Social Environment as a Factor of Capital Investment in Serbia

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the social environment on foreign investment inflows in Serbia. It surveyed the largest 300 foreign investors over the period 2001–2019 and achieved a response rate of 29.3%. The obtained results show that the crime rate, skilled labor, and attitude toward foreigners are the most important for foreign investors in Serbia. The main contribution of this paper is that it represents a rare attempt to provide an empirical research on the attitudes of foreign investors, in the context of the transition economy in the region of Southeast Europe.

KEYWORDS:

• Social environment
• foreign investors
• Serbia

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F21
• E22

Acknowledgments

This paper is financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Darko Marjanović

Darko Marjanović is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Economic Sciences from Belgrade, Serbia. His scientific interest refers to: foreign direct investment, competitiveness and public finance. He is author or coauthored more than 60 papers, one monograph and participated in numerous national and international scientific conferences. He has participated in a few international projects, as well as several research and scientific projects, financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia and Provincial Secretariat for Science and Technological Development of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. He is a Vice President of the Scientific Board at the Institute of Economic Sciences, head of the Center for Strategic Cooperation, coordinator of the Macroeconomics Department, member of the Scientific Society of Economists of Serbia, and editor-in-chief of the international publication SEE-6 Economic Outlook.

Ivana Domazet

Ivana Domazet is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Sciences and Associate Professor at the Faculty for Banking, Insurance and Finance, Union University, Belgrade. She teaches courses on Marketing Management, Market Research and Competitiveness Enhancement (postgraduate studies). Her scientific interest refers to: Improving Competitiveness, Marketing Research and Strategy, CRM and Strategic Management. She published a numerous paper related to foregoing topics. She was President of Scientific Council at the Institute of Economic Sciences, Vice-president of Board member of the Institute of Economics Sciences, Board member of the Institute of Social Science, member of Serbian Scientific Association of Economists and Serbian Marketing Association.

Valentina Vukmirović

Valentina Vukmirović is a Research Associate at the Institute of Economic Sciences. She holds a PhD in Management and Business from the University of Belgrade. Her research interests and publications lie at the intersection of Marketing Communication, Competitiveness and Regional/Sectorial Development Policies. As a Research Assistant, she was engaged in a strategic project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. She is currently engaged in two scientific projects financed by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia.