Em função da importância das pequenas empresas na economia do país, identificar, analisar e compreender a prática da estratégia em pequenas empresas e relacioná-la com as características das escolas de estratégia, foi o principal interesse deste trabalho. Além disso, buscou-se como objetivos secundários revisar a literatura sobre estratégia empresarial e pequenas empresas; compreender o processo de formação do pensamento estratégico dentro das pequenas empresas e comparar a realidade da pequena empresa com a bibliografia existente, identificando as escolas de pensamento estratégico mais congruentes com as necessidades e possibilidades da pequena empresa. O processo de globalização gerou a necessidade de modernização e desenvolvimento gerencial devido ao aumento da competitividade empresarial. A análise da competição em todos os setores empresariais passou a ser tema de muitos artigos e estudos acadêmicos na tentativa de explicar a prosperidade de inúmeras organizações em detrimentos de outras. A competitividade imposta às empresas nacionais pela abertura do mercado brasileiro, através de seu modelo de abertura econômica e política desde 1994, promoveu e continua promovendo mudanças numa velocidade sem precedentes na história, tornando as micro e pequenas empresas fundamentais para os planos de crescimento do país, tanto no que diz respeito à economia quanto à questão do emprego, pois, segundo o Serviço Brasileiro de apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas (SEBRAE, 1999), existem cerca de 3,5 milhões de pequenas empresas no Brasil que juntas representam 98,3% do total das empresas registradas no país, 42% da massa salarial, 30% do produto interno bruto e 60% da mão de obra ocupada. Para realizar este trabalho foi feita uma pesquisa qualitativa, estudo multicaso, através de entrevistas com empresários em empresas de reconhecido sucesso no ramo de atuação. Como resultados alcançados, verificaram-se as dificuldades dos pequenos empresários na elaboração e implementação da estratégia, assim como se pôde comparar a prática dos empresários entrevistados com as escolas de pensamento estratégico pesquisadas. / The main goal of this exploratory study about business strategy is the identification, analysis and comprehension of the small business strategy design, application and management. Furthermore, the study secondary objectives are a bibliographic review of the main business strategy theories, the understanding of its development process in small business, as well as the comparison of the companies reality and the existing bibliography, finding the strategy schools that fits better the needs and possibilities of the small business. The small business entrepreneurs frequently face different problems regarding creation, perpetuation and growing of their own business. Due to the increasing competition the small business need a strong and well defined strategy in order to grow and obtain efficient results. The methodology applied on this study consists in a bibliographic review of the main theories of strategy and a field research, using a semi structured questionnaire to interview successful small business entrepreneurs in the area of Ribeirão Preto. The objective of this research is to verify the existence, the importance and the application of strategy in small business. This research also intends to be a reference study for the search of competitiveness and growth of the small business organizations in the Ribeirão Preto area.

O estudo realizado analisou as exportações brasileiras para os dois principais parceiros econômicos na região do Leste e Sudeste Asiático, China e Japão, com o intuito de verificar a evolução da pauta de exportação nacional e a existência de possíveis padrões de especialização quanto à intensidade tecnológica e competitividade. O período de análise compreendeu as décadas de 1990 e 2000. Para atingir o objetivo proposto, empregou-se o modelo de market share constante (CMS) de segundo nível, com a intenção de identificar as principais fontes de crescimento das exportações brasileiras (efeito crescimento do comércio mundial, efeito composição pauta de exportação e efeito competitividade). Utilizou-se também o modelo CMS de Fagerberg e Sollie (1985) atrelado ao método desenvolvido por Batista (2005), com o objetivo de identificar os principais concorrentes dos produtos brasileiros nos mercados chinês e japonês, bem como mensurar os ganhos e perdas de competitividade dos produtos brasileiros. Após a análise do agregado das exportações brasileiras, avaliou-se o perfil destas, por meio do estudo da evolução dos principais setores e capítulos exportados. Uma segunda forma de avaliar o perfil da pauta de exportação brasileira foi pela classificação por intensidade tecnológica, com o propósito de verificar se ao longo dos anos houve um aumento de valor agregado dos produtos exportados para a China e o Japão. Por último, foram classificadas as exportações brasileiras segundo os critérios da matriz de competitividade de Mandeng e Fajnzylberg, com a finalidade de identificar se os padrões de especialização das exportações brasileiras para os mercados selecionados apresentaram uma melhora ou deterioração ao longo do período selecionado. Tal estudo revelou que o Brasil conseguiu nas duas últimas décadas ampliar seu market share e o valor exportado para tais mercados, caracterizando um desempenho positivo / The study analyzes the Brazilian exports to China and Japan, the main economic partners in the region of East and Southeast Asia, in order to verify the evolution of national exports and the existence of possible patterns of specialization considering the technological intensity and the competitiveness. The analysis period was from 1990 to 2010. To reach the goal, was used the CMS model of two-level analysis aiming identify the main sources of export growth (the general rise in world exports, the commodity composition effect and competitiveness effect). The work also adopted the CMS model of Fagerberg and Sollie (1985) linked to the method developed by Batista (2005), in order to identify the major competitors of Brazilian products in Chinese and Japanese markets, as well as measure the competitiveness gains and losses of Brazilian products. Besides the analysis of the aggregate level data of Brazilian exports, disaggregated data was also used to analyze the evolution of the main export sectors and chapters. A second way to evaluate the profile of Brazilian exports was using the classification by technological intensity, in order to verify if there was an increase in value-added product exports to China and Japan. At last but not at least, Brazilian exports were classified according to the competitiveness matrix of Fajnzylberg and Mandeng aiming identify the patterns of specialization of Brazilian exports and if there was an improvement or deterioration of it over the selected period. It was revealed that in the last two decades Brazil has increased its market share and the value exported to China and Japan, achieving a good performance.

