جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "شرکت های کوچک و متوسط" در نشریات گروه "مدیریت"

Despite the significant role of exports in the development of the country's economy and the increasing penetration of digital technologies in businesses, there are still many obstacles and challenges to the use of digital technologies, such as management challenges, lack of sufficient capacity to use new technologies, infrastructural barriers, and sanctions especially for Iranian firms and for SMEs, etc. Also, the smaller the scale of these companies, the higher the risk they will face. In another word, the competitive environment and political and economic problems become more complicated for exporting firms and young SMEs, and low-experienced ones. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct some local research in this field due to the relative lack of existing research. Therefore, the question arises whether the digitalization of companies, despite those limitations and challenges, has been able to affect export performance, and if the answer is yes, how this effect has been. Thus, our main goal is to investigate the direct and indirect effects of digitalization on export performance and evaluate the mediating role of export readiness among SMEs. Focusing on SMEs internationalization among the Iranian companies in this research is considered an innovative matter. 

This research is considered as an applied one. To design the questionnaire, after library studies and a review of available documents, the interviewes have been done with several university academics and export experts. After applying their opinion, a questionnaire was designed as a data collection tool. Then the validity and reliability of this questionnaire were checked and approved. The statistical population of this research is all Iranian small and medium-sized companies that are active in the field of export and have experience using at least one of the e-commerce processes, including buying, selling, transferring, and exchanging goods or providing information through the Internet. Due to the lack of a specific database of export SMEs, 70 SMEs were specified as the statistical sample size according to the opinion of some academics. The sampling method in this research was non-random and the questionnaire was distributed among 70 available export companies. Respondents to the questionnaire were considered to be one representative of each company. Therefore, the measurement units in this research are companies. After collecting the data, the structural equation method was used to explain the theoretical model and analyze the research assumptions. SPSS 27 and SmartPLS 3 were used for analyzing data.

The results of collecting the responses of 70 export SMEs showed that the average value of main variables were upper than half (2.5<) and Digitalization was equal to 2.94, export readiness was equal to 3.16, and export performance was equal to 2.68. Additionally, the digitalization components were correlated with export readiness and export performance. Furthermore, all factor loadings were 95% significant. Then we find out that digitalization has direct and indirect effects on export performance. However, the amount of indirect effect through the mediation of the role of export readiness has been higher. It was also confirmed that digitalization strengthens export readiness and strengthening export readiness leads to increased export performance.

In the context of the direct impact of digitalization on export performance, the results showed that despite the challenges such as management challenges, enforced sanctions, and other export obstacles that companies especially small and medium-sized ones are faced, digitalization has been able to directly increase their export performance. Also, the effect of digitalization on export performance was confirmed indirectly. The findings of this research confirmed that digitalization in the four dimensions of digital infrastructure, e-commerce, electronic business processes, and digital marketing has been able to improve the export readiness of companies in the fields of management capability, employee competence, access to more financial resources, knowledge management and application of lessons learned and previous experiences in export, competitive advantage in international markets, level of technical knowledge and expertise, ability to analyze financial issues, international marketing performance (in the field of branding, advertising, negotiation, pricing, and distribution), logistics, and access to statistics and information. On the other hand, those companies that had higher export readiness showed higher export performance. Based on this, export readiness has been able to play a mediating role in the relationship between digitalization and export performance. However, regarding the comparison of the effectiveness of digitalization in two direct and indirect ways on export performance, the findings of the research indicate that this relationship was stronger indirectly and through the mediating role of export readiness. Since the effectiveness of digitalization on export performance is stronger through the indirect route and the mediating role of export readiness, managers should keep in mind that if planning for digitalization is done to strengthen each of the components related to export readiness, it can have a greater impact on the export their business perform. To localize and develop the current model, researchers can repeat the research separately for different industries and regions and check the effect of digitalization on export performance for each condition.

