Western EU Research Articles

A Comparative Study of Capital Structure Determinants: Agricultural Businesses in Central-Eastern vs. Western EU Countries

A Comparative Study of Capital Structure Determinants: Agricultural Businesses in Central-Eastern vs. Western EU Countries

De-westernizing public relations: A comparative and global perspective on the influence of personal and patronage relationships across the world

This article highlights diversity and pluralism in the field of public relations. It challenges the normative ideals that books have traditionally taught us about how communication between organizations and their public should be. A review of the importance of personal and patronage relationships in non-western countries from every continent (Latin America and Southern Europe, China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa) shows a rich and complex reality about how communication happens. It reveals that we do not live in a perfect, predictable world – not necessarily a negative factor, but rather a source of richness. This should not be surprising news since the United States, Canada, Australia and western EU countries represent approximately just 8 per cent of the world population. A main diversity factor in strategic communication is the importance of patronage relationships, often ignored or minimized in books on the subject. Offering multiple perspectives aims to show how the importance of considering the construction of personal relationships as part of the strategic menu of organizations should not be stigmatized or considered an undesired outcome to eradicate. In most societies, patronage relationships and personal relations play a large role when organizations build relationships with their public.

Brexit and the War for Talents: Push & pull evidence about competitiveness

AbstractBrexit raised the question of whether the UK will continue to attract internationals. Here the focus is on academic staff – a critical component of the “War for Talents” discourse and current geopolitics in the field. Despite a clear trend of loss of EU internationals, at least among western EU countries, the UK more than compensates for this fall with extra-EU internationals. This is even more evident among younger generations. However, the most notable effect, also having a long-term impact as far as it deals with newer generations, is about average quality of such talents (in this study: salaries at parity of age). Brexit is reducing the capacity to attract/retain the best academics. This happens especially among younger cohorts, and if they come from countries that perform better in GDP per capita, R&D investment, but also national ranking in tolerance and creative class scores. Overall, Brexit is detrimental to the UK in relation to attraction of talents, cutting through a long-term pattern of success.

The efficiency of eco-innovation activities in EU countries. The DEA approach

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: Innovation is a significant factor in socio-economic development, and it is principal in achieving a competitive advantage among enterprises, regions, and countries. The purposes of this paper are: (1) to present, on the basis of the available literature, the essence and metrics of eco-innovation activities in EU countries, (2) to analyze the effectiveness of eco-innovation activities in EU countries using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research primarily focuses on a review of the recent literature and an analysis of the efficiency of eco-innovation activity using the DEA method. The empirical analysis is based on the Eco-innovation Scoreboard.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The analysis mainly determines the efficiency of eco-innovation. The theoretical basis for the considerations is a diagnosis of the existing state of eco-innovation in EU countries.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The results illustrate the efficiency of eco-innovation activity in some EU countries against the backdrop of other EU countries. The analysis of eco-innovation activities and strategies to support them in the EU countries presented in this study is based on a diagnosis of the current state of their economies in this area using the methods of DEA and literature review. The results of this research enable us to draw concrete conclusions on the efficiency of eco-innovation activities.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The results of the Eco-innovation Scoreboard for these countries illustrate an inefficient use of materials, water and energy resources, as well as low resource productivity. The gaps in this scope between Central-Eastern and Western EU countries are diminishing, but there are still institutional, legislative, and economic shortcomings in eco-innovation that should be addressed. The analysis indicates the level of eco-innovation development in EU countries, its efficiency, and the potential for supporting activity in this field by these countries.

Gift or bribe? The characteristics and the role of gift policies in the prevention of corruption

