| 1. |
- Lindahl, Ingela
(författare)
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Visual aesthetics in product development : A balance between commercial and creative imperatives
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The literature presents a number of advantages regarding companies’ strategic focus on product design, arguing that the dimension of visual aesthetics in products may help a company to create commercial success, e.g. through product differentiation and as a means of company brand recognition. However, developing new products that have visual aesthetics as an important dimension is not without difficulty, and may lead to a number of managerial challenges.The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to describe and analyse how companies develop products that have visual aesthetics as an important dimension. The thesis describes and analyses: how the dimension of visual aesthetics affects the characteristics of the new product development process; how companies strike a balance between commercial and creative imperatives during new product development; and how companies source and collaborate using artistic design resources during new product development.Based on findings from five new product development projects and from interviews with managers at twelve Swedish designer furniture manufacturers, the thesis concludes that the dimension of visual aesthetics in products affects new product development in different ways. First, companies’ development of visual aesthetics calls for a more creative, artistic development process whereby, for example, idea generation and evaluation are often flexible in relation to plans made. Moreover, the different and subjective judgement of the aesthetic value of products has implications for new product development, e.g. that the company needs to address and balance imperatives stemming from different audiences, i.e. the designer’s self, peers, and the mass market, during product development. Also, it is concluded that the sourcing of designer resources and the composition of designer portfolios are both critical and related to companies’ desired brand image. A close and trustful working relationship between the designer and the manufacturer is a basis for companies’ successful product development.Theoretically, this research contributes to the product development literature through its findings on companies’ new product development processes in a seldom researched context, i.e. the development of designer products. Additionally, it contributes to the literature on design outsourcing by presenting new findings on the interplay between artistic design resources and managers. Moreover, it also contributes to the marketing literature by providing fresh insights into how companies balance their commercial and creative interests when developing new products.
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| 2. |
- Devine, Åsa, 1972-
(författare)
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Internationalization and Performance among Small and Medium-sized Firms : A study of furniture producers in Sweden
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Furniture production in Sweden still exists on a comparably small scale. The majority, or more than 99 percent, of all furniture producers in Sweden are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 250 employees. Despite their size, these firms are, to a large extent, involved in export. This is fully in line with the accelerating trend of internationalization found among firms of all sizes. However, research focused on internationalization has been primarily concentrated on larger firms, which is unfortunate considering that the vast majority of all firms within the European Union can be described as SMEs. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to extend our understanding of internationalization and performance among small and medium sized firms by explaining export involvement and performance among small and medium sized furniture producers in Sweden.This research is completed within the theoretical framework of the modified PSE model, which consists of four components: perception of export barriers, strategy competence, export involvement, and performance. A quantitative survey was conducted among 324 firms, yielding a response rate of 56 percent. The empirical data was analyzed using the methods of multiple linear regression, logistic regression, and ordinal regression.The result suggests that strategy competence, measured in terms of relatedness and market knowledge, explains the main export mode and performance among exporting SMEs. In addition, main export mode seems to explain performance. The main findings of this research are visualized through a new model, SCEMPER. Another finding is that barriers originating with the owner/key decision-maker of a firm seem to prevent firms from becoming involved in export. In addition, attitude towards export and the age of the firm appear to be important determinants of export involvement and performance among SMEs.
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| 3. |
- Ebadzadeh Semnani, Sedigheh Sarah
(författare)
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Trust in Different Types of Organizational Relationships : A Social Capital Perspective
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to expand the understanding about the concepts of trust and social capital, and to explore their role in achieving desired organizational outcomes. The research followed a multiple case study approach, focusing on Iranian service providers. The reason for this focus is the insufficient scholarly contribution about social capital in developing countries. Moreover, considering the significant role of trust in social capital generation according to many scholars, this study seeks to understand how the issue of lack of trust in developing countries can influence social capital generation in these nations. In order to address the criticisms in the literature, this research first attempts to study the concepts of trust and social capital in different types of organizational relationships separately. There are, therefore, different levels of analysis in this study. The three types of organizational relationships which are the focus of this research are intra-organizational, organization-customer and business cluster.An intensive literature review was carried out on trust and social capital to build an overall theoretical picture of the problem at hand. The next step was to analyse the findings of this study by engaging both empirical and theoretical findings simultaneously. This was carried out with the aim of achieving answers to the research questions through theory matching and elaboration.The result of this study, in general, supports both the positive role of trust and social capital in achieving desired organizational outcomes. The empirical data and literature, therefore, seem to be in line with one another to a large extent. However, in several cases of this study the issue of lack of trust at the Iranian companies did in fact hinder the achievement of their desired outcomes. Moreover, the findings from the organization-customer and business cluster relationships showed that several of these Iranian companies are indeed already benefiting from social capital. However, they mostly benefit from the type of social capital arising from information flows. What they are missing, and are in fact in great need of, is the type of social capital associated with the benefits of trust. In other words, they were unsuccessful in bringing forward the benefits of the relational dimension of social capital. The study has also contributed towards refining the literature by showing that there are differences in the connotation of both “trust” and “social capital” when they are studied under different types of organizational relationships. Simply using these terms without specifying the type of relationship, or level of analysis, does not bring forward a clear understanding. Furthermore, the findings had pointed out the important difference between a contributing factor to a phenomenon and the phenomenon itself, which in this case were trust and social capital, respectively.Last but not least, the results of the cross-case analysis identified certain patterns and differences in the role of trust and social capital in different relationship types. These findings were summarized in the form of a proposed model and a matrix. The proposed model started with the development of trust in organizational interpersonal relationships, and ended with the creation of two different types of social capital that can benefit both the organization and its customers. The matrix, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of keeping a balance between different types of social capital, depending on the organizational requirement, in order to achieve the best desired outcomes.
