Globalization has jarred the traditional role and competitiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises. This masterful volume comprises leading scholars, policy makers and business leaders who have new insights and strategies for SMEs creating opportunities rather than being victims of globalization. The result is a breakthrough in our understanding of entrepreneurship in the global context. David B. Audretsch, Indiana University, Bloomington, US and WHU, Germany Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often have difficulty competing in the global economy unless they collaborate with domestic or foreign partners or with public sector organizations. This book addresses the resource leverage and innovation challenges that increased global trade represents for SMEs. In doing so, it explores how SMEs can become more competitive at home and in foreign markets as stand-alone firms or as members of supplier and customer networks. SMEs are turning increasingly to innovation as a source of competitive advantage in order to protect their home markets and participate in expanding foreign markets. The contributors to this volume leading experts in entrepreneurship, innovation, and international business provide in-depth coverage of the most compelling issues facing SMEs. These include: innovation as a competitive strategy, network dynamics, ways to leverage technology, internationalization, and the role of the public sector in helping SMEs to overcome resource deficiencies. This comprehensive look at SMEs in the global marketplace will be of great interest to academics who study entrepreneurship, innovation, or international business, officials from public sector agencies with responsibility for helping SMEs to internationalize and become more innovative, and senior executives of SMEs or executives of larger companies who are considering collaboration with SMEs.

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"This book addresses the issues of HRM in SMEs by providing a channel of communication to disseminate knowledge; including management philosophies, culture, and management practices"--Provided by publisher.

This volume is a compilation of the studies that underlie the synthesis report on global value chains, entitled Staying Competitive in the Global Economy: Moving Up the Value Chain.

International economic law, with its traditional focus on large multinational enterprises, is only slowly waking up to the new reality of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entering the global marketplace. In the wake of the digital revolution, smaller companies now play an important role in the global economic landscape. In 2015 the UN expressly called for SMEs to have greater access to international trade and investment, and it is increasingly recognized that the integration of SMEs provides one of the keys to creating a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. As SMEs increasingly permeate transnational supply chains, so interactions between these companies and international economic law and policy proliferate. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in International Economic Law offers the first comprehensive analysis of the interaction between SMEs and international economic law. This book presents a broad international perspective, gathering together contributions by leading experts from academia, legal practice, and international organizations. It opens up a field of enquiry into this so far unexplored dynamic and provide a touchstone for future debate. The analysis covers a broad spectrum of international trade and investment law focusing on issues of particular interest to SMEs, such as trade in services, government procurement, and trade facilitation. Diverse perspectives illuminate regional developments (in particular within the EU) and the implications of mega-regional free trade agreements. The essays also examine questions of legitimacy of global economic governance; in particular, concerns surrounding the threat posed to the interests of domestic SMEs by the growing liberalization of international trade and investment. These essays constitute essential reading for practitioners and academics seeking to navigate a previously neglected trend in international economic law.

This informative set analyzes the dynamics involved with creating, growing, and managing small businesses amid different geographic, institutional, and political environments. This two-volume work explores the behavior and decision making of small companies; their business strategies for launch, growth, and survival; and their contribution to the larger global economy. Utilizing information and data gleaned from proven entrepreneurs and small business operations, this reference provides insight into the political, environmental, and competitive forces that support and impede small business ownership, and offers strategies for navigating them. Written by leading researchers from around the world, the set presents a broad view of the small business sector, focusing on conception, ownership, financing, and growth strategies. A look at external factors features the impact of political and environmental influences; extant regulations affecting small firms; and programs for promoting this sector. The first volume takes a micro view of the small business phenomenon, profiling the owner and the skills necessary to be successful. The second volume utilizes a macro approach, focusing on the operational concerns of and the environment factors bearing upon small businesses.

This second edition of a classic reference work, written by some of the most eminent academics in the field, contains over 30 per cent more entries on entrepreneurship. Comprehensive in scope, it includes topics from business angels, to export services to family business and uncertainty and venture capital. There are also entries on individuals including George Eastman, Howard Hughes, Joseph Schumpeter and Walt Disney. Providing its readers with a unique point of reference, as well as stimulus for further research, this Encyclopedia is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, particularly students, scholars and researchers.

This timely Research Agenda provides a state-of-the-art review of existing research on manufacturing, as well as highlighting key areas of study to advance the field. Expert contributors from across the globe analyse the central role of manufacturing industries in the global economy, considering it as a multi-scalar process and assessing the impact of climate change in necessitating the decarbonization of production processes.