The objective of the study was to develop a framework for the implementation of a Business Information Management System in order to increase the efficiency of the knowledge management strategy in the ultimate quest to deliver administrative support to public schools at the Gauteng Department of Education within the Sedibeng East District Office geographical area. A literature investigation was done on the concepts of e–Government, eplatforms, information technology and enablers to determine if Government models are working effectively and efficiently. Based on the findings of the literature study, a questionnaire was designed and used to measure the efficiency of the knowledge management strategy in the base of administrative support to public schools. Government to Government models are the ability to interact and support services through the availability of e–platforms in the ultimate support, and sharing of knowledge through effective knowledge management. Knowledge in an organisation alternates between tacit and explicit knowledge as it goes from an idea to explicit knowledge that can be shared throughout the whole organisation and in the process gives the necessary administrative support to public schools and learners. Proper managed and implemented systems are important for the management of knowledge in an organisation. Knowledge management is a never–ending cycle that starts at discovering knowledge and goes through generating knowledge, evaluating knowledge, sharing the newly found knowledge to leveraging the knowledge. This cycle forms the heart of a knowledge management model like the different education e–platforms that is available. It was concluded that the knowledge in an organisation can be managed with the help of one standardized e–platform model throughout the entire Education Department. Knowledge in an organisation is a very important resource and ought to be strategically managed. The knowledge management strategy starts by determining what knowledge is needed and what is available in the organisation. The chosen standardized model will form the central part of a successful knowledge management strategy. The test for the success of a knowledge management strategy is determined with a knowledge audit. The state of the knowledge management strategy at Gauteng Department of Education, Sedibeng East District Office was assessed by employing convenience survey questionnaires to extract the data. Sedibeng East District Office and therefore the Department of Education, still have a long way to go in order to optimise the management of knowledge. The key area of concern is a lack of a written knowledge management strategy and policy which results in informal e–platform usage and therefore different ways of managing knowledge. A large portion of the indecisiveness seen in the analysis of the questionnaires could be attributed to the lack of a formal knowledge management strategy. It was further concluded that a knowledge gap assessment is the start of the knowledge management strategy and will give direction to the strategy. The culture at Sedibeng East District Office was not tested to determine if the staff will be supportive of a knowledge management strategy. However, the survey indicated that much needed administrative support to public schools needs to be formalized in order to optimize the services and standards of support. A practical knowledge management framework is proposed in order to assist the Department in the implementation of a knowledge management strategy and bridging the gaps found after analysing the questionnaires. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1690623 bytes, checksum: c7cb28cf1d38181bfa0249d59fab05be (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The bottom of the pyramid market has attracted the attention of companies looking to expand their profit margins and gain competitive advantage. As this is a market with specific characteristics and needs, to innovate and meet these consumers it is necessary for companies to establish innovative strategies favorable to achieve success in this market. Moreover, the internal and external environment organizations has elements that can enable the innovation process, and consequently, the implementation of innovative strategies. In this sense, the objective of this research was to analyze how Brazilian companies have developed innovations in products for the base of the pyramid. Specifically, we sought to investigate the innovations introduced in the market to meet the bottom of the pyramid, describe the innovation strategies used and identify enablers of innovation to the base of the pyramid. A multiple case study as a methodological strategy was used, approaching three companies that direct products to this public. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews, direct observations and information obtained on the website for businesses, and others related to them and their innovations. Each case was held at first individually then crosses, based on the relevant categories to specific research objectives. The results showed that, to meet the bottom of the pyramid of consumers, enterprises have developed innovations in products, innovation processes and innovation in marketing, where such innovations are considered as new market disruptive. Multiple innovative strategies have been used for the implementation of innovations in the bottom of the pyramid market by the three companies, including the principal were like: market-based and exploitative. Among the enablers of innovation, the economy, the creation of knowledge and learning, and the recognition of the value and need for innovation were the most prevalent to facilitate the success of innovation for companies. It was concluded that the reality of the Brazilian market, to have a product innovation to the base of the pyramid it is necessary to perform other innovations, is to create this new product in the case of process innovation, is to support the implementation of this product on the market, by means of a marketing innovation; that innovation strategies used together contribute to organizations to achieve their innovative goals; and even acting in different sectors there is correspondence between the enablers of innovation of the companies analyzed. / O mercado da base da pirâmide tem atraído a atenção de empresas que buscam ampliar suas margens de lucro e obter vantagens competitivas. Como se trata de um mercado com características e necessidades específicas, para inovar e atender aos seus consumidores é necessário que as empresas estabeleçam estratégias de inovação propícias a alcançar sucesso neste mercado. Além disso, o contexto interno e externo as organizações apresenta elementos que podem habilitar o processo de inovação e, consequentemente, a implementação das estratégias de inovação. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta pesquisa consistiu em analisar como empresas brasileiras têm desenvolvido inovações em produtos para a base da pirâmide. Especificamente, buscou-se investigar as inovações introduzidas no mercado para atender à base da pirâmide, descrever as estratégias de inovação utilizadas e identificar os habilitadores da inovação para a base da pirâmide. Foi utilizado um estudo de caso múltiplo como estratégia metodológica, abordando três empresas que direcionam produtos a tal público. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, observação direta, e informações obtidas nos sites das empresas e em outros relacionados a elas e suas inovações. Cada caso foi analisado de forma individual e cruzada, com base nas categorias pertinentes aos objetivos específicos da pesquisa. Os resultados evidenciaram que, para atender aos consumidores da base da pirâmide, as empresas têm desenvolvido inovações em produtos, inovação em processos e inovação em marketing, e que tais inovações são consideradas como disruptivas de novo mercado. Múltiplas estratégias de inovação foram utilizadas para a implementação das inovações no mercado da base da pirâmide pelas três empresas, entre as quais as principais foram as do tipo: baseada no mercado e exploitative. Entre os habilitadores da inovação, a economia, a criação de conhecimento e aprendizagem, e o reconhecimento do valor e da necessidade da inovação foram os mais preponderantes para facilitar o sucesso das inovações das empresas. Conclui-se que, na realidade do mercado brasileiro, para se ter uma inovação em produto para a base da pirâmide faz-se necessário realizar outras inovações, seja para gerar esse novo produto, no caso da inovação em processos, seja para apoiar a implementação desse produto no mercado, por meio de uma inovação de marketing; que as estratégias de inovação utilizadas em conjunto contribuem para que as organizações alcancem seus objetivos inovativos; e que mesmo atuando em setores diferentes há correspondência entre os habilitadores da inovação das empresas analisadas.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1883007 bytes, checksum: 7091c42286f11d2a96b640e8d10ad1ad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-20 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / This dissertation aims to analyze the behavior of innovations undertaken by cachaça producer organizations from the state of Paraíba and its precedents (drivers and enablers) throughout the Organizational Life Cycle. To reach this objective the methodological procedures were executed in two phases. The first was exploratory, in an attempt to characterize the cachaça producer organizations from Paraíba as to the stage of the Organizational Life Cycle, under a quantitative perspective, in which a survey was conducted using questionnaires with 23 cachaça distilleries from the state of Paraíba. In this phase the data were analyzed through the use of the Average Ranking technique and supported by the basic descriptive statistics. The second phase using a qualitative approach made use of the multiple case study research strategy in two cachaça distilleries selected from the results of the first phase of the study. In this new phase, the data were collected through semi-structured interviews, document analysis and systematic direct observation and treated through the technique of content analysis. The Phase I results showed that the cachaça distilleries in Paraíba are in different phases of the Organizational Life Cycle: seven in birth, eight in growth, three in maturity, three in the renewal phase, and two in the process of decline. Of these cachaça distilleries, two that (denominated cachaça distilleries A and B) are in the phase of renovation were selected from previously established criteria. The second phase results showed that both A and B cachaça distilleries developed product innovations with radical intensity, of process with radical and incremental intensity, of the organizational type with radical and incremental intensity and of marketing, with a radical and incremental character in the cachaça distilleries A, and with a radical degree in cachaça distilleries B, along its trajectories. The main innovation drivers evidenced were the market leadership and opportunity and the main factors that enabled the development of innovations in the cachaça distilleries were human resources and financial resources. It is concluded that the innovation way does not depend specifically on the configuration at a certain stage of the organizational life cycle, in other words, the direction to innovation must consider the characteristics of organizations in terms of strategy, structure, situation and style of decision making, beyond the resources possessed and the trajectory covered by the organization. / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar o comportamento das inovações empreendidas por organizações produtoras de cachaça do Estado da Paraíba e seus precedentes (condutores e habilitadores) ao longo do Ciclo de Vida Organizacional. Para atender a tal objetivo, os procedimentos metodológicos foram executados em duas fases. A primeira exploratória, na intenção de