The paper discusses innovative performance of firms and underlying competencies, namely technological, marketing and complementary. Competencies are regarded as networks of various capabilities and other firm assets and can be used for cross-industry comparisons. The study is based on a survey carried out among 50 established Slovenian manufacturing companies addressing competencies which they employ in their 65 distinct product lines. Three distinct segments of firms are established based on innovative performance indicators. Used are techniques of multivariate statistics, including cluster analysis and analysis of variance. The results imply that the most innovative firms simultaneously develop technological, marketing and complementary competencies. The implications of our findings are valuable to the firms aligning their competencies with their strategy, as well as to policy makers in technology following countries.

No abstract

No abstract

Should Italians, Croats and Slovenes Work Together in Developing a Northern Adriatic Tourist Destination?The article assesses opportunities for creating a macro-tourist destination in the region of the Northern Adriatic. Research was based on a survey of more than 1700 summer tourists in three different sea towns, namely Grado in Italy, Opatija in Croatia and Portorož in Slovenia in 2004. The three countries share a common past under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and are headed for a common future within the European Union. Survey results of tourists' motivations and destination quality perceptions support the notion that the Northern Adriatic is considered by many central Europeans as the "sea closest to home". Thus, EU efforts under the framework of the Cohesion Policy of EU regions could also be adopted in the area of joint destination management of the Northern Adriatic. A Destination Management Organization for the three regions should be established as the main agent of change in the destination management of the region.

Objectives/Scope The objective of this paper is to describe the process technology and construction of the world's first seawater sulphate removal plant using membranes for the key treatment stages. Methods, Procedures, Process SUEZ and Techouse have jointly developed the water injection module for the Equinor FPSO Johan Castberg. The vessel will be stationed in the Barents Sea, north of the Arctic Circle in 360-390m of water. The water injection capacity is specified by the client as 180,000 barrels per day with a sulphate content of <40ppm and an oxygen content of <20ppb. The environmental challenges of this location meant that a fresh design perspective was required to operate the water injection plant to this specification. NORSOK engineering standards are also required. The traditional treatment process for this type of installation is pre-filtration by multi-media, cartridge filtration, nanofiltration membranes for sulphate removal, followed by vacuum tower deoxygenation. This paper will describe the alternative process solutions proposed, using an all-membrane process train and describe the benefits in terms of weight, footprint and operability, plus progress with construction to date. Results, Observations, Conclusions The water injection module is structurally complete as at September 2019 and is unique in that it is fully enclosed. Construction has been optimised by using the walls as a structural component rather than just cladding, thus keeping weight and structural complexity to a minimum. Novel/Additive Information Unique features of this plant are: