Organizational design as a driver for firm innovativeness in Serbia

The area of innovation and innovation activities includes numerous aspects and changes needed to increase and improve the innovation potential of firms. Besides technological changes, organizational changes also play a very important role. Although these changes are considered within a wider innovation concept that is not limited merely to technological changes, they can significantly influence business improvement. Statistical data processing of an official pilot study – conducted by Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with the Mihajlo Pupin Institute – illustrates the significance of organizational design regarding the innovative behavior of a company. It also points out that some elements of organizational design give a remarkable impetus to the innovative behavior of corporations, while others can be seen as a limiting factor. Detailed statistical analysis shows that one component of organizational design, namely the introduction of a new or significantly improved knowledge management system for a better use or exchange of information, knowledge and skills within companies, has the most influence on the innovation behavior of the company. Another component, a firm's completely new or significantly different relation with other firms or public institutions (such as alliances, partnerships, outsourcing or sub-contracting), has the least influence. These analyses are of crucial importance for defining the innovation pattern related to corporation management.     

Diathesis stress or differential susceptibility? testing longitudinal associations between parenting,temperament, and children's problem behavior

In this study we investigated longitudinal associations among parenting, children's temperamental negative affectivity, and internalizing and externalizing behavior. Second, we tested whether findings confirmed the diathesis‐stress model or differential susceptibility theory when conducting stringent interaction tests. The sample included 129 children and their families. Parenting quality (age 5) was measured by parent–child interaction observations. Parents evaluated child negative affectivity (age 7) and teachers reported on problem behavior (age 12). Multiple regression analyses revealed an interaction effect of negative affectivity and parenting on externalizing behavior. Visual inspection suggested ‘for better and for worse’ effects of parenting for children with negative affectivity. However, more stringent tests failed to show convincing evidence for differential susceptibility theory. For internalizing behavior, negative affectivity may render children vulnerable regardless of parenting. Our results point at the importance of further testing interaction effects to distinguish between differential susceptibility theory and the diathesis‐stress model.     

Stochastic approximation methods in linear regression models (with consideration of errors in the regressors) 1

Usually, the dependence in stationary processes is described by a set of coefficients. In this paper, a measure of dependence is proposed which can be used instead of the autocorrelation function, and another measure for the dependence between two processes instead of cross-correlation function and coherence coefficients. In the end, an improvement of extrapolation of a process is investigated which is caused by the knowledge of another related process.     

Post-Communist Transition: The Case of Two Lithuanian Capital Cities

Even though officially Lithuania has but one capital, Vilnius, it is often thought and spoken as if there were two important capitals for the Lithuanian consciousness. Vilnius is the official capital, but in modern Lithuanian history Kaunas, the country's second-largest city, from 1920 to 1990 played a symbolic role as the temporary capital. This resulted from the fact that for a part of this period Lithuania had lost Vilnius due to a conflict with Poland.

The 15 years after the fall of communism brought to Lithuania not only the fruits of independence but also a host of identity problems. Intense discussions were aroused by the fortunes of sites in Vilnius and Kaunas that had symbolic importance for the national consciousness. The current urbanistic-architectural development of Vilnius first of all reflects the desire to implement the projects that the Lithuanians could not realize during the long decades of war and occupation. An extreme expression of these sentiments is embodied in the much-disputed endeavor to reconstruct the Renaissance Ducal Palace.

Though contemporary Lithuania and its national identity are more or less products of the twentieth century, the current state policy has given priority to the romantic symbols of the old Lithuanian Grand Duchy. The memorial sites in the temporary capital, especially the Resurrection Church, once a symbol of the nation's vital tenacity, were accorded a merely local significance. On the other hand, after 1990 Kaunas lost the real significance it once had in the Lithuanian consciousness as the temporary capital. Slowly but inevitably it is becoming a normal and free university city in a maturing civil society.     

