Economic and Business Review (EBR)
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Obvezno zdravstveno zavarovanje v Sloveniji med danes in jutri
No full textDue to the ageing population, the accompanying changes in health status, increasingly expensive new medical technologies, new medications, increased demands of service users and other related development trends, Slovenia has long faced significant challenges in ensuring the financial sustainability of the health care system. The economic crisis at the end of 2008, which unfortunately was also accompanied by changes in the salaries of civil servants and health workers in Slovenia, has further aggravated the conditions for the balanced operation of this public system. The results of the measures implemented by the Slovenian Health Insurance Institute in 2009 and 2010 to ensure financial sustainability are estimated at around € 239 million per year. However, macroeconomic conditions continue to deteriorate and further system changes are needed as soon as possible. In the short term, emergency measures are needed, which must focus primarily on ensuring the solvency of the Slovenian public health fund. On the other hand, comprehensive systemic changes in the health care system are needed, which must focus on the following objectives: Improving the public financial sources of the compulsory health insurance system, more sustainable regulation of entitlements and more efficient and qualitatively better functioning of the health care system
Exploring moderating effects of proactivity on the relationship between market information and innovation performance
No full textThe purpose of this study is to test relationship between entrepreneur’s proactivity and effectiveness of market information use to address the question of why some entrepreneurs use market information better than others. Results of our conceptual model, tested on SMEs from the United States and Slovenia, indicate that entrepreneurs who are more proactive are more responsive to new information than others; which has a positive influence on SMEs innovation performance, product innovation in specifics. Implications for practitioners and future research avenues are discussed
Public support for environmental innovation in SMEs: the role of the “Young researchers for the economy” programme
No full textEnvironmental innovations are an important factor in the development of a sustainable society. Due to financial constraints, most SMEs do not have a serious interest in environmental questions, even though they represent an important share of pollution and natural resource consumption. In a time of economic recession, different public support mechanisms play an important role in reducing the negative impacts of market failure. The current study focuses on environmental innovation support for SMEs. Specifically, this paper serves as an exploratory study on the effects of public support on the environmental innovation activity, R&D funding and financial performance of SMEs. The authors use a case study approach to collect data and find indications the that the “Young researchers for the economy” programme: (1) increases environmental innovations; (2) does not crowd out private funds; and (3) improves the financial performance of SMEs. Drawing on the findings of interviews with general managers and owners, the authors offer recommendations for policy makers aimed at improving the programme
A model of buyer-supplier relationships in a transnational company: the role of the business network context
No full textThe paradigmatic shift in marketing from the beginning of the 1990’s has transformed the study of economic exchange, towards addressing more the relational aspects of these exchanges, where relationship specificity has replaced transaction specificity. This is particularly true in transnational supply exchanges, where specialization and outsourcing have increased the importance of effective and efficient management of buyer-supplier relationships, and their corresponding networks in which they are embedded in. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of selected dimensions of buyer-supplier relationships within a specific TNC business-to-business (B2B) setting on supply relationship performance from the suppliers’ perspective. The paper analyzes the impact of the functional aspect of the business network context on selected elements of buyer-supplier relationships, particular in terms of the impact on business performance. This is analyzed within a confirmatory testing of a reflective structural equation model. A unique feature of the model is its focus on the business network, which is operationalized through 2 dimensions, which are related to (a) network-based information and (b) network spillover effects, as key determinants of the “traditional” elements of buyer-supplier relationships (i.e. transaction-specific investments, trust, flexibility, and joint actions). The dataset includes a sample of 157 suppliers of the focal TNC world-wide (47.9 response rate on a web-based survey). In the end, the paper provides a series of managerial implications to be considered, focusing on the so called network management perspective and the role of a wider business network context
Three firms on a unit disk market: intermediate product differentiation