Recently, small and medium-sized enterprises have expanded their activities internationally. However, the process of internationalization is not simple, and due to the increasing competition of international markets, and on the one hand, the lack of resources, knowledge and experience of these companies in international markets, success in these markets is considered a big challenge for them. In this regard, the present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the impact of global mindset on the network and acquisition of international knowledge with the mediating role of international entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized companies. This research is a survey descriptive research in terms of data collection method, and practical in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the research included all companies active in the field of food industry in industrial towns in Tehran, who have experience in international markets. The required sample size was determined using Cochran's formula, 190 companies. The samples were selected by simple random method. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by face validity, convergent and divergent validity. Based on the findings the global mindset has a direct and significant effect on international knowledge acquisition, international network and international entrepreneurship orientation. Also, the influence of international entrepreneurship orientation on knowledge acquisition and international network was confirmed. Finally the global mindset has an indirect and significant effect on the international knowledge acquisition and international network through international entrepreneurship orientation.

The main objective of this research is to analyze how KM processes influence innovation in SMEs. The study seeks to bridge the gap in the literature by focusing on SMEs, especially in developing economies, where KM practices are not as widely adopted as in larger corporations. Despite the recognized potential of KM to enhance innovation (Imran et al., 2019), there is limited empirical research on its role in SMEs, particularly in resource-constrained environments (Valdez-Juárez et al., 2016). This research aims to fill that gap by assessing the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition, dissemination, and responsiveness in driving innovation..

A quantitative research design was employed to examine the relationships between KM processes and innovation. Data were collected from 307 SMEs through structured questionnaires, which measured KM practices and innovation using a five-point Likert scale. The survey data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed relationships and hypotheses. This method allows for a comprehensive examination of the complex relationships between KM processes and innovation (Obeidat et al., 2016). Reliability and validity were ensured through the use of Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency and confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity (Rahman et al., 2009).

The findings of the study reveal that all three KM processes—knowledge acquisition, dissemination, and responsiveness—positively impact innovation in SMEs. Knowledge acquisition was found to have the strongest influence, as SMEs that actively acquire knowledge from both internal and external sources are better positioned to innovate (Gui & Lee, 2024). Knowledge dissemination, or the sharing of information across the organization, also plays a crucial role in ensuring that employees can access the knowledge needed for innovation (Shehzad et al., 2021). Finally, responsiveness to new knowledge allows firms to integrate and apply insights effectively, fostering continuous innovation (Zack et al., 2009). These results suggest that SMEs can overcome their resource limitations by adopting robust KM practices, which can enhance their ability to innovate and compete in dynamic markets. The study supports the findings of previous research that KM processes are integral to organizational innovation (Obeidat et al., 2016; Imran et al., 2019). However, it adds new insights by demonstrating that even in resource-constrained environments, SMEs can leverage KM to drive innovation. Future research should explore additional KM dimensions and investigate how these processes influence different types of innovation in SMEs

Customer satisfaction is the most decisive factor in marketing success; therefore, companies and organizations must correctly identify and understand the needs, tastes and expectations of their customers so that they can produce a product with maximum value and deliver it to Effectively price, distribute and promote. In general, accurate understanding of consumer behavior, especially at the moment of final selection of products, can help companies in making major decisions and achieve the organization's high goals. The purpose that led to this research was to design some patters through which the factors and how to persuade buyers in industrial marketing can be achieved. These patterns obtained by conducting research on small and medium-sized companies that buy food machinery in Afghanistan. In order to be able to provide the most appropriate machines to this target market by using that pattern, in order to satisfy these buyers, it is possible to penetrate this market as much as possible for the manufacturers of food production machines in the country of origin (Iran) to be provided.

This research was conducted qualitatively and using the data method of the Glazer Foundation. The reason why the foundation data method was used in this research was that there was no appropriate pattern for the target community that was addressed and that there were not many patterns in the field of persuasion in general in industrial marketing. Therefore, it seems that there is a need to present three patterns in this field. Based on this, first the interview questions were designed in line with the main research questions. Then the statistical sample was selected in a selective way and according to different branches of food industry. By identifying the communication channels, the interview with these producers was provided, and the interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached.

By analyzing the data obtained from these interviews, it became clear that six main factors have a key influence on persuading buyers in the food industry machinery market in Afghanistan. These six factors include; The first factor is the cost, which includes all the costs that a person has to identify, choose, compare products to purchase and use, repairs and parts. This factor is mentioned by all the activists as an important factor. The second factor is reliability. This factor represents the things that make the machinery supplier a trusted image in the minds of the users of these products. The third factor is the technology used in these machines and the simplicity of its use. Ease of use and no need for foreign experts are important factors in this factor. The fourth factor is expertise, that the supplier of the machines in question has sufficient expertise in all fields related to the production of these machines. The fifth factor is the complete elimination of the need. in such a way that it can provide a complete set of machines needed to produce the desired food. It means that the company can meet its zero to hundred needs for machines from one supplier. The sixth and last factor is geographical distance. This factor was more common in food producers who were engaged in production in Herat city. Ease of access to machinery suppliers and communication has been one of the important factors in this factor.

This research can claim to add to the scope of knowledge in two major areas; The first field of research is about persuasion in industrial marketing. This can have various reasons, but it seems that there are stronger reasons to pay more attention to industrial marketing. The size of the market, the amount of expertise required for better performance in this sector, much bigger results in case of success, high costs in case of failure, etc., these are all reasons that make it reasonable for researchers to pay attention to industrial marketing. The second area that makes our research valuable is working on the target society, which has been less worked on, and on the other hand, because it is one of the important markets for the export of Iranian goods, the information obtained from it is also scientific. And it will be very valuable in terms of market needs. In general, industrial marketing has received less attention than consumer marketing. The results of this research can be useful both for the buyers of these machines in Afghanistan and for the manufacturers of food industry machines in any country that intends to export these goods to Afghanistan.

This research aims to design a model for the integration of physical, informational, and financial processes in the supply chain to achieve resilience in the automotive industry. 

The approach used in this research is modeling, initially utilizing Fuzzy DEMATEL to identify influencing and influenced factors. Since DEMATEL typically does not describe the nature and levels of interactions, the study further employs an Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach using MICMAC software to understand causal relationships and categorize influential factors into five levels. Data collection was based on a questionnaire and the Delphi method. A questionnaire grounded in a hybrid Fuzzy DEMATEL-ISM approach was designed and distributed to 20 supply chain management experts in the industry. After reaching a consensus, these factors were analyzed with the chosen approaches and classified into five levels, categorized into four types: autonomous, independent, dependent, and linkage.  

The findings indicate that eight categories of factors (including integration of measurement, resource management, communication integration, organizational; socio-economic sub-component; human and technical sub-component; managerial components, customers, planning, information and product quality; financial, process, and environmental components; technology planning integration and flexibility) have the highest impact on achieving resilience in the automotive industry supply chain. 

The most influential factor in the resilient supply chain of the automotive industry is the integration of measurement, which is connected with all other sub-components. In fact, resilience measurement impacts the resource management sub-component and the managerial sub-component.

In today's business environment, which is accompanied by increasing competition in global markets, international strategies are becoming more important, and exporting is known as the most common way for companies to enter global markets. Today, companies are trying to prosper by improving their export performance. Considering this importance, in this research, the key drivers of the export performance of small and medium-sized companies have been investigated. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of absorptive capacity, intangible resources and entrepreneurial orientation on the export performance of small and medium-sized companies through the mediation of competitive advantages and comprehensive quality management. This research is practical in terms of purpose and analytical-descriptive in terms of methodology. The community under investigation is small and medium-sized companies active in the field of food industry located in Tehran, and the questionnaire was distributed among the managers and experts of these companies. Finally, 250 practical questionnaires have been collected, and the value of Cronbach's alpha and the combined reliability of all variables have been obtained in order to check the reliability of the measuring tool above 0.7. The analysis of the collected data was done by structural equation modeling method and using SmartPLS software. After the statistical analysis, it was found that the drivers of export performance, including intangible resources, absorption capacity and entrepreneurial orientation, have a positive and significant effect on the export performance of small and medium-sized companies. It was also found that intangible resources, absorptive capacity and entrepreneurial orientation have a positive and significant effect on competitive advantage and comprehensive quality management. Also, the mediating effect of total quality management on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance was confirmed. According to the obtained results, all research hypotheses are confirmed. Therefore, considering the importance of export, it can be concluded that any action to improve each of these drivers will lead to an increase in the company's export performance.

