Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2006 / The purpose of this study was to explore the challenges facing Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation (MEEC) in its quest to funding the emerging small enterprises in Mpumalanga. The study was conducted in 2004-2005, in the Nkangala District Municipality in Mpumalanga. Interviews were conducted amongst the existing clients of MEEC and its predecessors. Senior Managers and Operational staff were also interviewed in order to solicit the effectiveness of the tools used to granting loans and guarantees. The findings have since shown that there are operational challenges facing MEEC, which are in nature similar to those faced by a number of Development Finance Corporations in this country and around the globe as the benchmarks showed in the study. It was therefore important to undertake this study considering the need to improve the role played by MEEC and the approaches to be adopted in improving the course in which parastatals do business.

Small and recently started-up organizations find it hard to acquire external capital from financial institutions, such as banks, venture capitalists and private investors. Information asymmetry is the main reason behind this financial gap, from both a demand-side and supply-side standpoint. However, small organizations and start-ups do not need financiers to launch themselves, and the solution to the financial shortages is not necessarily by financial means. By being creative, resources can be acquired through different means, known in research as financial bootstrapping. Previous studies have been focusing on bootstrapping application in companies, and have not included any kind of associations in their investigations. This thesis aims to enlighten the area of bootstrapping usage in associations while comparing similarities and differences with companies. The thesis will also provide a base of knowledge for the collaboration company Coompanion, who requested to increase their understanding within the area of financial bootstrapping. A survey was conducted and 44 responses were received with a mixture of companies and associations. The survey included questions regarding the organizational profile, personal profile and handling of finance. The interactive questionnaire was distributed to the managers by email and the data gathered from the respondents was inserted and analyzed using Excel, SPSS and Gretl. The results demonstrate that organizations prefer internally generated money as a first resort before using external finance, consequently following the theories of pecking order. Organizations that need more capital are inclined to use more bootstrapping techniques compared to organizations with no need for further capital. The survey indicates that some bootstrapping methods are more commonly used, such as: Same terms of payment to all customers, Best terms of payment from suppliers, Buy used equipment instead of new, Sell on credit to customers, Make customers pay through installments on ongoing work and Obtain some kind of subsidy.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Finance and Economics. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This diploma work occupies with the economical evolution of chosen companies, financed by venture capital. The theoretical part will be focused on the problems, bearing on venture capital and on the financial analysis, the evolution of the companies will be reviewed according this. There will be the chosen companies and the results of their financial analysis presented in the analytical part of the diploma work, and thus one year before the investor's entry, in the time of the coexistence and three years after the investor's withdrawal. The evolution by the chosen indicators will be overall compared and the recommended solutions will be presented in the final part of the diploma work.

Craft brewing has seen a remarkable growth, from the first steps in the late 1960s in the USA until today. Breweries in the USA and Western Europe saw a long period of brewery fusions, concentration and closings from after the 2nd world war until roughly late 1990s/early 2000s. This trend also affected Sweden, where a market with smaller breweries in almost every town or municipality ended up in a situation with a dominating giant. The emerging craft breweries have totally changed this picture. Previous research has shown that craft brewing often starts as a hobby and evolves over time to a commercial business. The process for how these breweries fund themselves at the time of establishment has been researched in several papers, but how breweries that get past the initial step, start to grow and need additional capital to remove some of the bottlenecks that occur is considerably less examined. Since craft brewing is a unique business and the research in Sweden is scarce, theories and practises from small and medium enterprise (SME) financing have been applied. By using semi‐structured interviews and a thematical analysis, six craft beer brewery representatives were interviewed about their own perceptions of the methods they chose to overcome their financial obstacles, both initially but also when experiencing growth and needs for expansion. The breweries were chosen from a combination of size and geographical position in Sweden. Some of the breweries are situated in rural and some in urban areas. All the breweries fulfil certain financial criteria, and experienced production bottlenecks that needed to be solved financially. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that each microbrewery had its unique set of circumstances. The chosen financial solutions were affected by the owner’s perceptions and previous experiences. This supports previous research where new business establishment is highly depending upon the owner or the owner’s own money, which can partly also be explained by how the owners initially looked at their business (hobby/part hobby versus the intention to immediately start a commercial business). Raising capital for further expansion gives a diversified picture meaning that classical financing theory is only partially applicable on the craft brewing industry.

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In Nigeria, many small businesses fail before their 5th anniversary. Small businesses make up a major percentage of the businesses in Nigeria and provide jobs for 50% of the populace. The purpose of this qualitative multi-unit case study was to explore the factors required by small businesses in Nigeria to sustain operations beyond the first 5 years. The conceptual framework grounding this study was general systems theory. A review of the literature focused on small business failure and factors required to sustain a business longer than 5 years. Data collection occurred through semistructured interviews of a purposeful sample of 3 successful business owners in Port Harcourt, who described their experiences. Data analysis strategies consisted of using qualitative software, key words, phrases, and codes, which contributed to identifying the following themes: (a) effective strategizing, (b) flexible financial capital management, (c) human capital development, (d) market positioning and sales, and (e) stable power supply. The findings indicated that these 3 small business owners were passionate about starting up their businesses and had the necessary skills to strategize effectively and manage capital, thus sustaining their business beyond 5 years. Information derived from this study may assist small business owners in starting successful companies, that support employees, other companies, communities, and families, contributing to the development of the Nigerian economy.

