THE SIGNIFICANT FACTORS OF SUSTAINABILITY OF SME IN THE V4 COUNTRIES

The aim of the paper was to define, quantify and compare the significant attributes of sustainability of SMEs in V4 countries. Within the empirical research, which analysed a sample of 1.398 respondents and took place in V4 countries, we examined the significant attributes of sustainability of SMEs that had been defined by a statement and the SMEs had taken their attitude to them. The validity of statistical hypotheses was proved by chi-square and Z-score. The outcomes of the research confirmed that SMEs quite intensely perceive the social significance of permanently sustainable business activities in this region. Not only do SMEs in V4 countries understand the concept of permanently sustainable growth in business activities, but they also intensely demonstrate their positive attitude to prefer more than the economic interests of their own companies, they feel the need to positively influence the social system and the environment as well. The importance of the impacts of business activities on the environment was confirmed by more than 80% of SMEs in V4 countries. SMEs had a positive perception of the permanent sustainability of their own companies with regard to a difficult period the research took place in (the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, tense international relationships, and high inflation). The average degree of business optimism measured by the ST5 statement was at the level of 80% in V4 countries, which may be valuated as a positive economic phenomenon. An interesting finding is the fact that the highest degree of positive perceiving the significant determinants of permanently sustainable growth in business activities was clearly shown by Hungarian SMEs, on the contrary, the lowest degree of it was shown by Czech SMEs. © Vilnius University, 2002-2023 © Brno University of Technology, 2002-2023 © University of Latvia, 2002-2023.

Using green finance to promote global growth in a sustainable way

Green finance is gaining traction as a public policy objective. This paper summarises global and Indian progress in the field of green finance. Also, it examined the development in the field of the green finance in India, roadmap of the green finance sustainability, requirement for the significance of the green finance and Initiatives taken by the Government of India. Using a variety of data sources, we analyse public awareness (Google Trends) and financial possibilities (bank loans and bond issuances) for green initiatives. While public awareness and financing options have improved in India, our findings indicate that reducing asymmetric information through improved information management systems and increased collaboration among stakeholders could pave the way for more environmentally friendly and sustainable long-term economic growth. The need for the supply of sustainable financing to grow faster, already demonstrated by the financial gap for the sustainable development goals, has been reinforced from post-COVID19 environment, with escalation of climate issue. For this, investors, investees, middlemen and policymakers must discover methods to collaborate more effectively and with a greater sense of urgency.

Identifying and understanding challenges to inform new approaches to improve vaccination rates: A qualitative study in Indonesia

Purpose: This study aimed to identify and understand challenges to inform new strategies to increase the COVID‐19 vaccination rate according to involved vaccinators' perspectives in Belitung, Indonesia. Design A qualitative descriptive study design was used. Methods: Online interviews and chatting were done among 11 vaccinators for data collection between August 2021 and January 2022. Data were analyzed using a content analysis model. Findings Four main themes emerged, including (1) communication strategies (evidence‐based, electronic‐based, and culturally based communication), (2) cross‐sectoral strategies (collaboration with police, religious leaders, customary leaders, heads of village divisions, and non‐governmental organizations), (3) "picking‐up the ball" system (home visits for elderly and people with disability and school visits for children), and (4) setting‐up priorities (between mandatory vaccines and boosters). Conclusion: Despite making vaccination mandatory, the roles of communication, cross‐sectoral innovations, "picking‐up the ball" system, and priority setting may have useful potential to improve vaccination rates. Clinical Relevance: The findings may serve as an input to overcome challenges and accelerate the vaccination coverage in Indonesia and beyond. However, further research is needed.

