Sized Companies Research Articles

Approaches to Social Behaviour and Suitable Learning toward Growth and Innovation in SMEs

<p>The purpose of this paper is to present some approaches which could be used in small and medium sized companies (SMEs) to improve social behaviour of managers and staff, learning methods and content used in education of entrepreneurs and SME staff. It is known that a social and diversity oriented manager behaviour supports company productivity and retaining of skilled staff. Very important is to prepare young entrepreneurs in this context besides the achieving of skills like leading, coordination, organisation and creativity. Vocational education and training of entrepreneurs should enable the integration of people with special needs i.e. by mentoring.</p> <p>Conclusions of studies and projects coordinated by the author show that issues like problem-based learning, informal and social learning, diversity, mentoring by intensive use of social media can contribute to growth and innovation in SMEs and to increase the motivation of staff. These conclusions and the approaches presented in this paper will be used in two ongoing European projects especially orientated towards grow and innovation in SMEs.</p>

Strategies for Employee Job Satisfaction: A Case of Service Sector

In most situations managing the strategy execution process include the best practices of Total Quality Management (TQM) through increasing employee job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of TQM activities on the job satisfaction for small and middle sized companies (SMEs) in the service sector of Turkey with an empirical analysis. Five TQM practices chosen to have a significant impact on job satisfaction are employee training and education, employee relations and teamwork, employee reward and recognition, quality culture and employee empowerment. The variables are analyzed using the Exploratory Factory Analysis (EFA), descriptive statistics analysis, correlation analysis and an independent sample t-test. Results show that employee training and education, and employee relations and teamwork are the most dominant factors on job satisfaction. However, there are some considerable factors such as facilities, job security, rewards and there is little impact of education and salary levels on job satisfaction.

Promotion of innovation and technology transfer in the New German Federal States

Many small and medium–sized companies in the New Federal German State are facing extremely difficult conditions with the new economic upheaval in East Germany. The situation is characterised by an unfavourable economic climate, inadequate information and management deficiencies as well as financial and real estate problems. Many products and production processes are outdated and cannot withstand the new competition. On the basis of this complicated economic situation, the Federal Economic Ministry created an economic programme for the foundation of 23 agencies for the promotion of innovation and the transfer of technology in 1992. The Leipzig agency AGIL GmbH was founded for the Leipzig region. The promotion of innovation and technology transfer is the main objective of the agency. The central task is therefore to safeguard the productivity and competitiveness of small and medium–sized companies (SME) through extensive consultation and support, and to create a climate favourable to innovation and thereby speed up structural change in the economic region of Leipzig. The agency supports the activities of public and municipal institutions in establishing a demand–oriented technological infrastructure. Closely connected to this, and of high strategic significance, is the European Commission's decision in 1992 to integrate one of four German VALUE Relay Centres into the Leipzig agency.

Sustainable entrepreneurship along green corridor

The research in this paper highlights the interaction and development of sustainable entrepreneurship activities in the environment of Green Transport Corridors. The objective is to show how the concept of Green Transport Corridors, initiated by the European Commission, comprises the framework for an entrepreneurial ecosystem bearing the potential to deploy sustainable entrepreneurship activities to the benefit of new start-ups as well as already existing small and medium sized companies (SMEs). The methods used are to analyse the existing green corridor initiatives together with their economic growth strategies and their impact on the surrounding entrepreneurial ecosystems. The results will be discussed in the context of network and cluster theories and evaluated by previously made studies and cases from SME sector in regard to logistics and networking. Additionally, with focus group meetings core requirements for green corridors together with a set of key performance indicators (KPI) are elaborated. The results are that Green Transport Corridors set the frame for sustainable development and foster a coherent entrepreneurial ecosystem especially for start-ups and existing SMEs in the logistics sector.

