Project Introduction
News
Summary of the project
TEMPASIA promotes European know-how and information communication technologies in South-East Asian business intermediary organizations with a view to upgrade their skills in business and innovation support and to further collaboration between the participating Asian regions as well as between Asia and Europe. The project thus contributes to direct business co-operation between Europe and Asia, and to the integration of the target countries into the information society through business-oriented ICT. The capacity building for key intermediary organizations includes organization building, network building, and competence building on the basis of acknowledged European best practices in innovation management (primary focus) and sustainability management (secondary focus). On the basis of the newly developed competencies, infrastructures, and networks the target intermediaries will be able to better assist their regional SMEs in the pursuit of their innovation plans and the internationalization of their business strategies.
Objectives[top]
Methodology:[top]
EMPASIA’s activities are centered on the transfer of best practice in the field of SME development and sustainable management from Europe to Asia. Specifically, Plato and the HARMONY approach to organizational learning have been identified by the project partners as viable solutions for challenges faced by Thai and Vietnamese companies. The basis for the projects activities will be the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for the implementation of Plato and the ongoing exchange of best practices for innovation support. Sustainability related aspects will then be incorporated in the coaching process.
This capacity building encompasses two complementary aspects for leveraging change:
Key outcomes:[top]
Overall, EMPASIA empowers Asian key intermediaries in the target countries to serve their regional SMEs better and more effectively, and lays the foundations for ongoing business support development for Asian SMEs. To this end European best practice methodology and ICT in three areas (Knowledge-based Networking, Business-to-Business Support and Sustainability Management) is transferred, trained, piloted and assessed on its effectiveness in the target countries.
Organisations involved:[top]
Target Groups involved:[top]
Major Project Activities:[top]
Project Duration:[top]
24 months
Expected Results and Benefits:[top]
Financial support:[top]
The EMPASIA project is co-financed by the European Commission (EC) Brussels.
TEMPASIA promotes European know-how and information communication technologies in South-East Asian business intermediary organizations with a view to upgrade their skills in business and innovation support and to further collaboration between the participating Asian regions as well as between Asia and Europe. The project thus contributes to direct business co-operation between Europe and Asia, and to the integration of the target countries into the information society through business-oriented ICT. The capacity building for key intermediary organizations includes organization building, network building, and competence building on the basis of acknowledged European best practices in innovation management (primary focus) and sustainability management (secondary focus). On the basis of the newly developed competencies, infrastructures, and networks the target intermediaries will be able to better assist their regional SMEs in the pursuit of their innovation plans and the internationalization of their business strategies.
Objectives[top]
- Organization Building: Upgrading of internal organizational skills and methods of Asian key-intermediaries towards operating as learning organizations and collaborating within an international knowledge-based network.
- Network Building: Development of the knowledge-based collaborative Euro-Asian EMPASIA-Network as a Learning Network and a strategic collaboration of business intermediaries, facilitating business links for RTDI, export, investment and trade within Asia and between Asia and Europe.
- Competence Building: Introduction and piloting of the PLATO approach to regional business support to strengthen the links of the intermediaries to their regional economies and to mobilize SMEs towards business innovation and internationalization.
- Competence Building: Awareness raising and multiplication training for Corporate Social Responsibility management (focused on Environmental Performance Evaluation) as a critical factor for business internationalization.
Methodology:[top]
EMPASIA’s activities are centered on the transfer of best practice in the field of SME development and sustainable management from Europe to Asia. Specifically, Plato and the HARMONY approach to organizational learning have been identified by the project partners as viable solutions for challenges faced by Thai and Vietnamese companies. The basis for the projects activities will be the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for the implementation of Plato and the ongoing exchange of best practices for innovation support. Sustainability related aspects will then be incorporated in the coaching process.
This capacity building encompasses two complementary aspects for leveraging change:
- The organization of the business intermediary is developed for long-term effects. This involves organizational learning and international collaboration.
- Organization building: Operating on a new dimension: Learning Network Compatibility: Asian business intermediaries are trained to function as learning organizations and to collaborate internationally in a strategic knowledge-based network. They work on the basis of the HARMONY ICT platform for case and knowledge management.
