Small Size Companies Research Articles

The Role of Human Resource Management in African Construction Companies

African countries have been heavily investing in construction projects, both infrastructure and superstructure. The construction industry is one the rapidly growing sectors in the continent and it greatly contributes to employment. The population increase and the urbanization in the continent, the strong growth of the construction sector is inevitable. However, there are still many crucial challenges to overcome, financing, available electrical grids, transportation, procurement, and skilled employees. Human Resources Management plays an important role within a Construction Organizations, Institutions, Associations or Companies in terms of work distribution. It is also the principal nerve otherwise the skeleton of any business that we want to achieve an efficient and effective goal in short, medium and long run time. Our case of study, GUICOPRESS - Guinea shows the real situation of building construction in Africa in general and Guinea in particular. Guinea is a large open work place which needs to be well - structured and organized, because of the lack of modern facilities around the country. Conakry the capital city has poor architecture and infrastructures. Shanties are sharing the same zone or space with luxurious buildings here and there so that it is difficult to see the beauty of the city although it is the largest city in Guinea. According to the business local magazine “Gniouma, 2020”, GUICOPRESS employs more than 10, 000 employees in Guinea and stays the leader of small and medium size companies in Guinea. This strong capacity of that enterprise is due to the strong policy implemented by its General Management Director, who likes innovating his works, by investing some huge amount of money in manpower and machinery purchasing. Beyond its financial contribution, GUICOPRESS - Guinea contributes a lot in the charity’s field through its social unit called “KPC for Humanity” assisting beggars, building schools in remote areas for poor communities.

Trends in the Implementation of Workplace COVID-19 Measures in Japanese Companies: A One-Year Prospective Cohort Study.

This study evaluated trends in the implementation of workplace measures against COVID-19 by Japanese companies. We conducted a prospective cohort study, using data from December 2020 and December 2021, with 13,419 respondents participating in the follow-up survey. We evaluated nine workplace measures against COVID-19 (e.g., encouraging mask-wearing at work) and used the McNemar test and the Chi-square test for trend in the analysis. Small-sized companies (1-9 employees) exhibited a significant increase in the implementation of all the measures, with a rate of increase ranging from 8.4% to 16.1% (P-value: <0.001). Medium-sized companies (10-49 employees) also showed significant improvements in nearly all the measures (rate of increase: 3.5% to 10.5%, P-values: <0.001 to 0.004), except for one specific measure. Larger companies (more than 50 employees) displayed a mixed pattern, with some measures increasing and others decreasing. A persistent gap was observed between smaller (fewer than 50 employees) and larger companies in the implementation rates of these measures. The findings revealed a positive shift in workplace measures against COVID-19 among smaller companies in Japan over 1 year, although gaps between them and larger companies persisted.

Prospects for innovative development of the Russian oil and gas complex in the context of modern challenges

The purpose of the article is to study the opportunities of innovative development of the Russian oil and gas complex amid current challenges. The subject of the article is modern features of functioning of the Russian oil and gas sector. As a methodology, it is necessary to high-light the analysis of Internet resources and articles relevant to the research topic, statistical data, their synthesis and generalisation. Among the main results of the work we will indicate structuring sanctions in terms of the direction of impact on innovation activities, identifying opportunities and prospects for innovative development of companies in the oil and gas sector in the current conditions. The results obtained can be applied as part of assessing the prospects with consideration to the modern situation and in the educational process. The directions for further research on a given topic include studying the operating features of companies of various sizes during their activities as well as identifying the most effective technological designs that can be used in the industry, including domestic ones. We have made the following main conclusions. Firstly, the impact of the sanctions is aimed largely at the technological development of oil and gas companies. Secondly, the prohibitive measures have stimulated the use and implementation of domestic innovations. Thirdly, the application of new decisions makes it possible to optimise the processes of the technological development, including those that until recently were determined to be unprofitable. Fourthly, innovations help to increase the number of organisations in the oil and gas sector by involving small-sized companies whose activities cover a minor segment that is not attractive to large corporations.

P.O.L.A.R. Star: A New Framework Developed and Applied by One Mid-Sized Pharmaceutical Company to Drive Digital Transformation in R&D.

