El sector automotriz es una de las actividades importantes en la economía ecuatoriana, principalmente por su aporte en recaudación de impuestos y en generación de empleo directo e indirecto. Este ...sector tiene alta cantidad de micro y pequeñas empresas dedicadas principalmente a prestar servicios de mantenimiento. La investigación se realiza con el objetivo de caracterizar la administración de la calidad que ejecutan estas organizaciones, la que no ha sido analizada anteriormente, para proponer un modelo genérico de gestión de calidad. La investigación es exploratoria-descriptiva y se realiza con un enfoque cualitativo a partir de entrevistas, considerando un universo de 41 empresas que cumplen con las características predefinidas en un sector del norte de Quito, de las que se tomó una muestra de 13 empresas. Los resultados permiten identificar falencias en los procesos de dirección, gestión de recursos, comprensión del mercado, desarrollo de productos, consecución y entrega de pedidos, atención al cliente, evaluación y mejora. A pesar de lo anterior, las empresas sí tienen ciertas prácticas de calidad que están orientadas por la búsqueda de la satisfacción y fidelización del cliente. Con esta base se propone un modelo general, sustentado en la norma ISO 9001, para que las empresas cumplan con las condiciones principales de un sistema de gestión de calidad.
Purpose
– The paper aims to describe the key role of creativity at Moving Pixels, a small Indian media company.
Design/methodology/approach
– It charts the rise of the company and its organizational ...culture. It also emphasizes the importance of informality, openness and respect.
Findings
– It reveals that each member of the five-strong team is prepared to work long hours in exchange for feeling to be a part of the business and respected by its owner.
Practical implications
– It highlights the hands-on approach of the company owner and how closely he works with employees on individual projects.
Social implications
– It concedes that the culture of long working hours can take its toll on employees’ personal lives.
Originality/value
– It considers the workings of a small Indian media company.
This study investigates the link between the auditing and filing choices made by a sample of 592 small private companies, which includes 419 micro-companies. It examines decisions made in connection ...with the 2006 accounts following UK's adoption of the maximum EU size thresholds in 2004, and the impact of the proposed Directive on the annual accounts of micro-companies. The research extends the model of cost, management and agency factors associated with voluntary audit, and develops a complementary model for voluntary full accounts. The results show the benefits of placing full audited accounts on public record that outweigh the costs for a significant proportion of companies. In non-micro small companies, voluntary audit is determined by cost and agency factors, whereas in micro-companies it is driven by cost, management and agency factors. In both groups, the predictors of voluntary full accounts include management and agency factors, and choosing voluntary audit is one of the key factors. The study provides models that can be tested in other jurisdictions to provide evidence of the needs of micro-companies, and the discussion of the methodological challenges for small company researchers in the UK makes further contribution to the literature.
Objective: This article analyzes the innovation, management technologies and the dimensions and components of technological capacity as success factors and perennity in micro and small companies and ...organizational excellence in public organizations.Methodology/Approach: Data were extracted from secondary sources in the literature. In the field, the universe was of 1.700 industrial companies, 15.112 of service delivery companies, 16 hospitals and 03 universities, with stratified random samples and for accessibility. The data received statistical treatment: descriptive analysis, levene test of homogeneity of variances and variance analysis, correlation test, regression, and multiple correlation.Originality/Relevance: Integrated sustainability administration model, as a management technology, emerges as an innovation alternative for private and public organizations, which, together with the dimensions and components of technological capacity, expands the perspectives of organizational development and market competitiveness.Main results: In the empirical analysis, it suggests that innovation and management technologies combined with the competent dimensions of technological capacity, favor organizational development, the success and perennity of micro and small industrial and service delivery companies, and organizational excellence in public organizations.Theoretical/methodological contributions: This study contributes to literature of innovation field, management technologies, dimensions, and components of technological capacity to academia.Social/management contributions: The use of management technologies combined with the dimensions and components of technological capacity in micro and small industrial companies and public organizations, impacts on sustainable management and social development.
Las micro y pequeñas empresas en el Perú tienen dificultades para acceder a los servicios financieros, en ese sentido, una solución a este problema es que exista un régimen concursal propio para ...estas empresas que otorgue una mayor expectativa de cobro a sus acreedores a diferencia del sistema concursal tradicional, toda vez que el acceso a los servicios que ofrecen los intermediarios financieros deviene en esencial para la estabilidad y progreso del sector.
