Abstract: The emerging economies have participated,
albeit less than advanced market economies, in the new electronic
modes of conducting business. This paper draws on a study of
the multimedia industry which focuses on two developed (Canada
and England) and two emerging economies (Turkey and Romania).
Issues include: the nature of work (both process and outputs);
employee characteristics; skills shortages; and organizational
success factors. This paper addresses issues relating to work
organization in e-businesses in Turkey and Romania. Based upon
the experiences of 21 Turkish and 20 Romanian companies, the
former emphasise technical skills more regarding the skills needed
by individuals to be successful, skills in demand and skills
shortages in the industry but Turkish companies are readier also
to emphasise creativity, business and interpersonal skills.
Companies in both countries attributed their success largely
to technical competence and business acumen but again Turkish
companies also stressed the importance of creativity.
1. Introduction
Business and employment have
been radically affected since the 1990s by the increased application
of electronic technologies and the evolution of digital markets.
While these developments have been particularly evident in the
advanced industrial economies such as the USA and the UK, the
spread of electronic technologies has been truly global and has
included the so-called emerging economies. It has been argued
furthermore that emerging economies may be in a position to leap-frog
traditional evolutionary steps in economic and business development
and move directly to digital forms of business [1].
Nevertheless it would be an
error to underestimate the gap existing between the advanced
economies and emerging economies such as Turkey and Romania.
Developments in the emerging economies are handicapped by the
lesser availability of personal computers, domination of English/American
language and culture on software, the generally lower familiarity
with information technologies, constraints on access to the latest
software and hardware and a lesser level of demand 'pull'. There
are also substantial differences in GDP per capita between advanced
and emerging economies and these are reflected in major disparities
in electronic infrastructure as evidenced, for example, by Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) per head of population.
Table 1. Contrasts between
advanced and emerging economies
| |
USA |
UK |
Romania |
Turkey |
| GDP per head in PPP (1995) |
100 |
71.4 |
16.2 |
20.7 |
| 1000 pop per ISP* |
34 |
163 |
747 |
2736 |
*Internet Service Provider
Sources: [2] and [3]
The provision of electronic services in emerging economies is
moreover handicapped by institutional factors, for instance,
the non-availability of credit cards in Bosnia-Herzegovina [4]
and limited awareness of the potential benefits of the new digital
technologies (for example, Slovenian hoteliers' apparent disregard
of the Internet as a source of competitive advantage as reported
by [5]). A study of Romanian publishing companies identified
a lack of resources (hardware, staff knowledge and the support
of business partners) as an impediment to the development of
electronic publishing [6]. Many of the economies of Central
and Eastern Europe are in addition still coming to terms with
the problems of post-communist transformation as well as grappling
with the challenges of the new electronic technologies.
The aim of this paper is to
investigate issues relating to work organisation in e-businesses
in two emerging economies, Romania and Turkey by comparing and
contrasting the situation of multimedia companies in the two
countries. Multimedia companies were selected as the focus of
this paper because they create and provide many of the tools
required to carry out e-business, for example, websites, CD-ROMs,
DVDs and digital cards. This study forms part of a research
project on the global multimedia industry. The project was started
to investigate national differences in companies developing multimedia
products and services for use by companies involved in e-business
and the implications for company performance.
2. Aims and methodology
The aims of the multimedia
industry study are to:
- identify the characteristics
of multimedia organisations;
- identify organisational strengths
and requirements;
- identify how organisations
view industry development over the next 5 years;
- identify organisational strategies
for the next 5 years;
- compare the multimedia industry
and multimedia organisations in a range of countries.
For the purposes of the study,
the multimedia industry has been defined as a new industry based
on information technologies and integrating a range of traditional
and new modes of communicating data. Thus it involves the convergence
of computing, telecommunications and interactivity.
Data for the study have been
collected by questionnaire administered via email, telephone
or in a face-to-face situation. The mailed questionnaire/interview
schedule incorporates data on the background of the companies,
their views on the industry and its challenges and the factors
which they see as keys to success. The interview schedule/questionnaire
also allows respondents to express their views in their own words
and these areas are subsequently post coded. The Romanian sample
consists of 20, the Turkish sample of 21 companies.
