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Stable and sustainable economic development—including that of renewable energy resources (RES)—requires institutional support of an environment that would enable market operations, and support them in case they are ineffective. Innovation brokers, including structured technology transfer networks, play a key role in promoting, disseminating, and liaising between the parties in the RES sector. The aim of the paper is to present the structure of events used to promote RES in Europe by the Enterprise Europe Network in the years 2017–2018; to verify whether the type of promotion instrument used is significantly related to the location of the events organized; to research whether the selection of the supporting partner is determined by the organized event’s geographical location. The analysis is carried out by means of an empirical study of the network of innovation brokers, i.e., the Enterprise Europe Network. Additionally, the available data are analyzed in terms of the type of the partner supporting individual events. It has been shown that there is a significant variation in the structure of the types of events for individual regions of Europe. This could mean that the organizers’ decisions as to the type of events organized in particular regions of Europe are deliberate and in some way adjusted to the region in which they take place.

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The objective of this paper is to identify differences between measurement of organisational entrepreneurship in for-profit and non-profit context and to propose the measures aligned to non-profit organisations. The main research question is whether the scales designed to measure entrepreneurial orientation can be used in non-profit organisations and under which conditions. Research Design & Methods: Research methodology is based on review of research tools and measurement scales related to organisational entrepreneurship and comparison of for-profit and non-profit organisations, as well as their characteristics in the context of entrepreneurial orientation. Findings: Entrepreneurial orientation can be measured in non-profit organisations using existing scales that have been designed for business organisations, however they have to be modified, mostly in the dimension of competitive aggressiveness and autonomy. Additionally, the scale should be enriched with items related to cooperation with other organisations. Implications & Recommendations: It is necessary to develop methods and tools that enable the measurement of entrepreneurial orientation in non-profit organisation as well as comparative research on entrepreneurial orientation in for-profit and nonprofit organisations. Contribution & Value Added: The originality of this work lies in studying some aspects of entrepreneurial orientation, that apply to the social context. Some suggestions were formulated relating to the utilisation of entrepreneurial orientation scales (originally designed for business enterprises) in non-profit organisations.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the role of digital technologies in tourism entrepreneurship. In particular, the main objective of this research is to examine the relationships among proactiveness, innovativeness, digitalization, and firm performance and growth in the hotel industry.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this investigation were collected from 110 one- or two-star hotels that were operating in Poland during the time of this research. This study employs PLS-SEM to analyze the relationships among the examined variables.FindingsThe results show that digitalization has a significantly positive impact on a hotel’s performance. Moreover, digitalization mediates the impact of entrepreneurial behaviors on performance. In particular, digitization is a full mediator for the impact of proactiveness on firm growth and innovation on market performance. Additionally, there is a partial complementary mediation effect of digitalization in the case of impact of innovativeness on firm growth; digitization is not a mediator for the impact of proactiveness on firm growth.Originality/valuePrevious studies have not captured the relationships among entrepreneurship, digitalization, and performance; this study helps to fill the gap and examine these associations in the hospitality industry. The outcome of this study provides valuable insights for hoteliers for understanding the role (and importance) of digitalization in the context of proactiveness and innovativeness.

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Recent economic and public health crises have posed important challenges to family businesses – particularly those in the hospitality sector. While sustaining a business, performance becomes critical; there is insufficient knowledge on the use of entrepreneurial behaviors in mitigating the impact of a crisis by family businesses. To help fill this gap, this study explores the configurations of entrepreneurial behaviors that lead to improved performance in small firms under crisis market conditions – particularly, risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, flexibility, and digitalization. This study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The sample consists of 117 one- and two-star Polish hotels that are comprised of both family and non-family businesses. The data was collected in November and December 2021. The results confirm the core role of risk-taking, proactiveness, and flexibility in increasing the performance of these small firms. However, performance outcomes depend on the configurations of the firms; differences between family and non-family businesses stood out. In family hotels, risk-taking is accompanied by flexibility as a core factor, and digitalization does not play an important role in achieving higher performance. Overall, these results contribute to the literature on organizational entrepreneurship (especially entrepreneurial orientation) as well as family business crisis management in the tourism sector. These findings offer implications for managers by indicating combinations of entrepreneurial behaviors that can help foster business performance.

The aim of the paper is to examine relational capabilities of an organization in the context of entrepreneurial orientation and to identify potential interconnection between them. Research Design & Methods: The sample consists of 363 small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) representing both service and manufacturing (high-and low tech) industries. The correlation analysis was employed to test the associations among variables. The variables were dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (i.e., risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness), dimensions of relational capability (i.e., the intensity of inter-organizational relations, resources involved in inter-organizational relations, and management of inter-organizational relations), and firm's performance. Findings: The findings show that all dimensions of relational capabilities are associated strongly with risk-taking, while their associations with innovativeness and proactiveness are weak, however statistically significant. The access to external resources, their utilization, and sharing their resources are the most important aspects of relational capabilities. All variables are significantly correlated with performance. Contribution & Value Added: The study's results imply that relational capabilities may play an important role in pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities. The findings confirm the importance of behaviours focused on sharing resources (including knowledge). This observation has a practical implication for entrepreneurs. Article type: research paper