Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business information access'

Abstract Business financing is crucial to the development and performance of small and medium enterprises (SME) in developing countries. Obtaining loans by SMEs in Jordan is vital for creating employment, reducing poverty ratio, and augmenting SMEs growth. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to discover strategies SME owners use to access credit. The population comprised of 3 SME owners in Jordan who successfully accessed credit. The conceptual frameworks for this study were the social capital theory and the pecking order theory. Data were gathered using semistructured interviews and companies' archived records. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis; three themes emerged to include sources of finance, education and skills, and social networking. The implications for positive social change include the potential to help SME leaders develop strategies to stabilize and grow their businesses. Business growth can create jobs and decrease poverty in Jordan.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The rise of the network economy had a resounding impact on the world economy. Business remains transfixed between choosing between hierarchical organizational structures suited to a control and command mindset or transforming to an organizational structure intent on sensing and responding. Flexible and adaptive enterprises are more suitable to an increasingly volatile business environment. Current business trends worldwide seem to point in this direction. This may be an indication of the way in which organizations strive to avoid running the risk of business insignificance. Driven by business volatility, organizational structures are turning increasingly to naturally occurring ‘organizations’ to construct their own malleable versions. The redesign of an organizational structure is as important as reviewing information flows, optimizing technology and most importantly, finding the right type of employee to set the wheels of a real-time enterprise (RTE) in motion. Any discussion pertaining to real-time will touch on time. A reflection on hierarchical organizations highlights their stability, but also their inflexibility and sufficing information practices. It then becomes clear that the new business direction in an intensely competitive environment will have little tolerance for any measure of organizational rigidity. But how driven and fast can information really be processed and still enhance the value of an enterprise? The RTE is not a fully automated enterprise. Its employees may be less involved in its everyday tasks, but remain part of its decision-making process. To what degree does the RTE business model then facilitate value-adding information processing by both automation and manual interventions? Do limits exist where speed and time wastage in business are concerned? Is speed at all costs the only concern of the RTE? The aim of this paper is to answer these questions conceptually. Cognizance was taken of the impact of the volatile business environment on organizational structures influencing the current understanding. The highlighted business trends are based on recently published global and authoritative industry papers, business analyses and academic interpretations. Some of the best material was sourced from professional journals discussing the infinite angles of real-time information. Castells’s work on the network society proved to be extremely valuable to gain a holistic understanding. The latest developments were obtained from well-established research companies. During the investigative phase of this paper, the author encountered one thesis on real-time information focusing on information technology. It was evident that more research is required to answer the questions posed. The eventual findings were in line with the complexity and scope of the subject. The current demands of a global network economy necessitate agile and adaptive networked enterprises, not hierarchies. Roles are becoming more important than positions in the organizational transition phase to a networked, flat structure. A failure to start with such a transformation programme will result in a failure to survive in a fiercely competitive global business environment. It was clear that the RTE is dependent on the establishment of a balance struck between business entities in their interactions with one another as parts of a whole, replete with conditions and requirements. It is only in this sense that access to real-time information could be seen as a differentiating factor in global business.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ontstaan van die netwerk-ekonomie het ‘n beduidende invloed op wêreldhandel gehad. Besigheid het nog nie uitsluitsel verkry tussen twee soorte organisatoriese strukture nie, naamlik, ‘n hiërargiese organisasiestruktuur wat pas by ’n beheer-en-regeer denkwyse en die ander, ’n veranderende organiese struktuur wat aanvoeling en reaksie belangriker ag. Buigsame, aanpasbare organisasies is uitstekend aangepas by ’n toenemend onsekere besigheidsomgewing. Dit wil voorkom of organisasies tans in hierdie rigting neig om die risiko van onbeduidenheid in die hedendaagse sakewêreld op dié manier te systap. Onsekerheid in besigheid noop organisatoriese strukture om hul toenemend te wend na organisasiestrukture wat natuurlik voorkom, ten einde ‘n eiesoortige buigsame weergawe daarvan te skep. Organisatoriese herstrukturering is ewe belangrik as die hersiening van inligtingsvloei, die optimisering van tegnologie en bowenal, die soektog na die regte soort werknemer wat dryfkrag aan die ‘real-time enterprise’ of RTE sal verleen. ‘Real-time’ besprekings sluit noodwendig die tydskwessie in, terwyl enige nabetragting oor hiërargiese organisasies sal fokus op stabiliteit, maar ook op onbuigsaamheid en ontoereikende inligtingspraktyke. Die nuwe besigheidsrigting in ’n uiters mededingende omgewing laat min ruimte vir enige mate van organisatoriese onbuigsaamheid. Die vraag ontstaan egter hoe vinnig en gedrewe inligting verwerk kan word ten einde besigheidswaarde te vermeerder? RTE’s is nie volledig geoutomatiseerde organisasies nie. Hoewel werknemers nie ten volle betrek word by alledaagse werk nie, is hulle steeds deel van die besluitnemingsproses. Maar vergemaklik die RTE-besigheidsmodel inderdaad die verwerking van inligting deur gedeeltelike outomatisering? Hoe word spoed en tydsvermorsing in organisasies hanteer? Sou spoed byvoorbeeld ten alle koste die enigste belang wees van die RTE? Die doel van hierdie proefskrif is om hierdie vrae in beginsel te beantwoord. Die invloed van besigheidsonsekerheid op organisatoriese strukture wat die huidige denkwyse beïnvloed, word erken. Die aanduiding oor organisatoriese ontwikkeling is gebaseer op internasionale, gesaghebbende spesialisgeskrifte, besigheidsontledings, sowel as akademiese vertolkings. Voortreflike literatuur is bekom in professionele joernale oor die ontelbare nuanses van ‘real-time’ inligting. Castells se werk oor die netwerkgemeenskap was van onskatbare waarde vir ’n oorsigtelike insig, terwyl die jongste ontwikkelinge verkry is uit artikels afkomstig van gevestigde navorsingsinstansies. Die skrywer het gedurende die navorsingsfase slegs een proefskrif teengekom oor ‘real-time’ inligting met inligtingstegnologie as die hooffokus. Dit is duidelik dat toenemende navorsing steeds ontbreek. Die uiteindelike bevindings het ooreengestem met die ingewikkeldheid en omvang van die onderwerp. Die eise van ’n internasionale netwerk kan slegs beantwoord word deur ratse en aanpasbare netwerk organisasies, allermins deur hiërargieë. ’n Rol, pleks van ’n aanstelling, raak van toenemende belang in die organisatoriese oorgangsfase na ’n plat struktuur wat deel is van ’n netwerk. Versuim om te begin met so ’n oorgangsprogram sal mislukking tot gevolg hê in die geweldig mededingende besigheidsomgewing wat dwarsoor die wêreld heers. Die RTE is afhanklik van die daarstelling van ‘n balans tussen besighede as dele van ’n geheel in hul omgang met mekaar wat die nodige voorwaardes en vereistes insluit. Dis slegs binne hierdie raamwerk dat toegang tot ‘real-time’ inligting beskou kan word as ’n unieke faktor wat aan besigheidsorganisasies wêreldwyd gebied word.

