Saša Ranđelović1 and Svetlana Vukanović2
This paper analyses the level of fiscal decentralization and structural characteristics of local public finances in Republic of Serbia with focus on local public investments. Share of central government expenditures in consolidated government spending of 83%, indicates relatively high degree of fiscal centralization. In spite of significant rise in local public revenues in the last decade public investments remained low – amounting to 1% of GDP, which is significantly below EU and Central and Eastern Europe average (1.4 and 1.5% GDP, respectively). Our results indicate large variation in relative size of public investments across LSGs. Most local public investments are focused on roads maintenance administrative infrastructure, while investments in environment and education are low. To tackle local disparities in terms of quality of local infrastructure and to foster economic convergence, development of planning and implementation capacities and introduction of systemic incentives for local public investments should be considered.
e investicija i uvođenje sistemskih podsticaja za lokalne javne investicije.
Dejan Spasic1,3, Mutaz A. Abouagla2 and Vojislav Sekerez1
Developing countries are faced with a lot of challenges in providing high-quality financial reports based on modern accounting regulations and practices. With its specific colonial and postcolonial history of socioeconomic relations, Sudan is one of a few countries that has not adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) either as a mandatory or as a voluntary financial reporting framework. Focusing on a sample of 142 respondents, the attitudes towards the obstacles and possible benefits of introducing the IFRS in Sudan expressed by accountants working in the industry sector are examined in the paper. This research study has shown that Sudanese accountants are highly aware of the needs and benefits of the IFRS adoption. The respondents predominantly agree that the IFRS adoption would increase the FDI inflow, reduce frauds and other unlawful activities, and improve the comparability, reliability and transparency of financial information, which currently is not the case. However, the research shows that accountants in Sudan also express a high degree of skepticism, given the numerous restrictions that they believe would make the introduction of the IFRS more difficult.
Ochuko Benedict Emudainohwo
The extant literature links manageress incentives to earnings management. It has globally accounted for the collapse of some well-known, established firms, since it depicts a low financial reporting quality. This study employed data from the 77 nonfinancial firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the period 2013-2019 in order to examine the determinants of earnings management. The result showed strong evidence of an incentive to manage earnings. Profitability (Return on Assets – ROA) and the size of a firm have a strong positive impact on earnings management, while the non-debt tax shield and operating cash flows have a strong negative influence on earnings management. The study suggests that external stakeholders should observe a firm’s factors influencing its assets, non-debt tax shield and operating cash flows (such as accelerating/delaying cash receipts/payment through the use of credit sales and granting discounts), these being the crucial factors influencing earnings management even when the firm is increasing in size. Management should minimally use the above-mentioned factors of a firm as an earnings management instrument.
Anna Pietruszka-Ortyl
The knowledge workers who form the core of the crew of a modern organization have emerged. They have a unique position in an enterprise, which complicates the incentive system building process and managers’ formal impact on their activities. With a „deep-smarts” status, they adopt the attitudes that restrain or even intentionally hide knowledge flow. Providing support to organizational culture is crucial for motivating knowledge workers to contribute to an organization with their knowledge. This research paper is mainly aimed at identifying knowledge workers’ preferences for organizational culture. The paper focuses on indicating the directions of the development of Polish IT companies’ organizational culture in line with the attitudes of the professionals aiming to stimulate their involvement in the implementation of specific knowledge diffusion subprocesses. The paper is based upon the empirical research conducted on a sample of 105 IT sector knowledge workers in Poland in 2020.
Lilianne Isabel Pavón Cuéllar
As proposed by the current theoretical framework, the fact that the economic growth of a country depends not only on the formation of physical and human capital and the sustainable exploitation of its natural resources, but also on the financial inclusion that allows economic agents to find solutions to liquidity restrictions and channel savings towards productive investment is exhibited in this paper. By matching multiple databases, static and dynamic panel estimates are developed, verifying the robustness of results and the endogenous nature of economic growth. The current research demonstrates that social inclusion is not only the desired result of economic growth, but a required input for its future sustainability.
