Stakeholder engagement, and specifically employee engagement has proven to have an influence on how companies perform and how value is created in organisations. Within the competitive world where Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are functioning, employee engagement can be the master key that unlocks better organisational performance. The objective of this study is to research the influence of stakeholder engagement on business performance and value creation, and to identify factors that impact on stakeholder engagement. The processes that are in place to engage with employees and how value are created through employee engagement, are also investigated. Studies have proven that successful employee engagement can have a positive influence on how businesses perform. The various factors that have an influence on employee engagement, are identified, including: • People. • Communication. • Work. • Rewards. • Opportunities. • Quality of life; and • Company practices. The study found that engagement levels in selected SMEs in Gauteng are high and the results, as discussed in Chapter 3, are positive. It proves that a significant percentage of employees are engaged on the following levels: 1. Rational - this indicates how well employees understand their roles and responsibilities in their various companies. 2. Emotional - this level indicates with how much passion employees work and how passionate they are about their organisation. 3. Motivational - this indicates how willing employees are to give more than is expected of them, and how hard they work to perform well on their roles and responsibilities. The results of the study can be used by companies to improve employee engagement and create value in their organisations - it can assist them in building a sustainable, competitive organisation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

Resource limitation and inadequate capabilities are the SME’s major problems. On this basis, alliances as vehicles of inter-firm collaboration provide opportunities for SMEs to obtain complementary capabilities and critical resources to overcome resource limitations. In this respect, examining the extant literature on non-equity strategic alliances shows that very few studies have empirically examined the impact of these alliances, such as inward international licensing (IIL) on SMEs’ dynamic capabilities (e.g. absorptive capacity and networking capability) in developing context. Consequently, to close this research gap, the purpose of this study is to examine and explore the major impacts of inward international licensing (IIL) on dynamic capabilities of SMEs, with focus on absorptive capacity (ACAP) and networking capability (NC) in a developing economy context (Iran). This study is focused on pharmaceutical SMEs involved in international business activities through inward international licensing (IIL). The study is explorative, qualitative and elaborative in nature. The dominant analytical approach in this study was abductive. Given the research type (nature), a multiple-case study was selected as an appropriate research strategy to achieve the research purpose and objectives. All cases were selected purposefully. The data were collected from four pharmaceutical SMEs (licensees) with licenses from European pharmaceutical largescale enterprises (LSEs). The results of the first part of this study reveal that in all cases studied, inward international licensing (IIL) has a strong effect on absorptive capacity (ACAP) and networking capability (NC). In this regard, all absorptive factors (AFs), namely acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation, have been enhanced by influenced contextual factors (CFs) of ACAP. The SMEs’ management and strategy, human resources, internal knowledge, and inter and intra-firm relationships, as several contextual factors (CF) of ACAP, have been forcefully influenced by inward international licensing (IIL). The second part of the empirical results indicates that the international licensing alliance between SMEs and LSEs helps the development of SMEs’ networking capability as well. This was particularly significant in development of the main components of networking capability, such as relationship initiation capability (RIC) and relationship developing capability (RDC).

