| 1. |
- Erixon, Cecilia
(författare)
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Information System Providers and Business Relationships : A Study on the Impact of Connections
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Information systems are integrated in the daily business of companies, to support the exchanges with its counterparts. To manage these information systems, companies often turn to third parties: information system providers (IS-providers). IS-providers have competences that the companies become dependent on and they are therefore important for maintaining the company’s business performance. The companies develop dependencies on their information systems and thereby also on their IS-providers. This thesis studies the connection between a company’s relationships with IS-providers and its other business relationships.A single case study of how a focal company’s IS-providers impact the company’s customer relationships is conducted. The applied analytical framework combines an information system’s perspective and a business relationship perspective. The analytical level is guided by the concept of connection, which has its origin in the business relationship perspective. The information system’s perspective illustrates the characteristics of the information systems that the IS-providers manage. The business relationship perspective studies each business relationship as unique, originating in different exchanges and behaviour.The single case study involves five customer relationships and four IS-provider relationships, creating twenty within-cases. The results show that IS-providers impact differently on the business relationships of companies. The impact on companies is contingent on the information exchanges with the IS-providers, which integrate the information systems in their customer business relationships. The impact is explained by the strength of the connection and the degree of continuity of the connection. The strength of the connection depends on how the information system is used and which of the IS-providers are connected. The impact from one IS-provider can be described as a homogenous impact on all the connected business relationships. However, different IS-providers have different types of impacts, meaning that when a company has several IS-providers, the impact is heterogeneous. The study shows that the impact is most commonly positive.The thesis is of interest for researchers who wish to understand the interconnectedness between business relationships, and of value for business professionals, who wish to increase their understanding of the complex situation of using IS-providers for management of their information systems and the impact they have on their other business relationships.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Dahlin, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Netquakes - Describing Effects of Ending Business Relationships on Business Networks
- 2005
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Ingår i: 21st Annual IMP Conference, Rotterdam, 2005.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Business network dynamics and change in business networks are most often discussed from the perspective of a focal business relationship and business relationships, for example customers and/or suppliers, connected to the focal dyad. This type of studies focus on how one relationship influences another directly connected relationship. Most often the indirectly connected business relationships, such as customers’ customers, are not considered. This means that we still know very little about how change spreads further in business networks.The purpose of this paper is to elaborate further on the spread of change in business networks by focusing on the process following the ending of a business relationship. For understanding this process of change in business networks we propose a framework that is inspired from the study of earthquakes in seismology, here called “netquakes” (Dahlin, Havila & Thilenius, 2004). When enough “stress” is involved in the relationship it needs to be released. In some situations this “stress” leads to termination of the business relationship. This, in turn, could start a netquake process in the surrounding business network.The strength of the netquake process can be observed through the effects of the ending business relationship in the connected relationships. The higher the effect in the business network the stronger the netquake. The ending of the business relationship, in turn, “releases energy” into the business network causing uncertainty that can be observed by the effects in the business network. The ending of some business relationships “shake the ground” far away from the ending business relationship, whereas some business relationships end without any effect on the surrounding business network. We illustrate our discussion on the different types of netquake processes by three empirical examples.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Dahlin, Peter, 1981-
(författare)
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Turbulence in Business Networks : A Longitudinal Study of Mergers, Acquisitions and Bankruptcies Involving Swedish IT-companies
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The end of the twentieth centry, and the beginning of the twenty-first, was a revolving period with many mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies among Swedish IT-companies. Such events are likely to affect more than just the companies directly involved, i.e. the bankrupt and consolidating parties, and this thesis considers the contextual embeddedness of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies by studying them in a business network setting.The primary aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of business network change and its underlying dynamics. A business network is a conceptual description of the interrelatedness of companies, which makes them problematic to describe and understand. This thesis suggests a force-based approach to business network change, which focuses on the forces underlying the change rather than the actual alterations of the business network. The suggested approach emphasizes the change and enables an exploration and description of business network change based on its underlying forces, linked to form a change sequence. The events that occur and the forces they give rise to can be used to describe the character of such business network change sequences.To enable a study of a change sequence within the Swedish IT-related business network, this thesis will use a technique designed to gather information about events and parts of the business network structure by systematizing data from news items describing mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies during the years 1994-2003. This data structuration technique enables a longitudinal and retrospective study of a business network change sequence. The analysis indicates a high possibility of inter-linkages between mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies, and describes a business network change sequence with high intensity and wide extension, which is the type of business network change with the highest potential impact, here referred to as ‘turbulence in business networks’.
