Internationalization of Ethiopian Apparel SMEs

The main aim of this research was to identify the internationalization patterns of SMEs in developing countries. The study aimed to identify the influence of inward international activities on outward international activities. From the internationalization models and theories, the stage models of internationalization, the network approach and the contingency view were examined. In addition, the role of a manager/owner in the internationalization process of SMEs and the motivations for SMEs to internationalize their operations was analyzed. The theoretical part of the research was based on earlier research and literature. Based on the extant research, propositions related to internationalization process of SMEs were drawn and a conceptual model, which includes international activities comprising inward and outward internationalization, external factors, internal factors and business network, was developed. In the empirical part of the research, the Propositions were tested through quantitative research. The empirical part of the research analyzed the contribution and link of the inward internationalization to outward internationalization of apparel SMEs in Ethiopia. Over 28 questionnaires were delivered to apparel SMEs in Ethiopia. The findings of the study indicate that the majority of SMEs undertake both inward and outward internationalization at the same time. In addition, for the majority of the SMEs, the year they started their business and the year they began either inward or outward international activities was the same. Building long term relationship was perceived to be important. The international orientation of the manager/owner was found to influence the internationalization of SMEs in Ethiopia. Export subsidies, internationalization of customers, and internationalization of competitors were found to impact the decision of SMEs to start operating internationally. According to the research results, the contingency view in conjunction with the network approach and some aspect of the stage models explains the internationalization process of apparel SMEs in Ethiopia. The role of a manager/owner was found to be important in the internationalization process of SMEs. Reactive motivations were found to trigger firm’s decision to start operating internationally.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Exploration and Design of High Performance Variation Tolerant On-Chip Interconnects

Siirretty Doriast

Cause and effect of informal sector: the case of street vendors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Masteroppgave i bedriftsøkonomi - Universitetet i Nordland, 201

Internationalization of family small and medium sized enterprises : impact of ownership, governance and top management team

fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Predictors of defaulting from completion of child immunization in south Ethiopia, May 2008 – A case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiological investigations of recent outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases have indicated that incomplete immunization was the major reason for the outbreaks. In Ethiopia, full immunization rate is low and reasons for defaulting from immunization are not studied well. The objective of the study was to identify the predictors of defaulting from completion of child immunization among children between ages 9–23 months in Wonago district, South Ethiopia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Unmatched case control study was conducted in eight Kebeles (lowest administrative unit) of Wonago district in south Ethiopia. Census was done to identify all cases and controls. A total of 266 samples (133 cases and 133 controls) were selected by simple random sampling technique. Cases were children in the age group of 9 to 23 months who did not complete the recommended immunization schedule. Pre-tested structured questionnaire were used for data collection. Data was analyzed using SPSS 15.0 statistical software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four hundred eighteen (41.7%) of the children were fully vaccinated and four hundred twelve (41.2%) of the children were partially vaccinated. The BCG: measles defaulter rate was 76.2%. Knowledge of the mothers about child immunization, monthly family income, postponing child immunization and perceived health institution support were the best predictors of defaulting from completion of child immunization.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Mothers should be educated about the benefits of vaccination and the timely administration of vaccines.</p

High-performance long NoC link using delay-insensitive current-mode signaling

High-performance long-range NoC link enables efficient implementation of network-on-chip topologies which inherently require high-performance long-distance point-to-point communication such as torus and fat-tree structures. In addition, the performance of other topologies, such as mesh, can be improved by using high-performance link between few selected remote nodes.We presented novel implementation of high-performance long-range NoC link based onmultilevel current-mode signaling and delayinsensitive two-phase 1-of-4 encoding. Current-mode signaling reduces the communication latency of long wires significantlycompared to voltage-mode signaling, making it possible to achieve high throughput without pipelining and/or using repeaters. The performance of the proposed multilevel current-mode interconnect is analyzed and compared with two reference voltage mode interconnects. These two reference interconnects are designed using two-phase 1-of-4 encoded voltage-mode signaling, one with pipeline stages and the other using optimal repeater insertion. The proposed multilevel current-mode interconnect achieves higher throughput and lower latency than the two reference interconnects. Its throughput at 8mm wire length is 1.222GWord/swhich is 1.58 and 1.89 times higher than the pipelined and optimal repeater insertion interconnects, respectively. Furthermore, its power consumption is less than the optimal repeater insertion voltage-mode interconnect, at 10mm wire length its power consumption is 0.75mW while the reference repeater insertion interconnect is 1.066 mW. The effect of crosstalk is analyzed using four-bit parallel data transfer with the best-case and worst-case switching patterns and a transmission line model which has both capacitive coupling and inductive coupling.</p