Moving beyond initial success: Promoting innovation in small businesses through high-performance work practices

After firms experience initial success, leaders frequently turn their attention toward producing and selling their products or services more efficiently, likely at the expense of ongoing innovation. This seemingly prudent decision may unintentionally lead firms to become one-hit wonders, effectively limiting their potential success over time. To help prevent a firm's early success from being its only success, small business executives should adopt practices that promote innovation yet don’t come at substantial cost given limited financial resources. Focusing on the positive influences of ability, commitment, and feedback, we propose a system of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) as an economical means of encouraging innovative behavior that allows for efficiency without losing an emphasis on creativity and entrepreneurial action. This article outlines and discusses nine specific HPWPs targeted for smaller businesses that are expected to promote and fully realize the potential of employees as the driving force for innovation and sustained success.     

The relationship between training and innovation activities in enterprises

We examine the relationship between enterprises’ use of employee training (or education) as a method to stimulate new ideas or creativity among their staff and enterprises’ innovation activities. A data set of 5204 Norwegian enterprises is used. Based on correlation coefficients, we find a positive relationship between enterprises’ use of employee training and their innovation activities. This relationship is not found significant for innovative enterprises that developed the innovations mainly by themselves or together with external partners if we control for enterprises’ use of brainstorming sessions and/or work teams to stimulate new ideas or creativity among their staff. Training can, however, be argued to be indirectly related to innovation strategies, as it is combined with other human resource practices.     

Fostering strategic learning capability to enhance creativity in small service businesses

Potentially, owner manager creativity is a major source of competitive advantage within small businesses. However, whilst smallness of operation bestows possible benefits and advantages which can facilitate or assist owner manager creative thinking and development activities, it also brings with it potential unique problem-types which can severely impact growth and squeeze out owner manager propensity to be creative and innovate. Within this article, we utilise Personal Construct Theory to demonstrate the complexity of the small business strategic learning and management processes in dealing with such a problem context, and the nature and role of owner manager creativity within these processes. Case study insight is used to demonstrate the ways in which creative owner managers are able to set themselves free from currently constraining existing personal worldviews and unfold and converge new ideas and produce alternative personal constructions of innovative development opportunities.     

Origin matters: Institutional imprinting and family firm innovation in China

During the early 1990s, a swathe of small state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was privatized as family businesses in China. This paper examines whether and how the origin (i.e., restructured vs. entrepreneurial) of family firms affects corporate innovation. Using the data of Chinese family firms from 2009 to 2018, we find that restructured family firms generate fewer patents generally than entrepreneurial family firms, but create more high-quality patents than their entrepreneurial counterparts. This effect is more pronounced for those family firms which had formerly been SOEs for a more extended period, without generational succession, and previously controlled by governments entirely. Further mechanism tests show that restructured family firms have a higher likelihood of hiring professional managers, are subject to less intervention from family members, and have fewer informal hierarchies, providing direct evidence for the institutional imprinting channel. Our findings suggest that the institutional imprint underlying the origin of family firms can be critical to their innovation decisions.     

核心自我评价与个体创新行为:集体主义导向的调节作用

在区分个体创造力和创新的基础上,文章考察了225名企业员工的核心自我评价、集体主义导向与上司评定的创新行为的关系.结果表明个体创新过程中的创意产生和创意实施行为正相关;核心自我评价与创意产生正相关,但与创意实施无显著相关关系;集体主义导向在核心自我评价与创意产生和实施行为关系中均起调节作用:对集体主义导向较强的员工来说,核心自我评价对创新行为的影响反而较弱,对低集体主义导向的员工来说,核心自我评价对创新行为的影响则相对较强.文章最后对研究结果进行了讨论,并指出了研究的贡献与不足.     

R&D,Human Capital and Export Behavior of Manufacturing and Service Firms in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The paper carries out a detailed analysis of the effects of R&D and human capital as well as their interactions with innovation on export behavior of manufacturing and service firms in Ghana using a dataset of 720 firms that merges the Enterprise, Innovative Capability and the Innovation Follow-up Surveys respectively for Ghana. Using a bivariate probit regression, the results show that R&D and human capital (employees’ education, slack time and formal training) are positive and significantly related to the propensity for firms to export in Ghana. The cross derivatives (differences) for the interaction terms (R&D and innovation, and education and innovation) also showed that these interaction terms have positive effects on the likelihood for firms to export but are significant only for a negligibly small fraction of the sample. Thus, there is no much statistically significant evidence in support of the mediation role of innovation in the relationship between R&D/education and the export behavior.     

