Lack Of Market Knowledge Research Articles

Internationalization of SMEs: A Developing Country Perspective

Internationalization has become increasingly important to the competitiveness of firms of all sizes, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs play a crucial role in the development of lower-income countries. In Bangladesh, SMEs account for between 80 and 85 percent of industrial employment and 23 percent of total employment and are critical to economic growth. Though the literature on firm internationalization is well established, the internationalization process of SMEs from developing countries, such as Bangladesh, remains relatively under-explored. The main aim of this study is to explore factors that hinder the internationalization of SMEs in a developing country, with Bangladesh serving as the context of the investigation. Qualitative research methods were adopted, comprising semi-structured interviews with leaders of 16 SMEs in Bangladesh. Six major themes were identified as hindrances to the firms’ internationalization: (1) lack of market knowledge, (2) lack of family support, (3) the proliferation of ‘scammer buyers’, (4) the (negative) involvement of third parties, (5) mismanagement of domestic ports, and (6) unregulated local market. Regarding positive factors, only one theme emerged from the data, the strong support from the local government, which provides considerable backing for local SMEs with international ambitions. This study’s primary contribution and originality lie in the context of the investigation, with Bangladesh primarily overlooked in the international business literature. Therefore, the study presents several novel insights into the internationalization process of SMEs.

Sustainable development of the green bond markets in India: Challenges and strategies

AbstractGreen bonds have emerged as a useful and powerful financial strategy to mitigate the financial problems of low‐carbon projects. India, which is a significant contributor to global warming, is facing serious challenges in increasing the market for and acceptability of green bonds. This study identified different challenging factors influencing the development of green bond markets in India and suggests suitable strategies to overcome these challenges. The key factors responsible for the development of green bond markets were identified by an extensive literature review and critical examination through experts' opinion. The best worst method (BWM) was used to rank challenges and strategies based on the priority (or weights) provided by the industry experts. The results indicate that the lack of clear risk profiling and legislative support involved in green bonds are the most crucial challenges for the Indian green bond market, followed by lack of market knowledge and lack of demand among investors for green bonds. Among the strategies, standardization emerged as the most notable to promote green bond in emerging economies. This study extends the literature by providing comprehensive insights into the challenges restricting the growth of the green bond market and develops a detailed understanding of the different strategies to overcome those challenges. This study also provides a roadmap for policymakers to restructure the green bond market and to help fulfill India's commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Barriers to commercialise produce for smallholder farmers in Malawi: An interpretive structural modelling approach

Smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, relying on agriculture for subsistence and employment. The transition from subsistence towards commercial agriculture is a focus area to improve the living conditions of farmers in several African countries, including Malawi. However, a number of barriers still prevents the commercialisation of produce by smallholder farmers. This work aims to identify the key barriers faced by Malawian smallholder farmers to commercialise their produce and to identify their root causes in order to prioritise areas of improvement to facilitate market participation for smallholder farmers.Using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM), the opinions of experts in the field were captured to establish causal and hierarchical relationships among the thirteen identified barriers, which holistically address on-farm and off-farm elements across multiple disciplines, such as agriculture, entrepreneurship, supply chain management, micro- and macro-economy.A causal mapping method is applied for the first time in the context of smallholder farming. This work is novel in identifying in a structured manner and comprehensively analysing barriers to commercialisation of produce for smallholder farmers in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, offering a causal hierarchical mapping of the relationships between barriers in Malawi.The findings show that ‘Poor farmers’ group organisation’ and ‘Lack of market knowledge and understanding’ are the most significant barriers, having the highest driving power and aggravating the other barriers. The findings of this work can have a notable contribution to practice. Policy makers and other related actors can have more clarity on the key barriers that affect all others as well as on their impact pathway, thus being able to prioritise their efforts to effectively address them.

