Handelsbranschen står inför ständig förändring med digitalisering och globalisering världen över. Samtidigt har en ny institutionell enhet blommat upp inom den entreprenöriella världenmed intention att minska frekvensen av misslyckade företag, nämligen företagsinkubatorer ochacceleratorer. Dessa har visat sig ha stark lokal förankring där programdesign och utbud är direkt skapat för att möta regionens behov av kompetensutveckling och entreprenörielltskapande. Dessa institutioner har historiskt visat sig haft en positiv inverkan på företagsöverlevnad, samtidigt som coronapandemin har bidragit med ett kraftigt motstånd tillutveckling och snarare avvecklat butiker i sin framfart. Detta är kontexten som ligger till grund för denna studie som avser att utvärdera värdet av ett avancerat acceleratorprogram i Umeå,och då med speciellt avseende på krissituationer. Studien har studerat detta samband med hjälp av forskningsfrågan: “Hur kan ett acceleratorprogram och dess design få lokala handelsföretag att prestera ikrissituationer?” Resultatet visar prov på att lokala handelsföretag som ingått i ett avancerat acceleratorprogrami Umeå under sin tid i programmet har utvecklat sina affärsmodeller, entreprenöriellakompetenser, nätverk och accelererat sin förmåga till affärsmodellsinnovation. Samtligaföretag som deltagit i studien har hittills överlevt pandemin, och på sina håll även omsatt mer,anställt fler och i finansiella värden presterat bättre än föregående år. Flera av de deltagandeföretagen vittnar dessutom om att de på grund av pandemin tvingats vidta åtgärder och tänkautför den klassiska boxen, vilket senare visat sig gett goda resultat i mjuka värden, exempelvisförstärkta kundrelationer. Studien tillför även teoretiska bidrag till den nuvarande inkoncica teoretiska bild som finns av företagsinkubation, acceleratorer, affärsmodeller ochprestationsmått hos SMEs.

This research aims to identify the key resources influencing the growth of IT-based SMEs in Vietnam in 5 different growth stages which were developed by Churchill and Lewis (1983); and we also demonstrated the process how such key resources are created, acquired, accumulated and exploited for the growth accordingly. We interviewed 4 founding members of 4 companies to collect the primary data and used some internet sources for secondary data. Our findings show that: (1) Based on specific internal conditions, objectives of specific growth stages, market size, and backup plan for unexpected events, companies have different approaches to acquire, accumulate and exploit their key resources to achieve growth through different stages. (a) In existence stage, with the goal of realizing a viable business, companies rely mainly on 3 most important key resources: human resources (especially the founders' relevant skills and experiences), a minimum viable product and sales-related resources (sales, marketing techniques, networks for acquiring early customers). The founders may choose to start their startup by either personal money and family support or external investment (coming from founders’ personal network of angel investors, accelerators, and so on). (b) In the survival stage, with the goal of achieving financial break-even status, companies tend to work out a sustainable sales-related resources (e.g. sales and marketing techniques, brand and reputation) and afterwards significantly increase their human resources to boost the sales of the products; the financial resources to fund for the new staffing may come from either internal revenues or external investment (brought in by the network of founders and previous investors, if any). (c) In the success stage, with the goal of accumulating financial resources and others for rapid growth, given that they already have a relatively effective sustainable sales-related resources (sales and marketing techniques, procedures, brand and reputation), companies tend to boost the sales by spend money on recruiting new employees, and/or seek for sales/marketing partnership. Companies starting with an initial niche market product (rather small market size) tend to reach the revenue limit during this stage, and have to explore other new markets by developing new product lines. (d) In the take-off stage, with the goal of transforming to become a big business through rapid growth, companies tend to significantly spend financial resources to recruit more employees, improve the management procedures to train the employees better and start to decentralize decision making to managers. Especially, companies starting with an initial niche market product (relative small market size) tend to already have successfully launched and gained quite substantial customer base from their new product line. Some companies may raise external capital to fund the rapid growth in this stage. (e) In the resource maturity stage, companies with major improvement in management procedures (to optimize resources and cut down on expenses) and a backup of sufficient financial resources may sustain their business in the highly competitive market and unexpected crisis (pandemic, financial crisis, etc.) to bounce back to growth in the long term. (2) Companies who mainly rely on their own financial resources resulted from the sales of their products and other internally generated key resources tend to go through more growth stages or achieve more sustainable growth in the long term; (3) If companies have incompetent management procedures, especially the financial management and the founders do not carefully select the right investors to join the management board, their dependence of the external investment may cause negative impact for the company in the long run due to the pressure for fast growth, founders’ demotivation from diluted shares and voting rights, internal conflicts which eventually led to the financial crisis or founder exit from the company; (4) Companies starting with an initial niche market product (relatively small market size) tend to have the longer duration of the success stage because they have to find the ways to pivot their business to a larger market by expanding their product lines. If they cannot find the way to expand their niche market product line to another niche market or a mass market product, they run the risk of decline when the market becomes more competitive. Companies starting with an initial mass market product (relative large market size) tend to experience shorter survival and success stage, given that they developed an initial product applying outstanding, differentiated business model in combination with sustainable effective resources for sales from existence stage. This study presents some managerial implications for SMEs in general and IT-based SMEs to identify key resources and corresponding strategies to acquire, accumulate and exploit those resources to achieve sustainable growth.

