Urban food strategies in Central and Eastern Europe: what's specific and what's at stake?

Integrating a larger set of instruments into Rural Development Programmes implied an increasing focus on monitoring and evaluation. Against the highly diversified experience with regard to implementation of policy instruments the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been set up by the EU Commission as a strategic and streamlined method of evaluating programmes’ impacts. Its indicator-based approach mainly reflects the concept of a linear, measure-based intervention logic that falls short of the true nature of RDP operation and impact capacity on rural changes. Besides the different phases of the policy process, i.e. policy design, delivery and evaluation, the regional context with its specific set of challenges and opportunities seems critical to the understanding and improvement of programme performance. In particular the role of local actors can hardly be grasped by quantitative indicators alone, but has to be addressed by assessing processes of social innovation. This shift in the evaluation focus underpins the need to take account of regional implementation specificities and processes of social innovation as decisive elements for programme performance.

The relation between adoption of information and communication technologies and marketing innovation as a key strategy to improve business performance

[EN] Understanding how capacities and resources of companies are crucial factors to improve business performance and competitiveness is a major issue for academics, policy, and decision- makers. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effects of the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on marketing innovation as a key strategy to increase the business performance of small- and medium-sized Mexican manufacturing companies. A gap exists in the literature regarding the full understanding of the simultaneous relationship among ICTs, marketing innovation and business performance. For this reason, a quantitative approach and cross-sectional design were applied through Structural Equation Modelling, in which a simple random sampling technique and a self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data from a sample of 230 business owners in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. The results indicate that adopting ICTs has a significant influence on marketing innovation. Moreover, marketing innovation showed a considerable impact on business performance. Therefore, decision-makers must pay special attention to the adoption of ICTs, as they are of vital importance for the development of marketing innovations and competitive advantage. Decision-makers must also use their resources and capabilities in innovations that have an impact on the sales strategy, design and promotion of their new products as well as the redesign of existing ones to achieve higher levels of competitiveness

Actions fostering the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing companies in European regions

Industry 4.0, a concept comprising a range of promising innovations enabled by the recent advancements in digital technologies, has become a priority of industrial policy in many European countries and regions. In this paper, we present actions undertaken by regional organisations (including the so-called Digital Innovation Hubs), fostering the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing companies. Using examples from Germany, Italy and Poland, we show actions that enable the creation of general conditions for such implementations and help companies develop an individual strategy for adopting Industry 4.0 innovations

Acciones de fomento de la adopción de tecnologías Industria 4.0 en empresas manufactureras de regiones europeas

Industry 4.0, a concept comprising a range of promising innovations enabled by the recent advancements in digital technologies, has become a priority of industrial policy in many European countries and regions. In this paper, we present actions undertaken by regional organisations (including the so-called Digital Innovation Hubs), fostering the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing companies. Using examples from Germany, Italy and Poland, we show actions that enable the creation of general conditions for such implementations and help companies develop an individual strategy for adopting Industry 4.0 innovations.La Industria 4.0, un concepto que comprende una serie de prometedoras innovaciones posibilitadas por los recientes avances en las tecnologías digitales, se ha convertido en una prioridad de la política industrial de muchos países y regiones europeos. En este documento presentamos las acciones emprendidas por organizaciones regionales (incluidos los denominados Centros de Innovación Digital) para fomentar la adopción de las tecnologías de la Industria 4.0 en las empresas manufactureras. Utilizando ejemplos de Alemania, Italia y Polonia, mostramos acciones que permiten crear condiciones generales para tales implementaciones a nivel regional, pero también ayudan a las empresas individuales a crear una estrategia individual para la adopción de las innovaciones de la Industria 4.0

Knowledge Sharing in Emerging Economies

One of the new factors in Eastern European countries (and there is an acknowledgement that this aspect is inherent in other countries too) is this concept of freely sharing information i.e. the concept of what is known in KM literature of “Knowledge Sharing”. Sharing only takes place where there is trust and where there is a shared feeling of ownership of goals. The reasons behind the tendency to share are based on the kind of interpersonal relations between co- workers inherent within the organization and the effects of social relationships within organizational teams. Strengthening the social relationships between individuals in the team is crucial in motivating team members to share knowledge. New research is currently investigating the concept of “sharing social relationships” and one of the aims of the project is to investigate the barriers to sharing information in a particular type of business - that of the small to medium sized enterprises (the SME) in order to form a comparative study. The results of the study will be used to from a model of “information sharing best practice” for SME who are setting up or using KM systems. The work will examine the barriers to sharing in two newly emerging economies (Poland and Hungary) and one relatively established economy (the UK). At the time of writing the work with Poland and Hungary has been completed and this paper gives the initial results from the Hungarian study

The countryside in urbanized Flanders: towards a flexible definition for a dynamic policy