The study is based on a comparison between franchises and independent businesses. The purpose of the study is to have a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of SMEs and franchise businesses in Rustenburg (North West Province) and its environs. A number of textbooks, published works and web articles on SMEs and franchise businesses were used in determining definitions and advantages and disadvantages that are experienced by the entrepreneur. A survey research design was used with a questionnaire as data-gathering instrument. The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine the experience and viewpoints of the entrepreneurs towards SMEs and franchise businesses. The study population consisted of 71 entrepreneurs who operate in the business environment of Rustenburg (North West Province) and its environs. Limitations in the research were identified and several recommendations were made in order to guide the entrepreneur in choosing a business that will suit his/her needs. The findings of the study offer advantages and disadvantages for both the franchise and independent businesses. The research results lead the entrepreneur to seek for a good business opportunity that will add value in terms of enterprise development, ownership, and financial benefits. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning tools has improved business processes in organisations. This increase has, however come with challenges for the small and medium business sector. First the adoption and deployment of proprietary ERP comes at great cost for organisations whilst it is also difficult for the organisations to ensure that scalability is introduced due to the dynamic change in the SME sector. The adoption and use of open source ERP tools then presents an opportunity for the SME sector. The usage of open source software has increased over the years. This increase has also extended to open source ERP tools. These tools offer the same functions as the proprietary at a fraction of the cost. Despite the benefits that open source ERP offers diffusion of this technology into the SME sector in South Africa has been minimal. This means the SME sector in South Africa is not benefiting from the widely available cost effective open source ERP available in the market. An opportunity therefore exists for them to utilise the technology to gain competitive advantage. The research was done primarily to determine the open source ERP adoption patterns of SMEs in the Vaal region. The research sought to determine the drivers for ERP adoption and barriers to adoption. Focus was specifically extended to investigating knowledge on open source alternatives. The results from the research indicate that the SMEs understand the benefits of adopting ERP for their businesses. The research further revealed that the adoption factors identified in the literature are still relevant in South Africa. The factors identified included costs, lack of training, lack of support, lack of knowledge and the lack of open source vendors. The empirical research also identified that the SME still harbour fear about open source ERP tools due to lack of training ,support and knowledge .From the study it is clear that a new approach needs to be taken to encourage adoption of open source ERP. These approaches include giving incentives to SMEs to adopt open source ERP. These incentives may be in the form of training packages and skills workshops to help overcome the barriers and improve implementation of open source ERP. The research identified the critical need for increased formal education and training in open source software development and emphasis on ERP tools. Government research bodies need to play a role in this area. For an example, there is need for SME and university collaborations in open source ERP deployment, whereby the latter needs to include software development tools in their curricula for SMEs so as to increase awareness. Clear–cut comparisons of existing proprietary systems against open source systems by focusing on functional and technological requirements need to be undertaken. This will help to reflect a cost benefit analysis as well as interoperability between the open source ERP and existing systems. During the adoption process, SME are encouraged to go through the full life cycle of open source ERP adoption. In this cycle the SME needs to do a thorough analysis regarding selection, implementation, integration, migration, training and evaluation of installed tools. That way they will gain the competitive advantage afforded by the tools. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Stakeholder engagement, and specifically employee engagement has proven to have an influence on how companies perform and how value is created in organisations. Within the competitive world where Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are functioning, employee engagement can be the master key that unlocks better organisational performance. The objective of this study is to research the influence of stakeholder engagement on business performance and value creation, and to identify factors that impact on stakeholder engagement. The processes that are in place to engage with employees and how value are created through employee engagement, are also investigated. Studies have proven that successful employee engagement can have a positive influence on how businesses perform. The various factors that have an influence on employee engagement, are identified, including: • People. • Communication. • Work. • Rewards. • Opportunities. • Quality of life; and • Company practices. The study found that engagement levels in selected SMEs in Gauteng are high and the results, as discussed in Chapter 3, are positive. It proves that a significant percentage of employees are engaged on the following levels: 1. Rational - this indicates how well employees understand their roles and responsibilities in their various companies. 2. Emotional - this level indicates with how much passion employees work and how passionate they are about their organisation. 3. Motivational - this indicates how willing employees are to give more than is expected of them, and how hard they work to perform well on their roles and responsibilities. The results of the study can be used by companies to improve employee engagement and create value in their organisations - it can assist them in building a sustainable, competitive organisation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

This study explored the processes of innovation among innovative rural manufacturing SMEs by using the narratives of the owner/mangers of case study firms and other actors involved in the innovation process. This was consistent with the ontology of critical realism that was selected which entailed the use of case study method as a tool for data collection. This study makes a number of incremental rather than radical contributions to innovation theory and our understanding of innovation among rural Manufacturing SMEs. The results of this study shows the importance of opinions of owner/managers in the measurement of innovation considering that the majority were either unaware of the need to register their innovation and the lack of support organizations in rural areas who can advice SMEs on the need for patents and the registration process. Regarding the characteristics of innovation in rural areas, the results showed that rural innovative SMEs are likely to be relatively strong in innovations where effects of scale are not yet important but where they can make use of their flexibility and proximity to market demand. The results of this study showed that SMEs received ideas for their innovations from various sources located both within and outside the case study area. The firms then used different approaches to develop their innovations including internalised design and externalised manufacturing, externalised design and internalised manufacturing, and internalised both design and manufacturing. Lastly, rurality did not appear to constrain the processes of innovation since SMEs had developed strategies that enabled them to adapt and adjust to their rural environment in order to remain innovative.

