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The purpose of this study is to determine whether intellectual capital (IC) creates value in the Serbian hotel industry. Specifically, this paper examines to what degree IC and its key components affect the financial performance of hotels compared to physical and financial capital.

The sample included all of the hotels that operated as independent entities in Serbia during 2009–2012. value-added intellectual coefficient was used to measure the level of IC contribution to value creation, which was linked to various measures of financial performance, including operating profit, return on equity, return on assets, profitability and employee productivity.

Results indicate that after controlling for firm size and leverage, employee productivity and, to some extent, profitability were affected by human and structural capital. The research confirms that the financial performance of hotels in Serbia remains predominantly influenced by efficient use of physical capital.

The study’s generalizability is limited to the hotel sector within Serbia.

Senior managers in the hotel industry must recognize the importance of managing both the physical aspects of their hotels and the intangible resources embedded in their employees and processes.

The findings will aid recognition of the importance of investing in IC in hotel industry as a crucial element of achieving competitive advantage in the information age. Moreover, the findings suggest that long-term growth should not rely solely on physical and financial assets.

The main goal of this study is to determine the role of employee commitment in the relations between the compensation system and turnover intentions of employees in the Republic of Serbia, as well as to investigate whether there is a mediating effect of employee commitment in this relation.

The primary methodology implemented in the research was data gathering, obtaining theoretical research works on the proposed relations and empirical studies based on the PLS-SEM, analysed by IBM SPSS Statistics and SmartPLS data processing software. The data for the analysis was obtained from a total sample of 764 employees, collected in the Republic of Serbia via an online questionnaire.

The results indicated a positive statistically significant relationship between the formative construct (compensation system) and reflective construct (commitment), as well as a negative statistically significant relationship between the compensation system and reflective construct (turnover intentions). Employee commitment partially mediates the relationship between the compensation system and turnover intentions of employees.

The study was conducted in Serbia and is thus rooted in the specific national context which is characterized by high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance and more collectivistic society with feminine values more expressed. Most of the previous investigations related to the mentioned constructs were performed in companies from more developed countries, including Western Europe and the United States of America, whereas there has been no such research conducted in Serbia to date. The results portrayed a mismatch between the expected relations regarding the attitudes of employees to the rewards and the proposed national context. Modern companies in Serbia need to follow a modern reward mechanism to build stronger commitment and decrease turnover intentions. Moreover, in most earlier research works, compensation was examined in terms of satisfaction with rewards, while this study was based on questions related to perceptions of employees toward HR compensation practices (“The organization offers me”-type questions), not related to their satisfaction. Further, in the majority of previous research works, the compensation system was examined as a variable in combination with other HR processes (staffing, training and development, career development, employee relations, HR planning, communication, etc.), as a HPWP, while in this case the authors used only the practice of compensation (reward elements and employee performance evaluation) to investigate relations with commitment and turnover intentions.

In the late 1990s, the tourism in Serbia had been developing spontaneously, supported by the policy of undifferentiated marketing. That kind of approach to tourism development led to unsatisfying results, which is a notion primarily based on Serbia’s obvious natural and social resources. An alternative to this approach to tourism development is the differentiated marketing strategy focusing on relevant market segments called “targets.” That way, it would be possible to commercially valorize a significant number of resources (natural and social) as well as a large number of touristic products.

Due to current trends in the international tourism market – moving away from the concept of mass tourism (holiday at the seaside and “ski resorts”), i.e., the ongoing diversification of tourism products, there is undoubtedly more potential for new tourism development trends. The increasing investment in tourism development of the Danube basin, with a larger number of potential tourist products, is expected to make it more attractive to the tourist market. This should have positive effects on the overall development of tourism in Serbia.

This chapter focuses primarily on the research of the Upper Danube region. It will show the importance of the natural and social (anthropogenic) resources suitable for the development of tourism in this area. Special attention shall be paid to the concept of sustainable tourism development, which develops tourism in accordance with the interests of all stakeholders. The positive interaction between all interest groups creates the conditions that ensure satisfaction of all stakeholders and general welfare.

Geographical mobility is often considered fundamental to a well-functioning labour market, and thus to the economy as a whole. Typically, geographical mobility can be achieved either through commuting or through migration. Commuting can be considered important for households to have access to job market opportunities and for business to access labour, skills and competencies. Previous research has found commuting patterns to differ between men and women, for example, in the sense that women travel shorter distances and rely more on public transport. However, we also know that factors such as higher education can influence an individual’s decision to commute, possibly because of specialization and a higher salary. As women’s education level approaches, or surpasses, that of men’s, one would expect to see more similarities between the travel behaviour of the two genders. In this study, we analyse gender patterns of commuting in Norway, Serbia and Sweden. We specifically address the issue of gender gap in commuting. Findings show that though there are signs of convergence, there are large regional variations. The gender gap is decreasing primarily in the more urban regions, while it is decreasing less, and even increasing, given the various levels of aggregation, in the more rural areas.

