Authors analyze competitive strength and weakness of raspberry producers in Serbia and propose key prerequisites of which fulfilling will depend develop of successful cluster initiative in Serbian raspberry sector. The research results indicate that Serbian raspberry growers can develop successful cluster and they can keep leading position in the global market of raspberries, only with following many assumptions, like: (a) better organized marketing channel through the vertically and horizontal integration of all actors in this sector,(b) strengthening specialized cooperatives for raspberry production and associations of raspberry growers, and in the future setting up of producer organizations and associations; (c) inclusion of producers of other berries and producers of processed berries; (d) introducing innovations, scientific knowledge, and research and development in production, processing, packing, logistics, export of raspberries, etc. An analysis is based on case study in Šumadija and Western Serbia region, which is major region in raspberry production in Serbia.

This study explores market efficiency and behavior by integrating key theories such as the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH), Informational Efficiency and Random Walk theory. Using LSTM enhanced by optimizers like Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD), Adam, AdaGrad, and RMSprop, we analyze market inefficiencies in the Standard and Poor’s (SPX) index over a 22-year period. Our results reveal “pockets in time” that challenge EMH predictions, particularly with the AdaGrad optimizer at a size of the hidden layer (HS) of 64. Beyond forecasting, we apply the Dominguez–Lobato (DL) and General Spectral (GS) tests as part of the Martingale Difference Hypothesis to assess statistical inefficiencies and deviations from the Random Walk model. By emphasizing “informational efficiency”, we examine how quickly new information is reflected in stock prices. We argue that market inefficiencies are transient phenomena influenced by structural shifts and information flow, challenging the notion that forecasting alone can refute EMH. Additionally, we compare LSTM with ARIMA with Exponential Smoothing, and LightGBM to highlight the strengths and limitations of these models in financial forecasting. The LSTM model excels at capturing temporal dependencies, while LightGBM demonstrates its effectiveness in detecting non-linear relationships. Our comprehensive approach offers a nuanced understanding of market dynamics and inefficiencies.

The article reports on a statistical analysis of the importance and role information plays in crisis management. The purpose of the research is to empirically examine the impact that information makes on crisis management and on activities conducted by crisis managers. The empirical research is conducted using the questionnaire approach. Questionnaire was designed to capture the most relevant aspects of crisis management as perceived by respondents with an aim to examine how information affects crisis management and which organizational factors affect the information flow in crisis. The research sample included 299 respondents from the wider are of the City of Belgrade. The data were analyzed using the SPSS Software Package. The research results indicate that appropriate methodology enables organizations to manage crisis and better avoid its consequences, as well as that quality of crisis managers, professional staff, informing process, internal and external communication, timely sharing and information accuracy in crisis, as well as knowledge and capabilities of employees and managers to use information have average to high impact on the quality of crisis management.

In this paper, we focus on individual factors that influence on people t o engage in formal volunteering, providing empirical evidence from Serbia. We discussed Batson?s four-motive theory of communal actions. The majority of Serbian volunteers reportedly dedicated their time in order to contribute to the community and to help people in need. Thus, they were driven by collectivism and altruism. The lack of time, lack of solicitation for volunteering and being unable to make long-term commitments were reported as the main barriers to volunteering. Serbian volunteers rarely obtain material and non-material benefits from volunteering, and they do not perceive volunteering as a valuable tool for job success. Then, we focused on Schwartz value theory and its potential to explain pro-social behaviour. Our findings based on descriptive statistics and the independent samples t test show that self-transcendence values are more important for Serbian volunteers than self-enhancement values, and that self-transcendence values are more emphasized among volunteers than among non-volunteers. However, we also found that on average volunteers score higher on self-enhancement value orientation than nonvolunteers. Our findings, based on multiple regression models, cannot confirm that, controlled for other factors, volunteers and non-volunteers have different value orientations. Finally, according to the logistic regression models, Serbian volunteers are more likely to be found among younger, better-educated population, with higher scores on the scale of self-transcendence value orientations.