Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) provide small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with an option to create and exploit strategic opportunities. Prior investment in ICT infrastructure can lead to follow-up decisions to adopt new ICT services, but there is no guarantee that SMEs...

This paper argues that a definition of small business is important for both research and governmental policy. A chronological history of definitions is discussed along with their limitations. A new definition of small business is advocated when a business has personal guarantees and has no...

A fundamental understanding of small businesses begins with an adequate definition of what constitutes a small business. Often the definition of a small business incorporates the definitions employed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) which, in part, uses the number of employees as the...

Different countries may have a common interest in the endeavor to build strong clusters or to boost the cooperation between clusters within a specific region. They can use the same specialized research infrastructure and same testing capabilities; they can also encourage cross-border transfer of...

Although traditional economy more SMEs seem to be effective only run on intuition, judgments and experience, without recourse to another information system than the one represented by some accounting data as mandatory (Dupuy, 1987) , the frequent absence of these tools can explain more...

The objectives of the evaluation are to assess Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ)'s relevance vis-à-vis its mandate, its effectiveness in achieving development goals, its efficiency in delivering products, and the sustainability of both projects and the "business model" supported by the...

Esta edición de Microempresa incluye un artículo que analiza el Nuevo Acuerdo de Capital (conocido como Basilea II) que busca promover buenas prácticas en la administración de riesgo por parte de intermediarios financieros, una regulación y supervisión más efectiva y la promoción de...

En esta edición de Microempresa se presentan dos artículos principales. El primero examina el ingreso de los bancos comunales a la corriente principal de instituciones de servicios financieros. El número de clientes de banca comunal supera ahora el de los clientes de préstamos solidarios....

With new ties linking microfinance to capital markets, this edition of MicroEnterprise Americas describes new experiences with bonds that sector institutions have issued, as well as investment funds that have been established to focus solely on microfinance. Both serve to illustrate the...

This strategy document, which was expanded and edited based on comments received through the two periods of the public consultation process, lays out a diagnosis of the key challenges facing development through the private sector and proposes five general areas for IDB intervention. Given the...