This paper is a study on corporate communication and the ability to innovate in small businesses. The guiding question seeks to respond whether organizational communication is able to make progress ...and / or support innovation in micro and small companies, and the main objective is to analyze the relationship between innovation and organizational communication. It was applied the case study method and document research for interpreting a diagnosis instru- ment called “Innovation Radar” in a small business company located in the countryside of São Paulo state. The diagnosis is made based on assessment dimensions aimed at checking the maturity and the degree of innovation in micro and small companies. By evaluating these di- mensions it was possible to build analytical frameworks and highlight the influence of corporate communication in promoting innovation. The results indicate that every dimension of the “In- novation Radar” can improve their performance by means of corporate communication.
This paper examines factors affecting the owner-manager's voluntary decision to hire an auditor in small firms. Using a random sample of 412 small private companies in Finland responding to an ...Internet survey, we first probe the institutional boundaries of a prior UK study Collis, J., Jarvis, R., and Skerratt, L., 2004. The demand for the audit in small companies in the UK. Accounting and business research, 34 (2), 87-100 and conclude that its main findings can be generalised to a different regulatory setting (Finland) typical of many Continental European countries. Second, we broaden the prior research by testing new hypotheses regarding the drivers of an audit among small companies. We hypothesise and find evidence that outsourcing of critical accounting functions creates information asymmetry between the owner-manager and the external accountant, which may arouse the need for monitoring the external accountant through a voluntary audit. In addition, we find, as hypothesised, that tax advisory services provided by the external accountant reduce the likelihood of a voluntary audit. Moreover, we hypothesise that receiving a qualified opinion from the auditor reduces the likelihood of hiring an auditor voluntarily, whereas firms experiencing financial distress would be more willing to have their financial statements audited. We find evidence consistent with these hypotheses.
Purpose
– The purpose of the study is to create an initial understanding of how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services based on the research question ...considering “which different actor takes part in small companies’ service development processes in order giving access to the resources needed and what roles do they play?”
Design/methodology/approach
– Due to the lack of previous studies within the area, the focus in this study has been to use a qualitative method to reach a deeper insight about how small companies’ service development could be described, as seen from an actor’s perspective.
Findings
– Based on the empirical analysis, the study identifies seven main categories of actors who were involved in the service-development process that contributes with different types of resources and their role varies during the development process. The actors and their roles are presented in a model giving initial understanding how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services.
Research limitations/implications
– Using a qualitative approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Instead, the findings should be seen as an initial starting point for further studies.
Practical implications
– The paper’s highlight a number of actor roles that need to be handled to create possibilities for small companies’ service development.
Originality/value
– The paper fills a research gap in the service innovation research. Traditionally, this research has been focused on larger companies, with a focus on what happens inside the companies.
The concept of staff sizing aims to estimate or determine the ideal or optimal number of people needed to perform some organizational activities, which can be considered as a trend. So, models for ...staff sizing constitute a fundamental part of accurately identifying staff allocation. The objective of this paper is to propose a framework for decision-making based on Data Envelopment Analysis–DEA, to estimate the staff sizing in a Brazilian entity responsible for promoting and supporting the competitiveness and sustainable development of micro and small enterprises. Data collection was carried out in the headquarters of the entity, located in Brasilia. Firstly, interviews were carried with managers in order to assess qualitatively the needs of staff for each service unit. Secondly, the documental analysis of reports from 21 units was analyzed quantitatively in order to determine their efficiency in terms of staff sizing. The results found through DEA show that only three service units can be considered efficient in terms of staff sizing. Thus, there is a need to reduce the number of workers in most of the organization. In this context, the contributions for the entity lie in the discussion on the creation of quantitative indicators and the adoption of an efficiency analysis, which can be used to better estimate or determine the optimal quantity of staff. This paper innovates by proposing a quantitative and systematized approach to estimate the staff sizing, which is the DEA.
Organizations have been taking advantage of e-business as an innovative opportunity to improve business results, but small companies have not been adopting this tool as quickly as large corporations. ...There are several studies on the adoption of e-business in developed countries, but there are fewer studies in emerging Latin American countries. Thus, the goal of this study was to describe the business model of small companies that have adopted e-business (an innovation to this segment) in an emerging Latin American country. For that, we used a quantitative approach trough a survey data. Main results: the owners/shareholders play a central role in making decisions about the adoption of e-business; the main value delivered from using the internet was improved brand and/or product awareness. The companies using e-business achieved increase in business and an expanded geographic scope of sales. The main difficulties encountered were training personnel to work on the internet and defining which web activities can lead to achieve strategic objectives.
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