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Electronic banking and electronic commerce have lately become an inevitable aspect of financial services. According to data about the percentage of users of Internet banking in Europe, Croatia is at the bottom of the list, with a low number of users. Thus, the question of the acceptance and use of this kind of technology arises. This research uses structural equation modeling to explore whether the motivation for the acceptance and use of Internet banking can be explained by the technology acceptance model (TAM) in the city of Split, Croatia. TAM explains the intent of using information systems through the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness of a system. It consists of multiple causal relationships, so structural equation modeling is adequate for hypothesis testing. A survey analysis was designed and applied on a sample of 282 working residents of Split. To make the results more credible, the gender and age structure of the sample was harmonized with the population. It is concluded that both elements of TAM positively influence the acceptance of Internet banking in Split. Since there is not much research on the use of Internet banking in Croatia and Southeast Europe, this research contributes to the poor amount of literature in this scientific area for these countries. The research findings can also help banks to understand the factors of Internet banking acceptance and to develop expansion strategies. Future research could include a cross-country comparison of individuals’ perception about Internet banking, as well as the dependence relationships of TAM factors.

The aim of this paper is to explore the dynamics between human capital investments and company profitability measured by return on equity and profit margin ratios using panel data analysis over a five-year period. The research hypothesis assumes that more profitable companies have higher employee costs (human capital investment) and the opposite is also true. This specially refers to companies in human-capital-intensive industries, such as the information technology industry, where a company’s most valuable asset is employee knowledge. Thus, the assumption is that such entities will have a greater part of intellectual capital capitalized through trademarks. Furthermore, this paper analyses whether the level of human capital investments significantly differ with regard to company size and listing status. Verification of empirical evidence is provided using a sample of approx. 5, 000 companies in the European Union from the information technology industry for the period 2011-2015, i.e. approx. 25, 000 company-year observations using an adequate panel data analysis technique.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of Central and East European (CEE) countries considering their choice of an intermediate target of the monetary policy strategy. A theoretical choice of the intermediate target of the monetary policy strategy refers to inflation targeting, exchange rate targeting and monetary targeting, with the latter not being a practical choice in these countries. This research tends to find out whether this choice means different economic characteristics considering macroeconomic and financial variables, and whether the choice of an individual intermediate target implies better overall economic performance. Eleven characteristics are classified for 14 chosen CEE countries, using the multivariate and multicriteria approaches. The research was conducted in four years (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011) in order to see whether performance and ranking of countries change when taking into account the financial crisis. The results show that, when considering all 11 indicators, countries cannot be classified into two equal clusters considering the choice of the intermediate target. However, when clustering is done using foreign currency denominated loans and three forms of central bank independence, results show that countries are clustered according to our expectations, i.e., foreign currency denominated loans and two forms of central bank independence contribute to a difference between countries. Furthermore, countries were ranked considering overall economic performance, but no significant difference considering the choice of the intermediate target was found.

Performing business according to contemporary requirements influences companies for continuous usage of modern managerial tools, such as a human resource information system (HRIS) and electronic recruitment (ER). Human resources have been recognised as curtail resources and the main source of a competitive advantage in creation of successful business performance. In order to attract and select the top employees, companies use quality information software for attracting internal ones, and electronic recruitment for attracting the best possible external candidates. The main aim of this paper is to research the level of the usage of HRIS and ER within medium-size and large Croatian companies. Moreover, the additional aim of this paper is to evaluate the relationship among the usage of these modern managerial tools and the overall success of human resource management within these companies. For the purpose of this paper, primary and secondary research has been conducted in order to reveal the level of the usage of HRIS and ER as well as the overall success of human resource management in Croatian companies. The companies’ classification (HRIS and ER) is done by using the non- hierarchical k-means cluster method as well as the nonparametric Kruskal Wallis test. Further, the companies are ranked by the multicriteria PROMETHEE method. Relevant nonparametric tests are used for testing the overall companies’ HRM. Finally, binary logistic regression is estimated, relating binary variable HRM and HRIS development. After detailed research, it can be concluded that large Croatian companies apply HRIS in majority (with a positive relation to HRM performance), but still require certain degrees of its development.

Croatia as EU accession country is divided into three Nomenclature des unites territoriales statistiques (NUTS 2) regions which are quite different from twenty one official administrative Croatian Counties. Furthermore, Croatian Counties show significant economic and social disproportions. These disproportions are in the focus of the extended on-going scientific research. The focus of this paper is regional multimethodological approach and its results comparative analysis. After Croatian Counties classification by hierarchical Cluster analysis, multicriterial comparative approach is used. Weighting process within Croatian Counties ranking is based on statistical linkage of a set of regional variables (regional GDP per capita, employment, gross investment, production of more important agricultural products, GVA per person employed, construction works value, exports, imports, foreign tourists arrivals, foreign tourists nights, ecology…). Subsequently, comparative rank analysis is realized by rank correlation coefficient hypothesis testing and Friedman test. At the end of this research phase all multimethodological approach results are compared with existing regional administrative division of Croatian territory.