Abstract For a long time in our society there has been a minority group, e.g. individual recycle material collectors, curio collectors, and recycle businessmen, living on collection and trading of recycle material. Particularly in recent years with the promotion champagne of environmental protection policy, there is an increasing trend in the number of people involved in this business. The society reacts both positively and negatively about such recycling business. The positive view comes from the environmental protection institution¡¦s affirmation about the reuse of recycled material, whereas the negative view is concerned about the messy environment created by the recycling method and process. It is an undisputable fact that their existence in residential and commercial area is violating the regulations of urban development plan. This paper discovers there are differences in opinion between the EPA authority and the Urban Development authority in the applicable regulations about owners of recycle business moving into industrial estate while investigating it¡¦s legality from the position of public sector. The methods of managing existing recycle business among the different local governments are also quite different. For instance, while the central EPA authority frequently prepares budgets in an effort to improve the image of the recycle business, the local urban development bureaus prescribe them for the reason of violating the regulations of urban development plan, such as piling up of wastes, etc. On the other hand, looking at the value of its existence from the economic benefit angle shows that the recycled waste cleared by the recycling business is 2.5 times more efficient than that of the public sector. Such economic benefit is clearly visible. Though this study covers only the Kaohsiung metropolitan area, the problem of these under sized waste recyclers is no doubt a nationwide issue. It is hoped that the investigation and analysis of this paper in the problems arise from the recycling business could benefit the business owners in economy of scale and profit analysis as well as the public sectors as a reference in the design of related laws and regulations.

L'activité entrepreneuriale génère des séries d'événements qui sont susceptibles d'impacter à la fois l'équilibre de l'entreprise et celui de son propriétaire-dirigeant. Alors que la santé de ce dernier constitue un actif immatériel clé pour une petite organisation, les caractéristiques des événements vécus et la réaction psychologique du chef d'entreprise demeurent peu étudiées. Le but de ce travail doctoral est de combler ces lacunes communes à la santé au travail et à l'entrepreneuriat, deux champs rarement croisés. En partant d'une vision pluridisciplinaire et d'une posture épistémologique de type pragmatique, nous avons mené une recherche mixte auprès d'un panel de 357 dirigeants de PME. Une étude longitudinale qualitative fut d'abord conduite pour catégoriser sémantiquement les événements les plus marquants. Puis une étude transversale quantitative a permis la pondération des événements codés via deux construits médiateurs : le stress (réponse négative à un événement) ou la satisfaction (réponse positive). Enfin, l'influence des événements vécus sur la santé physique et mentale a été testée par des régressions linéaires multiples. Au niveau conceptuel, les résultats de cette thèse étendent la théorie des événements affectifs au champ de l'entrepreneuriat. Sur le plan méthodologique, deux inventaires d'événements sont proposés : ils capturent le stress et la satisfaction générés par l'activité entrepreneuriale. De manière pratique, des actions préventives de professionnels médicaux peuvent s'appuyer sur les qualités prédictives de la santé de ces inventaires. Présentés comme un « stressomètre » et un « satisfactomètre », ils sont aussi des outils de repérage accessibles aux travailleurs non salariés. / Entrepreneurial activity generates series of events which may impact both the equilibrium of the business and the one of its owner-manager. While the health of this latter represents a key intangible asset for a small organisation, the features of the experienced events and the psychological reaction of the small business owner remain little explored. The aim of this doctoral work is to make up for these common lacks to occupational health and entrepreneurship, two fields scarcely crossed. Based on a multidisciplinary approach and an epistemological positioning of the pragmatic type, we led a mixed methods research on a panel of 357 small business owners. First, a qualitative longitudinal survey was conducted to place the most notable events experienced by the owners into semantic categories. Second, a quantitative cross-sectional questionnaire intended to weight the coded events through two mediating constructs: stress (negative response to an event) and satisfaction (positive response). Third, the influence of the events experienced on physical and mental health variance was tested through multiple linear regressions. Conceptually speaking, the results of this thesis extend the affective events theory to the field of entrepreneurship. Methodologically speaking, two checklists of events are proposed: they capture the stress and the satisfaction generated by the entrepreneurial activity. Practically speaking, some preventive actions from medical professionals can build upon the predictive qualities regarding health of these checklists. Introduced as a “stressometer” and a “satisfactometer”, they are also benchmarking tools available for the self-employed.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the use and sophistication of accounting information systems (AISs) and the success of small businesses in South Carolina. Additionally, this study explored the variables that influence South Carolinian small business owners/managers in the extent of adoption (sophistication) of AISs. This study applied the contingency theory of management accounting information systems as the theoretical foundation of the study. The study sought to fill the gap in the literature related to the use of accounting information systems in small businesses. Previous empirical studies of owner/manager behavior have resulted in conflicting findings with respect to accounting and business processes and systems utilized in small businesses. The research question central to this study was whether or not the sophistication of accounting information systems improved the success of South Carolina small businesses. The researcher expected to find that businesses owned by individuals with business-related education and previous business experience would be using more sophisticated AISs, and therefore be more successful. The results of the study did show a positive relationship between the sophistication of the AIS and higher levels of sales in small businesses. Also, the study found a significant positive relationship between the importance the owner/manager placed on AISs and the sophistication of the AIS. The findings indicated no positive significantly related differences in the sophistication of accounting information systems and owner/manager education, experience, ethnicity, or gender.

