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- e-Governance Issues in SME Networks
e-Governance Issues in SME Networks
Auteur :
Gray
Colin
Année de Publication :
2006
Type : Etude
Thème : Nouvelle économie
Couverture :
Royaume-Uni
URL Article :
http://www.open.ac.uk/ikd/documents/working-papers/ikd-working-paper-10.pdfURL Source :
http://www.open.ac.uk 
Télécharger le document :
(94,12 kB) e-Governance_Issues_in_SME_Networks.pdfRésumé/Sommaire :
Much public policy interest in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the 25 million or so EU firms employing less than 250 people, has increased in recent years and springs from three perceived SME strengths:
1. their role in promoting flexibility and innovation;
2. their labour market function in creating jobs and absorbing unemployment;
3. the enormous size of the sector (99% of EU firms and 70% of EU jobs).
For these three points alone, it is clear that SMEs need to be taken into account when issues concerning citizenship, democracy and governance are considered. However, there are more compelling reasons to include SMEs, especially with ICT now improving communication and offering enhanced participation outside the usual structures and channels of communication. SMEs are not only diffused through every community and locality and, indeed, are often the mainstays of many small communities, they also for a major part of the marginalised sections of society with the lowest rates of participation in political processes. One important segment of the whole SME sector, the selfemployed, are generally from a milieu where personal independence and autonomy are prized. SMEs often organize themselves informally in structures that lie outside official organisations as networks that address a mix of business, social and political needs. It is through these networks that many SMEs inter-face with the larger firms and government organisations that basically run our economies. Because of their importance, and their potential for mediating the participation of SMEs in the e-society, the different types of SME networks and how they function require some attention. The 2002-2004 NEWTIME project, which investigated the impact of broadband on networks of microfirms in 8 EU member states, identified 10 different network types – differentiated according to structure (formal or informal), purpose (business or social) and organisational density (strength or weakness of ties between members). In addition it was recognized that power relations affect governance issues in SME networks in four major areas:
1. Transactions costs and vertical disintegration of larger firms:
2. Local clusters of complementary SMEs;
3. Communities of practice;
4. Family and community ties.
This paper draws on NEWTIME and subsequent surveys in Britain to analyse the key issues in each of these areas and the potential that ICT holds for increasing the participation of SMEs in decision making at a local, regional and national level.
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