Interaction of strategic management processes and achieved corporate profitability: Evidence from Croatia

Strategic management can be said to have evolved over time and will continue to evolve. In order for companies to be more successful in their operations, they need a methodological approach to developing a strategic plan. Strategy implementation is a complex process because it is a consequence of complex relationships. In accordance with the above, an empirical study was conducted on a sample of 53 companies in the Republic of Croatia. The subject and goal of the research was to scientifically determine the importance of adopting and implementing long-term strategic plans. The main results of the research are that the degree of implementation of the strategy is not significantly related to the indicators of net profit margin (ROS 0.164) and return on equity (ROE 0.216), while it is partially related to the indicator of earnings strength (TSZ 0.304) but is significant for a successful business. The implementation of the research revealed that strategic planning is an extremely important and significant factor for stable growth and development of the company. The implementation of the strategy has an important contribution to the successful operation of the company.

Okun's law and assessment of stimulus to the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The effects of coronavirus pandemics are omnipresent in the national economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Output and unemployment are probably the most important variables for measuring the negative effects of the pandemics from a macroeconomic perspective. Different organizations, both national and international, have announced their autumn and winter prognoses of these variables for 2020. None of them are optimistic. The Bosnian economy is in the worst situation in the last two decades. International Monetary Fund approved US$ 361 million in urgent support to B&H in 2020 to alleviate the COVID-19 negative economic consequences. This paper aims to investigate the potential economic impact of that financial support with the application of simple arithmetic. In the paper, Okun's law is used as a methodological framework to assessing the effects of the IMF's rapid financial instrument. The relationship between the real economic growth and change in the unemployment rate is estimated for the B&H economy. Findings of the paper show that the IMF financial support effect amounts to about 3.7% of GDP in B&H. Effects on the unemployment rate are estimated to 2.3 percentage points less than what it would otherwise have been. Since the early estimations of the GDP in B&H indicated a deep recession in 2020 this financial support proved to be an insufficient stimulus to the B&H economy. Decision-makers in the country should be aware of their responsibility for providing larger stimulus packages to avoid bad economic and social outcomes soon.

The effect of materialistic and nonmaterialistic motivational factors to employees' commitment to work

The success of each business relies on the employees' commitment to work, i.e., how and in which way employees perform their work. When consumers are offered the same or similar products produced by different companies and at different prices, and when the company's business result greatly depends on the quality of the work done, company management is more interested in securing its employees' full dedication to work. The generally accepted phrase "you get what you pay for" encouraged this research, whose purpose is to determine the strength of the relationship between materialistic and nonmaterialistic motivational factors to employees' commitment to work. This research starts with the assumption that materialistic factors of motivation are more important motivational factors for employees when compared to nonmaterialistic ones. Listed indicators of motivational factors represent independent variables, while the dependent variable represents the indicator 'work satisfaction', which determines the level of employees' commitment to work. The research had 147 participants who work in companies from different industries and different sizes. According to the Likert scale, a structured questionnaire was used to measure the employees' attitudes. Various methods for data processing in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Smart PLS3 program were used: Descriptive statistics of the sample (SPSS); Exploratory factor analysis - PCA analysis of principal components (SPSS): Factor analysis - a test of validity and confidence of the instruments (SmartPLS3); Bootstrapping analysis - testing of the hypothesis (SmartPLS3). The conducted research shows that nonmaterialistic motivational factors, including Interpersonal relations and advancement, statistically significantly influence satisfaction at work, i.e., employees' commitment to the work.

Does the oligopolistic position of banks affect the performance of the banking sector in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The level of banking concentration has increased significantly in the banking sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of the successful completion of privatization, the formation of new banks, the slow transition and rapid liberalization. Rapid liberalization has introduced strong competition in the domestic banking sector on the one hand, while there has been an increased concentration of some larger banks in the system. The main goal of this research will be to analyze the correlation between the basic measures of the oligopolistic position of banks and their impact on improving or deteriorating the performance of domestic banks, such as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIM). The survey period covers the years from 2008: Q1 to 2020: Q4 on a quarterly basis. The following variables were used as independent variables in the model: HHI market concentration index in the context of loans, share of foreign banks in the total ownership structure of banks (FB), bank size (BS) and growth rate of total loans (GRTL).The interdependence of variables in this study was tested via the OLS regression model. The results showed that the foreign-owned Banks (FB) variable has a positive impact on the variable return on Assets (ROA), while the variables bank size (BS) and market concentration index for loans (HHI) have a negative impact. The result also showed that the two variables the growth rate of total loans (GRTL) as well as foreign-owned banks (FB) have a positive impact on the variable return on equity (ROE), while the variables market concentration index for loans (HHI) and bank size (BS) have a negative effect. The third result is that the variable net interest margin (NIM) has the strongest positive impact on the two variables foreign-owned banks (FB) and credit growth rate (GRTL), while concentrations for credit placements (HHI) and bank size (BS) have a negative effect.

Assessing the European Central Bank's unconventional measures: A recursive VAR approach

Unconventional monetary measures utilization has proven to be of great importance in maintaining monetary and economic stability after the Great Recession. However, we aim to test this conclusion through the impact of the quantitative easing implemented by the European Central Bank. Observed through generated shocks in the balance sheet of the Eurosystem as our main variable, we tested whether quantitative easing reestablished economic growth and rose price levels, mainly through lowering borrowing costs for banks, thus helping in the post-crisis recovery. To prove our hypotheses we construct a recursive VAR model estimated in levels using 2014M05-2018M12 data. The model incorporates variables such as the industrial production and the HICP, as output and price level proxies, and financial components such as the EONIA-MRO spread and the CISS index. The results show that the expansion shocks of the consolidated balance sheet have a positive temporary influence on industrial production and the HICP, but the reaction of the former seems to be 2.24 times greater. On the other hand, we find out that quantitative easing has an expected negative impact in widening the EONIA-MRO spread. Furthermore, we could not confirm the theoretically expected accommodative impact on financial stress.