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| 9. |
- Ek, Peter, 1989-
(författare)
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Managing Digital Open Innovation with User Communities : A Study of Community Sensing and Product Openness Capabilities in the Video Game Industry
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Digital and open innovation has changed how product innovation occur and how it is managed by firms. Digital technology as an enabler of increasingly distributed innovation processes has in particular impacted firms’ abilities to draw on, and leverage, large numbers of external users and user communities to develop their offerings. In the video game industry, firms have developed and honed capabilities to utilize user communities as sources of information and modular user innovations. Empirical evidence of the performance effects in product innovation as well as conceptualizations of these capabilities is however lacking in extant research. Grounded in a dynamic capability perspective, this dissertation puts forward two capability concepts and tests their effects empirically in the context of the video game industry. First, the concept of a community sensing capability captures the firm’s ability to identify and internalize innovation-conducive information from user communities. This capability entails managing openness in the firm’s innovation processes. Second, the concept of a product openness capability relates to the firm’s ability to create and manage products functioning as platforms for continuous development and coupling of internal and external innovation. This, in turn, involves managing openness in individual products. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, these capabilities are examined at the project level of analysis in relation to the financial performance of products and the speed of development processes. The findings show the capabilities to be indirectly related to the financial performance of products. The application of community sensing capabilities in development of video games increases the amount of information about user needs, demand and product use possessed by the firm, which in turn positively impacts performance. Designing products open to external innovation by users in turn increases the development speed of products, which positively impact the financial performance of products. The two capabilities are also shown to be interlinked as community sensing has a positive impact on product openness. The dissertation contributes at the intersection of open and digital innovation in addition to previous work on sensing capabilities. The work also holds practical relevance by showing the potential of utilizing user communities for digital product innovation.
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| 10. |
- Ekman, Peter, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Digital transformation of global business processes : the role of dual embeddedness
- 2020
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Ingår i: Business Process Management Journal. - 1463-7154 .- 1758-4116. ; 26:2, s. 570-592
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeWhile much existing research on multinational corporation (MNC) digital transformation has followed a linear design and implementation logic using cross-sectional data, the multiple and divergent needs of headquarters (HQ) and subsidiaries suggest that MNC digital transformation actually involves a more iterative journey. The purpose of this paper is to apply the theoretical perspective of embeddedness to better define the complexities of MNC digital transformation, and identify how HQ and subsidiaries can navigate the complexities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a longitudinal multi-case study of five Forbes Global 2000 firms that are HQ in Europe with large subsidiaries in the USA. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 26 senior executives at HQ and subsidiaries over a 15-month period.FindingsThe process of digital transformation is significantly influenced by internal embeddedness (relationship of HQ with subsidiaries and across subsidiaries) and external embeddedness (relationship of subsidiaries with their local markets), and also by strategy, financial and technology considerations. While HQ and subsidiaries have different perspectives, an understanding of these influences can help HQ and subsidiaries navigate digital transformation.Research limitations/implicationsHQ and subsidiaries can apply insights from this research to navigate the complexities of digital transformation.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates that embeddedness is a useful theory to understand the complexities of MNC digital transformation.
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| 11. |
- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Drivers and obstacles for global IT in the embedded multinational : A multiple case study
- 2011
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multinational companies (MNCs) have been actively pursuing globally integrated information technology (IT) as a mechanism for better coordination and control of business processes. This paper presents a multiple case study of five MNCs’ experiences with global IT initiatives and explores the drivers and obstacles they encountered. We conceptualize the MNC as being embedded in internal and external business relationships. The analysis shows that the MNCs’ main motives for global IT can be found in the headquarter-subsidiary relationship where global IT enables the firm to obtain economies of scale and increased control which in turn enables the MNC to become international or global oriented. The external embeddedness, i.e. the subsidiary-partner relationships as well as other connected business relationships in the local business networks, is one of the major obstacles for global IT as it requires a level of adaptability not inherent in the context of global IT standards.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Ekman, Peter, 1969-
(författare)
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Enterprise Systems & Business Relationships : The Utilization of IT in the Business with Customers and Suppliers
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with how companies utilize their enterprise systems in their business relationships. The study’s starting point is enterprise systems that basically are standardised information systems that the company can acquire from software vendors like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. Enterprise systems aim to integrate and manage all the company’s data and it can also be linked to its business partners.The thesis contains two case studies of how a focal company utilizes its enterprise system in their business relationships. To accomplish this, an analytical framework based upon the combination of an information systems (IS) and a business relationship perspective is developed and applied. The IS perspective follows an ‘ensemble view of technology’ approach which describes the use of information systems as embedded in a both technical and social context. The business relationship perspective is founded in empirical studies of industrial companies. Basically, business relationships are unique and based on the companies’ exchanges. It also involves behavioural elements as trust, commitment, adaptations and interdependencies between the partners.The two case studies cover the business relationships between ten companies and the character of the studied business relationships varies. The results show that enterprise systems are mainly focused on the companies’ internal activities. The exchanges in the business relationships are either carried out without the enterprise system or are supported by some complementary information system. Enterprise systems are thus mainly seen as production systems. This can be explained by the heritage from former material and resource planning (MRP) systems. An alternative explanation can be that business relationships are unique and require continuous adaptations and a mutual orientation. Enterprise systems require structural data rendering them difficult to use for the activities of a business relationship. The users then develop other, individual, applications that handle what is needed in their ongoing business. The threat is that information can be lost on a company level. The challenge is therefore to investigate the complementary information systems functions to see if it is possible to extend the enterprise system to include them. To be worth its epithet, the enterprise system must facilitate all the business activities found in the companies business relationships.
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| 14. |
- Ekman, Peter, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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ERP selection through business relationships : adaptations or connections
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneural Venturing. - 1742-5360. ; 3:1, s. 63-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analyses how a generic form of information technology (IT), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, can be selected by companies to enhance their business. ERP systems are a means of becoming more efficient through predefined standard functions called 'best practices'. Following the theory that markets are made up of business relationships in a network context, managerial advice would be to assess the vendor's existing business relationships. A company can harvest the inherent functions that an ERP system has from the vendor's prior interaction with other customers. This paper discusses how a company benefits from engaging in a new business relationship with an ERP vendor to become more competitive. However, this relationship is double-edged. A lesson is that the functions developed by the ERP vendor and the customer only offer a temporal competitive advantage, given that it can be used later in the ERP vendor's other connected business relationships.
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| 15. |
- Ekman, Peter, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Extending the ERP system : considering the business relationship portfolio
- 2014
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Ingår i: Business Process Management Journal. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1463-7154 .- 1758-4116. ; 20:3, s. 480-501
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – Research has shown that companies focus their internal processes when they adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, the ERP systems need to expand their functionality to include customers and suppliers (with e-commerce functionality) to reach their full potential. The purpose of this paper is to consider business relationships as a resource but also a limitation when companies strive to get an extended ERP system.Design/Methodology/approach – The paper presents an illustrative case study of an industrial company’s process of developing an extended ERP and how the company’s portfolio of business relationships has affected the solution. The analysis is supported by the markets-as-networks theory.Findings – The process of developing an extended ERP system needs to incorporate the company’s business partners (customers and suppliers). It is a simultaneously bottom-up and top-down process given that the operative frontline staff hold the knowledge about the company’s business relationships while the corporate management has the means of extending the ERP system functionality and align it with the focal company’s strategy.Research implications – Companies need to consider the fact that the technological and financial status of their customers and suppliers differ. Thus, an effective and flexible extended ERP system needs to include both a high-end and low-end solution as well as understand that a full interorganizational integration might not be realistic.Originality/value – The paper puts forth business relationship portfolios as an important factor to consider when extending the ERP system functionality in the supply chain and towards customers.
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| 16. |
- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Information technology utilization for industrial marketing activities : The IT–marketing gap
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of business & industrial marketing. - 0885-8624 .- 2052-1189. ; 30:8, s. 926-938
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – This study aims to investigates the possible gap between the logic of these information technology (IT) systems and industrial firms’ marketing practices. Industrial firms rely extensively on IT systems for their business. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the contemporary marketing practice (CMP) model, which depicts firms’ marketing practice as ranging from transactional to more relational and networked-based, the logic of IT systems and how users in industrial firms adopt them are amended to create an extended model. The extended model is used to analyze an in-depth case based on 63 interviews regarding one industrial firm’s business with customers and suppliers and how IT is utilized in this setting. Findings – Results show that industrial firms’ relationship-oriented business is poorly supported by currently used IT systems. This gap between the IT systems, which are transaction-focused, and industrial firms’ marketing practice, which is relationship-based, has severe effects on adoption and efficiency of IT systems. The marketers prefer local, non-integrated, IT with limited usefulness on an overall firm level while resisting the firms’ comprehensive IT systems. This forms an IT–marketing gap given that current IT does not match the marketing practice of relationship-oriented industrial firms. Originality/value – This study applies an extended CMP model in a novel way focusing one industrial firm, its customers and suppliers and the IT used in this setting. The study shows that all marketing practices of the CMP model can be found in one firm’s business, albeit one category, i.e. interaction marketing (a relationship approach), is dominating. The use of the CMP framework offers new and valuable insights into the fundamental cause to the industrial marketers’ limited use of integrated IT.
