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Business owner and manager’s attitudes towards financial decision-making and strategic planning: evidence from Croatian SMEs

Author(s): Marina Klacmer Calopa / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

The main goal of the paper was to explore the attitude of business owners and managers in the small and medium sized companies (SMEs) in Croatia toward financial decision-making and strategic planning. In addition, it is attempted to identify managers’ styles and entrepreneurial skills, as well as the level of their financial knowledge. Data was gathered using online questionnaire method and analyzed with standard tools of descriptive statistics. The research sample consisted of 106 respondents from SMEs in Croatia (14% response rate). Research results reveal that business owners and managers are concerned about financial results but, unfortunately, do not influence the financial decision-making in all of its stages. The study could contribute to a better understanding of attitudes of Croatian SMEs business owners and managers toward financial decision-making and strategic planning.

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Can the European Public Block the Enlargement to the Western Balkans?

Author(s): Anes Makul / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2014

The EU enlargement has been questioned since the first enlargement round. Also, since the start of the global economic crisis, public support to further enlargement decreased significantly. Whether a turnaround in this trend will occur depends on whether there will be changes in several main dimensions. The EU and its member states, as well as the candidate and potential candidate states, need to improve their economic performances and provide opportunities and perspective to their younger generations. The political and economic performance of the newest member states, Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia, is a significant indicator that can shape the public opinion on further enlargement. The candidate and potential candidate states should be further encouraged and supported in their fulfilling of the accession criteria. The EU institutions and national governments should develop policies to explain to citizens the implications of further enlargement.

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Career Planning Tendencies of Students: An Implementation on Students of Karabuk University Business Faculty

Author(s): Fatih Bayram / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

Almost 150 of the approximately 200 universities in Turkey have a faculty of management, which is also commonly named as faculty of administrative sciences and economics. Approximately 500 thousand students graduate from these departments each year and they step into the business life. The purpose of this study is to determine the career plans of sophomores studying in business or other relevant departments. In this perspective, the method of case study, which is accepted among qualitative research designs, was used. A document analysis was implemented for the case study. Moreover, the words and the themes which the students use to find out their career plans were classified. The results obtained from this study clearly indicate that students pay more importance to public sector exams or other standardized tests with the hope of finding a good job in the public sector, and therefore it is revealed that the university education focuses on institutional objectives which remain quite below the expectations of the sector. Furthermore, there is common belief that individual and patronage relationships play an important role in finding satisfactory jobs. In addition to the economic and political conjuncture, it may be stated that curriculum of education does not encourage students for entrepreneurship.

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Carta Albă a Apărării – un document strategic necesar?

Author(s): Nelu Bârla,Mirel Tariuc / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 1-2/2013

The Law for defense planning mentions only the compulsory Government agreement and the Parliament approval of the White Chart of Defense, which is a departmental defense planning document, based on the National Defense Strategy and the Governing Programme, and in accordance with the NATO Strategic Concept. The laws foresaw a six month term for this document to be send and approved by the new Parliament. In spite of this, the last White Chart which followed all the legal procedures has been adopted in 2004, at the end of the government mandate. Anyway, the defense planning went well, without major hindrances. This leads the authors to put the basic question about the need to have such a document.

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Cash-flow sensitivity to payments for material resources

Author(s): Lavinia Elena Brîndescu Olariu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 32/2014

The financing decision is taken based on the expectations concerning the future cash flows generated in the operating activity, which should provide coverage for the debt service and allow for an increase of the shareholders’ wealth. Still, the future cash-flows are affected by risk, which makes the sensitivity analysis a very important part of the decision process. The current research sets to evaluate the sensitivity of the payment capacity to variations of the payments for raw materials and consumables. The study employs 391 forecasted yearly cash-flow statements collected from 50 companies together with detailed information concerning the hypotheses of the forecasts. The results of the study allow for the establishment of benchmarks for the payment capacity’s sensitivity, the determination of the mechanisms through which the variation of payments for raw materials and consumables impacts the payment capacity, as well as the identification of the possible causes of such a variation.