In most countries, one of the most important and interesting topics in research is the discussion of tax aggressiveness, how it is measured, the factors affecting it, and the results obtained from it. Tax aggressiveness leads to countries' tax revenues being lower than the estimated amount. One of the main factors affecting management's motivations for tax aggressiveness in developing countries is the political factor of company managers due to the fact that the companies are state owned. On the other hand, social responsibility guided by the government can be effective in reducing corporate tax aggressiveness. This study attempts to investigate the impact of political connections on tax aggressiveness and identify the moderating role of human resources social responsibility in relation to these variables. The statistical population of the present study is small and medium sized companies active in Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, 126 companies were selected by systematic elimination sampling method between 2014 to 2020. In this study, multivariate regression analysis with combination data whith fixed effects method in Eviews 9 software was used. The results indicate that the company's political connections affect on tax aggressiveness. Human resources social responsibility has a moderating role in the relationship between corporate political connections and tax aggressiveness.

For the successful revival of a bankrupt or declining company with poor performance, a wide range of revival strategies can be considered that these strategies interact with each other and not paying attention to this issue, the revival of declining companies, especially small and medium-sized companies in Action faces a problem. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to present an interpretive structural model and interaction analysis of revitalization strategies of small and medium manufacturing companies.

Metods:

 This research is practical in terms of its purpose and because it is based on interpretive structural modeling to provide a hierarchical model of the interaction of strategies for the revival of small and medium-sized companies on the verge of decline and bankruptcy, it can be considered descriptive-survey research. Since many small and medium-sized companies in the food industry in Ardabil province have declined or gone bankrupt in the past few years and need to be revived, therefore these industries were chosen as a case study of this research. In the first stage of the research, fuzzy screening was used to localize the decline factors of these companies. After that, to determine the strategies related to each factor of decline, an interview was conducted with a focus group including 10 academic and industrial experts, and to provide an interaction model and analyze the power of influence and correlation of these strategies, structural interpretive modeling and the Mi'kmaq method, with The participation of the same experts was used and Excel and MATLAB software were used for data analysis.

Result and Discossion: 

Out of the 22 factors of the decline of companies that were identified in previous research, 19 factors were determined as the factors of the decline of food industry companies in Ardabil province, and three factors were "monopoly situation in the market", "supply exceeding market demand", "lack of culture of cooperation between "Employees and managers" were removed due to the importance of less than 70% in the view of experts. For these factors of decline, 32 strategies (localized and new) have been determined, and in addition, the entire revitalization strategies, in the form of six categories of financial and economic strategies; marketing and customer orientation; human resources; knowledge-based; structure and interactions; and production and operation efficiency were also categorized. The structural interpretative hierarchical model of revitalization strategies shown in Figure 2 shows that these strategies have a helping and facilitating relationship with each other and to apply them, one should start from the lowest level of this model. Another significant result is that although the determined strategies are presented in the form of six categories, the final model shows that in order to implement these strategies, it is not necessary to pay attention to all the strategies in one category at the same time, but the hierarchy of strategies clearly shows that the priority of using these strategies is from the bottom. Up and from different categories.

The revival of bankrupt small and medium companies or declining food industries is not a one-dimensional process and there is no single strategy for it, but a combination of six strategies including financial and economic strategies; marketing and customer orientation; human resources; knowledge-based strategies; structure and interactions; And he paid attention to the efficiency of production and operations and carried out the restoration process in a systematic format and as a continuous and gradual flow.

