Europlast goes to Holland

Author(s): Petra Mezulić Juric,Dora Barbarić,Luka Kolak / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

One would say that Europlast is typical family business. Company was established in 1998 In small town of Donji Miholjac (Croatia) by Predrag who showed remarkable sense for running a company. He was also very successful in involving his son Bojan into the business from young age. Bojan always wanted to join the company. He always had new ideas how to improve the business, but Predrag had Bojan’s best interest in mind and wanted him to get university education before joining the business. Gradually company grew and had overcome all of typical family business problems. Finally, Bojan decided to join the family business in 2017 right after graduating from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Osijek. Bojan firmly believed that he could bring new ideas to the business and help further develop it. He had very good skills in communicating with foreign business partners, and good market research skills, so Predrag thought Bojn could do a valuable work in helping company further internationalize.

Buying a Packaging Machine

Author(s): Kallio Päivi,Lehtonen Arto,Leea Pajari,Nea Rumpunen,Kaisa Saviste / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Standing in front of the Executive Team, Hilla Marjatta Hillo found herself thinking about how she had got to this point. She was working for an international pharmaceuticals procurement team in Germany. Her first task was to identify the best machine supplier for the company. They needed a stretch wrapping machine for the new packaging line.

Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas - How to enter the German market

Author(s): Essi Grönfors,Niko Hakala,Petri Kuru,Tiia Ollila,Santtu Pääkkönen / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Our story begins in the autumn of 2018 in a small town in Western Finland called Laitila. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and a warm breeze is blowing through the Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas factory. Production of the best beer brand in Finland has just begun this morning. You can hear the machines humming in the background, and the smell of fresh malt fills the air. You can almost taste the freshly made Finnish top-quality Kukko beer. But it’s not ready yet. It must be locked in a sealed container for at least three weeks. Only then will Kukko have its unique taste and be ready to be served to anyone who appreciates fantastic tasting beer. To top it all, it’s gluten-free too. No one knows how it became gluten-free, but sometimes accidents make great things even better. For Finns, a little moment with a good beer can make your day. Some might call this magic, but Laitilan call it professionalism.

Leveraxe going abroad

Author(s): Antti Tyykilä,Janita Laakso,Kalle Hokkanen Oskari Vuorio,Samu Suominen / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Heikki Kärnä wanted to invent a smarter, more efficient and more ergonomic axe than the regular ones on the market. This all started 20 years ago in the gloomy Finnish forest. At the time, Heikki was clearing a rocky site to build a house for himself and his family. As he worked, he got really frustrated with his normal axe. “Damn it!” he said in despair. “Making firewood is such hard work, and it’s dangerous too!” He decided the normal axe was way too dangerous and arduous to use. “I need to work on this!” Heikki said to himself. This was Leveraxe’s eureka moment. After it, Heikki began to turn over in his mind how he could improve the normal axe which the salesman in the local hardware store had recommended so highly. After multiple prototypes and visits to the local blacksmith, he finally managed to perfect his invention. He was very pleased with his work and believed it would be a success. This invention is now known as a Vipukirves – or Leveraxe in English.

VandeStreek Internationalization into Croatia

Author(s): Thomas Gelissen,Niklas Weißer,Marsha Bashkeeva,Menno de Lind van Wijngaarden / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Our main goal is to have fun! – Ronald van de Streek (Owner/Founder of Vandestreek Brewery) Who doesn’t like to have fun on the job every day? Ronald, one of the owners of VandeStreek, a craft beer brewery in the north of the city of Utrecht, does exactly this and has made it an explicit goal. Just like most students during their studies, the two brothers Ronald and Sander Van de Streek were regular consumers of beer. With an innate curiosity and a talent for tasting, they started brewing their own beer. Since then, they fell in love with experimenting with ingredients to make new recipes. A serious hobby was born. As the saying goes: Make your hobby your job and you never have to work a day in your life, the brothers followed suit and founded their own brewery in 2015. Their homemade beer was very popular and it became a central part of their life. With the help of family and friends, the two founded a craft beer brewery in the north of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Since they love putting their name on everything they can, VandeStreek, their surname, was the best naming option for their company. Not only because of this, but rather due to their goal as a craft beer brewery. “Van de Streek’’ is freely translated to “from the region’’. A fitting name for a craft beer brewery who wants to be especially known by the people in Utrecht and produce for Utrecht. Since the start, their main goal was to make beer for the people of Utrecht. After they were allowed to promote a number of beers at the Utrechts Bierbrouwers festival in 2013, they founded the brewery. Now they could fully expand their dreams, beliefs, and values of beer making.