3. Company characteristics
A large majority of companies
in both countries (18 in Turkey and 19 in Romania) have fewer
than 20 employees, with 5 Turkish and 3 Romanian companies having
5 or fewer employees. 76% of the Turkish and 85% of the Romanian
companies were established in the last 10 years. 35% of the
Romanian and 55% of the Turkish companies have been founded in
the last 5 years. The main activity of Romanian companies is
the provision of websites (55%) or CD-ROMs and websites (30%).
Turkish companies are primarily providers of CD-ROMs and websites
(67%) with a further 19% solely building websites and 10% CD-ROMS.
In Romania companies tended
to view their output largely as a service (16 companies, with
one further company regarding itself as a provider of both products
and services). By contrast in Turkey, though service provision
was still predominant, only 8 companies regarded themselves as
service providers, with a further 9 regarding themselves as providing
both products and services. In both countries project-based
work was the major mode of activity, although this was more marked
in Turkey, where 14 companies described all or most of their
work as project based, with only one company reporting no project-based
work. In comparison in Romania 10 companies had all or most
of their work project based. However, 5 companies reported having
no project-based work.
With regard to the profile
of the workforce, most employees were employed on a full-time
permanent basis although a majority of companies also used temporary
employees. The majority of youngest employees in both countries
were in their twenties. With regard to the oldest employees,
in Romanian companies these were in their forties and fifties,
compared to Turkish companies where they were in their thirties
and forties. Overall the Romanian companies had an older age
profile than their Turkish counterparts. This may indicate that
Romanian companies are relatively more established than Turkish
ones. This view is supported by the fact that the majority of
shortest serving employees had worked in Romanian companies for
between one and 2 years, compared with less than one year in
Turkey and that the largest group of longest serving Romanian
employees had been with their companies for between 6 and 10
years, compared with 3 to 5 years for the corresponding Turkish
group.
4. Knowledge and skills
As a new industry, multimedia
draws upon skills previously the domain of graphic artists working
in print mode, as well as the programming abilities and software
knowledge of computer scientists. Many companies in the industry
are small and are started by those trained in such areas, together
with others without such a formal background but with a lively
interest in the potential opened up by modern PCs and the Internet.
In addition to the need for technical and/or creative skills,
business skills are increasingly required as enterprises grow,
together with the ability to interface with a widening customer
base and understand the diverse demands for multimedia products
and services.
The multimedia companies in
the Turkish and Romanian samples are typically small companies.
They see their businesses as expanding in the next five years
and this brings with it an awareness of the need to attract new
talent. Asked what they see as the key skills required by an
individual to be successful in this industry, all the Romanian
companies and 67% of the Turkish companies cited technical skills.
When it came to other types of skill, however, the Turkish companies
saw the need for a wider mix of skills than the Romanian companies,
citing for instance "design and advanced programming knowledge,
project management, promotion and product management", "technical
knowledge and personal relationship skills", "innovation,
experience and marketing" and "education, experience,
presentable, creative". Notwithstanding a clear focus on
technical skills Romanian companies also mentioned creative and
business skills such as "sensitivity in expressing ideas
on the web", "aesthetic appreciation", "knowledge
to establish client demands" and "awareness of company
targets". Nevertheless, the Turkish companies were more
likely also to emphasize creative skills married with technical
skills to produce attractive and innovative products and services
and the business skills needed to grow a business, like marketing
and project management. They also highlighted the interpersonal
skills needed both to become an effective team player within
a growing company, together with the ability to interface with
customers drawing out from them their particular business needs
for multimedia products and services (see Table 2).
Table 2. The number of Turkish
and Romanian companies citing different types of skills needed
by an individual to be successful in the multimedia industry.
| Companies |
Technical Skills |
Creative Skills |
Business Skills |
Interpersonal Skills |
| Turkish (n=21) |
14 |
15 |
8 |
11 |
| Romanian (n=20) |
20 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
When asked what were the key
knowledge and skills within their organization, there was rather
greater agreement amongst companies in both countries about the
attributes on which they relied. Technical skills were again
the most frequently cited in both countries but the Romanian
companies also saw themselves as relying on business and to a
lesser extent creativity and interpersonal skills, although again
the Turkish companies were more focussed on creativity than companies
in Romania (see Table 3).
