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New Perspectives and Paradigms in Applied Economics and Business

Select Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Conference on Applied Economics and Business

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Über dieses Buch

This book features a collection of high-quality and peer-reviewed papers from the 2022 6th International Conference on Applied Economics and Business (ICAEB), which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, during August 24-26, 2022. ICAEB serves as a platform for presentation of new advances and research results in the fields of applied economics and business. Applied economics is used to improve the quality of practice in business and public policy by thinking meticulously about new ways to approach old problems. Presentations at the conference include the topical areas of development, ecological, financial, forensic, information, institutional, international, labor, managerial, mathematical, monetary, and other related economic aspects. All these topics relate to an overall theme of sustainable development from an economic perspective. The conference brings together scientists from different fields of applied economic research in order to exchange ideas and experiences leading to improved methods of economic analysis.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Financial Market Analysis and Investment

Frontmatter
The Relationship Between Profitability and Market Value: Evidence from Jordanian Banks

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between profitability and the market value of the bank, and the relation between high and low profitability with market value using the bank size measured by total assets as a control variable. The study sample is the Jordanian banks listed on Amman Stock Exchange for the period from 2010 to 2020. ROE measures the return per equity invested by the owner, and it is important to know how well management is deployed the bank's equity in the pursuit of earnings. The bank market value is measured using the market-to-book value ratio. The study methods are to use the main model and benchmark model with panel and pooled OLS regression and random effect models approach with several econometrics tools like Husman test, variance inflation factor, and panel granger causality. The study's main results are that the high-profit banks have a higher market value than low-profit banks, there is a relationship between high and low ROE and market value, there is a relationship between earnings and market value, and the bank size affects the relationship between ROE and market value. About the last result, the Adj R2 for small banks is 26.2%, which is higher than the full sample (16.9%) and large banks (14.1%). As a conclusion, the study recommends the creditors and investors benefit from the study results by concentrating more on the company's financial results before making the investment decision.

Mohammad Fawzi Shubita
Improving on the Markov-Switching Regression Model by the Use of an Adaptive Moving Average

Regime detection is vital for the effective operation of trading and investment strategies. However, the most popular means of doing this, the two-state Markov-switching regression model (MSR), are not an optimal solution, as two volatility states do not fully capture the complexity of the market. Past attempts to extend this model to a multi-state MSR have proved unstable, potentially expensive in terms of trading costs, and can only divide the market into states with varying levels of volatility, which is not the only aspect of market dynamics relevant to trading. We demonstrate it is possible and valuable to instead segment the market into more than two states not on the basis of volatility alone, but on a combined basis of volatility and trend, by combining the two-state MSR with an adaptive moving average. A realistic trading framework is used to demonstrate that using two selected states from the four thus generated leads to better trading performance than traditional benchmarks, including the two-state MSR. In addition, the proposed model could serve as a label generator for machine learning tasks used in predicting financial regimes ex ante.

Piotr Pomorski, Denise Gorse
Elephant and Ant: Do Equity Investors Care About Firm's Carbon Emission?

This paper investigates whether investors in the US market are concerned about corporate carbon emissions. We find that carbon emissions can predict future stock return only for firms in the high-emission industries. The analysis method used continues the single ranking method of Fama French. The results indicate that investors care more about carbon emissions for dirty companies. To provide further evidence for investors’ attention channel, we find that the relationship between carbon emissions and future stock returns is significant only after 2016, when the Paris Agreement was signed and investors began to pay attention to climate change.

Yangmengchi Ding
A Review of the Applicability of Value Investing in China's Capital Markets

When the foreign capital market has formed a value investment law system, China’s capital market is still full of various investment concepts and has not formed an effective and unified investment logic, but the market cannot practice the value investment concept, and speculators are still active in the market. By reviewing and combing the relevant literature on the research on the concept of value investment at home and abroad, this paper synthesizes the results of existing research and explores the applicability of the concept of value investment in China’s A-share market. The study found that China’s current capital market is still in an emerging stage of development, the market is full of various investment ideas and factions, and the current government and regulators should combine the country’s unique economic system, market status and macroeconomic policies. Launch a macro policy that is suitable for the current situation of China’s capital market, and the concept of value investment is in China’s capital market. The research conclusions of this paper summarize the applicability of value investment theory in the Chinese market. On the one hand, make a certain theoretical basis for the development of China’s current capital market.

