Competitive Advantage In Smes

Author : Max Zapf
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 364090916X
Total Pages : 41 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage Theory written by Max Zapf and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-05 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, University of Applied Sciences Chur, course: MSc Entrepreneurship, language: English, abstract: This report was commissioned to examine whether small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that target only a few market segments will promote their products and services more effectively than SMEs that target the mass market. The research draws attention to Porter's generic theory of competitive advantage by mainly concentrating on the third of his competitive advantage strategies, the focus strategy. Theory as well as a practical survey was used in order to falsify or approve the research question. Theory revealed Porter's focus strategy to have several key advantages over a mass market strategy which make firms pursuing such a strategy more effective in their product promotion efforts. First, a focused firm does not have to devote substantial resources into being all things to all people entailing less expenditure of time and money in comparison to a mass market strategy. Second, empirical evidence was found that customers do value specialized firms due to their focused capabilities. Third, a focused firm is less likely to be overwhelmed by great amount of different customer request and is more likely to identify and adapt to market changes in a quick time manner. Besides the advantages of a focus strategy, the research question is only supported when the SME makes bigger rivals to accommodate their existence in the segment(s) by creating circumstances in which the cost for the bigger rival in fighting the SME exceeds the cost of accommodating the SME. 27 SMEs from South Germany have returned completed questionnaires which were used to find practical evidence for answering the research question. Results revealed several tendencies which partly support theory. First, SMEs that pursue a focus strategy are more likely to do this with a differ

Author : Oswald Jones
Publisher : Wiley
ISBN 13 : 9780470843345
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competitive Advantage in SMEs written by Oswald Jones and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2003-04-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Competitive Advantage in SMEs draws on up-to-date empirical evidence to illustrate how SMEs can become more innovative through the introduction of new products and services. Discusses the effective and efficient use of information technology by broadening management skills and knowledge.

Author : Management Association, Information Resources
Publisher : IGI Global
ISBN 13 : 1799891569
Total Pages : 1496 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Research Anthology on Small Business Strategies for Success and Survival written by Management Association, Information Resources and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2021-06-25 with total page 1496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Running a small business provides opportunity for greater success, increased growth, and potentially the chance to move to the global business arena, yet also much more risk. Small businesses not only have less employment, but also less annual revenue than a regular-sized business. With the growth of large corporations and chain businesses, it has become harder to maintain the survival of a small business. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought more pressure onto the already unsteady survival of small businesses, due to forced closures, decreased agility, fewer technological innovations, and smaller customer bases. The Research Anthology on Small Business Strategies for Success and Survival offers current strategies for small businesses that can be utilized in order to maintain equal footing during challenging times. With the proper strategies available to small business owners, small businesses could not only survive, but also excel despite the environment that surrounds them. Covering topics including decision management, new supportive technologies, sustainable development, and micro-financing, this text is ideal for small business owners, entrepreneurs, startup companies, family-owned and operated businesses, restaurateurs, local retailers, managers, executives, academicians, researchers, and students.

Author : Max Zapf
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3640911369
Total Pages : 19 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Michael Porter’s Competitive Advantage Theory: Focus Strategy for SMEs written by Max Zapf and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-05-09 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, University of Applied Sciences Chur, course: MSc Entrepreneurship, language: English, abstract: This report was commissioned to examine whether small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that target only a few market segments will promote their products and services more effectively than SMEs that target the mass market. The research draws attention to Porter’s generic theory of competitive advantage by mainly concentrating on the third of his competitive advantage strategies, the focus strategy. Theory as well as a practical survey was used in order to falsify or approve the research question. Theory revealed Porter’s focus strategy to have several key advantages over a mass market strategy which make firms pursuing such a strategy more effective in their product promotion efforts. First, a focused firm does not have to devote substantial resources into being all things to all people entailing less expenditure of time and money in comparison to a mass market strategy. Second, empirical evidence was found that customers do value specialized firms due to their focused capabilities. Third, a focused firm is less likely to be overwhelmed by great amount of different customer request and is more likely to identify and adapt to market changes in a quick time manner. Besides the advantages of a focus strategy, the research question is only supported when the SME makes bigger rivals to accommodate their existence in the segment(s) by creating circumstances in which the cost for the bigger rival in fighting the SME exceeds the cost of accommodating the SME. 27 SMEs from South Germany have returned completed questionnaires which were used to find practical evidence for answering the research question. Results revealed several tendencies which partly support theory. First, SMEs that pursue a focus strategy are more likely to do this with a differentiation focus and secondly and most importantly they tend to have fewer problems in attracting and retaining customers. There was no indication that focused SMEs are more likely to see and adapt to market changes on an early stage and there was also no tendency visible whether SMEs with a focus strategy are less likely to be overwhelmed with customer requests. In conclusion, theory supports the research question only when the firm is able to adequately implement the focus strategy.

Author : Margo E. Anderson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134961480
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Profiles in Small Business written by Margo E. Anderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-31 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new analytical approach to small firms' cases, which * Uses rich primary source data on modern small businesses * Combines business strategy and industrial organization * Presents detailed Profiles on diverse small businesses * Shows how successful small businesses achieve competitive advantage * Considers both extended rivalry and financial structure * Shows how to `ground' small business theory in reality Profiles in Small Businesses has a companion volume Small Business Enterprise by Gavin Reid (also published by Routledge, Hb: 0-415-05681-0: £45.00) which contains a full analysis (ranging from econometrics to the ethics of competition) of the larger sample of small businesses from which the Profiles are drawn.

