It’s clear that the e$ective management of design is a commercial necessity. It enables a company or organization to innovate, to stay in line with or ahead of the market, and to identify and cater to consumer needs. When design becomes an explicit part of the management process, it can have a greater …

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 …

Creative SMEs are heavily focusing on the creating process designing new products and services. Consequently, their managers tend to loose contact with crucial management issues. Especially their knowledge of the financial aspects of their business can be so limited that they fail to connect with the …

Different types of strategic renewal by the successor are identified: organizational change, innovation, combined actions and no action. The main assumption is that renewal after succession improves SME post-transfer performance compared to no actions taken. Also successor’s timing of the takeover is …

This final project explored the functions and services of the export consultancy firm Zet-Group and focuses on OOO Zet-Group, the Russian division. Furthermore, it lists the obstacles that Dutch SMEs experience when exporting to Russia so that Zet-Group can develop its services to make them fit with …

It is often said that European companies must stop trying to compete on price and concentrate more on developing products and services that offer customers and users a high level of added value. Design is an indispensable tool for such development and innovation, and this is why the findings of this …

Investigation of the costs of investing in a new transformer compared to the maintenance of an existing one. A detailed research on the different technical possibilities to maintain transformers has been conducted. Transformer failures and the following cost issues are shown. Further the Superconducting …

The adoption of social media (web 2.0) in the e-marketing strategy of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is not yet researched much. Research findings in bigger companies in the USA, Europe and the Netherlands suggest that the issue is high on the think list of marketers and entrepreneurs. But what …

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is an underdeveloped region, but had seen significant economic growth before the global financial crisis. Due to the crisis economic growth has stopped or even decreased. In addition, several other aspects are expected to become worse, such as incomes, child mortality and access …

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 …