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Abstract. The aim of this paper was to identify the impact of national culture on decision-making styles in selected countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. The estimation of Hofstede's dimensions of national cultures and comparative analyses was carried out by using a narrow-sample strategy. The estimated positions on each dimension confirmed the Hofstede's original research ranking. The result with significant value was the confirmation of the global trend of decreasing power distance and significant movement towards the individualism. Besides the standardization procedure of comparative cross-cultural analyses, variance analyses were used to identify cultural differences in decision-making styles related to complex decisions (Janis and Mann's typology). The proposition is that complex decisions are, above and beyond all others, the consequence of social and cultural values installed in every individual. Statistically significant dependency was identified for hyper-vigilant and vigilant decision-making style and national culture's dimensions. A beneficial goal was to identify the differences and the similarities in value orientation and those in the decision-making style which should not be mistreated as they may influence future business cooperation and political and economic integrations within the CEE context. Keywords: cultural differences, decision-making styles, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary.Jel Classification: M10, M16. IntroductionIn the context of globalization processes and the growth of economic interdependence among countries, the national culture is becoming more and more important (Adler 1991;Harvey, Miceli 1999;Ginevičius, Vaitkūnaitė 2006;Radović-Marković 2008;Harvey, Moeller 2009;Stah et al. 2010; Minkov, Hofstede, 2011;Schwartz 2014). Understanding culture can equip a person for the challenges of contemporary international business even within the national context. Nevertheless, recognizing the importance of cultural differences helps managers understand their international partners and competitors and ultimately helps to improve their managerial skills (Cullen, Praveen Parboteeah 2011). The objective of this research was to identify the cultural distinction between Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary using the methodology introduced by Hofstede. Countries positioning by the Hofstede's dimensions do not expose all differences among cultures or countries, but do sum up the greater part (MacNab, Worthley 2013). These dimensions representing 2 cultural differences have confirmed empirically on many occasions that they are related with numerous aspects from the management and organizational domains (Iglehart 1997;Trompenaars, Hampden-Turner 2000;House et al. 2002). The additional interest of this research is to determine cultural differences in decisionmaking styles. The decision-making process depends on cultural background and choice of "the right way" -the decision-making style is dependent on values and beliefs of people involv...

Until the beginning of the 1990s the insurance markets of the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe were highly concentrated, which means that one or only a few state-owned insurance companies operated on the market, with the market share of the leading company higher than 90%. At the beginning of the 1990s private investors entered the majority of economic sectors, including the insurance market. The entry of new companies has led to a decrease in concentration, i.e. to increased competition. This article analyses the dynamics of concentration of the insurance industry, and seeks to determine the impact of the leading insurance company on the development of the insurance market. Furthermore, the article examines the influence of the purchasing power of the population, measured by gross domestic product per capita, on the development of the insurance market and considers the potential scenario of development of the insurance market in the future.

Good corporate governance depends on well balanced relations between the supervisory mechanisms of the corporate governance process. Relations between the supervisory board, as the internal supervisory mechanism, and external auditing, as the external supervisory mechanism, are crucial for the development of good corporate governance practice.The supervisory board needs credible information in order to perform quality supervision and control over the company's management. Therefore, communication between the supervisory board and external auditing is necessary because of the irreplaceable role of external auditing in validating financial information. A relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing increasingly depends on the audit committee, a subcommittee of the supervisory board in charge of improving the financial reporting process and improving communication with external auditors.This empirical study focuses on analyzing the relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing in order to determine the current state of that relationship among businesses in Croatia and to determine possible guidelines for improving the relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing in practice. In addition, this study analyzes the relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing, and attempts to determine which factors could Internal and External Supervisory Mechanisms in Corporate GovernanceDarko Tipurić, Boris Tušek, Davor Filipović * Abstract:Good corporate governance depends on well balanced relations between supervisory mechanisms in the corporate governance process. Relations between the supervisory board, as the internal supervisory mechanism, and external auditing, as the external supervisory mechanism, are crucial for the development of good corporate governance practice. This paper focuses on analyzing the relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing in order to determine the current state of that relationship in the Republic of Croatia and to determine possible guidelines for improving the relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing in practice. In addition, this study analyzes the relationship between the supervisory board and external auditing, which could lead to the maximum efficiency of both the supervisory board and external auditing and tests that relationship in practice using publicly traded companies in Croatia. This study also analyzes the impact of the audit committee on the efficiency of the supervisory board and external auditing.

This paper sets out to establish to what extent, if any, a corporate governance index (CGI) is suitable and applicable to Maltese listed entities (MLEs). Two sets of semi-structured interviews were held with seven financial analysts and 13 MLEs. This was followed by a CGI survey sent to the same MLEs previously interviewed and an analysis of their Annual Reports for the three-year period 2011-2013. A CGI model purposely designed for the present study was then tested on two MLEs. Findings show that corporate governance in Malta is not given appropriate importance by MLEs. Yet respondents agreed to CGI introduction in order to improve current CG practices. The study goes on to assess the impact, benefits and limitations of such a CGI in Malta and provides feasible recommendations which may help towards the consolidation of corporate governance in MLEs.