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The Kosova Government is promoting energy efficiency and the purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the efforts being made, in the form of a household survey which visited 2,370 homes in the capital city Prishtina.

Student teams from the American University in Kosovo (AUK) conducted the survey under faculty guidance and their collected data provide valuable information.

The survey indicates that Kosova's progress on energy efficiency is not far behind the EU requirements.

The AUK survey results are from the most densely populated area of Prishtina and so these results will be of special interest to the city planners.

The survey indicates that an average of 7.58 m³ of wood is consumed per home annually. From the data for all homes, 78 per cent heat one to three rooms and for the medium‐size category it was 83 per cent. For all homes in the phase 1 survey, 62 per cent spend between 10‐30 per cent of family income on electricity. The weighted average of the electricity costs in a medium‐size home is €63 each Winter month. The government therefore needs to effectively implement appropriate incentives or subsidies to promote a wide household energy efficiency program. Using an average wood cost of €35 to €40/m³ and the 1.525 million m³/year total consumption, the total wood revenue is €60.6 million.

There also needs to be thousands of smaller personal investments for household high efficiency wood stoves. Both types of investments will reduce Kosova's environmental problem of particulates from ash.

The combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 surveys are expected to provide the most comprehensive household energy survey ever conducted in the Balkans.

This paper aims to investigate perceptions of the employees on decent work and explore the path how employees, employers, social partners and public policymakers contribute to a united response to the implementation of sustainability dimensions to foster community cohesion and promote common vision.

The survey was conducted in country of Kosova and aimed to target respondents under employment relationship at the time of the survey administration. Respondents were categorized into two groups: those working in the public sector and the ones working in the private sector. The sample consisted of 580 respondents. Descriptive statistics, reliability measures and Person correlation coefficient were used for data analysis.

The results showed that strong positive correlation is found between having rights of employees protected and safety at workplace; equal treatment at workplace and receiving a fair pay; the positive impact of social partners and protection of employees; and finally, efforts of government to create conditions for decent work and its active support of decent employment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research topic is among the first studies in country that has been developed at the Universum International College as one of the constituting research themes deriving from the Institution’s research plan on sustainability. It explains the multiform and multifold ways through which decent work may be promoted as common vision between employees, employers, social partners and public institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore personal, household and business environmental influences on entrepreneurship in Kosova.

The approach takes the form of a econometric investigation using a binary choice model based on a nationally representative labour force and household survey conducted by Riinvest Institute at the end of 2002.

The results suggest that males, those who live in urban areas, belonging to a larger family/household, have a higher likelihood of being involved in entrepreneurial activities, while a weak positive effect of age and no significant effect of marital status are found. Self‐employed were more likely to be found in sectors where start‐up and sunk costs are expected to be lower (such as services and trade), those sectors that experienced high growth (construction) and in the regions in which entrepreneurship is more developed. In contrast with previous studies, it is found that education received household remittances and the presence of an additional wage earner in a household have negative impact on entrepreneurial activities arising from country‐specific features.

These empirical findings identified determinants influencing entrepreneurial activities providing basis for policy discussion aimed at entrepreneurship development in the country.

The paper complements rather scarce empirical evidence on determinants of entrepreneurship from a unique transition country. It highlights the role of some transition and country‐specific factors in entrepreneurial activity of the population, providing better insights in understanding entrepreneurial behaviour of people in general and in transition economies in particular.

The paper is aims at investigating the contribution of fast‐growing firms to employment and the determinants of fast growth in Kosova, which can be considered an environment characterized by a transitional period and extreme conditions for entrepreneurship.

The paper was based on the data collected from face‐to‐face interviews with 585 firm founders. The contribution of firms to job creation was computed by using descriptive statistics and then an ordinal logit regression model was employed to explore the determinants of fast growth.

Results indicate that the contribution of fast‐growing firms to employment in this environment is lower than that in Western and developed countries. Findings also suggest that fast growth is positively affected by specific human capital, intentions to grow and the ability to deal with external barriers, while having a university degree is found to be negatively related to fast growth.

This paper provides a better understanding of the phenomenon of fast‐growing firms and has several theoretical and practical implications. Importantly, the research on fast‐growing firm is still not mature and the overall picture on fast‐growing firms have yet to be built.

Most of the empirical evidence on fast‐growing firms comes from developed countries. This paper provides the empirical evidence from a transitional yet extreme context to further our knowledge on the topic of firm's fast growth.

Purpose: Like other Southeast European countries, Kosova applies the principles of a market economy. Despite the difficulties, in the efforts to create a free and competitive market economy, Kosovo must undertake reforms to face the reality of economic integration and global markets in general. In this regard, an important aspect is the implementation of economic reforms, the justice system, and the effective implementation of competition law under the ‘Acquis communautaire’. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to analyse the issues related to the regulation and protection of competition in Kosovo, with particular attention to controlling the concentration of enterprises based on EU practices.

