Considering the benefits of the organic production system, it is recognized as one of the main drivers of future economic development. However, the imbalance between demand and supply at the local market level represents one of the serious obstacles that prevents its future growth. Therefore, this article examines the key factors related to the main elements of the offer that have the strongest impact on consumer preferences and acceptance of organic food products. In that sense, organic product, price, distribution channel, and promotion are considered the main elements of the offer and are analyzed in this paper from the consumer preferences perspective. Further, this article provides insight into some of the sensory properties of the offer that are important to consumers. Finally, it gives recommendations for optimization of the offer on the organic food market based on the analysis of the influence of each of those elements (product, price, distribution, and promotion) on consumer acceptance of organic products and making purchasing decisions. The data were collected using a questionnaire, and analyzed using the structural equation model (SEM). The results revealed that price and promotion have the strongest impact on consumer acceptance and buying decisions. Further analysis revealed that attitudes towards organic food products, price/quality ratio, distribution barriers, and modern media as a promotion instrument are the factors that have the most significant impact on consumer perception and attitudes towards the available market offer. These findings can help producers and other decision makers to better understand what creates added value of the organic food products in consumers’ mind and therefore make an offer that is in line with their expectations and preferences, which is recognized as one of the main prerequisites for the acceptance and purchase of organic food products.

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This article expounds one of the first attempts to explore the relationship between tourist arrivals and gross domestic product (GDP) in Montenegro and Slovenia. Both countries are newcomers on the tourist destinations map, derived from what was previously Yugoslav republics existing as a singular emerging tourist destination. Data vector for empirical analysis covers quarterly change of GDP at constant prices and monthly data for tourist arrivals during January 2010 -December 2019 as an endogenous variable. The cointegration is used in the modelling structure. The empirical results confirm research hypothesis of uni-causal relationship of economic growth-led domestic tourism growth in Montenegro and one cointegrated vector. No cointegration vector was confirmed for Slovenia. These results are important for research, policymakers and tourism practice. Considering that, tourism and economic growth have a different distribution of causalities during the expansion period with a boost of tourist arrivals and vice versa during the economic downturn.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the level of influence of online media on the parents’ attitudes toward vaccination of children in three countries of the Western Balkans—Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to use the potentials of this form of communication effectively and efficiently. Online media are a critical factor of influence on the formation of attitudes in many areas of modern society, which is why their proper use plays an important role in strengthening vaccine confidence and which may further contribute to improvement of public health. On the other side, having in mind the fact that communication is an integral part of marketing, it is clear that social marketing has an extremely important role regarding the analyzed topic, especially because of the fact that social marketing activities tend to change or maintain people’s behavior for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole. For the purpose of this research, a conceptual model was developed. Quantitative research was conducted online in the first quarter of 2020 using the survey method. Statistical analysis was applied to data collected from 1593 parents in the analyzed countries. The relevance of the hypotheses was tested using standard statistical tests, ANOVA test, eta coefficient, and logistic regression. The research showed that all analyzed variables from the model have a significant impact on the parents’ attitudes toward the vaccination of children and that they correlate with the degree of trust in vaccines. The results also approved that online media have a significant influence on the formation of parents’ attitudes toward the vaccination of children (obtained values of eta coefficient η2 = 0.216, η2 = 0.18, η2 = 0.167, η2 = 0.090, reliability Cronbach’s Alpha 0.892), which confirms the importance of the use of social marketing in order to direct communication properly and to strengthen the level of trust in vaccines. Additionally, the results of logistic regression showed that the following groups of parents are particularly vulnerable to the influence of online media on attitudes toward vaccines: women, parents of younger age (“millennials”), and parents who are in common law marriage, as well as parents who have more children. In addition, the results showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of parents in the observed countries (η2 = 0.000, F = 0.85). Based on the results of the research, the authors suggest that decision makers should pay more attention to modern forms of online communication and social marketing in order to use their potential for improvement of public health, as well as avoid the harmful impact that certain forms of communication may have on the formation of attitudes and loss of confidence in vaccines. The findings provide an important contribution for public health policy makers to identify and understand properly the impact of online media and social marketing and thus to better adapt their initiatives to changes in modern society.

This paper assesses the ways in which the characteristics of entrepreneurs from transition economies, and the extent to which they participate in making business decisions, affect their propensity to make rational/risky decisions in a work environment. A multicontextual analysis of entrepreneurial decision-making is provided, facilitating a better understanding and the further advancement of entrepreneurship in the transition countries of Montenegro and Serbia. Logistic regression and a Structural Equation Model (SEM) were used to assess data collected from a stratified random sample of 260 entrepreneurs. The results reveal that the demographic characteristics of entrepreneurs have a significant impact on their propensity to make rational/risky decisions. Elderly entrepreneurs with more years of service are more prone to make rational decisions in comparison to younger entrepreneurs, who lack business experience and thus rely on intuition, leading to risky decision-making. Additionally, the results show that the more involved entrepreneurs are in the decision-making process, the more risky decisions will be made; while more employee inclusion leads to business decisions based on rational thinking. The results also reveal that entrepreneurs in transition economies have formed attitudes towards the nature of entrepreneurial activity. Finally, these results reveal that entrepreneurs who consider levels of economic development, national culture, and intuition to be important when making business decisions are more prone to implement risky decisions. Considering the obtained results, this paper provides guidelines for the future research of this issue in transition countries and other developing economies.