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Industrial clusters have been considered a successful form of firms’ organisation, and an instrument for increasing the competitiveness and growth of the region and firms’ performance (Aranguren et al., 2013; Abdesslem & Chiappini, 2016; Stojčić et al., 2019; Pecze, 2019). The idea behind cluster formation and its promotion is that firms benefit from agglomeration effects due to knowledge and technology spillovers, input and output sharing, and location externalities (Maffioli et al., 2016). Cluster organisations should facilitate collaboration among firms, scientific and public actors, networking, inter-firm linkages, sharing of information, resources, and knowledge to build new growth opportunities, and overcome coordination failures (Maffioli et al., 2016). Past research has examined the impact of clusters on firm performance in various industries and the wood industry as well, indicating that cluster membership has a positive impact on firms’ survival, innovation activities and performance – exports, productivity, and sales (e.g., Strøjer et al., 2003; Tödtling & Trippl, 2004; Wennberg & Lindqvist, 2008; Eisingerich et al., 2010; Abdesslem & Chiappini, 2016; Stojčić et al., 2019).

The purpose of this research is to assess the impact of university education and business environment on entrepreneurial initiatives and to make comparisons of the results between students coming from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These countries were selected for the analysis since these are three of the V4 countries with common targets regarding the development of business environment and with an important location advantage. The International Visegrad Fund promotes mutual cooperation within the region in various fields, including the development of economic relations (in tourism, education, scientific research, cross-border cooperation). This Fund also implements own projects in these fields. The importance of the research is justified by the identification of the factors that mostly affect entrepreneurial initiatives; these factors could be developed more in order to increase the number of successful businesses in each of these country. Moreover, some obstacles to entrepreneurial initiatives are identified and suitable recommendations are provided to minimize these obstacles.

The notion of entrepreneurship is not new, but entrepreneurship is continuously searching for new ideas while increasing their applications (Morris & Trotter, 1990; Morris, Lewis, & Sexton, 1994). Marketing and entrepreneurship are broadening their field of synergic activity, but some gaps in this interaction still remain (Bhuian, Menguc, & Bell, 2005). Numerous studies have indicated the link between marketing and entrepreneurship (Murray, 1981; Morris & Paul, 1987; Herron, Sapienza, & Smith-Cook, 1992; Hills & LaForge, 1992; Becherer & Maurer, 1998; Morris, Schindehutte & LaForge, 2002; Kraus, Harms, & Fink, 2010; Gilmore, 2011, Hills & Hultman, 2011; Hultman & Hills 2011; Kurgun, Bagiran, Ozeren, & Maral, 2011; Morrish, 2011; Busenitz, Plummer, Klotz, Shahzad, & Rhoads, 2014), but a number of research question have remained underexplored.

The business activity of small and midsize enterprises plays an important role in the individual economies of the European Union. In this regard, Cumming, Johan, and Zhang (2014) and Gawel (2010) indicate that entrepreneurship has a significantly positive impact on GDP/capita, exports/GDP, and patents per population, and a negative impact on unemployment.

During the last decades, the tourism industry from Central and Eastern European countries has gained an increasing importance. Because of the diversity of businesses and activities inside this sector, the tourism can be considered an effective engine for emerging sectors and for economy. Furthermore, due to its diverse, beautiful nature and valuable historical and cultural inheritance we consider that the tourism sector has growth potential, high efficiency and thus, opportunities for significant contributions both to national GDP and added value.

The operation and growth of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs – including micro enterprises) are significantly determined by the characteristic features and internal diversity of this group of entities (Torrès & Julien, 2005; Curran, 2006). The identification of characteristic properties leads to a qualitative and quantitative distinction between small and medium-sized companies from other entities, primarily including large enterprises (LEs) (Marchesnay, 1982; Bannier & Zahn, 2012).

The business environment of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) is a current area of theoretical research and practical applications in the European Union. The fi nancial crisis and the gradual recovery of the economies in the European Economic Area brought about a deterioration of the business environment.

Malé a střední podnikání (MSP) je specifické řadou problematických oblastí, které toto podnikání doprovází už od jeho počátku. Například Jáč, Rydvalová a Žižka [11, str. 18–19] definují dvě základní příčiny problémů podnikání MSP. Jedná se o: – všeobecné (externí) příčiny – např. nepříznivý ekonomický vývoj, inflace, omezený přístup ke kapitálu, administrativní předpisy, – subjektivní (interní) příčiny – např. nedostatek zkušeností, odborného vzdělání, podcenění výrobní, obchodní strategie, přehnaná optimistická představa o velikosti trhu, nedostatečné řízení personálu, nedostatek odvahy.