Ubiquitous computing and its effects on small businesses

Much of the previous literature on ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) has been limited to case studies, reporting innovative practices of specific technologies (e.g., RFID) and social issues. There is a general paucity of research on strategic application of UbiComp, especially to small businesses. To address this issue, this study provides a broad overview of the current practices of UbiComp in leading countries and presents possible future directions. Then, the effects of UbiComp on small businesses are discussed. Through a cross-national comparative analysis, we present four strategies to provide some guidance to the countries that are currently considering entering into the UbiComp race.     

Lending to small businesses: the role of loan maturity in addressing information problems

We investigate what determines the maturity of lines of credit to small businesses. Our results provide strong support for the hypothesis that shorter loan maturities serve to mitigate the problems associated with borrower risk and asymmetric information that are typical of small business lending. We find that maturity is shorter for firm owners that have poor credit histories, are older, and less experienced, and for firms that are more informationally opaque. Supporting the notion that collateral and maturity are substitute mechanisms in mitigating agency problems, we also find strong evidence that maturity increases with collateral pledges, that personal collateral is associated with longer maturities than business collateral, and that collateral types that better mitigate agency problems reduce the sensitivity of loan maturity to informational asymmetries and risk. Finally, while it is argued that relationship lending may mitigate information asymmetry, we find no relation between loan maturity and stronger firm-creditor ties.

Strangers in the night: speeddating, CCI and service businesses

Organisations are increasingly realising the importance of customer-to-customer interactions (CCI). From theme parks and shopping malls, to hairdressing and health clubs, interactions between customers are recognised as a key aspect of the service experience. This research examines CCI in the context of the speeddating phenomena, a unique setting in which conversations between strangers are at the very core of the service exchange. Three elements emerge from an in-depth qualitative study to provide new insights for managers who wish to influence CCI and give some structure to future research in the area: planning, roles and performances, and cooperation versus competition.     

家族企业传承与发展:基于中外经典模式的思考

家族企业在世界各国大量存在和发展着,在各国的经济发展和就业方面扮演着重要角色。进入21世纪以来,随着家族企业换代接班高峰期到来,对家族企业传承问题的研究越来越成为学术研究的重点和热点。纵观中外关于家族企业代际传承模式,"子承父业"仍是许多家族企业首选的交接班方式。目前,由于受主观因素和客观因素的影响,部分企业已将企业交给外部职业经理人打理。     

交易费用决定家族企业的传承方式

运用经济学原理通过分析家族企业传承方式和交易费用的关系,拟出传承方式和交易费用关系理论曲线,对我国民营企业如何选择可能的企业传承方式和相应的对策进行了深入探讨。由于企业产权、委托代理和信任风险等交易费用的综合影响,使得大多数家族企业按"差序格局"外推原则选择企业的传承方式,从而使企业传承过程的交易费用最小。     

Progressive labour policy, ageing Marxism and unrepentant early capitalism in the Chinese industrial revolution

The institutional guarantees of modern labour law, that provide the keystone of progressive liberalism, are often only reactionary to the entrenched concepts of socialist law. Adoption of institutions of “workers rights”, and employment protection based upon contract, inevitably nullify the ideological promise of the inalienable “right to work”. China, among the last bastions of theoretical Marxist socialism, and among the first socialist countries ready to accept that it has been in desperate need of reforming uneconomical state enterprises, seems willing to sacrifice ideological purity for economic development. Yet, if economic turnaround requires enterprise rationalisation in a market economy, it is understandable that Chinese labour requires the same kinds of protection against unbridled capitalism as progressive labour movements elsewhere. Doubtless, for those who have enjoyed no such institutional guarantees in the past, official commitment to improvement of labour conditions is better than no acknowledgment of need for reform of social policy whatever. Yet, the real question for students of social change is “Are these legislated reforms effective policy guides for local administration and the courts?”“|Or are they merely regulations for licensing compliance – primarily for foreign invested enterprises?”. In brief, “... to what extent are the new ‘workers’ rights’ realistically attainable sources of judicial remedies for individual workers?”     

