Characteristics of corporate restructurings: the case of Serbia

The main objective of this paper is to present contemporary trends in company restructurings with particular emphasis on the analysis of characteristic tendencies in this field in Serbia. The paper is based on mixed research methods: evaluation and systematic analysis of scientific and empirical literature and the results of special field research conducted on a sample of 134 firms in Serbia. The study shows that restructurings have intensified worldwide particularly with the onset of the global financial crisis. When it comes to Serbia, unfortunately, the implementation of this process has been burdened with a large number of resistance and problems, which has reflected on the characteristic tendencies and achievements. However, the results of the conducted field research suggests that the restructuring has been recently more pronounced, particularly in large and medium-sized firms, primarily those who were faced with poor performance in their business. The most common reasons for the implementation of the restructurings were negative impacts of the global financial crisis, poor financial condition of the companies and the demand to increase competitiveness. According to the results of the field survey, the most frequent methods of restructuring were downsizing the number of employees, organizational changes and changes in marketing activities. The implementation of restructuring activities in Serbian companies has been faced with a number of challenges among which the lack of funding has been the greatest. Regrettably, very few companies that have carried out major (strategic) changes have concluded that the process of restructuring met their initial expectation

Challenges and Perspectives of Implementation Structural Changes in the Serbian Economy

The main purpose of this chapter is to analyse the pace of structural changes in the Serbian economy predominantly through comparative analysis with other countries of Western Balkans i.e. to identify the progress made in implementation these changes, main challenges and to perceive whether and in what way the concept should be modified. The analysis is mainly based on the surveys of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Transition Indicators), World Bank (Doing business), World Economic Forum (Index of International Competitiveness) and Heritage Foundation (Index of Economic Freedom). The results of these surveys indicate that Serbia currently has not been well positioned in terms of implementing transitional changes, conditions for doing business, level of competitiveness and economic freedom. What is especially worrying is the fact the implementation of structural reforms and business conditions improvements in Serbia are very slow, particularly in the last couple of years. Nevertheless, it is clear that without more proactive policy and strong-minded implementation of structural changes, Serbia will increasingly lag behind other countries of the region and that will only hinder its existing position

Development of the European financial system: challenges for the Balkan countries integration process

The goal of this chapter is to point out the core changes in the development of the European financial system in the past several years. A number of factors have influenced these processes, such as: the aspiration of the European Union for increase in competitiveness of its own economy, negative effects of the first wave of the global economic crisis, its mutation and outbreak of the second wave coupled with problems of public debt of some EU member states, the crisis of common currency euro, etc. All changes in the EU have significant implications and create new challenges for the countries of the Western Balkans, which are undergoing different stages of the process of the European Union integrations. We shall observe occurrences in the European financial system in the three directions – through adopting new regulations, creating new institutions and rising ethical standards. Common characteristics for countries of the Western Balkans region are that they are at a lower level of economic development and overall competitiveness of economy, as well as less developed financial systems. The surveys we conducted have shown that they were more affected by the impact of the global crisis than many of the EU nations. Countries of the region have reacted differently to negative impacts from the global environment, mainly within the field of regulative adaptations. In that manner, they have followed up flows of regulatory reforms of the European financial system. However, in the fields of creating new institutions, rising of ethical standards and regional cooperation, the changes were taking place at much slower paste

Upgrading corporate governance practice of state owned enterprises in processes of EU integration – comparation of Serbia and Slovenia

The aim of this work is to analyze the outstanding issues and opportunities for upgrading corporate governance in state-owned enterprises - (SOEs) through a comparative analysis of this type of enterprise in Serbia and Slovenia. This is a very remarkable group of copanies that have a major role in the overall economic life of both countries. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness in their management can contribute to raising the overall level of competitiveness and meeting the economic criteria for the integration of some countries in the European Union. In this paper we will try to identify several areas and examples of good practice which lead to improved corporate governance, and thus the better performance of this type of enterprise. In a variety of areas in which the corporate governance may be improved, we focused our analysis on the three areas, as follows: policy of ownership, regulations in terms of increasing transparency and functioning of the boards of directors

