Yinka Calvin Ojeleye, Chioma Ifeoma Ojeleye, Kareem Rafiu Falola, Aisha Abdullahi

The youth unemployment especially among graduates in Nigeria is at all-time high. The study explored the moderating role of perceived institutional support in the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions among students. The study employed survey and cross-sectional research design. The study employed purposive sampling technique 1000 pieces of questionnaire were administered students four federal universities in Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto and Zamfara states out of which 627 were valid and used for the analyses. The study used statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) to run the preliminary analyses such as detection of missing value, outliers, multicollinearity and test of normality. Structural equation model (SmartPLS) was used to run the measurement and structural models. The findings revealed that proactive personality and institutional support have positive and significant effect entrepreneurial intentions among students in the selected institutions. Furthermore, institutional support significantly moderated the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions The study recommended that institutions should support the students to develop entrepreneurial intentions. One way of achieving this is through the inclusion of entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial guidance and counselling to boost entrepreneurial intentions. Future studies can also conduct a longitudinal study as against the cross-survey employed by this study to properly ascertain the established relationship or otherwise of the constructs of study.

Danica Bakotić, Natali Veber

The aim of this paper is to analyze the activities of trade companies that they could conduct in order to reduce the problem of labor shortage on Croatian labor market. Namely, this paper focuses on exploring the link between shortage of workers, unskilled and low skilled, as well as highly educated workers, and the various activities that companies can undertake to mitigate this problem. The empirical research was conducted through a specially designed questionnaire, on a sample of 30 large Croatian companies belonging to the trade industry. The results showed the modest activities of companies this field. Out of series activities that can diminish the problem of labor shortages, trade companies only undertake student scholarships and job sharing as an option only for women. The results of this paper will contribute to the understanding the situation on the labor market in Croatia. As we are aware, this is the first this kind of the research in Croatia, so it can be a starting point for a further research into this extremely important issue. However, due to the research limitations related to the small sample, the focus on only trade companies, the self-created survey questionnaire, that may have certain shortcomings and the applying of only correlation analysis; the obtained results must be considered in accordance with these limitations.

Kristina Devčić, Ivana Tonković Pražić

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic brought issues that tourism sectors and national economies were not faced with under normal conditions to the fore. In the newly created situation, due to restrictions in the movement of people, domestic guests have become the carriers of tourist traffic in all tourist markets, and only about 10% of the total number of tourists in the Republic of Croatia are domestic guests. However, unlike most competing countries, during the period of reduced demand, the Croatian tourism sector showed resilience due to the proximity of large European markets from which Croatia is easily and quickly accessible by car, such as Italy or Germany. This paper analyzes the dynamics of tourist overnight stays in the Republic of Croatia and in its competing countries (Spain, Greece and Portugal), in the period from 2018 to 2021. The analysis of trends in the volume of tourist traffic and the reaction and resilience of the tourism sectors of the aforementioned countries to changes caused by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic is the main subject of this research with the aim of preparing the tourism sector, that is, the national economy for similar global challenges in the future. A comparative analysis of tourist traffic before, during and after the period of reduced demand, between Croatia and selected competing countries, showed how the tourism sector reacted during the period of reduced demand. Future research should seek to answer how to strategically develop the tourism sector in order to build resilience to such challenges, and how to create preconditions for increasing the share of domestic guests in the structure of tourists visiting Croatia, to develop types of tourism that have proven to be more resilient during the pandemic (continental nature based tourism and cultural and gastronomy tourism), develop infrastructure capacities for individual, family and elite tourism, not mass tourism. At the level of national economies, it is necessary to find ways to limit or reduce the share of volatile, tertiary activities, which are the first to react negatively in crisis situations.

Ariana Ergović, Ivona Gambiraža

Crisis represents an unforeseen and unwanted cycle which can be caused by a problem of health, political or financial nature. The crisis of 2008 was caused by the collapse of subprime mortgages, while the 2021 crisis was caused by the virus COVID-19. Looking retrospectively, the 1929 and the 2008 crisis have in common the fact that both governments knew what to do to fix it, but refused to do so. Therefore, when looking back at financial crises, many similarities can be found, which makes finding the solution of the problem easier. The difference can be found in 2021 crisis caused by pandemic which took on a global scale in a very short period of time and paralysed the world. Consequently, the approach to 2021 crisis differentiates from the 2008 financial crisis. Health had been put first which highly affected business results, and regardless of all the efforts, the isolation and the lack of people travelling took its toll. Croatian GDP in 2020 fell more than in the 2008 crisis which gives a slight idea of the galloping impact the health crisis had. Subsequently, the state intervention on the consumer pockets was crucial; to have a population feel its intensity as little as possible. The main goal of this paper is to compare the 2008 financial crisis and the 2021 health crisis, with a focus on observing differences and similarities between stated crises, as well as how different causes impose different ways in which countries act in suppressing the consequences.

Aleksandra Krajnović, Marina Živković, Antonija Ražov

This paper examines the issue of promotion in distribution chains and the current situation when it comes to the use of promotional tools in the distribution channel, as well as their combination, in the context of a multi-channel marketing strategy, as well as in enriching the user experience and CRM. The authors start from the thesis that new promotional tools, especially their use in the digital space, are less represented in retail chains compared to their use in the marketing of industrial manufacturers. The paper presents the conceptual framework related to the above-mentioned problem, and at the same time emphasizes the meaning of the optimal combination of online and offline promotional channels, which is of exceptional importance in the current era of the so-called phygital marketing. The paper focuses on mobile applications as a modern digital promotion channel, as well as their design, content and usage model on the examples of two shopping centers – Lidl and Kaufland, with a comparative analysis. Furthermore, the results of the primary research conducted on the segment of the consumer generation of young people are presented, which tried to find out their attitudes and opinions about the mentioned applications. In the last part of the paper, the author gives a critical review of the results, concluding remarks and guidelines for further research. The scientific contribution of the paper consists in the conceptualization of the use of mobile applications according to the model of Yadav & Pavlou (2020), who place the digitization of business at the center of marketing and business activities, and who in their model view promotional tools as the starting point for the development of long-term relationships with clients, primarily in the relations: company – client and client – company. The practical implications of the paper are reflected in the contribution to knowledge relevant to making strategic marketing decisions in trading companies and in the supply channel in general. The limitation of the research is the focus on the youth segment in the primary research, so for further research it is recommended to expand the analysis to other consumer segments, as well as to further develop the conceptualization of the scientific theory of marketing in the field of promotion and digitalization in the consumer goods trade sector.