caracterizar as organizações produtoras de cachaça da Paraíba quanto ao estágio do Ciclo de Vida Organizacional, sob uma perspectiva quantitativa, na qual foi empreendido um survey utilizando questionários com 23 engenhos produtores de cachaça do Estado da Paraíba. Nessa fase os dados foram analisados por meio da utilização da técnica de Ranking Médio e suportada pela estatística descritiva básica. A segunda fase, sob uma abordagem qualitativa, fez uso da estratégia de pesquisa de estudo de casos múltiplos em dois engenhos selecionados a partir dos resultados da primeira fase do estudo. Nessa nova etapa, os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, análise de documentos e observação direta sistemática e tratados por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados da fase I demonstraram que os engenhos produtores de cachaça do Estado da Paraíba se encontram em diferentes fases do Ciclo de Vida Organizacional: sete em fase de nascimento, oito em fase de crescimento, três em fase de maturidade, três em fase de renovação e dois em fase de declínio. Desses engenhos, dois (denominados de engenho A e engenho B) que estão na fase de renovação foram selecionados a partir de critérios previamente estabelecidos. Os resultados da segunda fase evidenciaram que tanto o engenho A quanto o engenho B desenvolveram inovações de produto com intensidade radical, de processo com intensidade radical e incremental, do tipo organizacional com intensidade radical e incremental e de marketing, com cunho radical e incremental no engenho A, e com grau radical no engenho B, ao longo de suas trajetórias. Os principais condutores de inovação evidenciados foram a liderança e oportunidade de mercado e os principais fatores que habilitaram o desenvolvimento de inovações nos engenhos foram os recursos humanos e recursos financeiros. Conclui-se que a forma de inovar não depende especificamente da configuração em determinada fase do ciclo de vida organizacional, ou seja, o direcionamento à inovação deve considerar as características das organizações em termos de estratégia, estrutura, situação e estilo de tomada de decisão, além dos recursos possuídos e trajetória percorrida pela organização.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / Knowledge is recognised as a crucial resource in the knowledge-based economy; and it is believed to drive sustainable success in organizations. Knowledge management (KM) helps organizations identify, create, organize, distribute and transfer vital knowledge among employees within and across organizations. The underlying premise is that good KM leads to efficiency and effectiveness, which in turn, influences the total performance in an organization. Therefore, this study investigates the role of KM practices as they relate to projects in a South African government organisation. The problem was dwelt with by establishing research questions and objectives. In order to answer the research questions, a literature search was conducted in the area of KM to establish the KM enablers, barriers, and processes known to facilitate or hinder successful KM in organizations. This led to the identification of five enablers, including organizational culture, structure, technology, strategy and leadership, as well as the resources believed to be fundamental in the success of KM practices. Barriers to KM were identified as individual, organizational and technological. The study established four KM processes: acquisition, conversion, application and protection that were found to concur with good KM practices. A conceptual model was developed around these areas. The model assisted in developing qualitative and quantitative questions. In order to investigate the proposed research questions, the study identified a single directorate within the department of public works that is directly involved with the delivery of health infrastructure. The methodology used, which was mainly qualitative research, was conducted by using multiple-data evidences, namely: semi-structured interviews, document review; these were sourced from primary and secondary sources, as well as similar organizational best practices in KM. A total of nine interviews were conducted with individuals in managerial positions. A total of 7 of the 30 e-mailed questionnaires were completed and the data were used to supplement the qualitative data. This study used the Content-Analysis Technique approach to analyse the text data obtained from the interviews. It was established that successful KM implementation requires the promotion of an enabling environment. The results from the findings revealed that organizational culture, structure, leadership and strategy, ICT, as well as KM resources form, a foundation for the KM environment. KM processes, such as knowledge-retention, creation, capture, transfer and iv sharing, were found to be fundamental for KM practices to occur. Barriers to effective KM occurred largely due to the lack of awareness and time. To capitalize on knowledge, an organization must be prepared to balance its KM enablers and processes. The existing challenges impeding KM success should be identified and dealt with, in order to realize the KM benefits. The study, therefore, proposes a KM conceptual model to be integrated with the decision-making framework, as an implementation strategy for KM in the public sector. This would ensure an embedded knowledge-intensive environment in the Department, and hence the improvement of infrastructural delivery. This study is limited, since only a single case was used, which plainly suggests that there is a possibility that the results cannot be generalized beyond the researched organisation – without conducting any further study. It is recommended that for future research, this study be replicated through several other directorates, or even departments at various government levels (e.g. national, provincial). Also, quantitative analysis, together with qualitative analysis, should be used to create a triangulation between the two approaches.

