The book handed over to the Readers includes the scientific, didactic and organizational achievements of statisticians and demographers of the University of Lodz. It can be treated as a continuation ...of the monograph entitled "Lodz academic statistics", published in 2020. The aim of the book is to present the achievements of statisticians and demographers of the University of Lodz, including precursors who have made a significant contribution to the development of statistics and demography as scientific disciplines and their wide application in many fields of knowledge. The occasion to publish this book was the 77th anniversary of the first lectures conducted by academic teachers at the University of Lodz and at the Lodz Branch of the Warsaw School of Economics. The presented scientific work covers a period of over one hundred years and has contributed to the significant development of statistics and demography in numerous higher education institutions, mainly at the University of Lodz. The Lodz community also supported other universities in Poland by promoting doctors and habilitated doctors, managing scientific projects and by organizing international conferences, including Multivariate Statistical Analysis conference, which will have its 40th edition in 2022. The book is scientific and popular science. It enriches the information on the scientific and didactic achievements of statisticians and demographers of the University of Lodz against the background of Polish, and partly also global, statistics and demography, in the process of historical development. Based on source documents, these achievements were presented against the background of Polish statistical and demographic thought ant its contribution to international statistical congresses.
In recent years, with the fast development of computer and Internet technologies, text-mining computer methods are becoming more and more important. Computer systems capacities can be further used in ...such areas as text summarization, information retrieval, text correcting, determining text subject, machine text translation, creating lexicons, determining text sentiment. This monograph is focused on sentiment analysis in the most popular meaning of this phrase i.e. on the sentiment of the whole document. The problems of binary classification (two document groups), staying away from external sources, using the training set but in the possibly smallest size, were emphasized. The monograph’s targets are: providing a comparative review of sentiment analysis methods to be found in literature, investigating the quality of selected methods of document sentiment classification in applications to Polish language written documents, proposing new methods which would upgrade the classification quality or possess other advantages. An original method with simple interpretation has been proposed which proved to be better than standard methods applied to classify English language documents, especially in the case of documents corpora with similar number of documents in both classes. The research was carried out on thirteen sets of documents from different independent sources.
This book analyzes the Central Asian economies of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, from their buffeting by the commodity boom of the early 2000s to its ...collapse in 2014. Richard Pomfret examines the countries' relations with external powers and the possibilities for development offered by infrastructure projects as well as rail links between China and Europe.
The transition of these nations from centrally planned to market-based economic systems was essentially complete by the early 2000s, when the region experienced a massive increase in world prices for energy and mineral exports. This raised incomes in the main oil and gas exporters, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; brought more benefits to the most populous country, Uzbekistan; and left the poorest countries, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, dependent on remittances from migrant workers in oil-rich Russia and Kazakhstan. Pomfret considers the enhanced role of the Central Asian nations in the global economy and their varied ties to China, the European Union, Russia, and the United States. With improved infrastructure and connectivity between China and Europe (reflected in regular rail freight services since 2011 and China's announcement of its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013), relaxation of United Nations sanctions against Iran in 2016, and the change in Uzbekistan's presidency in late 2016, a window of opportunity appears to have opened for Central Asian countries to achieve more sustainable economic futures.
This paper aims to determine the effects of the transition on mutual trade between the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The research will be based on a qualitative and descriptive analysis of ...representative databases of the six countries mentioned for the time period after the disintegration of the SFRY. Economic reforms and the trade liberalisation process started even within the SFRY, but the reforms did not yield the desired results. After the disintegration of the SFRY, all countries independently defined the transition process and chose the path of European integration. In the first phase of the transition, all countries experienced recession and hyperinflation and a high foreign trade deficit due to trade liberalisation. The second phase was characterised by regulatory reform and institution building, but this process did not proceed at the same speed in all countries. After 2000, Slovenia was the only one with a higher export level as a percentage of GDP compared to imports (68.2%), and the other countries lagged significantly behind. When Slovenia and Croatia became EU members, they increased their foreign trade exchange with the EU. Other countries of the former Yugoslavia developed their mutual trade, primarily due to the CEFTA Agreement. By signing the agreement, all countries achieved export growth as a percentage of GDP, and the highest values of this indicator were recorded in North Macedonia (49.6%) and Serbia (40.8%). Within the CEFTA group, Serbia is the largest exporter and importer by value (its most important partner is Bosnia and Herzegovina). If we consider all the countries of the former SFRY, the largest exporter and importer is Slovenia, and its largest foreign trade partner is Croatia.
