Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology

In the last decade many universities have developed alongside with teaching and research traditional missions also their third mission that enables them to move towards the “entrepreneurial university” model. Such approach no doubts play a crucial role in the socio-economic development. The urgent need of Albanian universities to contribute to the social and economic local and regional developments of the country has been stated in national strategy for higher education of the Albanian Government. The objective of this research is to evaluate the dimensions of an entrepreneurial university in Albanian public universities towards this model. Using HEInnovate tool and in depth interviews the study tries to identify strong and weak areas and potential actions to be undertaken by universities leadership and policy makers. Internationalization and close links with industry were evaluated by participants as the strongest areas with the highest score compared to the other dimensions of an entrepreneurial university. Organizational capacity, human and financial resources and support for entrepreneurs were identified as the weakest areas. Even though there are some attempts still much needs to be done from Albanian public universities (both within its internal and external environment) in order to move toward this model and play an active role in the socio- economic development of the country.

  Evaluation of the Entrepreneurial University Dimensions in Albanian (806.0 KiB, 1,193 hits)

Using an unbalanced panel data set covering 98 countries and the period 2004-2012, this paper aims to ascertain the extent to which the governmental, globalization and governance factors affect the formal business start-ups.
We represent government by formal constraints to starting a new business while KOF indices that measure the economic, social and political dimensions of globalization are the proxies for globalization. Governance indicators are those of the World Bank’s well-known six worldwide governance clusters.
Moreover, we include unemployment rate in the model to control for macroeconomic stability and business cycle effects. Panel regression results reveal that formal procedures hamper the business start-ups in all country groups while unemployment has negative impacts for the global panel and high-income countries.
Globalization indicators, except economic globalization, have no significant effect and the influence of governance varies among its dimensions and country groups. Overall findings infer that people who start their businesses need a credible government that makes the things easier without any political pressures, but not that regulatory monitoring, controlling and directing the business environment strictly.

  Government, Globalization and Governance Impacts on Business Start-ups: Evidence from a Classified Panel Data Analysis (745.2 KiB, 1,972 hits)

It becomes a common place to speak of SMEs as an engine of economic growth for any European Union country. The SMEs accounted the higher turnover and provides jobs for most of employed population. Romania is no exception, in 2009, the turnover of SMEs represents over 60 % (but for hotels and restaurants SMEs turnover was around 85 %). The article analyses the vulnerabilities of the sector, the main possibilities for financing, as well the framework created in Romania to stimulate business by development of SME’s.

  Competitiveness of Romanian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in European Union (723.7 KiB, 3,501 hits)

The marketing – entrepreneurship interface at corporate level has generated many debates and studies in the last two decades, both in marketing and entrepreneurship fields. Certain elements of marketing orientation and approach may be used in the development of entrepreneurial processes, while entrepreneurial orientation and behaviour enhance the marketing performance of a company which operates in a dynamic environment. This paper presents the concept of entrepreneurial marketing, a proposed entrepreneurial marketing model, as well as the partial result of a preliminary test of this model.

  The marketing entrepreneurship and the SMEs competitiveness (78.7 KiB, 8,671 hits)