Institutional Repository of Academic Research University of Macedonia
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The Greek smoking epidemic from a life-course perspective
No full textBackground: Smoking rates in Greece are the highest recorded among OECD countries, but the historical and life-course evolution of smoking patterns is largely unknown. The present paper addresses this gap. Methods: We produce nationally representative life-course trajectories of smoking and related mortality of eight generations of Greek men and women. We estimate the smoking–mortality correlation conditional on several confounders and project the estimates forward. Results: We show that smoking prevalence among Greek men has plateaued at >60% for all but the youngest generation. For women, smoking prevalence is relatively lower, lags by several generations and follows a hump-shaped pattern. Smoking-attributable mortality is currently peaking for men (nearing 40% of total deaths) and is rising for women. We estimate that it takes ∼20 years of smoking to maximize the smoking–mortality correlation (at 0.48 for men and 0.32 for women). Based on this estimation, we forecast that mortality rates will begin falling within the current decade. Conclusions: The breadth of the Greek smoking epidemic has been high by international standards, reflecting the ineffective tobacco control efforts in the country. While smoking popularity fell during the Great Recession, policy vigilance is necessary to prevent a relapse once the economy recovers.444e479e48
The Impact of Institutions on Economic and Environmental Performance: Evidence From Europe
No full textWithin the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework, we investigate whether the effect of institutions on environmental quality differs among the Western Balkans, the other European post-socialist states, and Western Europe. We estimate both direct and indirect effects of institutions on air pollution for each respective sub-sample and for the whole European region (45 countries during 1996-2014). The negative direct effect is greater for non-post-socialist states, compared to post-socialist ones. Regarding the indirect effect, improving the quality of economic institutions induces an increase in the scale of economic activity, leading to an increase in CO2 emissions per capita. Estimated elasticities of CO2 emissions with respect to institutions, for all sub-groups, uncover a total positive effect, which is larger for Central-eastern and South-eastern European states. Improving the quality of institutions should go hand in hand with stricter formation and implementation of policies designed to decouple economic growth from CO2 emissions.17212514
The market reaction to syndicated loan announcements before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of corporate governance
No full textThis study examines the wealth effects of syndicated loan announcements before and after the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. Using a sample of 637 loan announcements by European borrowers, we find significantly higher wealth gains during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. The results suggest that the certification of multiple lenders loans conveys a positive signal for the borrowers’ creditworthiness during the pandemic-driven economic meltdown. We further show that certain corporate governance mechanisms, such as board size, gender diversity, and CEO duality and compensation, are related differently to borrowers’ excess returns before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are robust to alternative model specifications that control for different estimation models and event windows. They also hold after addressing self-selection bias.6010160
The Triple-A Framework for Serving Humanity with Service Research
No full textPurpose – This paper proposes a conceptual framework for service research and introduces the first ServCollab special issue on the topic "Broadening and Reinvigorating the Service Discipline to Reduce Human Suffering and Improve Well-Being". Design/methodology/approach – Building on previous knowledge and personal reflections, we developed the "Triple-A Framework for Serving Humanity with Service Research," which identifies three crucial features of conducting ethical service research: Authentic, Advancing, and Applicable. Findings – In terms of the research scope, the Triple-A framework proposes that service research should be Authentic in its approach, topics of investigation, research questions, and theories/frameworks used. Service scholars should close current research gaps using theories, methods, a team of investigators, and data that Advance service research. Moreover, service research should be applicable by positively impacting society/planet earth, policy makers, organizations, and people. Finally, ethical standards should be met in the application of all three features of service research. Practical implications –Practical guidelines are provided to service researchers for conducting research useful for theory development and practical application. Social implications - The proposed framework pushes service research to be original, insightful, imaginative, responsible, and relevant by seeking to improve individual and society's well-being. Originality/value – The authors propose a novel perspective, the "Triple-A Framework for Serving Humanity with Service Research," to guide service scholars in conducting state-of-theart and methodologically rigorous research.36786587
Translating quality-driven code change selection to an instance of multiple-criteria decision making
No full textContext:The definition and assessment of software quality have not converged to a single specification. Each team may formulate its own notion of quality and tools and methodologies for measuring it. Software quality can be improved via code changes, most often as part of a software maintenance loop.Objective:This manuscript contributes towards providing decision support for code change selection given a) a set of preferences on a software product’s qualities and b) a pool of heterogeneous code changes to select from.Method:We formulate the problem as an instance of Multiple-Criteria Decision Making, for which we provide both an abstract flavor and a prototype implementation. Our prototype targets energy efficiency, technical debt and dependability.Results:This prototype achieved inconsistent results, in the sense of not always recommending changes reflecting the decision maker’s preferences. Encouraged from some positive cases and cognizant of our prototype’s shortcomings, we propose directions for future research.Conclusion:This paper should thus be viewed as an imperfect first step towards quality-driven, code change-centered decision support and, simultaneously, as a curious yet pragmatic enough gaze on the road ahead.14510685
