EconBiz

As economic instability grows and the risk of global threats increases – including pandemics, wars, climate crises, and sudden migration flows – conventional indicators of progress, such as gross domestic product (GDP), are increasingly recognised as insufficient to assess socio-economic development, societal resilience, and a country’s capacity to recover from crises. This article highlights the role of culture in evaluating the socio-economic development of European Union member states under conditions of uncertainty. Culture is understood as a factor shaping long-term development trajectories, influencing not only economic outcomes but also institutional quality, social trust, and societies’ ability to adapt to shocks. From a methodological perspective, the article applies criteria for assessing the cultural sector in line with the EU's "Beyond GDP" approach, focusing on cultural employment, the business environment of the cultural sector, and public expenditure on culture across EU countries. These indicators are analysed alongside levels of trust in public institutions and the Human Development Index (HDI), as well as their correlations, to identify key factors that may significantly impact societal resilience, sustainability, and long-term growth. Using descriptive and comparative methods, the study seeks to identify recurring patterns and structural imbalances across countries, particularly when high GDP levels are not reflected in social well-being or national stability. The empirical findings suggest that cultural indicators are more closely associated with long-term development outcomes than with short-term economic performance. The results indicate that the vitality of the cultural sector and consistent public support contribute to strengthening social cohesion and resilience, while their impact on economic growth is indirect and materialises through longer-term institutional and value-based transformations. The article concludes that culture should be regarded as a strategic resource for long-term development rather than a secondary component of economic policy, especially in contexts of global crisis and uncertainty.

Modern society represents a complex socio-economic system, the development efficiency of which is determined by the economy’s ability to maintain the stability of its elements over certain periods of time. The aim was to justify an integrative approach to the development of comprehensive economic statistics in the context of sustainable development by identifying systemic contradictions, assessing the consistency of statistical data, and determining directions for their harmonisation in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals. The study utilised a set of general scientific and specialised methods, including: the analytical generalisation method – for identifying systemic problems in comprehensive economic statistics; comparative analysis – for evaluating data collection schemes and data reconciliation; systems approach – for forming an integrated view of statistics; structural-functional analysis – for determining the role of metadata; logical modelling – for constructing schemes of interrelations between the indicators of Sustainable Development Goals and statistical processes. It was established that the modern socio-economic system is characterised by instability and limited ability to restore equilibrium, which necessitates the integration of statistical systems. It is substantiated that the balance of components of sustainable development is achieved through the coordinated functioning of comprehensive economic statistics. Basic contradictions in accounting practice have been identified, as well as dependencies between sources of statistical errors and the methods used to correct them. The double effect of harmonising public finance data with international standards has been demonstrated. A general scheme of the interconnection between the issues of economic indicators of sustainable development and the directions for improving statistical work has been developed. The role of metadata in ensuring the integration of statistical systems and the inclusion of digital indicators into macroeconomic assessments has been identified. The practical significance of the obtained results lies in their potential to improve the consistency of statistical data, ensure international comparability, and substantiate managerial decisions at the national level within the context of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The multifaceted challenges posed by globalization, medical advancements, conflicts and crises necessitate a critical examination of social and organizational inclusion. Despite the acknowledged advantages of inclusive leadership (IL), there remains a significant research gap concerning the perceptions of IL among diverse employee groups, particularly within heterogeneous organizations. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring the perceptions of IL across various sociodemographic groups within fintech companies in Lithuania. By concentrating on this rapidly evolving sector, this research enhances the understanding of IL by assessing how sociodemographic variables influence perceptions of inclusive leadership practices. A total of 236 responses were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests, supplemented by the Bonferroni correction to ensure statistical robustness. The findings elucidate the dynamics of IL within the fast-paced fintech environment, revealing unique challenges and opportunities to foster organizational inclusivity. The implications of this research provide actionable insights for industry leaders striving to implement IL strategies that empower minority groups and enhance overall organizational performance. Although the results indicate that fintech organizations have made strides in embedding IL principles, these advancements are not uniformly experienced across diverse employee demographics. Specifically, this study identifies significant disparities in IL perceptions between employees of other genders and those with health-related impairments. Acknowledging certain limitations, particularly the small sample sizes of some examined employee subgroups, this study advocates for further research to yield generalizable findings that can inform and improve inclusive organizational practices.

Research background: Tourism sector is considered as a driving force of economic develop-ment and understanding factors that deter the flow of tourists and hinder its development, which is essential for all actors involved in this industry. Oeconomia Copernicana,14(3), 1009–10351010 Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to investigate the impact of rule of law, corruption, and terrorism on tourism in 14 coastal states of the Mediterranean Sea based on the United Nations classification. Methods: The short and long-run relationships among the rule of law, corruption, terrorism and tourism are respectively analyzed through Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test and LM bootstrap cointegration test taking notice of the presence of heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Findings & value added: The causality analysis reveals that control of corruption has a signif-icant influence on tourism only in the short run. The cointegration analysis uncovers that terrorism negatively affects the tourism in Albania, Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia, but im-provements in corruption also positively affect the tourism in Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and Italy. Last, the rule of law has a positive impact on tourism in Egypt, Greece, and Israel. In this context, the rule of law can also be a key factor for tourism devel-opment via combat with corruption and terrorism. Based on some unique characteristics, the Mediterranean region has consolidated its position as the world's leading tourist destination, but to maintain this competitive position, it is crucial to recognize and adopt strategies that respond to all key challenges faced by this sector

Acceleration of scientific and technical progress, speeding up of technological changes, IT process globalisation and integration of OT processes invoked new challenges in preparing cyber strategies. Issues with adapting strategy for a particular specificity, region and specific cyber-attacks are not applicable. Therefore, a natural need arises to adjust the process for future cyber-attacks. It should be noted that the vast majority of organisations still need to possess a strategy that has been developed in correlation with future cyber-attacks. A part of organisations, irrespective of the lack of methodology and necessary infrastructure at the initial stage, commenced applying strategic management methods as a more dynamic environment demanded adequate changes in the cyber security within the organisation itself. The organisation started to plan such changes because, at the initial stage of the strategic management theory development, the strategy was understood as a plan drawn up to achieve the set objectives, regardless of the future need. Implementing such strategic procedures is grounded on something other than scientific calculations and is often associated with excessive use of funds. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to determine how much the r-Interdiction Median Problem with Fortification (RIMF) module can be used as a model for deciding methods for protecting critical infrastructure systems.

