Management practices and their relation to success of Polish SMEs: The empirical verification

Purpose The aim of the paper is to identify management practices that are characteristic for SMEs that achieve market success measured by their business performance in last their years of their operation analyze the relationships between management practices applied in small and medium-sized enterprises and their success measured by their business performance drawing on the data from 2710 SMEs operating on the Polish market. Approach/Methodology/Design A cluster analysis was used to distinguish homogenous SME groups in view of their management practices. We examined differences between groups in terms of their business performance. The HINoV algorithm allowed six variables to be selected out of 32 management practices chosen initially for testing, with these variables providing the basis for grouping. Modal values and medians were calculated for 17 business performance measures in the three clusters produced. The subsequent analysis of those findings was focused on capturing significant differences. Findings In the group of 2710 Polish SMEs, it was possible to verify that there existed an association between management practices in the field of modern HRM, computer systems supporting management and the company’s economic performance, as measured by an increase in net revenue and number of customers over the last three years. In clusters where the above mentioned practices were appreciated, modal and median values of the increase reported in net revenue and number of customers were significantly higher. Practical implications The research has shown that at a time marked by a shortage of highly skilled personnel one should pay particular attention to building an integrated and committed team of workers and to employee empowerment. The research has also shown that SME managers monitor only a fraction of basic business performance measures, which may prove to be a major risk to SMEs. Originality/Value Previous studies have been largely conducted in a fragmentary manner, i.e. they were concerned with the relationships between the application of some practices (strategic management, BPR, entrepreneurial orientation, monitoring, etc.) and selected business effectiveness measures. In this paper, the research covered SME management practices from a variety of areas which were then compared with the entrepreneurs’ assessment as to whether the company’s economic condition changed over the last three years. It is also the first attempt in post-socialist economies to identify those SME management practices that are related to better economic results.

An empirical investigation of the relationship among agile manufacturing practices and business performance: a pilot study

Purpose Agility addresses vibrant solutions for running companies to meet the dares of customers asking for high quality and low- cost goods and services. The purpose of this study is to identify the practices for the successful implementation of agile manufacturing and measure their relationship with business performance measures of the manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach The data for the pilot study were collected from 26 respondents through a questionnaire survey. After confirming the normality and reliability of the data, it was analyzed to examine the relationship between agile manufacturing practices and business performance measures. Findings The results show that there are strong relationships between agile manufacturing practices and business performance. Further, these attributes significantly contribute to delivering better business performance. Originality/value The study signifies the need for agile manufacturing in enhancing business performance for the growth and sustainability of the organization.

ADAPTATION OF A COMPANY TO THE ENVIRONMENT AS A DETERMINANT OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

For many years, a sustainable competitive advantage has been an imperative in the business of a modern company. One of the most important factors in gaining a competitive advantage is the adaptation of the company to its external environment. The environment in which modern companies operate is dynamic, uncertain and complex, and it is to be expected that the ability to adapt will become the most important competitive advantage of the 21st century companies that will enable them to achieve better and improved performance. However, there is still a rather small number of scientific research that link the adaptation of a company to its environment with achieved financial and non-financial performance of a company. This paper aims at examining the implied relationship between so-called flexible companies, and financial and non-financial business performance measures. The results of the research indicate the existence of a positive relationship between companies with more dominant characteristics of adaptive companies and non-financial measures of business performance.

