Changes in consumer behaviour, coupled with shifting purchasing habits, have led to a new setting, one in which the retailers are seeking novel means of keeping potential consumers inside their stores for the maximum duration possible. This prolonged time span contributes to the increased frequency of impulsive actions, thus resulting in greater customer spending. Impulsive buyers are the most crucial target audience for retailers, for they are purely driven by emotion, making decisions without prior preparation or information gathering. Through the grasp of psychological science, behavioural and cognitive functioning, it is possible to discern the factors that make specific retailers and their stores more appealing than others. The main purpose of this paper is to point out a relatively new concept and a technique, called “nudging”, and to showcase the methods of gaining new customers through its utilisation within the Croatian retail market. The nudging technique is not a forceful one, opting to employ imperceptible and subtle means, such as playing certain music, utilising carefully selected scents, colours and lighting within the store, which all serve to improve consumer perception and satisfaction. The retailer can stand out from the competition, precisely by using nudging, which intertwines sensory perception and other psychological factors, incorporating them in the overall store design. For this particular purpose, a survey was conducted among Croatian customers, which examined the presence of specific nudging techniques in retail, as well as their effects on the consumer behaviour. The research results concluded that the Croatian retailers do indeed utilise some nudging techniques which, although perceived by their customers are ultimately left unaware of the impact they have on their respective decision-making process and behaviour.

We examine whether countries that have high levels of financial inclusion have fewer non-performing loans and loan loss provisions in their banking sectors. The fixed effect panel regression methodology was used to analyse the effect of financial inclusion on bank non-performing loans and loan loss rovisions. Using data from 48 countries, we find that greater formal account ownership is associated with high non-performing loans. Bank loan loss provisions are fewer in countries that have high levels of financial inclusion only when financial inclusion is achieved through the combined use of formal account ownership, bank branch supply and ATM supply. Also, non-performing loans are fewer in countries that experience economic boom and high levels of financial inclusion.

Developed countries have well-designed and developed economies in macroeconomic terms. However, not all countries benefit from the fruits of such an economy. Therefore, some countries are still faced with an economy that requires macroeconomic restructuring and development. People in these countries face high unemployment, evolving fiscal and monetary policies. The state is forced to borrow either internally or externally, where the latter is usually preferred. This paper aims to show the effects of government debt on private consumption with a particular focus on transition countries. Thereby explaining the factors that influence private consumption and the types of debt that governments take into account. The countries in regions, which are facing this problem, will be analysed in more detail. Kosovo is one such country, which will be analysed in detail, particularly the relationship between national debt and private consumption. This study is carried out using the statistical software STATA, whereby private consumption is a dependent variable, whilst national debt, gross fixed capital formation, foreign direct investment, consumer price index, export of goods and services and GDP growth are our independent variables. This paper is a compilation of information from multiple sources to describe the reality that transition countries are faced with when borrowing.

It has long been acknowledged that the various burgeoning problems inflicting the world are deeply rooted in human behaviour. Governance often entails policy formulation and strategies that initiate behavioural change to alleviate such problems and foster sustainability. However, this often appears as a strenuous endeavour, especially at the macro level. For this reason, implementing the behavioural spillover mechanism is deemed befitting. Few studies have directed their attention towards the relationship of individuals’ sustainable behaviour across different settings, and such a perspective could indicate the way forward required within various future policy frameworks. Hence, the following intervention study attempts to examine behavioural spillover, which entails the transfer of attitudes from one domain to another, in this case, from a work-home perspective. This chapter builds upon such notion through a case study from the Maltese islands, the smallest EU member state, by providing insights from public officers. Such sampling population was selected as these individuals work closely within governmental structures and should act as agents of change in this regard. The methodological framework employs a positivist paradigm, based on a quasi-experimental design through an identical pretest and posttest Likert-scale questionnaire distributed to 14 public officers who undertook an educational module about sustainability at the University of Malta. These tests aimed to examine whether spillover of sustainable behaviour occurs within a spatio-temporal context - across the two different domains and during the entire intervention adopted. Quantitative findings are utilized to address two core research questions, from which various trends have been identified. Results show that positive spillover occurs for those behaviours which involve the least time, cost, and effort. It transpires that respondents are not willing to adopt drastic lifestyle changes. Such findings lay the foundation for the recommendations delineated in the current study, which might be helpful to other practitioners in public policy, management, and sustainable development.

The paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on competitiveness and how organizational commitment and productivity have changed as a result of changes in processes, practices, or regulations. This paper analyses how employees fared during COVID in two countries, namely Afghanistan and India and the impact on organizational commitment and productivity. The research paper is based on secondary data and conceptual analysis of COVID-19 conditions or how this covetous environment affects their competitors, work environment, or fight for their rights. Moreover, the authors delved into how human capital management lead to organizational efficiency. Factors like (1) workplace safety, (2) targeted recruitment, (3) self-managed decision-making teams and decentralization, and (4) pay policy were all investigated. Employee engagement is widely assumed to influence organizational commitment, employee productivity, employee dedication, and, most importantly, it will generate comparative advantages for organizations. The primary goal of this research was to discover how people work efficiently and effectively with commitment and dedication during COVID-19.

Green concrete is concrete produced using waste materials obtained from various sources to develop an eco-friendly construction and reduce carbon emissions. The present experimental study is carried out to produce concrete using waste material from different industries to partially replace traditional concrete. Many research studies have been made using different waste materials which are available and useful as a replacement. The present study deals with industrial waste such as foundry sand (FS) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) in the concrete so that the emission can be reduced and contribute to the environment. This study prepared two mixes for M35 Grade by replacing industrial wastes partially in the concrete mix. The first mix was prepared by partially replacing foundry sand with fine aggregates in proportions of 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. The second mix was prepared by partially replacing the ground granulated blast furnace slag with cement in proportions of 30%, 40% and 50%. Test results were conducted to check the workability and compressive strength of the mixes prepared. These were then compared with the properties of conventional concrete at the end of 7 and 28 days. Test results indicate that 25% of FS and 30% of GGBS are the optimum percentages of industrial waste to use compared to conventional concrete properties at the end of 7 and 28 days. The present study also indicates the economic benefits of partially replacing the waste materials by reducing carbon emissions, and the study is beneficial to produce eco-friendly green concrete.

There is no agreed and precise definition of the concept of financial failure. This situation causes the studies of the concept to be associated with bankruptcies. Although not every company experiencing financial failure goes bankrupt, it can be noted that economic fluctuations that happen on a global scale cause many companies to face the risk of financial failure and even bankruptcy. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the economic policies of countries and thus affected the operations of companies. This study aims to analyze the financial failure risk of Borsa İstanbul (BIST) manufacturing companies before and after COVID-19. In the research, financial statements of BIST manufacturing industry companies published quarterly between the years 2019-2020 were used. Within the scope of the research, the quarterly financial statements of 146 BIST companies listed in the manufacturing industry for the years 2019-2020 were analyzed with the financial failure models of Altman (1968), Springate (1978), Taffler (1983) and Zmijewski (1984).

DEA is a frequently used non-parametric methodology for measuring the relative efficiency of Decision-Making Units (DMUs) that use the same inputs to produce the same outputs. Emrouznejad and Yang (2018) provided a literature survey on DEA with 10,300 peer-reviewed journal articles from 1978 to the end of 2016. Our article focuses on DEA applications in the insurance industry in convergence with the existing relevant literature as Kaffash et al (2020), who have surveyed 132 DEA articles in the insurance industry for the period from 1993 to 2018. We include particular keyword analyses necessary to identify research hotspots in different periods. This article aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of DEA-published documents (articles in journals and book chapters) in the insurance industry from 1993 to 2021, focusing on identifying research hotspots based on keyword co-occurrence analysis. We have analyzed published documents from relevant databases, such as Scopus, Web of Science, Ebsco and ProQuest. We use descriptive analytics and text mining as the main methods in our analysis. We provide descriptive statistics for articles per year and category of the insurance industry, geographical distribution, top five journals and authors by citations, and citation analysis. An additional qualitative factor of our article is in-depth keyword cooccurrence analysis by using text mining to identify research hotspots in the insurance industry. Our analysis aims to contribute to researchers and insurance practitioners as an empirical and applicative point for initiating and developing research.

