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As one of the most important branches of the industry in Germany and
the European Union, the mechanical and plant engineering sector is confronted with fundamental changes due to ever shorter innovation cycles and increased competitive pressure. This makes it even more important to increase the level of service components in business models with a low service level, which are still frequently found in SMEs. This paper is dedicated to the changes that the individual components of a business model have experienced and will experience. Special attention is paid to economic sustainability, since service business models can also positively influence the long-term nature of a business. Seven interviews conducted with relevant companies serve as the empirical basis of this paper. The analysed effects of smart services and active customer integration are structured and summarized within the three pillars of every business model (value proposition, the value creation architecture and the revenue mechanic).
Times of high dynamic and growing new knowledge demand for entrepreneurial education and university engagement. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have established intensive knowledge and resources about entrepreneurial education and relating activities and formats over the last years. As smaller companies (SMEs) are increasingly experimenting with entrepreneurship, they seem to struggle with setting up entrepreneurial activities within their established corporate strategy and innovation structures. It is beneficial for them to collaborate with higher education institutions to minimize the risk and uncertainty associated with implementing entrepreneurship education (EE) and catch up with larger corporates. Further, research lacks a systematic characterization of EE activities in those companies and classification of collaboration formats. Therefore, this study uses qualitative research methods to analyze data from interviews conducted with two German SMEs. Our study contributes to a better understanding of EE in SME and respective HEI collaborations by (1) characterizing EE in SME and SME-HEI collaboration based on attributes and collaboration types defined by their locus of collaboration and intensity of knowledge inflow and (2) identifying differences among EE in SME and HEI. We provide implications to practice—corporate and university EE initiatives—for a more effective design and implementation of EE in SMEs and the SME-HEI collaborations themselves.