Conceptualising how SMEs incorporate green content in their websites

This paper presents a framework on how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can proactively incorporate content relating to their ecological responsibility (or green) activities in their websites. SME studies offer limited guidance on, and conceptualisation of, how organisations can incorporate different types of content into their website designs. This paper addresses this problem by presenting the results of an exploratory, qualitative content analysis of Australian SME websites where emergent themes are interpreted using framing and legitimacy theories. It describes three dimensions (location, presentation, and specificity) which comprise the framework, under which the themes are grouped. The paper outlines how scholars can use the framework to develop models and carry out evaluations regarding how SMEs embed green content, and potentially other specific content types, in their websites. It also summarises how the framework can assist SMEs (or website developers serving them) make informed decisions regarding framing their websites as green, or de-emphasising this content, by paying attention to its location (e.g. homepage, navigation bars) and presentation (e.g. how paragraphs, images, etc are used) within webpages. The legitimacy or credibility of the green content can be enhanced using different types of specificity (e.g. statistics, detail of processes and actions, and third-party substantiation)

London Creative and Digital Fusion

date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000The London Creative and Digital Fusion programme of interactive, tailored and in-depth support was designed to support the UK capital’s creative and digital companies to collaborate, innovate and grow. London is a globally recognised hub for technology, design and creative genius. While many cities around the world can claim to be hubs for technology entrepreneurship, London’s distinctive potential lies in the successful fusion of world-leading technology with world-leading design and creativity. As innovation thrives at the edge, where better to innovate than across the boundaries of these two clusters and cultures? This booklet tells the story of Fusion’s innovation journey, its partners and its unique business support. Most importantly of all it tells stories of companies that, having worked with London Fusion, have innovated and grown. We hope that it will inspire others to follow and build on our beginnings.European Regional Development Fund 2007-13

Knowledge assimilation processes of rapidly internationalising firms: longitudinal case studies of Scottish SMEs

<p>Purpose – The accumulation of knowledge and learning by firms has been identified as being critical to their internationalisation. This paper aims to explore the knowledge assimilation processes of rapidly internationalising small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).</p> <p>Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative enquiry in two stages. First, four case studies were selected from firms that were participating in an internationalisation programme run by Scottish Enterprise, the regional development agency. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with chief executive officers (CEOs) and programme providers, and archival data. Second, two focus groups were held with six CEOs participating in the programme.</p> <p>Findings – The findings indicate that knowledge sharing is important for rapidly internationalising SMEs and that firms adopted high levels of formality in assimilating knowledge. Two key aspects of formality were identified as important; formal planned events to share explicit and tacit knowledge and the codification of tacit to explicit knowledge. Knowledge may be assimilated less formally by the retention of tacit knowledge as tacit, while utilising elements of formality. The paper finds that learning for internationalisation can be transferred to support domestic growth.</p> <p>Practical implications – It is important for firms to develop appropriate knowledge assimilation processes within their management systems to support internationalisation. The CEO and management team need to take the lead in marshalling commitment to learning processes and in cultivating an organisational culture that is supportive of learning.</p> <p>Originality/value – This research contributes to international entrepreneurship by providing insights into the knowledge assimilation processes employed by rapidly internationalising SMEs to manage the tensions between the need for greater formality to be efficient at learning, and informality to enable speedy decision making.</p&gt

Understanding the Impact of Sustainability and CSR Information in D2C Online Shops on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior – A Literature Review

Many brands nowadays use direct-to-consumer channels such as proprietary online shops, in order to provide information related to their sustainability and CSR initiatives and to increase consumers’ perceptions of legitimacy of the company and its products. However, so far little is known about the effects of such information on consumer attitudes and behavior. This implies that the true benefit of S/CSR initiatives is currently not well understood by most companies and resource allocation in this area may be distorted. Therefore, in this literature review we consolidate and map existing research that can inform our understanding of this phenomenon. By analyzing a sample of 46 papers we find that research on the topic in a direct-to-consumer context is sparse, but that theories and empirical evidence from related contexts can help us grasp the issue to some extent

Scoping the evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research in the sustainable development goals (SDGS) era

© 2020 by the authors. Amidst a contemporary culture of climate awareness, unprecedented levels of transparency and visibility are forcing industrial organizations to broaden their value chains and deepen the impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. While it may be common knowledge that the 2030 agenda cannot be achieved on a business-as-usual trajectory, this study seeks to determine to what ends the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have impacted CSR research. Highlighting linkages and interdependencies between the SDGs and evolution of CSR practice, this paper analyzes a final sample of 56 relevant journal articles from the period 2015-2020. With the intent of bridging policy and practice, thematic coding analysis has supported the identification and interpretation of key emergent research themes. Using threedescriptive categorical classifications (i.e., single-dimension, bi-combination of dimensions, sustainability dimension), the results of this paper provide an in-depth discussion into strategic community, company, consumer, investor, and employee foci. Furthermore, the analysis provides a timely and descriptive overview of how CSR research has approached the SDGs and which ones are being prioritized. By deepening the understanding of potential synergies between business strategy, global climate agendas and the common good, this paper contributes to an increased comprehension of how CSR and financial performance can be improved over the long-term

Enabling private sector adaptation to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa

The private sector is increasingly recognised as having important potential to help society adapt and become more resilient to climate change. Yet there is limited research examining how to promote and facilitate private sector adaptation in developing countries and in particular how governments can create an enabling environment to stimulate and incentivise domestic private sector adaptation. In this paper, we address this gap through a review of the key factors required to provide an enabling environment for the private sector denoted by existing adaptation literatures. We do this with a focus on adaptation by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To advance this review, we draw insights from a much larger, yet generally independent, literature on enabling environments for private sector development. This literature disaggregates the private sector and highlights key constraints to the development and growth of SMEs in SSA, including deficient infrastructure and evidence of an African gap in access to and use of finance. Both areas of scholarship are then combined in a framework identifying key ‘building blocks’ constituting enabling conditions for private sector adaptation. The framework could be applied in many ways including to focus strategies to enhance private sector adaptation and to identify trade-offs and interactions between policies or initiatives surrounding private sector development. By combining these literatures, we call for a more holistic approach to developing enabling environments for SME adaptation and climate resilient development, that addresses the broader structural deficits that condition vulnerability and barriers that limit adaptive capacity

Mobile technology capabilities and their role in service innovation practices in creative SMEs.

