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Blockchain technology has become widely popular with the appearance of cryptocurrencies that use the decentralized nature of blockchain in order to exchange funds between their users. In order to verify various needed details during an exchange, consensus mechanisms are used which solve simple but exhaustive calculations. Such operations fulfil their primary goal of verifying, but are a common target of public disapproval due to massive energy consumption and lack of usefulness. This work discusses different approaches and consensus mechanisms with a more useful secondary function, especially focusing on NP-complete problems as mediators in solving complex and resource-heavy problems. A new way of approaching these problems can benefit many areas, like science, healthcare, government and finance, optimizing the current infrastructure and business processes like markets, transactions, insurances, payments and supply chains, or creating more secure, reliable and efficient environment. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Accounting profession is traditional profession and accounting rules and principles have been established and are the same for many years. However, globalization of business, stronger regulations and numerous technological solutions and innovations are not bypassing the accounting profession either. Challenges for the accounting profession are reflected in the need for rapid adaptation and transformation of business practice and business processes without abandoning away from basic accounting rules and principles. The aim of this paper is to analyze and systematize the key challenges that digitalization brings for the accounting profession. Research is based on the review of relevant and available professional and academic literature. The results are showing that accounting profession is faced with numerous challenges in the era of digitalization. Key challenges could be systematized in following: the use of big data in accounting and reporting, cloud computing and continuous accounting, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. The conclusion of this research is that changes in technology and digitalization will have a significant impact on the accounting profession in the coming period. Changes are moving toward reporting on a daily basis, difference on the way of preparing business and strategic plans, implementation of digital wallet and on-line accounting as well as outsourcing of accounting in distant countries. Education system is going to change in circumstances of growing digitalization of business. Also, users of accounting information in digital era are changing; they want accounting information right away when a business event occurs, not with time lag. Those changes will influence on the way accountants carry out their job, it will be necessary the knowledge of new skills especially in engineering, and, finally, that will lead to new types of the accounting professionals. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Fast technological changes and constant growth of knowledge in many areas have led to an increasing importance of different approach to education. Efficient education is the foundation of modern society and it has the most important role in preparing students for a very flexible labour market. Education is key for development and progress. The goal of this paper is to present a model for predicting students’ success using Neural networks. The model is based on students’ enrolment data that consisted of demographic and economic data and information about previous education. Students’ efficacy is measured by grade point average in college, and students are divided into two groups: with grade point average below and above 3.5. This model can help educators to prepare students who are classified below average with additional classes to overcome the more difficult courses and, thus, reduce the percentage of students leaving the college because of insufficient prior knowledge.

The 2019 ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference (ENTRENOVA '19) is dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practical implementations with the goal to provide practical advice for further research related to innovation, knowledge management and R&D issues.

Recent macroeconomic and demographic trends have resulted in new challenges for pension systems. One of these challenges is to create a sustainable pension system while simultaneously providing adequate pension benefits for current and future pensioners. This research explores how similar are pension systems of eleven European Union countries by using hierarchical cluster analysis for year 2016. Variables representing pension systems, as well as demographic, macroeconomic and labour market data were used to cluster these economies. Three clustering solutions were generated using hierarchical clustering approach, one for each variable group. Given the number of observed countries, only two cluster solutions were considered. According to the characteristics of the pension systems, countries that have greater problems of unsustainability are recognized. A similar group of countries also forms the cluster characterized by unfavourable demographic trends that make it more difficult to maintain sustainability. Romania stands out from other economies, based on macroeconomic indicators, as it recorded faster economic growth, greater labour productivity growth and lower unemployment rate in 2016. The findings of this study provide a guideline for future pension reforms, since they indicate which countries’ experience could be valuable in defining certain policy measures. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

As an innovative approach to retail, mobile commerce develops rapidly during last decade. It brings new challenges and opportunities in front of retailers who have to adapt their business strategies to new generation shoppers. With a good understanding of the shoppers’ online purchase intention, retailers are able to develop effective online strategies to attract new and keep loyal web-shopping customers. The purpose of this paper is to explain the online shopping orientation in the context of country of origin. There is a limited number of such research in Central and Eastern Europe, so there is a lack of knowledge about young consumers from this region and their attitude as mobile technology users. The article is based on the research conducted in Poland, Croatia and Serbia where 454 young non randomly selected respondents answered online survey questions. The research hypotheses were tested using correlation and non-parametric statistics. Differences between observed countries suggest that there is a necessity to adapt approach concerning online retailing even at the market with similar characteristics. Therefore, creators of marketing and sales strategies of online and omnichannel companies should consider this fact when planning business strategies. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The aim of this paper is to perform analysis of existing practice of Quality Management (QM) and Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in Croatian Language Service Provider (LSP) companies in order to analyse the gap and suggest recommendations. In this case study, twelve SME Croatian LSP companies are analysed by number of employees, existing and missing workplaces, focused business market, offices, Quality Certificate ISO 9001:2015 (2015) and membership in professional organizations. The existing practice in LSP Croatian companies are analysed through 10 TQM (total quality management) principles using self-evaluation assessment. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

