Page 10 - Rižnar, Igor, and Klemen Kavčič (ed.). 2017. Connecting Higher Education Institutions with Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Koper: University of Primorska Press
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Igor Rižnar and Klemen Kavčič

of these small enterprises when developing collaborative project plans.
In 2006 the Commission of the European Communities published a
communication to the Council and the European Parliament entitled
‘Delivering on the Modernisation Agenda for Universities: Education,
Research and Innovation’ saying that European universities have enor-
mous potential, which ‘is not fully harnessed and put to work effectively
to underpin Europe’s drive for more growth and more jobs.’ (Commis-
sion of the European Communities 2006, 2). It looks that the situation
has not improved considerably during the last ten years.

The contributing authors in this monograph would like to show their
full awareness of the importance of knowledge triangle, i.e. the rela-
tionship between education, research and innovation, and the need
to connect all stakeholders: teachers, students, researchers, employers
and businesses. The first contribution, written by Robert Rybnicek, is
about the increasing importance of the collaboration between univer-
sities and companies. The author is aware that both the private sector
and higher education institutions have to increase collaboration in or-
der to remain internationally competitive. After a short review of the
literature, the author shows how s m e s and educational institutions
can profit from collaboration in the areas related to equipment, staff,
financing and knowledge transfer.

In the second contribution, authors Aleksander Janeš, Roberto Bi-
loslavo and Armand Faganel, discuss a strategic project designed to
promote business innovation in the light of sustainable development
and to support competitiveness of s m e s in the border area between
Slovenia and Italy, with the main objective to increase the effectiveness
of knowledge management system and strategic innovation of s m e s
through cross-border participation of s m e s, universities, innovation
centres and enterprises associations.

In ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures in the Republic of
Slovenia,’ Danila Djokic writes about socially responsible decision-
making and reporting of non-financial information that has become
a central issue for the future development of the corporate governance
in the eu. She believes that Slovenia should follow the European legal
framework on csr more diligently and that, in future, companies will
need to disclose information on policies, risks and outcomes as regards
environmental matters, social and employee-related aspects, respect
for human rights, anti-corruption and bribery issues, and diversity in
their board of directors.

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