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This paper seeks to examine the role of factors originated from outside (economic, political, competitive environment and relationships) and within (entrepreneur's attitude) the organization on the business risk perceived by entrepreneurs. To test the hypothetical relationships, an ordinal regression with two link functions was applied on an original dataset of 641 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic. The analysis revealed that not only economic factors can predict business risk, but along with them are political and competitive environments, relationship with supply chain actors and entrepreneur's attitude. Consistent with prior research, it is found that an unstable economic environment leads the business to expose themselves to business risk. Also, a friendly regulation framework and quality education contribute significantly to reducing the level of risk. The research triggers the interest of policymakers who design policies aimed at improving the business environment by reducing the level of risk that firms face in doing business. Also, this paper is useful for managerial perspective, since entrepreneur attitude was found to be a predictor of business risk.

This paper seeks to examine the role of factors originated from outside (economic, political, competitive environment and relationships) and within (entrepreneur's attitude) the organization on the business risk perceived by entrepreneurs. To test the hypothetical relationships, an ordinal regression with two link functions was applied on an original dataset of 641 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic. The analysis revealed that not only economic factors can predict business risk, but along with them are political and competitive environments, relationship with supply chain actors and entrepreneur's attitude. Consistent with prior research, it is found that an unstable economic environment leads the business to expose themselves to business risk. Also, a friendly regulation framework and quality education contribute significantly to reducing the level of risk. The research triggers the interest of policymakers who design policies aimed at improving the business environment by reducing the level of risk that firms face in doing business. Also, this paper is useful for managerial perspective, since entrepreneur attitude was found to be a predictor of business risk. © Gentjan Çera, Jaroslav Belás, Zdeněk Strnad, 2019

Among scholars, there is an interest in understanding how entrepreneurial behavior is influenced by the consequences of crises. The COVID-19 pandemic may negatively or positively affect individuals' behavior, including entrepreneurial intention. Thus, this paper seeks to study whether or not the economic shock caused by the pandemic reinforces the intention to start a business. The research was administered at the individual level by distributing a structured survey. The hypotheses were developed based on a unique conceptual framework integrating the planned behavior theory and a stimulus–organism–response perspective. The relationships were tested using the structural equation modeling method with an original dataset of more than 800 respondents from three post-communist transition countries. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic, seen as an opportunity, positively influences both the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and individuals' intention to start a business. The message that these findings convey is that, even in crises, there are opportunities from which one can benefit, including the individual's propensity to engage in startup activities. By examining the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on entrepreneurial behavior, educational institutions and policymakers can design effective policies to foster entrepreneurship and reduce unemployment, particularly among the youth.

AbstractCorporate social responsibility (CSR) presents a valuable tool of a better management of enterprises for the benefit of the whole society. Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have been facing this challenge for a shorter time than large enterprises. The aim of the article is to evaluate the impact of the CSR indicators on the sustainability of SMEs in Central European (CE) countries. Factors of the sustainability of SMEs are innovative ways to win new markets and retain existing customers, the innovation of our products and services, and lower probability of SMEs' bankruptcy. Linear regression analysis was applied to verify causal relationships. The sample size was constructed of 1,585 SMEs on basis of the questionnaire's answers. The results show that the knowledge of the CSR concept and its assertion in business is the most important CSR indicator with a positive impact on each factor of SMEs' sustainability.

There is a dearth of studies focusing on the relationship between entrepreneurship education (EE) and entrepreneurial intention (EI) in post-communist transition countries. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of EE on EI in the context of a Balkan country. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed in a quasi-experimental research design with a pre- and post-program setting. To ensure the comparability between two groups of individuals (those with formal EE and those with no formal EE), a propensity score matching (PSM) along with coarsened exact matching (CEM) methods were applied in an original dataset of 528 adults. The use of this triangulation method was intended to attain more robust results. Our research establishes the impact of EE upon EI, a finding which is consistent with previous studies conducted in developed countries. Thus, individuals with formal EE reflected a higher intention to start a business. These findings offer insights for government officials and leaders of higher education institutions responsible for developing curricula and policies aimed at motivating university graduates toward entrepreneurship upon graduation and or completion of an EE course of study.

Determinants of trust in institutions have been investigated by scholars mostly at individual level by using different theoretical perspectives. However, the ways in which changes in institutional environment affect business trust in government have not received adequate attention from researchers. The current paper sets out to contribute to existing literature by examining closely the role of business enabling policies, institutional constraints, and business networks on institutional trust in the context of a transition country like Albania. The study adopts an institutional perspective and the analysis is administrated on a firm-level data collection. Stratified sample technique was applied in selecting the respondents. To test the proposed linkages an ordinal regression was performed on an original data-set comprising 210 small and medium-sized enterprises. The results revealed that business enabling policies positively influence trust in government, whereas institutional constraints such as courts and corruption, and tax and labor regulations–related constraints negatively affect it. Hence, the higher the institutional constraints, the lower the institutional trust. Moreover, being a member of a business association diminished trust in government. Nevertheless, an interesting finding was that old firms in business association were less skeptic toward government as compared to the other ones. This paper offers useful insights for scholars into the linkage between trust in governmental agencies and entrepreneurship in institutional transformation contexts, and it unquestionably adds to the knowledge on transition countries. © 2019, Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The influences of personality traits and business barriers on entrepreneurial behaviour have been studied by numerous researchers. However, the mechanisms by which changes in institutional contexts and personality traits affect individuals' entrepreneurial motivation have not received enough attention from researchers. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining the joint effects of personality traits and business barriers on one's motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activity. A structured questionnaire was developed to capture the above linkages. To measure the latent variables, factor and reliability analyses were utilised. To examine the relationships, a regression analysis was performed on a unique dataset of respondents from three counties: Czechia, Hungary, and Serbia. The results show that personality traits positively influence motivation towards entrepreneurship. Furthermore, external barriers (ecological and technological issues), and infrastructure factors positively affect entrepreneurial motivation. From an academic viewpoint, personality traits and motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activity can be nourished by education, highlighting the role of universities in this regard. Our paper's findings should trigger the interest of policymakers who aim to introduce new instruments or change the existing ones (designing policies) to boost entrepreneurship.

