Syftet med denna uppsats är, med fokus på researrangörer, att finna och analysera vad som karaktäriserar varumärken. Vidare är avsikten att klarlägga researrangörers kommunikation till konsumenter. Utifrån uppsatsens syfte utformades följande tre forskningsfrågor: Vad karaktäriserar varumärkens identitet och budskap? Vilket utrymme och vilken roll ges varumärken i såväl traditionella som digitala kanaler? Vad kännetecknar personalens och kundernas roller på en resa? / The aim of this thesis, focusing on the travel arrangers, is to find and analyse what characterizes brands. Furthermore, the intention is to explain travel arrangers communication towards customers. We have posed these following three research questions: What characterizes brand identities and messages? What space and which role is given to brands in both traditional and digital channels? What defines the personnels and the customers roles during a trip?

With the development of society, organizations are increasingly working to streamline their businesses to maintain and strengthen their position on the market. This can be carried out in several different ways, since businesses are individual and require special needs to develop longterm sustainability. The purpose of this case study is to emphasize how material flows within industrial goods reception can be streamlined based on human aspects. To answer the purpose, data was collected through interviews, observations and literature studies. Six interviews have been conducted at BillerudKorsnäs, with observations taking place continuously during the study. This is to create a reality perception with different approaches to increase the credibility of the study. The results were analyzed and discussed with the help of literature reviews. The literature studies consist of collected scientific articles, course literature, web pages and other credible sources. The results are based on a study of internal material flow in the central repository at BillerudKorsnäs in Gävle. As discovered, the material flow consists of mainly manual labor that lead to unnecessary time-consuming disturbances. A contributing factor to improve and streamline the material flow has been built on identifying health-promoting measures. Therefore, industrial goods reception can be made more efficient with the help of digital aids concerning to human aspects.

Bakgrund: Digitalisering är en trend som påverkar hela samhället och alla branscher, så även revisionsbranschen. Tidigare forskning har främst pekat på alla fördelar och positiva effekter digitaliseringen för med sig för revisorer, och ytterst lite forskning tar upp vilka negativa effekter och risker som också finns. Det saknas också forskning kring vilken kompetens en revisor behöver ha för att på ett bra sätt kunna möta de med digitaliseringen medföljande riskerna. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva revisionsbranschens uppfattning kring vilka risker digitaliseringen för med sig och vilka kompetenser revisorer behöver ha för att kunna möta dessa risker. Revisionsbranschen är medveten om att kompetensbehovet hos revisorer förändras i och med den digitala tillvaron, och vi vill genom vår studie förtydliga vilka specifika risker som uppkommer och vilken kompetens som är nödvändig för att möta just dem. Studien kan komma lärosäten i Sverige till nytta vid utformningen av framtida revisorsutbildningar. Metod: I studien används en kvalitativ metod. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in via semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta yrkesverksamma och auktoriserade revisorer från Västra Götalands län. Av de intervjuade revisorerna arbetade fyra på större revisionsbyråer och fyra på mindre. Slutsatser: Studien visar att de risker som främst upplevs med digitalisering är att säkerheten inte är tillräckligt hög utan att en obehörig part kan få åtkomst till lagrat material och att robotar tar över så pass många uppgifter att juniora revisorer förlorar en stor del av de grundläggande yrkeskunskaperna. Den visar också att revisorernas vardag kan påverkas negativt genom att använda system inte stödjer arbetet och genom att de alltid kan vara tillgängliga. De viktigaste kompetenserna hos framtida revisorer anses vara kunskap inom IT och analytisk förmåga. / Background: Digitalization is a trend that affects the whole community and all industries, including the auditing industry. Earlier research has uppermost focused on the advantages and positive effects that digitalization brings to auditors, and outermost research focus on which negative effects and risks that also exists. It does not exist any research on what competence an auditor must have to be able to face those risks. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to describe auditor's opinion on what risks the digitalization brings to them and what kind of competences auditors need to be able to meet these risks. The auditing industry is well aware that the auditors competences need to change due to the digital existence, and we want to further explain what specific risks that arises and what competence that is necessary to meet them. This study can be used by academies in Sweden while designing future educations for auditors. Method: In this study, a qualitative method was used. The empirical data was gathered through semi structured interviews with eight working and certified auditors from Västra Götaland County. Four of the interviewed auditors worked on a larger audit firm and four worked on a smaller firm. Conclusions: The study shows that the most experienced risks due to digitalization are that the safety is not high enough so that an unauthorized person can get access to stored material and that robots replace human work in so many tasks that junior auditors loses a great part of the elementary knowledge needed in the profession. It also shows that the auditors everyday work can be affected negatively when used systems does not work properly and by the possibility of always being available. The most important competencies of future auditors considered are knowledge within IT and analytical ability.

