Identifying the system of value factors of green consumer choice

Implementation of SDGs is the unified goal of 193 UN Member States. FinTech plays a crucial role in achieving it. Therefore, the development of FinTech must be facilitated through proper policy-making and public finance, creating beneficial PEST conditions. However, the interaction of the FinTech PEST environment and achievement of SDGs is a topic that has not yet been addressed. The purpose of this study is to assess the link between these two indicators using statistical methods, indicate SDGs having the strongest link to FinTech PEST environment, and explain the interface to facilitate its useful application within government and financial regulations, as well as administration of the state and municipal financial entities. The results show that the economic and investment potential of Northern Europe is caused by the most favorable PEST environment for FinTech sector development, and demonstrate the existence of a statistical link between FinTech PEST environment and SDG4, SDG8, SDG9, SDG16. There is a clear trend – the more favorable the FinTech PEST environment, the better the achievement of SDGs, the better results of Sustainable Finance indicators, and the higher the Sustainable Finance typology assigned to the country. These results suggest that the goals, targets, and indicators of SDG4, SDG8, SDG9, and SDG16 contribute to the formation of a favorable environment and are conductive to the sustainable development of the FinTech industry in a country. Therefore, sustainability in the development of FinTech industry and finance, and the achievement of SDGs, is a circular process of three interacting factors.

Nowadays a great deal of attention is paid to corporate governance (CG). Frequent takeovers of ownership rights by management bodies led to a need for business owners to establish clear rules for business management and compliance monitoring. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between selected characteristics of the governance process and the ability of governing bodies to perform their core tasks, as well as to model and predict the impact of the selected characteristics of the governance process on the company’s financial performance, measured by the year-on-year change in return on equity. The respondent sample consists of members of randomly selected top management entities with their headquarters in Slovakia. A total of 132 subjects participated and answered questions in the survey, 54% of which were joint stock companies, 36% were limited liability companies and 10% were respondents from cooperatives. Data were personally collected by a questionnaire survey conducted during 2019. To verify the assumptions and success of the formulated model, correlation analysis, binary logistic regression and other relevant tests were used. The results show that each of the examined board process attributes significantly affects at least one board performance attribute. All significant correlations have a positive value. Independent variables in the ROE regression model increased the estimation rate of ROE change from 54.5% to 93.9%. The model is applicable in the CG practice and allows the prediction of changes in ROE with respect to ongoing governance processes.

Acknowledgment
This paper has been supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of Slovak Republic under the project VEGA No. 1/0749/18 “Research on the application of corporate governance principles in companies in Slovakia”. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Scientific Grant Agency of The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for financial support of this research and publication.

Job satisfaction covers all factors affecting a particular work activity. Gender is one of the internal job satisfaction factors. The purpose of the paper was to find job satisfaction differences related to gender in selected characteristics of employees working in the engineering sector. A questionnaire method was used to conduct the survey. Questionnaire items were selected from the questionnaire developed by Paul E. Spector (1994) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). The respondents were employed in a Slovak engineering company, and the sample consisted of 60 respondents with balanced basic and specific characteristics. Paper questionnaires were distributed to the respondents while observing all the ethical rules of the survey. The results are expressed in means, standard deviations and p-values. In addition, a two-sample t-test was used. It was found that job satisfaction is perceived differently by male and female workers in the areas examined. Statistically significant differences were established in the areas of remuneration, recognition, and use of one’s abilities at work. Statistically insignificant areas of job satisfaction include meaninglessness of work, experiencing happiness at work more than others, and satisfaction with the relationship with supervisors.

Acknowledgment
The paper was written under the project Multiplier Effects of Human Capital Quality on Economic Performance and Competitiveness of the Slovak Economy and supported by the Grant Agency VEGA of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic [No. 1/0357/21].