The study is based on a comparison between franchises and independent businesses. The purpose of the study is to have a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of SMEs and franchise businesses in Rustenburg (North West Province) and its environs. A number of textbooks, published works and web articles on SMEs and franchise businesses were used in determining definitions and advantages and disadvantages that are experienced by the entrepreneur. A survey research design was used with a questionnaire as data-gathering instrument. The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine the experience and viewpoints of the entrepreneurs towards SMEs and franchise businesses. The study population consisted of 71 entrepreneurs who operate in the business environment of Rustenburg (North West Province) and its environs. Limitations in the research were identified and several recommendations were made in order to guide the entrepreneur in choosing a business that will suit his/her needs. The findings of the study offer advantages and disadvantages for both the franchise and independent businesses. The research results lead the entrepreneur to seek for a good business opportunity that will add value in terms of enterprise development, ownership, and financial benefits. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

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Work-life balance is a dominant discourse in contemporary Western society. It has been built on a language of large organizations, hence has not been widely considered in relation to the small-medium enterprise sector. As a consequence, scant research has been conducted on the experiences of immigrant entrepreneurs and work-life balance within the small-medium enterprise sector in New Zealand, a country largely populated with migrants and small businesses which account for 96 per cent of the total enterprises. This study aims to fill this gap by firstly exploring the interpretations of the concept of work-life balance by Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs and, secondly, the main challenges they face in achieving work-life balance. This is done by drawing on literatures including those on work-life balance, small-medium enterprises, and immigrant entrepreneurship theories. Primary research was conducted using a critical interpretive approach where the researcher is an insider to the study. This philosophical and methodological approach makes it possible to give a minority group a voice to effect social change and gain further research attention. Fifteen Chinese business owners, chosen from a variety of industries within the Auckland region, participated in this study. A qualitative methodological technique and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data for the case study on these entrepreneurs. The results indicate that the majority do not enjoy a sense of work-life balance because they take on filial obligations important for their own culture. They need to work hard to generate financial profit for the benefit of family. About half of them work more than 60 hours per week and three works longer than 70 hours weekly. The motivation for them to work in this way is to provide their family with desirable housing and to enable their children to meet higher education goals. This study challenges the applicability of the work-life balance discourse among the immigrant entrepreneurs who perceive the concept differently based on their cultural values. The results emphasise the need for business case studies from Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs and research attention on contemporary human resource topics to be given to minority groups.

Aim: The purpose of this research is to develop an in-depth understanding on the environmental factors that influence the internationalization of SMEs in an emerging African market environment. Methods: The study was conducted by using a qualitative research design. To fulfil the purpose of this research, the researchers adopted the use of a single case study to explain the different aspects of the topic being studied within the emerging market context. The research was supported with primary data obtained directly from the company through interviews and also with secondary data in order to support and compare the results obtained from this research. Results were analyzed using thematic analysis with the use of the NVivo software to represent data collected. Results: The main findings of this research indicate the internationalization process of financial SMEs in an African country like Ghana is heavily influenced by the socio-cultural factors in their home market environment and the technological factors in their host markets. Again, it was realized that the internal resources of the firm, particularly the competitive advantage, remained highly relevant and influential in the internationalization process on both markets. Furthermore, it was found that the internationalization process was not only influenced by the firm’s resources or the environmental factors but also by the firm’s organizational internal processes, international activities, level of foreign experiences and firm identity. Conclusions: Environmental factors have both positive and negative influence on the internationalization process of financial SMEs in an emerging economy like Ghana. Some factors have more impact on the home market than on the host market and vice versa. In addition, the internationalization process of financial SMEs in Ghana can mostly be initiated and successful when the firm has a market gap or foothold strong enough to sustain competitive advantage in the long run on both host and home markets. More importantly, this unique edge must be buttressed by ample firm resources.

