Empirical research on the external audit of banks in Serbia

The paper first explains the role, importance, and objectives of the external audit of banks through their most important definitions, thus illustrating the subject and aim of the research. The methodology of the research and data on the sample are presented afterwards. Results of the questionnaire survey which comprised 28 banks in the Republic of Serbia (RS) show what bankers prefer, and compared to global experience there is no significant difference. As a final point, the inherent limitations of the research and concluding remarks are presented

Globalization of financial reporting standards

Potreba za standardima finansijskog izveštavanja, kao principima i pravilima kojih kompanije moraju da se pridržavaju prilikom sastavljanja finansijskih izveštaja opšte namene, danas nije sporna. Ona proizilazi iz izuzetnog značaja finansijskog izveštavanja za efikasno i efektivno funkcionisanje tržišta kapitala, koje predstavlja jedan od ključnih preduslova finansijske stabilnosti i rasta ekonomije u celini, i objektivne nemogućnosti mehanizma slobodnog tržišta da obezbedi dovoljno relevantnih, pouzdanih i uporedivih informacija za investitore i kreditore. U dugom periodu, razvoj standarda finansijskog izveštavanja bio je gotovo isključivo nacionalno orijentisan. Posledica toga jesu suštinske razlike u standardima i praksama finansijskog izveštavanja između zemalja, koje donose ozbiljne probleme mnogim učesnicima u međunarodnom biznisu, posebno multinacionalnim kompanijama i međunarodnim investitorima. Globalizacija poslovnih aktivnosti, a naročito tržišta kapitala, uslovila je potrebu za globalizacijom standarda finansijskog izveštavanja, kao procesom smanjivanja razlika između nacionalnih setova standarda. Očekivani krajnji ishod tog procesa jeste jedinstveni set kvalitetnih, na principima zasnovanih i sveobuhvatnih globalnih standarda, koji bi se na isti način interpretirali i striktno primenjivali širom sveta. Međunarodni standardi finansijskog izveštavanja, koje donosi i konstantno usavršava Međunarodni odbor za računovodstvene standarde, imaju veliki potencijal da steknu status jedinstvenog seta globalnih standarda. Oni čine osnovu aktuelnog procesa globalne konvergencije standarda finansijskog izveštavanja. Visok kvalitet, sveobuhvatnost, zasnovanost na principima izvedenim iz konceptualnog okvira, kao i uključenost brojnih interesnih grupa iz čitavog sveta u proces njihovog kreiranja, čine ih korisnim i prihvatljivim za zemlje sa različitim nivoom ekonomskog razvoja i različitom kulturom.Today, the need for financial reporting standards, as the principles and rules that companies have to comply in preparing their general-purpose financial statements, is indisputable. That need is a result of a great importance of financial reporting for efficient and effective functioning of capital markets, which is, in turn, one of the most important prerequisites for financial stability and growth of an economy as a whole, and inability of market forces to provide enough relevant, reliable and comparable financial information for investors and creditors. For a long time, development of financial reporting standards was almost exclusively nationally oriented. The consequence of such orientation of standard-setting process is substantial differences in financial reporting standards and practices between countries, which cause serious problems for many participants in international business, especially for multinational companies and international investors. The globalization of business operations, specifically the globalization of capital markets, led to increasing need for the globalization of financial reporting standards, as a process of reducing differences between national sets of standards. The expected ultimate outcome of that process is a single set of high quality, principles-based and comprehensive global accounting standards that would be interpreted in the same way and strictly used worldwide. International Financial Reporting Standards created and continually enhanced by International Accounting Standards Board have great potential to become a single set of global standards. They form the basis of the current process of global convergence of financial reporting standards. Their high quality, comprehensiveness, foundation on principles derived from the conceptual framework as well as the fact that many interest groups from the whole world are included in the process of their creating make them useful and acceptable for countries with different cultures and different level of economic development

Influence of board and ownership structure on bank profitability: evidence from South East Europe

We investigate the impact of board and ownership structure on profitability of 74 commercial banks from four transition economies of South East Europe over the 2005–2010 period. We analyse this relation using Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis on an unbalanced panel data-set of 377 observations. We find negative and significant relationship between board size and bank profitability, while the proportion of independent directors on the board is negatively, but insignificantly related to bank profitability. Impact of ownership concentration on bank profitability is negative, but weak. We also find that privately held domestic banks outperform state-owned and foreign banks. Important factors influencing bank profitability in South East Europe are also bank size and bank capitalisation

Disparities among youth labour in Serbia

It is evident that the unemployment rate among young people in Serbia is much higher than in developed countries. The latest statistical data have shown that about 32 % of young people aged from 15 to 24 are unemployed or work in the field of the grey economy which is by 15 percentage points higher than the average of the youth unemployment rate in EU countries. Furthermore, Serbia has been facing youth labour disparities indicating more chances of entering the labour market for the male population than female. The reasons for this could be various. The paper includes data of the Labour Market Survey 2017 that was conducted by the Statistical Office of Serbia, and descriptive statistics results in order to explain the main reason for disparities within the youth labour market in Serbia. It is also important to emphasize that respectable insight into youth labour market as well as results of the research, will provide a significant contribution to unemployment problem-solving in Serbia

Utvrđivanje kompetencija kao preduvjet uspješnijeg upravljanja ljudskim resursima u sektoru sigurnosti

