The aim of this research is two-folded. On the one hand, it attempts to assist employers of Catalan micro-retailers in designing, implementing and developing their Social Media strategy as a complementary channel of communication. On the other hand, it attempts to contribute to the research community with a better understanding on both which building block of the micro-retailer¿s Business Model is more influenced by the customer level of interaction by means of the Social Media and how a transformation can be observed in the micro-retailers¿ Business Models as a result of the Social Media implementation. The research question to be answered in this paper is how the transformation of the activity system of the micro-retailers¿ Business Model would allow the emergence of a Participatory Business Model by means of Social Media. To carry out this research the Participatory Action Research methodology was used, whose contribution has two results: the one is more practitioner oriented and the other is more academic. The incipient results of the research showed a scarce transformation of Catalan microretailer¿s business model as a consequence of the implementation of social media. However, it is significant enough to be considered as more than just a simple adoption of an alternative channel of communication. One of the main contributions is related to how customer influences the activity system of the micro-retailer¿s business model beyond four levels of customer interaction (communication, interaction, participation and collaboration) by means of social media. On the one hand, the activity system of a business model is referred to the eight building blocks of Osterwalder, Pigneur and Tucci (2005) research that includes customer segment, customer relationship, distribution channel, capabilities, partner, value configuration, value proposition, profit and cost. On the other hand, the four defined levels of customer interaction are based on the literature of group collaboration systems. The results showed that not all the building blocks forming the business model are influenced by consumer interaction. The only building blocks influenced by an initial communication level in the current social media strategy implementation stage of our sample (five micro-retailers) are the following: customer segment, customer relationship, distribution channel, value proposition and cost. This incipient stage of transformation can be justified by a lack of effort made due to the small size of the business and a lack of team working inside the companies, easily adapting to changes. It can also be justified by the fact it was carried out by the micro-retailers only during a short period of time (14 month). Another contribution of the paper shows that Social Media transformation drives a BM innovation according to the following mediator elements: (1) the dynamic capabilities, (2) the ability of learning, (3) the dedicated effort, (4) the implementation time and (5) the level of customer participation.

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). 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. 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”. 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.

Abstract Purpose: To investigate the role of dynamic capabilities in the Internationalization of born global firms from developing countries in Africa.  Design approach/Methods: The study employed a qualitative research method with a multiple case research design. Four born global firms from two developing countries in Africa were analyzed. Verification strategies were utilized to enhance the validity and reliability of the research findings.  Originality: Most of the previous research on the role of dynamic capabilities in the Internationalization of firms has attempted to operationalize empirical findings either with a single case study or multiple case studies of firms from developed countries, or multiple case studies of firms from the same sector or country. Therefore, as a reason for these paucities, this paper exists to investigate the role of dynamic capability in the Internationalization of born global from developing countries in Africa. Findings: The dynamic capability is the critical reason why and how firms stay competitive.The study found out that born globals from developing countries hire external consultants, conduct competitor analysis, utilized their local and international networks and conducts comprehensive market analysis to effectively sense market opportunities. Additionally, the firms invested substantial amounts in staff skills development, new product development, and new market development to seize opportunities. Besides, some of the firms capitalized on remote working systems, digital marketing and hiring of employees with prior international experience to effectively seize market opportunities. With regards to reconfiguring resources, all the firms utilized partnerships with leading multinational companies as a means of reconfiguring its resources to address the weaknesses within the company. To transform as an organization as well as to manage risks, most of the firms engaged in proactive decision making, diversification, utilized digital marketing and implemented digitization systems.  Keywords: Born Global, SMEs, Dynamic Capability, Internationalization, Developing Countries

Female entrepreneurship plays a significant role in economic growth and innovation within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. However, Female entrepreneurs face challenges that are different from male entrepreneurs. Regarding market access, capacity-building training, and investment, many female entrepreneurs within the Global South face additional challenges of patriarchy, gender stereotyping, and lack of access to opportunities or support from society, friends, and family. In this thesis, a qualitative approach was undertaken to assess the influence of family moral support for female entrepreneurs in creating their businesses by identifying and analyzing their personal experiences and challenges during their business development and growth phase in Indonesia and Pakistan. As a result, female entrepreneurs in these countries need access to business opportunities with family moral support, which helps them break the stigmas and get out of an unsupported environment. With family moral support, female entrepreneurs have proven to excel in developing their entrepreneurial set of skills, especially in the creation phase and maintaining the growth of their Small-Medium Enterprises. However, every privilege of female entrepreneurs still needs to consider that their personal and family backgrounds are different and intersect with other aspects that could lead to success or barriers to creating Small-Medium Enterprises.

