Micro-enterprises have traditionally been connected with goods vending or trading in developing countries. But, increasingly micro-enterprises are emerging which centre on information and communication technologies (ICTs) where such micro-enterprises tend to connect ICTs into low income customers. Literature suggests that these enterprises are often unstable and have elements of informality, but they undertake innovative practices which are central both to building ICT-based livelihoods, and more widely to support the adoption of ICTs by low income users. Literature analysis suggests there are also gaps in knowledge around ICT micro-enterprises, particularly in understanding the link between innovative activity of micro-enterprises, and the wider conditions in ICT sectors. This thesis looks to explore these issues with the aim to build clear policy relevant understanding to enhance ICT micro-enterprises and low income-focussed ICT sectors. Innovation system models are adopted which are well suited to analysing interactive activities around ICT innovations, but these models initially require some refinement to fit in with the low income delivery of ICTs. This is done through integrating notions of ‘inclusive innovation’ which consider innovation from the perspective of wider development outcomes, and allow integration of a more diverse range of actors and processes around innovation. These models form the basis of qualitative study on the mobile phone sector in Kenya, with findings providing significant new insights. Firstly, empirical work is used to examine inclusive innovation models and refinements to innovation systems models are suggested based upon empirical work. Innovation needs to be conceptualised in minor processes, as well as the inclusion of wider intermediary actors and a more contextual examination of relations and institutions. Secondly, drawing on this model, it is found that the innovative activities of a range of systems actors, including micro-enterprises are vital to push innovations to be more inclusive. Thus, relationships that enable interactive learning between system actors, notably between ICT producers and demand-side intermediaries can support innovation. Crucially, where ‘reverse’ flows around innovation can be enabled and supported, then innovation tends to become more inclusive. Thirdly, policy plays a role in inclusive innovation. In one sense, conventional policy approaches in systems models hold: coherent underlying policy drives competitive markets. However, evidence also suggests that specific ‘inclusive’ policies for low income market might be successful. From a wider institutional perspective it is also important to analyse policy weaknesses which can lead to problems amongst ICT micro-enterprises, and these can be detrimental to an inclusive innovation system. In sum, this thesis makes contributions in a number of areas. Conceptually, it extends system models and offers one of the few empirically grounded studies of inclusive innovation, drawing on this ICT case. Thus, these findings potentially have applicability to examine other innovations in low income markets in developing countries. For ICT sectors with a focus on low income consumers, this work highlights new policy relevant approaches to analysing such sectors and provides knowledge about how to push innovation in the ICT sector which is more inclusive, particularly by better consideration of the important role of ICT micro-enterprises.

O mercado global do vestuário, paulatinamente, se organiza no sentido de separar, geograficamente, a produção do consumo, nesse sentido marcas mundialmente reconhecidas e grandes empresas varejistas se expandiram através dos benefícios da economia em escala. Isso faz com que várias micro e pequenas empresas do setor tenham que repensar suas identidades de marca. Esta pesquisa mostra-se como uma tentativa de entender o papel do design na construção de marca, assim como caracterizar a percepção de microempresários do setor de moda de Porto Alegre, a respeito do tema. Procura-se contribuir com o desenvolvimento de micromarcas, as quais atuam em um território específico e, na maioria das vezes, não são conhecidas para além da região em que operam. A fim de se chegar a um resultado satisfatório, três objetivos específicos são traçados: mostrar a lógica de funcionamento da cadeia global do vestuário; compreender a participação do design na construção de marca; e por fim encontrar maneiras de verificar a percepção de microempresários sobre o papel do design na construção de marca, através de entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os resultados apontam para a consciência, entre os entrevistados, da importância do design na construção de marca, entretanto, a maneira como cada um percebe essa participação varia, sendo que alguns acreditam no design enquanto item fundamental na concepção de coleções e outros o concebem como um meio de expressar um estilo de vida. / The global apparel market has continuously been organized in a way as to separate production and consumption, in that sense, world renowned brands and big retailers have expanded through economies of scale. Micro and small enterprises in the area have had to rethink their own brand identities. This research is an attempt to understand the role of design in brand building, as well as what local Porto Alegre based micro-entrepreneurs in the fashion business think about it. The purpose is to contribute towards the development of micro brands that only reach a certain geographical area and are often unknown beyond their scope of activity. In order to achieve a meaningful outcome, we have drawn three specific objectives: first, showing how the world apparel chain works, then understanding the part design plays in brand building, and finally inquiring on micro-entrepreneurs’ perception on the role of design in brand building, through semi-structured interviews. The outcome shows interviewees are aware of the importance of design in brand construction. However, the way each of them conceives of its part varies, while some believe design to be a crucial item in the creation of collections, others see it as a means to express lifestyle.

