electricity generation approximately by 40-49%, given the level of inputs (16 countries of 6th group with estimated output-oriented technical efficiency 0.51-0.60) for the year 2017.

The study aims to explore the role of total quality management (TQM) in enhancing the service quality of the private healthcare sector in the Northern Area of West Bank Palestine. The study involves a questionnaire-based survey, private hospitals, and healthcare centers selected in North West Bank. The administrative employees are the population of the study, 200 employees were selected via stratified sampling method. By using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the findings show that all TQM factors are positively and directly related to each other in the private healthcare sector. There is a positive and direct relationship between four TQM factors (customer satisfaction, employee involvement, continual improvements, and top management commitment) and service quality, while there is a negative direct relationship between processes and service quality. TQM factors (customer satisfaction, employee involvement, continual improvements, processes, and top management commitment) explained 95% of the variance in healthcare service quality (R² = 0.950, P < 0.05). Continual improvements is the main pillar in TQM application in healthcare sector, and it is highly associated with the private healthcare processes (R² = 0.907, P < 0.01), while top management commitment is the most significant factor in improving the service quality. Full understanding and commitment by the managers across all levels and activating the effective communication between employees at all levels in the organization are the key factors of a successful TQM implementation; it helps in strengthening the teamwork efficiency. Top management is required to avoid the monotonic managerial practices, especially in the organizational processes, as it has a negative impact on the private healthcare service quality.

This study examined the operational characteristics of MSEs and their contributions towards addressing the national challenge of unemployment. The research was based on Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study employed descriptive analysis and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression technique in estimating the data obtained. The administration of questionnaire was applied to collect the data. The study found out that micro and small-scale enterprises contributed to economic growth through their operational activities, via the job creation in the economy. Thus, the study recommended that government policies should be put in place to encourage micro and small enterprises, and the provision of infrastructures, credit facilities, tax holidays, training program, amongst others, for MSEs. It was also recommended for funding agencies to consider the trends of practicing MSEs towards addressing critical economic and social issues such as job creation, in granting them funding facilities, in order to facilitate continuous participation in job creation among Nigerian MSEs.

Acknowledgment
The authors appreciate the Management of Covenant University for funding the publishing of this manuscript in this journal.

Earnings management offers an opportunity to hide frauds, which are often associated with key officials of corporate entities. Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) have been implicated in fraudulent earnings management. This study aims to investigate the effect of CFOs’ personality traits on earnings management in non-listed companies facing a debt crisis in Nigeria. The study explores a survey research method involving the administration of copies of a structured questionnaire on CFOs of the sampled companies. Statistical analysis includes computation of means, linear and multiple regression analyses. The findings reveal a high level of upward corporate earnings management and a strong exhibition of narcissistic trait among the CFOs. It was further observed that CFOs’ narcissistic trait is implicated in upward earnings management during the financial crisis. Possible economic implications of these outcomes include misallocation of resources by investors and aggravation of corporate debt crisis. These outcomes have policy implications on the appointment of corporate key officials and the accounting education curriculum. Consequently, the study recommends the personality trait test for individuals to be appointed into upper echelons’ positions in corporate organizations, as well as the inclusion of Element of Psychology in the curriculum of accounting education in Nigeria.

Acknowledgment
Our sincere gratitude goes to Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, for sponsoring the publication of this research paper as a contribution to the body of existing knowledge in corporate financial reporting in Nigeria.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in driving job creation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in all economies worldwide. Their increasing importance also means that they must be innovative enough to survive and be sustainable, improve their productivity and competitiveness. It is pertinent for European SMEs to know the contributing factors driving their innovations, which will enable them to channel their limited resources to ensure they achieve their innovation goals. This paper examined the various factors that stimulate innovations within SMEs. Using the ordinary least squares regression analysis and data from the European Innovation Survey, the authors analyzed 296 European SMEs between 2011 and 2018. The results show that intellectual assets, financial support, firm investment, and human resources all significantly contribute to firm’s sales output across Europe. Conversely, it was found that financial support and innovation linkages were not significant predictors of firms’ innovations. The results are important for SMEs managers who are aiming to be innovative and improve their productivity. The study can serve as a practical guide on how SMEs can ameliorate their innovation potentials and activities.

