3,968 research outputs found

    National Lisbon Programme of Latvia for 2005-2008

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    Firm size and growth opportunities: a survey

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    The qualifying aspect of the ongoing changes in firm growth processes seems to be the increased heterogeneity of size and a trend towards a broader fluctuation in average size. Exogenous factors (market size, demand trends, technological innovations, higher competition) determine a different impact on firms will to increase their own size, while endogenous variables play a greater role than in the past. The outcome is represented by a growth pattern that characterises some firms, but not all of them. Growth appear to be an asymmetric phenomenon, involving selectively but not casually a subgroup of firms. In the present paper it is hypothesized that growth stems from the asymmetric distribution of internalized resources (both material and immaterial), allowing some firms (regardless of the original size) to enter evolutionary paths that others don’t want or simply can’t enter.Firm Growth, Size Distribution, Gibrat’s Law, Industrial Dynamics, Human Capital, Intangible Assets, Industrial Policy

    Developing an Integrative Theoretical Framework for Electronic Business Value Optimisation in Botswana

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    Organizations are trying to move quickly to adopt remote working policies into their organizations as to attract and retain top talent, reduce office space costs, and increase productivity. As many of these strategies were quickly adopted by South African ICT organizations during the COIVD-19 pandemic, organizations are still somewhat unclear on what their role is with regards to ensuring long term adoption of remote working. Thus, this study explored the role of the organization with regards to a work-from-home strategy. It was found that the organization is responsible for formalizing the chosen strategy, creating supportive policies, and adapting its management styles to facilitate remote working

    Determinants of International Activities: Are SMEs Different?

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    In this paper we econometrically investigate the factors determining the choice of a specific internationalisation strategy. We distinguish four strategies, ranging from "serving foreign markets through exports only” up to "exporting and locating abroad several business functions such as distribution, production and R & D”. These strategies are evaluated against the reference category "domestic sales only” (multinomial logit model). The analysis, to a large extent, confirms Dunning's well-known OLI paradigm. O-advantages turn out to be the main drivers of internationalisation, irrespective of firm size and internationalisation strategy. However, the knowledge-base on which O-advantages of smaller firms rests is more narrow than that of large companies. Whereas the former rely, in relative terms, primarily on capabilities related to incremental innovations, the latter draw to a higher extent on assets enabling them to be competitive in terms of far-reaching innovations. L-advantages (wages, regulatory framework, etc.) primarily are relevant in case of small firms; but even for this size class, O-advantages are dominan

    Eco-innovation in Malta

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    Malta is characterised by its small size, its climatological parameters and its long coastline. This sets the context for specific eco-innovation activities to be stimulated and developed not only for local use but also for international replication. Europe is going through difficult economic times which have had their knock on effect on most countries of which Malta is no exception. However, during 2010, GDP registered an increase of 3.2% in real terms and 6.2% in nominal terms. Malta’s Research and Innovation (R&I) strategy, Malta’s draft Energy Policy, Malta’s Operational Programme I as well as the financial incentives offered by Malta Enterprise set the context for the development of eco-innovation within the headline innovation bracket. In fact both Research and Development (R&D) and eco-innovation are recognised as a pillar for Malta’s economic development. Malta ranked in 17th place in the 2011 Eco-Innovation Scoreboard, up a place from last year. This shows that whilst Malta is registering notable progress, it is still catching up on the EU-27 average. Notwithstanding, it ranks 4th amongst the New Member States, a comparative rank worth mentioning. Government R&D outlay in environment and energy is the lowest with respect to the EU-27 in absolute and relative terms. Malta ranks 21st in the percentage of R&D personnel and researchers compared to total employment and fares poorly in the number of registered patents, the number of environmental management systems adopted as well as in the number of academic papers related to eco-innovation. Malta fares positively in the media coverage that it gives to eco-innovation events which demonstrates the growing interest in pursuing this avenue of growth. Malta ranks joint 1st with Luxembourg in material productivity and joint 1st with Ireland in energy productivity. The Water Footprint Network places Malta in 16th place. Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Water Resources, Tourism and Public Awareness seem to be the areas where most of the potential for eco-innovation lies. Malta’s dependency on imported fossil fuels, its scarcity of water resources, the newly available water resource resulting from full treatment of sewage prior to disposal which can mitigate water scarcity and the economic impact of tourism are the main factors which drive eco-innovation to focus on these areas. Malta’s incentives schemes could also be a catalyst to foster further growth. Although it has been identified that Malta is still in the early stages of tackling eco-innovation a focus on more tangible deliverables is required. Whilst its limited size and resources make it a country where replication activities are more easily grown, the innovative capacity needs to grow further. Malta’s human resources are considered to be of very high quality and it is therefore only logical to target efforts towards increasing this pool with a view to retain a competitive edge in the skills to cost ratio of such an important human capital asset.peer-reviewe

