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Entrepreneurial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face ever increasing competition not only at the domestic level but also at the global level. While large-scale enterprises and multinational corporations often hog the limelight, research and studies reveal that SMEs form the core of the growth engine of most of the national economies and are critical to rebuilding the economy from an economic crisis. In fact, SMEs make a significant contribution to economic growth and continue to play a pivotal role as a catalyst for development to drive innovation, competitiveness, and future growth. However, due to their size and limited resources, most SMEs often struggle to keep on top of new development in capabilities and skills and encounter difficulties keeping their operational activities in balance. Therefore, it is inevitable that most governments have taken a keen interest in SMEs’ development by providing infrastructure and financial grants. As such, it is argued that resource-constraint SMEs need to preserve the focus and drive to survive and grow in today’s interconnected, interdependent world. SMEs need to be properly equipped with deep capabilities in transformational leadership, technicality, and entrepreneurship, and innovativeness required to go international more rapidly and profitably in today’s increasingly borderless world.

The literature documents a shortage in the supply of external funding to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and to innovative SMEs in particular. This study separates cognitive from financial constraints on innovative SMEs’ growth opportunities. Using data gathered through in-depth interviews with the CEOs of 115 SMEs, we reveal that over and above a problem with supply, there exists a twofold problem on the demand side. Specifically, we document that there is a tendency for these companies to avoid approaching external funding sources, especially ones that gear their investments toward innovation. Our results reveal a cognitive bias (over-pessimism) affecting the entrepreneurs’ (lack of) demand for external financing over and above other firm-specific factors. CEO tenure — our proxy for human and social capital — is significantly lower (higher) in firms that did (did not) pursue external funding. This finding may provide some support for our hypothesis regarding the cognitive bias and over-pessimism of the more veteran CEOs who have had negative experiences regarding recruiting external resources. The impact of this entrepreneurial cognition is shown to be economically detrimental to the enterprise. Nevertheless, the negative effects are not limited to the micro level, but have implications at the macro level as well, due to under-realization of the potential for employment, productivity, and growth of the firms comprising the vast majority of the economy.

This chapter aims at discussing sustainable development goals (SDGs) and entrepreneurship from an economic and social perceptive. More specifically, this chapter aims at discussing the challenges facing small & medium enterprises (SMEs) applying the goal of ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns to their day-to-day operations. In this chapter, a synthesis of a field of research related to sustainable developmental goals SDGs and SMEs is provided, with a focus on entrepreneurs who believe their SME needs to act as a “good corporate citizen” with the responsibility to (1) sustain the environment for future generations and (2) care about the well-being of society at large. This field of research is presented to identify important opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs with SDGs within a Multiple Framework Approach.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are seldom the focus of corporate communication research. However, they are the heart of the European economy and, as such, of utmost importance for communication science and practice. This chapter contributes to the body of knowledge by investigating how corporate communication is practised and by understanding how communication prevails in small and medium firms in Germany. The chapter starts with a clarification of current definitions of such organisations, which are very heterogeneous. Special features of SMEs – like the strong position of founder and their proximity to the company – have to be taken into account when analysing communication structures and activities. Empirical insights based on a survey of 572 respondents show that most SMEs understand corporate communication as dialogue and their governance structure for communication is oriented towards the top management. The most important communication instruments used by SMEs are websites, media relations, personal communication and events/trade fairs. Findings are presented and linked to an overarching perspective of strategic communication.

Over the last 10 years, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developed countries have faced increasingly stiff competition in their local markets, which has put the survival of many of them at risk. To reduce their vulnerability, many SMEs have targeted sales to other countries. Recently, however, the pace and intensity of these firms’ export activities appear to have decreased, as their traditional markets (i.e., the United States and Europe) have been experiencing slow growth. This situation has led some SMEs to explore the possibility of exporting to less traditional countries presenting more opportunities. However, a good number of entrepreneurs remain hesitant to go down this road, in particular given the uncertainty that prevails in those regions and the risks they represent in terms of exports. This study, which was conducted with a sample of 582 Canadian manufacturing SMEs, reveals that two characteristics help explain the fact that some SMEs choose to export to higher risk countries, more specifically to Asia. These characteristics are a positive attitude towards risk-taking among managers and the implementation of certain risk management mechanisms.

