Dear Readers, - Kwartalnik Naukowy...

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to present you with another edition of our quarterly. As always,we have a variety of captivating articles in store for you, confident that they be ofgreat use to you, opening up many avenues for inspiration.

Dr hab., prof. nadzw. Agnieszka Izabela Baruk, draws attention to the need foruniversities to engage in comprehensive image creation as an employer. This is amatter that is imperative considering the growing challenges faced by universities. Asfar as the image of this group of entities is concerned, there clearly is a gap in termsof the theoretical considerations as well as empirical research that must be filled. Agood way to start closing this gap would be to identify the associations that potentialyoung employees have with respect to higher education institutions as employers.

Jan Walczak, MSc, addresses reputational consequences and marketingchallenges and discusses the rebranding process related to the consolidation of twohigher education institutions. The article also deals with the creation of a website,actions within interconnected social media, and an ongoing billboard and mediaadvertising campaign. The author also lists the difficulties that promotiondepartment staff are faced with in connection with the consolidation process of twohigher education institutions, as well as building a brand from scratch, andcommunicating with staff with regard to the planned and implemented changes.

What elements of the marketing operations of higher education institutions havethe greatest bearing on attracting students? The presented research question is thecorollary to the research objective of obtaining pointers and guidelines for theexecution of marketing actions facilitating obtaining the new student targets in linewith the institution's strategy. Michał Kucharski, PhD, Prof. zw. dr hab. Romuald

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Szopa, and Piotr Halemba, PhD, additionally collated the response to the researchquestion posed in this manner with the new reality in which higher educationinstitutions operate in Poland, linked to the changes introduced by the Ministry ofScience and Higher Education in the 2016/2017 academic year.

In the article by Alfred Brzozowski, MScEng, the experience of the Central Institutefor Labour Protection — National Research Institute was presented in the scope ofengaging in collaborative activities with enterprises, based on building networkingstructures in Poland. A computer application was created to allow the implementationand dissemination of technical and organisational studies aimed at improving theworking conditions in enterprises throughout Poland. It was designed to be an extensivedatabase of studies and best practices to be used on a wide scale.

The article written by Prof. Brad William Zehner II, PhD, and Prof. Gary Pletcher,PhD, describes the relationships converting new scientific knowledge into newproducts, services, and commercial ventures with the aim of stimulating wealthgeneration. They defined and identified the main dilemmas of the commercialisationof marketing and technology. They also explained the Quicklook method and relatedprocesses facilitating the swift assessment of the commercial viability and the scientificpotential of a given research project. The harnessing of the Quicklook method andprocess in the early stages of the research and development process provides the bestchances of commercialisation success.

The purpose of the article by Renata Barcikowska, PhD, is to present thedevelopment of innovativeness in Poland after joining the European Union. TheAuthor addressed the place and role of research and development activities in shapinginnovation. The core of the article is an attempt to approach research institutes in thecontext of their cogency for improving innovation within the country, in view of theamendments proposed by the government.

Luminita Pistol, Rocsana Bucea-Manea-Tonis, and Radu Bucea-Manea-Tonisinvestigate the current economic situation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)in Romania and the usefulness of cloud computing technology for sustainable, openinnovation processes. The research is based on a supply chain geared to the needs of SMEs,on a model for innovation in the business network environment, and on the decision treemodel elaborated for SME realities when embarking on a new project. The presentedarguments can be used to develop a new framework for the economics of cloud computing.

I also urge you to visit our website www. minib. pl and profiles on Twitter, Facebookand YouTube social networking sites.

I wish you a very pleasant reading!

Wojciech ŁukowskiTheme Editor

Marketing Director, Institute of Aviation

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TABLE OF CONTENTSFrom the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I

Scientific Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IV

Editorial Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V

Outer image of university in the role of employer Vs gender of young potential employees 1Możliwości i ograniczenia wykorzystania koncepcji zarządzania doświadczeniem klientów przez uczelnie wyższeProfessor Agnieszka Izabela Baruk, Anna Goliszek, Ph.D.

Marketing aspects of consolidation of higher education institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Marketingowe aspekty konsolidacji szkół wyższychJan Walczak, M.Sc.

Marketing determinants of choice of field of studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Marketingowe determinanty wyboru kierunku studiówMichał Kucharski, Ph.D., Professor Romuald Szopa, Piotr Halemba, Ph.D.

Cooperation model of research institutions and enterprises (S2B — Science to Business) in the area of improvement of working conditions — on the base of the Central Institute for Labour Protection experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Model współpracy nauki z przemysłem (S2B — Science to Business) w zakresie poprawy warunków pracy — doświadczenia Centralnego Instytutu Ochrony Pracy-PIBAlfred Brzozowski, M.Sc. Eng.

Successful Technology Commercialization — Yes or No? Improving the Odds. The Quick Look Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Udana komercjalizacja technologii — tak czy nie? Zwiększanie szans. Proces i metodologia Quick LookProfessor Brad Zehner, Ph.D., Professor Gary Pletcher, Ph.D.

Innovation in social-economic development in Poland. Researches institutes as entitiesand contractors of innovative activities in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Innowacyjność w rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczym Polski. Instytuty badawcze jako podmioty i wykonawcy działań innowacyjnych w PolsceRenata Barcikowska, Ph.D.

Cloud Computing Application for Romanian SMEs Luminita Pistol, Rocsana Tonis Bucea-Manea, Radu Tonis Bucea-Manea . . . . . . . . . . . 117Zastosowanie technologii chmury obliczeniowej wśród małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw (MŚP) w Rumunii Luminita Pistol, Rocsana Tonis Bucea-Manea, Radu Tonis Bucea-Manea

The role of knowledge management in mobile marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Rola zarządzania wiedzą w marketingu mobilnymWojciech Łukowski, M.Sc.

Publication Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VI

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Scientific CouncilPPrrooff.. BBooggddaann SSoojjkkiinn,, Poznań University of Economics, Poland —— CChhaaiirrmmaann ooff tthhee SScciieennttiiffiicc CCoouunncciill

PPrrooff.. GGeeoorrggee JJ.. AAvvlloonniittiiss,, Athens University of Economics and Business, GreecePPrrooff.. AAggnniieesszzkkaa IIzzaabbeellaa BBaarruukk,, Lodz University of Technology, PolandPPrrooff.. LLiiddiiaa BBiiaałłoońń,, Warsaw Management University, PolandPPrrooff.. GGiiaanniittaa BBlleeoojjuu,, Universitatea Dunarea de Jos Galati, RomaniaPPrrooff.. HHoorrsstt BBrreezziinnsskkii,, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Germanyddrr RRooccssaannaa BBuucceeaa--MMaanneeaa--Ţoonniissţ,, Spiru Haret University, Rumunia

PPrrooff.. JJooaannnnaa CCyygglleerr,, Warsaw School of Economics, PolandAAnnnnaa DDrraappiińńsskkaa,, PPhhDD,, Gdańsk University of Technology, PolandPPrrooff.. JJaarroossllaavv DDvvoorraakk,, Klaipeda University, LithuaniaPPrrooff.. EEggoonn FFrraanncckk,, University of Zurich, SwitzerlandMMaarrcciinn GGęębbaarroowwsskkii,, PPhhDD,, Rzeszów University of Technology, PolandPPrrooff.. EElliinnaa GGaaiillee--SSaarrkkaannee,, Riga Technical University, LatviaPPrrooff.. BBooggddaann GGrreeggoorr,, University of Lodz, PolandPPrrooff.. EElleennaa GGuurrgguu,, Spiru Haret University of Bucharest, RomaniaPPrrooff.. HHaakkaann HHaakkaannssssoonn,, Norwegian Business School in Oslo, NorwayJJaaddrraannkkaa JJeezzeerrššeekk TTuurrnneess,, PPhhDD..,, PoliMaT Center of Excellence Polimer Materiale &Technologies,SloweniaAAnniittaa KKoollnnhhooffeerr--DDeerreeccsskkeeii,, PPhhDD..,, Óbuda University, Hungarypprrooff.. LLeeaa KKuubbíícckkoovváá,, Mendel University in Brno, Czech RepublicPPrrooff.. SSuuzzaannaa LLaappoorrsseekk,, University of Primorska, SloveniaPPrrooff.. JJuuaann GGaarrcciiaa MMaacchhaaddoo,, Univesity of Huelva, SpainPPrrooff.. VVaannddaa MMaarraakkoovvaa,, Matej Bel University of Banská Bystrica, SlovakiaPPrrooff.. BBoobbaann MMeelloovviićć,, University of Montenegro, MontenegroPPrrooff.. PPeettrraa MMoorrsscchhhheeuusseerr,, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, GermanyPPrrooff.. ÐÐuurrððaannaa OOzzrreettiićć DDooššeenn,, University of Zagreb, CroatiaPPrrooff.. MMiirroossłłaawwaa PPlluuttaa--OOlleeaarrnniikk,, Wrocław University of Economics, PolandPPrrooff.. JJooeerrnn RReeddlleerr,, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, GermanyMMaarriiaa RRyybbaacczzeewwsskkaa,, PPhhDD..,, Stirling University, UKPPrrooff.. EEddggaarr JJuuaann SSaauucceeddoo AAccoossttaa,, University of Veracruz, MexicoPPrrooff.. HHaannnnaa SShhvviinnddiinnaa,, Sumy State University, UkrainePPrrooff.. MMaarriinnaa SSoolleessvviikk,, Nord University, NorwayPPrrooff.. AAnnddrreeaa SSuujjoovvaa,, Technical University in Zvolen, SlovakiaPPrrooff.. DDiinnddaayyaall SSwwaaiinn,, International Management Institute, IndiaPPrrooff.. RRoommaann ŠŠppeerrkkaa,, Silesian University in Opava, Czech RepublicPPrrooff.. WWłłooddzziimmiieerrzz SSrrookkaa, University of Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland PPrrooff.. RRiicchhaarrdd SSzzaannttoo,, Corvinus University of Budapest, HungaryPPrrooff.. LLiibbeennaa TTeettrreevvoovvaa,, PPhhDD.. EEnngg..,, University of Pardubice, Czech RepublicPPrrooff.. DDaarriiuusszz TTrrzzmmiieellaakk,, Center for Technology Transfer of University of Lodz, PolandDDaarriiuusszz TTwwoorrzzyyddłłoo,, SScc..DD..,, Warsaw University, PolandPPrrooff.. NNeevveenn VVrrcceekk,, University of Zagreb, CroatiaPPrrooff.. JJoolliittaa VVvveeiinnhhaarrddtt,, Vytautas Magnus University, LithuaniaPPrrooff.. HHaabbttee GG.. WWoolldduu,, The University of Texas at Dallas, USAPPrrooff.. WWiilllliiaamm BBrraaddlleeyy ZZeehhnneerr IIII,, University of Texas at Austin, USA

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Editorial Board

EEddiittoorr--iinn--CChhiieeff

Professor Witold Wiśniowski, Ph.D. Eng., Institute of Aviation, Poland

EEddiittoorriiaall BBooaarrdd

Beata Kozyra, Poznan University College of Business, Poland — Statistical EditorWojciech Łukowski, Institute of Aviation, Poland — Theme EditorAneta Olejniczak, Institute of Aviation, Poland — Theme EditorWitold Świeczak, Institute of Aviation, Poland — Assistant Editor & Online EditorCarl Chandra, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK — Native Speaker of English LanguageSimone Hinrichsen, South Africa — Native Speaker of English LanguageAnne Johnson, Canada — Native Speaker of English LanguageDominika Palmowska, Alias DP, Poland — English Language Philologist, and TranslatorAnna Łyczewska, Primary School No. 38 in Lublin, Poland — Polish Language PhilologistIwona Tkacz, High School No. XCIX in Warsaw, Poland — Polish Language PhilologistJoanna Pieniążek, Institute of Aviation, Poland — Certified Editor and Proofreader of the Polish LanguageRadosław Suchożebrski, Institute of Aviation, Poland — Graphic DesignerKatarzyna Wrona, Institute of Aviation, Poland — Graphic DesignerAnna Surzycka-Kucharczuk, Koncept, Poland — Typesetting

AAssssoocciiaattee EEddiittoorrss

Sascha Alavi, Ruhr-University of Bochum, GermanyDacha Atienza, Museu de Ciencies Naturals de Barcelona, SpainFrançois Carrillat, University of Technology, Sydney, AustraliaKimmy Chan, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong KongCarl Chandra, Goldsmiths, University of London, UKDan Dobra, Incas S.A.- National Institute for Aerospace Research, RomaniaYogesh Kumar Dwivedi, Swansea University, UKCarlos Herrera, Universidad de Antofagasta Asistencia Tecnica, ChileMichael Jones, Southeastern Louisiana University, USAFrancisco Martínez-López, University of Granada, SpainJuan Manuel del Nido, The University of Manchester, UKLeonard Ulmeanu-Angelescu, Incas S.A.- National Institute for Aerospace Research, RumuniaAviv Shoham, University of Haifa, IsraelAna Alina Tudoran, Aarhus University, DenmarkWalter Wymer, University of Lethbridge, Canada

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Address of Editors:

The Institute of Aviational. Krakowska 110/114, 02-256 Warsaw, Polande-mail: [email protected] Editor — Phone: +48 22 846 00 11 ext. 551Theme Editor — Phone: +48 22 846 00 11 ext. 547www.minib.pl

Publishers:

The Institute of AviationScientific Publishersal. Krakowska 110/114, 02-256 Warsaw, Polande-mail: [email protected]: +48 22 846 00 11www.ilot.edu.pl

eeIISSSSNN 22335533--88441144ppIISSSSNN 22335533--88550033

The journal is indexed in:Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ),European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS),The Central European Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanities (CEJSH),Index Copernicus Journals Master List,Google Scholar,De Gruyter,BazHum,ROAD Directory of Open Acces Scholarly Resources,Baidu Scholar,Celdes,CNKI Scholar (China National Knowledge Infrastructure),CNPIEC,EBSCO Discovery Service,J-Gate,KESLI-NDSL (Korean National Discovery for Science Leaders),Naviga (Softweco),Primo Central (ExLibris),ReadCube,Summon (Serials Solutions/ProQuest),TDNet,WanFang Data,WorldCat (OCLC).

Under decision of the Minister of Science and Higher Education (The announcement of December 23,2015) there are 99 ppooiinnttss attributed to the author's academic achievements for publishing scientificarticles in the Quarterly.

The magazine was entered into the Polish Court Register of Journals and Magazines with number PR 18803.The journal is originally published in electronic format.

Publishing funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

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EXTERNAL IMAGE OF A UNIVERSITY PLAYING THE ROLE OF AN EMPLOYER AND THE GENDER

OF POTENTIAL YOUNG EMPLOYEES

Open Access

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EXTERNAL IMAGE OF A UNIVERSITY PLAYING THE ROLE OF ANEMPLOYER AND THE GENDER OF POTENTIAL YOUNG EMPLOYEES

Professor Agnieszka Izabela BarukLodz University of Technology, Faculty of Organization and Management, [email protected]

Anna Goliszek, Ph.D.University of Life Sciences in Lublin, [email protected]: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.09

In the article the chosen aspects related to perceiving the university in the role of employer by youngpotential employees are presented. This paper has the theoretical-empirical character. In the theoreticalpart on the results of cognitive-critical analysis of the world literature the necessity to form the employer'simage in the case of universities is underlined. This activity becomes more and more important because ofthe growth of challenges staying before universities. Despite this there is the visible theoretical and researchgap in the scope of analysing this group of subjects as the employers. Its reduction should be started fromidentifying the connotations which potential employees have in the case of universities as the employers. Itwas one of the main research goals of the article. In the empirical part of the paper the results of primaryresearch conducted among representatives of mentioned segment of market are presented. On the baseof the results of factor analysis conducted in the case of women and in the case of men two researchhypotheses were verified preliminarily. It can be stated that women perceive universities in the role ofemployer worse than men.

Summary

Keywords: outer image, university, potential employer, potential employee

Theoretical introduction

One of the basic market roles served by every contemporary organizationis the role of an employer. Playing this role on the market is inextricablyassociated with a particular manner of perception of a particular organizationas an employer by both the participants of the internal labour market (that is,current employees) and the participants of the external labour market (thatis, potential employees). For the latter the organization is a potential employerwho may determine their professional career in the future.

The basis for making a decision whether to start work in a particularorganization are, among others, opinions on the organization coming tocandidates from their environme1, which influence the formation ofparticular associations with a particular employer in their minds. Obviously,the employers themselves influence the formation of these associations.Through coherent and complex image-related actions they can influencepotential employees in a formalized way. The influence on the participantsof the external labour market may also be informal in character — currentemployees convey particular image-building messages, which may support,or undermine the formal message created by the employer.

Naturally, only the coherence and compliance of the formal messagewith the informal message facilitates building positive associations with aparticular organization efficiently. It is worth emphasizing the fact thatthis is exceptionally important in case of young potential employees whohave no earlier professional experience not just in relations with a particular employer, but have no experience in this area at all2. It isbecause they are exceptionally susceptible to the circulating opinions andstereotypical rumours, which may substantially deform the image of a particular entity as a result of the transfer of, for example, particularopinions concerning the whole branch.

Employers representing such areas of market activity as science andhigher education should pay particular attention to the properformation of image-related activities. The necessity of including imagestrategy in the general strategy and assigning a key significance to itconcerns, among others, universities. This results above all from thefact that image-related activities as such and relations betweenemployees and employers in particular have been clearly neglected.

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Another, no less significant aspect supporting the necessity to changethe approach to image-related activities, especially in the area offorming the image of an employer, is the specific character ofuniversities which should attract people with above-averageintellectual, relational, and personal potential3. In Polish reality it iseven harder due to rather unfavourable stereotypical opinions on thesphere of science and influence on the functioning of the state and itsrepresentatives, including universities4.

In practice, image-related activities are attributed above all to entitiesrepresenting manufacturing, trade and service companies5. This concernsboth the process of building and strengthening the image of particularproducts and brands and the general image of the whole organization, aswell as its partial images associated with playing various market roles,including the role of the employer6. Universities naturally should alsoactively form each of these images, especially that they operate on a highlycompetitive market. Thus, they have to take active measures allowing themto satisfy the growing demands of the market.

The analysis of literature on the subject reveals a clear knowledge gap anda research gap in the area of aspects associated with the image of a universityas an employer and its formation7. That's why, taking into considerationgrowing challenges ahead of universities, not just as entities educating andbringing up young people,8 but also, considering the growing challenges aheadof universities as employers, it is worth identifying and analysing the way theyare regarded by potential employees. It is because this is the starting point forthe preparation of proper image-related actions adapted to the specificcharacter of particular recipients forming the external labour market.

This article aims at achieving the following research goals:

1) identifying the associations with the university as an employer,depending on the gender of potential employees,

2) carrying out the segmentation of female and male respondents accordingto the criterion of associations with the university as an employer,

3) comparing the features of the distinguished segments.

In the process of carrying out the above-mentioned tasks, the twofollowing research hypotheses were verified empirically:

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H1 — women appreciate the university as an employer more than men, H2 — men appreciate the university as an employer more than women.

General characteristic of empirical research

For the purpose of achieving the research goals and facilitating theformulated research hypotheses, questionnaire surveys9 were conducted ona sample of 150 students completing full-time first cycle, or second cyclestudies as potential employees10. The surveys were direct in character, asthey required a personal contact between the researcher and therespondents. The surveys were conducted in the first half of 2016. Allquestionnaires of the survey qualified for statistical analysis. In course ofthe above-mentioned analysis the method of factor analysis was used.

Factor analysis was applied for the purpose of reducing the numberof variables influencing the investigated category (associations of therespondents with the university as an employer) and for the purpose ofdetecting the internal hidden correlations in relationships betweenthese variables. For the purpose of identification of factors the methodof principal components was applied. The number of common factorswas determined by means of the technique of Kaiser's criterion. At thesame time, the rotation of factors was carried out by means of thenormalized varimax method. Among various factors variables with thehighest factor loadings, compared to the given factors, weredistinguished (> 0,6)11.

The respondents were presented with 18 statements reflectingassociations with the university as a workplace. Out of them, 10 statementshad positive connotations and the remaining 8 had negative connotations.They were formed on the basis of the results of a cognitive-critical analysis ofliterature on the subject and on the basis of unstructured interviews. Each ofthese statements was supposed to be assessed by the respondents according tothe five-degree Likert scale, in which 5 meant definitely yes, 4 — rather yes, 3 — neither yes, or no, 2 — rather not and 1 meant definitely not. Theapplication of this scale is the necessary condition for the utilization of themethod of factor analysis.

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The perception of the university as a potential employer and the gender of the respondents

The utilization of the method of factor analysis made it possible toidentify factors reflecting the associations with the university as a potentialworkplace. The identified associations reflect the way young participants ofthe external labour market regard the university. On the basis of Kaiser'scriterion both in case of the surveyed women (table 1) and in case of thesurveyed men (table 3), six factors (main components) whose own valuesare higher than 112 were distinguished.

The first factor with regard to female respondents covers three variablessuggesting that this group of women regard the university as an employerin a definitely negative way. As table 2 shows, this factor is formed byvariables reflecting associations with the university as a place which doesn'tguarantee the security of employment, doesn't allow professionaldevelopment and at the same time doesn't allow employees to satisfy theirfinancial expectations. In other words, universities were associated with anemployer who doesn't guarantee satisfying expectations associated with thefeeling of security in the non-material and material sense. Taking intoconsideration this fact, the factor explains almost 20% of the wholevariability of the investigated phenomenon, it is possible to conclude thatunfavourable associations with the university as a potential employer weredominant among the surveyed women. Obviously, this is verydiscomforting as it can constitute a barrier which may be hard to overcomein the process of recruiting young female employees.

Here it is worth pointing out that within the analysed factor the values ofthe factor loadings in both variables associated with the lack of security ofemployment and the lack of prospects for development are much higher (byover 0,2) than the values of the factor loading of the variable reflectingfinancial aspects. At the same time, the variable referring to the associationwith the security of employment has a factor loading with a negative valueamounting to –0,884, which means that people who have negative associationswith the university as an employer certainly don't see the possibility ofcarrying out professional tasks without worries and stress at the university.This confirms the clear unambiguity of associations within the first factor.

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Table 1. Hierarchy of factors, according to their own values determined on the basis of Kaiser's criterion

(for the surveyed women)

Factor 1 3,387 18,819 3,387 18,819Factor 2 2,626 14,591 6,013 33,410Factor 3 2,151 11,949 8,164 45,359Factor 4 1,478 8,209 9,642 53,568Factor 5 1,475 8,193 11,117 61,761Factor 6 1,367 7,595 12,484 69,355

Source: Own materials prepared on the basis of the results of conducted research.

Each of the remaining five distinguished factors explains less than 15%of the total variability of the surveyed set, where three of them explain lessthan 10% of this variability. Thus, they have a comparably lowersignificance than the first factor.

The second factor covers only one variable with a factor loadingexceeding the assumed value of 0,6 (table 2). Also this variable, similarly asthe variables forming the first main component, has negative connotations.It is because it refers to the low prestige of the university as an employer.According to the group of respondents who had such associations with theuniversity, work at a university doesn't allow satisfying also social (in formof good relationships with other people) and psychological needs (in form ofrecognition from other people for a university employee). What confirmsclearly negative associations in this group of surveyed women is thenegative value of the factor loading of the variable reflecting high socialprestige. This means that people associating universities with low prestigehad no associations with a high prestige place with regard to universities.On the basis of above deliberations it is possible to conclude that up to 1/3of the total variability of the investigated phenomenon is explained by twofactors (table 1) covering definitely negative associations with theuniversity as a workplace.

The third factor distinguished in case of the surveyed women also coversjust one variable with a value of factor loading exceeding 0,6. It refers to the

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Main components(factors)

Own value of themain component

% of the total ofown values(variance)

Accumulated own value

Accumulated % ofown values

Table 2. The results of factor analysis of the associations with the university

as a workplace for the surveyed women

VariablesFactors

1 2 3 4 5 6

Security of employment and professional stabilization –0,884 0,238 –0,012 –0,026 0,165 0,078Job insecurity and lack of professional stabilization 0,856 –0,032 0,070 0,130 0,229 0,132Lack of prospects for professional development 0,837 0,259 –0,164 –0,005 0,027 0,024Low salaries 0,613 0,460 0,067 0,031 0,054 0,441Possibility of making a professional career –0,535 –0,451 0,195 –0,199 0,355 –0,028High social prestige –0,219 –0,811 0,042 0,079 0,038 –0,148Low social prestige 0,526 0,647 –0,107 –0,063 0,276 –0,122Fast professional burnout and losing life energy 0,139 0,544 0,528 0,018 0,180 –0,134Very easy and pleasant work –0,094 0,479 0,025 –0,018 0,008 –0,048High salaries 0,261 –0,395 0,221 –0,010 –0,191 0,323More free time than in other places 0,093 –0,031 –0,884 0,107 0,107 –0,111Less free time than in other places –0,067 –0,109 0,878 –0,083 0,087 0,066The possibility of impressing others –0,037 –0,144 –0,220 0,817 –0,056 0,017The possibility of "remaining forever young" thanks to

frequent contacts with young people –0,119 –0,277 0,138 –0,612 –0,049 –0,135The possibility of sharing your knowledge with others 0,099 –0,285 0,330 0,573 0,009 –0,116Being ashamed of your workplace 0,166 0,286 0,005 0,068 0,804 –0,129Very responsible and hard work which at the same time

brings a lot of satisfaction –0,149 –0,238 0,030 –0,101 0,668 0,485The necessity to share your precious knowledge

with others 0,061 0,003 0,061 0,066 0,016 0,828


pool of free time that university employees have at their disposal, whichaccording to female respondents who belong to this group is smaller than incase of other employers. This suggests the respondents notice comparablyhigh requirements for scientific, as well as scientific-didactic employees ofuniversities. Even though it is hard to recognize the third main componentas a factor linked to positive associations, it certainly doesn't have such anunequivocally negative undertone as the two preceding factors.

The fourth factor, as opposed to the above-discussed three maincomponents, has very favourable connotations for the university as anemployer. It covers just one variable, but refers to the possibility ofimpressing other people with the very fact of working at a university (table

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2). However, it is necessary to emphasize that this factor explains merely8% of the total variability of the analysed phenomenon and thus iscomparably less significant than the three preceding factors, especiallythe first and second main component. It is also worth emphasizing thatthe female respondents associating the university with the possibility ofimpressing other people had no associations with the university relatedto remaining "forever young" thanks to regular contacts with youngpeople.

The fifth factor as the only one among all of the distinguished maincomponents isn't uniform in character. It is because it contains twovariables — one of them has very negative connotations (it refers to thefeeling of shame associated with work at a university), while the secondone has just the opposite, positive undertone (it refers to associations withhard work, which also brings a lot of satisfaction). At the same time, thesixth factor is formed by one variable reflecting the necessity to share yourprecious knowledge with other people. Thus, associations with this factorare not positive, as necessity is associated with compulsion and lack ofconsent to particular activities.

It is worth emphasizing here that nine variables haven't been includedin any of the factors. Almost all of them (except for one) had positiveconnotations, which additionally confirms clear domination of negativeassociations with the university as an employer, which formed itsexternal image shaped in the minds of female respondents. It is alsoworth pointing out that one of the associations which haven't made it tothe group of distinguished main components is the association of work atthe university with the possibility of sharing your knowledge with otherpeople, thus an aspect which is the foundation of the functioning ofuniversities.

As already mentioned above, also in case of the surveyed men six factorswere distinguished (table 3). As opposed to the main componentsdistinguished for the surveyed women, it is possible to notice that four ofthem explain over 15% of the total variability of the analysed phenomenonand only one explains less than 10% of this variability. Thus, thesignificance of four out of six distinguished factors is comparably greaterthan in case of factors distinguished for women. These are factors numbertwo, three, four and five.

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Table 3. Hierarchy of factors according to their own values determined on the basis of Kaiser's criterion

(for the surveyed men)

Factor 1 3,388 18,823 3,388 18,823Factor 2 3,245 18,026 6,633 36,848Factor 3 3,062 17,009 9,695 53,858Factor 4 2,868 15,932 12,563 69,790Factor 5 1,973 10,960 14,536 80,750Factor 6 1,594 8,857 16,130 89,607

Source: own materials prepared on the basis of the results of conducted research.

The first factor distinguished for the respondents contains two variables(table 4) whose characteristics make this factor ambiguous in character. Itis because it contains a variable associated with the security of employmentand the variable reflecting shame associated with work at a university.Even though the first one has a factor loading with a very high value(0,936) exceeding substantially the value of factor loading of the second ofthe mentioned variables, this doesn't change the fact that both form themost important factor. Thus, it is possible to say that the surveyed menforming this group recognized in work at a university the possibility ofsatisfying their need for security associated with professional stabilization,but at the same time expressed associations with shame, which doesn'tfacilitate satisfying social and psychological needs, that is, the needsforming higher levels in Maslow's pyramid of needs. Moreover, it is worthadding that the respondents from this group didn't associate universitieswith the possibility of sharing your knowledge with other people. It isbecause the variable reflecting this association within the first factor has a very high negative value of –0,927.

In case of the surveyed men, the second factor is also formed by twovariables pointing on the one hand to high salaries and on the other handreflecting rapid professional burnout and losing life energy. Thus, thiscomponent doesn't have a clearly positive undertone. Satisfying typicallymaterial needs is not enough to compensate for psychological lossesassociated with work at a university. It is necessary to add that men who

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Main components(factors)

Own value of themain component

% of the total ofown values(variance)

Accumulated ownvalue

Accumulated % ofown values

belonged to this group of respondents didn't associate work at a university with the necessity to share your knowledge with others, ashigh negative value of the factor loading of this variable suggests.

Table 4. The results of factor analysis of associations with the university as a workplace for the surveyed men

VariablesFactors

1 2 3 4 5 6

Security of employment and professional stabilization 0,936 –0,114 0,049 –0,039 –0,143 0,018The possibility of sharing your knowledge with others –0,927 –0,104 –0,342 0,002 –0,011 0,097Being ashamed of your place of work 0,860 0,245 0,174 0,258 0,271 0,067High salaries 0,019 0,919 –0,007 –0,037 0,171 –0,038Rapid professional burnout and losing life energy 0,056 0,737 0,446 0,317 0,335 –0,066The necessity to share your precious knowledge with others –0,059 –0,692 0,423 –0,051 0,079 –0,201Lack of prospects for professional development 0,451 0,522 0,401 0,490 –0,089 0,224Very responsible and hard work, which at the same

time brings much satisfaction –0,107 0,001 –0,934 –0,030 –0,112 0,128High social prestige –0,185 0,258 –0,812 –0,063 –0,037 0,226Low social prestige 0,376 0,279 0,791 0,195 –0,022 0,255The possibility of making a professional career –0,172 –0,024 –0,085 –0,901 0,118 0,033The possibility of impressing others 0,313 0,029 –0,035 –0,790 –0,416 –0,044Job insecurity and lack of professional stabilization 0,321 0,600 –0,001 0,644 0,130 –0,065Low salaries 0,369 0,195 0,194 0,532 0,242 0,493Less free time than in other places –0,376 0,497 0,099 0,520 –0,306 0,462The possiblity of being "forever young" thanks to

regular contacts with young people 0,001 0,007 –0,262 –0,076 –0,896 –0,040Very easy and pleasant work 0,063 0,479 –0,203 0,023 0,741 0,008More free time than in other places 0,025 0,026 0,225 0,030 –0,032 –0,941


At the same time the third main component covers only one variablewith a value of the factor loading exceeding the assumed threshold of 0,6.As table 4 shows, it is clearly negative in character. It is because thisconcerns the association of work at a university with low social prestige.This is tantamount to perceiving a university as an employer who doesn'tsatisfy the social and psychological needs of the employees. Whatconfirms the unambiguity of associations within this group of thesurveyed men is high negative value of factor loadings of two variables

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associated with the feeling of professional satisfaction and high socialprestige.

Also the fourth factor, which covers also one variable referring toinsecurity of employment at a university, has unambiguously negativeconnotations. Another thing that confirms that this group of respondentsregards the university as an employer in a negative way is the fact thatwithin the analysed main component two variables reflecting associationswith the possibility of making a career and the possibility of impressingothers with work at a university have high negative values.

What has opposite, that is, positive connotations is the fifth factor,which covers only one variable which refers to associating the universitywith very easy and pleasant work. Even though the surveyed men formingthis group had no associations with the university as a place allowing toremain young thanks to regular contacts with young people, it doesn'tchange the positive character of this factor. Within the last maincomponent there is no variable with a factor loading exceeding thethreshold of 0.6.

Conclusions

On the basis of the above deliberations it is possible to conclude that thestructures of associations with the university as an employer, which formedits external image among the surveyed women and the surveyed men differa lot. The associations of female respondents were comparably worse. Thisis particularly visible in case of factors explaining the biggest part of thevariability of the investigated phenomenon. Thus, it is possible to say thatthe statement contained in the research hypothesis H1 hasn't beenconfirmed with regard to the surveyed sample, but the statement containedin hypothesis H2 has been confirmed. It is also necessary to emphasize thatmany variables which haven't made it into any factor in case of thesurveyed women, made it into the main components distinguished for thesurveyed men.

Keeping in mind that the main components identified during factoranalysis can be interpreted as segments of people displaying similar

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attitudes, behaviours, etc. female and male respondents can be divided intosix groups with common associations with the university as a workplace.The description of associations characterizing particular segmentspresented in table 5 confirms their clear diversification in case of thesurveyed women and the surveyed men. Moreover, also the differencesbetween these segments and the segments distinguished for the wholegroup of the surveyed people are apparent.

Table 5. Segments of respondents distinguished on the basis of their associations with the university

as an employer


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Segments

1

2

3

4

5

6

Lack of prospects forprofessional developmentLow salariesJob insecurity and lack ofprofessional stabilizationLow social prestige

Less free time than in otherplaces

Security of employment andprofessional stabilizationBeing ashamed of the workplace

High social prestige

The possiblity of impressingothersThe possiblity of sharing yourknowledge with others

The necessity to share yourprecious knowledge withothers

Job insecurity and lack ofprofessional stabilizationLack of prospects forprofessional developmentLow salaries

Low social prestige

Less free time than in otherplaces

The possibility of impressingothers

Being ashamed of your workplaceVery hard and responsiblework which at the same timebrings much satisfaction

The necessity to share yourprecious knowledge withothers

Security of employment andprofessional stabilizationBeing ashamed of yourworkplace

High salariesRapid professional burnoutand losing life energy

Low social prestige

Job insecurity and lack ofprofessional stabilization

Very easy and pleasant work

—

Characteristics of segments

For all respondents For women For men

This is an extremely important hint for universities which in theirimage-related activities should take into consideration the specificcharacter of associations formed in the minds of various groups ofrecipients, without stopping at building a uniform image-related message.The failure to skilfully diversify the message may result in low efficiency,as it won't allow changing negative associations and possibly strengtheningpositive associations, which were almost invisible in case of femalerespondents.

References1 The perception of the employer influences both the current employees (e.g. by stimulating their engagement (see:B. Kunerth, R. Mosley, Applying employer brand management to employee engagement, "Strategic HR Review"2011, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 19–26)) and potential employees (e.g. by attracting them to a particular employer), obviouslyif his image is positive.2 It is worth emphasizing here that over 60% of the representatives of Gen Z (people born between 1995 and 2012)would like to work for many years for the same employer, which means a clear change of attitudes and behaviour,compared to the attitudes dominant among the generation of Milennials, who were associated with almost completeabandonment of loyalty to the employer (see. Why employers are reaching out to the next generation of workers:Gen Z, "Chicago Tribune" 2017, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-generation-z-workforce-0402-biz-20170331-story.html (03.04.2017); D. Stillman, J. Stillman, Gen Z @ Work. How the next generation istransforming the workplace?, Harper Business, New York 2017).3 With regard to the expectations of employers, research is conducted almost only on companies (e.g. T. Tóth-Téglás, E. Hlédik, L. Fónadová, An Analysis of Employer Requirements of University Graduates, "ActaPolytechnica Hungarica" 2016, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 169–188), at the same time hardly anyone remembers thatuniversities are also employers. 4 This has been confirmed by surveys conducted cyclically among Poles by Public Opinion Research Centre CBOS(see: O stanie szkolnictwa wyższego i źródłach jego finansowania. Komunikat z badań, Fundacja Centrum BadaniaOpinii Społecznej, http://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2011/K_012_11.PDF (03.06.2017)). At the same time evermore complex formal procedures don't necessarily have a favourable impact on the internal image (see: J. Brdulak,Wyzwania w zarządzaniu jakością na uczelniach w Polsce — dobre praktyki, "Edukacja Ekonomistów iMenedżerów" 2015, vol. 3, nr 37, p. 13–21), as they often make it hard for employees to efficiently carry out theirtasks. 5 Research in this area is conducted by, among others, G. K. Saini, A. Gopal, N. Kumari, Employer Brand and JobApplication Decisions: Insights from the Best Employers, "Management and Labour Studies" 2015, vol. 40, iss. 1–2,pp. 34–51; F. Lievens, J. E. Slaughter, Employer Image and Employer Branding: What We Know and What We Needto Know, "Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior" 2016, vol. 3, pp. 407–440; M.Wallace, I. Lings, R. Cameron, N. Sheldon, Attracting and Retaining Staff: The Role of Branding and IndustryImage, [in:] R. Harris, T. Short (eds.), Workforce Development, Springer Science+Business Media, Singapore 2014,pp. 19–36; S. Knox, Ch. Freeman, Measuring and Managing Employer Brand Image in the Service Industry, "Journalof Marketing Management" 2006, vol. 22, pp. 695–716; A. Dewalska-Opitek, Model kreowania zintegrowanegowizerunku przedsiębiorstwa, "Zeszyty Naukowe. Polityki Europejskie, Finanse i Marketing" 2010, nr 3 (52), p.219–229. 6 What is investigated is, among others, the image of the employer in the context of organizational culturejuxtaposed with the experiences of buyers (see among others, R. Mosley, Customer Experience, OrganizationalCulture and the Employer Brand, "Journal of Brand Management" 2007, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 123–134), but obviously,the investigated entities are companies, not universities.

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7 It is possible to find only works (there aren't too many of them, though) concerning the legal, or ethical aspectsof the universities' role as an employer (among others: M. S. Anglade, The University as an Employer: A Study ofthe Application of Title VII to the Modern American Institution of Higher Education, Florida State University,College of Education, 2015, http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2015fall_Anglade_fsu_0071E_12952 (03.06.2017)), butthere is definitely a gap with regard to works devoted to the image of the university as an employer.

8 Authors usually limit themselves to this group of requirements, pointing to the growing challenges ahead ofuniversities as entities preparing graduates to enter the labour market (see: P.E. Barton, R.J. Coley, The Missionof the High School a New Consensus of the Purposes of Public Education?, Educational Testing Service, Princeton,NJ 2011). At the same time, the relationship between the university as an employer and the potential employeesis rarely analysed.

9 They were preceded by non-structured interviews with 50 people.10 Non-random choice of the sample was applied. 11 See: H. Abdi, L.J. Williams (2010). Principal component analysis. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computatio-nal Statistics, vol. 2, iss. 4, pp. 433–459. 12 The same number, that is, six components were distinguished for the whole surveyed sample. A detailed analysisof associations with the university as an employer in their case was presented in the article by A. Baruk, A. Goliszek(2017). titled Zewnętrzny wizerunek uczelni w roli pracodawcy jako podstawa segmentacji młodych potencjalnychpracowników. Marketing Instytucji Naukowych i Badawczych, vol. 23, iss. 1, p. 79–96.

Bibliography

1. Abdi, H., Williams, L.J. (2010). Principal component analysis. Wiley Interdisciplinary Re-views: Computational Statistics, vol. 2, iss. 4, pp. 433–459.

2. Anglade, M.S. (2015). The University as an Employer: A Study of the Application of TitleVII to the Modern American Institution of Higher Education. Florida State University, Col-lege of Education, http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2015fall_Anglade_fsu_0071E_12952access: 03.06.2017.

3. Barton, P.E., Coley, R.J. (2011). The Mission of the High School a New Consensus of thePurposes of Public Education? Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

4. Baruk, A., Goliszek, A. (2017). Zewnętrzny wizerunek uczelni w roli pracodawcy jako pod-stawa segmentacji młodych potencjalnych pracowników. Marketing Instytucji Naukowychi Badawczych, vol. 23, iss. 1, pp. 79–96.

5. Brdulak, J. (2015). Wyzwania w zarządzaniu jakością na uczelniach w Polsce — dobrepraktyki. Edukacja Ekonomistów i Menedżerów, vol. 3, iss. 37, pp. 13–21.

6. Dewalska-Opitek, A. (2010). Model kreowania zintegrowanego wizerunku przedsiębior-stwa. Zeszyty Naukowe. Polityki Europejskie, Finanse i Marketing, no. 3 (52), pp.219–229.

7. Knox, S., Freeman, Ch. (2006). Measuring and Managing Employer Brand Image in theService Industry. Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 22, pp. 695–716.

8. Kunerth, B., Mosley, R. (2011). Applying employer brand management to employee enga-gement. Strategic HR Review, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 19–26.

9. Lievens, F., Slaughter, J.E. (2016). Employer Image and Employer Branding: What WeKnow and What We Need to Know. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Or-ganizational Behavior, vol. 3, pp. 407–440.

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10. Mosley, R. (2007). Customer Experience. Organizational Culture and the EmployerBrand. Journal of Brand Management, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 123–134.

11. O stanie szkolnictwa wyższego i źródłach jego finansowania. Komunikat z badań, Fun-dacja Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej, http://www.cbos.pl/SPI-SKOM.POL/2011/K_012_11.PDF access: 03.06.2017.

12. Saini, G.K., Gopal, A., Kumari, N. (2015). Employer Brand and Job Application Deci-sions: Insights from the Best Employers. Management and Labour Studies, vol. 40, iss.1–2, pp. 34–51.

13. Stillman, D., Stillman, J. (2017). Gen Z @ Work. How the next generation is transfor-ming the workplace. Harper Business, New York.

14. Tóth-Téglás, T., Hlédik, E., Fónadová, L. (2016). An Analysis of Employer Requirementsof University Graduates. Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 169–188.

15. Wallace, M., Lings, I., Cameron, R., Sheldon N. (2014). Attracting and Retaining Staff:The Role of Branding and Industry Image. W: R. Harris, T. Short (eds.), Workforce De-velopment. Springer Science+Business Media, Singapore, pp. 19–36.

16. Why employers are reaching out to the next generation of workers: Gen Z. (2017). Chi-cago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-generation-z-workforce-0402-biz-20170331-story.html access: 03.04.2017.

PPrrooffeessssoorr AAggnniieesszzkkaa IIzzaabbeellaa BBaarruukk,, ŁŁóóddźź UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff TTeecchhnnoollooggyy,, PPoollaanndd —— works as a fellowresearcher at the Institute of Innovation and Marketing and holds the Chair of Management andInnovation Systems at the Łódź University of Technology. She works in University of Life Sciences inLublin, Department of Management and Marketing too. Her publications comprise 434 peer-reviewedpositions including 14 books about transaction and personal marketing and their mutualinterdependencies. Prof. Baruk focuses her scientific interests on the issues of marketing management.She is specially interested in the social system of an organization in image development and positioningstrategies as well as in applying modern marketing solutions in relation to employees and participantsof an organization's environment in the context of personal and transaction marketing.

AAnnnnaa GGoolliisszzeekk,, PPhh..DD..,, UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff LLiiffee SScciieenncceess iinn LLuubblliinn,, PPoollaanndd —— sociologist, lecturer in theManagement Department at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin. Graduate of the Faculty of SocialSciences of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. He earned his doctoral degree from theFaculty of Philosophy and Sociology of the Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin. His majorscientific interests include organisational and management sociology, with a particular focus on the

problem of organisational culture, business communication, inventics and social psychology.

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MARKETING ASPECTS OF CONSOLIDATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

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MARKETING ASPECTS OF CONSOLIDATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Jan Walczak, M.Sc.Jan Wyzykowski University, [email protected]: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.10

The article provides a description of good practice in connection with the completed consolidation of twohigher education institutions - the Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technology in Polkowice andthe Copper Belt Technical College in Lubin into the Jan Wyżykowski University with its seat in Polkowiceand a Branch Faculty in Lubin. This process began in autumn of 2015 and was brought to completion bythe decision of the Minister of Science and Higher Education. The author points to image implications andmarketing challenges, discusses the rebranding process (new logo and name as well as the actions thisentailed). The article also deals with the creation of a new website, actions within interconnected socialmedia, the ongoing billboard and media advertising campaign. Several difficulties that promotiondepartment staff of are faced with in connection with the consolidation process of two higher educationestablishments were identified by the author, which include building a brand from scratch andcommunicating with staff with respect to the planned and implemented changes.

Summary

Keywords: Jan Wyżykowski University, Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technologyin Polkowice, consolidation, higher education institution, university, marketing.

Introduction

In the face of the growing demographic decline in Poland and thenecessity of ensuring efficient operation of the educational market indelicate conditions, the issues linked to the consolidation process of highereducation institutions is becoming more and more popular in academicenvironments. This tendency is also recommended by the Ministry ofScience and Higher Education1. The growing interest shown in this topic isdemonstrated by the international scientific conference that was held on20-21 November 2014 in Wrocław, titled: "Consolidation processes inhigher education — the current state and future prospects". The fruit ofthis conference is a monograph under the same title2. The attempts ofsystemising relevant knowledge that was undertaken therein appearsnecessary given the growing number of higher public and non-publicinstitutions that want to enter into closer cooperation with each other, ineffect with the intention of them merging into one body.

One of the largest consolidations of higher education institutions inPoland was carried out in 1993 in Poland when the Jagiellonian Universitymerged with the Medical Academy. Following that, the University ofWarmia and Mazury (1999) and the University of Zielona Góra (2001) werecreated as a result of the consolidation. Consolidations of non-publicuniversities were conducted within the Vistula Group (2012)3, ), forinstance, in 2013 the Lower Silesian College of Public Services "ASESOR"in Wrocław was incorporated into the University of Lower Silesia inWrocław, the University of Management in Szczecin was incorporated intothe Bogdan Jański Academy in Warsaw, whereas the Academy of Law andDiplomacy in Gdynia became part of the Gdansk School of Banking4.

Recent years have demonstrated that the process of consolidation ofhigher education institutions throughout the country, mainly on the non-public institution level. The compilation of data prepared for therequirements of the Central Council of Science and Higher Education inMarch 2015 by Paweł Zygarłowski, the co-editor of the mentioned post-conference monograph implies that the following key systemicconsolidation factors include: the aforementioned demographic pressure,implemented systemic reforms, the need to improve the effectiveness —also economic — of the higher education sector and the reorganisation of

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the higher education sector (vocational schools and universities). Theconsolidation indicators of an individual nature include: raising the profileof the university, avoiding bankruptcy, ambitions or cost effectiveness.Interest of higher education institutions in issues of this nature is growingas a properly implemented consolidation increases the competitiveness ofsuch higher schools through the acquisition of unique resources or reducingintra-industry competitive forces5. Dominik Penar on the other hand,points to the following factors involved in the taking-over of one universityby another: Obtaining authorisation to educate in specific fields of study,acquisition of qualified teaching and administrative staff, laboratory andresearch infrastructure as well as new locations, the desire to extend thearea of activity of the institution to a new city, voivodship, region6.

P. Zygarłowski points out that demographic factors have a greater negativeimpact on non-public institutions than public establishments. Furthermore,non-public education institutions play a role which he refers to as the specific"surge tank" role, adjusting the level of supply and demand of higher educationservices. At the same time, consolidation processes are slower than the declinein student numbers. The reason for this is, among others, that the financingsystems of higher education institutions, the internal restructuring actions ofthe university, external measures — European Union programmes,diversification of university revenue sources and strategic mismanagement. Inthe non-public higher education institution sector, there was a tendency in thepast years to concentrate students, particularly full-time students, in thelargest universities. If more consolidations are carried out on the market thenlarge entities will slowly gain consolidation potential, while smaller units willquickly lose their capacity to compete7.

With respect to the general information concerning consolidation ofhigher education institutions in Poland provided in the introduction to thisarticle, the fact that consolidation in the public institution sector mainlytook place in the years 1998-2004 and was linked to the need to createhigher education establishments with a higher status, namely, universities,also needs to be stressed In cases where cross-sectoral consolidation tookplace, it was usually associated with the liquidation of a non-public highereducation institution but this was only incidental. The consolidationphenomenon in the non-public higher education institution sector haspractically been taking place since 2005, whereas the consolidation process

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began becoming more intense from 2007, when there were as many as sixsuch processes, two in 2008, two in 2009, but as many as eight in 2010,dropping down to two in 2011, eight in 2012, ten in 2013, and eight againin 2014. Since 2012 there has been a marked increase in the number ofprocesses consisting of the incorporation of non-public institutions intoother, stronger universities. Consolidation processes in the non-publicsector lead to the creation of private university systems and, in many cases,they are implemented by such systems. Consolidation serves improvingcompetitiveness of universities and can also contribute to improved qualityof educational services. PR and internal and external communication playan important role in the consolidation process alongside taking intoconsideration and analysis of issues like getting to know the condition ofthe university, threat and risk identification, analysis of the formal, legaland tax aspects, selection of suitable forms of consolidation, development ofan integration plan and being attentive to the cultural aspects.8.

On 1 January 2016, the Minister of Science and Higher Educationexpressed consent to the merger of two higher education institutionsoperating on the education market since 2002, located in two Copper Beltcities 16 km apart9. These two establishments were the Lower Silesian Collegeof Enterprise and Technology (LSCET) in Polkowice and the Copper BeltTechnical College (CBTC) in Lubin, which created the Jan WyżykowskiUniversity. Before these two establishments merged, both schools of highereducation worked together before in the scope of scientific research, scientificpublications or exchange of staff, however, they stepped up cooperation bysigning a consortium agreement on 25 May 2015. The collaboration betweenLSCET and CBTC was meant to consist of joint consultations aimed atmaking arrangement for the conduct of research, as well as facilitating worktowards the faculty of both higher education institutions obtaining academicdegrees and titles. Seminars and scientific conferences accompanied bystudent electives were also planned. The agreement provided for an exchangeof scientific information and library resources in both establishments as wellas joint applications for grants and raising financing under EU funds. Theagreement also inspired a scientific conference titled: "Technical sciences andindustrial practice in the Copper Belt", which took place on 18–19 June 201510.

Subject to the arrangements made between the Rectors and the decisionsof the Senates of both establishments on 30 November 2015 it was decided to

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merge LSCET with CBTC and give the higher education institution a newname. It was agreed that the head office of the university will be in Polkowiceand the Branch Faculty will be based in Lubin. Upon the request of LSCET,the consent of the Minister of Science and Higher Education was obtained on1 January 2016 for the start of the university comprised of two highereducation institutions operating independently in Polkowice and Lubin11.

This was the start of a complex process that placed university officialsbefore a number of challenges. A lot of joint effort was particularly put intointegrating the IT systems of the higher education institutions and unificationof administrative procedures, which were somewhat different in bothestablishments. Internal trainings and staff meetings were required tofacilitate an exchange of views and opinions. The procedure andadministrative document unification process lasted until June 2016. In thecase of the consolidation of the Jan Wyżykowski, the following factors weredecisive: demographic changes, prevailing consolidation trends at the time,similar operating profile, collaboration to date within the consortium andclose proximity. Three faculties were created as a result of this with nine fieldsof study: The Faculty of Social Sciences in Polkowice where students couldchoose the following courses: international relations (first and second cycle),administration (first cycle), pedagogy (first cycle); the Faculty of TechnicalSciences in Polkowice with the following fields of study: mechatronics (firstcycle), informatics (first cycle), logistics (first cycle) and the Branch Faculty inLubin, fields: management (first and second cycle), mining and geology (firstcycle), production engineering and management (first cycle).

The university authorities evaluated the effects of the implementedchanges positively. In the words of Dr Dariusz Zając, the Chancellor of theJan Wyżykowski University: "Today we can say that the process of mergingboth higher education institutions has successfully been completed. Newchallenges associated with strengthening the university image andextending the range of courses offered to students still lie ahead of us"12.

Marketing challenges

One of the most difficult tasks was giving a new name to the highereducation institution which was created from the merger of LSCET andCBTC, and soon after starting work on the creation of its image as the

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name Jan Wyżykowski University was completely unknown. Theuniversity was given the name of a discoverer of one of the largest in theworld copper ore deposits located in the Polkowice and Lubin area13. Hissurname is linked to the development of industry in Lower Silesia andoperations of the KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. concern, which has a globalscale today. Nearby schools and the KGHM ZG "Polkowice-Sieroszowice"mining shaft were also named after J. Wyżykowski. To highlight JWU'sclose links with the region and local industry, it is noteworthy that thePolkowice and Lubin institutions are one of the few universities in thecountry to provide degree programmes in the field of mining and geology.Thus, the choice of the name and patron of the university seemed to benaturally etched into the operational realities and traditions of the highereducation institutions taking part in the consolidation process.

The Promotion Department of the LSCET and CBTC prepared acommunication plan concerning the merger of the Copper Belt TechnicalCollege in Lubin with the Lower Silesian College of Enterprise andTechnology in Polkowice in autumn 2015. The plan envisaged that the firstcommunication actions will be implemented once the invitations to themeetings of the Senate of the LSCET and CBTC will be sent, which weretasked with giving their opinion on the consolidation. The meetings of theLSCET and CBTC Senates were held on 30 November 2015 during whichdecisions were made as to the new structure. At that time, the media receivedthe first news of the initiated consolidation process. Relevant statementswere posted on the websites of both higher education institutions.

The information communicated to the mass mediaconcerning the Polkowice LSCET and Lubin CBTC merger

on 1 December 2015:

Jan Wyżykowski University — a new quality

One higher education institution will be established as a result of a merger decision taken by the Founders and theSenates of LSCET in Polkowice and CBTC in Lubin. Thenew, strong Jan Wyżykowski University will be established

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The Founders and Rectors of LSCET in Polkowice and CBTC inLubin, Full Professor, habilitated doctor Marian S. Wolański andCBTC Professor habilitated doctor Stanisław A. Witkowski, decided toproceed with the merger process of both higher education institutions,which was to be performed once all the necessary formalities have beencompleted, on 1 January 2016. The Senates of both Institutions gave apositive opinion on the merger as well as the new name, that is, the JanWyżykowski University. It will operate in two locations: in Polkowiceand in Lubin. Furthermore, meetings of the higher educationinstitution authorities with the students, scientific and administrationstaff were held, during which the proposed actions were endorsed. Thestructure of the merged university shall be as follows: The request forthe merger authorisation decision was addressed to the Minister ofScience and Higher Education. The Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technology inPolkowice was established in 2002. It is a self-governing institutionwhich was founded and co-financed from the budget of the PolkowiceMunicipality and District. The LSCET is located in direct vicinity tothe Legnica Special Economic Zone in Polkowice. This has providedthe foundation for collaboration with businesses and employers andhas also ensured work opportunities to graduates. The students andscientific staff have a modern building to their disposal, which wascommissioned in 2015.The educational structure of the LSCET iscomprised of two faculties: The Faculty of Social Sciences and theFaculty of Technical Sciences. Studies can be undertaken in thefollowing fields: Mechatronics, Informatics, Logistics, InternationalRelations and Administration. It offers master's courses, bachelor'scourses, engineering courses and post-graduate courses. Thefollowing fields of study are also in preparation: Mechatronics(master's course) and National Security (bachelor's course). Studentscan also take part in international exchanges, e.g., within theErasmus+ programme (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Romania, Turkey,and Hungary). www.dwspit.plThe Copper Belt Technical College in Lubin was established in2002. To date, the higher education institution provides first and

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second cycle studies and has a rich offer of post-graduate courses. Itsteaching staff is comprised of both lecturers from the largest academiccentres, as well as highly qualified experts — practitioners.Applicants can choose from the following bachelor's and engineeringcourses accredited by the National Accreditation Commission:Management, Mining and Geology, Production Engineering andManagement, Pedagogy, as well as master's courses with practicalorientation in the field of Management. Within these fields of study,the institution offers several dozen specialities, which are regularlyupdated and adjusted to the changing needs of the labour market. Thefields of study and curricula are adapted to the specific needs ofstudents that take the changing economic reality and the resultingrequirements of employers towards employees into account. Thealignment of the study course to the specific needs of the candidate cansignificantly enhance their competencies and contribute to increasingthe potential on the labour market. www.uzzm.pl

All the marketing actions were performed by the PromotionDepartment of the LSCET (specialising in promotions and publishinghouses) in collaboration with the delegated person on the part of CBTC.The delegated contact person responsible for communicating with the massmedia was Włodzimierz Olszewski, PhD — Vice-Rector of the LSCET, andDariusz Zając, PhD — Chancellor of the LSCET. All the cells of the LSCETand CBTC collaborated in the scope of conducting communication actions.The objectives were:

Providing reliable information through the media concerning themerger of the Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technology inPolkowice with the Copper Belt Technical College to the scientific andadministrative staff of the LSCET and CBTC, the students of theseestablishments and the external environment;Communicating the benefits resulting from the changes;Creation of suitable facilities and infrastructure enabling effective,coherent and consistent communication with the environment in aneasily understandable way, using simple and uniform communication.

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The target group was comprised of:

Academic staff employed at CBTC and LSCET,Administrative staff employed at CBTC and LSCET,Students at CBTC and LSCET,Social and economic partners (e.g., the Convent, local governments),Journalists,Inhabitants of the region (society).

Communication channels:

Meetings with academic and administrative staff as well as withstudents,Communications to the media — dissemination of information to thenational, regional and local mass media, especially the industry media,Websites of both institutions — preparation of the communication andits posting,Dispatch of information letters — concerning the members of theConvent of the university as well as local governments.

The calendar of actions included obtaining the approval of J.Wyżykowski's heirs for the new name of the university, sending LSCET andCBTC staff and students invitations to meetings by e-mail, design of theJWU visualisation system (including the logo) and the website design.

As for the internal communications, the notification and obtaining staffand student endorsement in view of the forthcoming changes was a matterof priority. Thus, relevant meetings were organised with the academic staff,the administration officers and the students during which therepresentatives of the authorities, rectors and chancellors of the Polkowiceand Lubin higher education establishments gave explanations andanswered questions in relation to the consolidation process. Thesemeetings were held in autumn of 2016. The transformations were calmlyreceived and accepted and no difficult situations were reported inconnection with the implementation of information and its reception.

During meetings with the staff, the authorities also notified of andhighlighted the following issues: the safeguarding of job positions,

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retention of the terms and conditions of contracts and agreements,professional development opportunities, scientific research opportunities,co-financing of doctoral and habilitation studies, research grants and EUfunding opportunities, participation in external conferences as well asthose organised by the university in Polkowice, the Erasmus+ programme,maintaining cooperation with foreign partners and up-keepinginternational contracts and agreements, a strong university press, and auniversity library in two locations. The advantage of a state-of-the-artteaching facility commissioned in 2015 in Polkowice was emphasised,facilitating work and learning on the highest European level14. Theperspective of retrofitting and modernisation of the facility in Lublin wasalso pointed out.

The following aspects were stressed during the meetings with students:expansion of the scholarship offer, more scientific associations, greateropportunities for participation in conferences and scientific trips abroad,the Erasmus+ programme and international cooperation, co-funding ofstudent activities, university press, a university library and more resourcesand a richer collection, and the development of the IT system. The studentswere also informed that the formal conditions and the funding of theirstudies will remain unchanged, lectures will be conducted by the samelecturers, and the quality of the teaching will also improve thanks toinvestments in human resources.

As for communication with the media, a press conference wasconsidered but it was ultimately decided to send a communication to themedia which was followed by the provision of answers to questions posedby journalists via e-mail. An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sheet wasprepared to develop and unify the responses to the most importantquestions. Once the staff of both institutions undergoing consolidationwere familiarised with the FAQ, they acquired greater knowledge of theissues connected with the pending procedure which further equipped themalso to provide uniform responses to questions posed by students or personscontacting the institutions via the Promotion Department.

The integration of the faculty, administration and IT systems of bothinstitutions along with ensuring seamless flow and exchange of informationincluding the creation of new e-mail addresses (ujw.pl), and studentaccounts, was a laborious process that was drawn out in time.

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Picture 1. Photo of the logos of the Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technology in Polkowice

and the Copper Belt Technical College in Lubin

Source: JWU archives.

Picture 2. Photo of the logo options of the Jan Wyżykowski University based on the university design handbook.

Source: University design handbook


Once the name was established, the design of the logo of the newuniversity became the next key task. This was outsourced to several graphicdesigners simultaneously. A design by Krzysztof Prusisz was selected from

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among several dozen submitted proposals, the symbolics of which referredto the current logos of the LSCET and CBTC. The logo comprises twosymmetrical parts symbolising the two higher education institutions,creating a coat of arms which incorporates an open book. The colour scheme— navy blue and copper — refers to the colours that are characteristic of theuniversity colour before the consolidation as well the industry in the regionand the patron of the university, Jan Wyżykowski, PhD, Eng.

Picture 3. Photo of the fair exhibition system of the Jan Wyżykowski University in 2016

Żródło: Source: Own work. Photo by J. Walczak.

The design of a new website with the domain name of "www.ujw.pl" wasanother time consuming task. The textual part was developed by the staffat the JWU Promotion Department, while the graphic design aspect wasexecuted by an external company. The decision was to organisecommunication on the website by dividing it by the types of studies:bachelor's, engineering, master's, and post-graduate (tiles), as well as byuser group: applicants, students, staff, and graduates (dropdown menu) —

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these are the dominant elements on the website. The site is supplementedby current information, which are also exposed on sliders and a picturegallery. The website has a top main bar (Homepage, About the University,E-Dean, Contact, Erasmus+), and a side menu (e.g., Library, Career Office,Polkowice University of the Third Age, University Press, Social Actions,Our Achievements, Quality of Education). Apart from the UJW logo,information in icon form (logos) was also kept about the fact the JWU wasestablished under a merger of LSCET and CBTC.

Picture 4. Photo of the design of the information advertisement concerning the merger of LSCET

in Polkowice with CBTC in Lubin to form the Jan Wyżykowski University


Once the logo and the design handbook were created, the next taskthat was undertaken was to put the logo up in all the required locations.

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These included the facade of the main building and the area over theentrance to the main building in Polkowice, preparing the sign andbanner for the building of the Branch Faculty in Lubin. Informationplates and direction signs containing the new logo inside the universitybuildings in Polkowice and Lubin were also manufactured. Letterheadsand business cards for the academic and administrative staff were alsoredesigned and printed. Other significant costs were connected with themodification of all the university exhibition systems used duringoutdoor events and fairs. These works included the production of acompletely new canvas for the promotional marquee of the university,displays, roll-ups, and banner ads. New advertising gadgets containingthe JWU logo were purchased. These included: biros, pencils, balloons,weather stations, penknives, reflectors, business card holders,advertising clothing, etc. Due to this additional expenditure, a new andlarger budget had to be planned taking all these non-standard costs intoaccount.

The marketing plan developed by the JWU Promotion Departmentteam envisaged the performance of the campaign in two stages. The firstwas meant to be informative in nature and was directed at a wide forum orrecipients. It was aimed to ensure that everyone was notified that the JanWyżykowski University is not an entirely new entity on the educationmarket but a higher education institution was established from the mergerof two higher education institutions with a fourteen-year tradition andexperience. The information stage took place in January to April 2015under the motto:"We're Joining Forces. Together, we will discover more".This merger was reflected by a heart cut into the bark of a tree with thefollowing inscription: "LSCET + CBTC = JWU". Below, the following wasetched into the bark of the tree: "Study in the heart of the Copper Belt". Theword "we will discover" in the main motto was connected with the JWU'spatronage of the discoverer of copper ore deposits. Thus, "Together we willdiscover more" can be interpreted as a reference to Jan Wyżykowski and tothe region where he worked. The motto is also connected through the verb"discover" with the motto that was used in the part of the campaign:"Discover your image". It was also acknowledged that for the purpose of theclarity of the message, the old logos of the higher education institutionsfrom Polkowice and Lubin should also be incorporated in order to signal

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their joint efforts in creating the Jan Wyżykowski University and the longacademic tradition of these institutions. The next advertisement forms ofthe JWU were based on the motto: "We're Joining Forces. Together, we willdiscover more" and its visuals: recruitment advertisements including thefields of study available, the covers of squared paper exercise books laterhanded out to school leavers, billboard posters, banners, print advertising,and calendars for the year 2016.

Picture 5. Photo of the design of the advertisement on the educational

offer of the Jan Wyżykowski University. Stage 2 of the campaign


The second stage of the campaign was executed under the motto of:"Discover Your Image!" and included promotional actions intended topresent a more extensive, due to the merger, educational offer, thus, agreater volume of full- and part-time studies in fields of study underengineering, bachelor's, and master's courses, as well as a rich offer ofpost-graduate courses. In this case, no reference was made to thehigher education institutions that were subjected to consolidationprocess. The materials from the first information stage remained inuse but the fundamental occurred in the replacement of billboardposters.

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The most effective advertising channels were selected for therequirements of the first informational stage and the second promotionalstage. The campaigns were mainly conducted in the region of Lower Silesia,using regional and local radio stations (e.g., Radio Plus Legnica, Radio PlusGłogów, Radio Elka, Radio Eska), local press (e.g., "Wiadomości Lubińskie","Głos Głogowa", "Gazeta Polkowicka"), and television (e.g., Regional TV) aswell as local and regional news portals where banner emissions werepurchased. Information concerning the consolidation was also sent out tonational media, including to the "Forum Akademickie". Social media werealso harnessed. This also required a change of the names of the social mediaaccounts already held. The account belonging to CBTC in Lubin waschanged to the JWU Branch Faculty, while the account of the LSCET inPolkowice was altered to Jan Wyżykowski University.

The advertising campaign was conducted on billboards mainly located innorthern Lower Silesia in two editions described hereinabove.

There are currently almost 1,200 students studying at the JanWyżykowski University that have at their disposal excellent laboratoryfacilities, a computerised university library in two branches with acollection of close to 20,000 volumes and a modern e-Dean system. Theuniversity buildings in Polkowice and in Lubin have a combined usablefloor area of over 13,000 sqm.

The JWU offers students and its faculty and administration staff thepossibility of taking part in international exchange programmes likeErasmus+. So far, collaboration has been established with six countries:Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Romania, Turkey, and Hungary.International scientific and research projects are also under way. Moreover,a close liaison with business has been maintained among other by theConvent.

The JWU authorities are currently planning the 15th anniversarycelebrations of the Jan Wyżykowski University to be held in 2017.According to Dr Włodzimierz Olszewski, Rector of the JWU: "A new nameis one thing but the academic tradition of our higher education institutionslasting since 2002 is another. We have many things to boast about and wecertainly stand out on the education market. We have a beautiful past andexcellent prospects for the future"15.

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Summing up, the set marketing objectives were successfully achieved.The University is recognisable in the region and rightly associated with itspredecessors: the LSCET and the CBTC. The University also succeeded inattaining satisfactory recruitment outcomes for the 2016/2017 academicyear. The conducted campaign was also recognised by the PR andPromotion of Polish Higher Education Institution Association during the2016 "ProMYKI" contest. The local, regional and national media were allwriting about the Jan Wyżykowski University and the consolidationprocess (e.g., the article published in the "Forum Akademickie"16).

The consolidation process of higher education institutions in Poland iscurrently being extensively discussed and has been positively assessed bythe Minister of Science and Higher Education, Jarosław Gowin, whoexpressed the following in one of his interviews about the reorganisationthat the higher education institution sector should undergo: "Highereducation institutions should consolidate their activities so that larger andstronger institutions can arise. We live in times of globalisation. Highereducation institutions from Lublin or Łódź are competing not only withinstitutions from Białystok or Poznań but also with higher educationinstitutions around the world. If they want to compete for students, theyhave to consolidate. A similar phenomenon has become a global trend. Ofcourse, the higher education institution consolidation process is not aneasy process. It requires overcoming mental barriers, going beyondparticularistic ambitions, and is also a very complicated organisationalprocess"17. This also applies to marketing challenges, which require thegoals of particular campaigns to be reformulated anew, the selection of theappropriate tools and means of communication. However, this does makeit possible to create a new, better, and more attractive product in terms ofquality and image, which allows the institution to go ahead of thecompetition encountered in current organisational arrangements. Itseems that in the case of the Jan Wyżykowski University positive effectswere successfully achieved in this respect in the first "starting" phase ofthe communication which took place from January to October 2016.However, this is merely to beginning of image actions that will help thenon-public higher education institution reach full stability on theeducation market.

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References1 Rybicka, U. (2006). Uczelnie i jednostki badawcze czeka konsolidacja. October 2006, Polish Press Agency (PAP)

service in Poland, http://naukawpolsce.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,26225,uczelnie-i-jednostki-badawcze-czeka-kons-olidacja.html (accessed: 14.10.2016). See also: Bednarz, B. i Czuryło, P. Gowin: Konsolidacja szkół wyższych i kom-promis z obniżką wieku emerytalnego, http://biznes.interia.pl/wiadomosci/news/gowin-konsolidacja-szkol-wyzszych-i-kompromis-z-obnizka,2308200,4199, (accessed: 23.10.2016).

2 Łoboś, K., Zygarłowski, P. (ed.) (2015). Procesy konsolidacji w szkolnictwie wyższym. Stan i perspektywy. Wro-cław, p. 244.

3 Kieraciński, P. Konsolidacja puka do drzwi. Forum Akademickie, https://forumakademickie.pl/fa/2015/02/kroni-ka-wydarzen/konsolidacja-puka-do-drzwi/, (accessed: 23.10.2016).

4 Jastrzębska, L. Na kłopoty — konsolidacja. Pespektywy, http://www.perspektywy.pl/portal/in-dex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=982:na-klopoty-konsolidacja&catid=114:teksty&Itemid=248(accessed: 23.10.2016).

5 Zygarłowski, P. Konsolidacja w szkolnictwie wyższym. elaboration of data for the requirements of the CentralCouncil of Science and Higher Education on 3 March 2015 in Warsaw.

6 Penar, D. (2014). Perspektywy rozwoju niepublicznego szkolnictwa wyższego w Polsce. Alianse strategiczne, in-nowacje. Zeszyty Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Humanitas Zarządzanie, (1), p. 6.

7 Zygarłowski, P. Konsolidacja w szkolnictwie…8 Zygarłowski, P. Konsolidacja w szkolnictwie…9 Decisions of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of 18 February 2016. DSW. ZNU. 6014.406.2015.2.

MC oraz z dnia 21 stycznia 2016 r. DSW. ZNU. 6013.247.2015.3. MC. 10 Wording of the consortium agreement of 25 May 2015 by and between LSCET in Polkowice and CBTC in Lubin.Jan Wyżykowski University archives. See also: M. Kowalska, DWSPiT i UZZM podpisały umowę konsorcjum,5 June 2015, http://tutajpolkowice.pl/2015/06/05/dwspit-oraz-uzzm-podpisaly-umowe-konsorcjum/ (accessed:30.10.2016). 11 Decision of the Minister of Science and Higher Education. Jan Wyżykowski University archives. 12 Press materials, JWU Promotion Office. 13 Engineer Jan Wyżykowski, PhD, Eng., (1917–1974) was an outstanding figure. He was meant to become a priest.He began learning opera singing, which he had to interrupt by reason of illness. He began reading philosophy atthe Jagiellonian University, ultimately graduating from the University of Mining and Metallurgy with a miningdegree. After completing his studies, he started working at the Polish Geological Institute (PGI). He was active inthe exploration of copper ore deposits in Lower Silesia. In 1959, he documented a deposit in the environs of Lubin,and in subsequent years he calculated the prospective reserve volumes f these deposits. In 1964, he received adoctor's degree at the PGI and the position of assistant professor. He is considered to be the founder of the LubinCopper Belt. A monument honouring him stands in Lubin and there is a commemorative plaque on the buildingwhere he lived in Warsaw. The Regional Museum in Brzozów (Wyżykowski was born in the neighbouring Haczów)holds an exhibition dedicated to his scientific activity.14 The new main building constructed for the requirements of the higher education institution in Polkowice,currently the Jan Wyżykowski University, was commissioned in 2015. It has a total usable area of 3.2 thousandsquare metres, and total volume of 17.3 thousand cubic metres. The first construction works connected with thenew main building commenced in the summer of 2010 and the foundation stone was laid in March 2011. The totalcost of the investment, which came to over PLN 18m, was financed by the Polkowice Municipality. The buildinghas four storeys and contains 17 lecture halls. 15 Promotion Department materials. Jan Wyżykowski University archives. 16 Walczak, J. (2016). Konsolidacja w zagłębiu miedziowym. Forum Akademickie, June. 17 Bednarz, B. i Czuryło, P. Gowin: Konsolidacja szkół wyższych.

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Bibliography1. Łoboś, K., Zygarłowski, P. (ed.) (2015). Procesy konsolidacji w szkolnictwie wyższym.

Stan i perspektywy. Wrocław. 2. Sobczak, T., Łącka, I. (2011). Konsolidacja uczelni jako przykład zmiany strategicznej.

Przegląd Organizacji, 11. 3. Zygarłowski, P. (2011). Fuzje i przejęcia w szkolnictwie wyższym. Strategiczne uwarun-

kowania działania współczesnych przedsiębiorstw. Prace Naukowe WSB w Gdańsku. vol. 13. Gdańsk.

4. Zygarłowski, P. (2012). Fuzje i przejęcia a konkurencyjność uczelni. In: Kapitał intelek-tualny w szkołach wyższych. Warszawa.

5. Patyk, J., Zygarłowski, P. (2011). Ekonomiczno-prawne aspekty funkcjonowania związ-ku uczelni. In: Zarządzanie szkołą wyższą. Dylematy i wyzwania. Prace Naukowe WSBw Gdańsku, vol. 14, Gdańsk.

6. Josińska, I., Zygarłowski, P. (2014). Biblioteki w obliczu konsolidacji na rynku szkolnic-twa wyższego. Z doświadczeń Biblioteki Wyższej Szkoły Bankowej we Wrocławiu. In:Przybysz, J., Pioterek, P. (ed.), Budowanie relacji z klientem biblioteki. Poznań: Wydaw-nictwo WSB,.

7. Padniewski, A. (2015). Łączą uczelnie! DWSPiT i UZZM pod jednym szyldem, 2 grudnia2015 r., http://www.ddpolkowice.pl/2015/12/02/lacza-uczelnie-dwspit-i-uzzm-pod-jedn-ym-szyldem/ (accessed: 23.10.2016).

8. Romaniuk, U. (2015). Połączą uczelnie, 2 grudnia 2015 r. Telewizja Lubin,http://tvl.pl/2015/12/02/polkowicelubin-polacza-uczelnie/, (accessed: 23.10.2016).

9. Kaptur, K. (2015). Uczelnia Jana Wyżykowskiego — nowa jakość, 2 grudnia 2015 r.,Strona Gminy Polkowice, http://www.polkowice.eu/news,6378,Uczelnia-Jana-Wyzyk-owskiego-%E2%80%93-nowa-jakosc.html, (accessed: 23.10.2016).

10. Walczak, J. Uczelnia Jana Wyżykowskiego. Konsolidacja w zagłębiu miedziowym. ForumAkademickie, https://forumakademickie.pl/fa/2016/06/kronika-wydarzen/konsolidacja-w-zaglebiu-miedziowym/, (accessed: 23.10.2016).

11. Bednarz, B. i Czuryło, P. (2016). Gowin: Konsolidacja szkół wyższych i kompromis z ob-niżką wieku emerytalnego, http://biznes.interia.pl/wiadomosci/news/gowin-konsolidacja-szkol-wyzszych-i-kompromis-z-obnizka, 2308200,4199, (accessed: 23.10.2016).

12. Kieraciński, P. (2016). Konsolidacja puka do drzwi. Forum Akademickie, https://foruma-kademickie.pl/fa/2015/02/kronika-wydarzen/konsolidacja-puka-do-drzwi/, (accessed:23.10.2016).

13. Jastrzębska, L. (2016). Na kłopoty — konsolidacja. Pespektywy, http://www.perspekty-wy.pl/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=982:na-klopoty-konsoli-dacja&catid=114: teksty&Itemid=248 (accessed: 23.10.2016).

14. Kowalska, M. (2015). DWSPiT i UZZM podpisały umowę konsorcjum, 5 June 2015,http://tutajpolkowice.pl/2015/06/05/dwspit-oraz-uzzm-podpisaly-umowe-konsorcjum/(accessed: 30.10.2016).

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JJaann WWaallcczzaakk,, MM..SScc..,, JJaann WWyyzzyykkoowwsskkii UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, PPoollaanndd —— doctoral student, senior Promotions andPublishing House specialist in Jan Wyżykowski University. Graduate of political science with aspecialisation in political marketing; of Polish philology, specialising in journalism, and of post-graduatestudies in the field of public image communication and creation. Former "Gazeta Lubuska" journalist.Co-author of the monography: Polkowice — historia współczesna 1945–2010 [Polkowice —AContemporary History 1945–2010] (Polkowice, 2012). Author of scientific articles on issues related tothe image of local governments and contemporary Polish-Czech relations. The editorial secretary of

"Zeszyty Naukowe DWSPiT. Studia z Nauk Społecznych".

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MARKETING DETERMINANTS OF THE CHOICE OF FIELD OF STUDIES

Open Access

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MINIB, 2017, Vol. 25, Issue 3, p. 41–58

MARKETING DETERMINANTS OF THE CHOICE OF FIELD OF STUDIES

Michał Kucharski, Ph.D. Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Faculty of Sports and Tourism Management, [email protected]

Professor Romuald Szopa Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Faculty of Sports and Tourism Management, [email protected]

Piotr Halemba, Ph.D.Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Faculty of Sports and Tourism Management, [email protected]: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.11

The aim of presented considerations is to answer the following research question: Which elements ofuniversities' marketing activities have greatest impact on recruiting new students? This research questionderives from the necessity to unveil hints on what marketing activities are most effective in gaining a number of new students that complies with a university's strategy. Moreover, the obtained answer will bejuxtaposed with the new way Polish universities are to function after changes introduced by Polish Ministryof Science and Higher Education in academic year 2016/2017. Own research was conducted amongstudents of Department of Sport and Tourism Management at The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of PhysicalEducation in Katowice recruited in academic year 2016/2017. Obtained data revealed that among allconducted marketing activities promotion is the one that had greatest impact student's choice of a university and faculty.

Summary

Keywords: universities, marketing, promotion, recruitment, higher education

Introduction

The beginning of the 21st century in Poland, from the point of view of thelevel of education, was characterized by strong determination of young peopleto continue their education process after graduating from high school. Thisis shown by the figures reported by the Central Statistical Office (GUS).According to the data, in November 2015 in Poland there were over 1,4million students and following the end of the academic year 2014/15 almost400,000 university graduates entered the labour market1. What has been oneof the incentives for continuing education at universities up till now is thecurrent system of education at lower levels based mostly on high schools —in the school year 2014/2015 high schools constituted almost a half (45,6%)of all schools above the level of junior high schools, while technical schoolsand arts schools constituted almost a third (29,1%) and vocational schoolsconstituted a quarter (25,2%)2. Young people graduating from high schoolshave a broad scope of knowledge from various areas, without focus on anyfuture profession. This leads to the necessity to look for specialization andprofessional focus on the level of higher education. Additionally, a welldeveloped system of state universities, characterized by lack of tuition fees atfull-time studies, created favourable conditions for the fashion for highereducation.

It is no coincidence that the above remarks are formulated in past tense,as the academic year 2016/2017 brought new solutions introduced by theMinistry of Science and Higher Education. One of the basic changesintroduced on the basis of the resolution3 was the change of the algorithmused to determine the level of financing from the state budget foruniversities. Without looking into the details of new regulations, the mostimportant effect of the change for universities is the following: the numberof students is not a significant factor influencing the level of financing fromthe Ministry any more. What plays an important role now is the ratio of thenumber of students to the number of academic teachers employed at a university. Universities where the number of students per one employeeamounts to 13 are in the best situation. The higher the ratio, the lower thevalue of ministry's subsidies for the functioning of a university. Thefollowing are the potential consequences of the new rules for defining thevalue of financing:

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universities will decide to reduce the number of students by reducingrecruitment limits, which means smaller number of high-schoolgraduates will be enrolled;universities willing to improve their ratio of the number of students tothe number of employees will be forced to raise employment.

The purpose of this solution is reducing the number of people withhigher education entering the labour market every year, which with thesimultaneous development of the network of vocational and technicalschools should encourage young people to learn professional skills alreadyat the medium level of education. Additionally, thanks to reducedrecruitment limits and reduced number of new students, new students willbe better prepared in terms of the requirements of a particular universityand faculty, which in turn may lead to improving the quality of educationand higher level of preparation of graduates for future duties.

