O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion ProcessesReturn

The submitted paper is a literature review responding to the still existing controversy in the literature regarding the net result of structural changes in employment. These are caused by factors affecting labour demand and supply and can take either the form of polarized employment structure or professional upgrading. The objective of the paper is to explain the impacts of these incentives on individual skill groups of workers. These incentives act in mutual interaction and in a given institutional context. The polarized structure of employment can be rather seen in countries, which intensively trade with newly industrialized countries and invest in them then in countries with a lagging pace of growth in the supply of skilled workers, significant inflow of migrants, and finally, countries with more flexible labour markets.

E-government is currently a term that has been resonating in the public space for several years, which is why a lot of attention is being paid to it. Some states of the European Union are doing better, and some are worse in this area. Given this trend, all states must increase their efforts towards more effective e-government. The article aims to create clusters of European Union states in 2020 and 2022 according to their level of e-government. The sample consists of 27 states of the European Union, and the indicators used include the E-Government Development Index, E-participation index, Online service index, Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, and Human capital index. In addition, the objective of the article is achieved through correlation and cluster analysis. The countries of the European Union were divided into six clusters in 2020 and 2022. The best cluster in both years includes Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, while the worst countries include, for example, Bulgaria and Romania. In general, the countries that were the best/worst in 2020 are also the best/worst in 2022.

The following work should briefly outline environmental conditions for innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups in an area of information and telecommunication technologies, conditions in the Czech Republic and present research of the effect of subsidies on innovative companies and innovation results. Although some studies show correlations among subsidies in ICT, innovations and economic growth, it is usually reflected only in some industry sectors and in some stage of economy evolution. Or there is a correlation only if there are also other fulfilled conditions as investments into human resources. In general, studies mostly yield evidence of strong positive correlations between ICT areas and economic growth in modern economies as it participates in the reduction of transaction costs, increases production factor productivity and creates completely new solutions for current problems.

This study complements our long-term systemic research so as to promote technological innovation in the EU countries. The main research goal of this study is to examine technological innovation in the developing EU countries and to identify positive and negative technology innovation-related processes. In terms of the methodology of this research, as the main method was chosen Patent analysis of the WIPO database (1980-2014), which we perform in a long term. The patent data were analyzed, verified and summarized for the purposes of this study and subsequently completed by Bibliometric analysis of the technological innovation activities in these countries - for identifying relevant trends. In the analytical part of our study was in particular examined the overall development of technology patents in the developing EU countries. According to these indicators, among the most successful technology developing countries in the EU mainly belong Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the more successful are also Greece and Bulgaria. Such a long-term study in our conditions has not been realized yet.

The formation of university-spin off is seen as a potential tool for the transfer of knowledge and technology. University spin-off firms are able to transform the knowledge accumulated in research into its practical application and commercialization. Despite this fact, the formation of university spin-off is still rather rare phenomenon in many European countries. In our paper, we provide several examples of good practice in central European countries. Moreover, the paper aims to examine factors that could potentially affect the formation of university spin-offs in European countries. We applied logit and probit regression analysis based on empirical data for 2465 universities in Europe retrieved from European Tertiary Education Register database. Our results suggest that those universities, which are neither focused on many different fields of study, nor highly specialized are less often involved in creating the university spin-off. Furthermore, intensity of PhD study, the share of tuition fees as well as a number of foreign students appears to be other factors affecting the probability of forming a university spin-off. Our results also bring several policy implications for tertiary education policy, which are summarized in the conclusion.

The key intention of this study is to outline primary characteristics, the application context and the forms of Technology Assessment (TA). Identifying determinants and effects of a new technology usually requires an interdisciplinary approach. The final "technology picture" should be based on a broader rational consensus of the scientific discussion, but TA can also require the participation of non-experts who can bring a more comprehensive insight into the process. This study also deals with the historical characterization of TA within technology identification processes, as a part of integrated Technology management. The research was carried out based on an intensive literature study, the extensive Bibliometrical analysis especially of the Sciencedirect and the EBSCOhost databases, and several case studies.

Innovation and innovation potential of the regions have played the key role for regional competitiveness. Hence the prime objective of the paper is to investigate evaluation of innovations using multi-criteria model, namely the Regional competitiveness Index (RCI) developed in 2010 by the Research Centre of European Commission for the purpose of regional competitiveness measurement of the EU regions at the NUTS 2 level. However, the model is still relatively unverified. Thus the paper finds out to what extend this measure is applicable in the regions at level NUTS 3. The indicators characterizing innovation potential of the region are revealed using multivariate analysis (namely principal component analysis). The evaluation compares mutual level of innovations in individual regions along with their development in years 2004 - 2009. The results of this paper will be used for construction of a holistic RCI model and for overall evaluation of competitiveness of regions in the Czech Republic.

Presented paper is focused on the relationship of intellectual property rights and competitiveness of countries. First part describes various approaches to the country competitiveness definition and deals with its relation to economic growth. Productivity, as one of main factors of economic growth and competitiveness, is fairly determined by technological level in particular economy. Technological innovations then influence competitiveness. Nowadays economic policymakers try to support innovations through various instruments. Main aim of these instruments is to create innovation-friendly environment. Integral part of this environment is a consistent definition of intellectual property rights. Industrial property rights are an integral part of the protection of intellectual property rights. The second part of this paper introduces the most frequent types of industrial property rights and point outs its pros and cons. It also points out the specific features of intangibles and their relation to technological level. Generally can be industrial property rights considered as a barrier that restricts the process of diffusion of innovation. Adjustment of industrial property rights determines the effectiveness of those barriers. The effect of this barrier is ambivalent. Existence of barrier may motivate individuals to introduce new innovations on the one hand, but it can also negatively influence consumer surplus on the other hand. The third part of this paper clarifies above mentioned and others effects of barriers to individual and social benefits in partial equilibrium model in perfect competition and imperfect competition market structures. Effects of industrial property rights are different in different market structures. Further research may be directed to empirical evidence of industrial property rights.