Author : David S. Weiss
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470964081
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Innovative Intelligence written by David S. Weiss and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-11 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Innovation is a key source of competitive advantage, but it remains frustratingly elusive for many organizations. This book shows you how to close the innovation gap by making individuals and organizations systematically and sustainably innovative. You will learn how to embrace a culture of innovation and make it permeate every level of the organization. You will find a clear road map and practical tools to redefine your workplace's culture, identify and tap into the existing innovative intelligence, and develop leaders who can close the innovation gap for greater business success.

Author : Elaine Cohen
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351275623
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sustainability Reporting for SMEs written by Elaine Cohen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability reporting can help companies make more money. Sustainability Reporting for SMEs shows you how. Reporting, done well, requires a company to make public a set of promises that bind the company to its sustainability commitments. By adopting a transparent approach to both business practice and reporting, SMES can gain significant business advantage, both in terms of more effective internal processes and in terms of reputation and business-building.Elaine Cohen provides guidance and tools for actual actions that will improve the sustainability impacts of your company, and a process for reporting that adds value which is much greater than the printed or online report itself. This book will help SMEs develop "the transparency habit" so that they both make more money and contribute more proactively to the sustainability of our society and planet.It is vital reading for SME owners and managers, entrepreneurs, business and sustainability students and teachers, and consultants. Sustainability managers in larger organisations will find this book helpful in assisting their organisations manage their supply chains which undoubtedly include several SMEs.

Author : Klaus North
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319273035
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competitive Strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises written by Klaus North and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-19 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a timely guide for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) researchers, policy makers and strategists. SMEs are the most important sources of job creation and local development especially in knowledge-based economies. As turbulence in the globalized economies expands SMEs will have to learn to sustain competitiveness by developing their ‘dynamic capabilities’. Based on the findings of a 4-year European and Latin American research project, this book provides a theoretical framework, practical instruments and cases on how SMEs in diverse economic, social and cultural contexts can develop crisis resilience, increase agility, innovate and thus successfully compete in turbulent times.

Author : Suzana Pavic
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Creation of Competitive Advantage in SMEs Through E-business written by Suzana Pavic and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open markets and the rapid development of the Internet have given shape to the competitive pressures faced by the UK's Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and, consequently, created the grounds for this study. Extensive research shows that, although SMEs are indeed adopting the Internet, most of them are slow to take up electronic business (e-business) as the basis for business communications and transactions. This is because many SMEs are not equipped with, or supported by, the appropriate guidelines and business models to allow them to take advantage of the developing digital economy and e-business. The lack of this kind of support makes it difficult for SMEs to use e-business as a means to gain competitive advantage, locally, nationally or globally. What is more, the constraints of appropriate technological resources and inadequate knowledge among key personnel at the same time inhibit the operational efficiency and innovation of SMEs. This limits the competitive advantage that ebusiness could bring to their businesses. The research presented in this study has a twofold aim. The first, which is the contribution this study makes to the field of Management Studies, is to promote a better understanding of ebusiness and its role in SMEs. The second, which has the more pragmatic aim of contributing to SMEs, is to find a way of enhancing their business competitiveness via the use of e-business. It builds on previous work suggesting that traditional business strategies, which create competitive advantage, have to be changed in order to facilitate the adoption, implementation and use of ebusiness technology. An examination of the transition of SMEs from an 'old' traditional business strategy to a 'new' e-business strategy is at the heart of this study. The study was conducted using the 'mixed methodology' of both qualitative and quantitative data as its primary tool. As a starting point, a range of academic and practitioner literature relating to IT, e-business, and different business models, was reviewed. This review and accompanying analysis were followed by nine longitudinal case studies and a national survey which were used to collect primary data from UK SMEs. This combination of micro-level longitudinal studies with macro-level national surveys provides the core data for the findings made in this study. Overall, the findings point to a paradoxical conclusion: on the one hand, SMEs use IT and the Internet in order to enhance their business competitiveness. However, on the other, the attitude of the owners and the knowledge shown at the managerial level was often the very obstacle to using IT. In other words, while the 'hard' of technology is available, the 'soft' of attitudes and knowledge often is not. This gap between the existence of technology and the absence of the appropriate attitudes and knowledge pose a number of potential challenges for SMEs in the creation of competitive advantage through e-business. To overcome these challenges, the findings were deployed in order to develop an e-business model named the "Competitive Advantage Through E-business" (CATE-b). This is the major innovation of this study in terms of applying the fruits of my research in order not only to make a contribution to knowledge, but also to solve the practical problems faced by business practitioners. This model is meant to serve the heuristic purpose of acting as a guide to help SMEs to comprehend an e-business vision, formulate strategy, identify e-business application areas, put together a portfolio, and design a plan for e-business implementation. In short, the long-term goal of this study is to help SMEs to enhance their local, national or global competitiveness through applying CATE-b, with the hope that new technology can become a force for creating competitive advantage.

Author : Brian Webb
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134114001
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Information Technology and Competitive Advantage in Small Firms written by Brian Webb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-07-24 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Well structured and coherent, this book examines Information Technology as a strategic asset; covering first principles, reviewing existing theories and methods and testing selected theories using empirical data.