Background: Unlike other financial services, technology-driven changes in the insurance industry have not been a vastly explored topic in scholarly literature. Incumbent insurance companies have hitherto been holding their positions using the complexity of the product, heavy regulation, and gigantic balance sheets as paramount factors for a relatively slow digitalization and technological transformation. However, new technologies such as car telematic devices have been creating a new insurance ecosystem. The aim of this study is to assess the telematics technology acceptance for insurance purposes. Methods: The study is based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). By interviewing 502 new car buyers, we tested the factors that affect the potential usage of telematic devices for insurance purposes. Results: The results indicate that facilitating conditions are the main predictor of telematics use. Moreover, privacy concerns related to the potential abuse of driving behavior data play an important role in technology acceptance. Conclusions: Although novel insurance technologies are mainly presented as user-driven, users (drivers and insurance buyers) are often neglected as an active party in the development of such technologies.

Participatory budgeting has been advocated as a democratic innovation that could bring governance closer to citizens. A myriad of European countries have embraced this idea and piloted participatory budgeting projects at the local level. In Serbia, however, democratic innovations are at the infantile stage. Only a handful of participatory budgeting projects have been initiated so far. The aim of this paper is to present the main lessons learnt from these projects and to present participatory budgeting as a citizen-centric and fiscally decentralized approach to public financial planning and execution. Using the mix-method, participatory budgeting projects and programs in three local government units in Serbia were analyzed. The results indicate political will of only a handful of Serbian local self-governments to implement participatory budgeting and limited sustainability of the concept of democratic innovation.

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Project finance is characterised by a range of specific features in comparison with standard financing sources such as corporative or credit financing. In most cases, the difference arises from the characteristics of the borrower and way of generating cash for loan repayment. Accordingly, if the project has passed the elimination criteria, that is, golden rules of project finance, it can be regarded as potentially suitable for financing. The application of project finance in the Republic of Serbia is a consequence of experience and expertise of leading foreign banks, due to a need for further expansion on the market, but also in changes that happened in the banking sectors by implementation of Basel regulations. The paper aims to point to the general principles of project finance on an example from business practice and to analyse capability of financing in the area of residential construction, appreciating the fact that significant diversifications of project finance in the Republic of Serbia can be expected in the forthcoming period.

In the process of joining the European Union the Republic of Serbia is expected to meet the requirements that are deemed to be universally accepted norms of social and government systems of member states. As part of that process, Serbia’s public administration, much less efficient than that of member states, is being transformed with a view to attaining the expected efficiency level. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the existing capacities of civil servants in the Republic of Serbia in the area of financial management and the potentials for their improvement. The paper is based on the results of a research conducted under the CBHE ERAMSUS+ project, on a sample of 231 civil servants in the Serbian public administration engaged on budgeting, financial control and internal audit in the period March – May 2017. Authors of the paper were actively involved in the project.