The need for companies’ interconnection and advantages of mutual business cooperation led to the development of supply chain management in the 1980s. Along with the intensified market globalization ...process, companies have become aware of the need to develop efficient supply chains. A supply chain includes a series of activities from planning and organizing to controlling the flow of material and services from suppliers to the final customer. The supply chain effectiveness depends to a large extent on relationships with suppliers. Thus, relationships with suppliers and supply chain performance management are important topics in academic research due to their impact on supply chain profitability. It is particularly evident in the trade industry. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between supplier relationships and supply chain performance in the trade industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The empirical research is based on the primary data, collected by using a questionnaire. The respondents are 200 trade companies from the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Various statistical analysis methods have been applied to answer the research questions addressing the issues of a potential relationship between supplier relationships and supply chain performance. The results have shown that supplier relationships positively impact flexibility, costs, and supply chain quality. There is a statistically significant interdependence between partnership and information exchange, as supplier relationships dimensions, and flexibility, costs, and supply chain quality, as supply chain performance dimensions. There is, also, a statistically significant impact of some companies’ characteristics on the information exchange, supplier partnership, flexibility, costs, and quality.
The objective of this research is to show an innovative way for processing the collected data and measurement of practice and performances of supply chain by means of transformation of the obtained ...linguistic values, using the appropriate fuzzy methods, into crisp values of research variable dimensions. The methodology was applied for the measurement of the influence of an independent supply chain practice variable on the dependent supply chain performance variable and the research included the food industry companies. In order to apply the multivariate analysis methods, it is necessary to have the dimensions of the variable, but not the claims. Fuzzy logic enables the weighting of each claim and determining its weight, and determining the research variable dimension value in order to be able to use the multivariate analysis methods. The use of this methodology enables realistic evaluation of the dimensions and the results obtained show a statistically significant influence proving to be suitable for further testing using various statistical methods. The hypotheses about the relationships between supply chain practices and supply chain performances are confirmed.
The goal of this study is to empirically examine the potential impact of supply chain practices on the supply chain performances of the agro-food industry. The constructs of interest are ...three-dimensional, including supplier partnerships, customer relationships and level and quality of information sharing, thus representing supply chain practices, flexibility, agility and innovation as the main characteristics of supply chain performance. To gain better understanding of the possible impact of the supply chain practices on the supply chain performances of the agro-food industry we use structural equation modelling. The analysis has revealed statistically significant positive impact of customers' relationships as well as statistically significant negative impact of a supplier partnership on the supply chain performance. From a theoretical point of view, this study has indicated contribution of different supply chain practices on supply chain performances. The results obtained from this study provide practical implications that assist managers in improving supply chain performance and highlight limitations for implementation of supply chain practice for the improvement of business operations.
The issue of risk management has in the last few decades become an increasingly important aspect of every company’s business activities. Such views are more and more present in the service sector ...whose GDP share has registered a continuous growth within both, national economies and on the global level. Intangibility and some other specific features of services when compared to physical products require a different approach to the activities in the field of risk management, particularly when it comes to capital intensive services such as telecommunications. This type of services is mainly provided within large companies that need to pay attention to the risk management process, from their identification, risk evaluation to selection and application of the appropriate risk management method. Risk management methods include a group of methods for the physical control of risk and a group of methods for risk financing by means of risk retention or insurance. All these methods can be applied on a wide set of personal, property and liability risks met by the companies and employees in the telecommunications sector. The paper attempts to present an overview of the specific features of risk management in the companies in the telecommunications sectors with the case study of the leading telecommunications service provider in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Summary
Life insurance has become increasingly relevant in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) over the last 10 years. The market is still underdeveloped with low life insurance density (EUR 23.2 per capita ...in 2019), however, it shows great potential with growth rates averaging 8.7%. The examination of the drivers of life insurance demand should instruct life insurers and policymakers to implement strategies to accelerate the life insurance development in BiH. Life insurance purchasing decisions are influenced by series of determinants, reflecting the customers' experiences and preferences. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of customer life insurance purchasing decisions. We consider the following factors: Income, insurance policy price, propensity to save, insurance policy yield, product‐offer, corporate image, and brand. The research covers the existing and potential customers in BiH. Two hundred respondents participated in a survey who were selected according to different sociodemographic characteristics. The main findings show the relevance of particular determinants and their differences that can be helpful for insurance companies in creating their strategy for market growth.
