Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.

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In the development process of the economic theory, the focus is shifted from the market, being the only form of coordination of economic activity, to the personal behavior and its impact on economic processes. This reveals the importance of human habits and how they shape the socio-economic behavior. Social relations and interaction become more and more important and are seen as a factor influencing not only the daily decisions, but also the economic behavior of the personality. "Economics is seen by them as an open evolutionary system, experiencing a constant impact by the external environment through culture, political environment, nature, etc."In the development process of the economic theory, the focus is shifted from the market, being the only form of coordination of economic activity, to the personal behavior and its impact on economic processes. This reveals the importance of human habits and how they shape the socio-economic behavior. Social relations and interaction become more and more important and are seen as a factor influencing not only the daily decisions, but also the economic behavior of the personality. "Economics is seen by them as an open evolutionary system, experiencing a constant impact by the external environment through culture, political environment, nature, etc."Neoclassical theory assumes that fully rational, decision-making individuals, through their absolute awareness and using the exchange of goods on the market, strive for equilibrium and actually achieve it. New institutional economy rejects one of the most important postulates of neoclassical theory - the economy's quest for equilibrium, accepting it only as short-term (if at all possible) and uncharacteristic state. The public interest seeks to build more efficient structures/institutions, and by better defining property rights and maximizing the usefulness of each individual, to achieve greater public welfare. The most important concepts of the new institutional economy are the theory of transaction costs, the theory of property rights and the principal-agent problem theory.The problematic area of the present study is the conflicts, arising from the interaction and cooperation between different business partners, united in inter-organizational networks. The subject of this research is the theory and practice of these inter-organizational networks, reflected through the prism of "principal-agent".The expansion of the markets by counterparties and traded goods, as well as by geographic scope, leads to a de-personalization of the exchange, thus an increase in the uncertainty for the participants and consequently the cost of limiting it. The possibility of long-term reiteration of deals with the same contractor is negligible, while at the same time partners become increasingly distanced, virtual and abstract. This stimulates market participants to look for mechanisms to curb the negative effects of expanding markets - commercial contracts, bank guarantees, warranties, betting and trade codes. Their introduction is aimed at reducing the cost of obtaining information about the counterparty, the traded commodities, as well as providing guarantees to prevent opportunistic behavior after the conclusion of the agreement.