Unpacking the Underpinnings of Collaborative Consumption in Central Asia: Perspectives from Kyrgyzstan

We investigate the motivators behind collaborative consumption in Kyrgyzstan by applying the theory of planned behaviour. Through examining 308 responses gathered from an online survey, we assess the connections between the intention to engage in collaborative consumption and influential factors. Our results reveal that attitude, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms are the most influential predictors, with their impact ranked in descending order. Consequently, we delve into the theoretical and practical implications of these emerging collaborative practices and business models in Kyrgyzstan

Regional socio-economic factors influencing diabetes incidence: the case of Romania

We examine the relation between average net wage, urbanization rate, women density, life expectancy, medical infrastructure and medical human resources, and the incidence of total, insulin, and non – insulin diabetes among Romanians. We fitted three panel regression models with interaction terms using official data comprising of 41 Romanian counties analysed between 2007 and 2014. After controlling for age groups, we found that the share of women in the overall population moderates the influence of salary level on diabetes incidence for the total and non – insulin groups, while for the insulin – dependent category, urbanization rate was positively associated with the number of newly recorded patients. Health infrastructure was relevant only for the total, and the insulin – dependent categories. Our results are in line with the sizeable disparities in diabetes that exist within other European countries and are useful for regional decision-makers planning adequate healthcare services and target proper risk groups

Testing the Effectiveness of the Health Belief Model in Predicting Preventive Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Romania and Italy

none5sìWe use a cultural psychology approach to examine the relevance of the Health Belief Model (HBM) for predicting a variety of behaviors that had been recommended by health officials during the initial stages of the COVID-19 lockdown for containing the spread of the virus and not overburdening the health system in Europe. Our study is grounded in the assumption that health behavior is activated based on locally relevant perceptions of threats, susceptibility and benefits in engaging in protective behavior, which requires careful attention to how these perceptions might be structured and activated. We assess the validity of the HBM in two European countries that have been relatively understudied, using simultaneous measurements during acute periods of infection in Romania and Italy. An online questionnaire provided a total of (N = 1863) valid answers from both countries. First, to understand individual difference patterns within and across populations, we fit a General Linear Model in which endorsement was predicted by behavior, country, their interaction, and a random effect for participants. Second, we assess the effect of demographics and health beliefs on prevention behaviors by fitting a multi-group path model across countries, in which each behavior was predicted by the observed health belief variables and demographics. Health beliefs showed stronger relationships with the recommended behaviors than demographics. Confirming previously reported relationships, self-efficacy, perceived severity, and perceived benefits were consistently related to the greater adoption of individual behaviors, whereas greater perceived barriers were related to lower adoption of health behaviors. However, we also point to important location specific effects that suggest that local norms shape protective behavior in highly contextualized ways.openKarl, Johannes Alfons; Fischer, Ronald; Druică, Elena; Musso, Fabio; Stan, AnastasiaKarl, Johannes Alfons; Fischer, Ronald; Druică, Elena; Musso, Fabio; Stan, Anastasi

Regional interplay of factors informing SMES’ density in Romania. A panel data analysis

The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of several factors associated with the SMEs’ density distribution across Romania, and to discuss how some of the variables acknowledged in the international literature as determinants in SMEs’ dynamic are related to SMEs’ density in this case. We fitted four static panel models, one for each category of SMEs, and found a positive impact of both GDP per capita and FDI per capita on the SMEs’ density in each category, which may confirm our initial assumption that SMEs’ density can act as a signal for business opportunity. The density of employees in the research – development sector did not account for any significant contribution, while the percent of people in the 25 – 34 age group is statistically significant but holds an opposite sign to what was expected. Last, but not least, the crisis had an unexpected impact on our dependent variables

Voluntary Simplicity and Green Buying Behavior: An Extended Framework

Green consumption is usually understood in the context of green consumption values and receptivity to green communication. Voluntary simplicity, a related yet distinct construct that relies on ecological responsibility, has not been included in the same framework. This paper bridges this gap and extends the original model to consider green consumption and voluntary simplicity in a unified structure. Based on a study conducted in Romania, it was found that 70% of the variation in buying behavior is explained by a combination of direct and mediated influences. The main takeaway is that any serious attempt to encourage responsible buying has to rely on a reduction in the absolute level of consumer demand. This result has far-reaching implications because the current paradigm of economic growth and prosperity is tributary to consumerism. The question is not how to avoid curtailing consumption and substitute green products for those harming the environment, but rather how to make voluntary frugality palatable

