The transfer of a business to the next generation is a very important issue entailing several different social and economic influences. Failed business successions cause a loss of jobs, company knowledge and innovation potential. Creating an environment where business transfer is supported should therefore be of major importance for company owners and for policy makers. For better succession planning it is important to know the obstacles and challenges associated with business succession. Especially Eastern European countries face many challenges as these countries have no experience in business succession. To analyze the obstacles and challenges of business succession in Central Europe, three Eastern countries (CZ, SK and PL) with no experience in business succession were analyzed and compared to Austria where half of family businesses are at least in their second generation. Literature analysis and two focus groups with stakeholders (local public authorities and private entrepreneurs) were undertaken in all four countries. The results show that one of the main obstacles and challenges for business succession is the absence of a successor. Especially in Austria, this is recognized as the main obstacle. The Eastern countries (CZ, SK and PL) face different challenges to Austria that can mainly be explained by the lack of experience and supporting schemes for business succession. Especially knowledge and awareness related obstacles play an important role in Eastern European countries. Business succession is an individual process involving many emotions; therefore psychological and social issues are perceived as a huge obstacle in each analyzed country. Austria has a lot of experience with successful business transfers and offers various support mechanisms. However, many similar problems to Eastern countries were detected. A change of the business succession environment and the raising of awareness of the topic is therefore necessary in all investigated countries.
Companies are either proactively driving the digital transformation or are forced to digitalize by markets and ecosystems. In order to identify the status about the digital transformation of sales in practice and to get deeper knowledge about treated areas in sales and challenges on the path of digitalization, in-depth interviews of sales executives and managers of more than 50 internationally operating companies in three countries Germany, Finland and Austria were conducted in this research. The results show that one major goal for companies is to accelerate digitizing processes as digitalization helps to work more efficiently. Access to systems is necessary, hence investments in digitalization are seen as sustainable and absolutely essential for to serve B2B customers today. Digital tools lead to adaptions in the sales process as with support sales processes and sales management. Accelerated also by the COVID-19 crisis, face-to-face customer visits have been reduced even more and online meetings have increased as the speed of response has become more and more important. Finally, the necessary skill set of a sales force has to be adapted, which has to be further researched in the future, having support of higher education institutions being the order of the day. Companies have realized that a good sales pitch does not necessarily need to be in person, due to new virtual technologies.
Due to the increasing global competitiveness, companies have to continuously expand their offer of innovative products and services. Upper Austria is the most competitive region of Austria and one of the most innovative regions in Europe. Despite its success and prosperity, the local SMEs have not yet managed to exploit their full innovation potential. This paper analyses the literature background on the topic of innovation in SMEs in the spheres of management and organization, resources, collaboration, KPIs, and innovation processes, as a part of the Interreg SIP-SME (Service innovation processes for small and medium-sized enterprises) project. Subsequently, the results from the in-depth interviews with Upper Austrian innovation experts are presented and compared to the literature findings. The authors found that the experts confirmed the necessity of formalization of processes, the importance of human resources and know-how, specific organizational and managerial prerequisites, as well as the problematic areas in the measurement of innovation potential and activities. Differences were found in the aspects of company attributes and their effect on innovation success as well as the reasons of employee unwillingness and reluctance to engage in innovation activities. Problematic areas of implementing innovation in local SMEs were identified.
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