Problem: The information-supply for companies that venture abroad is greater than ever before, however, the sort of information available is seldom exhaustive. Much of the information a company needs when venturing out on a new market can not be accessed on the market, but the knowledge needed is developed in the cooperation with other actors. Therefore, this thesis has come to focus on whether access to knowledge is a core driver in the success of international business.

Purpose: Against a background of companies’ need of knowledge and networks when venturing abroad, the purpose of this thesis is to describe the strategic operations of the Swedish Trade Council on the American market, in relation to their cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden in Washington D.C. This, to be able to assess if this type of cooperation creates efficiency and effectiveness, in the objective to offer Swedish companies market information and a vast network abroad.

Method: A literary research-summary was made by the author to gain knowledge in the field of internationalization, knowledge, and networks. As the primary source of information, the author conducted a number of interviews, which in turn was analyzed in relation to the academic theories within the field. Based upon this information further research was conducted and additional information sought to gain a deeper understanding for the issue of the study, so that the author would be able to describe the entity in relation to its context

Result: The problem comes down to how to make the right knowledge available for the companies, and that problem increases in the lack of contacts with information that is not obtainable out on the market. Active relationships within networks, such as the one STC has with the embassy, are crucial. It gives them the opportunity to act as a broker, creating a leverage for the companies the serve, through the knowledge and network they can provide them on the foreign market.

