| 1. |
- Kågström, Jonas, 1972-
(författare)
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Today's perfect - tomorrow's standard : the role of consumers and the limits of policy in recycling
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study the mechanisms influencing recycling rates around the system maximum are deliberated. On the one hand, Policies, System design and how Citizens understand the two aforementioned are pitted against each other. This is done in a setting where individual rewards from action are in turn set against the values of the community and the compliance measures/social marketing of recycling companies and policy makers. This is the dynamic setting of this dissertation. In the past much research into recycling has been focused on how to get recycling started. Sweden is in a bit of a different position with recycling levels often being very high in an international comparison. This means other challenges face citizens and policy makers alike. The determinants influencing recycling rates are studied and compared to contemporary research. Policy makers and social marketers that wish to see a system used to its fullest need to understand the determinants that remain to be influenced near the system optimum. The studied recycling system points to a trichotomy of determinants influencing recycling rates. Social or public marketing being one part; the community's understanding of recycling being a second part, and individual knowledge and understanding forming the third. Successive elimination of potential determinants in a Zwicky box, using statistical analysis, indicates that strengthening individual autonomy and ability to participate efficiently remains as the key to further and sustainable development in the field. The study suggests compliance rates can still be improved upon, even when recycling rates are in excess of 80%, although methods might have to change. Instead of an oft used emphasis on coercive compliance and "scare tactics", a careful study and propagation of the recycling techniques developed by the many efficient citizens is pivotal. In addition, further improvements in terms of recycling facilitation may offer policy makers a sustainable path to near system optimal recycling rates.
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| 2. |
- Eklinder-Frick, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Bridging and bonding forms of social capital in a regional strategic network
- 2011
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Ingår i: Industrial Marketing Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0019-8501 .- 1873-2062. ; 40:6, s. 994-1003
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research on networks emphasizes the importance of bonds between actors. Social reciprocity strengthens network bonds, which is assumed to have positive effects on business relationships between firms. However, the importance of weak ties is also stressed in network research. An important policy issue is therefore if more attention should be devoted to the creation of bridges to other social groups and loosening bonds between network actors. The difficulty in doing so is described and analyzed in this article focusing on a regional strategic network, which is viewed in three network perspectives. Interview data were collected from all participating managers in a regional strategic network in 2004 and 2010. The findings shed light upon the paradox of using a regional strategic network to counteract over-embeddedness and freeing the involved actors from existing network lock-ins instead of further strengthening such social institutions.
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| 3. |
- Eklinder Frick, Jens, 1980-
(författare)
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Building Bridges and Breaking Bonds : Aspects of social capital in a regional strategic network
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Investing in cluster formation or encouraging companies to network in regional strategic networks is a common strategy used by municipalities to promote regional growth in peripheral regions. Previous research has investigated the significance of creating regional advantages by building clusters and regional networks, but researchers have not provided much insight into the problems facing the project management trying to implement such collaboration. In my thesis I describe and analyze a network project in order to shed light upon some of the complications that such a collaboration project might entail. My theoretical framework of analysis rests upon the concept of social capital, a concept that investigates the value that social contacts might incur. I have studied a designed network situated in the Swedish municipality of Söderhamn called Firsam. After the closure of the telecommunications factory of Ericsson/Emerson and the military airbase F15 Söderhamn lost 10 % of its local employment in 2004.The need for regional growth programmes therefore became dire. The companies that prior to the closure worked in close collaboration with the Ericsson/Emerson factory were also looking for new revenue streams to compensate for their loss of business. Collaboration with the local manufacturing companies to create innovative projects and to take on joint tenders seemed to be a perfect solution to the problems facing them and the municipality. In this spirit a regional strategic network called Firsam (Företag i regional samverkan) was initiated. I analyze the Firsam project using two different aspects of the concept social capital:”bonding” and”bridging”. The bonding form of social capital is associated with small and homogeneous groups that build prerequisites for long-term collaboration by forming close contacts and building trust. The bridging form of social capital creates an open stance towards social relations that enables new contacts to be formed outside one’s own socially established context. The bonding form of social capital provides prerequisites for close collaboration but can also result in close-mindedness and over-embeddedness in one’s own social context. Building bridging connections outside one’s own social context might encourage innovative thinking and spur entrepreneurship. The somewhat fleeting connections that are associated with the bridging form of social capital might on the other hand make it difficult to cultivate a common sense of trust within an existing group. These different manifestations of social capital create a paradox that might be hard to handle in the design of a regional strategic network. Is it best to support already existing network structures and impose the risk of creating a less innovative environment, or should members from outside the established social context be included in the network design to encourage innovative thinking? There are both positive and negative effects associated with either strategy. I shed light upon this paradox by analyzing the regional strategic network of Firsam.