The purpose of this research is to provide a Pattern of financial empowerment in Small and Medium Enterprises with the Grounded Theory approach. The participants of this research can be divided into two general groups, including the first group including academic professors in the fields of management, accounting and finance (academic experts), the second group including experts with experience in small and medium-sized companies (experts experimental), categorized. This research was carried out with the qualitative Grounded Theory method of the Strauss and Corbin Foundation. To achieve this goal, after studying the literature and the background of the research, an interview protocol was designed and interviews were conducted with 17 experts using targeted non-probability sampling and snowball methods. In the open coding stage in the MAXQDA2020 software environment, a number of 458 open codes (descriptive codes) were obtained, and in the axial coding stage, categories were determined and according to screening, removing duplicate codes and integrating synonymous codes, a number of 63 categories were obtained. Sub and 8 main categories are presented as a Pattern of financial empowerment in Small and Medium Enterprises with the Grounded Theory approach.

Digitalization affects many organizational strategies of a company, including the development of market opportunities, and is known as an element that strengthens the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. However, the use of digital technologies requires investment and changes in the internal procedures of a company through the mobilization of new resources based on digitalization and the use of special capabilities for their management. Research on the impact of digitalization on the export maturity of SMEs is scattered and there is a need for a comprehensive research on the past research trend and the future trend of this topic. This study is a bibliometric analysis using Vosviewer software, with the aim of reviewing published scientific products and drawing a scientific map in the field of digitization and export maturity of small and medium companies, which investigated this field using 240 articles indexed between 1984 and 2022. To conduct this study, co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis and co-occurrence analysis were used for network analysis. In the end, according to the analyzes carried out, five main topic clusters were identified, which include organizational resources based on digitalization, organizational capabilities based on digitalization, dimensions of export maturity, export and internationalization, and sustainable development; According to the trend of the articles, we can expect the field of sustainable development to attract more attention in the coming years.

The aim of the current research is to identify, stratify and analyze the main dimensions and indicators affecting the dynamic capabilities of information technology in small and medium-sized companies using the structural-interpretive modeling (ISM) technique. The dimensions and indicators of the dynamic capabilities of information technology have been identified based on the literature study and content analysis and comparisons of related researches and interviews with experts and specialists, and then, using structural-interpretive modeling, the relationships between the dimensions and indicators of the dynamic capabilities of information technology have been determined as Integrated analysis. Finally, by using MICMAC analysis, the types of variables have been determined according to their influence and effectiveness on other variables. The results show that the variable of digitalization of business processes is among the linked variables and has a high power of influence and dependence. This variable with the greatest influence is considered as the driver and motivator of the dynamic capabilities of information technology in small and medium-sized companies, and any action on this variable causes the change of other variables. Also, measurement variables, resources and competencies and coordination are among the key variables for the development of dynamic capabilities of information technology in small and medium companies. These variables have a great impact on the realization and promotion of dynamic capabilities of information technology in small and medium-sized companies and have high influence and low dependence.

This article aims to compare RW and PW models in profit forecasting for small and medium-sized companies. The research method is applicable in terms of its purpose, and it is an inductive and quantitative research in terms of the implementation logic and the nature of the data. Financial statements in the period of 2011 to 2021 have been used to collect data. In order to select the appropriate statistical sample, the systematic elimination sampling method was used. In this method, firstly, the small and medium-sized companies are identified, according to the number of employees and the nominal value of the capital, and conditions are defined for the selection of the sample, and those that do not have the mentioned conditions are removed from the sample. These conditions are determined according to the hypothesis test model and research variables. Also, in this article, the panel model and Eviuse software have been used to extract the proposed model from the principal component analysis approach and to fit the model to the observations. According to the results obtained from the analysis presented in this research, it can be seen that the new model provided for profit forecasting is more effective than the profit forecasting of RW and PW models, and this issue confirms the ability of regression models to forecast profit in the field of financial and profitability strategies for small and medium-sized companies.

