Corporate Governance and Strategic Change in SMEs: The Effects of Ownership,Board Composition and Top Management Teams

This paper investigates how governance mechanisms affect the ability of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to introduce strategic change. Previous research typically assumes that governance mechanisms operate independently of each other. Building on agency theory and insights from the literature on small firm governance, we hypothesize that governance variables related to ownership, the board of directors and the top management team all affect strategic change and that it is important to examine the interaction effects of these governance mechanisms. Using a longitudinal sample of over 800 SMEs, our general logic and hypotheses are supported by the analyses. We find that closely held firms exhibit less strategic change than do SMEs relying on more widespread ownership structures. However, to some extent, closely held firms can overcome these weaknesses and achieve strategic change by utilizing outside directors on the board and/or extending the size of the top management teams. Implications for theory and management practice in SMEs are discussed. All three authors have contributed equally to the paper. Their names are listed alphabetically.     

Entrepreneur Attributes and Formalization of Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania

New institutional economics literature underscores the role of entrepreneur attributes in structuring the entrepreneur’s views and decision-making about (in)formalizing the business while considering the environment which shapes one’s perceptions. However, empirical knowledge on same, based on the African/Tanzanian context, remains scant. Based on Tanzanian national survey data from 5549 micro, small and medium enterprises, this paper assesses the influence of entrepreneur attributes on business formalization while controlling for structural and institutional factors. The results reveal that attributes likely to increase the probability of formalizing one’s business include being either a male, aged between 31 and 50, opportunity-driven or having at least secondary education.     

战略管理会计的兴起及其内容与方法的创新

战略管理会计是为满足现代企业实施战略管理的特定信息需要而建立的新的管理会计信息系统。其研究的内容与方法包括:企业环境分析、价值链分析、战略管理成本分析、竞争对手分析、综合业绩评价等。从战略的高度审视企业组织机构设置、产品开发、市场营销和资源配置,并据以取得竞争优势而提供内部的和外部的、财务的和非财务的、定性的和定量的会计信息,为企业发挥优势、利用机会、克服弱点、回避风险提供信息创造条件。这些研究使战略管理会计开始步入一个崭新的发展阶段。     

Strategic Orientation, Management Characteristics, and Performance: A Study of Spanish SMEs

This paper analyzes from a resource-based view the management characteristics of Spanish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) according to their strategic orientation and the consequences in terms of firm performance and business efficiency. The typology of strategies formulated by Miles and Snow has important implications for management, because depending on the strategic orientation adopted—defender, prospector, or analyzer—the firm can emphasize to a great extent some aspects of management, such as technological position, innovation, organizational design, and human resource management. Moreover, these aspects of management can largely determine firm performance and business efficiency. A sample of 1,351 Spanish SMEs provided the data for an empirical test of these issues. The results confirm the expected relationships, revealing, on the one hand, significant differences between prospector and defender SMEs regarding the key factors on which they base their management characteristics and, on the other hand, the different influences that each strategic orientation has on firm performance.     

网络效应条件下的扩张战略与对内开放——以服务业中国公司为例

通过对信息技术的成功应用,服务业跨国公司在竞争过程中可以克服传统市场竞争条件下的供方规模经济的限制,能够更快地达到为获得网络效应所要求的临界值,从市场扩张的正反馈中获益。因此,服务业跨国公司的全球经营战略和营销理念正在从在现有的市场内竞争向为未来市场而竞争转变。上述战略从微观角度为在我国进一步对内开放提供了经济学解释．并值得我国企业提高重视程度并在制定企业战略时借鉴。     

转型期中国企业管理的战略选择

本文认为,传统的企业战略管理注重进攻性,考虑的是企业在常规状态下的战略目标、战略选择和战略实施,而忽略了各种危机(如信息危机、产品危机、财务危机、信誉危机、财产危机、人才危机等)给企业带来的影响与危害。同时,企业的外部环境已经改变,当前所面临的危机已经呈现出多样性与复杂性的特点。因此,战略管理与危机管理相结合是经济转型期我国企业管理的必然选择。企业不仅要认识和捕捉市场发展的机会,而且要未雨绸缪,认识、分析、排除潜在的和面临的危机,既要制定企业正常状态下的发展战略,又要制定非正常状态下的发展战略。     

