The German government's "Industry 4.0" paradigm transforms technology application across domains using real-time data and connectivity. The telecom sector's reliance on digital, software-driven infrastructure for real-time data and connectivity is paramount. Data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are crucial, enhancing telecom networks' reliability, cutting costs, and improving service. This technology drives efficiency and innovation, shaping 33% of the market. As AI matures, discussions revolve around potential human replacement, especially in innovation management. Early AI investments yield cost-effective innovation but may not entirely replace human discretion. The exact AI implementation varies, aligning with organizational goals. This research investigates the challenges of implementing AI in the dynamic telecom industry's R&D departments, particularly in Sweden and Finland. The research employs a case-study approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data reveals key challenges, including "Lack of Understanding and Awareness," "Recruitment and Skills Gap," "Data Security and Privacy Concerns," and "Infrastructure and Funding Limitations." These findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of AI adoption challenges in the telecom sector, offering valuable insights for future research and industry practice. Ethical considerations and credibility measures were employed to ensure the rigor and validity of the research, emphasizing the importance of impartiality and multiple perspectives in qualitative research. A thematic analysis was conducted focusing on the "People," "Position," "Process," and "Technology" themes. "Position" categorizes organizations and individuals into AI-beginners, AI-followers, and AI-leaders, showing the diverse stages of AI adoption. "People" emphasizes upskilling, culture, and employee receptiveness. "Process" delves into integration challenges, data quality, ethics, and communication. "Technology" highlights data and budget challenges, infrastructure, and scalability. The findings reveal the telecom industry's transformative AI journey and the importance of balancing technological advancements, cultural shifts, skill development, and ethical considerations for successful AI implementation. While the research followed a rigorous qualitative approach, transparency is crucial for evaluating its credibility and acknowledging potential biases and limitations. The telecom industry's future success in harnessing AI's potential relies on understanding and addressing these multifaceted challenges. This research categorizes organizations and individuals into three distinct AI adoption stages: AI-beginners, AI-followers, and AI-leaders. This framework illuminates the diverse positions within the AI adoption spectrum and emphasizes the critical role of leadership, resource allocation, and skills development. Moreover, this research underscores the significance of human factors, integration processes, and technological considerations in successful AI adoption. Practical implications encompass strategic planning, resource allocation, leadership development, cross-functional collaboration, change management, ethical considerations, and talent acquisition. While offering valuable insights, the research acknowledges limitations in sample size, subjectivity, temporal relevance, and contextual completeness. This research also explores the potential future research directions in the domain of AI adoption in the telecom industry. Drawing from the insights gathered through interviews, several promising avenues for future investigations are outlined. These include longitudinal studies to track the evolution of AI adoption, cross-industry comparisons to identify best practices, quantitative analyses of AI's impact on key performance indicators, examinations of regulatory and ethical frameworks, in-depth studies of AI-related skill development, investigations into AI's impact on employment, and explorations of cultural transformations necessary for successful AI adoption. These avenues offer opportunities to advance our understanding of AI adoption dynamics and their implications for the telecom sector.

This research was geared towards the investigation of management strategies (factors) that affect the performance ofMSMEs in Kenya. Many developed countries record a time in history when entrepreneurial activities led to revival of economical growth after decline. This implies MSMEs is a very vital sector especially for a developing country like Kenya. MSMEs stagnate and their performance is uncertain according to writers such as Namusonge, Management inadequacies have been suggested in several studies. The objectives of this research was to, 1. To identifY the critical management factors affecting the performance of MSMEs in Kenya; ii. To establish the process through which managerial factors affect the performance of a MSMEs in Kenya ; m. To determine the integrative effect of various management factors in the MSMES in Kenya; IV. To establish the effect of demographics and management factors on performance, v. To establish effects of external environment on internal management factors A conceptual model was formulated from the literature review showing relationships of the management strategies and the environment they operate in. These relationships became the basis for the hypotheses which were later tested. In chapter 4, a mini research (pilot study) was conducted in May 2007,whose main aim was to test the reliability and validity of the research instruments. The 36 questionnaires returned were analysed through descriptive method. Results obtained indicated the instruments were reliable and the results valid. A few corrections suggested were made. The major correction was addition of question 35 to collect financial information. The data collection was done between mid August and mid October 2007.In chapter 5, the researcher analysesd the results of the survey after receiving 180 questionnaires. Time was a constraint. In chapter 6, the hypotheses and conceptual model were analysed and the results obtained suggested that, most strategies did not affect the profitability separately but severally. The integrated effect of the management strategies and the associated factors had a higher impact on performance of the MSMES than any individual strategies. In chapter 7, the conclusions, summaries and Recommendations are given. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management and Policy)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between market orientation and business performance mediated by marketing resources and moderated by contextual factors. The study also examined the extent to which the conceptual model was a good fit to the sample data. A quantitative approach was used to test if there was a significant relationship between market orientation, marketing resources, and business performance. For the purpose, a cross-sectional survey was carried out to obtain data pertaining to market orientation, marketing resources, contextual factors and business performance. The unit of analysis of the study was banks consisting of 3 public and 15 private banks. A sample size of 507 consisting of 492 branch managers and 15 top level marketing managers was used in the survey. With a response rate of 87.97%, 446 questionnaires were collected of which 377 were used for data analysis. A SEM was used to test the extent to which the theoretical model fits the sample data. Mediation analysis was used to test the indirect effect of market orientation on business performance and hierarchical regression analysis was used to test whether the relationship was moderated by market dynamism, competitive intensity, and government regulation. Finally, an independent t – test was used to examine the statistical variations between public and private banks in terms of market orientation, marketing resources, and business performance. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the modified model was fit with the observed data in terms of chi-square and the individual indices. The total effect of market orientation on business performance was moderate with a 0.36 regression coefficient. The indirect effect was high with a 0.91 regression coefficient where complete and inconsistent mediation was found due to suppression effect. The moderation analysis revealed that the interaction effect of market dynamism, competitive intensity, and government regulation was not statistically significant. Finally the result showed that there was a statistically meaningful difference between public and private banks in terms of market orientation, marketing resources, and business performance. Banks in Ethiopia shall strive to segment the market, differentiate their services, and build a strong brand with clear identity. Banks in Ethiopia shall also build on their marketing resources to enhance their business performance. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / The study was undertaken to establish to what extent the use of e-marketing has impacted on the Midlands Meander Association (MMA) members relationship with their customers and influenced their business performance (during the period August 2013 to January 2014). As stated in the literature review, the utilisation of technology and e-marketing are important areas of future research. The literature review incorporates various studies such as Mathfield (2000), Lourens (2007) and McLaren (2011) which focus on the MMA members and their customers. Moreover, the literature review includes a discussion of several definitions of e-marketing, while the importance of a number of e-marketing techniques was examined. The study was an empirical, descriptive investigation which applied a mixed methods approach. The study utilised three types of data collection methods: online survey, telephone interviews and the analysis of public domain documentation. The research found an extensive difference between how the various MMA members implemented e-marketing within their businesses. The research showed that e-marketing was not utilised or exploited by the majority of the MMA members to its full potential. Also, the study revealed the need for the MMA members to increase their utilisation of social media, search engine optimiser and complementary links to other websites in order to realise the advantages which may be gained. The study found that over half of the MMA members held a moderately positive perception of e-marketing and that the members’ ages might impact on their perceptions of e-marketing. The research suggested that the majority of the respondents recognised that their business performance had increased due to the use of e-marketing. Furthermore, the research found that two thirds of the MMA members acknowledged the importance of e-marketing to connect and build relationships with their customers. Finally, the research highlighted the need for future research to be undertaken to incorporate other tourism routes within South Africa in order to examine the use of e-marketing and its effect on both customer relationships and business performance.

