Internet editorial

Citation

(2004), "Internet editorial", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 11 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2004.13111aag.001

Internet editorial

The editorial staff of Benchmarking: An International Journal (BIJ) is committed to helping those working at a senior level in industry, the public sector, consultancy, or academic institutions, to stay current on developments in the areas of quality, technology and benchmarking. The focus of the journal is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The Internet editorials will center on sites with a similar focus. I examine sites that I feel would be of interest to BIJ readers and report my findings. I attempt to be fair and objective in the presentation of my findings.

This editorial focuses on small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). There is no universally accepted definition of an SME. In fact, the term is more often used in Europe and elsewhere than it is in the USA. In the USA the label “small business” is more commonly used than SME. The US Small Business Administration categorizes various types of small businesses by number of employees, market share, revenues, etc. Similar schemes are used to categorize SMEs in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. A popular SME definition used in the UK comes from the 1971 Bolton Committee report on small firms. In that report an SME was described as “an independent business, managed by its owner or part-owners and having a small market share” (www.dti.gov.uk/SME4/define.htm). Similar wording is used in defining a small business in the USA. The Small Business Committee of the US House of Representatives defines a small business broadly as “any type of business that does not dominate its field of business” (http://www.house.gov/smbiz/facts/#role). Statistics like number and employees, market share, and revenues can be used to more carefully define SMEs, but that is not the focus of this editorial. Now matter how one defines SMEs, one very important fact remains: SMEs, although not the corporate giants with names known around the globe, play a major role in the economies of developed and developing nations. There are many more of them than major corporations, and they are very important in terms of their contribution to the gross domestic product of nations, to employment, and in their very significant contributions to product and process innovation. Small businesses or SMEs tend to be more innovative than large firms, particularly in the area of product innovation. Most industries were spawned by the innovation of SMEs. Most truly new products are invented by SMEs and many new processes result from necessity driven innovation in SMEs. Small size, lack of bureaucracy, and an atmosphere conducive to creativity are major factors contributing to the innovativeness of SMEs. In the USA as in other countries, most new jobs are created by SMEs, not by large corporations that capture public attention. It is not an overstatement to say that without the contributions of SMEs, economies in developed and developing nations could not prosper nor could large numbers of individuals – the quality of life of individual owners, workers, and customers is enhanced by SMEs. There are just too many things that SMEs can do that large businesses cannot do. Given the importance of SMEs in local and national economies and in the constantly evolving global economy, it is quite reasonable for governments, businesses, and citizens to be concerned with the short run and long run performance of such firms. Benchmarking has proven itself to be an effective methodology for assessing and improving the performance of organizations, both public and private. There is noting about the benchmarking methodology that would make it applicable to only large firms. In fact, the benchmarking is just as appropriate for SMEs as it is for large firms, and perhaps more so. It is a relatively simple, yet powerful methodology for bringing about significant improvement in organizational performance. Surprisingly, benchmarking does not appear to be very popular with SMEs. This became abundantly clear as I conducted my research for this editorial. I found sites devoted to SMEs, but few devoted to benchmarking SME performance. Those few focused on SME benchmarking in e-commerce. Now let us turn our attention to the searches and the sites I did discover in preparing this editorial.

The searches

In all of my Internet editorials, I provide information about searches and search engines as well as benchmarking sites. Before conducting the searches for this editorial, I sought to identify two search engines that I had not used in past editorials. Most of the sites featured herein were found using “ithaki” at http://ithaki.com and “mamma” at http://www.mamma.com and Google. In addition to using two “new” search engines (new in the sense that it is the first time I used them in preparing my editorials), I used Google.com. I selected the search engines introduced herein from a list of search engines published on searchenginewatch.com. I have mentioned this site in other editorials. It is a good site to help one find the “right” search engine for the task at hand. The site has much good information on search engines and how to make one’s searches efficient and productive. I used Google as I often do as my yardstick for comparison. Google is the number one rated search engine, and one I like very much to employ in my searches. I started my Google Searches using “benchmarking SMEs” as the search phrase. That search produced 21,000 hits. Some sites that appeared to have potential appeared in the top 30 hits, but beyond that, the sites I examined offered little promise. I searched next using “SME performance measurement” and produced 20,700 hits, but found few that appeared useful. My last search phrase was “SME best practice.” Google produced a hit list with some 81,200 hits. I found what appeared to be some potentially useful sites near the top of the list, but like my first Google search, the relevance of sites diminished quickly as I moved beyond the first 30 on the list.

The first of the “new” search engines used was ithaki at ithaki.com. Ithaki searches more than 450 search engines and gives one the flexibility to tailor the search to one’s needs. I did little more that a general search of the Web. One can limit one’s searches to specific countries, site type, document type, etc. The ability to so carefully tailor one’s searches is a major advantage of the Ithaki meta-search engine. Search Engine Watch says that “Ithaki is probably the most ‘global’ of all meta search engines, available in 14 languages and offering more than 35 different categories for limiting your search.” Country specific searches query local search engines as opposed to the regional versions of major search engines. Using “Benchmarking SMEs” as my search phrase, my first Ithaki search produced 36 hits, most of which were sites I thought were interesting and had already examined during my Google searches. Because the visited link color highlighted the sites previously visited in my Google searches, it was easy to examine the overlap with my Google searches. Not all search engines use a visited link color to denote visited links – I find that deficiency of some sites to be annoying. When I searched on “SME Performance Measurement,” the hit list contained 37 hits. Here to, all of the ones of interest (not many) had been visited and deemed useful when I did my Google searches. The last search phrase, “SME best practice,” yielded 32 hits, and as was true for the other searches, the useful sites found on the hit list were for the most part the same ones found and deemed useful in my Google searches. The ithaki hit lists produced essentially the same useful sites as Google, but with much shorter lists. I could have saved considerable time and found the same sites by using ithaki rather than Google. I plan to use ithaki again and have added it to my favorites.

The second “new” search engine I used for this editorial was Mamma at www.mamma.com Mamma is a meta search engine, and one of the oldest of its kind on the Web – not really new, but this was the first time I used it in preparing one of my Internet editorials. Mamma was launched some seven years ago. As Web sites go, that would make Mamma a bit of an antique. Mamma searches many popular crawlers and specialty search sites. Using “Benchmarking SMEs” as the search phrase, my first Mamma search produced 54 hits, and as with my ithaki searches, the overlap with the Google searches was extensive. I would have expected that since Mamma searches many of the same search engines as Google. Most of the sites on the Mamma hit list that interested me, I had already examined during my Google and ithaki searches. When I searched on “SME performance measurement,” the hit list contained 59 hits and when I used “SME best practice,” the hit list contained yielded 33 hits. In short, I found nothing using Mamma that I had not discovered in searching Google and ithaka. I should note that there was much overlap between the useful sites found on Mamma and those found on the other sites. If I had used mamma first, I would have likely spent much less time examining the hit lists and come up with essentially the same sites and pages as I did with Google. So, Mamma does have an advantage over Google when it comes to producing “useful” hits. Mamma is a good search engine, but since I have so many other options, I doubt it will end up on my list of preferred search engines. On the other hand, ithaki will!

Now it is on to the featured sites. Please note that featured sites may be the property of “for profit” enterprises, and that the principal purpose of those sites is the promotion and sale of the goods and services of the owners. My review of those sites is not a recommendation of the goods or services of those entities.

E-gatewayhttp://www.e-gateway.net/

E-gateway is a self-described gateway to electronic commerce. It is an e-commerce awareness project with the mission of supporting and guiding SMEs in the development of e-commerce solutions. I could well have featured this site in my editorial that focused benchmarking e-commerce. I do not recall examining the site while conducting research for that editorial. E-gateway was initiated by the European Commission in 1999 and is funded by the same. Its mission is to “Provide all information necessary to help small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) to start up with and develop electronic business”. The target audience is SME decision-makers that have little or no experience with electronic commerce and who need access to specific solutions/solution providers who can help them. The public, free of charge, database of (non-)profit organizations, projects and studies related to electronic commerce with a global approach is the main offering of e-gateway. E-gateway is an interesting site and one with something to offer researchers or practitioners with an interest in SME benchmarking. It is noteworthy that there is a German counterpart for the site–it appears to be essentially the same, only published in German rather than English. E-gateway is coordinated by InvestitionsBank Hessen AG, but supported by a large network of partners from the public and private sector in Europe and in the USA. Non-profit e-gateway partners include the US Department of Commerce, BeSIG – Belgium Software Industry Group, Chambre de Commerce et d’industrie de Bourgogne and more, and commercial partners include firms like Sun microsystems, Tiscali and NETSCAPE. The site has many features that I will examine, but I will focus more closely on those that seem most pertinent to benchmarking.

The navigation bar on the left side of the e-gateway homepage makes navigation of the site easy. Pages are well organized and uncluttered, making them pleasing to the eye and easy to search for information. The first button on the navigation bar is the “Database” link. The database is designed to support searches for products, companies, countries and such. You can add your own company’s information to the database if you so choose. You must request a username and password to do this, but it does not take long. If it is contacts, or products one is searching for, then the database is useful. If it is topic specific information one desires, the database is of little value. The “Info Area” button (link) accesses a page that contains many links, organized by category. You view the category links by selecting a Main link category from the Topics area links on the right side of the page. Main link categories include the following: “Country Specific Information,” “European Union,” and “Web Standards.” Each “Main” link category has subcategory links for accessing pages with subcategory links. Each link has a brief description of the link target that generally provides enough information to determine relevance before following the link. This is an efficient way to organize the links because it makes the links and information easy to find and it avoids clutter. The links are searchable. You can type in a search term and the links are then searched for matches. Unfortunately, I found no particularly useful links pertaining to benchmarking SMEs, but I did not follow every link in every category. The next button on the navigation bar, the one labeled “best practice,” is perhaps the most useful for those with an interest in benchmarking in SMEs. Anyone familiar with benchmarking understands that it is important to try to use best practice, wherever it can be found (inside or outside the firm, in the same or another industry, in the public or the private sector) in setting benchmarks by which to assess organizational performance. Topic links under best practice include case studies, best practice examples and more. Many of these links access articles or case studies that describe best practice, often pertaining specifically to SMEs. Good, detailed information is available in many of these documents that would be helpful to SME managers interested in benchmarking some area of performance, particularly those pertaining to e-commerce. The “Studies” link, like the “Best Practice” link has links to much good information, though it is quite broad in scope. Some of it would be pertinent to best practice and benchmarking. Studies are available from organizations such as The Industry Standard, Gemini Consulting, Forrester and Tieke, that provide statistics and other information about global trends in internet use, telecommunications, economic growth and more. The “Studies” link is definitely one worth visiting. I examined the “Events” link, also on the navigation bar, but found the information thereon to be dated. The updates apparently stopped sometime back in 2002. That makes the information on the Events page nearly worthless, unless one is interested in past events. The same was true of the “Newsletter” link (button). The last Newsletter contained in the archive was dated September 2002. I am left to assume that there is no longer an interest in publishing the Newsletter. I examined some of the old Newsletters and found some to contain some interesting information, pertaining mostly to e-commerce and telecommunications. There were statistics on Internet use in different countries, by different segments, and more. It is unfortunate that the Newsletter is no longer published, since it appears to have been well done, containing useful information about many issues important to SMEs involved or wanting to be involved in e-commerce. The “Press” button had links to articles and papers, but I saw none that pertained to benchmarking or best practice and none that were current. The most recent was published in 1999. There were two more buttons on the navigation bar. One was the “Feedback” button that allowed one to contact e-gateway, and the other was the “About” button that accessed a page where one could find out more about e-gateway.

