A NEW METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH FOR DESIGNING THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN

The importance of the software industry today is increasing because of its dispersive effects on the development of other industries. In this context, the software industry value chain analysis is a useful methodological approach that allows better understanding of software industry potentials for achieving increased efficiency and competitiveness. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to offer a new conceptual framework for the software industry value chain that will reflect the contemporary changes in this sector. The new model includes: a) identification of the key activities in the software industry; b) a new approach of sequencing the stages in the value chain; c) systematization of activities within each phase; and d) identification of interrelations and linkages in the chai

DOES THE HIGHER EDUCATION PROMOTE STUDENTS’ ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES?

Nowadays, there is a widespread recognition that business start-ups are a driving force of economic growth and significant job creation. Given the segmented characteristics of the labour markets, youth population is among those segments that are disproportionally affected by high and sustained unemployment. The situation with youth unemployment is particularly unfavourable in developing countries such as South-Eastern European countries where almost half of the active young population is jobless. Even though the governments in these countries have repeatedly undertaken measures for improving the position of youth on the labour markets, it seems that these endeavours have not reached the planned goals. From this perspective, it is important to analyse the potential contribution of education, and particularly the higher education to the development of entrepreneurship. The aim of this paper is to assess the role of the higher education in South-Eastern European countries in fostering the students’ entrepreneurial potential. For this purpose we have carried out a survey on representative samples of students in two universities: “St. Kliment Ohridski” (Macedonia) and “Aleksander Xhuvani” (Albania). We found that considerable number of surveyed students have ideas for starting own businesses, but only a small portion of them attempted to develop their business ideas in practice. As a consequence, we can conclude that there exists a wide room for further policy recommendations that will shape directions for future reforms in the SEECs higher education systems and will improve the students’ entrepreneurial potentia

ADAPTATION MODEL FOR REDUCING THE MANAGERIAL STRESS

Changes are an inseparable component of the company's life cycle and they can contribute to its essential growth in the future. The purpose of this paper is to explain managerial stress caused by implementation of changes and creating an adaptation model to decrease managerial stress. How much the manager will successfully lead the project for implementation of a change and how much they will manage to amortize stress among employees, mostly depends on their expertise, knowledge and skills to accurately and comprehensively inform and integrate the employees in the overall process. The adaptation model is actually a new approach and recommendation for managers for dealing with stress when the changes are implemented. Methodology. For this purpose, the data presented, in fact, were collected through a questionnaire that was submitted to 61 respondents/ managers. The data were measured using the Likert scale from 1 to 7. Namely, with the help of the Likert scale, quantification of stress was made in relation to the various variables that were identified as the most important for the researched issues. An adaption model (new approach) for amortizing changes was created using the DIA Diagram application, to show the relations between manager and the relevant amortization approaches

Quantification of the Managerial Stress

In order to be competitive on the market, company’s managers permanently monitor and implement changes in companies, whether they are caused by internal or external factors. The purpose of this paper is to explain managerial stress caused by implementation of changes and to quantify that stress. Usually the implementation of each change causes stress among the employees, and the stress from the individual level slowly spreads to a collective level, that is to say, organizational level, and all the way to the managers. How much the manager will successfully lead the project for implementation of a change and how much they will manage to amortize the stress among the employees, mostly depends on their expertise, knowledge and skills to accurately and comprehensively inform and integrate the employees in the overall process. Methodology. For this purpose, a descriptive analysis of the data was conducted regarding the qualitative responses. In addition to the descriptive statistics, for the examination of this issue, factor analysis of the results in SPSS was conducted. The factor analysis is one of the methods of multidimensional analysis whose main task is to reduce the variables and explain their interconnectedness