Introduction:The current economic crisis started in 2007 warned many business pro-fessions how important it is to react to the crisis quickly and properly. Many studies have been conducted on family businesses about their special resources environment, succession, governance etc. There are barely literature has ever mentioned about how family business cope with economic crisis. Thus, the author conducted such a study on this topic to explore more in family business study.Purpose:To enhance the understanding of economic crisis management in fam-ily business, this thesis will analyze the actions of family firms during the economic crisis. This research aims to investigate how unique fam-ily firm resources influence the way they cope with the economic crisis.Method:A qualitative research has been conducted in this study. In-depth inter-views were conducted in two family business firms with the business owners and other high level position staff who have clear picture about the management during economic crisis. Tele-interview was adopted due to the distance limit.Conclusions:During economic crisis, family firms do not use layoff as a major means to cost down. They keep relative stable relationship with their employ-ees as well as other business partners. They seek financial and other help from the family members or in the family network rather than other external resources such as bank etc. The governance also con-cerns more on employee benefits.

The phenomenon of Born Globals in particular to the internationalization process has been highlighted by many scholars. The insufficient of the existing researches to the ability of Born Globals going international since their inceptions with limited resources encouraged us to study more in-depth. Resource-based View (RBV) and firm‟s competitive advantage are chosen as the theoretical framework. Three Swedish Born Globals were chosen as case studies, the data was collected by semi-structure and e-mail interviews which within-case and cross-case analysis were applied. The empirical data and analysis draws us to the conclusion that human resource especially entrepreneurs and network are the key firm resources that significantly contribute to Born Globals‟ establishment, internationalization and competitive advantage. However, the finding is highlighted that entrepreneur has a crucial role to both establishment and internationalization stages. Entrepreneur‟s personal network has high contribution when Born Globals is started up while firm‟s network plays more important role at the internationalization stage. By using network, Born Globals gain an easier way to find financial and operating resource. Moreover, entrepreneur‟s capability is the main key resource that creates competitiveness to Born Global firms. Future research suggestions and implications are discussed in the conclusion.

Abstract   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to show how the firm-specific resources interact with the institutional context of an emerging country in the case of E-business micro firms. This is done by identifying the factors and investigating the outcomes of those factors which give these firms economic performance from the perspective of the entry, as well as growth. This study aims at extending the knowledge on the entry and strategies of E-business micro firms entering into China. The goal of the study is to answer the research question, “How can firm-specific resources, paired with country-specific institutional context influence the successful entering into China for micro e-businesses?”, and to provide entrepreneurs which desire to internationalize on the Chinese market with a frame of reference and good practices in E-business.   Frame of references: Literature on SMEs and their associated entry modes, institutional context, firm resources and performance was used to develop a theoretical basis for the paper. The research gap was found in the corroboration of these terms in the context of the emerging Chinese E-business market.   Method: This study has adopted an inductive approach and was exploratory in nature. Qualitative case studies were employed to collect and analyze data with regards to micro E-businesses currently active on the Chinese market. The firms found are all foreign to China but active on Chinese soil. To collect primary data, we have used semi-structured interviews. For secondary data, we have used financial data, websites, and firms’ power point presentations. Following, the data was categorized, coded and analyzed according to professional research methods. Because the study is inductive, the literature was linked and discussed in relation to the findings.   Findings: The findings are numerous, stemming from both the analysis of the data, as well as from the coupling of the initial firm-resource findings with the institutional context findings. The discussion and conclusion hold all the findings. Due to their amount, they cannot be presented here in their entirety. However, the two major findings and criteria to be considered in the case of our research questions are: Proposition 1: For micro B2C E-businesses, the tangible resource is less important than the intangible resource. The capability of applying the Chinese market knowledge and experience to the institutional context, and bringing the results into the entry strategy is more important than the tangible resources Proposition 2: In a matured E-business institutional context, a partnership entry mode which requires lower investment is preferable for foreign micro E-businesses and can lead to a higher possibility for success.

