Sources of opportunities used by growth minded owner managers of small and medium sized enterprises

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources and nature of opportunities used by owner-managers of small and medium size (SMEs) firms in order to grow their businesses. In addition to the owner-manager's desire for growth, clearly there needs to be both opportunities to pursue and sufficient management activities that will discover such opportunities, so that a business can grow. These opportunities may originate through some form of environmental change such as advances in technology or by exploiting changes in the marketplace, for example, the exit of a competitor.Research was carried out within twenty SMEs whose owner-manager's aimed to grow their businesses. The focus of the research was on the sources of opportunities they encountered and how and why opportunities were recognized by these firms.The key findings of this research illustrate that the majority of sources for business opportunities for SMEs in this study lie in the market place and are not a direct consequence of environmental change. Traditional marketing analysis tools can, therefore, identify significant sources and scope for growth opportunities for SMEs.     

EDI success in small and medium‐sized enterprises: A field study

This research aims to identify empirically the success factors that have allowed small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to obtain advantages from electronic data interchange (EDI). These advantages can be operational, managerial, and strategic in nature. Results of a field study done in 39 firms indicate that it is the quality of the organizational context of EDI (organizational support, implementation process, and control procedures) that is crucial to the attainment of benefits from this technology. In turn, the quality of the organizational context is higher when the small firm implements EDI voluntarily rather than having it imposed by a major client or supplier. These results are compared with those of a prior study done in a large business context.     

Foreign direct investment by small and medium sized enterprises: The theoretical background

This paper is an attempt to give a theoretical background to research on foreign direct investment by small and medium sized enterprises. Section 2 examines alternative theoretical approaches to SMEs investing abroad. Section 3 outlines the special issues which arise from SME foreign ventures and ends with an attempted synthesis of the theoretical approaches. In Section 4, a brief discussion of the nature of foreign direct investment by SMEs takes place. The paper ends with a short conclusion.     

中小企业的R＆D现状及改进对策

一、中小企业需要 R&D改革开放以来,我国的中小企业得到了迅猛的发展。第三次工业普查资料显示,我国98%的企业都是中小企业,真正的大企业只有8000家。同时,中小企业提供了75%的就业岗位,实现的销售收入占全国工业企业的60%,上缴的税收占45%。可见,中国经济还是以中小企业为主导的。但其中的大多数却还只是简单的加工业企业。随着市场规模的扩大,市场对企业的专业化程     

"复制"意大利中小企业

中国中小企业是否可以从素有"中小企业王国"之称的意大利中小企业的发展找到适合自己的"轨迹"呢?ASK工程有限公司是一家意资企业     

产业聚集：东北地区中小企业发展的路径选择

发展良好的中小企业不仅能满足多样化需求,活跃经济而且对于吸收剩余劳动力有着巨大的作用。但长期以来,东北地区中小企业的发展中存在着一些问题，而产业聚集的外部效成和集体效率可在相当程度上缓解或解决这些问题，在振兴东北工业基地的总体形势下，中小企业的发展是东北地区经济发展的重要环节，探寻适合我们的产业聚集模式不失为发展东北地区中小企业的良方之一。     

中小企业融资的12种方式

综合授信.即银行对一些经营状况好,信用可靠的企业,授予一定时期内一定金额的信贷额度,企业在有效期与额度范围内可以循环使用.综合授信额度由企业一次性申报有关材料,银行一次性审批.企业可以根据自己的营运情况分期用款,随借随还,企业借款十分方便,同时也节约了融资成本.银行采用这种方式提供贷款,一般是对有工商登记、年检合格、管理有方、信誉可靠、同银行有较长期合作关系的企业.     

