This qualitative study examines the environmental behaviour of leatherworking SMEs in Pakistan. It investigates the environmental drivers, enablers and barriers in these firms. The study makes an empirical contribution by examining an under-researched developing economy context, Pakistan, which has distinct institutional settings compared to many other countries, especially the developed ones. It also offers a methodological contribution by demonstrating that a hybrid theoretical framework informed by institutional theory, resource-based view, natural-resource-based view and dynamic capabilities perspective offers a better approach to develop the holistic and in-depth understanding of the environmental behaviour of SMEs. It enables the researcher to effectively capture the interactive effect of internal and external factors on the environmental transformation of SMEs. Grounded analysis of interview data has revealed that multilevel (micro-meso-macro) factors, such as environmental requirements of international customers, regulations of export markets, intermediary organisations and peers, operate in conjunction to exert the coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphic pressures on leatherworking SMEs to behave environmentally responsibly. Sustainability values of owner-managers, financial benefits and aspirations for image building also drive these firms to reduce their environmental footprints. Contributing theoretically, the study finds that dynamic capabilities for ecological learning, seizing environmental opportunities and enterprise reconfiguration enable environmentally progressive and moderate SMEs to reduce their pollution load. Social capital, environmentally proactive owner-managers and support programmes of cleaner production centres serve as key microfoundations to these capabilities. More specifically, due to the absence of effective formal institutional support, cleaner production centres have acted as the (informal) compensatory institutional structures and proto-institutional sponsors striving to institutionalise cleaner production practices in the leather industry. Through developing ‘eco-literacy’ skills amongst SME owners, managers and employees they have been motivating and enabling them to adopt innovative eco-friendly production processes and cleaner technologies. Some other capabilities including pollution prevention, product stewardship, absorptive capacity and strategic proactivity serve as precursors to the presence of these capabilities. Policy implications relate to addressing the financial barriers and institutional ‘gaps’, developing human resources and infrastructure, and better management of tannery clusters.

Why of the population of small owner-managed firms, some choose to sell a portion of their sales abroad while seemingly similar others facing similar market conditions remain focused on their domestic market? Various explanations to this question have come from the extensive literature looking at the export behaviour of the firm, the internationalization process of the firm and international entrepreneurship. The results from these literature however, are generally fragmented, inconclusive and limited in geographic scope with the majority focusing on the US or European firms. Moreover, despite this large body of work, there is only a comparatively limited amount of information addressing the issue from the perspective of the small owner-managed firm. This therefore leaves a gap in our knowledge regarding the internationalization behaviour of these firms especially those from developing countries. For indeed, because of the context specific nature of most of the studies looking at internationalization, it becomes increasingly difficult to generalize findings across geographic borders especially from developed to developing countries where socio-economic conditions are different. Recognizing the drawbacks in the literature, we have proposed to shed light on the issue from a non US/European perspective. Seeing the theoretical limitations in the field, we have developed a theoretically rigorous but parsimonious conceptual model to capture the export behaviour of small owner-managed firms from a developing country perspective. Theoretical insights from the Resource-based theory, Process theory of Internationalization, Network theory, Entrepreneurship theory and International New Venture theory among others were drawn upon in building our theoretical framework. The basic argument behind the model is that: the decision to initiate exporting is a function of stimuli (latent or manifest) inducing entry into international markets. However, stimuli alone cannot result in the firm becoming an exporter. The resources and capabilities which the firm possess will determine how it interprets these stimuli in making the decision to initiate exporting. Importantly, we argue that these stimuli have to be brought to the attention of the entrepreneur before a decision can be made of whether to export or not. To empirically validate our theoretical model, data were collected from exporting and nonexporting small owner-managed firms in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors in the Jamaican economy. Data were analysed using quantitative techniques and descriptive mini-case studies. Our quantitative techniques involved econometric models of the qualitative genre (logistic regression) and descriptive statistics such as the mean and chisquare. Mini-case studies were also used to provide further empirical validation to our findings based on qualitative responses. The results from the analysis indicate that the model matches well with the empirical data. Firms possessing the following resources: a standardized product, a high quality product, foreign travel experience of the entrepreneur and the previous professional experience of the entrepreneur are more amenable to export. Firm size is also found to be a significant variable in determining export initiation. We also found that non-exporters do not respond to export stimuli because of their preoccupation with their domestic market. They also have a strong perception that their product is not for sale in the export market. Our major contribution is the building of the integrated model and empirically validating it using data from a non European/US context which is a departure from the general trend in the literature.

The aim of this research is to identify differences, if any, between the characteristics of male and female businesses and to establish whether female businesses constitute a distinct entrepreneurial group. The sample data are derived form a national survey of nearly 6000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. Given that existing research tends to focus, in the main, on the pre-start up and start-up differences, this study aims to identify gender-based differences between male and female owned/managed businesses in their post-formation stage. Analysis of mixed gender businesses is also carried out with a view to investigating which of the characteristics, male or female, are predominant among these businesses. Mixed businesses thus act as proxy control variables. In light of its findings, the study concludes by considering implications for theory and policy. Given that established male and female owned/managed businesses do exhibit sufficiently different characteristics, a case is made for what is termed 'Gender-Based Entrepreneuralism'. It is argued that Gender-Based Entrepreneuralism should be acknowledged and considered by policy makers and policy deliverers within the SME sector. Female owned/managed businesses may require differentiated policies beyond the pre-start-up and start-up stages for developing business competencies and to nurture their growth and development.