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| 17. |
- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Information technology utilization for practical marketing activities : The IT-marketing gap
- 2013
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Ingår i: BUILDING AND MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS IN A GLOBAL NETWORK.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates how industrial companies’ IT infrastructure match their applied marketing approach. The supporting theoretical framework is based upon the contemporary marketing practice (CMP) model that depicts companies as spanning from transactional to more relational and networked. This is supported by theories on the logic of IT systems and how users in industrial companies adopt them. The study is based upon two longitudinal subsequent case studies of a multinational company’s business with influential customers. The analysis shows that the utilized IT systems mainly follow efficiency logic that is useful for individual business transactions. However, the form of complex industrial business that industrial companies carries out are often relationship based and sometimes even incorporating the adjacent business network. Thus, there is a IT-marketing gap given that contemporary IT does not match the need the marketing practice of a modern industrial company.
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| 18. |
- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Tit for tat and big steps : The case of Swedish banks' internationalization 1961-2010
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Business Review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0969-5931 .- 1873-6149. ; 23:6, s. 1049-1063
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines four major Swedish banks' internationalization process patterns during the period 1961-2010. The study complements earlier studies by also considering the banks' levels of market commitment. One objective is to determine if 'Tit for tat'-behaviour seen in earlier studies of Swedish banks still prevails after the deregulation. Adding to earlier studies, this study also considers the level of market activities and commitments. A secondary purpose is to examine how the financial crisis has affected the banks with reference to the banks' internationalization patterns. The empirical study is based on archival data on the studied banks' foreign operations. The results show that the banks' behaviour follows 'Tit for tat'-behaviour but that the internationalization has accelerated after the deregulation, hence being carried out with 'big steps' rather than small steps. The analysis also shows that the mimetic behaviour is complemented by other types of internationalization behaviours. The differences in bank internationalization also mean that the effect of a financial crisis varies depending on how the banks have internationalized.
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| 19. |
- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding Enterprise Systems' Impact(s) on Business Relationships
- 2006
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Ingår i: Advances in Information Systems Development. - Boston, MA : Springer. - 9780387308340 ; , s. 591-602
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Enterprise systems (ESs), i.e. standardized applications supplied from software vendors such as SAP or Oracle, have been extensively employed by companies during the last decade. Today all Fortune 500 companies have, or are in the process of installing, this kind of information system. A wide-spread denotation for these applications is enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. But the broad utilization use of these software packages in business is rendering this labelling too narrow (Davenport 2000).A central aspect of ESs is their multi-dimensional characteristics. Based upon a (virtual) common database, ESs allow all business activities to be observed throughout the company (i.e. an operation performed by marketing may be displayed in finance; purchasing; supply functions, and so forth, in real-time). But with this high visibility and extensive information processing capacity comes the drawback that the information system as a whole may be hard to grasp (Markus 2004, Davenport 1998).When implementing an ES package, the company can select from different industry-adapted modules providing core functionalities (i.e. that support proc¬es¬ses such as production, supply chain management, and R&D), as well among complementary modules to be used in support processes (such as finance, HR, marketing, etc). In fact, along with Internet, ESs can be seen as the most important technology to have attained wide-spread use during the last decade (Seddon et al. 2003). For a company this means that the integration of an ES into its business operations by neces-sity will, to a greater or lesser extent, affect the business activities that are carried out. For companies, these business activities have been observed by researchers to take place within relatively stable, long-term oriented business relationships with specific well-known counterparts (Håkansson and Snehota 1995). This means that ESs, especially with the high level of usage in companies (Seddon et al. 2003), become an interesting research object not only from a company-focused perspective, but also from a broader perspective, allowing business relationships to unique suppliers and customers to be included.But how can ESs be captured and understood in this setting? This question will be discussed and elaborated on in the following sections, leading to some recommendations on relevant issues
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Erixon, Cecilia, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Studying information system provider relationships impact on business relationships
- 2013
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Ingår i: BUILDNING AND MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS IN A GLOBAL NETWORK.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Information systems are used for managing and supporting companies’ business relationships and have become an important part of companies’ exchanges with their customers. Information systems are usually managed by a third party, an information system provider (IS-provider). Companies are dependent on their information systems to maintain their business performances and are therefore also dependent on the IS-provider's competence. This paper studies the impact that a company’s IS-provider relationships have on its customer business relationships. By using the concept of connection and studying its degree of continuity and strength, the study offers insight on the impact of the IS-providers' relationships on a company's customer relationships. The study consists of a case study involving five customer relationships and four IS-provider relationships, creating twenty within-cases. The result shows that the companies' relationships are dependent on the exchanges with the IS-providers. This impact and the characteristic of the connection may vary over time, making the concept of continuity important to consider when evaluating a company's relationship with IS-providers. The study shows that it is important for companies to consider these two business relationships in relation to one another when managing the IS-provider relationship and the information systems that are used in customer relationships. Important management aspects can be missed in the evaluation of an IS-provider, if the connection between the relationships is left out of the analysis.
