Process safety challenges for SMEs in China

Chemical industry parks in China are considered high-risk areas because they present numerous risks that can damage the environment, such as pollution incidents. In order to identify the environmental risks and the principal risk factors in these areas, we have developed a simple physical model of a regional environmental risk field (ERF) using existing dispersal patterns and migration models. The regional ERF zoning was also conducted and a reference value for diagnostic methods was developed to determine risk-acceptable, risk-warning, and risk-mitigation zones, which can provide a risk source layout for chemical industry parks. In accordance with the environmental risk control requirements, this study focused on the three stages of control and management of environmental risk and established an environmental risk management system including risk source identification and assessment, environmental safety planning, early risk warning, emergency management, assessment of environmental effects, and environmental remediation of pollution accidents. By using this model, the environmental risks in Tianjin Binhai New Area, the largest chemical industry park in China, were assessed and the environmental risk zoning map was drawn, which suggested the existence of many unacceptable environmental risks in this area. Thus, relevant suggestions have been proposed from the perspective of the adjustment of risk source layout, intensified management of environmental risk control and so on.

Featured chemical industrial parks in China: History, current status and outlook

Public perception and attitude towards chemical industry park in Dalian, Bohai Rim.

PurposeBy recognizing the decisive role of top managers (TMs) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study attempts to explicate the microfoundation of pro-environmental operations of SMEs by examining the influence of institutional pressure on managerial cognition and subsequent SME pro-environmental operations. This study highlights the personal ethics of TMs, so as to examine the moderating effect of TMs' place attachment on SMEs' pro-environmental operations.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data are collected from a questionnaire survey of 509 SMEs in China. Hierarchical regression results are subject to cross-validation using secondary public data.FindingsThis study demonstrates that coercive and mimetic pressures have inverted U-shaped effects, whilst normative pressure has a U-shaped effect on the threat cognition of TMs. The results also show that TMs' threat cognition (as opposed to opportunity cognition) positively influences SMEs' pro-environmental operations. Moreover, both the emotional (place identity) and functional (place dependence) dimensions of place attachment have positive moderating effects on the relationship between threat cognition and SMEs' pro-environmental operations.Practical implicationsFindings of this study lead to important implications for practitioners such as regulators, policy makers and trade associations. Enabling better understanding of the nature of SMEs' pro-environmental operations, they allow for more targeted development and the provision of optimal institutional tools to promote such operations.Originality/valueThis study allows some important factors that differentiate SMEs from large firms to surface. These factors (i.e. institutional pressures, managerial cognition and place attachment) and the interactions between them form important constituents of the microfoundations of SMEs' pro-environmental operations.

The Sustainable Development of ICTs in China: An Empirical Study of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

E-commerce and the development of modern enterprise management raise a number of challenges in the process of informatization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in china. To address this, we present an approach in which the informatization is enhanced by using Open Source Software with customized policies. We analyses the main informationization obstacles of SME in china, bring forward that the lack of bankroll, talents, cost and management etc. are the key problems to informationization of SME. Furthermore, we have developed a textile foreign trade ERP /CRM system based on Open Source Software for the local textile distributor of china integrating financial, distribution, sales and service processes, given the implement method of overall planning, step-by-step implementation, key breakthrough, and efficiency guiding. In the end, we compare the typical Open Source Software and traditional commercial software; point out the advantages of informatization based Open Source Software to SME in china, and the development trend of Open Source Software for enterprise application.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can promote the development of the national economy and society. In the market, small and medium-sized enterprises can provide jobs, promote technological development and accelerate economic growth. With the development of big data and management information systems, small and medium-sized enterprises are facing severe tests. Innovation management is an implementable way to meet this test. Innovation management is an all-round innovation from the main technology, system and management idea of an enterprise. It not only integrates the external resources of the enterprise but also improves the vitality of the enterprise itself and the ability to deal with risks. Therefore, this paper analyzes the problems and countermeasures of innovation management in SMEs in China. By using the method of a literature review, this paper expounds the requirements, current situation, and solutions of the innovative management of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises and finally draws the conclusion that SMEs should innovate organization and ideas, widen financing channels, and enhance the ability of independent innovation.

