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.     

Determinants of environmental innovations supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises sustainable development

Enterprises are increasingly required to improve their environmental performances. The adoption of environmental innovations (EIs) is believed a way to achieve this goal. So a flourishing debate about the determinants supporting investment in EIs arose. Researchers have thus far paid attention mainly to established manufacturing firms operating in traditional sectors. Hence, scientific literature recommends deepening the behavior of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because of the role they play in the productive systems in many Western countries. With this in mind, this study investigates a probabilistic sample of 222 innovative SMEs using the partial least squares and importance–performance map analysis in order to identify the factors affecting their propensity to invest in EIs. Findings show that the propensity results are affected by the firms' environmental awareness, company staff, and capabilities, among the internal factors, whereas among the external ones, the propensity is affected by norms and regulations. An important role is also played by the hope to improve their economic and environmental performances. Monetary and fiscal incentives reveal not to be significant. Consequently, policies should firstly propose an appropriate mix of regulations and stimuli following two directions: a compliance direction to more stringent regulations and rules to be followed through the imposition of penalties and a cultural direction aiming at improving environmental awareness of SMEs about the desirability of pursuing EIs for both ethical and economic reasons, given the potential benefits associated with such innovations.     

Receptivity of India's small and medium-sized enterprises to information system adoption

This study surveys the receptivity of India's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the adoption of information systems (IS). Utilising a portion of Rogers' model of innovation diffusion as the framework, and treating IS as a form of new innovation, this study analyses factors affecting IS diffusion. A multiple regression analysis is carried out, with the five attributes of innovation highlighted by Rogers, to determine the attributes that affect the willingness to adopt. Out of the five factors affecting the adoption of IS by SMEs, only relative advantage, compatibility and trialability appear significant, with the overall regression explaining around 39% of willingness to adopt.     

Organizational commitment in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises: the role of extrinsic,intrinsic and social rewards

In this paper, there is an assessment of the likelihood of the social dimension of the 1992 EC programme amounting to a new model of social development for the community. The conclusion is that the centripetal forces required for the creation of a fully fledged social union are absent from the integration process. Hence, despite the upsurge of Europeanization, considerable centrifugal forces remain inside the Community, preventing the immediate enactment of a big policy model. Above all, no heavy intrusion is likely to occur into existing national systems of welfare and labour market regulation.     

The involvement of small- and medium-sized enterprises in public procurement: Impact of resource perceptions,electronic systems and enterprise size

The importance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as employers and suppliers is high, and there are studies that evaluate the benefits of having SMEs as suppliers. The challenges of SMEs as buyers have been explored, but there is little research on the obstacles that SMEs encounter as suppliers. This article focuses on the implications of perceived resources, electronic systems and enterprise size. It uses survey data to analyze what type of resources and characteristics in particular influence the involvement of SMEs in public procurement. The results of hypothesis testing show that perceived lack of resources especially in legal expertise and administration is associated with low SME involvement. By analyzing suppliers to municipalities and state organizations separately, it is found that lack of electronic systems in order processing and invoicing is related with low involvement of SMEs in state procurement. In short, this article contributes to the current knowledge on SMEs and public procurement by demonstrating the influence of resource perceptions and electronic systems on SME involvement and by pointing out the differences between the two levels of public sector actors (municipalities and state organizations).     

Organising international supplier relations: An exploratory study of Western purchasing in China

This paper analyses Western purchasing in China in order to investigate the motives for sourcing, the specific requirements of the area and, in particular, the base and features of supplier relationships. It reports recent experiences of seven companies based in Finland, including two global companies, two units with foreign ownership and three Finnish SMEs. Prevalent in Chinese sourcing are long-term supplier relations, but no partnership relations have been established. The companies build their supplier relations gradually and they all emphasise a long-term viewpoint to Chinese sourcing. Commitment of the Chinese partner is a key challenge, overcoming of which would help companies to avoid and solve, e.g. quality problems. The study shows that, for the Western supply personnel, key competences and tools for bridging the psychic distance are social skills and interest in the Chinese culture.     

