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The purpose of this research is to measure the economic and social/environmental/cultural activity of the social enterprise sector at a provincial level in Canada.

The research was implemented in three phases. In phase one, the structure and content of the mapping instrument was developed and tested. In phase two, the survey was circulated to all verified social enterprises in the sample frame to achieve a large and fully representative probability sample of social enterprises in both provinces. Data were subsequently collected for cleaning, entry, and analysis. Phase three involved the circulation of the survey results to social enterprise‐related networks in both provinces through both participant feedback and de‐briefing workshops.

Social enterprises surveyed had a number of non‐exclusive purposes. Eight (22 percent) Alberta (AB) social enterprises focused on employment and related activities while 51 (51 percent) of social enterprises in British Columbia (BC) had a similar focus. A total of 39 percent in AB and 47 percent of social enterprises in BC generated income for their parent organization. The highest percentage of social enterprises in both provinces (92 percent in AB/71 percent in BC) described themselves as having a social mission while 25 percent of social enterprises in AB and 35 percent in BC had a cultural mission. Environmental activities were pursued by 22 percent social enterprises in AB and 38 percent in BC.

Notwithstanding the inclusion of the non‐profit corporate form in the paper's definition, social enterprise organizational form and legal structure tell us little about the activities or the impact of the organization. This is a tentative finding; it is indicative perhaps of the current, “pre‐institutionalized”, phase of social enterprise development, but more research needs to be conducted to fully examine and to elaborate on this proposition.

Measuring the size, strength and scope of social enterprises contributes to the important constellation of evidence, policy options, and political will that is necessary to put a policy on the political agenda. In BC, the survey results provided policy advocates with the first empirical evidence of the scope, size, and capacity of social enterprises in the province. This, together with existing anecdotal information, case stories, and stakeholder events, helped to convince policy makers that social enterprises are a viable and legitimate entity, worthy of serious policy support.

The aim of this research was to provide relevant and timely information, not to define social enterprises as an end in itself. The operational definition of social enterprise was thus developed with the explicit purpose of conducting this investigation and as such, the authors are confident that it served its purpose. To this end, the authors trust that this survey, and its embedded structural‐functional definition, will contribute to the ongoing exploration of the number and nature of social enterprises in Canada and elsewhere.

This research set out to take stock of the structure, purpose, and operational activity of social enterprises in BC and AB. This was undertaken using a structural‐functional definition of social enterprise as “a business venture, owned or operated by a non‐profit organization that continuously sells goods or provides services in the market for the purpose of creating a blended return on investment; financial, social, environmental, and cultural”.

The development of Ecommerce within Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Wales is restricted by a number of barriers. Various projects initiated by government and academic bodies exist to assist SMEs overcome these barriers. However, whether these projects represent the needs of SMEs is debatable. The opportunity for SMEs to exploit information communication technology has increased due to the improved affordability and sophistication of computing equipment, along with the development and utilisation of the Internet. This progress has seen the emergence of Ebusiness and Ecommerce, whereby SMEs can operate, communicate and trade in global markets. Recent surveys by academia, government and trade bodies have identified Wales as the worst performing region for Ebusiness in the UK with sceptical attitudes towards its increased adoption. This paper reports on a quantitative study investigating Ebusiness utilisation within SMEs in Wales. Specifically this paper focuses on the key barriers influencing the adoption of Ebusiness within SMEs in Wales. The survey of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce (CCC) membership was undertaken in 2001. The CCC is a trade body of approximately 1000 SMEs encompassing a geographical area covering Cardiff, Bridgend, Newport and the Valleys areas. The postal survey and telephone follow up achieved a response rate of 100 SME classified enterprises, a response rate of approximately 10%. Academic research has identified these barriers as deficiencies in financial resources, time, information and skills; concerns over security, legal issues and competition and doubts over the applicability of Ebusiness to their business practices and cultural and infrastructure issues. These barriers are a major influence as to how Ebusiness will develop within SMEs and this paper identifies the significance of each factor in constraining growth. The paper concludes by investigating the assistance for SMEs from academia, government and trade to develop Ebusiness activities and questioning whether these are representative and effective mechanisms for this sector. This paper contributes to knowledge by appraising and contrasting existing barriers to Ebusiness literature and comparing it with the relevant SOGM literature. Secondly it classifies barriers in two ways by type and time of occurrence. Finally the paper recognises that the support mechanisms for Ebusiness within SMEs remain unproven and require further investigation to verify their effectiveness.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the changing role of the defence sector in the economy at industry and enterprise levels focusing on defence‐civilian cooperation and defence supply networking with foreign industry enterprises from complex industry‐perspective.