Zijie Tang, Ruilin Lu

Enterprise Economy and Management

Frontmatter
Web Presence and Multilingual Management in the Tourism Sector: An Analysis of Active Tourism and Ecotourism Corporate Websites from Southern Spain

The availability of a corporate website, specially if it is translated to other languages, can be a great ally for companies to reach international audiences at a very reduced cost. This is of paramount importance for business sectors highly dependent on international clients, which is the case of tourism, and for regions with strong tourism flows, such as Andalusia (Spain). The aim of this paper is to analyze the web presence and the multilingual dissemination of corporate information of Andalusian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from two emerging tourism sectors: active tourism and ecotourism. To meet this aim, a sample of 343 companies has been analyzed via frequency analysis and decision trees. Results show that, despite the web presence of the analyzed companies being strong—nearly 80% of them had a website—most of them were lacking the competitive advantages of offering a translated website and, in the cases where translations were available, the language diversity was scarce.

Irene Rivera-Trigueros, Juncal Gutiérrez-Artacho, María-Dolores Olvera-Lobo
Game Theory in Outlets—How Should Stores Maximise Profit?

The concept of the outlet store was firstly developed by Anderson-Little in 1936. Through the prolonged history of this special model of discount business, it has been proven to bring various positive effects to most shops. I will give a brief introduction to this business model, explaining the function of the outlet’s store to their mother company. This paper will put the main focus on implementing game theory, the Hotelling model, to give a new approach to potentially analyse and explain the mechanism behind the competition between outlets and the normal store. In this paper, I have found the equilibrium and more importantly, how the travel cost and quality difference can affect the profit for each store. The results show that the consumers prefer lower-quality products to maximise profit. The normal store wants higher travel costs, but outlets want lower to maximise their profit.

Zhenning Li
Comparison the Anchoring Effect Application in Employee Management in Silesian Voivodeship with Prague, Moravian-Silesian Region, and Vysočina Region

Behavioral aspects are very important for successful human resource management. This fact is becoming more and more apparent. Therefore, the paper deals with behavioral economics, human resource management, and the enterprises with 100+ employees. More precisely, the paper focuses on the degree of the anchoring effect, i.e., the degree of the use of the instruments for influencing and persuasion that managers apply to manage their employees. This paper builds on the results of previous researches and further develops these results. The authors used the questionnaire to identify how much the anchoring effect is applied in enterprises with 100+ employees. The main goal of the paper is to compare the anchoring effect application in employee management in Silesian Voivodeship (Polish region) with three Czech regions which are Prague, Moravian-Silesian region, and Vysočina region. The comparison applies to enterprises with 100+ employees. The second goal of the paper is to find out how often the anchoring effect is used in the Silesian Voivodeship. The authors set one hypothesis, and the results of the paper rejected it. The basic assumption led the authors of this paper to this research. The authors predicted that managers of Silesian Voivodeship companies use anchoring methods less often than the three regions mentioned above, i.e., the managers of Prague companies, the managers of Moravian-Silesian region companies and the managers of Vysočina region companies. Confirmation or rejection of the above-mentioned assumption is discussed in more detail.

Omar Ameir
Credit Rating of Chinese Companies Based on XGBoost Model

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the global economy is on the downswing and the credit crisis is coming. In order to prevent credit risk and further standardize credit rating methods, this paper innovatively introduces the machine learning method-XGBoost model to credit rating based on financial indicator data of 1021 listed Chinese companies in 2020 and real bond default data in 2021. By comparing with the logistic regression model, it is found that the XGBoost model has better prediction effect, and its output index importance score can provide guidance for enterprises to manage their own credit ratings.

