Transactional approach in assessment of operational performance of companies in transport infrastructure

Purpose: Offer an alternative method to assess operational performance of companies in transport infrastructure of a region by making a comparison between transaction costs. The method is supposed to be a cross-functional and possibly applied to an analysis of economic entities of a different order (country, region, sector, companies) while evaluating “viscosity” / complexity of the outside and the inside. Design/methodology/approach: The paper includes an analysis of various methodological approaches to assess a development level of the transport infrastructure in a region. Within the author's approach and for purposed of the research, an index of transaction capacity or the transactionalness index is proposed, which determines a level of transaction costs calculated against the cost of production and revenue. The approach is piloted using the region-wise consolidated financial data of companies involved in the Russian transport infrastructure for 2005/2013. Findings: The proposed alternative way to measure corporate operating efficiency has proved its academic consistency. A specific comparison between the transaction costs using the transactionalness index allows first to identify companies or regions/sectors, where there is excess complexity of economical communication in bargaining. Secondly, the index does not only point out indirectly to a degree of development in the institutional environment, but also the infrastructure (the transport one in the example given). Third, the transactionalness level may say of uncertainty and risks. As an addition to theoretical and methodological aspects of transaction costs, the authors justify an approach to their size estimation, as well as their differentiation dividing them into two groups: those of a natural type and a background type. In a course of their discussion, the authors have concluded that there are such transaction costs in place, which are standard in a manner of speaking. Originality/value: There is a discussion whether it is scientifically reasonable to use an index of transactionalness. There are reasons for applicability of the alternative approach to assess operational performance of companies in transport infrastructure as an indicative criterion of favouring external conditions to execute exchange transactions. According to the authors, a high level of transactionalness is associated with a low development level of transport infrastructure in a region. This says that their competitiveness is specifically less

Determinants of foreign direct investment in the Visegrad group countries after the EU enlargement

Considering the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the sustainable development of a country, the main aim of this paper is to identify some macroeconomic factors that positively or negatively influence FDI in Visegrad group countries after the European Union (EU) enlargement in 2004. We employed two types of approaches in our analysis: i) time series and ii) panel data approach. According to the generalized ridge regressions estimated in Bayesian framework, the perceived corruption was a factor that influenced FDI in all the countries. In Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia corruption came through as a serious obstacle for FDIs since 2005, but this was not the case for Hungary. Even if Hungary is perceived as a country with high influence, foreign investors seem no to care about this fact and are more interested in the quality of human resources and the possibility to increase exports. Our panel approach based on a panel ARDL model identified a significant relationship between FDI, corruption index and labour force with advanced education however this causality was only detected in the long run. According to the Granger causality in panel, the attraction of FDI inflows succeeded in generating changes in total tax rate, but the issues related to corruption were not reduced at an acceptable level for foreign investors in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic

Industrial market: The semantic positioning and theoretical foundation

The ongoing economic downturn along with the evolutionary transformation of inter-industry interaction and coordination mechanisms, processes and principles of creating added value drive the need to study such economic concept as industrial market. Today neither the scientific literature and nor various regulations and state development programmes offer a stable definition to this term. The presence of a large number of synonymous terms does not eliminate the problem of proper identification of industrial market as an object of research and management and distorts both the research findings and justification of the choice of a strategic management object at the intersectoral level while designing and implementing comprehensive economic policies. The paper aims to develop the appropriate research programme for the concept “industrial market” in economic science. The methodological basis of the study consists of neoclassical, neo-institutional theories, economic sociology, management theories, and the systems approach. The research employs the methods of semantic and bibliometric content analysis, formalisation and systematisation. Based on the new research programme for industrial market, the paper highlights its basic characteristics: integrity and autonomy, technological principle of combination, hierarchical structure, comparability of participants. The authors propose interpreting industrial market as a hierarchical form of a commodity market shaped under the influence of technological factors and institutional comparability within an industrial value chain of products and services. The results of the study can be applied for formulating strategic development programmes for inter-industry structures as well as industrial and innovation policies