The main problem in this thesis is: How should research and development results regarding production methods be represented for better adoption by SMEs? Manufacturing SMEs in Sweden have in general low profit margins and risk to go bankrupt. Different production methods could facilitate the needed performance improvement. Networking provides an arena where research and development needs could be determined and effective transfer activities could be carried through. How new production methods could be characterized and represented are presented. Several case studies, surveys and literature studies have been carried through. The results from these studies have been analyzed and compared to literature on the production method diffusion process – Dissemination-Clustering-Transfer. This analysis has resulted in a specification of requirements on how new production methods should be presented for better adoption by SMEs. One suggestion to the specification of requirements, the DFMTsme process, is described. The process is based on a repeated development procedure and follows a six-step development process in five phases. It is concluded that the DFMTsme process works. The research project is finally reviewed due to verification, validation and the contribution to knowledge. Implications for actors in the production method diffusion process as well as for policy makers are discussed. / QC 20100729

Problem: Business world has met uncertainty, which settled everywhere: from global financial markets and national economies, to organizations and employees’ minds. As every crisis, this situation came unexpectedly, almost out of a clear blue sky. Sweden, being highly dependent on international development, has faced negative effects in all aspects of business life. SMEs have emerged as an engine of economic and social development throughout the world.  As well as more than 99 percent of all enterprises in Sweden are classified as SMEs, the impact of economic crisis may be more than significant. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of the current economic crisis and recession on the Small and Medium Enterprises in Sweden. Method: In order to fulfill our purpose we combined both techniques – qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches. We used a quantitative analysis tool – survey to collect primary data from the SMEs. In its turn, qualitative analysis was implemented to see how the data from earlier studies and our findings can be interconnected. Results: It was found, that companies are facing mostly negative effects. The perception of currently facing economic challenges can be assessed as anxious, which means that companies see the further development in a tough way. Damaged business confidence can be also recognized in pessimistic forecasts for profitability in 2009. However, the crisis can be considered as a driver for change. On the positive way, every downturn and faced challenge, e.g. stressful situation, stimulate organisations to analyze, look for new effective solutions and make decisions in the way they would never thought about. It was found out that importance of crisis planning is distinctly risisng during current times of uncertainty. Futhermore, companies tend to react on the faced challenges by designing, following crisis plans and creating special crisis teams. Our research may help the businesses to understand what difficulties the majority is facing, and thus not only to prevent same risks but also turn them into opportunities.

Internationalization research has for a long time been dominated by a strong focus on how large firms from large and developed economies expand into other developed countries. Until recently, little attention has been devoted towards understanding that part of the internationalization process in which small and medium sized firms from small and open economies, attempt to establish themselves in undeveloped countries. This research gap is the point of departure for this thesis.   By using a recently published conceptual framework by Laanti et al. (2009) the authors study how five groups of factors have shaped the internationalization process of a small Swedish electricity company in the midst of starting up business in Congo Kinshasa. In this in-depth single-case study, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with representatives of PPC Engineering AB. The study finds that the importance of different factors vary throughout the process, but in this case, when seen as a whole, host country factors and company specific factors play the most prominent roles. Furthermore, Laanti et al.’s (2009) conceptual framework is redesigned to explain the dynamic process of internationalization. However, more research is needed to determine the extent to which this framework can be generalized.

Introduction: Research has shown that family firms play an important role in modern economies and that they maintain special characteristics and features in comparison to non-family businesses. Furthermore, it is evident in literature and practice that internationalization is a crucial process and strategy in the present global business environment. Problem: These findings however, have not led to a family business internationalization strategy. Only some studies have been conducted concerning the influence of the special features of family firms on the process of internationalization. This means that there is a gap between theory and practice. Purpose: To increase the academic understanding of the phenomenon internationalization of family businesses, through the use of both theoretical and empirical findings. Research questions: This study attempted to fulfill the purpose by providing answers to several research questions. The main research questions are: What is the current state of knowledge about internationalization, family business features and previous research in internationalization of family firms? How do the family business features theoretically influence the internationalization process? How do the family business features empirically influence the internationalization process? What are the theoretical contributions and practical managerial implications of these findings? Method: A solid literature research has been conducted in order to determine the theoretical influences of family business features on internationalization. The empirical testing of the expectations was conducted through a qualitative approach by taking personal interviews at eight companies, four in The Netherlands and four in Sweden, and studying secondary documentation. Findings: The study shows that it is difficult to decisively determine the either facilitating or constraining influence of family business features on internationalization. The results show that the 23 features which have been studied in the sample are facilitating or constraining under certain conditions (see table 5, p. 108). This implies that managers, researchers and consultants will be required to study these conditions first in order to determine the facilitating or constraining effects in a company. In addition, a model has been constructed illustrating the empirical findings concerning the internationalization process (see figure 8, p.112). Finally, concerning internationalization theories, it is determined that family businesses tend to use the Network approach in starting their internationalization process, the Stage approaches in further developing the international operations and support their process through the Resource-based view and the Knowledge-based view.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries are reported to encounter difficulties in accessing to formal external financing resource. Banking systems in this category of countries are either under-developed or newly reformed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether SME financing in China, measured by SMEs per capita, is affected by local bank competition, measured by number of banks per capita or share of foreign banks. Control variables such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), level of infrastructure and geographic location are also included in the regression models. The main findings are that: when disregarding the ownership of banks, bank competition has positive impact on SME financing across Chinese provinces, although the relationship is non-linear; and foreign banks do not significantly influence SME bank financing in China. The first finding generally support the conventional theories of industrial organization and the second one offers the basis for further arguments about the role of foreign banks in financing SMEs in China.

No description available.

