This research article examines the relationship between the level of social welfare expenditure and economic growth rates, based on unbalanced panel data from 38 OECD countries covering the period from 1985 to 2022. Four hypotheses are formulated regarding the impact of social expenditure on economic growth rates. Through multiple iterations of regression model building, employing various combinations of dependent and independent variables, and conducting tests for stationarity and causality, compelling empirical evidence was obtained on the negative influence of social welfare spending on economic growth rates. The study takes into account both government and non-governmental expenditures on social welfare, a novelty in this field. This approach allows for a detailed examination of the effects of different components on economic growth and provides a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships. The findings indicate that countries with high levels of social welfare spending experience a slowdown in economic growth rates. This is associated with increasing demands on social security systems, their growing inclusivity, and the escalating required levels of financing, which are increasingly covered by debt sources. The research highlights the need to strike a balance between social expenditures and economic growth rates and proposes a set of measures to ensure economic growth outpaces the indexing of social expenditures. The abstract underscores the relevance of the study in light of the widespread recognition of the necessity to combat inequality, poverty, and destitution, and calls on OECD countries’ governments to pay increased attention to social policy in order to achieve sustainable and balanced economic growth.

Using a qualitative research methodology and explanatory approach to collect data, we assessed whether the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a promoter or threat to Africa’s pathway to sustainable development. The collected data were analysed using document and content analysis techniques. Analysis of the data revealed that the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a positive initiative that has created a win-win situation, promoting sustainable development. The Beijing Consensus is opposed to the Washington Consensus, which influenced a win-lose situation that has deepened poverty, making Africa unable to move towards achieving sustainable development. The study found that China’s resource-for-development approach has similarities with pre-colonial Africa’s barter trade approach, which Africans practised in the entire continent. The analysis showed that applying the Beijing Consensus diplomacy to Africa has led to economic growth and development. The results showed that China’s Belt Road Initiative has transformed Africa, changing the continent from poverty to economic productivity, as road infrastructure is associated with economic growth and development. Moreover, it was evident from the analysis that without an African continental foreign policy rooted in continental sovereignty with transparent terms and conditions, Africa’s current benefits from China’s investments would lead to poverty instead of sustainable development. A continental foreign policy would create an African Consensus, which would act on behalf of the entire continent. This African Consensus diplomacy would thus become a continental foreign policy defining Africa globally. However, as it stands, the Beijing Consensus diplomacy is a promoter of sustainable development, but this promotion would not last long without African Consensus diplomacy. The study recommends that Africa should establish a continental foreign policy with African Consensus diplomacy to enable the continent to have one standard foreign policy and goal when trading with China and any other external world.

This study, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), aims to explore the entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Shandong Province, China, and analyze the major factors influencing these intentions. Structural Equation Modeling was applied to data collected from 680 students across five universities in Shandong Province. The findings reveal that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly influence the students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Specifically, a positive attitude towards the outcomes of entrepreneurship emerged as the strongest factor influencing their intentions, indicating that positive perceptions and expectations of entrepreneurship significantly enhance students’ entrepreneurial inclinations. Perceived behavioral control also showed a strong influence, suggesting that enhancing students’ self-efficacy and awareness of accessible resources is crucial for fostering entrepreneurial intentions. However, the influence of subjective norms was weaker, which may relate to specific cultural and social environmental factors. This study not only provides an empirical basis for entrepreneurship education and policy-making in Shandong Province and beyond but also offers new insights into the application of TPB in the field of entrepreneurship research.

The accessibility of FinTech services is increasing, and their convenience is making them more popular than traditional banks, particularly among Generation Z. The objective of this research is to identify and compare the factors influencing the conscious use of FinTech services among Generation Z members, who are the most active participants in this field of financial technology. The questionnaire based purposive sample consisted of Generation Z students who demonstrated adequate financial literacy and utilized FinTech, and who were learning in a university environment in Hungary and Romania. A sample of 600 respondents was selected for analysis after cleaning the data online. The methodological approach entailed the utilization of covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). The results indicate that social influence (β = 0.18), consumer attitude (β = 0.53) and facilitating conditions intention (β = 0.11) all have a significant effect on the behavior intention, explaining 49% of the variance. In the context of performance expectation, the effect of facilitating conditions intention is not significant (p = 0.491). The motivation of Generation Z towards fintech solutions is evident in their preference for speed and ease of use. However, in order to reinforce consumer expectations and transfer the necessary experience and attitudes, it may be beneficial for service providers to adopt a partially different strategy in different countries. Generation Z can thus serve as a crucial reference point for the even more discerning expectations of subsequent generations. The findings may inform the formulation of strategies for fintech service providers to better understand customer behavior.

This paper focuses on the analysis of educational institutions’ communication on social media, with an emphasis on the individual type of content used by these institutions to increase engagement and interaction with current and potential students. The authors examine how educational institutions tailor their communication content on Facebook and Instagram to meet the expectations and needs of their target audience. The analysis includes content evaluation, frequency of posts, user interaction, and integration of multimedia elements. In our research we focused on private school segment from kindergartens, through primary to secondary schools. The paper also presents an analysis of the differences of communication on different platforms (Facebook and Instagram) and their impact on the digital communication strategy of private schools. The results suggest that despite the increasing popularity of Instagram and higher interaction, educational institutions are communicating more on Facebook.

Primary reason for interpretation the paper was the creation of a starting position for setting up e-learning in the structures of the executive forces of the Slovak Republic, which absent in the current dynamic environment. Problems with education arose mainly in connection with the global problem of Europe, such as the influence of illegal migrants, and it was necessary to retrain a large number of police officers in a short time. We reflect on the combined model of LMS Moodle and proctored training through MS TEAMS and their active use in practice. We focused on the efficiency in the number of participants in individual trainings and costs per participant according to the field of training. We compared the processed data with the costs of the pilot introduction of analytical organizational unit providing e-learning and interpreted the positive results in the application of e-learning compared to conventional (face-to-face) educational activities. As a basic (reference) comparative indicator, the costs of educational activities of selected organizational unit of state institution represented by own educational organizations and the number of trained employees for the periods in question were chosen. To measure effectiveness, we set financial—cost KPIs. Our findings clearly demonstrated that it is possible to significantly optimize costs when changing the current form of ICT education to e-learning. The implementation of another educational activities form of education, e-learning, within public institutions, according to the results of the analysis, can simplify and at the same time make education processes more efficient in the context of individual subjects of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic.