International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management
Quarterly Publication

Exploring relationship between the development of small and medium scale enterprises and the employment of universities graduate

https://doi.org/10.22034/IJHCUM.2020.03.04
Volume 5, Issue 3 - Serial Number 19
Summer 2020
Pages 217-230
International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management

Document Type : ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Authors

S.H. Mesaeli 1
Y. Vakil Alroaia 2

1 Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran

2 Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Research Center, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran,

Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Over recent years the employment creation discussion was massively raised especially about university graduates and demands from Iran's government increased. The prediction of the youth unemployment rate during the period from 2015 to 2021 showed that with an annual growth rate of 5%, in the last year of the period, the unemployment rate for youth would be equal to 9.36%, and for university graduates will be 36%. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to provide an applied model for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development and university graduates’ employment in Iran.
METHODS: In this regard, an appropriate model was defined by studying the literature about small and medium enterprises development models and extracting effective factors according to Iran’s situation.  In the second stage, after selecting a sample of 60 small and medium enterprises in Iran, in order to quantitatively testing the model, the data were collected by a questionnaire and were analyzed with the help of PLS ​​software. In the third stage, the relative importance of factors were tested from the perspective of 10 experts in the field of entrepreneurship with more than 15 years of work experience with the help of ANP and PROMETHEE methods.
FINDING: The results shows the preference value (Φ) of these factors respectively include the parameters of: Technology, innovation, and competitiveness (Φ=0.72); Financial support programs (Φ=0.63); Education and consultancy services (Φ=-0.38); Cooperative relationships (Φ=-0.41); and Export development (Φ=-0.55).
CONCLUSION: Changing market conditions enable SMEs to respond more agile and faster to customer needs, improve the quality of their products, reduce the cost of their production, and their tendency to recruit university graduates.

Keywords

Small and Medium scale Enterprises
development of Small and Medium Enterprises
Employment of Universities Graduate
Subjects
 Amin aghai, M., (2008). Investigating the factors affecting the employment rate of small businesses in Iran. Soc. Sci. 15(41): 87-123 (37 pages). (In Persian)
Amini. A., (2015). Analysis of the labor market and employment policies of Iran's economy with emphasis on the Fourth Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan. Econ. J., 15:23-40 (18 pages). (In Persian).
Brans, J.P.; Vincke, P.; Mareschal, B., (1986). How to select and how to rank projects: The PROMETHEE method. Eur. J. Oper. Res., 24(2): 228-238 (11 pages).
Bodlaj, M.; Kadic-Maglajlic, S.; Vida, I., (2018). Disentangling the impact of different innovation types, financial constraints and geographic diversification on SMEs' export growth. J. Bus. Res., 108, (January 2020): 466-475 (10 pages).
Chen, L.; Xu, J.; Zhou, Y., (2017). Regulating the environmental behavior of manufacturing SMEs: Interfirm alliance as a facilitator. J. Clean. Prod., 165: 393-404 (12 pages).
Entezari, Y., (2016). Higher Education and Graduates Employment Capacities. Iranian Higher Education Journal, 8:1-25 (25 pages). (In Persian)
Falk, M.; Figueira de Lemos, F., (2019). Complementarity of R&D and productivity in SME export behavior. J. Bus. Res., 96: 157-168 (12 pages).
Garcia-Perez-de-Lema, D.; Madrid-Guijarro, A.; Martin, D.P., (2017). Influence of university–firm governance on SMEs innovation and performance levels. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change, 123: 250-261 (12 pages).
Giotopoulos, I.; Kontolaimou, A.; Korra, E.; Tsakanikas, A., (2017). What drives ICT adoption by SMEs? Evidence from a large-scale survey in Greece. J. Bus. Res., 81: 60-69 (10 pages).
Gorsuch, R.L., (1983). Factor Analysis. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hillsdale, NJ.
Institute of Research and Planning in Higher Education, (2018). Iranian higher education statistics at a glance for the academic year 2017-2018.  IOP Publishing irpheWeb.
Jernström, E.; Karvonen, V., Kässi, T., Kraslawski, A.; Hallikas, J., (2017). The main factors affecting the entry of SMEs into bio-based industry. J. Clean. Prod. 141:1-10 (10 pages).
Latifian, A., (2006). The Role of Information Technology in Entrepreneurship and the Creation of Employment for Academic Graduates. The first conference on the identification of capabilities, obstacles and employment strategies for university graduates. (In Persian)
Limaj, E.; Bernroider, E.W.N., (2019). The roles of absorptive capacity and cultural balance for exploratory and exploitative innovation in SMEs. J. Bus. Res., 94: 137-153 (17 pages).
Lin, F.J.; Lin, Y.H., (2016). The effect of network relationship on the performance of SMEs. J. Bus. Res., 69: 1780-1784 (5 pages).
Malek Saeedi, H., (2017). Analysis of Allocation of Credit Facilities Granted by Agricultural Bank to Create Job Opportunities in the Agricultural Sector: The Case of Farmers in Bushehr Province. J. Agric. Educ. Ext., 9: 35-42 (8 pages). (In Persian)
Mamman, A.; Bawole, J.; Agbebi, M.; Alhassan, AR., (2019). SME policy formulation and implementation in Africa: Unpacking assumptions as opportunity for research direction. J. Bus. Res., 97: 304-315 (12 pages).
Movvahedi, R., (2017). Analysis of Barriers to Agricultural Graduates' Employment. J. Agri. Educ. Admin. Res., 9: 79-95 (17 pages). (In Persian)
Mozayyeni, A.H., (2017). Pathology of recruiting graduates to the labor market (with emphasis on the role of science and technology parks). Iran. Higher Educ. J., 9: 19-50 (32 pages). (In Persian)
Ormazabal, M.; Prieto-Sandoval, V.; Puga-Leal, R.; Jaca, C., (2018). Circular Economy in Spanish SMEs: Challenges and opportunities. J. Clean. Prod., 185:157-167 (11 pages).
Özer, K.O.; Latif, H.; Sarıışık, M.; Ergün, Ö., (2012). International Competitive Advantage of Turkish Tourism Industry: A Comperative Analyse of Turkey and Spain By Using The Diamond Model of M. Porter. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci., 58:1064-1076 (13 pages).
Parsapour, S.; Barati, J.; Rasoul zadeh, M., (2017). Investigating the Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Small Firms and Entrepreneurs (Case Study of Industrial Firms of Mashhad). J. Dev. Entrep., 10: 41-60 (20 pages). (In Persian)
Rahnavard, F.; Husseini, M., (2005). Key factors in the success of employment in the industrial sector. J. Manage. Dev. Proc., 63:7-18 (12 pages). (In Persian)
Saaty, T.L., (1996). Decision Making with Dependence and Feedback: The Analytic Network Process. Rws Publications, Pittsburgh.
Saridakis, G.; Lai, Y.; Mohammed, A.M.; Hansen, J.M., (2018). Industry characteristics, stages of E-commerce communications, and entrepreneurs and SMEs revenue growth. Technol. Forecast Soc. Change, 128: 56-66 (11 pages).
Tayyebi, SK.; Satei, M.; Samimi, P., (2010). The Effect of Bank Facility on Employment of Iran's Economic Sectors. J. Money Econ., 2: 1-33 (33 pages). (In Persian)
UNIDO., (2003). Stragegy document to enhance the contribution of an efficient and competitive small and medium-sized enterprise sector to industrial and economic development in the Islamic Republic of Iran. IOP Publishing UNIDOWeb.
Vernon, R., (1966). International investment and international trade in the product cycle. Q. J. Econ., 80: 190–207 (18 pages).
Vernon, R., (1971). Sovereignty at bay: The multinational spread of US enterprises. J. In. Econ., 2: 455-462 (8 pages).
Vernon, R., (1979). The product cycle hypothesis in a new international environment. OXFORD B ECON STAT, 41: 255–267 (13 pages).
  • Receive Date 02 April 2020
  • Revise Date 02 May 2020
  • Accept Date 20 June 2020

Home

Authorship

Submit Manuscript

Indexing and Abstracting

Editorial Board

Unrestricted Reuse in Compliance with BOAI

Open Access Policy

Self-Archiving Policy

Privacy Statement

Publisher Business Model

Publisher and Sponsor

Contact Us