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The purpose of this paper is to explore the exploitation of export information in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the contrasting institutional contexts of France and Romania.

The qualitative approach is based on 18 semi‐directed interviews with managers in Romanian and French exporting SMEs. With an absorptive capacity (AC) perspective, this study investigates export information processing in SMEs as a beginning‐to‐end process, including antecedents, inputs, and outputs.

The efficiency of export information acquisition and assimilation in SMEs reflects the richness of their international experiences, as well as the richness of export information sources accessed in foreign settings. The transformation and exploitation of export information in SMEs takes various forms: sense‐making, decision making, and development of new export market‐related know‐how and capabilities. The AC framework appears consistent with exporting SME managers' perceptions. The managers' testimonies are generally homogeneous across both countries.

This research offers valuable insights into how SMEs can acquire relevant information and then assimilate, transform, and exploit that information. It neither establishes causality across the different dimensions of AC nor links information processing and exploitation to performance.

This research uses a dynamic AC framework to clarify export information processes. Contrary to the vast majority of existing studies that focus on a single element or phase of export information management, this study reviews the entire process, from the antecedents of information acquisition to the transformation and exploitation of export information.

This paper aims to investigate the importance of networking for Italian and French small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Brazil. Business opportunities in Brazil have attracted a significant amount of interest in recent years. The country is moving towards market orientation, and it has recently experienced higher growth rates. Furthermore, upcoming events, such as the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, are attracting a significant amount of attention given the emergence of potential business opportunities in several sectors. Nevertheless, European companies wishing to enter the Brazilian market should address several constraints, including high barriers to entry, an extensive bureaucracy and a culture quite different from those in Europe. In this context, networking seems to be vital for success.

The data were gathered through a survey undertaken between June and August 2012. After the questionnaire was prepared, each company either received and responded to the questionnaire by e-mail or participated in a telephone interview. The questionnaire included multiple choice questions, most of which used a 5-point Likert scale. Some open-ended questions were included to collect insights from respondents. Representatives of 21 Italian and 24 French SMEs agreed to participate in the survey. Respondents were typically company presidents, chief executive officers or export department managers with experience in the Brazilian market.

The results highlight the importance of social networks for the SMEs interviewed. The establishment of social networks is pivotal for successful business activities in Brazil, as they can help entrants decipher and understand how society and business work. In Brazil, social networks are built through a path-dependent process that requires time, patience and perseverance, as well as an ability to overcome liabilities of sameness. In this regard, a networking process that encompasses specific activities linked to the peculiarities of Brazil is essential, even if it seems to be a second-best solution, as in the case of the QWERTY keyboard. This process, which is the main characteristic of social networking in Brazil, necessitates not only the use of the Internet and information and communications technologies but also face-to-face contacts for building reputation, legitimacy and trust.

This paper extends the extant literature by investigating the importance of networking for Italian and French SMEs in Brazil. Brazil serves as an interesting and useful case that can deepen our knowledge about this aspect of international business. As highlighted by Jack et al. (2008) and Ruzzier et al. (2006), the knowledge and understanding of the networking process still suffers from several limitations despite the increased attention paid to this phenomenon.

This paper aims to determine which factors are the most important for French wine small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to focus on to improve their export performance. French wine companies, mostly SMEs are acting in a market where being internationally competitive is essential. This is becoming increasingly challenging because of the strong growth of New World wines in international markets. Moreover, they have to face the saturation of their domestic market compounded by a decline in per capita consumption domestically. Having a high export performance could help them be more competitive.

The first step to reach this goal is reviewing the existing literature on export performance determinants in SMEs and more particularly in the wine industry. A theoretical model is built and used to structure an empirical analysis of the determinants of the export performance of French wine SMEs.

Export performance determinants can be theoretically divided into internal, external and strategy‐related determinants. Empirical analysis indicates that in the French wine industry, business partnerships, innovation, a greater size and an effective export commitment are linked to higher levels of export performance.

