93 posts
"Revitalising European Industry" by Frank-Walter Steinmeier
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Europe is debilitated with the effects of two years of desperate crisis management. The prescribed treatment resembles the old practice of bloodletting on ailing patients. Growing debts are paid with...
Women on Boards: EU Law Near?
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Viviane Reding, European Union Justice commissioner, appears to be leaning toward introducing quotas to ensure greater representation for women on corporate boards.
Promoting small businesses and economic growth in Europe
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As European Finance Ministers gathered in Brussels to address the Euro crisis, we wanted to share our belief that small businesses and entrepreneurs can be at the heart of Europe’s strategy for economic growth. In our view, the key that will unloc...
Single Market Entrepreneurs
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In collaboration with our friends at Google, the Lisbon Council is launching a new Centre of Excellence, entitled Single Market Entrepreneurs Centre. In a nutshell, it consists of a dedicated research programme and high-level, policy-driven community...
What the SMEs need should be key factor in what the EU needs!
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Among the main results of a study on the essential contribution of SMEs on job creation presented by the European Commission is that "85% of net new jobs1 in the EU between 2002 and 2010 were created by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This...
A Lesson from Asia: Discovery in Kuala Lampur
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As any other tourist in Kuala Lampur, capital of Malaysia and trade-hub in the region, I was doing my shopping in the malls when I made a shocking discovery. For the first time in my life I found something that excites me in a main stream environme...
"Industrial Policy and Employees’ Participation" by Klaus Mehrens
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Long-term sectoral economic development seems to follow a stable pattern: For most industrialised economies the dominant share of agricultural production begins declining early on until it reaches...
Is There Passion in Social Business?
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In places like Naples you don’t survive without passion. Passion keeps you motivated and is a valuable currency in an economy short of cash. People connect and trade in passion, the only commodity in rich supply. But passion doesn’t have...
Hungary Bans New Shopping Malls
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Hungary’s government approved a proposal to impose a temporary ban on the construction of new shopping centers larger than 300 square meters.
"A Deindustrialized Europe?" by Daniel Lind
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In the last thirty years, the share of manufacturing in total world GDP has decreased. Simultaneously, there has been a fall in relative and absolute manufacturing employment in the Western world....
Russia Rich in Talent, Poor in Entrepreneurship, Says Microsoft Executive
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Russia may be filled with talented IT people, but entrepreneurship is not their strongest side, a Microsoft Corp. executive said.
"What should an Industrial Policy for Europe look like?" by Robin Wilson
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In recent decades, in parallel with the reduction of organisational sociology to management theory, industrial policy has been encapsulated in two words: ‘shareholder value’. Based on neo-liberal...
Partnering
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The Enterprise Europe Network here in Scotland has great experience of helping local companies to grow their business through finding partners abroad. One of our core services is promoting partnership profiles across our Network, be it of a...
Prayer and Meditation in Entrepreneurship
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A Baylor University survey on religion indicates that 32% of entrepreneurs say they practice meditation, while just 22% of non-entrepreneurs say they do. Concerning prayer, the figures are 34% and 27%, respectively. The difference on meditation dwarf...
How bad public policy destroys growth and jobs
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I have worked with the owners of quite a few SMEs and I have experienced first hand that they spend more time & energy understanding new regulations than complying to them! This is also what a survey by the UK's FSB (Federation of Small Business) co...
A European in Silicon Valley
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I love that feeling when you get to do and experience something that you have only ever heard about. The myth of “Silicon Valley”, its innovative prowess, its ingenuity, its ability to remake the world with its ideas, its entrepreneurship, its sa...
Entrepreneurship in Europe
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A few years ago I was participating in an online discussion (remember the online forums with the "threads" of topics?) about business and entrepreneurship. I was arguing that the world, at least the western one, was from into a Services based econom...
being Euro-niche?