This brings about the question which may be treated as an ancillaryresearch issue — Will it still be necessary for universities to conductmarketing activities, especially promotional activities, in order to attractnew students? Up till now, when higher number of students generatedadditional revenues for universities, universities took measures aimed atpresenting their offer to the possibly highest number of potential clients.For this reason the actions taken by universities associated with theintention to identify factors decisive for the choice of university and thearea of studies had to be treated as appropriate. Activities of this kind inform of marketing research were carried out at the Faculty of Sports andTourism Management of the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice atthe beginning of the academic year 2016/2017. The obtained results weresupposed to be used for the planning of the Faculty's activities associatedwith student recruitment in the following years.

Both for the main research problem and the ancillary problem researchhypotheses were formulated. The main research hypothesis is as follows:marketing activities which influence the acquisition of new students themost are activities associated with direct promotion and PR, such aspromotion in schools, or open door events. In case of the ancillaryhypothesis we should assume that despite the introduced changes in thefinancing of universities, conducting marketing activities aimed at

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potential students will still be necessary, but it will require the change ofused forms and means. The verification of hypotheses formulated this waywill be conducted on the basis of the results of own research and anoverview of literature.

Marketing activity of universities

Universities, both state-owned universities and private ones areorganizations (Griffin, 2013), whose functioning should be based on theutilization of theory and practical knowledge concerning management(Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert, 2011). Every university has its goals andplans associated with them. The implementation of these plans isdetermined by the resources held by universities and the way they are used.The educational services offered by universities on the market constitutean important, but not the only area of their functioning. Universities,operating on the commercial market, expand the range of offered products.Thus, it seems necessary to appropriately adapt the held offer to the needsvoiced by the market. The utilization of marketing activities should servethis purpose (Kotler, 2005). Due to the subject area of this article, infurther part of the article attention will be focused on the marketingactivity of universities associated with educational services in form of theopportunity to participate in first cycle degree programme.

Student is a consumer who receives from a university a product in formof a service (Czubała et al., 2012). From the marketing perspective, theoutcome of this is associated with the marketing mix that can be used, aswell as the kinds of means and forms of conducting promotional activities(Pabian, 2008). Enache in his article concerning the marketing activity ofuniversities highlights the need of universities to apply marketing mix 7P.7P marketing mix includes: product, price, promotion, distribution,personnel physical environment of services and the process of service(Enache, 2011). In case of state-owned universities, at which full-timestudies are free of charge, price doesn't constitute an elementdistinguishing the strategies of particular universities. However, thisdoesn't mean that a student candidate doesn't take into consideration the

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costs associated with the choice of a particular university. These costs maybe associated with commuting, the need to secure accommodation, orexpenses on devices, or accessories needed to study at a particular faculty.This fact determines the necessity to regard the marketing activity of a university from the perspective of the potential client, which complieswith the 4C concept — client, cost, convenience, communication (Pluta-Olearnik and Olearnik, 2015).

Apart from the possibility of utilization of 7P and 4C concepts in themarketing activities conducted by universities, literature on the subjectdiscusses the possibility of using the concept of sustainable marketing. Thisconcept doesn't rely on new methods and marketing techniques, butinvolves the utilization of well-known actions to achieve not just economic,but also ecological and social goals, according to the concept of sustainabledevelopment (Pabian, 2012).

Keeping in mind that universities can adopt various approaches to theirmarketing activities, we need to remember that comprehensive marketingstrategy has an impact on the decisions made by future students. What canconfirm this are the results of research published in literature (Al-Fattal,2010).

It is no coincidence that the title of this article puts emphasis on themarketing determinants of the choice of the area of study, as the authorsare aware that not only marketing influences the decisions made by futurestudents. According to survey results published by the Central StatisticalOffice (GUS) in 2013, almost 43% of students choose an area of study andas a result, a profession, taking into consideration the ability to find workmatching their interests, almost 18% aim at raising their competences andalmost 18% pointed to the possibility of finding a well-paid job. At the sametime over 94% of students claimed that the choice of the area of study istheir independent decision4. Comments on the results achieved in similarsurveys can be found in articles written by W.Jarecki, which show thatstudents choose a particular area of study mainly due to the fact that itmatches their interests (69,5%) and because they want to get a good job(60%). Among other answers given by 10.5% or fewer respondents therewere: whether it is easy to get a place at a particular university and area ofstudy; the influence of family, teachers, or friends; as well as the intentionto extend the duration of studies (Jarecki, 2008; Jarecki 2015). In foreign

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literature different factors behind the choice of a university can be found.J. Gaijć mentions the following determinants in his article: process ofeducation (41%), the image of a university (23%), the quality of courses(16%), good terms of employment (13%), location (2%), level of tuition fees(2%) and payment terms (1%) (Gaijć, 2012).

It is also worth asking the question what, from the point of view ofmarketing, can universities use to attract new students. The correctanswer, even though not a very precise one, is the answer pointing to allelements of marketing activity typical of services. A more detailed answeris given in the article by A.Pawłowska, which points to 5 elements whichare most often emphasized in promotional messages sent by universities.These are: educational offer, people associated with a university(employees, graduates, students), history, location and elementsexpanding the offer such as: students associations, scholarships,infrastructure (Pawłowska, 2013). The mentioned elements can easily beassociated with particular elements of marketing mix 7P: product —educational offer; distribution — location; personnel — employees;physical environment of services — infrastructure; price (or rather thecost for student as an element of 4C concept) — scholarships. Thus, everyelement of marketing activity can constitute an element distinguishing a particular university. Nevertheless, it is promotional activities that bearthe burden of conveying a message containing chosen elements of the offerto the potential clients According to the opinion of A. Pabian, universitiescan use for promotional activities the whole set of instruments ofpromotion mix, that is, advertising, PR, personal selling, promotion of sales and direct marketing (Pabian, 2002). Not every channel ofcommunication with target markets plays the same role from the point ofview of the potential client in the context of acquisition of information.

The situation is similar in case of sources of information used by thepotential students in the decision-making process associated with thechoice of studies. As it turns out, the most-often used source ofinformation is a university's website (77%), open door events (54%) arethe second most popular source, friends and family are the third source(44%), leaflets are the fourth source (37%), next come educational fairs(37%), information derived from high school (22%), articles in the media(21%), advertisement (7%) (Schuller and Rasticowa, 2011).

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Methodology of research

The survey was conducted on the basis of a questionnaire. Therespondents filled out the questionnaire personally in course of dealingwith the formalities associated with enrolment. The questionnaireconsisted of one question associated directly with the research goal and therespondent's particulars. In the section concerning the respondent'sparticulars, there were questions about the respondent's sex, kind of highschool they graduated from (possible answers: high school, technicalschool, profiled high school), place of residence (possible answers:countryside, town with less than 100,000 inhabitants, cities with morethan 100,000 inhabitants). The main question was formulated as follows:What encouraged you the most to start studies at the Faculty of Sports andTourism Management of the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice?The presented question took the form of a closed question, as therespondents could choose 3 out of 10 proposed answers. Out of theseproposed answers two were divided into sub-points. As a result, the sum ofall answers won't equal 100%.

Almost all students (96%) admitted to the first cycle studies at the Facultyof Sports and Tourism Management of the Academy of Physical Education inKatowice in the academic year 2016/17 took part in the survey. Eventually,239 properly filled out questionnaires were obtained. On the basis of thesequestionnaires it was possible to generate a set of data necessary to verify themain hypothesis. For the purpose of facilitating the presentation of resultsbelow the answers provided in the questionnaire will be shown. Out of theseanswers the respondents chose no more than 3, which in their opinioncontributed the most to their choice of the area of study. The presentedstructure of answers is the same as in the questionnaire:

1. Area of study matching personal interests. 2. Promotional activities conducted by the Academy of Physical Education

in Katowice: a) open door events,b) visits of the employees of the Academy of Physical Education to your

school,c) information obtained in sports clubs and associations,

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d) educational fairs,e) university's website,f) others

3. Favourable conditions for studying according to individual organizationof studies (IOS), or individual programme and plan of studies (IPPS) —offer aimed mostly at athletes.

4. An attractive offer in the area of specialization.5. Interesting programme of studies with the possibility of choosing

subjects of a fitness-related character using the infrastructure of theuniversity.

6. The possibility of continuing studies at second cycle programmes.7. Location of the university close to the place of residence.8. The fact that successful athletes are students, or graduates of the

university.9. The decisive factor behind the choice of the university was:

a) parents' opinion,b) teachers' opinion,c) the opinion of friends studying at the university.

10. No clear reason.

Results

131 men and 108 women participated in the survey. Vast majority of therespondents are graduates of high schools — 161 people. At the same time 68people graduated from technical schools and 10 people graduated fromprofiled high schools. With regard to the place of residence, 45 respondentsanswered that they live in the countryside, 81 live in towns with less than100,000 inhabitants and 113 live in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Table 1 presents the respondents' answers concerning the reason whythey started studies at the Faculty of Sports and Tourism Management ofthe Academy of Physical Education in Katowice. The answers arepresented as percentage and their descending sequence reflects theobtained results. Additionally, the table presents the distribution ofanswers among men and women.

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Table 1. Factors encouraging respondents to choose studies at the Faculty of Sports and Tourism Management

of the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice

1 57.7% 60.6% 54.5%

2 53.2% 48.8% 58.0%

9 46.0% 44.1% 48.2%

4 33.1% 30.7% 35.7%

7 22.2% 26.8% 17.0%

3 18.8% 18.9% 18.7%

6 17.2% 21.3% 12.5%

5 15.1% 13.4% 17.0%

8 9.6% 11.0% 8.0%

10 5.4% 6.3% 4.5%

Source: Own materials based on the results of research.

Looking at the data presented in Table 1, it is necessary to payattention to the fact that in case of answer 2 (Promotional activitiesconducted by the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice) and 9(someone's opinion was decisive for the choice of the university), thepresented percentages constitute the sum of percentages achieved byparticular sub-points mentioned in this response in the questionnaire. Incase of the second answer particular sub-points obtained the followingresults:

a) open door events at the university — 5.4%;b) the visit of employees of the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice

to your school — 1.7%;c) information obtained in sports clubs and associations — 13.4%;d) educational fairs — 4.2%;e) university's website — 24.3%f) others — 4.2%

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Answers (numeration adequateto the numeration presented in

the methodological part)

§In all

§Men

§Women

In case of response number 9 the respondents' answers are as follows:

a) parents' opinion — 5.9%;b) teachers' opinion — 0.4%;c) opinion of friends/people studying at the university — 39.7%.

Chart 1 presents the distribution of answers to the only questionincluded in the survey questionnaire with a division into the respondents'place of residence.

Chart 1. Factors encouraging respondents to choose studies at the Faculty of Sports and Tourism Management

of the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, with a division into the place of residence

Source: Own materials prepared on the basis of survey results.

Analysing Table 1 in terms of the differences between the answers givenby men and women, it is necessary to point out that there is no case inwhich the difference exceeds 10%. The highest difference in percentagesappears in case of the influence of promotional activities on the decisions

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made by women and men (women more often mention promotional activityas a factor influencing the decisions they make concerning the choice of aparticular faculty), at the same time location of the university has beenmentioned as a factor influencing the decision concerning the choice of theFaculty of Sports and Tourism Management by 10% more men thanwomen. In case of the comparison of answers given by respondents fromdifferent places of residence — Chart 1, the biggest differences can beobserved also in case of the location of the university (it is of greatestimportance for people living in big cities), and promotional activities,which for this group of respondents are less significant than for the tworemaining groups.

Summary

The results of the conducted survey show that the most commonincentive for starting studies at the Faculty of Sports and TourismManagement is the fact that the area of study matches the interests ofstudents. This matches the results of the research conducted by W.Jareckimentioned in the article. These interests are the results of the influence ofenvironments that the potential students come from, their upbringing andindividual experiences. These interests are shaped over many years, so itis hard to presume that universities could influence these interests in ahighly efficient way. That's why from the perspective of marketingactivities it is important to identify the interests of young people studyingin high schools by means of marketing research and on this basis to adaptthe educational offer to the leading expectations of future students. Whatmay hamper the efficient adaptation of a university is its specificcharacter, that's why decisions on new, or the modification of existingareas of study should be adapted to the implemented strategy.

Taking into consideration the particular answers forming the totalresult of a university's promotional activities (point 2) and the opinions ofthird persons (point 9), the second place was occupied by the opinion offriends studying at the university. This points to the influence of word-of-mouth marketing on the decisions of every fourth student. This leads to the

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question what has an impact on the formation of positive opinions ofstudents and graduates of a particular faculty and why they are willing torecommend a particular faculty to their friends. From the point of view ofthe theory of marketing, we can assume that what plays a role here is theoffered product, or more precisely, components of particular elements ofthe structure of a product and its quality. In case of striving to intentionallytake advantage of the opportunity that word-of-mouth marketing gives inthe process of obtaining student candidates, it is worth analysing the wayof building and maintaining relationships with the current students, asthese relationships may be important from the point of view of inspiringword-of-mouth marketing.

The third, most often mentioned reason for the choice of the analysedfaculty is attractive offer in the area of specialization. This factor isassociated with the interests of students, which have been discussed ingreater detail above. The first answer associated with promotional activitiesplaced only fourth. It is Internet website, which placed first among thesources of information about university in the mentioned researchconducted by D. Schüller, M. Rašticová. With regard to the main researchhypothesis, which suggests that the marketing activities which influence theacquisition of new students the most are activities associated with directpromotion and PR, such as promotion in schools, or open door events, it isnecessary to point out that the obtained results of research don't confirm thehypothesis formulated this way. The reason for this is the fact that bothanswers mentioned in the hypothesis achieved a total result of just 7.1%.

It is necessary to realize that the survey sample came from just oneuniversity, so we cannot generalize and extend the conclusions from theobtained results to other universities. At the same time, the obtainedresults constitute an important hint for the authorities of the facultytaken into consideration during research in the context of futuremarketing activity and can constitute a source of research hypothesesfor similar research taking into consideration the representatives ofvarious universities..

The number of articles devoted to the need of universities to resort tomarketing activities, including promotion, suggests that we shouldregard universities in the 21st century from the perspective of the rulesof the market (Pawłowska, 2013), where supply should be adapted to the

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demand resulting from the needs of consumers. On this market there isalso strong competition, which should encourage managers to achieveadvantages in areas regarded as strategic. One of such areas is thequality of education which determines whether graduates are preparedfor future duties and shapes the university's image (Krzyżak, 2009). Inthis context it is necessary to realize that one of the factors influencingthe final preparation of graduates are the competences they have at thestart of the academic education process. This means that the moreprepared candidates a university obtains, the higher the chance that theuniversity will introduce well-prepared specialists in particular areasinto the labour market. With regard to the changes in higher educationintroduced in 2017 this means universities need to further encouragepotential students to start studies at a particular university. The biggestdifference is that now marketing activity cannot be focused only on thequantity of students, but should focus on the quality of students. This isassociated with the preparation and presentation of an offer that isattractive from the point of view of the most talented high schoolgraduates. It is also associated with such a choice of the channels ofcommunication which limit the mass coverage of messages in exchangefor their accuracy.

The presented deliberations make it necessary to accept the presentedancillary hypothesis, as universities should still conduct marketingactivities, including promotional activities, taking into consideration newconditions under which they will have to operate. It is because it isnecessary to realize that smaller scale of recruitment to state universitiesmay contribute to greater interest in private universities. As a result,differences in marketing strategies implemented by state and privateuniversities may become apparent, which can be verified in course offurther recruitments.

References 1 Główny Urząd Statystyczny. (2016). Szkolnictwo wyższe, stan w dniu 30 XI 2015r. — dane wstępne.http://stat.gov.pl/obszary-tematyczne/edukacja/edukacja/szkolnictwo-wyzsze-stan-w-dniu-30-xi-2015-r-dane-wstepne, 8,3.html (20.04.17) 2 Główny Urząd Statystyczny. (2015). Oświata i wychowanie w roku szkolnym 2014/2015. Główny Urząd Staty-styczny.

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3 Resolution of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education from December 7, 2016 changing the manner ofdistribution of subsidies from the state budget for public and non-public universities.4 Wybory ścieżki kształcenia a sytuacja zawodowa Polaków, Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Warszawa 2013.

Bibliography 1. Al-Fattal, A. (2010). Understanding Student Choice of University and Marketing Strate-

gies in Syrian Private Higher Education. Leeds: University of Leeds. 2. Czubała, A., Jonas, A., Smoleń, T., Wiktor, J. (2012). Marketing usług. Warszawa: Ofi-

cyna Wolters Kluwer Business. 3. Enache, I. (2011). Marketing higher education using the 7 Ps framework. Bulletin of the

Transilvania. Braæov: University of Brașov, tom 4 (1). 4. Kotler, P. (2005). Marketing. Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy REBIS Sp. z o.o. 5. Gaijć, J. (2012). Importance of marketing mix in higher education institutions. Singidu-

num Journal, 9 (1), 29–41. 6. Griffin, R. (2013). Podstawy zarządzania organizacjami. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Na-

ukowe PWN. 7. Jarecki, W. (2008). Motywy wyboru studiów i kierunku studiów wyższych. Studia i Pra-

ce Wydziału Nauk Ekonomicznych i Zarządzania/Uniwersytet Szczeciński, (3), 143–154. 8. Jarecki, W. (2015). Motywacje przy podejmowaniu studiów wyższych ekonomicznych.

Annales. Etyka w życiu gospodarczym, 18 (3), 133–141. 9. Pluta-Olearnik, M., Olearnik, J. (2015). Marketing a koncepcja biznesowa. Zeszyty Na-

ukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Problemy zarządzania, finansów i marketingu, 37,9–22.

10. Pabian, A. (2002). Promocja szkoły wyższej. Nauka i Szkolnictwo Wyższe, 2 (20),138–144.

11. Pabian, A. (2008). Promocja — nowoczesne środki i formy. Warszawa: Difin. 12. Pabian, A. (2012). Zrównoważony marketing szkół wyższych. Zarządzanie marką

w szkołach wyższych. Wybrane problemy. Zeszyty Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Bankowejw Poznaniu, (44), 57–68.

13. Pawłowska, A. (2013). Jaki jest wizerunek polskich szkół wyższych? Kampanie promo-cyjne uczelni. Think — Studenckie naukowe czasopismo internetowe, 1 (13), s. 30–42.Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki i Zarządzania w Rzeszowie,

14. Schüller, D., Rašticová, M. (2011). Marketing Communications Mix of Universities —Communication With Students in an Increasing Competitive University Environment.Journal of Competitiveness, (3), 58–71.

15. Stoner, J., Freeman, R., Gilbert, D. Jr. (2011). Kierowanie. Warszawa: Polskie Wydaw-nictwo Ekonomiczne.

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MMiicchhaałł KKuucchhaarrsskkii,, PPhh..DD..,, AAccaaddeemmyy ooff PPhhyyssiiccaall EEdduuccaattiioonn iinn KKaattoowwiiccee,, FFaaccuullttyy ooff SSppoorrttss aanndd TToouurriissmmMMaannaaggeemmeenntt,, PPoollaanndd —— Scientific-didactic employee of the Department of Sports Management at theAcademy of Physical Education in Katowice and at the same time a graduate of the university.Additionally, he graduated from the University of Economic in Katowice and earned the academicdegree of doctor at the Faculty of Management of Częstochowa University of Technology. He used towork in a sports marketing agency. He has written numerous publications concerning marketing and abook devoted to sports marketing.

PPrrooffeessssoorr RRoommuuaalldd SSzzooppaa,, AAccaaddeemmyy ooff PPhhyyssiiccaall EEdduuccaattiioonn iinn KKaattoowwiiccee,, FFaaccuullttyy ooff SSppoorrttss aanndd TToouurriissmmMMaannaaggeemmeenntt,, PPoollaanndd —— He works as a full professor in the Academy of Physical Education inKatowice. He is the director of the Department of Management and the Department of ManagementSupport Methods. His scientific interests are focused on the application of broadly understoodmathematical and statistical methods in management. He has published numerous scientific papersconcerning, among others, statistical analysis and forecasting for the tourist market. he is the author ofseveral textbooks for students showing the practical application of mathematics in managementsciences.

PPiioottrr HHaalleemmbbaa,, PPhh..DD..,, AAccaaddeemmyy ooff PPhhyyssiiccaall EEdduuccaattiioonn iinn KKaattoowwiiccee,, FFaaccuullttyy ooff SSppoorrttss aanndd TToouurriissmmMMaannaaggeemmeenntt,, PPoollaanndd —— The head of the Department of Sports Management of the Academy ofPhysical Education in Katowice, for many years worked as an associate dean at the Faculty of Sportsand Tourism Management. Specialized in theory and practice of management. He has writtennumerous scientific articles and monographs, including works on the subject of marketing.

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MODEL OF COOPERATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (S2B — SCIENCE TO BUSINESS) IN THE AREA OF IMPROVING THE CONDITIONS

OF WORK — EXPERIENCES OF THE CENTRALINSTITUTE FOR LABOUR PROTECTION — NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Open Access

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MODEL OF COOPERATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (S2B — SCIENCE TO BUSINESS) IN THE AREA OF IMPROVING THE

CONDITIONS OF WORK — EXPERIENCES OF THE CENTRAL INSTITUTEFOR LABOUR PROTECTION — NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Alfred Brzozowski, M.Sc. Eng.Central Institute for Labour Protection — National Research Institute, [email protected]: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.12

The paper will present the experience of the Central Institute for Labour Protection — National ResearchInstitute in the range of its cooperation with enterprises, based on the networking structures in Poland. For enabling of introducing and dissemination of technical and organisational solutions for improvementof working conditions in polish enterprises, computer application will be made, which — in authorsintention — will be complete database of products and good practices for use in any enterprise. Research (made in 2014) of S2B activity and needs of enterprises in the area of occupational safety andhealth (OSH) was the base of this application. Results of these research as well as concept of application operation will be presented in the paper.Suggested ways of stimulation to activity of enterprises in the OSH area will be also presented.

Summary

Keywords: safety at work, cooperation of science and industry, improvement, computer application

Introduction

In 2015 Poland's economic indicators were good, compared to othercountries of the European Union. The current economic situation is alsooptimistic. The continuing economic growth and sentiments amongentrepreneurs make it possible to hope that the role of innovativeness willbe appreciated more and more. Still, according to all statistics concerningthe subject, Poland is not among the leaders in this respect.

In international innovativeness rankings Poland occupies distantpositions. In the European Innovation Scoreboard in 2016 Poland placed23rd. This results from weak innovative activity among companies(especially SME's) and cooperation with other entities in this area, as wellas commercialization of inventions on an international scale. However, onthe other hand it is worth remembering that these statistics are not alwaysauthoritative. Scientific units (and press) often report news showing Poles'creativity. Young students win prizes in international contests.

At the same time, 2014 was another year of growth of spending onresearch-development activity in Poland. The spending reached the level of0.94% of GDP, which is still below the EU average (2% of GDP in 2014)1.

Many companies, especially companies from the SME sector don't seethe need to introduce innovations to their business. Small interest ininnovative activity among Polish entrepreneurs results not just fromfactors of economic, market-related character, but also from the factorsassociated with general social awareness of innovativeness. That's why itis so important to stimulate contacts between scientific units andcompanies. There is some hope associated with comparably fast growthof companies' interest in investing in research and development (growthof spending of the industry in relation to GDP from 0,23% in 2011 to0,44% in 2014) 1.

Taking into consideration the requirements of the third wave ofsocial-economic development, changes in decisive areas of life areneeded. This concerns both precise definition of the role of science,which is to a large extent responsible for the innovativeness of theeconomy, but also definition of the role of economic centres, whose lackof need for innovative solutions doesn't allow science to grow, as weexpect.

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The level of Polish science is coming closer and closer to the level ofglobal science. This also concerns many areas of science. However,expecting that Polish industry could somehow learn to voice everything itexpects from science and start financing research overnight is toooptimistic. That's why solutions and procedures facilitating contactsbetween stakeholders and supporting their intentions to implementinnovations (or this initiating intention) should be developed.

The important role of the transfer of technology and theimplementation of technical progress, which eventually leads to thedevelopment of the whole country, has been recognized also by the Ministryof Development. The Plan for Sustainable Development, now subject toassessment, supports entrepreneurs, assumes raising investments andspending on innovations, as well as improving the cooperation of scienceand business. The plan relies on five pillars: reindustrialization, supportinginnovative companies, acquiring capital for development, foreignexpansion, as well as social and regional development. It assumes supportfor the development of companies, their productivity and foreignexpansion, as well as balanced development of the whole country. There aresupposed to be more investments, higher spending on innovations, as wellas clearly better cooperation between science and business. The Plan alsonotes that the level of development of science and technologicaladvancement determine the quality of life and standards of civilization.

The situation of comparably small interest in innovativeness isparticularly apparent on the market associated with the safety ofemployees. This area is usually not very popular and often neglected. Manycompanies start cutting costs by saving on the safety of employees.Obviously, it is hard to make a worse mistake than that, as investing insafety brings tangible benefits to companies. Both financial and imagerelated benefits, as well as minimizing losses.

Apart from the issue of financing implementations, what isexceptionally important is providing the market with modern solutions.That's why one of the priorities of the Central Institute for LabourProtection — National Research Institute (CIOP-PIB) is supportingcompanies by providing them with exactly such solutions, which guaranteethe safety of employees. At the same time works on the construction of amodel of systemic cooperation of science and industry (S2B) in this area are

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in progress. This kind of cooperation should allow not just raising thenumber of implemented, or applied modern solutions from the area ofprotection of people in work process, but it should also allow thedevelopment of the culture of safety in companies.

For many years the Central Institute for Labour Protection — NationalResearch Institute has been developing modern products and new solutionsfrom the area of employee protection, but it has also been trying to conveythis information to companies. This is not easy. That's why the Institutehas found a way to convey information and pays much attention tocoordinating the activity of network structures and integration of thecommunities of people dealing professionally with consulting and trainingactivity, so that these structures allow reaching companies.

Research institutes are the closest partner of companies in the process ofsolving their problems with the modernization of production technology. Thus,they are also an important partner in the process of raising the innovativenessof Polish economy. Economic development requires both technicalinnovativeness and strong cooperation between all its stakeholders. Currentlythere is a growing demand for not just the implementation of particularorganizational and technical solutions, but also for activities popularizingknowledge and strengthening the awareness of employees in the area of healthand safety. Both kinds of implementations are carried out thanks to both directand indirect cooperation with companies, institutions and social partners.

The method of activation of companies— network structures of cooperation

As conveying information about modern products and newdevelopments in the area of employee protection to companies is not easy,CIOP-PIB also pays much attention to coordinating the activity of networkstructures and integration of people dealing professionally with consultingand training activity, so that the structures allow conveying suchinformation to companies. Establishing network structures is well justified,because it "shortens" the path from the person interested in a solution to aproblem to the person who can help him. This is particularly important incase of small and medium companies (SME's).

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The activity in the area of cooperation with network structures wasinitiated at the Institute in 1998 through the establishment of the Forumof Safe Work Leaders at the Institute. Members of the Forum areinstitutions (especially big institutions) distinguished by particular careabout work conditions. The Forum is open to companies and organizationswhich treat care about the health and safety of their employees as anatural, inseparable element of daily business activity. In practice thismeans making sure that employees get conditions allowing them to carryout their duties in a safe way, complying with the psychological andphysical abilities of humans. Currently 126 companies employing a total ofabout 230,000 people belong to the Forum of Leaders.

