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.
Amaka E. Agbata1, Chizoba M. Ekwueme1 and Edirin Jeroh2
The study determined how the administration of the Pension Scheme could be perked up in Nigeria through effective management that would reduce fraudulent practices apparent in the scheme. By following the precept of library research via the survey design, a 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire was designed to educe primary information about pension matters from a sample of 435 knowledgeable respondents. The collected data were presented and analyzed. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested based on Multiple Regression Analysis models with the aid of Minitab version 17. The findings show that, despite the provisions of the Act (the Pension Reform Act – PRA), intents for committing Pension Fraud have not reduced to a significant extent. Also, the accumulated assets of pension funds have not been adequately diversified into profitable investment alternatives. Therefore, we recommend that, among other things, amendments should concertedly be made to the PRA to at least discourage acts of pension frauds by instituting severe punitive measures for culprits, while simultaneously inculcating moral ethics among public servants in Nigeria.
Nguyen Thi Nguyet
This paper focuses on the evaluation of the impact of the fiscal policy on the growth of Vietnam at the provincial level. A fiscal policy plays a huge role in a national economy. Policy-makers often use flexible fiscal and monetary policies to achieve the overall goal of economic growth. In order to assess the impact of the fiscal policy instruments on economic growth, integrated analyses combined with quantitative analyses are used in the paper so as to find the relationship between the key expenditure items. The government has an impact on economic growth. The results and methodology will elicit quantitative approaches in policy reviews.
Predrag Mimović
Professor Thomas L. Saaty, a distinguished professor of the University of Pittsburgh, the designer of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP), a new theoretical and methodological approach to the decision-making process, passed away in August 2017.
Slavica P. Petrovic
In addition to the continual endeavors of the Journal Editorial Board aimed at improving the quality of the published contributions, as well as increasing the visibility of the Journal through including it in the referent bases of the academic journals: EconLit, EBSCO, DOAJ, Cabell’s Directories, ProQuest ABI/INFORM, Ulrich’s Web, we point out – particularly in relation to the openness of the Journal for the scientifically valid contributions from abroad – that the five scientific papers written by the authors from abroad (India, FYR of Macedonia, Canada, Vietnam, Nigeria) (33.33% of the total number of the scientific papers published in the Journal in 2017) have been published in Volume 19 of the Economic Horizons, after the double-blind review process and revisions.