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- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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A Study of Small Enterprises with Focus on Entrepreneurship and E-government in a Regional Development Context
- 2015
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Ingår i: A Nordic Perspective on Co‐Operation for Sustainable Destination and Regional Development. - Trollhättan : University West. ; , s. 59-75
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter aims to describe and analyze a sample of small enterprises located in a region undergoing structural change with focus on entrepreneurship and e-government and is a further development of a previous study that focused on how municipalities supported entrepreneurship and destination development. In this study the focus is extended to include small enterprises contributing to development of tourist destinations within the same region. In-depth qualitative interviews weremade with twelve managers from ten small enterprises. Based on a theoretical discussion of entrepreneurship, e-government and regional development, the results indicate that networks and strategic networking were important for these small enterprises both in terms of developing the enterprise butalso to develop entrepreneurship for regional development. The findings further indicate that municipal information, communication and competence development in order to support entrepreneurship and the development of small enterprises could be improved. The importance of face-to-face contacts was stressed. The use of local e-government was hitherto limited to e-services for public procurement. The entrepreneurs who used the e-services had mainly positive experiences, although despite the complexity of the e-services. The respondents did not ask for more municipal e-services, but that could be a consequence of their limited experience of the potential of local e-government. The use of social media among the enterprises was limited due to lack of time, competence and motivation for most of the enterprises, although the potential of social media for marketing was seen as extensive. A few of the respondents were on the other hand very skilled in their use ofdigital media, as a consequence of their professional knowledge and business orientation.
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| 2. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Municipal Support of Entrepreneurship and Business Development from an e-government Perspective
- 2015
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Ingår i: A Nordic Perspective on Co‐Operation for Sustainable Destination and Regional Development. - Uddevalla : University West. ; , s. 44-58
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article will contribute to the debate about regional development in peripheral areas by examining the social capital in 14 villages in a Danish municipality, and particularly the influence of social media on the social capital.Contrary to the current public discourse in Denmark on peripheral communities and how they are falling apart because of demographic changes, economic cut backs, and structural changes, this study did not find one single village, where the social capital seems to be in any imminent danger. The article also proposes a different perspective on the operationalization of social capital. Social capital is typically measured in big international values surveys based on the variables network, trust and reciprocity. However, this study is based on a qualitative research with interviews in 14 villages in a peripheral Danish municipality. This in depth research shows that when examining the social capital of communities, the most valuable parameter is to look at the most typical proxy for network: associations and in particular the character of these associations. They furthermore give an indication of the kind of social capital they are building and maintaining.The study also shows that we might have to extend the notion of network to include that of social media as this type of network gets increasingly more important. However, the study cannot conclude that the communities not using the social media have less social capital then the one who does, nor that they are disconnected from the citizens.
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| 3. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Networking and e-government for local development : experiences gained by entrepreneurs in small enterprises in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. - 1476-1297 .- 1741-8054. ; 29:2, s. 154-175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to analyse experiences gained by entrepreneurs in small enterprises located in a region undergoing structural change, focusing on networking and e-government for local development. The study is a further development of a study that focused on how municipalities supported entrepreneurship and destination development. In-depth qualitative interviews were made with twelve entrepreneurs from ten small enterprises. Based on a theoretical discussion of networking, e-government and social media marketing, the results indicate that networks and strategic networking were important in order to develop their enterprises, which also contributed to local development. The importance of initial face-to-face contacts in order to build business relationships in networks was stressed. The use of local e-government was hitherto limited to e-services for public procurement, the use of social media marketing was limited due to lack of time, competence and motivation for most of the entrepreneurs.
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| 4. |
- Högberg, Karin, 1982-
(författare)
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Persistent Digital Service Encounters : Challenges of organizational use of social media in a hotel chain
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The emergence of social media has in many ways changed how individuals interact, communicate and also consume online. Due to the massive, world wide use of social media, organizations are starting to use social media in order to be present where their customers are. Earlier research has studied social media from different, rather fragmented perspectives such as social media use for marketingor for internal communication. However, research on the organizational implications and challenges from a more general organizational social media use is lacking. This thesis explores organizational implications and challenges of social media use over time. Hence the focus lies on both internal and external organizational activities related to social media use. The consequences of social media have been particularly striking in service industries, e.g. banks, restaurants and travel agencies. Social media has fundamentally changed how we (can) buy services, and also how service is provided. For example, we can ask a question or make a complaint directly on a specific social media platform. Hence, social media have had implications for the relationship between service organizations and their customers and thus changed the context in which service is delivered and experienced. The service encounter, i.e., the actual meeting between the customer and employees, has come to take place on social media platforms. The expansion of social media has affected the hotel industry in several ways. Hotel guests are using social media platforms in order to review and share experiences about hotels, and hotel organizations use social media to keep up with competitors and customer demands. The aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the challenges social media use brings to organizations in the service industry, inparticular hotel organizations. The following research question is addressed:Why and how does the use of social media platforms represent organizational challenges? The empirical data focuses on the introduction and use of social media in one international hotel chain over a four-year period. Furthermore, data was collected from other, independent hotels. The empirical data was collected through interviews, online observations, workplace observations and written documents. VIIIA multifaceted theoretical framework was used, including the Technology-Organization-Environment framework, the concept of technological frames, andthe concepts of functional simplification and closure. These theoretical frameworks capture the drivers behind organizational social media use and how individual employees interpret and use social media, but also how social media attributes create the need for new organizational routines and management of social media content created outside organizational boundaries.The analysis illustrates how social media use creates challenges for the studied organizations. Five main organizational challenges have been identified: the nature of social media versus organizational structure: how organizations and individuals make sense of social media over time; how private use of social mediahas implications for professional use; how social media creates stretched service encounters; and pseudo-relationships and roboticization of service
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