1. Introduction
The contribution to beekeeping is of great importance in the process of achieving one of the most important goals of the Common Agricultural Policy. Beekeeping is a very important sector in European agriculture, as it generates an annual value-added of €1 billion. An overview of the honey market (2022) has shown that the number of beekeepers in the year 2020 in the EU is estimated at 615,000, with 19 million beehives. A majority of beehives in the EU are concentrated in Spain (15%), Romania (12%), Poland (10%), Greece (11%), France (9%) and Italy (8%). The Union contribution for 2020–2022 programmes is EUR 40 million/year, which represents an increase of 11% from the 2017–2019 programmes [
1]. EU members are implementing various beekeeping support measures that are included in the national programs of the member states [
2] such as technical assistance for beekeepers and groups of beekeepers; varroasis control; rationalization of transhumance; supporting the laboratory that conducts physical-chemical analyses of honey properties; supporting the restoration of beehives in the community; and cooperation with specialized bodies. Article 55 (4) of the Regulation (EC) No. 1308/2013 [
3] modifies the list of acceptable measures to support beekeeping, expands the scope and introduces two new measures: market monitoring and improving product quality with the aim of exploiting the product’s potential on the market. The quality recognition of honey at the European Union level can be achieved by obtaining two designations: Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication; GI and the importance of the use of geographical indications for food products, especially honey, have been widely researched [
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10].
The honey production capacity in Serbia is satisfactory, so that after domestic needs are satisfied, there are still quantities that are placed on the foreign market. However, the beekeeping sector operates with problems, some of which have existed since the transition period. Production is a dominant supplementary activity [
11] and beekeepers—although there is an umbrella association SPOS (Union of Beekeeping Organizations of Serbia) and SPOV (Union of Beekeeping Organizations of Vojvodina), as well as local associations—are largely unorganized and unprotected. Due to the fact that Serbia has the potential for the production of organic honey, the production of honey with a geographical indication, and the significant participation of the beekeeping sector in the export of the Republic of Serbia [
12], there is a need for detailed research on all participants in this value chain.
The review of previous empirical research which has analysed the factors of beekeepers’ production, has shown that there are important unexplored questions of beekeeper perceptions that should be looked at in more detail and investigated and examined in a comprehensive study. This created an opportunity for our research. There is a need to research beekeeping activity in terms such as customer satisfaction and loyalty, brand image, time to market, number of new products/services, capacity utilization, and innovation potential that could contribute to achieving more profitable business results. As there is no previous research on the nexus of the competitive environment, innovative performance and business performance of Serbian beekeepers, the results obtained in this research may be of special interest to authors and researchers, beekeeping organizations and representatives of agricultural advisory services.
The primary specific objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of business environment variables (such as the opportunities, threats, and relationships with the consumers) and the impact of innovative performance variables (such as marketing, product design, product quality, distribution, manufacturing and time to market) on the business performance of Serbian beekeepers. Based on a study of the relevant literature and the analysis of the results of the conducted research, the secondary specific objective is to develop a new approach by testing quantitative and qualitative factors, as well as a model that would determine the cause-and-effect relationships and connections of the key factors that determine business performance. In doing so, the paper will try to analyse this complex relationship through the perception of beekeepers, which is in line with the findings of Schouten [
13], who states that the largest number of beekeeping studies use interviews or the survey as a tool for assessing the current state of beekeeping enterprises. Although several significant studies have been conducted in the area of different profitability factors of beekeeping enterprises [
13,
14,
15,
16], only a few studies have focused exclusively on this topic. While other authors have analysed the business performance of beekeepers from the aspect of profitability and liquidity [
17,
18,
19,
20], operational flexibility [
17,
18], innovation and modern business [
18,
21], yield per hive [
22], tools, mechanization and organization and management of production [
22,
23,
24,
25], availability of financial resources [
11,
18,
26], scientific organization of work and education and staff development [
27], networking and intersectoral communication [
18,
28,
29,
30,
31], there was a lack of beekeepers’ perceptions of production performance in relation to the main competitors in terms of sales volume, profitability, growth rate of production and turnover, and reputation on the market.
