Suchergebnisse

Possibilities for the development of new forms of economic, social and technological headway designed to create and further improve economies based on knowledge & innovation are analyzed here.The main emphasis is put on national and regional economic specialization and creation of new networks of clusters in the situation of the development of the European Union. We have found that clusterization oriented towards the increase of efficiency of various national and regional economies is a critical precondition for successful creation of modern economy based on knowledge & innovation, both in the whole space of the European Union and particular countries.Another idea - a concept of creation of regional and cross-regional clusters and their networks also known as "economic oasis" - is suggested here. It is explained in the paper that in the economies based on knowledge development of clusters and their networks will soon become one of the core forms of economic and technological advancement. The authors of scientific research present the object of which has been creation of the knowledge based economy in the situation of the enlargement of the European Union. The objective of the completed research has been the proof of the fact that key priorities for creation of the knowledge based economy is the urge of technological advancement and enhancement of compatibility and productivity using such opportunities as specialization of national and regional economies, creation of clusters and their networks, as well as the development of so called economic "oases" and hyper-clusters in the entire economic space of the European Union. The main result of the completed research is the concept of strategies oriented towards integration and synthesis, the basis for which is the universal principle of "creation of a new quality": we should utilize this principle in elaborating and implementing the strategies for creation of knowledge based economy in the European Union. Key tasks of our completed research have been the ...

Economic integration is perceived as a multi-phase process in which national economic policies of a group of countries or territories are systematically coordinated and substituted by common policies. We can observe that this world-wide tendency to create regional free-trade agreements, common markets and monetary unions is beneficial for their participants. It is widely recognized that benefits from coordination and giving up national policy independence exceed costs, both economic and social ones. It can be argued that the European Union and the European Monetary Union are the role models of economic integration. In the course of integrating New Member States that joined the EU in 2004, and later, one can expect that both nominal and real convergence takes place. This is of high importance especially for those countries, which intend to join the EMU soon. There is a set of nominal criteria to be met, but their economic justification is not clear. They are not associated with the optimality criteria of the classical Optimal Currency Area theory. Despite they are intended to induce convergence, many economists criticize them as too strict in terms of their definitions. As a half of century of experience of the non-European monetary unions tells us (Młodkowski 2007), neither inflation nor fiscal deficit represents a reason for rejecting a prospect member. It is argued that compliance with any of the criteria is achievable at lower costs (social and political) after full monetary integration due to endogenity. What matters is the monetary policy stance convergence in the pre-integration period among monetary union member states. Only then substituting domestic monetary policy with a common one will not generate any shocks for the underlying economies. Therefore, it would be reasonable to reform the current set of nominal convergence criteria and introduce a new one, covering monetary policy stance convergence. In order to implement this idea a convenient, simple and easy to understand method is required for capturing ...

The new ideas of innovation and networking oriented economic development in the European Union are described. Prospects of economic development are getting more heavily dependent on the ability to initiate, disseminate and implement innovations in all spheres of life. This factor is of particular importance for the development and enlargement of the European Union, because activation of innovations is considered to be a significant problem associated with social and economic development and the advance of science and technology in the European Union. Further activation of innovations is a major precondition for ensuring the competitiveness of the European economy under the conditions of globalization. To activate the innovations in the European Union, the potential of innovations should be purposefully developed and effectively used. The problems of purposeful development and effective use of the innovation potential are considered now to be particularly important both from theoretical and practical perspectives. Vast possibilities of activating innovations are created by favourable conditions existing in the European Union for producing and effective use of various synergetic effects required for creating and developing international networks: these international networks may become the dominant formations in modern international economy. Spreading of international networks implies the inevitability of transformation of international economy into an economic system of international networks.The major goal of the paper is to demonstrate new approaches to innovation activation and purposeful development of the innovation potential in the European Union, taking into account the trends of globalization observed and the challenges of the knowledge – based society being created.

The article deals with influence of modern innovations on enterprises competitiveness. The different concepts of competition, from D. Ricardo and H. Adams up to M. Porter and Kim Chan and R. Mouborgne are analysed. The results of comparative analysis are provided in table 1. Different models of competition and competitiveness are analyzed. There is stressed that very important role plays M. Porters' 5 market forces, Diamod and Dubble diamond models and latest modifications made in the model. Some drawbacks of competitiveness models from K. Lancaster up to A. Rugman and latest authors as well as the author are submitted in table 2. The weakness of the Diamond model discovered and modification of Diamond model is made by incorporating the innovation in the model as it is proposed in picture 1. The importance of innovations for competition of enterprises is disclosed. The definitions of innovation and competitiveness of different authors are submitted. Innovation as risky process in competition from J. Shumpeterian economic view to innovation up to P. Drucker and McMeekin and D. Soutterton commercionalization as well as EU innovation policy are analyzed. Short analysis of Lithuania's position in the EU economy on innovation is made. The G. Brennan's optimistic idea on innovations at recession period that innovation could be a chance for companies to leapfrog their competition is stressed. Some data from Fray's analysis demonstrating the idea mentioned are provided in the article. According to Ch. Frey, founder and editor of Innovation tools, innovation climate has improved in 47,5 % of companies, and only for 25,9 % of respondents – has worsened at recession. But because the customers even at recession tend to the innovative, reasonably priced and hyped-up products and because the markets at recession are tightened, it is good time to invest in research and renew the products, processes, structure and management as main elements of competitiveness, as it has been recommended by Lisbon strategy. The impact of main areas ...

The transfer properties of the moisture and heat through multilayer textile packages have an influence on the wearing comfort of the clothing assemblies produced from such materials. The necessary properties of the textile package are obtained by means of proper selection of the structure of the package and physical properties of each individual textile layer. The research of wearing comfort is focused on analysis of air permeability, thermal resistance and the resistance and absorption of water vapour. In this work a typical assortment of textile materials, which is used in summer and winter military clothing, was selected. During the experimental investigation the thermal and water vapour resistance of the textile packages consisting of different combinations of layers made of different materials have been compared. The finite element computational model has been developed for the analysis of heat transfer through the textile package caused by heat conduction and advection due to ventilation air flow. The model enabled to obtain values and time laws of temperatures in each layer of the package. The validity of the model is ensured by employing the experimentally measured thermal resistance values for each individual layer of the structure. The numerical results have been compared against experimentally measured data of the textile package.

The development of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe has become apopular subject of research since the collapse of the USSR. Many scholars haveproduced comparative studies gathering diverse data and providing interpretations.However, not much has been published on the relation between civil society anddemocracy, and the way in which non-governmental organizations, as a part of civilsociety, impact democracy. This is the first in a series of articles analysing, on thequalitative and quantitative bases, the influence of civil society on the development ofdemocracy in the Baltic States, by applying meta-analyses. In tackling the objectiveof this study, the article uses correlation on thirty four impact factors defining theprimary impact of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on democracy and thirtysix NGOs' secondary impact factors. The primary factors are more important for theinterpretation of impact contexts. The importance of secondary factors could bevaluable as well, though it should be noted that their role could be questionable. Thesecondary factors impact the development and professionalism of the NGO sector,which in turn influences democracy

As rates of economic growth change rapidly and changes of the whole of social needs as well as technologicaldevelopment in various countries have to be taken into consideration, it is extremely importantin the 21st century to pay adequate attention to the formulation and implementation of culture policy,as one of the most unique and difficult to manage areas of public policy, by evaluating various practices,comparing methods of culture policy administration in different states and by analyzing culture programmesand projects. Culture programmes and projects are not only a purposeful instrumentation in the policyimplementation processes but also possibility to ensure dispersion of the democracy principle whichcreates alternative conditions to everyone who corresponds criteria of the state support and files claim forappropriate solution of cultural problems to not only gain neccesary support in realizing one's ideas butalso facilitate the mission of culture policy implementation, which is of national importance. Culture programmeand project management is being related to purposeful control and coordination of the cultureprogramme formation, where goals of national strategies in a specific country as individuality of regionalcultural needs have to be taken into consideration as well as the best world practices are to be adopted.Programmes and organizations that support various cultural areas or culture projects provide undeniableinput into formation and implementation of Lithuanian culture policy. Regulations of the EU structuralfunds do not distinguish culture as a separate investment priority. That is why the ministry of culture ofthe Republic of Lithuania is not an intermediary institution assimilating financial resources of the structuralfunds, which makes it more complicated to use the financial resources of the funds for culture financingpurposes. The purpose of this article is to analyze the system of culture programmes and project managementby refering to the analysis and characterization of the state ...

