Country Experiences in Economic Development, Management and Entrepreneurship

The paper studies trade in goods between the European Union (EU) and 54 African countries and between four Asian countries (China, India, Japan, and South Korea) and Africa over the period from 2000 to 2013. The analysis is based on the data retrieved from the UN Comtrade Database. The EU is a major trading partner for Africa. However, its role in Africa’s trade has been declining since the beginning of the global crisis. On the other hand, a significant increase in Asia-Africa trade has been observed. Since 2006, bilateral trade of four Asian countries with 34 Africa’s least developed countries (LDCs) have been surpassing trade of the EU with Africa’s LDCs. Both, the European Union and Asian countries combine trade policy with development policy.

Central Asian region includes five Former Soviet Union republics such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. All countries follow totally different national development strategies. While Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic are outward looking and the most integrated to world economy, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan keep isolationism policy. Since 1991 many Preferential Trade Agreements have been signed in Central Asia. However, the countries could cooperate in only a few areas. Majority of these agreements led to more conflicts and contradictions, which became the beginning of Central Asian disintegration. All countries of the region in their trade policies have largely followed the path of policy autonomy. Thus, this paper analyzes the impact of integration agreements on the regional trade and economy of Central Asia with the special focus on Kazakhstan. The paper also covers the analysis of possible impact of the newly created Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Central Asian countries, taking into consideration that Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic are the member countries of EAEU.

The paper is studying Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—integration grouping, through the prism of trade regionalism and the concept of two-speed. Author provided an indicatory analysis in order to embrace different dimensions of development gap between ASEAN-6 (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) and CLMV (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam), while pointing out the context of convergence and perspectives of narrowing the distance successfully. A special emphasis was put on the context of competitive mega-regional projects of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with overlapping memberships of four ASEAN states, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Author attempts to draw implications of eventual successful establishment of two trade blocks led by the United States on the one side, and China on the other, including the threat of internal decomposition of ASEAN and division into pro-TPP and pro-RCEP coalitions, while affecting ASEAN’s centralist role in Asian regionalism. Two-speed ASEAN was studied both in economic and political terms in this matter, while Vietnam was recognized as prospective member of the ASEAN’s core operating at higher speed.

Interdependence, which is a consequence of the international division of labor and use of the world’s natural resources, increases at the global level. Macroeconomic indicators of each country are more exposed to shocks arising in the country and in partner countries. In this paper, we propose a model of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) of many countries. For each country, the variables of output, inflation, interest rate, exchange rate, terms of trade, as well as exports and imports for each pair of countries are included in the model. In accordance with the number of countries the model contains equations of dynamic IS and New Keynesian Phillips curves and equations of monetary policy. The estimation of the model was implemented for the economies of Kazakhstan, Russia and the EU. An asymmetrical interaction of large and small economies is taken into account. The analysis of the impact of internal and external shocks on the macroeconomic variables is performed for each country/region. Responses of indicators on various shocks are obtained. For example, a positive technology shock in the country leads to the negative reaction of output, inflation and interest rate variables, as well as having a positive impact on imports and the negative impact on exports in each partner country. Cost-push as well as monetary policy shocks reduce imports and increase exports, and this is also observed for a couple of countries where there is no such a shock. It is revealed that the value of the response does matter to the size of the economy. The model allows analyzing the effects of the macroeconomic policies of trading partners to the fluctuations of the various shocks. The model can be extended in various directions.

Creative industries are of constantly growing significance both on national level as well as when comparing competitiveness internationally. While creative industries are an often used term, different concepts of it still exist, varying from country to country. In this paper we aim to compare and measure the role of creative industries in economic development of two culturally and historically similar countries, Lithuania and Latvia. We find that though concepts of the creative industries in both countries are alike, certain differences are present. Impact of creative industries on economic development is measured through its role in employment and GDP. In addition to measuring creative industries role on national level, impact on economic development is compared between the selected countries.

Nowadays the opinion that there are other essential factors except capital, labor and access to technology as in Solow model is quite widespread. In this way many economists and scientists consider institutional environment as one of the key elements that form countries’ socio-economic development. This work is aimed to develop the empirical case that economic development in the resources intensive use economies depends on institutions. The role of institutions is not the same in every group of resources intensive use economies that we divided them according their level of income. In the paper, we investigate the institutions influence on economic development of resources intensive use economies according different level of income. Our analysis reveals the increasing influence of institutional variables on the economic growth in accordance with the rise of income.

International competitiveness is frequent topic in the world’s economic literature. Nowadays, attention is also drawn to the efficiency of the economy in addition to a comparative analysis of economies. The paper presents different approaches of competitiveness and efficiency of the economy and their measurement. The study carried out an analysis of one of the major factors of competitiveness of economies—innovation. Calculations were performed using the method of DEA.

In the last two decades world economy has seen an extensive inflow of foreign direct investment into economic development of countries. More and more countries are competing with each other to attract this investment as an alternative economic growth accelerator. Thus it is important to understand the values and factors determining the choices of investors. The aim of this study is to identify the main determinants which have impact on foreign direct investments in European Union member states. The important issue is structural investments in the economy of member states. Current research on this topic indicates the correlation among intensity of structural support and foreign direct investments flow to the economies of member states. Panel data analysis of European Union member states is performed in this paper. It shows that macroeconomic development, trade and other economic indicators are related with foreign direct investments inflows to European Union member states. Also, the regulatory framework of European Union is evaluated in terms of structural investments flows. The impact of foreign direct investments inflows on economic growth on the economies of European Union countries and the impact of European structural support attracting foreign direct investments are investigated in this article.

The main goal of the article is to present diversified roles of government in case of different economies, which nowadays play big role in the global economy. For this purpose, a general concept of the role of government in economy is illustrated, after which the variances and similarities of state interventionism in the United States, Germany, Japan and China are presented. The article presents an evaluation of state activity in the studied countries, using inter alia The Global Competitiveness Report, World Competitiveness Report and Human Development Index. Main research methods are comparative analysis and historical case studies used to present role of government in studied countries. The analysis shows a clear gap between market economies and state capitalism. China is being classified as efficient-driven economy, as opposed to the USA, Germany and Japan, which are classified under innovation-driven economies. China records good score for economic performance, but government and business efficiency are assessed poorly. The greatest challenges for the Chinese economy are: limited access to financing, inflation, policy instability, inefficient government bureaucracy and corruption. Summarizing China accomplishes good results in terms of economic indicators, but the economy is inefficient and doesn’t achieve the social goal of providing a good quality of life.

Relying on neo-institutionalism methodological approach paper analyzes contradictions of development of civil society as economic actor in Georgia and its socioeconomic results in post-soviet transformation. Paper reveals imperfections of civil society displayed in social, political and economic characteristics: low quality of externality internalization—absence of agreed labor division between state and civil society; poor abilities of equalization of bargaining power—accomplishment of individual’s representative functions by organizations with insignificant resources does not strengthen individuals bargaining positions. Paper discusses: submissive role of society in triad “state–business–civil society”; negligible amount of relational goods supply caused by concentration of civil society organizations in capital city; their closed, elite-corporate character; low level of investment in social capital by citizens; society dominated by participants and not by servants; non-existence of middle class which represents mostly life style than social group; free-rider problem; elite character of institutional transformation and passive role of society which caused transformation of institutions into club goods. Research showed that in Georgia vertical social contracts were developed and state spread “principle of hierarchy” over economic and public relations. Only strengthening of civil society can initiate new social contract where society will become an active participant of institutions controlling process.

Taxes are on one side the burden of both companies and individuals, so called tax payers, while on the other hand are also important source for every public budget. This article is focused on analysis of price elasticity of selected commodities, or more precisely, on the analysis where the opinions of the respondents of the questionnaire on the price changes of selected commodities are to find. Analyzed issue is part of broader context which is solved within the project of specific research of team from Department of Economics, University of Hradec Králové. The aim of this project is to identify the key factors of tax incidence and their scope according the different groups of inhabitants. The main aim of this particular article is to verify the basic hypothesis that the decrease of VAT rates will eventually lead into the increase of VAT collection, and vice versa. However, the results of obtained questionnaires show that this hypothesis has to be denied. More information can be found within the text of this article.

The article concerns the economic and legal aspects of crime of forgery in France. The main goal of the article is to highlight the negative consequences of this phenomenon for the French economy and problems with his regulation. Due to the varied forms of forgery (e. g. counterfeiting credit cards, clothes, medicines, food, luxury goods), the French legislature decided on penalization, not only in the Penal Code, but also in Monetary and Financial Code, or in the Code of Consumption. Statistical data contained in the paper (for the period of 2005–2010) clearly shows that the phenomenon of counterfeiting is one of the most important economic problems in France, considering its steady, strong growth in almost all sectors of the economy. Thus, it is clear that making active efforts to fight against this pathology (especially by the Police, Military Police, as well as by specialized organizations, for instance Direction Génerale des Douanes et Droits indirects) does not bring the expected results. Considering the scale of the counterfeiting of products, we can assume that presented in the paper indicators are only estimates and are much lower than actual data.

There are acute problems of income inequality and poverty around the world. In each particular case, it is important to study the causes and to develop mechanisms for their elimination. In Kazakhstan there have been many attempts to study poverty, but there have not been studies of groups near poverty or at risk of becoming impoverished. This paper presents a model of classifying the population into four groups according to two factors: income and quality of life. The study of each group’s profile can assist in the development of an effective social policy strategy on the basis of targeted support for each group through the consideration of their needs. It could help Kazakhstan to resolve issues of poverty and income inequality and increase the level and quality of life of the population.

In this work we have achieved an empirical estimation for the growth experiences in MENA regions, from 1990 to 2010, by measuring the spatial effects that is related to corruption and geography. We use the institution quality index corruption control (CORR) to measure the absolute location effect owing to country specific institution. We use the latitude of country’s centroid to measure the absolute location effect owing to geography (GEO). The spatial diagnostics indicates that there is a spatial autocorrelation. The obtained results indicate that we have to use the spatial error model rather than the spatial lag model. These effects have been modeled by using spatial error model and by using a spatial weight matrix. In this framework, the corruption control is strongly and positively related to the economic growth rate than the geography. The control of corruption has a dominant role than geographical factor to determine the growth in MENA region. The obtained result confirms the primacy of institutions over geography.

Climate change is one of the greatest contemporary threats to our planet’s environmental, social and economic well-being, accompanied by major changes in life support systems on Earth, where the far-reaching effects will be felt in the coming decades.The purpose of the article is present general model of weather risk management in the company. To emphasize the importance of the topic at the begging the article presents consequences of climate change from economic, society and environmental point of view. Next there is showed how European Union as an organization deal with this phenomenon and how many organizations in the word deal with consequences of climate change. The article describes also financial solution for the company to minimize negative impacts of weather. Comparing conducted adaptation to climate change in Poland and in other European countries it can be noted that despite the growing awareness of the negative impact of weather among Polish enterprises and state institutions, there remains a lack of appropriate weather risk analysis, decision support models, and means to assess the effectiveness of measures implemented so far in response to climate change adaptation. To assist Polish companies in adapting to progressive climate change it is necessary to create databases about the damages caused by extreme weather events. There should be also studies showing what percentage of the Polish economy (GDP) depends on the weather conditions.

Market failures which have a significant share in the collapse of the free market economy reveal the necessity of government intervention. Market failures like moral hazard, asymmetric information and externalities have put an end to free market economy in many countries. In this study will be placed on externalities the reasons for market failures and environmental taxes are used as a means of prevention these externalities. The main objective of the study is the role of environmental taxes in the prevention of environmental pollution. Thesis of this study is to reach the target; alternative methods are to locate analyzing the effectiveness of environmental taxes.

The aim of this article is to analyze the tax burden on labor in the Czech Republic. It is obvious that the size of tax burden has the impact both on the labor force and on the incomes of state budget. The text primarily focuses on the comparison of tax burden on labor entrepreneurs and employees. The authors are using the method of comparison, while the results of tax burden for fictitious persons with different incomes are calculated according to current legislation. The analysis shows gradual decline of tax burden together with the growing inequality of its distribution in different forms of labor. Although the Czech government declares the support of development of small and medium entrepreneurship, the biggest decline has occurred in the tax burden of legal persons. The analysis illustrates that the most important factor determining the unequal levels of tax burden is the size of contribution on social and health insurance. Such type of analysis has not been done in the conditions of the Czech Republic before and the conclusions resulting from this article could be used both by responsible persons as a background for political decisions and by other academics for further analyses.

