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We explore institutional and cultural effects on anticipatory psychological contracts (APCs) of young labour market entrants in four countries: China and South Korea (Confucian East Asia) and Poland and Slovenia (Central and Eastern Europe). We identify prevailing APC types and compare country APC scores, applying the concept of a Confucian work ethic. Using matched country samples of 953 undergraduate business students as future labour market entrants, our results challenge the hypothesized prevalence of the transactional APC type within this generational cohort. Overall, the balanced APC type was most desirable for employee obligations, while the relational APC type was most desirable for employer obligations. Expectations regarding personal development (balanced APC) were universally high. However, a Confucian work ethic can be linked to higher performance orientation (balanced APC) in terms of employee obligation and higher loyalty (relational APC) in terms of employer obligation in China and South Korea. We discuss implications for attracting, managing and retaining young talents.

Avtorja v prispevku predstavita temeljno ekonomsko teorijo financiranja visokega šolstva, torej prikaz različnih možnosti, ki jih ima država na voljo, ko postavlja oz. spreminja svoj model financiranja. Avtorja definirata temeljne zahteve, ki morajo biti spoštovane pri oblikovanju sistema financiranja, in sicer: zadostnost, učinkovitost in pravičnost ter predstavita temeljne razloge za javno in zasebno financiranje visokega šolstva. Prispevek zaključuje predstavitev različnih modelov alokacije javnih sredstev, katerih izbira je odvisna od ciljev, ki jih z javnim financiranjem želimo zasledovati. The paper presents the basic economic theory of funding higher education. It displays various options which have to be considered when planning a reform of the funding model. The essential requirements which must be respected in the creation of the system of financing are: adequacy, efficiency and fairness. Authors also present the rationales for public and private funding of higher education. They conclude the paper with the presentation of various models of allocating public funds, depending on the chosen objectives that we want to pursue with the public funding.

Kot so pokazali dogodki ob nedavni svetovni finančni krizi in njenem razmahu v gospodarstvu, tudi v Sloveniji delovanje finančnih trgov ne more biti v celoti prepuščeno samo tržnim silam, saj banke in druge zasebne finančne institucije zasledujejo predvsem lastne, predvidoma kratkoročne profitne interese ter ne želijo oz. niso sposobne ustreznega financiranja vseh gospodarskih aktivnosti (npr. mala in srednja podjetja oz. MSP). Interesi zasebnega bančnega sektorja, kot temeljnega finančnega alokacijskega mehanizma v Sloveniji, so lahko oz. so pogosto v nasprotju z interesi širše družbe in njene blaginje. Zlasti na področju t. i. razvojnega financiranja gospodarstva, ki predstavlja nekakšno »vmesno« območje med delovanjem zasebnega finančnega sektorja na eni strani ter čistimi državnimi transferji na drugi strani, se pojavlja t. i. tržna vrzel ter številne nepravilnosti in asimetrije na posameznih področij financiranja pomembnih socio-ekonomskih aktivnosti s širšimi družbenimi eksternalijami. Namen prispevka je opredeliti koncept razvojnega financiranja gospodarstva ter orisati posamezne ekonomsko-pravne vidike na področju ureditve razvojnega financiranja pri nas. V okviru omenjenega se prispevek osredotoča zlasti na pregled in analizo posameznih določil Zakona o slovenski izvozni in razvojni banki (ZSIRB) ter predlaga posamezne izboljšave obstoječe pravno-ekonomske ureditve. As the recent events connected to the global financial and economic crisis have shown also in Slovenia, the functioning of the financial markets cannot solely be left to market forces, since commercial banks and other private financial institutions follow their own interests, mainly short-term and profit driven. They are either unwilling and/or unable to provide adequate long- term financing to certain economic activities (e.g. small and medium enterprises or SMEs). Thus, the interests of the private banking sector, as the primary allocating mechanism in Slovenia can be and are often contradictory to that of the general public and its prosperity. This is particularly visible in the area of so called development financing, which represents a buffer area between the functioning of the private financial sector and pure state financing. In this area, a market gap, as well as several imperfections and asymmetries point to a need for external ‘complementarity’, of the invisible hand of Adam Smith. The purpose of this article is to define the concept of development financing of the real sector in Slovenia and to overview and analyze ZSIRB, the Law of the Slovene export and development bank, acting as the de facto leading development financial institution in Slovenia. In the concluding parts, some suggestions for alteration of ZSIRB are provided.