Table 3. The number of Turkish
and Romanian companies mentioning different types of key knowledge
and skills in their companies
| Companies |
Technical Skills |
Creative Skills |
Business Skills |
Interpersonal Skills |
| Turkish (n=21) |
15 |
14 |
5 |
8 |
| Romanian (n=20) |
14 |
6 |
9 |
2 |
Some Turkish companies also
mentioned experience, for example "experience - we're seen
as an old company for this sector", another mentioned their
"technical substructure, innovation, research and development"
and others cited the quality of their staff "having experienced
and qualified staff" and "our most important key factor
is our team's service ability". Similarly, Romanian companies
mentioned factors such as "experience obtained through practice
and international exchanges" and their "well trained
people".
The companies were also asked
about the types of skills most in demand in their part of the
industry and here once again the Romanian companies concentrated
most on technical skills, whereas the Turkish companies saw a
greater demand for creativity and interpersonal skills (see Table
4).
Table 4. Types of skills seen
as most in demand within the company's industry segment
| Companies |
Technical Skills |
Creative Skills |
Business Skills |
Interpersonal Skills |
| Turkish (n=21) |
12 |
12 |
3 |
10 |
| Romanian (n=20) |
18 |
6 |
3 |
0 |
Companies in both countries
did not see a particular demand for business skills within the
industry. This may be due to the fact that the main challenge
is currently seen as being technical rather than commercial.
In Romania new companies have frequently been founded by former
directors of state-owned companies who rely on their former knowledge
of and contacts with customers and suppliers. At the same time
they employ a relatively young labour force. Some Turkish companies
for instance saw business skills as part of a particular profile
needed in the industry: "a staff who has product knowledge,
sales notion, well trained and good looking", "education,
experience, development, co-ordination", "promotion
and software knowledge". Others concentrated on technical
skills like "specialist in Microsoft, Cisco, SCO, Novell",
or "Internet focused content and software development skills",
"monitoring new development and adaptation". A number
of the companies also mentioned the need for innovation and adaptation
in a fast moving industry, for instance "innovation, observing
new developments and adaptation". Others mentioned the
problem of staff turnover in this new industry and saw the need
for loyalty from staff and business ethics too: "innovative,
monitoring new developments, loyalty, honesty", "will
not transfer (poach) other firms' staff". Business skills
mentioned by Romanian companies included "communication
with clients and marketing".
Within their own organisations
the demand for technical skills was apparently stronger amongst
Romanian than Turkish companies, whereas more Turkish companies
cited a demand for business or interpersonal skills. In both
countries the skills that were least in demand in the companies
were creative skills (see Table 5). This pattern may be because
the skills in least demand are already well represented in the
companies and/or that there is a greater availability of people
with design training compared with other backgrounds or that
creative skills are not regarded as particularly important.
Table 5. The skills seen as
most in demand within the Turkish and Romanian companies
| Companies |
Technical Skills |
Creative Skills |
Business Skills |
Interpersonal Skills |
| Turkish (n=21) |
5 |
3 |
9 |
10 |
| Romanian (n=20) |
16 |
5 |
6 |
3 |
When asked about skills shortages
in their companies, none of the Turkish companies were short
of people with technical skills but this was a problem for some
of the Romanian companies, although more reported a shortage
of people with business skills. Over half the Turkish companies
also mentioned a shortage of people with interpersonal skills
but this was apparently less of a problem for the Romanian companies
and few companies in either country were short of people with
creative skills (see Table 6).
