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The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of new product performance in small firms; specifically, the impact of customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional co‐ordination, product launch proficiency and product advantage.

Based on previous studies a model was developed addressing determinants of new product and organisational performance (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional co‐ordination, product advantage, and product launch proficiency). These relationships were explored using data collected from 26 small firms in Ireland.

The results indicate that competitor orientation and product launch proficiency are strongly linked to new product performance and organisational performance in small firms. Additionally, they illustrate a lack of significant relationships between performance and customer orientation, interfunctional coordination and product advantage, thus suggesting that the existing large firm models explored may not be fully applicable to small firms.

Small firms need to ensure that they know their competitors, as competitor orientation is linked with both new product performance and organisational performance.

While the importance of market orientation and new product development to the survival and success of firms is well supported in the literature, the study demonstrates clearly that the measures used, and relationships found, in large firms do not all apply in small firms.

To explore what type of support is required by social enterprises, how this is different from mainstream business, what the preferred approaches to learning and working with support providers are, and how the provision of social enterprise support can be co‐ordinated and the capacity of support providers built up.

The study examined the different approaches and indicators used in conventional evaluations of social enterprises. Uses the literature and the views of those delivering support for the pilot projects to identify indicators to include social enterprises’ perceptions of the process of support provision, changes in their operations and behaviour and the extent of constraints faced. Describes the three pilot projects, comprising: Areas of Industrial Decline (Ex‐coalfield areas) pilot project, based on work with 11 eleven existing and 4 pre‐start social enterprises in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, UK, exploring the use of tools developed for conventional micro‐businesses; Black, minority and ethnic fledgling social enterprises pilot project, involving 14 social enterprises in the West Midlands, emphasizing those managed by Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) women; and Rural social enterprise pilot project, which provided advisory support to 14 organizations in Lancashire and Oxfordshire on organization structure, management and legal structures.

The results revealed the importance of meeting those technical skill gaps that are easier to identify plus those that are harder to define (lack of confidence). Concludes that social enterprises may be confused about types of support available, particularly where duplication and competition takes place.

Draws on the author’s official evaluation of three pilot projects that were jointly run by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Home Office and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

Most of the literature on knowledge management (KM) and its application has, until recently, been centered on large organizations. Pertinent issues in small businesses have to a large extent been neglected. However, small businesses do not necessarily share the same characteristics and ideals as large ones. There are certain unique features of small businesses that need to be understood before KM is implemented in their environment. This paper aims to redress some of this imbalance in the literature by putting KM into the context of small businesses. It looks at their characteristics, their advantages and disadvantages, their strengths and weaknesses, and their key problems and issues, all associated with KM. Recognition of all these elements is crucial in order to provide a well‐suited KM approach for small businesses. The paper culminates with recommendations that will provide important insights to help them accomplish this.

To understand the factors encouraging growth in two social enterprises involved in recycling based in London, UK, and how these can be interpreted and understood in terms of “managerialist” concepts.

The study aimed to understand how particular aspects of social enterprise literature relate to practice on the ground, and to gain a clearer picture of the diversity, complexity and contested ideas that coexist within the social enterprise sector. Focuses on the experience of two social enterprises based in London: ReBoot, a project set up by Bootstrap Enterprises, a social enterprise based in Hackney for the recycling of computers donated from individuals and organizations; and Green‐Works, a social enterprise for preventing large volumes of office furniture from going to landfill. Explains that the research comprised two parts: an extensive literature review to provide background theory and context; and the use of semi‐structured interviews with the selected organizations to gain qualitative data for comparison.

The results provided broad indications relating to the ideas and conflicts existing within and between social enterprises across such broad themes as “growth”, public and private origins, market orientation and long‐term sustainability. Concludes that the research highlights the diversity of social enterprises in terms of their objectives, structures, operations and long‐term visions, while demonstrating the great differences between the two enterprises despite their seeming similarity on the surface.

Challenges the frequently over‐simplified generalizations and assumptions that are applied to social enterprises.

To study a range of options for providing equity finance (equity capital) in social enterprises.

The UK government’s keenness for social enterprises to overcome the sector’s cultural aversion to borrowing and seek finance for their activities and end grant dependency within the sector is discussed. Considers the different motives of ethical investors and the potentially blurred boundary between what constitutes a social enterprise and what constitutes a private enterprise. Reports on how the Community Interest Companies (CICs), which provides the legal format for social enterprises, has adapted its regulations to pave the way for new forms of equity finance for social enterprises.

It is possible to adapt the rights of ownership identified by Jeff Gates (1998) to provide the basis for equity finance for social enterprises through its attention to liquidation rights, income rights, appreciation rights, voting rights, and transfer rights.

