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The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the rapid accumulation of bank deposits before the global financial crisis and their subsequent drastic reduction was the main driving force of the Cyprus house price cycle over the period 2006–2015.

To this aim we estimate a three-equation model in which house prices are determined by housing loans, among other factors, and housing loans are determined by bank deposits. All equations are estimated using partial adjustment model specifications.

Our findings indicate that housing loans, which capture the effect of credit availability on housing demand, had the smallest effect on house prices, thus providing little support to our proposition of a deposits-driven cycle in house prices.

The main limitation of the study is the use of the housing loan stock instead of the actual volume of housing loans in each period due to lack of such data. As a result our econometric estimates may not accurately capture the magnitude of the effect of housing loans on house prices.

The study has important practical implications for policy makers as it highlights the importance of availability of credit in supporting effective demand for housing during periods of economic growth. Furthermore, it highlights the key role of house price increases in combination with the collateral effect in driving the house price cycle.

This is among the few studies internationally and the first study in Cyprus that attempts to link econometrically the credit and house price cycles that were caused by the global financial crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the viability of the ecological furniture niche markets in Greece and Cyprus. More specifically, the authors investigate the current demand on ecological furniture, business strategy and planning in introducing eco-furniture products in Greek and Cypriot market. Finally, particular emphasis lays on the analysis of the barriers regarding decision making of Greek and Cypriot enterprises in order to incorporate ecological furniture into their current activities.

Based on three distinguished hypotheses, the study seeks to draw attention to the critical factors which will impact decision making on such products development within the severe crisis. Using a prototype questionnaire, specifically structured for the aim of the research, the authors collected data from 36 Greek furniture enterprises, 25 Cypriot ones and 24 sectoral experts and relevant institutes in Greece and Cyprus. The questionnaires were selected in 2012, which were further elaborated and statistically analyzed with SPSS ver 17.0 after they were tested for their content and construct validity, managing to verify the hypotheses.

The study reveals an increasing sensitivity for environmental issues and an effort to combine it with the emergent green markets. Green strategies can lead to significant competitive advantages for Greek and Cypriot furniture firms, especially after the recovery of the long-lasting recession. Furniture manufacturers believe that environmental issues are tightly related to consumer behaviors and social image, expose a real interest for the environment and consider green strategies as a major way to differentiate. The firms of the sample focus on raw material and processes adapted to suit environmental requirements. On the other hand, these issues constitute major barriers to apply such strategies together with business risk and the lack of knowledge regarding the requirements of environmental sustainability.

The research bears certain limitations such as the sample size and the fact that results are based mainly on perceptions of entrepreneurs/managers. Thus, there are certain questions on objectivity and generalizability. Furthermore, the market aspect is examined through the lens of the entrepreneurs and experts and not the consumers themselves.

The present research explores the why and how furniture companies turn green constituting a useful basis to encourage close collaborations of companies to academia, design and research centers introducing eco-friendly practices and relevant innovations. It contributes to the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and the micro-level understanding of micro- and small companies’ reaction to this phenomenon focussing on the furniture industry. It can act as a catalyst toward the development of extensive networking among the furniture sector in both countries, which assists the diffusion of information as well as of a pertinent culture on eco-products and the development of new business models in the sector.

A major contribution is that it can constitute a useful basis for policy makers at governmental and institutional level in both Greece and Cyprus to propose solutions to critical issues such as sector survival, crisis – survival, unemployment, along with environmental care and awareness. It can further encourage close collaborations of companies to academia, design and research centers for the sustainable development of the sector through eco-friendly practices and relevant innovations.

The research is the first to question the significance of eco-conscious strategies for furniture firms at national level in Greece and Cyprus. It seems that it has indirectly contributed to eco-furniture culture development, since it has caused a fruitful brainstorming among sectoral entrepreneurs and offers solutions to the existing “cul-de-sac.”

Studies have shown that economic expansion is characterized by the activities in the productive and industrial sectors. And, recently, the Republic of Cyprus has consistently experienced a relative economic growth. In this light, the current study revisits the dynamics of the housing market and its fundamentals for Cyprus using the quarterly data from 2005Q1 to 2016Q4.

Producer price and industrial production indices were employed along with the gross domestic product per capita and urban population as control variables. The empirical technique employed is the dynamic and fully modified ordinary least square approaches where unobserved factors are potentially controlled.

Empirical evidence of long-run relationship exists between the observed indicators and the house price. Indicatively, statistical evidence reveals a positive and significant long-run relationship between the producer price index and the house price. In a similar manner, there is a strongly significant but a negative long-run nexus of industrial production index and the house price. And, expectedly, the observed long-run nexus of the house price and each of real gross domestic product per capita and the urban population is positive and significant. Interestingly, there exists significant unidirectional Granger causality from each of the independent variables to the housing price. Lastly, the robustness check and the diagnostic test of the investigation suggest a very consistent result and stable model with no problems of serial correlation and heteroskedasticity.