给中小企业一个空间

中小企业作为国民经济的重要组成部分,对一国经济的持续、稳定和协调发展具有不容忽视的作用,保护和促进中小企业的发展是当今世界许多国家和地区特别是发达国家奉行的国家战略之一。在我国,中小企业的发展问题也日益得到人们更多的关注,在1998年国务院进行机构改革、大量减员的情况下,国家经贸委增设了专司中小企业行政管理职能的中小企业司。近年来,我国中小企业发展的宏观环境得到不断改善,但仍然存在一些不容忽视的问题。管理目前,我国对中小企业的管理还存在一定程度的混乱。虽然经贸委中小企业司是全国性的中小企业管     

Internationalisation of family small and medium sized enterprises: The role of stewardship orientation,family commitment culture and top management team

The purpose of this paper is to determine how aspects of organisational culture, typical to family businesses, influence internationalisation. Proposing that stewardship orientation, family commitment culture and top management team related factors influence internationalisation; we empirically examine 80 internationalising family SMEs (FSMEs) from the manufacturing sector in Finland. Variance based structural equation modelling (PLS) shows that family commitment culture is negatively associated with the degree of internationalisation. On the other hand strategically flexible top management teams with industry experience in FSMEs are positively associated with the degree of internationalisation. Contributing to an understanding of the internationalisation of family businesses, the findings suggest that family commitment culture and stewardship orientation, often associated with an inward orientation, may operate against internationalisation, however when coupled with the strategic flexibility of the top management team, we found stewardship orientation to positively impact internationalisation suggesting that it provides an outward orientation. Implications for practice are advanced.     

中小企业认识电子商务的十大误区

三、电子商务就是网上交易 记得在网商世界召开的一次座谈会上,当网商世界的人员介绍完其产品的功能和服务后,就有人感慨地说:"网商世界做的不是电子商务,因为他们不做网上交易."在这些人眼里,只有网上交易才是电子商务.实际上,至今对什么是电子商务都没有一个明确的定义,但是有一点是明确的,电子商务就是用Internet技术完善原有的商业模式和创造新的商业模式.     

Volatility and growth in developing economies: some numerical results and empirical evidence

This paper analyzes the effect of volatility on growth in a developing economy facing an imperfect world capital market. The analysis comprises: (i) the development of a formal framework for assessing the role of risk on growth; (ii) numerical simulation; and (iii) empirical testing of the model, using data from 61 developing economies. We find that the model plausibly replicates the equilibrium of small stylized economies subject to external and internal sources of risk. We define a benchmark economy and study the effects of various sources of risk and borrowing costs on the equilibrium growth rate, its variability, and welfare. The numerical results obtained are intuitive and supported by empirical evidence.     

The role of the internet in the internationalisation of small and medium sized companies

It is now recognised that many firms are “born global’ and initiate international business from inception or shortly thereafter. They have been influenced by both globalisation and the impact of new ICT technologies. This paper examines the role of the Internet in the internationalisation of a cross national sample of small entrepreneurial firms from Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The findings are presented, including the role of the Internet in marketing, distribution, business processes and market intelligence and competitor analysis. The role of the Internet as a knowledge building tool is discussed, and areas for future research are presented.     

Modeling economic growth with tourism for small open economies

The purpose of the paper is to develop an economic growth model and analyze the impact of changes in tourists’ income on the growth of tourism dependent small open economies. We use a general theoretical construct to answer the question of how the price elasticity of tourism demand, income elasticity of tourism demand, and the concentration in the service sector influence the economic development of small economies. One of the main results is that the policy planners in small open economies may consider specific policies to influence the strength of market competition. An ensuing effect of such policies is that the labor incomes will increase. The approach provides a microeconomic foundation for macroeconomic modeling which can be used for applied research, and the model can be easily extended to examine other dimensions of economic development.     

对我国中小企业会计制度的建议与思考

随着我国经济的不断发展,中小企业会计制度发挥了越来越重要的作用.科学有效的会计制度,是企业实现现代化管理目标的有力保障.中小企业如何实现可持续发展,已成为社会共同关注的话题.     

Network ties and export propensity of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises

This paper investigates the impacts of different network ties on export propensity of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. Using data from a survey of over 2,600 manufacturing SMEs in 2015, we found that social networks contribute positively to the export propensity of SMEs, while the size of business networks negatively associates with the likelihood of export. However, bank networks and political networks are not significant for the propensity to export of Vietnamese SMEs. We discuss the results in detail and offer recommendations for SME owners, managers and policy makers.