Overview Developing products that not only add value but also increase profitability is the goal of virtually all niche food and agricultural product producers and manufacturers. Large-scale food product manufacturers often accomplish this goal through several strategies, including undertaking market research to identify relatively large segments of the market to serve as potential customers, e...

Among the possible measures for Information Technology (IT) success is its impact on companies ́ performance. Many researches have been conducted to show the influence of IT on firms ́ results, but mainly through studies in large-sized firms. The objective of this work is to analyze the relationships between IT investments and organizational efficiency, focusing on micro, small and medium sized e...

Purpose – Drawing from the literature, the purpose of this paper is to offer an empirically validated framework for examining information technology (IT) readiness in small firms. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual framework of IT readiness for small firms is developed and validated empirically using a quantitative survey of 117 UK manufacturing small firms to identify distinct clusters...

Does bribery help or hurt firm growth? Some suggest that bribery greases the wheel of commerce, while others believe that bribery sands the wheel of growth. We argue that firms endogenously choose their level of bribery according to their environments and that the benefits and costs may differ for different types of bribery. Specifically, small firms are more likely to be forced to engage in br...

C are often unable to resist the temptation of overconsuming certain products such as cookies, crackers, soft drinks, alcohol, etc. To control their consumption, some consumers buy small packages or abstain from purchasing the product altogether. Other consumers, however, still purchase large packages and overconsume. From a strategic perspective, firms have the option of introducing small pack...

The statistical observation that small firms have created the majority of new jobs during the 1980s has had a tremendous influence on public policy. Governments have looked to the small firm sector for employment growth, and have promoted policies to augment this expansion. However, recent research in the US suggests that net job creation in the small firm sector may have been overestimated, re...

In markets where consumers have switching costs and firms cannot price discriminate, firms have two conflicting strategies. A firm can either offer a low price to attract new consumers and build future market share or a firm can offer a high price to exploit the partial lock-in of their existing consumers. This paper develops a theory of competition when overlapping generations of consumers hav...