Sustainable business – a success story for small and medium sized enterprises?

In the last years not only large companies orientated themselves towards the goal of sustainable development - which is called sustainable business in the economic field. More and more small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) discovered the field of sustainable business hoping to achieve economic advantages compared to their competitors. In order to become a company according to the principles of sustainable business, many businesses in Germany applied for an “ÖKOPROFIT”-certification. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a survey of small and medium sized enterprises who achieved the ÖKOPROFIT-certification in the last four years. Questions that will be answered are for instance if these companies created more jobs than their competitors, or if the SME´s gained a better image by their costumers and purchasers. Furthermore it is intended to answer the question whether the ÖKOPROFIT-certification and of course sustainable business have an impact on the economic development of the companies or if cyclical trends overlay these effects.

INCREASING THE MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF ROMANIAN SMES AND LARGE ENTERPRISES BY ACCESION OF STRUCTURAL FUNDS a€“ SOP IEC

The European Integration came with new challenges for the Romanian enterprises especially for the SMEs, the opportunities arising from operating on the European Single Market and the possibility for accession of European Regional Development Funds. The maEuropean financing, large enterprises, small and medium enterprises, POS CCE, SOP IEC, structural funds

Priority Directions of the Regional Food Complex Effectiveness Increase

In the article, the modern trends of management integration as a solution of food and sectoral problems are considered. On the basis of national and foreign experience of development of integration, the classification of integration in economic systems is developed. Based on the given classification, the concept of integration is conducted. In the article, much attention is given to the food problem solution, which depends more on the agro-industrial complex based on metaintegration. The leading place of a food complex in the system of agro-industrial complex is caused by a role of food and food raw materials in life of the population of the country. The ratio of the sectors participating in the food production and consumer goods makes the sectoral structure of agro-industrial complex. In the conditions of the resource limitation necessary for the production and food delivery to the domestic market, the role of trade will increase not only in agro-industrial complex, but in all national economy. Also, in this article, the phenomenon of clusters is studied. The attention to clusters as to innovation systems reflects a rising tide of interest of economic science to the questions of economics functioning in regional level and understanding of a role of specific local resources in stimulation of innovative opportunities and competitiveness of small and medium business. Creating a cluster, participants develop the spatial and organizational integrated structure, in interaction of legal entities the status is saved and cooperation provides competitive advantages with other business entities. The role of the state in integration of cluster formations in the Russian Federation is more significant, than in any other country. The state represented by regional authorities actively participates in decision-making process by the business located in its catchment area not only through membership in governing bodies of large joint stock companies

Sustainable business - A way to implement new jobs?

The paper gives up a summary about the possible employment effects that can arise out of sustainable business. A high employment rate in Germany has focused the view on new ways to create jobs. Parallel to this the sustainable development has become a major issue for societies all over the world. For that reason the current research standards about employment effects of sustainable business are presented. Further more a new study approach of this topic will be explained, if and to what extend sustainable business by small and medium-sized enterprises generates extra employment.

SMEs; Virtual research and development (R&D) teams and new product development: A literature review

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Their continued growth is a major subject for the economy and employment of any country. Towards that end, virtual research and development (R&D) could be a viable option to sustain and ease the operations of SMEs. However, literature shows there has not been a great deal of research into the diverse characteristic of virtual R&D teams in SMEs. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R&D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the literature review is to provide an outline on the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the rationale and relevance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R&D team for SMEs and new product development (NPD) has been examined. It concludes with identifying the gaps and feebleness in the existing literature and calls for future research in this area. It is argued to form of virtual R&D team deserves consideration at top level management for venturing into the new product development within SMEs

From export entry to de-internationalisation through entrepreneurial attributes

Purpose: This study examines export behaviour from a broad perspective considering the influence of entrepreneurial attributes on export entry, export sustainability and de-internationalisation in Romanian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: Based on theoretical underpinnings from the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm and the Institutional Economics (IE) framework, the proposed hypotheses are tested with a rich survey dataset of 319 Romanian SMEs. The data are analysed by means of a multinomial logit regression. Findings: The study reveals that exporting is not a single event and that variables commonly used to study export propensity linked to the entrepreneurial attributes have a differential influence over the export decisions. More concretely, export entry is positively impacted by the presence of management studies and an entrepreneurial team while sustainment in the international arena is strongly and positively influenced by decision-makers’ prior labour experience. De-internationalisation is explained by the entrepreneurs’ fear of business failure. The conclusions of this study point towards a holistic view of export policy-making revealing relevant implications for SMEs’ internationalisation. Originality/value: This study enriches the international business literature by simultaneously examining different export decisions, namely export initiation, sustainability and de-internationalisation, at the SMEs’ level in a Central and Eastern European (CEE) emerging market. The paper also highlights the dynamic character of entrepreneurial resources and suggests that at distinct stages in the international development of a SME, different entrepreneurial attributes may play a significant role.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Working Paper 41 - Informal Finance for Private Sector Development in Africa

More than a decade after substantial macroeconomic reforms were initiated in many Africancountries, aggregate growth, has at best remained inconsistent in many of those reforming countries.While the reasons for poor aggregate performance vary across countries, there is substantial evidencethat in many countries, poor private sector investment response in the medium-to-long term has delayedlong term growth. The poor response of the private sector might generally be attributed to varyingfactors in different countries. Indeed, various surveys suggest that a more vigorous response from theprivate sector in many countries has been impeded by a number of institutional, structural, and financialconstraints. (See Box 1).The apparent dearth of medium-term financing, the rudimentary nature of capital markets and theweaknesses in financial intermediation in general have made it difficult for private businesses to find themeans of financing other than short term bank credit. On the other hand, the generally low profitabilityof many private firms and the low overall level of domestic savings limit the prospects for investmentfinancing from their own resources.While the obstacles to private sector development are many, the financial constraints have receivedthe most attention from both governments and donors. Throughout the 1980s, it was fashionable toblame the financing constraints of the private sector on the inadequacies of banking systems and theirpoor perceptions of the creditworthiness of the small ventures that dominate African economies.Increasingly, however, possible solutions to the underlying factors behind the reluctance of commercialand other banks to lend to small enterprises are being sought, as more and more people begin tounderstand the problems of banks in relation to their structures and policy bottlenecks.In view of the continuing problems with finance, it is not surprising that reform of the financialsector became a major component of economic reform programmes in many countries. Reforms werenecessitated by the observation that various policy regimes shifted the allocation of investible fundsfrom the market to the government. In many countries, banking institutions simply became institutionsfor financing the budget deficit or covering operating losses incurred by parastatals. Reforms were alsomade necessary by the fact that financial repression generally hindered the development of the institutionalcapacity of financial institutions in their development of the commercial viability of their operations. As banks failed to develop the capacity for risk assessment and monitoring of optimal management of theirloan portfolio, they became uninterested in investing in information capital which is crucial for thedevelopment of financial systems.The reform of financial markets has taken the form of significant liberalization as countries shiftedfrom the ‘repressive’ regimes, characteristic of the pre-adjustment era. Governments are no longerrequired to play major roles in determining credit flows through a system of subsidies, interest rateceilings, credit allocation and direct intervention.