Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 92% of all Ghana firms, providing 60% of citizens' employment and contributing about 70% of Ghana's income from gross domestic products. Within the first 5 years of operation, 40% of new businesses fail. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by Ghanaian SME manufacturing leaders in the fruit industry to sustain business for longer than 5 years of operation. The conceptual framework for this study was open systems theory and complexity theory. The population for this study was 5 Ghanaian SME manufacturing business leaders in the fruit industry who maintained their businesses longer than 5 years of operation. The data sources were semistructured face-to-face interviews, interview notes, and the organizations' manuals for standard operations. Data collected were transcribed, member checked, analytically coded, and analyzed using Yin's 5-stage method of qualitative data analysis. Four themes emerged: training and capacity building, the need for good equipment and good packaging, the availability of working capital, and the need for target marketing. The implications of this study for positive social change include lowering high unemployment, alleviating poverty, supporting community development, and enhancing economic growth in the country.

本研究最主要的目的在於瞭解：在臺灣中小企業眾多型態的合作關係中，不同型態合作關係所呈現的不同特性，是如何影響合作雙方共識之形成，並進而影響其維繫並管理此一合作關係的方式。本研究引用與組織間合作關係有關的文獻，包括以動態觀點的研究、資源依賴理論、網路理論，以及社會學者的田野觀察結果等，從中整理出本研究的觀念架構。自變數為「合作任務特性」，包含「合作關係經濟本質」、「合作成員互動特性」兩部份；中介變數為「共識凝聚型態」，包含「對彼此互賴程度的預期」、「成員默契形成之程度」兩部份；應變數為「合作關係維持機制」。本研究運用定性研究方式，在針織染整、進口化學原料，以及鐵門窗製造產業中，各選取一家中小企業作為深度訪談對象，了解其各種對外合作關係的運作本質，以其為分析單位，並利用前述之架構發展命題，所獲之研究發現如下： 一、「合作關係之經濟本質」與「對彼此互賴程度的預期」間具有正向之關聯。二、「成員互動特性」與「成員形成默契之程度」間亦具有正向之關聯。 三、「對彼此互賴程度的預期」高，「成員彼此形成默契之程度」高的合作者，其對合作效率的重視度高於公平，以默契、交情、合作利益降 低不確定性並化解衝突，工作角色與人際互動互為輔翼。 四、「對彼此互賴程度的預期」高，「成員彼此形成默契之程度」低的合作者，其對合作效率的重視度同於公平，以資訊蒐集降低不確定性，以較高之談判力主導衝突之解決，並以工作角色作為雙方互動的主軸。 五、「對彼此互賴程度的預期」低，「成員彼此形成默契之程度」高的合作者，其對合作效率的重視度同於公平，以交情、網路成員制裁力降低不確定性，依行規解決衝突，並以人際關係作為主要互動方式。 六、「對彼此互賴程度的預期」低，「成員彼此形成默契之程度」低的合作者，其對合作效率的重視度低於公平，以提高對方之依存度降低不確定性，顧忌較少的衝突常造成合作關係瓦解，以工作角色作為主要互動方式。

Despite the widely acknowledged contention that pollution control measures would be less beneficial than pollution prevention technologies in the long run, pollution control approaches remain a popular solution for organizations seeking, or coerced, to engage in corporate environmentalism. Drawing on the conceptual underpinnings of the Theory of Planned Behaviour as an integrative framework, this study combines the tenets of five major management theories - institutional, stakeholder, planned behaviour, resource-based view, and life-cycle management - to examine how and why small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) embrace dissimilar approaches to implementing green initiatives under different circumstances. This research adopted a nested, multiple-case design to explore why some organizations have been able to obtain beneficial effects from their green initiative implementation while others have not. The findings, based on the experiences of s even SMMEs, which implemented a total of 27 green initiatives in their production operations, reveal that legislative requirements, stakeholders' expectations, organizations' natural environmental orientation, as well as their environmental resource base and capabilities, jointly drive corporate environmental strategies. The case study found that the higher the external pressures, a combination of legislative requirements and stakeholder expectations, the more likely it was for SMMEs to adopt quick-fix, off-the-shelve solutions, which typically carried limited short-term benefits with associated high long-term costs. By contrast, less intense external pressures offer firms the opportunities to explore plausible options and exploit internal resource capabilities to advantage, giving rise to the adoption of more sustainable approaches. The study further discovers that experiential learning, i.e., a firm's ability to learn from its green initiative implementation experience, separates SMMEs capable of capital izing on the values of their implemented green initiatives to gain competitive advantages and redefine competition from those that are immersed in a cognitive lock-in, unable to free themselves from an unproductive green wall. The findings suggest that nurturing organizational learning among environmentally resistive firms could transform them into environmentally responsible enterprises. The study concludes by interpreting its findings into a number of theoretical propositions for theory building in corporate environmental management.