Another step was the establishment in 2004, in course of activitiesfor the improvement of safety and work conditions in small and mediumcompanies, the Network of Health and Safety Experts certified by theInstitute. This network consists of professionals striving to supportthese companies in solving problems associated with work safety andbuilding a culture of safety in them. The basic goal of the Network ofExperts are services for small and medium companies in the area ofsafety and protection of employees' health, as well as promoting thelatest solutions and knowledge serving the improvement of workconditions. This task is carried out through direct cooperation ofNetwork members with entrepreneurs and support for entrepreneurs inall their activities for the safety of employees, sometimes already at thestage of company formation. The duty of Experts as safety and healthemployees is providing professional services to companies (in 2016 theNetwork of Experts had long-term and temporary contracts for servicesfor about 4.500 companies with a total of over 180.000 employees).

Cooperation within network structures requires continuous controlof the quality of functioning of the network and raising, or maintainingthe number of their members, taking into consideration possibly biggestterritorial coverage of activity. The activity of the Institute as acoordinator involves above all activating the members of networkstructures both to actions for the employees of companies belonging tothe Forum of Safe Work Leaders (and their subcontractors) and to non-commercial ventures for the benefit of SME environments (organized byNetworks of Experts). Encouraging the activity of the members of

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network structures is a perfect way to maintain continuous contact withthe industry, acquiring information concerning its needs for pro-safetysolutions and using the unique possibilities of popularization ofknowledge and studies.

The activity of network structures gives the opportunity to reachdispersed recipients, who require particular support in the area ofimprovement of safety and health protection at work. However, also thesestructures don't have the capacity to reach all entities in the economy.That's why another model of cooperation with companies which don'tbelong to these structures is applied.

New and innovative solutions are usually more expensive than theexisting solutions. This results from the level of their advancement, smallbatches, the need for promotion. That's why drawing the interest ofcompanies to them is not easy. At the same time, there is a feeling amongmany entrepreneurs that scientific units are inaccessible in terms of prices,that the research they conduct takes a lot of time and doesn't always finduse in practice. That's why it is important to adopt a model of activity thatwill bring about a change in these opinions.

The process of starting cooperation usually takes a long time and thepartners need to get to know each other. The experiences of the Institutein this respect are based on gradual inclusion of companies in cooperation.Taking up small joint ventures (e.g. co-organization of conferences, smallorders, etc.) leads to growth of trust, which later leads to more seriouscooperation. What also serves the purpose of achieving this goal is signingagreements on intention. An agreement on intention, by assumption,expresses only the will of the parties to continue cooperation, defining onlyits framework assumptions. This allows more detailed definition ofcommon goals and activities in the future, in form of a binding agreement,which motivates, or obliges to take joint actions.

Investigating the activity and needs of enterprises

In September and October 2014 a nation-wide survey of activities andneeds of companies in terms of cooperation between science and industryin the area of work health and safety were conducted. 400 representatives

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of companies — employees managing health and safety activities orperforming duties in the area of health and safety in companies employingover 50 people participated in the survey. Additionally, data provided bymembers of the Network of Experts from 200 micro and small companieswas analysed.

The survey was conducted by the ETMA research centre and CIOP-PIB.The obtained results show that over a half of the surveyed companiesdeclared that they have a person/unit dealing with the choice andadaptation of products influencing the safety of work (it is mainly bigcompanies that have such units). The surveyed companies eagerly seek thiskind of support from external units (67%).

Over the past 10 years even 69% of the surveyed companies haven'timplemented scientific solutions serving the improvement of work safety.Big companies (37% of them implemented such solutions) dominate amongthe companies which have done it.

The companies that declared they maintain contacts with scientific units(39,5%) conduct such activities mainly by participation in conferences andseminars and by maintaining other kinds of working contacts, e.g. in form ofconsultations. At the same time companies that don't cooperate with scientificunits most often mention lack of needs in this area as the reasons for that (aswell as for not applying scientific solutions serving the improvement of worksafety and for lack of interest in cooperation with scientific units).

The conducted survey made it possible to continue earlier starteddirections of research aiming at maximum engagement of companies inventures taken up by the Institute. Conclusions from the research andsignals appearing in the environment (e.g. during fairs and conferences)have led to the initiative of developing a simple Internet application, whichis supposed to facilitate conveying information concerning work safety tocompanies and drawing their interest to application of ready solutions.

Internet application BHP-IN-OUT

Developing direct contacts with companies is a natural form ofcooperation, which on the one hand constitutes final cooperation deliveringtangible effects, but on the other hand has a comparably limited reach. This

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is where the need for introducing elements of indirect cooperation, whosereach can be multiplied through conveying information and engagingInternet as a tool, came from.

The created Internet application for the exchange of good practices andimplementing solutions from the area of work safety (under the workingtitle BHP-IN-OUT) functions as a platform for the exchange of informationand enabling contacts between interested parties, which eventually maylead to direct implementation of technologies and products from the area ofhealth and safety at work. Thus, the goal of creation of the platform is:

allowing the presentation of held solutions, works, technologies and/orgood practices from the area of health and safety, which can bedisseminated, or implementedfacilitating the exchange of information and creating new connectionsbetween entities interested in improving work conditionssupport for the transfer of technologies concerning health and safetybetween scientific and industrial unitssupport for the popularization of good practices in the area of health andsafety among entities operating on the territory of Poland.

The operator of the platform is CIOP-PIB (currently the platform isundergoing tests and isn't accessible to the general public yet). Every userwill have an individual profile allowing him to use the platform (therequirement is filling out a registration form and positive verification of thecorrectness of the entered data).

The platform can be used by both the Users using its databases, that isthose interested in the application of tested (or implementation of newlydeveloped) technical, technological solutions, works, good practices fromthe area of health and safety, as well as by the Providers who provide thesolutions they have for the purpose of their popularization, orimplementation. The benefits for the first kind of users are obvious andresult from the utilization of ready models, at the same time the benefitsfor the Providers are undoubtedly the popularization of good practices usedin a company, the promotion of a company, or implementing a solution incommercial practice.

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The platform will also have the functions of "reporting" needs forsolutions not available in the database. For the purpose of looking fortechnical, technological solutions, papers, good practices, or other solutionsfrom the area of health and safety for application in your activity, you needto fill out the Need reporting card and for the purpose of presenting atechnical, technological solution, a paper, good practice for popularization,or implementation, it is necessary to fill out the Solution reporting card.

The mechanism of the platform was developed on the basis of PHP2.MySQL3. database is used for collecting data. PHP was used to create allmechanisms of the application. This includes a set of functions, which aresupposed to, on the one hand, handle the actions of the user, and on theother hand, provide access to the database. The effects of the functioningof the application take the shape of a standard description of a WWWwebsite (HTML code, CSS styles and Java Scripts). The content preparedthis way is conveyed by means of a WWW server to the user's browser.Communication with the database is conducted on the basis of the SQLlanguage.

Picture 1. Application diagram

Source: Author's own study — P. Budziszewski.

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User

Internet browser

PHP application

MySQL database

WWW Server

The system currently contains 3 basic kinds of data (furtherdevelopment is planned). The screens of these 3 parts are presented below:

1. Good practices2. Products (example screen below) 3. Reporting units

Picture 2. Sample screen "Products"

Source: Authors' own study — P. Budziszewski/A. Brzozowski.

Ad. 1) Good practicesFor the purpose of allowing the usage of good practices by

everyone, in the editing mode (after logging in) it is possible todescribe these practices in detail, by filling out the fields shown on thefragment of print screen.

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Picture 3. Part of the screen "Good practices" Picture 4. Part of the screen "Products"

Source: Author's own study — A. Brzozowski. Source: Author's own study — A. Brzozowski.

Ad. 2) ProductsAdding products makes it possible to build a database of solutions which

can be both used non-commercially by users (by consent of those postingthem, according to the regulations of the portal) and can be commercializedby producers interested in them.

For the purpose of letting everyone interested in products use them, inthe edition mode (after logging in) in it is possible to describe theseproducts in detail by filling out the fields shown on the fragment of printscreen.

Ad. 3) Reporting unitsSimilarly, in the field titled "Reporting units" every reporting individual

has to enter appropriate identification data. The in-built tables contain also information not visible directly to the

user, among others:

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unique id number of every entry,dates of creation and last edition of an entry,identification of the user — owner of an entry.password,level of access (ordinary user, or administrator).

The contents of the portal can be viewed by everyone, without the needto log in. Users who have an account without the rights of an administrator(called ordinary users) can enter data into the database. They can also editthe data they entered. The group of users-administrators can edit dataentered by other users. The starting screen is presented below:

Picture 5. Startup screen

Source: Authors' own study — P. Budziszewski/A. Brzozowski.

In order to encourage users to use the portal and justify the purpose ofbuilding the portal additional screens have been introduced. The screenscontain:

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Conclusions from the implementation of the project of building the rulesof systemic cooperation of science and industry in the area of work safety, Algorithm of conduct (from the point of view of a scientific unit) in theabove-mentioned scope,The results of research conducted in the area of companies' interest inbuilding such cooperation.

Investigating the usefulness of the application

In order to build an efficient and systemic cooperation of science andbusiness (S2B) in the area of improving work conditions, it is necessary toverify, whether the solutions prepared above are efficient. That's whyentrepreneurs were asked about their approach to the developed tool. Afocused survey was conducted on a sample of 39 big companies, whichbelonged mainly to the Forum of Safe Work Leaders (but not just to thisgroup). The survey contained questions concerning:

the usefulness of the portal— for companies looking for good practices/products— for companies willing to promote and share their good

practices/productsidentifying the part of the portal that would be most popular amongusers: — entering information— looking for informationpossiblities of entering without help information about: — good practices used in a company— products used in a companythe assessment of a tool in terms of its user friendlinessthe degree of interest in using the portalthe usefulness of the portal in practicepurposefulness of further development of the portal

In the area of usefulness of the portal for companies looking for goodpractices/products the following distribution of answers was recorded:

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Picture 6. Study of usefulness of "Good practices" application

Source: Author's own study — A. Brzozowski.

Picture 7. Study of usefulness of "Products" application


Similar results (a total of 90% interest) were recorded in the area ofusefulness of the portal for companies willing to promote and share theirgood practices/products:

At the same time, in order to identify the part of the portal that wouldbe most popular among those interested in entering information:

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Very useful

Useful, but only to a limited extent

Not useful

Picture 8. Study on "Which section of the portal could be used by people inputting information?"


Or among people looking for information:

Picture 9. Study on "Which section of the portal could be used by people searching information?"


The answers to the last two questions suggest that respondents aremost eager to use good practices (67%), and were eager to share them too(61%). What's interesting is that a comparably high percentage ofrespondents would like to have the opportunity to offer cooperation in thearea of solving own problems (28%) on the forum of the portal, but alsowould like to help solve problems (25%).

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Products

Good practices

Reporting proposals of subjects for cooperation

Also, questions concerning the independence of the process of enteringinformation about products and good practices were asked. The responsesshow that only a small percentage of the respondents would be allowed toenter information independently (12–16%), as the same time mostrespondents (about 60%) could do it after receiving the approval of themanagement.

The assessment of the tool in terms of user friendliness was positive(11% of the respondents recognized the portal as not very friendly).

The last questions concerned the usefulness of the portal forrepresentatives of companies. Vast majority of them (68%) concluded thatinformation about products and good practices will be very useful and thatthe portal should be developed in the future (68%). At the same time, alreadyat this stage 79% declared that they will be interested in using the portal:

Picture 10. Study of interest in using of the portal


Conducting verification survey on the sample of big companiesconcerning the presented concept for the functioning of the applicationmade it possible to draw the conclusions that companies are open to theproposed solutions and actually expect them. The conducted interviewsconfirmed that on the market there is no single place, or tool which wouldsystemically gather solutions, products, or good practices available on themarket and at the same time which would allow reporting researchproblems for solving (obviously, this concerns a place, or tool with a profile

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Yes

No

I don't know

focused on one area). Similar focused research on a group of small andmedium companies (members of the Network of Health and SafetyExperts) confirmed the need of the community dealing with safety at workfor such solutions.

Summary

The issue of insufficient innovativeness has been discussed in Poland formany years. Many solutions and technical facilities aimed at solving thisproblem have been created and still are being created. However, thesesolutions are not delivering satisfactory results. Perhaps, it is because theytry to solve all problems at once. Perhaps making small steps forwardwould bring better effects.

Obviously, the basic thing is creating a good climate forinnovativeness. Priorities of this kind are included in new programmes,both international programmes (such as Framework Programmes of theEuropean Union) and national programmes (e.g. Strategy ofinnovativeness and Efficiency of the Economy4). Already the LisbonStrategy published in 20025 mentioned "creating favourable conditions forthe formation and development of innovative companies, especially in theSME sector" as one of priority actions. Over the past few years a stronginterest of scientific, governmental, business and media circles in thesubject of cooperation of business and science in the area of technologytransfer, implementation of innovations and commercialization ofknowledge has been observed. What also highlights the importance of thisissue is the number of organized conferences, debates and publicationsconcerning the cooperation of science and business.

The sides involved in this process are institutions from the scientific-research sphere, innovators (companies), innovation centres (institutionsof the business environment such as technology and industrial parks,technology transfer centres, business incubators), innovation financingfunds and providers of consulting, training and information services. Newportals are created (e.g. by the Industrial Development Agency, NationalInformation Processing Institute). They concern broadly understoodinnovations.

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However, most companies are generally not interested in cooperationwith scientific units, which in many cases results from the lack ofknowledge concerning the possibility of starting such cooperation, orfrom the lack of needs. If such needs appear at all, they usually come fromthe necessity to implement new technologies, or the will to obtain aparticular certificate for a product. An obstacle for the implementation ofproducts, even innovative products and products awarded at prestigiousexhibitions and international fairs, is very limited capital of small andmedium companies, as well as the fact that recipients in case of publicorders prefer the cheapest products.

That's why it is so important to work out models of cooperation betweenscience and industry (S2B — Science to Business), separate for variousareas. Universal portals, or procedures of cooperation haven't brought theexpected effects by now. That's why in the area of improving workconditions we use good experiences of the Central Institute for LabourProtection — National Research Institute in cooperation both withfactories, as well as organizations and associations which operate in thearea — on the one hand with associations of those who can stimulatedemand for modern solutions (health and safety employees), as well as withorganizations grouping producers, that is, those who can implement andoffer such solutions.

References1 Przedsiębiorczość w Polsce (październik 2016). Warszawa: Ministerstwo Rozwoju; https://www.mr.gov.pl/me-dia/27643/Przedsiebiorczosc_w_Polsce.pdf (accessed on: 10.11.2016 r.). 2 www.php.net3 www.mysql.com4 Strategia_Innowacyjnosci_i_Efektywnosci_Gospodarki_2020. Warszawa: Ministerstwo Gospodarki, January2013, http://www.kigeit.org.pl/FTP/PRCIP/Literatura/006_1_Strategia_Innowacyjnosci_i_Efektywnosci_Gospodar-ki_2020.pdf (accessed on: 10.11.2016 r.). 5 Strategia Lizbońska — droga do sukcesu zjednoczonej Europy (2002). UKIE, ISBN 83-87913-38-3.

Bibliography1. Przedsiębiorczość w Polsce (październik 2016). Warszawa: Ministerstwo Rozwoju, https:

//www.mr.gov.pl/media/27643/Przedsiebiorczosc_w_Polsce.pdf (accessed on: 10.11.2016 r.).

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2. Ministerstwo Gospodarki (January 2013), http://www.kigeit.org.pl/FTP/PRCIP/Literatu-ra/006_1_Strategia_Innowacyjnosci_i_Efektywnosci_Gospodarki_2020.pdf (accessed on:10.11.2016 r.).

3. Strategia Lizbońska — droga do sukcesu zjednoczonej Europy (May 2002). UKIE, ISBN 83-87913-38-3.

4. www.php.net (accessed on: 10.11.2016 r.). 5. www.mysql.com (accessed on: 10.11.2016 r.).

AAllffrreedd BBrrzzoozzoowwsskkii,, MM..SScc.. EEnngg..,, CCeennttrraall IInnssttiittuuttee ffoorr LLaabboouurr PPrrootteeccttiioonn,, PPoollaanndd —— graduate WarsawUniversity of Technology (Sanitary and Water Treatment Faculty) in 1985. Since 1986 he has beenworking for the Central Institute for Labour Protection as a researcher in the Filtration and VentilationLaboratory. He has professional experience in research on chemical and dust hazards, air filtration,ventilation and air conditioning systems and devices. Since 1998, due to his experience in labourprotection, he has been dealing with promotion, scientific information and international cooperation inthat field, managing the special Centres of the Institute (Scientific Information and Promotion Centre,Promotion and Scientific International Cooperation Centre, Promotion Centre and actually —Promotion and Implementation Centre). In 2010 he complete postgraduate study of TechnologyCommercialisation — at the Faculty of Management at Lodz University and IC2 Institute (University ofTexas at Austin). He is an author of few scientific projects, several scientific publications, paperspresented at national / international conferences and educational materials. He is responsible (amongothers) for coordination and supervision over the promotion activities of the Institute (OSH field) as wellas implementation activities.

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SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION — YES OR NO? IMPROVING THE ODDS.

THE QUICK LOOK METHODOLOGY AND PROCESS

Open Access

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SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION —YES OR NO?IMPROVING THE ODDS. THE QUICK LOOK METHODOLOGY

AND PROCESS

Professor Brad Zehner, Ph.D. St. Edward's University, [email protected]

Professor Gary Pletcher, Ph.D.St. Edward's University, [email protected] DOI: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.13

This article explores the relationships which transform new scientific knowledge into new commercialproducts, services, and ventures to create wealth creation. The major technology and marketingcommercialization dilemmas are defined and addressed. The Quicklook methodology and relatedprocesses to quickly assess the commercial viability and potential of a scientific research project isexplained. Using the Quicklook methodology and process early in the research and development processimproves the success odds of commercialization.

Summary

Keywords: commercialization, innovation, market assessment, Quicklook, research, technologywealth creation, marketing

Introduction

Most inventors invent to address a specific need or problem. Once thesolution to a problem is addressed, then the solution may becommercialized to help others. The successful commercialization of aninvention frequently generates great societal and individual wealth. Thewealth enables societies and individuals to continue to generate newknowledge. Translating scientific knowledge into technology to servesociety the innovators must confront two major dilemmas: Will theinvention work? Will anyone purchase it? There is a methodology called"Quicklook" which helps to address both questions in the early stages of theinnovation process.

Thomas A. Edison — Inventor and Businessman Extraordinaire

Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) was America's most prolific inventoras well as a successful businessman. Edison received 2332 patentsworldwide. Edison's US patents totaled 1093. Edison's most famousinventions are the incandescent electric light bulb, the phonograph, and themotion picture camera. Edison was involved in hundreds of other projectsranging from storage batteries to plant research.

As a businessman, Edison created companies to commercialize hisinventions which laid the foundations for entirely new companies and newindustries. For example, Edison created the Edison Illuminating Companywhich eventually became the General Electric Corporation. Tocommercialize his motion picture camera, Edison started the world's firstfilm studio which made approximately 1200 films. Edison's mostsignificant contribution to society is founding the first industrial researchlaboratory in Raritan, New Jersey, USA to create new products with a focuson technology commercialization.

Though a successful inventor and businessman, Edison's first USPatent — 0,090,646 (1869) — was the electrographic vote recorderpermitting rapid counting of "yes" and "no" votes in legislative bodies.The electrographic vote recorder failed since the legislators wanted

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time to convince their colleagues to change their points of view. Whatwas Edison's reaction to his innovation's commercial failure? Edisonlearned that innovation for sake of its novelty fails to capture economicvalue.

Ayres (2016) reported that Edison stated, "The value of an idea lies inthe using of it" (p. 7) and "Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent.Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is a success" (p. 11).

For the remainder of his career, Edison was motivated to invent toaddress societal and customer needs. Wilson and Marcus (1999) quotedEdison, "I have never perfected an invention that I did not think about interms of service it might give others…I find out what the world needs, thenI proceed to invent" (p. 7).

Thomas Edison successfully solved the two conundrums that mostinventors face: How will this invention help society? And how will thisinvention make money?

Knowledge and Wealth Creation — The Virtuous Cycle

Robert Solow received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economics for a paperwhich argued that science and technology innovations are responsible forapproximately 87.5% of world's increases in wealth and standard of living— not capital and labor as many economists previously hypothesized.Based on data from 1909 to 1949, Solow (1957) concluded, "It is possible toargue that one-eighth of the total increase [in wealth] is traceable toincrease capital and man hours [labor], and the remaining seven-eighths totechnical change [emphasis added]."

The relationship between science and technology and economic growthis very complex and encompasses literally trillions of separate economictransactions globally. At the Meta level, the science — economicrelationship may be hypothesized as increased societal wealth catalyzesincreased investments in research and development by both governmentand businesses. Consequently, as the number of researchers increases,they, in turn, generate new knowledge which is disseminated via scientificand technical articles.

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Some of the new knowledge has commercial value and ispatentable. New products, new services, and new ventures aredeveloped based on the patent foundation which in turn generates newwealth necessary to repeat the cycle. Figure 1 illustrates the cyclicalnature of the process.

Figure 1. Meta Relationship among Research and Development Investments,

Knowledge, and Economic Transactions

Source: ZZehner, W., Williams, C., and Pletcher, G. (2016). Technology Creates 21st Century Wealth —Processes, Problems, and Prognosis. Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations, no. 2 (20), pp. 17-38.

Globally, the total investment (money) in research and development(knowledge and technology) is fairly constant at approximately 2% ofthe world's annual economy since 2000 — but the world economy has

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increased from approximately $5436 USD per capita in 2000 to $10,743per capita in 2014 (Zehner, Williams, and Pletcher, 2016, p. 18).

Figure 2 illustrates annual investments worldwide investments inresearch and development between 2000 and 2013 as a percent of theworld's economy.

Figure 2. Annual Investments in Research and Development as Percent of World Economy

Source: World Development Indicators — World Bank, 2016

Figure 3 shows that as more money flows into research anddevelopment in the world economy, an increasing number of researchersare supported. Today, there are 17% more researchers today than in2000 generating knowledge (Zehner, Williams, and Pletcher, 2016, p. 20).

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Figure 3. Number of Worldwide Researchers — Per Million Population

Source: World Development Indicators — World Bank, 2016.

The increased number of worldwide researchers generate more and morenew knowledge resulting in increased publications of scientific and technicalarticles. Also, important is the fact that research productivity as defined byscientific articles has increased at approximately 11.3% annually from 2000to 2010 (Zehner, Williams, and Pletcher, 2016, p. 23). The number of articlespublished is increasing faster than the 2.9% annual increase in funding andfaster than the increased number of researchers that is growing at 1.3%annually (Zehner, Williams, and Pletcher, 2016, p. 23).

See figure 4 which shows the number of scientific and technical articlespublished globally from 2000 to 2013.

Eventually, as the commercial possibilities are identified among the newknowledge created, patents are applied for to create a legal barrier to prevent theuse of the knowledge by other parties. Globally, the number of patentapplications has increased more by 124% from approximately 974,000applications in 2000 to approximately 2,184,000 in 2014 as illustrated in figure 5:

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Figure 4. Number of Scientific and Technical Articles Published — Thousands


Figure 5. Number of Worldwide Resident and Non- Resident Patent Applications — Thousands


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Both world knowledge and world wealth per capita are rapidlyincreasing due to the virtuous cycle. Zehner, Williams, and Pletcherprojected that the world per capita GDP would increase from $5,436 USDin 2000 to over $15,000 in 2025. This will accelerate research anddevelopment spending and new knowledge and products/servicescreation.

The Technology Commercialization Perspectives

Dilemmas

The dilemma faced by innovators desiring to commercialize newknowledge and technology may be captured in the questions: Will the newproduct/service sell? Who will purchase it? Why will potential customerspurchase the product/service? What price is necessary to facilitate aneconomic transaction?

Moriarty and Kosnik (1987) identified four specific concerns creatingmarket uncertainty for innovative products/services:

1. "The customers themselves are unsure about the technology's potentialuses and benefits" (p. 3).

2. "Market uncertainty also arises when there is no history or track recordfor a new type of product. As a result, no one really knows how large thepotential market really is or how quickly the new technology will spread"(p. 3).

3. "Another source of market uncertainty is rapid or unpredictable changesin the needs a product must satisfy" (p. 3).

4. "Market uncertainty may arise because compatibility standards for thetechnology have not been established" (p. 3).

The dilemma faced by the customer adopting innovative products andservices is simply technological uncertainty: Will this innovative product orservice actually work? And assuming it works, how will it help mepersonally or my business?

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Moriarty and Kosnik (1987) identified the following issues oftechnological uncertainty:

1. "Lack of information about the reliability of the technology" (p. 3).2. "Lack of information about a product's functional performance" (p. 3).3. "Lack of information about unexpected side effects" (p. 3).4. "Unreliable delivery patterns" (p. 3).5. "Technological obsolesce" (p. 4).

Moriarty and Kosnik (1987) conclude, "Whereas market uncertainty isnot knowing what the market wants, technological uncertainty is notknowing if a technology can meet a set of needs in a more dependent andeffective way than alternative approaches (p. 3)." Thomas Edisonsuccessfully addressed these issues over a hundred years ago both as atechnology innovator and a businessman.

Perspectives

To successfully translate a new technology into a successful product ischallenging. The odds of success are very low. A study by Hansen (1995)found to create one successful new product in the marketplace began with333 ideas. Twenty-three ideas were deemed as original and six ideas wereidentified as patentable. Two products were introduced to the marketplaceleading to one success. Starting with 333 ideas to create one successfulproduct are long odds.

A similar study by Stevens and Burley (1997) found similar findings.Beginning with 3,000 raw ideas led to 125 exploratory projects. The 125exploratory projects were refined to nine significant projects which werefurther refined to four projects introduced to the marketplace. Net result:one successful new product. The odds of success are low.

The cost of moving a product from the lab to the market is very costly.V.J Jolly postulated in Commercializing New Technologies — Getting fromMind to Market (1997) that "if the cost of discovery is $1 USD, thendeveloping it to a prototype costs $10 USD, and getting a marketableproduct ready is $100. But this how cost is distributed, not [customer]

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value" (p. 19). Note that the ratio among the stages is 1:10:100.Introducing a new product to the marketplace is costly.

If an innovator introduces a product to the marketplace that iscommercially successful such that a company is created to produce anddeliver a product, the company is likely to be short-lived. Arie de Gues(1996), formerly Director of Planning for Shell, points out, "A recent studyby Ellen de Rooiji of the Stratix Group in Amsterdam indicates that the lifeexpectancy of all firms, regardless of size, measured in Japan and much ofEurope, is only 12.5 years. I know of no reason to believe that the situationin the United States is materially better" (p. 2). De Gues speculates that"there is accumulating evidence that corporations fail because theprevailing thinking and language of management are too narrowly based onthe prevailing thinking and language of economics. To put it another way:Companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity ofproducing goods and services, and they forget that their organization's truenature is that of a community of humans" (p. 3).

