European Journal of Business Science and Technology, 2024 (vol. 10), issue 2
Towards a Metaverse Shopping Revolution: A Mixed-Method Study on Factors Influencing Consumers’ Intentions to Adopt Metaverse as Shopping Marketplace
Lisa Hofmann, Yaser Al-Dhabyani, Erdal Arslan
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):129-155 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.013 
This study aims to understand the factors influencing consumers' intention to adopt the metaverse as a marketplace for physical products and the role of trust specifically focusing on the generation aged 18–28. It also explores the moderating role of trust towards the company Meta in these relationships. An exploratory sequential mixed-method research design was employed to develop an encompassing conceptual model, enhance hypothesis formulation, and validate findings through triangulation. In the first phase of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with professionals and students (n=11), and in the second phase, Likert-type questionnaire...
(Out)smart the Peer Group in Market Comparison: Building Business Valuation Multiples by Machine Learning
Veronika Staòková
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):156-172 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.011
Traditionally, market comparison requires identifying a peer group, which still poses unresolved practical difficulties today. This research seeks to provide valuable insights into the practicality, efficiency, and accuracy of machine learning in valuing a company. It employs a state-of-the-art machine learning technique, Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDT), to predict the valuation multiple directly. A yearly dataset of U.S. public companies from 1980–2021 was used. The most common multiples (EV/EBITDA, EV/EBIT, P/E, and EV/Sales) were tested. The performance of GBDT was assessed against an industry-based method. GBDT consistently outperformed...
Improving Automated Categorization of Customer Requests with Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing
Filip Koukal, Franti¹ek Daøena, Roman Je¾dík, Jan Pøichystal
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):173-184 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.010
In this paper, we focus on the categorization of tickets in service desk systems. We employ modern neural network-based artificial intelligence methods to improve the performance of current systems and address typical problems in the domain. Special attention is paid to balancing the ticket categories, selecting a suitable representation of text data, and choosing a classification model. Based on experiments with two real-world datasets, we conclude that text preprocessing, balancing the ticket categories, and using the representations of texts based on fine-tuned transformers are crucial for building successful classifiers in this domain. Although...
Examining the Impact of Organizational and Customers’ Operant Resources on Word-of-Mouth in Preventative Healthcare Service: A Comprehensive Analysis on Children Immunization
Taimoor Khan Mahsud, Mahwish J. Khan
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):185-204 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.009
According to the service-dominant logic, the customer always contributes their resources to service delivery. This study adopts the service-dominant logic approach to social marketing in the context of preventative healthcare services for children immunization and investigates the influence of organizational (administrative quality, technical quality, and interpersonal quality) and customer operant resources (cultural resources, physical resources, and social resources) on word-of-mouth. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test our hypotheses and the evidence indicated that all three quality dimensions of organizational operant resources significantly...
Strategic Media Messaging of Startups and Entrepreneurs Before Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Itzhak Mashiah
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):205-224 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.008
This research delves into effective messaging strategies employed by companies to shape their reputation in anticipation of an initial public offering (IPO). Drawing insights from the analysis of 1162 media headlines encompassing 30 brands during their IPOs on NASDAQ or NYSE, the study offers valuable recommendations for entrepreneurs and startups engaging in rhetorical preparations for an IPO. By synthesizing the examination of successful companies' media framing with pertinent well-known communication frameworks (strategic communication and the PESO model), the article introduces the new 6I's model. This model serves as a comprehensive marketing...
Improving IoT Management with Blockchain: Smart Home Access Control
Andrej Gono, Ivo Pisaøovic, Martin Zejda, Jaromír Landa, David Procházka
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):225-241 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.012
Smart IoT devices, such as lights, locks, washing machines, security cameras, etc., are becoming omnipresent in households and companies across all industries. However, most of these devices communicate over non-secure local protocols or via cloud services where security policies are not transparent. Vulnerabilities may lead to unauthorized access to such IoT devices. Blockchain is a technology that brings security by design and can be exploited also in the area of controlling access to IoT devices. The goal of the paper is to test the use of blockchain with IoT devices to increase the security of device usage while ensuring that the user experience...
Empirical Evidence About Earnings Management Behaviour Under the Covid-19 Period in Algerian Companies
Bilal Kimouche, Hemza Boussenna
European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2024, 10(2):242-257 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2024.007
This study explores the influence of the Covid-19 period on earnings management behaviour (EM) for 150 Algerian companies. The period of study (2018 to 2021) was divided into the pre-pandemic period (2018 and 2019) and the pandemic period (2020 and 2021). The study used two measures for earnings management: discretionary accruals (accounting EM) and abnormal cash flows (real EM). The results indicate that accounting EM decreased during Covid-19 compared to pre-Covid-19. But for real EM, it was the opposite; it has seen an increase during Covid-19. These results have many implications regarding the commitments of various contributors to preparing financial...