This study examines the extended family's impact on microenterprise growth at the individual level, where microenterprise operators have some control over constraints affecting their operations. Beyond the individual level, microenterprise operators have little control over constraints such as government policies and regulations, competition from import-substitution industries and exploitation by corrupt officials. Therefore, it is at the individual level that the extended family serves as a crucial parameter of microenterprise growth and the success with which MEs graduate from the informal sector into the mainstreams of small business. Within this domain, this author has examined the extended family and found that there is a need for policy makers and MED administrators to adopt a more culturally sensitive approach to microenterprise growth if the extended family is to be engaged as a partner in their efforts to support microenterprises as a source of income and employment generation, A central question posed is why most writers on microenterprise activities in Ghana have neglected the extended family as a factor that should be considered in the design of microenterprise growth strategies and policies? The answer to this question was explored in the process of data gathering for this thesis and the results are presented here, especially in chapter 3 below. Suffice it to note here that this neglect has many roots, not least of which is the proclivity of mainstream economics, modern administration practice and the objectivity of double entry accounting based documentation procedures to focus on measurable growth in the formal sectors of the economy and structural constraints such as the lack of finance, lack of market demand, lack of access to technology and government regulations. Consequently, a noticeable trend among these writers is that they rightly advocate finance be made accessible to microenterprises, however, few question whether the finance is effectively used towards microenterprise growth. This issue is crucial in the face of evidence from this study which shows that finance accessed towards microenterprise growth is often put to other uses that negate growth thus keeping microenterprises within the bounds of the informal sector as against graduating out of the informal sector. As a result, these writers have neglected the intimate relations between the extended family and microenterprises, and most importantly, the constraint that the extended family inflicts on microenterprise growth at the individual level of activity. This study, by targeting the growth of the individual microenterprise in the socio-cultural context in which this growth must be achieved, has highlighted the constraint that the extended family does pose on MED. However, the study also shows that these constraints are important not because there is anything inherently wrong with the extended family, but because the socio-economic and policy environment is not consistent with the positive role that the extended family can and should play in the graduation of microenterprises from the informal to the formal sector of the economy in Ghana.

Microcredits have become a popular way to include poor people in the financial market. Former research on the impact on business performance has provided divergent findings and its impact on the Salvadoran market is not yet investigated. This thesis takes on this problem by analysing and evaluating how the microenterprises in Usulután, El Salvador are affected by the participation in a microcredit program. By using a quantitative method the business performance of a treatment group is compared to that of a control group. The results show that participation in a microcredit program enlarged the enterprise size in terms of sales, total assets and equity, but did not have any significant impact on business profit, marginal return to capital or fixed asset. Regressions are conducted to describe what individual characteristics of the clients are the most important for the business performance. Clients with higher education and male clients over performed other clients.

O mercado global do vestuário, paulatinamente, se organiza no sentido de separar, geograficamente, a produção do consumo, nesse sentido marcas mundialmente reconhecidas e grandes empresas varejistas se expandiram através dos benefícios da economia em escala. Isso faz com que várias micro e pequenas empresas do setor tenham que repensar suas identidades de marca. Esta pesquisa mostra-se como uma tentativa de entender o papel do design na construção de marca, assim como caracterizar a percepção de microempresários do setor de moda de Porto Alegre, a respeito do tema. Procura-se contribuir com o desenvolvimento de micromarcas, as quais atuam em um território específico e, na maioria das vezes, não são conhecidas para além da região em que operam. A fim de se chegar a um resultado satisfatório, três objetivos específicos são traçados: mostrar a lógica de funcionamento da cadeia global do vestuário; compreender a participação do design na construção de marca; e por fim encontrar maneiras de verificar a percepção de microempresários sobre o papel do design na construção de marca, através de entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os resultados apontam para a consciência, entre os entrevistados, da importância do design na construção de marca, entretanto, a maneira como cada um percebe essa participação varia, sendo que alguns acreditam no design enquanto item fundamental na concepção de coleções e outros o concebem como um meio de expressar um estilo de vida. / The global apparel market has continuously been organized in a way as to separate production and consumption, in that sense, world renowned brands and big retailers have expanded through economies of scale. Micro and small enterprises in the area have had to rethink their own brand identities. This research is an attempt to understand the role of design in brand building, as well as what local Porto Alegre based micro-entrepreneurs in the fashion business think about it. The purpose is to contribute towards the development of micro brands that only reach a certain geographical area and are often unknown beyond their scope of activity. In order to achieve a meaningful outcome, we have drawn three specific objectives: first, showing how the world apparel chain works, then understanding the part design plays in brand building, and finally inquiring on micro-entrepreneurs’ perception on the role of design in brand building, through semi-structured interviews. The outcome shows interviewees are aware of the importance of design in brand construction. However, the way each of them conceives of its part varies, while some believe design to be a crucial item in the creation of collections, others see it as a means to express lifestyle.

