Problem- In the townships and rural areas of the Western Cape province of South Africa unemployment can be as high as 60%. For many, starting a business is the only viable option to survive. There are many organizations seeking to help entrepreneurs to successfully start and manage a business, but services are significantly lacking. We therefore wish to determine what business service providers in the Western Cape are doing today to help necessity entrepreneurs succeed, and what can be done better in the future to facilitate entrepreneurship in the region. Purpose- The purpose of our research is to identify measures necessary to facilitate successful entrepreneurial start-up activities in the Western Cape province of South Africa for necessity entrepreneurs. Method- To address our purpose we have used snowball sampling to conduct six in-depth interviews with necessity entrepreneurs and eight with Business Service Providers using semistructured interviews. In addition, we have utilized convenience sampling to interview 27 necessity entrepreneurs with whom we conducted brief interviews. Results- From our research it can be concluded that the most important measure necessary to facilitate entrepreneurship for necessity entrepreneurs in the Western Cape is to increase the entrepreneurial capacity of the people. People must be provided with the resources to develop the skills and mindsets necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur and see entrepreneurship as a way of making a career. Secondly, resources must be diverted so that those necessity entrepreneurs with a viable business plan and necessary capacities are provided financial assistance to establish their business. Thirdly, the provincial government must make significant improvements in the abilities of entrepreneurs to access markets. Currently entrepreneurs cannot efficiently access markets and are thereby withheld from valuable business opportunities. Fourthly, the services offered by business service providers must be made more effective and achieve a much greater standard of quality in order to help those most in need better. We are optimistic with regards to development of entrepreneurship in the Western Cape, but must emphasize the fact that there is a significant need for change with regards to services offered to necessity entrepreneurs.

The relevance of global economy are being enhanced day by day, organizational internationalization is becoming more and more important nowadays. Many companies have stated their internationalization process, but not all of them are successful. Thus, the main purpose and aim of this study is to research the relationship between the internal management of organization and firm internationalization process, and find out the most important internal factors (entrepreneur, corporate culture, organizational human resource management) which could push organization to identify the internationalization opportunity and to operate the internationalization process. In this paper, authors construct an original theoretical framework, and chooses Huawei Company as a real example to examine the theoretical results which are concluded from the existing studies.

I och med en ökad konkurrens på den globala marknaden blir företagande allt viktigare för länders ekonomiska situation. Så är fallet även i Sverige där entreprenörskapet är bekymrande lågt trots goda förutsättningar. Följaktligen har entreprenörskapet blivit ett omdiskuterat ämne bland forskare såväl som politiker vilka nu strävar efter att stimulera nyföretagande och stödjer hjälpande entreprenörsorganisationer samt andra insatser. Utifrån detta vänder sig uppsatsen mot personer som varit på vägledning hos en av dessa organisationer; Drivhuset i Uppsala. Studiens målsättning har varit att skapa en förståelse för studenters perspektiv på entreprenörskap med fokus på deras uppfattning om drivkrafter samt hinder mot entreprenörskap. Studiens tvåfaldiga syfte är således att undersöka om de drivkrafter och hinder, som unga entreprenörer förväntar sig att påverkas av, motsvarar de senare faktiskt upplevda. Därtill ämnar studien ta reda på huruvida drivkrafter och förväntade hinder skiljer sig åt mellan entreprenörer och entreprenörsaspiranter. Detta görs genom att genomföra telefonintervjuer med 40 personer, varvid hälften har fullföljt den entreprenöriella processen medan resterande stannat i dess början. Genom en sammanställning samt jämförelse av svaren mellan de båda urvalsgrupperna har försök gjorts att utläsa eventuella mellan dessa.Resultaten tyder på att respondenternas primära drivkrafter för entreprenörskap är självförverkligande, självständighet samt möjlighet till ekonomisk ersättning. De huvudsakliga hinder som upplevs av respondenterna är rädsla för att erfarenheten av marknadssituationen är alltför begränsad, byråkratiska svårigheter samt finansiella risker. Dock kan en diskrepans urskiljas mellan entreprenörernas förväntningar och deras upplevda erfarenheter efter företagsstarten. Resultaten indikerar att vare sig byråkratin eller marknadserfarenheten utgjorde ett så stort problem som väntat.I och med en ökad konkurrens på den globala marknaden blir företagande allt viktigare för länders ekonomiska situation. Så är fallet även i Sverige där entreprenörskapet är bekymrande lågt trots goda förutsättningar. Följaktligen har entreprenörskapet blivit ett omdiskuterat ämne bland forskare såväl som politiker vilka nu strävar efter att stimulera nyföretagande och stödjer hjälpande entreprenörsorganisationer samt andra insatser. Utifrån detta vänder sig uppsatsen mot personer som varit på vägledning hos en av dessa organisationer; Drivhuset i Uppsala. Studiens målsättning har varit att skapa en förståelse för studenters perspektiv på entreprenörskap med fokus på deras uppfattning om drivkrafter samt hinder mot entreprenörskap. Studiens tvåfaldiga syfte är således att undersöka om de drivkrafter och hinder, som unga entreprenörer förväntar sig att påverkas av, motsvarar de senare faktiskt upplevda. Därtill ämnar studien ta reda på huruvida drivkrafter och förväntade hinder skiljer sig åt mellan entreprenörer och entreprenörsaspiranter. Detta görs genom att genomföra telefonintervjuer med 40 personer, varvid hälften har fullföljt den entreprenöriella processen medan resterande stannat i dess början. Genom en sammanställning samt jämförelse av svaren mellan de båda urvalsgrupperna har försök gjorts att utläsa eventuella mellan dessa.Resultaten tyder på att respondenternas primära drivkrafter för entreprenörskap är självförverkligande, självständighet samt möjlighet till ekonomisk ersättning. De huvudsakliga hinder som upplevs av respondenterna är rädsla för att erfarenheten av marknadssituationen är alltför begränsad, byråkratiska svårigheter samt finansiella risker. Dock kan en diskrepans urskiljas mellan entreprenörernas förväntningar och deras upplevda erfarenheter efter företagsstarten. Resultaten indikerar att vare sig byråkratin eller marknadserfarenheten utgjorde ett så stort problem som väntat.

