Firm capabilities, business model design and performance of SMEs

Pucci, Tommaso; Nosi, Costanza; Zanni, Lorenzo

doi:10.1108/jsbed-09-2016-0138

Cited by 64 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 112 publications

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“…The performance of the enterprise is one of the most important indicators for the evaluation of business results [82]. The relationship between BMI and business performance has been confirmed by several previous studies [29,55,83,84].…”

Section: Outcomes Of Bmimentioning

confidence: 54%

Drivers and Outcomes of Business Model Innovation—Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Perspective

et al. 2019

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Business model innovation (BMI) is one of the key activities, which has to be continuously undertaken in every enterprise to sustain competitiveness in today’s digital economy. Although the interest in business models (BM) has risen significantly since the late 1990s, little is known about BMI practices in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), representing a majority of enterprises in the European market. Our study addresses this research gap and focuses on the investigation of drivers and outcomes of BMI in SMEs. A partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) method was used to empirically test the model using data collected in 2017 from 71 SMEs in Slovenia. Results have shown that the innovativeness of enterprises and their business environment has a positive impact on the level of BMI activities in the enterprises. However, this is not the case of fast developing and rapidly changing information technology. In addition, the results show that the level of BMI has a positive impact on BMI outcomes and further on overall business performance. The results contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of BMI activities in SMEs and offer useful insights to SMEs that intend to innovate their business model(s) and government to create a supportive environment.

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Section: Outcomes Of Bmimentioning

confidence: 54%

Drivers and Outcomes of Business Model Innovation—Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Perspective

et al. 2019

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“…Several authors point to the idea that when firms become larger, they are less vulnerable to the macro-economic situation [8], which is in contrast to the extended idea that SMEs adapt better to changes in the market because they present higher levels of strategic and operational flexibility due to their reduced size [11,26]. The adaptability of SMEs to changes in market conditions due to environment forces is based on flexibility and on the existence of a proactive attitude of the firm.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…However, there is a key difference between them. Class 1 represents all those SMEs that need to adjust their size to increase their flexibility [11,26]. In Spain, from 2011 to early 2015, 17,283 SMEs in the industrial sector had disappeared, all of which were manufacturers, which represents more than 12% of the total number of SMEs [6].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The need to adapt to external forces recognises the existence of environmental forces as well as certain idiosyncratic firm attributes that explain how firms adapt to changes in the environment [25]. Few studies consider both approaches, how firms resources into capabilities and how strategies, complemented with environmental factors, explain firms' results [26]. Moreover, in the presence of environmental changes, such as rapid technological changes, firms need to develop dynamic capabilities in order to address these new situations [27].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capturing Firms’ Heterogeneity through Marketing and IT Capabilities in SMEs

Ramón-Jerónimo

Herrero

2017

Sustainability

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To achieve sustainability, firms capable of surviving economic recessions is of key relevance; the capabilities that firms need to face dynamic environments remain an open question. In this work, a new procedure is proposed to capture firms' heterogeneity with regard to the capabilities they possess in operating efficiently in dynamic environments. This approach enables the identification of the classes of firms that develop efficiency with a specific integration of resources. While the literature has most often measured firm capabilities using subjective measures, this study suggests the use of Data Envelopment Analysis to capture the ability to transform resources into outcomes and of Latent Class Regression to capture differences across firms that explain firms' heterogeneity in the way they perform. By combining these two techniques, this work presents a way to identify those firms that need to invest in and develop certain capabilities. This work analyses a large dataset of manufacturing Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) extracted from the Business and Strategy survey provided by Fundación de la Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales( SEPI) in Spain. The dataset used enfolds 10,960 observations from 2048 firms during the period 1994-2011. The complete dataset has been employed to calculate manufacturing firms' efficiency. In a second step, data were cleaned to eliminate outliers, and to identify SMEs and observations with records of IT capabilities. As a result, 329 manufacturing SMEs were analysed to capture their heterogeneity. The results contribute to the current literature by explaining how manufacturing SMEs show a different need in their development of capabilities to be efficient and adapt to environmental changes. While approximately 20% of firms analysed really take advantage of recessions through their investment in R&D, the remaining 80% need to adjust their size or invest in IT capabilities to become competitive. The assumption shown in previous studies regarding the performance of SMEs to better confront recessions is discussed in this paper.

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“…A survey by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) revealed that SMEs constitute over 90 per cent of all businesses, create 60 per cent of all jobs and contribute to about 50 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country (Pucci et al, 2017). SMEs are described as businesses with between one and five hundred workers (Foroudi et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Small Business Growth: Nigerian Evidence

Zubairu

Ogbole²,

Ayorinde³

et al. 2019

ijebd

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Purpose: This study sought to understand the barriers hindering the growth of small businesses in Nigeria, and to investigate the various strategies small business owners and managers develop to overcome these barriers. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design using in-depth, semi-structured, face-face interviews was utilized to obtain the barriers to growth as well as strategies developed to overcome them by 15 sachet water company managers in Minna, the capital city of Niger State in North Central Nigeria. Findings: The major internal barriers to growth identified included unmotivated employees, lack of modern machinery, lack of storage capacity and poor marketing and distribution strategies, while the major external barriers included weather conditions, poor electricity, bad roads and competition. Strategies to overcome these barriers included creating a family atmosphere, hiring more workers, using alternative power and forming a union to control prices. Research limitations/implications: This study was limited to 15 sachet water companies in Minna, Niger State, so it is difficult to generalize the findings to other states and to other industries. Practical implications: The results of this study will be beneficial to several stakeholders: sachet water companies in Minna and beyond, other SMEs as well as policy makers. For sachet water companies in Minna and beyond, by understanding the various strategies which the interviewed managers use to overcome their internal and external challenges, a diffusion of learning will occur, whereby other sachet water company managers can inculcate some of these effective strategies into their own operations. As for other SMEs, some of the identified barriers will also be the same ones they face. The strategies the interviewed managers use to overcome these challenges can also provide guidance for these SMEs. Finally, by clearly identifying the barriers hindering the growth of these sachet water companies, this study provides policy makers with clear guidance on what policies need to be instituted to help these SMEs overcome their challenges and contribute their quota to the growth of the Nigerian economy. Originality/value: By utilizing semi-structured interviews in surveying the 15 sachet water managers in Minna, Niger State, this study overcomes the weakness of the vast majority of prior studies which utilized questionnaires. The major disadvantage of adopting questionnaire to measure attitudes and perception is that, respondents will be denied the opportunity to air out their views about the subject matter.

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Firm capabilities, business model design and performance of SMEs

Cited by 64 publications

References 112 publications

Drivers and Outcomes of Business Model Innovation—Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Perspective

Drivers and Outcomes of Business Model Innovation—Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Perspective

Capturing Firms’ Heterogeneity through Marketing and IT Capabilities in SMEs

Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Small Business Growth: Nigerian Evidence

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