Purpose Throughout Macedonia, beekeeping is becoming popular regardless of ethnicity. Studying ethnicity, the purpose of this paper is to determine what beekeepers in Macedonia thought in their own words about their beekeeping entrepreneurship. The objective is to identify whether motivations of ethnic Albanian beekeepers in Macedonia were the same or different compared to those of ethnic Macedonians in the same country, and if different, how. Design/methodology/approach To accomplish this objective, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 beekeepers in Macedonia. A total of 29 interviews were conducted face-to-face and the other 11 by phone. The first set of interviews took place between December 2016 and February 2017, followed by more interviews in June 2017. In total, 27 respondents said they were ethnic Albanians, and 13 identified themselves as ethnic Macedonians. Also, ten respondents were women. While eight were full-time beekeepers, 32 were part-time beekeepers. Findings The results indicated that beekeeping businesses play a significant role in the transition economy of Macedonia. Beekeeping provides additional earnings that support rural families and keeps them financially stable. The majority of both Albanians and Macedonians understood that beekeeping on a part-time job basis provided a needed supplement to their income. Some part-time beekeepers are also working as auto-mechanics, locksmiths, medical doctors, restaurant/cafeteria owners, and tailors. A few in the sample were retired from their jobs or full-time beekeepers. An important difference between ethnic Albanian beekeepers and ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia is that the majority of ethnic Albanian participants see beekeeping as following in “my father’s footsteps”, while most Macedonians were motivated by the perceived opportunity of having a good business. Research limitations/implications Limitations of the research are twofold. First, financial data of family beekeeping are not available, which would be useful in determining the contribution made to economic development. It is common, especially in transition economies such as the western Balkans, that financial results are very sensitive to their owners. Second, unavailable databases for beekeepers make any quantitative approach difficult, if not impossible, resulting in most research using the qualitative research approach. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to treat beekeeping as a form of artisan entrepreneurship, which also contributes to the understanding of family business. As in other countries, the important and operation of the family business among family members in Macedonia is passed from generation to generation. The results of this research revealed the value of networking, which was found to be very important to income. For beekeepers to develop, grow, and be branded in the community, networking is an important ingredient.

Purpose This study aims to examine the entrepreneurial intentions of university students at the International University of Sarajevo. For this purpose, the entrepreneurial desires and entrepreneurial orientations of the students across several demographic variables were measured. These variables included prior entrepreneurial experience, student’s gender, faculty, year of study and attitude towards more courses on entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the research also examined how business environment influences the entrepreneurial intentions of students by considering the same set of variables. Design/methodology/approach The objectives of this paper have been achieved by using a quantitative research instrument, where the cross-sectional survey method for collecting primary data is used. In total, 173 usable responses have been collected from the beginning of April to the end of May in the academic year 2015/2016. Findings The results indicate that the greater the demotivation with the current business surrounding, the smaller the entrepreneurial intentions of the students are when the prior entrepreneurial experience, gender, year of study and attitude towards more courses on entrepreneurship are considered. The study suggests that improving the overall business surrounding and entrepreneurial education might increase the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. Originality/value This is the first paper that treats entrepreneurial intentions of University students in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impacts of social media on the Pakistani consumers' buying behavior, which could be reflected in either complex buying, variety seeking, dissonance reducing or habitual buying. Entrepreneurs need to know how their loyal and prospective customers feel, think and how do they decide on purchasing certain products and services.Design/methodology/approachThe self-administered online questionnaire is used to collect feedback from consumers in order to analyze the data and come up with the findings. A sample size of 396 respondents was used to analyze and find a relationship between social media and consumer buying behavior.FindingsSocial media is found to have a partially significant impact on Pakistani consumers' buying behavior; word of mouth and content credibility are the two factors that influence Pakistani consumers' buying behavior. Pakistani consumers, below the age of 40, possess more complex buying behavior, which alerts entrepreneurs to consider it for their future marketing strategies.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurs should make an effort to be differentiated from others while keeping customers aware of the products they provide. In addition, customers should not spend too much time when comparing brands; rather, businesses should make it more captive.Originality/valueThis paper provides different results in comparison to the previous studies, in terms of the factors influencing consumers' buying behavior.

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to investigate gender differences in entrepreneurship development. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative study consisted of an on-line questionnaire administered to a random sample of 206 owner-manager CEOs across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Various statistical tools were used in the analysis. Findings Empirical results revealed significant differences in entrepreneurial performance between women and men. It was found that gender significantly affects entrepreneurial activities in firms with regards to innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. Overall, female respondents scored better in entrepreneurial dimensions than did males. Practical implications The state should support female entrepreneurship in the long term; aspirations exist, and this study’s results reveal this potential. Furthermore, it is recommended that women take a part in entrepreneurship development – a key to economic development. Also, it is suggested that education in entrepreneurship should be at a higher level than is currently the case. Originality/value This paper is the first empirical study that examines gender issues in entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study draws practical implications for current business owners, CEOs and potential entrepreneurs of either gender. This research removes stereotypes about female aspirations, competencies and skills in creating new start-ups and ventures, which in the long term will contribute to the economic development.

This study examines the entrepreneurial leadership and business performance in gazelles and mice, using stratified purposive sampling from three sectors: manufacturing, sales and services. Findings suggest that gazelles are more in favour of applying entrepreneurial leadership compared to mice. However, both of them need improvement. Gazelles need to maintain a constant sustainable growth in the market while mice should transform themselves into gazelles. It can be done by creating a positive synergetic effect of entrepreneurial leadership to business performance in both types of firms, in the long term. Likewise, Bosnian government should pave the way for better business surroundings and to promote entrepreneurship development in the region. On the contrary, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) seems to maintain a status quo or even tends to shackle the entrepreneurial activities and opportunities in its business environment.

This paper analyses environment in fast (gazelles) and slow growing companies (mices) using Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions and business performance in terms of sales and employee growth. The research is done using information on 178 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We find that EO dimensions are more present in gazelles than in mices. We show a small to moderate significant correlation between EO dimensions and business performance of gazelles and mices. Also, any change in sales growth and employee growth might be associated with variability in innovation, risk taking and firm's age.

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