Background     International trade could be seen as the phenomenon beating the resources imbalance among countries in the global market. Therefore, our seeking the competitive advantage of Thailand is to the orchid which is viewed industrial drop of country to increase expansion of export and generate income for Thailand. Moreover, Thailand is one of the leaders which have exported the orchids to foreign countries. For this reason, we would like to study factors which affect to make a decision of Thai entrepreneurs to export the orchid to Swedish market. Problems         How market knowledge and entrepreneur characteristics influence on Thai entrepreneurs in order to make a decision on internationalization by exporting Thai orchid to Swedish market? Purposes          The main purpose of this research is to explore how external and internal factors as market knowledge and entrepreneur characteristics influence on the decision making of Thai entrepreneurs to internationalize by exporting Thai orchid to Swedish market. Methodology This master’s thesis is based on a qualitative approach which is used by semi-structured interview to conduct Thai entrepreneur’s perspectives on export the orchid to Swedish market while the secondary data is collected from website, article, and journal to utilize material for this thesis. Conclusions      We found that the market knowledge as external factors influence to the entrepreneur decision making as the encouragement in term of sufficient knowledge while the lack of market knowledge also lead to the discouragement of internationalization decision making. Moreover, several entrepreneur characteristics could encourage and help entrepreneur in order to make the decision to internationalize while some characteristics are not influence to the decision making of entrepreneur.

No description available.

Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Capital (IC) have become important concepts for economies around the world over the last decades, even though, due to their multidisciplinary nature, different definitions have been developed concerning these concepts. There are some authors who regard these phenomena as being in strong opposition to traditional theories, such as economics, accounting, finance, to mention a few, but they have played a vital role for a better understanding of the success and/or failure of firms. In this paper we are going to address the factors influencing the success of the entrepreneurial firm, focusing on IC and the entrepreneur as the main contributors to this outcome. A theoretical model of analysis is presented illustrating how entrepreneurs utilize IC to lead firms towards success, which at the same time contributes back to the experience of the entrepreneur. The model will then be tested by applying it on BPM (Bau- & Projektmanagement GmbH), a German project management firm founded by Peter Christa that specializes in administrating small, medium, and large public construction projects, especially in the field of hospital redevelopment and expansion.

