Číslo 4
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- ItemDefending the nation, securing the economy(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Iuga, Iulia-Cristina; Socol, Adela; Ekonomická fakultaLiterature on the effects of military expenses and GDP is mixed, although a significant body of research supports the hypothesis that military expenses positively impact GDP. To contribute to the literature, this article analyses whether military expenditures influenced GDP in 27 European Union member countries from 1998 to 2021 by studying two clusters specific to the analysed countries: NATO and non-NATO countries. The way in which military expenditures affect GDP has been analysed using both the classic static models for panel data (pooled OLS, fixed effects, random effects, feasible generalized least squares, panel corrected standard errors, Poisson pseudomaximum likelihood regression) as well as by applying dynamic panel model system GMM, reverse causality, and half-panel jackknife regression models, with unemployment and inflation selected as control variables. The findings indicate that the current values of military expenditures positively influence GDP in both clusters, while past values of military expenditures positively influence GDP in the NATO EU countries and negatively affect GDP in the non-NATO EU countries. There are several key differences between NATO EU members and non-NATO EU members, particularly in regard to their security commitments and defence spending. NATO members are part of a mutual defence pact, agreeing to the principle of collective defence, which also impacts public defence policies and public budgets. This paper offers practical value to policymakers, stakeholders, and academicians. In addition, it has two significant political implications. First, it highlights the role of military expenditures as a catalyst for economic growth but does not underestimate the dangers of using military spending as a pretext to stimulate employment. Second, it establishes the optimal proportion of military expenditures required to fulfil two essential targets of national and European policies – security and welfare.
- ItemForeign direct investments and participation in global value chains: New evidence from advanced manufacturing industries in Central and Eastern Europe(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Kersan-Skabic, Ines; Barisic, Antea; Ekonomická fakultaForeign direct investments (FDIs) and trade within global value chains (GVC) have been considered one of the most important vehicles of economic development and competitiveness, especially for countries in transition. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe are competing to attract not only high amounts of FDI inflows but they also put emphasis on the FDIs’ sectoral structure. FDI inflows into advanced industries can represent the basis of technological development that will lead to the creation of a greater number of high-skill jobs and a higher level of innovation, thereby influencing the reduction of the economic gap in relation to developed countries. This study aims to explore the importance of FDI inward stock for GVC participation in the advanced manufacturing industries in eleven EU member states that transferred to market economies in the 1990s and attracted vast amounts of FDI inflows since then. The dynamic panel data analysis results indicate the importance of FDI inward stock in the manufacturing industry for the GVC participation in advanced manufacturing industries across this set of countries while also stressing the important implications of manufacturing share in GDP changes for these industries’ backward GVC participation. The findings confirm a positive association between attracting FDI in the manufacturing sector and GVC integration in advanced manufacturing industries. Such FDI targeting can be a vehicle for internationalization and development of high-tech and knowledge-based industries.
- ItemThe CEO characteristics and Romanian banks performance(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Bunea, Mariana; Ionescu Feleaga, Liliana; Ionescu, Bogdan Stefan; Ekonomická fakultaThe main objective of this research is to identify to what extent the characteristics of the CEO (chief executive officer) influence the financial performance of banks within the Romanian banking system. The sample under investigation includes all 21 Romanian banks, and the analyzed period included the financial years related to the last 5 financial years (2018–2022). Regarding these characteristics, aspects such as age, gender diversity, education, nationality, and duality were included in the research, the financial performance of the banking system being measured through the ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on equity) indicators, which are often used in the literature, including control variables such as the size of the bank, assessed by the total value of bank assets, the share of debts in total assets and the share of capital in total assets. Regarding the duality of the CEO, this is the practice of the same person holding both the position of chairman of the board of directors and that of executive manager. The authors tried to find the answer to the question: Is there a correlation between CEO characteristics and the financial performance of the banks, and if the answer is yes, to what extent are these correlations significant? To carry out this research, the authors used the SPSS software, the research methodology being predominantly quantitative, including descriptive methods, correlation analyses and regression models. The results of the research indicate that the financial performance of the banks operating within the banking system in Romania (measured by the ROA and ROE indicators) is influenced by the nationality and education of the persons holding the position of CEO but also by the size of the banks, appreciated by the value of their total banking assets.