To this end, we formulate the main research question: Can Serbian beekeepers, with their knowledge, abilities and opportunities, be enabled to respond to market needs with quality of services and products and technological innovations that can spur business performance? The main research question can be segmented into the following specific research questions: Does the competitive environment have a direct positive influence on the business performance of Serbian beekeeping activity and on innovation performance of Serbian beekeeping activity? Does innovation performance have a direct positive influence on the business performance of Serbian beekeeping activity? Does the competitive environment have an indirect positive influence on the business performance of Serbian beekeeping activity through innovation performance? The authors have formulated the hypotheses that are based on the research questions and are specified in the theoretical framework.
The main theoretical contribution of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of some related constructs which have not been investigated in the previous literature on the beekeeping sector. Hence, helping to develop a better understanding of the mechanism of impact of the beekeepers’ perception of the competitive environment and innovation performance on business performance is our main theoretical contribution. In this regard, the findings of the paper will give an insight into the underlying mechanism by which the competitive environment and innovation performance influence business performance.
After the introduction, the conclusions of a number of authors, who have analysed the various aspects of the business environment, innovative performance and business performance in beekeeping production, and the theoretical framework will be presented. In the following sections, the authors will present the methodology, the research findings and its discussion. Finally, the concluding observations summarize the research findings. In particular, we emphasize that our findings can serve as a starting point for the creation of further strategies for the development of the beekeeping sector.
3. Materials and Methods
In order to achieve the defined goals of the research, that is, the information needed for a specific research action, the research process in this work includes a theoretical and empirical part. The authors wanted to analyse the relation between the variables of the competitive apiculture sector environment, business performance and innovation performance. The research questionnaire was modelled on previous research, whereby the competitive environment was represented as business environment opportunities (C1, C2) and threats (CE5) and relationships with the consumers (C3, C4). Innovation performance was represented by the respondent’s subjective assessment of the innovativeness in the fields of marketing (IP1), product design (IP2), product quality (IP3), distribution process (IP4), manufacturing process (IP5) and time of product placement on the market (IP6). Business performance was operationalized as current and future sales volume (BP1), profitability (BP2), sales volume (BP3), growth rate (BP4) and reputation (BP5), as compared to the main competitors [
108]. In order to standardize and clarify the measurement instruments, to reduce the margin for error and to contribute to the reliability of the research, the assessments of respected experts in the given fields of the proposed indicators confirmed that the survey items are relevant and follow a logical layout.
Ethical considerations were also incorporated into the research. The prerequisite of voluntary participation in the research was met for all the participants. All the participants in the research were informed about the nature of the research and how the results would be used. The anonymous survey was carried out in electronic form, and the principle of confidentiality was respected. The random selection method was used for the selection of a representative sample. After pretesting the survey with the relevant subject experts and survey methodologists and creating a final version, the questionnaire was sent to 1050 e-mail addresses of beekeepers (about 3% of SPOS members) from the Republic of Serbia, based on the available database of the Association of Beekeepers of Serbia and Vojvodina (SPOS and SPOV), in which all beekeepers are registered. According to SPOS data, 237 associations and about 30 thousand beekeepers are registered (there is no record of active or fictitiously registered beekeepers), so the sample represents about 2.8% of registered beekeepers. Therefore, the survey was conducted on the territory of the Republic of Serbia from March to May 2022. Of the 1050 questionnaires, distributed in electronic form by distributing the link of the electronic questionnaire via e-mail, 839 were returned completed in full and usable (response rate of 80%), and the final sample consisted of 839 respondents. In line with the research questions, the evaluation of subjective judgments of the respondents was performed using seven-point Likert scales, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).
Appropriate methods of statistical analysis were used. The data were firstly processed in the SPSS statistical package. Data analysis was further carried out using the method of structural equations, using the method of partial least squares—PLS-SEM (partial least squares-structural equation modelling) using PLS SMART software. The method of partial least squares is a linear regression method that is used in situations where one wants to examine the regression influence of complex sets of data. The mentioned model is effective for analysis in situations where there are large numbers of independent and several dependent variables, when the variables do not have a normal distribution [
109,
110], when the data are burdened with intercorrelation and the like [
111]. In researching the impact of the competitive environment and innovative performance on the business performance of Serbian beekeeping activities, the PLS-SEM model consists of a measurement of an external model, where there are manifest variables of a formative and reflective character. The reflective model consists of 11 variables, while the formative model consists of the latent variable, business performance, with 5 formative variables that affect the latent construct BP. In the process of data analysis, the size of the research sample has been firstly assessed. The sample size is satisfactory, which is in accordance with the recommendation of Barclay et al. [
112]. Although the PLS-SEM model does not require a normal data distribution [
112], the normality of the data distribution was examined using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and the Shapiro–Wilk test to assess the normality of the distribution of the results. The reliability of the data measures, which are the manifest variables of the latent constructs, was tested using Cronbach’s alpha [
109].
4. Results
The final sample, as shown in
Table 1, consisted of 839 beekeepers, of whom 7.03% were female while the majority 92.97% was male. On average, 38.02% of beekeepers were aged over 41 years, and the majority of beekeepers owned 10–25 (40.64%) beehives, while 43.87% owned more than 25 beehives. In the entire sample, 87.25% of beekeepers have completed high school (or vocational education institutes) and 12.75% have completed college or higher education institutions. The majority of respondents (87.6%) engage in nonprofessional beekeeping. The majority of the respondents (56.26%) live in large households (with four and more than four household members).
The mean scores of the characteristics of the competitive environment, innovation performance and business performance are shown in
Table 2. The beekeepers are of the opinion that their competitive environment (CE—mean score of 3.17) does not give much impediment to the further development of beekeeping. The Serbian beekeepers consider that the beekeeping sector is rich in investment and marketing opportunities (mean score of 3.18), and consumer trends and desires are easy to forecast (mean score of 3.30). The bargaining power, satisfaction and loyalty of their buyers has a strong influence on the business results (mean score of 3.06). The claim regarding the number of the counterfeit honey products achieved the highest mean score of 3.43. Because of the low consumer purchasing power in the Serbian market, the cheaper counterfeits and substitutes for honey may appeal more to consumers, as the buyers are price-sensitive. This constitutes a major threat.
The beekeepers have rated the innovation performance with an average score of 2.91, which is slightly lower than the mean score of the competitive environment, while the perceived innovation in the marketing and distribution process (mean score of 2.97) has achieved the highest score. The beekeepers are satisfied with their “time to market” (mean score of 2.95). The claims regarding innovativeness in the manufacturing processes, product quality and product design have also achieved a rather high score (mean scores of 2.89, 2.88 and 2.84, respectively).
The beekeepers’ assessment of their business performance (BP—mean score of 3.02) indicates that, compared to their main competitors, the beekeepers perceive their sales volume (mean score of 2.88) and growth rate (mean score of 2.92) to be lower but have a positive belief that the profitability is rather high (mean score of 3.20), compared to their main competitors, and that the sales volume (mean score of 3.42) of their current products in the coming three years will increase. They perceive themselves to be distinguished from their competitors by having a good reputation on the market, which is extremely important for successful product differentiation (mean score of 2.99).
Reflective model assessment findings show that 11 variables make up the reflective measurement model (
Table 3). Factor loads for all manifest variables are in the range of 0.778–0.874. The values of Cronbach’s α (the values are 0.888, 0.892) indicate a high level of reliability. The values of composite reliability (CR) are 0.894 and 0.903, confirming that the selected variables represent characteristics of innovation performance and competitive environment constructs. Convergent validity (AVE) values are 0.641 and 0.691 (the criterion is satisfied, since the value is greater than 0.5).
Discriminant validity shows to what extent the constructs empirically differ from the constructs in the structural model [
109,
113]. The analysis was performed using Fornell–Larcker criteria and HTMT values. Standardized factor loads of latent constructs are higher than cross-standardized factor loads of other constructs, which satisfies the criterion and confirms the discriminant validity of individual latent constructs (
Table 4).
Results of collinearity research (VIF) for the outer and inner models are shown in
Table 5. Values for reflective variables range from 1.798 to 2.829; the obtained values are less than 3, which confirms the fact that there is no problem of collinearity in the model.
The formative model consists of the latent variable, business performance, with five formative variables that affect the latent construct BP. The results of the reliability analysis of the formative latent construct are in the range of 1958–2691. The obtained values are less than 3; therefore the criterion [
109] is satisfied, and we can conclude that formative measurement variables do not have the problem of collinearity.
The findings on the statistical significance of outer weights of the formative measurement variables are shown in
Table 6. The findings indicate the existence of the total effect of the constructs.
