ANALYSIS OF THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE DEBTOR-CITIZEN WHEN INTRODUCING BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURES: TECHNOLOGY AND PROBLEMS OF CONDUCTING

Currently, many citizens actively resort to such an institution of a market economy as insolvency (bankruptcy). The effectiveness of this procedure’s carrying out depends on a number of factors, among which are the level of qualification, experience and knowledge of the arbitration manager, the debtor-citizen’s willingness to cooperate and the quality of methodological support of the process itself. The article discusses the methodological aspects of conducting the analysis of the financial condition of the debtor-citizen, describes the technology of adapting the official methodology of financial analysis applied to legal entities, identifies problems in the process of conducting such an analysis, and suggests the main directions for its improvement. Statistical information on the number and dynamics in the number of citizens declared bankrupt is presented. The author carried out systematization of information sources that underlie the financial analysis, and identified incomplete and unreliable sources that do not give arbitration managers the opportunities to draw adequate and correct conclusions. The study highlights the problem of analyzing the possibility of restoring the debtor-citizen's solvency, as this directly affects the possibility of introducing a bankruptcy rehabilitation procedure – restructuring the debtor's debt. The article examines the features of calculating the indicators that underlie the debtor's analysis in order to identify signs of intentional and fictitious bankruptcy; it reflects the methodological aspects of adapting the official methodology. The existing problems in carrying out the financial analysis of the debtor-citizen are formulated.

The strategy method conflates confusion with conditional cooperation in public goods games: evidence from large scale replications

The strategy method is often used in public goods games to measure individuals’ willingness to cooperate depending on the level of cooperation by others (conditional cooperation). However, while the strategy method is informative, it risks being suggestive and inducing elevated levels of conditional cooperation that are not motivated by concerns for fairness, especially in uncertain or confused participants. Here we make 845 participants complete the strategy method two times, once with human and once with computerized groupmates. Cooperation with computers cannot rationally be motivated by concerns for fairness. Worryingly, 69% of participants conditionally cooperated with computers, whereas only 7% conditionally cooperated with humans while not cooperating with computers. Overall, 83% of participants cooperated with computers, contributing 89% as much as towards humans. Results from games with computers present a serious problem for measuring social behaviors.

Prosumers’ Needs Satisfied Due to Cooperation with Offerors in the Context of Attitudes toward Such Cooperation

The purpose of this article is to determine final purchasers’ needs satisfied due to cooperation with offerors and the dependencies between these needs and previous behaviors and attitudes toward this cooperation. The results of the world literature analysis indicate a cognitive and research gap regarding the aspects mentioned. In order to reduce the gap, empirical studies were conducted, in which an online questionnaire was used to gather primary data. The research was implemented in the second half of 2020 among 1150 respondents representing Polish adult final purchasers. The data were subjected to quantitative analysis using statistical analysis and statistical testing, including exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis, Pearson chi-square independence test, V-Cramer contingency coefficient analysis, and Kruskal–Wallis test. The results of the statistical analysis made it possible to verify six research hypotheses. Dependencies were found between needs satisfied due to cooperation with offerors and the following aspects: (1) purchasers’ previous participation in cooperation with offerors, (2) purchasers’ willingness to cooperate with offerors, and (3) the assessment of contemporary purchasers’ readiness to cooperate with offerors. Willingness to cooperate with offerors differentiated all eleven needs satisfied due to cooperation with offerors analyzed in this study. Two other variables differentiated only a few of the needs analyzed. The results obtained from the research have a cognitive and applicability value. They contribute to theory of marketing and market behavior. They can also facilitate establishing and strengthening cooperation between offerors and final purchasers as important partners cooperating in the process of creating a marketing offer. This effect is very important in the case of shaping the cooperation between final purchasers and offerors of different products including energy ones. The originality of the approach proposed is evidenced by the fact it is the first time final purchasers’ needs that can be satisfied due to cooperation with offerors have been analyzed in the context of attitudes and behavior reflecting purchasers’ (1) previous participation in this cooperation, (2) willingness to cooperate with offerors, and (3) the assessment of contemporary final purchasers’ readiness to cooperate with offerors.

Economic games can be used to promote cooperation in the field

We present experimental evidence of the impact of playing a game on real-life cooperation. The game was framed as a pest-management activity, the effectiveness of which depends on the decisions of others. Playing the game changes behavior in the field, increasing the participation in all collective activities directed at reducing pest pressure. The economic impact of those activities is important, leading to losses that are ∼20% lower than in the control group. Increased cooperation reflects changes in the understanding of others’ willingness to cooperate, not changes in the understanding of underlying technological interdependencies.

Does it pay to imitate? No evidence for social gains from lexical imitation

According to an influential hypothesis, people imitate motor movements to foster social interactions. Could imitation of language serve a similar function? We investigated this question in two pre-registered experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to alternate naming pictures and matching pictures to a name provided by a partner. Crucially, and unknown to participants, the partner was in fact a computer program which in one group produced the same names as previously used by the participant, and in the other group consistently produced different names. We found no difference in how the two groups evaluated the partner or the interaction and no difference in their willingness to cooperate with the partner. In Experiment 2, we made the task more similar to natural interactions by adding a stage in which a participant and the partner introduced themselves to each other and included a measure of the participant's autistic traits. Once again, we found no effects of being imitated. We discuss how these null results may inform imitation research.

Trust in leadership

Trust is one of the organizational resources. In the contemporary world, due to a variety of challenges related to demographic and globalization problems and the revival of modern areas of the economy, human capital and its application on the market are the fundamental growth factor. Trust generates a willingness to cooperate, and it is imperative to build positive relationships with others, which is necessary to cooperate with the environment. The discussed phenomenon is based on social coexistence, reflected on many levels and in various, often overlapping, interactions, and influences. Trust in any organization is a determinant of undertaking supra-individual activities and a pillar for motivating and mobilizing other people. The need for potent leadership is strong trust, openness in communication, and behavior rooted in conduct ethics. The theoretical aspects of trust and the essence of this phenomenon are presented in the article. There are described ways to build trust. Moreover, the issue of trust in organizations was discussed.

The Indispensable Dog

Dogs’ remarkable success in living in a human-dominated world rests on a set of adaptations to cohabitation with humans. In this paper, I review the nature of these adaptations. They include changes in reproductive and foraging behavior from their ancestor species, wolves, which can be understood as adaptations to the change from hunting live prey to feeding on human food residues. Dogs also show several changes in social behavior which are more controversial and even somewhat paradoxical. Contrary to theories of canine domestication which view dogs as less aggressive and more cooperative than wolves, several studies show that dogs’ social interactions with conspecifics are more hierarchical and competitive than are wolves’. As scavengers rather than hunters, dogs do not need to cooperate with conspecifics the way that wolves do. But how then can we understand dogs’ willingness to cooperate with humans? I propose an integrated account of dogs’ social behavior that does not assume that dogs need to recognize the species-identity of the individuals with whom they interact. Because of the overlap in formal signals of dominance and submission between dog and human and people’s complete control over the resources dogs need, I propose that people occupy a status of “super-dominance” over dogs. This conception suggests several new lines of research which could shed light on the human-dog relationship to the benefit of both partners.