Management, Business and Economics

Innovation represents a key predictor of firm performance, international competitiveness and overall economic growth. While the determinants of innovation have been extensively investigated in the literature, research on the relationship between gender and innovation remains scarce, especially in the context of transition economies. Employing data from the most recent enterprise surveys (2018-2020), conducted by the EBRD, EIB and the World Bank, this study aims to assess the relationship between the participation of women in ownership structures, and top management and firm innovation, while controlling for many other firm characteristics. The results of this investigation suggest a positive association between the presence of at least one woman among owners and both, product and process innovation, the effect being less significant for the latter. The empirical findings also support the hypothesis that having a woman top manager increases a firm’s probability of carrying out product innovation. The effect is statistically insignificant in the case of process innovation.

We still don't know how badly the current crisis will hit the economy. But despite or precisely because of the looming severe recession and economic crisis, fragmented and divided societies until yesterday can heal thanks to a hitherto unexpected injection - solidarity. The global scale of the health crisis and its economic epicenter in EU and euro area countries is creating additional external pressure on disrupted global supply chains. Economic uncertainty caused by the uncertainties surrounding the development and duration of the pandemic and rising unemployment are prerequisites for shrinking domestic consumption, mainly to basic necessities, which is reflected in society. The crisis clearly shows that many business models have a serious need to change, shows the great dependence of modern society on information and communication technologies and outlines the emerging processes of digitalization, automation and robotics in the context of Industry 4.0, which require timely adaptation by society.

The literature on FDI impacts is enormous, but the results from different studies regarding the impact of FDI on the economy are inconclusive. However, as far as transition countries are concerned, we can witness more agreement on the [positive] effects especially in some advanced transition countries hence considering FDI a lead driver for sustainable development. Because of the [quick and challenging] transition from planned to market economy, in most of the transition countries domestic capital is incapable to meet all investment needs. Therefore, the role and impact of FDI is more than crucial in the transition economies comparing to developed countries. In general, not all economists would agree on positive effects and impact of FDI, but when it comes to undeveloped especially transition economies, according to economic literature, there is more agreement on positive effects of FDI in economic development. In general, the main focus of this paper is to examine the impact of the FDI in transition countries based on literature review and recent empirical FDI studies. The paper will be focused but not limited to impact of FDI on output and growth, employment and wages, productivity, technology transfer and networking. Below we will overview and discuss these impacts separately. A summary of selected FDI studies and its impacts will be presented too.

Efficient stock prices enable channelizing the unutilized financial recourses from economic entities with excess of funds to those in need of investments. The study explores the impact of macroeconomic indicators on the price changes of the major Balkan equity indexes and Turkey. Monthly data on the following equity indexes were selected to analyze the outcomes of the work, such Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST100 index), Bucharest Stock Exchange (SE BET index), Ljubljana Stock Exchange (SBI TOP index), Bulgarian Stock Exchange (SOFIX index), Zagreb Stock Exchange (CROBEX index), Belgrade Stock Exchange (BEL EXL index), Macedonian Stock Exchange (MBI 10). The results indicate that macroeconomic factors play a significant role in most of the selected equity exchanges. From a managerial perspective, the work delivers signals for the investors on the possibilities of diversifying their portfolio in the Balkan and Turkish stock exchanges. Governments by recognizing the financial literacy in these countries can provide policies to improve the efficiency of these exchanges.

These days it is known that Big Data Analytics is taking a huge attention from researchers and also from business. We all are witness of the data growth that every institution, company or even individuals store in order to use them in the future. There is a big potential to extract useful data from this Big Data that is stored usually in Cloud because sometimes there is not enough local space to store big amounts of data. There is a huge number of sectors where Big Data can be helpful including economic and business activities, public administration, national security, scientific researches in many areas, etc. This data in order to be used must get processed, usually by using Big Data Analytics Techniques. It is for sure that the future of business and technology will be relied on Big Data Analytics. This paper aims to show how big data is analyzed especially when it is deployed on cloud as well as the challenges, techniques and technologies that are used and can be used, in order to analyze Big Data on Cloud. We discuss and implement different methodologies of Big Data Analytics on Cloud.

Production of high quality statistics depends on the assessment of data quality. Data access together with data quality are main preconditions for right and timelines decision at all levels, from macro and up to company level. This paper focuses on selected macroeconomic statistics of Kosovo and summarizes reviews of data access and quality assessment including several dimensions such as quantity and quality, timelines, accessibility, data organization, time series, etc. Results shows that there is quite limited progress made since 2016 in terms of selected macroeconomic statistics in Kosovo regarding data access and quality. Some macroeconomic statistics are stopped being compiled and published since then. Relevant international standards and frameworks are referenced to assess data quality, by using two observation periods, namely, 2016 – 2020. First section starts with the description of the selected macroeconomic statistics assessed in terms of access and quality. In second section, international standards are used as reference, to be concluded in third chapter by showing the results of 2020 – 2016 comparison of selected macroeconomic statistics in Kosovo.

Regardless of the industry companies may be operating, the digital marketing trends continues to grow rapidly. Adoption of digital marketing tools has never been easy for the businesses in terms of content, audience target, design aspects and streaming videos, sponsoring etc. Selecting the approriate digital landscape that meet the bussiness needs continues to be a challange as variety of diffrent platforms are evolved and audience switches plateform use, the businesses are forced to adopt new platforms and maintain existing once. Traditional static webpage alone no longer meets the new business needs therefore digital interactive social networks are booming and have become a necessity. The AI (Artificial intellegence) role is expected to further shape digital trends and ease the communcation between clients and business where routine tasks are thought mostly go away and provide cost efficient methods. The study analyses latest trends and challanges in the area of digital marketing by utilizing qualitative analysis to help businesses, professionals and academics with latest trends in digital marketing.

Today, the most controversial topic in society is to establish new ideas by being famous entrepreneur. But during this process, the most challenges thing is to find solution for new era problems that all companies are facing, especially during Covid 19 period. Even that Project Management mostly is functional position in many companies, entrepreneurs need to consider in high level, the engagement of them. Identifying issues and upcoming projects, based on company strategy, is a case that need very high evaluation. The issue today is to be leader in market or to be competitive?!. Both positions have unique responsibilities and issues to determinate before being in market. In many cases this is the main job description of a Project manager. But in other side, the entrepreneurs need to take care for all market changes, competitors, market’s needs, and adjusting their product or service to fulfill all the necessary requests. The main challenge during pandemic time is to find long term solution, which can be established from project management team. The focus of this study is to evaluate the PM contribution in company development, based on their perspective, perception and ability to change in unusual situations.