Innovation has been one of the key drivers of sustainable competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On the basis of a survey sample of 188 Chinese manufacturing SMEs, this paper explores barriers, cooperation networks and policy requirements in innovation for SMEs. This paper reveals that the ‘lack of technical experts’ is the most important barrier; the ‘customer’, the most important cooperation partner; and the ‘preferential tax policy’, the most favorable policy in innovation for SMEs. These findings reveal that many Chinese SMEs have difficulties in achieving successful innovation. Therefore, policies should be made based on internal and external constraints to facilitate innovation of SMEs, and varied depending on the size as well as the mode of ownership of firms.

Given the increase in energy consumption and pollution emissions, China has formulated a low-carbon economic development strategy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are mostly at the bottom of the industrial chain and face problems of high energy consumption and low output. The problems of survival and sustainable development of SMEs are serious under the background of low-carbon economy. SMEs play an important role in optimizing economic structure and social stability. Thus, studying the survival and sustainable development strategies of SMEs in China is necessary. This study adopts the method of market survey to perform the questionnaire design, sample selection, questionnaire issuance, and data analysis from three perspectives of policy, social, and internal environments of SMEs. This study summarizes seven factors, including financing and operation management, which restrict the survival and sustainable development of SMEs in China under the background of low-carbon economy. Moreover, this study proposes specific suggestions from internal and external environments.

Process safety practices and process safety management (PSM) systems have been applied since the various incidents and accidents in the refining and petrochemical industries over many years. In the US, the Center for Chemical Process Safety created risk-based process safety as the framework for the next generation of PSM. In petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, companies are required by law to have occupational safety programs, with a focus on personal safety, as the focus of these programs is to prevent harm to personnel from workplace accidents such as fall, cuts, strains, and so on. Petroleum refineries are one of the major energy-consuming industries that contribute to a major proportion of the production cost. Energy in a typical refinery is 60% of variable costs and 1% improvement in energy equals to ~$650,000 year saving for a 100,000 bpsd refinery.

The high concentration of hazardous sources in chemical parks, which is prone to cause chain accidents, puts forward the demand for dynamic cooperative optimization of emergency resource scheduling. Aiming at the deficiencies of existing studies in the adaptability of dynamic multi-hazard scenarios and the quantification of resource allocation fairness, this paper constructs a three-objective mixed-integer planning model that integrates time efficiency, demand coverage and allocation fairness. Fairness is innovatively quantified as an independent optimization objective, and a standard deviation-based dynamic resource allocation balance index is proposed, which combines multi-warehouse collaborative supply and multi-resource coupling constraint mechanism to systematically solve the problem of trade-offs between timeliness, adequacy and fairness in emergency dispatching in chemical accidents. The improved NSGA-II algorithm is used to solve the Pareto front efficiently, and the search efficiency is improved by the elite reservation strategy and the congestion adaptive adjustment mechanism. In the case study, comparative experiments with the weighted method and the MOGWO algorithm demonstrate that NSGA-II performs superiorly in key metrics, exhibiting excellent convergence, diversity, and stability. Based on this, a case study is conducted using a chemical industrial park in China as an example, generating 41 sets of weights covering extreme preferences, two-objective balance, and three-objective balance. Decision-makers screen solutions based on loss tolerance thresholds and select the optimal solution using a composite score of comprehensive weighted losses. The study further reveals that improvements in demand satisfaction rates are often accompanied by significant increases in transportation time, while pursuing optimal fairness may weaken overall demand satisfaction levels. Sensitivity analysis confirms that resource demand is the key driver determining the number of feasible solutions, while fairness, as an independent optimization objective, holds irreplaceable importance in emergency scheduling decisions.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of China's national economy. Their development drives employment, taxation, innovation, the market economy, and many other fields. However, due to the influence of multiple factors, the current situation of cost management in many SMEs is worrying. Common problems in their production and operation include confused corporate functions, incomplete financial systems, and weak awareness of cost budget management. This article briefly introduces the current situation of SMEs in China, combines relevant theoretical knowledge of cost management, and uses research methods such as case analysis, literature review, and comparative analysis to elaborate on and analyze the cost management of SMEs in detail. The case selected in this article is a small and medium-sized retail enterprise mainly engaged in entrusted agency and distribution. It has been established for 24 years, with a relatively mature and complete overall operation model and management system. The operational problems it reflects are representative among retail SMEs. Firstly, the article expounds on the characteristics of SMEs and the content of cost management. On this basis, taking Company H as a case, it analyzes the problems existing in the company's cost management and puts forward corresponding suggestions. The main cost management problems of SMEs include weak awareness of cost budget, unreasonable organizational structure, lax control of indirect costs, long accounts receivable cycles, and difficulty in collecting payments. Secondly, it conducts a specific analysis of the problems existing in the enterprise and proposes suggestions. The specific improvement suggestions include strengthening the awareness of cost management, improving the organizational structure of cost control, enhancing the control of indirect costs, and strengthening the management policy of accounts receivable. Finally, considering that SMEs vary in industry fields and scales, in the actual cost management process, flexible application should be made according to industry characteristics and with reference to the management experience of successful enterprises in the same industry. This paper focuses on the main influencing factors of cost management in small and medium-sized retail enterprises and how to manage the cost issues in the production and operation of enterprises, hoping to provide references for the cost management of small and medium-sized retail enterprises.