Współpraca gospodarcza Unii Europejskiej z Japonią

Author(s): Sylwia Łagnowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Управление на риска при различните форми за осъществяване на международен бизнес в контекста на глобалните вериги за доставка

Author(s): Zhelyazko Valchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

It is fairly common to observe different forms for conducting international business as part of each global supply chain framework. There are specific advantages emanating from the unitization of each one of those forms. This, however, means high level of complexity as well as unpredictability as their application is being characterized by inherent risks that are not homogenous and depend on multiple factors – complexity degree and character of the business operation itself, necessity to allocate financial resources or other external resources, market structure, etc. In this paper we will review the specific risks faced by the companies which conduct different forms of international business in order to participate in the global supply chain. At first, we will focus our attention to the import and export which are considered rather simple business operations but, nonetheless, could lead to the incurrence of great variety of risks. Second, we will review the risks pertaining to non-capital contracting forms for international market penetration – licensing and franchise. Some detailed attention will be paid to the outsourcing which is a main tool for global supply chain modelling as well as international production cooperation – both forms are characterized by a degree of complexity and extensive inter-company partnerships. At last, we will review the foreign direct investments which are recognized as the most complex of all forms of international business which leads to great risk predisposition.

Икономически растеж и динамика на преките чуждестранни инвестиции в страните от Централна и Източна Европа в периода 2005-2016 година

Author(s): Ruslan Tsankov,Stella Valeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

This report concerns the dynamics of foreign direct investments in Central and Eastern Europe and their impact on economic growth in this region. The period covered by this paper starts from the years preceding the global financial crisis, continue through crisis itself years 2008 – 2012 and the period of recovery, which takes place until today. The aim of this report is a comparative analysis of the structure of capital inflows associated with foreign direct investment, growth that is generated by them in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe before the global crisis and post- crisis period taking into account the specificities of the different economies in the region. The analysis of statistical information for the period covered, gathered for each economy shows a clear link between the type and structure of foreign direct investment country by country before the crisis, the impact on the intensity of economic growth and the success and speed of recovery during the period after the crisis. Putting capital inflows into Central and Eastern Europe as the main factor of growth in the region in general and analyzing their dynamics during a major crisis displays some dependencies that can more clearly be seen in a subsequent crisis processes.

Позицията на Германия в Европейския паричен съюз - причини и последствия

Author(s): Iordanka Stateva / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

In the process of looking for solutions for the debt crisis in the European Monetary Union, leading is the standpoint of Germany. In fact Germany is the country that has the potential – economic and political – to influence in the greatest degree the developments in the monetary union. Despite disagreements of other countries in the eurozone with German positions, there is something that renders them exceptional strength and it is the successful economic model of Germany. An important factor in this respect is the significant dependence of the monetary union and European Union as a whole on the German economy. The material analyzes the reasons and consequences of the dominant German standpoint concerning the problems in the eurozone. The reasons for the dominant position of Germany are economic, as well as political. The consequences can be defined as contradictory.

