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The purpose of this thesis is to analyze role of Small - Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey's Integration to EU. SMEs have a strategic importance in providing sustainable development, employment and value added in the economies. So that, European Union and Turkish Goverment have carried out several policies in order to support SMEs. These policies facilitate the process of creating, maintaining and improving business skills and opportunities of SMEs. They play significant role in Turkey's accession to EU. One of the purposes of the research is to explore indicators and effects of Turkish SMEs in EU integration. Also, it explores the effects of strategic alliances of Turkish and European SMEs all over the world. In this research, chapter 1 aims to describe SME definitions for EU, Turkey and other countries. In addition, the factors that determine these definitions in Turkey and EU have been discussed. Chapter 2 examines current policies of SMEs in Turkey and their strengths, weakness, problems accordingly. In chapter 3, current European SME policies have been described and their impacts to Turkish SMEs have been mentioned. Funds and incentives for SMEs from EU and their contribution to Turkish SMEs have been also explained in this chapter. In the last chapter, importance of SMEs in Turkish and European economies has been mentioned. Influence of Turkish SMEs has been indicated on the EU integration and in response to this influence; effect of European SMEs in Turkish Economy has been pointed out. After all, it has been exposed to worldwide effects after strategic alliances of European and Turkish SMEs.

Online marketing plays a significant role in business and the World Wide Web has proven to become a platform for success for many enterprises and industries. The advantages that comes with the use of the internet platform for the marketing goods and services makes it imperative for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt, in order to stay competitive in the fast changing global market. The main objective of this study is to explore the dynamics of the Internet in connection with (SMEs). The case study approach is used in this study. Hence, this thesis provides an analysis of the internet marketing strategy in the company NWT a.s. and its e-shop Patro.cz. The study found that, the internet as a marketing tool can enhance customer relationship and enable SMEs in particular to maintain close contact with their customers and provide them with a compelling shopping experience so as not to lose them to other competitors.

The influence of ‘credit crunch’ on Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) has been of concern to the government, regulators, banks, the enterprises and the public. Using a large dataset of UK SMEs’ records covering the early period of the ‘credit crunch’, the influence of the ‘credit crunch’ on SMEs have been studied. It uses cross-sectional method, panel data models and GAM to provide a detailed examination of SMEs performance. Both newly established and matured SMEs, segmented by age, are considered separately. The data contains 79 variables which covered obligors’ general condition, financial information, directors’ portfolio and other relevant credit histories. The ‘credit crunch’ is a typical ‘black swan’ phenomenon. As such there is a need to examine whether the stepwise logistic model, the industries prime modelling tool, could deal with the sudden change in SMEs credit risk. Whilst it may be capable of modelling the situation alternatives models may be more appropriate. It provides a benchmark for comparison to other models and shows how well the industry’s standard model performs. Given cross-sectional models only provide aggregative level single time period analysis, panel models are used to study SMEs performance through the crisis period. To overcome the pro-cyclic feature of logistic model, macroeconomic variables were added to panel data model. This allows examination of how economic conditions influence SMEs during ‘credit crunch’. The use of panel data model leads to a discussion of fixed and random effects estimation and the use of explanatory macroeconomic variables. The panel data model provides a detailed analyse of SMEs’ behaviour during the crisis period. Under parametric models, especially logistic regression, data is usually transformed to allow for the non-linear correlation between independent variable and dependent variable. However, this brings difficulty in understanding influence of each independent variable’s marginal effects. Another way of dealing with this is to add non-parametric effects. In this study, Generalized Additive Models (GAM) allows for non-parametric effects. A natural extension of logistic regression is a GAM model with logistic link function. In order to use the data in their original state an alternative method of processing missing values is proposed, which avoids data transformation, such as the use of weights of evidence (WoE). GAM with original data could derive a direct marginal trend and plot how explanatory variables influence SMEs’ ‘bad’ rate. Significant non-parametric effects are found for both ‘start-ups’ and ‘non-start-ups’. Using GAM models results in higher prediction accuracy and improves model transparency by deriving explanatory variables’ marginal effects.

This study was a research on the effects of the change in the tax system on small medium sized enterprises. Its focus was in Swaziland. It concludes by giving recommendations on how the tax system can be improved in view of what have succeeded in other countries with an almost similar economy. It also recommends more research in this field.

