Search results

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the role of the project champion and the project champion's experience in a business capacity building project in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The project champion mentored and fostered joint enterprises between and across actors engaged in the production, processing, distribution, retailing and exporting of lamb meat and cheese derived from sheep milk. The article aims to analyse and compare the experiences and knowledge from this project with that of knowledge in extant studies on demand chain integration and inter‐firm alliances.

A case study was crafted from information accessed from the project champion, key informants and information about the project presented in the web sites of the United States Agency for International Development and the project champion. The experiences presented in the case study were critically examined and evaluated with the findings in extant studies on inter‐firm alliances.

Demand chain strategy based on customer orientation and seamless integration of all actors in the value chain through a joint enterprise fosters relationship bonding, structural cohesion and transaction efficiencies. The role of a third party project champion in facilitating and mentoring the value chain actors contributed to the success of the joint‐enterprise.

The findings are based on a single case study, the unique characteristics of the study context limits the scope of generalising the findings.

Knowledge from this study is transferable to other industry sectors and can also be adapted in other environments in which individual small‐to‐medium‐scale enterprises experience competency and capacity constraints in developing their business.

Adopts a whole‐of‐chain capacity building approach. The dynamics of the study context (small‐to‐medium scale enterprises in all segments of the chain, niche high value products, transitional economy which recently adopted a free enterprise business model) are unique and this influenced project initiatives and outcomes. The study provides valuable insights into developing small‐to‐medium‐scale food enterprise capacity building projects.

The rapid growth of blogs over the Internet has gradually attracted the attention of enterprises that want to engage in business and develop their online communication channels for customer relationships. The study aims to develop and examine the determinants of enterprise blog (E‐Blog) adoption for the service industry. Organization size is used as a moderating factor to disclose its influence on the effects of the variables.

The research model of the empirical study integrates three composites: social exchange theory, innovation diffusion theory, and organization dynamics. For the results, data are analyzed by using factor analysis to derive the actual composites and structural equation model to test the hypotheses.

The main results show the following findings. First, social exchange via E‐Blog fosters enterprise reputation. Second, enterprises are doubtful whether they can build online relationships via E‐Blog with their customers and E‐Blog visitors. Third, virtual trust and the unknown virtual social structure are barriers for enterprises in using E‐Blog. Fourth, E‐Blog adopters are likely to be purpose‐sensitive as the numbers of blog type increase.

The research findings reveal that E‐Blog vendors and agents should emphasize reputation development to attract the attention of their customers (enterprises). In addition, small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises prefer the relative advantages and simplicity of E‐Blogging. In contrast, large enterprises are more concerned with competition pressure and market dynamics involved in the adoption attitude. These findings would be useful for E‐Blog service providers to analyze the requirements of their customers. In addition, E‐Blog vendors and agents should persuade enterprises adopting E‐Blog to ease competition pressure, particularly for large firms who have not adopted the technology. Finally, E‐Blog platforms and vendors should emphasize that E‐Blog can help increase reputation by attracting the attention of enterprises to adopt E‐Blogging.

In the virtual socialization process, the blog has been developing its own characteristics that are linked to social behaviour. This link explains social change and stability in cyberspace from the social psychology and sociology points of view. The research findings differ from those of previous research because early studies focused on individual Internet user blog participation without placing emphasis on the adoption intention of enterprises. The findings of this study will be helpful for both E‐Blog service providers and enterprises.

This study aims to offer insights into the state of research covering cybersecurity, cyber insurance and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It examines benefits of insurance to an SME’s security posture, challenges faced, and potential solutions and outstanding research questions.

Research objectives were formulated, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocol was used to perform a systematic literature review (SLR). A total of 19 papers were identified from an initial set of 451.

This research underscores the role of cybersecurity in the value proposition of cyber insurance for SMEs. The findings highlight the benefits that cyber insurance offers SMEs including protection against cyber threats, financial assistance and access to cybersecurity expertise. However, challenges hinder SME’s engagement with insurance, including difficulties in understanding cyber risk, lack of cybersecurity knowledge and complex insurance policies. Researchers recommend solutions, such as risk assessment frameworks and government intervention, to increase cyber insurance uptake/value to SMEs.

There is a need for further research in the risk assessment and cybersecurity practices of SMEs, the influence of government intervention and the effectiveness of insurers in compensating for losses. The findings also encourage innovation to address the unique needs of SMEs. These insights can guide future research and contribute to enhancing cyber insurance adoption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first SLR to comprehensively examine the intersection of cybersecurity and cyber insurance specifically in the context of SMEs.

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy, in terms of employment and their contribution to national wealth. A significant proportion of that contribution comes from innovation. SMEs are also the engine for future growth in the economy. Project management has a role to play in managing that innovation and growth. The purpose of this paper is to find the extent to which SMEs use projects, project management and the tools of project management, and to determine what differences there are by size of company and industry.

A questionnaire was developed to examine the extent to which small firms carry out projects, the resources they employ, the way they measure project success and the tools and techniques that they use. The questionnaire was answered by 280 companies from a range of industries and sizes.

It is found that companies of all sizes spend roughly the same proportion of turnover on projects, but the smaller the company, the smaller their projects, the less they use project management and its tools. Surprisingly, hi‐tech companies spend less on projects than lo‐tech or service companies, but have larger projects and use project management to a greater extent. They also use the gadgets of project management to a greater extent.

It is concluded that SMEs do require less‐bureaucratic versions of project management, perhaps with different tool sets than the more traditional versions designed for medium‐sized or large projects, and with different versions for medium, small and micro projects. For all firms, the important success factors are client consultation; planning, monitoring and control; and resource allocation are also identified.