Finally, testing of the significance of the structural model and confirmation of hypotheses was performed (
Table 7). There is a positive connection between innovation performance, indicating that positive and statistically significant associations between the variables and four hypotheses (H1, H2, H3 and H4) have been confirmed.
The graphical presentation of the model results (
Figure 2) shows the values of the corrected coefficient of determination (R2 adjusted) for innovation performance R2 = 0.608, indicating that 60.8% of the innovation performance is explained by the predictor variable, competitive environment; R2 = 0.767 for business performance, which indicates a high influence, and that 76.7% of business performance has been explained by the innovation performance and competitive environment.
5. Discussion
In our context, we depict a new theoretical approach and examine the research gap that is unexploited and insufficiently exploited by other scholars, as this study is one of the first to focus on the links between the perceptions of business performance, competitive environment opportunities and threats and innovative performance in beekeeping production in the Republic of Serbia. To this end, we provide new information enriching existing theory with new scientific knowledge about the impact of beekeepers’ perceptions on the competitive environment and the characteristics of innovation performance on business performance. Thus, this study makes an important contribution to the literature from the approach that made it possible to look at beekeepers’ performance from a different angle, that is, on the basis of qualitative perceptual experiences, which expands and fills the literature gap. On the other hand, the paper adds value to existing knowledge by creating new research that has direct implications for all stakeholders in the beekeeping sector and can contribute to using the full potential of Serbian beekeepers to satisfy domestic and foreign demand.
The findings show that Serbian beekeepers consider the competitive environment safe and without much impediment to the further development of beekeeping. However, the bargaining power, loyalty and satisfaction of their buyers has a strong influence on the business results. The counterfeit honey products constitute a major threat because of the low consumer purchasing power in the Serbian market and the cheaper substitutes for honey, which may appeal more to consumers. The findings on the perceived innovation in the marketing and distribution process, the manufacturing processes, product quality and product design findings show that Serbian beekeepers consider their innovation performance satisfactory. The perceived profitability compared to their main competitors is high, with hopes that the sales volume of their current products in the coming three years will increase. They perceive themselves to be distinguished from their competitors by having a good reputation on the market, which brings us to the conclusion that the consumers can be further educated on the benefits of quality honey products. Branding programs that promote local honey products, with protected geographical indication, or organic honey products, produced within the province, may be a part of economic development strategies for rural communities. This is only possible if the local honey producers are positioned differently from other large honey producers and if the local honey products have adequate support and promotion in the framework of a rural strategy.
The findings have supported the hypothesis that the competitive environment has a direct positive influence on the business performance of Serbian beekeeping activity (H1), as in the model, the strongest connection exists between Competitive Environment (CE) and Business Performance (0.841). This finding is only partially consistent with the earlier research on the importance of CE on the business performance of beekeepers [
114]. In fact, research has shown that the characteristics of the adoption of new technologies in beekeeping has a more significant impact on business performance compared to CE. We can also conclude that the strength of the relationship in the current research is more pronounced. Therefore, we can conclude that the competitive environment has a very strong positive impact on the business performance of beekeepers, which can result in expanding production, conquering new markets [
52] and attracting new customers. Clear differentiation from honey counterfeits on the market can be achieved through education [
27,
55,
106], informing consumers on the quality of honey [
115]. It is also necessary to monitor changes in consumption and trends in customer perception [
116,
117,
118].
Thanks to a stable environment, the honey sector has the potential for employment [
119,
120], especially women’s employment [
114], increasing income [
121], improving living standards and the environment [
25,
89,
122], thus contributing to overall rural development [
37,
123,
124,
125,
126]. Many authors point out the importance of social entrepreneurship [
120], rural development [
37,
123,
124,
125,
126], environmental environment [
25,
89] and beekeeping tourism [
122], in line with Mustafa et al. [
34] and Ababor and Tekle [
37], who indicate that the beekeeping sector has this development potential. The perceived importance of attributes, such as care for the environment and nutritional properties, has proven to have a positive influence on the consumers’ WTP for local honey [
127]. Beekeepers should start from monitoring consumer needs [
34,
46,
47,
48,
118,
128], which emphasizes the importance of market research and consumer behaviour. On the basis of perceived consumer preferences, product differentiation strategies and marketing activities can be adequately created, which is confirmed by the high values of factor loadings for CE2, and is in line with the research findings of Ignjatijević et al. [
114] and Treetrapetch et al. [
129]. On the other hand, the consumer trends (CE3) represent a guideline in which direction to modernize production [
21,
22,
34,
36,
44,
45], organize the production process [
23,
42,
103], network [
28,
30] and cooperate with professional and scientific organizations [
11,
29,
31,
38,
90]. Customer satisfaction and loyalty is one of the most important factors (CE4) that directly affects the business performance of beekeepers and is in accordance with the previous findings [
40,
41,
42,
54]. Consumer satisfaction is a prerequisite for regular consumption [
50,
51] and profit [
18,
19,
20,
35,
84,
85]. Thus, consumer satisfaction with honey and honey products and developed loyalty are an effective means of combating unfair competition and counterfeiting.
