Det här är en kvantitativ studie av hur kreditpreferenser hos mikrobolag med en årsomsättning om mindre än 10 miljoner SEK beror av branschtillhörighet och företagsstorlek. Mikrobolag är små bolag med mindre än 10 personer anställda och en årsomsättning på mindre än 2 miljoner euro. Det teoretiska ramverket utgår från asymmetrisk informationsteori och mer specifikt från pecking order theory, POT samt trade off-teorin. Kreditpreferenserna mäts genom två olika parametrar, dels genom mikrobolagens avsättning till periodiseringsfonder vilket kan ses som ett mellanting mellan extern och intern finansiering, dels genom förekomsten av externa lån från kreditinstitut. Branscherna som undersöks är tillverkning samt tjänster vilka anses skilja sig åt vad gäller kreditpreferenser. Tillverkningsbranschen har större anläggningstillgångar vilket anses göra det lättare för dem att få extern kredit enligt trade off-teorin. Tjänstebranschen däremot, med mer immateriella tillgångar skulle då föredra periodiseringsfonder eftersom enligt POT så föredrar mindre företag internt genererat kapital. Ett antal hypoteser ställs upp som sedan testas med chi-två. Resultatet motsäger delvis teorierna. Från studien framgår dock att de undersökta företagen i tjänstebranschen har större preferenser för användning av periodiseringsfond än tillverkningsbranschen. En slutsats från studien är alltså att branschtillhörighet har betydelse för kreditpreferenserna. För företagsstorlek går inte att dra några säkra slutsatser.

The objective of the study is to identify how micro-enterprises can be integrated into local value chains by using the so-called "value chain approach". The "value chain approach" has become a relatively popular approach among donor agencies and NGOs engaged in Private Sector Development in recent years, being based on insights from studies on global value chains. The study includes investigation into the following points: 1) Which business linkages exist among micro-enterprises and with enterprises of different sizes and sectors, and how are they related to the upgrading process of micro-enterprises? 2) What influence does the legal status of micro-enterprises have on the development of business linkages and on the upgrading process? 3) How can the development of business linkages and the upgrading process (and, therefore, the integration into value chains) be supported and enhanced within the framework of PSD? The empirical study was conducted in Uganda. It includes a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches: (1) a questionnaire-based survey among micro-entrepreneurs, and (2) expert or key informant interviews, using a semi-structured interview guideline. The study provides an assessment of the relevance and applicability of the "value chain approach" to micro-enterprises and local value chains in the context of a developing country characterised by low levels of industrialisation, as well as policy recommendations for practitioners (from public and private sectors, as well as donor community, NGOs and civil society). Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of the issue of informality of micro- and small-scale enterprises. (author's abstract)

There has been few research studies aimed at investigating strategy in small businesses. The current study sought to contribute to small business management and help small businesses attain success as they are important in any economy. Furthermore to close the gap as a response to the call for research in what people actually do when strategising. The following study explored the strategising practices of small business managers from the accommodation sector and the tools they use when strategising. A total of 12 interviews were conducted during the period 2014-2015 in the Tshwane metropolitan area. The findings of the study show that small business managers strategise although not in the way proposed by literature which may reveal that strategy-as-practice may be more appropriate for small businesses. The findings also show the tools that small business managers use in strategising. The research will serve as a contribution to the current challenges facing small businesses in the practice of strategic management or lack thereof in the managing of small businesses to ensure success. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Revenue losses due to tax non-compliance pose a substantial risk for all governments, including the South African government. As part of its risk management system, the South African Revenue Service has identified the small, medium and micro enterprise sector as one of the seven high-risk areas and indicated that non-compliance in this sector remains high. The first focus area of any tax compliance risk management system is to ensure registration for the relevant taxes payable. The objective of this study was to establish whether any demographic factors could be used to select small businesses to investigate whether they are meeting their registration compliance requirements for income tax, Value-Added tax as well as the employee related taxes. In order to achieve the research objectives of the study, two sequential research methods were applied. During the first phase of the research, a literature review was conducted to develop a heuristic model consisting of two levels. The first level described the factors that could influence the tax compliance behaviour of a small business. The second level of the heuristic model describes the different taxes a small business could be liable for and when it must register for each of those taxes. During the second phase, the variables influencing registration compliance were statistically analysed for each of the taxes to determine if they significantly influence the compliance status. The study found that several factors have an impact on the registration compliance of small businesses. The demographic factors were analysed separately for each of the three different tax groups used in the study. The results indicate that in the majority of cases all three tax groups share the same demographic factors that would either have a positive or negative impact on the compliance of the entity. Profiles for the most compliant business type (per tax type) and the least compliant business type (per tax type) were compiled. The results of the study can be used by the South African Revenue Service to target their compliance and information actions to help improve registration compliance by small businesses. / Taxation / M. Com. (Accounting)

