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PurposeThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic has caused stress for everyone and impacted the lives of people globally. Such stress increases troubles for the employees. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to identify symptoms of health problems that employees face during the COVID-19 epidemic. Also, the aim of the paper is to examine if there are statistically significant differences in the physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms of health problems among employees before the COVID-19 epidemic and employees during the COVID-19 epidemic.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a survey of 950 employees in Slovenian companies. The factor analysis and the t-test for two independent samples were used to test the hypotheses of the research.FindingsThe results show that physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms of health problems of employees during the COVID-19 epidemic are intensified as compared to the before COVID-19 epidemic era.Originality/valueThe results highlight the measures with which companies can reduce the problem of different symptoms of employees during the COVID-19 epidemic. The results can be useful for employers and for managers who want to create an adequate working environment for employees during the COVID-19 epidemic.

The development of Internet technology (IT) at the end of the 20th century and its integration into the business sector has led to the emergence of digital labour platforms that provoke a reorganization of work arrangements by matching the demand and supply of goods and services, known as the “gig economy”. The “gig economy” stands for economic activities or work arrangements related to the performance of very short-term tasks facilitated by digital platforms and can include freelance work, temporary work, work on-demand and contract work. Our paper focuses on the new, growing workforce of freelancers. Freelancers belong to the self-employed category of entrepreneurial activity who do not employ workers, who pay their own taxes, work on projects, work for several clients, and work remotely, usually from home. According to various sources and findings, they are also referred to as entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, digital micro-entrepreneurs, hybrids of employees and entrepreneurs, enablers of entrepreneurship, potential entrepreneurs, etc. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between freelancers and entrepreneurs. The paper will use a literature-review approach to highlight the similarities and main differences between freelancers and entrepreneurs and to find an answer to the question whether freelancers can be considered entrepreneurs or not. In addition, the paper provides insights into freelance work and highlights the benefits and challenges that freelancers face in the labour market.

Background and Purpose: Age diverse employees are faced with different types of occupational stress and different symptoms of burnout when carrying out their work. Therefore, the role of age in job design and implementation of work should not be ignored. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the age differences of occupational stress and symptoms of burnout of employees and to analyze the impact of occupational stress, symptoms of burnout and age on employees’ work satisfaction. Methodology: The paper is based on research that includes a survey of employees in two age groups: younger employees under 50 years of age and older employees between 50 to 65 years of age. Factor analysis was used to form the constructs of occupational stress, symptoms of burnout and employees’ work satisfaction. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to test differences in the obtained constructs of occupational stress and symptoms of burnout in the workplace between two independent groups. The multiple regression analysis was used to examine the impact of occupational stress, symptoms of burnout and age on employees’ work satisfaction. Results: The results show there are statistically significant differences in occupational stress and symptoms of burnout in the workplace between older and younger employees. On average, younger employees perceived higher levels of occupational stress and burnout as compared to the older group. Research results also show that occupational stress, behavioral symptoms and emotional symptoms of burnout, as well as age, have a significant impact on employees’ work satisfaction. Conclusion: Managing diversity requires a strategic approach to managing people at work. Therefore, this research adds to the body of knowledge by pointing out the relationship between age and occupational stress and burnout symptoms. Because the role of age in job design has largely been ignored, these relationships have not been studied enough.

At the end of the last century, digital technology emergence enabled millions of people to compete globally by remotely offering their knowledge and skills. In addition, business processes are becoming fragmented into smaller components, so-called short-term projects. These work arrangements are often carried out by so-called independent professionals (contractors), better known as freelancers. A literature review has shown that the research topic of freelancing from an entrepreneurial perspective is relatively new and has its assumptions and gaps. Different stakeholders and institutions connect, mediate and manage the services of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to support entrepreneurs. As freelancers belong to the self-employed entrepreneurial category, they are engaged in business activities and need support from their environment. To contribute to this topic, we have analyzed the relationships between freelancers&rsquo, job and career satisfaction, digitalization and entrepreneurial ecosystem factors, with the aim of making policy recommendations. Regarding the entrepreneurial environment, we analyzed the cultural and social norms and government programs that provide support, based on the measurement instrument, developed in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research. We surveyed 200 freelancers (respondents) in Slovenia. Using factor analysis and structural equation modelling, the empirical results suggest that digitalization and cultural and social norms are significant factors that promote the success of new careers as freelancers in terms of job and career satisfaction. The results show that both positively influence job and career satisfaction, while government programs indirectly influence the job and career satisfaction of freelancers. This explains how the entrepreneurial ecosystem, plays a special role in supporting freelancers on their career path.

