A Systematic Approach to Identify Promising New Items for Small to Medium Enterprises: A Case Study
School of Business, Kwangwoon University, 26 Kwangwoon-gil (447-1, Wolgye-dong), Nowon-Gu, Seoul 139-701, Korea
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: JinHyo Joseph Yun and Marc A. Rosen
Sustainability 2016, 8(11), 1158; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111158
Received: 27 August 2016 / Revised: 25 October 2016 / Accepted: 3 November 2016 / Published: 10 November 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Open Innovation Capabilities of Firms for Value Chain Development)
Despite the growing importance of identifying new business items for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), most previous studies focus on conglomerates. The paucity of empirical studies has also led to limited real-life applications. Hence, this study proposes a systematic approach to find new business items (NBIs) that help the prospective SMEs develop, evaluate, and select viable business items to survive the competitive environment. The proposed approach comprises two stages: (1) the classification of diversification of SMEs; and (2) the searching and screening of business items. In the first stage, SMEs are allocated to five groups, based on their internal technological competency and external market conditions. In the second stage, based on the types of SMEs identified in the first stage, a set of alternative business items is derived by combining the results of portfolio analysis and benchmarking analysis. After deriving new business items, a market and technology-driven matrix analysis is utilized to screen suitable business items, and the Bruce Merrifield-Ohe (BMO) method is used to categorize and identify prospective items based on market attractiveness and internal capability. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach, a case study is presented.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
identification of promising ideas; SMEs; benchmarking analysis; Bruce Merrifield-Ohe (BMO)
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Jeong, S.; Han, J.; Kim, J. A Systematic Approach to Identify Promising New Items for Small to Medium Enterprises: A Case Study. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1158. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111158
AMA Style
Jeong S, Han J, Kim J. A Systematic Approach to Identify Promising New Items for Small to Medium Enterprises: A Case Study. Sustainability. 2016; 8(11):1158. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111158
Chicago/Turabian StyleJeong, Sukjae; Han, Jaehyun; Kim, Jihyun. 2016. "A Systematic Approach to Identify Promising New Items for Small to Medium Enterprises: A Case Study" Sustainability 8, no. 11: 1158. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111158
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit