Tax incentives as a factor of economic growth ivana domazet and darko marjanović

3. Research Methodology 
For the purpose of this empirical research quantitative approach was used 
based on the collection of numerical data, their mutual comparison and identification 
and analysis of interconnections between them. In order to get as accurate answers as 
possible and therefore be able to draw adequate conclusions the questioning method 
was used, i.e. the survey technique based on a structured questionnaire which was 
distributed to foreign investors via e-mail. By choosing this method the consistent 
responses will be obtained from foreign investors, considering that the respondents 
are generally limited in their answers to a few alternatives. 
Being one of the most commonly used techniques in business studies, it was 
selected because of its advantages over other techniques. One of its main advantages 
is certainly the coding, analysis and interpretation of data. Comparing the most 
important characteristics, as well as the advantages and disadvantages, basic types of 
surveys, electronic survey was selected. For this technique it is significant that 
information is obtained very quickly, there is a high level of quality and quantity of the 
obtained data along with elimination of all forms of bias of the person conducting the 
research. 
Table 1: The size of business entity of the foreign investor in Serbia 
 
Small business entity 
(SBE) 
Medium-sized business 
entity (MBE) 
Large business entity 
(LBE) 
Frequency 
Percentage 
Frequency 
Percentage 
Frequency 
Percentage 
16 
18.2 
22 
25 
50 
56.8 
Source: Authors` calculations 
The study included 300 of the biggest foreign investors who have invested 
capital in Serbia in the last 15 years. Of all the companies that are scheduled to 

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Domazet, I., Marjanović, D.
97 
participate in this research, 88 of them gave positive responses (response percentage: 
29.33%). The main characteristics of the companies that participated in the survey are 
presented in the form of distribution of frequencies and percentages in Table 1.
 
The first task in this research was to graphically present each of the analyzed 
dependent variables of techniques and descriptive statistics, which enabled the 
visualization of results and calculation of frequency, percentage, average score, 
standard deviations and variances. The second task was to analyze differences in 
dependent variables and according to subgroups the independent variables, i.e. linking 
dependent and independent variables with the aim of determining the possible 
existence of significant differences. In order to determine the existence of statistically 
significant differences in the evaluation of the analyzed issues among different groups 
of foreign investors (the difference between three or more groups of respondents) 
factor analysis of variance of different groups was used as in 
(1)
: 
η
2
=
∑
i=
1
k
N
i
(
X
i
−
X
)
2
∑
i=
1
k
∑
j=
1
N
j
(
X
ij
−
X
)
2
 (1)
η
2
=
t2
t2
+
(
N1
+
N2
−
2
)
(2)
If differences are compared between the two groups of the respondents, t-test 
of independent samples was used to calculate the value of statistically significant 
difference as shown in 
(2).