In April 2005, the report titled ‘Internationals for SMEs’ was published (Braaksma 2005). The authors aim to focus on the ‘international’ in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), by giving an account of the professional profile of the more highly educated for international positions in SMEs. The …

A Chinese colleague of mine said to me the other day: “You’re an old man!” I was really hurt by this remark, because first of all do I not feel old and secondly, there are things that I would definitively not like to hear from a young woman. My colleague on her part probably wondered why my reaction …

This study focuses on SME networks of design and high-tech companies in Southeast Netherland. By highlighting the personal networks of members across design and high-tech industries, the study attempts to identify the main brokers in this dynamic environment. In addition, we investigate whether specific characteristics …

The adoption of social media (web 2.0) in the e-marketing strategy of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is not yet researched much. Research findings in bigger companies in the USA, Europe and the Netherlands suggest that the issue is high on the think list of marketers and entrepreneurs. But what …

Will multinational SMEs use internationalisation to achieve labour cost savings at the expense of employees both in their home country and abroad or will they transfer their existing employee-oriented practices to their foreign subsidiaries? This paper argues that the answer to this question is affected …

Sustainable development will be a major driving force for new developments in businesses. Most companies are very much aware of that but find it difficult to translate this insight into concrete actions. An often observed obstacle is that most, particularly SME's, find it difficult to evaluate how sustainability …

Innovation seems to be the most important element of activities of companies to stay vital in a very competitive international market. Innovation is the process of developing products or services in an organisation for a market. Especially small and medium-sized companies, for which it is difficult to …

To make sustainable management and innovation attractive for companies, they need focus. In particular SME's don't have a clear view on where innovation should be aimed at in relation to sustainability. It just seems too complex. At the same time innovation suffers from the 'innovation paradox': much …

With Fontys' new educational developments we became part of the project called 'BILOBA'. The principal outlines of this new education are based on developing competences, communication by ICT and setting up a major-minor educational system. Fontys has already developed 40 minors with topics related to …

Since 2000, all Dutch Universities of Professional Education are confronted with three major renewals. The first was the European agreement to implement the Bachelor-Master system in Higher Education. The second was the strong tendence to renew eduction towards Competence Based Education. The third renewal …