The fragility of Cyprus's housing market suggests the need for the adoption of an effective policy framework.

Although the housing market has been studied in the context of the Republic of Cyprus, the novelty is hinged on the joint incorporation of the industrial and producer price indices in a housing model of the study.

This paper aims to explore the perceived negative emotions of both customers and frontline service employees (FSEs) during intercultural service encounters (ICSEs); and the building and utilization of corresponding knowledge in the banking sector.

To reach the paper’s goal, a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews conducted in the context of the banking industry is developed and presented.

The findings presented and discussed the “perception of emotion” and the building of corresponding knowledge about ICSEs. Specifically, FSEs and foreign customers were found to be capable of perceiving negative emotions, both their own and of others. The authors further identified an array of emotions and feelings that facilitate the understanding of how ICSEs can be managed and improved. The findings finally highlight the degree and nature of the importance of building and storing knowledge on ICSEs soft processes, which are termed a key asset for service companies.

An encounter between a service provider and a customer of different cultural backgrounds can become complex and critical. Despite this, there is not enough empirical evidence neither on the socio-psychological processes that take place during these encounters nor on how different ethnic groups develop interpersonal trust within the service sector. This research offers empirical insights regarding the means of detecting emotions and of improving the quality and management of knowledge on ICSE.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of a speculative attack on the Turkish Lira in the North Cyprus banking sector during the period 1984‐2002.

A mutivariate logit model is the empirical methodology employed in this analysis that allows us to identify the determinants of the probability of bank failure. In the model, the existence of contagious currency crises is constructed as an index of exchange market pressure, which is a weighted average of changes in interest rates, international reserves and the nominal exchange rate.

The empirical result reveals that the a speculative attack on the Turkish Lira in 1994 and 2001 put stress on banks operating in North Cyprus and led to banking sector distress. The findings also suggest that bank‐specific weaknesses, high interest rates, high credit, low trade and the fixed exchange rate policy significantly increased the bank fragility.

For further research this paper may better distinguish contagion if it uses economic and financial ties from Turkey that are practically susceptible to bank failure in North Cyprus.

This paper presents a practical application of a currency crisis model in the North Cyprus banking sector. In addition to the risk of currency crises, risk under fixed rate regimes, interest rate risk, trade risks and credit risk are also used to encourage correct risk management behaviour in the North Cyprus banking sector.

This analysis would appear to be the first systematic evidence that investigates the effect of a speculative pressure on Turkish Lira in the North Cyprus banking sector.

This paper aims to use a risk management approach for re-profiling of sovereign debt. It develops profiles that trade off expected cost of financing alternative debt structures against their risk. The risk profiles are particularly informative for countries facing sovereign debt crisis, as they allow us to identify, with high probability, debt unsustainability. Risk profiles for two eurozone countries with excessive debt, Cyprus and Italy, were developed. In addition, risk profiles were developed for a proposal to impose debt sanctions in the Ukrainian crisis and it was shown that the financial impact could be substantial.

Using scenario analysis, a risk measure of the sovereign’s debt – Conditional Debt-at-Risk – was developed, and an optimization model was then used to trade off expected cost of debt financing against the Conditional Debt-at-Risk. The model is applied to three diverse settings from current crises.

The methodology traces informative risk profiles to identify sustainable debt structures. Interesting, although tentative, conclusions are drawn for the countries where the methodology was applied. Cyprus’s debt sustainability hinges on current International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections about gross domestic product growth and small deviations can push debt into unsustainable territory. For Italy, our analysis provides evidence of debt unsustainability. Common assumption of debt by eurozone member states could restore sustainability for Italy. Finally, it is shown how a proposal to impose debt sanctions against Russia for the Ukrainian crisis could have significant financial impact for Ukraine.

Additional work is needed to calibrate the simulation models for each country separately. Nevertheless, the direction of the results is such that more careful calibration will most likely not alter the conclusions but make them stronger instead.

The results provide significant insights for the management of sovereign debt for Cyprus and Italy. They also show the significant positive impact on Ukrainian public finances from debt sanctions. However, the most important practical implication is to show how the proposed methodology provided a decision support tool for restructuring and rescheduling sovereign debt for crisis countries.

