The current descriptions of bricolage largely present it as a behaviour in new businesses in richer contexts. Therefore, more diverse context-specific explanations are needed in order to deepen our understanding of bricolage. While Bricolage behaviour has been largely explained in new businesses, in extremely constrained environments, even established firms use bricolage to mobilise resources. This study set out to contribute to the understanding of bricolage by exploring it in an extremely constrained context. Using an interpretivist paradigm, empirical evidence from 8 case studies was collected through in-depth interviews and each is presented in a rich, ‘thick’ description. Through inductive coding, data-driven themes that highlight the nuances of bricolage when settings are extremely poor were derived. The study examines the idiosyncrasies of bricolage behaviour in small established firms, found in poor settings, it finds that, everything is a resource that can be bricolaged. It also finds that there is varied intensity with which underlying constructs of bricolage- making do, using resources at hand and recombining resources are manifested throughout the entrepreneurial process. In the starting phases, making do dominates, in the surviving phase, using resources at hand becomes more prominent, while in the growing phase, recombining resources is prioritised. This suggests that in poor contexts, bricolage manifests as a process that occurs throughout the life of the business. Additionally, the study highlights the sub-processes of bricolage,-scavenging, buttressing and refining. It explains how they interact by showing that scavenging precedes making do, buttressing precedes using resources at hand and refining precedes recombination of resources. Moreover different resources are used varyingly along the bricolage process. Furthermore, it integrates bricolage with two concepts of adaptive persistence and community embeddedness. Adaptive persistence is an active and dynamic experimentation to meet new challenges with the aim of finally solving them. It is exhibited as continuous adjustment to absorb emerging environmental shocks. On the other hand, community embeddedness highlights the firms’ close connection and interface with its local community on activities beyond its core role. In turn, the community becomes both an active advocate and a customer of the firm. These behaviours facilitate firm development. This work contributes to the understanding of bricolage behaviour by showing that the sub processes are more elaborate in poor settings and that established firms adopt these sub-processes varyingly as they develop. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

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No / This article describes the development and validation of a measure of a firm's organizational learning orientation and considers the relationships between this and firm performance. The measure assesses owner-managers¿ perceptions of their organizations¿ orientation to learning in terms of higherorder (active) and lower-order (passive) levels of learning. Its development is a response to the criticisms that organizational learning research is beset by a paucity of valid and reliable measures to assess the ways in which organizations engage in learning at the collective level (Tsang, 1997). Data are presented from a number of samples of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the UK that indicate that the organizational learning orientation measure exhibits acceptable reliability and validity. Furthermore, a number of relationships between organizational learning and financial and non-financial performance were observed. The implications of the findings for research, policy and the management of learning within organizations are discussed.

[pt] Uma característica de alguns conta-próprias e dos empregadores com até cinco empregados brasileiros, é sua baixa produtividade e lucratividade. Além disso, entre estas pequenas empresas, existe uma grande diversidade de níveis de lucro, algumas com patamares de lucro altos quando comparadas às demais e outras com lucros irrisórios. A maioria dos estudiosos associa esta baixa produtividade das pequenas empresas brasileiras ao mercado de crédito em que elas atuam. Segundo eles, as imperfeições no mercado de crédito impedem que estas pequenas produções consigam obter o volume de capital necessário a execução dos projetos mais eficientes. Além disso, como algumas empresas enfrentam restrições creditícias mais severas que outras, elas podem ter produtividade diferentes e consequentemente níveis de lucro diferentes. Ao observar os dados fornecidos pelo IBGE em 1997 sobre estas pequena produções percebe-se que de fato elas operam em patamares de lucro diferentes, algumas com lucros bem acima da média e outras com lucros negativos, e utilizam volumes de capital muito diferentes em seu processo produtivo. Este resultado é estranho, uma vez que as pequenas empresas atuam nos mesmos mercados, sendo tomadoras de preços e provavelmente usam a mesma tecnologia, e portanto, segundo a teoria microeconômica convencional, teriam que empregar o mesmo volume de capital em seu processo produtivo e obter o mesmo nível de lucro. Nesta dissertação, propõe uma abordagem que relaciona o mercado de crédito a diversidade de lucro entre as pequenas empresas brasileiras, sendo as imperfeições credíticias um dos possíveis determinantes para a lucratividade e produtividade destas empresas. / [en] The self-employees and the employers with no more than five employees in Brazil are well known for their low productivity and for their low profitability. These small firms have a great variety of profits level among of them, with some having profits above the mean and others with negative profits. In the majority of the studies, low profitability and low productivity are associated with the imperfections in credit market. The majority of this enterprises do not get the sufficient capital to invest in the most productive projects, because of the restrictions in credit market. When we work with the data for the small employers and self-employees in Brazil, we see that the profits level differs among these firms, and they put different amount of capital in their production. This result is not expected, because the small firms in Brazil participate in the same markets, and probably have the same technology. Thus according to the microeconomic theory, they should have the same profits level and should use the same amount of capital in their production. This paper try to infer if the credit constrains are the only factor that affects small enterprises profit in Brazil.

