Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Small business Australia Case studies'

Declines in federal spending from continuing resolutions and sequestration events during the 2011 – 2014 time frame reduced and delayed government purchases of products and services from small business owners operating in the federal sector. These actions affected the survivability of many federal sector small businesses, yet some leaders thrived and grew their firm’s revenues while others struggled or failed while operating under the same economic conditions. Exploring the successful actions that enabled leadership effectiveness during this time frame and under these business conditions was the dominant activity in this study. Examples of success practices included the use of rolling forecasts for financial planning because leaders must adjust monthly to unpredictable revenue streams resulting from federal budget uncertainty. Leaders must acquire and operate government-approved business management systems, follow un-optimized business processes codified throughout federal regulations, and invest in employees’ education and experience so each meets minimum eligibility requirements for working on contracts. Leaders must also manage the real risk of the federal government terminating their contracts without explanation for its own convenience, and losing competitively awarded contracts in instances in which the government decides to insource that work from the contractor for its own benefit. The successful practices of federal sector small business leaders identified in this study are nuanced from commercial sector practices. This new research may facilitate the refining of operating models applicable for both the federal and commercial business sectors, with such understanding benefiting and enabling greater business success among struggling federal sector small business owners and leaders.

Introduction:

The growth of small business is fast and their impact on the economy is becoming bigger. How to manage the inventory effectively and efficiently often is a challenge for these small businesses. The study took place at HEM-SOL FORSALJNINGS AB, a company involved in gym sports equipment wholesale. For HEM-SOL two inventory problems, stock-out and overstock occur frequently. The company wants to improve its efficiency and is con-sidering a change in the inventory management.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons behind the inventory management inefficiency in HEM-SOL, and then the proposed managerial suggestions will be presented to deal with the issues.

Method:

The study is considered as qualitative single-case study. Data collection is mainly through the interviews with the top manager and other staff involved in inventory control opera-tions. Secondary data is retrieved from the information system to provide the annual pur-chasing and sales report about twenty items using a purposive sampling approach. Data analysis follows the theoretical framework.

Conclusion:

Small businesses have limited financial resources and bargaining power. Long-distance suppliers, big fluctuation of demand and lack of formalized inventory control system result in HEM-SOL bad performance on inventory management. The authors analyze the col-lected data and establish a formal inventory control system as the solution to improve the company’s inventory management.

Jewelry designers might not be as customer-centered as Kotler recommend. Additionally, they are not constantly seeking to grow and make the most profit out of satisfying consumer needs better than competitors. However, it is imperative even for an individual designer to examine what the customers want and demand as well as think of a plan to satisfy this demand. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to create a guideline for a marketing plan for a beginning jewelry designers using jewelry designer Anniina Dunder as an example. A qualitative method was chosen for this study in form of interviews and observation. Moreover, secondary data was collected in order to gain a wider and clearer picture of the subject.

Based on this study an individual actor has every possibility to reach the desired level of profit in the jewelry market in Helsinki by designing and producing jewelry. Reaching this level of profit requires activeness, customer-centered view and productivity from the designer. Consequently, individual designers should start paying more attention to potential customers’ needs and wants even when designing collection jewelry and be constantly aware of changes in these wants in order to satisfy customers even in the future.

There is convincing evidence that effective leadership is a major contributing factor to small business growth and success. However, attention to leadership focused on founding CEOs abounds at the expense of exploring the distribution of leadership across an organization. This study explored the hybridity of focused and distributed leadership enactment in a fast-growing small business situated in South Africa. The first objective was to form a holistic view of how the members of the organization lead, incorporating leadership focused on key individual leaders and that which is shared and distributed amongst and between others. The second objective was to contextualize leadership hybridity to the South African culture and demands of fast business growth. The third objective was to explore how leaders transform as they navigate the terrains of focused and distributed leadership. The overarching goal was to propose a holistic leadership hybridity framework that appreciates these complexities. A qualitative single case study research design guided the study. The case study database was created from in-depth interviews with leaders and followers, focus group interviews, participant observations of organizational activities, and the review of two documents. Themes emerged to suggest that there is harmonious leadership hybridity that occurs through both the behaviors of critical individual leaders at the top (notably, the CEO) and those emerging from outside of formal structures through distributed leadership across multiple leadership actors and factors. The South African culture of ubuntu seems to support post-heroic leadership but does not exclude acknowledging that growing a business involves a collection of heroic acts. And lastly, leaders and followers who performed leadership within hybridity (i.e., those that can fluidly move between being a leader or a follower) benefited from enhanced self-regulation, amongst other psychosocial benefits. The insight gained from this study could inform leadership development initiatives that are more effective in growing leaders and small businesses in Southern Africa.

Society demands more and more that corporations take over responsibility on the effects of their business actions in a stakeholder view. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance are catchwords in this context that stand for a management view there one focuses on more than profits and quality. In corporate responsibility management one takes a stakeholder view and integrates also issues such as supplier relations, supply chain management, environmental practices and sustainability as well as labor standards and human rights into the management view. The integration and balance between economic, environmental and social issues going above legal requirements is called triple bottom line thinking.

