Background: Nowadays, organizations face an increased occurrence and magnitude ofsystemic risks in their supply chain. For SMEs, these risks are even more prominent due toresources and capacity constraints, especially if they are positioned within global trade dyadssuch as the Europe-Asia dyad. As is it reasonable to assume that the near future will see otherexamples of disrupting events within this dyad, this study focuses on SMEs in the Europe-Asiadyad facing systemic risks. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to uncover how European SMEs within Europe-Asiadyads can strategically navigate and optimize their SCRM approach to counter systemic risks,harmonizing the adoption of the SCRM process and a cost-benefit approach to enhance theirrisk preparedness. Methods: This study has a qualitative and deduction approach with an exploratory purpose.Data is gathered though semi structured interviews within five case companies. Findings/Contribution: SMEs who are more dependent on the Europe-Asia dyad usually havemore SCRM practices in place. As a result, SMEs with solid SCRM processes have an increasedlevel of risk preparedness. However, SMEs also aim to stay agile to leverage for their smallsize and limited resources. The empirical findings also show that SMEs with less preparednessoften rely on a fast and agile reactive measure to tackle risks in their Europe-Asia supply chain.This level of preparedness directly influences the level of which SMEs use CBA within SCRM,which the leads to even more preparedness to systemic risks. Furthermore, SMEs with a highlevel of preparedness utilize CBA on a more advanced level than SMEs who showcase lowerpreparedness. It also offers valuable insights for both academics and practitioners on optimizingSMEs' risk management strategies. Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM)– Europe-Asia Dyad – Systemic Risks – Risk Preparedness – Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)

Businesses nowadays are increasingly adopting new technologies to obtain competitive advantages. Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands out as an advanced, novel technology that has potential benefits across industries. The fast-food industry is one such industry that is highly competitive, evolving, and requires advanced technologies to cater to modern customers who increasingly demand fast, digitized services. Increased customer engagement has also become a main driving force to adopt technologies since these consumers demand quick, personalized, digitized services. The fast-food industry, compared to other industries, produces food that is perishable, and quick, which demands proper handling before, during, and after preparation, for instant consumption. Services should be quick, fast, and accessible, where adopting advanced technologies has become a necessity for the industry players' survival. Larger organizations have successfully adopted AI and have harnessed a competitive advantage. Conversely, Smaller and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have successfully adopted digital technologies, assuming it as AI. They have not yet translated to adopt AI, which could threaten their survival and competitiveness in a highly evolving, dynamic industry. On the other hand, AI is a novel technology that has much potential, yet many are unaware of where the technology is heading, specifically, SMEs have a limited understanding and exposure to this technology, demanding more research.  The main purpose of this study is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how fast-food SMEs in Sweden perceive AI, the reasons for non-adoption, and the reasons influencing the behavioral intention to utilize AI for customer engagement within the organization. The study utilizes the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to analyze how performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions influence individual SMEs' behavioral intentions towards AI adoption on customer engagement by studying it from an individual, organizational context. Through qualitative interviews with fast-food SME owners, IT managers, and marketing managers, the research explored a nuanced understanding of how AI is being perceived by SMEs, challenges, barriers, and factors influencing their adoption behavior.  The research findings indicated that AI technology itself is immature and the immediate business use case is not apparent for SMEs. It was also revealed that SMEs have a misconception between AI and digital technologies. Though there is enthusiasm and willingness to adopt AI within SMEs, significant challenges remain, such as a lack of understanding about AI, resource constraints, complexity, skills, and influences from competitors and stakeholders. The research identified factors specific to SMEs that contribute to extending the UTAUT framework, such as customized payment plans, establishing technology associations, and new business models suiting SMEs. It was further evidenced that customer engagement is not an impactful mediator that influences AI adoption within SMEs. It was concluded that though SMEs have the potential to improve performance, their adoption is limited due to the immaturity of AI and due to identified challenges.

