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.

Our interest in this thesis is based on the discussion we had in previous courses about the development of emerging countries. Since two of the writers of this thesis are from Poland we tried to found a common interest, hence the relationship between the Polish subcontractors and Swedish customer is analyzed. Poland is also known as a low cost country and that make it favorable when it comes about hiring subcontractors. The subcontractors in Poland are also known for the skills and expertise to produce quality. Something that is important for many foreign companies. IKEA has more than 40 subcontractors in Poland; the reason is just the factors mentioned above, to be able to produce good quality to low cost. (www.ikea.com) Earlier research indicate that Poland is developing rapidly compare to other emergent countries in Eastern Europe. There have been and will be changes in the environment that most likely will affect the competitive advantage that the subcontractors are the leader in. In other words these changes might lead to that Poland loses its customers which choose other markets that still are able produce at lower costs. The main problem for the thesis is to investigate how can polish subcontractors cope with environmental changes to sustain competitive advantage? In order to answer this, we used a qualitative approach where the characteristics of a case study are conducted. We collected and analyzed data in an abductive way. The interviews with the three Polish subcontractors were made in a semi structure form via telephone. To be able to solve the above problem an environmental analysis of Poland was done, in order to found those factors that are mentioned as worries and are likely to change in the future. The changes are presented from subcontractors’ perspective and recommendation how to cope with them is given.

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To remain competitive in a global market, many organizations are transforming their operations from traditional management approaches to the lean philosophy. The success of the Toyota Production System in the automotive industry serves as a benchmark that organizations continually seek to emulate in search of similar results. Despite the abundance of lean resources, many organizations struggle to attain successful lean transformation. To facilitate investigation of the failure mechanisms and critical success factors of lean transformation, this dissertation addresses the following research questions: (1) Why do transformations from traditional organizational philosophies to lean fail? (2) What are the critical factors for lean transformation success? (3) What is the role of an organization’s human resource performance management system during the lean transformation journey? This dissertation utilizes a multi-method, multi-essay format to examine the research questions. First, managers from organizations in various stages of lean transformation are interviewed to establish a foundational research framework. Subsequently, a theoretical model is empirically tested based on data gathered from a survey of industry professionals with expertise in lean transformation. Data analysis techniques employed for this dissertation include: Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, case descriptions, and case comparisons. Very few studies of lean transformation investigate behavioral influences and antecedents. This dissertation contributes to practitioners and researchers by offering a refined understanding of the role that human resource performance management can play in the overall lean transformation process. In an effort to characterize organizational outcomes resulting from lean transformation, this research introduces a new construct, Lean Transformation Success, to the literature.

Netzwerke, insbesondere für organisationsübergreifende Innovationsaktivitäten, gewinnen weiter an Bedeutung. Zunehmend kann auch ein Wettbewerb der Netzwerke und Allianzen attestiert werden. Innovationsfähigkeit kann hierbei zum wichtigen Wettbewerbsvorteil werden. Diese Studie gibt Aufschluss über wesentliche Treiber von Innovationsleistung in Netzwerken. Innovationen werden dabei zum einen als marktbezogene Produkt -und Dienstleistungsneuheiten, zum anderen i.S.v. netzwerkinternen neuen Maßnahmen und Prozessen verstanden. Hierzu wurden 757 Manager/Koordinatoren innovationsorientierter Netzwerke angeschrieben. Auf Basis der gewonnenen Daten wird die Wirkung von Innovationsstrategien, Innovationskultur, Wissensaustausch, Kospezialisierung, Führungsstil und Reflexivität auf die Innovationsleistung von Netzwerken aufgezeigt. Die vorliegende Studie ist Teil eines umfangreichen empirischen Forschungsprojekts mit Förderung aus Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) und des Europäischen Sozialfonds im Förderschwerpunkt "Innovationsstrategien jenseits traditionellen Managements"