This research reveals that financial determinants of export performance are missing in the literature. Besides, duplicating the study with another export performance determinant is necessary to confirm the validity of the results.

This article brings an overall theoretical approach to export performance determinants in SMEs. Moreover, it provides a basis for understanding and then improving the viability of French wine companies through export development.

The purpose of this paper is to present personal testimony of one of the early researchers on small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship in France.

The story of a half‐century evolution is divided into five decades, of SME and entrepreneurship development in France. The development of the French academic system of research on SME and entrepreneurship is described through some teams.

During the two early decades (1955‐1975), both the social legitimacy and economic competitiveness sharply and deeply lowered, while that after the world crisis (1975) until nowadays (2005), the social, political, and economic interest for SME and entrepreneurship has continuously increased.

The academic research pioneered SME during the 1960s, and entrepreneurship during the 1980s. The historical development of the national network of teams and associations is described, increasingly including the international context.

Beyond the personal testimony, this contribution enlightens the problems entailed by the lack of legitimacy of the spirit of enterprise anchored in French society, and, more generally, in all the societies averse to individual risk taking.

The testimony is based on the personal experience of one scholar who early promoted in the French academic system Master and Doctoral courses on SME and entrepreneurship. It outlines some original concepts relative to small firms.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between the existing theoretical and empirical studies by examining the asymmetric return–volume relationship. Indeed, the authors aim to shed light on the return–volume linkages for French-listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compared to blue chips across different market regimes.

This study includes both large capitalizations included in the CAC 40 index and listed SMEs included in the Euronext Growth All Share index. The Markov-switching (MS) approach is applied to understand the asymmetric relationship between trading volume and stock returns. The study investigates also the causal impact between stock returns and trading volume using regime-dependent Granger causality tests.

Asymmetric contemporaneous and lagged relationships between stock returns and trading volume are found for both large capitalizations and listed SMEs. However, the causality investigation reveals some differences between large capitalizations and SMEs. Indeed, causal relationships depend on market conditions and the size of the market.

This paper explains the asymmetric return–volume relationship for both large capitalizations and listed SMEs by incorporating several psychological biases, such as the disposition effect, investor overconfidence and self-attribution bias. Future research needs to deepen the analysis especially for SMEs as most of the literature focuses on large capitalizations.

This empirical study has fundamental implications for portfolio management. The findings provide a deeper understanding of how trading activity impact current returns and vice versa. The authors’ results constitute an important input to build and control trading strategies.

This paper fills the literature gap on the asymmetric return–volume relationship across different regimes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first empirical attempt to test the asymmetric return–volume relationship for listed SMEs by using an accurate MS framework.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of Cross-Functional Awareness (CFA) and to question how firm size influences the impact of ERP implementation strategies on CFA. Specifically, the paper questions whether size moderates the capability of the firm to achieve CFA.

The authors developed and empirically tested a conceptual framework using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach. This study gathered data from a sample of 45 French SMEs and 55 French large firms.

The results show that ERP implementation strategies (flexibility, organizational vision, Business Process Re-Engineering, speed of implementation, and focus on core modules) have a direct positive relationship and, in large firms, an indirect relationship (via data quality improvement) with the emergence of CFA. The study also suggests that firm size moderates the resulting emergence of ERP-enabled CFA. The findings will help researchers understand the factors associated with ERP implementation and use that promote or inhibit successful use of ERP systems.

Similar to many published ERP surveys, the sample size is small. In addition, the authors examined CFA in the survey from the perspective of a single respondent per firm. Finally, there may be a cultural limitation linked to the respondents all being French firms.

The findings will promote a better understanding of the concept of CFA and its benefits amongst managers, leading to increased productivity and efficiency with ERP. In particular, they will help practitioners identify and manage the right factors during ERP implementations.