“Successful psychopaths“ display psychopatic personality traits (i.e. lying, manipulating) in businness environments but do not display deviant lifestyles. The Triarchic Psychopathy Model proposed that psychopathy encompasses three phenotypic constructs: boldness, meanness and disinhibition. In line with theoretical assumptions, boldness is adaptive component of psychopathy and can therefore be useful for identifying “successful“ expressions of psychopathy. The aim of this research was to investigate whether boldness added incrementally in predicting emotional intelligence. Data was collected on 495 students (252 male) using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM, Patrick, 2010), and Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS, Wong et al., 2002). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that boldness did add incrementally to meanness and disinhibition in accounting for variance in total WLEIS score (12%), Self-emotional appraisal (5%), Others' emotional appraisal (2%), Use of emotion (14%) and Regulation of emotion (6%). Results of this study indicate that boldness has adaptive potential and represent a helpful factor for successful interpersonal behaviors such as EI. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the 21st century were characterized by increase in faculties and in public relations associations. For members of PR-associations, professional activities are regulated by ethics codes. The goal of this paper is to explore which place in the ethics codes of public relations associations takes the importance of education and how different associations in different countries consider education as professional duty of PR-experts. This paper provides a qualitative analysis of the content of 13 ethical codes; 2 international and 11 national professional associations active in 7 countries: Austria, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Unites States. The analysis had revealed that the majority of analysed codes does not consider the education as the essential duty of public relations professionals, although some of them emphasized the positive connection of education and ethical conduct. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The acceleration of the business environment often does not leave individuals sufficient amount of time and space to establish meaningful connections - especially among the manager's population. Although the emphasis is placed on the fact that people are the most valuable resource for organizations, the increasingly present superficial connections among colleagues do not support it. Therefore, in the context of the mentioned changes, it should be emphasized that it is not enough to pay attention only to the development of cognitive knowledge that an individual possesses and for which there are numerous programs for improvement; but rather to focus more on the emotions of individuals. In addition, in today's organizations emotionally intelligent leaders are needed more than ever. Their modus operandi should be the implementation of emotional intelligence model into organizations in an authentic way, creating organizations of the future. The aforementioned authenticity in incorporating an emotional intelligence model can help organizations achieve their full potential. Otherwise, elements of the emotional intelligence model represent nothing more than a manipulation tool for individuals to achieve their own goals, and the progress of the organization is fading away. For the purpose of this paper, managers and employees of various organizations in Croatia were surveyed in order to determine the level of emotional intelligence and its relationship to the style of leadership. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Business schools are confronted with a challenge of developing students to be managers, focused on productivity and adding value at the work process. 21st century education should aid student population substantially in thinking beyond profitability and self-interest and lead their strategical thinking process towards sustainable development. Our aim is to help the teaching staff in business education by providing them the tools to understand their students’ decision-making process and preferences. The goal of the study is to investigate if modern technologies support responsible decision making of students. A quantitative study was carried. The tool used was Super Decisions Software. Our results show that technology, even though a potentially useful tool in the responsible decision-making process needs integration into the appropriate business models. The sample of students’ behaviours in decision-making process can also be identified as responsible. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Continuous globalization, rapid development of information-communication technologies, and the presence of new burning challenges for the global community have contributed to the perception of corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool that allows for successful differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage. The goal of this paper is to offer a short overview of the role of a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility, as well as emphasize the importance of such an approach in creating competitive advantage for a company, but also of sustainability of society as a whole. The paper is based on a primary research questionnaire conducted on middle-sized and large Croatian export companies, as well as a systematic analysis of previously published relevant international scientific papers in the area of corporate social responsibility. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

A short review on the idea of a synergy of knowledge management and conceptual modelling methods is given in this paper. Innovative systems fostering knowledge management in modern businesses are necessary for safe and efficient knowledge management and are a welcome addition to slowly changing business models in a turbulent socio-economic environment of the modern world. The goal of this paper is to present a short discussion on various methods of knowledge management and how they are related to conceptual modelling. Furthermore, motivation for using conceptual modelling in knowledge management is argued using various references to already published research. The reasoning is steered towards the conclusions in favour of conceptual modelling in knowledge management, but not without providing strong arguments both in favour and against the starting presumption of usefulness of conceptual modelling in knowledge management. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The main goal of the paper is to analyse the objectives declared by the twenty professional associations of public relations, from the perspective of ethics. To answer in which way PR-associations consider ethics as one of the objectives of their work, the research used the qualitative content analysis of the official web-sites of twenty different professional (inter)national associations in Europe and US. The research showed that the majority of the associations emphasized the ethical dimension of their efforts, although it is not unanimously shared, since some of them express it in a very vague way. Nevertheless, the majority of analysed professional associations are aware of the importance of ethics in public relations and of their own strategical role in the field of public relations ethics. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Daily use of mobile devices has become one of many living standards. The number of Internet users is increasing annually. Along with the mobile devices rising number, the need for responsive design also rises. The purpose of this research is threefold: firstly, to clarify, secondly, to explore, and thirdly, to discuss the role of mobile Internet in achieving tourism, particularly hotel strategic goals. The elaboration will be based on the mobile internet traffic history, in Croatia and globally. In the accordance with the above stated the authors collected the relevant data sample. Examples are: website visits, websites user conversions, share of realized reservations and transactions made on the websites via mobile devices to verify the significance of mobile Internet traffic for the tourism business. The research findings have the potential to contribute to the tourism manager’s level of awareness regarding the role of mobile internet in tourism and hotel business. As additional contribution, it will be discussed the forthcoming perspectives of the mobile internet traffics and mobile internet future trend. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Human resources information system (HRIS) is an inevitable element of contemporary organisation’s setup. The HRIS provides multiple human resources management (HRM) services from operational assistance in collecting, storing and preparing data, executing and controlling processes, reducing HRM labour costs, and providing information to the management enabling them to make quality HR strategic decisions. This paper is aimed in contributing to the better utilization of HRIS usage in organizations, analysing various approaches in terms of purposefulness and validity of implementation of HRIS with the goal to maximize its impact to organizational performance. The goal of the paper is to provide the overview of HRIS transactional and strategic paradigm, and evaluate its impact to organizational performance. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Numerous studies have shown that leadership has a primary role in promoting ethical behavior in companies. To achieve success, however, leadership needs to base their strategic plans on ethical values they abide by when making their business decisions. However, it is important to note that strategic plans, as well as organizational activities and structures, management method and administrative systems, differ depending on a company's life cycle. Therefore, the role of leadership is to understand how these activities, structures, and systems change over time and how they affect the ethics of corporate behavior. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to study dependence of business ethics and company life cycle in Croatian companies in transition. The survey research was conducted using a random sample of Croatian small, medium and large companies. Hierarchical regression methods were applied to make a conclusion. The results suggest that the level of company’s ethics depends on whether it is in the stage of growth, maturity or decline. The results of the paper could be considered practical advice for leaders to better understand the dependence of business ethics and company life cycle and thus more easily contribute to further improvement of companies’ business ethics.

