Suchergebnisse

The issues regarding measuring and managing bank performance are always on the agenda due to the critically important role of banks in the national economies of new member states of the European Union. The goal of the given study is to explore drivers of bank profitability in Latvia and Lithuania. Research period covers 2008–2014. Performance of the banking sector is proxied by profitability ratios. The set of explanatory factors involves financial and non-financial measures. The core research method is a multiple regression analysis. Data processing is performed in SPSS environment. The paper contributes to the scope of knowledge regarding bank performance drivers and the research results provide the basis for the future studies in the related field.

Abstract
The article aims to propose a different approach to assessing smart cities which combines some commonly used indicators with several new ones in line with the concept of sustainability. The aspect of sustainable development as an essential driver for the smart city and the combination of indicators for sustainable and smart city concepts have been analysed fragmentarily so far. There are many different approaches to evaluate the indicators of city smartness; however, very little attention is paid to the analysis of the reciprocal importance of the indicators. Ten indicators representing a smart city were selected that would be keep in line all the three pillars of sustainability—environmental, social, and economic. An expert survey was conducted to assign the weights of indicators using the pairwise comparison approach. The results were processed by utilising the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which reduces the subjectivity in the experts' answers. The presented approach differs from the ones commonly used and while it does not cover a wide range of usual indicators, it proposes some new ideas for further research. Some represent cities to attract young and intelligent citizens, others relate to comfortable and safe living conditions and the environmental situation. The results revealed that the most vital smartness indicators are foreign direct investments, pollutant emission, and the share of people registered as unemployed among the working-age population. These indicators cannot be easily identified as ones representing a smart city, but rather as indicators representing investment and environmental, sustainable aspects. Hence, finding a balance between the indicators related to sustainable and smart city is what highlights the need for further research.