The research problem addressed in this study was to establish how small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturing businesses could develop a technology strategy that would improve their competitiveness. Therefore, the primary objective of this research study was to develop a technology-strategy framework for small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturers to assist them to improve their competitiveness. Research has indicated that small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturers have the potential to contribute to South Africa‟s economic growth, job creation and gross domestic product. However, research has also indicated that small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturing industries have not kept up with technology developments and, as a result, competiveness is on the decline. Low-technology businesses, such as those found within the furniture manufacturing industry, often have no framework or methodology to guide the successful acquisition and integration of technology to enable a more competitive business. The main problem was addressed in three phases. Firstly, a literature review of strategy and technology-related factors was conducted which provided valuable insight into the development of a strategic framework. This included identification of the business strategy, external and internal factors influencing technology requirements, technology integration, -selection and criterion for competitiveness. Secondly, an empirical study consisting of both a quantitative and qualitative investigation was performed. The quantitative measuring instrument used was a questionnaire designed from the literature study information and was administered to a stratified sample of small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturers. The quantitative results were triangulated by qualitative interviews with selected respondents. The empirical results revealed a strong relationship between technology and competitiveness (as measured by business performance and technology- iv competitive advantage), thereby confirming the importance of technology utilisation for small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturers and the significance of developing a technology-strategy framework. Thirdly, by combining the literature study information and findings from the empirical investigation, the technology-strategy framework was developed. The technology-strategy framework provides a roadmap to integrate technology with the business strategy. The technology-strategy framework is used in three phases, firstly, the business strategy is identified, secondly, the technology-strategy framework provides a guide to identify and forecast technology, conduct an internal audit and identify technology that can execute the business strategy. The final phase is the application of criteria by means of which competitiveness improvement is assessed. Ultimately, the technology-strategy framework can facilitate improved competitiveness of the furniture industry.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of Master’s Degree in Management Sciences (Business and Administration), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa (SA) contribute significantly to job creation, wealth, social stability and economic growth. Growth is stimulated endogenously, through motivation, while employment is a natural consequence of a larger number of SMEs as well as the expansion of small businesses into larger enterprises. Although it has been noted that SMEs are viable avenues through which jobs can be created, relatively few studies have explicitly investigated the link between intrinsic motivation and small business growth; this study filled the gap by exploring the impact of intrinsic motivation on SMEs’ growth. This is particularly important when one considers that the failure rate of SMEs in SA is very high and it is of great importance to investigate the factors that can impact on the growth of SMEs. Why some individuals are more successful in business than others is a major question in SME research. The common view is that there are a numbers of factors involved related to the entrepreneur or business owners and the business and the business environment. Building on the concept of human capital and psychological theories, this study investigated the influence of intrinsic motivational factors in SME business growth in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area, in South Africa. The target population for this study was SMEs in the furniture manufacturing sector. Based on census study, the sample size of the study was 68 owners of SMEs in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in the study. A quantitative research design was adopted to conduct this research. The survey method, by way of a self-administered questionnaire, was used to collect primary data. Various techniques such as descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variances (ANOVA), factor analysis, Chi-square, and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings of this study revealed that intrinsic motivational factors of SME managers positively impact on the growth of SMEs in SA. The findings further revealed that creativity and necessary entrepreneurial skills influence implementation of sustainable growth of SMEs, and the entrepreneur’s success depends on the identification of crucial entrepreneurial skills for starting a business as well as for helping the business to survive and grow in the early years. Therefore, capacity building for SME owners to sustain business growth is recommended. / M

A importância da inovação, para o desenvolvimento socioeconômico de uma região, reside na capacidade de transformação econômica, porém é necessário que a empresa adote a inovação como parte de sua estratégia e que isto esteja atrelado a um padrão setorial de comportamento inovador para ampliar a capacidade competitiva da organização, neste sentido o Arranjo Produtivo local (APL) tem um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento das empresas e da região. A inovação tem sido tema de estudos em vários setores da atividade econômica, emergindo como resposta à melhoria da performance competitiva das organizações. As empresas, na busca de uma melhor posição no mercado, se valem da inovação, utilizando e desenvolvendo novas tecnologias, produtos, serviços e métodos de gestão. A indústria moveleira do Rio Grande do Sul tem seu principal APL situado na Serra Gaúcha. Neste contexto do setor moveleiro, a utilização racional de recursos estratégicos e a geração de .inovações têm sido usados como meio de manter e ampliar a posição de mercado das organizações, portanto o tema fundamental desta Tese é a inovação de produto e os recursos estratégicos sob a ótica da resource based view, em uma perspectiva destes tornarem-se fonte geradora de vantagem competitiva sustentável. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral mensurar e analisar a relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas da indústria moveleira, na perspectiva da vantagem competitiva. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa é um estudo do tipo quantitativo, descritivo, através de uma survey. Os meios de investigação utilizados para a coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de uma entrevista estruturada, com um questionário aplicado a 423 empresas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (Structural Equation Modeling). Através de resultados aferidos nesta pesquisa, obteve-se a análise da relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas no APL Moveleiro da Serra Gaúcha. A contribuição para as pesquisas acadêmicas deste estudo reside nos resultados obtidos para avaliar a relação entre os recursos específicos (Sistema de Informação, Pessoas, Gestão do Conhecimento, Aliança) com a inovação de produto e deste com o Sucesso do Novo Produto. No estudo empírico observou-se que a inovação de produto é resultado do uso de recursos, os quais configuram antecedentes da inovação. A comunidade empresarial encontra neste estudo um método para avaliar os antecedentes de inovação de produto, considerando que as empresas possuem recursos capazes de produzir inovações e impactar na performance frente a outras organizações. Neste estudo as empresas da indústria moveleira encontram informações relativas ao uso de recursos estratégicos, que ampliam a capacidade inovativa. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-11-24T12:01:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Julio Cesar Ferro de Guimaraes.pdf: 3922205 bytes, checksum: 97076280ed29fd0f8fc28102e198497f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-24T12:01:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Julio Cesar Ferro de Guimaraes.pdf: 3922205 bytes, checksum: 97076280ed29fd0f8fc28102e198497f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES. / The importance of innovation to socio-economic development of a region, lies in the ability of economic transformation; but it is necessary that a company adopt innovation as part of its strategy and that this is linked to an industry standard for innovative behavior, to expand its competitive capacity. In this sense a Local Productive Arrangement (LPA). Has a key role in the development of the enterprises and the region. Innovation has been the subject of stuc\ies in various sectors ofthe economic activity, emerging as a response to improve the competitive performance of organizations. The companies, in search of a better market position, believe that innovation is worth using and develop new technologies, products, services and management methods. The furniture industry of Rio Grande do Sul has its rnain LPA located in Serra Gaúcha. In the context of the furniture sector, the rational use of strategic resources and the generation of innovations has been used as a means to maintain and expand the 'market position of organizations; so the fundamental theme of this thesis is to study product innovation and strategic resources from the perspective of resource based view, as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This research aims to measure and analyze the overall relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies in APL Furniture Serra Gaúcha, from the perspective of competitive advantage. The methodology used in this research is a quantitative and descriptive study, through a survey. Means of investigation used for data collection occurred through' structured interviews with a questionnaire to 423 companies. For data analysis, was used Structural Equation Modeling methods. Through the results, was obtained the analysis of lhe relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies of the furniture industry. The contribution of this study for future academic research lies in the results obtained to assess the relationship between specific resources (System lnformation, Human Resource, Knowledge Management, Alliance) with product innovation and with New Product Development Success. The empirical study showed that product innovation is a result of the use of resources, which constitute the conditions for innovation. The business community will find from this study a new method to evaluate the history of product innovation, considering that companies have resources capable of producing innovations and impact performance against other organizations. From this study, the firm's furniture industry finds information on the use of strategic resources, which increase the innovative capacity.

