Managing small-medium cities in a time of globalization: Experiences and evidence from Florida's public managers

This study examines how public management practitioners in small and medium-sized Florida cities perceive globalization and its impact on public management practice. Using qualitative analysis, descriptive statistics and factor analysis methods, data obtained from a survey and semi-structured interviews were studied to comprehend how public managers view the management and control of their municipalities in a time of globalization. The study shows that the public managers’ perceptions of globalization and its impact on public management in Florida’s small-medium cities are nuanced. Whereas some public managers feel that globalization has significant impacts on municipalities’ viability, others opine that globalization has no local impact. The study further finds that globalization processes are perceived as altering the public management functions of decision-making, economic development and service delivery in some small-medium cities in Florida as a result of transnational shifts, rapidly changing technologies, and municipalities’ heightened involvement in the global economy. The study concludes that the globalization discourse does not resonate among some public managers in Florida’s small-medium cities in ways implied in extant literature.

A study of the top executive conference centers in the United States and an examination of the corresponding corporate meetings market

Introduction: The United States today has become "meeting-conscious." The complexity of conducting business has led to the need for sophisticated coordination of decision-making processes on all levels of the organization. Company meetings have played an increasingly important role in the success and future of many companies. Strategies and decisions are developed at meetings that can determine future policies of crucial importance. Executive training can mean the difference in whether the company will even survive. Large and growing companies have increased their off-premise meeting budgets annually in spite of the state of the economy. however, the rising costs of travel and lodging have made management monitor these budgets more closely than ever. Thus, the need to use every dollar efficiently has compelled companies to examine newer methods of running meetings and alternatives to the usage of typical off-premise meeting facilities. The importance of off-premise meetings in the United States economy has greatly increased due to the billions of dollars spent annually. These factors make it vital to explore the effectiveness of time and monetary expenditures. Up until the mid-1960's, company meetings were held in facilities of various design and purpose, none of which were specifically designed for the small to medium corporate meeting. Upon gathering information concerning the meetings market and the corporate meeting planner, certain individuals endeavored to change the situation. This study is designed to investigate this new concept, which will hereafter be referred to as "conference center." For the purpose of this study, the following two definitions will be used. 1. Conference center - that meeting facility primarily marketing its facilities for the small to medium-sized corporate meeting. The center is operated by specialists aware of market needs in as much detail as are those people working for the company involved. On-premise sleeping rooms are not mandatory provided such facilities are within easy access. 2. Meeting planner - that person within an organization who has primary responsibility for arranging off-premise meetings and all other related items necessary for meeting effectiveness. This person may spend anywhere from 10 to 100l of his time in this capacity. The conference center has effectively satisfied the need for specialized corporate meeting facilities. This study will show the depth of the corporate meetings market and trace the growth and development of this relatively new conference center concept. Information will also be compiled on the top centers in the country. It is hoped that by presenting this research meeting planners will become more aware of the nature and location of these centers, especially for use by the small to medium-sized company. Such exposure of the centers will hopefully increase existing demand and enable the construction of new, innovative centers.

Technological capability development in China's energy service company industry

Technological capability (TC) plays a strategic role in the competitive advantage of not only individual corporate entities but also entire industries. This paper investigates the crucial factors that affect technological capability development by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in China. It identifies how differently sized ESCOs make progress in developing TCs. Through looking at the successes achieved by developed countries in the field of energy conservation, ESCOs are able to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions and are deemed to provide an effective means of conserving energy in China. Existing literature indicates that limited TC levels of are one of the crucial barriers facing Chinese ESCOs. Through investigating three different sizes of Chinese ESCO - small, medium-sized and large - this paper provides a framework to present the idea that Chinese ESCOs' TC development is affected by four key internal and external capabilities: management capability, investment capability, innovation capability and linkage capability. Through comparative analysis, the paper establishes that small and medium-sized private ESCOs are mainly affected by investment and linkage capabilities. Large state-owned ESCOs are mainly affected by innovation and management capability. In addition, all three types of ESCO exhibit a strong desire to develop their technological capability, but small and medium-sized ESCOs exhibit a stronger desire to conduct research and development (R&D) than large ESCOs, whilst large ESCOs prefer to increase their technical reserves through acquisition. This paper identifies factors that affect Chinese ESCOs' TC, but it does intend to address the problem of how to reduce the negative effects of limited TC or the question of how to improve the TC development of Chinese ESCOs effectively. This paper contributes to the field of TC development in the ESCO industry.

