Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of useful revenue models for B2B oriented providers of on-premises software. To fulfill the purpose, two research questions are answered. RQ1: What revenue models are commonly used by B2B providers of on-premises software?  RQ2: What are the advantages and disadvantages with the different models? Method: An interview study was conducted, with a total of nine respondents. eight respondents representing B2B software providers, and one respondent experienced with software procurement who provided a customer point of view. The interviews were transcribed and analysed through a thematical analysis, where codes were generated and sorted depending on which revenue model the respondent was talking about. Findings: The findings contain five revenue models that is viable to use in order to monetize on-premises software for B2B providers. Subscription and perpetual licensing, which seem very popular and where there is a trend to move towards subscription. Usage-based revenue models, which carry good potential if the provider can measure customers’ usage in a reliable and secure way. Open source offers multiple ways to generate revenue from the software, mainly by creating additional services. Lastly, the study found a respondent with experience of using a gain-sharing model. Strengths and weaknesses have been identified for all of the models, which enables better evaluation to which situations they are suitable selections for software providers. The findings are also compared towards existing theory related to the revenue models. Implications: The results contribute towards extending the knowledge of revenue models for provision of on-premises software, how the industry operates today and what pros and cons that are associated to various models. The results may be used by managers to improve their business models by making better decisions about revenue model design, and it provides a more updated picture of current state of business which allows future research to continue exploring how software providers may optimize their revenue models. Limitations and future research: The study contain information from nine industry experts, but it would still be beneficial to continue studying the industry and generating more views of various ways to monetize software. Focus could be put on interviewing people outside of Sweden or how software providers’ competitive situations affect revenue model suitability. / Syfte: Den här studiens syfte är att öka förståelsen för intäktsmodeller användbara för B2B-leverantörer av lokalt installerad mjukvara. Syftet ska uppnås genom att besvara följande två forskningsfrågor. RQ1: Vilka intäktsmodeller är vanligt förekommande bland B2B leverantörer av lokalt installerad mjukvara? RQ2: Vad är för- och nackdelarna med de olika modellerna? Metod: En intervjustudie med totalt nio respondenter genomfördes där åtta respondenter representerade B2B-leverantörer av mjukvara, och där den nionde bidrog med ett kundperspektiv på mjukvaruinköp. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades genom tematisk analys. Resultat: Studiens resultat består av fem intäktsmodeller som bedöms vara användbara för att tjäna pengar på lokalt installerad mjukvara som B2B leverantör. Prenumerationslösningar och evighetslicensiering, som verkar väldigt populära och med en trend som pekar på ökad användning av prenumerationer. Användningsbaserade intäktsmodeller, vilka bedöms ha stor potential om leverantören har möjlighet att mäta kundernas användning pålitligt och säkert sätt. Öppen källkod(open source) erbjuder flertalet sätt att generera intäkter från mjukvaran, främst genom skapandet av servicetjänster. Slutligen så identifierades studien en respondent med erfarenhet av att använda vinstdelning som intäktsmodell för lokalt installerad mjukvara. För- och nackdelar identifierades för alla fem modeller, vilket möjliggör bättre grundade beslut gällande när intäktsmodeller är lämpliga att användas av mjukvaruleverantörer. Resultaten jämförs även med befintlig teori kopplad till de olika intäktsmodellerna. Implikationer: Resultaten bidrar till att utöka kunskapen of intäktsmodeller för tillhandahållande av lokalt installerad mjukvara, hur branschen arbetar i dagsläget samt vilka för- och nackdelar som medförs av de olika modellerna. Resultaten kan nyttjas för att förbättra affärsmodeller genom att möjliggöra bättre beslut angående utformning av intäktsmodell, och bidrar även genom att tillhandahålla en uppdaterad beskrivning av det befintliga affärsläget vilket underlättar för framtida forskning på hur mjukvaruleverantörer kan optimera sina intäktsmodeller. Begränsningar och framtida forskning: Studien innehåller information från nio branschexperter, men det vore ändå vara fördelaktigt att fortsatt studera branschen och generera ytterliga synpunkter kring möjliga sätt att skapa intäkter från mjukvara. Fokus skulle kunna läggas på att intervjua personer utanför Sverige eller på att studera hur mjukvaruleverantörers konkurrenssituation påverkar intäktsmodellers lämplighet.

