Challenges for Adoption of e-Procurement

In a society well on its way through a digital revolution, a number of new challenges are encountered, and when participating in electronic business, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face specific challenges and issues. In this chapter an analysis of those challenges covering electronic procurement within public and private sectors (B2G, B2B) is provided, including a case study from electronic invoicing. Relevant factors for the use of electronic invoicing for SMEs in Europe are recognized, and requirements for a technical solution are identified. Starting from that, an architecture for the solution is derived. The solution is aligned with the initiatives working on that issue within Europe.

Innovating Elite Undergraduate Education through Quality Continuous Improvement

This chapter investigates a mechanism of organizational innovation serving to make sense of a maturing university community involving educational executives, academic staff, and students in the occasion of a new campus development, starting in the year 2009 and realizing in the year 2013, under the auspices of a national policy benefiting the long-term development of higher education in the Macau Special Administrative Region (Macau SAR) of China. It is understood that the university as a public institution should not be operated like a business enterprise, running on profit-making initiatives; yet, without the enterprising context, the transformation of the existing infrastructure could hardly be innovated effectively, especially regarding the productivity of its staff, both academic and administrative. As a university with a staff count of less than 1000 and a history of close to thirty years, the University of Macau (UM) is ready to steward an elite undergraduate education marked by a quality learning experience that could become her branding value in the immediate future. The question is how innovatively UM could scale up in this opportunistic growth to excel for the local community. This case study is aimed to investigate from the perspective of a learning enterprise, a reflective way of forward thinking to record the author’s observation and interpretation of what is entailed in this process of upbringing a relatively young university in this age-old city, Macau, famous for its rich heritage of East (Chinese) meeting West (Europeans – Portuguese). Of specific interest is the proper context of open innovation in university governance for organizational transformation. The chapter examines the accountability framework for undergraduate curriculum reform and by treating the electronic transformation (e-transformation) as one of the open innovation strategies, the chapter explores the e-transformation of the university environment, based on holistic concerns of the campus community. The challenge is to identify the organizational context of innovation, which lies in the realm of electronic governance (e-governance), referring mainly to the decisions that define expectations, enable empowerment, and verify performance of the systems in support of community engagement and shared responsibilities in campus development, providing a sense-making perspective to interpret what is entailed in the organizational innovation of the university in this precious occasion of campus relocation. In practice, the lessons learned behind the e-transformation of the learning enterprise should benefit all walks of our local community, including the community of the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Collaborative Networks

The business landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. Innovative organisations are restructuring their business models. They are moving away from discrete linear value chains towards open innovation models such as networks. Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) recognise that in order to survive they must be equipped with the relevant competencies required to design, develop and deploy innovative solutions that meet the needs of the end user. More and more small firms are collaborating with each other in order to create value added products and access new markets. However, the task of working in a collaborative network is not easy. SMEs find it particularly difficult to engage in these activities and experience many challenges in this regard. Moreover, there are very few support structures and systems available to guide successful knowledge sharing and collaboration. This chapter explores the fundamental concepts of collaborative networks and knowledge sharing, synthesises and presents some of the challenges faced by SMEs and identifies some critical success factors that should be considered to help overcome the barriers identified.

Internal Key Factor in the Export Performance of Spanish SMEs

The internationalization is a complex process that requires a great effort, both financial and human, that some companies cannot spare, especially if they are medium or small companies. The authors’ investigation is based upon these medium and small companies and the problems they face, and analyzes the issues that affect their export intensity. For this, a multidimensional model is proposed as a result of a deep research on literature on this field. The results of this study show how technological innovation is an important aspect when determining an effort for exportation in this kind of companies.

Business Agility and Process Agility

Agility is an essential feature for SMEs and this chapter intends to examine if and how business processes, as currently understood, are able to promote it. Over the last years a number of viewpoints have emerged which exerted great influence on the design of notations and languages for business processes: the majority of them can be referred to as the centralized viewpoint, the role viewpoint, the conversational viewpoint, the case viewpoint and the cooperative one. These viewpoints provide different levels of agility and then beneficial results can be expected from their integration, which is the purpose of the proof-of-concept notation, AgileBPN, presented in this chapter. In AgileBPN, business processes are organized around conversations and role processes (encompassing the tasks pertaining to a given role); shared artifacts are represented as cooperative objects. The notation is illustrated with the help of an example referring to a business process meant to handle applications in a certain organization.

