Dragan Stojic

On existence of P-valued fuzzy sets with a given collection of cuts

A representation theorem of families of subsets by poset-valued fuzzy sets is presented. Namely, necessary and sufficient conditions are given under which for a given family of subsets F of a set X and a fixed poset P there is a fuzzy set @m:X@?P, such that the collection of cuts of @m coincides with F.

DETERMINANTS OF INSURANCE MARKET ATTRACTIVENESS FOR FOREING INVESTMENTS: THE CASE OF EX-YUGOSLAVIA

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate factors that influence the attractiveness of insurance market for foreign insurers in case of ex-Yugoslavia region. We use country-specific fixed effects models for panel data that covers five countries during the period 2004-2008, allowing each cross-sectional unit to have a different intercept term serving as an unobserved random variable that is potentially correlated with the observed regressors. The research results indicate that the main forces affecting market attractiveness are insurance demand and human capital. These findings provide significant implications for local governments and for both, foreign and domestic insurers.

DETERMINANTS OF NONLIFE INSURANCE MARKET ATTRACTIVENESS FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENTS: EASTERN EUROPEAN EVIDENCE

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate factors that influence the attractiveness of nonlife insurance market for foreign insurers in Eastern Europe. We use country-specific effects models for panel data that covers fifteen countries during the period 2004-2009, allowing each cross-sectional unit to have a different intercept term serving as an unobserved variable that is potentially correlated with the observed regressors. The research results indicate that the main forces affecting market attractiveness are insurance demand, entry barriers, market concentration and the return on investment. These findings provide significant implications for local governments and for both foreign and domestic insurers.

SUPPORT OF INNOVATION, EDUCATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-RESEARCH AND RESEARCH-DEVELOPMENTAL WORK ON UNIVERSITIES IN SERBIA

Purpose: The increase in the number of new firms from academic researches and locations sciencebased industries close to universities is one of the forms of expressing the relation of the Triple Helix in knowledge-based societies. Innovation is increasingly taking the Triple Helix form of relations and actors of new innovation types which are results of inventions. In this paper, the authors show that inexpressible (tacit) knowledge can occur through local research powers and that the global knowledge system can be connected with local conditions if it plays a role in the development process. They are confident that universities function as a bridge between global science flows and technology on one hand and local conditions and economic development on the other hand. Methodology/Results: The Triple Helix (TH) model includes three main actors: university, industry and state government. The TH thesis states that university can play a larger role in innovation in knowledge-based societies. A proposal of a general definition of the Quadruple Helix (QH) innovation model is given: it is an innovation cooperation model or an innovation environment in which users, firms, universities and public authorities cooperate in order to produce innovations. These innovations can be anything considered useful for partners in innovation cooperation. This study demonstrates that there are different possibilities for Universities to support and assist QH actors in meeting these challenges and in implementing QH innovation models. The result of the analysis is the advancement of innovation capacities and innovation culture: • Encouraging technology-oriented entrepreneurship including academic entrepreneurship. • Linking between research institutions and the business sector. Findings: The main lesson from the analysis presented in this work is the necessity of development as well as development of higher education and universities. Sustainable development should be the key determinant of the reform at university that is a condition not only for development but for its subsistence as well. Research limitations/implications: Educational policy and research in the education field shall support innovation and enable increasing efficiency in case it, together with Government measures, imposes regulatory, institutional and organizational frameworks through: mobilizing stakeholders; review of sectorial regulators from the innovation point of view; organizational charting; strengthening relationships between researches, practice and vocational policy; cooperation among networks, providing support to practical communities; creating a financing model that is adapted to goals and priorities. Originality/Value of paper: In this paper authors present: activities at the Universities in Serbia for support of innovation, center which is mission to educate and inform academic, research, business and student society at Serbia in order to promote the role of intellectual property and raise awareness about importance of information communication technologies (ICT) in knowledge based society, clusters, science and technological parks, business incubators with the aim to actively participate in the programs of promoting the competitiveness of the industry in the Republic of Serbia, events devoted to promotion of innovation at the Universities of Serbia and the most successful centers/teams.

Effects of corporate diversification on firm performance: evidence from the Serbian insurance industry

Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the relation between line-of-business diversification and performance for the insurance companies that operated in the republic of Serbia in the period 2004–2014. The research results show that the relation between risk-adjusted returns measured both by return on assets and return on equity and line-of-business diversification and performance measured by entropy is significant and positive, which means that diversified insurers outperform undiversified insurers. These results could be useful in decision making for insurance companies as they suggest the need for diversification (specialisation), growth in size, capitalization and affiliation (grouping).

Advances and Difficulties in Serbia’s Reindustrialization

The starting point of this paper is that for the completion of (post) socialist transition process is needed the realization of the strategy of reindustrialization of the Republic of Serbia according to the European concept of endogenous, auto-propulsive, self-sustainable and inclusive development. Development based on knowledge that is the essence of this concept, in Republic of Serbia in the last three decades, was promoted several times as strong development orientation. Implementation has not started for several reasons, from which in the forefront the cultural-political tendency is easy to define and much easier leaving the determination. The processed material is divided into two parts. In the first part, the emphasis is on causes of deindustrialization in the Republic of Serbia. The second part deals with three generic development alternatives and policies of their realization with emphasis on phenomena that encourage or block the generating and implementation of technological and business innovation in the structure of industry in the Republic of Serbia. The performed analysis shows that networking and clusterization of enterprises and agricultural farms, apropos the development of poles of generic growth are the key mechanisms by which with process of integration of research, high education and production in the local, sub-regional, regional and national frames, should start this process from a standstill.