Failure factors in small and medium-sized enterprises: qualitative study from an attributional perspective

The objective of this study is to identify factors for poor performance and failure faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and to investigate a potential bias between real causes and attribution for stranding. In order to achieve this objective, we have adopted entrepreneurial personal story explorations in eight Portuguese SME. Our research reveals that the most important factors are limited access to finance, poor market conditions, inadequate staff, and lack of institutional support, as well as co-operation and networking. Hereby, at a first glance, external factors were more often cited, but qualitative analysis revealed that internal factors are imminent and not satisfactorily recognized. Even though some owner–managers showed a certain awareness regarding their internal weaknesses, many problems such as lacking strategy and vision, low educational levels, and inadequate social capital are not sufficiently recognized. Therewith, we found a strong attribution error when SME owner–managers judge the causes of their ventures’ unsuccessful performance and failure. Finally, we draw conclusions and suggestions for policymakers, small business owners, consultants, and researchers.     

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.     

论中小企业技术创新

我国中小企业技术创新活动具有多样性和广泛性,它们的技术创新在许多行业占据了主导地位,研究中小企业的技术创新问题对经济发展和社会进步具有重要意义。文章围绕中小企业的技术创新概念、企业与技术创新的关系、内外部环境分析进行讨论,提出新形势下中小企业技术创新的对策。     

中小企业的流程再造探析

在激烈的市场竞争中,许多企业通过流程再造有效地克服了传统管理模式的弊端,消除了额外成本、流程缺陷、延迟等造成的各种浪费。然而,流程再造并不是大企业的专利,中小企业也需要引进流程再造的管理理念。中小企业通过流程再造使其流程更趋向理想化、灵活化,并能迅速适应环境的变化。     

经济新常态下中小企业服务体系优化研究

加大中小企业服务体系建设,是增加公共服务和公共产品的重要内容和形式,是提升中小企业活力和潜力的重要手段和举措,是为“双引擎”加注“燃料”的重要方式.经济新常态既是基础性经济特征,也是趋势性的状态,将从发展基础、发展方式和发展目标等维度对中小企业战略地位、内部结构和动力机制等产生深刻影响,并从服务需求、服务供应和服务机制等路径影响中小企业服务体系.因此,按照新常态趋势性变化的内在要求,应从目标体系、组织体系、内容体系等维度重构新型中小企业服务体系,并在资源整合、供需匹配、服务创新以及监督评价等方面对其机制进行优化.     

动态联盟与中小企业的成长

在竞争激烈、产品快速升级换代的环境下,中小企业难以完全依靠自身力量立足并取得发展,中小企业成长依赖于外部资源获取,而资源获取渠道又通常来自于各种关系交织成的复杂、交叉重叠的社会网络,文章将中小企业与动态联盟联系起来,对动态联盟这种新的企业运作模式在中小企业成长所起的作用进行论述。     

Management training in small and medium-sized enterprises: methodological and conceptual issues

The paper examines the impact of management training and development on the organisation and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), via a variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques and including both crosssectional and longitudinal approaches to analysis. The paper demonstrates the value of management training and development in SMEs and demonstrates a series of one-off and longer lasting effects on their organization and performance. The paper also highlights the conditions under which management development projects are likely to be more successful. Finally, the paper extends the schema developed by Arthur and Hendry (1990) and Hendry et al. (1991), indicating the factors influencing training within businesses, and shows the indirect and complex links between management training and firm performance.     

Entrepreneurship and innovativeness of small and medium-sized construction enterprises

The construction industry is a key industry in any economy. Due to its specific characteristics, the industry is of substantial importance to the development of other sectors. Competition is highly intense, and the industry itself is susceptible to changes in market circumstances that force the entities operating in it to continuously take actions to enhance their competitiveness by, among other things, introducing innovative solutions. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the level of innovativeness of enterprises in the small and medium-sized (SME) sector in the Polish construction industry and to identify the factors that influence this level of innovativeness, which relates to the location of the business and managers’ awareness of the significance of innovation in shaping a firm’s competitiveness. Qualitative research was conducted on a sample of 608 companies. The obtained results demonstrate that construction companies from the SME sector in Poland are characterized by a level of innovativeness that is similar to that found in other enterprises, which is a consequence of the relatively high awareness of the significance of innovation to obtaining a competitive position among the managers of these companies. An analysis of the innovative activities of these companies by location shows, in turn, that entities operating in regions that are less economically developed and less attractive in terms of investment are more innovative.     

