Nowadays, the European airline market is characterized by two major different airline business models; the full service airlines and the low cost airlines. Secondary, appeared for the first time in 1985 in form of the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair. In recent days, the European low cost market stands out through its growth potential and high competitiveness. Therefore, startup companies aiming to join the wave of success as well as insolvency of newly established airlines are part of the daily occurrence. The challenge, that established low cost airlines are faced with, is to create competitive advantages against new entrants and direct competitors under the circumstances of environmental changes. In addition to the described problem a model was developed in order to picture the situation. This paper aims to provide an answer to the specific question: How do low cost airlines use relationship marketing in order to enhance, maintain and attract new customers? The second step is to figure out how those tools affect the airlines generic strategy. The purpose of this study is to find out how low cost airlines in Europe deal with tools of relationship marketing and what are the effects those tools have on generic strategies. This thesis is based on a case study within the European low cost airlines market, with a special focus on three airlines: Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin. These questions are addressed using information obtained in interviews with respondents from the airlines that were recently conducted in Brussels and Bremen by personal interviews and additionally by telephone interviews and email contact. The results show that relationship marketing tools are used in a different extent by the airlines. The authors could not find evidence that using relationship marketing tools is the single solution to compete more successfully than without. It is further argued by the authors that RM is just one aspect strengthening the generic strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

This study investigates the causal relationship among comparative advantage, exports and economic growth by using the time series annual data for the period of 1980-2009 on 13 developing countries. The purpose is to develop an understanding of causal relationship and explore the differences or similarities among different sectors of several developing countries that are in different stages of development and how their comparative advantage influences the exports, which further effect the economic growth of the country. The co-integration and the vector error correction techniques are used to explore the causal relationship among the three variables. The results suggest bi-directional or mutual long run relationship between comparative advantage, exports and economic growth in most of the developing countries. The overall long run results of the study favour the export led growth hypothesis that exports precede the growth in case of all countries except for Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The short run mutual relationship exists mostly among the three variables except for Malaysian exports and growth and its comparative advantage and GDP and for Singapore‟s exports and growth. The short run causality runs from exports to gross domestic product (GDP). So overall, short run results favour export led growth in all cases except for Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

This present thesis aims to contribute to a better understand about how to use value innovation to get competitive advantages and get leading position in the market.   This theoretical approach is supported by an empirical case study about IKEA in Nanjing, China. This case is based on a qualitative research method of in-depth interviews with the local customers, co-workers and managers. The outcome is IKEA uses a unique strategy execution in Nanjing, and it fits Nanjing’s market very well.   The competitive strategy of IKEA is based on its vision of “create better everyday life for many people”, combined with the value-based service culture, and use value innovation to create more value for both customers and company. This present thesis will show its unique strategy operation way together with value creation, which leads IKEA successful apply its Blue Ocean strategy in a foreign country and gets leading position in the market.   So far we have the opinion that IKEA has been successful in Nanjing by implementing a Blue Ocean strategy, which is crucially supported by good value innovation for both customers and company. It is quite a good example of successful Blue Ocean strategy operator in globally.

The phenomenon analyzed within this thesis is the uprising of cloud computing technologies and their potential impact on SMEs. Cloud computing is ought to enable new capabilities for SMEs by the key benefits of being less expensive and its ubiquitous accessibility. The research was constituted on the theoretical framework of the resource based view and was conducted via semi-structured interviews along the themes of application history, financial impact, structural impact, strategic impact, risk considerations and future outlook. Thereby the core research question was to understand the impact of cloud computing technologies as new resources on the competitive advantage of SMEs. Therefore, 183 SMEs were contacted via email which were selected from a commerce authority and internet inquiry from which 6 agreed to an interview. The interview outcomes were analyzed by coding and an interpretation of the qualitative findings. Significant outcomes were that cloud computing provides SMEs capabilities of collaboration and mobility. The impact on innovation could not be verified but was indicated. Moreover, the adaption of cloud computing has led to SMEs saving resources in terms of time, IT budget and specific IT knowledge. The provision of the new capabilities and the savings of resources have shown to improve the SMEs’ overall performance by complementing, supplementing and substituting existing resources. Nevertheless, no direct linkage could be identified to a contribution to a competitive advantage but suggestive indirect linkages were found. However, the findings might deliver new comprehension about the organizational impact of cloud computing on SMEs in terms of resource enhancement and their impact on business practices. Furthermore, implications for future research include the need for investigation of the internal charging of cloud services and particular to narrow down the key advantages of cloud computing for SMEs and raise their business awareness as a source of competitive advantage. / <p>This paper has been a collective effort between Sten Ekström Winroth and Franco Bettels, the thesis has though been written in collaborative between the Management and Informatics department at Jönköping International Business School. These two departments have different requirements of the thesis writing process, which entails that we the authors have had different requirements. This is the reason that two theses exist with the same name, these two theses differ in the details, but are overall the same. </p>

Purpose: The purpose is to gain a better understanding in how a construction com-pany like Held &amp; Francke calculate the price of an offer for a building project and what role cost calculation, in relation to quality and time, plays in achieving competi-tive advantage. Method: Since the method of cost calculation only was investigated at one company we found it suitable for us to use a holistic single case study as the research strategy. The method used in this study is a qualitative research method since our empirical data, to a large extent, is based on interviews. Further, because our study is of a quali-tative nature, we have chosen to perform semi-structured interviews. Conclusions: After examining Held &amp; Francke we found that they manage very well to use some of the theoretical methods for cost calculations. Their main method of calculation is ABC, where the project is broken down into smaller work steps. Cost calculation plays a large role as a competitive advantage for Held &amp; Francke. Cost is the sole as-pect where Held &amp; Francke has full control and providing competitive project prices therefore becomes imperative in order to generate sales. With the focus on costs the cost calculation becomes an important role in achieving a competitive advantage.

