Ecoforum

A sustained interest in behavioral economics has allowed researchers to track and evaluate changing patterns of consumer behavior. Questions of what consumers want, what motivates buyers, and what factors lead to purchasing decisions has continued to be a topic of considerable urgency, particularly in light of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers' purchasing decisions are informed by economic conditions, both their own and in the wider economy, especially during unforeseen market conditions. COVID-19 has caused the death of millions of people and dramatically slowed economic activity worldwide. The data on consumer behavior in Georgia, a middle-income country with 3.7 million population, particularly, in the context of the pandemic is extremely limited. We conducted the present study to assess the consumer attitude towards certain aspects of the purchasing process and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the consumers in Georgia. We conducted a survey among residents of Georgia using a self-administered questionnaire composed of the basic demographic characteristics of participants and questions regarding their purchasing behavior, the impact of economic conditions and changes due to COVID-19 pandemic. The options for answers to each of the questions included seven categories according to Likert scale. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, vast changes occurred in consumer behavior related to product purchasing and economic behavior.

In Italy, during the pandemic crises caused by Covid-19 (CoronaVirus Disease-2019), the foodstuff sector claimed its central role again in the economic chain of the country, operating as an essential activity for the maintenance of a safety status at a social level. In this study we will analyse the consumption of food products during this unusual period, emphasizing the categories which have undergone substantial increases or decreases. Moreover, we will try to project a consume scenario for the future, when the health situation will revert to normal. http://www.ecoforumjournal.ro/index.php/eco/article/view/1220

In a context of globalized competition, mergers and acquisitions are presented as effective strategies in front of continues technological changes and rapid growth in global markets, particularly in Eastern European region, which is becoming increasingly important in terms of number and volume of mergers and acquisitions' operations. Our research work consists in providing descriptive complementary insights to previous research, by analyzing the characteristics of mergers and acquisitions market in this region. Our sample includes all transactions realized between the years 1990 to 2018, collected from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database. The statistics indicate that most transactions are in the financial sector, the country of Turkey is the main target region regarding mergers and acquisitions investments, and approximately all transactions are friendly.

The present paper represents a study of the competitiveness of Romania in relation to the targets of the Europe 2020 strategy, in order to draw up a current regional ranking of the competitiveness. There are significant disparities in the regional contribution to the achievement of Europe 2020 national targets, which will affect both Romania's competitive position within the European Union and its long-term evolution. The purpose of this paper is to highlight these regional differences in terms of progress in achieving the Europe 2020 targets by analyzing their evolutions in the period and at the end of the implementation program. In this respect, the Principal Component Analysis method is used to establish two regional rankings corresponding to 2016 and 2020 that illustrate their intermediate and final progress. The results show that employment rate and tertiary education are the targets with the greatest impact on the final regional score and those that most differentiate the regions between them. On the other hand, the results show the tendency of regions to diverge from some strategic targets, which will further complicate Romania's long-term competitive mission.

The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement is a new generation of trade agreements between Vietnam and 28 EU Member States called EVFTA. The EVFTA was negotiated in mid-2012. After 14 formal meetings, the EVFTA negotiation process was finalized on December 2, 2015. On 17/10/2018, the European Commission has submitted a free trade agreement between Vietnam and Europe and the Investment Protection Treaty to the Council of Europe to consider and sign the delegation, to be expected at the end. 2018 will officially sign this Agreement. It will also be submitted to the European Parliament for approval in early 2019. When the agreement is officially put into effect, it will have a significant impact on Vietnam's economy and social life. This paper focuses on analyzing and evaluating opportunities and challenges for Vietnam in a number of areas related to trade agreements such as trade in goods; Vietnam's exports to the EU; Customs and trade facilitation;

