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In a dynamic UK economy, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role by contributing to employment and growth. Despite recognition of the importance of SMEs, and the diagnostic value of developing models for the sector, very few research studies have investigated developing failure prediction models for these businesses. Further, previous research studies highlight the importance of developing models on a regional basis rather than on a cross-regional or cross national basis. This study contributes to research in the area of failure prediction modeling in two ways. Firstly, the study successfully develops failure prediction models for construction SMEs in two regions of the UK, Wales and Scotland. Financial ratios, representing 'leading indicators' of failure, were used to develop failure prediction models by applying a range of statistical techniques including factor analysis, discriminant analysis and logistic regression analysis.

This thesis explores and explains the outcomes from a research programme, which examined the linkages between graduates and small/medium sized enterprises, through the medium of an intemet brokerage service. It considers the graduate contribution to SMEs relating to types of firm most likely to employ graduates, furthermore, it also includes an examination of skills deployed by graduates who elected to operate their own enterprises. There are four main parts to this work. Firstly there is a comprehensive critical analysis statement which explores the whole field of skills, competencies and attributes and these concepts are related to the employment arena of SMEs. Secondly is a comprehensive review of all ten published works. Thirdly there is an overview of findings and contribution to knowledge, thereafter the thesis concludes with an exhibition of the works. A wide field of knowledge is explored in the published works, which commence with the authenticated final report delivered to the sponsors of the research project namely, the UK Governments, Department for Education and Employment. This extensive work, embracing many dimensions, is built upon within the succeeding published journal papers. A fascinating set of findings is presented (see Part 3), all of which make a significant contribution to knowledge for graduates and policy makers.

This thesis accepts the argument that small to medium sized enterprises are a major force in the present UK economy, along with the forecasting that claims future UK growth in numbers from 3.7 million 1 (existing) to 4.5 million in the next ten years. This thesis argues that the action 1 learning process yields a "trinity of benefits" including hard and soft benefits together with emotional intelligence, which assist small and medium sized organisations to be more competitive and overcome the barriers faced in a changing economy. The thesis also argues that on another level action learning can help the Government to bridge the SME Gap of Engagement in UK Enterprise Policy, because the process offers a top down bottom up approach to engagement through collaboration, provided the traditional role of the set adviser is radically revised.

The experience of the author and a review of the literature identifies a number of possible limitations in current theories of internationalization. Existing theories can be broadly classified under the headings of either "stage school" or contingency theories. There appears to have been little research on the interface between the two theoretical approaches, nor on the dynamism of the internationalization process within an individual firm. While scholars challenge the current theory, few have attempted to develop or propose alternative theories. Therefore, the central aim and contribution of this doctoral research has been to develop a theoretical framework from the literature, evaluated in an empirical study of European firms. The research and theoretical development, whilst exploratory, suggests that the internationalization process of firms is contingent on exogenous and endogenous influences. These influences are dynamic, complex and vary according to the specific contexts used in the research. The contingency contexts are summarized here as: The industry and country environment in which the organization operates; the mindset of the entrepreneur decision-maker(s); the nature of the product, the market demographics, and the mindset and nature of the seller and buying organization. The results indicate that the theoretical framework is rigorous enough to demonstrate the variety in the internationalization processes of the firms in the study. The findings are, that whilst there are some common processes and patterns among the firms in the study, there are variations, explained by the contingency theory and contexts in which the firms operate. Previous research has neglected specific contexts as important factors in the internationalization process. The thesis addresses this gap in the research by developing the theory in the context of specific sectors (electronics, software and metal-mechanical) countries (UK, Germany, France and Italy), firm size (medium-sized) and fast growth.

This study was concerned with the structure, functions and development, especially the performance, of some rural small firms associated with the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas (C?SIRA) of England. Forty firms were used as the main basis of analysis. For some aspects of the investigation, however, data from another 54 firms, obtained indirectly through nine CoSIRA Organisers, were also used. For performance-analysis, the 40 firms were firstly ranked according to their growth and profitability rates which were calculated from their financial data. Then each of the variables hypothesised to be related to performance was tested to ascertain its relationship with performance, using the Spearman's Rank Correlation technique. The analysis indicated that each of the four factors - the principal, the firm itself, its management, and the environment - had a bearing upon the performance of the firm. Within the first factor, the owner-manager's background and attitudes were found to be most important; in the second, the firm's size, age and scope of activities were also found to be correlated with performance; with respect to the third, it was revealed that firms which practised some forms of systems in planning, control and costing performed better than those which did not and, finally with respect to the fourth factor, it was found that some of the services provided by CoSIRA, especially credit finance, were facilitative to the firm's performance. Another significant facet of the firms highlighted by the study was their multifarious roles. These, meeting economic, psychological, sociological and political needs, were considered to be most useful to man and his society. Finally, the study has added light to the structural characteristics of the sampled firms, including various aspects of their development, orientation and organisation, as well as their various structural strengths and weakness.