Acknowledgment
The paper has been prepared with the support of the grant TBU No. IGA/FaME/2020/004 provided by the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Management and Economics of Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

This study examines the effect of labor unions on corporate tax avoidance activities. Labor union is an important stakeholder in terms of corporate governance; thus, managers may engage in certain accounting choices that reflect union members’ position to improve the relation with labor union. This paper empirically investigates whether managers engage in tax avoidance activities to secure financial resources for workers’ pay when the negotiation power of labor unions is higher. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of firms listed in the Korean stock market from 2001 to 2008. The authors find that companies, where labor unions are organized, have a significantly higher level of tax avoidance activities. Also, the authors attempt to examine the effect of labor unions’ bargaining power on tax avoidance. While the union membership ratio is not significantly related to tax avoidance, labor unions that belong to upper-level labor organizations significantly affect the increasing tax avoidance activity, on average. Moreover, companies that join an aggressive labor organization (‘Minju’ Federation) show a significantly higher level of tax avoidance activity, compared to those joining a moderate labor organization (‘Hanguk’ Federation). Furthermore, the authors show that such an effect of labor unions on tax avoidance is significant for companies, which are not affiliated with large business groups (‘chaebols’). This result suggests that chaebol group management is not under pressure to negotiate with union members due to higher reputation costs. The findings of this paper offer academic and practical implications that capital market participants need to understand labor unions’ effect on management’s accounting choices.

Under decentralization, local governments gain more rights and opportunities to use various types of resources, thus, increasing their level of responsibility (including social responsibility) for the use of resources. The paper aims to reveal the consequences of decentralization reform for the indicators of united territorial communities (UTCs) budgeting that reflect their general socio-economic condition, as well as the nature of the latter one; to adapt the balanced scorecard (BSC) to the feature of UTCs’ functioning, and to develop the UTCs strategic map. The paper indicates that the system of balanced indicators is an analytical tool for ensuring the realization of the concept of social responsibility of the UТСs. The research resulted in the development of the balanced scorecard of indicators for UTCs. It includes the following blocks: internal business processes, funding, service providers, service consumers, and environment. The research contributed to the development of UTCs strategic map based on BSC adapted to the peculiarities of UTCs. The strategic map provides an opportunity to link strategic goals of UTCs with the developed BSC blocks and allows for a successful implementation of the concept of UTCs’ social responsibility in conditions of the need to achieve sustainable development.

The main Lithuanian manufacturing industry clustering preconditions are related to productivity, innovation, and export development. In this research paper, it was found that the strength of cooperative relationships among cluster members, more favorable opportunities to access, and use of infrastructure of business and professional human resources are the major factors to form the preconditions chosen for developing a research model. Four hypotheses have been formulated, which aim to confirm or deny the formation of clustering economic preconditions for productivity, innovation, and export development. Along with the exploratory study, the arisen hypotheses verified that improvement of infrastructure of business and professional human resources and easier access to it for companies have a positive impact on export development. Two other factors – the strength of cooperative relationships and the infrastructure of human resources – are not significant. Cooperation and partnership processes remain undeveloped, as high-quality and full-value formation of the economic preconditions for productivity, innovation, and export development is not ensured properly.

An integrated approach to the enterprise value-based management (VBM) provides a precise assessment of all accounting entities. The implementation of such an approach allows determining the value of objects that do not have a material form (intangible assets), but have a significant impact on the enterprise value. The growing role of accounting data in enterprise value formation and management determines the necessity of the research. Thus, the article aims to investigate the effect of integrated reporting implementation on the VBM at the Ukrainian enterprises. Based on recent scientific researches, the study substantiates that the VBM approach should be based on an integrated reporting concept and proves the necessity of transition from the traditional accounting model to sustainability accounting in Ukraine. The findings reveal the approach of integrated reporting incorporation into the enterprise VBM system. The authors offer the concept of creating an integrated reporting model in Ukraine that considers economic and legal criteria, basic and qualitative principles, and production, human, financial, social, natural, and intellectual capital.

The correlation between the development of a regional economy and the degree of infrastructural development of a country or its territory is a common practice. Considering this, the paper is aimed at studying the impact of water infrastructure on the economic security of regional socio-economic systems in order to develop a water security system for them. A variety of threats against key waterworks can seriously undermine the national economy and water security of regions and cities. Thus, the study analyzes the process of transformation of water infrastructure in the context of ensuring the economic security of regional socio-economic systems. It offers the definition of such categories as “water infrastructure” and “water security of a regional socio-economic system” to formulate a relevant economic policy in Ukraine based on world experience. The study proves the need to attribute water infrastructure to the critical infrastructure sectors of Ukraine and its regions, based on the best world practices in managing water resources and protecting the water infrastructure itself from technogenic, physical, and cyber-physical threats. According to the study results, conceptual bases for ensuring the economic security of regional socio-economic systems are developed, which differ in view of the water security system of the regional socio-economic system, giving priority to the engineering and technical infrastructure of a region.

This study was conducted to determine the factors and their influence on accrual accounting reform in the public sector in Vietnam. Combining qualitative and quantitative research methods based on empirical surveys of 268 accountants, controllers, and auditors working in state agencies such as the Department of Finance, state treasuries and agencies receiving revenues from the state budget in 2019. This study shows that six factors influence the reform of the accounting system in the public sector in Vietnam to accrual-based: accounting staff – especially their expertise, competence, and work experience; training and support of the consulting experts; costs of the accounting reform; level of information technology application; funding and assistance from international organizations; legal environment.
At the same time, the accrual-based accounting reform will have a positive impact on improving the transparency and efficiency of public sector operations in Vietnam. Among the factors affecting accounting reform, the legal environment factor is the most influential determinant, followed by the contingent of accountants. The study’s limitation is that the new experimental investigation is only conducted with a small sample size and in a short period. However, the research results are also a useful reference for those who are interested in the context that Vietnam is preparing to have strong reforms in accounting in the public sector in the coming time.

The global crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of long-term international quarantine measures have had a very negative impact on the tourism industry. The paper aims to analyze the sectoral losses of the tourism industry during quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Lviv, a city whose historical center is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The article highlights the potential of the tourism industry before the introduction of quarantine measures, as well as using extrapolation methods estimates the economic losses of the tourist industry of Lviv in the conditions of long-term quarantine. Besides, the anti-crisis measures of the city authorities to minimize the impact of quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry of Lviv are described. Based on a statistical analysis of the forecasted economic losses, it is recommended that city authorities abolish some local taxes and fees in the tourism sector to restore its potential as soon as possible.

The widespread use of information and communication technologies and subsequent transformations have led to the formation of a digital economy (DE). The European Union, as an international organization, has become the subject of building such an economy, striving to bring member countries closer in the field of digitalization.
The aim of this paper is to compare the DE development parameters of the EU countries based on cluster analysis and determine the most significant of them to solve the problems of bridging the digital divide between countries. For clustering, a feature DE vector of 20 indicators was created and the k-means algorithm and the Euclidean distance metric were used. For classification, the decision tree method was applied.
Three clusters of EU countries were identified by the level of DE development (leaders, followers and outsiders), which allowed assessing their positions relative to each other. Key parameters that determine countries’ positions in the general rating are identified. A parameter chart is generated to control the establishment of DE in the EU countries, which, in addition to key parameters, includes maximum, minimum and harmonic mean values of these parameters by cluster. This characterizes the landscape of DE development in the EU countries, assesses the digital divide and is the basis for decision-making in the area of bridging this divide.

Civil society is positioned somewhere in the area between business, government, and private sector. As civil society organizations are not profit-oriented, they are often relying on the engagement of volunteers, i.e., workers who are not paid for their effort. Successful management of human resources in organizations that depends on volunteers’ work can prove even harder than managing employees’ work in business entities. Many factors influence someone’s work effort, productivity, and devotion far beyond technical conditions, so it is impossible to separate someone’s work from the rest of his/her personality traits. In civil society organizations, attracting, motivating, and keeping volunteers willing to conduct needed tasks and actively participate in the organization’s activities might be quite challenging. For this paper, a survey was conducted among 42 organizations of civil society units (CSUs) that use the help of volunteers to fulfill their activities. To analyze relative efficiency of the civil society units, appropriate input and output variables were selected, and analysis was conducted with non-parametric DEA method. It was decided to take 4 inputs and 2 outputs in the analysis. The obtained results show that 69% of 42 CSUs are relatively efficient, 31% relatively inefficient, and 26.19% below the average. The results of the analysis enabled the identification of efficient and inefficient units. The reference set was calculated for each inefficient unit to determine which inputs cause better performance output. The calculated projections can be useful to CSU’s managers and serve as a benchmark for detecting the source of inefficiency within their humanitarian organizations. They can also serve as guidelines for improving inputs and thus achieving higher levels of outputs, i.e., duration of volunteering and the number of volunteers.

Acknowledgment
This paper is financially supported through project ZP UNIRI 10/17 by the University of Rijeka.