There were positives about the site and negatives, but the negatives outweighed the positives. I was quite impressed when I first found the site, thinking it would be quite useful. I was really quite impressed with the way the site was designed/organized. I liked the link organization more than that of any site I have recently visited. It sure made it quick and efficient to find links and it avoided the cluttered look one observes on many Web sites. By the time I had finished examining the site, I was disappointed. I had not found as much information about benchmarking as I had hoped, but I was most disappointed in the lack of recent updates. It appears that the organizations that sponsor and maintain the site have lost interest. That is a shame as the site has potential, but no site’s potential is realized without an ongoing commitment to update and change it over time. To summarize, one might want to visit the site to examine the “Best practice” and “Studies” links. Some good information pertaining to benchmarking can be found through those links. I would not recommend that one waste time looking for benchmarking information pertaining to SMEs elsewhere on the site. Additionally, one might find the site useful if one is looking for products or suppliers, as the database is really designed to provide information of that nature.

Small & Medium Enterpriseshttp://www.sme.gov.eg/

The Small & Medium Enterprises Web site is sponsored by the Egyptian Government. In a statement by H.E. Dr Youssef Boutros-Ghali, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade, he clearly demonstrates the Egyptian Government’s commitment to encouraging SMEs as well as micro enterprises. The Egyptian Government recognizes the critical role that businesses of relatively small size play in a vibrant industrial society by generating employment, responding quickly to changing economic and market conditions, by promoting economic diversity, and more. Of particular import to Egypt in modernizing its economy are the issues of export and SME development. SMEs represent about 99 percent of the Egyptian non-agricultural private sector (that statistic is similar to Small Businesses numbers in the USA), three quarters of the total labor force in the private sector, and 75 percent of the value added business activities. SME success is critical to the Egyptian Government’s effort to increase exports and improve the balance of trade. Much of the work in promoting SMEs in Egypt is a consequence of policy work undertaken by the Ministry of Foreign Trade in partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC). The Egyptian Government’s recognition of the importance of SMEs was the motivation for creating this Web site to promote SMEs.

The SME Web site is pleasing in appearance and easy to navigate. One has the option of viewing it in English or Arabic (choices can be made on the right side of the homepage). The navigation bar appears on the center of the homepage and uses some dynamic link enhancements to make the links respond in a visually pleasing manner to a mouse-over event. There are 11 links on this navigation bar. The first link is labeled “Introduction” and accesses a page that provides considerable background about the importance of SMEs in Egypt. The discussion on that page highlights the critical role of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade (MOFT) in promoting SME development and success. Although somewhat lengthy, the introduction provides good information about the role of SMEs in the Egyptian economy and the motivation for the site. The second link is one labeled “SMEPoL” which is an abbreviation for SME Policy Project. The page accessed through that link describes the efforts of the Government of Egypt to “embrace a more open and participatory approach to improving the operating environment of the M (Micro firms)/SMEs sector” in Egypt. A major goal is to encourage more rapid transition to a market economy and thus greater competitiveness. The project is ongoing – started in 2000 and is scheduled for completion in 2004. It is noteworthy that, on the left side of each page visited, there appears a plain navigation bar containing all of the same links found on the home page. The third link entitled “Policy Areas” provides more detail than most of us might care to read about the existing and evolving Egyptian Government policy toward SMEs. One thing is clear; much research has been devoted to examining what must be done, and these policies provide complete and well thought-out guidelines to get the job done in a timely manner. The next link is one called “Events and Activities.” That link accesses a page that describes various events that have to do with policy development. It did not appear to be current. The last event posted was one scheduled for May 8, 2002. I suspect other events have taken place, but that the page simply has not been updated to reflect it. Other pages on the site seem to have been neglected also, but most seem current. The next link is labeled “Publications.” The publications on the page accessed through that link had to do primarily with policy matters. The papers found on that page included titles like: “A background paper relative to increasing accessibility of finance for M/SME: credit scoring and credit bureaus,” “Streamlining the regulatory procedures for small and medium enterprises: ‘the one stop shop model’,” and “Increasing exports for small and medium enterprises.” Although benchmarking was not the topic for any of the papers, the benchmarking process could surely be valuable in gauging performance in implementing some of these policies. The next link, one called “SME Resources,” is under construction. This would be a good place for benchmarking related assistance for SMEs. The next link is labeled “SME Statistical Information,” and this one actually has something to offer visitors who may be interested in benchmarking or best practice in Egypt. Egypt publishes on this page many useful statistics about SMEs. The statistics could be quite useful to other countries striving to increase SME impact in their own economies – many countries are attempting to do so. Certainly, they provide a basis for Egypt’s own benchmarking – comparing itself over time to its own past performance in key areas. Many, many statistics are presented on the statistics page and they are presented in easy to read tables with adequate text to help the visitor understand the statistics – they are of course descriptive statistics. The next link is the “NewsLetters” link. Each newsletter (some are fairly lengthy) describes MOFT activities and efforts on the part of SME promotion and development in Egypt. The newsletters are not very interesting to read, but they do document the MOFT commitment to SMEs. The “Hot Links” are links to what can best be described as government sponsored sites around the world that encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and of course SMEs. One will find links to chambers of commerce in the USA and the UK, Small business development centers, various other organizations that promote SMEs, and more. For governments wishing to benchmark their efforts to promote SMEs, some of these links would be worth a visit. To illustrate, there is a site called “Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation” at http://www.jasmec.go.jp/english/index.html that is very much like the Egyptian site in content and purpose. The “Contact Us” link accesses a page that contains addresses, e-mail addresses and site URLs that will assist one in contacting the MOFT or other relevant Egyptian Government Agencies. The last link is the “Search” link. I tried a search on benchmarking, but came up empty-handed – no results.

