Employability management needs analysis and the ICT sector in Europe:the case of small and medium-sized enterprises

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the outcomes of a so-called “employability management needs analysis” that is meant to provide more insight into current employability management activities and its possible benefits for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals working in Small- and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout Europe. A considerable series of interviews (N=107) were conducted with managers in SMEs in seven European countries, including Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and the UK. A semi-structured interview protocol was used during the interviews to cover three issues: employability (13 items), ageing (8 items), and future developments and requirements (13 items). Analysis of all final interview transcriptions was at a national level using an elaborate common coding scheme. Although an interest in employability emerged, actual policy and action lagged behind. The recession in the ICT sector at the time of the investigation and the developmental stage of the sector in each participating country appeared connected. Ageing was not seen as a major issue in the ICT sector because managers considered ICT to be a relatively young sector. There appeared to be a serious lack of investment in the development of expertise of ICT professionals. Generalization of the results to large organizations in the ICT sector should be made with caution. The interview protocol developed is of value for further research and complements survey research undertaken within the employability field of study. It can be concluded that proactive HRM (Human Resource Management) policies and strategies are essential, even in times of economic downturn. Employability management activities are especially important in the light of current career issues. The study advances knowledge regarding HRM practices adopted by SMEs in the ICT sector, especially as there is a gap in knowledge about career development issues in that particular sector.

Regional competitiveness:theories and methodologies for empirical analysis

A significant forum of scholarly and practitioner-based research has developed in recent years that has sought both to theorize upon and empirically measure the competitiveness of regions. However, the disparate and fragmented nature of this work has led to the lack of a substantive theoretical foundation underpinning the various analyses and measurement methodologies employed. The aim of this paper is to place the regional competitiveness discourse within the context of theories of economic growth, and more particularly, those concerning regional economic growth. It is argued that regional competitiveness models are usually implicitly constructed in the lineage of endogenous growth frameworks, whereby deliberate investments in factors such as human capital and knowledge are considered to be key drivers of growth differentials. This leads to the suggestion that regional competitiveness can be usefully defined as the capacity and capability of regions to achieve economic growth relative to other regions at a similar overall stage of economic development, which will usually be within their own nation or continental bloc. The paper further assesses future avenues for theoretical and methodological exploration, highlighting the role of institutions, resilience and, well-being in understanding how the competitiveness of regions influences their long-term evolution.