Vol.43, No 4 (2010)

Franc Ravnihar

JZ RTV Slovenija, Kolodvorska 2, 1550 Ljubljana, Slovenija

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Lately, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been implemented in public organizations and organizations without competition in the marketplace. It is the ERP system that is almost as badly needed for the competitiveness and success of those organizations in the marketplace. The main reason lies in the fact that operating costs have to be reduced and the optimization of business processes is an option which nowadays is normally implemented together with new ERP. The success rate of ERP implementation remains very low with up to a 90% failure rate, as it is quoted in a lot of researches. Critical success factors (CSF) which influence successful ERP implementation are identical in all organizations. The main goal of this research is to find out the managers’ impact on the critical success factors and thus their impact on the successful ERP implementation. Top management support is the most important critical success factor for successful ERP implementation, regardless of the fact whether the organization is on the market or not.

Mirko Gradišar

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia; University of Maribor, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Kidričeva 55a, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia

Tomaž Turk

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, Kardeljeva pološčad 17, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Iztok Humar

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Tržaška 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Most of web-based systems use a fashion-driven graphical user interface design which does not necessarily provide the readers with high reading performance of colour variations of text and background. Many studies addressed this problem but none of them succeeded in offering complete and conclusive results in form of reading performance table which could be used in practice. The aim of this paper is to find reasons for these incomplete results. In our research, we firstly analyzed different experiment designs described in the literature and proposals for further research. Consequently, we tried to find an improved design and carried out an experiment involving 270 students who tested 30 web-safe colour combinations. However, our experiment also did not reveal statistically significant differences in reading speed. Therefore the multidimensional scaling (MDS) method was performed to show that the speed of reading cannot be described as a one-dimensional problem.

Dijana Močnik

University of Maribor, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor; Slovenia

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The aim of this paper was to test the hypothesized U-shaped relationship between economic development and dynamics of enterprises. The dynamics of enterprises is influenced by the achieved economic development. This paper first analyzed the association between the regional gross value added (GVA) growth rate and different measures of enterprises dynamics from Slovenian data from 2000 to 2005. Our graphical analyses indicated that 1) the rate of gross entry and GVA growth rate were linearly and negatively associated; 2) the association between the rate of gross exit and GVA growth rate is best represented by the downward U-shape function (Ç); and 3) a U-shaped association exists between the rate of net entry and GVA growth rate. The size of the impact was estimated using the regression analysis between the net entries as dependent variable and GVA growth as independent variable that showed the best fit. According to the results, 1) economic growth significantly impacts net entries; 2) the hypothesized U-shaped relationship between net entries and economic growth was confirmed as the Slovenian net entries decrease until the GVA growth rate reaches 10% yet increase when the growth in GVA is higher than 10%; and 3) a ‘natural rate’ of entrepreneurship is to some extent governed by ‘laws’ related to the economic growth rate. The results further indicate that the average net entry rate should be increased by 0.787 units (%) as a result of a region’s specific environmental factors. This research confirms the theoretical assumptions that have previously been sparsely tested empirically and even rarely supported by results. Therefore, our results represent a contribution to the robustness of the theoretical as well as empirical clarification of the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development.

Helena Nemec Rudež

Univerza na Primorskem, Fakulteta za turistične študije – Turistica, Obala 11a, 6320 Portorož

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The paper deals with the impact of the EU entry on knowledge management in the hotel industry in Slovenia. For this purpose, the empirical research on knowledge management was carried out among hotel managers. It explored the changes in knowledge management between 2003 and 2006; that is before and after Slovenia entered the EU. The research revealed a progress in this period of time in knowledge management goals definition, transformation of not-owned into owned knowledge, inclusion of knowledge management in business reports, identification and elimination of the gaps between planned and actual knowledge. On the other hand, there was no further progress in the field of strategies and policy of knowledge management, perception of the importance of knowledge management’s measurement, development of measures of knowledge management and diminishment of barriers to knowledge development. Further, several recommendations are suggested for hotel managers.

Włodzimierz Sroka

Department of Management, Academy of Business, ul. Cieplaka 1c, 41-300 Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The article deals with the problems of cooperation in network organizations. The structure of the text is divided into a couple of parts. Firstly, the increasing importance of alliance networks is described. Secondly, the concept of alliance networks as well as the essence of multinational corporations are presented. Beside theoretical deliberations, two practical cases are presented in the text too. First case relates to the Toyota keiretsu and the second one describes the network organization of the largest steel manufacturer in the world, i.e. ArcelorMittal Group. Last part of the text is the comparative analysis of the multinational corporations network vs. networks of small and medium size companies. The similarities as well as differences between both forms were presented. The article is based on the latest world literature devoted to the cooperative strategies as well as the practical business experience of the author from the work in Arcelor Mittal Poland and polish machine industry.

