Lela Ristić, Nikola Bošković and Danijela Despotović
Sustainable development is one of global imperatives and it involves the harmonization of economic, environmental, and social development goals, with an appropriate institutional support. There are plenty of resources pertaining to the sustainable development of agriculture and tourism, as numerous studies and practical examples worldwide confirm. The paper highlights the example of the Republic of Serbia and can be of use for other countries with similar resource potentials and developmental constraints. Namely, agriculture and tourism in the Republic of Serbia are distinguished by abundant natural and cultural-historical resources, but what mostly lacks are funds for serious investment, as well as a modern and holistic approach to development, so the available resources are insufficiently used. Accordingly, the research aims to point to the necessity of a more creative use of agro-tourism resources, i.e. to the more promising directions of the integral development of agriculture and tourism on sustainable grounds. The paper results highlight the extreme importance of institutional support to agriculture and tourism networking within the concept of sustainable development.
Milan Kocić and Katarina Radaković
In the conditions of the dynamic development of information and communications technology, the traditional way of establishing communication among consumers has significantly changed. As one of several extremely important marketing instruments, word-of-mouth communication has been assuming a new dimension via digital forms of communicating. Having in mind the significance of social media for the formation of consumer attitudes and intentions concerning the purchasing process, the paper is aimed at obtaining relevant findings on the effect of electronic word-of-mouth communication on consumer behavior. More precisely, by using a correlation and multiple regression analysis, whether the quantity, quality and timeliness of information, and the source credibility of electronic word-of-mouth communication affect consumer trust in the area of a wellness offer was examined. A simple regression analysis was applied in order to determine whether consumer trust contributed to purchase intention. The results of the conducted empirical research show that there is a statistically significant impact of electronic word-of-mouth communication on consumer trust and that consumer trust positively affects purchase intention when choosing a wellness package in the Republic of Serbia is concerned.
Emilija Beker Pucar and Olgica Glavaški
The paper reviews the monetary stages and frameworks towards the eurozone (EZ) for emerging EU members. At the first pre-EU stage, three monetary frameworks were identified, whereas at the second pre-EZ stage, the emerging EU members combined ER targeting with the rigid/fixed exchange rate regimes (ERRs), on the one hand, and inflation targeting (IT) with the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), on the other. The last stage of monetary convergence assumes monetary nonautonomy within the monetary union as a rigid ERR, where the ER and monetary policies are sacrificed as countercyclical instruments. Countries with rigid ERRs are more prone to macroeconomic overheating, performing worse under a crisis impact compared to the floaters. The difficulties to maintain stability under a rigid ER environment, such as the monetary union, as well as the inherent vulnerabilities of the EZ, are crucial for the delayed entry of some EU members into the ERM II.
Temitope Olamide Fagbemi1, Taiwo Azeez Olaniyi1 and Ayobolawole Adewale Ogundipe2
Due to the multiplicity and overburdening of Nigeria’s tax system, the economic units in which systemically important banks (SIBs) are included implement the corporate strategies that identify the loophole which minimizes, postpones, or entirely avoids tax payments so as to reduce its negative effect on financial performance. Therefore, this study examined the corporate tax planning and financial performance of systemically important banks in Nigeria. Ex-post facto was adopted as the research design in this study, while Pooled OLS was used to analyze the data. This study has shown that the effective tax rate has a negative and significant impact on financial performance. Thin capitalization has a positive significant impact on the financial performance of SIBs in Nigeria, whereas capital intensity and the lease option have demonstrated an insignificant impact on the financial performance of SIBs in the country. The study concluded that corporate tax planning affects financial performance depending on the adopted tax planning strategies. Likewise, the study recommended, among other things, that the tax authorities should engage in the tax reforms whereby the corporate tax rate is to be adjusted, and that banks should engage in the activities that can reduce the effective tax rate.
Mathew Olasehinde Fashagba1 and Emmanuel Olaniyi Dunmade2
This study is aimed at examining the difference between the retirement benefit of the old, pay-as-you-go pension scheme, and the new, contributory pension scheme (CPS). The data used in the study were obtained indirectly from secondary sources. In the study, the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Pearson Correlation methods are employed, aided by the SPSS for the purpose of data analysis. The study finds that the financial value of the retirement benefit of the old pension scheme is significantly higher than that of the new pension scheme. The study also finds that the benefits of the two pension schemes significantly follow the same trend. The study concludes that the new pension scheme pays out a lesser amount of the retirement benefit than the old. The study provides the recommendations for the efficient management of the investments in the pension fund so as to achieve a sufficient return in order to bridge the gap with respect to the retirement benefit between the two pension plans.
Vlastimir Leković
After the double-blind peer review process and the improvement of the received manuscripts, Issue 1 Volume 21 Year 2019 of the Economic Horizons contains, apart from the Editorial, six contributions: four original scientific and two review papers.
Jelena Nikolić
Numerous challenges and problems in the field of economics and management require various theoretical and methodological responses implying the development of new concepts, methodologies, methods, models and techniques. Given the complexity of contemporary economic and managerial problems, the papers submitted to the International Scientific Conference entitled Contemporary Issues in Economics, Business and Management (EBM 2018), which was held at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Kragujevac on 9th and 10th November 2018, encompassed diverse topics in the following fields: management, marketing, globalization, regionalization, accounting, business finance, information systems and the application of quantitative methods and models in economics and management. So far, this EBM 2018 fifth biennial international conference brought together the largest number of participants, i.e. 127 participants in total, 88 authors being from higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Republic of Serbia, and 39 authors coming from abroad (Poland, Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Marin Peko1, Nikola Komatina2, Nikola Banduka1,2 and Marina Crnjac2
In the course of global trends, the development and application of information technologies have emerged as a valuable source of the economy at both the micro and the macro levels. According to the results of the best practice, the application of a piece of software with failures is known to possibly to serious consequences. The analysis and elimination of potential failures in commercial software is the problem that represents one of engineers’ most important tasks. In this paper, a new integrated model for the evaluation and ranking of software failures is proposed. The cost aspect is integrated into the traditional severity index. The assessment of the severity indices, as well as a possibility of detection, is based on the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis – FMEA framework. The weights of the overall severity index, the occurrence of failures, and the possibilities of detection are calculated by applying the best-worst method. The determination of the rank of the identified failures is given by applying conventional Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution – TOPSIS. The priority of the activities that are undertaken in order to eliminate the identified failures corresponds to the obtained rank of the failures. The proposed model is illustrated by real-life data.