In recent years, the stability of supply chains has been undermined due to many disruptions. Although it is normal for the disruptions in supply chains to occur periodically, they have great impact on the rise of the costs and they create strong imbalances in business. For years, most world trade has been performed by maritime transport due its cost-effectiveness. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain like nothing before, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has only deepened the crisis that is affecting the global supply chain. The focus of this paper has been placed on volatile freight rates in the maritime container industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequences of these crises on the changes of the prices of consumer goods in the European Union.

Modern production of packaging is characterized by great choice of packaging materials and the shape of the packaging. There is almost no product on the market that does not have highlighted symbols that should give information about the product and the packaging. Although most consumers pay attention to the symbols, a certain number never checks them, because they consider them irrelevant. The paper investigates consumer perception of the importance of green packaging of food products. A primary research on the sample of 115 respondents has been carried out investigating respondents' behaviour while making the choice on food product packaging. The findings suggest that concern for the environment and less danger for health are two major motives for buying food products in ecologically sustainable packaging. The respondents think that wood and paper have least influence on the environment, while plastic and glass harm the environment the most.

The purpose of this study was to explore outsourcing as a possible source of competitive advantage for road freight operators, with the empirical research directed towards the road freight transportation sector. Methodologically, this study drew on the data collected from a sample of Croatian road freight transporters. Because a certain number of transportation companies tend to outsource their resources, the insight into outsourcing activities was gained through analysing (1) the number of hired vehicles in the fleet (outsourced vehicles), and (2) the number of hired drivers (outsourced drivers). A variance inflation test, correlation and multiple regression analysis were conducted to test the model assumptions. The research results confirmed the connection between the externalised resources and the differentiation of services and staff. The main contribution and managerial implications included that the companies with a more significant number of hired vehicles in their fleet should differentiate their services. In contrast, the companies that own the majority of their vehicles should build their competitive advantage through staff differentiation.

The paper presents legal and economic aspects of the transfers of football players. Transfer rules in sports are problematic because they may result in unbalanced competition, social and financial fraud, disproportionate restrictions on the freedom of movement of players, excessive transfer fees and discrimination on the basis of nationality. The aim of the paper is to synthesize relevant knowledge and provide an overview of relevant regulatory framework regarding the player transfers in the European Union. The free movement of people and sports professionals is a key component of player transfers, and in order to confirm this, three prominent cases which shaped the transfer system were studied: the Bosman case, the Lehtonen case, the Bernard case and the Royal Antwerp case. Court ruled that sport is to be included to the list of activities covered by the Community Law as it qualified as an economic activity, particularly where it generates a profit or a paid service. Accomplished legal freedoms of players resulted in accompanying economic benefits, hence paper portrays economic aspects of transfers as well and chronologically analyses transfer market.

The paper concerns the method of determining the probability of unproductive manipulations during operations, maintenance or repairs on an inland intermodal terminal. The method is mathematically based on the semi-Markov process. The developed method enables revision of unproductive manipulation frequency and duration. It provides an opportunity to analyse and change inland terminal operations so as to increase productivity.