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| 4. |
- Hosseini, Mojtaba, 1981-
(författare)
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Firm-level entrepreneurship and the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last decade, firm-level entrepreneurship as an important phenomenon that may influence the corporate performance, attracted the attention of many researchers and a number of measurements were developed to gauge the entrepreneurial intensity at the firm level such as entrepreneurial orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial management. EO and CE found more popularity and researchers employed them to investigate the phenomenon of firm-level entrepreneurship.Incrementally, a contradiction was emerged in the literature regarding the proper measurement of FLE. A number of studies recommended integrating EO and CE in a more comprehensive measurement to develop a deeper understanding of firms’ entrepreneurial intensity. In fact, EO and CE complement each other. While the former focuses on the proclivity of firms to have entrepreneurial behaviors and activities, the latter is the output- based construct and points out to the actual entrepreneurial actions such as innovation, venturing and strategic renewal.This study develops an integrative model of EO and CE to classify the companies in four different categories includes non-entrepreneurial, forced-entrepreneurial, latent-entrepreneurial, and actual entrepreneurial firms. The primary objective of the study is to investigate if the actual entrepreneurial firms show the higher degrees of internationalization or not.The research has performed in two different steps to confirm the integrative model and testify the research hypotheses. In the first step, the multi-case study approach is primarily applied to investigate if the model categorizes companies that are actually different or not. To conduct this step, four companies were selected that each one was the representative of a unique category of the model. Then deep interviews were performed to assess their behaviors on some especial characteristics, which were previously mentioned as the different characteristics of entrepreneurial versus non-entrepreneurial firms. To testify the research hypotheses, a questionnaire was designed that was included of questions, which were applied and validated by former studies.
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| 5. |
- Öhrwall Rönnbäck, Anna, 1969-
(författare)
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Interorganizational IT Support for Collaborative Product Development
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As product complexity increases and markets become more global, companies tend to collaborate with customers, suppliers and partners in business process activities previously carried out within a single firm. This is observed notably also in product development. Product development is an information and communication intense activity, and collaborative product development requires efficient communication between the participating firms, both during an ongoing project and afterwards when the product is in service. When more than one firm is involved, questions linked to business aspects regarding what information to share and how to communicate the information between the firms become important. With changing partners and competing supply chains this is a delicate management issue.The objective of this dissertation is to assess characteristics of communication in collaborative product development, in order to identify requirements for supporting IT tools.Empirically, the research was conducted in two parts. Part I was conducted in the aircraft industry, where a systems integrator firm’s relationship to its major suppliers was investigated. In Part II, collaborative product development between a buyer and several suppliers organized in networks was investigated. These studies were complemented with studies of IS/IT development and implementation projects. Theoretically, it is based on the literature on product development, supply chain management, and IT support for business relationships.Concerning the buyer-supplier dyad it was found that there was not one collaborative product development process in common between the firms, but rather coordination between the firms’ processes. Concerning the relationship between buyer and supplier network, it was found that one of the suppliers represents the network in a dyadic buyer-supplier relationship. Within the supplier network, the firms conducted interorganizational integrated product development, which means that the functions were represented by several firms. This implied that management practices must respect the special characteristic of small and medium-sized firms in collaboration.The investigation of information and communication in collaborative product development in dyads and networks led to a list of requirements on IOIS. The findings were concluded in a matrix that presents characteristics of product development in general, product development in dyads, and product development in supplier networks, and a mapping of the requirements on IOIS.Since the business relationship is the major difference between product development in-house and collaborative product development, it was considered appropriate to take a supply chain view on the requirements for an IOIS. It was found that support is needed both for the procurement and the product development process. Moreover, it was found that project management support can significantly improve the efficiency of the development process. Improvements of the effectiveness regard support for the product life cycle, and for the long-term relationship between the parties.It was concluded that an IOIS for collaborative product development should be based on standard technology and support standard formats, in order to make it possible for a firm to simultaneously manage its own systems and proprietary information, and exchange information with partners when needed.
