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The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the influence of the internet on the internationalisation process and international customer relationship interactions of UK manufacturing small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper is positioned at the interface of the literature on international entrepreneurship and the internet.

The paper discusses the findings from multiple case studies of ten UK manufacturing SMEs from a variety of UK sectors, producing high‐, medium‐ and low‐tech offerings. In‐depth interviews with directors or managers of the SMEs were conducted. Individual and cross‐case analysis was carried out using coding frameworks to reduce and analyse the data and capture patterns in the findings.

The findings reveal how the influence of the internet in the internationalisation process and international customer relationship interactions differed in the high‐, medium‐or low‐tech SME categories. The influence of the internet differed across three main dimensions: the way in which the SMEs invested in and used different internet applications for internationalisation and customer relationship support, the SMEs' perceptions of the internet as a tool to support communication with international customers; the SMEs' reliance on more personal and interactive forms of contact with international customers.

The results demonstrate that the level of technological advancement of an SME's offerings has an important bearing on how these firms adopt the internet in their internationalisation process and gain advantages in their international customer interactions. The managerial implications of the study are relevant for manufacturing SMEs, their customers and government agencies involved with SMEs.

This research is amongst the first empirical contributions to examine the themes of the internet, internationalisation and international customer interactions in UK manufacturing SMEs and to highlight the importance of the level of technological advancement of an SME's offerings in distinguishing the ways in which the internet is used by entrepreneurial small firms in their internationalisation process.

The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of research into the area of quality initiatives (QI) such as ISO, total quality management, lean, Kaizen and its application within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). However, very few empirical studies have reported the application of Six Sigma in SMEs; the reasons may be attributed to several myths associated with Six Sigma. The purpose of this paper is to assess the current status of QI in the UK manufacturing SMEs and report the differences in the quality management practices of Six Sigma SMEs against the ISO certified firms.

A survey‐based approach was adopted to understand the established quality management practices in the UK SMEs. A short survey instrument was designed by reviewing the literature on quality improvement initiatives in SMEs. A sample of 500 manufacturing SMEs across UK was selected through stratified random sampling technique.

A response rate of 12.7 per cent was achieved and included respondents at senior management and middle management level across the manufacturing industry in the UK. Data analysis on the history of quality initiatives (QI) in SMEs indicated towards the trend that ISO may be the foundation or building block before embarking on lean or Six Sigma. Differences in quality management practices such as customer focused measures and method of knowledge transfer to employees, were observed in Six Sigma and ISO certified SMEs. The main reasons cited for not implementing Six Sigma in SMEs were lack of knowledge or understanding of the system and limited resources. A significant difference in the performance of Six Sigma/lean firms against ISO certified companies were observed with respect to the strategic and operational measures of organizational performance.

The limited response rate from the survey in the UK manufacturing SMEs will affect the generalizability of study to entire SME population. To negate the limitations of this study, a multiple multi‐level case studies will be conducted in SMEs in the next phase of doctoral research. Future study should focus on performing a global survey on quality management practices in SMEs.

The novelty of the paper lies in conducting a comparative study on the quality management practices in Six Sigma and non‐Six Sigma UK SMEs and measuring its impact on the performance of the firm. This study will facilitate in demystifying the myth that Six Sigma is only applicable in large organizations.

This paper aims to assess the impact of 2008 recession (Great Recession)-led environmental turbulence on the manufacturing small and medium enterprise (SME) sector and its related competitive priorities.

A mixed methods research strategy, consisting of a survey of 104 manufacturing SMEs located in the UK, complemented by 17 in-depth interviews with senior management representatives from this survey group.

Senior managers have prompted a realignment of competitive manufacturing priorities accounting for external financial and market conditions. Differing competitive priorities post-recession are given to various areas of manufacturing decision-making, the greatest impact being on manufacturing costs. Manufacturing flexibility, performance in meeting customer deliveries and enhancing supplier selection are merited to increase priority with relatively little change for process technology, quality and environmental practices.

The sample of survey participants was relatively small, therefore prohibiting an assessment of differences in competitive priorities by sub-sectors of manufacturing SMEs. This was offset by a healthy number of informative, in-depth interviews that provided a richness of examples and insight into the shifting priorities for the sector.

