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In modern business environment, which is characterized by extreme turbulence, uncertainty, dynamism and high intensity of competition, companies that want to survive, to grow and develop, must direct all their efforts, primarily marketing ones, towards establishing a solid relationship with their customers. The main objective of marketing in today's conditions is gaining and maintaining customers. The service sector is in itself unique, and this uniqueness arises from the nature of services themselves. Buyers of products, before a purchase, have a possibility to carry out an evaluation of a product, based on some of its properties such as design, packaging, ingredients, etc.., while service users, before buying them, are not able to do that. Unlike the marketing of products, where customers are loyal to brands, the concept of loyalty to a service company arises in the marketing of services. Customers' satisfaction encourages their loyalty, and one of the key factors that contribute to increase of customers' satisfaction and loyalty is quality. Satisfaction is the foundation for building loyalty, trust and long-term customer relations and loyalty, on the other side, is the basis for a successful company operation. Customers' expectations of quality and value of services are becoming more complex as a result of a higher level of their knowledge, but also as a result of even better offerings from the service companies, which are leaders in the field of service quality. The main problem is that companies spend most of their efforts on acquiring new customers, and just a small portion of it on the retention of existing customers and of growing the company, which is exercised as a result of them. Companies spend up to 70% of its budget, allocated to a marketing sector, to attract new customers, ignoring the fact that 90% of revenues are generated thanks to existing customers. It is essential that companies understand the value of existing customers and be more involved in establishing and nurturing long-term relationships with them, because nowadays it is much harder and more expensive to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. Service companies must understand that achieving customers’ satisfaction and loyalty through the delivery of superior value is a basis for gaining competitive advantage in the market. All employees of an organization, and not just the ones from a marketing sector, should be involved in the process of creating value for costumers. The main contribution of marketing is to recognize the needs and motivations of costumers, to anticipate and to satisfy them with the achievement of long/term company goals. The role of all employees in the company should be to deliver superior value by raising satisfaction and by delivering services, which meet or even exceed customers’ expectations in quality and value. The results of a detailed analysis of the causal relationship, which exists between customers’ satisfaction and loyalty and quality of services, can serve as a guide to organizations in making decisions on how to direct their marketing efforts in terms of improving the quality of their services by using different techniques and methods. The application of an adapted TQM for a service area is essential and therefore a special emphasis should be placed on the analysis of TCS and TQS concepts, as well as on benefits that are gained by organizations through application of these concepts.

In a turbulent environment, organizations face different challenges in everyday business. Companies are forced to respond quickly applying different marketing strategies in order to preserve and eventually improve their competitive position in the market. In order to be able to react in the right way, companies need to implement marketing orientation. The main aim of the research in this dissertation is to determine the extent to which the application of marketing orientation contributes to the success of fruit and fruit juice producers. The research on the relationship between marketing orientation and business performance of the company was carried out in the following way: in the first step, it was analyzed to which extent the surveyed companies were marketing oriented, and then, in the second step, it was examined whether there is a statistically significant link between the application of marketing orientation and chosen business indicators. Following performances of fruit juice producers were selected: business success, competitive position, innovation capacities, ability to create value for all participants in the chain and long-term linkages with consumers and other stakeholders. The obtained research results have led to significant findings. It was established that fruit and fruit juice producers continue to develop marketing, but they are even insufficiently focused on consumers, and even less on competition. It was proven that the application of marketing orientation is significantly associated with their business success, competitive position and innovation capacities. The research also identified the existence of a positive impact of marketing concept on reducing the differences between perceptions and expectations of consumers on one side and the delivered value on other side, which ultimately results in value increase for all participants in the chain. The hypothesis about the positive correlation between long-term linkages of fruit juice producers with consumers and other stakeholders with business and national competitiveness is supported. Finally, the directions of further research that would lead to more complete examination of the analyzed links are proposed.

