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Investment, the entry of foreign firms depends of a large extent on the country’s goodwill, which is reflected in various ratings. This representation of the situation is approximate, as it does not estimate the differences between the values of the indicators with adjacent grades. This can be avoided by dividing countries into homogeneous groups. It is appropriate to do so on the basis of non-linear grouping rather than linear grouping. It is based on the transformation of data into a dimensionless scale and linear grouping. In the case, its homogeneity increases thanks to the levelling of the most distinctive values and the alignment of the statistical characteristics of the groups. The aim of the article is to propose in principle, a new approach to the ranking of countries on the basis of their level of economic development. It was found that the nonlinear decision of countries into homogenous groups and compared to the linear grouping more accurately reflect the current situation.

A growing interest in the circular economy, which is seen in the intensification of public discourse, could lead to a danger of blurring the concept and introducing inefficiency in implementing circular economy-based solutions. This study explores the trend in concomitant or accompanying concepts of the discussion about the circular economy themes understanding regarding scientific publications (3,486 publications from Web of Science and Scopus) and popular (non-scientific) domain (represented by 106,504 tweets) in the years 2011–2018. By employing text mining, we calculated the Jaccard similarity index divided into years. The results reveal changes over time in themes accompanying the circular economy discussion and a trend of rising recognition of research-related keywords in general public discussion, with unweighted similarity reaching 39.44% in 2018. Our Twitter keyword research perspective indicates the need to consider the consumer’s role in the development of the circular economy – through keywords that are closely related to consumers’ daily activities.

The efficiency of correlation-regression analysis would significantly expand if both of its essential variables – a dependent and an independent – conveyed the information on the dynamic rather than static state of a phenomenon under consideration. For this objective, the dynamic development of the socioeconomic processes should be based on the quantitative assessment. Existing methodologies call for improvement as they do not fully reflect the state of particular phenomena. In this article, authors provide the quantitative assessment methodology to analyse the dynamics of socioeconomic processes. It was applied for assessing real situations, which confirmed adequacy and applicability of this methodology.

The article addresses a topical issue which is extremely relevant in crisis periods – evaluation of the level of the shadow economy in all Lithuanian regions. By applying the MIMIC modelling, three equations were developed for three different periods: economic upturn, economic downturn (crisis) and economic recovery. The number of immigrants, employment rate and population’s density were identified as the major shadow economy determinants in Lithuanian regions. The determinants identified are unique in the case of Lithuania because they reveal that the labour market (employment rate, the number of immigrants) and population’s density are the key factors that show how municipalities address the issues of the shadow economy. 10 municipalities with respectively high or low levels of the shadow economy were ranked for each period under consideration. The maps developed for different periods illustrate the general trends of the evolution of the shadow economy. This is the first study that estimates the size of the shadow economy in 60 municipalities (a small regional division) with different economic periods taken into account. Scientific novelty manifests through consideration of the regional shadow economy and proving significance of the labour market and immigration in reducing regional disparities.

This articles analyses a contemporary problem, which has not been thoroughly analysed in scientific literature – Estimation of Digital Shadow Economy through a modified MIMIC model. It is the first pilot research of such type, which allows to reveal the need of deeper data analysis and data collection. Received results show, that three causal factors (internet access, and PC availability for households, non-cash payments, placement of innovative financial instruments on a market) and three indicators (non-cash transfers through internet payment platforms, volume of payments in cryptocurrencies and parcels, which are tax free at the customs) are not enough in order to perform interpretations of economic results. Additionally, the data set should cover longer-term data, however the limitation appears due to relatively short existence of innovative financial products and the lack of information accumulation about necessary data in statistical databases.

Despite the importance of competitiveness in the context of a market economy, both practical and methodological issues remain unresolved in the assessment of its state. One of the reasons is that this phenomenon is a complex phenomenon, manifested in many different facets in reality, and therefore the concepts and definitions of competitiveness emphasise different aspects that reflect it. On the other hand, almost all of them emphasise its impact on the country’s economic development. The results of the analysis of these impacts depend to a large extent on the adequacy of the assessment of the actual level of competitiveness of the country. To a large extent, it depends on how it was valued. Out of the three most widely applied methodologies, the World Economic Forum, the Institute for International Management Development, and the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies, the Global Competitiveness Index, proposed by the World Economic Forum, brings together 12 dimensions of equal importance. The analysis shows that this importance must be different, as some reflect factors that directly and fully affect the competitiveness of a country, while others are the result of the first effects. This idea is confirmed by experts, giving dimensions different weights and greater importance to factors directly affecting the competitiveness of the country. An assessment of the Global Competitiveness Index of the European Union countries using the same and different dimensional weights showed a difference between 0 % and 3 %. With the help of correlation regression analysis, it was found that an increase in the country’s competitiveness by 1% the GDP per capita increases by 1.04 %. Depending on the size of the country, this amounts to hundreds of millions to billions of euros.

Corporate social responsibility as a management concept is growing more and more important also for project companies. The task of project management is to identify relevant ecological systems, to recognize the internal and external dimension of social responsibility, and to test existing standards of Corporate Social Responsibility for their applicability in projects. The special benefit of CSR in projects is to set-up values such as integrity, credibility and reputation. For successful implementation of CSR activities, it is essential to align the commitment of the project organization to the own business operations and own goals.

The paper has investigated the relationships between financial and economic development in the European Union countries using annual data over the period of 1998-2016. The authors have done this by looking at descriptive statistics and also by applying econometric methods. This study has combined different approaches prevailing in the scientific literature and contributed to understanding the importance of the interrelationship between the variables. The investigation has led to the conclusions as follows: (1) the countries with the middle GDP per capita indicators have demonstrated the highest level of financial development; (2) unidirectional causality running from real GDP to financial development has been detected in Denmark, Portugal and Latvia; (3) unidirectional causality running from financial development to real GDP has been found in Austria; (4) two-way causal relationships between financial and economic development have been detected in Luxembourg, France and United Kingdom; (5) the results of Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Bulgaria have supported the neutrality approach. The research provides general insights and a better understanding to formulate the directions for sustainable economic development in the countries under consideration.

Public administrations are banking on electronic media to improve their processes, particularly in the field of construction due to the potential savings that are expected. With the project e-system for the award of public contracts the federal government is pursuing the aim of handling public procurement entirely over the internet. The legal requirements have been created in the form of the Digital Signatare Act (Signaturgesetz) and the corresponding changes in the Regulations on Provisions for the Award of Public Contracts and the Official Contracting Terms for the Award of Contracts. The focus is on making legally binding declarations on intent. This is made possible by the advanced electronic signature with a qualified certificate. In technical terms the concept is realised through the use of a public key concept. In Germany, the electronic system for the award of public contracts has been implemented in the context of three pilot projects which are explained in the study.

Corporate social responsibility as a management concept is growing more and more important also for project companies. The task of project management is to identify relevant ecological systems, to recognize the internal and external dimension of social responsibility, and to test existing standards of Corporate Social Responsibility for their applicability in projects. The special benefit of CSR in projects is to set-up values such as integrity, credibility and reputation. For successful implementation of CSR activities, it is essential to align the commitment of the project organization to the own business operations and own goals.