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- Dahl, Matilda, 1978-
(author)
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States under scrutiny : International organizations, transformation and the construction of progress
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Opinions, rankings and evaluations of states’ development are proliferating. In the context of the transformation and EU accession of the Baltic States, there were many organizations involved in the scrutiny of their efforts to become accepted as modern and European. This scrutiny directed towards states can be seen as a new practice of transnational regulation. Especially in times of major transformation, as was the case in the Baltic States after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, monitoring and evaluation of achievements can be expected to shape how reforms were prioritized and how problems were perceived. In order to gain a better understanding of these transformations it is necessary to study the practice of organizations that scrutinize the states.The aim of the thesis is to analyze the role of scrutiny as a practice of transnational regulation. By analyzing how international organizations scrutinize states, this thesis adds knowledge to how transforming states are constructed in the everyday practices of scrutiny. A main argument is that by evaluating and reporting on states, international organizations can be seen as ‘auditors’ of transformations in states. The thesis compares three such ‘auditors’ and their respective relations to the states under scrutiny, namely: the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the NGO Transparency International. The thesis contributes to discussions about the role of transnational regulation in the transformation of states. By comparing the three cases of scrutiny it is concluded that scrutiny produces both comfort and critique for and about these transforming states. In addition, through processes of scrutinizing, states are constructed as auditable and comparable. Scrutiny also inscribes states into a story about progress, it thus offers hope about reforms and of a better future.
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| 3. |
- Radón, Anita, 1980-
(author)
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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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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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| 4. |
- Al Ghafri, Aziza, 1982-
(author)
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"I Wanna Be Free" : On the Challenges and Coping Strategies of Women Entrepreneurs in Sweden
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Women's entrepreneurship is often presented as important for creating economic prosperity at the national level and is said to offer freedom, independence, and emancipation for women. The purpose of this study is to explore the conditions of women entrepreneurs who have different backgrounds in Sweden. To achieve this purpose, this study focuses on the challenges women entrepreneurs perceive and the coping strategies they employ to navigate these challenges. The study adopts an intersectional gender perspective, grounded in research on entrepreneurship, gender, and ethnicity. It draws on qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs in Sweden who have different backgrounds. The findings show that the challenges experienced by the women entrepreneurs included lack of support, being belittled, being excluded, having to work harder and be strong and having to adapt. The analysis discusses that these challenges can be understood as a result of gendered perceptions of entrepreneurship and processes of Othering. Ethnicity and race also play a role in shaping these conditions. The interviewed women deal with the conditions through four strategies: the assimilation strategy; the positive strategy, the ambiguity strategy, and the change strategy. The coping strategies are discussed in relation to empowerment and emancipation. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to developing concepts and conceptual relationships to capture how gender, ethnicity, and race impact women's conditions as entrepreneurs.
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| 5. |
- Lindh, Kristina, 1964-
(author)
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Reciprocal Engagement : A grounded theory of an interactive process of actions to establish, maintain, and develop an enterprise
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Reciprocal engagement is a theory of a basic social process that addresses how an organization establishes, maintains, and develops its enterprise by focusing on strengthening its relationships with other actors. It rests on the rationale that one’s relationships are foremost dependent on how well one manages to engage others. If one’s own engagement is demonstrated to others, it stimulates them to respond with actions of engagement in return. When they do respond in such a manner, it expresses an appreciation of a relationship and a will to contribute to maintaining it. The process of reciprocal engagement consists of two categories of actions, i.e. convincing manifestation and caring embrace, each of which has three dimensions of actions. The dimensions of convincing manifestation are framing, meriting, and avowing and of caring embrace they are friending, enriching, and opportunizing. Together these actions imply that to influence others’ willingness to act engaged, an actor such as an organization needs to mediate trustworthy messages that demonstrate and assure them of its identity and intentions. It also needs to treat and include them in a way that they can relate to as having a meaning of personal and/or social value to them. As the theory can be seen as conceptualizing marketing related behaviors, its practical and theoretical contribution is that of a model of thinking that argues that marketing should be viewed as a relationship developing process of interactive communicative actions with rhetorical and creative features. The research that led to the discovery of the theory aimed its attention at an art museum and its interaction with various external actors in its surrounding environment. In order to discover the main pattern of behaviors that take place in interactions as a consequence of the museum’s main area of concerns, the classical grounded theory method was used. It is an empirical reflective method that has an inductive and conceptual approach to research.