Syfte Syftet är att undersöka de brister entreprenörer upplevt efter att ha använt sig av Crowdfunding och om Internetbaserade plattformar underlättar informationsasymmetrin mellan finansiär och entreprenör. Samt om entrprenörer anser att Crowdfunding har potential att fungera som självstående finansieringskälla. Teori Tidigare studier visar att finansieringsformen Crowdfunding ofta är bristfällig. Få entreprenörer får tillräckligt kapital och finansieringsformen saknar kompetens och resurser. Metod Kvantitativ enkätundersökning under perioden 11 november 2015 till och med 25 november 2015. Resultat Resultatet från enkätundersökningen bestående av 40 deltagare presenteras i diagram. Analys I analysen jämförs tidigare studier och teorier med resultat och letar samband och kopplingar som förklarar resultatet. Respondenterna ser potential i Crowdfunding. De flesta upplever att de fått tillräckligt kapital och är positivt inställda till skillnad mot tidigare teorier. Slutsats Slutsatsen i undersökningen blir att en del Crowdfuninganvändare använder en annan finansieringskälla också där eget kapital och banklån är vanligast. Tekniken och dålig exponering var de problem entreprenörer ansåg Crowdfundingplattformarna ha, dock har de flesta tro på att Crowdfunding har potential att fungera som en själv-stående finansieringsform.

The four IT service firms of this thesis set out to interact and collaborate between their offices in Sweden and in India, some more intensely and frequently than others. In the process of their internationalisation, these small service firms find ways, or go through a process of learning how to collaborate in an international setting. The qualitative exploration of the process of learning is inspired by ‘communities of practice’, and in this thesis the focus is on ways in which individuals of firms through social participation learn to collaborate across distance, and develop a common way of working together in an international setting. This includes making use of technological objects as well as individuals acting as brokers bridging distance, and it is played out in physical as well as social proximity. This thesis aims at continuing the vibrant discussion in economic geography where proximity is seen as more than ‘being there’ in a physical sense. In this discussion, the understanding of proximity is related to social aspects and can be seen as a metaphor of closeness. Hence, more emphasis is put on the role and experiences, including intention and sense of passion, of individuals. In this thesis, this experience of closeness is empirically explored through a longitudinal study in Sweden and in India. This includes trying to operationalise social proximity by exploring the experience of social proximity amongst the individuals of the case firms. More precisely, social proximity is conceptualised as individuals experiencing ‘shared social familiarity’. This thesis combines a discussion on proximities with literature on processes of learning. This is in order to present a more thorough understanding of how social proximity can develop over time and, furthermore, in what way social proximity matters for service firms working in an international setting. / Formas project: "Swedish Cities in 'the Spaces of Flows': National, European and Global Networks"

At least five decades of business strategy-making research strongly suggests that how a firm goes about strategy-making, or its strategy-making mode, is a significant determiner of firm performance. A mode can be simply described as the manner in which something happens, occurs, or gets done. Accepting the notion that strategy-making modes are determinants of firm performance, this study contends that how a firm goes about its e-commerce strategy-making, or its e-commerce strategy-making mode, can be a significant determinant of e-commerce performance. Given the paucity of work in the topic, an exploratory study to identify and characterize e-commerce strategy-making modes among small firms was conducted. The study asked three questions: (1) What e-commerce strategy-making attributes characterize e-commerce strategy making modes in small firms? (2) How can e-commerce strategy-making attributes be grouped to form e-commerce strategy-making modes in small firms? and (3) What e-commerce strategy-making modes are in use in small firms? This study combined findings from non-e-commerce domains along with findings from e-commerce practitioner interviews in order to develop a comprehensive set of attributes for classifying e-commerce strategy-making modes. A pilot study followed by a final study was conducted to collect responses to the instrument. Analysis of the data suggests that e-commerce strategy-making modes in firms with fewer than twenty-six employees can be categorized as: inclusive e-commerce strategy-making, (2) open e-commerce strategy-making, (3) clear e-commerce strategy-making, and (4) controlled e-commerce strategy-making The identification of e-commerce strategy-making modes provides the perquisite first step towards future research investigating links between these modes and e-commerce performance.

