Synopsis: Employment & working conditions: Labour market: Occupational status:


2012 Flanders DC Open Innovation in SMEs.pdf

The last Community Innovation Survey in Belgium shows that large firms(>250 employees) are collaborating on average with more external partners than small firms.

when the number of collaborative deals is divided by the number of employees thus measuring the open innovation intensity.

Some of them we found through publications, others by contacting a large European network of open innovation experts.

or size class (taking into account that small companies should have less than 500 employees). The companies are active in a wide range of industries.

and have 500 employees; other companies are just a few years old and have less than five employees.

The reader should thus not be surprised by the heterogeneity 13 of the cases. The diversity of the themes we will discuss illustrates how open innovation can take different shapes within each specific firm or industry.

cross-industry learning process led by sleep experts. The QOD case illustrates that developing a successful business model that ultimately changes the industry starts with nothing more than the conviction of a well-informed entrepreneur.

Curana is a micro-company (less than 20 employees) that is active in the bicycle accessory market.

and material experts. The third step is promotion. In this step Curana organized information sessions to promote its new ideas among potential customers.

and material experts. Using the so-called Original Strategic Management (OSM) model, Curana and its innovation partners started from a vision based on new opportunities derived from global trends,

After consulting with an examination board of sleep experts, QOD decided to produce a functional quilt that would reduce the temperature variation under the quilt to provide a healthy sleep.

It combined valuable insights from sleep experts with the PCM technology which has required the characteristics to improve sleep.

and tested with the help of medical experts. QOD's first functional quilt branded as Temprakon was the result of linking PCM technology with insights about sleep comfort from the medical world.

Jaga also explored initiatives to spur the creativity of employees and external partners by setting up Jaga Product Days in 2007 (see p 47).

Adriaan Debruyne (now director of Saflot Creative Consultants) added: Our antennas are open to society and technologies,

Some of Curana's employees, for instance, did not understand why management was preoccupied with managing the network of partners

Intellectual property rights are owned usually contractually by the innovating firm in the case inventors are companies doing contract research, external designers, or employees.

Universities, research labs, crowds of experts, lead users, and knowledge brokers are just a few examples of potential external sources of knowledge.

Therefore, the Airfryer is packaged with an inspiring recipe booklet, written by a culinary expert, which contains 30 easy-to-prepare recipes,

or consultants develop. In contrast, they are spurred to take action when they are confronted with the testimonials of entrepreneurs who are using open innovation successfully to develop new businesses.

SMES are companies with less than 250 employees (N=792; lager companies(=250 employees; N=175.

The calculation covers the period 2002-2004. Open innovation can be measured in different ways. Developing a search strategy is one of the most important aspects of open innovation.

market sources (suppliers of equipment (i), customers (ii), competitors and other firms with similar activities (iii), commercial labs, private R&d organizations, and consultants (iv;

The external R&d intensity reflects external R&d per employee. Collaborative innovation indicates whether innovating firms engage in collaborative innovation activities with six potential partners:

consultants and private R&d organizations (iv; universities (v; and public research organizations (vi. Collaborative innovation is captured by calculating the average score of the six questionnaire items registering the firm's use of cooperative agreements with innovation partners.

and the collaboration intensity measures the collaboration per employee. Variable Small and medium-sized enterprises (N-SME=792) Large firms (N-large=175) Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation Difference Search intensity

Moreover, small contests can be held among employees, suppliers, and local communities of designers, engineers, and so on. 33 These value networks have been described by different authors.


