SME Context Research Articles

The development of a work environment framework for ISO 9000 standard success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present exploratory research with respect to the development of a novel classification and framework capable of evaluating the influence and maturity of work environment on the implementation of ISO 9000 standards within advanced engineering and manufacturing SMEs. Work environment definitions, references and factors are now common across a broad range of international quality standards, but these are not consistently defined or effectively assessed. Design/methodology/approach – The successful implementation of international quality standards and models can be viewed as an important key for contemporary SMEs to maintain competitive advantage. As such this research aims to build upon existing literature and to examine the effect of work environment on the successful implementation of ISO 9000. An initial industrial survey is combined with an exploration of contemporary SME case studies, prior to the proposal of a novel classification and framework. Findings – Current work environment terminology is not consistent and capable of effective assessment. Internal SMEs motivation for ISO 9000 certification can lead to improved results than those pressured by external reasons. The deployment of an integrated work environment classification and framework may lead to tangible improvements to ISO 9000 and SME success. Practical implications – This investigation opens a further opportunity for research into the body of knowledge on manufacturing SME orientated quality management standards and systems. This research will be of particular interest to enterprise managers, practicing production managers, quality auditors, and human resource professionals, as it examines work environment factors that may drive improvements in competitive performance. Originality/value – This is the first paper presented in open literature which investigates the wider concept of work environment with a manufacturing SME context, together with proposal of a novel work environment classification and framework approach.

Exploring the Research Domain of IT Governance in the SME Context

This research aims to explore the research domain of IT governance in the SME context. To meet this objective, a small systematic literature review procedure is used. Results indicate that IT governance in the SME context has been researched previously, albeit not extensively. There seems to be consensus among authors that IT governance is important for SMEs as well as larger organizations. Additionally, many authors indicate that SME specificities will likely influence the nature and implementation of IT governance in the SME context. There also appears to be no great variety in research strategies used in this niche research domain. Regarding the contemporary state of IT governance in SMEs, authors seem to indicate that there is room for improvement. Finally, there is no published framework for IT governance that is tailored for SMEs, although the need for this is directly reported in the literature. This paper concludes by discussing some potential directions for future research, starting from the state-of-the-art of the research domain.

Sport mega-events and tourism: contrasting the influence of host country and event

This is an empirical, descriptive study of tourists at sport mega-events. Its purpose is to describe tourists who attend sport mega-events. As an empirical study, it surveys tourists at two major sport mega-events in two different countries: the 2008 Olympic Games in China and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Building on a growing body of literature related to the marketing of sport mega-events, results support that both the place (China versus South Africa) and the attraction (Olympic Games versus FIFA World Cup) influence - across a number of place image variables - the nature and composition of the tourists who are attracted to the sport mega-event. The findings suggest that the sport mega-event can be used by the host country to target potential tourists who have limited interest in the event. Further, this research finds that the tourist view of the sport mega-event is influenced by the host country and the nature of the event. The research responds to a key need in both the literature and in practice, where understanding of tourists in the SME context is needed for countries, regions and communities.

From Compliance With Environmental Regulations To Pursuit Of Environmental-Based Competitive Advantages: Mediators Of The Relationship In A SME Context

<p>Despite the huge amount of work written about environmental practices of SMEs, what continues in the debate is the relationship between their two motivations for environmental protection: the push motivation of environmental regulation compliance and the pull motivation of pursuing competitive advantages based on the environmental protection agenda in a win-win logic. Some scholars state that environmental regulation compliance motivates SMEs to pursue opportunities that they would miss otherwise, while others claim that the conformity to regulations results in mere compliance behavior. Thus, we contribute to the literature by probing the intervening variables to uncover when and how SMEs move from a push to a pull motivation. Within the scope of our study, we consider environmental regulations that are voluntary-oriented; we also focus on the pursuit of competitiveness that is based on the development of environmental-friendly products/services. The mediators that we examine include: market expansion, monitoring of business activities, innovative capacity, and adoption of environmental behavior of suppliers. We conduct our investigation among 161 French SMEs in 2011.</p>