Although SMEs make significant contributions to socio-economic conditions of countries, they face many financial, organizational and mercantile obstacles in their operations. In this regard, having more innovative, risk-taking and proactive activities (EO) increases SMEs' performance, financial conditions and help them to survive in the long term. Therefore, finding regional, national and international differences in EO of SMEs can enable policymakers, financing institutions, SMEs, and entrepreneurs to create more opportunities for SMEs to overcome those problems. In this regard, this research seeks to explore the differences between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of SMEs that operate in different regions of countries with various cultural values, income levels, economic, political and legal risks. Moreover, age and size of firms are also considered to find differences among SMEs in national and international contexts. In line with these objectives, the current study examines two different countries that have cultural differences and have different economic, legal and political risks. To achieve the objectives, 1620 Czech and Turkish SMEs were analyzed by performing the Mann-Whitney U and Moran's I spatial autocorrelation tests. According to the results of Moran's I autocorrelation test, this research does not find any differences between the low and high-income regions of the selected countries regarding EO of SMEs. Experience and age of the respondents might be the reason for these results. Significant results in the national context are that EO of SMEs does not differ across the age categories, while there are differences between firm size and their EO. In the international context, the main findings are that Czech SMEs are more proactive than Turkish ones in all age and size categories, while Turkish SMEs are more innovative in all age categories and only in small size segment. However, this research has not revealed any differences within the risk-taking behaviour of SMEs from different countries considering their size and age. The significant differences and similarities in EO of SMEs from different countries might stem from the educational status of the respondents, a considerable number of operating firms in a market, agility, flexibility, R&D activities and sector of firms. Financial, educational, administrative and legislative support needs to be given by policymakers to close the gap between EO of SMEs of different age, size, regions and countries. © 2020, Kauno Technologijos Universitetas. All rights reserved. ; KEGA Project [005SPU-4/2019]

Although SMEs make significant contributions to socio-economic conditions of countries, they face many financial, organizational and mercantile obstacles in their operations. In this regard, having more innovative, risk-taking and proactive activities (EO) increases SMEs' performance, financial conditions and help them to survive in the long term. Therefore, finding regional, national and international differences in EO of SMEs can enable policymakers, financing institutions, SMEs, and entrepreneurs to create more opportunities for SMEs to overcome those problems. In this regard, this research seeks to explore the differences between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of SMEs that operate in different regions of countries with various cultural values, income levels, economic, political and legal risks. Moreover, age and size of firms are also considered to find differences among SMEs in national and international contexts. In line with these objectives, the current study examines two different countries that have cultural differences and have different economic, legal and political risks. To achieve the objectives, 1620 Czech and Turkish SMEs were analyzed by performing the Mann-Whitney U and Moran's I spatial autocorrelation tests. According to the results of Moran's I autocorrelation test, this research does not find any differences between the low and high-income regions of the selected countries regarding EO of SMEs. Experience and age of the respondents might be the reason for these results. Significant results in the national context are that EO of SMEs does not differ across the age categories, while there are differences between firm size and their EO. In the international context, the main findings are that Czech SMEs are more proactive than Turkish ones in all age and size categories, while Turkish SMEs are more innovative in all age categories and only in small size segment. However, this research has not revealed any differences within the risk-taking behaviour of SMEs from different countries ...

The aim of this article is to define important factors which determine the quality of the business environment and construct a structural model of causal relationships between quality of business environment and its determinants in small and medium sized enterprises. This model was constructed on the basis of extensive empirical research. A questionnaire was designed and delivered to SMEs operating in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The sample consists of 641 enterprises from both countries. Data were evaluated using statistical methods such as confirmation factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The structural model showed very interesting findings. The most important factors, which determine the quality of business environment, are macroeconomic environment, monetary policy and interest rates and legal environment. In our model, we also pointed out the importance of political, social and technological factors. The research results pointed to the need to adjust the legislative environment in a more appropriate way, to minimize state bureaucracy and to improve media access to business environment assessment. These results are useful for the academic researchers in the area of entrepreneurship, policymakers, and non-profit institutions and organizations whose effort is to improve the business environment and boost entrepreneurship.

The aim of this article is to define important factors which determine the quality of the business environment and construct a structural model of causal relationships between quality of business environment and its determinants in small and medium sized enterprises. This model was constructed on the basis of extensive empirical research. A questionnaire was designed and delivered to SMEs operating in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The sample consists of 641 enterprises from both countries. Data were evaluated using statistical methods such as confirmation factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The structural model showed very interesting findings. The most important factors, which determine the quality of business environment are macroeconomic environment, monetary policy and interest rates and legal environment. In our model, we also pointed out the importance of political, social and technological factors. The research results pointed to the need to adjust the legislative environment in a more appropriate way, to minimize state bureaucracy and to improve media access to business environment assessment. These results are useful for the academic researchers in the area of entrepreneurship, policymakers, and non-profit institutions and organizations whose effort is to improve the business environment and boost entrepreneurship.