中小企业盈利能力分析中英文对照外文翻译文献.docx

中小企业盈利能力分析中英文对照外文翻译文献.docx

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文献信息：

文献标题:

Skillsthatimproveprofitability:

Therelationshipbetweenprojectmanagement,ITskills,andsmalltomediumenterpriseprofitability（提高盈利能力的技能：

项目管理、IT技能和中小型企业盈利能力之间的关系）

国外作者：

JulienPollack,DanielAdler

文献出处：

《InternationalJournalofProjectManagement》,2016,34（5）:

831-838

字数统计：

英2683单词，15092字符；中文4479汉字

外文文献：

Skillsthatimproveprofitability:

Therelationshipbetweenprojectmanagement,ITskills,

andsmalltomediumenterpriseprofitability

AbstractItiscommonlyassumedthatusingprojectmanagementandITskillsaregoodforbusinessperformance.ThisresearchexploredthisassumptionbytestingwhethertheuseofprojectmanagementandITskillshaveapositiveaffectonbusiness*totalsalesandprofitability.TheresearchdatawasdrawnfromtwolongitudinalGovernmentsurveysofsmalltomediumenterprisesinAustralia.Modelswerecreatedtodescribetherelationshipbetweenprojectmanagement,ITskills,profitabilityandtotalsalesusingmultiplelinearregressionandbinarylogisticregression.Theresultsshowthatwhencontrollingfortheinfluenceofotherbusinessskills,projectmanagementandITskillshaveasignificantpositiveinfluenceonsalesandprofitability.

Keywords:

Projectmanagement;Informationtechnology;Smalltomediumenterprise;Profitability;Sales;Businessskills

1.Introduction

Itisabasicandfundamentalassumptionthatdevelopingbusinessskillsinyouremployeesimprovestheprofitabilityofyourbusiness.Althoughitmaybedifficulttotesteachstepinthelonganddiffusecausalchainfromanimprovedemployeeskillsettoabetterbottomline,thelinkbetweendevelopingemployeecapabilityandimprovedcompanyperformanceistypicallytakenassoobviousthatitisrarelyquestioned.Thisassumptionisheldforskillssuchastheabilitytomanageprojects,whereitistakenforgrantedthatusingprojectmanagementtoreachstrategicandoperationalobjectivesimprovesperformance.Similarly,wetendtoassumethatincreasedinformationtechnology（IT）staffcapabilityhelpsbusinessesnotonlysurvive,butexcelinourcurrentlychangingtechnologicalclimate.Weretheseassumptionsfalse,therewouldbelittlejustificationtosupportthesignificantinvestmentsthatorganisationsandindividualsmakeonpersonneldevelopmentinthesedisciplines.

Manyresearchershavecommentedthatprojectmanagementimprovesthelikelihoodofanorganisationbeingsuccessful.Thebenefitsofprojectmanagementtoorganisationshavebeenexpressedasanimprovementinproductivity（McHughandHogan,2011;Cleland,1984）,effectiveness（Shenharetal.,2001）,efficiency（Stimpson,2008）,andperformance（AbbasiandAl-Mharmah,2000）,whilethebenefitsofITinvestmentarecommonlycitedasprovidingstrategicvalue（Carr,2003）,improvedproductivity（Hwangetal.,2015）,andimprovedlevelsoforganisationalinternalentrepreneurship（Benitez-Amandoetal.,2010）.ThisbodyofresearchappearstoprovidestrongjustificationforsustainingtheassumptionthatprojectmanagementandITskillssupportfinancialperformance.

However,thisassumptionremainslargelyunexamined.Intheprojectmanagementliterature,thedebatemorecommonlyfocusesondevelopingidealised,orcontingent,modelsofprojectmanagement,waysofimplementingthese,andtheexaminationofcriteriathatcontributetothesuccessandfailureofprojects.Inthisregard,theITliteratureisnotthatdifferent,withanaddedemphasisontheimpactsandopportunitiesassociatedwithspecifictechnologicaldevelopments.In2012,

Hallgren（2012）calledforanincreasedemphasisonresearchthatexploresthebasicassumptionsthatunderpinprojectmanagementresearchandpractice,andthisresearchrespondstothatcallbyquestioningwhethertheuseofprojectmanagementandITascorebusinessskillshaveanimpactonbusinesses*financialperformance,focusingontherolestheseskillsplayinAustraliansmalltomediumenterprises（SMEs）.

2.Literaturereview

Thereisalargebodyofresearchthatexaminesthewaysinwhichprojectmanagementcanbeimproved,developedandrefined,sothatorganisationalobjectivesaredeliveredmoreeffectively（e.g.HagenandPark,2013;Kloppenborgetal.,2014）.Forinstance,therehavebeenavarietyofstudiesthathavelinkedpersonalitytypestoprojectsuccess（CreasyandAnantatmula,2013;Cohenetal.,2013）,orfactorsthatimpactproductivityonprojects（Ngetal.,2004）.Otherresearchhasfocusedonprocessrelatedissues,suchasthelinkbetweenprojectmanagementprocessmaturityandprojectsuccess（MirandPinnington,2014）,orlinksbetweenthematurityoftheportfoliomanagementsysteminanorganisationandprojectsuccess（Reycketal.,2005）.Oneconsistentemphasisinthesestudiesisthattheyfocusonprojectsuccessratherthanorganisationalperformance.Therelationshipbetweenprojectandbusinesssuccessisusuallylefttoimplicationonly.