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| 6. |
- Asgharian Bourkheili, Ehsan
(författare)
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Enhancing SMEs competitive advantage by franchising
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Although there is a large body of literature on franchising systems that are mainly produced from the franchisor's perspective, looking at franchising from the franchisee's point of view has remained largely uninvestigated. Creating and sustaining competitive advantage is the prerequisite for the franchisee's (as an SME) survival in today's competitive environment. This research's comprehensive literature review shows three major groups of factors influencing the franchisee’s competitive advantage, including the franchisor-related factors, the franchisee-related factors, and factors associated with the franchisor-franchisee relationship. Since the franchisor has a dominant role in the business, it can influence the franchisee in many ways. Therefore, it is crucial to put special emphasis on how the franchisor-related factors may influence the franchisee business success.In light of the discussion above, this study was carried out to understand how franchisor-related factors, through enhancing/creating competitive advantage, might influence the franchisee’s business success. According to the literature on competitive advantage, three clusters of literature as three perspectives were reviewed and discussed. These include the resource-based view, the industry structure view, and the relational view. In the resource-based view, the firm's resources are considered as a source of competitive advantage, but in the relational view, not only the firm's internal resources, but also the interfirm resources are the source of competitive advantage. Therefore, this perspective has a significant contribution to this study. In addition to services provided services by the franchisor, as the resources, franchisor organizational factors specifically entrepreneurial orientation, and absorptive capacity were found relevant in the franchisee's competitive advantage. Accordingly, an integrative theoretical/analytical framework was built and used throughout the study.Because of exploratory nature of the study, the qualitative method was chosen and applied. Along with the purpose of the study, a multiple-case study research strategy consisting of seven cases, in two franchising systems, was performed. The results of the analysis confirm that services provided by the franchisor, the franchisors’ entrepreneurial orientation, and the franchisees’ absorptive capacity have a significant role in enhancement of the franchisees’ competitive advantage. Other significant results of the franchisor-related factors enhancing competitive advantage were found to be: the speed of raw material supply, keeping consistency in quality, economy of scale and keeping prices competitive. Furthermore, the franchisor enhances the franchisee's competitive advantage by transferring business know-how and creating collective tacit knowledge, and as well improvement in the franchisee-specific human capital. Intellectual property in a franchise system through transferring the first mover advantage to the franchisee and creating the differentiated position affect the franchisee's competitive advantage. The franchisor’s entrepreneurial orientation creates the first-mover advantage for the franchisee. Similarly, the franchisor's absorptive capacity, through creating the first-mover advantage and improving the franchisee's social capital, enhances the franchisee's competitive advantage.
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| 7. |
- Asgharian Bourkheili, Ehsan
(författare)
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Performance in Franchise Systems : The Franchisee Perspective
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last decades, franchising as an organizational form has received a lot of attention from researchers and practitioners alike. While many studies have examined various aspects of franchising from the franchisor's perspective, little research has taken the franchisee’s perspective. Therefore, given the importance of franchisees in a franchise system, the lack of research about consequences from the franchisee's perspective, and that many of the previous studies have taken a top-bottom view, this research concentrated on the franchisee's performance. This study focused on business format franchising in the restaurant industry in two countries, Iran and Sweden.In this study, the three perspectives of entrepreneurship, strategic management, and marketing were used to study the franchisee’s performance. Moreover, the resourcebased view, relational view, and relational exchange theory have been used to find the influential factors in a franchisee’s performance. Therefore, by considering franchising as a mutual relationship and examining the influential factors in a franchisee's performance, the related factors of both the franchisor and franchisee, as well as the relationship between them, were examined.According to the franchisee’s related factors, the franchisor's related factors, and the relationship and environmental factors, 12 main hypotheses and 9 sub-hypotheses were developed. In total, 191 usable questionnaires from Sweden and Iran, comprising a response rate of 22 percent, were returned from the franchisees. In this study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the construct measurement; to test the hypothesis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed. Moreover, the Chow test was conducted to integrate the data from these two countries.A primary contribution of this study is taking a bottom-top view in franchising research. This study also provided a detailed and holistic view about the consequences of franchising for franchisees. Moreover, this study, offers important contributions toward understanding entrepreneurial activities, as a controversial issue, in franchising outlets.The results provide interesting insights into the franchisee’s performance. While the franchisees’ related factors of absorptive capacity, Kirznerian entrepreneurial orientation, and social capital positively affected their performance, Schumpeterian entrepreneurial orientation and human capital did not affect their performance. Moreover, the franchisor’s related factors of system profitability, brand reputation, advertisement and providing raw material had a positive influence on the performance. However, training did not cause a difference in the franchisee’s performance. All relationship factors also positively affected the performance, and conflict and satisfaction mediated the relationship between trust and performance. Finally, the implications of this study and suggestions for further contributions in this stream of research are discussed.
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| 8. |
- Elmhester, Karolina, 1975-
(författare)
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Små företag i strategiska nätverk : hur påverkas det enskilda företagets utveckling?