La presente investigación tiene como propósito analizar la gestión de los responsables de las mypes chiclayanas durante el desarrollo de crisis como consecuencia de la pandemia del Covid-19. Este estudio se basó en un enfoque cualitativo, de diseño fenomenológico, de tipo básica y de nivel descriptivo. Para lo cual, se desarrolló una entrevista semiestructura con 22 preguntas basada en el modelo de Alves, Lok y Luo (2020), teniendo como unidad de análisis a 12 responsables de mypes. Los resultados indicaron que la Prevención de Crisis es una de las etapas fundamentales para la percepción de la crisis debido a que se encuentran grandes dilemas como las pérdidas económicas, la evaluación de utilizar antiguas estrategias y sobre todo la preparación adecuada de sus representantes; asimismo, la Gestión de Crisis durante la coyuntura es un momento crítico para la supervivencia de sus empresas debido a que deben tomar decisiones orientadas a formar equipos de trabajo con una comunicación constante y distribuir su capital para la adaptación a los nuevos cambios o incluso puedan reinventarse; y por último, los Resultados Postcrisis están orientados hacia el aprendizaje, la adquisición de conocimientos y de reflexión para instruirse en cómo lidiar con su personal, cómo negociar con clientes y proveedores y evaluar alguna modificación para su empresa, de tal modo se logre reducir su tiempo de recuperación, sin dejar de lado la ayuda gubernamental que podrían recibir. / The purpose of this research is to analyze the management of those responsible for Chiclayan mypes during the crisis development as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study was based on a qualitative approach, phenomenological design, basic type and descriptive level. For which, a semi-structured interview was developed with 22 questions based on the model of Alves, Lok and Luo (2020), having 12 managers of mypes as the unit of analysis. The results indicated that Crisis Prevention is one of the fundamental stages for the perception of the crisis because there are great dilemmas such as economic losses, the evaluation of using old strategies and, above all, the adequate preparation of its representatives; Likewise, Crisis Management during the current situation is a critical moment for the survival of their companies because they must make decisions aimed at forming work teams with constant communication and distributing their capital to adapt to new changes or even reinvent themselves. ; and finally, the Post-Crisis Results are oriented towards learning, the acquisition of knowledge and reflection to learn how to deal with your staff, how to negotiate with clients and suppliers and evaluate any modification for your company, in such a way that you can reduce your recovery time, without neglecting the government help they could receive.

M.A. Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / This research report documents diverse impressions and experiences, of and about the South African music industry in general and Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition in particular. Foregrounding the perspectives of black South African entrepreneurs that operate and own small businesses, the research enunciates how Moshito has come to embody an expression of the transition to democracy. Within a broader political, cultural and industrial context, the report captures anecdotes, observations and interviews with key interviewees and decision makers linked to Moshito, in addition to its dialogue with the interconnectedness of various social theories and concepts, and their relationship with industrial and government policy. Necessarily the research also engages literature concerned with cultural industries, music industry and development discourses.

The automation of industrial processes has been one of the greatest innovations in the industrial sector. It allows faster and accurate operations of production processes while producing more outputs than old manual production techniques. In the beverage industry, this innovation was also well embraced, especially to improve its bottling processes. However it has been proven that a continuous optimization of automation techniques using advanced and current trend of automation is the only way industrial companies will survive in a very competitive market. This becomes more challenging for small to medium scale enterprises (SMEs) which are not always keen in adopting new technologies by fear of overspending their little revenues. By doing so, SMEs are exposing themselves to limited growth and vulnerable lifecycle in this fast growing automation world. The main contribution of this study was to develop practical and affordable applications that will optimize the bottling process of a SME beverage plant by combining its existing production resources to basic principles of the current trend of automation, Industry 4.0 (I40). This research enabled the small beverage industry to achieve higher production rate, better delivery time and easy access of plant information through production forecast using linear regression, predictive maintenance using speed vibration sensor and decentralization of production monitoring via cloud applications. The existing plant Siemens S7-1200 programmable logic controller (PLC) and ZENON supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system were used to program the optimized process with very few additional resources. This study also opened doors for automation in SMEs, in general, to use I40 in their production processes with available means and limited cost. / School of Computing / M.Tech (Engineering, Electrical)

