The main objective of the paper is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the level of energy poverty in Poland. In order to achieve such a goal, the first part of the article presents the definition of energy poverty and the nature of its measures, as well as the determinants and policies of the state addressing the issue of energy poverty mitigation. In the second part of the paper, the results of research into the level of energy poverty are analyzed and the variables affecting energy poverty in Poland during the pandemic are determined. It was established on the basis of these results that the present pandemic contributed to the aggravation of financial difficulties in Polish households with regard to financing expenditure on energy carriers. It was found that COVID-19 had a negative impact on the average disposable income of Polish households, which, with the increase in prices and expenditure on energy carriers, led to an increase in the proportion of disposable income spent on energy carriers. The most affected have been the poorest households. Moreover, the long downward trend in the level of energy poverty in Poland has reversed. Thus, it has been proved that COVID-19 has contributed to the intensification of energy poverty in Poland. The theoretical and empirical considerations contained in this paper may be a valuable source of scientific data on the impact of the pandemic on household energy poverty, while public institutions may find them a source of useful information, helping to create effective instruments to mitigate energy poverty in the Polish economy.

Entrepreneurship has always been a crucial issue in the economic development of the countries as it has the ability to enhance standards of living and create wealth, not only for the entrepreneurs but also for related businesses and people. This paper aims to provide insights into how to build successful entrepreneurship in Kathmandu valley (KV). Using the descriptive method, we have applied non- probability sampling technique to select 302 entrepreneurs from KV. The structured questionnaire is used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, pre-estimation, and post-estimation are used for data analysis. The research finds that entrepreneurs are more successful when possessing such qualities as creativity and leadership. Furthermore, the results reveal that technology plays a vital role while initiating entrepreneurship and education helps raise positive output in entrepreneurship. Based on the findings, the study concludes that entrepreneurship has been one of the important issues in the context of Nepal to open up employment opportunities and bring economic progress.

The purpose of the article is to determine development gaps and critical points in the system of business – education collaboration in R&D investment using MAR-splines. The study attempts to confirm hypotheses about the impact of business – education collaboration in R&D investment on the sustainable development, and, in turn, the influence of chosen factors on the level of cooperation of business and education in R&D investment taking into account development gaps and critical points. These factors include the values of gross domestic expenditure on R&D spent by the business enterprise sector and by the higher education sector, and the level of the informal economy. The study is based on the sample of the 10 countries leading the ranking of Sustainable Development Index for 2011-2018 (time limits are set due to the availability of all studied indicators in the statistical databases of the World Bank, UNDESA, OECD and WIPO). Critical points and knots are determined using MAR-splines and two-way median-spline plots in STATA software. It has been proven that the business – education collaboration in R&D investment contributes to increasing the level of sustainable development if the value of this indicator is in the range of critical points from 62.04 to 68.96 (1% growth increases the estimate of sustainable development by 0.7%). In turn, development gaps and critical points have also been found for factors influencing the level of business-education R&D collaboration.

The article is of theoretical and empirical character. The main objective is to identify certain conditions related to the innovative ambidexterity of Polish startups. The objective implementation protocol of the study determined its structure. Its first part presents the most important theoretical concepts related to the presented issues. In particular, on the basis of the literature on the subject, analyses of the innovative ambidexterity. Moreover a start-up was equated with a company operating no longer than a year, which offers an innovative solution. Theoretical considerations provided the basis for the empirical presentation of the results of the author’s own research conducted in 2019 in Poland on startups. On the basis of the outcome it has been established the most important factors determining innovative ambidexterity in startups are: having access to external source of financing and to external infrastructure as well as the acquisition of a license/patent. Moreover it has been diagnosed that create innovation and simultaneously reduce in startups the tension between exploitation and exploration activities to a large extent rely on external sources when implementing their innovation processes. For the theory on management, the theoretical-empirical deliberations presented in the article may be a valuable source of information within the scope of the influence the particular elements of innovative ambidexterity have on startups. However, for entrepreneurs they may be an impulse in the field of effective use of the innovative ambidexterity in the process of building competitiveness of young companies in Poland.

The main goal of the study is to assess the decision criteria and the determining factors for the sustainability of entrepreneurial startups in order to contribute towards social inclusion and capacity building. Both concepts are in the development phase and are the outcome of entrepreneurial ecosystem and individual behavior and traits. The current study observed the research problem as entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial startups are the continuous phenomena required for every economy. The lack of an efficient ecosystem and incompetent trait of an entrepreneur brings the entrepreneurial startup to failure. Therefore, an assessment of decision criteria and determining factors categorizing them by their importance may provide the requirements to lead to a successful entrepreneurial startup, contributing to social inclusion and capacity building. The study solved the research problem by statistical assessment of decision criteria and determining factors and categorizing them by their importance may provide the requirements to lead to a successful entrepreneurial startup. The research is built on research questions, objectives, a conceptual model, and a hypothesis, which are tested based on the data collected. The collection of data was done through a survey questionnaire on a sample of established entrepreneurs. The study concludes that the five components of decision criteria are region, competition, funding opportunities, tax system, and country economic situation, whereas eight determining factors, consciousness and reliability, pursuit of results, flexibility, stress resistance, skills of identification and exploitation of potential market opportunities, leadership, creativity and innovation, and delegation of decision-making, are required for a successful entrepreneurial startup to be able to work towards social inclusion and capacity building.

Objective: The main purpose of the paper is to establish which elements of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) have the biggest influence on the activities of Polish start-ups.Research Design & Methods: The diagnosis was based on an analysis of individual components of entrepreneurial orientation and presentation of the results of research carried out by the author among 382 start-ups in Poland.Findings: The research provide that, innovative activity of companies and exploring new market opportunities and possibilities by start-ups were important factors conditioning the operations and development of the companies studied. It is advisable to deepen the current theory of entrepreneurship orientation in relation to start-ups, understood as young innovative companies.Contribution & Value Added: The theoretical-empirical deliberations presented in the article may be a valuable source of information within the scope of the influence the particular elements of entrepreneurial orientation have on start-ups. However, for entrepreneurs they may be an impulse in the field of effective use of the elements of EO in the process of building competitiveness of young companies in Poland which is reflected in particular pillars of EO.