SME Case Research Articles

Local value creation for developing business relationships: An SME case study in the pasta industry

Drawing on the market-as-network approach from the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group, this paper explores how small and medium-sized companies can leverage their network to become network orchestrators, co-creating value locally and developing business relationships. Specifically, the paper addresses the following research questions: RQ1) How can SMEs act as network orchestrators for local value co-creation? RQ2) How can SMEs leverage local value to develop business relationships? Methodologically, the industrial network theory is applied to an exploratory and single case study of an Italian food company in the pasta sector, Fabianelli. This enterprise boasts a historical tradition firmly linked to its origins and a solid attachment to the Tuscany region where it is located. The paper identifies specific actors, resources, and activities defining a company’s network orchestrator role. Further, it analyzes the value co-created locally to discuss four strategies used by Fabianelli to develop relationships with national and international actors.

Entrepreneurship Issues in Post Covid Period. Case of Romanian SME’s

Entrepreneurship Issues in Post Covid Period. Case of Romanian SME’s

Implementation of Pre-Order via Request Item Sales Using Carefully Designed Pre-Sales Steps to Enhance E-Commerce Effectiveness: an Indonesian SME Case Study

Fashion products, which currently dominate the online market in Indonesia as products that are frequently purchased, are in fact not yet facilitated by an e-commerce system that is capable of serving pre-order sales of fashion products at the buyer's request. Therefore, most of the ineffective activities occur in the pre-sales stage because it can lead to long interactions with customers to get the requested information, and sales quotations cannot be processed immediately. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the quality of e-commerce that was developed specifically to serve these sales through real implementation for Sakinah_id SMEs and buyers who actually want to order product requests. Based on assessments from buyers and MSME employees, the e-commerce used can cut time faster in the pre-sales stage, and delivery of sales quotations can be done immediately to buyers. The durability of shorter service and processing times is felt, especially when the number of orders coming in is large. So that it can help reduce the burden on the employee concerned through the implementation of this e-commerce.

The determinants of the cost of debt: the case of unlisted Tunisian SME

Objectif : cette étude identifie l’effet de certaines caractéristiques des PME tunisiennes sur le coût de leurs dettes. Design/méthodologie/approche : nous avons utilisé une régression sur données de panel pour analyser et capter l’effet de la taille, du profit, de l’endettement, les opportunités d’investissement et de la politique de dividende sur le coût de la dette pour un échantillon de 2456 PME tunisiennes durant 2010-2015. Résultats : les résultats montrent l’impact de la politique de dividende, de la taille, du profit, de l’endettement sur le coût de la dette des PME tunisiennes non cotées. Toutefois, contrairement à nos attentes, les opportunités d’investissement n’ont aucun effet sur le coût de la dette. Implications pratiques : nos résultats impliquent que les dirigeants de PME doivent considérer et examiner leurs caractéristiques financières avant de s’endetter. Ces caractéristiques peuvent être utilisées pour accroître leur pouvoir de négociation afin de réduire le coût de la dette. Implications sociales : les dirigeants ont tendance à utiliser ces caractéristiques pour réduire le coût de la dette de leur entreprise. Originalité de l’étude et valeur ajoutée : il s’agit de la première étude qui étudie empiriquement la relation entre le coût de la dette et les caractéristiques des PME dans les marchés émergents et en particulier en Tunisie. Le document contribue à la littérature limitée sur le coût de la dette dans les pays développés en examinant l’impact des caractéristiques des entreprises sur le coût de la dette. Type du papier : papier de recherche JEL Classification : F34 – G21-G24-G32 et G35

Open innovation within high-tech SMEs: A study of the entrepreneurial founder's influence on open innovation practices

This study aims to deepen our knowledge of the SME ‘human’ role within open innovation adoption. To achieve this, we explore how the SME leader, namely the founder/CEO managerial characteristics influence the SMEs open innovation adoption dynamics (i.e. mechanisms, partners, motives and sequence of adoption). The empirical analysis is based on seven Irish medical device SME case studies achieving high growth ambitions at an international level. Our findings demonstrate that SME open innovation adoption is exemplified by a project based as opposed to an organisational level rationale and a natural tendency to pivot back towards the closed paradigm through a ‘switchback' strategy once the need has been addressed. In turn, SMEs develop open innovation capabilities on a project by project basis and mature as a consequence, thus highlighting the importance of the ‘doing, using, interacting’ mode of learning within SME OI development. Furthermore, SMEs tend to adopt a common sequential and temporal pathway commencing with a commercialisation focus through the outside-in mode followed by a complex, coupled co-creation mode. This study also provides insights into how the founder/CEO's characteristics influence OI adoption dynamics using the West and Bogers (2014) obtaining, integrating and commercialising framework thus extending upper echelons theory (UET) and strengthening the connection between open innovation and entrepreneurship theory.

