In many developing countries the skill base is a cause of concern with respect to international competition. Firm-provided training is generally seen as an important tool for bridging the skills gap between labour force and private sector demand. Yet little is known about how successful such...

In the absence of adequate institutional mechanisms, trade unions can potentially promote higher wages and other worker benefits, yet limited data availability means little is known about the effect unions have on individual earnings in developing economies. Using matched employer-employee data...

Using matched worker-firm data from three waves of the Viet Nam Small and Medium Enterprises data, we examine whether workers are compensated with higher wages for working in vulnerable jobs and unfavourable working conditions. Wage equations indicate that there are no clear compensating...

Existing cluster policies, which are being implemented in some developing countries, tend to be directive and inflexible; moreover, artificial clusterization may lead to suppression of SME in a region and to decrease in social welfare. Therefore, cluster strategy modernization is of a great...

Korean small businesses have come a long way as sources of industrial power more important than heretofore credited. The nation's undemocratic dirigisme had largely slighted small businesses to the country's disadvantage. Although the government's policy bias against them started to change in...

There is no universally accepted definition of a cluster. Experts in different regions of the world, however, have defined cluster as per respective national economies. Porter (2003) defines a cluster as a 'geographically proximate group of interconnected companies, suppliers, service providers...

The paper explores how business continuity management (BCM) is defined within the professional and academic communities that work in the field or research it. It sets out the framework for the composing elements of a BCM that emerge and considers how these various elements can interact with each...

The paper deals with the local networks and/or European clusters (the SMEs networking at local level and clustering at the European level). It focuses on ‘steps’ towards clustering and networking SMEs in the frame of a public involvement and/or sensitization process. SMEs’ capacity...

The research is based on the empirical survey conducted among the members of Estonian Association of SMEs. The study involved goal setting, development and implementation of strategies, competitive advantages striven for, orientation toward growth, and factors hindering enterprisesí...