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Customer's perception is becoming more crucial for the banks to maintain their market shares, profitability and customer's loyalty under highly competitive market conditions. This paper studies the dimensions of customer's perception of the overall banking industry in Croatia, focusing on perception as a potential source of competitive advantage under the recently created negative public opinion towards the local banking industry. The purpose of this study is to provide an insight and deeper understanding how the banks, by developing a high level of positive customer perception while using a total set of available corporate communication activities, proper CRM activities and providing strong service quality, as well as tailor-made products, can develop a positive customer's perception as a strong source of sustainable competitive advantage and influence on customer's end choice, loyalty, profitability and market share during a time of economic crisis. A study was carried out in Croatia on the basis of 320 respondents as customers who have used different types of banking services in different banks. The results obtained confirm the convenience of analysing the importance of customer's perception on total banking business in the country, showing that perception strongly influences customer loyalty, market share and profitability of the business.

With the development of economic systems, the education sector is aligning education standards within the latest market trends. In line with current economic requirements, educational systems are increasingly approaching the notion of a separate business that ultimately requires business forms necessary for its proper functioning. An inevitable part of every higher education institution are its finances, ensuring the internal stability of institutions. For the purposes of financing higher education institutions, many models have been created to monitor their development. Still, one of the least explored in the literature fundraising. Even if there is empirical evidence of fundraising implementation in US universities that use this model for decades, European ones are still not using the full potential of this financing path. Through a qualitative research approach, we outline the current status of fundraising in higher education in the US with best practices advice, as well as to compare it to European perspectives with a special focus to Croatian higher education institutions. Practical implications of this study rely on the guidance model for fundraising implementation that will aim at improving the quality of higher education institutions with a special reference to private owned institutions.

The application of marketing to the domain of politics has become relevant in recent times. With this article the authors wanted to explore the issue of the current political engagement among young people in Croatia. The question is what makes young people (age 18-30) politically active in young democracies such as that of the Republic of Croatia. Therefore, the objective of this study was to discover the real or hidden motivations behind the decision to actively participate in politics among young members of the two largest political parties in the country – the Croatian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Croatia. The study expected to find that the motivation for political engagement of young people is often connected with a possible achievement of individual goals and egoistic needs such as: self-acceptance, social success, financial success, prestige, reputation, status, recognition from the others etc. It was also expected that, due to the poor economic and social situation in the country, young people feel an increasing disconnection from politics. Additionally, the authors expected to find that there is a huge potential to engage young people in the political life of the country through a proper and more interactive use of marketing communication campaigns and social media platforms, with an emphasis on highly ethical motives of political activity and their benefits to society. All respondents included in the quantitative survey (sample size [N=100]) are active in one of the two largest political parties in Croatia. The sampling and distribution of the survey occurred in the field in September 2016. The results of the survey demonstrate that in Croatia, the way young people feel about politics and act accordingly, are in fact similar to what the theory describes. The research findings reveal that young people are politically active; however, the challenge is to find a way to motivate even more young people in Croatia to actively participate in the political and democratic processes in the country and to encourage them to see additional benefits out of this practice, not only related to their individual motives, but related more to the well-being of Croatia as a country and of every member of society. The research also discovered a huge potential for political marketing communication possibilities, especially related to interactive social media. It is possible that the social media channels have a stronger influence on the decision-making process among young people when compared to groups of reference. The level of interest in politics among young Croatians varies; some of them are almost indifferent, whilst others express a serious interest in different ways to actively contribute to the political life of the country, defining a participation in the political life of their country almost as their moral obligation. However, additional observations and further research need to be conducted to get a clearer and more precise picture about the interest in politics among young people in Croatia and their social potential., {"references":["E. Rainsford, E. \"What makes young people politically active? 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This paper presents pluralistic approach to the governance as a framework for effective governance practice. The key argument for pluralistic approach to the governance is that one theory is insufficient to comprehensively explain the operation of a governing board (Hilb, 2008 ; Hung, 1998). Accordingly, each theory can explain only a portion of the whole picture. Challenge for pluralistic approach is that underlying theories may offer contrasting explanations of how organizations respond to their environments such is the case with institutional and contingency theories. Despite possessing nearly contrary approaches in understanding the factors that impact organizational processes, these two frameworks have often been combined in empirical research. The results of this study demonstrated that the application of both institutional and contingency theories contributed to a better understanding of the impact of institutional forces on coordination and control within a governmental agency.