The Influence of Critical Audit Matters in the US on the Informativeness of Investors
No full textIn 2017, the PCAOB announced its new audit standard, AS 3101. One requirement is reporting critical audit matters (CAMs), starting June 30, 2019, for large accelerated filers. Using US data of CAM, we investigate whether the reporting of CAMs is informative for investors using a difference-in-differences approach and we use as proxies for investors’ informativeness, absolute abnormal returns and abnormal trading volume. Our motivation is to assess the relevance and the effectiveness of a new regulation aiming to improve audit quality. Overall, our findings provide some indications that the first-time implementation of CAMs might lead to investors avoiding those companies presumably because of uncertainty about the information being released. We also investigate the content of the CAM paragraph and do not find that the number, categories, or firm-specific/industry-common CAMs are value-relevant for investors. The results of this study provide insight into the new US auditor standard and the valuerelevance of CAMs for investors. We suggest that standard setters should aim to improve the auditor report to make it more informational. Overall, our paper provides some evidence on the implementation and communicative value of the new CAM reporting, suggesting that CAMs are not informative for investors. We argue that this is the case potentially due to the additional information from CAMs which leads to complex information or information overload making investors less reluctant to invest on the companies with a significant number of CAMs reported.69221725
Trust and ISA performance in emerging markets in South East Europe
No full textIn this study we explore the critical antecedents of trust in International Strategic Alliances (ISAs). Additionally, we examine the impact of the foreign partner’s trust towards the local partner on ISA performance. Our theoretical development is based on elements drawn from Social Exchange Theory and Transaction Cost Theory. Both theoretical and analytical triangulation strategies are incorporated into the research design in order to better understand the complexity of trust and ISA performance. We empirically examine 171 Greek firms with ISA participation. The results show the positive impact of (a) the favourable local partner reputation, (b) effective communication with the local partner, and (c) the negative impact of foreign partner’s perceived risk of local partner’s opportunistic behaviour, on the degree of trust in ISAs. We also confirm prior work and show the positive impact of the foreign partner’s trust on ISA performance. Furthermore, we investigate the moderating role of environmental hostility in the local market on the impact of the degree of foreign partner’s trust on ISA performance. Additionally, we discuss the strategic implications of the results for managers of transnational corporations and practitioners and provide suggestions for further research.161728
Designing a Shared Workspace for Learning Using Augmented Reality and Social Robots
No full textAugmented Reality (AR) is a novel technology utilized for merging real and virtual elements, enhancing the physical world. Developing AR applications in Robotics has been of interest in recent years. The current paper proposes a shared workspace for learning using Augmented Reality. The objective is to implement this approach using robots, not to execute collaborative robotic tasks but to establish a collaborative learning environment among students and social robots. We use an Augmented Reality application to superimpose virtual objects to the users’ real world, aiming to achieve joint attention at a common point of interest among humans and social robots. The social robot perceives what occurs in the augmented environment and interacts (e.g., sharing information, making comments and gestures, giving constructive feedback to the users, etc.), intending to support humans to achieve the learning goals of the activities. The virtual objects are approached through AR with the aims and scopes of educational material in a learning process. The environment that this paper describes will be the testbed for exploring and further researching the proposed approach; handling virtual objects as educational material and aiming to joint attention at a common point of interest among humans and robots in this Augmented Reality shared world. In future studies, research and analysis of the characteristics and effectiveness of this approach will be conducted.15828087HCI International 202
Evaluation of Online and Offline Communication Skills in Higher Education
No full textThis study explores the offline and online communication skills of students in highereducation. A total of 402 bachelor’s and master’s students from different study programs participatedin the survey, such as education sciences, philology, communication sciences, and public relations.The evaluation was based on the scale of online and offline communication skills, which includedfour components: sociability, emotion decoding, self-disclosure, and assertiveness. The Mann–Whitney nonparametric statistical method was applied to examine the potential differences betweenthe online and offline communication skills of students for the assessed variables of sociability,emotion detection, self-disclosure, and assertiveness. The statistical data analysis led to the followingresults: significantly higher online sociability; significantly higher online assertiveness; significantlyhigher offline emotion detection; significantly higher offline self-disclosure; bachelor’s students hadsignificantly higher online skills than master’s students; and there were many differences betweenthe various fields of specialization.14241703
Exploring Business Strategy Modelling with ArchiMate: A Case Study Approach
No full textEnterprise architecture (EA) is a high-level abstraction of a business’ levels that aids in organizing planning and making better decisions. Researchers have concluded that the scope of EA is not focused only on technology planning but that the lack of business strategy and processes is the most important challenge of EA frameworks. The purpose of this article is to visualize the business strategy of a company using ArchiMate. Having a better understanding of how the concepts of strategic planning are used in businesses, we hope to improve their modelling with ArchiMate. This article adds to the existing literature by evaluating existing EA modelling languages and their skillfulness in model strategy. Furthermore, this article contributes to the identification of challenges in modelling and investigation of the ease of the use of language in the field of strategic planning. Furthermore, this article provides an approach to practitioners and EA architects who are attempting to develop efficient EA modelling projects and solve business complexity problems.1313