Assessing Factors Influencing Solar Energy Adoption among Small and Medium Enterprises in Mzuzu City, Malawi

One of the many renewable energy sources that offer advantages is solar energy, which also lowers energy prices and promotes environmental sustainability and energy security. Despite these advantages, various barriers, such as installation costs, have prevented small and medium-sized enterprises from investigating this invention. Malawi has a significant energy shortfall such that most businesses have been hindered from their profit maximization goals. The “Photovoltaic systems” (PV) that transform sunlight into electricity are the subject of this study. This type of solar energy system is situated on the building’s roof and generally produces electricity for businesses and even homes. Solar energy offers a great impact to small and medium enterprises in Mzuzu city with a cost-effective and dependable alternative to energy that has the potential to change the game. Therefore the aim of the study was to identify factors that encourage the adoption of solar energy among small medium enterprises in the city of Mzuzu city. And to identify some of barriers faced when adopting solar energy among small and medium enterprises in the city of Mzuzu. The research approach employed in the study was a survey. A survey is a type of research methodology in which primary data is gathered from a sample using a questionnaire. When information is to be gathered from a wider sample, a survey is employed. A bigger sample size was needed in this study in order to facilitate hypothesis testing. It is advised to apply a logical approach while using the survey. The survey utilized a five-point Likert scale. The study used convenience sampling to select study participants. The sample size in this study was determined using Cochran’s sample size formula. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel were used for statistical analysis. About 97.2% of the participants were aware of solar as a source of energy compared to 2.8 % who were unaware. The majority of participants use solar energy for lighting only, seconded by those who use electricity. The least number of participants use solar energy for cooling only. The majority of participants 21.5% indicated partnership and collaboration as the most motivating factor for the adoption of solar energy. This was followed by technical expertise 19.1 % the least number of participants 10.8% expressed that policy and regulatory frameworks were associated with the adoption of solar energy. This study found that there are no statistically significant factors influencing barriers to the adoption of solar energy. The price of solar energy adoption was identified as the least factor associated with the acceptance or rejection of solar energy. Nonetheless, the reasons given by the homes that had embraced solar technology aligned with the findings of other studies. This survey also found that although the public was aware of solar energy, and technology, there were still a number of factors that mattered, especially for non-adopters.

A Novel Lifecycle Model for Web-based Application Development in Small and Medium Enterprises

Software engineering＇s lifecycle models havc proven to be very important for traditional software development. However, can these models be applied to the development of Web-based applications as well？ In recent years, Web-based applications have become more and more complicated and a lot of efforts have been placed on introducing new technologies such as J2EE, PhP, and .NET, etc., which have been universally accepted as the development technologies for Web-based applications. However, there is no universally accepted process model for the development of Web-based applications. Moreover, shaping the process model for small medium-sized enterprises （SMEs）, which have limited resources, has been relatively neglected. Based on our previous work, this paper presents an expanded lifecycle process model for the development of Web-based applications in SMEs. It consists of three sets of processes, i.e., requirement processes, development processes, and evolution processes. Particularly, the post-delivery evolution processes are important to SMEs to develop and maintain quality web applications with limited resources and time.

Commercial Banks Responses toward Small and Medium Enterprises Survival in the Context of the COVID-19 in Africa

The African government has implemented measures to sustain an investable economic downturn as it navigates the fiscal effect of the viral spread of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).Consequently,commercial banks in Africa have come hand in hand toward support of SMEs activities by increasing their borrowing power and reducing interest rates.Despite all these measures the general performance of small and medium enterprises(SMEs)across Africa as pertains to revenues and profits has gone down.This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the measures undertaken by commercial banks to ensure proper running and continuity of activities in the SMEs sector in Africa.The research is founded on the theories of innovation diffusion and resource-based theory.This study will use a mixed research design,which will include descriptive and explanatory research.The proposed target population will be Africa’s thriving commercial banks.The primary and secondary data will be used from commercial bank reports and the central bureau of statistics reports across Africa.The data will be analyzed using a multiple linear regression model.The finding indicated that commercial banks in Africa have brought in solutions and measures to adapt to the crisis being implicated on the SMEs by the COVID-19 pandemic.Based on the findings of the desktop reviews,the study concludes that commercial banks have a significant influence on SMEs during this period of COVID-19,and with the assistance of the government,they have implemented more policies to support the activities of SMEs.

Data Mining for Small and Medium Enterprises: A Conceptual Model for Adaptation

The following paper explored data mining issues in Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs), firstly exploring the relationship between data mining and economic development. With SME’s contributing most employment prospects and output within any emerging economy such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Adopting technology will improve SME’s potential for effective decision making and efficient operations. Hence, it is important that SMEs have access to data mining techniques and implement the most suited into their business to improve their business intelligence (BI). The paper is aimed to critically review the existing literature on data mining in the field of SME to provide a theoretical underpinning for any future work. It has been found data mining to be complicated and fragmented with a multitude of options available for businesses from quite basic systems implemented within Excel or Access to more sophisticated cloud-based systems. For any business, data mining is trade-off between the need for data analysis, and intelligence against the cost and resource-use of the system put in place. Multiple challenges have been identified to data mining, most notably the resource-intensive nature of systems (both in terms of labor and capital) and the security issues of data collection, analysis and storage;with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) a key focus for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia businesses. With these challenges the paper suggests that any SME starts small with an internal data mining exercise to digitalize and analyze their customer data, scaling up over time as the business grows and acquires the resources needed to properly manage any system.

