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Organizations are facing a disrupted environment, which results in a need for managers who can quickly respond to volatile conditions. Such conditions lead to changes in traditional leadership and the construction of new leadership recognized by contemporary literature as digital leadership (DL). The main objective of this research paper is to examine the levels of DL and digital maturity (DM) in small and medium-sized Croatian companies in the context of digital transformation (DT). The research sample included 156 companies, and the results indicated relatively high levels of DL; indeed, nearly four companies achieved the highest level of DM. The results indicated a negative correlation between the level of DL and DM. Gender was shown to have an impact on the level of DL, while it was not indicated that gender has an impact on the level of DM.

The paper's primary goal is to identify the role of the dividend policy and related corporate governance mechanisms in reducing agency problem between management (agent) or large controlling shareholders and minority shareholders (principal). Another important goal of the research paper is approximating the agency costs. The turnover coefficient of total assets approximates this measure for the work. The agency costs are specific for joint-stock companies, and it results from the agency problem (when agents do not represent the best interests of principals), and it is not possible to measure it directly. Namely, the agency costs and the possibility of their reduction are linked to the legal protection of investors (principals) and the specifics of the joint-stock company's. Therefore, additional knowledge is essential in solving the agency problem in the insufficiently researched developing countries. Based on the results of the empirical research carried out as part of this paper, the significant role of dividend policy in explaining changes in the agency costs has been confirmed, which is in line with the majority of research carried out so far.

The research problem of this study is focused on examining the impact of the ownership of institutional investors on the corporate governance of Croatian companies. The problem was approached comprehensively such that institutional investors were analysed as both homogeneous and heterogeneous groups (investment funds, pension funds, insurance companies). The results of this study reveal a statistically significant impact of institutional investor ownership being viewed as both homogeneous and heterogeneous groups on business performance and financial position, which reduces the gap between ownership intentions and management interests, thereby resulting in an increase in shareholder wealth while limiting the satisfaction and social goals of a company.

The purpose of this study is to identify the role of digital leadership and the framework of digital maturity in the context of the digital transformation of a company. Today, the term “digital transformation” is increasingly used when talking about the management and leadership function. The aim of this paper is to define the terms “digital transformation”, “level of digital transformation maturity”, “digital leadership”, as well as to provide an extensive and systematic literature review so as to analyze previous research, draw a conclusion and give guidelines for future research. The aim of this paper is considered to be a valuable contribution to the debate in this field. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of different studies on leadership, digital transformation and digital maturity, identifying patterns and findings across various disciplines of social sciences, such as management and IT technology.

European education systems are facing a variety of challenges, which drive the creation of innovative education models and the establishment of supporting and competitive infrastructure. Tremendous changes in economic, social, and technological spheres pose challenges for education. A significant impact factor can be found in digital technologies whose role is twofold: digital technologies as educational content in curricula and as an instrument for the transformation of learning and teaching.

The main objective of this research paper is to examine the level of knowledge and implementation of lean methodology in small and medium-sized (SMEs) Croatian companies. Continual changes in the market require businesses to be flexible, which enables them to react quickly without generating unnecessary costs for the companies. The methodology of this research paper combines a literature review on lean methodology and lean startup principles with research tool development, data collection and the validation of results. Data analysis were done with cluster analysis. The target sample is 300 companies that operate from incubation centres and technology parks. The research provides insights into the current situation of Croatian SMEs in regard to applying modern approaches to improving business processes.

The main objective of this research paper is to examine the impact of board size and ownership concentration, representing corporate governance mechanisms, on agency costs in large Croatian companies. Furthermore, debt financing and firm growth are examined because those variables also have impact on agency costs. Agency theory defines a framework for the potential issue of the separation of ownership and management as well as for the conflict between stakeholders (principals) and managers (agents). The most significant principal-agent problems are agency costs, but they do not have a directly quantifiable value ; hence, in this research paper, the asset turnover ratio is used as the approximation. Therefore, this research will empirically test the significance of the impact of board size, ownership concentration, debt financing and firm growth on agency cost in the observed period from 2014 to 2018 using panel data analysis. This research was conducted with large Croatian companies using data and information from official annual accounts primarily to ensure objectivity, standardization and comparability. Specifically, the analysis was conducted on 219 companies operating in two main categories of economic activity: Manufacturing (C) and Wholesale and retail trade (G). The results indicate that board size has a significant but negative impact on agency costs. The results also indicate that debt and growth have a significant and negative impact on agency costs. Ownership concentration was not found to have significant impact.

This paper presents results of a large pilot project among Croatian primary and secondary schools focused on digital maturity of schools. It explores relationships between indicators that influence the overall digital maturity level of a school with the main aim to identify the main drivers of digital maturity. It also reveals key steps in the development of the Framework for Digitally Mature Schools in Croatia and the instrument for assessing digital maturity of schools. The instrument evaluation involved 151 primary and secondary schools in Croatia that were assessed against maturity levels. Descriptive statistics is used to identify and explain correlations between 38 indicators of digital maturity of schools. Results obtained from the instrument show that 50 percent of schools in Croatia are in the initial phase of maturity and 43 percent of them are e-enabled which in respect to 5 different maturity levels corresponds to levels 2 and 3 respectively. An on-line system developed for this purpose, besides it features the instrument itself and enables schools to benchmark between themselves, identifies critical indicators for each school that require improvement in order for school to make progress against maturity level.

O radu nadzornog odbora i uprave u kontinentalnom modelu korporacijskog upravljanja, odnosno upravnom odboru u američkom modelu, ovisi uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća. Stoga je sastav takvih odbora ključan te se na tu temu provode istraživanja s ciljem utvrđivanja optimalnog sastava. Spolna raznolikost spomenutih odbora u zadnje vrijeme dobiva sve veći značaj, ne samo zbog istraživanja kojima se dokazuje da je članstvo žena u takvim odborima pozitivno za uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća, već i zbog zakonskih zahtjeva, kojima se želi postaviti minimalna granica uz broj žena u takvim odborima. U ovom radu analizira se zastupljenost žena na upravljačkim pozicijama u hrvatskim poduzećima te istražuje utjecaj spolne raznolikosti u upravama i nadzornim odborima na uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća. Provedeno je istraživanje na uzorku od 400 najvećih hrvatskih poduzeća. Rezultati pokazuju mali postotak žena u upravama i nadzornim odborima hrvatskih poduzeća te kako se ne može sa sigurnošću tvrditi da spolna raznolikost u upravama i nadzornim odborima doprinosi uspješnosti poduzeća. Ipak, vidi se utjecaj spolne raznolikosti u nadzornim odborima na uspješnost poduzeća, što bi moglo biti predmet daljnjih istraživanja.

O radu nadzornog odbora i uprave u kontinentalnom modelu korporacijskog upravljanja, odnosno upravnom odboru u američkom modelu, ovisi uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća. Stoga je sastav takvih odbora ključan te se na tu temu provode istraživanja s ciljem utvrđivanja optimalnog sastava. Spolna raznolikost spomenutih odbora u zadnje vrijeme dobiva sve veći značaj, ne samo zbog istraživanja kojima se dokazuje da je članstvo žena u takvim odborima pozitivno za uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća, već i zbog zakonskih zahtjeva, kojima se želi postaviti minimalna granica uz broj žena u takvim odborima. U ovom radu analizira se zastupljenost žena na upravljačkim pozicijama u hrvatskim poduzećima te istražuje utjecaj spolne raznolikosti u upravama i nadzornim odborima na uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća. Provedeno je istraživanje na uzorku od 400 najvećih hrvatskih poduzeća. Rezultati pokazuju mali postotak žena u upravama i nadzornim odborima hrvatskih poduzeća te kako se ne može sa sigurnošću tvrditi da spolna raznolikost u upravama i nadzornim odborima doprinosi uspješnosti poduzeća. Ipak, vidi se utjecaj spolne raznolikosti u nadzornim odborima na uspješnost poduzeća, što bi moglo biti predmet daljnjih istraživanja., The success of the company’s business depends on the work of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board in the continental model of corporate management, and Management Board in the American model. Therefore, the stuff of such boards is essential, and various studies are being conducted on this subject in order to find out their optimal line-up. Sexual diversity of the mentioned boards is getting more and more significant, not only because of research which proves that participation of women in such boards has a positive impact on the success of the companies’ business performance, but also due to legal requirements, which aim to limit the minimum number of women in such boards. In this paper, we analyze the participation of women in managerial positions in Croatian companies and we research the impact of sexual diversity of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board on the success of the companies’ business performance. Empirical study was conducted on a sample of the 400 largest Croatian companies. The results show that there are a small percentage of women in the Management Board and the Supervisory Board and it cannot be considered that sexual diversity of the mentioned boards contributes to the company’s success. However, the impact of sexual diversity of Supervisory Board on the company’s success can be seen and that could be subject to the further research.

The area of corporate governance (CG) determines the way in which a corporation is managed and monitored. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether there is a correlation between company performance and CG practices, while the general objective is to set up regression models of the company success measured by Tobin ’ s Q and CG practices measured by Croatian Corporate Governance Index (CCGI ® ). Data used for processing the topic were from secondary sources, mostly books and articles, as well available annual questionnaires of CG codex for the period from 2007 to 2010. Results obtained in this research indicate that CG is an important factor in explaining the business performance of Croatian companies included in the of fi cial share index of the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) CROBEX ® (Croatian equity index).

Za financiranje proračuna lokalnih jedinica zakonom su propisani prihodi, ali i područja rashoda. Tijekom proteklih godina evidentan je manjak ostvarenih prihoda u lokalnim proračunima u odnosu na potrebe, te su lokalne jedinice prisiljene tražiti dodatne izvore financiranja, naročito ako žele ulagati u kapitalne objekte. U članku su obrađeni neki od mogućih dodatnih izvora prihoda lokalnih proračuna, najvećim dijelom postupci zaduživanja i to putem dugoročnih kredita poslovnih banaka (najčešće korišteni oblik u RH), izdavanjem municipalnih obveznica ili kroz kreditno zaduživanje poduzeća u vlasništvu ili suvlasništvu lokalnih jedinica. Uz navedene oblike financiranja, lokalne jedinice mogu ostvariti sredstva i donacijama iz državnog proračuna (putem resornih ministarstava, razvojnih fondova Vlade RH ili javne ustanove Hrvatskih voda), kao i iz županijskog proračuna. U situaciji nedostatka financijskih sredstava u lokalnim proračunima, financiranje po modelu javno – privatnog partnerstva potencijalni je način mogućeg zajedničkog kapitalnog ulaganja lokalne jedinice i privatnog partnera, kao i financiranje iz europskih (za sada samo pretpristupnih) fondova. Analiziranjem prednosti i nedostataka opisanih izvora financiranja, kreirana je potencijalna baza mogućih modela dodatnog financiranja na lokalnoj razini.

In times of general business uncertainty, when the companies face challenges upon which their further existence depends, one of the reactions of the management board is influencing the processes which lead to a relatively quick decrease of expenses and general rationalization of the company's business. The method, or what many refer to as a management philosophy, which is recommended to be used in crisis periods, is the lean method. Having in mind the extremely volatile business environment, lean startup approach has raised to surface recently since it takes the basic principles from the lean production. Although it was primarily developed for technical domain, the lean startup approach to management is flexible, and can therefore be applied in every industry. It uses the experimental way of approaching the innovation cycle, as well as a continuously evaluated process of learning about the organization with the goal of rigorous and measurable validation of the development hypotheses for the new products and services. The lean startup approach tires to systematically and very precisely lead the entrepreneur in discovering the valuable parts of a business vision, and in rejecting the parts which are not realistically founded.This paper analyses the Croatian startup companies by using a customized questionnaire. Besides an overview of the companies' founding profiles, financing sources, the development phases of startup companies, business areas and metrics used by startup companies, as well as information sources, the research showed that the Croatian startup scene is familiar with the principles of lean startup methodology and it is successfully implementing it in business.

This paper analyzes the case of the introduction to the capital market of state-owned shares in Croatia and the results of a survey on the perceptions of the company that was privatized held by potential small investors. In the second half of 2006, the government of Croatia announced that it would sell 15% of the shares of the leading regional petroleum company, INA Oil Industry (INA), to small investors, primarily to Croatian citizens with some pre-emptive rights and under special conditions. This process of introduction to the capital market of INA shares is briefly presented as a case study. In addition, to capture at least some of the sentiment of potential investors, the authors performed a survey on the perceptions held by potential small investors of various attributes of INA, and also of various other elements associated with the privatization of INA that could have influenced their decisions. It must be noted that the privatization of INA began in 2002 when another regional petroleum company, MOL (based in Hungary), purchased 25% plus one share of INA. The introduction process of INA shares occurred in 2006 and in this paper will be referred to as the introduction to the capital market of INA shares.

Autori analiziraju problematiku temeljnih obilježja i razvoja prakse upravljanja znanjem (Knowledge Managementa) tijekom faza životnog ciklusa poduzeća. Pritom postavljaju hipoteze o povećanju broja elemenata prakse upravljanja znanjem te razine sustavnosti i metodičnosti istih, tijekom životnog ciklusa poduzeća. Navedene se postavke teorijski potkrepljuju, nakon čega se prezentiraju rezultati inicijalnog empirijskog istraživanja u RH i iznose zaključci, preliminarne preporuke za menadžersku praksu i budući istraživački zadaci u predmetnom području.