Digital Innovation in Small Firms of Rural Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-79
Author(s):  
Suchit Ahuja ◽  
Yolande E. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Digital Innovation ◽  
Rural Economies ◽  
Resources And Capabilities ◽  
Local Ecosystem ◽  
Technology Strategies ◽  
Rural Firms

Unless there are systemic investments in digitization of rural economies, rural entrepreneurs will suffer, and digital innovation activity will remain modest. Nonetheless, the authors do find examples of digital innovation practiced by firms in rural economies. These firms successfully fostered growth and revitalization due to co-evolution of business and digital strategies, investments in technology, and digitization of business processes. In this chapter, using three such small, rural firms in Ontario, Canada, the co-evolution of business and digital technology strategies and related performance impacts are described by using the lens of “digital ecodynamics,” which is defined as the holistic confluence among environmental factors, capabilities, and digital technologies—and their fused dynamic interactions unfolding as an ecosystem. The focus on the development of resources and capabilities that are critical for the survival of the firms and the local ecosystem centered around a business incubator that supports and sustains them.

scholarly journals Innovation in the Textiles Sector: A Firm-Level Analysis of Technological and Nontechnological Innovation

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (Special Edition) ◽  
pp. 129-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqar Wadho ◽  
Azam Chaudhry
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Foreign Market ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Innovation Rate

In a knowledge-based economy, it has become increasingly important to better understand critical aspects of the innovation process such as innovation activities beyond R&D, the interaction among different actors in the market and the relevant knowledge flows. Using a sample of 431 textiles and apparel manufacturers, this paper explores the dynamics of firms’ innovation activities by analyzing their innovation behavior, the extent and types of innovation, the resources devoted to innovation, sources of knowledge spillovers, the factors hampering technological innovation and the returns to innovation for three years, 2013–15. Our results show that 56 percent of the surveyed firms introduced technological and/or nontechnological innovations, while 38 percent introduced new products, these innovations were generally incremental as the majority of innovations were new only to the firm. Furthermore, the innovation rate increases with firm size; large firms have an innovation rate of 83 percent, followed by medium firms (68 percent) and small firms (39 percent). Technologically innovative firms spent, on average, 10 percent of their turnover on innovation expenditure in 2015. Acquisition of machinery and equipment is the main innovation activity, accounting for 56 percent of innovation expenditures. Large firms consider foreign market sources (clients and suppliers) and small firms consider local market sources their key source of information and cooperation. 63 percent of technological innovators cite improving the quality of goods as their most important objective. Lack of available funds within the enterprise is the single most important cost factor hampering innovation, followed by the high cost of innovation. Our results show that 67 percent of the turnover among product innovators in 2015 resulted from product innovations that were either new to the market or new to the firm.

Resource-based view of innovation activity in SMEs: an empirical analysis based on the global competitiveness project

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lívia Lukovszki ◽  
András Rideg ◽  
Norbert Sipos
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Resources And Capabilities ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the corporate functions that contribute most to the innovation success of SMEs with limited resources. After a systematic literature review, the authors used a unique primary data set of 784 SMEs from eight countries. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to show the data set peculiarities. The logistic regression targeted the presence of innovative products and services in sales by 11 dummy variables and 4 principal factors describing SMEs’ different resources and capabilities. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a resource-based product innovation model that is synthesising the impact of the company resources and capabilities and of the innovation activity of the company on the actual innovation performance. The authors carry out an empirical analysis of the characteristic features of innovation activity in an international sample of SMEs. Findings The results show that two corporate functions play a crucial role in the effectiveness of innovation for SMEs as follows: management and research and development (R&D). In addition, although of lesser importance, the effect of the marketing function also appears significant. The binary logistic regression had 84.2% of explanatory power. Originality/value From a scientific point of view, the SME-focussed, complex and synthesising RBV model of innovation construction and literature review can be used as a reference point for future researches. From a practical point of view, the analysis is useful for those SMEs, which want to gain a competitive advantage through innovation. Indeed, the results show that in the case of SMEs, a company wishing to innovate must invest in three corporate functions for innovation to be effective as follows: management, R&D and marketing.

scholarly journals Rural Small Businesses in Turbulent Times

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair R. Anderson ◽  
Ellina Osseichuk ◽  
Laura Illingworth
Keyword(s):  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Customer Base ◽  
Rural Businesses ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Turbulent Times ◽  
Local Embeddedness ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Rural Firms

This paper explores differences in behaviour and performance between rural and urban small firms during the economic downturn. The authors had anticipated that the ‘thinness’ of the rural environment would have had adverse effects. However, their survey of 6,300 respondents showed that rural small firms were performing marginally better. Both groups were proactively striving to cope with falling demand, not waiting for things to get better, but rural firms had better sales and fewer price reductions. The authors attribute this to local embeddedness, a more stable customer base and less competition. They note too the relative independence of rural businesses.

Technology Strategies in Small Firms

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Dodgson ◽  
Roy Rothwell
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Technology Strategies

Bureau de Eventos: internationalization of an emerging country event planning company

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 279-294
Author(s):  
Vivian Peuker Steinhauser ◽  
Angela da Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
International Markets ◽  
International Expansion ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic Level ◽  
Emerging Country ◽  
Resources And Capabilities ◽  
One Year ◽  
Secondary Information

Theoretical basis The case can be used to examine the resources and capabilities of small firms considering entering international markets. It can also be a vehicle for examining typical barriers that such companies may face and must overcome when expanding abroad: liabilities of smallness, liabilities of foreignness, liabilities of emergingness and liabilities of outsidership. Research methodology The case is based on several interviews with both entrepreneurs over a one-year period and on secondary information from reports and documents. Case overview/synopsis This teaching case presents the trajectory of a Brazilian services company operating in the corporate events planning industry. The case explores the potential for the company’s international expansion, and the vision and engagement of the entrepreneurs, despite several barriers the company needs to overcome. Complexity academic level The case can be used in Entrepreneurship and International Marketing courses, both at graduate and undergraduate levels. It can also be used in training seminars for executives of tourism and events planning companies, and for employees of export promotion agencies.