The article concerns the question of the independence of regulatory authorities against the principle of fair competition in the social market economy, in which the concept of the state as the sole sovereign in the sphere of the economy, who centrally manages business processes, is rejected. In a democratic state of law, activities of national regulatory authorities are coherently coupled with the duty of compliance and implementation by those authorities of fundamental principles relating to freedom of economic activity. These rules oblige the authorities to behaviors which are a sign of respect for the fundamental rights of economic operators. It must be remembered that such rules should include fair competition. The Member States of the European Union are required to guarantee the independence of national regulatory authorities that should be legally separate from any other public or private entity. In turn, the independence contributes to the development of the economy of the country concerned and market efficiency. In the countries of the European Union, the legislators should introduce juridical mechanisms concerning greater transparency in the activities of national regulatory authorities that eliminate the conflict of interest which jeopardizes the independence. Only an independent body can guarantee the said—fair competition.

The main purpose of this article is to indicate interconnections that exist between the individual phases of money laundering, which is one of the most complex economic phenomena. The initial phase of money laundering involves the preparation of the discussed practices, primarily through the deployment of capital acquired from illegal sources (for example through the transfer of capital abroad—this practice helps reduce the risk of detection of money laundering). Among the methods of capital transfers, we can point the following: smuggling, transfer of luxury goods, electronic transfers (Hawala system—an underground banking system) or cyber-laundering. The second stage of money laundering involves the so-called placement, which is accomplished through the introduction of illegal means of payment into the financial system primarily by placing them on bank accounts. The third phase is referred to as layering and is done by hiding the actual source of the money that is transferred to bank accounts deployed in different banks or countries (double placement) with the participation of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system. The last step is integration (legalization), which consists in the final legalization of the money.

The marketing of products in EU Member States is subject to EU protection of the free flow of goods. The free flow of goods regulated in Art. 34-36 TFEU, one of the fundamental principles of the European Union and an instrument in materializing a functioning of the single market (Art. 26 TFEU and Art. 3(3) TEU), in its objective scope encompasses protection of the import and export of goods, commercialization of goods, and their use. This results directly from the contents of Art. 34 and Art. 35 TFEU and from decades of unusually rich case law from the Court of Justice, which has recently began to openly declare that this protection is also afforded to activities and processes consisting in the use (application) of products by consumers. Analysis of Court of Justice case law in precisely this scope will be the subject matter addressed in the deliberations undertaken. At the same time, the deliberations will also discuss legal means of effectively justifying domestic regulations prohibiting or limiting trade which potentially violate the principle of the free flow of goods.

The research problem consists in explaining the motives and conditions of the process of economic integration within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). It is aimed at clarifying the effects and experiences resulting from this process. The author discusses the possible quantifiable effects of the EEU, the influence of this structure on the economies and economic development of the Member States. On the other hand, it is pointed out that the EU makes an impact on the geoeconomic space of particular countries (mainly Russia). Since it is very difficult to investigate the EEU from the angle of trade effects, this article examines the EEU in the internal and external contexts and attempts to answer the question of how the EEU is in line with the changes taking place in Eurasia as a result of the New Silk Road.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze medical savings accounts in the context of their potential use to finance private health care expenses incurred by individuals in Poland. A medical savings account (MSA) represents a financing mechanism which relies on the accumulation of personal savings to cover the costs of health care services at the time of consumption. With the use of actuarial methods an attempt was made to estimate the amount of the MSA contribution based on the discounted value of a person’s health care expenses, age, gender, and investment variants. In the analysis, statistical data from representative household budget surveys conducted by the Central Statistical Office of Poland was used. The obtained results confirm that a medical savings account can be used to finance personal out-of-pocket health care expenses; however it requires systematic and long-term saving for health purposes. Age and gender of an MSA holder have the greatest impact on the amount of contribution, as these factors determine mortality rates and the length of the discounting period. From the individual’s perspective, MSA application requires this financing instrument to be taken into account in decisions related to the intertemporal choice between consumption and saving.

The research objective was to evaluate if the matching function is subject to seasonal variation on Polish labor market. The analysis was conducted with a help of matching function parameters calculated for each month. The research leveraged data on monthly outflow from the unemployment pool and the number of vacancies in Poland from 2000 to 2013. All variables were subject to distinct seasonality patterns. The number of vacancies was characterized by the highest seasonal variation, whereas the lowest variation was observed for the number of registered unemployed persons. Moreover the matching function was enhanced with a binary variable describing periods of increase and decrease in unemployment. The analysis indicated a clear yearly pattern in elasticity coefficients in the matching function. The pattern was similar both elasticity coefficients (outflow from the unemployment pool and the number of vacancies). The highest values were reached during winter months and the lowest during summer months. Similar pattern was observed with regards to returns to scale. Increasing returns to scale were observed between December and May and decreasing returns between June and October. The results indicated a distinct seasonal variation in matching function related to seasonal variation on Polish labor market.

This paper investigates the effect of the minimum wage on the labor market outcomes of foreign-born workers, natives and non-Europeans. We test this impact by using panel data on 20 European countries from 2002 to 2013, and running two major empirical models. We apply several econometric approaches and control for several independent variables such as education, employment in specific sectors, and some of the macroeconomic indicators. We find that the employment effect is insignificant for the three subgroups. Moreover, we find that the earnings of foreign-born workers are positively affected by an increase in the minimum wage. These findings are consistent with previous empirical work done in the U.S. The effect of the minimum wage on the average earnings of natives in European countries is positive and highly significant as well. This is inconsistent with previous empirical work done on skilled and unskilled non-immigrants in the U.S. Other than that, we notice that in the long run, the effect of minimum wage on earnings of the three subgroups remains positive, but is slightly negative on the employment of these subgroups, suggesting the possible existence of labor market rigidities.

EU Directives regarding public procurement regulate domestic procedures in terms of awarding public procurement contracts, the aim of which is to open up public procurement proceedings to competition through detailed regulation of the procedures of their awarding as part of the European Union. There are, however, some groups of public procurement contracts to which the mentioned Directives do not apply at all. Yet even then those Directives, if not limited by the principles included in the EU Directives, are still subject to the basic principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the principles they introduced. One of them is the principle of transparency which consists in the obligation to publicize a public procurement notice ahead along with appropriate information regarding its object and conditions. The information included in these notices allow business entities of the European Union to decide whether they are interested in the procurement, which shall foster the development of effective competition in the field of public procurement. The goal of the paper is to present the area of implementation of the principle of transparency in the field of public procurement and the legal possibilities of its avoidance. The questions specified above shall be discussed here on the basis of judicial decisions of the European Court of Justice and doctrinal analysis.

