France’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was initially conciliatory. However, the current French President’ statements, Macron, gradually changed, suggesting a potential shift in France's stance. The French president recently suggested troops could be sent to Ukraine to fight the Russians, a move that could significantly impact the course of the war. Our paper aims to address this possibility. How feasible would this be from a military perspective? Second, are there any other relevant political actors that will support it? Third, why has Paris changed its position to such a radical stance? We start from the theoretical design of realist constructivism. Postcolonial theories and the concept of locked-in path dependence supported this research. The methods follow the path of historical synthesis, discourse analysis of key political actors, and text analysis of defense white papers. Quantitative military variables are used to understand France’s and the EU’s militaryindustrial complex capabilities and assess its potential. The collapse of France’s neocolonial empire in Africa and Russia’s growing influence in the region partially explains Macron’s discourse change. This is correlated with the need to follow a more independent European security policy and the worsening military situation in Ukraine.
In the past 10 years at least, not only that human resource specialists have been challenged to upskill and re-skill themselves to stay relevant in a world dominated by technology, but they are in the driver's seat for selecting the right technology for employees and leadership, for managing large scale implementations and integrations, managing vendors, with the objective to keep the workforce engaged. Technology development disrupted traditional thinking, changed consumer behavior, and led to what we could call systemic malfunctions – the rapid development of technology gave no time to human resource specialists to acquire expertise in data analytics, information technology, user behavior, etc. – which translated into watermelon effect: metrics look good, but reality feels different. This study aims to add one more perspective in evaluating human resource technology performance, showing that we are measuring mostly service efficiency instead of measuring employee and business impact and outcomes. The methodology used in this study is Action-Research, mainly because is mostly aligned with Agile philosophy and business operating models. The existent literature is rich in proposing new ways to keep technology users engaged, and delighted, however, is not provide practical and relevant guidelines on how to measure their perception over the holistic experience mediated by technology. Outdated key performance indicators are no longer capable of driving further innovation, setting the stage for failure in keeping employees engaged. Furthermore, we believe that now more than ever before it’s time for consultants to play the role of service aggregators, to bring together technology, processes, and service providers, to unify the experience of employees.
The way firms and marketers promote their products is being shaped by consumer needs and trends alongside the evolution of the marketplace. As web technologies and consumers’ online behavior improve, influencers are becoming increasingly significant in social media marketing strategies. This research intends to investigate a particular digital phenomenon observed in the field of books, namely, marketing books on Instagram. Therefore, the study aims to highlight the key aspects of book influencers' Instagram activity, namely by examining the literature, but also the evolution of the bookstagram phenomenon in a dual perspective in both Romania and the United States. Furthermore, the purpose of this research is to draw attention to the similarities and differences among the existing communities in the two countries pointed out by a quantitative research. On that account, the data analyzed was collected in two different ways, first we retrieved information from Statista online database about the phenomenon in the United States of America and then, we conducted a questionnaire to bookstagram community members in Romania. Accordingly, the paper will contribute to the expansion of the literature on #bookstagram communities in various cultures around the world by providing useful information and a more diverse view of this market.
This study investigates the factors influencing food inflation in Turkey, employing both endogenous and exogenous models and integrating major literature findings. Utilizing monthly data from February 2007 to November 2023, standardized for analysis, it explores the relationship between food inflation and various determinants through classical and Bayesian methods. The analysis reveals that increases in the real effective exchange rate, money supply (M1), Turkish and Federal Reserve interest rates, and the food and beverage price index contribute to rising food inflation. Conversely, higher oil prices have a statistically significant negative effect on food inflation. The most influential variables, determined by their inclusion probabilities in the model, are the money supply, Federal Reserve interest rate, real effective exchange rate, and Turkish interest rate. These findings underscore their importance in understanding and analyzing changes in Turkey's food inflation.
In the age of globalization and increasing social and environmental awareness, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and commitment to sustainability are becoming increasingly important for companies. These practices are no longer just optional choices but are becoming essential criteria for consumers in their purchasing decisions. In our empirical endeavour, we used document content - and survey analysis as research methods. By employing a qualitative content analysis procedure, we examined and evaluated various campaigns promoting sustainability and philanthropy in relation to different apparel brands. Thus, we identified four such relevant campaigns, designed to emphasize ethical and sustainable values enabling a comprehensive overview of the impact of these marketing strategies on consumer purchasing decisions. Moreover, we statistically analysed how the perceived brand value (i.e., translated into purchasing decision) is influenced by philanthropic and sustainable business practices. Based on our results we draw some relevant conclusions about the impact of CSR campaigns, in general, and on Romanian consumer purchasing behaviour, in particular.
