Multi-directional program efficiency: the case of Lithuanian family farms

The present paper analyses both managerial and program efficiencies of Lithuanian family farms, in the tradition of Charnes et al. (Manag Sci 27(6):668–697, 1981) but with the important difference that multi-directional efficiency analysis rather than the traditional data envelopment analysis approach is used to estimate efficiency. This enables a consideration of input-specific efficiencies. The study shows clear differences between the efficiency scores on the different inputs as well as between the farm types of crop, livestock and mixed farms respectively. We furthermore find that crop farms have the highest program efficiency, but the lowest managerial efficiency and that the mixed farms have the lowest program efficiency (yet not the highest managerial efficiency).     

The Responsiveness of Corporate Investments to Changes in Corporate Income Taxation During the Financial Crisis: Empirical Evidence from Slovenian Firms

I examine the responsiveness of corporate investments to changes in corporate income taxation during the financial crisis. When investigating tax effects in financially constrained firms, the model of investment demand needs to be extended to include an additional channel through which taxes could affect investments. I model the tax effects via two transmission channels, the traditional user cost of capital channel and the cash flow channel, which is crucial for financially constrained firms. The empirical results show that corporate investments in financially constrained firms do not respond to changes in corporate income taxation through the user cost of capital channel, but there is strong evidence of the effect that materializes through the cash flow channel.     

Privatization,market competition,international attractiveness,management tenure and hotel performance: Evidence from Slovenia

This paper tests several hypothesis related to the impact of privatization, market competition, management tenure and international attractiveness on the cost efficiency of tourist hotels. We measure efficiency using the innovative Bayesian frontier methodology. The data involve a sample of Slovenian hotels which operate in a highly dynamic environment. From the results, it is clear that hotel efficiency is positively related to privatization and international attractiveness, and negatively related to longer management tenure. No significant link, on the other hand, is found between market competition and hotel efficiency. Further discussions of these findings and related managerial implications are provided.     

Uhljeb – a post-socialist homo croaticus: a personification of the economy of favours in Croatia?

Party patronage combined with a collectivist culture appears to present a very resistant socialist legacy in Croatia. In-group favouritism and an overly bureaucratised system provide a fertile soil for uhljebs. An uhljeb is a public sector employee whose main ‘competence’ is membership of a political party or a nepotistic relationship. They now already count in the thousands, and often contribute to the further multiplication of uhljebs, and to an increase in clientelist arrangements. The practice of employing uhljebs both undermines and underpins the existing system. That ambivalence is one of the characteristics of the Russian sistema, and that is one of the important links to compare blat users and uhljebs, in addition to the practice of ‘pulling strings’. As key protagonists, uhljebs and blat users illustrate their own and society’s modus operandi: an intense ‘economy of favours’. Recent studies increasingly show that cultural variables influence economic outcomes and this article presents an extension of the ‘economy of favours’ into Croatia’s paradigm. Based on primary sources and international benchmarks, it provides a comparison of the cultural contexts of Eastern and Western European countries, and portrays a rising informal practice that, despite its omnipresence, has been under-researched in the academic literature.     

Exploring combined tourist offerings: the case of sightrunning

This study provides preliminary empirical insight into the contemporary tourist phenomenon of sightrunning. This combined offering simultaneously concurs with and evades theoretical perspectives of hybrid tourists, sport tourism, cultural tourism and urban tourism, favouring examination of such phenomena through first-hand experiences of the participants. For the purpose of the empirical study, automated content analysis was applied in order to analyse 858 reviews of sightrunning tours extracted from Tripadvisor web pages. Results reveal that running is the dominant concept, which refers to a gratifying ‘way to see and experience the city’ (rather than the sights). Additional concepts and themes, such as knowledgeable guides and proper pace, further mediate and effect participant experiences. Findings suggest that sport tourists might be concurrently interested in involving cultural experiences, and this offers some preliminary theoretical and managerial implications. They namely identify the potentially neglected tourist segment, which is of relevance for conceptualization, research and management of tourist offerings and experiences from (and beyond) the perspective of ‘running shoes’.     

Foreign News and Spillovers in Emerging European Stock Markets

We analyze foreign news and spillovers in the emerging EU stock markets (the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland). We employ high‐frequency five‐minute intraday data on stock market index returns and four classes of EU and US macroeconomic announcements during 2004–07. We account for the difference of each announcement from its market expectation and we jointly model the volatility of the returns accounting for intraday movements and day‐of‐the‐week effects. Our findings show that intraday interactions on the new EU markets are strongly determined by mature stock markets as well as the macroeconomic news originating thereby. We show that strong contemporaneous links across markets are present even after controlling for macroeconomic announcements. Finally, in terms of specific announcements, we are able to show the exact sources of macro news spillovers from the developed foreign markets to the three new EU markets under research.     

基于幂函数模型预估等截面抗拔桩单桩极限承载力的试验研究

本文运用幂函数数学模型对抗拔桩Q-S曲线进行模拟,得出可以用来预估抗拔桩的极限承载力的Q-S曲线的幂函数模型,且通过工程实例验证该方法是可行的。     

The influence of the political environment and destination governance on sustainable tourism development: a study of Bled,Slovenia

In the context of sustainable tourism development, there are many studies about the exchange process between residents and tourism, yet this issue is practically unexplored with respect to the political environment of tourism. Therefore, this paper introduces and posits that the political environment is a necessary enabler for implementing sustainable tourism. The authors extend the established three-pillar sustainability concept by adding in the political dimension. Then they surveyed how residents' positive and negative perceptions of tourism impacts determine their satisfaction with life in the tourism destination and thus their support for tourism in their community. The model was empirically tested within the context of the long-established Alpine destination of Bled in Slovenia. The findings confirm the importance of the political environment and question the sustainability of Bled's tourism development. It is suggested that the community has relatively weak destination governance due to the underdeveloped political environment. The survey expands and deepens the tourism sustainability debate by adding in the political environment and how it relates to the emerging growth of research on destination governance. The proposed model can be adapted and applied to any destination in order to improve its governance, including the implementation of sustainable tourism development.     

New development: Between politics and strategic planning—the management of government priorities in Lithuania

ABSTRACT

How do political agendas impact on strategic planning practices? This article shows that recent changes to the framework for managing government priorities have made Lithuania’s strategic planning system more politically responsive by mobilizing political attention, leadership and state funding to major government commitments. However, these changes have not yet translated into any longer term outcomes because policy implementation practices did not change very much.     

Empirical Analysis of the Market Value Added in the Czech Automotive Industry

International Advances in Economic Research -