L26 - EntrepreneurshipReturn

More efficient and productive employees enable businesses to achieve better results, innovate, enhance the quality of products and services and respond to changing market conditions. The research therefore focuses on an analysis of procrastination at work in Slovak SMEs. We focus on the prevalence of procrastination and demographic determinants that were investigated and analysed among 253 administrative employees of various SMEs in Slovakia. Quantitative research was carried out by online inquiry using the standard questionnaire Procrastination at Work Scale, which focuses on online and offline employee procrastination and its total score. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in maintaining economic stability in Slovakia. They generate jobs, stimulate local markets and contribute to overall GDP growth. They are not only the driving force of innovation but can be characterised by flexibility and the ability to react quickly to changes on the market. They also contribute to increasing the country's competitiveness and balanced regional development. However, the performance of SMEs depends on the productivity of employees. Motivating employees is essential for businesses as it boosts employee efficiency, productivity and performance, promotes collaboration and stimulates creativity and innovation.
Implications for Central European audience: The present study provides answers to many questions and can help SMEs obtain the necessary recommendations that are applicable in practice in the field of motivation. Addressing this issue opens up the ground for conducting similar research dealing with global changes in management of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In Central and Eastern European (CEE) business conditions, intellectual capital is becoming increasingly important as a form of intangible rather than tangible capital. The aim of this study is to determine the structure of intellectual capital, identify determinants and evaluate their values for agri-entrepreneurship development. Thereby, potentials are identified and strategic guidelines are created. The research methodology is based on a measurement and evaluation process using calculations of importance weights and ratings and values of all attributes and determinants. It is recognized as human, structural and consumer capital with different attributes and descriptions. Four research questions are tested through research and analysed with a primary focus on the measurement and evaluation of attributes. The results show a predominant value for entrepreneurs' abilities in human capital. Agri-entrepreneurs are found to have the greatest potential in the organizational structure for structural capital. The distribution channel has the highest value in consumer capital. Moreover, the study shows that human capital has the highest value and potential for agri-entrepreneurship development compared with consumer and structural capital. A strategic analysis is applied to connect the proposed guidelines. This research on intellectual capital potential establishes guidelines for strategic goals on which entrepreneurs should focus to increase their competitiveness on the market.
Implications for Central European audience: Research on agri-entrepreneurship has been increasing but is still lacking in the CEE region, especially in countries where agriculture is one of the most important economic branches. This conceptual research model is an attempt to formulate an empirical evaluation of the determinants of intellectual capital. It aims to recognize weaknesses and form strategic goals for the production value growth and operations of economic entities in agriculture. The model focuses on intangible capital and its components, which are crucial for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the agricultural sector.

This article examines the Romanian digital platform economy. In particular, it discusses how this novel paradigm could help Romania adapt to new technological and structural conditions and participate in the upcoming industrial-digital revolution. It intends to investigate the bottlenecks in the country's platform economy. Moreover, it compares the health of the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem with that of neighbouring countries. So that Romania may achieve sustainable growth, it suggests ways to enhance the platform economy framework. The methodology and data analysed in the study are based on the Digital Platform Economy Index 2020. It combines 61 indicators from different sources in 24 variables, twelve for the digital environment and twelve for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. These variables comprise the twelve pillars. Providing a basis for comparison, they are a crucial component of the model. Lastly, the four sub-indices and the main super-index are calculated. Platform economies such as Romania lack technology transfer, financial facilitation and digital literacy, according to the research. Demand side issues, such as fewer companies operating online and utilizing cloud technologies and low consumer online purchases, inhibit the introduction of new online businesses and technologies. Digitalization of industrial processes is not a trend in Eastern European countries. It is important to note that the study is limited by using macro-level indicators. With no platform-specific examples, it generalizes the concept of the digital economy. As a study topic, the digital platform economy presented in this article is an emerging field of research.
Implications for Central European audience: This article identifies the bottlenecks in the digital platform economy in Central and Eastern European countries. Particularly, it emphasizes the necessity to improve digital literacy, the number of multi-sided platforms networking, as well as technological transfer pillars of the platform economy. It also compares several cross-country dimensions of the digital platform economy. The author theoretically proves the importance of changing business models and embracing digitization in order to move towards a platform economy. In addition to describing what platform economies are and what they are not, the article also discusses how platforms can be combined with traditional firms to maintain a constant economic growth rate.