浙江省中小企业国际化过程中“抱团”策略的实证分析

浙江省中小企业抱团取暖共克时艰的生动案例充分体现了其敢为天下先的创新特质,不仅有效地解决了中小企业国际化过程中的困难和问题,也为进一步研究中小企业战略联盟模式的发展提供了有益的素材。     

浅析我国中小高科技企业管理的融资策略

随着我国市场经济的迅速发展,高科技企业对社会经济的增长起着越来越重要的作用,但融资难的问题依然制约着高科技企业的发展。目前,我国中小高科技企业的融资由于自身、银行和社会等方面的原因,还存在很多问题。解决中小高科技企业融资难问题,企业自身应不断完善自身管理,政府应该为非银行金融中介机构的发展大力创造条件。同时,在多个方面对企业给予政策支持,帮助企业有效解决融资难的问题,促进其持续健康发展。     

制造业企业横向战略联盟稳定性的进化博弈分析

由于制造业行业的特点,在现今经济和政策背景下越来越多的制造业企业选择构建战略联盟来进一步提高竞争力,但实践中不乏联盟在合作一段时间后宣布解除的案例。对这一事实现象,本文从前人相关研究的基础上,引入更科学全面的影响因子,用进化博弈论的原理和方法探讨其中的内在原因。本文研究表明,根据六种不同的因子大小关系,能够得到三种不同的进化结果。因此通过提高或减少单个因子的值,不一定能达到提高联盟稳定性的效果,而应该结合影响因子大小关系的前提进行策略的改进。     

What happens to gazelles? The importance of dynamic management strategy

The starting point of this study is Gibrat’s Law, which is contrasted with strategic management. This logic is subsequently applied to a group of remarkably dynamic, high-growth firms: gazelles. Strategic management theory emphasises the importance of firms adjusting strategies in response to changes in the external environment. In our study, it is used to explain several key empirical findings using a novel British data set containing information on more than 100 gazelles. These findings help explain: (1) why Gibrat’s Law of random firm growth processes does not generally hold, (2) which strategy and environmental variables have a predictable influence on firm performance and (3) why routine application of ‘best practice’ strategies is unlikely to foster firm growth in a changing economic environment. In so doing, this paper contributes to the large body of literature on small-firm growth.     

战略成本管理在企业中的应用探讨

随着信息时代的到来与现代高新技术的蓬勃发展 ,传统的成本管理模式由于其内在的狭隘性与局限性而愈来愈无法适应新环境的剧变。因此 ,各国企业界一直在致力寻找一种能使企业在信息时代的竞争中生存下去的成本管理模式。而战略成本管理在现代企业管理中起着越来越重要的作用。它将企业战略与成本管理相结合 ,从战略高度对企业成本行为及结果进行全面了解、控制和改善 ,从而可以创造企业的长期竞争优势。     

Realising the Marketing Advantages of International Standard-Setting Activities: Opportunities for Innovative Technology-Based SMEs

Despite a growing literature exploring the impact of international standards on the long-term competitive position of large technology-based multinational enterprises and, as a corollary, how these firms participate in standard-setting, comparatively little attention has been given to these phenomena with regard to the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is perhaps a reflection of a 'master storyline' that assumes international standard-setting activities are almost solely the purview of larger organisations. Accordingly, this paper explores how small and medium technology-based enterprises participate in international standard-setting processes and the strategic marketing advantages that may accrue through such participation, using a qualitative case-study approach involving six technology-based SMEs in Australia. Summary frameworks depicting different means of participation and marketing related benefits are presented. The findings suggest that innovative technology-based SMEs may use the international standard-setting environment and processes more strategically than often supposed.     

