Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards--as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success. But finding the right business to buy and closing the deal isn't always easy. In the 'HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business,' Harvard Business School professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff help you: Determine if this path is right for you; Raise capital for your acquisition; Find and evaluate the right prospects; Avoid the pitfalls that could derail your search; Understand why a 'dull' business might be the best investment; Negotiate a potential deal with the seller; Avoid deals that fall through at the last minute\" -- Provided by publisher.

Reprendre ou transmettre une entreprise avec succès nécessite une préparation minutieuse. C'est la conviction majeure des auteurs de cet ouvrage, Pierre Bernes, Stéphane Dantinne, Sébastien Dossogne, André Kilesse, Charles Van Wymeersch et Eric De Keuleneer. Dans leurs domaines respectifs, ils sont tous spécialistes de cette question. Des milliers de petites et moyennes entreprises seront à remettre dans les prochaines années. Il sera capital pour notre économie de leur donner un nouvel élan. Conscients de cette réalité, les auteurs fournissent au candidat repreneur ou vendeur des conseils pratiques en ciblant les priorités essentielles au bon déroulement de ce passage de témoin. Qu'ils soient vendeurs ou repreneurs, les entrepreneurs et leurs conseillers trouveront dans cet ouvrage des clés utiles et pragmatiques pour réussir leur démarche, la sécuriser, l'humaniser et la dynamiser.

PurposeIn this paper, the authors seek to contribute to the supply chain digitalisation literature by investigating a potential dark side of supply chain digitalisation from the viewpoint of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers, namely digital capability asymmetry and the partner opportunism of more digitally capable large buyers against SME suppliers. The authors seek to contribute further to the governance literature by investigating the effectiveness of the governance mechanism (legal contracts and relational contracts) in suppressing partner opportunism of this nature.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data collected from 125 Korean SMEs, the authors employed a hierarchical regression method to test a set of hypotheses focussing on the dark side of supply chain digitalisation and the effectiveness of the governance mechanism.FindingsThe study’s findings suggest that supplier-perceived digital capability asymmetry, wherein a buyer has a superior digital capability than its SME supplier, increases the SME supplier's dependence on the more digitally capable buyer, with the result that it is more exposed to buyer opportunism. Moreover, the results suggest that only relational governance is effective in protecting SME suppliers from buyer opportunism of this nature.Originality/valueSo far, the overwhelming majority of supply chain digitalisation research has debated its “bright side”. On the contrary, from the resource dependence theory perspective, this paper explains its dark side by providing empirical evidence on (1) the links between supplier-perceived digital capability asymmetry and a buyer's opportunism through an increased supplier's dependence and (2) the effectiveness of different types of governance in opportunism suppression.

This study investigates the relationship between regulatory policies governing public procurement and participation by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), using a large dataset on European procurement. We find that better quality procurement regulation is associated with greater SME participation and higher probability that SMEs win contracts. Dividing contracts into smaller lots, a key feature of 2014 EU procurement regulation reform, bolsters participation by SMEs but only increases the probability of SMEs winning contracts for small value lots (€25,000 or less). Our results suggest governments seeking to enhance participation by SMEs in public procurement without explicitly favoring SMEs can do so by improving the overall quality of procurement processes.

This study investigates whether public procurement mitigates or exacerbates innovative enterprises’ financial constraints. We distinguish between general and environmentally beneficial innovative enterprises. Theory suggests that the treatment effects of public procurement, particularly when mediated by the demand-pull effect, may lower a company’s funding constraints for innovation. We test this theory with extended probit models allowing for endogenous treatment and selection. The findings reveal a significantly positive treatment effect of public procurement on the probability of facing financial constraints in both areas: general and environmentally beneficial innovative activities. Thus, the principal implications of this study are (1) that being an innovating SME exacerbates financial constraints and (2) that strengthening SMEs’ participation in European public tenders would not contribute to lowering SMEs’ financial constraints. On the contrary, complementary grants or other financial incentives might be necessary to substantially increase the SMEs’ bidding rates in public tenders.Plain English SummaryPublic procurement incre ases the chance of innovative firms, in particular SMEs, to face financial constraints. This study investigates whether public procurement mitigates or exacerbates financial constraints of enterprises with general or environmentally beneficial innovative activities. The principal implication is that owning a public procurement contract is no instrument to lower innovative firms’, in particular SMEs’, financial constraints. On the contrary, complementary grants or other financial incentives might be necessary to substantially increase the SMEs’ bidding rates in a public tender.

