The Editor's Corner
Anita Trnavčevič
Full Text

The Mediating Role of Corporate Entrepreneurship in the Organizational Support–Performance Relationship: An Empirical Examination
Boštjan Antončič and Otmar Zorn

Corporate entrepreneurship has been recognized as an important element in organizational performance. Organizational support in terms of training and trusting individuals within the firm to detect opportunities and in terms of resource availability has been proposed to positively influence a firm’s entrepreneurial activities. Despite the recognition of the organizational support–corporate entrepreneurship– performance linkage, this relationship has been approached in different ways from the theoretical and empirical perspective. Some unsolved mediation issues of past research are addressed in this study by testing three alternative hypotheses. The research design was a cross-sectional, mailed questionnaire. The findings indicate that corporate entrepreneurship (new firm formation, product/service and process innovation) can be considered a potent mediator in the organizational support–performance relationship.
Full Text

The Philosophy of Supply Chain Management in the New Economy: Net Readiness in the Net Supply Chain
Zbigniew Pastuszak

The internet has been described as breakthrough technology. Its use in business can drastically change the situation in the business sector leading traditional enterprise to collapse. In the era of the Digital Revolution, postindustrial society is evolving towards the information society creating the foundation of the New Economy. Its basic elements include globalization processes, massive implementation of Information Technology and the establishment of virtual enterprises. Implemented processes take the form of pro-active business that fosters innovation and personification of its market offer.
Enterprises that utilize Internet infrastructure in their activities carry out a specific e-business model. Their key commodity is information. It is based on changing the traditional SCM into e-SCN as well as on creating the so-called ‘Internet value network.’ In order to be created, the enterprise has to be properly prepared for the new conditions, which is called net readiness. This article describes the characteristics of supply chains in the new economy, stresses the significance of information and effective business management in addition to a potential effect of the new economy on the market competitiveness of enterprises. Net readiness has been described here based on a study of a group of the biggest Polish businesses.
Full Text

Is There a Gap in Economic Culture Between EU Countries and the Transition Economies?
Milan Zver, Tjaša Živko, and Vito Bobek

The process of EU enlargement is in its final stage, the CEECs havemore or less adapted to the western standards, which is not yet sufficient for successful completion of the transition process successfully. We have learned from the failed communism that the imported norms, institutions and practices can cause entropy, unless they reflect the prevailing cultural orientation in the society. People should believe that what they are presented as right (norms) is also good (values). For this reason the system of norms and values should be developed simultaneously. The research results show that the symptoms of economic cultures are less evident in the CEECs than in the selected EU countries, thus the democratic socialization (stimulated from outside) is the key issue. For this reason the CEECs should be included in the network of the Euro- Atlantic integrations as soon as possible in order to ensure the democratic stability and economic efficiency of Europe.
Full Text

Welfare State Retrenchment in Central and Eastern Europe: the Case of Pension Reforms in Poland and Slovenia
Igor Guardiancich

This paper endeavours to shed some light on the mechanisms that led to the divergence of welfare state arrangements across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In particular, pension system reforms displayed a great deal of variance, which surprised both institutionalists and convergence theorists. The Polish and Slovenian cases are thus presented and compared in a political economy perspective. Theories of retrenchment, recent studies on the dynamics of CEE pension reforms and consultations with some of the relevant actors, were employed in order to account for the divergence of reform outcomes in the two countries. The study focused on three main explanations: partisan competition, the interaction between relevant external (World Bank) and internal actors (Minister of Labour and Minister of Finance) and the trade-off. between power concentration and accountability concentration. The latter yielded the best explanation. While Polish reformers managed to internalise most veto actors’ reservations, Slovenian politicians excluded from consultation the country’s main trade union. Its opposition determined the rejection of radical reforms recommended by the World Bank.
Full Text

Teaching and Globalization
Pasi Sahlberg

Globalization is typically understood as an economic, political and cultural process that is reshaping the role of many nation-states in relation to global markets, agreements, and traditions. Recently it has become frequently analyzed in the context of education. However, there is surprisingly little work done on the pedagogical implications of globalization on teaching and learning other than shifting the emphasis from traditional subjects to information and communication technology and English as a foreign language. This article argues that globalization is having an e.ect on teaching and learning in three ways: educational development is often based on a global unified agenda, standardized teaching and learning are being used as vehicles to improvement of quality, and emphasis on competition is increasingly evident among individuals and schools. The article concludes that recent development of standardization and competition-based education will become increasingly counter-productive to preparing students for meaningful lives for and beyond knowledge economy. Furthermore, as a response to globalization, educators need to rethink the ways teaching and learning are organized in schools, promote appropriate flexibility at school level, creativity in classrooms and risk-taking among students and teachers as part of their daily work in school.
Full Text

Complete Issue