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- 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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| 2. |
- Schauerte, Tobias, 1975-
(författare)
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Investigating Consumer Perceptions by applying the Extended Association Pattern Technique : A Study on Wooden Multistory Houses
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the past years, the usage of wood as construction material in multistory applications has increased. In Germany and Sweden, various activities have been, and are about to be performed, to accentuate and improve the position of wooden multistory houses. In line with that, this thesis tries to contribute to the understanding of how consumers perceive durable products; in the contextual frame of how German and Swedish consumers perceive wooden multistory houses.It was hypothesized that consumers’ perceptions on durable products differ, depending on their age, income, national and within-country habitation. Based on the Means-End Chain Theory, the Association Pattern Technique has been further developed to collect and analyze data for two samples. In Germany and Sweden, 31 respectively 34 laddering interviews have been carried out which formed the base for a survey-study in each country. Here, 229 surveys were received from German, and 503 from Swedish respondents.The results show that age, income, national and within-country habitation have significant impact on consumers’ perceptions of wooden multistory houses. Moreover, the extension of the Association Pattern Technique was validated. It allowed for additional data to be gathered, which can be regarded as rather important, since it appeared in the most dominant Means-End Chains of the respondents in both Germany and Sweden. This helps to understand consumers’ underlying reasons why one product is favoured over another.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Johansson, Marlene, 1973-
(författare)
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The balancing act : Cooperating with competitors
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Coopetition, the strategy by which companies cooperate and compete simultaneously in their business relationships, has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners the last decade. Despite the recognized importance for firms to develop strategies to manage coopetitive relationships, the ways in which firms cope with strategic dilemmas in coopetition has not been sufficiently researched. Firms engaging in coopetition may encounter contradictions, paradoxes and tensions that need to be managed in order for the business relationships to be beneficial.This doctoral thesis consists of five individual but related studies with the overarching aim to advance the understanding of firms’ capabilities to balance strategic dilemmas in coopetition. The thesis addresses three research questions. How do firms balance interaction, roles and expectation in coopetition? How do firms balance power and dependency through portfolios of relationship in coopetition? How do firms balance temporalities in coopetition?All five research papers explore different aspects of the ways in which companies balance contradicting logics of interactions in coopetition, and how firms manage tensions in the interactions, which is critical for the coopetitive relationships to evolve and be beneficial. Three of the papers examine firms’ capability to adhere to and balance different roles and expectations in coopetition. Firms need to be flexible in their role-playing behavior to act as customers, partners, supplier and competitors in a relationship. These roles come with conflicting role expectations. Firms’ role-playing capability is related to the mindset that is needed in their role performance.Moreover, the thesis investigates how Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) balance power and dependency through portfolios of relationships. These findings are reported in three of the research papers and cover both how SMEs balance asymmetric buyer-supplier relationships by building coopetitive relationships with SME competitors and how small firms build and reconfigure portfolios of relationships to balance their relationship with large competitors. The thesis uncovers how SME are able to sustain independence in and to balance asymmetric coopetitive relationships if they develop alliance portfolio managing capabilities; build legitimacy, enhance agility and create role flexibility. These capabilities are found to be critical for small firms in balancing and navigating among different coopetitive relationships, thereby creating and sustaining business opportunities.Finally, the thesis explores how companies balance temporalities in coopetition. Two of the research papers uncover firms’ capabilities to balance this dilemma. The studies uncover how firms encounter dilemmas to interact on a temporary basis while sustaining important long-term relations in coopetition and how increased temporary relationships combined with long-term relationships can create both dynamics and tensions and how these tensions need to be managed in order to be beneficial.To conclude, this thesis has comprehensively explored firms’ capabilities to balance strategic dilemmas in coopetition through five studies with different theoretical approaches and multiple cases of large and small firms in different industry settings, covering both more stable industries and dynamic and rapidly changing industries.
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| 5. |
- Ljungquist, Urban, 1969-
(författare)
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Core competence matters : Preparing for a new agenda
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Ljungquist, Urban (2007). Core Competence Matters: Preparing for a New Agenda. Acta Wexionensia No. 121/2007. ISSN: 1404-4307, ISBN: 978-91-7636-567-0. Written in English. The core competence concept describes how large companies can prosper and achieve competitive advantage. It is a well-known concept in the strategy domain, frequently practiced in organizations and cited in the literature. Despite this, recent research indicates that in-depth understanding of the concept is scarce. In this thesis, a few shortcomings of the concept are recognized: The vagueness of the original definition, divergence of the existing literature, and invalid appliance. Straightforward core competence identification and verification processes are put forward, applicable to both research and practice. The processes aim at advancing beyond mere identification. Three different core competencies were identified and verified in the empirical part of this thesis. The core competencies were possible to separate through differences in the various influences from competencies, capabilities and resources. The core competencies were also possible to arrange in a complexity continuum, from a compound and highly integrated core competence to a simple and technology-based one, with the third one, a service-based core competence, representing moderate complexity. The two most complex core competencies were, in general, influenced by competencies and capabilities to a larger extent than the simpler core competence. Resources mainly influenced the goods-producing core competencies. The empirical findings of this thesis show that by acknowledging the specifics of the characteristics of competencies, capabilities and resources and their influences, in conceptual and empirical discussions and applications, core competencies can be identified and verified. Furthermore, their influences provide the keys to managing core competencies. A new core competence agenda is proposed. The agenda includes core competence management, which is of particular value to organizations in need of change, for example those facing dynamic business environments, where vital activities and processes – including core competence – must be continually renewed. The agenda is feasible for future core competence research as well, since it alters the research domain, and advocates specificity, convergence and validity.
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