This book offers a new interpretative key, which we call 'a stage and eclectic approach', to the development of clusters. This approach supports public efforts to increase the effectiveness of policy-making and development operations in local contexts

Explores the idea that Europe's growth problems may be caused by weaknesses in capital markets and in the access to risk capital. It addresses the evaluation of the financial needs and constraints of start-up firms and how these might be bridged. The role of public sector intervention is...

This anthology aims to explain why some Nordic shipping companies became world leaders while others failed to respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of globalization. The authors analyse political and institutional patterns alongside the various corporate responses to the many...

This book explores how the venture capital sector supports growth and development of SMEs. The text draws from major international empirical studies in Indian and Islamic industries to analyse techniques used by venture capitalists to value, structure and monitor investments. This book is...

Introducing the fundamentals of retail credit risk management, this book provides a broad and applied investigation of the related modeling theory and methods, and explores the interconnections of risk management, by focusing on retail and the constant reference to the implications of the...

This book analyses and confronts the functioning of guarantee systems for SMEs in countries where these schemes had an important development. The book also highlights how the current financial crisis is modifying the guarantees schemes, through policy maker interventions

Christian Berndt investigates how selected corporate actors in German small and medium-sized enterprises and in large companies respond to globalisation and the apparent crisis of the German model. By exploring the role of economic and non-economic factors in shaping business strategies he...

Progress in telecommunications and infrastructure, coupled with liberalization in international organizations, has introduced a number of new competitors to existing SMEs. This book analyzes strategic aspects of SME development that may help to promote growth: high-tech development, productivity...

During the last two decades, Vietnam has been undergoing a process of deregulating economic activities and integrating into the global economy. The passing of the Enterprise Law in 1999, which facilitated the establishment of private enterprises, and the achievement of membership of the World...

In this exciting work, Link and Scott summarize more than a decade of their research on public support of R&D in small, entrepreneurial firms, concluding public R&D investments, primarily funded by the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, are indeed bending the arc of...