This paper explores the influence of the ESG disclosure regulation (government corporate ESG disclosure and non-government corporate ESG disclosure) on the ranking in 50 largest economies. Applying various statistical methods and techniques, including both parametrical (Student’s t-test, ANOVA analysis) and non-parametrical (Mann-Whitney U test) tests, simple average analysis, OLS with dummy variables method and multiple linear regression analysis, as well as correlation analysis and Granger causality test, several hypotheses are tested. The hypotheses stipulate whether or not ESG disclosure regulation differs in developed and emerging countries and whether or not ESG disclosure regulation influences the country’s SDGI ranking, as well as the ranking of the country among 50 largest economies. According to the results, the differences in ESG disclosure regulation are statistically significant in developed and emerging countries. The level of ESG disclosure compliance is higher in developed countries. ESG disclosure regulation influences the position of the country in SDGI and 50 largest economies rankings. The more country complies with ESG disclosure criteria, the better position in rankings is. Incorporation of ESG criteria is an important evolutionary step in economic development of the country. It allows increasing position of the country in 50 largest economies and SDGI ranking. Thus, ESG disclosure regulation is vital for the development of the country in the modern world.

Acknowledgment
Comments from the Editor and anonymous referees have been gratefully acknowledged. Alex Plastun gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0117U003936). Inna Makarenko gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0117U003933).

The transition to future-oriented medium-term budget planning has been an important innovation in the budget process of Ukraine. Since then, the main budget indicators are calculated for the next three years with a forecast that allows for systemic reforms in several areas. This paper aims to identify problems of implementing budget planning for generating an envisaged and balanced budget in conjunction with the priorities of the state. The current status of budget planning and budget performance is analyzed by reviewing budget legislation, budget reporting, information-analytical and presentation data of state authorities and local governments, the experience of developed countries that have achieved some success in medium-term budget planning in terms of income and spending. The paper also reveals the features and advantages of medium-term budget planning based on the result; explores the approaches to transparent, effective, and high-quality use of budget funds with a limited potential of the state to increase tax revenues. The implementation of budget planning is due to the need for further development of the budget process in Ukraine towards increasing predictability, transparency, stabilizing the budget in the medium term, and solving important problems of efficient and high-quality use of budget funds for economic and social recovery.

This study investigated the structure of employees’ remuneration and rewards systems, focusing on medium- and large-sized firms in the region of Attica in Greece during the economic crisis. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire based on relevant literature. A sample of 150 companies filled out a total of 500 questionnaires. The results revealed that medium- and large-sized companies applied various remuneration systems, including the base wage, performance-related bonuses, and a combination of additional non-wage benefits. Greek firms did not avoid wage cut in times of low turnover, although hypotheses testing revealed no relationship between firm size and the use of flexible remuneration systems. However, a positive relationship between the unions’ engagement and the use of non-wage cutting strategies was confirmed. Furthermore, a positive correlation between wage rigidity, labor market legislation, and collective agreements for setting minimum wage levels was found. Finally, a hypothesis test regarding the association between the firm, the business sector, and wages cut over the last seven years was accepted. The study concludes that wages cut should be the final choice by firms since remuneration is a source to satisfy, engage, and attract employees.

Innovations play an inevitable role in achieving macroeconomic growth of countries, and innovative activity is perceived as a source of sustainable development. This paper’s main objective is to explore the impact of innovation determinants on the macroeconomic development of the EU (28) member countries and identify key problem areas distorting sustainable development and growth of these countries. The research analysis is performed using panel data regression models estimated from 2010 to 2018. Innovation potential was quantified using selected indicators, such as patent granted, high-tech exports, gross domestic expenditures on R&D, government expenditure on education, direct investment, gross fixed capital, and tertiary educational attainment. Such indicators as real GDP per capita and GNI per capita were applied to measure economic growth. The results provide evidence of a statistically significant relationship between innovation and economic growth (p < 0.01). Therefore, both research hypotheses were accepted. Based on innovation potential assessment, the statistically significant impact of five indicators were confirmed (high-tech exports, gross domestic expenditure on R&D, government expenditure on education, direct investment, and tertiary educational attainment). In this backdrop, the most significant effect was revealed for variable gross domestic expenditure on R&D (0.5343). The findings lead to the conclusion that the EU’s and national innovation policies and initiatives should aim to create framework conditions that favor the innovation environment and increase R&D expenditure to endorse real economic growth.

Acknowledgment
This article has been prepared within the research project VEGA No. 1/0279/19 “Model approaches to increase performance and competitiveness in the European area in the context of sustainable development”.