SMEs are established as an important cornerstone for the Swedish economy, due to the amount of people they employ and the economic activity they present. Due to a changing world SMEs are faced with new competition from foreign firms. In order to counter the new environment, an option for the firms is to move abroad, to internationalize. Furthermore China is established as an attractive country for SMEs to expand into, due to the major economic growth. During internationalization the Swedish agency for regional and economic growth identified SMEs to experience a lack of knowledge and capital, which hinders them in their expansion. The paper observes how four different Swedish SMEs, with activity in China moved abroad and how the mentioned lack of capital and knowledge was bridged. A theoretical framework is acquired through established research questions which are meant to analyze the problem description. The firms are identified as Swedish SMEs. In order to acquire empirical data, face to face interviews are conducted with the identified Swedish SMEs. Through the interview the empirical data is gathered, at which point, the paper analyzes the empirical data using the problem statement and the theories previously derived. The paper establishes that the experiential knowledge is the major influence on the resources committed by the firm. The amount of resources committed influences the type of entry mode as well as the accompanied advantages. In affect all firms have limited knowledge and ergo their resources committed are limited. This paper draws the conclusion that due to this, the firms were all able to finance their internationalization and no capital gap was experienced. The firms which were interviewed held experiential knowledge within the firm except one case where it was bridged with the assistance of a consultant. The experiential knowledge is held by individuals and has had a deep impact on the manner of the internationalization. It is identified that the personal relationships between individuals is shown to be of great importance to the firm. The knowledge constraints were bridged by the individuals’ experiential knowledge.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important subject in business administration, and has been for many years. Over the past few years it has been become an increasingly debated topic. The CSR subject mainly focuses on multinational enterprises (MNEs), resulting in a research gap concerning CSR in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). SMEs outline the majority of all companies on the European market; therefore, it is empirically interesting to further investigate how SMEs perceive CSR commitment. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain how CSR commitment of internal and external stakeholders influences CSR commitment in SMEs. The research was conducted with a quantitative survey. The data collected with the survey was tested and analyzed with both an explanatory and exploratory research strategy. Explanatory research was performed in order to test the derived hypotheses and explain the research question. Exploratory research was then performed in order to provide a further understanding of how SMEs view stakeholders and their CSR commitment. These two research strategies revealed that internal and external stakeholders influence CSR commitment in SMEs. However, SMEs perceive some stakeholders similarly because of their relationship with the company. There are three main concepts of CSR commitment: environmental, social and financial responsibility. Results showed that financial CSR is considered distinctly different from the two other measured CSR concepts. The theoretical contributions may be of importance to owners of SMEs and MNEs in order to gain a deeper understanding of CSR as a subject. Also, findings can help scholars interested in further researching CSR commitment in SMEs. The methodological contributions of this dissertation are of relevance for future research on the subject, since the developed instrument for measuring CSR commitment was successful. Without an established measure for this area, this instrument enables further development and thereby more valid research regarding CSR commitment and SMEs.

Small business creation is a vital factor to any economy, but there is little research done on the challenges faced during intermediate stages in the life of a business that may prevent the success of an organization. The goal of this investigation is to determine what controllable factors inhibit growth within an organization, and how to minimize these barriers in order to reach success. The research focus is on small businesses in operation for more than four years, since this is the period in which support from governmental and private institutions becomes scarce and the organization is forced tomake decisions; not only to survive, but to promote evolution for the firm. This thesis has been written on commission for SME consultation firm BCM-QMS.

Internationalisering innebär ett företags engagemang på utländska marknader, något som exempelvis kan ske genom export i allians med andra utländska verksamheter. Export delas in i direkt och indirekt export. I och med att det har blivit enklare även för små och medelstora företag att göra affärer över gränserna har det i sin tur medfört barriärer som hindrar eller hämmar företags möjligheter att exportera. Även om det inte verkar råda någon konsensus vad det gäller exportbarriärer så är det ändå ett välbeforskat ämne. Vad som däremot ter sig betydligt mer outforskat är hur små och medelstora företag tar sig över dessa hinder. De förklaringar som finns kring hur små och medelstora företag hanterar de barriärer som upplevs vid export är väldigt oklara. Oftast beskrivs processer och arbete i samband med expansion men inte det grundläggande arbetet som små och medelstora företag går igenom för att kunna utvecklas och expandera genom sin export. Med grund utifrån detta har författarna till denna studie kommit fram till ett syfte som lyder att; ”Syftet med denna studie är att explorativt undersöka hur små och medelstora svenska exportföretag hanterar upplevda exportbarriärer” Författarna till denna studie har använt sig av en kvalitativ studie med ett deduktivt synsätt där grunden har legat i teori kring interna och externa exportbarriärer, dessa har delats in i de olika undergrupperna informations-, funktionella-, marknadsförings-, administrativa-, statliga- , genomförandes- samt miljöbarriärer. Denna teori tillsammans med tre semi-strukturerade djupintervjuer med de ovannämnda företagen har analyserats, och utifrån denna mynnat ut i en slutsats. Slutsatsen beskriver att de exportbarriärer som företag upplever är situationsbetingade och beror på mer än en variabel. Beroende på vilket geografiskt område företaget har valt att exportera till kommer de också uppleva varierande barriärer och då behöva anpassa sina hanteringsåtgärder. Vilka barriärer som upplevts och hur de hanterats beror också på hur länge företaget varit verksamma med export. Det sätt som har möjliggjort ett internationellt verkande i stor mån är genom användandet av mellanhänder. Genom att små och medelstora företag använder sig av mellanhänder har de kunnat hantera många av de barriärer som uppkommit på ett sätt som medför färre och mindre finansiella följder för det enskilda företaget.