Tudástársadalom, vállalkozások, Európa - Általános Vállalkozási ...

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Communication that happens via email nowadays unfortunately perishes inthe email clutter. Control and feedback criteria weren’t fulfilled according to the standards set by theproject. The portal also had a built-in system for this, and for the same reasons it failed to work. Thisproblem was repaired by an extra two day feedback seminar held in May 2005. The seminar was open forall active staff from all three universities. In this seminar feedback and results were gathered using bothqualitative and quantitative methods.A positive outcome of the project is the development of the research teams, the actual starting pointof scientific research in all three universities. Even more positive is the fact that the project has broughtcompetent scientists together, enabling thus high standard research. Research conducted by scientificstandards on a regional level is, as mentioned before, a new phenomenon that answers to a demandamong SMEs in the region. The problem so far has been that SMEs, although the need exists, haven’t hadenough knowledge to conduct their own research. Neither do the SMEs have financial resources enoughto cover researches initiated by them. There has also been a problem that the SMEs either don’t knowabout the possibility to contact their local University of Applied Sciences or the barrier between educationand enterprises has simply been too broad. To these problems the strategy of visiting SMEs was a goodsolution.The project also produced a new way of working in close cooperation with SMEs. This way of workingis now permanent; all three universities have developed their own organisations for business contacts.The outcome of this way of close cooperation is perhaps best demonstrated by the good development inthe contacts between students and SMEs. An indicator of this is that the employment rate among graduatesfrom Vaasa University of Applied Sciences has increased to 93% from 80% a few years ago. Thisdevelopment, is to great extent, due to the increasing contacts between the university and the enterprises.Among the negative aspects we find the internet portal, which merely remained as a place to storerecords from meetings and publications of the project and as a tool for storing information about businesscontacts. The portal was to some degree used by the staff, but the students and the SMEs showedvery little interest in it. Telephone interviews with the entrepreneurs (Sabel, 2005) indicate that, althoughinternet is widely spread in Finland, according to statistics in Finland (2006) over 80% of enterpriseshave broadband access, the managers are not willing to spend time on discussion and information onportals. This is because the answers to questions and solutions to problems are needed immediately, butthe information, although delivered within a few days, obtained on the portal may be old and not neededanymore when received. Furthermore the entrepreneurs felt that questions and problems are easier toformulate in a personal or telephone discussion than on the computer. No studies about the reasons forstudents not showing any interest in using the portal have been conducted yet.The cooperation with the SMEs remained on a local level, SME cooperation in the Vaasa area washandled by the Vaasa University of Applied Sciences, the one in the Seinajoki area by Seinajoki Universityof Applied Sciences etc. This means that the universities didn’t use the full potential of the network, theoptimal expertise teams were never formed in concrete cooperation with SMEs. In this aspect the networkdidn’t fully fulfil the objective of contributing to regional development.REFERENCESPehkonen, Heli and Routamaa, Vesa (2001): Verkostoperusteiset organisoitumisratkaisut: Näkökulmiaasiantuntijaverkoston perustamiseen. Vaasan yliopisto, johtamisen laitos.Sabel, Thomas (2005): Selvitys PKT yritysten halukkuudesta portaalin kautta tapahtuvaantiedonvaihtoon. Vaasan Ammattikorkeakoulu, Loknet projekti.http://www.finlex.fi/sv/laki/ajantasa/2003/20030351. 14.12.2006http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/icte/index_en.html. 15.12.2006