Clear priorities have emerged around reducing manufacturing costs, being more flexible in manufacturing and improving outward performance relating to customers and suppliers.

This builds on established manufacturing strategy constructs and points to necessary competitive priority realignment focused on the performance areas listed above.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the quality initiatives implemented in UK manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and to perform a comparative analysis of quality management practices within Six Sigma firms against the non‐Six Sigma manufacturing SMEs.

To achieve the research objective, a survey‐based approach is adopted by designing a short questionnaire addressing the issues of quality practices in SMEs. The paper encompasses the survey results from the first phase of Doctoral study to identify Six Sigma and non‐Six Sigma companies.

The response rate from the survey is 12.7 per cent out of 500 companies identified through the use of random sampling technique within the FAME and Dun & Bradstreet database of manufacturing SMEs. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The findings from the study reveal that there is a significant difference in the performance of the Six Sigma/Lean firms against ISO certified companies. However, it is interesting to reflect on the findings of critical success factors (CSFs) of the sample firms. There is no significant difference in the perceived importance of the identified CSFs' variables in the Six Sigma and ISO certified SMEs.

The focus of the study is only on UK manufacturing SMEs encompassing 64 firms. The small sample size and focus on manufacturing sector limits its generalisability to the entire SME population. Future study should focus on performing a comparative study of manufacturing and service based SMEs in UK or Europe.

The novelty of the paper lies in conducting a comparative study on the performance of Six Sigma and non‐Six Sigma UK SMEs and drawing out valuable lessons for academics, consultants, researchers and practitioners of continuous improvement initiatives like Lean and Six Sigma.

Six sigma for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is an emerging topic among many academics and six sigma practitioners over the last two to three years. Very few studies have been reported about the successful applications of six sigma in SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of six sigma implementation in UK manufacturing SMEs.

This paper presents an extensive literature review based on the experiences of both academics and practitioners on six sigma within an SME environment. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses associated with SMEs, followed by the results of a six sigma survey in UK manufacturing SMEs. The results of the study are based primarily on descriptive statistics.

The results of the study show that many of the SMEs are not aware of six sigma and many do not have the resources to implement six sigma projects. It was also found that lean sigma was not generally popular among SMEs. Management involvement and participation, linking six sigma to customers and linking six sigma to business strategy are the most critical factors for the successful deployment of six sigma in SMEs.

This paper reports the first study on the status of six sigma implementation in UK SMEs. The paper will yield a great value to academics, consultants, researchers and practitioners of six sigma.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems could create a competitive advantage for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The objectives of this study are to examine how responsive and agile the existing ERP systems are to change and uncertainty, and to identify the types of change and uncertainty in SME manufacturing environments.

A mixed methodology is used in this study, which involves literature review, questionnaire survey and follow‐up, in‐depth telephone interviews. An uncertainty diagnosing business model is applied to collect data from SME manufacturers in make‐to‐stock (MTS), make‐to‐order (MTO) and mixed mode (MM) manufacturing environments in a structured manner, and to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty on product late delivery in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments in SMEs. Some 108 enterprises responded (86 per cent response rate), of which 64 are SMEs. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is carried out in SPSS to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty on product late delivery in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments in SMEs.

ANOVA results show that a different group of underlying causes of uncertainty significantly affects the product late delivery performance in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments in SMEs. This study found that ERP could improve responsiveness and agility to change, but not to uncertainty. SMEs could create a competitive advantage by being more responsive to change in the ERP system before generating purchase and work order. ERP systems could not deal with uncertainty due to its stochastic and unpredictable nature. SMEs use a range of buffering or dampening techniques under uncertainty to be competitive in delivery.

It can be concluded that the application of the business model in SMEs that use ERP has provided useful knowledge about the significant underlying causes of uncertainty that affect product late delivery performance in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments. Using this knowledge, similar SMEs could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques to manage the causes of uncertainty and hence prevent any changes to the ERP system.