Problems and environment of small businesses in the Czech Republic

The impressive and spontaneous build-up of the private small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic in 1990–93 coincided with the similarly dramatic changes in the public administration and in the whole environment for decision-making. The resulting problems of SMEs in the Czech Republic seem to be common to all economies in transition. A lot of the problems are caused by the macroeconomic policy for which this sector is not the most important part of the national economy. The paper shows some conflicts between macroeconomic anti-inflationary (monetary and fiscal) policies, and interests of small businesses. The authors stress the importance of SMEs during the period of transition. Informal aspects of the functioning of small firms are discussed, especially their relation with banks and public administration. The paper offers some empirical evidence and available statistics on SMEs developments during 1990–94 focusing particularly on manufacturing.     

家族企业治理结构与经营绩效关系的实证研究——基于浙江非上市中小家族企业的调查数据

根据对浙江地区家族企业的抽样调查研究,本文得到以下实证结论:在我国家族企业治理结构和经营绩效关系方面:家族企业融入外部资本和管理资源都存在一个追求短期销售绩效的倾向;非上市中小家族企业并不存在“一股独大”问题,而是具有“一股独大”优势;家族企业股权分割清晰能显著提高企业绩效;家族企业外部顾问制度的“公正性效率”的提高显著大于“适用性效率”的降低,家族企业的治理效率得到改善。     

论诚实信用原则在民事诉讼法中的发端与传承

通常认为诚实信用原则发端于罗马法,是民法领域的帝王条款,负载法律的灵活性,并为法官行使自由裁量权提供依据。回溯历史,罗马法中诉讼法与实体法合体的本质以及罗马民事诉讼中反映出的具体诚实信用规则表明,民事诉讼法中的诚实信用原则并非来自民法领域的扩张,而是同样肇始于罗马法,并随着民事诉讼法学研究的深入得以发现,在后世诸多国家的诉讼立法与司法中得以传承和发展。     

Practicing fairness in the family business workplace

One of the main challenges facing family firms is achieving fairness between family and non-family employees in the workplace. Family and non-family employees have the potential to offer unique and distinct contributions to the firm, which makes the achievement of fairness between them messy and complicated. Hence, two interesting questions are worth exploring: Given the complex nature of the family business human capital, how can family firms achieve fairness between family and non-family employees? Why should family business decision makers and advisors promote fair practices in the family business workplace? We first introduce a fair process model as a possible solution for family businesses to achieve fairness between family and non-family employees. Then, based on several examples and studies, we show that family business owners can benefit significantly from promoting fairness in the workplace both in terms of preserving business reputation and in terms of achieving long-term family business survival and success.     

Spouse care for children and other family members: the effects of family benefits

This paper first presents evidence from Spain on the relationship between the labour situation of both spouses within the family and the time dedicated to the care of the children, the elderly and the infirm. Second, it analyses the effect that government benefits for such care would have on the labour market and on household poverty. The results show that while Spanish society has advanced in the incorporation of women into the labour market, most of them still have to assume total responsibility for housework and the care of the children, the elderly and the infirm. Against this background, we find that benefits would decrease female participation in the labour market and the number of hours worked, while they would also contribute towards reducing poverty.     

Market Orientation in the Chilean Small Business Context

Abstract

Market orientation has been considered a key factor in successful business operations across different markets. To test this assertion, the authors examine the influence of a firm's market orientation on small business performance in the Chilean retail environment. They go on to report empirical information about the characteristics of the market-oriented retailers in Chile. The Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar (1993) MARKOR scale is used in the study to assess the market orientation in the context of a developing country environment. Data for the study were collected from small retailers in Chile through self-administered questionnaires using a drop-off/pick-up method. The results show a significant correlation between market orientation and small business performance. Path analyses found that the best structure among the Market Orientation dimensions is: Intelligence Generation→ Intelligence Dissemination → Responsiveness. Moreover, these performance measures differed significantly among the three different partitions obtained using a k-means cluster analysis. The findings indicate that the MARKOR scale is both valid and reliable in a diverse Chilean small business environment.     

