Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Simon Cadez and Vlado Dimovski
It is apparent from Table 5 that researchers primarily publish in journals in <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> economics and
business sciences, while journals from <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> computer science are also strongly represented.
Quite highly ranked in second position is <strong>the</strong> journal Kybernetes, in which 6.5% <strong>of</strong> all <strong>the</strong> articles in
<strong>the</strong> period in question were published. The list also shows a considerable geographic orientation <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> research, as a considerable number <strong>of</strong> journals have a (south)eastern <strong>European</strong> orientation,
evident from ei<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> name <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> journal (e.g. Eastern <strong>European</strong> Economics, Post-Communist
Economies, etc.) or <strong>the</strong> country <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> publisher (e.g. Ekonomický Časopis – Slovakia,
Transformations in Business and Economics – Lithuania, etc.). Fur<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong> relative rank within
category shows that most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se journals can not be regarded as high quality.
5. Conclusion and discussion
A comparison <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> faculties shows that <strong>the</strong> FE UL leads in knowledge creation, which is, however, a
consequence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fact that it employs <strong>the</strong> largest number <strong>of</strong> researchers. Calculated per researcher,
past research productivity does not differ significantly between <strong>the</strong> two schools. Of significant concern
is research productivity <strong>of</strong> individual researchers. Almost one half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m did not have even one
article published in a journal from <strong>the</strong> SCI/SSCI database in <strong>the</strong> ten-year period. However, <strong>the</strong>
percentage differs significantly according to faculty. While at <strong>the</strong> FE UL one third <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> researchers
were inactive, at <strong>the</strong> FM UP <strong>the</strong> share <strong>of</strong> such is two thirds. At <strong>the</strong> FE UL inactive researchers are
primarily comprised <strong>of</strong> teaching assistants who are at <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir research career, whereas
at <strong>the</strong> FM UP even some researchers employed as docents and pr<strong>of</strong>essors are inactive. It is possible
to conclude from this that at <strong>the</strong> FM UP habilitation conditions are less strict than at <strong>the</strong> FE UL, and
fur<strong>the</strong>rmore that habilitation conditions represent an important factor for <strong>the</strong> research productivity <strong>of</strong>
individual researchers and institutions.
Researchers had articles published in 164 different journals from <strong>the</strong> SCI/SSCI database. The most
common outlets were Eastern <strong>European</strong> Economics, Kybernetes, Post-Communist Economies,
Ekonomicky Casopis, and Industrial Management & Data Systems. It seems that that <strong>the</strong> knowledge
created is to a large degree limited to <strong>the</strong> Eastern <strong>European</strong> region which is relatively consistent with
<strong>the</strong> organizational strategies <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> two schools. Also <strong>of</strong> great concern is <strong>the</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> knowledge
created becouse most papers were published in journals <strong>of</strong> relatively low quality.
The findings <strong>of</strong> this research have very important implications for <strong>the</strong> research strategies <strong>of</strong> individual
faculties as well as <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> entire public research system. The major problems are inactivity and <strong>the</strong>
quality <strong>of</strong> newly created knowledge. Such conduct could lead to a conclusion that in Slovenia a
publication inflation effect is present, such that articles lack quality and thus have no significant
influence on <strong>the</strong> international scientific community (Reidpath and Allotey, 2010; Van Raan, 2005).
The implications <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> findings <strong>of</strong> this research might be even more important with regard to <strong>the</strong>
competitiveness <strong>of</strong> organizations in Slovenia and <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> entire state. With regard to <strong>the</strong> <strong>of</strong>ten
confirmed connection between <strong>the</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> research work and <strong>the</strong> competitiveness <strong>of</strong> companies
and economies (Marrano et al., 2009; Moed, 2008), it is a matter <strong>of</strong> significant concern that Slovene
companies only rarely obtain <strong>the</strong> knowledge <strong>the</strong>y need from <strong>the</strong> faculties, but that <strong>the</strong>y ra<strong>the</strong>r rely on
<strong>the</strong>ir own brainpower as well as on institutes (Gaspari, 2010). This entails that companies do not
perceive knowledge created at faculties as useful and beneficial, which fur<strong>the</strong>r supports <strong>the</strong> findings
<strong>of</strong> this research. Also <strong>of</strong> great importance are <strong>the</strong> implications <strong>of</strong> this study for <strong>the</strong> higher education
system. Empirical studies have determined a positive correlation between <strong>the</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> research work
and academic work (Arnold, 2010; Bonaccorsi et al., 2006, Lindsay et al., 2002), which is why low
quality research work can entail that teachers in higher education are not very competent at
transferring knowledge to students, who are <strong>the</strong> future creators <strong>of</strong> added value.
The results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study must be interpreted in <strong>the</strong> light <strong>of</strong> its limitations. Content-related and technical
limitations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> bibliometric methods have been discussed at length in o<strong>the</strong>r studies (Abramo et al.,
2008; Horrobin, 1990; Moxham and Anderson, 1992; Van Raan, 2005) and will, <strong>the</strong>refore, not be
repeated here. A specific technical limitation <strong>of</strong> this study is related to <strong>the</strong> fact that <strong>the</strong> data was
captured in two phases, <strong>the</strong> reasons for which were explained in <strong>the</strong> chapter on methodology.
The study has pointed to a number <strong>of</strong> challenges regarding future research, <strong>of</strong> which here we will list
only a few. Firstly, why is such a large portion <strong>of</strong> researchers not active in <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> research?
Secondly, which are <strong>the</strong> productivity factors <strong>of</strong> individual researchers? Thirdly, why do Slovene
researchers not create more quality and cutting-edge knowledge? Fourthly, why are <strong>the</strong>re important
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