Investigating e-Retailers’ Intentions to Adopt Cryptocurrency Considering the Mediation of Technostress and Technology Involvement

Cryptocurrencies have transgressed ever-changing economic trends in the global economy, owing to their conveyance, security, trust, and the ability to make transactions without the aid of formal institutions and governing bodies. However, the adoption of cryptocurrency remains low among stakeholders, including e-retailers. Thus, the current work explores the intentions of e-retailers in the Asia and Pacific region to adopt cryptocurrencies. This study considers the TAM-based SOR, with a combination of non-cognitive attributes (compatibility and convenience) proposed as stimuli for e-retailers to adopt the examined cryptocurrencies. The findings indicate that the proposed non-cognitive attributes are critical in determining e-retailers’ technostress (emotional state). Moreover, it was found that technostress among e-retailers profoundly impacts their intentions to adopt cryptocurrency in business settings. Meanwhile, regulatory support communication can be used to help regulatory bodies and governing institutions control the future economy worldwide. The proposed study offers significant theoretical and practical contributions through its investigation of e-retailers’ intentions to adopt cryptocurrency for the first time in the particular context of technostress and regulatory support.

Business Education in the USA

The chapter explores drivers, dynamics, and developments of business education in American colleges and universities. A contemporary business education in the U.S. is historically rooted in medieval Europe. It has progressed through several developmental stages and four industrial revolutions. Critical drivers affect American universities and colleges, bringing about strategic disruptions, technological and pedagogical innovations, and exerting competitive pressures for change on higher education. They also create opportunities for the development and growth in the post-COVID prospective, which is likely to be different from previous patterns and trends. These factors of impact range from stagnant domestic and falling international student enrollments, high student loan debt burden, and skyrocketing college tuition to the devastating impacts of the COVID pandemic. In examination of implications of the 4IR and emerging socio-economic trends for B-schools, the chapter discusses developmental trends, outlook, and emerging instructional innovations.

SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND HUMAN CAPITAL: INTERDEPENDENCE AND MUTUAL INFLUENCE

Currently, in the context of the transition to digital technologies in all sectors of society and solving the problems of increasing national competitiveness, the study of aspects of the formation of human capital in Russia is an urgent topic in the scientific community. An important factor in the formation of human capital is social well-being — a subjectively assessed level of happiness of a person, his satisfaction with his own health, safety, availability of social benefits, opportunities for individual development. The article discusses the theoretical aspects of the mutual influence of social well-being and human capital. Definitions of the studied concepts are given, publications of Russian and foreign scientists on the issues of ensuring social well-being and the formation of human capital are analyzed.It is concluded that in the conditions of modern global socio-economic trends, the social well-being of a person depends on external factors, which necessitates the implementation of appropriate socio-economic policies aimed at reducing the negative impact of the external environment and ensuring sustainable development and accumulation of human capital.

Methodological principles of verification of the concept of "competition": microeconomic aspect

Competition and competitiveness issues are extremely topical at the present stage. However, the role of price and non-price competition in enterprises has not been sufficiently studied and requires a more detailed study, which was the purpose of the article. It has been established that the first theories of competition were formulated at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries and since then have been constantly undergoing various modifications. Given the evolution of the concept of "competition", it can be defined as a set of activities carried out by market participants to achieve their goals and consist in the integration of various instruments of competition - the provision of additional services by joining the offer of related services; formation of attractive prices by differentiating the forms and terms of payment; improving the forms and channels of product sales, customer service, improving communication through prompt and reliable information. The importance of dividing competition into price and non-price competition has been proven. Price competition. This is a kind of struggle with competitors by reducing the price of goods. Non-price competition offers more progressive and modern methods. These include isolating their products from similar competitors' products, introducing special features, expanding the range of products, improving quality, increasing advertising and warranty costs. Non-price competition allows you to focus on progress and drive sales without price fluctuations. Non-price competition indicates a higher level of quality of interactions in the market. The main advantages and disadvantages of non-price competition are determined. Thus, we can conclude that competition is an integral part of the market. The concept of competition has changed with the development of society, various economic trends and schools have contributed to this concept. From the point of view of microeconomics, it is important to divide competition into price and non-price, the use of which contributes to the increase in the efficiency of entrepreneurial activity.

Thematizing Marriage in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple hibiscus: The Dynamics of Modern African Marriage Relationship

The task of this paper is to highlight some of the marriage relationship tendencies that have changed in the modern African Marriage, in relation to the traditional norms, as manifest in two texts of two African Feminist writers. The study thus examines how Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes and Chimamanda N. Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus explore the marriage institution in Africa and unearth the changing dynamics in it, as it pertains to the modern or post-modern African society. The study concluded that though the dignity of marriage coupled with its necessity as a social institution is unquestionably maintained in our focused African texts, its dynamics, in modern society, must yield to positive change, at least, to reflect the emerging socio-economic trends in African society today.

