Development of products and services in small enterprises: proposition of an artifact to discuss creative logics

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Osvaldo De Sordi ◽  
Reed Elliot Nelson ◽  
Manuel Meireles ◽  
Marcos Hashimoto
Keyword(s):  
Small Businesses ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Small Organizations ◽  
Service Portfolio

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to make available an artifact that helps entrepreneurs and managers to recognize the diversity of creative logics centered on resources that are already available to the organization, presenting it as a tool to support the expansion of the product and service portfolio and as an alternative to Research and Development strategies, which are difficult to implement in the context of small businesses.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the precepts of the Action Design Research (ADR) method, researchers and practitioners (teachers and consultants) collaborated in the development of the artifact. Successive versions of the artifact were tested in the field: in classrooms by the teachers and in small companies by the consultants.FindingsIn addition to the artifact itself, which is available on the Internet, the lessons learned from the design process of the artifact were formalized in meta-requirements and meta-designs, in accordance with the precepts of the design theory that served as the foundation of ADR. These meta-specifications facilitate the critical analysis and evolution of the proposed artifact, in addition to the conception and proposition of new artifacts for the same class of problem.Practical implicationsThe dialogical nature of the ADR approach, with the development of the artifact through interactive cycles between design and use, based on the practitioners' experience of using it with the final beneficiaries, resulted in a functional artifact that is simple to use by those interested in discussing product and service innovation with small organizations. The artifact in the form of software is available to all at https://tentypescreation.com.Originality/valueFrom business examples and comparisons with widespread creative tactics, such as copy and invention, eight other creative tactics centered on resources available in the organization are explored by the artifact, providing means for practitioners to discuss alternative ways for managers, entrepreneurs, and future entrepreneurs to face the challenge of product and service innovation in small businesses.

Should my firm adopt cloud computing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Computing Services ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Cloud Computing Services ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper concentrates on factors that determine the propensity of large and small European companies to adopt cloud computing services. The results demonstrate that companies of all sizes can benefit from CC as a strategic vehicle for reducing ICT costs, for achieving product/service innovation, and to save costs on their sophisticated administrative systems. Furthermore some additional factors apply only to small companies. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

An exploration of the choice to comply voluntarily with SOX section 404(b)

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
Alan Blankley ◽  
David Hurtt ◽  
Jason MacGregor
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Section 404 ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sarbanes Oxley ◽  
Financial Perspective ◽  
The Law ◽  
Several Delays

Purpose Central to the Sarbanes–Oxley Act was a requirement that every company have an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. However, there were concerns that this requirement was overly burdensome, from a financial perspective, for small businesses. This concern promoted several delays in enforcing the law for small companies and ultimately caused congress to permanently exempt small businesses. Yet, there are some small companies that voluntarily elect to comply with the law. The purpose of this paper is to explore why these companies elect to incur these costly audits. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 5,834 non-accelerator US firms, this paper uses a robust logistic regression model to examine why some firms comply voluntary with SOX Section 404(b). Findings This study shows that small companies getting audits of internal controls may be doing so to restore investor confidence after reporting failures, to appear credible prior to raising funds, as a response to organizational changes, or in anticipation of being required to comply. Practical implications This study provides regulators with an improved understanding of when it is necessary to implement mandatory rather than voluntary guidance. Originality/value This study is the first to document why a client would voluntarily comply with SOX Section 404 (b).

DESIGN-ED: a pedagogical toolkit to support K-12 teachers’ emergency transition to remote online education

2020 ◽  
Vol 121 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 331-339
Author(s):  
Paul Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Iterative Refinement ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Educational Engagement ◽  
K 12

Purpose K-12 educators face persistent and nascent challenges as they grapple with making an emergency transition to remote online modes of engaging with their students. Crossing the digital divide that exists between multi-site educational engagement is challenging. This paper aims to address the particular challenge of maintaining or, perhaps re-conceptualising, the constructs that support social interaction in the face-to-face setting. A second pressing challenge is considering issues of equity when making the emergency transition to remote online engagement that are, in the physical classroom, somewhat mitigated by practitioners and the systems that support them. Design/methodology/approach DESIGN-ED is the output of a design-based research study. Findings However, in the rush to support this transition, it is possible that such challenges could be exacerbated if practitioners are not supported by a sustainable pedagogical process to frame their engagement with K-12 students in remote online formats. This paper explores these nascent challenges, presents a conceptual framework and explicates a subsequent design research model the form of a practitioner focussed “toolkit” that has the consideration of equity at its core. The “DESIGN-ED Toolkit” adopts and adapts a contemporary, effective and rapidly iterative design process from industry known as design thinking. Research limitations/implications The core components of this this process (empathy, definition, ideation, prototype and test) are pedagogically translated for use in complex and dynamic educational settings such as remote online engagement. Practical implications Lessons learned from the design, development and iterative refinement of this toolkit over three years are presented, and affordances of engaging with such a process are explored. Originality/value Lessons learned from the design, development and iterative refinement of this toolkit over three years are presented, and affordances of engaging with such a process are explored.