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Ceauşescu şi studiile viitorului în România, II: Alvin Toffler la Bucureşti, 1976

Author(s): Ana-Maria Catanus / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 3-4/2017

In the first half of the 1970’s Romania was still interesting to the scholars and authors in future studies. Romania’s opening toward the West and the privileged relationship with theUnited States brought to Bucharest important personalities, such as Alvin Toffler. His bestseller Future Shock was translated into Romanian in 1974 and enjoyed a large audience. Toffler visited Romania during 17-21 May 1976, as part of an Eastern European tour which also included Poland and the Soviet Union. During his stay, delivered several conferences, visited a factory and met the Romanian Communist leader. We publish the minutes of the discussion between the American futurologist and Nicolae Ceauşescu.During the meeting that lasted two and a half hours, the two discussed problems related to industrial development, the impact of new technologies and the challenges of future society.

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Cementing State Authority: Soviet Education Case

Author(s): Murat Aslan,Mehmet Nesip Ögün / Language(s): English / Issue: 59/2018

The aim of this article is to explore how education was used to build state authority in the Soviet System. Education has always been a method of building state authority. As it was followed by multiple nation-states, the Soviet case presents a similar course both at the state and union level, whereby the state pursues to construct an environment that is consistent with the state’s intent to shape its own society. Soviet education, with its centrally planned nature, was designed to create a standard individual that was in line with communist principles, even though leadership changes had ultimate challenged education policies. Education in the USSR appeared to be a tool of justifying not only the regime but also the promotion of the values of political leadership. Nevertheless, state-centric, centrally planned educative circles, failed to feed the overall system in order to sustain itself instead of educating the individual’s free mind. The history, ideology, purpose, and philosophy of the Soviet education system will be analyzed in order to show how the Soviets had established a very comprehensive education policy, as well as how they had employed various methods in order to strengthen the basis for the ‘perfect’ society.

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Certain Aspects Of Rural Planning In Serbia

Author(s): Marija Drobnjakovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Rural planning has been neglected in the system of geographical scientific disciplines in Serbia for a long period. It was incorporated in the researches regarding development of rural areas, while in the recent scientific literature it is observing through “renaissance” of rural areas. Rural geographers, the ruralists, have placed it in recent years in a broader context, correlating it with other scientific disciplines. The aim of this paper is to present the current understanding of rural planning in Serbia, to point out the concept of rural planning and to indicate at what stage of development it currently is in comparison to other developed countries.

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Challenges Of Torrential Flood Risk Management In Serbia

Author(s): Ana M. Petrovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Torrential floods are the natural hydrological hazards manifesting as a consequence of extreme rainfall episodes which have a quick response from the watersheds of small areas, steep slopes and intensive soil erosion. Taking in consideration the nature of torrential flood (sudden and destructive occurrence) and the fact they are the most frequent natural hazards in Serbia, torrential flood risk management is a real challenge. Instead of partial solutions for flood protection, integrated torrential flood risk management is more meaningful and effective. The key steps should be an improvement of the legal framework on national level and an expansion of technical and biological torrent control works in river basins. Consequences for society can be significantly reduced if there is an efficient forecast and timely warning, rescue and evacuation and if affected population is educated about flood risks and measures which can be undertaken in case of emergency situation. In this paper, all aspects of torrential flood risk management are analyzed.

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Challenging policy barriers in sustainable urban design

Author(s): Janis Birkeland / Language(s): English / Issue: 40/2018

In built environment design, codes set minimum health and safety requirements, policies set aspirational targets, and incentives such as green building rating schemes set design standards. These approaches have failed to provide universal wellbeing and environmental justice (i.e. intra-generational equity), or increases in the natural life-support system that exceed depletion rates (i.e. inter-generational equity). Governments that do not ensure all citizens can obtain basic needs, life quality and resource security fail to meet their basic responsibilities. Two recent documents, one representing sustainable urban policy and principles, the other representing urban biodiversity standards, are examined against the Positive Development Test (whether the development increases the public estate, ecological base and future public options). The discussion suggests that contemporary policies and incentive schemes, as presently conceived, cannot provide the basic physical preconditions for sustainability, let alone address socio-economic inequities. An alternative design-based approach is presented to address the issues the paper identified.