This paper analyzes the importance of trust and management-to-employee communication among top Slovenian employers from the Golden Thread Survey. The paper analyzes the changes and impact of the deteriorating external economic situation on (a) company-employee relational trust, and on the (b) perceived importance of "trust and long-term relationships with the company in the eyes of the customer" by respondent managers. Furthermore, our analysis also looks at the impact of management- to-employee communication on both trust perspectives. The results show a stable level of company employee relational trust in the face of the current economic crisis, despite a high level of perceived organizational process changes and a sharp decline in financial performance. On the other hand, the perceived importance of "trust and long-term relationships with the company in the eyes of the customer" has increased substantially as the crisis has deepened, supporting our claim that relationships and the external relationship orientation gain importance in the time of crisis. There is also a strong link between the degree of open and frequent management-to-employee communication, and both perspectives of measured trust among top Slovenian employers.

While relationship learning has been addressed in marketing theory, it has not yet been explored as a possible dimension of the second- order construct of relationship quality (RQ). This construct has so far been mostly conceptualized to consist of trust and commitment, sometimes also satisfaction ; however, some see the latter more as a consequence of the former two. Additionally, while RQ and its multidimensionality have been researched in the marketing literature, this area has remained virtually unexplored in the supply and operations management literature. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the multidimensional nature of the second-order construct of RQ in a particular setting of transnational corporation (TNC) buyer- supplier relationships. Our paper aims to determine if relationship learning can be considered an important dimension of RQ, alongside trust and commitment. In our study of relationship learning, we follow Jean, Sinkovics and Kim (2010) and Jean and Sinkovics (2010), who have focused on the governance aspect of relationship learning in managing supply performance outcomes. We employ an indirect testing approach by testing RQ as a second- order refl ective construct comprised of trust, commitment and relationship within a simple variance- based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Our results confirm that relationship learning is an important dimension of the second- order construct of RQ. This was done on a tentative sample of 11 TNC purchasing managers and 55 evaluated suppliers, albeit with some research limitations which we acknowledge. Our research calls for additional cross-validation of our tentative results.

This paper employs a network analysis approach, and outlines the usefulness and complementarity of network analysis; vis-a-vis traditional neoclassical analytical approaches (gravity models, econometric models etc.), which are usually applied to the analysis of inter-country export flows. It analyzes the patterns of inter-country EU-27 member states with the help of three new weighted centrality measures, related to degree, closeness and betweenness centrality; as recently published in the Social networks journal. Particular attention is also paid to the issue of export patterns of small EU-27 member states, with up to 5 million inhabitants. Our analysis shows that within an inter-country EU-27 export network, small states in most cases do not tend to geographically concentrate their exports to neighbouring EU markets, if we take into account the number of their immediate EU-27 neighbours. Thus, the alleged geographical export concentration of small EU-27 member states appears to have more to do with their geographical position and the number of EU neighbours, and less with their small size per se. In terms of the structural position of particular EU-27 small member states, betweenness centrality reveals how Estonia's high betweenness centrality shows its unique role in the network. In this network, Estonia acts as an important export "interface" between the developed Scandinavian markets and key continental European markets. The visualization of the inter-country EU-27 export network also reveals a clear core-periphery structure, with two additional cliques. Članek v okviru t. i. omrežnega pristopa z analizo omrežij prikazuje na eni strani uporabnost in komplementarnost tega pristopa za analizo medsebojnih izvoznih vzorcev držav EU-27 vis-a-vis neoklasičnim analitičnim pristopom, na drugi strani pa z uporabo treh mer središčnosti preizkuša serijo hipotez, ki se nanašajo na temeljno vprašanje težnje h geografski zgoščenosti in univerzalnosti izvoznih vzorcev majhnih držav z do 5 milijoni prebivalcev v medsebojnem izvoznem omrežju EU-27.