2012 InterTrade Ireland Innovation Ecosystem Report.pdf

On the contrary, the report confirms that the vast majority of these innovative firms are micro-enterprises with less than 10 employees;

Serial innovators may draw on higher education institutions for intellectual property and talent, on the financial resources of venture capitalists and angel investors and on the capacities and facilities of other companies, consultants,

their research suggesting"a sequence in the adoption of open innovation, starting with customer involvement, following with employee involvement,

%GVA Per capita (index=100) 136.2 86.4 100%micro firms<10 employees 90.8%89.0%92.1%%small firms 11-50 employees 7. 7%9

. 2%7. 7%%medium firms 50-250 employees 1. 2%1. 5%0. 2%%persons employed by SMES 69%65%66.9%%of GVA accounted for by SMES

the vast majority are micro-enterprises with less than 10 employees. Source: Intertradeireland Business Monitor (2011.

effective 22 A separate analysis (Figure 15) of firms with more than 50 employees (described as large firms in the report) indicates a more positive view in relation to the importance of intermediary bodies and higher education institutes.

Within this general picture large firms(>50 employees) were more likely than small firms(<50 employees) to be more active across all types of innovation covered by the survey.

While this approach may be suitable for idea generation it does not offer a stepby-step approach to actually engaging employees generating


2014 Irish Entrepreneurship Forum Report.pdf

based remuneration to employees 5. 2. Skills development programmes 5. 3. Immigration reform 6. Access to Finance 6. 1 Encouraging investment

and regulations to improve Employee Stock option Programmes. Reforms should make it easier and less expensive for companies to run employee share programmes,

while making participation in these programmes more tax efficient for employees. Allow youth to participate in a new work experience programme,

to be called an‘Apprenticeship Programme, 'to be funded directly by the companies. Enlarge the Jobbridge programme by a factor of up to 20 times to help more people escape from the trap of being unemployed perpetually.

Lastly, Government should ensure that a female employer is entitled to the same welfare benefits as a female employee.

Currently a female employer must have 52 weeks of PRSI contributions as opposed to a minimum of 39 for an employee.

as compared to just 6 weeks by female employees. The Forum believes that changes to these current Government approaches would enhance a supportive culture for female entrepreneurship. 9. Continue the programme of targeted and tailored supports for female entrepreneurs. 10.

The qualifying weeks in terms of PRSI payments to qualify for maternity leave should be the same for female entrepreneurs as for female employees

The Dublinbic manages the Guinness Enterprise Centre, the single largest entrepreneurship facility in the country with 60,000 sq ft. of space, over 80 startup companies and 320+employees in one building.

For startups, paying consultants to do executive coaching is unaffordable for the long term. Consequently, successful entrepreneurs draw other successful entrepreneurs into their network through boards

and aspiring entrepreneurs to network with each other with the option of attending seminars from guest speakers and obtaining mentoring from experts in their field.

and reward talent. 5. 1 Share-based remuneration to employees According to statistics from The irish Proshare Organisation in the first quarter of 2013,

companies that operate Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOP) in the United kingdom have grown by 50%more than the average growth rate of FTSE 100 companies (the UK's largest companies.

Indeed there is growing evidence that share ownership in companies significantly improves employee commitment, and in turn drives stability while significantly increasing productivity.

Currently, employee share based remuneration is not attractive to entrepreneurs. Employees must pay tax immediately (via the company payroll system) at typically 52%of the market value of shares received. 27 The employee would then have to sell the majority of his shares

in order to cover the expense of owning them, defeating the purpose of share ownership. We propose a deferral of triggering of the tax liability

in order to make employee share ownership a viable option for entrepreneurs and their staff. In Ireland, legal requirements make it impossible for companies to repurchase their own shares

ESOPS generally require repurchase of shares from departing employees. Therefore, Irish law has unintended the consequence of making it cumbersome and expensive to have ESOP programmes.

This will allow employees who stay with startup companies to participate more fully in their success. We also recommend allowing stock

This will create incentives for an employee to own long-term shares in a company rather than encouraging employees to flip ownership of any granted shares immediately,

as is the current common practice in Ireland. It would also enable entrepreneurs to compete more effectively for highly skilled employees with both multinationals and other countries,

since startup companies can offer more attractive terms on share ownership versus the relatively minor share holdings proffered by multinationals. 41.

Enable Employee stock ownership without creating taxable events until the time of sale of the stock.

Enable companies to repurchase share options for the benefit of their employees (from departing employees,

and to the employee that the visa could be issued in a matter of two weeks or so, establishing Ireland as the most competitive country in the world for technical talent.

or IDA approved companies would be trusted parties to ensure that the qualifications of the employee are advanced sufficiently to qualify for the visa,

a. Enable medium-sized enterprises (50-250 employees) in the non-assisted areas35 to avail of the EIIS. b. The EIIS should be amended to increase the period of investment from three to five years. c. Under the EIIS,

Startup size classification number of employees(<5,<10,20,<50, etc..The Startup Monitor should also have capabilities to produce up-to-date information on:

How many startups<2 years established have over 5 employees?.Business survival rates. Trends in new enterprise creation-self employment/companies. 61.

Furthermore, even if they are employees of their own companies, they do not enjoy the same level of tax credits as other PAYE workers.

Where an entrepreneurially inclined employee leaves employment, the current structure of the Jobseeker's Benefit system encourages them to remain on Jobseeker's Benefit for the full six/nine month Jobseeker's Benefit entitlement period before setting up a new business

it is recommended that such entrepreneurs would be provided with a five-year period to claim the remainder of their former Jobseeker's Benefit entitlement as an employee.

3. Enable a lower capital gains rate (20%vs. 33%)for money immediately reinvested in Irish businesses. 4. Enable Employee stock ownership without creating taxable events until the time of sale of the stock,

just as it is for employees (the top effective rate dropping from 55%to 52%).6. To support cashflow,

just as it is for employees (the top rate dropping from 55%to 52%).66. New entrepreneurs should be provided with a fiveyear period to claim the remainder of their former Jobseeker's Benefit entitlement as an employee. 7. 4. 1 Long-term tax policy From a long-term perspective,

structural changes are necessary to make sure that the primary burden of taxes do not fall too heavily on the shoulders of the indigenous companies and the private taxpayer,

The qualifying weeks in terms of PRSI payments to qualify for maternity leave should be the same for female entrepreneurs as for female employees

Every STEM student undergraduate and postgraduate) should receive a course on entrepreneurship or product commercialisation as part of their degree. 5. Access to Talent 5. 1 Share based remuneration to employees 41.

Enable Employee stock ownership without creating taxable events until the time of sale of the stock. 42.

Enable companies to repurchase share options for the benefit of their employees (from departing employees,

a. Enable medium-sized enterprises (50-250 employees) in the non-assisted areas43 to avail of the EIIS. b. The EIIS should be amended to increase the period of investment from three to five years.

just as it is for employees (the top rate dropping from 55%to 52%).66. New entrepreneurs should be provided with a fiveyear period to claim the remainder of their former Jobseeker's Benefit entitlement as an employee. 7. 4. 1 Long-term tax policy 67.

A flat tax on all types of income at 15-20%would be a fantastic way of attracting corporations


2014 Irish Government National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland.pdf

National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland 27 2. 1. 3 Share Based Remuneration In private Companies Share based employee remuneration can significantly reduce fixed labour costs

The extent to which a company can avail of tax efficient share based employee remuneration relief in Ireland,

or grant options to buy shares, to their employees. These include share option schemes, ‘save as you earn'share option schemes, approved profit sharing schemes, restricted share schemes and employee share ownership trusts.

The current tax treatment of share options, however is considered to be less competitive than that available in other countries

the use of share based employee remuneration by private companies in Ireland is limited. In addition for smaller companies the administrative burden of setting up such schemes is unduly high.

The Bill provides that the existing provision requiring that at least 50%of an enterprise's employees must be Irish

which is aligned closely to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) analysis. These skills include all occupations relating to ICT,

This voucher can be redeemed against the cost of practical advice provided by participating expert providers in Northern ireland and the Republic of ireland to a company considering trading across the island.

