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Owner-operators are business owners that began grass-roots efforts to satisfy a need for potential customers i.e. develop a solution for a problem in which customers are willing to pay the owner-operator instead of doing it themselves. The problem and solution may be thought of in terms of a singularity for the customer, however this is not the case. A dichotomy exists where both the owner-operator and the customer have problems and desire solutions based on their individual self-interests. The owner-operators’ problems are manifested in motivations and aspirations and their solutions are displayed as satisfaction. The list of existing motivations and aspirations is too numerable to manage along with the amount of potential solutions. For the pilot study, an attempt was made to categorize the motivations into more manageable groups to ascertain any potential relation with success. The pilot study did not lead to any conclusive results concerning the relationship between motivation and success. However, the pilot study did reveal an associating element between motivation and success i.e. a relation between the problem and solution. That connection was strategy. Strategy was the aid that allowed the gratification to occur. The decision of the owner-operator to choose either a differentiated strategy or cost leadership (low-cost) strategy (Porter, 1980) allowed them to use a more common element where the distinctive nature of the motivations and aspirations was downplayed. The import of this relationship comes into existence depending on how interested various governing and business support bodies are in developing policies whose purpose is to create and/or aid new and existing business ventures (Hamilton, 1987). A continuous review of motivations, aspirations and their relationship with strategy is warranted as older studies become dated, not to history, but due to the fact that economies are in constant flux and as economies change (Hamilton, 1987), so do strategies, motivations, and aspirations. The pilot study focused on success as the resulting construct. During the analysis stage of the pilot study, it was noted that success among various entrepreneurs was difficult to compare and measure across individuals and industries. The result was to shift the construct from success to satisfaction, as it would allow for a simpler definition and better comparisons across entrepreneurs. The question that this dissertation attempts to answer is: What role does motivation and aspiration play in informing entrepreneurial strategy and supporting satisfaction? / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Yes / In this paper we introduce Morgan’s (1986, 1997) eight metaphors for making sense of entrepreneurs’ motives and their view of ‘reality’. Employing Burrell and Morgan’s (1979, 2003) four paradigms for the analysis of organisational theory, we propose a methodology to capture the ‘longitudinal’ journey of minority ethnic entrepreneurs’ original motives for setting up business; and, current and future perceived image. We use a deductive approach by developing a multiple-choice questionnaire based on eight metaphors. The data is collected from 30 small business owner managers/entrepreneurs based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Our initial findings show that the assumptions of most of the respondents conform to the “functionalist” paradigm that place emphases on order, objectivity, rationality and tangible view of ‘reality’. Accordingly most of the respondents selected the functionalist metaphors like ‘Brain’, ‘Machine’ and ‘Psychic Prison’. Interestingly, most of the respondents selected and re-selected functionalist paradigm to indicate their past and future aspirations, perhaps due to their need for business stability and to subside any insecurity feelings with regards to their future. However, interestingly many respondents selected “radical Humanist” or “interpretivist” paradigms to map their current situation. These paradigms portray relatively more entrepreneurial and explorative mindset, perhaps mimicking unease with the current situation and a desire by the respondents to introduce some kind of a change in their current business and social settings. We believe that their metaphorical assumptions could determine their decision making, policy and strategy setting, and, actions. In our view our research instrument is appropriate for conducting ‘longitudinal’ studies for eliciting past, current and future assumptions of entrepreneurs.

It has recently become rather common for life science faculty to own a private company related to university research, an extreme form of entrepreneurial activity. Yet our understanding of how this changes the experiences of the entrepreneurial scientists and administrators is limited. This thesis, based primarily on in-depth interviews with three entrepreneurial biotechnology faculty, their graduate students and employees, their department heads, and university-level administrators, reveals how scientists and administrators are responding to conflicts and others' perceptions of conflict arising from their entrepreneurial activity. The faculty and administrators organize these conflicts into five categories: issues which they consider to be genuine conflicts but do not act upon; issues which they consider to be genuine conflicts and do act upon; issues which they do not consider to pose genuine conflicts but which they act upon because others perceive those issues to be conflicts; issues which they consider to be conflicts but which none of the principals expect to be experienced at their particular university; and issues which they do not consider to raise genuine conflicts whether experienced at their university or elsewhere. This thesis also shows how entrepreneurial faculty are incorporating business into their teaching and are altering their interactions with academic peers and graduate students all due to their entrepreneurial activity. / Master of Science