The purpose of this article is to present the relationships among older employee stress, motivation, satisfaction, and relationships in the workplace using two different approaches and different sample sizes. Research was implemented on an initial sample of 1013 older employees. In the next step, six smaller samples were calculated using the random selection of cases, namely samples with 25, 50, 100, 250, 400, and 500 older employees. This way the possible impact of sample size on relationships between latent variables using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) methods was assessed. The results on the larger samples have proved to be quite robust since they were confirmed with both approaches. They indicate that stress has a strong and negative impact on employee relationships and also a negative impact on employee satisfaction. Furthermore, employee relationships have a strong and positive impact on satisfaction and a positive impact on employee motivation. In addition, satisfaction has a strong and positive impact on employee motivation. The present paper helps readers to better understand the difference between the CB-SEM and the PLS-SEM methods. Researchers should be encouraged to use both techniques, even though CB-SEM methods have had a long tradition in management and marketing research since both fields heavily rely on psychometric measurement. From the organizational point of view, conclusions highlight the importance of the impact the variables of older employee stress, motivation, satisfaction and employee relations have on each other in the workplace.

The labour market requires the knowledge and skills for usage of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions from graduates of business studies – future employees. Because ERP solutions are the most frequently used business software in organisations in all industries, more and more schools are incorporating them in their courses. Teaching real business case problem-solving in classrooms, using these solutions require innovative and adapted teaching methods. Because of this, schools need to know what the attitudes of students toward these solutions are. The main objective of the chapter is, therefore, the identification of important external factors that contribute to the acceptance of ERP solutions among economic and business studies students and that shape student intentions to use this knowledge in the future. The conceptual model of our research is based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), extended by identified important external factors that refer to students' characteristics, organisational-process characteristics, as well as system and technological characteristics.

Changes regarding the importance of graduates’ competences by employers and changes of competences themselves are to a great extend driven by the technological changes, digitalization, and big data. Among these competences, the ability to perform business and data analytics, based on statistical thinking and data mining, is becoming extremely important. In this paper, we study the relationships among several constructs that are related to attitudes of economics and business students regarding quantitative statistical methods and to students’ intention to use them in the future. Findings of our research provide important insights for practitioners, educators, lecturers, and curricular management teams.

The existing empirical research into the association between intellectual capital disclosures by organisations and the cost of debt is scarce or is based solely on the samples of the (large) listed organisations. Since agency issues between management/owners and lenders exist also in (large) private organisations whose financing is greatly dependent on loans and whose audited annual reports can be a source of additional information for external users, we performed an empirical research to find the answer to the question whether the level of intellectual capital disclosure (as a whole and of its sub-categories) of organisations is associated with the cost of their debt capital. Our study was performed on a sample of private Slovenian organisations with audited annual reports. The results of our research did not reveal that lenders would take into account intellectual capital disclosures by Slovenian private audited organisations as the information about the potential for their future cash flows when deciding on the cost of debt issued to these organisations.

Background and Purpose: This research aims to achieve two main objectives: to investigate differences between male and female managers regarding the perceived gender equality in organizations and to analyze the gender differences in relationships among the perceived gender equality, the perceived satisfaction with employment position and career, the perceived satisfaction with work, and the perceived work-family conflict. Design/Methodology/Approach: The sample of research includes 82 managers in Slovenian organizations. In first stage, we analyzed with t-test differences between male and female regarding perceived gender equality in decision-making positions. In the next step we developed the conceptual models and used structural equational modeling (SEM), and analyzed differences between constructs in two conceptual models. Results: The research results show that female managers perceive gender equality in organizations in general to be significantly lower than males; furthermore, perceived gender equality is positively related to the perceived satisfaction with employment position and career as well as to the perceived satisfaction with work, but both relationships are significantly stronger for female managers. On the other hand female managers seems to cope more efficiently with the perceived work-family conflict since it has significantly different impact on female managers’ perceived satisfaction with work, as compared to the male managers. Conclusion: To achieve more gender equality within organizations and a reduction of the gender gap, the legislative initiatives cannot be successful without appropriate corporate strategy sets, which presents the framework for doing business and determines the internal working culture. The findings offer several policy, as well as business practice-oriented implications.

