Search results for " enterprise"
showing 10 items of 223 documents
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PROCESS INNOVATIONS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF OLIVE FARMS
2014
Within a business enterprise, process innovations l ead to reduced production costs and to increased profit margins. In this study, we shall examine an olive farm that operates in a perfectly competitive market that has introduced a process innovation so as to contain labour costs and therefore production costs. So, the paper aimed at comparing economic co mpetitiveness of an olive farm that introduced mechanical olive pickers (process innovation) for h arvest respect to manual harvest. In the case under scrutiny, for the same price, the reduced productio n cost determined a shift from a situation of being at a loss to one of profit for the business. Economic analysis showed that introducti…
The Politics of Explanatory Nationalism and the Evolution of the United Nations Agenda on Multinational Enterprises
2020
The contemporary world continues to suffer from a number of social problems that are global in scope but impact the Global South disproportionately. While broad and coordinated policy responses to overcome these problems exist, such policies are not shaped solely by the political will to address the problems. On the contrary, their content largely depends on how societies in general and the social problems in particular are routinely explained and conceptualized. We refer to these as explanatory tendencies or paradigms of explanation. As complex problems always have multiple root causes with long causal chains, explanations of these causes necessarily involve some assumptions about relevant…
Pharmaceutical enterprises’ market entry strategies
2020
The pharmaceutical sector encompasses a wide range of business activities – research and product development, manufacturing, marketing, international business, wholesale, retail and services. Consequently, it is facing the contemporary challenges of globalisation, sustainable development, social, economic and political change. At the same time, pharmaceuticals have a significant impact on the provision of health care, which limits the freedom of business. In framework of this research the applicability of the International business theories to pharmaceutical sector, as well as the major factors influencing the enterprise’ choice of the market entry mode are explored. The organisation of hea…
Manager gender, entrepreneurial orientation and SMEs export and import propensities: evidence for Spanish businesses
2022
This paper investigates the role of manager gender in SMEs’ decisions to get involved in exporting and importing activities, using a sample of 1,405 Spanish SMEs. We borrow insights from international entrepreneurship theories and feminist theories to set testable hypotheses regarding how managerial gender and entrepreneurial orientation (proactiveness, risk-taking and innovativeness) may influence SMEs export and import propensities. Using a bivariate probit model and controlling for other managerial and business characteristics, results reveal that there are not significant disparities in exporting propensities between men- and women-run businesses. However, female-led SMEs show a lower i…
Pequeña y mediana empresa en el mundo rural medieval. Formas de organización de la producción. Ejemplos del País Valenciano (s. XV)
2020
El presente estudio analiza el concepto empresa aplicado al periodo medieval, e intenta un mínimo recorrido historiográfico por aquellos autores que se han acercado a la «Business History». Además intenta una reconstrucción de los distintos tipos de empresa manufacturera en un ámbito rural que se nos muestra cada vez más dinámico, pero poco estudiado todavía por parte de los historiadores interesados en el mundo del artesanado y de la industria. Se estudian las distintas formas de organización de la producción que condicionan los diferentes modos de gestión de la empresa manufacturera tomando como referencia el espacio valenciano. This article analyses the concept of «enterprise» as applied…
Growth and sustainability of agricultural systems: the case of Sicilian wine-growing farms
2016
International audience; The Sicilian wine-growing sector is characterised by the presence on the one hand of many small enterprises that limit their activity to the first stage of the supply chain (field production) and on the other of few enterprises that adopt a strategy of total vertical integration, from the production to the sale of wine. The first group of enterprises operates in a competitive market and in many cases with marginal revenues that are lower than marginal costs, leading entrepreneurs to abandon the activity of grape production. The second group operates in an oligopolistic market and it is able to compete in an international market. Findings reveal that competitive advan…
Subsidizing technology: how to succeed
2011
Examining the database of applications to the Regional Government of Valencia's Institute for Small and Medium-sized Industries (Spain) for subsidies to aid technological development in small and medium-sized enterprises, this study seeks to explain the approval or rejection and the success or failure of projects that look to receive state funding. The independent variables in the database are particularly concerned with reliance on path dependence. The variable length of membership of the Institute, the number of previous applications, technology level, or belonging to a particular geographical area relate to the accumulation of experience and correspond to the study hypotheses. The study …
Small and medium enterprises web page design: a qualitative study
2012
The present paper is based on the results of seven consumer focus groups developed in Spain. The results are interpreted using an ethnographic summary of each focus group (qualitative approach) and a systematic coding procedure (quantitative approach). The research pursued two major objectives. Firstly, to identify the key design variables for building a successful transactional small and medium enterprises (SME) website. Secondly, the transactional relevance of each key design variable was tested in order to establish priorities according to Spanish online buyers’ preferences. The findings indicate that a SME transactional website should have three main strong points: 1 it must be secure 2…
Employee tenure and staff performance: The case of a social enterprise
2022
Abstract The literature on social enterprises has largely examined tradeoffs at the organizational level. In this study, we examine tradeoffs at the employee level. By analyzing the case of an Ecuadorian microfinance institution, we show that the tenure of social enterprise employees affects individual social and financial performance differently: the relationship between tenure and social performance is positive, whereas the relationship between tenure and financial performance is an inverted U-shape. Furthermore, our results suggest that social enterprise employees with the longest tenure are the least inclined to experience tradeoff tensions.
Internationalization pathways among family-owned SMEs
2012
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the internationalization of family firms; to investigate how the framework by Bell et al. on the internationalization patterns of firms could explain the internationalization pathways taken by family‐owned small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs); and to identify typical patterns and features in the various pathways taken by family‐owned SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports findings from an in‐depth multiple case study with eight Finnish family‐owned SMEs.FindingsThe ownership structure had the most important role in defining the internationalization pathways followed by the family‐owned SMEs: a fragmented owners…