Research on the importance of performance of business excellence of hotel companies in the time of globalization and regionalization

The focal point of the research in this paper is based on examining and evaluating the role and importance of performance of business excellence in the hotel industry in the time of globalization and regionalization. The research conducted in this paper included the views of hotel managers related to each performance of business excellence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The situation with the application of the concept of business excellence in the practice of hotel companies in B&H is not particularly favourable, since this issue has not been addressed at all. Although we can see progress in improving the quality of service provision in B&H hotels, the concept of business excellence has not been sufficiently researched, and therefore not represented in the field of hotel business. Taking into account the previous, the authors came to the conclusion that everything points to the need for adoption and business according to the concept of business excellence, and that its application is necessary to ensure good business results, and thus achieve competitive advantage of each hotel company. Within the elaboration of the theoretical starting points of the observed problem, the methods of analysis and synthesis, i.e. induction and deduction, were used, with the necessity of using a systematic approach in the research. In the empirical part of the research, statistical methods of univariate analysis (descriptive statistical analysis), bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis were used. The collected data were processed with the help of SPSS Statistics 20.0.

Corporate income tax burden for SMEs: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the economic development of both advanced and developing countries. Some earlier research showed that taxation and compliance costs have a significant effect on economic growth, development and performance of the business sector. For this reason, our research focuses on tax compliance costs imposed on the SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), which is a transition and post-conflict country with a complex tax system structure. This complexity is particularly highlighted in the direct taxation system, hence the focus of this research is on corporate income tax (CIT) compliance costs. Our methodology is based on simulation of tax compliance costs between different entities in B&H - Federation of B&H (FB&H) and the Republika Srpska (RS), as well as measuring the effective tax burden for SMEs in B&H and the region. Our simulation of the CIT return of a company "X "in line with the entity law suggests that the effective tax burden is higher in RS than in FB&H entity. This is further confirmed with the effective tax rate formula applied in the second part of the research using data from the AMADEUS database. This result has an important policy implication for the fiscal authorities in B&H, as very often public discourse goes in the opposite direction to our finding.

Marketing activities and sales of Macedonian wineries in a condition of pandemic Covid-19

Covid-19 has implications on the overall operation of Macedonian wineries and directly affected the decline in domestic sales and export to international markets. The HORECA sector stopped working completely or partially in all countries. The crisis affected the partial or total cuts of marketing costs, by postponing or cancelling planned projects. The wineries failed to sell the planned quantities and were forced to make significantly lower purchases for the 2020 harvest than in previous years. The paper presents a large number of data received from the Association Wines of Macedonia, Customs Office of the Republic of North Macedonia, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy of the Republic of North Macedonia, State Inspectorate for Agriculture, Internet articles containing topics relevant to the research. The additional data presented were collected from Macedonian wineries through a questionnaire on operations during the corona crisis. This paper provides an overview of the problems faced by Macedonian wineries during the corona crisis in terms of marketing and sales, primarily in international markets and analyzes the declined average price and reduced investment in marketing.

The role and the importance of competencies for the employability of University graduates

The goal of this work is to explore the effects of various factors that affect the employment of graduates of the University of Zenica. Additional analysis of variables as well as the links between variables will offer the input information that can contribute to the decision-making process in the development of new curriculums. The survey was conducted in Zenica-Doboj Canton, which involved n = 47 respondents. To process data, the following programs were used: Microsoft Excel, SPSS and SmartPL S3 - SEM program. The verification of the validity and the reliability of the measuring scale was carried out by calculating the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The review of the set of the hypotheses was carried out by the Regression analysis. The findings revealed that three hypotheses were accepted and one of them was rejected. The set hypotheses confirmed that the adopted expertise of graduates, the level of acquired skills and cooperation of the University with companies has a statistically significant impact on the employability of graduates. The organizational skills of graduates do not have a statistically significant impact on the employability of the University of Zenica graduates.

Bilateral trade trends and patterns of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Case of trade with Turkey

A country's trade pattern reflects its supply (export) and demand (import) specialization indicating national performance and competitiveness in the foreign as well as in the domestic market. By applying two different concepts of trade specialization (one based on traditional trade theories of comparative advantages and the other based on modern trade theories), complemented with the analysis of export-import flows and relations, the paper aims to identify characteristics of the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) in its bilateral trade. The paper investigates trends, patterns and variations in the trade of B&H with Turkey during the eleven-year time frame (2009-2019), with special regard to identifying industries with revealed comparative advantages and industries with dominancy of IIT. The analysis employs different indicators such as indices of export composition, sectoral diversification/concentration, IIT intensity and structure, quality of exports and imports based on relative unit values and classification of industries by technological intensity. The research results indicated an unfavourable position of B&H in trade with Turkey, with no prominent changes in the observed period. The trade deficit is constantly present, with low export-import coverage and a declining export trend. The analysis revealed a higher level of export product concentration primarily on low value added products, and comparative advantages of B&H in fewer industries, mainly resource-based or medium-technologically intensive. Trade with Turkey is extremely inter-industry trade, viewed both at an aggregate and industrial level, also pointing to B&H's low competitiveness in analyzed trade relations.