Pre-sale activities of buying and post-sale activities of use are separated by time and judged in two time-place forms. Exchange value being one kind of judgment of desirability, separate from use value. However, traditionally marketing has not fully captured the co-creation of value in use, or therefore, how it affects the perceived value of the offering at purchase. The separation of purchase and use has been shown to create buyer uncertainty at the point of purchase about the future value created in use. Consider the decision to buy a service support contract for capital equipment in which the act and experience of use could continue for up to ten years after the decision to buy. At purchase, buyers may not be certain about the future state of use, i.e. whether or not equipment will fail, or indeed how the service will perform in the event of failure. While uncertainty about the state of use will continue across time, it has been argued uncertainty about how the service will perform may be resolved through repeat use or interaction. Through an exploratory case and a web-based survey of 95 organisational buyers of Product Service Systems (PSS) in capital equipment markets, this thesis finds customer-provider co-capability, which facilitates service performance in use, mediates the customer’s perceived risk of re-purchasing. As a result, this thesis makes a contribution to B2B marketing in identifying how value of the offering at purchase is affected by future customer-provider co-capability in use.

Since Sweden’s home market is relatively small, companies are forced to engage in international business. Researchers have stressed that companies with a small home market should find new markets to gain benefits which companies with large home markets possess. The Chinese market has great potential, which results in numerous Swedish companies entering and establish business operations in China. Swedish companies need to address the unique aspects of conducting business in China. One of the unique aspects which has been notably concerned is the phenomena of guanxi. Guanxi is well grounded in the Chinese business culture and can be perceived as relationship building. Previous research has shown upon limited research regarding B2B guanxi in the Chinese-Western business relationships. Hence, the purpose of this thesis, is to provide a deeper understanding of how Swedish companies build and manage B2B guanxi in China and explore its potential risks and benefits. To achieve the purpose of this thesis, three main concepts have been identified- building stages of guanxi, management strategies of guanxi and risks and benefits of guanxi. These create the theoretical approach of the study. By using a qualitative research method and a deductive approach, a deeper understanding regarding guanxi in relation to Swedish companies can be acquired. The data is collected from five companies in different industries, conducting business on the Chinse market. Practical and theoretical implications have arisen from this study, contributing to the theoretical synthesis of B2B guanxi and provided valuable insights on how Swedish companies can use B2B guanxi. Based on the analysis, the outcome of this study suggest guanxi is not a prerequisite for conducting business on the Chinese market. Although, it can be seen as a tool to ease relationship building and business operations. The empirical findings indicate the relevance of B2B guanxi and have identified new factors. The key findings imply Swedish companies use intermediaries to a larger extent in the building staged and as a management strategy. While gift-giving and favour exchange are less used management strategies. Smoother business operations are perceived as an additional benefit. Whereas relationships becoming too personal and a person taking the relationships with them when leaving the company are additional risks ought to be considered new findings. The study can be valuable for Swedish companies that wish to enter or have entered the Chinese market.

As social media platforms are increasingly becoming more popular and a part of everyday life, Business-to-Business (B2B) marketers from different industries are realizing social media’s potential for achieving marketing purposes. However, scientific literature regarding social media usage in B2B contexts is still filled with gaps in knowledge; especially when compared to literature about social media usage in Business-to-Customer (B2C) contexts. One of these research gaps is the lack of niched information about each effect of using social media. This paper aims at contributing to filling this research gap by presenting an extensive literature review about social media marketing in B2B; followed by an analysis of empirical data gathered from 11 different cases of B2B companies engaged in social media marketing. Moreover, this is to answer the research questions; how are B2B companies using social media to increase brand awareness? Which types of content inspire the most customer engagement? And how can B2B companies amplify their chances of succeeding in increasing brand awareness through social media? This paper will further contribute to this research topic, by identifying further research gaps and present suggestions for future research.

This study addresses the rationale of using partners in relationship initiation with potential buyers and how relationship initiation takes place in triadic settings. As the authors have identified relationship initiation as an under-researched area, further research in this field is needed in order to enhance knowledge regarding the use of partners in the relationship initiation with potential buyers. Based on a case study, the authors investigate a company, their partners and potential buyers during the relationship initiation process. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of documents. A model was developed based on existing literature in order to allow the authors to analyse the data. The analysis provides an overview of how and why companies use partners to initiate relationships with buyers and how relationship initiation occurs in triadic settings. A new conceptual model was developed suggesting that any actor within this triadic setting can trigger the relationship initiation and that this process shouldn’t necessarily be regarded as sequential. This study also shows that the degree of brand awareness that a company possess can influence their relationship initiation processes.

