A team from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at BAS participated in the prestigious international conference Reshaping Work on the topic “Future of Work Revisited: Platform Work in the Age of AI,” between May 22 and 23 in Belgrade. The conference brought together leading experts and researchers from around the world to discuss the future of work in the context of the growing influence of artificial intelligence and the platform economy.
One of the most interesting presentations presented by the Bulgarian team was “Unveiling Regional E-Commerce Dynamics: A Comparative Study of Etsy Marketplaces in the Balkan Countries” ). She presented the results of a comparative empirical study covering multiple countries in Southeast Europe and analyzing the dynamics of regional e-commerce in the context of the Etsy platform. Ch. asst. professor Svetlomir Zdravkov, prof. Vasil Kirov and PhD student Mira Dobreva took part in the research.
The results of the research, visualized in the graph, show that Bulgaria occupies a leading position in the region in terms of number of sales and number of shops on the online platform Etsy. The horizontal axis shows the number of stores per 10,000 people, and the vertical axis the number of sales per capita. By both indicators, Bulgaria is in first place. These data highlight the significant contribution of Bulgarian merchants and entrepreneurs in the field of e-commerce, as well as the potential of our country for the development of the digital economy.