Journal of Research on Trade, Management and Economic Development

7-21

Authors: Larisa SAVGA

Consumer co-operatives have become an important key player of the national economy, especially the social economy, contributing to the social-economic development of the country, to the development of localities, particularly in rural areas. Over its a century and a half existence, the system has experienced periods of ascension and decline, being influenced by a multitude of factors. And now, the evolution of this sector is facing internal and external challenges, which become a barrier to the intensive and extensive development of co-operatives. This paper contains a vision how to respond to these challenges, based on the assessment of the importance, nature and role of cooperatives in the modern society, the international dimension of the cooperatives sector, the significance of the consumer co-operatives of the country, the analysis of the scale and development trends of this system, and the challenges it faces. All these have allowed emphasizing the strategic directions of consumer cooperatives development in the period up to the end of the present decade, the implementation of which will dynamize its evolution.

33-44

Authors: Iryna MARKINA, Opeoluva OKE, Dmytro DIACHKOV

The paper describes the special conditions for the functioning of modern cooperatives, as well as the need to provide favorable conditions for their further sustainable development. At the same time, it is pointed out that it is necessary to take into account the interests of all the participating parties and, accordingly, their social responsibility. A methodical approach to assessing the impact of the social responsibility of cooperatives on the quality of life of the population is proposed. It is not only based on the calculation of the three-component indicator of cooperative participation in solving population problems (economic, social and environmental components), but also takes into account the four levels of their responsibility (complete irresponsibility, too little participation, moderate participation, high social responsibility) and identifies the main obstacles (economic, social and organizational ones) that interfere with sustainable development. The calculated values of the integrated indicator of the effect of cooperatives on the quality of life of the population in Ukraine and Nigeria did not reach the normative level, which indicates a low level of social responsibility in these both countries. The main circumstances that prevent the development of the quality of life of the population are highlighted, namely: the lack of infrastructure, the lack of human resources, the inability to properly support the cooperative movement at the national level, political instability, adverse climatic conditions, the marginalization of the rural population, frequent outbreaks of epidemics that completely destroy existing agricultural zones. Summarizing the above, the authors highlighted key points that hamper the successful implementation of social programs of cooperatives in both Ukraine and Nigeria: lack / shortage of monetary resources; insufficient level of competence of managers who are poorly versed in the advantages and specificity of socially responsible behavior; shortage of temporary resources necessary for the development and implementation of social programs; personal characteristics of the cooperative founder; partial awareness of cooperatives in urgent social needs; the reluctance of the media to comprehensively and systematically cover the social initiatives of entrepreneurs. In turn, the following factors contribute to the social activity of cooperatives: high motivation of cooperative members; active participation in the organization and realization of social projects.

55-76

Authors: Veronika RUDCHENKO, Juan-Carlos MARTÍN, María-Victoria SÁNCHEZ-REBULL

Client satisfaction is a critical element that equally affects firms’ competitiveness in manufacturing and service industries. The competitiveness is highly dependent on the mediating role that client satisfaction plays on consumers’ loyalty, and this is especially relevant in the turbulent periods lived after the financial crisis of 2008. A simple glimpse at the growing number of publications on client satisfaction shows the relevance of the topic. The aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of articles published by Russian and non-Russian authors to see whether the experience of the former Soviet Union autocracy and the transition from this regime to market economy has played a significant role explaining the differences in approaches and topics under analysis as well as the rate of convergence between these two once separating worlds. The analysis is based on a systematic literature review of a first set of 1685 articles on client satisfaction in the Scopus and eLIBRARY databases. A further step based on only 200 relevant articles is made to find that the breach between these two worlds has been reduced, but there are still some differences regarding the social and economic components of the relevant literature. Some avenues for the future research that can advance a better understanding on the client satisfaction and the effects on the firms’ competitiveness after the existing new political agenda are briefly introduced.

91-99

Authors: Ioan I. TRENCA, Daniela BOZGA

The recent financial crisis started in the US in 2007, the main cause being the secured mortgage loans. The purpose of the empirical research was to study the factors that determine the credit risk, respectively the quality of the credit portfolio. The analysis was carried out on a unique sample bank-specific data comprised of 70 banking institutions from 13 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland) with high incomes during 2005q1-2011q4. The ratio between the allowance for the granted credits and the total credits granted were used as a bank-lending indicator. The main results obtained were that the credit risk’s determinants were the indicator of capital adequacy, GDP, the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, government debt and the financial crisis. The main estimated equation includes specific variables of the banking institutions (the accumulated credit risk and the capital adequacy indicator), macroeconomic variables (GDP, the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, government debt), bank specific variables (banking concentration) and the control variables (the financial crisis). Compared to the previous period, the accumulation of the reserves for the credits granted of the total of the credits granted, had a positive impact on the dependent variable. The borrowing decisions from the previous period define changes at the current level of the quality of the bank loan portfolio.

110-118

Authors: Awny ZRIKAT

de qualitative results for all parties involved in their work. This objective can be achieved by organizing activities based on a Quality Management Guide. In practice, however, even well-managed engineering departments encounter a range of obstacles during the running of each project, which results in loss of time, employee dissatisfaction, and unrealized organizational goals. In order to identify how to improve the quality management process, surveys and questionnaires were sent out to 50 individuals from the engineering departments within the municipalities of Israel. The questionnaires were collected and from them, extractions were made in order to find the commonality of successes of Local Authorities. After analyzing the results of the questionnaires, the conclusion was that there was specific commonality which yields In addition, there were daily meetings which gained theoretical and tangible insight on success factors. Organizing engineering project requires specific regulations and guidelines in order to have successful outcomes. The difficulties that arise have been consistent throughout research conducted, however, the positive results have been studied in further detail. Research found that successes of engineering departments in Local Authorities relied on the overall satisfaction of the employees, time saving when projects were completed sooner and efficient management of financial resources. Employees work harder and there are less problems overall when assigning a project quality manager.