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The environmental analysis is an important instrument for the SMEs, and it can contribute to their success through the globalization process. This book mainly focuses on the environmental analysis of the SMEs by analyzing three layers of environment under eight sub-categories: macro; potential competitors; substitutes; customers; competitors; suppliers; assets; and competencies. This book explains the relationship of the SMEs with their environments under this perspective, and gives sectoral examples for clarification. Each part is written by different academicians to reflect different points of view. (Series: International Economics, Vol. 5) [Subject: International Economics, Business Studies]
This book is a timely guide for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) researchers, policy makers and strategists. SMEs are the most important sources of job creation and local development especially in knowledge-based economies. As turbulence in the globalized economies expands SMEs will have to learn to sustain competitiveness by developing their ‘dynamic capabilities’. Based on the findings of a 4-year European and Latin American research project, this book provides a theoretical framework, practical instruments and cases on how SMEs in diverse economic, social and cultural contexts can develop crisis resilience, increase agility, innovate and thus successfully compete in turbulent times.
Globalization has jarred the traditional role and competitiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises. This masterful volume comprises leading scholars, policy makers and business leaders who have new insights and strategies for SMEs creating opportunities rather than being victims of globalization. The result is a breakthrough in our understanding of entrepreneurship in the global context. David B. Audretsch, Indiana University, Bloomington, US and WHU, Germany Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often have difficulty competing in the global economy unless they collaborate with domestic or foreign partners or with public sector organizations. This book addresses the resource leverage and innovation challenges that increased global trade represents for SMEs. In doing so, it explores how SMEs can become more competitive at home and in foreign markets as stand-alone firms or as members of supplier and customer networks. SMEs are turning increasingly to innovation as a source of competitive advantage in order to protect their home markets and participate in expanding foreign markets. The contributors to this volume leading experts in entrepreneurship, innovation, and international business provide in-depth coverage of the most compelling issues facing SMEs. These include: innovation as a competitive strategy, network dynamics, ways to leverage technology, internationalization, and the role of the public sector in helping SMEs to overcome resource deficiencies. This comprehensive look at SMEs in the global marketplace will be of great interest to academics who study entrepreneurship, innovation, or international business, officials from public sector agencies with responsibility for helping SMEs to internationalize and become more innovative, and senior executives of SMEs or executives of larger companies who are considering collaboration with SMEs.
Competitive Advantage in SMEs draws on up-to-date empirical evidence to illustrate how SMEs can become more innovative through the introduction of new products and services. Discusses the effective and efficient use of information technology by broadening management skills and knowledge.
Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, University of Applied Sciences Chur, course: MSc Entrepreneurship, language: English, abstract: This report was commissioned to examine whether small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that target only a few market segments will promote their products and services more effectively than SMEs that target the mass market. The research draws attention to Porter's generic theory of competitive advantage by mainly concentrating on the third of his competitive advantage strategies, the focus strategy. Theory as well as a practical survey was used in order to falsify or approve the research question. Theory revealed Porter's focus strategy to have several key advantages over a mass market strategy which make firms pursuing such a strategy more effective in their product promotion efforts. First, a focused firm does not have to devote substantial resources into being all things to all people entailing less expenditure of time and money in comparison to a mass market strategy. Second, empirical evidence was found that customers do value specialized firms due to their focused capabilities. Third, a focused firm is less likely to be overwhelmed by great amount of different customer request and is more likely to identify and adapt to market changes in a quick time manner. Besides the advantages of a focus strategy, the research question is only supported when the SME makes bigger rivals to accommodate their existence in the segment(s) by creating circumstances in which the cost for the bigger rival in fighting the SME exceeds the cost of accommodating the SME. 27 SMEs from South Germany have returned completed questionnaires which were used to find practical evidence for answering the research question. Results revealed several tendencies which partly support theory. First, SMEs that pursue a focus strategy are more likely to do this with a differ
Electronic business plays a central role in the economy, facilitating the exchange of information, goods, services, and payments. It propels productivity and competitiveness and is accessible to all enterprises, and as such, represents an opportunity also for SME competitiveness. E-Business Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for SMEs: Driving Competitiveness discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, and solutions related to electronic business adoption, with a special focus on SMEs. Addressing technological, organizational, and legal perspectives in a very comprehensive way, this text aims to disseminate current developments, case studies, new integrated approaches, and practical solutions and applications for SMEs.
Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,3, University of Lincoln, course: B.A. European Business, language: English, abstract: The Lisbon European Council of March 2000 set the European Union a new strategic objective for the coming years:to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustained economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. It is considered that Europe’s competitiveness and economic progress is strong dependent on its small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the key-source for job creating as well as for searching for new business ideas and innovative solutions, its main driver for entrepreneurship. For this reason, the European Council endorsed the “think small first” principle as one way to progress towards the Lisbon objectives. The idea of the small business has captured the imagination of the public and politicians over past years. They agree in the point that to meet the challenge of new integrated Europe requires a better business environment within the Internal Market, including the lightest possible administrative and regulatory burdens for small businesses and a better access to finance resources as well as creating of simple and effective legislation. It also requires a revolution in attitudes to entrepreneurship and to risk-taking processes, which will allow viewing failure as a part of experience, as an “opportunity to learn” from mistakes. They also emphasise the fact that small enterprises are normally more sensitive to changes in the business environment than large firms. They are the first to suffer if weighed down with excessive bureaucracy and creating new administrative burdens. And they are the first to flourish from initiatives such as decrease in taxation rate and promotion. My essay aims to answer the question to what extent the EU’s main market integration initiatives address the needs of SME’s and what should be done on the way to developing strong, competitive SMEs which would use all benefits from the Single European Market. It is important to define what we mean by SMEs before proceeding to answer these questions. For the purpose of this essay, SMEs are defined as non-subsidiary, independent firms, which employ less than 250 employees. We have to take into account the fact that this number may vary across national statistical systems. [...]