Measuring is based on the comparative industry data and the unique survey evidence for the Slovenian defence industry enterprises to derive managerial and policy implications.

The role of the defence industry in the economy declined, but trade deficits from arms and ammunition increased. The industry enterprises can gain from defence‐civilian cooperation and defence supply chain networking with foreign industry enterprises. Information‐coordination institutions are seen to provide opportunities for future industry development in Slovenia.

This research focuses on Slovenia. Future enhancement of the research would be to look into the possibility of applying the findings to other countries. The size of the enterprise, and even more the size of the country, does matter in the defence‐market chain activities.

The proposed industry firm‐level survey approach provides useful policy and managerial implications in the evaluation of defence industry supply and market chain cooperation and networking activities with foreign industry enterprises. The study proves the usefulness of the results, both to the future organizational development and as a decision‐making tool in the complex industry systems.

This paper adds to the industry firm‐level analyses as data management tools for evaluating the defence‐civilian cooperation and networking of complex industry market chain activities for more effective management.

The purpose of the paper is to assess the state of the business development services (BDS) market in Chengdu, with a view to identifying demand and/or supply side deficiencies, which public policy might help to address.

The data are drawn from two surveys undertaken in Chengdu between November 2005 and January 2006.

The research shows there are small firms that are active users of BDS, reflecting the emergence of non‐state owned enterprises in the city. The survey also shows evidence of unfulfilled latent demand, with a particular reference to sales and marketing advice and helping firms to access sources of finance. In addition, the survey of BDS providers shows that some are sensitive to the needs of small firms, although the latter are typically under‐represented in their client base.

The findings suggest that the BDS market in Chengdu is underdeveloped from a small business perspective, which can be illustrated by pointing to both demand‐ and supply‐side deficiencies. It can be argued that this is an important policy issue, if small enterprises are to fulfil their potential contribution to local economic development, particularly in relation to the development of non‐local sales.

This research adopts an “evidence‐based” approach to inform policy development.

This study aims to examine usage and deployment trends of e‐business technologies within the small and medium‐sized enterprise (SMEs) community in Wales, since the turn of the millennium. Analysis of prior surveys such as the Department of Trade and Industry and Federation of Small Business reveals poor adoption levels of basic information and communication technology deployment and minimal uptake of sophisticated technologies in comparison to other UK regions. Uptake of e‐business was assessed through a quantitative survey of SMEs and contrasted against prior studies undertaken within Wales since 2000 to identify trends and levels of adoption.

The study is comprised of a survey of 500 SMEs including a representative population from diverse geographical and economic regions within Wales. The survey deployed a proportionately stratified and representative sampling technique, whereby two‐thirds of the enterprises selected were micro sized classified enterprises with no employees to ensure compatibility with the Welsh SME population.

Levels of e‐business uptake within prior surveys varied significantly, due to the contrasting nature and size of the samples. As a consequence, several previous surveys presented an overly optimistic picture of e‐business adoption and results must, therefore, be treated with caution. The authors' own survey revealed lower utilisation levels of e‐business than prior studies, suggesting sophisticated use of e‐business was limited, especially within the smaller SME size classifications.