<p>Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a global concern and has been adopted by many largemultinational corporations. Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the mostcommon type of business in the EU including Sweden, yet most research on CSR has beenfocused on large corporations. As SMEs run in various settings and there have been littleempirical studies on CSR in SMEs, the purpose of this study is to fill a part of the researchgap and provide an in-depth look at CSR in SME to investigate specific barriers and/oropportunities to addressing CSR. This study reviews the relevant literature of CSR in SMEs.Through semi-constructed interviews with two small-sized organic product companies inSweden, this study analyzed CSR from an SME perspective in a Swedish context by CSRtheory and Resource-Based View (RBV). According to the findings, the main barrier for CSRfor the case companies is financial recourse constraints, while the main opportunity is theircapability for communication. This study contributes and motivates CSR in SMEs bydemonstrating how they understand CSR, how they communicate with both internal andexternal stakeholders of their best practices, and providing examples to share the experiencesfor SMEs.</p>

Background Globalization has opened up new possibilities for firms of all sizes to operate internationally. In that context, especially small- and medium sized companies often have limited resources and market power, which makes efficient relationship building with new intermediaries a key component when entering foreign markets. Therefore, approaching foreign companies and potentially engaging in new business relationships should be a strategic managerial issue. Purpose The main objective is to analyze how Swedish SMEs in the textile industry should approach German buyers in accordance to their preferences, taking cultural differences into account, as well as maintaining and developing the relationship. The focus will primarily be on the on the stages where the initial contact has been made, thus aiming at advancing in the development process. For this to be achieved, Swedish sellers must know what values to communicate to their counterpart. Method A qualitative approach has been used in order answer the purpose of the thesis. We have gathered our data from ten in-depth interviews; five with Swedish sellers and five with German buyers. The essential part of the data collection was done over telephone. Conclusion The most critical components that are found to be vital in developing a successful buyer-seller relationship include trust, satisfaction and commitment with all their related aspects. It was found that the product offer plays a critical role in the Early Stage of the relationship development process. Communication is essential for the building of trust and satisfaction and supplements the actions of commitment shown by the parties. Having an understanding on what values the counterpart appreciates and when these are especially important in the respective stages of the relationship building enables the firm to adapt its relationship marketing to the buyers preferences in a cost efficient and successful way.

Business Administration, Business Process &amp; Supply Chain Management, Degree Project (master), 15 higher education credits, 4FE06E, Spring 2013 Authors: Doruntina Pacarizi and Ya-Hui Hsu Tutor: Petra Andersson Title: Conflicting Goal and its Impact on the Level of Supply Chain Integration between Supply Chain Partners in the Automotive Industry – From Manufacturing SME’s Perspective Background: Supply chain integration assists SMEs to improve their operational performance, however the existing theories in supply chain integration are mostly from the LEs perspective. Therefore this thesis chose to focus on the level of supply chain integration from manufacturing SMEs perspective. Nevertheless supply chain integration is not simple due to conflicting goal, which exists between supply chain partners. Based on previous knowledge, the level of supply chain integration is affected by conflicting goal, which exits between supply chain partners. We believe that this is based on how the conflicting goal has been managed. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to obtain an understanding if the level of integration in the automotive industry between the manufacturing SME and its customer is affected by how the conflicting has been managed. Method: This thesis is a multiple case study and was conducted with a deductive approach. The empirical findings were gathered through qualitative interviews with semi-structured interview guides. Conclusions: The conclusions of this thesis are that the level of supply chain integration, which exists between manufacturing SME and its customer, is low/medium. Furthermore, the conflicting goal, which exists between these partners, are that the demand of delivery and volume flexibility, storage flexibility, demand of quality level and the relatively high manufacturing complexity as well as downstream complexity. Finally, the result of this thesis shows that the level of supply chain integration is affected by how the conflicting goal has been managed.