Covid-19 started affecting the whole world enormously within a few weeks and is continuing to do so. The primary action taken in order to limit the spread of the virus is social isolation. This process has caused difficulties in all areas, especially in education. Universities were obliged to switch to online education as all institutions closed down without stating an expected opening date. Online education has started to become the new normal in academia, but this new normal may be imposing difficulty to some. Compulsory online education during the pandemic is perceived in different ways by students. In this study students' technology usage, feedbacks about online education were analyzed and evaluated by using descriptive statistics.

Executives are spending time and effort to create working culture where employees are willing to cooperate and cooperation should be in a line with corporate mission, vision and within corporate strategy. In addition according to Gratton, (2007), “This willingness to cooperate was crucial to the second element, the capacity of people to work with others outside their boundaries” (p. 8). When employees are willing to cooperate and to contribute beyond their administrative boundaries they are triggering problem solving and innovation. Academic literature, offers two approaches for increasing productivity and cooperation within teams and team members. Gratton (2007) discusses Hot Spots that are places and times where cooperation flourishes, while Niven (2002), discusses balanced scorecards as tool “to assists organizations in overcoming two key issues: effective organizational performance measurement and implementing strategy” (p. 3). This paper discusses Grattons and Nivens approaches and author had provided conclusions and recommendations. In addition, for this paper, academic journals from EBSCO database were used.

Although the provision of financial services through the Internet is expanding daily, the use of online banking by clients in Kosovo is considered to be low and slow. This is regardless of the fact that banks in Kosovo are trying to promote this service and to convince its clients, foremost younger generation and business individuals. Regardless of the importance of this issue, there were no previously conducted specific studies in Kosovo regarding online banking. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of demographic factors such as gender, age, education level, occupation, and income level in the use of internet banking in Kosovo. This study is conducted at the end of 2019 and during the first part of the 2020, just before the pandemic has hit the world, including the area of the investigation. Furthermore, it might serve as a sample to be used for regional countries, due to the similarities between the banking sector and the cultural environment. In order to meet this goal, we have approached the discussion of consumer behavior in general, especially towards online banking. Probable stratified sample was used to get answers from 510 respondents from all over Kosovo. A structured questionnaire was used on closed. The results show that majority of bank’s customers in Kosovo are not currently using online banking as their financial services channel

Developing countries lag behind in building capacities in health and education systems to deliver basic human rights. Number of COVID-19 infection cases as well as deaths rises worldwide. The Human Development Index as a composite index of life expectancy, education and GDP per capita may be more relevant than GDP in explaining development stage of a country. In this analysis, we investigate the relationship between human development index and related socio economic indicators with COVID-19 pandemic indicators. Since fatality rates assaigned to COVID-19 vary widely in different countries, we examine data both from developing and developed countries. We conducted cross sectional study to analyze relationship between HDI, socio economic indicators and COVID -19 fatality rates.

This study aims to measure performance in the municipalities of Kosovo, where as a case study was taken the municipality of Lipjan. Based on the statistical data which were extracted from the survey with 48 employees of the municipality Lipjan and then processed with the program Statistical Package for Social Sciences - SPSS, in the municipality of Lipjan has a high performance. The paper has two hypotheses that have been proven through correlation and linear regression that show that leadership and technology have a huge impact on performance growth, while the strategy has fallen as a hypothesis due to poor performance correlation and high level of significance.

This study utilizes the narratives of beneficiaries in the evaluation of a conditional cash transfer program. Guided by the theory that narratives bridges the objectives of the program and its impact, these narratives contain the themes describing both ends. Moreover, most of the participatory assessments did not utilize beneficiaries’ narratives in the evaluation process. The utilization of narratives was done through the participatory approach. This study demonstrates that assessment of projects through narratives is feasible. It is found out that beneficiaries adopt an eclectic stance in their participation and acceptance of activities implemented by the program.

A reward system is like the biggest management principle in the world. Organizations around the world, the rural banking industry are no exception, use some form of reward system; whether it is open or not, it exists. The belief that: "Reward behavior is repeated" is a statement, which is generally accepted. Rewards are therefore tools of operational control used to link employee goals. To be able to touch employees who use rewards reward must be perceived as meaningful and meaningful. Rewards are described in two different types; it can be in the form of motivational motivation (internal) or personal motivation of growth (external). External rewards can be monetary, usually a variable compensation, divided by salary or non-monetary. Employees may have difficulty seeing how their efforts translate into results and may be demotivated if they see a team member being rewarded for not contributing enough to the end result. She argues for a reward based on equality in a given team and not on a basis based on balance, where everyone gets the same. Therefore designing team-based rewards is vital if you are to avoid negative effects on motivation, which will eventually lead to bigger problems for your organization if allowed to promote. The data of the paper are primary, with a sample of 53 employees of 4 commercial banks in Peja, where the econometric results of the paper show that external, internal bonuses and other factors have an impact on the performance of employees in the banking sector.

Knowing the role and importance of the profession of sales in the field of doing business and seeing that such a profession in our country is not given enough role and importance, we decided to do a study of this issue. The paper will be dealt with in two aspects: theoretical and practical. We were interested to know the seller-consumer reports as well as the seller-employer reports. Regarding the relationships between sellers and buyers, we were interested in how satisfied the customers are with the services of the sellers and how professional the sellers are in providing these services. While in the seller-employer relations we were interested to know how much an employer is aware of the role and importance of the seller's profession in our country.

Recruitment is an integral part of the strategic human resource management (SHRM) planning in the organization. Social networks influence the strategic management of human resources in an organization with the information they provide. Social networks have entered the world of strategic recruitment management even though SN are in the advanced stage of formulation and adaptation. SN provide an in-depth discussion to the understanding of the views and opinions of both parties in the recruitment process but still cannot fully replace the traditional recruitment process. The study focuses on the impact of social networks on strategic human resource management and the recruitment process in enterprises of the Republic of Kosovo. Advances in information technology enabled the recruitment process to be developed globally, and this dynamic environment of social networking created sustainable competitive advantages which additionally facilitated strategic human resource planning.

