Environmental Management in SMEs in the UK: Practices,Pressures and Perceived Benefits

Environmental management represents a significant challenge for small businesses, and prior research has shown that they are typically less engaged with environmental issues than their larger counterparts. At the same time, prior research has seldom explored engagement among small and medium‐sized companies (SMEs) with the wide variety of practices that are encompassed by environmental management, nor has it sought to explore heterogeneity among SMEs. In this study, we analyse the extent of SME involvement in a wide range of environmental management practices and the differences between small and medium‐sized businesses. We also explore SME perceptions of pressures for, and benefits of, engagement with environmental issues. Our findings show that most small businesses are engaged in some environmental initiatives but that there is significant heterogeneity in the engagement of small and medium‐sized businesses. Consistent with this, we show that the smallest companies perceive significantly fewer benefits of engagement with environmental issues. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

中小企业实施环境管理体系的激励因素和障碍

当今环境问题已日益成为国际社会关注的焦点,企业通过实施环境管理体系将增加企业的市场竞争力。然而,在环境管理中关注更多的是大型企业,对中小企业的研究甚少,本文从中小企业的角度研究他们实施环境管理体系的激励因素和存在的障碍,并对促进我国中小企业采用环境管理体系,提高企业环境绩效提出了相应的对策建议。     

民营中小企业社会责任的基础结构

企业社会责任日益引起研究者的关注与企业界的重视。民营中小企业履行社会责任离不开一定的环境基础,社会经济发展水平、社会道德意识、国家司法制度、企业经济利益、企业家精神构成其基本条件;同时,亦需要特殊的要素来支撑,分别为企业生命周期、企业规模、行业特点、企业管理能力。     

基于SWOT分析的中小企业社会责任问题研究

中小企业是我国经济发展的重要组成部分,应积极主动地承担社会责任,实现企业、社会和环境的和谐发展。本文采用SWOT分析法对我国中小企业承担社会责任的优势、劣势及面临的机遇和威胁等因素进行分析,找出中小企业社会责任履行中存在的问题,并提出了一些对策和建议。     

理性探析中小企业财务管理问题

就目前我国中小企业财务管理中存在的问题进行了分析,并就财务管理理念的更新和对策措施等方面提出了建议。     

“十二五”期间中小企业物流管理发展战略研究

"十二五"期间中小企业发展问题是物流行业发展的核心问题,通过对中小企业物流管理发展的问题分析,可以准确判断我国中小企业发展中问题。中小企业只有转化物流服务方式,实现供应链管理,为获取更多的经济效益创造条件。通过对我国中小企业"十二五"期间发展战略分析,可以看出中小企业物流管理需要走系统化、信息化、第三方管理道路,为跨越发展创造一个良好的平台。     

Corporate Environmental Initiatives in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and Their Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study

The impact from corporate business activities on the natural environment and society at large has been in focus for quite some time. The focus has often been on corporate environmental sustainability initiatives reflecting industry's response to concerns expressed by key stakeholders as well as the potential influence on the bottom line and the competitive situation. Much less investigated is the extent to which management itself perceives that corporate environmental initiatives actually lead to positive results. This is the very focus of this research, which is based on data collected by identical surveys of industrial companies in Denmark over a number of years. The results indicate a slightly increasing involvement over time, but also that the level of results achieved is lower than the level of initiatives taken. That is, the reactive attitude reported previously still seems to be prevailing. The results also seem to indicate that the size of the company may have a negative influence in some situations, since smaller companies seems to be better at achieving results compared with medium sized companies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

新形势下中小企业如何创建有效的企业文化

中小企业对扩大就业、创造财富、提高人民生活水平、增进社会和谐有着特别重大的意义,由于中小企业之间竞争激烈,提高中小企业管理水平,创建有效的企业文化,成为新形势下中小企业提高其竞争力的关键所在。     

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.     

中小企业环境管理的困境和出路思考

论文通过分析当前中小企业管理过程中面临的环境管理困境,制定符合我国发展趋势的中小企业环境管理手段,从而提高中小企业环境管理专业能力,有效降低中小企业因环保问题出现违法行为的风险。     

Assessment of Consumer Behavior Towards Environmental Responsibility: A Structural Equations Modeling Approach

This paper analyses the factors impacting consumer environmental responsibility using a structural equation modeling approach. Consumer environmental responsibility is the intention of a person to act towards remediation of environmental problems not as an individual user with economic interests but as a responsible citizen having concerns about the social and environmental wellbeing of society. Therefore, awareness of environmental problems and knowledge of remedial alternatives will help individuals to pursue their chosen action and bolster a genuine desire to act and determine the measures for alleviation of environmental challenges. The four dimensions of an environmentally responsible consumer – opinion and beliefs, willingness, awareness, and an ability to act – are analysed. During the analysis, the dimension of ‘ability to move’ is found to be critical, because it has a direct influence on the capacity of the consumer to act. This research is intended to guide policy‐ and decision‐makers of regulatory bodies in understanding consumer behavior towards improving environmental performance index. It also helps organizational managers to make their supply chains green, and competitive, which in turn improves brand image and overall organizational performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