Alibaba Group is the world biggest global electronic marketplace(GEM) in relation tousers and the main Chinese e-Commerce company operating in B2B. It offers a virtual marketplace and connects medium and small size enterprises (SMEs) in China and around the world. Before the company came along, B2B electronic markets in China were not developed. Some obstacles prevent the company to grow. Business structures were very costly and inadequate for local SME in China, the corporate culture did not promote the innovation of IT and trust and confidence were obstacles to the promotion of e-business in China. Equally, since 1990 the population of internet has raised thanks to ITC. The Chinese economic Reform and the new policy increased foreign direct investments. E-Business was an opportunity to have success. In this scenery, Alibaba looked the necessities of the SMEs and supported them to compete domestically and globally. In this paper, we firstly analyze Alibaba’s development and its Business model. Next, I will show through a qualitative research method, the factors of Alibaba’s success over time and its main business strategies.

Successful development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), ability of entrepreneurs to recognize and use of key factors of successful grow are a foundation for the progress of a modern economy. In economic science there is a set of the theoretical approaches explaining business success, beginning from the labor theory of value and Schumpeter’s theory of innovators. The article contains results of the conducted research of success of SME in Russia. According to the interview result of 250 heads of SME enterprises (carried out in autumn of 2014), it is revealed that the key success factors are human resources, professional and personal qualities of employees and enterprise abilities of management. This statement is in a conflict with the widespread point of view about rent character of the Russian economy. At the same time, according to the results of research, payment for human resources is at a low level that significantly reduces possibility of their effective usage. It is established that there is no one-to-one association between success of enterprises and payment for labor. Dependence between success and ratio compensation of heads and employees was also analyzed. The interrelation of spending share of employee labor payment as well as remuneration share of heads in enterprises revenue and their success was analyzed. The drawn conclusions make it possible to expand ideas of positive potential changes in the environment of small and medium-sized business in the Russian economy.

The purpose of this article is to provide the research results of the economic external factors influencing on success of small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia. Economic factors were researched from the point of view of the subjects of environment influence. The state, institutes for business, financial institutions, business institutes, society, higher education institutions and scientific research institutes are among these subjects. In this paper we emphasized the research of the state, its state institutes giving support to small and medium business in Russia now. In this research the data of macroeconomic statistics presented by the Federal portal of small and medium business of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and also data of information portal and electronic services of Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation were used. In the course of data processing general scientific methods of research were used: comparative analysis, graphic analysis, synthesis, group, generalization. The following results are received. Firstly, the state influences through such departments as the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, JSC “MSP Bank”, and also through Federal Tax Service. Secondly, it was found out that implementation of federal and regional support programs of SME, carried out by these departments, acts as economic factors of influence. Thirdly, it was found out that the Federal Tax Service has impact on success of small and medium-sized enterprises through tax burden, taxation rates and tax advantages. The received results will allow estimating the extent of influence of economic factors from the point of view of each subject of influence on success indicators of small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia in further researches.

The lack of funding often becomes a crucial factor of development in early stages of entrepreneurship, despite the existence of innovative ideas and properly developed business plans. Although start-ups objectively should not be target clients of the banks, the most part of credit institutions publicly promote special loans and support programs for new entrepreneurs. The aim of the research is to study the real feasibility of start-ups to attract bank funds and compare with alternative sources such as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) landing. To verify the possibility to attract bank funding the control experiments were carried out in several Latvia’s financial Institutions. It was shown that bank funding in start-up phase of entrepreneurship in practice is not likely possible. The main reasons of rejections were identified. Analysis of different forms and models of collective financing marketplaces showed that crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending becomes a good alternative to traditional sources of funding. A survey of new entrepreneurs has been done to detect the main problems of funding. The lack of sufficient knowledge of new entrepreneurs about potential sources of financing, including crowdfunding and P2P landing, was found. The comparison of collective financing platforms and formal sources of funding in early stages of entrepreneurship was done.

The article discusses the gender inequalities in entrepreneurship opportunities in Georgian reality. It represents the analysis of existing quantitative and qualitative studies with regard gender inequalities. Desk research method is used to discuss the research question—what is the extent of gender inequalities in work and employment in Post-soviet Georgia. As statistical evidence and rigorous studies conducted by researchers and non-governmental organizations suggested gender inequalities in employment, education and income distributions still prevails in Georgia. Not all groups in society have equal access to employability and entrepreneurial opportunities. Majority in Georgia formally shares the idea of gender equality. Certain percentage of population is in favor of traditional distribution of the gender roles. To overcome the disparity gap between men and women in social life effective mechanism such a quoting is needed. In many developed countries quoting usually is the standard in modern society. Unfortunately the gender hierarchy is still top issue in Georgian families, in political as well as in business space. Women’s Entrepreneurship is effected by existing stereotypes as entrepreneurship is a largely a product of environment rat. Social values, culture, government policies, the political system, technology, economic conditions, customs and laws influence entrepreneurship.

After a review of the existing literature, the research aims to analyze the information emerging from corporate governance reports in 2015, in reference to the year 2014, which the companies prepare as part of information provided annually to the market. The sample for analysis is the group of companies belonging to the Ftse Italy Star Italian Stock Exchange. The research has shown, as the first element in the survey, that nearly all of the companies have created a dedicated function or outsourced the internal audit activity. The second major finding from the analysis is that in most companies the function depends hierarchically on the board. The third point analyzed concerns the figure of responsible for Internal Auditing, as established by the Code of Conduct; it replaces the person responsible for internal control and risk management. The analysis showed that almost all the companies have attributed the tasks and responsibilities of the person responsible for internal control to the Head of the Internal Audit Department, due to the coincidence of the operating environments of the two figures and the strong synergies between the two roles. The last point analyzed covers the case where the internal auditing department is decentralized or, on the contrary, remains within the company. The results showed a substantial range of companies chose not to outsource the function.

