<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
Consumer behavior in disposing of products has substantial consequences for the environment that affect all of us. Waste management is a major challenge faced by many developing countries, underlining the relevance of this literature review. Even when academia tries to shed light on this field, it often fails to consider that waste management must be approached differently in less developed countries, which differ dramatically from advanced countries, especially with regard to consumers’ behavioral characteristics. Further, limited effort has been made to systematize the existing literature by highlighting areas of interest in the scholarly discussion. This literature review contributes to the field by illuminating focal points in scholarly research on the background of solid waste management and the disposal behavior of people living at the base of the pyramid. It explores how scholarly research results can guide scholars and practitioners who are contributing to a positive shift in waste management practices. Its novelty arises from annotating scholarly theories and managerial approaches that promise to advance the understanding of sustainable waste management in developing countries. Additionally, the utilization of VOSviewer’s network visualization involving cluster building and keyword occurrences, contributes to the methodological originality of the study. Selective keyword research in the Web of Science database identified 124 pertinent articles for review. This underscores the importance of this literature review, especially in light of the significant increase in publications in this research domain, with approximately 70% (87 of 124 articles) published since 2019. The results show that knowledge, participation, and the active involvement of the local communities are key components in achieving sustainable waste management. Shaping individuals’ attitudes and awareness is vital for promoting pro-environmental behaviors in developing countries. The results also show a prominent focus on recycling behavior and an extensive use of the theory of planned behavior.
</abstract>

A Literature Review on Solid Waste Management and Disposal Behavior at the Base of the Pyramid

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
The best way for a business to gather pertinent knowledge and apply it for the growth and sustainability of the firm is through communication with its customers. Companies must adapt to today’s data, information, and knowledge-based economy. A company’s ability to evolve depends on how strategically it uses its intangible resources to build its knowledge capital. Digital tools create new channels for client engagement and collaboration. The current study assesses how digital tools affect how businesses interact with their customers and how these tools help customers share knowledge with companies. This study updates knowledge management and customer knowledge management practices in a digital context and serves as an example of these practices. The study aims to address the absence of specific and valuable components in business practices that give them access to client knowledge. The study is conducted on a sample of 10 individuals, managers, and CEOs of Romanian enterprises, using the in-depth interview method. Data from the survey were analyzed and interpreted, and significant results were drawn by comparing them to prior research. The study emphasizes the value of digital tools for customer communication and the potential these platforms provide for gathering knowledge about, for, and from customers. The respondents stressed the significance of knowledge for both the growth of the company and the innovation process. Still, there needs to be more internal structures to manage this knowledge strategically and capitalize on it for the beginning of innovative business approaches. The study identifies the primary challenges to communicating via digital channels and suggests solutions to help companies acquire, share, and use customer data to its fullest potential.
</abstract>

The Impact of Digitalization on Customer Knowledge Management

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
Many business entities in Slovakia felt the pressure of government restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially entities from SK NACE I: accommodation and food services activities. The main objective of this article is to analyse the return on equity, assets and sales in selected sectors in Slovakia and find out if the Covid-19 pandemic has an effect on these profitability ratios. Firstly, we use ex-post financial analyses and then Friedman’s nonparametric test to find those groups of years between which there are differences. The study period 2016-2021 includes comparisons before the Covid-19 period, as well as dealing with the pandemic era. Our investigation concerns 321 business entities from SK NACE I, especially from Division 56: Food and beverage service activities. The findings showed the impact of the pandemic on profitability indicators such as total assets, equity, and sales. Therefore, it was feasible to establish that these are the indicators most affected by the pandemic, such as the economic outcome after taxes, assets, equity, and sales. Additionally, significant differences in indicators were confirmed in the pairs of years 2019–2020 and 2019–2021. Significant changes were confirmed between the years provided, which may most likely be attributed to the outbreak of the pandemic of the viral disease Covid-19. This study and its results may have added value for the management of business entities and the government of the Slovak Republic by stimulating the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on firms in these sectors.
</abstract>

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Profitability Indicators in the Hospitality Sector

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, SMEs face the challenges of meeting customer demands and expectations. To remain competitive, attract and satisfy customers, manufacturing SMEs must adopt innovative practices within their supply chain. This research investigates the influence of supply chain innovative practices (SCIPs) on customer satisfaction within the context of manufacturing SMEs. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was utilised to collect the data from 172 customers of manufacturing SMEs in Mwanza, Tanzania to gain comprehensive insights into the influence of SCIPs on customer satisfaction. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression (BLR) were used for data analysis. The research findings revealed that manufacturing SMEs adopt SCIPs, including digitalization and IoT integration, vendor-managed inventory, customisation, Just-In-Time, collaborative relationships, and lean manufacturing to a moderate extent. Moreover, the findings demonstrate a significant and positive correlation between SCIPs and customer satisfaction. We conclude that SMEs that successfully adopt SCIPs experience higher levels of customer satisfaction, which, in turn, positively influences customer loyalty and brand reputation. Therefore, manufacturing SMEs can capitalise on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sustainable growth by strategizing SCIPs along their supply chain. The study contributes to the existing knowledge by providing valuable insights into the importance of SCIPs in improving customer satisfaction in manufacturing SMEs.
</abstract>

Supply Chain Innovative Practices and Customer Satisfaction: Insights from Manufacturing SMEs

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
The shortage of skilled labour, demographic change and ever-increasing cost pressures are presenting healthcare organisations with key challenges in the areas of strategy, leadership and portfolio management. In the Federal Republic of Germany, there is an acute shortage of skilled workers in 352 of 801 occupational groups (44% of all occupational groups). Effective employer branding is the only way to sustainably increase employer attractiveness and generate competitive advantages on the labour market. Employer branding is the identity-based development and positioning of a company as an attractive employer. The aim of the article is to identify relevant characteristics of employer attractiveness, which can be located in particular in the perception of IT specialists. The identification of these characteristics should help organizations to optimize their personnel policy in the long term. The authors chose the mixed-methods research approach. The hypothesis system is conceptualized and operationalized within the framework of structural equation modelling (SEM). The practical relevance of the findings from the quantitative research is examined in expert interviews. The data analysis is based on qualitative content analysis according to Kuckartz. Due to the research background, data collection is limited to the EU member state Germany. The shift in the balance of power in the labour market towards employees is not a development that can be limited to Europe. In a globalized world, companies have access to a wider talent pool, but are also exposed to increased competition for the best talent. A strong employer brand enables companies to stand out and attract top talent. The empirical results show that a positively perceived employer attractiveness can achieve the employer branding goals of recruiting employees and retaining them in the long term. The clever combination of tangible and intangible benefits, embedded in a modern corporate and error culture (mindset), is decisive in determining whether qualitative growth of the organization is possible.
</abstract>

Employer Branding – Employer Attractiveness as a New Mindset in the Healthcare Sector

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
Unemployment is a factor that heavily influences the output of each economy. It is, therefore, one of the main concerns of any government worldwide. This study identifies key determinants of unemployment. By constructing an econometric model for the registered unemployment rate in Slovakia, the period from 2013 to 2022 was under scrutiny, while the impact of the COVID crisis was considered in the model through a dummy variable. Potential determinants of unemployment were selected based on theoretical knowledge and other scientific works, that is, average interest rates, gross minimum wage, GDP, inflation, exports, imports, government spending, corruption index, COVID-19 crisis, and month of the year. The final relevant factors for unemployment were tested and validated: interest rates, GDP, inflation, government spending, and exports. These study results may be valuable for the government when designing targeted interventions to optimise the unemployment rate in Slovakia or similar economies by influencing other macroeconomic indicators.
</abstract>

Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina

Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications

The Anatomy of Unemployment: Determinants During and After the COVID-19 Crisis

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 12 (2024): Issue 1 (March 2024)

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 4 (December 2023)

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 3 (September 2023)

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 2 (June 2023)

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

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 4 (December 2022)

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 3 (September 2022)

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 2 (June 2022)

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 1 (March 2022)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 4 (December 2021)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 3 (September 2021)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 2 (June 2021)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 1 (March 2021)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 4 (December 2020)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 3 (September 2020)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 2 (June 2020)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 1 (March 2020)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 4 (December 2019)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 3 (September 2019)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 2 (June 2019)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 1 (March 2019)

Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy

Aims and Scope  The aim of Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy (MDKE) is to address in an interdisciplinary framework the dynamics of the organization management and its strategic approaches by considering the imperatives and the contingencies of the new societal and economical environments at a local, national or global scale, with a special emphasis on emerging economies.  MDKE aims to foster meaningful academic discussions and to support the exchange of ideas on principles, strategies, models, techniques, methodologies, and applications of management science in all the important fields of interest.  The first issue of MDKE was published in April 2013, both online and in print. The journal was initiated by Prof. Dr. Constantin Brãtianu from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Prof. Dr. Florina Pînzaru and Prof. Dr. Alexandra Zbuchea, from the Faculty of Management, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania. Starting with 2015, the journal is published exclusively online, 4 issues annually. Since 2019 the journal is published in cooperation with de Gruyter, on the Sciendo platform.  As intended from its very beginning, the journal is interested in research that crosses the boundaries of single academic subjects stimulating interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. Topics can cover research, non-exclusively, in the following domains: management, strategic management, innovation management, change management, international management, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, leadership and governance, knowledge management, brand management and consumer behavior, business, business process optimization, corporate social responsibility, financial and economic management, e-business and digitalization, and sustainability management.  Types of Submissions  The journal welcomes three types of submissions, namely: conceptual papers, research articles and literature reviews, all of them being subject to a double-blind peer review.  Description of the Peer Review Process  Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy is a double-blind peer-reviewed academic publication. Peer review is a key element of scientific publishing, and it serves several main purposes: to filter the research to select the most relevant studies; to improve research quality, by highlighting key points and correcting errors; to help the authors to improve their work, through offering specific comments on the key aspects of a research article: title, abstract, keywords, content and analysis, discussions, conclusions and references.  Regarding the selection of the review-team, to ensure the high-quality and the objectivity of the review, the two reviewers associated to each proposal are selected based on the following principles: they are specialists in the field of the submitted article, and they are from different countries of origin so to support an international perspective.  Abstracting &amp; Indexing  Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy is abstracted/indexed in: BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine), CEEOL, DOAJ, EBSCO, ERIH Plus, Index Copernicus, ProQuest, and RePEc – EconPapers and other databases (please visit the A&amp;I section).  Several other A&amp;I service providers are evaluating the journal for inclusion. Please periodically check this section for further information.  Open Access Statement  MDKE is an open access scholarly journal that allows free access to its content (articles, issues). MDKE is available online to the readers without financial, legal, or technical barriers (no article publication charges), based on the theory to keep an article's content intact. Authors can use Creative Commons licenses to specify usage rights of articles.  This journal is licensed under a Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.  Copyright Notice  Authors hold the copyright for the published papers. They can make the respective works available in different situations, such as: on their websites, on universities blackboard systems, as teaching materials, etc.  APC Policy  To publish in Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, authors are not required to pay an Article Processing Charge.  Manuscript Formatting  Formatting – Before publication, all articles undergo a formatting stage in which their format is made compatible to the requirements of the journal MDKE. All authors are asked to comply with the Article Template requirements before submitting their articles, but all accepted articles still require minor alterations in format and style. Once the editorial team agrees on the final version, a final copy of the article will be sent to the authors for approval and then will be sent to the Publishing House to ensure the online publication. After that moment, the papers cannot be altered in any way. For further details, please see Author guidelines page.  Manuscript Submission  Authors should submit their manuscript in a MSWord format, adapted for the Windows operating system and DOC or RTF file to the Editor via the online platform. No hard copies are required.  When submitting an article, no author identification has to be provided in the paper uploaded initially on the platform. If the paper is finally accepted for publication, the final submission should comply with the MDKE Author Guidelines. Please note that submissions not complying with these guidelines will be rejected on formal grounds.  Authors should register and log-in prior to submission. When registering on the platform, we recommend the authors to register themselves as readers as well. This will enable them to easily have access to all the issues of the journal.  By submitting the paper, the authors certify that the study proposed is their own, that they hold the rights to present the information included in the paper and that they give the publication rights to the publishers of the journal. All papers are checked with anti-plagiarism software.  Alongside the manuscript in a MSWord format, two other documents filled and signed should be uploaded: MDKE Originality Statement and Copyright Agreement and Open Access License.  Submission Management  Each submission is acknowledged by one of the members of the editorial team and then the pre-selection begins. At this stage, the members of the editorial team choose to either reject the article directly or to send it to the reviewers for a thorough review. The grounds for immediate dismissal (desk rejection) of a manuscript are the following:   Plagiarism  The standard of English is not considered to be good enough for publication. If English is not the first language of the authors, they should make sure the paper is proofread by a professional or a native speaker.  The manuscript does not fit with the scope of the journal or does not follow rigorously the author’s guidelines and paper template.  The data presented in the article are outdated (either the bibliography is not up-to-date or the research materials are too old).  Each author receives notice of the final decision made by the editorial team which can be of two kinds: a) decision to include the article in the review process or b) decision to reject the article followed by the list of reasons that have led to that decision. Authors whose articles have been rejected for reasons other than fraud can choose to resubmit their work for a second time. If after the second try the article is still not considered a good fit for the journal, then the author is prohibited from resubmitting the work again.  If the article passes this pre-selection then it is sent for peer-review to two professionals with experience in the field. This stage lasts for maximum four weeks, depending on the complexity of the article and the availability of experts in the field. The final decision of the peer-review process can be as follows:    Accepted with no changes – When the paper satisfies all qualitative and quantitative requirements.  Accepted with minor changes – This decisions signal that the article in its present form, with minor modifications is suitable for publication. The authors received the decision followed by the suggestions of the peer reviewers and their submission, after alterations, will step on to the next stage.  Accepted with major changes – Most of the articles submitted to MDKE fall in this category. These are articles which show promise, but they need further elaborate work. Thus, each reviewer sends his or her recommendations and the authors are encouraged to revise their articles, answering to each of these recommendations.  Rejected – This decision signals that there are major concerns over the quality of the scientific materials presented in the paper and that the reviewers consider there is no chance in improving the article in such a way as to become a suitable candidate for publication in MDKE.   After formatting, all articles set to be included in the following issue will appear online according to the publication schedule.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.     Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Publication timeline  The editors of the journal accept manuscript submissions all year round. The journal is published quarterly, in March, June, September, and December.  Privacy Statement  The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. Please pay attention to all the information on the website and be aware that affiliations of authors and reviewers are public on the platform. By submitting the required information, the authors implicitly agree to make public the data. 