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 Proceedings of the
16th International Scientific Conference:

Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference:

European Forum
European Forum
of Entrepreneurship 2023 of Entrepreneurship 2023

“of
Business environment in a whirlwind
turbulent changes”

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023

Contents
borné stati Proceedings of the
16th International Scientific Conference:

7 The Way to survive turbulent changes in the work environment: Investment in employee development
(a systematic review)
17 Strategy development: Ignoratio elenchi problem
European Forum
29 Motivation to study at universities in the Czech Republic of Entrepreneurship 2023
37 Psychological aspects of career development and employees’ ideas about the end of their working career
46 The impact of the post-covid era on people management in the catering sector
“Business environment in a whirlwind
57 New options for responsible, sustainable and ecological public procurement in relation to new business
of turbulent changes”
opportunities and the circular economy
62 Circular economy as an indicator of the implementation of new rules in the business environment
82 Development of Human Capital and its impact on Creative Industries in Slovakia
87 Specifics of coaching
96 The Evolving Role of Emotion AI in Marketing: An Analysis of Technological Tools and Benefits
109 Why and how to make the first step towards leadership development in current dynamic environment
119 Moral Competence in Military — Professional Contexts
137 Manager and artificial intelligence tools in the energy crisis: Artificial intelligence as an active tool to support
the manager in times of high dynamics of environmental changes
149 Blockchain for the public sector: applications, challenges and potential
162 On the Existence of an Optimal Capital Structure: Theory and Evidence in the Midst of Current Turbulent Changes
173 Consumer perspective on sustainable and natural cosmetic brands: The insight into the Czech market
187 Social Cyclical Time Theory. From the philosophy of nature to commodity markets
200 Managerial Corporate Reporting in Slovakia and Czechia in the Context of Sustainability
213 A review of fundamental principles of educational processes in teaching economics
221 Diagnostics of Metacognitive Abilities of University Students V.: The Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being
230 The Concept of Competencies: Tool for Employee Development in Modern Enterprises
239 Animal in commercial relations
246 Price sensitivity testing as a blueprint for basic product pricing
252 Anticipated effects of the cancellation of the electronic records of sales system in the Czech Republic
261 Startups and Global Startup Ecosystems
274 Leadership development at the University of Defence through the eyes of academic staff ISBN 978-80-87325-68-1
287 Presidential elections in the Czech Republic 2023 — victory or defeat of political Publisher: NEWTON College, a. s.,
Politických vězňů 10, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
305 Implementation of the NIS 2 Directive and its impact on the obliged persons
Published on July 2023.
313 Labour taxation in Europe — Possible implications from pre-covid era © NEWTON College, a. s.
324 Mathematics as an analytical tool for the economy, applied management, and business www.efp.cz
 Proceedings of the
16th International Scientific Conference:

European Forum
of Entrepreneurship 2023
“Business environment in a whirlwind
of turbulent changes”

NEWTON College
Prague, July 2023
Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference
European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023
“Business environment in a whirlwind of turbulent changes”

All submitted scientific papers are subject to a double-blind peer review process.