Even though I did not discover articles or specific discussions of benchmarking on the Egyptian SME site, I felt the site was worth the visit. It shows one government’s commitment to promoting SMEs in recognition of SME importance in its economic development. I believe the site provides useful information that other countries with similar initiatives could possibly use for benchmarking their own SME promotion efforts. I discovered numerous such government-sponsored sites in preparing this editorial.

Research Institute for SMEshttp://www.uqtr.uquebec.ca/inrpme/anglais/PME-A.shtml/

The Research Institute for SMEs (RISME) is actually part of the Department of Management and Economics at the Université du Québec a Trois-Rivières (UQTR). The mission of the institute is to advance knowledge on SMEs and further their development, primarily by supporting fundamental and applied research. Knowledge transfer is a major goal – transfer of knowledge produced from research directly to SMEs and to other organizations that help SMEs. The institute provides a vehicle for transferring knowledge about SMEs to undergraduate and graduate students of the UQTR Department of Management and Economics as well. The RISME homepage is pleasing to the eye. On that page one will find a navigation bar (left side of page) to make site navigation easy.

The “Profile” link found on the navigation bar allows one to visit a page where one can read about the background of RISME and learn about its purpose and origin. One can acquire a good understanding of what RISME is all about–research, education, and knowledge dissemination. The “Collaborations” link was probably created to provide information about specific institute collaborations, but only a general statement about such collaborations appears on that page. The “Partners” link contains a list of RISME partners. The list is actually comprised of hyperlinks to the sites of partners, which allow one to visit partner sites and learn more about them. Among the RISME partners are Bombardier Recreational Products, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Industry Canada, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and more. Most appear to be government agencies of some sort rather than private entities. The next link is the “Projects” link. This is the one link that offers some promise in providing information relative to benchmarking SMEs. The projects page lists various RISME projects completed or in progress. All are links to pages that provide project overviews. All are basically summaries, but I assume that additional details can be obtained by contacting the institute – there are no links on the project detail pages to help one learn more about the projects. I found one project to be particularly interesting. In fact, it was reference to this project in the hit list summary information that attracted me to this site. That project involved the development of a Web site for SME benchmarking. I found no link to the SME benchmarking site, so I concluded that it was not complete at the time of my research for this editorial. If and when that project is completed, it should be valuable to BIJ readers with an interest in benchmarking SMEs. The “Publications” link accesses a page that contains four links to publications. There is a link to a list of research papers, one for books, one for Theses completed by UQTR students (not available online), and one for the only French language scientific journal focusing on SMEs. That journal is called Revue Internationale PME and is managed by researchers from UQTR, Montepellier University (France), and Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). Abstracts from published articles are available on line, but not the full-text articles. The abstracts are published in French of course, so I could not really examine them in order to comment on topics covered – I don’t read or speak French. The journal may contain articles pertaining to benchmarking. Back on the homepage, the link labeled “Related links” accesses a page with links to numerous organizations, primarily other research centers, universities, government agencies, or other non-profits. The basic theme of most of the linked sites is entrepreneurship or small business. Many but not all are French language sites. I perused the pages of many of the linked sites, but found nothing of particular relevance to benchmarking SMEs. In fact, I did not find much pertaining specifically to SMEs. The last link on the navigation bar was the “Bulletin board” link. I examined the bulletin board and found that it was not the type of bulletin board I expected. Rather than an interactive bulletin board, it was just a place for posting dates for meetings and such. The last posting was dated December 11, 2002. Either there is not much activity at the institute, or there is not much effort to keep the bulletin board page current. The last link I wish to mention is the “Reach us” link. It appears at the top of the home page and then again at the top and bottom of all pages in the page resident navigation bars. Through the Reach us link one can obtain addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses that might be helpful in getting more information about RISME, its projects, activities, and plans for the future.

