Small and medium enterprises

The current research presents a conceptual overview of the role and performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. It also posits how MSME had forward linkages to furthering of GDP, rise of output, production and consumption, besides employment generation, reduction of poverty, managing regional imbalances and increase in number of registered units. This paper also attempted to analyze the key challenges prevailing the sector. It was found from the study that government has to continue paying attention for the growth and development of MSMEs by initiating various schemes relating the sector thus boosting the economy on a whole.

Building on a theoretical framework of integrated entrepreneurial competencies with substantial literature supported by Baron and Ensley (2006), Bartlett and Ghoshal (1997), Karra, Nelson and Tracey (2008), Man, Lau and Chan (2002), and McGregor et al. (2000), this study conceptually interpreted a framework of entrepreneurial competencies in microenterprises through conducting a multi-case qualitative method. By collecting and analyzing related documentation, reviewing literature, and observing researchers’ observations and participants involved the study identified six key entrepreneurial competencies in microenterprises i.e., opportunity exploration competencies, opportunity exploitation competencies, organizing competencies, strategic competencies, relationship competencies, and commitment competencies. As a result, the researchers provided the structure for further research for the practice and advancement of micro-entrepreneurship.

The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role for economic growth in Vietnam. Access to finance is necessary in order to initiate, operate, develop and facilitate growth conditions of all businesses. Therefore, this study aims to determine factors affecting access to finance of SMEs in Vietnam. The study adopted a survey research design that employed a stratified random sampling. The primary data was collected from 400 SMEs via structured questionnaires. The Cronbach's Alpha testing methods, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), ANOVA analysis and multivariate linear regression analysis were used in this study. The study results indicate that there are six factors significantly affecting access to finance of SMEs in Vietnam including managerial experience, the owner-manager's financial literacy, business plan, financial management regulations, the owner-manager's education and business size.

With the flagship success of M-Pesa, mobile devices have become an important tool to facilitate the financial inclusion of the previously unbanked population in developing countries. Following the success of M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007, mobile money technologies became widespread across Africa. Beginning in 2009, Ghana experienced exceptional adoption of Mobile Money technology. Many studies have examined the influence of mobile money on financial inclusion from a variety of perspectives, and many have concluded that mobile money is a game-changer in this regard. The Mobile Money concept has evolved based on introducing the other value-added services such as microloans, savings, and insurance portfolios. The researcher used a questionnaire and a face-to-face interview to obtain qualitative data for this study. Together with other research, the statistics revealed that Mobile Money transactions in Ghana had more than tripled since it became the most popular payment method. Over the last year, the platform as a service has created over 140,000 jobs and has shown to be the safest channel. It has several advantages, including lowering the cost of printing and keeping cash on hand, as well as decreasing fraud because the technology underlying it gives appropriate audit trails to prevent fraud and boost economic growth.

Despite having experienced profusion since the mid-90s, research on Performance Measurement Systems (PMS) has remained focused on large companies. Interest in the study of such systems in the context of SMEs is not only relatively recent, but occurs mainly in developed countries. This triggered our interest in understanding performance measures in a developing country, namely, Morocco. To do this, an exploratory empirical study was conducted among a sample of Moroccan SMEs. The results, while confirming some specific characteristics of SMEs, help qualify some aspects including those related to the lack of strategic vision and the use of quantitative measures rather than qualitative ones. This paves the way for further research in this area. Résumé La recherche sur les SMP, bien qu'ayant connu un foisonnement depuis la moitié des années 90s, est restée focalisée sur les grandes entreprises. L'intérêt pour l'étude desdits systèmes dans le contexte des PME, est non seulement relativement récent, mais se manifeste principalement dans les pays développés. Ce qui a suscité notre intérêt à appréhender la problématique de la mesure de la performance dans un pays en développement, en l'occurrence, le Maroc. Pour ce faire, une étude empirique exploratoire a été menée auprès d'un échantillon de PME marocaines. Les résultats obtenus, tout en confirmant certaines spécificités des PME, permettent de nuancer quelques aspects notamment ceux liés à l'absence de vision stratégique et à l'usage de mesures plutôt quantitatives

