Knowledge management for SME-based regional clusters

This paper considers the need for knowledge management (KM) in regional clusters comprising many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the appropriate KM techniques for this form of economic organisation. Information and communication technologies offer a range of tools to help such clusters develop into electronically-linked eClusters, making KM possible on a scale not previously possible. Most KM techniques have been developed by large organisations and their relevance to SME-based clusters has received little attention. Based on our analysis of the literature, we conclude that KM approaches based on personalised rather than codified information are the most promising model for regionally-based eClusters and that Communities of Practice arising from open forms of internet collaboration are most likely to be successful in this environment. Future research will identify key issues and appropriate techniques for supporting regional clusters with electronic systems for KM.

Factors affecting e-commerce adoption by SMEs : a meta-analysis

There have been a myriad of research studies concerning SME e-Commerce adoption. However, the findings of these studies with regard to adoption factors have often been fragmented and contradictory. This paper analyses the previous research and synthesises the findings into a cohesive model of factors affecting SME adoption of e-Commerce. Eight meta-factors were identified: (1) perceived relative advantage; (2) perceived compatibility; (3) perceived complexity; (4) pressures from trading partners; (5) pressures from competitors; (6) external change agents; (7) knowledge and expertise about e-Commerce; and (8) management attitudes towards e-Commerce. These meta-factors were further grouped into three contexts: technological, environmental and organisational.

Can knowledge management save regional development?

Australia needs to create innovative regions to sustain economic prosperity and regional development. In order to do this, regions will need to systematically address their knowledge needs and identify tools that are appropriate in maximising their effectiveness. Many initiatives have focused on information and communication technology (ICT) to enable knowledge exchange and stimulate knowledge generation, but active knowledge management (KM) strategies are required if ICTs are to be used effectively. These strategies must respond to the regional economic and social environments which incorporate small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper outlines the importance of KM for supporting regional cluster development and the key ways in which communities of practice (CoPs), a KM technique, have been used to add value in similar contexts. How CoPs and their online counterpart, virtual communities of practice (VCoPs), can be used and developed in regional areas of Australia is considered along with a program for further research.

Understanding the factors contributing to inter-partner trust in joint ventures

Forming an international joint venture (IJV) with a local (Chinese) partner is one of the popular ways available for an overseas investor to enter into small and medium business sectors in China. A joint venture is commonly viewed as a cooperative, rather than a competitive, business relationship between two or more partners. Interpartner trust is widely acknowledged as a key prerequisite for genuine cooperation between joint venture partners. Although the importance of trust in the context of joint ventures is well recognized, the question of how interpartner trust is formed has received only scant attention in academic as well as professional literatures. Drawing from diverse academic literature bearing on the formation of trust between partner firms, this paper explores the factors that may contribute to inter-partner trust in the context of joint ventures. The primary argument in this paper is that trust between IJV partners is determined by observable and objective social, economic and structural factors. In other words, it is argued that interpartner trust is rational and it does not require a 'leap of faith'.

Review of interventions to encourage SMEs to make environmental improvements

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge, and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. In this paper we categorise the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develop a selection or ‘toolkit’ of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.

Socio-technical factors influencing channel use for knowledge-sharing in regional SME networks

The economic sustainability of regional areas is dependent on cross-industry innovation and knowledge-sharing among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The web-based initiatives deployed in regions worldwide to facilitate SME knowledge-sharing have typically been unsuccessful. This paper argues that the main reason for these failures is the lack of understanding of the socio-technical factors which influence the use of web-based channels (websites, online forums and expertise databases) as well as the more conventional channels (face-to-face and e-mail). This paper reports the findings of interpretive case studies of two regional SME business networks. It evaluates the major channels on six socio-technical criteria: link strength; trustworthiness; tacitness; usability; durability and currency. None of the channels were strong against all socio-technical factors. This highlights the importance of achieving an appropriate mix of channels to facilitate SME knowledge-sharing.

Communities of enterprise : developing regional SMEs in the knowledge economy

Purpose – This paper proposes the concepts of Communities of Enterprise (CoEs) and Virtual Communities of Enterprise (VCoEs) to describe business networking patterns in regional areas where there is no central organisational or industry focus and small and medium enterprises dominate the economy. Design/methodology/approach – Based on analysis of the literature this paper builds on theoretical understandings of knowledge management, clustering and regional development.
Findings – The concept of CoEs is most appropriate for regional areas characterised by many small enterprises in diverse industries. CoEs enhance development of regional clusters by contributing to their intellectual capital, innovation culture, value networks and social capital. The incorporation of ICT creates VCoEs which provide added potential by enabling regions to expand their learning potential through innovation.
Research limitations/implications – This paper provides a conceptual foundation for empirical research into regional network or cluster development using ICT.
Practical implications – Virtual Communities of Enterprise value creation potential is substantial but only when the socioeconomic elements of regional clusters are understood. The VCoE approach addresses the fact that without an industry focus it can be difficult to engage and link SMEs from different industries, although this is where the greatest potential
for value creation in regional clusters is to be found.
Originality/value – The Virtual Communities of Enterprise (VCoEs) concept specifically addresses the unique requirements of SMEs in regions. It has the potential to provide value for regions in a way few ICT based regional development initiatives have been able to achieve.

Competition in mature software markets

A theoretical framework is built for capturing properties of competition in mature monopolistic digital product markets. Based on an empirical study of the market of accounting software for small and medium enterprises, a consumer choice model is suggested, where a rational consumer is already using a particular version of a software package and is considering to chose from the following three options: either to continue using it, or to upgrade to a newer version of the product, or to switch to a competitive product. Consumer decision is justified by software quality, and network effects, under the price and switching costs constrains. A modified consumer demand function is used for the model, and theoretical conditions are analysed for choosing from one of the three above-mentioned options. The results are applicable to a wide range of digital products.

