Contents

**Preface XI**


## Preface

Looking at business through an economic perspective can provide a more complete picture of the relationship between society and the markets. In microeconomics, one learns about how the decisions of individuals can affect trends in business. The emphasis is on the sys‐ tem as a whole and is used as a tool to examine business at a national or global level. Being able to see the "forest through the trees" without losing sight of individual parts of the busi‐ ness landscape is an important leadership skill to have. Economics helps leaders create more effective business strategies.

With a more holistic view of the interrelationships between individuals, markets and the larger economy, leaders can make more informed decisions and guide their organizations to higher profits. Understanding past trends in light of today's particular challenges can mean making more powerful contributions to company goal-setting. In addition, a wider knowl‐ edge of economics also allows business leaders to create more persuasive arguments when attempting to affect positive change within an organization.

Therefore, this book is organized into three sections.

The section on *Theoretical Framework* at the very beginning deals with multiple theoretical analyses of international business management and represents a contribution to the under‐ standing of the complexities and independency of different protagonists and players to bring the economy of a country to higher levels of equilibrium. It means reduction in unem‐ ployment and increased per capita incomes of people, especially of the low and middle class, who will consume, save and invest more that would lead to higher employment lev‐ els. This would ultimately lead to the maximization of total economic welfare, in other words, meet Maslow's conditions of needs.

The section on *Management of Companies* begins with the chapter that highlights the fact that interest and initiatives related to Social Responsibility–ISO 26000 and the EFQM Excel‐ lence Model have increased over the last decade. Strategic management models are the frameworks for achieving sustainable growth and sustainable competitive advantages. The purpose of this chapter is to trace and define the relations between several EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) criteria and the components of ISO 26000 as well as total responsibility management and interrelationships between organizations and their stakeholders. In the light of the analysis, the systemic and holistic EFQM model may be con‐ sidered as a tool for governance and implementation in the corporate strategy according to ISO 26000 recommendations. The chapter also considers that the social responsibility per‐ spective is a key element of the EFQM Excellence Model, which includes stakeholders and potential contributors to sustainable development. Organizations are paying more attention to continual quality improvement and the implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model including social responsibility models, and their interrelationships will reflect the real and potential synergies like sustainable competitive advantages, sustainable cooperative advan‐ tages and sustainable cooperative excellence in the future.

The second chapter in this section proposes an Enterprise Business Intelligence (BI) Maturity Model that involves thirteen key process areas (Strategic Management, Performance Meas‐ urement, Balanced Scorecard, Information Quality, Data Warehousing, Master Data Man‐ agement, Metadata Management, Analytical, Infrastructure, Knowledge Management, People, Organization Culture and Change Management). The key objective of this chapter was to investigate the impact of the Enterprise Business Intelligence Initiative on demo‐ graphic factors such as the age of BI initiatives, organizational size, number of IT/BI employ‐ ees, type of industry and revenue of the company. Results show that the age of BI initiatives, organizational size and number of IT/BI employees are related to the BI maturity level, while the BI maturity level has a significant impact on the revenue of the company. Results also show that the type of industry has no significant impacts on the BI maturity level.

The section on *Management of Cities* consists of three chapters. The first chapter in this sec‐ tion highlights the fact that exposure to new sources of competition across the world encour‐ ages cities to become more competitive and to allocate their resources more effectively and efficiently. Responding to the demands of many different groups and managing the alloca‐ tion of resources between different claims have become nowadays among the most chal‐ lenging tasks for city governments. In order to reach their development goals, cities must be aware of where they are starting out. First, they should identify their strengths and weak‐ nesses and after that define the position they want to strive for in the future. Once this posi‐ tion is defined, they need to become aware of the significant trends and other factors that will influence the direction in which the future unfolds. To overcome the challenges men‐ tioned, many successful European cities designed a model which simplifies the monitoring of long-term goals. It is very important that these goals are consistent with the city's devel‐ opment vision and strategy, and both must be based on values, wishes and priorities of local residents.

The second chapter in this section introduces the fact that cities represent the driving force of development in economic, social and cultural life, reflecting also the spatial organization of human society. Taking into account the fact that cities are becoming generators of eco‐ nomic development and a source of growth for the national economy, there is an increasing urge to identify the stages of development and to establish a system for the ranking and positioning of cities and regions in this process (the level of categorization). This will allow for the preparation of appropriate strategic and development guidelines for cities and urban regions. In order to be able to compare the level of their efficiency in fostering development, there is an intensifying need to develop indicators, which can measure the performance of cities, are representative and comparable between countries, and allow verification to oth‐ ers. At present, there are many different urban indicators and institutions that compile and analyze them. Performance measurement systems, developed for internal use in some cities, already show a degree of measurement feasibility. The fundamental problem is that this va‐ riety of indicators lacks consistency and comparability (over time and between compared cities). Therefore, their use cannot be approved in a wider context (benchmark) of compara‐ tive situations. In the case of medium-sized cities, one needs to question the applicability of the methodology and indicators, used mostly for large, global cities by internationally recog‐ nized institutions. With the established set of indicators and assistance of computer pro‐ grams for multi-parameter decision-making processes (AHP), this chapter also seeks to investigate comparisons between performances of selected European cities (on a qualitative basis).