O mercado global do vestuário, paulatinamente, se organiza no sentido de separar, geograficamente, a produção do consumo, nesse sentido marcas mundialmente reconhecidas e grandes empresas varejistas se expandiram através dos benefícios da economia em escala. Isso faz com que várias micro e pequenas empresas do setor tenham que repensar suas identidades de marca. Esta pesquisa mostra-se como uma tentativa de entender o papel do design na construção de marca, assim como caracterizar a percepção de microempresários do setor de moda de Porto Alegre, a respeito do tema. Procura-se contribuir com o desenvolvimento de micromarcas, as quais atuam em um território específico e, na maioria das vezes, não são conhecidas para além da região em que operam. A fim de se chegar a um resultado satisfatório, três objetivos específicos são traçados: mostrar a lógica de funcionamento da cadeia global do vestuário; compreender a participação do design na construção de marca; e por fim encontrar maneiras de verificar a percepção de microempresários sobre o papel do design na construção de marca, através de entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os resultados apontam para a consciência, entre os entrevistados, da importância do design na construção de marca, entretanto, a maneira como cada um percebe essa participação varia, sendo que alguns acreditam no design enquanto item fundamental na concepção de coleções e outros o concebem como um meio de expressar um estilo de vida. / The global apparel market has continuously been organized in a way as to separate production and consumption, in that sense, world renowned brands and big retailers have expanded through economies of scale. Micro and small enterprises in the area have had to rethink their own brand identities. This research is an attempt to understand the role of design in brand building, as well as what local Porto Alegre based micro-entrepreneurs in the fashion business think about it. The purpose is to contribute towards the development of micro brands that only reach a certain geographical area and are often unknown beyond their scope of activity. In order to achieve a meaningful outcome, we have drawn three specific objectives: first, showing how the world apparel chain works, then understanding the part design plays in brand building, and finally inquiring on micro-entrepreneurs’ perception on the role of design in brand building, through semi-structured interviews. The outcome shows interviewees are aware of the importance of design in brand construction. However, the way each of them conceives of its part varies, while some believe design to be a crucial item in the creation of collections, others see it as a means to express lifestyle.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-09-05T15:05:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Kelly_Samá_Lopes_de_Vasconcelos.pdf: 899498 bytes, checksum: 7b70712927d11b795cc4e48b29a641d6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-05T15:05:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Kelly_Samá_Lopes_de_Vasconcelos.pdf: 899498 bytes, checksum: 7b70712927d11b795cc4e48b29a641d6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-29 / CAPEs / PROPESQ / A informalidade tem sido constantemente discutida na literatura econômica, e os resultados sugerem que uma vez que não existe recolhimento de tributos, são gerados impactos na arrecadação, sendo a Previdência a maior prejudicada. O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar, a partir de características do empresário individual, as chances desses empresários contribuírem com a Previdência ou passarem a ter inscrição no Cadastro Nacional de Pessoa Jurídica, a partir da estimação de um modelo de dados em painel logit. As estimativas obtidas mostraram que as chances de formalização dos empreendedores individuais parece ter sido afetada positivamente de 2009 a 2014 ao considerar a contribuição previdenciária; já para o critério CNPJ, os resultados foram positivos, mas de pequena magnitude. Com relação às mudanças nas chances de contribuição com a Previdência, de 2004 a 2008 para 2009 a 2014, pode-se dizer que houve um aumento de 2009 a 2014 das chances de o empresário individual contribuir com a Previdência. Uma possível explicação para a ocorrência de resultados com baixa magnitude na formalização via inscrição no CNPJ estaria no curto período de análise, ou seja, são efeitos de curto prazo. / Informality has been constantly discussed in the economic literature, and the results suggest that since there is nonpayment of taxes are generated impacts on revenues, and the social security most impaired. In this paper the objective is analyze from individual entrepreneur characteristics, the chances of these entrepreneurs contribution to the security or official tax payer administrative file (CNPJ) by the informal individual entrepreneurs, from the estimation of a logit panel model. The estimates obtained demonstrated the odds of formalization of individual entrepreneurs appears to have been positively affected (2009-2014) to consider the social security contributions, as the criterion for CNPJ, the results are positive, but small in magnitude. One possible explanation for the occurrence of results with low magnitude in the formalization of CNPJ would be the short period of analysis.

