The economic success in Taiwan has been called the ¡§Economic Miracle.¡¨ However, it deserves further attention to explore the actual causes of the formation of the ¡§miracle.¡¨ As a country of island-economy, Taiwan is short of natural resources. It is necessary for Taiwan to depend on the international resources to survive and backup. Moreover, in the cross-section analysis, the rate of small and medium businesses is as high as 97.75% in Taiwan. Thus, the importance of the small and medium businesses in the development of Taiwan economy can be thus known. However, the great changes in worldwide economy have been taking place. Due to the limits on corporate size, finance, technology, manpower, marketing, research, and management, the small and medium businesses, which have been playing important roles in Taiwan economy, are facing great competitions. As a result, in order to obtain competitive advantages in business ventures, and to increase the competitiveness, the small and medium businesses try all the means to look for new ways to effectively deal with the economic challenges. Nonetheless, facing the same difficult business environment, the small and medium businesses have much fewer resources than the large-sized companies. Therefore, in order to find ways to survive and develop, the mergence among the small and medium businesses is one of the practical ways. Though merger can strengthen the power of the companies, most of the related researches all state that the failure rate of the mergence is actually higher than 50%. In order to make the action of the merger successful, it is necessary to examine the mutual adjustability, the resources and the corporate status of each merger, and to estimate the possible changes of the outside environment. And what¡¦s more important, it also requires careful observation and clear and powerful corporate expectation. This research employs mainly the ¡§case study¡¨ method that is used often in qualitative analysis and the in-depth interview. First of all, the researcher designs the interview outline, chooses the major decision makers of the merger case for the interview, and uses the in-depth interview to explore the research topics. The contents of the interview are then analyzed and discussed. Based upon the result, the practical key points for the success of the merger are concluded and the practical factors of the studied case and the related theories are further analyzed and compared to comprehend the coverage and the realizability of the theories and to offer conclusions and suggestions in order to provide future references for the professional researchers and corporate owners.

Background Small and medium businesses (SME) are important elements in the strategies of economic growth and improvement. The SME have played a great role in regional and global economic recovery during many years and thus they are very desirable. Small business leaders have to fulfil a wide range of roles and responsibilities however, the most important role being the leader role. Valdiserri (Valdiserri and Wilson, 2010) stated that poor leadership is one of the main failure reasons for small businesses. Furthermore, different countries may have different leadership styles and culture. Aim The purpose of this thesis is to identify the differences between the leadership styles in small technical companies in Sweden, an industrialized country, and Jordan, a developing country Method We adopted the study case method to study the leadership style in small companies. Through pre-defined questionnaire surveys, the leaders of eight small businesses (four companies in Sweden and four in Jordan) were asked to answer multifactor questions. We then studied the answers based on three situational leadership models. The situational methods used in our study were the Fiedler model, the normative model and the SLII model. The answers were then analysed in order to determine the current as well as the appropriate leadership style based on the models. Results In brief, our study identified several examples of different leadership styles in various situations in small companies and presented the most suitable leadership in those situations. The thesis also shed light on differences in small technical company leadership in Sweden and Jordan. The analysis of the case studies of the studied companies showed that the situational leadership methods could be used in small companies. The study concluded that in order to identify the leadership style, more than one model had to be used. In general, the leadership style in the Swedish companies matched the recommended leadership style. The Jordanian companies’ leadership style however did not match the recommended leadership style. The models in our framework also revealed the reasons behind and also proved to be valuable tools in recommending the suitable leadership style for all companies. The used models in our thesis however lacked the appropriate tools to explain the differences between the Swedish and Jordanian companies. The differences are thought to be due to cultural aspects, however, these models does not take in account the cultural aspect nor the size of the companies, an issue pointed out by Gary (Yukl, 2002). Conclusion The situational leadership style model was shown to be fully applicable in our case study as in previous literature. The conducted study suggested that more than one model had to be used in order to identify the suitable leadership style. Interestingly, the models used were clearly applicable in Middle East companies. This was, to our knowledge, the first time these models were used in Middle East countries when studying leadership style. Furthermore, the studied situational leadership style showed a clear difference in leadership between Sweden and Jordan. The models recommended a participative style in the small technical companies both in Sweden and Jordan. However, the current practiced leadership style in the Jordan companies were not exhibiting the recommended leadership style. Interviewing the leaders in the Jordanian companies gave us a hint that this difference could be due to cultural differences. The cultural differences must thus be born in mind when interpreting the data and trying to understand the reasons behind the results when studying these models. The Jordanian companies used more power leadership (telling leadership) than their Swedish counterparts who exhibited a participating leadership. According to (Hofstede, 1991) leadership in Arab culture show higher power distance than in Nordic companies. Our results thus coincide with previous studies. However more studies need to be made in order to draw conclusions on whether this is a common phenomenon in all Jordanian or Middle East companies and our thesis present an interesting pilot study in this regard.

