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The macroeconomic changes as well as the challenges facing universities nowadays result in the transfer and adaptation of various concepts and organizational methods from enterprises to universities. One of such solutions is mergers. Even though there are a very large number of practical examples of university mergers in the world, at the same time there is a shortage of frameworks that would help manage mergers. The purpose of this paper is to present key areas of focus in HEIs’ consolidation processes and the creation of the conceptual model of the universities’ mergers.

In this paper synthesis, the inductive approach for model development and case study description were used. The analysis and findings were based on the systematic literature review taken out from management and public policy areas. The new public management and public value governance approaches as well as strategic and process theories of mergers were applied. The descriptive approach to management was used as well.

Formulation of a Conceptual Model of Universities’ Mergers and ten principles of effective management of universities’ mergers that cover the entire process, from planning, through implementation, to integration.

There is a need to verify the proposed inductive model of universities’ mergers through further qualitative and mixed-methods research studies.

The paper offers a significant opportunity for practical application of the presented content, because it indicates how the know-how from one (business) sector can be valuable for the future of another sector (the over-fragmented sector of higher education).

This study presents the key areas of focus in HEIs’ consolidation processes and proposes a novel Conceptual Model of Universities’ Mergers. It concludes with the principles of effective management of universities’ mergers.

Different studies have analyzed the relationship between organizational learning and value creation. However, the question of how crowdsourcing affects the relationships between organizational learning and value creation remains unexplored. This paper aims to explore the mediating role of crowdsourcing in the relationship between organizational learning and value creation in local governance.

The hypotheses were tested based on data collected from 205 local governance units in Poland using crowdsourcing. Data collection was carried out by using a set of standardized questionnaires. Correlation analyses were used to specify the strength of the relationships between the variables. To test the hypotheses, multiple regression analysis was used.

The results have shown that in the local governance organizational learning is related to crowdsourcing, while organizational learning is not related to value creation. Crowdsourcing does not play a mediating role in explaining the relationship between organizational learning and value creation.

A research model was developed based on the relevant literature in the field of organizational learning, value creation and crowdsourcing. This study urges researchers to explore the relationship between organizational learning and value creation in other public organizations using crowdsourcing.

This is the first study on the intermediate role of crowdsourcing in the relationship between organizational learning and value creation in local governance. The proposed model enriches the existing literature and allows better understanding of how crowdsourcing acts as an intermediary in the organizational learning-value creation relationship.

Poland has traditionally been perceived as a net emigration country. The scale of the recent inflow of foreigners to the country, however, places Poland among those states of growing attractiveness to migrants. Therefore, the main aim of this chapter is to present the Polish model of integration policy and describe the development of Poland's migration and integration policy at the national level. As the local perspective on migration and integration has become increasingly important, local policies are also presented through the example of several of the largest Polish cities. Additionally, the role of public discourse in shaping Polish society's attitude towards migrants is discussed. Finally, some aspects of economic migrants' integration are described.

Poland still lacks a long-term and comprehensive migration and integration policy that covers all areas of integration, and all categories of immigrants and so far only once, for a short period, has adopted migration policy at a national level. There is also little coordination among the different governmental bodies that deal with this issue. Therefore, only some of the crucial elements of integration policy at a national level, like the liberalization of the labour market, have occurred successfully. It seems that local policies, especially in large cities, have addressed more precisely various issues faced by immigrants, not only related to employment, and could foster the process of integration.

This chapter reviews the integration experiences and policies in Germany before and after the so-called “refugee crisis’. Chancellor Angela Merkel's famous words ‘wir schaffen das’ (we manage this) have mobilized both policy actions and a massive grassroots engagement. In this context, we discuss the scope, efficiency and impact of German integration and adaptation policies. We review critically how Germany has dealt institutionally with immigration in the past and how it has adjusted its institutional approach to deal with the refugee crisis. Furthermore, in a case study on integration policies in higher education, we highlight the interplay between institutional approaches and grassroots engagement to achieve integration objectives. We argue that to a certain extent, the refugee crisis has acted as a catalyst for Germany to come to terms with its long-denied status as an immigration country.

Foreign immigration is one of the most important recent changes in Italy. As a consequence, similarly to the traditional European receiving countries, the process of integration of immigrants has also become a crucial political issue in Italy. Labour market insertion of migrants is one of the key points of integration. In this chapter, we aim to provide a broad and updated overview of the migrant situation in the Italian labour market. Empirical evidence suggests that the crisis almost equally hits foreigners and Italian workers, without affecting the structural difference of treatments of these two groups. One of the aims of this work is to evaluate if the gap in terms of integration in the labour market and employment probability between foreigners and Italians has widened or decreased, considering that the labour market is probably the main channel of the integration process. The analysis is structured using a multinomial logit model and some contingency descriptive statistics exploiting, together with regular socio-demographic variables, regional and macro-area differences. The data come from the Italian Labour Force Survey (LFS) provided by ISTAT – Italian National Institute of Statistics – a quarterly survey with a rotating sample that provides an extensive overview of Italian labour market actors. Results show that foreigners have a greater employment probability than Italian natives, a probability that turns out to be better for those who arrived in Italy between 2000 and 2004. Nonetheless, foreigners are largely employed in low-paying or underqualified jobs, returning a low-profile picture of foreigners' integration in the Italian labour market.

