Research at Webster Vienna

Drivers of Inflation in Times of Weak Economic Recovery: A New Study by Prof. Workie and Dr. Hojdan

Professor Menbere Workie of Webster Vienna Private University's Business and Management Department, and Dr. David Hojdan from the Institute of Economic Research (SAS) and the Institute of Financial Policy at Slovakia's Ministry of Finance, have co-authored a paper titled "What Drives Inflation in Times of Weak Economic Recovery? Disentangling the Sources of Recent Inflationary Spike in Slovakia", which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economics (Ekonomický časopis).

This study examines the significant inflationary spike in Slovakia during the post-Covid-19 pandemic period (2021 – 2023), contrasting with the earlier era of low growth and low inflation. The authors use an adjusted input-output price model to quantify the contributions of various factors, including production costs, imported consumption, and corporate profits, to the rising consumer price inflation in Slovakia. Their findings indicate that excessive corporate mark-ups, rising input prices, and imported inflation were major drivers of the inflationary surge during this period.

The paper provides broader critical insights for policymakers by highlighting the structural weaknesses within small and open economies, especially their  dependency on external factors such as food imports, which contributed significantly to rising inflation. It suggests that addressing these inflationary pressures will require targeted policies aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of rising costs on real income and overall economic stability. 

^{Reference: Hojdan, D., & Tiruneh, M. W. (2024). What drives inflation in times of weak economic recovery? Disentangling the sources of recent inflationary spike in Slovakia. Ekonomický časopis/Journal of Economics, 72(3-4), 140-168.} 

 

Prof. Dr. Vitaliano Barberio Joins Webster Vienna

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Vitaliano Barberio has joined the Business and Management Department at Webster Vienna Private University. Dr. Barberio’s scholarly work delves into the mechanisms of using language strategically to legitimize organizational change, acquire resources for new ventures, and establishing the structure of nascent fields.

In his most recently published work*, with his co-authors, Dr. Barberio has explored how the leaders of the main British political parties – e.g., Labours and Tories – have used language to legitimize the progressive hybridization of the parties’ ideological identities. Over the last 60 years, in response to the decline of ideology, these parties have increasingly converged towards the center of the political landscape and in doing so started to incorporate in their manifestos a set of claims that used to belong to their opponents -e.g., the Conservatives claiming for welfare expansion etc. The study shows that party leaders relied on specific linguistic styles -e.g., emotional vs. rational – in subsequent stages of the hybridization process characterized by different strategic needs. The study also shows that the use of the “appropriate” language in inward communications favored the success of certain oppositional claims as their appearance in outwards projections of identity – e.g., electoral manifestos.

In his currently under development research, Dr. Barberio studies how different linguistic styles might explain differentials in the funding performance of Kickstarter campaigns. This study also tries to explain whether the same linguistic styles produce different outcomes depending on the level of experience of the entrepreneurs creating the campaign. Preliminary results of this research show that “passionate” language generally associates with better financial performance of campaigns, but in the case of serial entrepreneurs – those who have launched several new ventures on the platform – framing projects with a “familiar” language might be better received by founders.

In the near future, the research of Dr. Barberio will be addressing the role of media framing of “cultivated meat”, to shed light on the challenge of regulators in situations where a new product or technology is developing presenting both business opportunities and threats to preexisting industrial sectors and institutions.  

^{* Arora-Jonsson, S., Wezel, F. C., Karthikeyan, S. I., & Barberio, V. (2024). Losing Their Religion: Organizational Identity Hybridization of British Political Parties 1950–2015. Journal of Management, 01492063241248403.}   

 

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Faculty — Business and Management

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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.

 

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Faculty — International Relations

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Associate professor and head of the communications department, Dr. Bradley E. Wiggins, was recently interviewed by Jorge Fontevecchia, CEO and journalist at Perfil, a major news platform in Argentina. Dr. Wiggins’ 2019 book ‘The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture’ was translated earlier this year into Spanish as ‘El Poder de Los Memes’ or ‘The Power of Memes’.