Public relations can be seen as a management function, whose task is to establish and foster relationships of mutual understanding and goodwill between the organization and various groups of publics who can impact on its success or failure, but also as one of the most important marketing communications tools. Since public relations could potentially have great power and influence on the formation of public opinion, on the creation of the image and reputation of the organization, as well as on the establishment and maintenance of high quality and long-term relationships with various business and market structures, for the needs of the doctoral dissertation a research was carried out in the higher education institutions in Serbia, in order to determine the degree of development and forms of application of public relations in the context of the overall promotional activities of these institutions. The main objectives of this paper are related to: a comprehensive theoretical consideration of marketing communications tools; a theoretical consideration of public relations as a management function, and then determining the place, role and importance of public relations in the marketing communications system; a review of the application of the most important areas of public relations, as well as the importance and role of the public relations as the marketing communications instrument in the higher education institutions in Serbia. Based on the defined objectives and goals, hypotheses were formulated. In order to test the hypotheses, the domestic and foreign literature and Internet sources were used, as well as the results obtained through primary and secondary empirical research. For the purposes of primary research, the structured questionnaire was designed. Elemental analysis of statistical data obtained through primary research, was conducted by calculating frequencies, percentages and cumulative percentages for all dependent variables. The paper is structured in three parts: the first part is entitled "Marketing Communications Development"; the second part, titled "Place and Role of Public Relations in the Marketing Communications System", deals with the most important characteristics and areas of public relations, and then on the mutual relations between marketing and public relations. The third part is called "Empirical Research". First, the position of the public relations profession in Serbia is presented, based on the researches conducted by the Serbian Association of Public Relations (DSOJ) in 2008 and 2012; afterwards, the results of the research conducted in March 2015 in the higher education institutions in Serbia for the purposes of this dissertation are presented. In the final part of the dissertation the hypotheses were tested and the final assessment of the results obtained are presented.

One of the main goals of contemporary higher education institutions refers to achieving and developing sustainable competitive advantage. That fact is among the main causes for affirmation of marketing concept application in higher education sector. Namely, in the higher education market, more and more various institutions are offering their services to the same target group – prospective students. Competition on this market is stronger and more numerous than ever, and that makes more explicit application of marketing – a necessity. In order to survive and develop on the market, higher education institutions have to attract, enrol and retain sufficient number of students. That is possible only if these institutions succeed to establish and continuously enhance their competitive advantage. In profit sector context, marketing concept is used for achieving mentioned aims, as this business orientation has positive influence on organisation’s performances. Marketing concept refers to systematic gathering and dissemination of market intelligence, and decision-making based on this information, with final aim – to provide superior value and to cater the needs of clients better than the competition does. Although application of marketing concept in higher education sector has originally faced some objections, numerous researches have proven that not only is it possible in this sector, but marketing activities are commonly used in higher education institutions. On the other hand, studies about marketing concept and its effects are relatively scarce in higher education context. Therefore, the main aim of the research presented in this Doctoral Dissertation is to determine whether marketing concept application contributes to success of higher education institutions (HEIs). In that respect, the main scientific contribution of this dissertation refers to filling in the identified gaps in theoretical and empirical researches realized so far. This aim is especially reflected in the specific context of the realized research. Namely, most of the previous studies pertain to unique language or geographical area and context of developed countries. This research includes the context of developing country (Serbia), but also comparative analysis with developed country (Finland) – developed not only in terms of economy, but also in terms of outstanding educational sector performances. Research on interrelation of marketing concept application and performances of HEIs was realized in the following manner. Application of marketing concept (market orientation) was analysed as one option of business orientations, alongside production and sales concept. HEIs were classified into three groups based on implemented business orientation, and then their performances were compared in order to test whether market oriented HEIs had better performances when compared to the rest of the sample. Several criteria were used for classification of HEIS into groups that relate to implemented business orientation. The main criterion refers to decision making in the institution. It is considered that market oriented HEIs base their decisions on systematically gathered and disseminated market intelligence. Performances that were analysed include: (overall) success, competitiveness, reputation and innovativeness of the institution, as well as satisfaction of students and employees. These performances were selected because of their specific importance in the context of market orientation. Positive influence that market orientation has on all these performances was firstly confirmed by theoretical findings. Based on these findings, research questions and aims were set for empirical research that includes comparative analysis of interrelation of market orientation and performances of HEIs in Serbia and Finland. Research of this kind usually includes experimental research design, which here was not fully applicable because of impossibility to introduce experimental factor when needed. Therefore, the research method that was chosen instead is poll research that follows the logic of ex post facto experiment. The research was carried out on the population of study programmes, not HEIs, as it is assumed that management of institutions can use different business orientations in managing different programmes on the same institution. In accordance with the aims of this research, the research sample is defined. The sample is stratified, disproportional and random and includes study programmes of HEIs in Serbia and Finland. The realized sample includes 97 units (study programmes, 65 from Serbia and 32 from Finland). Data needed for hypotheses testing was gathered from December 2014 till March 2015. Interviewees (persons included in structures that manage study programmes from the sample or persons familiar with the relevant issues) were personally contacted. The ones that agreed to contribute to the research filled in the questionnaire uploaded on web locations. Gained data was analysed for the purpose of defined research hypotheses testing i.e. for determining eventual influence that market orientation has on HEIs' performances. Two levels of analysis were applied. First the analysis on the whole sample was realized in order to get zero level correlation. In addition to that, relation of market orientation and HEIs' performances was controlled by the factors for which it was assumed that they might have influence on this relation: 1. location of HEI on which study programme is realized (Serbia or Finland), 2. size of study programme, and 3. type of HEI on which study programme is realized (private and state-owned in Serbia; university and university of applied sciences in Finland). The defined aims determined the manner of hypotheses testing and achieving the aims set for empirical research, i.e. the use of specific statistical methods. Primarily the χ2test (and Fischer's exact test) and t-test (and Leven's test of equal variances) were used for testing the significance of the differences identified in the sample, i.e. to test if market oriented HEIs differ from non-market oriented, and to test the influence that controlling factors have on the market orientation-performances relation. All statistical analyses were one-tailed and performed on level of significance of 95%. Analysis of the results has identified some very significant findings. Higher education institutions that apply marketing concept are more successful, competitive and reputable that institutions that implement other business orientations. Also, students and employees of these institutions are more satisfied than students and employees of non-market oriented HEIs. Research findings also indicate that application of marketing concept in HEIs contributes to competitiveness and innovation capacities of national economy. Assumptions about positive influence that marketing concept has on innovativeness of Higher Education Institutions were theoretically proven. But, empirically they were not confirmed, as the research results do not provide sufficient evidence for identifying positive/negative influence of market orientation on innovativeness of HEIs. Therefore, directions for necessary further research in this field were defined. It was foreseen in the research design to test whether significant difference exist between level of market orientation as a cause for different positioning of HEIs from Serbia and Finland on international higher education market. Research findings show that HEIs from Finland are slightly more market oriented, but much more successful /according to manager's evaluation), competitive and selective than institutions in Serbia. It is obvious that market orientation is one of the significant factors that cause these differences. On the other hand, research findings reveal that students and employees of HEIs located in Serbia are more satisfied than students and employees in Finland. Author's assumption is that lower satisfaction is caused by more sophisticated needs, requests and preferences of students and employees in Finland. But, this needs to be tested in further research. Research findings also indicate that market orientation’s influence on performances of higher education institutions (and therefore national economy) is very high in the case of large study programmes. All large programmes in the sample are market oriented and vast majority is successful. Having in mind that popularization of higher education is a global trend and that it includes augmentation of study programmes, need for further theoretical and empirical researches on marketing concept as important success factor of those programmes, is even more pronounced.