A presente tese trata do tema redes de cooperação interorganizacionais no contexto brasileiro. O estudo aborda uma política pública governamental desenvolvida no Sul do Brasil voltada a ampliar a competitividade das pequenas empresas e gerar desenvolvimento econômico e social através do incentivo a formação de redes de cooperação entre empresas. O objetivo principal da tese é identificar e compreender os principais fatores que afetam a gestão de redes de cooperação. A partir de uma pesquisa quantitativa realizada em uma amostra de 443 empresas participantes de 120 redes, os resultados evidenciaram os principais elementos de gestão. O Programa Redes de Cooperação, desenvolvido pelo Governo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, trata-se de uma política pública que, desde o ano 2000, objetiva o fortalecimento competitivo de pequenas empresas e o desenvolvimento socioeconômico regional. Esse programa sustenta-se em três pilares de atuação: a) uma metodologia de formação, consolidação e expansão de redes entre empresas; b) uma estrutura regionalizada de suporte à implementação formada por uma rede de universidades regionais e c) uma coordenação central por parte do Governo do Estado, responsável pelos instrumentos de promoção, orientação e apoio aos empresários e gestores das redes. Cabe destacar que o caso estudado envolve 120 redes de cooperação, nas quais participam três mil empresas que, juntas, empregam 35.000 pessoas e faturam mais de US$ 1 bilhão. Além disso, a relação próxima com as universidades vem possibilitando uma interação acadêmica em nível nacional que tem gerado avanços teórico-práticos para o fortalecimento da cooperação interorganizacional. Com base nas referências teóricas e em evidências observadas por estudos exploratórios, realizados ex ante no campo de pesquisa, identificaram-se cinco atributos de gestão de redes – mecanismos sociais, aspectos contratuais, motivação e comprometimento, integração com flexibilidade e organização estratégica – e cinco benefícios – ganhos de escala e de poder de mercado, provisão de soluções, aprendizagem e inovação, redução de custos e riscos, e relações sociais. Para confirmação ou não dos dez fatores identificados ex ante e o seu grau de importância, realizou-se uma análise conjunta em uma amostra de 443 proprietários de empresas de uma população de 3.087 associados às 120 redes do programa. Os dados empíricos foram coletados pelo pesquisador em 2005, sendo agregados e processados através do programa estatístico SPSS versão 12.0. Os resultados obtidos pela análise conjunta confirmaram a importância dos dez fatores identificados. Nenhum dos fatores destacou-se significativamente em relação aos demais, o que indica que todos eles têm impacto semelhante na gestão das redes. No campo de estudos sobre redes interorganizacionais, as conclusões da pesquisa contribuíram para uma melhor compreensão dos fatores que influenciam em maior ou menor grau a gestão de redes de cooperação. Demonstraram empiricamente, no caso brasileiro, a coerência de postulados teóricos, desenvolvidos por pesquisas realizadas em outros contextos. No que tange às políticas públicas, os resultados evidenciaram que a promoção da cooperação em redes possibilita ganhos competitivos para as pequenas empresas. No âmbito organizacional, os fatores realçados poderão orientar os gestores nas suas decisões estratégicas no sentido de ampliar os ganhos competitivos da ação em rede. / The present thesis deals with interorganizational cooperation within the Brazilian context. This study focuses on a public policy developed in the Southern region of Brazil and aimed at increasing the competitiveness of small firms and generating economic and social development by stimulating cooperation networks among them. The primary objective of this thesis is to identify understand the main factors of the management of cooperation networks. Through a quantitative research carried out in a sample composed of 443 executives and 120 networks, it was demonstrated the main elements of management. The Cooperation Networks Program, developed by the Government of Rio Grande do Sul State is a public policy that, since the year 2000, has been operating with the aim of sponsoring and helping the development of cooperation networks in the South of Brazil. The PRC is founded upon three pillars of action: a) a methodology of development, consolidation, and expansion of networks in firms; b) a regionalized structure composed of a network of regional universities in order to provide implementation support; and c) a central coordination under the responsibility of the State Government in charge of promotion, guidance and support to executives and network managers. It is worth mentioning that the case study in this work involved 120 cooperation networks composed of three thousand firms that, altogether, employ 35,000 people and earn over US$ 1 billion. Moreover, a close relationship has been established with local universities generating theoretical and practical advances that will strength the interorganizational cooperation. The theoretical references and the evidences provided by exploratory studies, conducted ex ante in the research field, allowed the author to identify five networks management attributes: social mechanisms; contractual aspects; motivation and commitment; integration with flexibility and strategic organization; and five benefits of networks: scale and market power gains; provision of solutions; learning and innovation; cost and risk reduction; and social relations. For confirmation or not of the ten factors identified ex ante and the level of importance related to the competitiveness of the firms, a conjoint analysis was conducted in a sample composed of 443 owners of 3,087 firms associated with 120 networks belonging to the PRC. The researcher collected the empirical data in 2005. The data was analyzed and processed through the statistical program SPSS, 12.0 version. The results obtained from the conjoint analysis confirmed the importance of the ten identified factors. None of the factors were significantly distinct from the other, which indicated that all factors have similar impact on the networks management. The conclusions of this research may contribute to the field of interorganizational networks by providing a better understanding of the factors that influence (in lower or higher degree) the management of cooperation networks. In the Brazilian case, the evidences of this research helped the author to empirically demonstrate the pertinence of some theoretical assumptions on networks, proposed by previous researches conducted in other contexts. As for the public policies, the results revealed that promoting cooperation through networks results in competitive gains for small firms. At a national level, the factors presented herein will possibly guide managers in their strategic decisions in order to increase competitive gains of the network action.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o papel das micro, pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) italianas e brasileiras nos processos de integração européia e no Mercosul, respectivamente. A pesquisa revelou profundas diferenças no papel desempenhado por essas empresas em cada bloco e no tratamento dispensado ao seu desenvolvimento. O estudo constatou que na União Européia e, particularmente, na Itália, houve grande valorização das PMEs, com a preocupação de criar um ambiente empresarial favorável à sua competitividade. No Mercosul e no Brasil, ao contrário, essas empresas não foram objeto de políticas com tal objetivo. O trabalho realizou uma descrição das PMEs de ambos países – a partir de três dimensões: o financiamento, a informação/inovação e o poder político – e de seus vínculos com os respectivos blocos. O método de estudo de caso foi escolhido por considerá-lo o mais apropriado para caracterizar as particulares relações das micro, pequenas e médias empresas italianas e brasileiras com os dois blocos econômicos, europeu e mercosulino. / This work aims to analyze the italian and brazilian micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) role in the european and Mercosur processes of integration, respectively. The research has revealed deep differences with respect to the role played for these enterprises in each bloc, and to the treatment given by those blocs to them, in order to SMEs development. The study has verified that in the European Union and, particularly, in Italy, there was a great SMEs valorization with the concern to creating an entrepreneurial environment favourable to their competitivity. In Mercosur and in Brazil, by contrast, those enterprises have not been object of politics with such goal. The work has carried out a decription of the both countries SMEs – through three dimensions: the financing, the information/innovation, and the political power – and their bonds with the respective blocs. The study case method has been chosen for being considerated the most appropriate to characterize the particular relations of italian and brazilian micro, small and medium enterprises with the two economic blocs, the european and the mercosur ones.

