Abstract

Włodzimierz Sroka was a renowned academic specialising in the areas of strategic management, strategic alliances, innovation and entrepreneurship, and corporate social responsibility. His career was highly dynamic, and his activities were wide-ranging and multifaceted. He graduated from the University of Economics in Katowice, where he defended his doctoral thesis in management sciences in 1999. In 2012, he was awarded the title of Doctor Habilitatus of Economic Sciences at the University of Žilina on the basis of his dissertation entitled Management as the Key Success Factor of Alliance Networks. For the past 24 years, Professor Sroka was associated with WSB University, where he held the positions of Professor, Vice-Rector for Science, Deputy Head of the Department of Management, and Editor-in-Chief of Forum Scientiae Oeconomia. At his Alma Mater, Professor Sroka fulfilled numerous organisational and scientific tasks, e.g. as a supervisor of doctoral theses, reviewer in promotion proceedings, manager of research grants, mentor and academic tutor, and chairman of university committees. A special role in Professor Sroka’s achievements was played by activities carried out internationally: he was an animator, initiator and great promoter of the internationalisation of research as well as broad academic cooperation. His important work was a series of international scientific conferences under the common title “New trends in management and production engineering – regional, cross-border and global perspective”, which have taken place continuously at WSB University since 2014. Those events (as well as post-conference materials published in renowned scientific periodicals) have attracted the attention of world-class researchers from six continents each year.