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The purpose of this study is to determine the manner in which a number of business concerns have dealt with the problem of reciprocity and how they are presently dealing with it.

The purpose of this study was to examine scanning practices in a developing country by looking at the scanning behavior of executives of Nigerian manufacturing firms. Specifically, this study examined the decision maker's perception of environmental uncertainty (PEU), the frequency and degree of interest with which decision makers scan each sector of the environment, the frequency of use of various sources of information, the number of organizational adjustments made in response to actions of environmental groups, and the obstacles encountered in collecting information from the environment.

This thesis explores the practice of strategic planning and its effect on the performance of small engineering firms in Bangladesh. Small businesses play an important role in the economy of Bangladesh. Despite substantial efforts on the part of the government, such as provision of hardware and software support and many promotional incentives, the growth and performance of small industry in general and engineering industry in particular, appears to be unsatisfactory. Although the research findings are inconclusive the literature in the developed industrialised countries generally recommends that small firms need to use strategic planning as an essential tool for improving their performance. It was therefore hypothesised that the lack of strategic planning is one of the major factors responsible for under-performance of small engineering firms in Bangladesh. To address the research issues about strategic planning practice and its link with performance, a conceptual framework was developed incorporating certain characteristics of firms, the personal backgrounds of owner-managers and of the environment that could influence the relationship. Adopting both quantitative and qualitative approaches this study has examined the research issues based on the data collected through interviews with 141 owner-managers of small engineering firms in the Dhaka city, where most of the engineering firms are located. Overall, the findings of the study indicate that even though strategic planning in a formal sense is unlikely to exist in small firms, owner-managers of successful firms are well aware of opportunities and threats in their environment, their strengths and weaknesses as well as the implications (strategic awareness) of their project. Small firms can improve their performance through strategic planning, but only if it is based on an understanding of the opportunities and threats in the environment, and of their own strengths and weaknesses which enable them to assess both the short and long-term implications (strategic awareness) of the project. The present findings highlight the dangers of assuming that the process of strategic planning (normative/formalisation) will, by itself, lead to improvements in performance. Researchers who have concluded that strategic planning does not generally benefit the performance of small firms appear to have been incorrect. It can be said that conceptual and methodological differences across studies have been largely responsible for the debates concerning the value of strategic planning in small business. The present study thus highlights the importance of heightening the awareness of small firms about the environment, and of triggering their portfolio of ideas, and in doing so, seeking also to encourage effective exploitation of ideas by heightening the strategic awareness of the firms. This strategy emphasises the importance of 'software' support such as provision of information, counselling, training, and education. For providing such services the implications of the research are that this should be as proactive as possible, maximising personal contact with the owner-managers, possibly by setting up agencies on regional basis and manned by experienced staff, particularly in the provision of market and other environmental information.

Humankind is the major force influencing our planet earth. Irreversible environmental degradation are a widespread problem. Atmospheric changes, worsening climate, ozone depletion, etc. is accompanying our daily life. From the ecological perspective the future of the 21's century is endangered. A change of consumption pattern, material thinking, lifestyles have to change fundamentally. It may even require to break with 'business-asusual'. In the age of continuously and rapidly changing competitive environments, companies are increasingly forced to be highly flexible and responsive to changes having an impact on their competitiveness or even affecting the firm's viability. "Entrepreneurship" is an emerging practice, which involves the application of an entrepreneurial spirit to established businesses. The management style is seen to embody the appropriate characteristics for surviving or even growing in a constantly changing environment. A major objective of this research is to determine whether an entrepreneurial management style has an impact on the ecological approach a firm may adopt. For this purpose a mail survey of 500 German firms across all industries was undertaken in the first phase. The aim is to further determine whether firms adopting a proactive ecological approach meet the ecological challenge in a strategic manner. In order to achieve this objective a case study approach was chosen in the second phase based on ten interviews conducted in the food & allied industry. The survey aimed at examining the management style, organisational structure and the business environment of 212 firms to determine firms' nature and style of strategic response to their business environment. Moreover, firms' ecological orientation and ecological environment is measured to determine to which degree firms are proactively oriented. Based on this, the relationship between the management style adopted by firms and the ecological approach is analysed. The results of the survey suggest that firms' response to the ecological issue is strongly influenced by the way in which they respond to business challenges or changes in the business environment. Furthermore, the case study aimed at identifying the degree to which firms integrate the ecological issue into their strategic behaviour. Another aim is to analyse if the relationship between management style and ecological approach can be confirmed further, thus supporting the results of the first phase. The results indicate that a proactive ecological approach demands a comprehensive way of realisation. The ecological issue should be an integral part of the firms' strategic management process and be approached in a strategic manner. Thus, the research project strongly suggests that an entrepreneurial style supported by organic organisational structures is seen as the appropriate approach to follow the path of an ecologically sustainable future. An entrepreneurial approach will enable firms to be innovative and thus inducing fundamental changes with regard to ecological matters. Far-reaching environmental improvements are needed to take a large step towards a sustainable society. An entrepreneurial environmental approach enables firms to anticipate and give fresh impetus to the ecological development. However, it has to be kept in mind that all forces upsetting the equilibrium of the global system have to be handled sustainably.