O objetivo da pesquisa foi potencializar a explicação da relação da aprendizagem e do trabalho do dirigente da pequena empresa conhecendo objetivamente o estilo e os papéis e compreendendo o seu significado subjetivo. O tema da pesquisa foi estudar o trabalho do dirigente da pequena empresa objetivamente, por meio de um levantamento e subjetivamente por meio da abordagem etnometodológica, juntamente com os estilos de aprendizagem do dirigente. Para isso o trabalho de campo foi realizado em duas fases: na 1ª fase a abordagem foi quantitativa: levantamento sobre os estilos de aprendizagem - por meio do inventário de estilos de aprendizagem de Kolb - e dos papéis do administrador - por meio do questionário utilizado na pesquisa de Oliveira (2010) que foi desenvolvido com base na abordagem dos papéis de Mintzberg (1973); na 2ª fase a abordagem foi qualitativa com estudo de caso etnometodológico e análise da conversação a fim de compreender a percepção dos dirigentes sobre seu estilo de aprendizagem e seu trabalho. Ao final, quantitativamente não foi possível estabelecer uma relação significante entre as variáveis estilo de aprendizagem, trabalho do dirigente e desempenho organizacional, porém, qualitativamente essas relações foram identificadas e explicadas. Também foi realizada uma triangulação dos dados quantitativos e qualitativos a fim de comparar os resultados e identificar a importância de cada técnica. / The aim of the study was to improve the relationship explanation between learning and work manager objectively knowing the style and the roles and understanding their subjective meaning. The theme of the research was to study the small business work manager objectively, through a survey and subjectively through the ethnomethodological approach, along the learning styles of the manager. So the fieldwork was conducted in two phases: the 1st phase was quantitative approach: survey on learning styles - through the Kolb inventory of learning styles - and administrator roles - through the questionnaire used in Oliveira survey (2010) that was developed based on the approach of Mintzberg roles (1973); the 2nd phase was a qualitative approach with ethnomethodological case study and conversation analysis in order to understand the perception of the managers on your learning style and your work. Finally, quantitatively could not establish a significant relationship between the variables learning style, manager work and organizational performance, however, these relationships were qualitatively identified and explained. A triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data was also performed to compare the results and identify the importance of each technique.

本研究主要探討電子商店業者進行網路行銷時之決策因素，以及不同經營型態之電子商店業者，其網路行銷決策因素重視程度對其企業價值與營運績效之影響。本研究是屬於實徵性研究，經由文獻探討建立起初步的研究架構、研究假說，進而設計問卷，並採郵寄方式進行調查，並將回收的問卷採取適當的統計方法加以分析、檢定，以達成本研究之目的。 本研究實際發出問卷228份，有效回收72份，有效回收率31.6%。經由資料分析發現：(1)不同型態之電子商店業者本身，對於企業價值之認知程度與營運績效並無不同；(2)當網路行銷決策因素重視程度不同時，經營型態相似之電子商店業者，對於電子商店可以「增加新的銷售通路」、「建立新的經營模式」、「提高品牌或公司知名度」以及「增加產品促銷能力」之認知程度有所不同；(3)當網路行銷決策因素重視程度不同時，經營型態相似之電子商店業者，對於電子商店的「營業額」與「獲利能力」會有所影響。 雖然不同經營型態之電子商店業者本身，對於企業價值認知程度與營運績效並無不同，但是相似經營型態之電子商店業者，在網路行銷決策因素重視程度不同時，對於企業價值認知程度與營運績效影響有所不同。因此，本研究建議電子商店業者在進行網路行銷之前，應釐清本身的經營型態，並依據其經營型態而採取適當的行銷決策，方能達到事半功倍的效果。此外，本研究發現「公司商譽與促銷因素」為影響電子商店營運績效最重要的決策因素，因此電子商店業者欲提高其營運績效，應重視此一決策因素，以增加顧客對公司及產品信心，進而提昇營運績效。

戰後台灣中小企業的歷史源頭為何?其跟戰前台人資本存在什麼辯證關係?可以說是本土化研究興起以來台灣經濟史主要課題之一，已有不少學者嘗試從中小工廠領域切入，一方面跟矢內原忠雄與凃照彥等兩位重量級學者對話，一方面則試圖挖掘出五大家族以來之一般中小地主或商人在資本主義化的脈絡之下資本積累的過程。不過，也並非所有研究者都同意戰後台灣中小企業能夠蓬勃發展，乃是以戰前台人資本之積累為基礎。 　　本文同樣以此問題意識出發，但有別於既有研究成果主要以中小工廠為作為分析對象，從而強調台人資本積累過程「自主性」的一面，並普遍以政權遞嬗為研究斷限。本文則擬以較具經營規模且位於近代部門的交通業為個案，就台人資本積累過程如何跟國家權力連結展開論述，並側重於台人資本如何學習殖民者所引進的資本主義制度、特別是以資本核算(盈餘保留跟固定資產折舊)為主軸之近代企業經營概念。同時，本文還將採取跨政權研究途徑(approach)，就戰前台人資本所進行之資本積累與養成之近代企業經營能力，如何成為渡過戰後接收期乃至投入中小企業的重要憑藉提出一理論性分析。 本文首先發現所謂台/日資或殖民者/被殖民者等二元對立框架，不足以解釋戰前台灣經濟結構，台人資本積累過程乃存在跟殖民者有所連結的一面。此一跟國家權力的連結，也延續到戰後。 基本上，交通業作為特許行業本應由國家經營以避免被獨佔壟斷，但作為後進資本主義國之日本，從明治維新以降即在國家力量不足的前提下，透過強烈監督與保護手段讓民間資本代行國家發展交通，官方與交通業者間存在特殊互動模式。日本領有殖民地台灣後更由於本國資本主義尚未確立，因此持續仰賴民間資本經營作為地方交通主力的民營鐵道與公路運輸，不過此時被仰賴的對象主要為台人資本，該業台人資本也就在台灣總督府協助之下進行資本積累。 台人資本透過交通業也廣泛運用了殖民者所引進的近代企業制度。