This publication relates to the subject of shaping and maintaining high competitiveness and innovation by businesses, with particular emphasis on the SME sector in the Baltic Sea Region. It is divided into three parts. The first part includes the discussion of women's economic activity and their participation in the creation and strengthening of the competitive position of companies. The second part is devoted to problems related to the ageing of population in the Baltic Sea Region countries and the potential socio-economic impact of this fast growing process. The deliberations contained in the second part refer also to the possibilities and conditions for realizing the potential of seniors in the development of competitiveness and innovation of enterprises. The third part is a fragmentary overview of achievements related to the factors of competitiveness and innovation of modern enterprises. The papers, that were presented at a international conference 2013 at the Gdansk University of Technology, are printed in English.

There is long-standing debate on how population growth affects national economies. A new report from Population Matters examines the history of this debate and synthesizes current research on the topic. The authors, led by Harvard economist David Bloom, conclude that population age structure, more than size or growth per se, affects economic development, and that reducing high fertility can create opportunities for economic growth if the right kinds of educational, health, and labor-market policies are in place. The report also examines specific regions of the world and how their differing policy environments have affected the relationship between population change and economic development.

Competition, competitiveness, innovation and growth are inherently linked. This book covers the main ideas underlying competitiveness and its applications, drawing lessons for developing economies and relevant policy recommendations.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.

European economic recovery appears to be taking hold. So is the European crisis over? The acute phase of the crisis passed, however a number of medium and long term issues remain. The policies of “internal devaluations” are working, albeit slowly, to restore competitiveness in the countries most affected by the crisis. However, growth remains at best sluggish. The medium and long term outlook remains highly uncertain, fomenting social tensions and endangering political stability. The restoration of economic dynamism is increasingly perceived as the answer to the question of the “European” future – economically, politically and socially. There is a broad consensus that dynamic structural reforms and the restoration of competitiveness at the level of the global economy are key answers to current European challenges. However, whatever the form these may take, the transfer of resources is implicit (and seemingly necessary), to underpin the current structure of eurozone. This indeed raises the question of governance – both fiscal and monetary. After all, the provision of resources implies an allocation – and it is hard to imagine that resources will be provided to the common pool unless the providers have some say with respect to allocation. And that requires some form of common (i.e. centralized) decision-making procedures, in all likelihood exceeding the common understanding of the acquis communautaire as it exists today – i.e. some form of the effective political arrangement. In this context, the basic idea which connects all contributions in this volume is the analysis of the problems which affected the Eurozone in the past decade and the challenges and dilemmas the Eurozone will face in the coming years.

The ageing of society does not stop at company owners. More and more companies have to be handed over to the new generation. This process is a challenge for all parties involved. The support of business transfer assistance is just as essential for the European economy as the promotion of start-ups because both are critical to the development of the European economy. Over 450.000 firms with over two million jobs are transferred to a new owner in the EU-28 each year. Around one-third of these transfers fail, and the companies are closed. The future growth and sustainability of innovative companies in the Baltic Sea Region are severely limited by failed business transfers. Furthermore, due to a lack of available and appropriate successors, many firms are liquidated rather than transferred. This publication is part of the project INBETS (www.inbets.eu), highlights the background to the current situation of business transfers in the Baltic Sea Region, and proposes a policy program to promote business successions and open up new target groups of potential successors. Part-financed by the European Union (European Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) within the INBETS project. This publication does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission.

'Demographic transition, along with the economic and geopolitical re-emergence of Asia, are two of the largest forces shaping the twenty-first century, but little is known about the implications for innovation. The countries of East Asia have some of the oldest age structures on the planet: between now and 2050, the population that is age 65 and older will increase to more than one in four Chinese, and to more than one in three Japanese and Koreans. Other economies with younger populations, like India, face the challenge of fully harnessing the "demographic dividend" from large cohorts in the working ages. This book delves into how such demographic changes shape the supply of innovation and the demand for specific kinds of innovation in the Asia-Pacific. Social scientists from Asia and the United States offer multidisciplinary perspectives from economics, demography, political science, sociology, and public policy; topics range from the macroeconomic effects of population age structure, to the microeconomics of technology and the labor force, to the broader implications for human well-being. Contributors analyze how demography shapes productivity and the labor supply of older workers, as well as explore the aging population as consumers of technologies and drivers of innovations to meet their own needs, as well as the political economy of spatial development, agglomeration economies, urban-rural contrasts, and differential geographies of aging.'--Publisher description.

The lack of skilled workforce is one of the biggest problems for European companies – and due to the demographic development, this challenge is growing. At the same time, youth unemployment is on the rise and too many youth are left behind with no education or training at all. The implementation and the strengthening of the dual vocational education offer valuable contributions to the problem-solving described above. Thus a specific one-year professional qualification within the dual system for young people was successfully introduced in the city of Hamburg, Germany: the so called “Hamburg Model”. This is a proven method to integrate young people into the professional education, who would otherwise not get this chance and too often end up without any training. Moreover, the Hamburg Model makes the choice of the profession more certain, decreases drop-out rates and increases the chances on the labor market significantly. During a two-year implementation period, this Model was adapted, transferred and put into action in Hungary and Lithuania. This book provides a good basis for the transfer to other countries.

Since the mid-twentieth century, the environment in which we operate is in fact described as turbulent, i.e. characterised by an unprecedented amount, rate, intensity and complexity of changes. In such a volatile environment the survival of an enterprise, and the more so its development and maintenance of high competitive position, seem to be extremely difficult. On the one hand, changes can create opportunities and provide the enterprises with chances for the development, on the other restrict or even block the possibility of their functioning in the market. In the monograph an attempt was made at classifying the civilization changes the modern entrepreneurs have to face in the fight for maintaining high competitiveness of their enterprises. Good practices are presented, for example the economic activation of seniors for companies. This book is a scientific publication for the purpose of its drafting, a review of most recent scientific literature on enterprise competitiveness and innovation and the direction and pace of socio-economic changes, with a particular focus on demographic changes, was conducted. This publication was developed as part of the flagship project of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region “Innovative SMEs by Gender and Age (QUICK-IGA)”.