Improving financial and environmental performance through MFCA: A SME case study

SMEs around the globe are often challenged by the issues related to productivity enhancement, material usage, waste management and sustainability. Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) is considered as a green productivity tool that can be utilised by SMEs to overcome these challenges. Despite the benefits, its adoption among SMEs, especially in developing countries, remains low. The purpose of this research is to examine how MFCA can be suitably implemented in an SME set-up to improve the financial and environmental performance of the enterprise. This study utilises case based research methodology to exemplify the application of MFCA tool in an Indian steel pipes and tubes manufacturing SME. As a part of MFCA analysis, material cost, system cost and energy cost at each quantity center was calculated to identify inefficiencies in the production process of the SME. Thereafter, several solutions were implemented to address these inefficiencies. The result of the MFCA implementation showed an overall annual savings of 21,028,452 INR (USD 302,350) through an investment of 495,400 INR (USD 7123). The present study reveals that the application of MFCA tool leads to higher productivity, better energy efficiency and improved environmental performance. The SME’s performance was also monitored for five years to study the long-term benefits of MFCA implementation. The findings suggest that, post MFCA implementation, the return on invested capital of the SME increased by 29.37% and the material usage cost reduced by 26.58%. This research would be beneficial to managers, practitioners, and policymakers for effectively implementing MFCA in SMEs.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Financial Performance: A Case of SME’s Sector in Pakistan.

The paper assesses its relationship with firm innovation and Organizational performance in a single integrative model by using spss data set of 53 Pakistani SME’s firms. A questionnaire of self-administrative is developed to collect the data. Researcher personally visits of different SME’s firms and collect the data from manager of SME’s firms. The research use 275 questionnaire is distributed in different SME’s sector. In this study the statistical techniques of data analysis are used to investigate and find out the relationship among the Firm performance and the other factors. SPSS version16 is used for reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, regression analysis, correlation analysis, to check either modal is good fit or not. Our results supports a partial mediation effect of innovation performance on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and firm performance, meanwhile the effect of corporate social responsibility on firm performance shrinks upon the adding of innovation performance to the model. The findings may help to understand how corporate social responsibility is an important driver mechanism for companies to be more inventive, proficient and effective.

The interplay of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial internationalization: an illustrative case of an Italian SME

This study describes SME internationalization as a process that combines entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial behaviour. We bring in insights from prior literature and use an illustrative case study of an Italian SME to demonstrate the interplay of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial behaviour during the internationalization process. Our study shows that the combination of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial internationalization cannot be fully explained with existing International Entrepreneurship literature or other internationalization theories, as they do not take into account the nonlinear nature of internationalization or explain why the process seems to reach a ‘glass ceiling’ beyond which it does not progress. The study concludes with a conceptual framework providing an alternative explanation. Based on our conceptual reasoning we propose that predominantly non-entrepreneurial internationalization can occur without developing a clearly defined internationalization strategy. Additionally, we argue that low commitment to internationalization prevents capability development and may lead to nonlinear internationalization. Furthermore, we suggest that family involvement may moderate a firm’s international entrepreneurial orientation, consequently leading to more non-entrepreneurial internationalization.

Going digital: case study of an Italian insurance company

Purpose This paper aims to present the case of an Italian SME in the domain of insurance and how it approached its own digital transformation. Together with the founders of the SME, the author investigated the digital trends the company should adopt and identified where to intervene in the value chain of the company with new technologies available in the market. The research was focused on the following three sub-domains: a strategy for adoption of innovative digital solutions to improve the everyday operations of the company, platform connecting the company with the customers and analysis of cyber insurance policies to include in the portfolio of the company. Design/methodology/approach For the part on strategy for adoption of innovative digital solutions, the author performed literature review; for the part in which the study ideates new solution to better connect the company with the customers, the author relied on design thinking, creative facilitation and prototyping; and for the part on cyber insurance policies to include the portfolio, the author relied on data available from other insurance companies the SME collaborates with. Findings This paper presented the analysis on how an insurance SME can embrace digital innovation (via internal innovation, buying from startups, partnering with startups or investing in startups), how an SME can do internal innovation and come up with a simple tool to bring closer the insurers and their customers and types of new cyber risk policies to include in the portfolio to respond to the growing demand for cyber risk insurance. This paper provides useful insights and lessons learned from companies of similar size in the domain of insurance and discusses future extensions of inquiry. Originality/value Big insurance companies and incumbent for their digitization efforts rely on the freshly created InsurTechs wave of companies. In this paper, the author analyzes what small- and medium-sized insurance enterprises can do in this respect and showcases the approach an Italian SME took in this direction.

A Conceptual Model to Resolve Frustration of Employees in the SMEs of Bangladesh

Objectives: This study aims to design and develop the conceptual model to deal with employees’ frustration in the SMEs of Bangladesh and to resolve those. Researchers target is to find the reasons, layers, and resolving techniques of employees’ frustration in the SMEs of Bangladesh. Methods/analysis: Qualitative content analysis with multiple case studies and focused group studies has been applied in this study following Yin and Andalib to collect and analyze data. NVIVO tool and soft systems technique has been applied to analyze collected data. Findings: The study mainly observes and analyzes employees’ mental state of five SMEs of Bangladesh to understand and find out the reasons’ and layers of employees’ frustration. Researchers have also found the resolving techniques by detailed analysis and designed a conceptual model by introducing employees’ rights in the model. From previous scholars’ works employees’ frustration reasons, its categories, behavioral pattern of the employees’ when frustrated, differences between threat and conflict have been found and discussed. From qualitative multiple case studies of five SMEs and focused group discussion among twenty employees, three major themes are identified, which are employees’ need, barriers creating frustration, and layers of employees’ frustration. Later, while developing the conceptual model employee rights’ got introduced and resolving techniques have been added as per employees’ suggestions from the focused group discussion. Novelty/improvement: The novelty and originality of this research lies in its methods of analyzing especially in the qualitative method, where both multiple case studies and focused group discussion have been parts since that SMEs should be brought under qualitative research more to gain more deeper understanding and insight. Moreover, Andalib mentioned in 2018 that the inclusion of component ‘employees’ rights’ in the conceptual model to resolve frustration has been an importantly novel addition. Keywords: Conceptual Model, SME Cases, Focused Group Discussion, Layers of Frustration, Resolving Techniques.

Lean manufacturing, leadership and employees: the case of UAE SME manufacturing companies

ABSTRACT Successful lean implementation to SMEs poses great challenges. Although lean principles, tools and strategies for implementation are widely known and well documented, companies still struggle. In the present paper, the challenges for the SMEs in their lean journey are discussed, focusing on leadership styles and their impact on how employees perform during the lean transition. The aim of the paper is to determine the extent to which the main principles of lean manufacturing are understood and adopted in manufacturing companies in a developing country such as the United Arabic Emirates (UAE) through a structured questionnaire. The degree of implementing lean manufacturing is assessed and discussed against literature review findings. Furthermore, the impact of various leadership styles during the lean transition is investigated. A second survey is used for capturing the current state with regards the employee performance and the role of leadership in manufacturing SMEs in the UAE.

Analysis of equine casuistic in the Large Animals area of the Veterinary Clinic U.D.C.A, Bogotá, Colombia

Know the most frequent pathologies facilitates the clinical orientation improving the prognosis of the patients. To determine the pathologies that occur in horses at the U.D.C.A Veterinary Clinic, a retrospective study was conducted between january and december 2017. 242 clinical histories were analyzed, classifying the cases according to date, origin, race, sex, age, defi nitive diagnosis, system, medical-surgical treatment and evolution. The most frequent source was the department of Cundinamarca and the city of Bogota, 55.8% were females, 44.2% males, age between 1 day and 25 years, 24% young, 76% adults with an average age of 81.5 months and a standard deviation of 51.7 months, the predominant breed was Colombian Creole Horse (CCC). The most affected systems were muscle skeletal (ME), digestive (D), and reproductive, the most frequent cases were classic stringhalt or equine refl ex hypertonia, which occurred only in CCC, alterations of the large intestine, and cryptorchidism, respectively. Surgical treatment was given to 66.5% of the cases, mainly to SME, digestive and reproductive cases. Mortality was 13.7%, 13 equines died and 22 were euthanized, fatal cases occurred mainly in those of SD related to colic and none in the respiratory, organs of the senses and integumentary systems. The casuistic is wide and varied, the MES was the most affected in the horses attended, the functional and vital commitment for the animals makes it necessary to investigate the risk factors of the classic stringhalt and equine colic.