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| 4. |
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Knowledge Integration and Innovation : Critical Challenges Facing International Technology-based Firms
- 2011
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Technology-based firms continue to compete primarily on innovation, and one continuously required to present new solutions to an exacting market. As technological complexity and specialization intensifies, firms increasingly need to integrate and coordinate knowledge by means of project groups, diversified organizations, inter-organizational partnerships, and strategic alliances. Innovation processes have progressively become interdisciplinary, collaborative, inter-organizational, and international, and a firm's ability to synthesize knowledge across disciplines, organizations, and geographical locations has a major influence on its viability and success.This book demonstrates how knowledge integration is crucial in facilitating innovation within modern firms. This book provides original, detailed empirical studies of prerequisites, mechanisms, and outcomes of knowledge integration processes on several organizational levels, from key individuals, projects, and internal organizations, to collaboration between firms. It stresses the need to understand knowledge integration as a multi-level phenomenon, which requires a broad repertoire of organizational and technical means. It further clarifies the need for strong internal capabilities for exploiting external knowledge, reveals how costs of knowledge integration affect outcomes and strategic decisions, and discusses the managerial implications of fostering knowledge integration, providing practical guidance and support for managers of knowledge integration in high technology enterprises.
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| 5. |
- Kordestani, Arash Abolghasemi, et al.
(författare)
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Supply chain process maturity and financial performance study of Swedish steel SMEs
- 2010
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 17th Euroma conference.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The goal of this research is to demonstrate that the financial performance of the current year in Swedish steel SMEs is dependent on the amount of maturity of supply chain processes. This is examined by considering current supply chain process maturities of the firm together with financial performance of prior years. It was found that the delivery process of supply chain processes and prior cost of goods sold (COGS) have an effect on current COGS. Additionally, prior inventory and plan process of the supply chain have a positive and negative effect on inventory turnover respectively.
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| 6. |
- Awuah, Gabriel Baffour, et al.
(författare)
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Interactive (networked) internationalization : the case of Swedish firms
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Journal of Marketing. - UK : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0309-0566 .- 1758-7123. ; 45:7-8, s. 1112-1129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this study is to provide deeper insights into the extent to which an independent actor(s) actively collaborates with the internationalizing firm so as to jointly determine the choice of market, the mode of entry and the level of investment committed in the market to be entered and even after the entry (i.e. the ongoing activities). Design/methodology/approach - Against the previous purpose section, a qualitative research approach is selected to guide the exploratory nature of this study. Thus qualitative data are used to build the two case studies because case studies are generally a more appropriate approach when "how" and "why" questions are being posed and when the investigator has little control over events. Findings - Based on two multiple case studies, one major finding of the study shows that independent actors, with their interconnected networks, have played and are still playing a major role in influencing the internationalization processes of each of the two firms in this study. Originality/value - This is an original paper developed based on two case studies which have not been published in any journal before. The paper highlights the role of external independent actors in internationalization, which is not mentioned at all or stressed in the extant literature.
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| 7. |
- Landström, Mats, 1967-
(författare)
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Do Central Bank Independence Reforms Matter for Inflation Performance?
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance. - : InderScience Publishers. - 1755-3830 .- 1755-3849. ; 3:4, s. 320-335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A difference-in-difference approach was used to investigate whether central bank independence (CBI) reforms matter for inflation, based on a novel dataset including the possible occurrence of such reforms in 132 countries during the period 1980 to 2005. CBI-reforms are found to have contributed to bringing down high inflation rates where those existed, but they seem unrelated to performance in low-inflation countries.
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| 8. |
- Hilletofth, Per
(författare)
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Demand-Supply Chain Management
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purpose: This research aims to enhance the current understanding and knowledge of the demand-supply chain management (DSCM) concept by determining its elements, benefits, and requirements, as well as by analyzing key elements of the concept. Methodology: This research has utilized the case study strategy and the survey strategy, however, the case study strategy dominates. The case study research has involved five companies originating from Sweden and the collection of empirical data mainly from in-depth interviews with key persons representing senior and middle management. The survey research targeted the largest firms in Sweden and Finland and empirical data was collected through an online questionnaire. Findings: This research has established that the main elements of DSCM include market orientation, coordination of the demand and supply processes, viewing the demand and supply processes as being equally important, as well as value creation, differentiation, innovativeness, responsiveness, and cost-efficiency in the demand and supply processes. It has also been revealed that the main benefits of DSCM include enhanced competiveness, enhanced demand chain performance, as well as enhanced supply chain performance, while the main requirements of DSCM include organizational competences, company established principles, demand-supply chain collaboration, and information technology support. A key element of DSCM further investigated is differentiation focused supply chain design. It has been shown that these efforts can be organized into a process of five stages. In addition, it is important that this process is addressed in parallel with the new product development (NPD) process, that information is exchanged between them, and that they are directed on the basis of the same segmentation model. Another key element of DSCM further investigated is coordination between NPD and SCM. This research has identified several significant linkages between these management directions, which motivate the use of an integrative NPD process where the NPD functions are aligned with the main supply functions in the company and other sales-related functions supporting the commercialization. A final key element of DSCM further investigated is the significance of regarding the demand processes and the supply processes as being equally important. This research has revealed that logistics outsourcing can be risky, if it results in the supply processes being considered less important. Nevertheless, if senior management regards the outsourced processes as equally important as the in-house processes, the effect of logistics outsourcing on company strategies and direction in SCM could be reduced and logistics outsourcing could instead provide an opportunity to improve the design and differentiation of the supply chain. Research limitations/implications: This research has proposed, described, and further analyzed a demand-supply oriented management approach. Such a management approach stresses that the demand processes and the supply processes have to be coordinated and directed at an overlying level, in order to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in competitive and fragmented markets. This research is mainly explorative in nature, and more empirical data, from similar and other research settings, is needed to further validate the findings. Another limitation of the research is that it is essentially limited to Swedish companies (even if some Finnish companies are involved in the survey), however, many of the case companies have a large international presence and are among the top three in their industries, facts which provide some grounds for generalization. Practical implications: This research provides researchers and practitioners with insights into how to develop a demand-supply oriented business. It shows that companies should organize themselves around understanding how customer value is created and delivered, as well as how these processes and management directions can be coordinated. In order for this to occur, the demand and supply processes must be considered as being equally important and the firm needs to be managed jointly and in a coordinated manner by the demand- and supply-side of the company. It is also important that value creation is considered in both the demand and supply processes. Originality/value: Despite strong arguments from both researchers and practitioners for a demand-supply oriented management approach only a minority of companies appear to have effectively coordinated the demand and supply processes. This might be influenced by the lack of research examining how the demand and supply processes can be coordinated, what benefits can be gained by coordinating them, and what requirements are necessary to succeed. This research contributes by investigating these types of aspects further.