SCIENTIFIC BOARD
Dr. hab. Agnieszka Alińska, prof. SGH., Kolegium Ekonomiczno-Społeczne, Polsko
doc. PhDr. PaedDr. Eva Ambrozová, Ph.D., MBA, NEWTON University, Česká republika
prof. dr hab. Paweł Czarnecki, MBA, Dr.h.c., Collegium Humanum — Warsaw University of Management, Polskodoc.
PhDr. Marián Děd, Ph.D, MBA, Vysoká škola mezinárodních a veřejných vztahů, Česká republika
doc. Ing. Marie Pavláková Dočekalová, Ph.D., Vysoké učení technické Brno, Česká republika
doc. RNDr. PhDr. Oldřich Hájek, Ph.D., MBA, NEWTON University, Česká republika
Taghreed Abdel Aziz El Sayed Hassan Hassouba, Ph.D., Cairo University, Egypt
Dalia A. S. Khalil, Ph.D., Cairo University, Egypt
Dr. Agnieszka Knap-Stefaniuk, Ph.D., MBA, Institute of Political and Administrative Sciences Jesuit University
in Krakow, Polsko
prof. Ing. Alena Kocmanová, Ph.D., Vysoké učení technické Brno, Česká republika
doc. Ing. Jiří Koleňák, Ph.D., MBA, LL.M NEWTON University, Česká republika
prof. UE dr. hab. Miloš Kráľ, University of Economics in Katowice, Polsko
doc. PhDr. Daniela Majerčáková, Ph.D., MBA, Univerzita Komenského Bratislava, Slovensko
Ing. Zdeněk Mikulka, B.Th., Ph.D., Univerzita obrany v Brně, Česká republika
Ing. Ludmila Navrátilová, Ph.D., NEWTON University, Česká republika
PhDr. Jiří Nesiba, Ph.D., NEWTON University, Česká republika
doc. RNDr. Aleš Ruda, Ph.D., Mendelova univerzita v Brně, Česká republika
Prof. zw. dr hab. Wojciech Słomski, International School of Management Slovakia, Slovensko
doc. Ing. Zuzana Stoličná, Ph.D., Univerzita Komenského v Bratislavě, Slovensko
doc. Ing. Iveta Šimberová, Ph.D., Vysoké učení technické Brno, Česká republika
doc. Ing. Ivana Butoracová Šindleryová, Ph.D., Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnavě, Slovensko
prof. RNDr. Ing. Ľudomír Šlahor, CSc., NEWTON University, Česká republika
prof. Ing. PhDr. Ing. Vladimír Tomšík, Ph.D. et Ph.D., NEWTON University, Česká republika
plk. doc. Ing. Mgr. David Ullrich, Ph.D., MBA, Univerzita obrany v Brně, Česká republika

ISBN 978-80-87325-68-1
Publisher: NEWTON College, a. s., Politických vězňů 10, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
Published on July 2023.
© NEWTON College, a. s.
Publication was not subject to language check.
General info about Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2022 (23.3. – 24.3.2023)

NEWTON University, Prague, Congress Centre

“Business environment in a whirlwind of turbulent changes”

The current international security and economic situation in the form of high inflation is having a signifi-
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For more information please follow the website of the conference: https://www.efp.cz/en/
 {25/30}

Startups and Global Startup Ecosystems

} Veronika Tóthová » Newton University, Economic Centre, Bratislava, Slovak Republic;

email: [email protected]
} Milan Fiľa » Vysoká škola aplikované psychologie, Praha / Terezín, Czech Republic; email: [email protected]

* 1. Introduction are also lean in their operations and focus on rapid

growth in the very beginning. In general, startups
We can see that startups became a very popular tend to have few employees and fast growth poten-
form of entrepreneurship in last years. It is so be- tial. They provide products with widespread ap-
cause they do not have a strict business structure peal that either doesn’t exist or solve a problem
and create a very creative environment for their better than the currently available options (TRUiC
employees. Even though most known startups are Team, 2023). — Other experts, on which relays
unicorns, which are big and worldwide known Holtschke (2022) define startups as enterprises,
startups, there are also other types and forms of which did not know (1) what is its product, (2)
startups, which affect the economy of countries on who is its customer and (3) how it comes to mon-
the local level. Every startup as a business struc- ey (Dave McClure — the founder of global Acceler-
ture is well known for its innovative way of think- ator 500 Startups). Eric Ries, the author of the
ing about problems that are solved. Even though “Lean Startup” book on the other side sees the
we encounter the word startup every day not eve- startup as a human institution that has been creat-
rybody knows the meaning of it. For a better un- ed to offer a product or service under extremely
derstanding of this problem, we will not just focus uncertain conditions. However, the most frequent-
on the definition of a startup, but we will also get a ly cited definition is that of the forefather of the
closer look at the startup ecosystem to better un- startup movement, Steve Blank, who defines a
derstand the meaning and position of startups in startup as a temporary organization that seeks a
the economy. repeatable and scalable business model. Paul Gra-
ham, on the other hand, defines startups as “en-
2. Startups as an important part gines of growth”, since they were created for rapid
of the economy growth.
Another definition of this term says that “start-
To better understand the meaning of startup, we up” refers to a young company that has often been
need to know how experts define the startup. Most newly founded with little initial capital. It is in the
experts define a startup as a young company with initial or start-up phase and has not yet established
a business model that supports innovation, they itself in the market. The goal of the startup is there- ’

