Our research
Entrepreneurship is a broad issue not only in terms of its types, but also the variety of forms and functions. Due to the multifaceted nature of this issue, the department’s research issues include disciplines focused on the field of social sciences, in particular economics, finance and management. The department’s research interests include, among others, the spatial distribution of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, aspects of economic, financial and regional policy and their role in creating and stimulating entrepreneurship.
- Entrepreneurship is inextricably linked with the place, identified through the prism of the structure of the administrative division of the country. In fact, places co-shape entrepreneurship. They constitute a starting point for the analysis of this issue in aspects relating to spatial, relational and socio-cognitive contexts. It is there that the social, economic and cultural structure and dynamics are realized.
- Entrepreneurship and local and regional development take into account aspects such as geography, time and relationality of entrepreneurship. There is a mutual dynamic interdependence between the layers of contexts describing entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as an economic activity. Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, is both endogenous and induced based on the context and external factors.
- Entrepreneurship arises and develops in a specific regulatory and institutional environment, shaped both in the central, regional and local dimensions. Public policies at each level of the administrative division affect the conditions for entrepreneurship, determining its dynamics and course.
- Entrepreneurship is also related to finances and financial policy. The structure of the fiscal system, the level of public burdens on economic entities, as well as the scope of application of income and expenditure as well as non-financial support instruments by local government units are factors that determine the creation of new companies and their location decisions.
Placing the issues of the department’s activity in the contexts presented above opens the possibility of new, interesting and useful research investigations, as well as verification of the current state of knowledge on the causative factors, course and dynamics of entrepreneurship.
Contact: jboratyn@wsiz.edu.pl
Scientific research projects financed from external sources:
DeepTech in Higher Education Institutions and Ecosystems through Entrepreneurial Education+ (SFF.DeepT+)
Partners: Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal (leader), VIA University College (Denmark), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), The Queen’s University of Belfast (United Kingdom), Edinburgh Napier University (United Kingdom), Dundalk Institute of Technology (Ireland), Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (Germany), Ikonomicheski Universitet – Varna (Bulgaria), Fundació Tecnocampus Mataró-Maresme (Spain), Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek (Croatia).
People involved in the project on the side of UITM: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
SFF.DeepT+ is based on the Systemic DeepTech Innovation framework, involving representatives of the European innovation ecosystem. It is based on the Start for Future initiative SFF, connecting partners of the Knowledge Triangle (i.e. research, education and innovation). Part of SFF.DeepT+’s mission is to change the way we look at innovation by creating a university-driven ecosystem that supports innovation and its impact on society at economic, ecological, technological and social levels. SFF and within it SFF.DeePT+ connects students, professionals and academic staff, emphasizing their potential in the process of learning and sharing knowledge. SFF.DeepT+ engages undergraduate, graduate and PhD students, as well as aspiring scientists, in creating businesses, start-ups and spin-offs through project-based, transdisciplinary formats based on challenges defined by the Knowledge Triangle stakeholders, cities, regions and enterprises, in line with with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Period of implementation: 01.05.2023 – 31.07.2024
Financing: European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) HEI Initiative organ UE an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme.
Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability ESSENCE
Project Manager: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
The ESSENCE project aims to increase the employability of students by stimulating the development of soft skills. The aim of the project is to strengthen their bargaining position on the labor market by offering career development paths that go beyond the formal training traditionally used in the higher education system, based on the employers’ perspective. The consortium consists of seven partners from Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria and Spain, representing various environments and sectors of the economy (business / ICT, higher education institutions and non-governmental organizations). The target groups of the ESSENCE project are both university students and graduates, as well as university lecturers, higher education institutions, business trainers / mentors, entrepreneurs and representatives of SME. The project’s products include an interactive online platform (OER platform), a comprehensive catalog of training tools supporting university students in soft skills, an online business dictionary in the form of a concept map, a manifesto of soft skills and their role in the academic education process. The project results have been translated into seven languages and made available through the ESSENCE platform (https://projectessence.eu/index.php).
Implementation period: 01/12/2020 – 30/11/2022
Financing: ERASMUS + Strategic Partnerships (KA2) 2020-1-PL01-KA203-081596
Inspiring Digital Entrepreneurship and Awareness in HE IDEA
Project Manager: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
The IDEA project was aimed at mapping and inventorying trends and best practices in the field of digital entrepreneurship. The project served to strengthen digital skills and entrepreneurship among the project’s target groups by developing a set of innovative educational and training materials and their implementation via the OER platform (https://www.ideadigital.eu/index.php), which is a public knowledge center in the field covered by the project. The addressees of the IDEA project were students and graduates, teachers, trainers and mentors, educational institutions, social partners and representatives of the SME sector. The IDEA project raised awareness of higher education institutions and educational authorities about the potential of digital skills and entrepreneurship and their role as factors for business success. The project consortium consisted of 9 partners from Croatia, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Italy, Spain and Slovakia representing universities, business entities, social partners and non-governmental organizations. The developed training tools were implemented by the institutions realizing the project and made available free of charge via the OER platform. Their use in teaching made it possible to build competences that determine effective navigation in the labor market and the ability to flexibly adapt to changes, including raising qualifications in the area of entrepreneurship, strengthening one’s own development potential.
