abstract In the past, to accommodate the economic development needs of different times Taiwan has set up industrial parks, export processing zones and science parks of different functions, goals and missions to provide land of different types for company settlement. In recent years, to establish local characteristic industries, local governments have attempted in creating quality investment environments by developing industrial parks to attract company settlement and investment. However aside from looking for the funding necessary to buy up lands and construct park infrastructures, the relevant local developments required by the park peripheral public infrastructural needs both contribute to financial burdens for the local governments. Therefore local governments under limited financial resources should cater to factors influencing company investment strategies in setting up the investment environments and adopt most beneficial strategies in monetary allocation to achieve a win-win situation for both the public and private sectors with limited available resources. In the 90¡¦s, to accommodate the expansion needs of the metal processing industry, the Kaohsiung County Government began the development of the Ben-Chou Industrial Park in Gangshan town. During the development, Gangshan Industrial Park experienced changes in the industrial environment and the Koahsiung County Government responded to the sales difficulties arisen from these changes by implementing many strategies to strengthen the investment advantages. In 3 years time the park¡¦s stagnant land sales dropped from 90% to 10%, an astounding achievement for all of local government developed industrial parks. This study sampled 108 companies in Ben-Chou Industrial Park and analyzed the factors involved in companies¡¦ investment in this park. The study shows: 1. When local governments develop industrial parks, characteristic industries can be formed by providing SMEs with room for expansion and utilizing the industrial clustering phenomenon. 2. The government-provided preferential land policy is one of the key factors. 3. The overall cost is still the primary factor in deciding where to invest for SMEs. 4. The government administrative efficiency has gradually become an important factor to consider in deciding where to invest. Therefore, this study suggests that when local governments develop industrial parks, specialized industrial network studies should be taken into consideration and in order to shape these industrial parks into specialized characteristic ones. Secondly, central governments should provide support to local government developed industrial parks; financially preferential policies should be implemented and encourage local governments to develop characteristic industrial parks according to their regional industrial development. Lastly, governments should dedicate in improving administrative efficiency to increase industrial development competitiveness, respond to the needs of industries to amend related policies and regulations and fully enforce these regulations to protect the rights complying companies.

<p><strong>Introduction. </strong>This bachelor thesis concerns the subject of IT Governance, how organizations prioritize and decides IT-related issues. The thesis will approach how Swedish Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises, which are considered successful, governs IT-related issues.</p><p><strong>Theoretical Framework. </strong>In order to conduct this research, the Governance Arrangement Matrix, created by MIT Sloan 2003, is applied which was also incorporated in a global study by Weill in 2003. The matrix involves five different decisions domains within IT and different corporate archetypes divided by stakeholder involvement.  The compiled data will thus be analyzed and mapped against Weill's study to derive the contemporary decision structure in Swedish SME's and create a comparison to map any alterations that might have occurred.</p><p><strong>Method. </strong>Through utilizing an online-survey and conducting telephone interviews, 108 responses from Swedish SME's provided the necessary data to map the contemporary decision-structure within IT in a deductive manner to both utilize quantitative and qualitative data, creating an understanding of the derived outcome. The analysis will provide an understanding for organizations to see the fit between business objectives and IT-usage, creating future possibilities for organizations to further optimizes their alignment between the business and IT. The main conclusions from this thesis could be summarized as follow:</p><p><strong>Results. </strong>The involvement of the board-of-directors has become more frequent, and with the inclusion of a Chief Information Officer, the collaboration throughout the corporate hierarchy enables a broader understanding of the impact of IT. Although that this approach was the most frequent selected archetype, the decisions relating to IT acquisitions and architecture, the majority of responses showed indications relating these areas to be decided by CIO/IT-department thus in conclusion: the knowledge that CIO/IT-departments has are sufficient to support the everyday business need.</p><p>Furthermore, the differences found between this research and the underlying study by Weill, indicates that IT is considered a multi-dimensional problem that needs constant supervision and that the view upon prioritizations and governance has been altered.</p>