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023 261

{25/30}

’ fore to grow as quickly as possible. For founders, such companies are no longer startups, but in
it’s about differentiating yourself from the compe- many cases, they try to maintain the typical “start-
tition with an innovative or unusual business idea. up spirit” after establishing themselves in the mar-
This makes the startup an interesting employer, ket. They rely on their original strengths such as
especially for young job seekers. It is precisely the flat hierarchy, high dynamism, creative freedom,
innovative business model that distinguishes a flexible office solutions, etc. If all this is not
startup from another newly founded company. enough, they establish or separate individual divi-
Therefore, the newly opened bakery is not a start- sions as startups and support them through incu-
up because the business model is already estab- bators or integrate acquired startups into the exist-
lished and well-known. Thanks to this, startups ex- ing organization.
pand and modernize the market and thus create The most known type of startup is “Unicorn”
new jobs (Einstieg, 2022). which are globally known startups with a value of
According to FranchisePortal (2020), startups more than 1 billion USD. Based on Rubio (2023),
are young businesses that are based on an innova- there are 1 245 active unicorns with a cumulative
tive business model with high growth potential. valuation of 3,9 trillion USD. In Figure 1, we can
Most of them were created only a few months or see the allocation of global unicorns based on re-
years ago or are still in the initial phase. They are gions and the field of their activity. When we look
initially financed with seed capital and then seek at the regional breakdown, we can see that the big-
additional sources of external capital for expan- gest part of the unicorns is located in North Amer-
sion, such as venture capital, fundraising, or busi- ica (846 total unicorns). In second place is the Asia
ness angels. They often enter emerging markets or region with 476 unicorns, and in third place is Eu-
create entirely new markets by implementing and rope with 194 unicorns. Other regions such as
optimizing scalable business models. As soon as LatAm-Caribbean (23), Australia (7), Middle East
their business models are mature and established, (7), and Africa (3) are the home of the rest of the

Figure 1 » Regional and Industrial Allocation of Unicorn Startups

Regional breakdown Top industries

Information Technology

Consumer Products and Services (B2C)

Business Products and Services (B2B

Healthcare

Financial Services

Materials and Recources

Energy

North America Asia Europe LatAm-Carribiean

Australia Middle East Africa

Source: Rubio (2023)

262 Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference

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Figure 2 » Annually and a Monthly Overview of Global Unicorn Creation

550

500

450

400

350
Number of unicorns

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

60

55

50

45

40
Number of unicorns

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Source: Rubio (2023)

unicorns. But when we look closer to the country 2023). On the same figure, we can also see, that the
level, we can say that the most active unicorns, of top industries where unicorns are active are Infor-
any country with 667 companies, has the US (or mation technology (789 unicorns), Consumer Pro­
54% of the global total as of Nov. 1, 2022). Chinese ducts and Services (B2C) (277 unicorns), B2B pro­
unicorns are the second-most common at 211 com- ducts and services (192 unicorns), Healthcare (179),
panies, followed by India (63 unicorns), the UK Financial Services (80), Materials and Resources
(36 unicorns), and Israel (29 unicorns) (Rubio, (22) and Energy (17 unicorns). ’

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023 263

{25/30}

’ As we can see (figure 2) there is permanent that the startup ecosystem is a complex and dy-
growth of new global startups over years from 2016 namic network of people, organizations, ideas,
(62) to 2021 (591). With a closer look, we can see, and resources. These elements work together to
that year with the most created unicorns was the create a physical or virtual environment suitable
year 2021 (591 new unicorns with a total unicorn for launching and growing new startups as we can
value of 1,5 trillion USD). In 2022, we can see a de- see in figure 3. The benefits of startup ecosystems
crease in the creation of new startups there were are multifold and include: 1) Benefits for the local
only 319 new unicorns with a total value of 588,6 community and economy, 2) Startup benefits and
billion USD, compared to 2021. Every month, the 3) Worker benefits. When these ecosystems are
best month for the birth of new unicorns in 2022 carefully planned and created, their impact poten-
were January (53), February (52), and April (44). tial is immense and the most well-known example
The worst months were November and December of a business ecosystem is the Silicon Valley eco-
both with 9 new unicorns, and July — with 11 new system (Emerging Humanity, 2023).
unicorns. Based on Sanesi (2021) for startups, it is impor-
tant to be a part of an ecosystem because startup
3. Startup ecosystems in the world ecosystems are very important frameworks and
growth systems to increase engagement with the
When we speak about startups we need to speak startup community and the global network. 3 rea-
also about the startup ecosystem which is an im- sons why startup ecosystems provide extremely
portant part of the supporting system for startups. important ecosystem functions and ecosystem
The startup ecosystem is an interdependent sys- processes to enhance corporate venturing activi-
tem of communities, organizations, resources, and ties are:
service providers that support the growth of start- 1. speed — being part of a startup ecosystem, dra-
ups in a particular geographical area. It is a closed matically shortcuts the amount of time startups
system in which every element is connected and are going to spend solving their business prob-
mutually dependent (Pahwa, 2022). We can say lems. Rather than building in-house their capa-

