The research within this paper is motivated by the opinion that different organizational factors in primary education can have a stronger or weaker impact on the quality of the learning outcome. Organizational factors, criteria analyzed in this paper, are school management, school infrastructure, students’ foreknowledge, teacher competencies, curriculum content, student motivation, and the quality of the teaching process. Using SWARA (Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) method of multi-criteria decision-making, the answers of elementary school principals, members of the panel of experts, were processed. The calculation within this method was performed using fuzzy numbers to ensure the reliability of expert evaluations. The results of the applied method, in the form of weighting coefficients of the criteria, indicate that school management has an influence on the selection and building of teachers’ competencies while the given competence can indirectly affect the overall success of students through the establishment of an adequate school infrastructure, which affects the knowledge quality. Knowing the factor that has the highest impact enables principals to manage this factor and contribute to enhancing the knowledge quality. This research contributes to raising awareness of the importance of particular organizational factors in elementary education and the need to improve them.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of key competitiveness factors on sustainable business performance in the hospitality sector through the application of an integrated approach, from the perspective of hotel service users. The research was conducted on a sample of 1640 hotel guests who stayed in hotels operating in the Republic of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Utilizing a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, the study meticulously analyzed various competitiveness factors: service quality, service, service recovery, hotel user satisfaction, loyalty and discretionary behavior and dysfunctional consumer behavior. The results of the research reveal that all identified key factors significantly impact the sustainable performance of hotel operations. The findings suggest that hotels must prioritize these elements to enhance their competitiveness and ensure ongoing success in a challenging market environment. Notably, one intriguing finding is that loyalty does not serve as a buffer in the relationship between customer dissatisfaction and dysfunctional behavior, indicating that even loyal customers can exhibit negative behaviors when their expectations are not met. This underscores the importance of addressing guest satisfaction proactively to mitigate potential adverse outcomes and retain a loyal customer base. Moreover, this study provides valuable insights for hotel management, highlighting the necessity for holistic strategies that not only aim to improve guest experiences but also consider the intricate dynamics between various competitiveness factors that ultimately contribute to the sustainability and profitability of the hospitality industry. Rejecting the sub-hypothesis that loyalty among hotel service users moderates the impact of dissatisfaction on the expression of dysfunctional consumer behavior indicates the need to review certain theories that comprise the dominant theoretical framework in the field of hospitality. This implies the need for further analysis of the validity of the dominant theories in the hospitality industry, especially in defining the conditions under which their postulates hold indisputably. Second, further examination of the role of loyalty is needed, since there are different types of loyalty.

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.

This paper examines the impact of ten microeconomic factors on hotel business success. This research encompassed a sample of 115 small, family-operated hotels situated in rural regions of the Western Balkan countries (WBC). This research was based on the assumption that factors such as the size of the hotel, age, solvency, liquidity, labour productivity, capital productivity, CSR, and reduction of CO₂ emissions exhibit a positive influence on business success, whereas leverage, indebtedness, and energy consumption have a negative effect on the business success of hotels. The findings revealed that business success from the previous period, size, liquidity, and CSR exhibit a positive influence on business success, whereas leverage, capital productivity, and indebtedness demonstrate a negative effect. Conversely, the age of the hotel and labour productivity were not found to significantly influence business success, as did energy consumption. In the context of sustainable development, a positive CSR impact means that tourists value this behaviour of the hotel, while a lack of a statistically significant impact of energy consumption implies either that hotels do not implement efficient measures of energy efficiency or that energy efficiency may not be a crucial factor in attracting guests or influencing their loyalty. The findings also show that labour productivity expressed conventionally does not have a statistically significant impact on hotel business success. However, when expressed in a way that respects the concept of sustainable development and CSR, workforce productivity is a significant factor in hotel business success. Due to the problem of multicollinearity, the influence of CO₂ emissions was not examined. The findings suggest the following two groups of key measures: 1. Policymakers must work on ensuring more favourable conditions under which hotels can borrow, as well as on ensuring adequate infrastructure; 2. They must work on improving the strategy for maintaining liquidity to avoid the high costs of short-term loans and increasing size in order to further utilise economies of scale. These two microeconomic factors have the greatest impact on the business success of hotels.

Purpose - The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of guest loyalty in the relationship between satisfaction with service recovery (SSR) and consumer citizenship behavior (CCB), as well as dysfunctional customer behavior (DCB) of hotel guests. Methodology - The study was conducted on a sample of 1,324 guests from hotels operating in the Republic of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia in mountain tourism. The obtained data were analyzed using an SEM approach. Findings - Loyalty has a mediating role in the relationship between SSR and CCB. On the other hand, loyalty does not have a mediating role in the relationship between SSR and DCB of hotel guests during their stay. Implications - The study has theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical implication is that loyalty forms the foundation for guests' cognitive and affective responses when they are satisfied with a service recovery; this means that loyalty is a driver of hotel guests' CCB. In the opposite situation, loyalty does not act as a shock absorber that will mitigate the impact of dissatisfaction with service recovery on the manifestation of DCB. The practical implications are that hotels must prioritize effective service recovery strategies to enhance guest loyalty and encourage CCB while simultaneously reducing the risk of DCB.

Purpose: The paper examines the role and significance of gastronomic manifestations in the context of destination branding, within the framework of image transfer mechanisms and the Associative Network Memory Model.Design/methodology/approach: The research was conducted on a sample of 53 gastronomic events in the tourist destination of Vojvodina.Findings: The results indicate that gastronomic manifestations image has a positive impact on the brand image and brand identity of the destination, as well as the destination's overall image. Furthermore, the study found that the food experience has a positive influence on the image of gastronomic events and the destination.Originality/value: The study contributes to the advancement of research on tourist destination branding.