The digitalisation in the manufacturing and industrial sectors has been fast ‘exported’ in tourism industry as well. The technological revolution has highly affected both the supplier and the consumer of tourism products and services. There is recently an increasing attention from the industry and academia in order to highlight the challenges of ICT use in tourism and the drivers of “smart tourism” in world level. Our study joins these efforts with the goal to observe the use of information and communication technologies in Albanian tourism and detect the elements of smart tourism in it. The survey and interviews with a sample of experienced medium size tourism companies were used to assess the expansion of ICT in their overall activity. The data collected and processed did enable to point out the penetration of digital technologies in Albanian tourism. Further on, some features of smart tourism are highlighted and some drivers of digitalization in Albanian tourism are brought to the attention of stakeholder groups.

Entrepreneurship is a process characterized by the pursuit of opportunity. It is a series of steps that combines knowledge and skills to enable the process of value creation in fulfilling a market need. The role of education is increasing in successful entrepreneurial activities worldwide. Our work intends to contribute in highlighting and strengthening relations between university education and entrepreneurship in Albanian context. Following the European Directive "Rethinking Education Strategy" several Albanian universities are considering new methods for encouraging university ventures. One of the means suggested is through digital platforms established by and in universities that can play a significant role to push Albanian university education towards the closest collaboration with entrepreneurship and market. After the 'business incubators' wave, digital platforms are becoming the main stimulating tool of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit for young people, successfully used by many foreign universities. This study presents a new platform called Launchpad Albania, purposely designed to stimulate the development of new business ideas and to evaluate their success probability. Mainly intended for use by university students, it helps to find associates that support the business ideas and assist with business plan drawing. The expectations from this study are to facilitate establishment of digital platforms where universities, private businesses, banks, students, and lecturers are involved for entrepreneurial activities. This is the main theoretical and practical contribution to the benefit of Albanian universities in their efforts to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, both at the individual and institutional level.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are stirring the worldwide economic advancement for more than three decades. The new technologies and their implementation in manufacturing, services, as well as the public sector, have provided changes of the economic structure and – hopefully – increase of productivity. The factors driving the use of ICT come from the demand side, for products and services the companies and consumers require, as well as from the supply side, with solutions and models applicable to a rising number of users. The extent of using the information and communication technologies in Albanian environment is in the focus of this paper. The main objective is, firstly to highlight the assessment of digital technology integration in Albanian economy, particularly in businesses. Another objective is to analyze major reasons that brought changes during the last years. Further on, the chances for Albanian businesses to take advantage of the economic and social benefits from ICT should be considered. The research work has combined the “desk study” with on-site survey in order to evidence the achievements, shortcomings and opportunities for a higher level of integration of digital technology in Albanian organizations.

The progress of Western Balkan countries has been influenced by similar factors of a political, social, and geographical nature. Their recent transition into a functional market economy has brought economic growth, but it is accompanied by negative phenomena as well. Stimulating economic development, gender equality, urbanization, human development, and economic freedom challenged these countries. Since the beginning of the 1990-s, international institutions have strongly supported these countries. They have contributed to encouraging advancement, as well as overcoming the obstacles that have been similar in these countries. Corruption is one of them that can hinder development and has consequently attracted the attention of all stakeholders to fight against it. Many indicators are generated in recent decades to measure both economic development and encumbering factors. Analyzing the indicators and comparing them between countries intends to promote their improvement and to identify the best practices at the regional level. This paper aims to examine the relationship between corruption and economic development in Western Balkan countries in the last two decades. The panel time-series autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is used for making the empirical analysis for a period from 2003 to 2019, based on official data from local and international sources. The ARDL model used and the time span of data involved make this study distinct from the other surveys done for the same region. The results from the model application have enabled a detailed analysis and discussion of the main findings. There are recommendations drawn for the future, applicable both at the country and region level, especially with recent advancements of two countries – Albania and North Macedonia – toward EU integration.

The increasing popularity of Industry 4.0 and the premises to apply it in different industries are obvious in the Albanian business environment. The role of new technologies, which stay at the center of this paradigm, is unseparated from the whole management systems in the framework of companies and value chains. Introducing new technologies should be supported by new or adapted business models, organizational systems, and human resources capable to manage them. Preparing the present and future human resources to execute their roles in compliance with the requirements of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies is a challenge for all actors involved. It requires recognition, acceptance, and development of the relationship between technology advancement and management. Our paper deals with human resource development and management in the context of Industry 4.0 introduction and implementation in the Albanian economy. It intends to highlight the role of education and management in preparing the workforce, the companies, and other stakeholders to understand and commit to new technological development, which brings manifold benefits to the country. The method used for the above analysis is a combination of a desk study and an empirical survey. The data analysis enables to point out the key factors influencing human resources development in Albanian companies. Their discussion can modestly bring some theoretical and practical implications regarding the human resources that will implement I4.0 enabling technologies in the country.