In Slovenia, many companies try to avoid bankruptcy with the introduction of a compulsory settlement procedure, but only a handful of companies successfully complete the compulsory settlement in the sense of a final repayment of creditors in accordance with the adopted financial restructuring plan. The article identified the factors affecting the confirmation of a compulsory settlement as well as the factors affecting the final repayment of creditors and, thus, permanently eliminated the causes of insolvency. The factors were divided into internal and external, whereby the impact of factors on a successfully completed compulsory settlement was verified using quantitative and qualitative research methods.

This research arises from the importance of integration of knowledge of economics/business and spatial sciences for graduates who must think and act in interdisciplinary contexts.The systematic literature review revealed thatthis interdisciplinary field is richly present in original scientific research, and is undoubtedly topical and worthy of research efforts. Themain objective of this paper is toanalyse important factors that contribute to the attitudes of students towards interdisciplinary knowledge, and factors that shape their intentions to use and integrate this knowledge in the future. The conceptual model formed was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Research results confirm the importance of integration of economics/business and spatial sciences knowledge, for graduates. As presented in the paper, results of thestudyhave important implications for higher education institutions, reforming and updating their study programs, as well as for educators in the field of spatial sciences and economic/business sciences, in research and in education.

In light of globalization and modern business, companies are typically exposed to challenges caused by unpredictable and complex competitive environments. The business environment, with global trends and stringent competition in the world market, now faces significant changes that companies should introduce into their current business operations. Among them, the human resource management of knowledge employees has become extremely important. The main aim of this article is to establish the impact of components of knowledge management on work engagement of employees in Slovenian companies. In the empirical part of the research, a sample of 112 Slovenian companies was obtained. Senior managers of companies and their employees were surveyed, using the questionnaire developed based on existing measurement scales. The results will help us to better understand the importance of knowledge management in Slovenian companies and its importance as a business strategy that must be fully integrated within all of the employees’ related processes of the company.

In this article, we investigate how entrepreneurial intentions of individuals in the eight countries of the Danube region are shaped by different components of individuals’ personal attitudes, the subjective norm and personal behavioral control. We analyze the internal structure of these components as well as some demographic and human capital factors. Cultural and developmental differences influencing variation in causal effects among variables in the model are analyzed. Structural equation modeling is used for data obtained by adult population surveys within the GEM research. Results of our study show that the entrepreneurial intention model is applicable across countries and that the internal effects among components of motivational antecedents exist, although not all hypothesized relationships are confirmed. Our study suggests that the process from perception to intention is similarly shaped across the eight countries of the Danube region, although there are several differences in the magnitude of causal effects as well as differences regarding influential factors.

Cruise passengers’ expenditures in the city ports are an important economic incentive for local tourism and related industry sectors. A complex evaluation of the volume and structure of cruise passengers’ expenditures contributes to further development of the tourism and travel-related services, generates an increase of cruise passengers’ expenditures and enriches the cruise tourist industry as a whole. This theoretically and practically studied topic is of crucial importance for the further adequate development of the cruise port tourist services supply, which serves to the overall satisfaction of the cruise passengers. This article focuses on cruise passengers’ expenditures in the Port of Koper. The results highlight that gender, nationality, experience regarding the transport services and motives for disembark have statistically significant effect on cruise passenger expenditures.

Background and Purpose: Information solutions for analytical customer relationship management CRM (aCRM IS) that include the use of analytical tools are becoming increasingly important, due organizations’ need for knowledge of their customers and the ability to manage big data. The objective of the research is, therefore, to determine how the organizations’ orientations (process, innovation, and technology) as critical organizational factors affect the attitude towards the use of the analytical tools of aCRM IS. Design/Methodology/Approach: To measure the orientation of the organization (process, innovation, and technology), we redesigned the existing scale, which was validated using exploratory factor analysis. In the next phase, we created a model by which we examined the impact of the organization’s stance in relation to the use of the analytical tools of aCRM IS, where we used multiple regression analysis. The model was verified on a sample of Slovenian Organizations (n=105), which use the analytical tools of aCRM IS for analyzing the data they have on their customers and business partners. Results: In the study we found that all critical factors of the organization, specifically process, technology, and innovation orientation, have a positive impact on the attitudes towards using the analytical tools of aCRM IS. Innovation orientation is particularly important and has the strongest influence on the attitude towards using the analytical tools of aCRM IS. We found that innovation orientation on new ideas, methods, and approaches has the strongest effect, followed by the impact of innovation orientation on acceptance of novelty. Conclusion: The more innovation-, technology-, and process-oriented organizations are, the more positive their attitude towards using the analytical tools of aCRM IS. The study is particularly important for organizations that are introducing an aCRM IS into their business system.