Galbraith (1995:2) states that “organizations continuously search for more effective approaches in order to survive, to remain competitive, to maintain their operations and to grow in an ever-changing and competitive environment. To achieve sustainable business results, organizations must actively manage cost, quality, product and service features by means of their efficient and effective application of managerial and operational systems within a well-designed organizational framework.” Porter and Tanner (2004:3) argue that “in their endeavour to remain competitive organizations have over the last few decades in search of the ultimate system or methodology tried and tested all the various performance improvement approaches or performance enablers (ISO 9000, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Business Excellence, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-in-Time, Project Management, Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, etcetera). Although thousands of organizations implemented these performance enablers, few organizations achieved their envisaged state of excellence.” Kerzner (1997:2) argues that “there are only two ways in which work gets done in organizations: through business processes or through projects. Business processes are permanent work structures that transform inputs continuously into outputs as ongoing operations. Projects on the other hand are temporary work structures that shut down once the output has been achieved.” Robbins, (1998:629) states that “since the organizations’ success or failure is essential due to the things that its employees do or fail to do (processes), any planned change must also be concerned with changing the behaviour of individuals and groups within the organization.” It is therefore critical that management does have scientific control over the function or Critical Core Capability that touches “the way things get done”. The researcher are therefore of the opinion that business process being the core descriptor of the “how”, “what”, “when”, and “why” of every individuals daily interaction with his work, his colleagues, his organization and his clients is maybe by far the biggest factor of satisfaction, dissatisfaction, harmony or conflict in the organization and determines to a large extent what the behaviour of the individual, the groups and the organization at large will be on a daily basis. Business Process was identified as core to all the performance enablers and was elevated to a Critical Core Capability status in many organizations. Derived from the above Business Process Management as a Critical Core Capability should encompass the four management functions, and should be supported by a proper organizational framework that includes strategy, structure, policies, procedures, and people. The literature search also confirmed that “synergy”, i.e. “The whole is more than its parts”, is paramount to success when it comes to the management of a Critical Core Capability. With the above as reference the researcher set out to establish which criteria should be included in a measurement instrument to measure Business Process Management as a Critical Core Capability in an organization. The following primary research question was formulated and used as vantage point to develop, as the primary objective, said instrument: What must be implemented, in terms of strategies, governance, enterprise architecture, and process optimization, to ensure that organization culture, people’s behaviour and the work environment will be conducive to successfully establish and maintain Business Process Management as a Critical Core Capability of an organization? Based on a proper research process and methodology the researcher utilized the following methods to develop the Test Instrument: <ul> <li> A comprehensive literature study;</li> <li> Discussions with and inputs from experts;</li> <li> Questionnaires; and</li> <li> Statistical analysis.</li> </ul> An Assessment Tool for Measuring Business Process Management as a Core Capability in an organization comprising ninety items clustered in six criteria in a five factor scale was developed and tested in two organizations as well as in three different business units in the one organization. The final Descriptive Statistics showed that the overall reliability of the items per criterion was highly acceptable with Cronbach Alpha Coefficients of 0.7315, 0.9216, 0.8224, 0.7650, 0.8248, and 0.7722 respectively, (higher than the acceptable level of 0.70). The final analysis therefore concluded that the assessment tool, the Business Process Management Competency Assessment Model (BPMCAM), is a reliable tool that can distinguish in terms of Business Process Management as a Critical Core Capability the level of an organization’s readiness to implement and/or to sustain the Business Process Management functionality as a Critical Core Capability. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Denna uppsats syftar till att kunna belysa de möjligheter och svårigheter som miljöinspektörer upplever i utövandet av sin yrkesroll. Dagens miljöproblem är uppmärksammade globalt såväl som på en lokal nivå. På den lokala nivån är det miljö- och hälsoskyddsinspektörer som genom sitt arbete säkerställer att miljöbalken efterföljs. Deras uppdrag är med andra ord av yttersta vikt för att vår miljö vårdas och ska bli bättre. De implementerar politiska beslut och lagstiftning och strävar efter att nå de svenska miljömålen. Genom att lyfta fram inspektörers möjligheter och framförallt belysa de svårigheter de ser i sin yrkesroll, kan vi se vad som krävs för att nå ett effektivare inspektörsarbete, som i sin tur kan generera bättre miljökvalitet. Vi har valt att karaktärisera inspektörerna genom Lipsky´s ”Street-level bureaucrats ” perspektiv, då det är inspektörerna som arbetar med implementeringen av lagstiftningar och andra politiska beslut.  Metodiken bygger på forskningsintervjuer med miljöinspektörer. Intervjuerna har utförts i en större och en mindre kommun i Östergötland, för att belysa just frågor som möjligheter och svårigheter, men också för att se om det finns skillnader i arbetet i kommuner med olika storlek. Resultatet av studien stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning som visar på att inspektörer idag upplever fler svårigheter än möjligheter att utföra ett effektivt inspektörsarbete. Inspektörer upplever framförallt att resursbrist i form av personal, tid, teknik, kunskap och bemötandet av verksamhetsutövare är svårigheter som de dagligen får tampas med. Likaså upplever de en frustration över att den politiska nämnden många gånger kan vara av en annan åsikt och fatta ett annat beslut än vad inspektören tänkt sig. Resultatet visar också att inspektörer trivs med sitt arbete, att de upplever variation, att de anser att de får vara med och påverka arbetet och att de har bra samarbete och stöttning av andra inspektörer. Studien visar också i likhet med tidigare studier på skillnader i arbetet utifrån kommunstorlek, där skillnaden främst ligger i uppdelningen av arbetsområden, där inspektörer i den mindre kommunen måste kunna lite om mycket och blir då så kallade generalister, medan inspektörer i en större kommun istället kan mycket om lite, då de kan koncentrera sig på ett arbetsområde och blir då specialister.   Materialet visade även att tidigare studier avviker från resultatet vad gäller ärenden som är sällan förekommande. Vår studie visar att ”sällanärenden” är lika ofta förekommande i stor som i liten kommun, medan tidigare forskning skriver att det förekommer främst i små kommuner. / This paper aims to shed light on the enablers and challenges that environmental inspectors experience in the exercise of their professional role. Today's environmental problems are acclaimed globally as well as at a local level. At the local level, the environmental health inspectors whose work ensures that the Environmental Code are followed. Their mission is thus of utmost importance to improved environmental quality. They implement various policies and laws, and strive to achieve the Swedish environmental objectives. By highlighting inspector’s enablers and above all highlight the difficulties they see for fulfilling their professional role, we can see what is required to achieve a more effective inspector's work, which in turn can generate a better environmental quality. We have chosen to characterize the inspectors by using Lipsky's "Street-level bureaucrats' perspective, since it is the inspectors that are in charge of the implementation of legislation and other political decisions. The methodology is based on research interviews with inspectors. The interviews were conducted in a larger and a smaller municipality in Östergötland, to highlight enablers and challenges, but also to see if there are differences in municipalities with different size. The result of the study is consistent with previous research showing that inspectors today have more challenges than enablers to perform efficient inspector work. Inspectors claim above all that a lack of resources in terms of personnel, time, technology, knowledge and treatment of operators are challenges they daily must contend with. Likewise, they experience frustration since the political committee many times can be of a different opinion and make different decisions than the inspector suggested. The results also show that inspectors enjoy their work. They experience variety, they believe that they get to influence the work and that they have good cooperation and jacking by the other inspectors. The study also shows, as in previous studies, differences between municipality sizes, mainly in the division of work, where the difference is primarily in the division of work areas, where inspectors in the smaller municipality need to be able to handle little facts but about a large area, becoming generalists, while in a larger municipality, inspectors may instead handle a lot of facts in one work area and then become specialists. The material showed our results however also differ from previous studies regarding matters that are infrequent. Our study shows that "rare" cases are as frequent in large as in small municipalities, while previous research write that it occurs mainly in small municipalities.