Lu Ye
Trends in the Use of Validation Tools in the Tourism Sector: A Bibliometric Analysis

Tourism as an economic sector plays a very important role in regions and economies around the world, being the object of study for the development of advances in different areas. One of these areas refers to developing tools that allow the measurement and subsequent validation of the variables and constructs to be measured. This study focuses on identifying trends in the scientific field by using validation tools within the context of tourism through a bibliometric analysis. There has been a growth in the use of these tools in recent years, showing a varied application of these tools in areas such as food service, lodging, and air transport, as a unit for measuring aspects related to service quality and user perception. On the other hand, there are advances related to sustainable development and tourism, integrating tools and results in the progress of sustainable practices in tourism programs. Similarly, analyses are made on the relationships of authors, countries, and journals through the quantity, quality, and structure indicators presented, helping to identify trends in the subject.

David García-Arango, Jefferson Quiroz-Fabra, Alejandro Valencia-Arias, Lina-Marcela Cifuentes-Correa, Wilmer Londoño-Celis, Vanesa García-Pineda
Mapping Corruption Forms with Corruption Causes in Infrastructure Procurement of Pakistan

The debate on mechanisms of corruption in the infrastructure sector is decades old. Numerous previous studies explored the many faces of corruption in infrastructure projects. Similarly, various studies indicated the causative indicators which instigate corruption in the infrastructure sector. However, very few studies focused on the formation of a conceptual link between corruption forms and their causes; therefore, this study aimed to develop a conceptual map of corruption forms and their causes. To achieve the aim 34 semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry practitioners in the infrastructure sector of Pakistan. The interview instrument was designed based on in-depth literature review findings. The results suggest that corruption causes and corruption forms are interlaced closely. Lack of regulatory mechanisms, weak morals, and harmful political interference breed acts of bribery, acts of discrimination, and acts of political mobilisation as corruption forms. This study is a valuable addition to the literature on corruption in the infrastructure sector. It may be taken as guidance to conduct more studies on mechanisms of corruption causes and corruption forms in other cultural contexts. The results may be helpful in the formation of effective anti-corruption measures.

Kiran Shah, Sikiru Ganiyu, Xiaoxian Zhu

Digital Economy and Artificial Intelligence in Business

Assessment of Trust Level in Digital Economy

In the current study, a unique dataset is used that represents the trust of households and individuals in the digital economy, so-called e-trust. On the basis of that, the level of e-trust of the selected countries is calculated. The study covers almost all EU countries and Iceland. France and Romania are excluded from the research due to missing data. A multi-criteria approach was employed to assess trust in the digital economy in a two-step procedure combining CRITIC and COPRAS techniques used for weighting and aggregation. The sample consists of 26 countries; the study is built on six indicators provided in the Eurostat ICT Trust, Security, and Privacy database. As a result, countries’ prioritisation regarding trust in the digital economy is presented. The outcomes revealed that the highest level of e-trust is in Ireland and Belgium, while in Iceland, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Estonia, this level could be considered average.

Viktorija Skvarciany, Daiva Jurevičienė
Marketing Communications in the Sharing Economy: Who Is the Target Segment for Car Sharing?

In recent times, the notion of a sharing economy has become more prevalent. It is based on the underutilization of resources which could otherwise be distributed to those who do not have them but need them. One of the target segments is car sharing. It is not clear from academic articles and publications what generation of respondents is the target customer of car-sharing platforms. We based the primary research on the assumption that not every generation of customers wants to use car sharing. The research focused on three generations of respondents (X, Y, and Z) to identify which generations of customers are prospective for this segment. The research showed that Generation Y and Generation Z would be more likely to use car sharing compared to Generation X. We found that Generation X and Y have the most significant differences in willingness to car share between themselves, followed by Generation X and Z. These findings are valuable for platforms that mediate car sharing. It will enable them to target their marketing campaign correctly to the age group that is more likely to become the platform's customers and attract those customers with the right marketing communication strategy. At the same time, this knowledge will enhance the theoretical anchoring of the sharing economy with factual information that links the sharing economy to marketing. The Kruskal–Wallis test and descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the research. The research was conducted from December 2021 to March 2022 and involved 741 respondents.

Pavel Pelech
Treat-Before-Collapse: Forecasting Change of National Pension Assets in G7 and Republic of Korea by Demographic-Based Machine Learning Approach

Future demographic projections have indicated that the low fertility rate problem will put significant pressures on the long-term sustainability of public finance. Nevertheless, among the concerned sustainability of public finance, the depletion of future national pension assets has received little attention. This paper provides numerical projection data by forecasting change of national pension assets in some of OECD countries. Among OECD countries, G7 countries which are leading society of OECD countries and Republic of Korea that has the lowest total fertility rate in OECD countries are analyzed. By adopting demographic-based machine learning (ML) approach, the forecasted results have been demonstrated, and possible future scenarios have been analyzed as variables (future total fertility rate, age when people begin pension receiving) are to be changed in the future. In doing so, possible solutions regarding demographic approach and political approach are suggested to each country.

Young Suh Song, Jang Hyun Kim, One-Sun Cho
Development of an Expert System to Support the Decision-Making Process on the Shop Floor

This paper discusses a new multidimensional approach to create a smart, digitally supported workplace. The approach is based on the development and use of an expert system to support the decision-making process of managers when designing smart workplaces on the shop floor. To derive the rules of the expert system, comprehensive literature research was done, resulting in the allocation of organizational, personnel, data, technology, and acceptance dimensions. These dimensions were used for the formulation of the corresponding problem–solution pairs of the decision tree. Implementation of the expert system was done in the KnowWE software tool with further validation in a research and learning factory, the Smart Production Lab at FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria, within the research project Smart Workplaces. Being implemented, the proposed approach will help industrial companies to increase the awareness and effectiveness of decision-making on the shop floor.

Mezhuyev Vitaliy, Sorko Sabrina, Mayer Barbara, Lackner Katharina
Fintech Solutions’ Adoption: A Systematic Literature Review

Discovering and understanding the marketing side of fintech is becoming a necessity, as it is the future of the world’s finance. In the context of analyzing and understanding Mikadof’s costumers (fintech start-up that offers services to facilitate decision-making in the stock and cryptocurrency markets), a systematic literature review was conducted to get a clearer picture of existing research that has been around the segmentation of fintech customers. The results showed a gap in the research that deals with the segmentation of these types of consumers. Nevertheless, several researches were about the stimuli that drive consumers to adopt a fintech solution. Understanding and analyzing these stimuli is an important step in segmenting these fintech consumers. According to the review, the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) were among the most mentioned theories explaining the reasons for adopting new technologies. Security, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness were among the variables most used by the authors to explain the intention to use new technologies.

Elkouay Meriem, Najib Belkhayat

Industrial Economy and Development

Frontmatter
EU Energy Policy: Implications for Renewable Energy Investments

Europe is currently facing a number of issues related to energy: climate change and decarbonisation; slow improvements in energy efficiency and the challenges posed by a higher share of renewable energy. The European Union is trying to address these challenges through various policies aimed at achieving full EU decarbonisation by 2050. Renewable energy contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; and therefore, investments in renewable energy generation are seen as a tool to decarbonise the EU. However, this puts strong pressure on countries that rely on fossil fuels to switch to cleaner energy sources. This paper examines the business characteristics of three EU energy companies from the former Eastern Bloc: their production mix, their past efforts and their future plans in terms of investment in renewable energy sources. The question is how they can achieve the EU energy policy targets. The results show that the production mix of energy companies plays an important role in their adaptation to EU requirements. Not all energy companies will succeed in meeting decarbonisation targets within the deadlines set by the EU, as national economic interests could be a limiting factor. Finally, renewable energy sources alone are not sufficient to ensure a secure energy supply, but must be combined with each other or with nuclear power or gas.

Dubravka Pekanov, Ivana Fosic, Irena Jadresic
Gambling and Drinking, Do They Go Hand in Hand? The Impact of Drinking on Gambling Behaviors and Game Outcomes in Texas Hold’em Poker Short Game

