A competitive business environment pushes beekeepers to the creation of value at a higher level than the competition in a way that is difficult to imitate. In order to survive in a competitive business environment, beekeeping producers must direct their resources towards innovative solutions, which can include honey quality assurance programmes and further product development, as well as creation of value-added honey products that is translated in good business performance. As the potential of the Republic of Serbia’s beekeeping production can be strengthened and its products exported beyond the national market, there is a need to examine the influence of a set of factors that can impact the beekeeper’s business performance. Therefore, this paper will examine the direct and indirect influence of the competitive environment (the business environment opportunities, threats and the relationships with the consumers) and innovative performance (in the field of marketing, product design, product quality, distribution, manufacturing and time to market) on the business performance of Serbian beekeepers. This research uses the SEM method with the SmartPLS tool. The findings of the model have confirmed that a competitive environment and innovative performance have a direct positive, statistically significant impact on the business performance of Serbian beekeeping production. A weak indirect influence of a competitive environment on the business performance of beekeepers has been confirmed. The model has proven to be significant, and a high percentage of variations in beekeepers’ business performance has been explained by the influence of two independent variables (competitive environment and innovative performance). As there is no previous research on the nexus of the competitive environment, innovative performance and business performance of Serbian beekeepers, these findings may be of special interest to authors and researchers, beekeeping organizations and representatives of agricultural advisory services.

User-generated content (UGC) plays a central role in social commerce. However, existing knowledge remains theoretically fragmented across constructs, perspectives, and empirical contexts. To address this gap, this study conducts a systematic review of 60 peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2024, following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. It develops an integrative conceptual perspective structured around five key dimensions: trust, authenticity, perceived risk, engagement, and loyalty. The findings demonstrate that UGC influences consumer decision-making primarily through mediating psychological and social mechanisms, including trust, satisfaction, perceived value, social presence, and community identification. At the same time, perceived risk remains insufficiently theorized, and comprehensive multi-dimensional models remain scarce in the literature. The study advances social commerce theory by consolidating fragmented evidence into a coherent conceptual framework. It also explicitly foregrounds the central explanatory role of mediating mechanisms in UGC effects. From a practical perspective, the findings highlight the strategic importance of fostering authentic and trustworthy UGC. This supports sustainable consumer–brand relationships and long-term value creation within digital platform ecosystems. The review has limitations related to database coverage and language restrictions, which may have led to the omission of relevant studies.

Building and maintaining brand loyalty is one of the central research topics for marketers. Marketin experts have used various means to maintain the loyality of their customers to the brand. One of the newer tools is social media marketing. The goal of this study is to identify the impact of social media marketing that is has on brand loyalty in the Republic of Serbia, given that the concept is gaining attention in marketing circles. The sample consists of customers who follow at least one brand on social networks in Serbia. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire with a sample of 238 people that have been tested through multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed that customer loyalty to the brand has a possitive affect when the brand (1) offers useful campaigns, (2) offers relevant content, (3) offers popular content, (4) appears on various platforms and offers social media applications. Testing was performed using statistical-econometric software SPSS. Customers prefer to share music, technology-related content, fun content, but also

Marketplace sales in trade dates back to the Middle Ages. The meaningfulness and development of communication gained real meaning with the development of the marketplaces. Today, personal selling is part of the distribution of agricultural products and part of modern marketing. With the development of the global market and modern information technologies, the role of marketplace sales has taken on another dimension. The aim of this paper is to define the model of efficient sales on the market through direct marketing, sales promotion and living words. The results of theoretical research are based on scientific and professional literature, statistical data and tables, authors' experience, whereas field empirical research was conducted using a questionnaire. The results of empirical research show that the average desire for changes in the behaviour of sellers in sales and consumers in shopping is not present enough. From the conducted research, it can be concluded that in certain previously mentioned aspects of changes in behaviour, marketing communication can be established that will contribute to increasing consumer satisfaction and information.

Socio-demographic characteristics are proven vital in terms of different elements associated with choosing a tourist destination. The tourism industry in the time of Covid-19 has experienced numerous challenges. This research aims to examine the listed elements in the context of the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. The research results will answer the question if respondents who planned to spend summer holidays abroad in 2020, and that destination was replaced with a domestic destination, statistically significantly differ by some socio-demographic characteristics in comparison to those that planned to travel abroad and succeeded. The results show no differences in social-demographic characteristics and show that respondents who replaced tourist destinations abroad with a domestic ones are more eager to do that again in the future. Following obtained results of the research, the authors point to key conclusions and recommendations.

The research focuses on the impact of social media in the workplace among millennials. In the introduction, the importance of communication in modern society and the need for new forms of business communication are emphasized. The advantages and disadvantages of traditional means of communication are presented, leading to the integration of social media into the business environment. The study was conducted by surveying 183 millennials from February to April 2023. Statistical software SmartPLS 3.0 was used for data analysis. The results indicate a positive correlation between the use of social media, knowledge sharing, and job performance. Two out of three hypotheses were confirmed, but direct influence of social media on job performance was not confirmed. The paper highlights the importance of social media in the knowledge transfer process within organizations, concluding that they play a crucial role in business communication, enhancing transparency and the speed of information flow.