2022 SME World Forum

Abstract

The mission of the Journal of the International Council for Small Business (JICSB) is to promote and share knowledge, accumulated through observation, research, and experimentation by researchers, educators, policy makers, and business owners, that will elevate micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to have a more positive impact on their local communities and their stakeholders. This issue summarizes a selected group among the best contributions presented during the SME World Forum held in Rosario, Argentina, from October 31 to November 2, 2022, under the motto “We drive the world, we lead the future.” An expanded approach to creativity and innovation led by SMEs is required to participate in long-term growth. The SME World Forum Rosario 2022 aimed to contribute to the processes of innovation, creativity, efficiency, and ethical and sustainable economic development. Topics were related to environmental management, renewable energy, energy efficiency, internationalization, digital transformation, vectors of the fourth industrial revolution, education, new forms of work, and human capital formation. Technological change, the accelerated digitalization process, and the management of the technology–human labor linkage are fundamental elements of public policy intervention. In turn, the systemic vision of competitiveness adds a step: a technical and economic approach to connectivity infrastructure (ease of access and efficient costs), which goes beyond the company’s framework and encourages efficient public intervention. It is also interesting to observe the insertion of industrial SMEs in this new stage of internationalization and globalization post–coronavirus pandemic, given that the trend of efficiency gains in international logistics, a dynamic factor of globalization, has been exhausted. For this issue, five emerging research papers presented at the SME World Forum in Rosario have been selected, together with a special contribution by the secretary of university policies of Argentina on the role of the Argentine university system in the formation of human capital in SMEs. The selection follows the SMEs theme’s international linkage line, incorporating analyses of technological vectors in Industry 4.0 and innovation in the agricultural sector; the role of innovation and technology in the global competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs in Kenya; the process of learning and work for the organization as a key to the positive competitive evolution of SMEs; the potential demand for microcredits from families and the process of improving financial inclusion in a region of Argentina; strategic management in the primary JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SMALL BUSINESS 2023, VOL. 4, NO. 3, 225–229 https://doi.org/10.1080/26437015.2023.2193349