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| 2. |
- Ljungbo, Kjell, 1962-
(författare)
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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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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)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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| 3. |
- Gunnarsson, Claes, 1967-
(författare)
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Value creation and loyalty in exchange relationships : a dynamic perspective
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This marketing dissertation focuses on the troublesome aspects of value creation in dynamic business relations including in relation to internal and external customers. The research field points out that relationship-mediated value creation emerges in various forms of organizational arrangements, inter-organizational settings, service systems and networks.The aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyze how loyalty and value creation shortfalls influence business relationship dynamics. It is claimed that shortfalls in value creation reflect a discrepancy between anticipated or present performance compared with business partners’ expectations.In this dissertation, a dynamic perspective is applied to substantiate how critical episodes influence the continuity of relationships taking a progressive or regressive course of development. The study focuses on shortfalls in value creation and indicates troublesome aspects in term of the dimensions of customer satisfaction, trust and commitment. Accordingly, it directs attention towards the heterogeneous influence of business relationship dynamics which is caused by loyalty antecedents in specific episodes of value creation shortfalls.The main contribution of this dissertation is a portrayal of 11 different episodes of shortfalls in value creation, which indicates the stabilizing role of loyalty antecedents in different dynamic business relations.In essence, the findings specify that perceived or anticipated shortfalls in value creation imply an increased awareness among managers to account for loyalty antecedents in dynamic relationships. First, shortfalls in value creation are related to discrepancies between value proposition and value change. Second, stability can be achieved by substitution between trust and commitment (i.e. formalization) when there is a lack of value realization or value capture. Third, the formation of managerial commitment in goal congruence is crucial for stability when shortfalls relate to contingencies in the managerial system of control and coordination. The conclusions in this dissertation signify how loyalty antecedents may not be sequentially connected or activated along the relationship development process. In addition, these loyalty antecedents are occasionally inherently inconsistent in continuous and dynamic relationships.This dissertation consists of an extended summary and seven research papers. The applied method is characterized by both multiple and single case study approaches. Furthermore, the qualitative and multidimensional approach used is pertinent to the discussion of value creation and loyalty in contrast to employing a single theory framework.
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| 4. |
- Lindh, Kristina, 1964-
(författare)
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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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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)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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| 5. |
- Ntiyakunze, Stanslaus Karoli
(författare)
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Conflicts in Building Projets in Tanzania : Analysis of Causes and Management Approaches
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The prime objective of a client in a building project is to attain a successful project, a project that has been properly planned, designed and constructed in accordance with plans and specifications, and completed within time and cost originally anticipated. However the success of a building project depends on a number of variables one of them is the way the building team approach conflicts facing the project. This study examines the causes and management approaches of conflicts in building projects in Tanzania. The main objective of the study is to identify issues/areas on which conflicts occur, factors causing them and how conflicts are managed in building projects in Tanzania. As a means to achieve the above objective, the study was structured into two main parts; the first part aimed at mapping up the nature of conflicts in building projects in Tanzania by establishing critical symptoms of conflicts, factors causing them and the approaches used in resolving the conflicts. This was done through literature review, interviews and questionnaire survey. The second part aimed at in-depth study of conflicts from their root cause, how they develop/progress and how they are managed in a real building project setting. Four case studies of building projects were studied for this part. The study found that factors causing conflicts are in several forms. There are those related to the nature of contracts, where the contracts are unclear and ambiguous they give room for contracting parties to develop opportunistic behaviour when post adjustments are needed. There are those factors which are related to role functions when the parties fail to perform as expected. As such the study confirmed that contractual incompleteness and consequent post contract adjustments and opportunistic behaviour of some project participants are root causes of conflicts in building projects in Tanzania. However, the study established that there are sufficient mechanisms to deal with conflicts in the standard forms of building contracts used and when the provisions are against the interests of the parties, the parties resort to amicable resolution approaches. Notwithstanding the availability of mechanisms in the standard forms of contracts to deal with conflicts, the study proposes the framework as a strategy that could reduce effectively the occurrences of conflicts in building projects.
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- 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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| 7. |
- Radón, Anita, 1980-
(författare)
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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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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)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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| 9. |
- Bohlin, Lars
(författare)
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Taxation of intermediate goods : a CGE analysis
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is concerned with tax rates for the use of commodities in general, and energy in particular. Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are used to analyze the normative question of whether the tax rate for intermediate use by firms should be the same as the tax rate for final consumption by households. To answer this question, a distinction needs to be made between fiscal taxes for the purpose of raising revenue for the government, and Pigovian taxes for the purpose of changing behaviour. Concerning fiscal taxes, firms should not pay taxes on their use of inputs if the tax rates in final consumption are at their optimal level. If the tax rate for households is above the optimal level, intermediate use in firms should be taxed in order to increase the price of other commodities and reduce the distortion of relative prices. Essay 1 ascertains what factors determine the optimal relation between the tax rate for final consumption by households and intermediate use by firms. Essay 2 analyses Swedish energy taxes from the perspective of reducing global emission of CO2. It is found that the welfare maximizing tax rates are equal for households and firms not participating in emission trading, while firms that participate in emission trading should have a zero tax rate. Essays 3 and 4 deal with methodological issues. Essay 3 derives a new method for estimation of symmetric input-output tables from supply and use tables. This method solves the problem of negative coefficients, makes it possible to use both the industry and commodity technology assumptions simultaneously and enables the commodity technology assumption to be used even when the number of commodities is larger than the number of industries. Essay 4 describes the model used in the first two essays. The price structure developed here makes it possible to take into account price differences between different purchasers other than differences in tax rates. This essay also makes a comparison between the Swedish implementation of this model and other Swedish CGE-models used to analyse climate policy and energy taxation.
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| 10. |
- Sund, Björn
(författare)
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Economic evaluation, value of life, stated preference methodology and determinants of risks
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The first paper examines the value of a statistical life (VSL) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) victims. We found VSL values to be higher for OHCA victims than for people who die in road traffic accidents and a lower-bound estimate of VSL for OHCA would be in the range of 20 to 30 million Swedish crowns (SEK). The second paper concerns hypothetical bias in contingent valuation (CV) studies. We investigate the link between the determinants and empirical treatment of uncertainty through certainty calibration and find that the higher the confidence of the respondents the more we can trust that stated WTP is correlated to actual WTP. The third paper investigates the performance of two communication aids (a flexible community analogy and an array of dots) in valuing mortality risk reductions for OHCA. The results do not support the prediction of expected utility theory, i.e. that WTP for a mortality risk reduction increases with the amount of risk reduction (weak scope sensitivity), for any of the communication aids. The fourth paper presents a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the effects of dual dispatch defibrillation by ambulance and fire services in the County of Stockholm. The intervention had positive economic effects, yielding a benefit-cost ratio of 36, a cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) of € 13 000 and the cost per saved life was € 60 000. The fifth paper explores how different response times from OHCA to defibrillation affect patients’ survival rates by using geographic information systems (GIS). The model predicted a baseline survival rate of 3.9% and reducing the ambulance response time by 1 minute increased survival to 4.6%. The sixth paper analyzes demographic determinants of incident experience and risk perception, and the relationship between the two, for eight different risk domains. Males and highly educated respondents perceive their risks lower than what is expected compared to actual incident experience.
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