The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of systematic approach to computer integration on implementation cost, implementation time, user satisfaction, and level of integration in small business environments. It is believed that decreased costs and implementation time result from the use of systematic approaches to computer integration. Systematic approaches may also result in higher user satisfaction and a higher level of system integration.

Blockchain technology brings new opportunities and has the ability to solve current flaws with our traditional central systems, still, blockchain is not a common practice. This thesis revolves around vital factors that affect the implementation of blockchain (BC) technology in modern business. By identifying the potential advantages for BC systems, we look at why BC systems are not commonly applied in organizations. There seem to be several factors within three categories; technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) that serve as obstacles or opportunities for the modern business to adopt blockchain technology despite the apparent advantages that the innovation promotes. The purpose is to identify what factors from a TOE perspective play a decisive role in the adoption process of innovations, in this case, BC. The aim is to confirm factors from previous research and contribute with new factors within the TOE framework that can assist modern business in the adoption process. Empirical data of this thesis are derived from interviews from various organizations from different industries, which is analyzed by content analysis method.  The main limitation of this thesis is the lack of knowledge regarding BC technology among employees of organizations. A significant challenge has been to find possible interview participants to collect data necessary for the research question.  Despite that, we succeeded in collecting enough data to be able to answer our research question. This thesis confirms and contributes to new factors in the field of blockchain adoption in modern business.

Owners of small businesses who fail to implement adequate employee motivation and retention strategies may experience lost profit and high employee turnover. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the managerial strategies that owners of small businesses owners used to motivate and retain sales associates to increase profits. The population for the study included owners of 4 businesses in Texas who successfully implemented employee motivation and retention strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with business owners and from artifacts such as company websites and social media pages. Transformational leadership theory guided the study. Data were analyzed using Yin’s 5 steps of data analysis including compiling data, disassembling data, reassembling data, interpreting data, and drawing conclusions. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: provide financial incentives, increase job satisfaction, and enhance job training. The findings of this study might contribute to positive social change by providing owners of small businesses with strategies to retain employees, which may build customer loyalty and increase business performance and longevity. Business leaders may benefit from these findings by strengthening relationships with employees and improving the overall performance of the organization. The results of this study could also contribute to positive social change by helping other small business owners implementing motivation and retention strategies, which might enhance business sustainability. Business sustainability supports both local and state economies and fosters an optimum distribution of resources in the community.

PhDRDV / Institute for Rural Development / In South Africa, various government and private sector-led initiatives have been directed towards promoting youth involvement in small retail businesses. This was designed to counter the high unemployment and poverty rates among youth. However, high failure rates of the initiatives consistently frustrate these noble efforts. Even though this is the case, neither attributes of youth-run small retail business resilience nor the factors that predispose them to the high failure rates are well-known. This situation demands taking urgent action to foster resilience in the youth-run small retail business sector. Thus, the current study focused on identifying the major threats and strengths to business and determining a set of objective criteria and indices for use in measuring resilience. Potential resilience strategies were also sought. The study was conducted in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province in South Africa. An explorative mixed research approach was employed. Participants were selected using both snowball and cluster sampling procedures. Data were collected using semi-structured interview guides and questionnaires. Qualitative data were analysed using Atlas ti version 8 software techniques such as network diagrams and code primary document tables. For each objective, in-depth results were obtained, further interrogated in a survey and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (IBM SPSS; version 25) in the subsequent phase. The main statistical techniques utilised were Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Significance was determined at P< 0.5. Results from PCA test reviewed three major threats to small retail business resilience that included poor infrastructure (28.54 %), financial infrastructure (20.97 %) and competition (14.94 %). The three factor structure accounted for a total variance of 64.46 %. Poor infrastructure and financial inadequacy threats did not vary with distance from the urban area (P > 0.05) while competition significantly varied with distance from the urban area (P< 0.05). With regard to strengths, PCA analysis produced a four factor structure that explained a total variance of 54.59 %. The four major strengths included marketing ability (16.97 %), good customer care (14.42 %), business knowledge (12.08 %) and commitment (11.13 %). A six dimension criteria for measuring small retail business resilience was established using PCA. The six dimensions encompassed security measures (18.01 %), outsourcing abilities (13. 70 %), marketing strategies (10.07), risk management (8.54 %), financial management (8.43 %) and innovation (7.89 %). The six factor structure explained a total variance of 66.67 %. These resilience pillars were related to threat detection, prevention and adaptation business mechanisms. Four resilience dimensions (security measures, marketing abilities, risk management and innovation) were similar across distance variations from the urban area (P> 0.05). However, significant differences between urban and rural areas were observed in two variables, that is, joining business alliances (P=0.012) linked to outsourcing abilities and keeping money away from the business premise (P=0.034) associated with financial management. Resilience indices were further developed utilising the six building blocks of the criteria. The indices for measuring small retail business resilience were expressed in the formula: R1= ƒ (SM1, OA1, MS1, RM1, FM1, I1, S1) + e where SM=Security Measures; OA= Outsourcing Abilities; MS= Marketing Strategies; OM=Risk Management; FM= Financial Management; I= Innovation; S= Subjective resilience dimensions and 1= particular time; e= error. The assumption underpinning these indices was that, small retail business resilience is not observable and thus it can be measured through assessing each dimension separately at a particular time. The outcomes reflected that, measuring youth-owned small retail businesses resilience encompasses a clear understanding of area specific threats and the subsequent customised performance measures. Resilience dimensions may change with time due to socio-economic changes, government policies and local conditions. As such, it is crucial to constantly assess youth small retail businesses in order to determine their current status and changes in resilience components. Current strategies and potential interventions for promoting small business resilience were also reviewed. Small retailers were currently utilising strategies such as business collaboration, specialisation and stock diversification. To, address the weaknesses associated with presently utilised strategies, potential interventions that encompassed financial support, provision of cheap stands, need for financial assistance and provision of business training and infrastructure upgrades were proposed. The present study provided a criteria and resilience indices that can be used by policy implementers, development agencies and funders to determine resilience drivers, monitor changes in resilience attributes over time and identify necessary interventions in the small retail sector. This assists decision makers to make pre-informed decisions before providing support to youth small retailers. The use of participatory research methods in the present study helped to ground the work in the youth small retail sector and thus, contributing to community engagement practices. The use of mixed study approaches has been consistently recommended in studies related to resilience measurement methods. As a result, the mixed research methods utilised in the present study provides directions for future replication in studies aimed at developing approaches for measuring resilience in the small business sector. Lastly, the simplicity of the criteria and indices make it easier for small retail business owners and other practitioners to use in future. / NRF

