Bojan Krstic’s research while affiliated with University of Nis and other places

The mutual influence and interdependence of financial performance (FP) of resource usage and environmental performance (EP) is an important research area, which has particularly occupied the attention of researchers in the last decade. Increasing requirements for environmental protection, principles of circular economy and regenerative economy create an obligation for the enterprise management regarding efficient and effective management of environmental aspects of business with the aim of sustainability and improvement of EP. In addition, stakeholders of the enterprise are interested in the economic effects of implemented environmental actions on FP. The results of the research dealing with the relations between different indicators of EP and FP of resource use are mixed. Bearing in mind the above, the purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of research on the impact of EP on the FP of resource use, FP of resource use on EP and the interdependence of FP of resource use and EP.

Background: In modern business conditions, intangible assets have a dominant impact on the business performance of the company. R&D activities, the level of R&D investments and the efficiency of R&D investments affect company profitability. There are various performance indicators of R&D activities that have an impact on profitability. Purpose: Bearing in mind that R&D is the precondition of growth and development of the company, as well as the efficiency of R&D investments, is the key determinant of economic corporate responsibility, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of various performance indicators of R&D activities on companies' profitability. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of R&D investments, R&D intensity and return on R&D capital on the profitability of highly innovative companies. Study design/methodology/approach: Correlation, regression and cluster analyses were performed to provide an empirical investigation of the impact of key R&D performance indicators on the return on assets (ROA) of highly innovative companies, which are on the list of the top R&D spenders in the world. The data for the analysis comprises 24 R&D-intensive companies for the period 2013-2021. Findings/conclusions: The regression analysis results conducted on the determined clusters show that all three analyzed indicators of R&D activities have a positive and statistically significant impact on ROA in highly R&D-intensive companies. It is confirmed that the effects of various indicators of R&D activities are bigger in companies with higher RDII. Limitations/future research: The sample encompasses the 24 companies listed among the top 50 R&D spenders worldwide, which is considered insufficient for extensive analysis. The other limitation is related to the short research period. As the R&D activities produce yields after several years, the possible direction for future research is to investigate the impact of accumulated R&D investment over several years on ROA.

The quality of the innovation system and resilient and sustainable (educational, transport, information and communication) infrastructure are the most important determinants of sustainable development at the national level. The development that includes the transition to a knowledge-based economy implies sustainable development of the nations with the improvement of well-being. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of specific indicators of industry, innovation and infrastructure as possible limiting factors of sustainability. The analysis is based on indicators of the 9 Goal of sustainable development for Serbia and five neighbouring countries for the period from 2017 to 2022. It will be concluded about the key advantages and disadvantages of analysed countries in relation to this goal of sustainable development.

This paper aims to examine the influence of R&D activity on the business performance of high-technology companies. In order to provide an empirical investigation of the impact of R&D activity on the business performance of high-technology companies, correlation and regression analyses have been utilized. This study discovered that investment in R&D has a positive influence on EBIT, net earnings, EBITDA, and total assets, while its influence on ROA was confirmed to be statistically significant and negative. Additionally, the influence of R&D intensity performance indicator (RDI) on ROA as a short-term financial performance indicator was not confirmed. The study revealed that return on R&D investment (RORDI) has a statistically significant and positive influence on ROA in the current, observed year. The evaluation of the obtained results can be a basis for drawing more detailed conclusions, contributing to the future R&D strategy and existing literature, and emphasizing the importance of R&D investment for various business performances. The originality of this study is reflected in the comprehensive analysis of the influence of specific indicators of R&D activity, such as RORDI, on the business performance of high-technology companies. This paper is also beneficial because none of the existing studies have explored the impact of investment in R&D on EBITDA.

