A methodology to select an enterprise resource planning system for a small or medium sized enterprise

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are software programs designed to integrate the functional requirements, and operational information needs of a business. Pressures of competition and entry standards for participation in major manufacturing supply chains are creating greater demand for small business ERP systems. The proliferation of new offerings of ERP systems introduces complexity to the selection process to identify the right ERP business software for a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The selection of an ERP system is a process in which a faulty conclusion poses a significant risk of failure to SME’s. The literature reveals that there are still very high failure rates in ERP implementation, and that faulty selection processes contribute to this failure rate. However, the literature is devoid of a systematic methodology for the selection process for an ERP system by SME’s. This study provides a methodological approach to selecting the right ERP system for a small or medium-sized enterprise. The study employs Thomann’s meta-methodology for methodology development; a survey of SME’s is conducted to inform the development of the methodology, and a case study is employed to test, and revise the new methodology. The study shows that a rigorously developed, effective methodology that includes benchmarking experiences has been developed and successfully employed. It is verified that the methodology may be applied to the domain of users it was developed to serve, and that the test results are validated by expert users and stakeholders. Future research should investigate in greater detail the application of meta-methodologies to supplier selection and evaluation processes for services and software; additional research into the purchasing practices of small firms is clearly needed.^

"Unfair'' Restaurant Reviews:To Sue Or Not To Sue

In their discussion entitled - “Unfair” Restaurant Reviews: To Sue Or Not To Sue - by John Schroeder and Bruce Lazarus, Assistant Professors, Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management at Purdue University, the authors initially state: “Both advantages and disadvantages exist on bringing lawsuits against restaurant critics who write “unfair” reviews. The authors, both of whom have experience with restaurant criticism, offer practical advice on what realistically can be done by the restaurateur outside of the courtroom to combat unfair criticism.” Well, this is going to be a sticky wicket no matter how you try to defend it, reviews being what they are; very subjective pieces of opinionated journalism, especially in the food industry. And, of course, unless you can prove malicious intent there really is no a basis for a libel suit. So, a restaurateur is at the mercy of written opinion and the press. “Libel is the written or published form of slander which is the statement of false remarks that may damage the reputation of others. It also includes any false and malicious publication which may damage a person's business, trade, or employment,” is the defined form of the law provided by the authors. Anecdotally, Schroeder and Lazarus offer a few of the more scathing pieces reviewers have written about particular eating establishments. And, yes, they can be a bit comical, unless you are the owner of an establishment that appears in the crosshairs of such a reviewer. A bad review can kneecap even a popular eatery. “Because of the large readership of restaurant reviews in the publication (consumer dining out habits indicate that nearly 50 percent of consumers read a review before visiting a new restaurant) your business begins a very dangerous downward tailspin,” the authors reveal, with attribution. “Many restaurant operators contend that a bad review can cost them an immediate trade loss of upward of 50 percent,” Schroeder and Lazarus warn. “The United States Supreme Court has ruled that a restaurant owner can collect damages only if he proves that the statement or statements were made with “actual malice,” even if the statements were untrue,” the authors say by way of citation. And that last portion of the statement cannot be over-emphasized. The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution does wield a heavy hammer, indeed, and it should. So, what recourse does a restaurateur have? The authors cautiously give a guarded thumbs-up to a lawsuit, but you better be prepared to prove a misstatement of fact, as opposed to the distinguishable press protected right of opinion. For the restaurateur the pitfalls are many, the rewards few and far between, Schroeder and Lazarus will have you know. “…after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a lawsuit against a critic...the disadvantages are overwhelming,” the authors say. “Chicago restaurant critic James Ward said that someone dumped a load of manure on his yard accompanied by a note that read - Stop writing that s--t! - after he wrote a review of a local restaurant.” Such is a novel if not legally measurable tack against an un-mutual review.

Entrepreneur's Dilemma: Hotel Investments in Emerging Markets

Estimating the required rate of return for hotel properties is a daunting task because a lodging property is considered a hybrid between a real estate asset, and a revenue-generating enterprise affiliated with a hotel brand. Computing the expected rate of return for a hotel becomes even more complicated when a third party foreign investor/entrepreneur is the one performing the computation for an investment hotel in an emerging country. This clinical case illustrates the challenges surrounding the estimation of a project’s cost of equity in the multinational hotel industry. The results reveal that estimating cost of equity in emerging markets for hotel investments continues to be a conundrum. Future investors should make multiple adjustments and use several models when making their capital investment decisions.

