Perceived Effects of Croatian Customs Services Reform: the Opinion of Forwarders from Istarska County

The reforms of the public sector rank among the most complex problems Croatia has to face in the process of transition and accession to the EU. One of the recent reforms, the Customs Service Reform, offers insights into some of the achieved improvements and may serve as a guideline for reformers in other areas of public management. This research provides evidence of “customer satisfaction” with the functioning of the Croatian Customs System. Conclusions have been drawn based on the responses of 31 forwarders from Istarska County using a 19-item Likert scale. According to their opinion, services have improved in several aspects during the past few years, and accordingly the results can be interpreted as an indication of success of reform efforts

Process organization-concept and origins with reference to the restructuring of Croatian manufacturing

Rad razrađuje evoluciju pojma procesne organizacije kako bi se ukazalo na prikladnost rješenja pri analizi restrukturiranja hrvatske prerađivačke industrije. U radu se najprije daje kratak pregled trendova u hrvatskoj prerađivačkoj industriji, te se potom upućuje na okolnosti koje dovede do porasta interesa menadžera za nove organizacijske oblike. Tu se ukazuje da, premda od ranije poznat, pojam procesne strukture i procesne organizacije nije uvijek jednako shvaćan. Ono što mu danas daje na značaju jest upravo činjenica da procesne organizacijske strukture potpomažu restrukturiranju u smislu da olakšava identifikaciju kritičnih poslovnih aktivnosti. Na taj način omogućeno je da se izdvajanjem nekritičnih aktivnosti pojednostavljuje organizacija pojedinačnih poduzeća, te snižavaju troškovi koordinacije te i samog operativnog poslovanja. U radu se također ističe bliskost pojma procesne organizacije s novim organizacijskim teorijama, čija zapažanja o problemima organizacijskog restrukturiranja evoluiraju simultano razvoju nove poslovne prakse. To su naročito pojmovi projektne organizacije, poslovnih mreža, reinžinjeringa (BPR) i outsourcinga (BPO).This paper elaborates on the evolution of the term Process organization in order to point the possibilities of implementing the concept in the restructuring of the Croatian manufacturing industry. For that purpose, the paper starts by indicating the circumstances that led to the popularization of the concept among managers, especially due to the pressures that arise out of intensifying competition and global trends in enterprise restructuring. Here,we point to the fact, that even though the term has been known for quite some time, its meaning is changing: what makes it important these days is exactly the fact that process based restructuring makes easier the identification of critical business activities. The paper also stresses that there are other concepts related to organizational restructuring that are evolving along side, and, that are important for the understanding of the underlying logic and consequences of process oriented structures. Those are especially project organization, business networks, BPR and BPO

The mediating role of hotel employees’ job satisfaction and performance in the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational performance

Authentic leadership is a positive leadership theory, conceptualized under the influence of positive psychology and positive organizational behaviour movement. Although it has become a recognized leadership theory, it is still somewhat neglected in the hospitality literature. To address this gap, the paper seeks to develop and test a conceptual model linking authentic leadership to organizational performance in the hospitality context. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis on a sample of 226 employees from 24 hotels in Croatia. The research results confirmed the positive impact of authentic leadership on hotels’ operational performance, which was mediated by followers’ job satisfaction and performance. There was no empirical support for the hypothesized impact of authentic leadership on hotels’ financial performance. The findings suggest that authentic leadership behaviours, together with positive organisational settings, characterized by flexible organizational structure, are more likely to enhance desirable employees’ attitudes and behaviours, resulting in improved organizational performance

Understanding the role of context in shaping the development of business systems

The paper addresses the issue of strategic misconceptions in creating a national framework for an industry of strategic importance. In this paper, the shipbuilding industry was chosen as a model for analysing the strategic adjustments of decision makers in business entities and on national level before EU accession and its consequences on the national economy as a whole. The importance of the topic arises not only from benefits that national economy once had from this base industry, but from the fact that shipbuilding is still one of European strategic industries, even though its concepts and values have changed significantly with the technological development and rise of the Eastern emerging markets. The main hypothesis of the paper is that shipbuilding has a broad extent of externalities in the national economy, and therefore, by leading it properly, especially in times of high unemployment and low level of GDP growth, it can act as an important generator of economic growth. Considering the potential size of the system, the economy can enjoy positive externalities such as a high multiplier effect or spill-overs, no matter whether the shipyards are privatized or state owned. It is ultimately the States responsibility to ensure the infrastructure for industries declared as strategic, i.e. vital to national economic development. This study reports on a survey of Croatian shipyards decision makers done in 2009 and the strategic line of reasoning the management had 5 years ago, during the pre-accession period. The findings will be compared to the present state of the industry. These findings are put into the context of the Croatian government shipbuilding development strategy, EU recommendations for the development of shipbuilding industry and their impact on the financial, organizational and managerial issues in Croatian shipyards. The presented results are part of scientific projects: “Poslovna prilagodba hrvatskih gospodarskih subjekata tržišnom natjecanju u EU” (No 13.02.1.3.11) and "Koncepti i metode troškovnog i upravljačkog računovodstva u javnom sektoru Republike Hrvatske" (No 13.02.1.2.09)

