The phenomenon analyzed within this thesis is the uprising of cloud computing technologies and their potential impact on SMEs. Cloud computing is ought to enable new capabilities for SMEs by the key benefits of being less expensive and its ubiquitous accessibility. The research was constituted on the theoretical framework of the resource based view and was conducted via semi-structured interviews along the themes of application history, financial impact, structural impact, strategic impact, risk considerations and future outlook. Thereby the core research question was to understand the impact of cloud computing technologies as new resources on the competitive advantage of SMEs. Therefore, 183 SMEs were contacted via email which were selected from a commerce authority and internet inquiry from which 6 agreed to an interview. The interview outcomes were analyzed by coding and an interpretation of the qualitative findings. Significant outcomes were that cloud computing provides SMEs capabilities of collaboration and mobility. The impact on innovation could not be verified but was indicated. Moreover, the adaption of cloud computing has led to SMEs saving resources in terms of time, IT budget and specific IT knowledge. The provision of the new capabilities and the savings of resources have shown to improve the SMEs’ overall performance by complementing, supplementing and substituting existing resources. Nevertheless, no direct linkage could be identified to a contribution to a competitive advantage but suggestive indirect linkages were found. However, the findings might deliver new comprehension about the organizational impact of cloud computing on SMEs in terms of resource enhancement and their impact on business practices. Furthermore, implications for future research include the need for investigation of the internal charging of cloud services and particular to narrow down the key advantages of cloud computing for SMEs and raise their business awareness as a source of competitive advantage. / <p>This paper has been a collective effort between Sten Ekström Winroth and Franco Bettels, the thesis has though been written in collaborative between the Management and Informatics department at Jönköping International Business School. These two departments have different requirements of the thesis writing process, which entails that we the authors have had different requirements. This is the reason that two theses exist with the same name, these two theses differ in the details, but are overall the same. </p>

Syftet med vår uppsats är att diskutera hur SME bör agera på den egyptiska marknaden för att göra framgångsrika affärer. Detta genom hänsyn till kulturella skillnader, nätverksbyggande samt personliga relationer. Syftet är att alla företag inte ska behöva göra samma misstag från grunden utan kunna ta lärdom av de fakta som finns och de misstag som andra redan gjort. Detta är en kvalitativ studie där vi samlat in data med hjälp av mestadels semi- strukturerade intervjuer där våra respondenter själva fått berätta vad de anser vara relevant. Intervjupersonerna har erfarenheter från internationell försäljning, Egypten samt politiska uppdrag vilket har gett oss en djup kunskap angående den Egyptiska affärskulturen. Som en slutsats har vi arbetat fram en modell som kännetecknar det väsentliga när ett företag gör affärer i Egypten och baseras på de slutsatser vi kommit fram till. Vi har enats om att den personliga relationen är extremt viktig för att göra affärer i Egypten varför det är grundstenen i modellen. Av detta byggs ett nätverk av kontakter som alla regelbundet måste vårdas för att upprätthålla en god relation. Därefter kan en förhandling byggas upp som nästa steg och det har visat sig att en god kunskap om den egyptiska kulturen och religionen kan förenkla en förhandling då det finns en del kulturella faktorer som ett företag skall ta hänsyn till. Som murbruk i modellen ser vi kultur som rör sig löpande genom alla faktorerna.

In this study, We use the entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources and social capital to explore the content of the resources of small and medium steel enterprise. Its purpose is to understand the entrepreneurial small and medium steel companies in the personal course of business, what resources are put into individual entrepreneurs, What resources are obtained through social networks; and the relevance between entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources and social capital. In Entrepreneurial resources, we integrate RBT and characteristics of the steel industry to development the study of entrepreneurial resource perspective, and was divided into "assets" and "capabilities" of two variables. Entrepreneurs are using personal resources Huang (2003) view that "knowledge, capability, experience" and "organizational factors" two variables. In social capital, by Halpern (2008) view of social capital, that " bonding", " bridging", "social norms" and "sanctions" of four research variables. This study adopts a qualitative case study methods to entrepreneurs interviews to obtain first hand coding analysis, and the following conclusions: 1. Entrepreneur¡¦s " knowledge, capability, experience " have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets and capabilities. 2. Entrepreneur¡¦s "organizational factors " have a low positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets, but have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s capabilities. 3. The bonding social capital have a positive influence both to the enterprise¡¦s assets and capabilities. 4. The bridging social capital have a low positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets, but have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s capabilities. 5. The social norms of social capital have a positive influence both to the enterprise¡¦s assets and capabilities. 6. The sanctions binding of social capital have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s assets, but have a positive influence to the enterprise¡¦s capabilities. 7. Social capital have a high correlation for entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources , so social capital have a positive influence to entrepreneur¡¦s personal resources.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan play an important role in the economic system, but compared to other listed or larger companies, SMEs are more difficult in obtaining fund, and this is the reason why Small and Medium Enterprises Credit Guarantee Fund (SME Credit Guarantee Fund) sets up. The purpose of this study is to discuss the guaranteed risk of the SME Credit Guarantee Fund, including the estimate of the ex-ante probability of default and the hypothesis test of the ex-post recovery rate. The sample data, which are divided into twenty three industries, are established for the estimation of the market value for all kinds of industries, using the Moody's KMV Private Firm Model as the basic theory to estimate the company¡¦s probability of default and revising the default point to fit the features among different economic periods in Taiwan. This research uses the Chi-square homogeneity test to test how characteristic variables of companies affect the recovery rate. The study finds that the default point of the original definition of KMV may underestimate SME¡¦s probability of default in Taiwan, and there is lower estimated probability of default at good times rather than that at bad times. The recovery rate shows a right-skewed distribution, and the results also indicate that the how many banks the companies transact with, whether the directors and supervisors of the companies are joint and several guarantee, how old the companies are and how long the responsible officers are in business, have significantly affected the recovery rate.

Mongolian SME sector is an important part of its private sector that effectively contributes to the outcome of Mongolian economy. Like SMEs in other countries, SMEs in Mongolia face challenge of accessing to finance and this is the most constraint for their continuous growth. While credit guarantee schemes, by filling this gap, became one of the most effective SME promoting tools for the governments of many developed and developing countries, Mongolian government has not been institutionalizing such schemes yet. This study investigates the feasibility of Mongolian government to establish a state-funded CGS in order to facilitate SMEs access to finance. This research based on questionnaire survey conducted from 316 SMEs in urban and rural areas of Mongolia in late 2011. SMEs need for financing, demand for guarantee services and their attitude toward establishing the CGS in Mongolia were investigated. Also, two officials from ¡§SME Fund¡¨ and ¡§SME Support Agency¡¨ were interviewed to analyze their attitude on feasibility of institutionalizing the CGS with the support of Mongolian government. The study showed that there is a high demand for additional financing and credit guarantees in SME sector. The findings suggested that the government urgently needs to institutionalize CGS to solve financial challenges of SMEs. As the most appropriate type of CGSs for Mongolian environment found was a ¡§Public CGS¡¨.

SME Credit Guarantee Fund established for the express purpose is to supply SME credit guarantee with the potential for development but lack the Collateral. It was financial institutions and credit financing. This study was based on a combination of market-based risk neutral evaluation model and insurance actuarial Principle assess the SME Credit Guarantee Fund to ensure that the current main business of insurance rates, According to the estimate and to the SME Credit Guarantee Fund and commercial banks to be charged with considerable risk of price compensation. In the management of business credit guarantees default risk. Bank of samples by the empirical results show that under this model receivable procedures for estimating costs, and the total amount of compensation rather, past a single 0.75% guaranteed rates significantly undervalued, with a single rate is the inverse effect of choice, nearly half over the industry higher than the current guarantee fee from the top 1.5%. If a word, which is the standard fees, fear is still not allow the fund to two-profit and loss. The model is a simple response to both the characteristics of market information, for the SME Credit Guarantee Fund in the risk management and pricing rates to be on the reference. Keywords:SME Credit Guarantee Fund. Credit risk. Risk management. Insurance Actuarial Model

Since 1980s, Mainland China had attracted enormous investment from the worldwide. Through three decades developments, the economy of China has dramatic change. However, under the strong attempt of government interference, the conditions of the business environment are worsen and unfavorable for certain industries. The resource based theory view argues that the firm with core resource and competence can have substantial competitive ability and enduring advantages to succeed in the market. From this perspective, we would like to know how the case company is accumulating and cultivating the core resource and competence for it to succeed in the market. Based on our finding of the core resource, this research uses the five force framework for industrial analysis and attempt to have suggestions for future development. This research conducted a case analysis of a Taiwanese SME in Lead-acid battery industry with interviewing with the president and managers of the company. The finding show that the SME has built up the core competence with its competitive strategy management. However, in coping with changing environment and business conditions, this research has suggested the SME Company need to upgrade its product level and customer types. It also suggests building up alliance within the same and different industries in order to form its core competence for the future.

