D. Tech. (Department of Business, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between e-procurement, supplier integration and supply chain performance in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Most studies on e-procurement, supplier integration and supply chain performance have focused on large companies. Current knowledge involving SMEs and e-procurement is still limited. This study, therefore, was conducted to fill this gap. With rapid changes in technology and globalisation of markets, firms, especially SMEs, need support to adapt to technology and make use of e-procurement functions to compete with larger firms. The paradigm used in this study was post-positivism. A quantitative research approach was adopted in this study. The target population for this study consists of all owners and managers who are currently employed in SMEs in the Gauteng Province, South Africa. To measure the study constructs, the survey material was designed in the form of a structured questionnaire. Participants were asked to complete three test instruments, namely, an e-procurement questionnaire, supplier integration questionnaire and supply chain performance questionnaire as well as their profile and SME profile. A total number of 350 questionnaires was distributed to the identified sample of SME owners and managers of which 294 responded and finally 283 questionnaires were usable and used for data analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to establish scale accuracy. All measures conformed to acceptable model fit and composite reliability (CR) and revealed that the scales used in this study are reliable. The reliability results confirmed that all constructs reached the generally agreed upon minimum scale range for Cronbach’s alpha of 0.70. Finally, the structural model was tested; four out of seven hypotheses were supported. Validity in this study was achieved through face, content, convergent and discriminant validities. The principal finding of this study reveals that e-design has a positive and significant linear relationship with supplier integration. In addition, the results showed that e-sourcing has a positive and insignificant linear relationship with supplier integration. The insignificant relationship could be indicative of the fact that enterprises are not fully utilising the e-procurement systems in selecting their suppliers to effectively improve their collaboration with supply chain member firms. The findings further reveal that e-negotiation has a positive and significant linear relationship with supplier integration. The study’s empirical findings also indicate that e-evaluation has a negative and insignificant relationship with supplier integration. Further, e-informing was also found to have a negative relationship with supplier integration. The study additionally revealed that supplier integration has a positive and significant linear relationship with tangible supply chain performance. Lastly, the SEM findings show that supplier integration has a positive and significant relationship with the intangible supply chain performance. After reviewing the results, the conclusion was drawn that theoretically, this research has contributed to literature by providing additional information on supply chain management, e-procurement, supplier integration and supply chain performance. The results presented provide useful information about the relationship between e-procurement, supplier integration and supply chain performance in SMEs, with implications for supplier firms and other relevant stakeholders. These results contribute to the expanding body of knowledge on supply chain aspects. The current study added practical value by developing an integrative model which might be used by SME practitioners in South Africa. The study recommends that the collaborating firm owners and managers consider increasing the levels of supplier collaboration by having regular meetings, training workshops or courses and conferences to improve their supply chain performance. Furthermore, it is recommended that SME owners and managers must effectively implement e-design systems to increase the chance of integrating with their suppliers, thereby increasing the chance of improving performance as well as cutting supply chain costs. Areas for further research and limitations for this study have also been highlighted.

Problem: A decisive majority of Swedish firms are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and studies indicate that most of these lack, among other things, financial resources, which often limit smaller firms from implementing sustainable practices. Since SMEs compete with larger enterprises, with more established departments and therefore, they cannot strategize their sustainability work to the same extent. The problem emerges when requirements from stakeholders, based on the 2030 agenda, cannot be met due to lacking organizational abilities. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how sustainability consultants support SMEs in their sustainable development work. The research, therefore, investigated the practical processes of consultants when they work with SMEs. The varying processes between sustainability consultants will also be investigated, so similarities and differences can be discovered in their processes. Method: The research conducted follows a grounded theory, an exploratory approach, an abductive research design, all under an interpretive philosophy. The primary data collected consists of semi-structured interviews with sustainability consultants in the Jönköping area. Following the grounded theory, this included three stages of analysis namely open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. During selective coding, it is critical to use an abductive design to ground the empirical findings in existing literature and theory. The analyzed findings were thereafter transformed into a proposed model which is supported by both the empirical findings and theory. Conclusion: Sustainability consultants can support SMEs with their knowledge and expertise when developing sustainable business practices in smaller firms. This research also contributes to a proposed model that shows the process for SMEs and further explains how SMEs and consultants can work together to develop strategic goals for regenerative firms. However, it is noted that contextual factors and specific gains in knowledge cannot be conveyed in a model. Although, describing the processes of knowledge transfer using an adaption of agile methodology was found suitable for this study. Conclusively, the model’s success is highly based on contextual factors such as firm maturity and the knowledge of the consultant in the specific field under development.

