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Once Female students in Informatics and Technology (IT) and Computer Science degrees at European higher education institutions, in the 21st century, represent a smaller percentage compared with male students, this paper investigates the main reasons that may explain this fact, as well as presents new pedagogical strategies for female students in IT courses. These strategies derive from understanding stereotypes, perceptions, cultural implications, and propositions for inclusive IT education; and are relevant for supporting IT students' equality and success. Further, good lecturing in general together with positive reinforcement with students lays a crucial foundation for supporting all students in IT. The present research was developed in five European universities: Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, Poland, and Portugal. Starting from a literature review on the topic was developed a questionnaire that was applied to a sample of IT students in these five universities. The results were analyzed to define some new pedagogical strategies. These allowed us to conclude about the main reasons for the decision of female students to choose to study IT programs and higher education institutions develop pedagogical strategies more adequate and more attractive to female students, as well as to contribute to increased employability and successful integration in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An academic spin-off (ASO) is an enterprise that is founded by researchers or students associated with a university or research institution. ASOs typically commercialize new technologies, products, or services that are based on results of academic research. However, ASOs often face barriers to long-term success. These barriers severely limit the economic and social impact of the research and innovation from ASOs, as well as discourage future researchers from starting their own ASOs. Furthermore, barriers can vary depending on the region and the industry and increase the complexity of this issue. So far very little research has been done to examine the barriers to ASOs in general or in specific industries and regions. Thus, the research question emerges as to what the general barriers to long-term success for ASOs in Europe are. To increase the understanding of the spin-off creation process, we conduct a systematic literature review of existing literature about ASOs and their barriers in general. Previous approaches already classify barriers into micro, meso, and macro levels. Other models exist that examine the spinning-off process with respect to a temporal level. In order to combine both dimensions, the frameworks mentioned above were merged in the first step and expanded with current research in the second step with a particular focus on barriers to long term success. Barriers for ASOs need to be addressed more in depth in order to fully realize their potential and to expand upon the existing literature of the general barriers of ASOs in Europe. Exploring these barriers yielded first results which include a limited access to funding and resources, lack of understanding of the creation of a business model, furthermore a lack of infrastructure and difficulty in establishing and sustaining a network with industry partners. Addressing these barriers will require targeted policies, funding, and training programs that enhance entrepreneurial skills and promote collaboration between ASOs and industry partners. Our findings provide insights that can help to improve the success rate of ASOs in Europe and encourage the development of innovative solutions to address societal challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An academic spin-off (ASO) is an enterprise that is founded by researchers or students associated with a university or research institution. ASOs typically commercialize new technologies, products, or services that are based on results of academic research. However, ASOs often face barriers to long-term success. These barriers severely limit the economic and social impact of the research and innovation from ASOs, as well as discourage future researchers from starting their own ASOs. Furthermore, barriers can vary depending on the region and the industry and increase the complexity of this issue. So far very little research has been done to examine the barriers to ASOs in general or in specific industries and regions. Thus, the research question emerges as to what the general barriers to long-term success for ASOs in Europe are. To increase the understanding of the spin-off creation process, we conduct a systematic literature review of existing literature about ASOs and their barriers in general. Previous approaches already classify barriers into micro, meso, and macro levels. Other models exist that examine the spinning-off process with respect to a temporal level. In order to combine both dimensions, the frameworks mentioned above were merged in the first step and expanded with current research in the second step with a particular focus on barriers to long term success. Barriers for ASOs need to be addressed more in depth in order to fully realize their potential and to expand upon the existing literature of the general barriers of ASOs in Europe. Exploring these barriers yielded first results which include a limited access to funding and resources, lack of understanding of the creation of a business model, furthermore a lack of infrastructure and difficulty in establishing and sustaining a network with industry partners. Addressing these barriers will require targeted policies, funding, and training programs that enhance entrepreneurial skills and promote collaboration between ASOs and industry partners. Our findings provide insights that can help to improve the success rate of ASOs in Europe and encourage the development of innovative solutions to address societal challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines current research into the impact of climate change on wine production and wine tourism, as well as reporting on a set of interviews with wine professionals in the Douro valley of Portugal and the Finger Lakes region of the United States. The literature review and interviews are used to assess the likely impact of climate change on wine production in each region and the expected ability of wine makers to maintain traditional wine styles and grape choices in the face of changing climate. It also explores the possible relationship between traditional wine styles and wine tourism in new and old-world regions. This paper's conclusions suggest the possibility that changes in a traditional wine style would affect wine tourism in a given region. They also conclude that climate change is already affecting traditional wine styles, particularly in Oldworld regions of Europe and that wine makers may eventually be unable to sustain a wone style in any region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deal. While larger corporations have initiated a transition towards more sustainable and data-driven business, only a limited part of SMEs in Europe are actively investing in Twin innovation. Most SMEs presume elevated costs of Twin innovation and are unaware of the potential impact on their business performance. The study describes a usable generic framework to analyse the Twin innovation options, the impact on business performance and a roadmap for implementation by SMEs in the construction sector. The paper offers practical tools for SME owners and directors seeking to engage in Twin innovation. The findings are also relevant for other researchers in this field interested to gain a better understanding of twin innovation, as well as policy makers who seek to steer support programs towards innovation in SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Twin green and digital innovation is a fundamental element of the European SME Strategy and European Green Deal. While larger corporations have initiated a transition towards more sustainable and data-driven business, only a limited part of SMEs in Europe are actively investing in Twin innovation. Most SMEs presume elevated costs of Twin innovation and are unaware of the potential impact on their business performance. The study describes a usable generic framework to analyse the Twin innovation options, the impact on business performance and a roadmap for implementation by SMEs in the construction sector. The paper offers practical tools for SME owners and directors seeking to engage in Twin innovation. The findings are also relevant for other researchers in this field interested to gain a better understanding of twin innovation, as well as policy makers who seek to steer support programs towards innovation in SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimulating innovation has been key in addressing policy challenges facing small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Visegrad countries. Innovational activities among firms within the Visegrad countries have given firms a competitive advantage. Understanding some factors that influence process and product innovation and their impact are very necessary for deciding on the innovation strategy that leads to successful innovation. The study assesses some external factors that SMEs within Visegrad countries find most detrimental to their innovative activity using document analysis. Twenty-five articles were reviewed from the web of science, Scopus, and Google scholar databases, thus, from 2006 to 2020. The articles revealed the innovation types of SMEs in the Visegrad countries and external factors influencing innovation the most. The document analysis results show that external factors such as spatial and locational, markets for firms’ product, public policy, society, and environmental factors are very important for SMEs product and process innovation outcomes. Again, the study not only gives insights into the SME's innovation literature but rather a wake-up call to SME's practitioners and stakeholders on the need to ensure sustainable SME's given the swift growth of innovation across the globe. Limitation and future research directions are presented at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Intellectual capital" is a new term for key resources of a firm that enable it to compete on challenging market. Such assets as IT-systems, brand, employees' knowledge and competencies are crucial for any company. However, large stocks of these resources do not lead to success automatically. The main purpose of this paper is to find out how interconnections between intellectual capital components contribute to company value. We test empirically linear and non-linear relationship between intellectual capital components and business performance with the assumption of their mutual influence on each other. From the theoretic point of view we combine the theory of intellectual capital with Value-Based Management concept and Resource-Based View in order to investigate the way that firm's intellectual resources transform into its value. There are two main problems when dealing with intellectual capital. The first one is intellectual capital evaluation. Previous papers on this topic are usually based on either questionnaire data or information from financial reports. However, questionnaire survey has significant disadvantage as the data obtained include subjective opinion of respondents. Financial reports lack for information about amount of firm's intellectual capital. Therefore we propose another way to estimate intellectual capital components. Each of three components - human capital, structural capital and relational capital - is measured through the set of financial and non-financial proxy indicators which are collected from company's reports and its web-site. Further these data are aggregated in first principal components through factor analysis to obtain the comprehensive view of intellectual capital structure. The second problem is to measure the value that has been created by intellectual resources. We chose two measures - market capitalization and market-to-book ratio. Proposed method of analysis