Abstract:The importance of distribution channels comes from the increasingly sophisticated consumer demands, producer's focus on core competences, and the contribution of the distribution channels to achievement of goals at the national economy level. Due to the fact that intermediaries of distribution channel have the role to link producer and consumers, the results of their functioning have a direct impact on the mentioned partners in the channel. Therefore, the efficiency of the intermediaries directly affects the performance of related partners, producers and consumers. Retailers, as intermediaries in the channel, attracted great attention due to their leadership position and power, which proceed from direct communication with consumers. In this regard, the objective of the research presented in this paper is the analysis of the importance of distribution channels, from partners' point of view, as well as from macro aspect, with special reference to the retailers, as the primary participants in the distribution channel, in the Republic of Serbia. As indicators of performance, authors use Return of Sale (ROS) and Return of Equity (ROE). By applying the regression analysis, the authors examine whether the performance and role of retail chain leaders in distribution channels depends on the size of the sales network, or the number of sales facilities. The survey shows that the largest retail chains in the Republic of Serbia are performing below the average for the retail sector, and that the size of their retail network has a significant impact on the achieved results.

In the modern business environment risk management has become a key assistant to enterprise management. Considering that, supply chain management, as part of enterprise management, cannot ignore the risks and the need for implementation of an adequate risk management strategy. Supply chain, as well as inter-organizational network, is the source of competitive advantage. However, inadequate risk management within a supply chain can lead to interruptions of the chain and to the lack of results at the level of the whole supply chain, as well as at the level of individual partners. Upstream supply chain represents the part of supply chain from suppliers to producer. The objective of this paper is to analyse how and to what extent the structure and the number of partners in this part of the supply chain influence (increase or decrease) supply chain vulnerability. The authors analyse the factors which most commonly affect to upstream supply chain and threaten its functioning. By analysing the supply chains from different area, the authors suggest that the size of the supplier's base can be treated as the resistance factor, but also as a factor of vulnerability.

Nowadays competition has been spread to supply chains, instead of individual enterprises. Therefore, beside evaluation of enterprise’s capabilities to manage business processes, it is important to assess capabilities for business process management at supply chain level. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to point out the necessity of supply chain management maturity in implementation of best practice. Research methodology is based on supply chain management maturity models. Application of the Delphi method enabled usage of maturity model, adapted to the enterprises in Serbia. The value of the research precedes from unique combination of best practice elements for the assessment of supply chain management maturity level. The research results show that best practice elements are not very popular in the enterprises in Serbia. All enterprises are at the second and third maturity level. Bearing in mind that everything has to be improved continually, maturity models, proposed by different authors can be further developed by including certain statistical tools. The original contribution of this paper and its practical implication refer to including statistical tools, hierarchical cluster analysis and correlation, into maturity analysis, thus enabling creation of framework as a road-map for the improvement of supply chain management maturity.

Supply chain assumes a unique business process without inter-company boundaries. Each supply chain partner is important for achievement of customer requirements. On the one hand, supply chain is an inexhaustible source of competitive advantage, created by the companies, which constitute it. However, on the other hand, due to its complexness, supply chain is an easy target of numerous factors, which jeopardize its competitiveness. Some of those factors are: turbulence, deliberate threats, external pressures, resource limits, sensitivity, and supplier/customer disruptions. Successful dealing with those factors assumes establishment of mechanisms for increasing supply chain resilience. Many researches indicate that some factors have greater influence on supply chain disruption and discontinuance. If those factors can be isolated, it will be easier to manage them or to avoid their influence. Therefore, the objective of the research presented in this paper is identification of the most frequent causes of supply chain disturbances, as a first step for developing supply chain resilience. According to the research results, the authors suggest what should be a primary focus of supply chain management, dealing with issues of resilience. Also, the authors indicate which characteristics (capability factors) supply chains have to have in order to be considered resistant.