Financial Management of Tires Retail and Restaurant Business in Greater Jakarta

This study aims to explore the financial management practices ofsmall-and-medium-enterprises (SMEs) in the Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek). We investigate into 3 SME cases by conducting the semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers and using direct observations to know the practices of financial management of SMEs. Through the research, we have found six propositions related to the practice of short-term financial management. They apply bootstraps to ensure availability of working capital. They set aside cash reserves from retained earnings and minimize loans from financial institutions. They have the computerized system to track receivables facilitating working capital needs. They keep theirinventory control efficient to manage working capital. They screen customers using transactional records and reputations to minimize the risk of bad debts.

Hybrid Exergetic Analysis-LCA approach and the Industry 4.0 paradigm: Assessing Manufacturing Sustainability in an Italian SME

Abstract Assessing sustainability of manufacturing is a fundamental prerequisite to the improvement of efficiency or effectiveness of manufacturing processes. The LCA is used to estimate the resource consumption along the life-cycle, while the exergy analysis introduces hints about the quality of resource consumption. The hybrid analysis descending from combining these two approaches has been proved to be a powerful tool to recognize the process optimization opportunities, as well as improvements and/or innovation paths of manufacturing processes. The incoming Industry 4.0 paradigm, providing new on-time information on the process status, is going to strongly improve this approach. The article analyzes the existing hybrid approaches and their potential features by the grace of an industrial case of an Italian SME where the Industry 4.0 is taking place. The company redesigned its sensing systems and partially the manufacturing organization as a function of the manufacturing predictability.

SME marketing: efficiency in practice

ABSTRACTMuch has been written about SME owner-manager decision making and SME marketing efficiency. SME marketing theories have been drawn from the marketing, management and entrepreneurship literatures. These have provided the foundation for investigative empirical work focusing on how SME owner-managers actually do business. This paper reviews the relevant literature and offers some insights based on experience of working with SMEs at different stages of their development. Then two SME case examples are used to illustrate how SME owner-managers develop specific business activities within very competitive markets by focusing on SME business efficiency in practice. The case findings are considered in the context of current business practice and leadership thinking.

Information About Cost of Goods Produced and its Usefulness for Production Engineers – A Case of SME

Abstract The article stresses the consequences of simplifications implemented in the measurement process of goods produced that are of crucial importance to production engineers in SME. The authors show the variety of possibilities that might be used by financial employees together with probable outputs in terms of valuation distortions. Using the case study the authors emphasis the importance of close cooperation of production engineers with finance professionals as out-puts of finance departments consist an important input for decision-making process of production managers. Further-more, demonstrated deficiencies in terms of methods applicable in financial reporting for measurement of the value of goods produced indicate the need for incorporation more financial and non-financial data in the process of judgments about the final cost of goods produced as simplifications applied in SME distort financial information provided to production engineers.

CSR organisational taxonomy and job characteristics on performance: SME case studies

This study examines the relationship between the CSR of organizational structure and job characteristics that influence employee job performance in the Malaysian context. Hence, it is important to study and analyze these two factors within the CSR taxonomy describing how these factors significantly influence employee job performance and to make recommendations how performance can be promoted among employees. This paper is based on a quantitative research approach where responses were gathered from the working population within Malaysia SMEs. The results from this study will help to point out the influence of these factors on the employee job performance and provide guidance to an organization for which these aspects should be emphasized in order to increase employees’ job performance to align performance with organizational goals. The analysis includes two dimensions of CSR taxonomy of organizational structure namely, centralization and formalization, as well as a set of five dimensions of job characteristics, such as task identity, task significance, skill variety, autonomy and feedback. The results of these findings show that job characteristics such as task significance, autonomy, feedback, and skill variety, positively influence job performance with autonomy having highest predictive power on job performance. The results of these findings reveal that the organizational structure does not contribute to the prediction of job performance even though a significant positive correlation exists between the structure and job performance in the Pearson correlation coefficient test. Therefore, this study will enrich the existing knowledge in the area of human resource management by focusing on job performance management.