Competitor orientation in successful SMEs: an exploration of the impact on innovation

The impact of market orientation on organisational performance has been the subject of many studies illustrating variance with firm size. Although small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are inherently customer-oriented, research has identified that they have significantly lower levels of competitor orientation than large firms and that competitor orientation is significantly related to organisational performance. In addition, studies have illustrated that SME success is linked to innovative problem solving, new product development and resource optimisation. SMEs are inherently innovative in how they adopt creative approaches to overcome constraints associated with their size. Given that SMEs often neglect to focus on competitors, this study explores the relationship between competitor orientation and organisational performance through an innovation lens. This study uses a qualitative research approach to investigate seven successful SMEs as case studies. The findings indicate that SMEs seeking optimal organisational performance should pay close attention to direct and indirect competitors in order to identify opportunities and build sustainable competitive businesses.     

The impact of natural disaster on absenteeism, job satisfaction, and job performance of survival employees: An empirical study of the survivors in Wenchuan Earthquake

Natural disasters cause serious damage to businesses in the stricken areas and greatly affect survivors’ psychology and behaviors. Based on data from 206 survival employees in 33 affected firms in Wenchuan Earthquake, this study analyzes the impact of natural disaster on absenteeism, job satisfaction, and job performance of survival employees. Results indicate that after the earthquake, survival employees’ absenteeism and job satisfaction (including intrinsic, extrinsic, and general job satisfaction) decrease significantly, but their task performance, contextual performance, and overall job performance improve significantly. Employees’ learning and innovative performance have no significant change in comparison with that before the earthquake. The authors thus suggest that the affected businesses need to communicate with the survival employees actively, focus more on job security, compensation and working conditions, in order to maintain these employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, enterprises outside the affected areas should give priority to the recruitment of the survival employees given the same conditions, because it is beneficial to both the employing enterprises and the reconstruction of affected areas.     

The Relationship between Written Business Plans and the Failure of Small Businesses in the U.S.

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of planning on U.S. small business failures. A "failure" was defined as a bankruptcy with losses to creditors; firms with fewer than 500 employees were considered "small." Recently failed firms were selected randomly and matched with non-failed firms on the basis of age, size, industry, and location. The sampling frame was businesses listed in the Dun & Bradstreet credit reporting database. A paired-sample t -test was used to investigate differences between the failed firms and matched non-failed firms. The main conclusion was that very little formal planning goes on in U.S. small businesses; however, non-failed firms do more planning than similar failed firms did prior to failure.     

The influence of cooperative relations of small businesses on environmental protection intensity

This study examines the relationship between cooperative business relations in small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) and environmental protection, one of the most important policies of social responsibility in manufacturing. We reviewed the literature and carried out an empirical study of 930 small manufacturing firms in Spain. Results indicate that small businesses that maintain and improve their cooperative relations through business networking with universities, competitors, suppliers and customers spend more on environmental protection. The managerial, practical, research and policy implications of the obtained research findings are discussed.     

Firms size and R&D spillovers: Evidence from Italy

The recent emergence in the industrial organization literature of a wave of studies identifying small firms as more innovative than their larger counterparts poses something of a paradox? Where do small firms get their knowledge generating inputs? The purpose of this paper is to link innovative inputs to innovative outputs. This enables the identification of the extent to which spillovers exist from major sources generating new economic knowledge, such as the research and development (R&;D) laboratories of private and public firms, as well as universities, to the innovative activity of large and small enterprises. Based on twenty Italian regions over a period of nine years, the emprical evidence suggests that, while firm R&;D expenditures contribute to the generation of innovative output for all firms, as well as for large and small firms, the spillovers from university research are apparently more important for small-firm innovation than for large-firm innovation.     

Why don't all young firms invest in R&D?