A significant amount of research in the field of small business management has correlated small firm performance with the sophistication of overall management skills (see, for example, Gasse, 1997; Gadenne, 1998; Zinger, leBrasseur and Zannibi, 2001; Balderson, 2003) and more particularly problem solving skills. Yet, even though problem solving skills are at the core of the small business management process (Jennings and Beaver, 1997), there has been little research to date that has focused on understanding the actual approach small business owner-managers take to solve the problems they encounter as the present study has done, through the utilization of an interpretive research design applied to a sample of small firms. The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the nature of problem solving practices adopted by 11 small business owner-managers on Central Vancouver Island, Canada, by identifying the types of problems encountered in the years following their establishment, the actions taken to solve these problems and the outcomes of these actions for the firm. It examines the characteristics of the problemm solving approaches utilized by owner-managers as they encountered problems, and identifies how they perceived the impact of the approach taken on the continued survival of their firm. The methodological approach taken in this study is positioned within an emergent body of research in the field of small business and entrepreneurship that applies an interpretive paradigm to uncover the complex facets of how individuals develop their capabilities and management practices (Chell and Allman, 2003) with a particular emphasis on the small business owner-manager. The interpretive assumptions guiding the research process have allowed new understandings to emerge about problem solving in small firms within the wider context of managerial capability as a critical contributor to small business survival. More specifically, the critical incident technique method (Flanagan, 1954; Chell, 1998), along with an approach to data analysis and coding that draws from grounded theory (Glaser, 1992; Glaser and Strauss, 1999; Strauss and Corbin, 1998), are combined and applied as a qualitative research strategy. This strategy has not previously been used in relation to the study of problem solving in small firms. This interpretive paradigm allows the exploration of how small business owner-managers attach meaning to their subjective experiences and the implications of these perceptions for the business outcomes of the firm, specifically as they relate to solving critical business problems. As a result, the interpretive methods applied in the course of this study make a novel contribution to the field, since they have yielded new interpretations on the nature of problem solving processes in the sample of small firms studied. The findings presented here reveal the intuitive, improvised and non-linear nature of how problems are actually solved in these small firms, in contrast to a number of well-known theoretical research frameworks that propose well-defined and delineated steps in the problem solving process. The results of this study make a valuable contribution to building new theory in this area of inquiry by demonstrating how more dynamic processes occur in practice. An alternative way to conceptualize problem solving in small firms is presented in Chapter 6, A Holistic Framework for Problem Solving in Small Firms.

Dans une perspective d’étude du financement bancaire des PME, nous proposons un examen de la relation bancaire dans le contexte français caractérisé par une culture bancaire développée et des évolutions récentes très marquées, qui ne peuvent être sans conséquence sur le comportement financier des entreprises. L’attention est portée sur un élément central, à savoir les interactions sociales entre le banquier et le chef d’entreprise. Ces interactions permettent l’échange d’informations soft, condition nécessaire à l’instauration d’un climat de confiance et, donc, à l’évaluation de la qualité des projets pour faciliter leur financement par la suite. Sur le plan théorique, notre analyse s’inscrit dans la continuité des études portant sur les difficultés de financement des PME. Après avoir souligné l’insuffisance des deux approches traditionnelles que constituent l’approche transactionnelle (standardisée) et l’approche relationnelle (relation de long terme), nous mobilisons la théorie de l’encastrement social et le concept de la confiance pour mieux appréhender la relation d’emprunt. Sur le plan méthodologique, l’étude consiste en une enquête exploratoire menée auprès d’un échantillon composé de banquiers et de chef d’entreprises. L’enjeu est de montrer la pertinence du triptyque -encastrement social, confiance, spécificités des PME-, en tant que référentiel théorique à la problématique du processus de financement bancaire. / In the French context, banks play an essential role in financing firms, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) since they have more difficulties accessing equity capital markets. The process used by banks to decide whether and how much to lend relies on different lending technologies and banks usually tend to use more than one technology at a time (Berger and Udell, 2006). Among the various lending technologies, relationship lending has a peculiar role. However, research on relationships lending pays only marginal attention to the role of social ties and trust on financing conditions for SMEs. Social relationships literature suggests that the more commercial transactions between a firm and the bank it borrows from are embedded in social attachments, the more expectations of trust and reciprocity shape transacting. Thereby, it would promote governance benefits and transfers of soft information (Uzzi, 1999). Thus, these relationships can play an Important role in reducing agency problems, moral hazard, adverse selection and transaction costs as well as the costs of monitoring and control. The present exploratory study is an attempt to fill this gap by investigating how social interaction affects the terms of loan financing for SMEs (credit access, interest rate, guarantees, defaults). It is based on a survey of bank lending managers and entrepreneurs.

