The Impact of the Manufacturing Industry on the Economic Cycle of European Union Countries

Abstract

The manufacturing industry is a key sector in many national economies and is involved in creating sustainable economic growth. At the same time, it is a sector sensitive to internal and external impacts that result in fluctuations in the economic cycle, copying its development or even outstripping the development of economic cycles. The main objective of this contribution was to identify the relationship between manufacturing and GDP, which represents the economic cycle in European Union countries. The time series of selected indicators of the manufacturing industry and GDP from the Eurostat database for Q1 2000-Q4 2016 were used for analysis purposes. An analysis of 296 time series with a quarterly periodicity from 22 EU countries (including the United Kingdom) was performed. The results of analyses indicate that the processing industry is a sector with significant cyclical behavior. In most countries, production and sales in the manufacturing industry behaved as concurrent indicators, changes in production and sales almost immediately reflected in the growth or decline in GDP. Labor market indicators have been shown to be delayed cyclical indicators. Changes in the economic development of the countries have a strong impact on employment, the remuneration of employees and the number of hours worked in the sector. Strong cyclical industries must be constantly monitored, as negative changes in these sectors will automatically exacerbate the economic cycle recession. The results of our analyses represent a valuable platform for economic policy makers and regional strategic plans.

Selected Factors of SMEs Management in the Service Sector

“…One of the major challenges comforting SME management currently is technological and managerial innovation. They are an essential determinant of economic development not only from the point of view of the microsphere but also in the evaluation of macroeconomic development and forecasting of economic cycles of countries (Behun et al 2018). In the literature, it was also concluded that SMEs could be managed adequately by paying critical attention to those dual keys mentioned above and making sure it is properly introduced to the organisational system of SMEs (Žufan et Currently, the use of information and communication technology cannot be overlooked regarding the role been played by this key factor (Ion & Andreea, 2008;Zadorozhnyi et al, 2018).…”

Discrepancies in Perception and Evaluation of Macroenvironment – Sectoral Analysis

“…Innovative development is determined by a company's size as well as its economic sector. As many studies prove (Gavurova et al, 2017a;Behun et al 2018;Civelek et al, 2016;, medium and large companies were focused on operational effectiveness and cost savings for a longer period of time, while a certain space for smaller companies had been created in order to respond to the environmental changes by innovations. Many research studies also prove that the more organizationally-challenged company, the lower is its adaptability to innovative changes (Hudec & Šebová, 2012;Gavurova et al, 2017c;Belás & Sopkova, 2016;Rahman et al, 2017).…”

Canonical Correlation Analysis and a New Composite Index on Digitalization and Labor Force in the Context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0

“…As the first three industrial revolutions demonstrated that technology has a major impact on the labor market and the business environment, we expect the current phenomenon of accelerated digitization of the economy, known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to have positive effects on competitiveness by increasing productivity, but also a notable impact on the labor market, through the creation/disappearance of jobs and the emergence of completely new occupations [22,23]. Creating new business models, based on increasing connectivity, reducing communication barriers and eliminating distances, amplifies development factors, changes the way of adding value, leading to increased productivity [24].…”