Dejan Jovanović and Vesna Janjić
With an increase in the number of the companies that have adopted the ISO 14001 standard, the interest demonstrated in research studies regarding the assessment of the motives for and benefits from the ISO 14001 standard implementation has also been increasing. Nevertheless, in spite of the importance of the ISO 14001 standards, a discussion on their importance and the role of accounting in this process yet remains an open issue among researchers and practitioners. Starting from the above said, the main purpose of the research conducted in this paper is to identify the motives for and benefits from the implementation of the ISO 14001 standard and to examine the role of accounting in the implementation process. The empirical research in this paper was performed on the example of the 33 companies that have the obligation to submit their data on the sources of environmental pollution to the National Pollution Register. The data were collected through a poll of the management of the companies via a questionnaire, whereas the data analysis was performed by using various quantitative statistical methods and techniques, and primarily through the application of descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. The results of the research indicate that the primary motives for the introduction of the ISO 14001 standards are an environmental responsibility, creating the image of a socially responsible company and the improvement of performances, whereas the benefits can be synthesized through the improvement of environmental performances, efficiency and profitability. Also, the results of the research study indicate that the managers of the companies partly recognize the role of accounting in the implementation of the ISO 14001 standard. The main conclusion of the research is that the management of the companies partly recognize the role of accounting in the ISO 14001 standards implementation. The main conclusion of the research is that the management of the companies in Serbia understand the importance of the implementation of the ISO 14001 standards, but not to a proper extent, as well as the role of accounting in that process.
Amaechi Patrick Egbunike and Godsday Edesiri Okoro
Quite a few studies have argued that green accounting does matter to the profitability of a firm; however, little is known about Nigerian firms. To address this gap, this paper seeks to investigate whether green accounting matters to the profitability of Nigerian firms or not. Towards achieving this, an expo-facto research design was adopted and ten non-consumer goods firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange were selected during 2012-2016. The data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of the selected non-consumer goods firms. The data comprised of green accounting (expenses of community involvement and the amount spent on environmental protection) and profitability (return on equity and Tobin Q) indicators. The data obtained were analyzed by using canonical correlations. The study revealed that there was no significant relationship between green accounting and profitability measures among the non-consumer goods firms. The implication is that whether or not firms engage in green accounting, their profitability level remains unchanged. In addition, this provides evidence that the practice of green accounting among non-consumer goods firms in Nigeria is still at its ad-hoc stage. On the basis of the above findings, we proposed that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and corporate entities should, as a matter of fact, accommodate the growing awareness in green accounting and formulate a disclosure requirement aimed at improving the profitability of firms. This will no doubt enhance green accounting practices among firms and in general policies aimed at enhancing their competitiveness in the industry in which they are domiciled.
Slavica Manić, Ljubinka Joksimović and Siniša Zarić
The gender role hierarchy in the Republic of Serbia is an inspirational topic on several grounds: first, this is a specific issue within a wider gender equality problem, which has recently become the priority of structural reforms; second, it is a separate segment of gender segregation, the research issue unjustifiably ignored by the domestic academic community; finally, it is just a piece of the “puzzle” that reflects the situation in the gender inequality field, but exactly the one which neither national nor European statistics provide detailed information for. The above-mentioned reasons represent the basic motivation for writing this paper. In order to determine whether the position of women in science varies according to their position on the career scale, as it usually happens all over Europe, we shall examine the situation in the higher education system in the Republic of Serbia. That is why we apply the methodological procedures of descriptive statistics to the micro-data obtained from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development in order to calculate the following relative indicators: the teaching staff structure by gender and grades across different fields of science and the glass ceiling index. We believe that such a relatively precise insight into the range of vertical segregation could be useful in conceiving future initiatives aimed at the systemic introduction of a gender perspective in the adoption, implementation and monitoring of public policies.
Vlastimir Leković
After the conducted double-blind review procedure and the improvement of the received manuscripts, Issue 1 Volume 2018 of the Economic Horizons contains seven contributions: three original scientific papers, three review papers, and the announcement of the international scientific conference.
Vladimir Senić
With the further development of information and communication technology and a growing use of smart phones, the significance of Geographic Information System – GIS will indisputably continue to grow. This is supported by the fact that in the last decade geotechnology has been identified as one of the fastest growing technologies, along with biotechnology and nanotechnology. Even though GIS is increasingly being utilized in the Republic of Serbia, it appears that its use with some providers of public services is mainly deduced to showing spatial data with quite limited possibilities for a further analysis – which represents the essence of the use of GIS. The paper uses the examples of good practice in the sphere of the health system, public safety, rescue services and local government. The covered examples show that the use of the analytical component of GIS in everyday activities of the mentioned public services can make their work not only more transparent to the public, but considerably more efficient as well. This way, the analytical component of GIS enables decision-makers to improve the management of frequently limited available resources, while proving a higher level of the service quality to citizens as the final users.
Zlata Đurić1 i Bojana Maračić2
The key processes in the business of insurance companies which define the financial viability of their business activities, as the most important element, are the adequate amount of technical reserves. A qualitative assessment of the technical reserves level is the basic support to the management of the key business processes and proper strategic and financial decision-making in order to maximize the viability, profitability, competitiveness, and further development of the company. Based on the data on the operations of an insurance company, within a single line of insurance, different, in practice, most frequently used methods were applied in order to determine the deviation amplitude of the projected amounts from the actual claims. Another direction of research focuses on actuarial practice in non-life insurance companies operating in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The comparative analysis of the obtained projection points to the fact that the chosen methods, commonly used in actuarial practice in the Republic of Serbia, should be monitored and reviewed. The results of the multidirectional research and detection of the existing problems provide a useful framework and a stimulating mechanism, as well as the guidelines to improve the operations and better positioning of insurance in the commercial and economic environment of the Republic of Serbia.
Danijela Tadić and Aleksandar Đorđević
The Performance improvement that leads to an increase in business efficiency, both for the enterprises integrated in the supply chain and the entire supply chain, represents one of the basic strategic management problems. A solution to this problem, among other things, can be obtained by measuring and improving the performance of the supply chain, which simultaneously represents the basic purpose of this research study. The relative importance of performances and the values of their key performance indices are assessed by decision-makers. Their assessments are described by linguistic variables, which are modelled by interval fuzzy numbers type-2. The relative importance of performance is obtained by defining the fuzzy matrix of the relative importance of each pair of performances. The weight values of performances are calculated by means of the eigenvector method. Performance values are calculated by using the fuzzy middle-value operator. The rank of the enterprises, with respect to all of the considered performances as well as their weights, is determined by applying conventional TOPSIS. The ranking of the enterprises integrated in the supply chain can be marked as the main result of the research. On the basis of the obtained rank, appropriate measures can be taken to improve the performance of those enterprises that are rated the worst by respecting all the observed performances. The proposed model has been tested on the real life data from the automotive supply chain operating in Central Serbia.