| 1. |
- Lindahl, Ingela
(författare)
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Visual aesthetics in product development : A balance between commercial and creative imperatives
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The literature presents a number of advantages regarding companies’ strategic focus on product design, arguing that the dimension of visual aesthetics in products may help a company to create commercial success, e.g. through product differentiation and as a means of company brand recognition. However, developing new products that have visual aesthetics as an important dimension is not without difficulty, and may lead to a number of managerial challenges.The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to describe and analyse how companies develop products that have visual aesthetics as an important dimension. The thesis describes and analyses: how the dimension of visual aesthetics affects the characteristics of the new product development process; how companies strike a balance between commercial and creative imperatives during new product development; and how companies source and collaborate using artistic design resources during new product development.Based on findings from five new product development projects and from interviews with managers at twelve Swedish designer furniture manufacturers, the thesis concludes that the dimension of visual aesthetics in products affects new product development in different ways. First, companies’ development of visual aesthetics calls for a more creative, artistic development process whereby, for example, idea generation and evaluation are often flexible in relation to plans made. Moreover, the different and subjective judgement of the aesthetic value of products has implications for new product development, e.g. that the company needs to address and balance imperatives stemming from different audiences, i.e. the designer’s self, peers, and the mass market, during product development. Also, it is concluded that the sourcing of designer resources and the composition of designer portfolios are both critical and related to companies’ desired brand image. A close and trustful working relationship between the designer and the manufacturer is a basis for companies’ successful product development.Theoretically, this research contributes to the product development literature through its findings on companies’ new product development processes in a seldom researched context, i.e. the development of designer products. Additionally, it contributes to the literature on design outsourcing by presenting new findings on the interplay between artistic design resources and managers. Moreover, it also contributes to the marketing literature by providing fresh insights into how companies balance their commercial and creative interests when developing new products.
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| 2. |
- Devine, Åsa, 1972-
(författare)
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Internationalization and Performance among Small and Medium-sized Firms : A study of furniture producers in Sweden
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Furniture production in Sweden still exists on a comparably small scale. The majority, or more than 99 percent, of all furniture producers in Sweden are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 250 employees. Despite their size, these firms are, to a large extent, involved in export. This is fully in line with the accelerating trend of internationalization found among firms of all sizes. However, research focused on internationalization has been primarily concentrated on larger firms, which is unfortunate considering that the vast majority of all firms within the European Union can be described as SMEs. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to extend our understanding of internationalization and performance among small and medium sized firms by explaining export involvement and performance among small and medium sized furniture producers in Sweden.This research is completed within the theoretical framework of the modified PSE model, which consists of four components: perception of export barriers, strategy competence, export involvement, and performance. A quantitative survey was conducted among 324 firms, yielding a response rate of 56 percent. The empirical data was analyzed using the methods of multiple linear regression, logistic regression, and ordinal regression.The result suggests that strategy competence, measured in terms of relatedness and market knowledge, explains the main export mode and performance among exporting SMEs. In addition, main export mode seems to explain performance. The main findings of this research are visualized through a new model, SCEMPER. Another finding is that barriers originating with the owner/key decision-maker of a firm seem to prevent firms from becoming involved in export. In addition, attitude towards export and the age of the firm appear to be important determinants of export involvement and performance among SMEs.
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| 3. |
- Ebadzadeh Semnani, Sedigheh Sarah
(författare)
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Trust in Different Types of Organizational Relationships : A Social Capital Perspective
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to expand the understanding about the concepts of trust and social capital, and to explore their role in achieving desired organizational outcomes. The research followed a multiple case study approach, focusing on Iranian service providers. The reason for this focus is the insufficient scholarly contribution about social capital in developing countries. Moreover, considering the significant role of trust in social capital generation according to many scholars, this study seeks to understand how the issue of lack of trust in developing countries can influence social capital generation in these nations. In order to address the criticisms in the literature, this research first attempts to study the concepts of trust and social capital in different types of organizational relationships separately. There are, therefore, different levels of analysis in this study. The three types of organizational relationships which are the focus of this research are intra-organizational, organization-customer and business cluster.An intensive literature review was carried out on trust and social capital to build an overall theoretical picture of the problem at hand. The next step was to analyse the findings of this study by engaging both empirical and theoretical findings simultaneously. This was carried out with the aim of achieving answers to the research questions through theory matching and elaboration.The result of this study, in general, supports both the positive role of trust and social capital in achieving desired organizational outcomes. The empirical data and literature, therefore, seem to be in line with one another to a large extent. However, in several cases of this study the issue of lack of trust at the Iranian companies did in fact hinder the achievement of their desired outcomes. Moreover, the findings from the organization-customer and business cluster relationships showed that several of these Iranian companies are indeed already benefiting from social capital. However, they mostly benefit from the type of social capital arising from information flows. What they are missing, and are in fact in great need of, is the type of social capital associated with the benefits of trust. In other words, they were unsuccessful in bringing forward the benefits of the relational dimension of social capital. The study has also contributed towards refining the literature by showing that there are differences in the connotation of both “trust” and “social capital” when they are studied under different types of organizational relationships. Simply using these terms without specifying the type of relationship, or level of analysis, does not bring forward a clear understanding. Furthermore, the findings had pointed out the important difference between a contributing factor to a phenomenon and the phenomenon itself, which in this case were trust and social capital, respectively.Last but not least, the results of the cross-case analysis identified certain patterns and differences in the role of trust and social capital in different relationship types. These findings were summarized in the form of a proposed model and a matrix. The proposed model started with the development of trust in organizational interpersonal relationships, and ended with the creation of two different types of social capital that can benefit both the organization and its customers. The matrix, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of keeping a balance between different types of social capital, depending on the organizational requirement, in order to achieve the best desired outcomes.
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| 4. |
- Hosseini, Mojtaba, 1981-
(författare)
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Firm-level entrepreneurship and the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last decade, firm-level entrepreneurship as an important phenomenon that may influence the corporate performance, attracted the attention of many researchers and a number of measurements were developed to gauge the entrepreneurial intensity at the firm level such as entrepreneurial orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial management. EO and CE found more popularity and researchers employed them to investigate the phenomenon of firm-level entrepreneurship.Incrementally, a contradiction was emerged in the literature regarding the proper measurement of FLE. A number of studies recommended integrating EO and CE in a more comprehensive measurement to develop a deeper understanding of firms’ entrepreneurial intensity. In fact, EO and CE complement each other. While the former focuses on the proclivity of firms to have entrepreneurial behaviors and activities, the latter is the output- based construct and points out to the actual entrepreneurial actions such as innovation, venturing and strategic renewal.This study develops an integrative model of EO and CE to classify the companies in four different categories includes non-entrepreneurial, forced-entrepreneurial, latent-entrepreneurial, and actual entrepreneurial firms. The primary objective of the study is to investigate if the actual entrepreneurial firms show the higher degrees of internationalization or not.The research has performed in two different steps to confirm the integrative model and testify the research hypotheses. In the first step, the multi-case study approach is primarily applied to investigate if the model categorizes companies that are actually different or not. To conduct this step, four companies were selected that each one was the representative of a unique category of the model. Then deep interviews were performed to assess their behaviors on some especial characteristics, which were previously mentioned as the different characteristics of entrepreneurial versus non-entrepreneurial firms. To testify the research hypotheses, a questionnaire was designed that was included of questions, which were applied and validated by former studies.
