Vladimir Mihajlović
Milena Jovanović-Kranjec
Almost ten years have passed since the reform of higher education in the Republic of Serbia, conducted under the banner of the Bologna process. This paper gives a critical insight into some aspects of changes which resulted in the economization of higher education in the Republic of Serbia, such as the establishment of private universities, ranking and market competition among higher education institutions, the management of universities and faculties in accordance with managerial principles, the issue of the ways of promoting professors to higher positions and the like. The idea to write a paper providing a criticism of some aspects of the economization of higher education is not new. In the last couple of years, a great number of journals and books have been published in the country, the region and abroad, in which authors tried to provide a critical insight into the current state of education in the context of the changes of educational paradigms. The subject of this paper is the economization of higher education in the Republic of Serbia and the analysis of the consequences that occurred in this field due to the spreading of the principles of neoliberal ideology. The final part of the paper emphasizes the fact that university professors need to have a critical attitude towards what educational policy has to offer. Through their intellectual work, a resolute and critical constructive analysis of what an educational policy has to offer, they need to stand up for universities as the driving forces of the highest academic education.
Marijan Cingula
Managerial as well as entrepreneurial skills are necessary for leaders in turbulent global environment. The research goal of this paper is to show how generally accepted entrepreneurial competences fit into modern management activities. Author is seting hipothesis that fundamentals of managerial competences can be recognized in entrepreneurial behavior, so fostering entrepreneurship can improve the management process. The main research question is whether one can talk about entrepreneurship in large and medium-sized businesses, in other words, can one identify the entrepreneurial approach in contemporary management, and can it be expected that today’s managers possess entrepreneurial skills? It is important to recognize that fostering entrepreneurship can improve the process of management and enable leaders to encourage employees to behave in more creative and innovative manner, in order to achieve and sustain competitive position on the market place in a long run.
Piotr Markiewicz, Agnieszka Żbikowska
The article presents the role and place of a competitive strategy in the strategic management of a company. It also describes the basic types of competitive strategies as well as sources of gaining a competitive advantage, including both tangible and intangible resources. In an empirical part, the authors discussed the results of the studies conducted among Polish entrepreneurs exporting products to international markets. Researches related to the conditions of shaping a competitive advantage by Polish exporters on foreign markets. The high quality of products, customisation to the needs and expectations of customers, a quick and flexible response to market signals as well as – to a limited extent – the image of the country of origin proved to be the main features of achieving competitive advantage by Polish exporters.
Snežana Ljubisavljević
The paper attempts to determine the achieved level of internal audit development in Serbian banks, based on the referent Anglo-Saxon literature and practice. Empirical research has included the sample of 14 banks in the Republic of Serbia, out of the 32 banks, with the aim to seek the methods of organizing internal audit and its tasks within them. The subject of this study is to determine how managers and employees in senior positions in the bank understand the role and importance of internal audit. Based on the questionnaire responses, the aim of the paper is to make suggestions for the improvement of this important bank function. The research results indicate that the bank size does not affect the organization methods, responsibility, and tasks of the internal audit of the bank. The achieved level of internal audit development in financial institutions is at a much higher level compared to economic entities, but in many areas, it is behind the internal audit of developed countries.
Violeta Domanović
The effective performance measurement systems are inevitably becoming the condition of companies’ existence in terms of thecontemporary dynamic and very turbulent environment.The effective performance measurement system enables a company to measure and control its performance in accordance with the defined strategy. In thedesigning of the performance measurement system in the contemporary environment, both financial and non-financial indicators reflecting the effects of the key activitiesadding the value of any company should be respected. The introduction of the diversified strategically aligned performance indicators should improve the organizational outcomes by increasing the quantity of the information relevant for making adecision, which is at the manager’s disposal, which makes easierstrategically consistent decisionmaking. The effectiveness of the performance measurement system is influenced by numerous factors, some of which are the subject of the paper research. The aim of the paper is to highlight the significance of the use of multidimensional measures as well as of the specific organizational factors in the process of thecontemporary performance measurement systems implementation.
Aleksandra Praščević
The paper deals with the extent to which the economic policy in Serbia has managed to respond to the economic problems imposed by the global economic crisis and how the restrictions in the form of political instability and political influence, also present before the crisis, influenced the economic policy formulated to combat the crisis. Globally, the economic crisis has resulted in the fact that, instead of the rules in economic policy making, with the key objective of maintaining price stability, now discretion and fiscal policies are being promoted, with the aim of overcoming the problem of unemployment. The significant use of discretion in the economic policy generally imposes the problem of the competence and possible political motives of economic policy makers. It is the limitations of underdeveloped institutions and a wrong model of growth that have contributed to the fact that the results of the economic policy in Serbia have not been significant. Serbia is facing the negative consequences of the measures implemented in the form of high budget deficits, public debt and inflation, while the effects on the economic activity and employment have failed, causing the present choice between rules and discretion.
Jacek Barburski
One of the modes of the measurement of banks’ and their branches’ economic efficiency is constituted by an econometric approach based on stochastic frontier functions. In this approach, the following three basic goal functions can be considered: the cost, revenue and profit functions. This paper aims to present alternative (relative to the standard formula) concepts of the measurement of revenue and profit efficiency constituting an important assessment criterion of banks’ operations. The paper also presents the results of the empirical studies of revenue and profit efficiency, as exemplified by the selected commercial bank. The theoretical part of the paper proceeds from an introduction to present the premises of an alternative efficiency assessment, then the formulas of the frontier functions of revenue and a profit. These are formulas that can exclusively be used under the conditions of imperfect competition between banks. The empirical part focuses on the application of the above models to assess the efficiency of a Polish bank’s branches. The calculations returned the indicators of revenue and profit efficiency and the rankings of the studied sample of branches in three different quarters. Due to the use of an excessively simple assessment method (Corrected Least Squares Method), the efficiency indicators obtained are understated and not accurate enough to lend themselves to further analysis. On the other hand, the rankings prepared on its basis are reliable and can be used for further assessments and comparisons, which should be considered as a meaningful research benefit.
Slavica P. Petrović
The Volume 15, Number 1 of the scientific journal Economic Horizons contains three original scientific and four review papers, and one book review.