Im Rahmen eines strukturierten Fragebogens wurden Daten von insgesamt 191 untersuchten B2B-Marktplätzen zu 135 europäischen (inkl. 11 österreichischen) und 56 internationalen Marktplätzen erhoben. Hierbei wurden je Marktplatz 76 Kriterien untersucht. Um auch eine Rückmeldung der Kunden der Marktplätze zu erhalten, wurden zusätzlich 135 Fragebögen an leitende Personen des Einkaufs österreichischer Unternehmen verteilt. Ziel dieser zusätzlichen Befragung war es, die Bedeutung der erhobenen Einzelkriterien aus der Sicht von potenziellen oder bereits bestehenden Marktplatzteilnehmern zu bewerten. Es stellte sich die Frage, ob einzelne Unternehmen überhaupt in der Lage seien, im Vorfeld aufgrund der ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Informationen zu entscheiden, ob bestimmte Marktplätze als "überlebensfähig" eingestuft werden können. Die durchgeführten Analysen sollten versuchen, diese Frage zu beantworten. Für Unternehmen, die sich einem Marktplatz anschließen möchten, ist es wichtig sich jenen Marktplatz auszuwählen, der eine höhere Überlebenschance besitzt. Somit stellt sich die Frage, ob bzw. welche Einzelkriterien oder Kriterienkonstellationen auf das Überleben eines Marktplatzes Einfluss haben. Mit Hilfe von deskriptiven und explorativen statistischen Analysen wurde im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes versucht, auf diese Fragestellung eine Antwort zu geben. Zusammenfassend konnten zwar bei einigen erhobenen Kriterien Tendenzen lokalisiert werden, die sich in der Praxis auf das Überleben eines Marktplatzes positiv oder negativ auswirken könnten. Generell kann aufgrund dieser Untersuchung jedoch nicht davon ausgegangen werden, dass ein Unternehmen alleine anhand der ihm zugänglichen Informationen in der Lage ist zu erkennen, ob der ausgewählte Marktplatz im Hinblick auf dessen Überlebensfähigkeit eine Teilnahme lohnt. Gängige, in einschlägiger Literatur aufgestellte Behauptungen konnten durch die durchgeführten statistischen Analysen übrigens nicht nachvollzogen werden.

Anderson, et al. (1994) have outlined the importance of bilateral relationships in business-to-business (B2B) marketing environments and thus the understanding of the business network context within which they are embedded. Through the globalization, this understanding has even gained in importance due to the increased challenges arising from working across cultural and national borders. However, culture in Supply Chain Management (SCM) is an underresearched area so far. This thesis has as a purpose to investigate the research question “What national cultural factors are considered in supply chain management by companies in practice and what are their relations?”. Furthermore, it was aimed at comparing the downstream (client) SCM side to the upstream (supplier) side.This thesis applied a quantitative approach in combination with a cross-sectional research design. An online survey was conducted using as a sample the 195-member companies of Ljungby Business Arena. In addition, responses were also collected through the snowball method. Based on the analysis of the survey results the following main findings were revealed: Not all national cultural factors mentioned in theory are considered in SCM by enterprises in practice. Language skills was in up- and downstream the most considered factor. The national cultural factors among themselves are correlated in different directions and at varying degrees of strength. Cultural distance only yielded positive correlations to the national cultural factors in the downstream side but not in the upstream side. Differences between up- and downstream SCM with regard to the consideration of national cultural factors exist; the downstream side considers (seen over all factors) culture more. The main theoretical implications are that also material dimensions of culture should be considered in theory and that due to the differences in up- and downstream SCM maybe different models for each side should be developed. For companies, the findings have shown that employees do not consider all factors of national culture and that they are rather free in their decisions on how to interact with foreign clients respectively suppliers. Thus, enterprises should train and sensitize their employees more to help them adapt to the different national cultural factors during their interactions. Moreover, companies might think about introducing more guidelines, which, however, still leave space for adaptation towards the individual clients and suppliers.

