Issue #3 (Volume 20 2022)

The Covid-19 pandemic changes people’s behavior, determines the interpersonal distance of communication, and deepens the digitalization processes of public life. This paper aims to establish the social trust impact on the social sustainability of Ukrainian territorial communities in the Covid-19 pandemic. For an empirical study, four territorial communities of Ukraine were taken, which geographically represent the whole of Ukraine. It used the online survey method based on Google forms. A randomly selected 1530 respondents aged 18+ were interviewed in 2021, where the quota sampling by gender, age, and territorial community has been preserved. The study proves that the family remains the basis of social stability for Ukrainians. In difficult situations, the population expects help from their relatives and is ready to help themselves. However, institutional social trust is highly deficient, with only 5.8% of citizens wishing for help from local authorities in the face of the pandemic. The survey shows that the poorest part of the population is prone to atomization and demonstrates the lowest interpersonal and institutional trust level, weakening social stability due to the risks of numerous divorces, labor migration, and the problems of family members’ isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has widened the gap between the poorest and wealthiest groups. Therefore, social resilience management should aim to improve institutional and interpersonal social trust. Furthermore, public authorities should unite the community using economic, social, cultural, and religious instruments since atomized individuals cannot withstand local and global challenges efficiently.

Acknowledgment
The paper was prepared in the framework of the research project “Sustainable development and resource security: from disruptive technologies to digital transformation of Ukrainian economy” (№ 0121U100470) and “ Jean Monnet Chair in EU Economic Policies and Civil Society” (619878-EPP-1-2020-1-UA-EPPJMO-CHAIR).

The relevant evolution of social networks and the expansion of digitalization has led to significant changes in the classical processes used by Moroccan companies in different fields such as marketing, human resources management, etc. This paper investigates the effects of digitalization on the attractiveness of Moroccan companies in terms of recruitment and safeguarding these constructs by using structural equation models according to the PLS approach. The study was carried out to touch 74 companies in different sectors. The study showed positive relationships between management support, digitalization, and recruitment performance (defined as the attractiveness of a company for recruitment and federalization of employees). The results show that the T-statistics are equal to 67.55, 6.862, and 5.941, respectively. The Q² value is 0.884 for scanning and 0.937 for performance, which means that the model is predictive in nature. The GoF is 1.388, which means that model is sufficiently large for the overall validity of the PLS model. While jobseeker behavior and competitive intensity did not affect recruitment performance because the test T-statistics is less than 1.64, the two factors have no moderating effect as the p-values are 0.228 and 0.082, respectively, exceeding the threshold of 0.05.

Organizational performance can be seen as dependent on employee job performance and productivity. One of the factors that influence employee job performance and productivity is the working relationship between employees and their managers. This paper examines the influence of the relationship between employees and their managers on enhancing employee performance and productivity. The study was conducted in a financial organization based in Durban (South Africa). A quantitative approach was utilized with a census method targeting a total population of 40 administrative employees. A questionnaire was constructed based on the research aims and was administered to all 40 respondents. As a result, the response rate was 65%. Key findings indicated that the relationship between managers and employees did affect employee performance and productivity. A positive relationship with a manager is closely linked to increased motivation and performance, while a negative relationship is linked with poor performance. An overall negative impact and high level of dissatisfaction amongst employees were found due to the current bureaucratic management style that managers adopt in their organization. Thus, it makes employees less productive and decreases their work performance. Furthermore, it was found that employees’ perception of their relationship with managers plays a significant role in predicting job performance. Recommendations for a better working relationship to promote employee performance and productivity include manager-employee training, team building activities, skills development programs for managers, employee rewards and recognition, increased communication platforms, and more consideration for employee well-being.

The development and implementation of regional tourism development programs in Ukraine require the formation of the information environment for ranking the tourist systems of Ukraine’s regions according to the attractiveness of their investment potential, which determines the purpose of this study. The methods of economic analysis and rating modeling were used to rank regional tourism systems according to their investment potential by determining the integral indicator of the economic and tourist resources of each region. Accordingly, economic indicators are chosen to provide the regions with financial, labor, and production resources; tourism indicators include supply and demand for tourism services, availability of tourism resources, tourism efficiency, as well as tourism accommodation. According to the results of rating and grouping, three groups of regions were formed: the first (the priority in terms of investment potential of the tourist system has the value of the integrated indicator from 72.0 to 94.8); the second (values from 40.2 to 71.0, reflecting the average level of investment potential); and the third (values from 25.0 to 40.1 for regions with low investment potential). The rating of regional tourist systems reflects the development level of their potential; it is an indicator of the effectiveness of its management and information base necessary for management decisions of potential investors. The asymmetry of investment potential of regional tourism systems causes an imbalance in their competitiveness, so implementing regional and national programs will help intensifying their use and equalizing regions’ development.

Acknowledgment
The paper reflects the research results within the study carried out in 2021–2024 at the State University of Trade and Economics at the request of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine “Digital Transformation of Trade, Economic and Tourist Systems of Ukraine,” state registration number 0117U000503, and “Forecasting the impact of the tourist system on the country’s economy,” state registration number 0122U001559.

Changes in the economy, politics, competitors, customers, and even the weather affect the trust relationship between employers and employees. Most organizations are striving to strengthen such relationships by focusing on psychological contract fulfillment that allows for trust leading to job stability and career advancement. An integrated framework was used to investigate the role of psychological contract fulfillment on academic employees in two Jordanian universities (Yarmouk and Jadara Universities). The research area is determined in universities due to a breach of psychological contracts. Using a quantitative method, responses from academic employees were collected to examine their perception of the influence of psychological contract fulfillment on job outcomes. Hypotheses were tested using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method on data gathered from 90 academic employees. The findings indicated that psychological contract fulfillment positively influences both employee productivity and satisfaction. In addition, the results revealed that psychological contract fulfillment negatively influences employee turnover. Furthermore, the study findings have managerial implications through enhancing organizational citizenship behavior that leads to increased employee productivity and satisfaction.

