This study addresses public sector intermediaries and their role in facilitating innovation in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea. The primary aim is to understand and address the informational and relational barriers that SMEs face during the innovation process and how these are resolved through interaction. Although the government has been implementing SME support policies for several decades, the Korean National Innovation System (KNIS) has been characterised with six words: ‘strong large firms, weak small firms’. Korean Government policies for R&D have not been effective in enhancing the economic performance and innovative capabilities of SMEs and the ‘low level of competitiveness’ of SMEs obstructs knowledge interaction between firms. Policies directed at SMEs mainly focus on direct support and do not reflect the interactive nature of the innovation process. This mismatch between policy and desired outcomes has led this study to go beyond examining the informational and relational constraints. It analyses the factors influencing successful (or less successful) innovation and asks whether public intermediaries have provided an effective mechanism in resolving innovation barriers (i.e. system failures). Yet, there has been a lack of research into public intermediaries and SMEs within the National Innovation Systems (NIS) framework. The NIS approach is a loosely configured framework and the intermediary literature is fragmented and has rarely been integrated with the NIS literature. Research has tended to focus on specific functions of private intermediaries and far less on the public intermediaries, which have been playing a crucial role in facilitating innovation in Korean industry for several decades. The central focus of this study is on the knowledge interaction process between public intermediaries and SMEs occurring at multiple levels of interaction in the Korean NIS. This study therefore attempts to integrate the NIS concept and the intermediary approach to provide a robust way to explore the knowledge interaction process at meso- and micro-levels. Four functions of the intermediary are constructed to explore how they might influence SME innovation: knowledge facilitation, learning facilitation, knowledge enabling and managing interfaces. Through in-depth analysis of five case studies encompassing firms in mechatronics and IT, this study explicates the knowledge interaction process and influential factors of successful innovation. The analysis addresses a series of issues that the generic NIS concept cannot fully explain: (1) knowledge interaction at meso- and microlevels; (2) multiplicity of relationships and their evolving nature; (3) the role of public intermediaries in a specific cultural context; and (4) the heterogeneity of SMEs with their pre-existing resources and routines. Sociological perspectives especially provide insights for investigating not only the dynamic nature of interactions but also micro-level factors that determine successful interactions and innovation that are largely neglected in both NIS and intermediary studies; e.g. productive combination of competing rationalities, social learning, and the importance of reflexive individuals. Focusing on a modulated NIS concept for public sector intermediaries and SMEs in a Korean context, the study opens the ‘black box’ of knowledge interaction and learning that resolves the barriers, shapes the successful innovation environment and hence strengthens the innovation system. The findings have implications for policy, including the need to establish new policy measures aimed not simply at achieving a set goal but rather at facilitating the interaction process with a long-term view. The study recommends that public intermediaries need to focus on monitoring activities that integrate and support the knowledge interaction process by facilitating ‘associativeness’ among actors. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of the local contexts and SMEs in the innovation process need to be taken into account in designing the programmes, moving away from one-size-fits-all type services.

This research explores perceptions of the context, contribution, challenges and critical success factors in the adoption of sustainability footprint strategy amongst Scottish SMEs. Critics of sustainability footprint measurement insist that by nature it records historical impact and does not incorporate the views of future generations and are a luxury for most firms except those achieving near monopolistic profits. Recent UK greenhouse gas policy initiatives are specifically targeted at large organisations and do not provide the institutional support required to assist SME's in greenhouse gas emissions reporting. Despite overwhelming evidence as to the benefits of sustainability footprint tools such as carbon footprints very few companies set emissions targets. Surprisingly still there is limited research conducted as to the benefits of sustainability footprint tools to SMEs and their perceptions as to its contribution to business success. Interviewees highlight that case study Scottish SMEs are driven to implement sustainability footprints to pre-empt future GHG legislation, process improvement, cost reduction, senior management commitment, emissions reduction, CSR and waste reduction. However the emphasis on GHG emissions has contributed to “carbon myopia” an exclusive focus on carbon footprint measurement. This research supports the view of senior management commitment as critical to the success of sustainability footprint measurement initiatives but policymakers also have an enabling role by ensuring fair competition, access to grants, mandatory guidelines for SMEs, tax incentives, fines, legislation, emissions league table and carbon reporting as a pre-qualification criteria for government tenders. Scottish SME interviewees adopt a sustainability negative perceptual orientation suggesting barriers to placing sustainability on the agenda such as implementation cost, lack of knowledge, sustainability competing with other issues on the agenda, time constraints, the transience of sustainability, inability to recoup carbon footprint costs, failure to recognise benefits, generational issues and communication Scottish SME case studies however reveal an ambivalent “love hate” relationship amongst interviewees with sustainability which varies depending on the proximity of the individual to the economic, social or environmental issue. Thereby underlining the importance of management's ability to influence stakeholders to remain sustainability positive in orientation through training, instruction and supervision that promotes sustainable behaviour. The Sustainable Strategic Growth Framework is proposed as a solution to the Sustainability/CSR Dilemma and to align employee behaviour with sustainability objectives.