Given both the complexity of the technology challenges as well as theeconomic costs of research and marketing, is there any way a researcher ina lab can address the challenges to improving the odds of commercializationsuccess? This is the significant question for science-based organizations. Tobe successful as a science-based organization the newly created knowledgemust ultimately be translated into social and economic benefits for society.There is a process, called the Quicklook process or simply, Quicklook, tohelp the science-based organization and the research to improve the odds ofcommercialization success.

Quicklook Methodology and Process

There are several methodologies to determine the potentialcommercial viability of research. One methodology is to retain a consulting firm to assess the probability of technological success andpossible market opportunities and success. The consulting process isexpensive and might involve several thousands of person hours ofconsultants' time at normal consulting rates of $800 USD per hour. Forexample, a typical consulting study might take 1000 to 2000 person-

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hours times $800 USD per hour for a total cost of $800,000 to $1,600,000USD. Very few science-based organizations are willing to spend a significant sum on market research when the organization is focusedon technical development.

A related issue is the time necessary to complete the study. Thetypical consulting study will normally involve a relatively long time tocomplete, as long as a year, during which time the technology,competition, and market are all changing simultaneously and some ofthe changes may be significant.

An example is Motorola's Iridium project (Bloom, 2016) to develop asatellite-based worldwide phone and data system. Motorola invested over$5 billion USD over 10 years, 1988 to 1998, to develop the Iridiumsystem which included launching 66 satellites for global coverage. TheIridium system was technologically successful, and Motorola receivedover a thousand patents, but it was a financial disaster. Iridium was soldfor about $25 million USD about a year after becoming operational andcatalyzed Motorola's bankruptcy. The issue was the Motorola financialmodel assumed about 50,000 subscribers who would purchase the phonefor $3,000 USD and be willing to pay $6 to $30 per minute for connectiontime. Between 1988 to 1998-time period cell phone technology improvedto the point where a cell phone cost about $200 USD and the connectiontime was about $.05 USD per minute.

Quicklook Defined

The IC2 Institute of the University of Texas at Austin defines Quicklookas a "market assessment technology methodology to provide [a university]technology transfer manager with an early indication of the probablecommercial interest in a new technology at the university or researchlaboratory (Cornwell 1998; Jakobs et al. 2015).

Quicklook History and Perspective

Quicklook is a methodology involving about 40 to 60 hours of researchto determine the commercial readiness and viability of a technology. The

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Quicklook process was developed in the mid-1980s by the US National Airand Space Agency (NASA) via Mid-Continent Technology Center todetermine the commercial viabilities of US space technologies as the USSpace Program wound down.

The Quicklook process was refined in the 1990s by Brett Cornwell,currently Associate Vice Chancellor at the Texas A&M University Systemwhich encompasses 12 universities and a Health Science Center. BrettCornwell directs the commercialization of the Texas A & M UniversitySystems' intellectual property. The Quicklook methodology is currentlytaught in the MS in Technology Commercialization program at TheUniversity of Texas of at Austin and in universities (Maltby, Zehner, & Difford 2006) throughout the world.

The IC2 Institute — "a think and do tank" — at the University of Texasat Austin under the leadership of Mr. Sid Burback, director of the GlobalCommunization Group, has disseminated the Quicklook methodologyaround the world via a number of government funded programs. Severalthousands of researchers, scientists, and engineers — from Asia to LatinAmerica to Europe — have successfully used the Quicklook methodology toassess commercialization possibilities of their scientific research.

The advantage of the Quicklook methodology is that the organization orthe researcher can quickly assess the commercial viability of research. It isalso helpful for research managers to direct resources toward projects thatare closer to commercialization. The Quicklook process is a valuable tool fordirectors of research programs to rate and rank multiple research projectsand allocate limited economic resources accordingly. Successfulcommercialization projects dramatically enhance the reputation andfunding of the organization.

The disadvantage of the Quicklook methodology is since the look is"quick" there may be more type I (false positive) or type II (false negative)errors than with a major market study. The Quicklook methodology is notdesigned to replace a full-scale market research study. However, theQuicklook methodology moves scientific research organizations muchnearer toward making optimal decisions on their directions and futureactions by providing additional information to more optimally allocatedscientific research resources (Maltby, Zehner, & Difford 2006).

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How to Do a Quicklook

There are four steps to complete a Quicklook:

1. Identify potential applications and markets for the scientific knowledgeand technology.

2. Identify potential users, distributors, and licenses.3. Contact experts and companies to explore the feasibility of the

technology and related markets.4. Write a formal report to document the process.

Step 1 — Identify potential applications and markets.The Quicklook process begins by interviewing the researcher to identify

potential applications and related markets. The following questions areaddressed: Why is this technology being researched and developed? Whatfeatures does this technology potentially offer that are not available today?What are the specific benefits to a customer? What other applications mightthis technology address? For example, a Quicklook team at the Universityof Texas at Austin studied a technology to extract collagen from crab shells.The original idea was the use of collagen to treat burns. The collagentreatment for burns was not as effective as some current burn treatments.However, in the process, the research team found that collagen could beused as a meat tenderizer — a much larger market.

The specific questions must be tailored to the technology and market.Typical questions are:

Would a technology or product with the following characteristics beinteresting? Who would purchase it? Use it? Do you think there is a largemarket for a product such as this? How large? How is the customer'schallenge solved by products currently in the market? Which organizationmakes these products or offers solutions? What do the products on themarket cost? What do you think would be a fair price for theproduct/technology with described characteristics?

After interviewing the researcher/innovator, a number of Quicklookquestions are written and refined. The objective of the questions is to focuson the market — customers — benefits early in the research and

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development process to identify prospective customers and determine howmuch the potential customers will pay for the benefits.

Step 2 — Identify potential customers, distributors, and licenses. The objective is to make a list of 10 to 15 knowledgeable individuals

to interview re the marketability of the technology. This is an easy buttime-consuming task involving researching the directories of trade andprofessional associations, universities doing similar research,distributors and sales agents familiar with the target marketplace andcustomers, companies offering similar products, and potentialcustomers.

The second list of experts in the technology must be developed who maybe interviewed to gather data on the probability that the technology willactually work and do what it claims to do. At this point, the Quicklookresearcher has a list of focused questions as well as a list of knowledgeabletechnology and marketing experts to interview.

Step 3 — Contact the experts. A 15 to 30-minute structured phone interview is the best process since

it yields the most information as well as giving the researcher theopportunity to ask "follow-up" clarification and questions. The lastquestion the researcher might ask the expert is: Who is knowledgeable thatyou would recommend I chat with? The respondent is frequently a sourcefor additional thought leaders in the field which were not discovered bysecondary research. In many cases, the interviewee is willing to "make theintroduction" to facilitate the research.

During the interview process, extensive notes should be taken for lateranalysis. Only about 8 to 12 interviews are required to ascertaincommercialization possibilities. After the third interview and analysis ofthe notes, the researcher may formulate some hypotheses about thecommercial potential of the technology. The researcher then "validates" thehypotheses in later interviews with questions such as, "This is what we arefinding, what do you think?" By the sixth interview, the hypotheses arerefined and may be validated in subsequent interviews.

After any interview you should send a thank you note to begin to builda long-term relationship with the experts you interviewed. This is

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a common courtesy which is highly appreciated and will facilitate quickresponses to future questions you may have.

Step 4 — Write a formal report. A formal report should be written to organize and disseminate the

information collected. Also, writing a report helps to identify gaps in themarket research for future research.

The technology segment of the report begins a non-technical descriptionwhich is understandable by a lay person. This is followed by a statement ofthe problem that the technology addresses as well as the customer benefitsof the technology. In this section, you might also address the developmentstatus of the technology. What is the stage of the technology development— an idea, bench model, prototype, or pre-market introduction productform? Is the technology or product patented or patentable?

The next section should identify and analyze potential markets andmarketing issues for the technology. Specifically, the following questionsmust be addressed based on the interview data:

1. What are the products, services, or processes that could be developedfrom the knowledge or technology?

2. What are the benefits of the technology sought by potential customers?Why?

3. What is the estimated size of the potential markets by the number ofunits purchased multiplied by average selling price over the next threeyears? A "best estimate" is sufficient at this point since you are simplytrying to establish an order of magnitude number for possible revenues.

4. What is the level of interested expressed by the interviewees? Excited ornot?

5. What are competing technologies used today to address the customers'needs?

6. Who uses or supplies the customers' solutions today? These may bepotential licensees for your technology.

7. What is the demonstrable and sustainable advantage of your technologyover competitive alternatives currently in the marketplace? Estimatequantitatively how much "better, faster, or cheaper" is your technologysolution than competitive solutions.

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8. Are there any barriers to market entry? If so, what are the barriers andhow might you breach them?

9. Any other technology or marketing challenges you found during theinterviews such as compatibility with current organization processes andprocedures.

The next segment of the Quicklook report may be the most critical andpractical. Clearly, state the yes or no decision without equivocation. If yes,research and development should proceed to the next stage. If no, theresearch and development should be terminated and the resources investedinto more promising projects. The report must clearly explain and exploreall the significant reasons for the yes or no decision.

If the decision is yes, to proceed to the next stage then the steps todevelop the technology and introduce the technology to the marketplaceshould be addressed as well as related resources required.

The Brilliance of the Quicklook Methodology

The most important contribution of the Quicklook to thecommercialization process is that improves the odds of commercializationby introducing the idea of the practical use of the technology early in theRESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT process. Who will purchase thistechnology, product, or service, why will they purchase, and what will pricemight they pay. The brilliance of the Quicklook methodology is:

1. It focuses the scientific researcher on the benefits of his or her work tosociety.

2. It engages the scientific research in the commercialization process earlyin the research and development stage.

3. It is quick — 40 to 60 hours — to develop "good enough" data vs. a major1000 to 2000-hour consulting study. The Quicklook methodology is notdesigned to address the same issues as a major market study. When theresearchers have no or little data, the Quicklook is designed to providesome data and quickly.

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4. Additionally, a Quicklook study may be utilized by the scientificresearcher to raise additional funding for his or her research fromuniversities, research and development organizations, or commercialsources. The incremental funding may enable the scientific researcherto accelerate the completion of his or her research.

Historia sukcesu Quicklook

The real question is Does the Quicklook methodology and process reallyfacilitate wealth creation by identifying commercialization opportunities inthe research and development laboratory which can be translated into newproducts, new services, and new ventures? The IC2 Institute at TheUniversity of Texas at Austin has been engaged by a number of countriesin the North and Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East toeducate their scientists and researchers in the Quicklook methodology forover fifteen years and has a number of success stories.

One of the most interesting Quicklook success stories takes place inMexico. When Vicente Fox was elected President of Mexico, President Foxwanted to create some high-tech companies to demonstrate to the Mexicanpeople that Mexico has a strong scientific and technological base. PresidentFox appointed Dr. Jaime Parada to his cabinet and charged Dr. Paradawith the task of showcasing Mexico scientific and technologicalfoundations.

Mexico has 27 research institutes which are perceived as excellent asjudged by the scientific papers published but had never commercialized anyof their research. To identify research in the 27 research institutes withcommercial possibilities, Brett Cornwell and one the authors educatedapproximately 70 researchers from the 27 research institutes in theQuicklook methodology.

The Quicklook educational program target metric was to identify 200potentially commercial able technologies from Mexico's 27 researchinstitutes. Over 800 technologies were actually identified with commercialpotential from which 44 new companies were created exceeding theprogram goals.

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Discussion

As more and more knowledge is created by the world's investment inresearch and development, the question becomes how the knowledge mightbe transformed into new products, new services, and new ventures tocapture the knowledge's economic and commercial values to fund futureresearch. Much research remains to be done on the virtuous cycle ofinnovation.

The innovative researcher's dilemma is, "Who will buy this knowledgeand technology and what will they pay?" The early adopter customer'sdilemma is, "Will this knowledge and technology really work?" TheQuicklook methodology incorporates these dilemmas into the research anddevelopment process early so the researcher incorporates commercia-lization challenges into the research process to improve the odds of creatinga successful new product, new service, or new venture.

Based on both professional experience and an increasing body ofempirical data, the Quicklook methodology and process works bydeveloping and gathering empirical date on the market opportunity. Someof the interesting questions for future research are, "What is the impact ofthe Quicklook methodology on the research process itself? By whatmechanism does the Quicklook methodology change the research process?What is the extent that the Quicklook methodology focuses the researchprocesses per se? Does the Quicklook methodology change the role of theresearcher relative to the project? Many questions remain to be researched.

Bibliohraphy1. Ayres, A. (August 2016). Quotable Edison. New York: Quotable Books/Fall River Press. 2. Bloom, J. (2016). Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 3. Cornwell, B. (1998). Quicklook Commercialization Assessments. RESEARCH AND

DEVELOPMENT Enterprise-Asia Pacific, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7–9. 4. De Geus, A. (1996). The Living Company — Habits for Survival in a Turbulent Business

Environment. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, p. 2–3. 5. Hansen, P. (August 1995). Publically produced knowledge for business: When is it

effective? Technovation, Vol. 15, 6, 387–397.

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6. Jakobs, E., Spinuzzi, C., Digmayer, C. & Pogue, G. (2015). Co-creation by commenting:Participatory ways to write Quicklook Reports. In Proceedings of IEEE professionalcommunication society — International Professional Communication Conference (pp.291–297), Limerick, Ireland. Retrieved 31 January 2017, fromhttps://repositories.lib.utexas. edu/handle/2152/31276

7. Jolly, V. (1997). Commercializing New Technologies — Getting from Mind to Market.Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, p. 19

8. Maltby, A., Zehner, W., & Difford, R. (2006). Quick Mark Market Assessment andBusiness Opportunity Validation Methodology — a major boon for innovative SMEs? Anevaluation ofthe effectiveness of quick cut market assessment tool for small businesses.Academy of Marketing Conference, London, England, June 4 to June 2006.

9. Moriarty, R. & Kosnik, T. (October 14, 1987). High Tech vs. Low Tech Marketing:Where's the Beef? Harvard Business School Note 9-588-12.

10. Solow, R. (August 1957). Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function.Review of Economics and Statistics — MIT Press, 39, pp. 312–320.

11. Stevens, G.A. & Burley, J. (May–June 1997). 3,000 Raw Ideas = 1 Commercial Success!Research Technology Management, Vol. 40 #3.

12. Wilson, R. & Marcus, S. (1999). American Greats. New York: Public Affairs, p. 70. 13. World Development Indicators. The World Bank Data Base. Retrieved 7 January 2017,

from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator 14. Zehner, W., Williams, C., and Pletcher, G. (2016). Technology Creates 21st Century

Wealth — Processes, Problems, and Prognosis. Marketing of Scientific and ResearchOrganizations, no. 2 (20), pp. 17–38.

PPrrooffeessssoorr WWiilllliiaamm BBrraaddlleeyy ""BBrraadd"" ZZeehhnneerr IIII,, SStt.. EEddwwaarrdd''ss UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, AAuussttiinn,, TTeexxaass,, UUSSAA —— is anAssociate Professor of Management and a Global Teaching Fellow. He is also a Fellow at the IC2

Institute — "a think and do tank focused on wealth creation" — at The University of Texas at Austin.Formerly, Dr. Zehner was director of the MS in Technology Commercialization program at theUniversity of Texas at Austin. Dr. Zehner earned his Ph.D. in Executive Management and Leadershipfrom the Peter F. Drucker School of the Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Zehner earned master'sdegrees in psychology, marketing, and finance. Dr. Zehner was a global executive for 25+ years prior

to becoming an academic .

PPrrooffeessssoorr RR.. GGaarryy PPlleettcchheerr,, SStt.. EEddwwaarrdd''ss UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, AAuussttiinn,, TTeexxaass,, UUSS—— is an Assistant Professor ofManagement. Dr. Pletcher has over 30 years of domestic and global business and industry experiencewhere he held several leadership and management positions in Fortune 100 companies and SMEorganizations. Dr. Pletcher was executive vice president of a medical school. Dr. Pletcher earned hisPh.D. in Management and Organizations from Capella University as well as a master's degree ininterdisciplinary studies from the University of North Texas.

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INNOVATION IN SOCIAL-ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT IN POLAND.

RESEARCH INSTITUTES AS ENTITIES AND CONTRACTORS OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES

IN POLAND

Open Access

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INNOVATION IN SOCIAL-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND.RESEARCH INSTITUTES AS ENTITIES AND CONTRACTORS

OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES IN POLAND

Renata Barcikowska, Ph.D.Railway Institute, [email protected]: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.14

The aim of the article is to present the development of innovative in Poland in the term of the membershipin European Union. The author will refer to the place and role of R & D activities in Poland. The articleconsists short theoretical part concerning selected theories of innovation in the economy. In the main partof the article will be presented research institutes in the context of their relevance in improving theinnovation in Poland, taking into account the changes proposed by the government administration.

Summary

Keywords: innovation , research institutes, European Union, Knowledge Based Economy, science

Introduction

The significance of innovativeness in the contemporary world

In the contemporary world "innovativeness" is one of frequently used terms.In the 21st century "innovativeness" has become an important goal of thepolicies of a modern state. A breakthrough in the development of innovationpolicy of the European Union (EU) was the Lisbon Strategy announced in 20001.It was a response to the low competitiveness of Europe in the area ofdevelopment of modern technologies, in comparison to global leaders such as theUnited States of America (USA), Japan, China, or India. Significant role ofinnovativeness for the social-economic development was confirmed in 2005 bythe European Charter of Small Enterprises. The year 2009 was proclaimed bythe European Commission the year of creativity and innovation. Unfortunately,the Strategy wasn't introduced, so at the beginning of 2010 a new programmefor the development of EU — Europa 20202 — was announced. The Europa2020 strategy defines a new direction for the development of innovativeness andentrepreneurship. In 2010 the European Commission prepared a plan titledUnion of Innovation, which contains EU concepts of innovation associated withingenuity and creation of new jobs, as well as with social and economicdevelopment. This goal became particularly important for Poland in the periodfrom the moment when it joined the structures of the European Union till now.

The term of innovation — multitude of innovations

The term of innovation appears in European strategic programmes,projects for scientific institutions and entrepreneurs, in social andeconomic life. Innovations are a subject of interest for a whole range ofscientific areas: technical, economic, social and others. The term ofinnovation can be understood in many ways. This arises from the dynamiccharacter of this phenomenon, as well as varied approach to this issue,depending on the area of science in which it functions (e.g. economics,sociology, philosophy, pedagogy, medicine etc.). There are many differentdefinitions of the term also because innovations can be understood as eithera process, or the result of a process.

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Innovations in the economy — chosen concepts

Due to the multitude of interpretation of innovation referring to theeconomic sphere, below the popular concepts of innovation by chosenauthors are listed. The given examples are presented in a chronologicalsequence — according to the time of their formation.

Table 1. Chosen definitions of innovation

Source: own materials prepared on the basis of literature on the subject.

The above definitions formulated by renowned representatives of theworld of science and economy show that the perception of innovationchanged along with the social-economic changes taking place over theyears. The comparison of various views of innovativeness points to themultitude of aspects that influence the formation and development ofinnovativeness. In the definition formulated in 1911 by J.A. Schumpeter3,

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J.A. Schumpeter, Teoria rozwoju gospodarczego,Warszawa 1960, s. 104.

P.F. Drucker, Innowacja i przedsiębiorczość, Praktykai zasady, Warszawa 1992.

Ph. Kotler, Marketing. Analiza, planowanie, wdrażaniei kontrola, Warszawa 2002.

W. Griffin, Podstawy zarządzania organizacjami,Warszawa 2005.

Oslo Manual8, Definicja zastosowana w Programie Operacyjnym Innowacyjna Gospodarka.Statistical Office of The European Communities,Guidlinesfor collecting and Interpreting InnovationData, Third Edition Organisation for EconomicCooperation and Development, Paris, 2005.

"The introduction of new products, new methods ofproduction, finding new markets, acquiring newsources of resources and introducing a neworganization."

"Specific instrument of entrepreneurship — activitywhich creates new opportunities for creation of goodson the basis of the same resources."

"The term refers to every good that is regarded bysomeone as new."

"Focused effort of an organization for the purpose ofmastering new products and services, or newapplications of existing products and services.Innovation is also a form of control in the sense that ithelps an organization keep up with the competition."

"The introduction of a new, or substantially improvedsolution concerning a product (commodity, orservice), process, marketing, or organization topractice in a company. The essence of innovation isthe implementation of novelty in practice. Theimplementation of a new product involves offering iton the market. The introduction of a new process,new marketing methods, or new organization meansapplying them in the daily operations of a company."

regarded as a forerunner of the theory of innovation in economic sciences,the key word is "new". The author linked innovations with the firstapplication of a particular solution and focused above all on technicalinnovations and their significance for the economy. J. Schumpeter linkedthe term of innovation to five cases:

the introduction of a new product, which the consumers haven'tencountered yet, or a new kind of commodity,the introduction of a new method of production not tested in practice yetin a particular area of the industry,opening a new market, that is, a market where a particular kind ofnational industry didn't operate regardless of whether the marketexisted earlier, or not,acquiring a new source of resources, or intermediate goods regardless ofwhether the sources already existed, or whether it had to be createdfirst,the introduction of a new organization of a certain industry, e.g.creating, or breaking a monopoly4.

Schumpeter described the process of popularization and introduction ofa novelty to the economy as "imitation". He also distinguished between theterms of innovation and invention (an invention which hasn't beenintroduced to production is not an innovation). Based on Schumpeter'sdeliberations it was assumed that the innovation process constitutes a sequence of events starting with the creation of an idea (invention)through the materialization of the idea (innovation) to its popularization(diffusion). The issue of innovativeness evolved along with economicchanges in the world. Schumpeter's theory was formed in times of capitalisteconomy at the beginning of the 20th century when production and capitalplayed the leading role. It was only at the end of the 20th century that aslow change of the paradigm of management and thus also the way ofthinking about innovations started. Greater emphasis was put on thesignificance of knowledge and information in the economy. Along with thedecline of the significance of industry and growth of the importance ofservices, the subject scope of innovation increased substantially and wentbeyond the sphere of technology5.

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It is worth concluding the theoretical deliberations concerninginnovativeness with the question whether the theory of innovation isnecessary and needed. It seems that the answer is yes, as this is the besttool for practitioners to present phenomena associated with innovation. Italso opens up opportunities for creative problem solving, explanation andstructuring of knowledge.

Innovativeness in the development of Knowledge-Based Economy

As it is emphasized in strategic documents of the European Union,the construction of Knowledge-Based Economy requires appropriate,coherent and uniform strategy, which includes: framework programmesfacilitating adaptation to rapid changes, flexible institutions, creativemarket of entrepreneurs. Knowledge is the main production factor andinnovation is the main competitiveness factor of a company and thewhole national economy defining its development. Without them it isimpossible to build a knowledge-based economy. What deservesparticular attention is the process of emergence and formation ofknowledge-based economy. The determinants of the development ofknowledge-based economy are: human capital, universities, scientific-research institutions, financial and credit institutions, as well as ITinfrastructure. The above-mentioned elements are necessary for theproper functioning and development of a contemporary economy. Theyshould influence each other during their utilization in practice. The paceand success of the process of building knowledge-based economy dependon the mutually formed relations between them. It is hard tooverestimate the role that research institutes play in the creation of neweconomy.

They play the role of knowledge incubators (new technologies, ideas),they are a catalyst of knowledge necessary to create innovative projects andventures. That's why the condition for building knowledge-based economyin Poland is connecting the research-scientific sector with companies in aproper way.

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Innovative policy in Poland under conditions of membership in the European Union

An important indicator of the efficiency of every state in the area ofinnovation, development of entrepreneurship and as a result the economy isthe National Innovation System (NIS). It is defined as a structure covering thewhole set of interrelated institutional and structural factors in the nationaleconomy and society which together and individually generate, select andabsorb technological solutions. National Innovation System is not justinstitutions, but above all the cooperation between them. Poland's accession tothe European Union caused significant changes in Polish innovation policy. Anattempt was made to increase the coherence of this policy with the programmesof the European Union concerning innovativeness. At the same time theadaptation of innovation policy to the policy of the EU couldn't involve only theintention to copy EU solutions and requirements. It was necessary to focus oncreating your own strategic concept of pro-innovation policy taking intoconsideration the local conditions (legacy of centrally planned economy,unfinished transformation of the system). Adequate innovation policy wassupposed to put Poland in the position of a rightful partner in scientific-technical cooperation and a competitor on the common market. In the years2004-2016 about a dozen strategic documents associated with the creation ofinnovation policy in Poland were issued. It is worth mentioning here the smallact on innovativeness from 20166 The act eliminates income tax on intellectualproperty brought into a company. Small and medium companies will beallowed to deduct the costs of acquiring patents from their taxes andentrepreneurs will be allowed to deduct the costs of R&D not for three, but forsix years. The biggest change is the hike of tax allowances for entrepreneurs.Another significant document adopted by the government in February lastyear is the Strategy for Responsible Development7. In the above document a lotof attention is paid to the development of innovation and the reform of researchinstitutes in Poland. Strategy for Responsible Development8 provides for thereform of research institutes „…for the purpose of raising the transfer ofknowledge to business, addressing the strategic needs of the statethrough consolidation, commercialization and coordination ofconducted activities...”

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Research-development activity in the formation of innovativeness in Poland

One of important elements of a properly functioning state is thestructural organization of the research-development sphere. It is of crucialsignificance for the development of a properly functioning economy andeventually it reflects its competitiveness. In Poland it contains: scientificinstitutions of the Polish Academy of Sciences, research institutes,research-development centres, central laboratories and other organizationswhose main task is conducting research-development activity. In thestructures of this sphere there are also universities, units serving science —national libraries, archives, associations, foundations etc., developmentunits — commercial entities dealing with R&D along with their corebusiness activity (companies, laboratories, research centres and facilities),industrial-research centres, technology parks. Each individual sector isdistinguished by a different character of activity. Education and researchworks are the domain of universities. Units of the Polish Academy ofSciences deal with primary research and research institutes deal withapplied research and development works. This division shows that theactivity of these three most important sectors should be mutuallycomplementary and overlapping. Work on a new bill on higher educationhas been in progress already for two years9. Currently, consultations withthe scientific community concerning the proposed changes and regulationsare in progress.

Research institutes as entities and executors of innovative actions in Poland

114 research institutes operate in Poland. The biggest number ofresearch institutes are subordinate to the Ministry of Development. Mostresearch institutes are active in the area of exact sciences, engineering andlife sciences. The basic goals and tasks of research institutes are stipulatedin the act from 2010, these are: conducting scientific research anddevelopment works, dissemination and implementation of research results.

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The basic assumption is that they have to serve the role of combiningscientific research and development works responding to the requirementsand needs of the economy.

Analysing research institutes as entities which play a major role in theformation of innovation policy in Poland, it is worth looking into theiractual participation in the formation of this policy. An active approach ofthe community representing research institutes has been observed over thelast 15 years — for example in case of work on the bill on researchinstitutes10, later in the process of assessment of criteria for the newparametrical assessment of scientific entities in 2013. Here the MainCouncil of Research Institutes (RGIB) plays a significant role. For manyyears, through RGIB research institutes have been participating ineconomic, social and in particular, in scientific and innovation policies.Government and administration bodies regularly receive opinions andproposals. Actions aimed at solving problems common for the communityof institutes, as well as for the development of science, improvement ofinnovativeness and efficiency of the economy, the development of researchpersonnel and in particular young scientists, are also taken regularly.Research institutes are a necessary element of the National InnovationSystem in Poland. They implement the goals of innovation policy bycarrying out the tasks assigned to them by the 2010 act on researchinstitutes. The contribution of these entities to the innovation policy inPoland are innovative solutions created in cooperation with companies.Research institutes play a very important role in the process of buildingmodern, positive relations between science and business.11 They are theclosest to the economy thanks to the tasks which they handle, namely,conducting development and industrial research focused onimplementations. As research institutes are a collection of non-uniforminstitutions operating in various areas of the economy, it is hard to assessunequivocally their links and direct efficiency of their influence on theeconomy. On the other hand, taking into consideration low and stillshrinking subsidies from the state budget, one of the most importantsources of funds are orders from business. However, the scope of thiscooperation is still insufficient. A positive example of the achievements ofresearch institutes in activity aimed at the development of the economy, istheir work in the area of national defense. In March this year on the

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initiative of RGIB a conference presenting interesting achievements ofchosen institutes in this area12 was held. Intensifying cooperation betweenthe spheres of science and economy requires continuous dialogue and aboveall creating a system of efficient incentives for entrepreneurs to invest inthe sphere of science. Thus, the government — as the creator of scientific,scientific-technical and innovation policy of the state — researchers,entrepreneurs and investors have to participate in the decision-makingprocess. This process also has to take into consideration the internationalcontext, in particular the context arising from the functioning of theEuropean Research Space, as well as cooperation with developed countriesoutside the European Union.

Conclusions

Presenting research institutes as the creators of innovation policy, it isworth pondering whether and to what extent research institutes needanother reform. It is worth emphasizing that this is the sector of sciencewhich has gone through the deepest restructuring in the past 25 years. InEurope there is a trend to merge similar institutes, like in case of CARNOTinstitutes in France. Each research institute in a network has its legalautonomy, specialization and competences in particular areas of research.Carnot brand is awarded by the minister of higher education and researchto units which successfully cooperate with the representatives of the sectorof companies and local communities.13

The reform of research institutes in Poland is supposed to involvethe process of their prioritization for areas of branch specialization forthe purpose of securing the possibility of conducting interdisciplinaryresearch. According to government administration, the consolidation ofresearch institutes will allow the creation of entities able to compete onthe global market. The establishment of the National TechnologyInstitute is planned for 201814. National Technology Institute15 is a proposed new organizational unit, which will allow better utilizationof the scientists' potential and linking it with the growing needs ofinnovative entrepreneurs. An alternative concept proposed by RGIB is

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the creation of the so-called network of research institutes (groupedinto research areas)16, without depriving individual institutes of theirlegal personality.

The general assumptions and directions of reforms in the area ofeconomy and research-development are reasonable. New reform and thethorough systemic changes in the research-development sector in Polandshould be evolutionary in character. All changes aimed at achieving apositive economic effect should be conducted following a deep, mutualanalysis conducted jointly by the involved social groups.

References1 See: Strategia Lizbońska — droga do sukcesu zjednoczonej Europy, Urząd Komitetu Integracji Europejskiej

(UKIE), opr. zb., Gdańsk 2002. 2 http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_pl.htm, 22.04.2017. 3 Joseph Alois Schumpeter (born February 8, 1883, died on January 8, 1950) — Austrian economist, regarded as

one of the most outstanding economists of the 20th century. 4 See: J. Schumpeter, Teoria rozwoju gospodarczego, Warszawa 1960, s. 104. 5 See: W. Janasz, K. Kozioł, Determinanty działalności innowacyjnej przedsiębiorstw, Warszawa 2007, s. 13. 6 Act from November 4, 2016 on the change of certain acts defining the terms of conducting innovative activity.

7 http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Rzad-przyjal-Strategie-na-rzecz-Odpowiedzialnego-Rozwoju-7499039.html,22.07.2017.

8 https://www.mr.gov.pl/media/23749/SOR_29072016_projekt.pdf9 http://isip.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20051641365, 22.04.2017.

10 Ustawa z dnia 30 kwietnia 2010 r. o instytutach badawczych (Dz. U. z 2010 r. Nr 96, poz. 618 z późn. zm.). 11 This subject was discussed at, among others, a conference from the Partnerzy Zmian Gospodarczych, Badania,Innowacje, Rozwój 2014-2020 cycle organized by Business Center Club, which was held in Warsaw on June 5, 2013.The debate was attended by experts from the scientific community, representatives of the Ministry of Science andHigher Education, Ministry of Regional Development and the National Centre for Research and Development.Material patronage over the Debate was taken by the Main Council of Research Institutes. The debate wasconducted by editor Bartosz Marczuk from Rzeczpospolita daily. 12 More about the event: http://www.rgib.org.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1489:cywilne-instytuty-badawcze-wspieraj-bezpieczestwo-polski&catid=1:nowoci&Itemid=103, 22.04.2017 r. 13 Carnot label is awarded as a result of a competitive call for applications. The procedure involves the assessmentby a special Commission. Following a positive assessment a particular Institute gets a Carnot accreditation for fiveyears.14 The creation of National Technology Institute will facilitate the commercialization of research; it will also makeit easier for Polish entrepreneurs to obtain knowledge. http://www.rp.pl/Edukacja-i-wychowanie/309129984-Naro-dowy-Instytut-Technologiczny-stanie-na-czele-sieci panstwowych-instytutow-badawczych.html, 22. 04.201715 Draft bill on National Technology Institute: https://bip.kprm.gov.pl/kpr/wykaz/r709179056, Projekt-ustawy-o-Narodowym-Instytucie-Technologicznym.html16 NIT czy SIB, a może kompilacja? Rozmowa z prof. Leszkiem Rafalskim — Przewodniczącym RGIB, p. 1–2,Biuletyn Rady Głównej Instytutów Badawczych, grudzień 2016, nr 3 (99).

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Bibliography1. Barcikowska, R. (2015). Instytuty badawcze w polskiej polityce innowacyjnej w warunkach

członkostwa w Unii Europejskiej. Niepublikowana praca doktorska. Warszawa: InstytutPolitologii Uniwersytetu Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego.

2. Daszkiewicz M. (2008). Jednostki badawczo-rozwojowe jako źródło innowacyjności w go-spodarce i pomoc dla małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw, Warszawa.

3. Koźmiński A.K. (2001). Jak tworzyć gospodarkę opartą na wiedzy? In: Strategia rozwojuPolski u progu XXI wieku. Warszawa: Kancelaria Prezydenta RP i Komitet Prognoz Pol-ska 2000 Plus.

4. Łobejko, S. (2008). Stan i tendencje rozwojowe sektora jednostek badawczo — rozwojowychw Polsce, Warszawa.

5. Mamica Ł. (2007). Jednostki badawczo-rozwojowe w polskiej polityce innowacyjnej. Kra-ków.

6. Wiśniowski W. (201). Rozważania o misji polskich instytutów badawczych. Prace Instytu-tu Lotnictwa, 1 nr 214, pp. 28–32.

RReennaattaa BBaarrcciikkoowwsskkaa,, PPhh..DD..,, RRaaiillwwaayy RReesseeaarrcchh IInnssttiittuuttee,, PPoollaanndd —— is an Assistant Professor in theCentre for Coordination of Projects and International Cooperation of IK. In 2015 she received a Ph.Dfrom Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw in the area of political sciences. Her dissertationwas on Research Institutes in Poland — evaluation of their place and role in innovative politics inPoland in terms of membership in EU". She also completed a postgraduate school of Public Relationsat the SGH Warsaw School of Economics.

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CLOUD COMPUTING APPLICATION FOR ROMANIAN SMES

Open Access

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CLOUD COMPUTING APPLICATION FOR ROMANIAN SMES

Luminiţa Pistol, ProfessorSpiru Haret University, Bucharest, [email protected]

Rocsana Bucea-Manea Ţoniș, PhD.Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, [email protected]

Radu Bucea-Manea Ţoniș, PhD.Hyperion University, Bucharest, [email protected]: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.15

The article studies the current economical state of Romanian SMEs and the utility of cloud computingtechnologies in the process of sustainable open innovation. The study is based on a supply chain adaptedfor SMEs, on a model of innovation within a network business environment and on a decision treededicated for SMEs when starting a new project. Taking into account the statements of the article, a newframework of cloud computing economics can be developed.

Summary

Keywords: cloud computing, SMEs, AngularJS, JSON, model of innovation, supply chain, decision tree

Current Economic State of Romanian SMEs

Romanian economic indicators are not very encouraging and thedevelopment in our country is slower than economic growth. Although GDPhas increase 4 times in the past 15 years, the human development indexincreased by only 12.2%: [Georgescu, 2016]

because of the quality of relatively weak growth (structural problems inthe real economy, the main force to create GDP), deficiencies in thedistribution of GDP, as the effect of financial indiscipline and illegalitiesin society;report distribution of income among working (40%) and capital (60%) isin Romania as opposed to the developed countries;the economic activity and financial results of the past 15 years,companies have increased the capital with 5 billion (6% of the totalamount that was capitalized Romania in the last 15 years). Thedifference (94%) of investment in Romania was generated by new capitalcontribution of shareholders, especially those new entrants, mostlyforeigners;examining the behavior of investment-disinvestment of shareholders,many companies are targeting the short term interests and are notapplying development strategy in the medium and long term because: 1)they record large losses, 2) the shareholders grant substantial loans fortheir preferencial economic agents causing losses, 3) precisely amounts"taken out" of the company by "financial engineers", representinginflated production costs;many shareholders used the insolvency procedure as a legal method " toexit from the scene", at considerable cost for creditors (budget banks,suppliers etc.);disproportionate ratio between wages and profits in favor of the profits;the costs of the crisis were shifted to the employees and by reducingsocial programs;rapid income polarization determine social disparities. Although GDPgrowth during 2007-2014 was 20%, the share of poverty only decreasedby 14 percent;

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These phenomena and behaviors show structural weaknesses or lowtechnological level, low paid jobs, reduced processing products, processessimple repetitive operations.

In the literature review SMEs are considered the engine of the economy.In Europe, SME´s are responsible for a big percentage of private sector jobsand produce more than 50% of the total value-added created by companies[Rocha, 2016]. In this economical situation Romanian SMEs could be thebeneficiary Blue Ocean Strategy adapted to their necessities (Fig.3), takingthe advantages of cloud computing technologies and trying to mitigate theeconomic-financial risks.

Cloud Computing for SMEs

Based on survey panel data from European firms the authors [Candel,2016] shows that cloud adoption and adaptiveness differ widely acrossindustry sectors and is correlated to a firm's position in the supply chain.Thus the type of output it produces differs in accordance with the marketin which it operates. Their study show that small business has a verysimilar trend with large companies, being very adaptable to the newtechnology, in contrast with medium sized firms, that show a delay in theprocess of adaptation. Cloud computing involves pooling IT resources suchas storage or processing in a virtual system serving multiple users.Resource pooling allows for specialization and the realization of economiesof scale on the provider side. Capacities are assigned dynamically accordingto demand; users therefore cannot locate their data in a certain geographicarea. Importantly, cloud users often can purchase computing resourceswithout any human interaction and at short notice (on-demand self-service).

The authors substantiated that service sector is more cloud adaptivethan the manufacturing sector and that it is especially business servicesand the financial and wholesale sectors that are most cloud adaptive. Inthe manufacturing sector there are a lot of cloud adaptive firms in food,chemical, transport equipment, wood and electronics fields. In wood

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fields the prevalence of cloud adaptive firms is bigger in contrast withnon-adaptive firms. Cloud computing adoption varies based on a firm'sposition in the supply chain and thus suggests a linkage of cloudadaptiveness and the firm's type of output or its market power in additionto its industry (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Cloud Adaptiveness in the Service Sectors and Total Factor Productivity (TFP)

in Manufacturing Industries

Source: [Candel, 2016].

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SMEs activating in a Network Business Environment (NBE), usingcloud technologies, have special outlined supply chain for sustainableopen innovation, as is presented in the Fig. 2. The chain start with theawareness feature, that is very high for SMEs operating in a NBE,because they have access of marketing studies, R&D studies, investmentsin social capital, etc.

Figure 2. Supply Chain for Sustainable Open Innovation within

a Net Business Environment

Source: Own conception.

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A SME connected with other SMEs through cloud technologies will callto NBE outsourcing services when the problem is too difficult and proceedto in-house innovation. Having the cloud protection the SME will mitigateand share the risks of innovation, using knowledge, infrastructure, licensesand social capital from NBE. Dissemination is free of charge or cheaperwithin NBE using cloud technologies, which offers security and IPprotection. The selling, further services and support associated to the idea/innovation are facilitated by SMEs.

Cloud computing often provides Business intelligence (BI) solutions. BIduring times of crisis have been analyzed by [Antoniadis & co., 2015] in a case study on 37 SMEs. The capabilities considered by SMEs as being themost important are: the aggregated results tools, importing/ exportingdata, optimization techniques, economic management/ accounting tools,OLAP Possibilities (multi dimensional analysis), dynamic user interface(dashboard). Tools capabilities that are considered very closed to the firstcategory are cloud applications systems (web-based), simulation/riskassessment, property management tools and investment analysis tools[Antoniadis, 2015].

Cloud Computing offer for SMEs tools comprised of three main streams:Computer-aided engineering (CAE) software packages, a Product Life Cycle(PLM) tool, and an Open Innovation (OI) platform, through theCloudPyme2 project (CPP2). It is providing innovation tools for productdevelopment and manufacturing processes to SMEs in a sustainablebusiness [Rocha, 2016].

The cost of ICT technologies is high enough as SMEs not to be able tosupport it. 90% of European SMEs with less than ten employees, often facegreater obstacles than bigger companies in terms of skills, costs ofresources, funding or access to markets [Rocha 2016].

It has been observed that many companies in the information andcommunication technology (ICT) industry have been faced with thesame phenomenon in which 80% of their budget was spent onmaintaining existing ICT services and infrastructures, while only 20%on their core business functions. As a result, a limited amount ofcomputing resources and capital can be used to improve the corecompetences of small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs),

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including the development of new products and the improvement ofexisting products [Dazhong, 2015].

As a consequence many companies adopt outsourcing services. In thiscontext has developed cloud computing that offers both computingtechnologies and outsourcing services advantages, as a new paradigm andframework, able to solve computing problems, fostering internal andexternal communication, productivity, firms and regional economic growth.Cloud computing seems to be dedicated to SMEs, offering a supportingbusiness environment for sustainable open innovation at low costs [Tonis,2016].

Cloud computing allows SMEs to innovate into a network after a modelbased on three pilings: open-innovation, eco-innovation and Blue OceanStrategy [Tonis, 2016].

Open innovation is a dynamic process, whose inputs are externaltechnology in-sourcing, Intellectual Property acquisition, licensing, R&D,social capital and organizational change, each of these being in acontinuous evolution, in anticipation of future market evolution. Socialcapital is based on social networks interaction, trust and reciprocitybetween counterparties and shared norms and values in the businessprocess.

Through eco-innovation firms can improve their profitabilityreducing waste disposal and raw materials cost and increase productvalue due to enhanced reputation of the company. Customers demandfor environmental-friendly products or services is increasing and takeinto account the regulations for protecting the environment. Eco-innovation improves competitiveness and overall business success andbrings the sense of feeling good when protecting the environment. Eco-innovation is easier to be implemented in the network than openinnovation is.

SMEs can be the beneficiary of open and eco-innovation if they try toconduct their business in accordance with Blue Ocean Strategy, based onERRC (Eliminate- Reduce-Raise-Create) pattern. For SMEs the strategyhas the aim to eliminate technological barriers and the lack of access toknowledge. It has to reduce macroeconomic instability, credits' debts andcosts. In contrast has to raise service portfolio, network performance,

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worldwide coverage and key competitive success factors (KCSFs). Theadapted ERRC pattern also aims to create inexperienced activities untilnow, such as innovation, new jobs, and new methods of entrepreneurshipand ICT training (Fig. 3).

Figure 3. Model for SMEs Open Innovation in a Network Business Environment


When SMEs get a market challenge has to decide if it can face it or not.In this regard, a decision tree would be useful for managers to evaluate thefactors that can lead the company to profit or loss. These factors are aspresented in Fig. 4 Main factors that can influence the decision of startinga new project are the answers to the following questions:

Does the SME have a business model that allows starting the project? Ifnot, can SMEs redefine its business model? The SMEs should base theiractivity on the sustainable model presented above and ask forsupplementary consultancy to be sure that the project is feasible. Does the SME have the competences and knowledge to get involved inthe project? If not, can SMEs assimilate it in a timely manner? SMEsshould look for knowledge and support in their NBE.

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Figure 4. Decision Tree for Starting a New Project


Does the SME have necessary funds? If not, can SME access EU fundsor take credits? SMEs should take into account the financial consultancythat can be obtained from the NBE.Does the SME have the necessary technology? If not, can SME get itfrom a NBE? SMEs start the project only if the technology is inaccordance with the eco-innovation principles.

This tree shows that sustainable activities of SMEs require a long termplanning and change, and is associated with a wide range of collaborationtypes. It also implies a deeper understanding of managerial process. Facingalone the market challenges is not a solution for competitive SMEs.

Having in mind the statements above it can be easier to understand thecloud computing benefits to economic field and develop a cloud computingframework and platform for SMEs, adapted especially at the firm andindustry level.

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Case study

Below is an example of cloud computing technology applied in economicfield. It is a simulation of a network business environment using Qlik SenseCloud for SMEs than can easy find a viable business partner. Theapplication offer a dynamic dashboard regarding Romanian SMEs contactdata and economic-financial data, as presented in the figure 5.

The application comprises other dynamic dashboards, presenting keyperformance indicators, such as economic, financial and commercialprofitability. Appling the financial leverage on these KPI one can be sure ofmaking business with a solvable SMEs. These dynamic boards can beshared with all the network members.

For the data presented in the previous dashboard, the EntityRelationship Diagram is presented below (see fig 6).

Figure 5. Dynamic Dashboard Regarding Romanian SMEs Economic-Financial Data


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Figure 6. ER diagram for SMEs Warehouse


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The data is retrieved using a SQL query inside a PHP script: // Query the database: $result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql) ordie("Error in Selecting " . mysqli_error($connection));

// Utwórz tabelę wyników zapytania: $emparray = array();while($row =mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){

$emparray[] = $row;}

//Return a JSON for a given array: echo json_encode($emparray);

The resulted data is encoded to JSON: [{"CUI":"16676328","NUMEIMM":"HALAT

SRL","AIMOB":"2934585","ACIRC":"2837798","STOCURI":"1917206","CREANTE":"797065","CASA":"123527","CH_AVANS":"0","DT":"2074533","VN_AVANS":"0","PROVIZIOANE":"0","KT":"3697850","KSOC":"200","VNT":"4433410","CHT":"4365264","CA":"4919551","PB":"68146","PN":"49505","NRSAL":"21","AN":"2013"},{ " C U I " : " 1 6 6 7 8 2 6 4 " , " N U M E I M M " : " D A N ISRL","AIMOB":"722","ACIRC":"43564","STOCURI":"27000","CREANTE":"15186","CASA":"1378","CH_AVANS":"0","DT":"39413","VN_AVANS":"0","PROVIZIOANE":"0","KT":"4873","KSOC":"200","VNT":"1710","CHT":"29205","CA":"13740","PB":"30915","PN":"30915","NRSAL":"0","AN":"2012"},{"CUI":"17420076","NUMEIMM":"GIKY IMPEXSRL","AIMOB":"0","ACIRC":"24790","STOCURI":"10301","CREANTE":"8600","CASA":"5889","CH_AVANS":"0","DT":"53372","VN_AVANS":"0","PROVIZIOANE":"0","KT":"28582","KSOC":"200","VNT":"21070","CHT":"20547","CA":"21070","PB":"523","PN":"109","NRSAL":"1","AN":"2012"},…

The user sees the result filtered in AngularJS and formatted in HTMLby using browser (http://www.smesonline.eu/firme.html ), as may be seenin fig. 7:

<div class="container" ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="customersCtrl"><label>Search: <input ng-model="searchText"></label>

<table class="table table-striped">

<thead><tr

class="info"><th>CUI</th><th>Nume</th><th>AIMOB</th><th>ACIRC</th><th>STOCURI</th><th>CREANTE</th><th>CASA</th><th>CH_AVANS</th><th>DT</th><th>VN_AVANS</th><th>PROVIZIOANE</th><th>KT</th><th>KSOC</th><th>VNT</th><th>CHT</th><th>Cifra_afaceri</th><th>Profit_brut</th><th>Profit_net</th><th>Nrsal</th><th>An</th></tr>

</thead><tbody>

<tr ng-repeat="x in myData | filter:searchText"">

<td>{{x.CUI}}</td><td>{{x.NUMEIMM}}</td><td>{{x.AIMOB}}</td><td>{{x.ACIRC}}</td><td>{{x.STOCURI}}</td><td>{{x.CREANTE}}</td><td>{{x.CASA}}</td><td>{{x.CH_AVANS}}</td><td>{{x.DT}}</td><td>{{x.VN_AVANS}}</td><td>{{x.PROVIZIOANE}}</td><td>{{x.KT}}</td><td>{{x.KSOC}}</td><td>{{x.VNT}}</td><td>{{x.CHT}}</td><td>{{x.CA}}</td><td>{{x.PB}}</td><td>{{x.PN}}</td><td>{{x.NRSAL}}</td><td>{{x.AN}}</td>

</tr></tbody>

</table></div><script>var app = angular.module('myApp', []);app.controller('customersCtrl', function($scope, $http) {//Get data from PHP script:$http.get("http://www.smesonline.eu/firme.php").then(function (response)

{$scope.myData = response.data;

});});</script>

The user can filter dynamically all the fields bound in AngularJS:

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Figure 7. Demo Interface for Romanian SMEs Data Info


Conclusions

In the context of very fast developing technology and globalization,cloud computing proved to be a viable solution for SMEs. SMEs can gatherinto a NBE using cloud technologies, such as Qlik Sense as we demonstrate.Thus they can share information, learn ethical behavior, acquire newknowledge and technologies in theirs activity field and fair collaborate withother counterparties. In order to innovate SMEs have to open collaboratewith other SMEs, big enterprises, research laboratories, academicinstitution, consultancy and marketing agency, governmental institutionswithin a hub.

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Romania's Operational Program forHuman Resource Development (POSDRU), financed from the EuropeanSocial Fund and the Romanian Government under the contract numberPOSDRU/159/ 1.5/S/134398.

Bibliography1. Antoniadis, I.T., Tsiakiris, S. (2015). Tsopogloy, Business Intelligence During Times of

Crisis: Adoption and Usage of ERP Systems by SMEs. Procedia — Social and BehavioralSciences, Volume 175, 12 February, Pages 299–307.

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2. Candel Haug, K., Kretschmer, T., Strobel, T. (2016). Cloud adaptiveness within industrysectors — Measurement and observations. Telecommunications Policy, Volume 40, Issue4, April, Pages 291–306.

3. Dazhong, Wu, Janis Terpenny, Wolfgang Gentzsch (2015). Cloud-Based Design, Engine-ering Analysis, and Manufacturing: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. Procedia Manufacturing,Volume 1, Pages 64–76.

4. Georgescu, F. (2016). vice-governor National Bank of Romania, at the conference „Roma-nia's development and anti-poverty policies” organized by SNSPA, mai.

5. Rocha, L., Gomez, A., Araújo, N., Otero, C., Rodrigues, D. (2016). Cloud Management To-ols for Sustainable SMEs. Procedia CIRP, Volume 40, Pages 220–224.

6. Tonis, Rocsana (Bucea-Manea) — Own Phd Thesis: „Study and Developments on SMEsSupport System”, 2016, Faculty of Engineering and Technological Systems ManagementUniversity POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, 2016.

LLuummiinniiţaa PPiissttooll,, SSppiirruu HHaarreett UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, BBuucchhaarreesstt,, RRoommaanniiaa —— Vice-Rector of Spiru Haret University(2015-present), Dean of the Faculty of Marketing and International Economic Affairs (2010–2015),Head of Department — Marketing and International Economic Relations (2007–2010), Director ofMarketing and Public Relations in Business. She has conducted leadership in higher education,didactics, quality management and scientific research. She is professor at Spiru Haret University and isteaching Marketing Techniques and Economic Co-operation, Trade Negotiations and Protocol Usages,Basics of Commerce, International Economics. She was a member of doctoral commissions, chair ofdissertation and licensing committees. She is member of Society of Business Excellence.

RRooccssaannaa BBuucceeaa--MMaanneeaa--Ţoonniiș,, SSppiirruu HHaarreett UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, BBuucchhaarreesstt,, RRoommaanniiaa —— A lecturer in Spiru HaretUniversity, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Bucharest. She is teaching Webmarketing and MarketingSimulations and is web-developer for Spiru Haret Research Department. In 2016 graduated Inventor-AutoCAD course, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Faculty of Engineering and Management ofTechnological Systems and Digital workshop Google — Web-marketing course. Research programs:PhD diploma, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Faculty of Engineering and Management ofTechnological Systems,(2016) with the thesis Study and Developments on SMEs Support System,Leonardo Da Vinci, Preparing Trainers in the Spirit of a High Quality Educational System — Vicenza,Italy (2006), Short Term Scientific Mission — Gender and Well Being — Sassari, Sardegna, Italy(2009), Expert design and drafting practice support materials (P) POSDRU 161/2.1 /G/133465 "Infoturfor professional counseling" (2014). She is member of Society of Business Excellence.

RRaadduu BBuucceeaa--MMaanneeaa--Ţoonniiș,, HHyyppeerriioonn UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, BBuucchhaarreesstt,, RRoommaanniiaa —— PhD in Economic Informaticsand Cybernetics. He is a lecturer in Hyperion University, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Bucharest. Heis teaching Financial Banking Information Systems, Information Systems for Decision Support,Information Systems Auditing, Fundamentals of Computer Science.

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THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN MOBILE MARKETING

Open Access

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THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN MOBILE MARKETING

Wojciech Łukowski, M.Sc.Institute of Aviation, [email protected] DOI: 10.14611/minib.25.09.2017.16

Mobile marketing is one of the fastest growing channels of marketing information. Mobile terminal devicesand mobile networks allow for mass personalisation of content transmitted to individual recipients therebyfacilitating recipient segmentation within one-to-one marketing. Mobile marketing means using interactivewireless media to provide clients with personal information with precise profiling using geo-location, time,and often associated with their interests, sex or other attributes, promoting goods, services and ideas, thus,also generating added value for all the process participants. Mobile media has completely transformed thepresent concept of marketing campaigns and has opened up a wide array of new opportunities foradvertisers. They have also brought new challenges for companies using CRM and KM. In a study involvinga group of students, efforts were made to determine the factors which are likely to contribute to finding theanswer to the question of how to effectively run mobile marketing campaigns and what should be takeninto account when using the tools and knowledge offered by knowledge management and customerrelationship management.