Workplace violence can produce adverse financial outcomes for organizational shareholders, harms employees, and might create long-lasting mental health issues for survivors. Leaders of small businesses might lack the tools available to larger organizations to effectively address the growing incidence of violence in the workplace. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies some leaders of small businesses used to prevent workplace violence. The targeted population consisted of 3 leaders of small businesses from 3 different organizations in the government consulting industry in northern Virginia who successfully implemented workplace violence prevention programs. The general systems theory was the conceptual framework for this research. Data were collected from applicable company documents and semistructured interviews. The data were analyzed through a 5-phase qualitative analysis cycle. Emergent themes included effective workplace violence prevention policies and procedures and leaders’ role in creating a positive working environment. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to reduce work-related stress so that employees are healthy members of society. Leaders of small business who promote a positive work environment and understand the importance of an effective workplace violence prevention policy might be able to increase the performance of their businesses, which could allow them to be more involved in their communities.

Despite the economic significance of entrepreneurship, relatively little is known about the entrepreneur, particularly how the entrepreneur differs from the corporate manager. This problem is both cause and symptom of the discord regarding definitions of the entrepreneur, rendering sampling, research replication and generalizations about entrepreneurs problematic. As a result, inquiry has failed to adequately establish how entrepreneurs differ from managers, a problem partially stemming from a dearth of methodologically rigorous comparisons of entrepreneurs with managers. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of psychological constructs to predict a proclivity for entrepreneurship. Moreover, differences in types of small business owner-managers were also investigated. Included in the research model were three common themes in the entrepreneurship literature: achievement motivation, risk taking propensity and preference for innovation. Also incorporated were the interactions of the psychological constructs, as well as individual and firm demographic variables.

A study of consumer cooperation in the United States relating to education, labor, business, religion, and government.

No description available.

This paper proposes an optimization model aimed at increasing production capabilities at a small-sized textile business dedicated to manufacturing polo shirts, while reducing order fulfillment issues, including incomplete orders and late deliveries. Hence, an assessment identified downtimes from unnecessary transportation travel, time spent looking for materials, and excessive losses due to cutting fabric errors. In this light, the study focused on selecting adaptable tools, such as 5S, Plant Layout, and Method Study, which may help improve production capabilities and address these situations. However, to guarantee that the objectives set forth are being met, the organizational culture must also be identified and improved so that it may serve as the foundation for the optimization model. Then, the proposed model will be validated to determine whether the selected operating tools supported by the strengthening of organization culture contribute to increasing production.

The manual procurement processes used by some private companies result in increased costs and contract fulfillment delays. The focus of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies procurement managers use to reduce costs and contract fulfillment delays. The population for this study was three procurement managers of private plastics companies located at Maitama, in Abuja, Nigeria. Weiss's theory of change was the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews and an exploration of company archival financial documents. Data were transcribed, coded, and then validated through member checking, resulting in the emergence of 5 themes: change implementation strategies, strategies for reducing cost and contract fulfillment delays, change implementation barriers, employee-focused factors, and strategies for responding to the changing external environmental factors. The 2 most important themes identified from the study were change implementation strategies and strategies for reducing cost and contract fulfillment delays. These strategies could help organizational leaders who desire improved procurement process change to define long-term goals and then map backward to identify preconditions to achieve the preferred change. The implications for positive social change include increased sustainability for companies and the consequent potential to increase employment among youth, improve standards of living of the workforce, and reduce social vices in Abuja, Nigeria.