the purpose of this paper is to improve supply chain relationships in iranian small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in automotive parts industry. for this reason, an importance-performance analysis (ipa) has been employed to categorized supply chain relationships metrics. also, the questionnaire method is used for gathering information. the paper identified thirteen supply chain relationshi...

Today's economic crisis has led to bankruptcy of many successful, but usually large-sized enterprises. This brought into question the future of large-sized enterprises. However, the only alternative to largesized enterprises (LEs) is networking of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into Regional Production Networks (RPNet). RPNet is non-hierarchical organizational form in which every SME...

Being able to control logistics on the network level demands transparency to inventory and deliveries in the whole supply network. However, the information technology (IT) solutions enabling network transparency are expensive and heavy to install and, thus, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) often find them infeasible. This paper brings forth the difficulties small and medium sized enter...

Many large enterprises develop their software nowadays in globally distributed settings. By using the option to outsource, the respective enterprises can realize decisive competitive advantages. In order to remain competitive, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are also forced to follow this trend and to outsource parts of their software development. However, most of the existing studies...

the corporate entrepreneurship (ce) of firms and enterprises is the subject of current research in the fields of management and business. however, analyses on this subject in agricultural firms are lacking. the purpose of this research was to study the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance in agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (asmes) in iran. specif...

So far, e-learning has primarily been used when there are many learners involved. The up-front investments related to e-learning are relatively high, and may be perceived as prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Some e-learning is, however, getting less expensive, and some e-learning models are more suited for small-scale training than others. Therefore, this article presen...

Adoption of innovations within small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs) employing fewer than 250 employees is limited compared to large companies. Within the current study, our goal is to identify hindering factors influencing adoption of innovation within SMEs. To identify this, we conducted a case study on the usage of mobility related innovations within 20 small and medium-sized enterprises...

This paper investigates the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the context of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). The paper reports on research findings from a case study that has been conducted in 14 SMEs, operating in steel manufacturing and woodworking. By dividing the enterprises into three different groups; medium-sized, small, and micro enterprises, this study pro...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a vital and growing part of any national economies. In common with most large businesses, SMEs have recognized the importance of knowledge management. Using survey data from 219 small and medium-sized enterprises in Austria and Switzerland including Liechtenstein, this paper investigates the use of knowledge processes and knowledge methods for SMEs....

Today, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in both developing and developed economies. However, the uncertainty of macroeconomic indicators, such as economic growth, may affect financing and investment of the SMEs in an economy. The present study explores the effect of the economic growth rate uncertainty on financing SMEs in Iran. To this end, the study has applied the Br...