Volume 11 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

The problem of economic inequality, manifesting itself in various forms such as uneven distribution of income or wealth, is one of the most important and contradictory problems facing modern scientists in the 21st century. The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between the level of inclusive development and indicators of inequality in development across the world. VOSviewer was used to conduct bibliometric analysis in the Scopus base, enabling visualization of data on inclusive development. Correlation and regression analysis were employed to assess the relationship between the level of inclusive development and various inequality and discrimination indicators, with all statistical data sourced from the World Bank's collection. It was investigated that in developed countries, there is an inverse relationship between the IDI and Gini index, whereas a direct correlation between the IDI and QLI, HPI, and HDI is observed. Additionally, a direct correlation between the inclusivity of society and the gender neutrality of countries is seen, with the correlation being more pronounced in developed countries. To reduce economic inequality and promote inclusive development, measures should be taken to increase access to educational and training opportunities for disadvantaged groups, as well as to invest in infrastructure and public services in disadvantaged areas.

Economic freedoms are essential for the growth and development of countries, but their distribution varies across nations, resulting in differences in economic growth. This study aims to explore the impact of economic freedoms on economic growth, measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, by examining the influence of institutional quality. Economic freedom indicators were obtained from the 2022 report by the Heritage Foundation, and GDP per capita and FDI indicators were sourced from the World Bank report. This study employs multivariate regression analysis to investigate the relationship between economic freedoms and economic growth. The findings suggest that economic freedoms have a positive effect on both GDP per capita growth and FDI inflow. Government integrity was found to be the primary indicator for GDP per capita growth, while Business freedom was identified as the key factor in attracting FDI. The implications of these results are significant, as they can inform policy decisions aimed at improving the standard of living by increasing GDP per capita and creating employment opportunities through FDI.

Methodological approaches to assessing the level of innovation and investment attractiveness of the Western Ukrainian market of tourist services (WUMTS) substantiated the dependence of WUMTS on investment factors analyzed the level of competitiveness of WUMTS. In order to determine the level of dependence (independence) of WUMTS on investment and innovation factors, a paired linear regression was built for each of the regions (regions) included in the WUMTS, Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Zakarpattia, I. Frankivsk, Chernivtsi). In order to eliminate the disproportionate impact of the size of the impact of tourist services (the so-called effect of scale), the studied absolute indicators were converted into relative (growth rate). To assess the innovation and investment attractiveness of WUMTS, it was decided to apply methodological approaches to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of state and regional policy with further improvement in several groups of indicators, monitoring and evaluation of innovation, investment, and social development of the studied areas. Data, information of central executive bodies, regional state administrations, etc. The assessment of WUMTS development indicators was carried out by calculating the rating for each area and the overall rating for all areas. The rating assessment was performed by comparing the deviations of the values of indicators for each specific region under the conditions of the best values for the relevant (reporting) period and the corresponding ranking of regions from 1st to 8th position. As a result of calculations, the integrated rating was determined as the arithmetic means of the sum of ratings in all areas using the formula. The competitiveness of regional tourism markets should be assessed comprehensively, where two groups of indicators should be used to determine the competitiveness of an individual region: indicators of the tourism market and indicators of development of the region as a whole.

The current trend in tourism is no longer one of relaxation in the two important seasons but of experiential tourism, developing of new types of tourism, each country identifying (but especially reinventing) its own potential and promoting it below the form of innovative tourist packages and/or products and/or services. Innovation as a concept is setting up the scene for economic growth and is an important tool for economic progress and competitiveness. The aim of this research is to make a bibliometric analysis to find out the most important aspects of innovation linked to tourism as sustainable solutions for tourism in emerging economies. As methods for bibliometric analysis the VOSviewer 1.6.18 software was used on the Web of Science papers to find out the research concepts linked to innovation and tourism. Also, we applied Google Trends search for some of the newest types of tourism to find out the interest of tourists over the last two decades (2010 – 2023) for innovative products from tourism industry (such as: babymoon, adventure, medical, dental, hunting, ecotourism, heritage, museum, etc.). The results emphasis the relation between innovation, tourism, information technology (internet, smart tourism, innovative technology), stakeholders (governments, organizations, municipalities, communities), tourism experience, tourism destination, tourism services, product innovation, competitiveness advantages, economic development, performance, cultural heritage, rural area, ecotourism.