D. Tech. (Business, Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences) Vaal University of Technology / The effective implementation of intra-firm and inter-firm supply chain practices and processes such as supply chain e-collaboration and sharing of important information among supply chain partners, is commonly associated with the creation of supply chain competitiveness and enhanced performance. However, little attention has, thus far, been given to the empirical investigation of the influence of the successful implementation of intra-firm supply chain practice on supply chain e-collaboration, strategic information sharing, supply chain competence and supply chain performance in South Africa. The principal objective of this study was to fill this void by investigating the influence of intra-firm supply chain practice on supply chain e-collaboration among supply chain partners in South Africa. Secondly, the study sought to determine the influence of supply chain e-collaboration on strategic information and supply chain competence among supply chain partners in South Africa. It also aimed to examine the influence of strategic information sharing on supply chain competence and ultimately on the supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. Lastly, the study sought to ascertain the influence of supply chain competence on supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. A positivist approach that allowed a quantitative research method in data collection was used in this study. Data from a sample of 280 collaborating firm owners/managers from all the industries of South Africa’s nine provinces was used for the final data analysis of this research. A principal component analysis was performed for factor reduction and dimensional groupings using SPSS 21 software. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were performed for model fit assessments and hypotheses tests respectively, using the Analysis of Moments of Structure (AMOS 21) software. Multiple Regression analysis was performed using SPSS 21 software, and was used for comparison and support of the weak and unsupported SEM hypotheses tests. The principal finding of this study reveals that intra-firm supply chain practice has a strong positive and significant influence on supply chain e-collaboration among supply chain partners in South Africa. In addition, the results showed that supply chain e-collaboration can strongly and significantly enhance the sharing of strategic information among supply chain partners in South Africa. The findings further revealed that supply chain e-collaboration has an ability to create a supply chain competence among supply chain partners in South Africa. The study’s empirical findings also indicate that strategic information sharing has a weak positive and significant indirect influence on supply chain competence and supply chain performance. Lastly, the SEM findings showed that supply chain competence has a weak negative and insignificant influence on supply chain performance. However, the multiple regression analysis showed a weak negative and significant influence of supply chain competence on the supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. The conclusions and implications of the empirical research findings are provided and recommendations are suggested. The study suggests a new supply chain management conceptual model for research. It also proposes a new supply chain management implementation framework to help guide firms to formulate strategies for improving supply chain performance. The study recommended that the collaborating firm owners/managers consider: training and education for all employees on the importance of supply chain practices and processes such as supply chain e-collaboration and strategic information sharing. Furthermore, it is recommended that collaborating firm owner/managers should consider adopting advanced technologies and information sharing structures to improve their supply chain performance. The collaborating firm owner/managers were also encouraged to align their incentives with the supply chain roles and activities assigned to the supply chain partners. Policy makers were encouraged to make e-business financing arrangements for supply chain collaborating firms; promote synergies between collaborating small and mediums firms and large technology vendors; and ensure affordability of supply chain e-collaboration technologies. The study attempted to address the intra-firm supply chain practice deficiencies on the side of both the supply chain e-collaborating firms and the government. / Research Hubs and Spokes

The aim of the thesis is a business plan - restructuring of livestock production in farm. The thesis uses theoretical findings from the field of business activity financing, company analysis and evaluation of investment efficiency. The project includes investment plan, its execution and evaluation.

Esta investigación presenta las diversas perspectivas que se han establecido en la academia respecto al financiamiento de las mype, considerando la importancia de las decisiones financieras, basadas en variables como al género, la edad-tamaño y las condiciones del crédito. Se identifican los factores que tienen mayor influencia para el acceso al crédito, como son los actores sociales, quienes vinculan la acción social y ambiental para lograr la sostenibilidad; el ciclo de vida de la empresa, que permite la identificación de actividades estratégicas para solicitar el financiamiento idóneo; el capital, que refleja el valor actual de la empresa para impulsar la inversión y la tecnología que es cada vez más innovadora en el mercado global. Todas ellas no solo logran el crecimiento de las unidades de negocio si no que también contribuyen con el desarrollo del país. El financiamiento de las mype y su adaptación a las circunstancias es distinto para cada empresario; por ello, se clasifica en financiamiento formal, que contribuye al cumplimiento de las normatividad y acceso a oportunidades de exportación; financiamiento informal, que no requiere de procesos burocráticos y la disponibilidad del dinero es inmediata; además del crédito comercial, que no solo es flexible y práctico, sino que también tiene validez legal. Asimismo, se destaca el posicionamiento de las Fintech como una nueva forma digital de obtener financiamiento con beneficios atractivos para aquellos que no califican al crédito tradicional. / This research explains the various perspectives that have been established in academia regarding the financing of SMEs, considering the importance of financial decisions, based on variables such as gender, age-size and credit conditions. The factors that have the greatest influence on access to credit are identified, such as social actors, who link social and environmental action to achieve sustainability; the life cycle of the company, which allows the identification of strategic activities to request the appropriate financing; capital, which reflects the current value of the company to boost investment and technology, which is increasingly innovative in the global market. All of them not only achieve the growth of the business units but also contribute to the development of the country. The financing of mype and its adaptation to the circumstances is different for each entrepreneur; therefore, it is classified into formal financing, which contributes to compliance with regulations and access to export opportunities; informal financing, which does not require bureaucratic processes and the availability of money is immediate; and commercial credit, which is not only flexible and practical, but also has legal validity. It also highlights the positioning of Fintechs as a new digital way of obtaining financing with attractive benefits for those who do not qualify for traditional credit. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional