Transaction Structure in Japanese Small Business Sector

An attempt has been made to examine some aspects of transaction structure of the small business sector in Japanese manufacturing. It has been found that there are some interesting findings in the industrial organization of the sector (1) In the transactions of intermediate goods with manufacturing, small businesses have more frequent transactions with other small businesses than with large firms. On the other hand, large firms have more transactions with each other than with small businesses; (2) The transactions between SMEs and large firms, and between SMEs themselves vary from industry to industry, depending on production/demand structure of an industry and product structure of its SMEs sector; (3) In engineering, such as electrical machinery and transport equipment, the intra-industry transactions from small businesses to large firms are great, suggesting a larger extent of subcontracting relationships. Also, textiles, clothing, and printing and publishing also have higher subcontracting transactions.The relationships are different between the two groups.     

The Business Ethic in Public Sector Catering

Consecutive Conservative governments since 1979 have emphasised the need for greater cost-efficiency in the provision of public services. This article places recent developments in public sector catering in this wider context. It considers the manner in which government policy towards public sector catering has affected organisational and technical change in this area, and how this has led to changes in the roles, styles, strategies and control of catering managers. The article also outlines the effects of change on staff. In conclusion the article argues that management in the public sector are increasingly likely to act according to a business ethic’, rather than a ‘public service ethic’.     

刍议小业主发展的战略选择

在竞争激烈的市场经济中小业主面临着生存和发展壮大的诸多困难。同行内的小业主集聚在一起组成各种专业市场,则可形成集聚效应。专业市场要实行从物业管理型向功能管理型转变,以独特的方式整合场内小业主的经营活动,将市场做大做强,为小业主的经营与发展创造良好的空间。     

Small Business Survival

Abstract

Previous evidence given for some of the significant costs of survival for private enterprises in Guangzhou suggested that entrepreneurs may pay a significant amount in the form of dinners, gifts, and other offerings to insure survival. As a follow-up to that preliminary study, data have been collected from a cross-section of industries formally operationalizing the “costs” of survival as the means for maintaining legitimacy. The cultural context for such costs/offerings is hypothesized to be through guanxi, a traditional way of establishing social and business networks. The analyses herein suggest that guanxi costs are significantly higher for private enterprises versus all other enterprises types, i.e., state, private, township and village, domestic and foreign enterprises. Also, consistent with its cultural context, quanxi is consider to be equally important in business as in life for all types of Chinese enterprises.     

Small Business Exporting

This study investigates the effect of export marketing activites and size of the firm in the firm's stage of internationalization. The results of an empirical survey indicate that efficient marketing techniques and product adaptation are important determinants of a firm's internationalization stage. However, the size of the firm appears to be the critical variable in predicting a firm's given stage in its export marketing development.     

The Case Against Small Business Consultants:

Accounting firms are widely, but not universally, cited sources of external consulting to small businesses. The reasons for non-use of consultants provided by previous studies include demographic and attitudinal barriers. This paper explores the important role human interaction may play to form additional barriers and extends previous models to show dual evaluation loops. The model extension suggests that customer orientation training should be emphasized among employees at lower levels in large consulting firms.     

The New Industrial Organization and Small Business

The small business sector is an important part of the American economic landscape, in both absolute and relative terms. Despite its absolute growth, however, the sector accounts for a diminishing share of private sector activity. But its importance, and changes in importance, vary across industrial sectors of the economy.Drawing on the theoretical and empirical insights developed in recent books by John Sutton, we suggest that the presence or absence of endogenous strategic behaviors of the larger firms with respect to advertising, promotion, research and development, and other sunk cost expenditures may well play an important role in explaining the differing levels of small business importance, both cross-sectionally and over time. We conclude the paper with suggestions for research directions that could shed further light on these ideas.     

中国金融业“营改增”路径的现实选择

对金融业征收标准增值税是世界性难题.由于无法在金融业推行凭发票抵扣进项税额的方法,在金融业推行标准增值税不可行.如果非要在金融业推行增值税,这个增值税只能采用账簿法,即通过账簿法确定税基,按照单一税率对特定税基课税,不予进项税额抵扣,金融服务接受者也不能就其购买的金融服务获得进项增值税抵扣.本文建立单一双层博弈模型,说明金融业垄断的特性,论证金融业并不存在税负过重的情况,提出中国金融业“营改增”应遵循中性原则和保持原税负不变原则.建议的解决方案是按账簿法计算,以利差(净收入)作为税基,适当提高税率至9％.这一方案能够合理地缩小税基,体现增值税对增值部分征税的精神实质,同时维持目前征收范围和管理机制基本不变,最大限度地避免征税成本的提高.     

Impediments to International Franchising in the Business Format Sector

Franchising in the business format area by U.S. firms is a dynamic industry with excellent growth potential in view of the crumbling down the barriers in the world economy. The authors have identified eight major impediments to the growth of international business format franchising as a result of a survey conducted among a sample of U.S. franchise marketing executives. The study has come up with some major recommendations for the U.S. franchisors to improve the effectiveness of U.S. franchisors to market and support franchisees in foreign coutries. The sample size being quite small, the study should be considered as an exploratory study, and several areas for future study have been recommended in this paper.     

