Today, numerous tools can be used in the production and other phase of the value chain with the aim of increasing operational efficiency and quality of products. However, the Kaizen can be understood as one of the basic lean techniques. Continuous improvement applied through Kaizen is a key element of Japanese management and the source of competitiveness. The benefits of an effective program of continuous improvement are reflected in cost efficiency, waste reduction and product quality improvement. Taught by Japanese success, many companies have adopted Kaizen as a technique for improving production efficiency and achieving business excellence. Despite the Kaizen implementation has led to improved performance in many companies and its application is widespread around the world, many problems and difficulties in its implementation are observed outside Japan. The process of transferability of Kaizen is influenced by many factors whose significance and intensity vary depending on the country in which it is applied. Hence, although Kaizen is very simple at first glance, it is a complex process that needs to be adapted to the specificities of the environment, taking into account numerous influential factors.

Backwardness in economic development in comparison with EU and countries from region, expressed especially after big crisis from 2008, demands a change of country’s economic policy in order to create assumptions for a long-term sustainable development and competitiveness’ increase in regional and world contexts. Having in mind results realized so far, there is a real danger that current economic policy will stabilize country on a low level of GDP, high unemployment rate, with low wages and bad working conditions in a large number of enterprises, in domestic or foreign ownership. Such situation is a result of non-existence of adequate strategy of economic development in transitional period. The goal of paper is to point that new economic policy should be based on support to sectors which most of its added value create through internationalization of business and which have faster growth of revenues on foreign than on domestic markets, such as IT sector, agro-business, medium-tech developed industries.

Initial public offering has often been used in many economies in the privatization process of state-owned companies, primarily with those companies of strategic importance for the country. This further affected the private sector companies to decide on this step and thus gain additional capital in order to finance their further development. Based on the previous experience of many developed countries and countries in the region, the privatization through public offering of shares has significantly contributed to the development of the capital market in these countries, which is predominantly reflected in the growth of market capitalization, volume of turnover, number of transactions and participation of local and foreign investors in these markets. Through the conducted analysis of the capital market of Serbia, this paper points to its modest market capitalization and low level of liquidity largely caused by the long-term negligence of the role that the stock market can have on its development. The aim of the paper is to present the initial public offering of shares as a form of financing of companies, which can also make a significant contribution to the development of the Serbian capital market.

Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWFs) is important participant in global financial market. Although they were arisen more than fifty years ago, in the theory they have not been explored. In the literature, there is no relevant theoretical and empirical material on the basis of which we can make reliable economic objectification of financial assets available to SWFs, and even more difficult to realize their investment objectives and strategy. There are relatively few comparable data on their assets, investment strategy and management, indicating a lack of transparency of SWFs. It has prompted us, referring to the available contemporary theory and practice of progressive developed countries, to study the structure of the investment portfolio, investment models, countries and companies invested by SWFs. In the paper, we are looking for an answer to the question: Can SWFs in the global economic and financial crisis significantly mitigate its consequences? The results of the research we will test on the most developed SWFs.

Many previous studies have proved that revolutionary progress and breakthrough of information and communications technology (ICT) has had a tremendous significance for the development of international trade. The purpose of this paper is to present some of the major channels through which new information technologies impact international trade flows. In addition to various benefits of e-business for the exchange of information, products and services, some of the key challenges are also indicated. Unauthorized access to confidential information, misuse of users’ personal data, insufficient availability of broadband connection and restricted access to it are just some of the problems that need to be overcome in order to maximize the benefits of technology in international trade.

The appearance of cryptocurrency marks the arrival of a new unlimited global system with no intermediaries and costly intercontinental transactions. Digital money would make it possible for us to have significantly quicker and cheaper transactions, which, along with present technology, is considered inevitable in the future. This paper includes three topics and deals with the bitcoin phenomenon and its influence on economic growth. The paper presents the bitcoin technology, its advantages and some risks to which the system’s users are exposed. Bitcoin represents an exceptional technical achievement, and specific features of bitcoin present a particular challenge for its users.