No full textIrmen and Thisse (1998) demonstrate that two firms competing with multicharacteristic products differentiate them in one characteristic completely, while keeping them identical in all others. This paper shows that their min-…-min-max differentiation result is not robust with respect to the number of firms. A market setting that replicates their result in a duopoly, but fails to do so in a three firm oligopoly is identified. Symmetric pure strategy equilibrium with three firms differentiating their products in two dimensions, but not completely in either of them, is a novel medium-medium differentiation result
Resource hijacking as a bricolage technique
No full textEntrepreneurs work in a resource-constrained environment. What is more, the resources controlled by new ventures are often much more limited compared to the resources controlled by existing competitors. In order to overcome the gap between needed and controlled resources, entrepreneurs use techniques such as financial bootstrapping (Ebben & Johnson, 2006) and bricolage (Philips & Tracey, 2007). This study extends the concept of entrepreneurial bricolage by introducing the concept of resource hijacking, which explains how entrepreneurs take advantage of resources controlled by others to extend their resource base and develop new ventures. Using an exploratory grounded theory approach, this study aims to: (1) conceptualize resource hijacking, (2) identify different dimensions and variants of resource hijacking, (3) provide empirical evidence of resource hijacking in practice, and (4) fit the emergent concept into the existing body of literature on bootstrapping and bricolage within the entrepreneurial process
Prispevek fiskalne politike h gospodarskemu okrevanju
No full textThis paper assesses ongoing economic developments and the contribution of fiscal policy to it. It reviews the background economic conditions where fiscal consolidation is taking place. It evaluates the impact of economic conditions on the fiscal stance and of the current fiscal consolidations strategy on economic activity in light of the major risks that the country faces, which seems to have materialized in the form of a sizable widening of the government borrowing spread over benchmark. Using a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model (UMAR) the effect of fiscal policy on the economy is evaluated as well as the risk of delaying fiscal consolidation. Alternative fiscal consolidation policy and speed is suggested based on assessment of its likely impact on economic activity
Why bank market value to book value ratios so different: evidence from Turkish banking sector
No full textIn this paper we examine the market value to book value ratios for publicly traded banks in Turkish banking sector and investigate whether the bank fundamentals could explain the observed differences among the banks. We find that bank fundamentals play a significant role in explaining the differences in market value to book value ratios. The results reveal that banks with higher profitability and a higher ratio of non-interest revenue to total interest revenue tend to have higher market value to book value ratios. Banks with higher net loans to total assets ratio, a larger asset size, and a higher equity to total assets ratio are expected to have lower market value to book value ratios. We also find that public banks and foreign banks tend to have higher market value to book value ratio whereas participation banks and investment banks tend to have lower valuations
Dileme slovenske javnofinančne konsolidacije ob ekonomski recesiji in krizi evroobmočja
No full textIn 2009, Slovenia recorded a public budget deficit of two billion euros due to the economic recession. This situation has extended to 2010, which is fiscally unsustainable, so fiscal consolidation is urgently needed. The economic recession has highlighted the macroeconomic instability of the Eurozone, leaving Slovenia with the task of stabilising its economy in an otherwise unstable region of the Eurozone. The situation in the Eurozone has also brought to the fore the issue of the competitiveness of Slovenian exports and Slovenia as a business location. Slovenia needs to create greater competitiveness in the Eurozone, where countries compete in competitiveness, which for a small middle-income country can quickly lead to divergent rather than convergent development
Using metaphors as a tool for creative strategic sense-making
No full textThis paper investigates the use of metaphor as a valuable tool in encountering contemporary challenges in marketing strategy development. A review of the literature indicates how traditional approaches pay insufficient attention to the fact that marketing strategy development rests largely on the processes of intuitive and symbolic thinking. The first part of the paper establishes creative strategic thinking, which includes these processes as a key imperative in marketing strategy development. To show how metaphors can serve as a tool in encountering some of the challenges identified the second part examines the functions of metaphors. The final part of the paper presents a practical example of use of the military metaphor in the process of marketing sense-making and strategy development, followed by proposal of an extended and universal framework for metaphorical transfer and a discussion of the principles of such use