of intellectual capital is used on the sample of 59 firms from European countries with high level of economic and knowledge development. The sample covers five year period (from 2005 to 2009). We used the LS method to assess the direct and indirect relationships between intellectual capital and corporate value. This study contributes in different ways. Firstly, it helps researchers and management to understand what synergetic effects between intellectual capital's components take place. Secondly, it proposes an application of principal components method for investigating intellectual capital. Also it helps to recognize the level of homogeneity of intellectual capital elements that are combined in human capital, structural capital or relational capital and therefore are interpreted as describing one aspect of firm's activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definition of Intellectual Capital (IC) and the methodology of creating Intellectual Capital Statements (ICS) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as in larger companies and organizational networks have been adequately researched over the last years. The experience gained from more than 1.000 implementations of ICS in European companies has been utilized to derive a standard set of 15 IC factors according to the common categorization into Human Capital, Structural Capital and Relational Capital, which is stable and mainly applicable on the company-level. Since the concept of IC on the company level has been established, first investigations have started to come up with different concepts of IC and ICS on the regional level. These concepts show that both, the definition of IC and the procedure for implementing ICS on the regional level, are not adequately investigated yet though. Therefore, the requirement is to develop and test a stable regional IC concept, meaning a suitable definition of IC and an adjusted procedure for implementing ICS on the regional level. Against this background, the paper at hand seeks to illustrate a conceptual framework for determining and measuring IC on different actor levels (micro, meso and macro level). The illustration of the conceptual framework is based on a literature review of four different regional IC concepts from Germany and of further existing Intellectual Capital concepts on regional and national level. The findings indicate that the definition of IC and the procedure of implementing ICS on the regional level are not adequately investigated yet and an adapted procedure with a balanced combination of quantitative measurement and qualitative assessment of IC is required. The paper introduces a preliminary set of harmonized IC success factors for regions based on a recent survey and workshop with more than 65 representatives from the local and regional level in Germany carried out in September 2014. Furthermore, the paper discusses possible approaches of procedures for implementing Intellectual Capital Statements on the regional level, which is and will be investigated further on in current and planned research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates uses of blended learning in teacher education where students participate through respectively webinars, seminars and self-directed group work to study literacy. Based on a recently implemented study activity model that aims to strengthen teacher students' academic activity, the paper asks how different patterns of relationships and spatial arrangements produce student activity in specific ways. How are forms of participation, learning and presence performed through webinars, seminars and group activities and in connections between these activities? How do technologies participate in and contribute to creating student activity, engagement and learning? The paper builds on research in a Danish teacher education college where a study activity model has been implemented as part of a joint model for activity in professional higher education. In this model learning is understood through forms of activity that are either student or teacher initiated. However, in practice not only students and lecturers participate in and produce these activities, technologies such as smartboards, pc's, online platforms and cloud based environments are also significantly involved in creating activities, engagements and learning opportunities. The research project investigates these relationships by studying the arrangements and practices of activities through observations of different activities and interviews with students. Preliminary results from these interviews suggest that arrangements of activities not only vary significantly, but also affect students' preferences and experienced potential for learning in different ways. Methodologically, the research is inspired by sociomaterial approaches to education that understand learning activities as entanglements created through dynamic relationships between human and material participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new Big Data research team called DABAI have been launched in Denmark, which aims at integrating cutting edge computer science research from machine learning, algorithms and visualization into the education sector. The educational part of the DABAI project is a cooperation between Danish universities and multiple enterprises providing e- Learning solutions for the Danish market. The companies' services cover over 90% of the Danish schools, with more than one million students, who on a daily basis do millions of exercises and interactions using the involved companies' solutions. The study presented in this paper is an initial investigation of the needs of the three largest companies in e-Education in Denmark directly involved in DABAI, with the goal being to continue providing novel and high-demand features for their customers. The three companies are MaCom, Clio Online, and EduLab. Clio Online and EduLab provide an online platform for teaching material and exercises for the primary school level covering all subjects. MaCom provides a lecture management system used by most Danish high schools. Overall the study shows that the problems encountered at the different companies are varied, but can be categorized into three general sub categories: Student Profiling, Content Profiling, and Content Recommendation. Some problem types fall into multiple sub categories, and in general to accomplish the goal of providing e-Learning of the highest quality, research into all of them is necessary. This paper presents the fundamental problems these companies are facing in e-Learning. For each encountered problem, we describe its objectives and challenges in detail, followed by the current state of the art for solving it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences across regions within countries are often greater than differences between countries, yet economists, policymakers and international organizations have paid less attention to regional development than national growth. Regions should promote their own growth by mobilizing local assets and resources so as to capitalize on their specific competitive advantages, rather than depending on national transfers and subsidies to help them grow. Traditional policies based only on infrastructure provision or schooling are not sufficient for this task; instead, a more comprehensive policy is called for, one that integrated these two policies in a co-ordinated agenda across levels of government and that foster business development and innovation. This paper aims to look into the determinant role of innovation at regional level for potentially explaining the variations in growth among regions in Europe. The paper provides in the first section a literature review on existing studies related to regional development and innovation. The second section provides a brief description of the methodology and continues with the results before concluding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SMEs face severe difficulties in accessing the external financing that supports their innovative activities. One important reason for this is that the innovative capacity of most SMEs is extensively based on intangibles and that there are no international or national standards for reflecting the value of these. This means that financial institutions are reluctant to include them in their risk analyses. The objective of this paper is to show how both SMEs and financial institutions can benefit from using a commonly agreed Intellectual Capital report for financing innovation activities. The paper is based on the results of 9 case studies with SMEs from various sectors, in which we partially applied the InCas (Intellectual Capital Statement made in Europe) methodology, developed within the 6th Framework Programme. The interviews enabled us to obtain information on 14 selected intangibles, regarding: a) their impact on each company's results; b) company satisfaction with both the quantity and quality of their stock; and c) the degree of systemized management taking into account the 48 indicators proposed by the InCas methodology. In parallel to this process, we conducted interviews with 5 Spanish financial institutions, both public and private, in order to assess the importance that each of the 48 intellectual capital indicators has for their risk analyses. The results from the case studies, which were also tested with a survey, show some interesting conclusions regarding: 1) how useful the methodology is for a company's internal management and as a complement for a financial institution in its risk analysis; 2) the patterns followed by intangibles management in the studied SMEs and its consequences. In addition to this, the study also shows that managing intangibles pays off in terms of productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is some reticence on the outlined models of developing and operating networks topromote and support common goals and on the results and the sustainability of actions initiated by the networks,we consider network governance effective in supporting entrepreneurship. After a short literature review ofnetwork governance and regional entrepreneurship network concepts, the paper presents a case study ofregional inclusive entrepreneurship network in North – Vest and West Regions of Romania based on Holley'sapproach - AntrESNetwork, relevant and sustainable at regional level. The paper concludes that empoweringregional entrepreneurship networks in a country like Romania confronted both with the economic-financial crisisand European integration challenges could be a good example of "learning" network governance based onpartnership and innovation culture. Moreover, encouraging regional entrepreneurship networks dedicated toinclusive entrepreneurship and promoting entrepreneurship as a mean of self-employment and employment,could lead to more rapidly "exist the crisis" and regional economies recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the widespread use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry has had a substantial impact on consumer and managerial practices. As a driving force for innovation, ICT has not only changed the way stakeholders and consumers interact, but also redesigned tourist experiences as whole. This on-going digital revolution has also affected the training sector, particularly Higher Education Institutions (HEI), which are now being challenged to adopt more flexible training methods and tools. This growing flexibility mirrors the industry's own growth, as there has been an escalating demand for human resources who are well-equipped with transversal skills and able to adapt to the apace-evolving market demands. Based on a literature review focusing on recent peer-reviewed, opensource research published within the last 5 years, this paper focuses on the use of mobile learning in tourism education in European HEI. After establishing a theoretical framework and clearly defining the key concepts and methodology, the author describes the current state of the art regarding mobile learning and tourism and outlines the different ways European HEI are incorporating mobile learning into their