RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

394 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Source: Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (2000)
The role of organizational culture in Triple helix
principles implementation in Albanian context
The transition of Albania from a centralized state to a free market economy, despite being
realized through shock therapy, continues to have ramifications on the functioning of governmental
and nongovernmental institutions and organizations in the country. In the early years
of transition, when the first private ventures started their activities, the main goal for each of
them was market survival. Later on, the main purpose changed and the objective was to
improve competitiveness and to occupy most of the market but still too far away from the
concept of sustainable development (Kates, Parris & Leiserowitz, 2005; Nafziger, 2006; Soubbotina,
2004; Dernbach, 2003). Albania is a small country (about 3.2 million) and this fact
somehow has forced organizations to focus on their internal development without taking care
on cooperation with other stakeholders from external environment. Other organizations are
systematically considered as ‘competitors’, and not as potential collaborators for the development
of innovative ideas.
Although it has been 26 years since the communist regime in Albania fall, the isolation
of organizations seems to have remained an integral part of the internal organizational culture
for the majority of organizations operating in Albania. This isolation means very low
level of interest in multilateral cooperation between universities, businesses and government.
Each of these three pillars operates in very good order, but almost isolated from two others.
There are also some positive cases when at least two of the three pillars come to a sufficient
level of cooperation with the aim of initiating joint innovative projects. But there are very
rare cases in which the three pillars cooperate with each other joint innovative projects. Such
cooperation means implementation of Triple Helix principles and philosophy of (Ranga &
Etzkowitz, 2012, p. 8).