Search results

Changes in the macroeconomy, combined with changes in bank lending practices, have created a more difficult financing environment for small businesses in the UK in the 1990s. Notes increasing encouragement for small businesses to seek venture capital as an alternative, but points out evidence both of a lack of venture capital for firms seeking less than £500,000 and a belief that small firms are unwilling to seek venture capital. Challenges these views and points out the advantages to the banks of an informal venture capital market. Considers ways for banks to encourage such activity.

There has been a significant reawakening of interest in the applicability of action learning as a paradigm for management development, particularly as a pedagogical device in both classroom and executive development contexts. This development has occurred against a background of a wider re‐examination of the theory and practice of management education and development. Fundamentally, this re‐examination has been stimulated by criticism of the static, content‐oriented approach as inappropriate to the changing environment of the 1990s. In particular, there is a shift required for effective management: business schools will have to focus on the day‐to‐day realities of the business world, develop communication and leadership skills and emphasise continuous attention to the links between theory and practice. The implications are twofold: first, the range of teaching techniques must be extended to include process‐oriented approaches; second, and more fundamentally, there is a need for an expanded definition of the learning arena itself, and of the role of management schools within that. Renewed interest in and attention to the concept of the learning company, and to processes of both individual and organisational learning, redefines the context within which these changes are taking place. Reviews a number of key developments in this understanding of contemporary management education and development, and presents a summary of a new programme built as an action‐ and implementation‐oriented approach to entrepreneurial senior executive development. This programme aims to support the development of leadership in both large and smaller, growth‐oriented, companies, in a partnership which breaches the conventional separation both between the encapsulated learning arenas of the university and the organisation and between management and entrepreneurship education and development. This partnership emphasises the impact of intra‐group and interorganisational learning on both the participants and on the context of their organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the extent to which public enterprises in Malaysia demonstrate entrepreneurial orientation.

A face‐to‐face survey was initiated to obtain data directly from top management of public enterprises.

The results of the investigation reveal that public enterprises seemed to concentrate on incremental aspect of the marketing of true and tried products/services. Although these companies appeared to have a strong emphasis on R&D initiatives, but most of these initiatives focused on development side of the activities. In addition, the results of the study indicate that the extent to which public enterprises respond to action initiated by competitors; become the first to introduce new product/services and/or “undo the competitor posture” appeared to be quite low. On the other hand, public enterprises tended to focus on low risk projects. Hence, they prefer to explore and exploit the unknown gradually and will act when certainty exits.

The findings in this study were drawn from top management of public enterprises. Future studies should include more of top management team. Given the hostility and competitive of today's business environments, future studies should explore the extent to which entrepreneurial orientation of firm will influence public enterprises' entrepreneurial activities.

Given the outcomes of the study, managers may note that firm performance is associated with the degree of its entrepreneurial orientation.

Previous studies on entrepreneurial orientation concentrated on private entities. This paper extends the domain of entrepreneurial orientation into government business enterprises.

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to theorise and examine gender differences in the impact of financial capital on Chinese firms' growth, and investigate the role of guanxi (connections and networks) in the process of obtaining finance.

A structured questionnaire is used to collect comprehensive financial data from 18 women to 69 men, which is analysed empirically.

Women appear to be no more disadvantaged from obtaining finance than men in China and in some respects appear to be in a better position. Both women‐ and men‐led firms are significantly stronger in relation to having access to enough finance to grow than at the start‐up phase. A majority of participants in this study used guanxi to access finance. Furthermore, the paper finds that guanxi is used equally by men and women, and that guanxi‐sourced finance comprised a significant proportion of the overall capital obtained.

One major limitation of the study is that, of the 87 questionnaires returned, 21 per cent are women and 79 per cent are men and, although the findings are not representative or generalisable, the results do suggest a number of possible avenues for future research.

The paper has illuminated the under‐explored area of the financing of growth in women‐led firms in China. This research agenda is particularly important because small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise finance in China is a key need‐to‐know area, there is a paucity of specific research on financing women entrepreneurs in China and of the phenomenal rise of women's entrepreneurship in China.

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the extent to which government‐linked companies in Malaysia demonstrate corporate entrepreneurship activities.

To achieve the objectives of the study, data was solicited directly from top management through face to face survey.

