Search results

1 – 10 of 635
Per page
102050
Citations:
Loading...
Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 March 2002

Colin Gray

The focus of this paper is on existing small firms, with fewer than 50 employees, and their attitudes to change, using data from regular quarterly small firm surveys conducted by…

12037

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on existing small firms, with fewer than 50 employees, and their attitudes to change, using data from regular quarterly small firm surveys conducted by the Small Business Research Trust, especially from the 1,212 respondents to the fourth quarter of 1999 (15:4, motivation, objectives and targets) and the 812 respondents to the first quarter 2000 survey (16:1, changes). The overlap between the respondents to these successive surveys allows their responses to be cross‐tabulated. It was expected that there would be strong positive links between growth‐orientation, the setting of financial objectives (as opposed to lifestyle goals), propensity to introduce changes and actual growth, and that age and size of firm effects will also be present and likely, as intervening variables, to influence these relationships. The findings confirm these expectations (and the mirror image of resistance to change linked to non‐entrepreneurial performance).

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Book part
Publication date: 15 October 2008

Giuseppe Caforio

The chapter deals, though the analysis of several studies on that theme, with asymmetric warfare and its nature as well as the military issues that it creates. The new techniques…

Abstract

The chapter deals, though the analysis of several studies on that theme, with asymmetric warfare and its nature as well as the military issues that it creates. The new techniques devised in recent years by the military intelligentsia – RMA, NCW, NEC, EBO – in fact, certainly constitute useful refinements of the military machine and perfections of its functioning that enable it to achieve the highest performance, and as such they should be appreciated. However, they appear cut out for a war reality that is only partially that of asymmetric warfare. Today, the weak side's offensive tool is man, and man is no longer a person who carries and operates a weapon but is himself a weapon who sacrifices himself to strike the adversary, and he does this because his mind has been convinced to do it. Thus, the only winning weapon in this type of contest is to intervene on the mechanisms of conditioning the minds of millions of human beings, a task that is only in small part military but is instead on a vast political scale. The military can intervene in this direction especially by making politicians understand that, in today's asymmetric warfare, victory – and the survival of Western values – can be achieved only through co-ordinated, joint political action, where the military function can consist principally in a containment action suitable for giving time to the political initiative to bear its fruits.

Details

Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution: Sociological Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-8485-5122-0

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 June 1999

Andrew Thomson and Colin Gray

This paper examines statistically the determinants of management development in small businesses, based on the results of a survey of 389 small businesses carried out in 1996…

3500

Abstract

This paper examines statistically the determinants of management development in small businesses, based on the results of a survey of 389 small businesses carried out in 1996. Generally, the immediate issues concern the factors that influence the development of owners and managers of growing and sustainable small businesses, considered by many to be the source of future innovation and jobs in both developed and developing economies. More particularly, the survey is part of a wider investigation into management development in Britain, and the paper parallels a previous analysis of statistical determinants based on a survey of larger businesses. While entrepreneurship has received a lot of attention in small business research, comparatively little attention has been paid to the development of management competencies in small firms. In the study reported here, regression analyses were used to develop a more detailed understanding of the factors which shape the amount and nature of management development in small businesses. The key research questions, in line with the previous analysis, are: (1) what are the relative importance of environmental and structural factors on the one hand, and strategic factors such as internal management development policy on the other, in explaining the amount and value of management development activity? (2) what does this tell us about the degree to which management development is determined by choice or circumstance? (3) what are the “drivers” of management development and their relative significance? (4) what factors are most influential in assessing the achievement of management development objectives?

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 November 2006

Colin Gray

The purpose of this article is to explore SME capacity to absorb and manage knowledge as a prior condition to the successful adoption of innovations and entrepreneurial growth.

12441

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to explore SME capacity to absorb and manage knowledge as a prior condition to the successful adoption of innovations and entrepreneurial growth.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the findings from more than 1,500 SME owners across regular quarterly SERTeam surveys and from other large scale studies, this article examines the effects of experiential and formal knowledge on the development of SME absorptive capacity.

