The Relationship of Strategic Intent to the Enablers and Inhibitors of E-Business Adoption in SMEs

Author(s):  
Margi Levy ◽  
Philip Powell ◽  
Les Worrall

Small firms’ use of e-business is limited and little is known about what drives them to embrace e-business. Using survey data from 354 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK West Midlands, this chapter investigates e-business use and drivers. It first discusses different growth strategies adopted by SMEs and reviews Internet adoption in SMEs. Drivers and inhibitors of e-business are identified. Three research questions are derived—does strategic intent drive e-business adoption and is it a factor of market position or product innovation? Is this consistent across sectors? And how is strategic intent and industry adoption influenced by the enablers and inhibitors of e-business adoption? This research demonstrates that strategic intent influences decisions to invest in e-business. Those SMEs remaining in their existing markets are the least likely to invest, primarily due to the Internet not being seen as necessary for growth. Product innovation rather than market penetration drives e-business and e-business drivers and inhibitors provide insights into this.

1999 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Tilley ◽  
David Johnson

This paper explores the ‘best practice’ interactions between universities and small firms in the UK. The purpose is to identify ways in which a university can build stronger and more effective links with small firms. The relationship between universities and small firms is of growing importance. There are political, economic and educational pressures which influence the behaviour and relationship of higher education toward the business sector, and small firms in particular. The wider context of the changes taking place within higher education are discussed. This is followed by the initial findings from a recently completed research project for the Council for Industry and Higher Education which investigated the foremost components in ‘best practice’ interactions and linkages between small firms and universities in the North East of England. Some preliminary ideas are suggested on how best practice can be further facilitated. These proposals are then interpreted in terms of the operational implications for universities and other strategic organizations involved in building linkages with small firms.


Author(s):  
Б.Г. Вульфович

Задачей данной статьи является рассмотрение лингвопрагматических особенностей комментариев пользователей социальной сети «Твиттер» на выход Великобритании из ЕС. Анализ данных комментариев с лингвопрагматической точки зрения представляет интерес, так как показывает наиболее актуальную картину отношения пользователей социальных сетей к произошедшему событию. Приоритетными методами анализа лингвопрагматического потенциала Интернет-комментариев для нас являются: описательный метод, метод прагматического анализа, т.е. рассмотрение языкового материала в его непосредственном контексте в функциональном аспекте, метод частичной выборки, метод контекстологического описания. Контекстуальный метод был использован с целью установления особенностей комментариев в среде социальной сети «Твиттер»; описательный метод - для выявления непосредственного отношения пользователей социальных сетей к выходу Великобритании из ЕС; частичной выборки - для отбора наиболее эффективных и целостных комментариев с позиции прагматики и их реализации в данном контексте. Проведённое исследование позволило установить, что большинство людей удовлетворено результатами выхода Великобритании из ЕС и положительно отзывается об этом событии. Об этом свидетельствует как большое количество экспрессивов, использованных в интернет-комментариях в отношении данного события, так и активное употребление в них оценочной лексики. Результаты проведённого исследования могут быть применены в теоретических работах по описанию характеристик речевых актов, в курсе теоретической грамматики, стилистики, прагмалингвистики. The purpose of this article is to review the linguo-pragmatic features of Brexit represented in the comments in Twitter. Their analysis from a linguistic-pragmatic point of view may be of interest, since it shows the most relevant picture of the relationship of social network users for the event. The priority methods for analyzing the linguo-pragmatic potential of Internet comments for us are: a descriptive method, a pragmatic analysis method, i.e. consideration of linguistic material in its immediate context in the functional aspect, partial sampling method, contextual description method. The contextual method was used to establish the characteristics of comments on the Twitter social network; descriptive method was used to identify the direct relationship of social network users to the UK exit from the EU; partial sampling was used to select the most effective and holistic comments from the position of pragmatics and their implementation in this context. The study found that most people are satisfied with the results of the UK exit from the EU and respond positively to this event. The results of the study can be applied in theoretical works on the description of the characteristics of speech acts, in the course of theoretical grammar, stylistics, pragmalinguistics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Evy Rahman Utami

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between changes of    performance and changes of compensation of board commissioners and board of directors. In contrast to previous research, this study compare the relationship on conventional banking  and Islamic banking in Indonesia. The samples of this research are conventional and Islamic banking between periode 2011-2015. Data in this study were obtained from financial statements. Regression analysis will be employed to answer the research questions. The result showed that there is a positive relationship between changes of performance and compensation. However, there is no difference the relationship of performance and compensation on the conventional and Islamic banking. This study supported the agency theory, but it does not support the stewardship theory.


