The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether national culture has an impact on the level of innovation. The results of the analysis of data by means of statistical tools confirm that cultural factors play a big role in creating innovations. On the basis of the research, it can be assumed that the thesis formulated by Shane (1993) assuming the correlation of low power distance and strong individualism with innovation seems to be correct if we do not refer it to the Far East Asian countries. These countries seem to be very different culturally from the rest of the analyzed cultures. Low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance countries are in most cases more innovative in European countries. Impact of individualism versus collectivism is more debatable but generally in Europe more individualistic countries achieve better innovative results.
The author of the article has been inspired by Wallerstein’s theory of ‘systems-worlds’, especially by the opposition between cultural centre (innovative, because it is able to produce popular scientific theories) and periphery (only te sting such theories). At the starting point she is also willing to trust the notion of Richard Florida („What is interesting happens aside”). In the article she asks if Silesian literary ‘micrology’ may become a popular strategy of interpretation. The author claims that trends in science are closely connected with innovation and she describes literary ‘micrology’ in terms of Ryszard Nycz’s definition of innovation. The author suggests that Silesian literary ‘micrology’ (focused on what is small, apparently insignificant, disappearing) results from certain trends. Is it possible, however, that ‘micrology’ that is trying to avoid repetition (a crucial element of innovation) can become trendy itself?
Theoretical background: The article explores the relationship between corruption and innovation in an economy and between corruption and economic growth. The multi-faceted and complex nature of corruption means that the impact of corruption on innovation and economic growth is unidirectional. There are arguments in the literature for both positive and negative effects of corruption on macroeconomic figures. Most empirical research confirms the linear negative impact of corruption on economic growth. These results are the opposite of theoretical arguments that there may be both positive and negative consequences of corruption.Purpose of the article: The research aim is to analyse the theoretical aspects of the impact of corruption on selected macroeconomic variables. This goal was achieved by analysing the most significant arguments describing the relationships between chosen variables. Based on the literature analysis, research hypotheses were developed, and they were verified in an empirical study. The results were analysed in the discussion section.Research methods: The study is based on a set of data on economically developed countries in Europe from 1996 to 2017. The empirical study was conducted using basic statistical measures – descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient, whereas econometric models were based on the GMM system (Generalized Method of Moments).Main findings: The results of this research show that the relationships between corruption and the measure of innovation, and corruption and economic growth are not linear. They take the form of a parabola. This means that the influence of corruption on innovation and economic growth is not the same for all levels of the corruption indicator. The relationship between corruption and economic growth is specific enough to show that a low level of corruption is economically justified from the point of view of empirical research. This is possible because corruption solves other economic problems, such as bureaucracy, which limits development. Corruption will support economic growth if the state does not work properly.
PL
Theoretical background: The article explores the relationship between corruption and innovation in an economy and between corruption and economic growth. The multi-faceted and complex nature of corruption means that the impact of corruption on innovation and economic growth is unidirectional. There are arguments in the literature for both positive and negative effects of corruption on macroeconomic fiures. Most empirical research confirms the linear negative impact of corruption on economic growth. These results are the opposite of theoretical arguments that there may be both positive and negative consequences of corruption. Purpose of the article: The research aim is to analyse the theoretical aspects of the impact of corruption on selected macroeconomic variables. This goal was achieved by analysing the most signifiant arguments describing the relationships between chosen variables. Based on the literature analysis, research hypotheses were developed, and they were verifid in an empirical study. The results were analysed in the discussion section. Research methods: The study is based on a set of data on economically developed countries in Europe from 1996 to 2017. The empirical study was conducted using basic statistical measures – descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient, whereas econometric models were based on the GMM system (Generalized Method of Moments). Main findings: The results of this research show that the relationships between corruption and the measure of innovation, and corruption and economic growth are not linear. They take the form of a parabola. This means that the influence of corruption on innovation and economic growth is not the same for all levels of the corruption indicator. The relationship between corruption and economic growth is specific enough to show that a low level of corruption is economically justified from the point of view of empirical research. This is possible because corruption solves other economic problems, such as bureaucracy, which limits development. Corruption will support economic growth if the state does not work properly.
Content of article by Anna Szkolak The Innovative Early Childhood Education Teacher – A Summary of Own Research is related with the debate on the Polish teacher condition in the situation of the system transformation, changes in the Polish school. The particular role in this process is ascribed to an early childhood education teacher and his or her creative competences. A creative teacher is undoubtedly a teacher with great imaginativeness and inspiration, open to the ideas of others, constantly deepening his knowledge and improving his professional qualifications. Constantly faced with new educational situations, the teacher has to make sure his work is not conventional or formalized but instead requires continuous searching for and creating new solutions. Pedagogical innovation is a characteristic feature of a creative teacher. Empirical research include early childhood teachers in town environment. Their professionalism was valued on the basis of self-assessment. The research results gave the empirical material proving the fact that early childhood education teachers present a good level of creative competences. The end of article is statement, there is no one right way for helping young children achieve their creative potential. Teachers will need to continue to experiment and test alternatives to see what is effective in their situation.
