Effect of Enterpise Break-Ups on Performance: Case of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The empirical transition literature on the comparison of restructuring prior to privatization is quite limited. Macedonia is a specific case among transition economies where a large number of break-ups occurred at the beginning of privatization. Using firm-level data, we estimate the effects of the break-ups of enterprises on the subsequent performance of the “master enterprises” and spun off divisions during the period of privatization. We estimate the performance effects by comparing the performance of enterprises that remained intact to the performance of enterprises that experienced spin-offs and the newly established subsidiaries. The goal is to provide empirical evidence on the issue of the effect of pre-privatization restructuring. Our results suggest that the breakups were not guided by efficiency or performance goals but rather managerial self-interests.

Extended RFM logit model for churn prediction in the mobile gaming market

As markets are becoming increasingly saturated, many businesses are shifting their focus to customer retention. In their need to understand and predict future customer behavior, businesses across sectors are adopting data-driven business intelligence to deal with churn prediction. A good example of this approach to retention management is the mobile game industry. This business sector usually relies on a considerable amount of behavioral telemetry data that allows them to understand how users interact with games. This high-resolution information enables game companies to develop and adopt accurate models for detecting customers with a high attrition propensity. This paper focuses on building a churn prediction model for the mobile gaming market by utilizing logistic regression analysis in the extended recency, frequency and monetary (RFM) framework. The model relies on a large set of raw telemetry data that was transformed into interpretable game-independent features. Robust statistical measures and dominance analysis were applied in order to assess feature importance. Established features are used to develop a logistic model for churn prediction and to classify potential churners in a population of users, regardless of their lifetime

Late Payments in Accession Countries: Causes and International Comparison

In developed countries in everyday business, payment delays often present a problem. Payment delays have already been a matter of discussion in Slovenia for several years. Irrespective of some positive movements in the past years, the state of payment discipline in Slovenia is not at a satisfactory level. In this area, Slovenia could be classified among the less successful countries when compared to other countries in Europe. Our paper determines factors behind this fact. The findings are important not only for Slovenia, but also for other EU candidate countries faced with similar problems of transition. The paper has led to the following conclusions. Firstly, the more indebted companies have longer payment delays. Secondly, the longer the contractual payment period, the shorter the payment delay. Longer payment periods are mostly received by larger companies. And thirdly, the longer the payment delays on the side of companies? buyers, the higher the incidence of late payments by the company. We can therefore conclude, based on our research, that payment delays in Slovenia depend mostly on risks involved with doing business with firms in financial distress, in particular with small businesses

Odnos između neformalne mreže dijeljenja znanja i individualnog učenja u organizacijama: koliko je važno strukturiranje aktivnosti?

Capitalizing on organizational network theory, we address the relationship between informal-knowledge-sharing-network characteristics (in-degree and out-degree centrality) and the level of internal and external learning. Specifically, the paper examines differences in the use of various relationships when employees are learning internally or externally and explores the moderating role of the perceived organic structuring of activities. The results show the employees resort to informal-knowledge-generating relationships (informal in-degree) to obtain knowledge internally, whereas, when learning externally, employees rely on informal- -knowledge-sharing relationships (informal out-degree) to disseminate the knowledge they obtain from outside the organization. The anticipated moderating role of the organic structuring of activities is not confirmed, holding important implications for both theory and practice.Na temelju teorije organizacijskih mreža istražen je odnos između obilježja neformalne mreže dijeljenja znanja (unutarnji i vanjski stupanj centralnosti) i stupnja unutarnjeg i vanjskog učenja kod zaposlenika. Specifično, rad ispituje razlike u upotrebi mreže dijeljenja znanja u situaciji kad zaposlenici uče iz unutarnjeg ili vanjskog izvora te istražuje moderatorski utjecaj percipiranoga organskog strukturiranja aktivnosti. Rezultati pokazuju da se zaposlenici koriste neformalnim unutarnjim vezama za interno učenje, odnosno oslanjaju se na neformalne vanjske veze za vanjsko učenje i diseminaciju znanja. Očekivana moderirajuća uloga organskoga strukturiranja aktivnosti nije potvrđena, što nudi važne implikacije za teoriju i praksu

Using a multilevel modelling approach to explain the influence of economic development on the subjective well-being of individuals

Individual-level factors and country-level determinants influence our satisfaction; therefore, the single-level models that prevail in the analyses of subjective well-being are not appropriate. Thus, this article aims to add a multilevel perspective to the understanding of selfreported well-being. We analyse the impact of gross national income on the life satisfaction of individuals. We develop a two-level regression model based on the existing ‘economics of happiness’ literature. Factors describing an individual’s characteristics are included at the within level, measures describing the social situation are included at both levels, while a nation’s income, inflation and unemployment rates are between-level variables. In order to obtain the moderating effects of gross national income per capita on the influence of individuals’ relative incomes, a random intercept and random intercept-random slope model are tested using the cross-sectional data from the last wave of the World Values Survey. Our results support the hypotheses that the impact of relative income on subjective well-being decreases with the development of a country