 

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This paper shows how information sharing mechanisms might enable Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to increase their access to formal credit markets. Using a unique dataset provided by the Brazilian Central Bank and Ministry of Labor, a change is applied in the threshold of loans that must be reported and shared by all active financial institutions as a gradual increase in the available information on MSEs. Results suggest that borrowers that benefited by this change obtained more loans and smaller interest rates, and by building a good client pool ended up receiving smaller maturities. Firms were also less likely to delay repayments and present smaller loan losses. This evidence sheds light on information asymmetry and literature on financial inclusion by showing that information sharing mechanisms can improve the decision to offer credit, and MSEs can become less dependent of relationship lending to obtain loans.
Esse estudo mostra como mecanismos de compartilhamento de informação podem permitir Micro e Pequenas Empresas (MPEs) podem melhorar seu acesso a mercados de crédito formais. Utilizando uma base de dados única obtida junto ao Banco Central do Brasil e Ministério do Trabalho, uma mudança é aplicada no limite do valor de empréstimos que precisam ser reportados e compartilhados por todas as instituições financeiras ativas como uma mudança gradual na informação disponível sobre MPEs. Os resultados indicam que tomadores de empréstimo que se beneficiaram dessa mudança obtiveram mais empréstimos e menores taxas de juros, e por constituir um bom grupo de clientes acabam por receber menores vencimentos. As empresas são ainda menos prováveis de atrasar seus pagamentos e apresentam menores perdas aos bancos. As consequências desse estudo lançam luz sobre a literatura de assimetria de informação e inclusão financeira ao mostrar que mecanismos de compartilhamento de informação podem auxiliar na decisão de oferecer crédito e MPEs podem se tornar menos dependentes de empréstimos de relacionamento para obter empréstimos.

Technical SMEs develop products in isolation from customers in order to have shorter time to market. However, this approach may result in a mismatch between customer needs and the product value. This research paper investigates value co-creating activities which technical SMEs can undertake with their customers to improve the value of the product and their relationship with the customers. The research paper is a case study of a Swedish technical SME, Interspectral, and their software product for the education market. The study uses a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with teachers in Sweden and Australia. A four-step process is used to first understand what value the product brings customers (students and teachers), the current resource integration activities and co-production activities done by customers and finally what value co-creating activities are perceived as important for customers to grow the relationship with the company. The results show that the dialogue between the customer and the firm is most important for customers during value co-creation and facilitates information access and control. Furthermore, specific co-production activities and resource integrating activities are outlined. The implication of the study is that nonmarket actors’ value co-creation should be assessed by considering the constraints placed by the service ecosystem.

With the increasingly salient role of business in development, the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) approach is sparking great interest in multinational corporations, donor agencies, and academic circles. The BOP proposition holds that profit-generating enterprise-based ventures – typically led by multinational corporations – can reduce poverty and improve the standard of living by offering goods and services to the poor or integrating them in the value chain. BOP as a development strategy is predicated on the “inclusion” of the poor into market to enable them to reap the benefits of greater wealth and prosperity. This thesis critically investigates to what extent BOP interventions contribute to the social inclusion of marginalized groups in developing countries like Bangladesh. The thesis analyzes the case of public access information and communication technologies (ICTs) venues such as telecentres. Such venues provide access to ICTs such as Internet that enable people to access, use and share information and knowledge at an unprecedented level, offering great potential for socio-economic development. Overall, the thesis reveals the limitations in the BOP approach in contributing to inclusion, by showing the contradictions between the economic logic of business and the social imperative of inclusion. Through focusing on a broader view of inclusion, the findings highlight the complex relationship between digital inclusion and social inclusion in developing countries. In particular, the thesis problematizes the notion of “inclusive business”, which, by aiming to integrate the poor as consumers and women as entrepreneurs, serves the purpose of extending the reach of business. Thus inclusive business is rather different from a view of inclusion towards meaningfully contributing to one’s social and economic advancement. The thesis also argues that the various dimensions of inclusion are highly contingent on the business strategies and motivations of corporations as well as meso-level organizational formations. The analysis of corporate strategies uncovers how revenue making considerations are driving BOP interventions at the cost of accountability towards their stakeholders. By interrogating some of the issues silent in the discussions on business and development, such as inequality and exclusion, the work provides a counter narrative to the BOP discourse, raising questions about the uncritical repositioning of business as a development agent.