This paper explored the relationship between the embeddedness of a firm’s managerial values and corporate financial performance in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by developing a conceptual maturity model of managerial values (MM-MV). The MM-MV articulates the extent to which managerial values are embedded within organizations, allowing the analysis of the interrelationship between the degree of values-embeddedness and financial performance in SMEs. The findings suggested that as managerial values become more embedded, financial performance increases; therefore, SMEs exhibiting highly embedded managerial values such as customer-minded, team spirit, innovation-driven reliability, persistency, competency, and engagement tend to financially outperform SMEs that have not fully embedded managerial values throughout the firm.

Many national and regional governments and various trade associations have created and are currently developing services that aim to provide support for firms that have just begun to or which plan to operate in international markets. Consequently, the purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the role of various support services especially in the case of software small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aiming to expand internationally and accelerate their international growth. In the empirical part of the chapter, the authors review the key support organisations Finland has for its software industry. Through a descriptive empirical survey (n = 25) of the industry, we illustrate the role of various support services that are especially targeted at firms aiming to accelerate their international growth, irrespective of the phase of internationalisation. Furthermore, the authors study the use, quality and effectiveness of the internationalisation of support services from the viewpoint of managers of Finnish software SMEs. Based on our results, it is easy and logical to argue that better targeted programmes should be developed for rapidly internationalising firms in the turbulent software market. However, there are already a few innovative and better targeted programmes being offered to Finnish software firms. According to our study, in the later phases of internationalisation, the key to success is more closely linked to the availability of external funding as well as knowledge and contacts provided by international consultants.

This study explains the international opportunity development of SMEs from emerging economies during institutional transition. This research enriches our understanding of how these firms adopt different approaches to developing international opportunities when they confront the turbulent institutional environment. We develop a phase-based framework for the evolution of transitional institution for SMEs’ internationalization and the SMEs’ internationalization process in that framework. By providing an empirical case study of a privately owned SME from China, the main finding is that SMEs from emerging economies become more entrepreneurial and proactive in developing the international opportunity during the institutional transition.

This chapter focuses on the international development of Mixel Agitators, an independent SME which develops, produces and markets industrial mixers. Founded in the late 1960s near Lyon, in France, the company has more than 70 employees worldwide. Initially focused on its domestic market, the SME changed strategy and opened to foreign markets after the arrival of a new CEO. Since then, Mixel Agitators has been highly active abroad, notably is China where it holds a production and sales subsidiary. The authors of this chapter chart the international expansion of the company in order to highlight key success factors of industrial SMEs in such a challenging market.

Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sectors have a strong influence on the Egyptian economy. Yet, effective formulation of integrated cluster along the value chain can lead MSMEs to become international actors in export-oriented activities. An Agro-Industrial Park is an integrated cluster taking into consideration synergetic agglomeration of agribusiness MSMEs assisting in decreasing deprivation of rural territories. This research aims to present the needs of agriculture MSMEs in Egypt, to describe challenges faced by this specific sector, and to set guidelines for a business model integrating small farmers and producers into an integrated agribusiness cluster. The researcher followed purposive/nonprobability sampling technique of 100 MSMEs research participants. A combination of questionnaires and open-ended interviews were the research instruments of choice along with secondary data. This research focused on agribusiness only and specifically MSMEs in Egypt. There is no agribusiness-integrated cluster in Egypt, even though the agricultural land increased significantly in the past 5 years, leading us to believe that it is imperative to develop agribusiness-integrated clusters in the coming few years.