The primary purpose of this study is to develop a realistic understanding of the factors that influence consumers’ purchase behaviour towards consumer goods in the middle east region during the economic crisis, by focusing on Oman. This study has used linear regression analysis to develop a clear idea of the factors that influence consumers’ purchase behaviour towards consumer goods during the economic crisis. This study has also used Sobel test, to conduct the mediation analysis. The data was collected using a standard five-point Likert scale-based questionnaire, from a sample of 122 individuals who have recently completed their bachelor’s program in one of the four major Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Oman. Unlike the popular belief, this study has found the elements of the marketing mix to not exert significant influence on consumers’ purchase behaviour towards consumer goods during the economic crisis. However, the results found cultural and social factors to exert useful influence on the consumers’ purchase behaviour towards consumer goods. The study recommends that organizations need to focus more on cultural compliance and societal acceptance of their offerings, than focusing on the traditional marketing mix. While helping the organizations manufacturing or marketing consumer goods in the middle east region during the economic crisis, this study would add more value and variety to the available literature. While the findings of this study could also be used by individuals dealing with consumer products in similar markets to redefine their product offerings, by taking the cultural and social issues into consideration, this study could act as a point of reference for future researchers. This study has provided a unique perspective related to the factors that drive consumers’ purchase behaviour towards consumer goods in the middle east region, during the economic crisis. These observations could also be generalized and used in other countries that have similar cultural and social affiliations.

Innovation and economic development go hand in hand. Innovation is the key to economic growth and prosperity. In the current era of globalization, countries that invest in research and development (R&D) and innovative activities are more likely to achieve sustained economic growth and competitiveness in the global marketplace. The purpose of this study is to analyze the values of the International Intellectual Property Index in different countries of the world and compare these data; to establish the relationship between the financial and economic development of the territories, expenses on intellectual research and the international index of intellectual property of the states using different approaches and methods. This article aims to explore the positive experience of intellectual economic development in the world, with a focus on the costs of innovation. The Global Innovation Index (GII) ranks countries based on their innovation capabilities, such as human capital, research and development, institutions, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication. According to the GII 2021 report, the top five most innovative countries are Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Korea. All this points to the need for the development of innovative and intellectual developments in Ukraine. Such intellectual developments are of particular importance in the conditions of war and are necessary for strengthening the security indicators of the state, preserving the lives of the population in the conditions of missile attacks and destruction. In the world, intellectual economic development is seen as a key driver of economic growth and competitiveness.

This study seeks to empirically explore whether the regulatory quality in the NMS-10 impacts deepening international financial integration and whether the strengthening of regulatory quality for NMS-10 has a causal effect on the level of international financial integration (IFI) in NMS-10. The study covers NMS-10 between 1995 and 2020. The estimation of parameters was made with descriptive statistics, the Breusch-Pagan test, the Pesaran test, the Granger causality test, and OLS regression to analyze the impact of REQ on IFI. The findings of the study reveal that regulatory quality has a statistically significant effect in deepening the process of financial integration for both periods, in the pre-accession and post-accession EU process. In addition, the results demonstrate that the regulatory quality of NMS-10 provides sound laws and policies that support the business environment, encourage cross-bordering financial transactions. Moreover, the results of the Granger causality test show that the level of global financial integration is causally impacted by the improvement in NMS-10 regulatory quality. This indicates that regulatory effectiveness might predicts international financial integration.

The digital transformation enters all spheres of public currently. At the same time, it does not take place at the same pace and scale everywhere. Bulgaria delays behind the most European countries in terms of the levels of the Digital Technology Penetration Index (DESI). In the presented research, the reasons for the delaying of digitization are sought, especially in the veterinary sector. In this regard, the subject of the present work is the introduction of special digital technologies to help the veterinary doctors. The aim is to reveal the reasons for the delay and to identify recommendations for a more successful introduction of modern software products and platforms in the veterinary sector. An online survey was conducted among 211 veterinarians of different professional categories and veterinary students, which revealed the main problems before the introduction of innovation and digitalization, taking into account that one of them is the aging of the veterinarians employed in it. The recommendations are made to increase their computer skills and digital competence through training, to emphasize the possibilities of digital innovation in the education of veterinary students, to develop special software products to assist veterinary professionals and the benefits for the veterinary sector are outlined from the introduction of digital innovations.

