Small businesses are considered the backbone of the U.S. economy with significant contributions in the areas of job creation and economic development. However, 79% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years. This multiple case study aimed to explore strategies and knowledge of resources that owners of small businesses used to sustain business operations for longer than the first 5 years. The population included 5 minority owners of small businesses in Texas. Chaos theory formed the conceptual framework. The data collection process included semistructured interviews, member checks, field notes, company artifacts, and archival documents. Data were analyzed using Yin's data analysis steps of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding. Three themes emerged from the analysis: effective management of the business environment, effective planning, and business owners' skills and knowledge. The U.S. Small Business Administration, local chambers of commerce, and owners of small businesses may benefit from the findings of this study by gaining an understanding of successful minority owners of small businesses' implemented strategies that enable business success and profitability. The implications of this study for positive social change include identifying sustainable strategies minority owners of small businesses can use to advance business growth, increase financial security, achieve employee job sustainability, and potentially stimulate the local community with job creation.

For several years, the number of South Africans starting new business enterprises, has declined. According to the findings of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, in 2003, South Africa ranked 22nd out of 31 countries for new entrepreneurial activities. One of the greatest challenges for South Africa, is to find a solution for its huge unemployment problem, which is responsible for many of South Africa's other problems, like poverty, crime and brutality, which discourage global investment in South Africa. The development of small-, medium-, and microenterprises (SMMEs) is seen as an important ingredient of economic development. The population for this study is therefore comprised of SMMEs in South Africa. Any enterprise is dependent on the environment it operates in. The environment consists of the macro-environment, which includes the demographic, technological, economical, social, institutional and international environment, the market environment, which includes consumers, suppliers and competitors, as well as the micro-environment, which includes the organisation, its mission, goals and objectives, management functions, business functions and business resources. The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of applying cost- and management accounting methods and techniques for the development and profitable running of SMMEs. These include choosing an appropriate costing system, implementing a management information system, effectively executing the management functions of planning, organising, coordination and control, through the application of cost- and management accounting methods and techniques, including forecasting, budgeting, accurate and appropriate costing methods, performance management techniques like total quality management, benchmarking etcetera. Data on the current use of cost-and management accounting by SMMEs in South Africa, and the performance of these concerns, were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from a sample of 37 SMMEs. It was found, that although several cost- and management accounting methods and techniques are used by some SMMEs, many are not used effectively, while many SMMEs are not aware of the many advantages that the application of these methods and techniques hold. It is recommended that entrepreneurs make an effort to gain the knowledge needed for them to apply the cost- and management accounting methods and techniques that will improve the performance of their businesses, ensuring the attainment of their goals and objectives, ensuring their survival and prosperity, and leading to job creation, economic growth, and the prosperity of the people of South Africa. To assist with this, the researcher has developed a model and a manual that can be used by entrepreneurs to assist them in starting a new enterprise, as well as running a successful enterprise. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business and Management Accounting))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

This exploratory study investigates the combined effects on firm performance of Chinese SMEs in Sarawak due to the managerial characteristics of owners / managers and business strategy as moderated by business environment. A review of the existing literature reveals that each of these constructs has been examined either alone or in some combinations and has contributed to the firm performance. Prior studies have raised concern on underspecified models or methodological problems that may have prevented a fuller understanding of potential multivariate relationships among these constructs as relate to one another and to performance.

During the past few decades, the sport industry has experienced immense pressure to commercialise its operations and conform to traditional business practices (Chadwick 2009:191). With this evolution from a pure leisure activity to a multimillion dollar industry, it has become evident that the unique characteristics and deeply rooted historical culture of sport pose significant challenges for the sport manager during the process of commercialisation and the application of strategic management. The aim of this study was to analyse the current business environment of Cycling South Africa (CyclingSA) in such a way that the factors in the micro-environment, market environment and macro-environment that impact on the organisation‟s strategic decisions could be identified. The results should allow sport organisations to engage more effectively in strategic management by focusing on factors that influence the sport organisation‟s business environment in particular. A survey of CyclingSA members‟ perceptions of the organisation‟s current effectiveness in the business environment revealed a strong focus on financial and marketing elements. The study also found that factors such as loyalty programmes, talent identification and sport science support, safety in the physical environment, antidoping regulations, transformation and black economic empowerment and environmental friendly practices play a key role in CyclingSA‟s business environment. It is evident from the study that sport organisations, with specific reference to CyclingSA, should engage in strategic management by adapting traditional business principles to suit each organisation‟s unique needs. / Business Management / M. Comm.(Business Management)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz de Freitas Ayres.pdf: 1085423 bytes, checksum: e01d83bfeb8d9716d87afb205912cde2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-27 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / Today s competitive business environment requires companies to change at a quick pace and in this scenario, organizational learning achieves a significant role as a tool designed to ensure companies can achieve differentiated performance compared to their competitors. As a result, organizational players are aware that the differential to be targeted is to understand the learning processes taking place at an individual, team and organizational level. By understanding these learning processes, they can manage them so that people and organizations can benefit from this approach. This paper seeks to identify the influences from Individual Learning both for Team and Organizational Learning and how Team Learning influences Organizational Learning to understand how learning takes place throughout an organization. Our investigation has a quantitative approach, using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology software Smart PLS2.0 M3, in four companies operating in the Brazilian market and different business segments, ranging from health care through services to automakers. Results from our investigation show that Individual Learning influences both Team Learning and Organizational Learning, just as Team Learning influences Organizational Learning, while having specific differences in each company, even for those operating in the same business segment. / Os mercados competitivos exigem das organizações ritmo acelerado de transformações. Nesse contexto dinâmico de informações, a aprendizagem organizacional tem seu papel relevante, na medida em que ela potencializa a capacidade de manter as empresas em condições diferenciadas, quando comparadas com seus concorrentes. Cresce, desse modo, a consciência dos atores organizacionais, sobre o diferencial a ser perseguido na compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem em níveis individuais, grupais e organizacionais e sua gestão para que pessoas e empresas deles se beneficiem. Este trabalho procura identificar as influências da Aprendizagem Individual tanto na Aprendizagem Grupal quanto na Organizacional e da Aprendizagem Grupal na Organizacional para entender como a aprendizagem se processa pela organização. A investigação de natureza quantitativa utilizou a metodologia do Partial Least Squares (PLS) software Smart PLS2.0 M3 aplicado em quatro empresas, atuantes no mercado nacional em segmentos de negócios distintos, desde a área da saúde, passando pelo segmento de serviços e até o automobilístico. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que a Aprendizagem Individual influencia a Aprendizagem Grupal e a Organizacional. Do mesmo modo, a Aprendizagem Grupal influencia a Aprendizagem Organizacional, com diferenciações particulares para cada uma das empresas, mesmo aquelas atuantes no mesmo segmento de negócios.