There is still limited knowledge available on how SME and midcap firms perform financing decisions and on what such a decision is based on. The literature revealed that capital structure theories can only partly explain parameters that determine financing decisions, particularly in a bank dominated lending environment like in Germany. Academic research tried to expand towards a broader and more strategic approach regarding a financing strategy and towards behavioural bias of a company's management. Furthermore, existing research tried to identify an interaction between business strategy and financing strategy but failed to identify a causal direction so far. The present research provides a unique research approach to bridge this gap as it introduces a new aspect into the discussion on the decision for a financing instrument and whether a formulated financing strategy is followed. Based on a case study approach that combines manager interviews, document analysis and calculation of key financial ratios, the research explores the management's decision in a specific situation, the refinancing of standard mezzanine. Firms that used standard mezzanine had to perform a decent refinancing decision between the years 2011 and 2014 as there was no exact substitute instrument available in financing markets anymore. The results showed that a financing strategy exists in the cases explored, but elements and form varied across cases. In addition, the cases indicated that behavioural bias on management level might exist, based on identified inefficiencies and delays. However, these inefficiencies cannot be primarily assigned to owner-managers as done by previous research. Furthermore, a causal direction between business strategy and financing strategy could be indicated in the cases investigated. The results led to the development of a financing strategy typology, based on existing types of business strategies that might help to explain financing decisions. A template for a holistic financing strategy has been designed based on the investigations that allows midcap firms to establish and implement their own financing strategy (or adjust their existing strategy). The holistic framework provides core elements and financing principles as well as a prototype financing process that help to avoid the identified inefficiencies in their financing processes.

This study explores the factors that affect the corporate sustainability behaviour of UK manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). To date, SMEs have been reported as being generally reluctant to engage in corporate sustainability activities. However, due to their significant negative environmental impacts, volume, and the contributions they make to economic growth and stability, no meaningful progress can be made towards corporate sustainability without SMEs’ involvement. As extant literature has focused more on the corporate sustainability activities of large or multinational companies with limited focus on SMEs, this study contributes to addressing this gap by adopting an SME perspective to exploring the factors affecting their corporate sustainability behaviour. The study was conducted as a qualitative study and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a total of forty SME owner-managers from manufacturing companies in the South-East region of the UK and a focus group conducted with an additional twelve SME owner-managers from the same sector and region. Based on the study’s findings and an elaboration of the Responsible Environmental Behaviour (REB) framework, a framework for exploring the factors affecting SMEs’ corporate sustainability behaviour was developed. This framework suggests that SME Capacity Building in the form of information on corporate sustainability issues as they relate to SMEs, action strategies they can employ for corporate sustainability and transparency of the corporate sustainability business case, as well as Organisational Attitude, Stakeholder Influence and Resource Constraints are the main factors affecting UK manufacturing SMEs’ corporate sustainability behaviour.