I dagens affärsvärld är det i princip ett måste för verksamheter att ta del av den konkurrensfördel som Jinns möjlig via att använda affärsdata genererat av en verksamhets processer för att sedan ta eventuella beslut, detta möjliggörs inom en Business Intelligence- miljö. Dock behöver dessa beslut ofta tas snabbare, mer nu än förr, detta sätter allt större press på den IT-avdelning som skall tillhandahålla beslutsfattare det beslutsunderlag som är nödvändig. På grund av nödvändigheten för dom snabba besluten behöver verksamheter korta ner dom ledtider som den traditionella Business Intelligence-miljön skapar. Ledtiderna skapas via att en beslutsfattare skapar en förfrågan på en analys och IT-avdelningen sedan tar fram en rapport som kan svara på förfrågan. För att verksamheter tillsammans med IT-avdelningen skall kunna minska ledtider kan verksamheten införa en så kallad Self-Service BI-miljö[SSBI]. SSBI fokuserar mer på att göra beslutsfattare självständiga genom att möjliggöra för beslutsfattare att själva, utan hjälp av en IT-avdelning ta del av data och analysera data för att ta sina eventuella beslut. Verksamheter lyckas inte alltid med att införa SSBI, det har visat sig Jinnas många stora utmaningar med ett sådant införande. Att tillgängliggöra data för beslutsfattare inom en sådan miljö är en del av alla utmaningar, men vad Jinns det för utmaningar inom just tillgängliggörandet? Vilka faktorer bör verksamheter fokusera på vid tillgängliggörandet av data, detta är frågor som denna studie skall besvara. Studien baseras på frågeformuleringen nedan: • Hur bör data tillgängliggöras till slutanvändare vid införande av SSBI? Studien genomförs via en fallstudie som involverar ett Jlertal intervjuer av respondenter anställda på ett ledande företag inom Sverige som konsulterar stora verksamheter att inom Business Intelligence och dessutom Self-Service BI. En litteraturgranskning av forskning inom samma domän sker också under studiens gång för att skapa en grund inför intervjuerna. Samt också berika informationen från respondenterna. Resultatet av studien är en modell med diverse faktorer och utmaningar med tre huvudkategorier med tillhörande underkategorier som verksamheter bör fokusera på vid tillgängliggörande av data i en SSBI-miljö.
In today's business world, in fact, it is a must for businesses to take part of the competitive advantage that is made possible by using business data generated by a business's processes and then taking decisions, this is made possible within a Business Intelligence environment. However, these decisions often need to be taken more quickly, more now than before, this is putting increasing pressure on the IT department to provide decision makers with the necessary supporting documentation. Due to the necessity for the quick decisions, businesses need to shorten the lead times that an traditional Business Intelligence environment creates. This is because a decision maker creates an inquiry for an analysis and the IT department then produces a report that can respond to the request. In order for businesses to be able to reduce lead times together with the IT department, the company can introduce a so-called Self- Service BI environment [SSBI]. SSBI focuses more on making decision makers self-reliant by enabling decision makers to themselves, without the help of an IT department, to analyze data to make their decisions. Businesses do not always succeed in introducing SSBI, it has proved to be many major challenges with such introduction. Making data available to decision makers in such an environment is one part of all the challenges, but what are the challenges in the area of accessibility? What factors should businesses focus on when making data available, these are questions that this study answer. The study is based on the question below: • How should data be made available to end users when introducing SSBI? The study is carried out by a case study that involves a number of interviews of respondents employed at a leading company in Sweden that consult large businesses within Business Intelligence and also Self-Service BI. A literature review of research within the same domain also takes place during the study to enrich the information from the respondents. The result of the study is a model with various factors and challenges with three main categories with associated subcategories that businesses should focus on when making data available in an SSBI environment.

The digitalization of our society and the creation of data intense industries are transforming how industrial sales can be made. Large volumes of data are generated when businesses and people use digital products and services which are available in the modern world. Some of this data describes the digital products and services when they are in use, i.e., it is in-service data. Furthermore, data has during the last decade been seen as an asset which can improve decision-making and has made sales activities become increasingly customer specific. The purpose of this study was to explore how knowledge from in-service data can serve B2B selling. To realize this purpose the following three research questions were answered by conducting a single case study of a large company in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. (RQ1) How does a company in a data intense industry use knowledge from in-service data in the B2B sales process? (RQ2) What opportunities does knowledge from in-service data create in the B2B sales process? (RQ3) What challenges hinder a company from using knowledge from in-service data in the B2B sales process? RQ1: This study has concluded that, in the context of a data intense industry, throughout the steps in the B2B sales process, knowledge from in-service data is actively used by the sales team, however, to varying degrees. In-service data is used in six categories of sales activities: (1) to understand the customer in terms of their technical and strategical needs, which enables lead generation and cross-selling, (2) to make information from in-service data available through data collection, storage, and analyses, (3) to nurture the relationship between buyer and seller by creating understanding, trust and satisfactory offers to the customer, (4) to present solutions with convincing arguments, (5) to solve problems and satisfy the customer’s needs, and (6) to provide post-sale value-adding services. Moreover, three general resources which are used in the activities were identified: An audit report which presents the information of the data, a plan which presents strategic expansions of the solution, and simulations of the solution. Furthermore, four general actors who are performing the activities were identified: the Key Account Manager (KAM) who is responsible for conducting the sales interactions with the customer, the sales team, and the presales team who both support the KAM, and the customer. In addition to the general resources and actors, companies may use step-specific resources and actors. RQ2: Four categories of opportunities were identified: knowledge from in-service data (1) assists KAMs in discovering customer needs, (2) guides the KAM in creating better customer specific solutions, (3) helps the KAM move the sale faster through the sales process, and (4) assists the company in becoming a true partner who provides strategic services, rather than acting as a supplier. RQ3: Finally, four categories of challenges were identified: (1) organizational, (2) technological, (3) cultural, and (4) legal & security. Out of these, obtaining access to the data was identified as the greatest challenge to use in-service data. The opportunities and the challenge to access data are deemed to be general for companies in data intense industries, while the other challenges are depending on the structure, size, and culture of the individual company. The findings of this study contribute to a general understanding of how companies in data intense industries may use knowledge from in-service data, what opportunities this data create for their B2B sales process, and which challenges they face when they pursue activities which use the knowledge from in-service data. To conclude, in-service data serves B2B selling especially as a source of customer knowledge. It is used by salespeople to understand the customer in terms of its technical and strategical needs and salespeople use this knowledge to conduct various customer-oriented sales activities. In-service data creates several opportunities in B2B sales. However, several challenges must be overcome to seize the opportunities. Especially the question of data access.