In this article, the researchers explore the following question. Can corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the corporate reputation of a firm lead to its brand equity in business-to-business (B2B) markets? This study discusses CSR from customers' viewpoints by taking the sample of industrial purchasers from Taiwan small-medium enterprises. The aims of this study are to investigate: first, the effects of CSR and corporate reputation on industrial brand equity; second, the effects of CSR, corporate reputation, and brand equity on brand performance; and third, the mediating effects of corporate reputation and industrial brand equity on the relationship between CSR and brand performance. Empirical results support the study's hypotheses and indicate that CSR and corporate reputation have positive effects on industrial brand equity and brand performance. In addition, corporate reputation and industrial brand equity partially mediate the relationship between CSR and brand performance.

RIS3 is a policy initiative aiming to achieve structural change. Structural change needs to consider the processes and means through which (innovation) policies can facilitate a radical transformation by substantially changing a regional economy’s competitive bases. In this paper, we are interested in studying how certain policy instruments are actually implemented, and how the capabilities required for their effective rollout are built in practice. In particular, we focus on public procurement as a policy instrument that can foster regional innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth, while also transforming the industrial structure of a territory. The rationale for focusing on public procurement is threefold: (i) despite being identified as one of the relevant policy instruments to implement RIS3, little is yet known about how public procurement can be used for higher-order political purposes such as innovation-based diversification and transformation; (ii) public procurement remains an underexplored policy tool in sub-national innovation strategies; and (iii) public procurement links to the two key concerns of RIS3, namely, policy prioritization and the entrepreneurial discovery process. The paper provides evidence on two public procurement initiatives in Galicia (Spain), one in health and the other in unmanned aerial vehicles. We adopt a mixed-method approach, relying on a qualitative exploration of the factors leading to the institutionalization of public procurement in policy-making. Our results evidence that innovation-oriented public procurement has the potential to develop local priorities and strategies while also creating the necessary capabilities on both supply and demand. As a result, it can lead to the territorial transformation and to the emergence and further development of entrepreneurial firms. Public procurement can foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth while transforming the industrial structure, but… how to roll it out for its effectively? The paper provides the following implications for the practice of innovation policy. For an effective implementation, governments need to adopt a mission orientation that addresses grand challenges and provides directionality to the policy. It is also necessary to mobilize financial resources from supranational, national, and regional funds, what requires coordination and multi-level governance. When governments lack previous experience in innovation policy, they can conduct trial-and-error experiments that facilitate policy learning and lead to the development of capabilities, both on the demand and supply side. This experimentation should follow open innovation approaches by incorporating end-users, to open up policy definition to societal actors. At the same time, this facilitates the development of early market conversations that help to better frame the policy, institutionalize the policy definition process, and gain internal legitimacy. Policies also should seek for creating positive spillovers and knowledge transfer between large and small firms.

The paper aims to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on working capital management policies among Polish small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs). The results show that the firms adopted a moderate-conservative strategy for their working capital management. Moreover, the evidence confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis did not change Working Capital Management (WCM) strategies significantly. The companies that have high financial security as a result of the high ratio of Liquidity, Quick, and cash conversion cycle (CCC) have tried to attract more new customers in the market by increasing the due date of accounts receivable so they can improve their sales performance, and also reduce the liabilities turnover to be able to work with more suppliers in the market. Moreover, among the various WCM strategies, the companies with a higher CCC ratio, along with those whose bulk of current assets consisted of accounts receivable and short-term investments, managed to have higher sales returns. Finally, our outcomes indicate that the firms operating in large cities have lower sales returns, meaning even Polish small and medium-sized enterprises' ability within GPOs with the aid of the central unit can also get high return on sales (ROS) results.

Entrepreneurs worldwide often face obstacles in financing their businesses, hindering their ability to grow. Government procurement offers an opportunity to access lucrative contracts and benefit from a procurement auditing process that could enhance access to finance. Likewise, externally audited financial statements can enhance credibility and lessen financing hurdles. We examine whether government procurement contracts and external audit certifications jointly influence financing access and whether ownership, size, and firm age matter. We find that access to finance is more likely to be an obstacle to the operations of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with government procurement contracts than those without such contracts, regardless of whether they seek external audit certification. Additionally, the effect of external audit certification on the likelihood of access to finance being an obstacle to SME operations reduces sharply with foreign ownership, size, and age for SMEs involved in government procurement. We also find that the impact of government procurement contracts reverses for SMEs in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Our findings have policy implications, especially with the growing implementation of affirmative action programs to promote the involvement of SMEs in government procurement. Plain English Summary Obstacles to financing inhibit the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises globally. SMEs must weigh the cost and benefits of seeking government procurement contracts to improve their cash flows and engaging external auditors to certify their financial statements. Our results show that SMEs with access to government procurement contracts are less likely to cite access to finance as an obstacle to their operations, but only in low- and lower-middle-income countries. External audit certification does not influence access to financing for SMEs. The principal implication of this study is that the opportunity for SMEs to access the public procurement system in developing countries reduces financing obstacles and thereby helps to facilitate growth.