The managed flow of goods and information from raw material to final sale also known as a "supply chain" affects everythingâ€"from the U.S. gross domestic product to where you can buy your jeans. The nature of a company's supply chain has a significant effect on its success or failureâ€"as in the success of Dell Computer's make-to-order system and the failure of General Motor's vertical integration during the 1998 United Auto Workers strike. Supply Chain Integration looks at this crucial component of business at a time when product design, manufacture, and delivery are changing radically and globally. This book explores the benefits of continuously improving the relationship between the firm, its suppliers, and its customers to ensure the highest added value. This book identifies the state-of-the-art developments that contribute to the success of vertical tiers of suppliers and relates these developments to the capabilities that small and medium-sized manufacturers must have to be viable participants in this system. Strategies for attaining these capabilities through manufacturing extension centers and other technical assistance providers at the national, state, and local level are suggested. This book identifies action steps for small and medium-sized manufacturersâ€"the "seed corn" of business start-up and developmentâ€"to improve supply chain management. The book examines supply chain models from consultant firms, universities, manufacturers, and associations. Topics include the roles of suppliers and other supply chain participants, the rise of outsourcing, the importance of information management, the natural tension between buyer and seller, sources of assistance to small and medium-sized firms, and a host of other issues. Supply Chain Integration will be of interest to industry policymakers, economists, researchers, business leaders, and forward-thinking executives.
Open markets and the rapid development of the Internet have given shape to the competitive pressures faced by the UK's Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and, consequently, created the grounds for this study. Extensive research shows that, although SMEs are indeed adopting the Internet, most of them are slow to take up electronic business (e-business) as the basis for business communications and transactions. This is because many SMEs are not equipped with, or supported by, the appropriate guidelines and business models to allow them to take advantage of the developing digital economy and e-business. The lack of this kind of support makes it difficult for SMEs to use e-business as a means to gain competitive advantage, locally, nationally or globally. What is more, the constraints of appropriate technological resources and inadequate knowledge among key personnel at the same time inhibit the operational efficiency and innovation of SMEs. This limits the competitive advantage that ebusiness could bring to their businesses. The research presented in this study has a twofold aim. The first, which is the contribution this study makes to the field of Management Studies, is to promote a better understanding of ebusiness and its role in SMEs. The second, which has the more pragmatic aim of contributing to SMEs, is to find a way of enhancing their business competitiveness via the use of e-business. It builds on previous work suggesting that traditional business strategies, which create competitive advantage, have to be changed in order to facilitate the adoption, implementation and use of ebusiness technology. An examination of the transition of SMEs from an 'old' traditional business strategy to a 'new' e-business strategy is at the heart of this study. The study was conducted using the 'mixed methodology' of both qualitative and quantitative data as its primary tool. As a starting point, a range of academic and practitioner literature relating to IT, e-business, and different business models, was reviewed. This review and accompanying analysis were followed by nine longitudinal case studies and a national survey which were used to collect primary data from UK SMEs. This combination of micro-level longitudinal studies with macro-level national surveys provides the core data for the findings made in this study. Overall, the findings point to a paradoxical conclusion: on the one hand, SMEs use IT and the Internet in order to enhance their business competitiveness. However, on the other, the attitude of the owners and the knowledge shown at the managerial level was often the very obstacle to using IT. In other words, while the 'hard' of technology is available, the 'soft' of attitudes and knowledge often is not. This gap between the existence of technology and the absence of the appropriate attitudes and knowledge pose a number of potential challenges for SMEs in the creation of competitive advantage through e-business. To overcome these challenges, the findings were deployed in order to develop an e-business model named the "Competitive Advantage Through E-business" (CATE-b). This is the major innovation of this study in terms of applying the fruits of my research in order not only to make a contribution to knowledge, but also to solve the practical problems faced by business practitioners. This model is meant to serve the heuristic purpose of acting as a guide to help SMEs to comprehend an e-business vision, formulate strategy, identify e-business application areas, put together a portfolio, and design a plan for e-business implementation. In short, the long-term goal of this study is to help SMEs to enhance their local, national or global competitiveness through applying CATE-b, with the hope that new technology can become a force for creating competitive advantage.
This book is about using information in small businesses to compete; it is about strategy and information systems. It examines problems that these businesses face and suggests some solutions. It looks at how strategie planning takes place and how information systems should be designed and developed in line with strategy, from a business rather than a purely technical point ofview. The main contribution made is proposing an approach to crafting strategy, designing new business processes and information systems planning that could realistically be used by the average small business, that is one without great knowledge of strategy or information systems, and one that cannot afford to buy in this knowledge. The approach differs from others suggested in the literature in that it emphasises the important role of creativity in the process of creating strategy and in information system design and illustrates where this creativity may come from, it emphasises the importance of getting staff involved and it attempts to lessen the communication problems that exists between business people and information system developers, something that historically has caused problems.