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Business today: a) be big and think mass or b) be small and think niche? Can a company based in the EU, specially an SME or micro, realistically focus on a global "niche market" or even an "niche" market within the EU (or Eurozone) these days? N...
Business leaders boost the European Dream
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After our European ICT competitiveness roundup it seems natural to take a closer look at the hopes and expectations of European corporate leaders with regard to the future of the EU.Some people doubt the usefulness of social media, but I beg to diffe...
Interoperability and standards in Digital Agenda for Europe
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The introduction of the communication (in Swedish) was followed by overviews of the digital single market in the Digital Agenda for Europe and the planned Pillar I actions: Digital Single Market. Standards We move to a new action area in the communic...
ZENTREPRENEURSHIP, TENDERPRENEURSHIP, NEPOTREPRENEURSHIP
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A couple of days ago, a research paper landed in my inbox, authored by small business research celeb Roy Thurik and Phillip Koelinger of Erasmus Univ. in Rotterdam. It's due to appear at the Review of Economics and Statistics sometime next year. Alth...
So Jump Already, Dammit
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Van Rompuy thinks he knows what’s wrong with European innovation:Van Rompuy said that "societal problems in Belgium and elsewhere" in the EU mean that people "live in a climate of despair and are depressed."But in order for Europe to remain at the...
Computer Technology Revolutionizing Industries – Part I: Publishing and Book-Selling
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Crude oil was first drilled in 1859 in northwestern Pennsylvania (not in the desert of the Middle East). It was not long before oil lamps became ubiquitous, lengthening the productive day for millions beyond daylight hours. Just fifty or sixty years...
BETTER REGULATION FAIL
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Quick announcement:I've recently contributed to an upcoming book on the Better Regulation Agenda in Europe - from a UK perspective. However, I also have got hold of the manuscript on Greece. I do not have permission to publish this so I will not but...
Please help this beleaguered industry! Commission launches consultation on security industry
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The European Commission has launched a public consultation entitled ‘Unleashing the potential of Europe’s security industry’. The consultation has the clear aim of fostering support for continued EU R&D subsidies to the security in...
Rent seeking and business support for the EU
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After the rant of my previous note, I thought I should even things out with a more positive post about the interesting people offering their support for the EU. In this post I’ll focus on the support provided by business … Continue readin...
Contest of Innovative business ideas! SIB-Net
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The project SIB-Net invites all inventors, innovation and technology experts and other business idea holders to participate in a contest and submit applications by 28 February. Authors of the best innovative business ideas will be selected f...
Quote of the Week: Caroline De Cock
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The day my kids will have understood that failing is not a bad thing as long as you learn from it and try again, I just know they will be the next generation of innovators. Found on the website of Butterfly Europe Tweet This! Share this on Facebook P...
Connected Kingdom – internet firms in the UK
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Some friends at Google have pointed me towards Connected Kingdom, a website about the state of the UK’s internet firms that showcases a report by BCG that highlights the importance of the UK’s internet economy. There are also some fledgli...
How much EU legislation in member state UK? Nosemonkey and House of Commons Library
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On 13 October 2010 the European Parliament awarded its journalism prizes to for excellent media work on Europe. Among the four categories, the prize for Internet journalism went to the Euroblog pioneer James Clive-Matthews, also known as Nosemonkey.
Smart Regulation in the European Union
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Yesterday we looked at the number of EU regulations and directives. We also made some general remarks about the benefits of business regulation at EU level, the regulatory burden versus potential benefits, and the better regulation agenda of the Euro...
How much EU law is there? Smart regulation and impact assessments
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Quantity and quality are different things, but the European Commission offers an approximate answer to the question how many legal acts there are with European Union origin. This detail is found in the Report from the Commission: 27th annual report o...
Europe 2020 strategy: Innovation Union
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The seven flagship initiatives promised by the European Commission under the Europe 2020 (EU2020) strategy are Innovation Union, Youth on the move, A digital agenda for Europe, Resource efficient Europe, An industrial policy for the globalisation era...