A importância da inovação, para o desenvolvimento socioeconômico de uma região, reside na capacidade de transformação econômica, porém é necessário que a empresa adote a inovação como parte de sua estratégia e que isto esteja atrelado a um padrão setorial de comportamento inovador para ampliar a capacidade competitiva da organização, neste sentido o Arranjo Produtivo local (APL) tem um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento das empresas e da região. A inovação tem sido tema de estudos em vários setores da atividade econômica, emergindo como resposta à melhoria da performance competitiva das organizações. As empresas, na busca de uma melhor posição no mercado, se valem da inovação, utilizando e desenvolvendo novas tecnologias, produtos, serviços e métodos de gestão. A indústria moveleira do Rio Grande do Sul tem seu principal APL situado na Serra Gaúcha. Neste contexto do setor moveleiro, a utilização racional de recursos estratégicos e a geração de .inovações têm sido usados como meio de manter e ampliar a posição de mercado das organizações, portanto o tema fundamental desta Tese é a inovação de produto e os recursos estratégicos sob a ótica da resource based view, em uma perspectiva destes tornarem-se fonte geradora de vantagem competitiva sustentável. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral mensurar e analisar a relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas da indústria moveleira, na perspectiva da vantagem competitiva. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa é um estudo do tipo quantitativo, descritivo, através de uma survey. Os meios de investigação utilizados para a coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de uma entrevista estruturada, com um questionário aplicado a 423 empresas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (Structural Equation Modeling). Através de resultados aferidos nesta pesquisa, obteve-se a análise da relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas no APL Moveleiro da Serra Gaúcha. A contribuição para as pesquisas acadêmicas deste estudo reside nos resultados obtidos para avaliar a relação entre os recursos específicos (Sistema de Informação, Pessoas, Gestão do Conhecimento, Aliança) com a inovação de produto e deste com o Sucesso do Novo Produto. No estudo empírico observou-se que a inovação de produto é resultado do uso de recursos, os quais configuram antecedentes da inovação. A comunidade empresarial encontra neste estudo um método para avaliar os antecedentes de inovação de produto, considerando que as empresas possuem recursos capazes de produzir inovações e impactar na performance frente a outras organizações. Neste estudo as empresas da indústria moveleira encontram informações relativas ao uso de recursos estratégicos, que ampliam a capacidade inovativa. / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES. / The importance of innovation to socio-economic development of a region, lies in the ability of economic transformation; but it is necessary that a company adopt innovation as part of its strategy and that this is linked to an industry standard for innovative behavior, to expand its competitive capacity. In this sense a Local Productive Arrangement (LPA). Has a key role in the development of the enterprises and the region. Innovation has been the subject of stuc\ies in various sectors ofthe economic activity, emerging as a response to improve the competitive performance of organizations. The companies, in search of a better market position, believe that innovation is worth using and develop new technologies, products, services and management methods. The furniture industry of Rio Grande do Sul has its rnain LPA located in Serra Gaúcha. In the context of the furniture sector, the rational use of strategic resources and the generation of innovations has been used as a means to maintain and expand the 'market position of organizations; so the fundamental theme of this thesis is to study product innovation and strategic resources from the perspective of resource based view, as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This research aims to measure and analyze the overall relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies in APL Furniture Serra Gaúcha, from the perspective of competitive advantage. The methodology used in this research is a quantitative and descriptive study, through a survey. Means of investigation used for data collection occurred through' structured interviews with a questionnaire to 423 companies. For data analysis, was used Structural Equation Modeling methods. Through the results, was obtained the analysis of lhe relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies of the furniture industry. The contribution of this study for future academic research lies in the results obtained to assess the relationship between specific resources (System lnformation, Human Resource, Knowledge Management, Alliance) with product innovation and with New Product Development Success. The empirical study showed that product innovation is a result of the use of resources, which constitute the conditions for innovation. The business community will find from this study a new method to evaluate the history of product innovation, considering that companies have resources capable of producing innovations and impact performance against other organizations. From this study, the firm's furniture industry finds information on the use of strategic resources, which increase the innovative capacity.

