Increased competition, globalization, numerous changes in the field of engineering and technology are just some of the changes that accompany modern business conditions. Modern consumers are increasingly demanding. Individuals vary greatly within groups and cultures to which they belong, but also among themselves based on the characteristics that distinguish them. People engaged in marketing have to constantly monitor and measure consumer attitudes so that their needs and desires are fully met. This paper summarizes the sales promotion activities carried out by retail chains. The aim of the activities of sales promotion is to create and maintain long-term relationships with customers and competitive advantage on the market. The research topic is the impact of sales promotion activities on the behavior and attitudes of consumers when choosing a product. The aim of the research is to examine the effects achieved by sales improvement to consumers through the implementation of the competitive positions of the companies. For the purpose of the research the method used was survey research.

A B S T R A C TThe paper is motivated by practical and always current problem of increasing profitability as one of the organizational performances. Critical success factors (CSFs) answer the question about what drives growth, profitability, and success in company. The research presented in this paper was conducted on a sample of two hundred companies in the food industry of the Republic of Serbia. The aim of the research is whether and to what extent there is a link between the assumed critical success factors and profitability, as well as determining the contribution of critical factors to predicting profitability. Based on techniques of correlation and multiple regression analysis, it was found that the efficiency, innovation, quality and flexibility, as critical factors explain a statistically significant part of the variance in profitability reflected by indicators ROA, ROE and EBITDA margin.

The customer service experience with a specific travel agency is a kind of moment of truth. Customer satisfaction is the outcome they have experienced when service performance met expectations. Contrary to satisfaction, consumers may experience dissatisfaction with the provided service. One of the responses to dissatisfaction is a consumer complaint. Apart from feeling satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the provided service, consumers may also be satisfied or unsatisfied with the complaint process. The aim of this paper is to identify differences in the determinants of complaint behavior (tendency to file a complaint, justice of interaction, perception of fairness, satisfaction with the complaint handling process and loyalty) between female and male respondents. Field research was conducted meaning that the primary data were collected through a survey. The paper presents the respondents' assessments of the set statements regarding experiences during the complaint process. To meet the research objectives, the Mann-Whitney U test was applied, which is used to examine the differences between the two independent groups as a nonparametric alternative to the t-test of independent samples.

The goal of the research is to determine a statistically significant difference in the tendency to appeal in relation to socio-demographic characteristics of the users of tourist services. The study has been conducted on a group sample of 116 respondents from Serbia and 106 respondents from Croatia. The empirical part of the research was carried out by a survey technique. The results of the conducted empirical research confirmed the findings and claims of foreign authors on the impact of tourist service users' age, monthly income and the number of family members, on their inclination to complain. The main findings of this research indicate that maintaining a long-term loyalty relationships with existing users is becoming increasingly difficult. The paper seeks to contribute to the existing literature by indicating the importance of knowing the effects of influence factors upon a tendency to file a complaint. The obtained results help employees in the first service line to identify aspects of influence on the users' reaction to service failure and thus give a starting point for creating measures for effective resolution of user dissatisfaction. Future researchers are advised to collect additional information on the factors influencing the user's complaint behaviour.

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