| 1. |
- Larsson Segerlind, Tommy, 1964-
(author)
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Team Entrepreneurship : A Process Analysis of the Venture Team and the Venture Team Roles in relation to the Innovation Process
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- New ventures are rather often founded by more than one person. Still, we do not know much about how these venture teams are formed, develop and finally dissolve. The manner in which the venture team roles develop when there is more than one owner is also a neglected area in the entrepreneurship research. It is argued in this thesis that the most prolific way of studying the venture team process and the venture team roles process is in relation to the innovation process. The over-all aim of this thesis is to explore what kinds of theoretical, conceptual, empirical and methodological insights are achieved by studying innovation processes in new ventures in a transformative institutional context, from the team-level of analysis. The empirical materials are a pilot-case (Tetra Pak) and an in-depth extended case-study from the publishing sector in Poland (Proszynski i S-ka, from 1985 to 2003). The method used in the thesis is a retrospective process approach with a phasic analysis of the polyphonical narratives of the experiences of key persons as well as data from archives. In the final analysis, a number of propositions are presented that relate to how the venture team process and the venture team roles process develop over extended time periods and in relation to the innovation process. The conclusions are that the team as a level of analysis helps us to theoretically understand and explain phenomena such as periods of divergence in the innovation process; the process of social commitments in the venture team; and how a venture team develops over time to a balanced and experienced expert leadership team. Methodologically, it is claimed that the polyphonical data collection gives more comprehensive, valid and reliable measurements of the innovation process. Finally, this thesis contributes with a story of the transformation of the Polish society and economy described in an unusual way via employing the team as a level of analysis.
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| 2. |
- Gawell, Malin, 1964-
(author)
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Activist Entrepreneurship : Attac'ing Norms and Articulating Disclosive Stories
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation aims to extend entrepreneurship theory to also comprise entrepreneurship in non-profit organizations in civil society. Entrepreneurship is claimed to be highly relevant also to this non-profit setting. Since entrepreneurship theory is highly embedded in an economic discourse and a business setting there is, however, a need to elaborate on the two different frameworks. The analysis of this study is grounded in an empirical study of the entrepreneurial process of Attac Sweden. The study has been conducted with a narrative approach. In this dissertation entrepreneurship theory is re-contextualized in the framework of non-profit organizations. The paradox of profit versus non-profit is elaborated on as well as the dilemmas of opportunities, legitimacy and the bounding of the new organization. The analysis of this study shows that the discussion on opportunities in entrepreneurship theory is highly relevant also in the case of Attac Sweden. However, this study suggests to supplement the discussion on opportunities with a discussion of ‘necessities’ to relate to perceived convictions to engage and to act. This study further shows and elaborates on the close connections between the process by which entrepreneurship becomes and other group formations in society. The organization created through the entrepreneurial process becomes an actor in civil society challenging established practices and norms. However, the entrepreneurial process also reaches beyond the creation of an organization. In this dissertation an alternative framework for entrepreneurship, based on a social process of organizing, is developed. This framework connects the entrepreneurial process to group dynamics as well as to social movements and articulation of disclosing stories in society.
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| 3. |
- Hasche, Nina, 1974-
(author)
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Value co-creating processes in international business relationships : three empirical studies of cooperation between Chinese customers and Swedish suppliers
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis focuses on value co-creating processes in international business relationships, where customers and suppliers have different frames of reference that create a distance, often expressed in terms of uncertainty between the customer and the supplier. This tension between developing cooperative business relationships in order to co-create value versus handling uncertainty, misunderstandings and conflicts based on perceived distance, makes an interesting arena for exploring how the value co creating process is formed in international business relationships.In this thesis, a customer-supplier perspective is used. The thesis rests on reasoning and concepts discussed in the field of marketing, where literature on value co-creation forms the theoretical foundation of the thesis. Three case studies of co-operation between Chinese customers and Swedish suppliers operating in the Chinese automotive industry have been carried out so as to obtain an in depth picture of the value co-creating processes in international business relationships.The main contribution of the thesis is a nuanced phraseology which should prove fruitful when discussing value co-creating processes in international business relationships. The notion of value co creation in interactive processes is further developed by discussing value through a business relationship and value in a business relationship, where value co-creation includes both individual value for customers and suppliers respectively and common value for both parties to share. The concepts of conversation, coordination, collaboration and co-generation capture the process of cocreating value between international customers and suppliers with different frames of reference. The concepts constituting the phraseology can be seen as generally applicable, but the content of the different concepts discussed varies between business actors, across cultures and over time. By discussing the temporal dimension of past, present and future in this thesis, the developed phraseology infer the notion of continuity instead of short term interaction episodes often discussed in other types of valueco-creation frameworks.