Les entreprises sont l’unité de production d’une économie moderne. Les matières premières y sont transformées en biens destinés à la consommation ou en biens utilisés par d’autres entreprises. Ces entreprises sont nombreuses et très différentes. Certaines sont très grandes, tandis que d’autres sont de petite taille. Ces entreprises hétérogènes font face à l’évolution de leur demande et de leur productivité qui façonnent leur dynamique. Le produit intérieur (PIB) est la somme de la valeur ajoutée des entreprises hétérogènes qui composent une économie. Il semble donc naturel de penser que la dynamique du PIB est l’agrégation de la dynamique des entreprises. Cependant, la littérature macroéconomique traditionnelle, par exemple la théorie des cycles réels (RBC), suppose une entreprise représentative. La dynamique de l’agrégat est seulement déterminée par un choc qui affecte cette entreprise représentative. Ceci est équivalent à supposer que des chocs parfaitement corrélés affectent toutes les entreprises d’une économie de la même manière. [...] / Firms are the productive unit of a modern economy. It is where inputs are transformed in goods used for consumption or as inputs for other firms. These firms are numerous and very different from one another. Some are very large, while others are small. These heterogeneous firms face changes in their demand and productivity that shape their dynamics. The growth domestic product (GDP) is the sum of the value added of all the heterogeneous firms that compose an economy. It thus seems natural to think that the dynamics of the GDP is the aggregation of the dynamics of firms. However, the conventional wisdom in the macroeconomics literature, for example the real business cycle (RBC) theory, assumes one representative firm. The dynamics of the aggregate is only driven by a shock that affects the representative firm. This is equivalent to assuming perfectly correlated shocks that affect all the firms of an economy in the same way. […]

Thesis advisor: Philip E. Strahan / The first essay of this dissertation measures the real effect of increases in local deposit supply on local economic outcomes. To identify this effect, I use exogenous variation in local deposit supply from oil and natural gas shale discoveries. A change in deposit supply should have its largest effect on areas where credit supply frictions are the strongest. I find that the effect is strongest in areas dominated by small banks. The second essay analyzes the investment policies of public and private natural gas firms, and is joint work with Jérôme Taillard. We find that privately held firms are 60% less responsive to natural gas price changes than publicly traded firms. Additionally, we find that private firms do not respond to new shale investment opportunities, whereas public firms do. We believe these results are consistent with private firms having a higher cost of external capital. The third essay empirically tests whether firms increase risk taking activity when they are close to distress due to the risk taking incentives of equity-holders. I find that firms actually reduce risk taking when they are close to distress, and in the years prior to bankruptcy. This evidence suggests that risk reduction incentives may be more important for the average firm as it gets close to distress. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

by Chan Ka Ming, Yiu Hon Lam. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986 / Bibliography: leaf 91.