Agriculture sector has always preserved its significance due to a crucial fulfillment, people's need of food, and providing inputs to several sectors like services, industry or healthcare. Agricultural production's being widely out of suppliers' control is the most important feature of agriculture sector. The reason for that fact can be mentioned as nature's direct effect on agriculture. Besides, agriculture sector should be subsidized by governments by means of technical and financial aspects. For centuries, agriculture proceeds with constant evolution and advancements. Agriculture businesses have become large scale entities evolving from family businesses through technological progress. Activities pertaining to agriculture constitute a considerable part of nations' economies along with their prominence in international trade. That's why, recognition of agricultural activities is of great importance to accounting. On this basis, IAS Agriculture that is published by International Accounting Standards Board enacted to determine policies regarding to agriculture accounting. This standard is valid today with respective updates. This paper's motivation is to render guidance for accounting applications associated with agriculture such as biological assets, agricultural produce and government grants within the framework of IAS 41. Thereby, explanatory case studies are developed to generate further assessments about the context. Latest updates about the issues are included in the study as well.

For many companies, planning and executing effective knowledge transfer with external organizations is becoming increasingly relevant. However, the complexity of such processes often results in high failure rates. By taking the perspective of the recipient organization in a knowledge-transfer project, this research aims to identify the antecedents of a recipient project team's absorptive capacity. Empirical evidence from the case of a multinational energy company transferring technological and organizational knowledge from its UK to its Swedish subsidiary is combined with findings from prior research in order to develop a set of research propositions.

In a bid to disambiguate authors' names, ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) was created in 2012 as a bold initiative, and has been increasingly used by academic publishers to identify authors. On this platform, author's have the freedom to maintain the accuracy of their academic record. ORCID profiles that are incomplete defeat the purpose of that system, since inaccuracies cast doubt on the information therein. In contrast, complete and up-to-date ORCIDs benefit authors and the academic community as they act as tools of transparency and verification. It is in the interest of authors to maintain their ORCID profiles complete, accurate and up to date. In this paper, the public ORCID profile of a Canadian economics academic (Derek Pyne; http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0849-0895) with a high media profile and a modest publishing profile (i.e., less than 30 published papers throughout his entire career), was examined. Similarities and differences relative to seven other profiles for this academic (institutional, Google Scholar, Ideas/RePEc, Mendeley, Scopus Author ID, ResearcherID, KUDOS) are highlighted. This case study sheds important information that will allow economists and academics in other fields to reflect on the use of ORCID and other academic profiles.

Driver assistance systems are on the rise and shall prospectively develop to autonomous (also called: self-driving or driverless) cars. Their broad acceptance has not been thoroughly scientifically researched until now. In a previous paper, information and knowledge has been hypothetically identified as a key influencing factor in the acceptance forming process (Geldmacher et. al., 2017). For this purpose, information and knowledge is equalized by major events and news over the past five years in the field of self-driving vehicles in this paper. Acceptance is equalized by positive evaluation and effect and operationalized by a subjective evaluation of above described events and respective reactions on the stock market. Given the premises that no other unknown variable further influences the level of acceptance through information and knowledge, above deployed hypothesis is proven.

The main objective of this study is to determine the impact of oil prices in the Fragile-Five countries (Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, India, and Turkey) on current account deficit and growth. In this study, the method of panel data analysis was used and the period of 1980-2014 was examined. The Levin, Lin, & Chu panel; Im, Pesaran, and Shin W-stat; ADF-Fisher Chi-square; and PP-Fisher Chi-square unit root tests were used to determine the stability of data before panel data analysis. The results of the study can be expressed as follows. i) There was a statistically meaningful relationship in oil prices with both GDP and the current account deficit. While there was a positive correlation between oil prices and GDP, there was a negative relationship between oil prices and current account deficit. ii) No long-term relationship was found between GDP and oil prices; there was a long-term relationship between current account deficit and oil prices as determined by the cointegration tests. iii) Causality test also showed the presence of a bidirectional relationship between GDP and oil prices. Causality between oil prices and the current account deficit was one-way from the variable of oil price to the variable of current account deficit.