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| 4. |
- Höglund, Linda, 1972-
(author)
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Discursive practices in strategic entrepeneurship : discourses and the use of repertoires in two firms
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This is a thesis in marketing concerned with entrepreneurship in established firms and the discursive practices that take place within a perspective of strategic entrepreneurship. The study of discursive practices in this context assumes a concern with how different aspects of entrepreneurship are produced and consumed by people in text and talk. Strategic entrepreneurship can be seen as an organisational form of entrepreneurship. The latest contribution within strategic entrepreneurship tends to focus on opportunities and advantages in organisations as two processes that need to be considered and managed jointly.In this thesis, I have studied the discursive practices of how scholars position strategic entrepreneurship through an enhanced literature review and by means of a close analysis of assumptions made within strategic entrepreneurship, but also by studying two firms and their discursive practices of constructing opportunity and advantage positions. The results have then been analysed with reference to discourse theory and previous research within entrepreneurship based on European traditions that builds on the linguistic turn.By conducting an empirical study of two firms, I have studied discourses in use, and how they are produced by people. In so doing, two main findings emerge in the discussion of the empirical results: 1) Opportunity and advantage positions emerge in social interaction and are co-constructed. 2) Opportunity and advantage positions are constructed by the use of multiple discourses, on different levels of discourse and for different functions. The main purpose of the thesis is to enhance the understanding of entrepreneurship in established firms and the activities labelled as strategic entrepreneurship. In addressing the purpose, seven theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to research emerge in areas of strategic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and the enterprising self.
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| 5. |
- Jansson, Elisabeth, 1968-
(author)
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Paradoxen (s)om entreprenörskap : En romantisk ironisk historia om ett av-vikande entreprenörskapande
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to embrace entrepreneurship as a paradox and to additionally show how an anomaly can be the foundation as well as the energy for the paradoxical, entrepreneurial process. The empirical focus is on the creative industry, in which the intimate connection between entrepreneurship, enterprise, art, culture and creativity has been illustrated and accounted for. The study is conducted with a narrative-rhetorical approach and analyzes and interprets three empirical cases and their stories.The theoretical contribution of the present study is the fact that we enrich our understanding of entrepreneurship as a paradox by grasping it in a romantic ironic-manner. The current study ends in the following significant and illustrative paradoxes that also can be seen as conclusions: Entrepreneurship requires deviance – but also at the same time demands belonging, in the sense that entrepreneurship can be regarded as acting between endogenous self-fulfillment and exogenous purposes. In addition, the basis of the here illustrated phenomenon is to become entrepreneurial. In the name of the romantic irony we have to keep in mind that you can only become an entrepreneur, you can not be one. As soon as one thinks of oneself as an entrepreneur one ceases to be one.The never-ending deviation can be seen as the root-metaphor of entrepreneurship. Conclusively, entrepreneurship is – and will become – a never-ending endeavor. This is an endeavor in which “becoming entrepreneurs” – in the name of the paradox – acts in-between and thereby are limited by, as well as delivered by society’s and discourse’s expectations of economic growth and business creation.
