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The COVID-19 pandemic is a non-economic, external, and unpredictable shock which directly affects the real economy, having the potential to degenerate into an economic and financial crisis. The paper aim is to find an institutional and structural way by which the economies could manage such shocks without covering unspecified risks or handling unknown uncertainties. In fact, the paper proposes a sui generis immune system of the economy which consists in endowing that economy with an anti-fragile potential to oppose against perturbations (either external or internal), no matter what kind, or their intensity, and even to gain from those perturbations. The proposal is analogous, from structural and functional point of view, with the biological immune mechanism, but it is designed on institutional bases (both discretionary and automatic). The anti-fragility property is more relevant and productive than other similar properties, such as: robustness, resilience, homeostasis and so on.

The author is addressing the problem of systematic inclusion of the topics of social economy into the accredited higher education study programmes in Slovenia. To support the actuality of the research problem, education in social economyis shown as public policies priority on national and European level. The paper aims to answers the question of existence of social economy courses in the study programmes on business (and business-related management) and the question about correspondence of the content of these courses to the needs for competences of actors in the sector of social economy. The paper also presents different types of inclusion of the topics of social economy into the systems of higher education in Europe with the purpose to show possible directions for further development of social economy education in higher education system in Slovenia. The results of the research aim to have didactical, developmental and advocacy value and applicability.

The maritime industry faces the challenge of implementing a digital culture inherent in the 21st century and a modern way of doing business in shipping, maritime ports, and a more expansive, within a whole maritime logistic chain. The main question is the implications for marketing when the maritime business's digital transformation is an emerging issue. The paper is designed using the PEST impact matrix. The systematic literature review, literature analysis, and synthesis are the main methods applied. The most important results are political, economic, social, and technological changes of modern maritime business and their important implications for maritime marketing. These implications revealed the nature of change, the anticipated impact of change, opportunity or threats, and marketing's strategic response to the contemporary external environment.The paper fills the current literary gap and draws attention to the trends of the marketing, business organization, and human resource management in the maritime industry. All is linked with digital culture, which is still developing within the maritime industry.

This paper aims to analyse the determinants affecting the trading of services and examine the causality between the trading of services and the factors affecting the trade. For the study, the fixed effects panel data regression has been used. The results indicate that as the income of a country increases, its trade in services also increases. The use of the internet and mobile phones are also important indicators of trade in services and an increase in their use reduces the cost of trading services. Free trade agreements play an important role in developing countries like Brazil and China for trading services. The paper has been organized as follows –the first section gives a brief introduction about services and the objectives of the study, the second section is a discussion about the existing literature, section three gives the data and methodology used for this study, the fourth section provides the results and analysis, section five concludes the study, and the last section discusses some of the limitations of the study.

Foreign direct investment (hereinafter referred to as FDI) are an important segment of economic-financial activity in the national economy. Being so important they deserve special attention from the politicians as well as an analytical review in scientific terms. FDIare one of the key factors for promoting the country's sustainable economicdevelopment. They have economic and financial impact, but their legal aspect is also very important. This paper elaborates the concept of foreign direct investment, their impact on the national economy and the legal basis of foreign direct investment. As an analytical case is used the Republic of Kosovo, whose institutions are creating policies and are adopting laws for an appropriate environment that affects the attraction of foreign investors and investments. The focus of this paper is the analysis of the concept of FDI, the legal infrastructure, the factors that impact the attraction of investments, and their role in the economic development of the country. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role and importance of FDIfor national economic development as well as the legal security of investments in the Republic of Kosovo. In the elaboration of the paper was used the literature of foreign authors, statistical reports of local and international institutions as well as local legislation dealing withthe regulation of this issue. The main methods used are descriptive methods, methods of analysis and synthesis, statistical methods, legal methods and comparative methods.

Banking operations are increasingly moving from traditional to digital. Special attention of the paper is drawn to the concept of online customer experience. Montenegrin banking sector and customers are not lagging behind the world trends, so the focus of the practical part of research is, through a specially designed questionnaire, online customer experiences, in the opinion of the customers of the bank is ready to provide excellence in the online environment. The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the basic concepts of online customer experiences, which models are used, what are the constraints, and where the areas for improvement are.