This mini-dissertation reviews present literature to define ICT and SMEs and determine the current situation in South Africa with regard to the use of ICT by SMEs, including possible benefits to SMEs as well as stumbling blocks to adopting ICT. The research consists of collecting data from ten SMEs in Gauteng in South Africa using questionnaires and interviews, to determine how SMEs can use ICT to become more competitive. The mini-dissertation will have a number of chapters: the first chapter will give an overview of the subject. The second chapter will explain the research motivation and methodology while the third chapter will be the literature review, which will explore the topic of ICT and SMEs in depth, with a focus on South Africa. Chapter four will deal with data collection and analysis; the main source of data will be interviews based on structured questions. The fifth chapter will be the discussion and recommendations based on the results of the analysis and the literature review. Chapter Six will be the conclusion.
Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2008.
Informatics
unrestricted

In this master work has been passed in review theory material of database and database management system. In addition, has been analysed the main parts of information system of business companies. Microsoft Office Access 2003 is the database management program that gives an improved user experience and an expanded ability to import, export, and work with XML data files. Working in Access 2003 is easier because common errors are identified and flagged for you with options to correct them. Additionally, a new feature to Access 2003 also helps database developers view information on dependencies between database objects. Therefore, Microsoft Office Access 2003 was used to created database management system of company, which sells products of food. In addition, has been explored how influence relations between tables, number of records, number of fields and length of text fields on the rate. Business management system is the main part of comapany information system. Microsoft Office Access 2003 could use small companies, which have no more than 20 computers. This program has some advantages, because it isn‘t cost a lot and everyone could install it without any problem. Examinations show that relations between tables and length of text fields don‘t influnce on the rate. But the rate depends on the number of records and the number of fields.