Конкурентоспособността на Европейските страни в световната икономика

Author(s): Silvana Jovcheska,Natka Jankova / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The Balkan countries entrance in the family called European Union meant and still means a challenge for the managers who worked only locally up to that moment to focus their work and the effective entrance on the European land, taking the risk which daily involves the permanently changing global surrounding. But, the same challenge raises the question whether those domestic managers are competitive on European ground i.e. to what extend their: knowledge, interests and skills can be competitive out of their mother country. This implies a situation in which the manager, who had a home career and is interested in career in the European Union, is competitive in terms of: the extend to which he/she is professionally aware of management, which are his/her managing inclinations and strains, how big are his/her computer skills, the knowledge of foreign languages including the host country language, the extend of adjustment and awareness of a new surrounding etc. The adjustment is connected with the willingness of the candidate and the member of "his family" to adjust to different culture and a new surrounding. There are different ways and trainings which are used around the world for overcoming cross-cultural differences aimed at adjustment of the selected candidates in the new surrounding. Since all international business corporations are connected with communication, a knowledge of intercultural communication and international business communication are of a huge significance in order to prepare business people to compete successfully in international environments, in this case the European environment. This paper is inspired by the positive dynamics of applying the contemporary practices in the management of domestic and International Corporation in the Balkan countries in order to accomplish competitive qualities for the European market. The paper strives to note the main benefits from accepting the contemporary management practices underlining the cross-cultural training of the contemporary management and the importance of studying intercultural communication.

Кризата и перспективите за повишаване на конкурентоспособността на предприятията в Южна Европа

Author(s): Nadezhda Ivanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

Since more than five years the European Union is facing the most serious challenge from the date of its foundation. The crisis that had started as financial far in USA, turned into economic in the Old Continent causing the greatest registered for at least 50 years drop in export, production and employment in the Member States. In May 2013 the European Commission once again cut its gross domestic product forecast for 2013 and 2014 for the Euro zone and for the EU as whole. Presented data emerges as critical the region of Southern Europe, where from one side are located not just the most affected so far by the crisis European countries, but the countries with the worst forecasts regarding the growth of their NGDP, and the countries with the lowest GDP per capita. Exactly from the state and the ability of these most problematic countries to cope with the crisis will depend the future of the EU and of the Euro zone. The aim of the following research paper is to present the state of the business environment five years after the beginning of the crisis, the most general reasons for this state and the perspectives for positive change in the context of the conditions for enhancement of competitiveness of the companies in the most problematic for EU region – the South European Member States. The research is accomplished by systematization and generalization of secondary data from the most popular periodical international comparative studies of the competitiveness indicators, in which are present results for the countries from the region. Among the main results of the research are definition of the group of the "Southern EU Member-States" in competitiveness context, as well as the classification in groups and systematization of these states according to the main present challenges for competitiveness of the environment and the perspectives for competitive growth and development in middle term.

Оптимална териториална топология на партньорства за успешна реализация на европейски проекти

Author(s): Matilda Aleksandrova,Daniela Staneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

The current study is based on real data for 306 projects that applied for funding in 2013. The study is related to the geographical topology of the consortium, in other words, the hypothesis that a specific territorial distribution of the required number of partners can lead to a successful project has been tested. In this regard, the optimal topological coverage of the European territory is derived to ensure the success of the project. The presented data is analyzed with the methods of graph and network theory and applied statistics, as well as the modern theory of complex neural networks and respective conclusions are made in the observed aspects, and the directions for development and continuation of the research are indicated.

Global Economy a Mechanism for The Coordination of the Phases of International Development of the Economies of Scale

Author(s): Mirko Tripunoski,Aleksandar Nikolovski / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The presented extended summary suggests the details about a research on the economic globalization that transitions the national economies into an interconnected system through the global market. Authors name three aspects of the organizational challenge in a global context - solving the complexity of the environment through greater organisation complexity, achieving an integrative differentiation and coordination between highly differentiated units, and implementing mechanisms for global learning and transfer of knowledge.

Реиндустриализацията в Европейския съюз и структурните изменения в българската индустрия

Author(s): Iskra Hristova-Balkanska / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

The direction towards EU reindustrialization is a result of the structural changes in European industry that are driven by profound changes in economic, social and information technology fields in Europe and in the world. The article clarifies some of the main reasons for reducing the share of the industry in the developed EU economies, the essence of reindustrialization in Europe and in Bulgaria.