Findings

There were significant age, educational and size effects that influence SME acquisition and assimilation of knowledge. Primarily, it is the small firms of 15+ employees that have the capacity to absorb and use new knowledge – especially those with higher educational levels and clear growth objectives. These firms are not startups but they do tend to be younger firms with younger founders.

Practical implications

Given the main policy aim is the development of clusters and of knowledge‐based firms, policy makers should focus on SMEs recently started by graduates or people with technical qualifications; educators need to develop technology and innovation management programmes for these firms.

Originality/value

This article makes an important contribution to the identification of priorities for public SME development support and areas where business schools and enterprise trainers could maximise their economic and developmental impact.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 12 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 April 1999

Simon Down

402

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 July 1988

Colin Gray

The control of remote sites is a time consuming and difficult task. Speedy and relevant data are required for control. It is possible to install systems which provide summarised…

177

Abstract

The control of remote sites is a time consuming and difficult task. Speedy and relevant data are required for control. It is possible to install systems which provide summarised comparative performance reports the day after. Less time is therefore spent on administrative tasks and more on looking at the results with the aim of improvement.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 88 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 June 2001

François Vreÿ

A century ago, military instruments were readily deployed in imperialistic adventures or the defence of national interests. Today the strategic environment is more complex and…

645

Abstract

A century ago, military instruments were readily deployed in imperialistic adventures or the defence of national interests. Today the strategic environment is more complex and diplomatic protocols more established. The information revolution is meanwhile telescoping time frames and proliferating futures scenarios. But even if the politicians are driving the agenda, the security imperative remains the same. For defence planners that implies new models and mechanisms, and a closer nexus in the formulation of political and defence policy.

Details

Foresight, vol. 3 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 January 1986

Robert Rizzo

Nuclear weapons confront us as the challenge of our times. To understand the special psychological and moral issues raised by nuclear arsenals and their use, we must first grasp…

191

Abstract

Nuclear weapons confront us as the challenge of our times. To understand the special psychological and moral issues raised by nuclear arsenals and their use, we must first grasp the special nature of these weapons. In a recent book on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the authors highlighted a fact which often escapes public attention; namely, nuclear weapons, many times more powerful than the 12.5 kiloton uranium bomb and the 22 kiloton plutonium bomb dropped respectively on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are qualitatively different from conventional explosives.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 13 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Access Restricted. View access options
Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2023

Antonio Davola and Gianclaudio Malgieri

The attempt to establish a common European framework for core platforms' duties and responsibilities toward other actors in the digital environment is at the core of the recent…

Abstract

The attempt to establish a common European framework for core platforms' duties and responsibilities toward other actors in the digital environment is at the core of the recent scholarly debate surrounding the Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposal. In particular, the everlasting juxtaposition between the “data power” – as emerging from recent cases (Section 2) – that dominant tech companies enjoy and the concept of consumer sovereignty (Section 3) lies at the core of the proposal's attempt to identify digital core platforms as market gatekeepers. Accordingly, this chapter critically investigates the divide between power imbalance and consumer sovereignty in light of the architecture designed by the DMA, with a specific focus on its effectiveness in identifying gatekeepers' power drivers (Section 4). After highlighting the main critical aspects of the pertinent rules, opportunities for fruitful developments are then identified through the reframing of some of the notions considered in the proposal, and namely the role of “lock-in” effects and “data accumulation” (Section 5). Lastly, this chapter suggests that the DMA advancements – while desirable – are bound to be fragmentary in the absence of a wider appraisal of the nature of data power imbalance dynamics in the modern digital markets (Section 6).

Details

The Economics and Regulation of Digital Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-643-0

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 16 November 2015

Craig Henry

278

Abstract

Details

Strategy & Leadership, vol. 43 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1087-8572

1 – 10 of 635
Per page
102050