Micro, Small and Medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent 99.9% of businesses in the UK and they face significant challenges with regards to start-up, survival and growth. Their ability to deal with these challenges is assisted, in some cases, by the provision of business support funded by the public sector. Unfortunately, despite the volume of such businesses, there remains a significant lack of qualitative data into the MSME sector, and their use of university led business support. This thesis examined the business support agenda, the support needs of MSMEs, the role of universities in the provision of business support, and the needs of public funding bodies, with regards to economic sustainability and growth in the West Midlands. The choice to focus on the West Midlands region was largely pragmatic; the researcher has existing relationships with the small business community and University networks within the region allowing for a comparable study of stakeholders with similar environmental, political and economical challenges. Whilst the findings are therefore in relation to the West Midlands region, they have been compared to secondary data and theoretical frameworks in order to propose a contribution, which is applicable to a wider audience. The thesis adopted an exploratory, interpretivist methodology with an emphasis on the practical importance of the research results. Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, surveys were used to collect data from MSME business owners, followed by in-depth interviews with university staff in order to produce institutional case studies. The surveys with MSME owners identified a need for support that was free, local, face-to-face and delivered by an organisation with a good reputation for delivering business support. The survey data also indicated confusion amongst MSME owners about the availability of support from universities, as well as questions around the quality of support provided by universities and its impact. The interviews, and case studies, revealed a significant level of interest, and a feeling of responsibility, from universities towards supporting the MSME community. However there were consistent challenges around funding, sustainability, resources, flexibility of delivery, and the longevity of any enterprise strategy. The research makes a useful contribution to knowledge through the development of multiple case studies and the development of a conceptual framework for a sustainable system of university led, MSME business support. The model, and analysis, considers the detailed experiences, challenges and opportunities from the stakeholders and proposed a sustainable support system. This contribution to literature provides a unique perspective for both practical application and for the research community to utilise further.

Institutional policies or terms and conditions of credit allocation complicate the demand and supply of small business enterprise (SBE) credit, causing lost profits. Banks leaders losing 28% of profitable projects because of the high rejection rate of credit applications for SBE loans is a concern. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies Southeastern Nigerian state bank leaders use to minimize lost profit from SBE credit rejections. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was credit rationing focused on the lender-borrower relationship. Data collection involved reviews of company documents and face-to-face semistructured interviews of 6 participants from 3 banks in the Southeastern Nigerian state. Based on the Schorr's modified data analysis approach, 5 themes emerged (a) credit rationing depends on sufficient information (b) business accounts statements are a fall back for credit availability (c) character may be more important than collateral (d) government policies are challenges to the formal banking system (e) profits may be a hedge for high-interest rates. Findings may be used to enhance the profitability of banks in the Southeastern Nigerian state. Implications for positive social change may include the support of community projects for individuals living at or below the poverty level in the region.

Industrial design is recognised for the value-oriented benefits it offers to businesses. Industrial design ensures that new products are more efficient, usable, convenient and safe to use within the evolving business environment. One of the important factors for the continuous achievement of high product quality and general economic growth and stability in countries such as West Germany, Korea and Japan is their sound industrial design base. Industrial design programmes can be instrumental to ignite an entrepreneurial and innovation spirit to assist in curbing the high unemployment rate and very low levels of entrepreneurial intentions in South Africa. The core of tertiary industrial design students has unique capabilities that can assist the South African economy to stimulate manufacturing, job creation and economic growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate the entrepreneurial intentions among industrial design students enrolled for the programme in Three-Dimensional Design, at Universities of Technology in South Africa. In addition, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and actual business formation by graduates of the programme. Studies have been carried out in South Africa on entrepreneurial intentions, but not on the formation, occurrence and implementation of entrepreneurial intentions amongst industrial design students, specifically. To test the links between business education and entrepreneurial intentions, a research model based on Ajzen’s (1985) Theory of Planned Behaviour was adopted and tested using quantitative empirical data collected from students in industrial design at two Universities of Technology. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of 161 participants using a validated self-administered questionnaire. IBM SPSS and STATA were used to conduct descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, factor analysis, reliability and structural equation modelling on the primary quantitative data. The empirical evidence partially supports the effectiveness of the Theory of Planned Behaviour in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Although perceived social norms and self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions, results failed to reach statistical significance. However, personal attitude was found to mediate the relationship between these variables and entrepreneurial intention. Whilst business education is positively related to self-efficacy, entrepreneurial knowledge is positively related to higher levels of personal attitude and self-efficacy. The transformation of entrepreneurial intentions into actual business start-ups were investigated using qualitative empirical data collected from past graduates of the Three-Dimensional Design programme. Qualitative data were collected from a sample of 22 graduates through structured interviews. ATLAS.ti version 7.5.9 was used to analyse the qualitative data. The researcher provided evidence that there is a relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and the actual start-up of a business, as 45.5 per cent of graduates started businesses. Furthermore, business education positively influenced the actual start-up of businesses. However, graduates experienced many challenges to business start-up, with implications for the teaching of business subjects and for policy makers. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)