Globalization is rising progressively, with companies facing many challenges and complexities in recent times. Also, the demand for high-quality products at a lower price is driving companies to change their production systems. Lean production is one of the proven approaches to gain an advantage. The lean approach is about eliminating activities that do not add value and delivering the best possible qualitative product to the customer. Implementation of lean is feasible in any organization irrespective of its size or industry. For initiating lean in an organization, there are many tools and techniques available. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is one such tool that is economical and easy to implement. VSM identifies waste and discovers opportunities for improvements as it observes material and information flow from the collection of raw materials to delivery to customers (Forno et al., 2014).The current research is based on a case study performed at an aircraft heater manufacturing firm, which is willing to implement lean for an efficient production cycle. Since the company is not subjected to the lean methodology, the study attempts to understand the VSM implementation process and its favorable circumstances. VSM has been implemented and data were analyzed. The results obtained from this study concludes that, VSM is a suitable technique to initiate lean ways of work in an SME that lacks sufficient knowledge and experience on lean.In addition, successful removal of wastage and increase in productivity are the key factors, necessary to initiate lean in an organization from a technical point of view whereas management support and acceptance of change is essential from an organizational point of view. However, there are few barriers and challenges that the company may have to face. Besides, the study suggests that it is better to have a lean training or a workshop before its implementation. This study will lay the foundation for future studies related to the initiation of lean methodology through implementing VSM when the case company is not familiar with the process as there are very few studies on this topic.

The diploma thesis deals with creation of a model of managerial accounting in agriculture and evaluation of the benefits from it. The theoretical part deals with the essence and functions and describes the general procedures for creating the management accounting model. In the next part, the literary research deals with the specifics typical for agriculture and small and medium-sized agricultural holdings. The research of inhouse accounting in the agricultural enterprises follows the theoretical part for the practical. The practical part of the thesis is based on research and a suitable model for agricultural production. Within the application part, the model is verified on a typical production enterprise characteristic for the Olomouc Region. The suitability of the model is verified after the application together with the quantification of the potential costs. The benefits for the accounting unit and the general benefits are assessed as well.

Syfte: Den här studien fokuserar på att undersöka varför små och mikroföretag befinner sig på sociala medier och vilka aktiviteter små och mikroföretag genomför på sociala medier. Vi undersöker även om existerande teori på stora företag även kan appliceras på små och mikroföretag. Med små och mikroföretag syftar denna studie på företag med färre än 50 anställda. Metod: Denna studie har tillämpat en kvalitativ metod. Djupgående och kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med sex stycken respondenter med kompetens och erfarenhet inom ämnet.Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att små och mikroföretags huvudsakliga mål med användandet av sociala medier är att främst nå ut till så många människor som möjligt och till viss del lära sig av sina följare och ingjuta ett förtroende. Det varierar på vilket sätt företagen arbetar för att nå detta mål men det går till viss del att applicera existerande teori och modeller för stora företag på även dessa företag.Forskningsbidrag: Ett helhetsgrepp kring hur små och mikroföretag skapar och genomför sin sociala mediestrategi och vilka aktiviteter de genomför online. Ett bidrag är även en förståelse för att forskning på stora företag bara till viss del är applicerbar på små och mikroföretag.Förslag till vidare forskning: Forskning fokuserat på enbart små och mikroföretag isolerad från aspekter från stora företag, för att förstå små och mikroföretag i sig och undvika perspektiv från stora företag.