This paper uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework for the research of economic and geography students&rsquo, attitudes towards interdisciplinary knowledge. Based on the SmartPLS Structural equation modelling SEM variance-based method, research results were gained through analysis of survey data of economic and geography students. They participated in the Spationomy project in the period of 2017&ndash, 2019. Online questionnaires were fulfilled before and after students&rsquo, participation in the project and their future behavioural intention to use interdisciplinary knowledge was analysed. Based on the research, we can confirm that the Spationomy project has achieved its purpose, as both groups of students (economic and geography students) have acquired interdisciplinary knowledge and students intend to use it also in the future. Therefore, we can argue that the students included in the project in practice gained recognition of systems thinking about the importance of mutual interdisciplinary cooperation towards achieving synergies. The results also show that TAM can be successfully implemented to analyse how students of economics and geography accept the use of interdisciplinary knowledge in the learning process, which is an important implication for management and education as well as from the theoretical implications viewpoint. While effective analysis using TAM has been used successfully and relatively frequently in economics and business field, we have not found relevant examples of its implementation in the broader field of geography. However, the acceptance of geographic information system (GIS) or other information technologies/information software (IT/IS) tool-based approaches of analysis in the geography field may be of most importance. Therefore, also, this represents an important implication for the research area.

Despite growing literature on the different aspects of airline service quality in relation to behavioural intentions, less attention has been paid to some specific aspects of in-flight services. The focus of the present research is, therefore, on a multiple conceptual model of the quality of in-flight services in relation to passengers’ perception of value, followed by recommendations (word of mouth - WOM) of airlines, as well as the quality and comfort of airline seats. The study is performed using two databases of reviewers’/passengers’ opinions regarding the quality of in-flight airline services and airline seat comfort. Our research results reveal that the perceived comfort of the airplane seat is the most important factor of passengers’ perceived quality of in-flight airline services, which also considerably affects the passengers’ perception of value, and consequently moderates behavioural intentions (in our research, expressed through positive WOM). The analysis of the relative importance of the components of perceived airline seats’ comfort shows that seat width is the most significant factor that contributes to the overall perceived comfort of the airline seat. Kljub obsežni literaturi o različnih vidikih kakovosti letalskih storitev v povezavi z vedenjskimi namerami potnikov, so bili nekateri posebni vidiki kakovosti letalskih storitev med samim letom v preteklosti deležni manjše pozornosti. Tako je v ospredju pričujoče raziskave multipli konceptualni model zaznane kakovosti letalskih storitev med letom, v povezavi z zaznano vrednostjo s strani potnikov, kateri sledi priporočilo (“od ust do ust”) letalske družbe, kot tudi udobje ter zaznana kakovost letalskih sedežev. Raziskava temelji na dveh podatkovnih bazah, ki vsebujejo mnenja potnikov o zaznani kakovosti letalskih storitev med letom ter o udobnosti letalskih sedežev. Rezultati raziskave kažejo, da je zaznana kakovost letalskih sedežev s strani potnikov, najpomembnejši dejavnik zaznane kakovosti letalskih storitev med letom, ki hkrati znatno vpliva na zaznano vrednost storitve ter posledično oblikuje vedenjske namere (v naši raziskavi izražene s pozitivnim priporočilom “od ust do ust”). Analiza relativne pomembnosti posameznih komponent zaznane kakovosti letalskih sedežev pa kaže, da je širina sedeža najpomembnejši dejavnik, ki prispeva k celokupnemu zaznanemu udobju letalskega sedeža.