Extension needs of vegetable growers

The present study on “Extension Needs of Vegetable Growers” was conducted in the year 2021-2021 in Akola district of Maharashtra state. The exploratory research design of social research was used. In all, 120 respondents were selected by random sampling method. The data were collected by personally interviewing the respondents with the help of structured interview schedule. The data collected were carefully examined, classified, quantified and tabulated. Frequencies, mean, standard deviation, spearman rank correlation and multiple linear regression were employed for interpreting the results. The findings of the present study revealed that, nearly half of the respondents 55.83 per cent belonged to middle age group, i.e. between 36 to 54 years. High proportion of the respondents 46.66 per cent were educated upto secondary school category (10th standard). Nearly half 42.50 per cent of the respondents had medium family size category (5-6 members). Most of the respondents 52.50 per cent had annual income between Rs. 1,00,000/- to 2,00,000/-. High proportion of the respondents 40.83 per cent possessed small category of land holding (1.01 to 2.00 ha). Nearly half 74.16 per cent of the respondents had 0.40 to 1.60 ha area under vegetables. Nearly three fourth 63.33 per cent of the respondents had 11 to 27 years of experience in vegetable cultivation. nearly half of the respondents 50.00 per cent belonged to medium category of social participation. Majority 54.16 per cent of the respondents had medium source of information. Over half 57.50 per cent of the respondents had medium level of innovativeness. Nearly three fourth 80.00 per cent of the respondents had medium category of risk orientation.In case of extension needs of respondents, majority of the respondents 66.67 per cent most needed information about export facilities provided by government and 62.50 per cent information about phyto sanitary measures. High proportion of the respondent 30.83 per cent had daily contact with Gram Sevak among formal agencies, followed by 40.00 per cent progressive farmers among informal agencies, whereas 60.83 per cent of respondents had daily contact with television among mass media. The majority of respondents 60.00 per cent prefer farm as suitable place of contact. Higher number 41.66 per cent of the respondents prefer farm and home visit as best extension method. The 40.83 per cent of the respondents believed that, gender of extension agent doesn’t matter. Majority of the respondents 70.00 per cent had medium extension needs i.e. between 33.34 to 66.66 per cent. Important constraints faced by the respondents were price fluctuation 80.00 per cent followed by 70.00 per cent had problem about electricity, whereas 66.66 per cent 64.16 per cent and 60.83 per cent of respondents faced problems regarding fertigation, exploitation by middle men and lack of market knowledge, respectively and these were ranked as I, II, III, IV and V, respectively.

Constraints Faced by Vegetable Growers in Amaravati Division of Maharashtra

Vegetable cultivation involves intensive cultural operations since sowing to marketing, providing regular employment opportunities to unemployed youth and farm family. Vegetable production is now commercialized, but still traditional farming is done in far flung areas. Besides, they are not as well served by the extension system as the farmers growing food grains. Moreover, most of the vegetable growers in this region are small and marginal farmers, and they have their peculiar concerns and problems which need to be studied urgently and earnest. The present study was carried out in Akola and Amravati districts of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state during the year 2019 with a sample size of 120 respondents to define the constraints faced by vegetable growers in Amravati division of Maharashtra. The major constraints faced by the vegetable growers were price fluctuation, electricity, fertigation, exploitation by middle men and lack of market knowledge.

Growth and profitability of smallholder sengon and teak plantations in the Pati district, Indonesia

Despite the ambitious target to establish 12.7 million ha of social forestry across Indonesia and various government support for smallholder private forests, implementation has been slow and financial returns for smallholders from timber production have been variable. For most smallholders, any motivation to plant trees competes with their interest in planting short term food or cash crops to support their family's livelihood. Moreover, lack of market knowledge and monetary need often sees smallholders sell their trees at below market prices, rather than at the optimum time for financial returns. Also, a limited understanding of silvicultural options to improve log quality further undermines the financial returns from timber production for smallholders. There are few studies from Indonesia that provide sufficient detail to be able to replicate the financial analysis and benchmark the results against key input variables (e.g., unit costs of production, timber yields by product and log size class, discount rate). Another deficiency is the lack of empirical data on the growth performance of existing smallholder plantations in Indonesia. This article reports on research to fill these knowledge gaps by using inventory data from smallholder plantations in Pati (Central Java) together with other data to develop silvicultural systems that were used to assess the profitability for smallholders of growing sengon (Paraserianthes falcataria) and teak (Tectona grandis) for timber. The results indicated that growing sengon on a 6-year rotation was profitable with an estimated net present value (NPV) of USD 1015 ha−1 (Rp 14,218,000 ha−1) at a real discount rate of 8%, with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 20%. Growing teak on a 20-year rotation was also profitable with an NPV of USD 2815 ha−1 at a real discount rate of 8%, and an IRR of 15%. Although the NPV for teak was nearly three times that for sengon, in the long term (i.e., over perpetual rotations), the returns from sengon and teak were closer. Our results support the view that the best opportunity for enhancing smallholder returns from forestry lies in improving the common approach to silviculture, particularly the lack of effective pruning and thinning, to realise the financial potential of timber production.

