Market Structure Development in a Regulated Market: The Case of the EU Rating Agencies

Background: The motivation for this article is the observation of political and private efforts to establish an EU-based rating agency as a counterweight to the three major agencies and observe other approaches to increase competition in the rating mar-ket. Objectives: This article aims to analyse the potential regulatory impact of the oli-gopolistic situation on the European Union (EU) rating market in the regulation im-posed on the agencies. Methods/Approach: Selected key figures are applied to ob-serve if and how the dominance has changed. The different rating service range of-fered by the registered rating agencies in the EU is also considered in the analysis. Re-sults: The research results show that new agencies potentially impact the EU rating market. While the three major rating agencies still dominate the market, they do so within a changing environment. Conclusions: The employment of external ratings is significant in the financial sector. Ratings provide relevant information on the default risk of financial instruments and assess the solvency of issuers. The market for external ratings thereby can be classified as oligopolistic. Turbulences during the financial crisis of 2008 triggered stricter regulation of the credit rating agencies. Such regulation has now been in force for a good decade

New Banks’ Business – Rating Competence for the Real Sector

Background: The global financial crisis has revealed the urgency of changes in the business models of banks around the world. Due to rising regulatory costs and the effects of the low-interest rate phase, the revenue of banking sector is under pressure. Banks have to generate new sources of revenue. A conceivable externalization of bank internal rating data is appropriate. This available knowledge has a potential to generate new business potentials. Objectives: The goal of this paper is to compare the procurement of internal ratings by credit institutions and the supplier evaluation, particularly regarding the assessment of their financial capacity, as well as the identification of potential interfaces. Methods/Approach: The methods used in the research included an example-oriented presentation and an analysis of indicator systems aimed at assessing the financial soundness within the internal rating by credit institutions and the supplier evaluation. Results: Results show the intersections between the two evaluation systems. Conclusions: Despite the determination of evaluation results by their objective function, apparently significant trends of financial (dis)soundness can be recognized as a part of the two evaluating systems. This result provides starting points to initiate the discussion about a possible (partial) externalisation of internal ratings by credit institutions to be used for the supplier evaluation

The Importance of Financial Performance for Evaluating Supplier Performance – a Comparison with the Internal Ratings of Credit Institutions

Due to changing procurement policies and procurement markets, suppliers increasingly face evaluation of their holistic supplier performance. In this context, the assessment of financial strength is increasingly emphasized. Hence, (potential) suppliers are required to prove their financial soundness towards the assessing (potential) corporate customer. Traditionally, such evidence was only to be offered to banks that create compulsory internal credit ratings. The goal of this paper is to compare procurement in voluntary supplier performance evaluation, particularly the assessment of financial strength, with the procurement when creating compulsory internal ratings by banks. This should on the one hand identify potential concordances and interdependences while on the other hand improve awareness for suppliers. Presentation and analysisof selected indicator systems assess financial strength within supplier evaluation and within the internal rating by banks. Despite the potential different objectives of banks and (potential) corporate customers apparently significant trends of financial (dis)soundness can be recognized as part of the supplier evaluation as well as part of the internal ratings by banks. It follows that hypothesis can be identified which in future work can be empirically tested. The result also provides a start to initiate further research e.g. about a possible (partial) externalization of already existing internal rating data by credit institutions. This then could be used in the context of supplier evaluation reducing overall cost. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

An Analysis of the Competitive Situation on the EU Rating Market in Context of Regulatory Requirements

The market for external ratings is dominated worldwide as well as in the European Union (EU) by three major credit rating agencies (CRAs). These “Big Three” are Standard &amp; Poor\u27s (S&amp;P), Moody\u27s and Fitch Ratings. Due to the oligopolistic market structure and possible involvement in the 2008 financial crisis, the rating agencies have constantly come under criticism. This was associated with stricter regulatory requirements to ease the situation. The EU-Regulation on credit rating agencies („CRA-Regulation“) coming into force 2009 and its amendments in 2011 and in 2013 have mainly governed such regulation. The aim of the article is to analyse potential regulatory impact on the still inherent oligopolistic situation on the EU rating market in the context of the CRA-Regulation. Selected key figures are used to observe over a defined period of time if and how the dominance has changed. The motivation for this article is the observation, that political and private efforts to establish a European rating agency as a counterweight to the three major agencies and other approaches to increase competition in the rating market, followed, which has not been resounding to date. In summary, it is shown that new agencies have a potential impact on the EU rating market and that the three major rating agencies still dominate the market but within a changed environment. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

The Importance of Financial Performance for Evaluating Supplier Performance – a Comparison with the Internal Ratings of Credit Institutions

Due to changing procurement policies and procurement markets, suppliers increasingly face evaluation of their holistic supplier performance. In this context, the assessment of financial strength is increasingly emphasized. Hence, (potential) suppliers are required to prove their financial soundness towards the assessing (potential) corporate customer. Traditionally, such evidence was only to be offered to banks that create compulsory internal credit ratings. The goal of this paper is to compare procurement in voluntary supplier performance evaluation, particularly the assessment of financial strength, with the procurement when creating compulsory internal ratings by banks. This should on the one hand identify potential concordances and interdependences while on the other hand improve awareness for suppliers. Presentation and analysisof selected indicator systems assess financial strength within supplier evaluation and within the internal rating by banks. Despite the potential different objectives of banks and (potential) corporate customers apparently significant trends of financial (dis)soundness can be recognized as part of the supplier evaluation as well as part of the internal ratings by banks. It follows that hypothesis can be identified which in future work can be empirically tested. The result also provides a start to initiate further research e.g. about a possible (partial) externalization of already existing internal rating data by credit institutions. This then could be used in the context of supplier evaluation reducing overall cost. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

e-Learning in Higher Institutions and Secondary Schools during Covid-19: Crisis Solving and Future Perspectives