- ItemOptimising public transport to increase tourist flows(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Burda, Tomas; Zidova, Veronika; But, Tetiana; Ekonomická fakultaThe paper proposes ways to optimise public transport in order to increase tourist flows to four well-known tourist destinations in the Czech Republic, namely Český Krumlov, Jánské Lázně, Lednice and Macocha, during the spring and autumn seasons. It was found that the quality of public transport infrastructure needed to be improved if tourist flows were to increase. It has been found that tourism development is entirely dependent on the quality of transport infrastructure in order to achieve an increase in tourist flows. A long-term marketing study was carried out in the destinations above with the aim of gathering data on the number of tourists in each of them, the availability of public transport and its timetables, and the needs of tourists in order to improve public transport service. Research has shown that most tourists use secondary transport. This is due to convenience, lack of time, increased comfort, personal requirements and lack of provision of public transport. In addition, there are problems with rail service to some tourist destinations, and the intensity of the bus network varies, which is not convenient for tourists from different population groups. It was found that the capacity of the bus service to the selected destinations is sufficient and can positively influence the growth of tourist flows without increasing logistics costs just by changing the organisation of public transport. Based on the competitive advantage analysis results for the four destinations studied, the weaknesses and strengths of rail and bus transports were identified. Most tourists report that rail transport is more convenient mainly because of its well-connected transport service and affordable prices compared to aeroplanes or cars. It was found that the number of passengers is influenced by the geographic component of the terrain; two destinations (Jánské Lázně and Macocha) are located in the mountains and have a limited infrastructure network due to the undulating terrain, and thus not all means of public transport reach these destinations. It is verified that Český Krumlov is the most optimal of the destinations studied. The study revealed a relationship between the quality of transport infrastructure and the increase in tourist flows to the tourist destinations studied. We propose to develop a model to optimise the transport service in cooperation with a network of tourist information centres. To refine it, further surveys need to be carried out in different directions during the summer and winter seasons.
- ItemA critique of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve System and the European Central Bank(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Pichova, Simona; Cernohorsky, Jan; Kacerova, Marketa; Zila, Jan; Ekonomická fakultaThe application of quantitative easing tools by certain central banks has been and continues to be the subject of professional debate. Therefore, this paper aims to assess an alternative scenario to the use of quantitative easing. We have used counterfactual analysis to estimate GDP growth in the US and in the Eurozone for the period during which quantitative easing was implemented, i.e., since 2009 in the US and since 2015 in the Eurozone. We used a vector autoregression (VAR) model for the analysis. We concluded that, in retrospect, the use of quantitative easing appears to be unwarranted. While there was slightly higher GDP growth in the Eurozone than there would have been without quantitative easing, there was no smoothing of the economic cycle. At the same time, returning to the inflation target took a relatively long time. In the US, quantitative easing prevented an initial slide into a deep recession and smoothed the economic cycle over the medium term. Overall, however, quantitative easing has mostly had a negative effect. One major negative is that when this instrument is used over a long time period, economic subjects gradually come to see it as a standard tool. Furthermore, inflation, central banks’ main objective, did not rise rapidly over the period in question; on the contrary, over the long term, quantitative easing has become one of the factors behind today’s higher inflation rates. An excessive monetary supply has created imbalances in the financial markets and has been a factor in price bubbles in the stock, bond, and property markets. Last but not least, it has increased moral hazard for governments, which have gone further into debt without difficulty. At the same time, central bank independence was violated, which has caused an abnormal increase in the central banks’ balance sheets. We, therefore, recommend that this unconventional monetary policy instrument should only be used in the short term for emergency situations as a clear central bank response to stabilize the economy.
- ItemThe role of crisis management in organisations functioning in COVID-19 pandemic conditions(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Bienkowska, Agnieszka; Tworek, Katarzyna; Zablocka-Kluczka, Anna; Zimmer, Joanna; Ekonomická fakultaThe purpose of the paper is to analyse the influence of crisis management on job performance as well as indicate a mechanism, which supports such influence. The theoretical model was proposed based on a literature review, showing the role of organisational trust, organisational communication, knowledge sharing, job security and openness to change in shaping job performance by crisis management among organisations operating under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. The model was empirically verified based on a sample of 1,160 organisations operating in Poland, Italy and the USA during an active wave of the pandemic in 2021. The obtained results allow to confirm that crisis management significantly positively influences the job performance of employees in organisations operating under the dynamic and turbulent COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Moreover, such influence was proven to be mediated by organisational trust, organisational communication, knowledge sharing, job security and finally – openness to change. The performed analysis fills in the existing research gap and constitutes and important contribution to the field of crisis management. The results show that in order for crisis management to bring benefits to the entire organisation, employees need to go beyond the routines of their behavior and efficiently adapt to the changed conditions of the organisation. The openness to change becomes a de facto enabler of that. The obtained results also have practical implications, showing the mechanism through which crisis management impacts individual employees, allowing organisations to stimulate each factor and contributing to the possibility of ensuring more benefits coming from implementing crisis management.
- ItemExploring the relationship between failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education and youth entrepreneurial resilience: A mediated moderation model(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Wang, Pengju; Xiong, Zhuang; Zhao, Zhiquan; Ekonomická fakultaEntrepreneurial failure exists objectively in the process of entrepreneurship, and the fear of entrepreneurship failure inhibits youth entrepreneurship activities to a certain extent. Thus, failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education is critical to cultivating youth entrepreneurial literacy. However, previous research on this topic has not provided a clear answer to how to improve youth entrepreneurial resilience. To explore the relationship between failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education and youth entrepreneurial resilience, using the questionnaire data of 399 youth recruited from China in October 2021 via the Credamo platform, the multiple regression analysis, and the Bootstrap method, we empirically analyzed the impact of failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education on youth entrepreneurial resilience, as well as the mediating effect of entrepreneurial cognition and the moderating effect of the fault-tolerant environment on the above relationship. The results show that failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education has a significant positive impact on youth entrepreneurial resilience. The two dimensions of willingness cognition and ability cognition in entrepreneurial cognition have a complete mediating effect on the impact of failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education on youth entrepreneurial resilience while the mediating effect of arrangements cognition is not significant. The fault-tolerant environment positively moderates the impact of failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial resilience, and its moderating effect is transmitted through the mediating effect of willingness cognition and ability cognition. A strong fault-tolerant environment enhances the impact of failure-learning-based entrepreneurship education on the formation of youth rational cognition, through the mediating effect of willing cognition and ability cognition, which further strengthens the positive impact on youth entrepreneurial resilience. The findings enrich the body of knowledge on entrepreneurship education and can improve youth entrepreneurial resilience.
- ItemExtended model of mobile shopping acceptance: An empirical study of consumer behaviour(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Stefko, Robert; Gavurova, Beata; Olearova, Maria; Bacik, Radovan; Nebesky, Lubomir; Ekonomická fakultaAlthough the popularity of mobile commerce is on the rise, mobile shopping is still not widely accepted in Slovakia. Therefore, research and knowledge in this area is insufficient. Based on two research models which explain human behavior (theory of reasoned action) and how the user accepts new technologies (technology acceptance model), the presented study proposes and tests a conceptual model combining the mentioned models and new, stimulating factors (customized offers and price benefits) in order to design a holistic model for predicting consumer behavior with regard to the acceptance of mobile shopping. In the first step of the research, we used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to extract the predicted factors and verify the validity and reliability of the research tool – a questionnaire. The main research was conducted on a sample of 627 students from Slovak universities (part-time study). Using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we performed a measurement model evaluation, and then, using the structural equation modeling – partial least squares (SEM – PLS) method, we evaluated and quantified the expected effects of the investigated factors. These new, stimulating factors, integrated into the theoretical framework of existing models, have been shown to act as direct and indirect predictors of the intention to mobile shopping. However, perceived usefulness proved to be the strongest predictor. The intention to mobile shopping is also significantly influenced by the attitude to mobile shopping, which is also determined by the new factor customized offers. The results the research arrives at may be beneficial for businesses, as they may reduce the costs associated with the creation of mobile shopping channels from an economic point of view and may increase their market competitiveness.