The Eclectic Framework of Entrepreneurship
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Audretsch et al. develop an approach called The Eclectic Framework of Entrepreneurship, which brings together different elements and levels of analysis, arguing that the level of entrepreneurship in a particular country depends on factors that shape...
Orgalime – Manufacturing Matters Manifesto, a reminder for those returning to their desks!
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Orgalime believe in the key role that manufacturing industry plays as a driver of Europe’s economy, both through the direct jobs that companies provide and indirectly throughout their supply chains, including not least the services industry. Our ma...
Start a Business in Belgium
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Image from betterthangettingby.comA post in response to some questions about business in Belgium that I've got via email:Belgium has a number of avenues available for those looking to start a business. Belgium is the political capital of the economic...
An own-initiative report in the European Parliament (Innovation Union)
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Officially, it started with the Commission’s communication Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world; Brussels, 2.9.2009 COM(2009) 442 final. The paper launched a public consultation on the EU’s future innovation plan in the conte...
Project Europe 2030 and Innovation Union
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The future prosperity of EU citizens will be decided by our collective choices between reform or witnessing our decline. During the Lisbon strategy decade, we crawled in the slow lane. The new Europe 2020 strategy is now supposed to bring us jobs and...
Europe 2020 strategy: Belgian EU Council presidency and Innovation Union
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Yesterday we looked at the visible preparation and communication by the Commission services of the flagship initiative Innovation Union, in the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and growth. The central Europe 2020 website was (and still...
Europe 2020 strategy: Innovation Union - preparation and communication
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There is a link to the European Council’s conclusions [to be adopted] 17 June 2010, but otherwise the European Commission’s central website for the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and growth is still as dead as the dodo. While waiting for the Comm...
China closes the innovation gap in ten years (Innovation Union in Europe 2020 strategy)
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With regard to innovation performance, China is showing a rapid rate of relative improvement, which points to a possible closing of the performance gap with the EU in the near future (10 years under a business-as-usual simple linear extrapolation), s...
Europe 2020 strategy: Flagship initiative Innovation Union
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This blog post presents the European Commission’s proposed flagship initiative Innovation Union. Background In the blog entry Europe 2020 strategy: Barroso’s reform flotilla (flagship initiatives), we saw the seven thematic reform programmes pro...
Can you teach entrepreneurship?
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Some entrepreneurs say their drive comes from within while others point to role models who helped them think for themselves I’m just back from a round-table discussion on whether you can teach entrepreneurship. The room was packed with people w...
Constraints? For whom? By whom?
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It is not people and small companies that set most limits to themselves, as some claim; Over regulation and legal labyrinths create most constraints IMO.Systemically speaking how can a person or organisation make rational decisions + operate within a...
Further reading: Brussels
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Anger of GM’s Opel U-turn (Daniel Schäfer, FT) Oracle braced for EU objections on Sun deal (Nikki Tait, FT) The end is nigh, we plan to do nothing about it (Charlemagne blog, The Economist) I admired Thatcher, says Chirac in memoirs (Charles B...
87 Grammes of CO2 Emissions per km.
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The biggest European automobile manufacturer has announced its intention to introduce a new extra high fuel-efficiency model as of this autumn. Its consumption would be 3.3 litre/100 km, or the equivalent of 87 grammes C02 emissions per km. This news...
French-Czech row plunges EU into an abyss of disunity
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The bad feeling between France and the Czech Republic is finally out there for everyone to see. For anyone who likes their European Union united, it is not a pretty sight. Suspicion was in the air even before the Czechs took over the EU’s rot...
A few tricks to keep more fuel in your tank, more money in your pocket and more CO2 out of the atmosphere
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I would like to thank you for all the comments written on my previous week’s blog entry. I have read them with a great interest. Once again it proves that nuclear energy is a “hot” subject. Yesterday I took part in the 2nd meeting o...