In organisation, diversity in term of human resource is a new phenomenon which evolves and takes everyday more place in the global strategy of the company. For different reasons, human resource diversity could make the organization competitive in the market where the competition is all the time stronger. But the difficulties for human resource management officers is to elaborate human resource policies based on reaching the organization’s objectives and in the same time managing the workforce diversity in order to satisfy the all protagonists and in order to manage the diversity to make it a competitive advantage. They have to use appropriate tools in order to establish the employees’ loyalty and efficiency.

From the historical point of view the development of micro-car is always short-lived, the size is smaller than the UK's Micro Car Mini is memorable, but in the subsequent market performance was weak, Fiat 500 and BMW Isetta is the best example. But as environmental awareness, social structure, economic and energy and other issues, making micro cars by the world's attention again.It can be seen in the future will be increasingly fierce market competition, the depot itself must find a core competitive advantage to succeed in such a competitive environment while maintaining a competitive edge. This study was to explore the competition of imports of micro cars, the use of narrative inquiry in qualitative research and depth interviews, by the German group Daimler smart micro-car brand distributor in Taiwan , from the north, central, and southern The three regional sales director to narrate its brand image, product quality, marketing, publicity, business model. Results through data analysis, economic and practical, unique shape is the industry and consumers that the mini cars must have two key factors, the most important thing is unique, micro-car brand and the product must emit a unique image and personality, and then select the product differentiation strategy marketing promotion, and in addition to brand image and product quality, the organizers of the service behavior of consumers is also very important, especially in Taiwan has been slow to enter the service industry-based economy, how to make consumers feel the caring services, thereby causing and increase consumer interest and willingness to buy, and ultimately look forward to the conclusions of this study for the industry in the development of micro-car market in Taiwan.

The smartphone market compete closely in Taiwan. there are many companies not only develop the function of product actively, they pay attention to value added of brand and wish it can raise their profit. Because brand association is the core value of brand. So this object of study is smartphone and we want to know the relationship between brand association and purchase intention in whole smartphone market by consumer view point. Furthermore we analysis what different with dissimilar brands and the effect of consumer characteristics This study adopted the research of questionnaire as study method. The target is the resident in Taiwan and uses convenience sampling method. We try to understand what kind of relationship of brand association¡Bconsumer characteristics and consumer purchase intention in consumer¡¦s mind. There are 224 usable responses and we used SPSS soft ware to access the methods of statistic analysis and testifies hypothesis of this research. It has the following conclusions 1. This research find brand association are significantly correlated with consumers purchase intention in smartphone market 2. There are the remarkable differences with brand association and purchase intention in dissimilar brands 3. It shows that consumer characteristics have the remarkable difference with some research variables. This research not only testifies hypothesis but also collects the management means to be the reference. Wish these references could be helpful for academic and business practice. It has the following management means 1. Deepen importance of brand association and the effects of brand association to consumer purchase intention is also suitable to smartphone market 2. In order to creative and maintain competition advantage¡Athe companies must inspect what different between their own brand association and opponent¡¦s own constantly.

From the Mexican gulf oil spill of British Petroleum to Fukushima nuclear crisis of Japan. The awareness of impact on climate change, environmental pollution and natural resource depletion has led a wide range of stakeholders such as government, consumer and non-profit organization to put pressure on the companies to act in a more environmentally and socially responsible way. This study adopts both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Five Taiwanese green enterprises were interviewed along with thirty three questionnaires which were collected from other green enterprises for further analysis. This study attempts to explore how green entrepreneurial leader brings sustainable competitive advantage through building green human capital for the firm in the growing pressure of industrial environmental protection. The findings indicate that green entrepreneurial leaders articulate green vision, act as ethical role model, and identify environment related opportunity for exploitation. This leadership style influences the management practices on green human capital selection, development, and leverage which then lead to innovation, cost saving, and profitability.

The mounting environmental problems cause the strict international environmental regulations, arouse the customers¡¦ environmental awareness, and changing the patterns of business competition around the world. Green management, which is highly connected to sustainable development, is bringing to light and the curtain of corporate greening lifts. This study aims to probe the relationship between green strategy and competitive advantage- what strategies enterprises take under the green trend and what competitive advantages are achieved. The role green corporate culture plays is also discussed. The findings show that the practice of green strategy which differs from firm¡¦s resources and industrial characters generates different competitive advantages. The strength of green corporate culture is positively related to companies¡¦ ¡§age¡¨. Firms with strong green corporate culture can efficiently execute the green strategy and bring out strong competitive advantages. Otherwise, TMT should make efforts on conveying green vision to drive the practice of green strategy and secure competitive advantages.