Problem: The increasing online operations of the B2B market has led to companies being able to operate all over the world, making them exposed to various markets with different preferences of supplier relationships. For that reason, it is important for companies to consider aspects such as digitalization, culture and buyer-seller relationships when conducting business with foreign companies. One industry that has been reluctant towards this online shift is the display materials industry. However, during recent years display material suppliers operating online have become more successful. Therefore, understanding companies purchasing process when buying display material online is necessary.   Purpose: This thesis aims to explain and investigate the online organizational buying behavior of British and Swedish organizations while purchasing display materials and several factors that influence it, such as culture, digitalization and buyer-seller relationships are examined.   Method: A qualitative approach with semi-structured interview was used to conduct this research. Eight participants from British and Swedish organizations who are customers of the display material company SignMax were interviewed. The data collected has been analyzed together with literature on online organizational buying behavior and the influencing factors. Results: The findings of this research showed that the level of product involvement and national culture decides and forms the importance of the purchase, the purchasing process and the type of supplier-relationship desired. Additionally, the attitude towards digitalization and the experience of online purchases determine the level of personal contact and support. Based on the empirical analysis the findings showed that for the cases of UK and Sweden, UK was more performance-oriented in their supplier relationships and highly valued ease of use and a smooth purchasing process. Sweden on the other hand, focused more on soft-values such as personal contact and support.

The emergence of digitalization and globalization has given birth to firms who cater to a global customer base and source resources from around the world at the click of a button. Nevertheless, as companies continue to innovate how they communicate, govern and internationalize, much of the research is built on a world before the emergence of the digitalized and globalized society we live in today. Finding a lucrative market is a crucial source of competitive advantage but if modern opportunities and challenges are disregarded, it could lead to grave economic downfalls. This paper investigates what factors modern technology firms take into account when evaluating potential location choice. This question further investigates how the nature of technology companies influence location choice. A qualitative study was conducted, five semi-structured interviews with five companies were conducted with each interview lasting on average 47 minutes.Three general findings were deducted from these interviews. Firstly, internal factors to the firm are still very much relevant to tech companies. Determinants such as top managements' experiential learning and networks, industry characteristics and the nature of the customer relationship. The second finding was that country-specific determinants were of less importance. There was no evidence showing that determinants such as natural resources were a factor. It was also shown that psychic and geographic distances were of less importance while human capital are of higher importance. Lastly factors which have lowered the barriers to enter a foreign location were found. These include the emergence of the gig economy and better communication technologies allowing for companies to govern distant offices from a centralized headquarter. These findings have been compiled by the authors into a new model of location choice factors for technology companies

Background: In various industries, market power is concentrated on a few major companies, which makes competition increasingly challenging for small and medium-sized enterprises. Those SMEs are furthermore impacted by the characteristics of their industry and need to change constantly and adapt to maintain competitive in this challenging market environment. The IT sector is characterized by a high degree of digitalization, quickly changing customer needs, and short lifecycles. Thus, many IT firms apply agile working methods, increase working in teams, and use different digital tools and applications. In many cases, those adjustments also impact the organizational structure of the firm and require a change in management. Purpose: In the context of a medium-sized IT firm, this study aims to evaluate the effects of digitalization on management innovation in project teams. Method: To gain a deep understanding of the researched topic, we chose a qualitative interview-based study. We collected the data for this single-case study in semi-structured interviews and applied purposeful sampling (theory based). For the data analysis, we used content analysis (open code; grouping; categorization). Conclusion: We developed a framework describing the influence of digitalization on management innovation in six dimensions, which emerged in the study. Those dimensions are project teams, virtual teams, communication & collaboration, trust, technology, as well as leadership & management. Digitalization strongly influences management innovations in all six identified fields. Digitalization, management innovation, and the respective field are interdependent. In our case, we found that digitalization acts as an enabler or simplifier for management innovation in all six dimensions.

Abstract Background – The existing literature on digitalization in the food industry is limited. Meanwhile, the literature suggests that digitalization is an issue that is unavoidable at some point in all industries and that companies must adapt in order to maintain their competitive position. In the food industry, large investments into digital projects are currently focusing on e-commerce, even though it merely stands for 2% of the sales. It could, therefore, be seen as digitalization is only about to start affecting the food industry and thus, exploring how it has affected and what it might mean for the actors in the industry is interesting.   Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to explore how digitalization affects the food industry in Sweden. The purpose is fulfilled through the answering of two research questions; How is digitalization viewed upon in the food industry in Sweden? And How does the digitalization affect the food industry in Sweden? Through the fulfilment of the purpose, this thesis helps to fill a gap in the existing literature about the subject.   Method – The study is a qualitative study of digitalization in the food industry and includes insights from 13 individuals working in the food industry in Sweden. As the subject does not have any existing theories and there is limited literature on the subject, the study uses an inductive approach where the data is analysed through a thematic analysis in order to be able to derive a conclusion about the subject.   Findings – When concluding this study, it was found that the food industry is lagging behind other industries in terms of digitalization, which in the food industry is closely connected to e-commerce for many. There are several enormous challenges that the industry is facing, and one of the most significant challenges and also a resistance to digitalization in the food industry is profitability. This means that the industry actors have a hard time maintaining profitability when implementing digital solutions, mainly e-commerce solutions. Opportunities are present to solve the challenges of mainly; deliveries and thus finding a solution to the profitability issue.