Efekti programa vežbanja na koordinaciju i komponente fitnesa

The aim of this doctoral dissertation was to determine the effects of a ten-week exercise program on the coordination and fitness components in female students. Total sample of examinees consisted of 54 female subjects. 27 subjects were divided into an experimental group that participated in an experimental exercise program and 27 subjects were divided into a control group. The average height of the subjects of experimental group was 165.4±5.81 cm, the average body weight was 60.1±6.97 kg and the average BMI was 22.01±2.34. Control group had the average height of 166.3±6.09 cm, the average body weight of 60.6±8.21 kg and the average BMI 21.83±2.36. The subjects of the experimental group participated in a 10-week experimental exercise program consisting of combined modern dance and muscle fitness classes, 90 minutes three times a week, while the subjects of the control group had regular daily activities and were not involved in any form of organized physical activity. The parameters of coordination, cardiovascular fitness, muscle fitness, body composition and flexibility were tested in all subjects. After the application of a ten-week experimental program, statistically significant effects were determined at the multivariate level in the parameters of coordination and flexibility. Statistically significant effects at the univariate level were determined in the parameters of cardiovascular fitness and body composition, while there were no statistically significant effects in the parameters of muscle fitness, but a numerical difference was noted in favor of the experimental group. The results of the research showed that a ten-week program of modern sports dance and muscle exercises proved to be an effective model for improving coordination and certain fitness components in female students

Strategic management planning as a tool in advanced local governments

The challenges the local governments (LGs) are facing in contemporary developed societies are getting larger and more complex. LGs have to deal with tasks relating to fulfillment of certain parts (in certain cases of a whole) of some of the key public functions which are arranging the life in local communities: land use of urban planning, organization and management of public services (like local water supply system, solid waste disposal, waste water treatment, public cleaning, maintaining and managing of city green areas, organizing distant heating system, etc.) along with some of conventional local governmental (administrative) functions. In the recent years, one of the LG functions, which is certainly becoming one of the most important one, is – an active role in economic development initiating through attracting the foreign investors, encouraging the self-employment process, SMEs development, etc. In such conditions, the strategic management planning becomes an essential tool that “managers” of local governments are using in order to provide efficient use of local governments resources and their long-term prosperity

Doing business in Serbia: case of strategic partnership between Fiat and Zastava under circumstances of global trends in automotive industry

In this paper we have tried to highlight the main characteristics of doing business in Serbian economy having in mind strategic cooperation between Fiat, the Italian car manufacturer, and Zastava, the only car manufacturer in Serbia. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part the most important transition indicators in Serbia have been analyzed as well as general ambience of doing business. Serbian government have put tremendous efforts in making economic ambience as attractive as possible for prospective foreign investors. Still there are open issues of how successful these efforts have been and what else has to be done. In the second part of this paper, recent global trends in automotive industry have been analyzed and their influence in Serbia and Western Balkans region. Finally, in the third part, the most important aspects of strategic cooperation between Fiat and Zastava have been analyzed, in order to put out the direction into which Serbia government can direct its activities so as to improve general economic ambience for business activities and further attracting of foreign investments

Effects of Global Economic Crisis on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Serbia

The aim of this paper is to show the effects of the global economic crisis on the small and medium-sized enterprise sector in Serbia. Contrary to expectations, in some aspects, the negative impact of the global economic crisis in South-East Europe, and consequently in Serbia, was much bigger than in many developed countries. Though vital and dynamic, the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Serbia suffered huge downfall, so that in this paper different ways in which crisis was manifested in this sector in Serbia would be analysed. This paper consists of the three main parts. In the introduction the importance of SMEs sector for Serbian economy is pointed out. In the second part, consequences of the crisis on Serbian economy would be analysed, and finally in the third part the impact of the global crisis on SMEs businesses would be analysed

Debt to equity swaps as alternative of financial restructuring in Serbian economy

The goal of this paper is to analyze debt to equity swaps as potential alternative of financial restructuring in Serbian economy. We got motivation for making this paper on review of current situation of financial structure of large number of Serbian companies burdened with debts. High level of indebtedness and illiquidity limit business operations and decrease possibility for financing growth and development. Without intensification of investment activity of business entities there will be no dynamic economic growth and necessary structural changes. Traditional measures from the arsenal of restructuring of debts - postponement of repayment, extending dead-lines, write-off, changes in calculation of interest rate etc. can have but limited effect in existing conditions, when fast recuperation of many companies is required. For this reason, a massive application of debt to equity swaps, with increased role of the public and transparency in business operations and reaffirming the efficient and effective management, can pose a reasonable solution for faster alleviation from heavy indebtedness and increased illiquidity of Serbian companies

