The relationship between large enterprises (LEs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Japan has undergone major changes during the long-term recession since 1991. While SMEs still play the important role of supplying parts and components to LEs through subcontracting, many LEs have started...

Development of village, micro and small enterprises in India has a special significance with regard to bridging up the disparities between urban and rural sectors of the economy on the one hand and the more industrialized and the less industrialized states on the other. It would also channelize...

Ugandan micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) still perform poorly. The paper utilizes data collected in Uganda in March and April 2003 to analyze the business constraints faced by these MSEs. Using a stratified random sampling, a sample of 265 MSEs were interviewed. The study focuses on the 105...

We organized business associations for the owner-managers of young Chinese firms to study the effect of business networks on firm performance. We randomized 2,820 firms into small groups whose managers held monthly meetings for one year, and into a “no-meetings” control group. We find the...

This paper investigates the link between innovation and export market participation using Australian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) data. The results show that export and innovation are positively linked. Depending on the industry and the type of innovation (process or product), innovation...

Der internationale Waren- und Dienstleistungshandel hat für deutsche KMU eine große Bedeutung. Die Ausfuhren und Einfuhren sind im letzten Jahrzehnt tendenziell ebenso gestiegen wie die Anzahl international aktiver Unternehmen. Im Jahr 2010 waren mindestens 345.000 KMU als Exporteure und...

This study sheds light on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing and its performance in Thailand. It elaborates on the key sources of finance existing for Thai manufacturing SMEs and their importance for SME performance as measured by technical efficiency, export performance, and...

There exists a growing body of literature which looks at export decisions made by firms. Most studies focus on developed countries and do not explore whether different behavioral patterns prevail over the firm size distribution. This paper aims at filling this gap in the literature by analyzing...

The import competition literature suggests that Chinese industrial policies and technological trends have altered the nature of competition with China so that it does not take place on a level playing field anymore. Empirical evidence about firms' reactions in developed economies to competition...

This is pioneering research in that it makes a comparison of the process of convergence of long-run profits in the manufacturing sector of six European countries (2000-12), differentiating between SMEs and large firms, and by identifying the impact of the crisis on this process. The results...