In this thesis major challenges of creating business models at incumbents within mature industries are identified along with a mitigation plan. Pressure is upon incumbent organizations in order to keep up with the latest rapid technological advancements, the launching of startups that almost cover every field of business and the continuous change in customers’ tastes and needs. That along with various factors either forced organizations to continually reevaluate their current business models or miss out on great opportunities. How some incumbents have dealt and are dealing with business model innovation challenges over the past few years is demonstrated through several cases of incumbents. The sources surveyed include recent scientific articles, books, firsthand accounts with executives in the area of business models, innovation and business development, online sources and contemporary business publications. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose a framework which is derived mainly from the sources mentioned above. In order to overcome such challenges, thesis propose a framework that can be used to successfully engender new business models and make a transition from current to new business model. By successful business model innovation, firms can increase the extent of their offerings, meet yet unmet market demands and untapped customer segments. Additionally, organizations can create new value propositions and gain highly sustainable competitive position through business model innovation which is not easy to imitate or copy by the competition. Our findings attest to the fact that business models are highly situational however there are general steps for incumbent organizations that would lead to a successful business model innovation approach. First an organization must have a clear strategy. Establishing separate innovation centers for firms do enhance and foster the mindset of innovation as they take innovation outside the parent organization’s logic. Other approaches include open innovation, partnerships and ensuring that resources are constantly allocated to create disruptive innovations internally and is led by the right personalities. Solving customer needs should be the core of any business and finally there are no best practices in business model innovation. The significance of our findings gives insights on how to overcome some challenges in practice for incumbents to create suitable business models and contributes to theory since there were some empirical findings that weren’t pronounced in literature.

In this thesis major challenges of creating business models at incumbents within mature industries are identified along with a mitigation plan. Pressure is upon incumbent organizations in order to keep up with the latest rapid technological advancements, the launching of startups that almost cover every field of business and the continuous change in customers’ tastes and needs. That along with various factors either forced organizations to continually reevaluate their current business models or miss out on great opportunities.How some incumbents have dealt and are dealing with business model innovation challenges over the past few years is demonstrated through several cases of incumbents. The sources surveyed include recent scientific articles, books, firsthand accounts with executives in the area of business models, innovation and business development, online sources and contemporary business publications. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose a framework which is derived mainly from the sources mentioned above.In order to overcome such challenges, thesis propose a framework that can be used to successfully engender new business models and make a transition from current to new business model. By successful business model innovation, firms can increase the extent of their offerings, meet yet unmet market demands and untapped customer segments. Additionally, organizations can create new value propositions and gain highly sustainable competitive position through business model innovation which is not easy to imitate or copy by the competition.Our findings attest to the fact that business models are highly situational however there are general steps for incumbent organizations that would lead to a successful business model innovation approach. First an organization must have a clear strategy. Establishing separate innovation centers for firms do enhance and foster the mindset of innovation as they take innovation outside the parent organization’s logic. Other approaches include open innovation, partnerships and ensuring that resources are constantly allocated to create disruptive innovations internally and is led by the right personalities. Solving customer needs should be the core of any business and finally there are no best practices in business model innovation. The significance of our findings gives insights on how to overcome some challenges in practice for incumbents to create suitable business models and contributes to theory since there were some empirical findings that weren’t pronounced in literature.

Background: In a world that is becoming more knowledge-based and where it gets harder to find value-adding employees, employer branding could be used as a way to attract and retain employees, which later can create competitive advantage. Research Question: In order to experience competitive advantage, how do SMEs use the strategies and tools of employer branding as a way to attract and retain value-adding employees? Purpose: The purpose with this study was to explore how employer branding is used by SMEs as a way to experience competitive advantage. Method: A qualitative research method with six case studies of SMEs located in different industries was adopted. Primary data was based on semi-structured interviews with respondents at the different SMEs. Theoretical framework: With the basis of the RBV, theories about this and the human capital as a resource as well as a competitive advantage, is presented. This continues with theories about the employer brand, attractive attributes about employers, employer branding strategies, and what the outcomes of employer branding is.  Findings and Conclusions: SMEs do not use the strategies and tools of employer branding in the generic way. Instead, much communication is carried out first when the recruitment process starts, with the aim to find employees who could deliver competitive advantage through their fit with the organization. Once onboard, different benefits are provided in order to retain them. Involvement and engagement are the most prominent ones, due to SMEs ability to offer cross-functional management.

