This dissertation examines the role of social media in the communication process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on communication and social media theories, this study examines how small and medium-sized enterprises incorporate social media in their marketing and communication strategy. As a result, this study concludes that social media has an important role in the communication process of SMEs. The study shows, that to increase a two-way communication via social media, SMEs must focus more on enabling interactions, to collect responses and feedback. A professional appearance on the platforms has been considered as crucial. The results additionally show that SMEs recognize space and need for improvement of their social media skills. The integration of social media into the overall concept differs among the cases. A major obstacle can be found regarding the detection of target groups on social media. Moreover, a lack of strategic orientation can be found in terms of social media goals and budgets, as well as performance measurement.

The increased globalization has brought increased interdependency between countries as well as markets.  The  2007  financial  crisis  impacted  companies  on  a  global  scale  and  the  need  for companies  to  be  socially  responsible  has  increased.  Corporate  social  responsibility  (CSR)  can build reputation and lead to societal and competitive advantage, which can be especially useful for  small  and  medium  sized  enterprises  (SME)  with  limited  resources.  CSR  has  traditionally been  the  domain  of  multinational  corporations  and  little  is  known  about CSR in  SMEs. Recent research  shows  mixed results  of  how  the  financial  crisis  has  affected  CSR  strategies.  The purpose of this study is to explore how stakeholders‟ issues and CSR strategies change during times  of  market  turbulence  and  SMEs  conform  to  the  changes  of  the  internal  and  external environment. This was studied through a qualitative case study of three Swedish exporting SMEs and  their  key  stakeholders.  Interviews  with  managing  directors  of  the  companies  and  key stakeholders  together  with  secondary  data  constitute  the  gathered  empirical  data.  Key stakeholders,  key  issues,  legitimacy  with  stakeholders,  company  matching  with  the  external environment and the CSR strategy,  as well as changes during crisis were analyzed based on the empirical data. We found an increased need for CSR activities during times of turbulence. Two companies  increased  their  CSR  activities  while  one  decreased the  activities.  The results  of  the study  indicate that  the  external  environment  changes  during  times  of  market  turbulence  and companies  need  to  adapt  to  the  newly shaped  environment.  CSR  activities  became  more important  for  some  stakeholders  during  market  turbulence.  Companies  which  adapted  to  the changes  of  the  external  environment  improved  legitimacy  with  their  stakeholders  and  moved toward enhancing their competitive advantage as well as improved their performance. The study contributes  to  the  knowledge  of  how  SME  form  CSR  strategy  as  well  as  how  this  strategy  is changed  during  times  of  turbulence.  We  found  CSR  strategies  of  the  studied  SMEs  to  be emergent  and  intuitive,  and  that  CSR  strategy  changed  in  a  mixed  direction  during  the  crisis. Finally,  a  recommendation  is  made  based  on  the  results.  SMEs  can  strategically  use  CSR activities  in  order  to  develop  a  competitive  advantage through  differentiation by  a  creating societal advantage.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad utvalda K3-företag anser om utformandet av K3, i relation till innehållet i IFRS for SMEs. Metod: Studien genomförs med en kvalitativ metod och är av fenomenografisk karaktär. Intervjuer genomförs med BFN samt fyra potentiella K3-företag. Dessa analyseras sedan i en fenomenografisk analys. Slutsats: Skillnaderna som föreligger mellan K3 och IFRS for SMEs beror på förenkling och laganpassning. De undersökta företagen är mer nöjda de förändringar som beror på laganpassning än de som beror på förenkling. De företag som har minst internationell koppling väljer i större utsträckning K3. BFN:s utformande av K3 får anses motsvara företagens förväntningar.

Brands have become valuable assets that play a central role in differentiating the products and services to catch the attention of the customers. This research examines the significance of branding strategies for companies’ growth and survival. For this paper, models and theories from previous researches are used to give an in-depth understanding of the different brand strategies and SMEs. The data was collected through qualitative interviews with 10 companies of which five were conducted in Kampala, Uganda and the other five were in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Although SMEs play a significant role in economic development, they are facing challenges of building brands due to the scarce resources. Financing was shown among the key prohibitions to brand establishment. The research identifies the need for SMEs to adapt branding strategies. Research findings pointed out the benefits of brand recognition in both countries. The respondents indicated that brand communication was an effective tool in creating brand recognition in SMEs. Also price, quality, innovation, and a clear vision among others are enabling factors for building strong brands.

