Changing Role of SME's in Global Business : Paradigms of Opportunities and Challenges

SMEs are significant job creators and drivers of innovation and competition in most economic sectors. Furthermore, the traditional constraints of small and medium enterprises, such as geographic operations, are now being dissolved by technological developments. This means that there are new opportunities for SMEs, and their fundamental principles are being redefined: the aims, competencies, strategy, management, practice, and scope of these businesses are changing, with wide-ranging implications.

This is the first part of a two volume work that incorporates scientific chapters on SME business theory and practice. Authors provide a balanced perspective of the present and future of SMEs across all business disciplines, including management, strategy, marketing, economics, and finance. While Volume II explores external issues such as contextual forces, the effects of the financial crisis, and macro-economic effects, this first volume focuses on the individual SME and internal issues such as innovation, quality, and digitization.

Alkis Thrassou is Professor in the School of Business at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and a Senior Research Fellow of the EuroMed Academy of Business (EMAB). He has undertaken significant research in the fields of strategic marketing, management and customer behaviour.

Demetris Vrontis is Professor and Vice Rector for Faculty and Research at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, as well the Editor-in-Chief of the EuroMed Journal of Business (EMJB) and the President of the EuroMed Research Business Institute (EMRBI).

Yaakov Weber is Professor and Director of the Research Unit, School of Business Administration, College of Management, Israel. He is the Founder and President of EMRBI and EMAB.

S. M. Riad Shams is Lecturer at the Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK. He has published eight edited books, contributed articles to top-tier international journals, guest-edited for variousreputed journals, and he is the founding editor of the International Journal of Big Data Management.

Evangelos Tsoukatos teaches Management at the University of Applied Sciences Crete, Greece, and is adjunct faculty at the University of Nicosia and the Hellenic Open University. He is Associate Editor of EMJB.