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People have different financial behavior depending on their psychological characteristics, which can reflect their financial security. Self-control is also an important predictor of financial security. People with greater self-control are more likely to save money and less likely to get into debt. Therefore, they are more secure and satisfied with their financial situation. This paper explores whether good self-control directly affects financial security or if its impact comes indirectly through good financial behavior. For the purposes of the research, a survey analysis was designed and applied to a sample of 494 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used for testing the research hypothesis. The results confirmed that there is a significant mediating effect of financial behavior on the relationship between self-control and financial security. The research contributes to a better understanding of financial behavior predictors among individuals with different psychological characteristics. Future research should also include testing for differences between various demographic groups of people in the impact of self-control on financial behavior and security.

Background: In today’s dynamic environment, electronic banking and electronic commerce have become an inevitable aspect of financial services, so the question of acceptance and use of this kind of technology arises. Objectives: The aim of this research is to determine whether the motivation for using the Internet banking in the city of Split, Croatia, can be explained by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as the main elements of the technology acceptance model. Methods/Approach: For the purposes of the research, a survey analysis was applied to the sample of 282 working residents of Split. The gender and age structure of the sample was harmonized with the population to make the results more credible. In order to test the research hypothesis, logistic regression models were used. Results: The results confirmed that both elements of the technology acceptance model significantly influence the acceptance of the Internet banking in the city of Split. Conclusions: It is concluded that demographic and economic characteristics and perception of individuals affect the acceptance and use of the Internet banking in the city of Split. The results showed that both elements of the technology acceptance model influence the acceptance of the Internet banking.

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 problem of selecting an optimal set of investment stocks is of a huge interest for both individual and institutional investors. This paper compares the hybrid multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) approach to selecting the best stock to invest in, with the stock selection using modern portfolio theory (MPT). When selecting stocks, it is very important to thoroughly analyse stocks, according to multiple criteria, including their equity market indicators, as well as financial indicators. The objective of the research is to compare the stock selection using a hybrid MCDM approach and MPT, which includes only the equity market indicators. The analysed sample includes 18 stocks, which are CROBEX components on the Croatian capital market from January 2017 to January 2019. The rankings of stocks were calculated using five MCDM methods. These were then used to obtain the final hybrid stock ranking, which was compared to the MPT stock selection. The results show that there is a significant difference in the stock rankings. However, the stocks which have not entered any portfolio in MPT selection were ranked as lowest according to the hybrid MCDM approach, which confirms that those stocks are the worst to invest in. The research can serve as a guidance for investors to use all available stock information in their decision making process of investment.

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.

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.

This article assesses country-risk of sixteen Central, Baltic and South-East European transition countries, for 2005 and 2007, using multivariate cluster analysis. It was aided by the appropriate ANOVA (analysis of variance) testing and the multicriteria PROMETHEE method. The combination of methods makes for more accurate and efficient country-risk assessment. Country risk classifications and ratings involve evaluating the performance of countries while considering their economic and socio-political characteristics. The purpose of the article is to classify, and then find the comparative position of each individual country in the group of analyzed countries, in order to find out to which extent development of market economy and democratic society has been achieved.

Although human resources are recognized as the crucial companies’ resources and their positive influence on companies’ performances has been confirmed through different researches, scientists are still debating it. In order to contribute this debate, this paper firstly discusses the most important human resource management elements and practices and its influence on companies’ success. Afterwards it defines human resource “bundles” – interrelated and internally consistent human resource practices, complementary to each other, or the most important human resource practices and elements regarding Croatian companies and its human resource management activities. Finally, the paper provides empirical results; more precisely it reveals the relation of the level of development of human resource management function (“bundles”) and companies’ financial performances (using profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, solvency ratios and a group of additional ratios related to employees’ indicators)., {"references":["A. Reichel and W. Mayrhofer, \"Saving faith? The merit of subjective form performance measures - a methodological contribution to the HRM - firm performance debate. HRM - Between performance and employees,\" in Proceedings from the HRM conference in Helsinki, November 16, 2006, pp. 33-48.","E. T. Stavrou and C. Brewster, \"The Configurational Approach to Linking Strategic Human Resource Management Bundles with Performance: Myth or Reality?,\" Management Revue, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005, pp. 186-201.","C. Ichinowski, K. Shaw and G. Prennushi, \"The effects of human resource management practices on productivity: A study of Steel Fishing Lines,\" The American Economic Review, vol. 87, no. 3, 1997, pp. 291-313.","J. P. MacDuffie, \"Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: Organizational logic and flexible production system in the world auto industry,\" Industrial and Labour Relations Review, vol. 48, no. 2, 1995, pp. 197-221.","D. E. Bowen and C. Ostroff, \"Understanding HRM – Firm Performance Linkages: The role of the \"strength\" of the HRM system,\" Academy of Management Review, vol. 29, no. 2, 2004, pp. 203-221.","E. Houldsworth, and D. Jirasinge, Managing & Measuring Employee Performance. London: Kogan Page, 2006.","A. Rejc and S. Slapničar, \"Corporate performance measurement Systems: Empirical evidence of determinants,\" Working papers - Research Center of the Faculty of Economics Ljubljana, 2004.","M. Tekavčič, D. Peljhan and U. Kosi, \"Performance management,\". Sixth International Conference on \"Enterprise in Transition\", in Conference Proceedings, 26-28 May 2005, Split, Bol, Hrvatska. Split: Faculty of Economics Split, 2005, pp. 219-236.","Lj. Vidučić, Financijski menadžment. 5 izdanje. Zagreb: RRIF – plus d.o.o., 2006.\n[10]\tL. Žager and K. Žager, Analiza financijski izvještaja. 2. prošireno izdanje. Zagreb: Masmedia d.o.o., 2008.\n[11]\tI. Tadić, Utjecaj stupnja razvijenosti funkcije upravljanja ljudskim resursima na performanse poduzeća. Sveučilište u Splitu, Ekonomski fakultet Split, 2011, pp. 1-346."]}