In line with the main idea of the book, this chapter deals mostly with the structural or socio-economic dimension of integration, with a special focus on labour market inclusion. The integration of immigrants in the Czech labour market is viewed from an institutional and organizational perspective. The main emphasis of the chapter is on immigration from outside the EU. The author first provides an outline of the general trends in labour migration since the beginning of the century and analyzes the impact of selected labour market–related migration and integration policies and practices. Based on an analysis of policy documents, official statistics and available sociological research, the text discusses some major challenges to the successful integration of immigrants in the Czech labour market, with a special focus on the main actors and institutions involved in the process. In her analysis of the integration process, the author discusses the regulatory (or rather restrictive) role of Czech employment offices, the symbolic (or rather ineffective) role of trade unions and, last but not least, the crucial role of Czech NGOs working with non-EU immigrants. The latter are seen as key facilitators of migrant integration and not only in terms of their operative function (e.g. working in the field and assisting immigrants) but also in advocating for immigrants' rights.

Spain has undergone a series of significant economic changes over the last decade, and the country has subsequently been faced with huge challenges in its efforts to integrate migrants into the labour market. With this in mind, the purpose of the following chapter is to analyse the Spanish labour market in the light of the new realities resulting from the effects of immigration and an increasingly pluralistic, open society. It covers Spain's achievements as well as the challenges that lie ahead, bearing in mind the global situation as well as the new social configuration of a country that has received such large numbers of migrants and refugees.

On a meso-level, various institutions play a fundamental role in the way migrants adjust to the economic, social, cultural and political spheres of Spanish society. The authors described various practices implemented by Spanish ‘business actors’, unions and NGOs for the labour integration. This research shows that coordination between the various employment policies at the meso-level has had a key influence on Spain's integration of migrants.

The continued flow of immigrants in various countries, including Finland, has made it necessary to assess their level of integration for both academic and policy reasons. Despite the proliferation of multiple immigration integration indices, none of them are irreproachable. The indicators of integration levels are context-dependent. The index should also be both standardized to facilitate cross-comparative research and flexible to be relevant across multiple contexts. The choice of the unit of analysis also alters the definition of integration.

The main purpose of this study is to identify the indicators of immigration integration levels at the individual level in the Finnish context. Thereafter, a combined index identifying six types of integration measures – psychological, linguistic, economic, political, social and navigational – based on the Immigration Policy Lab (IPL) Integration Index, is administered to foreigners in Finland (N = 86). The sample consists of young (20–40), highly educated individuals, from 36 different countries who have migrated to Finland predominantly for family and study purposes.

The results show that immigrants who have stayed longer in Finland and are highly educated display higher levels of integration. Immigrants who are naturalized citizens display higher levels of integration across all dimensions. IPL Integration Index performs in the expected direction and can be applied across Finland in a larger random sample, after slight modifications, to increase generalizability. The study further suggests that Finnish immigration integration schemes focus excessively on macrolevel policies aiming at linguistic, economic and navigational integration of new immigrants at the cost of individual psychosocial integration of well-established immigrants.

The slogan ‘not in my backyard’ became a symbol of a successful campaign in a psychological war waged by the Soviet Union against the United States and the NATO allies. Russians have already placed their cruise missiles in firing positions, but tried to prevent the US Army from doing the same on the other side of the Iron Curtain, namely in the NATO countries. Misguided citizens of the welfare states on the western side of the Iron Curtain demonstrated for disarmament in spite of Soviet secret build up of the missile stockpile. The EU citizens and their intellectual elites never dealt with the Russian communist genocide and underestimated hidden injuries of the Cold War. Today, when Soviet secret decisions leaked out due to a temporary access to the communist archives in Moscow, even carefully orchestrated campaigns in social media cannot change facts and wipe awareness out. This time it is the financial level of military expenditures, which is questioned by Russian trolls in the social media of the Dutch, German or French populations. Apart from military expenditures of NATO member states, Russian troll campaigns are also directed towards the support of multicultural ideologies and welcoming all immigrants. At first sight, they are as successful with the immigrants as they were with the cruise missiles. Most respondents in the Netherlands claim that immigrants are welcome – provided they settle down somewhere else – anywhere, but not in my backyard. Perhaps in my neighbour's backyard, behind national borders? In Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Spain – anywhere (but not here)? This is the message defining the subtle brand of a Dutch xenophobia, phrased in a politically correct way. Nobody, except extreme right (e.g., Wilders) or extreme libertarians (e.g., Baudet), dares to spell it out – and yet it haunts all political debates. A spectrum is truly haunting Europe – a spectrum of mass migrations. Are all forces uniting against it? No, but even the most ardent believers in welcoming Third World masses in the first world infrastructures conclude that good fences do good neighbours make or that a sound democracy requires solid territorial borders. Or does it? And what does this turn of political mind tell us about the values of Enlightenment?