This study explored how small firms' owner-managers view competition in their business environment and how this view may be associated with specific strategic choices. Its main research question dealt with why different small firms' owner-managers choose different competitive strategies in a given industry setting. One of its main contentions was that in examining this phenomenon it was necessary first to explore the mental categorisations which guide the entrepreneurs' understanding of their competitive environments. The study was also concerned with integrating an array of concepts (strategy formation. individual cognitive stylistic preferences, and perceived environmental dynamism) into a single model of strategic choice in the context of small firms. An exploration of Miles and Snow's (1978) taxonomy of strategic types in conjunction with Kirton's (1976) Adaption-Innovation theory offered possibilities for identifying linkages between strategic choices and cognitive processes. Furthermore, by (exploring different environmental contexts the study focused on external influences on strategic choice formation.) Three models that could permit empirical testing of relationships among cognitive style, environmental turbulence, and strategic choice have been described. Model 1 assumed that strategic choice was influenced significantly by both environmental turbulence and cognitive style. Model 2 inferred that perceived variations in strategic choice could be explained through cognitive styles, but not environmental turbulence. Finally, model 3 rejected the cognitive biases introduced by stylistic differences, and retained the rationality assumption of strategic choice. Three empirical studies were developed. Studies 1 and 2 involved samples of small firm entrepreneurs and were developed with two main objectives: (1) to describe the cognitive structure related to competition adopted by small firm owner-managers; and (2) to identify patterns of strategic choices in different business sectors with differing levels of environmental turbulence. The third study with two larger business-oriented samples (N1 = 66; N2 = 57) explored the relationships among strategy formation, environmental turbulence and cognitive styles under quasi-experimental conditions. The studies gave strong evidence in favour of Model 3 in which individual cognitive styles measured by KAI inventory played no significant part in the strategic choice process.

This research seeks to deepen the understanding of the causes of obstacles to bank lending to the smaller businesses in Nigeria, and to contribute to the literature aimed at finding solutions to this persistent problem. Smaller firms report access to finance as a major obstacle to their growth. With bank credit contributing up to 50% of their external financing, the research focuses on banking institutions. Perceived as a credit market failure, the economics literature ascribes these credit shortages to problems of informational asymmetry and institutional failure, and in turn, these two issues have dominated the applied research on the subject. This thesis contends that small business credit shortage is a complex phenomenon which needs to be understood within the context of the specific operating environment. This research is a qualitative case study of a commercial bank in Nigeria that newly entered into the SME credit market using semi-structured interviews and documentary data to explore the obstacles to SME lending and possible solutions. Based on a thematic analysis of the data, the research found that a well-regulated finance industry within the growing economy stimulated opportunities for lending to SMEs. Attracted by these perceived lucrative opportunities, the commercial bank established a successful lending programme developing proprietary credit scoring techniques and innovative devices to overcome institutional barriers and informational obstacles. To encourage more banks to increase lending to the sector, the research concluded with proposals towards removing impediments to SME business lending. These included improving banks' knowledge of specialised techniques to lend to SMEs, business friendly policies to improve the business environment for smaller businesses to reduce their risk of failure, lower interest rates on loans and capacity building to improve management skills of business owners.

Launched in October 2009, ChiNext provides finance for hi-tech and innovative SMEs from China's Strategic Emerging Industries. SMEs with families, individuals and groups of individuals as controlling shareholders dominate listings. Employing both qualitative and quantitative research methods with a socio-legal approach, this thesis examines the legal and regulatory framework and practice at company level emerging in a market dominated by private 'owner-managers'. The research makes three main contributions as follows. Firstly, the thesis finds that social norms such as Chinese networks (guanxi) and Confucian filial piety (xiaoshun) play an important role in internal governance privately listed SMEs in ChiNext. Interestingly, large individual pre-IPO subscriber who hold non-executive directorships have the potential to and do constrain controlling shareholders through the use of guanxi arising from being key start-up or early investors in the company. Their effectiveness as a corporate governance mechanism may depend on how aligned their interests are with minority shareholders. Equally, filial piety plays a key internal governance role in (conflicting and complementary) parallel to the legal and regulatory corporate governance framework, not only in family-run listed companies but also in other private and State listed companies. Secondly, the thesis finds that bottom-up corporate governance innovations occur in privately listed companies on ChiNext by adapting existing institutions or adopting nonmandatory requirements to their corporate framework. Results of the research demonstrates the emergence of a new category of supervisors sitting on the supervisory board at company level not expressly provided for under Chinese Company Law or corporate governance regulations. Finally, the research observes two key mechanisms in support regulatory enforcement in the private listed sector, namely the media as a corporate governance watchdog on ChiNext based on its state role as public opinion supervisor (yulun jiandu), and China's public whistle-blowing system (jubao) as a voice for investors and stakeholders alike.

