Dejan Trifunović
In this paper, we present the problem of matching students to schools by using different matching mechanisms. This market is specific since public schools are free and the price mechanism cannot be used to determine the optimal allocation of children in schools. Therefore, it is necessary to use different matching algorithms that mimic the market mechanism and enable us to determine the core of the cooperative game. In this paper, we will determine that it is possible to apply cooperative game theory in matching problems. This review paper is based on illustrative examples aiming to compare matching algorithms in terms of the incentive compatibility, stability and efficiency of the matching. In this paper we will present some specific problems that may occur in matching, such as improving the quality of schools, favoring minority students, the limited length of the list of preferences and generating strict priorities from weak priorities.
Danijela Despotović1 and Slobodan Cvetanović2
For a few last decades, economists have been showing a continuous interest in doing research in the key factors of regional growth and the developmental convergence (divergence) of the region. However, beside the wealth of theoretical and empirical research in the mentioned categories, it is obvious that there is still no generally accepted explication of the key factors of regional growth. The same conclusion can be borne in mind in relation to the existence of the connection between the accepted economic growth of a country and a tendency to increase, i.e. decrease regional inequalities. The paper presents a theoretical explication of a) the key factors of regional growth and b) the phenomenon of developing the convergence (divergence) of the region, five representative theoretical approaches to the regional economy (classical, neoclassical, endogenic, new economic geography and spatial innovation systems). The current economic reality on the global plan which speaks of an increasing regional inequality confirms the accuracy of the theoretical considerations of the representatives of the contemporary theoretical approaches related to the analyzed issues.
Slađana Savović
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are the important mechanisms through which companies can achieve growth, gain access to new markets and diversify their activities. Although companies engage themselves in M&As with optimism, empirical evidence shows that many M&A transactions are not successful. Therefore, research is often focused on the identification of the ways to improve post-acquisition performance. One of the key success factors of M&A is to provide adequate transformational leadership during the process of change, especially in the critical phase of the post-acquisition integration. A transformational leader should provide incentives and support to the employees in order for them to accept changes and focus on achieving challenging goals. This paper explores the impact of the different dimensions of transformational leadership on the post-acquisition performance based on the example of a company operating in the Republic of Serbia’s retail sector, which was the subject of a cross-border acquisition. In order to ensure the adequate representativeness of the sample, a questionnaire was distributed in all parts of the company throughout the Republic of Serbia. The results of this study show that all the dimensions of transformational leadership positively impact post-acquisition performance. The “individual consideration” dimension of transformational leadership has the strongest impact on post-acquisition performance, whereas the “intellectual simulation” dimension has the weakest.
Srđan Šapić
In terms of modern life, consumers have an increasing number of options when it comes to choosing a restaurant when they do not wish to eat at their homes. Fast food restaurants represent one of those options. In addition to domestic fast food restaurants, the development of global restaurant chains is also noticeable. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that affect the evaluations of products and services and the intentions of users in terms of using the services of fast food restaurants. In relation to that, it is important to analyze the factor of cosmopolitanism and tradition. Cosmopolitanism, as the willingness of people to cooperate with other cultures and tradition, and tradition, as a reflection of respect for the customs and ideas that are imposed on individuals by their culture or religion, affect consumers’ intentions and their willingness to use the services of foreign fast food restaurants. In accordance with that, the purpose of this research study is to determine if and how cosmopolitanism and tradition affect the evaluations of products and services and consumers’ intention concerning foreign restaurant chains and domestic fast food restaurants of both the local and the family types. The results of the conducted empirical research show that cosmopolitanism positively affects the evaluations of the products and services of foreign restaurants and that tradition positively affects the evaluations of the products and services of domestic fast food restaurants.
Slavica P. Petrović
Issue 2 of Volume 19, Year 2017 of the Economic Horizons scientific journal contains two original scientific papers, two review papers, a preliminary communication and the acknowledgements to the reviewers of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal, in 2016.
Vlastimir Leković
Meri Boshkoska
The objective of this work is to analyze the real state in the field of the Macedonian Health and Social Policy, the pension system and human security at work. This type of analysis will make it possible to deduce certain conclusions and recommendations about accomplishing a higher level of general human security in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The results of this study enable us to conclude that, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, living expenses have been permanently increased, the unemployment rate is high and the average minimum wages paid in the region are the lowest, which all contributes to profound poverty in the country. It is also necessary to revise the laws and regulations in the field of workers’ health and security, make urgent changes in order to ensure the sustainability of the pension system and also start the reforms that will provide a sustainable and efficient health care system.
Jatinder P. Singh
The metamorphosis of business processes and corporate strategies is rapidly progressing across the globe. The critical role of intangibles in corporate performance is receiving its due recognition. Complex tradeable financial products are flooding financial markets. In attempts to gear up for the challenge of financial reporting in this upstaged environment, standard setters have substantively restructured reporting systems, with ‘fair value’ being the bedrock thereof. Moving away from the traditional ‘revenue/expense’ matching measure of income towards the ‘asset/liability’ measure together with the adoption of the Hicksian concept of income is clearly discernible in the pronouncements and ongoing projects of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (hereinafter referred to as FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (hereinafter referred to as IASB ). In this article, an attempt is made to analyze the issues that are controversial and equivocal, or those that need further refinement insofar as fair value accounting is concerned.
Vladimir Mićić
Experience and good practice show that, in order to achieve economic growth and development, changes in the economic structure need to be made. They have an influence on the relative share, place and role of certain activities in the economy and they are the driver of sustainable economic development. Efficient structural changes are related to the capability of an economy to create more propulsive economic activities. The subject matter of the research in this paper is the determination of the degree of the determination of the economic development of the Republic of Serbia by the sectoral structure of the economy. The research goal is to indicate the adequacy of the size of and contribution of the sectors to the creation of gross value added and the total employment, i.e. the influence of the size, intensity and directions of changes between the sectors on the economic development. The research results are indicative of the fact that the achieved level of the development and low growth rate of the economy of the Republic of Serbia are the consequence of insufficiently comprehensive and intensive changes, changes that are late and are not stable. The future development of the economy will directly depend on the speed of changes and the creation of a modern sectional economic structure, especially the development of a propulsive manufacturing structure or “4.0 industries”.
Dragan Petrović, Zoran Stefanović and Ivan Marković
Behavioral models are a useful instrument of the analysis of interdependent impacts of the institutional structure and macroeconomic trends. Their role, among other things, is reflected in presenting the advantages and disadvantages of different interpretations of economic reality, associated with the subjective perceptions of the possibilities of the adaptation of economic actors to the requirements of the existing institutional structure. Having in mind the fact that the economic decision-making process is an integral part of macroeconomic and broader social ontology, as well as the different opinions regarding the basic features of behavioral models, the subject of this work is focused on trying to determine their theoretical relevancy and practical foundation. Special attention is paid to the phenomenon of the realism of behavioral models in order to analyze their instrumentalist importance for the implementation of the policy of asymmetric paternalism in conditions of uncertainty.