There is a critical need for entrepreneurial action to stimulate the economy, this study aimed to investigate how entrepreneurs make decisions, how they perceive financial risk and how their decision-making linked to their risk profile translates into their firms’ financial growth. To do this study had to firstly, understand how entrepreneurs make decisions. Sarasvathy's (2001) seminal work in this field distinguished between entrepreneurs who follow an effectuation or a causation decision making process. Causation is compared to puzzle building where all the pieces are there, but needs to be assembled. Whereas effectuation is compared to patchwork quilting where the entrepreneur need to develop the opportunity while constantly changing direction as new information becomes available. The findings showed that causation logic is more common in terms of decision making with entrepreneurs, which is contrary to findings of Sarasvathy (2001). Secondly, this study set out to understand how entrepreneurs perceive financial risk by measuring their financial risk tolerance levels. This was measured independently for entrepreneurs following the effectuation as well as a causation approach. The results indicated that the majority of entrepreneurs were ranked in the moderate risk taking category according to the FinaMetrica model. Entrepreneurs who follow causation logic had a greater aptitude for risk than their counterparts who followed an effectuation approach. Thirdly, this study determined whether a statistically significant correlation existed between the decision-making approach, risk tolerance levels and the financial growth achieved by the entrepreneurial firm. This study did not find a statistically significant relationship between these constructs. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Family firms the most common form of business in the world and the academic interest around them has grown significantly over the past decades. When a company is experiencing financial growth their information needs increases and they are encouraged to draw up plans to cover the information need. Previous studies on the subject have pointed out that the research on formal plans in family firms is incomplete in many areas. The research that has been done indicates that planning is not a priority in small family firms for various reasons and that the planning carried out is largely informal. Whether family firms implement more planning practices as they increase in size is haven’t been tested in qualitative research. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how small family firms in Skaraborg change their use of formal plans when they are experiencing a period of financial growth and if the growth of the family firm is affected by it being planned or not. To answer this, we have selected 13 formal planning practices that we have studied the presence of in our case companies and if there was any change in the use of these practices over their most recent growth period. The study was conducted with a qualitative research method where data collection has been in the form of semi-structured interviews. This is to increase our ability to create a deeper understanding of our selected area of research. The results of the study have shown that small growing family firms perform few changes in their planning practices. We have not been able to demonstrate in the context of this study that financial growth increased the use of formal planning practices in family firms in Skaraborg. Our conclusion of this study is that if small growing family firms are going to change their use of formal planning and benefit from it, it is not enough to rely on external help for this. Instead these companies should focus their resources on educating current management staff in the use of formal planning practices and the difficulties that arises along financial growth to see the connection between the two. Just because financial growth increases the need for information that doesn’t mean that any planning to cover the information need will be implemented. A leader in the enterprise must discover the need and choose to use a planning practice to cover it. / Familjeföretag är den företagsform som är vanligast i världen och det akademiska intresset kring dessa har ökat markant under de senaste decennierna. När ett företag upplever tillväxt ökar deras informationsbehov och de uppmanas att upprätta planeringar för att hantera informationsbehovet. Tidigare studier inom ämnet har tryckt på att forskningen kring formella planeringar i familjeföretag på många områden är ofullständig. Den forskning som är gjord tyder på att planering inte är prioriterat i mindre familjeföretag av olika anledningar och att den planering som utförs är informell till stor del. Huruvida familjeföretag implementerar fler planeringspraktiker när de ökar i storlek saknas det dock kvalitativ forskning om. Syftet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för hur små familjeföretag i Skaraborg ändrar nyttjandet av deras formella planeringar när de upplever en tillväxtperiod och om tillväxten i ett familjeföretag påverkas om den är planerad eller ej. För att besvara detta har vi valt ut 13 formella planeringspraktiker som vi studerat förekomsten av i våra fallföretag och om det skedde någon förändring i användningen av dessa över deras senaste tillväxtperiod. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod där datainsamlingen har skett i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Detta för att öka våra möjligheter att skapa en djupare förståelse kring vårt valda undersökningsområde. Studiens resultat har påvisat att små växande familjeföretag utför få förändringar i deras planeringspraktiker. Vi har därför inte kunnat påvisa inom ramen för denna studie att tillväxt ökar användningen av formella planeringspraktiker i familjeföretag i Skaraborg. Vår slutsats i studien är att om små växande familjeföretag ska förändra deras användning av formella planeringar och ha nytta av dem är det inte tillräckligt att anlita extern hjälp för detta. Istället bör dessa företag fokusera resurser på att utbilda nuvarande ledningspersonal i användningen av formella planeringspraktiker och svårigheter som uppkommer med tillväxt för att de ska se kopplingen mellan dessa. Bara för att tillväxt ökar informationsbehovet implementeras ingen planering för att täcka det, en ledare i företaget måste upptäcka behovet och välja att använda sig av planeringar för att täcka det.