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the current trends in corruption and investigate the characteristics of corporate gift policies and their role in preventing bribery.Design/methodology/approachThis is a descriptive study based on primary data from a recent sample of Canadian companies’ codes of conduct and secondary data from recent corruption surveys published by non-governmental organisations.FindingsThis study shows that 25% of all private and public corruption cases generate financial damages of more than US$1m per case and that 50% of all investigated fraud cases are corruption cases (ACFE, 2022). Furthermore, the Western Europe and EU region is perceived as least corrupt, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa is perceived as the most corrupt region (Transparency International, 2022). However, bribery is fairly common in nine EU countries where 10% or more of public service users bribed public officials to influence their decisions (Transparency International, 2021). Results from primary data show that 9.3% of firms put a total ban on gifts given to governmental officials, whereas 35.2% require a superior’s approval and only 5.5% state a dollar limit for the gift. Results also show that not a single firm prohibits the giving of gifts to non-governmental stakeholders or the receiving of gifts from any type of stakeholder. This paper argues that gifts can bias the recipient’s judgement and improperly influence future business decisions based on the gift’s subjective value, nature and context.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper extends previous research by examining the characteristics of corporate gift policies. It also helps organisations improve their gift policies in an effort to reduce corruption.Originality/valueIt is the first paper to investigate the characteristics of corporate gift policies and their role in preventing corruption.

Employment Precarization and Skilled Labour Migration in Western EU Countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between employment precariousness and high skilled migration. There exists a large number of studies investigating the effects of precarious employment on various issues ranging from unemployment to job insecurity, however, the studies on precariousness effects on migration are scarce. In addition, in scholarly literature, high skilled migration in developed economies is presented as a specific migration with patterns differing from those from low-income countries or among those with lower educational attainment. For these reasons, data from a relatively homogeneous sample of EU-15 or Western European countries that represent the highly developed European sub-region was selected. In the analysis, fixed-effects linear regression was applied. The model included part-time, involuntary part-time, temporary, involuntary temporary, short-term employment, unemployment and earnings as independent variables and the emigration of people with tertiary education as a dependent variable. The analysis showed that involuntary part-time and short-term employment are significant positive predictors of high skilled emigration. Meanwhile, unemployment and earnings did not predict high-skilled labour mobility in the sample of EU-15 countries. The results support the implication that labour precariousness may be related to increased emigration of those with higher education in developed economies.

The Geopolitical Role of the Three Seas Initiative: Mackinder’s ‘Middle Tier’ Strategy Redux

The Three Seas Initiative (TSI) is a forum of Baltic, Black and Adriatic sea countries. In 1919, pioneering British geopolitical theorist Halford J. Mackinder promoted a ‘Middle Tier’ strategy, that paralleled the Polish interwar ‘Intermarium’ project. Today, the United States views the TSI as an asset in the ‘New Europe’, while pro-Atlanticist Central and Eastern European states see it as a tool to build transatlantic connections. This article suggests that the TSI revives Mackinder’s ‘Middle Tier’ strategy. Similar to how the Franco–British bonds with the ‘Middle Tier’ states sought to offset Germany and Russia a century ago, today stronger ties between the US and the ‘New Europe’ within the TSI strengthen the position of NATO vis-à-vis the EU, rebalance Western EU actors and counter Russian interests.

Do cultural differences affect the quality of financial reporting in the EU? An analysis of Western EU countries vis a vis Eastern EU countries

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of national culture on classification shifting in Eastern European Member States of EU Eastern European countries (EEU) vis-à-vis the Western Member States of EU (WEU). The EEU provides a unique sample to study the quality of financial reporting that the authors measure with classification shifting given that for more than five decades they were following the model of a centrally planned economy, where market-based financial reporting was absent. Yet, the EEU transitioned to a market-based economy and completed its accession to the EU.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a panel data set of firm year observations from 1996 and 2020 that covers the full transition of EEU. This empirical analysis is based on fixed effects panel regression analysis where the authors report a plethora of identifications.FindingsThis study finds classification shifting in the EEU countries since their transition to the market-based economy, though they have no long record of market-based financial reporting. This study also notices that cultural factors are associated with classification shifting across all Member States of the EU. This study further examines the impact of interactions between cultural characteristics and special items and reveal variability between WEU and EEU. As part of the robustness analysis, this study also tests the impact of culture on real earnings management measures for both WEU vs EEU, confirming the variability of the impact of culture on earnings management.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could explore the role of religion differences in WEU vis-à-vis EEU states, as they are also subject to cultural differences.Practical implicationsThe findings are important for regulators, external monitors and investors, as they show that cultural factors affect earnings management with some variability across countries in the EU, and they should be acknowledged in policymaking.Social implicationsThe findings show that cultural differences between EEU and the “old” Member States of the EU could explain classification shifting.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that sheds light on the impact of national culture on classification shifting in EEU of EU vis-à-vis the “old” WEU of EU.