Figure 3 » Startup Ecosystem

Support
Startups Organizations

Ideas
Funding Inventions
Universities
Organizations Research
Starup Team Members
Investors
Mentors & Advisors
Entrepreneurs
Big Research
Companies Organizations

Service
Providers

Source: https://emerginghumanity.com (2023)

264 Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference

 {25/30}
As soon as their business models are mature and established, such companies
are no longer startups, but in many cases, they try to maintain the typical
“startup spirit” after establishing themselves in the market. They rely on their
original strengths such as flat hierarchy, high dynamism, creative freedom,
flexible office solutions, etc. If all this is not enough, they establish or separate
individual divisions as startups and support them through incubators or in-
tegrate acquired startups into the existing organization.
Nowadays, more startups have easy access to business acceleration services,
either through specialized programs such as Challenger, HealthCare Lab, or
Elevator Lab, while universities in Bratislava, Košice, and Žilina have also in-
creased their efforts to provide incubation services of good quality and sus-
tainability for startups in the early stages of development.

bilities, they could partner, invest, or acquire a tems are fundamental. They create jobs, boost the
venture, fast-tracking access to innovative solu- economy, increase tax revenue, improve quality of
tions and capabilities. life and urban innovation, and attract and retain
2. learnings — by being part of a startup ecosys- talent. As an entrepreneur, location will greatly in-
tem, startups can quickly learn successes and fluence the chances your startup will succeed.
failures from other ecosystem participants. Knowing how well the ecosystem performs is also
Adopting an open innovation approach could important. Corporations use these rankings to
speed up their product and service develop- make decisions about future expansion, universi-
ment or identify the right service providers to ties and consulting agencies use them for research,
partner with and and governments and local development organiza-
3. connectedness and community — the interac- tions use them to gauge how well their programs
tion between individuals in the ecosystems cre- are paying off. The efforts of governments, munic-
ates a supportive community (entrepreneurs ipalities and development organizations make a
groups, meetups, etc.) allowing knowledge sha­ real difference (StartupBlink, 2021).
ring, networking, and a flow of talents, resourc- As we can see and also the Global Startups Eco-
es, and ideas (Sanesi, 2021). system Ranking by StartUp Genome (2022) shows,
Startup biomes such as Silicon Valley, New the best location for a startup ecosystem is in a lo-
York, London, and the MENA (Middle East/North cation with enough activity, a wide variety of in-
Africa) region are all thriving examples of entre- dustries, and expertise in order to be effective.
preneurial communities. The value of the world’s This would preferably be in a bigger city instead of
startup economy is rapidly approaching $3 Tril- in a small town. Different cities offer different
lion. There are over 270 startup ecosystems global- types of industries. So it is important to choose a
ly in 100 different countries and that number is on city that supports a specific ecosystem field but at
the uptick (Hendricks, 2021). the same time, the ecosystem should be open to
On the question “Why is it important to rank collaborating with other cities. The most success-
and have a good startup ecosystem?” StartupBlink ful startup ecosystems strengthen and support one
CEO, Eli David, affirms that good startup ecosys- another over borders and continents. ’

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023 265

{25/30}

’ DU Desk (2021) says that if a country’s startup 2021 by StartupBlink (2021) the top startup eco-
ecosystem is growing, many talented people would system countries globally in 2021 were on the 1st
choose to invest in their country rather than look place the USA, followed by the UK (2nd), Israel
out for better opportunities. It can also help retain (3rd), Canada (4th), and Germany the 5th place. In
a highly-skilled workforce within a country. They the next five places, there were also Sweden, Chi-
also say that startup ecosystems can also have a na, Switzerland, Australia, and Singapore. As we
long-standing impact on the country’s economy. can also see (figure 4) the US and the UK keep their
One of them is obviously job creation. There is no trend during the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. The
doubt that startups thriving in a successful ecosys- next three countries keep their place in 2020 and
tem accelerate job creation. This in turn helps con- 2021, but Israel and Canada switched their places
tain brain drain. And lastly, all these factors help during the year 2019 and Germany switched from
improve the economy of the country and do a great 8th to 5th place during 2019.
service towards the image-building of a particular From the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
country. This can also help attract a lot of foreign 2022 made by StartUp Genome (2022) we can say,
investment in the long haul. that the same five ecosystems remain at the top of
Based on the Startup Ecosystem Index Report the ranking as in 2020 and 2021, but Beijing has