Small and medium-sized enterprises and regional economic growth in Brazil

This paper examines the relationship between the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector and economic growth for an annual panel of Brazilian states for the period 1985–2004. We investigate the importance of the relative size of the SME sector measured by the share of SME employment in total formal employment and the level of human capital in SMEs measured by the average years of schooling of SME employees. The empirical results indicate that the relative importance of SMEs is negatively correlated with economic growth, a result that is consistent with previous studies examining developing countries. In addition, our results show that the human capital embodied in SMEs may be more important for economic growth than the relative size of the SME sector.

Highlights from the 2016 Sustainable and Social Entrepreneurship Enterprises Roundtable

The April 2016 Sustainable and Social Entrepreneurship Enterprises roundtable brought together over 20 faculty, students, and leaders and entrepreneurs from a wide variety of mission-driven enterprises that focus on sustainability or social welfare. Jeanne Varney, lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration, opened the day by inviting attendees to speak to and even test some of their innovative ideas on fellow participants during the day. Varney noted: “One of our goals for the roundtable was to have a really diverse set of attendees and to hear a lot of different perspectives.”

Sobre (vivência) e mortalidade de pequenos negócios: o caso de mercados varejistas potiguares

This paper‟s starting point was the objective of understanding the relation between the reasons pointed out by small businesses owners for the continuity or shutdown of their businesses, and the reasons presented by the Environmental Theories. The paper discusses the Environmental Theories understand that it is supported by a systemic metaphor speech, discussing the theme in terms of organizational survival and mortality . The text reviews the literature showing the changes in the administrative thinking regarding the organization versus environment relation, and presenting general ideas about the micro and small businesses. In methodological terms, the qualitative approach was used in the research. Regarding the data collection technique, an in-depth thematic interview was used. It was carried out considering the elements of the techniques of life history and oral history, always giving priority to real world related narratives told by the interviewed subjects. The empirical corpus of the research was made up of seven owners of small retail businesses in two Potiguar cities: Natal and Mossoró. The interpretative and analytical process focused, at first, on the reflexive dialogue with each one of the owners‟ professional life history and business management experience, constituting the first level of analysis: reflections on individual narratives; and, afterwards, the interpretative process was developed through the analysis of all the subjects‟ statements, identifying the recurring themes and constituting the second level of analysis: reflection on the totalizing narrative. The themes identified in the totalizing narrative, that refer to the continuity of the businesses are: evolution, control, fidelity, liking what one does for a living. The themes that came up as reasons for shutdown are: lack of empathy with the business, lack of evolution, competition problems, suppliers and the government. The text synthesizes its comprehensions affirming that the reasons associated with continuity and shutdown of small markets, for this group of owners specifically, come up as a permanent tension between the volunteerism (quite human) and the determinism (systemic). The tension is shown in testimonies that at the same time evoke the organicist systemic logic through the themes evolution/no evolution, and also counterpoints with themes related to the interested human action, based on desires, feelings and personal convictions such as: liking what one does/ lack of empathy. As for the reflexive dialogue between the postulates of the Environmental Theories and the narratives, the results make it possible to affirm that, differently from the tension expressed by the subjects while talking about their reasons, the reasons associated with survival and mortality of businesses according to the Environmental Theories are theoretically polarized, seeming to preach options that are stagnated and shaping towards the subjects involved in the organization-environment relation

Business Signage Control in Seattle's Chinatown International District, Pursuing Healthy Balance of Preservation and Commercial Vitalization in a Historic Commercial Districts

