中小企业技术创新的市场激励——基于江苏省264家企业的实证分析

技术创新是推动中小企业发展的关键因素。中小企业技术水平呈不断提高态势,但总体而言其技术创新能力仍然较低。对江苏省264家企业的问卷分析表明,市场激励不足是中小企业技术创新能力较低的根本原因。如果市场体系和市场机制不完善,不正当竞争行为得不到制止,技术创新的权益得不到保护,企业就不愿花力气进行技术创新。因而,只有建立完善的市场体系,健全市场激励机制,中小企业技术创新才能获得最大化的激励动力。     

武汉城市圈中小企业如何实现规模经济

实现规模经济是武汉城市圈中小企业不断发展壮大的一条重要途经。武汉城市圈内各级政府和中小企业要根据企业的发展状况与基本特征,努力跨越实现规模经济的主要障碍,充分利用武汉城市圈作为"两型社会"试验区的发展机遇,既要实现内在的规模经济,也要实现外在的规模经济。     

Employment relations in small- and medium-sized enterprises: insights from Ghana

This study examines employment relations in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. This is done through in-depth case studies of three private firms in the service sector. A review of the extant literature on SMEs revealed a dearth of knowledge on employment relations in SMEs in Africa. Previous research into SMEs in developing countries – and Africa in particular – has focused on economic policy initiatives, problems in raising capital and obstacles to the development of SMEs. In an attempt to fill the gap in the literature, this study uses recruitment, selection and retention, remuneration, discipline and welfare practices to explore the nature of employment relations, the factors that influence and shape them, and the extent of informality involved. The findings cast doubt on the stereotype: small implies/equals informal employment relations in SMEs in Ghana. The study also identifies the factors that influence employment relations and, in addition, reveals that under competitive pressures, SMEs have developed employment relations systems that enable them to have a competitive advantage in their product market/service delivery.     

A policy perspective on incremental innovation in small and medium sized enterprises

The increased importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in industrial economies is explained and the very large variance in their degree of participation in the innovation process is established. Evidence from Canadian research clarifies the difficulties that smidl and medium sized firms, even in technology intensive industries, experience in developing new products and implementing new designs. Innovation theory is reviewed and the importance of inputs from specialist consultants is established for SMEs undertaking incremental innovation. Transaction costs concepts are then used to explain the difficulties SMEs encounter in arranging these linkages. A recommended form of policy to help to correct this type of market imperfection is derived and used to describe a gap in Canadian policies and to evaluate initiatives in Australia and UK.     

New product development in foreign customer relationships: a study of international SMEs

Abstract

This study identifies a gap in research concerning how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from pursuing locally (rather than globally) oriented internationalization strategies. Becoming overly dependent on one single foreign market could potentially reduce the inflow and diversity of new knowledge that can serve as input for new product development. This study discusses how this risk can be minimized. In this endeavour we create a theoretical model that investigates how the local sales concentration and relationship-specific commitment of SMEs relates to new product development. To do this we draw on the behavioural internationalization process framework. The theoretical model is tested on an effective sample of 188 Swedish SMEs. The results show that relationship-specific commitment mediates the effect of local sales concentration on new product development. The implication is that investments which enable collaboration in important business relationships are crucial requisites for keeping firms innovative and in pace with market fluctuations. The findings thus contribute to international business literature by showing that a local market scope of operations combined with a relationship orientation are beneficial for new product development in international SMEs.     

International entrepreneurial orientation and regional expansion

Abstract

This study examines how behavioral elements of international entrepreneurial orientation (i.e. product innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy) increase variability in scope of regional market expansion, and the international marketing channel management conditions under which this occurs. Results from an empirical study in a developing market show that not all behavioral elements of international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) increase scope of regional expansion. The study specifically finds that scope of regional expansion is fostered when high levels of product innovation intensity, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomous behaviors are aligned with a stronger channel management capability. Conversely, the regional expansion values of product innovation novelty and proactiveness are cancelled out when channel management capability levels are high.     

