Search results for "small and medium"
showing 10 items of 84 documents
Financial literacy, value creation and firm performance. An investigation of Italian small and medium enterprises
2023
This article aims to determine the influence of entrepreneurs’ financial literacy for the growth of SMEs’ value. The paper verifies the hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between financial literacy and value creation, as indicated by economic value added (EVA®). The study analyses 162 Italian SMEs operating in the textile and clothing sector. The analysis period is between 2011 and 2013. Regression analysis and correlation analysis have been applied to test the hypotheses. The results suggest a positive and significant relationship between financial literacy and the variables that drive the value creation. Greater financial literacy allows SMEs to optimise their capital str…
Institutional distance and international networking
2017
We focus on how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adapt to differences in institutional logics (values, beliefs, and rules) in their networking when they enter an institutionally distant market. We address gaps in the literature, relating to the role of institutional logics in SME internationalization, and how institutional distance affects the formation of network ties. We show how the social interaction involved in internationalization is embedded in the institutional logics followed by partnering actors. Specifically, we demonstrate how institutional distance may constrain the networking activities of SMEs and identify practices that may support successful internationalization. …
Does Environmental Uncertainty Affect Entrepreneurs’ Orientation and Performance? Empirical Evidence from Indonesian SMEs
2012
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a critical role in economic growth in Indonesia and become the backbone for job creation, poverty alleviation, and safeguard during the crisis. However, they are highly exposed to uncertain environments. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of SMEs’ entrepreneurial orientation on business performance when uncertain environments exist. A total of 152 Indonesian SMEs were studied in order to assess this relationship. Moderated regression analysis is performed as the main statistical procedures to analyse the moderating role of environmental uncertainty on the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance. Surprisingly…
Developing business networking opportunities for SMEs through business ecosystem and ICT
2010
Globalisation is a new challenge for European small and medium enterprises; indeed, on one hand, it represents a threat, since new emerging companies are entering their domestic market, but on the other hand, it represents the opportunity to enter new emerging and growing markets. In order to win this challenge, European SMEs need to play the networking card; in fact, it is well acknowledged that networking can improve SMEs effectiveness and efficiency which is absolutely necessary to win the globalisation battle. Many public regional institutions are thinking about how to improve the networking capacity of their SMEs through specific programs and investments. This paper reports the results…
SMEs' Growth Heterogeneity - Evidence from Regional Developments
2014
Previous empirical research on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) frequently struggled with the extreme heterogeneity of these frms. We scrutinise one major source of this heterogeneity: SMEs' growth development. Based on a large dataset of French, Italian, UK and US firms between 2000 and 2008, we find that SMEs fall in two categories in all countries: One large group of firms that display only slow growth and one much smaller group that actively seek strong growth. We show that the growth factors particularly of the slowly-growing firms vary strongly between the countries. European SMEs differ mainly in the growth effects of their ownership structures. US firms set themselves apart…
Evaluating European Union support for innovation in Spanish small and medium enterprises
2009
Finding funding is one of the main problems small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face, which is why the European Union has set up programmes to support SME development. This paper has two objectives: firstly, to describe the different European funding programmes available to Spanish firms; secondly, to present an empirical study on the use Spanish SMEs (and especially, SMEs in the service sector) make of these programmes in order to innovate, together with an analysis of the importance these funding programmes have on SME innovation.
Product development process in Spanish SMEs: an empirical research
2002
Rapid product development has been treated as a competitive strategy in a global market environment. It is essential to improve the product development process with the objective of reducing product development cycle time and hence to reach the market as quickly as possible. Large-scale companies have adopted new strategies and technologies to reduce the product development cycle time, taking into account various market and innovation barriers. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have not received adequate attention from researchers for their product development process. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the critical success factors for the product development proc…
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…
The performance of entrepreneurial small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises
2012
Innovation is an important driver of economic growth for it leads to new products and services, enhanced quality, and lower prices. In an increasingly competitive global market, innovation turns out to be essential to secure a viable competitive position. Although there is no perfect correspondence between accounting intangible assets and innovation activities, the association between these two concepts is close enough to take investment in intangible assets as a proxy for entrepreneurship and innovation. To identify differences between innovative and non‐innovative small and medium enterprises in the service industry, both descriptive and statistical analyses are performed on financial dat…
Small family business performance: comparison between family and non-family enterprises
2010
This study compares small family business performance between the Finnish family and non-family enterprises. The sample (2,004 firms) was derived to represent nationally small businesses, in collaboration with the Statistics Finland (Centre) in Helsinki. The answer rate of the study was 90% (data collected by mail questionnaires and telephone interviews). The method of the study was to compare family and non-family enterprises with ROA (return on assets) on an enterprise population level (Finland). The results of the study show that most of the small family businesses are controlled by the founder generation. Founder generation performance was slightly higher than among descendant generatio…