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

O Processo de Planejamento Estratégico em Pequenas Empresas

O planejamento estratégico é o processo através do qual as empresas identificam recursos potenciais, reconhecem fraquezas, avaliam oportunidades e ameaças no ambiente que atuam e formulam as estratégias para obter vantagens competitivas sobre a concorrência, assegurando o sucesso dos resultados planejados. Esse trabalho desenvolveu-se com o objetivo de aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre o processo de planejamento estratégico e adaptá-lo à realidade das empresas de pequeno porte, através de um caso prático, com a elaboração do plano de negócios de uma pequena empresa de prestação de serviços no segmento de educação especial, o caso “Mundo Novo Educação Especial”. Com relação à metodologia adotada, podemos descrevê-la como uma abordagem qualitativa, com design exploratório através de pesquisa bibliográfica para a fundamentação teórica sobre o processo de planejamento estratégico, seguida de estudo de caso aplicado ao planejamento estratégico da empresa Mundo Novo Educação Especial, com levantamento de dados secundários internos e externos, e dados primários qualitativos. Dentre as conclusões do estudo foi possível identificar a existência de uma grande lacuna de conhecimento sobre os processos de gestão empresarial no ambiente da empresa pesquisada, e que esse despreparo e a falta de planejamento podem torna-la mais vulnerável aos riscos do mercado e contribuir para o seu insucesso. Isso reforça a importância do processo de planejamento estratégico como uma ferramenta de apoio que amplia o conhecimento sobre o ambiente de negócios, desenvolve habilidades de gestão e que pode ser adequado a todos os tipos de empresas, inclusive às empresas de pequeno porte, como no caso estudado.

Marketing in SMEs: the sales process of SMEs on the food and drink industry.

There would appear to be varied approaches to the sales process practiced by SMEs in how they go about locating target customers, interfacing with prospects and new customers, presenting the benefits and features of their products and services, closing sales deals and building relationships, and an understanding of what the buyers needs are in the seller-buyer process. Recent research has revealed that while entrepreneurs and small business owners rely upon networking as an important source of sales, they lack marketing competencies, including personal selling skills and knowledge of what is involved in the sales process to close sales deals and build relationships. Small companies and start-ups with innovative products and services often find it difficult to persuade potential buyers of the merits of their offerings because, while the products and services may be excellent, they have not sufficiently well-developed selling skills necessary to persuade their target customers.

Sobre (vivência) e mortalidade de pequenos negócios: o caso de mercados varejistas potiguares

This paper‟s starting point was the objective of understanding the relation between the reasons pointed out by small businesses owners for the continuity or shutdown of their businesses, and the reasons presented by the Environmental Theories. The paper discusses the Environmental Theories understand that it is supported by a systemic metaphor speech, discussing the theme in terms of organizational survival and mortality . The text reviews the literature showing the changes in the administrative thinking regarding the organization versus environment relation, and presenting general ideas about the micro and small businesses. In methodological terms, the qualitative approach was used in the research. Regarding the data collection technique, an in-depth thematic interview was used. It was carried out considering the elements of the techniques of life history and oral history, always giving priority to real world related narratives told by the interviewed subjects. The empirical corpus of the research was made up of seven owners of small retail businesses in two Potiguar cities: Natal and Mossoró. The interpretative and analytical process focused, at first, on the reflexive dialogue with each one of the owners‟ professional life history and business management experience, constituting the first level of analysis: reflections on individual narratives; and, afterwards, the interpretative process was developed through the analysis of all the subjects‟ statements, identifying the recurring themes and constituting the second level of analysis: reflection on the totalizing narrative. The themes identified in the totalizing narrative, that refer to the continuity of the businesses are: evolution, control, fidelity, liking what one does for a living. The themes that came up as reasons for shutdown are: lack of empathy with the business, lack of evolution, competition problems, suppliers and the government. The text synthesizes its comprehensions affirming that the reasons associated with continuity and shutdown of small markets, for this group of owners specifically, come up as a permanent tension between the volunteerism (quite human) and the determinism (systemic). The tension is shown in testimonies that at the same time evoke the organicist systemic logic through the themes evolution/no evolution, and also counterpoints with themes related to the interested human action, based on desires, feelings and personal convictions such as: liking what one does/ lack of empathy. As for the reflexive dialogue between the postulates of the Environmental Theories and the narratives, the results make it possible to affirm that, differently from the tension expressed by the subjects while talking about their reasons, the reasons associated with survival and mortality of businesses according to the Environmental Theories are theoretically polarized, seeming to preach options that are stagnated and shaping towards the subjects involved in the organization-environment relation

Adopción de las TIC en micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas del Quindío mediante la identificación de factores clave para asesoría a partir de la innovación, la competitividad y la sostenibilidad