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Hadjikhani, Annoch, 1985-
(författare)
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Expectations in the internationalization process – The case of two Swedish banks’ foreign activities 1995-2010
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Studies of banks’ internationalization are few, particularly of Swedish banks’ and studies holding a process view of internationalization. This is surprising considering the fact that banks’ have an incredibly important role in our societies. Furthermore, the Swedish banks have until recently been restricted from internationalizing. However today the four largest Swedish banks have all become multinational. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the two Swedish banks Handelsbanken and Swedbank’s internationalization process between the years 1995-2010. This achieved by covering all relevant foreign markets that the banks are active in during their internationalization process in a longitudinal cross-case study based on archival sources (i.e. newspaper articles, press releases and annual reports). The analytical framework is constructed from behavioral theories and follows a process view of firms’ internationalization by applying the concepts of market commitment, market knowledge and expectation. Latterly firms’ expectation is included to take the future dimension into account in understanding firms’ internationalization behavior.Conclusions made in this thesis show that the banks internationalization process has some semblances but otherwise they show completely different internationalization behaviors. The study shows that firms’ internationalization process is bound to what the firm will expect of the future and that this expectation is very different based on what knowledge the firm has and its experience. Furthermore the study evidences through empirical findings that the internationalization process of firms’ is also strongly related to the state of the market, i.e. stable or unstable.
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| 25. |
- Hadjikhani, Annoch Isa, 1985-
(författare)
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Executive expectation in the internationalization process of banks : The study of two Swedish banks foreign activities
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the late 1980s, deregulation of the banking sector has opened new avenues for the internationalization of banks. There are, however, few studies on the internationalization of banks – particularly Swedish banks. The purpose of this thesis is to deepen our knowledge of bank’s internationalization process by studying how the executive function’s expectation of market conditions influences internationalization patterns. This thesis makes an empirical contribution by describing how the Swedish banks Svenska Handelsbanken AB and Swedbank AB have internationalized during the period 1995-2014. The empirical evidence comprises all of the two banks’ activities in foreign markets and the qualitative cases describing this process have been constructed using archival data (newspaper articles, press releases, and reports) complemented with interviews.Beside the empirical contribution the thesis makes a theoretical contribution to internationalization theory and more specifically to Johanson and Vahlne’s (1977) internationalization process model. While Johanson and Vahlne’s model does have a strong explanatory value, it does not fully explain its mechanisms (Andersen, 1993; Leonidou & Katsikeas, 1996) and only firm’s internationalizing incrementally (Liesch et al., 2002). For explanation of both incremental and non-incremental behaviors this thesis provides a proposed view of bank’s internationalization where the concept of executive expectation is developed as a mediating variable in Johanson and Vahlne’s internationalization process model. To this end, executive expectation is described as the driving and hindering force in bank’s internationalization process influenced by exogenous and endogenous changes.
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| 26. |
- Pareigis, Jörg, 1977-
(författare)
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Customer experiences of resource integration : Reframing servicescapes using scripts and practices
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is widely acknowledged that value can be regarded as interactively formed by customers through the integration of a variety of resources. However, it is difficult to find service research that takes these concepts seriously in empirical studies. Consequently, the aim of this thesis is to present an empirically grounded understanding of how customer resource integration takes place in practice and how customers experience their resource integration. By collecting data of public transport customers through qualitative diaries, interviews, and video recordings of situated action in addition to a survey, the thesis draws on script and practice theory.The main contribution of the thesis is an empirically grounded model of customer experience of resource integration, which can be summarized in six propositions: (a) customers can acquire four different types of scripts: generic, incongruent, rigid, or transformative; (b) the script types are implicit parts of interactive value practices, which emerge as navigating and ticketing in the empirical context of public transport; (c) the interactive value practices are constellations of the resource integration activities of identifying, sense-making, and using, which customers focus on to varying extents, depending on their acquired script; (d) during or after interactive value formation customers potentially update their scripts; (e) customer processes, other customers, the physical environment, contact personnel, provider processes, and the wider environment all form the context of the service, but can also be resources that the customer integrates; and (f) the customer experience is a holistic evaluation of the interactive value formation and can be understood as consisting of three dimensions: a cognitive evaluation and two affective evaluations, positive activation and positive deactivation. As such, I reframe the notion of the servicescape in order for it to be more attuned to the perspective of interactive value formation and resource integration.
