Milena Jakšić
The Editorial Board of the Economic Horizons scientific journal thanks the reviewers for their critical, objective and argumented valuation of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board in 2023.
The subject matters of the research studies conducted in the manuscripts belong to the significant fields of economics, business economics, management and the thematic fields complementary with them. The competent representatives of the academic community mentioned below in this overview critically valued the manuscripts and thus supported the Editorial Board to improve the total quality of the Journal through the double-blind peer review process.
Given the fact that the Journal’s editorial policy is directed towards the continuous improvement of the quality of the published manuscripts, the reviewers’ constructive comments helped the Editorial Board to make decisions on the acceptance of the papers to be published and in their categorization. The reviewers’ concrete objections and suggestions also significantly helped the authors to improve the quality of their manuscripts as an important condition to meet in order to continuously improve the quality of the Journal.
Marko Selaković1, Nikolina Ljepava2, Shannon A. Bowen3, Yicheng Zhu4, Elina Erzikova5, Brett Robertson3
Márton Gosztonyi
This study explores the socioeconomic dynamics between entrepreneurship and traditional employment within the framework of the semi-periphery of the European Union, specifically focusing on Hungary. A mix of the ridge, LASSO, elastic net, and polynomial regression techniques are used so as to analyze a representative 2022 dataset, examining how individual self-perceptions and local socioeconomic environments influence employment types. The analysis made in this study reveals that, while entrepreneurship and traditional employment often exist on a continuum, they are influenced by the distinct socioeconomic and perceptual factors that contribute to a fluid employment landscape. The key findings indicate significant variations in how entrepreneurs and traditional employees perceive local economies, trust in institutions, and view their personal roles within the economic system. The study reveals critical details in the interplay between personal aspirations and a broader socioeconomic context, suggesting a complex, intertwined relationship that challenges traditional dichotomies between employment types.
Marko Đogo1, Dragan Gligorić2 and Marianne Berecz3
With its nominal GDP USD 177.3 billion in 2022, the Hungarian economy is roughly equivalent to the economies of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, combined. Yet, these three countries are among the five most important Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (B&H) trading partners in exports and imports, while Hungary only ranks eighth among B&H’s most significant trading partners. By applying the gravity model, it was found that the basic gravity model (which takes into account only the size of the economy and the distance) is insufficient to explain the volume of trade between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. Actually, the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina was once a member state of the Former Yugoslavia still has a significant impact on explaining the international trade of Bosnia and Herzegovina, simultaneously indicating the importance of historical, cultural, and political ties between the countries. The results obtained in this research study pertaining to the ten most significant trading partners of Bosnia and Herzegovina also suggest that the distance between the major cities more strongly influences exports than imports. Taking into consideration the size of the Hungarian economy and the distance, these results suggest that the trade volume between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary is far below the expected level.
Vladimir Dženopoljac1, Amer Rastić2 and Aleksandra Dženopoljac3
The paper examines how intangible assets, measured as the Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC), impact the margin and return ratios of the most profitable companies in Serbia. Previous research has demonstrated that intangible assets have a positive effect on the company’s profitability across various contexts, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Serbia as well. This research study aims to determine whether intangible assets have a positive effect on the four ratios, namely the Net Profit Margin (NPM), the Earnings Before Interests, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization margin (EBITDAm), Return on Assets (ROA), and Return on Equity (ROE) or not. In the study, a sample consisting of the data collected from the official publication of the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) covering the period from 2017 to 2020 is used. The sample includes the 72 most profitable firms after excluding those not meeting the VAIC requirements. The findings of the study are indicative of the fact that intangible assets do have a positive impact on all the four ratios (NPM, EBITDAm, ROA, and ROE), which implies that companies in Serbia should prioritize investing in intangible assets so as to enhance their profitability and competitiveness.
Vladislav Radak1, Aleksandar Damjanović1, Vladimir Ranković2 and Mikica Drenovak2
Capital requirements for the market risk exposure of banks is a nonlinear function of the expected shortfall (ES), which is calculated based on a bank’s actual portfolio, i.e. the portfolio represented by the bank’s current holdings. To tackle portfolio optimization with respect to the ES, a genetic algorithm (GA) is used in this paper. The paper examines the effectiveness of a specific GA technique, namely the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2) for portfolio optimization when the expected return (the mean) and percentage ES are set as the optimization goals. In addition, the differences between the mean-ES optimal portfolios and the mean-VaR optimal portfolios obtained by using the same optimization algorithm is analyzed in the study. The results document that the SPEA2 method provides well-distributed portfolios along the efficient frontier covering different risk levels. Compared to the mean-VaR optimal portfolios, the mean-ES optimal portfolios document superiority over the entire efficient frontier in the mean-ES plane. Concurrently, the converted mean-ES portfolios seem to converge towards the mean-VaR portfolios in the mean-VaR plane and nearly coincide for the high levels of the expected return.
Milan Čupić and Stefan Vržina
Despite exports having been the subject of academic attention for decades, associating exports with firm performance is unclear. Previous studies have produced two opposite theories. The learning-by-exporting hypothesis states that exports improve firm performance due to knowledge transfers from foreign markets to exporters, on the one hand, whereas on the other, those advocating the self-selection hypothesis argue that firms with better financial performance are more likely to export. This paper aims to examine the relationship between exports and the performance of firms in Serbia. The results of this research study show that exports are statistically significantly associated with productivity, this finding being robust to changes in the productivity measure and the sample size. Associating exports with firm profitability, however, is sensitive to changes in profitability measures. In addition, the research results are more typical of the manufacturing sector. Several reasons for the poor performance of Serbian exports and several recommendations with respect to that are offered in this paper.
Marsellisa Nindito1, Ilya Afianti2, Poppy Sofia Koeswayo2 and Nanny Dewi Tanzil2
This study investigates the impact of related-party transactions on financial statement fraud in the Indonesian publicly listed firms grounded in agency theory. The research study is aimed at examining the need for good corporate governance in order to uphold reporting integrity. This research applies a quantitative approach and a sample of 500-unit data from the companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in the period from 2017 to 2019 is analyzed using logistic regression models. This study also utilizes moderating regression analysis so as to investigate the moderating roles of institutional ownership and independent commissioners in the research model. The study results have revealed that related-party transactions and institutional ownership significantly affect the likelihood of the financial statement fraud occurrence in Indonesia and that institutional ownership can moderate the impact of related-party transactions on the likelihood of the financial statement fraud occurrence. This study provides the empirical evidence on the role of related-party transactions and corporate governance in shaping the quality of financial statements in emerging economies.
Milena Jakšić
Upon conducting the double-blind peer review process, the Issue 2 Volume 26 Year 24 of the Economic Horizons scientific journal contains four original scientific papers, two review papers, a review of the scientific conference and the Acknowledgement to the reviewers of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal in the year 2023.