In the knowledge economy era, human capital is a part of intellectual capital and a significant factor in enterprise competitiveness. The importance of human capital is often diminished due to the accounting expression of investments in human resources in the income statement as a cost (expenditure) component. This paper points to the fact that the cost of human resources is an investment that affects the growth of the business performance of an enterprise. Hence, the aim of this paper is to examine the impact of human capital value on human capital efficiency and business performance indicators, such as sales revenue (SR), earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), and EBIT margin (EBITM). To examine this impact, empirical research is conducted on a sample of 24 companies with the highest brand value for the period 2012-2019. The regression analysis results show that sales revenue and EBIT grow by 0.77% and 1.1% respectively as human capital value grows by 1%. Additionally, findings reveal that the growth of the human capital value negatively affects the values of human capital efficiency indicators and EBIT margin in the sample of examined enterprises.

The Republic of Serbia joined the Council of Europe in 2003 and afterwards signed the EU Stabilization and Association Agreement (2007) and became an official candidate for membership in the European Union (2012). Thus, Serbia mapped its strategic European orientation, committing itself to the defined framework for the implementation of reforms for its alignment with the European Union's public policies. When it comes to media as a specific social sub-system, in this chapter we look at the different aspects of the Serbian media system on its way to democratic and professional emancipation in the post-socialist period (following the political changes of 2000, when the coalition of democratic parties ousted the authoritarian socialist regime). The research analyzes and systematizes key current issues confronting the Serbian media sphere and concerning the issues of ownership, regulation, self-regulation, market and ethics in the context of the European media policy. The first strand of our research focuses on reviewing the achievements in the democratic post-socialist transformation of the media system in Serbia. It presents the principles of the European media policy and outlines principal challenges arising from the process of the so-called democratic transformation of the media system through its harmonization with European standards. The second strand of our research unfolds in the context of assumption that mass media play a significant role in the European Union’s image-creation. The study, based on sociological and communication theory knowledge and methods, elucidates the role of media in generating the discourse on EU integrations within the Serbian public sphere.

Policy makers must identify the priorities in which resources should be invested in order to stimulate growth. This requires the identification of drivers of economic growth. Numerous researchers have pointed out that entrepreneurship is one of the key drivers of growth in the developed countries. However, sometimes entrepreneurship can be “unproductive”, and even “destructive”, because different forms of entrepreneurship do not have the same impact. Our paper investigates the impact of different types of entrepreneurships on growth in the emerging markets in order to identify the productive forms of entrepreneurship. The regression results, from panel data analysis of 20 emerging countries for the period of 2011–2018, showed that total entrepreneurial activity has a positive impact on economic growth in the emerging markets, but this impact is not statistically significant. The greatest and significant contribution to economic growth has high-growth expectation entrepreneurship. The influence of innovative entrepreneurship on economic growth is positive, but statistically insignificant, while impact of necessity-driven entrepreneurship is negative. Necessity-driven entrepreneurship and informal entrepreneurship are unproductive and destructive forms of entrepreneurship in the emerging markets.

Natural resources are the base of tourism development and competitive position in the tourism market of many tourist destinations. At the same time, the issue of their use in the function of tourism development is very complex and must be based on the idea of sustainability. The paper examines the importance of natural resources for the competitiveness of tourism in the European Union (EU). The aim of this paper is to consider the relationship of natural resources and tourism competitiveness in the EU countries, as well as to identify countries of good practice, but also countries that require improvement of natural tourism attractions and their activation in function of competitive and sustainable tourism development. In accordance with the defined aim of the research, correlation and cluster analysis are applied in the paper. The results of the research can benefit the creators of tourism development policy, because they enable the selection of indicators of availability and attractiveness of natural resources that can be improved, as well as countries in which special attention should be paid to more successful tourism valorization of natural resources.

The research aims to determine the intensity and direction of the impact of the global health and economic crisis from 2020 on the export competitiveness of the agri-food sector of the Republic of Serbia. Empirical study shows that there was an increase in the importance of exports of agri-food products in the crisis year 2020 according to all analysed indicators (net exports index, index of contribution to trade balance, relative coverage of imports by exports, unit values of exports). This confirms the hypothesis that this sector has exceptional resilience to crisis events. Moreover, net exports of these products increased significantly in 2020 compared to 2019 as a pre-crisis year. Therefore, the agri-food sector of the Republic of Serbia plays an important role in periods of such a crisis caused by non-economic factors, because it can compensate for the decline in exports and gross value added of other sectors.