Submitted by Álvaro Martins (alvaro.martins@gvmail.br) on 2016-03-18T18:22:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alvaro Martins_Tese_vfinal.pdf: 1497251 bytes, checksum: b5443ff254faa530462fb4f4f168be10 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2016-03-23T18:07:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Alvaro Martins_Tese_vfinal.pdf: 1497251 bytes, checksum: b5443ff254faa530462fb4f4f168be10 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-23T18:31:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alvaro Martins_Tese_vfinal.pdf: 1497251 bytes, checksum: b5443ff254faa530462fb4f4f168be10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / In this competitive environment globalized that we live nowadays there is a growing recognition of the central role of Information Technology (IT) to determine the success of the company, leading to better results. SMEs have also adopted IT with the same purpose, obtaining benefits of such use, but their reality is quite different in most cases of the large enterprises, especially for lack of the same resources and skills in the IT field. Apart from the competition sometimes other factors such as legal requirements in the Brazilian case, requires that companies seeks greater computerization. As companies are in different kind and stages of computerization, and especially also because IT plays a different role in each company, this study aims to determine whether there is a correlation between spending and IT investments and the performance of small and medium Brazilian companies. The study seeks to capture the differences in the outcome of the company arising from the use of IT, and for this observes financial data, taking into account also the executive's perceptions about the role that IT play in business. The methodology involves the application of questionnaires to obtain quantitative data on the profile of the use of IT and financial information; as well as qualitative data on the perception of the Information Technology role in business. After what was applied the cluster analysis technique, which presented four groups with different behaviors in relation to variables, called 'Digital'; 'Prudent'; 'Conservatives' and 'Analog'. The results point to evidences of the relationship between IT spending and investments and the increase of the company's profitability, especially when in the presence of specific perceptions of managers about the role that IT plays in the company. Companies with a higher level of IT expenditure and investment, combined with a strong awareness of managers that IT can contribute positively to the company's objectives, result in a higher level of profitability, while companies whose managers realize, intensely, that IT can not contribute positively to the company's goals, even if the IT spending and investments are considered above average levels, have a lower level of profitability. This work studied 355 small and medium Brazilian companies, and the main conclusion was that the higher the perception of managers of the positive impact of IT in the company's business processes as a whole, the greater the impact of IT spending and investments in profitability company. / No ambiente de competição globalizada que vemos nos dias atuais, há um crescente reconhecimento do papel central da Tecnologia de Informação (TI) para determinar o sucesso da empresa, levando-a a resultados melhores. As pequenas e médias empresas também adotam a TI com o mesmo objetivo de obter benefícios desse uso, porém sua realidade é, na maioria dos casos, bastante diferente da das grandes empresas, especialmente por não possuírem os mesmos recursos e competências na área de TI. Além da competição algumas vezes outros fatores, tais como exigências legais, no caso brasileiro, obrigam as empresas a buscar maior informatização. Como as empresas se encontram em momentos diferentes no que diz respeito ao estágio de informatização, sobretudo ao papel que a área de TI desempenha para cada uma, esta tese tem por objetivo verificar se existe associação entre os gastos e investimentos em TI e o desempenho da pequena e média empresa brasileira. O trabalho busca captar as diferenças no resultado da empresa advindas do uso de TI. Para tanto, observa dados financeiros levando em consideração também a percepção dos executivos sobre os estágios de informatização e o papel que a TI desempenha na empresa. A metodologia adotada envolveu a aplicação de questionários para obtenção de dados quantitativos sobre o perfil do uso de TI e informações financeiras; bem como dados qualitativos sobre a percepção do papel que TI desempenha nas empresas. Posteriormente foi aplicada a técnica de análise de cluster, que apresentou quatro agrupamentos com comportamentos distintos em relação às variáveis, denominados “Digitais”; “Prudentes”; “Conservadores” e “Analógicos”. Os resultados encontrados apontam evidências da relação existente entre os gastos e investimentos em TI e o aumento da lucratividade da empresa, especialmente diante da presença de percepções específicas dos gestores acerca do papel que TI desempenha na empresa. Empresas que apresentam um nível de gastos e investimentos em TI mais elevado, associados com uma forte percepção dos gestores de que a TI pode contribuir positivamente com os objetivos da empresa, resultam em um nível de lucratividade superior; enquanto empresas cujos gestores percebem, de maneira intensa, que a TI não pode contribuir positivamente com os objetivos da empresa, mesmo que façam níveis considerados acima da média de gastos e investimentos em TI, apresentam um nível de lucratividade inferior. Foram estudadas 355 pequenas e médias empresas brasileiras, e a principal conclusão foi que quanto maior a percepção dos gestores do impacto positivo da TI nos processos de negócio da empresa como um todo, tanto maior é o impacto dos gastos e investimentos em TI na lucratividade da empresa.

