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This article aims to present an overview of the historical development and current status of Chinese small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) examine major political initiatives contributing to SMEs' development and draw out some experience from SME development practices in China.

This paper is exploratory in nature, using archives of government documents and related statistics.

The article argues that the fundamental role of the market in allocating resources and the self‐operation status of SMEs should be respected, that it is imperative to encourage SMEs to optimise industrial structure, and that it is important to properly handle the government‐enterprise relations and bring the role of the government in macro control into full play so as to create a fair competitive environment for SMEs.

The Chinese experience of SME development is of great interest to policy‐makers and academics alike.

The article explores entrepreneurship and SME development in China from a policy‐making perspective.

This paper is concerned with the learning needs of managers in SMEs that seek to become progressively international. A particular focus of attention is the informal learning practices that occur within the economic and social networks utilised by managers in this sector. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection, the paper investigates the challenges perceived by managers engaged (or seeking to engage) in international activity. The results suggest three main areas of challenge: first, the early “pre‐internationalisation” stage, when decisions about “whether”, “where” or “how” to internationalise are taken; secondly, the development of longer‐term planning processes and business systems to cope with the consequences of the initial internationalisation decision; thirdly, the challenge of regulatory issues and the need to secure payment and manage foreign intermediaries. Further areas of learning need, which depend on the significance of international business for the firm, are also indicated. Existing structures, cultures and approaches to management can be maintained for many SMEs that undertake some limited international activity. Where international business is a more important factor, however, managers need to develop cultural appreciation and empathy to underpin their expertise and consolidate their market position. Indeed, sustained international development may require a significant reorienting of the business, underpinned by management and organisational learning to develop an appropriate international “mind‐set” that supports the effective development of relationships with stakeholders in different countries.

The small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) development has been the subject of a growing interest among academics and practitioners, as well as multilateral institutions. However, the interest in the growth of African business evolution has been under‐researched, even as developments and market dynamics are increasingly impacting this sub‐sector, especially in the UK. The urgent need arises for a study that enables practitioners and educators and also lends some insight into the possibilities and limitations in the UK environment, with a view to improving entrepreneurial education that is focused on these minorities. This paper aims to fill that gap.

This study focuses on the development of black African SMEs (BASMEs) in London by examining the various factors that impact their development. A qualitative methodological approach was used to gain a better understanding of the BASMEs.

This research proceeds by developing a conceptual matrix to classify the black Africans into four but significant emergent groups. It also discusses the trend of growth in the last decade. Finally, it draws conclusions on managerial implications, by identifying the various social, economic and environmental limitations that impact (BASMEs') growth.

A substantial part of this study was based on secondary data. There appear to be several areas in need of further research. Further in‐depth research is required to assess the characteristics of BASMEs.

The study enables practitioners, policy makers and educators to have an insight into the possibilities and limitations in the UK environment. It will help to improve entrepreneurial education and policies that are focused on these minorities. It goes on to make suggestions as to how those may be improved, as well as identifying new areas of possible research.

The study provides all interested parties, the African businesses and other ethnic businesses, with a more robust body of literature and information from which new and further research can be built and expanded.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a full‐scale testing of the role of marketing and its relevance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The objective is to present the results of a rigorous assessment of a new model of marketing in SMEs.

A positivist approach relied on the use of the hypothetico‐deductive method to produce the theoretical model. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied to investigate the model. This paper reports on a large‐scale questionnaire survey, follow‐up interviews with SMEs owner‐managers and the use of published accounts to show how companies have performed during this study.

The role and relevance model of marketing in SMEs has been thoroughly investigated and tested. The model offers a straightforward way of diagnosing the situation within an SME. The simplicity of the model allows for a clearer understanding of what is often a complex and messy situation within these companies and their business environment. Some findings suggest a positive link between a company's financial performance and its approach to marketing within the model.

The paper concludes that the model goes a long way to explaining the behaviour of SMEs with regard to marketing. The model appears to be viable and could be used to analyse and diagnose the situation regarding marketing within SMEs.

The paper offers a unique theoretical and practical insight into the issue of marketing in SMEs.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Is innovation dead? Of course, in one sense it is very much alive, as firms around the world plough billions of dollars into research and design (R&D) programs, skunkworks and AGILE teams to develop ideas and innovate new products. They wouldn’t spend all that time and effort if there was nothing left to innovate, would they? Well no, but as we start the year 2020 one cannot help thinking that some of the spark and fizz has gone out of product launches. Rather than seeing things that are genuinely new and exciting, we see things have been developed and evolved, but are not representing a huge game change or paradigm shift in the way we carry on our everyday lives.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The objective of this paper is to identify and measure the perceived importance of barriers in the SME community to the adoption of internet business procurement and supply chain solutions.