D6.6 – Summary, Analysis, Road-mapping and Production of Training materials

This deliverable summarizes, validates and explains the purpose and concept behind the RAGE knowledge and innovation management platform as a self-sustainable Ecosystem, supporting innovation processes in the Applied Gaming (AG) industry. The Ecosystem portal will be developed with particular consideration of the demand and requirements of small and medium sized game developing companies, education providers and related stakeholders like AG researchers and AG end-users. The innovation potential of the new platform underlies the following factors: a huge, mostly entire collection of community specific knowledge (e.g., content like media objects, software components and best practices), a structured approach of knowledge access, search and browse, collaboration tools as well as social network analysis tools to foster efficient knowledge creation and transformation processes into marketable technology assets. The deliverable provides an overview of the current status and the remaining work to come, preceding the final version in month 48 of the RAGE project.

Rotary moulding of ceramic hollow wares

A novel processing method for the fast and economic production of hollow ceramic components has been developed by combining in situ coagulation moulding with a modified version of the technique of rotary moulding[Binner, J. G. P., Al-Dawery, I. A., Tari, G. and Yan, Y., Rotary casting technique. UK Patent application No. 0506349.0, March 2005], the latter being adapted from the polymer industry. The process was found to require a high solids content suspension, hence development work was performed in this direction though in the end a new, commercial suspension was utilised. Of the three forming routes of gel casting, direct coagulation casting and in situ coagulation moulding, the latter was found to be the most promising for the new process of rotary moulding of ceramics. Due to the low value of clay-based ceramics, a new low cost coagulant was identified and the effect of lactone concentration and temperature on setting time determined. Following substantial optimisation work, it was found that a two-speed approach to multi-axial rotation was the most successful; medium sized cream jugs could be produced in just 7 min. With respect to mould materials, the porous resin normally used for pressure casting of sanitary ware was found to be the best option, though since this is quite expensive conventional plaster-of-paris moulds were found to be a suitable material to enable companies, particularly SMEs, to become familiar with the technology whilst avoiding high costs for trials. The processed articles could be successfully fired and glazed using gas-fired kilns with no sign of any black cores. Major advantages of the process include the ability to precisely calculate the amount of ceramic slip required, eliminating either slip wastage or the need to pour used slip back into the virgin material as currently happens with slip casting. In addition, since the precursor suspension has a very high solids content, the time and energy required to dry the green product and associated moulds has been considerably reduced. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social media to support collaboration in the product life cycle of SMEs

Abstract : The use of social media tools to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to support their business activities throughout the product life cycle (PLC) phases represents an interesting opportunity. SMEs operate in very competitive environments, and face significant challenges primarily caused by their size disadvantage. By nature, social media tools and platforms can enable them to overcome some of these challenges, as they are often very inexpensive, familiar and easy to use, allowing them to reach large audiences they would not be able to reach with traditional and expensive marketing initiatives. To provide solutions to this problem, this research identified three main objectives. The first objective was to draw a picture of the existing academic literature on the use of social media tools in the PLC context to better understand how these tools were studied and used in businesses, and for what purpose. Second, this research aimed at understanding how SMEs actually use social media tools to support their different business activities to identify the gap between academic research and actual business practices. Finally, based on the findings highlighted from the previous objectives, this research aimed at developing theory on this topic by proposing a conceptual framework of customer engagement enabled by social media. The conceptual framework aimed at answering general questions that emerged from the initial two objectives: Why do some SMEs use social media to support customer engagement, while others do not? Why do firms use different social media tools to support their customer engagement initiatives? Why does the scope of customer engagement initiatives (i.e., across different PLC phases) vary between SMEs? What are the potential outcomes of conducting customer engagement initiatives for the organizing firms? In order to achieve these research objectives, the methodology employed for this research is threefold. First, a systematic literature review was performed in order to properly understand how the use of social media tools in the PLC context had been studied. The final results consisted of 78 academic articles which were analyzed based on their bibliometric information and their content. Second, in order to draw the contrast between the academic publications and managerial reality of SMEs, six semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand how these firms actually use social media to support different activities in each of the PLC phases. Third, five additional semi-structured interviews were performed to gather a deeper understanding of this phenomenon and generate theory to support the proposed conceptual framework. The conceptual framework focuses on the degree of customer engagement, which is comprised of the scope (PLC phases) of customer engagement and the technology (social media tools) employed to support these initiatives. Two sets of antecedents were examined, firm motivators and firm impediments, as they could both potentially affect the scope and the social media tools used to support customer engagement initiatives. Finally, potential customer engagement outcomes for SMEs developing these initiatives were also examined. The semi-structured interviews lasted approximately 25-35 minutes, and were performed using an interview grid consisting of 24 open-ended questions. The interview grid was developed based on the findings of the systematic literature review, and this qualitative approach allowed for a rich understanding of the interviewed SMEs’ use of social media tools to support and engage customers in their different PLC activities. The main results highlighted by this project demonstrate that this field is relatively recent and sees constant increase in research interest since 2008. However, most of the academic research focuses on the use of social media tools to support innovation activities during the new product development process, while the interviewed firms almost exclusively used the tools to engage customers in the later phases of the PLC, primarily for promotion, customer service support, and business development activities. Interestingly, the interviewed firms highlighted several benefits of using social media tools to engage customers, some of which could help them overcome certain size disadvantages previously mentioned. These firms are in need of further guidelines to properly implement such initiatives and reap the expected benefits. Results suggest that SMEs are far behind both large companies and academic research in their use of social media to engage customers in different business activities. The proposed conceptual framework serves as a great tool to better understand their reality and eventually better support them in their social media and customer engagement efforts. However, this framework needs to be further developed and improved. This research project provides a 360-degree view of the phenomenon of the use of social media to support customer engagement for SMEs, by providing both a thorough systematic review of the academic research and an understanding of the managerial reality of SMEs behind this phenomenon. From this analysis, a conceptual framework is then proposed and serves as a stepping stone for future researchers who are interested in developing theory in this field.