New technologies have changed the structure of companies shifting the focus of creating value from material resources to intangibles. The competitive advantage is increasingly reliant on the presence of specific intangibles such as knowledge, experience, communication skills that are the main source of competitive advantage. Among the intangibles based on knowledge, intellectual capital certainly occupies a prominent place. In recent years the increasing complexity that characterized the business management influenced companies to adopt new models of reporting and accounting, taking into account issues and intangible factors not considered so far with the right attention. The objective of this work, starting with a review of the existing literature on intellectual capital, intends not only to identify the most important intangibles within enterprises and classify them according to the three blocks which intellectual capital is divided (human capital, structural and relational capital), but also to show a number of indicators that can help them measure. Therefore the aim of the work is to build an integrated framework containing appropriate intellectual capital indicators useful to represent and measure this resource within companies. The sample is made up of the Italian companies listed on the stock exchange operating in different sectors, for the period 2011–2014.

Hospital, as an object implementing the ABC method has a more complex structure of output (services), users, activities and financial flow from ordinary production company. Making appropriate cost structures, the structure of business processes and cost drivers requires detailed knowledge and study of the processes within the hospital system for the application of ABC methods at the organizational level. Detailed knowledge of the hospital system will help the management of hospitals in use of limited resources and in savings with the constant rising costs of health care services. The key objective of this paper is to show possible model regarding ABC implementation in healthcare institution in Republic of Croatia based on business processes. The model has identified internal business processes and associated costs incurred attributable to provided services in a public hospital. The paper is presenting field research, snap shots of business processes and employee interviews and analysis of accounting data about the costs attributable to business processes.

The International Accounting Standards or the International Financial Reporting Standards implement the accounting principles that enable the achievement of the objectives of financial statement users. One of the most important principles is the fair value concept. The main purpose of the paper is to investigate and analyse the accounting standards from the point of implementation of fair value concept as required or permitted accounting policy for measurement and valuation of economic categories. Also, the aim of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the information about the fair value of assets and liabilities for financial statement users. The paper critically evaluates the accounting standards with special reference to the application of fair value accounting in order to serve the interests of financial statement users. The research results show that different financial statement users have different interests, which means that the implementation of fair value concept contributes to achieving the interests of only individual financial statement users, while the interests of other financial statement users have not been fulfilled. The above shows that the implementation of fair value concept leads to the fulfilment of the objectives of only a certain number of financial statement users. Also, the research results indicate that the implementation of fair value concept has significant influence on the qualitative characteristics of accounting information.

This paper is dealing with the importance of business processes regarding costs tracking and cost management in healthcare institutions. Various changes within the health care system and funding of hospitals require the introduction of management information systems and cost accounting. The introduction of cost accounting in public hospitals would allow the planning and control of costs, monitoring of costs per patient or service and the calculation of indicators for the analysis and assessment of the economic performance of the business of public hospitals and lead to the transparency of budget spending. A model that would be suited to the introduction in the public hospital is full cost allocation model based on activities or processes that occur, known as the ABC method. Given that this is a calculation of cost of services provided through various internal business processes, it is important to identify all business processes in order to be able to calculate the costs incurred by services. Although the hospital does not do business with the aim to make a profit, they must follow all the costs (direct and indirect) to be able to calculate the full costs i.e. the price of the service provided. In addition, the long-term sustainability of business activities in terms of funding difficulties and the continuous growth of cost of services provided, hospitals must control and reduce the cost of the program and specific activities. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to point out the importance of business processes while introducing ABC method.

In recent years the role of public utility companies has acquired increasing relevance on account of the growing awareness of the importance of such services in the social and economic development of Italy, and on the demands of for quality and value for money by an ever more discerning public (which has brought under scrutiny the methods of traditional service providers, no longer seen as able to respond efficiently to the changing and diversified needs of society), the need to conform to EU directives and the effects of liberalization and from an internal perspective the industrial and institutional reorganization of the sector. After a description of the theoretical background, the work goes on to analyze disclosure on internet sites of the public utilities listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. Given the fundamental role played by these companies, the paper investigates the levels of total and partial disclosure and identifies the successful elements as well as those areas where improvements could be made.

During the lifetime of lease agreements, in case of lack of a specific legislative or statutory regulation, some problems can arise in their evaluation. In some circumstances, the assessments can be inferred by analogy, using similar regulated contract; however, disputes that are at the boundary between law and financial calculation can spring up when coming to assessment of such agreements.One of the most debated and interesting events involves the evaluation of the outstanding debt at a given epoch during the contract lifetime in the Italian legislative framework. Referring to an existing model which proposes to split the debt into three components (outstanding debt, damages and penalty); we have recently highlighted how this proposed decomposition settlement provides a simple and transparent procedure that is compatible with both financial and accounting perspective.In this paper, we extend the previous results and we show how the calculation and assessment of the components of the debt are relevant from two points of view: the owed in the course of a lawsuit; the financial accounting and reporting according to some accounting methodologies (In-balance-sheet, such as IFRS, and off-balance-sheet, such as Italian GAAP).

To increase their competitiveness, companies have to bring to the market new technologies, new products, and new solutions for services. In Latvia a company is considered innovative if it at least once in every three years develops a new competitive product or increases competitiveness of its production by introducing new technologies. These products have to be developed within the company—based on the company’s own knowledge and skill or in cooperation with research institutions. In addition, the company’s annual investment in new product or service development should be the equivalent of at least 2 % of its turnover. Access to finance is an important issue for innovative business, both in establishing a new company and the introduction of innovative products in an existing company. The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate the need for attracting financing and financing opportunities for innovative companies in Latvia. The paper includes an overview of the theoretical aspects of financial resources, including internal and external sources of financing; explains the principles of innovation; determines and analyzes different ways of innovative companies financing; and provides an insight into EU co-financed state support programmes for innovative companies. The research covers an analysis of the environment for innovation in Latvia from the point of view of the need for financing and the possibilities for companies to attract financing for innovation.