Digital transformation has become a cornerstone of innovation in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). Pharmaceutical companies now have an imperative to embrace transformation, including mid-sized and small-sized companies despite resource limitations that do not allow economies of scale compared with larger organizations. This article describes the journey undertaken by Chiesi to develop an efficient framework to drive digital transformation along its R&D value chain with the objective of building and refreshing a clear roadmap and relevant priorities, together with identifying and enabling new digital capabilities and skills within R&D, defining tools and processes that will guide Chiesi activities in the space up to mid-long term. This work has led so far to five main achievements, which align with the steps in the framework: a strategically aligned roadmap with key focus areas for digital transformation and a dedicated team to lead the effort; a common language for data across the R&D value chain; an internal mindset that's open to innovation and participation in key external networks and consortia; a set of quick-win use cases for the new framework; and a defined set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and monitoring tools for digital transformation. The work presented here demonstrates that R&D digital transformation should represent an ongoing process to enable cross-functional collaboration and integration within complex corporate environments that face an ever-growing volume of diverse data, to efficiently support business needs, and to ensure a positive impact on patient care.

Financial cycles and corporate financialization levels—Evidence from the cultural industry enterprises

This investigation explores the nexus between financial cycles and the corporate financialization levels, utilizing data on a quarterly basis from listed companies in the cultural industry, spanning 2012 to 2023. The empirical evidence indicates a robust positive correlation between financial cycles and the level of corporate financialization, with corporate profitability acting as a facilitative moderator in this association. Further analysis uncovers the heterogeneity in the impact of financial cycles on corporate financialization levels. Specifically, the influence of financial cycles is more pronounced for small-sized companies and those with low levels of debt.

Is There No Sin Down South of the Equator? Brazilian Auditors’ Perception of the Gendered and Racialized Dynamics in Audit Firms

ABSTRACT We aim to analyze the perception of Brazilian auditors regarding differences in career development for women and black people. Methodologically, we conducted a web survey totaling 329 answers from professionals with diverse profiles regarding the length of service, job position, age, sex, and race. The results show that even men perceive the career as being harder for women. An important finding is that the main difficulties are found in medium and small-sized auditing companies. We contribute to the literature on three fronts: (i) by expanding the theme to cover medium and small-sized companies; (ii) by bringing to the Brazilian scenario the discussion on the perception of differences in the careers of external auditing professionals; and (iii) by contrasting perceptions about the career and the environment for professionals from diverse groups in terms of sex and race. As a practical implication, we conclude that if there is an interest in turning audit into a more just and equitable profession, much has to be changed in auditing careers, even in companies situated to the South of the Equator, so that the sins from elsewhere would not be the same here, sins that were imposed by a colonial conceptualisation of gender and race.

Corporate Governance and the Sustainable Development

Nowadays the issues of sustainable development are everywhere around us. Everybody talks about sustainability in all aspects of our life. It is becoming also part of the agenda of the business world not only for the small and medium size companies, but also for the big corporations. Gradually environmental and social issues begin to pose new topics in the agenda for board meetings of the big corporations. The corporate governance begins to pay more and more attention not only to the return rate of the investments but also to the footprint that the company has on the society. In this framework we decided to examine the relationship and interconnectivity between corporate governance and sustainable development. The research that backed this paper encompasses literature survey and analysis, on one hand and empirical research on another. This paper present some of the results from our survey showing the changes that occur in the corporate governance and the position of the managing boards of directors due to the sustainable development policy applied worldwide.

Bank Market Power, Firm Performance, Financing Costs and Capital Structure

In this study, we provide a thorough analysis, conducted on a company-by-company basis, of the impact of bank concentration and the bank-relative power of banks on firm profitability, financing costs, and capital structure in a small economy like Portugal. Using a sample of 434,990 Portuguese companies, the study spans a time frame of 13 years (from 2006 to 2018). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine bank concentration, and a new variable, “bank-related power”, was introduced. This work employed linear regression with static panel data for fixed and pooled effects, using Driscoll–Kraay standard errors and robust standard error estimation. A direct association was found between business performance and the use of bank credit in highly concentrated banking markets (SMEs), and there is evidence of an inverse relationship when the relative power of banks increases (small business). Evidence also shows that financing costs increase with greater bank concentration, while firms’ capital structure improves under similar conditions. When a bank holds greater relative market power, it tends to exert a negative impact on the capital structure of large companies. However, an inverse relationship is observed in the case of SMEs. Unlike previous studies, the article assesses the effects of bank market power on each of the different companies involved by using both bank concentration (as a composite variable) and a new variable that measures the relative power of banks. Due to its extensive database and expanded time frame, this research is innovative in the context of small-sized companies.