Entrepreneurship literatures have increasingly acknowledge the desire by women to be economically independent, their roles and contributions as women entrepreneurs in shaping labour market is continuously increasing. The study investigated the roles of women entrepreneurs in socioeconomic development of Small and Medium Enterprises in Niger State. This was achieved through examining the effect of the activities of women entrepreneurs on the poverty level, determine the impact created by women entrepreneurs on employment opportunities and establish the influence of women entrepreneur activities on the standard of living of the people of Niger State. The Methodology used for data collection was survey design. The target population comprised all registered businesses owned by women in Niger State. Based on purposive sampling 75 women entrepreneurs were engaged. A structured questionnaire using summated rating scale 1-5 were administered face to face on the chosen sample. However, only 60 questionnaires were returned and deemed usable representing 80% response rate. The product moment correlation and multiple linear regression were employed for the data analysis. The study concluded that women entrepreneurs play a major role in poverty reduction and employment opportunities in Niger State. The study recommends that Niger State government should aggressively pursue provision of infrastructures such as water, electricity, roads and security to life and properties to reduce cost of doing business in the state.

Most of the companies around the globe which are involved in software development are small and medium scale enterprises. In the world economy these organizations are considered as the backbone. As per history, it is found that more than 85% of the companies in US, China, India, Finland, Ireland etc are small and medium scale enterprises during the year 2008. These small and medium enterprises at some time have realized that their process and working methods should be improved and is crucial for their business. They felt difficult to implement because of the lack of knowledge as well as resources. Successful software process improvement implementation is a herculean task for these small and medium enterprises since they are not capable of investing the cost of these programs. They are unaware of the effective innovations as well as the factors that can influence the adoption of software process improvement in small and medium enterprises. Most of the small software organizations are not adopting existing standards. The reason is that they perceive them as being oriented towards large organizations. The studies have shown that small firms' negative perceptions of process model standards are primarily driven by negative views of cost, documentation and bureaucracy. In this paper, we present a brief description about the software process improvement as well as a review on the current software process improvement methodologies for small and medium enterprises.

Since the late 1990s, Corporate Governance (CG) has gained momentous attention within the Asia-Pacific region. Whilst Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) still play a major role in most economies, particularly in emerging economies which contribute around 33 percent of Gross Domestic Products (GDP). The CG compliance codes has become the norm for listed firms across the globe. This study purposed to compare and analyse the Disclosures and Transparency (D&T) of CG items between Malaysia and Indonesia's SMEs' listed firms. The design and methodology used in this study is a descriptive analysis approaches based on secondary data sources, i.e the SMEs Annual Report and the companies' website.

This paper aims to determine the constraining and enhancing factors of key business enterprise in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. The Michael Porter's Diamond Model of Competitive Advantage was used as the analytical framework. Data obtained from the survey were analysed using Descriptive Statistics. The research revealed that businesses are negatively constrained by three most critical factors such as insufficient and unreliable electric supply, unfavorable tax system and the cost of transport which is very important since Occidental Mindoro is an island province. The enhancing factors, on the other hand, are the incentives in the compensation of management, favorable market size and the nature of competitive advantage which are unique among industries. However, this study also revealed that the environment for the business enterprise is not enabling because majority of the competitive determinants showed competitive disadvantage.

The report is based on quantitative (7292 survey interviews) and qualitative (101 in-depth interviews) empirical study on access to justice among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Poland. It was one of the largest studies ever carried out on Polish entrepreneurs.

These last few years, many businesses started adopting the business intelligence system (BIS) heading toward globalization. BIS is identified as a necessary tool to help and improve the business decision-making process. The business intelligence system has major impacts on prognosticating current and planned views of business operations. There are various studies regarding the identification of determinants of BIS appropriation by considering BIS adoption theories. Despite this, there is a lack of reviews and articles about implementing business intelligence for decision making in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). This paper is authorized to study the BIS adoption theories and allow the BIS adoption model for SME. It examines the decisionmaking process in SME by adopting a framework that uses BIS in the Republic of Djibouti. The research contributes by finding factors that affect the decision-making process in SMEs.

