Arjona Çela

Energy plays a crucial role in the development of societies, yet increasing demand and pressure for production pose significant environmental challenges. This study addresses the critical need for renewable energy, particularly solar power, in light of the projected 50% increase in global energy consumption by 2050 and the European Union’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While Albania predominantly relies on hydropower for electricity generation, which constitutes 95% of its capacity, the variability in hydropower underscores the necessity for diversifying energy sources, especially to harness the country’s solar potential. This research aims to assess industrial awareness and the influence of government subsidies and financial incentives on investment intentions through data gathered from questionnaires conducted in 2023. The findings reveal a substantial interest in solar energy, reflecting a gap in the existing literature which primarily focuses on developed economies. By contributing insights into renewable energy awareness in Albania, this paper addresses a significant gap in research concerning transition countries in the Western Balkans. The study ultimately emphasizes the importance of industrial awareness and environmental protection in adopting sustainable energy practices in a region characterized by abundant solar resources. The findings of the study highlight that there is a significant awareness–action gap regarding solar panels. Therefore, financial support and technical assistance are necessary for businesses to adopt solar energy technologies.

The circular economy (CE) represents a transformative approach to sustainability, emphasizing the reduction in waste and the continual use of resources. Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in disseminating knowledge and fostering skills for CE. Nevertheless, little consideration has been given to how CE education is presented, advanced, or cultivated within transitional or resource-constrained systems. This study investigates the current state of integration of CE principles into teaching practices within HEIs in Albania, an emergent EU candidate, representing post-communist and developing contexts. Using a mixed-methods approach, it maps current pedagogical frameworks, identifies challenges, and offers strategic recommendations. The study included 252 students who studied in public and private HEIs in Albania, 27 academics teaching in these institutions, and 15 stakeholders grounded in the quadruple helix model. Findings reveal uneven incorporation of CE concepts across disciplines and limited institutional support, but also spotlight emerging innovations, especially in interdisciplinary approaches and student-led sustainability projects. Conceptual frameworks for mapping CE education, as well as for advancing it, are proposed, offering transferable tools for institutions in comparable systems. This research contributes to global efforts to mainstream CE in higher education by showcasing the specific pathways, gaps, and opportunities that characterize transitional contexts. The Albanian case offers insight into how low-resource higher education systems can position themselves as agents of circular transformation despite policy, capacity, and curricular constraints.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the digital entrepreneurial intentions of Albanian youth, identify the obstacles they face in starting digital businesses and examine their preferences regarding the types of businesses they aspire to establish. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used as a framework to analyze these factors. Design/methodology/approach: Primary data were collected via questionnaires distributed in public and private universities. In a sample of 325 students, Structural Equation Modeling with Confirmatory Factor Analysis, path analysis and machine learning-based text analysis were used. Findings: This study reveals significant impacts of innovativeness, attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy on digital entrepreneurial intentions among Albanian students. Additionally, text mining highlights a strong preference for digital entrepreneurship. Research limitations/implications: The theoretical contributions of this study include applying Structural Equation Modeling to reveal insights into the impact of entrepreneurial factors and obstacles. The findings can inform policymakers and educators in designing targeted interventions to support student entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the limitations of this study encompass a small sample size, lack of time series and panel data and the absence of an evaluation of the impact of education system practices, along with the need to investigate the effects of young population emigration from Albania to the EU. Originality/value: This research contributes to the understanding of digital entrepreneurial intentions and behavior by using TPB in the Albanian context, offering access to a diverse dataset from Albanian universities, testing the direct impact of innovativeness on entrepreneurial behavior and pioneering the use of machine learning techniques for text analysis. Thus, it provides novel insights into the entrepreneurial landscape in Albania. In addition, this work can drive initiatives to support student entrepreneurship and bridge the gap between academia and industry in Albania.

In these last decades, especially after the Russia–Ukraine war, the impact of energy related to issues, such as energy poverty, energy transition, and energy security have been heavily debated. To comprehend the conceptual development of this subject in the academic literature, few studies tackle the problems above by reviewing earlier research on the subject. Inspired by this interest and literature ago in this field, this study aimed to address the past, present, and future advancements of critical issues in this regard. Thus, in this review paper performed during February–April 2023, we employed the PRISMA method selecting and checking the review papers articles indexed in the three databases of Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and JSTOR. Then, the research was followed by extending it and adding some other articles discovered on the gray literature. After a detailed classification of articles, a total of 2615 review articles were deemed valid for this analysis. The study’s key contributions is the classification of the some cluster themes for the metasynthesis analyses, which point to potential future directions with a special focus on governmental policies to pursue some macrolevel goals concerning energy poverty, energy transition, and energy security in our daily lives.