Many academicians and international investors qualify the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) as a very homogenous group of countries in terms of sovereign risk. However, the introduction of the euro and the removal of exchange rate risk in some of the CEECs, the differences in perceived sovereign credit risks, liquidity and availability of sovereign credit default swap (CDS) of the CEECs’ are the main factors influencing the changes in financial integration in the CEECs’ sovereign bond markets. The objective of this study—to assess the financial integration of the Central and Eastern European countries sovereign bond markets after the introduction of the euro. The research methods: the systemic, logical and comparative analysis of the scientific literature, price-based indicators of financial integration recommended by European Central Bank (ECB). This empirical study focuses on monthly sovereign bonds yields data for 10 CEECs: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia for a 15 year period, i.e. from 2000 to 2015. The results of this empirical study suggest that CEECs’ sovereign bond market’s fragmentation receded further; however, the fragmentation of this market still remains. The most significant increase in CEECs’ sovereign bond market fragmentation was observed during recent financial crisis. The introduction of the euro and the removal of exchange rate risk in some CEECs do not affect the convergence of government bond yields to the euro-zone level.

Loans to households, on the one hand, are an important source of financing of the household needs. On the other hand, they are a very important part of the banking loans portfolio. Depending on the aim of taking loans, loans are divided into three basic groups: housing loans, consumer loans, and other loans. Many factors (economics, demographic, financial, legal, and others) influence the development of the loans for households. The purpose of the article is to identify the economic factors which diversify the level of loans taken by households in selected European Union countries. To achieve the purpose of the article, the correlation analysis was applied to verify the statistical interdependences between the main economic indicators and the value of housing and consumer loans granted to households. The results of the study showed that only selected economic factors diversify the level of household loans. Typical macroeconomic factors turned out to be insignificant.

The “hard-easy effect” is a well-known cognitive bias on self-confidence calibration that refers to a tendency to overestimate the probability of success in hard-perceived tasks, and to underestimate it in easy-perceived tasks. This paper provides a target-based foundation for this effect, and predicts its occurrence in the expected utility framework when utility functions are S-shaped and asymmetrically tailed. First, we introduce a definition of hard-perceived and easy-perceived task based on the mismatch between an uncertain target to meet and a suitably symmetric reference point. Second, switching from a target-based language to a utility-based language, we show how this maps to equivalence between the hard-perceived target/gain seeking and the easy-perceived target/loss aversion. Third, we characterize the agent’s miscalibration in self-confidence. Sufficient conditions for acting according to the “hard-easy effect” and the “reversed hard-easy effect” biases are set out. Finally, we derive sufficient conditions for the “hard-easy effect” and the “reversed hard-easy effect” to hold. As a by-product we identify situations in enterprise risk management where misconfidence in judgments emerges. Recognizing these cognitive biases, and being mindful of to be normatively influenced by them, gives the managers a better framework for decision making.

Asset-or-nothing options are the singular payoffs options in the class of exotic options. Exotic options are a specifically attractive financial instrument due to different income structure from that provided by standard options. Asset-or-nothing option provide their holders the right to own the underlying asset if the options expire in-the-money. The article presents the properties of the asset-or-nothing option: construction of instrument, types of options, the pay-off function, the pricing model, the influence of the price of the underlying instrument on the pricing and value measures of risk (coefficients delta, gamma, vega, theta, rho). The objective of the work is to present the analysis of the impact of the underlying instrument’s price on the risk performance of the asset-or-nothing options. The empirical illustration included in the article is concerned with the pricing simulations of the currency asset-or-nothing options on EUR/USD.

Despite many similarities among the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs’) stock markets, there are some important differences in terms of markets size, development level, etc. Stock market characteristics could give an explanation for the existing differences among the global and regional integration of the CEECs’ stock markets. The objective of this study—to assess the impact of stock market development on the degree of global and regional integration of CEECs’ stock markets. The research methods: the systemic, logical and comparative analysis of the scientific literature and panel regression. The empirical results of this study suggest that the stock markets in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Croatia are most developed CEECs stock markets. The EU enlargement process, the introduction of the euro and the removal of exchange rate risk in most of the CEECs had only short lasting effect on the CEECs stock markets’. The development level of stock market (stock market size and stock market turnover) has a statistically significant positive effect on the degree of global and regional financial integration.

Life expectancy has been rapidly increasing and remains uncertain in all OECD countries, including Poland. One of the many economic and social consequences of this process is the increase of the longevity risk in social security systems. The article focuses on the issues of managing longevity risk in the pension system in Poland, in particular—the construction of public and supplementary pension systems and its ability to adapt to the challenges associated with longevity risk. The starting point for further consideration is defining individual, aggregate and total longevity risks in a pension system. Next section of the article presents the current design of the Polish pension system. On this basis, in the third part of the article, the exposure of Polish pension system to the risk of longevity has been analyzed. Particular attention has been paid to the analysis of public structures and supplementary pension schemes in the phase of payment of benefits (decumulation). The author argues that the institutional design of the payout phase of Polish pension system does not include instruments which could guarantee adequate protection against the risk of longevity. While in the public retirement system the aggregate longevity risk (mortality trend risk) exists, the participants of additional pension systems are exposed to individual longevity risk (the risk of outliving their additional pension savings). The limitation of these risks requires significant structural changes both in public and additional pension schemes in Poland.

It has been a goal of the Malaysian Government to establish Malaysia as a global halal hub. To achieve this objective, various initiatives have been undertaken which include the establishment of the Halal Master Plan, Halal Industry Development Corporation, appointment of Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) as the halal certification authority and development of a number of halal standards. This paper conceptually discusses the current legal and regulatory framework for the halal industry in Malaysia with special reference made to the Muslim Friendly Hotel sector. Reviews of various related documents demonstrate that there is a lacuna in the existence of a governance framework for the halal industry, which includes the absence of a halal standard for the Muslim Friendly Hotel sector. Another serious drawback identified in this regulatory framework is the lack of a clear and proper shari’ah governance framework for the halal industry. This paper therefore proposes that there is an urgent need for the policy makers to develop such a comprehensive halal standard for Muslim Friendly Hotels in this country. Establishing a comprehensive shari’ah governance framework for the halal Industry is inadvertently another crucial part that needs to be addressed by the relevant authorities to ensure further development of the halal industry in Malaysia. It is hoped that this paper will create alarm among the policymakers, key hotel operators, and regulatory bodies so that a more comprehensive and updated piece of shari’ah framework that governs the formation of the Muslim Friendly Hotels sector will be formulated.