This paper reports on research investigating the process of formation of manufacturing strategy in six UK manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Realised manufacturing strategy can be considered to be the pattern formed in the stream of actions taken within a firm’s manufacturing function. The research aims to locate the source of that stream by identifying the causal origins of strategic manufacturing actions using a strategy charting method. The findings indicate that, for these companies, realised manufacturing strategy is predominantly formed through a bottom‐up emergent process, arising from the preferences of personnel within the manufacturing function. For most strategic manufacturing actions, there is no demonstrable link to business strategy. As such, these firms are not following best‐practice manufacturing strategy literature, which advises that manufacturing strategy be derived from business strategy in a top‐down deliberate process. This is the case despite differences in the size, products, customers, ownership structures and histories of the companies. The paper speculates that, in UK SMEs, more widely, manufacturing strategy may similarly not arise from the pursuit of business objectives. This may be because the concept of manufacturing as a potential strategic weapon is absent in the SME community, or because the formalised top‐down deliberate process of developing manufacturing strategy associated with this concept is inappropriate in the dynamic environments in which most SMEs operate.

The study of franchising as a small business growth strategy is only weakly researched and understood. This preliminary, qualitative investigation examines the experiences of 17 operational and five “failed” franchises in the UK, in translating their business concepts into a franchise format. It reveals that small firms select franchising as a growth strategy for both economic and idiosyncratic reasons, but that economic reasons tend to prevail. The findings suggest that franchising is a viable growth strategy for small firms and that per se it creates few major problems for growth‐oriented small businesses. It is argued that further research is needed, particularly into the experiences of “failed” franchises and into the problems encountered by growing small firms who do not adopt franchising as a growth strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide details of a survey conducted into 300 manufacturing SMEs from a range of different industrial sectors. The survey investigates, over a three‐year period, the attitudes towards and benefits obtained by SMEs through the adoption of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT). Its purpose is to analyse and disseminate these survey data to academics and industrialists.

The paper uses a research survey of 300 manufacturing SMEs. Analysis of the findings is provided and SME characterisation tables are developed.

The paper finds that characterisation, compatibility and innovativeness of SMEs towards AMT implementation were found to vary considerably with the SMEs surveyed. From the survey information, the paper develops a classification system based on the capabilities of these companies to implement Advanced Manufacturing Technologies. The paper will then characterise SME attitudes towards the development of AMT. The paper finally proposes a strategic model for the effective introduction and application of AMT in SMEs.

The survey is limited to SMEs and provides a strong body of evidence relating to AMT development with these companies.

The paper proposes a strategic model for the effective introduction and application of AMT in SMEs. The creation of a generic AMT implementation model provides a framework for a wider number of SMEs to introduce AMT into their respective organisations, since it provides for a systematic approach for SMEs to introduce AMT in an efficient and effective manner, thus reducing implementation costs, minimises risk of project failure and improves project management efficiency.

This paper is the first to explore in depth the AMT implementation issues within SMEs from large‐scale survey data. It not only analyses the survey data but also proposes a model for change, which aims to develop a more structured approach to AMT implementation in SMEs. Therefore, this work will make a contribution to this under‐researched area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the most common themes within Lean Six Sigma (LSS) relating to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within manufacturing organisations and to identify the research gaps in the existing literature.

Tranfield et al.’s (2003) systematic review methodology was utilised encompassing three stages: planning, conducting and reporting/dissemination.

The literature revealed that there are many areas in which LSS has been utilised with varying successes. In total, 52 journals have been reviewed and it has been concluded that although LSS is a powerful methodology, there are many gaps that exist in the literature and further research is needed to address these in the field of LSS.

The papers included in the systematic review were peer-reviewed papers available in English. Due to these limitations, relevant papers may have been excluded. Moreover, the authors have excluded all conference and white papers for their inclusion in this study.

It is vital that LSS practitioners are fully aware of the benefits, limitations and impeding factors when implementing a LSS initiative. Therefore, this paper could provide valuable insights to ensuring maximum value, is obtained from LSS implementation in SMEs.

This systematic review identifies research gaps in the current literature and highlighting areas of future research which will be beneficial to many SMEs in their pursuit of value optimisation.