Suvremeno upravljanje ljudskim resursima zahtjeva da se analiza poslova nadogradi utvrđivanjem osobnih specifikacija i kompetencija. Kompetencija kao pojam u upravljaqnju ljudskim resursima je relativno nov (Boyatzis 1982) i izvorno znači “osnovnu karakteristiku osobe koja dovodi do efektivnih i/ili superiornih rezultata u radu”. Neosporno je da svaki posao zahtjeva skup specifičnih kompetencija, zasnovanih na individualnim zahtjevima i odgovornostima (D.Arthur 2012). Ove kompetencije prvenstveno su usmjerene na ponašanja koja se trebaju primjenjivati u izvršavanju poslova i radnoposlovnom komuniciranju. Izgradnja kriterija za pribavljanje, uključivanje i napredovanje po osnovu kompetencija bitan je uvjet efikasnijeg korištenja ljudskih resursa te pravovremenog usmjerenja onog dijela koji ima razvojni potencijal.Važnost kompetencija u upravljanju ljudskim resursima u sektoru sigurnosti potvrđuje i SWOT analiza Snaga, Slabosti, Prilika/mogućnosti i Prijetnji koje realno danas postoje unutar i izvan organizacije javne i državne sigurnosti.Posebno je aktualno pitanje osposobljenosti funkcije ljudskih resursa da razvije integrativnu povezanost sa strateškim menadžmentom organizacije.Cilj izlaganja je ukazati na važnost kompetencijske analize u upravljanju ljudskim resursima i prikazati način njene izvedbe.Kroz rad biti će razmotrena sljedeća pitanja:Što je kompetencija i koje kompetencije te personalne specifikacije dominantno karakteriziraju poslove u sektoru sigurnosti?Kako se provodi analiza personalnih specifikacija i kompetencija?Kojim instrumentima je moguće pouzdano i valjano mjeriti personalne specifikacije i kompetencije?Što bi značio “talent management” u upravljanju ljudskim resursima u sektoru sigurnosti

The international financial reporting standard for small and medium-sized entities in the Republic of Serbia

The paper is devoted to the review of the position of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) in the financial reporting regulation and practice in the Republic of Serbia. After considering the global importance of this standard, its position in the regulatory framework for financial reporting in the Republic of Serbia, in which it was included in 2013, is analyzed, while a deeper insight into the position of the standard in practice is achieved by the empirical research on a sample of 175 enterprises. Since it has the potential to facilitate financial reporting to many companies that had previously had to apply the full IFRSs, its adoption in the Republic of Serbia is useful, but the potential problem arises from the fact that it is not adopted at the European Union (EU) level. The research in the paper reveals that the enterprises in the Republic of Serbia that can choose between the IFRS for SMEs and the full IFRSs, however, are more likely to choose the full IFRSs. This finding should be considered in the context of the long-term application of the full IFRS before the implementation of the IFRS for SMEs. Subsidiary enterprises less often choose the IFRS for SMEs than the enterprises that do not have this characteristic.Publishe

Relationship of the Youth Unemployment and Determinants of the Labour Market in the Balkan Countries

Balkan countries are facing with a large number of unemployed young people. There is no doubt that financial crises have the biggest influence on the youth labour market. The remainder of this paper is presenting the research results showing the correlation between the unemployment rate (among youth and adults) and the determinants of the labour market in order to determine whether there is a difference in the impact of labour market indicators on the unemployment rates by gender and age. The study focuses on 11 Balkan countries in the period from 2008 to 2014. The data were collected from the Fraser Institute research specifically from “The Economic Freedom of the World: 2016 Annual Report”

Structural analyses of sintered MT and BZT ceramics

Development of dielectric materials is increasing with a rapid progress in mobile and satellite communications systems, where magnesium titanates find their place owing to good dielectric properties. Recently it has been established that, these materials, which are based on binary magnesium titanates (MgTi03 and Mg2Ti04) can be applied in MW engineering. These materials differ extremely low dielectric loss in the microwave range and high dielectric constant. On the other hand, barium-titanate compounds have attracted great attention for their specific microwave properties, as well. They were commonly used as parts of resonators, filters and multilayer ceramic capacitors, in the microwave region. The crystal phase with the structure BaZn2Ti40 11 is present in various commercial microwave dielectric materials based on barium-titanate compounds. Taking all this into account, in this article, the influence of mechanical activation of the MgO-Ti02 and BaCOr ZnO-Ti02 systems on phase composition, crystal structure and microstructure before and after sintering process, has been reported

What Drives Private Equity and Venture Capital in Central and Eastern Europe Countries: Focus on Serbia

The paper examines the main drivers of Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) capital into the Central and Eastern European (CEE) market with focus on Serbia. Also, this article analyses the current trends in the industry. Although most of CEE economies remain far behind EU-15 countries in the amounts invested trough PE and VC industry, the region is becoming increasingly attractive. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and the Czech Republic currently attract the majority of PE/VC investors. Investment activities in CEE observed by sector, show that the largest total investments are made in the sector of consumer goods and services, in the sector of Information and communication technology and in life sciences. CEE private equity market remained dominant in buyouts, where VC as a proportion of total investment activity remained relatively low. Main drivers of the region are increased economic activity, favorable tax rates, tax incentives for investors and high quality of labour with low costs. According to SWOT analysis, Serbia has many advantages in terms of attracting PE/VC investments, with the most important factors such as geographical position, well educated and qualified labor with relatively low cost of labour and advantages related to the tax treatment, free trade agreements, but also the efforts made in recent years such as reforms, improvement of fiscal discipline, and introduction of numerous incentives in order to attract investments