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The creation of franchise companies has a lasting and positive impact on the economies of the countries and local communities in which they operate. Countless jobs are created and supported by franchises, and those jobs help lower the unemployment rate. Franchises support the national GDP through billions of dollars in products and services, and job creation. The 2008-2010 recession, as well as the pandemic, had a negative impact on the US and global economy, although franchises fared better than most other retail chains and small businesses. The subject of research in the paper is the analysis of the basic characteristics and features of franchising, with the aim of drawing attention to the use of franchise in business on domestic and international markets, to point out the specifics of business and its ways of functioning, to point out the advantages, disadvantages, and wider significance of franchise business, on the existence of the attractiveness index of a country for franchise investments. Research results indicate that franchises are economically more stable, mainly due to their branding, consumer familiarity, and strong network base. It is estimated that franchises will operate better, more intensively and more diversely in the coming period.

The aim of this paper is to present the elements of the criminal offense of smuggling, which violates the legally protected interests of the state. The crime of smuggling, as a form of professional crime, has adapted to all changes, both domestically and internationally, and has become even more dangerous for the economy, but also for the safety of the community as a whole. The manner in which smuggling is carried out indicates that smuggling consists in bringing in, but also in taking out, goods of domestic or foreign origin beyond customs control, across the state border. As such, the criminal offense of smuggling is prescribed by the provision of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, which enables the protection of the customs system, and to a certain extent, the market where certain disturbances can be caused by the illegal import of goods, as well as protection aimed at suppressing the illegal import of goods. The goal of customs clearance is the protection of the economic, fiscal and financial interests of the Republic of Serbia, the protection of the Republic of Serbia from illegal trade, the safety and protection of people and the environment, and the facilitation of international trade.

The importance of social management oriented to the reduction of social differences and the improvement of the working environment of employees increases in the conditions of growing market competition. Respecting the basic principles of social management, companies can develop special strategies that will influence the increase of competitive advantages and the overall welfare of society. In this regard, the goal of this research is to point out the importance of socially responsible business, which should be organized in such a way as not to harm the environment and society, as well as the rights of employees, and to ensure positive business results.

Regulation plans have been implemented in Serbia over the past twenty years as the main operational instrument of planning. However, a general, systemic investigation of the effects of their implementation has failed. Because the elements of regulation and the rules for development and construction applied significantly affect the character of an urban space, the intention is to point out the need to establish procedures and criteria for regular evaluation of the built environment and the need to continuously re-examine planning attitudes. The input data for redefining the scope and shape of regulation can be obtained by analyzing the planning process and evaluating its results. The chosen case study encompasses the plan for four urban blocks in Vračar and includes the 15-year period since its adoption. The extent to which the Plan has met the set objectives from the point of view of urban planning and conservation will be investigated through an analysis of the results obtained in practice, while failures and possible improvements will be pointed out. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. TR 36036: Sustainable spatial development of Danube area in Serbia]

The dependence of the enthalpy change of formation of saturated acyclic ketones on molecular structure (the number of carbon atoms, the position of the carbonyl group, and the branching of the molecules) was investigated. For this purpose, a simple computational model, the parameterization of which is based on spectral graph theory, was developed. It was found that the major part of the enthalpy change of formation is determined by molecular size, whereas the fine structure of the enthalpy change of formation is determined by the branching of the molecule and the position of the carbonyl group. The developed model proved itself very useful for such investigations. The model is simple and practical, and the agreement between the experimental and calculated enthalpy changes of formation is very good, with an average relative error of 0.7%.

Historic city quarters are parts of the city with a valuable architectural fund, formed upon an urban matrix that dates long before the appearance of automobiles. A variety of content, the history and value of the constructed elements make them highly appealing, attracting both tourists and other residents of the city. Managing mobility and ensuring accessibility may be the greatest challenges faced by the historical neighborhoods. The quality of traffic solutions has a major impact on the physical, economic, social and environmental elements that certainly act as the crucial aspects for a historical area's 'well-being'. The ever growing awareness of urban heritage as a non-renewable resource, whose conservation contributes in strengthening the identity and preserving the collective memory of a society, encouraged the development of strategies based on sustainable development principles that seek to adapt the traffic conditions to the existing street zoning, rather than vice-versa. A range of traffic management techniques have been developed in the historical city quarters parts in order to provide an alternative for cars, improve the public safety and enhance the urban environment. Starting from a perspective that no traffic exclusion measures should be viewed in isolation in order to maintain the vivaciousness of these historical areas, the article presents an overview of certain traffic solutions for managing mobility in historical neighborhoods, with the aim of highlighting both the positive and negative impact of traffic, as well as the guidelines to be considered in the process of planning and design.