Social media perceptions, readiness and usage in fostering sustainable growth of micro and small enterprises in Uganda

Purpose>The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of social media, perception, readiness and usage on sustainable growth of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Uganda.Design/methodology/approach>This study is cross-sectional and adopted a mixed method approach. Data was gathered through a questionnaire survey of 212 business owner–managers that are members of the Uganda Small Scale Industries Association (USSIA) and engaging 8 business managers in the in-depth interviews to support and strengthen the quantitative results. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS.24) and Atlas ti.8.Findings>The study reveals that social media perception, readiness and usage positively influence sustainable growth of MSEs in Uganda. However, the insufficient soft and technical skills, lack of devices such as computers and smartphones and the high cost of Internet data undermine the usage of social media by business owner–managers for sustainable growth of their businesses.Practical implications>The findings demonstrate what policymakers, social media operators and business owner–managers need to do to enhance integration of social media platforms and channels into the operations of MSEs in Uganda.Originality/value>This study adds to existing literature on social media technology in MSEs with evidence from Uganda. The study results are likely to foster usage of social media as policymakers and social media providers will come up with appropriate strategies to unlock the social media potential of the business owner–managers for sustainable business growth in Uganda.

Biden's build back better proposal and the future of secular stagnation

In response to the COVID pandemic, the US federal government responded with approximately $5 trillion of relief spending, and the new administration of President Biden proposed an additional $4 trillion to “build back better.” This included huge investments in physical and human infrastructure that would produce environmentally and socially sustainable growth. This chapter discusses the two spending plans and examines how the administration proposes to pay for them through taxes. We introduce an alternative view of taxation, arguing that taxes need not be raised just because spending is going to increase. What matters is mobilizing resources and whether inflation may result from increased government spending. We conclude that the demands on resources will be manageable and argue that in real terms infrastructure spending pays for itself. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of E-commerce Impact on Sustainable Economic Growth: The Case of Vietnam

Instruments for the sustainable growth attract a lot of attention. An assessment of e-commerce development through the example of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam allows determining the prospects for this branch of digital economy in most of the developing countries. The aim of this study is to assess the role of e-commerce in sustainable economic growth and to identify areas in which the strategy for e-commerce development in Vietnam until 2025 can be improved. The research methods include dynamic SWOT analysis, correlation analysis, and cluster analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics 23 software. Within the study the conditions for the development of the e-commerce market in Vietnam are identified;the role of e-commerce in ensuring sustainable economic growth is analyzed;the relationship between e-commerce and other economic and social factors affecting growth and development is analyzed;directions for the development of e-commerce in each Vietnamese province are proposed. The scientific novelty of this work consists in the approach proposed for assessing the contribution of e-commerce to the sustainable growth of GDP and the classification of e-commerce development policies based on the level of regional development. The authors provide recommendations for improving the government strategy for e-commerce development in Vietnam based on the grouping of administrative entities according to their technological and infrastructural development. The results of the study can be used in the elaboration of the government policy on the development of e-commerce and the digital economy in general – not only in Vietnam, but in other developing countries as well. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

How a Successful Implementation and Sustainable Growth of e-Commerce can be Achieved in Developing Countries;a Pathway Towards Green Economy

Apart from the goal of the digital world and other benefits of e-commerce, it becomes the need of time during this COVID-19 pandemic. Successful implementation and sustainable growth of e-commerce in developing countries is a challenge. The goal of the digital world without the implementation and sustainable growth of e-commerce in developing countries is incomplete. Based on UTAUT theory, we have developed an integrated model to study the developing countries' consumers' adoption intentions towards e-commerce. We collected a valid useable sample of 796 respondents from a developing country, applied the SEM-ANN two-step hybrid approach to testing the proposed hypothesis, and ranked the antecedents according to their importance. Results revealed that Trust in e-commerce, Perceived risk of using e-commerce, Ease of use in e-commerce, Curiosity about e-commerce, Facilitating Conditions, and Awareness of e-commerce benefits influence the adoption intentions of developing countries' consumers. Sensitivity analysis results revealed that Ease of use in e-commerce platforms and awareness of e-commerce benefits are the two most crucial factors behind the adoption intentions in developing countries. The study's findings help authorities adopt sustainable e-commerce, multinational companies effectively market their goods online, and academics better understand how inhabitants of developing nations perceive e-commerce.