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the impact collaboration in strategic networks has on the individual company’s development. The particular focus is especially on whether the collaboration has contributed something to the individual company, which in the long run can help to improve the possibilities for a better outcome. The study is based on three research questions: 1) what happens on the network level respective the company level during collaboration; 2) what is the link between the activities of the strategic network and the individual company, and 3) what is the reason why the individual company is affected.The empirical data in the study consists of four strategic networks, and eleven participating companies. The study began in late spring 2004 and ended in spring 2008. Data was collected on several occasions during the study period. The companies that participated in the strategic networks were small and belonged to the wood product manufacturing sector. All four strategic networks participated in Nutek’s “Träklusterprogram” (Wood cluster program) which ran 2003-2005, but they all continued being active after the program ended. There are previous studies on strategic networks, but by studying both the strategic networks and the participating companies, this thesis adds new dimension, a discussion as to how collaboration could affect the participating companies’ strategies and development.The thesis shows that collaboration in strategic networks, which in reality is a relatively small part of a company’s operations, could have a significant strategic importance for example on the production process, marketing and external relations.Interesting findings from the study include indications that there may be a clear difference in how the individual company is affected, depending on whether the strategic network has market or competence related goals. Moreover, collaboration in strategic networks can improve a business executive’s self-confidence and infuse him or her with inspiration, with the result that he or she will dare to invest and take on more challenges. Among other things, this can have the effect that the company’s strategies are implemented and goals reached.For the strategic network, the results indicate that an enthusiastic, committed leader of the collaboration seems to diminish the importance of a well-structured organization, that is to say that a leader with drive is more important than a formal organization. The thesis also stresses the importance of a socialization process in strategic networks in order for them to be successful, in the sense that the participants should get to know each other and their respective companies. Finally, the company representatives’ commitment to the collaboration and their attitude to it tend to overshadow the importance of other factors.
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| 9. |
- Guan, Wei
(författare)
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Developments in Distribution Channels : A Case Study of a Timber Product Distribution Channel
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis describes and analyses the trends and developments of actors along distribution channel. In particular, the study focuses on resellers and manufacturer based on the empirical material from one particular case study. The study has three main goals: (1) to investigate the challenges arising from channel actor developments, the effects of these developments on the structure of the retailer supply chain and their implications for manufacturers and suppliers, (2) to identify explanations for manufacturer’s vertical integration of distribution and the resulting impacts and, (3) to conduct a preliminary customer value analysis relating to the distribution channel of solid wood products.The study has taken an exploratory and qualitative research approach with an abductive reasoning process. A case study strategy was adopted, which studied a distribution channel consisting of a Sweden-based timber manufacturer that vertically integrated a distributor in the UK. Semi-structured interviews comprised the primary data collection technique in this study. A two-step data collection process was conducted between May 2009 and April 2010, including 29 interviews with 24 interviewees from eight organizations, representing the manufacturer, distributor and reseller in the distribution channel. Non-participating observations were carried out by attending sales meeting and joining account managers on store visits. All interviews were documented and transcribed and the information was collated into case units, along with any supporting secondary data, such as company magazines, web resources, annual reports, sales reports, meeting presentations, etc.This thesis has produced several findings. Reseller developments have promoted the formation of reseller demands, such as integrated solutions with respects to logistics, marketing, merchandising, innovation, etc. Retailer developments have driven the change of a retailer supply chain structure, and have opened up a number of new questions to be posed on manufacturer and its positioning in the supply chain. The most important factors driving the manufacturer’s vertical integration of distribution are customer demands, the manufacturer’s repositioning strategy with regard to its business focus and its positioning in the supply chain. The vertical integration of distribution transforms the manufacturer into a direct supplier to large timber product resellers. It also offers the supplier a great opportunity to enhance offerings and establish strategic relationship with customers. The output of suppliers has expanded from solely manufacturing goods to also include services and knowledge associated with goods. In practice, it can be complicated for a supplier to create and communicate value. A full understanding of what timber product customers seek in terms of value elements has not yet been achieved. This study has assisted in terms of understanding the differing value that channel actors place on a range of product, physical distribution, service and supplier value elements by developing a value analysis framework. Suppliers can use this framework when designing, customizing and marketing offerings for customers.
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| 10. |
- Guan, Wei
(författare)
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The Role of Suppliers and Resellers : Cases of Timber Product Distribution Channels
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation aims to explain the impacts of distribution channel developments on the roles of timber product distribution channel actors. The role of channel actors in this dissertation is defined as the structured behaviour pattern that combines activities and resources in distribution channels. Three phenomena and their impacts on channel actors’ roles are addressed: (1) shifts in manufacturers’ supply chain position, (2) the changing nature of manufacturing companies’ offerings, and (3) concentrated markets with enhanced resellers. The research builds on case studies focusing on timber product distribution channels. The dissertation consists of an extended summary, six papers, and a grand case description.This dissertation has produced several findings. First, reseller developments have driven changes in the retailer supply chain structure and have placed pressure on manufacturers. Manufacturers’ downstream vertical integration and their move to a total offering approach can be seen as countervailing effects on reseller developments. These effects have result in a new type of role: the integration role, while the significance of the service role has increased. Second, resellers have gained a central position in distribution channels, not only because they are in good position to exploit the clones to customers, but also because their business has extended from being suppliers’ distribution partners to customers’ supply hub.Theoretically, this research contributes to the field of distribution channels by proposing definitions of roles and the roles of channel actors that allows for a better understanding of the dynamics of distribution channels. This research also proposes a distributionsupply view of vertical systems that highlights the roles played by resellers in defining offerings to customers, shaping supply chain structures, and developing and launching new products.
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| 11. |
- Lindahl, Ingela, 1969-
(författare)
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Design-led organisations : A multiple-case study of the interplay between design and marketing
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge base concerning the interplay between design and marketing. Based on the findings from the empirical studies, the aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze how marketing and design interplay in companies and the main reasons for such interplay. The research builds upon a multiple-case study of companies mainly within the furniture manufacturing industry. The research focus is the study of companies described as “design led”, i.e. “characterized by a dominant logic that views design as central to the companies’ strategic positioning”(Beverland and Farrell, 2007). Three different interfaces between design and marketing within the company and towards its external actors are studied. The studied companies illustrate how a company’s desire to create a brand that is closely related to product design creates an effect on internal activities as well as the interfaces to external actors, e.g. customers and suppliers. Based on empirical findings, it is proposed that by being design-led, companies may not only create a competitive advantage connected to the good itself and its product design, but also through its potential to offer new products based on the company’s design competence and its brand image. One such example of new potential is the offering of an integrated interior solution and the concept of “aesthetic complexity” that is introduced and suggested as a driver for such solutions. Moreover, a more general model on the interplay between product design and marketing compared to those previously presented in literature is suggested. This model considers the different company approaches to design, e.g. more or less selforiented, and marketing, e.g. more or less market-oriented. It is proposed that depending on the company’s approach to design and marketing, the coordination between design resources and marketing within the company should be managed differently. This thesis also presents a tentative model on the relationship between the companies’ different desired brand images and their sourcing of external designers. It is proposed that a company’s desired brand image and its design philosophy affect the company’s practices when sourcing external design resources, e.g. in the choice of contracting more or less well-known designers. The conclusions presented in this licentiate thesis may serve as a starting point for managers to understand the interplay between design and marketing in companies. Although still tentative, the conclusions suggest a number of marketing-related prerequisites and consequences when a company aims to be design-led. By considering these different aspects, companies might improve their chances of being successful when creating a brand image that is closely connected to design.
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| 12. |
- Lindskog, Helena, 1976-
(författare)
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Public Procurement and the Development of the Swedish Telecommunications Market
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis describes and analyses public procurement and its processes in general against the framework of industrial marketing and purchasing. In particular, it focuses on the public procurement of telecommunications (“telecom”) and its effects on the de-monopolization and development of the Swedish telecom market based on empirical material from three case studies, interviews and publicly available written sources.Public procurement is a significant part of any country’s economy. There is a plenitude of publicly available data due to Sweden’s and other public administrations’ transparency policies. Despite this fact, public procurement has been poorly covered in business administration literature when compared with the private sector’s purchasing and selling activities. This thesis tries to bridge the theoretical gap between knowledge of purchasing in business-to-business (“B2B”) and public procurement.Public procurement can be considered as a special type of B2B transaction and, particularly in the case of bigger procurements, of project purchasing. The important difference is that public procurement must follow specific and stricter legislation compared with the private sector’s purchasing activities. Among other things, public procurement law restricts contact between the procuring organisation and tenderers in some phases of the procurement process, allows no changes after the publishing of the Request for Proposal and opens the possibility to appeal to the court if any party considers that the procuring organisation has not acted in accordance with the public procurement rules.The telecom market has, over a period of thirty years, been transformed from a monopoly with practically no choice to a fully competitive market with several service and equipment providers as well as different pricing schemes and competing technical solutions. The development of the Swedish telecom market can be divided into four stages: Full monopoly, partial de-monopolization, full competition and system integration. The main driving forces behind this development have been the political decision to liberate the telecom market and achieve full competition as well as rapid and diverse technical development, which includes the introduction of mobile communication, broadband and Internet.At the same time, the dependency on well functioning telecom in the public sector is constantly increasing due to political agendas such as agencies availability 24 hours 365 days (“24/7 agency”), use of telecom as a means of rationalization and increased internal efficiency as well as new usages in areas that previously were not using telecom in their daily routines. The public procurement of telecom has changed from being a relatively simple administrative issue through being of technical concern to becoming more and more of strategic importance, especially in case of outsourcing and/or procuring system integration from a prime contractor.
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| 13. |
- Rosenfall, Thomas
(författare)
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Open Source Vendors’ Business Models
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It may seem controversial that open-source software (OSS), i.e. software created by voluntary contributions that is available to use, change, and distribute for free, can be utilized for business purposes. Yet, for some firms, commercial OSS software products are the primary source of revenue. In this thesis, these companies are referred to as OSS vendors. Although some OSS vendors have existed for more than thirty years, how they conduct their business has not been extensively studied.Business models as a concept has been widely used in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, often when describing firms working with OSS. In that context business models often refer to the offering, i.e. the products the firm offers to its customers and how revenues are collected. However, in academia the business model concept has evolved in a broader sense encompassing several fields and into a rich theoretical field itself.This thesis aims to further the understanding on how OSS vendors conduct their business, by using a business model framework, which has been constructed from business model and management theories. This framework was used to study OSS vendors to investigate the configurations of their business models. A cross-case analysis of four carefully selected OSS vendors searched for generic patterns in these configurations. Furthermore, the cases were also studied regarding sustainability and profitability.Two generic business model configurations were found, community immersion and community utilization. OSS vendors found configured according to the community immersion business model are deeply involved with, but also dependent on, the main community project that provides the software for the offering. OSS vendors found configured according to the community utilization business model are not dependent on the OSS project to provide their commercial offerings. Rather, the communities are used in marketing providing brand benefits, a base for recruitment, and in lesser degree functioned as quality assurance.Two of the four studied companies were found to be profitable and sustainable; one operating according to the community immersion business model and the other according to the community utilization business model. The other two companies studied, observed to operate according to the community utilization business model, did not achieve profitability during the time of the study.The findings should further the understanding of how profitable OSS vendors’ business models could be configured, and thus provide practitioners with an understanding on how different business model configurations can affect their strategies and overall business.