The primary objective of this study was to examine how and to what extent entrepreneurial orientation, firm internal resources and capital structure decisions affect growth of small enterprises, following the resource- based view on determinants of growth and static trade-off theory of capital structure as theoretical frameworks. Regardless of the number of earlier study, there is no consensus among scholars on determinants of growth due to the existence of different theories and metrics of growth. Moreover, as the earlier studies were undertaken in developed countries, their research findings could not permit generalization on the effect of the explanatory variables on growth in less developed countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, this research tried to fill the gap in the existing body of knowledge on determinants of growth by contextualizing the association of growth with firm specific factors and EO from the Ethiopian context, more specifically from the context of Tigray Regional State. Besides, extra variables that were either not considered or might have been tested separately in earlier studies in Ethiopia were integrated into the regression model. In this mixed explanatory cross-sectional research, systematic random sampling techniques and structure questionnaire were applied to collect primary data from 333 small enterprises operating in five urban towns of Tigray region. Dependent variable of the study was growth of small enterprises, defined as logarithm of change in number of employees at the time of establishment and time of survey. The explanatory variables comprise of entrepreneurial orientation with three dimensions, tangible and intangible resources under the control of a given enterprises, capital structure decisions, external factors such as marketing related problems cost and accessibility of infrastructure, government policies and bureaucracy, business development services were also included in the regression model. Descriptive statistics, statistical difference tests, multiple regression analysis and Propensity Score Matching were applied for the purpose of data analysis with the help of Stata version 12 software. Majority of the small enterprises demonstrated moderate degree of entrepreneurial orientation and location nearer to major customers, entrepreneurial orientation, strong financial position, access to credit and leverage have statistically significant positive effect on growth of small enterprises which support the resource based view and static trade-off theory of capital structure as well as the perceived hypothesis. On the other hand, consistent to the hypothesis, age and size of small enterprises showed negative significant effect on growth, that supports Jovanovich’s learning model but against the Girbat’s law of proportionate effect. Moreover, the relationship between education and growth was found to be non-linear or volatile-growth of SEs tend to declined until certain level, reached a minimum level after which SEs with more educated owners tend to grow faster. This implies that unless owners’ years of education reach a very high level of schooling, a given increase in years of schooling could not necessarily result into higher growth rate. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests (i) in order to solve financial constraints of SEs, stakeholder need introduction of National Credit Guarantee Fund, Promotion of non-bank financial services, introduce Mandatory Minimum Bank Loan to small enterprises, establish specialized banking system that specifically support the small enterprise sector, (ii) provide working premises such as shades at concessional cost, (iii) facilitate establishment of small enterprise commercial centers, (iv) strengthen the clustering practices,(v) facilitate provision of adequate infrastructure at reasonable price, (vi) as TVET completed individuals outperform in growth rate, educational institutions in Ethiopia need to incorporate competence based training system and entrepreneurship into their syllabus by strengthening the industry university linkages / Business Management / DBL

