SMEs INNOVATION IN A NETWORK
ENVIRONMENT, CASE STUDY IN ROMANIA
Rocsana B. Manea Tonis
Spiru Haret University, Romania
E-mail: rocsense39@yahoo.com
Radu Bucea-Manea-Tonis
Hyperion University
Titu Maiorescu University, Romania
E-mail: radub_m@yahoo.com
Submission: 07/09/2018
Revision: 15/10/2018
Accept: 23/10/2018
ABSTRACT
After the 1990s, the
private sector in Romania has tried to win in emerging market niches: IT
services, e-commerce, retail, energy. With the liberalization of the market
after admission to the EU, local entrepreneurs could not cope with external
competition, crushing debts or insolvency. The situation is not different today
when multinational companies compete strongly with local capital. After a
continuous research process, the conclusion is that the only solution for SMEs
is collaboration in business centers, virtual companies and other forms of
local cooperation. This article presents a type of collaboration between SMEs
that use discount coupons to recommend to other customers.
Keywords: SMEs, Network Business
Environment, Lempel-Ziv algorithm)
1. INTRODUCTION
ICTs
have a great impact on all current activities of SMEs. As a consequence, the
innovation capacity of SMEs depends on adapting to the Internet of Things (IoT)
paradigm using ICT. Innovation capacity is the driving force of new green
products and services, communication and cooperation B2B and B2C. There are
many complex and diverse factors that consolidate the premises to achieve
innovation by SMEs: as the impact of human resources and ICT on innovation
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
ICT offers
technical support for data analysis and configuration decisions, for internal
and external communication, for networking and collaboration, saving time and
money, overcoming geographical restrictions and offering a platform for
international electronic markets.
The majority of
current ICT facilities are offered by Cloud Computing, through the Software as
a Service paradigm that seems to be dedicated to SMEs, strengthening the
process of knowledge creation.
Cloud computing
is no longer a recommendation, but a necessity for the business of SMEs in
today's economy. SMEs must collect and share information, knowledge, technology
and human resources to deal with market requests.
Liebhart (2015)
"estimates 30% of improvements caused by efficient, flexible and networked
IT." The last challenge for SMEs is to overcome the so-called business and
IT alignment, and close the gap between business and IT domains. . With regard
to offers in the Cloud, this means that the view of the current application
needs a corresponding business process view. Commercial parameters, such as
legal aspects, commercial packages, interoperability of processes or prevention
of blocking of suppliers are used to distinguish between different market
agents. The specific parameters of the Business Domain, such as the
relationship with the client for SMEs in the domain of health, or the web
appearance of an IT company, are possible future options" (WOITSCH, 2016)
But ICTs are
nothing without human resources. One of the most common categories of economic
operators in the markets of the modern economy is the Entrepreneur, a flexible
and creative person, with a lot of energy and self-confidence, who likes
challenges and takes great risks to develop diverse projects, representing the
materialization of their own vision. The entrepreneur is oriented towards
results, creates new companies and drives them to success, sometimes converting
them into large companies or selling them to national or international agents.
Entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, have a positive
influence on macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP growth or the decrease in
the unemployment rate.
This statement
is reinforced by [Jones, 2016]. She demonstrated that the transfer of human
resources has a significant positive effect on the capacity for innovation, and
the capacity for innovation, in turn, is positively related to the performance
of the company. In addition, the literature reveals that there is a three-dimensional
relationship between knowledge management (KM) practices, technological
innovation (IT) and competitive advantage (CA) (LEE, 2016). KM has a positive
and significant direct relationship with IT and CA; while IT positively and
significantly affects CA. The most remarkable thing is that the mediating role
of IT that connects KM and CA has proven to be positive and significant.
Empirical
studies show that, in developed countries, SMEs contribute to more than 55% of
GDP and more than 65.8% of total employment (comparable to those of EU-27:
66.9%), which means than 2/3 of the employees in Romania and the EU - 27
operating in SMEs (OECD, 2015).