 In the last decade, small and medium enterprises have been considered as the main source of job creation and income in countries. These companies are more important because they play an important role in creating employment, increasing growth and economic development in the country. Also, Businesses with creativity and innovation do not shy away from change and use environmental conditions as an opportunity to create a competitive advantage. As a result, it increases flexibility. Therefore, achieving strategic flexibility in an environment where some organizations have not yet found their place in today's complex environment and need an immediate and fundamental change in the organization is important. Managers with strategic thinking can adapt to environmental changes. When managers are in a changing and unpredictable environment, they increase their efforts to adapt to environmental change and find new solutions. Managers of organizations, institutions and companies that want to grow and develop; they need to learn and apply at least some strategic thinking skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of managers 'strategic thinking on the flexibility of SMEs' strategy considering the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation.

The purpose of this study is practical and in terms of data collection, it is a descriptive survey that has been done by cross-sectional method. The statistical population of this study is all managers and executives of small and medium enterprises in Semnan province. Since the number of units deployed in this province is more than 1609 units, thus considering the limited statistical population of the statistical sample size of 310 people using Morgan table was considered. On the other hand, the sampling method used in the present study is stratified random sampling. In addition, three standard questionnaires Liedtka (1989) for measuring strategic thinking, Hughes and Morgan (2007) questionnaire for measuring entrepreneurial orientation and for strategic flexibility questionnaire of De Toni & Tonchia (2005) were used. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was also used to measure reliability. Data analysis in this study was done by structural equation modeling with partial least squares approach using SPSS and Smart Pls.

The findings of the study showed that strategic thinking of managers has a positive and significant effect on strategic flexibility and entrepreneurial orientation. Entrepreneurial orientation also has a significant impact on strategic flexibility. Finally, entrepreneurial orientation mediates the relationship between strategic thinking and strategic flexibility.

Entrepreneurial orientation is an active strategic orientation that tends to take an aggressive approach to product innovation. Entrepreneurial orientation responds better to turbulent economies that usually do not follow the rules of competitive markets. Therefore, in order to increase the entrepreneurial tendency of managers and officials, it is suggested to pay attention to improving their capabilities and employees, transferring up-to-date knowledge to employees, encouraging employees to do creative and innovative work and supporting them, increasing the spirit of criticism among them and promoting this Culture in the organization, holding training programs to change attitudes and instill the belief among managers and officials that there are better ways to do things. Managers and executives can increase the company's flexibility by increasing innovation and creativity in the organization, increasing the ability to estimate the immediate needs of customers, responding quickly to market changes. Given that the entrepreneurial orientation means factors such as a bold and independent position to maximize profitability, the desire to carry out new projects and risky programs, courageous and extensive actions to achieve goals, provide new services, introduce new technologies Frequent changes in new services, etc., it can be concluded that the entrepreneurial orientation of CEOs affects the strategic flexibility of companies. In general, it can be concluded that management with an entrepreneurial orientation can improve the performance of the company. Therefore, it is recommended to design and implement general training courses related to entrepreneurship using the opinions of entrepreneurs and professors in the field of entrepreneurship, because these programs and training courses should be based on comprehensive characteristics and learning principles and regardless of time constraints.

Today, manufacturing companies understand that due to the speed of technological change, sustainable development is the key tool for gaining a competitive advantage. The present study was conducted to study the necessary actions chain to achieve sustainable open R&D among manufacturing SMEs. Simultaneous attention to the concept of sustainability and open R&D is one of the innovations of the present research. First, the dimensions and components of sustainable open R&D are identified using Structural Equations Modeling and Fuzzy Delphi. The SODA technique was used to study the necessary actions chain in the second phase. Finally, the most important measures are identified using central and domain analysis. 15 components were identified in 6 dimensions in the first phase. The statistical sample size is 329 persons in Structural Equations Modeling and 15 persons in Fuzzy Delphi. Next, after studying the chain of necessary actions and analyzing it using domain and central analysis, 17 actions were identified as the most important measures, the most important of which are: creating information systems, availability of suppliers, meeting customer needs, environmental pollution, development of grand strategy. The most important action to achieve sustainable open R&D is creating information systems. These systems accelerate access to customers and suppliers. In addition, using renewable raw materials to participate in environmental friendly production programs through joint activities with universities and research institutes can reduce the harmful effects on the ecosystem.