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Chiny: potencjał (gospodarczy, polityczny i militarny) jako instrument kształtowania nowego układu międzynarodowego

Author(s): Katarzyna Zukrowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2018

Chinese economy went through several stages of reform and changes, which enabled economic, political and military advancement of this country. The reforms are dated back to 1979, when first changes in China were proceeded. Reforms started in agriculture sector improving food supply in the country. All this means that period needed to obtain current position by China in the world took nearly half a century. Article presents the gradual evolution of politics and its impact on the economy what was followed by a buildup of political and military potential gaining weight first in the region and after also on global scale. Prognoses of possible changes are presented here based on the assumption that current trends are continued also in the future, and they will embrace regional and global players. It is stressed that an import ant role of the Chinese success story can be ascribed to „opening of the economy” what stimulated inflows of technology, trade as well as direct foreign investments. Some space is given to show the alliance layout and its evolution. The picture is complemented by presentation of instruments which were used in foreign policy. Current tensions are also discussed what is illustrated by the current „trade wars” with the USA. The summing up of the article is presented in a form of possible scenarios which can be applied in the future Chinese policy.

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Classical and Modern Methods Used in Electrical Energy Management System

Author(s): Petruta Mihai,Alexandra Ioanid,Paula Voicu / Language(s): English / Issue: 05/2014

The forecast can be defined like approximately of the unknown events from the future; this thing is necessary because of the existence of some unknown events, but this events play an important role in taking some decisions. It is obvious that the uncertainty's elimination is not possible, so the forecast is a tool who tries to minimalize this uncertainties. The forecast's importance in the electrical energy management is very important. The forecast of the energy's request presumes the estimation of this request's characteristics: size, time evolution, the request's structure, and so on. The forecast of the electrical charge is a tool of a modern EMS.

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Cluster analysis of effectiveness of labour market policy in the European Union

Author(s): Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska,Edyta Dabrowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

Research background: In the era of demographic changes and the need for rationalization of public expenditure, the European Union social policy promotes the activation approach. In addition, a growing importance of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of public entities can be noticed. These phenomena are visible in the implementation of the labour market policy. However, the EU countries represent a different approach to spending public funds on issues related to the implementation of labour market policy. Purpose of the article: The authors are presenting the main theoretical assumptions concerning effectiveness and efficiency of labour market policy. Moreover, in the paper the EU countries are classified in clusters according to their level of expenditure on different categories of LMP. A comparison of the situation over ten years — in 2004 and 2014 — has also been conducted. In 2004, ten new members entered the EU, and the year 2014 presents the most current data in the analyzed area. Methods: As a research method cluster analysis was applied. Cross-country labour market situation throughout the EU is presented by the analysis of the Eurostat data. The countries are grouped in clusters following Ward's and k-means methods. Findings & Value added: There is a need to work out a complex evaluation of labour market policies in the EU to provide comparative analysis of the EU countries (or groups of countries). It would allow to determine the level of development of the country in terms of the efficiency of labour market policies. The EU countries with the best labour market indicators represent diverse levels of LMP expenditure.

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Cointegration of Monetary Policy in GCC Countries as Measure of Economic Integration

Author(s): Pawel Mlodkowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

Economic integration in the world is not always an explicit and intentional process. For some regions we are able to observe unintentional coordination of economic policies that results from following similar institutional and legal solutions. One of such cases can be recognized in the nominal sector of the national economy. As a consequence, a group of countries may be forming a de-facto currency union. It could alternatively compose an OCA without any need for forced nominal convergence. This paper focuses on monetary policy stance and its developments in the period from 1981 to 2013 of a very special group of resource-based economies. The GCC countries share many similarities in the underlying exchange rate regime solutions. They are in the same time following some explicit economic integration initiatives.It happens, however, that due to the financial turmoil after 2008, many of the integration processes have been reversed, or stopped. An empirical research tries to answer a question of the extent to which the integration process in nominal sector has been developing. For this purpose the monetary policy stance correlation is measured. Observing its developments, with a cointegration analysis in a standard(non-structural) VAR model, delivers interesting in sights into an issue of the GCC as an OCA. With statistical data provided by the World Bank (WDI Database) it is possible to observe significant convergence in monetary policy stance among all but one of the GCC countries. This study draws attention to a broader picture of a region that has potential of benefiting from a common market. However, not all GCC countries seem to be suited for economic integration in nominal sector. It is Bahrain that shows significant divergence for the whole period covered. There may be many country-specific factors, but persistence of asymmetry in monetary policy in this particular case allows for skeptical thoughts. If the GCC initiatives are continued, the economic integration will be more challenging in the new situation. As the observed convergence in monetary policy stance has been present from late 1970s one could suggest that it could have been a non-intentional process, but a result of similar exchange rate regimes. However, the latter divergence has been a result of conscious changes in the economic policies that affect the nominal sector.

