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- Ohlsson, Claes, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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The Framing of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Globalization of National Business Systems : A Longitudinal Case Study
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Business Ethics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0167-4544 .- 1573-0697. ; 93:4, s. 653-669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The globalization movement in recent decades has meant rapid growth in trade, financial transactions, and cross-country ownership of economic assets. In this article, we examine how the globalization of national business systems has influenced the framing of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is done using text analysis of CEO letters appearing in the annual reports of 15 major corporations in Sweden during a period of transformational change. The results show that the discourse about CSR in the annual reports has changed from a national and communitarian view of social responsibility (cf. a negotiated view of CSR) toward an international and individualistic view of social responsibility (cf. a self-regulating view of CSR). The article contributes theoretically (1) by adding a national–global dimension to previous conceptualizations of CSR and (2) by showing that the rise of CSR discourse and activities in the last 10 years does not have to imply an increased commitment and interest in corporate responsibility per se, only that there are increased societal expectations that corporations should develop the capability to act more independently as moral agents.
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| 2. |
- Radón, Anita, 1980-
(författare)
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The Rise of Luxury Brands Online : A study of how a sense of luxury brand is created in an online environment
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Luxury brands have only recently tapped into the online market in an attempt to increase revenues and expand their businesses. This leap onto the online world has resulted in several new challenges, including the luxury brand paradox. The luxury brand paradox concerns the inherent difficulty for luxury brands to increase sales and expand their customer base while simultaneously maintaining an aura of mystery and exclusivity. The openness and accessibility of the Internet are believed to pose an extra challenging environment for luxury brands. This research explores how a sense of luxury brand is created in an online environment. Using methodology comprised of different online methods to comprehend what is taking place online, this study primarily concentrates on visual imagery and online communication. The online world of luxury brands is conceptualized into three distinct categories: brand websites, counterfeit websites and community websites. Using these three categories, the thesis demonstrates what role they each play in the creation of a sense of luxury brand. From this analysis, four themes emerge on the sense of a luxury brand (luxury history, authenticity, community and paradox). The concept of an online fair is used to illustrate the environment of luxury brands on the Internet. The online fair consists of a confluence of people involved in it as well as the various activities they perform. In addition, the fairground where the people participate and the activities that take place are described. In conclusion, this thesis proposes a move from the identity-image construct toward a view of handling and co-creation of sense of brand.
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| 3. |
- Lundberg, Christine, 1972-
(författare)
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Challenges in Delivering Services: The Front-Line Hospitality and Tourism Employee Perspective
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Significant challenges are faced by front-line hospitality and tourism employees interacting with customers on a daily basis. These challenges and the ways they are dealt with form the focus of this thesis. As they interact, a range of incidents may arise from highly satisfactory encounters to service failures. It has been argued that in order to achieve satisfactory service encounters, employees need to feel in control, satisfied and motivated as well as being given appropriate assistance, information and training. Front-line employees in hospitality and tourism are focused on here due to the complex nature of the industry. It is commonly agreed that it is characterised by poor working conditions such as anti-social working hours, part-time and/or seasonal work, minimal on-the-job training and low levels of pay. These are all factors which may affect employee work satisfaction and motivation as well as recruitment and retention. The thesis is comprised of four studies. In Study I, hospitality and tourism employee work motivation is analysed. Study II examines front-line hotel restaurant employees’ experiences of service encounters. How the skills utilised by employees during these service encounters are acquired and developed is then explored in Study III. Study IV concludes by examining employee informal information sharing activities, which offer one way of developing these skills. The thesis’ findings paint a more positive picture of work and workers in hospitality and tourism than suggested in some of the earlier published research. This could be explained by the fact that the thesis utilises an employee perspective in its truest sense. The findings of the thesis show that employees are motivated (to large extent by factors that have been pointed out in earlier published work motivation research) and that they are active in the pursuit of developing skills necessary to create satisfactory service encounters. Another conclusion of the thesis’ findings is that the interaction between workers and guests in the service encounter provides an important opportunity for workers to feel satisfied at work.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Löfström, Mikael
(författare)
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Samverkan och gränser : studier av samverkansprojekt i offentlig sektor
