Modeling of corporate social responsibility factors in a dynamic business environment

U doktorskoj disertaciji su predloženi i testirani relevantni modeli kojima se utvrđuju elementi korporativne društvene odgovornosti i uticaj na poslovne performanse kompanija. Istraživanje je sprovedeno u post-tranzicionom poslovnom okruženju Srbije, Rusije i Bugarske sa namerom da se utvrde specifičnosti implementacije korporativne društvene odgovornosti koje nastaju kao posledica razlika u poslovnoj kulturi zemalja koje su prošle kroz proces tranzicije. Analizom relevantnih literaturnih izvora i razvijenih koncepata, utvrđeni su ključni elementi korporativne društvene odgovornosti koji su definisani kroz pet dimenzija: ekološka dimenzija, društvena dimenzija, ekonomska dimenzija, dimenzija stejkholdera i dimenzija dobrovoljnosti. Dalje je, literaturnim pregledom, utvrđeno da uticaj korporativne društvene odgovornosti na poslovne performanse ne mora uvek biti posmatran direktno, već se kao značajan moderator uticaja javlja zadovoljstvo zaposlenih u kompanijama koje primenjuju društveno odgovornu praksu. Pretpostavljeni uticaji i odnosi testirani su korišćenjem statističkih i multikriterijumskih alata. Utvrđena je nadmoć društvene dimenzije i dimenzije stejkholdera u odnosu na ostale dimenzije, prilikom razmatranja ostvarivanja uticaja korporativne društvene odgovornosti na poslovne performanse, kao i na zadovoljstvo zaposlenih. U skladu sa tim je zaključeno da ekološki i ekonomski elementi korporativne društvene odgovornosti nisu adekvatno prepoznati od strane ispitanika što ukazuje na polja koja je potrebno dodatno unapređivati. Takođe, prilikom analize uticaja zadovoljstva zaposlenih na poslovne performanse utvrđene su značajne veze između ova dva elementa. Upoređivanjem percipiranog nivoa implementacije korporativne društvene odgovornosti u zemljama u kojima je istraživanje sprovedeno primećena je određena polarizacija. Pokazalo se da zemlja koja je na najvišem stepenu ekonomskog razvoja ima iskazan najviši nivo implementacije korporativne društvene odgovornosti. Kada se razmatra veličina kompanije prevaga u implementaciji korporativne društvene odgovornosti je u korist većih kompanija.In the doctoral dissertation, relevant models in which the elements of corporate social responsibility were determined and the impact on the business performance of companies are proposed and tested. The research was conducted in a post-transition business environment with the intention to determine the specifics of the implementation of corporate social responsibility that arise as a result of differences in the business culture of countries that have gone through the transition process. By analyzing the relevant literature sources and developed concepts, the critical elements of corporate social responsibility have been identified, which are defined through five dimensions: environmental dimension, social dimension, economic dimension, stakeholder dimension and voluntarism dimension. Further, trough literature review, it was determined that the impact of corporate social responsibility on business performance does not always have to be observed directly, already as the important moderator of the impact appears the satisfaction of employees in companies that implement socially responsible practices. Assumed effects and relationships were tested using statistical and multicriteria tools. The dominance of the social dimension and dimension of stakeholders to other dimensions has been determined when considering the impact of corporate social responsibility on business performance, as well as on employee satisfaction. Accordingly, it was concluded that the environmental and economic elements of corporate social responsibility were not adequately recognized by the respondents, which indicates areas that need to be further improved. Also, during the analysis of the impact of employee satisfaction on business performance, significant links between these two elements were identified. A certain polarisation was noticed by comparing the perceived level of corporate social responsibility implementation in the countries where the research was conducted. It turned out that a country at the highest level of economic development has the highest level of corporate social responsibility. When considering the company's size, the supremacy in the implementation of corporate social responsibility is in favour of larger companies

The multi-criteria analysis of corporate social responsibility: a comparative study of Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia

Cross-cultural research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) dealing with specific stakeholder groups is fairly rare in the existing literature. The aim of this research is to investigate the level of recognition of CSR in companies by employees working in micro/small, medium-sized and large companies. The research is based on the survey conducted in Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia with the employees' attitudes obtained via a structured questionnaire. A similar socio-historical background of the three countries and different levels of accomplished socio-economic development at present is taken into account. A proposed ranking methodology was based on the multi-criteria decision analysis approach, observed through five studied dimensions: environmental, social, economic, stakeholder and voluntariness. The ranking was carried out using the integrated Entropy-PROMETHEE-GAIA method, where the Entropy method was used for determining the weights of the criteria, whereas PROMETHEE-GAIA was used for final ranking. The obtained results were analyzed from the multi-cultural point of view and show more significant differences in the attitudes of employees from different countries, rather than when the size of a company is taken into consideration

Environmental management systems: An effective tool of corporate sustainability

The paper addresses corporate environmental policy concentrating on the current relationship of business activities towards environmental management in the Czech Republic. The pressure to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors motivates companies to initiate ecological practices, such as environmental and energy management systems, green balanced scorecard or green supply chain management. The efforts beyond the legislative requirements that are justified by potential cost reduction together with need for risk-based thinking, support investments into sustainable projects. This paper attempts to provide an in-depth view of the current enterprise practices and behavior in environmental management within the selected industrial sector in the Czech Republic region. Based on the mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches, the authors carried out structured in-depth interviews combined with a questionnaire survey with the aim to analyse the Czech environmental policy practices. A sample of 247 medium and large-sized Czech manufacturing companies was used for the survey. Three levels of environmental management system were identified: legal, basic and mature. The findings underscore the critical role of the management strategy approach and stakeholder requirements' monitoring. The research revealed that an important atribute in environmental activies in business area is the ownership structure. The foreign ownership has positive impact on the level of environmental management system adoption. The study makes practical contribution in that it explains the mature environmental management system concept and shows a possible path in the environmental behavior to companies not meeting the requirements of the mature system. The authors highlight also the need for awareness raising of business owners and top management to increase their interest in being more involved in environmental activities. © 2019 by author(s) and VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center.Tomas Bata University in Zlin [VaVIP-RO/2018/03]; Environmental and energy risk management in relation to the triple bottom line concept within selected industrial sector in the Czech Republic [IGA/FaME/2017/016

Analysis of factors influencing NEETs rates

The analysis of the factors that affect the status of NEETs in European countries was presented in the paper. NEETs are young people between the ages of 15 and 29, who are no longer in the formal education system and are unemployed or otherwise out of the labour market, and who represent a group at high risk of social exclusion. NEET research is a field in the literature gaining importance given the problems young people face during the transition to adulthood and more severe conditions for adequate labour market inclusion. The hypotheses examined in the paper refer to three groups of influencing factors: economic indicators of countries, level of education, and institutional and labour market indicators. The data analysed in the survey referred to 31 European countries and were observed in the period 2015-2019. The results confirm that all examined groups of indicators impact NEET rates and indicate those indicators whose impact is the most significant

Perceprion of employees in Serbia about corporate social responsibility

This paper is a part of a more comprehensive research that is conducted at Technical faculty in Bor, in cooperation with other states (Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Albania). One of the basic goals of research is to determine the level of awareness toward a new business model which has Corporative Social Responsibility (CSR) as a key element of sustainable strategy. Results presented in this paper concerns part of research held in Serbia with intention to identify perception and attitudes of employees about corporate social responsibility, as well as to determine influence of some the company’s activities, which apply this business model, have on employees

Dominant factors of SMEs failure – Multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The paper aims to provide empirical clarification over some key failure factors of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and also analysis of the similarities and differences in factors' relations in the Republic of Serbia and Visegrad countries. The SMEs' failures factors have been accessed from the point of view of SMEs owners and managers whose opinions were collected through a questionnaire disseminated in five countries (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland and the Republic of Serbia). On the other hand, for the research presented in this paper, the data from Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Serbia were used. The structural equation model was developed and analyzed to confirm the reliability of the conceptual model, using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) for comparative measurements on the observed data from different countries. The result showed the existence of differences in opinions of SMEs owners and managers concerning failure factors in examined countries