This was a telephone survey of a sample of 173 Canadian small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), stratified by size of company (small and medium) and according to whether they were distributors, retailers or manufacturers. The data were analyzed statistically through an analysis of variance approach.

Few differences were found between SME internet adopters and non‐adopters. There is a need for education for all SME management on the benefits and drawbacks to using e‐business solutions. Inter‐organizational information systems that are required to link supply chain partners can be a serious barrier to online solutions. There is a significant dependency among supply chain partners in decisions on adopting online links. Flexibility, agility and ability of SMEs can help them to use partial e‐business solutions for low volumes of business, but this approach can be very ineffective when transaction volumes are large.

The results from this paper can help to direct future efforts to encourage SMEs to adopt e‐business solutions.

This study differs from other SME e‐business adoption studies, in that it includes relationships with supply chain partners that play a large role in the adoption of innovative e‐business solutions, transaction volumes which, for many SMEs that have not adopted e‐business, may be too small to justify automated supply chain linkages, and transaction volumes with a company's biggest customer or supplier.

The purpose of this paper is to present a hierarchy decision model for assessing the priority of safety management elements in manufacturing enterprises with reference to three major industries (i.e. textile and clothing, electronics, and printing and publishing) in Hong Kong. The identification of core decision criteria and safety management elements were addressed with respect to the effective implementation of safety management systems (SMS) in manufacturing enterprises.

Empirical data were acquired via a conduct of personal interviews with evaluators (i.e. safety personnel, experts and professionals) in industry. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, a list of seven decision criteria and 13 safety management elements were identified and their relative importance were evaluated.

It was found that the top three criteria for SMS implementation were “client requirement” “insurance company requirement” and “employee requirement”. Both “safety organisation” and “safety policy” were the most important safe management elements. Besides, evaluators put greater concerns on “safe person” elements than “safe place” elements. Incorporating the AHP findings, a self‐regulatory approach to implementing safety management elements was proposed.

The hierarchy decision model would enable manufacturing enterprises to focus their resources on the critical elements at a time, to improve the effectiveness of SMS implementation. Future study could validate the applicability of the model and the self‐regulatory approach in large enterprises and small to medium‐sized enterprises, separately and collectively.

Using the AHP methodology, safety personnel could evaluate the relative importance of decision criteria and safety management elements with respect to the corporate goals, resources and constraints of their respective organisations.

The hierarchy decision model presented would enable manufacturing enterprises to determine the relative importance of decision criteria and safety management elements and to establish viable strategies for SMS implementation.

The purpose of this study is to explore managers' understanding of workplace health promotion (WHP) and experiences of WHP activity within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in a Health and Social Care Trust area of Northern Ireland. The paper aims to focus on engagement with activities within the context of prevention of ill‐health and health protection, lifestyle issues and working culture and the environment as defined in the Luxembourg Declaration on WHP.

A Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological methodology is adopted, using in‐depth telephone interviews with a purposive sample of 18 SME managers. Data are analysed using Benner's strategy for data analysis.

“Levels of awareness of WHP activity” are revealed as a central theme and interpreted as “high awareness activities”, including the need to: preserve and protect employee health and safety, prevent ill‐health and injury and promote employees' quality of daily living, and “low awareness activities”, including the provision of training and development, human resource management and environmental considerations.

An “Iceberg” model, grounded in the data, draws attention to the limited awareness of what constitutes WHP activities and the untapped meaningfulness of organisational and environmental activities.

The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines for entrepreneurs for implementing effective inventory management (IM) practices and presents the results of a survey of machine tool enterprises in Bangalore, India.

A descriptive analysis is used to present aspects of the findings, which reflect the current state of IM in machine tool enterprises. In addition, percentages, bar diagrams and correlation analysis provide a more accurate assessment of this industry sector.

The study identified several major problems in the context of IM in machine tool enterprises including the use of rule‐of‐thumb for IM, a low importance given to forecasting, random ordering of materials, low levels of training and development, and low computer use as well as a low importance given to purchasing and variable lead‐time. The study confirmed the need for managers in the machine tool sector to alter drastically their approach to IM.

This study of 40 SMEs in Bangalore should be extended using a larger sample representative of Indian SMEs in order to arrive at findings that are more generalizable across the machine tool sector in India.

The managers of SMEs should consider seriously IM as a strategic concept simply because effective IM positively influences productivity. There is profound scope for improving the operations and performance of SMEs through the application of quality practices in IM.

Considering the lack of studies about IM in the context of Indian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), this paper helps fill a gap in the literature. A review of the policy framework concerned with SMEs suggests that policymakers do not consider critically the role of IM and related issues. It is significant to note that there is no exclusive reference to improvement in IM within the policy documents. At the same time, the literature review suggests that effective approaches to IM can improve the productivity and competitiveness of SMEs.