The rapid evolution of the Internet has offered new opportunities for users. Besides the obvious usage to search for information, it now allows seamless communication through social media. One of the influences of social media is in the context of marketing. Social media is used as a marketing instrument in promoting the brand of a product or a service for a business. This article will discuss the relationship between the factors of usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment in the use of social media and its influences on brand performance. Brand performance covers two main components, namely brand awareness and brand image. We also recommend the experience of using social media as a moderator variable that will affect the performance of the brand. A proposal of conceptual framework is developed to investigate the relationship between each variable.

Purpose – This paper aims to complement existing theories of internationalization by studying an
important aspect which has been neglected in previous studies: the process of international
entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. International market entry is conceptualized as an
entrepreneurial, innovative act; and opportunity recognition consists of both discovery as well as
deliberate and systematic search.

Design/methodology/approach – The methodology employed involves eight case studies of small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in knowledge-based industries in Australia. The unit
of analysis is the “opportunity-firm” nexus.

Findings – The paper finds that firms with little or no prior international knowledge tend to make
use of opportunity discovery rather than deliberate/systematic search. In contrast, firms with
extensive prior international experience and knowledge were found to deliberately search and discover
their first international opportunity. International opportunity discovery did not occur simply through
serendipitous encounters with new information from networks or referrals but involved interpreting
possible matches between pre-existing means (resources, skills, new technologies) and new ends
(international markets) in a problem solving process. It favours those with the requisite prior
knowledge and entrepreneurial orientation.

Practical implications – The paper offers guidelines on what business practitioners and export
promotion agencies can and cannot do to influence opportunity recognition process. Particular
attention was paid to strategies to avoid costly deliberate search among resource-stricken SMEs.
Originality/value – This study introduces Knightian uncertainty and Kirznerian discovery as the
conceptual cornerstones of internationalization that can help account for the lack of incrementalism
and optimizing logic in internationalization among smaller firms.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka has suffered drastically in the past in the North and East as a result of the civil war and T-sunami havoc. The studies have shown that SMEs play a vital role on promoting economy and especially, on reducing poverty. Many studies have been carried out on this topic at international, global and national level. Similar study has not been carried out in the Batticaloa District with special reference to the job satisfaction among entrepreneurs of SMEs. This paper is based on a study of different variables for job satisfaction among entrepreneurs of SMEs in the Batticaloa District. Primary data on the factors of job satisfaction of entrepreneurs were collected and analyzed using various statistical and research tools. SPSS was used to analyze to identify level and correlation of the variables of job satisfaction. It was found that all the factors are positively correlated with job satisfaction of entrepreneurs. It was also noted that suitability and business image have been identified as highly correlating factors with job satisfaction of entrepreneurs and financial benefits have been identified as least correlating factor with job satisfaction of entrepreneurs.

The purpose of the study was to explore the extent to which Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) in the Cape Coast Metropolis (CCM) comply with International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRSs). The study further looked at firm attributes (size, profitability, audit type,
internationality, type of SME, and leverage) that influence the level of SMEs’ compliance with
IFRSs. The descriptive design was adopted for this study. The study sampled 89 SMEs within
the metropolis, however, data from 67 medium scale enterprises were used. A self-constructed
compliance index (CINDEX) checklist was the instrument used. Both descriptive and inferential
statistics were used in analysing the data. The findings revealed that medium scale enterprises
average level of compliance of IFRSs is 77.9%. Also, enterprise’s attributes such as types,
profitability, and audit type are able to influence 70.6% of the variance in the level of
enterprise’s compliance with IFRSs disclosure requirements. The study recommended that the
National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) and the owner/managers of the various
SMEs in the metropolis should liaise with Institute of chartered Accountant Ghana (ICAG) to
organise regular training programmes, for accountants within the sector, intended to provide
practical guide for compliance with the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB).

Abstract The present research work aims to analyze the impact that Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) has in business performance, specifically in quality and image of products and services, customer satisfaction, market share, productivity, profitability and efficiency, and staff satisfaction. It was used a sample of 671 companies of the State of Guanajuato, Mexico to analyze the specific effects that the components of CSR have on performance financial and non-financial variables. The results show that efforts to respect and care for the environment, and ethical behavior with customers are key variables that positively influence the overall company performance. The implications to the business sector and future research are described.

