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.
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.
Katarina Borisavljević
The implementation of information technology in tourism brings numerous advantages for all participants in the chain of the tourism off er. Traditional tourist agencies also orient themselves towards online business doing via the Internet. On the other hand, the Internet has an infl uence on the reduction in the mediation role of tourist agencies. The subject ma% er of the research done in this paper is the implementation of the Internet in the business doing of tourist agencies with the aim to improve their marketing performances. The aim of the research is the infl uence of the quality of the Internet off er of tourist agencies on the development of the relationships with buyers and the improvement of the image of tourist agencies operating in The Republic of Serbia. The research results presented in the paper have shown that a higher level of the quality of agencies’ Internet off er has a positive infl uence on buyer loyalty, as well as on the image of an agency. The business success of tourist agencies is based on a combined approach of traditional and online business doing.
Marija Kastelan Mrak, Danijela Sokolic and Nenad Vretenar
Industries create specific business settings that exert a backward influence on industry prospects. In this paper, the manner in which two industries – the construction industry and the food and beverage processing industry – have behaved during a crisis period is examined and compared. First, the performance indicators available from statistic sources are compared; then, the panel data of the two subsamples of the largest Croatian firms in terms of capital and employment related to construction and food processing in the period 2005-2014 are subjected to comparison. The provided data demonstrate that the five largest business firms in the two industries have a tendency to employ different business behaviors specific to the industry they are part of. The basic idea behind this research was that industry characteristics are created by individual business firms through their adjusting their behavior, i.e. strategies, organizational design and operation models to perceived industry settings. So, in the longer time period, depending on resource availability at the firm level and the market opportunities in the industry, a dominant pattern of the business model will evolve. The research showed differences in the rate of the activity and business demography during the observed period. There is also evidence of different business models being employed in construction and food processing. However, at this stage of our research, we have not been able to establish a relationship between the business model employed and the firm´s or industry performance.
Milka Grbić
Financial intermediaries have the key role in making a connection between savings and investments. Given the fact that an effi cient transfer of savings into investments is made more diffi cult by transaction and information costs, fi nancial intermediaries are specialized in minimizing the said costs per unit of invested capital. They are also trained to identify productive and innovative investment endeavors which contribute to the growth of real output. Real output growth is the basis for increasing the fi nancial potential, which creates the basis for the development of fi nancial intermediaries. In connection with that, apart from the analysis of the relevant factors making the process of the mobilization and transfer of savings more diffi cult, the theoretical models that put an emphasis on the relationship between the effi ciency of fi nancial intermediation and economic growth are discussed in the paper. The research results are indicative of the fact that the improvement in fi nancial intermediaries’ business doing enables faster economic growth. Simultaneously, the growth of the economic activity increases the scope of the business operations conducted by fi nancial intermediaries. Thanks to the eff ects of the economies of scale that contribute to a reduction in transaction and information costs, the effi ciency of fi nancial intermediations grows.
Violeta Domanović
The shortcomings of an individual application of some managerial innovation models in the domain of management accounting and strategic management in the modern business environment made research into the complementary and integrated application of managerial innovation models inevitable. The aim of the research is to show that the complementary use of the BSC and the ABM in managing enterprise strategy and efficiency eliminates the shortcomings of their individual application. The paper specifies the effects of the application of the BSC and the ABM on the enterprise strategy, particularly emphasizing the role of ICT in the course of implementation, and presents the results of the empirical research into the correlation of the BSC and the ABM regarding the strategy and efficiency of an enterprise. Despite possible problems and limitations, a proper synergic use of respective managerial innovations enables a better implementation of the defined strategies and improves the efficiency of the enterprise in the long run.
Vesna Stojanović Aleksić
Despite the fact that most of the theories and models of leadership are solely focused on the leader as the central figure of the leadership process, there is a need to draw attention to the importance of the followers’ role in the organizational leadership process, which is the main subject of this paper. Newer approaches to leadership provide a framework for the study of a reciprocal influence in the leadership process, in which the behavior of the leader appears as both an independent and a dependent variable at the same time. The aim is to draw attention to the necessity of adjusting leadership styles to the characteristics of the followers and encourage the followers’ active role in leadership, as the basic precondition for the effectiveness of the entire leadership process. The paper reviews the evolution of the role of the followers in organizational leadership through various approaches and models of leadership, from the attribution of potential leadership qualities through the process of attribution, through the followers’ influence in the selection of the dominant leadership style, to the equal participation in the leadership process, reflected in the concepts of servant leadership and shared leadership.