Public sector organizations carry out their activities in a constantly, incrementallychanging environment of global society.In modern society, public sector organizations have been encouraged to changetheir role from the provider of services to the monitoring of other organizations thatactually deliver those services. This is particularly true of local authorities who areencouraged by central government to deliver services through the voluntary or privatesector. The evolution of New Public Management into new public governancemeans that public sector managers are acquiring the role of monitoring and controlover other kinds of organizations and developing skills in managing contracts. Suchan arrangement is blurring the boundary between the public and other sectors, betweenpolicy and administration. A major feature of the reforms and changes in thepublic sector is that we can see an evolution from new public management to newpublic governance in the start of the twenty-first century.

The objective of this article is to analyze the criteria and conditions of division of competence betweenterritorial municipalities and other subjects of public governance as well as theoretical aspects of competenceestablishment of territorial municipalities and sub-national governance structure.The first part of the article examines the criteria and terms of division of competence between territorialmunicipalities and other subjects of public governance. The second part analyzes theoretical aspectspertaining to size and competence establishment of territorial municipalities. The third part deals with thepeculiarities of establishing the number of sub-national governance levels and competence of territorialmunicipalities. After analyzing the scientific literature it can be stated that when shaping and improving the publicgovernance system of a specific country, it is beneficial to parallely assess and combine the competencecomponents of public governance structure and governance subjects, which are inter-related through tiesof mutual dependence.Although guidelines are offered in economic theories for structurization of sub-national governanceand establishment of the competence of territorial municipalities, the structure of sub-national governanceand competence of territorial municipalities varies significantly from one country to another, subject to avariety of situational variables. A conclusion was therefore made that it is practically impossible to establishan optimal size of territorial municipalities and the number of levels of sub-national governance dueto the complicated assessment of diverse and changing conditions for production and organization of publicgoods, the cost structure of public goods produced and organized by territorial municipalities,qualitative aspects and the scope of externality.

This article reveals research management as a complex, constantly changingprocess faced with numerous challenges. It also addresses the importance of a researchadministrator in the areas of research management and research administration,underscoring the research administrator's impact on the research culture in theinstitution. There is an ongoing debate on how to administer research in the contextof institutional management of growing complexity, changing economic conditionsand increasing political influence on research. The article emphasizes that the mainroles of the research administrator are helping faculties carry out research and representationof university's interests. However, the conditions for the implementationof research vary, new challenges and opportunities continually arise, and thus thecompetences of the research administrator must change to reflect these transformations:he/she must take on the roles of manager, lawyer, financier, or quasiresearcher.

Aiming to identify the trends of county and regional governance transformation after the Parliamentaryelections of 2008, the article analyses the guidelines of the following documents: the election programmesof different political parties, the agreement of the ruling coalition, and the Government Programme. Thediscussion regarding the future of the counties is finalized in the Government Programme, which statesthat counties have to be dissolved. It is stated that the Government speaks up for the assignment of thecounty functions to municipalities; it is planned to give self-government rights to regions; institutions ofthe regions should be formed on the principle of delegation. A two tier territorial self-government systemshould be formed in Lithuania. The article shows that a detailed plan of implementation of the county andregional governance reform does not yet exist.

After the Third Division of Lithuanian and Polish states almost the entire territory of the Lithuanian GreatKingdom was incorporated into the Russian Empire (except Uznemune that was devolved to Prussia). Lithuaniahas lost its lineament as a political society, therefore the citizens were alienated from the Western traditionof administration and law. After annexing Lithuania, Russia has initiated the reorganization of the administrative-territorial distribution of the occupied country as well as rehashing the former and creating the new administrativeinstitutions. While ruining the previous governance system the deployment of autocratic-centralizedmodel of state administration and law was started.