Research into the profitability dynamics of the banking sector is continuously current, significant, and complex. Bearing that in mind, this paper measures and analyzes the profitability dynamics of ...the banking sector in Serbia using FLMAW MARCOS methods. The empirical results obtained by applying the given methodology show that the five best years of achieved profitability in the banking sector in Serbia in the period 2008 - 2022 are in order: 2018, 2017, 2008, 2019 and 2022. The worst profitability was achieved in 2013. Recently, the profitability of the banking sector in Serbia has improved. It was influenced by the economic climate, management of human resources, assets, capital, sales of banking products, costs, and profits. The digitalization of the entire business plays a significant role in this. The impact of the Covid-19 corona virus pandemic, as well as the global energy crisis, is significant. In order to improve the profitability of the banking sector in Serbia, it is necessary to manage human resources, assets, capital, sales, costs and profits as efficiently as possible and adapt to changes in the economic climate.
The purpose of the article/hypothesis: In recent years, there has been a noticeable and dynamic development of micromobile equipment intended for the transport of people. These types of vehicles are ...known as personal transport equipment (PTE). Like any road vehicle, PTE can also cause numerous accidents and collisions. A natural consequence of damage related to the use of PTE is posing the question about securing the interests of the aggrieved parties. Considering the above, the aim of this paper is to present the role of civil liability insurance for users of personal transport equipment in the context of claims related to the use of this type of vehicles and to provide a brief description of insurance products available on the market. The paper presents the following thesis: although the regulations do not oblige PTE users to have a civil liability insurance policy, a wide catalogue of adverse events related to the PTE use requires the popularisation of insurance protection for users of this type of vehicles. Such insurance protection should cover: equipment users, renters, sellers, and operators, as well as households. Methodology: The paper is theoretical and analytical in its nature. In addition to the review of the available literature, the existing offer of voluntary insurance for PTE users is also analysed. Results of the research: Insurance addressed to users of personal transport equipment is a relatively new product on the market and still few insurance companies have it in their offer. PTE users can utilise their civil liability insurance often being part of their home insurance in their private life, which offers protection in the event of damage to third parties. One of the solutions leading to the dissemination of insurance protection could be a proposal of insurance tailored to the type of risk and short-term use associated with this kind of equipment (e.g. travel-type insurance).
Context for the Special Issue Accounting, traditionally considered a tool for optimizing the economic per-formance of entities, has also been perceived as a means for addressing the social and ...environmental areas of their operations (Unerman et al., 2007; Bebbington et al., 2017; Carnegie et al., 2021) to inform managers seeking to make businesses sustainable (Wenzig et al., 2022; Lambert and Sponem, 2011). There-fore, accountants are regarded, at least potentially, as a crucial element of a company’s contribution to sustainable development (e.g., Tilt, 2009; Albu et al., 2011; Bebbington and Unerman, 2018; 2020; IFAC, 2016; ACCA, 2021). This is not a new notion. In fact, it has been developing over the years as social environmental ac-counting (SEA) and has been evidenced by the involvement of accounting researchers, practitioners, and accounting-related organizations in sustainability issues (Chung and Cho, 2018).SEA is defined as the communication of an organization’s social and environmental economic impacts to specific stakeholder groups and the general public. It requires expanding the responsibilities of companies beyond the traditional provision of financial statements to owners of capital, particularly shareholders. This necessity is based on the assumption that companies have responsibilities other than making money for shareholders (Gray et al., 1996, 2017; Carnegie, 2022a, 2022b). As Bebbington et al. (2017) note, the original framing of the SEA literature is concerned with the social and environmental impacts of organiza-tions and accounting (e.g., Gray et al., 1987; Gray et al., 1996). It was recently expanded to explore the interrelationship between sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, governance, organizing, management, and accounting.SEA has been developing as an area of research in accounting, while the broad understanding of accounting per se has remained unchanged. One of the popular definitions of accounting by the American Accounting Association defines it as “the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of information” (AAA, 1996). Drawing on the extensive accounting literature in the sociologi-cal, interpretive and critical tradition since the early 1980s (including Gray et al., 1996), Carnegie et al. (2021) propose to redefine accounting in order to the discipline to reach its full potential for shaping a better world. They proposed the following new multidimensional definition of accounting: “Accounting