Peranan Pemerintah dan Optimalisasi Sektor Pertanian dengan Sinergitas Lembaga Keuangan Mikro Syariah-Agribisnis dan Agriculture Trust Fund

Agriculture is the strategic sector in sustainable national economic development structure. This is due to agriculture has various natural resources that can be managed for long term. Agriculture also become the growth centre and main effort in fulfilling the needs in rural areas. But, this sector has some cultural obstacle such as infrastructure, lack of market knowledge, technology application, and capital problem. Agricultural sector also has high dependency on climate and natural changes like volcanic eruption, flood, and drought which foil agricultural product,damage infrastructure, and cause big economic losses for most farmer. There are so many agricultural threat that put farmer in poor situation and trapped in multiplied debt as the result of the absence of attention to farmer’s life in Indonesia. Some program and government policy like agriculture insurance and previous agricultural financial support is not enough to build and empower the agricultural sector. By that reason, the writer has an idea to develop Agribusiness- based Micro Syari’ah Financial Institution, sinergized with Agriculture Trust Fund and Government as the best solution to solve all problem in agricultural sector. This research is also purposed to show the concept of creating friendly Financial Institution for the farmer from financing side and giving partnership to the farmer in applying the technology and selling the harvest product including educative protection if crop failure happens. This research uses qualitative descriptive approaching method by using secondary data sources such as literature from previous research and articles from mass media. The result of this research is the sinergy between Agribusiness-based Micro Syari’ah Financial Institution, Agriculture Trust Fund, and Government can move the economy and also contribute to financial inclusion for sustainable rural economics by giving business financing, partnership, and development along with protection in crop failure in order to increase farmer life standard and strengthen national food security . Keyword: Cultural obstacles, agricultural threat, financial inclusion, Agribusiness-based Micro Syari’ah Financial Institution.

Challenges Faced by SMEs in Oman

SMEs play a significant role in income generation, labour absorption, poverty alleviation and contribution to gross domestic product. The significant challenges faced by them are Lack of basic business knowledge, Lack of market knowledge and information, Lack of adequate finance, complicated procedures and delay in loan disbursement, Limited network, experience and expertise, Reluctant in using modern technology. The study objectives are: to identify the obstacles faced by SMEs in Oman, to understand the difficulties encountered in accessing finance by SMEs in Oman and to study the relationship between the availability of funding and performance of SMEs. The required data were collected using structured Questionnaire from 102 respondents' selected using simple random sampling method. The results show that 47.1% and 37.2% of the respondents felt that gender and age are not an obstacle. Around 54 respondents have ranked that their funds were used for their business while loans from commercial banks were listed as number 2 for accessing finance by 35 respondents. Out 22 respondents who have applied for a bank loan, 13 respondents have faced difficulties in obtaining it. Poor business performance has been ranked number 1, followed by inadequate business planning as a reason for the failure of a bank loan. SMEs need adequate training, finance, and teaching entrepreneurial culture among students.

Patterns of internationalisation of Finnish SMEs in Estonia: Preliminary survey results

Objective: The objective of this paper is to look at the patterns of the internationalization process of Finnish SMEs and how it fits the internationalization models. Discussions are based on the interrelated theories of internationalization specifically the Uppsala model, Network approach and Models of International Entrepreneurship. This work also presents an intense analysis of the level of internationalization among SMEs, the mode of entry, motives and barriers for internationalization. Research Design & Methods: The empirical research was carried out in the period of January 2018-August 2018. Data were collected through a mail survey questionnaire and 121 usable responses were received. The data was then analyzed in SPSS software by the cross-tabulation method to achieve the results. Findings: Findings indicate that the majority of Finnish SMEs that started international operations follow a step-by-step approach of internationalization. Exporting was a major mode of entry into foreign markets, capturing market share was the main motive, and lack of market knowledge was a major barrier for internationalization. Contribution & Value Added: It is confirmed that Uppsala, Network and Entrepreneurship models are still valid, and majority of Finnish SMEs follow the systematic internationalization process. This study contributes to the internationalization process of SMEs and calls for further comparative research in other markets to validate the results. It is confirmed that there is no single theory, which explains the internationalization process of SMEs and this work provides the threshold for theory development.