The countryside, the rural area, the open space, … many definitions are used for rural Flanders. Everyone makes its own interpretation of the countryside, considering it as a place for living, working or recreating. The countryside is more than just a geographical area: it is an aggregate of physical, social, economic and cultural functions, strongly interrelated with each other. According to international and European definitions of rural areas there would be almost no rural area in Flanders. These international definitions are all developed to be used for analysis and policy within their specific context. They are not really applicable to Flanders because of the historical specificity of its spatial structure. Flanders is characterized by a giant urbanization pressure on its countryside while internationally rural depopulation is a point of interest. To date, for every single rural policy initiative – like the implementation of the European Rural Development Policy – Flanders used a specifically adapted definition, based on existing data or previously made delineations. To overcome this oversupply of definitions and delineations, the Flemish government funded a research project to obtain a clear and flexible definition of the Flemish countryside and a dynamic method to support Flemish rural policy aims. First, an analysis of the currently used definitions of the countryside in Flanders was made. It is clear that, depending on the perspective or the policy context, another definition of the countryside comes into view. The comparative study showed that, according to the used criteria, the area percentage of Flanders that is rural, varies between 9 and 93 per cent. Second, dynamic sets of criteria were developed, facilitating a flexible definition of the countryside, according to the policy aims concerned. This research part was focused on 6 policy themes, like ‘construction, maintenance and management of local (transport) infrastructures’ and ‘provision of (minimum) services (education, culture, health care, …)’. For each theme a dynamic set of criteria or indicators was constructed. These indicators make it possible to show where a policy theme manifests itself and/or where policy interventions are possible or needed. In this way every set of criteria makes up a new definition of rural Flanders. This method is dynamic; new data or insights can easily be incorporated and new criteria sets can be developed if other policy aims come into view. The developed method can contribute to a more region-oriented and theme-specific rural policy and funding mechanism

What drives export performance of firms in Eastern and Western Poland?

We use a unique firm-level survey dataset that draws from the EFIGE (European Firms In Global Economy) questionnaire, to unveil differences in factors driving export performance in structurally most diverse areas of Poland. While conventional results about the role of size, foreign ownership and innovation activity are confirmed at the aggregate level, the picture breaks down when Western and Eastern macroregions are extracted. Our results suggest that the common perception of a more developed West (Poland “A”) and a backward East (Poland “B”) might be outdated. Rather, firms in both regions seem to follow distinct strategies and have dissimilar success factors for competing internationally. Interestingly, export performance in the East is found to benefit from family ties in business, but also product innovation and non-price competitiveness. In the West, it is in turn associated mostly with size and foreign ownership. Overall, our results on the one hand add support to the ‘New’ new trade theory and ‘New’ new economic geography’s premises related to the importance of microeconomic factors and, on the other, shed a new light on the pattern of regional development in Poland. We also discuss some implications for policy makers and managers and suggest directions of further research.National Science Centre, grant no. DEC-2011/03/D/HS4/0195

The Lisbon Strategy: a Tool for Economic and Social Reforms in the Enlarged European Union

This paper evaluates achievements and shortcomings of the Lisbon Strategy launched by the European Union in the spring of 2000 aiming to increase the competitiveness of the European economy within ten years. A careful examination of the Strategy’s pros and cons shows that its general rationale was sound and helpful despite an incorrect and naive political call to economically outperform the rest of the world in such period. The main priorities of the Strategy: promoting growth through creating more and better jobs and developing the knowledge base of the economy, remain valid for today and for the future. However, it has to be underlined that implementing desired changes requires time. At the moment, it is crucial to accomplish structural reforms, which have significant impact on job creation, business performance and growth. Among them, it is essential to complete the Single Market, still limited by many administrative barriers. The paper shows main areas of necessary improvements to be undertaken by the Community and the member states. To strengthen real ownership of the Lisbon process, politicians must change their thinking from short-term and national to long-term and beneficial for the entire Community. Only such committed leadership can persuade the citizens to support the reforms, aiming to build a common European public good. Exploring these ideas would be a desirable return to the basic concept of the European Community, shaped by its founding fathers short after the World War II.European Union, Lisbon Strategy, achievements, shortcomings, open method of coordination, structural reforms, single market, services sector, ownership of reforms, public support

Kazakhstan's Diversification from the Natural Resources Sector: Strategic and Economic Opportunities

This book explores opportunities for diversifying modern Kazakhstan's economy, which is still heavily dependent on its natural resources, as well as looking at economic opportunities for the whole Central Asian region arising from the Chinese government's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The book is comprised of four parts. Part 1 explores the first main theme of the book: development of the economy based on the resource sector with the example of Kazakhstan. Part 2 examines opportunities for diversification arising from BRI: a rise of transport and communication industries alongside the new Belt and Road economic route. Part 3 explores the view from China on the perspectives of regional development, not least the economic reasons for the launch of this programme, investments and planned effects. Part 4 discusses other internal sources for diversification of the economy in Kazakhstan based on development of local industry in the oil and gas sector, small- and medium-sized enterprises and tertiary sector of the economy. This book will be of value for students, academics, policy-makers, and practitioners focused on economic development and business in the Central Asian region, as well as those who are working on the design of instruments for economic development in their own countries