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| 5. |
- Öhrwall Rönnbäck, Anna, 1969-
(författare)
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Interorganizational IT Support for Collaborative Product Development
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As product complexity increases and markets become more global, companies tend to collaborate with customers, suppliers and partners in business process activities previously carried out within a single firm. This is observed notably also in product development. Product development is an information and communication intense activity, and collaborative product development requires efficient communication between the participating firms, both during an ongoing project and afterwards when the product is in service. When more than one firm is involved, questions linked to business aspects regarding what information to share and how to communicate the information between the firms become important. With changing partners and competing supply chains this is a delicate management issue.The objective of this dissertation is to assess characteristics of communication in collaborative product development, in order to identify requirements for supporting IT tools.Empirically, the research was conducted in two parts. Part I was conducted in the aircraft industry, where a systems integrator firm’s relationship to its major suppliers was investigated. In Part II, collaborative product development between a buyer and several suppliers organized in networks was investigated. These studies were complemented with studies of IS/IT development and implementation projects. Theoretically, it is based on the literature on product development, supply chain management, and IT support for business relationships.Concerning the buyer-supplier dyad it was found that there was not one collaborative product development process in common between the firms, but rather coordination between the firms’ processes. Concerning the relationship between buyer and supplier network, it was found that one of the suppliers represents the network in a dyadic buyer-supplier relationship. Within the supplier network, the firms conducted interorganizational integrated product development, which means that the functions were represented by several firms. This implied that management practices must respect the special characteristic of small and medium-sized firms in collaboration.The investigation of information and communication in collaborative product development in dyads and networks led to a list of requirements on IOIS. The findings were concluded in a matrix that presents characteristics of product development in general, product development in dyads, and product development in supplier networks, and a mapping of the requirements on IOIS.Since the business relationship is the major difference between product development in-house and collaborative product development, it was considered appropriate to take a supply chain view on the requirements for an IOIS. It was found that support is needed both for the procurement and the product development process. Moreover, it was found that project management support can significantly improve the efficiency of the development process. Improvements of the effectiveness regard support for the product life cycle, and for the long-term relationship between the parties.It was concluded that an IOIS for collaborative product development should be based on standard technology and support standard formats, in order to make it possible for a firm to simultaneously manage its own systems and proprietary information, and exchange information with partners when needed.
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| 6. |
- Asgharian Bourkheili, Ehsan
(författare)
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Enhancing SMEs competitive advantage by franchising
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Although there is a large body of literature on franchising systems that are mainly produced from the franchisor's perspective, looking at franchising from the franchisee's point of view has remained largely uninvestigated. Creating and sustaining competitive advantage is the prerequisite for the franchisee's (as an SME) survival in today's competitive environment. This research's comprehensive literature review shows three major groups of factors influencing the franchisee’s competitive advantage, including the franchisor-related factors, the franchisee-related factors, and factors associated with the franchisor-franchisee relationship. Since the franchisor has a dominant role in the business, it can influence the franchisee in many ways. Therefore, it is crucial to put special emphasis on how the franchisor-related factors may influence the franchisee business success.In light of the discussion above, this study was carried out to understand how franchisor-related factors, through enhancing/creating competitive advantage, might influence the franchisee’s business success. According to the literature on competitive advantage, three clusters of literature as three perspectives were reviewed and discussed. These include the resource-based view, the industry structure view, and the relational view. In the resource-based view, the firm's resources are considered as a source of competitive advantage, but in the relational view, not only the firm's internal resources, but also the interfirm resources are the source of competitive advantage. Therefore, this perspective has a significant contribution to this study. In addition to services provided services by the franchisor, as the resources, franchisor organizational factors specifically entrepreneurial orientation, and absorptive capacity were found relevant in the franchisee's competitive advantage. Accordingly, an integrative theoretical/analytical framework was built and used throughout the study.Because of exploratory nature of the study, the qualitative method was chosen and applied. Along with the purpose of the study, a multiple-case study research strategy consisting of seven cases, in two franchising systems, was performed. The results of the analysis confirm that services provided by the franchisor, the franchisors’ entrepreneurial orientation, and the franchisees’ absorptive capacity have a significant role in enhancement of the franchisees’ competitive advantage. Other significant results of the franchisor-related factors enhancing competitive advantage were found to be: the speed of raw material supply, keeping consistency in quality, economy of scale and keeping prices competitive. Furthermore, the franchisor enhances the franchisee's competitive advantage by transferring business know-how and creating collective tacit knowledge, and as well improvement in the franchisee-specific human capital. Intellectual property in a franchise system through transferring the first mover advantage to the franchisee and creating the differentiated position affect the franchisee's competitive advantage. The franchisor’s entrepreneurial orientation creates the first-mover advantage for the franchisee. Similarly, the franchisor's absorptive capacity, through creating the first-mover advantage and improving the franchisee's social capital, enhances the franchisee's competitive advantage.
