Best practice interventions: Short-term impact and long-term outcomes

This paper uses empirical field research to examine whether short-term best practice interventions (BPIs) can lead to improvements that are sustained in the long term. In addition, this research investigates the implied conflict between striving for short-term results and achieving long-term development of capabilities. It also examines the tension between the lack of resources of the typical small and medium sized enterprise (SME) users of BPIs and the time required to develop a critical mass of capability. A longitudinal case-based study of eight SME contexts examined BPI outcomes and factors leading to short- and long-term success and sustaining best practices. The research identifies factors related to the intervention context, implementation and change-agent approach. The data indicate that in resource-limited SMEs BPIs are limited in their ability to develop adequate capability for long-term change.     

External linkages and product innovation in small manufacturing firms

The requirement for small firms to collaborate, as a means to supplementing and complementing limited internal resources, has dominated much of the academic and policy debate on regional development and small firm innovation throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. However, relatively little empirical work has sought to look further than simple frequency enumeration - noting that the most innovative and better performing firms are generally more likely to have links with external organizations. Based upon a sample of 228 small West Midlands' manufacturers, this study considers the source, function, geography and strength of innovation-related co-operation. While the general findings point to innovators making greater use of external linkages, of certain types and in particular directions (notably the preponderance of vertical value chain linkages), the results are less emphatic than might have been anticipated. This leads to consideration of the factors contributing to and impeding joint innovation and the firms' perceptions of the impact of innovation. From this, it appears that much of the observed difference between innovators and non-innovators lies in less objective measures. The data suggest the importance of inter-personal dynamics, attitude and expectations in facilitating successful collaboration.     

Small enterprises as complex adaptive systems: a methodological question?

Complexity science constitutes an emerging post-positivist interdisciplinary field of investigation of dynamical systems in the natural and physical worlds. The central concept of complexity is that interactions between parts of open systems create novel, unpredictable patterns, and that while the history of the system is relevant in understanding its dynamic, the isolation of individual parts of the system (analysis) does not reveal the casual mechanisms in the system. It is suggested that complexity science can inform our methodologies for investigating the social sciences. The paper explores whether complexity science offers ways of theory building that can take account of pluralistic or interdisciplinary research in enterprise dynamics. The authors offer a model of six theorized ontological layers, derived from the canon of research literature within a small enterprise domain, with boundaries at each end. It is suggested that dynamical concepts of agency (adaption, evolution, fitness, interdependence) coupled with the theory of evolutionary autopoietic structures generate a plausible field for the study of enterprise dynamics. A focus on ontological and experimental adequacy is necessary to develop theory within this framework. An appropriate methodology involves iterations between experimental forms of scientific analysis and the grounding of emergent or evolving theories.     

对如何破解贵州省中小企业融资瓶颈的几点思考

改革开放以来,贵州省中小企业取得了较快的发展,但与经济发达地区相比仍然存在着很大的差距.本文对贵州省中小企业的融资现状与融资难的原因进行了阐述与分析,并在此基础上有针对性地提出了破解贵州省中小企业融资瓶颈的几点对策.     

Airport stops and flights on small airplanes as inhibitors of tourism-related air travel: A case study

This article discusses the extent to which prospective tourists' concerns about airport stops and flights on small airplanes inhibit air travel to tourist destinations, drawing on data from telephone surveys conducted in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas area. Respondents were queried about the extent to which one airport stop, two airport stops, and one airport stop followed by a flight on a small, propeller-powered airplane, respectively, would deter them from flying to a destination 1096 miles (1764 km) away. Findings suggest that marketers of similar destinations in similarly distant markets that are accessible by air only after two airport stops risk having their promotional appeals ignored by roughly half those who would prefer to reach such destinations by air. Moreover, those most concerned about such flight schedules were more likely than other respondents to have high incomes and to use the Internet to obtain vacation or travel information.     

我国中小企业实施ERP的问题及解决方法

中国加入WTO之后，企业的竞争环境发生了根本的变化，全球化、信息化、过剩的经济时代的到来，要求企业必须建立高效、动态的快速反应系统，信息化是企业的必然选择，也是提升企业竞争力的利器和手段。近年来，ERP市场如火如茶，许多企业已购买并使用ERP产品，但企业实施ERP难点多、矛盾多、不可控因素多，实施ERP并获得成功的企业甚少。本文针对当前我国中小企业实施ERP中存在问题进行了深入分析，存在的问题主要有企业的高层对实施ERP的目标不明确；错误地把上马ERP当作万能工具；企业基础管理薄弱，普遍存在无法可依、有法不依的现象：缺乏相应的ERP实施人才。并针对这些问题提出了相应解决办法，实施企业必须明确ERP项目实施的目标并制定实施项目的总目标、分目标与分阶段目标；考察和选择ERP厂商；必须有一批精通ERP管理思想、掌握软件技术，同时又有在中国环境下组织实施ERP项目经验的实施顾问队伍：重视培训，并贯穿始终：ERP实施阶段需要领导强有力推进和各方协调。     

论中小企业的市场营销策略

随着国民经济的不断发展和综合国力的不断增强,我国的中小企业在市场营销的发展方面取得了长足的进步,但在市场营销方面还存在标准不统一,不规范,融资困难,管理混乱,缺少人才,现代企业制度难以建立等问题。要全面提升我国中小企业的营销能力,应通过政策性融资安排,促进商业性金融的开展,发挥中小型商业融资组织在其中的重要作用,企业要着重抓好成本管理、财务管理和质量管理,建立一个有效的吸引人才的机制,进行产权改革,使之适应经济发展。     

最大债权国困境与人民币国际化关系研究

对外汇储备额居世界首位的中国而言,除美国国债外,并无其它合适的投资形式可以满足中国外汇储备管理要求,中国成为美国国债的最大持有国是一种无奈的选择。中国因此陷入了最大债权国困境,增持、减持左右为难。解决最大债权国困境的金融策略在于人民币国际化,跨境贸易人民币结算走出了正确一步,但需解决境外人民币供给与需求意愿的现实障碍,加快人民币国际化进程。     

中小企业融资难的现实选择

中小企业在我国国民经济发展中的作用越来越大，但在发展过程中也存在许多问题，特别是融资难问题，成为制约中小企业发展的主要障碍。由此，分析了中小企业融资难的原因，提出解决中小企业融资难的建议。     

中小民营企业与关系型融资——基于濮院羊毛衫产业的实证研究

信贷市场的信息不对称导致了中小民营企业面临着严重的信贷约束,关系型融资是解决中小民营企业信贷约束的一种方式.拳文运用濮院羊毛衫产业的调研数据,检验了地缘性和事缘性关系对中小民营企业获得融资的影响.研究结果表明中小民营企业家在本地创业面临的信贷约束较低;此外,企业家在日常经营过程中积累的事缘性关系有助于其获得正式和非正式的融资.进一步的计量检验支持了我们的假设.