Product Innovation,Credit Constraints,and Trade Credit: Evidence from a Cross‐country Study

This paper studies the relationship between trade credit and innovation. Although trade credit is well researched in the finance literature, its link to innovation has been neglected in prior research. We argue that innovative small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are more likely to use trade credit than non‐innovative SMEs because of credit constraints and that business partners may have incentives to offer trade credit especially to SMEs with product innovations. The relationship between product innovation and trade credit is empirically examined using a sample of SMEs from 15 European countries. The results of an econometric analysis confirm a positive relationship between innovation and trade credit. In particular, SMEs with product innovations have a higher probability of using trade credit than other SMEs. Moreover, the results suggest that the effect of product innovation is only statistically significant if SMEs report that access to financing or cost of financing are obstacles for the operation and growth of their businesses. Hence, the results point to the relevance of trade credit as a source of short‐term external finance for innovative SMEs that are credit constrained. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中小企业探索性创新和开发性创新的理论构建及假设

随着资源环境的压力和竞争的日趋激烈,创新对于我国中小企业的生存和发展尤为重要。探索性创新和开发性创新作为创新的两种方式,对企业维持现有的经营和未来的发展起到至关重要的作用。我国中小企业应通过变革组织结构、营造组织文化、建立合理的奖励制度、积极进行工业升级来激发企业的探索性创新和开发性创新能力。在此过程中,企业既要注重新产品开发创新,又要注重市场创新,发挥二元创新的效力,才能在激烈的竞争中求得生存和发展。     

简述促进中小企业自主创新的财税政策

中小企业对我国经济的发展起着举足轻重的作用,但是由于中小企业的建立和发展是在我国从计划经济向市场经济转轨过程中诞生及成长起来的,因此还属于新生事物。如何制定促进中小企业自主创新的财税政策,是摆在各级政府面前的首要任务之一。     

论中小企业技术创新

技术创新是提升企业竞争力的重要途径。本文探讨了影响我国中小企业技术创新的因素,提出了鼓励中小企业技术创新应采取的措施。     

简述促进中小企业自主创新的财税政策

中小企业对我国经济的发展起着举足轻重的作用,但是由于中小企业的建立和发展是在我国从计划经济向市场经济转轨过程中诞生及成长起来的,因此还属于新生事物。如何制定促进中小企业自主创新的财税政策,是摆在各级政府面前的首要任务之一。     

Default rates in the loan market for SMEs: Evidence from Slovakia

Financial markets in emerging economies are often perceived as more risky than those in developed countries. We investigate whether this is true for loans to SMEs using a unique unbalanced panel of nearly 700 loans made to SMEs in Slovakia between 2000 and 2005. Several probit and panel probit models show that liquidity and profitability factors are important determinants of SME defaults. Moreover, we find that indebtedness significantly increases the probability of default. Liability as proxied by the legal form of SMEs has important incentive effects. Finally, there exist significant differences between sectors. We show that default rates and factors converged to values found in developed financial markets.     

Open innovation in SMEs: Trends,motives and management challenges

Open innovation has so far been studied mainly in high-tech, multinational enterprises. This exploratory paper investigates if open innovation practices are also applied by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on a database collected from 605 innovative SMEs in the Netherlands, we explore the incidence of and apparent trend towards open innovation. The survey furthermore focuses on the motives and perceived challenges when SMEs adopt open innovation practices. Within the survey, open innovation is measured with eight innovation practices reflecting technology exploration and exploitation in SMEs. We find that the responding SMEs engage in many open innovation practices and have increasingly adopted such practices during the past 7 years. In addition, we find no major differences between manufacturing and services industries, but medium-sized firms are on average more heavily involved in open innovation than their smaller counterparts. We furthermore find that SMEs pursue open innovation primarily for market-related motives such as meeting customer demands, or keeping up with competitors. Their most important challenges relate to organizational and cultural issues as a consequence of dealing with increased external contacts.     

民营中小企业可持续发展与制度创新

作为我国民营企业的重要组成部分,民营中小企业的发展状况对我国国民经济全局产生重要影响。对于广大民营中小企业而言,制度对其健康有序发展意义重大。文章阐述了民营中小企业几大突出特征,全面阐述了民营中小企业可持续发展与制度创新策略。     

中小企业技术创新服务体系建设探析

构建中小企业技术创新服务体系是促进企业技术创新和推动技术进步的重要条件,能否建立起功能完善、运作高效的中小企业技术创新服务体系,直接关系到中小企业技术创新的进度和成效。因此,只有建立完善、协作的中小企业技术创新服务体系,才能提高企业的自主创新能力。     

The impact of opportunity connectedness on innovation in SMEs’ foreign-market relationships