Denna uppsats syftar till att få en inblick i hur frilansande folkmusiker i Sverige gör för att lansera sig själva som artister, vilka redskap som används samt vilken funktion dessa redskap fyller. Detta har undersökts genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra frilansmusiker inom den folkmusikaliska genren. Musikbranschens förändrade förutsättningar, ställda i relation till Lundberg, Malm & Ronströms (2000) begrepp görare, vetare och makare, utgör de teoretiska utgångspunkterna för uppsatsen. Dessa begrepp har i uppsatsen omformats till de tre nya begreppen individen, arenan och branschen. Resultatet visar att respondenternas artistlansering är en medveten process som består av många komponenter. Studien lyfter fram och problematiserar artistens entreprenörskap som utöver det konstnärliga utövandet även innefattar roller såsom exempelvis agent, distributör, marknadsförare och företagare. Musikern som individ använder, med utgångspunkt från drivkraften att musicera, branschen och dess arenor för att framhäva sig själv på marknaden. Undersökningen visar indikationer på att det finns essentiella faktorer när det gäller marknadsföring av artister, där grunderna baseras på att tala om att verksamheten finns, förklara vad som är bra med den, upprepa budskapet och sedan leva upp till det. Respondenternas strategier för att försörja sig som frilansmusiker går ut på att med hjälp av olika redskap hålla verksamheten levande och lönsam. Det gör de genom att exempelvis göra sin musik lättillgänglig och visa en tydlig profil samt genom att bygga ett kontaktnätverk, synas i gynnsamma miljöer och dra nytta av olika bidragsmöjligheter. Det har också framkommit att folkmusikernas marknadsföring och varumärkesbildande utförs till största del över Internet via hemsidor, sökmotorer, e-post och sociala medier. / The paper aims to gain insight into how freelance musicians in Sweden are doing to launch themselves as artists, the resources used and their function. This has been examined through qualitative interviews with four freelance musicians in the genre of folk music. The changing conditions of the music industry, in relation to Lundberg, Malm & Ronström’s concept görare, vetare and makare, are the theoretical basis for the paper. These concepts have in the paper been transformed to the three new concepts of the individual, the arena and the industry. The results show that the respondents' role as an artist is a deliberate process that consists of many components. The study highlights and discusses the artist's entrepreneurship that goes beyond the artistic exercise, and also includes roles such as agent, distributor, marketer etc. The musician as an individual, with the urge to make music as a point of departure, uses the industry and it’s arenas to highlight him or herself in the market. The study indicates that there are essential elements in the marketing of artists which are based on informing people about the activity, explain what is good about it, then repeat the message and live up to it. Respondents' approaches to living as a freelance musician is to keep the business alive and profitable by using various tools. They do this for example by making their music accessible, show a clear profile, build a contact network, be seen in favourable environments and take advantage of various funding possibilities. It has also become apparent that the musicians´marketing and trademark creation is carried out largely over the Internet through websites, search engines, email and social media.

There is no reason to refuse the fact that, in the coming years, Europe is going to face a new wave of immigration. The birth rate is in decline and life expectancy in the European continent is higher than before. As a consequence, there are two major problems: a shortage of labour and the financing of the pensions (Kohler, Billari & Ortega, 2002). World Bank warns European Union that for stabilizing the amount of working age population in 2050 like in 1995, would involve a net migration of 79 million within the EU25. There should be new flow of immigration. As a consequence, the phenomenon combines immigration and entrepreneurship will be vital for countries’ future growth within Europe. However, consider Sweden as the area of study by combining the immigration entrepreneurship study and business start-up abroad. Therefore, the questions of why the entrepreneurs choose to go to other countries for business venture and why they choose Sweden as the host country become a topic to study in this research paper. The purpose of the research is going to find out the motivations for the initiative of entrepreneurial immigrants’ choice of Sweden as a host country. In order to find the result for the purpose, the research chose to use an inductive and exploratory approach to find out why those entrepreneurial immigrants indented to come to establish business in Sweden. Those reasons were investigated from previous research; experts working with foreigners who arrived in Sweden for business purpose, and the entrepreneurial immigrants who arrived in Sweden for new ventures. The data collection based on a qualitative method. According to the research purpose, the theories were chosen in the field of migration and entrepreneurship. Determinants of immigration and entrepreneurship were listed and explained. Based on the interview, information was categorized with the determinants listed in the theoretical frame work. Based on the analysis, the empirical information shows that entrepreneurs came to Sweden not only for business reasons. All of the Local Development Managers and entrepreneurs interviewed considered that entrepreneurial immigrants chose to create business in Sweden with immigration purpose. However, if we want to apply this result to all entrepreneurial immigrants, further quantitative study would be required.