In today’s global market, China attracts great attention due to its rapid growing economy. Organizations from different countries take advantage of this, and move production to China. The noteworthy aspect of this situation is that most of these companies are Multi National Enterprises. These MNEs are aggressive in their expansion due to possession of major capabilities and possibilities to confront barriers and take economic risks. However, there are smaller companies with fewer resources that are more limited and choose not to move production to China. What drives these companies to bypass the well documented advantages with a production process in there? This research aims to fill that gap. This deductive research is based on Swedish SMEs that have been inquired to rank the most influential drivers behind their decision to move or not to move production to China. The investigation is conducted quantitatively by a survey. Another aspect of the survey which strengthens the result is the core strategies of the SMEs, which are asked to be ranked in order to reveal the most dominant one. The results analysis signifies that the key-drivers and the core strategy together influence the decision, to either move or not to move. However, the generalizability is negatively affected by the low level of participants. Therefore, in-depth analysis has been conducted, which highlights that the results do reveal a connection between the drivers and the core strategy and how they influence the decision. This research reveals the most influential processes for Swedish SMEs, which can further be considered by other SMEs that are in the process of making a decision to move or not to move production to China.

Purpose This paper is to discuss social respsonsibility of SMEs in Taiwan through ISO 26000. The main purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between Prin-ciples of social responsibility of cognition, implementation and self-regulation ISO 26000 from the behavior of perspective. Study Design This paper is base on framework of ISO 26000. The scales of "Principles of social responsibility," "Political Pressure", "Economic Attitude", "Fundamental prac-tices of social responsibility" and ¡§Social responsibility core subjects¡¨ are developed. This study maps the relation between the scals through a Taiwan survey of 266 SMEs. Using factor analysis, path analysis and mean tests for statistical analysis. Findings SMEs in Taiwan have highly recognized carrying out SR. The study finds that SMEs have higher awareness of social responsibility, their implementations of social responsibility are better. Implications and contributions This paper draws the linkage between ¡§awareness of social responsibility, ¡§so-cial responsibility behavior¡¨ and ¡§self-regulatory ISO 26000¡¨. The relationship is positive. This provides the government a way to promote social responsibility. ISO 26000 is the most influential initiative in CSR area in recent years, this study adopted the structure of social responsibility indicators, can provide business information and make their awareness of social responsibility better.

In recent years, with the economic development in China and the direct flights between Taiwan and China; there are more and more Taiwanese enterprises invest in China industrial market. This business environment change results in the increasing Taiwanese employees travelling between China and Taiwan frequently, or even been dispatched to China for long-term. In the future, the opportunities of work exchange between Taiwan and China will increase rapidly. Taiwan and China has no language barrier, however, the thinking logic, attitude towards work, and corporate management style between two places are fairly divergent. All these differences impact both Taiwanese and Chinese enterprises development. Today, China¡¦s workers strive for their work and almost catch up with Taiwan. Do Taiwan¡¦s workers notice it? The author has been dispatched to China for more than five years, and returned to Taiwan for three years. We can see the way of business management and the working environment between Taiwan and China through the experience of author. This narrative will give an overview and suggestions to those Taiwanese who is willing to work in China, and to those Taiwanese who plan to return to Taiwan market. For the workers who are seeking for opportunities of work exchange, the author suggests they should have abilities such as authorization management, regulate the rhythm of the work, resource integration, and excellent communication skill with local workers. On the other hand, for the workers who return to Taiwan job market, face to the primary depression, adjust mindset, and balance work and family lives are the keys to a successful transfer.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are playing a key role in the economic development of every country in the world. The fast development and significant contributions of SMEs is one of the most important factors to the outstanding industrial and economic growth in Taiwan for the past fifty years. However, the SMEs in our country are gradually moving abroad and invest in Mainland China or other developing countries due to the drastic changes in the investment environment. Since the economic reform in 1978, due to the changes in the international investment environment, Mainland China has gradually recognized the importance of SMEs to the economic growth and is aggressively encouraging the development of SMEs. Such trend is indeed one of our major concerns. This study uses Historical Comparison Method and SWOT Analysis in an attempt to analyze the situation of cross-straight SMEs under macroscopic and regional investment environment since the late 1990¡¦s till now and the opportunities and threats of SMEs after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). Meanwhile, the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat for Taiwanese SMEs to invest in Mainland China is also explored for the authority of Taiwanese SMEs in setting related policy and for the Taiwanese businessmen as a reference. Firstly, in terms of macroscopic investment environment, the performances of both sides across the straight under general environment (including indices of political, legal, investment tariffs, and basic environmental evaluation) and overall economic environment (including indicators such as economic development, import and export trading, and luring of foreign capital, etc.) are better than before. Next, in terms of regional investment environment, the similarity between the places where cross-straight SMEs often gather ¡V Industrial Parks in Taiwan (including Export Zones and Industrial and Science Parks) and Special Economic Zones in Mainland China (including Shenzhen, Zuhai, Xiamen, Shanghai, and Beijin) are in the superiority of the locations and with development potential, similarity in industrial structure, emphasis in investment right protection, and complete basic infrastructure. The differences are in that the Industrial and Science Parks in Taiwan adopt single operating window and efficient in approval, whereas the applications for investment in Special Economics Zones in Mainland China are still approved based on the amount of investment, technology cooperation, or joint-venture between Chinese and foreign companies, foreign proprietary enterprises that require longer period of approval operation. In addition, the tax incentive in Taiwanese Industrial and Science Parks is of functional attribute with very high rewarding threshold and significantly higher cost than the Special Economic Zones in Mainland China. The tax break and grace period for Special Economic Zone in Mainland China is of industry attribute. It¡¦s tax break and grace period is obviously higher than Taiwanese Industrial park. Lastly, summarizing the SWOT Analysis of this study, it is found that the investment environments of the cross-straight SMEs are all facing the difficulty of lacking of talents and shortage of capital as well as facing potential stiff competition after joining WTO. To this end, it is recommended that the government should strengthen the innovation incubator for SMEs, expand the channel of financing for SMEs, and provide accurate investment information. On the manufacturers side, the government should adjust the industrial structure of manufacturers, strengthen the R&D capability, training professional talents, adopt strategic alliances and value employee¡¦s educational training in order to upgrade the international competitiveness of SMEs in our country.

