La presente investigación tiene el propósito de analizar los factores que influyen en las exportaciones de uva fresca de las Pymes en la Región Ica, como una alternativa que permita ayudar a las Pymes no exportadoras a buscar estos factores tanto internos como externos y que tienen variables que se relacionan y pueden ser fundamentales al momento de la internacionalización de una Pyme y así incrementar los volúmenes de exportación. La importancia de esta investigación radica en contribuir a que las Pymes puedan aumentar sus exportaciones e ingresos anuales, además, se tiene como finalidad de poder demostrar que existe potencial en los cuatro factores expuestos y que se desarrollan para tener un mayor alcance de cómo influyen en la exportación de las Pymes. Para el desarrollo de la investigación se realizó una encuesta con escala de Likert a una muestra de 50 Pymes exportadoras ubicadas en la Región Ica con la finalidad de tener mayor conocimiento y poder analizar los resultados mediante el método cuantitativo del coeficiente de Spearman. / This research is intended to analyze the factors influencing the exports of fresh grapes from SMEs (Small and Medium Business) in the Ica Region, as an alternative to help non-exporting SMEs to look for these internal and external factors and that have variables that are related and can be fundamental at the moment of the internationalization of a SME and thus increase the volumes of the export. The main aspects of this research lies in helping SMEs increase their exports and annual income. In addition, it objectives to demonstrate that there is potential in the four factors that are available to have a greater scope. The export of SMEs. The importance of this research lies in helping SMEs increase their exports and annual income, in addition, it aims to demonstrate that there is potential in the four factors that are available to have a greater scope in the export of SMEs. For the development of the research, a survey with a Likert scale was conducted to a sample of 50 exporting SMEs located in the Ica Region in order to have a greater knowledge and to analyze the results by means of the quantitative Spearman coefficient. / Tesis

El objetivo de la presente tesis es identificar los factores que influyen positivamente en el desarrollo exportador de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES) del sector textil y confecciones en Lima. Esto con el fin de conocer las diferencias entre las PYMES exportadoras y las que no exportan. El estudio del sector se delimita en las subpartidas 6109100031 (t-shirt de algodón para hombre o mujer) y 6109100039 (los demás "t-shirts" de algodón, para hombres o mujeres) ya que el sector es muy amplio y diverso. La investigación tiene un enfoque cuantitativo con una muestra de 35 PYMES exportadoras y 48 PYMES no exportadoras en la cual se aplica un estudio concluyente y descriptivo para responder el objetivo planteado. Además, tiene un enfoque no experimental por el estudio de la situación actual del sector y un estudio transversal en el cual se aplica una encuesta a la muestra detallada. La investigación se basa en la información incluida en el Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) en su reporte para Perú en 2016-2017. Dicho estudio menciona que las PYMES se internacionalizan dentro de los primeros cinco años de creación. No obstante, solo el 1.5% de estas empresas tienen clientes potenciales en el extranjero. Asimismo, los resultados de la encuesta aplicada en el presente estudio y GEM Perú 2016-2017 comprueban que variables como las características del empresario, factores internos de la empresa y características del sector influyen positivamente en el desarrollo exportador de las PYMES en Lima Metropolitana. / The purpose of this thesis is to identify the factors that positively influence the export development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the textile and garment sector in Lima. This is to know the differences between exporting SMEs and those that do not export. The study of the sector is limited to subheadings 6109100031 (cotton shirt for men or women) and 6109100039 (the other cotton "shirts" for men and women) since the sector is very broad and diverse. The research has a quantitative approach with a sample of 35 exporting SMEs and 48 non-exporting SMEs in which a conclusive and descriptive study is applied to meet the set of objectives. In addition, it has a non-experimental approach when studying the current situation of the sector and a cross-sectional study in which a survey is applied to the detailed sample. The study is based on the information included in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) in its report for Peru in 2016-2017. This study mentions that SMEs are internationalized within the first five years of creation; however, only 1.5% of these companies have potential clients abroad. Likewise, the results of the survey applied in the present study and GEM Peru 2016-2017 verify that variables such as the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal factors of the company and the characteristics of the sector have a positive influence on the export development of SMEs in Metropolitan Lima / Tesis