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| 27. |
- Thilenius, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Business Netquakes : Analysing Relatedness of Events in Dynamic Business Networks
- 2016
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Ingår i: Extending the Business Network Approach. - Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9781137537638 - 9781137537652 ; , s. 315-331
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One crucial, recurring challenge for business managers involves taking the right action when pressured to change from resource investment in a business relationship to the pausing or termination of such, which, in some situations may dissolve the relationship completely. In that ongoing quest, a substantial part of the information necessary for the managers’ choice of path of action stems from the past, current and potential future in the specific business relationship. However, to rely solely on the available information in the relationship is, in most situations, insufficient to select appropriate managerial action. The notion that business relationships are better understood as part of business networks is well established (see, e.g., Ford et al. 2002; Håkansson and Snehota 1995), consequently suggesting that further information, potentially vital for the choice of managerial action, can be sourced within the immediate surrounding business network.
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| 28. |
- Alshaibi, Alsedieg
(författare)
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Business Relationships Between Local Firms and MNCs in a less Developing Country : The Case of Libyan Firms
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- International business relationships have been widely researched over the last three decades. Themajor attention of these studies, no matter what their theoretical perspective, concerns the MNCs inthe less developing countries (LDCs). Studies that illustrate how firms in LDCs behave regardinginteraction with MNCs are slim. Therefore, this study focuses on firms in LDCs, namely Libyan firms,and their relationships with MNCs. The study reflects not only on the relationships between the localfirms with MNCs but also the impacts of other interrelated business and non-business units on theserelationships. The study employs business network theory for industrial marketing and develops amodel applicable for studying such a market.The empirical study employs a survey method which examines 60 Libyan firms’ relationships withforeign suppliers containing more than 300 questions. In the empirical part, the study shows that therelationships like technological adaptation, technological cooperation and information exchange wereawarded low values. The measures on the other hand show a high value of impact from the politicalactors and even activities in the contextual environment. The study shows in detail where and howthe political actions influence business relationships. These impacts from the local environment affectlocal firms more than the foreign suppliers, and thus have some bearing on the MNCs and local firms’relationship weaknesses and strengths.The thesis’ conceptual contribution stands on development of new notions in business network theoryby integration of the contextual environment, in other words, network environment, and examinationof their impact on the strength of the focal business relationship. The study further contributesknowledge, not only for firms and politicians in LDCs to understand the consequence of their actions,but also provides deep information for MNCs to understand issues like why firms in LDCs behave ina specific way. Such understandings facilitate the development of cooperation. The study providesinformation about a number of characteristics which are specific for the business networks of such amarket which is dependent on only one resource like oil. While most studies in the field ofinternational business regard the business activities of MNCs, more research is needed to also observethe behaviour of firms from LDCs to gain deeper knowledge on the relationship between the MNCsand local firms from LDCs. The role of political actors and the influence of dependency on one soletype of resources and aspects like change in the prices of this resource seem to be important, but arequite neglected in research in international business.
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
- Andersson, Ulf, et al.
(författare)
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Global firms in internationalized networks
- 1990
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper is part of a research project with its main focus on Swedish multinational companies. The purpose of the project is to study the tension between parent companies in Sweden and a number of subsidiaries, chiefly located in Europe. Our aims are to find what constitutes the strength of the subsidiaries, and what possibilities do they have to influence the corporate strategy. The presented model outlines the background for an empirical study which will be conducted during 1991. The model recognizes four groups of variables, all of which reflect different aspects of a subsidiary's relative base of power. The project is partly financed by The Swedish Council for Management and Work Life Issues.
