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The purpose of this paper is to study the effect partner exits have on the survival chances of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the study aims at analyzing the influence of firm size, legal form, industry, type of change, and prior change on the effect of partner exits on the survival chances of SMEs.

An organizational ecology perspective to analyze the case of partner exits on the survival chances of SMEs is applied. Using event history models, the effect of such ownership changes is studied by the analysis of the life history of 19,629 SMEs in Germany between 1990 and 2005.

Results show that partner exits increase the mortality risk of organizations. This effect is moderated by specific organizational characteristics such as size, legal form and industry affiliation. Moreover, the harmful effect of partner exits increases if the partner was involved in the founding process of the organization. Finally, the results show that SMEs are not able to develop routines that reduce the effect of partner exits, on the contrary, the disruptive effect of partner exits increases with an increasing number of partner exits.

This paper shows how partner exits influence the survival chances of SMEs and how this negative effect is moderated by different firm characteristics. Moreover, the paper emphasizes the role of founders by showing that the exit of partners who were involved in the founding process of SMEs is especially harmful. Finally, focusing on multiple partner exits, the paper contributes to the question whether or not organizations learn how to manage fundamental change successfully.

This paper aims to examine the extent of and key determinants for bank and insurance provider selection and usage by business customers from the small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) segment, thereby aiming to increase understanding of the drivers of customers' cross‐buying behaviour across these financial service sectors.

Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with key decision makers from 22 SMEs within one country. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data.

Empirical findings suggest use of multiple banks as the norm among SMEs, whereas insurances are dominantly purchased from a single provider. As SME customers appear to prefer using separate, independent providers for their banking and insurance services, absence of customer loyalty programs, unfavourable pricing of the total offering and image conflicts were identified as main factors limiting the willingness to cross‐buy across these financial services sectors.

This qualitative research is focused on the financial industry within one country and bound to smaller business customers, limiting the generalisability of the findings.

The results imply that in order to succeed in cross‐selling bank and insurance services in the SME segment, financial service providers should improve their cross‐selling concepts by creating customer loyalty programs that would reward customer companies according to the use of multiple products in their total portfolio.

This study is the first to describe the customer perceived drivers of cross‐buying bank and insurance services from the same service provider in the business‐to‐business context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine academic literature and business regulation for company formation in Estonia in relation to small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). It is an example of a country which is a new member of the expanded European Union (EU) and its regulation.

This exploratory paper makes use of World Bank Surveys, primary business law sources together with an interview from a business within the country assessed giving a grass‐roots perspective.

The investigation reaffirms the importance of SMEs within transitional economies from a Soviet background such as Estonia because of the Socialist black hole. It also emphasizes the correlation between SME development and business law and the significance and key aspects of company formation for an SME. Furthermore, transition economies like Estonia have complied with EU directives for company formation and advanced within the regulation process quickly. However, it is still more difficult for a person or entity from another EU Member State to form a company in Estonia.

This research demonstrates that compliance on EU regulation for company formation by a new EU member has been provided for within the regulation of the wording. It also indicates that for an entity from another EU state (other than Estonia) it is slightly more difficult to form a company. Unofficial costs, a legacy from the Soviet period are almost non‐existent within the Estonian company registration system. Some of the gaps within the World Bank Surveys are filled by the interview, although further evaluation is needed from other academics.

The research highlights the importance of company formation for SMEs, the compliance of a new EU Member State with EU directives, and the reality of company formation regulation for an SME in Estonia.

Improved exploitation of Scotland's intellectual assets (IA) has been identified as a critical means of improving the economic wellbeing of the nation. Earlier research highlighted a general lack of awareness of IA amongst all types of organisations in Scotland. The Intellectual Assets Centre coordinated the Scottish devolved government and European Union (EU) funded Innovative Actions projects designed to help small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) from all industry sectors to start to address IA management issues. The purpose of this paper is to describe the activities implemented by the Intellectual Assets Centre.

A review of IA capture and development comparing IA activities in the EU and a survey of how 450 Scottish organisations (all SMEs) currently capture their IA was conducted. An IA capturing tool, the feasibility of a novel IA benchmarking tool and a toolkit to assist know‐how capture were developed. These were piloted with SMEs from various industries.

Simple tools were developed which proved to be very useful aids to facilitate improved learning and understanding of IA management issues for the SMEs involved in pilot testing.

Although tools were web‐enabled, more value was seen to be gained when used with an advisor knowledgeable about IA management issues, especially when using the IA Capture Tool and Know‐how capture toolkit.

These new tools have been designed specifically for smaller businesses (SMEs).

This work has addressed an identified need for simple means to help smaller businesses to take their first steps in managing their intellectual assets, and as a result a series of tools have been developed.

This study seeks to assess how the adoption of corporate governance structures affects the performance of SMEs (small to medium‐sized enterprises) in Ghana.

Regression analysis is used to estimate the relationship between corporate governance and ownership structure and performance.

The results show that board size, board composition, management skill level, CEO duality, inside ownership, family business, and foreign ownership have significantly positive impacts on profitability. Corporate governance can greatly assist the SME sector by infusing better management practices, stronger internal auditing, greater opportunities for growth and new strategic outlook through non‐executive directors. It is clear that corporate governance structures influence performance of SMEs in Ghana.