In order for corporations to develop their business, they could apply an approach of exchanging ideas and knowledge with other corporations could contribute to new significant innovations. The international approach is called Open Innovation and could be implemented both externally and internally within firms. The purpose of this thesis was to examine how Open Innovation is used by Swedish and Chinese entrepreneurs in an international market context. By implementing a qualitative research method, the researchers obtained a deeper understanding of how networks and trust affect Open Innovation when the approach is used. This thesis derived from an inductive approach since the authors made observations and generated theories from those observations, which created a theoretical synthesis. The theoretical synthesis conducted into the operationalization and the interview guide for the data gathering of the semi- structured interviews. The gathered empirical data was compared with the theories in order to analyze the similarities and differences between them. Lastly, the study was concluded by answering the research questions, theoretical, practical, and policy implications, limitations for the study, and suggestion for future research.

L'objectif de cette étude est de démontrer le poids des entreprises sucrières dans l'histoire de la Guadeloupe. Installées puis maintenues par la France, elles retardent l'aménagement d'un espace public comme l'apprentissage de la notion de service public, invitant à qualifier ce territoire d'île entreprise. Incarnée par le groupe d'entrepreneurs qui les administrent localement des années 1930 aux années 1960, la domination de l'industrie sucrière repose sur l'héritage de l'île à sucre, qui constitue sa force par l'ancienneté de l'activité autant que sa faiblesse par les stigmates de l'esclavage qui pèsent sur les relations entrepreneuriales. Constitué dans les années 1930, quand l’État colonial fait dépendre l'économie de son activité sucrière, le groupe patronal de la Guadeloupe la transforme en île du sucre, dépendante de l'exportation de sa monoculture cannière. En grande partie interrompue par le second conflit mondial, l'exportation stoppée n'empêche pas l'industrie sucrière de perdurer sur une île désormais île à stocks, mettant en évidence l'absurdité du système économique. Confortés par la colonisation, les mêmes entrepreneurs sucriers s'activent encore dans le nouveau département après 1946 et confirment son statut d' île-entreprise. La déprise des entreprises sucrières coïncide avec la cessation d'activité professionnelle de la plupart des acteurs qui les ont faites vivre, laissant le champs libre à un apprentissage du service public par le territoire à partir de la fin des années 1960 / The objective of this study is to demonstrate the importance of sugar companies in Guadeloupe's history. Established and then maintained by France, they delay the development of a public space as well as the apprenticeship in the concept of public service, thus inviting to qualify this territory as an enterprise island. Embodied by the group of entrepreneurs who administer them locally from the 1930s to the 1960s, the domination of the sugar industry is based on the sugar island's legacy, which constitutes its strength through its long-standing activity as much as its weakness by the stigma of slavery that weighs on entrepreneurial relations. Created in the 1930s, when the colonial state made the economy dependent on its sugar industry, the Guadeloupe employers' group transformed it into a island for sugar, dependent on the export of its sugar cane monoculture. The disruption of exports during the Second World War does not hinder the sugar industry from surviving on an island now a stockpile island, highlighting the absurdity of the economic system. Having been comforted by colonization, the same sugar entrepreneurs are still active after the island becomes a french department in 1946 and confirms its status as an enterprise island. The decline of sugar companies coincides with the cessation of the professional activity of most of the actors who made them live, leaving the field open to a public service apprenticeship by the territory from the late 1960s onwards

