Creation Of Knowledge-based Economy Research Articles

Learning Goal Orientation and Turnover Intention of the Malaysian Adult Students

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between learning goal orientation and turnover intention of the Malaysian adult students. Adult students were selected as the respondents in this study because they were regarded as the most active participants in the nation’s knowledge-based economy. In the creation of knowledge-based economy, employee turnover issues should not be overlooked as it has potential to become an obstacle in the process of organizational development. The findings of this study show that the respondents registered a high level of learning goal orientation and a moderate turnover intention. There were no significant group differences in the mean scores of learning goal orientation and turnover intention among the respondents. Regression analysis revealed that there is no significant relationship between learning goal orientation and turnover intention. However, adult students who are pursuing their continuing education may not have the intention to leave their organization at this moment. But, the situation may change when they have successfully completed their study. Therefore, it is recommended that the organization’s human resource department shall provide suitable responsibilities to these individuals to ensure that they remain in their organizations.

Социальные и трудовые отношения в условиях экономического кризиса: соблюдение баланса интересов

The article deals with the issues of dependence of flexible or rigid labour law norms and macroeconomic effectiveness. The conclusion is made that traditional neoliberal dogmas about negative effect of labour law norms on the economic effectiveness are not supported by the serious empirical proof. In contrary, modern researches show that the long-term positive economic effect of labour law norms may be found in such issues as diminishing the incomes gap, growing consumers’ demand, workforce productivity and creation of knowledge-based economy. The Russian labour law is considered to be not enough flexible in the issues of bureaucratic obligations of the employers towards the state in the human resources management matters. Those requirements should be alleviated without a real danger to harm the employees’ rights. In contrast, the regulation of relations between the employers and employees is considered to be overly flexible, contrary to the popular myths that it repeats the Soviet rigid labour law norms. The author claims that there is enough space to enhance the protection norms in the areas of social dialogue, minimum wages, working time, the regulation of labour relations within the groups of companies and in the number of other issues. All mentioned directions of law modification will not lead to the negative consequences to the economy, but would rather result in a better social stability and employers’ effectiveness in the time of macroeconomic crisis.

TRENDS AND PRIORITIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LATVIAN BANKING SERVICES IN THE CONTEXT OF EMERGING KNOWLEDGE BASED ECONOMY: CASE OF E-BANKING

1. Introduction The concept of 'new economy' or the knowledge-based economy has recently become a very popular term. It is one of the main aims in the Lisbon Strategy - make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by 2010 (Lisbon Strategy 2000). Development of the knowledge-based economy is especially important for the EU new accession countries as it will help to break through the transition period from centralized forms of economic organization (Final Report of the Knowledge Economy Forum 2002:5). Latvia is not an exception - as any other member state it has developed national Lisbon program for the years 2005-2008 where the creation of knowledge-based economy is among one of the priorities (Skribane, Neiders 2006). Thus, although Latvia has not yet achieved all goals set up in this program, it is possible to argue that the process of knowledge- based economy started to emerge here. The concept of 'new economy' in the financing sector is closely connected with changes in supply and demand in the service market caused by the usage of new technologies. Unlike traditional economy, knowledge-based economy is based not only on material values, but for mostly on information and knowledge as the main asset. Rapid development of IT and Internet are creating opportunities to perform more effectively and swiftly, stimulating rapid productivity growth as well as reducing entrepreneurship costs, which, in turn, lead to satisfying consumer needs and increasing the new type demand (Rifkin 2001). 'New economy' overall is characterised by a growing significance of the service-sector and an increase of the value added in this area of an inland economies. Latvia with her rapid development of market economy was not an exception: it was accompanied by an increase of value added in service-sector and its share in GDP. Changes of the GDP structure since 1996 display clearly that one of the main growth factors has been the increase of the service sector with an extension of input from 56.0[degrees]10 in 1995 till 72.9[degrees]10 in 2004 (LR Ekonomikas Ministrija 2004). Retail sector is a dominating branch in Latvian service industry. However, a special role in the expansion of service sector belongs to financing (banking, insurance, leasing deals and other services provided by finance firms). This special role is characterized not only by its share of GDP (>5%), but also by its nature. The uniqueness of financial sector is determined by several factors. For instance, financial services are provided not only to the end consumers (households that are not creating further value added in industrial and service sectors) but also to other entrepreneurships, thus being repeatedly involved in the value adding process. Moreover, financial services are stimulating stability and development of other national economy sectors (for example, lending services are providing reinforcement of other industries, while insurance services are safeguarding the security of transactions). Furthermore, stability of the financial sector is an indicator of the general economic development affecting foreign investors' decisions, thereby regulating investment flow and activities of the economical collaboration models, which are essential foundations for the conversion in retail, industry and construction branches. In the last years Latvia has reached a proportion between service and real sector in the total share of GDP (70:30), typical of many western countries, but it was mainly due to consistent and rapid expansion of retail (its share in GDP has reached 18.1 % and in 2003 it grew by 11.3[degrees]10). Growth of the real sector is smaller, beside that investment in R&D comprise only about 0.4[degrees]10 of GDP (EU average is 1.8[degrees]10). From these data it can be concluded that the backwardness of the real sector compared with the service sector and consequent structural imbalance will lead to the consistently growing share of service sector, wherewith new, growing needs of the real sector betterment emerge. …