- Network building: Living the network: Learning and Contact Facilitation: The Euro-Asian EMPASIA-Intermediary-Network, formed on the basis of the partnership and open for expansion, collaborates for contact facilitation for SME through the intermediaries and ongoing peer-to-peer learning, first among its partners and second in connection with the European smE-MPOWER Network.
- The services of the business intermediary are developed for medium-term effects. This involves competence building for improved services in two areas: a new structural approach to regional business support, and Sustainability Management as an essential knowledge area for Asian SMEs.
- Competence building: Implementing new knowledge: New Business Support Services: The Asian partners are trained on essential knowledge modules in Innovation Support Management (Plato methodology) to launch regional business to business support groups for SME managers to exchange and improve their managerial know-how.
- Competence building: Implementing new knowledge: Sustainability Management: The Asian partners are strengthened in their capacity as promoters for Sustainability Management (focus: Environmental Performance Evaluation). Asian SMEs are guided to implement environmental performance standards to prepare for entry in European markets.
Key outcomes:[top]
- New business support services delivered to Asian SMEs in the medium and long-term through enhanced competences and a new international network infrastructure among business intermediaries.
- New business opportunities for European and Asian SMEs through contact facilitation between Asian and European Intermediaries.
- Mobilization of Asian SMEs to integrate sustainability management and environmental performance standards in their business strategies.
Overall, EMPASIA empowers Asian key intermediaries in the target countries to serve their regional SMEs better and more effectively, and lays the foundations for ongoing business support development for Asian SMEs. To this end European best practice methodology and ICT in three areas (Knowledge-based Networking, Business-to-Business Support and Sustainability Management) is transferred, trained, piloted and assessed on its effectiveness in the target countries.
Organisations involved:[top]
- Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF), Germany;
- Louth County Enterprise Board (LCEB), Ireland;
- Asian Society for Environmental Protection (ASEP), Thailand;
- Vietnam Productivity Centre (VPC), Vietnam.
Target Groups involved:[top]
- Intermediary organizations, such as industry associations, research institutions, universities and NGOs (primary target group);
- Export oriented industrial companies (SME) from the manufacturing sector (final beneficiaries).
Major Project Activities:[top]
- Setting up and establishing Thai and Vietnamese Plato business support infrastructures
- Training business intermediaries in Plato, knowledge management and sustainability management
- Starting Plato SME groups and coaching activities in Thailand and Vietnam with a focus on sustainable management issues
- Ensuring long term application in the business community
Project Duration:[top]
24 months
Expected Results and Benefits:[top]
-
Asian intermediary organizations will benefit through…
- Enhanced organizational capacity (management) leading to continued development and improvement of business development services and a basic compatibility to collaborate within international learning networks.
- Enhanced infrastructure through strategic networking on peer-to-peer basis with “open knowledge” philosophy leads to the EMPASIA Network, the Euro-Asian intermediary network on the basis of the partnership, and a potential connection to the existing pan-European Intermediary Network smE-MPOWER.
- Enhanced ICT competence (technology) leads to ICT enabled knowledge management with the future potential to fully utilize the case management and competence management features of the HARMONY software suite.
- Enhanced soft skills lead to a new type of support service offered according to the PLATO approach. Group facilitation will enable the companies to learn from each other and also build trust to the intermediary. The art of listening-oriented, strongly customer-oriented, innovation coaching as one of the aspects shared in the learning environment (part of the HARMONY library and service approach used in smE-MPOWER) will additionally lead to new trust-building measures between SMEs and intermediaries.
- Enhanced knowledge in the specific area of Sustainability Management through knowledge-sharing and resource mobilization through and among experts.
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Asian SME will benefit through…
- Enhanced awareness and understanding for a feasible relevant roadmap in Sustainability Management incl. concrete follow-up and referral measures (technology).
- Enhanced managerial competence through business-to-business support groups and new contacts to larger PLATO parent companies (management).
- Enhanced linkage and trust to their intermediaries through the PLATO approach.
- Enhanced chances for international cooperation for direct business contacts and for joint international collaboration projects.
Financial support:[top]
The EMPASIA project is co-financed by the European Commission (EC) Brussels.