Alfred Wong
In order for the EU to achieve its goal of 10% biofuel for all EU motor vehicles by 2020, a substantial amount of biofuel as well as a biofuel feedstock would need to be imported largely from developing countries where the climate is warm and labor is inexpensive. But there may never be sufficient supply to fulfill the evergrowing demand for biofuel for road transportation in the EU, even as motor vehicles are increasingly becoming more fuel-efficient. The constraint to realizing an effective and equitable reduction in greenhousegas emission is the overbearing political economics of neoliberalism. A different remedial strategy is needed to address the dual problems of the excessive uses of motor fuels and greenhouse-gas emission.
Predrag Mimović and Ana Krstić
The measurement and evaluation of performance are critical for the efficient and effective functioning of the economic system, because this allows for the analysis of the extent to which the defined objectives are achieved. Organizational performance is measured by different methods, both quantitative and qualitative. Many of the known methods for the evaluation and measurement of organizational performance take into account only financial indicators, while ignoring the non-financial ones. The integration of both indicators, through the combined application of multiple methods and the comparison of their results, should provide a more complete and objective picture of organizational performance. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a formal framework for solving complex decision-making problems, as well as a systemic procedure for the hierarchical presentation of the problem elements. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a nonparametric approach based on linear programming, which allows for the calculation of the efficiency of decision-making units within a group of organizations. The work is an illustration of the method and framework of the combined use of the multi-criteria analysis methods for the measurement and evaluation of the performance of higher education institutions in the Republic of Serbia. The advantages of this approach are reflected in overcoming the shortcomings of a partial application of the AHP and the DEA methods by utilizing a new, hybrid, DEAHP (Data Envelopment Analytic Hierarchy Process) method. Performance evaluation through an integrated application of the AHP and the DEA methods provides more objective results and more reliable solutions to the observed problem, thus creating a valuable information base for high-quality strategic decision making in higher education institutions, both at the national level and at the level of individual institutions.
Zoran Bogetić, Đorđe Kaličanin and Dragan Stojković
Shopper marketing has lately become a promising business initiative. The distinction between shopper marketing and traditional marketing paves the way for new relations, partnerships, and better results of retailers and suppliers. The paper explains the new perspective of marketing, with the shopper in focus. Retail has been identified as the center of gravity for enterprise cooperation and a new business consensus. The advantages and challenges of shopper marketing are also explained, including tracing the efficient category management model and partnership value creation. In the wake of the development of new category management guidelines, the paper points out the aspect of the institutionalization of cooperation in shopper marketing, as well as the future of multi-channel analysis and customer satisfaction.
Nguyen Duc Thanh and Pham Van Dai
Recent studies have clearly pointed out a decreasing trend of Vietnam’s economic growth in the short and the medium terms. This paper presents a study applying the growth diagnostic method for Vietnam to determine growth constrains. The binding growth constrains of Vietnam are found to include a poor business environment; an underdeveloped infrastructure, especially the transportation network market; failures related to information externalities, learning externalities and coordination failures. Notably, the energy infrastructure could be a vital constraint in a near future, but is not a binding constraint at present. The inefficiency of financial intermediaries and the government’s over-investment could become a binding constraint when the economy returns to its high growth path.
Milan Čupić
The paper presents a theoretical framework for assessing the impact of risk management on corporate value. As the relevant factors that determine this impact, the paper analyzes market imperfections and investors’ risk aversion. The results of the present research indicate that risk management contributes to an increase in corporate value if, under the influence of market imperfections, corporate risk exposure is concave. As an expression of market imperfections, the paper analyzes the costs of financial distress, agency costs, and taxation. The results of the research also indicate that the risk management policy should not aim to minimize, but rather optimize risk exposure, by taking into account the costs of risk management, investors’ risk aversion and the competitive advantage a corporation has on the relevant market.
