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Briefing Paper 26 Research Institutions: Escuela Superior de Dirección y Administració de Empresas, ES Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, NO Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, AT Bocconi University, IT Contact address: Prof. Alfons Sauquet Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas Departamento de Dirección de Recursos Humanos 60-62 Avenida de Pedralbes Barcelona 08034 Spain Tel: +34-93-280.61.62 Fax: +34-93-204.81.05 sauquet@esade.es This research project has been funded by DG-Research under the Targeted Socio- Economic Research (TSER) Programme of FP4 Small Business Training and Competitiveness Context of the Research Considerable attention is now being given to the importance of European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to increase their competitiveness and contribute to the employment generation within an increasingly globalised context. However, this depends on their ability to combine flexible production with the continual innovation of products and production processes. In order to achieve this, enterprises must learn to compete in a fast changing environment. This project has aimed to identify the learning processes that lead to increased competitiveness of SMEs, and has described how these learning processes are shaped in different European cultural contexts, by looking at 24 SMEs in four different European countries (Austria, Italy, Norway and Spain). Key Conclusions The following conclusions were reached: 1. SMEs find training courses too broad in scope, failing to meet their specialised needs. This issue is especially important for new employees with a need for specific technical knowledge/skills. 2. SMEs have low expertise in accessing training funds resulting in a lack of specialised training courses. 3. Universities and training centres do not always meet the training needs for new skills and knowledge derived from innovative processes. 4. Managers in some SMEs tend to work on many operational issues and do not plan their training needs. 5. Training serves not only to acquire new skills/knowledge, but also as a means of widening their network of market specialists. 6. There is an increasing need for multi-skilled employees. 7. Many SMEs appreciate language and basic software training (commodity training). 8. Projects involving customers, companies and universities foster innovation in SMEs. 9. Entrepreneurs with low technical skills use their network of colleagues and university faculty to evaluate company risk. 10. Some managers and entrepreneurs have stereotyped ideas about training courses. Lack of contextualization, cost and time lag before results appear contribute to this stereotyping. 11. The involvement of universities and research centres helps to create, store and disseminate knowledge, while SMEs bring flexibility, market orientation and creativity to foster innovation. 12. There is a risk that valuable, specialised knowledge will be lost if firms fail to get sufficient funding. 84
13. Some of the enterprises have had problems in accessing a skilled labour force. 14. Some SMEs are not aware of EU institution efforts to cut down red tape for improved interaction with local/regional/national/EU administrations. 15. Trust in markets facilitates the development of knowledge, the relationship among organisations and individuals and the creation of networks that facilitate knowledge storage. 16. SMEs acquire innovative ideas through trade fairs. 17. Financial assistance and consulting services provided by the public service are important, but SMEs still have difficulty utilising this knowledge to meet client and market needs. Key Recommendations Focused towards training policies 1. More, experience-based and tailored to particular needs, courses are needed where workers from various SMEs have to cope with the same workplace tasks and problems they would encounter. 2. The involvement of employee’s associations and chambers of commerce in such initiatives should be encouraged. 3. New training programmes between universities and SMEs should be promoted to create training programmes to foster specific competencies for innovation enhancement. 4. Programmes that combine multi-functional skills should be promoted for SMEs in innovative markets with new processes. 5. In SMEs with low training levels, there is a need to promote courses that maximise network opportunities. Also, promote “commodity training” since it increases the future employability of workers. Focused towards educational policies 1. There should be support for collaborative projects involving customers, SMEs and Universities in order to create “relational capital”. 2. University-level exchange programmes between technical and business schools should focus on helping entrepreneurs in their start-up phase, in order, to increase likelihood of their business surviving and becoming successful. 3. Business schools and universities should mentor enterpreneurs, with an emphasis on personalised, practical education in the implementation of start-up business plans. Focused towards SMEs policies 1. Support the development of venture capital funding markets for high tech SMEs as a way to increase funding possibilities and also to foster knowledge creation. 2. Facilitate the relationship between SMEs and Public Agents through the clarification, simplification and publication of main policy guidelines and objectives, further promoting the use of IT tools for communication purposes with SMEs in Europe. 3. There should be the creation of the contextual conditions to ensure trust in market relationships to facilitate the development of knowledge, the relationship among organisations and individuals and the creation of networks with strong knowledge storage capabilites. 85
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REPORT EUR 20791 European Union-sup
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2003 EUROPEAN COMMISSION European U
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Table of Contents Foreword ……
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Notes from the editor This report i
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Briefing Paper 1 Research Instituti
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4. Other incentives to improve mobi
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4. However, the push to make work e
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Key Publications Gornitzka, “Gove
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7. Despite strong resistance from e
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10. There needs to be encouragement
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The full title of the project is: E
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Page 47 and 48: The Final Report and results of thi
Page 51 and 52: 9. Policy needs to provide opportun
Page 53 and 54: • The levels of teachers’ inter
Page 55 and 56: 4. Strengthening the educational re
Page 57 and 58: Key Recommendations The project mad
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Page 65 and 66: Key Recommendations The following r
Page 71 and 72: 8. Lifelong Learning is still seen
Page 75 and 76: Key Recommendations Specific recomm
Page 77 and 78: Tikkanen, T., Teknologian muutos ty
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Page 87: This project is now being taken for
Page 93 and 94: Key Recommendations 1. Efforts shou
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Page 97 and 98: 4. Separate analysis of the wage di
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Page 101 and 102: 10. In addition, important learning
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Page 113 and 114: establishing links between the scie
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Page 123 and 124: 8. Apprenticeships also have invest
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mentoring to help the less confiden
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5. It appears to be advisable to fu
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Briefing Paper 46 Research Institut
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Key Recommendations Political and l
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Further information The final repor
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8. Learning in a “learning compan
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Further Information The full title
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Adaptability and Entrepreneurship 6
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18. Gender audits and relevant acti
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4. As some legislation describes at
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2. There is a need to encourage fle
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Key Recommendations 1. The focus of
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• Shaping European learning relat
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Forthcoming Publications: Arriaga,
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Further Information The project sta
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3. Concerning inequalities it has b
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Summaries of research project clust
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Briefing Paper 36 Contact address:
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7. Policy should encourage long-ter
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• Development of a culture of col
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8. Compensation programmes/schemes
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5. Combating segregation at school
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questionnaire approaches to increas
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learning partnerships, 178 learning
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