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The collaboration projects studied in this thesis originate from national experiments that took place from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. In those experiments, attempts were made to determine whether collaboration could, as part of the organization of the public sector, generate welfare gains for both the individual user and society as a whole. Other forms of political governance of public organizations were also tested in these experiments. Activities were very often carried out in the form of collaboration projects involving joint evaluation groups and through co-localization. The collaboration projects are about in which actors bring their different v rules, values and preconceptions, from their regular activities into a meeting with other activities with different boundaries in order to organize new boundaries. The purpose of the thesis is to achieve an understanding of why collaboration projects encounter difficulties in contributing to lasting integration between government organizations, and the importance of boundaries in the organizing of collaboration projects. The thesis is based on four articles. The first article elucidates the ways in which different boundaries are constructed when inter-organizational collaborations are being carried out. The second article develops a model for analyzing uncertainty factors in the interaction environment of the project. The third article addresses the problem of implementing, within the public sector, results from development projects in the home organization. The fourth article analyzes the ways in which collaboration projects can help to increase integration between government organizations. The results from the studies show that the collaboration projects do provide opportunities for trying out new forms of collaboration, but also that the actors in collaboration projects have to deal with multiple boundary-related problems. The construction of boundaries must, on the one hand, regulate the activities being carried out in the collaboration projects, in that the boundaries enable the actors to come together in a common activity. On the other hand, the boundaries in collaboration projects must be part of the home organizations’ activities and their boundary constructions. This leads to a complex spatial construction in which different boundaries entail different distinctions and regulations of the relationship to the outside world. In turn, this leads to problems involving the home organizations in the collaboration, resulting in the collaboration becoming confined to only the collaboration projects.
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| 6. |
- Hagberg, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Long Tails and Lean Chains : Supply Chain Alternatives for e-Commerce
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- E-commerce retail companies offer increasingly larger assortments and include products from a large number of suppliers without holding the goods in stock. Having the goods physically located at the supplier increase the need for coordination in the supply chain, implying modified roles of the actors involved and requires information systems to support the exchange processes between collaborating parties. In order for retailers to be competitive and responsive to customer needs there are increasing efforts to combine different supply chain alternatives, thus requiring additional activities of coordination. This paper seeks to identify different possible supply chain alternatives, to describe their characterizations and to perform a comparative analysis of these alternatives based on inductively generated categories. The purpose of the paper is to identify, describe and analyse different supply chain alternatives in the context of e-commerce when the retailing company is not holding stock. The study applied a multi organizational approach, involving representatives from wholesaling, retailing and distribution companies working jointly with the researchers. The empirical material was collected through workshops and complementary interviews and was modelled as action patterns depicting preconditions for, and effects of business actions, organized in patterns of initiative and response. The paper identifies and describes six different supply alternatives: purchase flow; vendor management inventory flow; direct delivery; cross docking; consolidation of packages; and consolidation of goods. Among other things, the analysis shows how the various supply chain alternatives imply divergent requirements on information systems to support these different supply chain processes. In addition to an identification and overview of the different supply chain alternatives, the results may also serve as valuable input for retailers deciding appropriate combinations of supply chain alternatives. The paper also demonstrates how a multi organizational approach can be used in collaborative projects involving business practitioners and researchers.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Lind, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Services, IT and Consumption
- 2010
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Ingår i: Lind, M. and Salomonson, N. (2010), Services, IT and Consumption, in Ekström, K.M. (ed.), Consumer Behaviour: A Nordic Perspective, Studentlitteratur, Lund.. - : Studentlitteratur. - 9789144055770 ; , s. 495-513
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 9. |
- Hilletofth, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Coordinating new product development and supply chain management
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Value Chain Management. - : InderScience Publishers. - 1741-5357 .- 1741-5365. ; 4:1/2, s. 170-192
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Effective implementation of the new product development (NPD) process not only enables management to coordinate the efficient flow of new products, but will also assist to support ramp-up of various supply chain activities and other related activities supporting the commercialisation of the product. Thus, companies need to address all these issues in parallel to be successful and this requires some kind of integrative product development approach. The purpose of this research is to increase the understanding of how NPD is connected to supply chain management (SCM) by investigating how the NPD process is structured and executed in two international manufacturing companies seeking to realise an innovative, predictable and efficient product development. Several essential linkages between NPD and SCM have been derived from case study findings concerning important issues for successful product development.
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| 10. |
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