The study aimed to determine the marketing communication methods used by Namibian clothing and textile SMEs operating from Katutura and Khomasdal Incubation Centres. A quantitative methodological approach was followed in this study. The sample comprised 45 SMEs with business operations at Katutura and Khomasdal Incubation Centres. A simple random sampling method was selected as the researcher made use of an SME name list provided by the City of Windhoek. A structured questionnaire was used to collect research data. Cross tabulations, correlations and descriptive analyses were used to analyse the research results. The research indicated that the top five most regularly used marketing communication methods are direct sales, „word-of-mouth‟, point-of-sale materials, networking, and newspaper advertisement. The least regularly used marketing communication methods are YouTube, television, direct mail, press releases and coupons/vouchers. Networking was the second most important and effective marketing communication method. Trade shows was the third most-preferred marketing communication method and the reasons advanced were „it gives me the opportunity to talk to and interact with my customers‟. It is recommended that the City of Windhoek should create incentives for current SMEs operating from Katutura and Khomasdal Incubation Centre to leave the incubation centre for new upcoming SMEs. Further research is necessary to establish the reasons why SMEs do not grow as expected and graduate from the incubation centres. Further research is also necessary to determine challenges faced by Namibian SMEs when considering which marketing communication methods to use. The conducted research recommends that different media houses be approached to design and determine special marketing packages for SMEs. Special SME development or advert sections can be negotiated with newspaper outlets. The major limitation of this study was that it was confined to clothing and textile manufacturing businesses. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

This diploma thesis deals with Czech economic diplomacy as an instrument or rather tool of the foreign policy of the Czech Republic to promote its economic interests and goals in the People´s Republic of China. Specifically, it deals with the state pro-export policy and state support of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the process of entering Chinese market. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter explores the concept of economic diplomacy and the models of the governance of economic diplomacy in the world as well as in the Czech Republic. The second chapter focuses on the realization of the Czech economic diplomacy in China, analyzes the Czech-Chinese foreign trade and the development of political and diplomatic relations between the two countries. The third chapter is devoted to the SMEs and their penetration of the Chinese market. It explains the importance of the SMEs to the Czech economy and export and defines the phases of the penetration. In this chapter, the author examines how the state supports the SMEs entering the Chinese market and whether this support covers all phases of this complex process. Finally, the author explains why SMEs are not satisfied with the state support of export and outlines possible solutions.

The circular economy has become one of the most crucial business plans for organizations. There is rapid progress in using digital technologies, especially two-sided digital platforms as enablers for various businesses and start-ups to grow rapidly. However, these digital platforms are facing significant obstacles and barriers in advertising their products, growing sales, and improving profitability. There is not enough scientific research and scholarly work that has been undertaken or focused on the strategies to promote the circular economy from the aspect of information systems. The purpose of this research aims to explore the major possible contributing techniques that can be implemented to enhance the utilization of digital platforms as enablers for the circular economy. In this study, qualitative exploratory research has been considered as an adequate and suitable scheme for generating a contextual understanding of the phenomenon. 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were among individuals and within several organizations that are associated with the circular economy. According to the data collected from the survey, the most visible elements that affected the decision of the participants while using the digital platform are price, quality, sustainability, and location. Based on the findings, this study makes critical recommendations to tackle the problems that hinder the development of the circular economy among individuals, companies, and organizations. The recommended themes for circular economy strategies are to increase customer satisfaction, focus on opportunities, improve trustworthiness (online reviews), set up reliable return policies, and increase stakeholder engagement

This study was undertaken to investigate the motivation, intention, self-efficacy, culture, business support,entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of South African and immigrant entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gauteng province. The performance of the SMEs was investigated, and the reasons and gaps that have led to the assumed low competitive ranking and poor performance of South African entrepreneurs compared to immigrant entrepreneurs were analysed. A structured research instrument (questionnaire) was used to collect data through interviews and a self-administered survey. A total of 466 questionnaires out of 500 questionnaires that had been distributed to respondents by six fieldworkers were returned (93.2%) for analysis.A number of hypotheses were postulated to address the study aims and the collected data were analysed to answer the hypotheses. The results of the study showed a significant correlation between motivation and business performance (a motivated entrepreneur is more likely to succeed in business than an unmotivated entrepreneur) and a significant positive correlation between culture and motivation to start a business (a culture that is supportive of entrepreneurial activities, lowuncertainty avoidance, high individualism and lowpower distance relates positively to a high level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy).The results also showed a significant difference between the mean values of business performance and the education of the owner. It is suggested that the government creates a favourable climate to allow entrepreneurs to release their potential. The government can help by making complex legislation easier for start-ups and reducing the tax burden on new entrepreneurs. / Business Management / D. Comm. (Business Management)