Due to the vital importance of SMEs in developed economies worldwide, this book aims to provide a unique and much-needed investigation into the underlying mechanisms and practices of management within these companies by collecting a wide range of original conceptual and empirical research in the topical area of management in SMEs and new ventures.
Collecting work from dozens of leading scholars in fields ranging from management and entrepeneurship to human resource management and strategy, this book aims to supply readers with an overview of the field of research in management of SMEs and new ventures as well as in depth knowledge on a variety of related topics. The essays collected here are focused and practical, offering a variety of explicit and pragmatic recommendations for action and developing new tools and strategies useful to scholars and students as well as practitioners working in the field of SME and new venture management and consulting.
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Strategic Planning and Management 1. Pre-Startup Planning Sophistication and its Impact on New Venture Performance in Germany (Reinhard Schulte) 2. Short-term planning sophistication in SMEs: The Relationship with Strategy and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty (Ann Jorissen, Anne-Mie Reheul, Eddy Laveren and Rudy Martens) 3. Strategic Management in the German 'Mittelstand' - An Empirical Investigation (Klaus Deimel, Sascha Kraus and Sebastian Reiche) 4. Explorative Research on Strategic Management Competence in the Small and Medium Sized Growth Firms in the South Ostrobotnia Region in inland (Marko Kohtamäki, Erno Tornikoski, Elina Varamäki and Teemu Kautonen) Part II: Human Resource Management 5. The Impact Of Human Capital On The Sustainability and Growth of Entrepreneurial Ventures (George Solomon, William Dennis and David Tomczyk) 6. HRM in SMEs - Linking Embedded HR-Practices to Performance and Employee Wellbeing (Essi Saru) 7. Human Resource Management in Small New Zealand Firms: The Following or Flouting of Good Practice? (Kate Lewis and Claire Massey) 8. Entrepreneurial Management of Labour Market Constraints and Human Resources (Colin Gray) 9. Human Resource Management in SMEs: Empirical Results from Poland (Janusz Struzyna, Tomasz Ingram and Sascha Kraus) 10. Tasks of Human Resource Departments in Austrian SMEs (Julia Brandl and Matthias Fink) Part III: Entrepreneurial Teams 11. Defining Entrepreneurial Teams and Modelling Entrepreneurial Team Performance (Leon Schjoedt) 12. Reasons for Management Teams and Team Formation in Small Firms (Sanna Tihula and Jari Huovinen) 13. Familiness in New Venture Teams (Daniela Almer-Jarz and Erich J. Schwarz) 14. Founder Team Interaction in Young Software Ventures and its Effects on Customer and Competitor Orientation (Thilo A. Mueller and Hans-Georg Gemünden) Part IV: Experience, Learning and Innovation 15. Systematic Innovation Management and the Genesis of Follow-up Innovation in New Technology Based Ventures (Rainer Harms and Thomas Meierkord) 16. Market Experience or External Knowledge? - Types and Sources of Knowledge Used by Internationalising SMEs (Margaret Fletcher, Marion Jones and Lucrezia Casulli) 17. Are Entrepreneurial Opportunities Recognized or Constructed? An Information Perspective on Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification (Ivan P. Vaghely and Pierre-André Julien) 18. The Role of Adaptation and Learning of Entrepreneurs in Managing Outsourcing Relationships (Miroslav Rebernik and Barbara Bradac)
About the Author :
Matthias Fink is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship at the Vienna University of Economics & Business Administration, Austria. His research is funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (APART - Austrian Program for Advanced Research and Technology). Furthermore, he is Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Co-operation and Co-operatives (RiCC) and Asc. Member of the Strategy, Networks and Enterprise Research Group at the University of Vaasa, Finland. Besides, Prof. Fink is Executive Vice-President of the Institute for Management Research Cologne (IMFK e.V.), a German-based research institute.
Sascha Kraus is Assistant Professor for Entrepreneurship at the University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein. He is also Extraordinary Professor at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, Associate Senior Researcher at the Vienna University of Economics & Business Administration (RiCC), Austria and Associate Member at the Newcastle University's Centre for Knowledge, Innovation, Technology & Enterprise, UK. Before his current positions, he was Evald and Hilda Nissi Foundation International Fellow at the University of Vaasa, Finland and Substitute Professor at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria. Professor Kraus is also Executive Vice-President of the Institute for Management Research Cologne (IMFK e.V.), a research institute based in Germany.