Tourism and Sport EGFSN Expert Group on Future Skills Needs EI Enterprise Ireland EIB European Investment Bank EIF European Investment Fund EIIS


2014-innovation-competitiveness-approach-deficit-reduction.pdf

the Federal Employees Retirement System, provides a lifetime defined benefit for 45%46%48%22%28%35%67%74%83%0%20%40%60

%80%100%201020202030old-age Dependencyyouth Dependency PAGE 10 THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION JANUARY 2014 federal employees.

exactly as predicted by financial experts PAGE 15 THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION JANUARY 2014 like Aswath Damodaran, professor of business at the Stern School of business at New york University.

Under current law, full-time employees pay a portion of their employer-provided health insurance premiums with before-tax dollars.

but because of the regressive nature of the tax deduction income taxes are lower for low-income employees

Furthermore, eliminating the employee portion of the health-care tax deduction puts both part-time and full-time employees on equal footing. 81

The COLA is determined now by a version of the CPI that measures prices for urban wage earners


2014_RIM Plus Regional Innovation Report_West Transdanubia.pdf

B Sustainable Growth and EU 2020 Regional Innovation Monitor Plus Regional Innovation Report West Transdanubia technopolis group in cooperation with Andrea Szalavetz, independent expert

establishing a network of regional experts with thematic specialisation, and organising specialised workshops taking into account the relevance

on R&d(%GDP) Government R&d(%GDP) Business R&d(%GDP) Employees with ISCED 5--6(%)RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY INDICATORS HU22 Nyugat-Dunántúl Performance rela:

county-level municipalities neither possess any experts (huge capacity gap) nor have any experience in such a planning-programming exercise.

The majority of NIO's experts were fired. Currently the government is planning to create a new institution, the National Research Development and Innovation Office

Regional Innovation Monitor Plus 17 These institutional changes coupled with the firing of experts, dispersion and redistribution of authorities and responsibilities have slowed necessarily down the absorption of EU Structural Funds.

5) the firing of the lion's share of past experts the allocation of funding from EU Structural Funds (that accounted on the average for 57%of annual government budget outlays on R&d in Hungary over the period between 2007 201310

4) to the promotion of companies'foreign market access, through training, employment of foreign trade, marketing and innovation management experts.

and innovation € 600k National Development Agency http://palyazat. gov. hu/doc/3555 Support to research of future-oriented ICT technologies and to ensuring the supply of IT-experts

. eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/regionalinnovation/monitor/supportmeasure/support-research-futureoriented-ict-technologies-and-ensuringsupply-it-experts Source:

Centrope tt (the former CENTRIS) is an international experts community for technology transfer and innovation support. 22 Several regional actors are members of this community,

Some of the conditions of eligibility for support were considered superfluous by the experts who drafted the evaluation report, for example,

including the number of their employees and the volume of applicants'net sales. As for the impact of the measures, the report found that it contributed to some extent to territorial cohesion,

Evaluation experts recommended that universities'basic research projects should be addressed separately from applied and collaborative (industry-university) undertakings

an indigenous automotive supplier with 128 employees and sales of €4. 9m in 2013 among the 251 beneficiaries.

Nevertheless, according to the interviewed expert, it would have been more reasonable to consider a region's innovation potential

Source Performance relative to Performance relative to RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY INDICATORS Employees with ISCED 5-8(%all employees, ISCED 2011) 20,3 27,2 33,5 2013


2015 Ireland Action Plan for Jobs.pdf

. ie website in 2014 and the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs has reported some shortages in some niche skill areas.

DJEI, Low pay Commission) 31 Conduct a study on the prevalence of zero hour contracts (ZHC) and low hour contracts (contracts of 8 hours or less per week (LHC)) among Irish employers and their impact on employees,

and with a healthy ecosystem of consultants and experts. Ireland has early mover advantage, having been involved in developing the international standards;

The key service offered is a web portal that enables companies to identify experts, research centres and technology-licensing opportunities to benefit their business.

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, from consultations with companies, has identified a demand for manufacturing skilled trades for sectors such as food, medical devices, engineering and Pharma/Biopharma,

Action Plan for Jobs 2013 contained a Disruptive Reform aimed at making it more attractive for businesses to hire additional employees from the Live Register:

HSA) 231 Extend the number of HSA health and safety e-learning modules and increase user numbers, providing more cost effective solutions to the training of employees, managers and students.

and employees to access just one piece of legislation and also ensure as far as possible a consistent approach to such leaves.