Table 6. The skill shortages
in the Turkish and Romanian companies
| Companies |
Technical Skills |
Creative Skills |
Business Skills |
Interpersonal Skills |
| Turkish (n=21) |
0 |
4 |
8 |
13 |
| Romanian (n=20) |
8 |
1 |
13 |
3 |
The Turkish companies were
evidently fortunate in having no technical skills shortages in
their firms, especially as they saw their industry generally
facing shortages of people with technical skills. However, even
more of the Romanian companies saw this as a problem, especially
as many of the Romanian companies had been founded by former
directors of state-owned companies who lacked up-to-date technical
skills. The Turkish companies were also aware of shortages of
people with appropriate interpersonal and business skills within
their industry but again this was not recognised as a problem
by the Romanian companies (see Table 7). One Turkish company
remarked that "in the last 3 years lots of new firms started
business in our sector but they have no experience, most of them
are recently graduated engineers, they do not know how business
runs". The issue of loyalty also arose again, for instance
when a company commenting on the shortage of people with experience
of multimedia added "we give training (to) our staff but
they transfer to other firms with high salary"; another
commented on the shortage of "ethics (and) technical capacity".
For their part Romanian companies mentioned shortages of business
skills such as project management (5 mentions) and credit control
as well as team-working skills.
Table 7. Skill shortages in
the multimedia industry in Turkey and Romania
| Companies |
Technical Skills |
Creative Skills |
Business Skills |
Interpersonal Skills |
| Turkish (n=21) |
10 |
6 |
7 |
12 |
| Romanian (n=20) |
17 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
The companies in the two countries
were also questioned about the factors to which they attributed
the success of their companies and Tables 8 and 9 indicate the
areas highlighted in the two countries.
While Turkish companies attribute
their success in almost equal measure to technical competence,
business acumen and creativity, Romanian companies stress firstly
technical competence and business acumen, followed by client
focus.
Table 8. Turkish companies'
success factors
|
Number of Companies |
| Order of mention |
Commitment |
Client focus |
Technical competence |
Creativity |
Business acumen |
Reputation |
Other |
| First |
|
2 |
9 |
2 |
8 |
|
|
| Second |
|
2 |
4 |
9 |
4 |
|
|
| Third |
|
|
2 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
Total
mentions |
|
4 |
15 |
14 |
15 |
|
|
Table 9. Romanian companies'
success factors
|
Number of Companies |
| Order of mention |
Commitment |
Client focus |
Technical competence |
Creativity |
Business acumen |
Reputation |
Other |
| First |
1 |
2 |
8 |
2 |
7 |
|
2 |
| Second |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
| Third |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total
mentions |
2 |
7 |
10 |
4 |
9 |
1 |
2 |
5. Conclusions
The development of e-business
in emerging economies depends in part on the competence of the
multimedia companies providing essential tools. Companies in
Romania and Turkey recognise the importance of technical skills,
although Romanian companies appear excessively focused on technical
skills to the detriment of business and interpersonal skills
and creativity. As is typical of a new industry, the supply
of available skilled individuals lags behind industry demand.
Clearly, increasing the supply of skilled employees (by means
of the education system and firms themselves) would assist the
future expansion of e-business. These results will benefit companies
and educational providers by giving greater insight into company
strengths and weaknesses and training needs in different economic
contexts. For the project team a major benefit has been working
with international partners and gaining greater knowledge of
the challenges facing an emerging industry in different countries.
With increasing demand for
e-business in the advanced economies, the emerging economies
offer opportunities for sub-contracting. As well as cost benefits,
the recognition of the need for technical competence provides
a sound basis for carrying out work for firms in the advanced
economies. Such a relationship between e-businesses in the advanced
and emerging economies would benefit e-businesses in the advanced
economies and also the further development and expansion of e-business
in countries such as Turkey and Romania.
References
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Digital Marketplace, Practical Strategies for Competitiveness
in the New Economy. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1999
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(accessed on 21.11.2000)
[3] Office for National Statistics, Britain 2000, The Official
Yearbook of the United Kingdom, London: The Stationery Office,
1999
[4] N. Brki and A. Peštek, 'Internet as Strategic Marketing
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of the International Conference on Tourism and Transition, Dubrovnik,
November, 2000, pp. 153-162.
[5] T. Mihali, and T. Dmitrovi, 'The Competitiveness of the Slovenian
Hotel and Travel Industry Before and After EU Entry', Proceedings
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(accessed on 10.01.01) |