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:08:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 71050100640.pdf: 749683 bytes, checksum: a69e3911da8670f0b477c9d375a12276 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-03T00:00:00Z / Por meio de um estudo quantitativo, procurou-se medir e analisar as relações entre a idade de entrada internacional, a velocidade de internacionalização e o crescimento no exterior vigentes em uma amostra de pequenas e médias empresas industriais exportadoras do estado de São Paulo. Os resultados indicam que a idade de entrada internacional é uma força moderadora, que atua negativamente sobre a relação positiva entre a velocidade de internacionalização e o crescimento internacional. Em suma, essas relações são fruto da constatação de que as empresas que entraram mais cedo no mercado internacional cresceram mais e mais rápidamente que as firmas mais maduras no período considerado. Isso é sinal de que, a despeito da consolidação de suas capacidades ao longo dos anos de atuação no mercado doméstico pelas PMEs mais maduras, as empresas jovens parecem estar melhor adaptadas para jogar em campos estrangeiros na atualidade, pelo menos nessa etapa de suas trajetórias de internacionalização. Uma prova disso é outro fato aqui constatado: diante de um competitivo contexto doméstico, marcado pela alta incidência de subsidiárias de multinacionais estrangeiras instaladas no parque industrial paulista, os resultados indicam também que a combinação de múltiplos modos de entrada tem sido uma das táticas adotadas pelas empresas mais jovens que têm conseguido se expandir no exterior a uma maior velocidade, e crescer mais. / Using quantitative analysis, this dissertation aimed to measure and analyze the relationships among international age, internationalization speed and international growth of brazilian small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). A sample of exporting and industrial SMEs from Sao Paulo was used to calculate these relationships. The results show that the international age is a moderating force, with a negative influence on the positive relationship between internationalization speed and their growth in international markets. Summing up, the results show that ‘younger’ firms, which started to internationalize their activities at an earlier phase of their lives, grew more than those firms that did so when they were more ‘mature’. This finding indicates that, despite ‘mature’ SMEs consolidate their capacities in domestic markets over the years, ‘younger’ ones seem to be better adapted to go abroad, at least on this phase of their internalization process. Another finding of this dissertation confirms that relationship in a domestic market characterized by fierce competition due to the presence of industrial multinational companies subsidiaries, as it is the case of Sao Paulo, younger firms that have been successful in expanding abroad faster and in growing more that their counterparts have been using multiple ways to access international markets.

The aim of this thesis is to understand tax compliance decisions made by corporate SMEs in Uganda. The study draws on compliance models developed in other settings and explores their applicability in the Ugandan context using mixed methods. Firstly, the study investigates the roles played by tax fairness, trust in government and the URA, and the effects of audits and sanctions in influencing compliance . Secondly, the study explores the direct and indirect roles played by social norms in terms of influencing tax compliance among SMEs . Lastly, the study assesses the effects of corruption on compliance behaviour among SMEs. Survey and semi-structured interview data were collected concurrently. A survey was used to collect data from a total of 386 corporate SME owners and managers from Kampala Capital City Authority and the central and eastern regions. In addition, interviews were conducted with 26 corporate SME owners and managers about their perceptions of corporate tax system fairness in Uganda. The results, unlike those of other studies, show that corporate SME taxpayers are willing to pay their corporate taxes once they have put their trust in the government and tax authorities, even when the tax system is unfair. Also, audit probability and sanctions might not encourage corporate SMEs to comply with corporate tax rules. However, when URA is perceived as powerful where tax officers are able to discover tax non-compliance and impose severe sanctions, SME firms could be motivated to pay taxes due to the government. Importantly, corruption within the URA and the bureaucratic system of Uganda has a negative impact on tax fairness, which triggers corporate tax evasion. Indeed, I have identified four types of corruption that appear to have different impacts on attitudes towards compliance. Also, the results show that day-to-day tax compliance decisions made by corporate SMEs have more direct influence on corporate SMEs’ tax (non)compliance behaviour than ethical values do. However, SMEs’ willingness to comply is affected by how people who are close to each taxpayer think. Overall, the thesis advances scholarship by demonstrating that the Slippery Slope Framework does not hold in Uganda and that different types of social norm impact compliance differently. Corruption is identified as an important differentiating feature when compared to studies in developed countries.