Contextual the technological factors that impact the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in UAE

The study relied on analyzing the relationship between several factors that represent technological factors (Technology orientation, Utilizing new knowledge Technology Adoption, Knowledge compatibility, Technological capabilities and Technological collaboration) as independent factors and the level of performance as a dependent factor in medium and small-sized companies in the UAE economy. The inferential approach was followed in the study by analyzing the significance of the sampling results that were reached using structural equations based on the Partial Least Squares method (Pls) using the Smart Plus package, which was used to analyze the path between the six factors as independent factors and the performance factor as a dependent factor. The study applied this methodology to a sample of 250 individuals working in medium and small-sized companies in the UAE economy. The study concluded that the most closely related to performance was Technological Collaboration with an effect size of 72.3%. However, the least related factor was Technology orientation, with an effect factor of 34.4%, while the correlation of the other four factors with performance was medium (between 50% and 63%).

Investigating the Causes of Variation Orders in Egypt Perspective of Medium and Small-Sized Companies

Introduction: Variation order became one of the major issues that is presented in construction projects. The nature of work in the construction industry is complex and difficult. Thus, variation order is expected to occur in every project due to its nature. The purpose of the study was to investigate the causes of variation order in construction projects in Egypt according to the perspective of professional parties working for medium and small sized construction companies. The main method used for data collection was a questionnaire survey with experts working in the Egyptian construction industry. 62 participants from 18 construction companies were invited to take part of the study, 51 of them accepted the invitation. The findings showed the top ranked causes of variation order according to small and medium sized construction companies were poor communication, omissions in the design, financial limitations of the owner, additional work requested by the client, and contractor’s desire to gain more profits. Thus, the proper understanding of the causes of the problem can be helpful towards establishing a suitable criterion for reducing variation orders in construction projects in Egypt. The contribution of this study lies in the fact that only a very limited number of research explored the perspective of medium and small sized construction companies in Egypt. The study can be useful for other countries with similar working conditions and still suffering from the adverse impact of variation order.

Knowledge, Skills, and Ability on SME Performance: A Systematic Literature Review Authors Dorris Yadewani

The quantity of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises determine job creation and earnings equality in alongside the economy's expansion. However, SMEs confront several challenges, one of which is a lack of human resource (HR) skill sets, in particular, capacities, qualifications, as well as expertise. Studies on the factors influencing the performance of small and medium-sized businesses that focus on knowledge, skills, and talents are relatively uncommon in the literature. Therefore, the primary objective of the present investigation seeks to figure out the elements, where its focus on understanding, expertise, along with abilities that promote smaller and medium-sized the company's sustainability. This study is based on the incorporation of multiple research methodologies and reviews based on publication standards, specifically ROSES (Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Synthesis). To choose articles, two superior databases, Dimensions and Core, as well as one supporting database, Google Scholar, are used. This review has identified 14 major topics based on the thematic analysis used. With a concentration on expertise, abilities, and knowledge, this research project offers tremendously to our existing awareness of what factors are underlying the profitability of small and medium-sized enterprises. The discoveries highlight that relatively little study is currently conducted regarding employee expertise in businesses of all sizes, focuses on knowledge, skills, and abilities in performance. It additionally aids to clarify the integral part human capital competences serve towards enhancing the operational efficiency of medium- and small-sized companies.