O tema abordado nesta dissertação é o desenvolvimento de produtos em redes de cooperação de pequenas e médias empresas, motivações, fatores críticos e a forma de organização do processo. A questão de pesquisa é entender como as redes horizontais de pequenas e médias empresas desenvolvem produtos. O desenvolvimento de produtos é uma importante fonte de competitividade para as empresas, e ao mesmo tempo, um processo complexo e de elevados investimentos, que necessita diferentes habilidades e a integração de uma série de atividades, muitas vezes além da capacidade individual de uma única empresa, mas que pode ser viabilizado pela atuação em rede. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas fases: uma fase exploratória para entender a dinâmica das redes horizontais do programa Redes de Cooperação do Governo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, e verificar a existência de desenvolvimento de produtos nestas redes. Na segunda fase realizou-se um estudo de caso em uma rede que desenvolveu conjuntamente um novo produto. Foram analisados as motivações da rede, os fatores críticos do processo e as etapas do desenvolvimento de produtos. Pôde-se concluir que as motivações para desenvolver produtos são múltiplas e podem apresentar diferenças na percepção de cada associado. Quanto aos fatores críticos do desenvolvimento de produtos em rede, foi confirmada a influência de um elevado número de fatores e de uma forte inter-relação entre os mesmos. A confiança entre os associados, o comprometimento com a rede e o processo de formação da rede tiveram uma importância destacada. Outras constatações foram as de que o estágio de desenvolvimento em que a rede se encontra é importante para o desenvolvimento de produtos; e os produtos desenvolvidos pelas redes são pouco inovadores e grande parte do processo é terceirizado por empresas de fora da rede. / The main subject in this study is the product development in small and medium enterprises networks, motivations, critical factors and the process arrangement. The principal concern in this research is to understand how the networks in small and medium enterprises develop products. The product development is an important source of competitiveness, but at the same time, a complex process that needs high investments, different abilities and integration of activities, beyond the net enterprises individual capacity, what can be achieved by network cooperation. The research was carried out in two stages. The first one is an analytical study to understand the horizontal network dynamics in the Cooperation Networks Program of the Rio Grande do Sul State Government and to verify the existence of product development in these networks. The second stage shows a case study in a network that developed a new product. This study explains the network process and the product development stages, analyzing the net motivations and the critical factors. Some of the conclusions shows that the motivations to develop products are several and can be different for each net member. Concerning to the product development critical factors in small and medium enterprises network, the influence of the factors such as trust and commitment with the net were found. Another findings were that the network stage of development is important to the product development, the product developed by the network is not innovative and most of the development process is done by outsourcing enterprises outside the network.

