One of the basic measures of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is a lockdown policy with reduced contacts and physical distance. This presents a challenge, especially for fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) supply chains, which are characterized by a large number of physical contacts between employees in production, physical distribution, wholesale, and retail. One of the ways to comply with the prescribed measures with the smooth functioning of the supply chain is the complete digitalization and automation of all business activities and operations based on the application of the Internet of Things (IoT). In this regard, this paper aims to analyze the setbacks to the digitalization of business processes and the sustainability of the FMCG supply chain based on the implementation of IoT. The research has been conducted among the participants in the standardization chain in the sectors of production, physical distribution, wholesale, and retail of FMCG in the Western Balkans region during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed significant differences between business sectors in terms of the intensity of setbacks to successful IoT implementation. Based on the obtained results, a set of measures and incentives was proposed that the competent institutions and the management of the FMCG supply chain should apply to encourage the digitalization process. Suggestions for future research are given in the paper.

The goal of the research was to explore and determine the relationships between CSR related to employees and business and environmental performance. The authors conducted field research on the territory of Autonomous Provence of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia in the period from October 2019 until the end of March 2020 to collect the data from business organizations on their CSR activities and organizational outcomes. The research is conducted as a part of a one-year research project funded by the Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina for 2019. To explore these relations, there has been performed PLS analysis in the statistical software Smart PLS 3.

The significance of green rural tourism for sustainable development is widely recognized. In addition, a number of researches attempt to explain the green choice among tourists. Hereby, different theoretical approaches are used. The dynamic approach to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is implemented in this study. The approach considers that the influence of different elements of TPB (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control) on intention to visit green rural hotels is tested in the context of different phases in behavior change of the respondents (pre-decision, pre-action, action). According to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first implementation of the dynamic approach to the TPB in understanding green rural choice. During data analysis, multigroup structural equation modelling (SEM) was used. The results indicate that the existence and the strength of the influences of the elements of TPB are different in different phases of behavior change. Managerial implications for the studied market (Serbia) are also provided within the paper.

The bioeconomy has been introduced as a potential answer to some of the issues that modern mankind is confronted with: Climate change, industrial restructuring, food security, health, and energy security. In its goal to establish sustainable green growth, the bioeconomy relies heavily on the agriculture and food sector, whereas a special place belongs to organic food. Increasing organic food consumption depends on understanding organic food consumers. Research of their profile, both worldwide and in Serbia, has failed to find their common characteristics. In this paper, results of research with the first application of a logit model in defining domestic organic food consumers are presented. The results showed they were urban, highly educated, and with higher income. The greatest obstacle for increasing their future consumption of organic food was its insufficient availability. The paper provides managerial implications as well.

The paper dealt with the existence of causality in Granger's sense between competitiveness and market share, and vice versa, on emerging markets so as to answer the question whether it is possible to forecast the movement of the market share of an enterprise based on the data about the movement of the competitiveness of that enterprise. The research study was carried out on 96 textile companies from Serbia. Montenegro. and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results of research have shown that relationship between competitiveness and market share is generally weak and in many industrial sectors it is nonexistent. In other words, the research results reveal that the existence of causality in Granger's sense between competitiveness and market share on the selected emerging markets depends on the branch of textile industry.

Although the European business environment induces important premises and assures conditions in determining economic growth and social well-being, the determinant and existent connections between the evolution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business demography characteristics and the European socio-economic model have been scarcely studied in recent years. The dimensions of the European socio-economic model design a very specific framework in developing business demography and assuring a favorable environment for future SME development. The main aim of the manuscript is to investigate the evolution of the European SMEs sector and the perspective of business demography evolution to converge with exigencies of the European socio-economic model. In order to argue the research objective, eight specific and representative business demography variables were employed, from 12 European Union member states (EU-MS), during 2009–2017. Further, the SMEs’ performances, determined by changing the economic functional paradigm, were assessed. For proving this, an econometric model was designed considering labor productivity as an endogenous variable. Our preliminary analysis shows considerable differences in business demography indicators and SMEs development among all five socio-economic sub-models of the main European socio-economic model, proving a tight connection between European socio-economic models and SMEs’ performance and arguing the necessity of a paradigm convergence. Within some sub-models, there is clear evidence of clustering and convergence in terms of business demography and SMEs future development.