Gambling and drinking often go hand in hand, and there is a close relationship between gamblers drinking alcohol and gambling behaviors. The main purpose of this paper is to study the impact of players’ drinking on their gambling behaviors and game outcomes in Texas Hold’em Poker Short Game, and then analyze how drinking leads to gambling behaviors and game outcomes. Few existing studies have investigated the relationship between the alcohol and gamblers’ behaviors, and this paper is the first to study the relationship between gamblers’ drinking and gambling behaviors and game results in Texas Hold’em Poker Short Game, as well as gambling behaviors affected by the alcohol and other related influencing factors, not only providing the practical significance for analyzing the impact of drinking on gambling behaviors and outcomes in gambling games, but also adding to the limited literature on the effects of the alcohol on players’ behaviors in Poker Games (note that, by no means, is this paper arguing that people should drink to improve gambling success). The results indicate that drinking people are more likely to win than non-drinking people when comparing the times of winning. Alcohol also affects various behaviors of drinking players at any stage (pre-flop, post-flop, turn and river) and drinking gamblers are less likely to give up than non-drinking gamblers, but more likely to all-in, bet, check, raise bet, and call one’s bet at any stage.

Tianqing Zheng
The Role of Education in the Development of Creative Industries: The Case of Kazakhstan

The creative industry is one of the most dynamic segments of the global economy today and has a significant transformative impact on socio-economic growth. According to experts and market participants, there are few examples of commercially successful projects in the creative industry of Kazakhstan, but the potential of the industry is underestimated for various reasons. Although the creative sector of the economy is still relatively new and underdeveloped in Kazakhstan, it has a good export potential and can be leveraged to foster a favorable perception of the nation abroad. This article explores the role of education in the development of creative industries. The purpose of the study is a qualitative analysis of the level of the educational system in Kazakhstan involved in the training of personnel for the creative industry. It also offers comprehensive recommendations for its improvement considering local specifics. The work makes a significant contribution to the literature on the creative industries by expanding the concept and complementing the practice of developing countries. The research on the developing creative industries markets in the former Soviet Union’s nations offers novel findings and significant new information.

Aziza Zhuparova, Lenera Memetova
Policy Analysis for Strategies of Sustainable Development of Chu-Mango Value Chain in Vietnam

The study is to apply a policy analysis matrix (PAM) and SWOT matrix to identify macroeconomic policy efficiency, establish policy scenarios, and suggest strategic solutions for the sustainability of the Chu-mango value chain. The results prove that macroeconomic policies significantly influence the economic efficiency and competitiveness of export channels (protection of output price, exchange rate, and subsidization of domestic costs). Channel 1 adapts well to changes in macroeconomic policies and maintains economic efficiency and international competitiveness in all scenarios. Channel 2 is strongly affected by free on board (FOB) price policy. It will lose economic efficiency if the FOB price declines by 20%. Another policy from the government is to improve the mango quality of Channel 2 to provide it to Channel 4. It is a policy to develop domestic channel 4 for import substitution. Channel 3 is sensitive dynamic with an output price policy and is a disincentive to export expansion. It only promotes exports when the FOB price increases by 20% or the exchange rate decreases by 20%. The paper also suggests 10 strategies to sustainably improve the Chu-mango value chain. Strategic solutions for upgrading the efficiency of the Chu-mango value chain sustainably are suggested by SWOT analysis from sharing ideas of stakeholders in whole chain. Particularly, the results contribute to the basic principle of the PAM in analyzing comparative advantage and policy efficiency of international trade, especially in the tropical fruits and vegetables field.

Kiet Hong Vo Tuanf Truong, Shaufique Fahmi Sidique
Market Analysis of Television Channels in Kazakhstan

Television is an integral part of the modern cultural world. This paper studies the television market in Kazakhstan and presents the participants of the television services market. The organizational and legal forms of national TV channels and the types of basic television services are studied. The major indicators of economic activity of large TV channels of Kazakhstan is analyzed, such as JSC «Agency «Khabar»», JSC «Republican Television and Radio Corporation «Kazakhstan»», JSC «Commercial Television Channel», JSC «Television and Radio Company «Yuzhnaya Stolitsa»». The results showed that for Kazakhstan TV needs further transformation and expansion of paid Internet television, also collaboration of TV and social networks, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. In addition, for large domestic TV channels with state participation, the state's share in the share capital should be reduced.

