715 resultados para small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)


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A tanulmány a szakirodalom azon egyre szélesedő részéhez járul hozzá, amely a kis és középvállalatok gyakorlatával, sajátosságaik vizsgálatával foglalkozik. Egy speciális aspektust emel ki, mely a hazai nagyvállalati működésben jelentős fejlődésen ment keresztül azzal, hogy a KKV-k beszerzési sajátosságainak megismerését célozza meg. Az áttekintő kép kialakításához a nemzetközi szakirodalomban elérhető empirikus eredményeket és a BCE-n folyó Versenyképesség Kutatás kérdőíves adatbázisának válaszait dolgozza fel. Olyan kérdéseket emel ki, mint a beszerzés szerepe a KKV-k működésében és az azt befolyásoló tényezők illetve a beszerzési gyakorlat sajátosságai. _________ Small and medium sized enterprises play an important role in every economy. This article aims to contribute to the growing number of literature focusing on SMEs management practice. It highlights a management field, which has gone through a significant development in large companies’ practice as it investigates the purchasing and supplier management related issues. The overview is based on a review of literature and the analysis of the survey database of Competitiveness Research of CUB. It highlights such topics as the role of purchasing in SMEs, factors influencing the perceived importance and the purchasing practice of SME-s.

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Worldwide floods have become one of the costliest weather-related hazards, causing large-scale human, economic, and environmental damage during the recent past. Recent years have seen a large number of such flood events around the globe, with Europe and the United Kingdom being no exception. Currently, about one in six properties in England is at risk of flooding (EA, 2009), and the risk is expected to further increase in the future (Evans et al., 2004). Although public spending on community-level flood protection has increased and some properties are protected by such protection schemes, many properties at risk of flooding may still be left without adequate protection. As far as businesses are concerned, this has led to an increased need for implementing strategies for property-level flood protection and business continuity, in order to improve their capacity to survive a flood hazard. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute a significant portion of the UK business community. In the United Kingdom, more than 99% of private sector enterprises fall within the category of SMEs (BERR, 2008). They account for more than half of employment creation (59%) and turnover generation (52%) (BERR, 2008), and are thus considered the backbone of the UK economy. However, they are often affected disproportionately by natural hazards when compared with their larger counterparts (Tierney and Dahlhamer, 1996; Webb, Tierney, and Dahlhamer, 2000; Alesch et al., 2001) due to their increased vulnerability. Previous research reveals that small businesses are not adequately prepared to cope with the risk of natural hazards and to recover following such events (Tierney and Dahlhamer, 1996; Alesch et al., 2001; Yoshida and Deyle, 2005; Crichton, 2006; Dlugolecki, 2008). For instance, 90% of small businesses do not have adequate insurance coverage for their property (AXA Insurance UK, 2008) and only about 30% have a business continuity plan (Woodman, 2008). Not being adequately protected by community-level flood protection measures as well as property- and business-level protection measures threatens the survival of SMEs, especially those located in flood risk areas. This chapter discusses the potential effects of flood hazards on SMEs and the coping strategies that the SMEs can undertake to ensure the continuity of their business activities amid flood events. It contextualizes this discussion within a survey conducted under the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research project entitled “Community Resilience to Extreme Weather — CREW”.

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Post-disaster recovery of Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) remains an issue of interest for policy and practice given the wide scale occurrences of natural disasters around the globe and their significant impacts on local economies and SMEs. Asian Tsunami of December 2004 affected many SMEs in southern Sri Lanka. The study was developed to identify the main issues encountered by the Tsunami affected SMEs in Southern Sri Lanka in the process of their post-tsunami recovery. The study: a) identifies tsunami damage and loss in micro and SMEs in the Galle district; b) ascertains the type of benefits received from various parties by the affected micro and SMEs; c) evaluates the problems and difficulties faced by the beneficiary organizations in the benefit distribution process; and d) recommends strategies and policies for the tsunami-affected micro and SMEs for them to become self-sustaining within a reasonable time frame. Fifty randomly selected tsunami-affected micro and SMEs were surveyed for this study. Interviews were conducted in person with the business owners in order to identify the damages, recovery, rehabilitation, re-establishment and difficulties faced in the benefit distribution process. The analysis identifies that the benefits were given the wrong priorities and that they were not sufficient for the recovery process. In addition, the many governance-related problems that arose while distributing benefits are discussed. Overall, the business recovery rate was approximately 65%, and approximately 88% of business organizations were sole proprietorships. Therefore, the policies of the tsunami relief agencies should adequately address the needs of sole proprietorship business requirements. Consideration should also be given to strengthen the capacity and skills of the entrepreneurs by improving operational, technological, management and marketing skills and capabilities.

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The backdrop of actual problematic about the implementation of Information Technology (IT) services management in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be described. It will be exposed the reasons why reaching a maturity/capability level through well-known standards or the implementation of good software engineering practices by means of IT infrastructure Library are really difficult to achieve by SMEs. Also, the solutions to the exposed problems will be explained. Also master thesis goals are presented in terms of: purpose, research questions, research goals, objectives and scope. Finally, thesis structure is described.

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The Small and Medium-sized construction Enterprises (construction SMEs) in Thailand face challenges like high fragmented structure and low productivity. Many industries improved their business performance using the supply chain integration. This research was conducted by interviewing 14 small and medium Thai building contractors to understand the features and relationship characteristics of the supply chain of construction SMEs. The study reveals that the linkages between the small and medium general contractors and other supply chain members are based on personal trust rather than contract laws, there is no systematic procedure to manage the relationship with clients during the project execution, and social connections help to maintain long-term relationship with clients. Based on the working behaviour and commitment to long-term relationship, six forms of relationship with supply side members are proposed. Finally, improvement measures for the supply chain integration of the construction SMEs in Thailand are presented.

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The prevalence of International New Ventures (INVs) has increased during the past twenty years. Nevertheless, to date there has been no general consensus within the literature on an explanation as to the rapid internationalisation of some firms. Do they follow a similar process to other firms that internationalise based on a more ‘measured’ incremental sequential process of internationalisation. This paper proposes and tests an innovation diffusion model of the internationalisation of small firm INVs and others by drawing on key innovation diffusion models from the literature. The results of this analysis indicate that the synthesised model of export adoption is effective in explaining the internationalisation process of INVs and other firms within the Queensland Food and Beverage Industry. Significantly, the features of the original innovation diffusion models developed in the consumer behaviour literature, which had limited examination within the internationalisation literature, were confirmed. This includes the ability of firms, or specifically decision-makers, to skip stages based on previous experience.

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A kis- és közepes vállalkozások (KKV-k) kutatása viszonylag új, és emiatt meglehetősen feltáratlan terület, bár a megjelenő tudományos cikkek és eredmények száma és minősége évről évre jól érzékelhetően nő (Collinson – Shaw, 2001). A KKV-kutatások igen fontos sajátossága továbbá, hogy kifejezetten interdiszciplináris terület, megközelíthető a menedzsment, az innovációkutatás, a marketing, a szervezetszociológia, de akár a pszichológia felől is. Több kutatás is felveti a szociokulturális háttér jelentőségének kérdését KKV-k esetében. A szerzők kutatásuk során kvantitatív felmérést végeztek 200 vállalkozó körében a Hofstedeskála (Hofmeister et al., 2008) felhasználásával, melynek eredményeként kiderült, hogy a KKV-vezetők beállítódása jelentősen különbözik mind a hazai nagyvállalati vezetőktől, mind az általános lakosságtól. Jelen tanulmányunkban bemutatjuk azokat a Hofstede-dimenziókat, amelyek mentén karakteres különbségek jelentkeztek a vállalkozók és a nagyvállalati vezetők, valamint a társadalom összessége között. Az eredmények alapján határozottan kirajzolódnak olyan „vállalkozói” gondolkodásmódbeli sajátosságok, mint a nagyobb versenyszellem, a közvetlenebb, kevésbé hierarchikus működési stílus, a rendkívül erős, rövid távú orientáció, valamint a kockázatvállalás rendhagyóan alacsony foka. _____ Although there has been an increasing academic attention towards small and medium-sized enterprises, it is still a novel research area with a number of unanswered questions. It is also an especially interdisciplinary field as it can be approached from various viewpoints such as management, innovation, marketing, organization sociology or even psychology. Different academic disciplines have studied the influence of socio-cultural factors and concluded that they are relevant aspects of entrepreneurial activity. This paper presents the results of the authors’ quantitative research which aimed at finding patterns in the software of the minds of SME managers where they applied Hofstede’s cultural scale (Hofmeister et al., 2008). Drawing upon data from 200 Hungarian SMEs, the results indicate they have different attitude and way of thinking compared to large company managers and to the general Hungarian population. This paper points out the relevant Hofstede dimensions where significant differences have been revealed. The main finding of the study is that managers of small and medium businesses have a special mindset which can be characterized with higher level competitiveness, more direct and less hierarchic operation, extremely high level of short term orientation and low level of risk taking

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Increasing awareness of the benefits of stimulating entrepreneurial behaviour in small and medium enterprises has fostered strong interest in innovation programs. Recently many western countries have invested in design innovation for better firm performance. This research presents some early findings from a study of companies that participated in a holistic approach to design innovation, where the outcomes include better business performance and better market positioning in global markets. Preliminary findings from in-depth semi-structured interviews indicate the importance of firm openness to new ways of working and to developing new processes of strategic entrepreneurship. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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This paper studies the Front End of Eco-Innovation (FEEI), the initial phase of the eco-innovation process. Incorporating environmental concerns at the front-end of innovation is important, as product parameters are still flexible. This paper investigates the FEEI for 42 small and medium sized eco-innovators in the Netherlands by using a survey. The results show that SMEs embrace informal, systematic, and open innovation approaches at the FEEI. Teams appear to be multidisciplinary, and creativity and environmental knowledge are essential. Experimentation played a significant role at the FEEI. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for managers. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.