The article tries to reveal some of the reasons why the national strategy of research and development and first Version of Lisbon Strategy for the period 2005-2007 in Estonia has been quite efficient. Since 2000, the European Commission has been measuring the innovation performance of countries with the help of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) which is the instrument developed by the European Commission, under the Lisbon Strategy, to provide a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of EU Member States annually. The research problem being solved in this article is: how to implement Lisbon agenda in Estonia (in 2008-2015). The aim of the article was to highlight the theoretical constitution of knowledge triangle based on Lisbon agenda and to analyse conception problems of knowledge triangle (academic research, infrastructure of higher educational institutions, innovative enterprise) concerning Estonian situation. In order to evaluate Estonia's perspectives in Lisbon strategy in 2008-2015 there was made analysis on ground of European Innovation Scoreboard. There are two main tendencies of the development of Knowledge Triangle: first, innovative rearrangements done in social sphere, in economy and in higher educational sphere to fulfil tasks from Lisbon strategy and, second, increase Estonian competitiveness. Another side of the knowledge triangle concerns creating new economic mechanisms (concrete business solutions) and creating new structure of institutions (rearrangement) to carry out new comprehensive and dynamic innovation model.According to European Innovation Scoreboard 2008 Estonia's place among 27 EU states is 12th. This is clearly evident that Estonia is reaching the EU mean level for summary innovation index and has a relatively high growth rate for its level.

Under the conditions of globalisation countries can not function sequestered and be unaffected by the various processes in the world. The global crisis made the remarkable impact on the countries' economic and social spheres. The situation in European Union (EU) countries' labour markets became unstable. Under the pressure of global economic recession in all EU erected one of the biggest social and economic problems – unemployment, which is understood as misbalance of demand and supply of labour force. Increase of unemployment is entailed by many social, demographic, psychological problems.During last year unemployment rate in EU countries inceased very significant. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) developed economies and the European Union saw the largest increase in the regional unemployment rate – about 3.5 million people lost their jobs in this region this year. For this reason this period is called "Global Job Crisis".From 2002 years Lithuanian economy has grown faster than in any period and there were seen positive development trends - GDP was rising, investments were growing up. Furthermore the labour market in Lithuania has in the recent past been characterised also by positive changes - the unemployment was falling, wages were growing up. Fast developing market was causing specific requirements for the human resources, especially for the universities' graduates. Furthermore, the business sector forms new and specific requirements for the human resources. At that time in politicians' and scientists' discussions the main problem was how to solve the lack of labour force which is the main brake for the development of country's economy. The shortage of qualified labour force was felt especially in the sectors which need highly qualified employees. In the end of 2008 the economic recession affected Lithuanian labour market. The companies started to respond to the challenges which were rising under the influence of economic downturn. Some of the companies were looking for the possible ways ...

The High Education reform in the Republic of Bulgaria is aiming at transforming the High Schools into integrated centers for science and education, capable of adequately facing the challenging times and investing in more and more qualitative scientific work in every sphere of the social and economic life.The long period during transition caused demolition of old built relationships and connections between the scientific research work and the real practical requirements of the business. The firms suffer form insufficient financial recourses have limited possibilities to apply new technologies and to order new developments related with their concrete practical problems. It is important to pay attention to the possibilities for new technological solutions application into the practice in order to enhance the competitiveness of Bulgarian firms and to provide researchers with up to date problematic for their scientific work. For realization of that goal a necessity of new type of innovation and technology transfer infrastructure establishment is being determined. The article presents a profound analysis of the tendencies in scientific research, the education system and innovation strategies in Bulgaria and in particular of the University of Rousse "Angel Kanchev". We base our choice on the structural idea of knowledge-based economy which is seen as analytically useful by Cooke and Leydesdorff (2006). They link the knowledge generation to the knowledge exploitation system (mainly companies) and repulses the perception that only industries with heavy concentration of knowledge assets should be in the focus of the research.The aim of the article is to introduce to the scientific society that in Bulgaria is being worked on that scientific problem and to share the experience in establishment of Technology transfer office (TTO) in the University of Rousse, in building up the connections between the business and scientific workers and to promote a good practice which can be implemented in European Union (EU) member state, due to the ...