Search results

This article provides an overview and analysis of 50 years of European policies, actions, and challenges to align its higher education and research, as well as lessons learned from this for similar initiatives elsewhere.

The study builds on a comprehensive overview and study of policy documents and scholarly literature to identify by decade the main policies and actions and the related challenges towards a European Higher Education and Research Area.

The findings make clear the key rationales, challenges, shifts and lessons to be learned from 50-year European policies for the alignment of higher education.

Its value lies in the historical overview and analysis of current initiatives, in particular the European Universities Initiative (EUI), to provide a historical and geographical context, which might give insight for similar initiatives elsewhere.

Studies on the work integration of persons with disabilities (PwD) and the role of social dialogue therein are scarce. The study examines how the different systems of workers’ representation and industrial relations in Slovakia and Norway facilitate PwD work integration. Taking a social ecosystem perspective, we acknowledge the role of various stakeholders and their interactions in supporting PwD work integration. The paper’s conceptual contribution lies in including social dialogue actors in this ecosystem.

Evidence was collected via desk research, 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with 51 respondents and stakeholder workshops in 2019–2020.

The findings from Norway confirm the expected coordination of unions and employers in PwD work integration. Evidence from Slovakia shows that in decentralised industrial relations systems, institutional constraints beyond the workplace determine employers’ and worker representatives’ approaches in PwD integration. Most policy-level outcomes are contested, as integration occurs predominantly via sheltered workplaces without interest representation.

This paper identifies the primary sources of variation in the work integration of PwD. It also highlights opportunities for social partners across both situations to exercise agency and engagement to improve PwD work integration.

By integrating two streams of literature – social policy and welfare state and industrial relations – this paper examines PwD work integration from a social ecosystem perspective. Empirically, it offers novel qualitative comparative evidence on trade unions’ and employers’ roles in Slovakia and Norway.

Key to transnational higher education (HE) cooperation is building trust to allow for seamless recognition of studies. Building on the Tuning Educational Structures initiative (2001) and lessons learnt from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education (AHELO) feasibility study, this paper offers a sophisticated approach developed by the European Union (EU)-co-financed project Measuring and Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Europe (CALOHEE). These evidence the quality and relevance of learning by applying transparent and reliable indicators at the overarching and disciplinary levels. The model results allow for transnational diagnostic assessments to identify the strength and weaknesses of degree programmes.

The materials presented have been developed from 2016 to 2023, applying a bottom-up approach involving approximately 150 academics from 20+ European countries, reflecting the full spectrum of academic fields. Based on intensive face-to-face debate and consultation of stakeholders and anchored in academic literature and wide experience.

As a result, general (overarching) state-of-the-art reference frameworks have been prepared for the associated degree, bachelor, master and doctorate, as well as aligned qualifications reference frameworks and more detailed learning outcomes/assessment frameworks for 11 subject areas, offering a sound basis for quality assurance. As a follow-up, actual assessment formats for five academic fields have been developed to allow for measuring the actual level of learning at the institutional level from a comparative perspective.

Frameworks as well as assessment models and items are highly innovative, content-wise as in the strategy of development, involving renown academics finding common ground. Its value is not limited to Europe but has global significance. The model developed, is also relevant for micro-credentials in defining levels of mastery.

The purpose of this study is to examine the financial challenges faced by agricultural enterprises in the Republic of Kosovo. It aims to compare the various forms of financing used in Kosovo with those in European Union (EU) countries. The study seeks to highlight opportunities and challenges with a focus on how they can learn from the experiences of EU countries.

The study is based on responses from agricultural enterprises in both the EU and Kosovo. Data was gathered through a survey conducted with 50 agricultural enterprises in Kosovo, whereas for EU context, information from the 2020 Survey on the Financial Needs and Access to Finance of EU Agricultural Enterprises (provided by EAFRD). Statistical data were processed using the Stata and SPSS programs.

