Small businesses typically have limitations in areas of modern marketing and the use of ICT and I-commerce (Internet-commerce) in particular for penetration of new (mainly international) markets. An approach that can be used to address these limitations – i.e method and implementation concepts based on the use of external consulting team (including University students) is presented in this pape...

With an ever changing economic climate many businesses find it difficult to survive. Small firms are continually going out of business in the early stages of their life. According to the Queensland Small Business Development Corporation, the small business failure rate is high with two-thirds of all such businesses started failing within their first five years of operation (SBDC, 1990). The maj...

Entrepreneurs face a wide variety of uncertainties in managing new or small businesses. Uncertainty can potentially magnify the liability of newness faced by younger businesses, as well as the challenges that smaller businesses face in having adequate resources to maintain performance. Here we present a model of environmental uncertainty tied to industry, geographic and macro-level effects. We ...

OBJECTIVE To assess small business adoption and need for a worksite wellness program in a longitudinal study of health risks, productivity, workers' compensation rates, and claims costs. METHODS Health risk assessment data from 6507 employees in 260 companies were examined. Employer and employee data are reported as frequencies, with means and standard deviations reported when applicable. R...

The objective of this exploratory study was to establish, through the application of the Rahim Organisational Inventory (ROC II) instrument, how the gender and age status of owners/managers of small businesses relate to the application of different conflict-handling styles. The sample of 68 participants was taken using a convenience sampling technique to ensure representation from the strata of...

1 Introduction Globalization and increased reliance on the internet has forced many organizations to rely on computer and networking technology for the storage of valuable company and personal information (Easttom, 2006). Many small businesses have embraced internet technologies to reach out to their customers, partners, and employees from around the world (Day, 2003). Proliferation of online a...

This research examines potential barriers within the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework that affect the decision to adopt Electronic Commerce (EC) and extent of EC adoption within Small Businesses (SBs) in the context of developing countries. This research also signifies the discriminators of adoption and non-adoption of different EC applications. Through a questionnaire-based ...

This research examines potential barriers within the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework that affect the decision to adopt Electronic Commerce (EC) and extent of EC adoption within Small Businesses (SBs) in the context of developing countries. This research also signifies the discriminators of adoption and non-adoption of different EC applications. Through a questionnaire-based ...

In a given operating environment, small family businesses typically have fewer resources to minimize vulnerability. Identifying this exposure is basic to strategic analysis and, potentially, public policy analysis. This can become even more important when structural change in the environment is expected while its exact character is not known. The implications of climate change for Australian fa...

Disruptive business models, such as software as a service and open source software, have made Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages and related software more accessible for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). However, the consulting required to configure an ERP to meet the specific needs of an organization remains a major financial burden for SMEs. One configuration task which is common ...