The change of trends in the global industrial revolution has impacted various advances in the economic and industrial system until the realization of a liberalization system and capitalization of the global economy. This study aims to examine the impact of the liberalization and capitalization of the digital economy on the middle class, working class, and lower class societies in one of the developing countries in the Southeast Asian region, Indonesia. The methodology used in this study is a descriptive qualitative analysis approach, based on data obtained from official sources and literature studies. The class disparity between the capital owner class, middle class and working-lower class, poverty, and forms of social inequality in the structure of society is increasingly apparent. At present, the emergence of an era known as the Industrial Revolution 4.0 led to the change of social and economic trends towards more advanced systems. This study assumed the changes in the patterns and forms of economic liberalization and capitalization that were previously implemented traditionally towards digital system through opening new online markets platform. The study also argues that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 differently impacted the middle class, working class, and lower class society in developing countries, particularly Indonesia.

Maximizing customer value and minimizing waste have become the heart of the formulation of SMEs in the manufacturing sector of Jordan to survive in the new global marketplace. Therefore, lean manufacturing philosophy is used in SMEs to improve performance regarding quality, delivery, and costs to become efficiently competitive, thus accomplishing sustainable economic growth. The current study was designed to analyze the extent to which lean management bundles are adopted by SMEs manufacturing organizations in Jordan and the effect on their performance. Data were collected from 278 manufacturing SMEs in Jordan based on a structured questionnaire. The theoretical relationships were examined using structural equation modeling. The results show that Total Quality Management (TQM) and Human Resources Management (HRM) lean bundles are positively associated with manufacturing SMEs’ performance. The outcomes of this study may be considered as incentives for other practitioners and entrepreneurs of SMEs when implementing lean bundles by acknowledging the positive effect on their performance. Moreover, the findings of this study could be used in an internal checklist before and during the implementation of Lean Manufacturing (LM).

This paper aims to examine the trends of Chinese high-tech acquisitions in the EU countries, describe the policies that these acquisitions prompted on the level of member states and the EU, and analyze the effects of these policy responses. The results of the research review clearly show an increasing number of takeovers of European companies in the high-tech sectors, especially in the big member states such as Germany, France, or the UK. This created a backlash from the European policymakers that led to an introduction of tighter screening regimes in many EU member states and the creation of a common EU framework for FDI screening and its strategic management. At this point, it is hard to evaluate the complete effect of this new framework, but it must be concluded that 82 percent of the Chinese strategic acquisitions made in 2018 would fall under at least one criterion of the new EU framework. The findings of this paper provide sound recommendations for the EU countries and their public authorities targeting to control Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and limit the acquisition of local companies in sensitive industries. On the other hand, the coming recession may put at least a temporary halt on Chinese acquisitions of the European companies.

Acknowledgment
This paper is the partial result of the GAAA – Grantová agentura Akademické alliance grant project No. GA/6/2019 – Strategic Performance Management of Companies and Multinational Corporations in the Context of Globalization and Sustainability.

Despite concerted efforts made by successive government administrations in Nigeria to eliminate or better still minimize the menace of fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, inflation of contract prices, payment of salaries to ghost workers etc., it seems as if the challenge is far from being over. It is believed that the implementation of effective and efficient financial control systems may result in better performance, accountability, and better reporting process in the public sector. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of financial control in the public sector of Nigeria using Akoko South-West Local Government Area (ASWLGA) as a case study. The study employed both descriptive and econometric analytical methods to achieve the stated objectives. Specifically, the hypotheses were tested using regression analysis based on the primary data collected. The study revealed that the level of financial control in ASWLGA is adequate and capable of reducing financial misappropriation and that financial control is also cost-effective. However, there is a need for regular review of the financial control system in order to boost the effectiveness of the public sector.

The strategic approach to sustainable territorial development precisely assesses all regional disparities. Implementing this approach allows considering the interests and requirements of all stakeholders and identifying priority areas for regional development. A detailed analysis of existing regional development strategies and programs confirms the active region interaction with numerous organizations, groups, and individuals. The growing role of stakeholders in shaping regional policy determines the necessity of the research. Proposed conceptual approach will contribute determining the stakeholders’ interaction effectiveness in ensuring sustainable territorial development. Algorithm for analyzing the stakeholders’ interaction effectiveness was worked out based upon critical analysis of the scientific professionals’ main approaches of identifying and comparing the interests of stakeholders’ sectoral and territorial groups in the context of solving the region existing problems. A feature of the proposed measure scheme of the stakeholder interaction efficiency is the synthesis of quantitative and qualitative assessment of the stakeholder interaction effectiveness using the method of expert assessments, statistical analysis, and fuzzy sets. The practical part of the developed approach to determining the effectiveness of stakeholder interaction allowed to assess the level of regional development programs implementation in the Kharkiv region and to identify the synergistic effect of stakeholder interaction. The made conclusions and recommendations regarding the solution of region existing problems have found practical application in predicting scenarios for the territory development.