This paper presents primary assumptions, origins and development of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) methodology. It also presents global application of the methodology and its impact on innovation by presenting original research into the interrelation between TRIZ implementation in a company and the increase in the number of patents obtained. Furthermore, it deals with the growing interest in TRIZ in Poland, and it describes events related to that.
The aim of the publication is to show the impact of clusters on the competitiveness of the SME sector. The analysis was based both on theoretical sources and selected research results. The analysis confirmed the hypothesis that defines clusters as a means towards improving the competitiveness of enterprises, assuming the application of innovation policies by the group
Jednoznaczne określenie definicji oraz determinant innowacyjnego potencjału regionu jest zadaniem trudnym. Mimo to stanowi on jeden z czynników decydujących o rozwoju regionu oraz jego pozycji konkurencyjnej. Istotny w tym kontekście staje się – nawet bardziej niż dostępność danych – problem doboru procedury klasyfikacyjnej. Głównym celem artykułu było dokonanie grupowania województw pod kątem ich potencjału innowacyjnego poprzez zastosowanie różnych metod porządkowania. Dokonano klasyfikacji województw uwypuklając zmiany w otrzymanych wynikach przy uwzględnieniu różnych form porządkowania.
EN
Defining and identifying determinants of the innovative potential of the region is difficult. Despite this, it is one of the determining factors in terms of the development of the region and its competitive position. Even more than the availability of data, relevant in this context becomes the problem of the selection of the classification procedure. The main objective of this paper is to group voivodships in terms of their innovation potential through the use of different methods of ordering. In the paper the classification of regions highlighting the changes between the results taking into account the different forms of ordering.
Market introduction of technologically innovative products or services is based around a desire to create offerings with superior customer value. This perceived customer value creation process has to be divided into segments to provide a diagnostic tool which can usefully assist managers create new superior value technology based products or services by including customer participation in the development process. The use of such a tool, based on customer value and technical debt as parameters, will allow company decision makers to analyze and measure the nature of customer perceptions and the innovativeness of a proposed offering enabling them to define concrete marketing strategies as a result and minimizing the risk of market failure of an innovation based product. The importance of technical debt and customer value added as the parameters of technology innovation based strategies is discussed in this article.
The study analyses, from the perspective of the theory of historical sciences, the way of working with the category “tradition”. It differs between the tradition at the noetic level (interpretative tradition) and the tradition at the ontic level (dogmatic, doctrinal, and cultural tradition on the example of European reformation). The “tradition” is analysed in relation to the “innovation” and “experience”. The idea of tradition’s “continuity” was subjected to criticism. It is not the wording or the form of tradition, but the kerygma, the understanding of the “substance” that are really valuable. However, this can be addressed solely by patient questioning while observing the critically tolerant respect for traditions. And also with the awareness that the struggle for innovations is legitimate and it can be even more beneficial when connected with the humbleness towards traditions, which we try to maintain, and with the respect for experience. Of course, both traditions and innovations can come into conflict with the experience. In ontic culture, the constitutive tension exists between the tradition and the innovation, while in researcher´s culture the constitutive tensions exists between moving within the tradition and the effort to break it.
Innovation is an essential factor in the growth and long-term development of businesses, national economies and integration groups. The aim of the article is to highlight the importance of innovation for countries transforming their economic system. A good example is the Visegrad Group, which includes four countries with a level of economic development and similar potential for innovation. The key factors influencing the innovativeness of the analyzed economies were identified. The author stresses the special role of the accession of V4 into the EU in overcoming the difficulties and the main obstacles in the process of systemic transformation.