Summary

Keywords: knowledge management, customer relationship management, mobile marketing, tool

Knowledge management

Knowledge management is defined by Davenport and Prusak as a"process used by organizations for generating new value from intellectualsources or knowledge-based sources". Very often this knowledgemanagement process includes sharing newly created knowledge amongemployees, departments, even among companies. It needs to be noted thatthis definition does not mention anything about information technologies.It often happens that in some analyses

knowledge management is integrated with information technology, butthat not what knowledge management is about.

The concept of knowledge management has developed in mid 80's whenDavenport and Prusak published some of their works on knowledgemanagement which ended with their famous work "Working Knowledge".Since its beginning, knowledge management has had its ups and downs, butlately it has been mentioned as one of the "salutary" tools in modernmanagement. Market competition allows for many techniques and toolsenabling gaining competitive edge, and knowledge management is one ofthem.

The definition of Chaffey and Wood states that "knowledge managementrepresents the ability of a community within an organization to makerecords on any critical knowledge (i.e. of the greatest importance), improvesit and in a best possible manner shares and distributes this knowledgeamong those members of the organization that require it and that may useit in their work". According to this definition, this could be a major issue forinformation technology companies drawing their knowledge from theInternet, which is why these companies need knowledge management.

At the present stage of knowledge management there is still no widelyaccepted general methodology for developing knowledge managementsystem. In this area knowledge is still being acquired by developingmethods and techniques aimed at solving particular issues. Knowledge hasa long history of being considered a decisive competitive weapon forcompany survival on the market. In practice, numerous companies,including those dealing solely with marketing, that have managed toorganize their knowledge achieved business success and enhanced theirperformance.

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Knowledge management in marketing

Marketing and knowledge management overlap in many significant ways,but according to some authors dealing with both these areas, there is toolittle overlapping in the actual practice. Marketing conducted researchesshould be the main "provider" for knowledge management providing views onclient demographics, psychology and behavior that might be of importancewithin customer transactions, relationship strategies and tactics.

Table 1. Application of knowledge management in CRM

Source: Own materials.

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Part of CRM Focus on Knowledge neededBenefit from knowledge

management

CIMcustomerinteractionmanagement

CEM customerexperiencemanagement

CSM customer successmanagement

Transactionbetweencustomer andcompany

TransactionbetweenCustomer andcompany

Continuedrelationshipwithcustomers

knowledge about customers andtheir segments, based on how theyrespond to various activitiesundertaken by customerinteraction management

knowledge to understand what theexpectations of a customer orcustomer segment are, and whatwill please the customer, as opposedto what would displease them in thecourse of a transaction,knowledge is the knowledgenecessary for understanding relativevalue, actual and potential of anindividual customer or customersegment.

knowledge enabling betterunderstanding of customers andways for motivating them, knowledge of what a customerexpects from their relationship witha company, what encouraged themto choose one company over another,knowledge what encouraged them toparticipate in transactions with aparticular company.

can provide the company with theright information, at the right timeand in the requested form for itscustomer, can improve salesefficiency, marketing efficiency andcustomer support

can provide knowledge that is usedfor customizingtransactions to acustomer, can provide knowledge forcustomizing additionally offeredproducts and services.

can provide knowledge needed forresearching customers' issues, theirgoals, together with their needs andwishes and due to the potential ofthis knowledge it is possible todetermine the basic price of aproduct or service in a better andmore precise way thus contributingto greater unit gain from thatproduct.

Knowledge management should be the main provider of knowledge formarketing communications, knowledge enabling precise targeting ofcustomers and choosing communication channels, as well as creation of"response-promoting" materials. Application of knowledge management isshown in table 1.

As presented in table 1, knowledge management can ensure keyknowledge to customer relationship management. Combined customerrelationship management and knowledge management grow into CKM —customer knowledge management which first and foremost focus onknowledge from the customer. Customer knowledge management can giveus knowledge about customers, in fact, knowledge what our customersknow. Role of customer becomes more active, and from collaboration withhim is possible to create new value.

Knowledge needed for marketing

Marketing requires knowledge on customers, and their wishes, aboutcompetition, products, distribution channels, service providers, laws andlegal provisions, as well as knowledge on marketing practice in general.Prior to being transformed, and in this form applied to useful activities, thisknowledge needs to be stored in a knowledge database. Marketing requiredknowledge:

1. Knowledge on customers and their wishes2. Knowledge on competition and their products3. Knowledge on distribution4. Knowledge on laws and legal provisions

Knowledge under 1 and 4 are the ones that can be gathered by acompany itself, from its own business activities, and knowledge under 2and 3 refers to knowledge acquired by means of a specific research.Knowledge on customers helps to understand customers, andunderstanding customers again leads to better decision making, e.g.

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knowledge on factors influencing a customer and its behavior, whencombined with existing practice can produce an excellent marketingstrategy.

Contrary to this, tacit knowledge is stored only in the individualmind and it is not subject of transfer, in this case to vendors. Individualsare primary storage of tacit knowledge that is difficult to shape andexchange among company departments. E.g. knowledge that vendorshave on customers is usually tacit, personal and anecdotal, and it isbeforehand associated with particular situations. Similarly, mostknowledge on parties is tacit and it is transferred in conversation orduring learning at the very place of work (and therefore it is notprotected by intellectual property law, which is why individuals cominginto possession of such knowledge have practically no legal remedies atall enabling them to prove their ownership over knowledge.). It needs tobe noted that activities targeted at company downsizing andreorganization result not only in reduced quantity of tacit knowledge,but also discourage those reluctant to share their (in terms of businesspolicy valuable) knowledge with others. It may happen that this tacitknowledge required for marketing decreases in the course of downsizingand reorganization, which is exactly why it is necessary to collect it.

Tacit knowledge of company-leaving employees can be saved byinviting them to hold seminars that will be recorded and added to companyknowledge database.

Collecting knowledge on customers does not make too much sense ifthis knowledge is not shared with colleagues and people that "require it".For this reason passive database that simply store data are not adequatefor this type of tasks, but they rather need to be designed to enable sharingdata for all relevant parties.

In practice, data required for analyses are usually available tomanagers or smaller leading teams, and reports and presentations ofgathered knowledge and data are being periodically prepared. Goodorganization is essential, so notifying applications should be designed toenable publishing news in the form of newsletters, offering a briefdescription of news, where a user can read the entire news whennecessary.

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Knowledge needed for mobile marketing

In recent years marketing potential of mobile devices has beenrecognized by many companies seeing a mobile medium as an opportunityfor establishing a new form of communication with its users. Gopal andTriphati have proposed a model of mobile advertising outlining majorplayers in that process and describing their roles.

This article deals with all three factors in the process of mobilemarketing: vendor (advertiser), customer (ad recipient), and mobileoperators, as well.

Vendors

Okazaki has suggested a framework for adopting mobile marketing forvendors (Figure 1), involving 6 factors that should be investigated by each

Figure 1. Company's intention to use mobile advertising

Source: Own materials based on S. Okazaki.

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Branding Strategy

Facilitating Conditions

Location-based Services Company's Intention to Use Mobile Advertising

Services Costs

Regulatory Control

Cultiral Barriers

company prior to implementation, namely brand strategy (e.g. somebrands are created for conservative population that would not react well tomobile marketing), Facilitating conditions — representing individualbelief that organizational and technical structure exist and that theysupport system usage), Location based advertising that some authors suchas Ahonnen and Barett consider a killer application in mobile marketing),costs of servicing and services (in comparison to other media such as TV,radio, newspapers), regulatory and legal framework, as well as culturalbarriers.

Customers

With Fishbein and Ajzen publishing their Theory of Reasoned Action— TRA began construction of different models linking cognitivecharacteristics of users with behavioral intention. The most recentmodel containing fundamentals of the Roger's model from 1985 has beencreated by Tanakinjal et al. and it is called the revised model of decisionmaking for users adopting technological innovation (Figure 2), andunlike basic Rogers model it has an additional sixth factor in theadoption chain, namely safety. Characteristics of the first two factorsinfluencing user decision to adopt new technology or service have alsobeen revised.

When, used, notion of "adoption" in scientific papers published in the lastfew years, attempting to provide explanation for user behavior, often hassimilar or related meaning as following terms: uptake, acceptance,acquisition, implementation, assimilation and usage of particular innovationin the field of technology. Stated terms can indicate particular specific stageor process when adopting new technology. Level of adoption of someinnovation depends on the characteristics of individual groups of respondentsin a survey, such as:

cultural and demographic values and beliefs (influencing userperception regarding some new service),roles of similar previously implemented services and applications (theirspread and popularity influence user attitudes with regards to newsimilar application),

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certain complex inner personal characteristic of potential users, varyingdepending on the context in which they are found,social characteristics of individuals, as well as their environment(regulatory rules, confidence in laws, etc.).

Figure 2. Revised technology innovation-decision process model for mobile marketing

Source: Own materials based on Tanakinjal et al.

Results of the empirical study on accepting four different mobileservices (text messages, contact, payment and games) on 2038respondents conducted by Nysveen et al. showed that perceivedenjoyment, perceived usefulness and perceived expressiveness have astrong comprehensive influence on user intention to use mobileservices. On the other hand, Bauer et al. in their survey conducted on

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Communication Channels

Knowledge Persuasion Decision Implementation

Rejection

AdoptionLater

adoption

Assurance

DecisionMaking

Socio economiccharacteristicsPersonality variablesCommunicationbehavior

PerceivedCharacteristics

of theAssurance:

Regulation and codes of conductto protect privacyand securityAnticipated,personal andrelevant messages

PerceivedCharacteristics

of theInnovation:

Relative AdvantageCompatibilityComplexityTrialabilityObservability

Confirmation

Continue

a sample of 1028 respondents identify value of message content (withspecial emphasis on two aspects of contents, namely extent to whichmessage is amusing and informative) as the initiator of mobileadvertising adoption. They concluded that users will have a positiveattitude towards mobile advertising that is strongly correlated to theirbehavioral intention only if the received message is creative and fun, orif it provides important information.

Drossos et al. have demonstrated that the campaign performance isinfluenced by user environment at the moment of receiving a mobilemarketing message, which means that place (location), time and othercontextual factors influence the cognitive intensity with which someuser participates in a campaign. Pura did some research on locationmobile advertising and concluded that conditions surrounding a user,i.e. so called user context has a significant influence on accepting amobile advertising campaign. Obligations of users at the moment ofreceiving a message correlate to their potential participation in thepublished campaign. Unni and Harmon demonstrated that users areconcerned about using their privacy in location mobile advertisingcampaigns, and they have also established that there is a slightly lesserresponse of users when it comes to promotional campaigns, than whenit comes to brand campaigns. Haghirian et al. have established thatvalue of advertising message (contents, benefits, etc.) has a significantinfluence on user attitude towards mobile advertising. Gopal andTripathy have managed to prove, using an experimental method, thatdistance between a shop and a point of delivery of message to a user arecausally connected, and that value of coupons (discounts) received byusers during a campaign correlates to their participation in campaigns.Merisavo et al. have demonstrated that there is a connection betweenuser perceived safety and trust and the adoption of mobile advertising.

Service providers, i.e. companies that are future users of mobilemarketing are faced with a challenge how to successfully implementmobile marketing campaigns, considering new requirements of users inthis respect and lack of relevant data on prior mentioned importantfactors influencing how mobile marketing is going to be accepted byusers. Thus there are new requirements concerning a different approach

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for filling CRM database with data detected as essential for somecampaign to be successful, and the answer to this can be given byknowledge management.

MCRM

MCRM is an expanded CRM with the addition of mobile media usage(mobile phone, PDA, etc.), and its purpose is management of customerrelationship, as well as encouraging users to establish a mutual dialog witha company via mobile media.

Sinisalo at al. have made a list of key issues recognized in the process ofmCRM creation in the concrete case of implementing mCRM system in oneof the biggest Finnish companies in the course of 2004 and 2005 (Figure 3).Key issues have been divided into two main groups: technological andmarketing issues.

Figure 3. Key issues in the process of mCRM creation, adapted from

Sinisalo et al.

Five key issues have been identified concerning technology:

1. server — company must have a server that can manage (send, receiveand store) an unlimited number of SMS and MMS messages. Mainconcern here is whether it should build its own server or rent it fromsome other company providing hosting services for mobile marketing.

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Number ServerPermissiondatabase

Gateway Technology Marketing

Campaign logic Pricing Media mix

2. number — company must decide how to acquire number of servicecenter for SMS messages (number to which user SMS messages arearriving and from which SMS messages are rerouted from mobilephones to mCRM server).

3. gateway — communication device connecting two independentsystems using different protocols. It depends on a number of mobileoperators in the country where mobile marketing campaign is takingplace. Presently, there are three mobile operators in Croatia (T-Mobile,Tele2 and Vipnet), and from a point of view of technology this does notrepresent a major problem or cost, unlike e.g. Finland with 17 activemobile operators, and it is necessary to enable users from all thosenetworks full server access. In principle, operators must provide a connecting service to their network for SMS/MMS messages. Thisservice is often referred to as messaging interface, and it enablessending SMS and MMS messages between mobile devices of singleoperators and the information system of a company implementingmCRM:This service basically involves three different connections: connectingcontent Gateway contents, short area code/SMS number and pricesetting service, and once it is established all mobile subscribers can starttheir SMS dialogue with a company.

4. Company logic — it refers to specifics on which users can askquestions, i.e. give answers during a campaign. Without server having aset up company logic, it would not be possible to receive or savemessages from users. In addition, turning data received from users intouser information would be almost impossible without company logic. Allthese logic requirements need to be implemented into server prior tostarting a mCRM campaign. E.g. company logic can consist of a keyword, age, gender and area of interest. Using a key word, serveridentifies received messages and assigns it to a specific campaign. Age,gender and area of interest are stored in mCRM, to be used in future forsending personalized messages to users.

5. Price setting — there are three different options for setting price ofmessages in a campaign. The first one involves a usual price of SMSidentical to the one on the price list of mobile operators. The secondoption is a free SMS, meaning that users incur no costs whatsoever. The

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last option is the price using premium rate, meaning that the price ofSMS messages received from users is set using a privileged rate, onwhich users will be notified via an access message (in agreement with anoperator).

When it comes to marketing, its main task is to find a way to attractuser attention and encourage them to initiate dialogue with a campaignlaunching company.Two key issues have been identified on this level:

1. How to attract attention of potential users to using mobilemedia in communication?According to Sinisalo et al. combination of various media used inmarketing campaigns is the best way for attracting potential userattention in mobile marketing campaigns. In other words, they proposeusing other media, such as TV, radio, Internet and print media forpromoting a campaign that will take place via mobile media. For thevery first time the same rules are applied to creation of mCRMcampaigns as to other traditional marketing campaigns. Campaignneeds to determine a target user group, communication goals, designmessages, choose a medium for attracting user attention and collectfeedback in order to measure effects produced by a campaign.

2. A permission databaseIt is necessary to carefully reconsider where it would be possible toobtain data on target user group from, and whether we are allowed tosend them a message via mobile media in view of legal restrictions.There are basically three different ways of collecting data on potentialmobile users: purchasing, renting or developing one's own database.Review of mobile marketing campaign launched so far shows thatalmost all companies have opted for developing their own databasescontaining data acquired by means of their marketing campaigns.Principle used with very little variation is as follows: a company asksusers to send their personal information, such as mobile phone number,full name, address, interests and, the most important, asks them toagree to receive message as end users, in return for participating insome loyalty program and getting certain benefits. After user isregistered in some loyalty program, data are automatically transferred

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to mCRM system. Campaigns can be considered successful if theymanage to get over 50% of users they contacted, while there are somecampaigns, such as the campaign of the biggest retail chain in Finland,which organized the car winning lottery for users registering for loyaltyprogram that can reach even 80%.

What should be taken in consideration when using knowledge management tools in customer relation management

In order to find out some characteristics knowledge managementtool should have, a survey was done on 62 students who were subjectedto two week mobile advertising campaign.

Survey

For this research, we used a java application that allows the personalcomputer to which a mobile device with a number is connected to behavelike an SMS server that sends text messages to users (students) who arein the data base. Thus we have avoided all the obstacles that Sinisalo etal. recognized in the creation of a mobile campaign. A convenience sampleof 62 IT students was exposed to a two week mobile advertising campaignin which they received 1–4 different text messages per day. A writteninterview was done after the campaign in order to investigate the factorsthat could influence success of mobile marketing and show the trendssignificant for future building of KM and CRM system for MM.

Findings

Customers expressed wish for control and selection of content receivedand proposed the system be developed that would enable all customers toaccess and adjust information on specific interests so that they would onlyreceive the messages with the content most interesting to them. Alsoindicative is the high level of readiness of customers to spend time onmaking advertisements more personalized and better adjusted to their real

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needs and wishes. Messages with more information or discount for bearerof message got a better rating of usefulness for the customer. After thecampaign the respondents gave an insignificantly higher grade ofusefulness of mobile marketing in their future lives as opposed to the startof the campaign. (3,53 as opposed to 3,58 after the campaign).

In order to describe and define knowledge in mobile marketing, it isnecessary to describe various levels of information, from data andinformation to knowledge as Hansson describes:

Data are transformed into useful information and useful knowledge,thus increasing value of initially relatively useless data. Data — when itcomes to mobile network, this could be, e.g. list of calls established usinga mobile cell or a list of currently registered mobile stations, Information — data meaningful for a person searching for them, andwhen such information are processed and presented jointly using, e.g.GIS "Geographic Information System" it is possible to obtaininformation on current position of a mobile station,Knowledge — it can be defined as an ability to produce action based oninformation.

This is the highest level of information. It can also be used andconnected with other information and knowledge in order to produce newknowledge. E.g. information acquired using GIS, together with informationfrom GIS on locations of shops, sales centers and other points of sales couldcreate knowledge essential for marketing, i.e. mobile marketing.

Knowledge management could collect knowledge about market and non-market factors. Also, referring to knowledge needed for mobile marketing,knowledge management tool may be used on analysis of mobile operatorusers and data in order to select combination of media that will be used inmobile marketing campaign. Many users communicate with SMS, somewith MMS others through WAP or are surfing the Web through a mobiledevice. All this knowledge is explicit and could be gained through dataanalysis of mobile operator as is described in section 5 of this paper. Secondpossibility is to use data from mobile cell to get knowledge of currentposition of a user. This kind of knowledge can be used to attract userattention in mobile campaigns.

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Latest possibility, from a social networking point of view, is to connectsocial network and mobile network through knowledge management.Social networks are a new trend and are often accessed via mobile device sothey are becoming a new media for an access to users. Social networkmarketing is a new growing area in marketing and mobile marketingshould take its piece of pie.

Nokia, the biggest mobile device manufacturer, has launched Ovi,media sharing website that allows users to share media, calendar and to-dos and has same principles like social network. With Ovi, Nokia raisesawareness of their products and services. Knowledge management toolmust have a possibility to sort out users in mobile network that are usingor are involved in some kind of social network. Membership in socialnetwork can generate new knowledge about users and their point ofinterest.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that knowledge management, as a new andrediscovered area, has only at present day managed to provide variousbenefits, thanks to having at its disposal adequately developed tools andopportunity to merge various types of knowledge. Apart from marketingbenefits, knowledge management can offer various benefits for otherareas, i.e. parts of organization, as well. Knowledge management can beused to decrease potential loss of competitive edge caused by employeesleaving the company. On the other hand, characteristics of a tool to beused ask for employees who know how to use the tool and how to findinformation within the knowledge database and not for them to actuallyposses the knowledge necessary for solving a problem.

Fear from knowledge management and existing obstacles will be torndown thanks to desire for maintaining competitive edge in the marketrace. This vision of future could scare some people not accustomed toknowledge sharing, because knowledge sharing for them can signify"loosing power". However, benefits from this policy are so numerous and

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strong that desire for maintaining competitive edge will force all mobileoperators to enter the arena of knowledge management, and try tobecome leading in their area. Unfortunately, there can only be oneleader that the others can follow and participate in sharing the"remains".

There are various problems that can arise during the process ofestablishing knowledge management system to be used in a companywith purpose of distributing knowledge to all company employees. Thisalso includes marketing. It is absolutely necessary to have a welldefinedstrategy, goals and to conduct knowledge reviews. High quality planningis going to facilitate implementation of knowledge management. Theplan itself and initiatives for knowledge management will have toinclude requirements for knowledge in marketing, and mobilemarketing, as well.

Mobile operators are in a best position to collect the biggest portion ofknowledge using knowledge management and use to fill CRM databases.Although such knowledge is very valuable, it is also most susceptible tochanges and of highly technical nature, and at the same time it is essentialfor gaining a competitive edge on a market. Operator can offer suchknowledge to vendors that can again use it in their marketing campaigns,which also include mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing as a subset of marketing function raises not only a lotof issues, but also opens up new ways for approaching customers.Researches already conducted in this field have shown that organizationsthat have started including mobile marketing in their strategies are moresuccessful on the market. Knowledge management as a provider ofknowledge to be used in marketing is definitely a facilitating factor, whichis why organizations that have extensively employed, i.e. used knowledgemanagement are considered to be more innovative and ready to adoptchanges.

Market changes, introduction of new channels and 'strengthening' ofmobile marketing has probably not surprised them, since they were alreadyready for it. Companies that do not employ knowledge management, andthat do need knowledge for marketing purposes, are recommended to usesome of existing solution and follow the "path" of major companies that

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have already successfully implemented knowledge management policy.Knowledge management for mobile marketing shall further strengthenfocus on customers, knowledge about their needs and ways for meetingthose needs.

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21. Rogers, E.M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press. 22. Sinisalo, J., Salo, J., Karjaluoto, H., Leppäniemi, M. (2006). Managing customer relation-

ships through mobile medium-underlying issues and opportunities, Proceedings of the39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06), January4–7, Kauai, Hawai.

23. Świeczak, W. (2014). Inbound marketing as an integral part of the marketing strategyof a modern enterprises. Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations, MINIB,Vol. 12, Issue 2, p. 56–76.

24. Świeczak, W. (2016). Use of content marketing strategy tools in the Polish research in-stitutes. Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations, Vol. 22, Issue 4, pp. 103–134.

25. Tanakinjal, G.H., Deans, K.R., Gray, B. (2007). Management of Permission-Based Mobi-le Marketing Diffusion: A Conceptual Model. International Journal of Business and Ma-nagement, Vol. 2 (6), pp. 52–59.

26. Unni, R., Harmon, R. (2007). Perceived Effectiveness of Push vs. Pull Mobile Location--Based Advertising. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 7 (2),.

27. Veiga, J.F., Floyd, S., Dechant, K. (2001). Towards modelling the effects of national cul-ture on IT implementation and acceptance. Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 16(3), pp. 145–158.

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WWoojjcciieecchh ŁŁuukkoowwsskkii,, MM..SScc..,, IInnssttiittuuttee ooff AAvviiaattiioonn,, PPoollaanndd —— Director of the Marketing Division at theInstitute of Aviation, marketing management expert. Lecturer and supervisor of postgraduate studydiploma theses in the scope of marketing management and public relations, author of numerousarticles in scientific and professional journals. Image trainer and trainer in crisis management in publicrelations trainer and brand marketing. Creator and manager of domestic and international marketingcampaigns for a plethora of enterprises and institutions.

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PUBLICATION RULES

1. Any adult person may submit his/her article proposed for publication to the Editorial Board.The manuscript must have scholarly and research merit, i.e. it must present the findings oforiginal empirical, theoretical, technical, or analytical research. Also, monographs, polemicalpapers, reviews, or legal commentaries may be considered as having scholarly merit.

2. The manuscript text must not have been previously published in another journal.3. By submitting his/her manuscript for publication, the author asserts his/her copyright

over the manuscript and gives his/her consent to having the article published in the“Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations” Quarterly in an electronic format,which is the original version, and in other publication formats as well.

4. Each manuscript is subject to review (double-blind review) conducted in accordance withthe procedure described on the website (http://minib.pl/category/reviewingrules/). Theaverage waiting time for a decision to be taken is approximately one month, and beginson the date of submission, after which time the author will be advised as to whether ornot his/her manuscript will be published. Publication will take place approximately 6months after the decision date. The publication decision is made independently by theEditorial Board.

5. The Editorial Board reserves the right to abridge and edit the manuscript texts approvedfor publication.

6. The manuscript should have a cover letter enclosed, with the author’s profileand his/herinstitutional affiliation, e-mail address and telephone number. Further, an Englishlanguage translation of the title is required, as well as two abstracts — in Polish andEnglish, followed by key words given in both languages. In addition, “The CopyrightAgreement by the Author” and “An Information Form” must be enclosed with themanuscript intended for publication.

7. No royalties shall be paid for an article published.8. The Statistical Editor has the right to suspend publication of a submitted text should it

include gross statistical errors.9. Manuscript texts should be submitted electronically to the address: [email protected],

with the default MS Word settings: Times New Roman 12; 1.5 line spacing, margins setat 2.5 cm. The text should include the following elements (in the order given):— Title in Polish and in English; and— Author’s full name and institutional affiliations (moving from more general tomore

detailed information); and— Abstract covering the points made in the article — in Polish and English; and — 5–7 key words in Polish and English; and— Body text (including paragraph headings); and— Footnotes in APA Standards; and

10. Submitted articles should be saved in two formats: for editing, as Microsoft Office Word2007 (docx or doc), and for checking, as Adobe Acrobat Document (pdf). This is an openaccess journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the useror his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print,search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.

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REFERENCES ACCORDING TO THE APA STYLE:

Books with one author:Last name, First name initial. (year). Book title. City of publication: Name of publisher.

Books with more than one author:Last name, First name initial., Last name, First name initial., Last name, First name initial.(year). Book title. City of publication: Name of publisher.

Books with an editor:Last name and First name initial of editor. (Ed.) (year). Book title. City of publication: Nameof publisher.

Chapters in edited books:Last name, First name initial. (year). Chapter title. In: First name initial. Last name (Ed.),Book title (vol., pp.). City of publication: Name of publisher.

Journal articles:Last name, First name initial. (year). Article title. Journal title, vol. (issue no.), pages(without the “pp.”)

Presentations:Last name, First name initial. (year). Presentation title. Presentation delivered at:Conference name. Venue.

Institutional reports:Institution (year). Report title. Place of publication: Institution.

Pending publications:Last name, First name initial. (pending). etc.

Non-published papers:Last name, First name initial. (year). Paper title. Non-published doctoral dissertation.Venue: Name of university.

Internet sources:At the end of the reference description add:http://www.websiteaddress (dd.mm.yyyy)The date in parentheses is the date when the publication was released online.

The same applies to descriptions of drawings and tables.

Citation within the main body (possible cases):(Smith, 2013)(Smith, 2012a)(Smith, 2012b)(Smith, 2013, p. 67)(Smith and Jones, 2012)(Smith, Jones and Williams, 2011)(Smith, 2012a, 2013; Smith and Jones, 2012)(Smith, 2013; after: Jones, 2012)

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