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When it comes to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Serbia, special attention is given to the growth of small, family ones, mostly those which are involved in the food industry, which is a foundation for the development of rural areas. The plans of reviving Serbian village are a recurring topic. The reasons for this revival are the favorable geographic position, rich natural treasures, interesting tradition, and history. One must pay attention to the fact that 85% of the territory in Serbia has rural features and that 50% of citizens inhabits those areas. Through surveys, this paper explores how entrepreneurs manage their businesses in the countryside, especially in the field of tourism in the Pomoravlje District. 50 entrepreneurs, chosen by rendom sampling, were interviewed, and attention is given to hospitality companies, recreation centers or wineries which deal with grape processing and winemaking. What these entrepreneurs have in common is the fact that they run family enterprises, and that high tax rates and poorly equipped infrastructure in local communities are the basic obstacles for further development and growth of their enterprises.

Anglo-American and Hungarian economic historians follow different semantic patterns describing the same subjects. While the authors writing in English use three distinct terms to signify business history, entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm, the corresponding Hungarian words share a common root. This paper reviews the debates among the founding fathers of the discipline about how to define the agenda and methods of researching these topics both before and after World War II. The emergence of business history at Harvard Business School under the leadership of N. Gras mainly followed the German tradition of narrative historical economics. He denied any dominant role of formal economic theory and urged business historians to use several other disciplines (psychology, politics) too. The founder of Research Center in Entrepreneurial History at Harvard, A. Cole based the approach of his research group on the Schumpeterian concept of creative entrepreneur as the key figure in explaining the different issues of economic change and development. Faced with the problem how to identify what is entrepreneurship, the Center failed to formulate a theory of economic change based on entrepreneurial activity and behaviour. In the meantime the character of creative entrepreneur have been played down within organization and firm and was substituted by the entrepreneur co-ordinator (R. Coase) who directs production and by the middle-manager (A. Chandler). Both the business history using structuralist-functionalist sociological approach in discussing large scale enterprises and the theory of firm based on transactions costs and economic analysis of law remain outside of the mainstream of history and economics. What they had in common was a sense of affinity for empirical data instead of pure theory. Even it was more than affinity, it was a desire to get insight of the "real world".

The paper deals with the problem of youth unemployment and entrepreneurship as a way out of unemployment. The battle against youth unemployment is a top European priority, since the youth unemployment rate is more than twice as high as the adult one, because the chances for a young unemployed person of finding a job are low, because their jobs tend to be less stable, because there are significant skills mismatches on the labor market. Entrepreneurship is a powerful driver of economic growth and job creation; it makes economies more competitive and innovative. The motivation for entrepreneurial career is different with different age cohorts. Youth represent a group with the highest entrepreneurial potential. In the empirical study, we analyze entrepreneurial tendencies among Slovene students of business schools and with factor analysis approach we try to define underlying entrepreneurial tendency dimensions as the literature suggests that entrepreneurial characteristics play an important role in influencing the individual’ decision to become entrepreneurs. We defined four such entrepreneurial tendency dimensions: need for independence and achievement, problem solving, planning, and dealing with uncertain situations. However, the need for independence and achievement and problem solving are the strongest drivers of entrepreneurial tendency. The results of the study can be of help to policymakers when updating labor market policy measures in connection with the educational policy.

Engagement of small and medium enterprises in rural tourism, with elimination of limiting factors as well as creation and application of necessary strategic, qualitative and quantitative elements should intensify the transformation process of rural regions in Serbia including their economic, social and cultural rebirth. The objective of the paper is to point out to essential determinants of this sector, as well as to the preconditions which should be necessarily fulfilled in order to create an affirmative business ambience. In this context, a particular attention is paid to the significance of entrepreneurship implementation into the business process and to the institutions which with their support decisively influence position, treatment and perspectives of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurship (SMEs).

Neoclassical comprehension of economic development, based on the models of economic growth, represents powerfull theoretical framework. However,mechanistic views that dominate this approach are the source of some theoretical constrains. In the paper major elements are scatched of those theories, that analyze economic development as the interplay of different evolutionary mechanisms. Evolutionary concepts of economic development can have significant contribution to traditional development economics. Furthermore,evolutionary approach must be incorporated into the modern paradigm of economic development.