Student Number: 0304476F Faculty of Humanities Maters in Arts / The study investigated gender employment practices and conditions of work among small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Gauteng Province of South Africa. A comparison of the practices and conditions between productive and service industries is clearly the major focus of the research. Interviews were conducted on two productive and two service industries (all private) situated in Benoni and Johannesburg respectively. The research found that generally, SMEs, in the productive and the service sectors contribute to job creation. Evidence shows that women are going into previously male dominated jobs like electrical and mechanical jobs, but the movement is quite minimal. This is a sign of progress on the part of women and a shift from the traditional belief that certain jobs are exclusively meant for men. The study found a salient discrepancy between the rhetoric of gender equality and the practice of gender equality in all the industries. There are clear signs that the legislation on minimum conditions of employment is followed in the productive industries than in the service industries but both still stick to the traditional gender division of labour.

This original research seeks to identify unique predictive relationships between the characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the management practices they choose; and then, the relationships between those practices and business performance. It adds to the current understanding of the impact of entrepreneurs on the performance of their businesses and has also led to the development of two new tools for assessing the performance of SMEs. Growth of the SME sector is important to the public policy agendas of governments, like those in Australia, that are seeking to optimise the employment opportunities associated with an SME sector in which "success" is the norm because SME failure, or underperformance, is associated with many social costs; costs that include reduced earnings for proprietors, potential job loss for staff and financial hardship for suppliers, as well as a reduction in the average per capita spending power of the community in which the failed or under performing business is based. For the SME, business strategy development and implementation is often the role of the entrepreneur owner-manager. The characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in SMEs may thus influence their choice of management practices and thereby the performance of their businesses. As Cooper (1998) argued: "the primary motivations of the entrepreneur bear upon not only the decision to start but also upon the decisions about how to manage, including whether or not to grow the firm aggressively" (p. 247). Johnson (1990) suggested that there is a strong need to focus future research on the motivation mechanisms of entrepreneurs as drivers of the entrepreneurial process. Johnson's view supports the entrepreneurial trait school of thought that development of an understanding of the individual entrepreneur's characteristics, values and expectations might provide worthwhile insight into her or his behaviour and its relationship to SME success and failure. The purposes of this research, therefore, were, first, to determine the importance of the attributed and attained characteristics of the entrepreneur on the formation of his or her values and expectations; second, to determine the influence of those values and expectations on the choice of management practices; third, to determine the degree to which those management practices influence business performance; and last, to develop a scale of measurement for entrepreneur characteristics, values and expectations that can be used to predict business performance. To enable limited comparison with Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) findings and to control for between industry and between state influences, the chosen context for the research was the furniture industry in Queensland. To add to current knowledge in SME management practices and performance, two new measurement tools were developed for this research. The first quantifies the positiveness of the business intentions of the entrepreneur. The second is a scaled index of perceived performance that takes account of the importance given by an entrepreneur to eight common business objectives and the degree to which he or she is satisfied with the performance of the business for each objective. Both tools are important additions to the limited existing armoury of tools available to researchers seeking to understand and predict SME performance. For the first time, the findings of this research indicate negative relationships between parent occupation skill levels and the importance given by entrepreneurs to the values of responsibility, honesty and competence and the negative role of the entrepreneur's achieved highest qualification on the importance given to values of affection, compassion, religion and national security. The findings thereby highlight the important role played by an entrepreneur's attained characteristics on the formation of his or her values. As well, the results show the important role played by values such as power and responsibility, as well as by high internal locus of control, on an entrepreneur's selection of planning, marketing and future management practices. In turn, the impact of those practices on business performance, as measured by the overall satisfaction of the entrepreneur and the newly created Scaled Index of Perceived Performance, is demonstrated. In so doing, the results shed more light on the complex relationships between entrepreneurs, the management practices they choose, and business performance. For the furniture industry in Queensland, the findings confirm Cooper's (1998) view that there is an empirical relationship between business founding processes and the performance of the business. Also supported is Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) broad finding for the furniture industry in New South Wales that "personal values of owner/managers, the strategies they adopt in operating their firms, and the performance outcomes of their businesses are empirically related" (1997, p. 59). Future research is needed to develop a causal model for those relationships in a variety of SME and other contexts.

