Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationship between business process management (BPM) and company performance. The research focuses on the instrumental aspect of core business processes and its controlling activities in small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) to identify the relationship to company performance.Design/methodology/approach: The results presented in this paper are based on a survey of Slovene SMEs. A questionnaire was distributed to 3007 SMEs via e-mail and a response rate of 5.42% was achieved. The financial data of companies over a six year period as derived from the publicly available financial reports of SMEs along with an industry-specific financial risk measure and other financial data were used for the company risk-adjusted performance measures of relative residual income (ROE-r) and risk-adjusted ROE (ROE-a) calculation.Findings: The results show that instrumental aspects of core business process controlling activities are related to risk-adjusted company performance measures ROE-rand ROE-a. Companies with lower ROE-rand ROE-a have been perceived to be more focused on the instrumental aspect of BPM. Presumably due to the small sample, the results of a non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test did not statistically confirm the developed hypothesis: “the instrumental aspect of controlling as a core process management activity has a statistically significant impact on company risk-adjusted performance measures such as ROE-rand ROE-a.” Despite this, the results show a possible negative correlation between risk-adjusted performance measures and BPM, which opens possibilities for further research.Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of the purposed study model is that the paper have studied only control activities of core business processes and relate it to company risk-adjusted performance measures. The study has been limited by the SME sample and the use of a survey as a research instrument. An additional limitation of the research is the degree of reliability implied by the assumptions of the models used to estimate the required return on equity and risk. Results concern investors, managers and practitioners to start BPM improvement initiatives, to set BPM priority measures and to set priority management decisions and further actions.Originality/value: This paper presents the unique findings from an investigation of the instrumental aspects of BPM practices and their relationship to company risk-adjusted performance measures in SMEs. This paper developed a measurement instrument for measuring the instrumental aspects of BPM use. An additional original contribution is the use of company risk-adjusted performance measures such as ROE-rand ROE-a, which take into account the required profitability of companies in different industries according to the risk and allows comparable results of companies from different industries. The approach is innovative and interesting as regards researching the factors that affect the profitability of companies that operate in different industries.

The paper examines the key determinants of European banks’ profitability by analyzing the return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), net interest margin (NIM), and the risk-adjusted measures of profitability, RAROAA and RAROAE, across 34 European countries during the period from 2013 to 2018—a time characterized by economic recovery and significant regulatory reforms, including the implementation of Basel III standards. Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach and data of 3076 European banks, the research addresses the complex interplay between internal (bank-specific) factors and external factors, including macroeconomic and industry-specific factors. The results show that profitability is positively associated with a higher capital adequacy, liquidity risk, and income diversification, but not for risk-adjusted profitability ratios. Credit risk, management efficiency, and excessive size have a negative effect on all studied profitability measures. Macroeconomic conditions, in particular, GDP growth and inflation, also have a significant impact on profitability. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, regulators, and financial institutions aiming to enhance profitability while maintaining the stability of the European banking sector.

This paper studies the relationship between leadership as an activity of business process management (BPM) and company performance. Business process data about leadership and business processes in SMEs were collected via questionnaires on the population of 3007 SMEs in Slovenia. Aspects of leadership such as the involvement of employees, middle management, customers and suppliers were studied. The financial data of the SMEs of the sample were obtained from publicly available financial statements to assess relative residual income profitability ROE_r and ROE_a. Data analysis was performed using Bartlett’s, Kaiser–Maier–Olkin and nonparametric Mann–Whitney U tests. We confirmed a positive relationship between employee involvement in leadership as an activity of BPM and company profitability. It was proved that companies that involve employees and middle management in improving core business processes to a greater degree are more profitable. Intense involvement of employees in changes in core business processes results in higher company profitability, which has been detected by the higher risk-adjusted profitability measure ROE_a. Companies that involve middle management to a greater degree by leading employees based on their interests are more profitable. The results are important for managers as decision-makers and other company stakeholders, especially those responsible for business process improvements. Theoretical and practical implications and further research possibilities are discussed.

The paper analyses the productivity change of a balanced panel of 1915 European banks during the 2013–2018 post-crisis period. To study productivity changes, the paper applies the non-parametric output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). The total productivity change estimated by the MPI is further decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change. The overall MPI estimates show a modest increase in the productivity of banks in half of the EU countries. Further decomposition of the MPI indicates that the productivity growth was mainly a result of technological improvement, which was particularly high among the new EU member states, whereas there was a significant drop in technical efficiency. The productivity growth was higher among banks in the non-euro area and among savings banks. The practical implications drawn from the paper are that European banks should further develop their business models to rationalize the costs and increase their operational efficiency and stimulate the adoption of fintech solutions and technological development so as to enhance their productivity.

BACKGROUND: The focus of the article is on the attitudes among 8th graders in European countries on future European/EU integration and cooperation. OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to investigate to what extent different background characteristics are related with students’ attitudes, opinions and expectations about sense of European identity, future of Europe (and EU), and student’s endorsement of European cooperation (where part of the scale is also variable “to reduce unemployment”). And how strong is the association between student positive expectations towards Europe and other attitudes related with Europe/EU, and is there clear divide between post-communist countries (newer democracies in Europe) and the rest? METHOD: The techniques used to analyse the data are descriptive statistics, linear and binary logistic regression, Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients. Datasets are from last cycle of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), N = 52,788 students. RESULTS: Results show important differences in perceptions, attitudes and expectations between students in newer and older democracies. These patterns may not always be clear and interpretable, but they show the differences across Europe. CONCLUSIONS: Future direct research are pointing on importance of having in mind that different background characteristics attributes to differences in attitudes’ developments (and that this difers among countries), as well as on very challenging decisions when considering different regions to compare results among them, at that even post-communistic countries in Europe can not always be grouped in one “block”.

The paper studies the productivity change of the commercial banks in the CEE countries over the post-crisis period 2013–2018. The productivity change is measured by the Malmquist Productivity Index and its sub-components, applying two approaches—the asset-oriented and profit-oriented intermediation approaches. The analysis uses data from a balanced panel of 181 commercial banks in 11 CEE countries. We find that commercial banks’ productivity, measured with the asset-oriented intermediation approach, decreased in most of the CEE countries over 2013–2018, with a decline ranging, on average, from 1% to 6.9%, driven mainly by a decline in technical efficiency. Nevertheless, estimates using the profit-intermediation approach point to productivity growth in commercial banks in all CEE countries, ranging, on average, from 0.5% to 6.3%. The empirical findings imply the need for the CEE commercial banks to further digital transformation and cost rationalization.