With rapid globalization, firm internationalization has become an important corporate strategy as well as the necessity for the survival and growth of the business. In the last decade, there has been a growth in literature that studies this field, especially in emerging countries. However, there exists a gap in the literature in CEE countries. This study aims to fill that gap by conducting an analysis and providing insight regarding the factors that lead to an increase in firm internationalization in this region. This research paper studies the main determinants that have an impact on the firm internationalization of large companies in CEE countries using panel data empirical methods, such as the random effect model and generalized method of moments (GMM) model for a panel of 50 firms from 11 CEE countries and a time duration of 14 years. This study determines the main factors that positively influence firm internationalization in selected countries. These countries have experienced a radical transition from centrally planned economies to market economies, and although they have experienced economic growth and a rise in productivity, they are still facing several challenges. Therefore, it is important to know what facilitates and helps firms to expand in international markets. The main findings derived from this study show that firm characteristics, such as age, size and corporate performance, have a positive effect on the internationalization process. An increase in age, size and firm performance leads to higher levels of internationalization. Larger and relatively older firms have access to more resources and are more experienced in dealing with the environmental difficulties characteristic of these countries.

This aim of this work is to study the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade. FDI is a driving force for economic growth for host countries. The positive effects of FDI are seen in many aspects of the economy. However, the implications of FDI on foreign trade are questionable. Therefore, this study uses a Granger causality technique to test whether the relationship between FDI and foreign trade is complementary or substitutive. The findings of this study indicate that this relationship appears to be complementary, and FDI investment does cause an increase in trade flow in the countries that are taken into consideration. This research aims to make a comparison between the relations of FDI flows of three groups of countries from the European Union (EU)—Romania and Bulgaria, the Visegrád Group and the Euro area—for the period of 2005 to 2019. However, the results indicate that this link between the variables is not yet found for the three group of countries, and further research is required in this aspect. This leads to the conclusion that the FDI impact on foreign trade of the host country depends on the type of investment and absorptive capacity of the receiver, the economic development of host and home countries, and not every type of FDI leads to more trade.

The ultimate goal of central banks, worldwide, is to promote the foundations for sustainable economic growth. In the case of developing economies, in particular, such objective requires time, huge efforts, attention, and plenty of resources in order to be accomplished to the fullest degree. This paper thoroughly investigates key factors affecting Balkan countries’ economic development (as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) growth), focusing especially on the impact of remittances. The analysis was done over an 18-year time interval (2000–2017) and builds on 144 observations. The data figures were retrieved from the World Bank database while two dummies were created to test the impact of the last financial crisis (2008–2012). Econometric tools were employed to carry out a broad analysis on the interdependencies that exist and, in particular, to determine the role of remittance income on growth. The vector auto regressive model was estimated using EViews software, and was used to come up with relevant insights. Empirical findings suggest the following: population growth, remittances, and labor force participation are insignificant factors for sustainable growth. On the other hand, previous levels of GDP, trade, and foreign direct investments (FDIs) appear to be relevant for the predictor. This research provides up-to-date conclusions, which can be considered during the decision-making process of central banks, as well as by government policymakers.

Purpose: Western Balkans countries (WBCs) have a great potential for growth and among the main focuses of entrepreneurial activity is small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector. Moreover, SMEs are believed to contribute in the economy by stimulating employment, increasing production, transferring new technologies and so forth. Due to this crucial importance the purpose of this paper is to analyze the barriers that hinder labor productivity (LP) of SMEs in WBCs. Design/methodology/approach: The research method employed to discover solution to this research problem is quantitative analysis by using survey data of World Bank. Research methodology applied in this paper found it correctly to use cross-sectional data and conducts a factor analysis and ordinary least square (OLS) regression as the best procedure for this type of data. Findings: The results show variability for different countries access to finance, tax rates, tax administration, corruption, inadequately educated labor force, competition in informal sector and political instability appear to be some of the main obstacles that are negatively affecting LP of SMEs in WBC. Research limitations/implications: Although this study is the first to analyze all the possible obstacles for the six WBCs using factor analysis better results could be obtained with larger samples and panel data. Practical implications: The policy implications of this study suggest that in order to boost productivity of these firms there must be a reduction of the barriers and improvement of business environment. Although, this study is the first to analyze all the possible obstacles for the six WBCs using factor analysis and contributes as insight to policy makers, better results could be obtained with larger samples using panel data. Originality/value: Differently from previous studies this work uses explanatory factor analysis and method OLS to estimate regressions for all barriers in each country of Western Balkan region.