Dictionary

DICTIONARY E-Twinning Project

CORPORATE PHILANTROPY Corporate Philantropy includes all the charitable donations of profits and resources given by companies to nonprofit organizations. Usually it consists of cash donations but can also be in the form of use of their facilities or volunteer time offered by the company's employees. Donations are generally handled directly by the corporation or by a foundation created by the firm.

Companies whose employees regularly contribute to nonprofit organizations can show that they also care about the causes that their workers are passionate about.

The two most common ways of corporate philantropy are: Matching gift programs. Employees submit forms to their employers requesting that their donation to a nonprofit be matched by the company.

Volunteer grant programs. When employees donate their time to a nonprofit, they submit applications for their employer to donate money to the organization.

DELPHI METHOD The Delphi method is a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts.

The experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds. After each round, a facilitator or change agent provides an anonymous summary of the experts’ forecasts from the previous round as well as the reasons they provided for their judgments.

Delphi is based on the principle that forecasts (or decisions) from a structured group of individuals are more accurate than those from unstructured groups. The technique can also be adapted for use in face-to-face meetings, and is then called mini-Delphi or Estimate-Talk-Estimate (ETE).

Delphi has been widely used for business forecasting and has certain advantages over another structured forecasting approach, prediction markets.

Key characteristics 

Anonymity of the participants



Structuring of information flow



Regular feedback



Role of the facilitator

2

GREEN LENDING: Green lending refers to a lending dependent on environmental criteria for the planned use of funds.

There is no current definition of ‘green lending’ but one interpretation is that it is lending which is subject to fulfilment of certain environmental criteria, for the planned use of funds. Lenders may look to assess a borrower’s sustainability strategy and the underlying sustainability risks in real estate collateral.

Green loans are specifically for assisting small businesses and individuals in starting or expanding eco-friendly products or services. They are also available to existing businesses that want to “go green” and have a positive impact on the environment. Green loans are available from commercial lenders and through “peer lending” from groups of private individuals.

Projects qualifying for green loans include recycling, composting, community gardens, and janitorial uses for eco-friendly products. The loans can also be used for home remodeling, roofing, solar panels and windows.

It also means that the lender (bank) pays attention to the money being ‚green‘.

HUMAN RESOURSES Is a resource that resides in the knowledge, skills, and motivation of people.

HR is a division within a company that is focused on activities relating to employees.

These activities normally include:           

recruiting and hiring of new employee orientation and training of current employees employee benefits retention exit interviews motivation assignment selection labor law compliance performance reviews professional development mediation change management

As with other business assets, the goal is to make effective use of employees, reducing risk and maximizing return on investment (ROI).

HR is the least mobile of the four factors of production, and (under right conditions) it improves with age and experience, which no other resource can do.

It is regarded as the scarcest and most crucial productive resource that creates the largest and longest lasting advantage for an organization.

3

JOBS 4.0 The term describes the changes in the job market which are caused by great technological progress, a new economic environment and the digitalization.

Know-how, innovation, flexibility become very important for Austria as an industrial site. On the other hand, our social and environmental standards catch more attention. Jobs 4.0 or like it is called sometimes the fourth industrial revolution will give us new industrial perspectives and new goals like environmental protection, social standards, quality instead of quantity and flexibility for everyone, because our views are not the same anymore. People take more care about health, free time, family and friends and have a different sight about work. Money will not be the most important thing for the individual worker anymore.

The technological competition will be very important for industrial sites like Austria or Europe, because we cannot win a price based competition whit economic areas like China or East Asia anymore. We have to be better in a different way. All in all Jobs 4.0 is not only about a job, but about a whole change in thinking by a younger generation and could be one of the biggest changes in the industrial era.

MARKET RESEARCH … is the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a market, about a product or service to be offered for sale in that market, and about the past, present and potential customers for the product or service; research into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your business's target market, the industry as a whole, and the particular competitors you face.

Market research involves two types of data:  Primary information. This is research you compile yourself or hire someone to gather for you.  Secondary information. This type of research is already compiled and organized for you.

Examples of secondary information include reports and studies by government agencies, trade associations or other businesses within your industry. Most of the research you gather will most likely be secondary.

DEFINITION CREAM SKIMMING / PRICE SKIMMING Price skimming is a product pricing strategy by which a firm changes the highest initial price that customers will pay. As the demand of the first customers is satisfied, the firm lowers the price to attract another, more price-sensitive segment.

Therefore, the skimming strategy gets its name from skimming successive layers of „cream“, or customer segments, as prices are lowered over time.

Firms often use this technique to recover the cost of development.

4

Price Skimming is a useful strategy when:    

There are enough prospective customers willing to buy the product at the high price.

The high price does not attract competitors.

Lowering the price would have only a minor effect on increasing sales volume and reducing unit costs.

The high price is interpreted as a sign of high quality.

Price skimming has nothing to do with social entrepreneurship, in my opinion. In my view, price skimming is just a method to increase the turnover, but social entrepreneurships stand for the improvement of today’s society.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP The idea of “social entrepreneurship” has struck a responsive chord. It is a phrase well suited to our times. It combines the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination commonly associated with, for instance, the high-tech pioneers of Silicon Valley. The time is certainly ripe for entrepreneurial approaches to social problems. Many governmental and philanthropic efforts have fallen far short of our expectations. Major social sector institutions are often viewed as inefficient, ineffective, and unresponsive. Social entrepreneurs are needed to develop new models for a new century.

The language of social entrepreneurship may be new, but the phenomenon is not. We have always had social entrepreneurs, even if we did not call them that. They originally built many of the institutions we now take for granted. However, the new name is important in that it implies a blurring of sector boundaries. In addition to innovative not-for-profit ventures, social entrepreneurship can include social purpose business ventures, such as for-profit community development banks, and hybrid organizations mixing not-for-profit and for-profit elements, such as homeless shelters that start businesses to train and employ their residents. The new language helps to broaden the playing field. Social entrepreneurs look for the most effective methods of serving their social missions.

Though the concept of social entrepreneurship is gaining popularity, it means different things to different people. This can be confusing. Many associate social entrepreneurship exclusively with notfor-profit organizations starting for-profit or earned-income ventures. Others use it to describe anyone who starts a not-for-profit organization. Still others use it to refer to business owners who integrate social responsibility into their operations. What does “social entrepreneurship” really mean? What does it take to be a social entrepreneur? To answer these questions, we should start by looking into the roots of the term “entrepreneur.”

5

TRADITIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP The traditional entrepreneur is one who undertakes to control, coordinate and take the risk of a business in a competitive marketplace. Today's entrepreneur is an innovator and developer of ideas; he or she seizes opportunities and converts them into marketable entities. At the same time they have to lead a team, seek out capital and resources while creating something unique and of value to others.

It is commonly agreed that the entrepreneur is an agent of change, especially in a growing world of free enterprise and capitalism. Therefore it is very important that we know what the term „Traditional Entrepreneurship“ means.

In this sense, the traditional entrepreneur is the greatest risk-taker but ultimately claims the greatest rewards. This enviable nature of the entrepreneur spans every industry - there is one to be found in manufacturing, services, technology, agriculture and so on.

6