At the end of 2012 the Baltic Sea Region Programme initiated the cluster "Innovation in SMEs," starting with ten projects that focused their work on this important topic. During 2013 three additional projects joined the initiative. Most projects are flagship projects within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea region, namely in Priority SME Networks, Innovation and Education. Maintaining a high level of innovative thinking and entrepreneurship is crucial for SMEs to stay competitive and allow growth in the region. This publication gives an short overview of the 13 projects that were implemented between 2010 and 2014. The projects participated in workshops and surveys to increase the mutual learning and share experience. The findings are summarized. In 2013 a survey was conducted to learn more about the status quo of "Innovation in SMEs" in the Baltic Sea Region and learn more about the relevant topics for the future. More than 600 stakeholders participated in the survey. The publication shows the most relevant questions and answers and draws the conclusions from the survey.

At the 9th Hanseatic Conference 2014 in Hamburg, representatives from business organisations, academic institutions and policy makers from all countries around the Baltic Sea exchanged their experiences. This book contains the presented papers and a summary of the discussion of the participants. The elimination of discrimination by gender and age in working life is an important social concern, regardless of economic needs. But increased labour force participations of women and older people are also essential for economic reasons in the light of demopgraphic developments and changed conditions. Currently high and ever growing shortage of entrepreneurs, managers and professionals are the factors that increasingly limit economic development. There is an urgent need to make better use of local labour potential, particularly via higher labour force participation of women and older people in general. Global competition requires high innovation and strong increases in productivity of the entire Baltic Sea region, and especially in the countries to the south of the Sea. The innovations and productivity of companies benefit from increased proportion of women. The greatest innovation and productivity reserves lie in the staff and organisational development, including education; improvements in this respect stipulate equal opportunities and strengthen competitiveness. This publication was developed as part of the flagship project of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region "Innovative SMEs by Gender and Age (QUICK-IGA)."

All countries in the Baltic Sea Region face a growing lack of skilled work force. However, the large potential of a better inclusion of females and elderly employees and managers remains often untapped. Also female and elderly employees can increase the innovation level of a company. This publication provides strategies how to better include this important group in companies. It was developed as part of the flagship project of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region "Innovative SMEs by Gender and Age (QUICK-IGA)." The project addresses the following objectives: - levelling of equal opportunities for women south of the Baltic Sea with the ones of northern countries; - strengthening the promotion of innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises by developing working cultures that explicitly improve the equal opportunities of women; - supporting regional development in order to optimally develop human capital and competitiveness through gender and education policy. The manual containing all the project results and additional tools for the management of demographic change at enterprise level. Part I of the book incorporates the strategy programme on "Age, Gender and Innovation: Policies and Strategies to Improve Employability and Work Ability of Women and Older People in the Baltic Sea Region," whilst part II contains action plans for the Hanse Parlament (network of business chambers) and the Baltic Sea Academy (network of academic institutions) "Promoting the employment of women and older people."

A sound promotion of innovation is essential for the future of the Baltic Sea Region, in particular to support the small- and medium sized enterprises. For this purposes stakeholders from medium-sized businesses, science, politics, and administration met at the seventh Hanseatic Conference in May 2012 in Hamburg. For two days the participants discussed about "Innovation and innovative strategies in the regional policy around the mare balticum" to further strengthen the region. It became evident, that a sustainable promotion of innovation demands a closer cooperation within the regions, on a transnational level but also between administrations and especially between companies and R&D institutions. The Baltic Sea area will only be one of the most innovative and strong regions in the world, if the bordering countries build a unit. This publication included the presented papers and summarizes the discussion of the participants.

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

The topic that is disclosed in the scientific publication "Building the socially responsible employment policy in Baltic states" is certainly relevant to the context of national economy and social policy. Experience shows that socially responsible employment policy measures are especially widely used in the old EU member states. Relevance of socially responsible employment policy is not decreasing because unfavourable economic conditions aggravate the employment of certain groups of people (especially the long-term unemployed, low-skilled, having low marketable professions and other persons). The content of the scientific articles by the authors of this publication allows to answer reasonably to questions about the development of socially responsible employment policy in the Baltic states. The results of accomplished analysis are relevant to the fact that they allow to reveal the problems that are encountered in the development of socially responsible employment policy. A special focus is given to the employment of females and elderly employees to boost the innovation performance of companies.

Vol. 10 of the BSA - Series "Shareholder value," the old, egocentric mantra of business is obsolete. Modern entrepreneurs care about society and the environment - simply because employees as well as more and more customers appreciate fair and sustainable business conduct. Enterprises try to meet this demand by implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a strategic tool to engage with important stakeholders, build trust and enhance long-term competitiveness. SMEs are predestined for such close relations to customers and communities. But still SMEs hesitate to fully engage in CSR, mostly for their tight time resources and budgets. The authors of this book demonstrate that for SMEs in the Baltic Sea region CSR is a key to future success, that does not need to be overly sophisticated or costly. Women are still underrepresented as entrepreneurs in the Baltic Sea Region. In the second part of this book the authors look into the barriers that hinder women from starting their own business and develop strategies to change this in order to tap two of the great resources of the Baltic Sea Region - the knowledge and creativity of half its workforce. The texts in the book are printed in German or English.