As with most other sites reviewed in this editorial, I was disappointed at the conclusion of my site review of RISMEs. I really expected more information on SMEs generally and had hoped to find information on benchmarking in SMEs specifically. I was attracted to the site by the SME Benchmarking Web site project, but disappointed when I discovered there was no site to examine. In fairness to those responsible for the site, I must say that it is well designed and pleasant to view. Unfortunately the site is short on content, and the quest for content was my primary reason for visiting the site – I was attracted to the site in hopes of finding some good content pertaining to SMEs. There was simply not an abundance of SME related information on the site. Unfortunately for me, much of what was there was in French, so I could not read it. Perhaps with time the site will improve. Even thought UQTR is in Quebec, much of Canada is “English speaking,” so an English version of the site would be a plus if the institute’s goal is to serve the broader audience of Canada and the world. Their mission did not imply a narrow focus only on SMEs in Quebec. I was not very impressed with the RISMEs site.

Russian SME Resource Centrehttp://www.rcsme.ru/eng/

The Russian SME Resource Centre (RCSME) is a non-profit foundation that was established under the Tacis program. The Tacis program is a European Union initiative designed to encourage the development of mutually beneficial economic and political links among the EU members and partner countries in Eastern Europe. RCSME is independent and funded by technical assistance donor programs or through commercial contracts. The stated mission of RCSME is to “provide assistance to private entrepreneurship development in the Russian Federation.” Specific RCSME objectives include the following:

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  providing information support and policy advisory services to business support institutions and entrepreneurs;

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  conducting research and disseminate publications on issues important to SMEs;

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  using the RCSME Web site to make information and resources about small business development available to RCSME constituents; and

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  promoting cooperation in small business development with interested Russian, international and foreign partners.

Resources available on the RCSME Web site include, but are not limited to the following:

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  SME statistics;

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  contact information for SME informational and support organizations across Russia;

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  an electronic library on entrepreneurship and a large collection of analytical and practical materials on small business in Russia; and

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  results of surveys on SME development in Russia.

RCSME partners include the Academy of Management, the All-Russia Association for SME Development, Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce, USAID, the Federal Fund for SME Support, the World Bank, the Eurasia Foundation, UNCTAD, the European Business Club and more. Now I will turn my attention to the Web site contents.

