Daniela Pastarmadzhieva

Entrepreneurship development strategies are crucial for translating academic potential into economic and societal value. To achieve this, educational institutions must understand the factors influencing students’ entrepreneurial intentions. While research on academic entrepreneurship exists, comparative studies that explore these factors across different national contexts are scarce. This study addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of student entrepreneurship in Bulgaria, Malta, and Turkey, investigating key factors, such as attitudes toward entrepreneurship (ATE), the role of entrepreneurship education (EEdu), and entrepreneurial inspirations. Based on 415 survey responses collected between April and June 2024, hypothesized relationships were tested using appropriate bivariate statistical analyses. The results indicate that a positive evaluation of running one’s own business significantly increases entrepreneurial intentions, particularly when the business is perceived as safe, realistic, pleasant, and strong. The university’s role is pivotal: students largely relied on institutional support for their business initiatives; showed a strong preference for practical, hands-on educational methods; and identified a lack of entrepreneurship education as a key obstacle. A family background with entrepreneurial parents also positively influenced students’ preference for running their own businesses. Interestingly, the findings challenge a simple dichotomy between employment and entrepreneurship. A preference for full-time employment did not diminish entrepreneurial intentions, suggesting students may view these career paths as complementary or sequential. Conversely, preferences for part-time or self-employment did not have a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial initiatives. These findings underscore the need for universities to provide tailored, practical support and to recognize the complex and non-linear career trajectories envisioned by modern students.

The new reality caused by the Covid-19 pandemic forced businesses to seek flexible solutions and the application of innovations in all fields of management. Living in the era of predictable unpredictability, the topic of entrepreneurship, digitalization, innovation, and competitiveness must be perceived by business representatives as a straw for existence. Thus, the main purpose of the current study is to identify good practices and innovative trends in the field of management and entrepreneurship utilizing digital solutions. The research object is the EU member states and it is focused on the e-commerce, web sale, and way of communication of the enterprises under the pandemic. For the evaluation of good practices and their possible implementation in business, we used comprehensive desk research based upon literature review and secondary analysis of empirical data in the period December 2021 – March 2022. Empirical data collected from national and international empirical studies conducted by private and state sociological agencies, as well as authors' teams of scientific and educational institutions, are the arrays on which secondary data processing was made. The results show that innovative management behavior of digital enterprises can provide added value based on the favorable reputation that they create.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a trying time for both businesses and citizens. The measures and restrictions were devastating for the economy. As different countries had their strengths and challenges in dealing with the pandemic, there no unified approach applicable to every context. However, the entrepreneurial initiative is what boosts the economic development in each free market economy. The current paper’s goal is to evaluate how the pandemic affects entrepreneurial initiatives and to determine the degree to which three sets of elements influence these initiatives. The scope of the research is enterprises, working in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the focus is the entrepreneurial initiative among them. The research with the enterprises is based only on a quantitative method—a survey across a representative sample of the general population of the enterprises whose headquarters are registered in the territory of the city of Plovdiv. The representative sample was selected as a random sample of 1000 companies (with an assumed response rate of about 10%), stratified by the size of the enterprise (number of employees) and by the field of economic activity. Statistical analysis was performed using the software product IBM SPSS version 26. The results show that the personal characteristics of the respondents are more relevant to the results rather than the specifics of the enterprise. The relevance of both work experience and ownership of the enterprise as preconditions that create opportunities for entrepreneurial initiatives during the global crisis offers a further empirical contribution. A key theoretical contribution of this study lies in finding evidence that innovativeness has a significant direct effect on behavioral intention to acquire new opportunities during crisis conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic stressed national and international systems and relations and demonstrated the vulnerability of modern societies. The governments were forced to implement restrictive measures in order to protect public health. The most challenging aspect was balancing between public health protection and the functioning of the economy. As this wasn’t easy to reach, some of the governments faced challenges in communicating with the society, resulting in protests. Under these brand-new challenges, the protests only made the task of the governments harder and threatened to harm the fragile political stability. Thus, the aim of the current study is to identify the problems related to the communication between the society and the government and to identify the possible solutions for ensuring the dialogue in such situations. The study focuses on EU citizens and their attitudes toward government measures related to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Our materials and methods include review of scientific literature on the topics under considerations. We also performed a secondary processing of quantitative data from Eurobarometer using IBM SPSS v. 26. The results show that the measures limiting civil liberties lead to social tension even if the governments adapt their approach and search for new opportunities. This leads to the conclusion that in order to ensure the normal functioning of the social systems the governments should find ways to include the stakeholders in the decision-making. The latter is possible through digital tools and by developing a system to be implemented in times of crises even if the crisis is not caused by pandemics.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced national governments and administrations to seek flexible solutions to deal with the emergency. Thus, the main purpose of the current study is to design a model of a flexible methodology based on detailed flexible methodologies to make decisions and measures connected to COVID-19 pandemic to be effectively applied without the loss of meaning and within a short time. For the creation of the methodology, we used comprehensive desk research based upon a literature review in the period May 2021–November 2021. As a result, an expandable set of relevant methodologies for crisis management and flexible methodologies was identified, modeled, and formalized using a broad literature review and an innovative model of a flexible methodology for crisis management was created in accordance with standardized concepts, transforming them into secondary use models. Furthermore, an algorithm for taking measures and decisions in crisis conditions was designed. The next step is to implement the methodology, which is planned for future empirical research. The findings provide an innovative model of a flexible methodology that could be used by academic and business representatives, public institutions of central and local government, and private stakeholders.

