Klaipėdos universitetas

Innovation is not only an economic mechanism, or a technical process. It is primarily a social phenomenon in which the motivation and participation of employees are determinants of success in the process. Hence, many authors emphasise the social dimension of innovation. The paper summarizes the conclusions of the studies conducted among employees from Polish companies on identification of “soft” determinants of innovation processes in the organization, such as human resources, innovative climate and culture conducive to innovation.

Globalization process has a gradually stronger influence on economic development. In this new reality the main indicator is innovation. Various regions of European Union formulate Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS). The goal of this document is to formulate essential elements of regional development strategy. This kind of strategy was created for the Mazovia region. In the document we can read that Mazovia is the most innovative region in Poland, however, it is still far behind regions in highly developed countries. The main strength of Mazovia is the fact that it is a capital region, which means a better access for enterprises to information, important contacts and promotion. Nevertheless, we still can experience many barriers, undermining regular regional development, such as insufficient grants for scientific research or inadequate engagement of public administration to help entrepreneurs.

Innovations in social pedagogical assistance in schools are important for ensuring equal opportunities in education for all social

Innovations and innovative activities are becoming themost important feature of a country or region development. For this reason agreat amount of literature highlights this topic. There are a lot of documents,strategies and programs signed which try to enhance business competitivenessand productivity. Formation of regional policy should make that thisdevelopment will ensure a high quality of life throughout the country. Economicgrowth of countries in encouraging to look for more efficienty, which isdirectly related with innovative entities. The significance of innovations isthe focus of EU regional policy. Although the innovation phenomenon is widelyanalyzed, consistent and specified concept is not formulated. Thus, this paperwill primarily discuss the diversity of innovation concept and interface withthe regional concept. Another part of the work aims to reveal the determinantsof the regional development influencing innovation activities by differentauthor’s approaches. The final section of this paper is to present adoptedmethodological matrix for innovativeness evaluation for regions in Lithuania.In Lithuaniainnovativeness is counted just on a country’s level, no territorial importanceis emphasised. Even though innovations are closely related with regionalpolicy. So the main purpose of this paper is to make methodological basis formore detailed (in a territorial contex) analysis of innovativeness in Lithuania’sregions.

We are living in world of dynamic changes, and transformations of global systems and the environment around us leave an impact

Innovation and entrepreneurship in regions is one of essential tools, in added value creation in economics and in development in national level. It is very important to encourage creativity, new ways of thinking and continuous process of learning of individuals. There are some different approaches how to measure competitiveness of state economy and competitiveness in regional level. Global Competitiveness Index shows competitiveness of state among other world economies based on the 12 pillars of competitiveness, which is difficult to apply in regional or entrepreneurial level due to lack of data at regional level. Innovation is a key factor for development and competitiveness in individual (individual, enterprise) and institutional (local governmental institutions, regional, national and global level. Scientific problem of article is that impact of creativity, knowledge creation and dissemination and cooperation could not be measured trough quantitative data. Aim of the article is to define support model for cooperation of individual – institutional level in innovative entrepreneurship and its impact on regional development. Methods ar analysis of scientific literature, and political planning documents for define of support model in dynamic external environment.

The article deals with the profession of Caritative social worker, its legitimate status in Latvia, as well with historical roots of the profession and its methodology. It is based on the Judeo-Christian anthropological paradigm and is reflected in European guidelines for Social work development, stemming from the founders’ of the European Union concept of the Social stand of man and human dignity as spiritual subject.

Innovation and an innovative approach in management, education and leadership have been changing over decades, according to the dynamic world we are living in. Changes start at an individual level, with the personality, and only those who have changed themselves can start to lead others towards global change. The Latvian National Development Plan defined aspects of polycentric development for all the regions of Latvia. Each region has resources, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but human resources are the most important resource for change, creative ideas and sustainable development. The education system changes very slowly, from lecture learning to a more inclusive ‘learning by doing’ approach. This approach has been used in northern countries for a while, but Latvia has just now started to implement the approach. The term ‘innovation’ today is wider than product, process, service or organisational innovation. At a national and regional level of development, it is crucial to encourage inhabitants of the region to stay in or return to rural areas, and create knowledge and enterprises in the region and their home town.The aim of the paper is to evaluate the involvement of residents in management activities and regional development processes, and their willingness to participate in the creation of knowledge and innovative entrepreneurship and co-creation. The paper is a review of literature on theoretical aspects of the creation of innovation in the region in a combination of survey analyses of residents. The methodological approach is based on two steps: a review of research literature, and an analysis of the results of a survey of residents of the region of their willingness to be involved in processes and tasks for regional development, and some aspects of analysis of entrepreneur opinion about innovative solutions in their companies. The article consists of four main parts: 1) the theoretical findings of a systemic approach to innovation and development; 2) the role of the innovation process in development from different perspectives; 3) an analysis of a survey of the region’s residents about their willingness to be involved in processes of regional development; 4) aspects of innovation used in regional entrepreneurship. The significance of the paper is to define aspects of regional development relating to innovation and co-creation.

Innovation is often recognized as a vital source of competitive advantage for business. Taking into account the conditions of increasing globalization at a high level of intensity as well as a rapidly changing technological landscape and also continuous customer demands for new products and services on the modern market, it is needed to assume that businesses have to innovate in order to survive and prosper in the contemporary environment. In the context of the paper at hand the main attention is given to the analysis of the theoretical and empirical aspects of the concept of innovation. There were applied such economic science research methods as monographic, grouping, reference, generalization, graphical analysis and content analysis.

The article aims to show that the main and most important prerequisite for successful hotel business growth in current promptly changing business environment becomes development of innovation in the hotel industry. Though the term innovation is already widely defined by many researchers, it is considered in the article as a subject for future discussions leading to proposed scientific classification of innovations based on selected criterions. Evaluation of the process of innovation appearance in the hotel market allowed creation of the model, presenting the main influences and attributes of the whole innovation process in a hotel industry. Afterwards, the article discusses some specific innovation tools that are essential for hotel enterprises and which could be challenging for hoteliers in Ukrainian market nowadays. Based on the empirical research results, the obstacles which hinder up-to-date innovative operations in Ukrainian Radisson chain hospitality market are discussed. As well, concerning prospective innovation trends for Radisson Hotels in Ukraine, advices for future innovation implementation were proposed.