This thesis aims to investigate the performance of different types of franchisees, in terms of perceived market share and profitability, are affected by constrains defined by the theories of franchise selection and contractual terms. The two different types of franchisees researched include novice and parallel. This begins by examining how the constraints defined by the Resource Base, Social Exchange and Equity theories of franchise selection are applicable to entrepreneurs who want to become franchisees, and by examining the differences in the attitude of franchisees toward contractual terms. The main contribution is that the research broadens and extends other franchising and entrepreneurship studies by exploring external and internal factors to examine perceived franchisee performance. Therefore, this study relates the criteria used by franchisees in the selection of potential franchisors and contract clauses, to their performance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultanate of Oman in the food and beverage sector. Moreover, existing research has primarily focused on the perspective of franchisors and has not adequately explored the franchisee's perspective on determining success. Therefore, this study contributes to franchising literature by broadening the scope of existing theories. The study has adopted a multi-methodology strategy, employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Qualitative data was collected through 11 face-to-face interviews, 5 franchisees in Oman, and 6 in Saudi Arabia; using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative data was collected via a survey. A self-administrated questionnaire was designed, translated, piloted and distributed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 123 responses. Factor analysis was implemented to test the scale, followed by the Mann-Whitney U test, regression, and moderation analysis. The qualitative findings show that constraints defined by the resource-based theory are applicable to novice franchisees. However, franchisor training and support were found to be exceptional resources, applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees. Constraints defined by the social exchange theory are applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees; whereas constraints defined by the equity theory are applicable only to parallel franchisees. The quantitative findings indicate that both types of franchisee have different attitudes toward training clauses; support clauses; contract duration clauses; territorial exclusivity clauses; tying arrangement clauses and franchise fees clauses. However, both types of franchisees have similar attitudes toward termination clauses. Moreover, the results show that franchisor brand reputation, technical know-how and high franchise fee factors will increase the franchisee perceived market share. Additionally, franchisor brand reputation and higher franchise fees, will increase franchisee perceived profitability. Furthermore, parallel franchisees believe that a franchisor's local market knowledge will decrease their performance in terms of perceived profitability. Alternatively, novice franchisees believe long contract duration will help them increase their perceived profitability. In addition, imposing higher franchise fees on novice franchisees will increase their perceived profitability more than that of parallel franchisees. Finally, the results show that contract clauses such as: extensiveness of support; long contract duration, and stricter termination clauses, will affect franchisee perceived market share positively. Finally, contract clauses such as extensiveness of support and short contract duration clauses, will affect franchisee perceived profitability positively; whereas extensiveness of training clauses will affect franchisee perceived profitability negatively.

<p>Background: Globalisation and technology creates an impact in the business world an economy thus leadsmany countries, such as Sweden to encourage foreign investments in their nation by promotion and providing assistance. This phenomenon brings about not only a global market place for firms but also opportunities for individual entrepreneurs with wider business horizon. In this thesis, these individuals are defined as international entrepreneurs. Without prior resources and business networks as of established firms, it is undeniable that an international entrepreneur would face various difficulties when they start their businesses away from home. Networking can be an important tool in gaining opportunities and resources in starting a business abroad thus it may be essential for international entrepreneurs to play a leading role in accessing networks in the hosting country to gain resources. Networks contribute to the dynamism of market entry. Market entry is not just described as ways of entry but could be described as a process and it could be illustrated in three phases: “Opportunity-seeking phase”, “Establishment phase” and “Realized Process phase”</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to understand “how international entrepreneurs managed market entry process in network approach in Sweden”.</p><p>Method: A qualitative method approach has been used to achieve the purpose of the thesis. For gaining a better understanding of the topic, authors chose case study and conducted semi-structured interviews to collect data and analyzed it to draw a conclusion.</p><p>Conclusion: The case study led us to find out an inter relations in the growing number and changes of types of networks as the market entry process reached its point of realisation. Further to that, there are some similarities in foreign market entry process of an established firm as compared to an individual entrepreneur, the difference being the types of networks.</p><p>Contribution: This thesis would create a better understanding on individual entrepreneurs venturing overseas in particular, the Swedish market. As the focus is on market entry process in networks perspective, this research could benefit potential entrepreneurs and business students.</p>

