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Balanced territorial development and improving living conditions have become the focus of rural development policies. As the number of young people moving to cities or other countries is increasing, rural settlements face serious demographic disbalances and aging societies. Quality of life and place attachment are both key variables in enhancing the social and economic capacities of rural and undeveloped communities and reducing youth out-migration. However, this topic remains underexplored, especially among younger generations, who are critical for further socio-economic sustainability. Thus, the main goal of this study was to explore young residents' perceptions about quality of life, level of attachment to their rural homes, and their interrelationship. This study was conducted among 299 participants in rural areas of Serbia and Croatia. The results identified two quality of life factors: (1) satisfaction with the quality of infrastructure and (2) satisfaction with culture and education. Three attachment factors were extracted, among which place identity was the strongest. Additionally, the influence of quality of life and socio-demographic characteristics on place attachment was confirmed. These results provide new insights that could be very useful in creating strategies and initiatives for rural planning and strengthening rural areas' social, economic, and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketplace sales in trade dates back to the Middle Ages. The meaningfulness and development of communication gained real meaning with the development of the marketplaces. Today, personal selling is part of the distribution of agricultural products and part of modern marketing. With the development of the global market and modern information technologies, the role of marketplace sales has taken on another dimension. The aim of this paper is to define the model of efficient sales on the market through direct marketing, sales promotion and living words. The results of theoretical research are based on scientific and professional literature, statistical data and tables, authors' experience, whereas field empirical research was conducted using a questionnaire. The results of empirical research show that the average desire for changes in the behaviour of sellers in sales and consumers in shopping is not present enough. From the conducted research, it can be concluded that in certain previously mentioned aspects of changes in behaviour, marketing communication can be established that will contribute to increasing consumer satisfaction and information.

This paper investigates the nonlinear risk transmission from the oil and natural gas markets to the foreign exchange markets of five energy importers and one major energy exporter. We separate conditional volatility into the transitory (short-term) and permanent (long-term) parts, and then these volatilities are embedded in an elaborate robust linear quantile regression model. We find that the risk spillover effect is relatively low in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) probably because they pursue a managed float exchange rate regime. On the other hand, this effect is higher for Turkey and Russia, which is especially true for the effect from oil to the rouble at the highest quantile. This happens because Russia receives the largest amount of foreign currency from oil exports. The results indicate that the short-term risk spillover effect is notably stronger than the long-term one, which means that the exchange rate volatility is mainly determined by market sentiment. The rolling regression results coincide very well with the estimated quantile parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multiscale non-linear risk transmission effect from Brent oil to eleven European emerging stock markets. Dynamic extreme risk time series are created using the FIAPARCH-CVaR approach. The MODWT transformation is applied to make three wavelet details that represent different time horizons. In the final step, the MODWT time series are fitted into the Markov switching model to examine the spillover phenomenon. The results indicate that the Czech and Hungarian stock markets endure the spillover effect in crisis regime in the short term, probably because these markets are among the most efficient emerging European markets. On the other hand, a relatively high spillover effect is found in a peaceful rather than a crisis regime in the case of Poland. This is probably because the Polish index lists almost 300 stocks, which means that oil shocks disperse to a large number of different industry sectors. In small and less developed markets, such as Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Croatia, a high spillover effect exists in a tranquil regime because these countries have high oil consumption per capita. Lithuania and Latvia do not report the spillover effect in the short run, while this is true for all time horizons in the case of Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development could be presented by gross domestic product to show how different factors affect the development. Gross domestic product could be affected by different nonlinear factors in positive or negative way. Hence it is suitable to apply artificial intelligence techniques in order to track the gross domestic product variation in depend on the factors. AI techniques require only input and output data pairs in order to catch the output variations based on the input factors. Therefore in this study adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system was applied in order to select the most relevant factors for gross domestic product growth rate. These factors are whole sale price index, consumer price index in urban areas, consumer price index in rural areas, state per capita income, exports, import and industry income. Results shown that the whole sale price index has the highest relevance on the gross domestic product growth rate.

The aim of this work paper is to suggest efficient model of business efficiency in agro industrial products commerce, by integration of marketing mix instruments-product and price. Marketing research provides solid bases for foundation of good and efficient management moment, as an assumption of good market position. Based on determined goals and research objects, using qualitative methods of marketing research, the goal is the establishment of functional model of business efficiency. Another aim is to establish efficient communication model for interested parts, on relation service provider (enterprise), retailer, buyer and consumer in agro industrial products commerce within special market institutions (wholesale markets).

The purpose of this paper is to analyze agricultural policy measures aimed at young farmers and to compare the support system of the European Union and the Republic of Serbia. The dominant method in the research is the descriptive analysis. The comparative analysis method is used for investigating advantages and limitations of the support to young farmers in the EU and the Republic of Serbia. The unfavorable age structure of farmers represents the essential limitation for the sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to improve and strengthen agricultural policy measures of support to young farmers, which will lead to property increase, diversification of income and higher standards of living and consequently to the decision of young people to stay in the village and work in agriculture.

