In the face of fragile economic recovery following the economic and financial crisis of 2008, many firms all  around the world continue to invest in growth-enhancing activities to achieve a sustainable development. While the crisis has heavily hit all aspects of business vested interests, investments in innovation, entrepreneurship  and regional partnership have been the key priority to ensuring a strong and stable economic growth.

The objective of the conference is to gather decision makers (government, ministries and state agencies), innovation  experts (universities, research and development centres, technology transfer centres, start-up centres) and practitioners  (smes, business incubators and business support organisations) to generate discussion and exchange on the potential of  entrepreneurship promotion and innovation to national and regional competitiveness.

CONFERENCE TOPICS OF INTEREST

Creativity, Complexity and Competitiveness Issues for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in SEE vs. other regions  (EU and other)

* Leveraging e-skills for innovation in the knowledge society
* Managing and Leveraging Complexity, Creativity and Innovation in SMEs
* Trust, Respect, Culture and Collaboration Issues for SMEs in SEE vs.
  other regions (EU and other)
* Leadership and Management practices that can be applied to SMEs
* SME Knowledge management and technology transfer
* SME Business process modeling
* New Technology Ventures Financing
* Business incubation management and leadership
* Human Resources Practices for promoting innovation for SMEs

South East European Entrepreneurial Innovation Clusters

* SMEs' Entrepreneurship as an Innovation Driver
* Opportunities and barriers for closer cooperation between South East
  European SMEs in Innovation & Entrepreneurship:

Strategic Integration vs. Flexibility and SME Competitiveness

* Innovation Clusters, Technology Transfer and Social Entrepreneurship
* Social Networking as Driver of EICs formation
* Science & Technology Parks and EICs
* Young and Women Entrepreneurs development via EICs
* Benchmarking of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Best Practices in the
  region
* Innovation policy in SMEs

Technology Innovation, Transfer and Commercialization across Governement, University, Industry domains

* The role of the State and Public Policy with regards to SME Innovation
  and Entrepreneurship
* Governmental and regional policies on entrepreneurship and innovation
* Entrepreneurial Universities and Entrepreneurial Innovation Clusters
* Entrepreneurship education
* University - Industry collaboration
* ICT and SME Regional competitiveness
* SMEs and the role of the Innovation Zone (business centers and
  incubators)
* Intangibles Valuation and Intellectual Property Rights
* Innovative Supply Chain Management practices in SEE
* Innovative Supply Chains
* Information Technology proliferation in SEE SMEs

ICEIRD í14 invites submissions of papers related to all the topics of interest of the conference.  Papers that address collaborations between industry and academia, case studies as well as experience reports on any  of the conference themes are welcome. 

For more information on the conference topics, visit the ICEIRD 2014 webpage
(https://iceird2014.cs.ucy.ac.cy).