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| 31. |
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| 32. |
- Annoch, Hadjikhani, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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The Impact of Changing Regulatory Environments on Bank Executives Strategy Formation
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bank Regulation. - New York : Routledge. - 9781138680500 ; , s. 159-182
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To assure future survival in a constantly changing environment, the executives’ task is to adapt the firm’s strategies according to their expected changes in the environment. Mintzberg (1978) describes this process as the interplay between environmental changes and organizational adaptation mediated by executive decision-making. For the executives in an internationalizing firm, the process of strategy formation is becoming increasingly complex, as it includes changes in several environments formed by foreign markets (Ghauri and Holstius 1996). The Uppsala internationalization process (IP) model (Johanson and Vahlne 1977, 1990) explains the firm’s internationalization process as driven by the firm’s strive for gaining market knowledge through experiential learning and allocate the firm’s resources to build market commitment. In this vein the specificity in the general conditions of the environment is held at the country level and often only rudimentarily defined. The environment is commonly assumed to be uncontrollable by the single firm, meaning that decisions in the internationalization process are reactive to the environment and occurring changes therein (Håkansson and Snehota 1989; Johanson and Vahlne 1977). Problems and opportunities are thereby instigators for the executives’ decisions that follow an ‘evaluation of alternatives [which] is based on some knowledge about relevant parts of the market environment and about performance of various activities’ (Johanson and Vahlne 1977, p. 27). The purpose of this chapter is thereby to study when and how regulatoryenvironments in general or in specific foreign local markets affect executives’strategy formation in the internationalization process of firms. Afterthe introduction, a theoretical discussion building a conceptual model forexplaining executive strategy formation in a firm’s internationalization processis presented.
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| 33. |
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| 34. |
- Blankenburg, Desirée, et al.
(författare)
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Bringing Headquarters Back Out
- 1998
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Konferensbidrag (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Objectives There has been little evaluation, by means other than cognitive variables, of medical school curricula that include problem-based learning (PBL). This study aimed to investigate whether medical students' affect tolerance, an important prerequi
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| 35. |
- Blankenburg Holm, Desirée, et al.
(författare)
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Bringing headquarters back out
- 1998
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Ingår i: Nordic conference in international business.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 36. |
- Erixon, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Information System Providers in Business-Relationship Triads
- 2016
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Ingår i: Extending the Business Network Approach. - London : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9781137537638 - 9781137537652 ; , s. 193-210
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Firms have become highly dependent on their use of information systems for daily business activities (Nakata et al. 2010). To function efficiently and provide necessary support to the firm’s business, the management of a multitude of information systems involves continuous technical updates, as well as feature additions, adapting the system to the firm’s different business situations (Brady et al. 2008; Ekman 2015; Ekman et al. 2015). Information systems generally become more standardised, yet the high expertise knowledge needed for maintenance and development of them entails that suppliers of information systems are increasingly specialised on particular systems. Furthermore, the growing number of specialised information systems, and the increasing use in business, make their operational management time-consuming, requiring high degrees of specialised knowledge. As a consequence, firms chose to move the management of information systems to external parties providing the systems (IS-providers). This phenomenon has been described as information system outsourcing, with research on the topic mainly placing attention to the strategic process of management decisions on when to outsource and to whom (Lacity and Hirschheim 2012; Rivard and Aubert 2015). Outsourcing effectively means that the firm, not only for internal needs, but also for their ongoing business undertakings in marketing, sales and purchasing, relies heavily on IS-providers for business performance (Heckman 1999). Due to increasing numbers of information systems and information system providers (IS-providers), firms can no longer rely on one single IS-provider but nowadays have a complex arrangement involving multiple IS-providers for the diverse information systems utilised in business (Gallivan and Oh 1999).
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| 37. |
- Erixon, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding information system outsourcing in the digital transformation era : the business-relationship triad view
- 2021. - 1
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Ingår i: Management and Information Technology after Digital Transformation. - Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge. - 9780367612764 ; , s. 217-227
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter focuses on the management of information system (IS) outsourcing in the digital transformation era, by focusing on the IS provider as an essential third party in the firm’s business relationships. The chapter proposes an analytical framework to analyse the IS provider in the context of business, by considering the situation as a business relationship triad, and suggests a new perspective on the challenges related to strategic decisions about IS outsourcing. The proposed framework relates the degree of internal cohesiveness of the triad to whether it acts as an entity, in order to outline four triad types, each imposing different managerial challenges for IS outsourcing. Managing IS outsourcing through a business-relationship triad lens allows the firm’s IS strategy and IS outsourcing decisions to be more contextually situated and, hence, better adapted.