Family firms the most common form of business in the world and the academic interest around them has grown significantly over the past decades. When a company is experiencing financial growth their information needs increases and they are encouraged to draw up plans to cover the information need. Previous studies on the subject have pointed out that the research on formal plans in family firms is incomplete in many areas. The research that has been done indicates that planning is not a priority in small family firms for various reasons and that the planning carried out is largely informal. Whether family firms implement more planning practices as they increase in size is haven’t been tested in qualitative research. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how small family firms in Skaraborg change their use of formal plans when they are experiencing a period of financial growth and if the growth of the family firm is affected by it being planned or not. To answer this, we have selected 13 formal planning practices that we have studied the presence of in our case companies and if there was any change in the use of these practices over their most recent growth period. The study was conducted with a qualitative research method where data collection has been in the form of semi-structured interviews. This is to increase our ability to create a deeper understanding of our selected area of research. The results of the study have shown that small growing family firms perform few changes in their planning practices. We have not been able to demonstrate in the context of this study that financial growth increased the use of formal planning practices in family firms in Skaraborg. Our conclusion of this study is that if small growing family firms are going to change their use of formal planning and benefit from it, it is not enough to rely on external help for this. Instead these companies should focus their resources on educating current management staff in the use of formal planning practices and the difficulties that arises along financial growth to see the connection between the two. Just because financial growth increases the need for information that doesn’t mean that any planning to cover the information need will be implemented. A leader in the enterprise must discover the need and choose to use a planning practice to cover it. / Familjeföretag är den företagsform som är vanligast i världen och det akademiska intresset kring dessa har ökat markant under de senaste decennierna. När ett företag upplever tillväxt ökar deras informationsbehov och de uppmanas att upprätta planeringar för att hantera informationsbehovet. Tidigare studier inom ämnet har tryckt på att forskningen kring formella planeringar i familjeföretag på många områden är ofullständig. Den forskning som är gjord tyder på att planering inte är prioriterat i mindre familjeföretag av olika anledningar och att den planering som utförs är informell till stor del. Huruvida familjeföretag implementerar fler planeringspraktiker när de ökar i storlek saknas det dock kvalitativ forskning om. Syftet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för hur små familjeföretag i Skaraborg ändrar nyttjandet av deras formella planeringar när de upplever en tillväxtperiod och om tillväxten i ett familjeföretag påverkas om den är planerad eller ej. För att besvara detta har vi valt ut 13 formella planeringspraktiker som vi studerat förekomsten av i våra fallföretag och om det skedde någon förändring i användningen av dessa över deras senaste tillväxtperiod. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod där datainsamlingen har skett i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Detta för att öka våra möjligheter att skapa en djupare förståelse kring vårt valda undersökningsområde. Studiens resultat har påvisat att små växande familjeföretag utför få förändringar i deras planeringspraktiker. Vi har därför inte kunnat påvisa inom ramen för denna studie att tillväxt ökar användningen av formella planeringspraktiker i familjeföretag i Skaraborg. Vår slutsats i studien är att om små växande familjeföretag ska förändra deras användning av formella planeringar och ha nytta av dem är det inte tillräckligt att anlita extern hjälp för detta. Istället bör dessa företag fokusera resurser på att utbilda nuvarande ledningspersonal i användningen av formella planeringspraktiker och svårigheter som uppkommer med tillväxt för att de ska se kopplingen mellan dessa. Bara för att tillväxt ökar informationsbehovet implementeras ingen planering för att täcka det, en ledare i företaget måste upptäcka behovet och välja att använda sig av planeringar för att täcka det.