This issue of Ekonomika preduzeća starts with two forward-thinking articles in the Marketing section. A duo of authors, A. Đorđević and A. Miladinović, observed the influence of four brand dimensions, brand trust, brand awareness, expected quality and meaning, and customer brand loyalty, on the customer value creation. The results of their empirical research revealed that brand awareness and customer brand loyalty far more contributed to value creation than the other two dimensions, which is something that should be considered when devising a branding strategy. In the second paper in this section, A. Zekavica presented a comprehensive research aimed at isolating the factors that shape the lifestyle of Generation Z and estimating their impact on the inclination of its members toward the online shopping experience. The author outlined several interesting points that could be quite useful to the marketers who tend to think wisely about the future.

The first paper in the Management section, written by N. Krstić and M. Gajić, deals with a hot topic in human resource management, the effectiveness of virtual teams. More specifically, they investigated the effects of trust factors (individual, institutional and cognitive) and knowledge sharing on the success of virtual teams. The correlation-regression study has shown that all dimensions of trust largely affected the effectiveness of virtual teams, while the impact of knowledge sharing was rather insignificant. Within the same section, a group of authors, including M. Nedeljković Knežević, S. Kovačić, S. Nedeljković and M. Mijatov, explored the effects of job position on the relationship between personality traits and job satisfaction. According to their findings, the employees’ job position significantly determines the relationship between personality dimensions, such as neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness to new experiences, and different facets of job satisfaction.

In the Logistics section, a trio of authors, S. Aćimović, V. Mijušković and F. Bugarčić, examined the role of logistics system in improving the performance of companies in different industries. The research conducted on the relevant sample of 298 companies in the Republic of Serbia has shown that the “soft” dimensions of logistics (logistics services and custom procedures) turned out to have a greater impact on business success than the “hard” ones (physical infrastructure). Nevertheless, in order to raise the quality of overall business environment, policy makers must pay attention to the development of all logistics components.

In the first paper in the Finance section, A. Lekpek analyzed the several aspects of cryptocurrencies and their potential for becoming a viable alternative to traditional currencies. Despite the flourishing opportunities offered by the cryptocurrency market, there is still a lot to be done to address obvious shortcomings of the cryptocurrency system and enable it to compete with traditional currencies. The second paper in this section, written by S. Drljača Kanazir, is dedicated to the assessment of the impact of macroeconomic determinants on loan default rate in Serbia’s banking sector. The findings of her research indicate that the exposure to systemic risk increases with the increase in the size of borrowers. Also, the SMEs segment proved far more resistant to the influence of macroeconomic factors and might be looked at as a generator of the financial stability of an economy.

The COVID-19 crisis has caused the sharpest decline in the tourism sector around the world, so the crisis management has come to the fore. In the Tourism section, S. Milićević, Ž. Krejić and N. Đorđević evaluated the crisis management measures that were undertaken in high-category hotels in Serbia during the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors provide some valuable recommendations that could help hotel managers to navigate safely through various crises.

In the last two years, nothing has changed the global economic landscape more than the climate emergency, the COVID-19 roller coaster, and related geopolitical winds. There is not much time to respond to key risk stressors from the related chain of trends surrounded by exponentialities. The planet is warming, health is being destroyed and geopolitics dominates economic calculus, while the economic system lets that happen. Humanity has less than a decade left until climate change becomes irreversible. A response should be prompt and comprehensive. It requires more radical ideas, such as a paradigm change in economics, both macro and micro.
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The aforementioned means putting in place a new nexus of economics rules. This issue of EP is dedicated to the emerging contours of the circular model of growth and heterodox economic policy platform from the perspective of Serbia in order to make it ready for the transition toward a climate-minded and health-minded economy.

The introductory paper prepared by a duo of authors, D. Đuričin and I. Vuksanović Herceg, is devoted to the impact of context change in the case of a small, landlocked, open and low-income economy such as Serbia. The general conclusion is that the “green transition” through industrial policies and impact investment could be a historic opportunity for the economy to recover after the pandemic turns into an endemic.

The adoption of new economics rules triggers a lot of changes in core (monetary and fiscal) and structural policies. Consequently, there are two sorts of papers. The first one focuses on macroeconomics and core policies. This part begins with the contribution of J. Tabaković, the Governor of the NBS, providing a clear answer to the question where Serbia stands in the inflation landscape, continues with the contribution of a duo of authors, M. Kovačević and M. Stevović, who further develop the story about macroeconomic indicators, definitely replacing widespread guesswork inspired by ideological predilections with a fact-based discussion, and closes with the paper written by S. Aranđelovic, dedicated to the tax policy adjustments.


The second block contains the papers that discuss structural policies as a manifestation of the reversibility principle in defining the circular model of growth and heterodox economic policy platform. The things do not look so pretty, as you will see after reading the paper prepared by a quartet of authors, J. Lazarević, N. Savić, A. Petrov and E. Marinković, examining the relationship between talents and innovations. The next paper, authored by S. Kisić, focuses on a closely related topic, entrepreneurship education. The author is trying to determine how deep and radical changes affect skill set development. A duo of authors, A. Vučković and G. Pitić, have explained how innovative amalgams of frontier technologies can contribute to energy efficiency by reducing energy consumption by up to 50%. A multidisciplinary team of authors, including S. Vuković, M. Topalović, D. Lazović and D. Lončar, has presented a comprehensive empirical test addressing the COVID-19 pandemic as a macroeconomic variable. At the end, a trio of authors, G. Petković, R. Pindžo and A. Bradić Marinković, have observed and consulted visitors to gain a valuable insight for their endeavor to develop the tourism strategy.

One of the pleasures of reading both segments of this issue is a chance to learn from people who undertake extraordinary original research with the aim of creating a selfperpetuating cycle of sustainable and inclusive growth, both toward people and nature.