Research at Webster Vienna

Energy and Economic Growth: New Chapter by Prof. Antonakakis and WVPU Student Yaroslav Usikov

Prof. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Full Professor and Area Coordinator for Economics at WVPU, and WVPU student Yaroslav Usikov have collaboratively published a research chapter titled "Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, and Economic Growth Nexus in EU Countries Over the Period 1995-2020". 

Featured in the "Handbook on Energy and Economic Growth" by Edward Elgar Publishing, edited by Mohamed Arouri and Mathieu Gomes, this chapter employs advanced methods such as panel vector autoregression (PVAR), panel Granger causality, and panel impulse response functions to analyze data from 26 European countries over a 25-year periods.

Their findings provide insights into the relationships between energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth. Notably, the research underscores an N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), challenging the effectiveness of current renewable energy policies in promoting sustainable growth.

This publication exemplifies the valuable contributions of WVPU students and faculty to critical global discussions on energy and economic policy. 

Antonakakis, N., & Usikov, Y. (2024). Energy Consumption, CO2 emissions, and Economic Growth Nexus in EU Countries Over the period 1995-2020, CH 2, in M. Arouri & M. Gomes (Eds.), Handbook on Energy and Economic Growth (pp. 30-62). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Faculty — Business and Management

Faculty and Staff

Professor Bátora published his research on “thought communities” in the European Union

How do citizens in European Union (EU) member states think about the EU? And what are the implications of different ‘thinking styles’ for citizens’ preferences regarding formation of policies, politics and polity in the EU? In a new article published in Journal of Common Market Studies, professor Jozef Bátora from IR Department at WVPU and his co-author Pavol Baboš (Comenius University) use relational class analysis (RCA) and analyze perceptions of the EU as a political order by citizens in six selected EU member states.

The article introduces a new approach to analyzing public opinion about the EU: unlike traditional surveys examining attitudes, the current article can identify ways of thinking - intersubjective cognitive constructs - that people use when forming their opinions about the EU. Based on an online survey (N=6000) of respondents in France, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Italy and Slovakia, the analysis identifies two "thought communities" - statists and pragmatists - which are present to varying degrees in individual member states.

People belonging to individual communities think about the Union on the basis of the same construct, but not with the same preferences: for example, statists include nation-state sovereigntists as well as Euro-federalists - all who use the ‘state’ as a frame of reference. The article analyzes the implications of thought communities for public support of different visions of political integration in the EU.

Faculty — International Relations

Faculty and Staff

Dr. Anthony Löwstedt, Assistant Professor at the Media Communications Department, and Natalia Hatarova, a WVPU strategic communications alumna who is currently pursuing an MA at Central European University, have just published an important article in the Journal of Media Ethics. It is titled ‘Transcultural and Transnational Communication Values: Suggestions for Minimum and Maximum Values as a Common Ground’ (doi: 10.1080/23736992.2024.2333500). 

Löwstedt and Hatarova employ the term “Values” to refer to either principles or single positions, or to certain, defined ranges of positions or principles. The communication ethics issues addressed are incitement, deception, greed, truth, freedom of expression, privacy, and self-regulation. Within each issue, a range of acceptable to good positions  are presented. Incitement, deception, and greed are rejected, but not necessarily completely, the same with affirmation of the other four issues. There are some positions that are excluded from the values, especially prescriptive elitism, sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and heteronormativity. 

Together, the positive values are referred to as a system or code of values, as one that can be found in both the Instruction of Ptahhotep (written 3,890 years ago) and the International Federation of Journalists’ Bordeaux Declaration, one of the world’s most copied and applied media ethics codes, but also in whole or in part in many cultures and general ethical systems. However, these values are largely unconscious as both ethicists and practitioners seem to have stuck to a single normative position on each issue rather than to a range of positions. 

After analyses of samples of communication ethics from a number of major value systems around the world, Confucian, Buddhist, Stoic, Christian, Islamic, Aborigine, Cree, San, Māori, Ubuntu, Kantian, socialist, and liberal, the authors conclude that there is plenty of room for consensus and even more room for agreement. An inclusivist global consensus on ranges of acceptable communication ethics (rather than specific principles) is not an impossibility. It could provide cornerstones for a regulatory system for any kind of communication, including social media, journalism, and AI. 

Faculty — Strategic Communication

Faculty and Staff

A Comparative Study of Stress Experiences Amongst Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Anielle Egekwu, a Master of Arts in Psychology with an Emphasis in Counseling student at Webster Vienna Private University, has completed her master's thesis exploring the comparative stress experiences between undergraduate and graduate students. Her study utilized one-on-one interviews to gather data, which was then analyzed through thematic analysis.

The research uncovered seven major themes including academic stressors, coping mechanisms, and the influence of environmental and cultural factors on stress perception. Egekwu's findings reveal (as hypothesized) that graduate students experience a higher workload and more intense academic pressures compared to undergraduates. An interesting finding was that the nature of stress experienced differed between undergraduates and graduates. For undergraduates, the primary source of stress stemmed more from adapting to university life and university-level coursework, rather than from academic stress directly. Despite these differences, both student groups commonly employed coping strategies such as engaging in leisure activities, seeking social support, and physical exercise.

Egekwu's study provides insights for university administrators and counselors, particularly with regards to the understanding of stress dynamics in academic settings. The research underscores the importance of providing supportive interventions tailored to different student levels, highlighting the need for support systems that address the distinct stressors impacting student well-being and academic success.

Faculty — Psychology

Faculty and Staff