In agriculture sector, loan is the primary form of financing to expand their activities and capacities, whereas financing for agricultural enterprises exhibits a negative relationship with the bureaucratic procedures associated with financing.

The main research’s limitations include the unavailability of official data from the relevant institutions in Kosovo.

A possible implication arising from this research is the reliance of the development of agriculture enterprises on debt.

Due to the lack of comprehensive data in this regard, is unable to analyze the specific impact of gender in financing patterns of these enterprises.

This study provides real data on the current situation of agricultural enterprises in Kosovo. Considering Kosovo’s goal to integrate with the EU, this comparative approach adds significant value to the study.

The role of labor unions in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains both ambiguous and crucial for union members and business leaders. Given the complex relationship between labor unions and corporations, this study aims to address whether labor unions keep corporations honest (by monitoring CSR activities) or potentially render CSR initiatives less necessary.

Using data from the MSCI Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Database for firms in the Russell 1000 Index, this study examines the link between labor unions and CSR in U.S. companies over a six year period. Generalized least squares models were used to test the hypotheses for 3,937 firm-year observations.

The findings show that unionized companies generally pay less attention to CSR compared to nonunionized ones. The presence of labor unions and positive union-management relations both show a significant negative impact on CSR ratings, where positive union-management relations negatively affect CSR ratings more than just the presence of labor unions. Further, when considering the environmental, social and governance aspects of CSR separately, the results are more complex, suggesting that the relationship between labor unions and CSR varies depending on specific ESG dimensions.

CSR, a well-researched area, rarely addresses the companies' relationships with labor unions. Studies in South Korea and the UK have touched on the impact of labor unions on CSR, but in the USA it remains unexplored. This study extends this line of work by examining U.S. companies.

This study explores how social partners contribute to the successful return to work (RTW) of individuals affected by chronic diseases, employing the framework of actor-centred institutionalism.

This paper adopts a comparative case study methodology to assess the role of social partners in the workplace (re-)integration of people with chronic disease in Belgium and Italy, both of which represent well-developed industrial relations systems yet having different institutional and policy frameworks on RTW.

Institutional factors are found to affect the type and degree of social partners' commitment and contribution to RTW. Differences in their commitment can be explained by their varied degrees of integration in public policy formation, which explain their different preferred stages of interactions in this field: national tripartite social dialogue for Belgium; and sectoral collective bargaining for Italy. Unsatisfactory outcomes of social partners’ contribution in facilitating RTW processes are attributed to the fragmentation of the legal framework and uneven development of collective bargaining in Italy. In Belgium, the authors find the presence of cumbersome RTW procedures downplaying the role of the worker representative.

This paper adds empirical evidence to the limited literature on the role of social partners in facilitating RTW and sheds light on how to improve the current policy context. It suggests involving the social partners in the development of a comprehensive public policy framework, which should allow for an early, flexible and multi-stakeholder (re-)integration procedure following chronic disease.

Competitively multipolar international system demands bilateral and multilateral partnerships. Joint innovation signals close partnerships. Regional proximity of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to the European Union (EU) defines its research and development objectives. These objectives are additionally subjected to the USA’s geopolitical strategy in this geographical area. Hence, CEE’s limited resources require limited resources make international innovation cooperation. This paper aims to analyse whether and how CEE countries make international innovation cooperation decisions.

This paper used Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) database of total patent applications filed to the patent cooperation treaty (PCT) with co-applicants from abroad, where co-patents with at least one foreign inventor present a measure of international innovation partnership. A vector autoregression analysis and impulse response function were used to analyse international innovation partnership choices of eight CEE OECD countries for the period 1990–2018.

Innovation with the EU is of collaborative nature, commonly displaying complementary properties with the rest of the examined innovation partners, while co-patenting with the Russia and China act as substitutes or complements. Co-patenting with Russia is the most versatile, displaying both properties of collaboration and competition. Some countries exhibit complementarity in co-patenting activities with multiple partners. The significance levels of these relationships vary, indicating varying degrees of impact. Overall, these findings highlight the complex dynamics of co-patenting activities and the influence of different partners on countries’ collaborative innovation strategies.