This paper provides insights on the effects of corporate governance and ownership structure on the performance of Ghanaian SMEs. The paper also shows the implications of SMEs gaining access to finance as a result of adopting a good governance system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of managers' emotional intelligence, organizational climate and employees' creativity on industrial small to medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs') entrepreneurial orientation.

A quantitative survey methodology was adopted to collect data from industrial SMEs' owner‐managers in Jordan. A sample of 317 managers from 418 SMEs, located at three Jordanian industrial estates, was used. Data were analyzed using AMOS 16.0 to determine the interactions between the various factors.

Empirical findings confirmed that managers' emotional intelligence, organizational climate and employees' creativity had a positive direct effect on industrial SMEs' entrepreneurial orientation. In addition, managers' emotional intelligence had a positive direct effect on organizational climate. In turn organizational climate had a positive direct effect on employees' creativity.

The current study could be useful to managers to understand the role of emotional intelligence, organizational climate and employees' creativity, as important antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation, in encouraging entrepreneurial culture towards enhancing the company's entrepreneurial orientation level, and the possible positive effect it could have on their organizations' success.

This study advanced the literature in the field of entrepreneurship by testing a new model of entrepreneurial orientation that links between managers' emotional intelligence, organizational climate and employees' creativity as antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation in the context of industrial SMEs. While such perspective is considerably new and relevant to general marketing literature, the fact that this paper is one of few papers that focus on entrepreneurial orientation in Jordan adds to its originality.

Acknowledges that SMEs (small to medium‐sized enterprises) cannot do conventional marketing because of the limitations of resources which are inherent to all SMEs and also because SME owner/managers behave and think differently from conventional marketing decision‐making practices in large companies. In this context the discussion focuses on SME characteristics and how these impact upon marketing characteristics within SMEs. In a search for “alternative” marketing approaches, the inherent existence of the owner/manager’s “network” in its various guises such as personal contact networks, social networks, business networks and industry and marketing networks and how these networks are used is considered. Some evidence from an empirical study carried out simultaneously in Northern Ireland and Australia is presented which illustrates how and why networking is used by SME owner/managers as a tool or approach for carrying out meaningful marketing.

The aim of this article is to develop an understanding of marketing and customer relationships in software SMEs (small to medium‐sized enterprises) using a mixed methods approach.

The methodology combined qualitative research methods along with quantitative adaptive conjoint analysis (ACA). A software SME was investigated as a case study during the first stage of the investigation. In order to ascertain detailed customer perceptions and expectations of their software supplier, 16 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with the software SME's customers. The interviews subsequently informed the ACA, which was chosen as an analytical tool to establish quantitative hierarchy of relevant attributes identified at the qualitative stage of the study.

Marketing in software SMEs is dependant on effective relationships between the firm and its customers and these relationships should be based on providing a quality software solution, understanding the customer requirement and professionalism. Other marketing tactics that are used to improve customer perceived credibility include forming alliances and partnerships within the technology sector.

Software SMEs should proactively develop relationships with prospective as well as current customers and strive for a balance between customer orientation and innovation by involving the customer throughout the development of the software solution. The study's pragmatic approach has provided applicable results due to insight into a management case complemented with industry expectation of software product and service delivery.

This combination of methods has made it possible to explore marketing and customer relationships in the software industry from multiple viewpoints. Therefore, the findings contribute to the limited literature of marketing in software SMEs and customers' decision‐making processes when purchasing software.

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether or not the absence of registered property titles is a barrier to credit access amongst small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.

The study involved the conducting of surveys amongst credit officers of financial institutions in Ghana; participants were from both microfinance institutions and universal banks. To achieve the aim of this study the survey was designed to study the attitudes of credit officers towards the use of property as security for SME credit. Their experiences in handling such issues were captured through a series of closed ended questions. Participants were randomly sampled and the data analysed descriptively using SPSS.

The results amongst other things show that most formal lenders accept landed property for collateral purposes irrespective of whether they are covered by registered property titles or not. Also found were differences existing between traditional banks and the microfinance institutions.

Small businesses are exposed to several challenges which hinder their growth and have potential to contribute to the overall agenda of poverty reduction. Prominent amongst these challenges is the difficulty in raising funds for investments purposes. Whilst some have attributed this to the lack of assets which could be used as collateral, others have argued that it is the result of the absence of formal property titles which have made land an unacceptable form of collateral. Previous studies have focused on the demand side however; the supply side is the focus of this study.

Commences with an examination of SME research, traces how it has progressed over the past two decades and then focuses on the growing interest relating to the application of graduate skills. It primarily results from research carried out between 1996 and 1998, using a database of 206 graduates and 32 firms. The framework of knowledge associated with skills and competitiveness is explored, as is the issue of the categorisation of skills. Two categories are principally identified – personal and business – with listings introduced following a process of qualitative interviews with graduates and managers of SMEs. The lack of consensual paradigms in relation to skills is explored. It is argued that the resulting SME value chain is a valid alternative model with wider application among SME managers.