Artificial intelligence is increasingly viewed as a driver of productivity and technological transformation, yet it remains unclear whether national AI readiness translates into measurable upgrading of manufacturing and export structures. The study aims to examine how government AI readiness is associated with the technological structure of production and exports, distinguishing persistent between-country differences from short-run within-country changes and assessing prospective associations with technology-intensive manufacturing. The analysis combines the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index with World Bank indicators for up to 176 countries in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024, applying two-way fixed effects, a within–between decomposition, non-linearity and interaction tests, ANCOVA and change-score models, and multiple robustness procedures. The core fixed-effects models show no significant contemporaneous GAIRI association, with coefficients ranging from 0.001 for logged ICT exports to 0.079 for high-technology exports within manufactured exports. By contrast, between-country GAIRI is positively associated with manufacturing value added (β=0.180), high-technology exports (β=0.519 and 0.491), and ICT service exports (β=0.168). Manufacturing exhibits only suggestive curvature, with a turning point of 57.59 and a formal inverted-U test of p=0.108. Higher 2021 GAIRI is prospectively associated with the 2023 machinery share (β=0.505, p=0.0016; pBH=0.0047).
The concept of dynamic capabilities explains organizations' potential to create and sustain competitive advantages in unstable, competitive environments. Organizations with well-developed dynamic capabilities balance routine activities with the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper examines entrepreneurial orientation as a prerequisite for dynamic capabilities development, testing the relationship among 4- and 5-star hotels in the Black Sea region of Bulgaria. A conceptual model grounded in Teece's dynamic capabilities framework and entrepreneurial orientation theory was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4, based on survey data from 56 valid respondents. The results confirm that entrepreneurial orientation has a statistically significant, positive effect on dynamic capabilities (β = 0.898, p < 0.001, R² = 0.806). Innovativeness and decisiveness/ vision emerged as the strongest facets of entrepreneurial orientation, while sensing, transformation, and organizational learning emerged as the strongest facets of dynamic capabilities. The findings extend dynamic capabilities theory by empirically validating entrepreneurial orientation as a foundational driver of capability development in a knowledge-intensive service sector, and offer practical guidance for hotel managers seeking to strengthen organizational agility and competitiveness.
This study examines the nonlinear association between digital management readiness and functional artificial intelligence (AI) integration, with particular attention to changes in marginal associations across the readiness continuum and heterogeneity among enterprise-size classes. Digital readiness is operationalized through the multidimensional Digital Management Readiness Index (DMRI), encompassing digital infrastructure, digital management, human capital, and data and security capabilities. Functional AI Integration Index (FAII) captures the extent of AI use across enterprise functions. The empirical analysis applies generalized additive models and marginal-effects estimation to identify nonlinearities without imposing predefined readiness thresholds. The results demonstrate a nonlinear relationship between DMRI and FAII. The nonlinear specification explains 88.1% of the variation in functional AI integration, compared with 78.7% under the linear model. The marginal association increases from 7.477 at the 5th percentile of DMRI to 72.079 at the 95th percentile, indicating an approximately 9.6-fold increase across the observed readiness continuum. No evidence of saturation is identified within the examined range. Enterprise-size analysis further indicates that differences among small, medium-sized, and large enterprises are largely associated with their unequal positioning along the readiness continuum. Size-specific nonlinear functions provide no material improvement over a common readiness trajectory. The findings establish digital readiness as a continuous capability configuration whose relevance for AI integration intensifies as digital capabilities accumulate. The study contributes a nonlinear, capability-position perspective to the literature on enterprise AI integration and suggests that readiness-based segmentation can complement conventional firm-size criteria in digitalization and AI-support policies.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine altered European security priorities, but a higher defense share does not by itself establish cuts elsewhere. This study ex-amines all ten functions of government in the EU-27 using Eurostat data for 2005–2024. Exact budget shares are paired with percentage-of-GDP outcomes, a post-2022 geographic-exposure design, country and year fixed effects, few-treated-cluster inference, false-discovery-rate control, and equivalence tests. Across the full panel, a one-percentage-point higher defense share is most strongly associated with a 0.871-point lower economic-affairs share; smaller as-sociations for environmental protection, housing, and recreation are statistically detectable but fall within a ±0.25-point equivalence bound. Health, education, and public order associations are equally small, whereas social protection re-mains inconclusive. After 2022, the eight more-exposed countries do not show a statistically robust differential increase in the defense budget share (0.362 points; wild-bootstrap p = .267). They do, however, expand total expenditure by 3.034 percentage points of GDP (p < .001). The early rearmament episode, therefore, reflects fiscal expansion more clearly than broad program displacement.
The energy transition has intensified competition for critical minerals, but it remains unclear whether foreign capital promotes structural transformation in mineral-rich economies. This paper examines 30 emerging and developing economies from 2000 to 2024, treating Central Asia as a comparative regional group. Economy-wide structural transformation is measured by manufacturing value added as a share of GDP. Two-way fixed-effects models use lagged regressors, country-clustered standard errors, and Driscoll–Kraay inference, while AidData records distinguish upstream extraction from midstream processing finance. Aggregate FDI shows no statistically detectable average association with manufacturing value added; the estimate remains stable across robustness checks, and its 90% confidence interval lies within ±0.10 percentage-point equivalence bounds. A positive interaction with tertiary enrollment appears only in the full sample and is not robust after 2015. Project-stage estimates are exploratory because midstream variation is limited to seven country-year observations and is sensitive to Indonesia. Central Asia does not exhibit a statistically different FDI–manufacturing association despite weaker institutions. The findings indicate that aggregate inflows reveal little about structural transformation and that investment composition and domestic linkages warrant more direct measurement.