Transactions with futures and other derivatives began their development in the XIX century on the exchanges in USA and other developed countries, but financial market in Serbia is still underdeveloped with exchange materials, volumes and number of participants. Investors on the Belgrade Stock Exchange mostly trade with stocks and government bonds. Also, Agrar Product Novi Sad has organized only spot trading of agricultural products. The paper goal is to present all relevant assumptions and significance of derivative trading development in Serbia with discussion about choice to start derivative trading on the already existing exchanges or to establish a new futures exchange that is going to be specialized for derivative trading. As the research method authors use content analysis and comparison of significant national and foreign literature with analyses of trading volumes on international and domestic exchanges. Authors recommend that Agrar Product Novi Sad be the first in expansion of market listing with commodity futures and options. On this way market is going to be deeper, creating efficient mechanisms for investor's protection from price risks, creating conditions for safer and long term production planning, with increase in market attractivity that could set the Agrar Product Novi Sad as a leader in commodity derivative trading in the South-East Europe.

In recent years, huge efforts have been made to implement ICT innovations in the agricultural sector in order to increase its competitiveness. The question that can be posed is what depends on the successful implementation of ICT innovations among farmers. Numerous scientific papers were published with the purpose of identifying factors that affect acceptance of particular innovation by users. The aim of this paper was to determine whether the farmer innovativeness influences the acceptance and the degree of using the Internet and social media by farmer. Additionally, statistically significant correlation between the demographic factors of the farmers and their innovativeness was investigated. The research was conducted using survey method. Descriptive statistics, Correlation analysis using Pearson's correlation coefficients and Chi-square test were used as statistical methods. Obtained results confirmed the initial hypotheses and based on that recommendations for the creation of a marketing strategy for introducing new ICT solutions in the field of agriculture are made.

The main objective of this research is based on the importance of wholesale markets as special market institutions in trade in agro-industrial products. Based on communication knowledge about the retail market operations (wholesale gross markets), on the domestic market, as well as the importance given to wholesale markets in the developed countries from the aspect of trade, it is concluded that even domestic trade can increase selling these type of products at wholesale markets. The subject of research of this paper is concept of building wholesale markets as a substitute for retail trade (quantitative or wholesale gross markets) for agro-industrial products. This paper aims to achieve such a level of knowledge that will enable making quality decisions starting from the interests of businesses, traders and customers (consumers).

Considering that agriculture is significant activity in the Republic of Serbia, the country pursues the politics of encouraging it through the agricultural budget in order to develop and bring greater effects. The aim of paper is to depict the state of agriculture in the Republic of Serbia and agricultural budget, as an instrument of agricultural politics in function of agricultural sector development. Tendency is to explore whether the amount and structure of agricultural budget is adequate to objectives of the Strategy for agriculture development of the Republic of Serbia. By application of historical and descriptive method, the impact of agricultural budget to the agriculture development in the Republic of Serbia is reviewed. On the other hand, comparative analysis of statistical data provided the adoption of conclusions on the structure and amount of agricultural budget for the future. Graphical methods, indicators, logical methods and other standard methods are also used. For the more dynamic agriculture development of the Republic of Serbia, the resources of agricultural budget are not sufficient. The reform of agricultural policy is necessary, where the agricultural budget will gain in significance. The most effective is to direct the resources to new investments, infrastructural projects in rural areas, to stimulate intensive and export-oriented production, processing, as well as systems of sustainable agriculture.

The aim of paper is to investigate the market and traffic flows of organic fruit, respectively factors that determine demand, customer attitudes and their motives for purchase. From methods that are applied, the key methods are questionnaire and interview, and statistical, graphical and logical methods are used. Organic fruits market has begun to be developed in recent years, there is a demand, but on a small scale. Sustainability and further development of organic fruit production is largely caused by demand. Employed woman, with good financial condition, with children, higher or high educated, ages between 30 and 50 years, with a place of residence in the city, buys organic fruits. Health safety, quality, production area and care for the environment are the most important motives for purchase of organic fruits. Certificate, recommendations, appearance and taste of product, curiosity and packaging have secondary importance. The key factors, because of which the customers do not buy organic fruits, are unavailability in sales channels, high price, lack of confidence in organic products and low incomes.

