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- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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A Study of Small Enterprises with Focus on Entrepreneurship and E-government in a Regional Development Context
- 2015
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Ingår i: A Nordic Perspective on Co‐Operation for Sustainable Destination and Regional Development. - Trollhättan : University West. ; , s. 59-75
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter aims to describe and analyze a sample of small enterprises located in a region undergoing structural change with focus on entrepreneurship and e-government and is a further development of a previous study that focused on how municipalities supported entrepreneurship and destination development. In this study the focus is extended to include small enterprises contributing to development of tourist destinations within the same region. In-depth qualitative interviews weremade with twelve managers from ten small enterprises. Based on a theoretical discussion of entrepreneurship, e-government and regional development, the results indicate that networks and strategic networking were important for these small enterprises both in terms of developing the enterprise butalso to develop entrepreneurship for regional development. The findings further indicate that municipal information, communication and competence development in order to support entrepreneurship and the development of small enterprises could be improved. The importance of face-to-face contacts was stressed. The use of local e-government was hitherto limited to e-services for public procurement. The entrepreneurs who used the e-services had mainly positive experiences, although despite the complexity of the e-services. The respondents did not ask for more municipal e-services, but that could be a consequence of their limited experience of the potential of local e-government. The use of social media among the enterprises was limited due to lack of time, competence and motivation for most of the enterprises, although the potential of social media for marketing was seen as extensive. A few of the respondents were on the other hand very skilled in their use ofdigital media, as a consequence of their professional knowledge and business orientation.
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| 3. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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A Study of Small Enterprises with Focus on Entrepreneurship and E-government in a Regional Development Context
- 2014
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Ingår i: Uddevalla Symposium 2014. Geography of Growth. The Frequency, Nature and Consequences of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Regions of Varying Density<em></em>: Revised papers. - Trollhättan : Högskolan Väst. - 9789187531026 ; , s. 165-183
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper aims to describe and analyse a sample of small enterprises located in a region undergoing structural change with focus on entrepreneurship and e-government and is a further development of a previous study that focused on how municipalities supported entrepreneurship and destination development. In this study the focus is extended to include small enterprises contributing to development of tourist destinations within the same region. In-depth qualitative interviews were made with twelve managers from ten small enterprises. Based on a theoretical discussion of entrepreneurship, e-government and regional development, the results indicate that networks and strategic networking were important for these small enterprises both in terms of developing the enterprise but also to develop entrepreneurship for regional development. The findings further indicate that municipal information, communication and competence development in order to support entrepreneurship and the development of small enterprises could be improved. The importance of face-to-face contacts was stressed. The use of local e-government was hitherto limited to e-services for public procurement. The entrepreneurs who used the e-services had mainly positive experiences, although despite the complexity of the e-services. The respondents did not ask for more municipal e-services, but that could be a consequence of their limited experience of the potential of local e-government. The use of social media among the enterprises was limited due to lack of time, competence and motivation for most of the enterprises, although the potential of social media for marketing was seen as extensive. A few of the respondents were on the other hand very skilled in their use of digital media, as a consequence of their professional knowledge and business orientation.
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| 4. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Challenging Organizational Issues When Municipal Contact Centers are Implemented in Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Electronic Journal of e-Government. - 1479-439X. ; 11:2, s. 198-209
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two case studies of the implementation of Contact Centres(CCs) in Swedish municipalities were compared and discussed from anorganizational perspective. The research method was semi-structured qualitative interviews with different personnel categories in both municipalities. Several challenging organizational issues for management and employees were identified:the implementation strategies varied among the cases and affected the pace of implementation, attitudes and motivation, the mental construct and understanding of the implementation. The financing of the CC and recruitment strategies created problems, but in somewhat different ways and in phases of the process in each case. The potential of using registered information as asource for planning and decision-making was not fully utilized, although somestatistics were produced. In both cases there was a combination of formal andinformal learning strategies and flexible co-operation among the employees inthe CCs which contributed to continuous learning processes and a good,co-operative working climate. There was a need for continuous updating ofskills in both cases, but with slightly different focus, related to theorganization of the work. The organization in response groups required morespecialist competence, compared with the organization without response groups,which required more general competence. Some challenges for the caseadministrators in the back offices were to adapt to a more process-oriented organizationof their work, and to co-operate more with their colleagues both in the backoffice and at the CC. They now had the possibility to plan their administrativework in a better way than before, but some administrators missed the previousspontaneous contacts with citizens. Initially, many case administrators wereafraid of losing their jobs and work tasks to CC, contributing to negativeattitudes towards CC and hampering the learning process in taking part in theimplementation process.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Lessons Learned from the Implementation of Contact Centers in Swedish Municipalities