One of the most important challenges of Europe, North America and Eastern Asia are the processes associated with the ageing (greying) population. The share of older people in Poland increased from 10.1 % in 1990 to 14.4 % in 2013, while in Europe the share of older people increased from 13.9 to 18.2 % between 1990 and 1992. Globally, the number of older people is expected to more than double, from 841 million people in 2013 to more than two billion in 2050. Processes associated with the ageing population will result in a steady increase of interest in long-term care services, such us residential care. On the other hand, the increasing demand for services of residential care will be caused by the fact that globally only 40 % of older people live independently. The growing demand for residential care services will be accompanied by a growing interest in the quality and innovativeness improvement. From the perspective of the development corporate social responsibility of such units, the involvement of residents seems to be crucial. This paper presents the survey research results conducted among 169 residential care units in Poland. The scientific purpose of the article is principally to examine the existing relations between two variables: staff engagement (SE) and residents’ engagement (RE) in residential care units in Poland. For this purpose, the multiple regression analysis was used.

The article analyses how housing policy is implemented in Lithuania based on the paradigm of self-management—decentralization after the restoration of independence in 1990. This is relevant because it is important to have a theoretical view of the processes in this important area of human life—housing policy—that have been happening in Lithuania for 25 years after the restoration of independence. They are directly related to the question of the quality of life of people living in a country that has freed itself from occupation. It is natural that housing policy plays quite an important role—so far it was understood in quite a narrow sense in Lithuania, i.e. most often only related to housing acquisition and disposition, and not in a much wider sense as presented in this work. On the other hand, we can see that pluralistic and civil processes are happening in a democratic country, expressed through the functioning of local communities. So when talking about a functional local community we must analyze its activities and its links with housing policy and housing in politics.

The aim of this paper is to present a model of an organizational network management system. An organizational network management system has been characterized by distinguishing three aspects: the dynamic aspect (network relationships and network management functions), the subjective aspect (network nodes), and the way of organizing the network. The characteristics of a network structures management system was preceded by the interpretation of the organizational network term in an interdisciplinary perspective.

General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10th of December, 1948. It is stated in the 2nd article of this declaration that everyone’s right to live will be protected by law. Individual’s right to live may become meaningful with the right to health granted to the individual. Existence of right to live depends on the existence of right to health. What the important is not only the life, but a healthy life. Individuals’ staying healthy, protection of individual’s right to live and right to health is only possible with effective health services. For provision of effective health services, health system should be organized well. According to World Health Organization, health system of a country should be designed in a manner that health services needed by everyone are provided at high quality. This service should be effective, affordable and socially acceptable. It is suggested that each country develops its unique health system by taking these factors into consideration. The reforms made in the health system which has undergone significant changes in recent years in Turkey and its present organization structure was analyzed in this study.

This paper reports on Generation Y students’ brand personality perceptions of the Nokia mobile phone brand. The Generation Y cohort, are the first generation to have been brought up in the mobile telephony era and, consequently, present as a salient current and future segment for mobile device manufacturers and marketers. A brand’s personality is known to increase consumers’ preference for and usage of a brand, which may result in stronger emotional ties and loyalty towards that brand and, ultimately, a sustainable competitive advantage for that brand. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data from a sample of 1822 Generation Y students aged between 18 and 24 years, registered at two South African public higher education institutions. The questionnaire comprised 66 brand personality traits of symbolic products, anchored on a five-point Likert-type scale. Participants were requested to indicate the extent to which each of those traits reflected the Nokia brand. The captured data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a t-test. The findings suggest that Generation Y students perceive the Nokia brand to be “reliable”, “trustworthy” and “intelligent”. The findings also suggest that African respondents have a notable higher brand personality perception of the Nokia brand than White respondents.

At the end of World War II, Brazil received many families of Italian immigrants. In 1960s, some of these Italian families were to glass factory segment in the city of Poços de Caldas, in Minas Gerais, inspired by the know-how of Murano Island. This qualitative research examined the history of four of these families, focusing in succession aspect; it is a multiple case study it was used a semi structured questionnaire answered by board members of companies. The interest was to seek an alignment in the succession process that can be applied in future studies in other companies, in the same segment, in other localities. The results show that two of the four companies had the first succession process started and stopped by their founders; the third company encourages its successors reconcile other activities with the core business of the organization, without the succession process has officially begun; and the fourth organization, has already started the second process of succession, with the founders and the first generation still active. The different outcomes are shown centered: the intention of the founder, artistic dependence and matching of skills of the heirs to the company’s identity.

Exploration and exploitation have been considered as two distinct activities leading to two different strategies. The ability to pursue, simultaneously, exploitation and exploration appears to be the best way to promote innovation and enhance the company’s performance. This reasoning led to the ambidexterity construct and to the ambidextrous leadership. The aim of this theoretical paper, by opposition to previous researches which claim that ambidextrous leadership is a composite of flexible leadership style, is to reveal that ambidextrous leadership is a composite of three leadership styles: flexible leadership, situational leadership and versatile leadership.

Hospitals are institutions of very high degree of complexity and they absorb significant budgetary resources. Effective management is very important for hospitals and for society as a whole. In conditions of limited financial resources, management of hospitals is extremely complex and demanding, and requires the use of high quality and timely management information. Authors analyze what information managers of public hospitals need for successful, balanced management. The aim is to explore issues of performance measurement as a basis for strategic business management of Croatian hospitals. Hospitals are under pressure to provide high quality services, while in the same time, they need to reduce costs, improve performance and increase customer satisfaction. Information on costs, prices and service fees, program goals, methods of measuring programs’ performance, financial and non-financial performance indicators are therefore extremely important for strategic business management of hospitals. This paper analyzes the ways of measuring hospital’s performance, the selection and definition of adequate performance indicators, and models of performance reports as a basis for business decisions making and the presentation of performance. Based on the analysis we propose performance report for one hospital in Croatia, a methodology of drafting the report as well as its use in decision-making process.

ICT are dramatically changing people’s lives. Industrial processes are becoming more and more intellectual, with their growing efficiency. ICT constant development and appearance of new functions are driving large-scale economic changes. Under the influence of Information Communication Technologies, relations between government, companies, and people are significantly transforming. However, practices show that ICT, having influence on economic growth and sustainable development, appear to have certain drawbacks. It is extremely important to note that their positive and negative characteristics are not only economic, but social and ecological. To maximize positive effects and neutralize drawbacks, ICT should be managed by government, businesses and societies together. The ICT market growing quickly, ICT use is expanding in businesses, public administration, and social developments. Along with these ongoing processes, there are studies which are being developed at both the national and region levels in Russia. This paper describes the mutual influence between businesses and ICT in Russia. This paper aims at considering the main trends and major consequences of these interactions, as well as how to study them. It does so from theoretical researches in this area as well as domestic and international practices.