The University of Manchester, PhD by Published Work, 2018 For several reasons, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important group of firms. In most market economies SMEs contribute significantly to wealth and job creation, economic growth, and product and service innovation. At the same time, SMEs are said to produce environmental impacts that are significant and that need managing and regulating. Their importance, from an economic and environmental perspective, is reflected in the fact that SMEs have become an established subject for research, with a distinct area of analysis focusing on how they manage their environmental impacts. Despite considerable interest in this area, aspects of their behaviour are in need of further examination, for there are still misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge. An area where gaps exist is how SMEs respond to different forms of environmental regulation (e.g., command-based or market-based approaches) and different forms of regulatory pressure (e.g., such as those pressures from civil society that might induce compliance-related activities or market forces that might flow through, and affect, the value chain). Why the gaps? On the one hand, and generally speaking, a common claim among those who have considered issues affecting smaller firms is that regulation is an important driver of environmental behaviour. There is a well-documented set of linked claims and empirical findings that smaller firms tend to be motivated by compliance with regulatory standards, yet owing to their scarce resources can find themselves hovering on the edge of compliance. Typically, SMEs will attempt to do no more than the law requires of them. They tend not, as it were, to go beyond compliance. Of course, this is an important observation - one that might say much, even if indirectly, about the motivations and intentions of smaller firms. It might indicate that SMEs, rather than addressing environmental issues, are more concerned with making cost savings and efficiency gains, or with satisfying the requirements of customers over such matters as product or service quality and delivery. While significant, there are at least three reasons why this view remains incomplete as an explanation for the interaction between SMEs, regulation and the environment. Firstly, this view tends to over-homogenise smaller firms. By treating them as a standardized group, the inference is that SMEs view and respond to regulation - i.e., they are all driven by regulation - in a broadly similar way. Secondly, it says little about how and why regulation drives behaviour. Claiming that regulation drives behaviour is helpful, but the claim is unduly narrow and leaves several important questions. In what ways does regulation drive behaviour? Does regulation drive all smaller firms in the same way? Thirdly, and finally, it suggests that different forms of regulation drive SME behaviour and that different forms of regulation drive this behaviour in broadly similar ways. That is, it is incomplete as it lacks appreciation of the widening scope of regulation and governance, and the nature of smart mixes of regulation. It fails to properly consider whether and how SMEs might respond differently to command-based regulation, market- or information-based measures, or self- or so-called civil regulatory pressures. On the other hand, and again in general terms, while those who have examined regulation have looked at how it can influence firms, they have tended to pay too little regard to how firms of different size may respond to different approaches or to how the factors and characteristics relating to size may shape the effectiveness of regulation. SMEs particularly are often discussed as an unusual sideshow that might raise different issues in relation, say, to the impacts of regulation on performance or innovation. That we often pay too little regard to how firms of different size may respond raises difficulties, particularly given our increasing understanding that there is no guarantee that a particular instrument will work in all situations. In other words, we are becoming more aware of the fact that the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of regulation is likely to be context-sensitive, and that the size of the enterprise is likely to be an important determinant of context. This thesis does take, and provides evidence for, the view that the organisational context is crucial to understanding how regulation functions. The thesis does not claim to provide all answers, but it does adopt the position that, in aggregate terms, a firm's size, or the factors that can be associated with size (e.g., resources, skills, knowledge, visibility, profile, stakeholder relations), and related factors concerning a firm's mind-set, can affect two things; first, the types of regulatory influences that may affect organizational behaviour and, second, how firms will respond to those influences. By focusing on SMEs, the thesis in some ways reinforces the dominant view that regulation is a driver of behaviour. Nevertheless, it goes much farther than this by showing, both theoretically and empirically, that there are important differences across SMEs and that these differences determine how and why they respond to regulation. It extends the common view by showing how SMEs differ not only in terms of the types of regulatory influences that shape their behaviour, but also in terms of how they react to these different influences. The emerging picture thus shows that the responses of firms are determined by their particular characteristics. The term used in this thesis is 'receptive capacity', which is shown to be a composite measure that includes the capabilities (e.g., resources, skills, knowledge) and orientations (e.g., views) of firms. It is suggested here that the range of receptive capacities across firms is enormous, since no two firms will be identical. Yet, it is argued - and demonstrated - that firms can be grouped according to certain identifiable characteristics, and that these groups of firms will respond to regulatory pressures in broadly similar ways; that is, there are groups of firms that have broadly similar resources and broadly similar worldviews. Thus, as well as suggesting that differences can be found at the micro level, it is demonstrated that there are sufficient commonalities across some firms that we can understand them as groups - groups of individual firms with some common characteristics. In conclusion, it is the differences across firms that provide us with a more sophisticated view of how SMEs are influenced by, and respond to, regulation. It is the nature of differences that is the main contribution of this research to both the fields of regulation and organisational and management studies. It is suggested finally that these differences have implications for how we design regulation, for how we may expect regulation to work or indeed not work, and for issues such as regulatory complexity and smart mixes.