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| 14. |
- Saeedi, Mohammad Reza
(författare)
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Fostering Dynamic Capabilities of SMEs. The Impact of Inward International Licensing on Absorptive Capacity and Networking Capability : A Multiple Case Study in Pharmaceutical Industry
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Resource limitation and inadequate capabilities are the SME’s major problems. On this basis, alliances as vehicles of inter-firm collaboration provide opportunities for SMEs to obtain complementary capabilities and critical resources to overcome resource limitations. In this respect, examining the extant literature on non-equity strategic alliances shows that very few studies have empirically examined the impact of these alliances, such as inward international licensing (IIL) on SMEs’ dynamic capabilities (e.g. absorptive capacity and networking capability) in developing context. Consequently, to close this research gap, the purpose of this study is to examine and explore the major impacts of inward international licensing (IIL) on dynamic capabilities of SMEs, with focus on absorptive capacity (ACAP) and networking capability (NC) in a developing economy context (Iran).This study is focused on pharmaceutical SMEs involved in international business activities through inward international licensing (IIL). The study is explorative, qualitative and elaborative in nature. The dominant analytical approach in this study was abductive. Given the research type (nature), a multiple-case study was selected as an appropriate research strategy to achieve the research purpose and objectives. All cases were selected purposefully. The data were collected from four pharmaceutical SMEs (licensees) with licenses from European pharmaceutical largescale enterprises (LSEs). The results of the first part of this study reveal that in all cases studied, inward international licensing (IIL) has a strong effect on absorptive capacity (ACAP) and networking capability (NC). In this regard, all absorptive factors (AFs), namely acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation, have been enhanced by influenced contextual factors (CFs) of ACAP. The SMEs’ management and strategy, human resources, internal knowledge, and inter and intra-firm relationships, as several contextual factors (CF) of ACAP, have been forcefully influenced by inward international licensing (IIL). The second part of the empirical results indicates that the international licensing alliance between SMEs and LSEs helps the development of SMEs’ networking capability as well. This was particularly significant in development of the main components of networking capability, such as relationship initiation capability (RIC) and relationship developing capability (RDC).
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| 15. |
- Saeedi, Mohammad Reza
(författare)
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Pluripotent Dynamic Capabilities in the Internationalization of Firms : Focus on Learning, Innovating and Networking in SMEs from Sweden
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been a considerable concern for international business (IB) scholars. Particularly, for those economies such as Sweden with small local markets, internationalization of SMEs could be fundamental. The firm-specific advantages (FSAs), including what the firm has and does, are crucial for SMEs to overcome in the face of their numerous different obstacles such as liability of smallness (LOS) and liability of foreignness (LOF).Examining the extant literature on the evolution of IB theories indicates that over time, IB scholars have been reaching to dynamic-based FSAs (what the firm does) as the source of developing and protecting sustainable competitive advantages (SCA) across national borders in a changing business environment. The nature of dynamic-based FSAs could be similar to dynamic capabilities. But, when it comes to determining specific component factors of dynamic-based FSAs (as dynamic capabilities), there has been little agreement between IB researchers. In other words, the room of the dynamic capabilities is still dark. In this respect, shedding light into this room, particularly in the area of IB studies, is crucial. In addition, after determining the component factors of the dynamic-based FSAs, it is also critical to know the likely relationships between the identified component factors as well as their impact on the SMEs’ international performance (IP) as an important outcome of the internationalization. This means that there is a potential theoretical gap associated with the conceptualization of the component factors of the dynamic-based FSAs on one hand, and a potential empirical gap on the other. Given both theoretical and empirical research gaps, the purpose of this study is to examine, from a theoretical perspective, the nature of the dynamic-based FSA and its related component factors in the IB context, as well as empirically explore how SMEs’ IP is influenced by the identified component factors of the dynamic-based FSAs.To perform this study, first of all, based on lenses of the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability view (DCV), the literature on organizational capability in the context of the IB studies was systematically reviewed to fill the theoretical gap. Consequently, three component factors of dynamic-based FSAs including networking capability (NC) as a relational-based FSA, innovative capability (IC) as an innovative-based FSA and absorptive capacity (ACAP) as a learning-based FSA were identified, all of which are pluripotent and dynamic in nature. Then, a deductive approach was followed to develop several hypotheses and the associated conceptual model. Furthermore, a survey strategy, collecting data from 330 Swedish internationalized manufacturing SMEs, was applied to accomplish the purpose of the study. Then, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) as a quantitative method was used to analyze the collected data.The results of the PLS-SEM analysis show that the SMEs’ international performance (IP) is positively influenced by the three identified component factors, whether directly or indirectly. In this regard, ACAP and NC are the two reliable predictors (directly) of the SMEs’ IP. The results indicate that innovative capability (IC) does not have direct impact on the SMEs’ IP, and that its effect is fully transmitted on IP only by the mediating effect of the networking capability (NC). Further analysis showed that ACAP, as an endogenous latent variable, additionally has a positive indirect association with SMEs’ international performance (IP). Moreover, the results also indicate that innovative capability is directly and positively affected by ACAP (innovating-by-learning effect). It was also empirically revealed that ACAP is a very strong predictor for networking capability, which is labeled as the networking-by-learning effect. Another major finding was that in internationalized SMEs, NC is strongly, directly and positively affected by IC; this effect also is termed as the networking-by-innovating effect. The overall picture resulting from the PLS- SEM analysis indicates that ACAP in internationalized SMEs is a wellspring to develop both innovative capability and networking capability, as well as influence SMEs’ IP. Furthermore, these results suggest that the networking capability is a vital gateway to transmit the effect of the other two component factors on IP and, at the same time, directly influence IP.
