scholarly journals Structural change without trust: Reform cycles in Hungary and Slovakia

2009 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Győrffy

The recent admission of Slovakia into the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) stands in sharp contrast with the considerable difficulties faced by Hungary with the fulfilment of the Maastricht criteria. This is a puzzling development for two reasons: first, during the early phase of the transition process Hungary was ahead of Slovakia, and second, the high level of political polarisation and general public disillusionment are shared characteristics of the two countries and not conducive to reforms in either case. In order to address these contradictions a theoretical framework is developed examining the conditions of structural reforms in a low-trust environment, where promises about long-term benefits for short-term costs are not believed. After the identification of three potential factors — perception of crisis, emergence of credible reformers, elite consensus — that can help to overcome the gap in credibility, the theoretical framework is applied to the transition history of the two countries. It is shown that while in the past decade all three factors had been present in Slovakia, the former success of Hungary strongly contributed to the absence of such special circumstances. The continued divergence of the two countries, however, cannot be taken for granted as in both cases reform cycles rather than sustainable progress can be observed. In order to ensure sustainability the difficult tasks of consensus- and trust-building cannot be avoided.

2015 ◽  
pp. 1845-1867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Tran

In the past decade or so, various models have emerged concerning the study of culture and marketing in regards to consumerism, of which Geert Hofstede's dimensional model of national culture has been applied to various areas of global branding and advertising, and the underlying theories of consumer behavior. Hofstede's model has been used to explain differences regarding the concepts of self, personality and identity, which in turn explain variations in branding strategy and communications. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to address the psychology of consumerism in business and marketing from the macro and micro behaviors of Hofstede's cultural consumers. The chapter emphasizes Hofstede's fifth cultural dimension, long-term versus short-term orientation regarding marketing. In so doing, both macro and micro paradigms on the psychology of consumers' behaviors will be covered in relation to marketing, as well as a brief history of marketing and the marketing field.


10 Be is produced in a similar way as 14 C by the interaction of cosmic radiation with the nuclei in the atmosphere. Assuming that the 10 Be and 14 C variation are proportional and considering the different behaviour in the Earth system, the 10 Be concentrations in ice cores can be compared with the 14 C variations in tree rings. A high correlation is found for the short-term variations ( 14 C-Suess-wiggles). They reflect with a high probability production rate variations. More problematic is the interpretation of the long-term trends of 14 C and 10 Be. Several explanations are discussed. The reconstructed CO 2 concentrations in ice cores indicate a rather constant value (280 ± 10 p.p.m. by volume) during the past few millenia. Measurements on the ice core from Byrd Station, Antarctica, during the period 9000 to 6000 years BP indicate a decrease that might be explained by the extraction of CO 2 from the atmosphere-ocean system to build the terrestrial biomass pool during the climatic optimum.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 206-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian G Weinshenker

A database is an organized repository of data. Prospective collection of patient information in a database (`databasing') has been attempted by a few consortia of MS investigators over the past 10 years. This approach promises to facilitate epidemiologic research in MS and investigation of the natural history of the disease and how it might be altered by long-term treatments such as interferon beta. Databasing has some advantages over clinical trials in assessing new therapies, primarily because the focus is on long-term effectiveness in an entire population rather than short-term statistical significance in a highly selected population. The limitations of databasing and strategies to overcome these limitations are addressed.


Author(s):  
Ben Tran

In the past decade or so, various models have emerged concerning the study of culture and marketing in regards to consumerism, of which Geert Hofstede's dimensional model of national culture has been applied to various areas of global branding and advertising, and the underlying theories of consumer behavior. Hofstede's model has been used to explain differences regarding the concepts of self, personality and identity, which in turn explain variations in branding strategy and communications. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to address the psychology of consumerism in business and marketing from the macro and micro behaviors of Hofstede's cultural consumers. The chapter emphasizes Hofstede's fifth cultural dimension, long-term versus short-term orientation regarding marketing. In so doing, both macro and micro paradigms on the psychology of consumers' behaviors will be covered in relation to marketing, as well as a brief history of marketing and the marketing field.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Shukla

FIIs are companies registered outside India. In the past four years there has been more than $41 trillion worth of FII funds invested in India. This has been one of the major reasons on the bull market witnessing unprecedented growth with the BSE Sensex rising 221% in absolute terms in this span. The present downfall of the market too is influenced as these FIIs are taking out some of their invested money. Though there is a lot of value in this market and fundamentally there is a lot of upside in it. For long-term value investors, there’s little because for worry but short term traders are adversely getting affected by the role of FIIs are playing at the present. Investors should not panic and should remain invested in sectors where underlying earnings growth has little to do with financial markets or global economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Fulvio Corno ◽  
Luigi De Russis ◽  
Alberto Monge Roffarello

