The quantitative and qualitative evolution of the social security research

This article examines the evolution of social security research from a theoretical and empirical perspective. This is done through an extensive review and analysis of publications from the Journal of International Social Security Review published by Wiley within a 50-year period (1967–2017). It was observed that at a different period in time, the social security research focused on different national and international issues that invoked different social welfare programs and pension systems approach (public or private) to facilitate the explanation of its final socio-economic impact into different social groups in the same country or region respectively.     

Fostering enterprise architecture education and training with the enterprise architecture competence framework

Enterprise architecture (EA) implementation refers to a set of activities ultimately aiming to align business objectives with information technology infrastructure in an organization. EA implementation is a multidisciplinary, complicated and endless process, hence, calls for adequate education and training programs that will build highly skilled personnel (called enterprise architects) with diverse competencies. This development of domain‐specific competencies is also supported by European policies on education and vocational training. To this end, the authors present training uses of the Enterprise Architecture Competence Framework (EA‐CF). EA‐CF is a proposed conceptual model that describes EA competencies in compliance to the European e‐Competence Framework (e‐CF). The authors argue that EA stakeholders can consult the framework regarding competencies they want to underpin and thus identify the corresponding skills, knowledge and attitudes that result as learning outcomes in EA courses and training programs.     

Social connections,reference point and acquisition premium

This paper examines the impact of acquirer-target social connections along with the target 52-week high (Baker et al., 2012) on acquisition premiums. We show that acquisition premium is more sensitive to first-degree connection than the reference point, suggesting that information is the main driving force for determining acquisition premiums. The findings also indicate that connected directors are more likely to favour firms where they hold higher positions and negotiate favourable premiums. Acquirers pay lower premiums when target directors are retained in the new entity. Connected acquirers are also more likely to finance their deals with equity. Overall, this paper provides support to the information flow hypothesis that acquirers with social connections have better access to target information and enhanced bargaining power in negotiations.     

Financial System Development and Economic Growth in Transition Economies: New Empirical Evidence from the CEE and CIS Countries

We examine the role of financial development in economic growth in the former Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States during the first two decades since the beginning of transition. These countries, which had undeveloped financial systems under Communism, provide an interesting test of the relationship between financial development and growth. Our study is the broadest in terms of coverage and time period. We find that measures of financial market efficiency and competitiveness are more important than the size of the market in terms of promoting economic growth.     

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Activities and Corporate Governance in Imperfectly Competitive Markets

We investigate the incentives of firms' owners to commit voluntarily to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in an oligopolistic market. The socially responsible attributes attached to products are considered as credence goods, with consumers forming expectations about their existence and level. We show that hiring an ‘individually’ socially responsible CEO and delegating to him the CSR effort and market decisions acts as a commitment device for the firm's owners and credibly signals to consumers that the firm will undertake the ‘missioned’ CSR activities. We also find that CSR activities are welfare enhancing for consumers and firms and thus, they should be encouraged. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diffusion of steam-powered firefighting equipment in the United States: innovation adoption at the municipal level

To date, econometrics-based diffusion studies have focused almost exclusively on the timing of adoption of new technology by firms and individuals. While there are detailed case studies on the evolution of firefighting for some of the largest U.S. cities in the nineteenth century, ours is the first formal econometric diffusion study of the timing of adoption of steam-powered, firefighting engines, whose first adoption was an important initial step in the evolution from independent volunteer fire departments to centralized control at the municipal level. We find evidence that the amount of manufacturing capital at risk of fire loss played a crucial role in influencing the timing of initial adoptions of this technology. This is consistent with the argument that increased industrialization in large cities was conducive to the growth in capital-intensive firefighting and centralized control of fire departments in urban America during this period.     

Investigating the accuracy of cross-learning time series forecasting methods

The M4 competition identified innovative forecasting methods, advancing the theory and practice of forecasting. One of the most promising innovations of M4 was the utilization of cross-learning approaches that allow models to learn from multiple series how to accurately predict individual ones. In this paper, we investigate the potential of cross-learning by developing various neural network models that adopt such an approach, and we compare their accuracy to that of traditional models that are trained in a series-by-series fashion. Our empirical evaluation, which is based on the M4 monthly data, confirms that cross-learning is a promising alternative to traditional forecasting, at least when appropriate strategies for extracting information from large, diverse time series data sets are considered. Ways of combining traditional with cross-learning methods are also examined in order to initiate further research in the field.     

Sustainability ranking and improvement of countries

Human society is on a collision course with nature, thus its sustainability is seriously questioned nowadays. To understand this problem better it is essential to define and measure sustainability. In this paper a model that uses fuzzy logic, called SAFE, is used to measure sustainability. The sustainability of a country is based on a multitude of basic indicators. In all 75 indicators for 128 countries are used. This work extends SAFE as follows: (a) The model is amended by an imputation procedure to fill in missing data, (b) the rule bases of SAFE are compiled algebraically, and (c) sustainability thresholds are defined so as to reflect expert opinion and international agreements and norms. Countries are ranked according to their sustainability index. Switzerland and Sweden take the first two places and Mauritania and Sudan the two last ones. A sensitivity analysis pinpoints those basic indicators that affect sustainability the most. Decision makers may focus on these indicators to improve sustainability.