Teaching practice across disciplines: marketing and entrepreneurship for youths

This paper introduces teaching practice in the marketing and entrepreneurial disciplines with entrepreneurial cases. After giving examples for practice, the paper suggests implications and considerations. Entrepreneurial education is explained. Marketing topics including growth strategies and entrepreneurial marketing concepts which can be used in teaching entrepreneurship are analysed. Three examples of teaching cases illustrate the implications. Examples are drawn from in-depth interviews with SME owners. Primarily, entrepreneurial cases can be used to teach across marketing and entrepreneurship disciplines. Cases help to clarify marketing topics, growth strategies, entrepreneurial marketing strategies, entrepreneurial practices, teaching objectives and entrepreneurial qualities. Two points should be noted. First, the same marketing strategies have different applications in large and small firms. Second, new ways to perform traditional marketing strategies could bring innovation. Teaching entrepreneurship and marketing to youths is important, but teaching with cases from large international firms causes problems. This paper shows how to use SME cases in entrepreneurial marketing classes. Practice was introduced but not measured formally. Future research is required. In other contexts, this teaching practice needs to be modified.

Integrating Requirements Engineering for Different Domains in System Development – Lessons Learnt from Industrial SME Cases

There is a trending transition for companies from offering products to solutions in order to fulfill better customer needs and to reduce environmental impact by e.g. dematerialization. This solution-based development has an associated integration of intelligent devices that contributes to increasing system complexity. The ability of systems engineering processes, methods and tools to cope with these developments is a critical factor for manufacturing companies today. Still, in many cases it is hard to find adequately trained people and sufficiently integrated development tools for complex solutions, especially in the case of small and medium sized enterprises. Often, the tangible (hardware) part of the solution is primarily developed and the intangible parts (software and services) are added on top. However, key for a successful development is to adapt and integrate all parts according to the requirements set for the solution. Thus, it is essential how requirements are worked with during systems engineering and how they influence the development of the tangible and intangible parts of the solution. The objective of this paper is to study the approach of different industrial use cases for requirements engineering in system development. The aim is to identify how practices from domains like mechanical engineering, software or service engineering can be adapted for an integrated requirements engineering for complex systems, like product-service systems.

A reliability diagnosis to support servitization decision-making process

Purpose– Servitization of manufacturing is characterized by very complex decision processes within strongly unstable and uncertain decision contexts. Decision-makers are face situations of lack of internal and external information. The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision aid approach to support the management of servitization decision-making processes.Design/methodology/approach– The scientific orientation of this research consists in working at improving the efficiency of the servitization decision-making process, by identifying factors of non-reliability, in order to propose remediation actions for the whole process. Improving the final decisions taken by the managers is considered as a consequence of the improvement of the decision-making process reliability. The method, based on modeling and evaluation, requires the specification of a decision process model for servitization, used as a basis to assess decision process reliability and diagnose the enterprise’s servitization decision system. Improving the final decisions made by the managers is considered as a consequence of the improvement of the decision-making process reliability.Findings– Key added values: first, to formalize a servitization decision-making reference model; second, to specify a reliability assessment applied to the decision system; and third, to define a decision process reliability diagnosis procedure for servitization, illustrated in a case study.Research limitations/implications– A direct perspective is to complete the focus on procedural reliability, by taking into consideration the subjective rationality of decision-makers in the reliability assessment procedure. Additionally, this reliability assessment method and diagnosis could become the basis of a larger risk management approach for servitization.Practical implications– The diagnosis procedure proposed in the paper is dedicated to generating practical results for enterprise decision-makers, consisting in recommendations for decision process improvements, in the context of servitization. The approach is illustrated through an industrial SME case study. The practical implications are highly contextualized.Originality/value– The key originality of this research is to tackle servitization complexity with a decision system modeling and diagnosis orientation, including the formalization of the notion of “decision process reliability,” and the specification and implementation of a quantitative assessment procedure.