Narrow Results

The growth of the self-assembled Si atomic wires on Pb-covered Si(111) 7 × 7 substrate has been studied using homemade scanning tunneling microscope (STM) at room temperature (RT). These surfactant-mediated epitaxially grown Si atomic wires (SiAWs) are quite stable at RT. It is interesting that they always appear in pairs having a distance of ~9 Å in between them. They have only three special growth directions, parallel to the three possible crystal directions of the Si(111) substrate underneath. The SiAW can be imaged down to few mV bias voltages, and the voltage current characteristic investigated with scanning tunneling spectroscopy reveals metallic electronic structure of this special kind of SiAW.

The economic environment and associated constraints have significant and unequal effects on Small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Constraints have been used, among other growth factors, to understand why some SMEs fail to grow while others foster. However, beyond knowing the effects or constraints, it is important entrepreneurs know how they can avoid constraints. The study provides an important contribution by showing that South-African SMEs that face constraints because of competition, government rules and regulations, financing gaps and corruption, can navigate away from these constraints by going international. The evidence shows a positive moderating effect of internationalization on the relationship between local constraints and SME growth. However, the results also reveal that lack of government support is a significant constraint to growth when SMEs export internationally.