Search results for "Small Busine"
showing 10 items of 46 documents
I contratti di rete: valutazioni oltre l'emergenza
2018
The network contract: some evaluations after the emergency. The debate over the Italian network contract develops in the phase of the heaviest crisis for Italians firms. This article evaluates limits and opportunities of network contracts. Findings are based on 14 network cases selected among declining or growing productive sectors in the context of two regions of the South: Apulia and Sicily. Formal networks, although initiated later than in the Northern regions, are indeed now widespread also in the South. The main findings concern the inability of formal networks to support actors to come out of the crisis. Actually, the decline of the sector is one of the most relevant factors that can …
Are Spanish SMEs good places to work?
2012
PurposeThis paper aims to perform a descriptive analysis of the current degree of development and application of work‐life balance policies in Spanish SMEs, examining the differences that arise due to ownership structure (family owned business versus non‐family owned business) and presenting an in‐depth analysis of the variables that influence managers' attitudes towards work‐life balance policies.Design/methodology/approachStructured interviews with SME managers were performed.FindingsThe presence of those polices is small, although the situation differs depending on the type of policy. Differences in ownership structure do not imply significantly different behavior with regard to the intr…
Enterprise Start-Up in the Euro-Mediterranean Area. The case-study of Mazara Del Vallo’s Fishing District and Consortium
2016
Over the last twenty years, the European Union’s policies aiming to foster the entrepreneurship in the Euro-Mediterranean countries have failed. The theoretical model underlying these policies is inconsistent with the characteristics of the entrepreneurial ecosystems of these countries.Since no enterprise can survive in the long run if it has inconsistent characters with the ecosystem in which it operates, in Euro-Mediterranean countries it is necessary to adopt a specific theoretical model on start-up business, different from the one described by the international literature. The fundamental principles of this theoretical model therefore must be drawn from the common characteristics of suc…
Local bank competition and small business lending after the onset of the financial crisis
2016
This paper examines whether the effects of the financial crisis on the volumes and prices of small business loans depended on the pre-crisis local competitive environment. To address this question, I employ a unique data set on Finnish cooperative banks. I find that the monthly volumes of new business loans decreased and the average loan margins increased after the onset of the crisis. The decrease in volumes and the increase in margins were greater in local banking markets that were more competitive before the crisis. The results for the loan margins are more robust than those obtained for the volumes. Auxiliary analyses suggest that the greater effects in the more competitive markets are …
Understanding entrepreneurship development in Latvia: a cross-disciplinary approach
2011
This paper analyses economic and educational challenges on the way of understanding and formation of entrepreneurship in Latvia in its almost 20-year long post socialistic period. Along with the state support programmes for small business development, entrepreneurship as a new concept is researched integrating as well the world experience in this field. It is shown that entrepreneurship is a dynamic system of the components determined in mixed methods research. The elaborated holistic functional-structural model of entrepreneurship illustrates that entrepreneurship can be developed holistically as a system when students identify, generate and realise opportunities into new personal, social …
Special Issue on: Small business and entrepreneurship: their role in economic and social development
2015
Since the 1980s, small business owners and entrepreneurs have been receiving greater recognition as drivers of economic growth. Recently, several studies (Forsman 2011; McKeever, Anderson, and Jack...
Small business and entrepreneurship: their role in economic and social development
2017
Since the 1980s, small business owners and entrepreneurs have been receiving greater recognition as drivers of economic growth. Recently, several studies (Forsman 2011; McKeever, Anderson, and Jack...
Life-cycle effects in small business finance
2017
This paper studies the life-cycle profiles of small firms’ cost and use of credit using a panel of Finnish firms. The choice of method matters for the conclusions drawn about the relationship between firm age and financing costs; the cross-sectional age profiles of financing costs are hump-shaped and consistent with hold-up theories, whereas methods that control for cohort fixed effects demonstrate that the financing costs decrease monotonically as the firms mature. The life-cycle profiles of the use of credit also indicate that firms are more dependent on financial intermediaries in the early periods of their lives. Furthermore, the cohorts born during recessions pay higher financing costs…
Identification and Evaluation of Industry 4.0 Solutions In the Automotive Industry - a Case Study
2020
This paper attempts to provide an identification and an evaluation of the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions in a Polish enterprise in the automotive industry from the SME sector. This research investigation enhances the literature on Industry 4.0 by providing evidence that the implementation of this concept is beneficial to an economic entity. Despite this, human work on certain activities in the production process cannot be replaced by a robot or automated machine. Based on the research, it can be concluded that the concept of Industry 4.0 is being developed step by step. Automated machines and devices are introduced to facilitate the production process. Data sets are used to make d…
Entrepreneurship: Concepts, Theory and Perspective. Introduction
2007
The creation of a country’s wealth and dynamism depends upon the competitiveness of its firms and this, in turn, relies fundamentally on the capabilities of its entrepreneurs and managers.