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| 6. |
- Lindholm, Cecilia, 1960-
(author)
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Ansvarighet och redovisning i nätverk : En longitudinell studie om synliggörande och osynliggörande i offentlig verksamhet
- 2003
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Making fundamental changes in the accounting systems of public-sector organisations and introducing management accounting models in those organisations constitutes not only a change in accounting techniques, but more importantly, causes major changes in the processes within which accountability is constructed through interaction between actors. When the use of management accounting methods in the public sector occurs, fundamental ideas about public sector activities change. This study draws upon the distinction between accounting systems as they are supposed to be used in the public sector and systems of accountability as these developed in practice. Accountability is constructed through processes, and studying accountability involves focusing on what is made visible, as well as concealed, in the interaction between actors over time. The aim of this processual study was to analyse the processes of accountability over a period of seven years, between 1987 and 1994. The arena of the study was three functionally distinct relationships between three actors connected by intraorganisational and interorganisational relationships. The study uses a multidimensional concept of relationships, since the relationships consist of actors connected by bonds, linked activities, and resource ties. Main conclusion of the study is the theoretical stand that formal accounting system is important as the actors construct accountabilities if there is a contemporaneous shortage of financial resources. In a situation with financial surplus, accountability is constructed according to the actor’s professional ideas and guidelines. The main conclusion is the development of the concept network of accountability as an extension and deepening of the concept system of accountability.
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| 8. |
- Golubeva, Olga, 1965-
(author)
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Foreign Investment Decision-Making in Transition Economies
- 2001
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The purpose of this project is to describe and explain the foreign investment decision process in the uncertain and turbulent environment of transition economy. By getting an in-depth understanding of how decision-making works in the environment of transition economy, the study intends to contribute to the development of business administration theory in the area of foreign investment decision-making, particularly its application in the turbulent and uncertain world.Theoretical ‘blocks’, elaborated on the basis of literature study, include the following concepts: the framework of transition economy; initial motivation (or reasons) of companies to make foreign direct investments (FDI); investigation of the investment climate and information collection methods; project evaluation and investment decision criteria; risk assessment factors and risk reduction measures.Transition economy is defined in the study as ‘a non-planned, non-market economy’ where the new emerging market institutions coexist with the bureaucracy and hierarchy inherited from the old administrative system. Investment projects, therefore, should probably be seen as being under institutional influence from both the local (i.e. transition economy) and the Western investor’s home country environments. The empirical data presented in the paper also shows that it is necessary to establish the relevant economic, legal, political and social institutions in order to attract FDI. The study further includes the analysis of the main components and features of transition economies and their influence on FDI decision-making.One of the results of the study is that FDI decision-making in transition economies is largely consistent with different theoretical approaches suggested in the literature. On the other hand, the empirical support obtained for different theoretical approaches is often questionable and opened to alternative interpretations. The presented project suggests that theoretical perspectives do not preclude each other, but rather have a complimentary character.The study attempts to contribute to the mainstream FDI theories through a firm-level approach based on the case studies. Two in-depth case studies are presented in the paper: Ericsson’s direct investments in Russia and Vattenfall’s investments in the Baltic countries. A formal questionnaire based on the parameters of theoretical ‘blocks’ was created and 25 top executives from Ericsson and Vattenfall who participated in FDI decision-making were surveyed. The empirical investigation took place during the period 1997 - 1998 with partial updating of the cases during the year 2000. The study shows that where companies confront stable environments, investment decision routines and procedures will be less necessary and important than where market uncertainty is high. The strong appreciation of the local business partners for properly done investment calculations increases the importance of capital budgeting in transition economies more than in developed market economies.Besides, traditional investment appraisal methods provide managers with an ‘objective’ or ‘materialistic’ feedback for the decision-making in the rapidly changing uncertain environment. On the other hand, the study emphasises the importance of strategy over financial techniques and argues that FDI decisions in transition economies should be based on methods consistent with the company’s long-term objectives. In case of permanent changes, new approaches as well as better co-ordination of traditional techniques with strategic, political, historical, geographical and cultural issues are required.Ericsson’ s direct investments in Russia are presented in the paper in connection with other factors: the company’s historical involvement in Russia, marketing strategy, human resource development, privatisation and restructuring of the telecommunication sector in Russia, etc. Nordic Electric Power Co-operation (Nordel), the EU’ s decision in 1996 to create an internal electricity market in Europe, Baltic ring study, future plans to privatise the energy companies in the Baltic countries, etc., are the framework to present the second case.An application of project evaluation and risk assessment techniques for broader and more complicated environments shows that investment decision-making is probably as much, if not more, a social, political and cultural technology as an economic one. The study argues then that the rational choice decision-making model often co-exists with alternative models elaborated in social science - limited rationality, political and garbage can.According to the empirical data, the investment decisions are largely based on intuition, business experience and judgement, personal contacts with representatives from the local country, and these investment criteria are inevitable and acceptable in a situation of total chaos and permanent change. The right chosen partner, for example, is one of the major criteria for the success of the investment project in a transition economy. One of the outcomes of this study is that the revitalised form of investment decision-making will differ rather markedly from much of what has gone before: less emphasis on the quantitative aspects of capital budgeting, more on the qualitative aspects of companies and investment environment.The project also argues that determinants, approaches and criteria of investment activity in transition economies are largely consistent with patterns observed in other parts of the world. A few specific environmental conditions of transition economies, however, are shown in the study to affect the pattern of FDI decision-making. The level of turbulence is still different compared to the developed market economies due to uncertainties and unpredictibilities associated with environment of transition economies. Other major differences are the large power distance with authoritarian leadership, strong hierarchy and bureaucracy as well as the vital role of personal contacts in transition economies. It is not clear, however, if these features of transition economies should be seen as inherited from the past communist system or as an alternative way to organise the economic actors through networks, a way that is natural and appropriate for the majority of Asian societies.
