Project-based organization as adaptation to risk and opportunity in small firms

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in SMEs working collaboratively in inter-organizational projects. But what drives the emergence of such projects, and what types of industries breed them the most? To address these questions, this paper extends the long running literature on the firm and industry antecedents of new venturing and alliance formation to the domain of project-based organization by SMEs. Based on survey data collected among 1,725 small and medium sized organizations and longitudinal industry data, we find an overall pattern that indicates that IOPV participation is primarily determined by a focal SME’s scope of innovative activities, and the munificence, dynamism and complexity of its environment. Unexpectedly, these variables have different effects on whether SMEs are likely to engage in IOPVs, compared to with how many there are in their portfolio at a time. Implications for theory development are discussed.

Corporate social responsibility–oriented compliances and SMEs access to global market : evidence from Bangladesh

The convergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance has immense impact on the participants in global supply chains. The global buyers and retailers tend to incorporate CSR in all stages of product manufacturing within their supply chains. The incorporated CSR thus creates the difficulty to small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Incompetence in standardized CSR practices is an important issue that causes SMEs either losing their scope to access global market directly or serving as subcontractors to large enterprises. This article explores this issue by focusing on Bangladeshi SMEs under the CSR requirement of the important global buyer.

Do we need to use an accountant? The sales growth and survival benefits to family SMEs

This article explores the relationship between the usage of an external accountant and family firm sales growth and survival. Using a longitudinal panel of Australian small and medium sized family enterprises, we find that external accountants have a positive impact on sales growth and survival. We also find that the degree to which the accountant is acquainted with the family and the firm’s needs, which we term as embeddedness, moderates these positive outcomes. Furthermore, we find that appropriate strategic planning processes are necessary to maximize the sales growth benefit; however, these processes are not necessary to gain the survival benefit.

Measurement as legitimacy versus legitimacy of measures : Performance evaluation of social enterprise

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the growing emphasis on quantifiable performance measures such as social return on investment (SROI) in third sector organisations – specifically, social enterprise – through a legitimacy theory lens. It then examines what social enterprises value (i.e. consider important) in terms of performance evaluation, using a case study approach. Design/methodology/approach Case studies involving interviews, documentary analysis, and observation, of three social enterprises at different life-cycle stages with different funding structures, were constructed to consider “what measures matter” from a practitioner's perspective. Findings Findings highlight a priority on quality outcomes and impacts in primarily qualitative terms to evaluate performance. Further, there is a noticeable lack of emphasis on financial measures other than basic access to financial resources to continue pursuing social goals. Social implications The practical challenges faced by social enterprises – many of which are small to medium sized – in evaluating performance and by implication organisational legitimacy are contrasted with measures such as SROI which are resource intensive and have inherent methodological limitations. Hence, findings suggest the limited and valuable resources of social enterprises would be better allocated towards documenting the actual outcomes and impacts as a first step, in order to evaluate social and financial performance in terms appropriate to each objective, in order to demonstrate organisational legitimacy. Originality/value Findings distinguish between processes which may hold symbolic legitimacy for select stakeholder groups, and processes which hold substantive, cognitive legitimacy for stakeholders more broadly, in the under-researched context of social enterprise.

The role of marketing in today's enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of marketing in today's enterprises and examines the antecedents of the marketing department's influence and its relationship with market orientation and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the West (i.e. the USA and Europe) and the East (i.e. Asia). Partial least squares (PLS) was used to estimate structural models. Findings The findings support the idea that a strong and influential marketing department contributes positively to firm performance. This finding holds for Western and Asian, and for small/medium and large firms alike. Second, the marketing department's influence in a firm depends more on its responsibilities and resources, and less on internal contingency factors (i.e. a firm's competitive strategy or institutional attributes). Third, a marketing department's influence in the West affects firm performance both directly and indirectly (via market orientation). In contrast, this relationship is fully mediated among Eastern firms. Fourth, low-cost strategies enhance the influence of a firm's marketing department in the East, but not in the West. Research limitations/implications The paper assumes explicitly that a marketing department's influence is an antecedent of its market orientation. While the paper finds support for this link, the paper did not test for dual causality between the constructs. Originality/value Countering the frequent claim in anecdotal and journalistic work that the role of the marketing department diminishes, the findings show that across different geographic regions and firm sizes, strong marketing departments improve firm performance (especially in the marketing-savvy West), and that they should continue to play an important role in firms.