Integralni pristup poslovnoj ekologiji i njegova primjena na zemlju u tranziciji

In this paper we propose and implement an integral approach to corporate environmentalism. Our integral model accounts not only for corporate environmentalism motivation and conception but also for corporate environmentalism mode and speed of implementation. A broad range of identified corporate environmentalism dimensions helps characterize fi ve basic groups of companies we propose to name “non-compliers,” “legalistic incrementalists,” “greenwashers,” “incremental innovators,” and “radical innovators.” We then seek to empirically verify the soundness of the proposed integral typology by surveying a large sample of Slovenian manufacturing companies. Maximum likelihood probit estimation, exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and binary logistic modeling are used in the empirical analysis. Our main conclusions are twofold: (1) The integral approach to corporate environmentalism works: in the framework of a small open transitional economy, the model differentiates well among different groups of companies. (2) There are no radical innovators among Slovenian companies, and less than one third of the companies are actively thinking and acting in line of environment-friendly processes and products. This fi nding can be partially explained by the fact that Slovenian economy still has some transitional characteristics.U ovome radu predložen je i implementirani integralni pristup ekologiji na razini poduzeća (poslovnoj ekologiji). Predloženi integralni model ne pojašnjava samo motivaciju i koncepciju ekološkog poslovanja već i načine njegova postizanja te brzinu implementacije. Široki spektar utvrđenih dimenzija korporativnih okruženja pomaže u opisivanju pet temeljnih skupina poduzeća. navedene skupine poduzeća u ovome su radu imenovane sukladno svojim svojstvima te se razlikuju “nepokretljivi”, “minimalni legalisti“, “kvazi zeleni”, “minimalni inovatori” i “radikalni inovatori”. U cilju empirijskog potvrđivanja utemeljenosti predložene integralne tipologije provedeno je anketiranje velikog uzorka slovenskih proizvođačkih poduzeća. U empirijskoj analizi korištena je probit analiza, eksploratorna faktorska analiza, klaster analiza i binarno logističko modeliranje. Glavni zaključak vodi dvjema ključnim postavkama: (1) Integralni pristup poslovnoj ekologiji djeluje: u okviru male, otvorene tranzicijske ekonomije, model razlikuje dobro diferencirane skupine poduzeća. (2) Među slovenskim poduzećima ne postoje “radikalni inovatori”, a manje od trećine poduzeća aktivno razmišlja i djeluje u smjeru proizvodnje ekološki prihvatljivih procesa i proizvoda. Rezultati bi se djelomice mogli objasniti činjenicom da se slovenska privreda još uvijek odlikuje određenim tranzicijskim karakteristikama

Preliminary study for the adaptation of the »Heaven's Cave« for tourist purposes (Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, Vietnam)

Heaven’s Cave is located in the centre of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, about 500  km southern from the Vietnamese capital and 40 km from the city of Dong Hoi. Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park is protected also as a UNESCO world heritage site. Due to weak economic situation in this region as a result of lack of natural resources, karst tourism represents an important opportunity for raising the quality of live in the province. A proposal to adapt non-touristic Heaven’s Cave for tourism was presented to Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU in 2006. Because the caves are sensitive ecosystems and all activities in them should be carefully implemented, our task was to make basic survey and map the cave, to perform a speleological and touristic research, to propose possible interventions for adapting the cave for tourism and to prepare a strategy for tourism development in this area. The latter should also show us if some interest is present among tourists for new show cave in this region. From this point of view this study does not represent systematic long-term approach for adapting a cave for tourism but rather a short study of a cave with potential to be show cave in remote area of Central Vietnam. Approach used in this study should be used in similar environments as a first step to estimate if weakly known cave is environmentally and economically suitable for development for touristic purposes.Keywords: Heaven’s Cave, Thien Duong Cave, Phong Nha-Ke Bang, Vietnam, show cave

ARE NATIONAL CULTURES STILL IMPORTANT IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS? RUSSIA, SERBIA AND SLOVENIA IN COMPARISON

In this study, we attempt to show managerial cultures in three transition countries, Russia, Serbia and Slovenia. We analyse the values of younger individuals and compare them with the values of older individuals to see if and how the culture of the former reflects globalisation. We use the standard methodology from Hofstede (1981) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) to measure cultural differences and our results confirm a strong influence of national cultures; however, globalisation plays an important role. The results of our study confirm the presence of the influence of national cultures on managers and students in the investigated transitional states. We find that not only the younger differ from the older, but also that young managers and students in all three countries are much more alike than the older age groups. An important finding is that there are not only two main age groups (young and old), but that the middle age group also has its own character. We believe there will not be only one corporate culture, but instead diversified corporate cultures as multinational companies (‘MNCs’) will originate from more than one country

