The economic environment is rapidly changing worldwide. Large corporations are downsizing and big enterprises are outsourcing. This has made the existence of Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to be of critical importance to many nations. These enterprises play a vital role in the economic growth of their communities through job creation, innovation, poverty reduction and improving the general welfare of citizens. Although SMEs play a crucial role, there are a number of challenges that hinder them from performing up to their full potential. It is disturbing to note that a number of small and medium businesses are struggling to survive and those that are not struggling, are also not growing to become big well established enterprises. This suggests that a better understanding of how to improve performance may be necessary hence a review of the underlying factors affecting their development and performance of SMEs is required. This study was undertaken to explore the challenges facing SMEs in the Manzini region of Swaziland. The main aim was to investigate factors that contribute to the success or failure of these enterprises. The research was conducted in the Manzini city centre and a sample of 25 SMEs was selected. The qualitative approach was used for the collection of data because this study sought to gain better understanding of small businesses from the participants’ point of view. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and an interview schedule was used to guide the interviews. The findings of the study reveal that lack of access to financial resources, competition and high operating costs were found to be the major challenges faced by SMEs. The findings also indicate that the SMEs are not getting enough support from the government and other development agencies. It is believed that this study will benefit the policy makers, development agencies, and service providers by information that will assist in identifying the challenges facing SMEs in Manzini. It is recommended that the government play a leading role in creating an enabling environment for the development of successful SMEs. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The fundamental objective of this thesis is to identify the factors responsible for the persistence of the Chilean inflation and, particularly, for the failure of the three main stabilization efforts which took place under democratic conditions in Chile, i.e. those implemented in 1956-57, 1959-61 and 1965-67. In this thesis, the Chilean inflation of 1955-1970 is considered to have been, to a large extent, the result of the failure of the political system to accommodate conflicting demands within the limits of available resources. The analysis of the literature about the Chilean inflation shows that the economic approaches fail to take socio-political factors into account, and that the literature which focuses on the non-economic aspects of the phenomenon is varied, less formalized and, in general, more concerned with the sociological aspects of the conflicts which existed in Chilean society than with the political and particularly the institutional aspects involved. This thesis attempts to overcome these shortcomings by placing the Chilean inflationary process in its specific institutional and political context. This approach shows how important the contribution of socio-political analysis can be to the understanding of inflation, particularly in historically and geographically bound case studies. The thesis concentrates considerable effort on the analysis of the connection between the cyclical pattern of the Chilean inflation, the cyclical socio-political forces at work in the Chilean society and their institutional framework. The thesis argues that under democratic conditions the inflationary propensity which existed in Chilean society had both an upper and lower limit. The analysis of the record for 1955-1970 shows that there were forces working in favour of price stabilization that became more powerful as inflation accelerated, but there were also countervailing forces favouring the continuation of inflation and these came to prevail as inflation decelerated. The cyclical character of the Chilean inflation was partly related to the cyclical pattern of the six year presidential terms which involved alternating periods of strong and centralized presidential authority and of power dispersal. The Chilean inflation was the result of a society still searching for effective forms of social regulation, alternative to the traditional ones which started to collapse in the 1920s.

A synthetic hypothesis is constructed to account for the pattern of manufacturing profitability. The explanatory role of labour shortage, growing openness, union bargaining power and exchange rate changes is confirmed. Set in the context of institutional and policy changes, these factors provide a more satisfying description of the determinants of profitability than previous, frequently monocausal, explanations.

In this work we investigate the sources and growth effects of technological innovation in UK industries over the years 1966-1993. Our main finding is that technological activities are always beneficial to labour productivity growth and normally also beneficial to employment growth. Moreover, it is possible to aggregate industries into fairly stable technological clusters, and the main sources of innovation change broadly in accordance with the technological characterisation of the industry. We also analyse the effect of inter-industry demand transmissions on employment share dynamics, and find that these effects are generally important. However, demand expansions in customer industries do not always imply expanding employment shares in supplying industries, and we did not find any evident linkage between the sign of the demand effect and the technological characterisation of industries. Testing the models developed to fit observed changes in labour productivity and employment shares over the periods 1974-79 and 1979-91, we find that growth dynamics over the period 1974-79 have been more related to technological change than over the period 1979-91. In particular, pure capital deepening has been one of the main engines of growth over the period 1979-91.