Analysis on the Steady Growth Effect of China’s Fiscal Policy from a Dynamic Perspective

Under the goal of a “new development pattern”, it is of great practical significance to accurately identify the economic growth effect of fiscal and tax policies. This paper constructs a TVP-FAVAR model to measure the economic effects of China’s fiscal and tax policies at the aggregate and structural levels. The results show that the reduction in total tax has a positive effect on real variables such as output and consumption;especially at the present stage, the promotion effect of total tax reduction on economic growth is relatively strong, but the stimulation effect on price is relatively weak. Further, the tax structure in which the ratio of direct tax to total tax increases and the ratio of indirect tax to total tax decreases is more conducive to the increase in output and consumption, and will not strongly stimulate the rise of price level. Therefore, at this stage, China should continue to vigorously implement the tax reduction policy and ensure the continuity of the tax reduction policy. At the same time, we should continue to optimize the tax structure and give better play to the regulatory role of fiscal and tax policies in income redistribution, so as to achieve the goal that fiscal and tax policies help build a “new development pattern” and promote high-quality economic development.

Assessing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's TFP growth: Evidence from region-level data in 2020.

This paper examines the first wave spread of COVID-19 in China and its impact on TFP growth for 2020, and assess the role of anti-epidemic lockdown policy in suppressing the pandemic. Methodologically, we systematically quantify the disparity in the pandemic's productivity impact and the role of lockdown policies across regions, by combining the prefecture-level TFP growth for 422 regions (including 276 municipal cites and 146 county regions) with the daily statistics on the pandemic. Our results show that the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TFP growth are more likely to occur in municipal cities, compared to rural areas. Moreover, the anti-epidemic quarantine policy succeeded to bring the COVID-19 pandemic down in China, but it may generate additional costs through dampening TFP growth if overused. Given the regions either with a relative higher resilience level or in the remote rural areas suffered more from the strict regulation. A more flexible policy is required to be designed so as to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 impacts in future. These findings provide useful insights for China, as well as other Asian developing countries, to cope with its continuing episodes.

Digital Innovation and Firm Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Supply Chain Management Capabilities.

Given the omnipresence and profoundness of the ongoing pandemic from the Coronavirus disease 2019, its potential spread can be minimized through social distancing. However, this practice causes increasing difficulties and undesirability of traditional transactions or interactions. Accordingly, various manufacturing firms around the world have become more committed not only to accelerating the development of digital technologies, but also to integrating them with existing processes. In this study, we address an important issue of how manufacturing firms can adapt to the ever-changing volatility and unpredictable global business environment, and achieve sustainable growth by developing a strong supply chain management capability. Two specific interrelated research questions are considered: (1) How do supply chain management capabilities contribute to firm environmental performance; and (2) What are the sources of such capabilities? In so doing, we integrate various forms of digital innovation into a supply chain management capability logic to explore their antecedents and consequences. By using survey data from 272 manufacturing firms in China, we examine the relationship between three key forms of digital innovation (i.e., product, platform, and service) and firm environmental performance. Results show that digital product, platform, and service innovations all have positive contributions to supply chain management capability. In turn, supply chain management capabilities have a partial mediating effect between digital product innovation and firm environmental performance, but a full mediating effect between digital platform and service innovations and firm environmental performance.

The Economic Effect of the Steel Industry on Sustainable Growth in China—A Focus on Input–Output Analysis

The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic ripple effects caused by the supply-side reforms on China’s steel industry. To this end, using the 2012 and the 2017 China Input–Output Tables, this study analyzes the economic ripple effect of the Chinese steel industry caused by its supply-side reform. In this study, the influence coefficients (rear-linked effect) and the sensitivity coefficients (forward-linked effect), conceptualized by Leontief, are used as research tools to analyze the ripple effects of the Chinese steel industry. The analysis results are as follows. First, the fact that 2012 ranked high in professional equipment and meter manufacturing shows that the Chinese government’s supply-side reforms are effective and creating the required shift from traditional manufacturing to qualitative growth. Second, in terms of the sensitivity coefficient, in 2012, most of the top industries contributed significantly to the development of the Chinese economy. The originality of this study is as follows. The input production analysis used in this paper is a methodology mainly used in the steel, coal, automobile, and petrochemical industries, which clearly distinguishes the front and rear industries. Additionally, this study is a novel attempt at comparative research on the Chinese steel industry between 2012 and 2017.