This study aims to examine the impact of emergency clinic assets and its reputation on the operation of health clinics that provide health facilities for the community. The unit of analysis in this study is a medical clinic in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The unit of perception is executives of a medical clinic. The perceptions were taken in one shoot time, particularly in 2021. The population covered 36 general hospitals from various classes, and the samples were taken from as many as 30 hospitals. The examination procedure for the exploration targets in this study used partial least squares. The experimental outcomes support the speculation that clinic assets and medical clinic reputation significantly affect clinic performance either all the while or somewhat. However, emergency clinic reputation has a more prominent commitment to emergency clinic performance, contrasted with emergency clinic assets. The findings of this review provide administrative ramifications to the medical clinic executives with an end goal to further develop emergency clinic performance with endeavors that depend on the improvement of the organization’s standing and upheld by the advancement of emergency clinic assets. Hospital reputation development needs to be prioritized and supported, especially hospital reliability aspect, as well as trustworthiness, credibility, and responsibility should be increased. Hospital resource development needs to be carried out by prioritizing organizational resources, which are upheld by improving human resources and tangible assets.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the health administrations in several hospitals as officers in charge of hospital management in West Kalimantan helped complete the various data and information needed.

Current business conditions pose new challenges to youth entrepreneurship, which is a significant component of countries’ economic growth. In addition, Generation Z differs from previous generations and requires new approaches. In this context, a comprehensive study of the peculiarities and various aspects of youth entrepreneurship development is highly-demanded and relevant. Furthermore, the lower representation of women among entrepreneurs prompts the study to seek answers about the causes of this phenomenon.
This study aims to investigate the gender aspect of young people’s attitude (students who just started their university education) from Eastern and Central European countries to entrepreneurship. Notably, their entrepreneurial intentions, attitudes toward entrepreneurship, perceived threats of setting up the business, and determination to start/run a family business compared to working for a big corporation, from a gender perspective, are worth investigating. The study employed the survey with structured printed questionnaires spread in campuses among 3,636 first-year (bachelor) students of technical universities in Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria. The results show that male students are more determined to set up firms; however, the difference compared to the females is only 3.3%. No gender differences were observed in the vision of the attractiveness of running own business or in the perception of threats in running a business. Students of both genders do not suppose that working in a corporation is more attractive than a family business. Nevertheless, respondents of both genders gave the maximum score for the statement that corporations provide more excellent opportunities to develop competencies.

Clinical risk management (CRM) is a specific form of risk management used in hospitals that focuses directly on clinical processes and indirectly on patient-related processes as well as on individuals, including their potential to make mistakes. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the central CRM coordination in hospitals using the Czech version of the CRM monitoring tool developed for hospital environments. Quantitative research consisted of collecting and evaluating data using statistical methods. The research set consisted of responses from 53 participating hospitals recorded in the Czech version of the CRM monitoring tool. The results did not identify statistically significant differences among types of hospitals in terms of whether or not a person responsible for the central coordination of clinical risk management activities is designated in them. According to the findings, this fact does not affect the type of hospital or whether it is a public or private hospital. The paper also show that most hospitals have one person responsible for coordinating CRM who is often also employed as the hospital’s quality manager. In faculty hospitals, the person responsible for CRM is often a subordinate to the medical director or the deputy for medical care, etc. In city and other hospitals, they are usually directly subordinate to the director. The study showed that the person responsible for clinical risk management most often holds the quality manager position in hospitals.

Acknowledgment
This contribution was supported by the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice as part of an individual internal research project of the ZSF USB entitled “Utilization of Clinical Risk Management in the Environment of Czech Hospitals” funded by the ZSF USB RVO.

This study uses human capital that shows the intangible asset’s core in reducing the risk or improving firm performance to solve previous inconsistent results of women’s role in firm performance. Thus, this paper examines the role of human capital as the mediator in the influence of gender diversity on credit risk in a rural bank. This examination involves 433 rural banks based on the purposive sampling method. The result reveals that higher gender diversity has higher human capital (α = 0.135, ρ = 0.005) and higher human capital has lower credit risk (α = –0.205, ρ = 0.000). It also revealed that when gender diversity is controlled by human capital as a mediator on credit risk, gender diversity does not affect credit risk (α = –0.022, ρ = 0.625). However, human capital still affects credit risk (α = –0.205, ρ = 0.000). It implies that the higher a woman on the board of directors, the lower the credit risk through her education competence. Women as organization leaders have high self-appreciation from organization members in implementing their strategies and supervising them. High credit risk in rural banks needs appropriate management as a part of an internal governance mechanism. This study contributes to gender diversity literature through the ability to manage risk in measuring women’s role as strategic agents. This study also contributes to investor protection through the reputation of women on boards as monitoring agents.

This paper analyzes the effect of workplace stress on employee productivity in the service industry with reference to bankers. The study was carried out to identify the job stress of Nigerian bankers as it will be of interest to the management to evaluate their staff performance. The study used survey design with a sample size of 400 working staff from select banks in Benin City, Edo State; this was premised on the purposive sampling method. The study adopts primary data with the aid of questionnaire, which was administered to respondents to collect data. The data collected were analyzed using regression analysis. The result from the regression analysis indicated that employee workload, role ambiguity, and role conflict were statistically significant with a value of P > 0.05. The value of the Adjusted R2 of 64% reveals that the variability observed in the target variable is explained by the regression model. The study made recommendations that will enhance employee productivity in the banking industry in Nigeria.

University education has undergone transcendental changes in recent years. The tendencies of adaptation to these advances bring as a consequence that the management models and the leadership exercised by its directors are analyzed looking for a better administration of university entities. The present study reviews the scientific literature on approaches and perspectives on leadership and management in university education. It aims to establish various aspects, characteristics, and leadership and management styles through the review of scientific articles in the Scopus, Scielo, Proquest, Gale Onfile, and Ebsco databases. Relevant aspects were measured through the analysis of 36 articles published in the last 7 years. As a result, models and redesigns of university management were obtained, as well as a trend toward developing competencies and new leadership styles of those who lead institutions. It is concluded that university management is characterized by the search for strategies that allow the achievement of the established objectives based on strategic planning. In addition, it includes its role and interrelation with society and innovative models that easily adapt to changes through leadership that seeks commitment and participation, promoting proactive decision-making and emotional intelligence.

The study aims to determine whether auditors can use a business model canvas in their operations and how it increases the auditing value. This paper uses qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with 37 internal auditors from Poland. It shows that the current channel of communicating audit assumptions with requesters is insufficient to facilitate audit processes. The auditors’ communication with their clients is limited by being in their knowledge area. The study presents a modified business model canvas, which fits auditors’ needs. The proposed changes rely on a different sequence of the traditional Osterwalder’s Canvas building blocks. Besides, modified Osterwalder’s model includes Mission, Impact, and Accountability blocks. These blocks, added to the model, make aware audit parties that the auditors are mission-focused and impact-driven on audited organizations and their environment. Adopting the business model canvas framework in the audit process showed potential, as auditors can better explain audit goals and limitations. The study fits the literature related to firms because it emphasizes that creating the process understandability for external parties is a crucial performance point.

