Vladan Ivanović
Searching for an institutional structure which enables economic success is in the midst of the practical efforts of governments all around the world, as well as the academic studies endeavoring to understand the sources of success in the most prosperous national economies. The supremacy of the German economy in the European Union, as well as worldwide – from the level of the GDP per capita to high productivity, innovativeness and export performances – is the basic motivation this study rests on. Due to the fact that, unlike a failure, an economic success is always achieved in the long run, this study is aimed at revealing the (historical) institutional roots that have paved the way for the economic success of contemporary Germany. In that context, the model of the Social market economy, i.e. the competitive order (Wettbewerbsordnung), its meaning and importance in solving the allocative equation and reaching the high levels of economic efficiency are the subject matter of analysis in this paper. The key results refer to the identification of the diverse economic and social benefits that a competitive order brings into being, as well as the determination of and pointing to the essential institutional preconditions which such an order is feasible in.
Marko Slavković, Goran Pavlović and Marijana Simić
The transformation of a capital-intensive to knowledge-driven economy has marked the beginning of a new epoch in business doing. Carrying out business activities in an extremely dynamic environment has greatly reduced the importance of traditional concepts and techniques, which is the reason why the focus has shifted to human resources and their management. Accordingly, a company should attract, retain and motivate its employees in order to ensure a high level of their satisfaction by ensuring the achievement of strategic goals. A possible direction of achieving the desired position is based on the development of the employer brand. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine the impact of practice in conducting employee recruitment activities on their satisfaction, as well as the influence of the employer brand as a mediator on the identified relationship between the recruitment and satisfaction of employees in Serbia. The results of the conducted empirical research study have proven the existence of a statistically significant positive influence of employee recruitment on satisfaction, while the mediating influence of the employer brand has also been fully confirmed.
Joshua Solomon Adeyele
The inability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access funds from financial institutions has been identified as one of the major problems limiting their expansion horizons. This study assesses the criteria and mechanisms used by financial institutions when granting loans to SMEs. The data were sourced from the relevant financial institutions and analyzed by using different statistical tools. One of the findings revealed that the financial ratio and the internal control system accounted for 28.7% of the part of the conditions for granting loans to SMEs. Similarly, good working capital and the ease of asset conversion accounted for 94.5% of the criteria used by financial institutions to extend credits/loans to SMEs. Also, the educational background of SMEs’ operators significantly influenced the financial institutions’ choice of SMEs to finance. Based on these findings, the study recommends that there is a need for SMEs’ operators to align their business activities with financial institutions’ lending criteria.
Edvard Jakopin
Are the transitional countries of SEE trapped in institutional transition or not? The institutional transition that has been lasting for almost three decades, and almost two decades in the Republic of Serbia, initiated the rapid destruction of the institutions of the previous political and economic system, but the construction of new market institutions has been slow, inefficient and partial. The Republic of Serbia lost the three decades of economic growth and development, which, as evidenced by economic law, takes twice as much time to restore the system to the previous equilibrium of the length of the time which the system is located in off-balance. The average 3% growth in the seventeen transition years is insufficient to compensate for the enormous backlog of the 1990s. The contribution of the research study to the work focuses on the analysis of the interdependence of economic growth and institution building. A special viewpoint is aimed at the corruption factor destroying institutions in all transition countries, reducing their economic growth and productivity, and negatively affecting the attractiveness of FDIs.
Vlastimir Leković
In Issue 2 Volume 20 Year 2018, eight contributions are published: three original scientific papers, three review papers, a book review and the Acknowledgements to the reviewers of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal for publication in 2017.
Dejana Zlatanović
The Fifth International Scientific Conference entitled Contemporary Issues in Economics, Business and Management (EBM 2018) will be held at the Faculty of Economics, University of Kragujevac, on November 9 and 10, 2018.
Nenad Janković
During the 20th century, the dollar gained the status of the world’s most important currency. Therefore, the Bretton Woods International Monetary System was based on the dollar. However, in the 1970s, the situation changed significantly – demand for dollars declined, the currencies of the most important European countries became convertible, the volume of international trade increased greatly, international capital flows were liberalized, the external convertibility of the dollar to gold was abolished, and the currencies began to fluctuate. In this way, the original Bretton Woods international monetary system ceased to exist. In addition to the changes, the functioning of the international monetary system is greatly impacted by the fact that the United States recorded an increasing amount of current account deficits from year to year and, in the 1980s, moved from the position of the net creditor to that of the net debtor, that the euro was created on the soil of the EU and that China became the world’s largest exporter and one of the largest (if not the largest) world economies. For this reason, the theoretical assumptions of the international monetary system are systematized in the paper, the role of other world currencies is examined, and the question of why the dollar continues to be the dominant world currency is answered.
Rade Stankić, Biljana Jovanović Gavrilović and Jasna Soldić Aleksić
Education has always been a driving force behind economic prosperity. However, this has become especially important in a globalized knowledge- and new-technology-based economy. The research presented in this paper focuses on the relationship between ICT, population education, and economic growth and development. The analysis of this relationship is based on the latest data collected from relevant national and international institutions. The results obtained from a survey conducted at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, are also analyzed. The paper highlights the challenges faced by the education systems in general, and the education system of the Republic of Serbia in particular, confronted with the new wave of technological innovation which is fundamentally changing the nature of work and imposing new requirements with regard to the necessary knowledge and skills. Our research results indicate that ICT and education have been recognized by the Government of the Republic of Serbia as the important determinants of economic and the overall social development.
Jelena Nikolić
Starting from the normative approach, a decision as the outcome of the decision-making process should represent a rational choice made by a completely informed decision-maker. With the development of the behavioral perspective of the decision-making process, certain mistakes in decision-makers’ behavior have been noticed, emerging as a consequence of their limited cognitive capacities and the information asymmetry. The application of heuristics as simplified mental strategies, as well as certain deformations in decision-makers’ thinking and perception, leads to the different biases that affect their attitudes and approach to problem solving. The aim of the research study is reflected in identifying the biases that most often occur in the decision-making process, as well as their causes and consequences. The qualitative methodology of the research has been applied in parallel with the relevant methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction. On the basis of the conducted empirical studies, the recommendations for overcoming biases have been defined, which represents the main result of the research study. The derived conclusions with respect to the possibilities of overcoming biases can help decision-makers to improve the decision-making process in real situations.