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The aim of this study is to evaluate the entrepreneurship activity in Turkey and the Balkan countries and to show in which fields they can cooperate in the future.

Document analysis was used in the research. In this context, taking into consideration the Global Entrepreneurship Index data published in 2019, the entrepreneurial potentials of Balkan countries, its current status was examined. Therefore, Turkey’s contribution to the development of entrepreneurial activities in the Balkan countries is shown in the study.

The results of the research show that entrepreneurship activities in the Balkan countries are not at the expected levels. In addition, it is determined that Turkey is in a central position in the Balkan’s entrepreneurship ecosystem in subjects such as especially, product innovation, risk capital, the ability of entrepreneurial start-up and its enterprises show high growth. Other Balkan countries may cooperate with Turkey about the production of technological products and technology transfer issues. Partner incubation programs can be formed. Training activities related to the entrepreneurship ecosystem can be organised together.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first study that addresses the current situation of Balkan countries by analysing the entrepreneurship index scores of Turkey and Balkan countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, northern Macedonia, Greece and Slovenia). It also formulated suggestions on establishing cooperation with Turkey.

The peoples living in the Balkan Peninsula over centuries have created a very rich cultural heritage and the constant political upheavals in the region have affected the development and preservation of their cultures. This paper aims to review the internet infrastructure and networked readiness levels of the Balkan countries, which are conducive to scientific co‐operation and preservation of digitised cultural heritage. It also explores the destructive effects of wars on the cultural riches of the region.

The internet facilities and the scientific production of the Balkan countries were identified using published sources and Thomson's Web of Science database. A game‐theoretic approach was used to expound the consequences of wars and the adverse effects of the nation‐building process on cultural heritage artefacts.

Balkan countries lack sound internet infrastructures, hindering their contributions to the world of science and stifling scientific co‐operation among themselves in terms of joint papers. The co‐ordinated efforts have yet to exist to streamline the digital preservation of the unique cultural heritage of the Balkan countries.

This paper discusses the impact of the nation‐building process on cultural and scientific heritage artefacts using the concepts of the “game theory”. It reinforces the fact that destroying the cultural heritage artefacts during wars is not a “zero‐sum game” in which the dominant culture wins and the “other” culture loses. It is not even a “lose‐lose game” in which both parties lose. Rather, humanity loses part of its whole cultural heritage forever.

This paper aims to examine the significance of information communication technology (ICT) for Balkan labour. Drawing on the heuristic of “distributed discourse”, this paper aims to explore virtual forms of communication and interaction. The paper aims to examine the privileged role of ICT in the: formation of autonomous trade union structures and channels of communication; evasion of the territorial structures of the nation‐state and the construction of virtual communities of international labour solidarity; and authoritative transmission of models of industrial relations practice and of capitalist modernity in virtual space.

The authors conducted in‐depth interviews, followed up by further discussions, with officials and researchers from unions in the Balkan region. IR academics in Serbia and Montenegro were also consulted, as were union web sites and those of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia, Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions of Serbia. The purpose of the dialogue was to build an empirically grounded framework for understanding the limits and possibilities presented by the new distributed communications technologies of the internet for labour in the era of globalisation. This article provides qualitative data to allow reflection on the possibilities inherent in ICT for the reinvigoration of trade unionism and labour mobilisation in this era of rampant neoliberalism, particularly in the area of trade union democratisation and accountability.

The article finds that key figures within the Balkan labour movement are conversant with the potential of ICTs. It is also apparent that the construction of cyber‐unionism at the official level is subject to the authoritative force of neo‐liberal imperial governance. However, this is a regime of policing that is indexed and auditable through the very distributed communication technologies which can affect forms of meta‐governance beyond the control of institutions.

The findings, based on the interrogation of qualitative data are provisional hypotheses and an invitation to further research on the space‐time dimensions of trade unionism in the age of globalisation.

