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SUMMARY – Medical activity is assumed to be service activity the effects of which can be measured. The SERVQUAL scale was used as a starting point for our research, which resulted in a new, adopted scale called MEDQUAL. The MEDQUAL scale aims to measure the quality of healthcare provided by medical staff of one hospital department instead of the overall quality of hospital services or parts of services on which medical staff in one department has no influence. The study was conducted in a clinical hospital department in Croatia and included 300 respondents (169 patients and 131 medical staff members). The MEDQUAL scale, designed and tested in the study, showed high reliability in all established dimensions, i.e. trust in doctors (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.923), nursing professionalism (0.913), medical professionalism (0.938), and departmental organization (0.810). The scale proposed evaluates both patient satisfaction with the quality of healthcare received and medical staff satisfaction with the quality of healthcare provided. The results were comparable to the groups of respondents, departments, and institutions with potential longitudinal studies of this phenomenon. MEDQUAL is a simple, repeatable and cost-effective scale, applicable to almost all departments and used for measuring the quality of healthcare services both provided and received, the aim of which is to contribute to the assessment of healthcare quality and its improvement.

Abstract. The paper is based on a statistical model, the construction of which requires determining the independent variables. To determine the predictive ability of different approaches to measuring independent variables, the paper provides an overview of theoretical and research approaches to the research problem. The purpose of the study is to analyze the predictive power of instruments measuring attitudes toward selfemployment as one of the most significant predictors of a career choice according to the theory of planned behavior. The paper juxtaposes two various measurement approaches in assessing attitudes toward self-employment. The first approach is based on behavioral beliefs that produce favorable or unfavorable attitudes toward a self-employed career and considers two opposing options: pursuing a self-employed career or accepting a job position (working for an employer). In this context, developing a measurement construct is a multistep process that requires testing psychometric characteristics of proposed measures based on predefined theoretical and empirical dimensions. The second approach incorporates aggregate measures of attitude toward self-employment in which the predictor variable is assessed from only one perspective, without taking into account other career options. Through the means of multiple regression analysis, the paper details a comparison of both measurement approaches and their performance in explaining the dependent variable (selfemployment intention). The predictive power of the model is defined as a criterion for selecting a measurement approach that can serve as a methodological framework for prospective studies focused on investigating attitudes toward certain behavior.

Abstract. The goal of this study is to identify the contribution of effectuation dimensions to the predictive power of the entrepreneurial intention model over and above that which can be accounted for by other predictors selected and confirmed in previous studies. As is often the case in social and behavioral studies, some variables are likely to be highly correlated with each other. Therefore, the relative amount of variance in the criterion variable explained by each of the predictors depends on several factors such as the order of variable entry and sample specifics. The results show the modest predictive power of two dimensions of effectuation prior to the introduction of the theory of planned behavior elements. The article highlights the main advantages of applying hierarchical regression in social sciences as well as in the specific context of entrepreneurial intention formation, and addresses some of the potential pitfalls that this type of analysis entails.

Technology development has enabled companies of all kinds, industries, and sizes to acti vely parti cipate in internati onal business. Informati on and communicati ons technology (ICT), and especially e-business tools, are important for the internati onal acti viti es of companies. ICT empowers the company's potenti al to contribute signifi cantly to economic growth, as it plays a vital role in simplifying business processes and contributes to the improvement of the competi ti ve market presence of a company. The objecti ve of this research is to identi fy the level of e-business tools adopti on in Croati an exporti ng companies and investi gate its infl uence on their export performance. In the analysis of the level of e-business tools adopti on, a parti al OECD e-commerce maturity model was used, which measures several aspects of ICT readiness and intensity of web sites and e-commerce in exporti ng companies. Several disti nct aspects of e-business tools adopti on were examined, namely e-mail usage, internet usage in market research, promoti on, e-commerce, and e-payment possibiliti es. The export performance level was measured through three elements: the export/total business acti viti es rati o, the export/total revenue rati o and, additi onally, the existence of multi lingual offi cial websites. Our fi ndings provide enough evidence that e-business tools adopti on has a positi ve correlati on to export performance for Croati an exporters. However, it should be noted that three e-business tools adopti on factors positi vely correlate with export performance: namely (1) e-mail use for correspondence with partners/suppliers/buyers, (2) use of the internet as a promoti onal tool for foreign markets and (3) e-payment use. Two remaining e-business tools adopti on factors that were measured -(1) use of the internet as an informati on source on foreign markets/ (Eds.) buyers/suppliers and (2) online ordering/sales, did not record a significant correlation with export performance. These findings imply that there is still room for better implementation of e-business tools in Croatian exporting companies, particularly regarding market research and online ordering and sales that can contribute to better export performance. With regard to international market geographical orientation, we found significant differences in exporting companies oriented toward geographically and culturally distant markets (non-regional and non-EU markets) that have a statistically higher level of e-business tools implementation in comparison to those exporting dominantly to regional and EU markets. This illustrates the significance of e-business tools adoption for reaching and managing those distant markets that are important for a number of Croatian exporters.