由於交通業本來就具有資本密集性(capital-intensive)與固定資本(fixed capital)比重高之特徵，必須採行較具規模的經營型態，台人資本在交通業乃高比例的運用股份有限公司(日文稱株式會社)，從而交通業跟既有前人研究成果主要關懷之中小民營工廠(主要業種為農業、農產加工業與輕工業)就存在本質上的差異。 在交通業台人資本高比例運用近代企業制度的前提之下，本文進一步發現單純從文化面角度來檢討台人資本為何存在優異企業經營能力恐怕有所不足。也就是說，移民社會特質與發達的合股組織固然是台人資本參與資本主義的基礎，但能否落實以資本核算(盈餘保留跟固定資產折舊)為主軸之近代企業制度，或許具備更關鍵的地位。因為移民社會特質雖然能讓台人企業展現出冒險、進取的一面，清代以降發達的合股組織則讓台人資本較容易習慣近代市場經濟的運作，但台人企業要能展現出「永續經營」的特質，還是必須建構出建全的資產結構與財務狀況。 最後，本文主張戰後台灣中小企業仍然是以戰前台人資本為基礎。雖然既有研究成果亦多持一學術見解，但他們未能充分論證台人資本如何渡過1937年中日戰爭以降至1949年國民政府遷台為止這段政經局勢激烈動盪的時期。相較於此，交通業台人資本則能一定程度填補此一空白。首先，台人資本在該業不僅未全面從屬於日資或被其消滅，反而基於交通統制讓原本散落各地的台人資本獲得整合、經營規模獲得擴張，從而增強其資本力量。這些以州廳為單位並仍由台人資本所主導的交通統制企業，在戰後更直接轉型為地方客貨運業，從而存在非常直接而明確的延續性。 其次，近代企業制度落實乃至交通業關聯產業開啟，都在這一階段獲得實現。就前者而言，即如上述，日本乃是後進資本主義國，資本核算制度發展腳步緩慢，這導致戰時體制成為其確立的關鍵階段，亦即國家利用各種統制手段強迫企業採行標準的商業會計(特別是固定資產折舊的計算)。尤其，交通業作為重點統制產業之一，該業資本核算制度是否確立也就更受到殖民政府重視。再就後者而言，交通業本質上跟傳統部門不同已如上述，在歐美與日本皆扮演著推動產業革命的重要角色，台人資本也就有可能透過該業往近代部門移動，這一方面表現在機械動力的接觸；另一方面則是以該業為媒介，往工業部門邁進，特別是伴隨戰時體制與軍需工業化所開啟的車輛維護、修繕產業等關聯產業更具指標性意義。 總而言之，戰前到戰後台人資本積累過程乃存在一連鎖機制，即「非機械力的輕便鐵道→嘗試蒸氣動力與電力(並投入電力部門) →機械力的汽車運輸→新興機械製造與化學→地方客貨運業→中小企業」。這中間當然不會是一線性發展姿態，毋寧經歷諸多波折，但基本繼承關係仍然可以被尋得。 / What were the historical sources of the small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan after the war? What was the dialectical relationship between them and the capital existence in Taiwan before the war? It has been one of the main topics in Taiwanese economy history since the rise of the research of localization, and a few scholars tried to cut in through the small and medium-sized factories. On one hand, they opened the conversation with two key prominent scholars, Yanaihara Tadao and Chao-Yen Tu, and on the other hand, they tried to dig out the capital accumulation process from the general small and medium landlords or businessmen under the sequence of ideas of capitalism after Taiwanese five key families. However, not all of the researchers agreed that the reason why the small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan could be rising and flourishing after the war was because of the foundation of the capital accumulated by Taiwanese people before the war. This research started with the same question concepts, but with different object of the study from the past research results, which was only used small and medium-sized factories as the study object, and emphasized the “independence” side of Taiwanese capital accumulation process; they generally cut the time of the research period when there was any state power changed or transferred. Instead of that, this study planned to use transportation industry as the study case, discussed from how Taiwanese capital accumulation process linked to national power, and then laid special emphasis on how Taiwanese capital accumulation process learnt from capitalism that the colonialists brought in; especially, the operation concept of the modern enterprises which gave priority to capital accounting (retained earnings and assets depreciation). Furthermore, the study adopted cross-political power research approach and discussed how Taiwanese capital accumulation before the war and the management capacity development of the modern enterprises became the important basis of passing through the take-over period to throw into the small and medium-sized enterprises. A theoretical analysis was addressed here. The study first found the binary opposition framework of so-called Taiwanese investment/ Japanese investment or colonialists / natives was not sufficient to explain economy structure in Taiwan before the war. Taiwanese capital accumulation process was existed on one aspect which linked to the colonialists, and this linkage to national power lasted to postwar. Basically speaking, transportation industry as a franchising sector should be run by the nation to avoid monopoly; Japan, as a later emerging capitalism country, allowed private capital to develop the nation’s transportation industry though intense supervision and protection by the government because the insufficient national power after Meiji restoration; there was a special interaction model between the official and transportation dealers. After occupying Taiwan, Japan