In the interview, Dr. Wiggins states that “culture is lived in the programmed digital” and explains the impact and saturation of the digital in what we perceive as culture. In his book “The Power of Memes”, he breaks down this new way of producing meaning, thanks to the viral impulse given by social networks and the internet. And he maintains: “This is a new era of political communication.”

 

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Faculty — Strategic Communication

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A Study on Emotional Reaction to Biodiversity and its Impact on Pro-Environmental Behavior

Camille Young, a Bachelor of Arts graduate in Psychology from Webster Vienna Private University, recently completed her thesis examining whether implicit emotional reactions to biodiversity loss influence decision-making related to environmental preservation. With biodiversity loss posing critical threats to global well-being and ecological health, Young’s study aimed to explore how human emotional responses might impact behavioral engagement in biodiversity preservation.

Young’s research utilized a combination of surveys, decision-making tasks, and physiological measures, including the startle response, to assess participants’ reactions to visual stimuli depicting high versus low biodiversity. The study hypothesized that reduced biodiversity would provoke more negative implicit emotional reactions, which would, in turn, influence pro-environmental behaviors. Contrary to expectations, startle response differences between conditions were not statistically significant. However, other physiological data indicated heightened arousal in the low-biodiversity condition. Furthermore, while few direct relationships were observed between emotional reactions and pro-environmental behavior, the findings revealed correlations between connectedness to nature and the startle response, suggesting that individuals’ feelings towards nature shape their emotional reactions.

Young’s work highlights the deep relationship between biodiversity, human emotion, and environmental behavior, emphasizing the need to better understand how emotional responses might drive or hinder pro-environmental engagement.

 

Collaborative Research Exploring the Psychological Impact of Parental Divorce

Noor Nassereddin and Haifa Almatt, both recent graduates of the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology program at Webster Vienna Private University, pursued research theses that explored different facets of the impact of parental divorce on individuals. Recognizing the overlap in their topics, the two students collaborated throughout their work, sharing insights and supporting each other’s investigations into this significant area of psychological study. While both focused on the influence of parental divorce, their studies examined distinct research questions, methodologies, and outcomes.

Nassereddin’s thesis explored the broader effects of parental divorce on the life trajectories of university students. Her research aimed to understand how resilience, coping mechanisms, and family dynamics shape responses to parental separation. Using a mixed-methods approach, she gathered data from 40 participants – 20 with divorced parents and 20 with non-divorced parents – through structured interviews, multidimensional analysis, and thematic analysis. Nassereddin’s findings highlighted the role of supportive environments and personal resilience in facilitating better adjustment to parental divorce, emphasizing that while challenges exist, resilience and family dynamics significantly influence long-term outcomes.

In contrast, Almatt’s thesis focused on the impact of parental divorce specifically on emotional regulation abilities. Her study hypothesized that individuals who experienced parental separation would exhibit lower emotional regulation, reflected in higher negative emotionality and anxiety and avoidance attachment styles. Almatt’s research also involved 40 participants split into groups of 20, with self-report questionnaires, including the Adult Attachment Questionnaire and Big Five Inventory, and demographic data collected through pre-interview paperwork. The results indicated a slight increase in anxiety, avoidance, and negative emotionality scores among individuals with divorced parents compared to those from intact families. However, due to the lack of statistical significance, the findings were interpreted with caution. Almatt also identified notable gender differences, observing that women from divorced families scored higher on measures of negative emotionality, anxiety, and avoidance.

Together, Nassereddin and Almatt’s theses offer a comprehensive examination of the diverse psychological effects of parental divorce, providing insights into its long-term impact on resilience, emotional regulation, and attachment. It is important to emphasize, however, that the findings of these studies reflect general trends observed within the groups of participants in each respective condition (divorced vs. non-divorced parents). These trends should not be interpreted as predictive of outcomes for individual participants.

 

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Faculty — Psychology

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