<p>According to the Globalizations Council the most important task Sweden has is to assess the opportunities and challenges presented by the global economy to a small, open country like Sweden. There has been dual competition, some has been able to sell the resource services of human and physical knowledge capital, and others offering to sell unskilled labor at wages way below Swedish standards. This thesis will examine the changes in market position in the manufacturing sector, and how comparative advantage and the role of technology have impacted the changes.</p><p>The empirical analysis is based on the relative international competitiveness index to examine how market position in different sectors has changed during the time-period 1985-2003. In the regression measures for human and physical capital has been included as well as R&D expenditure for both Sweden and the OECD countries.</p><p>The results show that the changes in market position for most products are relatively small. What can be concluded is that it is not the sector as a whole that experience improving market positions instead it is certain products such as pharmaceutical, sulphate and electronic components among others.</p><p>Sweden ranks very high in terms of resources dedicated to production of new technology and there are proofs on both side of the "Swedish Paradox"; which states that high technology exports are low given the high R&D investment.</p><p>The result also indicates that Sweden has a labor-intensive disadvantage, i.e. indications that the market position for industries with high total capital-intensity has increased.</p>

<p>Strategic management has long been viewed as the concept and process that link an organization</p><p>and its environment together (Leibold, Probst & Gibbert, 2002). It consists of the</p><p>analysis, decisions and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain</p><p>competitive advantages (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2005).</p><p>Within the history of strategic management research there has been an unbalance between</p><p>the internal and the external perspective. During the 1980s Michael Porter, one of the most</p><p>prominent strategic management researchers, and his Five Forces model focused strictly on</p><p>the external competitive environment (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel, 1998). Further, in</p><p>the 1990s the focus shifted from external to internal along with Jay Barney’s development</p><p>of the resource based theory in 1991 (Barney, 1991). The issue of excluding one or the</p><p>other perspective has now started to be acknowledged and researchers today are striving</p><p>for developing models integrating both perspectives. However, theoretical models existing</p><p>today that combine the two perspectives are complex and hard to apply in practice for</p><p>managers within the business world.</p><p>In order to address the complexity of the strategic management concept we have chosen to</p><p>develop a model with the purpose to connect and relate the external and internal perspectives</p><p>by conducting an in-depth analysis of a chosen company. The model also strives to be</p><p>easily communicated, applicable and understandable for managers and employees on different</p><p>levels within the organization. This leads us to the purpose of this thesis: “to develop</p><p>a simplified model that combines the external and internal perspective of strategic management</p><p>and apply this to a chosen company”.</p><p>The research was conducted through a case study based on the authors’ participation in a</p><p>PBM (Project Based Module) - project. The model was tested on the company in question</p><p>by analyzing the company’s internal and external environment with the means of analysis</p><p>tools such as PEST-analysis, strategic group analysis, threshold analysis and the SWOTanalysis.</p><p>To conclude it is important to balance an organization’s internal efforts with the external</p><p>market conditions and avoid excluding one or the other from the strategic management</p><p>process. Combining the two perspectives results in identifying the current capabilities and</p><p>competences and the direction of how to use these in order to meet market demands and</p><p>gain competitive advantage.</p>

<p>Background: During the past ten years an increasing trend of international representation in Swedish boards, referred to as board internationalization, has occured. Figures show that in 1994 foreign board members held 3,4% (Sundin & Sundqvist, 1995) of the seats in Swedish companies boards, today that figure is 14,2% (Fristedt & Sundqvist, 2005). This trend seems to continue as the nominations of this year is streaming in. Although this trend occurs Swedish business press is questioning why not more foreign directors are being appointed members to board (Almgren, 2006). Fahim (2005) also questions this and argues that companies need to realise that there is a profitability perspective on the subject of diversity. In many of the large Swedish companies the absence of foreign directors is noticed, but there is a few in the forefront which have appointed foreign directors. The reasons for internationalizing a board can be different and it interesting to investigate how forefront companies discuss internationalization in general and which reasons in particular that drives board internationalization.</p><p>Purpose: The thesis' purpose is to investigate the main rational for board internationalization.</p><p>Frame of reference: In the frame of reference, four possible influences on the internationalization of the board is presented, in order to be discussed and compared to the empirical findings; corporate governance, ownership structure, stakeholder pressure, and competitive advantage.</p><p>Method: In order to fulfill the purpose, a qualitative research method is chosen, based on in-depth interviews. The sample consists of ten interviews with chairmen of Swedish boards within companies that are represented by at least one foreign board member.</p><p>Conclusion: We have concluded that the main rational of board internationalization is the search for competitive advantage, which is believed to be created by a board with diverse competences and networks. Regarding ownership structure, foreign private owners are the only ones that are influencing the internationalization. Both the corporate governance development and the stakeholder pressure are identified in the empirical findings, but not believed to be an influence of internationalization.</p>