This paper highlights the situated character of ICT utilisation. While ICTs can be implicated in the reproduction of extant organisational forms and politics, this article provides the international labour movement with a viewpoint from which to build ICT strategies and appropriate organisational structures that recognise the limitations of centralised representation and control.

This paper represents fresh and contemporary data on the use of the internet by Balkan labour. By interrogating the qualitative data an invitation to further research on the space‐time dimensions of trade unionism in the age of globalisation is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of logistics performance on the carbon (CO2) emissions of Balkan countries.

Fixed-effects panel regression analysis is used to estimate the causal relationship between CO2 emissions and logistic performances of Balkan countries. Logistics performance is measured by logistics performance index (LPI) which was published by the World Bank in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 and used for ranking countries by means of their logistics performance. LPI is based on six main indicators: customs procedures, logistics costs and the quality of the infrastructure for overland and maritime transport. As a measure of carbon emissions of sampled countries, the natural logarithm of carbon dioxide emission per capita is used in this study.

The results obtained reveal that there is a positive and significant relationship between logistics performance and CO2 performances of the sampled Balkan countries.

This study is based on only 11 Balkan countries. In this sense, the data used in the analysis is limited.

Considering the important geostrategic position of the Balkan region, logistics sector has an important role for the development of the countries in that region. In this sense, the findings of this study may provide useful insights for policymakers to achieve sustainable economic development. Furthermore, as far as the authors know, this is the first study that focuses on the relationship between logistics performance and carbon emissions of Balkan countries.

Despite the rapid growth and internationalisation of services and financial services in particular, managers realise that to successfully leverage service quality as a global competitive tool, they first need to correctly identify the antecedents of what the international consumer perceives as service quality. This paper aims to examine the differences: in perceptions of service quality; and in the ranking of quality dimension between the bank customers of five Balkan countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, FYROM and Serbia.

Bahia and Nantel proposed a specific scale for measuring perceived service quality in retail banking consisting of six dimensions of service quality: effectiveness and assurance; access; price; tangibles; service portfolio; and reliability. This instrument was used for collecting data in the context of banking services from the five Balkan countries. T‐test and factor analysis were employed to answer the research questions.

The results suggest that Greek customers perceived receiving the highest level of service quality. Differences and similarities between the countries were also reported related to the degree of importance attached to the BSQ dimensions of service quality.

The results have significant implications for banks in developing operational, marketing and human resource strategies in the Balkan context.

The international bank managers need to understand the value of environmental differences between countries in terms of economic development, political situation, socio‐cultural system and the level of sector maturity. Accordingly they can emphasise the various dimensions of service quality differently and in addition focus on commonalities to introduce quality initiatives in the Balkans.

The recent adverse economic and military developments in the Balkan Peninsula have provided sound indications regarding the future development of the area. It now seems to be unavoidable that a revised economic environment should be created, based on stability and economic co‐operation. Such a co‐operation among the Balkan countries will assist a common effort in establishing the framework for the development of all the relevant area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine herding in four frontier markets in the Balkan region, namely, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia, from October 2000 to December 2016.

The author employs Chang et al.’s (2000) cross-sectional dispersion approach to capture herding, while also testing for the global financial crisis’ effects and the European Union (EU)/Euro zone accession effects over herding. Potential asymmetric herding effects conditional on market performance, domestic volatility, German and US investor sentiment are also examined. Finally, the cross-market herding dynamics of the region are also explored.

Overall, Romania exhibits the most extensive evidence of herding across various estimations. The empirical results indicate that cross-market herding dynamics within the region generate stronger herding (compared to the herding observed within each stock market individually), suggesting that Balkan stock exchanges’ growing financial integration leads their herding to be “imported”, rather than domestically motivated.

The findings provide useful insights for regulators in frontier markets, considering the destabilising potential of herding; they are also of particular interest to the investment community for reasons of international asset allocation, diversification and hedging strategies.