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between social entrepreneurship education and experience in prosocial behaviour on the one hand and the perceived desirability and feasibility of social entrepreneurship among business students on the other. A sample consisting of business students was selected bearing in mind the possible implications of this study on business education curricula. The sample included 512 soon-to-graduate business students from five countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and The Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia. Our results indicate a statistically significant positive association between the “know what” component of social entrepreneurship education and both the desirability and the feasibility of social entrepreneurship. The “know how” component of social entrepreneurship education is statistically significantly positively associated with the feasibility of social entrepreneurship. Experience in prosocial behaviour has a statistically significant positive association with both the desirability and the feasibility of social entrepreneurship. Our results suggest that social entrepreneurship education programmes should include gaining some experience in volunteering, activism and making donations. These activities focus students’ attention on social problems and empower them to find proper solutions. Key words: prosocial behaviour; social entrepreneurship desirability; social entrepreneurship feasibility. --- Sažetak Svrha ovog istraživanja bila je ispitati povezanost obrazovanja za socijalno poduzetnistvo i iskustva u prosocijalnom ponasanju s jedne strane s percepcijom poželjnosti i izvodljivosti socijalnog poduzetnistva kod studenata poslovne ekonomije s druge strane. Uzorak koji cine studenti poslovne ekonomije izabran je imajuci u vidu implikacije ovog istraživanja na nastavne planove poslovnog obrazovanja. Uzorkom je obuhvaceno 512 studenata poslovne ekonomije na posljednjim godinama studija iz pet zemalja: Austrije, Bosne i Hercegovine, Hrvatske, Slovenije i Makedonije. Rezultati ukazuju na statisticki znacajnu pozitivnu povezanost između komponente „znati sto“ obrazovanja za socijalno poduzetnistvo te poželjnosti i izvodljivosti socijalnog poduzetnistva. Komponenta „znati kako“ obrazovanja za socijalno poduzetnistvo je statisticki znacajno pozitivno povezana s izvodljivoscu socijalnog poduzetnistva. Iskustvo u prosocijalnom ponasanju ima statisticki znacajnu pozitivnu povezanost kako s poželjnoscu tako i s izvodljivoscu socijalnog poduzetnistva. Rezultati upucuju na to da bi obrazovanje za socijalno poduzetnistvo trebalo ukljucivati stjecanje iskustava u volontiranju, aktivizmu i doniranju. Te aktivnosti usmjeravaju pažnju studenata na drustvene probleme i osposobljavaju ih za njihovo rjesavanje. Kljucne rijeci: izvodljivost socijalnog poduzetnistva; poželjnost socijalnog poduzetnistva; prosocijalno ponasanje. Normal 0 false false false HR X-NONE X-NONE

In this chapter we explored country competitiveness and entrepreneurship as drivers of economic growth. The research was carried out on a sample of Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states of the European Union (EU). The analysis shows that economic growth as measured by GDP per capita growth rates, and global competitiveness of a country as measured by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index scores’ growth rates, are positively related to each other. The comparative analysis also reveals that efficiency-driven and certain transition CEE EU Member States have made the highest progress at various competitiveness pillars, which is reflected in their economic growth. The opposite has been found for two innovation-driven CEE EU Member States. When testing the hypothesis on the relationship between the average growth of quality of early-stage entrepreneurship indices and average growth of GDP per capita, no significant relationship was found. This finding is in accordance with the general thesis that entrepreneurial activity supports economic growth only as part of a favourable broader business environment. The research results constitute a preliminary analytical framework for policymakers and managers in the analysed countries.

The main objective of this paper is to test the dependence of internationalisation of SMEs in Slovenia on market knowledge. For this purpose, in the first part of this paper, market knowledge is conceptualised and the importance of institutional support on the internationalisation of SMEs as a source for acquiring market knowledge is examined. In the second part, SMEs in Slovenia are surveyed about the scope and forms of their internationalisation, about the level and the sources of their market knowledge and about the awareness and the usage of Slovenian and the European Union's (EU) institutional incentives in internationalisation. In the third part, the dependence of SMEs internationalisation in Slovenia on their market knowledge, as well as the importance of institutional incentives on SMEs' level of internationalisation, are measured by factor analysis and regression models. The study establishes only the limited impact of SMEs' market knowledge on their internationalisation and highlights low awareness and usage of Slovenian and the EU's institutional support for the internationalisation of SMEs in Slovenia.