The main aim of the research is to investigate whether small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employment affects total European Union (EU-28) employment using panel data models during the 2005–2016 period. The panel econometric results confirm the significant association between SMEs employment in service sectors and overall economy employment, whereas the effect of SMEs industry sectors employment was found insignificant. The results are robust in a spite of the fact that during the studied period the EU-28 countries experienced economic crisis suggesting the important role that SMEs can play in job creation and in reduction of unemployment even when macro-economic enabling environment might be less favourable.

Background/purpose: The interest of measuring customer satisfaction is reflected in its ability to gain customer loyalty, enhance favourable word of mouth, lead to repeat purchases and improve a company’s market share and profitability. The issue of integrating the Kano model of customer satisfaction with other models and tools to support development or improvement of a product, or to determine market strategies, is relatively unexplored in the Slovenian sector. This research aims to construct the Kano model in order to enhance customer satisfaction in the case of home appliances. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data was collected using an online survey amongst randomly selected individuals from the service interventions for an end users database. Principal component factor analysis was first used to identify the underlying factors of home appliance characteristics. In the next phase we calculated the derived and stated importance of customer satisfaction, which was then used to construct the Kano model of customer satisfaction. We further analysed which factors are the strongest drivers, or predictors, of repeat purchase using multiple regression analysis. Results: In the study we identified the underlying home appliance factors. The results show that these factors are: sales environment, price, user features, design features and technical features. The results were then used to construct the Kano model where the analysis goes beyond the qualitative analysis by implementing two approaches, stated and derived importance approach. According to the Kano model, marketers should concentrate on delight characteristics such as: wider knowledge of the salesperson, professional skills of the salesperson, design of home appliance, brand of home appliance. What is more, factors called ‘user features’ are the strongest predictors of repeat purchase. Conclusion: This paper links the Kano model with measuring customer satisfaction and presents a contribution for marketing research theory. Therefore, the results could be used to support optimization of business decision-making, as well as for further scientific research.

Overlooking the importance of non-stationarity and normally distributed models in previous studies, this paper aims to fill the gap in literature based on time series between 2000 and 2019 for an Alps Adriatic country on tourism-led employment. Before implementing the Granger Causality Test, the vector autoregressive model is applied. The results confirmed that tourist arrivals significantly impact the hospitality labour market in Slovenia as employment in the lodging industry was driven in bi-causal directions to overall tourist arrivals. The demonstrated validity of substantial tourism-led employment has implications for job creation and economic growth, focusing on domestic tourists.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between unemployment benefits and durations of unemployment with respect to different approaches in social policy. The hypothesis of the research is that unemployment benefits negatively affect the duration of unemployment. An analysis of the relationship concerning unemployment benefits and duration of unemployment within the European Union Member States (EU-28) between 2006–2018 using panel data regression approach was conducted. The sample was split into sub-samples in order to get more homogeneous groups of EU-28 countries. Estimation results suggest that the more generous a social policy, the more prevalent the negative relationship between unemployment duration and unemployment benefits. Our results also revealed that the better the economic situation, the less pressure is put on unemployment benefits and on the duration of unemployment.

This research estimates the effects of public debt on economic growth. In addition, it contributes to examining the impact of public debt on investment as a possible channel of impact on economic growth. The empirical analysis is based on a smooth transition panel data regression model. The results show the non-linear relationship between public debt and economic growth for the sample of 12 Euro area countries is markedly statistically significant. The sustainable threshold for this relationship is on average between 93% and 105%. This implies that public debt to gross domestic product ratios above this sustainable threshold would have a negative effect on economic growth. Although insignificant, the results for the sample of 20 Euro area countries could indicate that for the less developed Euro countries the potentially negative effects of high debt can already be seen at a lower level of public debt, which is the case for even more sensible debt reduction policies. Taking into consideration the fiscal rules, the results suggest that one size does not necessarily fit all. Moreover, the trade-off between fiscal consolidation and increased green public investment will be one of the key challenges of this decade given the reinstated European Union fiscal rules. First published online 16 April 2025

Background: Labour market policy aims to fight against unemployment and to raise employment. With this study we attempt to contribute to the evidence of the effectiveness of active labour market policy. Objectives: In the empirical part of the paper we aim to research the relations between the labour market policies and macroeconomic variables. Methods/Approach: In order to distinguish the effects of expenditures for labour market policies on unemployment rate, we separately analysed the effects of expenditures for active labour market policies and the effects of expenditures for passive labour market policies on unemployment rate using panel regression analysis. Results: The expenditures for active labour market policies have negative and statistically significant effect on unemployment rate, whereas the expenditures for passive labour market policies have positive and statistically significant effect on unemployment rate. Conclusions: Not only the activation strategies with benefit conditioning, but also encouraging and enabling unemployed person to actively approach in searching for a job should be implemented. The implementation of activation strategies which create favourable conditions for unemployed people to develop their skills, fulfil their potential, continuously maintain contacts with the employers and actively participate in the society should be supported.