The paper explores the relationship between implementation of the supply chain with the competitiveness and partnership correlations in Croatian processing industry, where the term competitiveness is ...understood as the ability of an enterprise to be the peer entity in the market. The study is based on small and medium-sized enterprises within this industry. Companies in the processing industry are characterized by the extensive use of supply chain and are thus an excellent research sample. On the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises are under pressure from large enterprises and as such they have to fight for their position in the market. Research of the supply chain is important due to changes in company management policies worldwide in the past decade, which have been increasing. These changes have mostly been affected by the development of information technology and logistics. Supply chain as a key segment in the logistics of each enterprise is of growing importance in the business processes. To ensure competitiveness, enterprises must implement the supply chain and develop partnerships. The task of the supply chain is to reduce all unnecessary costs in material and commodity flows within a company. By reducing unnecessary costs each enterprise becomes competitive in the market.
U ovom je radu istražen odnos primjene lanca opskrbe s konkurentnošću i partnerskim odnosima u poduzećima iz područja prerađivačke industrije Republike Hrvatske, gdje se pod pojmom konkuretnost ...podrazumijeva sposobnost poduzeća da bude ravnopravni tržišni natjecatelj. Istraživanje se temelji na malim i srednjim poduzećima unutar ove industrije. Poduzeća iz prerađivačke industrije specifična su po tome što se ona intenzivno koriste lancem opskrbe i zato su izvrstan uzorak za istraživanje, dok za mala i srednja poduzeća vrijedi činjenica da su ona pod pritiskom velikih poduzeća i kao takva moraju se boriti za svoju poziciju na tržištu.
Ispitivanje lanca opskrbe jako je značajno zbog promjena u globalnom poslovanju kompanija u proteklom desetljeću, koje su sve veće. Na te promjene najviše su utjecali razvoj informatičkih tehnologija i logistike. Lanac opskrbe, kao ključni segment u logistici svakog poduzeća tako dobiva sve veću važnost u njegovim poslovnim procesima. Kako bi osigurala konkurentnost, poduzeća moraju primjenjivati lanac opskrbe i razvijati partnerske odnose. Zadatak lanca opskrbe je smanjiti sve nepotrebne troškove u materijalnim i robnim tijekovima unutar jednog poduzeća. Smanjenjem nepotrebnih troškova svako poduzeće postaje konkurentno na tržištu.
Increased rise in costs of healthcare in the last five decades has rapidly increased interest in the functioning of healthcare systems within every country. The reasons for growth in healthcare costs ...are related to demographic changes, technology advancement, increased number of educated persons, emergence of new diseases, etc. Financing the risk of poor health is mainly organized through programs of social and private health insurance. Regarding the management of the risks of poor health in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the social health insurance system is the basic solution for the population. However, in BiH, as in other countries in the world, the system of social insurance has become unfeasible and it is necessary to search for new solutions, that is, to reform the system. The research subject in this paper is private/voluntary health insurance offered by insurance companies, which can be an efficient addition to social insurance in BiH. It has become present on the market of private insurance in BiH only recently, so its share in the total premium of private insurance is still minor. Therefore, a primary research was conducted on the possibilities for its development as well as on the need and acceptance by the users of healthcare services. Besides, there was a need for examining the performance of the existing system of social health insurance, based on the principles of Bismarck's model of financing, and recognizing its disadvantages. By identifying and eliminating obstacles for development of voluntary health insurance, it is possible to improve performance of the existing system of health insurance in BiH.