La ''caution dirigeante'' est une formule consacrée par la doctrine pour désigner le cautionnement donné par un dirigeant en garantie des dettes de sa société. L'emploi de ce syntagme n'est pas inutile dans la mesure où la caution dirigeante a toujours eu un statut intermédiaire : elle ne peut pas être appréhendée comme un simple consommateur puisqu'elle contracte pour les besoins de son activité professionnelle, elle ne peut pas davantage être considérée comme un professionnel contractant dans son domaine de compétences. Traditionnellement, la jurisprudence considérait pourtant les cautions dirigeantes comme des cautions averties, elles en incarnaient précisément l'archétype. Dès la fin des années 1970, des réformes législatives compliquèrent régulièrement cette conception prétorienne de la caution dirigeante. La loi pour l'initiative économique du 1er août 2003 annonça l'avènement d'une ère nouvelle pour les cautions dirigeantes, faisant d'elles des quidam du droit du cautionnement. Les interventions législatives ultérieures forcent même à constater que les dirigeants sont paradoxalement mieux protégés que les cautions non-dirigeantes, fragilisant ainsi la fonction de ce cautionnement qui est d'assurer le crédit aux entreprises. / "Director's Guarantee" is an expression reserved by doctrine to refer to the surety given by a director to secure the debts of his company. The employment of this phrase is useful insofar as the director's guarantee has always had an intermediary status : he cannot be considered to be either as simple consumer because he's contracted for the purposes of the director's professional activity, nor as a professional contracting in his or her field. Traditionally, case law has considered director's guarantees as informed sureties. In fact, they embody the archetype. Since the 1970's, legislative reforms have regularly complicated this court-made definition of the director's guarantee. The French Economic Initiative Act of 1 August 2003 launched a new era for director's guarantees, making them ordinary individuals of surety law. Later legislative actions even had to note that director's guarantees are paradoxically better protected than non-director's guarantees, thereby weakening the function of this surety that is to provide business credit.

Small businesses remain the engine of growth in an economy such as Nigeria's economy. The objective of this study was to explore the high failure rate of small businesses during the first 5 years of business activities in Nigeria. The research design for this study was a multiple case study. The targeted population was small-scale entrepreneurs from 3 facilities in the soybean processing industries in Ibadan, Nigeria. The cognitive theory was the conceptual framework for the study. The data collection process was semistructured in-person interviews of 3 successful soy processing business owners. The data analysis process was conducted following the Rowley 4-step process and used the within-methodical triangulation that resulted in thematic answers to the central research question. The process of analysis included: grouping data, regrouping data based on themes, evaluating the information, and recognizing emergent themes. The five themes that emerged from the data were (a) education and training, (b) effective strategies for business profitability, (c) flexible financial strategy, (d) market positioning and, (e) efficient infrastructure. The data were cleaned and transcribed using software to code the features to identify the similarities of data used in the study. From the findings of this study, the implications for positive social change include the possibility to increase the survival rates of small businesses during early years of operation, reduce unemployment, increase tax receipts for the government, and catalyze economic activities, reducing poverty levels.

Employee turnover is high in small retail business, compelling business leaders to implement strategies that successfully reduce employee turnover. The conceptual framework guiding this study was the Herzberg 2-factor theory because the theory identifies factors that influence job satisfaction and employee turnover. The study population was retail owners and managers from small businesses in the retail industry in San Antonio, Texas who had demonstrated successful strategies to reduce employee turnover. A focus group was conducted with 4 retail managers, and semistructured interviews were conducted with 2 small retail owners, all of whom were recruited via purposeful criterion-based sampling. Yin's 5-step process for data analysis of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding resulted in themes of continuous learning in the workplace, communication, and valuing employees. These leaders provided continuous learning in the workplace, which demonstrated their value of their employees. Communication was a key concept discussed by all participants, as it built credibility with leaders and employees, increased productivity, and reduced turnover. The study has value to the practice of business because results may benefit industry growth by increasing retail leaders' knowledge levels about employee turnover. The findings may affect positive social change as leaders apply strategies useful for reducing employee turnover as lower turnover rates might reduce unemployment, stabilize communities, and improve the human and social conditions outside the workplace.