The RCSME Homepage is well designed and aesthetically appealing. One has the option of viewing the Russian or English version of the site (options appear in upper right hand corner of page). I of course opted for the English version, but did look briefly at the Russian version just to see if the look was the same. It was! I was informed by RCSME personnel that the Russian version has more information than the English version. Most links on the homepage appear in the navigation bar on the left side of the page, but there are a few others worth noting. I will start with them. First, there is a “News” link that is intended to access a News page. At the time of my visit, the news page was apparently under construction, or at least that is what the message said. The page did nevertheless contain a number of news items. The news items are mostly notices about conferences, workshops and such. I did see a couple notices about projects, and from what I could gather, they were ongoing projects or planned projects. There were very recent updates to the News page with the most recent made on May 5, 2003. Basically the News page was current. Compared to other sites I visited for this editorial, currency (keeping the site updated) is a big plus for the RCSME site. Another link at the top of the homepage is the “Library” link. The Library link accesses a page containing articles and reports, most of which were current. All that I examined were downloadable and some had short abstracts one could examine before downloading. The documents were in Word format rather than pdf, which might be a bit worrisome to those that do not have Word, or might be concerned about viruses. If one’s virus software is kept current, the risk should be minimal of getting a virus from one of these files. Zipped versions of the Word files are available for faster downloading. Some of the documents looked quite interesting. As an example, there was one document entitled “Administrative barriers for SME development: the problem and solutions (January 2001).” That manuscript reported on the results of a survey to study the problem, define it in legal terms, and suggest solutions for reducing such barriers. I read some of it and the manuscript was well done – it was short but had many figures and illustrations to make important points. The other link not on the Navigation bar that I wanted to mention was the “Statistics” link. The page accessed via this link contained statistical information on SMEs. The most recent ones were dated December 2002. That particular document was an update of SME statistics based on data from Goskomstat. The SME statistics were presented in the form of various types of charts and graphs and made understanding the statistical data quick and easy. The document was very well done. Other links on the statistics page included “Definition of SME in Russia,” “SME statistics from RF regions,” “Recent statistics on small enterprises in Russia in diagrams,” and a “Statistical Archive” link that accessed a page containing other statistical reports. One other link appeared on that page and it was a link to the “Russian SME Observatory Report,” which I will mention later. I was quite impressed with all of the documents containing statistics, and in particular with the manner of presentation. They were obviously prepared to be used by a wide variety of constituents – practitioners and the likes along with researchers and bureaucrats. Now, I will discuss the links on the navigation bar.

The first link on the navigation bar is entitled “Mission” and accesses a page housing a very detailed description of the RCSME mission, major objectives, partners and more. Much of my general information about this site came from the Mission page. Next, the “Publications” link accesses a page housing major RCSME publications. Only one was available when I visited the page and that one was entitled The Russian SME Observatory Report, published in 2002. That extremely detailed report is available for download in parts, which is a good thing because of the total length of the report. To give one some idea of the size of the report, the executive summary was 16 pages in length. The report presents a detailed and comprehensive view of the current state of SMEs in Russia. It contains a wealth of information about SMEs in Russia and, like other RCSME documents I examined, it is very well done. I assume that other such documents might be available on the Publications page in the future. The next navigation bar link is labeled “Feedback,” and it accesses a page designed to solicit feedback about the site. There is a form on the page for that purpose. Next, there is an “Address” link for accessing the information needed to contact RCSME – it is located in Moscow. In addition to the RCSME address, phone and fax numbers are available on the Address page. The last link on the RCSME Homepage is the “Staff” link. The page accessed via that link contains the names, titles, specialization and e-mail addresses of key RCSME personnel. The information on that page would allow one to ascertain who might be contacted for area specific details about the Russian SME Research Center and its research, activities, and publications.

I must say that the RCSME site was the most impressive and best maintained of any examined for this Internet editorial. The site was not only pleasing to the eye, it was well organized, the content was excellent, and it was current. It is a good model for other countries or organizations that want to develop similar sites. I commend the staff of RCSME for their excellent work.

Other sites devoted to the assistance SMEs and SME development

I mentioned in discussing sites above that there are numerous other sites dedicated to helping SMEs and expanding their influence in the economies of countries and in the global economy. I have listed a few of those sites below and provided a very short summary of each. Many more such sites can be found on the Web.