tourism programs and courses. The different initiatives are divided into categories, which are then analysed considering their impact, perceived limitations and improvement potential. Overall, it is possible to find examples of how tourism courses are incorporating mobile learning into their programs, namely by using mobile devices to support communication and learning activities. Even though this is still an emerging research topic, there are several projects highlighting the affordances of mobile learning within tourism education and training, pairing it with other trending research areas such as gamification and e-tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European universities have been immersed during the last decades in crucial structural changes throughout the so-called "Bologna process" to ensure comparability in the standards and quality of higher education qualifications. The main objectives of the process were to: develop a system of easily readable and comparable degrees, adopt a system with two main cycles (undergraduate/graduate), establish a system of credits, promote mobility by overcoming legal recognition and administrative obstacles, promote European co-operation in quality assurance, and promote a European dimension in higher education. Our universities are still undergoing a major change process including several measures and initiatives partly started even before the Bologna agreement (Nickel 2011). The fact that a change process turns out to be more complex than envisaged before is a common phenomenon. Thus, despite the efforts, there is a danger that the changes proposed might only be "cosmetic". The effects of the Bologna process in the real organisation of European universities should be studied more carefully. To avoid a "cosmetic" reform, it is important to understand that the Bologna Process will only be a reality with the joint commitment of national and European level institutions (Berlin Conference 2003), and with the involvement of the whole university community. In this context, the paper takes a look at the current state of Intellectual Capital (IC) reporting and managing at universities, with special attention on the role of teaching while considering the three pillars of IC: human, structural and relational capital. Most of IC indicators used by universities focus on research and third mission while less on teaching. This contradicts the fact that Bologna shall strengthen the role of education and teaching in universities and improve organisation and management. How can this gap of objectives and practical implementation be overcome? The analysis of a case study of a German faculty where teaching and learning play a major strategic role serve us to illustrate how far evaluation and quality management in teaching indirectly lead to practical IC management, although not wearing this name. Finally we suggest a set of indicators for IC management, and eventually reporting, in teaching, that can practically be introduced to universities' monitoring and evaluation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the developed and the developing countries face problem due to the aging employees (i.e. those aged 50 and above). It is expected that by 2020, people in the 50-64 age group in the U.S. labour force will be 25.2% and in European Union countries the number of people in the 50-64 age group will increase by 25%, while those in the 20-29 year age group will decrease by 20 %. A further factor contributing to an aging workforce is the fact that employment rates among older workers are increasing. The reason for these changes is due to two demographic trends: decreasing fertility levels and higher life expectancy. This development will affect the performance of organization next decades. The aging employees will mainly affect the organizations ability to be productive. Although growing number of older workers are willing to extend their working career, but the evidence suggests that employers favour early retirement rather than retention of older workers. This paper address a comparative study of European Union countries and United States on the importance of aging employees to current and future labour markets, relatively about the ways in which employers' attitudes, policies and practices influence their recruitment and retention. It is essential to retain the aging workforce in an organization in order to avoid the labour shortages and also to retain the knowledge and expertise of the employees. When older experts leave the workforce, they take with them significant experience and critical knowledge essential for the smooth management of organizations. Employers, however, are often unaware of who possesses expertise, or the nature of that expertise. Strategies such as workforce development, altered workforce policies and practices can be implemented to retain the senior employees in an organization. The policies should be changed in order to manage the aged workforce like increasing the retirement age, altering the retirement incentives to meet the expectations of greater longevity, flexibility and old-age pension agreements. Also, cultural and legal efforts should be taken to avoid age discrimination issues between the aged and the youth. Moreover, training can be provided to meet the labour shortage and to ensure professional development among the senior employees. Approaches to recover or recreate knowledge after it is lost are not sustainable in terms of prudent knowledge management. Organizations need to develop a deeper understanding of where expertise resides and how it is retained. This paper present the retention processes of an individual expert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Management Information Systems (MIS) are necessary at local level. MIS have to be able to estimate and control intangible capitals as the main source of wealth creation. Traditional analysis of internal accounting based on economic and financial models for companies, or supported by the economic analysis of income and employment, provides a short-term picture. In other words, the long term is not at the forefront and the value of the entity being studied is not conveniently quantified. Therefore, tools and approaches that provide a full future vision of any organization or institution should be a strategic priority for economic development. In this line, both the Lisbon Strategy and Leipzig Charter (2007) on Sustainable European Cities recognize that cities are "centers of knowledge and sources of growth and innovation". The exploitation of this knowledge depends on factors such as: training, existence of social and cultural networks, cultural excellence in research centers and the networks of exchange between science and industry. For this reason, integrated urban development policies are necessary. These policies support communication networks and optimize location structures as strategies that provide opportunities for social and democratic participation for the citizens. In order to achieve the above objectives, it is necessary to have tools to measure a territory's knowledge, that is, to design models to identify measure and monitor the different elements of this knowledge. This paper proposes a theoretical model to measure and evaluate this knowledge using the concept of national intellectual capital. National intellectual capital is based on the intangible assets used in the business approach. The measure of the intellectual capital of cities enables us to determine what we must take into account to make cities a source of wealth, prosperity, welfare and future growth. Furthermore, local intellectual capital provides a measure of hidden wealth of the city and a new indicator with a long run vision to compare to. This capital is essential for the economic growth of cities, but estimation in cities depends on the level of information available. Thus, in this paper we develop and explain how to implement a model to estimate intellectual capital in cities. In this sense, our proposal is to provide a model for measuring and managing intellectual capital using socio-economic indicators for cities. These indicators offer a long term picture supported by a comprehensive strategy for those who occupy the local space, infrastructure for implementation and management of the environment for its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fall down a rabbit hole and enter into a digital world where reality and fantasy intermingle and avatars are not only phenomenological but also tactile. Beyond the eBook: the Pinocchio revolution--when the protagonist comes to life delves beyond the eBook into a digital fiction unrecognizable in the traditional sense of fiction. This paper focuses on research that examines the covert fiction practiced on facebook. This fiction involves cybercitizens that are stuffies (in Europe they are referred to as fluffies)--stuffed animal toys. The stuffies do not represent an actual human individual but rather, an autonomous fictional character created by a (covert) human being. Though the characters' identities often intertwine with that of their human creator. The ethnographical research uncovers a secret world where the boundaries between fantasy and reality are blurred. The role of identity, authority, agency, audience and the evolution of story: the hypertextual (multi layered digital texts, graphics, audio and links to other sites) ways in which the story is "written" are examined (Davis and Merchant 2007). facebook story is both fiction/non fiction and offline/online distinctions are blurred as worlds become indistinguishable. It is a novel and covert approach to creating fiction--the participants are violating facebook policy by their mere existence, as all facebook members must be an actual human being with a minimum age of 13 (facebook 2010). This adds a dimension of tension to the story as one creates with the constant threat that their "work" and cyber identity may vanish at any moment. The study challenges the multifaceted role of researcher as participant, covert creator and researcher. Theories that influence the study are the multi semiotic theory, multiliteracies theory and popular culture as everyday culture theory and the theory of hybridity (Hagood 2008; Black 2008; Elkins and Wyatt-Smith 2008). Furthermore, as the cybercitizens are both tactile and phenomenological, the theories of technological immersion and phenomenological immersion are explored in the paper. The research will benefit the areas of Education, Media, Literacy and the Arts. Exploring new ways in which story is evolving through a multiliteracies theory is important for educators. facebook fiction includes but is not limited to online: prose, poetry, video, audio, photography, multi-authoring, role-playing, and social interaction. As well as offline: art creation, set design, costume design, travel and social interaction. Especially interesting to educators and new media designers will be the formation of online identity and the relationships between identity, cyberidentity, cybercitizenship, cybercommunity and cyberartifact (Thomas 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a strategy for the research of leadership and entrepreneurial learning and development processes in a small business context. It is relevant to wide ranging local, national and European policies to develop SME entrepreneurial leadership practice and SME growth. Leadership is probably the most important factor to business success (Analoui and Karami 2003). Yet, as Rae and Carswell (2000) point out, a greater understanding is needed of the nature and the process of entrepreneurship in terms of how people learn to start and grow businesses, especially those that become high performing businesses. The authors argue that the life story approach is an industrious and valid method of researching entrepreneurial learning. It is noted elsewhere that empirical understanding of the informal processes of leadership learning of entrepreneurs is limited (Kempster and Cope 2010). Offering a solution in the field of leadership studies, Kuhnert and Russel (1990) propose biographical data can illuminate the development processes involved in life events. Biography as a methodology teaches us about life and human behaviour; it can help us to understand individual motives, personality, the people and conditions that influenced an individual in a way that brings their life and work to life. "Biography adds flesh to the bones of achievement; it adds human form to the spirit of ideas and emotions" (Jones 1998 p. 161). Howe (1982) suggests biographical data can draw out a person's uniqueness and provide insights into individual human development that reveal the relationship between earlier experience and later achievements. It has been argued that biographical research is equal to more traditional approaches adopted in the field of small medium enterprise, and can tap into the intangible nature of creativity, whilst also introducing creativity and imagination into the research process (Fillis 2006). Methodologically, biographical research can involve a range of data-collection methods and analytical approaches. This research involves biographic narrative interpretive method interviews. These begin with a single initial narrative-inducing question. 'Minimalist- passive' (Wengraf 2000) interview techniques facilitate uninterrupted narration. Thematic questioning follows and finally non-narrative questions can be posed (Wengraf 2004). The sample is drawn from owners of small medium enterprises (SMEs) registered on a leadership and development programme known as 'LEAD Wales'. The programme is backed by funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) and Welsh Assembly Government. The study forms part of a larger research agenda that will track the longer term effects of the intervention. A sample of 17 biographical interviews will form part of the initial study but this target will remain fluid. Despite its scope, limited contributions to the literature on biography emerge from this field. This paper will explore the feasibility of biographical research in the context of LEAD Wales by critically reflecting on this work in progress and the potential contribution of biography as a means of exploring the temporal nature of the lived experience, and an appreciation in the self and representations of the self as an entrepreneur and leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become more and more common in enterprises, not only in large enterprises but also in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although virtually nobody really doubts their importance for running a business, some even consider ERP systems to be a de facto price of entry for running a business, as there is sentiment regarding their implementation - both in terms of time and money. The question asked in this paper is to what extent ERP system implementation costs exceed planned costs in SMEs within a European context that is characterized by, for instance, fixed price policy. Our literature review suggests lack of empirical research in this field as such, and especially in SMEs in the European context (as opposed to the North American). The questionnaire research which focused on this issue was conducted in Denmark, Slovakia and Slovenia. The dependent variable was a percentage of actual ERP system implementation costs vis-à-vis the planned ones. The independent variables were country, company size, information strategy, and representation of the IT department on board level. According to the collected data, companies with information strategy were more likely to stay on budget. It seems that SMEs in all countries did not have extra resources for unplanned ERP system-related expenditures, as it might have been the case in large enterprises. Although surprising that representation of the IT department on board level did not automatically result in fewer overruns, it may be argued that, for example, CIOs were likely not only to manage implementation projects better, but were also able to request additional funds for unplanned customizations or training. Overall, 74.2% of companies stayed on budget, and on average, companies spent 104.3% of what they originally planned to spend. These results suggest a higher success rate in European SMEs than in American ones surveyed by Standish Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Commission of the European Communities (2006) estimates in its report that one third of all EU entrepreneurs will leave within the next ten years. Combined with the situation that (1) the majority of Europeans prefer being an employee and (2) the changing demography will reduce the pool of potential successors over the next decades this paper argues that external (non-family) successors take on an important role and are in a position to choose the company, which best matches their expectations. A successful company succession is based on a multitude of different aspects. In the case of external succession the available funds represent a critical point. However, the assumption is that the decision for or against a company is based on other factors. It is hypothesised that the potential external successor will be interested in those companies offering potential expansions, which may, in turn, improve the likelihood of financial support. In view of the increasing relevance of intangible assets within the firm, it is suggested these assets primarily influence the external successor to go further in the succession process. Thus, it is expected that the future perspectives of the company are founded on its inherent intangibles and therefore justify a financial investment. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of intangible assets as seen from the viewpoints of external successors. The strategy of research behind this paper is the application of a mixed methods approach which is divided into a survey approach and a case study approach (given priority). Within the quantitative stage a web-survey is used to obtain data on the relevance of intangible assets in terms of external company succession in SMEs whilst addressing members of German trade corporations and chambers of commerce. The results of the quantitative study were enhanced through qualitative interviews with ten external successors in SMEs. The data which was gathered explores the role of intangible assets during their decision-making stage as to whether or not they should enter the company. Intangible assets are found to be important features for external successors. Specifically five intangibles can be highlighted: brand, partner(s), key-employees, knowledge retention, and corporate culture. The critical intangibles are summarised in a conceptual framework. The findings suggest that in the case of external succession, intangible assets have a remarkable influence on the external successor's decision-making and therefore traditional issues in the view of company succession such as tax, legal and, financial aspects should be extended to include intangible aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the European economy has gradually been recognized. At the same time, information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) have opened up new business opportunities for some SMEs, while others are fighting for survival. Apart from economic variables like company size, industry or capital funding (or lack thereof), management awareness of the dangers and opportunities posed by IS and IT and the abilities of IT personnel to react to these have been shown to play a major role in the future of many SMEs. Based on the empirical and theoretical findings by a vari-ety of authors, this paper will propose a model for assessing the value of IT personnel in SMEs. First, the strategic context in which IS are deployed in a company must be addressed because it is a major determinant of the value of IS to the company and of the types and levels of skills necessary in its employees. The "focus-dominance model" developed and tested by (Levy et al. 2001) will be discussed and used to cluster SMEs according to stra-tegic focus and costumer dominance. Second, the "competitive advantage provided by IS" is proposed for meas-uring the success of IS in a company. The main advantage of using this measure is the fact that it has already been validated and used in an exploratory analysis by (Byrd et al. 2001) which strives to show how IS success is affected by IT personnel skills. The skills will be clustered using four dimensions: (1) technology management skills, (2) business functional skills, (3) interpersonal skills and (4) technical skills. (Lee et al. 1995) This frame-work has been used repeatedly in studies on IT personnel skills, e.g. by (Byrd et al. 2001), and therefore allows referring to said empirical studies. In addition to skill dimensions, skill levels - which have been neglected in much of the previous research on IT personnel skills - will be included in the model. The approach by (Dreyfus et al. 1987) and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA Foundation) will be discussed. It is expected that future empirical tests of the model will show that value and success of IS depend on available skill levels, while the availability of more highly skilled employees may be restricted due to lack of funding. When the model proposed here is tested empirically, it is hoped that it will provide some guidance to SME managers regarding their IS/IT personnel investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores game-based dialogues and games for enabling participation and furthering social inclusion in diverse educational settings and carves out aspects impacting this process. The data-base - documentation and initial interpretation of observations of reflective workshops - stems from the eCrisis-project (funded through means of the Erasmus+ program; in collaboration among Universities of Vienna, Malta and Athens). The project aims at tackling crisis across Europe arising from global uncertainties, financial crisis, the disruptions of social security and the partial inability of communities to cope with diversity (e.g. arrival of refugees and political provisions implied). The workshops entailed gaming sessions using two digital (Iconoscope and Village Voices, developed in earlier projects) and a couple of board games such as UNO and LUDO. These play-sessions were followed by a reflective debate. Diverse participants in different settings (such as classrooms and special events held at University) were invited to 'simply' play games. Participants were free to choose whether they preferred to play by themselves or with others, the type and kind of game and the duration of playing individually. These sessions with a focus on interaction patterns were observed by the project team and thereafter discussed among the participants. The number of participants spanned between 4 and 20, their ages from around 10 to 40. The participants were made up of pupils, students, refugees, persons with and without disabilities, teachers, etc. Initial findings show the violence of discursive practices such as belittlement in negotiating who plays with whom and according to which rules. These navigating processes will be described and analyzed. Initial ideas for the implementation of games in the context social inclusion will be introduced, along with plans to evaluate the outcome of this process on the students' level of understanding and their ability to handle and resolve conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations improve the prosperity and living conditions of inhabitants of every economy. Therefore they is a priority of social and economic development policy of the European Union (EU). The biggest portion of the EU budget for 2007-2013, equal to 170 billion EUR, was given to the new EU members from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for the increase of the competitiveness and innovation of their economies. Overall national contribution amounted nearly 40 billion EUR. As the EU beneficiaries those countries were able to significantly expand and stimulate national innovation systems. The purpose of this study is to check whether the innovation policy of the Central and Eastern Europe countries has been utilized efficiently, and if yes, which of the CEE coutries, including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia, are the leaders. Analyzed data covered the 2007-2013 period. The results indicate that not every country covered by the research used enabling funds efficiently. On the other hand, we found out that the leaders of the effectiveness in the field of innovation policy were Latvia and Estonia. We use input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) input-oriented. We conduct research in a comprehensive way, taking into account, key sources of the expenditure on pro-innovation activities, such as the EU funds and national contribution as input data. Subsequently all the inputs have been related to a wide range of key indicators to measure the effects of policy innovation in a field of science, technology and macroeconomic of each country, which has been used as output data. Additionally, the results were also collated with independent innovation rankings, drawn up by the governments as well as NGOs. We also indicate which Central Eastern Europe countries and their innovation systems can serve as a model for further development of innovation policy in the European Union budgetary perspective of 2014-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal for Europe 2020 is smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. The source of such growth is inter alia and maritime economy. Although maritime transport is the largest portion of the maritime economy, other sectors are favoured more in the pursuit of sustainable growth. The aforementioned sectors consist of: aquaculture, coastal tourism, marine biotechnology, ocean energy, and seabed mining. All of the activities listed above demand one key driver: human resources accompanied by proper marine experience. Unfortunately the shortage of maritime officers which began a few years ago has been steadily worsening. Many organizers (e.g. International Maritime Organization), institutions (e.g. the European Union) and governments have taken actions to reduce the scale of the shortage but the results up to this point have been unsatisfactory. This paper refers to the governance and the ideas created on the international, regional, and national levels in light of the actions taken by maritime training institutions (especially universities). The authors studied documents prepared by various institutions on different levels devoted to solving the shortage of human resources. They also checked what level of involvement the university educated officers had in the process. The first part of research focused on the official documents, the second one - on the survey. The research was undertaken in Poland at the Gdynia Maritime University (GMU) and at the Croatian University of Dubrovnik (UD). They were based on a survey with closed and semi-closed questions. The main questions were: * How do young people find out about maritime studies? * Who inspired them to take maritime studies? * Are maritime studies their first choice? * What do they know about the work and living on the sea? The results show that the goals of governance institutions and expectations of universities are divergent. Realization of Blue Growth and Europe 2020 Strategies demand well-educated, highly qualified human resources. The maritime universities need just students. The results of research show that: * Less than 10% respondents decided to study at GMU and at UD due to promotional activities undertaken by both universities. * 34% of Polish and 23% of Croatian students chose their studies under influence of their family or friends. * For 16% of students (both nationalities) maritime studies weren't the first choice of studies. * The image that students had of their future work in the maritime field was far off from reality. The research findings reveal the differences between the goals of governance and the institution which should be engagement in realization of the strategies. Without goal alignment between European governance and the entities involved in Europe 2020 - smart and sustainable development will be impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe there is a very high concentration of small enterprises operating not only in local but also in international markets. In the past, these firms have shown a lower propensity to invest in information and communication technologies (ICT), when compared with larger companies. The main reasons were technologies' high prices and small firms' inability tofully understand and exploit the strategic potential of new technologies. Recently several factors have encouraged small firms to adopt digital technologies, mainly web 2.0 tools, like social media. Social media offer plenty of opportunities for small enterprises: they can interact with their stakeholders and can receive opinions/suggestions to improve their products/services. In this paper we analyse the adoption and use of social media by a sample of 48 small firms. The analysis allows to identify some specificity in the way small firms use social media and to assess their ability to exploit technologies' potential. Data has been collected by websites' analysis, a questionnaire survey and interviews with entrepreneurs and/or ICT/Marketing managers. Results show that social media open a wide range of opportunities for small firms, because they are cheap and don't require high-level technological competences. Small firms are starting to realize the importance of virtual channels to achieve business goals and are gradually learning to take advantage from the use of such technologies, although often introduced as an element of curiosity or because they are considered "fashionable". Small enterprises using social media are open to relationships with external stakeholders (customers, suppliers, sponsors, partners) and willing to share business information. This way of doing business represents a breakdown of traditional organization models. Micro and small enterprises, which are usually deep-rooted in their local environment, may take advantage of web 2.0 technologies and ecommerce sections to operate in a global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing with low cost production from developing countries is difficult for European companies as well for companies from other developed countries. Innovations can be one of their best competitive advantages in this fight. This may be the reason why innovation and creativity management is such a popular topic today. Many papers and research examining innovation management can be found describing conditions to support creativity of employees and ways to enhance their innovation potential. Despite the fact that well-known works of Amabaile or Ekvall were discussed and developed in many other works, there is a lack of information whether these conditions have the same effect also on operatives and non-creative workers. In big industrial companies, operatives represent large part of company's employees and they are close to the manufacturing process. For these reasons, they are able to come with innovative ideas (especially with regards to process innovation) that could not be seen by knowledge workers, officers and executives. Although companies mostly recognize this potential, there is nearly no academic evidence of potential specifics of factors enhancing creativity and innovative work behaviour of operatives. The main objective of this paper is to refer about quantitative questionnaire research among operatives and non-creative workers in big Czech business companies during autumn 2013. This research focused on the importance of work environmental stimulants and obstacles described by Amabile. It is to find out whether these work environmental stimulants lead to process innovation among operatives or not and which of these stimulants are the most successful in achieving this goal. It is also to find out if the work environmental obstacles hinder process innovation among these employees. The collected data were analyzed by means of regression analysis and only small evidence was found for environmental stimulants and obstacles. The Poisson model was then used to verify the final model with only one Amabile's environmental stimulant accepted and statistically verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to highlight practical challenges in the process of the adoption of blended learning, and to suggest specific solutions, which may be applicable to all types of academic institutions, but are primarily intended for small private organizations. One of the barriers discussed in the paper is the skeptical attitude of faculty. While many institutions are embracing online methods of instruction, there are still many academics who are not convinced. Researchers have identified the resistance of faculty as a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of various forms of e-learning. The reasons behind this notorious resistance to innovation are well understood by now, but there have been few attempts to provide specific suggestions for how to transform this attitude. The strongest argument is usually the evidence of the improved learning outcomes. However, as many researchers admit, it may be difficult to collect such evidence. We propose a different approach. Our suggestion is to focus on measuring the level of student satisfaction and the improvements in students' learning experience. High level of student satisfaction is particularly important for private institutions, and therefore it may be a powerful practical argument in favor of blended learning. The paper shares the experience of adopting blended learning at a private postgraduate institution in Southern Europe. In 2011 the Chairman of this business school set the goal to introduce e-learning to enrich the traditional ways of teaching and learning. The author of this paper, one of the resident professors, has been given the task of leading the blended learning initiative at the school. The research presented in this paper is of empirical nature, and is using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings of the paper are based on the author's observations from interviews with faculty, staff, students and alumni, and also on the results of the students' surveys conducted by the author over the period of January 2012 - April 2013. The main findings of this paper can be summarized as follows. For the successful adoption of blended learning the positive attitude of faculty, staff and students is of crucial importance. An effective way to change the attitude of academics is to start the process with only one blended course (or just a few), which will be created and run as a pilot test by an enthusiastic professor, with the aim to ensure highly positive feedback from students, and using it as a best convincing argument for innovative teaching. The paper proposes a specific evaluation form to be used in the collection of students' feedback. The author presents the results of such evaluations, and argues that the students' positive responses truly made a difference and transformed the institutional attitude. At the same time, they contributed towards quality assurance and quality enhancement processes at the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of highly educated Southeast Europeans leave their countries in search of a better life. Scientists and researchers are attracted by career opportunities, salaries and better overall conditions abroad. Over the past decade, the number of researchers has seriously declined. Many Southeast European (SEE) countries experience high emigration rates of their skilled professionals. What is typical of brain drain emigrants from SEE is that they usually sever their ties with their country of origin and generally do not send any remittances or interact in substantial ways with the home country. The main goal of this paper is to propose a model for intellectual mobilization of the SEE highly skilled Diaspora by envisioning the creation of a brain circulation network that will foster a regular set of interactions, collaborations, joint grant proposals, joint research projects, co-authorships, visitor exchange, joint ventures and alike, between the highly educated Diaspora and their counterparts in the countries of origin. This will provide expatriates with the opportunity to transfer their expertise and skills to the country of origin, without necessarily returning home permanently. In this way, the countries of origin, i.e. SEE countries, will have access to the knowledge and expertise of the expatriates, and to the knowledge networks that they form in the host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illustrates that contemporary literature on organisation and leadership attributes littleattention to the topic of corporate governance. Textbooks on organisation and leadership theory yield no or fewlistings of corporate governance and owner (ownership). This paper does not deal with corporate governanceand the agency theory as such, but rather the way in which these theories are linked to organisation andleadership theory. Additionally, several incidents from business and private organisations have shown theproblems and dramatic consequences of inadequate corporate governance, which in itself call for more researchon this topic. The main reason why corporate governance has been marginalised in the literature appears to bethe prevalence of the open system theory, in which ownership and organisational goals are not essentialtheoretical concepts. According to this theory the owners are but one of many stakeholders. Some scholars evenclaim that organisations do not have any owners. Moreover, the organisational goals are not the goals of theowners, but the goals of the stakeholders or goals of the managers. In order to promote corporate governance asound theoretical foundation is called for. The rationalistic organisation theory constitutes a sound theoreticalfoundation for the principal agency theory and thus for the study of corporate governance. In the rationalistictheory the owners and their goals are given as the reason for the establishment of an organisation. The chiefexecute officer is hired to run the organisation on behalf of the owners in order to achieve organisational goals asdecided by the owners. The principal and agency theory is based on the rationalistic organisation theory in whichowners play a central role in the formulation of goals and establishing as well as controlling the organisation andits managers. Both corporate governance and agency theory need to regain a dominant place in organisationtheory textbooks and in organisation, management, and leadership research. In present-day literature onorganisation, management and leadership theories - based on the open system theory - the owner hasdisappeared. The time has come to reinstate the owner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a common ground, that Intellectual Capital (IC) has become the critical success factor for enterprises operating in a knowledge driven economy. Especially for European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) it is crucial to utilise and manage their intangible resources efficiently in order to obtain their competitive advantage, since they highly depend on specialised human, structural and relational capital for successful differentiation on the market. Therefore, the EU-project "InCaS: Intellectual Capital Statement - Made in Europe" has been designed to help European SMEs in detecting, analysing, managing and reporting their IC in order to strengthen their capability to quickly respond to market needs and thus, increase their competitiveness. As the main project result the "European Guideline for Intellectual Capital Statements (ICS)" has been published in November 2008 summarising the InCaS methodology that has been developed, empirically tested and enhanced during three project phases in close cooperation between IC experts, European business associations and 25 SMEs from five European countries. Aiming at harmonising the different existing national ICS methods on a practical level suitable for SMEs, the InCaS research team discovered two main opposing approaches: While a quantitative measurement of intangible assets suits the requirements of external reporting as it can be standardised and compared more easily, it shares the problems of common balance sheets: standardised indicators and quantitative data can not display the individual business model and strategy in reasonable depth. Therefore, empirical evidence shows that little value for the management and development of IC can be drawn out of those solely quantitative approaches. Qualitative methods, on the other hand, aim at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Intellectual Capital in regard to their future value, taking the individual business model and strategy of the single organisation into account. The European ICS is an instrument to assess, develop and report an organisation's IC, to monitor critical success factors systematically, and to support strategic management decisions. Supported by the software "ICS Toolbox", the workshop-based approach of InCaS combines qualitative and quantitative methods in order to overcome the conceptual dilemma stated above. This paper will describe the InCaS method and implementation process as well as empirical findings from 50 pilot-implementations. The evaluation shows that the methodology has proven to be highly beneficial for internal management purposes allowing to derive specific actions for the well-targeted improvement of IC in the value adding processes of the company. Moreover, the standardised process and structure of the ICS report supports the communication of IC to external stakeholders, as well. If some basic quality requirements outlined in the European ICS Guideline are met, the method can also serve as a basis for comparability between different organisations. A quality assurance concept helps to ensure credibility and trustworthiness of the IC reports, especially for investors and banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness of the concepts of intellectual capital (IC) measurement and management continues to grow world wide. Many organizations have become early adopters of the "technology" of IC. Yet, after more than ten years of development, the field is still not widely known or understood in the mainstream business community. In his bestselling book, Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore explains a fundamental challenge for marketers of new technologies: the chasm between early adopters and mainstream buyers. Early adopters are willing to take risks and make fundamental breakthroughs. Mainstream buyers, in contrast, seek incremental, measurable improvement and a complete product. This paper tells the stories of eight companies from around the world that have used the IC Rating™ intellectual capital assessment (ICR) as part of their management strategies. The stories were developed based on interviews of the key manager who championed the assessment. The goal was to understand why they engaged in an assessment as well as the nature of the findings, what kind of changes the findings inspired and the results from the process (both financial and non-financial). The companies where these managers work are spread across Europe, Asia and the Americas. They include small, private companies; strong, middle market organizations and divisions of the largest multinationals in the world. Different industries are also represented: non-profits, manufacturers, technology and service companies. Despite this diversity, many of the same themes were repeated in the interviews of each manager. It was also clear from these stories that the eight managers interviewed all exhibit the characteristics of "early adopters," as defined by Moore. They each had a strong vision, were willing to fight to sell this "technology" internally. Most felt that the process of evaluating their IC had been extremely positive, even transformational. However, they still have difficulty identifying a clear link between IC and financial results. This still-imperfect link between IC technology and financial results shines light on the chasm between today's early adopters and tomorrow's mainstream buyers. Financial results are a key interest of the mainstream buyer. In order to "cross the chasm" and move into the mainstream, the field of IC will need to do a better job of identifying and documenting the link between intellectual capital and financial measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality assurance in the mechanical industry sector depends to a large extend on effective lifelong skills management. Up to date skills developed through harmonized educational processes in Europe ensure that personnel have the required technical competence and experience to execute specific tasks according to internationally acknowledged quality standards. Up to date qualifications is especially urgent in industries where the output quality depends on the management of production where different categories of staff work. Through ongoing Leonardo da Vinci projects are the experiences from use of Activity Based Training (ABT) disseminated to several European countries. ABT utilizes pedagogical models that have been developed recently. Welders, welding engineers, welding organizations and industrial training organizations constitute model user groups. Instructor training activities provides examples on good practices, learning activities, technical advices based on expert knowledge, good practice based on collective end-user knowledge, and model recommendations for the wide adoption and effective integration of video services into in-company training programs. This paper presents good practices and experiences related to use of video and ABT in skills upgrading, and the extension of ABT into higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of globalization and the change on technological paradigm have important effects in the modeling of new patterns of competition. In this context there is a consensus among specialized researchers that the collaborative learning processes in clusters are crucial for the configuration at the competitive advantage of the companies individually and to the group that forms the cluster. This paper aims at identifying and analyzing the knowledge transmission channels in textile and clothing clusters located in Brazil and in Europe. Primary data was obtained through interviews with key individuals. The collection of primary data was carried out based on a questionnaire with ten categories of indicators of knowledge transmission. Secondary data was also collected through a literature review and through international organizations sites. Similarities related to the use of the main transmission channels of knowledge are observed in all cases. The main similarities are: influence of suppliers of machinery, equipment and raw materials; imitation of products and best practices; training promoted by technical institutions and businesses; and cluster companies being open to acquire new knowledge. The main differences lie in the relationship between companies, where in Europe the intensity of this relationship is bigger when compared to Brazil. The differences also occur in importance and frequency of the relationship with the government, with the cultural environment, and with the activities of research and development. It is also found factors that reduce the importance of geographical proximity in transmission of knowledge, and in generating trust and the establishment of collaborative behavior. This was the reality found in the studied clusters,that currently go through a process of adaptation to the changes in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalisation promotes online education, internationalisation and student mobility. Based on the Bologna process and the European higher education area, learning mobility has been successful under Erasmus and other similar initiatives. However, a key issue for students and universities is that a significant amount of time is spent on the manual labour involved in the process of applying to degree programs overseas. It is therefore essential for higher education institutions to better exploit the