The aim of this paper is to shed more light on the relationship between education and entrpreneurial ecosystem. Innovation and entrepreneurship don’t take place in a vacuum — a whole host of factors determine how easy (or difficult) it is to start up and innovate. Education has been shown to play a significant role on the birth a new startups and innovative entrepreneurial activity. Moreover, it has been argued that there are no innovation and/or entrepreneurial ecosystems at the country level without first class universities, suggesting the crucial role of quality education in creation an entrepreneurship ecosystem that supports startups and the growth of new and innovative businesses. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of multiple estimation techniques aiming to better capture the relationship between education and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Some researchs have argued that education and entrepreneurial ecosystem might not have a uniform relationship, but rather its effect differs with respect to other country specific factors. The results seem to confirm the hypothesis that education and high quality education in particular is positively associated to the creation of a more favourable entrepreneurial ecosystem. The findings contribute to the existing debate on the role of education on entrepreneurship and innovation and can be used to design an informed policy-making agenda.

In the recent decade, the banks have seen a powerful transformation due to the financial environment changes. The international banking sector is becoming more competitive, and with consumer behavior changing quickly, banks need to stay up-to-date with customer expectations while trying to defend market share. The significance of innovation and developing new solutions that take advantage of digital technologies, innovative analytics, and new distribution platforms have become very important as never before. We see innovation in targeting, expanding services, applying blockchain technology, delivering practical advice, and integrating payments. These kinds of efforts in the future will only continue to grow, as global banks will advance to transform the financial services industry. As part of these important trends, banks will continue testing new technologies to enhance their services and set the customer at the epicenter. As technologies continue to advance, the banks will continue to increase their investments in digital innovation and improvements. Generally, the banks have been modifying and revising their organizational structure and their business strategies. Adjustments have also impacted less noticeable features of their business, risk management practices, and governance. Given the significant changes in the finance sector over the past decade, this study will attempt to examine Kosovo trends in banking business models, performance, and market structure and assess their implications for the Banking and Financial Stability.

The management of household waste is a major environmental problem in all Albanian communities. This is linked to several factors including the significant quantity of waste produced and inadequate infrastructure. These factors create a significant pressure on the environment and led to negative impacts on natural resources and the health and hygiene of the population. The Albania region is characterized by diverse and fragile natural environment resources. Therefore, it is necessary to preserve and protect this heritage against pollution. Based in an integration and treatment of exclusion criteria on average recycling coefficient of waste stream , we determinate to assist decision-makers in choosing an appropriate landfill site, taking into account both geo-environmental parameter, a) the shortest distance during a transport and b) the structure of the material being transported, referring to the average recycling coefficient of waste stream.

In the era of autonomous driving systems, the time has come to introduce systems that can improve the performance and quality of the service process while reducing the need for continual managerial oversight. By continuously collecting and analyzing information, knowledge management based systems can help large service centers avoid bottlenecks and delays but also maintain consistency in the quality of the service process across all service centers. Most of the data is already available in one form or the other and what remains is to integrate the data with the service process by using new knowledge management concepts and ideas. This paper outlines a method for creating a tool that can help service centers improve performance by automating decision making.

This paper is intended to display the barriers or challenges to doing business in Kosovo, and financial resources of SMEs, and their impact on economic growth. Knowing the fact that in Kosovo more than 99% of enterprises are SMEs their have basic support in economic development, they also contribute to employment growth. In Kosovo through the years especially in the last ones, SMEs have had multiple barriers to doing business. Some of the most serious barriers that have contributed more to SMEs are access to finance, unfair competition, and corruption, to those less problematic barriers such as telecommunication, work regulation, and transport, which are not so worried for business. Most SMEs in Kosovo are forced that their business activity starts with its own funding, because they have encountered barriers that have prevented their access to finance so they forced the businesses to find other ways of funding. The commercial banks have been expensive and conservative with requested conditions for businesses. This has made very difficult the work of SMEs, given that at the time they most needed help and support. Businesses that want to enter in the market didn't find funding sources, or those who are in the market and aim to increase, they have been faced with different barriers and therefore this not suitable for a business environment and this effects in decreasing of employment and also affect negatively in the economic development of the country.

Consumer behavior, or people buying and using goods and services, is a rich area of psychological research, especially for companies trying to sell as many products as possible to potential customers. Since what people buy and why they buy it affects many different aspects of their lives, research on consumer behavior links together some key psychological issues. These included communication, identity, social status and decision making. The topic under study is a very important issue in understanding the role and importance of consumer behavior in choosing products for children aged 0 to 24 months. This is a delicate issue as the transformation that has taken place in the way that families in developing countries buy their consumer products is now happening in our country as well. The key role in this transformation has been the development of retail chains in developing countries, so-called retail, and the same transformation is taking place in our shopping culture. The data collection method will be conducted through a questionnaire, which will survey a total of 150 participants selected through the intentional method. Thequestionnaire consists of 15questions. At the end of the paper are the conclusions that have been reached as a result of the analysis of facts and various discussions of consumer behavior in the selection of products for children.

The world today is facing the worst economic crisis since the 2008 financial crisis. So far, all efforts and measures on how to manage this crisis have been insufficient. Today, almost every government in the world has a plan for "economic recovery." The government of Kosovo also has such a plan, although today there are many doubts that this is the right plan to save the economy in country. Purpose of this research is to discuss the impact of the pandemic on accounting implications and financial reporting from the perspective of Kosovo. The research was based on a questionnaire structured according to the Likers scale. The questionnaire was distributed to a selected sample of certified accountants and uncertified accountants. The other purpose of this study was to find significant differences between the opinions of certified and uncertified accountants regarding the impact of the pandemic on financial reporting. Research reveals that Covid-19 will have a significant impact on accounting and financial reporting based on the opinions of certified accountants and uncertified accountants in Kosovo. Also research through applied techniques with SPSS reveals that there is no significant difference in the opinions of certified accountants and uncertified accountants.