Despite growing interest in the study of culture and its dimensions in international business and international relations literature over the last few decades, most analyses neglect the issue of national character and its impact on international economic relationships. The concept of national character has emerged from the anthropology and social psychology literature. We believe the increased importance and interest in business diplomacy within the framework of international relations can gain substantially by addressing the issue and by analysing the concept of national character because this helps in anticipating the behavioural responses of foreign "partners" within the myriad communication and negotiation elements of diplomatic relationships. The purpose of this paper is to fill in the gap related to the exclusion of the concept of national character in the Slovenian (business) diplomacy literature, and to define and operationalise the concept of national character in terms of its usefulness for diplomatic practice. The basic goal of the paper is to show via the example of ex-Yugoslav countries (Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia) the most important elements of their national characters, addressing both their universality and contingency. We confirm the hypothesis that these selected ex-Yugoslav countries are by no means culturally heterogeneous through our comparisons, and further conclude with a series of recommendations and the implications these differences hold for the functioning of Slovenian business diplomacy in these selected countries. Kljub naraščajočemu preučevanju kulture in njenih razsežnosti (dimenzij) na področjih mednarodnega poslovanja in mednarodnih odnosov v zadnjih desetletjih tovrstna preučevanja pogosto zanemarjajo vprašanje in analizo nacionalnega značaja. Ta se je zlasti na področju antropologije in socialne psihologije uveljavil kot samostojen teoretični konstrukt. Ugotavljava, da naraščajoča vloga in zanimanje za gospodarsko diplomacijo v okviru teorije mednarodnih odnosov lahko veliko pridobita s podrobnejšim razumevanjem in vključitvijo koncepta nacionalnega značaja, saj ta omogoča boljše razumevanje in predvidevanje vedenjski odzivov tujih predstavnikov posameznih držav v okviru komunikacijskih in pogajalskih sestavin diplomatskih odnosov. Namen pričujočega članka je zapolniti vrzel pri izključenosti koncepta nacionalnega značaja v slovenski literaturi na področju gospodarske diplomacije ter opredeliti in predstaviti koncept nacionalnega značaja ter njegovo uporabnost za diplomatsko prakso. Glavni cilj članka je na primeru izbranih držav nekdanje Jugoslavije (Slovenija, Hrvaška in Srbija) prikazati in analizirati najpomembnejše sestavine njihovih nacionalnih značajev, predstaviti njihove medsebojne podobnosti in razlike ter potrditi tezo o razmeroma veliki socio-kulturni raznolikosti znotraj primerjanih držav. Primerjava posameznih socio-kulturnih sestavin in značilnosti nacionalnih značajev omenjenih treh držav potrjuje tezo o relativno visoki kulturni in nacionalni značajski heterogenosti ter izpostavi vrsto implikacij za učinkovitejše delovanje slovenske gospodarske diplomacije v izbranih državah.

The presented paper explores the relation between six selected dimensions of relationships between employees and 101 best Slovene employers, analyzed in the Golden Thread research. Measurement of the selected dimensions of employee-company relationship and their quality was conducted based on the Job diagnostic survey (Hackman and Oldham, 1975), with over 10.500 employees in 101 Slovene companies taking part in the research in the year 2007/8. The results of the Golden Thread clearly show a strong and positive connection between the selected dimensions of relationships between employees and companies and selected market, innovation and financial performance indicators. Thus, companies that display a higher level and quality of employee-company relationships, achieve better performance. Pričujoči članek preučuje povezanost šestih izbranih dimenzij odnosov med zaposlenimi in 101 najboljšim zaposlovalcem raziskave Zlata nit. Merjenje posameznih dimenzij in kakovosti odnosov med zaposlenimi in podjetjem je potekalo s pomočjo Vprašalnika o značilnostih delovnega mesta (Hackman in Oldham, 1975), kjer je v letu 2007/8 v raziskavi sodelovalo več kot 10.500 zaposlenih iz 101 slovenskega podjetja. Rezultati Zlate niti jasno kažejo močno in pozitivno povezanost med posameznimi dimenzijami odnosa med zaposlenimi in podjetji ter kazalci tržne, inovacijske in finančne uspešnosti. Tako podjetja, ki izkazujejo bolj kakovosten odnos z zaposlenimi, dosegajo na trgu večjo uspešnost.

U ovom se radu govori o utjecaju "trokuta" kojeg čine: marketing, inovacije i ljudski potencijali na primjeru slovenskih firmi.

U ovom se radu govori o usporedbi načina rukovođenja u Sloveniji i Portugalu.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze innate consumer innovativeness for a specific product domain of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) among young- adult consumers (18-30 years) across two regions – Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Croatia) and East Asia (China, Japan). We contribute to limited research on consumer innovativeness among young-adult consumers in non- Western markets. Our inter- and intra- regional comparison is also novel to the study of consumer innovativeness. Slovenia and Croatia are taken as two new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which have undergone a significant economic transition from planned economies to open market economies. China and Japan were taken in the context of a shift in global economic balance to East Asia, as well as regarding profound economic changes, (China’s rise and Japan’s stagnation). Also, while comparing China and CEE is becoming increasingly relevant to the newly established 16+1 China-CEE cooperation platform, Free Trade Agreement talks also illustrate growing economic integration momentum between EU and Japan.