One of the key issues nowadays is global warming, while biofuels have been seen as potential solution for this problem. In the recent years, corn is used as a primary raw material for ethanol production, which means that these two commodities could be highly interconnected. In this regard, this paper investigates time and frequency interdependence between corn and ethanol markets, using the wavelet coherence methodology. As a preliminary result, wavelet power spectrum reveals that increased volatility in the corn and ethanol markets is present up to 16 days and around the two major crisis. The wavelet coherence results clearly indicate that high interconnection does not exist in the short time-horizons, even at the time of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This means that various external shocks affect differently the two markets in the short-run. However, the areas of very high coherence are found in the time-horizons from 32 days onwards, which means that the movements of the two markets are pretty much synchronized in the longer time-horizons. This happens because longer time-horizons characterize the lack of idiosyncratic price oscillations, which means that external factors affect the two markets relatively aligned in the long-run. Future studies may use different wavelet techniques, such as wavelet correlation and cross-wavelet correlation, in order to overcome deficiencies of the wavelet coherence method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfer from conventional to organic production in its basis has the profitability analysis of this form of investment. The production of organic food is expensive, but the prices of organic products are high and organic food demand significantly increases every year. The profitability analysis of organic food investment includes a detailed analysis of many factors that have the influence on the final outcome of the investment. The production efficiency and rational usage of available resources of the privately-owned farm was measured by calculating their profit using the calculation method of state agriculture subsidies and by evaluation of their own and borrowed resources involved in production. Accordingly, the work aims to encompass and analyze the most important factors of the investment and the impact of their changes on the profitability of organic food production in Serbia.

Market oriented relative comparative trade advantage (MORTA) represents new approach to a widely accepted model of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) presented for the first time in this paper. The applied model was used in the analysis of agro-food trade in order to identify changes in the level of relative comparative trade advantage between the EU and Serbia before and during the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU (2004-2013) on the basis of Eurostat data and data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. The analysis aims to show whether Serbia and the EU, each on their side, were able to take advantage of the trade liberalization, especially in relative terms. The research results show that Serbia in terms of trade liberalization with the EU manages to secure the growth of the product with relative comparative trade advantage, but on the other side EU fails to largely use preferential status in trade with Serbia.

In this article, we explore multiscale extreme risk interdependence between four soft agricultural markets – coffee, cocoa, cotton and orange juice. Wavelet correlation and cross-correlation are used to investigate this interlink, and dynamic conditional Value at Risk is used to measure extreme risk. Wavelet correlation results suggest a very weak connection between the markets in the short-term and midterm horizons, which means that investors who operate in the short term or midterm do not have to apply hedging measures against extreme risk. However, the situation is different in the long term, where relatively high correlations are found on the highest wavelet scale in all pairs, except coffee–cocoa. Complementary cross-correlation analysis indicates a lead–lag relationship between the markets. The results are mostly in line with expectations, as bigger markets lead smaller markets. Only in the cases of cocoa–cotton and cocoa–orange juice does the opposite happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade fairs represent a hot subject in the contemporary theory, as well as in the contemporary practice of modern successful international and local enterprises, organizers and owners of exhibition space. The domestic literature provides certain sources and papers which discuss the topic in theory, but there is an evident lack of strategic approach towards trade fairs as the instrument of sales improvement, as well as the obvious lack of practical approach of enterprises at trade fairs, and the lack of real measurement of the results obtained. This paper proves that the representation on a trade fair had positive effect on the sales results, as well as on the creation of interest and the increase of awareness of the existence of a company and its products. The analysis proves that under certain conditions the gain rate on the investment is calculable and quantifiable, in the case of trade fair representation.

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Since there are large requirements for green energy sustainability, in this study, optimization of in situ transesterification of microalgae slurry conversion into biodiesel was performed. The main aim was to perform a selection procedure of the optimal predictors for fatty acid methyl ester yield and exergy efficiency in situ transesterification process. The adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) as a soft computing approach was used for the optimization of the predictors for the fatty acid methyl ester yield and exergy efficiency. Based on the obtained results, the optimal combination for fatty acid methyl ester yield was ultrasonic power and reaction time while the optimal combination for the exergy efficiency was concentrations of methanol and chloroform in oil. These selected predictors could be used effectively in order to maximize the fatty acid methyl ester yield and exergy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, biomass sources are important for energy applications. Therefore, there is need for analyzing the biomass model based on different components such as carbon, ash, and moisture content. Since the biomass modeling could be very challenging task for conventional mathematical, it is suitable to apply soft computing models which could overcome the nonlinearities of the process. The main attempt in the study was to develop a soft computing model for the prediction of the higher heating values of biomass based on the proximate analysis. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used as soft computing methodology. According to the prediction accuracy of the higher heating value of the biomass, the inputs' influence was determined on the higher heating value. According to the obtained results, fixed carbon has a correlation coefficient of 0.7644, the volatile matter has a correlation coefficient of 0.7225, and ash has a correlation coefficient of 0.9317. Therefore, the ash percentage weight has the highest relevance on the higher heating value of the biomass. On the contrary, the volatile matter has the smallest relevance on the higher heating value of the biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]