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The aim of this paper is to evaluate how well-prepared the Western Balkans (Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia)

This paper examines the sectoral specialisation and competitiveness of Macedonia in relation to that of the EU28, using four indices of revealed comparative advantage for the years 2000-2015. Additionally, we estimate the stability of the distribution and of the value of trade specialisation indices over time, as well as the duration and probability of the long-term survival of continuing export competitiveness. The findings suggest that the structure of Macedonia's comparative advantage has changed somewhat over the past few years, and there is also evidence of a weakening in the level of comparative advantage as revealed by the Balassa (B) index. The comparisons made between the implied (theoretically derived) probability distributions and their empirical counterparts demonstrate that the Markov transition probabilities accurately characterise the data-generating process that highlights the distributions of the B index, and thus allow for obtaining a precise prediction about the probability distribution vectors, including the limiting distribution. Finally, the results of estimating the survival function show that the survival times of revealed comparative advantage are not persistent over the period observed. The continuous decline in the chance of certain product groups surviving indicates that Macedonia is becoming increasingly vulnerable to competition from other markets.KEY WORDS: revealed comparative advantage, Markov chain model, mobility index, survival analysis

Abstract. The rapid development and adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially the vast proliferation of Internet and Web 2.0 paradigm in the recent years, have profoundly transformed the traditional ways of doing businesses worldwide. Going virtual has offered the companies many new possibilities, but it has also revealed many potential obstacles that have imposed new business strategies. Beyond any doubt, creating satisfied e-Customers, who will generate more e-Customers, is the best business strategy of all for online companies. Satisfied e-Customers are the key premise to attracting new e-Customers and then retaining them on a long term, the two most important aspects of doing business online. In that context, the paper highlights some results of an online survey, conducted among college students in the Republic of Macedonia, regarding their perceived levels of satisfaction vis-à-vis their B2C e-Commerce purchasing experiences. The statistical analysis of the survey results is based on the appliance of elements of descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as linear correlation and factor analysis. As such, the aim of the paper is to provide a profound knowledge and understanding of how Macedonian college students evaluate their online shopping experiences.

Measuring the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the economy is a major challenge and a research question standing at the forefront of economics in the past years. In terms of methodologies, two approaches have been followed extensively, i.e. the standard growth accounting methodology and the regression-based models. This paper aims at developing an alternative approach to studying the usage and impact of ICTs. For this purpose, a two-step methodology is proposed here. At first, hierarchical cluster analysis is used to provide an objective clustering of countries (Macedonia and EU-28) according to 53 indicator values/scores of the Networked Readiness Index. Furthermore, a system dynamics model is proposed to simulate the evolution of the NRI indicator values for Macedonia. This second step allows for examining the potential of the country to improve its rankings on a global scale and thus, become better at leveraging ICTs for increased competitiveness and well-being. Beyond the rankings, the proposed methodology can serve as a useful guide for those attributes Macedonia should focus on in order to improve its position relative to other countries, i.e. to move from its current to the next higher cluster.