Small-scale forest-based enterprises (SSFBEs) are enterprises that utilize any material or product that is derived from forests, woodlands, or trees outside of forests and woodlands for income generation. Characteristically, they are small, rural, household-based operations that are technologically simple, requiring limited skills and little capital investment. Little attention has been paid to the importance of these enterprises in supporting rural livelihood in developing countries. At the same time, the income earned from SSFBEs provides an incentive for forest dwellers to manage their resources at a sustainable level, as well as helping to alleviate rural poverty. SSFBEs are, however, not without their problems. They face unstable markets, lack of raw materials, few financial resources, poor market access, and constraints on forest use and control, to name a few. The purpose of this paper is to provide a qualitative overview of SSFBEs by discussing their role in and importance to rural communities in developing countries, their significance in poverty alleviation and forest conservation, problems they face, and possible solutions. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

El presente proyecto consiste en realizar ciertas investigaciones con la finalidad de analizar y brindar soluciones hacia un problema, la cual es la falta de accesibilidad y tiempo de las personas para realizar la impresión de sus fotografías. Hoy en día, se ha perdido la costumbre de tener un álbum de manera física con recuerdos especiales, ya que las personas prefieren subir sus fotografías a las redes sociales. Sin embargo, en las investigaciones y entrevistas realizadas se encuentra que la mayoría de personas no adquieren un álbum, porque no existen muchos lugares donde se imprima fotos a un precio razonable. Por ello, nuestro equipo de trabajo de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas ha determinado que, si hay intención de las personas a adquirir un álbum, pero que sea accesible y original para el cliente, según sus gustos y preferencias, por lo que, para satisfacer a nuestro público objetivo se realizará álbumes personalizados con precios desde los S/50 soles hasta S/80 soles dependiendo de la cantidad de fotos que deseen, el consumidor elegirá la temática para su álbum, las fotografías serán editadas por nosotros y en diferentes tamaños, contaremos con una aplicación móvil donde se contará con una base de datos del usuario, para así escoger y editar las fotos de sus mejores recuerdos, al finalizar el álbum será enviado hasta su hogar. Con este fin, se ha llevado a cabo una serie de investigaciones y experimentos, con la cual se respalda nuestra propuesta con el planteamiento del problema, soluciones y una proyección rentable del negocio. / The present project consists of carrying out certain investigations in order to analyze and provide solutions to a problem, which is the lack of accessibility and time for people to print their photographs. Today, the habit of physically having an album with special memories has been lost, since people prefer to upload their photos to social networks. However, research and interviews found that most people do not buy an album, because there are not many places where photos are printed at a reasonable price. For this reason, our team at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences has determined that, if there is the intention of people to purchase an album, but that it is accessible and original for the client, according to their tastes and preferences, so, for To satisfy our target audience, personalized albums will be made with prices from S / 50 soles to S / 80 soles depending on the number of photos they want, the consumer will choose the theme for their album, the photographs will be edited by us and in different sizes , we will have a mobile application where there will be a user database, in order to choose and edit the photos of your best memories, at the end of the album it will be sent to your home. To this end, a series of investigations and experiments has been carried out, with which our proposal is supported with the problem statement, solutions and a profitable projection of the business. / Trabajo de investigación

The networking relationships provided by microenterprise development (MED) organizations foster sustainable and scalable Bulgarian small businesses. Some Bulgarian MED leaders lack the strategies to help sustain small businesses in Bulgaria. Guided by the actor network theory, the purpose of this case study was to explore the strategies MED leaders use to help sustain small businesses in Bulgaria. Data were collected through a semistructured focus group comprised of MED Bulgarian business leaders (n = 4) in Rhodope Mountain Region and company data consisting of financial reports, marketing presentations, and company business plan. The data analysis included using keyword frequency comparisons, coding techniques, and cluster analysis. Three themes emerged from the findings: access to financial and nonfinancial capital, networking and relationships, and sustainability and scalability. According to the study results, strategies and scalability impede the ability to expand and service more small business owners. The recommended change in business practices of MED leaders included the formalization of networks of other MED leaders and partner organizations to efficiently meet the demands of the Bulgarian small business market. The implications for social change include the need for networks to aid entrepreneurs in gaining market access, obtaining capital resources, and maintaining sustainability that contributes to the economic and social development of Bulgaria.