Issue 2, 2018

This paper presents an original model for control on teams based on the classical and contemporary achievements of a number of management and mathematical theories. The model combines fuzzy techniques and tools from the theory of confidence intervals, the theory of fuzzy subsets and the theory of fuzzy logic. They are used for evaluation, quantification of qualitative evaluations/ forecasts, decision making, exploration of mutual and hidden effects. The specificity of the model finds expression primarily in the way by which team performance is understood and evaluated. The evaluation procedure is carried out through the application of fuzzy logic by transforming the team evaluations on input variables into resultant quantitative/qualitative evaluations of team performance and the need to react to the team. This paper is divided into three parts. The methodological basis of the author’s concept of control on teams is clarified in the first part of the paper. A general presentation of the model for control on teams is done in the second part of the paper. The stages and procedures of the model are presented in the third part of the paper.
JEL: M00; M19

The price integration of the French and Bulgarian wheat and maize markets are explored and the magnitude and speed of price transmission and the characteristics of price behavior are determined. The main methods applied are based on cointegration analysis. Data from the European Commission and the National Statistical Institute is used.
JEL: E39; O13; Q13

A modified Environmental Kuznets Curve is proposed, where, by substituting the traditional measure of pollution with the level of natural resource depletion and degradation, a more sustainability-oriented EKC model is presented. The focus is placed on a panel data set of 30 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, over a period of thirty-five years (1980-2014). SSA is chosen as the subject of this research, as it is a resource-rich region and is currently one of the world’s fastest-growing regions in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), especially natural resource seeking, but SSA is also plagued with poor institutional quality and widespread poverty and income inequality. Several studies also associate SSA with a resource curse. The EKC hypothesis is tested for natural resource depletion after controlling several variables pertinent to the SSA region. One of the major findings is that no EKC or inverted U-shape relationship is found between natural resource depletion and the level of economic development. In other words, natural resource depletion does not seem to subside after a given per capita income level is reached for the sampled countries. In addition, the results show that globalisation, which is measured through trade openness, and industrialisation both contribute towards a greater depletion of natural resources and hence have an adverse impact on environmental sustainability for this sample of countries.
JEL: QO1; Q56; C23

The article examines from historical and comparative perspective the changes in final consumption as a result of transformation of technologies used in production, distribution, exchange and consumption during the First industrial revolution, the Second industrial revolution when consumption gradually assumes a leading role in the production process and gives birth to the “mass consumer” phenomenon, and the Third industrial revolution which gives rise to the niche consumer. Today, as the Fourth industrial revolution unfolds, a targeted and personalized consumer develops. The main features of this new type of consumer, related to the phenomenon of “prosumerism”, as well as the factors that determined its emergence, are outlined, based on analysis of relevant  specialized literature.
JEL: O35; Е21; N10