Transformations  in
Business & Economics

JEL classification: Y20.

Transformations in Business & Economics (TIBE) journal continues in providing 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 research should not be limited by any narrow conceptualisation of development economics, but embraces interdisciplinary and multi-facet approaches to economic theory, business management, marketing, as well as general transformations in the economic, social-cultural, ecological, technological, competitive, demographic and political-legal environment.
Therefore, we expect original and authentic manuscripts, never published before in any format and not submitted to any other publishing institution, which are based on fact-centred research to establish economic and business management regularities, where the theory is motivated by substantiated empirical findings, where disciplined application of economic principles is used to explain and predict the real-world behaviour of organisations, markets and industries.
The current issue of journal presents articles by groups of scholars from the Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Spain, Belgium and Lithuania.
The current issue of TIBE presents guest editorial based on present situation in Japan. Currently the policy of Japan aims to shake up the economy and rid it from two decades of deflation, but this can greatly take yen down. Today even skeptics of the Japanese economic recovery plan will continue to buy gold, that's why in Japan demand for gold increased, because the yen decline in the price against the dollar. So Kuan-Min Wang (Taiwan) with colleague introduces the study, which investigates the rigidity of gold price adjustment and the inflation hedging ability of gold in U.S. and Japan with the linear and non-linear co-integration test and the non-linear threshold regression model.
The special editorial – Fumitaka Furuoka (Malaysia) – presented the research study, which attempts to detect a turning point that marks the reversal of fertility decline. The intention of the special editorial to reveal the question "does there exist the J-shaped relationship between development and fertility?". She discovers an interesting new trend in demographic transformation.
The group of scholars had focused on investigating the impact of industrial sectors on economic development. The researchers from Portugal (Sequeira, Azevedo) try to prove that textile industry is the one that mostly enhances economic performance. By analysing contractual practices in the gas sector, Acebron (Spain) with colleague try to clarify how some gas suppliers have developed contractual capabilities to the point of being able to offer a menu of contracts to their industrial customers. Mackevicius et al. (Lithuania) analyzes the evolution of the Japanese economy and the cyclical nature of the 1945-2010 period in context of logistic analysis.
The multi-criteria evaluation of credit rating, labour market and road transport technologies was made by scientists from Belgium and Lithuania. Brauers, Zavadskas take an interest Credit Rating Agencies and want to provide a more scientific approach to ratings, which influence the countries credit rating and ipso factor of their enterprises. The research of Kiausiene et al. (Lithuania) based on the analysis of influencing factors related to the participation of women and men in the labour market to assess of quantitative parameters of gender participation in the labour market. Streimikiene (Lithuania) had used MCDM and TOPSIS methods to develop the multi–criteria framework for comparative assessment of energy technologies in road transport.

The problems faced by transition countries were discussed in the context of global financial crisis (Stoica et al. (Romania)), bank efficiency (Irsovaand, Havranek (Czech Republic)), self-employment factors (Startiene, Remeikiene (Lithuania)), higher education problems (Tamuliene, Murzaite (Lithuania)).

Prof. Dr. (HP) Dalia Štreimikienė
Editor-in-Chief