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| 7. |
- Asgharian Bourkheili, Ehsan
(författare)
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Performance in Franchise Systems : The Franchisee Perspective
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last decades, franchising as an organizational form has received a lot of attention from researchers and practitioners alike. While many studies have examined various aspects of franchising from the franchisor's perspective, little research has taken the franchisee’s perspective. Therefore, given the importance of franchisees in a franchise system, the lack of research about consequences from the franchisee's perspective, and that many of the previous studies have taken a top-bottom view, this research concentrated on the franchisee's performance. This study focused on business format franchising in the restaurant industry in two countries, Iran and Sweden.In this study, the three perspectives of entrepreneurship, strategic management, and marketing were used to study the franchisee’s performance. Moreover, the resourcebased view, relational view, and relational exchange theory have been used to find the influential factors in a franchisee’s performance. Therefore, by considering franchising as a mutual relationship and examining the influential factors in a franchisee's performance, the related factors of both the franchisor and franchisee, as well as the relationship between them, were examined.According to the franchisee’s related factors, the franchisor's related factors, and the relationship and environmental factors, 12 main hypotheses and 9 sub-hypotheses were developed. In total, 191 usable questionnaires from Sweden and Iran, comprising a response rate of 22 percent, were returned from the franchisees. In this study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the construct measurement; to test the hypothesis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed. Moreover, the Chow test was conducted to integrate the data from these two countries.A primary contribution of this study is taking a bottom-top view in franchising research. This study also provided a detailed and holistic view about the consequences of franchising for franchisees. Moreover, this study, offers important contributions toward understanding entrepreneurial activities, as a controversial issue, in franchising outlets.The results provide interesting insights into the franchisee’s performance. While the franchisees’ related factors of absorptive capacity, Kirznerian entrepreneurial orientation, and social capital positively affected their performance, Schumpeterian entrepreneurial orientation and human capital did not affect their performance. Moreover, the franchisor’s related factors of system profitability, brand reputation, advertisement and providing raw material had a positive influence on the performance. However, training did not cause a difference in the franchisee’s performance. All relationship factors also positively affected the performance, and conflict and satisfaction mediated the relationship between trust and performance. Finally, the implications of this study and suggestions for further contributions in this stream of research are discussed.
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| 8. |
- Elmhester, Karolina, 1975-
(författare)
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Små företag i strategiska nätverk : hur påverkas det enskilda företagets utveckling?
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the impact collaboration in strategic networks has on the individual company’s development. The particular focus is especially on whether the collaboration has contributed something to the individual company, which in the long run can help to improve the possibilities for a better outcome. The study is based on three research questions: 1) what happens on the network level respective the company level during collaboration; 2) what is the link between the activities of the strategic network and the individual company, and 3) what is the reason why the individual company is affected.The empirical data in the study consists of four strategic networks, and eleven participating companies. The study began in late spring 2004 and ended in spring 2008. Data was collected on several occasions during the study period. The companies that participated in the strategic networks were small and belonged to the wood product manufacturing sector. All four strategic networks participated in Nutek’s “Träklusterprogram” (Wood cluster program) which ran 2003-2005, but they all continued being active after the program ended. There are previous studies on strategic networks, but by studying both the strategic networks and the participating companies, this thesis adds new dimension, a discussion as to how collaboration could affect the participating companies’ strategies and development.The thesis shows that collaboration in strategic networks, which in reality is a relatively small part of a company’s operations, could have a significant strategic importance for example on the production process, marketing and external relations.Interesting findings from the study include indications that there may be a clear difference in how the individual company is affected, depending on whether the strategic network has market or competence related goals. Moreover, collaboration in strategic networks can improve a business executive’s self-confidence and infuse him or her with inspiration, with the result that he or she will dare to invest and take on more challenges. Among other things, this can have the effect that the company’s strategies are implemented and goals reached.For the strategic network, the results indicate that an enthusiastic, committed leader of the collaboration seems to diminish the importance of a well-structured organization, that is to say that a leader with drive is more important than a formal organization. The thesis also stresses the importance of a socialization process in strategic networks in order for them to be successful, in the sense that the participants should get to know each other and their respective companies. Finally, the company representatives’ commitment to the collaboration and their attitude to it tend to overshadow the importance of other factors.