<p>This thesis examines the effects from Directive 2009/49/EC. This directive amend the Fourth and Seventh Company Directives, the Accounting Directives, regarding the information that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) have to present in notes connected to both the annual reports and notes to the consolidated accounts, in situations with subsidiaries when its necessary to draw up consolidated accounts.</p><p>The Accounting Directives does not affect all companies, almost only private limited liability companies, is this type of companies the only one discussed. Directive 2009/49/EC is not affecting all sizes of private limited liability companies within the European Union, since the most important reason for implementing it is to give SMEs less administrative burden by lower requirements regarding the information presented in notes attached to the reports.</p><p>The implementation of Directive 2009/49EC is a positive change since it is in line with the idea of an Internal Market with equal rights and obligations to all sized of limited liability companies, private or public. The lower obligations in the annual reports in the Fourth Directive are for SMEs to the better because of the less administrative burden and the loss of information for interested is not more important, but of course, for some it is crucial. Amending the Seventh Directive may have larger effect to some companies, most likely medium-sized SMEs, since the obligation to draw consolidated accounts will for some companies not be necessary.</p>

No description available.

<p>The authors have noticed that during the last couple of years the interest about China has grown not only as an attractive market for production but also as a consumer market. A limited amount of books and articles have been written about SMEs entering the Chinese consumer market and even fewer articles have been written about Swedish SMEs entering China to sell their products. This is what caught the author’s attention of writing this thesis.</p><p>Sweden has for a long time been good at exporting to other countries. Now when the Chi-nese market has opened up to western companies there are a lot of potential on this market that is estimated to be one of the largest in the world. There are still differences between China and other market not at least the culture. But as time and globalisation goes on the Chinese people learn how to react to the new world of companies from the west that tries to get its share of the highly attractive Chinese market.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how previous experience and knowledge af-fected the long-term establishment on the Chinese market for the selected Swedish SMEs. Also the knowledge that was obtained when entered China that made the establishment possible was investigated.</p><p>By interviewing four Swedish small and medium sized companies that have managed to export their products to China and also managed to stay there the authors have gotten to a better understanding of the process of export and the different knowledge's that the com-panies gets in this process of internationalisation. By also interviewing a consultant with a long experience of Chinese-Swedish relations and doing business with China the authors have got a good picture of the issues of today’s SMEs trying to export to China.</p><p>The analysis revealed that the single most important aspect of making a successful long-term establishment on the Chinese market is the commitment the company can give. It is crucial in order to gain crucial connections and to provide the necessary service that is de-manded by the Chinese customers.</p> / <p>Det ökade intresset för Kina de senaste åren har inte undgått författarna av denna uppsats, på senare tid har inte bara Kina varit målet för strategiska produktionsetableringar men man börjar även få upp ögonen för den växande köpkraften i landet. En begränsad mängd böcker och artiklar tar upp ämnet om SME som gör entré på den kinesiska marknaden. Än mindre forskning finns om svenska SME som går in i Kina med målet att sälja sina produk-ter. Detta fångade författarnas intresse.</p><p>Sverige har under lång tid varit ett exporterande land. Nu när det kinesiska marknaden har öppnats för västerländska företag finns det stora möjligheter på en av de största markna-derna i världen. Kina är en unik marknad och skillnaden mot andra marknader är avsevärd, inte minst kulturskillnaderna. Men under globaliseringens gång lär sig det kinesiska folket att hantera den nya världen och västerländska företag som ger sig in på den attraktiva kine-siska marknaden.</p><p>Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur tidigare erfarenhet och kunskap påverkat de utvalda företagens långsiktiga utveckling på den kinesiska marknaden. Den kunskap som tillvaratogs under tiden i Kina som underlättade vidare utveckling kommer att undersökas.</p><p>Genom att intervjua fyra svenska företag som har lyckats slå sig in på den kinesiska mark-naden har författarna lyckats få en djupare förståelse om exportprocessen och de olika sor-ters kunskap som företagen erhåller under internationaliseringsprocessen. Genom att också intervjua en konsult med lång erfarenhet av relationer med Kina och det ekonomiska kli-matet i Kina har författarna fått en god bild av vilka svårigheter som SMEs stöter på vid export till Kina.</p><p>Analysen avslöjade att den enskilt viktigaste aspekten i att en etablering lyckas långsiktigt på den kinesiska marknaden är det engagemang företaget kan leverera. På det viset kan företa-get få tag på de nödvändiga kontakter som krävs och leverera den typ av service som krävs av de kinesiska kunderna.</p>