Drivers,adoption, and evaluation of sustainability practices in Italian wine SMEs

Based on a survey with 64 small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in two Italian wine regions, this study aims to (a) identify key drivers and barriers of the adoption of sustainability and (b) compare the adoption and evaluation (use, financial/labor investments, and satisfaction) of sustainability practices in four management domains (marketing, chain, operational, and innovation). Results show that internal drivers were considered to be more important than external drivers. Economic sustainability‐oriented drivers scored significantly lower than drivers related to other dimensions, such as environmental sustainability and heritage. Key barriers refer to labor and investments costs, as well as concerns about greenwashing. Although there are substantial differences in adoption and evaluation of sustainability practices within and between management domains, this study confirms their widespread adoption in wineries. Among users, satisfaction levels outweigh the perceived investments. Except for innovation management practices, financial investments are considered to be lower than labor investments. Positive correlations between use‐satisfaction (within each management domain) and between investments or satisfaction levels (between management domains) further lend support for producers' adoption of multiple practices. At sustainability dimension level, heritage is negatively correlated with the evaluation indicators, indicating that it may act as a potential barrier to some sustainability practices. Segmentation analysis identified a low (30%) and high sustainability clusters (70%), which differ significantly in terms of sustainability perceptions and drivers, adoption, and evaluation of practices, as well as company characteristics. Future research needs to validate the findings on SMEs, compare our measures with more objective evaluation indicators, future adoption rates, and multidimensional sustainability practices.     

Understanding the adoption of socially responsible supplier development practices using institutional theory: Dairy supply chains in India

Supplier development (SD) initiatives play an important role in building buyer-supplier capacities to deal with social and economic performance. The aim of this paper is to explain the motivations behind the adoption of similar SD strategies to address sustainability (particularly social issues) occurring in local supply chains of a developing country. We compare the economic and social variants of institutional theory to investigate whether efficiency or legitimacy seeking drives the adoption (and copying) of SD practices. Twelve case studies involving private and cooperative dairies were conducted in India via semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that both private and cooperative dairies adopt similar SD practices to build supplier capabilities and improve social and economic performance of buyers and suppliers. Private dairies imitate SD practices of the cooperatives to survive the competition; i.e., economic performance is the main reason behind their isomorphism. Cooperatives, on the other hand, take up SD practices more for legitimacy and even philanthropic reasons; though also partly note the long-term economic benefits from developing the supplier community. These findings can be used both by practitioners and researchers to gain valuable insights into the reasons driving organisational isomorphism in social sustainability practices from a developing country perspective, something rarely done so far in the literature.     

The purchasing market entry process—A study of 10 Swedish industrial small and medium-sized enterprises

While an area of importance and concern to managers, international purchasing remains an under researched phenomenon, especially in the context of small and medium-sized firms. Therefore, this article presents a study of the international purchasing market entry processes of 10 industrial SMEs. The findings indicate that managers of SMEs are often reluctant to source abroad. Purchasing markets entries are generally more reactive than proactive, occurring as a consequence of needs for certain products that cannot be found domestically, high domestic costs, unsolicited opportunities and pressures from owners and customers. Nearby purchasing markets typically dominate throughout the process unless cost savings motivate firms to explore more remote markets.     

Sustainability and legitimacy theory: The case of sustainable social and environmental practices of small and medium-sized enterprises

The aim of this paper is to identify and gain insights into small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) rationales (why) for engaging in sustainable social and environmental practices (SEPs) that influence social and environmental policy and sustainability changes. Specifically, we depart from the predominately quantitative-orientated SEPs literature by conducting in-depth interviews and analysis of owners and managers of SMEs in the United Kingdom within a legitimacy theoretical framework. Our findings from a comprehensive number of interviewees show that SMEs employ a complex mix of both symbolic and substantive SEPs with the aim of enhancing the legitimacy and sustainability of their operations. The results emphasise the strengths of social engagement, reputation and image, environmental embeddedness, industry differentiation and education facilitators. In particular, the paper shows that legitimating strategies can have a dual purpose of being symbolic in nature but also inferring a substantive legitimacy claim. Evidence of SMEs maintaining their legitimacy position stretches further via either a moral and/or a pragmatic standpoint.     

Strategic marketing practices and the performance of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan

This paper reports on a survey of the strategic marketing practices of 218 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan. The survey's results indicate that while the higher performing Taiwanese SMEs give a higher priority to marketing than to other business functions in corporate planning, they are still sales- or production-oriented. The higher performing Taiwanese SMEs are more aware of strategic planning tools, but they make less use of them. They compete with value-added products and good buyer-seller relationships. The findings suggest that broad, small firm marketing principles, specifically generated from countries in the West, to some extent contribute to the success of Taiwanese SMEs. Interestingly, however, the specific marketing practices of these small firms are different from those of their Western counterparts. The research results provide additional evidence to support the theory that both Chinese cultural value orientations and mediating environmental factors play significant roles in shaping the attitudes and behaviour of Taiwanese owner-managers and, in turn, the marketing practices of Taiwanese SMEs.     