including social responsibility models, and their interrelationships will reflect the real and potential synergies like sustainable competitive advantages, sustainable cooperative advan‐

The second chapter in this section proposes an Enterprise Business Intelligence (BI) Maturity Model that involves thirteen key process areas (Strategic Management, Performance Meas‐ urement, Balanced Scorecard, Information Quality, Data Warehousing, Master Data Man‐ agement, Metadata Management, Analytical, Infrastructure, Knowledge Management, People, Organization Culture and Change Management). The key objective of this chapter was to investigate the impact of the Enterprise Business Intelligence Initiative on demo‐ graphic factors such as the age of BI initiatives, organizational size, number of IT/BI employ‐ ees, type of industry and revenue of the company. Results show that the age of BI initiatives, organizational size and number of IT/BI employees are related to the BI maturity level, while the BI maturity level has a significant impact on the revenue of the company. Results also show that the type of industry has no significant impacts on the BI maturity level.

The section on *Management of Cities* consists of three chapters. The first chapter in this sec‐ tion highlights the fact that exposure to new sources of competition across the world encour‐ ages cities to become more competitive and to allocate their resources more effectively and efficiently. Responding to the demands of many different groups and managing the alloca‐ tion of resources between different claims have become nowadays among the most chal‐ lenging tasks for city governments. In order to reach their development goals, cities must be aware of where they are starting out. First, they should identify their strengths and weak‐ nesses and after that define the position they want to strive for in the future. Once this posi‐ tion is defined, they need to become aware of the significant trends and other factors that will influence the direction in which the future unfolds. To overcome the challenges men‐ tioned, many successful European cities designed a model which simplifies the monitoring of long-term goals. It is very important that these goals are consistent with the city's devel‐ opment vision and strategy, and both must be based on values, wishes and priorities of local

The second chapter in this section introduces the fact that cities represent the driving force of development in economic, social and cultural life, reflecting also the spatial organization of human society. Taking into account the fact that cities are becoming generators of eco‐ nomic development and a source of growth for the national economy, there is an increasing urge to identify the stages of development and to establish a system for the ranking and positioning of cities and regions in this process (the level of categorization). This will allow for the preparation of appropriate strategic and development guidelines for cities and urban regions. In order to be able to compare the level of their efficiency in fostering development, there is an intensifying need to develop indicators, which can measure the performance of cities, are representative and comparable between countries, and allow verification to oth‐ ers. At present, there are many different urban indicators and institutions that compile and analyze them. Performance measurement systems, developed for internal use in some cities, already show a degree of measurement feasibility. The fundamental problem is that this va‐ riety of indicators lacks consistency and comparability (over time and between compared cities). Therefore, their use cannot be approved in a wider context (benchmark) of compara‐ tive situations. In the case of medium-sized cities, one needs to question the applicability of the methodology and indicators, used mostly for large, global cities by internationally recog‐ nized institutions. With the established set of indicators and assistance of computer pro‐

tages and sustainable cooperative excellence in the future.

residents.

VIII Preface

In the third chapter of this section, authors discuss the development and effects of foreign direct investments on local communities of Slovenia and Serbia. Based on data gathered through a questionnaire, a comparative statistical analysis was used to find stylized facts, which could be a sign of a different stage of transition in both countries. The study was con‐ ducted at the end of 2014, and the sample consisted of 66 communities from Slovenia and 61 communities from Serbia. The study proves that the more progressive path of transition in Slovenia was not offset by a significantly higher level of foreign direct investment activities. In both countries, however, foreign direct investments proved to have mostly positive ef‐ fects on the economic development of the local communities concerned.

Finally, I would like to thank InTech publishing company for giving me the opportunity to become the editor of this book. I appreciate that they believed I could provide the necessary knowledge and technical assistance. We together managed to find the other great colleagues that contributed to this book. I thank each of them for their valuable contributions that re‐ sulted in this book; I think that it will be an asset to the professional community. I also wish to thank our technical reviewers and colleagues at InTech. We could not have done it with‐ out you.

> **Vito Bobek** University of Applied Sciences FH Joanneum, Graz, Austria University of Maribor, Slovenia
