Survival Under Aggressive Competition

The purpose of this chapter is to examine whether competitive strategies are helpful for small firms to survive when the intensity of rivalry is high. The research scope is a case of microenterprise that operates in industrial machinery and components sector in Istanbul, Turkey. Throughout a 12-year period, the critical incidents that the firm confronted in the competitive environment, its reactions to those challenges, and the consequences are evaluated under the framework of business strategy. Consequently, it is observed that differentiation strategies served the microenterprise to grow even under aggressive competition. The analysis is expected to contribute to the development of managerial skills in small firms, which constitute a large portion in economic activity.

Strategic and Process Management

The performance of companies has been of great interest in the organizational and academic world. In Brazil it became a matter of survival, given the high number of premature corporate deaths, especially in the field of micro and small enterprises. Following this same interest, the authors began this exploratory qualitative research to find information about the specifics of some companies that manage to remain in the market with reasonable competitiveness and for many years. In this universe, they selected three companies located in the city of Teresina (PI) that presented a significant boost in the face of a turbulent and unpredictable environment. Some characteristics, behaviors, and skills have been highlighted as likely indicators of dynamic capacity leading to the achievement of a competitive advantage, which, consequently, cause these companies to be remembered and chosen by consumers among others existing in the same place or region.

Strategic Orientation and Performance of Istanbul Stock Market Businesses

The primary objective of this chapter is to critically examine the effect of strategic orientations on the innovation and the performance of İstanbul stock market businesses in Turkey. The three most comprehensive constructs, namely strategic orientation of business enterprises (STROBE), strategic orientation of information systems (STROIS), and strategic orientation of knowledge-based enterprises (STROKE) instruments, were adopted to present a holistic picture of the effect of strategic orientation on innovation and firm performance. A survey was administered and a sample of 203 middle managers was analyzed using SmartPLS version 3.2.7 for inferential analysis and SPSS version 24 for descriptive insights.

Value Creation in Volatile Economies

This chapter presents in a simplified way that communities in volatile economies can create value through the identification, valorization, and operationalization of knowledge, traditions, and other cultural dimensions, many of them in the domain of tacit knowledge, available in the minds of people and community shared value. Through a cycle of identification of local knowledge, it is possible to begin the whole process, which necessarily passes through the cooperation between the various local actors. In a third phase, it is essential to structure the positioning, which represents the conceptual dimension concerning the way the community intends to present itself to the market. Next, it is essential to structure this offer, promoting value creation and capture. As such, the community should value their products or services by enhancing local knowledge and taking value creation initiatives in favor of local development (value capture).

Public Spending and Poverty in Ibero-American Countries

The purpose of this chapter is to provide useful information on the two main topics that define it: public spending and poverty. Three objectives are highlighted: 1) to provide a general overview of the concept of poverty and their characteristics; 2) to project, through the consulted literature, a model that explains the determinants of poverty; and 3) to describe, on the basis of aggregate data obtained on the CEPAL website, the situation of public spending (according to the classification by government function) and poverty (population living on less than $1.90 and $3.10/day) in some countries of the Ibero-American territory to show whether there is a significant relationship between public spending and poverty.

State Institutions of Financial Support for Small Business in Volatile Economies

Financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) today is one of the major areas of state support in volatile economies, as it is recognized as the most pressing problem affecting the activities of small businesses. The scale of development of SMEs in Russia today and its contribution to the economic recovery is clearly insufficient and impossible to expand without special measures of state support. This chapter will analyze the current state, dynamics, and financial constraints of SMEs in Russia; classify state supporting institutions; suggest basic methods to curb the situation; and disclose prospective financial supporting tools for SMEs development. The authors established the possibility of applying the Russian experience in supporting SMEs in the Republic of Ghana. This is due to the similarities in economic issues in these countries such as depreciation of currency and fall in oil prices. The authors analyzed the volumes and results of major government activities of the Russian Federal State and identified prospects for their development and implementation in Ghana.

Orientation for Results

This chapter is a field study of bibliographic nature and quantitative method. Data was obtained through the application of a questionnaire distributed to a sample of 200 people living in São Luís-MA-Brazil. The objective was to evaluate citizens' knowledge of laws, legal instruments, and the exercise of citizenship in relation to popular participation in the Master Plan. It has theoretical foundation in the research of Carreira et al., applied in Portugal, focusing on the democratic approach and in the definitions of knowledge and citizen involvement to achieve good results. The analysis concluded that there is low popular participation, in the order of 10.5%, especially among the younger and less educated, as well as frail knowledge about laws and legal instruments.

The Challenges of Small Companies

The aim of the chapter is to understand and analyze the main challenges faced by the city of Aparecida de Goiânia, state of Goiás, for its economic development, from 2015 to this first quarter of 2018. Also, the authors analyze what strategies are being adopted by local, state, and municipality governments in view of recent corruption scandals in Brazil in very recent years leading to problems such as failure to provide adequate infrastructure, high tax rates, and a slow and heavy bureaucratic system that makes the opening, reform, and closing of companies a slow and difficult process.

Entrepreneurship and Strategic Performance in a Time of Crisis

This chapter researches the behavior and entrepreneurial capacities of entrepreneurs in the modality of small and medium businesses to better understand their development according to the current theoretical interpretations and based on a sectorial analysis of companies of these sizes in the State of Maranhão. The research directs its attention to the factors that influence the entrepreneurial action and the strategic performance, analyzing the business performance in times of crisis. The research method was defined based on the sector analysis, substantiated by the literature review. The results indicate that the size of the company is irrelevant both for taking strategic actions and for rapidity in undertaking growth actions. It is concluded that SMBs achieve greater swiftness in growth actions and undertake joint actions when they have technological capabilities.

Determinants of Employee Retention

One of the biggest challenges faced by companies is the retention of employees. Studies undertaken in the area indicate that the high turnover rate, especially characterized by voluntary dismissal, is motivated by non-alignment of employees' interests with company objectives. The author focused on identifying which factors related to the employees and which factors related to the companies are determinant to retain employees and reduce the rate of turnover. To answer this question, a survey was conducted with a sample of 264 people, between employees and employers, treated by factor analysis. The results showed that age, gender, and marital status are not important for the employees' permanence and that the promotion of training, opportunities for advancement, salaries, and fair benefits are more valued, as well as the employee's interest in ascending professionally.