European Integration Studies最新文献

{"title":"Strengthening Lithuanian - Latvian Cross - Border Cooperation in the Context of International Trade","authors":"Ineta Zykiene, Rūta Laučienė, R. Daugėlienė, Aistė Leskauskienė","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29062","url":null,"abstract":"The article analyses the strengthening of the competitiveness of countries based on crossborder cooperation through the prism of international trade indicators. Due to the increase in international competition, countries, especially small economies, are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their position in the global market and remain competitive if this position is pursued individually. It is therefore necessary to review competition strategies and reassess opportunities and competitive advantages, as well as to promote coopetition between border region companies at institutional level. The article presents a new approach to regional competitiveness, which is achieved not through the development of the competitive advantages of the regions of individual countries, but through their cooperation and thus achieving common benefits. This is particularly relevant for border regions, as their uniqueness allows them to exploit cross-border region cooperation, which can generate added value by utilising the potential of cooperating regions to complement each other and become a competitive hub for economic growth. Only a strategic partnership based on regional cooperation will promote cooperation between manufacturers in different regions and ensure the achievement of co-creation and international development goals. The article analyses the case of Lithuania and Latvia as an example of cross-border cooperation, as internationally these countries are often matched and treated as one region, but in fact they compete fiercely with each other for better positions in foreign markets. This also shows that Lithuania’s and Latvia’s foreign trade with the European Union (hereinafter - the EU) accounted for the largest share of their foreign trade. Secondary statistical data of the EU-28 Eurostat of 2010 - 2019 and Finger Kreinin, RCA, and Lafay indices were used for the study. After assessing the convergence of the Lithuanian and Latvian export structure according to the FKI index during the study and finding that the export structure of these countries is very similar, the relative comparative advantage of exports by individual product sectors was assessed on the basis of the RCA index and the comparative advantage on the basis of the LAFAY index. The study showed that both countries had comparative advantages in the same product groups. The identification of common points of contact has highlighted economic activities, the development of which could be given more attention through the cooperation between the countries, and which would ensure overall economic benefits. The article concludes with strategic recommendations and measures to promote cross-border cooperation and increase the region’s competitiveness. The article contributes to the regional economic subject literature, as the concept of cross-border region competitiveness is developed by promoting not the competition of individual regions, but their cooperation by discovering common similarit","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90399964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The European Administration as a Facilitator of the European Integration Process: Organizational and Ethical Implications from the Proliferation of European Union Agencies","authors":"Giorgio Oikonomou","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28805","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to explore the evolution of EU administration by focusing and critically examining the role of EU agencies in advancing the European integration project. The research question deals with identifying the factors that account for the formulation of EU agencies and the reasons behind their sharp increase in numbers since the 2000s. The tasks are to analyse critical EU agencies’ parameters such as their typology, the policy area they deal with, origin of their resources and funding, and their output. In addition, transparency and accountability issues accompanying the proliferation of EU agencies are also considered. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of the European administration as expressed by the establishment of various types of agencies since 1975 thereafter. Methodologically, the research utilizes quantitative data based on annual EU budgets as well as official reports and policy papers issued by main EU institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, European Court of Auditors) and agencies, analyzing them from a historical perspective. As a result, it is argued that the proliferation of EU agencies has advanced the process of European integration, namely the EU enlargement and expansion in new policy areas following successive reforms of the Treaties. However, concerns regarding accountability and transparency issues remain in place.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73094521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Financial Literacy Self-Evaluation of Young People in Latvia","authors":"Evija Dundure, B. Sloka","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28902","url":null,"abstract":"Regular and proportionate voluntary savings in private pension funds can become an important part of oldage pensions. However, this can happen if the savings are made for a long period of time. This justifies the target group of the 3rd pension level, which are young people who have started to receive a regular income from their professional activity. One of the most discussed issues in promoting voluntary pension savings is the level of financial literacy. In addition to other motivating factors, such as financial incentives, the level of knowledge of the population about the opportunities to participate in the third pillar of pensions makes them want to build up voluntary savings. Effective communication of information to a precise target audience is one of the main tasks of government agencies in formulating pension policy. In order to assess the impact of various socio-economic factors on young people's knowledge of savings for pension formation, a survey of Latvian youth was conducted in February-March 2021, addressing youth organizations and universities. The survey is designed using closed and semi-closed questions, in several questions respondents were asked to provide ratings using the Likert scale. The survey provides answers to the question about the level of knowledge of Latvian youth about the current pension system, emphasizing the investor's right to handle investments in private pension funds, as well as the basic conditions for creating savings at the 2nd and 3rd pension levels. The task of the study was to analyze the respondents' financial literacy self-evaluation answers based on the main socio-economic factors - gender, age and income. The results of the study confirm that the level of financial literacy of young people differs according to age, gender and income level.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82147959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Do Business Booms Trigger Corruption?","authors":"Kouramoudou Keita, Hannu Laurila","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29160","url":null,"abstract":"In the literature, the nexus between economic growth and corruption is well covered, but there are only few studies on cyclical variations of corruption. For example, Galbraith (1997) claims that embezzlement flourishes in business booms and withers in recessions, and Gokcekus and Suzuki (2011) support the claim by finding a positive correlation between transitory income and corruption. This paper retests the argument and produces conflicting results. It is found that corruption shrinks as transitory income increases meaning that economic booms foster integrity rather than corruption. Moreover, the negative correlation is strong in high-income countries and in those with sound rule of law which points to developed countries, whereas the effect remains relatively weak in countries with low income or poor rule of law which points to developing countries. The finding is relevant also from the perspective of the European Union.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87784932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment and Development of Public Servants Using the Design Thinking Methodology for the Reforms and Innovations Introduction","authors":"M. Orliv, B. Janiūnaitė, V. Goshovska, R. Daugėlienė","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29114","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of the study is to investigate the features of assessment of public servants’ characteristics and their ability development to introduce reforms and innovations in public authorities using the design thinking methodology. The following tasks were set: 1) to investigate the problems of assessing the personal qualities and behavioral characteristics before and after training activities; 2) to find out what peculiarities of the introduction of reforms and innovations in public authorities should be taken into account in the assessment of public servants and their practice-oriented training; 3) based on the results of the research, to determine the features of the use of design thinking methodology in the public servants development. To achieve the research objective, the dialectical research, content analysis, questionnaire survey, expert assessment, methods of statistical analysis, and modeling were used. The results of the study testified that in many cases the method of self-assessment of personal qualities does not ensure the indicators objectivity. Therefore, such indicators should be compared with expert estimates. Based on the analysis of the results of empirical research in the public sector, the peculiarities of the reforms and innovations introduction related to bureaucracy and political influence, drivers of reforms and their outcomes, strict control over the use of resources, evaluation of the performance of public servants have been identified. The research allowed substantiating the proposals for the use of the design thinking methodology in training of public servants and evaluation of its results.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83017926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Importance of Integrating SDGs Into Business Process by Telecommunication Operators: Opinion of Estonian Customers","authors":"N. Gurvitš-Suits, Anna-Liiza Lvova","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28779","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainable development is recognized by the United Nations as a challenge for social and economic policy Hughes&Johnston (2005), an urgent call for action by all countries addressing all groups of stakeholders (Mio et al., 2020) and one of the main priorities for business community all over the world (Tsalis et al., 2020). Successful implementation and achievement of these goals should be a result of joint efforts of all countries and nations. And while a general success is observed in case of certain SDGs, others still require joint efforts and cooperation on both national and international level. A vital role is assigned to businesses which can also contribute to achievement of SDGs by integrating them into everyday processes. Purpose: The aim of the research was to reveal the customers opinion on the importance of embedding SDGs by businesses into everyday process in Estonia. The telecommunication operating companies were chosen due to their central role in the modern business world and huge impact on nearly every aspect of society. There was conducted a survey in a form of questionnaire among customers of these companies and 512 responses were collected in a period of September 2020 –February 2021. Results of the study demonstrate stakeholders concern on the achievement of the SDGs and revealed that the embedding of several SDGs: number 3 (good health and well-being), 4 (quality education), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 12 (responsible consumption and production), 15 (life on land) into business process is considered by customers to be the of the highest priority. Authors believe that the study with its findings intends to benefit SDG implementation by business companies in Estonia and provides a pattern for further developments of sustainable policies and strategies. This work provides one of the first studies in Estonia contributing towards understanding of whether businesses are supposed to embed the SDGs into their activities as seen by customers.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77791025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy Research Infrastructures in Europe and Beyond: Mapping an Unmapped Landscape","authors":"M. Knudsen, M. Ferreira-Aulu, J. Kaivo‐oja, J. Luukkanen","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28840","url":null,"abstract":"European research and innovation policy highlights the importance of transnational scientific collaboration, International collaborations in science concentrates and magnifies resources for conducting research and foster innovation. Often, individual institutions, or even individual European countries, cannot provide the right capabilities by themselves. Joint facilities and Research Infrastructures (RIs) are therefore of high importance, and through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe nearly €5 bn EU funding is set aside for these institutions. Considering the large-scale funding and the perceived importance of RIs, a better understanding of their roles, functions, and usefulness is highly relevant to of European integration studies. While ‘Research Infrastructures’ has become a fixed terminology of EU-policy, conceptually defining RIs remain a matter of academic debate. We contribute to the “what is an RI?”-discussion by synthesizing existing literature and presenting novel empirical data from the energy domain mapping of the Horizon 2020-project Research Infrastructures in the International Landscape (RISCAPE). We provide insights into the process of mapping an hitherto largely unknown landscape of global Energy RIs. These insights touch upon both definitional issues relevant to the RI-field and methodological concerns for future landscape analyses. Finally, the article suggests that when it comes to energy research, RI-terminology might be misplaced as a catchall modern synonym for “gold standard world-class science”.