Networking strategy of boards: implications for small and medium-sized enterprises

Development of linkages with the external environment, e.g. interlocks, is a mechanism to access scarce resources. Creating and maintaining these linkages may be an organizational capability that creates a competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A partial model of networking strategy is proposed, which includes measures of board composition, interlocks, entrepreneurial orientation and environmental hostility. Analysis of 70 community bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) responses (58% response rate) lends support to the proposition that firms with a networking strategy performed better (higher return on assets (ROA) and higher return on expenditure (ROE)) than those firms that did not actively pursue the development of networks.     

加强中小企业财务管理的思考

文章论述了我国中小企业的现状,中小企业财务管理中存在的问题及中小企业加强财务管理的措施。     

Employability and innovative work behaviour in small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to cross-validate HRM measurement instruments for employability (individual competence-based approach) and innovative work behaviour within the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) further. The sample consisted of 487 pairs of employees and their immediate supervisors who work in 151 SMEs. A multitrait-multimethod analysis was performed, and the results suggest that for both instruments, requirements regarding convergent and divergent validity have been met satisfactorily. Structural Equation Modeling was performed in order to confirm the factor structure of the instruments. Paired-samples comparisons showed that all of the inter-method correlations for the two-source (employee and immediate supervisor) ratings and for both instruments were significantly positive. As for the final part of the cross-validation, multiple regression analyses were performed to demonstrate predictive validity. Depending on the stage of innovative work behaviour, different dimensions of employability appeared to play a significant role, although the effect did not always veer towards the direction expected. Investing in employability enhancement appeared to contribute to innovative work behaviour. The measurement instruments of employability and innovative work behaviour can provide SME managers with effective instruments to be used for performance appraisals, assessments, and employee development tools.     

浅谈中小企业技术创新

文章阐述了中小企业技术创新的概念,分析了湖南省中小企业技术创新的现状和影响因素,为完善湖南省中小企业技术创新政策环境提供一些思路。     

浅议中小企业激励机制建设

伴随着世界经济一体化的进程与知识经济时代的到来,企业面临的经营环境复杂多变,市场竞争越来越激烈,人力资源成为企业经营的首要资源,激励成为现代企业管理的核心职能之一。因此,建立一套适合企业需求的激励机制,使人力资源的功能得到最大程度的发挥,成为企业谋求生存与发展的必然选择。文章在对现有中小企业激励机制存在的普遍问题分析的基础上,提出从薪酬、职业发展、培训、文化认同4个方面建立和完善激励机制。     

中小企业发展电子商务的对策

文章分析了我国中小企业发展电子商务的优势,并结合其发展现状,探讨了中小企业如何应用电子商务的策略问题。     

浅析中小型企业标准化财务管理

文章在分析当前中国中小型企业生存发展的基础上,归纳了中小企业财务管理存在的漏洞与缺陷,并提出了相关的建议。     

加强中小企业财务管理的对策

在我国向市场经济转轨过程中,出现很多会计信息失真的情况,会计监督存在着严重的问题,要加强和完善会计监督职能,必须从加强法律体系建设、建立健全企业内部会计监督机制、加强单位领导人的监督责任、加强外部监督、培养高素质的会计人才等几方面着手。     

浅析中小型企业标准化财务管理

文章在分析当前中国中小型企业生存发展的基础上,归纳了中小企业财务管理存在的漏洞与缺陷,并提出了相关的建议.     

Harmonization of financial reporting of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic

A current problem of the present-day accounting and financial reporting consists in aligning the accounting in small and medium enterprises. In July 2009 the International Financial Reporting Standard for small and medium-sized enterprises was issued, which extended the aligning possibilities also to small and medium enterprises considerably. If the standard is adopted by the national legislation, problems connected with the standard implementation in the national legislation will have to be solved as well as practical issues connected with making financial statements. At present the yields and the problems which can arise in connection with the standard application have to be focused on. A contribution of the standard application will be a better informative ability of financial statements on the international level. At small and medium enterprises this can contribute to better comanunication with banks, with investors, rating application are： parallel reporting according to national agencies etc. The problems connected with the standard regulations, differences between the national legislation and the standard, wide practice at keeping accounts and making financial statements and limited approach of small and medium enterprises to obtaining information and to training of their employees. Another problem can be a tight link between the trading income and the tax base, when small companies prefer rather the tax point of view.