Promotion of socially responsible business in transport companies in Serbia

The topic of this paper represents a relatively new and still evolving term of socially responsible business, with a focus on application of this concept to transport companies. The goal of this paper is to formulate, in accordance with results gained from the study, concrete potential guidelines for more socially responsible business of transport companies in the Republic of Serbia. Considering multiple positive effects of socially responsible business, confirmed by numerous study activities and practical examples, as well as the fact that influences on one of the key external dimensions of socially responsible business - the environment - are most directly connected with transport business, and, finally, observing traffic as connective tissue of the entire economic system that gives purpose to all areas of material production, this paper analyses, in addition to the nature of the link between economic and social performance, the degree of application of socially responsible business in transport companies in the Republic of Serbia as well.

Analysis of the tourists' motivation for staying in cities: The case study of the City of Belgrade

This paper presents the results of research on the tourists' motivation for staying in the City of Belgrade. The purpose of this paper is to identify the motives for which tourists usually stay in Belgrade and to examine the existence of statistically significant differences between the motives of tourists depending on their sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, education and origin). The research sample included 250 respondents who had stayed in Belgrade. Belgrade is the most visited destination of urban tourism thanks to the quality and diversity of tourist offer, which can satisfy different motives of tourists. In order to collect primary data, a survey method was applied while descriptive statistical analysis, t-test of independent samples and one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to process the collected data. The research findings indicate that the largest number of respondents stayed in Belgrade due to: business reasons, scientific conferences, visits to relatives and/or friends, sightseeing of the city and nightlife. Based on the theoretical analysis and results of empirical research, the recommendations for future research were also presented in the paper.

Effectiveness of bail-out mechanisms in the Eurozone: Global vs. pandemic crisis

This paper analyses the effectiveness of bail-out mechanisms after the global crisis in comparison to Covid-19 pandemic crisis in the selected Eurozone economies. It seems that in the circumstances of global instability, laissez-faire rules in economy are not enough, meaning that government interventions are desirable and unavoidable. In the Eurozone, the implementation of bail-out programs is related with the problem of a new "impossible trinity" and no-bail out clause. However, the adopted clause on non-use of the bail-out mechanism has had to be ignored several times in the past, and those implementations of bail-outs are focus of this paper. The research is based on descriptive statistical analysis and fixed panel model specification using available data in relation to the bail-out programs in the period 2011-2020 in selected Eurozone economies. The research shows that governments appear to have learned at least three lessons from the global crisis in relation to the bail-out mechanisms: (a) the need for quick implementation of emergency measures, (b) the bail-out mechanism was effective in reducing the fiscal deficit, however, caused an increase in the public debt, and (c) strengthening the fiscal framework of the Eurozone economies by defining supranational fiscal rules remains the essence of a stronger Eurozone and the European Union.

Intention to study digital marketing in the context of expected quality of a study program

Measuring the quality in higher education can be performed on a more general level, usually by adjusting the instruments for measuring the quality of services in general, or through instruments that are related most directly to the study program. In any case, in methodological terms, one should keep in mind the relevant scientific knowledge regarding the treatment of a model that describes the relations of quality and its dimensions. In addition to appropriate theoretical observations, a primary marketing research was conducted in this paper, in order to determine whether and to what extent the expected quality of the study program affects the intention to enroll in it. In this particular case, students of the Faculty of Economics in Subotica (n = 89) evaluated (in June 2021) the expected quality of the master study program Digital Marketing (which is to start at this faculty in the forthcoming academic) and expressed their intentions to enroll in that program. Structural equation modeling was used. The results indicate that the expected quality positively and statistically significantly affects the intention to study the study program. The construct of the expected quality itself is statistically significantly formed by the dimensions of quality in the following order (according to the strength of the impact): Generic Skills, Good Teaching, Clear Goals and Standards, Appropriate Workload, and Appropriate Assessment.

Are digital financial payments constrained by the country's income: Evidence from the Global Findex database

The combined effect of ICT improvement, digitalization and change in clients' habits lead to changes in the financial sector worldwide. Increased use of digital financial services (DFS) is a change that might help to increase financial inclusion, which is particularly important for developing countries. As income is considered a critical driver of digital payments, this study aims to determine whether there is a linear relationship between a country's income measured by the level of Gross National Income per capita (GNI p.c.) and the use of digital payment services, i.e., making and receiving digital payments. We used data from the Global Findex and World Bank databases for 2017 to conduct the research, which covered 141 countries. The presence of a linear relationship between the level of GNI p.c. and the use of digital payments was tested using correlation analysis. The results of the correlation analysis show that there is a significant strong positive linear relationship between the level of GNI p.c. and the use of digital payment services in both segments, i.e., making and receiving payments. Findings are consistent with previous research and confirmed the important role of income as a driver of the use of DFS.