Korporativno restrukturiranje

Korporativno restrukturiranje se može definisati kao proces donošenja seta upravljačkih odluka i preduzimanja serija akcija, koje imaju za cilj ostvarivanje korenitih promena postojeće strukture, strategije i pozicije preduzeća. Reč je o procesu, zasnovanom na analizi postojeće poslovne situacije (i po pravilu sagledavanju uzroka nezadovoljavajućih poslovnih performansi), koji je usmeren ka traženju strategija za poboljšanje pozicija, kroz eliminisanje slabosti i krize, stvaranje i održavanje konkurentskih prednosti, promene u organizacionoj strukturi, efektivnijem upravljanju i efikasnijem funkcionisanju svih struktura i sistema u preduzeću. U okviru savremene ekonomske nauke problematika restrukturiranja preduzeća poslednjih decenija dobija na posebnom značaju. Danas o različitim aspektima ovog procesa u svetu, ali ne i u našoj zemlji, postoji obimna teorijska literatura i značajan broj empirijskih istraživanja. Imajući to u vidu, u okviru realizacije projekata Ministarstva prosvete, nauke i tehnološkog razvoja čiji je nosilac Institut ekonomskih nauka u Beogradu: „Izazovi i perspektive strukturnih promena u Srbiji: strateški pravci ekonomskog usklađivanja sa zahtevima EU” i „Evropske integracije i društveno-ekonomske promene privrede Srbije na putu ka EU“ 1 pripremili smo naučnu monografiju sa ciljem da na sveobuhvatan način prezentiramo različite aspekte korporativnog restrukturiranja. Razmatranje ove kompleksne problematike zahtevalo je sagledavanje niza oblasti, prezentiranih u četiri dela ove monografije: − Prvi deo posvećen je teorijskim dimenzijama poslovnog restrukturiranja s tim da je posebna pažnja usmerena na definisanje i metodološke osnove ovoga složenog fenomena, kao i istraživanje uzroka, ciljeva i pravaca korporativnog restrukturiranja, te na brojna otvorena pitanja i kontroverze o restrukturiranju u svetu i kod nas. − U drugom delu su analizirani pojedini osnovni oblici restrukturiranja i to strategijsko, finansijsko, organizaciono, vlasničko i tržišno restrukturiranje. − Treći deo se bavi strategijama restrukturiranja, s tim da su posebno analizirane strategije restrukturiranja u funkciji rasta, kontrakcije i ozdravljenja. − Najzad, u poslednjem četvrtom delu, dat je konceptualni okvir programa korporativnog restrukturiranja i razmatrana su pitanja vezana za njegovu implementaciju. Svrha ove monografije je da ukaže na značaj korporativnog restrukturiranja, obuhvat, strategije i analizu savremenih dešavanja u ovoj naučnoj oblasti i omogući svim zainteresovanim da steknu nova i prošire postojeća znanja. Reč je o interdisciplinarnom fenomenu, koji zahteva poznavanje većeg broja naučnih disciplina, počev od menadžmenta, teorija organizacije, marketinga, finansija, računovodstva do poslovnog prava i pojedinih tehničkih disciplina. U okviru ove monografije mnogim od pobrojanih disciplina biće posvećena dužna pažnja. U istraživanju oblasti korporativnog restrukturiranja nismo se ograničili samo na prikazivanje i analizu različitih teorijskih aspekata (što nije redak slučaj u našoj zemlji), već je predstavljen niz slučajeva iz prakse. Verujemo da oni mogu da ponude korisno iskustvo u savlađivanju praktičnih problema sa kojima se pojedina preduzeća susreću u svom poslovanju. Posebnu pažnju u ovoj monografiji posvetili smo našoj aktuelnoj stvarnosti, pokušavajući da analiziramo neka ključna pitanja i probleme iz oblasti restrukturiranja, te da ukažemo na moguće pravce njihovog prevazilaženja. U tu svrhu sprovedena su posebna empirijska istraživanja vezana za iskustva u sprovođenju strategijskih promena domaćih preduzeća, što smatramo za posebnu vrednost ove monografije. Verujemo da na taj način popunjavamo jednu prazninu koja postoji u oblasti naučnih istraživanja iz oblasti poslovne ekonomije u našoj zemlji. Na kraju, ali ne i najmanje važno, autori se iskreno zahvaljuju recenzentima prof. dr Jovanu Todoroviću, prof. dr Branku Maričiću, prof. dr Ondreju Jaško i prof. dr Nebojši Janićijeviću na korisnim sugestijama i dragocenoj pomoći pri pisanju finalne verzije monografije. Zahvalnost dugujemo i vodećim ljudima suizdavača – prof. dr Hasanu Haniću i gospodinu Žarku Čigoji, bez čije pomoći ovo delo ne bi ovako izgledalo