Research question: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the effects of acquisitions on organizational culture in terms of the degree of change in certain organizational culture dimensions, and second, to examine effects of organizational culture differences on the acquired company’s performance. Motivation: Although many studies have examined the relationships among acquisitions, organizational culture and performance, especially the relationship between organizational culture differences and company performance in developed economies (Chatterjee et al., 1992; Weber & Camerer, 2003; Krishnan et al., 1997), little attention has been paid to the research into these relationships in the emerging economies. Understanding the cultural issues in the context of acquisition in the emerging economy will contribute to the literature and enable comparison of research results with results obtained in developed economies. Idea: The core idea of this paper was to empirically evaluate the relationship among acquisitions, organizational culture and performance on the example of an acquired company in the Republic of Serbia, as the emerging economy. The paper focuses on exploring the employees' perceptions of organizational culture change in the period after the acquisition, as well as managers’ perceptions of the acquired company’s performance. Data: The survey was conducted in the company operating in the Republic of Serbia which was the subject of cross-border acquisition. The sample consists of 344 respondents (managers and employees) from the acquired company. Tools: Descriptive statistical analysis, Mann-Whitney U-test and regression analysis were applied in the study. Findings: The results of the research demonstrate that innovation as a dimension of organizational culture has changed to a greatest extent. Further, the results show that there are no statistically significant differences in the ways of how managers and employees perceive changes in organizational culture. Additionally, the results of the research show that organizational cultural differences have a positive influence on performance of the acquired company. Contribution: This paper contributes to a better understanding of the significance of organizational culture changes in an acquired company in the emerging economy and formulates practical suggestions for the managers in future acquisitions.

http://management.fon.bg.ac.rs/index.php/mng/article/download/373/221

Acquisitions, Organizational Culture and Performance: Empirical Evidence from Acquired Company in Serbia

A public food procurement policy has been identified as having significant potential to drive food consumption and production towards greater sustainability, delivering social, economic, environmental, and health benefits to multiple beneficiaries. However, empirical research reveals that the potential of public procurement of sustainable food (PPSF) is not currently being realised, with studies from a range of different countries identifying stubborn barriers. Situating PPSF within the complex multi-instrument setting of the broader policy system, and utilising the concept of policy interactions, can help to explain, articulate, and provide pathways to address barriers identified in empirical studies on PPSF. A desk survey of PPSF in different countries identified the range of instruments which interact with procurement policy. The findings detail PPSF instruments interacting with many other policy instruments, resulting in both positive reinforcing and negative undermining effects. Taken as a whole, these interactions suggest a ‘policy package’ of instruments which should be considered in PPSF policy design to maximise effectiveness and capitalise on its transformative potential.

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Identifying the Policy Instrument Interactions to Enable the Public Procurement of Sustainable Food

Very few studies have dealt with sustainability transitions in the agrifood sector, especially in institutional food services (IFS), and notably at a micro level. Based on 29 interviews with head cooks in France, we characterized the micro-level sustainability transition pathways that institutional catering units have been following, taking essentially four sustainable practices into consideration: organic food use, ultra-processed food use, vegetarian meals and waste management. We identified four transition pathways according to the speed, size, dimensionality and time-period of changes in those practices. We showed how these pathways are linked to the diversity of transition contexts; internal (e.g., skills) and external (e.g., local suppliers) resources and constraints. This original empirical study revealed the diversity and feasibility of sustainability transition pathways in IFS. It also showed that they do not require unreasonable increases in resources. Positive narratives on transitions need developing, together with diagnosis tools to guide them.

Micro-Level Sustainability Transition Pathways of Institutional Food Services in France

This paper analyses correlations between several organizational characteristics and product/process innovations in enterprises in Serbia. We used the World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 339 small, medium, and large companies from various industries. Many of the factors analysed in this study are consistent with theoretical conclusions in the literature on this topic and relate to organizational maturity. Also, factors such as the size of the company and the industry to which it belongs were analysed. For correlations testing, the Chi-square correlation coefficient and the Cramer’s V test were used. The analysis revealed correlations between innovativeness and many organizational characteristics. However, in some cases, contrary to theoretical claims, correlations were not confirmed. We found that the introduction of new products and/or processes in the company is influenced by business strategy, production targets, number of performance indicators monitored, establishment of quality management system, formal training programs for company's full-time employees, ease of achieving the company's production targets, level of awareness of management and employees about the company's production targets, spending on research and development activities within the company, and acquisition of external knowledge, way of promoting non-managers in a company, time frame of the company's production targets, company's size and main market.

/pdf/organizational-factors-of-innovativeness-in-serbian-2zob83i6ze.pdf

Organizational Factors of Innovativeness in Serbian Enterprises

Public procurement of food is seen as a critical tool for a paradigm shift and for facilitating the development of specific policy objectives to build sustainable food environments. Furthermore, the harnessing of the purchasing power of hospitals, prioritizing local and sustainable food, offers the potential to transform food production systems into more resilient production models and bring them in line with current European sustainability strategies. This paper analyses the current situation of sustainable food procurement strategies in Osakidetza, the Basque Health System, and identifies the challenges and action plans needed to develop a sustainable food strategy. Sustainable food procurement is still incipient in Osakidetza. This roadmap proposal is a basic but necessary contribution as a starting point. Likewise, we find contributions from agroecology that are interesting for the construction of sustainable food environments in health systems. 