Analysis the Effect of Height on Work Accidents in High Rise Building Projects

Indonesia as the population increases, but this is inversely proportional to the availability of land so that the idea of developing high-rise buildings arises. Building projects are high-risk projects, at height there are many hazards such as falling, slipping, falling materials, and electrocution. This study uses a simple linear regression method to see how height affects work accidents and conducts a risk assessment. The results of large-sized companies, height has a significant effect on the risk of falling from height by 30.5%, the risk of eye, skin and respiratory disorders by 14.8% and the risk of being pinched at the work site by 21.4%. In medium-sized companies, height has a significant effect on the risk of falling from height by 15.6% and the risk of eye, skin and respiratory disorders by 11.7%. In small-size companies, height has a significant effect on the risk of falling from height by 12.2% and the risk of being hit by materials from above by 45.5%. The result of the risk assessment for all company qualifications is falling from a height with an average risk index value for large companies of 15.36 (high risk), medium companies 16.52 (high risk) and small companies 8.47 (medium risk).

The Heterogenous Effects of Carbon Emissions and Board Gender Diversity on a Firm’s Performance

This paper investigated the effects of carbon emissions and board gender diversity on firm performance using quantile regression. This approach explores the heterogeneity of the effect of carbon emissions on the performance of firms and overcomes some of the drawbacks of OLS regression. This research aimed to identify whether carbon emissions significantly impact firm performance using accounting- and market-based performance measures and how this impact varies according to a company’s size. Another objective was to determine how females on a board of directors could impact such a relationship. The data used were a sample of 1382 companies in emerging markets from 2008 to 2021. The findings show that carbon emissions negatively affect small-size companies consisting of both high-performing and low-performing companies; however, as the size of the companies increases, the effect of carbon emissions becomes positive regardless of whether they are high- or low-performing companies. The presence of females on a board has a minimally significant negative effect on a firm’s performance, irrespective of whether it is conditioned on size. This research contributes to the literature on the impact of carbon emissions on company performance, both conditional and unconditional on size. Furthermore, the results show that the relationship between carbon emissions and performance depends on size, as revealed using the novel econometrics model developed in this study. This study also shows the importance of the presence of females on a board of directors.

SecFL – Secure Federated Learning Framework for predicting defects in sheet metal forming under variability

With the ongoing digitization of the manufacturing industry and the ability to bring together data from specific manufacturing processes, there is enormous potential to use machine learning (ML) techniques to improve such processes. In this context, the competitive automotive industry can take advantage of the ML power by predicting defects before they occur, aiming to reduce the scrap rate and increase the robustness and reliability of the production processes. In a real world scenario, small and medium size companies do not have the amount of data the big companies have, which can prevent the usage of ML models in this vital niche for the industry. A collaboration in terms of data usage to develop powerful and general industry solutions is hindered by data privacy concerns despite similar problems. This paper addresses these concerns by providing a framework based on the Federated Learning (FL) method combined with Digital Envelopes (DE) to allow the ML models training while keeping the data of the partners and the models parameters private and protected against external cyber-attacks, which is one of the weaknesses of FL as of now. A case study was carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework on handling data poisoning attacks to the training data and also the models’ weights.

Impact of Export Initiation Support System on Domestic Small and Medium Size Companies

Impact of Export Initiation Support System on Domestic Small and Medium Size Companies

PREDICTIVE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE CULTURE AND INNOVATION CULTURE ON NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The aim of the research presented in this study was testing the correlation of knowledge and innovation culture and non-financial performance indicators (NFPIs), the predictive role of independent variables knowledge and innovation culture in NFPIs and differences between dependent and independent variables between micro, small and medium size companies. The study included 124 Serbian MSMEs, that voluntarily responded to 40 questions, presenting the research instrument. Statistical data analysis showed that a significant correlation exists between dependent and independent variables, that knowledge and innovation culture predict NFPIs with 33.4% and that there are differences in innovation culture and NFPIs, but not knowledge culture between companies grouped according to size. The conclusion of the study is that innovation and knowledge culture are of high importance for MSMEs, due to their predictive role in NFPIs, which are most often used, according to literature findings, for the assessment of their long-term success and sustainability. This study also revealed that the highest level of innovation culture and NFPIs is in micro companies in Serbia.

A Comparison of Competing Asset Pricing Models: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

In recent years, the rapid and significant development of emerging markets has globally led to insight from potential investors and academicians seeking to assess these markets in terms of risk inheritance. Therefore, this study aims to explore the validity and applicability of the capital asset pricing model (henceforth CAPM) and multi-factor models, namely Fama–French models, in Pakistan’s stock market for the period of June 2010–June 2020. This study collects data on 173 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan stock exchange, namely the KSE-100 index, and follows Fama-MacBeth’s regression methodology for empirical estimation. The empirical findings of this study conclude that small portfolios (small-size companies) earn considerably higher returns than big portfolios (large-size companies). Ultimately, the risk associated with portfolio returns is reported to be higher for small portfolios (small-size companies) than for big portfolios (large-size companies). According to the regression output, the CAPM was found to be valid for explaining the market risk premium above the risk-free rate. Similarly, the FF three-factor model was found to be valid for explaining time-series variation in excess portfolio returns. Later, we added human capital into FF three- and five-factor models. This study found that the human capital base six-factor model outperformed the other competing asset pricing models. The findings of this study indicate that small portfolios (small-size companies) earn more returns than big portfolios (large-size companies) to reward the investor for taking extra risks. Investors may benefit by timing their investments to maximize stock returns. Company investment in human capital adds reliable information, replicates the value of the company and, in the long term, helps investors make rational decisions.

An investigation on construction companies’ attitudes towards importance and adoption of circular economy strategies

The construction industry is causing resource shortages and waste but has the potential to become an industry that can practice the value of a circular economy (CE). A number of studies on the circular economy have been published recently, but few studies have investigated the awareness and practices of construction companies related to CE or provided effective CE strategies for their projects. This study formulated 26 CE strategies based on a literature review and experts’ opinions. The attitudes regarding importance and adoption awareness of the construction companies were analyzed via a questionnaire survey and the importance-adoption analysis (IAA) model. The results show that small-sized companies and senior executives have a higher awareness of circularity, and medium- and large-sized companies face the CE with a more conservative attitude. In particular, construction projects have adopted mature CE strategies such as building information modeling (BIM) for project management, construction, demolition and waste management, and maintenance management, while CE strategies regarding construction systematization, resource recovery, and regeneration are potential strategies preferred by construction companies. In-depth interviews also reveal that three main obstacles, such as high CE adoption costs, lack of local market demands, and owners’ low awareness of CE, may slow down the implementation of circularity in the construction industry. The findings of this study are beneficial for exploring the current situations of CE in the construction industry and could help the government to better understand the problems of CE development, so as to formulate future development policies and suggestions.

An Integrated Fuzzy MCDM Method for the Evaluation of R&amp;D Projects

Research and development (R&amp;amp;D) activities are essential to guarantee continuity of firms, meet customer requirements and keep ahead in competition. R&amp;amp;D project selection constitutes a significant part of project management in order to achieve the desired results and outputs. In this study, an integrated fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making approach is developed for R&amp;amp;D project selection. The problem includes a hierarchical structure of the criteria, uncertainty in evaluating the relative importance of criteria/sub-criteria and rating of candidate projects. The method employs the ordered weighted average (OWA) operator as the aggregation operator, which helps to fully reflect the real behavior of the decision makers in group decision making problems. Fuzzy integral method, which does not require the assumption of the mutual independence of criteria, is used to rank the alternatives. The case study is conducted in a small-sized company in Turkey, which designs and produces special purpose machines. A R&amp;amp;D project selection model is developed to maximize the desired outputs. The results of the analysis show that technological, environmental, marketing, organizational, national and financial issues should be considered simultaneously in the evaluation process. The proposed method is shown to be efficient, generalizable and practical and it has several significant merits compared to the other methods.

Analysts’ Attention and R&amp;D Expenditure: The Mediating Role of Financial Constraints

Analyst plays an important role in the development of an enterprise. Meanwhile, during the process of this development, it is important to gain financial support. Analysts' opinions can change public investors’ behavior and sentiments dramatically. However, the relationship between the three factors is still waiting to be discussed. This article focuses on the relationship between analysts’ attention, corporate finance, and corporate innovation, using OLS and Panel FE estimation methods to analyze the problem, and finally concludes that analysts’ attention can reduce financial constraints and then have a positive influence on corporate innovation. Moreover, compared with a large company, middle and small-sized enterprises are influenced more by this attention. Based on the research result, this article proposed that companies, especially the middle and/ or small-sized companies, should pay attention to making the third party (i.e., the analysts) interested in them and increase their exposure among the analysts and the public.