This paper reports on Generation Y students’ brand personality perceptions of the Toyota motor car brand. Motor cars are highly conspicuous consumption items that imbue a significant amount of symbolic meaning. Brand personality has been identified as one of the pivotal components of the symbolic attributes assigned to a brand and something that has proved as a useful tool for differentiating a brand from its competitors. The purpose of this study was to determine the Generation Y university students’ brand personality perceptions of the Toyota motor car brand. For the study, a sample of 356 Generation Y students aged between 18 and 24 years, registered at the campuses of two South African public higher education institutions was taken. A self-reporting questionnaire consisting of 66 brand personality traits of symbolic products, anchored on a five-point Likert-type scale was used to collect the required data. The gathered data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results suggest that in South Africa, Generation Y students perceive the Toyota motor car brand to be “responsible”, “outdoorsy” and “tough”. These findings suggest that this cohort perceives the Toyota motor car brand as being distinctly masculine and reliable.

Extensive use and adaptation of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices determined growing popularity of mobile applications among consumers. The popularity of mobile applications is closely related to the changes of consumer needs and behaviour. Moreover, the usage of mobile applications has a potential for the development of consumer engagement state through the creation of the exceptional experience. Consumer engagement in the usage of mobile applications may have an impact on consumers’ loyalty and intentions to recommend and repetitively use mobile application. Mobile applications should enable consumer engagement resulting in beneficial consumers’ solutions for enterprises. Considering results of the prior researches in this area, it is known that the main factor determining decision not to use mobile application (to delete or reject it) is a poor usability. Poor usability of mobile applications can be a result of different reasons including an inadequate selection of the aspects of mobile application ignoring consumers’ usage goals. Therefore, this paper aims to identify key aspects of mobile applications that potentially have an impact on its usage and consumer engagement. The paper proposes a theoretical framework that integrates aspects of mobile application affecting applications’ usability and, therefore, consumer engagement, and consequences of it. The framework is based on the overview of conceptual and empirical studies of consumer engagement in a mobile environment, aspects of the mobile application and mobile applications’ user’s typology.

The aim of this publication is to diagnose problems related to human resource management in regional nongovernmental organizations and to identify their hierarchy. The research was carried out on a group of 13 regional nongovernmental organizations active on the tourism market, which were selected from a population of 64 entities in north-eastern Poland. The research applied the survey method where three layers of human resources were examined, i.e. employees, members of the organizations and volunteers. After a hierarchy of the indicated problems had been identified, it was demonstrated that the greatest problems included: the low activity of members of the organizations and a shortage of time for matters related to the activities of the organizations (62 % of respondents complained about it). The annoying factors also included the poor involvement of volunteers (46 %), members (39 %) and employees (31 %). The results indicate that regional NGOs have to cope with different problems related to human resource management; therefore, this problem should be explored on an in-depth basis and guidance should be developed for these organizations. First of all, the results of the research and the recommendations made in the article should be used in practice by persons who manage regional nongovernmental organizations.

Creative people are acknowledged as the main economic growth enhancing force. The success of talent management as well as organizational growth and competitiveness heavily relies on managers understanding of creativity and its growing importance within organizations. This research aims to highlight the social representations and attitudes towards employee creativity within workplace. The paper aims to determine whether the dominant social perceptions about creativity in Latvia coincide with scientific theories by testing the presence of nine widespread creativity myths. The sample of this research (n = 124) consists of managers or human resources managers and specialists. The structured questionnaire measures social representations in six domains: creativity definition; creativity in organizations; characteristics of creative personality; behavior, communication and thinking patterns of a creative person; motivation of creative person. The results of research indicate that Latvian human resources managers and specialists’ social representations are grounded on academic theories, however only partly—some of the myths are still present. Social representations of three dimensions of creativity (definitions, creative personality) are not in line with major theoretical assumptions. Practices relating creativity within organizations are almost aligned with latest theoretical developments.

At crisis times advertising is a strategic priority for Italian Performing Arts. Both the marketing and the fundraising effort, they are maximized in order to exploit willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-donate. If these efforts are maximized, increasing Advertising Expense and Intangible Assets positively affect Revenues, Gains and Net Assets. We clustered a sample of 100 Italian theatres whose reports were collected from the database AIDA. We collected 2013, 2012 and 2011 data for Investments, Intangible Assets, Total Assets, Net Assets, Total Revenues, Own Revenues (of sales), Sponsorships, Public Grants, Total Expenses, Advertising Expense, Gain or Loss. We calculated 2013–2012 and 2012–2011 variations in order to understand the strategic choice and how increasing or decreasing promotion effort affect the latest performances. Clusters in time series analysis show that, there is a strategic shift (increase vs. decrease) for Italian Performing Arts from 2011 to 2013. Most of theatres are concentrated in one cluster both for the analysis with 2013–2012 variations and with 2012–2011 ones. When theatres have increased Advertising Expense and Intangible Assets, Revenues and especially, Own Revenues, they both increase. The positive impact of the marketing effort is on Revenues and at a lesser extent, on Net Assets and Gains.

The individual knows their emotions, being aware of others’ emotions and being able to use them effectively in their social and business life is important. Hence, the individual having high emotional intelligence in both their social and business lives enhances their self-knowledge, motivation and communication skills. The study has been conducted with the objective of determining emotional intelligence levels of the students. The study universe consisted of the students studying in Konya Necmettin Erbakan University, Faculty of Health Sciences (health management, social service, nursing), in the academic year 2014–2015. In April 2015, 169 questionnaires in total (81 %) obtained from the students who accepted participating in the study was evaluated. Survey technique was utilized in the study. The questionnaire contained questions involving socio-demographic characteristics of the students (9 questions) and intelligence scale questions (20 questions). The results obtained in the study were evaluated through SPSS statistics program. Descriptive statistical methods and T test, Oneway Anova test was conducted in comparison of the quantitative data. The results were evaluated in the confidence interval of 95 %, and significance was evaluated at the level of p < 0.05. When the results were examined, emotional intelligence scores of the students are seen to be higher than the average.