The present study investigated whether cluster potentials could be identified in the geographical area within the boundaries of Samsun province, and if identified, how such a potential could be promoted through corresponding support measures. Development of policy recommendations for promotion of identified cluster potential was the principal goal of the study. The course of the study was characterized by a cluster-based policy-making process in the policy environment, i.e. Samsun province. The process includes a descriptive part, i.e. cluster analysis, and a prescriptive part, i.e. determining policy goals and designing policy instruments. In the literature review, a guide to the field study was developed by review of various approaches to cluster concept / common features of clusters and the competitive advantages these give rise to / various practices in cluster-based policy development, and various cluster analysis methods. The field study starts with the initial identification of need for policy intervention, at which stage the rationale for pursuing a cluster-based policy in the specific conditions of Samsun and Turkey was discussed. The &ldquo / clusters as sectors&rdquo / approach was utilized in the identification of region&rsquo / s (potential) clusters and selection of the cluster as the subject of analysis and policy development. The analysis of industrial sectors in Samsun&rsquo / s economy was followed by selection of the target sector via employing various criteria assessing the importance of these sectors in terms of value added to the regional economy, and the clustering potential. Accordingly, furniture sector was selected, and the agglomeration of furniture sector enterprises in Kutlukent locality was identified as the potential cluster to be the subject of analysis and policy development. Following the identification of the potential cluster, the descriptive part was completed by second-stage micro-level analysis of the identified potential cluster, by which detailed information about the potential cluster was presented. At that phase, cluster potential of the structure was assessed by examining the elements in cluster value and production chain / public and private business support infrastructure / the flow of materials and goods in the chain / untraded relationships between the elements / characteristics of enterprises and workforce / and innovation performance. This comprehensive in-depth analysis of the cluster provided the required information to identify the specific needs of the cluster for cluster-based policy intervention. In the last part of the thesis, i.e. prescriptive part, cluster-oriented policy recommendations were developed including the determination of policy goal and the design/selection of policy instruments. The necessary information was collected by two-stage expert interviews, and by overall scan of the enterprises involved in the cluster via enterprise survey, which was realized in interviews with all of the enterprises. Six experts and 283 enterprises participated in the study. The results of the analysis showed that, while Kutlukent furniture cluster had some features, which are common in effective cluster models, the cluster lacks some critical features, which are crucial for effective functioning of a successful cluster. Hence, Kutlukent furniture cluster was defined as a &ldquo / potential&rdquo / cluster, which should be promoted by utilizing the existing potentials and strengths, and by addressing the weaknesses and obstacles identified in the analysis of the cluster, via appropriate cluster-oriented policy measures, which were proposed in the prescriptive part of the policy-making process. By these measures, the elements of Kutlukent potential cluster would be able to realize competitive advantages associated with clustering as in successful cluster models.

Venture capital (VC) has been accepted to play an important role in encouraging of entrepreneurship, maintaining technological improvement and, urban and regional development in the country besides providing financial support for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) with high growth potential. This thesis analyzes the reasons of the limited venture capital investments in Turkey and the measures that should be taken in order to increase both the effectiveness of VC in maintaining urban and regional development and VC investments to SMEs. Furthermore, VC is emphasized to be an important model that can be efficient in solving the financing, management and technical problems of SMEs with high growth potential. In order to analyze the problems, a field research was conducted. Research consists of two parts. In the first part, the questionnaire was conducted with 100 SMEs in Ankara that are active in OSTIM so as to reveal the general characteristics of SMEs and the funds they use to solve their financial problems in start-up and expansion stages. SMEs are generally family run firms that have limited capital and whose owner is also the manager in the firm. Equity capital is the most important source that is used in the start-up and expansion stages by the firms. The rate of usage of subsidies like investment and export incentives and technology development support, credit guarantee fund and venture capital by these firms is low. Lack of knowledge, insufficiency of qualified staff and bureaucratic barriers are the most significant reasons of this situation. In the second part, interviews with venture capitalists or managers of 3 important VC firms that are active in Turkey come up. These interviews aimed to reveal the goal of VC firms, evaluation process of the applications and VC firms&rsquo / expectations from SMEs. VC firms face difficulties with the projects with no growth potential. Moreover, applicant firms do not have adequate staff and supplies in order to prepare the financial information for the application process, and this happens to be a crucial problem. According to the results of the field research, some suggestions are tried to be put forward in terms of the achievement of a more effective use of VC system in Turkey. In this regard, firstly, efficiency of subsidies-particularly institutions that provide R&amp / D supports- should be increased. Secondly, Credit Guarantee Fund should be strengthened in order to provide more entrepreneurs with guarantee support. And finally, establishment of a center that is to provide consultancy for applicant firms in their project development and application periods is suggested.