continued relying on private capital to develop local transportation such as privately-run railway and road transportation due to it hadn’t established its capitalism firmly. Nothing but Taiwanese capital was the subject which was dependent on at that moment, the capital accumulation of the Taiwanese capital for this industry proceeded under the assistance of Taiwanese Governor General’s Office. Through transportation industry, Taiwanese capital widely applied modern enterprise system brought into by the colonialists. Transportation industry featured high proportion of capital-intensive and fixed capital, and it needed to run in large-scaled operation types. Taiwanese capital used high-proportion of limited liability companies ((ka bu si ki gai sya in Japanese), and it showed the essential difference from the small and medium-sized factories (mainly agriculture, agriculture product processing and light industry) that pervious research focused on. Under the precondition that Taiwanese capital highly used modern enterprise system in transportation industry, the study further revealed that it was not enough to only examine why Taiwanese capital existed excellent enterprise management capacity from cultural aspect. That was to say, the social characteristic of immigration and the prosperous cooperated organizations were the foundation of Taiwanese capital joining capitalism, but whether it could fulfill modern enterprise system which gave priority to capital accounting (retained earnings and assets depreciation) played an even more significant role. Although the social characteristic of immigration presented the adventure and aggressiveness of Taiwanese enterprises, the prosperous cooperated organizations after Ching Dynasty helped Taiwanese capital get used to the operation of modern market economy easily. However, only when constructing sound assets structure and financial status, Taiwanese enterprises could show the quality of “sustainable operation”. In the end, the study claimed that the small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan after the war were still based on the Taiwanese capital before the war. Though the current research results mostly held the same academic view, they couldn’t fully approve how Taiwanese capital passed through the war of resistance against the Japanese in 1937 to National Government retrieved to Taiwan in 1949, the intensive political turbulent period of time. Compared to this, Taiwanese capital in transportation industry could fill the gap in a certain level. First, Taiwanese capital in transportation industry instead of subordinating to or being eliminated by Japanese investment, it integrated the Taiwanese capital spread out in different places and expanded the operation scale on the basis of transportation governing system; its capital strength increased as a result. The transportation governing enterprises which were managed by states but guided by Taiwanese capital directly transformed into local transportation carriers, and it showed extremely direct and clear continuity. Second, the fulfillment of the modern enterprise system and the starting of the relevant industries of transportation industry were implemented during this stage. In terms of the former, as what mentioned above, Japan was a later emerging capitalism country, and its development of capital accounting was slow; this led the system used during the war become the key stage of the development establishment, which meant that government used different governing methods to force the enterprises followed the standard business accounting (especially the calculation of assets depreciation). Moreover, transportation industry was one of the important governing enterprises, and it drew more colonialist government’s attention on whether the capital accounting system had been established in the industry. As for the latter, we talked about the essential difference between transportation industry and other traditional industries, and the transportation industry played an important role in pushing industry revolution in Europe, America, and Japan so that it was with great