This research project endeavors to frame a methodology that can be used to categorize firm value strategies (production logics) and choices of factor inputs (tangible and intangible assets), which are used to fuel production cycles for goods and services outputs. A secondary goal of the research is to attempt to determine what asset group combinations (resources) are combined by various classes of firms to produce sustainable outcomes for the A/E/C firms in the survey. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently issued a system of national accounts (acknowledging both tangible and intangible assets) that reflects the macro-economy but at the same juncture, lamented the fact that a firm-level micro-economic schema did not exist to mirror the national system. This study makes an effort to redress that void by investigating how such a system of accounts - measured on the input side of the ledger -- could begin to fill in a gap in information and understanding as pointed out by participants in the National Academy of Sciences symposium of 2009 entitled "Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Growth." In brief, the research represents an effort to make a contribution to a growing body of knowledge about intangible assets by solidifying a framework within which both tangible and intangible assets may be more appropriately conceptualized and more adequately measured for purposes of current and future investigations. The research also provides a methodology for beginning to understand how some design and construction industry firms rely on specific asset categories for operating success, corporate stock value and business continuity. It is conceivable that managers would use a variation of the methodology to better balance ongoing investments in their firm's portfolio of tangible and intangible resources. The mixed methods used in this research support the following conclusions: 1) In terms of rank order of asset deployment categories by firms, intangible assets appear to have a modest edge over tangible assets for deployment by value shop firms (architecctural and engineering design firms), but these emphases are not consistent among value chain-oriented (construction) firms. 2) Although pronounced differences were expected, there was little evidence of differences in rank order of asset category accumulation and deployment by firms (according to the Delphi panel) regardless of whether the firm was focused on continuity and longevity or (alternatively) short-term profit maximization. 3) Because of their ambidexterity in production logic, the expert panel had difficulty placing EPC (Engineer - Procure - Construct), design-build and integrated services firms in a single Stabell - Fjeldstad value logic category, and a new composite category was posited based on Delphi panel feedback.

The primary objective of this study was to examine how and to what extent entrepreneurial orientation, firm internal resources and capital structure decisions affect growth of small enterprises, following the resource- based view on determinants of growth and static trade-off theory of capital structure as theoretical frameworks. Regardless of the number of earlier study, there is no consensus among scholars on determinants of growth due to the existence of different theories and metrics of growth. Moreover, as the earlier studies were undertaken in developed countries, their research findings could not permit generalization on the effect of the explanatory variables on growth in less developed countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, this research tried to fill the gap in the existing body of knowledge on determinants of growth by contextualizing the association of growth with firm specific factors and EO from the Ethiopian context, more specifically from the context of Tigray Regional State. Besides, extra variables that were either not considered or might have been tested separately in earlier studies in Ethiopia were integrated into the regression model. In this mixed explanatory cross-sectional research, systematic random sampling techniques and structure questionnaire were applied to collect primary data from 333 small enterprises operating in five urban towns of Tigray region. Dependent variable of the study was growth of small enterprises, defined as logarithm of change in number of employees at the time of establishment and time of survey. The explanatory variables comprise of entrepreneurial orientation with three dimensions, tangible and intangible resources under the control of a given enterprises, capital structure decisions, external factors such as marketing related problems cost and accessibility of infrastructure, government policies and bureaucracy, business development services were also included in the regression model. Descriptive statistics, statistical difference tests, multiple regression analysis and Propensity Score Matching were applied for the purpose of data analysis with the help of Stata version 12 software. Majority of the small enterprises demonstrated moderate degree of entrepreneurial orientation and location nearer to major customers, entrepreneurial orientation, strong financial position, access to credit and leverage have statistically significant positive effect on growth of small enterprises which support the resource based view and static trade-off theory of capital structure as well as the perceived hypothesis. On the other hand, consistent to the hypothesis, age and size of small enterprises showed negative significant effect on growth, that supports Jovanovich’s learning model but against the Girbat’s law of proportionate effect. Moreover, the relationship between education and growth was found to be non-linear or volatile-growth of SEs tend to declined until certain level, reached a minimum level after which SEs with more educated owners tend to grow faster. This implies that unless owners’ years of education reach a very high level of schooling, a given increase in years of schooling could not necessarily result into higher growth rate. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests (i) in order to solve financial constraints of SEs, stakeholder need introduction of National Credit Guarantee Fund, Promotion of non-bank financial services, introduce Mandatory Minimum Bank Loan to small enterprises, establish specialized banking system that specifically support the small enterprise sector, (ii) provide working premises such as shades at concessional cost, (iii) facilitate establishment of small enterprise commercial centers, (iv) strengthen the clustering practices,(v) facilitate provision of adequate infrastructure at reasonable price, (vi) as TVET completed individuals outperform in growth rate, educational institutions in Ethiopia need to incorporate competence based training system and entrepreneurship into their syllabus by strengthening the industry university linkages / Business Management / DBL