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| 6. |
- Ljungbo, Kjell, 1962-
(author)
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Language as a Leading Light to Business Cultural Insight : A Study on Expatriates' Intercultural Communication in Central and Eastern Europe
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Language competence is decisively important in international business and could increase efficacy, efficiency, sales and profits. Language is an underresearched area in business studies though language constitutes management and the managers building structures, processes, cultures and personalities being the most vital working tool to get things done and make them understandable. Since 1970 Swedish companies lose market shares globally and in Europe. In an era requiring better foreign language skills there is a declining trend among young Swedish business people and students in other languages than English. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse the role of language in intercultural business communication between Swedish expatriates and locals in Serbia, The Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria and indirectly also Russia and Poland. To understand the business culture in these countries the author has learned the local language in these seven countries taking 3687 private language lessons. This improves the researcher’s understanding of the culture and its people giving directness and depth in communication, independence and receptivity. This ethnographically inspired hermeneutic study holds semi-structured interviews with expatriates. Better language skills among expatriates – particularly in the local language - could make them more self-dependent and win contracts and it strengthens closeness to customers, relationship and trust, strategic view and ability and also operational effectiveness and efficiency enabling their companies to gain market shares. Using Weber’s ideal types the cultural significance structures emerge featuring the cultures in these countries showing that expatriates have to strengthen the ability of the locals in the areas of trust, responsibility and initiative, independent thinking, holistic view, win-win thinking and reduce fear while the expatriates’ own abilities in these areas are strengthened if they speak the local language. Language strategies permitting the expatriate to be more communicatively and linguistically self-dependent are having a common company language, using multilingualism or having the expatriate speak or learn to speak the local language where the advantages, disadvantages and characteristics of these and other aspects of the role of language are given in ideal types.
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| 7. |
- Hasche, Nina, 1974-
(author)
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Developing collaborative customer-supplier relationships through value co-creation
- 2006
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The purpose of this study is to create understanding of the value co-creating process in business relationships, where the dyadic relationship is in focus and both the customer’s and the supplier’s view of the value co-creating process is of interest. In the introductory chapter, it is assumed that the ultimate goal of business logic is to create value, and value co-creation can be regarded as the essential reason why a customer and a supplier engage in a business relationship. Value is created for both the customer and the supplier, but co-created value does not necessarily have to be shared between the interacting parties. In this thesis, the customer’s and the supplier’s intentions for engaging in a value co-creating process are investigated as well as how the value co-created is perceived by the interacting parties. Theories about exchanges and interactions create the theoretical foundation of the interpretation of relationships and the interplay between organisations in this thesis. By gathering input from the value literature, the conceptual framework is further elaborated and a conceptual model of the value co-creating process is presented. A case study has been carried out to obtain an in-depth picture of the value co-creating process in customer-supplier relationships. During the autumn of 2000, the customer, the Technical Office in Zeta Municipality, invited subcontractors to a public purchasing process regarding maintenance of the water and sewage system. “Subcontracting” of municipal activities was relatively uncommon at the time. The supplier, Alpha, had experience of maintaining hydropower plants but the firm had no practical knowledge of maintenance of water and sewage systems. Thus, the situation was new for both parties when they engaged in a value co-creating process in January 2001. The investigated relationship between the Technical Office and Alpha shows that both parties’ intentions for engaging in a value co-creating process can be interpreted as expected value and desired value, where the expected value can be understood as the counterparty’s minimal expectations and the desired value as the features adding value to the counterparty. The Technical Office and Alpha had different intentions for engaging in a value co-creating process. Furthermore, the investigated relationship illustrates that the Technical Office and Alpha perceived the value co-created as expected value, desired value, unanticipated value and received value. Both partners had expectations and desires regarding the relationship, both parties provided unanticipated value to the relationship and both partners received value from the relationship. In this study, expected value, desired value, unanticipated value and received value are given empirical content. The investigated case also shows that most of the value co-created was not shared between the interacting partners and that perceived value changes depending on situation, but also over time. Moreover, the relationship between the Technical Office and Alpha shows that value co-creation can be viewed as a process through which collaboration is achieved.
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