People who are well trained, skilled and confident may continue for a while in an SME and look for better opportunities and move out. Instead of taking many new employees at low cost, retention of talented employees can save a lot of cost for any organization. Talented employees do not need extensive training and warm-up time to handle any kind of tasks. Therefore, SMEs should identify the talented employees out of the entire workforce, persist with them and make use of their services to the maximum extent to enhance business.

In the paper, "The Role of Data Analytics in Talent Acquisition and Retention with Special Reference to SMEs in India: A Conceptual Study", the author, Farha Deeba, focuses on data analytics and its role in improving the performance of SMEs through strategic management of talent acquisition and retention processes. Based on a review of literature on various strategies used for talent acquisition and retention practices and the role of data analytics therein, the author has developed a conceptual framework by taking into view the Indian SMEs. The author includes factors like improvement of technical knowledge and integration of data analytical tools under talent acquisition and factors like usage of data analytics and retention interviews under talent retention. It is reported that addressing the challenges to successful implementation of data analytics in SMEs by techniques like cloud computing can develop employee-related strategic metrics in enhancing the goal orientation of the human resources process of talent retention and acquisition. The role of knowledge management is also highlighted to diminish the challenges in the usage of data offered by the intrinsic conservatism in SMEs.

Innovation in SMEs can result in a new product or a new service or a new technology and its process consists of technical, physical and knowledge-based activities. It leads to creation of new knowledge and ideas. The authors, Ritika Saini and Pramod Bhargava, in their paper, ?The Role of Knowledge Management Practices in Sustaining Innovation in SMEs of North India?, attempt to examine the knowledge management practices and their impact on innovation in SMEs of North India. They have applied regression analysis on the primary data collected from SMEs of three industries?Software, Pharmaceuticals and Textiles. A majority of the respondents from these three types of SMEs agreed that knowledge management practices are useful in preventing duplicate research and development activities. It is suggested that SMEs should manage the practices that enhance capturing, sharing and reuse of knowledge in order to have best possible ideas available and use them wherever needed.

Nowadays, most of the higher education institutions are putting in efforts to develop the necessary initiatives to capture, create, and disseminate knowledge in order to meet their business objectives and maintain competitive advantage. They are said to be in knowledge business. In the paper, ?Failure of Higher Education to Promote Knowledge Development in Portugal: A Critiquing?, the author, Margarida Chagas Lopes, discusses the characteristics of higher education knowledge and its role in sustainable development and the reasons behind its lacking in Portugal. The author focuses on studying the determinants and obstacles that led to the increase in the number of young people discontinuing their studies after completion of secondary education. The survey identifies about one thousand variables of characterization, which are grouped under factors like individual characteristics, family background, and students? prior educational career and treated as additional factors that affect students? not continuing their higher studies. They have used statistical techniques of t-tests, multi-response analysis and chi-square independence tests. The effect of parents? level of education and professional capital showed great influence. Students? desire to start earning their own money early is also found to be another important influencing factor. The author highlights financial capacity and motivation as the two fundamental factors that determine the transition from secondary education to higher education.