Mobile technology is a next step in the expansion of opportunities made available by information technology (IT). It remains questionable as to whether mobile technology differs from fixed networks and stationary IT, while the role of mobile technology deployment in service innovation practices still needs to be established. In this thesis service innovation practices and mobile technology deployment are studied in a creative industry setting – in-depth interviews with 31 SME managers are analysed using a grounded theory approach. A capability approach, wherein capabilities imply a use-in-practice analysis of a firm’s assets and competences deployment, assists in conceptualising the process of mobile technology deployment and understanding qualitative results. As a result, this study concludes that accessing or acquiring mobile technology resources and developing mobile technology capabilities underpin mobile technology deployment. Primarily, this thesis’s main theoretical contribution is in introducing and defining a new concept named ‘mobile technology capabilities’, namely a firm’s unique practices employed in orchestrating mobile technology resources to create a competitive advantage. Mobile technology capabilities consist of five distinct practices that firms perform to combine and integrate mobile technology resources into organisational processes, namely learning, leading, transforming, leveraging mobile technology resources and solving problems. Moreover, this study concludes that interaction between mobile technology resources and mobile technology capabilities stimulates and facilitates both process and product service innovation practices, where organisational commitment towards mobile technology deployment determine the innovation practices with which a firm is going to engage. Hence, three clusters of creative service SMEs were identified in this study, which reflect on diverse practices of mobile technology deployment. The understanding of mobile technology deployment process that derives from this thesis is particularly significant in showing SMEs’ managers the real value in embracing mobile technology

Kreative acts of strategy (kaos): a business plan for a new type of small consultancy

M310: Marketing Z100: Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic AnthropologyThe proposed business is designed as a small Creative Brand Consulting and Collaborative Innovation firm that caters to Small-to-Medium sized (SME) consumer goods/services producing enterprises. It derives its innovative approach from a proprietary framework, which is implemented as an analysis tool to audit a client’s business in a strategically new way. The ASP framework draws its pillars, Authenticity, Sustainability, and Product Functionality from the condensation of contemporary discourse about these topics. All of the pillar traits can be found in many of today’s successful, global brands, which encourages to manifest them as a strategically applicable tool. The overall goal is hereby to reduce so-called negative externalities, that is, to reduce environmental/societal harm and to enhance outcomes’ functional value to eventually create a more friendly but efficient co-living environment. It is believed that doing so increases a brands’ intrinsic value through claiming a socially beneficial purpose apart from the purpose to grow infinitely. Apart from offering Management Consulting services for small businesses within the respective context, the proposed plan stipulates a risk diversification through the offer of additional business services. The innovative approach focuses on a lean business structure, which entails to form a “temporary” enterprise by collaborating with contractors only when needed, that is, project based. The proposed business aims to grow slowly and organically, as it is demanded by its values and its mission to successfully shape a consumption environment that both grows and produces positive societal outcomes.O negócio proposto é designado como uma pequena consultoria criativa de marca e firma de inovação colaborativa que presta serviços a pequenas e médias empresas (PME) produtoras de bens consumíveis (englobando também, nesta categoria, bens perecíveis) e/ou serviços. As estratégias inovadoras, na qual os serviços propostos neste negócio são baseados, derivam de um framework da empresa que é implementado como uma ferramenta de análise, de modo a auditar o negócio do cliente duma nova forma estratégica, na qual foi dada a definição de ASP framework. O ASP framework cria os seus pilares, Autenticidade, Sustentabilidade, e funcionalidade do Produto, como um resultado da condensação de discursos contemporâneos referentes aos mesmos. Todas as características dos pilares podem ser encontrados em inúmeras marcas globais de sucesso, pelo que encoraja a manifestá-las como uma estratégia aplicável.Tendo por base de aplicação o meio retratado precedentemente, o objetivo é reduzir as negatividades externas, ou seja, reduzir perigos ambientais e sociais de modo a aprimorar o valor funcional (resultados) com o intuito de criar um ambiente eficiente de coabitação societal e, eventualmente, mais amigável. A sua aplicação é espectável na medida que contribui para um incremento no valor intrínseco da marca, reivindicando uma proposta de benefício social e contrariando a proposta comum de crescimento infinito. Para além de oferecer consultoria de gestão de serviços para pequenas empresas (PE), englobadas no respetivo contexto, o plano proposto estipula uma diversificação de riscos através duma oferta adicional de serviços de negócios. Esta aproximação inovadora foca-se numa estrutura de aprendizagem do negócio, que consiste na formação de uma empresa temporária, colaborando com contratantes apenas quando preciso consoante o projeto. Em suma, o negócio proposto procura um crescimento vagaroso e orgânico, tal como é exigido através dos seus valores e missão para moldar, com sucesso, um ambiente de consumismo que não só cresce mas também contribui positivamente para resultados sociais