The business environment that is characterized by the dynamics of change has had a significant impact in the development of scientific thinking in the field of management from the beginning of the nineteenth century until today. In the 1950s, modern theories and management concepts were developed as a response to the demands of a new business environment. That particular feature, as well as the way in which its influence is accepted, enables them a potential application and importance even in a modern business environment. But, on the other hand, there are great differences between the environment in the world of the 1950s, when modern management theory appear, and the world and the environments that today are. Globalization, internationalization, virtual economy, and smart cities are just some of the features that are changing the contemporary environment and the world we live in, and which have a significant impact on the need for change and adaptation of traditional theories in business and management. The aim of the paper is to highlight the need for developing new theories and management concepts according to the problems that mangement and managers face today as the first as well as modern management theory has not been developed in accordance with today's business and general environment. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The emergence of the Internet and electronic business, opening up new possibilities for communication between the client and the tenderer has strongly and profoundly influenced the changes of the existing ones and the creation of radically new business models in all branches of business, and so in tourism. Consequently adoption of the Internet and Ecommerce development were quicker in the tourism sector than in other economic sectors. Advances in connectivity, and Web 2.0 development resulted in increased use of mobile devices and applications and social networks. These events produced large change in the tourist consumer habits, on their expectations and interests, in the way they plan their trips, the way they search for and compare information, how they choose and book it, whether it’s travel or just the destination, how they visit, and how they share their experiences. In this paper we evaluate several new business models and the changing role of tourist agencies in developing smart and intelligent destination.

Weather data bases are important in optimizing a range of economic activities, such as maritime traffic. In this paper, a statistical analysis of data has been carried out, which includes the interpretation of the results with an emphasis on the analysis of consequences for local population. The proposed procedure is supported by realistic data for wind speed and direction measured at meteorological station Split in the period from 2002 to 2011. Using available data, the annual as well as seasonal wind roses for the specified location are shown. Furthermore, wind speed data are approximated by the Weibull's probability distribution that enables estimating the probability of exceeding a particular wind speed, i.e. Beaufort number for this location. Thus, the probability of cancelled departure for catamarans, as well as ferries from the Split city port is determined for the annual level as well as for each season. The obtained results provide a more detailed insight into the important occurrence of cancelled departure of catamarans and ferries, significant for the lives of the islanders gravitating to Split. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have been implemented in tourism as a supporting tool for different related activities. The main research question the authors set as: Have different Croatian tourism subjects recognized the relevance of the new technical solutions and integrated it in their business models to support the management activities and related leadership trends? In the theoretical part the concept of tourism management based on leadership trends and supported by ICT solutions is elaborated. In the empirical part general level of few tourism stakeholders’ ICT usage is investigated. The research was conducted in spring 2016 and was based on 354 tourism stakeholder guests’ perceptions. The contribution is practical as well as theoretical. An overview of the main actual ICT solutions available to tourism sector presents a practical implication of this research while developing framework appropriate for assessing the ICT as tourism management support stands as academic contribution. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Crowdfunding, as a specific e-business activity, changes the way in which entrepreneurs collect money for financing their business projects in various business activities starting from social entrepreneurship and software development towards entertainment industry. No business activity is an exception to this trend. Due to its potential to influence and change traditional financial flows and to change traditional principles of financial intermediations, crowdfunding has drawn attention of scientists and practitioners who are trying to explain what could be consequences, risks, development phases and future trends in this field. In this paper, we give a theoretical insight into definitions, development and types of crowdfunding activity in general in the context of entrepreneurial self-financing. Then, on the basis of the case study analysis method, we outline several good practices of self-financing sports projects in developed markets in for each type of crowdfunding.

Inflamacija je zajedničko obeležje različitih patologija centralnog nervnog sistema (CNS), od traumatskih povreda i ishemije, preko neurodegenerativnih oboljenja, do psihijatrijskih poremećaja. Mikroglijske ćelije su rezidentne imunske ćelije CNS-a koje predstavljaju glavne pokretače i učesnike u inflamaciji. Mikroglija se aktivira u odgovoru na promene u homeostazi CNS-a pri čemu menja svoje morfološke i funkcionalne karakteristike. U aktiviranoj mikrogliji dolazi do reorganizacije citoskeleta što omogućava uvećanje ćelijskog tela, fagocitozu patogena ili ćelijskog otpada, kao i migraciju do mesta infekcije ili povrede. Takođe, aktivirana mikroglija produkuje brojne proinflamatorne medijatore, kao što su proinflamatorni citokini, hemokini, proteaze, reaktivne kiseonične i azotne vrste. Iako ovi molekuli imaju važnu ulogu u odbrani CNS-a od patogena i drugih štetnih stimulusa, oni tokom hronične aktivacije mikroglije dovode do snažnog inflamatornog odgovora, oštećuju i zdrave ćelije i dovode do neurodegeneracije. Stoga je smanjenje prekomerne mikroglijske aktivacije jedna od glavnih strategija u terapiji oboljenja CNS-a koja se odlikuju inflamacijom. Benfotiamin (S-benzoiltiamin O-monofosfat) je analog vitamina B1 sa većom biološkom raspoloživošću i dobrim farmakološkim profilom. Benfotiamin pokazuje povoljne efekte u lečenju neuropatija, nefropatija i retinopatija izazvanih dijabetesom. Pored toga, pokazana su antiinflamatorna i antioksidativna svojstva benfotiamina, ali njegov efekat na aktiviranu mikrogliju do sada nije poznat. Stoga, cilj ove disertacije bio je da se ispita potencijal benfotiamina da smanji aktivaciju mikroglije u in vitro modelu neuroinflamacije. Eksperimenti su rađeni na BV-2 mikroglijskoj ćelijskoj liniji koja je bila stimulisana lipopolisaharidom (LPS), što predstavlja dobro okarakterisan in vitro model aktivacije mikroglije. Rezultati dobijeni u ovoj disertaciji pokazuju da benfotiamin sprečava morfološke promene izazvane stimulacijom BV-2 ćelija LPS-om...

Rapid technological development and progress lead to the need for better and more efficient education which should prepare the applicant for increasingly flexible labor market. The goal of this research is to create models for prediction of student’s efficacy, compare them, find the key factors that contribute to more efficient studying in the Republic of Croatia, and finally determine how efficient studying is related to first employment. Models will be based on student’s data and hypothesis will be tested using multivariate statistical methods (multiple regression, Cronbach’s alpha), decision trees and neural networks. Data will be collected by structured questionnaire and will consist of demographic and economic data, information about previous education, attitudes towards learning, goals after study and informations about first employment. Student’s efficacy will be measured by grade point average in college. This research will try to increase our understanding of how different factors influence student’s performance and how student’s efficacy affects the speed and conditions of finding the first employment.

In last few years, the problem of food safety is becoming bigger while consumers' awareness regarding social responsibility in production, distribution and consumption of food is growing. The main goal for food enterprises is to provide food traceability. This paper focus on traceability systems that can be used to attain the food safety through the systematic monitoring of physical movement of food related raw materials and finished products. In this paper, integrated model of traceability, based on three layers is presented. Our intention is to present concept of traceability which enterprises can use to ensure food safety and food tracking, while traceability concept refers to timely monitoring and accurate recording of product modification process through time and space. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Leadership in modern business plays a crucial role in the business success of companies. Previous studies were focused mainly on measurement of financial performance management. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which leadership styles affect the success of the company using the system of balanced scorecard approach. A survey was conducted on a sample of Croatian companies, and Leadership Style Questionnaire has been used. The results showed that autocratic leadership has mostly negative impact on process efficiency and knowledge and employees management. Democratic leadership has mostly positive impact on all aspects of efficiency measured by a system of balanced scorecard approach. Laissez-faire leadership has significantly less impact on the efficiency then the other leadership styles. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Inflamacija je zajedničko obeležje različitih patologija centralnog nervnog sistema (CNS), od traumatskih povreda i ishemije, preko neurodegenerativnih oboljenja, do psihijatrijskih poremećaja. Mikroglijske ćelije su rezidentne imunske ćelije CNS-a koje predstavljaju glavne pokretače i učesnike u inflamaciji. Mikroglija se aktivira u odgovoru na promene u homeostazi CNS-a pri čemu menja svoje morfološke i funkcionalne karakteristike. U aktiviranoj mikrogliji dolazi do reorganizacije citoskeleta što omogućava uvećanje ćelijskog tela, fagocitozu patogena ili ćelijskog otpada, kao i migraciju do mesta infekcije ili povrede. Takođe, aktivirana mikroglija produkuje brojne proinflamatorne medijatore, kao što su proinflamatorni citokini, hemokini, proteaze, reaktivne kiseonične i azotne vrste. Iako ovi molekuli imaju važnu ulogu u odbrani CNS-a od patogena i drugih štetnih stimulusa, oni tokom hronične aktivacije mikroglije dovode do snažnog inflamatornog odgovora, oštećuju i zdrave ćelije i dovode do neurodegeneracije. Stoga je smanjenje prekomerne mikroglijske aktivacije jedna od glavnih strategija u terapiji oboljenja CNS-a koja se odlikuju inflamacijom.Benfotiamin (S-benzoiltiamin O-monofosfat) je analog vitamina B1 sa većom biološkom raspoloživošću i dobrim farmakološkim profilom. Benfotiamin pokazuje povoljne efekte u lečenju neuropatija, nefropatija i retinopatija izazvanih dijabetesom. Pored toga, pokazana su antiinflamatorna i antioksidativna svojstva benfotiamina, ali njegov efekat na aktiviranu mikrogliju do sada nije poznat. Stoga, cilj ove disertacije bio je da se ispita potencijal benfotiamina da smanji aktivaciju mikroglije u in vitro modelu neuroinflamacije. Eksperimenti su rađeni na BV-2 mikroglijskoj ćelijskoj liniji koja je bila stimulisana lipopolisaharidom (LPS), što predstavlja dobro okarakterisan in vitro model aktivacije mikroglije.Rezultati dobijeni u ovoj disertaciji pokazuju da benfotiamin sprečava morfološke promene izazvane stimulacijom BV-2 ćelija LPS-om...