Background: As digitalization has arisen and further developed the way companies execute marketing strategies, new ways of creating value by effectiveness and efficiency as a foundation has emerged during the recent years. Two crucial marketing tools within digitalization are Marketing Automation and Inbound Marketing.    Problem:Striving to become more effective and efficient with digitalization and the new technology requires that companies can deal with new changes. Although, there is a gap in the research and how effectiveness and efficiency is perceived and how it further creates value for companies.    Purpose: This thesis aims to achieve a greater understanding of in what essence companies can become more effective and efficient in order to create greater value. RQ1: How does effectiveness and efficiency create value for companies regarding marketing automation and inbound marketing, and what is value for them?    Method: A multiple case study based on a qualitative research method has been executed with interviews of six companies. The companies interviewed is divided under three different levels of implementation of digitalization, non-user, in process, and user.  Conclusion: The results showed that depending on how much digitalization a company has implemented; the level of effectiveness and efficiency varies. The higher level of digitalization the higher level of effectiveness and value. Further, more value is created when the level of effectiveness and efficiency is higher. Good CRM systems together with long-term relationships and good communication enhances the development of digitalization within companies to further create more value.

This report is built on a theoretical literature study within the areas of digital transformation and dynamic capabilities. An empirical study has been made on the provider of the mission of this study, Propia, and a case study has been made on the case company Tekniska verken, in order to verify the theoretical findings and results. The study was performed by two master students of Industrial Engineering and Management at Linköping university during the period from January to May 2019. The study was performed as a master thesis within the master's orientation Strategy and Management Control, and aims to explore how organizations can develop a dynamic digital capability, which is seen as the key to success when it comes to managing digital transformation in a successful way. The study was performed iteratively, by first examining the area of digital transformation, defined as the transformation of business and strategy through digital technology and organizational changes. Three areas where organizational changes are needed were identified, namely the areas of Leadership & Vision, Culture & People and Corporate Processes & Structures. Further, three factors within each area were defined as critical in order to succeed with digital transformation. These nine critical factors laid the foundation for the second part of the study, where the area of dynamic capabilities was studied and applied onto the findings on how to manage dynamic transformation in a successful way. Dynamic capabilities can shortly be described as routines for change and can be further disaggregated into three capacities: Sense – the ability to know what opportunities exist and can be matched with the internal prerequisites; Seize – the ability to capture the right opportunities and successfully integrate them into the business; Reconfigure – the ability to, when needed, perform changes of structures and resources. Within these three capacities, microfoundations to build the previously mentioned critical factors in a dynamic way were identified. The result of the study was a generalizable framework, consisting of these nine critical factors and 31 microfoundations required to build the factors in a dynamic way. By developing the dynamic capability microfoundations and, thereby, continuously work with all factors, the development of a dynamic digital capability in the organization will be facilitated. The framework can thereby be used as a checklist of what is already in place in the organization, and what is lacking and must thereby be obtained. Worth noticing is that factors and microfoundations as well as dynamic digital capability in itself is perishable, hence “checking the box” of a factor or microfoundation once does not mean it is obtained forever, but it requires continuous work and development of all parts of the framework. Dependencies and interrelationships between the factors have been identified, as well as the effect of other organizational aspects such as size, industry and how far the organization has proceeded in their digital transformation journey. These dependencies are discussed in the report, but no relative importance or order of how and when the factors and microfoundations should be obtained and developed has been further explored or confirmed. This is due to the desired generalizability of the framework.

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore small enterprises’ marketing strategy and the digital tools that can improve their odds in the market against competitors and gain competitive advantage. Method: Qualitative study was conducted using primary and secondary data for this study, where primary data was collected through ten semi-structured interviews. An inductive approach was used to complete this study. The sample taken was seven small hotels and ten respondents who own and manage the hotels. Result & Conclusion: Findings of this study show that digital marketing tools demand fewer resources such as marketing expenses, number of employees, and make marketing activities simpler for the managers of small enterprises. As a result of digitalization, small enterprises are able to implement the marketing mix (4Ps), although their primary focus is price followed by providing customized product/service that fits the customers’ needs to gain competitive advantage. Suggestion for future studies: We found in our study that one hotel did not use social media at all, and it would be interesting to know if there are more enterprises that do not use it as well. Therefore, in future studies, a larger sample would produce more data about the use of social media by small enterprises. Additionally, this study was conducted in a developed country context and further research would be beneficial to emerging-market countries if it is conducted in their context. Finally, a deeper investigation of marketing strategy between different sizes of micro and small enterprises can provide greater knowledge about how they operate. Contribution of the thesis: This study has contributed to small enterprises’ marketing strategy, which shows that they focus on customer preferences rather than what their competitors offer. It also contributes to SMEs’ digital marketing where digitalizing an enterprise’s marketing activities decreases costs and increases dynamic capabilities to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. Moreover, this study provides new thoughts about the marketing mix for SMEs, which includes that cost leadership strategy is mostly used, hence, making them the price followers. In other words, they set their prices based on their competitors.