La démocratisation des objets communicants fixes ou mobiles pose de nombreux défis concernant leur intégration dans des processus métiers afin de développer des services intelligents. Dans le contexte de l’Internet des objets, les objets connectés sont des entités hétérogènes et dynamiques qui englobent des fonctionnalités et propriétés cyber-physiques et interagissent via différents protocoles de communication. Pour pallier aux défis d’interopérabilité et d’intégration, il est primordial d’avoir une vue unifiée et logique des différents objets connectés afin de définir un ensemble de langages, outils et architectures permettant leur intégration et manipulation à grande échelle. L'artéfact métier a récemment émergé comme un modèle d’objet (métier) autonome qui encapsule ses données, un ensemble de services, et manipulant ses données ainsi qu'un cycle de vie à base d’états. Le cycle de vie désigne le comportement de l’objet et son évolution à travers ses différents états pour atteindre son objectif métier. La modélisation des objets connectés sous forme d’artéfact métier étendu nous permet de construire un paradigme intuitif pour exprimer facilement des processus d’intégration d’objets connectés dirigés par leurs données. Face aux changements contextuels et à la réutilisation des objets connectés dans différentes applications, les processus dirigés par les données, (appelés aussi « artifacts » au sens large) restent relativement invariants vu que leurs structures de données ne changent pas. Or, les processus centrés sur les services requièrent souvent des changements dans leurs flux d'exécution. Cette thèse propose un cadre d'intégration de processus centré sur les artifacts et leur application aux objets connectés. Pour cela, nous avons construit une vue logique unifiée et globale d’artéfact permettant de spécifier, définir et interroger un très grand nombre d'artifacts distribués, ayant des fonctionnalités similaires (maisons intelligentes ou voitures connectées, …). Le cadre d'intégration comprend une méthode de modélisation conceptuelle des processus centrés artifacts, des des algorithmes d'appariement inter-artifacts et une algèbre de définition et de manipulation d’artifacts. Le langage déclaratif, appelé AQL (Artifact Query Language) permet en particulier d’interroger des flux continus d’artifacts. Il s'appuie sur une syntaxe de type SQL pour réduire les efforts d'apprentissage. Nous avons également développé un prototype pour valider nos contributions et mener des expériences dans le contexte de l’Internet des objets
The emergence of fixed or mobile communicating objects poses many challenges regarding their integration into business processes in order to develop smart services. In the context of the Internet of Things, connected devices are heterogeneous and dynamic entities that encompass cyber-physical features and properties and interact through different communication protocols. To overcome the challenges related to interoperability and integration, it is essential to build a unified and logical view of different connected devices in order to define a set of languages, tools and architectures allowing their integrations and manipulations at a large scale. Business artifact has recently emerged as an autonomous (business) object model that encapsulates attribute-value pairs, a set of services manipulating its attribute data, and a state-based lifecycle. The lifecycle represents the behavior of the object and its evolution through its different states in order to achieve its business objective. Modeling connected devices and smart objects as an extended business artifact allows us to build an intuitive paradigm to easily express integration data-driven processes of connected objects. In order to handle contextual changes and reusability of connected devices in different applications, data-driven processes (or artifact processes in the broad sense) remain relatively invariant as their data structures do not change. However, service-centric or activity-based processes often require changes in their execution flows. This thesis proposes a framework for integrating artifact-centric processes and their application to connected devices. To this end, we introduce a logical and unified view of a "global" artifact allowing the specification, definition and interrogation of a very large number of distributed artifacts, with similar functionalities (smart homes or connected cars, ...). The framework includes a conceptual modeling method for artifact-centric processes, inter-artifact mapping algorithms, and artifact definition and manipulation algebra. A declarative language, called AQL (Artifact Query Language) aims in particular to query continuous streams of artifacts. The AQL relies on a syntax similar to the SQL in relational databases in order to reduce its learning curve. We have also developed a prototype to validate our contributions and conducted experimentations in the context of the Internet of Things

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le domaine de la recherche d’information (RI) et la recommandation de lecture. Elle a pour objets :— La création de nouvelles approches de recherche de documents utilisant des techniques de combinaison de résultats, d’agrégation de données sociales et de reformulation de requêtes ;— La création d’une approche de recommandation utilisant des méthodes de RI et les graphes entre les documents. Deux collections de documents ont été utilisées. Une collection qui provient de l’évaluation CLEF (tâche Social Book Search - SBS) et la deuxième issue du domaine des sciences humaines et sociales (OpenEdition, principalement Revues.org). La modélisation des documents de chaque collection repose sur deux types de relations :— Dans la première collection (CLEF SBS), les documents sont reliés avec des similarités calculées par Amazon qui se basent sur plusieurs facteurs (achats des utilisateurs, commentaires, votes, produits achetés ensemble, etc.) ;— Dans la deuxième collection (OpenEdition), les documents sont reliés avec des relations de citations (à partir des références bibliographiques).Le manuscrit est structuré en deux parties. La première partie «état de l’art» regroupe une introduction générale, un état de l’art sur la RI et sur les systèmes de recommandation. La deuxième partie «contributions» regroupe un chapitre sur la détection de comptes rendus de lecture au sein de la collection OpenEdition (Revues.org), un chapitre sur les méthodes de RI utilisées sur des requêtes complexes et un dernier chapitre qui traite l’approche de recommandation proposée qui se base sur les graphes
This thesis deals with the field of information retrieval and the recommendation of reading. It has for objects:— The creation of new approach of document retrieval and recommendation using techniques of combination of results, aggregation of social data and reformulation of queries;— The creation of an approach of recommendation using methods of information retrieval and graph theories.Two collections of documents were used. First one is a collection which is provided by CLEF (Social Book Search - SBS) and the second from the platforms of electronic sources in Humanities and Social Sciences OpenEdition.org (Revues.org). The modelling of the documents of every collection is based on two types of relations:— For the first collection (SBS), documents are connected with similarity calculated by Amazon which is based on several factors (purchases of the users, the comments, the votes, products bought together, etc.);— For the second collection (OpenEdition), documents are connected with relations of citations, extracted from bibliographical references.We show that the proposed approaches bring in most of the cases gain in the performances of research and recommendation. The manuscript is structured in two parts. The first part "state of the art" includes a general introduction, a state of the art of informationretrieval and recommender systems. The second part "contributions" includes a chapter on the detection of reviews of books in Revues.org; a chapter on the methods of IR used on complex queries written in natural language and last chapter which handles the proposed approach of recommendation which is based on graph