2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Swanwick

A brief review of the state of music education in the UK at the time of the creation of the British Journal of Music Education (BJME) leads to a consideration of the range and focus of topics since the initiation of the Journal. In particular, the initial requirement of careful and critical enquiry is amplified, drawing out the inevitability of theorising, an activity which is considered to be essential for reflective practice. The relationship of theory and data is examined, in particular differentiating between the sciences and the arts. A ‘case study’ of theorising is presented and examined in some detail and possible strands of future development are identified.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1009-1032
Author(s):  
Lee Li ◽  
Gongming Qian ◽  
Zhengming Qian ◽  
Irene R.R. Lu

PurposeUsing behavioral theory of the firm, the purpose of this paper is to examine how a small firm’s performance relative to historical and social aspirations is related to its international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO). This study also explores two environmental factors, liability of foreignness (LoF) and host-country market potential (HMP), as the moderators for the relationship of performance and IEO.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses survey for data collection from Canadian small firms and employs regression models for data analysis.FindingsThe results show that small firms demonstrate stronger IEO when their performance is below aspirations, but their IEO diminishes when their performance exceeds aspirations. The authors also found that a small firm’s LoF does not moderate the impact of its performance feedback on IEO. However, the authors found HMP plays a moderating role when a small firm’s performance is below aspirations.Originality/valueThis study investigates the relationship of IEO to aspiration and found that this relationship is moderated by HMP. The study advances our knowledge on small firms’ international behavior.


Libri ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yigal Nirenberg ◽  
Gila Prebor

Abstract The relationship of F.M Dostoevsky with Jews attracted the attention of numerous scholars throughout the years, many of whom attempted to grapple with the views of the great writer and their origin. In this article we will attempt to show this relationship by analyzing six of Dostoevsky’s greatest novels, written through the entirety of his career. We are analyzing these novels using Distant Reading in conjunction with Close Reading, tools that are commonly used in the field of digital humanities, which enabled us to show visually the extent of F.M. Dostoevsky’s engagement with this topic. The study poses two research questions: 1. To what extent did the writer use the more denigrating term “Zhid”? 2. Can we see a correlation between the writer’s portrayal of Jews with the definition of Anti-Semitism as it was known during his era? The obtained results show that there is clearly a correlation between the definition of anti-Semitism as it was understood at the time of Dostoevsky and the “Jew” as depicted in his novels, as the financial motif is paramount in the depiction of Jews as this is the central topic in 49% of the negative sentences in which the word “Jew” appears, with 59% of these sentences classified as stereotypes. The negative financial stereotype constitutes 32% of the entire corpus. In addition, we found the term “Zhid” is commonly used by the writer, a variation of which constitutes 75% of the total terms used to depict Jews.


Author(s):  
Dave Ayre

This chapter assesses the history of the relationship between public and private sectors and the extent to which the political and regulatory environment of governments and institutions such as the European Union (EU) can help or hinder the efforts of public bodies in seeking to deliver services that determine the health and quality of life for communities. The relationship of public and private sectors in the United Kingdom (UK) and the commissioning, procurement, and development of public–private partnerships is driven by the prevailing political and economic environment. However, rigorous academic research on the benefits of partnering to organisations, societies and between countries is limited. Evidence is needed to fill the policy vacuum. A bolder approach is necessary to work with public and private sectors to develop and implement successful partnering alternatives to the outsourcing of public services. The growing catalogue of outsourcing failures in construction, probation, rail franchising, health, and social care is creating an appetite for change, and the exit of the UK from the EU provides the opportunity.


Author(s):  
Craig Berry ◽  
Michael Kenny

The question of how intellectuals ought to relate to the ideological traditions of the political cultures of modern societies has been a recurrent theme of European social and political thought over the last two centuries. This chapter explores earlier traditions of European thinking, associated with the work of Karl Mannheim, Julien Benda, and Antonio Gramsci, which established the major lines of debate about the relationship of intellectuals to a sense of nationhood and the political traditions of the polities they inhabited. These ideas form the backdrop to the analysis of the drift towards post-national thinking among important groups of intellectual practitioners in the UK towards the end of the twentieth century. Cosmopolitan thinking, the article suggests, has tended to obscure the ideological character of the main lines of political thinking associated with globalization, and ensured that progressive intellectuals tended to abandon the ‘national-popular’ to their counterparts on the political right, with fateful consequences.


Author(s):  
Adam Evans

Since the Treaty and Acts of Union in 1707, Scotland has returned MPs to Westminster. Whilst dwarfed, at least demographically by its partner in that Union, England, Scotland has, on a number of occasions, punched above its weight at the Centre—most notably at either end of the twentieth century when Liberalism and then Labour dominated Scottish politics. This chapter examines the relationship of Scotland with the UK Parliament. It begins by placing this relationship in its historical context, before then turning to an audit of contemporary Scottish influence and representation at Westminster, post-devolution. This chapter does this by breaking down two of the main and interconnected dimensions of Scottish representation at Westminster: (1) Scottish parliamentarians and the Westminster party system; and (2) institutional representation within Parliament. This latter category includes both Scottish-specific institutional mechanisms, such as the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Scottish Grand Committee, and the broader Westminster apparatus that can be leveraged for influence, such as parliamentary question times.


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