Critical Review of SME Regulation Optimization in Serbia

The European Union (EU) and the Republic of Serbia have recognized the importance of SMEs and are developing accordingly the institutional framework of this sector. In the process of EU accession, Serbia has to fulfil political, economic and legal requirements by implementing systemic reforms of its legal system in order to align it with the EU acquis. Some of these requirements have a direct or indirect impact on SME regulations, to which our chapter has been dedicated within a series of our papers on developing the SME regulatory framework. This paper will try to present the importance of innovating legal development of these companies. Furthermore, modern concepts will be introduced together with very important tools of legal forms of SME organization. The intention is to clearly define specific legal goals of SMEs, expressed through targeted legal forms. The modern regulatory framework relating to SMEs should combine the existing solid theoretical base and innovative models from the practice.

Exploring the Spheres of Crowdfunding

This chapter reviews research and policy literatures on the spheres of crowdfunding. It identifies reward-based, donation-based, equity-based and credit-based crowdfunding with a view to collate relevant information to support crowdfunding knowledgebase and further research. As crowdfunding is a new concept in research literature, it is increasing in popularity in social media, business and research communities. Academic research in crowdfunding is limited and the subject is still evolving as a way of access to finance for seed capital, entrepreneurial projects and other early stage projects. Advanced countries in Europe and North America have recognised the relevance of crowdfunding in varying proportion from one country to another for project fundraising. However, the World Bank confirmed that developing countries are at different stages of recognition of crowdfunding in their policy framework. Although the UK financial regulator, Financial Conduct Authority, has produced a policy statement for crowdfunding and approved some service providers such as crowdfunding platforms, it is still interacting with stakeholders and providing guidance to potential entrepreneurs on the operational models. Crowdfunding is a way of raising small amounts of money from different contributors over the internet for different types of projects. There are huge management implications in the spheres of crowdfunding.

Technological Change Perspective for ERP Implementation in Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) trail large organizations in leveraging IT systems. SMEs are beginning to understand the significance of implementing IT systems like ERP for improving their preparedness in business processes. Hence the objective of this research article is to develop a framework to analyse SME's organizational preparedness for implementing the technology. This research applies a General Morphological Analysis (GMA) framework to explore suitable models and variables for IT change preparedness to realize the benefits of ERP implementation in SMEs. An SMEs drawback in implementing IT tools is specifically due to a lack of knowledge and an acute shortage of resources like investment and manpower. The review of literature in this article using general morphological analysis is novel for ERP implementation in the SME sector. Based on the review of articles, a morphology with a technology organization framework and environment (TOE) framework which evaluates technological, organizational and environment is most adequate to understand the IT readiness for ERP among SMEs.

Knowledge Leakage when SMEs Participate in Supply Chains

The advantages of sharing knowledge when participating in a Supply Chain (SC) are well established in the literature, but the challenge of knowledge leakage, and how to manage it, is still in its infancy. In order to increase the understanding of knowledge leakage, when SMEs participate in SCs, this study describes types of knowledge that may leak away, how they are valued, and how knowledge leakage can occur. The result includes two frameworks that also have shown to be potentially useful for examining the maturity of a specific SME with regard to knowledge leakages when participating in the SC.

Entrepreneurial Action as Metaphorical Process and its Metaphorics

The objective of this paper is to formulate new approach to entrepreneurship and its result that is challenged by appearance of novel spheres of entrepreneurial activity related to social innovations, social networks, solution for corporate management and people`s wellbeing, production of gadget for precarious wants. These items inspire the study of axiological bases of value created by entrepreneurs. This purpose suggests addressing and revisiting the notions of entrepreneurial action and value. Their complete conceptualization applying to nascent new economy is unlikely to be possible. With this in mind, we focused on searching for metaphors that can cast light on the specifics of newly-emerging phenomena related to entrepreneurial action and value created by it. Using the theory of metaphor, we find that entrepreneurial action is of metaphorical nature itself. In the article, the creation of value is described by means of the transferal of enterprising constituents of entrepreneur's identity onto produced things. We specify these constituents as referred to the different periods of entrepreneurial history. The identification of the constituents was based on the theory of pillars and carriers of institutions by W. R. Scott. The metaphors of appropriateness, utility and wellbeing were proposed for the different periods of the development of value. The metaphor of rhetoric was defined as a root metaphor for all moduses of entrepreneurial action considered as a process of convincing on the value of things produced. Special metaphors for entrepreneurial action for each period of value development were also proposed. The metaphor of performative rhetoric was considered as shedding light on dominant modus of entrepreneurial action and modus of value under conditions of knowledge society.