O aumento nos investimentos e o crescente avanço da tecnologia da informação (TI) têm elevado o número de empresas que estão utilizando-a como ferramenta estratégica com o intuito de aperfeiçoar o desempenho e obter vantagem competitiva. À medida que esses investimentos tornam-se mais acessíveis financeiramente, mais rápida é a sua popularização entre as micro e pequenas empresas (MPE). Por outro lado, apesar dos benefícios aparentemente óbvios da TI, há dúvidas quanto ao seu impacto, principalmente para as MPE. É nesse contexto que o objetivo geral desta dissertação é medir o impacto dos investimentos em tecnologia da informação nas variáveis estratégicas organizacionais e no desempenho de micro e pequenas empresas. Para atingir esse objetivo, foram identificadas na literatura variáveis estratégicas e de desempenho para elaboração do instrumento de pesquisa. O método utilizado foi a pesquisa survey, e um modelo conceitual foi elaborado e validado por meio de testes estatísticos. A pesquisa foi realizada com 235 MPE, utilizando-se a modelagem de equações estruturais para a avaliação do modelo conceitual e das hipóteses da pesquisa. Constatou-se que há um impacto positivo dos investimentos realizados em TI na gestão de clientes com o desempenho de custos, vendas e produtividade. Detectou-se, ainda, que os investimentos em TI nas MPE impactam principalmente as variáveis Cliente e Eficiência Organizacional Interna, e verificou-se que, quando são realizados os investimentos em TI para o gerenciamento dos clientes e da empresa, maior parece ser o benefício trazido pelos investimentos em TI ao desempenho da organização. / The increase in investments and the growing information technology (IT) advances have raised the number of companies that are using IT. To be successful, organizations are increasingly investing in IT, using as a strategic tool in order to improve performance and to gain competitive advantage. As these investments become more financially accessible, faster is its popularization by micro and small enterprises (SMEs). On the other hand, despite the seemingly obvious benefits of IT, there are doubts about their impact, especially for SME. In this context, the general objective of this work is to measure the impact of investments in information technology in organizational strategic variables and performance of micro and small enterprises. To achieve this goal have been identified in the literature strategic variables and performance for development of the survey instrument. The method used was survey research and a conceptual model was developed and validated through statistical tests. The survey was conducted by 235 SME. We used structural equation modeling to evaluate the conceptual model and research hypotheses. It was identified that there is a positive impact of IT investments in customer management with cost performance, sales and productivity. It was also identified that IT investments in SMEs primarily impact the client variables and Internal Organizational Efficiency and it was found that it is carried out IT investments for managing customers and the management of the company, the greater seems to be brought benefit by IT to organizational performance.

The aim of the thesis on the topic: Creating a business plan was a comprehensive literature search process based on the study of literature and the subsequent creation of a business plan so that it can be used as a realistic basis for the authority to implement in practice. The submitter of the business plan is the ISS Czech sro, which until the end of 2012 plans to open his own store, which also served as a supply point for already established Internet business if the business plan show that it is for the company from a strategic and marketing perspective advantageous.

The aim of the study is the characterization of process management in selected small and medium enterprises, review the level of the individual processes, influence processes to achieve strategic goals. The diploma thesis is divided into theoretical and application part. The theoretical part contains basic knowledges on process management. This information is obtained by the study of literature and scientific articles. The application part includes an analysis of process management, strategic policy goals, assessment of the processes influencing the goals. Both companies are compared. Appropriate recommendations for companies are proposed to basis of the comparison.