Based on the analysis of the common limitations of business processmanagement (BPM) methodologies and the requirements of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs),the importance of a 'performance construct' o...Based on the analysis of the common limitations of business processmanagement (BPM) methodologies and the requirements of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs),the importance of a 'performance construct' of BPM methodologies is identified, a six-phaseperformance-driven BPM methodology for the production and operation processes of Chinese SMEs isdeveloped. A case study on the process management of a medium-sized enterprise shows a successfulexample of running the methodology.展开更多
Forest biomass has great potential as a biofuel feedstock, but information on forest owner perceptions of using forest biomass to produce bioenergy is lacking. In this case study, we surveyed 3500 small to medium priv...Forest biomass has great potential as a biofuel feedstock, but information on forest owner perceptions of using forest biomass to produce bioenergy is lacking. In this case study, we surveyed 3500 small to medium private forest landowners in southwestern Louisiana to better understand their attitudes and perceptions towards harvesting forest biomass for bioenergy production. Results indicate that landowners: 1) were positive about utilizing biomass for bioenergy, 2) believe viable biomass conversion technologies exist, 3) had antagonistic or neutral attitudes towards some technological, economic, and policy issues associated with using forest biomass for bioenergy due in part to lack of information or knowledge, and 4) felt biomass is a low-value product compared to traditional products. Landowners’ perceptions of participating in bio-based activities and markets vary among age and ownership size, and 51% of forest landowners were willing to participate in management activities specifically geared for bioenergy production.展开更多
The following paper explored data mining issues in Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs), firstly exploring the relationship between data mining and economic development. With SME’s contributing most employment prosp...The following paper explored data mining issues in Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs), firstly exploring the relationship between data mining and economic development. With SME’s contributing most employment prospects and output within any emerging economy such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Adopting technology will improve SME’s potential for effective decision making and efficient operations. Hence, it is important that SMEs have access to data mining techniques and implement the most suited into their business to improve their business intelligence (BI). The paper is aimed to critically review the existing literature on data mining in the field of SME to provide a theoretical underpinning for any future work. It has been found data mining to be complicated and fragmented with a multitude of options available for businesses from quite basic systems implemented within Excel or Access to more sophisticated cloud-based systems. For any business, data mining is trade-off between the need for data analysis, and intelligence against the cost and resource-use of the system put in place. Multiple challenges have been identified to data mining, most notably the resource-intensive nature of systems (both in terms of labor and capital) and the security issues of data collection, analysis and storage;with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) a key focus for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia businesses. With these challenges the paper suggests that any SME starts small with an internal data mining exercise to digitalize and analyze their customer data, scaling up over time as the business grows and acquires the resources needed to properly manage any system.展开更多
Technological shifts—coupled with infrastructure, techniques, and applications for big data—have created many new opportunities, business models, and industry expansion that benefit entrepreneurs. At the same time, ...Technological shifts—coupled with infrastructure, techniques, and applications for big data—have created many new opportunities, business models, and industry expansion that benefit entrepreneurs. At the same time, however, entrepreneurs are often unprepared for cybersecurity needs—and the policymakers, industry, and nonprofit groups that support them also face technological and knowledge constraints in keeping up with their needs. To improve the ability of entrepreneurship research to understand, identify, and ultimately help address cybersecurity challenges, we conduct a literature review on the state of cybersecurity. The research highlights the necessity for additional investigation to aid small businesses in securing their confidential data and client information from cyber threats, thereby preventing the potential shutdown of the business.展开更多
Small and medium enterprises(SMEs)play an important role in the world economy.Modern trends in the development of small and medium enterprises imply a constant increase in their role in the total income of an economy....Small and medium enterprises(SMEs)play an important role in the world economy.Modern trends in the development of small and medium enterprises imply a constant increase in their role in the total income of an economy.For such an approach,it is important to achieve quality organizational and managerial concepts of planning strategy development.In many countries,small businesses dominate in the production of a number of smaller products,higher consumption,and high quality of these products.The concept of a small economy consists of a group of companies that stand out in terms of their characteristics in relation to large companies.In relation to large companies as business systems,SMEs differ based on the concept of their own organization’s business,the volume of business,and