Best Business Web Siteshttp://www.smeguide.gr/

Best Business Websites (BBW) is a Web site devoted to SME best practice in Web site management (design, development, implementation and operation). The site is sponsored by Heletel Ltd, a for-profit enterprise. Heletel conducted a study of best practice on the Web back in 1999. That study aimed to “identify the best practices on the Internet, and give practical answers to the question: what makes a web site successful?” Heletel, Ltd decided to present the results of that study on the Web – they are presented on the BBW site. The study was financed by the Enterprise DG of the European Commission and attracted participants from five European countries.

Scottish Small Business Gatewayhttp://www.ecommerce-scotland.org/sbg.htm

The Scottish Small Business Gateway, provided by the Scottish Enterprise Network and local partners for Scotland’s small business community, is a single access point for a range of integrated services including sign posting, access to business information and advice, assistance in business start-up, and assistance in business expansion. The Gateway’s emphasis is on e-business assistance, and services are aimed primarily at business start-up operations and SMEs in Scotland. Most services are available free of charge.

A research centre of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The SMESS Centre focuses on issues related to the design and implementation of management support systems grounded in economics. The centre prefers to focus on SMEs because they are believed to be an ideal setting for examining the impact of Control Systems on Entrepreneurship.

Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Corporationhttp://www.jasmec.go.jp/english/index.html

Launched in 1999, the Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation (JASMEC) operates the Small Business Credit Insurance Corporation (Japan CIC), the Japan Small Business Corporation (JSBC), and the Textile Industry Restructuring Agency. JASMEC is the implementing body for Japan’s SME policy. More specifically, JASMEC promotes new business ventures, provides guidance and financing for upgrading projects, administers the Small Business Credit Insurance System and the Machinery Credit Insurance System, aids in human resource development, provides information services, technical upgrading and support for internationalization for SMEs, provides a mutual relief system for small-scale enterprises and a mutual relief system for the prevention of bankruptcies in SMEs, and supports the restructuring of the textile industry. In short JASMEC plays a lead role in implementing Japanese SME policy.

These and other sites are devoted to assisting and encouraging the development of SMEs around the world. When I first started researching the topic of benchmarking in SMEs, I was quite disappointed in what I was finding on the Web – I found few sites that would be helpful in benchmarking performance within an SME. After examining the sites I did find in my searches, I realized that benchmarking SMEs might be important in another context–there is a need for benchmarking SME development in various countries and regions of the world. I found many sites that might assist in such an effort and featured some of them in this Internet editorial. So, while I was at first disappointed in my findings, I realized that my findings do have value in benchmarking, but in a different context than first thought. In short, I believe that the competitive nature of the global economy, and the importance of SMEs in the performance of individual economies, makes benchmarking SME development and performance within countries and regions an important undertaking. Countries, particularly developing countries, can benefit from best practice in SME development. Developing nations can benchmark their performance against countries that have been successful in encouraging SME growth and a greater SME role in economic growth and development. I found good resources on the Web to assist in such an endeavor.

The focus BIJ is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The content of this Internet editorial is consistent with that focus. SMEs play a major role in the success of industrialized nations. As important, if not more so, is the role of SMEs in developing nations. SME development and performance in developing countries is key to enhancing competitiveness and improving the standard of living for the citizens of those countries. Benchmarking is a proven methodology for bringing about significant improvement in key areas of performance in all types of organizations, public and private. The benchmarking methodology could contribute to improving the efforts of countries to expand and improve SME influence in their economies thus making those countries more able to help themselves internally and to compete in the global economy. Many of the sites examined in this editorial could be helpful in developing such a national SME benchmarking initiative. If you are familiar with other valuable Web-based resources dedicated to benchmarking SME performance, you may wish to provide location details (URL, etc.) so that they can be included in future editorials. I will gladly revisit an area of focus from past editorials, if I can disclose additional resources of value. My goal is to write Internet Editorials that will be valuable to BIJ readers. Any assistance you can provide to help me achieve that goal is appreciated. If you have a site or know of a site that you would like to see featured in future editorials, please e-mail me your suggestions. Send your comments and suggestions to Ronald McGaughey at ronmc@mail.uca.edu.