This article is a contribution to the discussion on innovation activity and its influence on financial performance of companies. The authors employ a simple measure of innovativeness, which was also used in other studies, and the division of companies into two groups (innovative and non-innovative) was based on the fact whether they obtained a patent (patents) or not. In this paper, we compare the rates of return and revenue growth achieved by innovative versus non-innovative companies operating in the manufacturing industry in Poland, in the years 2006 to 2012. Financial and qualitative data for testing the hypotheses were taken from the Amadeus database provided by Bureau van Dijk. The sample consisted of 4004 enterprises, of which 681 were owners of at least one patent. T-Student test, ANOVA and OSL models were used to verify the working assumptions. The study tests the following three research hypotheses. H1: “Innovative companies achieve higher rates of return than the non- innovative ones.” That hypothesis was confirmed in relation to the EBITDA margin and ROS (return on sale), but not to ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on equity). The fact of belonging to a group of innovative companies had an impact on an average EBITDA margin increase by 0.83 p.p. in 2007, 0.78 p.p. in 2009 and 0.73 p.p. in 2012, ceteris paribus. The difference between ROE was found statistically insignificant in most analysed periods (except 2007 and 2009), however, non-innovative companies have achieved a higher return on equity than innovative companies. It can be associated with higher operational risk in innovative companies which restrict access to external capital, leading such companies to expand their businesses through their own equity. The second tested hypothesis is: “An innovative activity has higher impact on financial performance in medium-sized companies than in large and very large ones.” During the research, it was found out that having obtained a patent is important determinant of EBITDA margin for medium-sized companies, increasing it by 0.76 p.p., ceteris paribus. In large companies, it contributed to an increase of 0.71 p.p., and for very large ones – by only 0.19 p.p., with the slope for the latter group at a number other than zero found to be statistically insignificant. In relation to third tested hypothesis:” Innovative companies are more sensitive in terms of revenue dynamics to economic slowdown than the non-innovative ones.” it was found out that in the period of time from 2006 to 2012 the dynamics of revenue growth in innovative companies was generally higher than in the non-innovative ones, except in the year 2009, when all companies showed a significant decline in revenues, but for innovative companies, the decline amounted to 6.39%, and for the remaining ones it was found at 4.98%. Based on those findings it was confirmed that innovative companies are characterized by a greater sensitivity to economic slowdown.
General innovation performance of the EU is improving, yet progress is too slow and performance gaps still remain wide within European Union. Therefore, there is a growing interest in circumstances which influence this situation. In their previous research, the authors of this paper have already proved that cultural diversity affect the innovative capacity of societies, hence the goal of thisstudy was to explore how important, in the context of other determinants of firms‘ innovative performance, are socio-cultural determinants. The results revealed that they are less relevant than technological and economic determinants but affirmed to be more significant than political, legal and ecological ones. In order to reach the conclusions, a review of scientific literature, comparative judgement of EU performance and correlation analysis were used.
The article explores the concept of authorship in early (10th−11th century A.D.) classical Persian epic poetry, it uses examples of three representative works: Ferdousi’s Šāhnāme, Asadi’s and Gorgāni’s Vis-o Rāmin. As the analyzed passages show, all three authors, in spite of their works being based on the existing, traditional sources, have a strong sense of their individual authorship. They understand their role as saving pre-Islamic Iranian patrimony from oblivion, as a modernization of literary language and style and finally, as a search for their personal fame. An attempt at discovering inner senses of the inherited literary material, beyond its external meaning, seems to be another aspect of their authorial creativity.
The article examines the innovativeness of enterprises in 69 Polish NUTS3 sub-regions in 2014. The analysis is based on unpublished regional data from the Polish Central Statistical Office covering the following variables: the share of enterprises which have incurred outlays for innovative activities, the share of enterprises implementing process or product innovations, the share of companies collaborating in the field of innovation, and the share of new or modernized products in total production sold in industrial companies. The analysis focuses on building rankings and cluster analysis of NUTS3 regions. As research methods, the author uses selected methods of multidimensional comparative analysis, principal component analysis and the hierarchical Ward’s method. The results show that there are substantial differences among NUTS3 sub-regions as regards innovativeness of enterprises. The low level of cooperation does not foster innovation. Innovation outputs of enterprises are also unsatisfactory. The highest variation is seen in the share of new or modernized products in total production sold in industrial companies. The final effect of the cluster analysis is the division of regions into 7 groups. In the case of units where innovation inputs are not reflected in innovation outputs, it would be useful to explore regional and local factors influencing those relations. Further research is still needed.