Environmental management system ISO 14001: effective waste minimisation in small and medium enterprises in India

Numerous empirical and conceptual studies describe waste minimisation as a key environmental performance indicator for industry. ISO 14001certification in this regard is widely considered the tool of choice for driving waste minimisation efforts. To this day, however, the evidence remains mixed as it pertains to the effectiveness of ISO 14001 in helping firms reduce waste, especially in developing countries. This paper explores the waste minimisation efforts among Indian small and medium enterprises. Specifically, improvements in waste minimisation are analysed from small and medium enterprises operating in the cities of Delhi and Noida. Our proposed model is tested for a model-fit, and the hypotheses are tested through regression coefficient (β) scores to determine the influence of ISO 14001 on the degree of waste minimisation among certified and non-certified companies. The data reveal that ISO 14001 certification alone helped account for a 25% increase in waste minimisation in certified companies after controlling for other critical factors (correlated to the variable ‘waste minimisation’) that may influence this relationship. The analytical tools described in this paper lend themselves to be applied to similar research problems in future studies. The study provides baseline data for further research into ISO 14001 effectiveness in the Indian SME context – a field with still only limited research insights – and offers policy prompts for targeted environmental management improvements in Indian firms.

SHARED VALUE, CROWDSOURCING AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

The crisis currently affecting the firms, joined to the technological development and more intense global competition have transformed the current competitive environment for most firms. Firms competitive advantage is now more dependent on continuous knowledge development and enhancement, so knowledge becomes a central theme in strategic management. Furthermore, the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are closely intertwined. The business needs a successful community, both to create demand for its products and to provide critical assets and a supportive environment and, also, community needs successful businesses to provide wealth creation opportunities. This scenario calls for a broader definition of business success which includes customer engagement methods and shifts the central goal of companies into creating shared value. This aim becomes more influential especially for those companies who operate in a new market space through electronic means that enable electronic marketing relationships from the perspective of non-conventional marketing and social-media marketing. Social Media (SM) and ICT enable the interactionwith the market that allows spreading development burden amongst companies and individuals. Firms increasingly have needs of gathering ideas for innovations and providing solutions to existing problems and/or for maintaining the competitive advantage. More and more companies apply the wisdom of crowds to certain tasks and challenges, making the crowdsourcing a recognized mechanism for problem-solving. While both phenomena are not new, their overlapping requires considerable attention in practice, related to the crowdsourcing opportunities and benefits that have been enabled by new web 2.0 technologies. Crowdsourcing presents a number of potential applications, open to future developments and seem to provide new channels and ways to enable this in practice and to create new shared value and firm value. Based on theoretical conceptualization, combined with empirical evidence, we develop an analysis framework for approaching crowdsourcing in a SME context. In particular, we aim to highlight the influence of customer-social engagement through new technologies on shared value creation and stress the role of crowdsourcing process in knowledge-building process. Finally, authors analyze if those instances are able to contribute to build and develop the firms performance.

Data-driven Intelligence for SME E-Business: A Marketing and Sales Perspective

Recommendations systems are coveted intelligence systems in e-business that provide benefits such as automated cross- and upselling. However, they were impractical to adopt in SME contexts characterized by scarce transaction data. Based on an SME case study (dayzzi.com), we demonstrate how SME's can overcome three essential barriers to adopt recommendation systems. Large scale simulation and modelling techniques is the key.