A percepção sobre os incentivos fiscais para as PME do setor têxtil: o caso da região serrana do estado do Rio de Janeiro

As micro, pequenas e médias empresas geram cerca de 20% do PIB brasileiro. Estima-se que, atualmente, 60% dos postos de trabalho e cerca de 85% dos novos empregos no Brasil são gerados por micro, pequenas e médias empresas. Nesse sentido, a implementação de políticas públicas destinadas as micro, pequenas e médias empresas possuem a dupla dimensão de favorecer tanto o crescimento econômico como a melhoria de indicadores sociais como a distribuição desigual da renda ou a desigualdade regional. Entretanto, um importante debate amadurece no país a respeito da efetividade e dos retornos gerados pelas concessões de incentivos fiscais. Alinhados a este cenário, o objetivo do presente estudo é analisar o impacto dos incentivos fiscais do setor têxtil das pequenas e médias empresas da região serrana do estado do Rio de Janeiro através da visão de seus gestores e dos indicadores econômicos. Foi realizado um estudo de campo no qual os gestores das PME do setor têxtil da região serrana do estado do Rio de Janeiro responderam um questionário composto por dezoito perguntas. As respostas foram comparadas a um cálculo de estimativa de renuncia entre o Lucro Presumido e o SIMPLES Nacional. Como resultados verificou-se a não efetividade dos incentivos fiscais no seu principal papel de geração de emprego e renda e uma sensação de insuficiência, desconhecimento e, consequentemente, falta de transparência em relação aos incentivos fiscais disponíveis e concedidos especificamente para o setor ou região, na percepção dos gestores das PME.

A importância do relacionamento bancário no financiamento das PME

Dissertação de Mestrado em Finanças Empresariais

Understanding churn and its reasons: The GuestU case

In the age of computerisation, entrepreneurs around the world aim to revolutionise their field with ground-breaking ICTs. GuestU is one of those offering mobile application development to small and medium-sized tourism enterprises. To assure the young start-ups steady growth this paper aims to identify reasons for the high customer churn risk. Primary data is used to analyse end-user behaviour and particularly the success of acquisition and activation. Results show troubling download quantities as well as retention rates leading to the recommendations for GuestU to incentivise and guide their customers in increasing promotion for the applications.

Sustained competitive advantage of different sized multinational corporations in rural base of the pyramid markets

This thesis explores how multinational corporations of different sizes create barriers to imitation and therefore sustain competitive advantage in rural and informal Base of the Pyramid economies. These markets require close cooperation with local partners in a dynamic environment that lacks imposable property rights and follows a different rationale than developed markets. In order to explore how competitive advantage is sustained by different sized multinational corporations at the Base of the Pyramid, the natural-resource-based view and the dynamic capabilities perspective are integrated. Based on this integration the natural-resource-based view is extended by identifying critical dynamic capabilities that are assumed to be sources of competitive advantage at the Base of the Pyramid. Further, a contrasting case study explores how the identified dynamic capabilities are protected and their competitive advantage is sustained by isolating mechanisms that create barriers to imitation for a small to medium sized and a large multinational corporation. The case study results give grounds to assume that most resource-based isolating mechanisms create barriers to imitation that are fairly high for large and established multinational corporations that operate at the rural Base of the Pyramid and have a high product and business model complexity. On the contrary, barriers to imitation were found to be lower for young and small to medium sized multinational corporations with low product and business model complexity that according to some authors represent the majority of rural Base of the Pyramid companies. Particularly for small to medium sized multinational corporations the case study finds a relationship- and transaction-based unwillingness of local partners to act opportunistically rather than a resource-based inability to imitate. By offering an explanation of sustained competitive advantage for small to medium sized multinational corporations at the rural Base of the Pyramid this thesis closes an important research gap and recommends to include institutional and transaction-based research perspectives.

Small and Closed vs. Large and Open: Some Lessons from Comparing Cuban to Colombian Agricultural Development

Comparing the experiences of selected Latin America and the Caribbean countries and their trajectories over the past 15 years offers rich insights into the dynamics and causes for not meeting the 2015 MDGs. They also offer clues for post-MDG strategies. Central to achieving sustainable growth are government policies able to support small and medium-sized farms and peasants, as they are crucial for the achievement of several goals, centrally: to achieve food security; to provide a sound and stable rural environment able to resist external (financial) shocks; to secure healthy food; to secure local food; and to protect vibrant and culturally rich local communities. This paper analyses and compares the most successful government policies to the least successful policies carried out over the last 15 years in selected Latin American and Caribbean countries and based on this analysis, offers strategies for more promising post-MDG politics, able to reduce poverty, reduce inequality, fight back informality, and achieve more decent work in poor countries.