Driven by the desire to create added value in a very generous but very difficult field of the history of accounting in Romania, and wanting to generate useful knowledge both for the academic and for the practical fields, this article aims to demonstrate the intrinsic link between economic and social development and the development of accounting through historical approach. In this context, history is not regarded as a sequence of facts, resulting in inevitable cause-effect relationships. On the contrary, it is something we have sought to avoid at all times in order to emphasize a procedural approach in which events can be analyzed in an interpretative manner. Given that history means a chain of cause and effect facts, we must draw attention to the fact that this is an ideal situation, from which we start in order to simplify reasoning. In fact, to the extent that the causes could have been objectively known, history would not have been rewritten so many times. For this reason, we prefer to approach history as an essentially discontinuous phenomenon, following major trends, speculations being what ensures the continuity of the historical process.

Accounting reports are the main certificate of financial position, as well as business and monetary success of the company. Manipulation of accounting reports include fictitious or incorrect processing of the data – all with the aim to camouflage the true picture of firm’s financial health. Forensic accounting as a special accounting practice will be scope of this study. This study was conducted on the Bosnian market and targeted small and medium enterprises with less than 250 employees. The aim of this research is to prove that forensic accounting gives satisfactory results in discovering significantly wrongly presented information in the financial statements, caused by frauds. This study uses primary data collection through the distribution of questionnaires. The data collected from the observed SMEs companies were analyzed, and study findings showed that forensic accounting is important and helpful to point out the wrongly presented information.

In Georgian pension system the precedent of accumulative pension model indicates on existence of relevant signs of European standards. Until 2018 there was operating only one-stage pension system. So the accumulative pension model is a novelty for any party involved in the process; therefore, in Georgia the challenges accompaning various changes are characterized by a special specificity. We would like to focus on one of the challenges that equally affects all three parties involved in the mandatory funded pension scheme, including state, employer and employee. We must underline the following fact: if we want to overcome this challenge, we must implement changes not only in retirement, but also in the areas of taxation and labor sphere.

This paper aims to study the role of servant leadership in achieving along with developing employee's career satisfaction and intention to continue with the organization in the tourist companies in Iraqi Kurdistan Region the city of Erbil. This paper has find out that there is a positive correlation and significant effect of servant leadership on career satisfaction along with employee's intention to continue with the organization. This paper provides a set of recommendations, based on the findings, such as organizations have to make sure that all managers and supervisors are obliged to the style of servant leadership. This would play an important role in rising the degree of job satisfaction of workers and the purpose of remaining with the company.

The following dissertation aims to demonstrate if the lack of an induction process for employees in a marine industry company hinders their productivity. Also, an induction program is presented as an intervention proposal of organization development, on the premise that this program is a first step in the solving of the existing low productivity problem. By means of observation and casual interviews with the employees as research methods, it was found that the studied company personnel never went through a formal induction process and thereby, have many knowledge gaps that hinder their performance and that can be resolved by an induction program for employees.

Supreme audit institutions are key actors in ensuring, through their specific external public audit activities, the accountability for public resources' management. Their goals are defined by each state's constitution and generally entail examining and reporting on the lawful, efficient, effective and economical use of public finances and assets. Since SAIs must continuously strive to demonstrate their added value to stakeholders, while also providing an institutional model beyond reproach, quantifying their impact on public finances is of the utmost importance both for SAIs and the entire society. The research aims to analyze the regulatory and reporting framework of the Romanian Court of Accounts from the audit results indicators standpoint, providing a correlational analysis with certain intrinsic and extrinsic variables. The research results are useful for both the professional and the socioeconomic environment concerned with assuring the optimal management of public resources, providing insights into a result-based approach.