Rural NEETs report in Serbia: 2009/2019 Overview

The situation of rural Youths Neither in Employment nor in Education or Training (NEET) aged between 15 and 34 years old, over the last decade (2010-2019) in Serbia is presented in this report. The main criterion for analysis was the degree of urbanisation, where the comparison was done between rural areas, towns and suburbs, cities, and the whole country. The data available on EUROSTAT and the national Statistical office of Serbia were used as main resources for statistical interpretation. The statistical procedures used in the report rely on descriptive longitudinal analysis, using graphical displays (e.g. overlay line charts) as well as the calculation of proportional absolute and relative changes between observed years. The analysis of the youth population in Serbia aged 15-24 years in total as well as the youth population for different degrees of urbaisation, for the period 2010-2019, showed a decreasing trend. In the period 2014-2019 (which is with available data for the case of Serbia) it can be observed that the youth employment rate is increasing in all areas of urbanisation. In contrast to the employment, the level of unemployment in Serbia is constantly decreasing in the period 2014-2019. This trend is similar for all three areas of urbanisation. The decrease in the number of early school leavers is registered in the case of entire Serbia, cities, and rural areas. The only trend of increasing of early school leavers’ rate is recorded for the towns and suburbs, for the observed period 2014-2019. In the period 2010-2019, the NEET rate is declining in Serbia for all three degrees of urbanisation. In comparison to EU countries, Serbia is still significantly above the European average, but with a tendency of reducing the gap

INTRODUCTION TO THE VISEGRAD FUND PROJECT: HOW TO PREVENT SMEs FROM FAILURE (Actions based on comparative analysis in Visegrad countries and Serbia)

This issue of Serbian Journal of Management (SJM 14(2) 2019), is dedicated to one very important challenge of contemporary entrepreneurship, that is condensed in single question: How to prevent SMEs from failure ? The articles published in this issue are all addressing different aspects of entrepreneurial activities that can lead to successful and/or unsuccessful operations. Part of the articles pubished in this issue are directly presenting the results of the project: HOW TO PREVENT SMEs FROM FAILURE (Actions based on comparative analysis in Visegrad countries and Serbia), which was financially supported by the International Visegrad Fund. During the projects, researchers from all four Visegrad group countries, as well as researchers from Serbia, were analysing SMEs from their regions, which suffered from some degree of financial distress or have failed in the past. The main purpose of this investigation was to analyse and identify the most important business factors that can lead to failure of the SMEs businesses. Obtained results are presented in this issue. On the other hand, part of the manuscripts in this issue are invited from the authors who are also investigating the SMEs operation and are dealing the factors of success of the entrepreneurial activities, in the region outside Visegrad group or Serbia. The main motive of this issue is to address this highly important challenge - SMEs successful operations

SMEs' digitalization impact on economic development

The accelerated development of information and communication technologies has caused notable changes in all spheres of life and business. In order to contribute to their own economic goals and the economy in general, companies are forced to embrace technological innovations. This study aims to test a hypothesis that the digitalization of business operations in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) positively influences economic development. Since the degree of digitization is a complex phenomenon, it is approached through several quantitative indicators. The data from the Eurostat database were used for the research. The analysis results obtained using the structural equations modeling confirm the positive relationship between the level of digitization of SMEs and gross domestic product (GDP)

VIŠEKRITERIJUMSKA ANALIZA KLIME BEZBEDNOSTI U PROJEKTNO ORIJENTISANIM ORGANIZACIJAMA

U ovom radu su prikazani rezultati višekriterijumske analize klime bezbednosti kao osnove za formiranje adekvatne bezbednosti na radu u organizaciji. Istraživanje je obavljeno u 11 projektno orijentisanih organizacija koje posluju u različitim industrijskim sektorima. Primenom PROMETHEE metode, obavljena je analiza klime bezbednosti u različitim industrijskim sektorima, kao i na različitim radnim mestima na projektima. Konačno, ustanovljeni su faktori klime bezbednosti čijim bi se unapređivanjem postigla poboljšanja u predmetnoj oblasti