Economics 21

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  THE INNOVATION STRATEGY AND THE COMPETITIVE POSITIONS OF BULGARIAN ECONOMY

  As an EU member state, it has become an imperative for Bulgaria to fit in the economic structure of the European Union. In order to promote economic growth, the Union assigned member-states with the task to identify the advantages which will enable them to specialize in the production of goods and services with high added value. Specialization ... As an EU member state, it has become an imperative for Bulgaria to fit in the economic structure of the European Union. In order to promote economic growth, the Union assigned member-states with the task to identify the advantages which will enable them to specialize in the production of goods and services with high added value. Specialization will thus enable member states to focus their effort on consolidating their comparative advantages by employing as an instrument the innovation paradigm. To respond to this challenge, Bulgaria designed its ‘Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization’ in 2014. The aim of this research is to identify the extent to which the Strategy reflects the real opportunities for the national economy to increase the value added of its production by introducing innovations in specific technological areas stated in the document. The findings of the research indicate that the Innovation Strategy is not in compliance with the underlying logic of the European Commission or the OECD in terms of identifying the economic activities that have real potential as comparative advantages and core competences and where the fastest and most sustainable growth of value added could be expected through the adoption of innovations.

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  MODELLING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ON THE ENERGY MARKET

  Consumer behavior models make it possible to visually present in charts researched entities and the processes they go through, as well as the changes which occur should some variables which affect those processes change. The objective of this paper is to design a meaningful model which may be employed to describe in detail consumer behavior in the ... Consumer behavior models make it possible to visually present in charts researched entities and the processes they go through, as well as the changes which occur should some variables which affect those processes change. The objective of this paper is to design a meaningful model which may be employed to describe in detail consumer behavior in the process of purchasing energy. The subject of the research is energy consumers, while its objects are the models which could be employed to describe consumer behavior when consuming energy. The analysis we conducted indicated that in order to accomplish our objective we need to account for emotional responses, norms and social factors and major economic variables (prices, incomes, prices of substitute goods).

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  Methodological and Methodical Issues of the Economic Sustainability of Agriculture and Agricultural farms

  Based on a critical review of scientific literature, the category ‘economic sustainability’ is defined as the dynamic development of agrarian systems over a long period of time in line with the changes in the external and internal environment which ensures efficient performance, good financial condition and competitiveness. We observe the ... Based on a critical review of scientific literature, the category ‘economic sustainability’ is defined as the dynamic development of agrarian systems over a long period of time in line with the changes in the external and internal environment which ensures efficient performance, good financial condition and competitiveness. We observe the hierarchical levels of the system for assessing economic sustainability to first select the principles, and then the criteria and indicators to be employed in the assessment, so as to reveal the characteristics and the underlying and significant aspects of the performance of the agricultural sector and agricultural farms.