This study aims to identify the determining factors of digital entrepreneurial intention among university graduate students in Bangladesh. The study considered university students as a study sample (n = 358) who were either in their final year of bachelor’s program or in the master’s program from three private universities located in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. This study was quantitative in nature, and a survey questionnaire was used based on the previous studies. There were three parts: a questionnaire, demographic information analysis, and a Likert-based measurement of study variables. A Cronbach (α) coefficient value of 0.70 or above was regarded to examine the reliability of the constructs. A factor loading value of 0.50 or above was considered to measure the research validity of all constructs’ items. Regression analysis was run to test the hypotheses. A Google form-based online survey questionnaire was used to collect the data, followed by a non-probability sampling method. After scrutiny, incomplete responses were discarded, and finally, 358 responses were deemed usable. The paper used SPSS version 26.0 to perform relevant statistical analyses. The results show that digital entrepreneurial self-efficacy, digital literacy, entrepreneurship education, innovativeness, and creativity positively and significantly impact university students becoming digital entrepreneurs. Regression result shows that students’ innovativeness and entrepreneurship education have more impact on their digital entrepreneurial intentions, implying that policymakers and universities should design their academic policy to promote innovative and entrepreneurship activities in the academic pedagogy.

There is relatively little research exploring the benefits of political connection status decisions for firms experiencing financial difficulties in emerging markets. This paper investigates financially distressed firms that benefit from their political connection status in Indonesia. This study uses three measurements of financial distress as the dependent variables: Altman Z-score, negative working capital, and interest coverage ratio. Firm size, profitability, liquidity, leverage, and operating cash flow are independent variables. Quarterly data for the period from 2012 to 2018 from 327 non-financial companies were obtained from the Indonesia Stock Exchange. To analyze the relationship between financially distressed companies and decisions on the status of political connections as supporters or opponents, the random effects probit model (REPM) was used. The results show that firms with political status as opposition to the government have a strong positive correlation with experiencing financial difficulties. Meanwhile, companies with political connections as government supporters have a strong negative correlation. Companies with politically connected status as opposition experience financial difficulties in terms of negative working capital and interest coverage ratios. Then, debt financing was not found to be a significant problem for financially distressed companies with a political support status of the government. There are indications that they have benefited from political connections, such as more accessible debt financing.

Knowledge exchange has been a critical factor for cross-functional teams to master different tasks and problems and promote innovation. Cross-functional teams rely on the direct cooperation of senior employees from different departments, often with converging aims, leadership, culture, and communication. However, with the ever-increasing complexity in business decisions, decision-makers invested in the manufacturing industry sector need the support of a diverse team as an advisory tool to put well-thought measures into effect. The aim of this study is to analyze how cross-functional teams in commerce and industry rely on different key performance indicators to limit knowledge hiding. This paper conducted a quantitative study of 130 individual participants working in cross-functional teams in Germany. It also adapted multiple linear regression and used a conceptual model impacting the relationship between team performance, trust, and organizational citizenship behavior, including the moderating role of leadership. The disruptive effect of knowledge hiding was contextualized. The results indicate that team performance is directly affected by the selected variables. Furthermore, it is limited to knowledge hiding, while trust and the use of adequate leadership help to retain knowledge retention. Lastly, organizational citizenship behavior was found as the paramount factor, supported by individually tailored leadership methods, to foster information exchange and thereby promote organization-wide learning.

Performance management helps organizations to ensure that they are on the right path. Thus, this requires increasing the ability of organizations to understand their own key indicators to manage and measure their performance. The purpose of this study is to determine the key performance indicators used in Saudi Arabian telecommunication companies. Moreover, it examines whether these indicators impact the overall performance of Saudi Arabian telecommunication companies. This study adopted a quantitative method based on a survey questionnaire. Participants were reached through human resources officers in the telecommunication companies. Questionnaires were distributed to 247 employees at middle and top management levels in Saudi Arabian telecommunication companies using a convenience sampling technique. However, 212 responses were returned completely filled with a response rate of 85.8%. This study used statistical software of SPSS and SmartPLS for data analysis. The results revealed that customer satisfaction, delivery reliability, learning and growth, employee satisfaction, cost, financial performance, flexibility, and quality are the key indicators used in Saudi Arabian telecommunication companies to measure performance. The results also revealed that customer satisfaction, delivery reliability, learning and growth, employee satisfaction, cost, financial performance, flexibility, and quality have an impact on the overall performance of Saudi Arabian telecommunication companies. These indicators can be used to determine the state of organizations, help measure the implementation of strategies, evaluate the organization’s current performance, design strategies for improvement, and evaluate organization’s departments and employees.

Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, Vice Presidency for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia [GRANT348].

One of the essential consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is a slowdown in economic development, which is reflected in an integrated way by the Gross Domestic Product per inhabitant of the country. However, its dimensions are not the same for individual countries of the European Union, so it is crucial to determine what circumstances led to this phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine individual EU countries’ losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the circumstances they depended on.
Correlation-regression analysis was used, which made it possible to calculate what effect the countries’ economic development level and the intensity of its positive changes on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic had on the losses incurred. In 2018, it was found that this relationship is very strong (the value of the correlation coefficient r equals 0.8 and 0.7, respectively). The study’s results highlighted the regularity – economic development slowed down the least in those countries where it was in the best condition, and the positive development changes were the most intense. It was found that in the ten most developed EU countries, economic growth slowed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic by approximately 2.3%, and in the rest of the countries – 5.1%. According to the slow-down of economic development, insensitiveness was approximately 3.45 and 5.46%.

Acknowledgment
This research was partly funded by the Cracow University of Economics under Grant No. 4/ZZA/2021/POT.

This paper is devoted to providing affordable housing as a significant factor in public health management, inclusive growth, and SDG. The purpose is to empirically prove changes in the system of country’s population health care depending on the level of providing affordable housing. The empirical base includes time series and panel data for 27 EU countries during 2011–2019. Due to correlation analysis (Shapiro-Wilk testing, Spearman or Pearson correlation, lags in time), regression analysis, and building a dynamic panel estimation model with Sargan testing in STATA, the study empirically confirmed and formalized the impact of affordable housing funding on changes in the system of country’s population health care. In particular, the study found the dependence between overcrowding level and the share of homeowners with mortgages (a decrease of overcrowding level by an average of 0.61% with a time lag of 2 years due to an increase by 1%); the share of tenants on concessional terms/free (0.41% with a time lag of 3 years); and the share of public spending on housing development (0.25% with a time lag of 3 years). The direct relationship between the overcrowding and mortality from dangerous diseases (tuberculosis, AIDS, viral hepatitis, mental and behavioral disorders, diabetes, pneumonia) was also revealed. Public spending on housing under social protection programs (subsidies, etc.) proved to be the least effective. Preference should be given to the development of affordable mortgage lending (faster and greater effect). Generally, it impacts public management decisions in the health care system, social, and housing spheres.