Resumen El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo analizar el impacto que tiene la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) en el desempeño de las empresas, específicamente en la calidad e imagen de productos y servicios, la satisfacción de clientes, la cuota de mercado, la productividad, la rentabilidad y eficiencia, y la satisfacción del personal. Se utilizó una muestra de 671 empresas del estado de Guanajuato, México para analizar los efectos específicos que tiene cada uno de los componentes de la RSE en las variables de desempeño financiero y no financiero.
Los resultados muestran que las acciones encaminadas a respetar y cuidar el medio ambiente, y el comportamiento ético con los clientes son variables fundamentales que influyen positivamente en el desempeño general de la empresa. Se describen las
implicaciones al sector empresarial y las futuras investigaciones.

Information technology has enormous benefits for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) especially to develop innovations in order to enhance their competitiveness. However, currently only few SMEs in Indonesia that have used information technology. This study was conducted to examine the factors that influenced SMEs in utilizing information technology as well as the impact of information technology utilization for innovation and performance of SMEs. Based on survey data collected from 115 Indonesian SMEs, it is concluded that the perceived benefits, organizational readiness, and external encouragement have significant positive influence on the utilization of information technology, with the most dominant factor is the organizational readiness. The results also showed that the utilization of information technology has a significant positive impact on innovation and performance

Technology has changed our life and the way we work; however, technology has affected several methods of working in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)s. Human Resource (HR) is one of the core components in businesses, and nowadays most businesses are using technology for daily basis tasks. However, it still is not used all over the world. In Kurdistan Region-Iraq (KRI), most of the SMEs still use the old way of working and follow the paper-based method for their daily basis tasks. According to a survey, more than seventy percent of SMEs in Kurdistan are not using software to manage human resource management tasks. However, some big companies are using HRMS; but even then, there is a lack of use of Cloud Technology. In this study, a model of the Enterprise Human Resource Management System (EHRMS) is proposed and implemented to solve the HR problems in this area using Cloud Technology. The proposed system consists of sixteen standard modules which used usually with famous HRM systems....

The marketing personnel play a very important position in market economy activity which enterprises engaged in. Aiming at the status of difficult to "stay" for the small and medium-sized enterprises, the paper uses performance appraisal theory systematically, analyses performance appraisal problems of marketing personnel for small and medium-sized enterprises, and provide relevant performance appraisal advices and effective measures for the marketing personnel of small and medium-sized enterprises, so as to cultivate talents, retain staff, play the role of talent and ensure the stability of the enterprise marketing team.

For an underdeveloped nation uplifting economy is a challenge. Raising economy in such context must have accelerated growth and development that improves quality of life. Small and medium scale enterprises are provisions for fast growth and fulfillment of economic prosperity by any nation. The economic reform in the early 1990s in Nepal pulled the attention of the private and joint investment to seek the financial sector. National development strategies, the strategies towards poverty reduction of individual member countries should underline the importance of commercial sector promotion. In this research the total of 200 copies of the questionnaires to be administered. The instruments to be used are gathering information for this study includes questionnaires and interview. Two different statistical methods are to be employed to analyze data for the study. The tools are simple percentage and chi square test. The results of the study reveal that the most common constraints hindering small and medium scale business growth in Nepal are lack of financial support, poor management, corruption, lack of training and experience, poor infrastructure, insufficient profits, and low demand for product and services. SMEs expansion boosts employment more than large firm growth because SMEs are more labour intensive thereby subsidizing SMEs may represent a poverty alleviation tool, by promoting SMEs and individual countries and the international community at large can make progress towards the main goal of halving poverty. Entrepreneurial development is therefore important in the Nepalese economy which is characterised by the following heavy dependence on agricultural production, high unemployment, low utilization of industrial capacity, high inflation rate, and lack of industrial infrastructural base.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face numerous challenges in identification, setting up and making use of information technology (IT) as an enabler for business. Cloud computing could solve this problem by offering ready, low cost of entry IT solutions. The micro, small and medium scale organizations in Jammu and Kashmir are still in nascent state as far as use of IT systems is concerned, though they play a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the State. Further analysis of this problem reveals that there are number of barriers which come in the way of MSMEs adopting to new IT systems. Cloud Computing constitutes an alternative for organizations who do not intend to invest in in-house IT resources. They also lack the financial power required to adopt latest information technology and so cannot grow beyond a certain point. The barriers faced by MSMEs in adopting latest IT systems are actually enablers for adoption of cloud computing. One main reason for MSMEs to ignore recent developments in information technology is lack of awareness. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) assure economic growth in Jammu & Kashmir. Cloud Computing offers many opportunities and could help companies to improve their business and use technology more efficiently. In this paper a short presentation of Cloud Computing and advantages for SMEs, This paper critically analyzes enablers and barriers in adoption of cloud computing by MSMEs. It also attempts to create awareness, answering many concerns about cloud computing that can be used by MSMEs. It suggests use of cloud computing by MSMEs in Jammu & Kashmir thereby reducing upfront investments, costs and improving efficiency and flexibility.