Improving SME’s Capacity through Learning and New Technologies

Economic pressure and other pressure issues faced by small and medium sized companies (SMEs) require continuous improving of their capacities, of staff knowledge, of training and learning to survive or stay competitive. This issue is at the top of European, national and regional policies. But due to limited resources, often managers reduce learning activities and using new technologies in their companies. Blended learning is a suitable way to learn in SMEs to increase their efficiency, to keep up competitiveness/surviving of the companies. Scenario-based learning is one method to be used in blended learning in order to improve learner engagement and problem understanding. Cloud computing is one of the emerging ICT trends in the past seven years. It has received much hype particularly in the past two years, with many companies considering the efficiency of cloud computing for their business, reduced costs, and easy access of data and particularly of new emerging ICT applications with little overhead. This paper contributes in the existing literature with results of interviews and case studies within projects aimed at problems of SMEs like suitable learning methods, advantages of cloud computing for SMEs efficiency and presents examples. The paper’s primary contribution is finding that blended learning is a suitable form for increasing competitiveness of SMEs and could be used also by introducing cloud services which will change the landscape of business also in SMEs in the next years.

Forecasting Share Prices of Small Size Companies in Bursa Malaysia Using Geometric Brownian Motion

This paper proposes a way to forecast the future closing price of small sized companies by using geometric Brownian motion. Forecasting is restricted to short term investment because most of the investors aim to gain profit in short period of time. This study focusses on small sized companies because the asset prices are lower, hence the asset are affordable for all level of investors. But, to choose the suitable counters to invest is difficult and with the uncertain ty of market prices, it will lead to the decline of the investor's confidence level. Therefore, forecasting future closing p rice is essential. In this paper, we suggest that geometric Brownian motion which involves randomness, volatility and drift can be used to forecast a maximum of two week investment closing prices. This method is accurately proven by the lower value of the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). In addition, the uses of data is also investigated and found that one week data is enough to forecast the share prices using geometric Brownian motion.

Productividad en empresas con diferentes tipos de propietarios: el caso de las sociedades de garantía recíproca españolas

Mutual Guarantee Societies (MGS) are instruments aimed at facilitating financial access for small and medium sized companies (SMEs) through the provision of guarantees. There are two different types of owners: participating partners, the same SMEs that are granted a guarantee, and protecting partners who include, in many cases, local and regional governments who are interested in promoting economic activities through guarantees. We study how MGS achieve the objectives of the two types of owners through the estimation of productivity, as well as the extent to which the objectives of both partners are complementary. Furthermore, given that there are no owners with a major stake in the MGS, and capital is fragmented, we determine whether MGS are also achieving the interests of managers rather than owners.

Determinant Factors of Cash Holdings: Evidence from Portuguese SMEs

Adequate cash levels are fundamental towards smooth operations of firms. Managers have a tendency to hold asignificant share of firms’ assets as liquid assets in order to reinvest on other physical assets, payments tostockholders and to keep cash inside the firm. Cash levels are influenced by firms´ capital structure, cash flow,investments and asset management policies as well as by theirs working capital requirements, and dividendpayments. This paper focuses on analyzing the drivers of cash holdings of non-financial Portuguesemanufacturing small and medium sized companies (SMEs), for the period 2001 to 2007. Results show that firmsize, growth opportunity, relationship with banks, cash flow uncertainty, debt structure, liquidity and leveragehave a significant influence on the level of cash holdings of non-financial SMEs in Portugal.

Barriers to the Development of SME's in the Australian Construction Industry

Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) operating in the construction industry in regionalareas of Australia often struggle to compete against city-based companies for constructionwork. This paper identifies the barriers that confront SMEs in areas outsidemajor cities, specifically in regional areas of Victoria (Australia) where local firms oftencompete unsuccessfully against large Melbourne-based organisations. The authors alsolook at the possibility of using e-commerce solutions to give regional SMEs greater competitivenessas well as considering possible policy initiatives that may assist these companiesto be more successful in tendering against city-based competition.