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76106773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Digital Agenda, New Technologies and Education for the Integration of Europe: an Economic Study","authors":"Javier Cifuentes‐Faura","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28296","url":null,"abstract":"New technologies are a key factor for integration in Europe by enabling citizens to solve their daily problems and interact with people everywhere. The European Commission established the Digital Agenda for Europe with the aim of improving the speed of navigation, establishing a single market for telecommunications and achieving a digital single market. We highlight the importance of applying new technologies in the field of education, since teaching and learning through these means will contribute to increasing creativity and reasoning capacity, allowing for more interactive and participative learning. The Horizon Report and the new emerging technologies proposed by that report are analysed, and are aimed not only at facilitating learning, but also at enabling a more integrated Europe. It also presents some technological ideas to be developed in the educational field that will enhance the development and integration of the EU Member States. Furthermore, in order to analyse the influence of the use of the Internet and new technologies on other socio-economic variables, a regression analysis has been carried out. The objective is to study whether in any way the fact that citizens use the Internet affects variables such as Gross Domestic Product, unemployment or Human Development Index which may affect the integration of Europe.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86845623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of Feldstein’s ‘Global Imbalance'","authors":"Paweł Młodkowski","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28787","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28787","url":null,"abstract":"This note is a systematic review of arguments provided by Feldstein (2008) on the necessity for global readjustments, both in the U.S. and in main trading partners. The purpose is to address the main arguments in the scientific and political debate on persistent To date, there has been no publication that challenged the opinions leading to totally wrong forecasts concerning the global imbalance. With a perspective of more than 10 years of post-2008-crisis developments, and together with empirical evidence one can easily see how erroneous were the arguments formulated in 2008. The tasks included a systematic review of all arguments formulated by Martin Feldstein in 2008, and casting them against empirical evidence. The U.S. current account (CA) deficit has continued for many years, since 1982, and has not changed, as foreseen by Feldstein. The primary method is a simple comparative analysis, supported by basic macroeconomic data. They allow to reveal multiple processes leading to further deterioration of the U.S. trade balance. Neither savings rate domestically nor abroad adjusted to give a basis for solving the global imbalance. In the same time, all traditional arguments presented on global imbalances seem undeniable. However, an alternative interpretation of the imbalance does not recognize the CA deficit as “a gift to the U.S. economy”. This paper sheds new light on the “global imbalance”, suggesting that increasing domestic absorption by China may be an important factor in resolving the U.S. problematic and persistent trade deficit. Disaster-scenarios may be not there in the U.S. to experience. Future developments may be far from those announced, and previously expected by Feldstein in his seminal paper. A careful reader may conclude that all coming changes and adjustments will be slow, gradual, and will not cause any major issues in the global economy. Such conclusions seem most justified by hard data and therefore encouraging. As the topic remains central to open economy empirical macroeconomics, continuation of studies on this issue seems natural. The U.S. and China will remain the biggest economies, and, as such, they are central to the global situation.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87507543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing Intercultural Competence Through Design Thinking","authors":"T. Hantsiuk, Khrystyna Vintoniv, N. Opar, B. Hryvnak","doi":"10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.28930","url":null,"abstract":"Cultural competence, as the ability to interact effectively with the culturally diverse others, is a key component to your success in the globalized world. Developing cultural competence gives us an insight how to benefit from the diversity within intercultural interactions. Everyone may misinterpret the cultural differences due to the low level of cultural competence. That can influence further cooperation with different cultures. Therefore, it is very important to foster students’ intercultural skills, in particular by using different learning techniques and implementing new ideas into the traditional teaching methods. One of them is design thinking as a practice that encourages collaboration and can help students to manage intercultural challenges. Hence, the research problem for this study is to reveal the correlation between the development of students’ intercultural competence and design thinking method application. The purpose of the study is to summarize and synthesize the research on cross-cultural interactions and design thinking to build a framework that shows how the implementation of the design thinking method into the learning process facilitates the development of students’ intercultural competence. The tasks of the research are:a) to review the main contributions to the field of design thinking by analysing multidisciplinary studies on how design thinking fosters development of variety competences including intercultural competence;b) to design the framework to reveal the correlation between the components of intercultural competence and the stages of design thinking process;c) to observe the changes in the students’ intercultural competence level by analysing learners’ responses to the case of intercultural misunderstanding at the beginning of studying the cross-cultural communication classes and after finishing the course.d) The study uses mixed approaches such as quantitative and qualitative methods, scientific literature studies, intercultural competence assessment, grouping, comparative analysis, synthesis, inductive and deductive methods.The key results are presented in the framework that demonstrates the ways how design thinking method supports the development of intercultural competence. This framework can be used by educators to teach intercultural competence and everyone involved in cross-cultural interactions, and who would like to benefit from the diversity.","PeriodicalId":51991,"journal":{"name":"European Integration Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81175559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}