Differentiation of employers as potential partners of higher educational institutions

This paper deals with the ever-increasing issue of bankruptcy prediction in distressed economies. Specifically, the aim of this study is to create a model by establishing a new set of predictor variables, which achieves significant discrimination among listed manufacturing firms in Greece, by using multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA). An equally balanced matched sample of 28 Greek-listed manufacturing firms was used in this study covering the distressed period from 2008 to 2015 (including all firms that went bankrupt between 2008–2015). It is found that the quick ratio, cash flow interest coverage, and economic value added (EVA) divided by total assets are significant for predicting bankruptcy in Greece. The discriminant analysis (DA) model comprised the aforementioned variables and correctly classified 96.43% of grouped cases 1 year before bankruptcy. The adjusted DA prediction model for two and three years before bankruptcy used the same variables and correctly classified 92.86% and 89.29% of grouped cases, respectively. Consequently, this mix of financial ratios achieved strong classification accuracy even three years before bankruptcy, captivating an overall picture of a firm’s financial health and providing a powerful tool for decision making to investors and risk managers in the banking section and economic policy makers.

The pandemic and war in Ukraine have significantly transformed management processes. This has led to increased requirements for managers’ professional and general competencies. Hence, the higher education system should be reoriented, considering new challenges and needs of the labor market. This study aims to identify the demand for current management competencies in the labor market for the positions of state and corporate management specialists and develop a theoretical and methodological basis for updating the standards of higher education in Ukraine. This paper employed statistical analysis and grouping to identify the demand for management skills in the labor market of Ukraine by processing 4,500 job advertisements at job websites. In addition, sociological and expert methods were used to confirm their demand among Ukrainian employers with an expert pool of 101 experts with more than 3 years of management experience. As a result, current management competencies are highlighted. The demand for them is confirmed by the high frequency in job advertisements (expertise in professional activities – 100%, leadership skills – 71%, digital skills – 65%, organizational and communication skills – 59% each, strategic skills – 52%) and by the expert survey. This made it possible to develop a model of management competencies, which is a theoretical and methodological basis for updating the standards. Furthermore, this comparative analysis revealed that there are no specific skills in the standards for master’s training.

The freezing of economies due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused damage not only on the sales side but also on the labor market due to the outflow of staff from companies specializing in the organization of meetings. The return of the meetings industry sector to the development path will involve skillful change management, including in the area of competencies and skills. To inventory and assess the competencies of employees in the meetings industry, this study was carried out among specialized enterprises in the meetings industry in Poland, Hungary, and Ireland, on samples of two research groups, i.e. the Director General (CEO) and operational employees based on questionnaires and individual in-depth interviews (IDI). The obtained results allowed to establish the hierarchy of self-assessment of own managerial competencies, assessment of the competencies of the CEO by the employees, areas of increasing team competencies, and areas of staff development in the sector shortly, contributing to the recovery from the pandemic crisis.
Raising the competencies and qualifications of employees is perceived as one of the most powerful tools for overcoming the pandemic crisis, obtaining 68% positive indications among CEOs in Poland, 77% indications in Hungary, and 84% in Ireland. In all analyzed countries, the meetings industry is indicated as a strategic product of the tourist market. Among the planned long-term actions aimed at overcoming the pandemic crisis, increasing employee competencies is perceived as an opportunity for the companies operating the meetings industry sector (90% in Poland, and 80% in Hungary and Ireland).

Acknowledgment
This study was done in frames of the project “Vocational competences in MICE sector” co-financed in frames of European Union program Erasmus + as part of the program The Dialog for Transformation, Erasmus+, 2020–2021.