Determinants of entrepreneurship in the beekeeping sector in the North-West Region of Romania.

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is based on the identification of opportunities and on the implementationof strategies. Promoting entrepreneurship in the beekeeping sector is extremely important because itdetermines the acceleration of sustainable socio-economic development through a superiorcapitalization of the potential of bees, the existing melliferous and human resources in a certain region.Using the survey as research method, the present research highlights that aspects such as beekeepers’innovative behaviour (apiary modernization), beekeepers’ interpersonal skills (collaboration,association) and beekeepers’ intentions (export, alliances) are factors that influence entrepreneurshipin the beekeeping sector. Moreover, the empirical results show that motivation determines beekeepersto access funds necessary for starting a business. The development of entrepreneurship in thebeekeeping sector implies that beekeepers must be innovative. Beekeepers’ innovative behavior can bestimulated through management and marketing courses, collaboration and modernization of thebeekeeping technology used. However, according to the present study, there are also factors thathinder entrepreneurship such as bureaucracy, lack of state support and high taxes. In order to diminishthese factors negatively influencing entrepreneurship, beekeepers should discover opportunities forcommercializing bee products both domestically and abroad. Furthermore, they have to implementlong-term alliances with foreign enterprises so as to gain support for the successful development andexpansion of the future business.