A strong connection also exists between the competitive environment and innovation performance (H2—0.780) and between innovation performance and business performance (H3—0.391). Although adapting supply to market demands requires knowledge and investment [
34,
36], there are problems for the adoption of innovations by small producers in countries in transition. A higher degree of education and professional beekeeping experience presuppose a willingness to invest in research and development [
82]. However, in developing countries, the access to financial resources is limited [
11,
20,
26,
60], and systemic problems [
89,
90] and mimicry of innovation are present [
130]. Technologies proposed are often incompatible with indigenous values, habits and socio-cultural institutions [
131] and need to adapt to market characteristics [
34,
37,
116,
117]. Moerland [
132] argues that a system of protecting geographical indications allows and stimulates innovation; it supports the development and integration of places, people and products, i.e., it has an ecological, economic and social effect [
7,
8]. In the case of honey, with geographical origin, quality is not questioned [
11,
106,
133]. For example, in the Republic of Serbia “Fruška Gora linden honey” has received the label of geographic origin, thanks to the support of EU funds in the process of certification. Findings on the attitudes of honey consumers [
44,
45,
46,
47] show that consumers prefer quality and show loyalty to producers who offer certified honey [
55,
118,
128,
133].
The total indirect effect of the competitive environment on the business performance through innovation performance (H4) is 0.305. These results are in line with the previous research, which points out that the competitive environment can directly and indirectly contribute to the business performance of beekeepers. Modern lifestyles impose the need to manage knowledge [
72,
74,
75] and innovations in order to adapt beekeepers to the specific needs of consumers [
48,
89,
114,
118], be it packaging, distribution or promotion [
44,
45]. By increasing beekeepers’ awareness of innovations, in terms of quality, design [
132], modern equipment, organization and business management [
24,
25,
42], income and cost management [
18,
19,
20,
22,
88,
128], beekeepers will have a positive impact on their business results, which is confirmed by the findings. To develop more innovative processes or products, which are predominantly incremental in nature, beekeepers should have a clear business orientation [
65,
83], strengthen their relationships with agro-food industry institutes and various organizations [
31], and integrate innovative sustainable technological solutions that are important drivers of innovation [
134].
The use of a systematic approach to management [
25] and professional organization of work are also factors that can increase the economic efficiency of beekeeping production. The profitability of the business, and thus the competitiveness of the apiary, is also affected by the development of the staff [
27], who, together with seasonal workers [
58], procure raw materials, and finalize and prepare beekeeping products for distribution. Accordingly, it is important to point out that beekeepers will achieve better economic results due to better organization of production [
23] and a larger workforce. Modern bee farms [
21], with a high degree of mechanization and organization of production, friendlier to the environment [
122], can operate as the most profitable bee farms if they represent an integrated system of production and processing of bee products and raw materials, communicating intersectorally [
31], providing the consumers with finished products. Djurabaev [
18,
28] states that the creation of cooperatives or clusters is one of the models for creating an industrial base, using the potential of the territory and increasing the competitiveness and productivity of the food sector in the region [
119]. Clusters ensure the integration of scientifically based and technologically feasible recommendations of an innovative nature and the creation of a business climate [
29]. Organizations integrated in a cluster can use the services of intermediary organizations, and the results depend on the strength of vertical and horizontal cooperation, integrated production, consumer, procurement, credit, supply and marketing and other types of cooperatives [
28,
30].