The spread of the concept of tax expenditures in many countries of the world resulted in the creation of the Global Tax Expenditures Database which included information from Ukraine where regular reporting is conducted on tax benefits which are losses of budget revenues. However, this reporting is incomplete, since it does not include tax expenditures on personal income tax. The introduction of reporting on tax expenditures on this tax puts on the agenda the problem of identifying the elements of its benchmark and tax expenditures. The purpose of this article is to substantiate their main components. The research was carried out using general scientific methods of cognition: critical analysis, combination of normative (conceptual) and positive (legal) approaches, abstract-logical and concrete, comparative analysis. Based on the results of the study, groups of elements that can be attributed to the benchmark of the tax have been identified: incomes provided from sources defined by international treaties of Ukraine; payments that do not increase the taxpayer’s income; incomes whose exemption from taxes ensures the avoidance of double taxation; expenses related to receiving income; incomes that are not included in the taxable amount due to the difficulties of their administration; exclusion from the taxable amount of the revenues that may not qualify as tax expenditures due to small amounts. Tax benefits that can be included in the budget of tax expenditures on the income tax have been identified and classified according to the form of provision and functional orientation. Although only certain provisions of the income tax legislation have been identified, their classification into subgroups may facilitate the determination of the remaining components of the benchmark and tax expenditures.

The role of monetary policy has become increasingly important in recent years, as a range of economic challenges have emerged, affecting both developing and economically advanced countries. The aim of this article is to examine the shift in the monetary policy of the EU, which has been expressed through changes in the tools used by the European Central Bank (ECB), and to consider the causes and economic implications of this shift. The descriptive analytical method was used to achieve this goal. The study identified that the aim of the ECB’s interest rate increases was primarily to slow down core inflation rates. The ECB has raised the refinancing rate from 0.5% to 2.5% in 2022 and halted asset purchase programs, such as the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, which had previously stimulated liquidity growth. Despite these changes, forward guidance has been maintained as a useful tool for providing clarity and certainty to financial markets and the public about the future path of monetary policy. It is concluded in the study that the impact of the shift towards contractionary monetary policy is likely to be felt across a range of economic sectors, with higher borrowing costs potentially leading to reduced investment and lower levels of economic growth.

International capital movement in the form of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by multinational enterprises (MNEs) signifies a widely researched phenomenon in comprehensive review of the FDI literature. Its vastness makes it impossible to fathom its depth, as such the paper highlights what the author considers to be mainstream theories in the domain of empirical studies on FDI. This study critically reviews (FDI) literature over a period of 70 years from 1950 to 2020 to provide a theoretical lens for future research beyond the established models. The discussion covers the mode of FDI inflows, statistical methods applied, theoretical models, contributions to paradigms and empirical papers investigating FDI. Furthermore, the papers selected cover heterogenous geographical regions, while in certain papers FDI has been studied as a dependent variable in others as an independent one. The focus lies on the FDI and its resultant activities of MNEs in the form of subsidiaries to carry out market seeking, strategic asset-seeking and efficiency seeking activities. Though, most researchers have narrowed down to four determinants of FDI i.e., motives of MNEs for undertaking FDI, size of MNEs, entry modes into host country and investments sector recently, many works have applied formal theories to provide a framework for market failure such as holdup problems, non-fulfillment of contracts and related agency costs. It is concluded that FDI has evolved into a significant area of empirical investigation. Overall, the gaps and opportunities in existing literature are identified thereby directions for further research emerge.

In recent years, financial and economic crises have been observed, which are a consequence of various global problems and phenomena. Despite the experience of 2008, it seems that the enterprises did not learn enough of their lessons and failed to foresee the difficulties for their business and finances. There are not many examples in history that have seen phenomena of superimposing economic and financial crises. In this case, the situation is caused by the pandemic caused by CoviD-19 and the war in Ukraine. The two events have had serious nongarnishing shocks to businesses and enterprise economies. The purpose of the current research is to trace the effects on business in the conditions of overlapping economic crises – in this case, caused by the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The object of research will be the non-financial enterprises in Bulgaria, and the subject is the analysis of the effects on business as a result of overlapping crises. The aim is to derive and justify the effects and consequences for business in Bulgaria. The aim concerns the claim that the overlapping crises have a negative impact on the finances and economy of the enterprises in Bulgaria. The research was conducted on the basis of a survey among Bulgarian companies from the non-financial sector. The survey is conducted annually at the end of the year, summarizing in December of each year. About 800 companies - members of the Bulgarian Industrial Association take part in it. Their profile is mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, most of them being small.