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on e-Government. - Reading : ACAD CONFERENCES LTD, CURTIS FARM, KIDMORE END, NR READING, RG4 9AY, ENGLAND. - 9781909507227 ; , s. 63-70
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract: Two case studies of the implementation of contact centers (CCs) in Swedish municipalities were compared and analyzed. The purpose of the article is to focus on lessons learned from the perspectives of the management and the employees in the organizations according to the MOA-model. The research method used was semi-structured qualitative interviews with different personnel categories in both municipalities. According to our findings the implementation strategies varied among the two cases. The strategies affected the pace of implementation, attitudes and motivation aspects and understanding of the implementation. The potential of using registered information as a source for planning and decision-making was not fully utilized in the municipal organizations, although some statistics were produced. In both cases there was a combination of formal and informal learning strategies and flexible co-operation among the employees in the CCs which contributed to continuous learning processes and a good, co-operative working climate. Some learning challenges for the handling officers at the back offices were to adapt to a more process-oriented organization. Initially, many handling officers at the back-office were afraid of losing their jobs and work tasks to CC, contributing to negative attitudes towards CC, and hampering the learning process in taking part in the implementation process. The establishment of a CC is a comprehensive organizational change process affecting the whole municipal administration. A challenge for the municipalities is to formulate relevant strategies and manage the implementation in order to involve all employees.
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| 8. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Municipal Support of Entrepreneurship and Business Development from an e-government Perspective
- 2015
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Ingår i: A Nordic Perspective on Co‐Operation for Sustainable Destination and Regional Development. - Uddevalla : University West. ; , s. 44-58
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article will contribute to the debate about regional development in peripheral areas by examining the social capital in 14 villages in a Danish municipality, and particularly the influence of social media on the social capital.Contrary to the current public discourse in Denmark on peripheral communities and how they are falling apart because of demographic changes, economic cut backs, and structural changes, this study did not find one single village, where the social capital seems to be in any imminent danger. The article also proposes a different perspective on the operationalization of social capital. Social capital is typically measured in big international values surveys based on the variables network, trust and reciprocity. However, this study is based on a qualitative research with interviews in 14 villages in a peripheral Danish municipality. This in depth research shows that when examining the social capital of communities, the most valuable parameter is to look at the most typical proxy for network: associations and in particular the character of these associations. They furthermore give an indication of the kind of social capital they are building and maintaining.The study also shows that we might have to extend the notion of network to include that of social media as this type of network gets increasingly more important. However, the study cannot conclude that the communities not using the social media have less social capital then the one who does, nor that they are disconnected from the citizens.
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| 9. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Municipal Support of Entrepreneurship and Business Development from an e-Government Perspective
- 2013. - 1
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Ingår i: Uddevalla Symposium 2013 Innovation, High-Growth Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. - Trollhättan : University West. - 9789197794374 ; , s. 177-193
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to describe and analyze municipal support of entrepreneurship and business development from an e-government perspective. We analyze two Swedish municipalities and a local tourism company partly owned by the municipalities located in a region undergoing structural change, focusing on efforts of municipalities to develop digital services to support entrepreneurship and business development to promote local and regional development. The research method is based on case study methodology. The case studies are part of the research project “Maritime Inlands – past, present and future strengths” (Marifus) financed by Interregional European Union Regional Development Fund (Interrreg). Based on theoretical discussions of entrepreneurship and e-government theories, the analyses of the two case studies show substantial variations in how they supported entrepreneurship. The findings indicated that e-government services so far have under-used potential for the studied municipalities and the tourism company in order to support efficient communication and information towards the entrepreneurs and businesses aiming at local and regional development.
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| 10. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Networking and e-government for local development : experiences gained by entrepreneurs in small enterprises in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. - 1476-1297 .- 1741-8054. ; 29:2, s. 154-175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to analyse experiences gained by entrepreneurs in small enterprises located in a region undergoing structural change, focusing on networking and e-government for local development. The study is a further development of a study that focused on how municipalities supported entrepreneurship and destination development. In-depth qualitative interviews were made with twelve entrepreneurs from ten small enterprises. Based on a theoretical discussion of networking, e-government and social media marketing, the results indicate that networks and strategic networking were important in order to develop their enterprises, which also contributed to local development. The importance of initial face-to-face contacts in order to build business relationships in networks was stressed. The use of local e-government was hitherto limited to e-services for public procurement, the use of social media marketing was limited due to lack of time, competence and motivation for most of the entrepreneurs.
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