In ICT industry, firms’ financial prosperity and growth are highly depended on innovation. The innovation provides competitive advantage and high performance for the ICT companies. The purpose of the paper is to study effect that the companies’ internal resources, experience on the market, investments in innovation and business environment have on their performance. The sample includes 22 ICT companies from North America, EU and Asia region. The examined data cover period from 2011 to 2015. The companies’ annual reports and USPTO were used as the sources of the data. The mixed research method is chosen to reach the study’s objectives. The study is analysed with help of DEA and Balanced scorecard performance measurement methods. Organizational learning theory and Resource based theory are applied to answer the research questions in the study. The outputs of performance are categories such as assets and competencies, innovative activities, suppliers and customer relations, and employees and management. These categories are presented by a variety of indicators such as assets turnover, labour productivity ratio, debt ratio, SG&A costs ratio and number of published patents. The factors such as companies’ size, age, investments in R&D and business environment have significant impact on the performance of innovative activities. The results suggest that the large established ICT companies are less efficient in studied categories than the smaller and younger ICT firms. Moreover, the younger smaller companies show higher efficiency even in terms of such outcomes as R&D intensity and number of published patents. The results are consistent with the findings attained in previous studies from the same scientific field.

The thesis deals with the quality of business environment of the Czech Republic, nevertheless, the main goal of the thesis is to evaluate the current system of the export support. Firstly, the opening chapter attempts to define the term business environment theoretically, after that it puts forward the possibilities of quantifying the quality of this indicator and then summarizes its evolution specifically in the Czech Republic. The second chapter is particularly devoted to the system of economic diplomacy in the Czech Republic and concentrates primarily on the support of export as a part of national business support programs. In this context, the thesis analyses in full detail the Export Strategy of the Czech Republic for the period 2012-2020, its updated version of 2016 and also how defined goals are met on an ongoing basis. The final part provides the export survey carried out within small and medium-sized enterprises. This survey evaluates whether the system of the state export support is generally known and used within this segment.

The business environment is an important factor of growth in entrepreneurship and competitiveness. The thesis aims to analyze key aspects of the Czech business environment and consequences for its development.

This final diploma thesis called "Global analysis of the current business-legal environment in the Czech Republic" thoroughly evaluates business-legal environment in the Czech Republic and reveals how it is perceived by small and medium entrepreneurs. This analysis further uncovers and specifies fields where there are deficiencies in the Czech legal system. There is also a short view of the situation in the countries neighboring with the Czech Republic such as Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, France and the whole of EU. The topic of EU legislation was not neglected either. These new legal provisions coming from the EU are more and more becoming part of the Czech legal system and have bigger and bigger influence on the Czech entrepreneurs. Businessmen in the Czech Republic still perceive many difficulties related to the state restrictions and regulatory authorities decisions. The situation is especially gravely perceived in case of tax laws, labor laws and the overall complexity and complicatedness of the Czech legislation as a whole. Based on the research that was a part of the research, high level of conservativeness of the small and medium entrepreneurs was proved. Czech businessmen tend to have difficulties adopting new things including laws even if those could have positive impact in the end. It further seems that the Czech businessmen tend to approach their business environment skeptically but not passively. They feel like participating actively in changes in their business environment even thou it often seems impossible.

This diploma thesis deals with current business environment of the Republic of South Africa which is examined by the PESTEL analysis. It is closely concerned with political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legislative environment of the RSA. This analysis is enriched by practical experience of some Czech entrepreneurs. Simultaneously, the thesis is engaged in business cooperation of this country with the Czech Republic. At the conclusion, possibilities of further extension of the cooperation between the CR and South Africans are identified.