Pk-IFRS:n soveltamisen vaikutukset tilinpäätösinformaation tuottajille ja käyttäjille Euroopassa

Pk-yritykset ovat nousseet merkittäväksi puheenaiheeksi viime vuosina niiden työllistävän vaikutuksen vuoksi. Iso osa uusista työpaikoista on syntynyt pk-yrityksiin eikä suuriin yrityksiin. Samalla kansainvälistymiskehitys on ollut aikamme suurimpia muutosvoimia, jotka vaikuttavat talouselämään. Kansainvälistymällä yritykset ovat saaneet uusia väyliä hankkia rahoitusta, laajentaneet ja monipuolistaneet asiakaskuntaansa ja hankkineet skaalaetuja. Kansainvälisyys aiheuttaa haasteita yritysten taloudelliselle raportoinnille, joten pk-yrityksille luotiin pk-IFRS –standardisto. Sen tarkoituksena on parantaa vertailukelpoisuutta eri maista tulevien yritysten välillä ja keventää raportoinnin raskautta. Tässä tutkielmassa selvitettiin, miten pk-IFRS:n soveltaminen vaikuttaa tilinpäätösten tekijöihin ja käyttäjiin. Tutkielma alkaa teoria-osuudesta, jossa käytiin läpi tuoreita tutkimuksia, minkä pohjalta esiin nousseita kysymyksiä käyttäen tehtiin empiria-osuudessa analysoitava haastattelu. Tutkimuksessa saatiin selville, että tutkijoiden ja haastateltavan näkemykset pk-IFRS:tä ovat pääosin samanlaiset. Pk-IFRS:n ongelmia on sen lyhyys, mikä aiheuttaa tulkintaongelmia ja monimutkaisuus, joka kuormittaa raportoijan resursseja. Pk-yritykset toimivat useimmin vain kotimaassa, jolloin hyödyt jäävät rajallisiksi. Pienemmissä pk-yrityksissä tilinpäätöksiä käyttäviä sidosryhmiä on vähän, jolloin käyttäjien saamat hyödyt ovat pienet. Kuitenkin käypään arvoon arvostus ja tiedon annon vaatimukset voivat helpottaa rahoituksen saantia joillekin yrityksille, jos pk-IFRS:ää aletaan soveltaa samalla tavalla joka maassa ja yrityksessä.