This paper examines interconnectedness between Covid-19 and six nested subsystems of our planet: people, economy, society, anthroposphere, biosphere and planetosphere. It argues the complexity inside of them and in their interactions. The main question is what paradigmatic shift related to sustainable development economics did Covid-19 initiate, and what are the changes in paradigmatic manifestations of a post Covid-19 sustainable economic theory. Through comparison between neoclassical economics together with neoclassical paradigm manifestations, and what should be changed to avoid business as usual and enhance environmental economy, the paper concludes that much of everyday economic intellectual constructs and activities, including dominant economic theory is the part of the present reality that is not sustainable and has to be changed.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the changes that Albanian cultural dimensions’ scores have undergone over time. Hofstede’s Value Survey Module 2013 (VSM 2013) has been applied to examine the six dimensions of culture; power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation and indulgence. The survey data (N = 387) was collected in the two largest private hospitals in Albania. Globalization, technological developments, economical flourishing and crisis, war,and peace, influence the shifting of national cultural dimensions’ scores toward negative or positive values (Hofstede et al., 2010). In this study we aim to show the shifting of Albanian culture value scores in time and compare the results with the ones predicted by the researchers of the field. The results obtained show a negative shift on Albanian culture dimension score of power distance, individualism,long term orientation and indulgence, and a positive shift on masculinity and uncertainty avoidance values. Implications for researchers of the field are discussed in the paper.

Foreign direct investments (FDIs) have extraordinary importance for the development of the country, contributing to the higher level of its competitiveness. Some transition economies were focused on FDIs attraction, selecting banking sector as one to the most propulsive targets. Using empirical evidence on FDIs in Serbian banking sector during XXI century through granular analysis by differentiation between greenfield and brownfield investments, this paper pinpoints on major movements and perspectives of development. Also, beside the FDIs aspect, which is the central point of the paper, this paper summarize the major regulatory changes in accordance with Basel III standards aimed to increase the credibility of Serbian banking sector.

The main purpose of this paper is to present the modern model of integrated corporate communication. Beside this, the authors will describe the changes occurring in the corporate environment and importance of changing the model of corporate communication. This paper also discusses the importance of implementation of the suggested model, the use of new media and effects of these changes on corporations. The approach used in this paper is the literature review. The authors explore the importance of implementation of the suggested model and the new media in corporate communication, both internal and external, addressing all the stakeholders and communication contents. The paper recommends implementation of a modern model of integrated corporate communication as a response to constant development of the new media and generation changes taking place. Practical implications: the modern model of integrated corporate communication can be used as an upgrade of the conventional communication models. This modern model empowers companies to sustain and build up the existing relationships with stakeholders, and to find out and create new relationships with stakeholders who were previously inaccessible and invisible.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is creating instability in the financial markets, with European stock markets falling, and the effects reflected in energy and food prices. A war scenario brings with it a humanitarian crisis and it is the most vulnerable who suffer the worst consequences. Based on these events it is intended in this paper to test the persistence of returns on the IMOEX capital market, Russian Sovereign OT (10 YR), and the WTI oil index over the period April 24th, 2017, to April 22nd, 2022. To perform this analysis different approaches were undertaken to analyse, if: (i) do the analysed markets exhibit persistence in their returns? The results suggest that the returns do not follow the i.i.d. hypothesis from dimension 2, reinforcing the idea that time series returns are nonlinear in nature or have a significant nonlinear component, except for the Russian capital market, which was expected considering the results of the Ljung-Box (with squares of the returns) and ARCH-LM tests.

Studies revealed that women are less likely to be entrepreneurs and face more disadvantages starting businesses than men, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the authors investigated the importance of women’s economic empowerment and its impact on the rise of female entrepreneurship and human capital in Botswana. Objectives: The paper aims to get an in-depth insight into the issue and to recognise the most relevant factors and how they influence female entrepreneurship in the selected country. The findings should underline the importance of policies and initiatives for female entrepreneurs and the consequential positive effect on the country’s progress in achieving gender equality and economic growth. Methods/ approach: The research included a case study analysis with four in-depth expert interviews. Data triangulation ensured the study's validity, and the case was examined through pattern matching.