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| 16. |
- Semnani Kenlind, Sarah, 1987-
(författare)
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A Typology of Business Model Changes : Cases from Swedish Wood Manufacturing Industry
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the business model (BM) change concept. The study purpose is achieved through developing a context-specific method and framework to measure and characterize different types of BM changes. This work promotes the importance of context-specific studies in the field of BM. It is pointed out that mature industries with slower rates of change or less complex technologies have not received enough attention in this field. Companies within these industries play a dominant role in the economic prosperity of nations and undergo different types of change. Therefore, the low-tech nature of these changes does not imply a lack of significance or complexity.The Swedish wood manufacturing industry is chosen to represent mature low-tech industries as the context of this study. This industry is currently undergoing a series of changes, brought about by both internal and external forces. Five companies active in this industry are purposefully sampled as case studies. Despite being part of the same industry, the selected case companies each undergo a varying degree or type of change.The study proposes a firm-level BM framework, which is suitable for studying organizational changes in this context. The proposed BM framework comprises three main dimensions of Operational platform, Offerings and Market, as well as three BM components under each dimension. The changes in the BMs of case companies are studied by depicting and comparing their BMs at three points in time over a ten-year period. BM changes are measured from the two dimensions of degree and scope of change in this thesis.Measuring the BM changes from the two dimensions of degree and scope of change provides valuable insight about different types of changes in the industry. First, it depicts how big a change took place in the different BM components of the case companies. Second, it demonstrates the size of the ‘chain effects’ each change caused within each BM dimension and the entire BM. These findings assist in proposing a typology of BM changes (BMCs). BMCs can be categorized as four different types – incremental, modular, architectural and transformational – depending on the possible combinations in the varying degree and scope of change.This thesis confirms the claims made by previous scholars that contingency factors can limit the range of feasible change strategies for companies. The results show that the majority of BM changes in this industry have been architectural BMCs. These involve fine-tuning most of the BM components, with the aim of resuming the fit between BM dimensions and BM components in companies’ BMs. Furthermore, due to the context-specific contingency factors, creating a parallel BM appears to be a more plausible option than completely transforming BMs in these industries. Lastly, this work highlights the importance of a balance and interplay between strategy, external industry-related and internal resource-based factors in companies’ BMCs.
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| 17. |
- Bildsten, Louise
(författare)
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Towards Partnerships in Industrialized Housing
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse purchasing strategies and their interdependence with the production process and supplier relationships in industrialized housing. The thesis is a multiple case study of four Swedish industrialized timber-housing manufacturers. The case studies included interviews with top managers concerning purchasing, production and supplier relationships. Production is considered the heart of the company. Therefore, to gain an in-depth knowledge of how production affects purchasing and thus supplier relationships and vice versa, observations were made to study the production process. Many different parts and competences need to be coordinated in the creation of a house. In the West, the construction industry has been heavily criticized for low efficiency and effectiveness. Conclusions from the case studies showed that codevelopment, customization and secure deliveries are regarded highly by industrial house builders and to obtain them, long-term relationships with suppliers are preferred. Industrialized house builders are argued to have more long-term relationships with their suppliers than traditional on-site builders. Industrial house builders choose their suppliers based on the purchased products’ value-in-production rather than price. Product and process innovations created in collaboration with suppliers seem to be a way to enhance the production process of houses. Through the site resource of the factory, industrial house builders have the potential to refine their processes in win-win partnerships with suppliers for a more efficient and effective production of houses, as onsite work is harder to standardize and control.