Figure 4 » Top Startup Ecosystem Countries Globally — Total Ecosystems Scores with Trends in the Top
10 Countries
0 50,000 100,000
USA 124,420
UK 28,718
Israel 27,739
Canada 19,875
Germany 17,052
Sweden 15,422
China 15,126
North America
Switzerland 14,942
Europe
Australia 13,834
Singapore 13,744 Middle East & Africa
Asia Pacific

1. USA
2. UK
3. Israel
4. Canada
5. Germany
6. Sweden
7. China
8. Switzerland
9. Australia
10. Singapore

2019 2020 2021

Source: StartupBlink (2021)

266 Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference

 {25/30}
Figure 5 » Percentage of Startup Business-Friendly Countries in each Region

Africa and
The Middle
East
Asia Pacific 3.33%
6,67%
North America
6,67%

Asia
13.33%

Europe
70%
Source: Enginsoy (2023)

Figure 6 » The Top 5 Most Startup Business-Friendly Countries in 2022

3.85
Business Score (2022)

3.80

3.75

3.70

3.65

3.60
Sweden United Kingdom Norway Denmark Finland

Source: Enginsoy (2023)

dropped one place, with Boston taking its former from the point of view of access to capital, support
place at the 4th place. Silicon Valley is 1st, followed of startups with a suitable network of support or-
by New York City and London tied for 2nd place, ganizations, or various support programs, we can
Boston at 4th, and Beijing at 5th place. In aggregate, also evaluate startup ecosystems from the point of
the top five ecosystems now account for an Ecosys- view of the Startup Business-Friendliness which
tem Value of $3.8 trillion. The remaining 25 of the considers parameters such as Diversity Index, In-
top 30 ecosystems, in aggregate, are worth $2.3 ternet Speed, Internet Freedom, R&D Investment,
trillion in Ecosystem Value. Silicon Valley is un- Availability of various technological services,
doubtedly still the world’s leading ecosystem, but Number of Patents per capita, Level of English pro-
its share of early-stage investment by dollar amount ficiency, Top Universities per location, Internet Us-
has declined from 25% in 2012 to 13% in 2021. As ers, Regulatory Quality, Innovation Index and Ease
early-stage funding is a leading indicator of the fu- of Doing Business Index. From this view, we can
ture of tech, this trend suggests that the growth of say, that Europe takes the Lead and the Top 30 Lo-
tech in the rest of the world will continue to be fast- cations for startup-friendliness are Dominated by
er than in Silicon Valley. European Countries. Among the top 30 startup-
In addition to evaluating startup ecosystems friendly countries, the European region boasts 21 ’

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023 267

{25/30}

’ locations, followed by 5 Asian-Pacific, 2 North the global ranking of ecosystems, we can see, that
American, and 2 Middle Eastern & African coun- Czechia is in the 32nd position of the global rank-
tries (Enginsoy, 2023). ing and the change compared to the previous year
The Top 5 Most Startup Business-Friendly Coun­ was a betterment by 8 points. On the other hand,
tries in 2022 were Sweden, the United Kingdom, Slovakia was from the business-friendliness score
Norway, Denmark, and Finland. They are the top with 1.407 business score in 2022 in the 59th posi-
locations in terms of startup-friendliness. From tion (change from 2021 -3 points). From the global
2021 to 2022, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Latvia startup ranking is Slovakia’s position the same
showed a noticeable increase in their Business (59) and there came no change compared to the
Score rankings. Luxembourg increased its position previous year.
from 41 to 30, and Singapore from 28 to 17. Latvia
also jumped from 36 to 27 (Enginsoy, 2023). 4. Startups and startup ecosystem
When we look at the ranking of the top 100 in Slovakia
startup business-friendly countries in 2022 we can
see, that Czechia is in the 24th position with a As we have seen in the previous part, Slovakia is
business score of 3.145. Compared to 2021 Czechia situated, from the view of business-friendliness
worsened her position by three points. But from score in the 59th position of the top 100 startup

Figure 7 » Startups per 1 million inhabitants in EU-27

Estonia 1048
Israel 904
US 724
Lithuania 706
Netherlands 620
Finland 601
Switzerland 587
Sweden 568
UK 553
Germany 553
France 310
Latvia 297
Slovenia 238
Spain 229
Hungary 130
Czech Republic 126
Croatia 120
Bulgaria 112
Slovakia 97
Romania 85
Poland 80
Serbia 51
Ukraine 29
Rest of CEE 29 CEE Not CEE

Source: Dealroom (2021)

268 Proceedings of the 16th International Scientific Conference

 {25/30}
Figure 8 » Startups per 1 Billion EURO GDP in 2020 (EU-26 and selected non-EU countries)
21.5

9.3

7.4
6.4
5.0
4.6 4.4
4.0
3.4 3.6
2.7
2.3 2.5 1.9 2.1 2.2
2.5
1.7 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.9 2.0
1.1 1.1 1.2 1.2 1.3 1.3 1.4 1.4
0.6 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.2
IT
SK
AT
EL
DE
FR
CZ
PL
BE
EU-26
SI
IE
RO
HU
LU
FI
DK
ES
PT
HR
SE
BG
LT
LV
MT
CY
EE
CN
BR
CH
US
AU
CA
UK
IN
IL
SG
EU Member States and EU-26 overall Selected non-EU countries

Source: European Comission (2023)

business-friendly countries. When we look at oth- four Member States (France, Spain, Sweden, and
er startup statistics we can see, that in Slovakia, Italy) accounted for more than 5% of the total
there are only 97 startups per 1 million inhabit- number of start-ups in the EU-26. As for Slovakia,
ants, which is compared to Estonia, the top of EU- there were 74 startups, which represents a 0.5%
27 countries, with 9.25% of its performance. As we share of all startups in the EU-26. The Annual Re-
can also see Slovakia is at the bottom of the moni- port on the State of SMEs in the EU 2021/2022
tored countries, while only Romania (85 start- points out that the number of startups per 1 billion
ups/1 million population) and Poland (80 start- EURO of GDP in 2020 (in current prices) across
ups/1 million population) are the worse of the Member States is between 0.6 and 2.0 startup
EU-27 countries. The worse result within Europe is SMEs per 1 billion EURO of GDP, while Slovakia’s
achieved only by non-EU-27 countries, namely Ser- point of view, it is 0.8 startups, as we can also see
bia and Ukraine, respectively. the rest of the non- in Figure 8, while only Italy was worse with its
member countries of Central and Eastern Europe, 0.6 startups per 1 billion EURO of GDP.
such as Moldova, Montenegro, Albania, Macedo- From these data, we can see, that Slovakia as a
nia, or Belarus with an average of 29 startups per 1 startup ecosystem is ranked rather than countries
million inhabitants. In terms of the position in Eu- with no so good startup performance and startup
rope in this area, the mentioned facts, unfortunate- friendliness. In the year 2016, based on the SAPIE
ly, rank Slovakia among the worst countries of the report were Slovak startup founders young and
EU-27 and the whole of Europe. highly educated. 83% of startup founders in 2016
If we look at data from the Crunchbase data- were aged 20–39 and 67% of them had a university
base (Filus, 2022), a total of 16,253 startups were degree. While the majority of Slovak startups chose
active in the EU-26 (EU-27 without the Nether- Slovakia as their country of registration (89%), the
lands) as of December 31, 2021. These EU startups most popular place for registration is western Slo-
accounted for 12.5% of the global number of start- vakia (68%). While most of these startups are allo-
ups. Germany had the largest number of SME cated in Bratislava (Sapie, 2016).
startups within the EU-26 (3,353 startups or 20.6% However, if we look at the document prepared
of all SME startups within the EU-26). Another by CIVITTA, we can conclude that the startup eco- ’

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’ Figure 9 » Startup allocation within the Slovak ecosystem in 2016

Source: Sapie (2016)

system in Slovakia currently includes various which are willing to provide venture capital to
forms of support such as business incubators, ac- startups during their seed phase as well as during
celeration programs, or specialized consultancy further development, which is very important, be-
with the aim of helping innovative companies cap- cause as Mura, Buleca (2012) say: “Each enterprise
ture and commercialize their ideas and talent. needs own financial sources for its activity. But
Nowadays, more startups have easy access to busi- many companies by the medium of self-financing
ness acceleration services, either through special- cannot assure the trouble-free running of the busi-
ized programs such as Challenger, HealthCare Lab, ness and they are using various forms of external
or Elevator Lab, while universities in Bratislava, resources of settlement.” And for startups are such
Košice, and Žilina have also increased their efforts resources venture capital and angel funds.
to provide incubation services of good quality and
sustainability for startups in the early stages of de- 5. Conclusions
velopment. In addition, co-working spaces such as
HubHub, which is sought after by startups and “Innovations have become a driving force for the
freelancers. Despite the fact that a large part of the future opportunities of the companies.” (Urbaník-
supporting infrastructure within the Slovak eco- ová et al., 2020) and innovation is also the main es-
system is currently allocated in the capital, other sence of startups. As we can see startups became a
cities, especially Košice, are quickly catching up very important part of the business environment.
with their initiatives such as IT Valley, Technikom, Their benefits are primarily in the fact that they are
Eastcubator, or Medipark Košice (Civitta, 2020). In young and dynamically growing businesses with
addition, in its report, CIVITTA divides the Slovak innovative ideas that they are trying to further de-
startup ecosystem into five main areas, which are: velop and then bring to life despite low capital. The
Healthcare (developing between two cities: Žilina advantage of startups also lies in the fact that they
and Martin), Fintech (headquartered in Bratisla- support creativity in the team and at the same time
va), Mobility (located in the western part and take into account the uniqueness of each team
formed cities of Trnava, Nitra, Bratislava), Climate member, as well as in the fact that they do not try
resistance (has its roots in Bratislava) and Digital to copy generally established concepts and mod-
and creative area (founded by a community of cre- els, but look for their own path and are not afraid
atives in Košice). On the other hand, there are also of mistakes, because they take it as part of devel-
in the Slovakia region some funding companies opment, thanks to which they move forward. The

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disadvantage of startups is their often high mortal- startup ecosystems. At the same time, however, as
ity rate, as many of them often become insolvent stated by Kučera, Nemec (2021), many areas of
due to lack of capital or inability to sell the devel- economic activity would cease to function in the
oper product, which is liquidation for them. How- current crisis period without support from public
ever, in order to minimize these impacts, it is nec- funds, and that is why, especially in today’s era of
essary to create suitable startup ecosystems that state support for the business sector due to the en-
will help budding startups overcome various ob- ergy crisis, it is necessary to take care to ensure
stacles that could discourage them from further economical, efficient, expedient but especially the
development. From a global point of view, we can effective use of these funds (Kučera, Nemec,
see that the best startup ecosystems are located 2022), which can also help startups overcome
primarily in large cities, even world metropolises, problems caused by increased energy costs.
which integrate both the scientific, business and fi-
nancial spheres, which cooperate with each other Acknowledgement
in order to support the development of innovative This paper was created within the framework of
ideas and thus enable startups to subsequent inte- the project VEGA 1/0466/21 “Evaluation of the
gration into the country’s economy. And although quality of the business environment in Slovakia
in Slovakia we are far from the countries that be- with an emphasis on entry into business in the pre-
long to the top startup ecosystems, we can already and post-pandemic period”.
slowly observe the gradual improvement of local

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10.3390/admsci10040080

Startups and global startup ecosystems

ABSTRACT
Startups are a very important part of every economy. In the last years, startups gain on importance because
of their innovative way of solving problems and not-so-strict business structure. When we speak about start-
ups we need to know, that they are very jung enterprises with quick growth potential and they are not a per-
manent stay of entrepreneurship. For maintaining a good innovation performance in a country it is impor-
tant to support such innovative firms and individuals and to create a supportive environment so these
creatives stay in their home country and do not look for better opportunities abroad, where financial and
law opportunities are much more profitable. Also, the startup ecosystem of a country is very important for
the forming and development of innovative ideas and their transformation into startups. From the global
point of view, we can see, that countries with good business infrastructure, high financial and also non-fi-
nancial support, and good enterprises-university-financial organizations network belong to the top global
startup ecosystems, and also they are the home to many globally known unicorn startups, which are also
with their value an important part of the economy. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive view

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of startups and the global startup ecosystem, which forms the basic framework for the development and sup-
port of startups and their establishment within the local and often also the world economy.

KEYWORDS
Startup; Innovation; Economic Potential; Ecosystem; SME

JEL CLASSIFICATION
M13; M21; K20 Ñ

European Forum of Entrepreneurship 2023 273

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