Emerging markets are amongst some of the fastest-growing economies on the globe. However, they must enhance human capital to enable a nation's long-term development. The theory states that the increase in workforce participation highly impacts GDP per capita. Additionally, developing markets can grow even further if they increase women's rate in the labour market. The paper aims to determine the main obstacles for women in the job market and identify the impact of female participation on national development by conducting a case study analysis for Guatemala. The authors decided to apply a data triangulation approach and chose a mixture of three sources of data: documents, archival records, and interviews. Guatemala holds an unfavourable rank in the Global Gender Gap Index. The findings demonstrate that the workforce rate is increasing but still severely lower than the men's rate. In Guatemala, the high number of women in tertiary education does not translate into higher female workforce participation. The main issues are cultural stereotypes, limited access to the job market, and difficulties with combining work and childcare.

The purpose of this paper is to present the overview of the existing literature that examines the effectiveness of the EU economic governance in delivering on EU economic goals. This topic is especially important in the context of the ongoing Review of the economic governance of the EU, launched in October 2021, with the aim to present the recommendations for the further improvement of the EU governance framework. The overview of the existing literature on the effectiveness of the EU governance framework in delivering economic goals, for the period from 2011 to 2019 is focused on two equally important lines: 1. studies examining the relationship between the effectiveness of the governance in achieving economic goals; and 2. studies focused on the impact of the implementation of the policy recommendations on the economic performance of the Member States. Presented overview of the relevant literature shows that significant effort has been put in analysing the effectiveness of the EU governance model. However, complete assessment of the effectiveness of the EU governance model will benefit from further analysis of the impact of the European semester on the economic performance of the Member States and EU as a whole. The examination of this link is crucial for the comprehensive assessment of the role and relevance of the European semester both in the governance and economic framework of the EU.

Paper describes the challenges faced by many innovative companies trying to successfully launch new products on the market. According to existing research, which confirms that a large proportion of newly launched products fail commercially, in addition to the basic characteristics of the new product, the purpose of the thesis is to explore how the organisation can successfully contribute to product success mainly through sales activities or more precisely the sales staff who makes the first contact with customers. Their task is even more complex with more innovative products, as this type of sales is different from the usual, and at the same time requires a good understanding of how customers behave and how they think.The sales staff of Slovenian companies has credible experience in this area, and in the conducted research, they gave their views, opinions and experiences on the way of selling innovative products and how it differs from the sale of products that are already known on the market

Due to more and more stringent environmental regulations, the automotive industry is increasingly turning to the production of electric cars. The rate of their introduction onto the market will be influenced by the opinion of potential buyers. In our research, consumers' views on electric cars in Slovenia, which influence the purchase probability of their buyers' decisions, were investigated. A quantitative research method and an online survey were used. The analysis of the obtained results established the understanding of electric cars among potential consumers and what expectations they have of them, assessed the importance of various features of such cars and determined which ones are more or less important to consumers when buying something. The paper studied how long consumers plan to make a purchase and determined their views on the overall environmental impact of electric cars compared to conventional fossil fuel cars.

The modern world is a world of global trends. Studies often do not take into account the nonlinearity of the process and create the appearance of automatically deepening and expanding global processes that affect all areas of life. Globalization is considered in the article as a non-linear process of spatial interaction, mutual influence and interdependence of the world economy subjects. One of the main periodization criteria of economic globalization is the qualitative changes in spatio-temporal relations. Thepurpose of the paper is to justify the reasons for the emergence of a new phase of globalization. The pandemic has triggered a serious blow to the global interdependent economy. This means that globalization is entering a new phase.

The coronavirus is a phenomenon in the last months. The impact on the economy is devastating, especially on tourism. The national governments put into practice several supportive measures to avert the collapse. A specific tool was introduced for tour operators –the issue of vouchers instead of money refund. This paper aims to identify and analyse the risks of this measure offered by the Czech government. The identification is based on a combination of sources and methods. The methodologies used are open-question questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Preliminary results assume that the real risks associated with vouchers are the validity of insurance, the validity of vouchers and the future cash flow of tour operators.