Background: This investigation breaks new ground by examining an inventive monetary approach (the utilisation of technology-based self-service banking, borrowing financial literacy and budgeting financial literacy) that, if embraced by rural small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), can enhance business performance. Despite the expanded readiness of technology, the significance of rural SMEs has largely been overlooked, particularly in developing countries of Southern Africa. Therefore, the principal objective of this study is to fill this void.

Aim: The current study aims to investigate the impact of technology-based self-service banking, borrowing financial literacy and budgeting financial literacy on the business performance of rural SMEs within the agricultural sector of Zimbabwe.

Setting: In this study, data were collected in the rural area of Bindura, Zimbabwe.

Method: The study utilised a quantitative research design using a structured questionnaire. Data was collected from 151 managers, SME owners and heads of accounting departments within rural SMEs that are operating in the rural area of Bindura. Smart partial least squares
was used to analyse the data.

Results: Technology-based self-service banking, borrowing financial literacy and budgeting financial literacy had a positive and a significant impact on business performance. Therefore, all three hypotheses were supported. Hence, the study’s findings validate the assertion that
prognosticators such as technology-based self-service banking, borrowing financial literacy and budgeting financial literacy are instrumental in stimulating business performance among rural SMEs in Zimbabwe. A robust relationship was also found between budgeting financial literacy and business performance.

Conclusion: This study offers fruitful implications to academics by making a significant contribution to finance, accounting and small business management literature by systematically exploring the impact of technology-based self-service banking, borrowing financial literacy
and budgeting financial literacy on business performance. This study stands to add new knowledge to the present body of finance, accounting and small business management literature in Africa – a context that is often ignored by academics in developing countries

The purpose of this research article was to explore the influence of knowledge and skills of human resource on the performance of culinary Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Medan City, Indonesia. Using quantitative research design, data were collected from 120 culinary SMEs located in Medan City. Multiple regression, t-test anf f-ratio were used to estimate the significant effect of human knowledge and skills partially or not, whereas F test was applied to test whether the effect will be simultaneous. Results showed that knowledge and skills of human resources have significant and simultaneous effect on the performance of SMEs. It was also found that the knowledge and skills of human resources have a partial significant influence on the performance of SMEs. Human Resource skills factor has greater impact on the performance of SMEs as compared to human resource knowledge factor.

Entrepreneurial innovation is acknowledged as a key driver for improving the productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises. The effect of innovation on performance has been extensively researched, but many have overlooked small and medium-sized enterprises and government regulations. This paper provides a study of the current theoretical and empirical literature on entrepreneurial innovation constructs, government regulations and small and medium enterprise performance. The study's specific objectives have been to discuss the main concepts of entrepreneurial innovation, government regulation and performance related to small and medium-size firms. It also aims to establish theories that link entrepreneurial innovation and government regulations; to recommend a conceptual and methodological framework to guide future studies on the identified knowledge gaps. The study was anchored by a resource based view theory supported by dynamic capability theory, Schumpeter’s innovation theory. The study was a review of previous research on entrepreneurial innovation and firm performance. These studies seem to have centered on a direct link between innovation and performance, according to the results. Thus, it is recommended that further research incorporate the small and medium enterprise context to highlight how entrepreneurial innovation affects these enterprises and the moderating variable of government regulations.

Small and Medium Enterprises are expected to play a vital and vibrant role in the economic growth and development of Nigeria. Given the volatility of the Nigerian business environment, this paper ex-ray the operations of SMEs with a view to identifying challenges encountered in fulfillment of their expected roles. Several literatures on SMEs were reviewed along with a survey research design that sampled a total of one hundred and thirty-eight (138) respondents by means of self-completed questionnaire; selected from four strategic locations in Lagos State. Data were collected on possible issues affecting the operations of SMEs ranging from high borrowing rates, high loan requirements, government when making policy, documentation, collateral, entrepreneurial skills, business strategy to Infrastructural inadequacies. The data were analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Result on challenges affecting SMEs operation was rated. The analysis of variances was applied to hypothesis testing. The result revealed that SMEs are constrained by inadequate funding and poor management. It was recommended that government should develop a lasting solution to the state of infrastructural deterioration especially electricity along with policies that can assist to cushion the bureaucracy in obtaining loans from micro finance banks.

Along with the growth of the Internet, the trend shows that e-commerce have been growing significantly in the last several years. This means business opportunities for small-medium enterprises (SMEs), which are recognized as the backbone of the economy. SMEs may develop and run small to medium size of particular e-commerce websites as the solution of specific business opportunities. Certainly, the websites should be developed accordingly to support business success. In developing the websites, key elements of e-commerce business model that are necessary to ensure the success should be resolved at the requirement stage of the development. In this paper, we propose an enhancement of requirement analysis method found in literatures such that it includes activities to resolve the key elements. The method has been applied in three case studies based on Indonesia situations and we conclude that it is suitable to be adopted by SMEs.

Pricing decision has been a crucial decision made by all business enterprises at all levels and has posed a great challenge for Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria. This research work treats the impact of change in price on the sales turnover of organizations, a study of SMEs in Nigeria. The methodology adopted was the survey and empirical approach, with the administration of questionnaires to some SMEs in Nigeria, evaluating the effect change in product price has on turnover. Primary and secondary sources were used to in collecting data. It was discovered that there is a relationship between change in cost of sales and turnover. Recommendations were made for the close monitoring of SMEs and that SMEs should employ the service of price experts when making pricing decisions. 1. Introduction For any organization that is involved in the production of goods and rendering of services, after answering the question what to produce, and who to produce for, there is need to answer the question how much will our potential customers be willing to pay for the good? This difficulty of price fixture and the other various intervening variables such as cost, competitors price, demand, political factors, environmental factors, involved in fixing price for goods and services, has posed a sense of concern to most small and medium enterprises in Nigeria. This work is aimed at finding an answer to some probing questions in the mind of manufacturers and managers of small and medium enterprises about how to set prices effectively, combining all the various factors, as well as meeting the organizational overall objective, which is profit maximization. Given the macroeconomic function of: max (π) = f(x1,x2,…,xn), where π represents the profit and xi the exogenous variables of the function of profit, which consists of effective pricing, cost minimization, high turnover, amongst others. Pricing decision is a crucial decision every organization has to make, because this will eventually affect their corporate objectives, either directly or indirectly (Monroe 2003:8). For every business entity, irrespective of their line of business and objective, cost minimization and profit maximization-are the general factors to be considered and for non-profit making organizations, there will always be the need to reduce cost at all means and to maximize output. A business whether small or big, simple or complex, private or public, is created to provide competitive prices (Ayozie 2008:10). According to Hilton (2005:634), setting the price for an organization's product or service is one of the most crucial decisions a manager faces, and one of the most difficult, due to the number of factors that must be considered. Some of the factors that influence pricing decision are demand, competitors, cost, political, environmental, legal and image-related issues. Horngren, et al (1996:428), buttresses this point by stating that managers are frequently faced with decisions on pricing and profitability of their products. Some of the objectives of business enterprises vary from maximization of profit, minimization of cost, maximization of shareholders fund, to becoming a market leader,. From the various objectives of business organizations, the primary objective of any business enterprise is to maximize profit and minimize cost, except for charity organizations that are set up primarily not to make profit, but there will be need to minimize cost by all means, therefore the need to set prices, which therefore connotes that pricing decision arises in virtually all types of organizations,

