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The accelerated development of information and communication technology (ICT) over the past two decades has encouraged an increasing number of researchers to examine and measure the impact of this technology on economic growth. Our study aims to identify and evaluate the effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic growth in European Union (EU) countries for a period of 18 years (2000–2017). Using panel-data estimation techniques, we investigate empirically how various indicators of ICT infrastructure affect economic growth, proxied in our study by GDP per capita. Within the estimates, we have included some macroeconomic control variables. Our results indicate a positive and strongly effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic growth in the EU member states, but the magnitude of the effect differs depending on the type of technology examined. Regarding the impact of macroeconomic factors, our estimates indicate that inflation rate, unemployment rate, the degree of trade openness, government expenditures, and foreign direct investments would significantly affect GDP per capita at EU level. The findings are broadly similar to the theoretical predictions, but also to the findings of some relevant empirical studies. Our research reveals that ICT infrastructure, along with other macroeconomic factors, is an important driver of economic growth in EU countries.

Despite the importance of high-growth firms (HGFs) for job creation, innovation, and economic development in transition economies, current knowledge on the role of financial decisions in explaining their profitability is limited. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between working capital management and firm profitability. Using a panel data set on HGFs from Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe during the time span 2006–2015, we found an inverted U-shape relationship between working capital level and firm profitability. Our findings indicate that HGFs should find and maintain the optimal working capital level that maximizes their profitability. Our results proved to be robust when we employ different methodology (quantile regression), different sub-samples as well as alternative measures of profitability and working capital management. The study highlights the importance of short-term financial decisions in enhancing HGFs’ profitability, with significant implications for academics and practitioners. We contribute to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence on the existence a concave relationship between working capital level and firm profitability for a cross-country sample of firms.

The Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process has heterogeneously developed across the world, although it represents a leading paradigm, supporting organizations to identify, evaluate, and manage risks at the enterprise level. Academics have studied the process, but there is no complete picture of the determinants and implications of such an integrated risk management process. Therefore, we present a systematic empirical literature review on ERM, based on a research protocol. The review highlights that the ERM literature can be divided into four general lines of research: the ERM adoption, the determinants of the ERM implementation, the effects of ERM adoption, and other aspects. In contrast to the richness of studies devoted to ERM engagement in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), studies exploring ERM adoption in banks or insurance are relatively few. The literature review has revealed that the most frequently investigated effect of ERM is on firm performance. Little effort has been dedicated to the analysis of the effectiveness of ERM by its components and to institutional, individual, and organizational factors that affect ERM adoption. The study can serve as a starting point for scholars to explore research gaps related to ERM, while the practitioners can rely on the presented findings to identify the effects of the ERM implementation.

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