Executive summary In a world where the Internet and good communications accelerates the globalization, having connections across borders becomes a competitive advantage. The easy access to a constant stream of information is making the opportunities countless, adding to the equation that the Internet and supplementary techniques such as different types of software are still very young, the opportunities will keep on emerge. At the moment there are still great gaps in terms of technology between countries, which enables fast growing companies such as Lintner to fill a niche and gain new market shares due to their technological lead and managerial practices. But how should they enter the new markets and reach the new costumers? This research has put the emphasis on creating a guiding discussion on how an international expansion strategy could be formulated. We have found that organizations can lower the risk and increase their profit potential by combining several strategies, that they start by expanding with a low-risk strategy and then increase the investments on the market to enable higher profitability. The benefits with this approach is that a small computer software company can take advantage from the simplicity and low needs for capital and then gradually increase the investment as they get market knowledge and a solid customer base. They need to work around challenges such as cultural differences by allowing the due diligence to take time and the targeted company to become familiar with the intentions of the collaboration. It is important that the organization prepares itself for the internationalization; this is done by the creation of slack resources. The strategy they choose must be formulated and incorporated in the overall business strategy. To successfully describe the alternatives to expansion currently available to Lintner, an extensive literature review has been conducted. But to fully understand the surrounding environment and the challenges with international expansion, we have conducted several interviews within Lintner, but also with three organizations that have previously found themselves where Lintner is today. The findings from these interviews were interpreted and placed in context to Lintner’s and to companies in their specific situation. This has been done in order for us to create a meaningful contribution to Lintner’s future growth.

No description available.

Given the present situation of environmental problems, clean technologies or cleantech is considered a way of reaching global sustainability and at the same time also seen as an engine of economic growth and fulfilling commitments to social and environmental welfare. Under this background, Swedish cleantech sector have not achieved that much commercial success yet that they are supposed to be while maintaining a reputation of top technological innovative country. The Swedish cleantech sector is dominated by small medium-sized firms (SMEs) and often limited to resources at their disposition. Thus, the Swedish government has designed various policies and export support programs to promote this sector but somehow firms could not reach up to them. Hence, it has become necessary to study the Swedish cleantech firms in order to analyze the existing gap. The purpose of this study is to run an investigation about individual cleantech firms and analyze how they are experiencing Swedish governmental export support programs. On the other hand, this study has also tried to find out what firms really expect from these programs so that it will help to reduce the gap. Based on the study of four cases and one independent interview, the study has shown two different scenarios. In one hand, micro level SMEs specially which are in initial phase of their internationalization process cannot reach up to governmental export support programs due to high acquiring cost and inflexible pre-requirements. On the other hand, small level SMEs which are in mature phase of their internationalization process have faced completely reverse experience than initial phase micro firms but not satisfied with the provided service quality. The study has also revealed that firms with relatively new technology face problems to get support from governmental agencies due to uncertain market performance. The study has further showed, this is not always the high acquiring cost and inflexible conditions, participation in governmental export support programs is also depend on firm’s owns mindset and their business strategy. So, in order to reduce the gap between Swedish governmental export support programs and cleantech firms’ expectations, the studied firms have suggested to implement a proper business model that fits into each type of firms’ needs based on their position in the internationalization process, create a separate institution or agency and Science Park that only deals with cleantech firms issues, and co-operation among the different state cleantech firms and the universities.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur K3 togs fram genom att analysera remissinstansernas åsikter och även ta upp fördelar och nackdelar med K3. Vidare ska vi undersöka övergången till K3 och göra en sammanställning i form av en manual. Frågor: Hur togs K3 fram och vad tyckte remissinstanserna? Vilka fördelar och nackdelar har K3? Vilka delar av redovisningen kommer att påverkas vid tidpunkten för övergången?    Metod: Studien är mestadels baserad på primärdata där befintlig information om K3 framtaget av andra. Informationen är bland annat hämtad från lagtexter, artiklar och elektroniska källor. Uppsatsen är byggd på en kombination av en kvalitativ metod, induktiv metod och litteraturstudie, där informationen har analyserats, diskuterats och sammanställts.   Slutsats: K3 är ett regelverk som ger en vägledning i form av allmänna råd inom redovisning, men de är inte helt tvingande. De företag som övergår kommer troligtvis att få fler interna kostnader, då de bland annat måste utbilda sin personal.

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to increase the understanding of foreign market entry among SMEs. The model of a French established company entering the Scandinavian market supports this research. Theoretical Framework - The entry modes, the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the standardization or adaptation dilemma of the products are presented. The entry modes are crucial to analyze the way corporations choose to enter a foreign country. As the case study used is a French SME, it is necessary to include their advantages and disadvantages. Standardization or adaptation are related to the chosen entry mode and the chosen market. Methodology - Theory supported by a case study: the French company Krampouz entering and expanding the Scandinavian market of cooking equipment. A number of business research methods are used in this thesis, such as a semi-structured interview with the company itself, a self-completion questionnaire with potential retailers and a secondary data analysis. Empirical Investigation - The information collected about Krampouz through the interview and the secondary data are split into the company background and its export strategy. Then the relevant data from the Scandinavian retailers are included. Finally information about the Single European Market and the International Commercial Terms (Incoterms) are combined to narrow down the trends of export. Findings - Entering the Scandinavian market as an European SME has to be pursued through exporting. Direct export appears to be the most relevant method to make business for SMEs in Scandinavia. Paper type - research paper: bachelor thesis

In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes more and more popular not only in  academic world but also in practical world. Many transnational companies adopted CSR practices base on kinds of motivations. There is also a rising trend on CSR program among Chinese SME. Moreover we noticed that, despite the challenges and misunderstandings, some Chinese textile SME successfully created competitive advantage with strategic CSR. However, there are few previous researches try to study on Chinese company in field of strategic CSR, especially on Chinese SME. This research intends to discover how the competitive advantage was created by strategic CSR in Chinese textile SME and try to explain the process by the existing theories. A case study approach was adopted in the study. From the case study and interview results, we aim to explain the behaviours of case firm by existing theories and conclude a Chinese SME specific CSR strategy. In the end, differentiated corporate social strategy, special CSR concept and CSR communication were concluded as the key factors influencing the success in the Chinese textile SME.

Sverige var som näst sista land i den europeiska unionen att avskaffa den lagstadgade revisionsplikten vilket skedde den 1 november 2010. Detta har inneburit en förenkling för SME företag i form av kostnadsbesparingar. Den effekt som har visats är att en klar majoritet av nystartade företag har valt att inte använda sig av revisor medan en majoritet av redan etablerade företag väljer att ha kvar revisorn. I dagsläget är det fortfarande lån från bank som är den största finansieringskällan för SME företag. Det är främst de fyra storbankerna Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Nordea och SEB som står för den största utlåningen och Handelsbanken och Swedbank har den tydligaste marknadsinriktningen mot SME företag. Enligt teorin är den viktigaste faktorn vid en kreditbedömning företagets återbetalningsförmåga. Återbetalningsförmågan fastställs genom att företagsrådgivaren gör beräkningar utifrån företagets finansiella rapporter såsom soliditet och räntabilitet. Syftet med undersökningen har varit att reda på vilken information bankerna kräver av företag som inte har en revisor samt undersöka om revisionspliktens avskaffande har gett någon effekt på kreditgivningen. För att ta reda på dessa forskningsfrågor har fem djupintervjuer gjorts med Handelsbanken och Swedbank. De slutsatser författarna har kommit fram till är att det ännu är lite tidigt att se några effekter av avskaffandet av revisionsplikten i samband med kreditgivning. Det man kan se är att samtliga respondenter anser att revision bidrar med nytta och att informationen som lämnas blir mer tillförlitlig.

No description available.

Abstract Balance Score Card (BSC) has been adopted broadly in organization performance evaluation as well as strategy development and evaluation, especially when the business environment is growingly competitive. The effectiveness of BSC has been shown through its practice in many large-size companies by enhancing cross divisional communications. However, for 90% of companies in Taiwan are small and medium sized and these companies contributed over 70% of job opportunities, it is important to investigate whether BSC can provide such effectiveness for these Taiwanese firms. Thus, this research develops a case study of an emerging company. By observing the decision and introduction of BSC to the company, this research has found below conclusions: 1. Small and medium sized firms are simpler, thus easier to focus and result to shorter introduction time of BSC. 2. BSC has provided effective design of indicators to connect strategy and actions and further provide good means for management team to evaluate performance and report to the board. 3. In the development phase of SMEs, the financial phase of BSC reminds the firms to emphasize the growth of revenue. With the help of BSC, management team can balance the focus of customer value, internal process and organizational learning.

<p>Executive summary</p><p>In a world where the Internet and good communications accelerates the globalization, having</p><p>connections across borders becomes a competitive advantage. The easy access to a</p><p>constant stream of information is making the opportunities countless, adding to the equation</p><p>that the Internet and supplementary techniques such as different types of software are</p><p>still very young, the opportunities will keep on emerge. At the moment there are still great</p><p>gaps in terms of technology between countries, which enables fast growing companies such</p><p>as Lintner to fill a niche and gain new market shares due to their technological lead and</p><p>managerial practices. But how should they enter the new markets and reach the new costumers?</p><p>This research has put the emphasis on creating a guiding discussion on how an international</p><p>expansion strategy could be formulated.</p><p>We have found that organizations can lower the risk and increase their profit potential by</p><p>combining several strategies, that they start by expanding with a low-risk strategy and then</p><p>increase the investments on the market to enable higher profitability. The benefits with this</p><p>approach is that a small computer software company can take advantage from the simplicity</p><p>and low needs for capital and then gradually increase the investment as they get market</p><p>knowledge and a solid customer base. They need to work around challenges such as cultural</p><p>differences by allowing the due diligence to take time and the targeted company to</p><p>become familiar with the intentions of the collaboration. It is important that the organization</p><p>prepares itself for the internationalization; this is done by the creation of slack resources.</p><p>The strategy they choose must be formulated and incorporated in the overall business</p><p>strategy.</p><p>To successfully describe the alternatives to expansion currently available to Lintner, an extensive</p><p>literature review has been conducted. But to fully understand the surrounding environment</p><p>and the challenges with international expansion, we have conducted several interviews</p><p>within Lintner, but also with three organizations that have previously found themselves</p><p>where Lintner is today. The findings from these interviews were interpreted and</p><p>placed in context to Lintner’s and to companies in their specific situation. This has been</p><p>done in order for us to create a meaningful contribution to Lintner’s future growth.</p>