Increasingly, good CSR practices are distinguishing the best companies from their competitors by the manner in which they engage with their customers, suppliers, employees and local communities.

Customers and prospective employees are more conscious than ever of the ethical record of companies. 40 per cent of job seekers read a company's sustainability report,

the opp h Innovation rk with and d he experts. gnificant pro en Lincor an ged by the pi roject involve ntlinc tech t education rom the ward opment

DAHG, NCIS, philanthropic supporter and technical experts) 321 Develop further heritage tourism initiatives, including a programme of trailway development in National parks and Nature Reserves, in partnership with key stakeholders.

Relevant APJ Sections 6. 1 Increase in value added per employee EI Firms-3%decline in 2011+2. 5%increase in 2013 Support 945 participants

DPER Department of Public Expenditure and Reform DSP Department of Social Protection D/Taoiseach Department of Taoiseach DTTAS Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport EGFSN Expert


2015-April-Social_Innovation_in_Europe.pdf

and other experts who deal with sustainable development strategies and policies. The network covers all 28 EU Member States, plus other European countries.


42495745.pdf

Tom Griffin, Senior Statistical Adviser to the UNDP Human Development Report; and Ari LATVALA from the European commission, DG Enterprise and Industry.

and combination of variables into a meaningful composite indicator under a fitness-for-purpose principle (involvement of experts and stakeholders is envisaged at this step).

when data are scarce (involvement of experts and stakeholders is envisaged at this step). To check the quality of the available indicators.

as well as the next, should involve experts and stakeholders as much as possible, in order to take into account multiple viewpoints and to increase the robustness of the conceptual framework and set of indicators.

data on the number of employees that use computers might not be available. Instead, the number of employees who have access to computers could be used as a proxy.

As in the case of soft data, caution must be taken in the utilisation of proxy indicators.

e N is the total number of experts surveyed. Pi is the i-th percentile of the distribution of the indicator tqc x and p an arbitrary threshold around the mean.

Alternatively, participatory methods that incorporate various stakeholders experts, citizens and politicians can be used to assign weights.

In the budget allocation approach, experts are given a budget of N points, to be distributed over a number of individual indicators,

this method can induce serious cognitive stress in the experts who are asked to allocate the budget.

This is similar to the budget allocation method (see below) where experts are asked to assign weights

Allocation Process (BAP), experts on a given theme (e g. innovation, education, health, biodiversity,) described by a set of indicators are asked to allocate a budget of one hundred points to the indicator set,

It is essential to bring together experts representing a wide spectrum of knowledge and experience to ensure that a proper weighting system is established.

Special care should be taken in the identification of the population of experts from which to draw a sample,

stratified or otherwise. 31 It is crucial that the selected experts are not specialists for individual indicators,

For example, a biodiversity index should be handled by biodiversity experts, not by ornithology experts. It is also noteworthy that at the top level,

the experts should be those who decide on the relative (political) weight of economic, social and environmental questions,

Selection of experts for the valuation; Allocation of budgets to the individual indicators; Calculation of weights;

it relies on the opinion of people (e g. experts, politicians, citizens), who are asked to choose which set of individual indicators they prefer,

) Eco-indicator 99 (Pré-Consultants NL, 2000)( weights based on survey from experts; Overall Health System Attainment (WHO, 2000)( weights based on survey from experts.

Weighting is based on expert opinion and not on technical manipulations. Expert opinion is likely to increase the legitimacy of the composite

Allocating a certain budget over a too large number of indicators may lead to serious cognitive stress for the experts,

if the expert feels that not enough has been done to tackle them). 102 HANDBOOK ON CONSTRUCTING COMPOSITE INDICATORS:

5 X Weighting Scheme 1 BAP 2 AHP 3 BOD The last uncertain factor, 6 X, is used to select the expert.

In this experiment, there are 20 experts. Once an expert has been selected at runtime via the trigger 6 X,

the weights assigned by that expert (either for the BAP or AHP schemes) are assigned to the data.