TRANSFER PRICING - EU TAX POLICY CHALLENGE

Nastanek prvih multinacionalnih družb povezujemo z obdobjem kolonializma v 16. stoletju. Družbe, kot je bila Britanska vzhodnoindijska družba, ki je bila ena prvih delniških družb na svetu, so pospešeno začele trgovati z družbami v kolonijah. V obdobju po prvi svetovni vojni so bila multinacionalna podjetja v večini industrijska podjetja in to je tudi obdobje, ko se je izoblikoval sedanji sistem obdavčitve pravnih oseb. Če je bilo takrat relativno enostavno obdavčiti takšno multinacionalno družbo po načelu obdavčitve po viru, pa je danes v obdobju intenzivno globaliziranega in digitaliziranega sveta to vse prej kot enostavno. Če je v začetku globalizacije za države in gospodarske družbe bil največji izziv preprečiti dvojno obdavčenje, se v sedanjem času vedno bolj pojavlja težava zaradi neučinkovitega sistema obdavčitve gospodarskih družb in hkrati težnja po izgradnji davčnega sistema, ki bi zagotovil plačevanje davčne obveznosti tam, kjer dobiček dejansko nastaja. V želji po pravični porazdelitvi davčnega prihodka med države, v katerih poslujejo povezane osebe, je bil izoblikovan sistem pravil o transfernih cenah, pri razvoju katerega je imela veliko vlogo Organizacija za gospodarsko sodelovanje in razvoj. Oblikovala je Smernice OECD za določanje transfernih cen za mednarodna podjetja in davčne uprave, ki jih je večina razvitih držav implementirala v svojo nacionalno zakonodajo. Temu je sledila tudi Slovenija. Prvi del diplomskega dela tako obravnava zgodovino transfernih cen, smernice OECD in ureditev transfernih cen v Sloveniji. V EU se je problematika o obdavčitvi pravnih oseb začela obravnavati že v 60. letih prejšnjega stoletja. Z vzpostavitvijo enotnega trga je problem dvojnega obdavčevanja postal ključna ovira za njegovo nemoteno delovanje. Tako se je v 90. letih prejšnjega stoletja glavnina pozornosti delovanja EU usmerjala v odstranjevanje ovir za nemoteno delovanje enotnega trga. Aferi »LuxLeaks« in »Panama Papers« pa sta pokazali, da mednarodni sistem obdavčevanja pravnih oseb, ki temelji na načelih, ki so bila izoblikovana v povsem drugačnih okoliščinah pred skoraj sto leti, čeprav s »korekcijami«, ni več učinkovit v sedanjih okoliščinah globalno digitaliziranega sveta, v katerem je prisotna tudi močna davčna konkurenca med državami. To je uvidela tudi EU, ki si je zastavila ambiciozne cilje v leta 2015 sprejetem Akcijskem načrtu in na tej podlagi leta 2016 predstavila paket ukrepov zoper izogibanje davkov. Eden ključnih ukrepov je vzpostavitev sistema, ki bi temeljil na konsolidirani davčni osnovi. Sistem bo upošteval celotni prihodek večnacionalne družbe kot celote, nato pa po vnaprej znani formuli razdelil davčne prihodke med države, kjer je družba dejansko opravljala poslovne aktivnosti in dejansko ustvarjala dobiček. Želja EU kot tudi OECD in njenega programa BEPS je torej reformirati mednarodni davčni sistem in izgraditi takšnega, ki bo izničil učinke agresivnega davčnega načrtovanja ter omogočil, da se dobiček obdavči v državi, kjer dejansko nastaja. Drugi del diplomskega dela tako obravnava transferne cene kot izziv davčne politike EU, preusmeritev dobička večnacionalnih družb v jurisdikcije z ugodnejšim davčnim okoljem, finančne učinke takšnih ravnanj na proračune držav članic, predstavlja pa tudi sheme agresivnega davčnega načrtovanja in ukrepe EU za preprečitev erozije davčne osnove in preusmeritve dobička.The occurrence of the first multinational companies is associated with the colonial period in the 16th century. Companies like the East India Company, one of the first stock corporations in the world, began to accelerate trade with the companies within their colonies. The period after the First World War was characterized by multinational companies that were mostly industrial. It was also a period in which the current system of corporate taxation was established. In those times it was relatively simple to impose source taxation on such multinational companies, whereas this is far from easy to do in the intensely digitized and globalized world of today. If preventing double taxation was the biggest challenge for countries and corporations at the beginning of globalization, the problems of modern times are increasingly connected with ineffectiveness of corporation taxation and the tendency to establish a tax system that will ensure taxes are paid where profits are actually made. In an attempt of fair tax revenue distribution, among countries where related companies operate, a system of transfer pricing rules was established. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) played one of the central roles in the establishment of this system. It issued guidelines for multinational enterprises and tax administrations that most of the developed countries implemented in their national legislation. This was also done by Slovenia. The first part of the thesis therefore deals with the history of transfer pricing, OECD guidelines and transfer pricing regulation in Slovenia. The European Union already began addressing problems of corporate taxation in the 1960s. With the establishment of the single market the problem of double taxation became a key obstacle for its smooth functioning. Thus, in the 1990s, the majority of attention of the EU was directed towards removing obstacles for smooth functioning of the single market. The LuxLeaks and Panama Papers scandals revealed that the international system of corporate taxation, based on principles formed in entirely different circumstances a hundred years ago, is no longer effective in the modern world of digitalization and globalization, which is characterized by fierce tax competition among the countries. This was realized by the EU and in 2015 it set itself an ambitious goal called the Action Plan for Fair and Efficient Corporate Taxation in the EU that formed a basis for new measures against corporate tax avoidance. One of this measures was presented in January as the Anti Tax Avoidance Package. Another key measure is the establishment of a system based on consolidated corporate tax base. The system will take into account the total income of a multinational company as a whole and, according to a known formula, distribute tax revenue among countries where the company actually carried out business activities and generated profits. The aim of the EU as well as the OECD and its program called BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) is to reform the international tax system by establishing one that will neutralize the effects of aggressive tax planning and enable taxation of profit in the countries where it is actually made. The second part of the thesis deals with transfer pricing as a challenge for EU tax policy, multinational companies profit shifting to more favorable tax environments, the financial effects of such practices on member states budgets, schemes of aggressive tax planning and measures taken by the EU to prevent base erosion and profit shifting