In an environment where competition is becoming increasingly fierce, the primary concern of entities is to find effective solutions to cope with the risks to which they are exposed. In this context, through the entire collection of mechanisms available to corporate governance, companies can limit their risk exposure and thus achieve their goals more quickly. This research aims to study the relationship between the characteristics of corporate governance and the financial performance of the top 65 listed American companies. The research was carried out over a period of 5 years (2015-2019). Regarding the characteristics of corporate governance, four variables were used: the duality of the CEO, the size of the Board of Directors, the independence of the Board, and the frequency of its meetings. In addition, to reflect financial performance, we tracked the rate of financial return (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). The data were processed using the SPSS statistical program, using multiple linear regressions as the quantitative method. The analysis results indicate the existence of a significant positive relationship between the variable of corporate governance represented by the frequency of Board meetings and the financial performance expressed by ROA and ROE. However, variables relating to the duality of the CEO, the size and the independence of the Board were statistically insignificant.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the global financial services industry. The new digitalization model is powered by artificial intelligence technology, and AI has the potential to disrupt and refine the existing financial services industry. The increasing amount of data in banking has revealed the need for fast and reliable service. Banks are financial service organizations that have used AI effectively in recent years. This paper reveals the general profile of artificial intelligence adoption by banks. Based on the evidence from all 17 banks operating in the Afyonkarahisar province of Turkey, it is concluded that AI technologies are applied in almost every area of the banking sector to improve the overall service offered. Moreover, the use of AI is evaluated as a potential that provides ease of use and reduces costs. As for the operations in future, the participants think AI will provide high levels of benefit to banks in their financial services in the incoming years. Given no similar study, this study appears to provide an original contribution to the literature regarding the use of AI in banking services within the Turkish context.

To protect against risks arising from fluctuations in spot prices and better manage risk, investors might evaluate futures markets. The role of price discovery in the futures markets and the possibility of reducing certain risks increase the importance of researching the relationship between spot and futures prices. This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between the Bitcoin spot prices and the Bitcoin futures prices. To this end, the relationship between the two markets is analyzed using Johansen Cointegration analysis and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) using the daily data of the period 02.23.2017 – 08.31.2021. Unit root tests show that each series are not stationary at the level values and that the first differences of the series are stationary. The results of the cointegration analysis show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between the bitcoin spot market and the bitcoin futures market, and it is a single cointegration vector. The Granger causality test based on the vector error correction model was used to determine the causality relationship between the series. It has been determined  that there is a unidirectional causality relationship from the Bitcoin spot market to the Bitcoin futures market. Bitcoin is a new financial tool that attracts the attention of investors. Investors make transactions on Bitcoin for speculative purposes. Therefore, unlike other investment instruments, spot prices in the bitcoin market affect futures prices.

The Covid-19 virus, which emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, spread all over the world in 2020, bringing commercial, social and economic life to a standstill. Governments have applied many support practices to reduce the impact of the virus on the economy. With public banks'  social life support loans, those who lost their income due to the pandemic were supported. In 2020, when the most intense  effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were experienced, public banks' loan and deposit volumes grew significantly. Banks profit by using the deposits they hold or collect as loans. Therefore, the efficiency of fiscal and monetary policies is increased through banks. The study aims to investigate whether the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a change in the clustering of banks by using the financial and size data of the deposit banks in the BIST Liquid Bank Index. The study tried to determine which banks included in the Borsa İstanbul (BIST) Liquid Bank Index were clustered using the values published in the 2019 and 2020 year- end annual reports. Cluster analysis was applied using the SPSS program. The study's findings determined that the pandemic process affected the clustering of banks and that public banks were in a different cluster compared to 2019.

Because of its impact on an institution's functionality and performance, organisational culture is one of the most discussed topics in management, organisational behaviour, and sociology. The majority of the debates centre on this organisational phenomenon's ability to significantly contribute to the entity's competitive evolution by mobilising its resources, particularly human resources. Even though there is still debate about the definition of organisational culture, experts agree that most of its components contain the fundamental values of any institution. Moreover, any institution considers a robust organisational culture essential for outstanding performance. This paper aims to highlight the concepts of organisational culture at the organisational level from the standpoint of modern economics. A questionnaire was used as a research tool, and the data collected from it was analysed using quantitative statistical-mathematical analysis. The non-implementation or functioning with deficiencies in organisational culture can raise concerns about the entity's functioning and the managerial act's quality and efficiency.