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The knowledge and theories of strategic planning derive mainly from studies of big companies. Only exceptionally have studies been carried out to examine the conditions of planning in small and medium-sized firms. In view of this, the main purpose of this work is to contribute to the development of know­ledge of the phenomenon of planning in small and medium-sized firms, using theoretical and empirical studies. The research process has been a continuous interaction between theory and empirical data. Through teoretical studies we have penetrated environmental and strategic issues of importance for the planning process, and this section concludes with a developed frame of reference which rests on three main com­ponents, the task environment, the firm viewed as a planning system and the planning process. Together these components are said to produce plans which have the ultimate purpose of creating better conditions for the firm to interact with its environment. A multimethodological approach (triangulation) is used in the empirical phase of the study. Via a comprehensive questionnaire, primarily quantitative data of structural conditions and relationships were gathered. Eurthermore, nine case studies were executed in order to increase the know­ledge and understanding of the interaction of structure and process and, finally, a single company was studied over a period of several years with an intimate action reseach strategy. In this study we have found that formal and comprehensive strategic planning only takes place in a minority of the firms studied. Instead their planning is usually based on more informal and spontaneous processes. This should not be interpreted as implying a unified way of creating strategic planning. On the contrary, there are a variety of different planning styles, each based on specific conditions. This indicates that the planning process is contingent upon a number of factors and in this study we have found that there is a normal agreement between the environmental situation, the organizational characteristics and the planning style. An analysis of these dimensions shows that they represent forces which strive towards harmony with each other in order to make the firm successful. Three natural planning-archetypes have been found where there is a corres­pondence between the enviroment, intrinsical structure and planning style. The first of these is given the ideograph "programming" and is recognized by a plan­ning process where the "primus motor" is derived from the existing operations. The second archetype is called "arranging", based on the fact that these organi­zations, by minor and frequent adjustments, are trying to find exploitable niches. The third category we distinguished is termed "creative". All their future-orientated actions are based on the significant actors and their capa­bility to visualize the future, expressing certain goals and how to achieve them. / <p>retroaktiv registrering</p> / digitalisering@umu

International entrepreneurship (IE) is “a combination of innovative, proactive and risk-seeking behaviour that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations”. The IE literature has been concerned with entrepreneurial behaviour in multiple countries and cross-border studies of entrepreneurship and international activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Due to the potential for SMEs to serve as significant sources of export, considerable research has been conducted regarding their internationalization. However, despite attempts to integrate concrete frameworks of international entrepreneurship, some primary issues have not been adequately addressed and IE researchers are faced with challenges including insufficient micro-data for advancing quality research. The main objective of this thesis is to study and explore the limitations on researchers to access governmental data regarding small firms operating internationally and use it for scientific purposes. Despite company data being compiled and publicly available in some countries, such as Germany, other countries, including Canada, have not made any such efforts in a coherent way. There is a significant disconnect in the Canadian context between internationalization and firms’ data. This shortcoming may stem from various sources, including the legal framework in Canada for accessing data and a lack of sufficient financial support and expertise to gather and integrate such data. Furthermore, the type of data available to the research community through statistical institutions were identified and analyzed, as were access methods. With the increasing interest of researchers in accessing data gathered by the government, the formation of anonymized records or anonymized micro-datasets has acquired great importance. Therefore, the primary approach is to explore the extent to which data regarding firms’ characteristics and internationalization activities are currently available to the research community, as well as to ensure the confidentiality of official statistics, most notably in the Canadian context. The research resulted in the confirmation of data availability in Canada through government and statistical organizations. The latter bodies can provide researchers and research organizations access to some data but limitations arise in providing micro-datasets to researchers due to confidentiality issues; these constraints were identified and further analyzed. Moreover, this research has studied methods to overcome these limitations and assess the shortcomings in micro-data in order to advance quality research. Methods and recommendations were introduced and studied to allow researchers access to essential data and information while maintaining confidentiality.

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of entrepreneurial team demographics, environmental scanning and networking on innovativeness. For this purpose, small and medium enterprises in Bursa region were chosen. A total of 74 general managers/owners filled out the questionnaire. Information about company, team members and firms&rsquo / environmental scanning, innovativeness and networking activities was collected. As hypothesized, findings supported the view that entrepreneurial team demographics (age heterogeneity and average educational level), environmental scanning and networking (networking with customers, competitors and particularly with public agencies) play a significant role in innovativeness of SMEs after controlling the significant effect of team size. The results were discussed together with the implications of the findings for managers and on the policies of government, public organizations and educational institutions, strengths and limitations of the study. Some suggestions for future research were made.