Suchergebnisse

The role of Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a source of employment opportunities and innovation in our local and regional territories is well known. However, the SMEs must face different challenges due to the dynamic context in which they are operating and the global competition. In this direction public policies are trying to support the SMEs competitiveness and innovation, through different instruments and programmes managed at national and regional level or thematic funding opportunities. In this context, several studies focused on monitoring the impacts of public support programs on turnover, investments and innovation activities in SMEs have been conducted, showing as there are general positive effects for the SMEs participating in these programs. The contribution of this paper is to identify the existing literature on the impacts of the financial support programs on SMEs, analysing the contribution of practitioners and academics and empirical researches. Literature available from 2002 to the present have been analysed using Web of Science and Scopus and using the databases available on European Commission website. Preliminary findings have shown as there is the need of a deeper investigation about the participation in EU programmes and the main contributions derive from the researchers conducted by practitioners. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The role of Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a source of employment opportunities and innovation in our local and regional territories is well known. However, the SMEs must face different challenges due to the dynamic context in which they are operating and the global competition. In this direction public policies are trying to support the SMEs competitiveness and innovation, through different instruments and programmes managed at national and regional level or thematic funding opportunities. In this context, several studies focused on monitoring the impacts of public support programs on turnover, investments and innovation activities in SMEs have been conducted, showing as there are general positive effects for the SMEs participating in these programs. The contribution of this paper is to identify the existing literature on the impacts of the financial support programs on SMEs, analysing the contribution of practitioners and academics and empirical researches. Literature available from 2002 to the present have been analysed using Web of Science and Scopus and using the databases available on European Commission website. Preliminary findings have shown as there is the need of a deeper investigation about the participation in EU programmes and the main contributions derive from the researchers conducted by practitioners.

AbstractIn today's global markets, issues related to environmental sustainability, ethics, working environment conditions and safety, stakeholders' relations and the protection of workers' rights have greater importance on business performances. For this reason, the aim of this research is to analyze the concept of corporate social responsibility, investigating the perception of Italian companies about Social Accountability 8000, a voluntary International Standard used as a tool to certify companies' commitment on social aspects. The survey began September 15, 2016 and answers were accepted until November 15, 2016. Two hundred twenty‐one Italian SA8000 certified companies participated to the survey reaching a response rate of 20.4%. Using a questionnaire submitted to certified companies, the main reasons which have driven companies to certification have been investigated, highlighting that the motivations which drive companies to be certified are both of an internal and external type: an improved image is the first, followed by the willingness to have a better working environment. Among the experienced benefits resulted from the study there are 'reduction of labor conflicts' and 'achievement of a competitive advantage over competitors', while limitations seem to be scarcely perceived and are defined especially by the lack of staff and management training. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

AbstractThe Environmental Management System (EMS) became a critical success factor in order to compete on the market. The aim of this study is to investigate how companies that have implemented an EMS based on the ISO 14001:2015 certification have perceived the changes due to the revision of the standard. The research was conducted through the administration of a questionnaire to 1,508 Italian ISO 14001 certified companies. Two hundred and eighty‐four companies constituting the sample of our study. As main benefits achieved by surveyed companies we highlight, risk prevention, better management of environmental activities, and creation of new targets for reducing energy and waste. As main barriers to ISO 14001 implementation we highlight, increased bureaucracy, increased complexity of environmental procedures and difficulty in increasing employee environmental awareness. The main contribution of this research is given by the analysis on how companies have dealt with the changes required by the new version of the standard.