The relationship between firms’ exports and increases in productivity is generally regarded as positive. While the causal effects of process innovation are straightforward and positive, the effect of product innovation on productivity is ambiguous. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on a joint effect that innovation and exports have on firms’ productivity. In our attempt to fill this gap, we explore individual and joint effects of innovation and exports on productivity by employing cross-sectional firm-level data. We use the sixth wave of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS VI: 2018–2020) conducted by the EBRD and the World Bank. Using a stratified random sampling, the data was collected from interviews with representatives of randomly chosen firms from 32 countries. The overall results suggest that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters, while the impact of innovation is more heterogeneous. Whereas EU and high-income countries reap the productivity benefits, this effect is absent in other regions and countries with medium and low-income levels. Finally, our results indicate the absence of a joint effect of innovation and exports on productivity, across different geographical regions and countries of different income levels.

This study analyzes how service-learning contributes to the level of commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education institutions (HEIs), as perceived by their students. The empirical analysis has been conducted by using the PLS-SEM modelling, on a sample of 366 undergraduate students of business from Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The obtained results support the hypothesized influence of the service-learning development level on the sustainability commitment in higher education. We also consider the indirect effects within the model. They show that service-learning mediates the relationships between students’ idealism and sustainability commitment, as well as between students’ social trust and sustainability commitment. Implications of obtained empirical results for theory and higher education practice are discussed. The potential for generalizing results for other sustainability interventions is assessed.

Abstract This study analyses the relationship of environmental sustainability and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of business schools by using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) empirical approach on a sample of 338 students from South East Europe. In support of the extant theory of responsible management education, emphasizing the transdisciplinary relationship between the Ethics, CSR, and Sustainability (ERS) domains, we found a direct relationship between environmental sustainability and CSR of business schools. However, we empirically verified a path of indirect effects at the institutional level, starting with the idealism of individual students, leading to the CSR institutional involvement of a business school, mediated by its environmental involvement. Provided that the idealistic individuals might be driving the functioning of the individual responsible management education and its domains, we propose the existence of a potential halo effect ('ERS halo effect'), which has already been described and verified in the corporate sector. We believe that its dynamics, based on the biased assessment of a single business school ERS domain, with its outcomes reflected in the other domains, should be further explored in different institutional and cultural environments.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether public health entrepreneurship principles implementation in the public health sector are alternative ways of promoting an immediate improvement of healthcare infrastructure. To contribute to the literature on the impact of public health entrepreneurship on public healthcare infrastructure, we estimate two empirical models, with the first model having institutions and the second model having public healthcare policies as the dependent variable. Our empirical analysis is based on the WHO international health regulation data for all WHO member countries (in order to achieve a balanced panel, we decided to retain 192 of them), covering the period from 2010 through to 2019. The main results obtained using a Poisson panel regression indicate a positive relationship between employing more entrepreneurship within public healthcare and the quality of public healthcare infrastructure represented through institutions and policies. This study produces several contributions to the stream of research on public health entrepreneurship. First, it makes a theoretical contribution in the way that it fills the lacking literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship within the public health sector and efficiency of country-specific public healthcare infrastructure. Second, it offers an empirical quantitative analysis of entrepreneurship that is generally lacking. Concerning policy implications, the third contribution of this paper is the provision of evidence showing alternative ways to improve healthcare infrastructure other than traditionally observed investments in physical infrastructure.

Tobacco consumption continues to be behavior engaged in by a large percentage of Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) citizens. According to the official statistics, nearly half of the state’s adults, that is about 1,200,600 people, consume tobacco products on a daily bases. The state excise policy is one of the main available tools for reducing smoking prevalence because cigarette prices are under the direct impact of this policy. The specific excise on cigarettes introduced in BiH in 2009 and has increased every year so it was the main driver of cigarette price growth. In order to provide research-based evidence for more effective tobacco taxation policies in BIH, in this paper we estimate the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes using the macro-level data for the period 2008 to 2017, on a semi-annual basis. The results have shown that the increase in prices of cigarettes has a statistically significant impact on cigarette consumption, at a significance level of 1%. The estimated price elasticity coefficient is in the range from -0.71 to -0.83, depends on the selected control variables used in the model. It means that the increase in real cigarette prices for 10% led to a decrease in cigarette consumption in the range from 7.1% to 8.3%.