The Structure of Policy-Induced Innovation Networks in Slovenia

Purpose – The recent economic crisis has significantly slowed Slovenia’s recent social and economic progress and exposed some important long-term problems such as a reliance on low value added Practical implications – Partnership is a learned behavior and the development of trust among partners takes time. The Slovenian government should provide policy stability and allow niches of technical excellence to emerge through consortium proposals. They should monitor the project partnerships and adjust funding so that it is reaching applicants that are actually partnering on projects rather than working alone or within their own institutional types. Other nations should also monitor the impact of partnership programs to ensure that as they evolve the funding is continuing to support and demonstrate the benefits partnership behavior. Research limitations/implications – The definition of a network member is the company, faculty, or department. In reality, individuals within these organizations are acting on their own connections and experiences, and these may or may not encourage other individuals in the same organization to engage in partnerships. Thus, the authors may be overstating the extent to which one connection among organizations generates experience that will lead to future connection. Another important limitation of the data is that for the second stage of the analysis the authors received project information from only ten of the 32 formal center programs examined in the first stage.industries and lagging labor productivity. The Slovenian government has taken steps to create research partnerships between public science and the private sector and among multiple private sector companies. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a social network analysis (SNA) of the research partnerships and examine whether public funding has created the desired partnerships. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed a SNA in two stages. In the first stage, the authors treated the founding partners of government-funded 32 research centers as a single two-mode network and investigated how each of the members was bound to the network. In the second stage of the analysis the authors used project data from ten of the centers to characterize a project network based on collaborations on specific projects. Thus, the second stage overlaps the center network with the project network. The authors used information from interviews with network members to assist in interpreting the results. Findings – Networking policies are stimulating collaborations among different types of centers and partners, but to differing degrees. While the formal collaborative network showed strong participation from the private sector, public research organizations, and higher education institutions, some of the centers are not well connected to the rest of the network. Partnership in the development of a proposal in response to a tender does not always translate into project collaboration, and the networks have evolved as project workplans and staffing plans are developed. The innovation network is evolving into an international network within and across scientific areas. Networks are path dependent and require policy stability; experienced bridging institutions can fill gaps where partners lack experience. Social implications – Due to the path dependent nature of innovation partnerships, the authors expect participation in innovation networks to generate a change in the culture of research and development (R & D) partnerships in Slovenia. However, this transition will occur faster as organizations partner face-to-face on actual projects. Centrality in a network fosters common understanding and shared principles of collaboration. Originality/value – Like many nations struggling to emerge from the recession, Slovenia has to examine its long-term strategy for upgrading its industries and improving productivity. This paper demonstrates how policies to enhance the innovation agenda might be more effective by examining how the networking resources are actually being used, whether participants are participating in networks that cross institutional types, whether policies are encouraging the exchange of information across stages of the innovation process, and therefore whether the policy will move the culture toward greater collaboration and R & D effectiveness. The results can assist Slovenia’s policymakers in redesigning innovation network policy