Redress in Europe and the Trap under the CESL

While redress in chains of contracts is addressed by Directive 1999/44 (Consumer Sales Directive) and the Member States’ national laws implementing the former, the European Commission proposal for a Common European Sales Law (CESL) does not provide for any redress safeguards. Rather, it appears that the CESL overlooked the issue. Considering that the CESL is an opt-in instrument and that its primary goal is to protect and encourage small and medium sized companies (SME) to make the most out of the internal market, the CESL’s non-approach to the redress issue may prove to be a significant hindrance to an opt-in. After setting out the context of liability in chains of contracts and assessing the potential approaches to it, the article discusses the specific problems of redress in cross-border cases before examining more closely the CESL’s approach to redress scenarios and possible solutions to the problem. The examination of the redress issue as a matter of substantive law is supplemented by an excursus on the procedural safeguards of redress in cross-border cases. Résumé Alors que la question des recours dans les chaînes de contrats est traitée par la directive 1999/44 sur certains aspects de la vente et des garanties des biens de consommation ainsi que par les droits nationaux transposant cette directive, la proposition de règlement sur un droit commun européen de la vente de la commission européenne n’énonce aucune garantie pour ces recours. Il apparaît au contraire que le projet de règlement européen sur la vente ait oublié cette question. Étant donné que le projet de règlement européen sur la vente est un instrument optionnel et que son but initial était de protéger et d’encourager les petites et moyennes entreprises, et de tirer le meilleur parti du marché intérieur, le fait que le projet de règlement n’ait pas traité de cette question des recours pourrait se révéler un obstacle important à la décision d’opter pour ces règles. Après avoir posé le contexte de la responsabilité dans les chaînes de contrats et évalué les différentes approches possibles, cet article aborde les problèmes spécifiques de ces recours dans les cas trans-frontières avant d’examiner plus précisément l’approche du projet de règlement s’agissant des différents recours et des solutions possibles à ce problème. L’analyse de cette question des recours comme une problématique de droit substantiel est renforcée par l’examen des garanties procédurales de ces recours dans les cas trans-frontières. Zusammenfassung Während der Regress in Lieferketten sowohl von der Richtlinie 1999/44 (Verbrauchsgüterkaufrichtlinie) als auch den nationalen Umsetzungen geregelt wird, enthält der Vorschlag der Europäischen Kommission für ein Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht (GEKR) keinerlei Regresssicherungen. Es scheint, dass die Kommission das Problem schlicht übersehen hat. Berücksichtigt man, dass das GEKR von einem opt in der Parteien abhängt und dass das vordringliche Ziel des GEKR darin besteht, kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) zu schützen und dazu beizutragen, dass diese die Möglichkeiten des Binnenmarktes durch grenzüberschreitenden Handel nutzen, könnte sich die Regelungslücke des GEKR im Hinblick auf den Regress als schwerwiegendes Hindernis für eine Wahl des GEKR erweisen. Die Autoren erörtern zunächst den Kontext des Regresses in Lieferketten und bewerten die möglichen Lösungsmodelle. Sie gehen anschließend auf die spezifischen Probleme des Regresses in grenzüberschreitenden Fällen ein, untersuchen die Problematik des Regresses bei Geltung des GEKR und erörtern mögliche Lösungen. Den Abschluss bildet ein Exkurs zu den prozessualen Sicherungen des Regresses in grenzüberschreitenden Fällen.

NETWORK CLASSIFICATION ON THE BASIS OF FUNCTIONS THEY PERFORM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS OF SMEs IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES---exploratory research on Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to classify the networks according to functions they performed, especially scrutinize their structures. The research concentrates on the influence of these functional networks on the internationalization process of small and medium sized companies (SME) in developing countries. What are the different types of support being provided by network partners? What is the structure of the existing network? The research part is inductive, qualitative and based on case study. The study’s findings illustrate the subtleties of how various network partners interact with entrepreneurs to penetrate, integrate and extend their international markets. Networks can help entrepreneurs expose themselves to new opportunities, obtain knowledge, learn from experiences, and benefit from the synergistic effect of pooled resources. Another contribution of this paper is that it identifies structures of the functional networks, till date networks are classified on the basis of extent of support they provide, not on what support they provide, thus advancing the literature.