A. Nurumov, Zh. Kazhieva, B. Doskalieva, G. Rakhimova, G. Yessenova

Tourism and Hospitality Management

Frontmatter
Segmenting Generation Z Based on Their Intention to Comply with Non-mandatory Governmental Protection Measures During the Tourism Period

Tourism is considered one of the most important economic sectors, and for countries like Greece which were hit harshly by the financial crisis, tourism is even more crucial. The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) generated a drawback on tourism revenues worldwide due to the measures undertaken to minimize the transmission of the virus. Greece, which was under lockdown and curfew in 2020, reopened its borders (May 14, 2021) to enjoy revenues from inbound tourism to ease the country’s economic condition. In this tourism mode, the government had already distributed vaccines and had withdrawn many of the initial measures, while some basic ones such as wearing a mask or keeping a distance of two meters in public places kept on existing. Therefore, it is up to the citizens’ free will to keep complying (or not) with the non-mandatory-protective or withdrawn measures from the government. With these in mind, this paper presents research that segments the Generation Z (Gen Z) cohort, based on its intention to comply with the non-mandatory protective measures during the summer tourism period. Adopting an online questionnaire from May to July, a total of 1086 Gen Zers participated. Four segments arose, the “Partial intention to comply segment”, the “Personal hygiene segment”, the “High awareness and precautious segment”, and the “No intention to comply segment”. Based on the results, implications for effectively approaching this segment to take self-protective measures from SARS-CoV-2 and its variants are discussed.

Irene Kamenidou, Spyridon Mamalis, Aikaterini Stavrianea, Evangelia Zoi Bara, Stavros Pavlidis
Information Technologies and Cultural Tourism—The Case of the Virtual Museums

The introduction of strategies that include information technology in the development of public cultural policies may potentiate the cultural democratization processes and boost tourism. The use and impact of information technology while facilitating cultural production and as an enabler instrument broadening of cultural public is a key piece in the way of the amplification of cultural tourism. In this article, it is argued that the introduction of strategies that include information technologies in the development of public cultural policies enhances the cultural tourism. Specifically, this article seeks to demonstrate the use and impact of information technologies while promoting cultural production and as a facilitator process of increasing cultural audiences, as well as being a key player in the way of cultural democratization and contribute to a more sustainable tourism.

Vitor Santos
Sustainable Practices in Hotel Chains—A Comparative Analysis of Official Annual Hospitality Sustainable Reports from Listed Companies in Macau SAR, China

In the last few years, the tourism industry has experienced rapid expansion and diversification, making it one of the fastest-growing financial industries in the world. Consequently, the hotel industry has significantly affected the environment's long-term viability. Many hotels have begun voluntarily implementing environmentally sustainable practices as they become more aware of their ecological footprint. There has been a great deal of discussion about the effects of hotel operations on the environment and tourism sustainability in Macau. It is because of these negative impacts that hoteliers have adopted green practices in an attempt to minimize them. By developing sustainability reports, hotels can set goals, measure performance, and manage change, resulting in better sustainability. It could also be viewed as a strategy to enhance the company’s sustainability reporting to ensure stakeholders know what the company does. The objective of this study is twofold based on the analysis of the official sustainability reports of four major hotel chains. Firstly, seven categories of sustainable practices effectively adopted by these chain hotels are identified and clusterized. Second, it is presented in which areas some hotels performed more efficiently than others, considering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reference. The results allow a comprehensive clusterized analysis of the industry in a highly developed gaming and entertainment area of South China and create a clear comparison between relevant players and their concerns about sustainability practices.

Ana Sofia Kong Santos, João Alexandre Lobo Marques
People-Flows: A Proposed Tourist Destination Management Paradigm

Overtourism has, in the past years, grown to become a global issue, turning popular tourist destinations into unsustainable places of congestion, creating visitor dissatisfaction, and forever changing the daily life of nearby residents. Action needs to be taken in order to contain this ever-increasing problem, with technological solutions that will try to simulate and adapt to the complexity of each separate case. This work proposes a holistic approach to destination management, introducing an innovative flow management system, that can use historic data together with real-time reservation and traffic congestion data, in order to produce forecasts and recommendations that will help attraction administrators (museums, sights, monuments, etc.) and policymakers in decision-making. The proposed system is part of an integrated approach, featuring end-user applications for visitors and tourism professionals.