The current research aims to study the impact of the effective variables on the supply chain performance of small and medium companies. In other words, the purpose of the current research is to identify the critical variables that affect the performance of the supply chain. This research is exploratory and descriptive-survey based in terms of execution. Data tools have been utilized to gather information and Cronbach’s alpha was above 0.7. To test the validity of the questions, the content validity method was employed based on the opinions of professionals, university professors, and experts. The statistical population in this research consists of the producers and exporters of small and medium firms, out of which 470 individuals were selected as samples through simple random sampling. The data was analyzed based on an exploratory factor analysis test and ultimately 9 factors of operational, supply, financial, product improvement, demand, governmental, environmental, social, and economic barriers were identified as the main barriers to supply chain performance. The results of exploratory factor analysis indicated that the 9 obtained factors can explain about 61.6% variance of all factors which is an acceptable rate. The first factor is the operational barrier, which is the most important factor with an extracted variance of 13.7; the second financial barrier interprets 11.3% of the total variance.

Today, companies operating in different institutional and cultural environments are facing international strategic challenges. Responding to these challenges requires the ability to be agile and flexible in response to international demands, which requires quick learning from previous experiences. In the meantime, network-based growth can be a key factor to strengthen international success, especially for small and medium-sized companies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of network-based growth in the effect of strategic agility on the international success of small and medium enterprises in East Azerbaijan province. This research is quantitative and one of the types of applied studies. Sampling of this study was done by stratified random method and estimation of sample size was done through Cochran's formula. Data collection has been done through a questionnaire, and the relationships between variables have been analyzed by structural equation modeling with the help of SPSS and SmartPLS tools. The results of this study showed that strategic agility has a direct effect on network-based growth and international success. Also, network-oriented growth has a positive effect on international success. Finally, the mediating role of network-based growth in the relationship between strategic agility and international success of small and medium-sized enterprises was obtained. According to the results of the analysis, it can be stated that strategic agility is a key factor in advancing international steps, and in the meantime, networking and growth through which it is easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve optimal international performance.

In recent years, the importance of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone of countries' economies has become clear to everyone. Export has been suggested as one of the strategies of such companies to develop the market, more possibility for survival and internationalization. But SMEs are less likely to succeed because of their limitations than large-size enterprises. Therefore, frameworks and models have been developed to assess the readiness of such enterprises to do so. But Iranian SMEs are experiencing completely different conditions that require other frameworks and models to do so. The present research creates a framework for assessing the export readiness of SMEs using a mixed method (Grounded theory method for theorizing and theory-testing using parametric statistical methods). In the theorizing phase, 25 interviews were conducted with qualified individuals and the framework was constructed based on 6 main-categories and 25 sub-categories. Then, different statistical tests were performed on 198 samples to confirm the framework from different dimensions. The results showed the importance of all main-categories, sub-categories as well as their constituent indicators. Other tests performed on quantitative samples also revealed other interesting results.