According to the research of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association in 2004 , IC design in Taiwan is becoming the second major clustering centre after America. IC design house seems to be the upcoming star in Taiwan semiconductor industry, by its highly brainstorming to create higher additional value, it is also the next leading role in hi-tech industry in Taiwan.To IC design house, the quality of employees is the key of competitiveness, therefore, only dependent on the staff's constant research and innovation, could occupy a space on the competitive market, so the reserch of management of professional human resources in IC design house seems even more important. This study adopts the in-deep interview of qualitative reserch, including six RD engineers, four product engineers and five human resources personnel as the research objects.The main purpose is to understand what the employees truely demand in IC design house? How is the operation of human resource management practice and the expectation to Human Resource Department? How the professional personnel of human resources understand the idea and demand of employees, make a right management system and offer the best welfare measure. Through the interview materials, along with domestic, international documents, the results come out as following: 1. The demand of RD engineers and product engineers learning development opportunity / excellent manager / good working environment / understand the employees demand / limitless creation and innovation / the balance of work and life 2. The expectation of RD engineers and product engineers to Human Resource Department to be intercommunication channel / complete training program / attract and retain outstanding talents / strengthen professional ability more actively 3. The contribution of Human Resource Department of IC design house to Human Resource Managemant Recruit high-quality talent / administration efficiency / salary and welfare policy / incentive system to keep talent / promote innovation ability of employees / complete training program / build a common vision /build a high-quality working environment / intercommunication channel / understand the employees truly need 4. IC Design House Human Resource Management Model (1)recruit and employ: recruit channel: manpower bank/ employee recommendation/ campus recruit / national defence labor recruit procedure: recruit by HR or department director employ characteristic: good team player/ dedicated/ learning spirit employ term: response ability/ professional ability/ communication coordinate ability/ innovation ability (2)salary and benefit: attractive payment/ cash allowance/ meal allowance/ entertainment/ group insurance/ society safety/ retirement plan (3)training and development: e-learning/ invite outside instructor/ lessons by senior employees/ seminar/ training plan evaluation/ training result check and accept (4)performance evaluation: fair/ justice/ team performance/ individual performance (5)labor relations: interaction frequently/ diversified encourage program/ resignation management

Over the recent years, the learning capacity and knowledge creation ability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been increasingly highlighted. Cluster concept represents as a geographical agglomeration where SMEs overcome the structural constraint and develop inter-firm relationships based on the trust. The trust based inter-firm relations increase the opportunity of SMEs to establish cooperation and competition linkages. The present study investigated SMEs in textile sector to identify the inter-firm relationships in Adana Organized Industry Zone. The aim of this study is development of policy recommendations for promoting inter-firm relationships of SMEs. First, we present the theoretical perspective of various approaches the cluster concept, strategic elements of cluster, advantages of clustering and competitive and cooperation advantages. Then we explain the SMEs concept mainly emphasized on the basic weaknesses of SMEs. In this regard, we analyze the main characteristics of textile SMEs in AOSB based on the innovative performance and inter-firm relations. Two main aspects are concluded from the survey results. Textile SMEs in AOSB require developing more relationships with firms and institutions to constitute cooperation and higher innovation services to gain competitiveness.