Ownership structure and innovative behavior

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of the determinants of adoption innovation in SME context by empirically examining the effect of corporate governance structure on manager's innovative behavior. This was done through exploring whether ownership structure affects managers’ innovative behavior and if so, whether the effect is mediated by board composition.Design/methodology/approach– Using a sample of 197 managers within Tunisian SMEs, hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling and especially using covariance structure analysis (or LISREL method) with Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 18.0 software and maximum likelihood estimation method.Findings– The paper found that ownership structure is significantly associated with manager's innovative behavior. Further analysis arising from introducing outsiders’ representation on the board as a mediating variable reveals that the relationship is fully mediated by this variable.Practical implications– This study gives insights to policy makers who are interested in improving board efficacy in emerging economies such as Tunisia. Indeed, the study results should encourage nominating committees and seniors to reflect warily on an effective structuring of board composition by ensuring a certain priority for innovation activities in the firm.Originality/value– This paper extends the understanding of how ownership structure shapes strategic decisions such as innovation in emerging markets. In addition, it fills the literature void by introducing the board composition as a mediating concept between ownership structure and innovative behavior, which was neglected by previous researchers.

The effect of strategic orientations on business performance in SMEs

Purpose – The present study sheds light on the role of strategic orientations (SOs) in explaining business growth. The purpose of this paper is to examine how different SOs, namely learning orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and brand orientation simultaneously affect business performance measured with brand performance, market performance and business growth in SME context and whether these effects vary across countries. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive data set of 1,120 effective responses is collected from two European countries, namely Hungary, representing a post socialist rapidly growing market, and Finland with a stable, highly developed and competitive economy. A multigroup moderation analysis is conducted. Confirmatory factor analysis is used in testing measurement invariance, subsequently followed by structural equation modeling procedure used in testing research hypotheses developed on the basis of a literature review. Findings – The results show that entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and brand orientation have a positive effect on business growth in SMEs in both Hungary and Finland through brand and market performance. With regard to learning orientation, a positive yet somewhat weak effect on growth is found only in the Hungarian sample. The moderation analysis reveals that country moderates several of the hypothesized paths from SOs to business performance. Originality/value – Prior studies on SOs have mainly focussed on single orientations at any given time. However, researchers increasingly argue that many firms are better off if they build their strategies on multiple SOs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first empirical studies to address multiple (four) SOs in the same research model. Furthermore, little is known about if and how the performance effects of different SOs vary across countries.

A qualitative study of innovation diffusion: the novel case of a small firm and KTP

Purpose– Using the case study of a small firm this research study aims to understand the actions required for diffusion of an innovation in a small firm.Design/methodology/approach– The research used a qualitative approach involving interviews, referring to archival documentation and observations to understand the actions required for diffusing an innovation in an SME.Findings– From this case study various institutional actions specific to a small firm were identified as a result of government intervention. Classic theories of adoption and use such as, TAM, TPB, TRA or DoI can quantify measures but cannot explain the impact of the actions that the applied Kinget al.framework did. Further, although these actions are not directly evident, using the qualitative findings and analysis it can be seen that they are important for the diffusion of an innovation. It can also be learnt that these institutional actions can be vitally important for the growth and development of a future innovation. Although the role of government intervention was small in monetary terms, the mere presence of government representation was critical to ensure that the proposed plans and measures were implemented in the appropriate manner and at the appropriate time, both for the small firm and for the government. In terms of the theoretical framework's institutional actions it can be learnt that not all action outcomes are clearly visible. Some are tangible, while others are not. This implies that to diffuse innovation, there needs to be an understanding of monetary, human and other such resources to form a better understanding. However, most importantly it can be concluded that the diffusion framework developed by Kinget al.provides a clear picture of the diffusion of an innovation and is most useful for understanding not only national government interventions that previous research identified. Previous institutional actions research has not clearly shown how a micro understanding of the impacts of the various actions can be obtained, of which this study provides further evidence.Originality/value– Collaborative arrangements between HEIs, SMEs and government funding agencies are increasingly encouraged. This paper examines and understands the impacts of strategies used for diffusing innovations, of which the SME and KTP contexts have fewer studies.