potential of technology and Web 2.0 to enable a secure exchange of evidence during application for degree programs and academic courses in foreign Higher Education Institutions, as well as applying for study grants and obtaining recognition for academic and other types of studies. Harmonisation of the student data is a key initial step for enabling such exchange. In this study, an approach to a secured exchange of education evidence is instrumented under the H2020 project Digital Europe for All (DE4A). Existing semantic standards for Web 2.0 applications, core vocabularies for public service data and semantic assets from existing best practices such as W3C, ISA2 core vocabularies, and Europass data model are used to curate data models that allow the exchange of a higher education diploma, secondary education diploma and information of special needs (disability, large family), which is required by students when requesting study grants (waive of tuition fees). The semantic interoperability agreements are established cross-border through these data models called canonical evidences. The canonical evidences are tested with the national data services of three countries, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. The final data models are implemented in XML Schema format that could be used by any educational organisation intending to use trusted public service databases within Europe to automatically retrieve information on students' degrees. The validity of the canonical evidences is tested on two pilot occasions within the DE4A project. The outcome of this study summarises the procedural requirements for evidences when applying for a higher degree program and seeking grants. Furthermore, it resulted in verified canonical evidence data models that fulfil the procedural requirements for applying for studying abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural diversity has become an inevitable issue in many European countries, especially with regards to large cities. In Augsburg - central Bavaria, Germany - 40 percent of the inhabitants today already have an intercultural heritage, which makes this city a scientific looking glass into the future of many European cities. The Institute of Sport Science at the University of Augsburg conducted a compound survey covering various fields of implementation of sport and games activities throughout the local community, referred to as the ASIS (Augsburger Sport und IntegrationsSurvey). The research investigated the difficulties and opportunities inherent in the diverse management of sports and games. Interviews and group discussions with administrators, facilitators and active sports (wo)men of various cultural backgrounds were conducted and evaluated. Based on the findings, a set of recommendations was composed. In this paper, we will summarize the findings of this survey as well as the main recommendations. Also, we present initiative games as a form of serious games and argue that they have ideal features for use in an educational setting in order to raise social awareness and promote cultural diversity in a community. A related research project starting this autumn is briefly outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study about the Beer Distribution Game in higher education as part of e-business courses. The Beer Distribution Game is a web based role playing simulation game of a supply chain. The original game was developed by the System Dynamics Group at MIT in the early 1960s. What is usually referred to as "the beer game" has been played all over the world by thousands of people ranging from high school students to chief executive officers and government officials, and it recreates a supply chain from industrial fabrication of the product to distribution. The simulation illustrates the building up and reinforcing processes of demand fluctuations within the supply chains. Simulations have proved to be very effective instructional techniques because learners cope with a model as if they were confronted with real life experiences. The present study is based on a survey of specified groups of students from two European universities. Based on Kolb's (1984) experience based learning model the different learning styles of student participants were investigated and compared with their attitudes to game based learning in general and the beer game in particular. Students described how playing of the beer game helped them to understand the processes within supply chains and the important role of readily available information to manage these processes. Moreover, the study examined the learning success of students regarding their knowledge about dynamic systems and problems of the supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of negative demographic tendencies many European countries are facing, new measures are required to foster the reproduction of the population. These measures may be based on the concept of labour nature of parenting, which indeed requires many types of resources these days, such as financial, institutional, emotional as well as time. Parental labour is not only of personal nature, but also of social one, which means the outcome of parental labour is in demand in the society and that government should ensure conditions for its fulfilment. We believe government should not be the only agent of demographic policy. Our vision derives from the fact that the major consumer of human resources is business. We surveyed the residents of Russia and Armenia and identified their opinions on how business should contribute to address demographic and social challenges and whether it is necessary. The principal results are the following: 1) Armenian respondents voiced their dissatisfaction with those enterprises which do not pursue social and humanitarian aims in their work; 2) according to Russian respondents, not only the government, but also other institutions, most importantly, business should assist families; 3) among the ways business can contribute to address demographic issues are changing working hours, promoting flexibility in professional activities, etc. The results provided the basis for fundamental principles to initiate corporate demographic policy (CDP) in the countries facing negative demographic tendencies. The CDP aims are two-level: 1) global, namely, to foster results of parental labour, which is of importance for both state and society; 2) local, in particular, to develop the sense of loyalty among personnel, meaning present or future parents. Drawing on the results, we suggested a number of CDP principles, inter alia, 1) treating workers with children as people working two jobs, who simultaneously pursue their professional and parental careers; 2) choosing directions to implement the policy taking into account motives for parental labour among personnel of a particular organisation and the nature of parental labour itself; 3) "supplementary" nature of CDP measures, which presupposes flexibility in introducing those measures which are not pursued by the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship education undergoes a continuously expanding phase for the last twenty years. Emanated from Business Schools in both US and Europe in 90s, fostering the entrepreneurial mindset penetrates now the curricula of the vast majority of academic institutes across the globe. It also tends to exceed the academic milieu leaking into informal learning settings. Nonetheless, the rapid evolution of entrepreneurship education has differentiated its nature by, at least, three different forms: the 'about', 'for' and 'through' ones. The 'about' mode focuses on information and knowledge transfer relevant to entrepreneurial phenomena in the economy and the society, the 'for' mode focuses, beyond knowledge, to entrepreneurial skills and capacities in order to produce graduate entrepreneurs while the 'through' mode aims at transforming traditional disciplines of all kinds into entrepreneurial ones. Further to the previous classification, 'critical' entrepreneurship education can be added as a distinct form for which there is published description and relevant research. The impetus of the present article is to briefly present the distinct forms of entrepreneurship education, as they appear in literature, and to connect them with entrepreneurial learning. Adopting the Bloomian framework of knowledge, skills and attitudes as fundamental components of learning, the article seeks to reveal which of them are in the spotlight in each distinct form of entrepreneurship education. The present conceptual analysis offers insights regarding the teaching models that could be expected in each of the different forms of entrepreneurship education, relevant assessments and outcomes. Excluding the 'through' mode that is visionary at present, evidence and examples of the rest forms abound in literature due to the many implementations of entrepreneurial courses worldwide. The article concludes that entrepreneurship education evolves rapidly in accordance with modern socioeconomic demands, but it also exhibits internal dynamics and differentiation coherent to the nature of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship that need to be further examined and understood in order to analyse the wider role of entrepreneurship education and the expectations from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the academic literature Organizational innovation is, the least researched type of innovation, especially compared with product innovation. In this article we delve into the study of organizational innovation by presenting a comparative analysis of this type of innovation at the European level between 2006 and 2012. This study is based on the data of the Eurostat's Community Innovation Survey (CIS), using CIS 2006 (2006-2008) and CIS 2012 (2010-2012). In a preliminary analysis, we observe a decrease in the organizational innovative activity at the European level. Since it is a study that includes temporal evolution, the article studies the persistence of the organizational innovation in the context of organizational learning and includes other factors such as size, countries and sector organization in the research. When the company size factor is analysed, better performance of the large enterprises in the different types of organizational innovation is observed; when abandonment of organizational innovation is examined, further declined in the small and medium enterprises is identified. Additionally, the role of organizational innovation involving external relations is studied, as organizational innovation is not restricted to organizational structures, administrative processes, and managerial practices "ad intra" but opens to the environment in which the organization develops, and it is influenced by the effect of building innovation communities of practice. Among other contributions, the research shows the deterioration in organizational innovation as one third of the companies that innovated organizationally have stopped doing so in the period analysed, the establishment of preferences among the types of Organisational Innovations, the lower weight of the Innovation in new methods of organising external relations and its good resilience. In terms of sectors, the role that Information and Communication Technologies can play in promoting the organizational innovation seems relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher educational environment in Europe is changing and for the Netherlands this means that the dual educational system (universities and institutes for higher professional education) will disappear. However this is not the only driver of change. Many European countries face a population that is aging and in the near future many lecturers will retire. Also the current financial crisis in Europe is causing many investments in higher education to be delayed. These and other drivers mean that universities need to organize their resources (such as buildings, lecture halls, libraries, IT etc.) in a different manner. Furthermore support staff and administrators within universities need to be more flexible in the way they work to cater