University graduates stand at the dawn of their careers, seeking meaningful employment in a labour market that is characterised by volatile change and globalisation. This new world of work requires flexibility, versatility, and creativity ‒ skills not traditionally required of an employee. Graduates today are required to develop a skills-set that enables pro-active career behaviour and, furthermore, aid the employer to utilise such abilities as business solutions. There is a lack of consensual scientific knowledge available on employability, despite the rise in its importance to the 21st century employer and graduate employee. This is especially true for the South African context. Accordingly, the main aim of this study was to investigate the employability and psychological career resources of graduate students to identify the strengths and development areas of the sample. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of standardised instruments, specifically the Psychological Career Resources Inventory (PCRI, developed by Coetzee, 2008) and the Graduate Employability Measure (GEM, developed by Bezuidenhout, 2011), was distributed to a random sample of 113 final-year students from the Faculty of Economic and Management Science of the University of Pretoria. The results indicate a strong employability profile with few clear-cut development areas. Students believe themselves to have high levels of career resilience (mean = 4.94; SD 0.75), whilst also having a strong inclination to the openness to change dimension (mean = 4.86; SD = 0.59), pointing to an overall all adaptable orientation to their careers. In terms of the psychological career resources profile, the sample presented with high scores on all dimensions namely: career preferences, career values, career purpose, career harmonisers, and career drivers. This prevailing positive perception regarding psychological career resources can be seen as balanced, and thus facilitates adaptive, proactive career behaviour, which, in turn, influences general employability. This result is validated by the high mean scores on all employability dimensions. It is also evident that there are no significant differences to be observed between men and women across all dimensions measured, indicating that men and women are equally likely to be proactively involved in their career-management in order to develop the skills required to be seen as employable. Furthermore, there is evidence of significant relationships between the majority of psychological career resources dimensions and those of the graduate employability dimensions. These results are expected to add valuable insights to the field of career management literature and human resources practices alike, which, in turn, will inform graduates regarding their prospects. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The master’s thesis evaluates the performance of SUEZ CZ a.s. company applying the EFQM Excellence Model and subsequently discusses proposals to improve company’s performance. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the necessary theoretical bases, that are further used and applied to the chosen company SUEZ CZ a.s. in the second part. Lastly, in the third part, the conducted questionnaire survey is evaluated and measures for improvement in problematic areas are proposed.

Fashion democratization over the last few decades made fashion products available at lower costs to everyone in society. It alarmingly increased consumption, leaving drastic impacts on the world's sustainability both on the social and environmental fronts, thereby leading to water and land pollution, dangerous working conditions, sweatshops, wage exploitation, and gender discrimination. Our study, therefore, sheds some light on addressing this core problem of fashion sustainability by focusing on the problem from the consumers’ perspectives because researchers conclude that consumers hold power to mitigate this issue to a greater extent by becoming sustainable. However, in many cases, consumers show the attitude-behavior gap when it comes to consuming sustainable fashion. The area of actual sustainable fashion consumers is also under-researched. Therefore, we conducted our research in this area and used qualitative methods for it. We identified a small group of 16 sustainable transitional fashion consumers who have started their sustainable fashion consumption journey. We performed an inductive process study of these transitional consumers' journeys and developed a Conceptual ‘Consumer Journey Map’ from unsustainability towards sustainability. We used semi-structured interviews for data collection. By studying their entire process of transition, we identified a number of constraints that retained them from making the transition towards sustainable fashion consumption, such as Social Influence, Trend and Newness, Unaesthetic Appearance and Lack of Variety, Lacking Sizes and Fitting, Low price, and Lower Income, Lack of Knowledge and Information and Greenwashing by the brands. However, the enablers that pushed them to become sustainable were Influence from Sustainable social circles, Tangible Experiences, Quality and Longevity, and Feelings of guilt and remorse which are presented in ourconceptual ‘C-E Framework.' Our research also identified conceptual ‘Levels of Sustainability,’ where consumers reuse or reduceor reject to pass Level one. To reach Level two, a consumer has to begin combining any two of these behaviors. However, to reach the final Level X, a consumer needs to reuse, reduce, and reject simultaneously. A consumer passes through these different levels from being a ‘self’ consumer to be a ‘social’ one and finally converting into a ‘sacrifice’ consumer in their journey.

SMEs are an integral part of the Kenyan economy, and SMEs working with a circular economy (CE)can play a crucial role in contributing to sustainable growth and the nation’s sustainable development goals, Vision 2030. However, these SMEs face several challenges. This study aims to contribute to the body of research on CE and SMEs in developing countries, an area that is under-researched. Through the study, the researchers explore and bring to the fore the barriers and enablers experienced by SMEs practising CE in emerging economies. This study further examines whether SMEs can apply organisational learning to overcome and harness the barriers and enablers. This research is a qualitative study of an exploratory nature. Primary data was collected from SMEs across different sectors through semi-structured interviews. The main findings indicate that the SMEs face barriers with resources, collaborations, infrastructure, regulations and policies, culture, awareness, and the internal and external environment. However, these categories were also found to act as enablers in addition to adaptive spaces and knowledge management. The research further establishes that the present conditions in the external environment attached to weak policies and regulations are a barrier to progression and learning in CE. This study invites further research of circular economy in developing countries and practical solutions for a way forward.