This study empirically validates the characteristics choices performance of upper echelons theory (UET) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) context. Specifically, the current study examines how SME’s top management team potency (TMTP) affects the strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) choice to improve corporate growth. Furthermore, the moderator role of environmental dynamism (ED) on TMTP-CSR has also been investigated. Survey data gathered from 686 SMEs in China were analyzed. The results show a robust partial mediation effect of CSR on SME’s growth. Furthermore, ED was also found to positively moderate TMTP - CSR. Implications and future research directions are provided.

This article tries to introduce the perspective of the “heterogeneity” of the neighbor enterprise into the research on the problem of the financing efficiency of the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It takes enterprises in the China industrial enterprises database from 2005 to 2007 as the object of the research and defines the neighbor enterprise at a town (village, street) scale. This article selects the financing efficiency, enterprise scale, technical innovation of enterprise as the indexes to measure the “heterogeneity” of the neighbor enterprise, and examines whether they have a significant relationship with the enterprises themselves or not. Through building panel data model and the empirical analysis, this article finds that the financing efficiency and the degree of technological innovation of the neighbor enterprise are positively related to the financing efficiency of enterprises themselves, and the scale of the neighbor enterprise has a negative correlation with the financing efficiency of enterprises themselves. What’s more, this paper distinguishes the neighbor enterprise from the industry unusual neighbor according to whether enterprises are belong to the same industry or not at the same town(village, street), finding the neighbor enterprises which are the same industry have a great more relationship with the financing efficiency of SMEs than the neighbor enterprises which are the non trade.

Promoting the intelligent upgrades of small and medium-sized enterprises is one of the important tasks of implementing “Made in China 2025” in China. As a front runner of nation-level reform, Zhejiang Province has provided much room for innovation and development, along with the emergence of a new type of ecology, accelerated formation of two ecosystems and international cooperation, and a supportive policy environment. Therefore, this paper uses 173 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) from Zhejiang Province as the research objects, builds a binary selection model, and analyzes the dynamic and constraining mechanism of intelligent upgrades of SMEs with regard to employee qualification, technology, capital, policy environment, and so on. The study finds that: First, among three main industries, manufacturing is the major industry for the intelligent upgrades of SMEs and there are significant demonstration effects and industry heterogeneity. Secondly, the willingness to upgrade intelligently for SMEs is relatively strong. More than half of SMEs that have not intelligently upgraded show willingness to implement intelligent upgrades. Thirdly, factors such as corporate profitability, human capital quality, and industry intelligence level have significantly promoted the intelligent upgrades of SMEs, while the impact of labor cost, capital structure, government subsidies, and other variables are not significant. This conclusion still works after a number of robustness tests. Last but not least, based on the above conclusions, this paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations which are practically beneficial to the development of SMEs in China.