The findings on nature of corporate entrepreneurship activities suggest that GLCs appeared engage in incremental aspect of CE activities. On the other hand, many of new ideas seemed to come from the top management. Given the nature of external and internal environmental factors of firm which include government policy, environmental hostility, technological forces, top management support, strategic planning, organizational strategies, internal processes, culture, regulation/controls, work discretion, rewards, structure and time/resources were noted to influence the extent to which GLCs pursued CE activities.

The findings in this study were drawn from six top management of GLCs. Future research should include more top management team. Given the external, internal and key challenges, future studies should investigate the direct and/or indirect effect of these factors on CE activities in GLCs.

Based on outcomes of the study, managers may learn that to benefit from CE activities, they should shift their focus from incremental to substantial and/or radical types of CE activities.

Previous studies on CE focused on the performance of private entities. This paper extends the domain of CE into government business enterprises.

This exploratory study aims to examine how knowledge acquired via guanxi (networks and connections) is enabling women in China to overcome a number of significant barriers and challenges in order to start and grow successful businesses.

The authors undertook two in-depth interviews to qualitatively investigate the use of guanxi as a means of overcoming various barriers faced by Chinese women in establishing and growing their businesses.

The findings suggest that family background (and, in particular, support from parents and spouses), experience, training, education and finance are key success factors influencing the performance of women-led firms in China. The experiences of the two entrepreneurs in the study demonstrate the importance of mentors in helping to develop a woman's business acumen and providing the right contacts to help overcome potential barriers to developing a successful business.

While this study provides a useful first step to better understanding the role of guanxi networks in supporting women-led ventures in China, further research is needed to test the generalizability of the findings.

This study contributes to the limited prior research focusing on the important role of guanxi networks in assisting Chinese women to successfully launch and grow new ventures.

This paper provides an exploration of the concept and content of agile manufacturing (AM). It describes the nature of the content of AM and synthesises the literature to propose a comprehensive definition of purpose and process. Real agile manufacturing (RAM) is viewed as a strategic process; it is about surviving and prospering in the competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets. The paper argues that RAM is evolutionary, in that it is developed from existing systems of management and technologies. However, it is also revolutionary because the full application of RAM involves a departure from existing systems. RAM is shown to be based upon four fundamentals. First, each partner must benefit; thus multiple winners (manufacturers, suppliers, customers) is the objective. Second, integration (recourses, methods, technologies, departments or organisations) is the means of achieving RAM. Third, IT is demonstrated to be an essential condition. Finally, core competence is seen to be the key.

Considers the role and practices of total quality management in China. After a brief overview, considers the evolution of quality practices and the links to economic reform in China. From the quality literature, develops a measuring instrument to assess the extent and pervasion of quality practices in China. Then applies this instrument to 428 Northern Chinese companies representing different forms of ownership. Finds that the implementation of quality was highly variable. In general, joint venture companies scored highly in quality practices, in contrast, state owned enterprises scored poorly. Privately owned companies also scored well in some aspects of quality implementation. Concludes that the poor quality performance of state owned companies can be attributed to the attitudes and structures created during the period of the command economy.

Research into the impact of the interaction between budgetary participation and budget emphasis on managerial performance and job related attitudes has failed to provide consistent results. Researchers are in general agreement that aspects of national culture, affecting the behaviour and attitudes of individuals within organisations, have to be taken into account. Motivated by the encouraging findings of Harrison's (1992) study in Singapore, this study is a partial replication of Harrison (1992, 1993) in the context of Indonesia. It explores further whether a high budget emphasis is an effective superior evaluative style in nations categorised as high power‐distance (PD) and low individualism. Specifically it examines the effect of participation on the budget emphasis in a superior's evaluative style and dependent variables: job satisfaction and managerial performance. In addition to the structured instruments used in prior research, open ended questions captured attitudes to management control issues. The results indicate that in Indonesia a low budget emphasis improves managerial performance, while high participation increases Indonesian managers' job satisfaction. This result does not wholly support previous research findings and leads to discussion of Indonesian national characteristics which potentially contribute to the impact of a superior's evaluative style in Indonesia. This research suggests that the same performance evaluative style is unequally effective across the nations common to Hofstede's cultural dimensions.