The impact of distribution channels on the bargaining position of Croatian wine producers

This paper presents an exploratory study of the relationship between wine producers and distributors in the Croatian wine sector. It focuses on the impact of distribution channels on the bargaining position of wine producers, thereby adding to the growing body of research seeking to determine the factors that influence the growth potential of the traditional agricultural sector. Due to the fragmentation on the production side of the market and a high level of concentration on the distribution side, the wine sector provides a suitable context for studying the bargaining power of agricultural (wine) producers and hypothesizing on future outcomes in terms of industry structure and growth potential. Presuming that the share of value retained by the wine producer depends on his bargaining position, two hypotheses were tested: H1: A higher degree of self-reliance improves a wine producer’s bargaining position and H2: A higher number of distribution channels improves a wine producer’s bargaining position. After a brief review of relevant scientific literature, five regression models were created and tested on a sample of 124 Croatian wine producers, which yielded statistically significant results confirming the hypotheses. the final model controls for production volume, number of labels and respective region. The paper ends with some general conclusions and recommendations for future research

Personalized medicine industry model development

Health care is a growing business, but its trajectory patterns are hard to decipher at the moment. This paper provides a short overview of issues important for developing business models for the personalized medicine sector (PM). The paper draws on institutional theory, particularly transaction costs economics (TCE) in an attempt to draft a conceptual framework applicable for identifying relationship patterns among institutional entities, i.e. industry actors in the Personalized Medicine (PM) field. According to the theory, relationships among industry actors are expected to evolve depending on the manifestation of many contextual factors and their developments: investment activity, public interests, technology development, market structure, regulatory environment, demographic factors, personal preferences, natural factors, etc. In our belief, a descriptive model of an industry should include a broader scope of entities besides directly competing firms. Our rationale is that market actors, in a resource dependent environment, sustain their activity by engaging in (bargaining) relationships with other entities with vested interests in the industry. Basically, we believe that predictions of future industry and particular entities’ business model development would be a function of available resources, power relations and regulation

Vidljivi učinci reforme hrvatske carinske službe: mišljenja otpremnika iz Istarske županije

Reforme javnog sektora jedan su od najsloženijih problema s kojima se Hrvatska mora suočiti u svojoj tranziciji i pristupanju Europskoj uniji. Jedna od nedavno vođenih reformi, reforma carinske službe, daje uvid u određena postignuta unapređenja i može poslužiti kao vodič za one koji provode reforme na drugim područjima javnog sektora. Ovo istraživanje osigurava dokaze o “zadovoljstvu korisnika usluga” funkcioniranjem hrvatskoga carinskog sustava. Zaključci su doneseni na temelju odgovora 31 otpremnika iz Istarske županije o ukupno 19 pitanja, primjenom Likertove skale. Prema njihovu mišljenju, usluga se posljednjih nekoliko godina poboljšala u nekoliko aspekata, što se može interpretirati kao indikacija uspjeha reformskih napora

Procurement at Local Government Level – Issues and Controversies

Local government, as administrative units, performs a broad range of services that require to establish relations with outside partners, including those belonging to the private sector. Public procurement, due to the size of the involved financial flows, is government activity especially exposed to inefficiencies, corruption and dishonesty. There is an everlasting discussion on the ideal size and the range of services to be kept ‘in-house’ of local government units (LGUs).Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) represents a theoretical paradigm specially designed to interpret the issue of efficiency in inter-institutional relations. However, even though TCE might be envisaged as a tool for building better systems and institutions, practical experience suggests that efficient organization of complex multi-institutional systems is still a goal to be met. Therefore, public procurement procedures at LGU level are suitable to analyze the transaction costs. In an attempt to determine the main organizational features of the existing scope of institutions/entities involved in delivering services to citizens, we provided an overview of the complexity of inter-organizational relations at LGU level.In this paper, we present results of an empirical research of public procurement procedures from the perspective of LGUs in Croatia. Picking up on questionnaire responses from 200 LGUs that reported having held over 350 cases of providing services through contract agreements with ‘independent’ service providers, we formed an opinion of what could be the consequences of developing more structured public procurement procedures

Personalized medicine industry model development

Health care is a growing business, but its trajectory patterns are hard to decipher at the moment. This paper provides a short overview of issues important for developing business models for the personalized medicine sector (PM). The paper draws on institutional theory, particularly transaction costs economics (TCE) in an attempt to draft a conceptual framework applicable for identifying relationship patterns among institutional entities, i.e. industry actors in the Personalized Medicine (PM) field. According to the theory, relationships among industry actors are expected to evolve depending on the manifestation of many contextual factors and their developments: investment activity, public interests, technology development, market structure, regulatory environment, demographic factors, personal preferences, natural factors, etc. In our belief, a descriptive model of an industry should include a broader scope of entities besides directly competing firms. Our rationale is that market actors, in a resource dependent environment, sustain their activity by engaging in (bargaining) relationships with other entities with vested interests in the industry. Basically, we believe that predictions of future industry and particular entities’ business model development would be a function of available resources, power relations and regulation