Corporate social responsibility terminologies in small businesses: insights from Malaysia

PurposeSince understanding the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of small businesses in any country requires investigating the terminologies used by their small businesses for such social practices, the aim of this paper is to gain an understanding of the common terminologies used by SME owners/manager/directors in a developing country, namely Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThis is a quantitative study which used a sample of 100 small businesses is its survey. Most of the investigated SMEs were based in Northern states of Malaysia.FindingsThis study showed that the most common terminology for CSR among investigated Malaysia SMEs was “responsible business practice” followed by “corporate social responsibility”, “social/ societal engagement” and “environmental involvement”.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitations of this research are associated with its sample size and geographical distribution of samples. Findings of the study warn researchers to be cautious in selecting the appropriate CSR term for different contexts, specifically in SMEs' context.Practical implicationsFindings of this study enable authorities and managers of large companies to use the appropriate term in their future communications with SMEs with regard to CSR.Originality/valueBeing among the first of its kind to tackle this issue in SME contexts in the developing countries, this paper can provide new insights for both researchers and practitioners and change their outlook on CSR in small businesses.

Absorptive Capacity and ERP Implementation in Indian Medium-Sized Firms

Whilst absorptive capacity has been identified as an important contributor to the effective implementation of IT systems, previous studies have failed to explicitly consider the contribution of individual and organizational knowledge processes. Nine case studies of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation were undertaken. The case studies were all undertaken in SMEs in a developing country since this is an important but under researched area for the application of the concept of absorptive capacity. A particular implication of the findings is that firms lacking knowledge of IT implementation cannot simply seek this from external sources but must develop internal organizational knowledge processes if their implementations of IT systems are to be effective. This finding is particularly pertinent to the developing country and SME context of this study, where low levels of experience within the firm and the loss of experienced staff are found to impact on the development of absorptive capacity.

Ownership Structure and Innovative Behavior: Testing the Mediatory Role of Board Composition

The primary objective of the present study was to expand understanding of the determinants of adoption innovation in SME context by empirically examine the effect of corporate governance structure on manager’s innovative behavior. This was done through exploring whether ownership structure affects managers’ innovative behavior and if so, whether the effect is mediated by board composition. Using a sample of 197 managers within Tunisian SMEs, the study finds that ownership structure is significantly associated with manager’s innovative behavior. Further analysis arising from introducing outsiders’ representation on the board as a mediating variable reveals that the relationship is fully mediated by this variable. Research and practical implications are discussed.

Critical issues in research design in action research in an SME development context

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to develop guidelines on the critical issues to consider in research design in an action research (AR) environment for SME network capability development.Design/methodology/approachThe issues in research design for AR studies are developed from the authors' experience in running learning sets but, in particular, by an SME owner‐manager learning set established to develop and test theory about network capability.FindingsThe authors present a comprehensive set of research design issues for AR across seven areas – sampling; the facilitator; learning set interaction; set design; measurement; data collection decisions; and data analysis.Research limitations/implicationsWhile action research is inherently situational in approach, for those researchers wishing to use it to develop or test theory, the authors' framework will provide a benchmark for research design decisions.Practical implicationsThe methodology is ideally suited to knowledge exchange settings and for collecting research data in such contexts and, if used in this way, could be an incentive to encourage more academic engagement with practice. Management and organisational development using AR is often reported on, but rarely in an SME context. The paper provides an example of a study conducted in this setting.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this article is to present an implementation framework for research design using AR. In addition, given policy goals now often require firms to collaborate with each other and in partnership with training organisations and universities, it makes sense to develop a mechanism to enhance the understanding of research methodologies that can be used in these contexts.

