Using the characteristics of small-business firms and of their owners, the information from both the joint credit information center and loan auditors, and logistic models, this study analyzes the determinants of the approval of small-business loans made by credit officers. The study also examines whether these determinants are significant in the logistic models of loan default and provide suggestions to credit officers for approving small-business loans. The main findings of this study are as follows. 1. Some specific proxy variables for the characteristics of small-business firms and of their owners and information from both the joint credit information center and loan auditors are significant determinants in the logistic models of loan approval. Their importance or significance will differ when the sample loans are categorized on the basis of sales. 2. The significant determinants in the logistic models of loan default are also significant determinants in the logistic models of loan approval. The result indicates that credit officers are able to effectively consider some factors contributing to loan default when they make loan decisions. Thus, the credit officers perform well in managing credit risk when approving loans. 3. The number of significant determinants in the logistic models of loan approval is far greater than that in the models of loan default. The finding implies that credit officers may place more stringent criteria in approving loans and lose some profitable business opportunities. 4. Establishing different criteria on the basis of sales when approving loans can facilitate the increase in the rate of loan approval and decrease in the rate of loan default. 5. The information from loan auditors plays an important role in the approval of loans to firms with small sales. It seems not to be the case in the approval of loans to firms with large sales. Therefore, it is better that loan auditors be equipped with abundant knowledge of various industrial sectors and be given well on-job training. Moreover, the performance of loan auditors should be independent with the number or size of loans.

No description available.

This study was a research on the effects of the change in the tax system on small medium sized enterprises. Its focus was in Swaziland. It concludes by giving recommendations on how the tax system can be improved in view of what have succeeded in other countries with an almost similar economy. It also recommends more research in this field.

No description available.

This study was a research on the effects of the change in the tax system on small medium sized enterprises. Its focus was in Swaziland. It concludes by giving recommendations on how the tax system can be improved in view of what have succeeded in other countries with an almost similar economy. It also recommends more research in this field.

Under the impact of double cards in the past two years, domestic banks have tightened the business of the double cards and been stricter on the examination of credit terms such as house loans with guarantees. The focus of credit business has been switched to corporate finance from consumer finance. The credit to small/medium enterprises is the main goal. In the long past, economic policies of the government have aimed at helping small/medium enterprises in sustainable development. From the data of White Paper on Small/medium Enterprises, close to 97.8 (over 1.16 million) companies in 2005 in Taiwan were small/medium enterprises, which have been the cornerstone of macroeconomic development in Taiwan. It is an urgent job to foster professional credit personnel to meet the needs of government¡¦s policies or in the overall financial environment. The purpose of this study is establish and develop the required knowledge, skills and qualities at work of credit personnel at banks to small/medium enterprises in order to help banks¡¦ recruitment, screening/training development, and improving/ehnahcing job performance to have the personnel make contribution to the banks. The process is literature exploration, job analysis and behaviorial interviews to establish competency structure and competency scale. Formal interviews are made with middle/high ranking supervisors at banks of different nature with over 10 years of experiences in lending to small/medium enterprises. Questionnaires are collected for statistics and analysis to develop the competency model of credit personnel. The conclusions are: 1. The required competency of credit personnel to small/medium enterprises includes product knowledge, market information,judgment,communication, activeness/aggresiveness, mofive of acheivment and establiment of relations. Banks of different nature have slightly views on the competency, which is resulted from the corporte culture, organization structure or other factors. Future researchers can focus on this. 2.For a successful credit staffer to small/medium enterprises, the most important is qualities in the competency, followed by professional knowledge. Skills are relatively less important. Judement is the most significant in the skill aspect, which is apparently different from that of common sales representatives. Future resarchers can focus on whether it has anything to do with the nature of the products sold. Keywords : competency, credit, credit personnel, small/medium enterprises

<p>Today, security strategy has a crucial role in society, which does not imply only to large companies, but also and especially to Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s).</p><p>The intention of this thesis is to provide instructions and help enterprises that need assistance in applying proper security strategy. This thesis comprises the most crucial areas of security within an enterprise. Its aim is to study more deeply the situation of the current security strategy, of a telecom and a software development enterprise, by which the enterprise can extract enough information to provide a proper system. The purpose is to study, analyze, explore and bring some conclusions with new ideas on how to improve and propose a new security strategy that can fit and that can be appropriate for this enterprise.</p><p>Regarding the exploration and research for the enterprise, “fragile assets” are the target to be taken in consideration such as “software”, “databases” and “important data”.</p><p>The method which is used in this thesis, is the case study method, which has best suited the purpose of this thesis by covering the logic of design, data collection techniques and data analysis. As a theory the OCTAVE-sm approach was applied. This approach has three phases which each contains its own processes. These processes were followed and used for the evaluation of the current state in one Small Medium Enterprise (SME) called InterAdria. The use of OCTAVE-sm approach in this thesis can be a guide to all other Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) that struggle with their security strategy same as the enterprise mentioned above. The conclusion was based on the entire data gathering that was done by following the steps of the Octave-sm approach.</p>

Exploring the impacts of green implementations in supply chain management in small medium enterprises. Purpose: To explore what impacts green investments have in supply chain management. Research questions 1: What impacts have green implementations had on supplier relationships? Research question 2: What impacts have laws and regulations had on green supply chain management?

This thesis sets out to explore factors external to the individual that encourage creative idea generation in SME environments, understanding their importance in a variety of organisational contexts. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is the creation of a framework which aids understanding by splitting the various factors into those responsible for initiating and sustaining idea generation. Literature concerning creative idea generation is continuously developing and contains a broad spectrum of topics and understandings. Key amongst these are leadership, the nature of creative idea generation, theories such as the ‘strength of weak ties’, collective creativity and the concept of ‘flow’. Fieldwork followed a primarily qualitative, inductive approach, using exploratory surveys, semi-structured interviews and participant observation to develop rich narrative ‘stories’ of idea generation for ten different organisations. Data was analysed in accordance with the principles of grounded theory and resulted in numerous novel findings such as the importance of internal organisational contacts to the development of ideas, the notion that organisational visions can be used to guide idea generation and the effect that physical distance has on the development of interpersonal ties. Leadership also featured heavily within the analysis process with it being found that a combination of transformational and servant qualities best enables idea generation in SME contexts. These and other findings were reflected in the final framework produced by this thesis. From a practical perspective findings from this study arguably have implications for both organisational and leadership development in SME contexts, although overall generalisability is hindered by the chosen sample. Future studies could potentially focus on applying quantitative methodologies to verify the final framework or extend understandings by interlinking organisational factors discussed by this thesis with individual characteristics, mental process and/or experiences that are also known to drive creative idea production.

This study tests a theoretical model developed to investigate the impact of assimilation of commercial open source enterprise resource planning software (COSES) in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the model explains how the top management team’s (TMT’s) information technology (IT) knowledge and experience impact both assimilation and firm performance. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from SMEs that have implemented COSES. Results from structural equation modeling suggest that SMEs benefit, through higher levels of assimilation and performance, from adopting innovative enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as COSES when they have a TMT that has experience with and is knowledgeable about technology. The study also highlights the importance of the TMT in facilitating IT assimilation.