Acknowledgments
The study was funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and performed the results of the project “Economic and mathematical modeling and forecasting, development of methodological and methodological foundations for creating a roadmap for reforming the health care system in Ukraine, taking into account behavioral, social, economic and legal determinants” (Agreement БФ / 24-2021).
This study received funding under the research subsidy of the Department of Applied Social Sciences of the Faculty of Organization and Management of the Silesian University of Technology for the year 2022 (13/020/BK_22/0072).

This study aims to map the soft skills of the coastal area community’s potentials through leadership management of the village heads to be innovative to develop the village growth in the coastal area of northern Indonesia. The study relied on a survey with a mixed method. It involved villagers in Bilato District, Gorontalo Regency, Indonesia, as the population and 33 villagers (village heads, village officials, prominent figures, and villagers) as the sample. It was found that village heads’ leadership management in soft skill development of community potentials based on the village innovation system in the coastal area arrives at a good category. Further, this study found that the village heads’ leadership management in managing potential soft skills and characteristics of village communities in coastal areas based on village innovation systems in Bilato District, Gorontalo Regency, Indonesia, was in the good category with a percentage of 71.4%. This percentage is obtained through several indicators, i.e., (1) leadership management with 76.3% (good category); (2) village head strategy with 75.4%; and (3) innovation system with 66.2% (good category).
It is expected that it can be further improved through other indicators apart from the grand design and the analysis of village heads’ leadership management model in managing soft skills of potentials and characteristics of the village community in the coastal area based on village innovation systems.

Acknowledgment
We would like to express our gratitude to the Head of the Faculty, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Village Head, and District Head, Local and Provincial Government for the implementation of this study.

The study aims to explore the effect of network strategic capabilities (NSCs) with its dimension of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain on digital transformation (DT) in Jordanian universities. The paper used the analytical-descriptive approach to analyze and interpret the results. The study population includes Jordanian universities, and the sample consists of top management. Out of 400, 304 questionnaires were completed and returned. The results show that AI (β = 1.219, t = 1.175, p < 0.00) and blockchain (β = –0.773, t = 0.437, p < 0.00) have a significant effect on DT. The first sub-hypothesis results concerning leadership revealed that AI (β = 0.525, t = 0.360, p < 0.03) and blockchain (β = –0.538, t = 0.186, p < 0.04) have a significant effect on leadership. The second sub-hypothesis result concerning strategic planning revealed that AI (β = 4.031, t = 3.050, p < 0.002) and blockchain (β = –5.150, t = 2.334, p < 0.020) have a significant effect on strategic planning. While for third sub-hypothesis concerning infrastructure, the results of AI were β = 0.818, t = 1.011, p < 0.032 and for blockchain β = 0.159, t = 0.121, p < 0.904. This result shows that AI has a significant effect on infrastructure, while blockchain does not have any effect. Therefore, NSCs must be integrated into the business process to enhance and boost DT efficiently and effectively.

This study aims to identify the primary aspects contributing to the project’s successful implementation by considering project risk management as a mediating component. The paper uses the survey methodology to examine the impact of project management processes (project start-up, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closing the project) on successful project implementation by the arts of project risk management as a mediating variable. The study population consists of project managers employed by the Jordan Engineers Association, Jordan Construction Contractors Association, and King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau in Jordan, with a sample size of 96 project managers. A questionnaire was divided into three categories. The primary data were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares (3.3.3) software. The result shows that the arts of project risk management mediate the impact of project start-up, planning, execution, monitoring and control, closing, and management processes on successful project implementation. The findings recommend that integrated project management processes with project risk management could enhance the chances of successful project implementation for Jordanian project managers.

This paper assesses the impacts of teleworking, perceived technostress, and job insecurity on the organizational performance (OP) of Nigeria’s business organizations in the post-COVID-19 era. The sample was obtained from 10 business organizations in the Oyo and Lagos States of Nigeria. This investigation espoused a cross-sectional scientific study involving surveys. In the current investigation, survey forms were randomly distributed among 300 employees. Of the 300 surveys floated, 277 were fitting for scrutiny and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS version 28). The current study established a positive impact of teleworking on organizational performance. Besides, it showed a substantial negative impact of technostress on organizational performance. It further noted that perceived job insecurity negatively affects organizational performance.
Moreover, this study showed a significant joint strong influence of teleworking, technostress, and job insecurity on the organizational performance of Nigeria’s business organizations in the post-COVID-19 era. Thus, management should encourage the work practice that allows employees to work at the agreed location since findings indicated a substantial and positive influence of teleworking on organizational performance in the post-COVID-19 era. Besides, employers need to increase their workers’ capability for information technology-enabled creativeness to mitigate the negativity generated by technostress. Also, management should ensure that employees have access to information, constantly communicate, and participate in organizational processes to better overcome perceived insecurity and emotional distress. Furthermore, the information and communication must hint at the prospect and stability of post-COVID-19 services. Consequently, employees’ perceptions of organizational identification are promoted.

Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, under Professor Wilfred Isioma Ukpere, for funding this study and its publication.

Faulty board configurations associated with risk management practices are alleged to be the primary sources of most corporate failures. Therefore, experts have suggested that firms should adopt holistic risk management practices. This study investigates the interactive effect of board characteristics with risk management activities on the performance of listed Nigerian non-financial firms. The study is anchored on the agency theory perspective. It is designed as ex post facto inquiry with a population of 113 companies, from which a sample of 96 firms was drawn from firms with a complete set of data. Secondary data were extracted from the NSE Factbook and Thomson Reuter’s DataStream for 2010–2019. The static panel regression technique was utilized to analyze and estimate the interaction between the variables. The findings show that all the independent variables positively impacted ROA of the listed firms. Nevertheless, concerning market evaluation (Tobin-Q), except for board financial experts and audit committee meetings, risk management committee meetings and the presence of chief risk officer showed an insignificant impact. The combined implication is that although firms have complied with the provision of the CG codes on risk governance structure, the improvements associated with risk management aimed at enhancing market evaluation are nonetheless not deeply embedded in these firms. Firms are suggested to implement effective risk management practices to achieve competitive advantages and substantiality. More studies are advocated to extend the literature by expanding the scope.