Duality in microeconomic theory takes an important role in the theoretical work and in empirical research. The dual description of convex set implies the unique structure of microeconomic phenomena in the consumer and producer theory. In this article the unique structure of microeconomic phenomena is analysed on the problem of duality between the short run production and profit function which describe the firm's technology. The primal problem includes short run profit maximisation, in which the choice variable is the quantity of labour and the normalised short run profit function is derived. The dual model includes minimising the sum of variable costs and maximum profit. Special attention is given to the analysis of the first order necessary condition of both optimisation problems which imply duality between the Hotelling's lemma that generates the labour demand function in the short run and its dual which generates the inverse demand function for labour. It is shown how the dual of Hotelling's lemma generates the solution of the primal problem, and how the Hotelling's lemma generates the solution to the dual problem. Finally, the comparative static results that accompany the short-run production theory, important from an empirical standpoint, are especially emphasised. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Business process management (BPM) is a worldwide spread holistic management discipline which increases organizational performance by managing its business processes. A number of researchers indicate the need for further examination of the role of organizational culture in BPM and its maturity. In addition, there has been a recent development of social BPM as an effort to overcome the traditional BPM limitations by using social software for managing the organizations’ business processes and increasing collaboration between BPM project teams. Therefore, we conducted a case study in one Croatian IT company which operates as a consultant company and deals with software implementation. Since their processes are knowledge intensive, they are not always formal and structured so social BPM helps the company with process change and optimization. The aim of this paper is to examine the role of organizational culture and social software usage on BPM maturity in the observed company. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Customer relationship management has a great role in customers' loyalty and satisfaction. However, it is questionable if companies are facing their customers with adequate care. Research that analyzes income and its impact to customers’ loyalty, especially in post- transition countries is scare. This paper investigates customers' attitudes towards selected loyalty determinants. In order to achieve the goal, empirical research on the sample of Croatian customers has been conducted. The respondents were classified into three groups regarding income level and then compared using Kruskall-Wallis test.

Development and usage of information and communication technology (ICT) is continuously growing in the last 30 years. The main reason is that ICT has a great potential to improve the efficiency of business processes, to increase the competitiveness, but also to facilitate and drive innovations. Innovation has become a crucial factor for the economic development and ICT offer great opportunities in supporting innovation activities. The goal of the paper is to identify the influence of the usage of the ICT on the innovation activities in European countries. Data for the period of five years (2007-2011) were collected from the European statistical database – Eurostat and Global Competitiveness Report. In order to investigate the ICT impact on the Innovation and sophistication factor subindex of the European countries, we conducted a panel regression analysis. Research results showed that ICT support innovation activities. However, the ICT has the highest impact on the 11thpillar: Business sophistication of the Global Competitiveness Index. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Fiscal rules have been the centre of economic debate in European Union Member States. They indicate the direction in which policymakers aim to evolve public finances. In recent years the public finances of European Union Member States have been affected by two major changes in economic and institutional settings. These are the establishment of Economic and Monetary Union and progressive fiscal decentralisation in a significant number of European Union Member States. In order to support the fiscal decentralisation process European Union Member States need to have appropriate fiscal policy rules. They can stimulate policy coordination between different levels of government depending on their institutional coverage. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of the fiscal rule index and fiscal rule strength index in European Union Member States, with special emphasis on Croatia. The Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs methodology was used in analysing the fiscal rule index and fiscal rule strength index by type and government sectors in the period from 2003-2013 in European Union Member States.Based on our results, the fiscal rule index for Croatia, from the period 2003-2013, is continually on the rise from -1.01 in 2008 to a high 1.43 in 2013. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

International exchange provides the implementation of significant cargo flows that connect the largest industrial, transportation and commercial world centers. By joining the European Union, Croatian transport infrastructure has become a part of the European transport network. Pan-European transport corridors are defined traffic routes in Central and Eastern Europe that contribute to cohesion of the countries through which these routes pass. Croatia, as part of Pan-European transport corridor network, is intensively involved in the plans for its development. Additionally, Croatia has finally acquired preconditions to start the implementation of an intensive linkage of the reference points of which Croatian economy, but also the whole region, will have benefits. However, without investing in the reconstruction of railways, roads and inland waterways, it is impossible to improve the international activity of Croatia. Therefore, the emphasis of this paper is in pointing out the importance of generation the single program which includes complete Croatian transport system. The great plan must be based on coherent policy and long-term strategy because only such an approach can transfigure Croatia into a serious and equal partner in the European Union. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Implementation and usage of the latest inventions in information technology provides enterprises better position on the global market. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) presents the innovative information technology that can change and improve many of the enterprises collaboration operations and support decision making process. The best results of RFID usage are achieved in the supply chain systems, but RFID can be applied in the fields of medicine, finance, logistics and trade. Goal of this paper is to evaluate trends and purposes of RFID usage among enterprises in European Union. We also analyse usage of RFID among Enterprises in European Union according to the industry. Future research will focus on application of RFID among enterprises worldwide and to examine are there any differences in RFID usage among developed and developing countries.