- ItemGamification in management: Positive and negative aspects(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Kačerauskas, Tomas; Sederevičiūtė-Pačiauskienė, Živilė; Šliogerienė, Jolita; Ekonomická fakultaThe phenomenon of gamification is analysed, identifying positive aspects of gamification, risks and problems. The paper adopts a method of systematic critical literature analysis in English, German, and Russian. We provide the most relevant gamification definitions classified into two main groups, fundamental and practical. The confusion of these groups or ignorance of one causes particular problems in understanding gamification. We face two levels of gamification in different areas of business management. It is the so-called meta- or macro-level and applied or micro-level. The paper aims to demonstrate the broader context of gamification in management by revealing the phenomenon’s positive and negative aspects. To reach the aim, five objectives were defined: i) to show the broader context of gamification in management; ii) to reveal the problems, risks, or even negative aspects of gamification in management; iii) to appeal to the practical issues how and in what areas to use gamification; iv) to show a broader cultural and philosophical context behind the manager interpretation of gamification; v) to introduce the discourse of gamification as an integrated theoretical approach that could reveal essential aspects of management. Gamification has both positive and negative aspects in all areas of management. On the one hand, gamification increases productivity and improves service, contributes to innovative participatory thinking and action, improves internal control, coordination, communication, collaboration, and creativity, increases motivation and pleasure at work, develops the soft skills of employees and reduces costs, as well as contributes to better acclimatisation. On the other hand, gamification commercialises human relations, causes novelty effects, elicits desired behaviour and predicts job performance, transforms organisational culture in unpredictable and counterintuitive ways, results in stress and anxiety, lowers self-esteem, causes exhaustion, conflict, and incomplete knowledge, serves as a means of domination and mobbing, and finally increases free-riding and work intimidation.
- ItemInvestigating self-efficacy and behavioural bias on investment decisions(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Srinivasan, Kuppusamy; Karthikeyan, Parthasarathy; Ekonomická fakultaThe determinants of irrational decisions on the stock market are found in numerous empirical studies. However, self-efficacy and behavioural biases have a sturdy influence on stock market investment decisions. Behavioural biases are formed with heuristics, prospect theory and herding effect concerning stock market investments. Self-efficacy is independent of behavioural biases but is closely connected with controlling behavioural intentions in decision-making. The research was conducted to find the influence of self-efficacy and behavioural biases in the decision of stock market investment. The study was conducted with 250 individual investors and applied the SEM technique. Findings indicated that heuristics had a positive relationship with behavioural biases, but behavioural biases reported a negative relationship with the herding effect and prospect theory. Heuristics were mostly developed on the intrinsic strength of individual investors; therefore, investors believe heuristics will be a better decision-making tool than prospect theory or the herding effect. Prospect theory is shaped and influenced by regret aversion, loss aversion, self-control and mental accounting. Financial literacy, risk tolerance, and peer support profoundly develop the self-efficacy of investors to make profitable investment decisions. Self-efficacy is formed by risk tolerance, financial literacy and peer support in the stock market investment decision and identified the evidence of individual investors not making rational decisions and facing one or more behavioural biases and self-efficacy factors. The study finds the combined effect of behavioural biases and self-efficacy in stock market investment decisions, which have significant implications among individual investors, particularly in emerging markets.
- ItemManaging intellectuals: Reaping the most and the best of knowledge workers in the post-COVID world(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Atan, Arzu; Atan, Tarik; Ekonomická fakultaThe COVID-19 crisis forced massive changes in work practices, channeling most of the activities to digital/remote work paradigms almost overnight. In this post-COVID locked-in world, traditional top-down control and command mechanisms simply ceased to exist. Profoundly different approaches and understandings became necessary to reap the most and the best outcomes from workers. In this new paradigm, cultivating organisational citizenship behaviors might be the most – if not only – viable way to ensure comprehensive results and sustained success. That necessitates a highly rooted insight into the influences of leadership styles. This article discusses the constructs of transactional leadership and transformational leadership styles. Contextualisation of the data patterns investigates the interrelationships between these two styles by comparing and contradicting their effects on organisational citizenship behaviors. It explains how these two approaches work in tandem for better results, mutually enabling each other, like the two legs of an athlete, where the lack of one profoundly cripples the outcomes, making the other ineffective as well. Using a survey inquiring about the perceptions of online knowledge workers, a three-step analysis was conducted and, as a result, established a robust argument that these two leadership styles are not paradoxical; they need not be mutually exclusive or contradicting can enable and complement each other. This finding is crucial for managing knowledge workers and knowledge workers as managers.