Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology

In the last decade many universities have developed alongside with teaching and research traditional missions also their third mission that enables them to move towards the “entrepreneurial university” model. Such approach no doubts play a crucial role in the socio-economic development. The urgent need of Albanian universities to contribute to the social and economic local and regional developments of the country has been stated in national strategy for higher education of the Albanian Government. The objective of this research is to evaluate the dimensions of an entrepreneurial university in Albanian public universities towards this model. Using HEInnovate tool and in depth interviews the study tries to identify strong and weak areas and potential actions to be undertaken by universities leadership and policy makers. Internationalization and close links with industry were evaluated by participants as the strongest areas with the highest score compared to the other dimensions of an entrepreneurial university. Organizational capacity, human and financial resources and support for entrepreneurs were identified as the weakest areas. Even though there are some attempts still much needs to be done from Albanian public universities (both within its internal and external environment) in order to move toward this model and play an active role in the socio- economic development of the country.

  Evaluation of the Entrepreneurial University Dimensions in Albanian (806.0 KiB, 1,296 hits)

As domestic markets have become saturated, multinational corporations (MNC) are turning their attention to international markets to increase their market share, revenues and their profits. MNCs activities have become increasingly global in scope, whereby going abroad is crucial if they are to succeed. This process is a challenge because the MNCs needs to overcome the barriers which hinder their entry into the targeted markets. They have to map out an entry strategy and choose the right entry mode. The focus of this paper is on how General Motors (GM) as a MNC can launch the Swedish SAAB brand of cars into India. Our analyses, which cover the period up to 2010, suggest that the best way to penetrate the Indian car market was by choosing the mix between exporting and local assembly as their entry mode. This helped GM to successfully penetrate its products, control investments and increase its competitive strength against domestic and foreign firms within the Indian market. Although recently the SAAB is in difficulty and almost bakrupt, the importance of this paper rests on the lesson how car manufacturers can enter foreign markets, especially in India.

  Entry marketing strategy of SAAB car manufacturer into the Indian market (691.4 KiB, 3,476 hits)