Search results for "Small and medium enterprise"
showing 10 items of 17 documents
Innovation in Traditional Food Products
2016
International audience; Innovation is widely accepted as one of the keys to being successful. However, companies can innovate and still fail if markets fail to accept the innovation. In most cases, the acceptance of an innovation depends on the innovation itself and also on the product to which it is applied. In this chapter acceptance of different innovations in traditional food products is investigated, thus focusing on the definition of the "traditional" and "innovation" concepts from the consumer's perspective. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined to better understand and predict the possibilities of success when applying different generic and specific innovations in tra…
Adoption of Green Environmental Practices in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Entrepreneur and Business Policies Patterns in Romania
2021
Current research shows that SMEs’ social and environmental actions are fragmented and informal, and few have formal policies and intentions. At the same time, many SMEs are engaged with environmental policies, often not knowing it. Concurrently, there is a gap between the pro-environmental attitudes of the SMEs managers, who are often seen as the main drivers for the firm’s behavior, and the policies implemented in reality in their firms. To this end, our research’s objective is to explore pro-environmental behavior, both at the individual and firm level, to identify connections between these levels and measures but also with firm’s and managers’ demographics, based on a study of Romanian S…
INTERNATIONALISATION OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SICILIAN WINERIES: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY BASED ON THE RBV APPROACH
2014
Strategies of internationalization, such as export, have a central role as well to safeguard the market position and survival for many enterprises, including small and medium ones. The aim of this study is to investigate, through a resource-based view (RBV) approach, the main firms' internal factors that affect the export propensity of sparkling wines producers in Sicily and their ability to insert into foreign market. Based on review of extant literature we have identified the main factors, related both to the firms and to the managers characteristics, that affect the firm performance in the export market. Using survey data of 94 Sicilian small and medium wineries export oriented, this pap…
Application of information and communication technology for internationalization of Nigerian small- and medium-sized enterprises
2019
Information and communication technology (ICT) has fundamentally transformed business transactions. While its uses have become ubiquitous in the advanced economies, emerging and developing economies are still struggling with the mode and manner of the deployment of ICT for business. Thus, this study seeks to investigate how small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) utilize ICT in Nigeria for business internationalization. To achieve the goal of the study, a mixed‐method was employed. A questionnaire was administered to 265 people consisting of SMEs staff, managers, and owners. Similarly, interviews were conducted with seven SME decision makers. Findings revealed that Nigerian SMEs used ICT…
Socio-economic assessment of direct sales in Sicilian farms
2015
Many farmers today adopt direct sales as an entrepreneurial strategy in order to achieve a competitive advantage. The aim of this study has been to analyze the role that direct sales play in Sicilian farms and how the short food supply chain is able to valorize the endogenous resources of rural areas and increase the net income of farmer. Our results showed that direct sales, in conjunction with conventional sales, can represent a growing opportunity for farmers and lead to an improvement in the economic performances of agricultural businesses, an increase in farm investments and the creation of new job opportunities.
Influence of the Cultural Background at Small and Medium Sized-Enterprises Innovations in Regional Dimension
2017
Research background: SME’s play crucial role in economy’s development. In EU they make up 99% of all enterprises and are at the forefront of technological innovations (Kotler et al., 1999, pp. 139-140; EC 2013, p. 2; Jasińska-Biliczak, 2016, p. 30). Being the flywheel for economies (Soininen et. al., 2012, p. 614) are called “hidden champions” of 20th century. Over past few years Europe-wide anal-yses (Griffin, 2004, p. 424) have emphasised the importance of investing in SME’s. Taking into consideration that cultural environment is the background to decisions: social, managerial, development (Hofstede et al., 2011, p. 46), so inno-vations, knowledge, skills and competences as well as cultur…
POEMS: A Case Study of an Italian Wine-Producing Firm
2006
Over the last decade, researchers paid much attention to concepts such as Design for Environment, Extended Producer Responsibility, Responsible Chain Management, and Eco-design. Many management tools and standards (such as EMAS, ISO 14001, LCA, EPD, Ecolabel) have been developed to support companies in the evaluation and management of their environmental performance and to pursue continual environmental improvement. The more recent development of the aforesaid fields looks at interorganizational environmental management. Such an approach can complement the more traditional intraorganizational corporate environmental management approaches and tools. A typical example of this new trend is the…
Pecking Order Versus Trade-off: An Empirical Approach to the Small and Medium Enterprise Capital Structure
2003
In this paper, we explore two of the most relevant theories that explain financial policy in small and medium enterprises (SMEs): pecking order theory and trade-off theory. Panel data methodology is used to test the empirical hypotheses over a sample of 6482 Spanish SMEs during the five-year period 1994?1998. The results suggest that both theoretical approaches contribute to explain capital structure in SMEs. However, while we find evidence that SMEs attempt to achieve a target or optimum leverage (trade-off model), there is less support for the view that SMEs adjust their leverage level to their financing requirements (pecking order model). En este trabajo, exploramos dos de las teorías má…
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…
Entrepreneurship and SMEs Innovation in Romania
2014
Abstract The aim of this article is to present some theoretical connections between entrepreneurship, innovation and small and medium medium-sized enterprises highlighting the role of these business for the economic recovery. It will provide a brief overview of the CNIPMMR study pointing out data about Romanian SMEs innovation activities and use of information technology in such enterprises. Some recommendations for public policies are presented at the end of the paper.