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Digital Transformation (DT) opens up to new opportunities for companies by providing organizational flexibility and improving their business models. Due to lack of resources in form of financial power and qualified employees, family-owned manufacturing companies have a hard time reaching DT. However, these companies try their best to reach DT and along the road various challenges arise. The challenges that arise, result in a complex situation that is hard to understand. Organizations with complex situations have difficulties to perform successful IT initiatives that are required to reach DT. The aim of this study was to identify challenges that family-owned manufacturingSMEs (FOMSMEs) encounter when striving for DT. Another aim of this research was to investigate how useful Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is in helping family-owned manufacturing SMEs to understand their own complex situation. Also, the managerial practice called Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) has been investigated regarding its usefulness in helping family-owned manufacturing SMEs to reach DT faster and easier. As a fourth and final aim in this study, an artefact has been created with suggested actions that address the identified challenges that FOMSMEs encounter when striving for DT. By interviewing employees who have participated in IT initiatives at a family-owned manufacturing SME, this research has been able to answer the research questions. Several challenges were identified; communication errors, old systems and exceeding deadlines in projects. All of these challenges can, with the help of SSM, be associated with the identified root challenge: Lack of overview of IT-landscape and strategy. The informants’ thoughts of usefulness of SSM in family-owned manufacturing SMEs were positive. In contrast, the informants’ thoughts of usefulness of EAM in family-owned manufacturing SMEs were negative. The argument expressed by the informants was that as long as the owner family makes most of the decisions, a new managerial practice as EAM will not be useful in family-owned manufacturing SMEs.

The implementation of electronic business (e-business) in organisations has led to a major improvement in business performance in both developed and developing countries. This improvement as well as market forces have put pressure on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt e-business. However, the e-business models adopted by SMEs are often abstruse and poorly represented, which leads to time consumption and miscommunication between the stakeholders involved, the business operations and Information Technology (IT) functions. These unclear e-business models make it difficult to evaluate its value. This research examines the elements necessary for this e-business value creation and draws from different disciplines and theories to create a comprehensive model for e-business evaluation in Southern African SMEs. Most studies done on e-business in Southern Africa have been found to be on challenges of technology, a lack of resources such as financial and user capabilities and challenges in business processes. Some gaps in the e-business literature have been found to exist on issues of alignment of business mission and strategy, entrepreneurial drive and management capabilities. The study adopted Gerbner’s theory of communication exchange for the data collection strategy and process, which posits that by studying the events of the communication exchange, one can infer about the state of the systems engaged in the exchange and their relationships. Consequently quantitative website content analysis of 100 Southern African SMEs was conducted to determine their e-business value. The results revealed that an SME that comprises of a properly aligned business mission and strategy, business processes that are enabled by e-business, an entrepreneurship orientation, management capabilities and employees as well as technology integration will achieve ebusiness value. This was seen by a positive influence of 68% on e-business value from these elements. Conversely 32% of this influence is from external elements, and future studies could explore more elements that influence e-business value. Also, a small employee size was found to not be a hindrance of e-business value. Lastly, overall infrastructural e-readiness is the same in Botswana and South Africa, which refutes claims that e-readiness is higher in South Africa than the rest of the Southern African countries. However, SMEs in Botswana lag behind when it comes to technological aspects such as technology equipment, successfully integrating their systems within the businesses; and their IT in their entire businesses and networks, forming technology interdependencies of processes with external businesses, and using online means to transfer information to clients/customers. The developed model (EBVE model) could help (1) stakeholders investigate, communicate and make appropriate decisions and (2) aid SMEs to successfully integrate e-business in their business processes and practices.

Background: The circular economy has emerged as an alternative to linear approaches to consumption and has the potential to solve the most pressing sustainability issues society faces today. SMEs have a central role in the transition towards a circular economy, as they make up the majority of businesses in Europe. However, the adoption of circular practices has been slower than expected. Researching what is affecting the adoption of these practices could provide answers and insights into how to accelerate this transition.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of organizational climate as a moderator when implementing circular business practices, given its potential to lead to organizational change.  Method: This study follows an interpretive approach through a multiple exploratory case study using two companies. Qualitative semi-structured interviews and observations from the company visits were used as primary data. The empirical data is analyzed through a general coding procedure, where explanation building was used as the approach. The research adds to existing theory through an abductive approach.   Conclusion: By exploring the challenges people face in SMEs, we have found that the organizational climate of the company is a critical factor that can affect the implementation of circular practices. Therefore, we propose that by creating the right climate, organizations could potentially accelerate this transition.

