Call for papers: "Strategic Choices, Capital Structure, Innovative and Financial Performance of European SMEs"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

In the current context of economic crisis, globalisation, increasing competition and the rise of the development of new technologies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are forced more and more to reformulate their strategies, in particular, with regard to innovation and funding strategies (Rossi et al., 2012; Santoro et al., 2016). In fact, investments in R&D are crucial for European SMEs linking firm's innovation with growth and performances (De Faria and Mendonça, 2011). “However, funding strategies are often unbalanced towards traditional debt instruments and are more undifferentiated considering the final objectives of the investment." (Bresciani, 2010; Ferraris, 2013).

Thus, in order to increase competitiveness and to achieve better financial performance, there is a need to carefully investigate the critical factors of success and/or failure, and the strategies adopted by firms and their capital structure (Rossi et al., 2014). At the same time, SMEs have been forced to pay attention to the way the management is affected by the increasing importance of knowledge assets (Del Giudice et al., 2010; Del Giudice, 2011). As a result, knowledge management orientation influences the overall strategy of SMEs mainly with regard to innovative and financial aspects and choices.

We welcome qualitative as well as quantitative and mixed methodologies, as long as this is well grounded in the literature (Dana and Dana, 2005; Dana and Dumez, 2015). Thus, this special issue solicits high-quality papers presenting original research results on European SMEs.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Financial structure and the impact on performance
• Family business and innovation
• Knowledge management and performance
• R&D and funding strategies
• New financial sources for SMEs
• Knowledge, strategy and innovation outcomes
• Open innovation strategy and knowledge management

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 March, 2017
Notification to authors: 30 June, 2017
Final versions due: 31 August, 2017

References:

Bresciani, S. (2010). Innovation within firms: a survey in the Piedmont area. International Journal of Quality and Innovation, 1(2), 138-152.

Dana, L.P. & Dana, T.E. (2005) "Expanding the Scope of Methodologies Used in Entrepreneurship Research," International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Small Business 2 (1), 2005, pp. 79-88.

Dana, L.P. & Dumez, H. (2015) "Qualitative Research Revisited: Epistemology of a Comprehensive Approach," International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Small Business 26 (2), October 2015, pp. 154-170.

De Faria, P., & Mendonça, J. (2011). Innovation strategy by firms: Do innovative firms grow more? International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 12(2), 173-184.

Del Giudice, M. (2011). Knowledge Management and Family Business. In Knowledge and the Family Business (pp. 11-46). Springer New York.

Del Giudice, M., Della Peruta, M. R., & Carayannis, E. G. (2010). Knowledge and the family business: the governance and management of family firms in the new knowledge economy. Springer Science & Business Media.

Ferraris, A. (2013). Innovative Capacity of Italian Manufacturing Firms. Management, 3(3), 174-183.

Rossi, M., Vrontis, D., & Thrassou, A. (2012). Wine business in a changing competitive environment-strategic and financial choices of Campania wine firms. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 8(1), 112-130.

Rossi, M., Vrontis, D., & Thrassou, A. (2014). Agro Business in a Changing Competitive Environment-Campania firms' strategic, marketing and financial choices. World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development 5, 10(2-3), 312-333.

Santoro, G., Ferraris, A., Giacosa, E., & Giovando, G. (2016). How SMEs Engage in Open Innovation: a Survey. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 1-14.