<p>Background: It is necessary for a company to hold some unique and irreplicable competitive advantage in order to be able to succeed in a market. In a market where public procurement is an important part the competitive advantages will be characterized by the fact that some of the participants on the market are public organizations and that their actions as for procurement fall under the legislation LOU. The characteristics of competitive advantage also depend on and change with continuous changes on a market. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the competitive advantages that are presenton a current market characterized by public procurement and how these are created. The purposes is also to based on the trends on the market today study and predict the nature of the competitive advantage on the market in the future as well as the changes that we think will occur on the relevant market. </p><p>Realization: We have performed a case study of the market for enteral nutrition where data have been gathered from interviews with participants in the market and from studying the law of public procurement. The data is gathered and analysed based on an adapted model that we have derived from two theoretical perspectives of competitive advantage. The model that looks to the nature and the origin of competitive advantage has been tested and evaluated through application on the market. </p><p>Results: Strategic assets are of great importance in order for a company to create a competitive advantage in the form of being established, relations, being established in municipalities and the offer on the market of enteral nutrition today. These strategic assets and competitive advantages will in the future be characterized by the trends that are present on the market today. These trends are identified as an increasing knowledge, products for specific diseases, cooperation, limited procurements, alternative distribution channels and working towards the patients. The creation and the nature of competitive advantage is shaped by an interaction between the resources and capabilities of the firm and the needs and the needs and the demands of the market.</p>

<p>The object of this thesis is to analyse how a co-operational network can come about, operate and progress to contribute to industrial dynamics within the locality. The thesis is a case-study of the HomeCom Project, to learn whether this project has the required features to contribute to the clustering process and thus higher levels of industrial dynamics and competitive advantage of the home communications industry in Linköping. The theoretical platform is based on Porter’s Diamond-model, which explains the occurrence of clusters. Theories of external economies complement Porter’s theories, while oligopoly theory will be introduced to offer a different perspective. The empirical findings show that the HomeCom Project may be considered to contribute to the clustering and in consequence promote industrial dynamics and competitive advantage. But there are also difficulties and attitudes that may impede the reaching of the project’s goals.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The anticipated increase in competition among airports means that there is now a greater need for strategic thinking in the airport business industry. In order to succeed, airport management will have to implement new strategic initiatives and identify their key competitive strengths. While many airports are now more active in following strategic directions, there is some deficiency and inconsistency in the literature in this regard. This research relates the theories of strategic management to the case of airports in order to explore the issue of whether the airport business industry is able to apply the different strategies adopted by other industries in order to achieve growth. The research provides an in-depth analysis into the strategies that Dubai International Airport has pursued. This carefully selected case study involves the collection of qualitative data through conducting semi-structured interviews as a primary source of information. Data collected are applied to different well-known business tools including the PESTEL Analysis, the Five Forces Model and the Resource-based View (RBV) of the firm. The research found that there are some strategic differences between the airport industry and other industries. While it is possible for airports to adopt certain strategies, some strategic theories are not very practicable for airports. While Dubai International Airport is not considered very different from other airports, there are some differentiated characteristics in its ownership and management that led it to outperform its rivals. The research proposes that there are a number of key success factors derived from four core areas that led Dubai International Airport to obtain strategic strengths over other airports. These four areas include: General Condition, Competitive Situation, Resource Acquisition and Strategic Direction. These areas are also classified as No Control, Least Control, Some Control and Most Control, respectively. This thesis contributes to the development of a best practice conceptual model that can help airport managers understand and improve their key competitive strengths and success factors.

No description available.