实施国家科技型中小企业技术创新基金探析

自国家实施科技型中小企业技术创新基金以来,江苏省按照"优化环境、重在培育、加强监管、确保质量"的原则,认真组织实施创新基金项目,无锡尚德太阳能光伏电池、永中Office集成办公软件、"龙芯"CPU等一大批具有自主知识产权的重大高新技术成果迅速得到转化和产业化,成为引领江苏省高新技术新兴产业发展的重要力量。文章分析了江苏省实施国家科技型中小企业创新基金的总体情况、主要做法、主要成效和存在的问题,提出推动江苏省实施好国家科技型中小企业创新基金项目的对策建议。     

A comparison of family and nonfamily small firms in their approach to green innovation: A study of Italian companies in the agri‐food industry

Despite the growing scholars' attention toward green innovation, on the one hand, and family firms, on the other hand, there is still limited attention toward the intersection of these two streams of literature, because very few studies deal with green innovation in family firms. This paper aims at comparing family and nonfamily small firms in their approach to green innovation. To this aim, a multiple case studies methodology was used to understand whether and in which aspects family firms and nonfamily firms differ. In particular, a sample of 14 small enterprises (seven family and seven nonfamily firms) operating in the agri‐food industry and located in Italy was studied. Results suggest that family and nonfamily firms are similar with regard to green innovation characteristics, features of the green innovation process, faced challenges, and achieved outcomes. On the contrary, family firms differ from nonfamily firms in three key areas: firm's motivations, most relevant pressures, and green innovation view.     

杭州中小企业出口信用保险所遇问题及对策研究

杭州中小企业在进出口外贸风险控制以及预防中对于出口信用保险使用较少,存在客观和主观方面的原因。作者通过采用市场调研,实际业务操作案件分析等方法入手,分析杭州中小企业在外贸业务中如何利用出口信用保险,以及在使用中有哪些问题以及如何解决。使更多的杭州中小外贸企业能够了解出口信用保险并为之所用。     

中小企业如何应对第三次工业革命

从当前国内外形势来看,工业革命的变革已成为一种趋势。中小企业作为我国庞大的经济支撑组织,应如何应对第三次工业革命是文章探讨的主题。     

An analysis of environmental sustainability in small & medium‐sized enterprises: Patterns and trends

One of the greatest challenges facing the world today is climate change. The need to consistently advance with environmentally sustainable practices in today's businesses is crucial, and businesses are demanded to be more environmentally sustainable every day. This study conducts an analysis of the literature on small and medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs) environmental sustainability by carefully examining 122 studies from 58 journals published from 2013 to 2019. We investigate the trends in drivers and barriers of sustainability adoption to inform both SMEs managers and policymakers. Our results also classify the reviewed studies on the basis of their methodologies and show the distribution of studies across industry sectors and locations in order to set directions for future research on sustainability practices of SMEs.     

金融危机背景下我国中小企业融资问题的探讨

改革开放以来,我国的中小企业大量涌现并迅猛发展。中小企业在国民经济中已占据了举足轻重的地位。但长期以来,我国的中小企业所获得的金融支持却与其贡献极不相称,融资难已经成为制约我国中小企业发展的普遍性问题,特别是在金融危机的背景下这一问题显得更为突出。本文在调查当前我国中小企业融资现状的基础上,分析了我国中小企业融资难的原因,提出了解决当前我国中小企业融资难问题的一些意见和建议。     

Circular economy to enhance sustainability of small and medium‐sized enterprises

The circular economy (CE) represents a major paradigm shift of moving from the concepts of linear to circular supply chains across multiple industries. Although some aspects of CE adoption within industrial supply chains have been researched extensively (particularly addressing challenges of design, implementation, and operations), the research that relates CE practices with sustainability performance to reveal the current state of CE practices within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is scant. The aim of this research was to facilitate SMEs to achieve greater sustainability through CE implementation. This research addresses three research questions—How are CE fields of action related to sustainability performance? What are the issues, challenges, and opportunities of adopting CE in SMEs? And what key strategies, resources, and competences facilitate effective implementation of CE in SMEs? This study adopts a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) using survey research, focus group, and case studies; 130 randomly selected SMEs within the Midlands of the United Kingdom have been surveyed, and the responses are analysed using statistical tools along with findings from focus groups and case studies. The study reveals that all CE fields of action (take, make, distribute, use, and recover) of SMEs are correlated to economic performance, but only make and use are related to environmental and social performance. The study further derives strategies, resources, and competences for achieving sustainability across all the CE field of actions. Additionally, this research reveals the issues and challenges, strategies, resources, and competences required for implementing CE in SMEs.     

中小制造企业供应链管理研究

实施中小企业供应链管理,提升中小企业在整个供应链中的地位,不但有助于中小企业自身发展壮大,还有利于整个国民经济的发展。从转变经营管理理念、企业核心竞争力等方面探讨了构建中小企业为核心的供应链管理的途径。     

Linking Environmental Management to Environmental Performance: The Interactive Role of Industry Context

In the past, corporate sustainability scholars advocated that, for many firms, environmental management could turn into a valuable capability conferring a competitive advantage. However, little attention has been paid to the role of the industry context and its influence on the relationship between environmental management and organizational performance. In this study, we examine the effect on this relationship of three contextual variables: munificence, dynamism and complexity. Drawing on longitudinal data from 336 firms representing 30 industries, we find that munificence enhances the degree to which a firm can leverage its environmental management capabilities to improve environmental performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment