Reuse and remanufacturing of product parts and modules has shown to reduce costs, and also leads to substantial reductions in energy use and material losses during the whole product lifecycle. Furthermore it stimulates in its wake new business opportunities regionally. Together with small and medium …

Due to their limited size, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cannot justify full-time HR professionals in their organizations. Thus, the complex and time-consuming nature of many HR activities can result in a significant drain on existing managerial resources. Professional employer organizations …

full text via link. Firms that are internationally active are more competitive than firms that are only active in the domestic market. This research not provides insights into the international activities of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs , in Dutch ‘MKB’), in particular from the Utrecht Region …

The objective of this research was to investigate to which extent small and medium-sized equine businesses in Germany conduct financial analysis, budgeting and cost accounting and whether there are differences between primary and secondary companies. Beyond that, the reasons for using or not using certain …

Since the film of Al Gore An inconvenient truth, sustainability stands high on the national agenda of most countries. Concern for the environment is one of the main reasons in combination with opportunities to innovate. In general, innovation and entrepreneurship are important in the realm of national …

Vast empirical evidence underscores that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. As governments accordingly pursue export-promoting policies we are interested in the firmness of these conclusions with respect to African small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the influence of the …

Background As the level of government closest to citizens and the real economy, local and regional authorities have an important role in tackling the severe impact of the current economic crisis. The double pressures of decreasing public revenue and increasing demand for services, however, call for more …

In April 2005, the report titled ‘Internationals for SMEs’ was published (Braaksma 2005). The authors aim to focus on the ‘international’ in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), by giving an account of the professional profile of the more highly educated for international positions in SMEs. The …

This chapter explores the theory and practice of Business & IT Alignment in multinational companies. In the first part of the chapter an overview of the theory is presented. In this part the familiar frameworks for Business & IT Alignment are put in perspective in an ‘Alignment development model’. The …

Innovation seems to be the most important element of activities of companies to stay vital in a very competitive international market. Innovation is the process of developing products or services in an organisation for a market. Especially small and medium-sized companies, for which it is difficult to …