The article deals with the problem of teleworking. Due to the constraints of the pandemic, the education sector has undergone a dramatic change, with teachers and students en masse moved to work from home. In the past, digital solutions have gradually penetrated the education sector, but the pandemic has turned the process into social innovation in the broad sense and performance innovation in the narrow sense. The latter aspect is addressed in this article. The paper aims to reveal the effect of the transition to teleworking on employees in the education sector. Based on the survey results, the study reports experiences of higher education and colege professors, secondary schools and vocational schools' teachers and managerial staff in terms of personal wel-being, management quality, and performance. The paper is novel in terms of the scope of the study: it analyses the teleworking issue in different educational institutions. In addition, the study compares the experiences of education staff and managers. There is a lack of such research in the scientific literature in the education sector. The research confirms that telecommuting managers experienced less shock and fatigue than professors and teachers. In addition, university professors proved to be the best prepared to work in innovative ways, but they also rated the performance of their managers' management work the worst among all educational institutions. Meanwhile, while teachers in secondary schools rated telework the most negatively, they rated the ability of their leaders to lead the team in extraordinary conditions the best. The research results can be useful for education leaders and policymakers as well as for researchers dealing with the topics of teleworking, teachers' job performance, employee fatigue, and leadership competencies. performance.

The paper's premise is that the invisible Constitution serves as an instrument to protect democracy and consolidate the nation. The discussion turns around the fundamental aspects of democracy and sovereignty to reveal the subject. The question which is particularly considered is how the Parliament and the Constitutional Court participate in the expression of the principles of democracy in the contemporary world. The paper concludes that the Parliament, through the formal legislative procedures, becomes less capable of achieving a social compromise. As a result, the same representative feature of democracy becomes more unpopular in society and continues to be a prevailing object of criticism among scholarly community. In contrast, the Constitutional Court's role in protecting democracy through the systematic interpretation of a constitution undergoes a profound change in the democratic world. Constitutional Court, through the understanding of both visible and invisible meaning of the Constitution turns it into an expression of the sovereign will of the permanent nation.

The rapid growth of the sharing economy attracts attention from scientists, businesses, and governments. The European Commission acknowledges the benefits of the sharing economy and emphasises that European countries should be open to the new opportunities that the sharing economy brings. The sharing economy makes an essential contribution to job creation and growth in the European Union. The sharing economy creates new markets and expands existing ones. It makes the use of resources more efficient due to the extensive sharing of assets. Sharing improves resource conservation and efficiency of use, reformats consumption patterns, raises the spirit of entrepreneurship and responsibility of every capital owner, and improves social trust among people worldwide. Despite the focus of researchers on the sharing economy, there is still a lack of research on conditions that stimulate the sharing economy’s growth. The article lays the foundation for creating a more comprehensive methodology for assessing the growth of the sharing economy. The authors apply multi-criterion decision-making methods for research purposes, such as EDAS and PROMETHEE II, and recently developed CILOS and IDOCRIW for criteria weight calculation. A hierarchy structure of criteria for evaluating sharing economy growth was created and presented in the paper. The resulting weights of criteria of performance of sharing economy growth were obtained. The prominent features of hierarchy structures and the methodology for calculating ultimate weights are described and demonstrated. The results reveal that the environment is more favourable for sharing economy growth in the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden among the chosen European countries.

In the wake of the pandemic, telework became relevant to more employees than before. Researchers suggest both positive and negative impact of telework on employees. The study examines office workers' self-reports on the impact of teleworking on their subjective well-being, health, and productivity. Data (N = 475) were collected from teleworkers in Lithuania during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate that teleworking during the pandemic had a negative impact on the well-being (in work-life balance aspect) and health (mostly in terms of mental exhaustion) of office workers, while work performance suffered relatively less. Also, this study revealed three original observations. First, well-being evaluations of teleworkers were found to be most correlated with close relationships and age. Second, teleworkers who live with their parents have the most positive evaluations of teleworking in all three areas: well-being, health, and productivity. And third, the overlap between family and work when working from home increases the likelihood that women and young workers will be less concerned about healthy living habits. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors teleworkers face when working at home and can help companies improve their hybrid working strategies.

Critical infrastructures are complex operating environments that often require special protection and security. A successful security strategy design should adhere to the principles of durability, integrity, and regularity. In the European Union, there is a strong interest in the security of critical infrastructures, especially those with interdependence. Given the fact that critical infrastructures play an essential role in a country’s economy, it makes them even more vulnerable. The main aim of this article is to analyze the critical infrastructures’ cyber security policy. The creation of a security strategy requires identification of the needs for equipment, mode of operation, and required security level. It has to establish rules for precise operation and handling of situations. The article tackles the issues of security strategy for critical infrastructures to protect sensitive areas and sectors. In addition, a cybersecurity policy as a countermeasure is discussed.