Management & Society

In Egypt, increased efforts have recently been made to implement targeted innovation support for SMEs. However, the institutional arrangements and innovation policies are often top-down structured or attempt to transfer concepts from outside the EU, in many cases without considering the specific characteristics of the Egyptian innovation context. In particular, there is a lack of empirical work that analyses the innovation activities of SMEs and prepares results for policymakers in a way that makes policies appropriate for the targeted groups of SMEs. Therefore, the research project aims at (1) conducting a detailed analysis of the innovation behavior of Egyptian SMEs and developing an SME typology, (2) describing the problems and needs of the identified innovation types, and (3) examining existing support measures accessible to SMEs in a policy analysis concerning their adaptability. The main objective is to map and describe the Egyptian SME innovation behavior and establish a toolbox of innovation-oriented SME policies that target Egyptian SMEs' unique needs. Based on a representative stratified sample covering 4,000 Egyptian firms and all sectors, we develop a resource-based taxonomy of firm-level innovation behavior to create and design functional innovation policies. Overall, the analysis will be based on a broad understanding of innovation which includes technological and non-technological modes. It is assumed that different innovation patterns, which range from the traditional "science technology-innovation" to other modes of "doing-using-interacting" or even mixed-modes, can be identified. This taxonomy of firm-level innovation behavior will improve the Egyptian capacity of evaluating and monitoring SME's innovation performance and is also an essential prerequisite for the design of evidence-based innovation policies. The results allow for an evidence-based discussion of recommendations and the derivation of concrete innovation policy measures. In addition, the results will serve as a basis for the scientific debate on innovation policy approaches in the MENA region.

The DIH West aims to support SMEs in Western Austria in the process of digital transformation. Further, it aims to strengthen these companies' innovation potential by providing them with institutionalized access to the know-how of research institutions through various activities. In accordance with the needs of SMEs in Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, the DIH West focuses on the following application areas: Industry 4.0 for manufacturing companies, and e-services for companies in the tourism, trade, and commerce industry. The activities of the DIH West concentrate on information, individual counselling, further education, thematic networking of SMEs and research institutions through working groups, and the transfer of research results into standardized services such as guidelines, modular systems, etc. These services will be accompanied by individual coaching and support measures as well as access to the relevant infrastructure of the research institutions. The DIH West consists of region-specific agencies, interest groups, and research institutions from Salzburg, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg, which contribute their respective expertise in order to support SMEs.

Every day we make hundreds of decisions. Most of them are quick gut decisions, like "What am I eating tonight?" or "What book will I read next?" But there are also more complex decisions that take more than just a good gut feeling. An example is educational decisions like "What do I do after school?" These require special attention because they have a lasting impact on the future life of teenagers and young adults. However, the German and Austrian education systems do not adequately prepare young people for these important decisions. In most cases, different options are presented at best. Frequently, young people then choose one of the obvious alternatives or those proposed by others, without giving much thought to what they personally want and what their goals are. Before choosing a course of study, everyone should ask themselves the central question of whether training or studies are better suited to the goals and wishes of a young person. However, this is often completely left out. As a result of this and due to poor preliminary considerations in career decisions, more than a quarter of Bachelor's students drop out of their studies and also a quarter of training contracts have been terminated prematurely. In addition to economic consequences such as increased training costs or a shortage of skilled workers, there are also in some cases considerable individual consequences because the termination of a training course is often seen as a serious failure. The project aims to improve the quality of educational decisions made by young people. In the long term, this is intended to reduce the high drop-out rates from studies and training. To achieve this, it is necessary to identify the relevant competences when making decisions and to develop teaching concepts that enable these competences to be conveyed in the best possible way, taking into account the didactic requirements, goals and preferences of the target group. Proactive decision making is the focus of the teaching.

Decision making, both with respect to individuals and organizations, has been raising the attention of academics from various disciplines for a long time. This fact is anything but surprising since it can be argued that decisions are the only way for individuals to purposefully influence things, which are important to them. Everything else just happens. However, many individuals and organizations can be considered as reactive in their decision processes leading to suboptimal decisions, i.e. they are bad decision makers. The scale of proactive decision making (PDM), which was has recently introduced to behavioral OR and decision analysis, can be used to describe and measure individual decision making behavior. It consists of six dimensions, which can be assigned to the two categories "proactive personality traits" and "proactive cognitive skills". Previous research has suggested a positive relationship between PDM and decision satisfaction. Other consequences and antecedents have not been analyzed yet. In this study, we investigate if and how an individual's personality and certain general motivational factors determine individual differences with regard to the behavior during the phase of generating alternatives in decision processes. The question to be addressed is under which personality related and individual motivational conditions an individual is likely to be or become a good decision maker. In the same vein, the trainability of good decision making is examined by analyzing the sustainability of the impact of decision making training on the actual decision making behavior of the participants with regard to the phase of generating alternatives during decision processes. Combining the results is intended to help fostering our understanding of good decision making. Practitioners shall be enabled to understand if and how it could be possible to improve an individual's decision making behavior. In particular, recruiters might find our findings useful as they increasingly ask for proactive applicants, i.e. proactive decision makers, yet are lacking further theoretical sound and empirically backed insights what this actually means. Academics and researchers shall be offered insights into the usefulness of courses on decision quality, such that the impact of teaching the principles of good decision making on the actual decision making behavior of individuals is empirically substantiated. This could provide support for any argument to include such courses of decision quality in university or school curricula.