The capital barrier to innovation in the small and medium-sized enterprises

The article discusses SMEs' situation with reference to the process of creating an innovative economy. The presented discussion covers both non-material and financial barriers impeding the development of innovations. The examined range of new solutions designed to finance innovation includes types of capital support such as leasing, franchising, venture capital, Business Angels, NewConnect

Innovation and Social Capital in the Small-Medium Enterprises: a case of bamboo handicraft in Indonesia

This paper aims to seek what type of innovation and to estimate the impact of social capital on the innovation in the small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia. The data used in this paper was collected from May to June 2008 in several clusters of bamboo handicraft producers in the district of Sleman, Yogyakarta Special Province. The research found that more than half of respondents are innovative producers. Innovation of product and organizational are the important types of innovation in the bamboo handicraft. Social capital, measured by an index of trust significantly influences the innovation index. Other important variables that influence the index of innovation are location, sex, and education. However, in the logistic regression, only education that significantlly explain the probability of innovation.innovation, social capital, trust, bamboo handicraft, Indonesia

Effect of Knowledge Management on Firm Competitiveness: Testing the Mediating Role of Innovation in the Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya

Knowledge and innovativeness are have been recognized as the main sources of competitive advantages in the economy. Small and medium-sized firms need to increase attention on knowledge management and innovativeness so as to be competitive. The study examined knowledge management, innovativeness and firm competitiveness. The study is conducted on the results based on 252 small and medium manufacturing enterprise managers in Nairobi, Kenya. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS statistical packaged software. The study results showed that knowledge management processes influence innovativeness positively, innovativeness enhances firm competitiveness while innovativeness is a mediator between knowledge management and firm competitiveness. The study demonstrated that knowledge management and innovation should be integrated to enhance firm competitiveness. The viewpoint proposed is that knowledge management is an important element for small and medium enterprises in today's dynamic and competitive environment. Keywords: knowledge management, firm competitiveness, innovativeness, Kenya, SMEs

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVICE CULTURE AND SERVICE INNOVATION: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SERVICE ORIENTATION

The objective of the study is to investigate the inter-relationship between service culture, service orientation and service innovation in the small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the city of Bengkulu, Indonesia. A sample of 300 small-medium enterprises in the service industry in the city was employed in the study. Mediated regression analysis was applied to the dataset to examine the proposed model. The result of the study reveals that service culture has a positive effect on service orientation and service innovation of the small-medium enterprises. The study also concludes that service orientation is indeed mediating the relationship between service culture and service innovation. Thus, in implementing a service innovation strategy, small-medium enterprises should build strong service orientation and service culture.Keywords: 1 Service Orientation · 2 Service Culture · 3 Service Innovation, SMEs

Implementation of Open Innovation in The Small and Medium-Size enterprise (SMEs): A Literature Review

Abstract This study is a systematic literature review of three academic articles. It aims to investigate and explore the implementation of open innovation in SMEs. The review was conducted in three phases: (i) understanding the concept of innovation and open innovation; (ii) identifying references and (iii) exploring primary study which explains about the implementation of open innovation in SMEs. Finally, this paper examines how the concept of open innovation in SMEs is implemented in different countries. The result shows that open innovation in SMEs focus more on commercialization because marketing channels and global contacts to introduce them effectively to the market. Implementation of open innovation in SMEs has a significant impact to the company in the aspect of 1) motives and perceived challenges, 2) leadership, people, culture, and business improvement; 3) company size on the effectiveness of innovation endures

Explaining Small-Business Development: A Small-Business Development Model Combining the Maslow and the Hayes and Wheelwright Models

This paper looks at small-business management from the standpoint of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Hayes and Wheelwright’s four-stage model. The paper adapts Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model to small- business development and evolution. Additionally, Hayes and Wheelwright’s four-stage model is combined with the adapted Maslow small-business development model. The implications of the new model on the development of small businesses and future research are discussed

The Poland competitiveness and the trade connections in reference to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and former USSR

In the paper is presented multiaspectual indicatory statistical analysis (TI, RCA, IIT, ESI) of the Polish trade with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and former USSR in the reference to UE-15 countries. The chosen group of countries encloses all the former republics of the USSR (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) and Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. Studied countries were divided into two groups - UE and non UE. It was showed that in the first group had appeared a tendency to levelling the competitiveness and to the growth of cooperation, in second however the level of cooperation is close to the zero and the level of competitiveness diminishes in relation to Poland. 1

Influence of sustainability practices and green image on the re-visit intention of small and medium-size towns

This study set a model to predict the e ect of corporate social responsibility and green image on visit intention in small and medium-size towns (SMST). At present, there is a keen social awareness towards environmental problems, and cities are required to reduce their ecological footprint and make more sustainable use of natural resources. Increasingly, tourists are considering “green options” in their decision making. The questionnaire responses, obtained from a sample of 221 tourism in Malaga town (Spain) were analyzed using a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to test the research hypothesis related to the positive influence of sustainability practices, green image, trust with the intention of revisiting related to the loyalty of the destination. This study shows that there is a positive relationship between sustainability practices and re-visit intention and between the green image and re-visit intention, both directly and indirectly, through trust. Also, the fact that this relationship is more significant if it is part of the green image than if it is part of sustainability actions. To practice, this study provides managerial implications to help executives adopt green actions, thanks to their positive e ects on tourist loyalty and the di erent way of manifesting this loyalty.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A taxonomy of supply chain innovations

In this paper, a taxonomy of supply chain and logistics innovations was developed and presented. The taxonomy was based on an extensive literature survey of both theoretical research and case studies. The primary goals are to provide guidelines for choosing the most appropriate innovations for a company, and help companies in positioning themselves in the supply of chain innovations landscape. To this end, the three dimensions of supply chain innovations, namely the goals, supply chain attributes, and innovation attributes were identified and classified. The taxonomy allows for the efficient representation of critical supply chain innovations information, and serves the mentioned goals, which are fundamental to companies in a multitude of industries