Economic
development can be stimulated through the establishment of new and innovative
companies and the increase of competitiveness and the productivity rate of
SMEs, with a view to their integration in the world-class commercial and
investment chains (OECD, 2015). SMEs are very flexible in the face of changes
in the market and the environment.
3. INNOVATION MODEL FOR SMES IN A NETWORK BUSINESS
ECOSYSTEM
SMEs consider
that the biggest obstacle they face is the financing of their business, due to
the lack of effective communication with the banking and financial system.
Another obstacle could be their inability to cope with inflation and the
reelected bureaucracy in the number and amount of taxes and regulations that
will be observed. Political instability, corruption, street / organized crimes
should also be considered.
It can be noted
that most of these factors are external to organizations and are influenced by
state policies. The same happens with anticompetitive practices, with
infrastructure and legal problems. Most of these obstacles are far beyond the
control of SMEs. SMEs can try to avoid some of them by seeking alternative
fundraising or improving IT infrastructure problems through partnerships in a
digital network environment that could get support from large companies,
government and smart young people world, in the online environment. SMEs tend
to be less organized, since a member of employers and the Chamber of Commerce
(TONIS, 2016) and SMEs are associated in the business cooperation networks and
do not take advantage of production in scale.
Companies,
especially SMEs, should innovate in the network of a business ecosystem. They
must have an open and tariff communication that can be facilitated by a
government institution and a very clear policy regarding intellectual property.
We imagine a model that follows the complete life cycle of a product / service
(awareness and training, analysis, product design, communication /
certification) and supply chain.
In our model,
large companies and state institutions can invest in an open innovation
platform and licenses. All companies that have a new product / service idea can
become members of the ecosystem. Within the network, the company must obtain
the acceptance of an ecological agency. This agency proves how sustainable the
idea is. If the idea is ecological, market research is needed.
This must be
done by a marketing agency within the ecosystem. Taking into account the market
feedback, the company proves the viability of the idea with a consulting
agency. If the result is positive, inventors in the network and academic
researchers can find possible solutions for implementations. The best solution
will be chosen and the company will collaborate with the inventor to implement
the idea. Then, the marketing agency must market the product / service. A
supervisor, the government partner, is responsible for sharing the benefits and
protecting the patent (PISTOL, 2015).
Some examples of
SMES accumulate
innovative technological capabilities through a NBE is shown in (
In
order to offer support to SMEs, a portal for Romanian SMEs was conceptualized
and developed to support the creation of networks among SMEs. This article
describes a discount system based on coupons that serve as reciprocal
recommendations among SMEs, as a free advertising method.
The network is important, the more it promotes SME
performance and access to information resources, that having closer tie with
the bankers allows a better access to financial resource (ADAMA, 2018).
Establishing and developing networks and
partnerships to facilitate the exchange and integration of good practices is an
important element in the circular economy (PASNICU, 2018). Even in small
countries, as Sri Lanka, it was revealed a positive trend in the higher
education sector towards performing effective role in the future towards
innovation of SMEs. (WEERASINGHE, 2018)
Figure 1:
Innovation model for SMEs in a network business ecosystem
4. CASE STUDY
A
B2B web portal was designed where SMEs have their own presentation page, forum
and the possibility of managing a joint client portfolio through the issuance
of nominal discount coupons.
This
portal facilitates:
·
online publication: articles, free resources for the
local audiovisual commercial community;
·
seminars and meetings with great impact, free,
dedicated to the development of entrepreneurship and leadership;
·
online order platform for products / services from
smesonline.eu partners at a discount;
·
intensive training series per day, two or three days
in the main cities;
·
complex series of workshops and training programs with
a tracking system
·
active vacations, training and inspiration: complete
business experience.
To
become a member and benefit from the customer recommendation system based on
discount coupons, SME has to access the page www.smesonline.eu, section About
ImmOnline, and click on the link "Create your FREE web profile HERE
(Creeaza-ti GRATUIT profilul tau web AICI.) ".