There is an everlasting, unbreakable connection between the urban plan and the form of a city. The current appearance of the Belgrade city centre was influenced by the plan, or, more precisely, the draft Reconstruction Plan for the Town within the Moat, drawn by Emilijan Josimović in 1867. The aim of this paper is to study the impact of this Plan on the form of Belgrade, considering the social environment and the institutional framework under which it was developed. For the same reason, and to obtain a full insight into the impact of regulation plans on urban forms, Haussmann’s reconstruction plan of Paris, made only a few years earlier, will also be reviewed, as it also caused vast changes in the structure of Paris. The study will encompass the role of urban planners and contracting authorities, the social environment, the features of the “field design” determined by the ownership structure of urban construction land and the value of inherited structures, the structural form requirements imposed by the contracting authority and the social context, including the social, political and institutional framework under which the planning process took place, and other, given the complexity of the said process influenced by a number of actors and factors. Understanding the process of developing an urban form helps the process of its evaluation. On the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Reconstruction Plan for the Town within the Moat, this paper is yet another small contribution to its study, as well as the tribute to its creator, Emilijan Josimović, his visions and possibilities (or inabilities) to carry them out.

This paper reports the results of comprehensive mechanistic investigations of the hydrogen atom transfer (HAT), radical adduct formation (RAF), single electron transfer – proton transfer (SET-PT), and sequential proton loss electron transfer (SPLET) mechanisms of caffeic acid (CA). The goals of the work were achieved by simulating the reactions of CA with hydroxyl radical in benzene and water solutions. It was found that SET-PT is not a favourable antioxidative mechanism of CA. On the other hand, HAT and RAF are competitive, because HAT pathways yield thermodynamically more stable radical products, and RAF pathways require smaller activation barriers. In polar basic environment SPLET is a probable antioxidative mechanism of CA, with exceptionally large rate.

The chosen planning approaches, the regulatory elements and building rules applied on individual plots have a considerable impact on the character and development of urban space. Regulation plan has been the main planning instrument in Serbia for more than twenty years but, even though many plans have been adopted and many planned interventions realised, there has been no systematic evaluation of the effects of its implementation. The paper is based on the premise that the first job of planning is the shaping of the city, i.e. the creation and preservation of place, and the main reason for choosing this particular topic is the lack of thus created values and a generally negative relationship of new construction to the inherited values in downtown Belgrade. Its objective is to point to the need for establishing protocols for the regular evaluation of planning practices in order to ensure their continual improvement. It advocates the view that the analysis of the effects of regulation on the results produced in practice may be a tool for redefining the scale and form of regulation. Its other objective is to point to the fact that some regulatory elements are insensitive to the features of the central zone of Belgrade and to identify the negative effects of their application. An overview of foreign practices is offered in corroboration of the expressed view and as a guideline for the improvement of practice.

An innovative route for the construction of 2-oxo and thioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines was delineated through a multicomponent reaction under Biginelli conditions, starting from different aromatic aldehydes, β-ketoesters and urea or thiourea. Proper choice of copper complex (PhNH3)2CuCl4, as a novel homogeneous catalyst, enables facile, efficient, and inexpensive reaction under mild experimental conditions. Moreover, we present the first application of this complex salts in organic synthesis ever. The obtained products are of high purity, and can be easily isolated from the reaction mixture in good to excellent yields. Also, compared to the classical Biginelli reaction conditions, the present method has the advantages in higher yields and experimental and work-up simplicity. To illustrate the joint catalytic action of the Cu2+ and phenylammonium ions, two key steps of Biginelli reaction were examined using the M06 functional. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172011 i br. 172016]

Aromatic hydroxy acids, the compounds of large industrial importance, can be prepared in the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction, i.e. a carboxylation reaction of alkali metal phenoxides (MOPh) and naphthoxides (MONaph). On the basis of the experimental results two contradictory reaction mechanisms have been proposed: the one of direct carboxylation, and the other involving initial formation of the MOPh-CO2 or MONaph-CO2 complex. Previous theoretical investigations of the carboxylation reaction of sodium 2-naphthoxide, performed by means of the B3LYP method, confirmed the initial formation of the NaONaph-CO2 complex, and showed that the carbon of the CO2 moiety performs an electrophilic attack at C1 of the ring, leading to the formation of sodium 2-hydroxy-1-naphthoate (E1). Surprisingly, transition states for possible electrophilic attacks at C3 and C6 were not revealed, and the formation of other two products (E3 and E6) was explained by a number of consecutive rearrangements. In addition, this mechanism includes a reaction step with rather high activation energy. Since more sophisticated functionals are today available, the aim of this work is to reinvestigate the mechanism of the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction of NaONaph in all three positions (1, 3, and 6). Our investigations with the M062X method demonstrated that CO2 and NaONaph can spontaneously build two complexes: B (the one previously reported) and C. While B cannot be further transformed to yield the reaction products, the CO2 moiety in C takes perfect position for electrophilic attacks at all three sites of the ring. These attacks are realized via the transition states TS1, which lead to the formation of the new C-C bonds, and corresponding intermediates D. In the next, bimolecular reaction step two D intermediates exchange the protons adjacent to the CO2 groups. These intermolecular reaction steps require significantly lower activation energies in comparison to the intramolecular proton shift from C to O. The carboxylation reaction in the position 6 is both kinetically and thermodynamically unfavourable, whereas the pathways in the positions 1 and 3 are competitive. Pathway 1 requires the lowest activation energies, but E3 is significantly more stable than other two products. In accord with these findings are the experimental results which show that, at very low temperature (293 K) only E1 is formed at low yield, whereas the yields of E3 and E6 increase with the increasing temperature. Since the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction is experimentally performed at relatively high temperatures (around 500 K), the main product is thermodynamically most stable E6.