The objectives of this research were 1) to study the readiness of travel agent to health tourism and 2) to summarize the needs of travel agent for development in health tourism. The methodology used in this qualitative research was phenomenology. The data were collected by using the in-depth interviews with 12 managers of TUI Travel Plc. The verbatim and the content analysis were employed for analyzing and concluding the data. The results indicated that the travel agent possesses a great deal of potential in terms of selling and promoting its health tourism-related travel programs. However, the health tourism-related travel programs still lack of variety particularly in the field of medical tourism. The travel agent also expects its sales agents to improve and extend their knowledge and understanding of the health tourism- related travel programs and the details related in order to provide precise and thorough information to the customers.

In modern 21st century society the need for civil society activation is increasingly emerging. Non-Governmental Organizations represent one of the most widespread forms of this mobilization. In the most common format, a non-governmental organization is a voluntary group or institution with a social mission, and independent of the policy-making government and their reference may differ by location of origin. Finding and motivating human resources is being seen as one of the most pressing problems for both NGOs and businesses. For this reason, in this paper we will present the determinants of human resource motivation in non-governmental organizations. Motivation is defined as the impetus or incentive to accomplish certain tasks. In this paper we have analyzed the relationship between financial rewards and other types of reward to motivate human resources in NGOs.

Strategies represent the actions that need to be taken to meet long-term business objectives. There are several types of strategies that can be used, depending on the objectives of the business. The most common strategies that most organizations can implement are the strategy of growth, contraction, sustainability and combined. Selecting one of these strategies sets the scenario for the entire organization. To be successful in the environment in which they operate, businesses must also be defined for any of the overall competitive strategies (Porter Strategies). To have a competitive advantage in the environment in which they operate, depending on their activities, from the circumstances and their current condition, businesses need to decide on the right strategy, which will enable them to be successful in achieving their goals. The purpose of this paper is to be treated the role and importance of strategies and their impact on the development and growth of businesses in Republic of Kosovo. On this study were used results from quantitative research analyses (quantitative) where data collection was done through questionnaire. Were used describing statistics from Statistic Agency of Kosovo – SAK, Agency for Business Registration of Kosovo – ABRK. Was used theoretical literature of strategic management and literature from papers in various international journals.

Economics is a topic that initially does not arouse curiosity, in appearance it is a profession which seems very routine, in fact with this paper we will try to prove the opposite, so economics is a topic that grips itself with its magic, it is like nature itself because things happen in it even when we do not pay attention. Economic fluctuations also create social fluctuations which lead to potentially dangerous periods of instability, as a result of which we must analyze each crisis with the utmost care in order to prevent it in the future. After reviewing the literature and analyzing each factor we can conclude that crises created as a result of human actions in most cases can be avoided and avoided if the factors leading to these crises are identified in time. There are some cases when crises cannot be prevented, in cases where crises are the result of situations which are beyond our control, cases of natural disasters or other things which are unavoidable. We have focused on the Great Depression in the US, the financial crises of 2007-2008 and the review of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When we talk about the mining works, which are in such a function, so that air currents pass through such aerodynamic lines, then we are dealing with the need to calculate the aerodynamic resistances in such aeration networks. Ventilation systems, in the broadest practical and technical sense, are nothing but a reflection of the aeration plans of the mine as a whole or of its individual parts in an appropriate schematic manner, which includes only those specific works through which it circulates. air, while other works are excluded. The ventilation network does not fully comply with the mining plans, because the air circulation system does not take into account blind works, preparatory works as well as works or other parts of the mine, which are insulated with doors or ambushes. For the purpose of analysis of the aeration system, calculation of aerodynamic resistances, aeration quantities and depressions of the aeration networks can be presented in the following schematic forms: spatial schemes, linear or orientation schemes, canonical schemes, quantitative schemes, potential schemes. Spatial schemes facilitate the general orientation of the way of mining. The spatial scheme also shows the short connections as well as the transport routes where the ambushes with doors are located. In these schemes the breathing and exhalation well must be clearly presented. The key points (nodes) of the network should be marked with consecutive numbers, starting from the breathing well, while the direction of air movement is marked by arrows. As far as possible, spatial schemes should be built according to the following principles: horizontal works should be presented horizontally; dishenders and bremzbergers appear on the slope 60 0 to the horizon; vertical works (wells, blind wells) must be presented vertically; traverbanks are presented with a slope of 30 0 ; lavat (wide working fronts) usually appear as dishendeite. Usually for complicated aeration networks, orientation for the aeration method of the mine only on the basis of the spatial aeration scheme can be difficult. In such cases the problem is greatly simplified through orientation schemes in which not all aeration routes are presented, but only wells, levels, areas of use as well as other characteristic aeration sites (for example, car rooms, explosives, etc.). .). The canonical schemes aim at a clear reflection of the ventilation system in order to facilitate the analysis and all possible calculations. In these schemes are marked the locations of the fans, possibly their depression, the direction (current) of the currents, the fields of use (workshops), the regulating ambushes, as well as other ambushes or ventilation doors and eventually the resistance of the branches as well as the quantities of the air passing through each branch.

The development of new businesses clearly seems to be increasing given that the needs of the market are quite large in addition to what it really is. Businesses, regardless of the type or type to which they belong, are businesses that have their functionality and that they nevertheless have importance in our society. The importance of all this is that the developments the country should appear and be maintained for this Kosovo needs a platform which through a map can display values depending on the filtered attributes. Developing a website using the map of Kosovo and through it can show a lot of results where young people (thus including the gender of business leaders) can have a focus on getting a job or growing a business, including the type of business in the absence of which a city may not possess one. This letter is very useful in conveying many results which can be quite easily read and very interesting data and which a very current topic in our society is. Addressing this letter so that the data generated by the developed system has a direct impact on businesses that are still in the beginning of development or even on those businesses that intend to follow in real time the trends of the most requested type of business.

The struggle to maintain competition in today's business world is increasingly challenging. This is due to the great dynamics of changes in the market. Maintaining competition in small businesses is even more challenging, because they are significantly more in number, while in capacities significantly less compared to medium and large enterprises. But still small businesses with all the problems they face manage to ensure sustainable business. Adequate business management also plays an important role in the success of a business among various factors, respectively implementation of adequate specifics in business management. Small business managers who are also their owners are required to be innovative in identifying and implementing appropriate enterprise management specifics, which help in sustainable business. This paper aims to identify through scientific research the specifics of management in small businesses in Serbia that implement their managers in order to have a sustainable business. Results of the research will serve as a best practice example for small new businesses.