Digitalization and technological advancement, referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), results not only in technological innovation but also in the changes in society and public awareness. One such tendency is the demographic aging, which implicates two concerns: the instability of the public pension systems and the social awareness related with the risk of major reduction of benefits in contrast to the expectations and the need for the additional private pension security. The research has aimed to identify the opinions and attitudes of the students from Poland and Ukraine in respect to the broadly understood issues of the old age security, as well as to recognize the prospective differences in this field between the researched populations. The relevant research was conducted using the PAPI method in the years 2018–2019. Within the framework of the research, nine specific hypotheses were presented concerning the attitudes towards the selected aspects of the pension schemes and old-age security. The results were compiled in the form of the semantic differential, and the Mann-Whitney U test was utilized to verify the significance of the differences in the distribution of the answers given by the students. Those served as the basis for formulating the conclusions regarding similarities and differences in the opinions expressed by young people studied populations.

Acknowledgment
This project has been financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the “Regional Initiative of Excellence” Programme for 2019–2022. Project No. 021/RID/2018/19. Total project budget: PLN 11 897 131,40.

Nowadays a great deal of attention is paid to corporate governance (CG). Frequent takeovers of ownership rights by management bodies led to a need for business owners to establish clear rules for business management and compliance monitoring. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between selected characteristics of the governance process and the ability of governing bodies to perform their core tasks, as well as to model and predict the impact of the selected characteristics of the governance process on the company’s financial performance, measured by the year-on-year change in return on equity. The respondent sample consists of members of randomly selected top management entities with their headquarters in Slovakia. A total of 132 subjects participated and answered questions in the survey, 54% of which were joint stock companies, 36% were limited liability companies and 10% were respondents from cooperatives. Data were personally collected by a questionnaire survey conducted during 2019. To verify the assumptions and success of the formulated model, correlation analysis, binary logistic regression and other relevant tests were used. The results show that each of the examined board process attributes significantly affects at least one board performance attribute. All significant correlations have a positive value. Independent variables in the ROE regression model increased the estimation rate of ROE change from 54.5% to 93.9%. The model is applicable in the CG practice and allows the prediction of changes in ROE with respect to ongoing governance processes.

Acknowledgment
This paper has been supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of Slovak Republic under the project VEGA No. 1/0749/18 “Research on the application of corporate governance principles in companies in Slovakia”. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Scientific Grant Agency of The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for financial support of this research and publication.

Ensuring Ukrainian enterprises’ personnel sustainability is a real challenge because the structural transformation of the labor market in the context of globalization of the world economy leads to increased competition for qualified personnel. In the Ukrainian labor market, the tendency to imbalance professional and qualification structure is the result of the progress of migration, urbanization, and demographic crisis. Thus, the study aims to develop a procedure for diagnostics and predicting the personnel sustainability of the enterprises due to the construction of the forecast model. The formation of “Predictable Model of the Personnel Sustainability” (“PMPS”), which is based on an analysis of the personnel sustainability indicators and predictors of release, was proposed. Approbation was carried out on the example of the Ukrainian enterprises of a recreational complex. The results of the personnel sustainability forecasting showed that the extent of the violation of the personnel sustainability is significant because the high projected performance of the indicators of fluctuation movement of the personnel and employee turnover changes, the structural components associated with wages indicate its further growth, and trends in the predictors of the violation of sustainability signal the possible dismissal of the personnel in the future.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution bears major technological, demographic, and socio-economic changes affecting nearly every area in business. Within the human resources area, both a surplus of labor and the creation of brand new professions are to be expected. Industry 4.0 concept significantly affects labor productivity in individual countries and does not miss the Slovak Republic either. All segments of the labor market, not just industrial enterprises, will be affected. The present study aims to analyze the possible development of labor productivity in Slovak companies and determine its development in the next period, considering the decreasing number of working-age populations in terms of the fallouts on creation and termination of jobs and occupations. The questionnaire carried out in 319 enterprises in the Slovak Republic with a received response of 228 was a key research tool used to analyze the results of the survey. The findings show that although the labor force within the Slovak labor market will not increase, the labor force will decrease due to unfavorable demographic development. The overall productivity in Slovak companies will increase due to the new technologies implementation. The results have proved that the Industry 4.0 concept will significantly affect labor productivity in the world economy and the Slovak Republic. In particular, the recommendations aim to draw attention to changes in job structure and the need to reform the education system because of Industry 4.0 requirements.