ItismorecommonforresearchtoexaminetherelationshipbetweenITandorganisationalperformance.However,this"...literaturehastraditionallyshowncontradictoryresultsregardingtheimpactoftheITartefactonfirmperfbrmance,^（Benitez-Amandoetal.,2010,p.551）.Takinge-commerceasanexample,Hauetal.（2015）foundthate-commerceaffectedthegrossoperatingprofitforsomecategoriesofhotel,whileacross-sectorstudybyHwangetal.（2015）foundnolinkbetweene-commerceandbusinessperformance.Otherstudieshavetakenanindirectapproach,oftenbasedontheassumptionthatITisanenablerofbusinessfunctionsbutnotnecessarilyonethatdirectlyimpactsuponperformance.Forexample,ITcapabilityhasbeenfoundtoindirectlyaffectbusinessperformancethroughcustomerorientation（Nakataetal.,2008）.InvestmentinIThasalsobeenfoundtopositivelyaffectacompany'sinternalentrepreneurshipculture,whichthenindirectlyaffectscompanyperformance（Benitez-Amandoetal.,2010）,andtoenableaproactiveenvironmentalstrategy,whichcaninturnmediatetheeffectofITonbusinessperformance（Benitez-AmandoandWalczuch,2012）.

InadditiontoalackofresearchthatteststheassumptionthatthereisalinkbetweenprojectmanagementskillsorITskills,andfinancialperformance,thereisatendencyintheprojectmanagementliteraturetofocusonmega-projects（e.g.Flyvbjerg,2014;Ewejeetal.,2012;Winch,2013;BradyandDavies,2014）.Incontrasttothisprevailingtrend,theresearchpresentedinthispaperfocusesontheimpactofbusinessskillsonsmalltomediumenterprise（SME）performance.Thetendencytofocusonlargerprojectsisunderstandable,givenhowentertainingitistoreadoftheirspectacularfailuresandsuccesses,andtheairofglamourassociatedwiththelargesumsinvestedinmega-projects.However,theimportanceofSMEstothesocialandeconomichealthofcountrieshaslongbeenrecognised（Becketal.,2005;SchifferandWeder,2001;Ayyagarietal.,2007）.ItisacknowledgedthatSMEsmay,anddo,contributetolargerprojects,butSMEsmorecommonlyworkonsmallerprojects.SMEsaccountfor40-70%ofthevalueaddedbythebusinesssector,and70-90%ofallenterprisesinOECDcountriesareSMEs（OECD,2013a,2013b）.ThisisconsistentwithdatafromAustralia;thecontextinwhichthisresearchisset.InAustralia,therewereoveronemillionSMEsoperatingin2012,representingover90%ofthebusinesssector（ABS,2012a,b）makingSMEprofitabilitycriticaltothebroadereconomy.IntheseSMEs,theAustralianBureauofStatistics（ABS）foundITprofessionalskillsinuseinoneinsixSMEs,andprojectmanagementusedbyoneineightSMEs（ABS,2013a）.

Projectmanagementresearchhasoftenbeensubmergedinthegeneralmanagementresearchintohumanresources,salesandmarketing（Hudsonetal.,2001;Turneretal.,2009;Turneretal.,2010）.However,giventhatprojectmanagementisavitalskillforSMEs（Turneretal.,2012）,thecriticalrolethatprojectmanagementplaysinsmallbusinesssuccess（Sadabaetal.,2014）,andthefrequencywithwhichITprofessionalskillsandprojectmanagementskillsareusedinSMEs,thereissurprisinglylittleresearchwhichexamineshowtheseskillsareusedbySMEs,andhowtheyaffectbusinessprofitability.

3.Methodology

DataforthisresearchwassourcedfromtheABSBusinessLongitudinalDatabase（BLD）.TheBLDincludesdatarelevanttounderstandingtheperformanceofAustralianbusinesses.Itiscompiledfromanumberofsources,includingAustralianGovernmenttaxrecordsandquestionnaireresponses.TheABSusesadataqualityframeworkbasedontheStatisticsCanadaQualityAssuranceFramework（StatisticsCanada,2002）andtheEuropeanStatisticsCodeofPractice（Eurostat,2011）.Inthecaseofthesurveydatausedinthisresearch,aqualitydeclarationwasissuedindicatingaresponserateofover95%,andarelativesamplingerroroflessthan10%.

Inthe2004-2005financialyear,theABSselectedapanelofSMEsbasedonthembeingrepresentativeoftheirindustryorpopulationgroup.BusinessdetailsweresourcedfromtheAustralianBusinessRegister（ABR）,adatabasethatcontainsthenamesandaddressesofallbusinessesthathavearegisteredAustralianBusinessNumber（ABN）withtheAustralianTaxationOffice（ATO）.Panelmemberswereaskedtorespondtoasurveyforfiveconsecutiveyears.Thesurveyswereaddressedtotheowner/managerofthebusiness,aslistedintheABR,askingthemtocompleteandreturnthesurvey.Panelsizewasdeterminedbasedontheexpecteddropoutrate,anddesignedtoensurethatasufficientlylargenumberofbusinessesremainedineachindustrysectorandsizeclassificationforstatisticalanalysisattheendofthefiveyearperiod.Newmemberswerenotintroducedtothepanel