This thesis investigates some aspects of the ordering of nuclear spin systems at low temperatures. The thesis is divided into two parts. In part one some nuclear orientation experiments of ⁷⁴As in Fe and ²⁰⁶Bi and Ni and Fe are described. These nuclei are orientated by the large hyperfine field inside Ni and Fe. The orientation is detected by the anisotropy of the emitted gamma-rays and in the case of ⁷⁴As by the destruction of this anisotropy by NMR. Chapter one reviews the theory of the nuclear orientation method. To aid in the interpretation of the ²⁰⁶Bi results, some channelling experiments were done. A review of the method of atom location by channelling is given in chapter two. Chapter three describes the apparatus and technique used. The results of the ⁷⁴AsFe experiments are given in chapter four. In these experiments the magnetic moment of the ground state of ⁷⁴As was measured to be μ = 1.597(3), the sign of the hyperfine field was found to be positive, and the spin-lattice relaxation time was found to be 120(30) s. The results of the ²⁰⁶BiNi experiments are given in chapter five. The hyperfine was found to be 390(15) kOe for both diffused polycrystalline and implanted single crystal samples. The multipolarity mixing ratios of many of the gamma,-rays were found. Reorientation of the metastable state of ²⁰⁶Pb was observed, which had not been expected. On the basis of the channelling experiments, this reorientation has been explained by the theory.

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This study considers the labor organization of a group of northern Kenyan pastoralists. Since 1960, the Samburu have experienced substantial cattle loss and land circumscription and the work focuses both on herding and non-herding labor responses to a changing regional economy. The viability of Samburu pastoralism rests on specific labor forms which permit intensified production and economic diversification. / Based on twenty-four months of fieldwork, primarily during the 1983-84 drought, the study emphasizes the interplay between the social and technical organization of labor. Social institutions of descent and age guide natural resource and delineate work roles, while encouraging the varied forms of cooperation which greatly extend the family workforce. The diversity of technical strategies, which are strongly shaped by cultural preferences, contrasts with the paucity of production materials. / Several key findings have applicability to a range of pastoral locales, particularly proof of the positive relationship between labor input and animal output and of the higher efficiency of labor in larger versus smaller-scale herding units only under stable production conditions. Further, the quantitative material on dry season versus drought labor use as well as evidence for differential livestock survival rates represent unique accounts in themselves. / Beyond insights into pastoralism, however, the analysis is structured so as to contribute to several important issues in small-scale rural production. The accounts of the interconnection of technology and social forms and of the integration of "on-farm" and "off-farm" enterprise have implications for defining the scope of any labor investigation. The discussions of the terms "labor" and "technology" pose wider questions of the content of such basic concepts. Finally, the methodological discourse on labor measurement should assist those similarly trying to distinguish between "use" and "demand" in predominantly noncapitalist societies.

No description available.

This thesis is the result of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Phalombe District in Malawi, Southern Africa, where I studied agricultural development projects in the village of Kachala. The focus of this investigation is on people's perceptions and ideas of development co-operation and the meanings of development and poverty in general. Perceptions of development and poverty among villagers in Kachala are compared to those of development agents working for development organizations in the area. These perceptions are also compared to the definitions of development and poverty found throughout development literature. This research demonstrates - through examples from Phalombe District and elsewhere - how notions of development are relative, diverse and context-specific, and therefore not static and universally applicable. Finally, participatory development ideals and the structurally unequal donor-recipient relationships, at the core of the current development system, are discussed. This thesis illustrates how the common portrayal of development as an oppressive, disempowering industry, characterized by top-down interventions, does not always apply.

Despite the growth of secondary cities, there is still little written about these intermediate cities in the literature. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the growth of Puntarenas, one such secondary city in Costa Rica. / Within the framework of dependency theory and an historical background, this case study examines several factors which have affected the development of this city over the last three decades. An undiversified economy based on fishing, migration patterns, and Puntarenas' dependent relationship with the capital, San Jose, are analyzed in depth. / The study, which is based on interviews, statistical data, and published literature, suggests that although there has been some effort to limit the concentration of resources in the centre of the country and to develop secondary cities, these cities continue to be neglected by central powers and, for the most part, are only taken into account when they serve the interests of the centre.