Wealth distribution and monetary policy

Net wealth is distributed differently across various age cohorts in European countries. The net wealth distribution pattern in Western EU countries conforms to the life cycle hypothesis, whereas net wealth accumulation peaks at earlier ages in Eastern European countries. This study investigates the underlying reasons for these differences in net wealth distribution and evaluates how they affect monetary policy transmission. To this end, we develop a modified New Keynesian model with a multiperiod overlapping generations demand side to account for demographic and productivity-gap factors, analyzing their interactions with monetary policy within a general equilibrium setting. Using the Household Finance and Consumption Survey database, we calibrate the model for two sets of European countries and replicate the shape of net wealth distribution. Our findings suggest that the shape of net wealth distribution by age significantly determines monetary policy effectiveness and should be considered when designing and implementing monetary policy.

Foreign Versus Local Ownership and Performance in Eastern Versus Western EU: A Random Forest Application

Our paper proposes the machine learning Random Forest algorithm for classifying economic activity within the European Union, building on the relevance of a reduced set of variables alongside location and industry of origin for the differences in performance between foreign versus locally-owned companies. We find a diverse landscape of business performance within the European Union that does not indicate a clear-cut dominance of foreign-owned companies against their locally-owned peers. Locally-owned companies from the Eastern European Union have been more dynamic than their foreign-owned peers in the region, which suggests a process of learning from foreign competitors and business partners. The Random Forests model performs surprisingly well given the low number of predictors and indicates that personnel costs per employee is the most important variable that discriminates between foreign and locally-owned companies. The importance of the rest of the variables, including the regional location and the industry, has a relatively uniform distribution.

The ‘Long Spring’ of migration management: Labour supply in the pandemic-induced EU border regime

Pandemic-induced border lockdowns in the spring of 2020 severely disrupted the migrant-labour supply in Western EU economies. This disruption of the EU border regime took place for different, even opposite reasons than the so-called ‘crisis’ of 2015, which is also known as the ‘long summer’ of migration. Indeed, where the latter originated from migrants’ massive appropriation of mobility, the disruption of 2020 resulted from state-imposed restrictions on mobility. However, by comparatively analysing two models of work organisation in the agro-industrial sector, characterised by a strong reliance on mobile labour and thus particularly affected by the border lockdowns of 2020 (harvest of crops in Italy and meat processing in the Netherlands), I argue that states’ response to the disruption of border regime in 2020 relied on a pre-existing logistical approach in migration management, adopted in the aftermath of 2015. More specifically, during the pandemic the ethical minimalism intrinsic in the logistical approach allowed a decoupling of migrant workers’ right to mobility, on one hand, and social and economic rights, on the other, thus resulting in increased discipline in the workplace, exposure to infections, exploitation, and dependency on the employer, to which migrant workers opposed more or less visible forms of resistance.

Do Wages Reflect Growth Productivity – Comparing the European East and West?

ABSTRACT The research determines the gap (Great Decoupling) between labour productivity and workers’ compensation in the two blocks of EU countries (Western versus Eastern). The division of countries into two groups provides a basis further to determine whether the previous socio-economic and political evolutionary development of these countries blocks still has a significant impact on the functional distribution of national income, on the extent to which labour productivity growth is transmitted to workers. The results are heterogeneous. In the sample of highly developed Western EU countries where higher levels of labour productivity, as well as high levels of technological development, lead to an increase in labour productivity to be followed by a lower increase in workers’ compensation. On the sample of Eastern EU countries, results indicate different relationships and the strength of causality between productivity and labour compensation. Central-East EU countries had a more positive relationship between real workers’ compensation and labour productivity, compared to the Southeast Europe (Balkan) countries where an increase in workers’ compensation causes a reduction in labour productivity. The results also offer a solid basis for understanding wage/income/productivity relationships d for creating policies for a more efficient distribution of national income.

