Submissions

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

The submission has not been previously published and it is not considered to be published by another journal.
The Scientific paper consists of Abstract, Keywords, JEL Classification, Introduction, Literature review, Methodology, Results and discussion, Conclusion, References and Brief description of Author/s.
The text is formatted (font type, font size, spacing, etc.) according to the Guidelines for the Authors.
The submission file is in Microsoft Word format only.
The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
Where available, URLs and DOIs for the references have been provided.
The citation is done in APA style according to the Guidelines for Authors.
The article has been proofread and corrected for errors.

Author Guidelines

Papers submitted to the Editorial Office are checked for compliance with the Journal's formal requirements and focus. The papers should include an Abstract and Keywords.

Papers that do not match the focus of the Journal and/or do not meet formal requirements will be rejected. Submissions must clearly state the entrepreneurship/SME/business development relevance of their theory, sample/setting, or implications; otherwise, they may be rejected at desk review.

Papers corresponding to the journal's focus and meeting formal requirements are forwarded to the Editorial Board for Desk Review.

All research manuscripts undergo independent external peer review. Reviewers’ recommendations inform the editorial decision, but do not determine it automatically. The handling editor or Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the manuscript’s quality, relevance, ethical compliance, and the adequacy of the revisions.

The papers should have been proofread and corrected for errors and will be regarded as accurate; authors are responsible for factual content. Only visual data, images, etc., over which the author(s) have copyright may be used unless permission has been obtained and acknowledged - it is the authors' responsibility to obtain such permissions. Simultaneous submissions to other print or electronic journals are not permitted.

Focus and Scope

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge (IJEK) is an independent peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial knowledge, and on business and economic issues that shape entrepreneurial activity and SME development. The journal provides a platform for domestic and international authors presenting basic and applied research with clear theoretical and/or practical implications for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, SMEs, and business development.

IJEK welcomes conceptual and empirical studies addressing entrepreneurship at the individual, firm, industry, and ecosystem/policy levels, including work examining how managerial, market, financial, institutional, and macroeconomic conditions influence entrepreneurial behaviour, venture outcomes, competitiveness, and sustainable performance.

Topics include (but are not limited to):

Entrepreneurship and SME development; start-ups/scale-ups; incubation and acceleration; family business
Entrepreneurial behaviour, intention, and decision-making; competencies, skills, and entrepreneur profiles
Innovation and business models; digital entrepreneurship and digital transformation; knowledge management and organizational learning (including in SMEs and entrepreneurial firms)
Entrepreneurial finance, performance, growth, and value creation; international entrepreneurship; international trade, finance, and firm internationalization
Marketing, branding, customer behaviour, and market strategies in the context of entrepreneurial firms, SMEs, and growth-oriented ventures
HRM, leadership, training, and organizational behaviour with demonstrated relevance to innovation, entrepreneurship, SMEs, or entrepreneurial performance
Corporate governance, CSR/ESG, sustainability reporting, and green management practices where linked to performance, competitiveness, or entrepreneurial/SME contexts
Policy, institutions, and macroeconomic environment affecting entrepreneurship and business development (e.g., labour markets, inflation/unemployment dynamics, investment climate/FDI, taxation and regulation)
Social and ecological impact of entrepreneurship; regional and international perspectives

Unique contribution
IJEK focuses on the role of entrepreneurial knowledge—how knowledge is created, transferred, and applied in decision-making, innovation, finance, management practice, and policy contexts that affect entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Submission & Copyright

The authors must submit the papers through the journal platform (make a submission).
Authors must prepare their manuscripts using the official International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge template, ensuring that all text is inserted into the template while maintaining its formatting; all required information, including author details and ORCID identifiers, must be fully included. The template for the authors is available here.
The authors must send (upload with the submission) the signed Author declaration and statement of copyrights/related rights (available here).

The fees (Article Processing Charge)

All articles are published free of charge. IJEK is an Open Access journal and does not charge readers or their institutions for access.

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge is committed to meeting high standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process.

The Editorial Board, office, and reviewers’ team are doing their best to duly follow the Guidelines on good publication practice of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in all editorial proceedings. We strongly recommend to all our current and potential authors, prior to submitting the text for blind review, to visit this site and get acquainted with the internationally acknowledged rules and best practices: www.publicationethics.org.

We expect that all parties involved in the act of publishing will present ethical behavior conformed with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and other Guidelines approved by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The Editorial Board of the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge follows the rules on academic writing and academic ethics, according to the work by Miguel Roig (2003, 2006): Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing, available online at https://ori.hhs.gov.

AI tools

IJEK supports the position statement concerning the utilization of AI tools, e.g. ChatGPT, in the origin of academic papers issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). According to the statement, AI tools should not be attributed authorship of a paper since they are not accountable for the content produced. Moreover, the use of AI tools must be disclosed in respect of transparency standards.

The use of AI tools cannot meet the set criteria for authorship since they are not able to take on responsibility for the work submitted. Lacking legal status, AI tools cannot manage copyright and licensing agreements, and do not bear responsibility for the presence or absence of transparency.