The paper sets up a calculation of the effective exchange rate for Slovenia andcompares it to the methodologies used by the IMF, BIS, European Commission and ECB. Additionally,we construct smaller regional effective exchange rates that help to explain the robustness of the Slovene export sector, especially in the cooling-off periodof the global economy in recent years. The results show that some of the calculation methodologies can overshoot less favourable competitiveness dynamics. It is important to consider these results as different methodologies could draw different policy conclusions for the competitiveness stance of the Slovene economy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept of Work-Life Balance with emphasis on the definition and content of construct. Based on a review of the literature, the article highlights the diversity of approaches defining the work-life balance (WLB) as well as the lack of a single accepted definition, on which the practitioners and academics community agree. The most problematic term was found to be the term “balance”. On the basis of analysed knowledge, the definition of work-life balance is proposed. The definition of WLB is based on presumption that WLB is such a state, that work life quality allows the full potential of a private life to be realized. According to this presumption a definition of work-life balance has been proposed and a formula for the calculation of work-life balance has been formed.

This paper will particularly discuss the sector of shopping centres. Drawing on calculated values for each of shopping centres, perceptual maps are designed that can be of great help for investors to decide about the most appropriate shopping centre they should invest their new retail project. Furthermore, these perceptual maps can also be designed by combining variables that are related with employment and success that will help job seekers to compare different options in the job market. This research gives a clear view on the perception that general public has on the reputation of shopping centres in Albania, that are Albanian brands. This research outcome is a ranking on reputation for 216 companies, from which are extracted 7 shopping centres, Albanian brands. 2 of them are ranked on top 10 of the list and 3 of them are ranked on the bottom 10. Total perception for all seven shopping centres is negative. Perceptual maps are used as a tool to offer a clear view to managers regarding the findings for each variable of the study.

This article generally discusses the role marketing strategies play in promoting the nonprofit sector in its efforts to reach out and engage its audiences. Many nonprofit organizations consider the use of tactical marketing strategy as useful and essential. The success of the nonprofit sector is related to the wider environment in which it operates, such as the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological. Therefore, a carefully designed marketing strategy can help the nonprofit sector properly address the needs of the different target groups. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which marketing ideas and strategies are created and implemented in the non-profit sector and the tools used to achieve its mission. Part of this process is to determine how management in nonprofit organizations views marketing, as well as challenges and opportunities related to the marketing efforts. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior representatives of organizations active in the media and journalism field and the results were processed with the software Atlas.ti. Analysis of secondary data, including findings from past research, documents, and different publications, is also used to elaborate the research problem. The article found out that even though there is an understanding of the importance of strategic communication in marketing operations, still it is not practiced sufficiently due to the lack of human resources and finances. The implications of these findings are discussed in detail in the article.

The objective of this paper is to outline the potential and outlooks of development of circular economy in Bulgaria, as well as demonstrate the need for adequate measures on part of public authorities to encourage this change. The research is based on a primary survey of Bulgarian employers’ attitudes towards pursuing a corporate policy relating to the principles of sustainable development, which was conducted among 400 enterprises. The analysis reveals untapped potential not only with regard to a more efficient use of resources, in both the private and public sectors, but also in terms of underestimating the significance of the issue. The firms could significantly reduce their costs, improve their compatibility and their export potential if they apply new business models and new innovative technologies, which are both resource-efficient and eco-friendly.

In this paper, we investigated whether and to what extent digitalisation and research intensity in a country (e.g. Slovenia, Croatia) affect the participation of adults in learning (APinL). Statistical analysis for EU28 countries for 2018, carried out by combination of different statistical methods highlighted strong positive correlations of APinL and selected variables (human capital; use of internet services; integration of digital technology; research expenses in GDP - GERD). Clustering and profile chart analysis clearly revealed three clusters of countries differing by achieved level of digitalisation, which conforms closely to the level of APinL. High APinL in digitally advanced countries could be mainly assigned to increased educational needs and new innovative education forms.