<p>Web-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems deployed through theSoftware-as-a-Service (SaaS) model are a major disruptive technology in the fieldof ERP systems. The defining features of the SaaS are that they are hosted remotelyand are completely used through the web; they are subscription-payment basedand they operate on a multi-tenant fashion. This technological innovation redefinestraditional technical and economic ERP paradigms.</p><p>This Bachelor’s thesis aims through interviews with vendors, users and consultants,as well as by researching various academical and professional publications onthe subject of Web-based (SaaS) ERPs to study these pehomena, and produce a listof their benefits to SMEs. It also analyses their opportunities and challenges via anumber of interesting facts, thus allowing for thought-provoking observations andspawning of stirring discussions.</p><p>The benefits of Web-based ERPs were reported to be similar to the ones characteristicfor the On-premise ERPs. They furthermore included remote data access, costefficiency,flexibility, scalability, as well as the esublishment of a new customerdrivenrelationship with the ERP vendor. The major disadvantages of SaaS wereconsidered to be security, cost (in the long run), and customizability. These disadvantages,which were first reported years ago, are continuously dismissed by theadavncements and innovations made in Web-based solutions. Findings from previousstudies and trends suggest that issues of security, cost and customizabilityare gradually disappearing as technology improves and industry dynamics becomesmore customer-centric. Security, which was a major issue in 2007 slowlyfaded and is not regarded as the concern it used to be. From 2008 till now the issuesof customizability and TCO have been heavily disputed about Web-based ERPsolutions. The problem of customizability has also been found to be diminishingdue to technologically advanced capabilities of these systems; new systems haveemerged and old systems have improved enough to provide this feature. Cost hasnever been a transparent issue when it comes to IT investments and has beenshown to be higher in On-Premise solutions through the TVO approach whichlooks at other hidden and non-financial costs. All of the above sheds new light intothe once-‘static’ benefits and drawbacks of Web-based solutions, and provides afresh insight into this developing phenomenon.</p>

<p>The world we live in is getting more and more global and this development carries many affects, not least for the business environment. During the last decades foreign direct investments have increased rapidly. Historically speaking, foreign direct investments were primarily undertaken by large corporations with high turnover and financial strength. However, with the alleviation of investment regulations smaller companies now also have an opportunity to reap the benefits of international business. Jönköping County is known for its entrepreneurial spirit and high density of small- and medium sized companies. We found that it would be interesting to discover the reason why these, usually successful, firms conducted foreign direct investments.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to describe the reasons and factors behind a foreign direct investment undertaken by mediumsized manufacturing firms in the Jönköping region.</p><p>The research was carried out by using a qualitative method. We found five firms within this region that were of medium size and wanted to participate in our study. The companies that we interviewed were; Eldon AB, Carlfors Bruk AB, AB Pettersons Järn-förädling, IDAB WAMAC International AB, and RH Form AB.</p><p>The main reason for conducting a foreign direct investment mentioned by these firms was market seeking motives. The companies wanted to enter new markets in order to grow and widen their customer base. The firms were mainly seeking markets that were large and had a good potential for growth. The remaining company based their decision on a resource seeking motive. The firms have decided to enter these markets through different entry modes. The firms that saw risks and lack of knowledge as important factors have chosen to use a joint venture as an entry mode. The companies that wanted a quick entry chose acquisitions as their form of entry. The two firms that have done green-field investments have done so for different reasons. One had knowledge and contacts already and did not see the need to acquire another firm and the other wanted to keep the full control of its technology. We have found that the factors in the host markets are most influential in the decision to invest abroad, and that push factors from the domestic market has had little significance. The firms are aware of the risks involved but do not choose location based on them.</p>