6. Conclusions
In the analysis of the research questions, we can conclude that the answer to the research questions must be based on individual assessments and a quantitative evaluation of the perception of individual production indicators. Thus, a qualitative assessment of the production of the beekeeping sector has been obtained. Therefore, in order to look at the state of the beekeeping sector, we commenced our research from the views of individuals and derived a generalized conclusion. Our analysis started from the perceptions of the beekeepers on micro aspects of production and environment. In this way, an answer has been obtained on whether the beekeepers have the knowledge and the experience, that is, whether they are capable of dealing with competition; whether they recognize the needs of the market, and if the products and services they provide satisfy their expectations (expected business performance), as well as consumer expectations; and whether they adequately use potential and opportunities. The answers of beekeepers are especially important to us on the issues of innovations in production: whether they are present at all, that is, whether they are a stimulus or a limiting factor. What has been crystallized during the research, as a significant constatation? Production indicators of the beekeeping sector indicate an increase in the number of registered beekeepers and hives and an increase in production, but what does that say about the challenges of a beekeeper, for whom beekeeping is a supplementary activity or hobby, who produces in a very rural environment, in an extremely extensive mode? What does it say about a beekeeper who has a scientifically expert approach and uses all the services of advisory services? The question that has guided us since the beginning of the research is who can better assess the state of the sector than the producers themselves?
Nevertheless, the research started from the conclusions of earlier research that there is insufficient implementation of innovations, knowledge and experience in beekeeping, that the sector lacks financial resources, and that insufficient investment is made in research, marketing, promotion, design, quality and product distribution. The research evaluated the attitude of beekeepers on the relationship between the environment and innovations and its impacts on business performance, which was lacking in beekeeping studies in Serbia. The research confirmed all the hypotheses. The strongest positive statistically significant influence exists in relation to the competitive environment on the business performance, followed by a somewhat weaker but positive and statistically significant influence of the competitive environment on the innovative performance of beekeepers. We also confirmed the positive impact of the innovative performance on the business performance of beekeepers. Finally, the weakest but positive statistically significant indirect influence of the competitive environment, through innovations, on beekeeper performance has been established. The research has shown that the set model is significant, and a high percentage of variations in the beekeepers’ performance is explained by the influence of two independent variables (competitive environment and innovative performance).
Therefore, we started from the conclusions of previous research, developed the model, and drew conclusions that represent strategic and unique guidelines on beekeepers’ current perceptions. In order to survive on the market, beekeeping producers must maintain the competitive advantage, with resources directed towards innovative solutions. With scarce financial resources, they should focus on the relationships with existing and new consumers, and link with other stakeholders in the value chain, while nurturing the organizational culture that is the basis for innovation. The survival of the beekeeping producers in the long term is determined by their ability and willingness to create long-term value. This can be achieved not only by complete knowledge of one’s own business, but also by knowledge of the market, continuous monitoring of all changes and rapid adaptation to new market requirements. The competitive business environment ensures the creation of value at a higher level than the competition in a way that is difficult to imitate, that is, the creation of value that exceeds consumer expectations. The competitive business environment spurs innovations, which are often accompanied by further product development, organic and certified honey and value-added honey products.
The findings could support the development of new strategic actions towards more systemic innovation. For long-term growth, cooperation between all stakeholders is necessary. First of all, the beekeeping sector of the Republic of Serbia should increase competitiveness by introduction of additional funds for beekeeping support by the government, in line with modern EU measures, in order to reach compliance with the standards and rules of good agricultural practice in beekeeping. The market regulation mechanisms should be more efficient, while the rural development policy should encourage the measures directed towards adaption/creation of innovation processes, as well as the improvement of competitiveness, sectoral integration, innovation, market orientation and entrepreneurship. Incentive measures to support the development of beekeeping will undoubtedly have an impact on the long-term sustainable development of beekeeping as well as on the improvement of the innovative and competitive potential of the agricultural and food sector. Entrepreneurial initiative, innovation and motivation of beekeepers can be enhanced through knowledge transfer and information measures, development of advisory services, services for assistance to beekeeping societies, quality honey programs, establishing organizations of honey producers, and others forms of cooperation, which fall under measures of rural development. An important indicator of the successful adoption and implementation of European Union standards and values is the degree of acceptance of support schemes for agriculture and rural development in new and potential EU member states [
135].
This research study is based only on a representative sample of beekeepers in the Republic of Serbia; therefore, its findings cannot be generalized to a wider range of developed honey markets. This limitation of the study can point to the need to undertake further studies in comparable economies at a similar stage of apiculture development.