Aleksander Aristovnik

University of Ljubljana · Faculty of Public Administration

The purpose of the paper is to review some previous researches examining ICT efficiency and the impact of ICT on educational output/outcome as well as different conceptual and methodological issues related to performance measurement. Moreover, a definition, measurements and the empirical application of a model measuring the efficiency of ICT use an...

The paper attempts to empirically explore the transmission mechanism regarding the short-term impact of public debt and growth. We examine and evaluate the direct effect of higher indebtedness on economic growth for countries in the EU which are in the epicentre of the current sovereign debt crisis. In comparison to similar empirical studies, our r...

Purpose – The paper has two purposes – first, to examine the dimensionality of employee satisfaction and, second, to identify the impact of the groups of factors on employee satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The measurement of satisfaction of all employees in the Slovenian Police based on the comprehensive on-line questionnaire. Factor a...

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date on how students perceive the impacts of the first wave of COVID-19 crisis in early 2020 on various aspects of their lives on a global level. With a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning...

The lack of knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged extensive research in the academic sphere, reflected in the exponentially growing scientific literature. While the state of COVID-19 research reveals it is currently in an early stage of developing knowledge, a comprehensive and in-depth overview is still missing. Accordingly, the pap...

This paper analyses the impact of the use of digital communication tools in administrative procedures on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers COVID-19-driven changes in the legal competence of the institutional unit and administrative authorities’ orientation to good governance as mediator...

The concept of smart public governance (SPG) is gaining attention among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners around the world, especially in response to the modernisation of public administration through emerging technologies in both local (smart city) and national (smart government) levels. Spurred by the noticeable lack of understanding o...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of negative consequences for higher education students. We explored the generalizability of the control-value theory of achievement emotions for e-learning, focusing on their antecedents. We involved 17019 higher education students from 13 countries, who completed an online survey during th...

The emergence of digital technologies has profoundly affected and transformed almost every aspect of societal relations. These impacts have also reached public administration, including its governance. Digital technologies’ rise has paved the way for the surfacing of a new public governance model called the Digital Era Governance (DEG) model (often...

The recent trends and challenges emphasize the need to exploit the potential of disruptive technologies in public administration. Accordingly, the main aim of the paper is to examine this issue over the last two decades. The results of bibliometric analysis on 3595 documents from Scopus reveal the growth of disruptive technologies research in publi...

Public administration and public governance play a crucial role in society today by ensuring that social needs are met. Due to the constantly changing environment, public governance models have transformed many times, creating differences in public governance practices among public administration institutions, with combinations of contradictory str...

Disruptive technologies have been recognized as a key facilitator of the Covid-19 pandemic response and recovery efforts. Therefore, they have recently gained increased attention. However, due to the novelty of this research area, there is the lack of knowledge. Therefore, the main of the paper is to a provide bibliometric analysis on Covid-19 and...

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed the lives of people, including higher education students. Thus, the main aim of the chapter is to present the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic work and life of public administration students in Slovenia compared with their counterparts from other fields of study. The analysis is based on 1...

The Covid-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has completely reshaped the lives of people around the world, including higher education students. Beyond serious health consequences for a proportion of those directly affected by the virus, the pandemic holds important implications for the life and work of higher education students,...

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reshaped administrative relations and put emphasis on the digital transformation of public administration that is urgently needed to support a sustainable recovery from the pandemic crisis and future sustainable development in the post-pandemic era. This paper presents a comparative study on the ways the firs...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The...

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reshaped administrative relations and put emphasis on the digital transformation of public administration that is urgently needed to support a sustainable recovery from the pandemic crisis and future sustainable development in the post-pandemic era. This paper presents a comparative study on the ways the firs...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The...

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our society, with administrative procedures – as relationships between public authorities and citizens and businesses – being no exception. Still, the innovative digitalisation of such procedures means the 58 administrative units across Slovenia have been able to develop a responsive administrative system. Usin...

The main goal of this research was to clarify which aspects of blended learning increase a student's knowledge level measured by the course final grade. The questionnaire-based survey was used for gathering students' attitudes towards some aspects of blended learning. A principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering of variables were appl...

The pursuit of global competitiveness requires a complex system of measures that enable the promotion of business. Yet this goal is strongly hindered by interdisciplinary (legal, economic, managerial, IT) red tape programs in both national and supranational frameworks. The aim of the paper is to enhance the understanding of red tape by identifying...

