Perceived value is an extremely important concept in marketing and many authors have dealt with it in recent years. In Slovenia perceived value of product is a rather neglected aspect of the research. Moreover, nobody has empirically researched the impact of individual factors on perceived value of a product. The researched target group was students -the fastest growing segment among the users of mobile phones in Slovenia. In their research the authors focused on two of the perceived value impact factors: perceived product quality and perceived risk. Based on literature and our own findings, their main researched objective was to design the model of relationships among perceived value, perceived quality and perceived risk. After the model had been tested with the method of structural equation modeling (LISREL 8.0), the authors found that statistically significant relationships (positive and negative, direct and indirect) among the concepts researched exist.

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The Narver and Slater market orientation scale is tested in the context of service firms in the transition economies of central Europe and found to be both valid and reliable. The survey examined levels of market orientation in 205 business to business services companies and 141 consumer services companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. As predicted by the predominantly western marketing literature, those service firms with higher levels of market orientation; were more often found in turbulent, rapidly changing markets; were more likely to pursue longer term market building goals rather than short term efficiency objectives; more likely to pursue differentiated positioning through offering superior levels of service compared to competitors; and also performed better on both financial and market based criteria. A number of different business approaches, however, are evident in the transition economies suggesting that other business orientations may co‐exist with a market orientation creating a richer and more complex set of organizational drivers.

In the present paper, first the conceptual model of perceived value concept as a mediating variable in tourist perceptions of hotel services is presented and afterwards tested with structural equation modelling. The study reveals that: (a) the relationship between perceived hotel quality and perceived value is strong and positive; (b) the relationship between hotel quality and guest satisfaction is not direct, but rather indirect through the perceived value; (c) hotel image is significantly positively related to perceived value and perceived hotel quality; and (d) perceived value strongly impacts hotel guest satisfaction. Further, invariance analysis shows that no significant differences exist in relationships among perceived quality, image, perceived value and satisfaction between tourists from Slovenia and tourists from Italy.

The authors concentrate on the importance of service quality elements in health spas. In the introduction the authors describe general characteristics of the health spa industry in Slovenia. They also point out the expanding emphasis on the service elements of products, their perceived quality and their influence upon the management practices of organisations. The main characteristics of the theoretical discussion on quality of services are presented, as well as the background of the research project. This 1999 study was a replication of part of a research project on the health spa industry in Slovenia conducted in 1991 using the SERVQUAL instrument. The project dealt with the assessment of the overall service quality in two health spas, the identification of important profiles of health spa service quality components and the identification of possible differences between important profiles of service quality components identified in 1991 and those seen in 1999. Most of the important differences in the structure of the service quality elements emerged during the interval between both research projects.