Issue 3, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive spike in uncertainty all over the world. Bulgaria is no exception. Major uncertainties surround almost every aspect of human life: the infectiousness, prevalence, and lethality of the virus; the capacity of healthcare systems to meet the challenge; how long it will take to develop ‘herd immunity’; how long and how strong should social distancing be; how long it will take to develop and deploy safe, effective vaccines etc. On top of all this comes the economic uncertainty. There is no doubt the pandemic is having immediately visible effects on economic activity. The rapid contraction in economic activity, the collapse of trade, and the dramatic increase in the unemployment rate are without precedent. Our goal here is to assess near-term macroeconomic effects of these COVID-induced uncertainties. To this end we look at the measures taken worldwide and in the EU in particular, focusing on Bulgaria’s main trading partners. We develop three different scenarios for the economic development by the end of 2020 based on different assumptions with regard to the severity of the external shock as well as the duration of the social distancing.
JEL: E27; E60; I15; I18

This article argues that Chinese overseas direct investment is not so much market-driven, but a result of long-term strategies and policies. These are an important basis in any analysis of the status and trends of Chinese investment in Europe. Therefore, the article aims to describe the most important strategies and policies that determine Chinese foreign investment in general, different market entry models, and to analyze the situation in Europe.
JEL: F42; F64; F68

The entry of Ukraine into the European Union significantly expands the boundaries of cooperation with different countries of the world. Compliance with the European requirements in the marketing sector will greatly increase the efficiency of its operation in the regions of Ukraine. The method of estimating the development of social infrastructure in the resource support of the management mechanism aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the transport system of the region by the integral indicator, which characterizes the level of social development of the region, is developed in the work. The integral indicator is defined as the sum of the ratios of the current and maximum partial indicators of population security by type of services in the region. The components of the process of social development assessment have been introduced: a limitation on the magnitude of each type of resource used to improve social development indicators; specific expenses of each type of resource in the region in support and improvement of the indicator of social development; the magnitude of the growth of the provision of the region for each indicator of social development; the function of the priorities of social development in the region for each indicator. It is believed that using the results of calculations using the proposed method will increase the validity of relevant management decisions.
JEL: L91; R42; O52

The aim of this paper is to determine the factors which have an impact on the structure of capital of the companies in the trade industry in the Balkan countries, during the eight years period (2010-2017). In order to realize this goal, the panel data model with fixed effects was used. The sample included 2,057 companies that operated in the retail sector in all ten Balkan countries. The obtained results showed that almost all observed variables have a statistically significant impact on the financial leverage, long-term financing, and short-term financing. According to the obtained results of the research, we can conclude that the higher profitability, liquidity, the tangibility of assets and the company’s size means a smaller indebtedness, measured by leverage. On the other hand, observed variables have different statistically significant influences depending on whether companies are financed from short-term or long-term sources. Achieving the optimal capital structure and improving the financial performance of the companies of the retail sector in the Balkan countries should be supported by investments and acquisitions based on the market standards of business applied by the developed countries of the European Union.
JEL: G32; M40

In the region of Smolyan in Bulgaria and specifically in the cities of Zlatograd, Madan, Rudozem and Velingrad, the saving behaviour appears to be gaining more importance for Pomak households. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, path analysis was applied to explore the factors that determine the intention of Pomak households to enhance their saving behaviour. The strongest influence was exerted by attitudes followed by subjective norms. Saving motives of households showed that those had the most significant influence on the intention towards saving. As regards the perceived behavioural control factor, the results indicated a direct positive effect on final saving behaviour, but a non-significant one on the intention to save. Furthermore, religiosity emerged as an important factor that affects the intention towards saving.
JEL: D10; D14

The main purpose of the current publication is to formulate a scenario model for the analysis of the opportunities for low-carbon economy establishment in the countries with transition economies. The model studies risk factors such as shadow economy level and populism based on the implementation and development of Balkan countries’ economic policy and at the same time shows future climate changes tendencies and uncertainties of climate models. A transdisciplinary approach is implemented in the study. Climate change perception and understanding about the low-carbon economy are examined through the public opinion and analysis of mass-media publications. The results of the research are important in order to clarify the multicultural divergences as a factor for risk and uncertainty in the implementation process of the policy for climate change. In this way, geographical aspects of risk and uncertainty, which are not only related to the economic development of the relevant countries, could be brought out.
JEL: Q54; O17

The main product markets of the beekeeping sector – honey, pollen, beeswax, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly, bee venom, queen bees, sucker grubs, bees, pollination and api-tourism are identified through macro-segmentation. Subsequently, their customer segments have been identified through micro-segmentation of national and international markets. The national markets for bee products are differentiated into organizational and consumer markets. The organizational markets of honey and other bee products are segmented by applying various criteria. Perspective target markets are the online and offline auctions for bee honey and the segments for pollen, royal jelly and queen bees. The consumer markets are also segmented in a way that the segments for direct sales and farmer markets are determined as customer target markets for conventional honey, and for organic honey – the online markets. The consumer target markets are similar for bee pollen and royal jelly. The segmentation of the international markets for Bulgarian bee products is based on economic, geographical, demographic, cultural and price factors. The target markets are subdivided into markets in European countries – Group 1: Germany and the UK, Group 2: France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland, and Group 3: Greece and Austria, as well as target markets in the so-called "third countries" – Group 4: Saudi Arabia, the United States of America, and Japan. Conclusions on target markets and market niches are synthesized.
JEL: М31; Q13

The article has the aim to outline the specifics of the electric power market and on the basis of a survey of the consumer attitude to the satisfaction from the service and the quality of the delivered to domestic customers of Energo-Pro Varna JSC in the city of Varna services, to outline possibilities for improvement of the service, provided by the company. The basic method, applied in the course of the survey is the questionnaire, in view of the accumulation of information regarding the end consumers’ assessment about different aspects of the process of electric power supply.  Three main proposals for the improvement of the customer service have been systematized on this basis, connected with the outsourcing of the telephone services, the introduction of chatbots for the online services and the increase of service quality with the assistance of the so-called “seven quality instruments”: Control list, Stratification method (differentiation), Histogram, Dispersion diagram, Ishikawa diagram, Pareto diagram and the Control chart.
JEL: O13; O14; Q43