is a technical, social and moral practice concerned with the sustainable utilization of resources and proper accountability to stakeholders to enable the flourishing of organizations, people and nature” (Carnegie et al., 2021, p. 69). Their proposal poses new challenges for accountants and the organized accounting pro-fession. Principally, accounting information systems and accountants must evolve to respond to sustainability-related concerns by adapting traditional characteristics and developing new, broader concepts and capabilities (Twyford and Abbas, 2023). There are concerns about whether and to what extent the accounting profession may be willing to consider and meet these challenges. As Deegan (2013) argues, the fact that t-accounts, and therefore debits and credits, have been in use since the 1400s, and did not cease to be used after negative num-bers were introduced into mathematics, shows that accountants are reluctant to change and inspires little confidence that they are capable of making quick adjustments as environments and technologies transform. This view is support-ed by others (e.g., Wenzig et al., 2022; Krasodomska et al., 2020) who note that accountants express eagerness to learn, though rarely about sustainability. However, this knowledge may prove useful to them in the context of recent changes in the sustainability reporting and assurance landscape, introduced – in the European Union – by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and – at the global level – by the International Sustainability Standards Board mandated by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation.Guidance for AuthorsAgainst this background, the purpose of this Special Issue is to stimulate the debate on the challenges that contemporary accounting is facing in the con-text of sustainable development. We welcome submissions (ca. 32,000-44,000 characters long) on various aspects related to accounting and sustainability, literature reviews, and conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative studies. Possible topics include but are not limited to:• The contemporary understanding of accounting and the role of the ac-counting profession in relation to the sustainability agenda.• The current state of academic research on accounting and sustainability, sustainability reporting, Sustainable Development Goals reporting and as-surance.• The way existing management accounting systems and practices can support managers in capturing commitment to sustainable development and/or undertaking efforts towards sustainability. • The organizational actors involved in external and internal sustainability reporting and the role of accountants and accounting systems.• The modifications that should be made to accounting education systems to enable them to equip future accountants and managers with the knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of sustainable development and how such modifications should be introduced.• The potential role of digitalization in helping accountants to get more in-volved in sustainability-related topics. The way AI transforms the roles of accountants and assurance providers regarding sustainability reporting and Sustainable Development Goals reporting.• The differences between sustainability-related challenges accountants face in large versus small companies, and whether these challenges are country or industry-specific. • The differences between mandatory versus voluntary sustainability re-porting initiatives in terms of consequences on the reporting quality and organizational responses.• The competencies that accountants or assurance providers need to suc-cessfully collaborate with non-accounting experts in sustainability-related areas. The factors that can facilitate such collaborations. • The way professional accounting organizations support the engagement of the profession in sustainability-related issues in various countries and in-ternationally. The factors that may influence their engagement in this field.• The extent to which accounting (and reporting) systems can address the Sustainable Development Goals and the relationships and interdependencies between them.• The impact of the recent regulatory changes within the European Union related to the forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and European Sustainability Reporting Standards on the engagement of the accounting profession in sustainability, sustainability reporting, reporting on Sustainable Development Goals, and assurance of information provided.• The impact of global changes, including the recent consolidation among the main standard setters and the establishment of the International Sustain-ability Standards Board by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foun-dation on how the accounting profession approaches sustainability.The deadline for submitting papers is 30th June 2024.The accepted papers will be published in December 2024 (Zeszyty Teoretyczne Rachunkowości/The Theoretical Journal of Accounting, vol. 48, no. 4).To view the author guidelines for this journal, please visit the following page: http://ztr.skwp.pl/resources/html/cms/FORAUTHORS. Submissions for the Special Issue will be made through ICI Publishers Panel:http://ztr.skwp.pl/resources/html/cms/DEPOSITSMANUSCRIPT When submitting an article, please state that your paper is for Special Issue 2024 with Guest Editors in the additional comment in the Publishers Panel Index Copernicus system. The coordinators of this Special Issue are Anna Szychta and Marek Maszt-alerz (ztr@skwp.pl).