Socio-economic transition in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region in recent decades forms the operating context for young entrepreneurial ecosystems. This study has the aim of analysing institutional and cognitive features of CEE ecosystem development by considering Budapest as a prime example of an urban entrepreneurial ecosystem. Alongside the analysis of event registration data, a qualitative research approach is deployed featuring semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and other institutional actors attending a networking event in Budapest. The methodological foundation for this approach is adapted from Triple Helix ecosystem theory. A conceptual model is produced from the research process, and ecosystem theory is developed by accounting for dynamic human capital flows and social capital ties do not present in the original Triple Helix theory. Results primarily indicate moderate levels of asset values and that attendance by entrepreneurs is largely motivated by locating start-up funding. Prime outcomes of interviews are a lack of innovation-focused specific human capital and increasingly market-based means of social capital development. Furthermore, the findings presented as propositions assume a partial virtual nature for human capital flows and social capital ties between ecosystem actors. On this basis, the resulting conceptual model accounts for the presence of digitalisation. Thus, ongoing entrepreneurial ecosystem development entails continual institutional adaption to information technology-driven socio-economic conditions. The Budapest ecosystem would, however, need to acquire a stronger virtual aspect in order to realise greater growth potential.
Implications for Central European audience: While research on entrepreneurial ecosystems has gained strength, it has barely been applied to the CEE region. This study represents a formative attempt in this regard whereby the resulting conceptual model may be used to empirically evaluate entrepreneurial ecosystems within the region by comparing specific internal and external human and social capital movements. The model primarily implies that digitally derived human and social capital would require deeper integration between start-up firms and institutional actors. Crucially, there is also an implicit need for institutions to develop digitalised infrastructure more intensively in order to nurture innovative start-up activity in the CEE region.

The growing uncertainty in today’s business environment has a significant influence on social business’s behaviour. Those enterprises could rely on public support in the past, but nowadays, they have to find a way to be more responsible about their social activity and be financially independent on public resources. Based on this theoretical background, the paper’s main goal was to find a set of factors that influence crucial financial decisions within a crisis. When social businesses create an optimal financial portfolio to be financially sustainable, primary research was conducted. A sample of 57 social businesses was asked about their financial strategy. The main research goal was to compare a change before and after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic situation in 2020. This case has shown current financial thinking and preparedness for unusual or crises. A mixed research approach was chosen due to a limited number of respondents. The overall results found that those businesses prefer to use the current strategy (42%) in crisis, and they limit investments to survive in that situation, except marketing investments (16%).
Implications for Central European audience: At the theoretical level, our study shows social enterprise concepts in the Central European context, which differs somewhat from the already established definition of mainly Anglo-Saxon and American authors. At the same time, it combines knowledge about the use of financial planning in this segment. The study results show that financial planning is essential in these companies because it can achieve social goals. A discussion would be opened on how to raise awareness of the preparation of the strategy.  Alternatively, how to strengthen the financial literacy of managers or representatives of these entities.

Failure is an inseparable part and probably the most likely outcome of entrepreneurial activity. Fear of failure is among the key factors that hinder individual entry to the entrepreneurial path. While entrepreneurship literature mostly deals with its consequences, considerably lower attention has been paid to understanding its drivers. This is especially true in the Central European region, Slovakia not being exempt. Thus, our paper aims to fill this gap by analysing factors driving the entrepreneurial fear of failure among non-entrepreneur individuals in Slovakia. In doing so, we rely on the 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data for Slovakia and employ the ordinal logistic regression to test the hypothesised drivers of fear of failure among non-entrepreneur individuals. Our findings suggest that perceived entrepreneurial self-confidence and perceived ease of starting a business significantly reduce fear of failure. These factors are rather of an intrinsic and individual nature (the ‘I can do it’ factors). Further, in the case of non-entrepreneurs, these self-assessments usually result from expectations rather than from their own actual experience. Yet, the expectations themselves seem to be strong enough to affect the perceived level of fear of failure. We attribute this effect to the so-called failure feedback – an indication of a potential failure.
Implications for Central European audience: Our study contributes to the debate on drivers of individual involvement in entrepreneurship and their specificity in the Central European context. We shed more light on factors influencing the fear of failure – one of the strongest barriers hindering individuals from starting a business. Despite focusing on Slovakia only, our study brings this topic to the table in the region. We contribute to the body of knowledge by suggesting potential patterns behind the fear of failure formation among the non-entrepreneur population, encouraging further investigation in the region and beyond, and proposing the practical implications for entrepreneurship policy, education, and training.

Empirical studies exploring particular mechanisms that the country’s institutional profile, such as regulatory and normative dimensions are internalised into scientists’ cognitive process of commercialising their research results, are rather sparse. This study aims to develop a conceptual framework in which integrated the lens of institutional theory and theory of planned behaviour to empirically test and discover the effects of regulatory and normative supports on scientists’ intention to commercialise an invention. A survey was conducted at institutions and universities using stratified random sampling from 255 scientists during the period of 2 months from May to July 2020. Structural equation modelling was employed to estimate the paths and correlations. Results revealed that although regulatory support was not found to have a direct role in shaping intention to commercialise the invention, it had more influences and significances in the increase of attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control. Also, attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control were found to be full mediators in the linkage between regulatory support and intention to commercialise the invention, but subjective norms were not. Besides, normative support, although it was not related to subjective norms, it had direct influences on attitude toward invention commercialisation, perceived behaviour control, and intention to commercialise the invention. Thus, attitude toward invention commercialisation, perceived behaviour control was figured out to play a partially mediating role in the relationship between normative support and intention to commercialise invention among scientists. This research shows that new institutions that address younger generations and concentrate on enhancing entrepreneurial qualities are crucial to foster commercialisation in emerging economies. Also, by representing outstanding issues, our research encourages further debate and research activities.
Implications for Central European audience: Even though the research results are related to academic entrepreneurship in Vietnam, the findings of this study can advocate that to promote academic entrepreneurship in emerging economies, enhancing both regulatory and normative supports are really necessary. In addition to theoretical contributions, this study also has several practical implications for researchers and policymakers in Central Europe.

The factors determining the success of crowdfunding projects is one of the central issues for crowdfunding researchers. Quantitative approaches recognise the number of funds targeted as an important control variable. However, little is known about the impact of the funding goal on other factors that impact crowdfunding success. We hypothesise that the effect of crowdfunding success factors varies contingent on the funding goal level. A dataset of 338 crowdfunding projects from the largest German crowdfunding platform StartNext in the years 2015 to 2016 is analysed by conducting regression analyses controlling for varying funding goal sizes. We use the dependent variables success, the degree of success and the number of project supporters and control whether the effect of independent variables such as comments, updates and social media depend on different funding goals. Our study indicates that the impact of the investigated success factors, in fact, strongly depends on the funding goal levels of crowdfunding projects. By grouping projects into clusters of varying funding goals, we find that the impact of individual success factors changes and that the funding goal plays a moderating role for factors impacting project success.
Implications for Central European audience: Many crowdfunding studies focus on the most popular US-based platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. We examined projects on the largest German reward-based crowdfunding platform StartNext. These results help both researchers and future entrepreneurs in Europe to better understand supporter behaviour. We suggest that future entrepreneurs should be aware that factors influencing the success of a crowdfunding project strongly depend on the set funding goal, which should be adequately considered in future crowdfunding research.

In the expansion of volumes of industrial production, there is an increase of anthropogenic influence and deterioration of the external environment that became the reason for the impossibility of a functioning market system without taking into account negative externalities. The article considers the directions and principles of a “green economy” functioning as the basis for further development of society. The current state and trends of the impact of environmental factors on other indicators of quality of life have been analysed and comparative analysis has been made on the example of developed and developing countries. Effective indices and instruments of influence on the level of ecological and economic development and main tendencies and problems arising at the introduction of “green economy”, have been considered. The use of indicators that take into account negative externalities, such as the Pigouvian tax, has been demonstrated to be more visible than widely used indices. The losses from the negative impact on the resulting economic indicators have been analysed, and a significant decrease in the per capita GDP level has been proved with the extensive development of the economy.
Implications for Central European audience: This paper aims to contribute to the development of a green economy as part of a policy aimed at reducing environmental risks in the process of economic growth. The proposed indicators and tools for influencing the level of environmental and economic development arising from the implementation of the “green economy” as the main vector of sustainable development, which can be used further research and development and can be implemented by European companies.

This article aims to find out which business risks determine the perception of the business environment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the future. 454 SMEs from the Czech Republic participated in the case study by filling in an online questionnaire. Linear regression models were used to verify statistically significant causal relationships between selected indicators of business risks and respondents' perception of the future of business. The results show that selected indicators of the market, financial, personnel, legal and operational risk determine the perceived future of business. Strategic risk indicators do not significantly affect the perceived future of business. The most important indicators: market risk — adequacy of sales of products and services; financial risk — an indicator of the company's financial performance; personnel risk — an indicator of employees' initiative to increase performance; legal risk — an indicator of respondents' ability to understand the basic legal aspects and operational risk — an indicator of the use of company capacities. All the indicators from above have a positive effect on the future perception of the company.
Implications for Central European audience: The attitudes of small and medium-sized enterprises represent a certain degree of subjectivity (human factor), which does not always reflect the real position of the enterprise. However, it is the main representatives of SMEs (owners and top managers) who try to manage business risks to have a more positive perception of their future in the business environment in the Czech Republic. The results based on the business environment of the Czech Republic are important not only for the owners of SMEs, but also for state and non-profit institutions dealing with various forms of SME support.

This paper deals with the need to complexly evaluate maturity, management, stakeholder relationship and resources utilisation of an organisation. It searches for an assessment tool independent on time and industry contexts. The research was conducted in two phases. The literature review on a set of existing performance models did not find any suitable tool. Based on that, a new performance model was created to assess the maturity of an organisation, focusing on soft factors like its leadership, processes and culture. It had been tested using structured interviews with managers in Czech, Slovak, German and Chinese companies. The model is based on a set of 17 non-financial criteria, divided into categories Management, Stakeholders and Resources. The results are given for each criterion, category and as an overall score. This article briefly describes the developed CAT model, methodology of its creation and validation and explains how it can be applied as an assessment tool. Its results can be benchmarked among different organisations/overtime to track development progress.
Implications for Central European audience: This model gives both practitioners and researchers a lean, yet powerful tool to evaluate the maturity of an organisation with structured and measurable results. The new possibilities for quantitative research using the CAT model are now available for researchers to assess even larger samples of organisations with reasonable effort. For practitioners, the value is in a quick discovery of own weaknesses/strengths with structured results and recommendations. Model structure and selection of respondents ensures that the results are measurable and cover views of both management and employees.

Entrepreneurship researchers have called for more investigation on the contribution of context in advancing entrepreneurship theory. The aim of the paper is to analyse the agribusiness enterprise performance by introducing collaborativeness as a dimension of entrepreneurial orientation. Agribusiness is a key regional sector representing a crucial ratio of employment, economic production. and future growth. Due to the sector`s importance and the many challenges it faces, the impact of a synergy approach entrepreneurial orientation model on agribusiness performance is tested.
Structural equation modelling is used to test data collected from 120 agribusinesses located in Albania. Study results show collaborativeness as a dimension of the extracted entrepreneurial orientation model which provides a synergy between the actors of entrepreneurial value creation and has a significant direct contribution to enterprise performance.
Implications for Central European audience: Even though the results are related to agribusinesses in Albania, the findings of this research may advocate that to enhance enterprise performance in fragile sectors and emerging economy markets, the synergy among the value creation actors of the entrepreneurial process is a necessity. Besides the theoretical implications, this study has also some practical implications for policymakers, entrepreneurs and researchers.