The European Market Remains the Largest Consumer of Frogs’ Legs from Wild Species

The loss of biodiversity due to overexploitation is well known, but a review and regulation of species used in the frogs’ legs trade has yet to be accomplished. This problem relates to supply (the capture and trade of wild populations) and demand (the main consumer being the EU). The EU’s responsibility should not be ignored, since unsustainable imports of certain species drives population decline and increases risk of extinction. For most organisms, including frog species in the frogs’ legs trade, commercial international trade remains unregulated, includes species in extinction-threat categories on the IUCN Red List, and is not economically sustainable. With a tradition of frogs’ legs consumption anchored in western EU countries, demand for many species from the principal supplying countries (Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, Albania) has resulted in the overexploitation of the regional populations of many species. Unfortunately, legal trade takes place in the midst of numerous uncertainties, including unresolved taxonomic status for many frogs, no database or regulation of trade-relevant species, unknown population status, and no health standards for the animals involved in the trade. In addition, regional overharvest may increase the use of pesticides, there is uncertain but likely spread of disease along the trade chain, and certification schemes for frog farming operations are both not standardised and can lead to exotic invasive species escaping into naïve ecosystems. Mechanisms to help make the international trade in frogs’ legs sustainable are essential, and require international agreement and targeted efforts, ideally financed by the trade sector itself.

Bioenergy Perspectives in the EU Regions: Carbon Neutrality Pathway

Bioenergy plays an important role in the climate neutrality targets of the EU. However, the status of bioenergy implementation varies greatly across the EU. The aim of this paper is to assess the role of bioenergy in different EU countries using EU experts’ opinions of bioenergy implementation in their own country. The paper identifies leading and lagging countries in biomass development by focusing on the current share of bioenergy in the total energy supply. The study shows differences in bioenergy development between Southern and Western EU countries with Northern and Eastern EU countries. The anti-bioenergy movement and continuing political support for the fossil fuel industry are important barriers inhibiting biomass development in many EU countries, especially in Southern Europe and Western Europe. Our analysis finds that the EU needs more factual bioenergy information and improved promotion of bioenergy throughout society, especially in southern and western parts of the EU. Bioenergy development in the EU can be looked at optimistically, especially in Northern and Eastern Europe. The experience of societal acceptance of bioenergy in countries such as Finland and Sweden is applicable to countries that have thus far seen less progress in bioenergy implementation such as Poland and the Netherlands.

Investment Protection in Post-Brexit EU–UK Relations

Abstract With the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, in particular from its internal market, the customs union and all of the EU’s international agreements, a new chapter in Europe’s legal, economic and political history has begun. This note sets out the consequences of Brexit for investment protection and arbitration, focusing on EU-UK investment relations. In a first step, it addresses the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s investment protection provisions and its unique dispute settlement mechanism before turning to the fate of the United Kingdom’s bilateral investment treaties with EU Member States as well as the Energy Charter Treaty. Even though these investment treaties are likely to remain in force, the article concludes that, from the point of view of EU investors in the UK and UK investors in the EU, it can overall be seen as a clear omission that the Trade and Cooperation Agreement does not regulate investment protection in a comprehensive manner. The current situation leaves significant gaps in treaty protection, especially for investments from and into the Western EU Member States.

Is Bilateral Value Added in Trade between China and EU Countries Efficient?

AbstractBy applying stochastic frontier analysis, and replacing total export with value added in exports as a more accurate measure of domestic content embodied in exports, we estimate the trade efficiency between China and EU countries and analyze the determinant factors. The results show that the value added in trade between China and EU countries is running at a low level of efficiency, and the trade efficiency has an obvious imbalance between export and import. Our calculation of unexplored trade potential indicates that western EU countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain together are China's top trading partner with the highest unexploited trade potential. Based on the principal component analysis of 14 trading‐related variables, trade efficiency determinant results show that the tangible trade infrastructures of both exporter and importer matters most, including airports, container shipping, Internet, and broadband infrastructures. Meanwhile, intangible trade infrastructures, including customs procedures and domestic business environments, has a significant, but smaller influence on trade efficiency. Our important findings shed light on practical trade policymaking to encourage Sino‐EU trade collaboration.

