Small And Medium-sized Companies Research Articles

Developing world market-leading companies – innovation governance in German small and medium-sized enterprises

A high density of highly innovative world market-leading small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) can be found in the rural region Heilbronn-Franconia of Germany. Those are commonly named as 'German hidden champions'. This research aims to reveal factors that influence their innovation governance structure, by examining the firm's characteristics, HRM, organisational structures and leadership styles. All four influencing factors have been explored through semi-structured qualitative interviews with the owners or top-managers of the firms. For evaluation, a qualitative content analysis based on Mayring's suggestions was implemented using NVivo8. With regards to fostering innovation a strong sense of entrepreneurial activity and visionary leadership; emphasis on local recruitment strategies, retention programs and employees' involvement in business processes; formalised innovation processes; informal networks; rigorous knowledge management and open communication modes were discovered.

Does intellectual capital reporting matter to financial analysts?

Purpose – Small and medium‐sized companies (SMEs) have started to generate intellectual capital (IC) reports in order to enhance their management and corporate reporting. While the impact of a better management is quite clear, it is still unclear if an IC report has any impact on the rating of a company. The aim of this paper is to determine whether intellectual capital reports of SMEs generate any impact on the valuation behavior of analysts.Design/methodology/approach – A test design was developed which comprised a literature review, a brain trust with financial experts, a quantitative survey, and an experiment with analysts based on two case studies.Findings – If some requirements about structure and content of an IC report are fulfilled, it contributes to a more homogeneous rating than a rating based solely on information from financial reporting. Therefore, intellectual capital reports reduce risks for both investors/banks and SMEs.Research limitations/implications – The research is based solely on G...

Un análisis institucional de la implicación del proceso de cambio de los SCG en la evolución de la eficiencia de las PYME

El objetivo general de este trabajo es conocer la relación existente entre el proceso de cambio de un Sistema de Contabilidad de Gestión (SCG) en las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYME) y el éxito que genera dicho cambio. El éxito del cambio del SCG se va a medir a través de dos indicadores. El primer indicador, el éxito interno, medirá la distancia que existe entre las expectativas (qué se esperaba) de las nuevas técnicas de gestión implantadas y las realidades (qué son). El segundo indicador, el éxito externo, medirá la variación en el nivel de eficiencia relativa de la empresa dentro de su sector. La hipótesis básica de este estudio, plantea que el proceso de cambio puede explicar el nivel de éxito (interno-externo) alcanzado en el cambio de un SCG. Para captar y analizar los datos, utilizaremos dos técnicas: el Análisis Envolvente de Datos (DEA) y el método del Estudio de Caso (EDC). Los resultados de la investigación permitieron conocer los que factores influyeron, y por tanto explican el éxito de un cambio en los SCG de una PYME del sector de la madera y mueble de la Comunidad Valenciana, España, entre ellos: los conocimientos y habilidades de los agentes implicados en el cambio, la influencia de los expertos externos, la profesionalización de la gestión, los recursos informáticos, la formación interna en SCG, la confianza entre los agentes y la implicación de las personas. Además, hemos observado que los cambios producidos a lo largo de los años analizados influyeron positivamente en el nivel de eficiencia de la organización.

Technology Transfer between Technology Centres and SMEs: Evidence from the Basque Country

Public policies (often at the regional level) favouring pre-competitive research and cooperative research and development have played a decisive role in the development of technology centres in Europe and all over the world. The technology offer model gave priority to the creation of technology transfer organizations and structures, but there is increasing evidence that this model did not attach enough attention to the needs of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and in particular, to their capacity to take in knowledge. In this paper, based on qualitative research, we show in detail some of the main issues involved in the relationships between technology centres and SMEs in the Basque Country, a region that has developed intensive policies favouring technology transfer organizations over the years.

A Quest for Repositioning: The Emerging Internationalization of Chinese Companies

When the third wave of internationalization appears in the near future, how will Chinese firms, especially small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs), position their products strategically? The framework of this paper is composed of price/volume segments and impacts on product strategy theory. The aim is to identify important drivers and focus areas for Chinese companies and measure what role these play in different segments. The survey is a quantitative study based on responses given in April 2006 by 102 Chinese EMBA students currently working, largely as managers, in the Shanghai region. The results indicate that Europe has potential to be a priority target market for Asian companies. Net flows, over time, illustrate how the respondents believe their companies are presently positioned and how they will be positioned in the ‘future’ (year 2010). These net flows indicate that some Chinese companies will reposition themselves strategically when internationalizing and that they will focus on other factors or drivers when doing so, compared to companies adapting the prevalent price leadership strategy. The results should be seen as indicative and as presenting a template for deeper research.

Disclosure of governance information by small and medium‐sized companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of compliance with the governance regulatory requirements by small and medium‐sized companies (SMEs) listed on the alternative investment market (AIM).Design/methodology/approachThe paper focuses on AIM‐listed companies over a period of three years (2002, 2003 and 2004) and concentrates on their extent of compliance with the corporate governance disclosure guidelines set out by the regulatory bodies. To measure the extent of disclosure, a checklist was compiled based on the Combined Code and FSA listing rules. Having reviewed the literature on large companies (as there were no studies on SMEs), a number of governance and firm structure‐specific characteristics were selected. The relationships between the level of governance disclosure and the chosen characteristics were examined in order to highlight those factors that are associated with and affect the level of governance disclosure.FindingsOn average about 50 percent of governance items required to be disclosed had been reported by AIM‐listed companies. As for large companies, there is a positive relationship between the number of non‐executive directors in governance mechanisms and the extent of disclosure. Considering that there has been a declining interest in AIM‐listed companies, the presence of more non‐executive directors is recommended, as this would ultimately mean more compliance with the governance disclosure requirements and could result in restored investor interest and confidence. The findings also indicate that SMEs are more likely to have adopted a stakeholder approach when concentrating on their governance arrangements.Originality/valueThe study presents evidence on governance disclosure practices of SMEs and indicates that, in spite of a less stringent regulatory regime set up within AIM, non‐executive directors, who bring in an element of independence to boards, play a significant role in elevating corporate transparency.

Social Reporting by Companies Listed on the Alternative Investment Market

While the existing literature focuses on the disclosure of social information mainly by large companies, this paper concentrates on the disclosure of social information by small- and medium-sized companies (SME) listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the U.K. The paper investigates the prevalent view that SMEs are unlikely to report social information due to their financial constraints and the perception that they have very little social conduct on which to report. Our overall evidence illustrates that, contrary to this view, SMEs report social information regardless of their financial constraints, most likely in the same manner as large companies do, because they realise the significance of social reporting in establishing and retaining their corporate reputation.

BHSF taps into the graduate talent‐bank

PurposeDescribes how UK healthcare‐insurance provider BHSF Ltd successfully recruits, trains and retains talented graduates.Design/methodology/approachDetails the qualities the company looks for in its graduate recruits, the development program they are offered and the skills they put into operation. Highlights, in particular, the role of corporate social responsibility projects in helping the graduates to develop. Describes in detail the experiences of one graduate recruit in the company.FindingsShows that graduate projects have included the development of the customer relationship management (CRM) system, implementation of performance metrics in customer service and revision of the staff performance‐appraisal system.Practical implicationsDemonstrates that small and medium‐size companies (SMEs) can benefit greatly from the enthusiasm and fresh talent graduates bring to a business.Originality/valueDemonstrates that the graduate‐development program benefits the business because managers are able to delegate projects to graduates, saving operational time and resources. Often graduates can research in depth and report on a particular business issue, providing new perspectives. Such reports focus attention and can be used as a management tool for decision‐making.

Style of management and the relevance for workplace health promotion in small and medium sized enterprises

In a small company, the whole company culture, including the management style, is dominated by the owner. The management culture in small companies and above all the management style of the owner determine the chances of successfully introducing workplace health promotion (WHP). For this reason a typology was developed that describes the management personalities who affect the company culture in small enterprises. This provides a guide to the possible success of WHP in connection with the management style. Although a summary of the management and corporate culture of small companies in a few categories cannot show the variety of social reality, it can provide orientation. The typical categories of company social order (a mixture of ownership and leadership) in small and medium-sized enterprises are given below. Furthermore, there is an assessment of what the chances of realising workplace health promotion are in each type of company. Small and medium-sized companies (SME) have a number of organisational characteristics which are just ideal for the introduction and implementation of workplace health promotion. The work of the employer and employees is often the same. Information in the company is generally comprehensive and easily available. The lack of information which employees often complain about in large companies is not a problem. There is a good flow of communication. Small companies have a flat hierarchy that enables participation, the essential requirement for WHP. There is a close social relationship between the company head and the workforce, although it must be said that this closeness can be dangerous, particularly if it is misused as complete social control. The readiness to implement Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) in SME and the degree of success depends largely on the personality of the company manager and the style of leadership. Considering the importance of a manager’s personality for WHP in SME, modules and instruments to assist company owners and managers in SME are to be developed. On behalf of and in co-operation with the Austrian Network for Workplace Health Promotion several modules have been introduced to assist owners and managers of SMEs.