Using sister city relationships to access the Chinese market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a new approach for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Australia to engage in sustainable trade with China through the use of Sister City relationships. The reason for writing this paper is to address this research gap with the aim of influencing government policy at the national and the local level.

Design/methodology/approach – The main methods used is a historical literature review, a critical review of the effectiveness of the Sister City relationships and an examination of a special Sister City relationship between Latrobe City in Australia and the Chinese city of Taizhou.

Findings – Throughout the course of the paper it was established that Sister City relationships had been insufficiently utilized as commercial facilitators and especially SMEs in regional Australia. This was especially evident in terms of trade relations with China.

Research limitations/implications – This conceptual paper will require further research at different levels. Future research should establish what Australian sister cities with China are actually doing and how a more focused relationship utilizing SMEs in their territory might be utilized. This is clearly a limitation with this conceptual paper, which it is hoped will be overcome with new research planned by the authors.

Practical implications – The practical implications emerging from this paper is that Sister City relationships can be refocused from their current role to becoming structurally integrated into trade facilitators for SMEs in pursuing trade with China. Most Sister City relationships do not have a trade focus in the first instance. As a result of this paper we are hoping that local government policy makers and state government trade facilitators will see Sister City relationships in a new light.

Originality/value – This paper brings to attention cases of Sister City relationships which have gravitated towards a trade focus (an exception like Latrobe City) in which results are already evident. A paper of this kind is directed at governments at all levels as well as SMEs who wish to work better with government.

Factors influencing Australian SMEs knowledge sharing online

The Web offers a powerful tool for knowledge-sharing among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Such online initiatives have, however, frequently been unsuccessful. This paper examines factors motivating SMEs to share knowledge online. It reports data from a telephone survey of 192 SME members of two successful regional business networks comprising members from diverse industries. Although the majority of SMEs actively used the Web in their daily business operations and most were willing to share knowledge face-to-face, this did not translate into willingness to share online. The most significant factors affecting the willingness to share knowledge online were the how many of networks SMEs were involved in, the number of years an SME had been in business, the geographical scope of their operations, and intensity of their use of the web. These findings challenge the commonly-held view that SMEs will automatically share online if the infrastructure is provided.

Internationalisation process for construction design service SMES on multi national projects

The internationalisation process has four key factors including market selection, decision to enter, entry modes and factors affecting entry modes. Small and medium sizes enterprises (SMEs) in the architectural engineering construction design services sector have demonstrated an increasing involvement in international markets. Consequently, activities and processes involved in internationalisation of these SME types present important issues for understanding from entrepreneurial, managerial and research perspectives. A research gap exists, however, through emphasis in past research having been given to large firms, and in particular those within manufacturing. This investigation identified similarities and differences between two construction design service SMEs who have been exporting to various localities including Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East, UK, Asia and South America for typically more than two decades. Similarities and differences were identified within eight major constructs including: purpose, firm type, market image and design philosophy, entry mode strategy, institutional arrangement, factors affecting mode of entry, marketing selection and firm strategy in relation to project selection. The primary reasons for firms in both cases working in international markets were associated with the firms' motivations related to growth and enhancement of financial viability. Both firms were categorized as client following. This paper discusses the various internationalization processes and explains the reasons intrinsic to each case study. The two firms have been highly successful in the internationalization processes on multi-national projects die to a reflexive capability philosophy which incorporates continuous analysis and alignment between firm and locality characteristic to transform traditional barriers into enablers of success.

Exploring the types of SMEs which could use blogs as a marketing tool : a proposed future research agenda

Blogs appear to be gaining momentum as a marketing tool which can be used by organisations for such strategies and processes as branding, managing reputation, developing customer trust and loyalty, niche marketing, gathering marketing intelligence and promoting their online presence. There has been limited academic research in this area, and most significantly concerning the types of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for which blogs might have potential as a marketing tool. In an attempt to address the knowledge gap, this paper presents a future research agenda (in the form of research questions) which can guide the eBusiness research community in conducting much needed studies in this area. This paper is particularly novel in that it aims to demonstrate how the heterogeneity of SMEs and their specific business uses of eBusiness technology such as blogs can form the central plank of a future research agenda. This is important because the existing eBusiness literature tends to treat eBusiness collectively rather than focusing on the specific business uses of different eBusiness technologies, and to treat SMEs as a homogeneous group. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this research agenda can form the basis of studies which use a range of different research methods, and how this "big picture" agenda approach might help the eBusiness research community build theory which better explains SME adoption and use of eBusiness.

Encouraging SMEs to participate in the management of common pool resources

In this paper we contribute to an understanding of how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can be encouraged to participate in the management of environmental common pool resources. We do this by applying ideas from general theories about collective actions and, using evidence from interviews of people with experience dealing with SMEs, show how the ideas are relevant to SMEs. In line with previous research, we present evidence that communication is also necessary to help ensure SME participation. We conclude noting some evidence that suggests that local networks may contribute to successful management of global common pool resources.

Directors' timing is too good

Research from Deakin University has shown that some directors have earned abnormal returns after selling shares in their own companies, leading one of the researchers, Harminder Singh, to argue that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission 'may want to pay closer scrutiny to the trading activities of directors of small and medium companies.

Online corporate social responsibility communication by Australian SMEs : a framework for website analysis

There has been almost no IS related corporate social responsibility (CSR) research on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and most non-IS research does not examine how SMEs use websites to communicate their CSR initiatives. This paper develops and applies a framework to report on the results of an exploratory content analysis of 33 Australian SME websites in the Information Media/Telecommunications and Accommodation/ Food Services sectors which communicate CSR initiatives online.