Authors using AI tools in manuscript, image creation, creating graphical elements, or data collection and analysis must transparently disclose the use of AI in the Materials and Methods section of the presented work. Regardless of AI involvement, authors bear full responsibility for their manuscript content and take on responsibility for publication ethics.

Research Ethics Policies Regarding Human Participants and Participant Approval:

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants and data, covering studies that entail the primary acquisition of personal data, such as surveys or interviews, must indicate whether the relevant authorized body dealing with research ethics issues (further referred to as the ethics committee) approval was obtained (or waived).
The declaration should include the approving ethics committee(s) name(s), approval date, and reference number, if available. It should be positioned on the final page of the submission, above the References section, to facilitate anonymous peer review.
If the exemption was granted, provide the ethics committee(s) name(s) and rationale for the exemption.
If research ethics approval does not pertain to your study/article, provide a statement at submission supported by relevant evidence (e.g., institutional policy or legal framework indicating exemption), where applicable, to benefit an international readership. A standard declaration such as "This study did not require research ethics approval" can be utilized.
Authors of empirical research articles involving human participants and data, covering studies that entail the primary acquisition of personal data, such as surveys or interviews, should expressly state whether the participants provided informed consent and specify its form (written or verbal). The participant approval statement may be described in the section related to the Data and/or Methods or in the separate declaration above the References section.

Above that, the manuscripts presenting the results of medical research involving human participants or data should comply with:

These manuscripts must include information on informed consent for publishing patient data and images and specify if written consent was obtained.

Editorial independence, competing interests, complaints and appeals

Authors, editors and reviewers must comply with the journal’s policies on editorial independence and competing interests. Complaints about the editorial process or publication ethics, and appeals against editorial decisions, should be sent to info@ijek.org. The applicable requirements, grounds for appeal and arrangements for independent handling are set out in the journal’s Ethics policy.

Retraction guidelines

The International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge follows the Retraction guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Editors should consider retracting a publication if:

They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of a significant error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error) or as a result of fabrication (e.g., of data) or falsification (e.g., image manipulation).
It constitutes plagiarism.
The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication)
It contains material or data without authorization for use.
Copyright has been infringed, or other serious legal issues exist (e.g., libel, privacy).
It reports unethical research.
It has been published solely based on a compromised or manipulated peer review process.
The author(s) failed to disclose a significant competing interest (a.k.a. conflict of interest) that, in the editor's view, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

Post-publication discussions and corrections policy

Comments and concerns about published articles may be sent to info@ijek.org. Authors must report significant errors discovered before or after publication. The journal’s procedures for post-publication discussion, corrections, expressions of concern and retractions are described in its Ethics policy.

Authors' duties and responsibilities

Authors should ensure that:

the paper is original and written by them;
the paper has not been published in any other journal and has been submitted for consideration to this journal only;
the data has been obtained by the authors directly, or they have all legal permissions to use the data obtained from private businesses or other independent sources;
the data is original and not manipulated;
all sources used in the paper are clearly cited;
the paper does not break any copyrights of others;
the paper includes funding acknowledgment in case an institution or grant supported the paper;
the paper includes a declaration about research ethics approval or a statement that the study did not require research ethics approval;
all relevant financial and non-financial competing interests are disclosed at submission and stated in the manuscript; where no competing interests exist, this must be explicitly declared; any relevant changes must be reported to the editorial office promptly;
addition, deletion, or order rearrangement of the authors’ names in the authorship list are approved in advance by the whole team;
they promptly notify the editorial office of any significant error or inaccuracy identified in their manuscript or published article, whether before or after publication, and cooperate in its investigation and any necessary correction or retraction;
authorship of the paper is accurately stated, all authors must send (upload with the submission) the signed Author declaration and statement of copyrights/related rights (available here) as an expression of their agreement to publication of the paper in this particular journal;
they are obliged to participate in the peer-review process, responding timely and politely to all comments of the reviewers; if the authors agree to make changes – they must provide the corrections promptly; if the authors do not agree with reviewers’ recommendations or other remarks – objections with a detailed explanation must be provided;
they agree with minor corrections to the contents, including the title, phrasing, style, etc.;
they accept the publishing rights to use the paper transferred to the publisher (according to CC BY-NC-ND).

Copyright Notice

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge (ISSN 2336-2960) is published by the Center for International Scientific Research of VŠO and VŠPP in cooperation with the following partners:

Pan-European University in Prague, Czech Republic
School of Business and Administration of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Portugal
Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Slovakia
Szent István University, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Hungary
University of Debrecen Faculty of Economics and Business, Hungary

All articles are published free of charge. IJEK is an Open Access journal and does not charge readers or their institutions for access.

The Center for International Scientific Research of VŠO and VŠPP (www.cisrvv.cz) is a publisher of the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge.
Copyright belongs to the Center for International Scientific Research of VŠO and VŠPP
(www.cisrvv.cz).
The publisher, Center for International Scientific Research of VŠO and VŠPP (www.cisrvv.cz), provides free access policy to the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge is an open-access journal with Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND) policy which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles or use them for any other lawful purpose without asking the publisher's or the author's prior permission. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.