The potential of digital entrepreneurship in Serbia

The development of digital technologies has fundamentally changed all segments of the functioning of human societies and ways of doing business in all activities. Digital entrepreneurship has emerged as a consequence of the development of digital technologies and digitalization. The subject of research conducted in this paper is digital entrepreneurship as a new paradigm of business due to market globalization. The main research problem addressed in this paper is the analysis of the impact that digital entrepreneurship has on business. Within the work, empirical research was conducted, on a sample of 147 respondents, which aimed to point out the potentials that digital entrepreneurship has in the Republic of Serbia. The research conducted in this paper aimed to point out the importance of digital entrepreneurship, as a new business paradigm in global markets, and the potential of digital entrepreneurship in the Republic of Serbia. In addition to a comprehensive analysis of secondary data sources, the results of which are presented in the literature review, the paper also used primary data sources, i.e. the results of research on the potential of digital entrepreneurship in the Republic of Serbia, conducted by the author through an online survey.

The impact of human resource management activities on job satisfaction

Although there are numerous and various factors that can affect job satisfaction, human resource management has been identified as one of the most important causes of job satisfaction. For this reason, this paper analyses the impact of human resource management and its activities on job satisfaction in various organizations in the Republic of Srpska, with the main goal to investigate and determine the existence and nature of the relationship between human resource management activities, as an independent variable, and job satisfaction, as a dependent variable. In order to analyse the observed relationship, an empirical research was conducted on a sample of 738 employees from 283 organizations from the Republic of Srpska. The research was conducted using a specially created survey questionnaire, and the reliability of the created instrument was calculated using the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Based on the results of the research, which were obtained by correlation analysis, the basic hypothesis was confirmed, which proved that human resource management activities have a statistically significant effect on job satisfaction. Also, all additional hypotheses, claiming that individual human resources management activities (recruitment and selection, training, development and rewarding) have a positive effect on job satisfaction, were confirmed.

The use of commercial mediation as alternative dispute resolution tool in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia

For a long time, various companies and organizations have used traditional courts or other legal tools to resolve different complex disputes or problems. However, numerous influencing factors often interrupted this formalized problem-solving approach. In the countries of the former Eastern bloc, under the former Communist system, the Party often acted as mediator. This, of course, has changed totally since the political system has become democratic. Our study investigates conflict-solving styles, procedures and processes in Central Europe - the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The study done in 297 companies in these three countries show that conflicts between individuals, employees and the company are found most often, while problems between the local company and associated parent companies are less frequently found. Regardless of the country, companies have spent at least 10% of their working time dealing with internal conflicts. Some 79% of organizations focus on managing external conflicts for at least 10% of their working time, while around 9% of companies use mediation as a method of resolving conflict. The organizations in the study do not differ from country to country in terms of the use and success of mediation practices.

Financial literacy and the use of financial services in Serbia

Financial services industry has always drawn a lot of attention, from possible investors, those who need financing, the government and general public. Globally, financial opportunities are becoming more attractive, but also more complex. The goal of this study is to analyze the use of financial services in Serbia. We argue that financial education and literacy are preconditions for the use of financial opportunities. Research has shown that people in Serbia are not well informed about how to make sound financial decisions. The reasons why people in Serbia do not use financial products requires to a greater extent and services special attention. In order to test the differences between people in terms of how well informed they are and which services they use and why, we conducted a survey. Our results show that people with salaries higher than 100,000 RSD are well informed but not motivated to invest. Individuals with middle income do not have enough trust and think that they are not well informed about different opportunities. Additionally, we found that men are better informed than women. This paper aims to provide an overview of the use of financial services in Serbia in order to improve financial decision-making processes and understand the different financial opportunities.

Cointegration analysis of stock market index and exchange rate: The case of Serbian economy

Since the late 90's, the existence and direction of causality between the capital market and foreign exchange market have attracted significant attention of theoretical and empirical researchers. This is because both of these financial variables have an indisputable role in the development of each country's economy. In this paper we use Johansen procedure and Granger causality test to examine the existence and direction of short-run and long-run dynamics between the leading stock market index BELEX15 and RSD/EUR exchange rate in Serbia. Using ADF test we find that both series are integrated of order one, and since the value of Johansen trace statistics confirmed the existence of cointegration, we have proceeded with estimation of the VECM model. According to our VECM model, the BELEX15 index adjusts to the long-run equilibrium relationship at a rate of 11.72% in each period, while the exchange rate adjusts to the long-run equilibrium relationship at a rate of 2.73%. We also find that there is unidirectional causality and that the market index influences the exchange rate movements in the short-run in terms of Granger.