Agricultural real estate has always been a separate element in the functional plane. While assessing the character of agricultural production systems, it is important to pay attention to land use which can be defined as an essential means of production in the agricultural sector. Regardless of economic and organizational factors, land still remains a crucial component in agricultural production, which increases the importance of agricultural real estate. The fundamental attribute of ownership, especially in agricultural property rights, is a right to farm. Agricultural real estate is associated with farming which is understood as assets of the estate and stands for property in terms of civil law. Functional separation of agricultural real estate also relates to the concept of agricultural property which is a part of farming. Agricultural real estate refers to property and constitutes a set of rights and obligations. Organization of agricultural production activities within the cluster Key words: cluster, innovation, economic cooperation, socio – economic development In recent programs of socio – economic development of the European Union the issue of the organization of modern and innovative forms of economic cooperation, such as clusters gained special meaning. In literature, the term cluster is usually defined as a geographic cluster of interrelated companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, firms in related sectors associated with them institutions, in particular fields that compete and also cooperate with each other. Expanding cooperation within the so–formed network and implementing scientific institutions, local and regional authorities and other support organizations located in a certain proximity, allow to expand the sphere of influence, improve information flow, business operations and competitiveness and innovativeness of the business in a particular region. And these are the assumptions that are the essence of the European concept of the cluster as an innovative form of economic cooperation. The issue of rural clusters is discussed much less frequently than issues related to industrial clusters. Recent objective to improve the competitiveness and rural development policies adopted by the European Union in WPR to 2020: cope with future challenges related to food, natural resources and territorial aspects, involve improving the competitiveness and innovation activities through the creation and promotion of projects jointly implemented, including those fulfilled within clusters. In the Polish economic realities the development of clusters in rural areas faces a far–reaching difficulties. The essential difficulties result from the lack of tradition and willingness to cooperate among agricultural producers as well as producers and other subjects of agri – food market. Even more far–reaching are the legal uncertainties, which are concentrated in three areas. First, whether agricultural activity may be regarded as innovative activity. Second, whether on the basis of existing rules can agricultural entrepreneurs be regarded as producers and their manufacturing activity as a business activity, according to the requirements of forming a cluster and can agricultural producers benefit from financial assistance under the program of Innovative Economy. And thirdly, you should consider the importance of agricultural producer groups and their organizations in the creation and functioning of clusters associated with the agri – food production.
The aim of four reported research was to study, mainly with the aid of author’s Creative Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ), the general profile of managers and the small business owners. The main hypothesis was that the success in business is due to special personality disposition called efficacy of personality which is responsible for neutralisation of fear, depletion of internal resources, and for the autonomy of axiological system. Three factors of the CBQ postulated to measure this disposition, namely Strength of Ego, Internal Locus of Evaluation, and Self-realisation were salient in the tested group of subjects. Groups were also tested by means of Buss and Plomin EAS questionnaire, the risk taking, and the well-being questionnaires, as well as transgression’s and readiness to start business scales. The obtained pattern of traits fits well to the hypotheses: leaders are more transgressive, their personalities are more efficient in terms of CBQ model, they are free of anxiety syndromes, are more oriented toward instrumental risk taking.
In the article, the problem of identification of institutes of innovation-oriented regional development is discussed. The role of an institute is considered in the concept of competitiveness of the region. Institutional systematization, including institutes of the regional development, is discussed, as well as the building of the models of regression dependencies between institutes of regional development and indicators of the processes for the stimulation of which they are created. The conclusion is made about the presence or absence of the influence that the fund has upon some indicators of regional development.
Health psychology was founded as a response to social needs for better understanding and regulation of psychological aspects of biological, mental, and social well-being. Despite initial enthusiasm and optimism in its early days, three decades of development yielded results that are disappointing to many scholars in terms of health psychology practical meaning. Thus, in this paper we review several challenges for health psychology. We believe that health psychology might benefit from revival of aims and values that distinguished the discipline at its onset such as bio-psycho-social perspective that has been narrowed to somatic illness in recent days. Second, more integration is needed in theory and terminology to eliminate overlapping concepts labeled with different names. Furthermore, social practice would benefit from greater responsiveness of health psychologists to new technologies. Finally, health psychology is likely to derive benefits from more general well-established perspectives on diffusion of innovation in social practice. We conclude that health psychology as a practice-related scientific discipline is likely to regain its initial momentum once these problems are solved and novel areas of scientific exploration are identified.
This paper presents the innovative activity of enterprises as a process that is risky but necessary for the survival of a company in a competitive market, and as a way to maximize the long-term value for the owners. Risks and benefits were analysed, and the possible sources of added value in innovative projects were identified in the context of the capital market equilibrium and the budgeting of investments. Innovative projects become a source of added value for investors if the financial effects such as changes in the residual cash flow and higher growth rate outweigh the combined impact on the risk generated by two factors: increase of systematic risk and emerging specific risks.
This article is led to describe, is based on the chosen and the particular innovations which were used by the corporations (firms, companies) of the retail trade in Tarnow from 2014 to 2016 and also presents some sources of those innovations in the area. The way to obtain the customers and to have a good relations with them, also to increase the quality of the products, ought to be the main point in these preparations or researches to achieve the success. The other zones, where the innovations are conducted, must be preparing the best offers, decreasing all the costs, which are connected with the service. What is more, and should be mentioned, is the improvement of the work’s condition. This is very essential matter. All the factors, were used in the analyses were prepared to present how the customers can experience and if they need all these changes and innovations. Moreover, the important question in this article is, if the innovations can help some companies to have better development in their business. What is also very essential, if the clients notice the changes and what is done, by the proper companies, to help the customers to make the right decisions.
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