Small Business and Antitrust

The question addressed in this paper is how small business fits into a post-Chicago antitrust agenda. The answer, we will see, relates not to special privileges for the small, but to a vigorous competition policy directed against manifestations of market power.     

The Small Business Capital Market Behavior in Athens Stock Exchange

Financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially business investments and growth, is a composite and particular complicated affair in the Greek entrepreneurial reality. This paper examines the significance of secondary capital markets, as an alternative source of financing small-medium enterprises’ new entrepreneurial plans. Cointegration technique is applied to test the relationship between the secondary capital market and the dominant sectors in Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). Causality tests are also used to provide evidence on the existence of interdependence between the cointegrated series. The results indicate that there is significant uni-directional causality between primary and secondary capital market in Greece, enhancing us to suggest valuable policy implications.      

Small Business Retailing in Privatizing Economies

Summary

The paper advances a framework and a set of propositions regarding the relative influence of collectivist and individualistic values of small retail business managers on the management of the retail-mix and business performance, in the context of the privatizing economies of Central and Eastern Europe. The conceptual discussion, supported with two case illustrations from Romania, suggests that managers embracing the two value systems develop complementary retail strategies. Managers with more individualistic values tend to be more competitor-oriented and emphasize business growth and innovation, while managers with more collectivist values tend to be more customer-oriented and emphasize business relationships, stability and predictability.     

Small Business and Empirical Perspectives in Business Ethics: Editorial

In this editorial to a collection of papers on ethics in small firms, the case is made for greater use of high quality empirical research on business ethics. Sociological perspectives have much to offer to the field of business ethics that continues to be dominated by normative, moral philosophy. The second contribution of the paper is to argue for a re-orientation away from the large multi-national firm as a benchmark subject of business ethics research. One important point of view to be included is that of the small firm, which remains the dominant organisational form throughout all the OECD countries.     

Small Firm Statistics: A Hotel Sector Focus

This article contrasts and compares statistics from the UK small firm sector in general with those related to small firms within the hotel industry. In doing so, it is clearly illustrated that there is a need to focus research, resultant policy and strategy on the specific issues facing small firms at a sub-sector level, rather than assuming a homogeneity of the small firm population in general. The paper concludes that the plight of the small firm operating within the hotel industry is dire and questions what the future holds.     

小企业民间借贷行为与制度安排

针对我国部分小企业所涉足的高利率民间借贷问题,本文按照现代经济学解释经济现象的基本思路和方法--现象观察、基本假设、建模与推导以及结论等,对之进行严格论证.本文认为,我国小企业融资困难是必然的,但这只是小企业参与民间借贷的充分条件;小企业参与民间借贷更多地是源于企业资金的"事后缺口",民间贷方参与小企业的未来利润分享就构成了民间借贷过程中的利率决定因素;民间借贷的风险主要源于借方的市场风险和道德风险,且只能通过贷方才能转嫁给公众,因此,约束、激励以及保护贷方可以使民间借贷之间的风险内部化;在目前的中国金融环境下,政府通过为小企业制定相关融资规则和提供"平台"--建立区域性民间借贷市场,比批准小银行或组建担保体系更能解决小企业融资问题.     

Covenants and Small Business Lending: The Finnish Case

This study examines the use and determinants of covenants in Finnish small firms' loans. The results show that 72 of the 642 loan contracts examined include at least one covenant. Negative covenants are more common than affirmative covenants in our sample. We use loan characteristics, firm characteristics, and bank relationship variables to explain the use of covenants. Our results suggest that loans with real estate collateral are less likely to contain covenants than loans with other types of collateral. Larger firms are more likely to offer covenants, while the inverse holds for manager-owned firms. Firms with high corporate leverage, a high level of investments and a high sales growth rate offer covenants more often than other firms. Bank relationship length, changes of main bank and interbank competition also affect the use of covenants.     

The Advertising of Legal Services to Small Business Executives

ABSTRACT

Providers of professional services have become more interested in advertising their practice as competition has increased in several areas. The author empirically analyzes the elements of professional service print advertisements that would most influence a client's selection and recommendation of a particular firm. The results indicate that displaying a high level of professional qualifications, many specific services targeted toward a particular segment, and a specific consultation fee have a positive impact on customer selection and recommendation decisions.     

小城镇餐饮企业经营现状、问题与对策研究

随着农村非农产业的快速发展,小城镇的迅速崛起,小城镇成为带动农村经济繁荣和推动城镇化进程的重要力量。餐饮业是劳动密集型行业,兼有商品消费和服务消费的双重特性,吸纳就业人员多,产业关联度高,能有效带动种植业、畜牧养殖业、装饰装修业等相关产业的发展,同时餐饮业以市场大、增长快、投入相对少和吸纳劳动力多等特点,对于小城镇的建设和发展,解决农村劳动力的去向等问题有重要的作用。