Las TIC en la administración de la cadena de suministro y su incidencia en el desempeño operacional

Las tecnologías de la información han empezado a ser un factor importante a tener en cuenta en cada uno de los procesos que se llevan a cabo en la cadena de suministro. Su implementación y correcto uso otorgan a las empresas ventajas que favorecen el desempeño operacional a lo largo de la cadena. El desarrollo y aplicación de software han contribuido a la integración de los diferentes miembros de la cadena, de tal forma que desde los proveedores hasta el cliente final, perciben beneficios en las variables de desempeño operacional y nivel de satisfacción respectivamente. Por otra parte es importante considerar que su implementación no siempre presenta resultados positivos, por el contrario dicho proceso de implementación puede verse afectado seriamente por barreras que impiden maximizar los beneficios que otorgan las TIC.

Gestão, inovação e empreendorismo nas pequenas e médias empresas em Portugal

O presente trabalho visa analisar a forma como as pequenas e médias empresas em Portugal atuam no que toca à sua gestão que para garantir a continuada sustentabilidade no mercado, a inovação levada a cabo, tendo em conta que é um fator que difere uma empresa da outra e por fim o empreendedorismo levado a cabo pelos mesmos. Neste contexto, a atenção será direcionada para as pequenas e médias empresas com atividade nacional e internacional, o intuito deste trabalho é verificar a capacidade das empresas conseguirem vingar no mercado em que se encontram através de todos os mecanismos que se encontram à sua disposição, investindo na investigação e desenvolvimento de capacidades dos seus recursos humanos através de formação contínua, tornando-os imprescindíveis para o crescimento da empresa. Outro aspeto a analisar é, até que ponto as pequenas e médias empresas podem contribuir para a melhoria da economia portuguesa, tendo em conta também o papel da banca no financiamento dos projetos das PME’s.

Systematic work environment management : experiences from implementation in Swedish small-scale enterprises

Small-scale enterprises face difficulties in fulfilling the regulations for organising Systematic Work Environment Management. This study compared three groups of small-scale manufacturing enterprises with and without support for implementing the provision. Two implementation methods, supervised and network method, were used. The third group worked according to their own ideas. Twenty-three enterprises participated. The effects of the implementation were evaluated after one year by semi-structured dialogue with the manager and safety representative. Each enterprise was classified on compliance with ten demands concerning the provision. The work environment was estimated by the WEST-method. Impact of the implementation on daily work was also studied. At the follow-up, the enterprises in the supervised method reported slightly more improvements in the fulfilment of the demands in the provision than the enterprises in the network method and the enterprises working on their own did. The effect of the project reached the employees faster in the enterprises with the supervised method. In general, the work environment improved to some extent in all enterprises. Extensive support to small-scale enterprises in terms of advise and networking aimed to fulfil the regulations of Systematic Work Environment Management had limited effect especially considering the cost of applying these methods.

The impact of management style on the employment relations of different sized organisations

Purpose of the research/paper: The views and values of managers are typically noted as being wedded to unitarist or pluralist ideals. This paper disaggregates these views and values by looking at the impact of various managerial styles on employment relations in different sized organisations.
Methodology: Conceptual with applied support from the secondary literature.
Findings: The paper concludes that large organisations confront conditions and contingencies which allow them to make certain choices about employment relations in ways that are not always available to small to medium sized organisations.

SESAME: Finding Ways Of Promoting SME Adaptation To Flood Risk

Small and medium-sized companies and other enterprises (SMEs) around the world are exposed to flood risk and many of the 4.5 million in the UK are at risk. As SMEs represent almost half of total business turnover in the UK, their protection is a vital part of the drive for greater climate change resilience. However, few have measures in place to ensure the continuity of their activities during a flood and its aftermath. The SESAME project aims to develop tools that encourage businesses to discover ways of becoming more resilient to floods and to appreciate how much better off they will be once they have adapted to the ongoing risk. By taking some of the mystery out of flooding and flood risk, it aims to make it susceptible to the same business acumen that enables the UK’s SMEs to deal with the many other challenges they face. In this paper we will report on the different aspects of the research in the project Understanding behaviour Changing behaviour Modelling impacts Economic impacts Through the above the project will advise government, local authorities and other public bodies on how to improve their responses to floods and will enable them to recommend ways to improve the guidelines provided to SMEs in flood risk areas.