 The Characteristics and Features of SMEs: Favorable or Unfavorable to Logistics Integration?René Gélinas and Yvon Bigras Journal of Small Business Management, 2004, vol. 42, issue 3, 263-278 Abstract: For small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), logistics integration is one of the most significant challenges of modern management. Growing numbers of SMEs are under pressure from large manufacturing enterprises (LMEs) to change their traditional management styles, both operationally and organizationally, replacing them with integrated systems that help increase the speed and fluidity of physical and information flows, help synchronize demand with supply, and help manage transactions more accurately. The recent literature discusses integrated logistics chain management quite extensively, but most studies address the issue from the standpoint of large firms. Given the importance of SMEs in the economies of industrialized countries, and given, too, that a constantly growing number of such firms will have to replace their management methods by logistically integrated practices, the authors of this study believe that it is important to examine the characteristics and features of SMEs in order to identify those favorable and unfavorable to logistics integration. Date: 2004 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ujbmxx:v:42:y:2004:i:3:p:263-278 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-627X.2004.00111.x Access Statistics for this article Journal of Small Business Management is currently edited by Eric Liguori More articles in Journal of Small Business Management from Taylor & Francis Journals |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.