International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The paper presents a methodology focused on digital entrepreneurship education for bachelor students in economic specialties. The conceptual framework is to present on the one hand a useful model for students who plan to create their own business, and on the other – to focus on the collaboration between academic lecturers and business representatives to combine efforts in teaching that provides practical-applied results and stimulates entrepreneurship initiatives. In this regard, the paper aims to give a foundation for future entrepreneurs to apply key instruments for business digitalization. Based on this educational unit, it is possible for the students to implement a specific technic that will increase their digital competitiveness. The application of the listed tasks in the process of business idea development can be beneficial for students to create start-ups that overcome threats from the external environment and the continuous confrontation with new crisis situations.

The AI’s role in life has increased significantly since the initial introduction of ChatGPT. This trend has drawn the attention of scholars to numerous topics and the entrepreneurship education is one of them. There is already research on the potential of AI in entrepreneurship education and the current paper aims at identifying benefits of AI for entrepreneurship education alongside with potential risks and challenges of its application. The results show that AI can contribute to more personalized education with real environment simulations. Alongside it can improve the assessment. However, challenges like date security, overdependence on AI and AI biases, need to be addressed. The findings identify the need for future examination of specific cases and may contribute to the development of regulations, ethical consideration and development of practices in implementing AI in entrepreneurship education.

The paper presents the research design of an international project focused on academic entrepreneurship culture and entrepreneurial education. The entrepreneurship is a key feature of the market economy and the democratic development of the countries, leading to better living standard. However, the entrepreneurial culture, knowledge and skills need to be upgraded in countries, who used to apply a planned economy approach. Thus, an examination of the current state of entrepreneurial culture is required and an approach for its development needs to be provided. The academic environment is the best place, where such an examination can be performed, and proposal can be elaborated. The current paper presents an international project, aiming to explore unrevealed strengths of academic entrepreneurship in detail and in various aspects oriented to students, academic staff, and businesspeople. The paper aims to present the scientific context in which the project is positioned and the research design of the project.

The paper presents a methodology focused on the leadership style assessment based on exact characteristics of the business environment and their influence on the employees’ motivation. The conceptual framework is to explore the correlation between the applied leadership style, the level of uncertainty of the external environment, and the motivational level of the followers. In this regard, the paper aims to find dependencies among the leadership style and its behavioral application towards the level of motivation. Based on this research design, it is possible for the managers to implement a specific approach that will increase the employees’ motivational level in a concrete level of uncertainty of the business environment. The application of the methodological conditions in organizations from different industries can be beneficial for managers to smooth out an effective and cohesive team, which together overcomes threats from the external environment and the continuous confrontation with new crisis situations.

The paper presents the conceptual framework of an international project focused on the development of entrepreneurship culture at academic level. Academic entrepreneurship is seen as a means of commercialization, which is the transformation of knowledge into products, processes, and organization and their contribution to economic growth and innovation. In this regard the project is aimed to explore hidden strengths of academic entrepreneurship in detail and in various aspects oriented to students, academic staff, and businesspeople. The project will suggest training materials in line with the changes in the economic environment in recent years to create both entrepreneurial culture and skills to start own business under the supervision by academic entrepreneurs.

The paper presents a conceptual model for overcoming the consequences of the pandemic based on summarized results from research focused on societal challenges in Bulgaria caused by COVID-19. The study aims to submit a unified methodological framework for application by experts in researching, analyzing, and bench-marking the entrepreneurs’ activity and suggestions for applicable and reasonable measures in the field of business development during the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. The findings of this research can assist managers in national institutions and business organizations to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of different measures which influence creativity and innovation and focus on proactive suggestions to overcome the negative consequences of the pandemic.

The aim of the paper is to explore what the influence of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRS) on the Modern economic growth is, whether there is a relationship between them, and what impact can patents have on the invention activity – positive, negative or both. It is going to explain the importance and association of technological progress with economic growth, the main goal and idea of IPRS, the way the system has been used in the period of the beginning of Modern economic growth, and research whether patents were the biggest incentive for inventors in this period as a whole and in wine industry in particular. The paper provides examples of the main European, United States and International patents available on wine production and preservation

The paper presents a conceptual model for investigating the innovation activity of enterprises from the wine industry in Bulgaria. The study aims to submit a unified methodological framework for application by experts in researching, analyzing and benchmarking the innovation activity in the sector. Many researchers confirm that different innovation models are appropriate for different sectors, regardless of best practices in innovation management, and it all depends on the specificity of innovation and its relationship to sector specificities. Thus, the examination of wine sector requires a specific approach and an empirical research, based on own questionnaire focused on the individualism and the need to study the innovation niches and opportunities of wine sector.

Social entrepreneurs cleverly combine business techniques and private sector approaches in order to develop solutions to social, cultural, or environmental problems, and do so in a variety of organizations. All European countries need to promote the entrepreneur spirit, to stabilize the institutional and cultural environment for innovations, and to increase the number of socially oriented small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This exploratory approach is focused on SMEs from wine industry, positioned in Plovdiv territorial unit, Bulgaria. It presents opportunities to enrich company’s innovation strategies with a view to increase the share of social enterprises and the motivation of employees and owners to implement “good practices” for social entrepreneurship. This study offers different perspectives for observing the phenomenon social entrepreneurship, opportunities for financing and National policies that are focused on their encouragement.