Entrepreneurship in Africa – a classificatory framework and a research agenda

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kuada
Keyword(s):  
Small Businesses ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Job Creation ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Absolute Poverty ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Degree Of Innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a classificatory framework for mapping out entrepreneurs and small businesses with growth potentials in Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The study undertakes a review of the existing development economics and entrepreneurship literature to determine the need for the framework and how to proceed in developing it. Findings – The literature review informs that although enterprise-led growth provides a greater promise for absolute poverty reduction, policymakers lack guidelines on how to identify those with highest potentials for job creation and tax revenue generation. Furthermore, African entrepreneurs can purposefully be classified in terms of their motives and degree of innovation. The classification produces a 2×2 matrix that maps out the growth capabilities of businesses found in a given country or community. Research limitations/implications – The framework provides researchers and policymakers with descriptive categories that can guide their strategies and decisions. Originality/value – Introducing innovation-imitation dimension into the classificatory framework extends and improves previous typologies of small enterprises available in the literature.

scholarly journals Features of the Integration of Small Entrepreneurship into the National Economical Structure in the Current Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-452
Author(s):  
Igor Korodyuk ◽  
Mikhail Solodkov ◽  
Alina Borisova
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Business System ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Business Entities

The article considers the role of small business in terms of the present-day global economy and analyses the problems of identifying an optimal correlation between small and large businesses in the open-type economic systems. The authors describe the features of small enterprises in performing economic activities and substantiate the necessity and expediency of cooperation between large and small companies in the field of technological innovations. Foreign experience has proved the effectiveness and perspectiveness of incorporating of small businesses in the activities of large companies, one of the components of country's successful economic development as a whole. However, despite the emerging positive trend, this area is still not given due attention in Russia. The authors investigate the historical features of the Russian small business system that have left a mark on its interrelations with large business entities and bring up an issue of the necessity of mastering the state support of the small business sector in our country and pay a sufficiently more attention to the issues of cooperation and mutual support of small and large businesses.

scholarly journals A relational view of horizontal collaboration among micro and small enterprises: a study of the brewery sector in Wales

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Lotfi ◽  
Maneesh Kumar ◽  
Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues ◽  
Mohamed Naim ◽  
Irina Harris
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Relational Theory ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Relational Governance ◽  
Informal Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Micro And Small Enterprises ◽  
Horizontal Collaboration

PurposeThis study aims to explore how horizontal collaboration can help small and micro enterprises within the drink sector through the relational theory lens.Design/methodology/approachThe use of qualitative research methods, including focus groups and interviews, facilitated understanding the horizontal collaboration in micro and small companies within the Welsh brewery industry. Data collection involved conducting three focus groups and 13 interviews within the Welsh brewery sector in the UK. The collaboration phenomena were explained using the three elements of relational theory: relational rents, relational capitals and relational governance.FindingsMicro and small enterprises in the drink sector use collaborative initiatives in building new capabilities to generate relational rents. In addition, relational capitals and relational governance mechanisms were identified to support the horizontal collaboration among these enterprises.Research limitations/implicationsThe focus is on only one part of the drinks industry, i.e. the brewery industry; therefore, this study could be extended to other industries within the drink sector or across manufacturing industries.Practical implicationsThe micro and small enterprises can collaborate to achieve relational rent, but this collaboration requires strong relational capitals, such as trust. These partners need to change informal governance mechanisms that already exist towards more contractual formal mechanisms.Originality/valuePrior research has largely focused on vertical collaboration, with limited studies using the relational theory lens to explicate horizontal collaboration phenomena and no previous research in the context of micro and small companies. Relational rents, relational capitals and relational governance mechanisms are studied to provide insights into an effective collaboration in this context.

Financing needs of micro-enterprises along their evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-284
Author(s):  
Ruslan Prijadi ◽  
Permata Wulandari ◽  
Putri Mega Desiana ◽  
Fajar Ayu Pinagara ◽  
Maya Novita
Keyword(s):  
Small Businesses ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Formal Institutions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
Micro And Small Enterprises ◽  
Micro Enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper aims to investigate micro enterprises financing in Indonesia and examines how this financing differs, depending on the enterprise’s development stage. This research also identifies some structural problems related to micro-financing and provides workable solutions. Design/methodology/approach This research uses the entrepreneurial network model of Schutjens and Stam (2003) to examine how Indonesian micro and small enterprises (MSEs) evolve even before they become regular small businesses. Content analysis is used on 10 micro-enterprises from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and its surroundings. Financing issues at each stage of enterprise development are identified and deeply examined. Findings This research not only confirms the significant financing problems micro-enterprises face but also clarifies that these problems are unique to each stage of the MSEs’ development. One insight is that most micro-enterprises do not use funding from formal institutions. That is, business owners rely more on funding from non-formal institutions. This is because these enterprises’ managers generally cannot prepare loans application and/or they are lack of knowledge/training on financing matters. They hesitate to borrow from formal financial institutions, as the rates are high but the processing time is longer than those of the loan sharks. Originality/value This research contributes to the field of entrepreneurial finance by identifying the structural problems inherent in micro-finance and providing workable solutions for overcoming these problems.

