Assessing Business Risks of Natural Gas Trading Companies: Evidence from GET Baltic

The aim of this research is to distinguish business risks that affect natural gas trading companies operating in the liberalized natural gas market and to assess them according to the potential impact on the aforementioned gas trading companies. To achieve this, a study of international scientific literature and empirical research was conducted, as well as the methods of expert survey, Analytical Hierarchy Process with different measurement scales and logical investigation. The research of the business risks of natural gas trading companies reflected that natural gas trading companies in the liberalized market distinguish in significantly different business risks’ portfolios from those that operate under monopoly conditions. It was also found that it is difficult to evaluate the business risks’ importance for the natural gas trading companies acting in liberalized markets because they characterize in a hierarchical structure, which means that they are prone to cascading effects

Wyzwania dla poprawy resilencji w rolnictwie w kontekście zrównoważonego rozwoju i rozwoju obszarów wiejskich

Research on economic resilience in agriculture is quite complicated due to the interdisciplinary nature of the notion. In agricultural, climate change, sustainability and food security research it appears as an endogenous phenomenon rather as the main one. This study aims to contribute to conceptualization of economic resilience in agriculture, revealing current and identifying future research directions. Bibliometric analysis supplemented with a literature overview serve this purpose. Results confirm the ambiguity and immaturity of economic resilience concept and its secondary position within overall agricultural resilience research framework.Badania resilencji ekonomicznej w rolnictwie są dość skomplikowane ze względu na interdyscyplinarny charakter tego pojęcia. W badaniach dotyczących rolnictwa, zmian klimatycznych, zrównoważonego rozwoju i bezpieczeństwa żywności wydaje się, że jest to zjawisko endogeniczne, a nie główne. Niniejsze opracowanie ma na celu przyczynienie się do konceptualizacji resilencji ekonomicznej w rolnictwie, wskazując na obecne i identyfikując przyszłe kierunki badawcze. Służy temu analiza bibliometryczna uzupełniona przeglądem literatury. Wyniki potwierdzają niejednoznaczność i niedojrzałość koncepcji resilencji ekonomicznej oraz jej drugorzędną pozycję w ogólnych ramach badań resilencji rolnictwa

Assessing Business Risks of Natural Gas Trading Companies: Evidence from GET Baltic

The aim of this research is to distinguish business risks that affect natural gas trading companies operating in the liberalized natural gas market and to assess them according to the potential impact on the aforementioned gas trading companies. To achieve this, a study of international scientific literature and empirical research was conducted, as well as the methods of expert survey, Analytical Hierarchy Process with different measurement scales and logical investigation. The research of the business risks of natural gas trading companies reflected that natural gas trading companies in the liberalized market distinguish in significantly different business risks’ portfolios from those that operate under monopoly conditions. It was also found that it is difficult to evaluate the business risks’ importance for the natural gas trading companies acting in liberalized markets because they characterize in a hierarchical structure, which means that they are prone to cascading effects

Measuring the Cohesion of Informal Economy in Agriculture in New European Union Member States

The present paper evaluates the size and development of the informal economy in agriculture in 10 new EU member states from 2004–2020. A novel agriculture-tailored multiple indicators Multiple Causes model was derived to estimate the size of the informal economy in agriculture. It was revealed that the share of the informal economy in agriculture has decreased from 40 to 31%. The level of cohesion of the informal economy in agriculture shows an opposite trend compared with other economic sectors, indicating an increasing divergence from mainstream economic trends

DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOPOIETIC ECONOMIC STRUCTURES IN THE BALTIC STATES: ANALYSIS OF FACTORS

Research background: Since the introduction of the concept in 1972 Autopoiesis has enjoyed great popularity among academicians representing various fields of science. However, the number of studies devoted to the investigation of factors that have an impact on the formation of autopoietic economic structures is quite limited. This paper addresses the gap in scientific research on autopoiesis of economic structures in small open markets, specifically in the Baltic States. Purpose of the article: The paper aims to identify and evaluate factors that turn on self-organization mechanisms of autopoietic economic structures in the Baltic States, in particular in Latvia. Methods: Expert survey was used to identify the most important factors affecting the for-mation of meso-economic entities in the Baltic States. The factors’ assessments provided by seven experts were analyzed. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with fuzzy numbers was employed to process the data. Two different scales of evaluation (inverse linear and balanced) were used. Findings & Value added: The factors influencing the process of formation of business groups were evaluated by experts. Research results allow for making conclusions regarding the causes of the business integration, and impact of diversified integrated business structures on the country's business system in Central Europe

