One of the major challenges for policymakers in Serbia is to improve the competitiveness of the Serbian economy. Universally applicable solution to this problem does not exist, but there are certain segments which can be a significant driver of improving the effectiveness and productivity of the economy by implementing diverse possibilities offered by the digital economy. A critical factor in the development of digital economy is the sector of information and communication technology (ICT), which has the potential to extremely improve the competitiveness of Serbia and start production towards modern business processes, but also contribute to a notable synergistic effect in terms of the competitiveness of micro-enterprises. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a factor for competitiveness and development of the digital economy, to analyze the application of ICT in the economy of Serbia, to highlight the benefits of development and acceptance of new solutions in the field of ICT, to create recommendations that would contribute to improving the business environment in the ICT field, and consequently of the digital economy as a whole.

The aim of this article is to provide empirical evidence on the level of digital entrepreneurial competences (DEC) that higher education students acquire during their higher education and to investigate the relationship between their socio-demographic characteristics and the level of DEC. The first competence area (Identification of opportunities) of the DEC EmDigital competence framework was assessed together with its three sub-competence areas (Search for and analysis of information, Creativity and innovation, and Prospecting), and the relationship between the level of DEC and various socio-demographic characteristics of higher education students was investigated using logistic regression. The results show a relatively low DEC level of the participating students for the first EmDigital competence area. Location, field of study, level of study and employment status were found to be statistically significant for the acquisition of DEC, while the variables age and gender had little impact. The results of this study are a step towards the development of an DEC online assessment tool (using the Digital Competence Wheel as a role model) that universities and other stakeholders could use to assess the level of DEC their students acquire during university education. This research is the first study to assess the acquisition of DEC during university studies and the impact of different socio-demographic characteristics of students on their level of DEC.

The aim of the research presented in this paper is to provide insights into marketing communication changes induced by digital transformation and social media use. Contemporary marketing communication strategies are observed in the context of dominant information sources shift, as well as demographic trends that have placed Generation Yin marketing theorists' and practitioners' focus of interest. This paper examines the role and significance of prominent social media users - influencers in creating contemporary marketing communication. Considering the fact that modern customers are characterized by a high degree of digital sophistication, the research in this paper focused on the prominence of social media as main sources of information sharing. This paper presents the results of an empirical research which aim was to examine the attitudes of Generation Y members in Serbia regarding influencer marketing. The contribution of this paper is reflected in the critical analysis of obtained results, thus increasing the corpus of relevant knowledge.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the social environment on foreign investment inflows in Serbia. It surveyed the largest 300 foreign investors over the period 2001–2019 and achieved a response rate of 29.3%. The obtained results show that the crime rate, skilled labor, and attitude toward foreigners are the most important for foreign investors in Serbia. The main contribution of this paper is that it represents a rare attempt to provide an empirical research on the attitudes of foreign investors, in the context of the transition economy in the region of Southeast Europe.

Innovative capacity represents the ability of long-term production and commercialization of the flow of innovative technologies and is an essential factor influencing competitiveness in modern economies. When it comes to innovation, research and development, gross domestic product (GDP) is often used as an indicator of investment opportunities at the national level to gain insight into the country's ability to improve innovation and competitiveness. Accordingly, this paper aims to determine whether the export of high-tech products, as one of the results of innovation in the economy, measured by GDP growth, has a positive effect on overall economic growth. For the analysis process to have a comparative character, four countries were included in the empirical research: Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. The international Eurostat database was used as the main source of data, and the period covered by this survey is from 2008 to 2018. A simple linear regression model was applied in the analysis to determine the relationship between the share of hightech products in the country's total exports and GDP per capita. The research results in this paper show that it was not possible to confirm the positive relationship between exports of high-tech products and GDP growth in the case of Serbia, Hungary and Romania, while in the case of Bulgaria, the impact of growth in exports of high-tech products on GDP growth can be confirmed. According to the obtained results, it is most adequate that the issue of innovation, exports and economic growth is not observed exclusively through the development and application of innovations in high-tech industries. We need to look at the broader context in terms of how much innovation can improve exports and the overall business of medium and technologically inferior (less demanding) industries, what innovations these industries need, and how to develop and implement them.

Foreign direct investment is considered an effective way to enhance a country's comparative advantages. They are also a significant source of economic development, modernization, growth of production, exports, employment and income, and the main actors are multinational companies. Globalization of the market has increased the tendency for many companies to procure goods and services from different locations. The main goal of the paper is to present the structure and forms of FDI at the global level, as well as theories of FDI through the interconnectedness of multinational companies, their investments, and the economy of a country as an end user. The results of the research clearly indicate that it is in the interest of every country to attract as many FDI as possible, given that they are one of the success factors of the national economy in the global market. Therefore, the primary task of economic policy makers is to monitor world trends, harmonize domestic regulations and create an investment climate that will benefit foreign investors.