Recent challenges such like climate, demographic, political, economy and market changes are the foundation for the establishment of the Regional Cooperative Westerkwartier (RCW) in the Northern Netherlands. This RCW is managing a vast range of regional programs and projects developed by multi-stakeholder …

This chapter diagnoses the situation of high-tech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Eindhoven Brainport region in the south of the Netherlands, based on desk research and additional background interviews. This region has an ecosystem with a very proliferated heritage of technology-based companies …

Finding purchase activity patterns in Small & Medium Enterprises in a research program to enable SMEs to improve their purchase and company performance. Posterpresentatie KCO conferentie, 16 november 2015.

This survey is about recognizing patterns in the way Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) organize their procurement activities. The scope of the survey is limited to the key commodities of the SME. A key commodity is defined as the purchased product or service group which is essential for realizing the …

The regional office of the Royal Association MKB-Nederland, the largest entrepreneurs’ organisation in the Netherlands, MKB-Nederland Noord asked us if we could support small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SME’s) in the North of the Netherlands to fulfill social conditions in public procurement. SME’s …

Construction industries in New Zealand and abroad have a low track record for successful sustainable innovations. This often has a negative impact on private and government spending, and on quality, society and the environment. This paper posits that the construction industry needs step-change (i.e. …

Miller, Le Breton-Miller and Scholnick (2008) summarize and discuss two major perspectives constructed from the literature on family owned businesses (FOBs): stewardship and stagnation theory. In this paper the stagnation theory is being put to the test on Dutch small/medium enterprises (SMEs). According …

The complexity of Information Technology (IT) is increasing; so are customer expectations. Consequently it is not easy for especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to keep track of all IT-developments, let alone leverage them in business operations with the aim to satisfy increasingly demanding …

The „Ageing of Europe‟ phenomenon is related to a higher life expectancy of European inhabitants as well as to decreasing fertility and mortality rates. Those developments affect small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) because the number of older workers in SMEs is increasing too. Our research investigates …

Aims: identify and explain purchasing-oriented patterns in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) via case study research. Scope: Using a conceptual framework and empirical research this article proposes a series of purchasing-oriented patterns in SMEs. These patterns align activities to achieve the …