O presente trabalho busca contribuir com empresas desenvolvedoras de produtos de bens de consumo, através da proposição de um protótipo de sistema de informação de benchmarking (SIB). O programa tem por base um conjunto de indicadores de inovação, competitividade e design que estão distribuídos em cinco categorias: resposta ao consumidor, eficiência, inovação, qualidade e resultado. O SIB apresenta um indicador composto, denominado ICD-UFRGS, calculado a partir dos resultados de desempenho obtidos por uma determinada empresa em cada categoria. Dessa forma, as companhias poderão verificar sua performance, se comparar com outras do mesmo setor e confrontar seu desempenho com os dados advindos da média dos resultados de todas as demais empresas usuárias do sistema proposto. O programa foi resultado do trabalho de uma equipe de desenvolvimento com diferentes habilidades. Utilizou-se como estratégia de atuação a realização de apresentações periódicas, por parte dos programadores, para os demais integrantes da equipe de desenvolvimento, sobre a operação do software. Assim, a equipe tinha condições de refletir sobre a adequação da funcionalidade do sistema com os objetivos do trabalho e sugerir melhorias ao processo. O protótipo de alta fidelidade, em seu formato final, foi testado, inicialmente, com dados fictícios e, posteriormente, com dados reais de uma empresa, com o intuito de identificar problemas na programação. Em seguida, o software passou por três diferentes validações: em uma empresa desenvolvedora de produtos de bens de consumo; em uma agência governamental ligada ao setor industrial brasileiro; e por pesquisadores e professores do Institute of Design do Illinois Institute of Technology, de Chicago/EUA. As validações tiveram o intuito de identificar oportunidades de melhorias, por meio da percepção de possíveis usuários do software, a serem implementadas no protótipo, antes de sua disseminação no mercado. O estudo permitiu verificar que o sistema tem potencial de uso no Brasil. Além disso, percebeu-se que a funcionalidade de integração com outros softwares e possibilidades de apresentação de dados em smartphones podem contribuir na implementação em empresas. / The present study seeks to contribute with product development companies by proposing a prototype of a benchmarking information system (BIS). The software is based on a set of indicators of innovation, competitiveness and design that are distributed into five categories: consumer response, efficiency, innovation, quality and outcome. BIS has a composite indicator, called ICD-UFRGS, which is calculated with the performance results achieved by a particular company in each category. In this way, companies will be able to check their performance if they compare it with the achievement of other companies in the same sector and compare their performance with the data from the average of the results of all other companies that use the proposed system. The software resulted from the work of a development team with different skills. The operating strategy consisted of regular presentations by the developers to the other members of the development team about the operation of the software. Thus, the team had to reflect on the adequacy of the system functionality to the objectives of the work and suggest improvements to the process. The final format of the high-fidelity prototype was tested with fictitious data at first, and later with real data of a company, in order to identify problems in programming. Then, the software went through three different validations: in a product development company; in a government agency linked to the Brazilian industrial sector; and by researchers and professors of the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago/USA. The purpose of the validations was to identify improvement opportunities, through the perception of possible users of the software to be implemented in the prototype, prior to its dissemination in the market. The study showed that the system has potential for use in Brazil. In addition, it was realized that the functionality of integration with other software and the possibility to present data on smartphones can favor its implementation in companies.

Communication methods in the corporate environment must change. Organisations can no longer expect effective communication when using intranet sites or sending employees countless emails. This type of communication does not create the learning environment and most employees either do not read the intranet sites, or there is just too much email which could be seen as spam by the employee. These types of technologies also create a culture where organisations are lead from the top and there is not a culture or platform to create feedback loops. Most large corporate organisations have a tendency where many silos are created and cliques are formed, which is not in line with the culture of a learning organisation. Although there are a number of studies which look at how Internet based micro-blogging affect social connectedness, there is however limited information as to the effect that micro-blogging, if used internal to the organisation, would have on employee engagement, or how it can affect the competitive nature to the organisation. The research is exploratory in nature and set out to review what impact internal micro-blogging has on the organisation. The research uses Vodacom, one of the leading Information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications companies in South Africa, as the case study, as micro-blogging was recently introduced into this organisation.