The findings suggest the need for further research into the nature of those “lite” versions of project management designed for SMEs.

Considers an area of growing importance in marketing research. Small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are continuing to play an increasing role in the development of western economies. Puts forward the argument that existing approaches to conducting marketing research in SMEs are rooted in the big firm mindset and, therefore, in positivist thinking, tending to focus mainly on survey methods. Examines the various orientations that predominate in and shape the SME context. Develops a research position with a syncretised qualitative research methodology outlined and applied to a research project carried out by one of the authors into 57 small firms in the UK. All of the orientations of the SMEs appeared rooted, to a large extent, in one or more highly influential individuals who fashion the culture and direction of these firms. Argues for an approach to research in SMEs that recognises the various influencing orientations including the impact on marketing research and the role of the entrepreneurial individual.

This paper presents a methodology for the development of a new tool for the formation of a virtual enterprise. The formation phase mainly deals with inviting potential collaborators to virtual enterprise, and developing a supply chain; supply chain development is done collaboratively by all the collaborating enterprises. The methodology for realizing a new e‐commerce tool is primarily aimed at satisfying the needs of small‐to‐medium‐sized enterprises, and has the following features: Web‐based; inexpensive; supports collaboration; and increases pipeline visibility and demand visibility.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that can be used to predict which small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are more likely to become adopters of enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, SCM and e‐procurement).

Direct interviews were used to collect data from a random sample of SMEs located in the Northwest of England. Using logistic regression, 102 responses were analysed.

The results reveal that the factors influencing SMEs' adoption of enterprise systems are different from the factors influencing SMEs' adoption of other previously studied information systems (IS) innovations. SMEs were found to be more influenced by technological and organisational factors than environmental factors. Moreover, the results indicate that firms with a greater perceived relative advantage, a greater ability to experiment with these systems before adoption, greater top management support, greater organisational readiness and a larger size are predicted to become adopters of enterprise systems.

Although this study focused on the factors that influence SMEs' adoption of a set of enterprise systems (i.e. ERP, CRM, SCM and e‐procurement), it fails to differentiate between factors that influence each of these systems.

The model can be used to assist software vendors not only to develop marketing strategies that can target potential adopters, but also to develop strategies to increase the adoption of ES among SMEs.

The paper contributes to the continuing research in IS innovations adoption/diffusion in the small business context.

This paper addresses the problems inherent in identifying technological innovations that can improve company competitiveness with the ultimate aim of increasing the value of a specific enterprise. A model is proposed that, starting with the competitive weight of a technological innovation to processes or products, yields a strategic weight that enables decision makers to evaluate the increase in business value consequent on application of such innovation. The proposed model is composed of four sub‐models: the first is an analysis of process/product competitiveness aimed at identifying competitive priorities and therefore appropriate technologies; the second sub‐model identifies the priorities of technological intervention from amongst the competitive technologies selected; the third sub‐model correlates the two previous sub‐models and thereby expresses a “strategic weight” of the technological projects with respect to the competitive priorities of the processes or products; the fourth and last sub‐model applies scenario simulation and sustainable growth verification to estimate the impact of strategic project innovations in terms of increased business value.

This paper aims to empirically explore the TOE (technology-organisation-environment) factors influencing small to medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') adoption of enterprise applications (EA).

Direct interviews were used to collect data from a random sample of SMEs located in the northwest of England. Using partial least squares (PLS) technique, 102 responses were analysed.

Results indicate that technology, organisation and environment contexts impact SMEs' adoption of EA. This suggests that the TOE model is indeed a robust tool to predict the adoption of EA by SMEs.

Although this study focused on examining factors that influence SMEs' adoption of a set of systems such as CRM and e-procurement, it fails to differentiate between factors influencing each of these applications. The model used in this study can be used by software vendors not only in developing marketing strategies that can target potential SMEs, but also to develop strategies to increase the adoption of EA among SMEs.

This model could be used by software vendors to determine which SMEs they should target with their products. It can also be used by policy makers to develop strategies to increase the rate of EA adoption among SMEs.

This paper provides a model that can predict SMEs' adoption of EA. SMEs, adoption, enterprise applications, enterprise systems, ICT, PLS, technology-organisation-environment framework, TOE

Global mindset has gained the respectable attention of international business scholars. Global mindset is a multidisciplinary concept comprised of cognitive and cultural dimensions which both influence the international behavior and decision making of the firm. The key purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that global mindset is a crucial cognitive driver of the small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) internationalization process. In order to do so, it aims to establish the link between global mindset and export performance outcomes.

Using a literature review, the conceptual model was developed. Data were obtained through survey questionnaire and analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling on the sample of 121 exporting SMEs in Croatia.

Findings of this study suggest that global mindset is positively, directly and significantly related to the export performance. Furthermore, the link between global mindset and export performance was assessed with the moderating effect of international experience (export diversity and export intensity) and findings reveal that there is no significant moderating effect present.

Findings of this study suggest that global mindset is a crucial driver of the SME internationalization process as it exhibited a significant impact on the export performance outcomes. However, the focus of this paper was solely on the strategic (cognitive) dimension of global mindset. Future studies are yet to reveal the relevance of the integrated concept of global mindset.

The value‐added of this study is in the idea that market‐specific experience cannot be easily transferred to other foreign markets by utilizing global mindset. The moderating effect of international experience dimensions on relationship between global mindset and export performance was found to be insignificant. Eventually, findings suggest that global mindset is not related to the SME's international experience.