The responsiveness of organizational leaders regarding suggestions related to various managerial techniques has led to the coinage of the ‘management fashion’ idiom. It has been convincingly argued that phenomena like management control systems are prone to trends, and that such trends permeate into the daily life of managers through the use of persuasive rhetoric. This thesis is a theory-generating study of change in management control systems. More precisely, its purpose is to seek an understanding of how fashions within the field of management control emerge through processes of interaction and co-production. By asking the question “how do the forces involved in the shaping of a market for management control systems interact and combine in order to create management fashions?” the thesis seeks to generate a comprehensive conjecture on the management fashion setting process. The thesis is based on an empirical case study completed with extensive literature readings. In order to generate theory, a methodology based on abductive reasoning has been produced. Theoretically, the thesis borrows from micro sociological theory on imitation and co-production but extends also into such fields as psychology, aesthetics, rhetoric and economics; aside from the obvious management control and management accounting themes. The thesis concludes by producing a comprehensive model of the management fashion setting process. The contribution of the thesis can be understood as either providing an alternative to or completing the dominant interpretation of the phenomena. The main difference between the arrived at suggestion and the prevailing interpretation is the role of the actors which is changed from norm following consumers of fashion to creative producers of fashion. This change represents a change in scientific traditions and necessitates the adoption of additional frames of reference when studying management fashion phenomena.

The purpose of this PhD thesis is to make a contribution to existing knowledge in the field of critical accounting by studying credit mechanisms and their link to income/wealth inequality in Sri Lankan society and the role of accounting technology in facilitating such mechanisms. The literature review revealed that: a) Global inequality is aggravated by the disparity of economic development which is possible only through state intervention; b) Unemployment is considered as a dilemma for economic development in developing countries by most politicians/administrators/researchers; c) In any country, around 60-70 percent of employment is generated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and; d) Their major problem is access to credit. This research was designed to find out how the credit system works and why certain SMEs do not have adequate access to credit to develop their businesses; to provide employment; to increase the share of national income to the lower income groups; to narrow down the gap between the rich and poor within and between countries. A case study research approach was followed to extract data on real-life experiences of the research participants. Reliability of data was ensured by using various verification techniques and maximum efforts were made to balance the two extremes of validity of the research; internal and external. The extent of representation by the cases and the bank was tested, and judged as high, with 12-14 characteristics common to the Sri Lankan credit culture and banking industry respectively. Marxian critical theories were used for theoretical guidance throughout the research. The three case studies provide empirical evidence for the existence of the discriminatory nature of credit decision-making where two credit applicants were successful but a third credit applicant failed in obtaining credit. It is contended that the two successful applicants were powerful enough to approach a more powerful bank Chairperson and to obtain credit outside the normal credit rules with the support of accounting technology and using masks such as patriotism and social responsibility. The other applicant, who was initially accommodated with credit at the lower level, could not convince the credit decision-makers at the higher level with expensive professionally prepared accounting reports. This applicant was not from an influential social network and could not reach the powerful credit decision-makers informally was rejected through strict application of credit rules. Deep analysis of these facts supports the Marxian claim that credit and exploitation mechanisms work towards concentration of wealth and sustaining income inequality. Credit decisions supply money to influential individuals and it is argued that such economic power enhances the social powerbase of those individuals, which in turn reinforces the propensity to make preferential credit decisions, thereby making them richer. In contrast, a lack of money translates into powerlessness, deprivation and exclusion from social activities for the majority of the poor. In this process opportunities are lost to disadvantaged social groups and this necessarily results in poor people’s economic status remaining stagnant. These power-driven, discriminatory decision-making systems not only restrict the availability of financial capital for feasible projects, but also deny credit to potential enterprises. Further, wasting resources on unfeasible projects, while ignoring the need for nurturing potentially viable projects, are a double blow to efforts towards employment generation and economic development and therefore, are detrimental to the economic well-being of the general population. These findings provide insight for policy formulators for more productive financial capital mobility systems in Sri Lanka. It is suggested that suitable State intervention in regulating SME financing could remove such credit-related obstacles to economic development, and work towards a fair distribution of economic benefits to the people in Sri Lanka and beyond.