Republic of North Macedonia has been under lockdown since 18 March due to the Covid-19 outbreak. An initial state of emergency was declared on 18 March for the entire territory of Republic of North Macedonia, and it was later extended. Since the first recorded case of the coronavirus in February, the number of cases in Republic of North Macedonia has raised continually. In view of the current situation a three-phase plan for the reduction of virus prevention measures was adopted by the Macedonian government. Measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 have slowed economic activity, which in turn has begun to negatively impact the national budget. The aim of this study is to analyze how much this pandemic situation has affected the main economic sectors and main macroeconomic indicators in North Macedonian economy. In order to analyze changes in this indicators are used comparative statistics methods. This methods findings indicate that Covid 19 crisis has negatives impact on the main macroeconomic indicators in Republic of North Macedonia.

The pandemic COVID -19 profoundly altered the world we know. People live differently, spend differently and think differently in other ways. Supply chains were checked retailers shut doors. Consumers worldwide look at goods and brands through a different lens. Within the space of a few weeks, the virus reshapes the market within real time, accelerating long-term patterns. Consumers, in health and economic terms, are increasingly worried about the effects of COVID-19. People respond in a variety of ways and have different attitudes, behavior and buying habits. Our research shows that the new habits that have now been created will last beyond this crisis, permanently changing what we value; how and where we shop; and how we live and work. As the crisis continues to grow, we should understand what consumer goods companies will do today to make plans for the next situation through the review of the changes now taking place. The main aim of this paper is to measure and analyze the impact COVID-19 on consumer behavior in Kosovo. The research is executed with description research based on quantitative and qualitative methods based on statistical analysis, correlation and OLS regression. The results of this paper shows that pandemic COVID-19 crisis have a significant impact on consumer behavior employees. The highest level of fear in Kosovo is the worry about the health families around 85%, with 81% the impact on the economy, while 78% of consumers revealing they are worried, while 65% exceeding the fear for personal health or job security.

This paper discusses and analyses the impact of digital technology on business internationalization with focus on a case study of a developing country. There is evidence showing digital technology contributed on the development and advancement of the competitive international market. Accordingly, many companies are considering the change adopts the business model. Businesses lean towards believing that the use of digital technology enables them building the better relationship with customers and suppliers, improving their business process, and in some cases even simulating them in restructuring the entire business industry. In well-established businesses, technology has become the basis of every work in the process. Nonetheless, the situation maybe different in an uncertain business’ environment, specifically with businesses in developing countries. Consequently, this research is quantitatively focused in observing and measuring the impact of digital technology on international business within a developing country. The development of digital technology, types of digital technology, application of digital technology, digital transformation of the supply chain are examined through a quantitative research approach. Nonetheless, the globalization of enterprises and their entry into new markets are challenging the businesses as the global scale factors are putting pressure from increasing competition worldwide. This problem maybe more noticeable among the businesses based in the developing countries. In this respect, it may be questioned whether businesses from these countries can keep competing by using the latest technologies and how they succeed to use these technologies in their international operations.

This paper empirically investigates the long run relation between domestic and external general government debt and economic growth in North Macedonia. We analyze how the government debt at a certain point in time is correlated with the GDP growth rate. The study employs a regression model as well as ANOVA test in order to investigate the causal relationship between government debt and GDP growth rate using annual data for the time period 2005 – 2019. We find strong evidence for a significantly positive relation between domestic general government debt and growth and negative relation between external general government debt and growth.

This paper analyses the relative and overall effectiveness of three active labour market measures implemented in Kosovo: On the Job Training (OJT); Internship Scheme (IS) and Institution and Enterprise Training (IET). This analysis will use two different estimation techniques: Multinomial Probit and Inverse Probability Weighting – Regression Adjustment (IPW-RA). The second estimation technique allows us to extend from the ‘participant vs. non- participant’ analysis of Propensity Score Matching to a multivalued treatment assignment model while utilising an appropriate set of covariates which are available for both treated and control groups. When using observational data ideally the data for the control group should be derived from the same data source. Due to the unavailability of data for a control group from the same data source (UNDP) and in order to assess the overall effectiveness of the active policies, i.e. to assess the effectiveness of each active measure in raising the probability of participants gaining employment compared to that of non-participants, the empirical analysis presented in this study will construct a control group from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in Kosovo for 2012, the same year as the UNDP data. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate whether being a participant in one of the three active measures improves the likelihood of gaining employment, and if so gaining an employment contract, compared to being a non-participant.

In today’s economy issues around human resource development are fundamental. Each organization made every effort to recruit knowledgeable people into its ranks. To achieve this, organizations must increase the efficiency and, first of all, the efficiency of knowledge governance. But this knowledge people must acquire, develop and use. Competence in every field has become important in all aspects, because the labor market has become a market of competencies. Competence is a characteristic or feature of an individual, which ensures a high level of quality of work offered by him. Aptitude or competence is the ability to accomplish a task. Effective performance and employee training are essential to the success of a company, to support employees in achieving the best possible results. Employee training in Kosovo enterprises is closely linked to improving organizational performance. As a strategic activity, training is considered one of the main instruments for continuous improvement of competence and as a human resource management strategy in business. From this perspective, the most important role that managers should play is to identify the shortcomings of their employees at the level of competencies, as well as to identify the real training needs, to achieve the necessary competence.

The topic of risk and risk management is a topic where the interest of academics, field professionals but also ordinary people has increased enormously. When this topic is dealt with in the banking system, the dominant element in the overall financial system of a country, then the interest rate is even higher, especially after the global financial crisis. In the case of the banking system, credit risk is one of the main risks to which the system is exposed. Over the last decades, loans have occupied the main weight among the assets of the banking system. Moreover, in recent years, the quality of the loan portfolio has deteriorated significantly, which is evident from the significant increase in bad loans served (otherwise known as non-performing loans as defined in the Albanian regulatory framework). Another objective of the paper is to identify and evaluate various macroeconomic factors and factors related to the structure of bank assets and liabilities affecting the bad credit indicator. Before interpreting the variables, all the necessary statistical tests have been made and their conclusions analyzed. Further, the impact of these factors is also transferred to the probability of default and the risk index as the credit risk metering for the banking system.

