Engineering Economics

Neuronal Models for the Optimization of Inventory, Waste and Informational Flow

Veronica Grosu — 2024-10-29

The present study aims to identify and put into practice certain solutions for economic improvement using the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology within companies from the wood processing industry. The main objectives refer to estimating those effects, which are generated by the informational flows in terms of the decision-making process and to identify those areas corresponding to the manufacturing process, which can be improved by using this methodology. The research strategy is based on the use of a questionnaire during 2019-2021, which has addressed to over 150 most important companies from the wood processing industry. In developing the neuronal models for the improvement of stock, the informational flow of the management accounting, costs and for the reduction of the overstock risk in relationship with the waste management was discovered by applying the LSS methodology that the issues were related to inadequate quality records, formality, procedures, and management systems.

Managing Visitor Experience in Museums: Aiming Towards Satisfaction Through Edutainment and Perceived Authenticity in Arts and Culture

Tanja Komarac — 2024-10-29

This paper demonstrates the value of edutainment and authenticity when managing the visitor experience and satisfaction with a service. The study concentrates on the specific type of services that are provided by museums. Drawing on the social cognitive theory, the paper explores the relationship between edutainment (defined as the combination of education and entertainment provided through interactive content) and the three components of the perceived authenticity of museum visitor experience, 1) the museum, 2) the visitor, 3) the materials. Including edutainment and hedonic expectations as antecedents, with satisfaction as an outcome, the paper proposes a new model of perceived authenticity of visitor experience. The model was tested on a sample of 313 museum visitors (in Croatia). The results revealed that edutainment (as a second-order construct) positively influences perceived authenticity. Also, hedonic expectations positively influence one out of three components of perceived authenticity of museum visitor experience, i.e. self-authenticity of the visitor, but there was no influence on the other two components – museum and materials. Finally, perceived authenticity positively influences visitor satisfaction. Our research provides useful insights to museum managers and service managers in general who should consider using edutainment as a strategic approach to managing the visitor experience and satisfaction.

Do Virtual and the Face-to-face Ways of Working Have an Impact on the Effectiveness of Teams? An Empirical Study in the Context of Multicultural IT Teams

Elena CIZMAȘ — 2024-10-29

This paper pursued to identify whether there are differences between virtual and face-to-face teams concerning their ability to develop a natural and incremental chain of linkages between individual, team and organization level effectiveness, in the context of interactions between their multicultural members and of interdependence that teamwork entails. The novelty and relevance of the research consist in empirically testing the above chain, along with the differences and similarities between virtual and co-located teams, on a sample of 159 respondents working in multicultural IT project teams from Romania and the Czech Republic. Structural equation modelling based empirical findings show statistically insignificant differences regarding the construction of the chain of effectiveness between virtual and co-located multicultural teams. Complementary, in terms of average values for all three levels of results, the face-to-face multicultural teams are superior to virtual multicultural ones, limited by the exclusion of team reaction time and lifespan from the research model.

Impact of Information and Communication Technologies Penetration on Human Development: Evidence from Economic Community of West African States

Yilmaz Bayar — 2024-10-29

Human development is a significant component of economic growth and development. Therefore, determinants of human development are crucial to designing and implementing the optimal policies to boost economic growth and development. This study investigates the impact of ICT penetration on human development in the Economic Community of West African States for the period of 2000-2018 through bootstrap cointegration and causality tests. The causality analysis disclosed a unilateral causality from internet usage to human development in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone and a one-way causality from mobile cellular subscriptions to human development in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Niger, and Togo, but there existed a significant causality from human development to mobile cellular subscriptions in Benin, Cabo Verde, Gambia, and Ghana. On the other side, the cointegration analysis revealed a positive effect of internet usage and mobile cellular subscriptions on human development in the long run.

Financial Distress Prediction Using an Artificial Neural Network Integrating a Two-Stage Feature Selection Method

Zijiao Zhang — 2024-10-29

Financial distress prediction (FDP) is critical for companies, banks, and investors, and artificial neural networks (ANN) have been proven to be an efficient method for FDP. However, the “curse of dimensionality” in FDP not only increases the computational complexity, but also reduces the prediction accuracy. To solve this problem, this paper takes an ANN model as the basic classifier and presents a new two-stage feature selection method integrated with multiple filters and a wrapper method. The financial data of Chinese listed companies are applied for comparative analysis to verify the effectiveness of the constructed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a smaller feature subset and better predictive effect than other methods, thus solving the “curse of dimensionality” more effectively and improving the accuracy. In addition, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and Partial Dependence Plots (PDP) are employed to investigate the relative importance of selected features. Their results increase the credibility of the proposed model, giving users more confidence in using this “black box” model.

Analysis of Market Diversification Trends and Network Characteristics Based on M&A Transactions in North America

Jinho Choi — 2024-10-29

Despite the increasing investment opportunities in emerging technologies, strategic alliance and dynamic investment strategy suffer from a limited understanding of the market investment trends and industry convergence. Therefore, this study aims to develop a structured framework to examine the market diversification trend and the industry-to-industry influential degree. The proposed framework utilizes M&A transaction activities from the interests of buyer and target industries from 2009 to 2018 in North America. The M&A network is then examined for the difference in the structural characteristics between the buyer and target industries. This study identifies market irregularity and diversification trends and applies the initial findings as market-level evidence to elucidate industry convergence potentials. Degrees of a specific industry’s influence on other industries are also presented and discussed from the perspectives of buyer and target industries. The findings of this study contribute to the development of industry convergence conceptual model and advances knowledge regarding market diversification, collaboration-driven industry convergence, and investment strategy.

The Effects of Green Intellectual Capital on Business Performance: Evidence from Serbia

Valentina Vukmirović — 2024-10-29

Investing in green intellectual capital can create competitive advantage of companies in the long term. In short term, however, more orchestration is required for investment into green resources to boost financial and non-financial performance of business. The aim of this paper is to present the effects of Green Intellectual Capital (Green Human Capital, Green Structural Capital, and Green Relational Capital) on companies' business performance (including their financial and non-financial indicators). For this purpose, primary data were collected from targeted companies operating in the Serbian market (N=344) using a structured questionnaire. The results confirm the positive effects of Green Human Capital and Green Relational Capital on both financial and non-financial indicators of researched companies. Green Structural Capital was not found to have an impact on the companies' financial performance. These findings can contribute to 1) owners and managers in creating sustainable business models, 2) regulators in creating policy frameworks and incentives for sustainable development and 3) other business analysts focused on the green intellectual capital development in companies.

Too Much of a Good Thing? Two-Sided Effect of ESG on Corporate Financial Performance

Xiaodong Teng — 2024-10-29

The purpose of this research is to clarify the curvilinear link between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and corporate financial performance (CFP), and draws upon the “too much of a good thing” (TMGT) theory to verify whether the curvilinear relationship supports the conflicting results of previous studies. The sample comprises 69 listed companies in Taiwan with ESG disclosures over 2005 to 2020. The findings reveal that ESG impacts CFP in an inverted- U shaped, which is predominantly evident in the environmental and social pillars. This study validates the rising popularity of ESG investments. To enhance CFP, businesses must meticulously assess the allocation of capital to ESG to prevent under or over-investment. Managers should be aware of the TMGT effect and ensure the threshold of ESG is identified, as this is essential to balancing the cost/value trade-off, improving the CFP, and maintaining sustainable development.