Student Number: 0304476F Faculty of Humanities Maters in Arts / The study investigated gender employment practices and conditions of work among small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Gauteng Province of South Africa. A comparison of the practices and conditions between productive and service industries is clearly the major focus of the research. Interviews were conducted on two productive and two service industries (all private) situated in Benoni and Johannesburg respectively. The research found that generally, SMEs, in the productive and the service sectors contribute to job creation. Evidence shows that women are going into previously male dominated jobs like electrical and mechanical jobs, but the movement is quite minimal. This is a sign of progress on the part of women and a shift from the traditional belief that certain jobs are exclusively meant for men. The study found a salient discrepancy between the rhetoric of gender equality and the practice of gender equality in all the industries. There are clear signs that the legislation on minimum conditions of employment is followed in the productive industries than in the service industries but both still stick to the traditional gender division of labour.

Background: Sweden is known for encouraging entrepreneurship where 99.9% of the business organizations are SMEs. Including Sweden, several other countries in the world provide significant importance to family firms, as their contribution is noteworthy to the global economy. Due to numerous reasons such as globalization and growth aspects, FSMEs are forced to gain competitive advantage through international diversification. Internationalization of FSMEs can be influenced by unique characteristics of family firms.Purpose: Internationalization is a process where the decision of internationalization can be affected by several factors including resources. Among unique characteristics of family firms, FSMEs also possess family-specific resources that may influence these decisions. Hence the purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding on which and how family-specific resources influence internationalization decisions.Method: With the use of a single case study method, we gained valuable insight of a Swedish candy manufacturing family firm which engaged in internationalization successfully. The data was collected through in-depth interviews, observations, company website, published press interviews, press articles and other databases.Conclusion: Internationalization can be a daunting decision for family firms where availability of resources play a major role. The key family-specific resources that influenced the decision of internationalization of the family firm studied in this thesis were bridging social capital, human capital and governance capital. The remaining capitals may have contributed to the internationalization process. Other than the family-specific resources, factors such as generational change and ability to gain substantial financial support in further influenced their internationalization decisions. These findings likewise confirm the existence of heterogeneity of family firms which makes them unique.

Background: In today's digitalized and globalized business environment, entrepreneurs are constantly challenged to carefully plan its start-ups products, services or business model. Any failure in one of those components may result in a less competitive company, which could lead to failure as consequence. Business model is often seen as a central and important part of a start-up. Over time, entrepreneurs look for new ways of improving its current business model or new ways doing business always aiming economic growth. Business Model Innovation is a technique that supports companies, business managers and entrepreneurs to look for business opportunities (or business models) that would somehow be related to the company. Purpose: The main purpose of this master thesis is to expose the challenges that start-ups face in terms of business model and then to understand how the companies studied overcame those challenges by making use of business model innovation (BMI). We also look to understand what kind of impact business model innovation generated in the start-up, in terms of economic growth. Method: Primary data and secondary data were collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews involving multiple case study of five technology start-ups in Sweden. Once all data were collected and stored, we made use of open and axial coding techniques in order to perform data analysis to possibly generate a theory and the answer to the research questions. Conclusion: All start-ups are aware about the importance and positive benefits that business model innovation could bring. When it comes to challenges, there are two main problems, where the first one is related about the difficulty to abstract different business model and then incorporate into the company’s context while the second one is once they manage to overcome the first challenge, they still needs to find a way to make sure it would be profitable. Another finding is that older start-ups tends to be more aware about the positive and negative impacts that business model innovation could bring, and each company has its own method to validate a business model innovation. We analyzed each case, identified some patterns and develop a model that helps start-ups to validate potential business models to be incorporated in the company.

Purpose − Previous research has shown that Swedish Small-and-Medium enterprises (SMEs) have a relatively low level of digital maturity when it comes to export, thus limiting growth potential in international markets. This study aims at investigating this phenomenon with a focus on e-commerce, as it is among the top digital channels that have a large impact on international expansion. Factors influencing the usage of e-commerce channels within internationalisation by Swedish SME fashion retailers will be investigated.  Design/methodology/approach −The overall methodology used in this study is qualitative with an abductive mode of reasoning. The study follows a case study approach using multiple cases with interviews as the primary data source. Based on literature review, thirteen factors are identified to have a certain influence on the usage of e-commerce within internationalisation. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with seven cases to examine the identified factors from literature and explore new factors if possible. Findings − The results present eleven critical factors including eight identified factors from the literature together with five newly discovered factors. They are Relative Advantage, Perceived Usefulness, Compatibility, Costs, Customer Reachability, Branding and Advertising, Time-efficiency, Technology Competence & Configuration, Organisation Size, Competitive Pressure, and Main Product Features. These critical factors have various effects depending on companies’ business operations and the degree of online internationalisation. The results further confirmed that the Uppsala Model is still applicable in the context of Swedish SME fashion retailers internationalising with e-commerce.  Value − This study has contributed to the existing research on e-commerce and internationalisation in terms of the influence on firms’ e-commerce usage within internationalisation in the post-adoption phase, and under the specific business context of Swedish small-and-medium sized fashion retailers. Based on the conclusion, practical implications are offered for similar companies in this industry

As digitalization has evolved over the years, the need for automating procedures for faster results has become stronger. Marketing automation is a software that automates an organization’s marketing activities. Its purpose is to deliver a firm’s personalized messages to the existing and potential customers. Consequently, marketing automation is closely related to content marketing which’s main attribute is to raise brand awareness, and having a higher brand awareness can ultimately affect the buying decision. It has been discovered that there is a lack of research in the existing literature about marketing automation and more specifically in how marketing automation can affect the buying decision by raising brand awareness. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine how marketing automation affects the buying decision through brand awareness and external branding. The theory was outlined by six concepts which were marketing automation, external branding, brand communication, brand awareness, and buying decisions. These concepts led the authors to create six different hypotheses in order to find a link between them.  The data were collected through a self-completion questionnaire, therefore a quantitative study with an exploratory purpose was conducted. The results from the 118 respondents of the questionnaire suggest that marketing automation influences the organizational buying decision by enhancing brand awareness. Moreover, marketing automation has a positive impact on external branding which also has a positive effect on the buying decision. Concludingly, this suggests that marketing automation does positively affect the B2B buying decision through brand awareness and external branding.

O objetivo do presente trabalho é avaliar a possibilidade de utilização dos fundos de investimento em direitos creditórios no financiamento de micro e pequenas empresas. O estudo parte da problemática teórica da assimetria de informações e faz um panorama do mercado brasileiro de crédito, com ênfase nas micro e pequenas empresas. A partir da análise da legislação pertinente a esses fundos, nota-se que não existe impedimento legal à constituição de FIDCs que objetivem fomentar os micro pequenos negócios. No final de 2005, cinco fundos de investimento em direitos creditórios para financiamento de micro e pequenas empresas entraram em funcionamento no Brasil. Por meio da análise do desempenho dos fundos em atividade, percebe-se que esta nova modalidade de financiamento se mostra como uma alternativa viável e promissora no provimento de crédito a micro e pequenos empresários, pois além de aumentarem o acesso desse segmento de mercado a empréstimos, o faz a taxas menores do que aquelas praticadas pelas instituições financeiras convencionais. / The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the possibility of financing micro and small enterprises by means of accounts receivables investment funds. The study starts with a review of the asymmetric information problem and makes a review of the Brazilian credit market, with a special emphasis on micro and small enterprises. Analyzing the legislation of those funds, it can be noted that there is no legal impediment to constitute funds with a focus on fomenting micro and small businesses. At the end of 2005, five funds to finance micro and small enterprises were constituted in Brazil. Analyzing the performance of those funds in activity, it can be stated that this new modality of financing is a viable and promising one. It allows the access of this segment to the credit market at smaller rates than those practiced by conventional financial institutions.

The field of research study is Swedish SMEs that belong to plastic industry. In the time ofglobalization and high competition on the global market, the issues of innovationimplementation and processes that can increase effectiveness of innovative activities are oftendiscussed. The issue is essentially important for small and medium businesses, which due totheir size and specifications are more flexible and can easily implement innovations. Due tothe fact, that Swedish market is filled with small and medium enterprises and innovativeactivities are among the most current and attractive for discussion, the research on the matterof innovation is seen as important contribution and necessary study for the modern market.The study focuses on importance of communicative processes between managers andemployees on the matter of innovation and innovative activities. The general researchquestion focuses on studying whether managers and employees can influence innovations andinnovative activities through communication. The research focuses on studying SwedishSMEs, on the case of plastic industry. SMEs in Sweden are well known for innovativeactivities, however, the research attempts to discover whether such activities are effective andwhether communication between managers and employees “makes or breaks innovativeecosystem” (Estrin, 2009). The motivation behind this research is to find how communicativeactivities in Swedish SMEs influence innovative processes and find whether managers andemployees can influence effectively innovations through communication for the benefit of theorganization.

La stratégie d'alliance est capitale pour la réussite et la survie des PME des secteurs de hautes technologies (PME-HT). Les partenariats R&D rentrent de plus en plus dans leur business models. Ainsi ce sont bien les PME de ces secteurs qui auraient besoin de développer une capacité d'alliance R&D, dans le sens où c'est une capacité organisationnelle qui permet à l'entreprise de gérer efficacement ses alliances R&D. Or ce concept de capacité d'alliance (CA) est majoritairement étudié dans un contexte de grandes firmes dans la mesure où elles disposent de managers spécialisés en alliances voire de départements alliances. Les PME quant à elles souffrent d'un manque structurel de ressources, notamment de ressources humaines et financières à allouer à l'activité de la gestion des alliances R&D. Pourtant l'innovation dans les secteurs de hautes technologies est portée principalement par les PME actives en gestion des alliances R&D. Notre objectif est d'explorer les pratiques de management des alliances R&D chez ces entreprises afin de répondre à la problématique suivante : Dans quelle mesure une PME de hautes technologies développe-t-elle une capacité d'alliance en R&D ? Nous comptons répondre à cette problématique en comparant les pratiques liées à la capacité d'alliance R&D des grandes firmes rapportées dans la littérature avec celles des PME de notre terrain de recherche. Egalement, nous mobilisons la théorie de la PME afin de lister les spécificités de ce type d'entreprises qui pourraient influencer leur capacité d'alliance. Nous avons étudié les pratiques managériales des PME du secteur des biotechnologies installées dans la région Languedoc-Roussillon. Nous avons sélectionné 20 entreprises parmi les 71 PME de biotechnologies languedocienne. Le critère de sélection a été la performance en matière d'alliances R&D et d'innovation technologique. Nous avons également étudié l'interaction de ces entreprises avec les acteurs du Système Sectoriel d'Innovation (SSI) du LR en ce qui concerne l'activité R&D. En somme, nous avons utilisé la méthode de l'observation non participante et de l'entretien semi-directif (un total de 39 entretiens).Nos résultats montrent que chez les PME-HT il existe deux types de capacité d'alliance en R&D : une CA individuelle et une CA organisationnelle. En l'occurrence dans les plus petites PME-HT seuls quelques individus ont développé cette capacité (dirigeant et responsable R&D. Quant aux autres PME plus âgées et de plus grandes tailles, la connaissance managériale liée à la CA est diffusée et stockée de manière collective dans la mémoire de l'entreprise. A la différence des grandes firmes, et dans les deux cas de figure, ces pratiques restent informelles et non institutionnalisées. Egalement, nous avons mis en évidence l'existence de la fonction informelle de chef de projet d'alliance R&D au sein de ces entreprises. Il s'agit d'un chercheur qui a développé un ensemble de compétences de chef de projet dans un contexte inter-organisationnel. Il s'agit principalement de