From a global perspective, the business environment has become highly dynamic, unpredictable, and competitive due to external forces – mostly technology – that generate change. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of digital technologies on South African business sectors. The sample includes small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the KwaZulu-Natal province. Being qualitative by design, the study used semi-structured interviews for data collection, with eight interviews in the Durban area. SME managers were purposefully selected as participants based on their management positions in the business/company and that they oversee the business operation and understand the influence of digital transformation in the business. The interviews were then transcribed after data collection to determine any recurring themes. In the effectiveness of digital transformation, the study identified themes such as “gaining exposure” and “gaining effective sales figures” as a result of implementing digital transformation, which was indicated by six of eight participants. The findings showed that digital transformation significantly affects building customer relationships and ensuring easy accessibility of the business. The results further indicate online selling and digital marketing as the leading digital platforms successfully implemented by most South African SMEs. Lastly, the study revealed digital maintenance and rapid changes in technology as challenging factors. Moreover, the study recommends that South African SMEs implement more available digital technologies to gain additional exposure.

A model is presented for developing creative entrepreneurial competences (CEC), which is focused on the formation of creative entrepreneurial and practical skills in a timely manner (Just-in-Time Learning). The proposed model assumes a high level of motivation, deep immersion, and full dedication of individuals and has a cyclical nature throughout their working life (Lifelong Education Cycle). The central figure of the model is an individual who, by choosing an active form of education and following a precise algorithm of actions, can obtain high performance and achieve entrepreneurial success. The formation of an individual’s business consciousness is divided into five stages: UnConscious InCompetence, Conscious InCompetence, Conscious Competence, UnConscious Competence, and the second Conscious InCompetence stage. It is established that the minimum level of creative entrepreneurial competences consists of a combination of basic professional competences, elementary competences of IT&S literacy, and key communicative competences. Furthermore, it is found that an individual’s professionalism will grow until the pace of their learning exceeds the pace of the external environment’s dynamics.

Acknowledgments
This scientific paper is published with support by British Council’s ‘Creative Spark: Higher Education Enterprise Programme’, project № 5742783597 – the ‘National Сentre for Сreative Entrepreneurship Development’ (NCCE) and Kingston University London. English language proof-reading and comments were provided by Dr Martha Mador and Dr Alan Flowers, Kingston University London, UK.

This paper deals with the link between intellectual capital and the Jordanian industrial listed companies’ growth. This relationship is meaningful for the companies to enhance their interest in intangible assets. The study employed a regression analysis; independent variables are intellectual capital and intellectual capital components (human capital, structural capital, and capital employed). The current ratio is used as a control variable. The study sample, which contains 785 observations, is divided into the firms that generate positive ROE and those that generate negative ROE. The study sample included 77 Jordanian industrial listed firms during the period 2006–2020. The paper found that intellectual capital does not have a significant effect on industrial firm growth and its components do not have a significant effect on industrial firm growth. The main conclusions drawn from these results are that the return on equity do not affect the link between intellectual capital and industrial firms’ growth. The paper recommended applying the study models to other sectors like banks and service sectors and including other control variables like leverage and company size in these models.

Creating resilient supply chains and more agile and competitive organizations are challenges that companies face today in a highly competitive and changing environment. Therefore, organizations must understand the importance of developing and strengthening their dynamic capabilities (DC) and supply chain dynamic capabilities (SCDC) in order to improve their market performance, participation, and sustainability. This study performs a meta-analysis of the literature related to organizational and supply chain dynamic capabilities, which together constitute an ecosystem of capabilities that every organization should develop to improve performance. After an exhaustive review of 1203 articles aligned with the base theoretical construct of dynamic capabilities, the information was decanted from strict filters. This allowed to evidence the contribution of this construct in literature aligned with organizational performance, as well as to identify the contribution that can be made by other constructs aligned with the dynamic capabilities’ ecosystem. The findings show a theoretical relationship between both constructs, presenting how the supply chain dynamic capabilities constitute a specialization and differentiation of organizational dynamic capabilities. In addition, the study highlights their major contribution to developing competitive advantages and improving organizational performance.

The creative industries sector is snowballing, and many developing countries see it as a tool for national and local development. Given the regional specificity, political narratives adopted in developed countries may not apply in economies under transition. This paper aims to evaluate the current state of creative business in emerging countries such as Kazakhstan. Adopting the design of a qualitative method, 34 semi-structured interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan’s creative industries. The Nvivo 10 qualitative data analysis software was used for processing the data. The interviews help to understand better the factors affecting the development of the creative industry. In general, results indicate insufficient support from government agencies, lack of accessible resources to support entrepreneurs (65% of respondents used their capital, while 17% of them were forced to apply for loans from a bank), information availability, and skills shortage. Shortage of skills is also related to the creative brain drain in Kazakhstan. One of the main problems is access to materials and technology since most of the resources are foreign-made and imported.

Acknowledgment
The authors appreciate the grant funding for young scientists Scientific and (or) in the years 2020–2022 the MES science project number AR08052483 “Creative Industries: methodological aspects of classification and quantitative measurements in the Republic of Kazakhstan” in the framework of the budget program 217 “Development of science”.

The absence of intelligence leadership may lead to a failure to motivate employees within universities, which leads to adverse effects on organizational excellence, primarily if the prevailing organizational culture does not support the processes of development and success. Thus, organizational culture is expected to play an essential role in enhancing the leadership’s ability to use its intelligence to achieve organizational excellence. Accordingly, the study aims to identify the mediating role of organizational culture in the impact of leadership intelligence on achieving organizational excellence in Jordanian universities. Qualitative data were collected and quantitatively analyzed. A questionnaire was designed using a leadership intelligence scale and distributed to a sample of 371 faculty members in 33 Jordanian universities. The sample size was chosen according to the statistical tables, and this sample is considered statistically acceptable. The data were processed using structural equations using SPSS and AMOS software. The study concluded that there is an effect of intelligence leadership on organizational excellence. It was also found that organizational culture mediates the relationship between intelligence leadership and organizational excellence. Therefore, the study recommends that the decision makers in Jordanian universities strengthen intelligence leadership, with the need to establish clear foundations in the selection of university leaders, ensuring intelligence leaders’ existence.

