The reasons for and against composite indicators are briefly reviewed, as well as the available theories for their construction. After noting the strong normative dimension of these measures—which ultimately aim to ‘tell a story’, e.g. to promote the social discovery of a particular phenomenon, we inquire whether a less partisan use of a composite indicator can be proposed by allowing more latitude in the framing of its construction....

Vast amounts of new types of data are constantly being created as a result of dynamic digitization in all areas of our lives. One of the most important and valuable categories for business is data from social networks such as Facebook. Feedback resulting from the sharing of thoughts and emotions, expressed in comments on various products and services, is becoming the key factor on which modern business is based. This feedback is...

The main goal of this article is to analyze the social convergence process using Markov chains. In this research, term social convergence refers to the reduction of dispersion in the standard of living among countries. The use of Markov chains in the social convergence analysis allowed describing movements of observational units within the distribution and providing more details about the mechanism of the convergence process. A...

Geographical proximity, common historical roots and collaboration within the Nordic Council make the Nordic countries, often wrongly treated as monoliths. However, in reality, Nordic regions differ in terms of broadly defined social and economic development. Issues concerning the standard of living are one of the priorities of the Helsinki Treaty signed by Nordic countries. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the existence...