Although effective implementation of the Internet technologies has a great potential for improving efficiency and reducing wastage within the fresh produce supply chain. the situation of the Internet usage by SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) in the fresh produce supply chain is still unclear in China. As the main players, SMEs haven’t been given enough attention from both academics and...

Public sector organisations are increasingly introducing eProcurement systems in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their procurement processes. This clearly has implications for their suppliers, who are being asked to adopt eProcurement. For many SMEs, particularly small and micro businesses, this is proving a difficult challenge given their lack of eProcurement knowledge, as...

This paper explores patterns of adoption and use of information and communications technology (ICT) by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the southwest London and Thames Valley region of England. The paper presents preliminary results of a survey of around 400 SMEs drawn from four economically significant sectors in the region: food processing, transport and logistics, media and Inter...

It is believed by many scholars that a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) cannot be seen through the lens of a large firm. Theories which explain IT governance in large organizations and methodologies used by practitioners can therefore not be extrapolated to SMEs, which have a completely different economic, cultural and managerial environment. SMEs suffer from resource poverty, have less ...

This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the impacts of the global financial crisis on the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It also provides relevant policy suggestions at the end. First, this paper reviews the impacts of the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the PRC’s SMEs, evaluating the policy measures for coping with the crisis at that time and summa...

In an assessment of software process improvement (SPI) in 15 software smalland –medium-sized enterprises (software SMEs), we applied the broad spectrum of software specific and system context processes in ISO/IEC 12207 to the task of examining SPI in practice. Using the data collected in the study, we developed a four-tiered pyramidal hierarchy of SPI for software SMEs, with processes in the hi...

Globalization of the economy, e-business, and introduction of new technologies pose new challenges to all organizations especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this scenario, successful implementation of supply chain management (SCM) can give SMEs an edge over their competitors. However, SMEs in India and other developing countries face problems in SCM implementation due to lack ...

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector make a significant contribution to economic growth, yet most of the research into innovation management in the manufacturing sector has focused on large organizations. This article, however, identifies innovation drivers and their performance implications in manufacturing SMEs. Its study gathered survey data from a sample of 600 Aus...

This empirical study investigates the influence of organisational size, internal IT capabilities and external factors, such as competitive and vendor pressure, on ERP adoption within SMEs. Existing research on ERP adoption has indentified some of the potential factors affecting SMEs, such as organisation size as one of the most significant ones. Yet none of this previous research has looked at ...