Over the last 40 years globalisation has had a major impact on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in traditional manufacturing sectors, located in developed countries. In response to increasingly competitive domestic markets, many of these firms are now engaged in supplier and customer relationships internationally, in order to expand sales and take advantage of lower sourcing costs. This transition from predominantly local to global connections and the different ways in which SMEs manage their global relationships is the focus of this research. It was decided to confine the study to a single manufacturing sector, so that any differences between firms’ experiences are not driven by the industry, but by other possible factors. Therefore the research question is: how do SMEs in the French agricultural machinery sector manage their global supply chains? Research was carried out into twelve SMEs in the agricultural machinery sector in north-west France. The qualitative research was broken down into three stages: exploratory, which included a range of professionals with knowledge of the sector including SMEs, larger firms and historians; explanatory, which followed a grounded theory methodology to develop new thinking about SMEs and global supply chains based on the findings, which were subsequently fed back to a number of professionals in a final stage and led to further discussion. Uniformity in approaches to managing global supply chains was not found, and differences even between companies in the same product speciality were noted. The challenge of developing business relationships with suppliers and distributors against a background of power asymmetries and cultural distance in the global supply chain was met by the SMEs through the use of a variety of approaches. Out of the research has emerged a conceptualization of the challenges that SMEs face in relation to managing global supply chains: a governance, control and power (GCP) model that highlights the main responses and priorities for SMEs in terms of managing supply chain relationships and controlling flows of materials and information.

This study addresses recent calls to advance knowledge on networking capability (Mitrega et al., 2012; Grünberg-Bochard and Kreis-Hoyer, 2009; Sullivan Mort and Weerawardena, 2006) and international opportunity (Mamun, 2015; Mainela et al., 2014). Its rationale is to explore network capabilities in the enactment of international opportunities in German high-technology manufacturing SMEs in business-to-business markets. The study focuses on these capabilities and their contribution to the successful international expansion of such firms at three different business relationship levels: inter-personal, inter-organisational and country-level. Three objectives are formulated: 1) to explore the networking capabilities for German high-technology manufacturing SMEs in the successful identification and enactment of international opportunities; 2) to identify key factors that contribute to the successful enactment of international opportunities for such firms at inter-personal, inter-organisational and country levels; and 3) to develop theoretical integration between networking capabilities and international expansion of these firms. These objectives are addressed through a qualitative methodology, comprising 17 face-to-face interviews with key decision-makers and supplementary discussions with industry-experts. The originality of the study lies in its effort to integrate insights from international opportunity research with the networking capability concept. This study identifies the networking capabilities of Personal Interaction Capabilities, Interpersonal Liking Capabilities, Trust Capabilities, Capabilities to Maintain Relationships, Knowledge Exchange Capabilities, Pride as well as Cultural Familiarity; and explores the typical entrepreneurial behaviour key decision-makers display in their network relationships and corresponding human interactions. The study contributes to networking capability research by identifying a set of capabilities essential for the successful enactment of international opportunities. It also advances knowledge on how, once identified, international opportunities are enacted in dynamic and fast-moving high technology markets. The study also proposes some managerial implications in relation to entrepreneurial behaviour in networks, as well as the utilisation and development of such capabilities, and identifies some areas for future research.

This thesis aims to gain an understanding of why a new entrepreneurial class and a vibrant small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector have failed to materialise in post-genocide Rwanda. Vision 2020, the government's economic and social development plan, set the goal of transforming Rwanda into a middle-income country by the year 2020. This was to be brought about via the emergence of a new entrepreneurial class and a dynamic SME sector that would deliver economic growth, employment and a stable and secure future for the country's citizens. But despite implementing a comprehensive strategy that conforms to orthodox development theory, the desired SME sector is conspicuous by its absence. The thesis examines the validity of the theoretical arguments that underpin the strategy, the context within which the economic transformation was expected to occur and specific stimulus measures that were taken. Possible explanations for the mismatch between anticipated outcomes and reality were explored via face to face interviews with successful and aspiring entrepreneurs in Rwanda. Analysis of the interviews with successful entrepreneurs revealed a divergence between their characteristics and experiences and orthodox theory. Contrasting these findings with those from the interviews with aspiring entrepreneurs facilitated identification of a sub-set of proto-entrepreneurs, who were a close match to successful entrepreneurs both in the characteristics they displayed and the entrepreneurial journey they intended to take. However, the paucity of proto-entrepreneurs and the anticipated lengthy gestation period that is likely to accompany the development of their enterprises challenge both the common conception that developing economies are populated by a vast number of 'entrepreneurs in waiting' and the assumption that the supply of credit and business skills training will trigger the formation of a dynamic SME sector. The thesis also highlights the unintended consequences of resources being misdirected as well as the risk of leaving behind a large body of well-educated but disillusioned individuals, who anticipated being included in an economic success story, which has not come to pass and generated the sustainable volume of employment that was an explicit objective of Vision 2020.