Based on the current situation in the Republic of Kosovo, I consider we are a consuming country, which means that, we are one society that is mainly dependent on consumption, which consumption we supplement it mainly by importing products and services. The market as a whole is quite complex and highly heterogeneous, therefore our objective identify consumer diversity. To understand their requirements and needs, we, through research and scientific methods, must define and divide consumers into their structure, typology and homogenization. Consumers are one of the key elements of the market and are part of the factor and the marketing dimensions. Marketing is so essential that an organization cannot imagine their business without them. Marketing is the starting point of any business,this is how consumers see it. Customer service is important since in any organization or company, customer or assisted directly, which is considered as externahl customer or internal customer, therefore applying marketing methods and concepts, their motivation must be understood for the purchase decision, or non-purchase of products and services. Consumer behavior research focuses on the questions: why people spend their time and their money in such activities, and how can we know them better.

The COVID-19 pandemic could be one of the most serious challenges faced by the financial services industry in nearly a century. The impact of COVID-19 on banks has exposed several gaps in business and operating models, fall in demand, lower incomes, production shutdowns - and will adversely affect the business of banks. This report tend to define banks’ response to the COVID-19 crisis, the focus must be on drawing up a strategy built on the three pillars of resilience, value leadership and growth to drive fundamental transformation and future-proof to weather such storms, going forward. To address the COVID-19 impact on banking, overcome challenges created by the crisis, and emerge stronger, financial institutions must craft a strategic response for effectively managing the risk by adopting the appropriate digital technology enablers and innovations underpinned by agile delivery models. Given risk management becomes especially important during a crisis to retain customer trust and ensure financial stability, accurately assessing the COVID-19 impact on risk management in banks is key. Banks must define a strategy covering changes to risk management methodologies, processes, and systems while focusing on the following areas: operational resilience, enterprise stress testing and scenario analysis, cost and efficiency optimization, risk and finance alignment and quantifying financial risk.To determine the impact of COVID 19 to the bank performance we will measure different indicators of banking sector development, with main focus on the expected credit losses ratios as banks are increasing loan loss provisions to face a potential surge in bad loans, increased credit risk defaults and lower recoveries, reduced cash inflows from loan repayment, fair value losses due to increased credit spreads and reduced profit levels. Empirical results will show as how COVID 19 affect banking sector development in Kosovo. The time series from 2015 until June 2020 will be used as a comparison period.

The purpose of this paper concerns the Dispute Settlement Procedures and defending the customers rights in Energy Sector. Public and private authorities should pay attention and determine the procedures to be followed in order to encrease the quality of public services and contributing to economic development growth. The article aims to present that some improvements has been done toward protecting the customers rights in administrative level disputes by responsible authorities. The study aims to present the requirement for changing a few legal and sub – legal provisions in force, which are causing concerns in practice for both institucions and customers. The energy sector faces many challenges, among which is the regular supply of electricity and customer protection. In this regard, it is important to continuously address issues that would contribute to improving the performance of the competent institutions and improving the quality of power supply. Furthermore, the right to appeal is a right guaranteed by legal provisions, so public and private institutions should be careful when dealing with customer complaints, acting in accordance with the main principles of justice.

The main source of information for financial analysis is the financial statements. Analyzing financial statements helps in making the best decisions possible by maximizing profit and minimizing costs. This paper analyzes the income statement and balance sheet for the manufacturing company Kamila in Kosovo. A wide variety of techniques can be used to assess the financial viability of an organization. In this paper are included the methodologies of horizontal analysis, vertical analysis and report analysis for three years, respectively for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. Through the above and comparative analysis over the years, we reach a conclusion by clarifying the status of assets, liabilities, capital and business profits, and answering the research questions of the paper why the business during the three years has had the same sales turnover and different profit and why the company realized higher profit in 2017 and lower profit in 2018. Finally, it is recommended that Kamila LLC will focus on increasing its own production and increasing exports to international markets.

Decentralized systems give priority to the role of citizens in the government decision-making process, which through various forms, provide better services. This phenomenon motivates policies in the social system, in order to promote democracy, transparency and accountability. With the signing and ratification of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, as well as the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement in 2001, the Republic of Northern Macedonia is obliged to amend the Constitution and in accordance with the Constitution to form a legal framework for the decentralization system, which will allow different roles and responsibilities at all levels of government. For the distribution of value added tax revenues, there are criteria set out in the Regulation on the methodology for the distribution of value added tax. The model of public revenue decentralization faces large fiscal disparities or “inequalities”. One of the 'inequalities' is the distribution of value added tax in urban, rural and in the municipalities of Skopje and the city of Skopje. This paper will analyze the progress of the fiscal decentralization process in the Republic of Northern Macedonia, the problems encountered and what are expected to be the most important impacts of territorial administrative reform in the process of fiscal decentralization. Based on what we pointed out above, we hope that this scientific paper will make a significant and useful contribution to other countries in the region as an efficient model of the financial system of local self-government units.

The purpose of this research is to analyze public e-procurement in the Republic of Kosovo focusing on the advantages and disadvantages that this process offers to economic operators who have contracts or apply for contracts for the sale of products and services. This research presents research questions on e-procurement and tries to give a focused overview of the state of public e-procurement in the Republic of Kosovo and whether the implementation of e-procurement is bringing the advantages and objectives presented in the procurement strategy of the Republic of Kosovo. To measure this, a survey questionnaire was conducted to collect data from operators who have at least once used the e-procurement service to apply or contract a product or service with the Government of the Republic of Kosovo. To achieve the purpose of the research, a measurement and descriptive research has been designed that aims to answer the questions posed during the paper. The research was conducted using quantitative research methodology. The descriptive design of the research was adopted because it described the phenomena under study in its natural environments. Statistical methods of correlation and linerar regression were also used to analyze the correlation and dependence of the performance variable with other independent variables.According to the correlation analysis, the correlation between performance during procurement and procurement transparency does not exist in economic operators while the correlation between the level of corruption and performance is moderate and the correlation between transparency and corruption is relatively weak.