As the world became more digitalized thanks to the Internet, it led to the creation of Electronic Payment Systems that are now used to seeing all over the world, but there is a need for estimation the return on development and implementation of EPSs. The research goal is to develop an approach based on optimization modeling for the assessment of the efficiency of implementation and the use of electronic payment systems by Ukrainian and international businesses for their day-by-day operations. The article also analyzed different classifications of EPS and determined several types of methodology for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the EPS (absolute and relative to business results and costs). Using the optimization model and system analysis, the authors proposed the algorithm for the estimation of profit from EPS implementation (both separate EPS or portfolio of EPSs) and make an experiment for one of the EPS for the period of 2023-2026. The optimization model includes revenue from EPS, as well as salary, rent, and infrastructure costs, which helps to improve the results of EPS implementation by adapting of transaction’s tariff. Authors also described the process of solving optimization task for determining effective tariff per 1 transaction, taking into account marketing information.

Achieving sustainable economic growth is one of the main goals of economic policy in modern countries. As previous research has shown, the development of financial system has a significant influence on economic growth. The importance of the innovative banking sector in developing countries becomes particularly important due to the insufficient evolvent of other parts of the financial system. The subject of this paper is the analysis of the impact of the banking sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina on economic growth in the period from 2000 to 2021. The aim of the study is to quantify this relationship. In this study we apllied ARDL model to determine long-term and short-term relationship between observed variables. The results show that the increase in total loans granted by the banking sector to companies from the non-financial sector has a positive impact on the development of GDP. Namely, a 1% increase in total bank credit to non-financial private sector firms leads to an increase in GDP of about 0.08% in long run and about 0.20% in short run.

Finding a way of achieving economic growth in the crisis period due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and probable global regression aggravates the need for the implementation of managerial solutions of entering or intensifying participation in the perspective markets. The ICT industry has been a locomotive of economic development for the last decade for participating economies. The basic idea of the paper is based on the need to analyze the impact of countries’ participation in the ICT services market on their economic growth, consumer price indices (CPI), and exchange rates. The purpose was achieved by performing an analysis of the state and dynamics of the main indicators of the world ICT services market. The results show that the volume of ICT services exported and imported is growing. Moreover, we aimed to provide empirical evidence on the ICT services market’s impact on the economic parameters of the countries. We proposed a statistical model of Pearson’s r regression, based on the data of GDP values, CPI, and exchange rates of the 30 largest markets accounting for more than 90% of the ICT world market. The core results demonstrate stronger ICT services export and import correlation with GDP for economies with lower GDP per capita. The model shows a high success rate depending on variables. Based on the results obtained during modelling, propositions, and recommendations for countries with different socio-economic development levels were given.

When describing the state of the modern world, we can name it “marginal”, i.e. the one where there are hardly any orientations, with organizations having to face barriers in the business processes, which makes them constantly revise the strategies, methods or approaches to the achievement of their goal. It was in 2016 that Jamais Cascio, a futurologist and a researcher from the Institute of Future, brought forward a new conception being in perfect conformity with the present-day situation, dominated by the pandemic provoked by COVID-19, political imbalances, resource deficit, climatic disasters and the war that keeps us in tension. The new term that he proposed to use consisted of the abbreviations, i. e. BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible world without a clear structure). Given that the development of organizations in BANI environment requires from managers the ability to use a symbiosis of various administrative competencies, the article defines the essence of various categories of competencies needed by an effective manager of today and analyses specific ways of their fostering in BANI environment. Three groups of competencies required for an effective manager were outlined. The analysis of conditions in which the Ukrainian business had to operate in the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian war, when businessmen and managers had to take administrative decisions concerned with the fate of their organizations and employees in the situation of survival, to exert extreme effort due to the simultaneous change in many business aspects and the impracticability of any kind of projection, with lack of mental and emotional support, allowed for categorizing the Ukrainian business environment in time of the war as BANI environment. Many companies had to close, but many of them could transfer their facilities and adapt to the present-day realities, change the vector of management and even introduce on new markets in spite that the Ukrainian economy had reduced by one third. This could be possible thanks to skilful actions of managers. The authors’ research allowed for a revision of the key competencies of effective managers in BANI environment with consideration to the Ukrainian realities for doing business. A set of administrative competencies allowing companies for not only keep afloat but to develop new business processes in the realities of war was defined. It is stressed that today Ukrainian managers are urgently in need to develop administrative competencies that help support and expand business, bring the staff together in consolidated and highly professional teams, set up business communications.