The impact of administration efficiency on financial reporting quality (FRQ) in small sized companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange: Evidence from Iran

In this study, the effect of administration efficiency (AE) on financial reporting quality (FRQ) in small size companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchanges (TSE) has been surveyed in order to evaluate financial reporting quality used from the expected cash flow from operations. To this end, we chose 80 firms (as example) from companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchanges during the period 2001 to 2008. To test the hypothesis, correlation analysis, homogeneity of variance, and independence of Residual, scatter and NORMAL P-P diagrams have been used. This inductive research is based on real information of the audited financial statements. The results show that the impact of AE on FRQ in the small size companies is little. Key words: Efficiency, firm size, quality of reporting, corporate governance, AE, TSE.

Innovation 3.0: embedding into community knowledge - collaborative organizational learning beyond open innovation

The paper describes a conceptual approach for a next-generation innovation paradigm in the Digital Economy called “Embedded Innovation” (Innovation 3.0). The notion of “embeddedness” is introduced to mark the increasing challenge of integrating firms into their surrounding communities to assure the absorption of exploitable knowledge. In the paper the evolutionary steps from Closed via Open to Embedded Innovation in small and medium sized companies (SME) are described. On the basis of the firm’s different relationships and knowledge flows with respect to its surrounding communities different modes of how and what to learn from communities are defined and how this may unfold leverage effects for the innovation process. Finally, we present empirical innovation case studies on how to embed the firm into communities with the aim of ensuring knowledge absorption and collaborative learning.JEL Codes: L17, O31, O32, O33

Stand der strategischen Planung in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) in der BRD

Verfolgt man heute die Berichterstattung zum Thema strategische Unternehmensplanung in den Medien wie auch in der offentlichen und wissenschaftlichen Diskussion, so wird zumeist uber Grosunternehmen berichtet. Auch im Fokus der betriebswirtschaftlichen Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum nimmt die Erforschung strategischer Unternehmensplanung in Grosunternehmen breiten Raum ein. Andererseits werden Fragen der Strategiefindung und -entwicklung kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen bisher nur wenig beleuchtet, obwohl kleine und mittlere Unternehmen einen wichtigen Wirtschaftsfaktor in der BRD wie auch in Europa bilden. Dieser Sektor gewinnt auch in der betriebswirtschaftlichen Forschung zunehmend an Bedeutung. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird auf Basis einer empirischen Untersuchung der aktuelle Entwicklungsstand und die Entwicklungstendenzen der strategischen Planung kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen in der BRD beschrieben sowie relevante Unterschiede zwischen kleinen und grosen KMU’s sowie inhabergefuhrten und nicht-inhabergefuhrten KMU’s analysiert. Nicht zuletzt ist es Ziel der vorliegenden Studie, Anhaltspunkte zur Verbesserung der strategischen Planungsqualitat in KMU’s zu generieren.

Expectations‐based evaluation of SME advice and consultancy: an example of business link services

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to assess an expectations‐based approach to service evaluation by small and medium sized companies (SMEs) of government advice services. These are often criticised for providing what politicians think SMEs need rather than what SMEs want. Little analysis has gone into assessing the expectations of these services. Yet expectations are a crucial datum against which to measure evaluations of the impact and satisfaction with services received.Design/methodology/approachThe author uses new large‐scale survey results of the experience of Business Link in England to assess expectations and outcomes. It compares expectations, through open response format questions, with assessments of how far expectations are met, service impact and satisfaction. Outputs are also compared between “hard” (profit, sales, costs) and “soft” (improving the ability to manage).FindingsThe results demonstrate a mixture of expectations ranging from specific service wants (in the majority of cases) to a range of softer and quality elements (which include inter alia, the desire for a “neutral” or “external” view). Comparison of the varied expectations with the level of satisfaction and impact shows Business Link to be strongest where the SME client is most focused in what they seek and where the quality expectations are not too demanding.Originality/valueThe key implication for Business Link design is that it should focus on the primary aim of specialist advice links to subsidised services, primarily with a skills or other technical focus.

An evaluation of HACCP implementation status in UK small and medium enterprises in food manufacturing

To reduce foodborne illnesses, hazard and risk-based quality management systems are essential. Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) tend to have a poor understanding of such systems and limited adoption of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system (HACCP). The requirement for full HACCP implementation by 2006 will place an even greater burden on these businesses. The aim of this project is to assess the current levels of understanding of hazards and risks in SMEs in the manufacturing sector. A questionnaire survey was made of 850 SMEs, including microbusinesses. This determined the industry sector and processes carried out, whether the company operated hazard-based quality management and the knowledge of the technical manager regarding the associated hazards and risks. Follow-up visits to the manufacturing plant observed the processes and the operatives to determine their level of understanding. A benchmarking audit was carried out and each company was rated. The results show that the majority of respondents stated that they operated hazard analysis-based quality management. The ability of the respondents to correctly define a hazard or risk or identify different types of hazard was, however, poor. There was no correlation between business type and audit score. The microbusinesses did, however, perform significantly less well than the larger SMEs.

Cluster analysis of innovative companies of the Basque country

Technological innovation has become a clue for competitiveness in global markets in which companies are involved nowadays. The Basque industrial fabric, which is fundamentally composed of small and medium sized companies (SMEs), will be analysed in this paper. High costs and high commercial and economical risks are the biggest barriers to innovation. SMEs try to overcome these barriers by cooperating with public infrastructures (public centres of R&D, Universities), or with other companies (customers, suppliers). Most of the companies viewed are product innovators, easier to protect and with a higher impact on sales, whilst a small number innovate their processes. There are five important innovation groups: dynamic innovators, constant innovators, design innovators, process innovators and opportunist innovators.

Successful Change Concepts in Small- and Medium-Sized Companies – A Long-Term Perspective

This paper presents a multiple-case study, evaluating the long-term evolvement and success of two different organizational change concepts in five Swedish small- and medium sized companies (SMEs), The two concepts studied, group-work concepts and suggestion schemes, were evaluated according to eight criteria, which are believed to especially support a long-term enhancement of employee participation in SMEs.

Supporting order control in decentral manufacturing structures

Modern manufacturing structures are more and more designed as decentral units with a high responsibility for their products and profits. As decentral units take over responsibility, they have to perform additional functions like cost calculation of orders which have formerly been performed by the sales department. There is a need to support small and medium sized companies (SMEs) as well as profit centers within bigger companies by means of information technology for the purpose of order and cost management. Flexibility to cope with organisational changes, extendability and a modern user interface as well as connectivity are the most important requirements on IT systems.

Lower costs from reduced packaging

Many companies are saving money as a result of reducing packaging waste. The author briefly discusses legislation that has been introduced to reduce packaging waste. The author also discusses two new Good Practice Guides for cost-effective solutions to packaging. The first, GG140, 'Cutting costs and waste considered by reducing packaging use' is a nontechnical guide that can be used by any company of any size, although it is written particularly for the benefit of small-to-medium sized companies. All secondary packaging (used to group items together until they reach the point of sale) and tertiary packaging (which allows groups to be handled and transported as a manageable unit) is covered, and plenty of cost-saving tips are included that can be put to immediate good effect. The second new Guide, GG141, 'Choosing and managing re-usable transit packaging' is more technical than the first and is intended for companies that handle a significant amount of packaging. The contents will help them achieve considerable cost savings by redesigning transit packaging for reuse. GG141 will be of benefit to middle managers in medium-to-large companies or directors of smaller companies that are in the supply chain of a large company.