This research is concentrated mainly on Cambodian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are said to playa vital role in economic development and income growth in Cambodia, as they have been the primary source of job creation, not only in urban areas but also in rural areas. However, there are still considerable controversies over whether SMEs are more efficient than large enterprises (LEs) in contributing to economic development in Cambodia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of SMEs in development taking Cambodia as a case study. Three hypotheses are investigated to reveal SMEs' advantages relative to LEs: (1) SMEs are more labour-intensive than LEs and S"MEs provide more jobs for women than LEs; (2) SMEs are as productive as LEs or even more productive than LEs; and (3) srvms are more equitable in distributing the income they generate than LEs. Most of the previous researchers have provided empirical evidences to support the three hypotheses. In this study, however, srvms were found to possess many undesirable characteristics, including the uneconomic use of capital, the inequitable distribution of the income they generate, the low productivity of SMEs, especially in provincial areas, and employing less female labour. Thus, Cambodia experiences the low efficiency of SMEs' performance. This is due to the government's ability to implement an enabling environment for business remaining weak. In particular, the legal framework for supporting SME activity remains weak, infrastructure and communication in rural areas are poor, and labour productivity is relatively low. Therefore, in order to improve SMEs in Cambodia, the government has to improve the efficiency of SMEs, implementation an action plan of the market-oriented framework for SME development, reduce the cost of doing business and related to bureaucratic red tape, improve the access to finance for SMEs, and improve market access for SMEs.

Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) are facing an ever increasing pressure to think carefully and strategically of ways to compete and grow in what can only be described as a turbulent business environment. This more so for those SME's that have built their growth strategy on the development of new product where the competition is shifting from a company orientation to a supply chain based rivalry. Accordingly achieving qualities such as agility are becoming critical to the success of supply chains. Such dramatic changes make the traditional approaches to business strategy, i.e business growth strategy, which has been based on the company providing a match between its business environment and its internal capability questionable. While, the value of supply chain in determining organization's growth strategy has received some attention a practical perspectives and solution yet to be provided. This research has focused on studying and exploring the position of supply chain in the growth strategy formulation process in SME's to identify the main factors contributing to the above concept and the relationship among the strategic influencing factors from a market, dynamic capability, and supply chain points of view. The research was conducted through: an extensive literature review; three in-depth case studies to identify how practitioners think and act with respect to the position of supply chain issues in growth strategy formulation and why it is important to involve the supply chain issues earlier in growth strategy formulation. A mini-survey and semi-structured interview followed the findings of case studies to extract more evidence at a broader scope. From the above study, a conceptual framework is proposed from which a practical approach emerged to assist SME's that develop new product to think about the supply chain proactively thus future proofing their product and securing their growth strategy.

Open markets and the rapid development of the Internet have given shape to the competitive pressures faced by the UK's Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and, consequently, created the grounds for this study. Extensive research shows that, although SMEs are indeed adopting the Internet, most of them are slow to take up electronic business (e-business) as the basis for business communications and transactions. This is because many SMEs are not equipped with, or supported by, the appropriate guidelines and business models to allow them to take advantage of the developing digital economy and e-business. The lack of this kind of support makes it difficult for SMEs to use e-business as a means to gain competitive advantage, locally, nationally or globally. What is more, the constraints of appropriate technological resources and inadequate knowledge among key personnel at the same time inhibit the operational efficiency and innovation of SMEs. This limits the competitive advantage that ebusiness could bring to their businesses. The research presented in this study has a twofold aim. The first, which is the contribution this study makes to the field of Management Studies, is to promote a better understanding of ebusiness and its role in SMEs. The second, which has the more pragmatic aim of contributing to SMEs, is to find a way of enhancing their business competitiveness via the use of e-business. It builds on previous work suggesting that traditional business strategies, which create competitive advantage, have to be changed in order to facilitate the adoption, implementation and use of ebusiness technology. An examination of the transition of SMEs from an 'old' traditional business strategy to a 'new' e-business strategy is at the heart of this study. The study was conducted using the 'mixed methodology' of both qualitative and quantitative data as its primary tool. As a starting point, a range of academic and practitioner literature relating to IT, e-business, and different business models, was reviewed. This review and accompanying analysis were followed by nine longitudinal case studies and a national survey which were used to collect primary data from UK SMEs. This combination of micro-level longitudinal studies with macro-level national surveys provides the core data for the findings made in this study. Overall, the findings point to a paradoxical conclusion: on the one hand, SMEs use IT and the Internet in order to enhance their business competitiveness. However, on the other, the attitude of the owners and the knowledge shown at the managerial level was often the very obstacle to using IT. In other words, while the 'hard' of technology is available, the 'soft' of attitudes and knowledge often is not. This gap between the existence of technology and the absence of the appropriate attitudes and knowledge pose a number of potential challenges for SMEs in the creation of competitive advantage through e-business. To overcome these challenges, the findings were deployed in order to develop an e-business model named the "Competitive Advantage Through E-business" (CATE-b). This is the major innovation of this study in terms of applying the fruits of my research in order not only to make a contribution to knowledge, but also to solve the practical problems faced by business practitioners. This model is meant to serve the heuristic purpose of acting as a guide to help SMEs to comprehend an e-business vision, formulate strategy, identify e-business application areas, put together a portfolio, and design a plan for e-business implementation. In short, the long-term goal of this study is to help SMEs to enhance their local, national or global competitiveness through applying CATE-b, with the hope that new technology can become a force for creating competitive advantage.

Saudi Arabia is considered to be an oil-rich country. However, it faces challenges in creating jobs and diversifying Its economy to perpetuate economic growth. Therefore, the role and contribution of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for the country, leading the government to mitiate a numbe of policy measures. This development goal is fiirthered by the impressive developments in the financial sector. In particular, growth and development of Islamic banking and finance have shown remarkable performance in the country. Such financial developments have a positive impact on the development of SMEs by providing altemative financing options.

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Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2010 / Financial Management is one of the critical principles in the business enviromnent. This study was conducted to assess the impact of the use of financial statement by SMMEs on to the success of their businesses. ln Chapter one of the study, the researcher gives the background to the research problem. The objectives of the study are also discussed. The research questions are highlighted and the key concepts that are used in the study and defined. The researcher gave the fonnat of the study and concluded the chapter with summary chapter. Chapter two focused on the review of related literature where different sources who explained about the financial management in SMMEs were consulted. The research objectives were restated and intensely discussed. The researcher outlined the challenges he encountered during the research process. The chapter was concluded with a summary chapter. Chapter three discussed the research design and methodology. The rationale for the study was explained in this chapter. The research design, types of research, target population, sampling and the research instruments were all explained in this chapter. The questionnaire construction and questionnaire items were also outlined. The research process was explained in full and the chapter was concluded with a summary. Chapter four discussed the data analysis, where the differences between qualitative and quantitative data analysis were discussed. Findings from other documents were also discussed. The chapter was concluded with a summary. Chapter five summarized all the chapters by the giving conclusion and recommendations.