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The purpose of this paper is to explore potential drivers of high-growth intentions of early-stage entrepreneurs in Greece before and after the onset of the financial crisis of 2008.

To this end, the authors use individual-level data retrieved from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor annual surveys (2003-2015).

The results show that high-growth intentions of Greek entrepreneurs are driven by different factors in the crisis compared to the non-crisis period. Male entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs with significant work experience seem to be more likely to be engaged in growth-oriented new ventures during the crisis period. The same appears to hold for entrepreneurs who are motivated by an opportunity and also perceive future business opportunities in adverse economic conditions. On the other hand, the educational level and the social contacts of founders with other entrepreneurs are found to drive ambitious Greek entrepreneurship in the years before the crisis, while they were insignificant after the crisis outbreak.

Based on the concept of ambitious entrepreneurship, this study contributes to the literature by investigating the determinants of entrepreneurial high-growth expectations in the Greek context emphasizing the crisis period in comparison to the pre-crisis years.

This paper aims at exploring the factors that are important for the digital development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis compared to large-sized enterprises.

Using data from a survey in Greek firms during the pandemic, econometric models are estimated to identify factors that are related to the expansion of digital marketing and e-commerce practices of SMEs and large-sized enterprises based on the technology–organization–environment framework.

The results suggest that while further investments in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure are important for the digital development of SMEs during the COVID-19 crisis, it is the innovative activities that advance the digitalization of large-sized enterprises. Also, SMEs, which implement flexible human resource (HR) practices (such as remote work) and face delays in the supply chain due to the pandemic, appear to have increased probability of expanding their digital marketing and e-commerce. On the contrary, HR practices do not seem to matter for large firms, while new regulations appear to discourage their digital development during the COVID-19 crisis.

This is the first study which empirically explores the digital reactions of SMEs compared to those of large-sized enterprises in a pandemic crisis context. It advances the limited knowledge on the potentially different responses of SMEs and large-sized enterprises to major external shocks with respect to their digital marketing and e-commerce expansion.

This paper aims to identify firm and entrepreneurial team characteristics that may contribute to resilience in the creative industries (CI) under adverse economic conditions.

It provides case study evidence based on 19 in-depth interviews with small and young creative enterprises in Greece in 2014 that is at the peak of the Greek economic crisis. New information was collected from two follow-up waves conducted in 2017 and during the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic crisis.

The results suggest that highly internationalized entrepreneurial teams with extensive working and studying experience abroad, which also combine creative expertise with managerial and marketing expertise, are key resilience drivers during economic downturns. Moreover, being export-oriented, serving a diverse customer base and investing in digital technologies seem to allow CI firms to effectively adapt to challenging conditions.

This study adds to the firm-level research on the resilience drivers of small and young enterprises in the CI context. It proposes and empirically tests a conceptual framework to advance the limited knowledge on entrepreneurship and resilience patterns in the CI during crisis periods, emphasizing specific entrepreneurial team and firm characteristics.

During the recent economic crisis, public procurement reforms have received a great attention as a key mechanism that enables significant cost savings and improves transparency in the public sector, particularly in countries which are under a process of extensive fiscal consolidation like Greece. This paper examines the effects of improved transparency on public procurement cost in the light of the ongoing structural reforms taking place in Greece. The basic finding indicates that ensuring transparent practices in public procurement processes reduces government expenditures by about 1.8 - 3.4 percentage points. A dataset on 2309 public supply contracts for goods was used, supplementing the pooled OLS estimates with quantile regressions.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the perceptions of young agricultural entrepreneurs (agripreneurs, as a neologism, from now on), to understand what they consider as determinants in achieving entrepreneurial success in accordance with their type of farming.

This study uses primary data collected through a questionnaire, among 222 young agripreneurs who are active in lowland, semi-mountainous and mountainous regions of western Greece.

The approach used provided a clear evidence that perceived characteristics, such as internal funding and level of education/training, have a significant relationship with the perception of young agripreneurs’ success (YAS). Also, the perception of young agripreneurs for success varies by the type of farming. Crop production agripreneurs have a significantly higher need for participation in Producer Groups than in livestock production ones. Alternatively, gender, presents a significant relationship only with livestock production agripreneurs’ success.

The results of this study could help to design appropriate policy instruments and at the same time, promote and foster entrepreneurship on the one hand and provide suggestions for young agripreneurs to create sustainable new ventures on the other hand.

This study is original and valuable in the sense that provides the practical implications for understanding the entrepreneurial success and sustainability in a very critical segment of the agricultural sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the impact of locus of control (LOC) and motivations on entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) among agri-entrepreneurs in the region of Western Greece.

The study was conducted in 2019 in the Western Greece region. Primary data were collected through a survey. A researcher-administered questionnaire was the data collection instrument while the individual farmer was the unit of analysis. Many data analysis methods were applied: a validity and reliability test, exploratory factor analysis, regression analysis, Kruskal–Wallis test and correlations.

The results show that the proposed model explains almost 33% of the variance for the EI. Internal LOC and pull motivations have a positive relationship with the intention of entrepreneurship. EI in the agricultural sector is more dependent on LOC, motivations, age and level of education than gender and type of holding.

The findings of this study provide several theoretical and practical contributions, which can be useful for other researchers.

This research study adds to the existing literature of the EI by using a different type of sample compared to previous contributions. Mostly EI studies used student sample to measure intentions. The present study extends the antecedents of intention by using a sample of existing agri-entrepreneurs. Farmers are one of the best potential segments, and as a result, this research will help predicting how the intention process of existing entrepreneurs works, especially in the primary sector.