possibility that Taiwanese capital moved towards modern industries through transportation industry. This could be seen on the contact with mechanical kinetics on one side, and on the other side, it marched towards industry. The indicative meaning of this was presented on the relevant enterprises, especially the vehicle maintenance and repair incident to the system during the war and the industrialization for Army. In conclusion, the chain mechanism existed in the Taiwanese capital accumulation process from prewar to postwar, and it was “non-machinery light railway the attempt on steam powered and electricity (also invested electricity industry) machinery vehicle transportation new and developing machinery manufacture and chemistry local transportation carriers small and medium-sized enterprises”. Of course, the development was not a straight line process, and there were some obstacles in the way; however, the basic successive relationship could still be tracked.

摘要 中國自1970年代末期經濟改革開放以來，經濟快速成長，導致2012年中國的GDP已經超過了8兆美元，成為繼美國之後的世界第二經濟大國。隨著經濟的成長，中國也逐漸由製造業為主的經濟體，朝向發展服務業和內需型產業轉變。中國人民所得增加，消費能力增強，近幾年量販業在中國蓬勃發展，相較之下臺灣量販店目前的展店速度與營收成長趨緩。 本研究以在兩岸都設有賣場的量販店業者潤泰集團大潤發及法商家樂福為研究對象，蒐集這兩家業者在臺灣和中國兩地的相關資料，以市場定位、經營理念、經營策略、以及經營績效等，深入整理與分析，再運用深度訪談，透過競爭策略五力分析及SWOT分析，探討量販店業者如何運用兩岸不同的市場及不同經營策略創造績效。研究結果顯示不論是五力分析或是SWOT分析，中國大潤發的競爭力最強。反之，在五力分析中台灣家樂福所受影響最大，其中尤其以購買者的議價能力、替代品或服務的威脅，以及現有廠商的競爭程度等方面所受影響較大。另一方面，在SWOT分析中，中國家樂福較居於劣勢，而所受的威脅也最強，主要原因為門市集客力弱及面臨租金成本提高的壓力。 關鍵字：大潤發、家樂福、經營策略、經營績效、五力分析 / Abstract Since its reform in late 1970s, China has experienced high economic growth. With GDP over 8 trillion USD, in 2012 China became the second largest economy ranked only behind the USA. Accompanying with such growth, China slowly transited from a manufacturing-based into a service and domestic-based economy. As the economic condition improves, people’s consumption power increases, which drives rapid growth of the hypermarket industry in China; and as contrast, the Taiwanese hypermarket industry is reaching a plateau during the same period of time. In this research, a comparative study is conducted with hypermarket industries in China and Taiwan. Taking Carrefour and RT-Mart chains, that operate on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as samples, this study employs SWOT analysis and Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model to investigate the business strategy and performance differences. In particular, this study collects business data of said companies, including company’s vision, market position, business strategy, and operational performance, and the exploration was supplemented by in-depth interviews with the high-ranking staff members in the two companies. The findings suggest that RT-Mart China is the most competitive confirmed by both SWOT and Five Forces analyses while Carrefour Taiwan is impacted by the buyer bargain power and threat of substitutes and services. In addition, via SWOT analysis, it is found that Carrefour China is in a weak position since it is suffering from high rental costs and inability to gather customers. Keywords: RT-Mart, Carrefour, business strategy, business performance, Michael Porter’s five forces analysis

People effectiveness has become a key differentiator of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy and the need for a valid and reliable measure of people effectiveneness has become paramount for success. The research positions the psychological work immersion scale (PWIS) as a relevant measure of people effectiveness and explores the relationship between the PWIS variables (psychological attachment and people effectiveness enablers) and perceptions of business performance. Furthermore the research explores whether higher levels of psychological work immersion leads to increased business performance over time in an attempt to position the value of organisational development interventions aimed at increasing psychological work immersion levels in the work place. The setting for this research was a not-for-profit organisation in South Africa. The sample for the study was measured at two defined points in time over a 14-month period and consisted