In higher education institutions, entrepreneurship learning based on successful entrepreneurial role models may promote education for sustainable development. Several theoretical perspectives, such as the human capital theory, the entrepreneurial self-efficacy and self-determination theory, argue that entrepreneurship education is positively correlated with entrepreneurial intentions of students, as it provides adequate know-how and skills and motivates them to develop their entrepreneurial careers. In entrepreneurship education programmes, exposure to successful entrepreneurial models could be a significant factor for stimulating students’ confidence in their ability to start a business and for improving their attitudes towards entrepreneurship. This study aims (i) to identify characteristics viewed by students as being specific to a successful entrepreneur, (ii) to establish the influence of exposure to successful entrepreneurial role models (chosen by students) during entrepreneurship education classes on student entrepreneurial intentions, and (iii) to assess how such exposure influences the attitudes of students towards entrepreneurship. For this purpose, the authors ran a pilot experiment with 30 graduate students enrolled in a Business Creation course using a research methodology that combined qualitative techniques with quantitative measures. Content and statistical analyses were utilised to examine differences in student entrepreneurial intentions and attitudes towards entrepreneurship after being exposed to successful entrepreneurial models. Our study provides evidence that entrepreneurship education based on successful entrepreneurial role models may positively influence the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions of students and could lead to higher orientation of student perception towards social benefits of entrepreneurship (new jobs) compared to financial ones (high income). However, our findings stress that if educators want to improve the efficiency of education focused on developing entrepreneurial skills, graduate programmes should be designed differently for business and non-business students, since studying successful entrepreneurial stories impacts these two groups differently.

Achieving the goals of sustainable development and poverty reduction implies an important condition for access to electricity for the entire population. In the economic literature, the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth has different perspectives. The lack of good governance within an economy, besides the deficiencies of energy resources, is a key issue in worsening energy issues for developing countries. These countries have failed to alleviate the energy crises that have hindered development prospects, amid flourishing corruption and inefficient governments. Our research, using a panel methodology, analyzes the long-term relationship between energy consumption, economic growth and good governance for 14 Central and Eastern European countries, over the period 1995–2017. The study demonstrates empirically that there is a causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth, underlining the fact that deficiencies in the energy system lead to slowing economic growth. The study also shows that good governance influences electricity and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) consumption, and the governments from Central and Eastern European countries have to restore good governance in the economy, creating an environment conducive to investment in the energy sector, which would increase competition and reduce inefficiencies in the production, transmission, and distribution of energy.

Research background: Different crises (COVID-19 pandemic, war, natural disasters etc.) usually require new ways for providing public services to the citizens and, from this, to reinterpret and adjust the role of the public servant as the strategic key for assuring the continuity of the governance at all levels. Purpose of the article: The article establishes a relationship between the public service motivation dimension and job satisfaction aimed to analyze the mediating role of social support in a crisis. Methods: The standardized questionnaires, i.e. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, Work Design Questionnaire, and Perry’s PSM scale, were used to observe variables in the research model. An exploratory factor analysis was used before hypothesis testing. We deployed a structural equation modelling (SEM), as a multivariate technique, to test and evaluate multivariate causal relationships between constructs. Findings & value added: Based on a sample of selected Central and East European countries (namely Poland, Romania, and Serbia), the study confirms the significant impact of social support on the relationship between self-sacrifice and compassion, as a public service motivation dimension, and extrinsic job satisfaction and intrinsic job satisfaction. Social support received from colleagues and supervisor is identified as a powerful non-monetary means of neutralizing negative effects during crises and increasing job satisfaction.

Active citizenship emphasizes the importance of understanding its added value to fiscal responsibility and governance quality for economic and sustainable growth. Firstly, the paper aims to review issues in the literature pertinent to the debate on the role and the characterization of active citizenship. Secondly, using a linear regression model, we provide new evidence on the relationship between active citizenship, on the one hand, and fiscal responsibility, government quality, and economic growth, on the other hand, for the 27 European Union countries, over the period from 2006 to 2019. Our results highlight that active citizenship determines a more responsible and efficient activity of government based on fiscal responsibility, contributing to economic growth and sustainable development.

Labor Relations: Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Management | InTechOpen, Published on: 2017-06-07. Authors: Ana‐Maria Bercu and Ana Iolanda Vodă

Purpose – The main goal is to compare and contrast the expectations of millennials, which skills will be needed for business in contrast to the entrepreneurial experience of the focus group of eight successful entrepreneurs from each country. Research methodology – A cross-national case study is made, based on two focus groups per country (80 business students and eight entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic and Romania), qualitative research findings are presented. Findings – Two competency models were evaluated, when the Romanian model is mostly motivation-oriented and the Czech model is performance-oriented. Research limitations – Future studies should use an extended research sample and compare various methods for teaching entrepreneurship to students from different study areas and compare the impact of education on their mind-set before and after business courses finish. Practical implications – The development of competency models in cooperation with experienced entrepreneurs would have the potential to increase students’ willingness to start up and prepare tailored business education. Possibility to create own generic models. Originality/Value – The originality could be seen in comparison of two focus groups – students and entrepreneurs – which have not been done before from a conflict comparison point of view.