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.

This paper as a part of an extensive research about the Croatian economic challenges within global recession environment has focused on the estimation of integral Croatian counties GDP per capita model. The main intention is to quantify each partial influence of a set of independent regional variables on regional GDP per capita. Stepwise variable selection method points out that regional GDP per capita is well explained only by two regional variables: Exports and Foreign tourist arrival. Namely, correlation analysis indicated existence of strong multicolinearity effects between Exports and all other regressors variables. Regional Croatian counties GDP per capita model is estimated by classical multiple regression approach and then by multiple Monte Carlo simulations. The comparative analysis of the results confirms the advantage of Monte Carlo simulation in evaluation of interdependence especially regarding Gauss-Markov conditions on the stochastic part of econometric model. For this regional analysis multiple Monte Carlo simulation of regression model is used for the first time to measure individual average influence of each regressor variable on the GDP per capita. The comparative analysis is enriched by Cluster analysis of the same set of Croatian counties according to appropriate indicators. Complete set of the comparative analysis results confirms the general conclusion that EU regional Croatian NUTS 2 spacing has been done according to a set of administrative geographic and demographic criteria neglecting the socio-economic one. That is why the legal Croatian counties administrative spacing into 21 counties is currently the best reflection of the Croatian socio-economic and geographic status by relevant development and economic indicators. That is why the new methodology for spatial-economic entities' classification is a more useful characterisation of the territory for policy-making purposes.

Risk management in this paper is focused on multivariate risk-return decision making assuming time-varying estimation. Empirical research in risk management showed that the static "mean-variance" methodology in portfolio optimization is very restrictive with unrealistic assumptions. The objective of this paper is estimation of time-varying portfolio stocks weights by constraints on risk measure. Hence, risk measure dynamic estimation is used in risk controlling. By risk control manager makes free supplementary capital for new investments. Univariate modeling approach is not appropriate, even when portfolio returns are treated as one variable. Portfolio weights are time-varying, and therefore it is necessary to reestimate whole model over time. Using assumption of bivariate Student's t-distribution, in multivariate GARCH(p, q) models, it becomes possible to forecast time-varying portfolio risk much more precisely. The complete procedure of analysis is established from Zagreb Stock Exchange using daily observations of Pliva and Podravka stocks.

This work builds up a complete procedure of econometric analysis of direct and indirect effects essential for monitoring performance indicators in manufacture sphere. By principal component method all performance indicators are extracted in appropriate homogeneous subsets. Paper is focused on estimation of standardized coefficient for each extracted factor, comparing their relative influence as well as their weights specification. Analytical hierarchy process is used as the technique of measuring inconsistency of assigned factor weights.

This work builds up a complete procedure of using factor analysis as the instrument in the case of relaxing the assumption of the classical model. Paper is focused on the situation when the multicolinearity appears as the dominant problem. This problem is solved by grouping of performance indicators, not only by technical principles, but also according to fundamental postulates of business economic theory. The whole procedure is illustrated by a practical example. The example originates from the real need to analyse and compare the performance of all manufacturing enterprises in the Split-Dalmatian County in 2004. The data set consists of a wide range of performance indicators for 1744 manufacturing enterprises, among which twelve are selected as representative ones. As the entire basic set is the issue of our interest, we find that the enterprises are markedly heterogeneous in terms of the chosen indicators. Therefore previous to comparison they have to be made homogeneous. After such homogenization, using principal components method four factors have been extracted, i.e. all selected variables (performance indicators) have been meaningfully grouped in to factors: activity, liquidity, leverage, economic efficiency. The essential part of analysis is establishing of direct, indirect and overall effects of each independent variable on return on equity as chosen dependent variable.

Sedamdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća, u takozvanoj zlatnoj dekadi po pitanju primjene teorije vjerojatnosti i stohastičkih procesa u financijama, nastala je i nova teorija vremenske strukture kamatnih stopa. Nova teorija se u ovom radu najprije izlaže, a zatim i aplicira na raščlambu državnih vrijednosnih papira emitiranih od strane Republike Hrvatske na domaćem i međunarodnom tržištu vrijednosnica. Nakon što se izloži kako se gradi opći (jednofaktorski i difuzijski) model vremenske strukture kamatnih stopa, pokazuje se jedna, vjerojatno najčešće korištena varijanta tog modela: (jednofaktorski) Cox, Ingersoll, Rossov (CIR) model. Na temelju podataka vremenskog presjeka o cijeni i datumu dospijeća državnih vrijednosnica Republike Hrvatske vrši se ocjena parametara CIR modela, a zatim daje prognoza kretanja kamatnih stopa (stopa prihoda) za vrijeme od narednih pet godina za dva datuma u 1997. i 1998. godini. Rezultirajuće krivulje stope prihoda su inverzne (padajuće)., The term structure of interest rates has a long history of traditional theories. It is important to economists because the relationship among interest rates on default free securities that differ in their term to maturity, reflects the information available to the market about the future course of events. The spread of inherently risky instruments (variable rate securities and options) in the seventies, posed critical questions for traditional theories, based on the hypotheses of certainty, and gave rise to a golden decade of revolution in the methods of financial analysis on the basis of probability theory. In this paper we present the basic new term structure model as one of the key products of this golden decade. It was developed in this framework: continuous time, perfect and frictionless markets, diffusion processes, no-arbitrage condition i.e. prices constrained by the hypotheses that equivalent assets (or portfolios) in terms of cash flows and other characteristics must earn the same return. We also show how Cox, Ingersoll and Ross specialize the basic model. The CIR model is then used to extract the term structure of interest rates from observed prices of (fixed rate) Croatian Government bonds. We assume, as the model requires, that the risk of default can be ignored. The parameters of the model and the spot rate value are estimated using cross-sections of prices for two dates in 1997 and 1998. The resulting yield curves, corresponding to the estimated parameters, are the so-called inverse yield curves, for both dates. In many examples of the CIR model application in the countries with developed financial markets, it is rather rare to find the results with falling yield curve. If there is such a result, it may forecast the economic recession and reflect the existing state of instability. The results in the present study show that in Croatia interest rates decrease with maturity for both chosen dates, indicating that long term investment is not favourable. The trend of falling interest rates is even more pronounced for the later date. It is also important to emphasize that there is a significant difference between our results and the results of similar research in countries with long tradition of developed financial markets. Although the used model is the same, as well as the method for parameters estimation, there is a difference between the quality of data. While in those countries the observed prices and interest rates were taken from very frequent and liquid secondary markets, we had to use the data from primary market, because the data on secondary markets were very scarce.

Purpose – While a large body of literature has sought to determine whether smoking bans help or hinder the tourism and hospitality sectors, the corpus of research literature in this area has centered on localities with a blanket ban on smoking including all hospitality workplaces. Much less is known about the effects of smoking bans in areas where bar smoking is partially allowed while smoking in enclosed restaurants is illegal. Hoping to assist in filling this void, this research empirically compares cafés and restaurants in terms of employees’ attitudes, demographics, work-related variables (WRV), and job satisfaction after the introduction of a partial smoke-free legislation in Croatia. Methodology – A two-page anonymous self-administered questionnaire written in Croatian was administered to 149 café and 37 restaurant employees in Croatia’s second largest city (Split). Statistical methods include frequency analysis, Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests, and Binary logistic regression. Findings – Results reveal some differences and similarities between café and restaurant employees in terms of their attitudes, demographics, WRV, and job satisfaction. Practical implications and opportunities for future research are further discussed. Contribution – While Croatia has a total smoke-ban in enclosed restaurants, it allows smoking in cafés with proper ventilation (cafés with areas up to 50m2) or those with separately ventilated smoking rooms (cafés with areas greater than 50m2). Given Croatia’s unique smoking legislation, this research offers important policy implications in Croatia and elsewhere by providing valuable yet underresearched insights into the effects of a partial smoking ban on café and restaurant staff.

While extant research on the impacts of smoke-free legislation on hospitality employees and industries has centered on developed countries, the research on the effects of smoking bans in transition countries has received very little attention. Hoping to assist in filling this void, this research empirically explores the relationships among restaurant employees’ attitudes, demographics, work-related variables (WRV), and job satisfaction after the introduction of a smoke-free legislation in one transition economy, i.e. Croatia. Results revealed that gender, education, age, restaurant seating allocation, hospitality work experience, smoking status, average weekly workload, and the restaurant area served were for the most part not significant in explaining different perceptions toward a smoking ban. However, the respondents’ preferred restaurant smoking policy somewhat influenced how respondents view the smoking ban. In terms of the respondents’ preferred restaurant smoking policy, results revealed no significant differences in regards to demographics and WRV. With regard to job satisfaction, staff with more positive post-implementation attitudes towards the ban exhibit somewhat higher levels of satisfaction with the current job. Overall, respondents appear willing to make concessions for both pro- and anti-smoking patrons, staff, and owners/managers. Therefore, lawmakers should consider population characteristics, seating allocation, and the combination thereof when devising restaurant smoking policies.