Over the last few centuries the industrial revolution has increased the number of people with better living standard. Alongside, it has various negative results, especially on the environment. Thus, the second half of the XXth century and the beginning of the XXI century have been marked by shift in the policies towards more environment protection. The new scientific research and the devastating results on nature and human health caused many national, supranational, and international organizations to focus their targets on the protection of the nature. Numerous reasons for such shift can be identified and one of them is believed to be the transformation of the social values. According to various authors, the postmaterialist values are basis for more orientations towards environmental protection on personal level. Thus, the aim of the current research is to identify if the national postmaterialist values are associated with the levels of the countries' environmental performance. The object of the research is a selection of European countries and the focus is the post-materialist index of these countries and its association with the environmental performance index. Sources of data are European Values Study (waves 2 and 5) and Environmental Performance Index.

At the beginning of 2020, the world faced a new and unexpected challenge. Such a harmful situation has a potential to increase tensions in societies and create citizens’ distrust in their own governments and the European Union. In relation to these observations, the main hypothesis assumes that citizens’ trust in the Union decreased during the pandemic, compared to previous periods. Thus, the aim of the study is to identify the dynamics of trust in the EU in the member states. The research’s object is the citizens of the EU member states and the focus on dynamics in the levels of trust in 2016–2020, measured based on selected indicators. The data for analysis comes from the Eurobarometer. Statistical methods (frequencies and cross tables) and comparative approach are used for the analysis. On the macrolevel, it seemed that European leaders could do better, especially in the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the results of the Eurobarometer survey performed in the summer of 2020 show that average trust in the Union did not decreased. Тhe data shows that there is a variety across the countries, which was not presented in the current study. Thus, a further examination focused on the context in each of the countries is required, namely policies and measures stringency.

The challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have numerous dimensions. Although the public and the health care systems are the most affected by the situation, the indirect consequences may last longer. One of the areas, which has been put under stress is the relations between the society and the state. These relations determine the overall stability and performance of the states, which is also valid for supranational entity as the European Union (EU). In order to protect its stability, the member states of the latter need to respond the expectation and priorities of their citizens. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to identify if there is a change in the priorities of the EU citizens and what is it. The object of the study are the countries, members of the European Union, studied from 2016 to 2020. Focus of the research is the topics, most relevant for the citizens of EU member states. The data used is from Euro barometer and for the purposes of the analysis statistical methods (frequencies and cross tables) and comparative approach are used. The results show that generally the top priorities of the EU citizens are the same, but their intensity varies across the studied years.