Manos Kalaitzakis, Eirini Sykianaki, Nikitas Michalakis, Nikos Stivaktakis, Kassiani Balafa, Stavroula Ntoa, Constantine Stephanidis
Rural Tourism HUBs in University Innovation Models

The objective of this work is to propose an innovation model for university institutions in Latin America. The model derives from the concept of fourth-generation universities and can be used in general innovation contexts. The advances in this sense are shown with the creation of a rural tourism hub for the department of Magdalena in Colombia. The methodology used consisted of a concurrent mixed research methodology for the Universidad del Magdalena in Santa Marta, Colombia. As a result of the work, an innovation model is proposed that can be applied to innovation in Latin American universities.

Samuel Prieto, John A. Taborda, Juan M. Montes
Coordination Mechanism of Stakeholders in Tourism Destinations: A Social Network Analysis Exploration

The relationship between stakeholders is intensive and complicated, thus, understanding the relationship between stakeholders is important for the successful management of tourism destinations. To make it viable, this paper applies network analysis and third party in stakeholder theory and explores the interest coordination mechanism of stakeholders by quantitative method. Based on the fieldwork undertaken in the Hangzhou West Lake Heritage Site (World Heritage Site) from June to September in 2018, it systematically investigated the identification, classification and interests of stakeholders. The data collection method comprised an expert panel (n = 29) and a stakeholder survey (n = 274) in finding the classification and interest of stakeholders in the most scenic spot at the Hangzhou West Lake Heritage Site, China. The results suggest two main findings: each stakeholder has a different kind of interests and these interests are hierarchical; stakeholders play different roles in the relationship network and lead to unbalanced relationships, which one party has a relationship of constraints or dependencies on the other party. Based on the findings and further, a coordination mechanism is proposed by the application of the third party as a coordinator in the social relationship network for destination tourism management.

Yewei Shang, Montserrat Pallares-Barbera, Francesc Romagosa
Perceptions on Climate Change Challenge Among Hoteliers and Travel Agencies in Malaysia

Tourism is a climate-dependent industry, and many tourism industry players owe their popularity destinations to their pleasant climates during holiday seasons. This study explores the knowledge of the Malaysian hoteliers and travel agencies on the impact of climate change risks. The purpose of the study is to gain an understanding of the perceptions and preparedness of hoteliers and travel agencies in resilience to climate change challenges. The study employs a mixed of close- and open-ended questionnaire survey directed to managers in the hotel industry and travel agencies in Malaysia. The findings show that the selected 100 hoteliers and travel agencies have high awareness of global warming and are willing to take climate actions. Majority of the respondents are willing to work together with local and international projects by offering eco-friendly activities to mitigate climate change. Nevertheless, the respondents are slightly optimistic of the tourism industry under the climate change risks and perceived that the hotels are somewhat ready for the climate crisis. The need of an immediate action to raise awareness of climate change risk and to implement climate change action are recommended to secure the future tourism industry.

Chuie-Hong Tan, See-Nie Lee, Sin-Ban Ho

Applied Economics and Sustainable Development

Frontmatter
The Great Resignation: Shifter of the Modern-Day Workweek

“The Great Resignation” which refers to the surge in resignation rates in April of 2021 is a perplexing and relativity unexplored phenomenon. With many speculating that “the great resignation” will signal a shift in the workplace and worker-employee dynamics, we must understand the factors that attributed to the record-breaking amount of people leaving the workforce. Additionally, this paper will also explore whether the four-day workweek would aid in being more people back into the workforce. Aggregated data, a linear regression model, and a theoretical model were conducted utilizing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The data and theoretical model indicate that the increase in resignation rates is primarily due to two factors: decrease in productivity and increase in hours worked during remote working, and increases in government unemployment benefits. Given the factors leading to the great resignation, they support the notion that a four-day workweek would attract more employees to a particular company or the overall labor market.