Vladimir Obradović1, Marko Milašinović2 and Jasmina Bogićević1
Information about the segments of a company is an important basis for making business decisions. In order for decisions based on segment information to be adequate, that information should be communicated in accordance with regulations. This paper is aimed at examining the adequacy of the segment information of listed companies in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia and determining whether the volume of disclosed financial segment information is related to the company size and character of the audit firm. The research reveals that, in general, the disclosure of segment information is not fully in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 8 – Operating Segments and that the joint-stock companies with a higher value of their total assets disclose financial segment information in more detail. However, there is no statistically significant difference in the amount of the segment information disclosed between the companies whose financial statements are audited by large audit firms and those that are the clients of other audit firms.
Radovan Kovačević
In this paper, the adequacy of foreign exchange reserves in the Republic of Serbia (RS) and the factors that influence their accumulation is analyzed by means of an econometric model. The relevant variables, such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) and monetary aggregate M2/GDP are included in the analysis. The unit root tests applied in the research led to the conclusion that the timeseries were integrated of the order I(1). The cointegration test revealed that there was one cointegration equation. The regression model was estimated using the quarterly data for the period from 2002q1 to 2020q3. The estimated cointegration coefficients showed that the economic activity approximated in terms of the GDP had a significant influence on foreign exchange reserves accumulation, which is only followed by appreciation pressure on the dinar (approximated by the REER index) and money supply growth (estimated through the monetary aggregate M2/GDP). In addition to conventional factors, the analysis also points out specific factors and their impact on foreign exchange reserve accumulation in RS. The results of the research study show that foreign exchange reserves in RS are greater than the levels suggested by standard optimality criteria. The findings also suggest that it is necessary to take into account the dividends realized by foreign investors, as well as some segments of portfolio investment in assessing the specific indicator of the adequate level of foreign exchange reserves.
Henry Osahon Osazevbaru
This paper investigates the joint impact of interest rate and exchange rate volatility on the performance of the informal sector in Nigeria, focusing on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The annual time-series data on the exchange and interest rates for the period 1981-2018 were obtained from where exchange and interest rates volatility data were computed. The data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, correlation, a unit root test, an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test for cointegration and the ARCH regression model. The results obtained by the ARDL bound test confirmed the presence of the long-term relationship between interest and exchange rates volatility and SMEs’ performance, which suggests that all the variables of interest move together in the long run. Moreover, the ARCH regression model showed a positive impact of exchange and interest rates volatility on SMEs’ performance. However, only exchange rate volatility was significant. Thus, policy makers should pursue the interest rate and exchange rate regimes that will encourage massive investments in SMEs. This, in turn, would increase the performance of SMEs. Also, the monetary authorities should implement the policies aimed at curtailing incessant volatility in the exchange rate and the interest rate so as to protect SMEs from the external perturbations of the movements of the exchange rate and the interest rate.
Slađana Savović, Dejana Zlatanović and Jelena Nikolić
In line with the open innovation paradigm, technology acquisitions which seek to gain access to new technologies and knowledge are becoming an important strategic tool for enhancing the innovative potential of companies. This research study is aimed at showing how technology acquisitions can help companies be more successful in making an innovation a reality. In that sense, various possibilities of improving companies’ innovative potential after the implementation of technology acquisitions are analyzed in the paper. The challenges that companies are faced with in a period after technology acquisitions are explained and possible ways to overcome those challenges are indicated as well. The results of the conducted empirical research in the impact of technology acquisitions on a company’s innovation are presented. The paper confirms the fact that the process of acquiring technology and knowledge from external sources and the harmonization of external knowledge with the internally developed knowledge base improve a company’s innovative potential. Additionally, the research results show that acquisitions increase the likelihood of innovation in integration companies. Innovations are also made a reality much faster than they would be without the cooperation of companies.
Mirela Mitrasevic1 and Snezana Bardarova2
The subject matter of this paper is measuring the risk of lending to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) from the point of view of the existing banking regulations. The paper starts from the hypothesis that an increase in the transparency of the credit risk measurement process would enable the timely detection of problems and leave room for the actions necessary for the management of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as all creditors, and generate an opportunity for SMEs to provide more favorable sources of financing. In the research study, the well-known Altman Z-Score model was used to assess the probability of default and rank a company. The results of the application of the Z-Score model indicate that, to a certain extent, they can detect the companies in which bankruptcy may occur in the two years following the assessment, on the one hand, but they cannot be considered as reliable for the assessment of the probability of the bankruptcy of SMEs in the Republic of Serbia, on the other.