Masters in Public Administration - MPA / In the Dominican Republic (DR) the development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas is of great importance because SMEs generate employment and increase local capacity in areas with the highest poverty rates in the country. Ultimately, SME development can contribute to poverty alleviation especially in rural areas. Micro-enterprise training as a form of capacity development initiatives aim at effective empowerment of entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs, which allow them to build capacities to develop their business. These capacities will enhance their ability to ensure sustainability of decisions that influence their quality of life. So far, very little research has been conducted on the precise effects and overall effectiveness of SME-related training in the Dominican Republic. Against this background, it is of great benefit to evaluate impacts of micro-enterprise training initiatives on the development of SMEs in rural DR, in order to find out which factors stimulate the creation and growth of enterprises and which factors hinder their development. This allows effective adjustments of future support initiatives in the development sector and it contributes to the existing empirical evidence base in this field. This study applies Human Capital Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour as theoretical frameworks to analyze impacts of micro-enterprise training on SME development. Secondary data for this study was drawn from the Dominican tourism-project La Ruta del Cacao, applying a mixed-method approach for the data collection. Quantitative research methods in the form of a semi-structured questionnaire helped to quantify the impacts of provided micro-enterprise training. Qualitative methods in the form of Focus Group Discussions allowed an in-depth analysis of training impacts on respondents, with the aim of identifying influencing factors, especially those which the theoretical framework may not have covered. The theoretical discussion of this study identified that entrepreneurial intentions are mediated by the attitude toward entrepreneurship, perceived subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. The empirical results show that the provided training is likely to have slightly improved the participants attitude towards enterprise creation. Perceived subjective norms have not decreased due to the training and appear not to have played a role in the participants decision to start or not start a business. The participants perceived behavioural control is not likely to have increased due to the training. On the other hand, results indicate that the training provided participants with useful entrepreneurship-related skills and knowledge. Overall, the participants entrepreneurial intentions slightly improved as a result of the training. However, the impact of these outputs on SME development was rather modest. Identified external factors which influenced the participants entrepreneurial behaviour were a lack of capital, job loss, having a family to take care of, being part of an entrepreneurial family and the existence of an entrepreneurial role model. Intrinsic characteristics were identified as the most influential in demonstrating successful entrepreneurial behaviour and SME creation. The findings of this research contribute firstly to the existing evidence base of micro-enterprise training impacts in rural Dominican Republic. In addition, the findings contribute to the literature base on applications of both Human Capital Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour in the field of entrepreneurship education.

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical, qualitative evidence concerning the factors within the supply, demand and institutional support environments that hinder SME access to finance as well as the interventions necessary to improve access to finance for SMEs in the North West Province (NWP) of South Africa. The semi-structured interview technique was used to collect data from a sample of 25 organisations. A response rate of 56% comprising two financial institutions and 12 SME support and development organisations currently operating in or providing financial and/or non-financial services to SMEs in the NWP, participated in the study. Descriptive statistics in the form of frequency counts and percentages and a qualitative data analysis software package (Weft QDA) were used to analyse the data and interpret the results. The findings of this study are consistent with and support the findings of previous studies investigating SME access to finance. The findings indicate that the SME sector is characterized by a dearth of entrepreneurs, highly risk averse financial institutions and a poorly functional support and development environment. The findings of this study further indicate that formal and structured collaboration initiatives between financial institutions and SME support organisations are vital to improving SME access to finance in the NWP. The study will be of interest to policy makers, financial institutions and SME support and development organisations interested in SME financing and economic development. The results of the study contribute to the understanding of the current financing challenges facing SMEs and will assist financial institutions, SME support organisations and SMEs to better understand the role and importance of effective stakeholder collaboration in improving SME access to finance. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical, qualitative evidence concerning the factors within the supply, demand and institutional support environments that hinder SME access to finance as well as the interventions necessary to improve access to finance for SMEs in the North West Province (NWP) of South Africa. The semi-structured interview technique was used to collect data from a sample of 25 organisations. A response rate of 56% comprising two financial institutions and 12 SME support and development organisations currently operating in or providing financial and/or non-financial services to SMEs in the NWP, participated in the study. Descriptive statistics in the form of frequency counts and percentages and a qualitative data analysis software package (Weft QDA) were used to analyse the data and interpret the results. The findings of this study are consistent with and support the findings of previous studies investigating SME access to finance. The findings indicate that the SME sector is characterized by a dearth of entrepreneurs, highly risk averse financial institutions and a poorly functional support and development environment. The findings of this study further indicate that formal and structured collaboration initiatives between financial institutions and SME support organisations are vital to improving SME access to finance in the NWP. The study will be of interest to policy makers, financial institutions and SME support and development organisations interested in SME financing and economic development. The results of the study contribute to the understanding of the current financing challenges facing SMEs and will assist financial institutions, SME support organisations and SMEs to better understand the role and importance of effective stakeholder collaboration in improving SME access to finance. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

Du point de vue industriel, la conception de produit a pour finalité de répondreaux besoins de développement d’une entreprise. Elle fait appel à de nombreusesconnaissances et compétences différentes qui doivent concourir à un unique but : décrire unproduit qui répond aux besoins du marché visé par l’entreprise. Il existe donc de fortesinteractions entre l’entreprise, son marché et l’activité de conception. Par conséquent, toutprojet de développement doit tenir compte des caractéristiques et des contraintes de chacun deces trois éléments. L’objectif de cette thèse est donc de proposer un cadre méthodologiquegénérique permettant de construire et de piloter des projets de conception de produits enfonction des objectifs de développement d’une entreprise, mais également de ses ressourcestant humaines que matérielles ou financières. Pour atteindre cet objectif, il est indispensabled’intégrer plusieurs facteurs importants. Certains sont d’ordre technique (l’innovation, lacomplexité croissante des produits multi-technologiques, l’hétérogénéité des donnéesnumériques…) et d’autres d’ordre économique ou financier (un contexte concurrentiel trèsdifficile, des financements de projets de développement limités et incertains…). La prise encompte de ces multiples paramètres hétérogènes nécessite une approche systémique. Ainsi,une démarche en deux temps a été élaborée. L’ensemble des objets concernant les objectifsde développement de l’entreprise, son marché et l’activité de conception a tout d’abord étéidentifié et formalisé au sein d’un même diagramme de concepts. Celui-ci a ensuite permisd’identifier les interactions entre ces objets et d’en déduire les mécanismes de fonctionnement.Ces premiers résultats ont finalement été traduits sous la forme d’un processus générique quiconstitue la proposition de cette thèse. Plusieurs exemples issus des PME du secteur de lamécanique sont traités afin d’éprouver la validité de cette solution. / As an industrial point of view, product design activity answer to firmsdevelopment needs. This activity requires a lot of heterogeneous knowledge and skills, whichhave to converge towards a common goal: describe a product meeting the market needs.Consequently, there are many interactions between the firm, its market and the design activity.Therefore, a development project must take into account specifications and constraints of eachelement. The goal of this PhD is to define a generic methodological framework allowing to builtand control a product design project depending on the firm development goals and its ownresources. For this, it is important to include many technical factors (such innovation, multitechnologicalproducts and numerical data specificities) but also economical and financialfactors (as the difficult competitive environment or limited financial resources). All theseheterogeneous parameters involve a global approach of the problem. That is why a two-stageresearch approach is applied to build this framework. In the first stage, a conceptual diagram isdesigned using items coming from the company goals, its market and design activity.Interactions and behavior of all these items are deduced from this conceptual diagram. Theseresults are formalized through a generic process. This last one is finally applied to severalexamples from SME working in the mechanical field.