A seed towards a sustainable food system in healthcare institutions: the case of the Basque Country

Routes to sustainability in public food procurement: An investigation of different models in primary school catering.

Research Question: This paper explores factors that drive innovativeness of social enterprises in Serbia. Motivation: Social enterprises are gaining importance on global scale, being recognized for their potential to respond to both economic and social challenges, attract capital and generate income in non-traditional ways. Innovativeness comes at the hart of their abilities to achieve their goals. This research is motivated by the idea to understand which factors influence innovativeness in Serbian social enterprises, and to compare these results with the pool of 11 European countries. Identification of the factors that make the difference between social enterprises which are innovative and the ones which are not, provides a chance for business owners/managers, as well as social policies creators, to affect these factors and thus influence the boost of innovativeness and, consequentially, success of socially oriented enterprises in Serbia. Additionally, building on results of a research conducted in 11 European countries, author’s idea is to perform cross analysis of identified innovation factors in social enterprises in Serbia with previously obtained aggregated results. Idea: This paper was driven by the idea to uncover the factors that make a difference in innovative behaviour of social enterprises. Data: Analysis was conducted using responses from on-line survey of 69 Serbian enterprises. We compared these answers to those of 837 social enterprises obtained via the same online surveys from 11 European countries, including Serbia.Tools: Statistical analysis was performed (using t-test for testing equality of means, z-test for testing equality of proportion, hi-square test, Fisher's exact test and some nonparametric tests to confirm the results obtained using parametric tests). The same tests were carried out on the data obtained from social enterprises in Serbia and on the data obtained from all 11 countries examined in order to draw conclusions about the same or different influence of certain factors on the innovativeness of social enterprises. Findings: We found that consciousness about their social mission, perception of innovation as important, financing obtained via grant schemes and involvement of owners, board, customers and NGOs are the most important drivers of innovativeness in Serbian social enterprises. European pool of explored SEs report additional factors influencing innovativeness, which did not appear important in Serbian sample. Contribution: This paper contributes to the research of determinants of the innovativeness of social enterprises by bringing original field data from Serbia, and by providing comparison with the same pool factors examined in the sample of European countries.

http://management.fon.bg.ac.rs/index.php/mng/article/download/303/180

Organizational innovativeness: factors that drive innovations in social enterprises in Serbia

Understanding the innovative behavior of social enterprises

PurposeThe prevailing view in the existing literature is that open innovations (OI) increase the innovative performance of enterprises. The author examines whether the same OI practices are equally important for sole entrepreneurs, micro firms, small firms, medium-sized and large enterprises in introducing radical innovations and which set of OI practices is best for a firm, given the firm's size.Design/methodology/approachIn this study probit models were used on a sample of 915 innovative Serbian enterprises.FindingsOI is important for all enterprises introducing radical innovations. However, not all OI practices are equally effective in each enterprise size group. The set of OI practices leading to radical innovations depends on the firm size. Cooperation with others is not important for sole entrepreneurs and micro and large companies in introducing radical innovations. Still, cooperation's role is predominant in small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, certain OI practices are important for all enterprises, whilst others do not contribute to radical innovations, regardless of the firm size.Practical implicationsOwners/managers can save considerably by avoiding the allocation of resources to OI practices that result in little to no contribution to radical product commercialisation. At the macroeconomic level, these findings can help policymakers create adequate (tailor-made) public policies to achieve innovation in each specific group of firms.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates that not all OI practices are equally important for achieving radical production solutions in each group of enterprises.

The importance of specific open innovation practices for radical innovations within companies of different sizes

This paper investigates SMEs’ responses to the COVID-19 crisis and the significance of specific government support measures for overcoming the crisis effects. The results show that SMEs have mostly implemented retrenchment and persevering strategies, whereas innovation and exit strategies were less used, as well as that the strategy selection depends on both the severity of the COVID-19 impact on individual business segments and SME specificities. Additionally, the analysis reveals that, from the SMEs’ perspective, not all the future government measures are equally significant for recovery. Therefore, in creating an optimum measure package to support SMEs, governments must consider multiple criteria. The SMEs’ responses, as well as the significance of specific government measures, vary depending on the characteristics of SMEs and the magnitude of COVID-19 effects on specific business aspects.

Zorica Aničić

Papers

Routes to sustainability in public food procurement: An investigation of different models in primary school catering.

Organizational innovativeness: factors that drive innovations in social enterprises in Serbia

Understanding the innovative behavior of social enterprises

The importance of specific open innovation practices for radical innovations within companies of different sizes

The Covid-19 crisis and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Serbia: responsive strategies and significance of the government measures