To achieve increased e‐business uptake, it is critical that there is a long‐term strategic vision by policy makers to ensure coordinated action by relevant public and private sector groups. Short‐term strategies must be avoided and policy makers must drive an agenda for change by ensuring bodies, such as enterprises support agencies, academia and public and private sectors undertake complimentary activities that encourage e‐business adoption. This study will be of value to academia, the SME community and key public sector stakeholders in the formulation of policy for e‐business development and deployment.

The Government's role in industrial innovation has always been conventionally viewed as a regulator rather than a marketer of industrial progress. By breaking out of the box, this study positioned the Government as a marketer of innovation and construction enterprises as “consumers” of innovation products. The marketing mix concept of 4Ps is applied in this study to tailor marketing strategies for Governments, who aim to stimulate a higher level of innovation performance in the construction industry. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey of 97 construction enterprises in Germany is conducted to examine the innovation performance, strategies and resource utilisation of construction firms.

The findings indicate that there is no one-size-fits-all national marketing strategy in promoting construction innovation. The Government is required to classify marketing strategies according to firm sizes and enterprises’ needs in relation to their national innovation environment to maximise their innovation potential.

To illustrate this, marketing strategies according to firm sizes for the Government to stimulate higher innovation performance of German construction enterprises are proposed.

The main recommendation is for the Government to intensify inter-firm co-operation by employing national institutions as the key promoter in establishing and operating industry-led focus groups and world-class research centres.

Acknowledging the role of Government as more than an enabler of construction innovation is required in today's knowledge economy. This study proposes that it may be time for Governments to review their conventional role and adopt a more proactive stance in promoting innovation in the manner that counts to construction enterprises.

This chapter presents data on furniture companies in the three Baltic States. The analysis of the survey data reveal peculiarities of the production process, the organisational structure and the cost estimation practices. The survey data are valuable as it captures the main trends in furniture production in the region. The data also provide important insights into prevailing production practices, organisational structure and costing strategies. The survey data allowed capturing the importance of organisational capabilities such as optimal organisational structure, competence of business staff, performance growth and attitude to technological change in the application of IT tools to specific manufacturing operations.

The purpose of the study is to examine the obstacle in doing business and determinants of credit adoption by the textile enterprises in India.

The study is based on World Bank’s Enterprises Survey, there are 571 enterprises involved in textile business. The enterprises survey has response on wide range of business obstacles which are categorized under three broad categories, namely, access to resource, business regulations and market externalities. Chi-square test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been used to examine the significant difference among firm’s profile and perceived business obstacles across the firm size. Furthermore, binary logistic regression model has been applied to explore the determinants of credit adoption by textile enterprises.

A statistically significant difference has been found in size of firms and legal status nature of establishment, gender of top manager, main product market and credit adoption from financial institutions. Majority of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are sole proprietorship firm while large enterprises are limited partnership firms. Similarly, large enterprises have relatively more female as a top manager and international market for their product. ANOVA reveals equal degree of obstacles in doing textile business across the firm size. The logistic regression coefficient and marginal effects reveal that firm size, main market,gender of owner, number of establishment in the firms positive and significantly affects the credit adoption by 3 textile enterprises.

The study has some policy implications for various stakeholders such as textile business managers and promoters, government, investors and bankers for entrepreneurship development in textile sector. The study suggests that the government should incentivize small- and medium-sized businesses to increase their exports. The results show that despite government efforts to finance SMEs, fewer SMEs are receiving both short- and long-term credit. To help SMEs in the textile industry overcome financial difficulties and expand their main product market to both domestic and international levels, a soft loan should be provided based on the characteristics of textile enterprises.

The present study suggests the evidence-based understanding of textile business environment. The value and uniqueness of this study is to explore an ease of business textile sector using comprehensive enterprises survey data of World Bank.

This paper aims to introduce the history and major achievement of the Chinese private enterprise survey (CPES), which is one of the most enduring large-scale nationwide sample surveys in China, providing important micro firm-level data for understanding and studying the development of Chinese enterprises and entrepreneurs over the past 26 years.

The main body of this paper is based on a bibliometric analysis of all literature using CPES until 2017.

This paper discusses problems that users may encounter during data mining. By doing so, it can assist other researchers to get a better understanding of what has been done (e.g. journals, topics, scholars and institutions) and do their research in a more targeted way.

As members of the survey project team, the authors also take a prospect of the future data design and use, as well as offer some suggestions about how to use the CPES data to improve high-quality development and business environment evaluation in China.

This paper is the first to provide an overall picture of academic papers in China and abroad that have used the CPES data.

Poland has a large number of spa enterprises providing spa tourism services, which is closely linked to the largely state-funded spa treatment. Both the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the period of the following two years after the end of the pandemic involved many changes in the operation of these entities. The purpose of this study is to attempt to identify the determinants of the operation of spa enterprises during both periods, as perceived by managers.

Data for the study were collected through individual in-depth interviews (IDI) conducted with managers of six Polish spa enterprises, diverse in many respects. This research was exploratory in nature, and inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data.

The results of the study indicate that during the pandemic, as a result of the influence of state institutions, macro-level determinants played the greatest role. In the post-Covid period, on the other hand, the surveyed managers paid special attention to personnel and legal conditions. Demand factors manifested by changes in the behavior of spa visitors as well as relations with the environment were also highlighted. The determinants pointed out by the managers were more often perceived as barriers to the operation of enterprises during the analyzed period. The research results show the multidimensional impact of the pandemic on spa enterprises and their subsequent adaptation to post-pandemic realities. The research provides a comprehensive understanding of the operational challenges and development opportunities of spa enterprises.

The adopted methodology is associated with certain limitations that open up new paths for further analysis and better understanding of the discussed topic. Undoubtedly, the limitation of this research was the small sample size, which resulted from the difficulty of reaching managers of spa enterprises or their unwillingness to participate in this type of research. Perhaps it would be necessary to establish broader cooperation with this environment, e.g. through active participation in conferences associating health resort companies, which would facilitate conducting research in the future. Another limitation was the lack of possibility to record interviews, resulting in the lack of transcription and limiting it only to the researcher’s own notes. This significantly narrowed the possibilities of data analysis. In future research, the theoretical background should be expanded to include literature describing the conditions for the functioning of spa enterprises during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in other countries with a spa operation model similar to Poland. Due to the fact that the research conducted for the purposes of this study was exploratory in nature, its results can be used as source material for further research, enabling a deepening of this topic. Thanks to them, it is possible to create measurement tools that allow the use of more structured qualitative methods (e.g. structured individual in-depth interviews or focused group interviews) or quantitative methods (surveys, questionnaire interviews).

The results of this study give rise to certain practical implications. Spa enterprises must better prepare for future health crises through flexibility in work organization and sanitary protection. COVID-19 cases, which are still occurring, as well as other serious diseases, cause many negative health effects in patients, and their reduction may become an opportunity to diversify the scope of spa services toward rehabilitation but also prevention. This would allow for a fuller use of the potential of spas. However, in this case, the role of state institutions is also important, as they should include such services in the scope of spa treatment and the financing system. In the case of some spa enterprises, it is necessary to change the marketing strategy, aimed at better matching the offer to younger customers as well as developing promotional activities aimed at attracting new commercial patients. In crisis situations, problems with personnel were noticed, which should be prevented in the future through better management in this area, consisting, for example, of the implementation of motivational programs aimed at encouraging employees to return to work and improve their efficiency. It seems necessary to solve staff shortages, perhaps through education and cooperation with educational institutions as well as through the possibility of employing refugees.

The study fills a certain cognitive gap, as no previous research has been conducted among Polish spa enterprises covering the analyzed period. This research focuses on uncovering the challenges and opportunities for health resort businesses in crisis contexts.