企业跨国经营与劳动关系管理研究

劳动关系管理已成为我国企业跨国经营过程中面临的重要问题。本文在回顾企业跨国经营理论和劳动关系理论基础上,首先明确了企业跨国经营中劳动关系管理的特征,然后分析了企业跨国经营劳动关系模式发展的新趋势,最后提出了企业在跨国经营中劳动关系管理的策略。     

破坏性创新的战略利益及风险管理研究

作为一项新的创新理论和战略管理理论,破坏性创新理论站在全新的视角系统地阐述了企业如何通过破坏性创新赢得长期竞争优势,受到了企业家和学者们的普遍重视。本文在探讨企业实施破坏性创新所获得战略利益的基础上,深入分析了实施破坏性创新过程中所面临的各种风险因素,并进一步提出了规避和降低风险的相关策略。     

企业战略创新能力相关文献综述

当企业宏观或微观环境发生重大变化时,企业意识到已有的战略需要进行调整或重新制定就显得格外重要。然而企业有意识进行战略创新甚至开展了一系列战略创新活动,并不等于企业就赢得了市场。企业战略创新若想克服各种战略创新障碍并取得战略创新成功,必须在战略创新过程中具备一系列的能力,即战略创新能力。本文将从与战略创新能力相关的核心能力和动态核心能力的角度,对相关文献进行梳理,试图通过既有研究对战略创新能力进行初步阐明。     

Multinational Enterprise Subsidiaries and their CSR: A Conceptual Framework of the Management of CSR in Smaller Emerging Economies

There is a lack of theoretical consensus on how multinational enterprises (MNEs) should implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) to build legitimacy, particularly those operating in the smaller Asian emerging market context, where current growth in the global economy is being felt more acutely than elsewhere. This paper argues for theoretical integration of business ethics (BE) and international business (IB) research to address this concern. Hence, we explore the management of CSR strategies by MNE subsidiaries with specific interest on their proactive adoption of strategic CSR to obtain legitimacy in a foreign host country. Drawing on the recent CSR literature and related theories, including stakeholder theory and institutional theory, propositions and a conceptual framework are developed and presented. The framework integrates BE and IB concepts on the different dimensions of CSR and provides a theoretical derived explanation of the process for strategic adoption of global through to more local CSR strategies by MNE subsidiaries to build legitimacy in an emerging market context. In addition, the framework provides valuable insights into the adoption of different ethical approaches or CSR strategies based on the level of ethical pressure in a host country and the degree of CSR ingrainedness in the parent company.     

企业战略管理:"静态模式"与"动态模式"

Based on an analysis of the dynamic trend of the environment in which Chinese enterprises operate and the theory of dynamic competition, this paper seeks to propose a new strategic management pattern—the “dynamic paradigm”, which has mainly resulted from an integration of the theoretic contributions of the two strategic management streams. It ultimately aims at enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of strategic management in an environment full of uncertainties. The dynamic paradigm designed to explore today’s real business world is characterized by: 1) viewing strategic management as a process of both proactive plans and in-the-process reaction, both point and process decision-making and both rational and non-rational decision-making; 2) stressing the roles played by speed and innovation in the dynamic competition; 3) highlighting the inherent ties and the interaction among the three phases of strategic management; 4) emphasizing the critical impacts on the effectiveness and efficiency of strategic management by corporate governance, organizational structure, managerial mechanism, mode of control, composition of top-management team and corporate culture. __________ Translated and revised from Nankai guanli pinglun 南开管理评论 (Nankai Business Review), 2007, 10(5): 31–35     

农产品品牌保护策略探析

随着消费层次升级和健康理念的变化,消费者品牌意识不断增强,农产品品牌安全问题成为消费者关注的焦点。面对假冒伪劣品牌对农产品品牌市场的非竞争性冲击,农产品企业仅依靠常规性品牌管理策略已举步维艰,品牌保护策略是破解品牌侵权等难题的关键。本文从农产品品牌特征、内涵出发,解析农产品企业在品牌保护上的现状、困境和成因;从战略品牌管理、法律保护、战略联合保护网络和品牌管理策略等方面,提出了完善农产品品牌保护的思路和对策。     

企业经营战略失败分析

企业制定经营战略的目的是适应环境的变化,然而由于种种原因,企业的经营战略常常面临着失败。 因此从七个角度分析失败的原因,并提出相关建议,从而树立起全局观念、创新观念、风险观念和应变观念 等一系列重要战略观念。     

A Resource-Based Approach to Strategy Analysis in Small-Medium Sized Enterprises

Few articles have been published that specifically deal with how to support strategic analysis and management in small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In the last decade, however, literature on strategic management has paid considerable attention to the resource-based theory, which seems to fit well the needs of owners and executives of SMEs. The objective of this article is twofold: (i) to present a resource-based view of an SME's sustainable competitive advantage; (ii) to propose an approach to strategy analysis based on such a view.