Corruption exists around the world in various forms. This paper examines the extent of political corruption in the countries that were formerly known as Yugoslavia. Data from the World Bank Institute and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Business Environment and Economic Performance Study (BEEPS) was used to examine the extent of corruption in these five regions from 2002 to 2005. Results show less corruption in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia than in FYROM (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Serbia, and Montenegro. Overall all countries appear to have less corruption in 2005 than in 2002.

The corruption studied here includes illegal, immoral, or dishonest acts that undermine economic and government activities.  This gray area of economic activity is often referred to as the “underground economy,” and the number of individuals and the amounts of money involved can only be ascertained by educated guesses.  Corruption is used to mean a state of progressive putrefaction; on a large scale corruption curtails a country’s ability to grow efficiently and effectively.  The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank have developed a methodology to study transition economies.  Through one-on-one interviews the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS II 2002) gathered information from business owners and managers on a variety of topics in 23 transition economies.  This paper uses the BEEPS data to examine the perceptions of corruption in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

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Research examining the components of retail store image has focused on the most important features to customers. Merchandise return policy, an element of the Service dimension, has not been well researched. In the past decade the Internet has created another means to market products, and research relating to merchandise return policies for sales of Internet firms is virtually non-existent. This study compares the merchandise return policy in both bricks and mortar and Internet firms. Merchandise return policy appears to e a fertile area for future research.