Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Kai Mertins, Sven Wuscher and Markus Will
Young enterprises are leading with regard to communication and IT and are positioned considerably
better for <strong>the</strong> knowledge contest today.
Young enterprises founded after <strong>the</strong> year 2000 rate <strong>the</strong>ir SC all in all significantly better than older
enterprises which have been founded before 1970 (+0.6). As a consequence <strong>the</strong> factors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SC
internal co-operation and knowledge transfer (+1.0), management instruments (+0.7) and corporate
culture (+1.1) are rated significantly better than in <strong>the</strong> older participating enterprises.
There are significant differences between factors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> HC and between factors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> RC.
Enterprises founded after <strong>the</strong> year 2000 rate public relationships (-0.4) and investor relationships (-
0.7) significantly worse than enterprises founded before 1970. With regard to <strong>the</strong> HC <strong>the</strong> factors
employee motivation (+1.0), leadership ability (+1.0) and social competence (+1.0) are rated
considerably better by young enterprises than by older enterprises.
Altoge<strong>the</strong>r, young enterprises rate <strong>the</strong> intangible factors slightly better than old companies and also
give <strong>the</strong>m a higher priority. Conversely, material resources play a more important role for <strong>the</strong> business
success <strong>of</strong> old enterprises than for <strong>the</strong> business success <strong>of</strong> middle-aged enterprises founded between
1971 and 1999 and young enterprises founded after 2000.
5.5.1 Success Factors <strong>of</strong> Enterprises Operated by Owners and Enterprises Operated by Managers
Owner-operated enterprises are partly better positioned than management-operated enterprises with
regard to HC and SC. Owner-operated enterprises rate all factors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> HC significantly higher than
management-operated enterprises. Consequently, <strong>the</strong> surveyed owner-operated enterprises state
that <strong>the</strong>y have a considerably higher employee motivation (+0.7), pr<strong>of</strong>essional competence (+0.4),
social competence (+0.8) and leadership ability (+1.0). With regard to <strong>the</strong> factors process innovations
and product innovations no significant differences can be found.
Since <strong>the</strong> SC by definition comprises all those structures that are applied by all employees to conduct
business <strong>the</strong> owner-operated enterprises rate nearly all factors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SC higher than managementoperated
enterprises. In consequence, owner-operated enterprises rate <strong>the</strong> factors internal cooperation
and knowledge transfer (+1.0), management instruments (+0.7), IT and explicit knowledge
(+0.6) and corporate culture (+0.8) significantly better.
The importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> public relationships as part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> RC is much higher in management-operated
enterprises than in owner-operated enterprises (+0.6). The rating <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se factors is slightly better for
<strong>the</strong> management-operated enterprises than for <strong>the</strong> owner-operated enterprises (+0.4).
The comparison <strong>of</strong> owner-operated and management-operated enterprises leads to <strong>the</strong> conclusion
that owner-operated enterprises have a better access to <strong>the</strong>ir employees and <strong>the</strong>reby promote and
maintain more sustainable corporate structures. With regard to <strong>the</strong> knowledge contest <strong>the</strong> analysis
shows that owner-operated are equally or even better adjusted for <strong>the</strong> knowledge contest than
management-operated enterprises. This is particularly apparent in <strong>the</strong> area <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SC.
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