BACKGROUND A great interest of researchers has been attracted to the phenomenon of country-of-origin (Andéhn et al., 2016). It is argued that companies could increase competitiveness in the market by implementing a COO into the company's branding strategy (Guercini & Ranfagni, 2013). However, prior research on COO has been focused mainly on the investigation of customer perspective, while the producer's (e.g.firm) perspective was not taken into account (Brodie & Benson-Rea, 2016). Thus, the understanding of COO branding has to be expanded. Furthermore, the use of a COO can not be managed as independent marketing activity (Bhaskaran & Sukumaran, 2007) and has to be rationally implemented into the brand (Brodie & Benson-Rea, 2016). This creates a gap in the knowledge of how firms manage the use of a COO and how the COO is implemented into the company's brand identity. This gap can be addressed by evaluating the producer's perspective and the COO's impact on the brand identity and branding strategies. PURPOSE The aim of this study is to extend the understanding of the impact of the COO on the brand identity of Swedish SMEs. Additionally, to investigate the use of Sweden in branding. METHOD To fulfill the purpose of the study, exploratory qualitative research is executed, employing a multiple-case study design where nine cases were selected to develop an in-depth understanding of the research topic. CONCLUSION Based on the research, the COO has a strong impact on the brand identity of Swedish SMEs. As it can be seen from the empirical data, the brand identity of Swedish SMEs is impacted by the COO in terms of personality, physique, and culture dimensions on the key characteristics of the origin. Additionally, the COO is implemented into the Swedish SMEs branding through nine strategies.

En liten andel av de svenska små och medelstora bioteknikföretagen finns representerade på den australiensiska bioteknikmarknaden. En enkätundersökning, utförd bland 96 svenska bioteknikföretag, visar att kunskapen och intresset för marknaden är relativt låg. Den främsta anledningen till detta är det geografiska avståndet och bristen på resurser för att undersöka nya marknader. Eftersom de flesta bioteknikföretag erbjuder nischade produkter med en liten inhemsk marknad är det nödvändigt att undersöka alla möjliga marknader och att en marknad inte ignoreras endast på grund av dess geografiska avstånd. Denna rapport belyser den australiensiska bioteknikmarknaden och analysera dess potential för svenska små och medelstora bioteknikföretag genom att marknadens attraktivitet och strategiska betydelse utreds. För detta ändamål studeras ett antal faktorer som exempelvis marknadens storlek, tillväxt, stödjande organisationer, kluster, konkurrenssituation och barriärer som hindrar inträde. För att svara på vilka möjligheter samt begränsningar som finns vid etablering av någon form av verksamhet i Australien har ett teoretiskt ramverk valts ut, ett flertal intervjuer med svenska och australiensiska myndigheter, rådgivare och företag genomförts och lokala influenser har studerats på plats i Australien. Flera viktiga aspekter, rön om potentiella möjligheter, samt begränsningar för svenska bioteknikföretag diskuteras och presenteras i denna rapport. / Few Swedish biotechnology SMEs are currently represented in the Australian market. A survey of 96 Swedish biotechnology companies demonstrated that both their knowledge of the market and their interest in establishing a business in the country are low. The main reasons for this are the geographic distance of the market and the lack of resources to examine new markets. Since most biotechnology companies offer niche products to a small domestic market, all possible markets should be considered and none should be excluded based singularly on geographic distance. This paper analyses the potential of the Australian biotechnology market for Swedish small- and medium-sized biotechnology companies, and aims to give a foundation which Swedish companies can utilize when considering entering the Australian market. The market attractiveness and its strategic importance for Swedish biotechnology companies are evaluated and presented in this thesis. A number of factors such as market size and growth, supporting organizations, research base, clusters, competitive situation and entry barriers are examined. Consequently the problem is defined as: “What potential opportunities and limitations exist in the Australian biotechnology market for Swedish small- and medium-sized biotech companies?” Literature has been reviewed in depth, numerous on-site interviews have been carried out with Swedish biotech companies as well as Swedish and Australian officials and advisors, and local influences have been studied. The conclusions identify several key aspects, potential areas of interest and some limitations for Swedish biotechnology companies, which are discussed and presented in this paper.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Planning of resources is a powerful tool in the field of supply chain management and control and in general. Global large-scale companies and enterprises have this implemented in their planning processes. Today, experts in the subject have found issues regarding the implementation of such tools in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, this paper aims to develop an application for the methodology of continual improvement of processes, referred to as the Deming cycle or Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA), which adapts to continuous improvements of processes and products in SMEs. The methodology was modeled in a SME dedicated to manufacture and distribution of wine and products (wine and Pisco). The model was simulated through a simulation software, obtaining results of improvement regarding problems like break of stock, taking into account the satisfaction of the client, productivity in the delivery, and shipment time.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Every year, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expand their participation in the Peruvian market, while facing high internal disorganization issues that stifle their growth. This problem is rooted on the fact that the contents generated by these companies are not usually adequately recorded, managed, and exploited, and thus negatively affecting the organization and their competitiveness levels. Now, although most of this issue may be solved through enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, they are not affordable for most SMEs because of their high prices. Within this context, this study proposes the implementation of a cloud-based open-source ECM model at a manufacturing SME in Peru. Through this model, the company was able to access the benefits of an ECM to restructure the way they manage content, gaining 67% more efficiency, establishing a collaboration channel between employees, suppliers, and customers, and reporting a 93% model adaptation rate among staff members. / Revisión por pares