The Role of University-Level Business Education in Overcoming the Challenges of SMEManagers in Serbia

Maja Kocevar and Dietmar Horst Sternad
Additional contact information
Maja Kocevar: Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Dietmar Horst Sternad: Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria

from ToKnowPress

Abstract: In an exploratory study, we conducted in-depth interviews with Serbian managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to identify the main challenges that they have been facing in their work and the extent to which formal university-level business education has helped them to overcome these challenges. We find that the main challenges lie in human resource management- and marketing-related issues, followed by more country-specific problems such as dealing with bureaucracy, difficulties in obtaining financial resources, and coping with delayed payments. In line with criticism in the extant literature, Serbian SME managers see considerable deficits in the current system of university-level business education, specifically referring to a lack of practice-oriented teaching methods and insufficient cooperation between universities and the business sector. Suggestions for improvements of tertiary business education were also forwarded by the managers. This study contributes to a better understanding of the educational needs of managers who are representing an important part of the Serbian economy, which is strongly SME-based.

Keywords: education; SME; management; managerial challenges; Serbia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-02-4/papers/ML13-255.pdf full text (application/pdf)
http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-02-4/MakeLearn2013.pdf Conference Programme (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tkp:mklp13:255-265

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Active Citizenship by Knowledge Management & Innovation: Proceedings of the Management, Knowledge and Learning International Conference 2013 from ToKnowPress
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Maks Jezovnik ().