In the expanding world of Enterprise System research, this paper is significant in that it studies the effect of ERP implementation on CFA rather than investigating the factors affecting ERP implementation or the outcomes of ERP implementations. To the best of the knowledge, this is one of the few papers that theoretically articulates and empirically explores the concept of CFA, and tests the relationship between implementation strategy factors and CFA, including the moderating role of size in the context of ERP. The contribution shows that the firm size effect should be examined at the level of SMEs and larger firms separately, rather than at an overall level.

The purpose of this paper is to propose two models: the first examines the impact of different dimension of justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) on job performance taking into consideration the mediating role of affective commitment and the second model utilizes the notion of overall justice to predict job performance considering the mediating role of affective commitment.

This study was conducted with a sample group of 343 employees working within French small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The results support the mediating role of affective commitment between organizational justice and job performance and demonstrate that overall justice has a greater effect on affective commitment than specific dimensions of justice.

The current study is the first to explore the relationship between JP and OJ, with the latter being measured in more than one focus, in the French SMEs. Therefore, this study contributes to bridge the gap in the understanding of the relationship between OJ and JP in the SMEs. In the French context of SMEs, the authors have stressed the relevance of the perception of organizational justice as a factor affecting the behavior and performance of employees which is then reflected in the success of these firms. In this paper the authors propose two models, with significant implications for researchers, managers, and HR departments. The first examines the impact of different dimension of justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) on job performance taking into consideration the mediating role of affective commitment. The second model utilizes the notion of overall justice to predict job performance considering the mediating role of affective commitment.

Determines whether gender or other factors account for the export behaviour of small and medium‐sized enterprises in New Brunswick, Canada. Suggests that, although gender does play a role in the nature of small or medium‐sized enterprises in New Brunswick, it is not the primary determinant of export behaviour.

To access new markets and improve sourcing practices small to medium sized manufacturing companies (SMEs) increasingly seek suppliers and customers in distant countries. Yet these new relationships with global partners often pose problems of an agency nature. The purpose of this paper is to directly address these challenges through the proposal of an information and communication technology (ICT)-based framework.

There has been very little research into how lead SMEs manage their global supply chains and the challenges they face. This paper uses a case study investigation to analyze how four French SMEs – final assemblers of machinery in the farming and agri-business sector – manage their international supply chains.

It was observed that the relationships and interactions between the SMEs and their immediate upstream and downstream partners were dominated by the agency problem and fell into six distinct categories (termed “barriers” to effective supply integration), namely; asymmetries, contractual design, supplier dependence, product specifications, supply chain complexity and performance monitoring.

The contribution of this paper is that a conceptual frame work was developed in which ICT solutions are offered to help address the barriers to supply chain integration, thus reducing the overall risk exposure due to externalities and problems of agency.

This paper aims to analyse the Portuguese companies’ determinants of capital structure. To reach this objective, the authors used data from 37 non-financial Portuguese large enterprises and from 4,233 non-financial small and medium enterprises for the period 2010-2016. Additionally, the authors selected a sub-period from 2010 to 2014 for a deeper understanding of the impact of the sovereign debt crisis and the Economic Adjustment Programme of Troika on the capital structure of those companies.

Three dependent variables were tested according to debt maturity, and a dynamic panel data model, namely, the generalised method of moments system estimator, was used to test the formulated research hypotheses following Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) to capture the dynamic nature of the firm’s capital structure decisions.

In general, the results point out that the capital structure decisions depend on a set of firm-specific factors, and that the effects of the determinants of the debt maturity ratios differ according to the type of firm, i.e. large/small firms, and the economic cycle.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has been carried out in Portugal by using two samples of large and small companies for analysing the effects of the Economic Adjustment Programme of Troika on the capital structure of companies. The authors seek to understand which type of companies suffered more because of the effects of the Economic Adjustment Programme of Troika during this period, and which are the capital structure determinants that present greater change. Contrary to what might be expected, large companies are the firms that suffer most from the Economic Adjustment Programme. Probably, because these companies are the most immediate, most scrutinised and those that must show abroad that the bank did not fund them in the long term, because of the imposition and limits to grant credit faced by the banks themselves.