THE ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR IN ROMANIA: A GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The world's economies are currently powerfully challenged by the massive shock generated by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic outbreak. Due to the high degree of existing interdependencies between countries - mediated through the flows of goods, services, technologies, people, and ideas - the harmful effects of one of the most critical public health emergencies spread at an unimaginable speed. The result was an unthinkable crisis that forced worldwide policymakers to elaborate quick responses and rescue packages, with the primary purpose of saving lives and avoiding an overall collapse. One of the solutions proposed to counteract the adverse effects of this crisis or manage to diminish its consequences is to stimulate small and medium-sized enterprises. Even though entrepreneurship's general positive implications are well known and draw special attention both at the individual, academic and governmental level, in Romania, currently, self-employment is not necessarily perceived as an easily attained prospect for a future career. Employing an inquiry into the literature, the particular objective of the present conceptual study is to investigate the entrepreneurial environment in Romania, it is status, and its future influencers, in the current troubled context of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the actions of the national government to elaborate sound policies to counteract the adverse effects of this crisis and to stimulate future business ventures in order to support the economic growth of the country both during and after the taming of the pandemic. The theoretical implications of the current research offer a more objective image of the importance of the economic governance quality and the crucial role of a higher education environment, especially when confronting a global crisis like the one humankind is currently experiencing.