Becoming a more attractive supplier by managing references - The case of small and medium-sized enterprises in a digitally enhanced business environment

Small is beautiful too (Schumacher, 2011): while a large client may well generate considerable turnover, creating a balanced portfolio of customer firms that includes small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) helps to manage risks and to establish a more innovative environment for value creation (De Mattos, Burgess, & Shaw, 2013). To achieve these benefits, suppliers need to better understand how they can make themselves attractive in the eyes of SME customers. Understandably, due to resource limitations, SME customers tend to be more careful about selecting suppliers in comparison to large firms (Narula, 2004). Moving these considerations to an increasingly digitalized business environment characterized by information overload adds further layers of complexity (Bi, Liu, & Usman, 2017). Although effective reference management via corporate online references and Word of Mouth (WOM) recommendations is of great importance, in that they enable firms to communicate key qualities and competencies and to convey attractiveness (Helm & Salminen, 2010), our current understanding is limited as to how attractiveness may be established and attained in the eyes of SME managers (Mortensen, 2012

Air pollution and respiratory health of children: the PEACE panel study in Katowice, Poland.

This study was carried out within the framework of the multicentre Pollution Effects on Asthmatic Children in Europe (PEACE) project. Two panels of mildly asthmatic children were studied. Seventy two children living in the Upper Silesia (the largest Polish industrial agglomeration) and 73 children in the control panel were followed up during two winter months in 1994. Ambient concentration of particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm (PM10) black smoke, SO2 and NO2 were measured and peak respiratory flows and respiratory symptoms were recorded on a daily basis. There were no substantial differences in exposure to air pollution and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms between the urban and the control panels. No severe smog episodes were observed. No consistent association between daily changes of air pollution levels and daily variations of peak expiratory flows or respiratory symptoms prevalence and incidence was found. In conclusion, no clear effect of air pollution on respiratory health could be observed