An empirical exploration of Agile manufacturing for enhanced business performance in Indian manufacturing industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of agile manufacturing practices on business performance of Indian medium and large-scale manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach A survey questionnaire was designed to attain the research objectives. Agile manufacturing questionnaire was sent to around 500 randomly selected manufacturing organizations in the northern spectrum of India through e-mails and posts, out of which 154 usable responses have been received. This study investigates the inter-relationships between various agile manufacturing implementation practices and business performance measures using various statistical techniques. This paper deploys Games–Howell hoc test to establish the statistical significance of business performance improvements, progressively accrued over a reasonable period of time, through holistic agile manufacturing implementation. Findings The paper validates the contribution of agile manufacturing toward realization of the significant improvements in various business performance measures such as customer-related achievements, financial achievements, business-related achievements, operational achievements, employee-related achievements, and supplier-related achievements. Further, the discriminant validity test has been used in this paper for classifying highly successful and moderately successful organizations. Research limitations/implications The paper only concentrated on manufacturing organizations in northern India. The results of this paper cannot generalize across all the sectors and spectrum of Indian manufacturing organizations. Originality/value This paper develops an insight into the strong potential of agile manufacturing implementation practices in affecting business performance measures.

Business Performance Measures for the Third-Party Logistics Industry in UAE

Third party logistic market is booming everywhere in the world. Globalization of world economy, focusing on core competencies, logistic cost reduction, and delivery performance made companies focus on outsourcing logistics. Third party logistic market is an emerging trend in the United Arab Emirates. Due to the economic development, easy access to open business market, technological development, robotization of 3PL industry and globalization are the few determinants that the organizations wanted to invest their money in UAE. Third party logistic market is growing fast in Abu Dhabi in the same way as in Dubai, where the 3PL market is highly adopted with IT application and robotization in their 3PL operations. Data have been collected from the 3PL clients and the precise data were collected through questionnaire and field visit. Actually 102 calculated 3PL user companies took an interest in the survey. The collected information was analyzed by Friedman’s test. This study reveals clear understanding about the various business performance measures for the third-party logistic industry in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Results have demonstrated that all the business performance measures in the 3PL user organizations have the “P” value which is under 0.01, with the null hypothesis rejected at 1 percent level of significance.

An empirical study on applicability of lean and green practices in the foundry industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of lean and green practices to foundry industry in India for improving productivity and eliminating waste, incorporating the sustainability into business performance measures. Design/methodology/approach – The study used survey questionnaire method to collect data against 16 lean and green practices from 71 middle- to senior-level professionals belonging to Indian foundry industry. The survey instrument of lean and green practices was developed based on a number of sources from the literature and formal discussions with academicians and foundry industry professionals. The responses were received on a five-point Likert scale ranging from least applicable to most applicable. Exploratory factor and reliability analyses are conducted to obtain and validate constructs and measure each constructs Cronbach’s α (i.e. a consistency coefficient). The lean and green practices are categorized into the four constructs, namely, workplace organization practices, management practices, inventory control practices, and industrial manufacturing and quality improvement practices. Further, descriptive statistics is employed to find out the relative significance of lean and green practices. Findings – Factor and reliability analyses show that all four constructs are adequate and reliable to illustrate lean and green practices. Descriptive statistics indicates that lean and green practices are applicable for implementation to a certain extent in the foundry industry. Correlation analysis shows that lean practices are positively and moderately interrelated with green practices. Thus, the results present a strong evidence that lean and green practices are moderately applicable for implementation in the foundry industry. Originality/value – The paper provides insights into the applicability of lean and green practices implementation in the context of a developing country and presents evidence that lean and green practices are moderately applicable in the foundry industry. In addition, this paper is one of the few efforts to promote sustainable development within the industry.

Revised Attributes

This chapter is conducted with the intention to investigate the relevancy of the attributes to the five constructs of the model. The discussion in this section is basing on the information and the key findings according to the content of these interviews six pilot studies and the open question' respondents collected from 395 questionnaires survey and other government and Industry Association documents. The revised attributes of trust is based on contractual trust, competence trust, goodwill trust and benevolence. Relationship management, learning capability, communication capability and innovation capability are selected as the main attributes of the organizational capacities in relation to inter-organizational collaboration. The five typical attributes in the DOI theory are selected for measuring e-business diffusion, which are: relative advantage, complexity, trialability and observability. Organizational effectiveness, product and service measure, financial measures, market measure and customer satisfaction measure are mainly perceived as business performance measures.