<p>Electronic commerce is one of the most discussed business-to-business(B2B) topics of today. IT has become a tool for adapting and rendering business processes towards an integrated supply chain (www svensktnaringsliv.se). Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been used as a technique for communicating between different computer systems since the 1960’s. However, it took another 20 years for EDI to support different types of business processes (Malonis, 2002). Electronic invoices can be deduced from when companies in the 1970´s started to exchange invoice files (Dykert & Fredholm, 2004).</p><p>Earlier studies within this area of interest have focused on the business-tocustomer (B2C) electronic invoicing. This thesis has chosen a different point of view, where the focus will be on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) use of EDI- invoicing for B2B processes. This thesis purpose can be divided into two parts, the first is to investigate how EDI- invoice solutions are realized and the second is to describe the effects use and implementation of an EDI- invoice solution have brought to SMEs.</p><p>Data for the first part have been collected from Internet sources as well as from literature. Empirical findings to address this part are gathered from an interview with an employee at Scandinavian PC Systems (SPCS). What we concluded of this study was that SMEs opportunity to implement EDI- invoicing derives from the initiative taken by system developers together with Value Added Network (VAN) providers. They have made a complex technology, with confusion about standards and function, to an easy understood and familiar interface to SMEs.</p><p>Data for the second part of the purpose have been collected from telephone interviews with SMEs in the Jönköping region. Six SMEs who were connected to Pri- Handel, a competitor to SPCS, were interviewed.The most prominent experience SMEs mean that an EDI- invoice solution brings is reduce of administrative cost.</p>

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<p>Background: Today also smaller companies (SME) are implementing enterprise resource planning systems. One difference is that the SME have smaller resources regarding people and finance which can cause some problems if they are not aware of this. The company we have studied have undergone an organizational change and simultaneously implemented an ERP. Two parts of the implementation of the ERP worked just as intended and the third and last part experienced some major difficulties.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the situation in which a small company undertake two major changes almost simultaneously, one of which is the implementation of an ERP. This matter when an SME is implementing an ERP is not well researched since it is only in the more recent years that this type of organization feel the need for it and therefore have ventured into this. The aim of this thesis is to add to the theoretical field of small organizations introducing enterprise information systems.</p><p>Method: This is a qualitative study conducted in the form of a case study. The main data sources have been semi structured interviews, combined with observations and a document study. The data have been analyzed inductively.</p><p>Conclusion: The implementation of this ERP has gone bad in one area due to several cooperating mistakes. SME’s have some circumstances that does not apply to the larger organizations. In a SME every person carries greater importance in the success or failure of the implementation. Preparation is equally important in an SME as in larger organizations.</p><p>Suggestions for further research: The field of ERP in SME's have not been very thoroughly studied since it is a comparatively new field. Further research in this matter would be of some value.</p>

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand that develop and manufacture electrical and electronic products are among other SMEs in the world meeting increasingly stringent legal and customer requirements related to environmental issues. Obstacles for the SMEs around the world to meet these requirements are almost the same in form of lack of knowledge, budget and resources. The differences between SMEs in Thailand and SMEs in the EU, Japan or even Korea are that these countries have been developed the eco-design concept and SMEs have been involved in eco-design activities for many years. This process and activities are new both for the SMEs and for the supporting institutes and organisations in Thailand. Thailand has just started to build up the infrastructure to support the SMEs to implement the eco-design concept and to work more with product related environmental issues. The focus right now for the SMEs in this research is to comply with the EU Directives, RoHS and WEEE, and this is where the main investments are made, e.g. in order to be able to export to the demanding EU market. This research is investigating what kind of environment demands that SMEs in Thailand that develop and manufacture electrical and electronic products have on their products, how they handle these requirements and also what obstacles there are for implementing a more product related environmental concept, also known as eco-design, Design for the Environment (DfE), Green Design or Environmentally Oriented Design. A research in form of interviews and factory visits has been done with five different SMEs in Thailand. These five SMEs have also participated in the first official eco-design projects in Thailand with funding from the government in Thailand and also some from the EU. Interviews have been conducted with involved parties in these project such as institutes and experts provided by Universities. These interviews were made in order to get their opinion and experience about the present situation for SMEs in Thailand that develop and manufacture electrical and electronic products to work with product related green issues. The research shows that these companies have the possibilities and conditions to work further on with the eco-design concept in the future. Their participation in the eco-design projects has been a good experience and there is evidence of strong support from the management and owners, environmental awareness, pro-active work and motivation among the companies. The obstacles are as mentioned above concerning lack of resources, knowledge and experience of how these environmental demands and requirements will affect the product development process. This lack of experience depends mostly on the fact that these eco-design projects are the first projects in this field for the companies. These five companies have now built up a fundamental knowledge but are still in need of further support. The communication between the SMEs and supporting parties are important and also one factor these five companies think is functioning well.

