In this paper, we examine the effects of EU policy schemes that support innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises. Since the effectiveness of innovation schemes can be expected to differ ...across Europe as entrepreneurship and innovation tend to be more intense in more developed regions, we postulate that the effect of EU instruments on additionality increases with the level of development. We offer a multi-country perspective using two waves of Community Innovation Survey data (CIS 2008 and CIS 2012). We find that the impact of EU funding depends on the level of country’s innovativeness: both national and EU public schemes exhibit smaller additionality in less developed countries, while crowding-out is observed only in recently joined EU members.
The pervasiveness of corruption in Croatia is documented by corruption perception indicators and surveys, yet there is no comprehensive knowledge about corruption and informality in the private ...sector. This quantitative study uses primary survey data of Croatian business actors to determine business perceptions and attitudes towards corruption and informality. The results show that Croatian businesspeople express low trust in institutions, but do not see them as obstacles to doing business. Similarly, Croatia’s EU membership is perceived as insignificant in the fight against corruption and informality. The SMEs are allegedly suffering more due to corruption, whereas the large companies are seen as the main generators of corruption. Corrupt behaviour and informal practices in everyday business are more accepted and used by the owners and managers working in small and micro firms. This study thus contributes to research on doing business and managerial behaviour and offers policy recommendations to mitigate the harmful effects of corruption and informality.
This study examines the impact of regulation as an antecedent of online privacy concern. Previous research found that perceived effectiveness and enforcement of regulatory policies reduce online ...privacy concern; however, it does not explain what factors influence this relationship. Based on the survey data, the empirical analysis is conducted on a large sample of internet users in Croatia. Our methodology consists of two parts: first, we use confirmatory factor analysis to validate the latent constructs used in the main model; and then we proceed with model estimation using OLS and ordered probit techniques. This study fills the gap in the existing body of knowledge by analysing different perceptions of the existing legislation and government effort to protect online privacy in the context of sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, computer anxiety, individual desire to maintain control of personal information online, as well as intensity and diversity of online activities. Our results indicate that perceived effectiveness of government regulation reduces online privacy concern whereas computer anxiety has a major positive impact on online privacy concern. These findings might be useful for national policy-makers and for business strategies, especially in the context of the GDPR regulation introduced in 2018.
In this paper, we perform a mapping of the Croatian science research output in the thematic priority area Energy and Sustainable Environment. The results show that the researchers rely largely on ...scientific papers and, to a lesser extent, on the activities related to innovation and the commercialisation of research. There are differences among researchers regarding their affiliation to sub-thematic priority areas. Researchers affiliated with the STPA1 – Energy technologies, systems and equipment show more inclination towards research projects, while those affiliated with STPA2 - Environment friendly technologies, equipment, and advanced materials are more inclined to publish scientific papers.
Corruption as an Obstacle to Pandemic Response Škrinjarić, Bruno; Budak, Jelena; Carragher, Allison
Economic analysis (Belgrade, Serbia : 2009),
03/2023, Volume:
56, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This research explores the relationship between corruption and pandemic outcomes by investigating whether European countries with higher levels of corruption were less successful in fighting ...COVID-19. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling techniques. Results indicate that corruption prevalence and poor bureaucratic quality both decrease trust in government, and this effect is persistent notwithstanding the socioeconomic conditions or geographic attributes of a country. Trust in government, coupled with stringency measures, is positively associated with the number of new people vaccinated, and thus fewer COVID-19-related deaths. Furthermore, corruption undermines trust in the government and its institutions and, through this mechanism, prevents the suppression of the pandemic. Unlike other scarce studies that looked at the direct link between corruption and vaccination only, we also examined the impact of corruption on the outcomes of government pandemic restriction measures and added several contextual variables into the model and found that corruption poses a significant obstacle to pandemic response. Our findings suggest to policymakers that their best weapon against COVID-19 is vaccination, and that renewed efforts to root out corruption and build trust between governments and citizens can positively impact vaccination rates and limit the most devastating effects of the pandemic.
his paper examines personality traits as antecedents of online privacy
concern. The aim of the research is to analyze if and how personal characteristics of Internet users affect their concern for ...privacy in online environment.
The theoretical framework consisting of the Big Five theory of personality traits has been used to test the variations in online privacy concern. The model
includes a range of other variables that might affect online privacy concern,
such as sociodemographic factors, cultural values and computer literacy. The
empirical analysis is based on survey data collected in 2016 on a large sample
of 2,060 Internet users in Croatia. Results of bothOLS and ordered probit
estimations show that two personality traits dimensions, namely extraversion
and neuroticism, signifi cantly determine the level of online privacy concern.
The more extraverted, i.e., more energetic and outgoing Internet user is less
concerned about his/her online privacy, whilst the more neurotic one is more
concerned. Privacy awareness, computer anxiety and previous negative experience were also observed as antecedents, all positively affecting the level of
privacy concern of Internet users. The results of this research fi ll the gap in the
underexplored area of personality traits and onlineprivacy concern literature
and contribute to developing an extended model of online privacy concern.
The unofficial sector is generally regarded as an important liability for the development of a post-transitional society. In this paper we adopt a new approach to estimate the unofficial economy by ...estimating the unrecorded consumption of households in Croatia. This is done by means of conducting a nationally representative survey on payment habits of the Croatian consumers and by pairing these data with the household consumption survey. Our main focus concerns cash payments without an issued receipt, which is assumed to represent the unofficial part of transactions. In this way we circumvent some notable deficiencies of direct surveys on income reporting and selective reviews. We find that the part of unofficial economy arising from household consumption was around 0.69 percent of GDP in 2014.
Otpornost se na individualnoj razini promatra kao sposobnost pojedinaca da se oporave od nepovoljnih okolnosti, odnosno kao proces prilagodbe nepovoljnim okolnostima. Cilj je ovog rada testirati ...mjernu ljestvicu za mjerenje otpornosti na narušavanje online privatnosti potrošača. U radu se analizira psihometrijska prikladnost mjerne ljestvice te je procijenjena njezina pouzdanost, konvergentna valjanost te dimenzionalnost. Podaci su analizirani izračunom Cronbachova alfa koeficijenta te eksplorativnom i konfirmativnom faktorskom analizom. Rezultati istraživanja upućuju na zaključak o potrebi skraćivanja originalne mjerne ljestvice na način da se zadrže samo pozitivne tvrdnje u ljestvici. Skraćena verzija originalne ljestvice ima zadovoljavajuće psihometrijske karakteristike jer posjeduje svojstva pouzdanosti i konvergentne valjanosti, a dimenzionalnost ljestvice u skladu je s konceptualiziranom dimenzionalnošću.
Resilience at the individual level is defined as a capacity of an individual to recover from unfavorable conditions, that is as a process of adaptation to harsh conditions. The aim of the paper is to ...test the measurement scale of consumer resilience to online privacy violation. Psychometric adequacy of the measurement scale was analyzed by assessing reliability, convergent validity and dimensionality of the measurement scale. The Cronbach alpha coefficient and explorative and confirmative factor analysis were applied. Research results point to the conclusion about the need to shorten the original measurement scales in a way that only positive statements are retained. The abbreviated version of the original scales satisfies the psychometric characteristics as it possesses the properties of reliability and convergent validity, and the dimensionality of the scale is consistent with the conceptualized dimensionality.
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