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| 18. |
- Bystedt, Anders
(författare)
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On cooperation and efficiency in the construction-related wood industry
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Multiple studies have raised concerns about the construction area and issues such as low quality, high costs, low profitability and lack of innovations. Major parts of the processes are project based and characterised by one-of-a-kind setups in which the unique characteristics come from production setup, site, and temporary organisations. The process is characterised by multiple process steps including multiple actors in different parts of the process in a system that has poor information systems in comparison to what is shown by known efficiency theories. The one-of-a-kind nature of projects, site production, temporary multiorganisations injecting new members in the interaction chain, and regulatory intervention are known peculiarities of construction. Problems caused by these peculiarities are lack of feedback cycles, flow configuration difficulties, variability problems, problems in communication of knowledge across organizational boundaries as well as lack of accumulation of improvement in processes. The objective of this thesis was to identify patterns regarding interaction between companies in the construction industry and the sub-suppliers of joinery products. A second objective was to find factors hampering efficiency and cooperation and give some tentative proposals for how to improve communication and cooperation effectiveness. The study shows that the construction related wood industry is mainly orientated towards the traditional construction process, meaning that the organisations are mainly reactive and delimited islands in the value chain. The main visible pattern is that the traditional construction culture means variation and ad-hoc handling in the process. The factors found that hampers efficiency development is lack of cooperation, lack of standardisation, information deficiencies and poor design- and product-quality. The tentative suggestion for the construction industry to be able to come to terms with some of the criticism and problems is to increase the level of industrialisation and cooperation, using efficiency and cooperation philosophies. For a future development in the studied area the tentative suggestion would be to; (1) define the process and the routine actions in the different part processes, (2) define the hand-over points in the value-chain, (3) determine the level of information in the hand-over point in cooperation, (4) increasing the feedback in the system in order to find errors early in the process and (5) increase the general cooperation level preferable with help from external supporters. Added to this a will to change must be introduced in the value-chain, the incitements for change probably must come from society acting, not just criticising.
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| 19. |
- de Paula, Andes, 1968-
(författare)
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Dynamics of corporate strategy from a value chain perspective : A study of the Swedish telecom and construction industries during the 90’s
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Changes in sectors and industries have brought new challenges to corporations as well as been important driving forces for the dynamics in strategy at the corporate level. With the dramatic developments of the 1990’s in mind, such as multilateral free-trade agreements, liberalization, privatization, sharp industry growth/decline, increased competition and globalization, in particular within the telecom and the construction industry, this study contributes to describing and understanding strategic change at the corporate level as well as changes in the division of work within value chains. Strategy is defined as intentions, decisions and actions that relate to bundling and unbundling at different strategic levels, aiming to establish and reestablish a value chain position. Thus, outsourcing, M&As, modularization and systems development and sales are important strategic components which are examined from a value chain perspective. From a value chain perspective, the purpose of this study is to describe and understand strategic change at the corporate level in the telecom and construction industries during the 1990’s. More specifically this study shall contribute to describing and understanding (i) the dynamics of and between M&As, outsourcing, modularization and systemization, as well as (ii) industrial and financial drivers to strategic change.The conclusions describe strategic change from a value chain perspective using three descriptive patterns, including an increasing degree of specialization and need for interorganizational coordination across the value chain. In addition, outsourcing and modularization of systems and an increased scope of offering through systemization and BOT-projects, result in the fact that due to M&As the horizontal boundary of the firm sometimes goes beyond the industry scope while the vertical scope is often narrowed through outsourcing. The conclusions also focus on understanding the content of strategic change, that is to say the dynamics of and between mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, modularization and system sales. These findings are summarized in nine explanatory patterns. These patterns show that the strategic decisions of bundling and unbundling at the corporate and functional level through mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, systemization and modularization are guided by an industrial as well as a financial logic. By considering the descriptive and explanatory patterns found this study, the conclusions also include what to expect during the next decade with regard to corporate strategy from a value chain perspective in five predictive patterns.
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| 20. |
- Nordigården, Daniel, 1978-
(författare)
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Outsourcing in the Wood Product Manufacturing Sector A Combined Customer and Supplier Perspective
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Outsourcing can be defined as transferring an activity from internal to external control. This thesis studies outsourcing in the wood product manufacturing (WPM) sector from both a customer and supplier perspective. The research design is a multiple case study approach, and it is based on six Scandinavian companies in the door, floor and window industries and one larger supplier of raw material. This study provides an understanding of driving forces for outsourcing in a different context than previously studied and has identified cost reduction in combination with reallocating resources from non-core activities as main driving forces. Compared to several other industrial sectors, outsourcing strategies for the WPM firms have little to do with accessing external sources’ capabilities.In the literature, there is often a main focus on the strategic level of outsourcing, however, such heavy resource-based focus in terms of a core competence approach in the formulation of outsourcing strategies at the customer side risks forgetting that components can still be vulnerable to supplier failure. Here, more focus needs to be put on the operational level when considering outsourcing. This thesis illustrates customers considering outsourcing where there are not any given outsourcing supplier partners developed. At the same time, for the supplier side, forward integration and specialising by taking over outsourcing is complicated by an initial divergent production flow of sawn timber. When not all contexts have developed supplier markets for directly managing outsourcing, it should not be assumed that general outsourcing models are directly applicable. In general, the question of whether or not to outsource seems too complex to simply be considered as either “in or out”. A company needs safeguards when conducting outsourcing and in a situation where there is a non-developed supplier market, parallel in-house production becomes an alternative.
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