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| 9. |
- Hernant, Mikael
(author)
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Profitability Performance of Supermarkets : The effects of scale of operation, local market conditions, and conduct on the economic performance of supermarkets
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Ever since introduced and rolled out on the market during the 1950's and 1960's the supermarket format of grocery retail stores has played an important role in the grocery retail sector in Sweden, as well as in other countries. Although the sector in Sweden has evolved into a sector harbouring various store formats, the supermarket remains the major one - about half of the total volume of sales currently goes through supermarkets. Issues referring to the economic performance of supermarkets, and its antecedents, are thus of interest not only to retailers, but also to consumers as well as to society, overall.This study contributes to previous research by explicitly addressing bottom-line performance of supermarkets, and by bridging different fields of research. With the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm as theoretical underpinning, a cross-sectional design is developed for the study, comprising the economic performance of 168 supermarkets. By pooling data from various sources a unique database is developed, providing prerequisites for a comprehensive investigation into the effects of scale of operation, local market conditions, and supermarket conduct on various aspects of supermarket performance, all the way to bottom-line profitability performance.The results show that profitability performance of supermarkets is a consequence of a complex network of relationships between various aspects of economic performance, scale of operation, local market conditions and supermarket conduct. The profit margin, i.e. the span between gross margin and operating costs%, turns out as the major determinant of profitability performance. The profit margin, in turn, is found related to productivity, which in turn is found related to the volume of sales. Scale of operation and local market conditions are found working themselves into profitability performance, via conduct and various aspects of economic performance. However, neither scale nor favorable local market conditions turns out as the determinant of high rather than low profitability performance. Among the most as well as among least profitable, there are small and large supermarkets, facing local markets of favorable as well as unfavorable conditions. Rather, the dividing line between the low vs. highly profitable lies in the interplay between market conditions and conduct. Results from analyses of internal and external characteristics of the least and most profitable show important dissimilarities referring to their interplay with local market conditions. As such, the study provides important implications for retailers, from a strategical, tactical, as well as operational perspective.
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| 10. |
- Balkow, Jenny
(author)
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In the middle : on sourcing from China and the role of the intermediary
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the past three decades China’s rapid transition from a closed economy to become the factory of the world has astonished economists all over the world. Surveys among sourcing practitioners show that China is the most interesting market for sourcing and research points to lower costs as the main reason. This dissertation is an exploratory study of the role of the intermediary for Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that source from China. Three questions are discussed. The first question concerns why Swedish SMEs choose to source from China. Although costs are a major factor for the companies, it is usually other triggers that cause the change in strategy, such as management interest or pressure from a large customer. The second research question concerns how Swedish SMEs choose to source from China and how the role of the intermediary is related to this process. The study shows that finding a good supplier is not difficult. The companies use informal channels, references and sometimes unorthodox methods such as following the supplier of the raw material to find suppliers that deliver high quality goods. The problem is however to maintain a steady quality and on time delivery which is why intermediaries are introduced late in the relationship. The cases in this study show example of five different intermediated strategies; Direct, Service,Traditional, RepO and FICE/WFOE. The traditional intermediated strategy is the only strategy where there is little or no relation between buyer and supplier, whereas the other four strategies involve different degrees of interaction between all three actors in the dyad; the buyer, the supplier and the intermediary. The third research question concerned the role of the intermediary. The study shows that the respondents are influenced by their structural view on what role the different forms of intermediaries may take. Although the respondents discuss the importance of having a long-term view on the relationship with the supplier they continuously allow intermediaries to enter the relationship on a short-term basis for quality control. These quality control centers (QC) commonly work on a fixed commission based on services that has to be specified. When the buyers are trying to change their strategy to look for an intermediary with higher involvement they usually turn to internal intermediaries (i.e. subsidiaries). When deciding on a long term intermediary the buyer usually looks for competences that supplement their own knowledge – that is Chinese language, good knowledge of the Chinese market but also technological competence. What the western owned intermediaries in China stresses however is the need to find intermediaries to supplement the suppliers’ competences, so that they are able to translate the needs of the buyer’s customer and becomes a physical reminder that they are sent from the buyer. The case of QC, shows that if a company let the relationship with the intermediary develop through interaction they can become just as involved. The study is based on interviews with key informants at Swedish SMEs andat different types of intermediaries in China. The empirical data are presented infive themes developed through an iterative process of theoretical studies anddata collection. The first two themes are directly related to the first tworesearch questions. The third theme focuses on the sourcing process andactivities of four small Swedish design companies. The fourth theme displayshow the intermediaries in China discuss their role. Finally, the fifth theme pictures the supply chain of one focal company at five points in time when they are in the process of changing their supply chain to increase transparency.
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