the availability of resources.Research data show that the main obstacle to efficient continuous business of SMEs in the world is the procurement and maintenance of business resources.Ensuring continuity in production is often a problem of lack of resources,which primarily characterizes them in relation to large companies.Small business and entrepreneurship are the main backbone of today’s economic development,viewed globally.The purpose of the development of small and medium enterprises in the world is to enable the development of a successful and flexible entrepreneurial climate as an important organizational determinant,which is a prerequisite for progress in the modern world economy.The feature of SME development is the innovation of employees that needs to be constantly developed.In that way,conditions are provided for technological development,formation of flexible organizations,and new employment.In practice,small and medium enterprises are the engine of economic development.It is a sector that promotes private property and entrepreneurial skills.According to experts on economic issues,SMEs are today and in the future,not only in Serbia,the Region,but also in the world,a synonym for the private sector-for entrepreneurship.Comparative analysis shows the advantage of SMEs,especially in flexible business,where they can quickly adapt to change and can fully meet market demands.展开更多
The construction industry in most developing economies is dominated heavily by small and medium scale enterprises. These construction enterprises need to thrive in an extremely competitive business environment. Conver...The construction industry in most developing economies is dominated heavily by small and medium scale enterprises. These construction enterprises need to thrive in an extremely competitive business environment. Conversely, most of these small and medium scale construction enterprises (SMSCE) are fraught with a plethora of barriers that inhibit and threaten their growth and survival. This research sought to evaluate the critical barriers that affect the growth of SMSCEs in the Ghanaian Construction Industry. The quantitative research method was adopted using a structured questionnaire with variables that were identified through a comprehensive literature review. The survey questionnaire was administered to 400 respondents comprising 250 SMSCEs, 100 Local Authority Engineers, and 50 Consultants to elicit data based on the identified variables. The major findings established by the study as barriers to the growth of SMSCEs in Ghana are largely structured as financial/fiscal barriers, business development barriers, technical/technological barriers, corruption barriers, knowledge management barriers, project acquisition barriers. A guiding framework should be developed based on the barriers identified to aid the growth and survival of SMSCEs in Ghana.展开更多
The dynamic nature of online systems requires companies to be proactive with thwarting information security threats, and to follow a systematic way for managing and evaluating the security of their online services. Th...The dynamic nature of online systems requires companies to be proactive with thwarting information security threats, and to follow a systematic way for managing and evaluating the security of their online services. The existence of security standards is an important factor that helps organisations to evaluate and manage security by providing guidelines and best practices that enable them to follow a standard and systematic way to protect their e-Business activities. However, the suitability of available information security standards for Small and Medium e-Business Enterprises (e-SME) is worth further investigation. In this paper three major security standards including Common Criteria, System Security Engineering-Capability and Maturity Model and ISO/IEC 27001 were analysed. Accordingly, several challenges associated with these standards that may render them difficult to be implemented in e-SME have been identified.展开更多
Traditional small current grounding system has many advantages. Pilot operation shows that optimized one has even better operation characteristics. It has proven to be a geenrallly properand relatively perfect neutyal...Traditional small current grounding system has many advantages. Pilot operation shows that optimized one has even better operation characteristics. It has proven to be a geenrallly properand relatively perfect neutyal grounding method in urban MV network.展开更多
文摘Based on the analysis of the common limitations of business processmanagement (BPM) methodologies and the requirements of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs),the importance of a 'performance construct' of BPM methodologies is identified, a six-phaseperformance-driven BPM methodology for the production and operation processes of Chinese SMEs isdeveloped. A case study on the process management of a medium-sized enterprise shows a successfulexample of running the methodology.
文摘Forest biomass has great potential as a biofuel feedstock, but information on forest owner perceptions of using forest biomass to produce bioenergy is lacking. In this case study, we surveyed 3500 small to medium private forest landowners in southwestern Louisiana to better understand their attitudes and perceptions towards harvesting forest biomass for bioenergy production. Results indicate that landowners: 1) were positive about utilizing biomass for bioenergy, 2) believe viable biomass conversion technologies exist, 3) had antagonistic or neutral attitudes towards some technological, economic, and policy issues associated with using forest biomass for bioenergy due in part to lack of information or knowledge, and 4) felt biomass is a low-value product compared to traditional products. Landowners’ perceptions of participating in bio-based activities and markets vary among age and ownership size, and 51% of forest landowners were willing to participate in management activities specifically geared for bioenergy production.