Prices and costs are often the main points of interest in a typical competitiveness analysis. If studying prices cover the inflation and exchange rate perspectives, studying costs usually covers the relationship between labour costs and labour productivity. Strictly focusing on the labour side within the cost analysis does not offer a complete cost-overview of the production process. In this paper we try to complement the toolbox for assessing competitiveness in Slovenia and the rest of the euro area countries by constructing a unit capital cost index (UKC).

Nowadays we can notice significant changes and variations in dealing with death around Europe which requires adaptation of services that cemeteries provide in their vast space. Providing new services is a challenging management issue that first requires a change in the perception of cemetery away from burial space. Purpose of this paper is to analyse how cemeteries can be used as education environment.

In this paper the author examines patterns and prospects for the leading causes of death in countries across the globe. An explicit focus is on the diversity and ongoing dynamics of mortality. New factors promising to contribute to a longer and healthier life help to draw a picture of our life in the decades to come and its opportunities for business and society. Based on this the author presents several scenarios for forecasting of life expectancy with different degrees of probability.

This paper aims to provide a comparative analysis of private demand for innovation in the context of the ex-YU countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia from 2011 to 2016. One key variable for the importance of demand for innovation is the buyer sophistication. This signals the ability of buyers to select products and services based on performance rather than price and to bear the cost of products at the beginning of the life cycle. The companies that face a sophisticated domestic market are likely to sell high quality products and a close proximity to such consumers should to enables the company to better understand the needs and desires of the customers and how they perceive the value of the product. For cultural or historical reasons, buyers may be more demanding in some countries than in others. Hence, оur start point is that “higher degrees of buyer sophistication can to explain higher shares of innovative sales” (Hollanders and Es-Sadki, 2017, p. 42) and opposite “lower shares of innovative sales could to explain lower degrees of buyer sophistication” in the above countries. Thus, our analysis relies on two key indicators, the “buyer sophistication” and the “sales of new-to-market and new-to-firm product innovations”, which are including, the first in the Global Competitiveness Report and the second, in the European Innovation Scoreboard. Looking at the results, it can be noted that Serbia has a big gap between the two indicators, so the extent of buyer sophistication is lower from the extent of innovative sales. Аs business leaders make a subjective assessment of the GCR’s indicator Buyer sophistication, it can be assumed that Serbian business leaders assess the sophistication of domestic customers much lower than it is. This example is somewhat similar to the Slovenian business leaders. These two countries achieve the same level of sales of innovative products, while Macedonia and Croatia are in the same group and have lower sales of innovative products. This finding calls for demand-oriented policies which would have to influence the innovation culture in the market, making buyers more risk taking, aware of innovations and empower them to buy and use them.

The power of politicians presenting itself in front of the public rests in the media, so politicians are likely to use the media to create the preferred media frames and to set the agenda (agenda setting). Worldwide, spin-doctors have their own influence in the modeling of the media reality, processes that are comparable in Macedonia as well. The paper strive to describe the presence of the spinning in Macedonia and its impact on the news content. Furthermore, it deals with the spinning tactics and their manifestation in the political communication, explaining the models in which political spinning is functioning in Macedonia. Main research questions are focused on: (1) how does the process of creating the news is carry out and what affects the news content production; (2) what specific strategic doctrines spin-doctors are using to influence the process of daily reporting and to participate in the creation of the media reality; (3) how the spin-doctors present information and communicate with the public and what methods and tools are characteristic for spinning cycles.

Workforce diversity management is fast becoming a significant component of in Multinational Corporations because it has outstanding benefits on inclusive workplace climate leading to improved work outcomes. The paper provides a conceptual background of the significance and implications of diversity management and inclusion, followed by a proposed insider research design. An employee perception focused approach is discussed that is believed to best capture the efficiency of diversity management and inclusion. Recommendations complement the conceptual framework and critical analyses.

People have few things in common, and one of them is death that no one can avoid. Fascination with this ultimate deed in someone’s life, philosophies and religions explaining the life after death as well as rituals resulting from their explanations have always been in focus of humans. But can this ultimate act become a tourist attraction? The present paper focuses on a small and unknown cemetery in Alaska as a case study in order to demonstrate that graveyards can offer a variety of opportunities for interpretation. The data was collected on the internet and through the method of observation with participation during the guided visit of Alaska, and the town and cemetery of Skagway.