Globalization is interpreted, on the one hand, as the integration of markets globally and, on the other hand, as the internationalization of companies. Internationalization, on the other hand, brings economic advantages of scale, higher revenue, fast investment, learning from export processes, and increased productivity for companies. Research on the internationalization of companies has led to the identification of unusual patterns due to the speed of international development and the diversity of market entry in different temporal and geographical dimensions. Thus, not only do early internationalization studies explain these patterns, but also companies can follow these patterns to achieve a fast-paced position in their entering international markets and expanding their world-class operations. In this research, the factors affecting the early internationalization of small and medium food companies in Iran are investigated, and the most important factors are identified and analyzed homogeneously in the form of six main dimensions. This is done through reviewing previous studies and interviews experts. Also, the structural, managerial, cultural, competitive and institutional environments of industries as well as their psychological characteristics are identified and classified. Then, after the completion of the questionnaire by the managers of food companies as the statistical population, the most important components of early internationalization are identified. In the present study, a mixed exploratory method (qualitative and quantitative) is used to conduct the research. In the qualitative method, by a review of the conducted studies, 68 components of early internationalization were identified. Then, by a survey of 17 industry and university experts in three stages, 61 components were selected through the fuzzy Delphi method. Also, based on the reports of the Trade Development Organization, the data of 149 food industry companies that had international activities were reviewed. Next, using the Morgan table, 107 companies were selected as a statistical sample, and the finalized components were distributed among them in the form of a questionnaire. After the analysis of the data by the SPSS software, the most important components influencing the early internationalization of small and medium companies in the food industry were identified.  The elements of early internationalization were classified into organizational, environmental, and individual types. The structural dimension consisted of 16 components, five of which (strategic resources and assets, company goals and strategies, competitive product price, brand reputation, and company size) were listed in the study conducted by Langst et al.  (2014). In this dimension, most company goals and strategies were considered. Tradition (2019) classified the factors influencing the early internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises into three dimensions including export incentives, export barriers, and company-specific factors. Also, the presence of companies in specialized international exhibitions, the existence of research and development, new production technology, and the size of the foreign market were mentioned in Scleukin’s research (2017) as the other factors of the early internationalization of small and medium companies. According to Methiosinite and Scelyokin (2015), the factors of early internationalization alone cannot lead the company to its goals and mission, but all the factors must be considered in a specific framework and specific classification. They also found that SMEs struggled to enter global markets due to a lack of resources and manpower, but early internationalization allowed SME executives to save the scale and gain access to new customers in markets. Foreigners can access new resources and overcome these limitations. The study showed that, accordance with theoretical literature, the framework of factors affecting the early internationalization of small and medium-sized food companies consists of organizational, environmental and individual domains as well as structural, managerial, cultural, competitive, institutional, environmental and psychological characteristics.According to the percentage of the respondents, the component of "competitive product price" from a structural point of view, the component of "competitive product price" from a managerial point of view, the component of "existence of export-oriented organizational culture" from a cultural point of view, the components of “attending international specialized exhibitions”, and the component of  "responding to unexpected orders abroad" in terms of competitive environment, the component of "structure appropriate to insurance, banking, tax, export support and financial system" in terms of the institutional environment of the industry, and the component of "managerial leadership spirit" in terms of psychology gained the highest scores.The point to make about internationalization in Iran is the negligence of many modes of internationalization, especially early internationalization, and the over-focus of policymakers on exports. However, export is just one of the facets of internationalization. Opportunities such as production in the destination country, especially countries that have lower production costs and more manpower than Iran, representation and branching in foreign countries, direct supply of products, coalition strategies with foreign partners, and the transfer of material resources and technology should also be considered. In this regard, it is of significance to pave the way for the government and to support the foreign trade of domestic food companies to enter global markets. Based on the research findings, it is suggested that food industry companies be highly sensitivity in the choice of the destination countries, and give priority to advertising and sales promotion to rapidly and powerfully enter foreign markets, especially the markets of 15 neighboring countries, which include a market of 400 million people. The market research team conducted a comprehensive study on the taste, packaging model, foreign market traction, and halal food supply. The results help company management teams formulate an appropriate and comprehensive strategy for entering foreign markets and achieving a rapid international status.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of cultural factors on creating trust in e-commerce in small and medium knowledge-based companies located in Tehran Science and Technology Park. This research is applied in terms of purpose in terms of descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of this study is all managers and employees of knowledge-based companies located in Tehran Science and Technology Park. The statistical population of this study includes about 700 people. In this study, 248 employees and managers participated in this study using non-randomly available methods as a statistical sample. In this study, Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze and test the hypotheses. The results showed that collectivism, avoidance of uncertainty and long-term approach do not have a significant effect on trust in business in small and medium-sized knowledge-based companies. The power gap has a negative effect on e-commerce trust in small and medium-sized knowledge-based companies, and masculinity has a positive effect on e-commerce trust in these companies. It was also found that trust in e-commerce has a positive effect on empowerment, cohesion and benevolence in small and medium-sized knowledge-based companies. Therefore, in order to achieve e-trust, it is recommended that the top level managers of these institutions make decisions in consultation with downstream people and regularly seek the opinion of downstream people in their decisions and have constructive interactions with them.