Vesna Milovanovic

• Associate Professor at University of Kragujevac - Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja

Purpose This paper analyses the role of intellectual capital (IC) as a factor of the financial performance of entrepreneurial firms, which are recognized as the main drivers of economic growth and employment. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of 188 business owners from Serbia. The primary data are collected using the questionnaire,...

The aim of this article is to explore practices of food waste management among hotels in Serbia and Malaysia. The research results reveal that the examined hotels exercise food waste management, both through prevention, reuse and recycling, with certain differences observed among the two countries. However, collaboration with participants in the su...

First decades of the twenty-first century are characterized by numerous changes that have significantly affected the hotel industry worldwide, both positively and negatively. The most important changes relate to technology, the sharing economy, ecology, different types of crisis, as well as to the demographic structure. Moreover, the number of comp...

The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between the quality management system (QMS) and the intellectual capital (IC) of a company. The importance of IC results from its potential to generate value, especially in the knowledge-based economy. It reflects unique organizational resources which are hard to acquire, imitate and replace. Suc...

Purpose: According to ISO 9000:2015 “the primary focus of quality management is to meet customer requirements and to strive to exceed customer expectations”, where “a customer can be internal or external to the organization”. Internal customers refer to a company’s employees, while external customers are the buyers of a company’s products and servi...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism market experienced numerous changes. The negative consequences were particularly reflected in international tourism, with travel being prevented or restricted. Although under the influence of the pandemic domestic tourism also faced a crisis, there has been a tendency of the population to travel within the...

Fast technological advancement, combined with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought about numerous social and economic changes, and imposed challenges to the hotel industry. On the other hand, demographic changes, such as population ageing, also affect the demand side of the hotel business. The aim of this paper is to highlight the characte...

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a significant role in contemporary business activities, helping companies to improve quality, efficiency, flexibility and learning capacity, to reduce costs, and finally, to achieve competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of implementation, as well as the benefits...

The COVID-19 virus pandemic appeared to be a low-probability, high-impact event that has caused significant disruptions in supply chains worldwide. The hotel industry has been one of the most severely affected, with all participants in the supply chain suffering from the crisis. This paper aims to analyze if, and to what extent, hotels in the Repub...

The novel coronavirus pandemic has brought about significant disruptions to hotel operations, affecting demand for hotel services and guests' behavior, as well as financial stability of hotel companies and, consequently, hotel employees. A hotel company is interconnected with various partners in the supply chain, thus, the problem in hotel operatio...

The impact of quality management (QM) programs on business results has been the subject of numerous studies worldwide. However, given the complexity of the contemporary QM paradigm and its context-dependence, it is difficult to generalise its impact on business performance. This study examines QM from the strategic management perspective by compreh...

The contemporary business environment requires companies to be highly flexible in terms of adapting to customer requirements, to be consistent in quality and price-competitive, while the ultimate goal of the company is to create value for its owners. Therefore, in a long run, the sustainability of business is based on value creation for both custom...

The quality of a tourism destination's offer is determined to a large extent by the quality of its human capital. Human capital represents a measure of the economic value of employees' set of knowledge, habits, competences, motivation, enthusiasm and other personality attributes. Increasing the competitiveness of a tourism destination requires an e...

The aim of this papper is to investigate the motives of tourists for participating in wine tourism in Serbia. The research was conducted using the survey method. From the total number of sent questionnaires, there was received 160 fully completed ones. Results of the research show that the most important motives for the inclusion of tourists to the...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategy of companies to achieve competitive advantage through reducing a negative impact of their business on the society and environment. In contemporary highly polluted environment, increasing number of customers insist on products and services that are not threatening the natural environment. There are...

The emergence of internal control over specific segments of activities has been associated with management needs for evaluation of the consistency between the actual situation and development targets. Monitoring activities should enable detection and timely reaction to possible target-related deviations. While responding to complex market needs, co...

Tourism stimulates the work of a large number of small and medium companies, who provide increase of the number of employees. By following the trends, high education institutions try to provide expert cadre who will be future transmitters of trends in the field. In order to preserve and enhance the quality of education in this area it is necessary...

Total quality management (TQM) is a holistic philosophy of striving for continuous quality improvement of all processes in the company. This requires the involvement of employees and encouraging them to make proposals, take responsibility and make decisions. Successful implementation of TQM is largely determined by the quality of human resources ma...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an outcome of companies' aspiration to ensure competitiveness through reducing a negative impact on society and environment, solving the existing problems which might not be necessarily caused by their activities, and creating a positive impact. This relatively new approach is often perceived as a part of To...

Tourism development means improving the quality of services, enriching the offer with new elements, improving the infrastructure, attracting more customers and retaining them. Various skills are needed in this respect, such as technical skills, interpersonal communication, organizing, problem solving, time management, etc., which can not be develop...

In a highly competitive market the quality of goods play an important role in obtaining a competitive advantage. However, there are other factors impacting competitiveness, such as quality of processes, costs, employees, suppliers, natural environment, as well as ties with customers. TQM is a holistic approach to embrace and manage all mentioned fa...

Many companies have realized that economic and financial crisis is not a short-term phenomenon, but rather a long-term trend. This finding has caused the creation of a strategy for overcoming the difficult business conditions. In the beginning, that was the outsourcing of production and services, followed by downsizing and business processes reengi...

Total quality management is a holistic business philosophy of striving for continuous quality improvement of all processes in the company. Unlike traditional management, where decisions are made at the top of the organizational pyramid and orders transmited from the top-down, total quality management emphasizes the involvement of all employees in t...

Total quality management (TQM) is a holistic philosophy of striving for continuous quality improvement of all processes in the company. This requires the involvement of employees and encouraging them to make proposals, take responsibility and make decisions. Successful implementation of TQM is largely determined by the quality of human resources ma...

This paper focuses on assessing the impact of TQM implementation on the financial performance of hotels. According to the previous studies from Spain, Singapore, Malaysia, and the USA, an empirical investigation was conducted in Serbia during the first quarter of 2013. The findings revealed that the hotels practiced TQM at a relatively high level,...

Modern business environment creates new trends, not only on a global level but also on the level of individual enterprises. The accent used to be on the internationalization of production processes and sale of raw materials and final goods, however the internationalization of services is gaining on importance nowadays. The subject of this paper is...

Strategic brand management has been rapidly developing during the last decade. Brand management incorporates development and implementation of complex marketing activities for building and managing brands. It contributes to company's better financial performance and may be the source of competitive advantage. A starting assumption for successful im...

The aim of this paper is to present specificities and differences of medical tourism destinations at the international tourism market. Special attention is drawn to the analysis of different profiles of demand and their motivations for visiting medical destinations. The work will also highlight the condition of medical tourism in Serbia, especially...

In a contemporary business environment enrepreneurship has become one of the main market forces, since it represents a source of ideas, actions, inovations, creativity, as well as a constant tendency towards change. Many researches such as Mises, Klein, Kirzner and others have been attempting to define entrepreneurship. Considering the results of t...

One of the biggest economic changes by the end of the past century in Europe was a privatization of state owned properties. This was a big challenge, since there have been numerous unsuccessful examples which have destroyed economic activities and left many people without a job. On the other hand, successful privatizations have contributed to furth...