Coping Better with the Project´s Unknown Unknowns

It is the goal of management to overcome and delete uncertainty. Uncertainty is seen as an obstacle and threat for successful management. However projects are full of uncertainty. Successful project management therefore aims to overcome and ideally delete uncertainty as far as possible. In project management, uncertainty and risk are often used synonymously. Current project management methodology contains only technics how to manage risk in projects. The assessment of risks is based on the precondition of stable conditions and the idea that the influencing parameters are known, assessable and calculable. Since more than 2,000 years it is the aim of the Western cultures to master the nature by natural sciences and mathematics. In the last three centuries of Modern Philosophy the perspective developed that analytical scientific know how (episteme) and technical skills (techne) can master any kind of complexity and risk. The third traditional Aristotelian competence, the practical wisdom (phronesis) however was perceived as not acknowledgeable.

The Role of Philanthropy on the Strategic Planning Process of a Selective Liberal Arts and Science College

This chapter describes how constituencies of a four-year, private liberal arts and science college perceived the effect of philanthropy on the strategic planning process. Due to their reliance upon tuition revenues and private support, liberal arts and science colleges are particularly susceptible to ebbs and flows in the economy. How these institutions plan for the future and the extent to which philanthropy factors into strategic plans provides crucial information about the future of these higher education institutions (Connell, 2006). Gaining a deep understanding of how philanthropy shapes a strategic planning process and the decision-making model that was used during the process provides insight into how philanthropy, strategic planning, and decision-making models intersect to form a new decision-making model, described as feedback and revenue.

Alternative Research Funding Mechanisms

Funding affects how science is carried out. Over the last 50 years, the core of science funding has become competitive, project based and increasingly oriented towards societal challenges. Recently, alternative, more open and flexible funding mechanisms have emerged, such as crowdfunding, philanthropy and bottom-up mechanisms. This chapter analyses the development and implications of alternative funding mechanisms for science, through an umbrella literature review complemented by case studies. It concludes that alternative funding are an important component of research funding, which provides new opportunities especially for niche and unrecognized research, and require stronger communication skills by researchers. However, they can't and should not substitute traditional mechanisms. Researchers, institutions and funding agencies should redesign their activity accounting for a plurality of funding instruments, and facilitate collaboration between them.

Handling Uncertainty in Project Management and Business Development

This chapter reports a study into the management of uncertainty in the disciplines of business development and project management. The first part of the chapter analyses the disciplines by looking at the process, the planning, uncertainty and risk and the measurement of success. Based on our analysis of these two disciplines, we conclude that they differ substantially in the perception and handling of uncertainty and how this is included in the overall process. We found that business development uses additional methods, for example scenario planning, to manage the uncertainty that is inherent to the business development process. The second part of the chapter reports an explorative study into the potential application of scenario planning in project management. This study shows that scenario planning may benefit project management in creating a shared understanding of the project as well as the provision and consideration of different information. In the planning processes of the project, this information is considered useful in risk management and milestone planning.

Proactive Law as Competitive Advantage in Crowdfunding

This chapter explains how the paradigm of proactive law as competitive advantage can help entrepreneurs succeed in crowdfunding campaigns. Business law scholars have developed theories of “proactive law” and “law as competitive advantage” to show how law can be transformed from an obstacle into a strategic business advantage. This chapter analyzes the evolving crowdfunding landscape through the lens of proactive law as competitive advantage. The chapter proposes several types of innovative securities designed to create competitive advantages in crowdfunding offerings. For example, one type would give crowdfunding investors long-term equity interests while simultaneously eliminating short-term corporate governance challenges for small crowdfunded companies. Apart from securities, the chapter also describes how a proactive approach to law can enhance crowdfunding campaigns in multiple areas, from intellectual property to tax efficiency. To conclude, the chapter suggests expanding the theory of proactive law as competitive advantage to additional areas of entrepreneurship, beyond crowdfunding.