Text in Afrikaans / Professionele etiek word nie altyd in ag geneem met besigheidsbesluite nie. Die vordering van kredietversekeringspremies is waarskynlik 'n voorbeeld daarvan. Die uitneem van kredietversekering is dikwels 'n voorwaarde vir die verlening van krediet deur sommige meubelhandelaars. Geweldige finansiele voordele wat voortspruit uit kredietversekeringskemas lei tot uitbuiting van die publiek deur sekere meubelhandelaars. Die verskillende kredietversekeringskemas wat in die meubelhandel toegepas word, voldoen nie aan die vereistes van die Woekerwet, 1968, en die Versekeringswet, 1943, nie. Hierdie oortredings het dikwels 'n wesenlike uitwerking op die geopenbaarde finansiele inligting van verskeie meubelhandelaars. Dit is die ouditeur se verantwoordelikheid om die statutere vereistes met die vordering van kredietversekeringspremies in ag te neem, aangesien dit 'n onwettige optrede, asook 'n onreelmatigheid kragtens algemeen aanvaarde ouditstandaarde is. Die ouditeur behoort toepaslik verslag te doen oor gevolglike wanvoorstellings van die finansiele inligting van die betrokke meubelhandelaars. Hierdie verantwoordelikheid word egter nie deur alle ouditeure nagekom nie. / The taking out of credit insurance is often a condition for the granting of credit by certain furniture traders. Enormous financial gains arising from credit insurance schemes result in exploitation of the public by certain furniture traders. Various credit insurance schemes in the furniture trade contravene the Usury Act, 1968, and the Insurance Act, 1943. These contraventions often materially affect financial information disclosed by certain furniture traders. It is the auditor's responsibility to consider the statutory requirements for the collection of credit insurance premiums, as this is an illegal act and an irregularity in terms of general accepted auditing standards. The auditor's duty is to appropriately report on resulting misrepresentations of financial information of such furniture traders. Some auditors however, do not comply with this responsibility. / Auditing / M. Compt. (Auditing)

This dissertation examines the material culture of the Sino-British furniture trade in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the British East India Company began importing a large quantity of furniture made in Canton (Guangzhou), China. As the trade between Britain and China became standardized around 1720, this furniture became a part of the private trade carried out by merchants associated with Company. Unlike other objects of the China trade that fed into the vogue of chinoiserie, export furniture crafted with hardwoods from the Indian Ocean was produced in European designs of the time and thus was often indistinguishable from its Western counterparts. What cultural and economic values did export furniture represent in the early modern maritime trade and how did it reify the trans-regional movement of knowledge and taste between China and Britain? Going beyond the conventional perspective on export Chinese objects oriented toward European reception, I connect production with consumption in order to follow the trajectory of export furniture from its origins in the intra-Asian timber trade to its requisition and manufacture in Canton to its reception and use in both Britain and China, highlighting how this process linked the disparate spheres of commerce, knowledge production and distribution, and cultural practices. In the course of exploring these multiple dimensions of the object’s material life, this dissertation underscores export furniture’s bicultural and transcultural characteristics. Utilizing diverse sets of visual, material, and textual sources, each chapter of the dissertation investigates different aspects of the movement of furniture as an assemblage. Chapter 1 reconstructs the itinerary of export furniture as a commodity from the EIC timber trade between India and China to the ordering and shipping of the furniture for the British market. I show how the character of export furniture was shaped by the constraints of space and the economic, environmental, and epistemic contingencies of long distance travel and communication. Chapter 2 examines the influence of imported Asian rosewood – an important cabinet timber from which most hardwood Chinese export furniture was made – on early modern British arboreal knowledge. If the knowledge of rosewood in the seventeenth century was grounded in classical