Transformations  in
Business & Economics

JEL classification: Y20.

The arrival into the new millennium is marked by two changes on the global scale. Firstly, the experiment of total state creation, which took over half a century, has petered out, leaving nearly one third of the global population in the turmoil of market economy and democratic transformations. Secondly, processes of unseen magnitude have gathered momentum in the advancement of science and technology, social and economic collaboration, as well as international integration.

For decades, development economists believed that central planning, not economic freedom, was the key to economic growth in developing countries. In 1956, Gunnar Myrdal, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974, wrote, „the special advisers to underdeveloped countries who have taken the time and trouble to acquaint themselves with the problem all recommend central planning as the first condition of progress“.

The countries, which were subjected to the Soviet experiment, provide the world with a case and knowledge of how not to manage things, as this does not lead to the right destination. This example and cognition, hopefully, help the world in eluding, or at least not repeating, the same mistake. Democratic countries contribute to this matter with their experience and know-how in seeking a higher standard of living and economic progress. A new and ever-changing macro- and micro- environment has emerged, the cognition, evaluation, contemplation of and adequate reaction to which demands in-depth individual as well as co-operative scientific research and generalisations.

The Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) are considerably fast in adopting the path of democracy, science and economic progress. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of a chasing outsider can still be witnessed. This could be overcome by mutual efforts in scientific research, discussions and evaluation of findings, as well as publication of scholarly papers. I genuinely welcome and thank everybody who has agreed to participate and has given a helping hand in organising and supporting the international scientific publication Transformations in Business & Economics (TIBE). We honestly believe and hope that with our united efforts the journal will grow into a publication for the international scientific community and business intellectuals.

The journal provides a focused outlet for high quality research in the ever-expanding area of Development Economics in the field of Social Sciences and related disciplines. The field of study is not limited by any narrow definition of development economics, but embraces all the new issues of interest in economic theory, management, marketing, as well as in general transformations in the economic, social, ecological, technological, etc., environment.

TIBE takes the position that there is no single cause for economic progress, but that a combination of factors – among them the improvement of physical and human capital, the reduction of inequality, and institutions that enable the background flow of information essential to market performance – consistently favour economic development.

It is hoped that Transformations in Business & Economics will not only serve as a link between theorists and practitioners, but that it will also help to build a bridge between development economists and their colleagues in related fields to foster research results, acquired from the transformations and synthesis of related and sometimes unrelated disciplines. Papers, researching the interaction of the environment and economy, business and consumerism, business and ethics, business and regional development, economics and socio-cultural factors, economics and marketing, just to name a few, are most welcome in this respect.

After, being in print since 2002, we have an impressive variety of contributors, validating the geographical representation and the need for envisaging issues in development economics on a broad scale. Authors from 23 countries have undergone successful double blind reviewing procedure and were selected for publication in TIBE (2002-2008), which started its reference in the ISI Web of Science (administered by Thomson Services) since 2005: the USA, Switzerland, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, the UK, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, Belarus, Ukraine, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Egypt, and Spain. The acceptance rate varied over the years, currently being at 10-12%, which guarantees a healthy inflow of quality papers, covering transformational aspects of business economics and development economics. At present, we consider for publication reviewed papers from countries, which will be a new contribution to our Journal, e.g., Taiwan, Australia, India, France, Turkey, Macedonia, China, Holland and Germany.

The growth of interest in TIBE from both the contributors and readers suggested that the Journal should remodel its strategies and revise the vision. Commencing in March 2008, TIBE will appear as a tri-annual publication, with welcoming contributions to its supplements, which could be published from 1-3 times annually as a medium for selected and quadruple reviewed conference proceedings and scientific monographs.

We, therefore, wish to emphasise fact-centred research, in which empirical work attempts to establish economic regularities and the theory is motivated by those empirical findings, where disciplined application of economic principles is used to explain and predict the real-world behaviour of firms, markets and industries. To this end, we are soliciting papers that:

• in empirical work, stress convincing and significant findings of fact. Careful establishment of an interesting or puzzling empirical regularity is of value to the field even if the author may not have a convincing explanation for the phenomenon.
• in theoretical work, stress relatively robust ideas, and combine theory with a sense of empirical magnitudes. Even back-of-the-envelope calculations can help us relate the theory to empirically important phenomena.
• organise and analyse a body of facts about a firm, an industry, or a business practice according to economic principles. Such a case study must go well beyond the purely descriptive by illuminating the ways in which industry practice and institutions can be understood in terms of economic principles. Factors that resist economic explanation also should be identified.

We think that high-quality work along these lines exists (and could be produced), but does not necessarily conform to the current standard of academic development economics methodology and too often draws comments such as “Very interesting, but where can you publish it?” We are keen enough on this style of work that we hope to make it a mainstay of Transformations in Business & Economics.

While the level of Transformations in Business & Economics is academic, the materials presented will be of value to broad academia, businesspeople, policy makers and researchers, especially those in the CEEC and the EU. We believe this initiative will fill a need that has not been satisfied by existing journals. We hope you agree with us.

Editor-in-Chief Prof. Habil. Dr. Vytautas P. Pranulis
and
Deputy Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. (HP) Dainora Grundey