The world stands on the threshold of a new age of technology, which will launch a fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). According to this idea, web-based network will support smart factories at every stage of the work on the product, from design through to servicing and recycling. It is a vision of a world in which the real environment connects to the digital one using follows driving forces: Internet of things, cloud computing, big data, cyber-physical systems, and others. The Industry 4.0 concept is based on developing smart chains preparation based on communicating with each other means of production, products, components, plants, humans. Established in Germany, the concept of Industry 4.0, is the brainchild – its beginning reaches 2011. It is therefore fraught with high level of uncertainty in many aspects (economic, social, technological, legal, etc.). The main aim of this article is to analyze different dimensions of uncertainty regarding the Industry 4.0, both in terms of opportunities and threats. Due to the freshness of the topic and the great complexity of the Industry 4.0 phenomenon, the main aim of the article is to identify potential areas requiring the necessary research in order minimizing negative – today uncertain – effects occurring in both the design concept Industry 4.0 as well as during its functioning.

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Since the end of the twentieth century there is a noticeable worldwide paradigm shift in future studies which are so far based mainly on statistical methods. The development of a social, not only a strictly scientific vision of the future has become crucial. It appears that the biggest role in this context played technology foresight programs (whose origins go back even to the 70's), integrating traditional methods of forecasting as well as those derived from the social sciences, economics, management science, etc. The paper presents a rich collection of foresight methods identified by the author, a general outline and characteristics of various types of methods, and an innovative classification of technology foresight research methods. Because of the huge complexity of the approach to technological foresight and its further evolution, the ability to classify and identify the typology of methods may be necessary for an orderly and rational way of structuring foresight projects. Santrauka Nuo XX a. pabaigos visame pasaulyje ateities studijos daugiausia rėmėsi statistiniais metodais. Svarbi tapo socialinės raidos ne tik griežtai mokslinė ateities vizija. Didelis vaidmuo čia atiteko technologijų prognozavimo metodams (jų ištakos siekia aštuntąjį dešimtmetį), integruojantiems tradicinius prognozavimo metodus ir metodus, pasiskolintus iš socialinių, ekonomikos, vadybos ir kitų mokslų. Autorius pateikia ilgą prognozavimo metodų sąrašą, bendrus jų bruožus ir charakteristikas, taip pat siūlo novatorišką technologijų prognozavimo metodų klasifikaciją. Prognozavimo metodai tampa vis sudėtingesni, jie evoliucionuoja, todėl metodų klasifikacija ir tipologija gali praversti struktūrizuojant prognozes.

The multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) utility-determining techniques are considered to be new development techniques that have been recently presented, extended and used by some scholars. In the current work, an attempt is made to present a systematic review of methodologies and applications of the MCDM utilitydetermining techniques discussed in recent years. The researchers reviewed 86 papers, describing the use of the MCDM utility-determining techniques, which were published in the period 2004-2015 in more than 42 scientific journals. They mainly refer to the area of management and are extracted from online databases, such as Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. According to the classification used by the researchers, the papers were grouped based on the five main MCDM utility-determining techniques, including stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA), the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS), the additive ratio assessment (ARAS), the method of complex proportional assessment (COPRAS), multi-objective optimisation by ratio analysis (MOORA) and MULTIMOORA (MOORA plus a full multiplicative form). Furthermore, the papers were categorised taking into account their authors, publication date, journal name, the technique and method used, research objectives, research gap and problem, solution and modelling and, finally, the results and findings. The results of this study show that, in 2013, scholars published more papers on the MCDM utility-determining techniques than in other years. It is also worth noting that a group of COPRAS methods (COPRAS-Grey and COPRAS-Fuzzy) was ranked number one among the methods used in this area. With regard to journals, the Journal of Civil Engineering and Management was ranked first in the list of journals, which contributed to this review.

T he rapid transformation of the socioeconomic, political, and technological context predetermines changes in the expectations for higher education institutions which face numerous profound challenges. In order to survive and develop under changing conditions, universities need to drastically rethink their development strategies. This paper substantiates the effectiveness of using foresight for these purposes, which is confirmed by the experience of a project on the development of scenarios for the Faculty Кeywords: foresight; scenarios; higher education institution; strategy; management; engineering. of Engineering Management (FEM) at Bialystok Technical University (Poland) for the period up to 2035. This enquiry has resulted in compiling four alternative visions for FEM. By analyzing them one can gain valuable knowledge on both preferable and lessfavored alternatives, which on the one hand suggest which actions may lead to their realization, and on the other, indicate specific actions that may lead to the abandonment of undesirable paths in favor of the most conducive vision.