ERP in action — Challenges and benefits for management control in SME context

ERP systems have fundamentally re-shaped the way business data is collected, stored, disseminated and used throughout the world. However, the existing research in accounting has provided only relatively few empirical findings on the implications for management control when companies implement ERP systems as the technological platform. Especially scarce are the findings concerning the production phase, after implementation, when the information processes, related work practices and the new information contents can be seen as established. In this paper we explored and theorized the benefits, challenges and problems for management control when an ERP system is in use, four years after the implementation. Our findings also illustrate why and under what circumstances these challenges and benefits may exist. For a holistic view of the organization our findings, based on a qualitative case study, are constructed from the viewpoints of people at different levels and functions of the organization. Top management expected a new strategic control system, but due to the many challenges it ended up with merely financial accounting based control. At the operational level, serious challenges lead to inadequate usage of the ERP system. Management control produces the financial basic data and must contend with many practical problems caused by ERP implementation.

Supplier involvement in integrated product development: evidence from a group of Italian SMEs

Integrated product development (IPD) is gaining increased attention from practitioners and the academic community as a source of innovation and competitive advantage. However undeniable the importance of the issue is as to how the different actors involved in the process interact among themselves and the supporting factors not being well understood even in the SME context, the availability of empirical research and a comprehensive framework to drive this research remains unavailable. This article contributes to these research gaps by providing theoretical and empirical findings. First, a research framework on IPD is identified. The proposed framework represents a conceptualisation of IPD principles as consisting of three groups of integration enablers, which aim to achieve high internal (among departments) and external (with suppliers and customers) integration: (a) organisational enablers, (b) technological enablers and (c) methodologies. Then, a multiple case study approach is used in order to empirically explore external integration with suppliers in product development in 22 SMEs from the machine tool sector.

The Export Market Orientation-export performance relationship in emerging markets: the case of Croatian SME exporters

The subject of Export Market Orientation (EMO) and its link to export performance has gained significant interest among international marketing academia lately. The findings of this study suggest that the EMO concept can be applied in the SME context – an issue that was neglected in earlier research efforts. Further, EMO activities significantly influence the EP of SMEs in the context of Croatian SME exporters. The SMEs operating in foreign markets should embrace EMO activities (intelligence generation, dissemination and responsiveness) as the drivers of a successful internationalisation process.

The Conditional Impact of Competence Trust on Inter-Firm Learning in a Collectivist SME Context

This study investigates the interactive influence of competence and goodwill trust on inter-firm learning. The study examines whether goodwill trust moderates the relationship between competence trust and inter-firm learning. Although earlier research points to an additive effect of competence and goodwill trust on inter-firm learning, this study hypothesizes an interactive effect of the two trust types. The study's basic premise is that, in collectivist contexts characterized with a weak legal system, goodwill trust determines the efficacy of competence trust. Empirical tests of this hypothesis involve data collected from 158 small-scale manufacturers of furniture located in Turkey. Initial empirical analysis shows that whereas goodwill trust has a positive main effect on inter-firm learning, competence trust does not. Introducing an interaction term reveals that competence trust positively influences inter-firm learning only when goodwill trust is high. Additionally, cluster analysis indicates that inter-firm learning is lowest when both competence trust and goodwill trust are low and highest when both forms of trust are high.

The silent and shameful suffering of bosses: layoffs in SME

Of all the decisions that managers of SME have to make, laying off someone is the most difficult as well as the hardest to live with. Layoffs are often seen as a personal failure with mental and psychological consequences that can be disastrous for both the person laid off and the employer responsible. Curiously, the suffering experienced by the employer is never mentioned in the SME context. The works in human resources management that deals with layoffs tend to focus on the employees laid off and on employees who escape layoff. There are also studies of the ‘blues’ felt by human resources managers (HRM) when they have to implement a downsizing policy. But few studies on SME (not to say none at all) take any interest in the psychological impact this decision has from the point of view of the employer, the SME owner.

SME Governance: Converging Definitions And Expanding Expectations

Recent events have focussed attention on corporate governance resulting in expectations for greater responsibility to shareholders and increasing obligations to an expanding group of stakeholders. Our research explores the application of the increased emphasis on corporate governance in the SME context including application of the converging definitions and expanding expectations and some specific challenges.