of n = 414 (T1) and n = 551 (T2). The study showed that the PWIS factor structure is a valid measure of the psychological work immersion construct across time (T1 and T2). The results provided evidence of convergent, intra-discriminant and external discriminant validity (construct validity) of the PWIS within (T1 and T2) and over time (T1 vs T2). The results showed that the PWIS has acceptable internal consistency reliability within and across time (T1 and T2) as well as demonstrating test-retest reliability across time. The results provided evidence that the people effectiveness enablers and psychological attachment variables significantly predict perception of business performance indicators (profit/loss, costs, and cash flow related to operating activities), and that strong perceptions of people effectiveness enablers relate to strong individual perceptions of business performance through a high sense of psychological attachment. The mediation results confirmed the test-retest reliability and validity of the PWIS in predicting perceptions of business performance within and over time. This finding shows that psychological attachment is an important factor in terms of iv influencing the individual perceptions of business performance which is related to improvements in actual business performance. The study also showed evidence of a positive relationship between psychological work immersion and business performance and demonstrated improvements in psychological work immersion coincided with year on year improvements in business performance. The study contributes towards the current literature on organisational development and specifically on the measurement of people effectiveness within knowledge economy organisations. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com.

This research was geared towards the investigation of management strategies (factors) that affect the performance ofMSMEs in Kenya. Many developed countries record a time in history when entrepreneurial activities led to revival of economical growth after decline. This implies MSMEs is a very vital sector especially for a developing country like Kenya. MSMEs stagnate and their performance is uncertain according to writers such as Namusonge, Management inadequacies have been suggested in several studies. The objectives of this research was to, 1. To identifY the critical management factors affecting the performance of MSMEs in Kenya; ii. To establish the process through which managerial factors affect the performance of a MSMEs in Kenya ; m. To determine the integrative effect of various management factors in the MSMES in Kenya; IV. To establish the effect of demographics and management factors on performance, v. To establish effects of external environment on internal management factors A conceptual model was formulated from the literature review showing relationships of the management strategies and the environment they operate in. These relationships became the basis for the hypotheses which were later tested. In chapter 4, a mini research (pilot study) was conducted in May 2007,whose main aim was to test the reliability and validity of the research instruments. The 36 questionnaires returned were analysed through descriptive method. Results obtained indicated the instruments were reliable and the results valid. A few corrections suggested were made. The major correction was addition of question 35 to collect financial information. The data collection was done between mid August and mid October 2007.In chapter 5, the researcher analysesd the results of the survey after receiving 180 questionnaires. Time was a constraint. In chapter 6, the hypotheses and conceptual model were analysed and the results obtained suggested that, most strategies did not affect the profitability separately but severally. The integrated effect of the management strategies and the associated factors had a higher impact on performance of the MSMES than any individual strategies. In chapter 7, the conclusions, summaries and Recommendations are given. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management and Policy)