<p>The end of the twentieth centry, and the beginning of the twenty-first, was a revolving period with many mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies among Swedish IT-companies. Such events are likely to affect more than just the companies directly involved, i.e. the bankrupt and consolidating parties, and this thesis considers the contextual embeddedness of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies by studying them in a business network setting.</p><p>The primary aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of business network change and its underlying dynamics. A business network is a conceptual description of the interrelatedness of companies, which makes them problematic to describe and understand. This thesis suggests a force-based approach to business network change, which focuses on the forces underlying the change rather than the actual alterations of the business network. The suggested approach emphasizes the change and enables an exploration and description of business network change based on its underlying forces, linked to form a change sequence. The events that occur and the forces they give rise to can be used to describe the character of such business network change sequences.</p><p>To enable a study of a change sequence within the Swedish IT-related business network, this thesis will use a technique designed to gather information about events and parts of the business network structure by systematizing data from news items describing mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies during the years 1994-2003. This data structuration technique enables a longitudinal and retrospective study of a business network change sequence. The analysis indicates a high possibility of inter-linkages between mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies, and describes a business network change sequence with high intensity and wide extension, which is the type of business network change with the highest potential impact, here referred to as ‘turbulence in business networks’.</p>

<p>Business networks exist in many different situations the question of interest is; what makes these networks sustainable over a long period of time? This is a multiple case study with four network projects from the Swedish rural area of Storsjöbygden in Jämtland.</p><p>The Swedish rural areas consist of a strong majority of micro companies and small companies. To develop some of these areas the European Rural Development Program, LEADER helps funding projects for entrepreneurs and organisations with good ideas for development, education and cooperation activities.</p><p>This paper investigates four LEADER funded projects with a focus on business cooperation and networking. The projects were done between years 1995 and 2000. Some of the networks are still active today and others are not.  The aim here is to see if the three factors during the start up of the networks; natural and spontaneous relationships, project leader’s attitude and the number of participants, have an impact on the long term sustainability of these networks.</p><p>The empirical findings lead to the following conclusions; within the relationship factor time and attitude variables had an increased effect on the survival of the networks. The project leader’s knowledge, attitude and commitment also affected the outcome of the network projects. The third factor, the number of active members during the project had a great impact of the survival since all the networks lost members over time.</p>

As globalization facilitates trade across geographical borders, more and more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) take the opportunity to internationalize, sometimes even immediately after their start-up. To enhance our understanding of how SMEs internationalize, this dissertation investigates different means of interaction that SMEs employ in foreign business relationships to develop the experiential knowledge needed for further internationalization. The investigated interaction means are high-commitment internationalization modes, low-commitment internationalization modes, business network relationships, personal network relationships, and personal interaction. Based on qualitative, longitudinal data from eight born global SMEs in the biotech field and a questionnaire survey of 188 SMEs from various industries, results show how different groups of firms apply different interaction means to develop experiential knowledge and internationalize. In particular, the results show that differences in the backgrounds of founders and managers strongly influence the means that different groups of SMEs use when interacting with foreign business counterparts. Moreover, interaction of high quality and quantity, in the form of personal interaction, reduces uncertainties and supports the development of trust and experiential knowledge in internationalizing SMEs. Personal interaction is also shown to be an especially important interaction means for firms that develop new products or new technologies in collaboration with foreign customers. Building on these results, the dissertation contribute to the development of theory about the influence of interaction on the experiential knowledge development and internationalization of SMEs in general and rapidly internationalizing SMEs in particular.

The end of the twentieth centry, and the beginning of the twenty-first, was a revolving period with many mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies among Swedish IT-companies. Such events are likely to affect more than just the companies directly involved, i.e. the bankrupt and consolidating parties, and this thesis considers the contextual embeddedness of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies by studying them in a business network setting. The primary aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of business network change and its underlying dynamics. A business network is a conceptual description of the interrelatedness of companies, which makes them problematic to describe and understand. This thesis suggests a force-based approach to business network change, which focuses on the forces underlying the change rather than the actual alterations of the business network. The suggested approach emphasizes the change and enables an exploration and description of business network change based on its underlying forces, linked to form a change sequence. The events that occur and the forces they give rise to can be used to describe the character of such business network change sequences. To enable a study of a change sequence within the Swedish IT-related business network, this thesis will use a technique designed to gather information about events and parts of the business network structure by systematizing data from news items describing mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies during the years 1994-2003. This data structuration technique enables a longitudinal and retrospective study of a business network change sequence. The analysis indicates a high possibility of inter-linkages between mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies, and describes a business network change sequence with high intensity and wide extension, which is the type of business network change with the highest potential impact, here referred to as ‘turbulence in business networks’.

Business networks exist in many different situations the question of interest is; what makes these networks sustainable over a long period of time? This is a multiple case study with four network projects from the Swedish rural area of Storsjöbygden in Jämtland. The Swedish rural areas consist of a strong majority of micro companies and small companies. To develop some of these areas the European Rural Development Program, LEADER helps funding projects for entrepreneurs and organisations with good ideas for development, education and cooperation activities. This paper investigates four LEADER funded projects with a focus on business cooperation and networking. The projects were done between years 1995 and 2000. Some of the networks are still active today and others are not.  The aim here is to see if the three factors during the start up of the networks; natural and spontaneous relationships, project leader’s attitude and the number of participants, have an impact on the long term sustainability of these networks. The empirical findings lead to the following conclusions; within the relationship factor time and attitude variables had an increased effect on the survival of the networks. The project leader’s knowledge, attitude and commitment also affected the outcome of the network projects. The third factor, the number of active members during the project had a great impact of the survival since all the networks lost members over time.