文摘The following paper explored data mining issues in Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs), firstly exploring the relationship between data mining and economic development. With SME’s contributing most employment prospects and output within any emerging economy such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Adopting technology will improve SME’s potential for effective decision making and efficient operations. Hence, it is important that SMEs have access to data mining techniques and implement the most suited into their business to improve their business intelligence (BI). The paper is aimed to critically review the existing literature on data mining in the field of SME to provide a theoretical underpinning for any future work. It has been found data mining to be complicated and fragmented with a multitude of options available for businesses from quite basic systems implemented within Excel or Access to more sophisticated cloud-based systems. For any business, data mining is trade-off between the need for data analysis, and intelligence against the cost and resource-use of the system put in place. Multiple challenges have been identified to data mining, most notably the resource-intensive nature of systems (both in terms of labor and capital) and the security issues of data collection, analysis and storage;with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) a key focus for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia businesses. With these challenges the paper suggests that any SME starts small with an internal data mining exercise to digitalize and analyze their customer data, scaling up over time as the business grows and acquires the resources needed to properly manage any system.
文摘Technological shifts—coupled with infrastructure, techniques, and applications for big data—have created many new opportunities, business models, and industry expansion that benefit entrepreneurs. At the same time, however, entrepreneurs are often unprepared for cybersecurity needs—and the policymakers, industry, and nonprofit groups that support them also face technological and knowledge constraints in keeping up with their needs. To improve the ability of entrepreneurship research to understand, identify, and ultimately help address cybersecurity challenges, we conduct a literature review on the state of cybersecurity. The research highlights the necessity for additional investigation to aid small businesses in securing their confidential data and client information from cyber threats, thereby preventing the potential shutdown of the business.
文摘Small and medium enterprises(SMEs)play an important role in the world economy.Modern trends in the development of small and medium enterprises imply a constant increase in their role in the total income of an economy.For such an approach,it is important to achieve quality organizational and managerial concepts of planning strategy development.In many countries,small businesses dominate in the production of a number of smaller products,higher consumption,and high quality of these products.The concept of a small economy consists of a group of companies that stand out in terms of their characteristics in relation to large companies.In relation to large companies as business systems,SMEs differ based on the concept of their own organization’s business,the volume of business,and the availability of resources.Research data show that the main obstacle to efficient continuous business of SMEs in the world is the procurement and maintenance of business resources.Ensuring continuity in production is often a problem of lack of resources,which primarily characterizes them in relation to large companies.Small business and entrepreneurship are the main backbone of today’s economic development,viewed globally.The purpose of the development of small and medium enterprises in the world is to enable the development of a successful and flexible entrepreneurial climate as an important organizational determinant,which is a prerequisite for progress in the modern world economy.The feature of SME development is the innovation of employees that needs to be constantly developed.In that way,conditions are provided for technological development,formation of flexible organizations,and new employment.In practice,small and medium enterprises are the engine of economic development.It is a sector that promotes private property and entrepreneurial skills.According to experts on economic issues,SMEs are today and in the future,not only in Serbia,the Region,but also in the world,a synonym for the private sector-for entrepreneurship.Comparative analysis shows the advantage of SMEs,especially in flexible business,where they can quickly adapt to change and can fully meet market demands.
文摘The construction industry in most developing economies is dominated heavily by small and medium scale enterprises. These construction enterprises need to thrive in an extremely competitive business environment. Conversely, most of these small and medium scale construction enterprises (SMSCE) are fraught with a plethora of barriers that inhibit and threaten their growth and survival. This research sought to evaluate the critical barriers that affect the growth of SMSCEs in the Ghanaian Construction Industry. The quantitative research method was adopted using a structured questionnaire with variables that were identified through a comprehensive literature review. The survey questionnaire was administered to 400 respondents comprising 250 SMSCEs, 100 Local Authority Engineers, and 50 Consultants to elicit data based on the identified variables. The major findings established by the study as barriers to the growth of SMSCEs in Ghana are largely structured as financial/fiscal barriers, business development barriers, technical/technological barriers, corruption barriers, knowledge management barriers, project acquisition barriers. A guiding framework should be developed based on the barriers identified to aid the growth and survival of SMSCEs in Ghana.
文摘The dynamic nature of online systems requires companies to be proactive with thwarting information security threats, and to follow a systematic way for managing and evaluating the security of their online services. The existence of security standards is an important factor that helps organisations to evaluate and manage security by providing guidelines and best practices that enable them to follow a standard and systematic way to protect their e-Business activities. However, the suitability of available information security standards for Small and Medium e-Business Enterprises (e-SME) is worth further investigation. In this paper three major security standards including Common Criteria, System Security Engineering-Capability and Maturity Model and ISO/IEC 27001 were analysed. Accordingly, several challenges associated with these standards that may render them difficult to be implemented in e-SME have been identified.
文摘Traditional small current grounding system has many advantages. Pilot operation shows that optimized one has even better operation characteristics. It has proven to be a geenrallly properand relatively perfect neutyal grounding method in urban MV network.
