Entrepreneurship, Institutional Framework and Support Mechanisms in the EU

Recent developments that have focused on the institutions, support mechanisms and entrepreneurship in the European Union (EU) are mostly fragmented either focusing on statistical presentation of the current situation or analysis of the impact of the regulations on business creation. In addition, recent studies do not capture thoroughly the differentiating factors of the local, regional, national and supranational governance. Moreover, the recent trends tackling social and environmental challenges through entrepreneurship have not been explored and researched in an extensive way. Indeed, in the last decades a variety of tools, regulations, and funding and support schemes have been developed in the EU to promote and enhance entrepreneurial activities. Within this context, this collective volume aims to provide the go-to source of current thinking in this area as its scope will extend to all major, relevant and interrelated aspects of institutions, support mechanisms and entrepreneurship in the EU.

This chapter aims to conceptualize the general framework of policies to support entrepreneurship and competitiveness by indicating a move from a dispersive comprehension of competitiveness towards an integrated macro-meso-micro perspective, by taking as a case study the European South. First, it presents theoretical contributions to entrepreneurship enhancement policies, which mostly suggest that intervention can be effective in a fragmentary and relatively incoherent way. Then, it counter-proposes the ‘competitiveness web’ approach, which gives an integrated policy framework for the competitive strengthening and evolution of a socioeconomic system. In the framework of competitiveness web, we analyze and propose a meso-micro level policy via the Institutes of Local Development and Innovation (ILDI), which is a policy for empowering the local and regional business ecosystems through the enhancement of business innovation. Finally, by using the competitiveness web filter, we propose the structuration of a mechanism that could identify the level at which the socioeconomic entities in different spatial levels can articulate their policies for entrepreneurship enhancement in the macro-meso-micro integrated approach.

The chapter presents recent development in the field of entrepreneurship education of several European universities – partners within Erasmus+ project on blended learning entrepreneurship course development, covering subjects from everyday instructional and practical approaches to support (under)graduate entrepreneurship and theoretical connections with modern worldwide educational and socioeconomic policies. Theoretical overview of the subject of entrepreneurship education is presented in the first part, and in the second part, good practice of BLUES Entrepreneurship course is discussed (BLUES Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union: Blended-learning international entrepreneurship skills programme; European Entrepreneurship Experience project). The chapter discusses the needs of universities and university professors and entrepreneurship instructors by highlighting how blended learning addresses some challenges of entrepreneurship education implementation while also brings some new challenges in managing such a course. Blended learning is suggested as a conducive environment for entrepreneurial learning in both academic and nonacademic settings. Based on the presented methodology entrepreneurship professors are able to implement and/or adjust the BLUES methodology within their own course, parts of it or the whole course that is provided through online massive open online courses (MOOCs) and toolkit for face-to-face exercises in class. Chapter provides a systematic and integrated perspective with relevance for business students, educators and policymakers.

The chapter analyzes tendencies and initiatives regarding entrepreneurship development and support at European Union and Romanian levels, and also the role and importance of education by investigating the existence of specific training courses for entrepreneurs and guiding successors from family-owned technology-based businesses. The purpose of the analysis is to determine the tendency to involve graduate students in entrepreneurial field and to provide solutions to streamline entrepreneurship education and educational institutions.

The chapter focuses on the difficulties faced by the Romanian family-owned and technology-based businesses (in general) and small businesses in particular – the aim of this chapter is to reveal that – while [technology] entrepreneurship and small business management are topics fairly well covered by the engineering curricula of the Romanian technical universities – the problem of business succession (either property or management succession) is not discussed; therefore, there is no wonder that entrepreneurs are not prepared to make the related decisions; even worse, they are not aware of the capital importance of planning the succession process well in advance, and – as result – their decisions in this regard are precarious.

Conclusions can be useful to engineering professors, university managers and policymakers as well as young people who want to pursue an entrepreneurial path or are about to take over the management of the family business; they should realize that entrepreneurship is not just starting-up a business, but it involves a way of strategic thinking which leads to attitude formation and development of useful skills in the field of business development and management.

Innovation project development is becoming more important in boosting competitiveness of universities and enterprises. It will not be possible to ensure rapid economic growth of enterprises without competitive innovations and without their introduction into education and business practice. The object of the research paper is innovations in teaching entrepreneurship. The subject of the research paper is analysis of the effective entrepreneurship education at the universities. The objective of the research paper is to study the integration process of technological business environment (TBE), intellectual capital (IC) formation, innovation project (IP) development at the universities and enterprises.