Hajj is very important to all Muslims across the globe. Because of its religious significance, the Hajj pilgrimage experiences a massive number of visitors each year, most of whom are foreign and require consumer goods during the six-day pilgrimage. The large number of pilgrims often results in a sharp increase in demand for consumer goods. Suppliers must ensure that they have adequate amounts of these products so that they can meet the needs of the pilgrims as well as their different tastes for these goods. It is however usually difficult to determine exactly how much is required. This complexity creates demand uncertainty that the firms in the industry must be able to cope with for them to succeed. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (commonly referred to as SMEs) play an important role in the food chain throughout the Hajj season in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). However, SMEs are recognised to experience severe obstacles that have the potential to threaten their continuity, and the industry succumbs to the crisis of demand uncertainty throughout the short period of the peak season of Hajj each year. This problem is complex due to the constant increase in the number of pilgrims and the continuous changes in their needs and preferences. Demand uncertainty can ultimately result in an increase in production costs, long lead times, substandard service levels, and quality problems, especially in terms of food obsolescence. There is a gap in the literature regarding aligning sources of uncertainty with supply chain strategies in an effort to improve supply chain performance. More specifically, the impact of supply chain integration strategies (SCI) on manufacturing strategies, such as postponement practice (PP) and mass customisation capability (MCC) to mitigate demand uncertainty (DUM), has not been fully explored. This study investigates three fundamental issues: 1 - how effective supply chain integration (internal integration and external integration) can be applied in Saudi’s SMEs food industry, and how the interaction between them mutually manipulates the improvement of postponement practice and mass customisation capability in food productions in Hajj; 2 - how the volume of cooperation leads to the mitigation of demand uncertainty in maintaining the survival of small and medium enterprises that operate in food production in Hajj; and 3 - how the environmental condition (i.e. competitive intensity) moderates the influence of supply chain integration (SCI) on this interaction in Saudi’s food SMEs that operate in Hajj. iii Based on the extended resource-based view (ERBV) of the firm, the strategic resources and knowledge come not only from within the organisation’s boundaries, but also from outside. Thus, a firm’s overall strategic capability may be embedded in a wider network of inter-firm exchange relationship. Contingency theory furthermore argues that an organisation should align their practices, processes and strategies with their business environment. In consideration to the extant literature, a number of hypotheses were defined, demonstrating the correlation between supply chain integration, postponement practice, mass customisation capability and demand uncertainty mitigation. Subsequently, a conceptual framework was developed with the objective to verify the relationship amongst the constructs. Mixed methodologies were employed; qualitatively, with 12 CEOs working in different SMEs in the food industry across KSA were initially interviewed to validate the conceptual framework. Content and face validity was accomplished with a group of academics and experts. A pilot study was carried out on a sample of 50 subcontractors, Hajj campaigns, pilgrimage institutions and food suppliers. Consequently, an online survey was conducted amongst SMEs to test the hypotheses. As a result, 239 responses were received from the SMEs in the food sector in the KSA. Partial Least Square (PLS) was used for the analysis. The interviewees were identified through snowball sampling (Detailed in the next sections). Quantitative data were collected using the convenience sampling technique, given the non-availability of the sampling frame. Based upon the extended resource-based view (ERBV) of the firm, alongside contingency theory, the initial and final results of the pilot test and survey were seen to be steady with these theories, where supply chain integration was viewed not only as having a significant direct and indirect effect on the postponement practice and mass customisation capability by SMEs of food during Hajj, but also as playing a critical role throughout the employment of postponement practice as an important strategy, empowering mass customisation capability to mitigate demand uncertainty. Likewise, both results were seen to be consistent with contingency theory; that is, a firm should coordinate their supply chain integration activities, postponement practice and mass customisation capability to their business environment, particularly with high competitive intensity to enhance demand uncertainty mitigation. In order to achieve competitive intensity, organisations are mainly focused on emerging markets and expanding their product lines. In the event that organisations begin targeting similar set opportunities, they risk bringing upcompetitive intensity for themselves, which increases the cost of growth. The cost of business will be noticeable when considering marketing speed, media inflation, the rate of innovation and trade spend in marketing, all of which are indicators of completion intensity. Improvements in supply chain efficiency, optimising strategies in marketing and extracting the best of return on investments from promotions by organisations also indicates competition intensity. Costs, competition and the ability to differentiate are some of the main determining factors of competition. Importantly, these are all tied up within uncertainty mitigation. However, despite the fact that internal integration has a positive direct and indirect effect on the postponement practice, mass customisation capability is created by SMEs of food industry, in addition to its direct effect upon both supplier integration and customer integration. Customer integration has also been found to improve postponement practice as well as mass customisation capability in a direct fashion. Supplier integration has a significant impact on postponement practice; however, it seems not significantly associated positively with mass customisation capability. Moreover, postponement practice also has an effect in mitigating demand uncertainty, both directly and indirectly, through mass customisation capability. Finally, mass customisation capability similarly has been found to enhance demand uncertainty mitigation. Research indicates that the direct and indirect effects of all constructs increase when there is intense competition in Hajj.