By
accessing the hyperlink "Create your web profile" ①, SMEs can complete a personal page for the company as
an ImmOnline member ver or see the demo page that contains demo data ②:
Figure 2:
smesonline.eu - Custom website
Fill
in the form fields described on the personalized web page① and execute them by clicking on the Send③ button, the SMEs can display the corresponding URL of
the new web page created ③:
Figure 3:
smesonline.eu - Access to the personal page
Next,
you can access the corresponding hyperlink link page URL page newly created or
complete ② you
get the page template below:
Figure 4:
smesonline.eu - Personal page
The
options in the right panel of the signature of the page (from ① to ⑥) can
only be accessed securely. The credentials are the email address and the
password. The password is provided by office@smesonline.eu after completing the
form in the previous step. Now SMEs have these options:
1. Update the company page using a form without
completing the CUI. The CUI cannot be updated only if it is addressed to the
administrator.
2. Issuance of coupons using the form shown in figure
9.
Note:
Percent reduction is recommended It is not mandatory that the company accepting
the coupon applies the same discount! Name, surname and date of birth belong to
the client. They are necessary because they do not allow issuing more coupons
with the same name for the same service!
3. The coupons issued can be seen in a report with
search services to print ①, for
example:
Figure 5:
smesonline.eu - Coupons report
4.
The coupon verification option allows you to view the information associated
with a coupon (such as the date of issue, the name of the customer and the last
name) by means of the identification coupon issued.
Note:
The coupons issued and validated do not appear in the search results, so they
cannot be validated in the next step.
5.
Validation of coupons implies applying a discount and changing the status of
the coupon that will make it unusable for the second time.
6.
Validated coupons can be seen in a report.
4.1.
The
security of the data in EU portal
The
security of the data will be guaranteed through the implementation of a
security policy. It provides the association of users in groups according to
the roles they have assigned. We will identify two categories of users for the
beginning: administrators and simple users, and in the future we will
differentiate simple users in companies and people. The assignment of rights at
the level of the database will be made with the GRANT and REVOKE directives,
respectively.
Data
protection will be done in three directions. The first is data compression
based on an algorithm that combines the advantages of the Lempel-Ziv and
Huffman methods. In summary, part of the principle of the formation of long
strings as receiving length codes are inversely associated with the frequency
of these strings in compressed text. We add the important aspect, namely, that
the compression algorithm will be as efficient as the original text will be
longer.
The
second directive intends to encode data of 16, 32 or 64 bits, depending on the
international character of the source, the adopted norm will be UTF also chosen
for its compatibility with the presentation of the web application.
The
last data protection address is encryption. The encryption of data is simple,
either with an encryption and public key, with different keys for encryption
and decryption. We are currently studying the possibility of adopting an
electronic signature system based on a double-encryption algorithm RSA. This
encryption algorithm is based on the properties of integers, since it is
derived from Fermat's great theorem. More specifically, it is believed that you
can effectively check the first character of an integer, but its divisors are
identified relatively difficult depending on the entire size considered. The
first public key will be to encrypt textures by the formula:
C = Pe modulo r, where r is the
product of two prime numbers is relatively small compared to that found
relatively close (divisors are not found in the product of e). The second key
will be used to decipher the text by the formula:
P = Cd modulo r, where d is the
multiplier is an inverse relation (p-1) * (q-1), as judged from the relation d
* e = 1 module (p-1) * (q- 1).
In
a first stage of data encryption we will rely on the Rijndael algorithm, which
involves the selection of encryption keys as long (32, 64 or 128 bits), then the
string of characters encrypted group by the number of characters that make up
the key. The next stage is represented by a character encoding, followed by the
addition module 27 (26 character alphabet is English) pairs of digits of each
character in the original text and each encryption key encoded characters, as
follows:
original text: "PYME RED"
key: RADU
Figure 6:
Encryption for data security in eu portal
5. CONCLUSIONS
The
entire review of the literature shows that SMEs must collaborate within a network
that shares resources and market niches. A business network that facilitates
real-time communication, shares information and software applications, attends
trainings and online business workshops or implements actions to improve the
customer experience, becomes a strong community capable of influencing
decisions commercials outside the group. Being a group instead of an isolated
company, the commercial network could apply for grants or other government
funds.
6. MORE RESEARCH
Further research will describe the
platform in the Cloud and the available tools.
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