Today, corporate responsibility is no more only an issue for large international corporations but also for SMEs with limited resources and less market power. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and understand how a sustainable business approach can develop and be maintained in SMEs. By examining the case Coffee Queen, we want to find out about driving forces for development of corporate responsibility.

To receive nuanced information and deeper insight into the corporate responsibility of a company, a single case study with a qualitative research approach was chosen. The empirical material for this case was collected during a visit of Coffee Queens’ plant in Arvika and three open personal interviews.

Based on a literature review and narratives from the empirical material it was found that driving forces for the development towards sustainable business are strongly related to leadership by values. The engagement of one or more organization members that are supported by the top management and a values base that gives a framework for corporate behavior and supports the reputation of the company were found to be important variables to reach an ISO 14000 certification for Coffee Queen. From the management side, the corporate responsibility can be seen as a market requirement and used as a marketing tool for competitive advantage. A strategic approach to corporate responsibility was appeared to be helpful as it increases the accountability of positions, and demanded in SMEs.

Total quality management according to ISO 9000 and 14000 was in this context found as additional driver for sustainable development. On a basis of continuous improvement companies have to forward their positions step-by-step towards an integrated sustainability approach. This idea of corporate responsibility development is demonstrated by a model showing the steps towards an integrated triple bottom line.

With these findings, this study provides insight into corporate responsibility in a SME and links values-based management and quality management to the process of developing a sustainable business approach.

Small and medium-sized enterprises play much more important roles in both domestic and international markets nowadays. The issue that factors influence their export performance (mainly the export sales and profits) also becomes much more attractive these years. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the factors which influence the SMEs’ export performance and how each factor influences the SMEs’ export performance. This study is built on a modified model of the factors influencing the SMEs’ export performance. The authors use case study to conduct this research, and one company’s (Company B’s) data is collected through the semi-structured interview. Some findings are obtained: the important factors which influence Company B’s export performance contain the trade shows, the expenses on getting the authentication, capital sources, export rebate, firm network, firm previous experience, firm competencies, personal network, international orientation and personal previous experience. In addition, the authors also find the effect of firm size is indirect. However, customs duty, transportation, as well as building up the brand do not play important impacts on export performance. Take the trade shows as an example, personal cards and product samples are sent to the customers, then the customers who are interested in the products will contact Company B. In this way, the customers are accumulated and the export sales increase. Thus, the export performance is enhanced.

Date June 04, 2008

Level Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits)

Authors Pornratchanee Sethakaset Tanawan Santimataneedol

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok Thailand

Date of Birth: 28 October 1982 Date of Birth: 5 March 1984

Title The Application of Human Resource Management in Thai SMEs –

A Case Study of Albatross Company Limited

Supervisor Mona Andersson

Problems : How can the entrepreneur of SMEs manage their human resources?

Can previous research and studies about HRM in SMEs be applied in the Thai entrepreneurial SME?

Does the HRM in the company change and transform over time?

Purposes : The purposes of this study are to review the relevant studies and research about HRM in SMEs in order to investigate how human resources are managed in SMEs and to determine if the previous studies are applicable to Thai entrepreneurial SMEs.

Methodology : This master’s thesis is based on a qualitative approach in order to investigate HRM in SMEs and easier to understand the behavior in a certain case. The main secondary data is also collected from website which is the utilizing material for this thesis.

Conclusion : In this study, it was concluded that this Thai SME manages its human resource in a mixture between informal and formal way. HRM is used and practiced more as the company grows which the entrepreneur plays a central role in the Human Resource Management in SMEs.

Introduction: Competition increases and companies need to adjust their business to stay competitive. Employees have gained an important for an or-ganisation and are often seen as the key to business success. Motiva-tion is important for increased performance. A reward system can, amongst other things, help an organisation to motivate, attract and retain their employees. Historically, rewards have concerned mostly senior management. We where interested in how a reward system could affect people further down in the hierarchy.

How can a reward system influence motivation in small shop-floor business units?

What are the benefits and possible pitfalls with a reward system for such a setting?

Purpose: The purpose of this report is slightly wider than what the research questions suggest. By thoroughly investigating the motivating ele-ments we aim to create a frame of reference, which is thought to give insight into the important components of a reward system and the motivating factors. It is our aim that this frame will be applicable to other settings similar to the one which we will investigate. We also intend to look into what positive and negative aspects there are and how the disadvantages with a reward system can be minimized.

Method: To fulfil our purpose we have chosen to perform a case study on the service unit of Hedin Göteborg Bil AB. In order to retrieve the necessary empirical data we have interviewed two managers and car-ried out a questionnaire amongst the thirteen service technicians.

Results: In line with theory, we found that financial rewards it is not the prime source for motivation; there are many factors that play a lar-ger role. Some of the most motivating factors turned out to be col-leges, autonomy and responsibility, fun and rewarding work tasks. More interestingly, we saw a relation between many of these and the reward system, indicating that financial rewards enhance the motiva-tional effects of other factors.

We found that there are several positive and negative aspects with any reward system. The case study presented solutions to many of the possible pitfalls and indicated that they benefited from their cur-rent reward system.