Small manufacturing based businesses compete in an increasingly competitive global market, a "market which is under pressure to deliver more complex and advanced engineering solutions and more complete services to their customers. In the automotive sector for example, a trend is the change from the purchase of individual components and products to the outsourcing and supply of complete engineered systems. In order to compete and grow their capability SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises) need to find and collaborate closely with complementary partners in order to acquire new skills, technology, resources, tacit knowledge and know-how. To address these difficulties the author developed, implemented and tested a Low Cost Virtual Teaming (LC VT) Collaborative Toolset and more importantly a Collaborative Architecture or business model specially for enabling e-business within manufacturing based SMEs. Both the Toolset and the Architecture are supported by a Collaborative Process methodology, containing rules and protocols. The research methodology followed close interaction with many organisations working within the field, and the" use of a number of research methods to gain balance and rigour. Additionally, feedback from the field resulted in improvements where required and kept the model up to date and relevant. A mixed methodology approach was taken to give a broader and complementary view of the issues to ensure balance within the research leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the issues. The research presents an architecture that provides an industry independent e-marketplace to facilitate the communication and collaboration between the OEM and SME supplier groups to enable the pooling of information and knowledge. The Collaborative Architecture considers the whole cycle of the work processes from identifying and finding new suppliers and winning new orders, through to collaborative product development and to providing production order information. Initial research projects, undertaken by the author, provide key research results, which helped secure secondary funding for a second phase project which was over £3.6m. The West Midlands Collaborative Commerce Marketplace (WMCCM) is an integrated e-business infrastructure project for enabling the West Midlands manufacturing SMEs (1,800 SME members) and facilitates finding new business, finding complementary partners, and also creating and supporting collaborative activities. WMCCM brings together the outputs of the research from the AutoLean III and Autocle@r projects through an integrated collaborative business model. SMEs that can find new sources of work, form partnerships to pool their expertise to help undertake it, who have the know-how to form effective Virtual Teams and can access tools to support collaborative working, are more likely to succeed in the continuing competitive times which lie ahead. The Collaborative Architecture aids SMEs to meet this paradigm.

This research draws attention to the problematic premises underpinning the UK government's policy goal of a competitive national economy predicated on the notion of a high skills. high value-added economic trajectory. In particular, the research highlights the limitations of the policy assumptions (inherent in the Investors in People standard) that formalised HRM practices in SMEs in high value-added sectors make them more competitive than those in low value-added sectors, which are frequently associated with informal HRM practices. The research compared the selection and recruitment, training and development, and appraisal and rewards practices of SMEs. The methodological approach adopted was constructivist, with the assumption that SME owner-managers are involved in constructing their own individual reality based on how they perceive the world around them. A case study strategy was adopted to examine the H R.M" practices of a purposive sample of six SMEs in high value-added (3) and low value-added (3) sectors. Data collection combined semi-structured in-depth interviews with document searches. It was found that HRM in the sample of SMEs in both sectors combined formality and informality; characterised by institutional contextual (i.e. homogeneous) and situational contextual (i.e. heterogeneous) practices. It is suggested that a situational contextual perspective is simplistic in that although it acknowledges the interplay between HRM formality and informality, it fails to take account of the homogenising influence of the institutional contexts of SMEs. Consequently, just as normative models of HRM seek to isolate SMEs from their operating contexts, the situational contextual perspective dislocates SMEs from their institutional contexts. Therefore, the research contributes by proposing an open systems model, which reflects the complexity of HRM in SMEs by integrating the institutional and situational contextual perspectives of HRM. In view of the complexity of the HRM practices of SMEs, the research suggests a shift away from a market-led approach to skills based on the HRM practices of individual SMEs, towards direct intervention through government regulation as the most likely path to an economy in a high skill, high value-added equilibrium in the UK.

Dans un environnement économique encore fragilisé par la Grande Récession, les PME apparaissent comme un moteur essentiel de l’activité et de l’emploi. Dans cette thèse, j’examine les déterminants et les conséquences des contraintes financières des PME afin d’identifier les formes de financement bancaire les mieux adaptées à leurs situations. Le premier chapitre analyse les effets des modèles d’activité bancaire sur le financement des PME et montre que les banques de trading augmentent les contraintes de crédit de court terme ainsi que les coûts de financement. Surtout, l’externalité négative du trading sur la disponibilité du crédit de court terme est encore plus forte pour les banques fortement capitalisées et dépendantes des produits dérivés. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur l’effet bénéfique de la relation bancaire pour les PME. Nous montrons que les prêteurs relationnels pratiquent des taux plus élevés en période de croissance et des taux plus bas en période de crise. Cependant, en incluant les entreprises monobancaires dans notre analyse, nous constatons que ce mécanisme assurantiel dépend de la capacité des entreprises à diversifier leurs emprunts auprès de plusieurs banques. Enfin, le troisième chapitre se focalise sur les effets réels des contraintes financières. Mes résultats mettent en lumière l’importance capitale du financement de court terme pour l’investissement des PME à travers le canal du besoin en fonds de roulement. Les entreprises qui ont des opportunités d’investissement ne peuvent pas les saisir car les contraintes de crédit de trésorerie les obligent à allouer davantage de cash-flow au financement du besoin en fonds de roulement. / Representing a clear driver for growth and employment, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have gained considerable attention in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In this thesis, I both examine the determinants and consequences of SMEs financial constraints in order to identify the most appropriate types of bank financing for their situations. The first chapter analyzes the effects of trading bank business models on SME finance and shows that trading banks increase both short term credit constraints and funding costs. Importantly, the negative impact of trading-banks on short term credit availability is even stronger for banks with higher capital and derivatives.The second chapter deals with the beneficial effect of relationship lending for SMEs. Following the literature that has investigated the countercyclical effect of relationship lending on interest rates, we show that relationship lenders charge higher rates in good times and lower rates in bad times. However, we include single-banked firms in the scope and find that this insurance mechanism depends on the firm ability to diversify its borrowing.The third chapter focuses on the real effects of financial constraints. While the literature examining the effects of financial constraints on firms’ investment has traditionally ignored loan maturity, my results emphasize the importance of short-term finance for SMEs through the working capital channel. The real effect of short term financial constraints arises when firms with opportunities to invest may be blocked from doing so because rationing may force them to allocate additional cash-flow to finance their working capital needs.