Ways to improve legislative regulation of taxation of individuals who carry out independent professional activity

Purpose. The purpose of this work is to explore ways to improve the legal regulation of taxation of individuals engaged in independent professional activity. Methodology. The methodology includes a comprehensive analysis and generalization of available scientific and theoretical material and the formulation of relevant conclusions and recommendations. The following methods of scientific cognition were used during the research: terminological, logical-semantic, functional, system-structural, logical-normative. Results. The study recognized that the implementation of best foreign practices will meet current economic trends associated with increasing the prevalence of non-standard employment, which is based on the mobility of labor resources and reducing employee dependence on the employer (temporary work, part-time, part-time work, division workplace, "virtual enterprise", etc.), as well as provide optimization of fiscal control procedures of the state for non-standard forms of employment, reduction of the "shadow market" of employment, etc. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used in lawmaking to improve tax legislation.

The Significance of “Green” Skills and Competencies Making the Transition Towards the “Greener” Economy

Climate change and environmental deterioration have been recognized as global drivers of change, and the shift to the “greener” economy is the key to sustainable development. The green economy is a priority field for developing and developed economies. However, as the authors of the publication have realised, there is no consensus about the meaning of the green economy and “green” jobs, that is why an uncertainty as in measurement of economic trends and an impact of it, as well as in what skills and competencies should be assigned to the “green” ones, arises. The new “green” processes and technologies are arising in a progressive trend, that is why it is important to ensure there are properly skilled candidates with appropriate “green” skills and competencies on the labour market, as well as to prepare fresh graduates with the “green” skills that will meet requirement of both, the recent and the future companies, especially operating in the “green” sector. In the framework of “SB Bridge” project an online survey was conducted by interviewing the “green” companies to identify which skills and competencies are needed for “green” jobs recently, and whether candidates and fresh graduates are enough with the “green” skills and competencies for fruitful engagement to “green” jobs. As the survey identified, fresh graduates and candidates for “green” jobs lack technical and (or) mechanical knowledge, IT skills, as well as experience and ability to work independently and in the team to resolve arising problems.

EKONOMSKA NEJEDNAKOST U VREME PANDEMIJE

In this paper the author presents the overview of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economic trends with the focus on the economic inequalities. The Covid-19 pandemic that has caused the global recession, has also brought to the surface the issue of global inequalities, particularly exposing the economic inequalities. The Kuznets curve, a scientific achievement in the field of economics, as originally formulated suggests that the level of inequality is low when an economy’s income is at low level, that is, the income inequality increases with economic development and then tends to decline when the country attains a higher income level. However, the sustainability of Kuznets curve is questioned today in the current circumstances of global information society struck by pandemic. Modern economic literature views the contemporary growth of inequality in wealthy countries, as well as in developing countries, through the prism of Kuznets cycles or waves. The growing trend in global inequalities may threaten the attained level of economic growth and scientific and technological progress.

Inflation of wood resources in European forests: The footprints of a big-bang

The current increase in European forest resources forms a singularity across the globe. Whether this trend will persist, and how biological and economic trends feature it form crucial issues to green economy challenges and C sequestration. The present screening of Forest Europe 2015 statistics explored the features, inertia and limits of this expansion, and its relationships with countries’ development, forest management and trade, intense in this area of the world. Persisting footprint of past demographic pressure on forests was identified, with opposed traces on their area and growing stock density. Steady growing stock (GS) increases, proportional to GS, not density-limited, and sustained by forest area increases, supported the view of an inflationary forest dynamic. Economic development and liberalism fostered both forest exploitation and production, yielding no significant impact on GS changes. Wood exports exerted a tension on forest exploitation and GS changes, thus lowering GS inflation but providing a resource security margin in the face of expected climate threats. Conflicting a common view, GS inflation and moderate felling-to-increment ratios make increased use of wood resources and C sequestration reconcilable, and GS expansion timely for ongoing EU forest policy processes. Anticipated adverse impacts of ongoing climate change were not clearly identified in these statistics.

A Study on Intelligent Technology Valuation System: Introduction of KIBO Patent Appraisal System II

Technology finance, which has attracted worldwide attention for the successful business development of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) or start-ups, has advanced an innovation or stagnation way-out resolution strategy for companies in line with the low-growth economic trends. Although the development of new technologies and the establishment of active R&D and commercialization strategies are essential factors in a company’s management sustainability, the activation of the technology market in practice is still in progress for its golden age. In this study, to promote a technology transfer-based company’s growth and to run technology-based various financial support activities, we develop and propose a new intelligent, deep learning-based technology valuation system that enables technology holders to estimate the economic values of their innovative technologies and further to establish a firm’s commercialization strategy. For the last years, the KIBO Patent Appraisal System (KPAS-II) herein proposed has been advanced by KIBO as a web-based, artificial intelligence (AI) and evaluation data applications valuation system that automatically calculates and estimates a technology’s feasible economic value by utilizing both the intrinsic and extrinsic index information of a patent and the commercialization entity’s business capabilities, and by applying to the discounted cash flow (DCF) method in valuation theory, and finally integrating with deep learning results based on the in-advance previously established patent DB and the financial DB. The KPAS-II proposed in this study can be said to have dramatically overcome the long-term preparation period and high levels of R&D and commercialization costs in terms of the limitations that the existing technology valuation method possesses by enhancing the reliability of approximate economic values from the deep learning results based on financial data and completed valuation data. In addition, it is expected that technology marketing coordinators, researchers, and non-specialty business agents, not limited to valuation experts, can easily estimate the economic values of their patents or technologies, and they can be actively utilized in a technology-based company’s decision-making and technologically dependent financial activities.