澳洲硕士毕业dissertation lITERRATURE REVIEW

澳洲硕士毕业dissertation lITERRATURE REVIEW

I. Introduction
1.1Background 
The important role of small business in the national and even global economic development is beyond our doubt (Reynolds, 1987). Different countries set different standard of small and medium business Max Peyrard (1997). In the case of China, small to medium business and enterprises are recognised by the number of employees in the business: a company with less than 500 employees are intermediary. Shanghai, one of the largest economic zones in China, has witnessed fast economic growth in last three decades.  It is more convincing to check on the statistics about the small business performance to prove their importance. There are 363,600 small and medium businesses in Shanghai in 2006, accounting for 99.70 of all. The overall income of them is 1,705,1640,000,000 Yuan，accounting for 74.34% of the total of all business. The employees in these businesses are 8,032,600, accounting for 84.50% of the total employees in businesses (The Commission of Shanghai Small and Medium Business)
 Another key fact we cannot neglect is the performance of retailing businesses, in order to view and evaluate their contribution to the economic increase. Among all the retailing sales in Shanghai in 2006, clothes sales took the largest share, reaching 40% of the whole; the total was 1780000000 pieces, an increase of 10.9% compared to that in 2005. While the whole quality and price of clothes are improving every year, the ones of intermediary price and quality are still most people’s choice, the pieces lower than 500 Yuan accounting for the 70% of the whole sales, and the brand ones lower than 15.3%. (The Commission of Shanghai Small and Medium Business)
As we have mentioned above, the small business is the main driving force of the Chinese economy. In this research, it is found that most Chinese chain stores can be classified as medium or small business. The clothes of intermediary price are mainly sold in two types of clothes boutiques: the intermediary chain stores and the independent boutiques.  A brand and central management control these stores. The business methods and practices are always the same. Obviously, the single outlet gets strong support from the main company. The key to a chain store’s success lies in the brands influence of the company’s product and the management from the company.

In contrast, the situation with the retailers is quite different.  Boutiques are typically one-shop operations managed by the owner. In general manufacturers’ agents service these outlets. The manufacturers do not have direct contact with the independent boutiques, other than to service the orders passed on through agents. The boutique owners, however, value personal contact. Many a times the boutique owners may feel that the personal contacts element is lacking in their relationship with agents, if the agents are more focused on generating sales to make their own commission. But this feature brings more free control for the managers of his or her store. Due to the size of a boutique, the owners have great influence on their stores. Over the years the boutiques have found favour with consumers, as there has been an increased demand for exclusive range of fashionable clothing.#p#分页标题#e#

No wonder Entrepreneurial theory of social network has been introduced in China and discussed, but the empirical study of its application is hardly found in reading and talking (Yao and Xi, 2003), not to mention the use of it in the developing stages of small business. Despite the possible difficulties, the author decides to dig into the start up of clothes boutiques, to understand the macroeconomic, social background and the social network generated from the both, to print out the social network inside the businesses, make an attempt to understand the practical value of the social network in the small business in Shanghai. And at the same time, to understand the impact the small shops on the social network, if there is any.
1.2 The project
Shanghai is determined to be a fashion centre in China, even in the world, making great profit from this industry. It is amazing to see that nearly in every street there are at least several clothes boutiques, some starting up and some shutting down every day, but there are always the same numbers are operating and making money. There are what are the factors in the economy that drive the businesses to start up and make their contribution to the retailing industry one after another? There are 1870 one-shop boutiques and 10000 chain store shops in Shanghai in 2006,with all together 46700 persons employed (Shanghai Civil Service Bureau). Many believe that Shanghai has the social, cultural and economic advantages to make that possible, especially through all kinds of networks. The marvellous courage and motivation of entrepreneurs are personal and individual related to their respective background and social network. We are to asset the beliefs. So we are now at the threshold to probe into a network casting over the society at large, small business, the entrepreneur, family and other businesses. To make our work easier, this paper takes the entrepreneur as the centre of the network, in an attempt to study the dynamics of the whole net.
2.3Aims and Objectives
This report, taking a position to view clothes retailing business as a member of the small business family, is to investigate it with entrepreneurship theories to find out all its secrets and charming. As a small business, the creator and the clothes boutique need to get resources from different social networks at different developing stages, such as emotional support, information, and fund. In this paper, focus is set on social networks and business success among a sample of small-scale entrepreneurs operating in the clothes retailing business in Shanghai.
The objectives of the paper are:
1. What is the relationship between sociocultural contexts, personal relationships, and the ability to enact one’s environment and make a success in business?
2. What relationships and what kinds of relationships are necessary for an entrepreneur at different stages of a small business?
3. How are the relationships different for the two types of small businesses which represent the single shop business and chain stores?#p#分页标题#e#
4. How can entrepreneurs have an opportunity to develop social relations and to modify cultural bonds?
5. What can we learn from the success and failure from the examined businesses?

The project is organized in six parts. After this introduction follows the literature review of entrepreneurship to draw a picture of the basic theories, their development and their main applications in previous studies. Since the main features of the business studied are related to their social network, the project focuses on the findings on relations between social networks and business success. And other related theories, such as PEST analysis concerning sociocultural contexts, http://www.ukthesis.org/Thesis_Tips/Reference/Literature_Review/fund raising strategies, 4ps marketing strategies and other models are also our concerns and discussed in this section.  Section III presents the data collection methods in this project. The first to come is the use of PEST Analysis to evaluate the sociocultural contexts of the investigated companies.  Interviews of five clothes boutiques owners, case study of a chain store enterprise and 4ps-marketing model are applied to find the solutions to the problems. All the data collected are shown in this project. The interview notes are presented in this section.  In Section IV, we make a detailed discussion of collected data, try to give explanation about the findings by applying the theories we think relevant to the project issue. In the conclusion part, we reveal the significance, implications of the study and answers to the problem we have raised in the introduction part. In the last section, some recommendations are put forward to help improve the macroeconomic condition of small business, and shed light on the future achievement of other industries.
II. Literature Review
This chapter presents a literature review of the theories and empirical researches on entrepreneurial activity as exhaustive as possible both from China and abroad.   After a discussion of a few definitions of entrepreneurial activity, first, one definition relevant to our research is put forward. Thereafter, a summary of previous study of entrepreneurship comes, mainly covering the theoretical models and basic theories giving hints at our present study. We put emphasis on the social network theory, tracing its development and present its main findings. As far as the social network is concerned, we inevitably pay attention to the survey of socioeconomic condition of the subject area, to judge its influence on the business. Since the business start up involves marketing and management, especial in the retailing industry, we lay stress on the theories of marketing.
2.1 The Definition of Entrepreneurial Activity
After a discussion of a few definitions of entrepreneurial activity, first, one definition relevant to our research is put forward.
According to Gartner (1989), entrepreneurs are simply those who create new independent organizations. Some scholars like Aldrich & Wiedenmayer (1993) assert that the purpose of the new organization that qualify as entrepreneurship must also create value through a product or service. Other writers like Shane & Venkataratnam (2000) define entrepreneurship as ‘a process that involves the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities to introduce new products, services, processes, ways of organizing, or markets’.   #p#分页标题#e#
While most of the explanations of the term entrepreneurship have adopted different assumptions, most of them do assert that entrepreneurship connotes an innate ability to sense and act on opportunity together with the determination to create or bring about something new to the world.
Having discussed the concept of entrepreneurship we can now define what entrepreneurial activity is. According to OECD, an entrepreneurial activity ‘is the enterprising human action in pursuit of the generation of value, through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets.
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2.2Focus and Basic Theories in Entrepreneurship Researches
2.2.1Analytical Frame and Focus
   In a process of small business start up, there are participants from different levels, making the running possible and complex. Not every detail counts the same in the process, but some focuses prop out. Gartner (1985) picked out individual, environment, organization and institution, the four focuses, but leaving out the important one, opportunity. Timmons (1999) “New Venture Creation” proposed opportunity, organization, and resource were the focuses, with entrepreneur as the center to keep a dynamic balance of the other three. Birley&westhea (1990) put forward another focus into his analysis: performance.

This paper regards external environment, entrepreneur and his or her organization, opportunity, resources, and performance as the focuses constructing the frame of entrepreneurial activity. We select environment, opportunity and performance from the frame to be discussed, because entrepreneur and his or her organization and resources as well, are familiar topics of many discussions.

First let us talk above environment. Environment is the focus in this model and process, because no individual or organization can do without it. The influence of value system, opportunity, supporting and resources all come originate from the environment. In environment with more opportunities and support for entrepreneurial activity, the success of business is more easy to achieve and vitality of entrepreneurs. Gnyawali & Fogel (1994) discussed the holistic model, taking opportunity, the capability of the entrepreneur, the intention of business start up, and environment as the focuses.

In general, there are two major perspectives concerning environment and its interaction with entrepreneurial activity: strategic adaptation (Gnyawali & Fogel, 1994) and population ecology (Ucbasaran, et al. 2001).  Usually, environment is regarded as a variable in the analysis of its influence; few have tried to make a quantitative study about single factor. Beglet & Tan (2001) made a comparison between four Anglo-Saxon countries and eastern Asian ones to investigate the difference in business intention. It gives enlightenment to enlist environment as a focus in the entrepreneurial study.

Next one is opportunity, starting from (neoclassical equilibrium theories, nowadays researches disagree that opportunity offers same promises to individuals. Sarasvathy et al. (2003) proposed three models concerning opportunity: recognition, discovery and creation.
The last focus is about the evaluation of business activity, the performance.  Venkataraman & Ramanujam (1986) pointed out financial index was the manageable measurement of business performance. But the researchers found this standard is too simplified, Murphy, et al. (1996) offered a model of 8 measures: efficiency, profit, size, mobility etc. It is hard to offer a completely objective standard for the performance. Usually, we combine the financial records with a survey based on questionnaires to make a careful evaluation of performance. There is a trend to include some subjective reactions into the evaluative framework, because satisfaction and sense of success are also important to individual (Cooper & Artz, 1995).

A frame of focuses set aside for a while, we refer to it in our later analysis.
2.3Basic Theories of Entrepreneurial Activity
2.3.1Analytical Level of Previous Study
Concentrating on different elements at different stages of business growth, numerous researches have been conducted to explore the field of entrepreneurship from various perspectives.  Davidsson & Wiklund (2001) made a survey of the publications on three major ETP, JBV and ERD in ten years, from1988 to 1998, in attempt to discover the features of the analytic levels: individual level took up 59.4% in1988 and 77.7% in 1998; industry level occupied 21.9% in 1988 and 11.1% in1998; while cross-level 12.5% in1988 and 11.1% in 1998, showing no increase in this aspect. The study of the interaction between individual and organizations has indicated a relatively increase, ranging from 1.6% of all to 11.1% in the ten years.

By the standard of key words, Ireland et al. (2005) searched out all the related literature and classified them into seven realms: business institutional entrepreneurship, international entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, initial public offerings, individuals or entrepreneurs, and new ventures, among which individuals and corporate entrepreneurship used to be the favorite topics before 2000, while international entrepreneurship and new ventures have attracted more attention in recent years.
Comparing to the previous study, study crossing different analytical level inside and outside a business is necessary and helpful, which is also illustrated in the researches recently done. This reminds later researchers of what should they do in their own study. This study is trying to do a crossing level study to illustrate the interaction between different levels: individual, society, community and organization. And in the basic theories applied to explain entrepreneurial activity, different theory chooses different level.
2.3.2 Basic Theories of Entrepreneurial Activity
   Focusing on different levels of enterprise elements and topics, researchers try various perspectives to understand and explain complicated entrepreneurial activities. To sum up, there are mainly four basic theories and perspectives in entrepreneurship: cognitive theory, resource-based theory, institutional theory and social network theory. These four perspectives originate from different scientific domains with different hypotheses and concepts, offering contradictory and complementary ideas to one another. According to the level of theory (Davidsson & Wiklund, 2001), cognitive theory emphasizes individual, resource-based theory stresses organization, institutional theory focuses on the overall influence and social network theory tries to relate individual to the whole.http://www.ukthesis.org/Thesis_Tips/Reference/Literature_Review/#p#分页标题#e#
Now let us get familiar with the main ideas and thoughts of the four basic theories one by one.
Firstly, cognitive theory. Entrepreneurship is a series of acts of setting up a business, gathering financial resources, innovating and creating wealth (Stearns & Hill, 1996). Cunningham and Lischeron (1991) regarded an entrepreneur as the person who creates, manages, and takes the risk of a new venture. The central role of an entrepreneur, according to Kirzner (1979), is to identify the hidden opportunities in the marketplace. These opportunities are neglected by others, while found out by an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur has knowledge, skills, and abilities to the environment to make entrepreneurial success. He or she has the ability to utilize these abilities to exploit wealth-creating opportunities and resources (Timmons, 1989).

But to earlier researchers disappointment, it was hard to find empirical evidence to prove the quality of an entrepreneur is sufficient to his or her success. So researchers have to use the cognition theory from psychology to find the difference from others (Stewart et al, 1998; Carland et al, 2002).Witkin et al (1971) pointed out that cognitive style is a self-consistent mode of functioning. In this theory, individuals show their perceptual and intellectual activities. It offers one basis for identifying the potential successful entrepreneurs (Allinson, Chell & Hayes, 2000).

In empirical study, two instruments have been used to evaluate entrepreneurial cognition: Kirton's Adaptation-Innovation theory (KAI), and the Cognitive Style Index (Allinson & Hayes, 2001). The former measures cognitive creativity in problem solving .The latter is a self-report questionnaire to assess cognitive style as either ‘analytic' or ‘intuitive'. By using the former instrument, there was a significant empirical study (Buttner & Gryskiewicz, 1993) about entrepreneurs' problem solving styles. The result of the research demonstrated that entrepreneurs were more innovative than general managers. In their study using the CSI, Allinson, Chell & Hayes (2001) found that successful entrepreneurs are more intuitive in their cognitive style than the general population of managers.
   Generally speaking, the fast development of cognition study presents a base for the entrepreneurial cognition study and enriches our understanding of entrepreneurs in depth.

Secondly, resource-based theory .The resource-based theory is a means used to determine the strategic resources available to a firm. To be successful a business shall have special advantages over others.These advantages are ususally shown in the clever use of the the bundle of valuable resources at its disposal.These are also called competitive advantage of an enterprise (Wernerfelt, 1984； Rumelt, 1984). If these comparative advantages can be kept and become valuable resources, they are considered perfectly imitable nor substitutable without great effort (Hoopes, 2003, p891). If these requirements satisfied, the resource bundle of the enterprise can help the firm sustain above average returns.#p#分页标题#e#
By applying this theory, the reasearchers usually attach great importance to the following key points: the identification of the firm’s potential key resources; characteristics of these resources: vluable (Barney, 1991, p99; Amit and Shoemaker, 1993, p36). , rare (Barney, 1986a, p1232-1233; Dierickx and Cool, 1989, p1504; Barney, 1991, p100), in-imitable (Barney, 1991, p107), and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991).

The traditional resources-based theory emphasizes heterogeneous recourses, which enact and well explain the transformation of resources. Traditionally, capital and materials in production are thought to be important resources. But nowadays some very subjective aspects and elements are regarded as also resources. So this theory is of vitality to study the decision-making, opportunity recognition, and competency of a firm because in these processes, all the above subjective resources are needed. More study concentrates on these subjective resources. This is the future trend and development of the theory.

Thirdly, institutional theory. Institutions are norms, rituals and rules of social order and cooperation directing the behavior of a group of individuals or organizations.
Legitimacy is an important factor to the survival of a business.In order to survive,  a firm must conform to the authorities and prevailing rules and belief systems in the environment. The conformation to these rules and beliefs will earn the organization legitimacy (Suchman, 1995). Usually, enterprises experience pressures in host and home institutional environments, which exert fundamental influences on their management (Rosenzweig and Singh, 1991; Zaheer, 1995). Organisations able to obtain the legitimacy can survive and get access to the neede resources, otherwise they fail. On one hand, social, economic, and political factors constitute an institutional structure of a particular environment, which can be the source of pressure. On the other hand, the spacial institutional structure provides firms with advantages for engaging in specific types of activities there.
Busenitz, Gomez & Spencer (2000) categorized regulatory, cognitive, normative institutions. Regulatory institution refers to the system formed by laws, rule and policies for or against the entrepreneurial activity; the cognitive ones include the facilities for entrepreneurs to obtain techniques and knowledge. And the normative institutions refer to beliefs and values of the nation and its people. It is believed that firms in different types of economies react differently to similar challenges.
 In short, the institutional theory is a powerful tool to illustrate the social, cultural influence onto a company. It is also very helpful for us to understand the external social network for a business.
The last one, social network theory. We make a more detailed review of this theory in the next part.
2.4Social Network Theory
Just as every enterprise is in the net of institutions, it is a general agreement that entrepreneurs and new companies must engage in networks to survive (Huggins 2000).#p#分页标题#e#
Entrepreneurial activity is the enterprising human action in pursuit of the generation of value. As the above-mentioned theories have pointed out, all enterprises and their owner live in a certain socioeconomic context. Their knowledge and capability are the bases of entrepreneurial activities in the identification and exploitation of opportunities and resources, which are needed for the creation, management, development or expansion of the enterprise.
The process of a single entrepreneurial activity includes 3stages: the forming stage of motivation and initiative, the preparation stage of opportunity identification, and the earlier development stage of the company.
Within the external social economic environment, researchers take the social network theory as the tool to scrutinize the influence of social network on the opportunity resources, information and management of the enterprise, going through and relating the developing process of a company. 
It is interesting to see the different function of the same theory in different economies and social background. Different economies and social background generate different social networks for enterprises in economies at different stages and with different features. Researchers long ago studied the relationship between the types of economy and their influence on the enterprenuer’s ability to make use of the social network.
It is also generally accepted that entrepreneurs make use of the benefits of economic efficiency that networks facilitate (Szarka 1990).Through his study, Stein Kristiansen  (2004)， for example, the conclusions in American or European cultural contexts was not suitable for the context in East Africa. Recent work by economists has begun to quantify the advantages that networks may or may not provide to entrepreneurs in Africa.
China, has long be considered as the exemplification of Asian society and culture. And it is more than interesting to examine the empirical value of social network theory in this country. It is reasonable for us to choose the analytical tool to investigate the clothes retailers in Shanghai with so many entrepreneurial stories happening everyday. 
Before we come to the use of the theory into our discussion, we embark on the review of important concepts and ideas of the theory.
2.4.1 The quality of Social network
The mechanism of social network, controlled by many determinants, is also viewed as the governance (Ha Hoang and Bostjan Antoncic, 2001) of the network. The determinants are the number, strength, variety and dynamics (Steins Christiansen, 2004)
The number of relations
With regard to the function of network, interpersonal and interorganizational relationships are viewed as the media through which actors gain access to a variety of resources held by other actors or organizations. The number or the size of the relations in the net should be measured to judge its effectiveness. More relations are there in the network mean more opportunities and resources, information and advice. In the process of reach for legitimacy, more relations make the work easier in some developing economies, which are not so formal and systematic.#p#分页标题#e#
The Strength of Ties
This determinant was first termed by Granovetter(1973), which exerts  important impact on trust in business relations . It can be measured by a series of criteria, such as the length of time spending together, the emotional intensity, the degree of trust and mutual acquaintance, the interaction frequency, the spanning time of the relationship. Strength of ties also relates to “network intensity.” Granovetter (1973) proposed that the number of weak ties is most important because the ties give access to a variety of information resources while the strong ties are more trustworthy and stable.
Another important measure is trust, affecting the depth and richness of exchange relations, particularly with respect to the exchange of information (Hite, 2000). , Embodied by the individual’s quality, credit and financial capability, trust brings the enterprise best quality resources at lowest cost.
Variety or Diversity of Networkshttp://www.ukthesis.org/Thesis_Tips/Reference/Literature_Review/
The variety of members in the network entails the variety of relations, bringing in different information, resources and support (Varamäki 1996). For Aldrich and Martinez (2001) diversity of ties means contacts among the members who occupy differing social positions with various resources. The presence of a person with several high-status and wealthy individuals within his or her network will be related to a large amount of resources (Davern 1997).
 In this project, giving the special social and cultural features of Shanghai, we intend to check on the members of different age, education, region and other factors. Network Dynamics
Dynamics involves the tie formation and dissolution, changes and flexibility in networks. Few other studies analyzed the influence of network dynamics on business performance, although this is an area of great insight into socioeconomic processes.
When the dynamics of the ties is concerned, the position of the entrepreneur in the network should be taken into consideration. His relation with the other members of the network, direct or indirect, formal or informal, counts in the effective interaction and in turn influence the acquisition of resources (Brajkovich, 1994) .
 In present research, we find that clothes shops are seasonal and the human resources are changeable, which give great value to our following discussion.
2.3.2. The social network in the development process of enterprise
As we have talked above, the former studies lacked the in depth analysis of the process of company development which includes 4 stages: the forming stage of motivation and initiative, the preparation stage of opportunity identification, the acquisition of resources and the earlier development stage of the company.
 Before w e coming to the process analysis, social capital, cannot be missed from our discussion.
Greve & Salaff (2003) observed at the different stages, 3 stages in their study, the entrepreneur took advantage of different networks: very few networks at the imitative stage, more networks at the planning stage, and reduction of numbers of network members at the building up stage.#p#分页标题#e#
  It is necessary to look into the function of network at different stages in detail. Different resources are provided through the social network. The 3 stages are：the forming stage of motivation and initiative, the preparation stage of opportunity identification and the acquisition of resources , the creation and the early development stage of the company.
Stage of Motivation and initiative 
At the birth of entrepreneurship study, people do their utmost to explain the driving force behind entrepreneurs. This effort started from the focus on individual traits to more sophisticated cognitive theory. It is said that the success of a creator of a business is made not just himself or herself, but also members of the network. No one is a born successful entrepreneur. The individual ideas and aspiration can be strong but maybe not strong enough for most creator of a new business. Some researches have found the family members are the main source of support.
 To gather more information about the function of above-mentioned determinants, we try to assert or object the conclusion drawn by previous studies, for example, the study of Granovetter (1973) and Greve & Salaff (2003).
Preparation Stage
A central topic of entrepreneurship is the opportunity identification, a crucial factor to the establishment of a new business. The opportunity identification asks for the ability and knowledge of the creator. The family background and other network members have impact on the formation of creator’s ability, skills and ability.
Previous study concentrated on the opportunity identification and the network theory offers promising access to the truth of it. Difficulties and obstacles are various in different socioeconomic circumstances. In the emerging economy, the social network of the business plays a crucial role at the preparation stage. For example, enterprises weak in social network would engage in small retailing industry.
The Creation and Early Development Stage
In this stage, the shortage of funds, human resources and experience impose great threaten to the new business. At this time, social network functions as the complementary resources. And together with the development of the business, new pressure appear from the bureaucratic and judicial structures. So do taxes and other social obligations. Some common problems threaten the businesses in the same industry or area; at this time challenges appear to demand the skills in network use.
For a small business, besides the industrial problem, the relation with the community also requires the creator’s attention.
It is the point for us to stop for a while to make a summary of the social network theory. The dynamics of social network involves different determinants at different stages of the development according to measures. Through the network, the entrepreneur is connected to society, family, employees, resources and other competitors etc. The theory is almost ready to be applied to explain the data collected, and what remains first is the analysis of the socioeconomic condition. #p#分页标题#e#
Now, let us get a review of a powerful analytical tool: PEST Analysis.

2.4. PEST Analysis
PEST is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social and Technological factor and PEST Analysisis a useful tool to give a certain overview of the different macroenvironmental factors. A company has to take these factors into consideration for understanding market growth or decline, such as the position, potential and direction for a business. The PEST analysis headings are a framework for reviewing a situation, and can also, like SWOT analysis, and Porter's Five Forces model, be used to review a strategy or position, direction of a company, a marketing proposition, or idea (Aguilar and Francis, 2006).
The most often used template covers possible questions and sections below:
Political
The political environment has a huge influence upon the regulation of businesses, and the consumers’ spending power and other businesses.
ecological/environmental issues ,current legislation, home market, future legislation, European/international legislation ,regulatory bodies and processes, government policies, government term and change, trading policies, funding, grants and initiatives, home market lobbying/pressure groups, international pressure groups, wars and conflict, etc.
Economic
Marketers need to consider the state of a trading economy in the short and long-terms. This is especially true when planning for international marketing.
home economy situation, home economy trends, overseas economies and trends, general taxation issues, taxation specific to product/services, seasonality/weather issues, market and trade cycles, specific industry factors, market routes and distribution trends, customer/end-user drivers, interest and exchange rates international trade/monetary issues , etc.
Social
The social and cultural influences on business vary from country to country. It is very important that such factors are considered. Factors include:
lifestyle trends ,demographics ,consumer attitudes and opinions ,media views ,law changes affecting social factors ,brand, company, technology image ,consumer buying patterns ,fashion and role models ,major events and influences ,buying access and trends ,ethnic/religious factors ,advertising and publicity ,ethical issues and etc.
Technological
Technology is vital for competitive advantage, and is a major driver of globalization.
competing technology development, research funding, associated/dependent technologies, replacement technology/solutions, maturity of technology, manufacturing maturity and capacity, information and communications ,consumer buying mechanisms/technology, technology legislation, innovation potential, technology access,  licensing, patents ,intellectual property issues, global communications
The questions are not exhaustive in every section, depending on the aims of a specific analysis. Besides the simpler analysis of the answers to the questions, a more scientific measurement by scoring the items in each of the sections can be tried Armstrong. M. (2006).#p#分页标题#e#
 In section of discussion, we make a detailed analysis of the socioeconomic condition of Shanghai in hope of better understanding of the dynamics of the social networks. http://www.ukthesis.org/Thesis_Tips/Reference/Literature_Review/
2.5Marketing theory related
Marketing is a continuous process of planning and executing the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, often referred to as the 4 Ps. Marketing creates or directs an organization to be successful in selling a product or service to customers. Marketing is closely related to social network, for its focus is customers and their needs. To our study, it is inevitable to observe the marketing situation of a business, particularly at the early stage of it.A business first spots the customers’ potential desire, and then builds the product or service. Two major factors of marketing are the recruitment of new customers (acquisition) and the retention and expansion of relationships with existing customers (base management).
For a successful marketing plan , the mix of the four "Ps" must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers or shoppers in the target market.
In the early 1960s, Neil Borden(1962) and E. Jerome McCarthy(1964) suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.
The four Ps are:
How will you design, package and add value to the product.
What pricing strategy is appropriate to use? Price strategies.
Where will the firm locate? Place strategies.
How will the firm promote its product? Promotion strategies.
Different versions of 4ps tell the development of marketing strategies, and in order to get a comprehensive picture of the process of the subjects dealt in our study, we also resort to the relevant 3 new Ps:
Personalization: customization of products and services through the use of the Internet. Early examples include Dell on-line and Amazon.com, but this concept is further extended with emerging social media and advanced algorithms.
Participation: customer participation in what the brand should stand for; what should be the product directions and even which ads to run.
Peer-to-Peer: customer networks and communities where advocacy happens. The historical problem with marketing is that it is “interruptive” in nature, trying to impose a brand on the customer. This is most apparent in TV advertising. These “passive customer bases” will ultimately be replaced by the “active customer communities”. Brand engagement happens within those conversations. P2P is now being referred as Social Computing and is likely to be the most disruptive force in the future of marketing.
All the above theories assist us in the discussion of the project issue, hoping we cover different stages and levels of the organization, without the fear about the complicated marketing and management strategies inside and the society outside the enterprise. The social network theory acts as thread across the different stages and tests the quality of the relations. We are confident to present a multi-leveled and dynamic analysis about the entrepreneurial activity of the clothes boutiques in Shanghai.  #p#分页标题#e#