Jelena Erić Nielsen
The main research purpose in this paper is to perform an in-depth analysis of the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship, organizational learning and knowledge, the topic mostly neglected by academicians so far. The main research objective is to conduct a comprehensive analysis and make a step forward in understanding the nature of interdependencies, expand the knowledge base and offer a more profound answer to the dilemma of how to make an organization more innovative and flexible, by using the internal cognitive potential. Qualitative research incorporates a descriptive study, a comparison and an innovative interpretation of the relevant scientific achievements. The main result indicates that the knowledge implementation results in various forms of corporate entrepreneurship, more specifically the application of technical knowledge, lead to product lines extension, the integrative initiating of a new platform development and the exploitative creating of a new business venture. Knowledge is not only a result of organizational learning and corporate entrepreneurship, but also the trigger of future entrepreneurial activities. The research implications refer to the improved contemplation of the corporate entrepreneurship concept from a theoretical standpoint, while the practical contribution lies in providing recommendations to managers on how to stimulate specific types of entrepreneurial initiatives through corresponding approaches to organizational learning and knowledge. Finally, the potential avenue of research is indicated in relation to entrepreneurship as a learning process.
Maryna Nikonova
The development and implementation of any policy require the creation of preconditions for ensuring the independence of such a policy. In order to provide such preconditions, it is necessary to build up an institutional framework and regulate the key principles of development and implementation of an appropriate policy. the macroprudential policy is no exception, either. The macroprudential policy is a new policy area, which aims to identify, analyze and counter risks to the financial system as a whole, as opposed to traditional microprudential regulation and supervision, whose focus is exclusively on the risks of individual institutions. In many countries, the processes of appropriate legislation and building an institutional framework are ongoing. The article is focused on a comparative analysis of the Serbian and the Ukrainian approaches to macroprudential policymaking. The differences and the similarities between the Ukrainian and the Serbian macroprudential policymaking models are generalized.
Ljubica Komazec and Marko Aleksić
Disturbing media pictures of the deterioration and disappearance of villages in almost all parts of the Republic of Serbia (RS), as a consequence of insufficient progress in the implementation of the paradigm of the rural way of life, desirable and necessary for any community and any economy, are an alarming call to every subject of the society to do whatever they are entitled to and capable of to stop these unfavorable processes. The potentials of a small rural community in RS to survive and develop for its own benefit and for the benefit of the society as a whole have studied in this article. Bearing in mind the fact that relevant social documents have their significance and role in all social processes, but are not a sufficient precondition for their improvement, the authors surveyed and interviewed the local population in the Velebit village about their attitudes, potentials, needs and limitations regarding the establishment of and their permanent involvement in organic agricultural production necessary for the village to survive and improve its economic and social position. The research results show that the inhabitants of the village of Velebit are interested in remaining in the countryside and setting up organic agricultural production, but they need assistance, both advisory and financial, as they lack sufficient capacities for it.
Dragomir Dimitrijević
Financial statements which consist of objective, real and reliable information represent the key basis for making many business decisions. If, when writing financial statements, certain manipulation techniques are used for displaying the best possible results of transactions, the quality of financial reports will be endangered. Many financial frauds have led to a great mistrust in the system of financial reporting and the profession of accounting and auditing, which are often accused of the emergence of fraud and losing trust in the reliability of financial information by many users and economic decision makers. These are the reasons why the paper discusses the techniques of manipulation in financial statements, especially in balance sheets and cash flow statements, since these forms of manipulation are harder to detect and prevent when compared to manipulations of revenues and expenses in the income statement.
Zoran Stefanović
The paper provides an insight into the dominant trends of contemporary evolutionary economics and outlines the important issues related to the articulation of this approach in thinking about the economy. The paper also affirms a proposition on institutions as carrier structures of socio-economic evolution, whose numerous effects at the societal level are decoded through the coordination function. In addition to the market, the process of coordination also employs other non-market institutional structures, whose profile and operational principles are the product of the trajectories of cultural and historical evolution, different among social orders. Projects aimed at the transformation of the economic system are to be sensitized to an objectively conditioned diversity of the institutional structures of the world economy, and in this sense, should be very careful in the installation of „universal” reform solutions.