No description available.

Background: The Swedish food industry has changed dramatically during the last decades and to become and remain as a player has become a demanding task for several of the small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The trading blocs have increased the development of their own brand (DOB) and this has given the SME new competition but also the possibility to produce these products for the trading blocs. In addition to this the trading blocs have be-come more and more centralized and to strengthen their position in nego-tiations and other aspects which are important for the trading blocs. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how the trad-ing blocs, with their development of their own brand, affect the Swedish small and medium sized producers in the food industry. It is also to look into what kinds of strategies that are used by the SME in order to tackle the competition from the distributors own brands. Method: To fulfill our purpose a qualitative approach has been used for this thesis. Seven different interviews have been done, either by phone or face to face, with the three largest trading blocs and with four the SME in Sweden, three producing and one distributing company. Conclusion: The focus on low prices and the trading blocs’ stronger, central position on the market have made the competition more intense. To be or remain as a player on the market it is important for the SME to be a supplier to the trading blocs. However, since there are many players striving to become a supplier it is a tough situation and the price becomes an important factor. The trading blocs want low prices and keep pushing the suppliers to keep them low, or even lower them. This price focus is a major issue for the SME, and the DOB have become an important mean for the trading blocs to keep prices low. Due to scenarios like this it is very important for the SME to have strategies in place and the most common and most efficient is the bypass and flanking attack strategies. These two strategies are intense and keep the SME alert when it comes to product development and new innovations.

This study aims to make a diagnosis and counseling to the operation of small and medium businesses of high-tech by way of case study. Two manufacturers of electronic passive components were chosen in this study. Acting as the assistant and consultant of the top management, the writer took about 21 months to proceed with the study by practically participating in the operation of the object companies. This study includes the following contents¡G(1) Basic Analysis, (2)Financial Analysis, (3)Operating Goal and (4)Operating Counseling. For the Basic Analysis, the two companies have been making better profit through the diagnosis and counseling. For the Financial Analysis, ¡§A¡¨ Company has the most complete financial operating report, with which the management can be fully aware of and then successfully control the financial status of the company. Examples are provided in this study. For the Operating Goal, the policy of the gross margin ratio is the most significant part of the strategy in ¡§A¡¨ and ¡§B¡¨ companies. The analyzing method of Boston Consultant Group is proved effective for making the strategy of gross margin ratio and OK yield. At last, for the Operating Counseling, practical examples are offered in many aspects, such as manufacturing and technology, 5S arrangements, management conference, human resources, joint investment and quality assurance. During the period of study, some very important ideas have been attained in the interpersonal relationship, i.e. ¡§management is service¡¨ and ¡§establishing good communication mechanism is vital for management¡¨. Besides, 26 forms have been collected for maintaining the management system, including financial management, manufacturing, quality and sales control, and operating management. The operating diagnosis and counseling are more essential for small and medium businesses than for those big companies since they are different in capital investment, man power and profit risk. It is a favorable result that the two companies have been making noticeable achievements during this period of time. The methods described in this study have also been applied to another two companies with remarkable outcome. As in chemical reaction, the operating counseling could be a catalyzer when it is well applied, while it could be a restrainer when being misused. The methods described in this report will help to make an efficient counseling, which will accelerate business development.