Acknowledgments
This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education’s Scientific grant agency VEGA: “The impact of Industry 4.0 on jobs structure changes”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/0430/18].
This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education’s Scientific grant agency VEGA: “Assessment changes in the qualitative structure of international economic relations under the influence of Industry 4.0 with implications for the EU and Slovak economic policies”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/0462/20].

Attitude is very crucial in determining the decision for a woman to stay in the job. This means that employees tend to have a desire to leave if they feel not attached to the company. Female employees who tend to be married have a role as an employee and family member. Married female employees will have high work engagement if they feel their work brings benefits to family life. This study aims to determine the effect of work-family enrichment on work engagement and turnover intention. The population of this research was 391 married women employees who worked at least a year in four-star hotels in Bali, Indonesia. The sample in this study is determined using a nonprobability sampling method with a saturated sample based on specified criteria, 331 questionnaires returned (response rate of 85%), but only 325 questionnaires were complete and feasible to be analyzed (usable response rate of 83%). Data were collected via questionnaire and analyzed using SEM (structural equation modeling). The results showed that married female employees were more enthusiastic about working when they could fulfill their multiple roles in work and be better family members. Their involvement in work seriously and feeling proud to be part of the company can reduce their intention to leave. This research is expected to be a consideration for management in making policies related to decreasing turnover intention.

The article aims to determine the difference in the perception of selected business risks and their impact on the future of business concerning the entrepreneur’s experience with business bankruptcy. The case study involved 73 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with experience of business bankruptcy and 381 SMEs without the experience of business bankruptcy from the Czech Republic (CR). Linear regression models were used to verify statistically significant causal relationships between selected indicators of the most significant business risks and respondents’ perceptions of the future of business. The results brought interesting findings. The attitudes of entrepreneurs show that personnel, market, and financial risk are among the three most significant business risks. Experience with business failure is not a significant factor in determining the impact of market indicators on the business’s perceived future. The adequacy of sales of services and products has the greatest impact. The experience of the bankruptcy of SMEs is important in financial risk attitudes. According to entrepreneurs who have no experience with bankruptcy, the perception of financial performance has the greatest direct impact on the future of business. Conversely, for entrepreneurs who have experienced bankruptcy, the ability to properly manage financial risk on the company’s future has the greatest direct impact.

The researchers intended to explore organizational culture at a state-owned enterprise (SOE) in South Africa. The reviewed literature showed very few similar studies where job satisfaction was tested as a mediator between organizational citizenship behavior and organizational culture. Furthermore, the reviewed literature revealed that Martins’ organizational culture model, which was used to give theoretical grounding to the study, did not have job satisfaction as a mediator. The research design was exploratory, correlational, and cross-sectional. A total of 204 respondents were selected using a stratified sampling technique. The major finding was that the respondents perceived the organizational culture as a hostile, bellicose culture, rife with politics. The unexpected result was a significant positive relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and organizational culture. This means that even when the organization’s culture was hostile, employees did not abuse and leave and went beyond the call of duty. It was found that job satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and organizational culture.

The study aims to improve methodical approach for formalizing the sustainable development models for progressive countries by suggesting the relevant representative indicators. The study is performed using the statistical approach to determine the suitability of data for further modeling using indicators of variation, taking into account the normality of the population distribution as the main criteria of the data set quality. The study highlights the results of processing measurable quantitative economic, social, and environmental indicators of different countries that may be used for identifying possible changes in the world’s sustainable development. The authors select the indicators for scenario modeling of the sustainable development of Brazil, India, China, Republic of Korea, and the USA, as well as suggest a set of relevant affecting factors. To confirm the meaningful impact of different factors, such as biological balance, conflicts intensity, corruption perception and other, a neural network is developed, and its preliminary training on the test data is conducted. The obtained results can be used to predict economic changes in the world under the influence of specific economic, social, and environmental factors.

This study contributes to the literature by offering insights over the relationship between job satisfaction and work stress with employees’ motivation among travel agencies in India. The paper aims to determine the impact of job satisfaction and work stress on employees’ motivation level with a specific focus on the moderating impact of employees’ expertise and marital status in the context of travel agencies in Southern India. A survey was conducted over employees of travel agencies in Southern India by adopting scales from the extant studies, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling through Smart PLS. The outcome of the study reveals that job satisfaction has a strong significant effect on employees’ motivation, unlike work stress and employees’ expertise has a partial significant moderating effect on the relationship between work stress and motivation. The study stressed much about the combined effects of the mediators. The present study has tested the new composite scale to measure the overall motivational level, unlike the previous studies. The survey was conducted between November 2019 and December 2019 and entails 164 respondents, the majority of the subjects are millennials between 18 and 35 years, with 43.3% having master’s degree, all were found to be pre-qualified for the investigation.