The circular economy is characterized as regenerative economy that aims to preserve the greatest value of products and materials. Currently, the transition to the circular economy is not only a necessity, but it gradually becomes a social and economic paradigm. The implementation of the circular economy gradually changes and will change the nature and intensity of every sector regardless of its reproductive cycle. For producers, particularly in the rapidly growing sectors, the development of innovative business models will be essential to comply with the principles of the circular economy. The fastest growing sector includes the textiles and clothing industry. The implementation of innovative business models in the field of textile and clothing industry is thus a challenge that the sector is facing. Slovakia as EU member state is facing the same challenge. Bodies operating in the textile and clothing industries must be gradually prepared for changes that brings the legislation and get ready for the trends that determine the changes mentioned. The article presents the results of research that shows the potential of the Slovak textile and clothing producers, coupled with the transition to the aforementioned new economic model, with a focus on implementing new circular business models into their activities, benefits and disadvantages of this procedure and the limits of implementation new business models into the activities of entities operating in the textile clothing industry in Slovakia.
Implications for Central European audience: This paper aims to contribute to the development of a topical and beneficial subject-matter related to transition from a linear to a circular economy in Central Europe. This entails knowledge on the imminent obligations of producers in one of the fastest growing sectors of Central European economies, i.e. in the textile and clothing industry. Such knowledge enriches the existing business models with a new business paradigm. In theoretical terms, this knowledge creates a platform for further scientific research potential and economic, business, and management education at universities. In practical terms, this knowledge represents a proactive approach of producers to the creation and implementation of innovative business models.

In privately held firms, owners are a social group of people who are aware of, interact with, and influence each other. There are dynamic relationships between them and potential clashes between self- and collective interests. At the same time, the management literature suggests that family firms behave differently than non-family firms and follow a different set of goals. This paper introduces a research framework, sample and initial findings of the Responsible Ownership Project, which aims to contribute to our understanding of how attitudes and behaviours of owners in privately held firms may influence the economic and non-economic outcomes of their firms. The goals of the paper are to explore the role of family businesses among Czech private firms and to test whether the family plays a significant role in responsible ownership behaviours in private firms. Our descriptive statistics suggest that family businesses play a non-negligible role in the Czech economy. Using Student’s t-test for mean differences, we find a higher level of responsible ownership for family-owned vs non-family-owned firms. Finally, we present directions for future research and the expected contributions of the research project.

The life satisfaction of entrepreneurs is a subject of increasing importance. Research shows that entrepreneurs are more satisfied with their jobs when compared to wage earners. However, it remains poorly understood how satisfied entrepreneurs are with their lives. We argue that the family can contribute largely to how individuals feel about their lives. In particular, research suggests that the life partner influences the individual’s life satisfaction differently depending on their occupation (employed or self-employed). Thus, in this paper we investigate the effect of life partners on the life satisfaction of entrepreneurs. To do so, we use arguments from the family embeddedness perspective on entrepreneurship and test them using data from the 2016 cohort of the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) and regression models. We find that the life partner contributes positively to the life satisfaction of entrepreneurs and wage earners. This effect is greater for entrepreneurs without employees as compared to entrepreneurs with employees. These results contribute to the understanding of an under researched outcome of entrepreneurship which is the life satisfaction of entrepreneurs.

The aim of our paper is to find out what drives student entrepreneurs in Visegrad (V4) countries (i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) in their business activities. Our analysis is built on 2016 data from GUESSS project - an extensive academic study on student entrepreneurship, and our main sample comprises of 15,971 V4 university students. Potential drivers from individual human and social capital characteristics, perceived institutional support, and demographic attributes are examined, using the logistic regression method. Applying a unique perspective and distinguishing between different types of student entrepreneurs, we focus especially on promisingly sustainable student entrepreneurs with already active businesses, who plan to continue them after completing their studies. According to our results, gender (being a male), increasing age together with dropping number of years to finish studies, intensity of entrepreneurship education, studying in a business-related field, and having entrepreneurial parents significantly drive student entrepreneurship inclinations during their university studies.

The presented study aims to quantify the determinants of entrepreneurship in the four countries of the Visegrad (V4) group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) with a particular focus on the relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment. The purpose of the research was to analyze whether, during the periods of higher unemployment rate, individuals more likely engage into entrepreneurial activity. Data were collected from the national statistical offices of the Visegrad countries, World Bank, Eurostat and Heritage Foundation. The collected sample covered years 1998-2015. To achieve the main objective of the article, regression models with the dependent variable, the rate of registered businesses per economically active inhabitant, were quantified. Estimated regressions proved a positive relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment. A higher unemployment rate was associated with the increase in overall entrepreneurial activity. Estimated models further confirmed the negative influence of the administrative barriers on the overall entrepreneurial activity. Several policy and research implications are discussed in the study.

This paper presents the results of research about the impact of envy on enterprise potential and entrepreneurial intentions. The research was conducted in Serbia and the respondents were students from 5 faculties, from the first to the fifth year of study. The results were gained by statistical analysis of the gathered information (380 completed questionnaires). Descriptive, correlation and regression analysis are the methods of statistical analysis that were used. From the dimensions of enterprise potential, the highest average value has the dimension Creativity, while from the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions, the highest average value has the dimension Subjective norm. Of all the observed dimensions, the lowest value has the Envy dimension. Between envy and dimensions of enterprise potential and dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions, there are a number of statistically significant negative correlations. This is more prevalent at the dimension of entrepreneurial intentions. Feelings of inferiority in relation to other people and the perception of having a boring or a bad life have an especially negative impact on entrepreneurial potential and intentions. Envy, which occurs due to the desire for more entertainment, travel, and due to the perception of the lack of fortune, also has a negative impact on entrepreneurial potential and intentions, but the influence is considerably weaker. There is a statistically significant predictive effect of certain items of envy on enterprise potential dimensions and entrepreneurial intentions dimensions. But this fact is not so strongly expressed. Some results suggest the possibility (however small) that envy, in some circumstances, can mildly encourage entrepreneurial intention.

The article explores the relationship between unemployment and precarious employment, and young people's entrepreneurial intentions in Spain. We focus on the effects of employment conditions and experience on young people's intentions to start their own business or become self-employed. The role of socio-demographic characteristics and behavioral factors such as perceived self-efficacy and desirability as well as risk taking were also analyzed. The analyses were based on a cross-sectional representative sample, corresponding to the year 2016, of Spanish working young individuals aged 18 to 35 years (n=1.678). All analyses were stratified by gender. The results show that besides behavioral attitudinal factors that seem to particularly influence the entrepreneurial intentions of Spanish young people, having a precarious contract or being unemployed for more than six months cannot be regarded as necessity-driven factors for increasing intentions toward entrepreneurship. Instead, well educated, experienced and economically stable women are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity than men.

The article aims to explain how general and specific managerial competencies relate to the business success of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). This study was conducted among 264 managers of SMEs. SME success was measured as a subjective assessment of economic growth indicators in comparison with competitors on the market. General and specific managerial competencies were significant predictors of success in running a business. Specific managerial competencies proved to be a mediator between general competencies and SME success. This paper helps provide a better understanding of how individual differences - general and specific managerial competencies - influence entrepreneurial behavior and its outcomes.

This is a conceptual paper that focuses on the existence and support of entrepreneurial behavior and innovation in larger organizations. It first suggests why it is important to pay attention to entrepreneurship and innovation and then defines corporate entrepreneurship. Typical barriers of entrepreneurial activities are described as well as innovation dilemmas that organizations solve. The innovation process is not linear, but six components of innovative behavior may be identified, together with specific roles employees play when moving the idea forward from idea creation to implementation. Important factors influencing the success of entrepreneurial behavior are discussed, involving the role of middle managers and reward systems. Recommendations for fostering entrepreneurial behavior and innovation are provided together with a simple inventory for measuring employee perception of managerial and organizational support for innovation.