Analysis of macroeconomic data carried out by the authors indicated that the employment rate among women and older people in Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway is much higher than in other EU countries Eurostat, 2012]. Thus the idea was born to identify and transfer of best practices from the Northern European countries to selected countries of the Baltic Sea Region (Poland Germany, Lithuania and Latvia). The first part of the book is devoted to the description of the criteria that helped the authors select best practices and make characteristics of chosen practices. The second part of the book deals with conditions of the best practices transfer. In the last part of book the transfers of best practices to the four BSR countries are presented. The authors from the Gdańsk University of Technology focused on the one hand on the complex, and on the other hand, on a practical approach to analyse the problem of low activity of women and older people on EU labour market.

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

According to European and national schedules the Baltic Sea Region must cut its energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions dramatically within the next few decades. Substantial growth of renewable energy sources will be needed as well as a boost in energy efficiency. In this process small and medium sized enterprises (SME) play a key factor. The authors of this book - scientists, entrepreneurs and journalists - discuss how SMEs can make the best investment decisions to reduce their own energy consumption. Additionally the articles analyse new market opportunities opening up for SMEs, as implementing energy efficiency will happen mostly on a local level and on a rather small scale. For being able to seize these opportunities training and education of SMEs' staff are essential. The included texts are printed either in German or English.

This publication gives an overview of the current state and development potential of the Baltic Sea Region and proposes a concrete strategy programme for innovation in regional policies. One prerequisites is a strong cooperation between the regions and states, but also the promotion of regional competition while preserving and strengthening the specific regional cultures around the Mare Balticum. For a competitive Baltic Sea Region, it is also essential that the regional policy supports the innovation in the small- and medium sized enterprises, since 99,8 % of all companies are SMEs and thus the economic and social backbone. A creation of real knowledge-alliances between universities, public administrations and businesses is highly recommended. These political strategies are the result of intensive discussions and experiences of a three year running project with 40 partners from 11 countries around the Baltic Sea Region, called BSR QUICK. They are adopted and recommended by the 47 Members of the Hanse Parlament and 16 Members of the Baltic Sea Academy. The book contains the identical text of approx. 55 pages in English, German and Polish. The book concentrates on - Cooperation and integration - Regional competition and fiscal equalization - Equivalent living conditions and functional division of labor - Independent cultures and regional self-esteem - Endogenous potentials and smart specialization - Regional economic cycles and intense range development - Small and medium-sized enterprises and networks - Innovation and knowledge partnerships Decentralization and autonomy

The 5th Volume of the Baltic Sea Academy book series takes a look at three sectors that are of particular importance for small and medium sized enterprises in the Baltic Sea Area: - The University of Lund and the Gdansk University of Technology take a look at the potential for innovation from the development of personnel and organisation in companies - The Chamber of Crafts Lublin gives an overview for the fields of Energy, Climate and Environmental protection - The Technical University Vilnius compiled a report on a potential cluster for construction technologies in the Baltic Sea Region.

Kleine und mittlere Unternehmen haben einen gro en Anteil an der Gesamtwirtschaft und Besch ftigung in Europa. 99 % aller Betriebe in der Europ ischen Union sind kleine und mittlere Unternehmen; sie stellen etwa zwei Drittel aller Arbeitspl tze der privaten Wirtschaft in Europa. Im Ostseeraum sind diese Anteile noch ausgepr gter.Als stabiler Gegentrend zur Globalisierung bilden sich immer st rker Regionalisierungen und Dezentralisierungen heraus. Davon kann der Ostseeraum als gro e Wirtschaftsregion mit den unterschiedlichen Kulturen, St rken und Potenzialen seiner Teilregionen in besonderem Ma e profitieren.Das Buch gibt einen berblick ber die Situation der mittelst ndischen Wirtschaft im Ostseeraum und bietet strategische Empfehlungen f r die Zukunft. Der Text ist nacheinander auf Englisch, Deutsch, Polnisch und Russisch enthalten.

Lack of qualified staff is one of the main reasons for SMEs to not being as innovative as possible. At the same time the available human resources (HR) are not fully employed. In the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) the labour participation of women and elders is very low particularly in the countries south of the Baltic Sea This publication was developed as part of the flagship project of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region "Innovative SMEs by Gender and Age (QUICK-IGA)." The results of the economic and labour market analyses and the BSR-wide study of Best as well as the results and experiences of the implemented Train the Trainer programme and existing instruments for the management of demographic change at the enterprise are evaluated systematically and combined in the manual. The aim of the current manual is to increase innovation capacities through higher labour participation of women and elders in SMEs. It focuses on boosting motivation and workability, thus increasing the rate of women an elderly participating in work life.