The tasks advanced in order to reach the objective: to identify the concept of IC, IP, the methodology of IP development at the universities, their main actions and methods; to carry out analysis of the TBE in Latvia, indicators characterizing it environment, the factors of TBE influencing IC, IP development at the universities and enterprises; to estimate the IP development as the teaching method at the universities and business practice in Latvia. The research period is from the year 2007 till the year 2020. This is the first research on the analysis of indicators of TBE influencing IC formation, IP development at the universities; the efficiency of involvement of academic staff in the formation of IC and IP development into entrepreneurship education in Latvia; definition of the IP development as the teaching method and presentation of its theoretical and practical interpretation.

The chapter discusses the preliminary evidence for the state of Vocational Education and Training (hereafter VET) for social entrepreneurship and organizations and especially for European Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE). Drawing upon a European project, and gathering information from five countries; Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece and Italy, this study aims to demonstrate that educational programmes are encompassed among the necessary SSE support mechanisms in the EU's socio-economic framework. Moreover, this chapter shows that this connection between SSE and adult education is not coincidental, but is founded on the converging principles of these fields, as well as in their common belief in society's transformational potential. This evidence tends to fill a gap in the literature of European SSE given that it is a recent, under-researched subject in general and especially in linking it to VET. This is all the more important in view of ongoing crises (e.g. financial, COVID-19, environmental), which highlight that social economy perspectives can no longer abstain from the political agendas across the world.

The entrepreneurial vision, strategic goals, organizational capabilities and processes, alone, will not be adequate to attain business success, unless there is a quality management philosophy in the company (Al-Dhaafri, Al-Swidi, & Yusoff, 2016). Successful entrepreneurial endeavours essentially rest on action, assertiveness, persistence and know-how of leadership (Azyan, Pulakanam, & Pons, 2017) who comprehend the application of quality management methods as a long-term ‘quality journey’. The appropriate implementation of a quality management system (QMS) or total quality management (TQM) system results in enhanced organizational performance (Sahoo & Yadav, 2017).

A wide range of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have nowadays been aware of the indisputable importance of quality and have reaped the benefits of TQM, having in mind that TQM is not just a method or a tool but a whole business philosophy. TQM is a systematic approach that focuses on continuous improvement of the organizational processes with the participation and contribution of all the stakeholders, so as to manage and enhance quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. It is the best way for the enterprise's growth and domination in the contemporary national and international competitive marketplace (Kriemadis, Thomopoulou, & Sioutou, 2017). According to several studies, by embracing the TQM philosophy, SMEs can compete in the global competitive environment (Womack & Roos, 1990; as cited in Karani & Bichanga, 2012; Sainis & Kriemadis, 2019; Pashiardis & Kriemadis, 1999).

The present study aims to develop a generic TQM model for SMEs in order to improve their competitiveness, productivity and quality as well as to enhance their entrepreneurial orientation.

In this chapter, we approach and examine the issue of innovation as applied to family and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Cyprus, using, for research purposes, a structured questionnaire addressed to the particular type of business through mapping and grouping of the sample. The analysis concerns the periods 2015–2017, which are interesting due to the economic conditions that prevailed in the market in general. In this chapter, innovation is analyzed at both the policy level of the European Union and the institutional level. In particular, we examine the institutional dimensions of innovation in SMEs in Cyprus, such as, for example, the issue of financing, as well as the barriers often encountered by the companies in implementing innovative products, services or solutions. The chapter ends with interesting conclusions and an attempt to discuss future research extensions in the field of the institutional analysis of innovation.

Many good sustainability entrepreneurial ideas and projects fail to reach their objectives due to problems with feasibility. This chapter investigates the effectiveness of methods used to evaluate the feasibility of entrepreneurial ventures in the context of sustainable urban development. Traditional methods and tools based on cost–benefit analysis could provide some guidance for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs when evaluating sustainability strategies. Yet, such methods rely on restrictive assumptions, which cast doubt on their suitability for real-world sustainability applications. Traditional methods are far from really enabling entrepreneurs to make informed optimal decisions. New integrated methods are necessary for drawing conclusions vis-a-vis the practicality of entrepreneurial ideas by quantifying and analyzing the benefits and costs of all options in a given scenario. This chapter evaluates the effectiveness of current feasibility study methods and their suitability for sustainable urban planning and development. It surmises that caution is advised concerning their reflection of real-life applications, given the complexity and dynamicity of solving sustainability-related problems. It is shown that such methods can arguably be a useful tool when evaluating the viability of investing in innovation and sustainability if they are enriched with advanced modelling techniques, such as system dynamics and optimization methods. For this purpose, an entrepreneurial venture for promoting sustainable mobility via information and communication technology (ICT) is used as a case study. The proposed integrated ‘Sustainability Entrepreneurship’ approach for evaluating feasibility can prove to be very useful for entrepreneurs when assessing the efficacy of complex sustainable-related ventures.