There is widespread acceptance that debt restructuring has been too little and too late in recent crises failing to re-establish market access in a durable way. How to develop risk profiles for alternative debt structures has been illustrated. Debt profiles that are unsustainable can be identified, with high probability, and alternative structures proposed that restore sustainability. The methodology proposed in this paper is providing a useful tool of analysis. The topic of debt relief is currently debated widely at policy circles by the IMF and the United Nations, and the analysis of this paper provides some insightful input to the debate.

The use of scenario analysis for sovereign debt modeling and the use of an optimization model developed by the authors in previous research provide empirical analysis for three current problems in sovereign debt management. Useful insights are obtained for three important real-world cases for Cyprus, Italy and Ukraine.

The article develops a model to interpret the 2010–2018 financial crisis in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus, and the loan programs from the IL (International Lender; i.e. the European Union, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund).

For each country, an isoelastic utility with constant relative risk aversion is assumed. For the IL a Cobb Douglas utility is assumed with consumption, the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to debt ratio, and market stability as inputs, accounting for time discounting. This article applies two methods to assess the empirics. The first method considers the IL's strategy as a whole over the 2010–2018 period. The second method assumes that the IL maximizes its utility in one period to determine its optimal loan, accounting for the empirics in that period, and the debt in the previous period.

For the first method, when the output elasticity in the IL's Cobb Douglas utility is high favoring consumption, the IL prefers offering a higher loan than its actual loan. Otherwise the IL prefers to offer no loan. The output elasticity at which the IL prefers to offer a loan is lowest for Greece, second lowest for Cyprus, third lowest for Portugal, and highest for Ireland and Spain. A high loan to Greece over a larger range of the output elasticity for Greece's consumption is supported by Greece being prioritized through the loan program. For the second method, the IL prefers to offer no loan to Greece which is too burdened with debt. Thus, the first method seems preferable, considering the entire duration of the crisis holistically.

The article offers a novel perspective of how to assess debt crises, enabling the IL to weigh various factors such as consumption, GDP, loan offered, and each country's debt to credit markets.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how national and regional authorities in south-east Europe in a period of crisis perceive and set in motion research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3) and the options that these strategies offer to overcome the current fiscal and development crisis.

The paper starts with a literature review on the guiding principles of smart specialisation strategies and the differences from previous rounds of regional innovation strategies. Evidence on smart specialisation efforts is provided by cases studies in Greece, Slovenia, and Cyprus, focusing on the elaboration of such strategies in three countries with precarious innovation systems under severe conditions of crisis. The case studies are organised around key aspects of the smart specialisation logic, such as the selection of specialisation priorities, bottom-up governance, private sector leadership, and engines of innovation and competitiveness.

The paper explores the obstacles encountered in running effective RIS strategies under crisis conditions. The paper highlights the main challenges to address, such as the readiness and credibility of public authorities to design and implement sound RIS3 strategies, the willingness of companies to be involved in strategic planning, the availability of private investment funds, innovation and diversification during a crisis, and the drivers of specialisation that could lead to competitiveness and growth. In the conclusions the paper identifies three routes towards smarter productive diversification and five critical stages in the entrepreneurial discovery process.

The paper has both practical and theoretical significance. It focuses on the main challenges of smart specialisation and offers guidance in the elaboration of RIS3 in peripheral EU economies. On the other hand, it proposes a model for the entrepreneurial discovery process, based on the assessment of areas and futures of productivity and added-value increase, as productive diversification and crisis exit route.

This study aims to explore the strategies adopted by tourism and hospitality businesses in North Cyprus during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis also points to sustainable tourism approaches that could be adopted in the post-Covid-19 period.

Qualitative methodology was used to collect detailed information from 20 tourism and hospitality business owners operating in North Cyprus.

The findings illustrate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism and hospitality operations in North Cyprus and reveal how businesses have coped and responded to these challenges. Some operators have been able to adapt and their actions provide indicators for a sustainable tourism business model in North Cyprus.

The study draws on the experiences of business owners and reveals how they have sought to sustain their operations during the uncertain conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The findings of this study could assist government agencies in the construction of sector-specific support programs for tourism and hospitality businesses.

The adverse effect of Covid-19 on tourism and hospitality operations is a current topic that needs to be analyzed. This study draws on the experiences of practitioners to analyze the competitive strategies used by tourism and hospitality businesses in North Cyprus.

In this chapter, we investigate race discrimination and race equality policies in the workplace at two interrelated levels of analysis in Cyprus. At the macro-national level, the effectiveness and implications of the present legal system is evaluated, and the chapter discusses whether it brought about the desirable results of safeguarding a fairer and efficient legal system, eliminating any kind of discrimination at the European Union (EU) level. At the meso-organizational level, the chapter refers to the results of research presenting a number of organizational policies and practices that safeguard or hinder the inclusion of migrants at the workplace.