COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATIVENESS OF MEAT INDUSTRY PLANTS

Innovativeness is the basis for companies to develop and one of the conditions of their competitiveness. Processes of integrating Polish economy with the European economy forced Polish enterprises to implement activities in order to be up to the market challenges both within the European Union and on a global scale. The survey conducted in the region of Lower Silesia show the predominance of small companies in the meat sector, although such companies have rather limited possibilities of conducting their own research and development projects. Managers from this sector recommend technological and organization alterations both in the operational and strategic plans; also, they put emphasis on the advisability of introducing technological progress. Therefore, the main determinant of the increase in competitiveness and innovativeness of small and medium-sized enterprises should be cooperation with scientific and research & development institutions, transfer of technology, and investing in human capital. Over 90% of the respondents surveyed consider their enterprises as innovative. The major development priorities were: developing new products or a new technology (82%) and investing in new machines and equipment (37%). Nearly all the employees in the meat enterprises surveyed participated in various inservice training courses and benefited from them. The highest number of persons attended training courses in the quality management field (72%) and courses dealing with the implementation of modem technologies (64%). More than 50% of managers were interested in the cooperation with foreign partners. Despite limited contacts with institutions of higher education, senior management officers in meat. enterprises declared to be ready to cooperate with them in the range of research and development projects.