Kmu Unter Lokalen, Regionalen Und Globalen Einflüssen Smes under Local, Regional and Global Influences Entrepreneurial Firms and Globalisation: a Theoretical Perspective of Faster Speed to Market for Global Traders Structural Change, Environment and Policies of Entrepreneurial Firms in China

This paper is part of a broader program that is opening up a new area of research, namely: institutional preparedness for entrepreneurial economic development. In particular , it examines the preparedness of industry associations for economic development. The membership of these associations is predominantly made up of entrepre-neurial firms that are trading globally (Obrecht 2000: p. 185). This paper explores individual entrepreneurial firms' collaborative strategies to maximize the likelihood of faster speed to market for global traders (Tan 2000: p. 423). Wherever there is change in a society you will find entrepreneurial firms carrying out innovation (Schumpeter 1934). The current era is clearly one of great change. Specifically, this paper conceptu-alises a theoretical model that clarifies the variations in both trust and power-dependence of institutional structures. The objectives of the paper are twofold. The first is to enquire into the relationship between an industry association's innovation process, and the organisational structur-ing of enterprise development activities. " Innovative process " is the " accomplishment of actions that depends on organisational structure (Edwards 2000) ". This definition of innovation draws on Giddens " structuration theory " (1982). It is a view that focuses on the " underlying mechanisms that enable or constrain innovation " (Edwards 2000). Our second objective is to outline a typology of industry association structures and trust that explains variations in their capacity to implement innovative actions. Background to the research is the impact globalisation is having on entrepreneurial firms (Commonwealth of Australia 2001). Entrepreneurial firms often act collectively to engage in entrepreneurial development programs when they have limited internal resources (Christie 2001). This paper focuses on industry associations as the agents for entrepreneurial development programs. Industry associations are made up of firms within an industry and they seek out income that is normally membership-based but may include government funding. How well the entrepreneurial firm acts collectively in global markets as members of industry associations is not well understood. Specifically , how industry associations manage assistance to member firms is not well understood. Industry associations assist entrepreneurial firms across generations, cultures, differing levels of affluence, across old and new economies and through the life cycle of the firm and their resource needs. Although the benefits of industry associations for capacity building within communities are well acknowledged, there is little research about the industry association's internal operations of managing innovative assistance for member firms. 268 When attempting to obtain a …