En este trabajo se pretende analizar cómo ha sido la adopción de las nuevas tecnologías en diez micro, diez pequeñas y diez medianas empresas del departamento del Quindío -- Se tomaron como punto de partida las ventajas y desventajas que muestra el estado del arte en la apropiación de las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación en los procesos de una organización y las posturas de diferentes teóricos en el tema -- Se elaboró una encuesta que permitiese indagar sobre factores clave en el momento en que una empresa decide empezar en el mundo tecnológico y se plantearon unas preguntas, en el esquema de entrevista, que posibilitasen interactuar con el empresario a manera de conversatorio, para darle la posibilidad al estudio de interpretar fenómenos adicionales que pudiesen estarse dando en la mencionada transición -- El análisis se soportó con funciones estadísticas de los datos consolidados en dicha encuesta y las relaciones entre variables para identificar el grado de impacto entre las mismas -- Por último, se entregan las conclusiones del estudio y algunas propuestas de adopción para las empresas estudiadas en el departamento del Quindío que así lo requieran, con el propósito de la Maestría en Administración, de la Universidad EAFIT, que es propiciar la relación empresa-universidad-Estado

Social-cognitive Antecedents of Ambidextrous Orientation in Family-owned Startups: The Role of Family Ties, Achievement Motivation, and Internal Locus of Control

Regulatory Focus Theory predicts that the motivation to self-regulate goal-directed thought and behavior depends on two distinct regulation strategies: a promotion focus based on attaining gains and a prevention focus based on avoiding losses. This study took a social-cognitive approach predicting that regulatory focus has an impact on how family startups (several family related founders) explore “new ideas”, exploit “old certainties” and achieve the balance of both (ambidexterity), compared to lone founder startups (only one founder present). It was proposed that the social context of family ties among founders leads them to a prevention focus concerned with avoiding the loss of the socio-emotional benefits of those ties. In order to avoid such a loss, family founders were expected to increase their risk perceptions and thus, explore less than lone founders, who lack such socio-emotional ties. It was also proposed that two commonly used psychological traits in entrepreneurship research --achievement motivation and internal locus of control, predispose entrepreneurs to a promotion focus. Founders with a promotion focus, in turn, were hypothesized to lead startups to more risk-seeking behaviors and to more explorative orientation. The previous argument was used as a springboard to derive hypotheses about ambidexterity (the ability to exploit and explore simultaneously) and survival hazards. Using Regulatory Focus Theory, exploitative orientation, conceptualized as the motivational strength to continue on previous paths of action, was hypothesized to be not significantly different from that of lone founder startups. Taking previous arguments together, lone founder startups were hypothesized to be more ambidextrous than family startups. Finally, ambidexterity and internal locus of control were hypothesized to reduce survival hazards in family startups. The findings suggested that family startups explore less than lone founder startups even after controlling for group effects. Interesting but contradictory findings revealed that internal locus of control have both a positive direct effect and a positive interaction that increases the explorative and ambidextrous orientation gap of family startups over lone founder startups. As expected, ambidexterity and internal locus of control reduced survival hazards on family startups. Implications for practitioners were derived based on a sample of 470 nascent entrepreneurs.

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.

Oportunidades en los mercados de Nueva York, Nueva Jersey y Nebraska para las empresas colombianas

Actualmente, las barreras comerciales a nivel internacional resultan cada vez menos tangibles entre los diferentes mercados, haciendo que las oportunidades de comercialización de bienes y servicios entre países sea cada vez mayor. Sin embargo, es muy común todavía encontrarse con historias de fracaso en los esfuerzos de diferentes empresarios medianos y pequeños que en su momento decidieron emprender el camino de la internacionalización de sus compañías y que por diferentes factores, bien sea desconocimiento de leyes comerciales internacionales, desinformación primordial del mercado objetivo o simplemente por situaciones ajenas a ellos sufrieron esta adversidad y dejaron de lado su impulso e interés por internacionalizarse. Por tal razón, hemos enfocado nuestros esfuerzos en tratar de identificar las diferentes potencialidades y oportunidades que el empresario colombiano puede llegar a tener en cuatro estados de Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, Nueva York, Nueva Jersey, Nuevo Hampshire y Nebraska específicamente. La metodología a desarrollar a lo largo de esta investigación principalmente recoge información cualitativa y cuantitativa que nos permitirá desglosar diversos aspectos con mayor profundidad, para que el empresario interesado tenga un panorama más claro de lo que puede llegar a encontrarse en los estados mencionados anteriormente.