Käyttöpääoman hallinnan vaikutus suomalaisten pk-yritysten maksuvalmiuteen

Tämän kandidaatintutkielman tavoite on tarkastella suomalaisten pk-yritysten maksuvalmiuden ja käyttöpääoman hallinnan välistä yhteyttä. Tarkoitus on selvittää, voidaanko suomalaisten pk-yritysten maksuvalmiutta parantaa käyttöpääoman hallintaa tehostamalla ja onko siitä saatava hyöty toimialariippuvaista. Toimialavertailuun valittiin rakentaminen, koneiden ja laitteiden valmistus sekä jälleenmyynti. Aineisto tutkimukseen hankittiin Amadeus-tietokannasta. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään tilastollisia menetelmiä. Tilastolliset analyysit suoritetaan SAS Enterprise Guide -ohjelmistolla. Muuttujien välisiä suhteita tarkastellaan regressioanalyysin avulla, jotka suoritetaan jokaiselle toimialaluokalle ja kaikista toimialoista koostuvalle otokselle erikseen. Tutkimustulosten mukaan toimialasta riippumatta pk-yrityksen maksuvalmiutta voidaan parantaa käyttöpääoman hallintaa tehostamalla. Vaikutuksen suuruus riippuu kuitenkin toimialasta. Tutkimustulokset huomioiden pk-yritysten johdon tulisi resurssien niukkuudesta huolimatta kiinnittää huomiota käyttöpääoman hallintaan, erityisesti silloin kuin yrityksen maksuvalmius on uhattuna.

Pk-yritysten ympäristöllisen kestävyyden kehittäminen palvelumuotoilua hyödyntäen

Ympäristöllinen kestävyys on ajankohtaisempi asia kuin koskaan ja sen merkitys yritysten yhtenä kestävyyden osa-alueena kasvaa jatkuvasti. Erityisesti suuret yritykset pyrkivät erottumaan kilpailijoistaan ympäristöllisen kestävyyden avulla, mutta myös pk-yritykset olisi tärkeää saada mukaan toiminnan kehittämiseen. Aikaisemmat tutkimukset yritysten ympäristöllisestä kestävyydestä ovat keskittyneet pääosin käytössä oleviin menetelmiin ja kestävyyden kehittämisen suurimpiin haasteisiin. Tärkeää olisi tutkia myös sitä, miten pk-yritykset saataisiin mukaan kehittämään toimintaansa ympäristöllisesti kestävämmäksi. Tähän pyritään löytämään vastauksia tässä diplomityössä. Diplomityön tarkoituksena on tutkia sitä, millä tavoin pk-yritykset haluavat kehittää toimintaansa ympäristöllisesti kestävämmäksi. Työn tavoitteena on suunnitella pk-yritysten tarpeita vastaava palvelukonsepti niiden ympäristöllisen kestävyyden kehittämiseksi. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään palvelumuotoilua ja sen prosessin kolmea ensimmäistä vaihet-ta: asiakasymmärryksen hankintaa, luovaa ideointia sekä palvelukonseptin kehittämistä. Tutkimus on laadullinen tutkimus, jonka tutkimusmetodina toimii palvelumuotoilun tärkein osa-alue eli yhteissuunnittelu. Yhteissuunnittelu toteutettiin visuaalisten työpajojen avulla suunnitteluun osallistuvien pk-yritysten kanssa. Tutkimuksen tuloksena saatiin suunniteltua pk-yritysten tarpeisiin räätälöity palvelukonsepti niiden ympäristöllisen kestävyyden kehittämiseksi. Palvelun tärkeimpiä ominaisuuksia ovat jatkuva tiedon lisääminen, kokonaisuuden hahmottamista helpottava visuaalisuus sekä palvelun virallisiin standardeihin pohjautuva kokonaisuus. Lisäksi palvelu mahdollistaa toiminnan kehittämisen pienin askelin sen porrastetun menetelmän ansiosta. Yksi tärkeä ominaisuus on myös palvelun tarjoama mahdollisuus tietojen helppoon ja nopeaan doku-mentointiin sekä jalostamiseen.

Methodological and Technological Support for the Coordination of Smart Networks of SMEs

Part 2: Behaviour and Coordination

Produção de pellets de madeira no Brasil : estratégia, custo e risco do investimento

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Florestais, 2015.

Impacto tributario de la facturación electrónica en pequeñas y medianas empresas del cantón Cuenca

Los avances en Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación permiten que el hombre se desempeñe de una manera eficiente y esta eficiencia, en gran medida, motiva a las empresas a afrontar nuevos y mayores retos, uno de ellos es la Facturación Electrónica, proceso que provoca en el conjunto de las pequeñas y medianas empresas PYMES, la necesidad de innovar y optimizar sus recursos. La Ciudad de Cuenca se destaca por su desarrollo social y económico, proporcionándole ventajas para consolidar políticas en diferentes áreas; igualmente, Cuenca posee una trayectoria de ser ciudad piloto en varios proyectos. El presente estudio investigativo “IMPACTO TRIBUTARIO DE LA FACTURACIÓN ELECTRÓNICA EN PEQUEÑAS Y MEDIANAS EMPRESAS DEL CANTÓN CUENCA” evalúa la incorporación del sistema de Facturación Electrónica a la pequeña y mediana empresa de Cuenca y las ventajas y desventajas de adherirse a este sistema.