Трансатлантическото партньорство за търговия и инвестиции - Европейският съюз между очакванията за икономически ползи и опасенията за политически разходи

Author(s): Yasen Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

In search of new sources for economic growth in the summer of 2013 the European Union (EU) and United States initiated negotiations on a comprehensive agreement that is expected to increase trade and investment by realizing the untapped potential of the transatlantic market. The Transatlantic Partnership Agreement for trade and investment aims to generate economic growth and job creation by ensuring improved access to markets on both sides of the Atlantic, achieving EU-US regulatory compatibility and paving the way for new mutually recognized standards.

Икономиката на Европейския съюз в контекста на изпълнението на стратегия „Европа 2020“

Author(s): Emilia Georgieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

This paper discusses the essence of Europe 2020 strategy, its seven initiatives and the upgraded implementation model as compared to the Lisbon strategy. Author presents empirical data on the stance of the EU’s economy towards the end of the first implementation period of Europe 2020. The analysis includes conclusions on the data presented, regional differences and trends which are referred to observations by the European Commission.

Планът за инвестиции за Европа: предпоставка за стимулиране на инвестиционната активност в ЕС в следкризисния период (2015 - 2020 г.)

Author(s): Svetla Boneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

This article presents the necessity for the adoption of the Investment Plan for Europe, its purpose, structure, stages of its implementation and the main sources of financial resources required for the delivery of the plan which amount to 315 billion euros for the period 2015 - 2020. The role of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), being fundamental for the Investment plan for Europe, is outlined in this paper, author discusses the funding sources and the main areas towards which funding will be directed - long-term investment projects and projects of small and medium enterprises and companies with medium market capitalization.

Търговията на ЕС с услуги и по-нататъшната им либерализация

Author(s): Monika Moraliyska / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

EU trade policy aims to open new markets for the European exporters, workers, and investors by removing barriers to the markets of growing number of trading partner countries. This policy has been successful in terms of international trade in both goods and services and it brought positive effects on the European economy. Trends in deglobalisation, as well as stagnation in WTO-led negotiations on further trade liberalization, however, have led to new integration alternatives - the plurilateral agreements, exemplified by the negotiations on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which possess pros and cons of their own. This article aims to explore traditional and alternative methods of liberalizing EU trade in services for and to conclude which ones prove to be best for the Union, its citizens and the service providers.

Анализ на факторите, обуславящи необходимостта от изграждането на Стълб на социалните права на ЕС

Author(s): Monika Moraliyska / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

This report aims to analyze the factors that, as per the author, suggest the establishment of the EU Social Pillar. To this end, the author performs the following tasks: examines the current social situation in the EU and Bulgaria in terms of indicators such as unemployment, risk of poverty and social exclusion, as well as income inequality; assesses the differences in indicators at European and national level; presents assessments of the lack of economic and social cohesion in the Union. The author's hypothesis is that the social status (such as social rights, social situation and income inequality) of EU citizens, which varies considerably both between Member States and in individual countries, is a key factor for the necessity to deepen the social policy not only nationally but at Union level, as well to establish the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Икономиката на Европейския съюз на кръстопът

Author(s): Emilia Georgieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

The EU economy is once again in a period of serious trial and doubt about the adequacy of the action taken. Among the many reasons for this is the Coronavirus Pandemic from the beginning of 2020 and the difficult decisions taken by the Union’s institutions / formats and leaders, represented by the European Commission, the ECB, the Eurogroup, etc. In this connection, the main objective is to trace the most important events in the history of the European Union, which give reason to believe that it was at a crossroads many times before the current pandemic crisis, those who have marked its economy. Special attention has been paid to what has happened in the last 20 years, with an emphasis on recent events, mainly related to COVID - 19, respectively on EU and Eurozone / Eurogroup decisions. The analysis and synthesis methods used, the retrospection and the formulation of conclusions, have achieved a significant result in terms of the vast amount of information and its presentation within set limits. The final conclusion is that the EU economy is undergoing another “Golgotha,” which is expected to recover stronger over the next few years compared to the pre-crisis period.