Researchers studying the alignment of business resources usually focus on business cases that inherently have a going-concern interaction built on long-term relationships at the firm level (e.g., Barney, 1991) dyadic level (e.g., Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000) or the broader network level (e.g., Dyer, 1996). Resource alignment is usually flexible in terms of the timeline for identifying and aligning resources and resource engagement. While contractual limitations can be applied to resource alignment, resource engagement holds a notion of persistent value adding relationship. However, there are multitudes of contexts where relationships are bounded by the limited life of a project and by the way where resources must be rapidly aligned and managed. Examples exist in sectors as diverse as construction, filmmaking, and oil exploration. The study examined theories and empirical studies of resource alignment ranging from resource-based views (e.g., Wernerfelt, 1984) to more complex network views of social organizational interactions (e.g., Gulati et al., 2000). The majority of these literatures treat the development of business relationships and the acquisition of resources as a phenomenon that occurs over an extended period. Time-bound transactions challenge these theoretical perspectives built around the longevity of inter-organizational relations. Thus, the key strategic management problem this research addresses is how resources and capabilities can be rapidly aligned and managed in a time-bound network to achieve sustainable competitive advantages (SCA) at the network level. The fieldwork was conducted on more than 20 construction projects in the United Arab Emirates. Using secondary source data, I mapped the projects??? networks and interviewed 45 industry experts about the resources and capabilities their firms bring to the network, and how quickly they can be aligned to achieve the objectives of the project. The interviews were conducted over 11 months between 2011 and 2012 and amounted to more than 20 hours of audio and hundreds of notes including network sketches. I also investigated the transfer of resources and capabilities that may help network members to increase their competitive advantage when bidding on future projects. The benefits of long-term relationships are evident in any business; however, firms in the project-based construction industry often cannot reap those benefits. This study built upon theories of network-based resource alignment in the extreme situation of time-bound projects. The two-phase qualitative research approach relied on intensive interviews with key decision makers. Template analysis was used as the primary method of data analysis. This research???s primary finding is that there is no evidence of the concept of sustainable competitive advantage at the network level, while it is evident at the firm level. Other findings confirm that the events of full replication and non-replication of networks after project completion do not exist nor do decision makers favour them. While these findings imply the lack of attention to the benefits of contributing to a network, the more apparent scenario is replication of parts of a network, which is a result of two factors: 1) capabilities developed at firm level, which in return develop resources, and other capabilities, 2) movement of resources across network entities. The results shed light on decision-making techniques for efficient management of resources in time-bound business transactions such as construction and other projects. However, they may also generalize to dynamic business situations such as the entry of a firm into a new market or the entrepreneurial start-up of a new company in which resources must also be quickly aligned.

Companies operating in emerging markets face highly turbulent and complex environments. Russia is no exception; the firms acting on the Russian market perform in the conditions of economic instability, energy export dependence, state bureaucratic constraints and unfair competition from the part of oligarchic groups. However, despite all these challenges, more and more private owned companies manage to enjoy high growth and margins. A critical group of firms are the so-called high-growth private companies. These firms arouse special interest since they are believed to be main growth generators and, particularly in Russia, could become a key to new economic growth model. Operating in a highly turbulent Russian market requires companies to adopt and continually develop their strategies to quickly changing conditions in order to sustain growth and stay competitive in the long term. This can be achieved with the help of dynamic capabilities which serve as one of the sources of sustainable competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of research on Russian high-growth private companies and their growth strategies, even in Russian academic circles. The purpose of this study is to explain the sustainability of growth strategy by describing the linkages between Russian high-growth private companies’ dynamic capabilities, choice of growth strategy and sustainability of this growth strategy. This was studied through a qualitative multiple-case study of five Russian high-growth private companies within the IT-industry, which is one of the most rapidly developing industries in Russia. Interviews with CEOs and managers of the companies together with secondary data represent the gathered empirical data. Key issues such as companies’ dynamic capabilities, growth strategies, competitive advantages as well as the sustainability of companies’ strategies were analysed based on the empirical data. The results of the study indicate that the sustainability of company’s growth strategy depends on (1) combination of different strategic scopes (2) growth strategy foundation on company’s dynamic capabilities (3) sustainability of competitive advantage it provides (4) successful management of all the interconnected dimensions of growth. All five case companies possess sustainable competitive advantages and pursue sustainable growth strategies with a number of potential weaknesses. The study contributes to the knowledge of Russian high-growth private companies and their growth strategies as well as sustainability of growth strategies. Finally, we make recommendations for the case companies based on the results. Companies can sustain growth by building new competences and making certain changes to the existing strategies.