Clarifies some of the aspects involved in equity finance to reveal the potential of this type of finance for social enterprises.

To debate some of the commonly;held assumptions about social enterprises.

The three main assumptions that are commonly applied to the development and characteristics of social enterprises are discussed, namely: that social enterprise must be a collective or democratic pursuit; that social enterprise is institutionally different from earlier mechanisms designed to usher in a “third way”; and that social enterprise is better than doing nothing. Analyses the development of these three assumptions through the framework offered by DiMaggio and Powell (1983) on institutional isomorphism.

There are indications that the social enterprises sector would benefit from more co‐ops taking an ever‐greater market share in an ever‐increasing range of industries, but that this should be the outcome of decisions freely made by individual, autonomous organizations that are free to choose social enterprises over other available options. Concludes that the practical danger posed by the wrong kind of isomorphic tendencies is to the potential flourishing of alternative organizational forms, alternative business models, and alternative ways of seeing the economic world.

Clarifies some of the commonly‐held views concerning social enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate an example of current practices and processes that enable transformation in the workplace in a South African multi-unit hospitality and tourism business, affording previously disadvantaged people the opportunity to advance in the organization and participate in the management and ownership of that organization.

A constructivist grounded theory methodological framework is used for the collection of data, analysis and theoretical development, utilizing Charmaz’s (2006, 2011, 2014) approach in both the collection and analysis of data as well as the theoretical perspective that emerged from the research process. Intensive semi-structured recorded interviews were conducted with the owner and managers of the company. Following transcription of the interviews, multi-level data coding allowed the move from an inductive to an abductive process with theoretical sampling allowing the shift toward conceptual and theoretical development.

Study findings provide insight about the processes and practices that enabled previously disadvantaged people to move into management and ownership of a multi-unit South African hospitality and tourism business. Leapfrogging emerged as a theoretical perspective that provides interpretive understanding of atypical upward employment mobility, i.e. “human leapfrogging.”

While this study is limited to a single hospitality and tourism company in South Africa that is not necessarily typical of other South African businesses, it provides a vivid illustration of the impact that visionary leadership and a genuine desire to “level the playing field” can have on individuals, both personally and professionally, and their wider communities.

Leapfrogging theory in the context of “human leapfrogging” suggests innovative business practices for fast-tracking marginalized individuals out of poverty and provides an urgently needed theoretical perspective for this process.

To the authors’ knowledge, the leapfrogging concept has not previously been applied in the context of atypical employment progression within the corporation, nor has its impact on the corporation and the lives of the affected individuals and their communities been examined.

The aim of this article is to investigate the determinants of the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets: evidence from Vietnam.

This article relies on the resource-based view to examine the factors affecting the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets. The method employed in the research is the generalized method of moments for testing hypotheses of data collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam in the period of 2013–2016.

The results show that factors such as the intensity of capital investment, age and size of the firm, labor productivity, foreign ownership, location, cost management effectiveness and export activities have a positive effect on the performance of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises, while revenue growth rate, fixed assets and financial leverage tend to hinder their performance. This has brought important messages that the input markets and the business environment in emerging markets like Vietnam have not yet stimulated well-economic activities.

This study sheds light on a topic that has not been fully explored in small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets in general, and Vietnam in particular. Specifically, small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets reconfigure available resources and strengthen internal capabilities to overcome barriers of the shortages of strategic, rare and irreplaceable resources in order to improve their performance. This is a unique contribution to the existing literature and highlights the original value of this article.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on enterprise resource planning (ERP) system adoption by investigating the relationship of enterprise size to the objectives and constraints of ERP adoption.

In the paper, survey data, based on the responses of 44 companies, are analyzed, by dividing the companies into small, medium‐sized, and large enterprises; and comparing these groups, using statistical methods.

The paper finds significant differences exist between small, medium‐sized and large enterprises regarding the objectives and constraints of ERP system adoption. While small enterprises experience more knowledge constraints, large enterprises are challenged by the changes imposed by ERP adoption. Further, large and medium‐sized enterprises are more outward‐oriented in ERP adoption than small enterprises. Business development, as opposed to mere efficiency improvement, while being the most prevalent objective for ERP adoption in all the company groups, is considered especially important by medium‐sized enterprises. Finally, the findings suggest that, instead of considering small and medium‐sized enterprises as one homogeneous group of smaller enterprises, differences between these two groups of companies should be acknowledged in information system adoption.

The paper shows that the Finnish context and the sample size should be taken into consideration when generalizing the findings.

The paper points out the differences in objectives and constraints between companies of different sizes that should be acknowledged in ERP adoption.

Instead of resorting to the customary approach of considering small and medium‐sized enterprises as a homogeneous group of smaller enterprises, this study acknowledges the differences between these two groups of companies.