Lack of financial literacy of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) owners/managers is often mentioned among the reasons of their financial exclusion. The main objective of the article is to verify whether the targeted group - MSMEs - access to finance and financial literacy of their owners/managers are closely linked in observed countries – Latvia, Estonia and Georgia. As a supportive objective, analysis of the relationship between financial literacy of MSMEs owners, adult literacy and the level of general education in a country is also analyzed. The research is exploratory in its nature, based on intensive literature review, analysis of the countries’ statistics and the case study. The main findings are as follows: Analysis of financial literacy scores and financial inclusion in Latvia and Estonia evidences a constantly positive association between these two indicators. Positive cause-effect relationships are observed between the level of general education of the population, personal literacy, financial literacy of MSMEs owners/managers and MSMEs access to finance. In the observed countries, the level of general education of the population is quite high, but the owners of micro and small businesses do not have sufficient specialized business education, skills and competences. Due to high general level of education, Georgia has a good chance to improve financial literacy of MSMEs owners in a short time. The paper has the potential to impact policy decision-makers to consider the recommendations made.

The business provides many alternatives, and an investor-entrepreneur has always to make a decision on how best to use his fund. The first challenge for a potential investor is that the business environment is constantly changing, becoming more complex. The process of data acquisition and subsequent information generation is continuously cyclical, time and cost consuming. The second challenge is analytics. The typical small business owner makes decisions by trial-and-error. In today's data-driven AI-first environment to make frequent and quick strategic, tactical, and operational decisions, the owner/entrepreneur needs advice and guidance on startup specific issues, which should only be provided by professional experts. The goal of this research is to elaborate a theoretical foundation of an information support model for a startup – the Startup-Information-Support Model (SISM). The study uses a deep theoretical study - a qualitative method - by applying content analysis of relevant literature and primary research techniques. PESTEL and the Porter's five forces model are employed as analytical tools of expert-opinion technique. PESTEL provides a framework for information collection and data analysis at mega level, while industry attractiveness analysis is based on the Porter's five forces model. The strength of each factor (each force) is analyzed through well-defined concrete indicators, and then is measured by scoring their values. Finally, the SISM presents the whole portrait of attractiveness of specific industry. The SISM equips consultant companies with an effective tool for conducting business intelligence and analytics. The companies would be able to offer additional value added to B2B services to potential investor-entrepreneurs. The Model has the potential to employing AI, which can more systematically incorporate environmental issues at both levels – mega forces and industry factors - into the monitoring process. Equipped with such tools, decision makers can perform complex simulations, test many possible scenarios, and quickly evaluate various impacts at low cost.

Business incubator (BI) and university business incubators (UBIs) are a quite recent innovation but it has become a useful tool for business development. Despite some experiments, for Georgian public and businesses BI/UBI concept is still known as interesting theoretical but not practical idea. A set of surveys conducted by international organizations as well as individual scholars have revealed the main obstacles in doing business in Georgia. “Inadequately educated workforce” is one of the most serious problem. The authors’ surveys show the strong demand for BIs/UBIs services from the business side; on another hand, a background for their establishment in terms of university students’ skills and their willingness to start own business has been built. University based business incubators might be the most suitable and efficient type of BIs in Georgia.  To realize this idea we have to learn a worldwide practice. The paper reviews the extent literature that examines the critical role of BIs/ UBIs in developed and developing economies. Based on this, the foundations of UBIs were proposed.

Last decade in Georgia the main drivers of economic growth were foreign direct investment (FDI) and banking sector development. Since global financial crisis of 2007-2008, business activity in Georgia has been constrained by weak FDI and slow global recovery. The revision of Georgian pre-crisis to post-crisis strategy consists of diversification of investment sources. FDI should be accomplished by internal (private) investment, the main generators of which are SMEs. Nowadays SMEs contribution to economic growth is insignificant. The importance of SME sector is under evaluated by Georgian society and government.

Statistics evidence that drivers of pre-crisis model of economic growth in Georgia (foreign direct investment and financial/banking sector development) are constrained. The modification of pre-crisis to post-crisis model consists of further reorientation from consumption to investment component of GDP and diversification of investment sources. FDI have to be accomplished by internal (private) investment, the main generator of which are SMEs. SMEs gather small private savings and transfer them to private investment. SMEs might play a greater role in country's economic growth.