<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This study examines the effect of foreign debt on the economic growth of Nigeria. Data for the study are collected from the World Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. The variables on which data are sourced include nominal gross domestic product, foreign debt stock, foreign debt servicing, inflation rate, and exchange rate. Nominal gross domestic product is the dependent variable while foreign debt stock and foreign debt servicing are the major explanatory variables. Inflation and exchange rates are used as the control variables. The scope of the study covers the period from 1997 to 2017 and data are analyzed using the ordinary least squares regression technique. The regression results indicate that foreign debt exerts a significant negative influence on economic growth while foreign debt servicing has a strong and significant positive impact on economic growth. The other factors are insignificant in explaining economic growth under this scenario. Thus, the study recommends a more purposeful borrowing pattern and revenue generation through profitable capital investments as the remedy for a foreign debt crisis in the country. The study also suggests a revival of abandoned industries as a more effective way of reducing foreign borrowing, creating employment opportunities and alleviating poverty in the country.</abstract>

Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike

The Effect of Foreign Debt on the Economic Growth of Nigeria

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The area of employment is changing dramatically, technology and globalization are impacting practices and experiences, and societies are becoming more global and multicultural. With the rise of globalization and the rapid changes in the business environment, employability is becoming one of the main goals for any organization. The organizational effectiveness lies in human resources quality and human resources development practices have the potential to improve employee competences. This study aims to examine the impact of human resource development practices on the employees’ performance and organizational effectiveness at a sample of public universities in Iraq. A descriptive-analytical method based on one regression model was employed for data analyzing. The result indicates that HRD practices are significantly related to employee performance in the enhancement of organizational effectiveness. Also, the results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between employee performance and organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, this study recommends that the decision-makers of universities should strive to develop HRD strategies which will enable them to improve employee competency and enhance the capability of the employees to achieve desired goals and objectives of the organization. This article contributes to human resource development, employee performance and organizational effectiveness literature. Also, this study provides key theoretical and practical implications which are discussed in detail.</abstract>

The Impact of Human Resource Development on Employee Performance and Organizational Effectiveness

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The research aims to analyze the relationships developed among emotional intelligence, occupational stress and employee performance in the financial banking sector. In other words, it aims to: (i) analyze the specialized literature regarding the concepts of emotional intelligence, occupational stress and job performance; (ii) to measure employees’ emotional intelligence, occupational stress and work performance; and (v) to analyze the relationship established among the aforementioned variables (emotional intelligence, occupational stress, job performance). A quantitative approach is adopted and a case study strategy is employed due to the fact that the research focuses on investigating a phenomenon which is frequently encountered in the real context of today’s organizations. Thus, a single-case study analysis is used and a survey based on a questionnaire is developed among 55 employees from the administration department of ING Bank Romania (Bucharest). The hypotheses are tested using partial least square - structural equations modeling and the results prove that in the Romanian banking institutions: (i) there is a negative relationship between employees’ emotional intelligence and the occupational stress; and (ii) there is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. At the theoretical level, the present study extends the theory from the human resources management field by proposing a model for evaluating the relationships established among emotional intelligence, occupational stress and job performance in the Romanian banking financial system. At a practical level, it increases managers’ understanding regarding the factors that influence employees’ performance and it provides several strategic directions that could be taken into account for future improvement.</abstract>

National University of Political Studies and Public Administration

Emotional Intelligence, Occupational Stress and Job Performance in the Romanian Banking System: A Case Study Approach

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In this paper, we have covered many of the roles that banks play in the financial system. Banks act as delegated monitors that ensure that economic agents allocate their resources effectively, thus leading to the sustainable development of entrepreneurship. Moreover, they also play an important role in sharing risks in the economy and protecting economic agents against market fluctuations through various means such as financial derivatives. These are the positive aspects of the roles of banks, but it should be noted that the way banks act to ensure an acceptable rate of return can cause fragility and instability throughout the financial system. In fact, banks are most often at the center of financial crises, as in the case of the global financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007. Banks may even contribute to spreading the negative effects of these financial crises because small shocks can have major effects on the financial system and economy. Banks also play an important role by facilitating the access of economic agents to financing and contributing to the development of the economy. In addition, they are important for good corporate governance, especially in countries such as Germany where bankers hold positions on the boards of private companies and can represent more shareholders in voting decisions.</abstract>

