RISEBA Journals
Not a member yet
309 research outputs found
Sort by
Corporate Governance, Compliance and Banking Boards in Latvia: the Results of Survey
Full text linkPurpose – After the recent financial crisis, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and European Banking Authority (EBA) have called attention to the need to improve corporate governance of financial entities and issued new guidelines endorsed by local regulators. The purpose of the paper is to analyze how banking boards in Latvia fulfill compliance oversight function.
Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study consisted of survey and interviews with experts in compliance risk management who are the members of the Compliance Committee of the Latvian Commercial Bankers Association. To carry out the empirical research, a web-based survey was conducted from December 2011 through January 2012 to collect information about relation between compliance function and banking boards in Latvia.
Findings – The benchmarking approach has been used to compare results from banks in Latvia with similar survey in US. In general, banking boards in Latvia use the similar tools and methods to oversee compliance function as the banks in the US. The level of support to compliance function from boards differs in both countries.
Research limitations – For this paper, only banks are reviewed, which may result in an incomplete picture of compliance function in Latvia’s financial sector.
Practical implications – The results of the researh are used by the Compliance Committee of the Latvian Comercial Banking Association.
Originality/value – Latvia implemented a compliance regulatory framework in 2007. The value lies in the fact that compliance risk management has never been subject of research in Latvia before
Possible enterprise strategies after the economic crisis
Full text linkThe paper explores characteristics of the present economic crisis at enterprise level and its consequences for possible growth after the crisis. The study builds on international experiences concerning recovery from the crisis during previous economic downturns between 1980 and 2002.
Survey results in Hungary and Slovakia are presented with a special attention to how companies tried to react to the present economic recession. The study analyses possible consequences of strategies followed by Slovakian and Hungarian firms during the crisis period from the point of view of capabilities for utilising the options for growth when demand will start to increase
The changing landscape of port governance: case of Baltic states
Full text linkGlobal changes in transportation sector and technological development have outlined the recent worldwide trend towards port devolution, which, in turn, has generated researchers‘ interest in studying port governance models and their implications for improving port performance. There are many measurable indicators of port performance, but not many researchers analysed how port governance models impact these indicators. Therefore this research delivers a conceptual framework which integrates various relevant port performance indicators, such as efficiency and effectiveness that could be used for a comprehensive port governance models evaluation and improvement of existing port governance models afterwards.
Aim of the study – The aim of this research is to explore changes in global economy landscape and how they have impacted port governance models worldwide, to analyse current port governance models in the Baltics, identify key challenges and propose possible solutions for sustainable port governance models and development.
Materials and methods – Theoretical scope of the paper includes international researcher‘s insights on different strategic port governance models. Empirical part gives an insight into the existing models of port governance in Baltic States and worldwide. The main methods used for achieving research goals involve: theoretical – literature analysis; empirical - observation; monographic or descriptive method. Description method is based on the framework to assess congruence of the port governance models in Baltic States and the global trends on port governance.
Main results – Different port governance models within Baltic States identified and analysed in correlation with port performance components. Key challenges and proposed possible solutions for economically viable and efficient and effective model development are explored. Lithuania and Estonia, major seaports, have followed a corporatisation or commercialisation path leading to decentralised government involvement and transformed port authorities into institutions which are commercially efficient and effectively responsive to market conditions and trends. Meanwhile, port governance models in Latvia are one of the few that has not been substantially modified and improved following modern market economy and regional development trends and thus limiting port performance results.
Conclusions – This research, along with the empirical evidence provided by port authorities, leards to the conclusion that port governance decisions are based on very little or no assessment of port performance
Performance management of emploees in public administration of Latvia and opportunities for its improvement
Full text linkThe purpose of this article is to present main results of the research that was carried out in the public sector of Latvia on existing practice of performance management. Changes required in the system and competencies of employees and managers in the public sector as well as suggestions are proposed for its improvement either in Latvia or in other countries with similar history.
Methodology and approach – The research data was gathered using the method of structured individual interviews, as well as electronic online survey. The basic elements of performance management system were examined (e.g. goal setting, performance evaluation, connection with other human resource management process like development and reward) to find out the main deficiencies of existing practice and to formulate suggestions for improvement.
Findings – The research revealed that there are two kinds of drawbacks within the existing system:
contextual drawbacks (e.g., performance criteria an rating scale);
implementation drawbacks (proficiency of managers, rating inflation).
Practical implications – The results and main findings of the research will be taken as a basis for performance management system improvement project, planned to be implemented during 2011.
Originality/value -- The research and the following project represent a unique scientific and practical activity within public administration of Latvia. It is highly important to the enhancement of efficiency and effectiveness of Latvian public administration and its management
Dynamics of labour income share in Latvia and the EU
Full text linkThis paper provides quantitative evidence that during the recent economic expansion the wage growth in Latvia as well as in other Baltic States, by far exceeded the productivity increase. First, we construct a real wage–labour productivity relation and demonstrate that a positive gap is still evident by the end of 2009, although decreased markedly during the recent year. Second, we calculate employee compensation to gross value added (GVA) ratio and labour income share composites for each EU country and show how their dynamics is related to time and economic cycle. It was found that the labour income share is a cyclical in the old EU countries on average but procyclical in Latvia and Estonia. Third, we decompose employee compensation to GVA ratio into changes of economic structure, composition of employment and true wage–productivity effect and show that only the latter two effects were significant in Latvia
Evaluation of business’s performance
Full text linkThe paper deals with application of selected methods of comprehensive evaluation of the company. It aims to confirm usability of selected method during evaluation of a business’s performance. It derives the economic situation of a particular company, using only a few versions of two bankruptcy models (Altman’s analysis and Taffler’s test) and two credibility models (Credibility Index and Kralicek’s Quick test). It omits the traditional indicators of financial analysis and avoids the interpretation of sub-indicators. The paper values the company as a complex, as a system. In conclusion, it shows the possibility of prediction of the future development of the examined company financial situation. The main result is that used methods can really describe financial situation of a company. However they should be applied together
25 Years of Ambivalence: Architecture Competitions in Latvia since 1991
Full text link25 years since regaining independence in 1991, Latvia is marked by unprecedented socio economic processes that have distinctively reshaped thinking and practice in architecture, requiring adaptation to the demands of the free market. In the course of this period more than 500 architectural competitions constitute half of the total number of architectural competitions in Latvia since the mid-19th century.