Background: The pandemic of Covid-19 brought significant changes to the education system and forcibly accelerated the process of digitizing teaching. Students and educators had to adapt to the new way of education, facing challenges such as technical problems and a lack of technical skills and social contact. Objectives: The purpose of the paper was to explore the attitudes of the university and high school educators and students towards the pandemic\u27s impact on digitization in teaching. Methods/Approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to university and high school educators and students in Croatia, Poland, Serbia and Germany in the field of accounting, finance, trade, tourism, and other areas of interest, resulting in 2,897 responses. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Results: The research showed that: 1) high school students were less optimistic about the positive impact of the pandemic on applying digital tools in teaching than university students, 2) educators generally prefer traditional exams, while students generally prefer e-exams, 3) a higher proportion of university respondents believe that e-learning should be used as an important addition to traditional teaching when compared to high school respondents. Conclusions: The pandemic has changed how the teaching process will be performed, but we should learn from experience and address the issues with e-learning

Is there a Link between Sustainability, Perception and Buying Decision at the Point of Sale?

Background: If retailers and brand manufacturers of food succeed in presenting their products at the point of sale, quickly generating a high level of attention, the likelihood of a purchase is significantly increased. Particularly, in recent years, they have been relying on the megatrend of sustainability. The importance of sustainable food has grown accordingly. Hence, an increasing number of manufacturers are challenged to communicate the sustainability of their products via packaging and displays at the point of sale. Objectives: The aim of this article is: to examine to what extent the design of individual packaging and display elements of new sustainable direct juice succeeds in visually communicating sustainability aspects. At the same time the willingness to pay of customers interested in sustainability must be commercialized. Methods/Approach: The focus is on a real shopping situation in conditions that are as regular as possible. The perception of a display must be recorded by eye-tracking technology. A preliminary survey must examine consumers\u27 attitudes towards sustainable food in order to relate it to the perception of individual display elements. For this purpose, the eye-tracking technology was combined with a survey of 32 customers. Results: The results demonstrate that customers with a positive attitude towards sustainable food behave in the following way: they fix individual packaging and display elements that refer to sustainable components for a longer period of time; they remember product features better and they tend to have a slightly higher willingness to pay for the sustainable direct juice. Conclusions: The configuration of an authentic and natural shopping situation provides the manufacturer with concrete recommendations for the design of the display. This communicates the sustainability of its product and thus generates the desired attention

Perception of Sustainability Reporting – an Attempt by Means of Eye-Tracking

Financial reporting–going back to the work of the Croatian Benedikt Kotruljević in 1458 - has been significantly developed in recent years. Notwithstanding this, financial reporting is no longer perceived as comprehensive. Large public-interest preparers as well as their suppliers have been facing pressure in their reporting: Only financial reporting together with nonfinancial reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is said to achieve a comprehensive view of a company’s performance. Such reporting discloses amongst others social and environmental matters e.g. by means of a sustainability report. However, as there are different reporting types the goal of this paper is to identify the superior CSR reporting type from a stakeholder’s perspective. After identifying and analyzing central guidelines on CSR reporting and presenting different approaches, the authors will apply positive-empirical methodology by using Eye-Tracking technology. In this first innovative joint attempt for approaching CSR quality by Eye-Tracking technology students act as subjects in order to develop hypothesis for future research after feedback from conference participants. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

User-Friendly Website Design: A Combined Eye-Tracking Study

A simple and intuitive operation – the so-called usability analysis of websites – is indispensable in modern times. In particular, drop-out rates can be applied as an indicator of existing usability problems. Eye-tracking is a proven method for the evaluation of the usability of websites. The aim of the study was to improve the usability of the website of an educational institute for trainees in the region as the target group. For this purpose, the use of an eye-tracking technology was combined with a survey of 30 trainees. The eye-tracking study was task-oriented: subjects were asked to inform themselves of particular course offers, and to register for the relevant courses. This procedure and the subsequent survey provided tangible indications of the search and surfing behaviour of the target group as well as their assessment of the usability of the website. This combination of methods allows the development of recommendations for optimizing the website with regard to its orientation, structure and level of comprehensibility. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

Perception of Sustainability Reporting – an Attempt by Means of Eye-Tracking

Financial reporting–going back to the work of the Croatian Benedikt Kotruljević in 1458 - has been significantly developed in recent years. Notwithstanding this, financial reporting is no longer perceived as comprehensive. Large public-interest preparers as well as their suppliers have been facing pressure in their reporting: Only financial reporting together with nonfinancial reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is said to achieve a comprehensive view of a company’s performance. Such reporting discloses amongst others social and environmental matters e.g. by means of a sustainability report. However, as there are different reporting types the goal of this paper is to identify the superior CSR reporting type from a stakeholder’s perspective. After identifying and analyzing central guidelines on CSR reporting and presenting different approaches, the authors will apply positive-empirical methodology by using Eye-Tracking technology. In this first innovative joint attempt for approaching CSR quality by Eye-Tracking technology students act as subjects in order to develop hypothesis for future research after feedback from conference participants. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p