HIRINGLAB.io: An exploration into the commercial potential of an innovative connection service that provides work experience opportunities for young adults to drive small business growth

<p>Technology has changed the way that young adults begin their careers. Exploring potential work opportunities is easier to do now than 20 years ago with the rise of technology. However, with the rise of job accessibility a number of challenges for young adults looking to get ahead have arisen. Work experience is crucial in making the transition from simply getting a job, to starting a career that will have meaning and impact. In contrast, technology has affected the way that small businesses survive, and then grow. It can be challenging for small businesses to grow with limited resources, in a competitive commercial environment. Small business owners in the start-up and growth phases in particular struggle, to fill the gaps in their capabilities with little time, money or the necessary skills and expertise. This research, in partnership with Accenture, explores the commercial potential of an innovative connection service. The proposed service will provide work experience opportunities for young adults that will drive small business growth. Research involved the application of lean start-up methodology and service design thinking principles across three phases; Phase One Market Development and Validation, Phase Two Service Development and Validation, and Phase Three Business Case Development. Phase One involved interviewing 20 young adults and 10 small business owners to identify the specific market segments that the service could benefit. Phase Two involved matching two pairs of suitable young adults and small businesses from Phase One, to trial the prototyped service solution. Phase Three involved conducting a retrospective focus group with the trial participants to understand thoughts and feelings about the service as potential customers. Findings from each research phase indicate that young adults and small businesses are suitable markets for the service and that the service concept is feasible. A major finding from Phase One was that certain characteristics improved the potential of some market segments for the proposed service over others. For young adults this meant having the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence to solve a small business problem. For small businesses those with zero employees in particular had suitable gaps to fill and were open to young adults helping them. In Phase Two, critical success factors were identified for the service, most significantly a key indicator of success for the relationship was understanding a person’s work purpose, culture and values. Phase Three found that the success of the match reflected on perception of service quality. It highlighted that young adults and small businesses preferred short term, meaningful engagements. Research findings led to recommendations of suitable development strategies and a proposed business model for the service. A key recommendation is to incorporate both lean start-up methodology and service design thinking as the main development strategy, for fast iteration with the customer at the centre of decisions made. It was also recommended that the service adopt a freemium marketplace business model where users are able to view potential jobs, at no cost but engage in the customised matching service on a subscription basis. The implementation and success of this service could ultimately change how young adults seek work experience and differentiate themselves in competitive job markets. For small businesses, the service could offer an affordable tool in seeking talent to overcome business shortcomings and ultimately achieving growth.</p>

HIRINGLAB.io: An exploration into the commercial potential of an innovative connection service that provides work experience opportunities for young adults to drive small business growth

<p>Technology has changed the way that young adults begin their careers. Exploring potential work opportunities is easier to do now than 20 years ago with the rise of technology. However, with the rise of job accessibility a number of challenges for young adults looking to get ahead have arisen. Work experience is crucial in making the transition from simply getting a job, to starting a career that will have meaning and impact. In contrast, technology has affected the way that small businesses survive, and then grow. It can be challenging for small businesses to grow with limited resources, in a competitive commercial environment. Small business owners in the start-up and growth phases in particular struggle, to fill the gaps in their capabilities with little time, money or the necessary skills and expertise. This research, in partnership with Accenture, explores the commercial potential of an innovative connection service. The proposed service will provide work experience opportunities for young adults that will drive small business growth. Research involved the application of lean start-up methodology and service design thinking principles across three phases; Phase One Market Development and Validation, Phase Two Service Development and Validation, and Phase Three Business Case Development. Phase One involved interviewing 20 young adults and 10 small business owners to identify the specific market segments that the service could benefit. Phase Two involved matching two pairs of suitable young adults and small businesses from Phase One, to trial the prototyped service solution. Phase Three involved conducting a retrospective focus group with the trial participants to understand thoughts and feelings about the service as potential customers. Findings from each research phase indicate that young adults and small businesses are suitable markets for the service and that the service concept is feasible. A major finding from Phase One was that certain characteristics improved the potential of some market segments for the proposed service over others. For young adults this meant having the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence to solve a small business problem. For small businesses those with zero employees in particular had suitable gaps to fill and were open to young adults helping them. In Phase Two, critical success factors were identified for the service, most significantly a key indicator of success for the relationship was understanding a person’s work purpose, culture and values. Phase Three found that the success of the match reflected on perception of service quality. It highlighted that young adults and small businesses preferred short term, meaningful engagements. Research findings led to recommendations of suitable development strategies and a proposed business model for the service. A key recommendation is to incorporate both lean start-up methodology and service design thinking as the main development strategy, for fast iteration with the customer at the centre of decisions made. It was also recommended that the service adopt a freemium marketplace business model where users are able to view potential jobs, at no cost but engage in the customised matching service on a subscription basis. The implementation and success of this service could ultimately change how young adults seek work experience and differentiate themselves in competitive job markets. For small businesses, the service could offer an affordable tool in seeking talent to overcome business shortcomings and ultimately achieving growth.</p>

Towards the Underlying Theories of Small Firm Growth: A Literature Review

As a pre-condition for the economic growth of a country, the concept of firm growth has emerged as a critical strategic issue for small businesses from the strategic management perspective. While some literature reviews have been conducted on small firm growth, a comprehensive review of theories emphasizing the association of intangible resources with the growth of small firms has not been conducted. This study aims to provide a literature review of extant theoretical perspectives of small businesses literature. For the review, materials are collected and extracted from various online databases, and results are analysed using classifier variables. Five theories of firm growth, namely, the resource-based theory, knowledge-based theory, dynamic capabilities theory, upper echelon theory and resource-dependency theory, are selected to review, associating the present research aim. The theories are compared using key attributes and outcomes. A clear direction towards an optimum theory to underpin the small firms’ growth has been provided from a resource-management perspective. By validating various theoretical perspectives to explain small business growth, the present study provides first-hand insights for managers to formulate strategies and creates a cornerstone for future empirical studies.

