**3.1 Research methodology**

In order to provide an answer on defined research question, 3.013 medium and large business entities were selected by random and used as a research sample. Financial statements for 2019 reporting period have been downloaded manually from the official website of the Business Registers Agency (BRA). BRA is a state administrative body that collects financial statements and corresponding audit reports of business entities that operate within the territory of the Republic of Serbia. Information published by BRA is used for financial analysis of business entities and as a basis of decision-making process. Afterwards, data from the pdf files containing financial statements have been copied and recorded in pre-set up tables in Excel files. Namely, medium and large business entities in the Republic of Serbia have an obligation to prepare and disclose full set of financial statements, consisting of balance sheet, income statement, cash-flow statement, statement of changes in equity and notes to financial statements. Since all previously mentioned statement, except notes to financial statements, are quantitative in nature, they were used for this research. Values originally disclosed in RSD, as the reporting currency, were converted into euros by using the average exchange rate of euros on the balance sheet date (31st December). Values of each financial statement line is presented in thousands, and therefore they are presented as such in this research [49].

Financial statement item lines in official financial statements are marked by corresponding automatic data processing number (in Serbian: Automatska obrada podataka—AOP), that belongs to the national nomenclature system. These markings are used in order to perform control of mathematical calculations before each financial statement is accepted for publishing by BRA. They also serve as an instrument of connecting data and information regarding the same financial statement item presented in financial statements. Balance sheet items cover automatic data processing numbers from 0001 to 0465; income statement from 1001 to 1071; statement of cashflows from 3001 to 3047; and statement of changes in equity from 4001 to 4252. **Table 1** shows the formulas used for the calculation of the selected financial indicators that will be used in this research. Having in mind that these variables will be used in order to differentiate business entities to three major types of business activities, these variables have been selected by a common sense.


#### **Table 1.**

*Calculation of selected financial indicators.*