The main goal of this thesis is to map and determinate position of ICT sector in the Czech economy and estimate competitiveness of this segment in the scope of economy of the Czech Republic. The first part explores and evaluates topical position of ICT sector in the Czech Republic, mainly by analyzing basic statistical data about the economic and employment impact of all ICT firms as a whole. There is also calculated effectiveness of each sector of the economy. This part provides a basic image of the ICT sector position compared to other sectors of the Czech economy. The second part continues with the research made in the first part, but on an aggregate level. It summarizes and visualizes changes in aggregated parts of economy in chronological order. Sectors of economy are aggregated to three groups according to their absorption of ICT. The third part expands previous analysis of a global scale. It summarizes and comments the Global Competitiveness Report published by World Economic Forum. This chapter provides clear review of competitiveness of Czech Republic compared to European Union, with accent on ICT sector. The last part is aimed at new methodology of scoring projects developed by the Department of Information Technologies at the University of Economics, Prague. It also sets some recommendations for future methodology. This part contains the library of case studies worked up in new methodology. Finally, there is summary of findings made during the process of exploring selected area of research which evaluates the contribution of the whole thesis as a whole to the researched topic.

The thesis focuses on the employment structures and employment trends within the EU Member States using the ICSO-88 classification for the detailed analysis of the German and Czech labour markets. The aim of the thesis is the prove the readiness of the Lisbon process to fullfil its main goal - to kepp the high employment rates eitihin the EU.

The diploma thesis deals with the competitiveness of Czech and Slovak Republic. The aim of the thesis is to compare the competitiveness of both economies based on the subjectively chosen factors (sources) of competitiveness. The selection of analyzed factors is related to the World Economic Forum concept. The intention is to find out, how the level of competitiveness of both countries has evolved in a specific time period. The level of competitiveness is analyzed from the perspective of the complex multicriteria approach to competitiveness.

The thesis focuses on analysis of competitiveness policy of the European Union. The aim of the thesis is to define the competitiveness policy represented by long-term growth strategies: Lisbon strategy and later Europe 2020, to analyze shift in perception of the competitiveness from the beginning of this century till nowadays concerning the changes of both economic environment and the European Union. First part defines theoretical approaches to competitiveness including "European model". Second part deals with the analysis of the economic situation and identifies main challenges for the EU. Third part compares Lisbon strategy with Europe 2020. Finally, the Europe 2020 strategy is critically evaluated.

This paper offers a complex view on the German economic policy, from the theoretical as well as the historical point of view. It discusses the current challenges and problems of the German economy, whose common factor are the negative demographic changes. One part of the paper also covers the actions aiming on minimalizing the influence of the financial crisis. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the sustainability of the welfare state as well as the global competitiveness.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar recomendações e um roteiro de aplicação da tecnologia da informação na melhoria competitiva da pequena empresa. As pequenas empresas estudadas foram os fabricantes de móveis do pólo de Mirassol (SP), considerando-se a classificação da ABIMÓVEL baseada no número de funcionários: 16 a 150. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto, o trabalho de campo foi dividido em duas fases. Na primeira fase, foi realizado um levantamento amplo, de caráter exploratório/descritivo, junto às pequenas empresas, visando obter uma visão geral do uso da tecnologia da informação. Foram identificadas 38 pequenas empresas, sendo que 32 participaram da pesquisa. Na segunda fase, foram estudadas oito pequenas empresas, para realização de um diagnóstico do uso da tecnologia da informação na melhoria competitiva. O estudo foi realizado por meio de observação direta, complementada por entrevistas e análise de documentos. Como resultado desse trabalho, pode-se citar o ganho de conhecimento sobre as dificuldades das pequenas empresas em usar a tecnologia da informação em prol da competitividade; as recomendações para minimizar essas dificuldades e um roteiro de implantação da tecnologia da informação, de modo a melhorar sua gestão e seus controles, obtendo melhoria na sua posição competitiva. Espera-se que este trabalho contribua para a pequena empresa; e, para tanto, os resultados serão apresentados em congressos científicos e revistas, em seminários no Sindicato da Indústria do Mobiliário e Afins de Mirassol e no Centro Tecnológico da Madeira e do Mobiliário de Votuporanga e por divulgação de relatórios do SEBRAE, SENAI, CIESP e SIMPI. / The objective of this work is to present recommendations and a schedule of application of the technology of information in the competitive improvement of the small company. The small studied companies were the furniture manufacturers from the region of Mirassol (SP), considering the classification of the ABIMÓVEL based on the number of its employees: 16 to 150. To reach the proposed objective, the field work was divided in two phases. In the first phase, an ample survey of exploratory and descriptive nature was carried out together the small companies, aiming at getting a general view of the use of the information technology. Thirty-eight small companies were identified and 32 participated in the research. In the second phase, eight small companies were studied to make a diagnosis of the use of the information technology in the competitive improvement. The study was carried out by means of direct observation complemented by interviews and document analysis. As a result of this work, the knowledge profit on the difficulties of the small companies in using the information technology can be cited in favor of the competitiveness; the recommendations to minimize those difficulties and a schedule of establishment of the information technology to improve its management and its controls, by getting improvement in its competitive position. This work is hoped to contribute to the small company and so the results will be presented at scientific congresses and magazines, in seminaries at the Trade Union and similar industries of furniture from Mirassol and at the Technological Center of the Wood and Furniture of Votuporanga and for divulging the reports of SEBRAE, SENAI, CIESP and SIMPI.