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| 38. |
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| 39. |
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| 40. |
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Extending the Business Network Approach : New Territories, New Technologies, New Terms
- 2016
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- Contributing pioneering new research, this innovative book proposes new ways and directions in which to extend the influential ‘business networks perspective’ approach to doing business. While previous research has focused upon relationships with customers and suppliers, the authors argue that there is a need to expand the outlook to include other stakeholders. Taking a stand in a broad management perspective, chapters relate contemporary issues within industrial and international marketing, product innovation, and information systems. Challenging existing views and proposing elaborate alternatives; this volume examines a range of examples that have inspired researchers to extend the business network. To provide further understanding, Extending the Business Network Approach relates current and new research to territories, technologies and terms to reveal novel insights, and to encourage further directions for research.
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| 41. |
- Forsgren, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Network Infusion in the Multinational Corporation
- 1997
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Ingår i: The Nature of the International Firm. - Copenhagen : Handelshøjskolens Forlag. - 8716133595 - 9788716133595 ; , s. 475-494
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 42. |
- Gunnarsson, Pierre Erik, 1964-
(författare)
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Ancillary actor relations : The case of EU’s leading defence primes
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This longitudinal research project in industrial marketing seeks to understand ancillary actors, specifically what they are, their characteristics, relations and impact on focal relations based on the empirical case of the cross-border relations of EU’s largest defence equipment producing firms (called “primes”). Ancillary actors are approached on four arenas: i) the political setting for EU defence equipment production, ii) the “primes” business relations, e.g. their market, iii) an issue community for setting up a single EU defence company and iv) a collaborative project, the Eurofighter.Ten analytical propositions with potentially common attributes for ancillary actors are that ancillary actors 1) have a role flexibility, where they may simultaneously act within a business and political setting assuming supportive, coercive, adaptive and influential roles, 2) emerge from focal actors’ legitimacy and commitments, 3) help to support, organise or mitigate collaboration between business and political actors, 4) create, facilitate and support cross-border political and business ties on political and protected markets that help to overcome market impediments, 5) may project actor strategies into other markets and settings, 6) may balance political actors’ control, transfer of knowledge and work share distribution, 7) are often more lasting than business actors and political actors, bridging time, 8) may seek to expand and move into the focal relation, 9) need to be transparent, which risks hampering efficiency and 10) risk being inefficient and ineffective. Empirical observations are that after more than half a century of political integration, EU has established legitimate ancillary actors for defence equipment. New protectionism and disintegration however risk being underestimated in this setting. Although the EU defence equipment market is frequently characterised as fragmented, EU defence business actors are intertwined by stable cross-border relations since decades, where primes may project influence of states into foreign markets. Ancillary actors for EU defence equipment have been criticised for being costly and ineffective, yet they promote common values, standardisation and knowledge sharing. Within ancillary actors, there are however risks, such as bleeding through, knowledge tapping and lack of innovativeness. Ancillary actors may foster integration and permanent bodies, in business as well as politics.
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| 43. |
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| 44. |
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| 45. |
- Hadjikhani, Annoch, Senior lecturer, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Alternating expectations influence on two banks internationalization process
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to enhance our knowledge on how executive expectation affect the firm’s internationalisation process, namely, by offering explanations to sudden major investments/ divestments that deviate the process from commonly presumed incrementality. The theoretical view developed in this study is founded upon Johanson and Vahlne’s (1977) internationalisation process model and complemented with the concept of executive expectation. Through a longitudinal comparative case study, enriched with archival data and interviews, this paper emphasises the dynamics of the firm’s internationalisation process. This aids to provide some answers on how changes in the composition of executives, such as the replacement of key personnel, can drive the firm’s internationalisation process into a different path when succeeding executives do not share similar expectations to their predecessors.
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
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| 48. |
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| 49. |
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| 50. |
- Hadjikhani, Amjad, 1946-, et al.
(författare)
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Direct and indirect impact of political activities on business performance : the case of the European Union and Swedish small firms
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Journal of Business Environment. - : InderScience Publishers. - 1740-0589 .- 1740-0597. ; 8:1, s. 1-18
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, the consequences of decisions by the EU on SMEs' business performance are analysed. The business network approach is employed to study how the coercive or supportive behaviour of political organisations directly and indirectly affect SMEs' business performance. The result highlights that the direct effect refers to the immediate interaction between the political and business units, whereas the indirect concerns the outcome of political units on other business firms that SMEs have relationships with. To test the assumed direct and indirect effect on business performance, four hypotheses are formulated and tested with PLS using data from a quantitative survey involving 134 SMEs in Sweden and the EU. The paper emphasises the importance of a firm's business relationships as being affected by coercive actions of political organisations, as well as receiving the full benefit from those actions of a supportive nature.
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