<p>Background: The Swedish food industry has changed dramatically during the last decades and to become and remain as a player has become a demanding task for several of the small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The trading blocs have increased the development of their own brand (DOB) and this has given the SME new competition but also the possibility to produce these products for the trading blocs. In addition to this the trading blocs have be-come more and more centralized and to strengthen their position in nego-tiations and other aspects which are important for the trading blocs.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how the trad-ing blocs, with their development of their own brand, affect the Swedish small and medium sized producers in the food industry. It is also to look into what kinds of strategies that are used by the SME in order to tackle the competition from the distributors own brands.</p><p>Method: To fulfill our purpose a qualitative approach has been used for this thesis. Seven different interviews have been done, either by phone or face to face, with the three largest trading blocs and with four the SME in Sweden, three producing and one distributing company.</p><p>Conclusion: The focus on low prices and the trading blocs’ stronger, central position on the market have made the competition more intense. To be or remain as a player on the market it is important for the SME to be a supplier to the trading blocs. However, since there are many players striving to become a supplier it is a tough situation and the price becomes an important factor. The trading blocs want low prices and keep pushing the suppliers to keep them low, or even lower them. This price focus is a major issue for the SME, and the DOB have become an important mean for the trading blocs to keep prices low. Due to scenarios like this it is very important for the SME to have strategies in place and the most common and most efficient is the bypass and flanking attack strategies. These two strategies are intense and keep the SME alert when it comes to product development and new innovations.</p>

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the former member states have started the transformation process. The transformation process from planned to market economy includes not only the adaptation of the economy to the new market rules but also the profound social and political transformation. For this reason such processes present huge challenges to affected societies. The transformational recession in Georgia was significantly enhanced by the civil war and by ethnic conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. During the ethnic conflicts and civil war the business and technical infrastructure were damaged and most of them were completely destroyed. Poverty and political instability were predominated. The trade relations with the member countries of Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) were aborted. Moreover, the conflict in South Ossetia hampered the power supply from Russia and a conflict in Abkhazia, the production and trade with tea and citruses, which were major trade commodities at that time. In the beginning of 90-ies, Georgian government with the assistance of international organizations, such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank started to elaborate political and economical reforms. The reforms included several aspects, such as the transfer of public assets to private through privatization, the liberalization of domestic market and trade and the creation of market-oriented institutions. Because of lack in implementation neither economical nor political transformation has been achieved. For instance, by the begin of market oriented reforms the awareness of policy makers about the importance of entrepreneurship, in particular small and medium ones for the economy was low. The absence of previous experience prevented the elaboration of appropriate policy instruments and methods for the development of competitive market economy. The stimulation of private sector has been generally neglected. This had a severe affect on political, social and economical problems, which still hampers the development of middle class in Georgia. The presented research indicates that productive entrepreneurship is a driving force of an economy. The entrepreneurial activities on the one hand facilitate the resource allocation and on the other through the development of new products and services urge the competition. Furthermore, they contribute to technological improvements through innovation, create jobs and thus boost the economic and social development of a particular region or country. However, it is important that the legal and institutional framework is appropriately settled. Unlike mature market economies, Georgia is not characterized by well-developed sector of small and medium sized businesses. Most existing SMEs are operating in local markets and predominantly in the shadow economy. It is also noteworthy that small business in Georgia belongs to so called “mom and pop” rather than to innovative, growth oriented businesses. They are mostly engaged in trade and craft. In addition of poor performance, the business activity of SMEs is very centralized. The vast majority