Mission statement is a backbone of the whole decision making process for the business school. It directs curriculum management by involving all relevant stakeholders in defining learning goals stemming from the mission. However, the central challenge for the delivery of the effective programs and their continuous improvement is assessment of previously defined learning goals. In the whole process the most important are articulation and operationalization of the mission. The superior approach is to align the entire curriculum and assurance of learning process of the school with the mission statement. Within such management model, performance measurement is essential for institutional effectiveness. Assurance of Learning (AOL) practices as performance metrics can be implemented in a variety of ways, as long as they are geared toward business schools’ missions and curricula. The authors address the way of implementing AOL in private business school implemented the AOL process in its bachelor of business administration program, and also graduate programs. This presentation will illustrate the process of setting clear program goals, followed by course goals stemming from the school's mission statement. The focus will be also on explaining the difference between course goals and course objectives stated in the syllabus. The emphasize will be placed on how to develop straightforward objectives, from which one can easily measure students' skills and the level of knowledge, i.e. their performance levels in certain segments of the course. The authors end with lessons learned about process of measurement methods and rubrics selection used to measure student outcomes, as well as the process of setting the acceptable results. Apart from collecting and distributing data, effective AOL provides information on how to improve the entire process, student learning outcomes, and the program as a whole.

Private education is a rapidly growing market in Croatia, while in the United States ; this kind of ownership is a traditional concept of education. The diversity of ownership structures and difference from public funding, have created new models of fundraising for uality work. One of them is funding, which for decades has been one of the sources of funds in the successful operation of private higher education institutions (HEI) around the world. As the fundraising relates mainly to funding of the schools themselves, its development has lead to the development of the very strategies of funding its use. With regard to the development of fundraising, there are several models of fundraising strategies that include a variety of communication channels for the development of fundraising activities. Strategies are those that are extremely important for the successful implementation of unduly and successful fundraising projects, and so fundraising strategy plays an important role for the fast-growing market of private higher education. This paper is focused on general HEI financing possibilities and fundraising as one of its possibilities. It also focuses on standard fundraising strategies and models developed within private U.S. HEI, its advantages and disadvantages.

Posljednje napretke u poslovanju, upravljanju i tržištu

Računovodstvo, financije i revizija u suvremenim gospodarskim uvjetima.

Članak pokazuje kako bi se trebala alocirati imovina mirovinskih fondova imajući u vidu, poglavito interese osiguranika budući da je njihov jedini cilj maksimiziranje prinosa uz prihvatljivu razinu rizika. U prvom dijelu prikazan je izračun efikasnih portfelja na hrvatskom tržištu dionica gdje je uočljiva nedostatna diverzifikacija ulaganja. U drugom djelu istražuje se optimalni udio inozemnog portfelja čime se pokazuje da postoji opravdanost međunarodne diverzifikacije ulaganja mirovinskih fondova.

Institucionalni investitori: postupci odabira optimalne kombinacije ulaganja.

Hrvatsko gospodarstvo u tranziciji.

U knjizi se opisuje reformirani mirovinski sustav u Hrvatskoj te daju opširna objašnjenja Zakona o obveznim i dobrovoljnim mirovinskim fondovima.

Osnovna pitanja svakog ekonomskog sustava - Dva različita gospodarska sustava - Oskudnost resursa kao ishodište osnovnih ekonomskih kategorija - Makroekonomija - Mikroekonomija - Međuovisnost i isprepletenost makroekonomije i mikroekonomije - Raspodjela dohotka: nadnice, renta i profiti - Međunarodna ekonomija