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the MTech: Internal Auditing In the Faculty of Business at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, 2010 / The concept of Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) was created and implemented by the South African Government in an attempt to improve the economy of South Africa, reducing the unemployment rate and eliminating poverty. As a basic objective, SMMEs strive toward sustainability, however in recent years sustainability is at an all time low as substantial a number of these businesses fail to become viable entities. Popular literature show that Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) retail SMMEs make ineffective use of their accounting resources, resulting in them making critical business decisions without understanding and interpreting their financial performance or financial positions. These decisions have a ‘toxic’ affect on their business sustainability and as a result, it is perceived that these SMMEs make inefficient use of financial performance measures. The key objective of this research is to establish what financial performance measures sourced from accounting resources are regarded as being critical for the sustainability of FMCG retail SMMEs during the current dispensation of an economic depression in South Africa. To achieve the above dispensation, applied research will be used using ‘action research’ as the primary research paradigm supported by questionnaires for the purpose of data analysis, results of which were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Recommendations culminate from the research to mitigate the research problem.

Thesis (MTech (Human Resource Management)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009 / This thesis explores the barriers/constraints that the SMME may experience whilst attempting to recover their skills levies from the wholesale and retail SETA (W&RSETA). Skills development legislation was introduced in South Africa to address the previous disparities in education and training. The Skills Development Levies Act (SOLA) of 1999 established the introduction of skills levies. The SOLA stipulated that all companies with an annual payroll in excess of R 500 000 would be required to pay skills levies to the South African Revenue Service (SARS). SARS then distributes the funds to the relevant sector education and training authority (SETA). The company would then have the option of recovering up to seventy percent of its skills levies, provided that it had implemented various skills development and training initiatives throughout the year. While larger companies may be more attuned in terms of recovering these levies, small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) may experience difficulties in doing so. The research design included a descriptive study of both qualitative and quantitative components. The investigation was conducted by interviewing twenty stakeholders within the wholesale and retail sector. The stakeholders were divided into two categories, namely SMMEs and the assistants to SMMEs. The information was analysed within the context of the twenty stakeholders interviewed who were located in the Westem Cape area and registered with the W&RSETA. The findings indicated that the main constraints that SMMEs may be experiencing whilst attempting to recover their skills levies from the W&RSETA included: a lack of understanding of the grant recovery system; lack of time; burdensome administration; a lack of finance; and a lack of communication and support from the W&RSETA This research would be a pilot study that would provide a basis for a future study which may seek to provide practical recommendations to policy makers both in govemment and the private sector, in terms of assisting levy paying SMMEs within the W&RSETA to recover skills levies.

This study addresses the Organizational Institutionalism and has as its object the micro business in Aracaju - SE in the area of complementary and alternative health. The institutionalization of organizations was analyzed from the viewpoint of its entrepreneurs, as well as the strategies of legitimation that influence the process. Regarding methodological aspects, the study is classified as exploratory, descriptive and qualitative; regarding the time dimension, the research is cross-sectional. Semi-structured interviews were applied to these entrepreneurs. The results revealed problems in conducting the companies institutionalization process, which may compromisetheir survival in the following years. According to Tolbert and Zucker s organizational model (1999), applied in this investigation, the organization institutionalization occurs through three phases: habitualization (pre-institutionalization), objectification(semi-institutionalization) and sedimentation (total institutionalization). The results showed that in most of the cases examined, the phase habitualizationhas been achieved. Concerning the stage of objectification, it is believed that companies surveyed still experience this phase, non-rationally, though. The institutional stage of sedimentation, on the other hand, was somehow impaired by groups of tough opponents and the backlog in the formal institutionalization of this sector. Thus, all companies surveyed can be framed in the semi-institutional stage; some of them still remained in the pre-institutional at the same time. It was also possible to observe the interference of positive legitimation strategies in institutionalization process. It was concluded that these strategies permeated all phases of the institutionalization process as suggested by the model used in the research. / O presente estudo aborda o Institucionalismo Organizacional e tem como objeto os micro negócios aracajuanos de saúde alternativa e complementar. Analisou-se a institucionalização sob a ótica dos seus empreendedores, assim como as estratégias de legitimação que condicionam o processo. Quanto aos aspectos metodológicos, o estudo é classificado como exploratório, descritivo, qualitativo; em relação à dimensão tempo, a pesquisa é de corte transversal. Na coleta de dados aplicaram-se entrevistas com roteiros semiestruturados aos empreendedores. Conforme modelo de Tolbert e Zucker (1999), utilizado no estudo, a institucionalização organizacional ocorre mediante três fases: habitualização (préinstitucionalização), objetivação (semi-institucionalização) e sedimentação (total institucionalização). Como resultados, revelaram-se problemas na condução do processo de institucionalização das empresas, o que pode comprometer a sobrevivência dessas pelos próximos anos. Destaca-se ainda que, na maioria dos casos investigados, a fase de habitualização foi concretizada. Quanto à fase de objetivação, acredita-se que as empresas inquiridas realmente vivenciam essa etapa, porém, de forma pouco racional. O estágio de sedimentação institucional, por sua vez, foi comprometido por grupos de opositores resistentes e pelas pendências no processo formal de institucionalização do setor estudado. De tudo, pontua-se que todas as empresas pesquisadas podem ser enquadradas no estágio semiinstitucional. Algumas delas, paralelamente, ainda permanecem no pré-institucional. Constataram-se também interferências positivas das estratégias de legitimação no processo de institucionalização das empresas analisadas, uma vez que tais estratégias permearam todas as fases do processo de institucionalização conforme sugere o modelo utilizado na pesquisa.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T18:55:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Meire Joisy Almeida Pereira.pdf: 913273 bytes, checksum: b3d256e100b47c3a42696e1234ba82a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-17 / The evaluation implementation process of the General Law of Micro enterprises and small companies in Boa Vista city. The study falls within the evaluative research field, specifically in the case of an evaluation process. It is analyzed how the state is manifested in the current restructuring capitalist context, particularly in facing the issue of unemployment and informality in labor relation. It discusses the entrepreneurship category as an ideological foundation of the main strategies currently used by the capitalist state to overcome the unemployment and informality in labor relations. Take as reference the empirical implementation of the General Law of Micro enterprises and small companies in Boa Vista city, considering the General Law as a legal instrument that has as one of its purposes the issue of combating unemployment and informality in labor relations by different attendment to micro enterprises and small companies and the institution of the National Simple, single tribute that agglutinates eight spheres of federal, state and municipal taxes. / Avaliação do processo de implementação da Lei Geral das Microempresas e das Empresas de Pequeno Porte na cidade de Boa Vista. O estudo se inscreve no campo da pesquisa avaliativa, tratando-se especificamente de uma avaliação de processo. Analisase a forma como o Estado se manifesta no atual contexto de reestruturação capitalista, particularmente no enfrentamento da questão do desemprego e da informalidade das relações de trabalho. Discute-se a categoria empreendedorismo como fundamento ideológico de uma das principais estratégias presentemente utilizadas pelo Estado capitalista para a superação do desemprego e da informalidade nas relações de trabalho. Toma-se como referência empírica o processo de implementação da Lei Geral da Microempresa e da empresa de Pequeno Porte na cidade de Boa Vista; considerando a Lei Geral como um instrumento legal que tem como um de seus objetivos combater a questão do desemprego e da informalidade nas relações de trabalho mediante o atendimento diferenciado às Micro e Empresas de Pequeno Porte e a instituição do Simples Nacional, tributo único que aglutina oito impostos das esferas federal, estadual e municipal.

This study to meant to determine the extent to which the Zimbabwean women in the small-scale business sector depended on their social capital to make it. The primary question of the study was: What is the significance of social capital in determining the success or failure of women’s businesses in Zimbabwe? Methodologically, the study followed the constructivist approach, which aimed at obtaining detailed and thick in-depth descriptions from the women who are socially a vulnerable group. It followed the qualitative research design; whose characteristics were dependence on the narratives of the discussants to explain phenomena. Non-probability sampling was preferred, and the sampling techniques used were mainly purposive. The sample comprised 21 participants, drawn from a population of women in small scale businesses in Glen Norah A, Glen View 1 and Highfield in Harare. The researcher used focus group discussions and individual interviews for data collection. Data was analysed thematically. The key findings were that women were dependent on their bonding and linking social capital to succeed (or fail) in business. Thus, such findings constitute some of the major contributions of the study to the commonwealth of knowledge. In particular one contribution is that women’s business development in the small-scale informal sector follows a particular lifecycle where different types of social capital are required. The findings led to the recommendations that women must be recognized as key players in economic development, and should be assisted at nascent stages so that their participation in economic development can be more robust and visible. / Sociology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

Small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) play an important part in all economies but particularly in developing economies. Growth 'SMMEs seek to grow either in size, revenue and/or asset value by reinvesting available resources; these enterprises tend to spend their available resources on operational when it comes to information and communication technology (ICT). But these systems, whilst necessary are not sufficient. They are geared toward capturing data but not producing information. Business intelligence (BI) can provide decision-makers, who in SMMEs are predominantly owner-managers, with access to information that enables them to make informed decisions on where to apply limited resources. Because BI requires operational systems to be in place to gather the data it is the logical next step. Despite increasing discussion in the press and amongst BI practitioners, academic research with regard to BI in SMMEs remains sparse. Since the potential contribution of BI to SMMEs can only be assessed by first understanding current information practices and needs in such enterprises, the purpose of this study is to explore the use of use of BI to support strategic, tactical and operational decision-making. This research uses an interpretive approach to collect data using semi-structured interviews from the owner-managers of six knowledge-based growth SMMEs in South Africa selected through purposive sampling. The research results suggest that BI can play an important role in knowledge-based growth SMMEs but that support and guidance is needed to ensure that BI is used appropriately to fully exploit available data for decision-making in addition to expanding available data sources. Future research can adopt a more rigorous positivist approach to confirm the findings of this study, expand the population to other sectors in South Africa and/or SMMEs in other countries. An action research methodology can also be used to apply BI interventions in SMMEs to investigate specific BI solutions in-depth. The research may be of value to participating and other SMME owner-managers, policy makers, government agencies, business advisers, and academic researchers. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Information Science / unrestricted