Disclosure of Governance Information by Small and Medium-Sized Companies

Purpose: This paper examines the extent of compliance with the governance regulatory requirements by small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Considering the declining investor interest in AIM-listed companies coupled with the increasing attention investors pay to the presence of a sound and transparent governance mechanism, the paper seeks to identify those corporate governance and firm structure-specific characteristics that are positively associated with and affect the extent of compliance with the governance regulatory requirements, in an attempt to present recommendations that would make AIM-listed companies more attractive as investment opportunities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper focuses on AIM-listed companies over a period of three years (2002, 2003 and 2004) and concentrates on their extent of compliance with the corporate governance disclosure guidelines set out by the regulatory bodies. To measure the extent of disclosure, we compiled a checklist based on the Combined Code (2003) and FSA listing rules. Having reviewed the literature on large companies (as there were no studies on SMEs), we selected a number of governance and firm structure-specific characteristics. The relationships between the level of governance disclosure and the chosen characteristics were examined in order to highlight those factors that are associated with and affect the level of governance disclosure. Findings: On average about 50% of governance items required to be disclosed had been reported by AIM-listed companies. As for large companies, there is a positive relationship between the number of non-executive directors in governance mechanisms and the extent of disclosure. Unlike large companies, firm structure-specific characteristics were neither associated with nor had any impact on the extent of governance disclosure. Considering that there has been a declining interest in AIM-listed companies, we recommend the presence of more non-executive directors as this would ultimately mean more compliance with the governance disclosure requirements and could result in restored investor interest and confidence. Our findings also indicate that SMEs are more likely to have adopted a stakeholder approach when concentrating on their governance arrangements. Originality/Value: This is the first study to present evidence on the state of compliance with the governance regulatory requirements by AIM-listed companies. The study presents evidence on governance disclosure practices of SMEs and indicates that in spite of a less stringent regulatory regime set up within AIM, non-executive directors, who bring in an element of independence to boards, play a significant role in elevating corporate transparency.

Research on Innovative Product Design System Based on QFD and TRIZ

This paper presents an innovative product design system based on Quality Function Development (QFD) and Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ in Russian abbreviation). House of Quality (HOQ) is the core of QFD. To make QFD more practical and operable for small and medium-sized companies, a simplified model of HOQ is proposed. A set of reasoning scheme for inferring requirements relationships is adopted to facilitate constructing the HOQ. The contradiction in the process of mechanical design is defined by TRIZ as physical contradiction and technical contradiction. These two contradictions are solved through contradiction matrix and inventive principles of TRIZ. The innovative design system mainly uses the tool of contradiction matrix to solve the bottle techniques attained from QFD. By taking the HOQ as its interface the integration between QFD and TRIZ is realized. After conducting quality function development, two outputs can be obtained. They are the technical measure needing improvement and the technical measure that is getting worse while improving the former one. These two measures are taken as inputs of TRIZ module to analyze and solve the problem of product design.

Measures to Improve Workforce Efficiency in Japanese Small and Medium-sized Businesses and their Effectiveness

From the 1990s, Japan developed a severe economic malaise affecting many of its large companies, and an important question hung over the feasibility of their recovery. Resultant processes such as overseas expansion, restructuring, revised contractual systems, and outsourcing hit dealt severe blows to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) hard. However, as SMEs were already in existence, and developed an ability to optimize their use of their workforce, they can be said to have fared better than other parts of the economy. In manufacturing, transport, commerce, and services, managerial approaches in SMEs have ameliorated an impending crisis and developed new strengths in technical areas, often by re-employing workers and resources cast off in the restructuring processes of large companies. Thus, by means such as effectively using flexible labour, applying a range of options in contracts and modes of employment, developing new products, introducing new techniques alongside existing ones and outsourcing, SMEs have emerged as distinctive entities in their own right, even alongside large companies.

As dificuldades de capitalização das pequenas e médias empresas brasileiras

O propósito central deste artigo é discutir as dificuldades enfrentadas pelas pequenas e médias empresas brasileiras (PMEs) para a aquisição dos bens de capital necessários à atualização de sua base tecnológica. Como parte dessa discussão, foram realizados estudos de caso envolvendo 15 empresas com o objetivo de levantar evidências que possibilitaram estabelecer a seguinte hipótese: as maiores dificuldades enfrentadas pelas PMEs brasileiras para adquirir bens de capital estariam diretamente relacionadas a práticas administrativas incorretas desenvolvidas pelos seus proprietários-gestores e não associadas à indisponibilidade de créditos ou outros fatores relacionados aos mercados onde atuam.