试论邓小平对毛泽东共同富裕思想的继承与发展

共同富裕是社会主义的基本原则和本质要求,是无产阶级政党一贯坚持的根本目标。为实现共同富裕,毛泽东和邓小平都进行了长期而艰辛的探索,取得了一定成果。邓小平在认识、实现共同富裕的途径和进程等方面均继承并发展了毛泽东的共同富裕思想,使中国特色社会主义国家的现代化建设走上了健康发展之路。     

Organizational Structure and Performance in Dutch small Firms

The relationship between organizational structure and performance in small firms has received relatively limited attention over the last few decades. In understanding small firm performance this seems to be a serious omission. In this paper, we first present the rationale for including organizational structure in the analysis of small firm performance. Then, from the literature on organizational theory, we retrieve several dimensions that may be postulated to describe organizational structures of small firms. Based on the study of a stratified sample of 1411 Dutch small firms we show that nine structure stereotypes can be delineated. We further investigate the relevance of the empirical taxonomy by looking at the relationship with firm performance in terms of sales growth, profitability and innovativeness. Eventually, we conclude that organizational structure indeed matters and that it deserves to be taken into account in models and future analysis of small firm performance.     

Risk and risk management in the Liverpool slave trade

The profits of the Liverpool slave trade are infamous, if somewhat more realistically represented in recent literature. Contemporaries and historians have posited that these higher profits were required to entice merchants into the trade because of the higher risks. However, there is very little work which investigates whether the risks of the slave trade really were higher than other similar opportunities. This article uses the case study of Liverpool slave traders to investigate the risks within the slave trade compared to other Atlantic ventures, and how Liverpool merchants managed those risks. It will argue that the slave trade was indeed a relatively risky trade in comparison with other Atlantic ventures, but that Liverpool merchants not only understood these risks, but actively embraced them, allowing them to manage them extremely well.     

社会转型期的城市家庭文化－以北京市海淀区为例

利用海淀区妇女联合会组织的“海淀区家庭文化调查”所提供的资料,探讨了社会转型期城市居民家庭的人际关系、生活方式、消费理念、家庭教育以及家庭养老模式的变化及其特点。认为现在有更多的人正不断调整自己的心态以适应变动中的家庭条件和环境,把家庭作为满足情感享受和精神需求的寓所。本研究显示,尽管现在离婚率呈上升趋势,但人们的家庭观念也更浓重了。     

Adaptation and Performance in New Businesses: Understanding the Moderating Effects of Independence and Industry

New ventures as well as new business units experience significant difficulties in finding a viable business model. They often need to adapt their initial business model due to the presence of uncertainty and ambiguity. Technology-based companies are confronted with particularly high degrees of uncertainty and ambiguity. We hypothesize that adaptation is crucial for the performance (measured as survival) of these businesses, but that this effect is moderated by the (in)dependence of the new technology-based business and by the industry in which it is active. We test the adaptation-performance hypothesis through a survival analysis of a sample of 117 independent new ventures and business units. Our findings suggest that adaptation is beneficial in less mature, capital-intensive and high-velocity industries but not so in more mature, stable industries. Also, adaptation reduces failure rates in dependent business units as compared to independent ventures.     

以工业化推进中小城市快速崛起——以山东省烟台市为例

我国总体上正处于工业化中期阶段,以工业化推动城市化、特别是推动中小城市发展是各地区普遍面临的重要课题。本文以烟台市为例,通过剖析烟台工业化进程中城市化的实践经验,指出以工业化推动城市化,是实施城市化战略必经之路;加快发展中小城市,是今后30年实施城市化战略的主要方向;培育具有区域特色支柱产业,是推进中小城市发展的重要载体;坚持改造传统产业与培育新兴产业并重,是推动工业化和城市化发展的重要举措;运用资本力量加速工业化和城市化发展,是加快中小城市发展的推进器。     

Environment and Performance of Family Businesses in the Reforming Polish Economy

Abstract

In the former planned economies, a major result of the economic reform programs has been the resurgence of private sector. As recent research has been unable to explain what leads to substantive growth performance in family businesses in Central and Eastern Europe, this study seeks to increase our understanding of the growth process in small businesses in the region. The paper attempts to identify the types of problems and impediments Polish small family businesses confront. The paper investigates the association of various problems with a firm's stage of growth and development using a sample of one hundred family businesses that operate in the southern region of Poland.     

Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility in the U.K. Asian Small Business Community

Within the limited, but growing, literature on small business ethics almost no attention has been paid to the issue of social responsibility within ethnic minority businesses. Using a social capital perspective, this paper reports on an exploratory and qualitative investigation into the attitudinal and behavioural manifestations of CSR within small and medium-sized Asian owned or managed firms in the U.K., with particular reference to the distinctive factors motivating organisational responses. It offers alternative explanations of entrepreneurial behaviour and suggests areas for further research.