How European PR practitioners handle digital and social media

The European Communication Monitor (ECM) 2010 showed that digital communication and social media have grown in importance in the media mix of European organizations. Both new media types are positively correlated to the perceived impact of public relations (PR) in the organization. Specifically social networks and online videos are considered the most important social media tools. Also European practitioners expect that the content of communication will become more important as and when the use of social media further increases. The consequence that everyone within the organization is able to spread information is perceived as the most problematic aspect of social media. A potential problem is that only about one third of the European organizations have implemented social media policies with communication consultancies leading the way. Communication consultants consider social media significantly more important than practitioners working in organizations.     

The power(lessness) of Czechoslovak Jews during the Second World War

The article evaluates the perceptions of Jewish power among the Czechoslovak exiles in Britain during the Second World War. The analysis documents the apparent persistence of prejudices against the Jewish minority among the Czechoslovak non-Jewish authorities that eventually formed the government-in-exile (1940–5), under the presidency of Edvard Bene? (1884–1948). The Czechoslovak exiles believed that the Jewish minority, in particular the Jewish nationalists (Zionists), had vehement supporters within Jewish circles in Western countries. Furthermore, they believed that the Jewish press played a significant role in the formation of public opinion in Britain and especially in the United States. In the early 1940s, the government-in-exile embarked on a policy of national homogenisation of post-war Czechoslovakia and was anxious to give concessions to the political representatives of the ethnic minority groups in exile, in particular the Germans, Hungarians and Jews. Yet the concerns about Jewish influence in liberal democracies granted several political concessions to the Jewish minority, in particular the appointment of a Zionist representative, Arno?t Frischer (1887–1954), to the exile parliament. This notwithstanding, by analysing the internal situation among the Czechoslovak Jewish groups in London, the article documents the internal weakness and disputes among the Jewish groups which gradually revealed the utter powerlessness of the Jewish exiles during their negotiations with the Czechoslovak authorities. The Jewish groups (the assimilationists, Orthodox and secular nationalists) were divided by mutual as well as internal disputes which were not concealed from outside observers and were utilised by the exile government. What emerges from the analysis is an impression of quarrelling groups that could not agree on any of the fundamental issues and whose only power was the ability to court the support of Western Jewish groups, which were perceived by the non-Jewish exiles as influential actors in US and British society.     

Supporting the Caliph's Project: Bosnian Muslims and the Hejaz Railway

This article will analyse Bosnian Muslims response and contribution to the construction of the Hejaz Railway. Based on primary sources during the 1900–1908 period, the article will argue that Bosnian Muslims actively followed news about the progress of the railway and financially contributed to its construction. Bosnian Muslim contribution took the form of establishing committees for the collection of voluntary donations in a number of Bosnian towns in 1905 and 1906. The active involvement of Bosnian Muslims in the construction of the Hejaz Railway shows that the spiritual bonds between Bosnian Muslims living in Austria-Hungary and their Caliph in Istanbul were not completely severed by the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia in 1878. Following a brief survey of Bosnian Muslim history within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the article describes the Hejaz Railway project and surveys the Bosnian Muslim contribution to the project.     

Changes in the representation of alien taxa in ruderal vegetation of an urban ecosystem over 50 years. A case study from Malacky city,Slovakia, Central Europe

This paper analyses changes in the representation of alien taxa in ruderal vegetation of a model urban ecosystem. Two datasets of phytosociological relevés of ruderal communities from the area of Malacky (a city in southwestern Slovakia) were analysed. The relevés were recorded 50 years apart, the old relevés were recorded in the years 1954–1969 and the more recent relevés in the years 2014–2015. The average values of percentage number and percentage cover of archaeophytes and neophytes as groups in old and more recent datasets were compared. We also calculated the proportion of each taxon of archaeophytes and neophytes in ruderal vegetation in both periods. The results revealed a decrease in the average percentage number and percentage cover of archaeophytes in almost all classes of ruderal vegetation between the new and old dataset. On the contrary, an increase in representation of neophytes in all classes was recorded. Some rare taxa of archaeophytes were only recorded 50 years ago (e.g. Veronica opaca, Xanthium stumarium), while many taxa of neophytes (including some invasive taxa e.g. Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Stenactis annua) were only recorded in the years 2014–2015 in the ruderal vegetation of the urban ecosystem of Malacky.