This study was conducted on the premise that if quality business information is provided to business enterprises, socio-economic transformation could be achieved. The study emanated from the documented problem where business enterprises in northern Uganda were found to depend on "word of mouth" rather than any meaningful formal mechanism for accessing information efficiently. The aim of the study was, therefore, to design an information system for northern Uganda business enterprises. The study makes use of document analysis, questionnaires and interviews. The Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs), information providers and business policy-makers in northern Uganda constituted the population of the study. The data which was collected was edited and analysed to produce graphs, charts and percentages. The main findings indicate that business activities in northern Uganda are diverse - covering almost the entire sector of the economy. The SMEs need information on finance/capital/loans, local markets, business management skills, appropriate technologies, business competitors and security. They are lagging behind in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). There is a lack of familiarity with changing technology - especially the Internet. Although the SMEs are making a fundamental contribution to Uganda's economy, they face serious challenges, such as insecurity, inadequate electricity, lack of trained information professionals and appropriate technology to access electronic information. The findings further indicate that respondents want business information to be selective to address their needs. The study concludes that the SMEs need an efficient, effective mechanism to provide the required business information. Hence, it is recommended that a business information system (BIS) design be implemented to address their needs. The BIS should provide business information in terms of legal, technical and economic information as well as contact information and management skills. Information should be processed by means of radio broadcasts, the telephone, short text messages, posters, online and CD-ROM formats - as required by the SMEs managers. To facilitate access, BIS should have telephone services; Internet-based services; online small business workshops; business start up assistant; and Talk to BIS services. BIS should have a flexible interface.
INFORMATION SCIENCE
DLITT ET PHIL (INF SCIENCE)

D.Litt. et Phil.
The purpose of this research was to determine the status of e-readiness of Small and Medium-Sized enterprises (SMEs) in the ICT sector in Botswana with respect to information access using ICTs for competitiveness in the local and international markets. The population of study consisted of key informants from 114 SMEs in the ICT sector in Gaborone and Francistown, the capital city and the second largest city of Botswana respectively. The official list of ICT companies provided by the government of Botswana was used as the sampling frame. The research used a two-phase design - the preliminary survey and the main survey of the project. The preliminary survey consisted of two stages. During the first stage, a short structured questionnaire was administered to a census of 114 key informants from SMEs in the ICT sector. During the second stage, six focus group discussions were used to collect data from key stakeholders in the ICT sector who included representatives from: ICT companies, ICT professional body in Botswana, government utility corporations, academia and the business community. The participants in the focus group discussions involved representatives from 55 SMEs who were identified like in the first stage using the government official list of SMEs in Botswana. The quantitative data collected through questionnaire were analysed using SPSS while the qualitative data collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were analysed using thematic tables. The results were represented using tables, pie charts, categories and narrations. The results of the preliminary survey of the project were used to characterise the ICT sector in terms of its size, key players, nature of businesses, products and services traded in, distribution of business by location and the issues that affected the sector. This characterisation was important in two main respects. Firstly, it provided a clear roadmap for the design of the main survey of the research since little information existed on the subject of e-readiness on Botswana in general and with respect to SMEs in particular. Similarly, the government had invested a lot of resources in ICT infrastructure development and was focusing on SMEs especially those in the ICT sector to diversify the economy from the dominant diamond mining to service industry. Secondly, the results of the preliminary survey of the project supported the development of a structured interview schedule that was used during the main survey of the project. During the main survey of the research data was collected from companies that participated in the focus group discussions. From the focus group list of participants, an alphabetical name list of 55 SMEs was created. There were 43 Small-Sized and 12 Medium-Sized enterprises that were represented during the focus group discussions. For the purpose of carrying out the structured interviews, SMEs were stratified into two (Small-Sized enterprises and Medium-Sized enterprises). From the Small-Sized enterprises stratum, 20 companies were systematically selected (from the 43) taking every other member on the list. On the other hand, in the Medium-Sized enterprises stratum, all the 12 enterprises were selected for interviews because the number of respondents was small. The data collected was analysed using categories and thematic tables because it was largely qualitative. The results were presented in the form of thematic tables and through narrations. The findings from the SMEs surveyed indicated that most of the SMEs in the ICT sector in Botswana were Small-Sized enterprises that were largely not e-ready to participate in the global electronic business environment because of several impediments such as: the lack of awareness, inadequate policy and legislative framework, poor telecommunication and electricity infrastructures, poor e-commerce infrastructure, inadequate government support, the lack of access to credit, investment barriers, the lack of critical ICT skills and more. The major outcomes of the project include an exposition of the e-readiness status of SMEs in the ICT sector in Botswana, a road map that can assist the government of Botswana to establish a strong export-oriented ICT sector. The weaknesses and strengths of Botswana’s e-readiness status with regard to SMEs are brought to the fore, thus creating awareness upon which the government can design interventions that are tailored to meet Botswana’s SMEs’ specific needs. Similarly, this project provides a framework upon which the government can benchmark against its counterparts in the rest of the world in order to define its investment priorities. The project also provides baseline information which the government could use to implement appropriate policy and legislative decisions in order to enhance the e-readiness of SMEs in the ICT sector in Botswana. Finally, the new integrated e-readiness tool that was developed in this project is the first of its kind to bring the different major components of e-readiness (such as enterprise, ICT, human resources, information and external environment readiness) into a single assessment tool with great attention paid to information access. The tool is also modular in design and thus can allow specific e-readiness assessment of individual segments of society to be modelled independently of each other. The tool also enriches the qualitative aspects of e-readiness that are only minimally addressed in a few of the existing macro e-readiness assessment tools. Among the key recommendations from the research is the need for the government of Botswana to promulgate relevant policies and implement pragmatic programmes that would enable SMEs in the ICT sector in the country to use various information technologies in order to gain access to relevant information regarding access to credit, investment opportunities, partnerships, education and training opportunities so that they can effectively participate in both the local and international markets. The policy changes and programmes to be undertaken by the government should be underpinned by an effective legislative and regulatory framework that would enable the small business firms to identify, acquire, process, organise, disseminate and apply information for competitive advantage through the effective deployment and application of ICTs.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Doctor of Technology: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015.
In 2006, the government-supported microfinance programmes implemented by the Kenyan government started lending credit to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) using a group-lending mode, a change which represented a paradigm shift from individual lending mode. The overall aim of this research is to provide an investigation of whether the transformation of this lending policy was backed by any theoretical and empirical support. Specifically, the entirety of this study is intended to give an insight of what might have influenced the change, what informed it and what might have been overlooked. To achieve clarity and the study aim, the research is compartmentalised into three discrete studies. In the first study, a historical investigation into the factors which hindered MSEs from acquiring credit was undertaken. The second study investigated the reasons MSEs were credit rationed. The third study investigated whether the problems experienced by MSEs, associated with lack of credit access (lack of credit demand and rationing), could have been mitigated by group lending. The research utilised quantitative research design, the first two studies utilised data derived from National MSEs Baseline survey conducted in 1999. The third study utilised primary data collected from micro credit groups of the Kenya Rural Enterprise Programme (K-REP) in 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya. Various economic models and regression analysis were utilised in analysing different outcomes. In particular, the research utilised Univariate Probit, Bivariate Probit and Heckman Two-Stage Models to model various credit access outcomes. The study found that group lending largely mitigated information asymmetry- the main cause of MSEs failure to access credit. However, the study concludes that asymmetric information was not the only source of credit failure in Kenya. For group lending to work, or to have worked, it required support by other pro-MSE programme dynamics. This suggested that the government decision to change policy was partially informed by theory and practice.
D

碩士
世新大學
資訊管理學研究所(含碩專班)
103
According to a forecast made by eMarketer, B2C e-commerce sales worldwide will reach US$1.7 trillion in 2015, Asia-Pacific (33.4%) leapfrogs North America (31.7%) to become world's largest regional e-commerce market. Taiwan and China e-commerce forecasted to be a new trend from various aspects through had great performance over the last year. According to Chinese non-site association 2014's reports Taiwan e-commerce have progressed rapidly by 15% for each year. it's expected to become a true trillion industry in 2015. The purpose of this study is intends to investigate Taiwan’s PChome and Taobao global e-commerce development status and process model from the aspects of logistic, financial and information. In this study expected to explore the key factors which may influence customer behavioral intention to accept cross-border e-commerce from customer’s aspect. This study result could provide enterprise business as a reference for future direction. This study found that products are not selling in local is key motivation factor for customers intention to buy. Almost customers are worried about transaction security and merchant’s credit. Reduction in the cost of International logistics is the most common expectation. Credit, payment and logistics are the mainly factor of restricting cross-border e-commerce development. As a result, simplifying the procedures of shopping is a key factor to enhance the success of cross-border e-commerce.