Nowadays, strategic flexibility and its effect on organizational performance are crucial to discuss. Moreover, organizations, especially industrial companies, should estimate how flexibility as a mechanism can improve organizational performance. The Hungarian food industry is highly significant in the industrial sector of the Hungarian economy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate how the performance of the Hungarian food industry is affected by strategic flexibility, using supply and demand uncertainty as moderators. It is a quantitative and causal study. A survey was conducted to collect the primary data from a proposed sample of managers at the target companies. As a result, 301 valid responses have been analyzed in SPSS. Regression analysis, correlation, and moderation analysis are used as well. The results indicated that strategic flexibility generally enhances the performance of the target companies, and 20.3% of changes in companies’ performance are related to strategic flexibility. The flexibility of resources affects only the operational performance, while the flexibility of coordination positively affects company performance; it has a 44.2% influence. The findings also showed that uncertainty does not moderate the relationship between strategic flexibility and target firms’ performance. Thus, strategic flexibility is considered as one-effect mechanism in a stable business environment. In all cases, strategic flexibility should be applied in addition to other managerial techniques to enhance company performance.

Nascent mumpreneur is a mother with one or more children coming up with a new venture to support herself and her family. The debate about the motivation for mumpreneurs to start their new business is going on and underresearched. Therefore, this study aims to define the major motivational factors that influence mumpreneurial intentions in Jordan, specifically amongst nascent mumpreneurs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was employed to discover these factors. This quantitative cross-sectional study uses convenience sampling to collect data from 81 nascent mumpreneurs through an online survey that included nascent Jordanian mumpreneurs. After confirming the validity and reliability of the tool, the multiple regressions test was used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate a strong relationship between Maslow’s needs and mumpreneurial intentions, where r equals 0.74, and Maslow’s needs can explain 54% of changes in mumpreneurial intentions, where R2 is 0.54. The results also show that the need for esteem influences mumpreneurs’ intentions (β = 0.43), and the need for self-actualization influences mumpreneurs’ intentions (β = 0.80). At the same time, the physiological needs, the security needs, and the need for belonging do not influence mumpreneurial intentions, where significance is 0.74, 0.09, and 0.09, respectively. Moreover, the results show that the marital status and level of education do not moderate the influence of Maslow’s theory of needs on mumpreneurs’ intentions, where the significance for both is more than 0.05. Finally, the study recommends developing mumpreneurial incubators and providing workshops and training for potential mumpreneurs.

Competence in vocational education refers to knowledge, skills, and innovative work behavior. Therefore, innovative work behavior needs to be applied by lecturers at vocational institutions. Moreover, transglobal leadership is highly required in vocational higher education institutes because it can boost lecturers’ performance. This study aims to examine transglobal leadership styles to improve employee performance supported by work engagement and innovative work behavior. The study population included 1,494 lecturers from vocational state universities in East Java, Indonesia. The sample was 316 vocational lecturers determined by the Slovin formula. The data were processed through the SmartPLS software and analyzed using the SEM approach. The test results show that transglobal leadership positively affects work engagement with a t-statistic value of 4.240. In addition, transglobal leadership positively affects innovative work behavior with a t-statistic value of 2.015. Next, work engagement positively affects innovative work behavior with a t-statistic value of 2.009. Finally, innovative work behavior positively affects employee performance with a t-statistic value of 10.244. In conclusion, this paper enlarges the relevant literature devoted to the effect of work engagement, transglobal leadership, and innovative work behavior impact on employee performance.

The Covid-19 outbreak has forced various organizations to adjust work designs to comply with health protocols. Flexible work arrangement is a model that is widely used, including flextime and work from home. This study analyzes the impact of flexible work arrangements on affective commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and work engagement, which lead to employee happiness. A total of 405 respondents who work in local governments in Indonesia participated in an online survey using the snowball sampling technique. Data were analyzed using partial least squares. This study found a significant effect of flexible work arrangements on affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. It means that employees perceive a flexible work arrangement policy as an organizational effort to protect employees from Covid-19. Thus, it makes employees showing their affective commitment and willingness to have organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and work engagement have been shown to affect employee happiness. This finding has implications for leaders to develop flexible work arrangements as alternative work designs, especially during times of crises such as a pandemic. Further research recommendations are emphasized to examine other flexible work arrangements according to contextual needs.

China and Thailand belong to Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership countries, and agricultural trade is vital to Thailand’s economy. Competition in agricultural trade between countries is fierce. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the advantages and disadvantages of agricultural trade between Thailand and China. Complementarity and competitiveness of international business show the benefits and drawbacks of cross-border exports and the trend of future exports. This study uses quantitative techniques to analyze the agricultural trade between Thailand and China. It employed four methods, including the calculations of the Grubel-Lloyd index, revealed comparative advantage index (RCA), trade intensity index (TII), and trade complementarity index (TCI). The result of method 1 indicates that Thailand’s agricultural trade has a more substantial competitive advantage (three years average RCA = 1.69 > 1.25) than China (three years average RCA = 0.37 < 0.8) from 2017 to 2019; they are complementary in specific categories of agricultural products. The result of method 2 indicates that items 03, 07, 13, and 14 of China’s exports and Thailand’s imports have strong complementarity. Items 10, 11, 17, and 19 of Thailand’s exports and China’s imports have strong complementarity. The result of method 3 indicates that the positive factor on bilateral trade flow is significant. The result of method 4 indicates that items 06, 07, 12, 19, 20, and 21 have advantages in intra-industry trade, and items 09, 10, 13, and 18 have advantages in inter-industry trade. The paper has important implications for Thailand’s government to formulate relevant trade policies to enhance its agricultural export competitiveness, which is also conducive to developing bilateral agricultural trade.

This study was carried out to examine the livelihood vulnerabilities encountered by residents in Vietnam’s urban areas during the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. People’s vulnerabilities are approached in terms of employment and income vulnerabilities. The study compares the changes in income and employment of residents in Vietnam’s urban regions during the outbreak of Covid-19 and after the epidemic which is gradually controlled to determine the livelihood losses that people in urban areas face. Data for the study were collected from 206 families in Vietnam’s urban areas that were directly affected by the epidemic. The multivariate regression method is used to evaluate people’s vulnerability during epidemic outbreaks. According to the findings of the study, the income disparity between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the end of the epidemic is fairly considerable (about VND 7.6189 million/month). The multivariate regression model’s results reveal that the degree of government assistance provided during the epidemic time has the greatest positive impact on people’s income and quality of life (Standardized Coefficients = 0.584), whereas people’s unemployment during the pandemic outbreak period has a negative impact, causing damage to people’s income (Standardized Coefficients = –0.395). The study will recommend new livelihood strategies for residents in the context of Vietnam’s “new normal” based on the findings of the investigation.