Environmental management plays one of the key roles in the current corporate world due to its benefits on brand identity, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction The relationship between environmental management and financial performance has been the focus of many studies in the recent 20 years, however, a steady conclusion is missing on this topic. The impact of environmental management on financial performance in Swedish SMEs in the energy sector has been investigated in this quantitative study. By performing Generalized Least Squares modeling using panel data with 328 observations from Swedish SMEs in the energy sector, the study suggested that environmental management practices do affect a firm’s financial performance. The study emphasis that the green innovation is one of the most important criteria which keeps ahead of its peers in the sector. Another key component in green practices is obtaining ISO14001 certification to promote continual quality. The study also proves that the ratio between male and female executives has no impact on the environmental management of a firm.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / In recent years, homegrown SMEs have had low production levels when compared with Chinese garment imports, losing their competitive advantage in the domestic market. SMEs represent 96% of garment companies in Peru and have a positive impact on the creation of jobs. The search for a technique to improve SME output was conducted in various studies; however, the efforts did not bear fruit over time. Thus, this article seeks to improve the low production efficiency in textile and clothing SMEs. Therefore, we proposed a model and validated it in the production area of a denim clothing manufacturing company in Peru. We conducted business diagnostics and found a production efficiency problem. Later, we adapted the Lean production management model to the prevailing organizational culture. The main result was that the company's production efficiency increased from 68% to 71%. Finally, employee commitment, along with the combination of the Lean model and organizational culture, allowed the improvements to stand the test of time after their implementation.

Currently, there is a large percentage of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Peruvian textile market that show economic loss because of the payment of penalties to customers, which are incurred owing to the delay in the delivery of order batches. This is due to poor production management and a lack of focus. The manufacturing sector is essential because of its high contribution to the country's gross domestic product. Currently, SMEs do not employ methodologies that help improve production and process management as they do not realize how important and necessary the methodologies are, in addition to how complex these may be. Therefore, this paper will propose a production management model designed for SMEs in this sector, based on Lean methodology where the objective is time reductions and production increases as well as exerting changes to the organizational culture. Thus, this model will help organizations to avoid incurring economic losses because of the payment of penalties for orders not delivered on time. To validate the present model, a time simulation was performed in the manufacturing area of a textile company. The result of this project was positive, since there was a 25% increase in productivity and a 20% reduction of takt time with respect to the initial data.

This article examines the problem of production line delays in a textile small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) that produces polyester fibre from recycled bottles, based on orders. Factors that have resulted in production line delays include prolonged unscheduled maintenance time, and preparations and adjustments prior to operating the equipment. To address the problem, a model was developed applying lean manufacturing tools through change management, with the aim of increasing equipment availability and useful life. To validate the model, a pilot was developed to determine how the increase in equipment availability helps reduce delays in the production line, which eventually improves completion of customer orders.

En anledning till att det kan vara problematiskt att få lån beror på finanskrisen 2008 där bankernas misslyckande i sina kreditbedömningar var avgörande. Komplexiteten i kreditbedömningsprocessen skapar agentproblem, informationsasymmetri och moral hazard. I tidigare forskning menar de att kreditgivarens kompetens påverkar lånebesluten. Kreditgivaren använder sig av olika riskbedömningsmetoder, där hård, mjuk och frivillig information används för att kartlägga SME:s återbetalningsförmåga. Forskning menar att SME:s kompetens inom företagsledning, affärsprojekt osv. är indikationer på SME:s återbetalningsförmåga. Det som saknas inom forskning är hur skillnader i kompetens mellan kreditgivare och kredittagare påverkar kreditbedömningen. Syftet med studien är att kartlägga kompetensskillnaderna mellan kreditgivare och kredittagare, samt dess betydelse vid en kreditbedömning. För att uppfylla syftet har studien utgått från en deduktiv ansats. En modell har skapats baserad på tidigare litteratur, där information, risk, kompetens och kompetensskillnader, behandlas. Modellen har utvärderats empiriskt genom intervjuer med kreditgivare(banker) och kredittagare(SME). Resultaten pekar på att kompetensskillnader har en påverkan på kreditbedömningen. Slutsatserna är att kreditgivare handlar utifrån en världsbild, medan kredittagare handlar utifrån en annan. Utifrån kontexten har parterna skapat olika kompetenser, d.v.s. parterna tolkar information utifrån sina respektive kontexter. Genom detta skapas agentproblem osv, som påverkar kreditbedömningen. Studien bidrar med ny kunskap till ett forskningsområde som är mycket utforskat och ifrågasätter incitamenten som den främsta förklaringsfaktorn i agentteorin. Implikationer och begränsningar som studien omfattas av är att två av tre företag inte hade hög skuldsättningsgrad samt att vi har intervjuat två oberoende parter, i en process där parterna är beroende, med anledning av banksekretessen.