Search results

The work of Scott, Bruce and Cooper on small firm growth and development is reviewed. It is shown that by adapting exponential smoothing forecasting procedures it is possible to monitor the commercial health of a small firm. This is achieved by ‘tracking’ key indicators and producing an exception message when a signal exceeds certain predetermined control limits. The procedure is equally effective for either a step or ramp change in the underlying input data. This suggested approach requires little sophistication in either data or technique and has a practical application to small firm management, while adding to our understanding of the process of growth of small businesses.

The entrepreneurial marketing paradigm is open to several interpretations. One such is that we should consider, in particular, the behaviour of small firms, and in particular, small entrepreneurial firms; another interpretation is to argue for the building of a completely new, and substantive, paradigm that builds upon, for example personal contact network development and focuses upon marketing activity being compressed, non‐linear in outlook and application, and informal. In this article the author asks a fundamental question highly pertinent to the developing subject of marketing within small firms. Is conventional marketing theory and practice from the “classical school” applicable to all types of organisations no matter what their size, or do smaller firms need a different sort of marketing, more suited to their particular needs? The paper concludes that in many cases the central core hub of marketing that has become known as the classicist philosophy of strategic marketing management (see Brennan, Baines, and Garneau, 2003) is appropriate and can often be employed to the smaller enterprise with beneficial commercial effects. However there may be some reluctance on the part of small firms to accept the notion that conventional marketing is of particular use. The author hopes that this short paper will provoke a subsequent debate about the current “state of play” concerning the entrepreneurial marketing paradigm.

Previous work by the author has focused on examining the limitations of the marketing concept and its associated frameworks, processes and prescriptions focusing on a planned, strategic, linear, lower risk future for the firm. Emerging research has shown that such frameworks are now dated, despite being continually taught at business schools. Recent research at the interface between Marketing and Entrepreneurship has shown that, as a result of the inadequacies identified, there is hope for the entrepreneurial marketer (practitioner and academician alike) through the generation of alternative perspectives, and ultimately the formation of competing paradigms of marketing enquiry. Small firm marketing research shows that theories of networking, creativity, opportunity recognition and word of mouth marketing are much more valid in terms of their explanation and understanding of how such a firm behaves, rather than to endeavour to fit the square pegs of traditional marketing theory into the dynamic holes of the smaller firm operating environment. Drawing on alternative methodologies from outside the realms of marketing, this paper presents some thoughts on the merits of embracing the philosophy of researchers and practitioners in the arts and other creative fields in order to reach a more valid understanding of smaller firm behaviour.

This article aims to demonstrate how small entrepreneurial firms can employ low cost market research techniques in the area of service evaluation to prioritise the sales effort, increase sales and improve margins.

“Triangulation” has been used. Secondary data included academic sources and internal company records. Primary data included exploratory depth interviews and group discussions, a questionnaire‐based survey and the construction of case studies.

It can be seen from the case study results presented that a customer service appreciation survey can yield useful and actionable information, which can be used creatively by entrepreneurs to bring about significant improvements in business performance in a short space of time.

It would have been better if more extensive data were available on customers to allow for more sophisticated quota sampling controls.

A model of small firm growth is discussed and the concept of crisis points in the early stages of the life cycle of small entrepreneurial firms is examined. The paper demonstrates how a low risk growth strategy, which minimises the possibility of the firm encountering a “crisis point”, can be chosen.

The content of the article is original in the sense that particular emphasis is placed on the concept of “leveraging.” The study shows that such a “leveraged”‐based scheme is particularly relevant in a customer multiple sourcing purchasing situation.

This article considers that one way to help the small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) to survive is to offer it a robust but simple monitoring and control technique that would help it manage the business effectively and this, in turn, should help to increase its chances of survival. This technique should also be of interest to all people involved with monitoring or advising a large number of small enterprises or business units within a larger organization. For example, a bank manager or a small business consultant responsible for a portfolio of firms. The authors utilize process control techniques more often used in production and inventory control systems to demonstrate how one might monitor the marketing “health” of small firms.

Much research has been conducted on the causes and consequences of stress (Ivancevich, 1986; Cooper & Payne, 1988; Sauter, Hurrell & Cooper, 1989). More recently, researchers have turned their attention to strategies that might be used to remedy the problem (Cooper, 1987). A number of papers address the issue at a conceptual level, suggesting different ways of categorising stress intervention techniques. Matteson and Ivancevich (1987) draw a distinction between preventive and curative strategies. DeFrank and Cooper (1987) suggest that interventions can focus on the individual, the organisation or the individual/organisational interface. Murphy (1988) presents three levels of intervention: primary (stressor reduction), secondary (stress management) and tertiary (employee assistance programmes).

The ability of third generation telephones to store sensitive information, such as financial records, digital certificates and company records, makes them desirable targets for impostors. This paper details the feasibility of a non‐intrusive subscriber authentication technique – the use of keystroke dynamics. This feasibility study comprises a number of investigations into the ability of neural networks to authenticate users successfully based on their interactions with a mobile phone keypad. The initial results are promising with network classification performing well, achieving a 9.8 per cent false rejection rate and an 11.0 per cent false acceptance rate.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how the interplay of individual-level resources and culture affects entrepreneurs’ propensity to adopt social value creation goals.

Using a sample of 12,685 entrepreneurs in 35 countries from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, it investigates the main effects of individual-level resources – measured as financial, human and social capital – on social value creation goals, as well as the moderating effects of the cultural context in which the respective entrepreneur is embedded, on the relationship between individual-level resources and social value creation goals.

Drawing on the resource-based perspective and Hofstede’s cultural values framework, the results offer empirical evidence that individual-level resources are relevant for predicting the extent to which entrepreneurs emphasise social goals for their business. Furthermore, culture influences the way entrepreneurs allocate their resources towards social value creation.

The study sheds new light on how entrepreneurs’ individual resources influence their willingness to create social value. Moreover, by focussing on the role of culture in the relationship between individual-level resources and social value creation goals, it contributes to social entrepreneurship literature, which has devoted little attention to the interplay of individual characteristics and culture.

The World Wide Web has experienced explosive growth as a content delivery mechanism, delivering hypertext files and static media content in a standardised way. However, this content has been unable to interact with other content, making the Web a distribution system rather than a distributed system. This is changing, however, as distributed component architectures are being adapted to work with the Web’s architecture. This paper tracks the development of the Web as a distributed platform, and highlights the potential to employ an often neglected feature of distributed computing: migration. Argues that all content on the Web, be it static images or distributed components, should be free to migrate according to either the policy of the server, or the content itself. The requirements of such a content migration mechanism are described, and an overview of a new migration mechanism, currently being developed by the authors, is presented.

Surveys the literature on internationalisation research and identifies a number of theoretical and practical inadequacies in terms of current theory’s ability in describing behaviour of the smaller firm. A range of internationalisation theories are discussed, from their historical provenance in economic trade theory to the more recent developments concerning the impact of technology and networking. It is concluded that the majority of frameworks fail to readily explain smaller firm internationalisation behaviour. A number of implications and recommendations are presented, including the promotion of the belief that the emerging marketing and entrepreneurship paradigm provides additional understanding of smaller firm internationalisation, where creativity and innovative behaviour can act as a competitive advantage over firms with larger resources at their disposal. This then acts as a catalyst for internationalisation development.