Knowledge, Learning and Development: the Challenge of Small and Medium Enterprises to Global Competition

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have to compete in a globalized world where their skills and knowledge are the weapons of differentiation that can support their decisions, the successful implementation of best practices and the development of better future positions. They are in a highly competitive world, where there are concurrent forces in the sector (Porter, 2002), in which, every day they should review the market and strategies. Most SMEs disappear in their early years, because they do not have the ability to understand and respond to the challenges of global competitiveness, but as soon as they disappear, other enterprises are also created and that gives a compensation effect, where the learning curve is cyclic.