Charlotte Situ
Students’ Environmental Awareness and Low-Carbon Behavior: Exploring the Differences

Young people are generally well aware of the importance of transitioning to a low-carbon economy. However, there is a significant gap between awareness of the importance of a low-carbon transition and actual behavior. The main aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between these two dimensions and, accordingly, using the k-means cluster method, create a typology of young people, Croatian university students. In addition, the paper is focused on examining the association between cluster membership and selected demographic variables. The application of the cluster method on the data collected by a survey in 2021 resulted in three significantly different, stable, and meaningful clusters. They differ in the extent to which respondents are aware of the importance of a low-carbon economy and the extent to which they engage in low-carbon behavior. The first cluster includes about 5% of respondents who are quite skeptical but often engaged in low-carbon activities. The second cluster includes trusting respondents who sometimes engage in low-carbon activities. This cluster consists of about 68% of respondents. The last cluster includes skeptical respondents who are mostly opposed (rarely active) to low-carbon behavior. The non-parametric chi-square tests suggest that, unlike the selected demographic variables (e.g., gender, financial situation, previously completed study program, field of education, or household size), there is not enough evidence to confirm the existence of the association between rural/urban living environment and cluster membership.

Djula Borozan, Sanja Pfeifer
Implication of Social Programs on Subjective Economic Well-Being: A Perspective on the Case of Junin, Peru

Social programs emerge as a response of a government seeking to improve the welfare of its population living in extreme poverty; knowing the perception of beneficiaries will prove the efficiency of their application. In this article, we test the impact of social programs on the subjective economic well-being of families in the Junin region of Peru. The data were extracted from the results of the ENAHO (National Household Survey) between the years 2012 and 2019. For the empirical strategy, we used a binary choice model, specifically a logistic regression. The findings show that the “Juntos” and “Pension 65” social programs do not generate a positive impact on the subjective economic well-being of beneficiary families, making this analysis an outlier to what theory adduces. The management of public policies in the Peruvian case lacks information that does not allow us to know exactly what the needs and demands of the population are, or these are ignored by policymakers.

Gianella Mollehuara, Julieta Salazar, Miluska Trujillo, Margarita Calle
The Significance of Environmental Accounting in Promoting Supply-Side Structural Reform

In recent years, the Chinese government has repeatedly emphasized that the relationship between the environment and the economy should be properly handled in the supply-side structural reform. The environmental accounting information of enterprises can reflect the environmental protection activities of enterprises in the past, so its importance has been increased in the current social and economic environment. The steel industry is one of the 16 heavy-polluting industries announced by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and environmentalists from all walks of life have been paying close attention to the environmental activities of the steel industry. And the steel industry is a pillar industry for the development of China’s national economy, and it is also the focus of the supply-side structural reform. This paper aims to explore the significance of environmental accounting information disclosure to the supply-side structural reform. By quantifying and scoring the environmental accounting information disclosure of three typical iron and steel enterprises, and calculating the height value of the iron and steel industry structure in the corresponding year. And the correlation analysis of the above two values can be concluded that there is a high correlation between the two. Through further theoretical and empirical analysis, it can be concluded that environmental accounting plays an important role in promoting the supply-side structural reform. Including helping enterprise managers and the government to better understand the environmental protection situation of enterprises, and urging enterprises to eliminate outdated production capacity. In order to improve the level of environmental accounting practice, efforts should also be made from three aspects: establishing a more complete environmental accounting information disclosure system, broadening the environmental accounting information disclosure channels, and strengthening the supervision of environmental accounting information disclosure.

Zixue Chen
Management Perspective of “Green Strategies” Research—Scientometric Analysis

This study provides insight into research on green strategy in the disciplines of management, business, and economics. The dataset of 544 bibliographic references was extracted from the Web of Science database. The main findings of the study indicate that the research on green strategies related to the management perspective is continuously increasing; however, the growth is not yet exponential and further research is needed. In terms of collaboration between authors, institutions, and countries, the results show that the development of research networks between different authors, institutions, or countries is still in its infancy. Analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords shows the evolution of research interests from more general to more focus. Green innovation is one of the emerging hotspots in the research field. The analysis of document co-citations sheds light on the major specialties in green strategies research. The main contribution of this study is in concisely summarizing the intellectual base (most cited articles) and research frontiers (citing articles), and providing insights useful to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Sanja Pfeifer
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
New Perspectives and Paradigms in Applied Economics and Business
herausgegeben von
William C. Gartner
Copyright-Jahr
2023
Electronic ISBN
978-3-031-23844-4
Print ISBN
978-3-031-23843-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23844-4