Background Today, collaboration between actors in a supply chain is often a necessity if a business wants to remain competitive. Moreover, efficient sharing of information is vital for success in this collaboration. One way of sharing demand and inventory information between the customer and supplier in a supply chain is by utilizing vendor managed inventory, VMI. The recent focus on VMI has produced a great number of articles on this subject, however, few of them give the whole picture of the VMI relationship. The VMI literature tends to have its focal point on the large customers in a supply chain, failing to cover the effects of VMI for the small and medium-sized (SME) supplier. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to study VMI and its effects on the small and medium-sized supplier. The thesis will look at VMI from an electronic information sharing perspective. Realisation The study has a qualitative approach and is based on qualitative interviews conducted with representatives from three SME suppliers and one of their largest customers. In addition, interviews were conducted with VMI experts. Results The study shows that the prime motive for SME suppliers to enter into a VMI partnership is the demands of the customer. The fact that the SME supplier gains competitive advantage and gets access to information when joining a VMI collaboration are further reasons. For a successful implementation, the SME supplier must know his prerequisites, understand the goal and vision of the collaboration, participate in the design phase of the collaboration, and use the VMI information efficiently. In the long run, VMI normally leads to reductions in inventory, production, transportation and administrative costs for the SME supplier. Any absence of benefits can be due to the logistical knowledge being isolated to a few individuals. The VMI collaboration must bee seen as a strategic matter and a long term investment.

The world we live in is getting more and more global and this development carries many affects, not least for the business environment. During the last decades foreign direct investments have increased rapidly. Historically speaking, foreign direct investments were primarily undertaken by large corporations with high turnover and financial strength. However, with the alleviation of investment regulations smaller companies now also have an opportunity to reap the benefits of international business. Jönköping County is known for its entrepreneurial spirit and high density of small- and medium sized companies. We found that it would be interesting to discover the reason why these, usually successful, firms conducted foreign direct investments. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the reasons and factors behind a foreign direct investment undertaken by mediumsized manufacturing firms in the Jönköping region. The research was carried out by using a qualitative method. We found five firms within this region that were of medium size and wanted to participate in our study. The companies that we interviewed were; Eldon AB, Carlfors Bruk AB, AB Pettersons Järn-förädling, IDAB WAMAC International AB, and RH Form AB. The main reason for conducting a foreign direct investment mentioned by these firms was market seeking motives. The companies wanted to enter new markets in order to grow and widen their customer base. The firms were mainly seeking markets that were large and had a good potential for growth. The remaining company based their decision on a resource seeking motive. The firms have decided to enter these markets through different entry modes. The firms that saw risks and lack of knowledge as important factors have chosen to use a joint venture as an entry mode. The companies that wanted a quick entry chose acquisitions as their form of entry. The two firms that have done green-field investments have done so for different reasons. One had knowledge and contacts already and did not see the need to acquire another firm and the other wanted to keep the full control of its technology. We have found that the factors in the host markets are most influential in the decision to invest abroad, and that push factors from the domestic market has had little significance. The firms are aware of the risks involved but do not choose location based on them.