During initial business-to-business encounters, salespeople try to enhance buyers’ future interaction intentions. A common belief is that increasing buyers’ similarity perceptions increases the chances of future interaction. This study assesses the impact of the similarity-attraction effect on future interaction. By synthesising social psychology and marketing literature, a conceptual framework is proposed, in which perceived similarity influences salesperson trust. This relationship is mediated by task-related and social assessments of buyers. Task-related assessments comprise willingness (benevolence and integrity) and competence (power and expertise). Social attraction is conceptualised as likeability. Salesperson trust drives anticipated future interaction, together with organisational trust and anticipated added value. The conceptual framework was empirically tested through a cross-sectional survey. Dutch professional buyers assessed recent initial sales encounters. A sample of 162 dyads was analysed, using PLS-SEM, including FIMIX segmentation. This study demonstrates support for a third willingness construct: willingness behaviour. This construct implies that buyers are more influenced by expectations regarding behaviour, than assessments of salespeople’s attitudes. A homogeneous analysis supports the influence of perceived similarity on salesperson trust, both directly and through willingness behaviour. However, model-based segmentation uncovers a segment of cost-oriented dyads and a segment of more profit-oriented dyads. In cost-oriented dyads, there is no significant direct effect between perceived similarity and salesperson trust, and willingness behaviour nearly fully mediates this relationship. In more profit-oriented dyads, the similarity-attraction effect is not present. Theoretical and methodological contributions and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

O conceito de modelo de negócio pode ser utilizado para descrever e entender empresas. Ele determina que devemos entender um negócio utilizando os serviços que são prestados, as empresas (e seus papéis) envolvidas e a forma de faturamento que o empreendedor terá sobre o serviço. O conceito ganhou muita atenção com a explosão dos portais B2B que surgiram nos últimos anos na internet. Estes portais são empreendimentos que ofertam serviços que intermediam as interações entre as empresas. Com a reorganização da sociedade em redes globais de empresas, tais portais têm diante de si uma grande variedade de serviços a serem prestados, assim tornando a abordagem dos modelos de negócio um elemento fundamental para o entendimento do valor agregado pelos empreendedores do setor B2B. Mas faltam trabalhos de organização e sistematização desses modelos, e os próprios empreendedores brasileiros não vêm demonstrando entendimento sobre eles. Assim, no presente trabalho, serão organizados e sistematizados os conceitos de modelos de negócio, eCommerce e B2B, bem como será feita uma proposta de classificação destes modelos de negócio, de tal forma que pesquisadores e empreendedores possam utilizar este texto como base em seus estudos a respeito desses portais na internet. / Business models concept can be used to describe and understand all kind of enterprises. Using this concept one can understand a business by the services been delivered, the enterprises (and their roles) been involved and the invoicing return over the service. This concept became an buzzword during the recently explosion of B2B portals over the internet. These B2B portals are enterprises that offer brokerage services between other enterprises. With the sudden reorganization of society over global net of enterprises, these portals have a huge business opportunity for delivering a wide variety of services, becoming the business model a central element for understanding the aggregated value been proposed by each B2B portal. But there are a poor number of published materials around the organization and classification of these business models and brazilian entrepreneur does not seem to understand these business models. In this work the concept of business models, eCommerce and B2B will be organized and a classification of possible business models will be proposed. The proposed classification could be used by researchers and entrepreneurs as a tool for their studies about these portals over the internet.

Alors que de nombreux auteurs et managers remarquent l'importance des relations durables comme un potentiel de ressources pour les entreprises, peu de recherches ont été consacrées à cette question. Il semble pourtant très important de se poser la question des déterminants de la rupture des relations. Cette recherche vise donc à déterminer les facteurs de ruptures de relations de long terme entre organisations et à mieux comprendre ce phénomène. Pour ce faire, une revue de littérature a été conduite, utilisant des travaux en économie, en psychologie, en droit et en marketing. Elle a montré l'importance des composantes de l'interaction entre les individus dans les ruptures de relations de long terme entre organisations. Ces composantes ont été définies selon les normes de la relation proposées par Macneil (intégrité du rôle, solidarité, réciprocité, flexibilité et communication pour les normes relationnelles, et réalisation des promesses, réparation et pouvoir de négociation pour les normes transactionnelles). Une étude qualitative exploratoire et une étude quantitative auprès de PME françaises ont permis de montrer le rôle majeur joué par l'intégrité du chargé d'affaires dans les relations entre les banques et leur clientèle PME. Les normes relationnelles ont une incidence directe sur la décision de rupture, alors que les normes transactionnelles exercent leur effet via une variable médiatrice : l'évaluation globale de la relation. L'âge, l'histoire de la relation et le degré de contrainte du client dans la relation ont une action modératrice. Pour conclure, cette recherche montre donc l'importance de l'ensemble des composantes de l'interaction dans les ruptures de relations de long terme entre organisations. Mots clés : marketing relationnel - marketing bancaire - Macneil - normes de la relation - rupture - dissolution - relations de long terme - business-to-business -