Ten top tips for small to medium enterprise (SME) success

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-17

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 – Owner-managed businesses were once the backbone of successful industry in the UK. However in the post-Second World War decades “big business” became the preferred model, with industries developing around new technologies. Today, as large industry is increasingly moving to countries with lower human-resource costs, the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) is becoming the business model of choice for UK entrepreneurs. Understanding what makes a SME succeed or fail can provide guidance to both individual business owners and government agencies tasked with promoting economic growth. Practical implications – The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations. Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives 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.

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 5-7 ◽  

Purpose – Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints 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 – A brand is a brand, right? Everything we have been taught about brands and the value of brands has been pretty constant for decades. Ever since the first business schools and marketing thought leaders started studying the phenomenon after the Second World War, the idea of what a brand is, how people regard them and what part they play in purchasing decisions has changed little. But what if either some assumptions were wrong in the first place, or things have changed for a new generation of consumers today? Practical implications – Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives 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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-262
Author(s):  
David Airey

Purpose This paper aims to provide a short scholarly review on the development of tourism education that contributes to the celebration of 75 years of the Tourism Review. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on selective literature on the topic. Findings Tourism education has developed into a major field of study in the period since the Second World War, but after a long period of growth, it now faces some important challenges. Research limitations/implications The paper is based on selective literature. Practical implications The review provides a brief overview of the development and challenges for tourism education. Social implications The review provides a brief overview of the development and challenges for tourism education. Originality/value The paper provides a brief overview of developments.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Hayes ◽  
Kerry Jacobs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to revisit the issue of the entry of women into the Anglo-Australian accounting profession in the Second World War and provide insights on the role that gender, class, and ethnicity played in mediating women’s relations with the accounting profession in that period. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on the narratives of three women from diverse social backgrounds who entered the Anglo-Australian profession during this period. Findings The analysis indicates that while participants had the mindset needed for accounting work, the more removed the individual’s perceived social identity was from her perception of the dominant British, white, middle-class ideology of the profession, the less likely she was to embrace the opportunity to join the accounting profession. The distance was anchored in social (ethnicity and class) and historical forces. The study also finds that the appropriation of education and credentials ameliorated disadvantages accruing from gender and working-class status. Practical implications This study has implications for our understanding of the accounting profession and what is required to reduce the risks of marginalization in a contemporary setting. Originality/value The study provides a richer understanding of how class and ethnicity shape the female experience differently. The results also demonstrate that in times of social change, the processes of inclusion and exclusion are not confined to the deliberations of the accounting profession but also the individual. Whether the women valued accounting as an occupation depended on whether or not if offered them the freedom to achieve what they valued most. At the same time, however, the freedom to realize what they valued most was a function of class and ethnicity. Finally, the results demonstrate the capacity of unique experience to shape the perceptions, aspirations and actions of women.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Visser

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the “truism” that learning organizations cannot be large organizations and, conversely, that large organizations cannot be learning organizations. This paper analyzes learning in the German and US armies in the Second World War, based on a four-dimensional model of the learning organization. Design/methodology/approach The paper entails a secondary analysis of historical and military sources and data. Findings It is found that the German and US armies differed in learning capacity, which can be plausibly, but not exclusively, related to differences in the battlefield performance between those armies in the Second World War. Research limitations/implications The research scope of the paper is limited to the analysis of two particular armies in the Second World War. Implications of theory reside in the importance of organizational learning capacity and its dimensions for learning in current organizations. Practical implications The paper has clear practical implications for large organizations wishing to become effective and responsible learning organizations. Originality/value This is among the first organizational papers to analyze army learning in the Second World War and to derive lessons from that analysis for current large organizations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Visser

Purpose While intended as a bridge between the concepts of learning organization and organizational learning, current conceptualizations of organizational learning capability still predominantly lean toward the learning organization side, specifically directed at profit firms. The purpose of this paper is to propose a four-dimensional model of organization learning capability that leans more toward the organizational learning side, specifically directed at nonprofit and government organizations in general, and army organizations in particular. This model is applied to the British Army in the Second World War. Design/methodology/approach The paper entails a secondary analysis of historical and military sources and data. Findings It is found that the British Army possessed only a moderate learning capability, which can be plausibly, but not exclusively, related to differences in battlefield performance between the British and the German Army in the Second World War. Research limitations/implications The research scope of the paper is limited to the analysis of one particular army in the Second World War. Implications for theory reside in the importance of organizational learning capability and its dimensions to the effectiveness of “lessons learned” processes inside organizations. Practical implications The paper has clear practical implications for armies and organizations that resemble armies in one or more aspects, like prisons, correctional facilities, police forces, hospitals, mental institutions and fire departments. Originality/value The paper ranks among the first organizational papers to analyze army operations and functioning from the perspective of organizational learning capability.


Author(s):  
Jan Lees ◽  
Rex Haigh ◽  
Sarah Tucker

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight theoretical and clinical similarities between therapeutic communities (TCs) and group analysis (GA). Design/methodology/approach Literature review shows comparison of TC and group-analytic concepts with illustrative case material. Findings Findings reveal many similarities between TCs and GA, but also significant divergences, particularly in practice. Practical implications This paper provides theoretical basis for TC practice, and highlights the need for greater theorising of TC practice. Social implications This paper highlights the importance of group-based treatment approaches in mental health. Originality/value This is the first paper to review the relevant literature and compare theory and practice in TCs and GA, highlighting their common roots in the Northfields Experiments in the Second World War.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherri Colby

PurposeDefined as perceiving the past via the lens of former peoples, historical empathy engenders rich cognitive and affective understandings. Drawing on Ricoeur's hermeneutics (1981, 2004), this paper departs from previous work on historical empathy by conceiving empathy as dialogically mediated by sociocultural and narrative perceptions.Design/methodology/approachThis hermeneutic phenomenology explores eight adolescents' engagements with primary sources from the Second World War.FindingsThis study reveals the power of empathy to draw the students into the past and to investigate sources. Alternately, the students struggled with fanciful elaborations and overidentifications with historical figures.Practical implicationsCultivating wise judgments begins with accepting the inherent link between students' historicity and historical empathy and then teaching students to wisely interpret.Originality/valueThis study broadens historical empathy's framework to include Ricoeur's hermeneutic philosophies of narrative and history.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-314
Author(s):  
Linda Arch

Purpose This paper is a “viewpoint” article, and as such, the purpose of this paper is to present the author’s opinion and interpretation. Its primary purpose is to propose seven guiding principles for effective bank regulation so that these may be subject to academic criticism. Design/methodology/approach The principal theme of this paper has its origins in archival research into the nature of bank regulation in the UK in 25 to 30 years after the Second World War. This paper draws upon insights gained into the nature of bank regulation in the UK arising from that research. It focuses on what aspects of bank regulation were effective in that earlier period. It then attempts to convert those insights into underlying principles. Findings Seven principles are proposed as the starting point for a discussion as to the principles that should underpin effective bank regulation. The seven principles are set out in the introduction to the paper. Originality/value The framework for the regulation of banks in the UK and in many other countries is a complex one. The general trend in bank regulation in the UK in the past four decades has been technocratic, characterised by a preference for codified rules, which are often detailed and technically complex. It has also been characterised by the establishment, or further development, of intricate regulatory and supervisory structures at national, international and supranational levels. Scholarly attention has understandably been focused on those trends. Rather less attention has been given to the broader principles that might underpin and guide bank regulation. This paper seeks to contribute to that question.


Author(s):  
Eric Golson

ABSTRACTIn September 1939, Portugal made a realist strategic choice to preserve the Portuguese Empire maintaining by its neutrality and also remaining an ally of Great Britain. While the Portuguese could rely largely on their colonies for raw materials to sustain the mainland, the country had long depended on British transportation for these goods and the Portuguese military. With the British priority now given to war transportation, Portugal's economy and Empire were particularly vulnerable. The Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar sought to mitigate this damage by maintaining particularly friendly financial relations with the British government, including increased exports of Portuguese merchandise and services and permission to accumulate credits in Sterling to cover deficits in the balance of payments. This paper gives an improved set of comprehensive statistics for the Anglo-Portuguese and German–Portuguese relationships, reported in Pounds and according to international standards. The reported statistics include the trade in merchandise, services, capital flows, loans and third-party transfers of funds in favour of the British account. When compared with the German statistics, the Anglo-Portuguese figures show the Portuguese government favoured the British in financial relations, an active choice by Salazar to maintain the Portuguese Empire.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283
Author(s):  
Alice Byrne

This article explores the UK government's first foray into cultural diplomacy by focusing on the activities of the British Council's Students Committee in the run-up to the Second World War. Students were placed at the heart of British cultural diplomacy, which drew on foreign models as well as the experience of intra-empire exchanges. While employing cultural internationalist discourse, the drive to attract more overseas students to the United Kingdom was intended to bring economic and political advantages to the host country. The British Council pursued its policy in cooperation with non-state actors but ultimately was guided by the Foreign Office, which led it to target key strategic regions, principally in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.


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