Nikitas-Spiros Koutsoukis

In this paper we consider whether the potential of Greece's exit (GrExit) from the Eurozone has an impact on Greece's economic adjustment program and vice versa. In particular, we ask the question whether the “GrExit” d iscussion is leading into a Catch-22 situation: Greece is expected to default if it does not follow through with the economic adjustment program, when, at the same time, the economic adjustment program appears to be an unsustainab le strategy for revers ing the Greek economic downfall.Our find ings are based on analyzing the literature regard ing (a) the possibility and consequences of a Greek exit from the Eurozone, (b) the viab ility of the Greek economy given the adjustment program, and (c) the magnitude of the discussion regarding Greece's troubled economy before and during the crisis period.

In 2001, China became a full member of the World Trade Organization. At the same time {EU} Lisbon strategy set out an ambitious strategy for achieving higher levels of economic and political integration among its member-states. In this paper we draw upon empirical data regarding microeconomic and macroeconomic indicators as per the {EU} Lisbon strategy and its updates. The aim

Project management is increasingly being used as a management approach, allowing organisations to focus on goals and objectives-based management of resources, time and cost, like in the typical stand-alone project management scenario. In this context Project Management Information Systems ({PMISs)}, have a valuable role to play as the interconnecting glue between corporate-wide organisation and management and objectives-driven project management. In

ABSTRACT The Greek secondary education system lacks a formal crisis management system. The purpose of this paper is to address this problem as follows: elicit current crisis management practices, outline features for designing a formal crisis management system in Greece. The research is based on a survey conducted with the directors of secondary education and the interpretation of the survey results. Due to the echelon structure of secondary education the directors are experienced educators with plenty of experience. They are in a unique setting to be able to combine the managerial perspective with field experience, both of which are important for managing crises. Our main findings are: First, events of sociopolitical nature are considered as important crisis triggers. Second, there is tendency to expect extended involvement of the state. Third despite the lack of a formal system, current practices are relevant and tend to mimic formal systems. In practice the lack of a formal system does not impede crisis management to be applied in secondary education units.

We argue that culture is an endogenous force of economic development. As such, it should be integrated into the framework of analysis of the dynamics, mechanisms and processes that lead to sustainable development. This shift in contemporary development thought is not random, since the concept of culture has acquired a new dynamism. Development and culture strengthen one another, but also one is a prerequisite for the other. This paper aims at illustrating the need for a composite analysis framework related to the impact of culture on sustainable development, based on dynamics, mechanisms and processes defining the relations between economics and politics, state and market along with values, ideas, principles, perceptions and local culture.

Country rankings and composite indices are often used as proxies to assess a country's functional efficiency along a dimension of interest. The underlying assumption of this effort is that the proxy measure reflects, in essence, the gist or underlying trend of a country's performance in absolute terms or in comparison to other countries. In this paper we explore the world of country-oriented performance indices and rankings. First, we carry out a comparative review for a number of such proxy measures. Second, we carry out cluster analysis to ‘map’ the world through the eyelets of these proxy measures. Taking into consideration the outcomes of this exploratory data analysis, we wonder whether such proxies are mere representations of ‘performance,’ or instigators shaping the global political economy by weighing some characteristics more than others.

Risk management has been progressively evolving into a systemic approach for organisational decision making in today’s dynamic economic environment of the global era. In this context, risk management is reaching beyond its traditional finance and insurance application context and is entering the sphere of generic, organisation-wide management approaches.  In support of this argument we consider four generic risk management standards issued at the institutional, national or international level, and identify their management-related attributes and characteristics.