The lack of knowledge on the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged academic sphere for extensive research, which is reflected in exponentially growing scientific literature. However, current state of COVID-19 research reveals only early development of knowledge, while a comprehensive and in-depth overview remains neglected. Accordingly, the main aim of...

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date on how students perceive the impacts of the first wave of COVID-19 crisis in early 2020 on various aspects of their lives on a global level. With a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning...

Purpose: Administrative barriers to employment pose a problem in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) which have an essential role in the European economy, compared to large ones. The existing rigidity and inflexibility of the labor market have further slowed down their position in creating new jobs. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is t...

Special Issue "Impact of the Tax Systems, Tax Administration and Administrative Burdens on Sustainable SMEs’ Performance" A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2020. Special Issue Editor Dr. Aleksander Aristovnik Guest Editor Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljublja...

Research and development (R&D) investment is widely recognised as one of the crucial elements of generating the competitive advantage of contemporary companies. At the same time, it is also considered to represent one of the key determinants of overall sustainable development. Global competition, which is becoming increasingly harsh and forces comp...

Purpose: Private R&D investment in the business sector is often subject to market failures, such as positive externalities, information asymmetries, uncertainty and risk, making it often less than socially desirable. This is the primary reason that governments promote private R&D investment. Accordingly, the main aim of this paper is to investigate...

Purpose: Legislation and tax authority conduct upon play a very important role in determining overall business environment by defining the rules under which the enterprises have to operate. Nonetheless, the complexity of legislation creates also unnecessary administrative burdens and consequently hinders entrepreneurial activity. Accordingly, the m...

Performed in a Slovenian higher education institution, the presented research was designed to help investigate which factors influence the ways a student perceives an e-course's usefulness in a blended learning environment. The study is based on an online questionnaire completed by 539 students whose participation in the survey was voluntary. Using...

The aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of public sector reform on academic literature from the post-NPM perspective. There have been several investigations into post-NPM public governance models and their impact on public sector reform. Yet, the research problem faced when analysing post-NPM literature is the lack of studies examining th...

: Investment in research and development (R&D) is becoming very important in terms of improving corporate performance. However, the way this investment is treated in accounting has always been contentious. According to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or International Accounting Standards (IAS), which became mandatory for listed c...

The purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between perceived importance of occupational values, assessed work climate and selected demographic characteristics of Slovenian police employees, and their job satisfaction. A total of 1,848 police service employees completed a comprehensive online questionnaire. In order to formulate the fac...

The study has two objectives-first, to examine the dimensionality of police service employees' job satisfaction and their assessment of the enablers from the Common Assessment Framework, analyzing these facets at different organizational levels, and second, to identify the impact of selected facets of job satisfaction on trust in one's immediate le...

Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between students’ activities in the e-classroom and grades for the final exam. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana among first-year undergraduate students. In the e-classroom, students learn new content for individual self-study, and their knowledge is...

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are very important for the European economy. However, SMEs often encounter various barriers, whereby tax-related barriers are perceived as the most burdensome that affects their business operations and entrepreneurial activity in general. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to identify SMEs perce...

The importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is widely recognised for the Slovenian economy. However, the issues regarding legislative and other administrative barriers and their perception by SMEs as a heterogeneous group of enterprises are not yet fully investigated. The main research hypothesis concerns that there exist significan...

In the present study, the correlations between selected aspects of e-learning in the blended learning environment and the competencies students should acquire during their study are explored. The research was based on two different questionnaire-based surveys conducted among Faculty of Administration students. In the research 41 2nd year students o...

This paper aims to analyze the development of the rule of law and its key characteristics as a principle within public governance model (PGM) research. In the study, we analyzed two main EU cultural and geographical subgroups, selected old and new EU member states, in order to identify the main convergences and differences characteristic of the res...

Investment in research and development (R & D) plays a vital role in sustainable economic growth in many countries around the world. In addition, also companies are aware of that R & D investment is becoming more and more important since it can generate future benefits, which may ultimately result in the sustainable corporate growth. The aim of thi...

Good administration emphasises the service-mindedness of public administration and the restriction of authority. It has long been primarily understood as a legal doctrine. However, the notion of good administration has to be expanded with the concept of business excellence to incorporate specific managerial elements because satisfied civil servants...

In Slovenia, almost the entire population of all enterprises consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent a driver of growth and job creation. Therefore, Slovenia strives for continuous improvement towards the simplification of legislation and procedures, especially those related to tax compliance and financial and account...

