Milena Jovanović-Kranjec
Almost ten years have passed since the reform of higher education in the Republic of Serbia, conducted under the banner of the Bologna process. This paper gives a critical insight into some aspects of changes which resulted in the economization of higher education in the Republic of Serbia, such as the establishment of private universities, ranking and market competition among higher education institutions, the management of universities and faculties in accordance with managerial principles, the issue of the ways of promoting professors to higher positions and the like. The idea to write a paper providing a criticism of some aspects of the economization of higher education is not new. In the last couple of years, a great number of journals and books have been published in the country, the region and abroad, in which authors tried to provide a critical insight into the current state of education in the context of the changes of educational paradigms. The subject of this paper is the economization of higher education in the Republic of Serbia and the analysis of the consequences that occurred in this field due to the spreading of the principles of neoliberal ideology. The final part of the paper emphasizes the fact that university professors need to have a critical attitude towards what educational policy has to offer. Through their intellectual work, a resolute and critical constructive analysis of what an educational policy has to offer, they need to stand up for universities as the driving forces of the highest academic education.
Marijan Cingula
Managerial as well as entrepreneurial skills are necessary for leaders in turbulent global environment. The research goal of this paper is to show how generally accepted entrepreneurial competences fit into modern management activities. Author is seting hipothesis that fundamentals of managerial competences can be recognized in entrepreneurial behavior, so fostering entrepreneurship can improve the management process. The main research question is whether one can talk about entrepreneurship in large and medium-sized businesses, in other words, can one identify the entrepreneurial approach in contemporary management, and can it be expected that today’s managers possess entrepreneurial skills? It is important to recognize that fostering entrepreneurship can improve the process of management and enable leaders to encourage employees to behave in more creative and innovative manner, in order to achieve and sustain competitive position on the market place in a long run.
Piotr Markiewicz, Agnieszka Żbikowska
The article presents the role and place of a competitive strategy in the strategic management of a company. It also describes the basic types of competitive strategies as well as sources of gaining a competitive advantage, including both tangible and intangible resources. In an empirical part, the authors discussed the results of the studies conducted among Polish entrepreneurs exporting products to international markets. Researches related to the conditions of shaping a competitive advantage by Polish exporters on foreign markets. The high quality of products, customisation to the needs and expectations of customers, a quick and flexible response to market signals as well as – to a limited extent – the image of the country of origin proved to be the main features of achieving competitive advantage by Polish exporters.
Snežana Ljubisavljević
The paper attempts to determine the achieved level of internal audit development in Serbian banks, based on the referent Anglo-Saxon literature and practice. Empirical research has included the sample of 14 banks in the Republic of Serbia, out of the 32 banks, with the aim to seek the methods of organizing internal audit and its tasks within them. The subject of this study is to determine how managers and employees in senior positions in the bank understand the role and importance of internal audit. Based on the questionnaire responses, the aim of the paper is to make suggestions for the improvement of this important bank function. The research results indicate that the bank size does not affect the organization methods, responsibility, and tasks of the internal audit of the bank. The achieved level of internal audit development in financial institutions is at a much higher level compared to economic entities, but in many areas, it is behind the internal audit of developed countries.
Slađana Savović
Companies often resort to mergers and acquisitions in order to gain access to new markets, introduce new products, expand their knowledge-base or improve the competitive advantage. Achieving success in mergers and acquisitions represents complex managerial challenges, as a great number of these transactions fail in creating value for shareholders. Post-acquisition integration is the most challenging phase during which value creation should be involved, but which may also involve numerous integration problems. This study puts an emphasis on the success factors of the post-acquisition integration of companies, such as an integration strategy, the composition of the integration team, communications, the speed of the integration process and the uniformity of measurements. A special emphasis is put on the importance of the speed of integration as a success factor of the post-acquisition integration of companies.