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| 9. |
- Eklinder-Frick, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Negative effects of the bonding and bridging form of social capital in a regional strategic network
- 2011
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Ingår i: The 27th IMP conference, 31 Aug 2011-03 Sep 2011; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose of the paper and literature addressedUnderstanding the local socio-economic context is considered by Koschatzky and Kroll (2007) as a precondition for a well designed regional strategic network (RSN). Social capital is often used in research when analyzing such socio-economic contexts (Adler and Kwon 2002, Westlund 2009), and understanding the function and creation of social capital is therefore vital for implementation of policies on cluster initiatives and RSN.Adler and Kwon (2002) claim that there are two different ways of creating valuethrough social capital. These approaches are attributed to James Coleman and Ronald Burt, two key contributors within the field. Coleman (1988) claims that closure of the network structure (bonding) facilitates the emergence of effective norms maintainingthe trustworthiness of others. In contrast to Coleman, Burt (1992) does not stress the utility of consistent norms as the main usage of social capital. He argues that a sparse network including few redundant ties (bridging) often provides greater benefits. Social capital may involve norms and trust, but can also serve as a lock-in that isolates from the outside world by over-embedding a network in its own social context (Uzzi 1997, Gargiulo and Benassi 2000, Parra-Requena et al 2009, Molina-Morales and Martínez-Fernández 2009).Social capital might therefore not only bring positive effects to regional development, as its drawbacks under some circumstances might outweigh the benefits. Slotte-Kock (2009) argues that all network researchers agree that networks of social or business contacts provide both opportunities and constraints.Main contributionMolina-Morales and Martínez-Fernández (2009) and Adler and Kwon (2002) claim that there is a lack of empirical research particularly on the negative effects of social capital. The paper adds to the discourse through a case study focusing on the negative influence of social capital on the RSN process.Research methodRepresentatives of the 15 companies included in an regional strategic network (RSN) project were all interviewed prior to the formation of the project in 2004 and interviewed again six years later (2010) when the formal network project was about to end. The longitudinal aspect of the RSN process is portrayed.Research findingsThe organizational lock-ins and network over-embeddedness that the bonding form of social capital might impose upon a network is exemplified in the studied RSN. It is also evident that existing social norms dominate the decision process within the studied RSN more than economic rationality. The creation of bridging linkages imposed by the management group resulting in low relevance of shared information.
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| 10. |
- Asplund, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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E-procurement beyond the buyer cost perspective
- 2010
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 22nd NOFOMA Conference. - Kolding : University of Southern Denmark. - 9788792471055 ; , s. 483-498
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The objective of this paper is to provide and argue for a comprehensive view of e-procurement that involves both the buyer and suppliers and that goes beyond looking at mere cost reductions on the buyer side. More specifically, the paper describes benefits and barriers of implementing e-procurement solutions for both buyers and suppliers.Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports on a literature review combined with a case study. The case is a public organization in Sweden, which prepares to implement an e-procurement solution. Interviews were also conducted with a selection of suppliers to the case organization.Findings: In e-procurement literature, drivers and barriers are often viewed only from the perspective of a buying organization. Benefits are mainly cost-related for the buying organization, while barriers often include suppliers. It is proposed that benefits and barriers should include both buyers and suppliers. The literature review and the case study findings form the basis for further investigation into this problem area.Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on a public organization in Sweden. Yet, it could have implications for many public or private organizations considering implementing e-procurement systems.Practical implications: This research suggest that organizations to a greater extent should take the supplier´s side into account when implementing e-procurement solutions.Originality/Value: The study highlights a full cycle view on e-procurement taking both buyer and supplier into account.
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