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The rich financial knowledge of small and micro business owners helps to enhance the formal credit demand of small and micro enterprises and change the credit channel preference of small and micro enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between financial knowledge and the credit practices of 290 small and micro enterprises in China’s Jiangsu and Shandong provinces based on their formal credit needs and preferred channels of credit.

To measure the degree of the credit constraints of small and micro enterprises, this study applied questionnaire surveys to obtain information on the credit demand and supply of 363 small and micro enterprises in the Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. Firstly, a probit model is used to study the influence of financial knowledge on the formal credit demand and credit acquisition possibility of small and micro enterprises, and tool variables and a biprobit model are used to deal with the possible errors of endogenesis and sample selection. Secondly, a tobit model is used to study the influence of financial knowledge on the credit access of small and micro enterprises in different channels, and tool variables and a Heckman two-stage model are used to deal with endogenesis and possible errors in sample selection. Finally, this study carried out a series of robustness tests to make the conclusions more reliable.

This study is based on the perspective of the knowledge-based view to explore the impact of financial knowledge on the credit behaviour of small and micro enterprises. This study found that financial knowledge can increase a small and micro enterprise’s formal credit needs and drive the small and micro enterprise to actively apply for loans. Furthermore, financial knowledge has a significant and positive influence on the acquisition of formal credit and approved lines of formal credit and a significant and negative influence on the acquisition of informal credit and approved lines of informal credit.

The results indicated that increased financial knowledge can increase the likelihood of a small and micro enterprise to prefer formal credit and reduce the likelihood of it to prefer informal credit channels.

Financial knowledge is the ability to master basic economic knowledge and financial concepts as well as the ability to use knowledge to manage and allocate financial resources. The rich financial knowledge of small and micro business owners helps to enhance the formal credit demand of small and micro enterprises and change their credit channel preference. This paper offers a new perspective on the problems of credit constraint, low participation in formal credit markets and high participation in private credit markets among China’s small and micro enterprises and valuably supplements the research literature.

In order to be successful, micro‐enterprise owners in South Africa face several management challenges. To overcome these challenges it is crucial that they possess sufficient financial management skills to ensure business survival and growth. This article focuses on determining the extent to which the critical financial management skills that micro‐enterprise owners in South Africa require differ from those they possess, in order to identify specific interventions to develop the skills that are lacking. It was found that most micro‐enterprise owners do not possess the critical financial management skills required. Recommendations are made on how members of the accounting profession could become involved in developing these skills.

This paper is a case study of the use of information systems (IS) by a micro enterprise. In particular, it attempts to answer the question: can micro enterprises use IS strategically? It examines the distinguishing characteristics of micro enterprises and the use of IS in micro enterprises. It gives a brief history and description of the micro enterprise in question (Lanzarote First) and then analyses the use of IS from two angles: functionality and benefits. Importantly, the strategic benefits of the various IS are differentiated from other efficiency and effectiveness benefits. The case also tests the use of an IS planning methodology. The case illustrates that a micro enterprise can use IS strategically and, because of the absence of certain factors which are present in large organisations, the impact of IS may be even greater.

The economy of the Palestinian Territories (PT) is small, poorly developed, and highly dependent on Israel; at the same time, the land is limited, Israel controls 80‐85 per cent of the Palestinian water, and there is large‐scale unemployment. Faced with this situation, small and micro‐enterprises have come to play a critical role in the economy of the PT. Donors, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and UNRWA have recognised that many of the managers suffer from managerial weaknesses, and training is one of the long‐term keys to promote the development of small and micro‐enterprises and alleviate the problem of persistent unemployment in the PT. To support the peace agreement, the International Community promised to support the Palestinian economy. Part of this aid has been spent for small and micro‐enterprise development, and for establishing managerial training programmes. These programmes aim to encourage economic development of the PT, through supporting small business education and entrepreneurship training. These programmes suffered from various problems, such as lack of professional trainers, the majority of the managers did not attend the training programme courses, some of these programmesmissed funding. Therefore, some training programmes were closed during the last two years. On the other hand, the managers of small businesses still suffer from various managerial problems. However, this article presents a description of the current situation in PT. Especially, the economic and managerial situation, particularly for the SMEs and TPs in the PT.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way the adult non-formal education and training (NFET) centres motivated and empowered graduates to start their own micro-enterprises as individuals or as a group. The specific objectives are as follows: to find out the transforming factors fostering the utilisation of acquired skills into self-employment in micro-enterprises; to investigate challenges encountered in starting and managing micro-enterprises and to investigate short-term impact of the NFET programmes and micro-enterprises on living conditions of graduates.

The research design was multiple case studies. Semi-structured interviews and field observations were used for data collection in the qualitative study. In the context of non-probability sampling, the study used the purposive sampling method to select five out of 20 self-employed graduates for one-on-one interviews. Case studies also comprised some observations of activities in their small businesses.

The main findings reveal that “learning by doing” training approach and forming groups of entrepreneurs while being on the programme were major factors fostering the translation of acquired skills into micro-enterprises.

The adult NFET is a tool to enable poor disadvantaged people to improve their well-being. However, this can be achieved if the livelihood skills training is combined with the creation of conducive environments to allow adult trainees become micro-entrepreneurs and self-reliant.

The study contributes to the knowledge of effective entrepreneurial training programmes by demonstrating the importance of involving stakeholders from the local communities and designing post-training support mechanisms for self-employment prior to the training delivery. The centre managers should also motivate trainees to start micro-enterprises in groups or co-operatives while still on the training programmes.