During the last decade there have been many financial scandals and bankruptcies in the world, such as the most heard, scandals of Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat. This situation made curious many researchers from all over the world. One of the main reasons for these events is the deficiency of ethics during practicing the accounting profession. From these studies it was concluded that the process of ethical decision making of accountants is influenced by three groups of factors: individual, organizational and the dimensions of the moral intensity of the ethical issue. Starting from the contribution of the accounting profession in the economic development and financial stability of a country, then from the importance of ethics during the practice of the accounting profession, this paper aims to identify the factors that affect the ethical decision making of accountants in Kosovo. So, as a dependent variable of the paper is ethical decision making while the independent variables are three groups with thirteen variables. The first group of variables consists of individual factors that include: age, gender, level of education, experience, philosophy of morality. The second group of independent variables consists of organizational factors that include: code of ethics, climate of ethics, business size, industry type and the third group of variables consists of factors of moral intensity dimensions that include: magnitude of consequences, social consensus and speed of occurrence of consequences. The methodology used in the paper has a positive approach with the deductive method, descriptive analysis and linear regression. The model applied in the paper is the Rest Model (1986). The data were collected from questionnaires for certified accountants in Kosovo. The findings show that accountants in Kosovo are sufficiently influenced by organizational factors and the characteristics of the ethical issue. Individual factors have almost no influence on the ethical decision-making process.

The concept of Talent Management is a new emerging topic in the world of business and academics, one that can largely impact on the business results and on the brand perception of every company. The paper covers how Talent Management (TM) is perceived in the world, what, why and how much do large corporates invest in it. As this concept is not yet well established within business and Human Resource processes in Kosovar companies or even further in the region of Balkan, it can become a competitive advantage to the early pioneers. Nevertheless, with good planning and by linking talent management to the company culture and its strategy, every company could ensure sustainable business results and presence in the market. The study depicts the definition of talent, the importance of implementing Talent Management and some of the main steps required, such are talent identification, development, promotion and compensation. How does Talent Management strategy impact the overall results of the company? Is it worth investing resources in such processes? The paper will highlight whether talent is more related to performance, potential, competence, or commitment? Is talent a natural ability or does it relate more to mastery through practice? The ultimate aim of the paper is to show that harmonised talent management processes shall lead toward a positive company culture where every employee wants to give their best because they believe that performance and potential are recognised and appreciated. Finally, this study will emphasize the importance of Talent Management concept and will provide recommendations for Kosovar companies.

This assignment presents and hypothetical case regarding financial and investment decisions of the firm. Based on the critical analyses this paper work will identify the best possible project available for investment. The financial data presented on this assignment are done according to the information/data that has been provided, therefore analysing them in order to arrive to the best possible decision for investment. In order to facilitate managerial decisions there has been presented necessary calculations. However, the evaluation and the importance of risk factors have been taken to concern. Furthermore, in order to accomplish this assignment, where on use various relevant books and journals. Therefore, this assignment will present academic and critical analysis. By the end of this assignment, one can be able to understand financial analysis that company should take to concern, the activities has to follow by creative planning and forecasting the future plans in order to re-enforce the decisions on the investment that is about to be made. Author (2006) states: ‘Investment gives to the investor always the benefits on gaining experience but not necessary gaining money, therefore investing gives the experience, and experience is something that money can’t buy, however the investors are investing in increase its wealth. - therefore, the investment decision analysis is taking a great concern on return that the project it (may) returns, or gives an option to later return so current operation is to achieve the future benefits.’

Is Kosovo a strategic interest of the EU in terms of international policy and entrepreneurship? International business represents all cross-border exchanges of goods, services or resources between two or more nations. These exchanges can go beyond the exchange of money for physical goods including international transfers of other resources, such as people, intellectual property (e.g., patents, copyrights, trademarks and data), and assets or contractual obligations (e.g., the right to use a foreign asset, provide a future service to foreign clients, or execute a complex financial instrument). Entities involved in international business range from large multinational firms with thousands of employees doing business in many countries around the world, since they found the interest of doing that. This broader definition of international business also includes transactions across profitable borders, as well as transactions motivated by non-financial profits (e.g., the triple line, corporate social responsibility, and political favoritism) that affect the future of a business. Kosovo is still not recognized by all EU countries, despite of values or mutual benefits the recognition could offer. The main purpose of this research is to reflect or identify the opportunities that Kosovo offers as a country in terms of entrepreneurship. The aim of this research will be based on the knowledge it will receive from various literature, case studies, and from survey research within the country of Kosovo. The research assumes that that Kosovo has abundant potential to be incorporated into international business. To elaborate this question the research methods used in this paper are approachable qualitative and quantitative. Research is limited to international business and does not take into account other areas, research is limited to the next 5 years in terms of time, and survey research is limited to 5 main cities within Kosovo.

Credit is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan involves the redistribution of financial resources over time, between a lender and a borrower. With a loan, the borrower initially receives or borrows a sum of money, called principal, from the lender, and is obliged to repay or pay the lender an equal amount of money later. Usually the money is returned in regular installments, with partial returns or in annuities where the installments have much the same. Credit is generally given at a cost, which we call interest on the debt, which is presented as an incentive for the lender to lend. According to the law on a loan, all these obligations and restrictions are defined in the contract, where the borrower can be subject to additional restrictions related to the loan, which are called contractual loan commitments. Interest is the cost that the borrower pays to the lender over a period of time, usually calculated on an annual basis. This amount paid is intended to compensate the lender for the sacrifice he is undertaking in losing the immediate use of his money, for the reduction of the value of money due to inflation during the duration of the loan, and last, for the risk posed by the lending process (e.g. non-payment by the borrower of the amount lent).

In order to have successful projects, companies are using different project management methodologies. Aim of this research is to prove that with implementation of the LFA, projects will have more probability to succeed; failure of the projects will be identified in early stages of the project and products will be delivered with agreed time, quality and cost. Literature used for this research is PMI, OGC, APM and academic journals. Findings from these research show that there is no evidence of proper risk analyze, decisions during project life cycle are ad hock and that there is not any standard in place for project management. Reasons for project failure are very similar with reasons which are identified by PMI. Recommendations which are coming from this research are supporting and justifying implementation of standardized project management methodology and recommended project management methodology. From this research are identified some questions, which are challenging bodies of knowledge and in a same time are offering base for further researchers.