Improved heuristic for manpower shift planning with modified shift priorities

Consideration is given to a personnel planning problem, termed manpower shift planning (MSP), faced by producers in several process industries, most of which are small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs). This seeks the minimum manpower needed in each workday shift of a manufacturing facility so that production targets are met within a given time horizon. The problem has been shown to be NP-hard. After positioning MSP within the relevant research field, we propose a new lower bound for its solution. We then study the modification of an existing MSP heuristic with a view to improving its performance. As originally proposed, the heuristic prioritises shifts according to a specific priority index. Since different indices may improve heuristic performance, we define six alternative indices and prove that three are equivalent. A two-phased numerical investigation is used for assessing and ranking the four non-equivalent indices. Results show that heuristic efficiency strongly depends on shift priorities. Moreover, heuristic efficiency improves (even if marginally) for one of the new priority indices. Finally, for all but one of the indices studied, the heuristic clearly outperforms (at a fraction of run time) a popular commercial ILP-optimiser.

Problems Of E-Business Implementation in SMEs

The rapid growth of electronic business has been evident since the very beginning of the last decade. Nevertheless, so far companies experience many problems related to the implementation of e-business. This article is focused on the analysis of the main problems as well as opportunities of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) engaged in e-business. However, in the rush to offer e-business applications to beat competition or to respond to client and internal needs. many businesses have developed unfriendly, expensive. limited services of questionable value. This article will present an analysis and some methodological guidelines as to how to solve the problems arising in the implementation of e-business as well as how to best use the offered opportunities.The main goal of the article is to analyse the problematical issues of implementing e-business in small and medium-sized enterprises.The following objectives are set in the article:1. To define the main problems and barriers in engaging in e-business faced by small and medium- sized enterprises.2. Based on the analysis of survey results. to identify the main reasons and opportunities for involvement in e-business.3. To outline the characteristics that small and medium-sized enterprises should possess in order to be effective in e-business.The following research methods are applied: theoretical and comparative analysis. an empirical study of SMEs on the issue of e-business.

Capability in Competing for a National Quality Award among Small and Medium‐sized Companies in Taiwan

The Taiwan National Quality Award (TNQA) has been conducted for 14 years. However, small and medium‐sized companies (SMSCs) rarely win the TNQA. This study undertakes a capability analysis to explore how SMSCs do win the TNQA. A survey instrument involving 149 questions extracted from “the 2001 Handbook of Standard Criteria for Evaluation of TNQA” is used to measure the capability of SMSCs in competing for the TNQA. The paper concludes with a summary of the essential qualities required by an SMSC if it is to compete successfully for the TNQA.

Towards a European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network: The ECRIN Programme

On the basis of the interconnection of national networks of clinical research centres (CRCs) and clinical trials units (CTUs), the European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network (ECRIN) programme aims to develop an infrastructure allowing for bottom-up harmonisation of the support and training for, and practice of, clinical research, and to provide public sponsors for biotechnology small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) with support for translational research and multicentre clinical studies in Europe. This will be achieved through an application to the next FP6 ‘Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives’ call. However, prior work is required to improve the reciprocal knowledge of partners in the ECRIN consortium and, as a first step, country-specific workshops will be organised by national networks in order to address the organisation of CRC/CTUs and national networks, and their interaction with the national environment of clinical research; this will enable in-depth discussion addressing the bottlenecks hampering transnational studies.

The effects of sales training on sales force activity

This study examines the effects of sales training on sales force performance and customer orientation in the context of small and medium‐sized companies (SMEs). The results give empirical evidence of the importance of sales training investment as a means of increasing sales performance. However, more training investment does not imply higher levels of customer‐oriented selling. Yet, higher levels of salespeople performance and customer‐oriented selling are observed when specific training methods and content are implemented. Additionally, customer‐oriented selling positively influences sales force performance, and sales training seems to moderate the relationship between sales force performance and effectiveness. Managerial implications and applications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.

Innovation Relay Centres (IRC) Network in Central and Eastern Europe

The paper describes the Innovation Relay Centres Network (IRC) activity which is to support trans-national technology transfer among European countries. IRCs help especially small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) to access the European technology market by promoting their technologies across Europe and by identifying and importing technological solutions.

Small firms under MICROSCOPE: international differences in production/operations management practices and performance

Although the importance of operations in reaching world-class competitiveness has been highlighted in the operations management literature, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) have been found to have a poor uptake of world-class practices. Reports on a study of 285 SMEs located in Italy, the UK, and other northern European countries. The data are taken from the MICROSCOPE facilitated self-assessment benchmarking database, which studied operations practices and performance in small firms. The level of world-class practices and performance was compared across companies by company size and by country of origin. Significant differences were found between “micro” companies (fewer than 20 employees) and larger companies (between 20 and 200 employees). Other significant differences were found by country, which may be attributed to differences in regional policies and infrastructures regarding small firms.