This study contributes to the limited herding literature regarding frontier markets and provides novel findings regarding the herding dynamics in the Balkan region, the EU/Euro zone accession’s effect and global factors’ impact on herding estimations.

This research is designed to investigate the presence of market discipline in the banking sector, across Balkan states in Europe. Specifically, the effects of CAMEL variables on the cost of funds and deposit-switching have been assessed.

The CAMEL method of bank evaluation has been applied as well as two measures for market discipline (costs of funds and deposit-switching behaviour). Data have been obtained for 10 Balkan states for the 2006–2019 period. For data analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects models have been utilized. The generalized method of moments (GMM) method has been deployed as well as a dynamic panel model.

Evidence of market discipline has been found, in the form of a higher cost of funds in the context of capital adequacy (but not for other CAMEL variables). Evidence of market discipline in the form of deposit-switching, however, has not been found. In addition, it has been discovered that bank size and gross domestic product (GDP) growth lower the costs of funds for banks.

In the wake of the pandemic, banks need to prepare themselves for very difficult situations and relevant studies can provide help. Therefore, this research has contributed to the developing literature on this topic. In addition, the findings have important practical implications. Results show that banks should maintain adequate levels of capital if they want to control their costs of funds. Results also show that market discipline, in the form of higher costs of funds, can be imposed on banks to discourage excessive risk-taking. Findings highlight the value of appropriate policies and strong supervision of the financial industry. Findings also underline the importance of offering financial incentives to banks. For example, if banks know they will be able to avoid higher costs of funds by controlling their risk levels, they will avoid unrestrained risk-taking.

Most large enterprises have “a global view” in the expansion of their activities and, thus, in the creation of their investment projects. They invest in specific countries when they conclude that the countries in question fulfill their goals. It is not enough that an economy of a country has as a target to become a market economy, to open its borders and to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) flows for the economy to become globalized, but it is necessary for this result to be shown by significant foreign participation and huge FDI and trade inflows into the host country. If this never happens, then the country will not benefit from globalization. From one point of view, multinational enterprises (MNEs) “decide” which countries benefit from economic integration and which countries successfully participate in the huge worldwide globalized economic chain. On the other hand, due to the large investment opportunities that a few countries offer to MNEs and due to the large number of host countries, at the end, MNEs invest only in specific countries. Thus, there are a lot of countries that are isolated from the whole system. Moreover, smaller MNEs in economic magnitude often extend their activities mainly to neighboring countries, in order to maximize their profits and minimize their costs. The share of FDI is not the same in all countries and the FDI inflows in less‐developing or poor countries show little growth or no growth at all. Today's FDI orientation is not as global as expected and there is a regional trend in those flows, when at the same time a few countries, especially from specific regions (such as the Balkan region) still live cut off from the world of FDI flows.

The creative process through which the territorial resources, knowledge and culture are used, exploited and configured to match needs and to achieve congruence with the changing business environment has become a crucial process for competitiveness. This is even more relevant for economies of developing countries which are continuously struggling to reap the benefits of globalisation, as well as to grasp the new opportunities for competitiveness. As such, this paper aims to try to concentrate on the dynamic perspectives of the creative economy of countries by distinguishing between the potentialities and performance. The paper tackles the influence that creativity capacities might have on performance of countries.

The methodology consists in identifying creative economy indicators from a diverse data set of the World Economic Forum and distinguish them between potential and performance indicators.

Data reveal as good progress and emphasis is being devoted to increasing the level of creativity; however, the Balkan countries still holdup in their capacity to boost innovation.

The paper provide a new focus of research on creativity measurement that is significant for understanding what creative capacities territories possess and the ability to make proficient use for growth and innovation.

This paper proposes a new operational framework for measuring and interpreting the creative economy indicators by identifying not only indicators that gauge the potentialities of a country, but also indicators that are linked with the performance dimension, as well as the relationship amongst them.