Open Innovation

With the advent of innovative technologies and multi-dimensional researches along the setting of entrepreneurship development, philosophy, context and business handling has been transformed from being traditional to innovative. Depending on diversity and nature of the transformation, innovation has been shifted from closed to open to crowdsourcing innovation. Ranging from small entrepreneurs to corporate business houses are being immensely benefited by the innovation techniques, especially utilizing information and communication technologies. However, the road to innovation, despite being a paradigm shift is not smooth and ready for many, particularly the small and medium enterprises who mainly deal with the clients at the outer peripheries of the social circle. This chapter synthesizes issues of opportunities and challenges for small and medium enterprises by carrying out a broad literature review and synthesis. Furthermore, the chapter will provide a few research hints to be applicable for researchers and research institutions.

Protected Health Information (PHI) in a Small Business

Compliance with regulatory guidelines and mandates surrounding information security and the protection of privacy has been under close scrutiny for some time throughout the world. Smaller organizations have remained “out of the spotlight” and generally do not hire staff with the expertise to fully address issues of compliance. This case study examines a project partnership between an information-technology (IT) consultant who specializes in small business and a diminutive medical practice that sought support with compliance issues surrounding a research study it was conducting. Other small medical practices were contributing to the research; consequently, information sharing while concurrently adhering to the regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 was a significant aspect of the project. It was also critical that numerous other security and privacy legislative requirements were met. The issue of data security is often neglected in IT instruction. This case study provides a foundation for examining aspects of information security from the perspective of the small-business IT consultant.

Black Economic Empowerment, ICT, and Preferential Public Procurement in South Africa

Broad-based black economic empowerment has been a central part of the South African government’s economic transformation strategy. The main purpose of BEE is to increase the number of black people that manage, own, and control the country’s economy, and as a result, to reduce income inequalities and to contribute to economic transformation in South Africa. During apartheid in South Africa, the government procurement system favoured large, established businesses and made it difficult for newly established businesses to participate in the procurement system. This chapter gives an overview of the Black Economic Empowerment policy as a means to achieve socio-economic transformation in South Africa by providing preferences for Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs) and small businesses, when making procurement decisions. It also examines how procurement is used as a policy tool by government while simultaneously ensuring that it does not contradict the constitutional right to equality. The chapter also explores the implications of the Preferential Public Procurement Framework Act (Act 5 of 2000) and the latest procurement regulations. Finally, it discusses the use of ICT and the vital role it plays in preferential procurement in South Africa.

Warehouse Financing Risk Analysis and Measurement with Case Study in Carbon Trading

Warehouse financing has been emerged as one of the most effective financing approaches for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Its basic working mechanism is to transfer the company’s assets to collaterals which are more acceptable by the bank. As a logistics service provider, the 3rd Party Logistics (3PL) coordinates and controls the whole financing process. With the professional 3PL’s help, it is easier for SMEs to get loan from the bank. In the meantime, the 3PL’s profit margin has also been increased by providing financing service in addition to their traditional logistics based functions. This chapter explains the basic working mechanism of warehouse financing, applies SCOR reference model to identify financing activities and the risks caused by them. Then this chapter synthesizes four relevant risk analysis / management frameworks from previous literatures, and proposes a new risk framework and evaluation measures aimed specifically for warehouse financing. Finally, a case of carbon trading in China is studied using the previous framework.

Operational Hedging Strategies to Overcome Financial Constraints during Clean Technology Start-Up and Growth

Clean technology startups face multiple sources of uncertainty, and require specialized knowhow and longer periods for revenue growth than their counterparts in other industries. These startups require large investments and have been hit hard during the current credit squeeze. On the other hand, clean technologies create important positive externalities for the economy. Hence, loan guarantees and other incentive schemes are being developed that are conditioned upon operational benchmarks. The authors offer a framework to establish the extent wherein operational hedging can reduce risk and increase the probability of obtaining financing. They examine a variety of evidence, ranging from production outsourcing to creation of joint ventures, to posit that operational hedging may affect both the marginal cost of capital and the marginal return on investment through mitigating the informational problems in the market. However, operational hedging may not be an effective strategy in all settings: the decision for creation of such hedges ought to weigh the benefits of reduced marginal cost of capital and the opportunity cost of reduced future growth potential against a status quo.