The benefits that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can offer organizations are the primary reason behind their popularity. However, employees` satisfaction is one of the factors that affect ERP system benefits, while employees` expectations of such systems affect their satisfaction. The study aimed to identify and investigate how employees’ expectations of the general benefits from ERP systems influence employees` satisfaction and actual benefits derived. The study was performed in a manufacturing organization, and data collection entailed a quantitative questionnaire, targeting an entire population of 80 employees (ERP users). The study obtained a 66% response rate, and quantitative data analysis techniques were used. The study found out that users with high expectations were more dissatisfied and not benefiting from the ERP system compared to those with low expectations. Users with more experience did not find the ERP system very challenging compared to the users who had less experience. The Chi-square test of independence implied that the general expectations that users had on ERP systems did not affect their satisfaction (7.965, p = 0.241). Besides, there was a relationship between general expected benefits from an ERP system and the actual benefits of using it (19.342, p < 0.013). Furthermore, a moderate and significant relationship between actual benefits derived and user satisfaction was found (.451**, p < 0.001). The study concludes that there is a relationship between employees’ expected benefits, employees` satisfaction, and actual benefits derived from ERP systems.

The aim of this study is to examine how bankruptcy prediction models forecast financial strength for family businesses. Three predictive tests are used to study financial strength for three consecutive years (2016, 2017 and 2018) for a sample of 462,200 active Hungarian companies using the Amadeus database and expert data. Complex statistical model tests for credit assessment (bankruptcy predictions) are performed by size and ownership of the companies. It is found that the revised Altman model is impeded by a superfluous high weighting on net working capital; therefore, IN05 Quick Test predicted better chances for businesses in generating cash flows in a small emerging economy. By re-formulating the Bankruptcy Index of Karas and Režňáková and refining its coefficients, the modified Bankruptcy Index is more robust for predicting the financial health of family businesses on a cash flow basis. The test results of this modified Bankruptcy Index confirm the relative advance of family businesses in creating added value for owners. Practical implications arise from a management perspective: family businesses work better with predictability of survival in accordance with the model; therefore, their ability to adapt to financial constraints caused by crises is also more promising.

The world finds itself facing unprecedented conditions as the global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus has led to fundamental changes in the global supply chains. This paper aims to assess the initial response undertaken by Central European companies in the early stages of the outbreak. The survey was conducted as a research method to collect data from a large number of companies. Since it takes time to assess long-term effects of the pandemic and related measures, various changes in supply chains are examined as the early results of the COVID-19 crisis and measures implemented by companies. The study examines how different economy sectors were changed due to this situation. The changes in operating volumes were identified as the most commonly used measures to accommodate new market developments. However, developing the new supply chain partnership was the most successful measure. This measure correlates with an increase in revenues and an increase in the number of customers. In some cases, disruptions in supply chains had positive effects on revenues as a reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak. Cross-country examinations found that all Polish companies implemented at least one new measure to tackle this crisis. Nearly 20% of Slovak companies and nearly 30% of Czech companies made no changes in their operations during the early stages of the crisis. However, overall, the supply chains in Central European countries turned out to be quite resilient, since most companies managed to survive the supply chain disruptions and in some cases even show signs of overcoming them completely.

Acknowledgement
This contribution was supported by the project No. 1/0757/18, “Consumer behavior in buying goods of daily consumption with an emphasis placed different contents of goods offered on markets of selected EU countries”.

The transport sector’s economic sustainability is an important factor in economic development, trade, quality, and safe transportation of goods and passengers, and regional and international integration. The tools of the transport sector’s strategic management should be based on assessing its current economic stability. Applying statistical and regression analysis of Ukraine and Poland’s transport sector, an approach to assessing the level of economic stability is formulated based on a system of integrated indicators of elementary, general, and specific stability. The integrated indicator of elementary economic stability considers the dynamics of the number of economic entities in the industry and their profitability. In Ukraine in 2018, this figure is –0.042, in Poland – 3.37. The integrated indicator of overall economic stability considers the number of employees in the industry, the gross domestic product created by enterprises in the industry, and the number of enterprises. In Ukraine, it is equal to –0.049, in Poland – 3.71. The integrated indicator of the transport sector’s specific economic stability takes into account the volume of passengers, freight, and cargo handling, and in Ukraine, it is –0.040, in Poland – 3.38.