Key factors that hinder SMEs in succeeding in today’s knowledge-based economy

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development

Volumn 2, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 141-158

  Wickramansinghe, Nilmini ^a   Sharma, Sushil K ^b  

^a Clevelend State University   (United States)

^b BALL STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

digital economy; information age; knowledge assets; SMEs; value proposition

Indexed keywords

EID: 84952956701     PISSN: 14684330     EISSN: 17418127     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2005.006308     Document Type: Article

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45. We conducted ourselves where we applied a survey instrument in addition to personal interactions and interviews with business executives of SMEs. For the purposes of our study, an SME was defined in accordance with the EU definition as firms with less than 250 full-time employees. Detailed structured as well as semi-structured interviews were conducted involving business executives from the sample of SMEs. Two different kinds of data were collected through structured questionnaires, and interviews were analysed using standard techniques of thematic analysis (Kavale, 1996). The sample consisted of 100 SMEs. E-mails along with structured questionnaires were sent to approximately 500 different SMEs.