SME's make up the bulk of enterprises in developing countries and make a significant contribution to employment and economic growth. This paper takes stock of best practices in industrial clustering and SME promotion in Commonwealth developing countries. It provides examples of cluster formation, policies to stimulate cluster development and guidelines for business development services for SME's.

SMEs make up the bulk of enterprises in developing countries and make a significant contribution to employment and economic growth. This paper takes stock of best practices in industrial clustering and SME promotion in Commonwealth developing countries. It provides examples of cluster formation, policies to stimulate cluster development and guidelines for business development services for SMEs.

In today's society, organizations are looking to optimize potential social interactions and increase familiarity with customers by developing relationships with various stakeholders through social media platforms. Strategic Customer Relationship Management in the Age of Social Media provides a variety of strategies, applications, tools, and techniques for corporate success in social media in a coherent and conceptual framework. In this book, upper-level students, interdisciplinary researchers, academicians, professionals, practitioners, scientists, executive managers, and consultants of marketing and CRM in profit and non-profit organizations will find the resources necessary to adopt and implement social CRM strategies within their organizations. This publication provides an advanced and categorized variety of strategies, applications, and tools for successful Customer Relationship Management including, but not limited to, social CRM strategies and technologies, creation and management of customers' networks, customer dynamics, social media analytics, customer intelligence, word of mouth advertising, customer value models, and social media channel management.

The Routledge Handbook of Industry and Development is a global overview of industrialisation. Each chapter will provide readers with contemporary insights into this this essential aspect of economic development. Industrialisation has been at the forefront of discussion on economic development since the earliest days of development economics. But over the last fifty years, the manufacturing sectors of different countries and regions have grown at strikingly different rates. In 1960 developing countries took a very small share of global manufacturing production. Today the position had changed radically with fast growth of manufacturing in many parts of what was originally the developing world, particularly in China and the rest of East Asia. On the other hand, countries in Africa and parts of Latin America have been largely left behind by this process of industrialisation. This volume aims to illuminate this uneven development and takes stock of the current issues that hinder and support industrialisation in low and middle income economies. This Handbook is a collection of chapters on different aspects of industrialisation experience in a range of countries. Key themes include, the role of manufacturing in growth, the nature of structural change at different stages of development, the role of manufacturing in employment creation, alternative options for trade and industrial policy, the key role of technology and technical change, and the impact of globalisation and the spread of global value chains and foreign direct investment on prospects for industrialisation. Several chapters discuss individual country experiences with examples from India, Mexico, South Africa and Tanzania, as well as an overview of African industrialisation. This authoritative Handbook will be a key reference source for those studying or wishing to understand contemporary economic development. Offering inspiration and direction for future research, this landmark volume will be of crucial importance to all development economics scholars and researchers.

Analyzing the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asian developing countries, the book is based on a survey of key literature and data on SMEs with the focus on; recent development, export performance, main constraints, competitiveness, innovation and technology transfer, and female entrepreneurs.

This first OECD Investment Policy Review of Lao PDR uses the OECD Policy Framework for Investment to present an assessment of the investment climate in Lao PDR and to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by the Government of Lao PDR in its reform efforts.

Globalization and structural adjustment offer many opportunities for export orientated industrialization in developing economies. As a group, competitiveness in the developing countries has improved, but, while East Asian economies have had rapid export growth and technological upgrades, South Asian and African economies have lagged behind. Old structures, institutions, behavioural patterns and public policies are ill-adapted to deal with the challenges posed by technological change and economic liberalization. Consequently there is an urgent need for change in government and private sector attitudes and strategies. This volume seeks to generalise the lessons across developing country and enterprise cases, and sheds light on which trade and industrial strategies and instruments work best, and which do not work, in relation to manufacturing competitiveness.

This timely and much-needed Handbook reconsiders an old topic from a fresh perspective, raising a number of new, interesting and worthwhile issues in the wake of ten years of globalization. This comprehensive analysis illustrates that old-style industrial policies whereby the government directly intervened in markets, and was often the producer itself, are no longer relevant. Structural changes occurring in economies summarized in the term globalization are triggering the definition and implementation of new industrial policies. The contributors, leading experts in their field, unite to evaluate this shift of over a decade ago. Employing various empirical and methodological approaches with a strong theoretical underpinning, this world-wide study of the state-of-the-art of industrial policy issues is an invaluable reference tool. It has been enthusiastically received by a wide-ranging audience including scholars, researchers and policy makers with an interest in industrial economics and policy, business studies and policies for growth, competitiveness and development.

Examining the role of the much-vaunted concepts of regional clusters in the prosperity and economic expansion of countries, this work looks at the different experiences of industrial districts and high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, Boston's biotech region, and Hsinchu-Taipei.

The SME Policy Index is a benchmarking tool for emerging economies to monitor and evaluate progress in policies that support small and medium-sized enterprises.