• Energy Research

The aspiration of this study was to examine the impact of foreign direct investments (FDI) and economic growth on environmental degradation in the Balkans for the period 1998–2019. Balkan countries were classified into two groups, high income countries (HIC) and upper-middle income countries (UMIC). Thus, two hypotheses have been set. The effect of FDI on environmental degradation was observed through pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). To examine that connection, we used Pearson correlation for all countries, HIC and UMIC. Furthermore, the impact of economic growth on environmental degradation was tested through the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. For that purpose, polynomial linear regression was applied. In order to examine the dependence of environmental degradation in relation to all predictors in the model, a multivariate linear regression was used. PHH was confirmed in Serbia, Albania, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria, the Balkans as a whole, and HIC, and the EKC hypothesis was rejected. This paper represents a contribution to a very scarce number of studies regarding the impact of FDI and economic growth on the environment in the Balkans, as a whole. The results of this study can be useful to policy makers in the terms of inducting stricter environmental rules.

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This research investigated Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand, Slovakia, and Poland and compared the SCM practices among the three countries. The sole purpose was to first determine the various factors that influence SCM operations and SCM practices in each of the countries and then find out whether there is a difference among the three countries in terms of SCM operations and practices. The study was conducted using primary data collected from SME management personnel from the three countries. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data using a 5-point Likert scale. The data was analyzed using multi-group Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study indicated that supply chain management practices and operations adopted by the small and medium enterprises in Thailand, Slovakia, and Poland were invariant. The environmental sustainability elements in SCM and the social aspects of sustainability in SCM have positively influenced SCM practices in all countries. The study recommended that SMEs in the countries should consider adopting the factors that support SCM, operationalizing the SCM through enhancing the capabilities of the end-user, and vitally taking into consideration the environmental sustainability elements in SCM, such as environmentally-friendly production processes, taking action towards waste management, and adopting production processes that inhibit the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere by encouraging the implementation of policies that foster the use of renewable energy sources in production.

Introduction: Organizations currently emphasize green marketing strategies by implementing marketing practices, aiming to design, produce, promote and sell green products. Thus, both consumers and producers have turned their attention to the category of environmental friendly products, taking into account that the concept of green marketing is now being given greater importance. Responsible organizations have begun to adapt their strategies in production, promotion and interaction activities with consumers or potential consumers of organic products in the context we are going through, when environmental protection becomes an imperative. Analysis of the sustainable behavior of Generation Z is a determining factor from the perspective of the task that this generation will naturally take on, in terms of environmental responsibility.Methods: The research aims to determine the profile of the Generation Z consumer, in order to adapt the strategic actions of the government or organizations to direct and educate as objectively and efficiently as possible towards adopting the principles of ecological, sustainable and responsible consumption. Based on the data collected through a survey, we analyzed the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers studying at Romanian universities where there are specializations in this field. The research is quantitative, using structural equation modelling with partial least squares (PLSSEM) to test the hypotheses regarding the relationship between the determining factors and the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers.Results and Discussion: The results show that there is a positive relationship between both the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers and the satisfaction it conveys to them, as well as their environmental protection activities. However, there is no relationship between the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers and the green marketing practices of the organizations, environmental issues and their identification with the environmentally responsible consumer.

Abstract While reflecting on sport sponsorship, it is crucial to consider that it is an investment in promotion from the sponsor's perspective. The idea of each investment, including that in sport sponsorship, is to commit money or capital with an expectation of profitable future returns or benefits. Thus, it is essential to undertake actions that enabling sponsors to establish whether a given sponsoring campaign was effective, i.e. whether it generated more benefits than expenses. This article presents the possibility of using Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) to evaluate sport sponsorship effectiveness. Research conducted among Polish volleyball clubs aimed at recognizing factors considered by sponsors while evaluating results of engaging in sport sponsorship. The results and conclusions are presented in the content of the article. Additionally, there were introduced levels of AVE obtained by the most frequently displayed sponsors' branches of Plus Liga Kobiet and clubs participating in it in the seasons of 2008/2009, 2009/2010, and 2010/2011..

The objective of the current examination is to identify the dynamic relationship between the textile industry and energy intensity. The study evaluates the asymmetric impact of textile manufacturing on energy intensity in leading Asian economies based on textile dominance. China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam are dominant in textile manufacturing. In the present study we used yearly textiles and clothing data from top ten selected Asian textile manufacturing countries from 1990 to 2018. The results of quantile-on-quantile regression (QQ) confirmed that textiles and clothing (T&C) production have a positive and significant impact on energy intensity in all countries. The results further suggested that a low level of T&C production increases the level of energy intensity in all selected countries. On the other hand, the results of Granger causality in quantiles confirm a bidirectional causal relationship between T&C production and energy intensity in all selected countries except Thailand and Japan, where a uni-directional causal connection between textile and clothing manufacturing and energy intensity can also be found. This study recommends that governments and investors need to invest more in green and advanced technologies to reduce the energy intensity in Asian economies.

The tax system reform is a part of Slovakia’s comprehensive tax and levies reform. The reform should contribute to improving and making public finances more efficient. Its implementation into practice, however, is problematic due to attitudes and problems on the part of both the professional public and business entities. The aim of the paper is to help public authorities, and also tax policymakers and business entities to understand the perception of the tax system reform focusing on the most important and key factors of its sustainable effectiveness and performance in the context of its non-macroeconomic especially social, technological and process aspects. The analysis reveals the differences in perceptions of key factors from the viewpoint of the three studied groups. The paper is based on the information of the main actors of tax reform. In extensive empirical quantitative research (N = 1500), the data was obtained through the questionnaire survey carried out in four main districts of Slovakia. The data obtained during six months of 2018 using the questionnaire method were processed by basic statistical methods of descriptive statistics, followed by an analysis of major components and the factor analysis using more sophisticated multidimensional statistical tools. The factor analysis is crucial to the present paper as it has identified five significant indicators of the reform assessment and the functioning of the tax system after tax reform. Subsequently, a correspondence analysis has been applied to the item “electronization/computerization—great user comfort” to find out the differences in its perception by the respondents. The article thus provides a new scientific view on the evaluation of the reform of the financial administration’s management system in the Slovak Republic as well as its functioning in the context of its sustainable effectiveness and performance. The research results offer important and exciting implications and also motives for further investigation on the issue.

The article analyses co-authorship and co-citation networks in Food Policy, which is the most important agricultural policy journal in the field of agricultural economics. The paper highlights the principal researchers in this field together with their authorship and citation networks on the basis of 714 articles written between 2006 and 2015. Results suggest that the majority of the articles were written by a small number of researchers, indicating that groups and central authors play an important role in scientific advances. It also turns out that the number of articles and the central role played in the network are not related, contrary to expectations. Results also suggest that groups cite themselves more often than average, thereby boosting the scientific advancement of their own members.