to the needs of a new customer group. To identify the changes that are needed and any bottlenecks that can be expected, a study was conducted at the HU University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Professors, managers, staff, and students were interviewed and based on the outcomes a method for a new way of working was developed and IT tools to support this were recommended. Subsequently the method and some of the tools were tested in a pilot with 22 students. One of the most impressive results has been the reduction in the number of e-mails sent. During the pilot several means of communication were used (mainly twitter and Facebook) while the use of e-mail was not allowed. For the lecturers involved this meant a reduction in e-mail from over 1000 mails to fewer than 200 while at the same time the amount of tweets and Facebook postings totaled around 350. This means a reduction of about 45% in the number of messages. Furthermore we also used e-learning to reduce the amount of time that teachers and students needed to be physically present at the university, thereby not only reducing overhead but also helping in realizing the sustainability goals of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the knowledge economy fundamentally changes the way to create wealth. According to new theoretical foundations (Resource Based View, Dynamic Capabilities and Knowledge Based View) key strategic knowledge or Intellectual Capital has become the fundamental driver of wealth creation. A revision of the literature concludes that business excellence has always been due to good strategy formulation and superior strategy implementation. In order to achieve business excellence in the knowledge economy context substantial efforts have been made to improve the process of strategy implementation and some of them have produced relevant frameworks and methodologies, such as Balanced Scorecard and InCaS (Intellectual Capital Statement. Made in Europe). Nevertheless, fewer efforts have been made in the process of strategy formulation and, in practice, the SWOT analysis still is the most well known existing framework. However, in a world where customer preferences are volatile and the identity of customers and the technologies for serving them are changing, a market-focused strategy may not provide the stability and constancy of direction needed as a foundation for long term strategy. When the external environment is in a state of flux, the firm itself, in terms of its bundle of resources and capabilities, may be a much more stable basis on which to define its identity. Hence, a definition of the firm in terms of what it is capable of doing may offer a more durable basis for strategy than a definition based upon the needs the business seeks to satisfy. Consequently, the SWOT analysis methodology can't cope with the new external environment requirements and a kind of improved or extended SWOT analysis is needed. ICBS (Intellectual Capital Benchmarking System) is the output of a practical research on extended or improved SWOT analysis, a framework that knowledge economy requires for successful strategy formulation. ICBS is a new management method that allows companies to perform a competitiveness strategy check-up of their business models. For that purpose, ICBS benchmarks their core innovation and operations intellectual capital against the world class competitors in their sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time period led to a situation, where the business networking was required by circumstances mainly because virtual enterprises offer their members wider options. The influx of foreign investment and aid from public and European sources goes to attractive regions and potentially profitable area, so it is possible to find a various kind of business networking in European regions where the pursuit to strengthening of traditional industry is. This typical case may be seen throughout the world. What has changed? Globalization shows that competition is gradually converted to the need for cooperation. The essence of business networking functions is the current impact of two strategies - cooperation in a competitive environment; it is a phenomenon that cannot function without strong leadership and mutual trust. Together they create a positive synergy that will help them create value chain with maximum efficiency. Intended purpose of this article is to clarify the possibility of virtual enterprises. Active exploitation of the possibilities offered by a business networking, leads to greater competitiveness of participating companies. Cooperation within a virtual enterprise brings numerous benefits and limitations like any other. This article focuses on the benefits that accrue to the initiator of a virtual enterprise that is connected in this business network and defines the process of their quantification. The aim is to define a process for quantifying the benefits for initiator of the virtual enterprise. Companies that are considering the initiation of virtual enterprise emergence should be aware of the benefits and limitations in order to assess whether it is for them to cooperation within the business network sufficiently beneficial. It is the way to motivate especially Small and Medium Enterprises to improve their competitiveness and efficiency through business networks without having to resort to drastic solutions such as production cuts or employees layoffs. The greatest potential for the exercise in this form of business network is offered for small and medium enterprises which have limited resources, where through involvement in these business networks can help create its own influential market position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial proportion of important information transfer in a multinational corporation is lost by inappropriate use of modern communication technologies (the Internet, email, presentation software, videoconferencing, etc.). Current technologies are widely used without realizing potential problems regarding proper information transfer on a managerial level. It has been postulated that realizing these pitfalls and drawbacks could increase company communication efficiency. To test the hypothesis a sample of several multinational companies and SMEs was chosen and the management of these companies was interviewed on the use of modern technologies in everyday company communication trying to discover potential risks. To identify factors responsible for variations in company communication, we examined communication correlation between a parent company and its subsidiary. The results show that intercultural company communication strongly affects levels of company efficiency in the global market. Most importantly, our analysis shows that company efficiency is deeply rooted in effective communication. The findings indicate that communication policy deployment could potentially bring higher efficiency and enhance company competitiveness. The results indicate that the company communication can be ineffective when not using modern technologies properly, systematically and without bearing in mind cultural differences between a parent company and its subsidiary management. However, further research is required to identify the reasons how much these factors influence the company efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering companies face difficulties to utilise the full potential of existing knowledge assets in the enterprise to support product development. The Lean Knowledge Life Cycle (LeanKLC) was developed as a methodology to capture, re-use and create knowledge in the Lean Product and Process Development (LeanPPD) environment. LeanPPD is a project funded by the EU-PF7. The project addresses the needs of European manufacturing companies for a new model that goes beyond lean manufacturing, to ensure the transformation of the enterprise into lean environment. The research methodology comprises three main elements: a) literature review and industrial field study b) the LeanKLC development c) action research and d) case study validation. As opposed to common Knowledge Life Cycle (KLC) methods, the LeanKLC does not require a rigid procedure of the proposed stages. It provides different knowledge modelling tools and alternative implementation scenarios specifically in product development. The stages of the LeanKLC are the following: 1) Knowledge Identification, 2) Previous Projects and Domain Knowledge Capturing 3) Knowledge Representation, 4) Knowledge Sharing, 5) Knowledge Based Engineering, 6) Dynamic Knowledge Provision and 7) Dynamic Knowledge Capturing. A dynamic dimension instils the practise of knowledge capture and provision as a daily routine. This aims to ensure that knowledge is naturally created without the need of time consuming documentation. Initial industrial feedback concludes the LeanKLC as a beneficial methodology. Future work will entail the conduct of industrial case studies in collaboration with European manufacturing companies in order to enhance the present tools and tailor them based on specific industrial needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tries to be both a review and an agenda-setting piece. It argues that knowledge management suffers from conceptual and definitional ambiguity, oversimplification of its development processes, and methodological limitations. Nevertheless, there is a consensus in business and academia that knowledge is a key component of success and allows firms to achieve and sustains competitive advantages. In a digital era, these advantages arise from the potential of data and information that can be gathered, processed, shared, and used to improve eBusiness activities. Thus, this research bridges the gap in the assessment of knowledge management and eBusiness relationship, by applying a structural equation model to a large database sample of KM activities performed by European and American firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intangible asset management has largely focused on valuation of intangible assets rather than conversion strategies. Value conversion is the act of converting one type of value (financial or non-financial) into another form of negotiable value. Without a thorough understanding of how intangible assets are effectively accumulated and deployed, static valuation measures have limited practical value.Value Network Analysis (VNA) has been successfully deployed in many different types of organisations to address strategic and operational issues, including intangible asset growth and utilisation. It is not a valuation method, but it is an integrative modelling language that readily links to other business performance models, including intangible asset monitors. The method coherently links indicators from strategic macro models down through the levels process, technology and data integration.An empirical study in 2007 demonstrated that VNA is a useful method for describing intangible value conversion at a macro level. This research was an evaluation study for the European Commission to better understand the impact of research networks on Intellectual Capital formation and competitiveness in regions. At the levels of organisation, network, and region, value network patterns were linked to specific patterns or 'thumbprints' of anticipated Intellectual Capital formation.The practical implication of this work is that it provides a possible solution to one of the most challenging business issues in the intangibles economy: describing and monitoring the role of intangibles in value creation. Many acknowledge that approximately 80% of a company's value lies in intangibles, yet practical methods for managing intangibles are not widely used. This problem is especially intense in government, civil society and non profit organisations, and networks. In these cases value impacts are exceedingly difficult to describe in only tangible or financial terms. VNA offers a scalable method for understanding the dynamics of intangibles and value creation at virtually every level of complexity from shop floor to regions and global networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]