La présente thèse étudie l'importance des coûts non-traditionnels liés à l'échange en mettant l'accent sur les institutions nationales et sur les réseaux transfrontaliers sociaux et d'affaires. Au-delà de la nécessité d'identifier les coûts non-traditionnels, la question se pose également de les quantifier afin de pouvoir estimer la création de commerce associée à leur réduction et de formuler des recommandations précises en termes de politique économique. Les institutions et les réseaux augmentent la sécurité et assurent l'application des clauses contractuelles dans les transactions internationales, fournissent des contacts et des informations sur les partenaires potentiels étrangers, fait qui implique des coûts liés à l'échange inférieurs et moins d'incertitude dans les échanges internationaux. On montre que les potentiels de commerce sont généralement sous-estimés dans la littérature : l'intégration économique régionale peut créer beaucoup plus de commerce que l'on estime traditionnellement, et même quand la réduction totale des barrières aux échanges est achevée. L'amélioration et l'harmonisation des cadres institutionnels peuvent générer autant de commerce international que la libéralisation commerciale. Les réseaux sociaux favorisent l'échange par l'intermédiaire de liens ethniques, linguistiques etc. communs, mais aussi du à l'information et aux préférences acquises par la consommation des biens culturels d'origine étrangère. Les réseaux d'affaires sont illustrés par des associations de migrants et ont un effet positif sur le commerce plus fort que celui des réseaux sociaux.

This research addresses the following questions: how do successful professionals cultivate boundary-spanning relationships to develop professional goods; and what lessons can be drawn from their successes? This study uses grounded theory to interpret qualitative interview data from four expert networkers to help demonstrate how successful people in various industries build relationships — and what characteristics these successful networkers have in common. Using grounded theory, five key themes emerged: uncertainty reduction, ingratiation, reciprocity, mentoring relationships and the importance of follow-up. The study of networks has a well-developed body of surrounding literature; however, the current research does little to address how individual actors successfully build the relationships upon which networks are based. Therefore, this qualitative research into the characteristics shared by successful networkers is a positive contribution to the body of knowledge concerning social network theory — and will serve as a guide for those wishing to expand their personal and business networks.

This study identifies and explores the clustering effects of external economy and joint action of SMMEs throughout clusters in Clairwood and Cato Manor in Durban. It attempts to contribute to an understanding of clustering effects of SMME support intervention that aligns with a wider initiative by local government to engage in the redevelopment of previously disadvantaged areas. Particularly in the South African context, the market structure is marked by enormous unequal access to basic services based on location and education among other factors to counteract obstacles to SMME development. Agglomeration generates external economies like cooperation, information sharing and inter-firm interaction. Joint action between SMMEs in these clusters and external actors harnesses the collective efforts of all actors to promote specialisation, innovation and upgrade in SMME clusters. A survey method that combined quantitative and qualitative techniques was applied to conduct voluntary, semi-structured interviews using a questionnaire. External economies, such as, supplier linkages, repayment of money borrowed and upgrade point to the extent of interactions based on a collective and shared knowledge base. Also, the pursuit of joint action is explored through existing partnerships and the potential for partnerships between enterprises in the future, highlighted qualitatively by prevailing sentiments of entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that clustering effects in Cato Manor and Clairwood are complex. SMME clustering effects reveal layers of an incipient industrialisation process with two major challenges. External economies for generating relationships with supplier networks are tenuous. Though there is flexibility, it is not sufficient to increase inerfirm relationships. Training is lacking among 53 percent of entrepreneurs in the sample. This undermines learning and cooperation for cluster specialisation. Joint action is extremely limited and difficult to achieve. The findings show that 73 percent of survivalist and micro enterprises are individually owned. In sum, cluster effects reveal that enterprises are involved in unrelated activities within the same clusters, which undermines agglomeration and collective efficiency in SMME clustering. Future research must explore the feasibility of targeted support interventions at SMME clusters that are engaged in similar and related activities by location with specific outcomes for SMMEs development in clusters. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This study investigates the impacts of regional characteristics on the early-stage performance of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) in catch-up regions where a mature industrial cluster has yet to be formed. It hypothesized that the average NTBF performance in a region is a function of its scientist job market conditions, cultural diversity, venture capital, academic research, industrial structure, and local entrepreneurial climate. Using the events of Initial Public Offerings (IPO) and Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) as an indicator of early-stage success of NTBFs, this study constructs a set of Zero-Inflated-Negative-Binomial (ZINB) models to predict the spatial distribution of such events in the U.S. biopharmaceutical and Information Technology (IT) service industries during the period from 1996 to 2005. Several empirical findings emerge from this study. First, the local entrepreneurial climate plays a significant and positive role on NTBF performance in both industries. Second, the positive impact of cultural diversity is more significant in the IT service industry than in the biopharmaceutical industry. Third, the scientist job market size and absolute salary level have positive impacts on NTBF performance, but the effect of relative salary level is negative. Fourth, proximity to venture capital firms has positive but non-linear effects, but the adverse effect of excess venture capital is stronger in the IT service industry. Fifth, there is little evidence of the direct effects of academic research in determining the NTBF performance in both industries. Finally, industrial specialization is significant and positive only in the IT service industry. The results suggest that promoting local entrepreneurial climate and cultural diversity are two effective policy instruments for catch-up regions to foster their NTBF growth.

Thesis (D Phil.(Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.