Nikša Alfirević

Customer Knowledge Management: Toward Social CRM

Customers are often cited as one of the most important ‘assets’ of contemporary organizations. However, value of both customer relationships and the knowledge ‘extracted’ from them are often limited to the information technology (IT) domain, as the issue of implementing customer relationship management (CRM) software packages. In addition to a more embedded view of CRM, the ‘social’ trends relevant for customer relationships, , exemplified in the use of social networking tools and other ‘social software’ (such as Wiki-based pages, fora, chat pages, etc.) on the Internet, are identified and analyzed. It is argued that the ‘social CRM’ could be improved by taking into account the already existing theoretical and practical tenets of the virtual community model, as developed by contemporary sociology and communication sciences

Performance of nonprofit organizations: Empirical contrasts between privately and publicly funded Croatian humanitarian organizations

In this paper we contrast different aspects of non-profit organizations’ performance from the perspective of their funding sources. Based on previous empirical results indicating that sources of funding influence fundraising performance, we extend the existing research to the analysis of overall non-profit organizational performance. We use the social constructivist approach to non-profit performance to discuss contrasts between privately and publicly funded humanitarian organizations in Croatia. Some differences in growth- and development-oriented measures of non-profit performance for these groups are identified and discussed in the context of future regional research.

Intentions and Perceptions of the Entrepreneurial Career Among Croatian Students: Initial Results of a Longitudinal Empirical Study

In this paper, authors analyze the entrepreneurial intentions of the student population at the University of Split, Croatia and relate them to students’ general perceptions of entrepreneurship and its social role/desirability. As the longitudinal data have been collected during the recession in the Croatian economy, this study provides initial empirical results, related to general trends of economic and social treatment of entrepreneurship in South East Europe, in the specific context of a prolonged economic downturn. The empirical findings demonstrate that the perceived desirability of entrepreneurship, as related to students’ primary reference groups (family, friends, peers), influences their entrepreneurial intent. The other factors, which proved as empirically significant in determining the students’ entrepreneurial intent, include the perception of self-efficacy, as well as relevant knowledge and skills. The desirability of an entrepreneurial career in the wider society is not empirically relevant for the surveyed students. The obtained empirical results are discussed from the aspect of improving entrepreneurial education, as well as public policies, related to youth unemployment and the development of entrepreneurial culture among the population of young people in South East Europe.

Community capacity, sense of community and social capital: The sociological and economic dimensions in Croatia and Serbia

In this paper, we analyze the concepts of community capacity, the psychological sense of community and social capital. They are examined in terms of their contribution to the social capital, both theoretically, as well as empirically. Results of a comprehensive empirical study, conducted in local communities in the Republic of Croatia and Republic of Serbia, are reported and discussed. Those results demonstrate that, in South-East Europe, community capacity can be linked to the collective action, as well as to the development of social capital in local communities.

Managing the School: Principals as Managers

Vican, Alfirevic and Relja present the history and an overview of educational management/administration as a separate and applicative field addressing the specific issues of managing an educational institution. This is contextualized in terms of educational objectives to be realized, as well as boundaries set by educational policies and the ‘educational market’, either explicit or implicit. From the pragmatic point of view, the field is explicated by referring to principals’ activities and roles, as well as their influence to the ‘fit’ achieved by the school and its environment. The Anglo-American roots and the emerging ‘regional knowledge-bases’ and practices of educational management are discussed.

School Principals, Environments and Stakeholders: The Blessings and Heresies of Market Organization

In this chapter, the authors emphasize the need for schools and their principals to focus on the needs of their students and other relevant stakeholder groups. This orientation also implies flexibility in the management of educational systems, instead of the bureaucratic accountability currently prevailing in the South-East European education. Schools and their principals are advised to recognize the nature of market orientation and apply the ambidextrous integration of strategies that are both market-driven (implying adaptation to the educational environment) and market-driving (implying active exploration of the target market, influencing the market structures and managing relevant stakeholder relationships).

School Effectiveness and Educational Management: Editorial

This chapter provides a brief overview of the entire Palgrave Macmillan volume dedicated to school-effectiveness and educational-management research, focused on South-Eastern European research and its public-policy agenda.

School Effectiveness and Educational Management: Toward a New Research and Public-Policy Agenda

Alfirevic, Burusic, Pavicic and Relja draw on the theoretical discussions provided in the previous chapters of the Palgrave Macmillan volume dedicated to school-effectiveness and educational-management research. They identify the weaknesses of the existing knowledge base and identify the challenges for future research and the public-policy agenda in South-East Europe and beyond.

School management innovation and principal support systems: toward the agenda for Croatian school reform

Abstract In this paper, we discuss if the current educational management practices in Croatian schools are in line with the constructivist prescriptions and what is their relationship with the available principal support tools. Our research is based on previous empirical results, related to the perceived needs of school principals for training and support. Namely, in 2011, the surveyed school principals required additional competencies to be developed in the fields of school marketing and management. At that time, the primary school principals are being surveyed, related to their managerial practices and the obtained results are interpreted in the context of the already announced, comprehensive school reform in Croatia, designed according to the constructivist educational theories. The empirical results demonstrate that the managerial practices of Croatian primary schools are not compatible with the constructivist theory of education. One group of principals (27.6%) have adequate delegation skills and focus on the specific fields of project management and school marketing, while the majority demonstrate one (or several) forms of ineffective practices. There is limited empirical evidence of the statistically significant differences in the usage of principal support tools/approaches, although the specific usage patterns have been identified.

Application of a Cloud-Based Supply Chain Management System to Achieve Mass Customization: Best Practices from the Automotive Industry

There are many competing attempts to define the cloud-based concept, although their common elements refer to a pool of networked, scalable and virtualized software/hardware resources, accessible over the network, which will easily accommodate the changing needs of end users (see Vaquero et al., 2009). Different definitions include the views on cloud-based systems as agile and scalable pools of computing resources, maintained by a new class of information technology (IT) vendors, usually referred to as Application Service Providers (ASPs). They are typically based on freely interchangeable software components (Web services), which are being orchestrated/ coordinated and provided with Web-based interfaces, to interact with the end users (Buyya et al., 2008). The majority of literature presupposes that cloud systems are maintained by commercial ASPs and made available to the buying customers (“public clouds”), although large organizations may require additional flexibility and data security, required by keeping the cloud infrastructure under their control (“private clouds”). Both internal and external virtualization/hosting of IT resources are used in the so-called “hybrid clouds” (Rimal et al., 2009).