    Optimising Supply Chain Performance via Information Sharing and Coordinated Management

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    Supply chain management has attracted much attention in the last decade. There has been a noticeable shift from a traditional individual organisation-based management to an integrated management across the supply chain network since the end of the last century. The shift contributes to better decision making in the supply chain context, as it is necessary for a company to cooperate with other supply chain members by utilising relevant information such as inventory, demand and resource capacity. In other words, information sharing and coordinated management are essential mechanisms to improve supply chain performance. Supply chains may differ significantly in terms of industry sectors, geographic locations, and firm sizes. This study was based on case studies from small and medium sized manufacturing supply chains in People Republic of China. The study was motivated by the following facts. Firstly, small and medium enterprises have made a big contribution to China’s economic growth. Several studies revealed that most of the Chinese manufacturing enterprises became aware of the importance of supply chain management, but compared to western firms, the supply chain management level of Chinese firms had been lagging behind. Research on supply chain management and performance optimisation in Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) was very scarce. Secondly, there had been plenty of studies in the literature that focused on two or three level supply chains whilst considering a number of uncertain factors (e.g. customer demand) or a single supply chain performance indicator (e.g. cost). However, the research on multiple stage supply chain systems with multiple uncertainties and multiple objectives based on real industrial cases had been spared and deserved more attention. One reason was due to the lack of reliable industrial data that required an enormous effort to collect the primary data and there was a serious concern about data confidentiality from the industry aspect. This study employed two SME manufacturing companies as case studies. The first one was in the Aluminium industry and another was in the Chemical industry. The aim was to better understand the characteristics of the supply chains in Chinese SMEs through performing in-depth case studies, and built models and tools to evaluate different strategies for improving their supply chain performance. The main contributions of this study included the following aspects. Firstly, this study generalised a supply chain model including a domestic supply chain part and an international supply chain part based on deep case studies with the emphasis on identifying key characteristics in the case supply chains, such as uncertainties, constraints and cost elements in association with flows and activities in the domestic supply chain and the international supply chain. Secondly, two important SCM issues, i.e. the integrated raw material procurement and finished goods production planning, and the international sales planning, were identified. Thirdly, mathematical models were formulated to represent the supply chain model taking into account multiple uncertainties. Fourthly, several operational strategies utilising the concepts of just-in-time, safety-stock/capacity, Kanban, and vendor managed inventory, were evaluated and compared with the case company's original strategy in various scenarios through simulation methods, which enabled quantification of the impact of information sharing on supply chain performance. Fifthly, a single objective genetic algorithm was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production decisions under (s, S) policy (a dynamic inventory control policy), which enabled the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performance to be quantified. Finally, a multiple objectives genetic algorithm considering both total supply chain cost and customer service level was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production with the international sales plan decisions under (s, S) policy in various scenarios. This also enabled the quantification of the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performances

    China and East Asian Energy - Prospects and Issues Volume II Part I

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    This collection of papers in two volumes is the second in a series on China and East Asian Energy, a major project which is an initiative of the East Asia Forum in conjunction with the China Economy and Business Program in the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University (ANU). The first volume was published in April 2007. The research program is directed at understanding the factors influencing Chinas energy markets. It also involves high-level training and capacity building to foster long-term links between policy thinkers in China and Australia. It provides for regular dialogue with participants from the energy and policy sectors in the major markets in East Asia and Australia. The backbone of the dialogue is an annual conference, the location of which has thus far alternated between Beijing and Canberra. The objective is to advance a research agenda that informs and influences the energy policy discussion in China, Australia and the region. This special edition of the Asia Pacific Economic Papers brings together papers presented at the second conference in the series. Due to their number and length, papers from that second conference are published across two volumes of the Asia Pacific Economic Papers. This volume includes the first half of the papers, while the next volume includes the second half. The third conference in the project is scheduled for July 2008.China, Energy, East Asia
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