Small businesses and micro‐enterprises provide more than 75 per cent of all private sector employment in most countries. In today's environment where large urban areas are more attractive to young people and multinational employers, micro‐enterprise support has become a very important element of both industrial and regional policy, especially in Ireland. However the development of support policies for small businesses is not new and has been evolving over the last 30 years, but up to the early 1990s no support structure policies existed for micro‐enterprises. This research involves an assessment of Ireland's current government micro‐enterprise policies and their effects on entrepreneurs and the growth of their businesses at a local level. The research endeavours to establish if government policy in the micro‐business sector is meeting the objectives of government, if it is satisfying the requirements of the entrepreneurs, i.e. promoters of micro‐enterprises at local level, and to understand what are the effects of local interpretation of government policy on entrepreneurs and their businesses.

Micro-enterprises have a vital role in the development of a nation by creating employment, encouraging entrepreneurship, balancing social income and educating the workforce. Yet, micro-enterprises face significant operational challenges such as low productivity, high production costs and long changeover times. These challenges are often overlooked by researchers and practitioners but have a drastic impact on micro-enterprises' operational performance. With over 95% of the economy consisting of micro-enterprises, it is vital to improve operational performance and competitiveness of the micro-enterprises.

Considering the data availability and practical challenges of gathering data from micro-enterprises, an action research methodology was selected as a suitable research method. Following the initial diagnostic visits, planned interventions were prepared and results were observed to gather data and draw conclusions.

Findings suggest that commonly adapted performance improvement initiatives by large enterprises cannot be directly applied in micro-enterprises to enhance operational performance. Micro-enterprises lack the critical resources and company culture to easily adapt these initiatives. On the other hand, when these performance improvement initiatives are filtered according to specific needs of micro-enterprises, continuous improvement initiatives were often found to be effective in improving operational performance. Specifically, 5S, single-minute exchange of dies (SMED), suggestion schemes, layout improvements, management coaching, visual management, empowerment were found to be useful and suitable to address command and control culture, low productivity, unorganised workspace, undelegated authority, low skilled employees and unwillingness to take responsibility problems.

Further research is required to investigate the specific factors that affect the adaptation of continuous improvement initiatives such as culture and industry type.

This research extends and contributes the current literature on continuous improvement initiatives by revealing how performance improvement initiatives need to be filtered according to the specific needs of micro-enterprises, and how these initiatives can be used to address specific problems to improve operational efficiency. It provides a conceptual framework to guide the decision-making process on operational performance improvement in micro-enterprises.

This study aims to examine the effect of creativity and innovativeness, risk taking propensity, proactiveness and autonomy on entrepreneurial competency and performance among micro-enterprises in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Adopting a cross-sectional design, the authors collected data from 403 micro-entrepreneurs who were registered under “Majlis Amanah Rakyat” and “Majlis Agama Islam dan Adat Istiadat”. Quantitative data were collected through structured interviews from September 2017 to December 2017.

The findings revealed that creativity and innovativeness, proactiveness and autonomy had a positive influence on entrepreneurial competencies. In addition, autonomy and entrepreneurial competencies had a positive effect on micro-enterprise performance. Then, entrepreneurial competencies showed a mediating effect on the relationships between creativity, innovativeness, autonomy and micro-enterprise performance.

The findings contributed to resource-based view and enriched the entrepreneurship literature, particularly in the context of small businesses in emerging economies. This study recommended underlying organizations to pay attention to the improvement of creativity and innovativeness, proactiveness, autonomy and entrepreneurial competencies among low-income entrepreneurs through useful policies and training programs, which were expected to improve micro-enterprise performance and encourage poor households to perform entrepreneurial activities for better socio-economic conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the innovation capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises through a theoretical framework that addresses the influence of some internal and external resources – derived from the literature review – on the development of innovation activities and on innovative firm’s results.

Based on a structured questionnaire, the empirical survey has involved 122 SMEs and micro enterprises of the most representative agrifood supply chains in the Campania region: dairy, wine, pasta and olive oil. The data have been then elaborated through the cluster analysis technique in order to explore any meaningful patterns that may exist in terms of the innovation capacity.

This study shows the existence of three clusters/innovation modes: collaborative innovators (CIs), non-collaborative innovators (NCIs), and non-innovators (NIs). Even though CIs represent 16.2 percent of the sample, this cluster shows an increased or stable revenue during 2011-2013 in comparison to the other two clusters.

This study provides a static view in comparison to the longitudinal analysis which could have provided a more dynamic view of the innovation capacity of agrifood SMEs and micro enterprises.

This is the first quantitative study focusing on the factors related to the innovation capacity of agrifood firms in the Campania Region. The study specifically analyses the innovation capacity of SMEs and micro enterprises. Moreover, it offers a comprehensive analysis of internal and external drivers to innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that hinder the growth of small businesses in South African townships, to create awareness of these factors and to develop guidelines for small business owners to promote successful business enterprises.

The study was exploratory, descriptive and qualitative in nature. Semi‐structured interviews were used to gather data. A response rate of 93 per cent was obtained from a sample of 30 businesses.

The slow growth rate can be attributed partly to the lack of support that small, medium and micro‐enterprises receive from support institutions, and partly to their own internal weaknesses. The findings furthermore revealed that the most common causes impeding business growth are a lack of legal knowledge, a lack of funding and a general lack of business acumen.

The study was limited to the micro‐, very small and small sectors of small businesses. Medium‐sized businesses were not included in the sample. The research could be replicated in other similar townships to determine whether similar results could be obtained.

The study adds to the knowledge of challenges that small businesses face in Black townships and how these challenges could be minimised. Strategies recommended for ensuring the growth of small businesses are that government intensify information campaigns of their support services and encourage business owners to affiliate with local business chambers for business support purposes. Business owners and their staff should also prioritise business training.