Recent developments and hype around artificial intelligence (AI) have arisen as result of two main factors: increase in computational power and data. Although marketing is considered as one of the main business applications within AI today, there is a lack of literature combining the disciplines. Marketing management tools, which utilise AI in supporting decision making are referred to as knowledge-driven marketing management support systems (MMSS). These systems provide besides quantitative analysis, further qualitative facets into marketing management. Despite the willingness of many SMEs to engage with the technology that may foster competitive advantage, many adoption processes fail. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the factors influencing adoption of knowledge-driven MMSS in SMEs in Finland and Sweden. Qualitative primary data was collected from nine company representatives at top management level in Finnish and Swedish firms. Companies were classified in three categories, providers, adopters and non-adopters of knowledge-driven MMSS.   The findings show that there are several factors influencing adoption of knowledge-driven MMSS. The factors were grouped into technological, organizational and environmental factors, based on the TOE framework. Even though SMEs suffer from a lack of resources compared to large companies, this research suggests that they are at the forefront of adopting AI for marketing purposes. Additionally, it was found that the factors affecting adoption are dependent on whether the knowledge-driven MMSS is built in-house or outsourced.   This study has contributed to the identified gaps in literature by combining the disciplines of AI, marketing and SMEs, and by exploring the factors behind adoption of knowledge-driven MMSS. The authors of this thesis have the aspiration that the developed post-empirical framework will serve as a guiding tool for top management and marketing managers in SMEs looking to adopt knowledge-driven MMSS into their organizations.

Familjeföretag är en av de vanligaste företagsformerna i världen. Även i Sverige är en majoritet av företagen familjestyrda företag. Den konkurrensutsatta omgivning som skapats under det senaste årtiondet gör det viktigt för företag att utveckla ett entreprenöriellt förhållningssätt. Det entreprenöriella förhållningssättet låter företagen nyttiggöra sina resurser och utforska möjligheter i deras omgivning. Entreprenöriell orientering är ett företags förmåga att utveckla företagets strategiska förhållande till risktagande, proaktivitet och innovationsförmåga. Familjestyrda företag har vissa gemensamma drag. Familjestyrda företag har en unik sammansättning av resurser och förmågor, där de familjestyrda företagens speciella karaktärsdrag i sin tur påverkar de olika delarna i företagets entreprenöriella orientering. Syftet med denna studie är att förklara om familjestyrande i svenska små och medelstora aktiebolag påverkar företagets entreprenöriella orientering. Tidigare studier visar på motsättningar om familjestyrda företag är entreprenöriella eller konservativa, traditionella och riskaverta.

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) refers to the collaboration of traditionally separate industries that benefit each other through the physical exchange of materials, water, energy and/or by-products. Firms engaging in IS approach aim to mutualize resourcesor equipment(i.e. mutualization synergies), or to substitute resources with the output of another company (i.e. substitution synergies). Despite the obviouseconomic, environmental and socialbenefits provided by IS, this procedure remains fledgling, especially in France.In order to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges induced by such a procedure, we conducted a qualitative study involving the interviews of seven actors who brought a global perspective towards IS implementation in French SMEsand who provideinformation and organizational framework so that to create successful IS networks. Studying IS involving SMEsin Francehighlights several challenges that embrace the specificities of the scope of our study: firms suffer from a lack of structure, a lack of resources (i.e. human, time, material), and a short-term vision, and are evolving within anextremely bureaucratic and highly procedural country. Implementing a successful IS in France with SMEs requires at first to overcome the entry barriers when approaching SMEs, which is often the role of facilitators working in associations. The other main stakeholders involved in the synergies, firms but also public and private actors,must establish a common networkin order to carry properly the synergiesand to make themsustainable. As France is characterized by place-oriented IS systems, networks that lead to synergies are built at a local scale which is relevant for mutualization synergies, but which can appear as an obstacle to detect substitution synergies as it maynot involve enough firms.