Background: Social entrepreneurship is a phenomenon gaining increased attention from academia and business society. Social enterprises have a duality of social change and business logic, which aims to reach a social mission while offering a commodity. For the commodity to benefit the social mission, multiple targets groups are needed. This deserves a well-planned marketing strategy, however social entrepreneurs have scarce resources to conduct marketing in the best possible way. For these reasons, there is a need for further investigating on social entrepreneurship and marketing.  Purpose: This thesis aims to investigate how the duality in social enterprises coexists in marketing strategies. Additionally, we will address how and why social enterprises prioritize the duality in marketing strategies, and what consequences it carries.  Method: A qualitative research approach has been chosen, consisting of a multiple case study of four Swedish social enterprises. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and an observation, and analyzed through a cross-case comparison.  Conclusion: It can be concluded that duality coexist and is obvious in a social enterprise setting. A social enterprise’s marketing strategy has to balance the duality, since business logic is essential to achieve social change. Values reflect how the duality is prioritized in marketing strategies. Marketing the duality is done with different purposes; awareness creation and promotion. If marketing is done with transparency and clearness, a social enterprise can be financially stable and enhance their social good, which can positively affect all stakeholders.

Både entreprenörskap och invandring har ökat kraftigt i Sverige, såväl som globalt. Idag finns det över en miljon bolag i Sverige där enmansföretag (74,8%) och mikroföretag (21,7%) utgör den största delen. Detta ger en klar syn över att det svenska näringslivet domineras främst av mindre företag. Bakom många av dessa mindre företag står individer med utländsk bakgrund. Under 2010 talades det om att var sjunde företag som startas i Sverige, drivs av en individ med rötter från en annan del av världen.En av de viktigaste drivkrafterna för ett lands ekonomiska tillväxt är företag, vilket är en stor anledning till att fokus ligger på hur dessa väljer att finansiera sin verksamhet. Problemet för många invandrarföretagare är svårigheten med att erhålla extern finansiering under företagets livscykel, vilket leder till att alternativa finansieringsmetoder används som bootstrapping. Bootstrapping betyder att ”ta sig själv i kragen” samt att se till att bli ”självförsörjande”. Forskare menar på att företagarens egenskaper också spelar en väsentlig roll vid val av finansiering.Syftet med denna uppsats är att utforska huruvida invandrarföretagarens användning av bootstrapping påverkas av företagarens egenskaper och företagets livscykel. En hermeneutisk forskningsfilosofi har använts tillsammans med en deduktiv ansats och en kvalitativ metod. Detta för att skapa en djupare förståelse för ett okänt område. Den kvalitativa undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av åtta respondenter för att ge svar på studiens problemformulering och syfte.Uppsatsen indikerar på att invandrarföretagare främst använder sig av ägarfinansierad under introduktions- samt tillväxtfasen. Studien påvisar att fördröjande bootstrapping även är en vanlig metod som invandrarföretagare använder sig utav under tillväxtfasen. En annan metod som också är användbar men inte i lika stor utsträckning är relationsorienterad bootstrapping. De mest påverkande egenskaperna vid användning av bootstrapping är företagarens kontrollbehov över verksamheten samt riskbenägenhet mot externa finansiärer. / Both entrepreneurship and immigration has increased dramatically in Sweden, as well as globally. Today there are over a million companies in Sweden where one-person (74.8%) and micro enterprises (21.7%) represent the largest portion. This gives a clear view that the Swedish economy is dominated by small firms. Behind many of these smaller companies are individuals with a foreign background. In 2010 it was shown that every seventh company that was started in Sweden, operated by a person with roots from another part of the world.One of the main forces of a country's economic growth is the companies, which is a major reason that focus lies on how they choose to finance their business. The problem for many immigrant entrepreneurs is difficulty in obtaining external financing during its life-cycle, which leads to alternative financing methods used, named bootstrapping. Bootstrapping means to “lift oneself up” and make sure to become “self-sufficient”. Scientists believe that the entrepreneur's characteristics also play a significant role in the choice of financing.The purpose of this paper is to explore whether immigrant entrepreneur's use of bootstrapping is affected by the entrepreneur's characteristics and the company’s life cycle. A hermeneutic research philosophy has been used in conjunction with a deductive and a qualitative approach. The reason for using a qualitative approach is to create a deeper understanding of an unfamiliar area. The qualitative study has been performed with the help of eight respondents to answer the study's problem and purpose.The paper indicates that immigrant entrepreneurs mainly uses owner-financed in the introduction and growth phase. The study demonstrates that delaying bootstrapping is also a common method that immigrant entrepreneurs use during the growth phase. Another method that is also used but not as much as the other two methods is relationship oriented bootstrapping. The most influencing characteristics when using bootstrapping is the need of control over the business and risk aversion against external financiers.