The Internet is becoming a more and more influencing factor in our everyday life. It affects many of our daily tasks and it is a determining factor we built our decisions on. Especially in Sweden, retrieving information about products or services online prior to the purchase is a matter of course and emphasizes therefore its importance. A website offers a costefficient potential for smaller firms with limited resources to be visible for consumers and to compete on the larger market. However, the website adoption has been neglected amongst 41% of Swedish micro Small- and Medium sized Enterprises (SME), which raises the question why this phenomenon exists. Existing literature does not provide a solid explanation of this occurrence and this is where our study steps in. In order to answer our research question and to fill this gap, the study is designed as a qualitative multiple-case study with twelve semi-structured interviews conducted amongst the owner-managers of micro SMEs in different parts of Sweden. The study aims to fill the theoretical gap by identifying and explaining the reasons why micro SMEs in Sweden do not adopt a website. The empirical contribution is the development of managerial recommendations about how micro SMEs can overcome the barriers to adopt a website.  This research was guided by a conceptual framework, including strategic, consumer and customer, communication and interaction perspectives, as well as the perspective of the perception of websites. In order to carry out a profound analysis, we decided to apply two steps. The first step of the analysis was to connect the themes itself to theory in order to explore what the collected data represents so that reasons explaining why micro SMEs do not adopt a website could be found. The second step of the analysis included the exploration of the identified reasons in order to understand why these exist. The results from this study are expressed as six reasons why the owner-managers of micro SMEs in Sweden have not adopted a website. These reasons are: a wrong perception of a website, the lack of resources and competences, precaution, being a contractor to an umbrella company, being unaware of a website’s impact on the business and having successful network and offline-communication methods. The findings leave practitioners and researchers with an idea about what reasons are leading owners of micro SMEs to neglect a website and why these reasons exist.

Denna magisteruppsats i ekonomisk historia har som syfte att utforska varför den svenska bilparken är mer bränslekrävande än genomsnittet i Europa, samt att identifiera de historiska processer som påverkat formandet av den svenska bilparken. Tidigare miljöinriktad forskning inom ekonomisk historia har fokuserat på strukturomvandling och institutionell förändring inom industri- och hushållssektorn. Denna studie utforskar den privata transportsektorn genom att studera Volvo som varit tongivande i att forma sammansättning av den svenska bilparken. Genom att studera två av Sveriges största biltidningar – Teknikens värld och Volvos egen konsumenttidning, Ratten – samt årsberättelser och hållbarhetsrapporter från Volvo, har historien om varumärket Volvo och Volvos relation till miljön utforskats.  Volvo antog ’kvalitet’ och ’säkerhet’ som kärnvärden vid starten 1927. ’Omsorg om miljön’ lades till som ett tredje kärnvärde 1972 vilket antas vara av relevans för hur Volvo byggt sin identitet. Hur Volvo tolkat ’omsorg om miljön’ i relation till sitt varumärke och hur det integrerats i företagets produktionsprocesser är utgångspunkter för uppsatsens undersökande del som sträcker sig från 1972 till 2014.  Resultatet visar på att begreppet ’miljö’ har omtolkats av Volvo och följt den samhälleliga diskursen ganska väl. Från att handla om den lokala ’arbetsmiljön’ och det som kopplas därtill, till att handla om regionala utsläpp av partiklar för att till sist innefatta ett globalt perspektiv. Resultatet visar också att Volvo på grund av höga kostnader för arbetare och en stor efterfrågan från den amerikanska marknaden drivits till att producera stora och dyra bilar som drar mycket bränsle. På grund av att Volvo inte kunnat konkurrera med höga försäljningsvolymer har man istället satsat på säkra och hållbara bilar som kunnat bringa högre vinstmarginaler.  Efter krisen på 1990-talet och ett byte av ledarskap från Pehr G. Gyllenhammar till Sören Gyll, visar resultatet att ’omsorg om miljön’ fick en mer framskjuten roll i Volvos varumärkesbyggnad. Samtidigt beslutades att Volvo skulle ta ytterligare steg mot att tillverka bilar i premiumsegmentet vilket var svårt att kombinera med miljöhänsyn vad gäller bränsleförbrukning.  Slutsatserna som dragits från denna uppsats är att Volvo efter andra världskriget lyckades skaffa sig en ’pionjärsfördel’ – pioneering advantage – genom en stark introduktion av PV 444/544-modellerna på 1940- och 1950-talet och att man sedan kunnat använda denna fördel för att omtolka svenskars preferenser att välja bränslekrävande bilar. Detta innebär att företag, om de vill, har möjlighet att styra konsumenter mot att välja bättre miljöanpassade produkter. I uppsatsen argumenteras för att avsättningsmarknader spelar stor roll för möjligheten för företag att ställa om produktionen till att leverera ’grönare’ produkter.