Štefan Bojnec

Univerza na Primorskem, Fakulteta za management Koper, Cankarjeva 5, 6104 Koper p.p. 345, Slovenija

Abstract

Background/Purpose: This paper analyses specific organization of business flows in the field of the defence sector in primary production activities, sub supplier and supplier in return activities, in middleman and trade flows within the defence chain. The original survey results are presented for 64 Slovenian enterprises in the defence technological and industrial base activities. The Slovenian defence sector enterprises are still mainly focusing to the Slovenian markets. There are rare enterprises that are specialized into the foreign markets and on the utilising of opportunities from the economies of scale of the enlarged European Union markets and particularly on the utilising of the policies and measures that are provided by the common European defence technological and industrial base. On the other hand the import of the defence products into Slovenia from the enlarged European Union has increased substantially.

Franc Brcar

REVOZ d.d., Belokranjska cesta 4, 8000 Novo mesto, Slovenija

Silvo Lah

Novoles d.d., Na žago 6, 8351 Straža, Slovenija

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Yearly employee review is one of the most important tools, which the heads motivate their associates with. Several organizations face the problem of unsuccessful and ineffective functioning of this system. By means of a questionnaire and statistic analysis we calculate the descriptive statistic of yearly employee reviews and correlations between the factors that influence them. We state that the employee’s own strategic plan of the development of his career exerts a positive influence on his relation to them. The basic statement of the research is that the employees in enterprises consider yearly employee reviews as very important and useful but that, however, their implementation is poor and does not give expected results. At the end we state the activities and/or factors that are of key importance for more successful implementation of yearly employee reviews and to which the management will have to devote itself more actively in the future if we wish to improve the state of this field of action.

Sebastjan Strasek

Univerza v Mariboru, Ekonomsko poslovna fakulteta, 2000 Maribor, Slovenija

Nataša Špes

Poravnava d.o.o., Zaloška 96, 1000 Ljubljana

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The paper explores the explanation power of financial crises models. We find that first generation models are inadequate, since they focus only on the role of economic and financial fundamentals. The main innovation of the second generation models lies in identifying the role that the expectations of the market agents may play in precipitating financial crises. We suggest that the actual global financial crisis fit into expanded version of the third generation, which is based on the notion of contagion where the mere occurrence of a crisis in one market increases the likelihood of a similar crisis elsewhere and a fact that financial crisis reveals weaknesses in bank business models, huge weakness in management of financial crises and shortcomings in the process of financial liberalization. The best way to address the biggest threat of huge, systematically significant financial institutions to financial system is by regulating, managing these institutions continuously and determination of clear procedures in a case of a crisis.

Aleksander Aristovnik

Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za upravo, Gosarjeva ulica 5, 1000 Ljubljana

Andrej Pungartnik

Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za upravo, Gosarjeva ulica 5, 1000 Ljubljana

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Adopted by the European Council in 2000, the Lisbon Strategy is a long-term strategy whose main target is to make Europe the most competitive, dynamic and knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. During the 2005 mid-term review, the Lisbon Strategy refocused its two main targets on economic growth and employment, and formally integrated the Cohesion policy into its implementation. In spite of the review, the efforts to meet the strategic targets have proven insufficient at both the EU and Slovenian levels. While certain progress has been observed, the strategy should be further adjusted, coordinated and supplemented at the national and pan-European levels so that the Lisbon targets can be attained. The article investigates the current stage of the achievement of the targets, using the time-distance method to calculate the time lead or lag in implementing the Lisbon Strategy targets at the levels of the European Union and Slovenia.

Marjan Krajnik

Kurirska pot 2c, Slovenski Javornik, 4270 Jesenice

Mirko Markič

Univerza na Primorskem, Fakulteta za management, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper

Abstract

Background/Purpose: This paper looks at the issues in the preparation and application of European Projects Proposals. Our research set out to determine whether or not there is a significant and positive correlation between project management maturity levels, and approval of European Projects Proposals. We collected data and information from 194 Slovenian enterprises, and other organizations, that submitted proposals for European Project funding relating to the increase of competitiveness of small, medium, and large companies with up to 700 employees (as of 2005). The results of statistical analysis, and testing of the basic thesis, have shown, that a higher level of project management maturity does not affect the preparation and application effectiveness of European Projects Proposals. We have designed a model of a process for the preparation and applications of European Projects Proposals. This process is presented in the final section of this paper. The model includes all of the main activities and decision points which should be executed during the preparation and application of any European Project Proposal.

Saša Brečko

Tremerje 3, 3000 Celje

Abstract

Background/Purpose: This paper researches web pages and e-government services and analyses their users. We explore the elements that contribute to a successful use of web pages and e-government services and are interested in how users make decisions and what attracts them to visit web pages and use these services. Using our own analysis, we present our findings on the most important features and the greatest weaknesses of web pages or e-government services as perceived by users. We present our conclusions along with proposals for further development.