Search results for "small firms"
showing 10 items of 10 documents
Exploring the determinants of anti-mafia entrepreneurial behaviour: an empirical study on southern Italian SMEs
2017
This study analyses organized crime from an economic perspective and highlights the crucial role of extortion in mafia activities. From an economic viewpoint, we debate the conditions that lead companies to resist mafia extortion. To study the reactions of firms to extortion, we adopt an institutional perspective and consider the contribution of different theories in the socially responsible behaviour and organized crime literature, in an attempt to understand this complex entrepreneurial behaviour better. A sample of 116 southern Italian SMEs, whose entrepreneurs have publicly opposed mafia extortion, was selected. By adopting a matched-pair design, anti-mafia firms were subsequently match…
Entrepreneurship training for new ventures
2009
Several studies in the field of international entrepreneurship have indicated the inadequacy of public policy support for new ventures and called for more tailored training programs. This paper introduces a training program created for new ventures in Central Finland and analyzes its benefits and shortcomings using a qualitative case study. The findings reveal that the training program provided useful knowledge on how to develop a business further and how to make it understandable and attractive to a funder. However, the findings also indicate that there is a need for cultural adaptation: the training program developed originally for U.S. new ventures was not fully adapted for the needs of …
Entry into Geographically and Psychically Distant Foreign Markets by Small and New Ventures
2008
Paper presented at the 16th Conference on Pacific Basin Finance, Economics, Accounting and Management (PBFEAM), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, July 2-4.2008. (Key-note paper) peerReviewed
Entrepreneurial Marketing in Small Firms: A Comparative Study of Small Software Technology Firms in Central Finland, Wales, UK and Silicon Valley, US
2015
This paper reports on present research of Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) in small software technology firms (SSTFs) in order to investigate and compare the effects of ecosystems in three different countries and, the effect this has on a firm’s EM orientation and, on business growth. Firms today operate in a business environment characterized by increased risk and decreased ability to forecast while markets are uncertain, are fragmenting and becoming frictionless. Hence, firms interact as competitors, customers, and collaborators in a global, knowledge economy. Such changes have had an effect on marketing (Schindehutte, Morris and Pitt 2008) and reflect the type of marketing practiced in sma…
Social media adoption in Italian firms. Opportunities and challenges for lagging regions
2021
Social media are an important growth opportunity for firms, especially small‐sized ones operating in peripheral and lagging regions. In this paper, we investigate not only whether firms are able to take this opportunity, but also if they are able to face the challenge of adopting social media at a professional level to obtain a significant economic impact, measured in terms of exporting activities. Exploring the Italian case, our empirical study indicates that smaller firms in lagging areas are more likely to adopt social media but at the same time less likely to use them at a professional level. This reflects poor strategic targets of social media adoption and lower probabilities of enteri…
Business Models and Market Entry Mode Choice of Small Software Firms
2007
So far the critical choice of the entry mode for a target country has been examined ignoring the special features of firms. Particularly, the impact of the wide variation of business models of software firms has been ignored. This multi-case study investigates the relation between the business model and the entry mode of eight software firms. The results imply that the product strategy and the service and implementation model of a software firm are closely connected to the entry mode choice, while the distribution model of intangible software products does not seem to have impact on the operation mode. peerReviewed
The effects of the anti-mafia entrepreneurial behavior on firm performance: an empirical study on southern Italian small-medium enterprises
2015
The organized crime is a relevant ethical, cultural, legal, sociologic and economic issue in many countries. In the last years there have been some positive signs of a reaction against the mafia like the successful experience of Addiopizzo, an anti-bribery association founded in Palermo in 2004 that today counts over 500 affiliated firms. Gambetta (1993) suggests the mafia could better be understood as a profit maximizing corporation in the marketplace for private protection. Despite this position has been criticized (Scalia, 2010), it highlights the crucial role of the pizzo for the mafia activities. In this study, we identify as “Anti-mafia Entrepreneurial Behaviour” (AEB) the choice of t…
La prise en compte de la durabilité dans les stratégies marketing des PME : apports et limites
2011
Nous examinons dans cet article comment des directeurs de PME agroalimentaires à fort ancrage territorial s’approprient la notion de développement durable et l’expriment dans leurs stratégies marketing. Nous examinons successivement leur vision du lien entre développement durable et performance, l’impact des caractéristiques environnementales sur leurs pratiques et les limites qu’ils perçoivent à cette volonté d’intégrer la durabilité dans leur stratégie au moment de sa mise en œuvre. Au-delà de l’argument commercial, la durabilité apparaît comme un levier intéressant du projet d’entreprise et de la mobilisation des salariés. Néanmoins, la démarche comporte aussi des limites.
Business models, small firms, and performance in knowledge-intensive based services. A study in the private health sector
2020
During the last years, and due to social and economic changes, the demand for private health services (PHS) is growing. A more significant number of companies appeared under different business model formulas. Besides the traditionally independent professionals, other types of entrepreneurs appeared under associated business. As a result of these changes, there are differences in how these services are provided and their performance. OBJECTIVES: This work is proposed to study the business model effect on small private health service companies' activity and analyze institutions’ and intellectual capital's role in their performance. METHODOLOGY: A qualitative-quantitative mixed method was desi…
Developing cloud business models: A case study on cloud gaming
2011
Cloud computing offers new ways for firms to operate in the global market so that even small firms can compete in markets traditionally dominated by multinational corporations. A case study considers how, over ten years, a small firm developed a successful business model to compete in computer gaming. peerReviewed