Modern food production technology represents a major issue in today’s world, primarily due to the numerous negative economic, social and primarily ecological consequences which it causes. They in turn adversely affect the very survival of human society. As a result, the fact that more and more producers are turning to organic farming is understandable, as is the need that people feel to voluntarily change their dietary habits so as to consume more organic products. Organic production completely supports the concept of sustainable development. It is the only type of production which merges the traditional and the modern, relying primarily on natural products which originate from farms, and at the same time contributing to the ecological balance of natural systems. Considering that organic production takes place with strict adherence to the prescribed legal guidelines, the transitioning into this type of production is not an easy or short-term process. However, the patience and effort invested by the producers are negligibly small in comparison to all the benefits which are provided not only for the producers but for the entire community. Over the last two decades, the organic food market has continually been expanding. Even though the USA, EU and Japan have exhibited the strongest demand for organic food products, the wave of the demand for these products is spreading into other parts of the world as well. It is precisely this kind of market trend that represents a clear invitation to all producers to offer a suitable response to the demands of the current consumers, which also includes the effective application of marketing concepts in their business transactions. Deciding on adequate marketing strategies for organic food producers is the focus of this research. The dissertation will offer a detailed account of the development of a marketing strategy based on four phases, including: strategic analysis, choice of strategy, implementation and evaluation, and the control of the marketing strategy. Strategic analysis, as the first phase, should offer an overview of the opportunities and threats which originate from the external environment, but should also identify the strengths and weakness within the production units themselves. In phase two, an attempt will be made to select possible strategies in the production of organic food, which will enable these producers to respond to the challenges of their environment in a timely and proper manner. However, even the most suitably designed strategy will be prove to be unsuccessful if it is used incorrectly. This means that implementation is a critical phase in this process, and as such it requires the proper implementation of strategies involving certain instruments in the marketing mix, as well as the design of an organizational structure which is in accordance with the selected strategy. The results of the previous phases can be monitored and evaluated within the control and evaluation phase. As a result of this phase, a system of possible measures of marketing activities will be proposed, since the quality of marketing decisions depends on the quality of the measuring, as does the success of the overall process of marketing strategy development. The analysis of the existing research results points to the fact that most of the information related to marketing in the field of organic food production originates from sources which are not based on any adequate empirical data and research. Most of the studies that have been carried out to date have focused solely on organic food consumers, while there is a lack of any more significant studies which would focus on the producers of these goods. Thus, within this doctoral dissertation, we will present the results of an empirical study which simultaneously included both the consumers and producers of organic food in Serbia. The aim of this research is to obtain a more clear and precise understanding of the attitudes, motives and behavior of consumers on the one hand, and to study the effectiveness of the application of marketing concepts in the business transactions of the producers on the other. Thus, this will enablethe subsequent identification of the key factors in the development of an adequate marketing strategy. Another contribution of the research is that it offers proof of the decisive importance of the value that producers place on the extent of market orientation, with the aim of enhancing business success and competitiveness.

In economic theory, it is generally accepted thesis that greater competition increases economic efficiency and hence overall social welfare. Therefore, the establishment of competitive market structure is one of the primary intentions of every market-oriented economy. The practice of developed countries clearly confirmed that law and competition policy are an essential part of the institutional framework within which effective market economy operates. All of the key phenomena dealt by competition policy are explained on the basis of modern economics findings. Economic explanation of these occurrences allows cognition of causes, mechanisms and consequences of the phenomenon of competition and its distortion. The aim of this thesis is to highlight the importance of competition policy and to contribute to the identification and analysis of non-competitive market structures, i.e. anti-competitive behavior of market participants. The proposed theoretical-methodological and econometric instrumentation allows analysis of market structure, analysis of market participants behavior and the analysis of effects of that behavior on economic efficiency and social welfare. Results obtained by these analytical apparatus provides a good basis for objective, unbiased, and (to some extent) standardized reasoning and identification of anti-competitive behavior. An empirical examination of the proposed instruments in done on the example of the Serbian sugar market. The results indicate significant problems facing Serbia in the process of building an efficient market economy based on competition.