Today (october 29, 2012) defence of a Master’s thesis was held at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek. Student of the 4th class of GPE and coordinator of specialist and doctoral studies, Mirta Matešić, sucessfuly defended her thesis entitled “Transformation of Art Project to Entrepreneurial Venture”. Master’s thesis was defended before the committee of professors consisting of Marcel Meler, Ph.D., chairman, Slavica Singer, Ph.D., member and mentor and Sunčica Oberman Peterka, Ph.D., member. We congratulate Mirta and wish her a lot of success in private and professional endeavors!

Last week (October 25-27,2012), lectures from the course Qualitative Methods in Entrepreneurial Researchwere held within the Doctoral study ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATIVENESS. Lectures for the first class of doctoral students were held by Ulla Hytti, Ph.D. from University of Turku, Finland.

Marina Jeger, student of the first class of the Doctoral study ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATIVENESS, on October 25, 2012 at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek presented her research problem and design of research of the topic of doctoral dissertation. Presentation of the topic under the working title “Influence of Effectuation on Development of Entrepreneurial Intention” was held before the committee of professors consisting of Slavica Singer, Ph.D., Sanja Pfeifer, Ph.D. and Suncica Oberman Peterka, Ph.D., doctoral students and teachers.

On October 18-20, 2012 lectures in obligatory course Technopreneurship were held at the Faculty of Economis in Osijek. Lectures were held by Harmen Jousma, Ph.d. from Leiden University, Netherlands. The course is taught as part of the programme at the Doctoral study ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATIVENESS.

Within the second semester at GPE, Karl McKraken (Newcastle, UK) on September 27-29, 2012 held lectures from the course Operational Management. Karl presented examples of good practice of small and medium entrepreneurs from South East England in application of “Lean Principles” in the conduct of business, and students were introduced to the process through an improvised workshop. In short, “Lean Principles” entail continuous rationalisation of business processes, establishment and application of quality standards, improval of internal communication through use of visual management, and the continuous aspiration for improvement of the business system.