Data Mining represents a Business Intelligence (BI) methodology which provides an insight into the 'hidden' information about its operations thus improving the process of making strategic business decisions based on a clear and understandable interpretation of existing results. Data mining can help to resolve banking problems by finding some regularity, causality and correlation to business information which are not visible at first sight because they are hidden in large amounts of data. The goal of this paper is to present a case study of usage of operations research methods in knowledge discovery from databases in the banking industry. Neural network method was used within the software package Alyuda. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Successful leadership is one of the most important factors contributing to the company's success, and can be defined in several ways that will be mentioned below. Leadership can be defined as the skill to encourage employees to voluntarily participate in the realization of the objectives of the company. Leadership is important for all groups of companies. Although the leadership in most of the cases represents the characteristics of leader, there are still specifics that are important to certain groups of companies. This paper will expose the reflections, as well as previous studies related to the specifics of leadership with regard to international orientation, stage of development and size of business. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

A number of researchers indicate that although environmental and personal characteristics are important for developing entrepreneurial intentions, a better understanding would be gained if innovative cognitive style, as a moderating factor, would be introduced. According to theory, individuals with high innovative cognitive ability could also have higher entrepreneurial intentions. Persons that are more innovative, could have higher self- confidence in starting a business, especially if they are not satisfied with their current jobs, or expect that they will not be satisfied as employees in organizations. In addition, in a number of studies it has been found that there are unresolved issues regarding gender and entrepreneurial intensions and gender and innovative cognitive style. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to explore gender perspective as well as environmental perspective on entrepreneurial intentions and innovative cognitive style on the sample of business informatics students from Croatia and Slovenia. Logistic regression revealed that entrepreneurial intentions are determined by country of origin, gender, attitudes toward entrepreneurship (personal attraction, social norms, and perceived self-efficacy), and innovative cognitive style (willingness to try, being opinion leader and solving ambiguities and problems).

The transformation of the modern economic system is more than obvious and our main objective is to point out the need for the articulation of new organizational forms. In this paper, we use the results of empirical studies published in the literature and theoretical elaboration by using inductive/deductive methods. We believe that a new organization must correspond to human nature, which is based on self-affirmation in the world of labor in which the creativity, imagination, play and cooperation are among the key factors. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Over the past two decades, organic food production system is transformed from a loosely coordinated network of local producers and consumers in a globalized system that formally regulated trade that connects socially and spatially distant places of production and consumption. Today s customers are more informed about the way of food production, genetic manipulation and the impact of food on health trought different ways of informing (fairs, Event marketing, Internet, etc.). Because of that today is not enough to fulfill the basic hedonistic consumer needs, and these can not be enough to motivate the costumer. The product should offer the costumer the added value that are important in his selection. Organically grown food among other things offers the following value-added: better taste, food security for the customer and his family, then utilization of packaging and the production methods that have less negative impact on environment. Organically grown food is clearly more prevalent in supermarkets, as well as in specialized stores which is increasing in our markets. More encouraging is that organic farmers are getting eco sign. More and more people are turning to so-called "healthy" lifestyle. The highest risks in consumption of conventional products have babies and children because of low body weight. This work is based on research findings habit of buying organic products in Croatian consumers in Koprivnica-Križevci county. The aim of the research was to determine how the participants at all are familiar with the concept of organic farming, lifestyle and diet, and consuming the same.

Traumatska povreda mozga (TPM) predstavlja veliki zdravstveni problem savremenog društva jer je vodeći uzrok smrti i invaliditeta kod mlađih osoba. Uprkos znatnim istraživačkim i kliničkim naporima, još uvek ne postoji ni jedan dovoljno uspešan terapijski pristup koji utiče na sve patofiziološke procese koji prate moždanu traumu, odnosno, koji može ukloniti sve njene posledice. Stoga se uspešan tretman u borbi protiv TPM danas pokušava pronaći kombinacijom različitih terapijskih tretmana. Poznato je da je oporavak izgubljene funkcije nakon povrede mozga odraslih veoma spor i nepotpun usled nepovratnog uništenja nervnih ćelija i ograničene mogućnosti remodelovanja postojećih i formiranja novih neuronskih veza. Glavna prepreka za uspešniji oporavak posle oštećenja je nepermisivna sredina glijskog ožiljka koji se formira nakon povrede, a koji sprečava izrastanje novih nervnih vlakana i uspostavljanje novih neuronskih veza. Glijski ožiljak čine gusta mreža glijskih ćelija (astrocita i oligodendrocitnih prekursorskih ćelija) i nepropustan vanćelijski matriks (ECM). Cilj ove studije bio je da se ispita dejstvo kompleksa vitamina B (B1, B2, B3, B6 i B12) i ribavirina (RBV, purinskog nukleozidnog analoga) na oporavak motornih funkcija, posle jednostrane ablacije senzomotorne kore (ASK) prednjeg mozga pacova. Mužjacima Wistar soja, starim 2.5 meseca, urađena je ASK prema sledećim koordinatama: 2mm ispred, 4 mm iza bregme i 4 mm lateralno od središnje linije u dubinu do pojave bele mase mozga. Operisane životinje podeljene su, prema tretmanu nakon ASK, u 6 grupa: L grupa – tretirana fiziološkim rastvorom; LK1 grupa – tretirana kombinacijom vitamina B1 (33 mg/kg/dan), B6 (33 mg/kg/dan) i B12 (0,5 μg/kg/dan); LK2 grupa – tretirana kombinacijom vitamina B2 (7,5 mg/kg/dan) i B3 (500 mg/kg/dan); LK grupa – tretirana kombinacijom svih pet vitamina: B1, B2, B3, B6 i B12 u prethodno navedenim dozama; LR grupa – primala je RBV (30 mg/kg/dan); LKR grupa – tretirana kombinacijom svih 5 B vitamina i RBV u prethodno navedenim dozama. Prva injekcija B vitamina data je i.p. 15 minuta nakon ASK, a potom na svaka 24 sata tokom sledećih 14 dana, dok je RBV aplikovan od 3 dana nakon ASK, jednom dnevno do kraja eksperimenta. Uticaj primenjenih tretmana na oporavak nakon ASK praćen je testiranjem ponašanja (test prelaska preko grede - BW test), RT-PCR i Western blot analizom, kao i različitim imunohistohemijskim metodama... Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health problem in modern society, being a leading cause of death and disability among young people. Despite huge basic research and clinical efforts an effective treatment for TBI has not been established yet, that will counteract all of pathophysiological processes accompanying brain trauma. Therefore, a best possible present treatment that would act on several secondary processes in TBI is based on a combination of different therapeutic approaches. A recovery of lost functions after brain injury is slow and incomplete in adults, due to the irreversible destruction of nerve cells and the limited ability of brain tissue for remodeling of existing and formation of new synaptic connections. The main obstacle for a successful recovery is existence of non-permissive glial scar, which emerges after a brain trauma preventing axonal sprouting and the establishment of new neural circuits. Glial scar consists of a dense network of glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocyte precursor cells) and dense extracellular matrix (ECM). The aim of this study was to explore the effects of vitamin B complex (B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12) and ribavirin (RBV, a purine nucleoside analogue) on the recovery of motor function after unilateral sensorimotor cortex ablation (SCA) of rat forebrain. Two and a half-month old male Wistar rats underwent SCA at the following coordinates: 2 mm before, 4 mm behind the bregma and 4 mm lateral to the midline, and to the depth of the white matter. After the surgery, rats were randomly divided according to treatment protocol into 6 groups: group L – treated with saline solution; LC1 group - treated with a combination of vitamin B1 (33 mg/kg/day), B6 (33 mg/kg/day) and B12 (0,5 mg/kg/day); LC2 group - treated with a combination of vitamin B2 (7.5 mg/kg/day) and B3 (500 mg/kg/day), LC group - treated with a combination of all five vitamins: B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12 in the above mentioned doses, LR group - received RBV (30 mg/kg/day); LCR group - treated with a combination of 5 B vitamins and RBV in the above doses. The first injection of vitamin B was given i.p. 15 minutes after the SCA, and then daily during next 14 days, while RBV was first administered 3 days after the SCA, once daily until the end of the experimental protocol. The effects of treatment on the recovery after SCA were followed by behavioral tests (beam walking test - BW test), while molecular changes were detected using RT-PCR, Western blot analysis and several immunohistochemical protocols...