Background: Globalisation and technology creates an impact in the business world an economy thus leadsmany countries, such as Sweden to encourage foreign investments in their nation by promotion and providing assistance. This phenomenon brings about not only a global market place for firms but also opportunities for individual entrepreneurs with wider business horizon. In this thesis, these individuals are defined as international entrepreneurs. Without prior resources and business networks as of established firms, it is undeniable that an international entrepreneur would face various difficulties when they start their businesses away from home. Networking can be an important tool in gaining opportunities and resources in starting a business abroad thus it may be essential for international entrepreneurs to play a leading role in accessing networks in the hosting country to gain resources. Networks contribute to the dynamism of market entry. Market entry is not just described as ways of entry but could be described as a process and it could be illustrated in three phases: “Opportunity-seeking phase”, “Establishment phase” and “Realized Process phase” Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to understand “how international entrepreneurs managed market entry process in network approach in Sweden”. Method: A qualitative method approach has been used to achieve the purpose of the thesis. For gaining a better understanding of the topic, authors chose case study and conducted semi-structured interviews to collect data and analyzed it to draw a conclusion. Conclusion: The case study led us to find out an inter relations in the growing number and changes of types of networks as the market entry process reached its point of realisation. Further to that, there are some similarities in foreign market entry process of an established firm as compared to an individual entrepreneur, the difference being the types of networks. Contribution: This thesis would create a better understanding on individual entrepreneurs venturing overseas in particular, the Swedish market. As the focus is on market entry process in networks perspective, this research could benefit potential entrepreneurs and business students.

Background &amp; Problem discussion: Recently, there has been an increased interest in topics such as immigrant entrepreneurship. Considering that most of the research until now is done in America with American examples, it would be beneficial if such results are verified or refuted in other countries as well, such as Sweden (Brundin, Bögenhold and Sundin, 2001). Overall, businesses ran by immigrant entrepreneurs are creating job opportunities and encouraging Europe’s economy, even though exposed to limited immigration policies and unpleasant public opinion (Halkias et al., 2007). Immigrant entrepreneurs are not a new phenomenon in Sweden and according to Hammarstedt (2004) immigrant self-employment compared to native small-businesses has increased throughout the years, and therefore an important role in the integration of immigrants was made possible by the self-employment sector as a source of employment. Rather than that, most of the research done in this topic by many researchers has been focused in factors triggering immigrant entrepreneurs to start a business, but less researchers were focused in understanding the challenges they face and strategies they adopt in order to survive. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify challenges that immigrant entrepreneurs face while starting and running their businesses and analyze how they are interrelated and how do immigrant entrepreneurs cope with them in the setting of a medium-sized town in Sweden. Jönköping as a medium sized town in Sweden is our context. Theoretical framework: The literature used in this study covers studies conducted in different context such as: American, European and Swedish. The conducted studies involve case studies in different context done with immigrant entrepreneurs are mainly about the challenges they face and the strategies they adopt as solutions to those challenges. Such theory helped us identify common challenges among immigrant entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, considering that the existing literature does not explicitly discuss the role of the context (metropolitan, large city, medium-sized town, small (rural town), local community etc), we have to inquire especially into that and use our own data to build a supplementary theory. Method: The method used in this study is a qualitative approach but also with some minor elements of a quantitative approach (the use of the questionnaire during the interviews asked from the respondents to rank the challenges and therefore helped to find out the most significant challenge among them). Considering that generally our study followed a qualitative approach, we have conducted ‘face-to-face’ interviews. There were eight semi-structured interviews. All of the interviews were tape recorded. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that challenges faced by our respondents were: start-up finance, finance for growth, access to markets, lack of language skills, lack of marketing/sales skills, lack of management skills, access to technology, lack of education, lack of visitors to Jönköping, maintaining customers, Swede’s negative views on immigrant businesses, awareness of food among customers, and competition. However, the four most significant challenges among them were: access to markets, start-up finance, lack of language skills and finance for growth. Besides that the findings show that the strategies that are adopted by immigrant entrepreneurs that we interviewed include the following: use of personal savings, use of personal networks, bank loan, enter low market barriers, scanning the market beforehand, asking help from their customers about language barriers or taking a language course before starting, among others. The findings showed that the context is important to a great extent but besides context, in order for the immigrant venture to occur it matters to a great extent, who the individual entrepreneur is and what business idea he/she develops. In addition, they are key factors contributing not only to the immigrant venture occurrence, but also to the success of the business.