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Conception of the Formation of Innovation Infrastructure in the Sphere of Services on the Mesolevel

Author(s): Nikolai Vasilievich Mordovchenkov / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2013

This paper examines the conception of the formation of innovation infrastructure in the field of services in the region. It discusses the conditions of state regulation of the economy, i.e. economy in transition, in mutual conjunction with human capital, with a business based on the use of leasing, marketing, economic methods and models of deployment, optimization, factor analysis and forecasting of socio-economic processes on the meso-level, and recreational-landschaft potential.

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CONDUCTING SOCIOLOGICAL AND SPECIALIZED SURVEYS AND ASSESSMENT RESEARCH TO EVALUATE THE RESULTS FROM THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL CHILD STRATEGY (NCS)

Author(s): Center for the Study of Democracy CSD / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2012

The objective of surveys commissioned by State Agency for Child Protection was to register changes in the first three years of implementation of the National Child Strategy to summarize assessments of target groups and the general public on the key priorities of the National Strategy, to establish whether they meet the support and understanding by the general public and of specific groups associated with its implementation, to recognize the knowledge and progress in achieving the main objectives of the overall policy on child protection.

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Conference report from “Current research questions of national policy and ethnic relations in the 20th and 21st century”, Košice, November, 14th – 15th 2016

Author(s): Lucia Heldáková,Barbara Kacerová / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2016

Place: Košice Date: November, 14th – 15th 2016

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Conferinţa de cercetare în construcţii, economia construcţiilor, urbanism şi amenajarea teritoriului. Rezumate ale lucrărilor

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Romanian / Publication Year: 2019

Includes abstracts of the papers presented in the research conference on constructions, economy of constructions, architecture, urbanism and territorial development

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Considerații cu privire la conținutul și evoluția conceptului de planificare a apărării și impactul introducerii sistemului planificare-programare-bugetare-evaluare

Author(s): Mirel ?ariuc / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 3-4/2008

The author believes that the Romanian legal framework of national security could be the source of confusions and misinterpretations for defence and security concepts such as defence planning. Taking into account several layers considered, the planning is a process with different connotations. It could be a political process, a tool for ordering the activities in a logical way or a resource allocation process. The implementation of Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Evaluation Process has been a leap forward in defence management due to this layout of planning on several levels as well as its irreversibility. Experts working within defence system could amend the legislation incoherence of security framework. Despite some elements of incoherence at the top of the system, the defence planning process goes forward. It should be highlighted the necessity and opportunity of keeping these stages in the defence planning process.

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COUNTERING FAKE NEWS

Author(s): Siri Strand,Jente Althuis / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

The increased presence of fake news is seen to pose a challenge to our democratic society. Consequently, we are seeking to identify, understand, and overhaul the vulnerabilities of the media environment in order to limit the phenomenon and consequences of fake news. This Route evaluates the tools, existing knowledge, and ongoing research useful for countering fake news. It provides an overview of existing initiatives by governmental organisations, media outlets, and civil society, and discusses the challenges and dilemmas each actor faces. Furthermore, it assesses the knowns and unknowns of the impact of fake news and those of countering initiatives. Based on this assessment, it identifies the primary gaps in our knowledge regarding how to respond to fake news, as well as the potential of technological innovation and future research directions to close these gaps. In conclusion, it finds that our largest challenge might not merely be the establishment of efficient counter-mechanisms to fake news, but rather how to implement these without undermining institutions and processes that are vital to our democratic system.

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