This article aims to analyze the different impacts that some factors may exert on the probability that a small young firm invests intensively in R&D. Recently, an increasing amount of the literature makes reference to the vital role played by a small number of young firms in generating jobs and increasing efficiency levels. However, not all new firms invest in R&D. Departing from the definition of Young Innovative Companies (YICs, firms younger than 6 years old, fewer than 250 employees and with more than 15 % of their revenues invested in R&D activities), and with an extensive sample of the Spanish Community Innovation Survey between 2004 and 2010, we try to determine: (1) those factors that cause firms to become YICs (innovative young small firms) or Young Non-Innovative Companies (YNICs, moderately innovative young small firms), and (2) what is the difference in the impact of those factors between YICs and YNICs. Our results show that factors such as initial innovation capacity and cooperation in R&D projects enhance the probability of becoming a YIC. Nevertheless, factors such as export potential and market uncertainty may influence the decision to invest moderately and become a YNIC.     

民营企业员工激励存在的问题及对策研究

当前,民营企业的激励机制存在的缺陷,主要体现在缺乏系统的激励制度,激励手段单一,忽视对员工的培训激励,企业文化激励的缺失等方面,严重制约着企业员工生产积极性和创造性的发挥。民营企业只有建立起劳动者创造力得以充分释放、自身价值得以充分认可、人们愿望得以真正实现的激励机制和办法,才能激发企业发展的凝聚力、内张内和持久动力,加强企业的激励制度建设、注重满足员工的精神需求、提供培训和再教育的机会、企业员工激励机制不断完善,从而提高提高竞争力。     

“互联网+”时代江西高校文创人才培养研究

当前,文化创意产业是具有发展前途的朝阳产业,是经济发展的新增长点。江西文化创意产业存在较大的人才瓶颈,限制了其发展破局,且时代的变革、数字技术的腾飞,对人才有了更高的要求,因此推动高校人才培养改革是推动江西文创产业转型升级的当务之急。高校需转变思维,坚持跨界融合的战略导向,立足本省文创产业发展,通过"融、联、优"的培养路径,突破传统培养模式的藩篱:整合资源、抓住机会主动出击,与企业等相关组织建立合作;完善教育体系、建立协同发展专业群,建立包容并蓄、对接市场需求的全方位学科体系和培养课程;创新教学模式,发挥学生主动性、激发学生创新思维;深化产教融合,推动校企联动;优化教学设施,营造多元教学情境,促进学生沉浸式学习,为产业培养懂技术、会创意、能管理的高素质复合型人才。     

Human capital and structural upheaval: A study of manufacturing firms in the west bank

Firms in various worldwide locations are repeatedly subjected to radical political, economic, and social upheavals, including changes in administrative governance, new economic paradigms, natural disasters, and warfare. Perhaps because of the difficulty of conducting research in these environments, little is known regarding the unique requirements of entrepreneurs and their business organizations in such troubled locations. Reliable research and information is necessary in order to design and assess methods of providing institutional support both during, and after, such turmoil.Based on data collected from field interviews over a six-month period, this article examines the characteristics of the owners of 64 small manufacturing businesses that have undergone or were experiencing radical political and economic upheaval in the West Bank town of Ramallah in the Palestinian Territories. The objective of the study is to examine characteristics that influence and assist an entrepreneur's resource allocation decision-making processes. This was done by comparatively assessing the effects on profitability of both firm and individual assets in a highly constrained rapidly changing environment. Understanding this allocation process will lead to more effective targeted assistance in regions experiencing or exiting environmental transitions and upheavals.Human capital theory is utilized in this study as a framework for understanding the comparative response of owners to reallocate resources under the stressful environment of the pre- and post-intifada West Bank territories. While human capital has been well studied in literature examining resource allocation in “typical” competitive environments, our understanding of the influence of human capital in transitional environments is quite limited.This study provides some useful, and perhaps surprising results, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Owner's human capital (coded from formal education) was found to impact profitability only with the micro firms studied (those with three or fewer employees), however, it is possible that this finding reflects dilution of human capital in comparatively larger small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One interesting departure from similar studies is that experience was not found to affect the profitability of the firm. Plant capital, on the other hand, was found to be associated with the profitability of only larger SMEs, controlling for business age and experience of the owner. This finding is significant because, presently, institutions such as the World Bank, NGOs and national development agencies focus their efforts primarily on providing credit to small businesses, whereas training and education currently are somewhat out of favor.A model is proposed in this study comparing resource requirements according to both the size and the productivity/technological level of the firm. The object is to explain the reduced importance of human capital and experience in environments of radical transition, specifically the arbitrary nature and lack of predictability of transitional governance, and the increased importance of financial capital only with large SMEs. It is argued that skills acquired in functional expertise do not necessarily prepare an entrepreneur for the abrupt environmental transformations characteristic of tumultuous political events. This research suggests that owners are in a better position to maximize their cognitive skills in decision making within smaller organizations. However, these skills are naturally diffused and so less effective at influencing the outcomes of somewhat larger organizations. Larger SMEs are necessarily more capital intensive and more bureaucratic, and so the cumulative human capital at the organizational level may be more important to allocative efficiency than the human capital of the individual firm owner. Further, larger SMEs require organizational expertise that may not be captured in the individual level characteristics of entrepreneurs.This research suggests that efforts to support such environments should carefully consider the size of the firms in question before designing and implementing programs of assistance, differentiating microenterprises from small businesses. In particular, the findings of this study suggest that smaller firms experiencing rapid environmental upheaval will benefit most from formal education, training and advice. Larger firms, in contrast, appear to benefit most from loans providing traditional capital support, and from advice across the entire firm's human capital base, particularly regarding organizational management and delegation skills.     