Estudo da viabilidade econômica em campos maduros

When it comes to oil and gas in Brazil is almost certain that we are referring to activities in deep waters off the coast of Campos, Rio de Janeiro, the main field of action of PETROBRAS and a small number of multinational oil companies . Since the Law 9.478/97 allows, by means of concessions, that other companies other than Petrobras, to explore and produce oil and gas domestically. Soon it moved, then the private companies that want small and medium-sized businesses to invest in such activities, forming a segment of independent producers, as occurs in other countries. In this context, this work aims at making an economic feasibility study, is currently analyzing how this thread and focus on the factors that contribute to its development as well as those that constitute barriers. To this end, we conducted a survey examining some mature fields that are in production in order to capture cost information in the phases of project, operation and abandonment. The work also presents an analysis of the results obtained in the survey, identifying the costs higher. With the results obtained through the study used economic engineering tools such as NPV and IRR, using a variety of design scenarios, to study the economic viability of these fields. In scenario 4 was set a production of 4.0 m³ / d of oil, which is an expected average production for several of these fields, whose minimum value of a barrel of oil, to enable this field, was $ 55.00, this value well below what was being practiced in the market today.

Creación de marca mediante la utilización de mecanismos estratégicos comunitarios y marketing

El presente documento pretende mostrar la manera como se debe ejecutar la creación de marca mediante la utilización de mecanismos estratégicos comunitarios y marketing. El objetivo del estudio se basa en encontrar los mecanismos adecuados para el desarrollo y creación de una marca enfocándose en el análisis de las principales prácticas y modelos desarrollados en el área del marketing, examinando el impacto que la marca pueda generar en la comunidad en la cual la organización está incluida, estableciendo además un conexión directa con el modo de vida de los consumidores. Durante el desarrollo del documento se demuestra que las estrategias de marketing aplicadas por cada compañía, sirven para construir una relación estrecha y fuerte con todos los agentes involucrados en la construcción de una marca, principalmente con los clientes, ya que la forma más efectiva de establecer relaciones a largo plazo, es enfocándose exclusivamente en las necesidades desarrolladas por los consumidores, y a partir de ellas ajustar los valores (misión, visión, cultura organizacional, objetivos) de la organización. Estas estrategias comunitarias son también influenciadas por varios factores internos y externos a la organización, los cuales deben ser tenidos en cuenta al momento de elegir la estrategia adecuada. Los mecanismos estratégicos que desarrollan las empresas pueden cambiar significativamente de un sector comercial a otro, la importancia de las necesidades que se deben suplir y el consumidor final se deben evaluar desde un aspecto comunitario, entendiendo como comunidad como el conjunto de grupos sociales y comerciales que tienen relación directa o indirecta con la empresa. Con la investigación llevada a cabo acerca de las estrategias que deben aplicar las compañías se concluye que las marcas reflejan la imagen que la empresa transmite a sus compradores estableciendo una relación emocional entre los consumidores y la marca desarrollada, además de estimular la oferta y demanda del negocio. Se espera que por medio de la obtención de información teórica y conceptual, se pueda aclarar la manera como se puede desarrollar la creación de una marca por medio de la correcta utilización de mecanismos estratégicos comunitarios y de marketing.

Adaptive Neural Translation for Enterprises (ANTE). La traduzione automatica neurale a sostegno delle imprese emiliano-romagnole

Il progetto ANTE riguarda i nuovi sistemi di traduzione automatica (TA) e la loro applicazione nel mondo delle imprese. Lo studio prende spunto dai recenti sviluppi legati all’intelligenza artificiale e ai Big Data che negli ultimi anni hanno permesso alla TA di raggiungere livelli qualitativi molto elevati, al punto tale da essere impiegata da grandi multinazionali per raggiungere nuove quote di mercato. La TA può rispondere positivamente anche ai bisogni delle imprese di piccole dimensioni e a basso tenore tecnologico, migliorando la qualità delle comunicazioni multilingue attraverso delle traduzioni in tempi brevi e a costi contenuti. Lo studio si propone quindi di contribuire al rafforzamento della competitività internazionale delle piccole e medie imprese (PMI) emiliano- romagnole, migliorando la loro capacità di comunicazione in una o più lingue straniere attraverso l’introduzione e l’utilizzo efficace e consapevole di soluzioni ICT di ultima generazione e fornire, così, nuove opportunità di internazionalizzazione.