Aktivacija mikroglije jedno je od glavnih obeležja eksperimentalnog autoimunskog encefalomijelitisa (EAE) i drugih neuroloških poremećaja koje odlikuje hronična inflamacija. Cilj ove studije bio je da se proceni sposobnost dva analoga purinskih nukleozida, ribavirina (RBV) i tiazofurina (TR), da modulišu inflamatorni odgovor aktivirane mikroglije, in vivo i in vitro. U in vivo studiji, koja je izvedena na EAE modelu indukovanom ubrzgavanjem encefalitogene emulzije u šapu Dark Agouti pacova, pokazano je da tretman životinja kombinacijom oba analoga, počev od pojave prvih simptoma pa tokom sledećih 15 dana, dovodi do smanjenja težine bolesti, a na histološkom planu do smanjenja broja i stepena aktivacije mikroglije. Budući da kombinovani tretman RBV i TR dovodi do supresije simptoma EAE i do redukcije reaktivne mikroglioze, formulisana je hipoteza da ovaj tretman, pored ranije opisanih sistemskih efekata u imunskom i vaskularnom sistemu, ostvaruju centralni efekat i to delujući prvenstveno na ćelije mikroglije. Uticaj RBV i TR, kao i kombinovane primene oba analoga detaljnije je ispitan u primarnoj kulturi mikroglijskih ćelija. Aktivacija mikroglije, indukovana lipopolisaharidom bakterijskog zida gram negativnih bakterija, (LPS), izazvala je tipičan odgovor reaktivne mikroglioze. Antiinflamatorni potencijal RBV, TR i RBV+TR ispitan je u pogledu citotoksičnosti, indukcije morfoloških promena, produkcije azot monoksida (NO), oslobađanja proinflamatornih citokina i nuklearne translokacije NF-κB. Ispitan je citototoksični potencijal RBV (1 – 20 μM), TR (1 – 20 μM) i kombinovanog tretmana (10 μM RBV + 5 μM TR) i određene su EC50 doze pri kojima se postiže polovina maksimalnog citotoksičnog efekta. RBV, TR i kombinovani tretman smanjuju ukupnu produkciju NO u kulturi stimulisanoj LPS-om, a taj efekat se pripisuje smanjenju ukupnog broja ćelija u kulturi. RBV, TR i RBV+TR menjaju ameboidnu morfologiju aktivirane mikroglije, tako što smanjuju prosečnu površinu ćelija u kulturi. Tretman RBV, TR i RBV+TR smanjuju translokaciju NF-κB/p65 u jedro. Primenjeni tretmani smanjuju ukupno oslobađanje TNF-α i IL-6, što je verovatno posledica smanjenja ukupnog broja aktiviranih ćelija, a RBV i kombinovani tretman povećavaju ekspresiju IL-1β. U primarnoj kulturi mikroglijskih ćelija potvrđena je genska i proteinska ekspresija uravnotežujućih nukleozidnih transportera 1 i 2 (ENT1, 2), koji učestvuju u transportu RBV i TR u ćelije. Ukupno gledano, rezultati dobijeni ovom studijom ukazuju da RBV i TR, pojedinačno ili u kombinaciji, deluju citotoksično na aktiviranu mikrogliju i menjaju njenu morfologiju, a ispoljavaju i imunomodulatorno dejstvo tako što snižavaju produkciju NO, smanjuju signalizaciju posredovanu NF-κB/p65 i redukuju produkciju proinflamatornih citokina. Activation of microglia is the hallmark of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and other neurodegenerative disorders associated with chronic neuroinflammation. The present study addressed the potency of purine nucleoside analogues ribavirin (RBV) and tiazofurin (TR) to modulate the microglial inflammatory response in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we induced animal model of multiple sclerosis – experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) by subcutaneous injection of encephalitogenic emulsion in the hind paw of Dark Agouti rats and showed that therapeutic treatment of EAE animals with combination of these two nucleoside analogues reduced disease severity. In addition, histological analysis indicated that RBV and TR also decreased the number and activation status of microglial cells. Since the combined treatment with RBV and TR leads to suppression of EAE symptoms and reduction of reactive microgliosis, we proposed hypothesis that this treatment, in addition to previously described effects in immune and vascular system, may act in central nervous system targeting primarily microglial cells. Therefore, in further experiments we examined effect of RBV, TR and their combination (RBV+TR) on primary microglial cell culture. Activation of microglial cells with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) triggers typical microglial responses to inflammation. Anti-inflammatory potential of RBV, TR and RBV+TR was tested in terms of influencing microglial morphological changes, NO production, nuclear factor-κB translocation and proinflammatory cytokines release, after LPS stimulation. The cytotoxic effects of RBV (1 – 20 μM), TR (1 – 20 μM) and their combination (10 μM RBV + 5 μM TR) are determined, as well as the dosages that achieved half-maximal inhibitory effect (EC50). RBV, TR and combination treatment lowered NO levels in LPS stimulated cultures as a result of decreased cell number. RBV, TR and RBV+TR induced shrinkage of average cell surface of LPS activated amoeboid microglial cells. Treatment with RBV, TR and RBV+TR of activated microglia strongly reduced the nuclear translocation of NF-κB/p65 and suppressed proinflammatory immune response genes. Applied treatments also exerted suppression of TNF-α and IL-6 release in activated microglia manly by reduction of cell number. At the same time, RBV and RBV + TR treatment additionally increased LPS-induced IL-1β gene expression and release. In primary microglial cell culture, gained results confirmed gene and protein expression of equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs), proteins that are responsible for the putative entry of RBV and TR into cells. Results obtained in this study indicate that RBV and TR, alone or in a combination, attenuate neuroinflammatory response, probably by exerting cytotoxicity on activated microglial cells, reduction of NO levels, attenuation NF-κB signaling and decrease of proinflammatory cytokine release.

