Abstract: The definition of innovation strategies has been widely discussed in literature. Several authors refer to the systematic exploration of critical success factors (e.g. quality, innovation ability and scale effects) as being a useful instrument for strategy development. Previous research has focused predominantly on qualitative descriptions and on setting up a general framework for crit...

Key conclusions • The emphasis on management accounting in SMEs tends to be on control information rather than aiding decision-making; there is a tendency to make decisions without adequate, or indeed any, financial information or analysis; • In smaller enterprises, the management accounting is often undertaken by the owner-manager/entrepreneur, resulting in significant opportunity costs. Where...

Starting from 2002, Wonders Information Co., Ltd., a medium-sized software company located in Shanghai, China, started building a knowledge management system that attempted to facilitate knowledge sharing between its employees. This teaching case describes how the system was conceptualized, designed, built, and used. In doing so, we wish to provide a context for in-depth discussion on designing...

Variability has become important means to provide customer specific products fast to the market. This paper presents findings from a literature study and questionnaire designed to find out the current variability management practices, challenges and needs in small and medium sized companies (SMEs). The literature study was carried out first, and based on its findings questionnaire study was des...

Several studies have documented that IT projects often do not successfully meet defined objectives regarding time, budget, and functionality. There can be multiple causes for this, and an important factor in this context is the extent to which a company is ready for an IT project. To help understand this dynamic, this paper presents a framework for analyzing 'IT readiness' in SMEs (small and me...

The factors that lead to business process re-engineering (BPR) success in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not clearly understood. This article reviews the main contributing factors to BPR success using a framework that considers culture, structure, technology and resource. Eight Taiwanese case studies are used to explore issues contributing to, or impeding, successful process re-e...

The hype around Web 2.0 has again sparked tremendous interest in IT-supported knowledge management and technologyenhanced learning in organizations. Although there has been abundant evidence of how to benefit from Web 2.0 technologies, information on how to go about deploying these in small and medium-sized enterprises in a coordinated manner are scarce. Based on the findings of an empirical st...

independently produced elements which effectively constitute tourists’ total experience of the destination. However, due to their vulnerability, deficient marketing and management functions, and dependence upon distribution channel partners they also tend to jeopardise the benefits of tourism activity for destinations and host communities. Nevertheless, the prosperity of destinations and SMTEs ...