Management accounting use in micro and small enterprises

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonatiuh Najera Ruiz ◽  
Pablo Collazzo
Keyword(s):  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relevant Implication ◽  
Micro And Small Enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore if and how micro and small firms apply management accounting (MA) techniques. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on 36 semistructured interviews with micro and small firm owners/managers in Mexico. Content analysis is used to identify how these enterprises use MA tools. Findings Micro and small firms consistently use MA tools. Most of them have some sort of planning, set objectives, have a costing system – even if budgeting is unusual – and use one or two metrics to monitor performance. Research limitations/implications This is exploratory research with a limited and nonrandom sample. Only a limited number of MA tools were studied. Practical implications Micro and small firms’ use of MA tools. This is arguably important because these enterprises use these techniques in a way that is different from the traditional approach used in bigger corporations. A relevant implication emerging from the findings, as a contribution to practice would be the need to include MA for micro and small businesses in formal training and textbooks. Originality/value On top of providing and assessing empirical evidence on a debate that has been so far largely theoretical, and on the back of the relative weight of micro and small enterprises in any given economy, this paper aims at reinforcing awareness on the need to further the study of the decision-making process in such firms.

Creating Competitive Markets for Small Businesses with New Media and E-Business Strategy

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel T. Kung ◽  
Yi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Online Marketing ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Business Approach

The innovative and dynamic nature of E-business enables small companies to compete with multinational corporations via online marketing. This paper serves as a guide from a practitioner’s perspective to embark in E-business while traditional marketing strategies are diminished. Three E-business adoption models for small enterprises are discussed. Planning involving new media, Internet technological capabilities and marketing strategies are examined. A literature review on new media gives a comprehensive study of online marketing. To evaluate the effectiveness of the E-business approach, a case study of a family chain of hotels is presented.

scholarly journals The innovation challenge in micro and small enterprises (MSE)

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davi França Berne ◽  
Roberto Coda ◽  
Patricia Krakauer ◽  
Denis Donaire
Keyword(s):  
Added Value ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Process Improvements ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Micro And Small Enterprises ◽  
Degree Of Innovation

Purpose This study aims to measure the degree of innovation of micro and small industrial companies in the West and Southwest metropolitan regions of the city of São Paulo, through a survey with 203 firms in the metallurgy sector. Design/methodology/approach The research had a quantitative and descriptive focus and used as methodology the validated and international approach known as Innovation Radar. Findings The degree of innovation in these micro and small companies is low; thus, the authors could not characterize them as systemic innovators. Most of them are little innovative, although some were classified as occasional innovators. The dimensions organization, processes, presence, supply chain and added value were the least developed. Research limitations/implications To carry out similar studies in other Brazilian regions, to compare results and draw new conclusions, or even check if the degree of innovation present in micro-firms of these regions would not be even lower; to monitor the evolution of companies through a longitudinal study, to detect improvements in the degree of innovation; and to conduct a qualitative research that can deepen questions on the results of our study, such as the reasons why this type of company does not adopt innovative practices, or even the real suitability of the Innovation Radar model for micro and small enterprises (MSEs). We observed that some dimensions proved to be too sophisticated for these companies, such as R&D investments and the adoption of technological advances. Practical implications The study shows that the degree of innovation measured by the Innovation Radar is a useful and initial measure to check an innovative attitude in micro and small companies. It can also drive the actions that should be prioritized to stimulate the culture of innovation in SME. However, it does not allow to answer why this type of organization does not adopt innovative practices as a management attitude. Regarding its contribution, the authors expect that the paper may bring an awareness of managers and owners of micro and small companies for the need to foster innovative practices that can help increase the competitiveness and survival of this type of organization. Social implications In Brazil, despite the fact that MSEs represent 98 per cent of the existing companies, and are mainly responsible for job creation, their leaders have a low concern for innovative practices. Originality/value The study contributes to identify the degree of innovation of these firms, which comprise a representative and strategic segment of the city’s economy, by checking to what extent an innovative attitude is effectively present in this sector. The theoretical contribution of this study regards the appropriateness of mechanisms or methodologies created to measure the degree of innovation in large organizations. Dimensions such as technological platform, brand, innovative ambience, degree of organization or systematization of processes, which are frequently considered for companies in general, and especially for large ones, are not sufficient or, instead, too sophisticated to allow an effective measurement of the degree of innovation in MSE. Thus, this study provides information for designing more effective ways to evaluate the degree of innovation that take into account MSE’s specificities, which can be considered innovation efforts, such as simple process improvements, professional development of teams, and actions to seize ideas and opportunities, among others.

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