Call for Papers: Education Research International: Special Issue on Performance and Quality Management Challenges in Higher Education

The paper has two purposes – first, to examine the importance of occupational values (those deriving from the specifics of the occupation and of the legal regulation) of particular groups of authoritative organisations’ public employees and, second, to find out how the perception of the importance of those values correlates with job satisfaction. T...

The aim of the paper was to identify HRM factors associated with the innovativeness in the public sector of the Eastern European emerging market economies (hereinafter: EEEME). The initial phase of the research consisted of data acquisition. We used microdata from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). In the second phase, we divided the EE...

Investment in research and development (R&D) plays a vital role in economic growth. Therefore, the crucial role of government is to encourage companies to develop new knowledge, skills, and innovations in order to achieve greater competitiveness, employment creation, and economic development. The aim of this paper is to determine whether R&D subsid...

Purpose In higher education, a combination of traditional face-to-face learning and e-learning is becoming very popular. During their studies, students are enroled in several e-courses. They perceive various aspects of e-courses and show different responses when using teaching materials and learning in an e-course. The purpose of this paper is to m...

The following paper deals with the topical issue of fiscal surveillance in the EMU. We focus on analysing the impact of the EU's supranational fiscal rules [i.e., the Maastricht criteria for entering the EMU and the subsequent stability and growth pact (SGP)] on the fiscal behaviour of EMU member states in order to acquire new insights into solutio...

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and therefore e-learning is becoming an ever more frequently used teaching and learning technique at all levels of education. The purpose of the paper is to analyse how introduction of Moodle e-learning platform as part of the teaching process is related with students' performance, i.e., t...

Purpose In higher education, blended learning is already strongly established. The e-courses vary in their structure, assignments, prompt examinations, interaction between students and teachers, etc. Such aspects may influence the students’ perception of usefulness of blended learning. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which inf...

Good administration has evolved in administrative theory and practice differently but within the concept of good governance, incorporating efficient and democratic authority with simultaneous implementation of public interest and guaranteed rights of defence to parties in administrative matters. In view of the above, a theoretical analysis of good...

The aim of the article is to examine the relationship between the facets of job satisfaction and different results, i.e., the performance of law enforcement agencies in Slovenia. The data on job satisfaction were acquired through a job satisfaction survey and the data for the performance results from internal information system databases. Seventy-s...

V prispevku se osredotočimo na sodobni koncept demokratizacije upravljanja invencijskoinovacijskih (I-I) procesov, ki daje možnost enakopravnega vključevanja vseh uslužbencev v II procese, namesto fokusa na omejeno število (vodilnih) kadrov. Namen članka je pridobiti odgovor na raziskovalno vprašanje ali v javni upravi (JU) obstaja povezava med sto...

The paper was motivated by the fact that human resource management (furthermore: HRM) has long been recognised as a critical innovation performance factor. Yet, the link between HRM and innovation performance has been given much less attention in some sectors, the public sector in particular. Therefore, we defined our research question as follows:...

The main purpose of the article is to identify which components of public internal financial control (PIFC), as part of risk management, have been improved by the crisis the most at the regional level, and what is the possible reason for that. During the period 2008–2014, healthcare in the EU and consequently in Slovenia was under the pressure of a...

The paper analyses the procedural stages for obtaining a permit in Slovenia and Croatia, based on the legal requirements, additionally concerning the number of stages and the investors’ costs based on World Bank data (Doing Business). It analyses the differences and similarities but also the advantages and disadvantages in the area. It reveals a ge...

Performance measurement is an increasingly important and ever more frequently monitored measure of excellence in public sector organisations. For this purpose, public sector organisations employ excellence models such as the European Foundation for Quality Management model, Common Assessment Framework (CAF), Business Scorecard, etc. With the suppor...

The use of e-learning techniques in higher education is becoming ever more frequent. In some institutions, e-learning has completely replaced the traditional teaching methods, while in others it supplements classical courses. The paper presents a study conducted in a member institution of the University of Ljubljana that provides public administrat...

The paper presents a survey, which was carried out at one of the member of the University of Ljubljana, providing public administration programmes. The purpose of the survey was analysed how introduction of the blended learning, supported by the LMS system Moodle, is related with students' performance. The same relationship was examined among diffe...

The main purpose of the article is to estimate the regional performance of healthcare systems within the EU at the NUTS 2 level. Using multiple regional inputs and outputs to characterize healthcare provision, non-parametric methodology is applied to evaluate the relative efficiency of 151 regions in old EU member states (EU-15) and 54 regions in n...