Automating the Audit Process of Management Systems Through Artificial Intelligence Methods

The chapter explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the extensive transformation of management processes audit, the prerequisites for this transformation and the development of models and methods to automate the management processes audit through artificial intelligence methods. The key feature of the transformation of audit processes is achieving inclusive and sustainable growth. Inclusive growth is considered not only in terms of the process itself but also in regard to its final result. Automation not only accelerates audit procedures, reduces time- and labor-intensive, mitigates the epidemiological risks to participants but also applies the findings to a wider range of processes. The impact of improvements is getting extensive for more people involved in various production operations. A detailed study has led to the development of the model for the application of artificial intelligence methods for automating the process audit of management systems. The creation of the model was prompted by the need to improve the capabilities to save both the sustainability of adaptable systems and processes and stable economic growth. The chapter identifies the most important tasks in developing an effective automated audit model, as well as the functionality of each element of the automated audit model and its implementation prospects. Also were analysed risks emerging from the implementation of this approach. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Fast Recovery or Stagnation? The Maritime Industry post COVID-19

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in February 2020, the global maritime trade plunged by 9% in H1 2020, an unprecedented loss since the trade decrease triggered by the 2008 Financial Crisis. In addition to the disruptions of supply chains and decline of transportation sectors brought on by the pandemic, surging nationalism and protectionism, the retreat of globalization, and calls for more diversified global value chains and decoupling of economies have heightened the adverse impacts on survival and sustainable growth of the shipping industry. As a result, many people have adopted a more pessimistic view, and predicted that “the short-term outlook for maritime trade is grim, and that the industry’s recovery is fraught with uncertainty,” according to one UNCTAD report. Some even proclaimed to “wave goodbye to the greatest era of globalization,” wrote The Economist in May of 2020. This article argues that the maritime industry will have a strong and speedy recovery from the downturns despite transportation disruptions brought on by COVID-19, outcry for diversification of supply chains, and changes escalated and exacerbated by nationalist sentiments and protectionist conflicts. The adverse factors that the shipping industry faces would be marginal rather than fundamental in nature. Those marginally higher risks could be managed and ameliorated by multinational enterprises through alternate cross-border business strategies and harnessing of new technologies. Panic over the changes in supply chains (including nearshoring and reshoring) and diversifying production sites could be mitigated by emerging profitability earned from global specialization, rent-seeking strategies, and orchestrating a transformation in global value chains. Most importantly, pandemic-driven fears that globalization could be “killed” will be minimized when actual data shows just the opposite - that globalization is expanding. The paper also analyzes the elements that could strengthen the fast recovery and sustainable growth of the maritime industry. The vertical and horizontal integrations of maritime companies, especially the massive multinational enterprises, show their vast capacity in the cross-border movements of ideas, technology and portfolio capital, and consequently would help build up global production scale of economies and global amortization. Emerging technologies and their increasingly commonplace applications in digitalization, automation and robotics in maritime sectors, is crucial to sustaining both short-term productivity and long-term growth of the maritime industry. The research provides evidence for why the maritime industry is poised for an expeditious post-pandemic recovery and seeks to answer many puzzling questions while our world still operates under globally disruptive and unprecedented pressures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 21st Annual General Assembly, IAMU AGA 2021 - Proceedings of the International Association of Maritime Universities ,IAMU Conference. All rights reserved.

Work in Progress: Post-Pandemic Opportunities to Re-Engineer Engineering Education: A Pragmatic-Futurist Framework

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, education has stepped up some of its long-overdue transformations. Higher education (HE) and Engineering Education (E.E.), particularly, is facing a potential crisis. Engineering schools and professional societies are dealing with several pressing problems that potentially threaten their survival. Although E.E. leaders are bound to focus on short-term survival, sustainable growth and development in the long term must also feature in the agenda. In this work, the context of disruption in the education domain is revisited through a literature review, related threats and opportunities are identified, and a strategic way forward is investigated in those lights from Engineering Education's perspective to inform a pragmatic futurist's perspective. A needs-driven innovation model (why-what-how approach) is pursued to present the study where the shift in mindset, changes in infrastructure, and leveraging digital technologies emerged as the central concepts. Each of those broad implementation categories encompassed various subsequent initiatives such as a life-long learner's mindset, a focus on how-to-learn, a strong emphasis on professional skill development, industry-academia alliances, a reflective broadening of engineers' considerations, and extensive opportunities for multi-disciplinary collaboration. To this end, we propose a pragmatic futuristic framework for accessible access to affordable, relevant, and personalized education for learners, faculty, and institutions from all diverse backgrounds. The new framework encourages fresh relationships among the key actors in the context of new modalities for the transfer and co-creation of knowledge, requirements, and possibilities for change in operational models and tapping into the boundary-breaking opportunities fostered by digital ways of teaching and learning. This study aims to provide a future-proof pathway for the engineering education ecosystem to better equip it for solving real-world problems with a multi-disciplinary approach to create new value for society. In the process, the study also sheds light on relevant new research avenues. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

A Study on Growth Engines of Middle Market Enterprise (MME) of Korea Using Meta-Analysis

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively review previous studies and discover implications for the sustainable growth engines of middle market enterprise (MME) of Korea using meta-analysis. Since Germany’s hidden champion companies are considered as benchmarking targets because their economic environment and size are similar to those of Korean MMEs, a meta-analysis was conducted on the previous studies of them. As a result of integrating the effect sizes of input and output factors according to the process of the Program Logic model from the viewpoint of dynamic capabilities, 198 in Germany and 229 in Korea were derived. It was found that, unlike Korean companies, the number of skilled workers, labor productivity, CEO experience, and Innovation activities within the firm had a significant impact on Germany’s hidden champion companies. In addition, industry and region-oriented innovation networks and family businesses were identified as important variables. Meta-analysis collects a large number of individual studies in order to integrate the results and statistically assess the data. As a result, it will be used as basic data for developing models for academic research in the future. In addition, it will provide implications for sectors in which Korean MMEs should concentrate their efforts in order to create an innovative ecosystem.

Concurrent advances in international economics towards sustainable development in the Era of climate and COVID-19 crises

Throughout the history of trade, many concepts have changed, but growth. Through the urge to develop due to the never- ending demand of humankind, the machine of trade and economics has been having an observable footprint on the planet Earth. Such a footprint has grown to a point of starting to alter the dynamics of the planet, much like a scar. The limits of resources, as well as the ensuing scale of the threats and crisis (the arch- example being the climate change) arisen from this urge, has demonstrated clearly that, growth and development of any kind must be sustainable. This need has become so urgent that, the rulebook of all games needed to be revised and changed as exemplified in "EU Green Deal", "US Green New Deal", upcoming "COP- Glasgow" in the footsteps of the Paris Agreement, that all have been encouraging even forcing these developments. The EU is intending Border Adjustment Tax (BATs) on industries, which will be a game- changer for globalization and for setting new rules in international trade. We are entering an era in which sustainable production, manufacturing, supply, and consumption will matter much. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and climate credentials will be of utmost importance, even decisive, in making choices and deals in international trade and economics. Within these complex dynamics of trade, COVID- 19 has played a revealing role in hidden glitches of the rulebook. This chapter, after introducing basic concepts on the green deal, sustainability aspects of the trade, will try to explore their possible effects on EU internal and its international trade, the relation to sustainability and growth, effects of COVID- 19, and as well as the inevitable impact on international trade and repositioning into the envisioned new low- carbon and sustainable era. © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2021. All rights reserved.