of them are operating in the capital Tbilisi. The poor performance of small and medium businesses in Georgia and their negligence by the market forces is among others due to the armed conflicts and state failure. As in the beginning of transformation process, down to the present day, the state fails to provide necessary conditions, such as rule of law, the protection of property rights and competition, transparent and uncorrupted public administration. The result is the weak middle class. The weak middle class by itself has a negative impact on economic development and democratization process in Georgia. / Nach dem Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion haben die ehemaligen Mitgliedstaaten angefangen, ihre Wirtschaftssysteme zu transformieren. Beim Prozess der Transformation von einer Planwirtschaft zu einer Marktwirtschaft handelt es sich um mehr als um einen Prozess der wirtschaftlichen Umwandlung: Er beinhaltete sowohl einen tiefgreifenden sozialen als auch einen politischen Wandel. Aus diesem Grund stellen derartige Transformationsprozesse eine große Herausforderung für die betroffenen Gesellschaften dar. Die transformationsbedingte Rezession in Georgien wurde in der Anfangszeit durch den Bürgerkrieg und ethnische Konflikte wesentlich verstärkt. Im Laufe der Kriegszeit wurden sowohl die technische als auch die geschäftliche Infrastruktur im Wesentlichen zerstört. Es herrschten Armut und politische Instabilität. Die Handelsbeziehungen mit Mitgliedstaaten des Rates für Gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe (RGW) wurden abgebrochen. Zudem behinderte einerseits der Krieg in Südossetien Energielieferungen aus Russland andererseits schwächte der Krieg in Abchasien die Produktion von Zitrusgewächsen und Tee sowie den Handel mit ihnen. Diese Produkte gehörten damals zu den wesentlichen Exportgütern von Georgien. Im Jahr 1994 wurden die marktwirtschaftlichen Reformen in Georgien durch den Internationalen Währungsfonds und die Weltbank unterstützt. Die Unterstützungsmaßnahmen konzentrierten sich zunächst auf den Privatisierungsprozess, auf die Stabilisierung und die Liberalisierung der Märkte. Die Stabilisierungs-und Liberalisierungsmaßnahmen wurden durch diese Unterstützung effektiv durchgeführt. Dadurch wurde ein gewisses Maß an wirtschaftlicher Stabilisierung erreicht, was jedoch die Privatisierung anbetrifft, blieben die Ergebnisse des Prozesses insgesamt mangelhaft. Es ist ganz offensichtlich, dass mit dem Beginn der marktwirtschaftlichen Reformen das Bewusstsein für die volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Unternehmertums, insbesondere der KMU, unter den politischen Entscheidungsträgern allerdings nicht mit der notwendigen Geschwindigkeit gewachsen ist. Die Rolle der kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen für die Volkswirtschaft sowie die Instrumente und Methoden, um eine moderne wettbewerbsfähige Marktwirtschaft aufzubauen und institutionell zu kräftigen, waren den Entscheidungsträgern in den Georgien aus Mangel an früheren Erfahrungen zunächst unbekannt. Deswegen wurde es versäumt, Maßnahmen zur Förderung der kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen zu erarbeiten. Dies führt bis heute zu transformationsbedingten politischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Problemen, welche die Entstehung eines starken Mittelstands bremsen. Die Ergebnisse der Forschung zeigen, dass auf die makroökonomische Ebene bezogen das produktive „Entrepreneurship“ einen Schlüssel zu Wachstum und Dynamik der Wirtschaft darstellt. Unternehmerische Aktivitäten ermöglichen einerseits eine effiziente Allokation der Ressourcen, andererseits treiben sie durch die Entwicklung neuer Produkte und Dienstleistungen den Wettbewerb an. Darüber hinaus erfüllen sie im praktischen Wirtschaftsleben aber noch weitere wichtige Funktionen: Vor allem gewährleisten sie den technischen Fortschritt, indem sie Innovationen durchsetzen, sie tragen zum Entstehen von Arbeitsplätzen bei und beschleunigen die wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung, indem sie brach liegende Potenziale mobilisieren. Es ist jedoch unbedingt notwendig, dass die rechtlichen und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen korrekt festgesetzt sind, damit die Entrepreneure diese Ziele erreichen können. Die Analyse des Status quo in Georgien hat verdeutlicht, dass die überwiegende Zahl der kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen in den Bereichen Handel und Dienstleistungen beschäftigt ist. Die Tätigkeit von vielen davon ist eher als „Proprietorship“ statt „Entrepreneurship“ zu charakterisieren. Die Ursache, dass sich in Georgien eine unproduktive Form unternehmerischer Tätigkeit entwickelt hat, ist u. a. auf Staatsversagen zurückzuführen. Wie in der Anfangsphase versagt der Staat bis heute bei der Bereitstellung der notwendigen Rahmenbedingungen und der Festlegung gerechter Spielregeln, und darunter leiden kleine und mittlere Unternehmen stärker als die großen. Da die notwendigen Rahmenbedingungen in Georgien noch nicht im gewünschten Maße bereitgestellt sind, und die Institutionen einfach fehlen, erschwert das weiter die Funktion der Märkte, sodass die kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen auch durch die Märkte benachteiligt werden.

The goal of the present thesis is to explore the activity and assess the situation of a private dental office and to propose measures to improve its prosperity. The results of the said analysis and proposals may be utilised by either the current practitioner-entrepreneur or her daughter, a fresh practitioner. It is a partial goal to identify the key specifics of dental practitioner entreprising. In the theoretical part, I focus my attention to the specifics of small and medium businesses and characterise the individual aspects of management, marketing, personal management, and financial management. In the practical part, I apply the gathered theoretical findings in identifying the factors affecting the prosperity of a private dental office and laying down proposals to maintain the current situation and improving it in the future. Some of the proposed measures have already been applied in practice in the course of completion of this diploma thesis.

This diploma thesis deals with product launch marketing plan on B2B engineering market. The aim is to describe the marketing plan and comment it in terms of complexity and depth of this plan. The theoretical part describes the marketing plan and its parts considering the specifics of small business on B2B market. The practical part covers comments on the particular marketing plan in detail and suggests indicators which evaluate successful product launch. Finally, the conclusion evaluates marketing plan briefly and presents several suggestions to improve the plan based on specialized publications.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-11-17T12:23:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Luiz dos Santos_.pdf: 236797 bytes, checksum: 1ea25dedb31908a3e825ad6332e626fe (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-17T12:23:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Luiz dos Santos_.pdf: 236797 bytes, checksum: 1ea25dedb31908a3e825ad6332e626fe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-08 / IFTO - Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Tocantins / O objetivo do presente trabalho é analisar como as pequenas e medias empresas (PMEs) industriais do Tocantins gerenciam suas diferentes fontes de financiamento. No intuito de realizar esta verificação, construiu-se um protocolo de pesquisa elaborado a partir dos construtos indicados na revisão da literatura. Posteriormente, foram realizadas entrevistas individuais, in loco, e os representantes das PMEs responderam as questões acerca dos tópicos Conhecimento, Finanças, Gestão, Fontes de financiamento e Políticas públicas. Os resultados apontaram que as empresas têm utilizado, em sua maioria, os recursos próprios. Há queixas sobre a dificuldade de acesso ao crédito e os altos juros vigentes. Existe a percepção da disponibilidade de recursos, mas os obstáculos encontrados não permitem que as empresas consigam aproveitar fontes externas. / The objective of this study is to analyze the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) Industrial Tocantins manage their different funding sources. In order to perform this check, built up a research protocol drawn from the constructs indicated in the literature review. Subsequently, individual interviews were conducted on the spot, and representatives of SMEs answered questions about topics Knowledge, Finance, Management, financing sources and public policies. The results showed that companies have used mostly their own resources. There are complaints about the difficulty of access to credit and high current interest. There is a perception of the availability of resources, but the obstacles encountered not allow companies able to take advantage of external sources.