Female entrepreneurs contribute significantly to the global economy especially through employment creation, contributing to diversity in entrepreneurship and economic growth. Notwithstanding this contribution, their potential remains considerably unexploited in many countries, evidenced by businesses that underperform those owned by men. Significant research gaps on the subject of female entrepreneurship exist in the literature. To illustrate, the number of studies focusing on women-owned businesses remains significantly fewer than that of studies focusing on businesses owned by men, resulting in little being known about the subject. Another important research gap is the absence of a conceptual model of factors affecting performance of women-owned SMEs in the context of Sub-Saharan African countries. Furthermore, the majority of studies on female entrepreneurship have been done in developed countries, giving rise to theories originating from those contexts and relative lack of knowledge and empirical results in the context of developing countries. Zambia represents a specific case of a developing context where little is known about female entrepreneurs. This research develops and tests a conceptual model of individual level and firm level factors affecting performance in women-owned SMEs in Zambia, drawing on the Competency Approach, Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), and Resource Based View of the firm as the main theoretical foundations. It adopts a mixed method approach implemented in two stages: an exploratory qualitative study (carried out as the initial stage of this research) and a main quantitative study. The study uses the findings of the exploratory qualitative study to refine the conceptual model developed and to provide insights into the quantitative findings. The conceptual model is tested empirically using structural equation modelling with SPSS Amos software. The research makes a new contribution by identifying a new set of entrepreneurial competencies relevant to the Zambian context. It also attempts to integrate two literature streams (i.e. competency approach and entrepreneurial orientation) by providing empirical evidence that the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and firm performance is partially mediated by entrepreneurial orientation. The study also extends the boundaries of knowledge by challenging the applicability of established measures and research approaches originating from developed contexts to non-industrially developed contexts. For example, it provides empirical evidence that the relevance of entrepreneurial competencies in a particular context is contingent on the unique aspects of its business environment. The study also challenges widely accepted knowledge that EO enhances firm performance, and provides empirical evidence for the argument that this relationship is context-specific. It further demonstrates that the individual dimensions of EO may have varying effects on firm performance, suggesting that it is better to view the EO construct as a multidimensional rather than unidimensional construct. This research also extends literature on entrepreneurial competencies by showing that they are strong predictors of firm performance in the current research context, and that formal education and previous entrepreneurship experience contribute to their development.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to use Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to find out success factors of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) R&D alliances and relative importance of these factors, and then to get the key successful factors (KSFs) to discuss why these KSFs have important influence on SMEs R&D alliances. AHP and case study are used in this research. Through literature review, the researcher develops 4 criteria and 16 successful factors which are arranged in hierarchical structure chart. Next, case study is used to make this chart reflect better the conditions of Taiwanese SMEs R&D alliances. Finally, to find out the KSFs, AHP is used to design the questionnaire and do questionnaire survey. The results of this study are: 1. The relative importance of the 4 criteria is: business strategy (0.386), the mechanism of R&D alliance management (0.283), partners¡¦ relationship (0.207), and government policy (0.124). 2. The 6 KSFs are: identifying market demand (0.137), clearly defining roles and responsibilities (0.101), establishing mechanism of communication and mutual trust (0.091), using complementary resources and technology (0.079), routinely assessing and adjusting (0.074), and emphasizing the degree of commitment (0.074).

Under the age of knowledge economy, innovation has become the key step to success in this competitive world. The importance of innovation, especially technology innovation cannot be overemphasized. Technology innovations are the power that initiate and drive the evolution of our society and economy. Despite the essential importance of technology innovation, any technology innovation will be worthless without a proper commercialization. However, technology commercialization seldom becomes fully realized. The Taiwan government as well realizes the value of technology innovation and technology commercialization. Therefore, different types of funding plans or policies have passed every year to support and incubate the innovation and technology innovation development of Taiwan firms. Without exception, Taiwan also has SBIR programs to encourage small businesses to explore their technological potential and provide the incentive to profit from its commercialization. Nevertheless, more than half of the SBIR innovation projects fail in the process of commercialization. This study aims to provide a better understanding of factors that influence the technology commercialization of SMEs which participated in the Small Business Innovation Research Project (SBIR). The sample of 970 firms comprised 1169 SBIR projects with ending years between 1 to 5 years respectively. In addition, a detailed interview and case study on NanoWin Technology Co. Ltd was preceded. This paper has studied and constructed a conceptual framework and its associated case examples in its relationship with technology commercialization. The findings suggest three board strategies and ten related concepts that contribute to the success of technology commercialization in SMEs: R&D strategy (market demand oriented, time to market, outer resource arrangement and core technology competence); Marketing strategy (focus on niche markets, create customer values and apply 4P strategy); Business strategy (clear strategy target, value chain positioning and profitable business models).