How to achieve cost savings and strategic performance in purchasing simultaneously: A knowledge-based view

The competitive advantage purchasing provides has been debated for decades. For a novel perspective we derive a theoretical framework grounded in the knowledge-based view in order to examine how purchasing knowledge and purchasing integration impact cost and strategic performance. The derived hypotheses are tested based on extensive secondary data from a large European multinational utility company. The 179 studied ‘purchasing-internal client relationships’ contain real contracted savings data and internal client ratings of purchasing knowledge, purchasing integration and strategic purchasing performance. We show that purchasing knowledge is a major antecedent for both savings and strategic purchasing performance. This effect is further amplified by purchasing integration. With this study, we extend the understanding of the purchasing knowledge–performance link. We conclude that purchasing knowledge becomes particularly valuable when combined with other functions' processes through purchasing integration. This causal chain is also supported through general knowledge-based view theory. Moreover, we provide numerical evidence of the value of knowledge creation and integration processes to purchasing professionals in our managerial implications based on results obtained from actual purchasing savings data.     

Levels of strategic purchasing: Impact on supply integration and performance

The growing importance of supply chain management has led to an increasing recognition of the strategic role of purchasing, which has recently evolved and expanded from “buying” to “procurement” and “supply management”. In this study, we chart our sample firms’ advance in strategic purchasing, characterized by the strategic focus, strategic involvement of the purchasing function and the status and visibility of the purchasing professionals, into three stages.This study provides strong empirical support for the importance of strategic purchasing by showing that, by moving towards the more advanced stages, firms at the nascent stage of strategic purchasing can achieve better supply integration, a second-order construct composed of four facets of relational, process, information, and cross-organizational team integration. Our analyses further reveal that strategic purchasing can have a profound impact on supply chain performance for both buyer and supplier firms.     

浅析中小型企业如何提高竞争力

文章通过对我国中小型企业发展的现状和存在的问题进行研究分析,探寻提高中小企业核心竞争力的对策措施,进而使我国的中小企业在竞争中更具优势,使之在市场竞争中取胜。     

An examination of strategic supply management benefits and performance implications

There has been a growing body of literature documenting the impact of strategic supply management on firm performance. Yet, despite of its importance, there has been little research on how this impact is achieved from a social network perspective and on the link between strategic supply management and customer responsiveness. This study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model employing two increasingly important constructs that reflect intermediate benefits of having a strategic supply management function: relational embeddedness and network scanning. We then explore the relationships between those intermediate benefits and customer responsiveness using structural equation modeling from a sample of 204 US manufacturing firms. The research findings indicate that organizations engaging in strategic supply management are able to directly achieve greater levels of customer responsiveness by scanning their supply base network, and indirectly by having socially embedded relationship ties with those suppliers.     

Purchasing management in the luxury industry: organization and practices

Traditional supply chain models were developed mainly for non-luxury companies and find very little correspondence in the field of luxury, which is considered here as a business super-area including heterogeneous enterprises, belonging to different sectors, which have in common customers characterized by the “need for luxury”. The objective of this paper is to investigate, through a multiple case-study research, peculiar purchasing and supply management practices put in place by luxury firms and to provide a classification of the most recurring approaches. Relevant dimensions (i.e. product complexity and sale volume) to classify luxury firms practices have been used: as a result, four groups of companies have been identified and their purchasing practices described.     

Linking green purchasing capabilities to environmental and economic performance: The moderating role of firm size

This study identifies firms’ green purchasing capabilities, classified into operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities, and measures their effects on the environmental and economic performance of a firm. We developed instruments to measure operational green purchasing capabilities and dynamic green purchasing capabilities. This study also investigates the moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between green purchasing capabilities and firm performance. The structural equation model (SEM) is used to analyse 239 responses from Japanese manufacturing companies. The results indicate that their green purchasing capabilities positively affect environmental and economic performance. Operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities have different levels of effects on green purchasing performance. A further analysis of the moderating effect of firm size shows that the high economic performance of green purchasing relies on the level of dynamic capabilities rather than firm size.     

An empirical examination of strategic sourcing dominant logic: Strategic sourcing centricity

Recently, much of the thought in strategic sourcing, i.e., dominant logic, has shifted away from the exchange of tangible goods and toward the exchange of intangibles, specialized skills and knowledge, and processes. This study refers to strategic sourcing dominant logic as strategic sourcing centricity (SSC) and describes it as a sourcing management′s mindset based on learning, performance, planning, and relational orientations and manifests itself in the implementation of SS to meet supply management objectives and satisfy stakeholder requirements. Building on insights on intangibility derived from resource-based theory (RBV), the study proposes and empirically tests strategic sourcing centricity (SSC). The authors test the operational measures of SSC dimensions and its impact on performance on a sample of 174 supply management executives. The results indicate strong support for the theorized framework. Managerial implications and future research agenda are provided.