Identifying five consecutive phases of accelerated architecture competition practice over the last 25 years, the paper examines procedures, outcomes and reasons behind success and failures. The specifics of Phase I: Confusion (1991-1996) are explained through substitution of state commissions with the first private interests and funding. The information exchange initiated in taking on the latest trends in international experience characterises Phase II: Acceleration (1997-2002). This is followed by Phase III: Controlled Utopia (2003-2008), when the building process reached its peak momentum. Phase IV: Lower Level (2008-2011) was initiated by the global economic crisis, eventually leading to Phase V: Integration of Knowledge (2012-2016).
Providing multiple narratives on each of the phases, the paper critically reflects on the current potential of architectural competition practice, arguing that the building processes have not only provoked a spontaneous and hectic architectural and urban environment, but also allowed accumulation of knowledge to challenge good practice guidelines and rigid legal frameworks. The paper concludes with comments on the omnipresent uncertainty about whether competition practice still has the ability to be an instrument to evaluate the potential of the building sites and to be turned into a design tool to acquire the best architectural solutions
Overvaluation theory and the wave effect in the 1990s US merger wave
Full text linkPurpose. There is a dispute about efficiency and sustainability of acquisitions. Shleifer and Vishny (2003), in their stock market driven acquisition theory, claim that managers are rational and use mergers as arbitrage if the firm is overvalued. The aim of the current study is to test the predictions of the overvaluation theory on a sample of high technology industry MandA transactions in the 90s.
Methodology. This paper has the form of an empirical study. The author employs event study analysis, the market adjusted approach with standard parametric tests, and the Fama-French 3-factor model to explore the wealth effects for amalgamating firms in different stages of the MandA wave.
Findings. The results reveal a distinct wave effect: abnormal returns to bidders are lower in the second half of the merger wave. Bidders\u27 performance in the early and late stages of the MandA wave follows the predictions of the overvaluation theory. Bidders exhibit particularly poor performance if the bid is announced in the late wave and the method of payment is stock. The long-run negative abnormal returns to the bidders cast out the neoclassical explanations of the wave effect and indicate market inefficiencies.
Value. The present study serves as a complementary argument in the widespread dispute about merger wave explanation theories. The outcome confirms the behavioural characteristics of merger activity, particularly stock market driven acquisition theory. Misvaluation as an integral factor of merger activity may have a detrimental effect on the efficiency of acquisitions
Structure of demand and supply of investments of state-subsidized venture capital funds in Latvia
Full text linkOne of the tools for financing young innovative companies is state-subsidized venture capital funds (VCF). The paper explores the issues of demand for investment and the structure of Latvian state-subsidized VCF investments. We found that of the total number of applications for investment received by state-subsidized VCFs, only 42.5% come from innovative companies. The number of innovative companies that received investment from state-subsidized VCFs is even lower and amounts to 32.9%; moreover, of the total number of investments, 28.2% were made in young and innovative companies. The volume of VCF investments in innovative companies amounts to 29.6% of the total amount of investments made. The reason for such a low share of financing for innovative companies from state-subsidized VCFs may be a low demand for VCF investment from innovative Latvian companies and VCFs’ unwillingness to invest funds in companies with a high level of information asymmetry or to have more than 15-20 companies in the portfolio of small funds, since this increases the administrative costs of managing VCFs
Integrating social entrepreneurs’ mentoring into higher education
Full text linkPurpose. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the envisaged mutual benefits of potential integration of social entrepreneurs’ mentoring into higher education study programmes.
Design/methodology/approach. Social entrepreneurs, academic staff and students were surveyed online on the topic of the benefits of integrating social entrepreneurs’ mentoring into the higher educational process.
Findings. Among the advantages of integrating social entrepreneurs’ mentoring into the higher education process, the following were identified: improved transfer of practical knowledge from social entrepreneurs to students and university academic staff; the possibility to develop autonomous skills, judgments and professional expertise; the possibility for social entrepreneurs as mentors to improve their level of personal fulfilment.
Research limitations/implications. Due to the limitations of an online survey, further comparative studies are needed to validate the benefits to students, HEIs and social entrepreneurs as mentors in entrepreneurship programmes.
Practical implications. A hands-on approach to social entrepreneurship education is pedagogically sound, cost-effective and transferable. Providers of higher education in social entrepreneurship could consider incorporating social entrepreneurs as mentors into different higher education programmes to enhance students’ capabilities, engagement and employability.
Originality/value. This article suggests that by inviting social entrepreneurs as mentors to different higher education programmes and showing students how social enterprises operate in the real world, students could identify themselves with role models and thus recognize, assess and shape social entrepreneurship opportunities