Social impacts of music festivals: Does culture impact locals' attitude toward events in Serbia and Hungary?

There is growing interest among academics in examining the impacts of festivals on host communities. This paper constitutes novel research in that it applies the Festival Social Impact Attitude Scale (FSIAS) to two large-scale music festivals of Exit (Serbia) and Sziget (Hungary). Furthermore, it explores the moderating effect of Hofstede's national cultural dimensions on residents' perception of the impacts of these festivals on their communities. The study identifies the underlying dimensions of their social impacts and reveals how the cultural dimensions of the two different nations relate to resident perception of the impacts of the festivals. The results reveal a six-factorial substructure that represents two main (positive and negative) dimensions of large-scale music festivals and suggests that national culture significantly influences local perception of festival impacts on communities. The study concludes with the theoretical and practical implications of the study and advances future lines of research.     

Industrial relations in South-Eastern Europe: disaggregating the contexts

This study critically evaluates industrial relations (IR) in South-Eastern Europe and points towards future practical and research-oriented opportunities in the region. A survey of organizational policies and practices has been used to explore the state of IR in both private and public organizations in this region. Specifically, the data, collected in 2009–2010 (including the latest changes due to the economic crisis), cover 840 different organizations located in Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. We discuss the development of ‘regional-specific’ IR policies, the ‘importing’ of varieties of capitalism models, the diffusion of the European Union social model and the role of foreign MNCs in changing IR in the region.     

Reduction of child poverty in Serbia: Benefit or employment strategy?

Based on the Serbian Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) and tax benefits and structural microsimulation models, we evaluate the labour supply and distributive effects of several reform strategies concerning two major social transfers in Serbia: child allowance and social monetary assistance. Our results show that, in a context of a low labour participation rate, and high unemployment and informality rates, a benefit strategy is by far the more cost‐effective option for reducing child poverty than an employment strategy that aims to raise the work incentives for parents. Both proposed reforms are found to be progressive.     

The effect of large‐scale privatization on public sector pay gap in a transition economy

Estimating the public–private sector earnings differentials in Serbia from 1995 until 2008 this paper finds significant changes at the mean and across the earnings distribution. The results show that the average public sector pay gap was negative at early stages of economic transition but grew to be positive during large‐scale privatizations. The paper uses different sources of data and adopts a number of statistical procedures, including a novel instrument to infer the likelihood of changes in the individual public sector status due to privatization.     

Wage differentials and state‐private sector employment choice in Yugoslavia*

In this study we use the newly available Yugoslavian Labor Force Survey data to investigate wage differentials and employment decisions in the state and private sectors in Yugoslavia. For the analysis we use three empirical models that rely on different statistical assumptions. We extend the standard switching regression model to allow non‐normality in the joint distribution of the error terms. After correcting for the sector selection bias and controlling for workers’ characteristics we find a private sector wage advantage. The wage premium is largest for workers with low education levels and declining for workers with higher educational levels. Given the regulatory and tax policies that pushed the private sector into the informal sphere of the economy during the period covered by our data, we argue that the state/private wage gap is likely to grow in the future. This will make it increasingly difficult for the state sector to attract and retain highly skilled employees.     

塞尔维亚科技创新与技术转移激励政策评析

塞尔维亚是中东欧近几年来科技创新发展速度较快、技术转移成果较多的国家之一,其科技创新和技术转移相关的激励政策也随着科技水平的发展而不断完善和健全。塞尔维亚科技创新和技术转移激励政策在经费筹措和资助、科研成果商业化等诸多方面可圈可点,但仍存在民众信任度不高、资金分配制度不完善、对国际化创新合作的重视不足等问题。本文从科技创新和技术转移两个方面介绍了塞尔维亚科技创新和技术转移激励政策的现状、进展,并分析了其相关优势和亮点,同时也指出激励政策存在的一些漏洞,并作为对照,提出了对完善我国科技创新和技术转移激励政策的建议。     

Achieving destination competitiveness: an importance–performance analysis of Serbia

As a relatively new and under-researched tourism destination, Serbia provides an interesting context to assess destination competitiveness in conditions of global environmental changes and the additional challenges of transition from a socialist economy to a market-based economy. This article uses importance–performance analysis (IPA) to assess the importance of different activities to underpin tourism development in Serbia, as well as the industry's perceived performance in respect of these activities. There are a number of areas in which Serbian tourism industry considers itself to be underperforming in the implementation of activities to maintain destination competitiveness. This article analyses these results in detail using IPA as a diagnostic tool. Particular attention is paid to investigating the implications of the findings for both destination managers and private tourism operators in Serbia that can assist them to develop a focused action agenda to achieve and maintain destination competitive advantage. The approach can be used in other destinations to assess tourism ability to meet the challenges of global trends.     

Radiation therapy remains the key cost driver of oncology inpatient treatment

Abstract

Objective:

Current radiation therapy capacities in Serbia and most of Eastern Europe are heavily lagging behind population needs. The primary study aim was assessment of direct costs of cancer medical care for patients suffering from cancer with assigned radiotherapy-based treatment protocols. Identification of key cost drivers and trends during 2010–2013 comparing brachytherapy and teleradiotherapy was a secondary objective of the study.

Methods:

Retrospective, bottom-up database analysis was conducted on electronic discharge invoices. Payer’s perspective has been adopted with a 1-year long time horizon. Total sample size was 2544 patients during a 4-years long observation period (2010–2013). The sample consisted of all patients with confirmed malignancy disorder receiving inpatient radiation therapy in a large university hospital.

Results:

Diagnostics and treatment cost of cancer in the largest Western Balkans market of Serbia were heavily dominated by radiation therapy related direct medical costs. Total costs of care as well as mean cost per patient were steadily decreasing due to budget cuts caused by global recession. The paradox is that at the same time the budget share of radiotherapy increased for almost 15% and in value-based terms for €109 per patient (in total €109,330). Second ranked cost drivers were nursing care and imaging diagnostics. Costs of high-tech visualizing examinations were heavily dominated by nuclear medicine tests.

Conclusion:

The budget impact of radiation oncology to the large tertiary care university clinics of the Balkans is likely to remain significant in the future. Brachytherapy exhibited a slow growth pattern, while teleradiotherapy remained stable in terms of value-based turnover of medical services. Upcoming heavy investment into the national network of radiotherapy facilities will emphasize the unsatisfied needs. Huge contemporary budget share of radiotherapy coupled with rising cancer prevalence brings this issue into the hot spot of the ongoing cost containment efforts by local governments.     

Investigating the Impact of SERVQUAL Dimensions on Customer Satisfaction: The Lessons Learnt from Serbian Travel Agencies

Despite the rise of online travel booking services, it seems that traditional travel agencies remain an intractable part in the process of making travel arrangements for most travelers. Nevertheless, the question remains as to what triggers travelers' satisfaction with travel agencies. In order to explore this, we focused on Serbian travel agencies and researched the impact of the five individual SERVQUAL dimensions on travelers' satisfaction. Results revealed that four SERVQUAL dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, empathy and tangibility) had a significant influence on customer satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.