texts that defined it as a subshrub growing in the eastern Mediterranean region, in the eighteenth century the term came to refer to a hardwood species imported from tropical Asia. I argue that this change allowed rosewood to obtain a new status as a universal category in the botanical taxonomy, which collected, pruned, and ordered heterogeneous cultural and natural information associated with it into a neatly classified “cabinet” of universal knowledge. Chapter 3 returns to Canton to investigate Cantonese cabinetmakers and the production of export furniture. By reading the joinery of extant export furniture pieces, I show how Chinese artisans recreated foreign forms by mobilizing their embodied knowledge of craft rather than by imitating European joinery constructions. The details of this material translation not only reflect the flexibility and resilience of traditional Chinese craft but also illuminate the tacit knowledge and craft patterns of early modern Chinese artisans. Chapters 4 and 5 turn to the domain of consumption in Britain and China, respectively. Chapter 4 explores how Chinese cabinets were experienced in early modern Britain. Comparing lacquered and hardwood display cabinets, I show that Chinese cabinets were not just exotic objects; they played an active role in the evolution of the cabinet as a type of furniture in the domestic material culture and created an affective space both within themselves and in their ambient space that invited the bodily experience and imagination of the user-beholder. The final chapter examines the movement and adaptation of European round tables in mid-Qing Chinese material culture. Introduced by European mariners to Canton, the round tables quickly found their niche in local everyday life and eventually spread beyond Guangdong. I show how they partook in the formation of a new social dining practice that conveyed a new political vision of equality. As a whole, my dissertation argues that export furniture was a Eurasian object that embodied cross-cultural knowledge of craft and nature, and engendered new ideas of utility and sociability.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1975. / Typescript.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1975. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Forest Products. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Text in Afrikaans / Professionele etiek word nie altyd in ag geneem met besigheidsbesluite nie. Die vordering van kredietversekeringspremies is waarskynlik 'n voorbeeld daarvan. Die uitneem van kredietversekering is dikwels 'n voorwaarde vir die verlening van krediet deur sommige meubelhandelaars. Geweldige finansiele voordele wat voortspruit uit kredietversekeringskemas lei tot uitbuiting van die publiek deur sekere meubelhandelaars. Die verskillende kredietversekeringskemas wat in die meubelhandel toegepas word, voldoen nie aan die vereistes van die Woekerwet, 1968, en die Versekeringswet, 1943, nie. Hierdie oortredings het dikwels 'n wesenlike uitwerking op die geopenbaarde finansiele inligting van verskeie meubelhandelaars. Dit is die ouditeur se verantwoordelikheid om die statutere vereistes met die vordering van kredietversekeringspremies in ag te neem, aangesien dit 'n onwettige optrede, asook 'n onreelmatigheid kragtens algemeen aanvaarde ouditstandaarde is. Die ouditeur behoort toepaslik verslag te doen oor gevolglike wanvoorstellings van die finansiele inligting van die betrokke meubelhandelaars. Hierdie verantwoordelikheid word egter nie deur alle ouditeure nagekom nie. / The taking out of credit insurance is often a condition for the granting of credit by certain furniture traders. Enormous financial gains arising from credit insurance schemes result in exploitation of the public by certain furniture traders. Various credit insurance schemes in the furniture trade contravene the Usury Act, 1968, and the Insurance Act, 1943. These contraventions often materially affect financial information disclosed by certain furniture traders. It is the auditor's responsibility to consider the statutory requirements for the collection of credit insurance premiums, as this is an illegal act and an irregularity in terms of general accepted auditing standards. The auditor's duty is to appropriately report on resulting misrepresentations of financial information of such furniture traders. Some auditors however, do not comply with this responsibility. / Auditing / M. Compt. (Auditing)