Financing Options and Sustainable Small Business Growth in Uganda: An Optimal Model

Small businesses in Uganda continue to lag behind trends in terms of sales turnover profitability, employee growth, while others rarely live to celebrate their first birthday due to various constraints of which financing is at the forefront. This study set out to determine the relationship between various financing options and sustainable small business growth so as to suggest an optimal financing model to ensure sustainable small businesses. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey design to analyse a sample of 399 small businesses which were selected using stratified random sampling from Kampala Metropolitan Area. Data were collected using a researcher administered structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics. The relationship between the variables was determined using Spearman&rsquo;s rank correlation coefficeint. The study established that there is a weak positive significant correlation between traditional debt finance and sustainable small business growth, a strong positive significant correlation between asset-based finance and sustainable small business growth, and a strong positive significant correlation between crowdfunding and sustainable small business growth. The study further established that there is a moderate positive significant relationship between equity finance and sustainable small business growth. The study concluded that improving on the available financing options would improve on the sustainable small business growth. It is recommended that the ideal model for financing small businesses should be the integration of the financing options, but giving priority to; asset based lending, crowdfunding, equity finance and lastly traditional debt finance.

Factors Determining Business Growth of Women Entrepreneurship

This paper provided a review of literature on theories and determinants of business growth of women entrepreneurship. Whereas the core objective of paper focused on entrepreneurship and theories of small business growth belong to women’ owner. The discussions on the factors determining small business growth by looking at the various factors that contribute to women entrepreneurship. These factors related to individual and demographic characteristics of the business owner, business characteristics and the general business environment that include socio-cultural values and government policies and regulations. Keywords: women entrepreneurship, business growth, factors.

Cognitive financial constraints and firm growth

This study distinguishes entrepreneurs’ cognitive financial constraints from financial supply constraints and assesses their relative importance to small business growth. Drawing from the literature on cognitive styles and institutional theory, we argue that small businesses’ financial constraints derive not only from financial market failures but also from the cognitive factors of entrepreneurs. Analysing a comprehensive dataset of more than 200,000 small businesses in Vietnam, we show that both financial supply and cognitive financial constraints impede firm growth. Given this significantly deleterious effect, the cognitive financial constraints originating from the demand side of firm financing deserve more attention.

THE EVALUATION OF SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH IN THE REGIONS

The article offers a methodical approach to determining the level of small business growth in the regions of Ukraine, based on the calculation of the integrated index. Small business is an important component of region’s economy, but its role and importance in socio-economic development vary depending on the heterogeneous industrial development of the regions. There is a need for a comprehensive assessment of the level of small business development to identify growth points and areas of support. In author’s opinion, the indicators of small business development currently used to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of regional programs to support small business do not reflect the impact of small business activities on the regional development at all. The author focuses the reader’s attention on determination of the level of development of small business and its role in the economy of the regions using the method of integrated index. This index is taken into consideration the extensiveness, intensity and social significance of small business. The coefficient of extensiveness is the share of small enterprises in the total number of enterprises in the region; the intensity coefficient is the share of the volume of products (goods, services) sold by small enterprises in the total volume of products (goods, services) sold in the region. The social significance of small business is calculated as the geometric mean of the product of the share of employees in small enterprises in the total number of employees in enterprises of the region and the share of personnel costs of small enterprises in total personnel costs of all enterprises in the region. The calculation of the general index of small business development in the regions is provided in the article. It allows to draw conclusions that small business has the greatest impact on the development of Kherson, Chernivtsi and Kirovohrad regions, and the least - on the development of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The article concludes by outlining prospects for further research. The analysis of indicators of extensiveness, intensity and social significance of small business makes it possible to highlight the problems that hinder its successful growth in the regions and require concentration of efforts for urgent solution.

Sustainability, growth and entrepreneurial orientation of small innovative enterprises

Almost all over the world, small business is a source of prosperity and sustainability for societies and nations. Therefore, research on small businesses in measuring sustainability is essential for achieving several sustainable development goals. In this article, we propose to reflect on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, growth and sustainability of a small business. This study consists of three main parts. Firstly, we revealed the role of small businesses in Ukraine's sustainable development and explored the European experience. Secondly, we explored the main components of business orientation and enterprise growth of Ukrainian small innovative enterprises. Thirdly, we established the relationship between the individual components of enterprise growth and its entrepreneurial orientation. We also discussed the informatization issues in connection with expanding the entrepreneurial orientation of small enterprises to strengthen their role in sustainable development processes, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemia. This research can be helpful both to SMEs and the government as the basis for developing and changing policies on small business growth and innovations