Milan D. Milanović and Ana D. Milanović
In this paper, the titles of the most popular professions advertised on the Internet are analyzed for the purpose of identifying those titles which can be classified as a certain type of recent anglicisms. The classification of anglicisms is performed in line with the typology suggested by Prćić (2005), who, based on the form they take, distinguishes between raw, obvious, and hidden anglicisms, indicating the degree of their adaptation within the system of the Serbian language. The following hypotheses are tested by applying a corpus analysis: (1) obvious anglicisms account for the most numerous group of anglicisms in the titles of professions; (2) raw anglicisms account for the least numerous group of anglicisms; (3) the share of anglicisms demonstrates a constant growth within the most popular categories of professions in the period observed in this paper. The presence of anglicisms in the titles of professions, on the one hand, implies that there are certain lexical gaps that need to be filled in so that the register of job titles can be completed, while, on the other hand, it demonstrates an alarmingly increasing number of anglicisms within the same register of the Serbian language.
Predrag Mimović
This paper describes the application of Analytic Network Process (ANP) in the modeling and analysis of various factors and the impact on the forecasting processes in situations when there is a need for the integration of contextual information, which is the result of sudden and unpredictable changes in the environment in which the company operates. The model is applied on a sample in forecasting the sale of a new model automobile Fiat 500 L, and is based on the professional knowledge of experts in automobile market trends, the actual current and projected trends in automobile sale and subjective evaluations of the authors, and in the context of the global economic crisis which signifi cantly aff ects automobile sale in the world market.
Milena Jakšić
Investment funds in different types of financial assets are motivated by investors’ expectation to realize a profit. Since the expected return is not always certain, the investor is faced with a risk of his investment not giving results in accordance with the expectations. Therefore, the consideration of risk by which the concrete placement is hampered should not be neglected or left to intuition. An incorrect risk assessment can result in a lack of the expected return or a loss of a capital investment. The global financial crisis has indicated on the possible absence consequences of the comprehensive risk management, in other words, the inadequate perceiving of all the risks and their interdependencies. In this paper, the system of managing risks including their early identifi cation, assessment, measuring and risk control is analyzed. At the same time, models providing an effective portfolio diversification in the function of reducing an investment risk have been analyzed. It is indicated that risk management requires the process flexibility without strongly relying only on mathematical models that failed to identify the growth of a systemic risk.
Boban Stojanović, Vladimir Radivojević and Tanja Stanišić
An adequate normative regulation isa prerequisite for a successful implementation of the competition policy as a fundament of a market economy is. With current legal solutions in the field of the competition policy, Serbia has provided the necessary institutional framework for the efficient functioning of the market and the establishment of effective competition on it. The effectiveness of this framework is necessary to evaluate through a market analysis, based on the results achieved in creating a climate that encourages the development of competition. The compatibility of legislation with the European Union standards and its practical application are the basic assumptions of the purposeful operating of institutions. The modest results of the competition policy in Serbia impose the need to increase institutional capacity, upgrade the regulation and its conceiving in a manner that will ensure the construction of an efficient market economy. In this sense, the paper analyzes the key elements of the institutional framework that determine the effectiveness of the competition policy. Special attention will be paid to the practical application of this framework, which will be illustrated by a critical review of the manner and method of decision-making by the Serbian Commission for the Protection of Competition in its procedures in monopolized markets.
Slavica Manić and Dragan Azdejković
In the latest report of the World Economic Forum, it is pointed out that the global competitiveness index does not cover the analysis of the drivers of sustainable competitiveness, and that neglecting them can cause the vulnerability of economies to the negative effects of all future “shocks”. Potentially the most problematic ones are demographic questions, especially those concerning changes in the population age structure. Recognizing the importance of demographic trends for “shaping” future competitiveness is the key motive for writing this paper. The main objectives are twofold: a) to review theoretical considerations about the economic consequences of changes in the population age structure; and b) to analyze the characteristics of demographic transition in different regions, as well as its potential effects on the sustainable competitiveness of the economy.