SMEs and the Internet

2004 ◽  
pp. 248-271
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fife ◽  
Francis Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
The Internet ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Depth Profiles ◽  
Real Estate Brokerage ◽  
Cost Structures ◽  
Industry Sectors

This chapter provides in-depth profiles of two representative small firms and one medium-sized firm from a variety of industry sectors in order to delineate the workflow processes, cost structures, and other aspects about these companies that affect their e-commerce potential. We seek to identify specifically how SMEs can feasibly re-engineer and engage in e-commerce. We consider re-engineering internal business processes as a prerequisite for firms trying to move to e-commerce on the Internet. However, even after re-engineering has occurred, our primary data gathered from key cases—Schober’s Machine and Engineering, a small business that designs and builds custom-engineered machines; Castle Press, a small firm specializing in high-quality printing; and Dilbeck Realtors, a medium-sized real estate brokerage—all show that the value proposition for e-commerce still has yet to be realized.

Firm innovation and access to finance: firm-level evidence from India

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parneet Kaur ◽  
Navneet Kaur ◽  
Paras Kanojia
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Based on 9,281 firm-level survey data on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India, this study aims to investigate how access to different finance sources and collateral requirement facilitates the firm’s innovation activity across industries. Design/methodology/approach This paper used ordered logit regression models using Stata software for explanatory variables to measure the impact of explanatory variables on firm innovation performance. Firms’ innovation performance is measured through the aggregate innovation index obtained by adding up the no. of “new-to-firm” activities. Findings The empirical results reveal that external sources of funding impact innovation activity than other financing sources. Also, the requirement of collateral for financing impacts innovation performance significantly. This paper finds that firms funded by state-owned banks or government agency are more actively engaged in innovation activities. The firm’s size, ownership structure and location of the firm also show the varying innovation performance. This paper found variation in innovation performance across industries as well. Practical implications First, the present study underlines the significance of funding sources. Second, minimizing the need for collateral to obtain external finance boosts small firms’ innovation activity and will also trigger overall economic growth. Finally, while making policies for ownership transformation of state-owned institutions, policymakers should discuss these policies’ impact on innovative firms. Originality/value What facilitates innovation performance in an emerging market is missing in the literature for MSMEs, largely due to lack of data. It is reasonable not to generalize innovation knowledge in large firms to small firms because of the constraints, particularly MSMEs face.

Growth, Disintegration, and Decentralization: The Construction of Taiwan's Industrial Networks

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Buck
Keyword(s):  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Rural Industry ◽  
Industrial Networks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rural Firms

Manufacturing based on networks of small family firms is widely regarded to have been integral to Taiwan's development success. Many studies discuss the social embeddedness, flexibility, efficiency, and competitive advantage of these networks, but there have been few systematic attempts to theorize their origins. A processual analysis of the changing spatial structure of Taiwan's industry, in its social, political, and historical contexts, reveals that Taiwan's concentrated industries of the 1950s did not disintegrate into smaller firms. Rather, there was a proliferation of new rural firms after the mid-1960s. The construction of a disintegrated, decentralized, and networked structure was driven by the contingent actions of rural household entrepreneurs, pursuing strategies of social reproduction, under circumstances resulting from, among other things, an extensive land-reform program and redistributive agricultural policies. Transactions costs and neo-Weberian authority approaches elucidate important factors, but fail to explain the creation of this new class of petty entrepreneurs, and how the conditions of their entrance shaped the networked form of organization they created. Furthermore, their actions did not result from state-led development policies as much as they were the unintended consequences of state policies, preceding by several years government efforts to support the growth of small firms and rural industry. Finally, urban-push explanations assume a passive countryside, thus ignoring the ways rural actors energetically created new structures of production out of the resources at hand.

scholarly journals Lending by Rural Banks Involved in Mergers

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Walraven
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Sample Period ◽  
Holding Companies ◽  
Rural Firms ◽  
Using Data

AbstractThis paper employed a variety of sources of data and a number of methods to describe rural lending markets. Over the sample period, 1992 through 1998, there was a pronounced trend towards affiliation of banks, both urban and rural, with holding companies, although over this period there was little change in the concentration of banking offices in rural areas. Using data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances, the study found some evidence that rural small businesses were less likely to apply for a loan than urban small firms although those rural firms that did apply were more likely to have their application accepted.

EXPLORING THE DILEMMAS OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH - THE CASE OF RURAL FOOD-PROCESSING MICRO FIRMS

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 87-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIRPI KAIKKONEN
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Business Growth ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Market Opportunities ◽  
Resources And Capabilities ◽  
Small Business Growth ◽  
Firm Owners

The study discusses the development and growth of rural food-processing micro firms, and whether such firms are growth-oriented and under which conditions they are growth-oriented. The study shows that there are micro firms that are growth-oriented in rural areas. However, rural micro firm owners want to achieve their firm's growth by using their own and the family's resources and capabilities, and by avoiding risks. Furthermore, the study shows that when a small-scale firm wants to grow and seeks new market opportunities, bottlenecks in production begin to hold back the development of the firm. It seems that micro firm owners try to find machinery that is more automated than what they have, but of a size that is suitable for their production and their short-term expansion plans. The position of micro firms in the food sector makes production planning a challenge for them; small firms need to be flexible in production, and at the same time they must pay attention to cost elements. Therefore, production should become more automated and still stay flexible.

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