connaissances en matière de DPI (Droit de Propriété Intellectuelle) et de montage de dossiers de financements publics.Enfin, certains aspects de la gestion des alliances R&D comme la prise de décision collégiale et le recours systématique au contrat comme mode de gouvernance des alliances constituent à nos yeux des facteurs de "dénaturation" de la PME de haute technologie par rapport à l'idéal-type de la PME. Dans un deuxième temps, nous discutons la nature même de la capacité d'alliance des PME de hautes technologies. Nos résultats permettent d'étudier en profondeur le lien entre le niveau individuel et organisationnel d'une capacité organisationnelle. / Alliance activity is a common practice in the high technology industries. Managing R&D alliances successfully is a major issue in such industries. Public policy makers in France announced that supporting high technology SMEs in managing their R&D alliances should become a standard practice among national and regional support agencies to business in the field of innovation activities. To contribute toward the goal of enhancing French high technology industries competitiveness we aim to study the R&D alliance management practices of SMEs within such industries. We are interested in the alliance capability of these firms as a strategic capability that allows the organizations to manage their alliances effectively. According to the state of the art, SMEs R&D alliance management practices are different from what you find at large companies. Presumably R&D alliance capability of high technology SMEs is expected to be different from large companies one. This assumption is based on the view that SMEs are characterized by a special organizational context which is different from large companies. Therefore our research problematic is to determine the extent to which, in high technology industries, SMEs develop a specific R&D alliance capability ? We plan to compare the state of the art concerning SMEs alliance capability with large companies' alliance management practices in high technology sectors. We choose to examine in particular the case of biotechnology SMEs because in this industry R&D alliances are very common practices and are critical to the survival of small firms. In order to comply with geographical and institutional embeddedness of innovation activities in this industry, we go one step further and study biotechnology SMEs from Languedoc Roussillon, a region in the south of France. A qualitative study was conducted in order to gather information about biotechnology SMEs practices concerning R&D alliances. We studied 20 companies ranked among the very successful in managing R&D alliances in the Languedoc Roussillon.Our results bring to light two different R&D alliance capability profiles within high technology SMEs : individual R&D alliance capability within smaller companies and organizational alliance capability within bigger SMEs. For the former companies, only some individuals develop managerial knowledge about R&D alliances, the persons in question are the CEO and/or an R&D top manager. They invested an enormous amount of time and resource in learning skills needed for the R&D alliance life cycle, such as project management tools, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), budgeting, etc. The first person to succeed in developing this individual R&D alliance capability is the CEO. As soon as the R&D activity grows, he tries to delegate his authority over the R&D manager or any other top scientist. For this purpose he starts to coach any scientist that showed interest in developing managerial skills. We call this totally informal coaching process “one-on-one learning process”. Within bigger high technology SMEs, there are practices related to a “collective learning process” aiming to spread managerial knowledge to all the R&D team members. It remains non-formal and non-institutionalized process, since there is no managerial knowledge codification. Actually, all the knowledge is stored only in the company oral memory.We showed many differences in managing R&D alliances between SMEs and large firms in the biotechnology industry. However high technology SMEs use formal contracts as the main governance control of the alliance relationship. They are very careful about IPR formal negotiation and management. In addition to that they use project management tools to plan the alliance implementation stage and even include this planning in the alliance contract. This make us reconsider the hypothesis according to which biotechnology SMEs fit to the SME ideal-type in terms of R&D alliance management practices.