Corporate Performance and Economic Convergence between Europe and the US: A Cluster Analysis Along Industry Lines

We investigate the extent to which the United States and the countries of Europe have achieved economic convergence of their corporate sector. We define convergence as the homogenization of economic performance, institutional arrangements, and market valuation taking place at the meso-economic level. We perform a cluster analysis along industry lines and find that industries and corporations on both continents cluster in four groups, based on six variables measuring operating performance, ownership, and market valuation. The clusters resulted from the US data are more unstable than those resulted from European data. We are also able to pair a handful of highly similar clusters between the US and European data. These findings suggest a complex dynamic. It seems that the US corporate sector is more homogeneous than the European one. Moreover, some degree of convergence between the European Union and the United States appears to have already occurred

Simply Clustering. Making New Sense In The Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire

A common approach in examining data collected based on different scales is to look at their structure by means of factor analysis. This article provides a way to look not only into the overall mindfulness score as an individual characteristic, but also at how the mindfulness dimensions cluster together to provide potentially consistent individual profiles. The novelty of our contribution is two fold: we reached our goal with the help of cluster analysis, and not by the means of previous methodological approaches. Also, we applied the most popular tools used to measure mindfulness, the face facets mindfulness questionnaire, on a sample of Romanian participants which makes this research the first study on mindfulness conducted on a Romanian sample. We found that, despite the existence of some stable groups that share similar characteristics, the degree of homogeneity across individuals is pretty high. In addition, the levels of mindfulness corresponding to our participants seems to be unrelated with background variables like age, gender, and working place

Fixed effects models to assess the effectiveness of entrepreneurial diversification strategy in SMEs

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the business environment, before and after 2009, and see if the divesification strategy for types of activity, chosen by Romanian SMEs, was efficient, similarly to porfolio divesification. We explore multiple types of models aiming to differentiate between two categories of companies: those with only one type of activity and those who kept their options open by having multiple types of activities. The studied companies are from the Bucharest-Ilfov metropolitan area, the variables taken into consideration are profit, number of employees, geographical position, type of activity, revenues, losses, and the time period is 2000-2012, so as to properly capture the events in 2008 without straying too far from that point in time. We fitted fixed linear regression models for panel data, with and without an interaction variable to represent the crysis, as a dummy variable, and the total number of companies as a proxy variable for the level of competition in a certain type of activity and geographical position. As a matter of expectations, we departred from a similarity with the portfolio theory, and anticipated that we ought to find significant differences in favor of those companies which allow themselves multiple types of activities, more exactly the second category. The results confirmed that there are many differences between the two categories, that companies with multiple types of activity have not been affected by the crysis as much, and they seem to have more stable profits

Energy Poverty and Life Satisfaction: Structural Mechanisms and Their Implications

This paper investigates the distinct mechanisms through which energy poverty is linked to life satisfaction, via health status and one’s satisfaction with one’s own socioeconomic status, using data from the Life in Transition survey. Our sample contains 19,598 individuals from 11 former communist states located in Central and Eastern Europe, and two developed countries for comparison. We estimated a partial least squared–path model and found that both health status and socioeconomic status are relevant mediators. Our results also indicate that gender moderates the relation between health status and life satisfaction. Energy poverty has a low contribution to health status but a larger contribution to satisfaction with socioeconomic status, thus indicating that interventions on energy poverty may not greatly improve the level of health, but can have an influence on how people feel about their life. The contribution of our paper is twofold. On the one side, we continue to consolidate the existing link between energy poverty and self-reported health status with a new focus on the Central and Eastern European countries; on another side, we propose a theoretical framework expansion by including totally novel factors to be analyzed in this context: satisfaction with socioeconomic status, economic environment improvement, and intolerance