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In this chapter, the authors study how external knowledge contributes to the innovation results of firms in transition economies. Specifically, the authors distinguish between product and process innovations and identify the geographical origin of external knowledge – from the home country or from abroad. Theoretically, the authors discuss the innovation systems of transition economies and the effects of foreign and national external knowledge on product and process innovations in these under-researched contexts. Using a sample of firms from 19 countries from wave V of the Business Environment and Enterprise Surveys, the authors find that foreign and national external knowledge both contribute to the achievement of product and process innovations. However, the two types of external knowledge exert different effects depending on the innovation outcome analyzed. Firms in transition countries that incorporate foreign external knowledge are more likely to achieve product innovations than those that acquire national external knowledge. In contrast, both types of knowledge are equally useful for achieving process innovations.

This paper aims to provide insights into the environment needed for advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It explores important technical and social paradigms for the transition.

This study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, drawing on thematic analysis on qualitative data from an inter-sectoral engagement with 69 circular economy stakeholders across the continent.

The results shows that, while substantial progress has been made with regard to the development and deployment of niche innovations in Africa, the overall progress of circular plastic economy is slowed due to relatively minimal changes at the regime levels as well as pressures from the exogenous landscape. The study highlights that regime changes are crucial for disrupting the entrenched linear plastic economy in developing countries, which is supported by significant sunk investment and corporate state capture.

The main limitation of this study is with the sample as it uses data collected from five countries. Therefore, while it offers a panoramic view of multi-level synergy of actors and sectors across African countries, it is limited in its scope and ability to illuminate country-specific nuances and peculiarities.

The study underlines the importance of policy innovations and regulatory changes in order for technologies to have a meaningful contribution to the transition to a circular plastic economy.

The study makes an important theoretical contribution by using empirical evidence from various African regions to articulate the critical importance of the regime dimension in accelerating the circular economy transition in general, and the circular plastic economy in particular, in Africa.

This paper aims to investigate the internationalisation inducement in family firms with domestic capital operating in a specific industry in a transition country. Examining the effect of entrepreneur-, firm- and context- specific factors, it provides an insight into the start of internationalisation via exporting and its initiating features.

The study uses a qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from informants with conclusive decision-making power and analysed using a combination of inductive and deductive coding.

The findings show that the sample firms internationalise early exhibiting mostly proactive behaviour in finding international clients. Owner-manager international orientation and commitment combined with contacts in his or her social spaces lead to early export inducement despite the fusion of ownership and control, and regardless of transition context volatility and inefficiency.

The limitations include the sample size and its industry embeddedness limiting generalisability. The key implications are that family firms need support to develop their social spaces through encouraging and enabling linkages between socio-economic actors that can expand the bounded sociality of the firm.

The owner-manager orientation, objectives, commitment and characteristics, coupled with the straightforward decision-making process that is safeguarded by full family ownership, can abate the dissuading role of the perceived lack of institutional support for small and medium-sized enterprise internationalisation in a transition context.

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that real estate ownership contributes to life satisfaction in transition countries.

Life in Transition survey data are used to model reported life satisfaction using ordinary least squares, ordered probit, generalized ordered logit and bivariate probit models. The hypothesis tested is whether real estate ownership is associated with greater reported life satisfaction.

Empirical results from the variety of empirical models estimated strongly support the hypothesis that real estate ownership is associated with greater reported life satisfaction in transition countries.

Analysis is limited because life satisfaction is self-reported and specifically for residents of transition countries.

Results confirm that ownership of a home, second home or land parcel is associated with greater life satisfaction.

Real estate ownership can be an effective means to improve life satisfaction, especially in societies needing such improvements.

This is the first study of the link between real estate ownership and life satisfaction specifically in transition countries, and using a robust set of empirical models to address issues of ordinal dependent variables, varying coefficient estimates across dependent variable response categories, endogeneity and causality.

This paper aims to look at the dilemma of promoting sustainable energy transition in post-socialist countries while containing social and economic implications, focusing on the case of Serbia. The aim is to analyse Serbian energy status taking into account historical factors, to analyse barriers that are hindering transition and to identify leapfrogging potential for the sustainable energy development of the country.

Energy transition and leapfrogging potential have been qualified and quantified by indicators, the own calculations and policy analysis to identify barriers to sustainable energy.

The country has vast potential for leapfrogging in energy transition, yet continues the gradualist approach based on several policy barriers to the process. The analysis shows six barriers related to low energy price, high energy intensity, prioritization of energy security, inadequacy of utilization of renewable sources, lack of policy coherence and dependency on external funding. However, these barriers could be overcome with an energy policy emphasizing leapfrogging potential. As is pointed out in the conclusion, this should be based on the difference between EU-28 average indicators, discrepancy between use and availability of renewable energy, potential for regional cooperation in the energy sector and under-used skills and participation.

The paper discusses energy transition in its historical context, arguing that it has to be considered as comprehensively with societal implications and effects, thus creating useful knowledge for other post-socialist countries in current and future transitions.

This study aims to examine, which dynamic capabilities (DC) are used by companies from post-socialist emerging markets (PSEM) during their internationalization.

The paper uses a DC perspective together with the new internalization theory to examine the internationalization of companies from PSEM. It uses qualitative data from the interviews with 7 PSEM experts and the 16 cases of the multinational companies from PSEM.

PSEM companies develop particular DC while expanding abroad whereby innovation capability helps them internationalize beyond neighboring countries and overcome the stigma of being less competitive than advanced economies. Adaptability is the DC that helps private companies, which differ from state-owned PSEM firms, overcome the uncertainties of the changing environment. Innovation capability and absorptive capability help PSEM firms surmount their geographical position. Alliancing activity is the DC that is used at the initial stages of internationalization to boost technological development.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge on the internationalization of companies from transition economies and sheds light on the nature of DC for the successful international expansion of PSEM firms. It attempts to address the lack of empirical studies on DC. Methodological value is in the combination of case studies’ analysis and interviews with experts, which adds novelty to the studied subject.

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.

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.

Managing diverse talents has become a necessary part of the human resource management of contemporary organizations. The growing diversity of organizations' workforce makes companies reassess their conventional HRM approaches. State-owned enterprises get the increasing attention of talent management scholars since state firms enthusiastically compete for talents. These companies have some particularities that distinguish them from private firms, and there is a need to analyse the existing research on the HRM in state companies which has the potential to add a missing part to the puzzle of managing diverse talents. We study the major topics in the literature on human resource management and talent management in state-owned enterprises, the key findings researchers provide and the gaps in the literature that need to be covered and the resulting research directions for future studies.