The concept of sustainable tourism development is imposed as an inevitable way of improving the tourism industry as a whole. This study tries to offer an adequate inclusion of sustainable factors in overall tourism development efficiency results. Through the detection and estimation of potential sources of efficiency, the paper will do the efficiency benchmarking of tourism services on the level of countries as destinations. In order to complete the task, data collection was focused on 27 EU countries and five Western Balkan countries over the period from 2011 to 2017. This paper utilized an output-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) procedure to estimate efficiency scores for each country, and a panel data Tobit regression model to emphasize the (in)significance of each individual tourism development indicator. The results in the first stage show relatively high-efficiency scores, particularly in the case of EU 15 countries and with room for improvement in the case of the others. The second stage reveals positive and significant effects on relative tourism efficiency by the sustainability of tourism development, the share of GDP, tourist arrivals and inbound receipts, as well as visa requirements and rate of use. Policymakers should gradually take control of the mentioned variables to protect the interests of all relevant stakeholders involved in the tourism development process.

Since the beginning of the application of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model in various areas of the economy, it has found its wide application in the field of finance, more specifically banks, in the last few years. The focus of this research was to determine the sustainability of the intermediate function of banks, especially in recent years when interest rates on deposits have been at a minimum level. The research was divided into two parts, wherein the first part determined the efficiency of the intermediate function of banks in the countries of the Western Balkans in the period from 2015 to 2019. The second part approached the regression analysis in which we determined the influence of the bank size, type of bank, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity on the defined efficiency. In the first stage we applied the output-oriented DEA model using deposits, labor costs, and capital as input variables; on the other side, we used loans and investments as output variables. We used data from the revised financial statements of the banks operating in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania. The results of our study showed that there is a difference in efficiency levels between countries and within countries in the considered time period. Furthermore, Tobit regression analysis showed a significant and negative influence of the bank type and M&A on relative technical efficiency of banks, and a positive and significant relationship between bank size and relative efficiency. These findings suggest that large commercial banks can sustain on the West Balkan market. It is to be expected that less efficient small banks will be taken over by large and more efficient banks.

Overall satisfaction is an emotional response to a perceived discrepancy between expectations and perceptions. Overall satisfaction is more of a holistic affective construct after a service delivery experience, while transaction-specific satisfaction refers to attribute-based cognitive evaluation of service encounters. The authors investigated which particular attributes of public transport service drive satisfaction of customers, contributing to public transport becoming more sustainable. The questionnaire used in this research was constructed based on Benchmarking in European Service of Public Transport (BEST). The respondents belonged to the group of younger users of public transport services. Correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis were used in data processing and interpretation. Results obtained from the research show that young people emphasize the importance of on-line information, comfort, and prices of the public transportation. This paper not only provides insight into expectations of public transport users, but also investigated the potential decrease in CO2 and PM emissions when private vehicles are substituted with the public transport.

With this paper, we aim to examine the relationship between cognitive, social, and demographical factors, as well as national culture and its relationship with social entrepreneurial activity in Southeast Europe (SEE). The empirical research employs a binary logistic regression model, utilizing data obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. For the purpose of the empirical research, we selected a sample of early-stage entrepreneurs who founded their businesses in Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, or North Macedonia. The research sample in these five countries includes 10,012 examinees, of which 615 are social entrepreneurs. A statistically significant relationship was identified between observed phenomena in terms of entrepreneurial networking, risk aversion, individualism, entrepreneurial social image, media impact, gender, work status, and education. The results can be explained by the specific entrepreneurial context of the SEE region. We also point out recommendations for future research.

The main goal of this paper is to compare the relative technical efficiency of agriculture in Western Balkan countries to those of the European Union and to propose ways to improve the position of Western Balkan countries. The group of Western Balkan countries includes Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania, which are candidate countries for European Union membership, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is currently a potential candidate. An input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis model with the variable return to scale was applied to an 11-year period from 2006 to 2016. Input variables used in the model included labour, land, and capital, and the output was presented as the value of agricultural production. The highest average technical efficiency was achieved by the EU15 countries for the entire eleven-year period, while the Western Balkan countries had the lowest score. The source of this inefficiency was identified in lower levels of agricultural performance, e.g. a lower-level use of the primary production factors – labour and land.