This paper analyses potential mechanism of regional knowledge transfer in region with poorly developed innovation infrastructure (the Autonomous Territorial Unit Gagauzia, Republic of Moldova) through interactions between regional major players of the Regional Innovation System - the educational and research institutions, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and local authorities. Solution of this problem can be found in modern studies of territories innovation development through the clustering processes. Through the empirical study - innovation potential analysis of local SMEs - we proposed advantage mechanism which focused on the one type of knowledge cluster – Innovation and Educational Cluster. The symbiosis of entrepreneurs, government agencies, educational institutions and business service providers with the regional core - University, allows to increasing exchange flows of innovative knowledge between all members of the cluster and distributing them to the entire region and beyond. The results and proposals of this study formed the basis of the “Program of increasing the innovation potential of Gagauz SMEs”.

The paper aims at examining how economic clusters could address the low resilience of the Moldovan industries relying on inward processing. The authors conceptualize the notion of economic resilience under pandemic disruptions. They justify economic clusters contribute to building the resilience of their companies-members, particularly in the Republic Moldova. The analysis reveals despite some opportunities, Moldovan inward processing exports have turned out especially sensitive to the crisis. The dependence on lohn limits the ability of Moldovan enterprises to recover from disruptions. The research suggests that Moldovan companies capitalize on the experience of companies in the European Union, by forming or joining economic clusters. The authors hold the case of Republic Moldova reconfirms the direct correlation between the weak clusterization and the low level of economic resilience, thereby pointing to a vicious circle. To break this circle, authors conclude, Moldovan companies need to connect to the European Union's economic clustering process.

The growing awareness of firms about the deployment of information and communications technology continued to stimulate competitive advantage for them in the marketplace. This study investigated the numerous information and communications technologies deployed for products marketing in the Nigerian paints industry and also examined the degree of capacity in which ICTs were deployed in relations to contemporary marketing practices. This study considerably administered 240 questionnaire on paints manufacturing and marketing firms in Nigeria which resulted to 84.5% response rate in year 2014. The outcomes of the analysis revealed that the telephone and e-mail were widely embraced for marketing in the Nigerian paints industry. It was also discovered that paints companies adopted ICT more in a reinforcing capability as against enhancing and transforming purposes. The study suggested that paints producing and marketing firms in Nigeria need to incorporate more of ICT facilities and utilize the various offers of electronic marketing for their daily operations and automations thereby improving firm's profitability and performance. More importantly, attention should be shifted on companies' capability to innovate and consequently introducing new ICT products and services in the market.

This paper investigates the role of informative advertising in creation and augment of market power as well as the ability of an advertiser to maximize the value of its economic rent. Informative advertising is considered to be a merit good unlike a persuasive one that is mostly associated with a bad. But analysis of the advertisement breakdown in Ukraine shows that the share of price advertisements, which are the most beneficial for the public, is negligible today. Further still those advertisements are mostly situated in the sectors, where price competition is the least strong. Another kind of informative advertising – differentiating advertising – turns from an instrument of informing consumers into the vehicle of manipulation of consumer choice. Using the blind tests the author has compared the quality and the prices of the range of advertised goods and has found out a low level of correlation between the variables. That means that informative advertising serves a function of informing consumers inefficiently. At the same time phantom differentiation and misleading advertising proliferation as well as informative advertising concentration on experience and credible goods instead search ones testify to effective serving a function of maximizing advertiser welfare.

The world's population is aging-an increase in the proportion of older people in the total number of population is observed in almost all countries. The process of population aging is becoming one of the most significant social transformations of the twenty-first century. This is reflected in almost all sectors of society. Demographic ageing affects labour and financial markets, the demand for goods and services such as housing, transport and social protection, as well as family structure and relationships between people belonging to different generations. Older persons are increasingly seen as participants in the development process, whose ability to act for themselves and their society must be integrated into policies and programmes at all levels. In the coming decades, many countries will face serious challenges in the areas of public health systems, pensions and social protection. The inexorable momentum of population aging around the world will likely become the most significant demographic process of the 21st century. Continuing shifts in population age structure will require new social sensitivities and innovative policy responses. Demographic aging has implications for a wide range of human behavior, and researchers increasingly recognize the need for multidisciplinary approaches to the aging process. Since population aging entails many different consequences, it must become the subject of interdisciplinary studies.