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use of business networks has grown significantly during the last decades, partly due to increasingly complex innovation processes. This article investigates how different kinds of networks, depending on location, contextualize innovation in specific foreign market business relationships. Building on internationalization, network, and innovation research we develop a model that views opportunity connectedness in specific host-markets, home-markets, and other international markets as prerequisites to innovative collaboration and innovation outcomes in foreign business relationships. The results of our linear structural relations (LISREL) analysis of Swedish SMEs provide empirical evidence that the effect of opportunity connectedness on innovation outcomes in foreign business relationships is mediated by the level of innovative collaboration. These results indicate that SMEs need a relatively higher level of innovative collaboration in their partnerships with foreign market customers to convert opportunities conceived in home- and international- market networks into innovative outcomes in comparison to opportunities conceived in host-market networks. This finding implies that as opportunities become increasingly contextually remote, the importance of collaborative business relationships increases. By showing these results, the study contributes to research in the international small-business domain that seeks to identify important prerequisites of SME innovation.     

Corporate sustainability and innovation in SMEs: Evidence of themes and activities in practice

Recently, innovation processes towards sustainable development have received increasing attention in academic literature. This research introduces the combination of insights from innovation theory, sustainable development practice and small business characteristics to unlock new knowledge on factors that influence the translation of sustainable innovation within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) into practice. The sustainability themes and activities as described for large companies (i.e. in the sustainability reporting and management literature) were used as starting point in this study. It presents empiric results of the PRIMA Project conducted within the rubber and plastics industry (RPI) on sustainable innovation activities. It will show that many sustainable innovations are directed at the improvement of technological processes (eco‐efficiency) and to lower costs of production. These innovations can be seen as incremental. Companies with sustainability integrated in their orientation and innovation processes show value creation: the development of products new to the market (radical innovations) and cooperation with stakeholders. The PRIMA project shows that more insight in SME innovative characteristics and (e)valuation of sustainable innovation efforts provides opportunities to improve the sustainability performance of SMEs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The Bribery Paradox in Transition Economies and the Enactment of ‘New Normal’ Business Environments

We develop a novel, sense-making perspective on corruption in transition economies. Prior research has focused on understanding why some entrepreneurs are more likely to pay bribes than others. It typically assumes that paying bribes will lead to an intended – albeit unfair – competitive advantage. We challenge this assumption and uncover a bribery paradox: drawing upon sense-making logic, we argue that beyond gaining an immediate benefit from bribing, entrepreneurs who frequently pay bribes may in the longer run be enacting a ‘new normal’ business environment perceived as high in obstacles, especially in transition countries. As sense making is grounded in identity construction and one’s social context, we argue that owners of family firms will be especially vulnerable to the dangers of perceiving greater obstacles over time and enacting an obstacle-ridden ‘new normal’ business environment. We find empirical support for our framework on a sample of 310 privately held small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 22 transition economies.     

民营企业制度创新研究

随着我国市场经济体制的建立和完善,中小民营企业得到了迅速发展,不仅成为推动我国国民经济持续、稳定、快速增长的重要力量,而且在调整经济结构、扩大社会就业、发展地方经济、增加财政收入等方面发挥着重要的作用。同时,中小民营企业也是配合大型企业改革和发展、促进技术创新和科技成果转化、加快小城镇建设和农业产业化的重要力量,蕴藏着极大发展潜力。目前,中小民营企业已成为我国经济发展中一支最为活跃的力量,在整个国民经济中的重要地位和作用更加突出。     

浅谈经济危机下中小企业的内部风险控制

当前金融危机仍在蔓延,并且已经导致了国内大批中小企业的倒闭,中小企业只有加快建立内部风险控制机制,才能不断提高自身的抗击金融危机冲击的能力,不断提升自身的竞争力。企业风险的形成主要有外部环境和内部风险因素构成。内部风险控制系统主要包括:市场风险控制,投资风险控制,存货风险控制,融资风险控制,资金回收风险控制和技术风险控制。这些系统的建立对中小企业尤其重要。市场风险控制包括市场营运能力,生产控制能力,技术创新能力。投资风险控制主要是指选好项目,做好评估和储备财力。不良存货风险预控,存货价格风险预控,存货规模风险预控则是构成存货风险控制的主要部分。融资风险控制包括完善自身治理能力,增强银行融资能力;创造条件争取从社会募资;处理好中长期贷款的结构;多利用商业信用和折扣等。资金回收风险控制主要关注客户档案的建立管理和信用的管理。技术风险的控制主要通过一是参与科技保险或项目保险,二是在技术创新项目中吸收技术风险投资,使技术风险的损失得到合理分摊。中小企业只有通过不断完善对自己内部风险的管理控制,全面提升风险应对能力,就能呈现出更强的活力。