The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Challenges for Banking Services in the Knowledge Economy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge entropy processes within organizations and how they are reflected in the knowledge management and organizational intellectual capital. Entropy is a very powerful concept, which can be found today in almost any branch of science and technology. It was introduced by Rudolf Clausius in 1865 in Thermodynamics, then used in the communication theory by Claude Shannon, and expanded by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen in economics. However, dues to its extensive use in so many different research domains, the concept of entropy became fuzzy and sometimes misleading in applications. Also, its statistical formulations based on the Boltzmann theory made the entropy understanding rather difficult and its interpretations on the edge of coherence. Knowledge entropy is an extension of information entropy and used within the framework of knowledge management. Our conceptual analysis aims to shed light on the appropriate use of knowledge entropy and its potential in knowledge management research and practice. Since knowledge entropy is associated to all transformational processes in knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge loss, we may say that knowledge management can be interpreted as the process of managing knowledge entropy within organizations.</abstract>

Exploring Knowledge Entropy in Organizations

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Due to the accelerated pace with which developments in information and communications technology are taking place, digital society and the digital economy have become real and, in turn, are generating specific challenges. In this environment, digital skills and competencies are essential in order to achieve professional success and the personal development of any individual. Through this paper, we aim to bring to light the basic concepts in the field of digital technology and at the same time, the topical implications on the educational processes. The main objective of the paper is to reflect the impact of digitalization on the education sector both in the European context and in Romania. The importance of the topic under consideration can be justified with many arguments, but we will mainly appeal to the need to meet the objectives proposed by the 2020 Strategy in the field of education, research and development at European level and in Romania. Considering the previous premises, in the paper, we will present information about the concepts of digitalization and digitization and the implications in the field of education. The realization of this paper is based on the study of the specialized literature, of the official documents published by the European Commission offices and of the statistics issued by the specialized bodies.</abstract>

„Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava

Impact of Digitalization on Education in the Knowledge Economy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Real Estate development organizations are vulnerable to crises' events due to the complexity of the external environment, internal structure, and operation systems. This paper aims to present, analyze, and compare between two proposed approaches for managing development crises based on system dynamics methodology. Twenty crises' scenarios are identified in order to be utilized in the analysis process of two approaches. These approaches are the conceptual approach and the scenario-based approach. The conceptual approach provides a framework to manage crises in a broad manner using Mitroff's model. The scenario-based approach uses crisis event characteristics to specify its containment policy. The crises' characteristics are identified by analyzing courses with time, classifying attributes, and specifying archetypes. The outcome of the analysis process for both approaches should guide developers and upgrade the quality of their decision in selecting adequate containment policies.</abstract>

Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering

System Dynamics Approaches in Managing Real Estate Development Crises: Conceptual versus Scenario-Based

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The internet market in Albania is expanding and new Internet service providers have grown significantly. Improving competition in this market relies on understanding why customers choose a particular service provider. This research paper aims to investigate and understand how a range of factors impact the customers’ perceptions to choose their internet service provider. It explores the factors affecting customer’s decision by using a quantitative method via a questionnaire survey. For identifying behavioral factors, a survey was conducted face to face. The structured questionnaire assessed the users’ perceptions and opinions in choosing an internet provider. The target population consisted of individual internet users at the household level who have fixed internet access at home. This paper presents the variables that influence consumers purchase decision by reviewing key factors in the sector and identifies consumer patterns in purchasing Internet Service Provider (ISPs). The findings of the research showed that brand image is the most influential factor in the selection of ISPs. In order to gain new customers, internet providers have to take into consideration the company’s image as a critical factor to the consumer decision-making, followed by the information disposed to customers and the risk associated to the service provider. The research provided high-speed internet providers in Albania insights on how to gain new customers and enhance competitiveness</abstract>

Identifying Key Factors Affecting Customer’s Decision-Making of Internet Service Providers in Albania

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Many famous intellectuals, artists and writers stress various positive aspects of reading. Scientific research in medicine and psychology also prove the positive outcomes of reading. Therefore, it is not a surprise that books are highly valued by societies. Nevertheless, book reading seems to be a rarity in some societies. Although reading is beneficial, the book market is not flourishing in many countries, including Romania. The present paper sets a framework for developing marketing strategies that could be used by Romanian publishers to attract more readers. The methodology comprises two parts. A first section is dedicated to the Romanian book market. Investigating its specificity helps us pinpoint the references for successful marketing strategies. The second part is based on the analysis of the scarce literature on marketing in the book industry in order to identify key aspects and vulnerabilities of marketing strategy in this sector.</abstract>

alexandra.zbuchea@facultateademanagement.ro

How to Sell a Book? Insights from Romania

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. 