Transaction Costs (TC) is a very important topic, especially in a changing work environment which has a large number of operational firms, and increasing business growth. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the transaction costs concept, and provide a conceptual framework to understand the meaning of transaction costs. Publications including articles and research papers have explained the notion of transaction costs and the theoretical issues related to them. The literature review reveals that, transaction costs are costs which arise because of the of a company‘s activities in the market , including (fees, commission, taxes) which are paid by the firm to provide a service or produce a good either to external parties or as internal costs. Therefore, according to the literature review. It emerges that firms must make a comparison between internal and external transaction costs and choose the lowest cost which enables them to increase profits. This means companies have to reduce transaction costs to the minimum level to achieve more profits and competitive advantage.

In the context of an unstable business environment, companies should be looking for a mechanism to deal with uncertainty. Flexibility maybe one of those mechanisms which can help company to cope with instability in the best way possible. As one of the basic types of flexibility, operational flexibility has become an essential capability which an organization seeks to acquire because it enables companies to respond quickly and effectively to dynamic environments, and as a result, improve firm performance. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between operational flexibility and firm performance. The sample consists of 90 industrial companies in Jordan, and the questionnaire has been developed for and distributed to senior managers and managers in operations, product development, financial and marketing departments. Descriptive analysis was also correlated and regression techniques used to obtain the results. Our field study showed that operational flexibility positively affects both the operational and the financial performance of small and medium industrial companies in Jordan. More specifically, volume flexibility as a type of operational flexibility does not affect the performance of these companies in Jordan, but both mix flexibility and new product flexibility positively affect the operational and financial performance of these companies.

The business environment has become complicated—full of risk and uncertainty over and above companies’ control— therefore companies must find mechanisms to enhance their performance in the light of this instability. The Iranian market is one of the best examples of unstable markets because of its political and economic circumstances; despite this, the pharmaceutical industry in Iran is considered one of the best industries, which is still working efficiently. The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of strategic flexibility on the performance of Iranian SME pharmaceutical companies, by considering the effect of environmental uncertainty as a moderator. The study is a cross-sectional one. Primary data was collected from 113 companies by using an adopted questionnaire. The questionnaires were forwarded to managers at these companies, a purposive (selective) sampling technique was used to collect the data, and the total number of responses that were valid for statistical analysis was 228. The response rate was 67.25%. The results showed that strategic flexibility positively affects companies’ performance. Supply and demand uncertainty moderate the relationship between strategic flexibility and companies’ performance.

Nowadays, strategic flexibility and its effect on organizational performance are crucial to discuss. Moreover, organizations, especially industrial companies, should estimate how flexibility as a mechanism can improve organizational performance. The Hungarian food industry is highly significant in the industrial sector of the Hungarian economy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate how the performance of the Hungarian food industry is affected by strategic flexibility, using supply and demand uncertainty as moderators. It is a quantitative and causal study. A survey was conducted to collect the primary data from a proposed sample of managers at the target companies. As a result, 301 valid responses have been analyzed in SPSS. Regression analysis, correlation, and moderation analysis are used as well. The results indicated that strategic flexibility generally enhances the performance of the target companies, and 20.3% of changes in companies’ performance are related to strategic flexibility. The flexibility of resources affects only the operational performance, while the flexibility of coordination positively affects company performance; it has a 44.2% influence. The findings also showed that uncertainty does not moderate the relationship between strategic flexibility and target firms’ performance. Thus, strategic flexibility is considered as one-effect mechanism in a stable business environment. In all cases, strategic flexibility should be applied in addition to other managerial techniques to enhance company performance.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of credit risk management on profitability in private banks in Syria. Two main criteria have been adopted for the management of credit risk in banks: capital adequacy ratio and non-performing loans. In order to achieve the objectives of the research and to test the hypotheses, an appropriate non-probability sample numbering 6 private banks was selected from those private banks in Syria for which financial reports and risk management reports were available sequentially from 2007 until 2011, because the researchers wanted to investigate the relationship between variables within normal conditions not in the light of instability in Syria. Credit risk was measured by the capital adequacy ratio (CAR), and non-performing loans (NPL), whereas profitability was measured by the ROE indicator by calculating the data and financial reports of sampled banks and showing them in a quantitative manner and identifying the relationship between the variables by using the SPSS program to study the correlation and build the regression equation. The study concluded that there is a statistically significant relationship between capital adequacy and profitability, the capital adequacy ratio affects profitability negatively. Non-performing loans do not effect profitability (ROE). In general, credit risk management accounts for 19% of the profitability of banks.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused changes in the social and economic environments for healthcare. Particularly, to avoid spreading the Coronavirus pandemic, release the stress among healthcare workers, and make them work effectively during the epidemic, high-reliability healthcare organizations give great importance to the improvement of their functions. This study aims to show the importance of high-reliability healthcare organizations comparing their effectiveness during a pandemic by applied qualitative research method with many statistical analyses. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a Likert scale survey technique is used to collect the data by using an online survey. 280 healthcare workers filled the survey from January 17, 2021, to February 22, 2021. Based on the outcomes of the analyses, it has been found that such functions as shared knowledge pattern, provision of self-care, awareness of the coronavirus consequences at the workplace of high-reliability healthcare organizations have a positive and significant relationship at p < 0.01 level with taken appropriate measures against coronavirus variable. Self-awareness of organizational role, organizational resources to provide safety, flexibility of work, environmental safety, and collective mindfulness do not have any relationship with the appropriate measures against Covid-19 variable. This outcome indicates that shared knowledge pattern, provision of self-care, and awareness of the coronavirus consequences at the workplace have a more important role in combating Covid-19 in high-reliability healthcare organizations. AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank all the healthcare workers, who filled the survey of the study. This paper is supported by EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00007—“Young researchers for talent”— supporting careers in research activities in higher education program.

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In today’s rapidly changing global financial market, potential counterparties are in dire need of reliable and timely information on the partner bank performance in order to find the most successful one in terms of conducting credit and deposit transactions. Public ratings of banks serve to solve this problem and are considered as one of the effective tools for choosing such a bank. In Ukraine, the rating of banking institutions is not widely used by business entities because of the imperfect methodology of analysis of banks, a rating process that is closed to the public, the assignment of an unreliable rating to selected banks, the use of obtained ratings by banks for marketing purposes, etc. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to improve the existing rating systems for Ukrainian environment. International and domestic regulatory documents on rating, data of the National Bank of Ukraine and commercial banks, materials of rating agencies, as well as scientific publications of well-known Ukrainian and foreign scientists made the theoretical basis of the study. It is proposed to take a number of priority measures to legislatively regulate the activities of bodies for rating scores of banking institutions, to create a branched infrastructure of the rating market and to establish effective interaction of its participants, to end demonopolization and weaken entry barriers and to introduce new agencies in the rating market, to identify new rating methodologies. The conclusions are aimed at the development of a civilized and transparent rating business in Ukraine, which will ultimately contribute to the timely detection and neutralization of crisis phenomena in the banking sector, restoring confidence between banks and their clients, creating the preconditions for making sound business decisions.