Methodology: In answering the above questions, we carried out a desk review of comprehensive professional literature, EU treaties and directives, international competition institutions standards and requirements as well as other national laws and legal acts.

Findings: Moderate progress has been made, but the necessary steps are still taken to have a competitive economy and to be in the right position for EU integration. Concentrations are one of the important parts of competition law where through this practice it is possible to merge and acquire enterprises. Many cases of abuse can be encountered in this type of practice, so the role of competent supervisory authorities is necessary to regulate them. Concentration problems have been addressed since the establishment of joint ventures and their operation within the market modernisation becomes more complex both in the application and in the investigation by the competent controlling authorities. The analysis and functioning of the internal market, as well as the lack of practices in the field of concentration within an effective competition, is the focus of this chapter.

Significance: This chapter addresses issues raised in terms of competition law and possible improvements that can be made through the implementation of European regulations, creating market stability and sustainable economies in the long-run.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between the quality of prison life and mental health among prisoners and the occurrence of violence.

In total, 203 prisoners from Dubrava Correctional Center in Kosovo participated. Data on background characteristics of the prisoners, quality of prison life, mental health symptoms and exposure to physical, psychological and sexual violence were collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires. Data were analyzed using general linear models (GLM) and manual backwards model search with step-wise exclusion.

The GLM analysis showed a significant negative association between anxiety symptom load (−1.4), physical violence (−1.5) and psychological violence (−1.9), and quality of prison life. Furthermore, it appeared that prisoners rating of quality of life (QoL) increased with time among prisoners not exposed to violence, while this was not seen among prisoners exposed to violence. Finally, there was an inverse association between the dimensions of respect, fairness, humanity and good staff/prisoner relations, and the proportion of prisoners exposed to violence.

An environment with higher levels of respect, fairness, humanity and good relations between staff and prisoners was associated with lower levels of violence. Hence, a prison that focuses on promoting QoL and good mental health among prisoners will show lower levels of violence, thereby making the prison a more tolerable place for the prisoners and a better working environment for prison staff.

We aimed to assess, in socio-cultural context, the level of hatred and revenge in war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The sampling frame consisted of 215 Kosova War veterans, randomly selected. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence of PTSD and Manchester Short Assessment of Life was used to assess social satisfactions. The participants were asked to declare the strength of feelings of hatred and revenge in the four preceding weeks by using four items scale: not at all, a little bit/sometimes, a lot and extremely. Willingness for action of veterans was assessed using three item scale: yes, no or maybe. A probability level of 0.05 was adopted to be considered as statistically significant for differences among groups. DSM-IV-TR criteria for PTSD (very similar to DSM-V) were met by 52.6% of veterans; the data have confirmed existence of thoughts and fantasies of revenge against opposing forces by 42.8% veterans; at the same level 42.8% manifested feelings of hatred. Fantasies of taking revenge a lot was recorded by 19.5% and extremely by 1.4% of veterans, while hateful thoughts at level a lot were likely expressed by 22.3% and extreme by 2.8% of veterans. It is important to note that 84.7% were confident to act based on their beliefs. Social-economic and cultural factors have played major role in the understanding of psychological problems of traumatized individuals with a direct impact on their ability to function socially. This study has confirmed the urgent need for the establishment of psychological rehabilitation programs as well as programs for the social and economic rehabilitation of War Veterans.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the research literature on how sport can be used more productively as a peacebuilding device in post-conflict countries.

This paper uses interviewing method that includes both semi-structured and unstructured interviews with trainers, instructors and children involved in implementing Open Fun Football Schools (OFFSs) in Kosovo.

Findings show that OFFSs have played a vital role in peacebuilding in Kosovo by bringing together people from different ethnic backgrounds in Kosovo, which contributed to social inclusion of Albanians and Serbs, and other communities by changing their initial attitudes toward one another.

The main research limitation is the usage of semi-structured and unstructured questionnaires instead of structured questionnaires, which would provide more generalized conclusions about the OFFSs. More research is needed on this topic to investigate the effect of similar programs in other country contexts.

The most important practical implication of the research is that conflict mitigation through football sports programs and activities can be used in other similar contexts by donors and the international community. OFFSs offer a hope for peacebuilding, and if adequately implemented can contribute to peacebuilding in post-conflict societies similar to Kosovo’s context. The positive attitude changes as a result of participation in the OFFS programs shows that these joint programs can promote better ethnic relations. There is a need for the expansion of such programs to reach more people.

The study provides an original contribution as there has been almost no prior research which actually measured the effects of OFFSs on change of youth attitudes through the integrated sport programs with different ethnicity in Kosovo.

This course has made me observe the international business environment in a completely different light, and has made me think about whether a ‘win-win situation’ is ever possible in an international business context, where the organisations are involved in extremely complex supply chains. (Dianne from Estonia who studied in a UK business school)