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute substantially to the economic development, income generation, poverty reduction, and particularly job creation for both developed and developing economies. However, compared with large firms, SMEs face several challenges related to their performance and competitiveness. The role of human capital (HC) and human resource practices (HR Practices) in enhancing SMEs competitiveness and performance is vital but understudied areas. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of HC development between the relationship of high-performance work systems (HPWS) and export-oriented SMEs performance. Quantitative strategy and cross-sectional survey method was used to collect data from 205 managerial staff through a self-administered structured questionnaire. HPWS had a significant positive impact on export-oriented SMEs performance. The findings of the study provide evidence that HC development plays a mediating role between HPWS and enterprises performance.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been identified as a mean that has great potential to spur innovative development in small and medium-scale enterprises (SME). Accordingly, information systems (IS) studies have been designing research models and providing empirical evidence that invariably supports this notion. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is one such model that has been extensively employed in ICT adoption studies.  This study was conducted in order to achieve four specific objectives. Objective 1 of the study was to identify the ICTs that are predominantly used by the agro-based SMEs in their businesses. Objective 2 was to determine the factors that affect ICT usage among agro-based SMEs in Selangor. Objective 3 was to determine the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, SME organisational size and SME creativity and innovativeness and ICT usage. Objective 4 was to determine the moderating effect of gender, age and experience on the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, SME organisational size and SME creativity and innovativeness and ICT usage.  This study adopted the UTAUT Model and modified it by integrating two externally derived constructs, SME managerial creativity and SME organisational size as predictors. This study investigated the factors that affect ICT usage by agro-based SMEs in Selangor. A four-section survey instrument consisting of 132 items was designed and administered to 400 personnel in 43 agro-based SMEs that were randomly selected in Selangor. Three hundred and ninety-five (395) completed questionnaires were retrieved successfully.  The study found that SME managerial creativity, SME organisational size and performance expectancy significantly predicted ICT usage. In addition, age, gender and experience moderated the relationship with various levels of significance. Importantly however, performance expectancy was moderated by experience, which implies that agro-based SMEs that are run by employees and managers with prior ICT usage experience stand better chances of deriving much benefits from using ICT in their businesses. In addition, the measurement model of this study that was generated by factor analysis predicted 31% (R2 .31) of the variance in ICT usage. Therefore, the study concludes that characteristics of enterprise managers, enterprise organisational size and the anticipation of ICT usage benefits, influenced by the demographic characteristics and personnel’s ICT usage prior experience are the critical factors that affected the ICT usage behaviour of the agro-based SMEs in Selangor.

Purpose – This paper aims to complement existing theories of internationalization by studying an important aspect which has been neglected in previous studies: the process of international entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. International market entry is conceptualized as an entrepreneurial, innovative act; and opportunity recognition consists of both discovery as well as deliberate and systematic search.

Design/methodology/approach – The methodology employed involves eight case studies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in knowledge-based industries in Australia. The unit of analysis is the " opportunity-firm " nexus.

Findings – The paper finds that firms with little or no prior international knowledge tend to make use of opportunity discovery rather than deliberate/systematic search. In contrast, firms with extensive prior international experience and knowledge were found to deliberately search and discover their first international opportunity. International opportunity discovery did not occur simply through serendipitous encounters with new information from networks or referrals but involved interpreting possible matches between pre-existing means (resources, skills, new technologies) and new ends (international markets) in a problem solving process. It favours those with the requisite prior knowledge and entrepreneurial orientation.

Practical implications – The paper offers guidelines on what business practitioners and export promotion agencies can and cannot do to influence opportunity recognition process. Particular attention was paid to strategies to avoid costly deliberate search among resource-stricken SMEs.

Originality/value – This study introduces Knightian uncertainty and Kirznerian discovery as the conceptual cornerstones of internationalization that can help account for the lack of incrementalism and optimizing logic in internationalization among smaller firms.