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of sustainable development, especially its environmental component in trade and retail sector of the Republic of Serbia. Due to a number of factors, such as increased consumer awareness on the importance of eco-products, new statutory and legal regulations, and increased competition, retail chains are increasingly oriented to the concept of sustainable development, in particular promoting its environmental component, eco-products, and eco packaging. Trade, especially retail, plays an important role in linking producers and consumers, and society as a whole. In this way, trade has a good overview of all the changes occurring in the environment, production, and consumer needs. Changes in the environment further stimulate trade to operate in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, including all its dimensions. In this regard, special attention is paid to the protection of working and living environment, as components of sustainable development. The chapter includes a review of literature in the field of sustainable development and application of this concept in the trade and retail sector. The theoretical aspect of the research focuses on conceptualization of sustainable development and its environmental component in trade and retail. With reference to theoretical research on the implementation of environmental component of sustainable development in trade, empirical research has been conducted from two aspects. First, analysis focuses on the performance and socio-economic importance of trade sector of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the number of ISO 14001 certificates in trading companies. Second, analysis shifts to the largest trading companies in the Republic of Serbia, based on available secondary data on the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and its environmental component.

Introduction: This study presents defining and analysis of the results of people infected with COVID-19. The main goal of this chapter is to extract and present an overview of COVID-19 pandemic infection; wherewith extracted dataset, we analyse confirmed, deaths and recovery cases.

Aim: This chapter tries to analyse the differences between Balkan states according to affected cases with COVID-19. To achieve our goal, we used a reported dataset from World Health Organization (WHO). The methodology used in this chapter is quantitative by measuring the data and comparing these data. Results show compared cases between countries in Balkan.

Results: The data are analysed using SPSS software. The analysed data show that there exist very important differences between states regarding all cases that are either positive or deaths of recovered. All the data are collected from WHO databases in the CSV file where the number of cases in our dataset is 2,762 rows which include Balkan countries.

Conclusion: All these cases are taken in the period January–December 2020. These contain a total of 10 cases from Balkan countries. In this way, the number of infected, confirmed and death cases is shown in that region.

Originality/value: This chapter contributes to defining and analysing the epidemiology of all states which are part of Balkan territory. As we know, COVID-19 has its impact in different forms but the greatest consequences in these places are tremendous. According to WHO reports, we see three statements of cases which are cured, died and infected up until now. The most powerful states in the world have passed this period of infection in different forms successfully, but some of them, such as in the Balkan region, have failed by having numerous deaths and this had an impact on the economy, free movement of people and so on.

This study aims to investigate whether the model containing five organisational determinants of corporate entrepreneurship developed by Kuratko, Hornsby and Covin is valid in Serbia.

The model was tested on a sample that included managers and employees from four banks in Serbia. The Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI) was used as the research instrument and factor analysis was used as the basic statistical method. This study examined whether the 48 items that compose the CEAI could be grouped in the context of the national culture of Serbia to provide the five determinants that were identified by Kuratko, Hornsby and Covin.

The results show that the factor analysis identified four determinants identical to those in the CEAI model. However, time availability failed the validity test in previous studies conducted in Serbia and other countries with collectivist cultures. It can be concluded that collectivism connected with high-power distance, uncertainty avoidance and the polychromatic concept of time caused the cultural limitation of time availability as a determinant of corporate entrepreneurship.

This study indicates that national culture could be a factor that determines the validity of organisational determinants of corporate entrepreneurship and that these factors cannot be taken for granted in cultures other than those in which the theory of corporate entrepreneurship arose. Finally, corporate entrepreneurship has been investigated in the banking industry, which is unusual because it is globally renowned for its conservatism.

The paper aims to present a pedagogical model tailored to the development of key competences in the urban planning profession in post-socialist transitional countries that is based on the creation of an integrated platform for dialogue and the development of professional competences as part of the process, whereby students produce their final projects.

The pedagogical model is based on the principles of education for sustainable development and focuses on the establishment of a repeatable platform for dialogue between students and mentors, members of the mentoring team, the local community, external members of the consulting team of experts and foreign master’s degree programmes, in the process of producing students’ projects. The proposed method addresses several dimensions, including: the education of students, teachers, professionals and local experts, the establishment of a network for cooperation and collaboration and the delivery of practical and usable results.

The paper provides a comparative overview of the pedagogical model’s application in producing the final master’s degree projects of three generations of students, as well as its alignment with the needs of re-defining the role and reach of the profession of urban planner in an environment of post-socialist transition. The model was improved, enhanced and optimised through this process and then corroborated with its practical implementation.

The innovative pedagogical model comprises an instrument to enhance the professional capacities of all participants in the production of final master’s projects: academics, practitioners and future professionals/students, through discussions of topical issues, innovative modes of work and new professional responses grounded in the local context and tested by a broad range of stakeholders. It is of particular importance for countries in transition experiencing a shift in the paradigm of professional action, especially as the proposed pedagogical model establishes a problem-solving platform that surpasses academia.