From the preface : The European Commission supports Member States by providing them with recommendations, guidelines, information and good practices. For years, the European Commission has stimulated Member States to develop matching platforms to efficiently support sellers and buyers of SMEs in ownership change. A matching platform is a valuable link in the sale/acquisition chain of SMEs. Over the ten past years, not only the European Commission has been pointing out the essential role played by platforms. In many Member States matching platforms started or matured, either in the public sector, by private organizations or both (semi-public). Matching platforms are mentioned in all the EU business transfer reference documents and more particularly in the Small Business Act and its Review in 2011, the 2006 Communication, the 2013 Expert Group on SME Transfers and the recent Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. Special attention is devoted to the important challenge of efficient matching platforms in Europe. As observed in the latest (2013) EU Expert Group on Business Transfers: There is no development in the type of matching platforms recommended by the 2006 Expert Group. The “landscape” of matching platforms in Europe has changed over the past 10 years, with, among others, the co-existence of private on-line platforms alongside the public platforms. There is a need for an update in quality standards and for the consultation of matching platforms themselves in order to understand their working and identify good practices.
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Phd Thesis Higher professional education aims to prepare graduates for the complexity of professional practices. The development of conceptual understanding is important to deal adequately with this complexity, especially in an unstructured professional domain such as international business. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the concept conceptual understanding in this professional domain, how it can be measured, what it looks like, how it changes, and in what ways it differs between students. The dissertation comprises five empirical studies for which data collection took place at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
Creative SMEs are heavily focusing on the creating process designing new products and services. Consequently, their managers tend to loose contact with crucial management issues. Especially their knowledge of the financial aspects of their business can be so limited that they fail to connect with the financial viability of their business, which can lead to serious business problems. This paper draws on a number of studies that examine the role of outsiders -contracted professional service providers- in relation to business success of SMEs. In the light of the potential growth of Flemish creative SMEs on international markets the question can be raised as to what extent outsiders, and more specifically financial service providers like accountants and banks, contribute to the export success of these firms. In this paper therefore the role played by accountants and banks was explored to solve export-related questions by small furniture designers in Flanders, Belgium. Export can be considered as the most successful growth and therefore raises interesting management issues for creative SMEs. Little is known about the content and intensity of services of accountants and bank employees in relation to export-related questions of owner-managers of small creative firms. In order to examine the fit between supply and demand the focus is on outsider contribution during six phases of export.