Nurturing resilience of states and societies in its neighbourhood has become a strategic priority for the European Union (EU). This chapter reviews the concept of resilience across different European External Action Service's (EEAS) strategic documents, investigates the means and the ends that accompany it and explores the potential of fostering resilience through entrepreneurship. The latter is becoming a multi-dimensional tool associated not only with economic development but also with peace fostering, responsible citizenship, social innovation, opportunities management, risk-taking, decision-making, problem-solving, creativity, adaptability etc. We examine how entrepreneurship deals with the EU's approach to resilience and whether the EEAS harnesses entrepreneurship potential. This is an interdisciplinary research project bringing together insights from EU studies, diplomatic studies and entrepreneurship. In terms of methodology we use a content analysis approach of primary resources combined with semi-structured interviews with EEAS staff and secondary sources review. Our findings indicate that EEAS could meet resilience goals through entrepreneurship; yet the use of entrepreneurship as a tool for EEAS′ purposes is sporadic, scattered and unidimensional. We suggest that the EEAS should adopt a cohesive strategy for entrepreneurship promotion connecting internal with external policies. Acting this way would also serve the purpose of a more ‘joined-up union’ and reinforce the EU's power of attraction.

The volatile tax system is a huge disincentive for taking business, as frequent changes in the tax system create extremely difficult problems. It is a major barrier to entrepreneurship, it fails to address them economic inequalities, is too complex, changing very often, and is made in a way that facilitates tax evasion.

The factors that discourage investors from investing in our country are as follows (as research has shown in the past five years in our country by researchers and scientists): high taxation, complex institutional framework, bureaucracy, corruption, political liquidity and limited access to finance. These pathogens hamper the ability of the economy to produce competitive goods and quality services on the market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main pathogens of the tax system which are a brake on the development of Greek entrepreneurship and how they can be tackled so that our country produces competitive goods and quality services.

This chapter investigates the ‘green skills gap’ as economies move towards net zero emissions. Building on the work of Moon, Walmsley, Apostolopoulos, and Zollo (2020), the author identifies critical skills needed in the green economy to ensure that current skills gaps identified by the International Labour Organization (2018) are bridged. However, the ILO (2018) report predominantly refers to macro level changes in society as economies transition to carbon neutrality (job destruction, job creation and job reallocation). There is little evidence of detailed action plans nor their implementation and the ILO report concludes that skills development programmes are yet to be mainstreamed in policy discussions. This chapter thus highlights the green skills needed, identifies some of the barriers preventing economies from mainstreaming such skills development programmes into policy and provides recommendations for governments, enterprises and universities in the short to medium term. The chapter includes a review of global progress in developing skills for a greener future (ILO, 2019) but focusses on implications for European policy in particular.

This chapter aims the research whether the application of European Directive, Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), had any significant effects on the European Capital Markets and the progress of the European Integration. This new regulation specifies the tasks and responsibilities of the supervisory authorities of the Member State of origin and the host Member State, in order to enhance the certainty of effectiveness of cross-border transactions supervision and to reduce the risk of imposing unnecessary legal reforms from the host Member State on investment firms which perform cross-border transactions. It has been concluded, among others, that the aligning of the national regulatory approaches to a common European regulatory system is quite necessary. It is finally concluded that MiFID will contribute to reduce problems at country level as the previous experience of the Investment Services Directive, where the European investments and economies of Member States were based mainly on the level of ‘country’ and not of the ‘sector’. An effective capital entrepreneurship market is a strategically important element in the development of new and innovative businesses, encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing the productivity and maintaining high economic growth rates in Europe. Currently, European venture capital market is much less effective than that of the US market, for example. Therefore, in this area, should be specified the priorities that will lead to new initiatives.