This study predicts the prices of digital cryptocurrencies, which are non-linear, highly volatile, multi-scale, noisy, and, therefore, considerably more difficult to forecast compared to other financial products. Despite the proliferation of cryptocurrency markets, research on digital cryptocurrency prices remains scarce, while the existing research often fails to elucidate the characteristics of digital cryptocurrency prices. We developed CEEMD-LSTM-a hybrid prediction model based on the decomposition-reconstruction-integration framework-to predict digital cryptocurrency price movements. The CEEMD method is applied to decompose prices into high-frequency components, low-frequency components, and trend sequences, and reconstruct the combined IMF components. Thereafter, we apply the LSTM model to predict each component separately and obtain the sorted predicted values of prices by adding and integrating the predicted values of each component. Using four time-intervals of high-frequency data of Bitcoin and Ether, we conduct a systematic comparison of the prediction accuracy between CEEMD-LSTM and other models, single or combined. Results reveal that the prediction effect of the CEEMD-LSTM model consistently outperforms that of other models in the high-frequency data world. These findings enhance the understanding and prediction of digital cryptocurrency price movements. Additionally, they enable investors to manage risks and promote market competitiveness, offer reliable support for decision-making, address uncertainty arising from volatility, facilitate timely strategy adjustments to exploit opportunities and identify potential risks, and provide new methods for risk mitigation.
The corporate ESG score is often considered a proxy for competitiveness as it helps attract capital and investors. The study aims to empirically examine the relationship between analyst attention and corporate ESG score by using voluntary ESG information disclosure as a mediating variable. Although many studies have examined various factors that impact ESG scores, the role of voluntary ESG information disclosure has mainly been ignored. This study develops a voluntary ESG information disclosure index with 3 first-level and 37 second-level indicators based on the current ESG information disclosure regulations and ESG rating system in China. Panel data on China Securities Index (CSI 300) non-financial firms from 2015-2019 were used in two-way fixed-effects regressions (industry and year). CSI 300 is the barometer of the stock market, comprising 300 constituent stocks across various sectors with substantial market capitalisation and high liquidity from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Mediation analysis was conducted using the Baron & Kenny (1986) three-step approach, followed by heterogeneity tests by splitting firms into four groups based on media coverage. The results show a significant positive relationship between voluntary ESG information disclosure and ESG score. Analysts' attention partially mediates the relationship: voluntary ESG information disclosure enhances ESG scores by about 35% through greater analyst attention. Further heterogeneity tests reveal that the amount of media coverage does not affect the positive relationship. However, the mediating effect of analyst attention is only significant among firms that receive "substantial" media coverage. The results have important implications for relevant government policy-makers, ESG rating agencies, firms, investors, and many others.
This study investigates how women's engagement in leisure activities, domestic responsibilities, and structural labour market conditions jointly shape their socioeconomic outcomes in the European Union. Using a hierarchical regression framework based on panel data from 27 E.U. countries (2010-2021), indexed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), we analyse three outcome domains: health, knowledge, and labour market participation. The results reveal that women's frequent participation in out-of-home leisure activities and access to flexible working arrangements significantly enhance health, educational, and employment outcomes. Intensive caregiving responsibilities have a strong negative impact on both health and employment, while routine household tasks exhibit negligible effects. Structural employment factors further moderate these relationships: employment in education, health, and social work sectors improves outcomes across all domains, whereas a longer working life tends to weaken women's health and knowledge-related results, suggesting potential trade-offs between sustained career engagement and well-being. The findings highlight that women's socioeconomic advancement depends on the balance between personal autonomy, caregiving obligations, and structural work conditions. The study underscores the importance of policies that expand workplace flexibility, strengthen support for caregiving, and promote women's participation in socially oriented sectors, thereby advancing gender equality and economic sustainability across the European Union.
This paper introduces a hybrid decision-making model that integrates the fuzzy best-worst method with fuzzy VIKOR to determine the relative importance and prioritization of key indicators of entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a specific focus on enhancing SME competitiveness. By employing triangular fuzzy numbers to capture expert judgments, the proposed framework first applies F-BWM to evaluate the significance of six critical dimensions namely organizational innovation, risk-taking, external factors, competitiveness, responsiveness, and internal factors and subsequently uses fuzzy VIKOR, based on the derived weights, to rank four prominent SME sectors operating within a specific industrial setting. The findings indicate that organizational innovation (0.219) and risk-taking (0.217) exert the greatest influence on entrepreneurial competitiveness, whereas internal factors have the least impact (0.127). Among the sectors examined, the food and beverage industry emerge as the most favorable compromise solution (Q = 0.403). Overall, the proposed hybrid approach enhances the coherence and reliability of decision-making under uncertainty and provides practical and policy-relevant insights for policymakers and SME managers seeking to strengthen competitiveness, innovation, and sustainability in regional industrial development.
SMEs play a vital role in employment, innovation, and competitiveness worldwide, yet their governance structures remain underexplored in academic research. Existing studies on corporate governance predominantly focus on large publicly traded firms, leaving a gap in our understanding of how governance mechanisms operate in SMEs. To fill this gap, the primary purpose of this study is to introduce a novel and comprehensive corporate governance index tailored specifically to SMEs. Using stratified sampling, we conducted a structured survey of 469 SMEs across diverse sectors and firm sizes in T & uuml;rkiye. This index comprises six subdimensions: board structure, family involvement, female participation, digitalization, corporate accountability, and succession, and its internal validity is confirmed with Cronbach's alpha values above 0.70 for the overall index and most subindices. The second purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between access to finance and SME performance, emphasizing the mediating role of corporate governance. Using cross-sectional regression analysis, our results show that access to finance significantly improves SME performance. We also find that corporate governance not only enhances performance directly but also mediates this positive association. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that access to finance influences SME performance through both direct and indirect channels. Overall, our findings highlight that effective governance structures are essential to maximize the benefits of access to finance. This finding underscores the role of institutional and managerial factors in enhancing firm-level competitiveness by enabling SMEs to leverage access to finance and governance practices to achieve sustainable growth.
