The Changing Role of SMEs in Global Business

SMEs are significant job creators and drivers of innovation and competition in most economic sectors. Furthermore, the traditional constraints of small and medium enterprises, such as geographic operations, are now being dissolved by technological developments. This means that there are new opportunities for SMEs, and their fundamental principles are being redefined: the aims, competencies, strategy, management, practice, and scope of these businesses are changing, with wide-ranging implications.

This is the second part of a two volume work that incorporates scientific chapters on SME business theory and practice. Authors provide a balanced perspective of the present and future of SMEs across all business disciplines, for example management, strategy, marketing, economics and finance. While Volume I focuses on the individual SME and internal issues such as innovation, quality, and digitization, this second volume explores external issues such as contextual forces, the effectsof the financial crisis, and macro-economic effects.

Provides coverage of a variety of geographic regions, market types and industries, and business field applications Includes case studies as well as empirical data Explores critical success factors of SMEs

Autorentext

Alkis Thrassou is Professor in the School of Business at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and a Senior Research Fellow of the EuroMed Academy of Business (EMAB). He has undertaken significant research in the fields of strategic marketing, management and customer behaviour.

Demetris Vrontis is Professor and Vice Rector for Faculty and Research at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, as well the Editor-in-Chief of the EuroMed Journal of Business (EMJB) and the President of the EuroMed Research Business Institute (EMRBI).

Yaakov Weber is Professor and Director of the Research Unit, School of Business Administration, College of Management, Israel. He is the Founder and President of EMRBI and EMAB.

S. M. Riad Shams is Lecturer at the Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK. He has published eight edited books, contributed articles to top-tier international journals, guest-edited for various reputedjournals, and he is the founding editor of the International Journal of Big Data Management.

Evangelos Tsoukatos teaches Management at the University of Applied Sciences Crete, Greece, and is adjunct faculty at the University of Nicosia and the Hellenic Open University. He is Associate Editor of EMJB.

Inhalt

1. Editorial Introduction: Contextual Evolution of SMEs Across Markets, Disciplines and Sectors .- 2. The Impact of Digitalisation and Sustainable Development Goals in SMEs Strategy: A Multi-Country European Study .- 3. Business in a Foreign Country: A Contextual Analysis of Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Their SMEs .- 4. Defining the SME: A Multi-Perspective Investigation .- 5. To Fail or Not to Fail: An Algorithm for SME Survival Prediction Using Accounting Data .- 6. Dynamic Capabilities and System Thinking - The Role of Networking Capabilities to Foster Innovation in SMEs .- 7. The Influence of Social Vision, Social Networks, And Financial Return on Social SME Sustainability .- 8. Prediction of Viticulture Farms Behaviour: An Agent-Based Model Approach .- 9. Digitalization of SMEs: A Review of Opportunities and Challenges .- 10. Financing & Innovativeness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises The Case of Poland .- 11. ItalianFurniture Sector SMEs: Sustainability and Commercial Ethics.