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- Davoudi, Sara
(författare)
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Innovative Value Creation in Public Transport : Learning to Structure for Capability
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to explore the capability of Swedish regional public transport authorities (RPTAs) to organize public transport so that it stimulates the intended value creation process needed to increase users’ positive experience.Design/methodology/approach – This thesis utilizes an interpretative research approach. Two empirical studies, resulting in two papers have been used in this thesis. Study I consists of a quantitative Kano questionnaire with 930 respondents. Study II comprises a qualitative study with 11 semi-structured interviews. Both studies have been equally necessary to the results of this thesis.Findings – Public transport is one of the few public services with a mandate to attract users, and therefore, this thesis suggests that Swedish public transport organizations must understand how various services in multiple dimensions affect users’ preferences for public transport. With this understanding, public transport organizations can effectively and efficiently allocate resources and increase the appeal of future public transport. Such a focus demands a deep organizational knowledge and understanding of customer needs and detailed awareness of how the achievement of various requirements affects customers. This thesis shows that organizational structures are based on political comprises rather then the needs to solve coordination challenges and facilitate customers’ value creation. It is further argued that the organizational structures and personal or impersonal information processing mechanisms in Swedish public transport influence the search for information and subsequent organizational learning influencing the RPTAs’ capabilities to include and understand public transport users’ needs. This thesis offers insight into how public organizations, such as Swedish public transport authorities, can make decisions in structural design to learn from customer perceptions and adapt organizational policy accordingly. In addition, I argue that RPTAs must employ both exploitative and exploratory learning to improve their capabilities and increase their efficiency and effectiveness. This thesis also provides a model to describe these relationships.Originality/value – Unlike previous studies, this thesis shows how organizational structures are decided based on political compromises rather than the need for coordination. This thesis offers insight into how public organizations, such as Swedish public transport authorities, can make decisions in structural design to learn from customer perceptions and adapt organizational policy accordingly.
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| 2. |
- Elbe, Jörgen, 1959-
(författare)
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Utveckling av turistdestinationer genom samarbete
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis tourist destinations are considered as networks of business actors inside and outside the destination, such as producers of attractions or supporting services and different kinds of intermediaries. These actors are interdependent, since they provide the different components of a generic tourist product. Cooperation between the actors in the network is seen as a way of achieving destination development. Three cases of different forms of cooperation within destinations are studied and analysed. The first case concerns permanent cooperation within a tourist destination (Småland), and the other two cases deal with temporary cooperation. The studies of temporary cooperation concern two public events, one of which was performed on one occasion within a specific destination (O-Ringen in Gästrikland), whereas the other one is performed recurrently in another destination (Dalecarlia Cup at Borlänge). A network perspective constitutes the theoretical frame of reference. Interdependencies and relationships between business actors are seen as important. A model for analysis is developed where the structure of every instance of cooperation is identified using the concepts activities, resources and actors. The development process of every instance of cooperation is captured and analysed using the concepts mobilisation, interests and coordination. Data were mostly gathered through personal interviews, and the different forms of cooperation and actors were identified through snowball sampling.The case studies indicate that cooperation in a destination creates a destination development process. In the case of permanent cooperation it is observed that limited cooperation, such as exchange of information, often leads to moderate cooperation, like joint marketing, and even to broad cooperation, such as the creation of a new business actor for joint production or distribution. In this process, small actors create alliances and these alliances become actors in the destination network. The motives of the actors for participating in cooperation are mainly their material interests. Through the development process, the destination network becomes more integrated, and its functions are improved. In the instances of temporary cooperation (events), new actors and resources controlled by them become connected to the network. These resources are defined as marginal community resources that can be mobilised. Such resources can be mobilised if the actors controlling them have an idealistic or emotional interest in the event. It was observed in the case of the recurrent event that relationships with actors controlling such marginal community resources got more strongly established over time. In the destination development process, the tourist organisation can play an important role. It cannot control the process, but it can influence it, if it is perceived as an actor with moral and pragmatic legitimacy. By influencing the development process the tourist organisation is not just fulfilling a role as coordinator within the destination; it can also be considered as an actor with a significant entrepreneurial role in the destination development process.
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| 3. |
- Emmoth, Anna
(författare)
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The Legitimacy Process that Supports the Formation and Development of Cluster Initiatives : The Case of a Tourism Cluster Initiative in Dalarna
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today, large public investments are being made with the aim of creating and developing cooperation between businesses in inter-organizational networks. Such initiatives are commonly denoted cluster initiatives and their underlying purpose are to spur innovation and regional growth.Much research has been conducted in this field, but relatively few studies have examined the process of cluster initiatives. By following the case of a regional cluster project within the tourism industry in the region of Dalarna, Sweden, the objective of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the formation and development process of cluster initiatives. The investigation has been conducted by examining two main themes; the internal relationships within the cluster initiative and the relationships between the cluster initiative and its external stakeholders, such as funding agencies, regional government and local businesses.The analysis is based on a legitimacy perspective and indicates that the coordinating body of the cluster initiative, the hub, principally deals with a legitimation process. What occurs within the cluster initiative, between the members themselves and between the members and the hub, is legitimation. This also applies to external relationships, between the hub and its external stakeholders. A prerequisite for the realization of its mission is that the hub obtain and sustain legitimacy; legitimacy for itself, for the other members, for the idea, for the different activities and for the industry as such.
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| 4. |
- 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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