Employee Training in SMEs: Effect of Size and Firm Type—Family and Nonfamily

The study examined the main and interaction effects of size and firm type on a variety of informal and formal training programs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Samples of 448 family and 470 nonfamily SMEs were separated into four size groups and differences were assessed using multivariate analyses of variance. The results point to prevalence of informal training for all sizes and an increase in adoption of formal, structured, and development-oriented training with increasing firm size (especially for firms with 20–99 employees). This pattern was evident for nonfamily but not for family firms. For family firms, formal training programs increased significantly during the critical growth phase only (20–49 employees). Gaps in employee training between the two types of firms were greatest at 50–99 employees but narrowed thereafter at 100–199 employees. The approach to employee training in family SMEs is in consonance with their slower growth, informal management styles, limited financial resources, and greater emphasis on efficiency compared with nonfamily SMEs.     

黑龙江省中小企业自主创新能力提升的探讨

黑龙江省中小企业自主创新能力的提升是加强其核心竞争力的必要途径之一。目前,黑龙江省中小企业在提升自主创新能力方面存在的主要问题包括:企业内部——内部组织管理不健全、融资能力弱、与高校及科研机构合作不够;企业外部——政府支持力度不够、企业公共服务平台不完善、不健全。黑龙江省应强化政府服务功能,优化中小企业创新环境;搭建完善的中小企业公共服务平台,多渠道完善融资支持体系;企业应积极开展与科研机构的合作,借助外脑提升技术创新能力;走引进先进技术与提高自主创新能力相结合,加快提升自主创新能力的步伐。     

中小企业技术创新存在的问题与对策

技术创新已成为企业持续发展的动力源泉。目前,我国中小企业技术创新存在创新意识不强,融资困难;缺乏技术创新人才,创新机制尚未建立;外部协作网络尚不健全等问题,已严重制约中小企业的技术创新。解决这些问题的对策是：中小企业应强化技术创新的观念和意识;拓宽融资渠道,加大技术创新的投入力度;不拘一格储备和积累创新人才;健全中小企业技术创新的社会化服务体系;密切产、学、研关系,加强对外技术合作。     

Bracing for MNC competition through innovative HRM practices: The way ahead for Indian firms

With increasing globalization, firms are entering a dynamic world of international business that is marked by liberalization of economic policies in a large number of emerging economies like India. To face the challenge of increasing competition that has resulted from liberalization, Indian organizations have initiated adoption of innovative human resource management practices both critically and constructively to foster creativity and innovation among employees. With the help of 11 in‐depth case studies, this article tries to understand how innovative HRM practices are being adopted by Indian firms to brace for competition in the postliberalization scenario. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Driver of Green Innovation and Green Image – Green Core Competence

This study proposed a novel construct – green core competence – to explore its positive effects on green innovation and green images of firms. The results showed that green core competences of firms were positively correlated to their green innovation performance and green images. In addition, this research also verified two types of green innovation performance had partial mediation effects between green core competences and green images of firms. Therefore, investment in the development of green core competence was helpful to businesses for the enhancement of their green innovation and green images. Furthermore, this study found that green core competence, two types of green innovation performance, and green images of medium & small enterprises (SMEs) were all significantly less than those of large enterprises in the information and electronics industry in Taiwan. Therefore, there was the advantage of firm size for the green core competence in this industry, and it was imperative for SMEs to develop and create their green core competences to strengthen their green innovation performance, and green images.