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. We will continue to seek for:

• empirical studies, which provide convincing and significant findings of fact. Careful establishment of an interesting or puzzling empirical regularity is of value to the field if the author has a convincing explanation for the phenomenon;
• theoretical studies, which stress relatively robust ideas, and combine theory with a sense of empirical magnitudes, presenting fresh viewpoints and theoretical perspectives, new literature overviews and concept classifications, where a systems' approach is a central focus of the research;
• explanatory research studies 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.

The guest and special editorials of the current issue maintain that sustainability provides an advanced field for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development. According to them integrating sustainable development into communications, negotiations and marketing first of all leads to a process of global economic integration using trade agreements, also gives the power and concentration of multinational corporations, and at the same time creates media links, free-flow of capital and labour movement.

The guest editorial - N. Petkeviciute (Lithuania) and D. Streimikiene (Lithuania) - examine the cross-cultural context of the negotiations and negotiators' characteristics impact to sustainable agreements. The concept of sustainable agreements was characterized and the necessity of a sustainable agreement in intercultural negotiations was discussed too. The special editorials - Dan-Cristian Dabija (Romania), Vasile Dinu (Romania), Ioana-Nicoleta Abrudan (Romania), Cătălin Postelnicu (Romania) - were focused on the impact of the marketing mix and sustainability. The survey was accomplished at non-food retail stores in Romania and discovered some important theoretical and practical issues for internationalization strategies of retailers.

The current issue of journal presents articles by groups of scholars from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Denmark, Portugal, Slovakia and Lithuania.

The group of scholars had focused on Socio-Economic Valuation of Industry. The researcher from Lithuania (E. Malinauskiene) was analyzing aspects of applying dynamic organisational capabilities approach for government transformation models based on ICTs, and author suggested integrated framework for the strategic planning, implementation and research of government reform based on ICT. By G. Pfajfar (Slovenia) and M. Mitrega (Poland) some aspects of networking are conceptualized as interconnected building blocks of a focal company capability to gain benefits from the business network, conclusions drawn from the date gathered via face-to-face interviews and analyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM). Due to HFT already generates nearly 2/3 of the overall trading volume the attention of Lithuanian authors group (K. Driaunys, S. Masteika, V. Sakalauskas, M. Vaitonis) was attract, they rise a question: "if high frequency trading (HFT) provides more efficient, liquid markets and is economically beneficial" and found an answers.

The research direction in the field of Rural-Urban Interface is represented by T. Balezentis (Lithuania), Z. Zidonis (Lithuania), V. Atkociuniene (Lithuania), I. Kiausiene (Lithuania) and J. Korpysa (Poland). T. Belenzentis led a discussion about the theoretical preliminaries of the efficiency measurement (benchmarking) and presenting a survey on manifestations of suchlike analyses in the agricultural economics. While Z. Zidonis' conducted case study of Land Use Change Business reveal some unique aspects of unproductive entrepreneurial behaviour in post-transition Lithuania. An entrepreneurship theme was developed by J. Korpysa with reference to Schumpeterian entrepreneurship theory, and the survey was made in Poland. V. Atkociuniene and I. Kiausiene prepared a methodology for the multidimensional assessment of the condition of rural social infrastructure (RSI) in order to ensure the territorial and social cohesion.

The last group of researchers are analysing problems faced by Opportunities and Challenges in EU Finance Market. The main topics are: microcredit interest rates and amounts in Portugal by portuguese C. Barros, S. Lagoa and E. Leao; an approach for modelling and analysing how consumers form their purchase decision for insurance services by A. Ulbinaite (Lithuania), M. Kucinskiene (Lithuania), Y. Le Moullec (Denmark); current trends in area of customer's satisfaction of Czech and Slovak bank clients by Jaroslav Belas (Czech Republic), Eva Cipovova (Czech Republic), Valer Demjan (Slovakia); testing the usage frequency of online cyclical payment compared to other payment channels by polish T. Szopiński, M.W. Staniewski.

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