Uvod: Traumatske povrede centralnog nervnog sistema (CNS) predstavljaju širom sveta veliki zdravstveni problem, jer spadaju među vodeće uzročnike smrtnosti i različitih oblika invaliditeta u radno sposobnoj populaciji. Činjenica je da se samo u koordinisanim istraživanjima kako eksperimentalnim i tako kliničnim, mogu razviti novi kolaborativni modeli i nove strategije za sanaciju posledica moždane traume. U ovom kontekstu hiperbarična oksigenacija (HBO) se izdvaja kako procedura koja može u sinergističkom dejstvu sa drugim terapijama dovesti do ubrzanja oporavka posle moždane traume. Cilj ove studije je da utvrdi da li primena HBO može poboljšati oporavak pacova posle sukcione ablacije desnog senzomotornog korteksa. Materijal i metode: Deset nedelja stari mužijaci pacova Wistar soja raspoređeni su u sledeće grupe (n=8, po grupi): Kontrolna (K) intakne životinje, Kontrolna + HBO (KHBO) intakne životinje koje su prošle kroz HBO protokol, Šam (Š) lažno operisane životinje, Šam + HBO (ŠHBO), Lezija (L) desni sezomotorni korteks je uklonjen sukcionom ablacijom i L + HBO (LHBO). HBO protokol: pritisak 2,5 apsolutne atmosfere, 60 minuta, jedanput dnevno, tokom 10 dana. Za evaluaciju procesa oporavka lokomotornih funkcija korišćeni su test prelaska preko grede i merenje snage stiska. Količina malondialdehida (MDA), aktivnost superoksid dismutaze (SOD) i glutation peroksidaze (GPX) su mereni u uzorcima tkiva povređenog hemikorteksa. Postraumatski procesi su praćeni na uzorcima moždanog tkiva imunohistohemijskom metodom sa sledećim antitelima: GFAP, ED1, SMI31, GAP43 i SYP. U cilju evaluacije efekata HBO na proces neuronalne degeneracije sprovedeno je dovostruko imunofluorescentno bojenje: neuroni u procesu degeneracije su bojeni fluoro žadom B, dok je NeuN korišćen kao marker tela neurona... Objectives: Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are one of the leading causes of death and chronic disability especially among the working population, and represent an important public health problem worldwide. It is proposed that coordinated research efforts of basic and clinical scientists will provide the opportunity to develop collaborative models for translational neuroscience and rehabilitation research. In this view hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) appeared as an adjunctive therapy that has the synergistic effect with other treatments, strongly suggesting that combining therapies with HBO could yield better results than either alone. The aim of this study was to investigate whether HBO can improve the neurological recovery of the rat after suction ablation of the sensorimotor cortex. Methods: The experiments were conducted on the male Wister rats, 10 weeks old. Animals were organized into following groups (n = 8, per group): Control (C) intact animals, Control+HBO (CHBO) intact animals subjected to HBO treatment, Sham control (S) animals that underwent surgical procedure without damaging the brain tissue, Sham control+HBO (SHBO), Lesion group (L)–the right sensorimotor cortex was removed by suction ablation, Lesion+HBO (LHBO). HBO protocol: pressure applied 2.5 absolute atmospheres (ATA), for 60 minutes, once daily for 10 days. Beam walking test and grip strength meter were used to evaluate the recovery of motor functions. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content, activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) sampled from injured hemicortex were measured. The posttraumatic processes were evaluated on the brain tissue preparations using the immunohistochemical method with antibodies: GFAP, ED1, SMI31, GAP43 and SYP...