In addition to significant relationships, insignificant relationships as well as those that could bring about greater synergy are flagged in the paper. Those relationships portray possible direction into which national funds could be channelled to incite cooperation between different sectors and countries, especially as innovation partnerships are not always successful and require a long time period to materialise.

By examining bilateral innovation partnerships, this study provides an insight into the strategic political and economic spheres of influence in the CEE region.

The purpose of this paper is to compare earnings management (EM) and capital management (CM) by European banks before and after the adoption of IFRS 9. After IFRS 9, banks have more discretion in recognizing loan-loss provisions than before IFRS 9. Hence, after IFRS 9, banks could use EM and CM to a greater extent.

This paper analyzes a sample of European banks and uses regression analysis. First, this paper examines whether EM and CM changed after IFRS 9 was adopted. Next, this study examines whether any changes in EM and CM under IFRS 9 depend on regulatory quality (RQ) in the country where banks are located.

This paper has three results. First, after IFRS 9, EM increased relative to before IFRS 9. Second, after IFRS 9, CM increased relative to before IFRS 9. Third, this increase in EM was only for banks in countries with low RQ – in countries with high RQ, this study finds no change in EM after IFRS 9. Altogether, these results suggest that, first, EM and CM increased after IFRS 9 and, second, this increase in EM depended on the RQ of a bank’s country.

This paper identifies how the adoption of IFRS 9 affected EM and CM by European banks. The main contribution of this paper is that it examines the impact of the adoption of IFRS 9 on EM and CM by European banks using data from banks’ actual financial statements.

The purpose of this research is to verify whether the disclosure of intellectual capital (IC) positively affects the level of integration of financial and sustainability information.

The sample of the analysis relies on European public companies. The data were gathered from Refinitiv, focussing on a multi-year observation from 2013 to 2021 and performing a fixed-effect regression. According to the extant literature, the authors developed the Intellectual Capital Score and the Integrated Thinking and Reporting Score.

The more disclosure of IC, the more financial and sustainability information is integrated. Indeed, the results confirm that the disclosure of IC enhances the level of integration of financial and sustainability information.

The study enriches academic knowledge about IC in conjunction with integrated reporting (IR) and integrated thinking by highlighting its relevance in the value-creation process and acting as a trait d’union of the disciplines.

For standard setters, the research may be framed to redefine the guidelines explaining the information on IC to be disclosed. Moreover, it could be helpful for practitioners when identifying the IC information that deserves to be disclosed, other than being exploitable to conduct enterprises geared towards adopting integrated reports.

This study answers the call for further research on the relationship between financial information and sustainability information to highlight their joint perspectives quantitatively.

This study aims to diagnose the perception, knowledge, awareness and position of the bioeconomy in university education and research.

This study is based on a questionnaire survey conducted at universities in Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain and Portugal (n = 464). The questionnaire consisted of open-ended, dichotomous and Likert-type questions. Variable frequency distribution methods and the non-parametric chi-square test were used to test the independence of the characteristics. The Cramer’s V contingency coefficient was used to determine the degree of dependence between the variables.

The researched academic community is dominated by a traditional approach to the bioeconomy, which relates to agriculture and ecological aspects. Respondents believe in the positive environmental impacts of the bioeconomy, while less often being aware of its importance from a socio-economic perspective. Insufficient teaching and research in the field of the bioeconomy can be widely observed. The presumed link between the existence of a bioeconomy strategy at national level and awareness of the bioeconomy was not confirmed.

The limited sample, the narrow geographical scope of the study does not allow for a comprehensive analysis of the topic. Another limitation is the lack of representativeness of the results in relation to all university representatives in the countries studied and the uneven composition of the samples.

This study fills the knowledge gap about the status of the bioeconomy in European academic communities by analysing its perception among both teachers and students of social, natural and applied sciences.