Constraints faced by anthurium growers in Aizawl district of Mizoram state

The study was conducted with 120 anthurium growers in Aizawl district of Mizoram state. The study revealed that majority of the anthurium growers faced constraints like investment problem, lack of working capital, lack of planting material and manure; insufficiency of electricity, high cost of labour, lack of skilled labour, non-availability of labour, pest and disease management problem, transportation problem, lack of storage facilities, price fluctuation and lack of market knowledge. The entrepreneurial behaviour was positively and significantly related with area under polyhouse, annual income and marketing behaviour at 0.001 level of probability, education, total landholding, extension contact and mass media exposure had positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial behaviour at 0.05 level of probability, whereas age had negative and non-significant relation with the entrepreneurial behaviour.

Strategic marketing patterns and performance implications

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to create the taxonomy of firms based on the nature of the relationship between market-based resources and marketing capabilities. Anchored in the configuration theory, the present study aims to explore simultaneous roles of market-based resources, i.e. customer orientation and competitor orientation, and marketing capabilities, i.e. the execution of marketing practices and activities within a firm, on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachA self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data from chief executive officers or top managers of 220 firms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a transitional economy in South Eastern Europe.FindingsDrawing on a configuration approach via the latent class analysis, the authors empirically derive four distinct strategic marketing patterns, namely, marketing super achievers, marketing-focused virtuosi, marketing drifters and marketing mass pushers. The findings also highlight how business performance outcomes differ as a function of a class membership.Research limitations/implicationsCross-sectional research design and focus on a single country are main limitations of the present study. Thus, longitudinal studies in the context of developed and fast-reforming transition economies are advisable for future work.Practical implicationsThis study enhances the knowledge on how a firm can configure or bundle its market-based resources and marketing capabilities to produce desired outcomes. Findings suggest that joint attention to building market-oriented culture and developing marketing capabilities seems to pay off. However, the authors found that a lack of market knowledge can be substituted by the firms’ ability to build effective promotional and branding capabilities. Thus, the present study adds to the emerging dialog on the relative importance of alternative strategic orientations in achieving superior business performance.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the strategic marketing literature by examining the synergistic effect of market-based resources and marketing capabilities on firm performance using a configurational approach. It also provides support for the equifinality proposition, suggesting that different “bundles” of market-based resources and marketing capabilities can lead to similar level of performance outcomes.

Barriers to Internationalisation: A Study of Entrepreneurial New Ventures in New Zealand

This paper presents the findings of a study of the perceptions of the barriers to internationalisation by 561 New Zealand Entrepreneurial New Ventures (ENVs). Significant differences in the perception of the barriers are identified according to the level of international activity of New Zealand ENVs. Exporters and likely exporters consider the main barriers to internationalisation to be finance and cost-related factors. A lack of New Zealand government incentives are also seen to be major barriers for these two groups with likely exporters also perceiving their lack of international experience to be a hindrance. By comparison non-exporters perceive firm size to be the biggest barrier to internationalisation followed by a lack of market knowledge and experience. Industry was found to have no influence on the perception of barriers to internationalisation, however, firm size does have an impact.

Factors Influencing Tuna Prices in Japan and Implications for the Development of the Coral Sea Tuna Fishery

Since 1981 the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments have spent A$1 million trying to develop the Australian tuna fishery industry. Little progress has been made, however, because local fishermen have not been able to obtain consistently high prices for chilled tuna air‐freighted to Japan. It is argued that a lack of market knowledge is the key reason for the industry′s failure. A review of the marketing literature on fishing and auction sales in Japan is presented and the results of the authors′ research are described.