This thesis aims to explore the challenges of ICT industries to have access to financial sources in Turkey. The specific subject of analysis is the Turkish software industry. First, it is identified that the global course of the science and technology policies and economic developments are intertwined and they are the major determinants of the current situation of high-tech sectors and their finance all over the world. The importance of finance is based on its association with the innovativeness of high-tech firms. The financial commitment is crucial for firms to sustain innovative activities before revenue generation. Today there is a widely used mainstream model of financial growth cycle defining the sources of finance and the specific needs of high-tech firms along their growth paths. Second, the historical course of finance in Turkey are analyzed and milestones of science and technology policies as well as the development of ICT industries are briefly discussed in order to exhibit the underlying structure of the present issues of high-tech sectors&rsquo / finance in Turkey. Later, the growth cycle model is implemented for Turkey to analyze the potential of financial sources for Turkish software firms with relevant quantitative data. It is seen that the interest of available financial sources towards high-tech sectors is limited and unconcerned. In addition, an inquiry for the finance of the software industry is also done through the analysis of interviews performed with managers of software firms and several funding organizations. Instabilities and uncertainties of the Turkish economy, underdevelopment of a national strategy on software and the lack of interest of available financial sources towards software industry are the major handicaps for the growth of software firms and the industry as a whole. A selective national industrial strategy on software is crucial for the true allocation of financial resources towards software firms.

This thesis is about investment of a family business. It is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part describes aquisitions, investments, financial stability, strategy and growing rate. Practical part analizes small family business and its financial situation considering evaluation of investments based on net present value.

Secondhand är en växande marknad i dagens samhälle och utmanar de traditionella företagen i detaljhandeln gällande hur kläder tillverkas och säljs. Med hållbarhet i åtanke väljer allt fler att konsumera begagnade kläder för att reducera sin klimatpåverkan. Detta till trots är överkonsumtion fortsatt ett problem. Vilket ställer frågan om det räcker att köpa secondhand, om konsumtionen fortsatt är högre än nödvändigt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur secondhand-aktörer kan växa på ett mer hållbart sätt genom sina affärsmodeller samt vilka hinder och möjligheter som uppstår. Studien ska bidra med bättre förståelse gällande secondhand-aktörers möjligheter i att främja hållbar konsumtion och samtidigt bibehålla en finansiell tillväxt. Det empiriska materialet är samlat genom kvalitativa intervjuer med tre respondenter som verkar inom den svenska secondhand-marknaden. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av tidigare forskning och etablerade affärsmodeller som del av det teoretiska ramverket. Studien har identifierat utmaningar vad gäller att främja hållbar konsumtion med en affärsmodell byggd på att omsätta höga volymer. Däremot har affärsmodeller, med ett kvalitetsfokus, höga vinstmarginaler och högre grad segmentering en bättre chans att lyckas uppnå balans. / Secondhand is a growing market in society and challenges the regular retail companies in how they make and sell clothes. With sustainability in mind, more people choose to buy used clothing to reduce their impact on the climate. However, overconsumption is still a big problem leaving questions if just buying clothes secondhand is enough if you buy more than you need. This study aims to investigate how secondhand companies can be profitable in a more sustainable way through their business models and what challenges and possibilities it may bring by achieving this. The main purpose of this study is to provide a deeper understanding about how secondhand businesses can increase their sustainability without compromising financial growth. The empirical material is collected by doing qualitative interviews with three respondents in the business of secondhand and have been analyzed by using previous research and different business models as a part of our theoretical framework. The study has found challenges as it pertains to achieving sustainable consumption while increasing revenue through higher volumes. However, business models focused on quality and profiting on higher margins with higher segmentation are more likely to achieve balance.

Bibliography: leaves 116-138 / Bibliography: leaves 116-138 / The purpose of this research study was to examine the impact of institutional constraints, management competencies, strategic and structural constraints on the performance of black-owned small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). A quantitative survey was conducted using the probability sampling (N=353) of the black-owned SMMEs in CTMM. The Pearson’s correlational analysis was used to determine the relationship between institutional constraints, management competencies (as composite sets of human resources, financial resources and information resources), strategic and structural constraints, and the performance of the business (as composite sets of financial growth and organizational growth). The results indicated a negative relationship between the dependent variables and independent variables. The item analysis, dimensionality analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were performed to determine the factor structure of all the independent and dependent variables, the results yielded a good fit of all the measurement models. These findings may provide new practical knowledge for the financial and non-financial institutions to consider the position of black-owned SMMEs when they design policies, which add to the theoretical knowledge in the SMMEs sector. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management (Finance))