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| 9. |
- Guan, Wei
(författare)
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Developments in Distribution Channels : A Case Study of a Timber Product Distribution Channel
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis describes and analyses the trends and developments of actors along distribution channel. In particular, the study focuses on resellers and manufacturer based on the empirical material from one particular case study. The study has three main goals: (1) to investigate the challenges arising from channel actor developments, the effects of these developments on the structure of the retailer supply chain and their implications for manufacturers and suppliers, (2) to identify explanations for manufacturer’s vertical integration of distribution and the resulting impacts and, (3) to conduct a preliminary customer value analysis relating to the distribution channel of solid wood products.The study has taken an exploratory and qualitative research approach with an abductive reasoning process. A case study strategy was adopted, which studied a distribution channel consisting of a Sweden-based timber manufacturer that vertically integrated a distributor in the UK. Semi-structured interviews comprised the primary data collection technique in this study. A two-step data collection process was conducted between May 2009 and April 2010, including 29 interviews with 24 interviewees from eight organizations, representing the manufacturer, distributor and reseller in the distribution channel. Non-participating observations were carried out by attending sales meeting and joining account managers on store visits. All interviews were documented and transcribed and the information was collated into case units, along with any supporting secondary data, such as company magazines, web resources, annual reports, sales reports, meeting presentations, etc.This thesis has produced several findings. Reseller developments have promoted the formation of reseller demands, such as integrated solutions with respects to logistics, marketing, merchandising, innovation, etc. Retailer developments have driven the change of a retailer supply chain structure, and have opened up a number of new questions to be posed on manufacturer and its positioning in the supply chain. The most important factors driving the manufacturer’s vertical integration of distribution are customer demands, the manufacturer’s repositioning strategy with regard to its business focus and its positioning in the supply chain. The vertical integration of distribution transforms the manufacturer into a direct supplier to large timber product resellers. It also offers the supplier a great opportunity to enhance offerings and establish strategic relationship with customers. The output of suppliers has expanded from solely manufacturing goods to also include services and knowledge associated with goods. In practice, it can be complicated for a supplier to create and communicate value. A full understanding of what timber product customers seek in terms of value elements has not yet been achieved. This study has assisted in terms of understanding the differing value that channel actors place on a range of product, physical distribution, service and supplier value elements by developing a value analysis framework. Suppliers can use this framework when designing, customizing and marketing offerings for customers.
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| 10. |
- Guan, Wei
(författare)
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The Role of Suppliers and Resellers : Cases of Timber Product Distribution Channels
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation aims to explain the impacts of distribution channel developments on the roles of timber product distribution channel actors. The role of channel actors in this dissertation is defined as the structured behaviour pattern that combines activities and resources in distribution channels. Three phenomena and their impacts on channel actors’ roles are addressed: (1) shifts in manufacturers’ supply chain position, (2) the changing nature of manufacturing companies’ offerings, and (3) concentrated markets with enhanced resellers. The research builds on case studies focusing on timber product distribution channels. The dissertation consists of an extended summary, six papers, and a grand case description.This dissertation has produced several findings. First, reseller developments have driven changes in the retailer supply chain structure and have placed pressure on manufacturers. Manufacturers’ downstream vertical integration and their move to a total offering approach can be seen as countervailing effects on reseller developments. These effects have result in a new type of role: the integration role, while the significance of the service role has increased. Second, resellers have gained a central position in distribution channels, not only because they are in good position to exploit the clones to customers, but also because their business has extended from being suppliers’ distribution partners to customers’ supply hub.Theoretically, this research contributes to the field of distribution channels by proposing definitions of roles and the roles of channel actors that allows for a better understanding of the dynamics of distribution channels. This research also proposes a distributionsupply view of vertical systems that highlights the roles played by resellers in defining offerings to customers, shaping supply chain structures, and developing and launching new products.
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