Analysis of Core Competency Required for the Managerial Work Force of Small and Medium Enterprises in Taiwan

This study aims to probe into the core competencies, as should be possessed by the managerial work forces of firms, from the perspective of employers’ in small and medium enterprises. The findings can serve as references for planning core courses of employee training and labor employment. Based on the research purposes, this study adopted revised DACUM, conducted literature review, and applied a questionnaire survey. The subjects were the members of SMEs Honor Instructor Association of Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, and the Society of Management Science. Random sampling was used, with the number of employees as the units. The valid return rate was 24.2%. After testing goodness of fit of K-S single samples, this study found that a corporate management work force should have 11 items of core competencies, and 35 items of secondary competency.

Contract Mechanism of Water Environment Regulation for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Based on Optimal Control Theory

The small and scattered enterprise pattern in the county economy has formed numerous sporadic pollution sources, hindering the centralized treatment of the water environment, increasing the cost and difficulty of treatment. How enterprises can make reasonable decisions on their water environment behavior based on the external environment and their own factors is of great significance for scientifically and effectively designing water environment regulation mechanisms. Based on optimal control theory, this study investigates the design of contractual mechanisms for water environmental regulation for small and medium-sized enterprises. The enterprise is regarded as an independent economic entity that can adopt optimal control strategies to maximize its own interests. Based on the participation of multiple subjects including the government, enterprises, and the public, an optimal control strategy model for enterprises under contractual water environmental regulation is constructed using optimal control theory, and a method for calculating the amount of unit pollutant penalties is derived. The water pollutant treatment cost data of a paper company is selected to conduct empirical numerical analysis on the model. The results show that the increase in the probability of government regulation and public participation, as well as the decrease in local government protection for enterprises, can achieve the same regulatory effect while reducing the number of administrative penalties per unit. Finally, the implementation process of contractual water environmental regulation for small and medium-sized enterprises is designed.

The Thinking of Financing under Dual Economies Character In Medium & Small Enterprises

In China,the dual economies show prominence in financial field.It leads to the serious dual credit ration and becomes one of the main cause which makes financing in medium & small sized enterprises becomes harder and harder.On basis of this situation,we theoretically pose that we can alleviate the difficulty through the dual cooperation of financial control and the deepening of finance.

Mechanism of Interaction between Entrepreneurial Spirit and Growth of Small and Medium Sized Private Enterprises

In the context of government appeal of " mass entrepreneurship and innovation",all areas launched the movement of " mass entrepreneurship" and " grassroots entrepreneurship". As parts of vitality of China's market economy,small and medium sized private enterprises become grassroots of market competition in talents,funds,and technologies. This paper combined three levels of entrepreneurial spirit and small and medium sized private enterprises,studied acting mechanism of entrepreneurial spirit,discussed competitive power of small and medium sized private enterprises,and recommended that small and medium sized private enterprises should cultivate core competitive power,adapt to external environment,and create external environment support,to realize sound development.

Barriers to the Growth of Small and Medium Scale Construction Enterprises in Ghana

The construction industry in most developing economies is dominated heavily by small and medium scale enterprises. These construction enterprises need to thrive in an extremely competitive business environment. Conversely, most of these small and medium scale construction enterprises (SMSCE) are fraught with a plethora of barriers that inhibit and threaten their growth and survival. This research sought to evaluate the critical barriers that affect the growth of SMSCEs in the Ghanaian Construction Industry. The quantitative research method was adopted using a structured questionnaire with variables that were identified through a comprehensive literature review. The survey questionnaire was administered to 400 respondents comprising 250 SMSCEs, 100 Local Authority Engineers, and 50 Consultants to elicit data based on the identified variables. The major findings established by the study as barriers to the growth of SMSCEs in Ghana are largely structured as financial/fiscal barriers, business development barriers, technical/technological barriers, corruption barriers, knowledge management barriers, project acquisition barriers. A guiding framework should be developed based on the barriers identified to aid the growth and survival of SMSCEs in Ghana.

Financing Alternatives for Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises: The Case for a Small and Medium Enterprise Stock Market

Financing alternatives for small and medium enterprises in China are discussed in the present study. In particular, we analyze the significant changes and developments m China＇s ＂second board＂ stock market. China ＇s extensive network of regional assets and equity exchanges, which were set up to facilitate private equity transfer, and non-performing loan transactions seem to partially fill the void for small and medium enterprises, which cannot easily obtain approval for listing on the stock exchanges. Foreign investors can identify investment opportunities in non-listed domestic state-owned and private businesses through these regional assets and equity exchanges. At the same time, foreign stock markets are now attracting the young Chinese enterprises to list their stocks on their exchanges.

Assessment for Production and Operation Ability of Medium and Small-sized Enterprises Based on Neural Network

In order to improve production and operation ability of medium and small-sized enterprises, an assessment-index system of production and operation ability was proposed, and a corresponding assessment model was established based on BP neural network. The conjunction weights of the neural network were continuously modified from output layer to input layer in the process of neural network training to reduce the errors between the anticipated and actual outputs. The results from an example show that this method is reliable and feasible. The production and operation ability of an enterprise with assessed result of 0.833 is fairly powerful, and that with assessed result of 0.644 is average.