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In the initial stages of the adoption and institutionalization of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), national governments of transitional economies have accepted, developed, and organized Public-Private Partnerships with varying degrees of success. This study aims to investigate the critical success factors (CSFs) influencing the establishment of a sustainable Public-Private Partnership in transition conditions. In the first part of the paper, based on an extensive review of the literature, previous studies and relevant results in this field are presented as a background for this research. In the second part of this article, the survey used a factor analysis, which, with the application of the Principal Component Analysis and Varimax method with Kaiser normalization, has extracted four CSFs: (1) the establishment of a central PPP unit—knowledge center; (2) the establishment of a compatible legal/regulatory framework; (3) development of national PPP policies and strategies; and (4) standardization and transparency of the process. In the concluding remarks, the authors address the perspectives and methodological research constraints, examining possibilities to develop new knowledge and more efficient Public-Private Partnership implementation in the developing PPP markets of transitional economies.

ABSTRACT

Managing the costs of a product life cycle, which is performed at the stage of its development, has a dominant influence on achieving and maintaining the competitiveness of the product in the market and the target profit as the primary production goal. Development is of crucial importance in the product life cycle, because evaluating individual solutions for the new product's conceptual and preliminary design based on the simulation of costs of all stages of its life cycle represents the way of ensuring the design requirements for excellence. This paper presents in detail the setting and development of a hybrid model of product life cycle cost management, based on fuzzy neural networks. INTRODUCTIONLife cycle cost management begins at the stage of product development. It is the stage of selection and choice of ideas and evaluation of individual solutions in the process of conceptual and preliminary design [1], i.e. product design development in accordance with the functional and other requirements of the new product on one hand, and comprehensive analysis of competitive products on the market on the other [2].Development hugely affects the costs of individual stages of product life cycle, particularly the production costs [3], because errors arising at the stage of conceptual and preliminary design can increase production costs by as much as 60 %. Therefore, all aspects of costs of production, use and recycling, including the aspects of the total cost of the product should be taken into account as early as the stage of development.In the modern environment, developing a new product emerges as a result of the work of a competent design team, usually organized on the concept of simultaneous engineering. It involves reaching a solution which is suitable for all stages of the life cycle, from development to recycling. Supporting such a design is based on the use of DFX tools intended for excellence in design [4].Instruments of strategic cost management related to the cost of the product include cost management in all stages of its life cycle by comparing the costs of the observed product with the costs of the most important competitors. Comparing the product's cost (Cost Benchmarking) with the costs of the most important competitors as the instrument of strategic and operational management enables identifying strengths and weaknesses of the own enterprise in comparison with competition, which determines directions and development strategies of addressing the identified weaknesses. LITERATURE REVIEWThere are many traditional and modern methods which can be used to assess the life cycle costs of a new or improved product in the part of the development stage that refers to the Todic, Cosic, Maksimovic, Tasic, Radakovic: Model for Simulation of Life Cycle Costs at … 109 choice and selection of ideas for a new or improved product, as well as in the assessment of variations in the product's conceptual solutions [5].Papers presenting a variety of cost assessment methods and models in the last five to six years can...

This study analyzes the energy management approach as one of the driving factors for sustainable development, not only in enterprises, but also countries. Sustainability of an enterprise is defined as its tendency to meet the need of customers and stakeholders through creative and innovative business strategies as well as activities that have a positive influence on society and environment. In this study, sustainability is measured through the application of an energy management system, but in the wood industry, which has an increasingly significant impact on the economic development in one country. The aim of this research is to determine the current situation regarding the application of energy management practices in production and service systems. The ISO 50001 standard for energy management systems considers the energy performance achieved by an enterprise. The connections between critical factors and the level of application requirements for the energy management system were statistically analyzed in this research. It was found that in enterprises that have a certified system of quality and environmental management, a higher level of energy management system implementation is evident. The research results provide data on the scientific level for the national policy improvement, as well as a developed model based on the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle for energy management system application.Sustainability 2020, 12, 76 2 of 16 one of the few economic activities that not only has a constant surplus in international trade, but has also been increasing every year. It is especially important for this country as one of the developing countries with an unstable economy.It is considered that the efficient use of wood products also includes material and energy flow not only in the economic sector, but also forestry, manufacturing, and construction, as well as waste management of the products. Manufacturing industries are considered to be the most analyzed systems for the development of these models [9][10][11][12], along with optimizing resources in the wood industry [13]. Leading to high production costs and limited material sources, significant progress has been made in achieving high system performance through innovative solutions for energy savings and the redesign of production processes [14][15][16]. The redesign of energy flows, especially in manufacturing, can significantly improve the overall life cycle environment performance of wood products [11].The basic factors that determine the production processes are certainly the price of energy and the cost of energy flows. It is noted that over 80% of energy needs in the industry are compensated by using fossil fuels [17]. Cost reduction is considered as one of the critical elements in proper energy management, because energy savings reduce production costs and increase profits [18]. Also, energy efficiency represents one of the key elements of sustainable development [19,20]. Especially important is the data that estimates that the energy consumption will increa...