It is assumed that technological progress plays a vital role in energy efficiency improvements when the effects of industrial restructuring, infrastructure, environmental challenges, and economic shocks seem more dubious. However, a limited number of studies have been conducted to examine the impact of technological innovation on countries’ energy efficiency levels. This study aims to explore the relationship between energy efficiency, technological innovation, and economic growth in 30 European countries by utilizing data from 2012 to 2020. To this end, a two-stage analysis is carried out. The first step involves estimating the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) by the countries to illustrate the effects of energy parameters on economic growth and the environment, and technological innovation (TI) to estimate the innovation capability of each country by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. The second step includes a panel regression model to explore how technological innovation affects energy efficiency, considering the degree of government intervention, industrial structure, infrastructure, and economic openness.
The results indicate that the bottom-15 countries, whose TFEE scores were the lowest, are mainly countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Regarding the countries’ technological capability, the results were similar, but the score was lower than the TFEE.
Moreover, the regression analysis shows that a one percent increase in innovation activity contributes to an increase in energy efficiency by 0.27 percent. Hence, it confirms the notion of a positive impact of new technology on energy efficiency.

Acknowledgments
The study is supported by the grant from the Research Based Innovation “SFI Marine Operation in Virtual Environment (SFI-MOVE)” (Project No. 237929) in Norway.

Introducing the results of innovative activity into economic circulation is one of the essential characteristics of an effective industrial enterprise. Commercializing intellectual property objects involves coordinated production and commercial activity, adopting and implementing scientifically based decisions. This is necessary to successfully pass an intellectual product through all stages of its life cycle.
The purpose of this study is to form market processes for commercializing intellectual property objects at industrial enterprises, finding the most effective option for their introduction into economic circulation.
The theoretical investigation of the problem made it possible to identify and analyze various possible conceptual approaches to commercializing intellectual property in an industrial enterprise. Among them are market push, market pull, engineering, and reengineering commercialization models.
Separate stages of forming the market model for commercializing intellectual property in an industrial enterprise are highlighted. First, the methodological principles of the vertical, horizontal, and vertical-horizontal market processes of intellectual property commercialization have been developed. The peculiarities of an intellectual product’s life cycle are determined; based on this, a market model of intellectual property’s life cycle (model of successive changes) is proposed. Finally, for each of the proposed market processes, the main advantages and disadvantages of their practical use are determined, as well as the areas of their most effective usage.

Besides frontiers and Data Enveloped Analysis approaches, a combination between the aggregate production function and technical efficiency can be performed using the Corrected Ordinary Least Square approach. Unfortunately, there are no studies in Indonesia that use this approach. This paper mainly studies how the Corrected Ordinary Least Square approach combines aggregate production function and technical efficiency. The methods are aggregate production function modeling, aggregate production function correcting, and technical efficiency measuring. The data are Gross Regional Domestic Product at a constant price, the number of workers, investment expenditure, education, and health data of Indonesian provinces from 2015 to 2020. There are three results. First, the Indonesian fixed effect panel data aggregate production function is the best model. In this model, Gross Regional Domestic Product at a constant price is influenced by the number of workers, investment expenditure, and human capital. Human capital consists of education and health level. Second, the deterministic frontier aggregate production function shifts the best-fixed effect model so that the constant becomes –15.36. Third, the Indonesian technical efficiency when no factors influence inefficiency is on average 0.9936. All the results indicate that human capital, aggregate production and technical efficiency combination, and the Corrected Ordinary Least Square approach are practical values.

Excessive differentiation of socio-economic development of regions leads to the collapse of a single socio-economic space and the emergence of socio-economic inequality. This study assessed socio-economic inequality in Kazakhstan and its impact on regional development management. It analyzed interregional disproportion of socio-economic development of regions through the index approach using statistical data from the Bureau of National Statistics for 2011–2019. A comprehensive study of the socio-economic development of Kazakhstan and its regional differences employed the proposed index of social and economic development. It was revealed that Kazakhstan has a high level of interregional differentiation of socio-economic development, which indicates the existing socio-economic inequality, requiring the development of new and improvement of existing mechanisms to create an inclusive economy. There are significant gaps in socio-economic development between Kazakhstani regions. According to the proposed index, Kazakhstan is at the above-average level (42, B). From 2011 to 2019, the index was practically at the same level (39-42). The average social and economic development was shown by Almaty (61.1, B++), Nur-Sultan (59.9, B+), Karaganda (53.1, B+), and East Kazakhstan (51.0, B+). Low social and economic development was shown by Akmola (29.8, C+) and North Kazakhstan (22.4, C+). The difference in the socio-economic development of the regions is directly interconnected with the regional economic and social policy. According to the results, to implement state policy in inclusive development and overcome socio-economic inequality, respective measures should promote economic integration, including the mechanisms of regional, industrial, and research policy, comprising all levels of state regulation.

Acknowledgments
This study is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the project “The science impact on Kazakhstan’s socio-economic development: methodology, assessment models and development scenarios” (IRN AP08052745).

While most e-government literature focuses on citizen satisfaction, that of public servants is widely ignored. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of e-government maturity level on public servants’ job satisfaction. Factors shaping the maturity level of e-government were investigated as well as those contributing to government employees’ satisfaction. Government employees working at Palestinian ministries were the target group of this study. They were the closest to the strategic use of e-government facilities. A questionnaire was designed and distributed via e-mails to a random sample of 159 employees; the survey questionnaire was divided into three parts. A 5-point Likert scale was adopted in this study. SPSS v26 was used to test the study hypotheses. The results reveal a significant impact of e-government maturity on the job satisfaction of public servants (R2 = 0.386, p = 0.000). Moreover, all dimensions of e-government maturity have a positive impact on job satisfaction. The results show the impact of e-government maturity dimensions on job satisfaction as follows: internal efficiency (R2 = 0.254, p = 0.000), external efficiency (R2 = 0.343, p = 0.000), good governance (R2 = 0.364, p = 0.000), and leadership (R2 = 0.261, p = 0.000). The findings also show no differences in job satisfaction levels among public servants due to demographic characteristics.

Small and medium companies (SMCs) are needed for the successful and meaningful development of the South African economy. These companies bring a significant reduction in unemployment levels. Apart from lowering unemployment levels, SMCs play a pivotal role in transforming the South African economy. However, there is a high failure rate of small and medium companies. Although the labor laws of South Africa are believed to be the major obstacle that is significantly affecting the growth of SMCs, there is no prior empirical study conducted to investigate this subject. The scourge of failure of these companies has gripped the growth of the economy. Hence, the aim of the study is to examine the perceptions of small and medium companies toward employment equity amendments in South Africa. The study uses a qualitative research method and purposive sampling to select the data. An open-ended questionnaire collected usable data from 73 employees of small and medium companies. The findings of the study revealed that the employment equity amendments were viewed as too harsh for small and medium companies. SMCs perceived that these amendments bring more harm than good. Therefore, they should engage the government to enforce amendments to the legislation that stimulate business performance rather than those that hinder it.

Dysfunctional auditor behavior becomes a driving variable for audit quality when an auditor has good ethics and professionalism. This study examines whether the ethics and professionalism of auditors can affect audit quality; dysfunctional audit behavior is used as a moderating variable. The study sample includes 348 auditors employed at public accounting companies throughout Indonesia and enlisted by the Indonesian Institute of Certified Public Accountants Directory. This paper used the SEM approach with WarpPLS software to analyze the respective data. Thus, it was found that auditors’ ethics and professionalism significantly and positively influence audit quality.
Meanwhile, dysfunctional audit behavior significantly moderated the relationship between professionalism and audit quality. In contrast, this behavior was not a moderating variable for auditors’ ethics and audit quality association. An interesting finding is the indicators of auditors’ ethical behavior in accepting audit engagements, where audit engagements are still accepted even though an auditor shares an association with an auditee. In conclusion, future studies can examine in more detail the effect of audit acceptance process on audit quality.

The private sector is assisting in sustainable development because of the enormous development and rise in commercial and industrial revolutions. However, corporate social responsibility is declining despite this development for several reasons. Among others, they include a lack of belief on the part of owners or boards of directors in the sustainability idea and the prohibitively expensive nature of some technologies. This study aims to examine how community members’ awareness relates to the amount of commitment of businesses in Dubai. In order to investigate the association between two variables, this study used a mixed methods approach that included both interviews and a general questionnaire with several questions. A sample of 314 members of the Dubai community was selected via an electronic platform to collect the data. Descriptive analysis, regression analysis, and pertinent correlations were used to process the data. The findings of this study were encouraging regarding the strength of the link between a person’s social consciousness and their level of commitment to businesses and organizations operating in the exact United Arab Emirates community. Further studies can investigate additional influential factors. The conclusions of this paper may serve as valuable tools for pressuring businesses to increase their effectiveness and efficiency to forge a genuine societal commitment to sustainability.

Acknowledgment
Financial assistance provided by the RIMC (14802) of University Utara Malaysia is gratefully acknowledged.

Improving the logistics service quality (LSQ) requires its assessment to identify appropriate reserves, which actualizes the scientific task of improving the appropriate methodological support for LSQ assessment. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for assessing the quality of logistics services based on a specified list of criteria, their grouping, and the application of the mathematical apparatus of the fuzzy sets theory.
The study substantiates the expediency of using the fuzzy set method to assess the quality of logistics service and builds an LSQ assessment model that includes 12 criteria grouped into four groups: company reputation, product availability/quality, reliability/flexibility, and consumer service.
As a result of assessing the quality of logistics service, an integral indicator was obtained, which made it possible to determine the evaluations of its components: product availability/quality is rated high; reliability/flexibility – average; consumer service – good; and company reputation – poor. The obtained results indicate that such an aspect of logistics service quality assessment as company reputation needs particular attention, which confirms the modern trend of prioritizing the perception of the quality of logistics service, personal service/contact, and empathy by customers. Therefore, customers’ perception of the quality of logistics service becomes a decisive factor in the competitive struggle in the logistics services market. Moreover, it is a bottleneck in the process of increasing LSQ, which requires further research to develop appropriate management mechanisms.

This study aims to analyze the level of differences based on effectiveness, statistical dependence, and mutual influence of economic indicators for ranking the regions of Kazakhstan. In the paper, a systematic algorithm of actions is used, ensuring the interconnectedness, the sequence of work, and the validity of the methods used. Several model specifications were formulated to identify interregional differences in economic development indicators: the operating data environment analysis model (DEA) and the random effects regression model (RE). The information database of the Bureau of National Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2010–2020 was used. The construction of the RE model was carried out in the SPSS program. A regression model with fixed and random effects in panel data was employed to determine the impact of the selected indicators on gross regional product produced (GRP). Based on the results, the influence of the physical volume of industrial products on GRP per capita in the regions of Kazakhstan for 11 years was revealed in both models with a high significance of coefficients. The study results can be used by public administration bodies that carry out effective strategic management by smoothing interregional differences. Moreover, they can determine the prospects for studying other parameters based on efficiency, statistical dependence, and mutual influence of economic indicators for ranking regions.

Acknowledgment
This study has been funded by the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (grant “Priorities and mechanisms of inclusive regional development of Kazakhstan in the context of overcoming the economic recession” AP09259004).

Accurate housing price forecasts play a critical role in balancing supply and demand in the residential real estate market, as well as in achieving the goals of various stakeholders – buyers, investors, construction contractors, public administration, real estate agencies, special investment purpose companies, etc. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between specific predictors and build a suitable model for forecasting housing prices in Bulgaria. In this regard, a study was conducted on transactions with residential real estate in the city of Sofia for the period from the first quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2021. The ARIMA model is used in the development to predict the values of the variables. Eight models are tested for the researched factors (24 in total). On this basis, the price per square meter of residential property was predicted, including estimated values from the ARIMA model for the parameters involved in the regression equation. The result showed that there is a strong relationship between the analyzed predictors and the studied variable – price per square meter of housing. The tested models are adequate and the statistical requirements for forecasting the prices of residential properties in Bulgaria are complied.

Entrepreneurship literature refers to entrepreneurial activity as an agency and has established intention as the most critical antecedent of entrepreneurial behavior. The study investigates the relationship between personal agency and entrepreneurial intention using a sample of students considering their entry into employment. The study draws on an agency theory that incorporates actors’ temporal orientations. Since intention can be regarded as a possible manifestation of one’s agentic perceptions, introducing the notion of time in the study of intention would provide additional insight into the entrepreneurial intention process. A moderated mediation model was applied, and survey data of 537 business students attending a Greek public university were used. The findings indicated that students’ perceptions of agentic capacities stimulate their entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, emancipation, defined as one’s present judgment of having the capacity to construct courses of action in relation to career matters, explains further the development of self-reported intentions by affecting perceived behavioral control and individual attitudes; this variable has a more significant influence. The findings also indicated that future orientation, defined as one’s perceptions of having the capacity for long-term planning, influences the effect of emancipation on entrepreneurial intention by making positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship more salient.

Acknowledgment
This paper was financially supported by the Special Account for Research Grants, University of West Attica.