Implementation period: 01/11/2019 – 31/10/2021
Financing: ERASMUS + Strategic Partnerships (KA2) 2019-1-HR01-KA203-060992
Support for entrepreneurship by the local government at the communal level
Project Manager: Tomasz Mickiewicz, Ph.D, DSc.,
Main contractor: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
The project focused on the question to what extent and how the municipal authorities are able to effectively stimulate entrepreneurship, understood as the creation of new companies. This question is important because nowadays entrepreneurship is perceived as a key factor of economic development. While a trend towards progressive integration and market dominance of large, established companies was observed until the middle of the last century, the development of new technologies and the economic profile shifted in a direction in which the development is conditioned by the entry of new companies into the market and in an environment that favors their dynamic development. Paradoxically, at the same time, we observe the expansion of the market towards the global level and on the other hand, the firm rooting of enterprises in the local sphere, referred to as 'glocalization’. This emphasis on the local dimension of entrepreneurship, which coexists with the global dimension, raises the question of what actions local communities and municipalities should take to strengthen development processes by creating the conditions for entrepreneurship. Based on econometric studies including a combination of existing statistical data and newly collected survey data, the project provided an answer to the question of the effectiveness of individual municipal policy tools. The picture that emerges from the research suggests that the ability to self-organize the local community is a key factor in the development of entrepreneurship. Municipal authorities, supporting independent civic and economic organizations, at the same time create conditions for entrepreneurship. This applies in particular to initiatives focused on building clusters, i.e. industry cooperation of entrepreneurs based on a common profile of activity. This, in turn, requires a good understanding of your own local potential and 'smart specialization’.
Implementation period: July 28, 2014 – July 27, 2016
Financing: NCN OPUS program (2013/11 / B / HS4 / 01022)
Research financed by a subsidy from the Ministry:
Planned and implemented local government development policies vs. processes of stimulating entrepreneurship in cities
Project Manager: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
A key outcome of the research will be to answer the question of to what extent local development policies realistically affect the creation of conditions for new business formation, and to what extent they are improvised and/or unintentional.
Implementation period: 2023–2025
Instrumentalization and effectiveness of the local government entrepreneurship support policies in Poland and Latvia
Project Manager: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
The aim of the project was to investigate local government entrepreneurship support policies in Poland and Latvia, to compare the characteristics that describe them and to evaluate their effectiveness. The study also covered the continuity of the policies conducted by local government units, modification of their assumptions over time, reorientation due to the change in the term of office of local government authorities, as well as the results obtained with their application, expressed in the level of entrepreneurship. The study covered a sample of nearly 900 municipalities in Poland and the entire population of local government units in Latvia. The obtained results made it possible to develop proposals for actions to increase the effectiveness of policies designed and implemented by local government units. Due to its multifaceted nature and scope, it was the first study of this type in Latvia, as well as the first study comparing local government entrepreneurship support policies in both countries in terms of the assessment of the results obtained with their application.
Implementation period: 2019-2021
Polish adaptation of the BRT-13 questionnaire to measure the level of the resilience of organizations
Project Manager: Ph.D.Marcin Rzegocki
Organizational resilience is the ability of an organization to thrive and survive in an environment full of uncertainty and change, while maintaining its identity. The purpose of this study is the adaptation of short version of the Benchmark Resilience Tool (BRT-13) to Polish language. Internal validity, test reliability and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) will be conducted. Practical implications will also be discussed.
Implementation period: 2021
The impact of the size of the public finance sector on the economy
Project Manager: Tomasz Skica, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. tskica@wsiz.edu.pl
The aim of the research project was to investigate the impact of the size of the public finance sector on the economy. The aim of the study was to answer the question to what extent the size of the sector determines the economic results of the EU countries covered by the study. The research work also determined to what extent the size of the sector is a function of the economic situation of the analyzed countries. The study was interdisciplinary. In its implementation, a research methodology covering alternative methods in the area of data mining, including: algorithms for generating generations of decision rules, random forest algorithms, as well as probabilistic inference enabling the generation of belief networks. The machine learning models developed as a result of the research were used in the data mining process and their result are the identified parameters and quantities describing the sectoral characteristics optimizing the economic results of the studied EU countries.
Implementation period: 2013-2016
