Vladimir Dženopoljac1, Amer Rastić2 and Aleksandra Dženopoljac3
The paper examines how intangible assets, measured as the Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC), impact the margin and return ratios of the most profitable companies in Serbia. Previous research has demonstrated that intangible assets have a positive effect on the company’s profitability across various contexts, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Serbia as well. This research study aims to determine whether intangible assets have a positive effect on the four ratios, namely the Net Profit Margin (NPM), the Earnings Before Interests, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization margin (EBITDAm), Return on Assets (ROA), and Return on Equity (ROE) or not. In the study, a sample consisting of the data collected from the official publication of the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) covering the period from 2017 to 2020 is used. The sample includes the 72 most profitable firms after excluding those not meeting the VAIC requirements. The findings of the study are indicative of the fact that intangible assets do have a positive impact on all the four ratios (NPM, EBITDAm, ROA, and ROE), which implies that companies in Serbia should prioritize investing in intangible assets so as to enhance their profitability and competitiveness.
Milan Čupić and Stefan Vržina
Despite exports having been the subject of academic attention for decades, associating exports with firm performance is unclear. Previous studies have produced two opposite theories. The learning-by-exporting hypothesis states that exports improve firm performance due to knowledge transfers from foreign markets to exporters, on the one hand, whereas on the other, those advocating the self-selection hypothesis argue that firms with better financial performance are more likely to export. This paper aims to examine the relationship between exports and the performance of firms in Serbia. The results of this research study show that exports are statistically significantly associated with productivity, this finding being robust to changes in the productivity measure and the sample size. Associating exports with firm profitability, however, is sensitive to changes in profitability measures. In addition, the research results are more typical of the manufacturing sector. Several reasons for the poor performance of Serbian exports and several recommendations with respect to that are offered in this paper.
Teodora Tica, Bojana Vuković, Kristina Peštović and Ivana Medved
The paper aims to analyze the influence of the selected financial determinants on profitability as a key determinant of corporate performance success. The sample includes 473 joint-stock companies in the Republic of Serbia that were actively operating in period 2017-2021. Panel data evaluation revealed the presence of a significant positive influence of the company size, growth, and cash flow on profitability, as well as a significant negative influence of the capital and asset structures. In contrast, the influence of liquidity and a tax shield on profitability is statistically insignificant. The obtained results primarily serve the management who can consider the indicators of the business done by joint-stock companies in order to improve profitability and ensure proper resource allocation. They are also useful for investors in planning investment and operational activities with the aim of a more effective and more efficient achievement of profitability goals. The results are also aimed at other stakeholders who want to create a profitability growth and corporate performance strategy directed towards ensuring long-term growth.
Maja Putica
The objective of the current paper is to study the influence of the selected business and institutional determinants on the annual effective tax rates in banks in Serbia. Panel data regression models are applied on 113 observations, covering the period from 2017 to 2021, where the accounting and current effective tax rates are used as a measure of the actual tax burden. The results show that the effective tax rate in banks in Serbia is significantly below the statutory level. Furthermore, for each data set, the coefficients of changes in the effective tax rate are calculated, and the most adequate model is selected using the Hausman and Breusch-Pagan tests. In the first model, the biggest change in the effective tax rates is caused by change in leverage, merger and acquisition processes and the bank size. The presence of loan loss provisions in the model completely highlights the impact of profitability and leverage. Finally, in the last model, banks with a profit before tax can manage effective tax rates and tax burdens by regulating capitalization levels. The results of this study are of interest for economy creators and for business managers in banks, helping them in effective tax planning and managing the results.
Khadijat Adenola Yahaya, Ramat Titilayo Salman, Abubakar Kolapo Abdulsalam and Adesanmi Timothy Adegbayibi
This study is aimed at evaluating the impact of human resource accounting for the profitability of Nigerian listed conglomerate companies. The secondary data used in the study were collected from the audited annual reports of the six conglomerate companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the period from the year 2010 to 2019. The panel regression technique was adapted for the purpose of the analysis of the collected data. The results show that the cost of staff training and staff development, changes in employees’ salaries and post-employment benefits have a positive significant impact on the profitability of the Nigerian conglomerate companies. The study then concludes that human resource accounting positively contributes to the profitability of Nigerian conglomerate companies and provides the recommendations reading that Nigerian companies should invest more in their employee training and development.
Violeta Todorović, Jasmina Bogićević and Stefan Vržina
Income tax management includes a set of activities aimed at the legal minimization of income tax liabilities. Due to the tax law flexibility and cross-country differences in income taxation, banks may be in a position to significantly reduce their tax burden. An objective of the paper is to calculate the effective income tax burden of banks in the Republic of Serbia and examine the impact of income tax on banks’ operations. A research study conducted on a sample of banks between 2010 and 2016 shows that the effective income tax rate in banks is well below the statutory rate, mostly due to the use of government tax incentives. Furthermore, 25% of the observations have an effective tax rate of 0% despite the reported pre-tax income. The latest increase in the statutory tax rate in the Republic of Serbia has not had an impact on bank leverage, either in the short or long term. This may be an indicator that tax shield effects are not considered when the statutory tax rate is relatively low. The paper also finds that the effective tax rate is not correlated with bank profitability.