In the Internet of Things era, users are willing to personalize the joint behavior of their connected entities, i.e., smart devices and online service, by means of trigger-action rules such as “IF the entrance Nest security camera detects a movement, THEN blink the Philips Hue lamp in the kitchen.” Unfortunately, the spread of new supported technologies makes the number of possible combinations between triggers and actions continuously growing, thus motivating the need of assisting users in discovering new rules and functionality, e.g., through recommendation techniques. To this end, we present , a semantic Conversational Search and Recommendation (CSR) system able to suggest pertinent IF-THEN rules that can be easily deployed in different contexts starting from an abstract user’s need. By exploiting a conversational agent, the user can communicate her current personalization intention by specifying a set of functionality at a high level, e.g., to decrease the temperature of a room when she left it. Stemming from this input, implements a semantic recommendation process that takes into account ( a ) the current user’s intention , ( b ) the connected entities owned by the user, and ( c ) the user’s long-term preferences revealed by her profile. If not satisfied with the suggestions, then the user can converse with the system to provide further feedback, i.e., a short-term preference , thus allowing to provide refined recommendations that better align with the original intention. We evaluate by running different offline experiments with simulated users and real-world data. First, we test the recommendation process in different configurations, and we show that recommendation accuracy and similarity with target items increase as the interaction between the algorithm and the user proceeds. Then, we compare with other similar baseline recommender systems. Results are promising and demonstrate the effectiveness of in recommending IF-THEN rules that satisfy the current personalization intention of the user.


1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-224
Author(s):  
Ivo Ban ◽  
Vesna Borković-Vrtiprah

Croatia is an important factor to the European tourist market. The constructed tourist capacities, realized traffic and revenues are a significant segment of the European "satisfaction industry". However, unfavorable trends were perceived in Croatian tourism already during the second half of the 1980's. War and war destruction had the effect of drastically influencing traffic, as well as resulting in the complete absence of tourists in some regions, as in Dubrovnik. All this, alongside the unavoidable problems of the transition process which appeared on this path, contributed to the serious difficulties that Croatian tourism faces. The come-back of Croatian tourism and the building of its entirely new identity is a long complex and difficult process. Regardless of present circumstances and the evident return of tourists to Croatia in 1997, it is necessary indispose the fundamental changes in the approach to tourism and tourist practices. It is necessary to define long-term goals and market segments towards which offers can be explicitly directed and to systematically develop contemporary, tourist marketing. As the changed and ever-increasing demands of today's tourist consumer seek substantial improvements in the Croatian tourist product, which must be significantly better in quality, richer and more diverse, and thereby more competitive. The Croatian tourist product must comply with all contemporary market demands. The paper considers all these questions and problems and indicates what is necessary and objectively possible to achieve within short-term and long-term periods, in order to accomplish the desired goal - the better placement of Croatia on the European market.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Smith

This paper examines how the past of desert landscapes has been interpreted since European explorers and scientists first encountered them. It charts the research that created the conceptual space within which archaeologists and Quaternarists now work. Studies from the 1840s–1960s created the notion of a ‘Great Australian Arid Period'. The 1960s studies of Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes by Jim Bowler revealed the cyclical nature of palaeolakes, that changed with climate changes in the Pleistocene, and the complexity of desert pasts. SLEADS and other researchers in the 1980s used thermoluminescence techniques that showed further complexities in desert lands beyond the Willandra particularly through new studies in the Strzelecki and Simpson Dunefields, Lake Eyre, Lake Woods and Lake Gregory. Australian deserts are varied and have very different histories. Far from ‘timeless lands', they have carried detailed information about long-term climate changes on continental scales.


10.29007/cfr2 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zunoon Parambath ◽  
Nilupa Udawatta

Recession is considered as a major threat to the economy as it slows down economic activities. The property development sector is extremely responsive to these economic conditions. Thus, it is crucial to understand causes, effects and strategies for property developers to survive in a recession without any ill effects. Thus, this research aimed to develop a framework for property developers to identify appropriate survival strategies in recession. A comprehensive literature review was conducted in this research to achieve the above mentioned aim. The results of this study indicated that recession prompts negative impacts on property development sector resulting in unemployment, lower demand, production and revenue, decline in resources and high level of competition. According to the results, the survival strategies were classified into short-term and long-term strategies. The short term strategies include: implementing management tactics, cut down of operating costs, keeping financing lines set up, timely repayment of debts, setting vital new objectives for the future, undertaking shorter time span developments, specialisation in favoured market, renegotiating deals and contracts. The long-term strategies include retrenchment, restructuring, investment and ambidextrous strategies. Similarly, attention should be paid to predict any changes in the economic environment that can influence property development activities and it is necessary to carefully evaluate investment activities to increase sales, profits and market shares of property developers. Preparing for a crisis is doubtlessly the ideal approach as it can facilitate both survival and growth. Thus, the property developers can implement these suggested strategies in their businesses to enhance their practices.


Author(s):  
Thafar S. A. Safar ◽  
Karmen B. Katay ◽  
Reem H. Khamis

At the end of 2019, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). Worldwide researchers and physician try to explore the mechanisms of damage induced by virus, they focus on the short-term and long-term immune-mediated consequences induced by the virus infection. Every day discover a new pathological condition induced by virus and new symptoms and disease may occur after recovery from disease. Our case report is 41 years old, Indian lady who presented to our primary health care centre complaining of multiple small hand joints pain, both elbows and knees pain with swelling of them and prolonged morning stiffness, diagnosed seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (arthritis, positive rheumatoid factor (RF), and X-ray changes) after 1 month recovery from COVID-19 infection. She did not have any joint pain and she had negative RF before COVID-19 infection with no family history of RA.


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