Macroeconomic stability was and is one of the most important pillars of every country that seeks empowerment such as investments, increasing efficiency, utilizing natural resources, honing human capital etc. one of the main points that helps the economy and its stable growth is the people themselves, especially that of the work force also knowns as Human Capital. This research paper conducted by the above mentioned actors, targets the issue of this very first pillar of the MSO, elaborating the Kosovo Human Capital (workforce), along with the workforce of other countries located within the Western Balkans: Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. With the help of SPSS, a software package used for statistical analysis, method One-Way Anova, post hoc tests states that there is indeed a difference between compared means. The hypothesis concluded by Anova states that the compared means between Macedonia doesn’t differ from BaH but differs from the other group means, Montenegro doesn’t differ from Albania and Serbia but differs from other group means and Albania doesn’t differ from Serbia but differs from other group means. In conclusion to group the researched and compared means, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro can’t be compared in-between they can be compared with Macedonia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. Macedonia and BaH can’t be compared in-between but can be compared with the first group of means (Serbia, Albania and Montenegro) and the third group means Kosovo, which implies that Kosovo is compared with all group means.

The constant growth and pressure of a highly competitive marketing environment puts companies in front of a challenge of consumer recognition and above all the way of decision making to maximize their competitiveness. In a competitive economic system, the growth of the company is related to the knowledge that the company has about their customers: how, why and where they buy exactly what they are buying.Therefore, modern marketing thinking emphasizes the need for managers to know who their customers are and why they choose their products, not those of competing companies.Today, the success of management more than ever depends on aligning all aspects of work - products, promotions, after-sales services and so on - to meet customer needs and this is exactly the essence of a customer- oriented approach presents an integrated approach to doing business. Customer orientation comes from the acceptance and implementation of the marketing concept, the philosophy of organizing a business that highlights four conclusions. In short: 'start with customer demand, what consumers buy, how real they are and what their value is - this is the least that marketing can offer.

The informal economy was always present in the society but it was not studied thoroughly until the 70s. The occurrence of various economic events in the US and Europe at that time pushed scholars to investigate more on the informal activities. Various estimations were conducted in order to measure the size of the informal economy in different countries. Direct and indirect methods were used. Studies were conducted on the Balkans region and other Eastern European countries in transition but up to this date there wasn’t any measurement on the size of the informal economy in Kosovo. This study has attempted to estimate the size of the informal sector in the Republic of Kosovo from 2008-2018, using the Currency Demand Approach. The CDA is used in this study because it is well-documented, theoretically sound and can be easily put in a time-series setting. To measure the long-run relationship between the variables, this study has used vector error correction model (VECM). In addition to the standard explanatory variables that are usually used in the currency demand approach (Currency in circulation, Real GDP, Tax Revenues, normal interest rate) this study included remittances as variables because of their relevance in Kosovo’s economy. The results indicate a decreasing trend of the size of the informal economy in the Republic of Kosovo, although it is still big in size as a proportion of GPD. The results show that the size of the Informal Economy in the Republic of Kosovo from 2008-2018 is an average of 31.7% of the official recorded GDP.

There are various marketing strategies used by different countries, including Kosovo, to increase blood reserves in a state level. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of marketing incentives, internal and external factors, on increasing the number of voluntary blood donors in Kosovo. For the methodology of the paper, primarily, a comparison between the models in Blood Transfusion Centers in Spain, Germany, and Portugal, was taken into consideration. The model of the National Center for Blood Transfusion in Spain was the most adequate and approximate to be compared as a case study in this research. Therefore, the research of this study was based on analyzing the secondary data, using the comparative method between Spain compared to the country of Kosovo. The data are provided by the archives of the National Center for Blood Transfusion in Kosovo, as well as from online verified resources of the Blood Transfusion Centers in Spain. During the application of these methods, the findings demonstrated the advantages and weaknesses of the performance of marketing department at the two models, related to tasks implementation, organizing actions to collect potential blood donors, keeping the actual blood donors, etc. The findings of this research justify the need to create facilities by providing supportive tools for the use of marketing strategies, which in addition to positively affecting the number of voluntary blood donors, will put Kosovo in a very enviable place in terms of blood reserves.

An uninvited guest arrived in the first quarter of 2020, forcing many organizations to undergo a sudden transformation. This pandemic, which unfortunately still continues, has forced businesses to connect with digital technology like never before. Surprisingly, it was predicted that in 2020, 5 billion individuals and businesses, as well as at least 34 billion devices, would connect to the Internet. Predictors thought that for other reasons this would happen but the pandemic would never be one of the main indicators. Digital technology remained the only salvation of all business operations, where movement and activities were limited and for a time totally banned. Purchase and sale of goods, meetings, collaborations, payment of debts and receipt of money from customers, customer relations, concluding contracts and signatures, were some of the activities that businesses managed to accomplish through digital technology during the pandemic. The research model involves a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, and is realized by managers of some businesses in Kosovo.

The 21st century is all about data, and companies are constantly improving their internal systems and acquiring better tools that allow them to take advantage of data. They do this on the premise that data improves their business performance, but the research that supports the idea that data-based decision-making improves business performance, does not use a standardized system to measure how much data are used in the decision-making process. Some researchers have worked on this area, but their work measures the perception of how much data are used in the decision-making process and its effect on business performance. Collecting the necessary data, which need to further advance and be more specific, should help create a standard variable as a response to how much data are used in the decision-making process. Having said so, the potential results of this study should be of significant contribution to the existing literature. Ideally, the result from this study would determine how much should the return from investing in data-processing resources. Most importantly, this is an effort to offer an alternative approach in measuring the impact of data in decision-making.

The idea of personalized marketing lies in creating a unique customer experience and delivering products / services / messages that are relevant to it. The need for it came as every day more and more customers are being targeted by a large number of ads and this has already created so much annoyance for people that they are now trying to avoid them. Modern data sources today are considered to be data collected from smartphones and social networks. Seeing this dilemma what we have tried to understand through this research is whether customers want their shopping experience to be more personalized and whether they are willing to share personal information with companies in return. To achieve a deeper understanding of the research topic and question as well as to test the hypotheses it was decided to use both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The paper is oriented towards the use of the mathematical-statistical model, in order for the result of this model to show the right way of tax strategy used by corporations in Kosovo. The main purpose of the research is to select a certain sample of financial items from the financial statements to use the Monte Carlo model, with the main purpose of real research of the tax strategy used by corporations in Kosovo. Avoiding corporate taxes has been a significant public concern, especially since the 2008 global financial crisis. The Monte Carlo model has a 5-10% forecast deviation, which has enabled the company to make earlier securities risk forecasts so that the planning for the fiscal year is accurate.