The Influence of a Brand’s Visual Content on Consumer Trust in Social Media Community Groups

The study covered by the present paper sought to look into a range of factors affecting the building of trust in brands among social media community groups. For the purpose of the present study, in order to measure the influence of visual content, the authors of the present paper investigated its visual as well as emotional characteristics while factoring in consumer engagement variables. In order to test our hypotheses, two different visual advertisements of an artificial hypothetical apparel brand were created. The robustness of the results was ensured by the findings of the representative consumer survey and a factor and regression analysis. The survey concluded that engagement with the brand-created content by social media community groups may be viewed as a proxy variable when studying the consumer confidence in a brand within consumer groups. The authors of the paper also argue that an image-based content identity does affect the engagement with the content created by a brand within the social network community groups. The difference impact of the cognitive, emotional or behavioral involvement of social media community group members onto the formation of brand trust is revealed

Economic and Environmental Performance of the Agricultural Sectors of the Selected EU Countries

This paper aims at to identify the differences in the performance of the agricultural sectors in the selected European Union Member States. The research covers 21 countries in the period from 2007–2017. The paper uses data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Three types of sectors were considered: Crop farming (wheat and rapeseed), specialist milk, and specialist cattle. The sector’s performance was measured by calculating the aggregate scores using the VIKOR technique. The panel regression model was also used to estimate and assess the technical and economic determinants of the sector’s performance. The obtained results indicated that the new EU Member States showed higher levels of performance compared to the old Member States. This finding may be attributed to the fact that some of the production factors in the new EU Member States are still under-valued compared to those of the old EU Member States

A Comparison on Leading Methodologies for Bankruptcy Prediction: The Case of the Construction Sector in Lithuania

Different economic environments differ in their characteristics; this prevents the usage of the same bankruptcy prediction models under different conditions. Objectively, the abundance of bankruptcy prediction models gives rise to the idea that these models are not in compliance with the changing business conditions in the market and do not meet the increasing complexity of business tasks. The purpose of this study is to assess the suitability of existing bankruptcy prediction models and the possibilities to increase the effectiveness of their application. In order to analyze theoretical aspects of the application of bankruptcy forecasting models and frame the research methodology, a systemic comparative and logical analysis of the scientific literature and statistical data, graphic data representation, induction, deduction and abstraction are employed. Results of the analysis confirm research hypotheses that bankruptcy prediction models based on macroeconomic variables are effective in identifying the number of corporate bankruptcies in a country and that the application of the model created on the grounds of macroeconomic indicators together with the traditional bankruptcy prediction model can improve the reliability of bankruptcy prediction. However, it was identified that models which are not specially adapted to companies in the construction sector are also suitable for forecasting their bankruptcies

Who Benefits from CAP? The Way the Direct Payments System Impacts Socioeconomic Sustainability of Small Farms

The effects of globalization have often been adverse for the agricultural sector, especially its most vulnerable element—the small farm. The importance of the agricultural sector as a whole and small farms in the sense of ensuring food security, employment and viability of rural areas, implies a necessity to support the sector and small farms in particular. For this purpose, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) seeks to boost the sustainability of agriculture in multiple dimensions. The 2013 reform of the CAP has provided a particularly strong impetus towards this direction. This paper establishes an indicator system to quantify the effects of the CAP direct payments on the socioeconomic sustainability of small farms. Expert survey and multi-criteria assessment are used to this end. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is applied for the multi-criteria analysis. Lithuania is taken as a case study. The results show that, in the case of Lithuania, the direct payment system did not contribute to the improvement in socioeconomic sustainability of small farms up until 2013 CAP reform when its impact became undeniable