Globally distributed software development has become an important topic for small and medium enterprises. However, the distinct requirements of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are still not fullyunderstood. To contribute to this growing discussion, I will present an ethnographical field study of a Swedish software company engaged in a distributed development practice with its American branch. By applying a theoretical view based on communication, coordination and control over time, space and socio/cultural difference, I show to what extent a distributed software development model affects SMEs. Whereproblems related to formal and informal communication, knowledge sharing, articulation work and programming methodologies are discussed. My findings suggest that organizational adjustments are needed for SMEs in order to take advantage of distributed software development (DSD), that specialized tools supporting coordination and articulation work is not so common in practice and that certain adjustment to agile methodologies could be made in order to better support DSD.

The thesis focuses on the problematic of Regional politics not only on the EU level, but also on the level of Czech Republic. There are mentioned the main characteristics of its tools and targets. Also are characterized the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and mentioned their importance for the region. Mentioned are even the clusters thanks to their specifics and importance. They actually work as a special organizational form of SME. Based on data on the financial resources from the structural funds that were given to entrepreneurial subjects and on data on the individual region, they were made various comparing analysis. The main task of this thesis is to prove that support of SME's, particularly in the form of EU and Nationally provided financial resources from the various programs, has a positive impact on the structural growth of the regions economic potential.

Thesis (M. Com. (Business Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Information and communication technologies (ICT) and its impact in the economic, social and personal development has become an important object of scientific research in recent decades. Theoretical and empirical studies have demonstrated the necessity to gain and exploit positive outcomes such as productivity growth, organisation expansion, efficiency, effectiveness, competitiveness and so on of ICT adoption and implementation in various organisations. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of ICT adoption by SMEs for improved performance. The study utilised the quantitative research approach whereby a survey was conducted using convenience and snowball sampling methods. Data was tested for reliability using the Cronbach’ Alpha. Furthermore, descriptive analysis was conducted as well as correlation and regression tests. The questionnaire was developed from the empirical literature review. The determinants of ICT adoption were represented by perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial passion, personal factors, business characteristics and performance. Based on the results, SMEs should seek to adopt ICT using the determinants which were assessed as they show how effective a business can improve performance if these determinants are used to adopt ICT. Furthermore, more should be done by government to give support and awareness to SMEs on various aspects that can improve their businesses such as ICT. Keywords: ICT, SMEs, Determinants, Adoption, Performance

Yes / The complexities surrounding the supply chain logistics for perishable commodities within Bangladesh are extensive. Poor infrastructure, fragmented transportation and corruption compound the operational complexities within this emerging market. This case study analyses many of the day-to-day operational challenges and tensions inherent within Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) forming the backbone of the Bangladesh socio-economic structure. The drive for transition toward greater levels of sustainability and corporate responsibility is problematic, affecting many levels within an extended and fragmented supply chain. The selected case study highlights the “lived in” geographical, environmental, economic and cultural factors that impact the ability of emerging market enterprises to remain profitable within emergency scenarios whilst transitioning toward a more sustainable model. This study, whilst detailing many of the tensions and critical issues facing MSMEs, highlights the benefits of direct Government intervention, criticality of a leaner and more efficient supply chain and reassessment of financial incentives to drive the transition to a more efficient and sustainable economy.