Mainstreaming the Gender: Measuring the Job Attributes and Gender Differences across Selected EU Member States

In our research article, we expect that the job attitudes of men and women should converge, and their declared different preferences for job attributes should decrease. We also expect that the preference for job attributes aimed at comfortable working conditions should be closer between men and women due to the growing balance of men’s and women’s role distribution within the household. Therefore, the main goal of the research, using quantitative research methods and using data from the European Values Study (EVS), is to identify the gender differences, if any, in the preferences for external and internal job attributes across selected EU member states. In particular, we focus on the importance of work for men and women; gender differences in job attributes; the preference for external and internal job attributes; the inclination of gender stereotypes and attitudes toward gender roles division; and the comparison of gender equality and job attribute preference in the selected EU countries. Our conclusions confirmed parallels between gender stereotypes and equality among the Western, Eastern, and Southern EU member states.

PRODUKCJA MLEKA I WYZWANIA ZWI ˛AZANE Z PRZEJSCIEM Z DOJU KONWENCJONALNEGO ´ NA ZROBOTYZOWANY W CHORWACJI

Milk production in the Republic of Croatia is facing a great challenge. Over the years, there has been a decline in the number of farms, cattle and the amount of milk production. Data for 2019 show a decrease in the number of cows for milk production of 4.4% compared to the previous year, or 14.4% over the last 5 years. Consequently, during the mentioned period, there was a drop in milk production by 15.5%. There are several reasons for this situation: high fragmentation of parcelled land, rural population moving to cities and other richer EU countries, negative population demographics, strong pressure of cheap milk imported by retail chains from western and northern EU member states, insufficiently modernized farms. All this makes it difficult for the survival of the Croatian farmer. Self-sufficiency in milk production in 2019 in Croatia was only 48.4%. In order to somewhat stop these negative trends, the Government of the Republic of Croatia is trying to encourage farmers to modernize dairy farms. One way of modernization is the introduction of milking robots. Farmers increasingly accept the proposed idea. Currently, 40 robots were installed in Croatia, distributed on 27 farms. Preliminary production results show that on robotic farms there has been an increase in milk production at the lactation level of about 528 kg. In addition to the production effect, the robotization of farms also leads to a financial effect on the entire Croatian economy.

An ‘East-West split’ about the posting of workers? Questioning the representation of socio-economic interests in the European Parliament

ABSTRACT Our paper addresses the representation of territorialized and conflicting interests by the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) through a case study on the posting of workers. Public debates on the reforms to the legal framework for this controversial practice have been steadily increasing since the EU’s eastward enlargement. Focusing on parliamentary questions, our mixed-methods research design analyses why and how MEPs take position on this highly divisive issue, beyond their nationality and a so-called opposition between Eastern and Western EU member states. MEPs’ implication depends both on the impact that the posting of workers has on employment in their home country and on their own political career, including whether they hold national or local electoral mandates. These factors also determine which political roles are performed by MEPs (moral entrepreneur, policy maker, interest groups broker), as the textual analysis of their questions in Parliament highlights. These results emphasize the influence of parliamentary socialization on the positions taken in the debates about social Europe, but also the significance of the territorial dimension of parliamentary representation.

Study-Related Migration from a Post-Soviet Unrecognized State: The Case of Moldovan Ethnics from the Transnistrian Region

This article aims to present a comprehensive analysis of study-related migration of Moldovan ethnics from the Transnistrian region, also known as a post-Soviet unrecognized entity. The Transnistrian region is a narrow strip of land located between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, which is affected by massive migration flows. The young people of the Transnistrian region are inclined to migrate permanently to neighbouring countries and Western EU member states. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of migration from the disputed land is an under-researched topic. Therefore, this study aims to determine the particularities of this phenomenon, the main root causes and the perception of students concerning studies abroad, life in a disputed territory, and the impact of the unresolved status issue. The research is based on a two-pronged approach in order to determine the complexity and the magnitude of study-related migration. It presents the results of 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with students who graduated from Moldovan-administered Latin-script schools and it analyses the data provided by Transnistrian and Moldovan institutions. A special attention is given to graduates of Romanian language schools because their decision to migrate is influenced by a more diverse combination of push and pull factors.