Clearly the selection of the expert has no bearing when BOD is used (3 5 X=).However,

this uncertain factor would be generated in each individual Monte carlo simulation, given that the row dimension of the Monte carlo sample (constructive dimension) should be fixed in a Monte carlo experiment,

and the (lack of) consensus among experts on how TAI should be built, it would have to be concluded that TAI is not a robust measure of countries'technology achievement.

of country rank Non-additive Expert selection Weighting Aggregation Exclusion/Inclusion Normalisation Note: Results based on first-order indices.

Singapore Korea, Rep. of Total effect sensitivity index Expert selection Weighting Aggregation Exclusion/Inclusion Normalisation Figure 21.

425 0. 180 Weighting Scheme 0. 038 0. 327 0. 288 Expert selection 0. 068 0. 402 0. 334 Sum

. 078 Weighting Scheme 0. 212 0. 623 0. 410 Expert selection 0. 202 0. 592 0. 390 Sum 0. 550

it is the choice of aggregation methods and of experts which together with indicator inclusion/exclusion dominate the uncertainty in the country ranks.

Pré Consultants (2000 The Eco-indicator 99. A damage oriented method for life cycle impact assessment. http://www. pre. nl/eco-indicator99/ei99-reports. htm Podinovskii V. V. 1994), Criteria

1999). 31 In 1991,400 German experts were asked to allocate a budget to several environmental indicators related to an air pollution problem.

although the experts came from opposing social spheres like the industrial and the environmental sectors (Jesinghaus, in Moldan & Billharz,

1997). 32 The exercise was carried out at the JRC through interviewing experts in the field. 33 A subset of indicators Y is preferentially independent of Yc (the complement of Y) only if any conditional preference among elements of Y,


A Comparison of Smart Grid Technologies_ 2012.pdf

and is composed of European commission officials, experts from the industry, policy makers, and academia 14. The first projects related to smart grids were grouped within the Integration of Renewable Energy Sources and Distributed Generation into the European Electricity Grid cluster.


A digital agenda for European SMEs.pdf

who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote the appropriate regulation of accounting.

Independent evidence consistently demonstrates that accountants are the most commonly used professional advisers of SMES,

The role of advisers such as accountants, must be considered carefully by the European commission and other stakeholders.

business advisers and regulators to ensure that companies are able to access objective, comparable and relevant information when choosing services and providers.

Ensuring that SMES'independent advisers, including accountants, are engaged in this debate will be crucial in ensuring that SMES are represented better in their use of cloud services.

platformslack of access to fast internetlack of government actiontoo complexperceived security risklack of government initiativesno need/customers don't require thislack of access to appropriate specialists/advisers/consultantslack of support

This is evidence of SMES and their advisers'learning, in the sense that more savvy suppliers are daunted not by complexity

Role of stakeholdersit has already been suggested by experts in the field (Nienhuis and Bryant 2010

of universal platformslack of access to fast internetlack of government actiontoo complexperceived security risklack of government initiativeslack of need/customers generally don't requirethislack of access to appropriate specialists/advisers/consultantslack

of government actiontoo complexperceived security risklack of government initiativesno need/customers don't require thislack appropriate specialists/advisers/consultantslack of support from bankslack of awarenesstoo expensivesmes are not using P2pfinancesmes are using P2p

/customers don't require thislack of access to appropriate specialists/advisers/consultantslack of support from bankslack of awarenesstoo expensivesmes don't use e-commercesmes use e-commercefigure 6:

accountants and other advisers can provide important links to the SME sector. In some areas however, their own understanding will need to improve first

Opportunities for European Cloud computing Beyond 2010, Expert Group Report, online report<http://cordis. europa. eu/fp7/ict/ssai/docs/cloud-report-final. pdf,


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