Individuals in the millennial generation, born from 1980 to 1996, have many entrepreneurial opportunities; however, many people in the millennial generation lack the skills, motivation, and business strategies to survive in business. Because of the influx of competition, lack of experience, and lack of business-world strategies, entrepreneurs can miss opportunities and fail within the first few years of business operations. Grounded in the systems theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that business owners in the millennial generation used to survive in business longer than 6 years. Participants consisted of 5 business owners in the millennial generation in 5 businesses in northern Virginia with successful experience in implementing strategies to survive in business longer than 6 years. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and a review of relevant company documents. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5-step process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding data. The 4 key themes derived from data analysis were marketing, support, lessons learned, and passion. The findings of this study might be beneficial to business owners who seek to survive in business longer than 6 years by demonstrating the need for using effective marketing strategies, recognizing the need for adequate support, learning from past mistakes, and having passion for operating the business. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential for business owners to improve local job opportunities, increase the economic prosperity of their communities, and increase local community services through their contribution to the local tax base.

I denna induktiva studie undersöker vi vad som styr valet mellan att bli egenanställd eller starta ett eget företag. Personer kan välja att verka som egenanställd baserat på sin hobby eller passion utan att starta ett eget företag. Detta genom att driva en verksamhet samtidigt som man överlåter de administrativa delarna till ett annat företag, ett så kallat egenanställningsföretag. När man använder sig av en sådan tjänst kan man definieras som egenanställd, vilket innebär att man inte är egenföretagare men ändå driver en egen verksamhet. Syftet med denna studie är att förstå varför och vilka faktorer som påverkar valet hos individer att verka som egenanställd eller att starta ett eget företag. Vi avser att studera likheter och skillnader mellan egenanställda och företagare i deras entreprenörskap. Vägen till entreprenörskap kan se väldigt olika ut för olika personer och vilka faktorer som påverkar valet vill vi undersöka genom teorier om entreprenörskap, entreprenörskapsprocessen, affärsmöjligheter, push- och pull-motivationer samt administrativt arbete. Genom teorierna får vi insyn i vad en entreprenör är och hur vägen till att bli en entreprenör ser ut. Vi har använt oss av ändamålsenligt urval, som baserar sig på att hitta respondenter som kan bidra med relevant information. Vi har intervjuat tio personer, varav fem är egenanställda och fem är företagare genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Via intervjuerna fick vi en djupare förståelse till varför respondenterna väljer företagande eller egenanställning. Resultatet visar att det ligger olika orsaker bakom dessa val som exempelvis kan vara framtidsplaner, om man vill att företaget ska växa samt om man vill anlita personal i framtiden. Andra faktorer som kan påverka är personens livssituation och om man först vill testa sin affärsidé genom egenanställning. De lärdomar som olika grupper kan ta från vår studie är att nya företagare kan överväga sitt val hur man väljer att starta företag, vilken form passar egentligen bäst och likadant för potentiella egenanställda som kan överväga sina val. Samtidigt som den egenanställda kanske inser att den vill satsa på sitt företag och övergå till att starta ett eget företag. Egenanställningsföretag kan ta hjälp av denna studie för att kunna få en bättre förståelse för vilka deras kunder är. Detta med grund i resultaten av varför företagare väljer att starta ett eget företag istället för att verka som egenanställd. / The purpose of the study is to find out the reasons behind the choice between using an umbrella contractor or running your own business. An umbrella company is a back company for contractors that takes care of most parts of their administrative work. This is achieved by using theories such as entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur process, business opportunities, push and pull motivations and administrative work. The study is based on an inductive interview study that included ten respondents, five of whom are using an umbrella contractor and five business owners, to gain insight in different sorts of entrepreneurship. Respondents were found based on purpose sampling, which is based on finding respondents who can contribute with relevant information to our study. We conclude that there are various reasonings behind these choices, such as future plans. Some of the plans depends on if you want the company to be able to grow and hire staff in the future. These choices can also depend on the life situation; if you have a full-time job or if you want to try your concept before starting your own business.

Small businesses are critical to the health of the United States economy as they account for approximately 50% of all jobs and 99% of all firms. The purpose for this descriptive multiunit case study was to explore what strategies small business owners used to achieve profitability by the end of the first 5 years of opening their business. The sample comprised 4 small business owners who have been profitable by Year 5 of being in business in Denver, Colorado. The conceptual framework for this study was built upon the general systems theory. The data were collected through semistructured interviews and company documents. Transcript review and member checking were completed to strengthen credibility and trustworthiness. Based on the methodological triangulation of the data sources collected, 3 emergent themes were identified after completing the 5 stages of data analysis: seasonality of the business, passion and dedication of the small business owner, and hiring the right employees. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing insights and strategies for small business owners in preparing and sustaining profitability. The data from this study may contribute to the prosperity of the small business owners' employees, their families, communities, and the local economy.

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.