In this doctoral study I conceptualise shared values in order to explore a management problem from my work place environment. I observe that business-to-business (B2B) relationships between project managers and self-employed consulting engineers terminate; project managers switching to other vendors and self-employed consulting engineers losing their contract. The findings from the doctoral study show major influence of the shared values in managing project based professional relationships. Specifically, the elements of B2B professional relationships “commitment” and “trust” embedded in relationship performance show managerial implications. Furthermore, the literature review revealed a lack of qualitative knowledge in the research domain of B2B relationships. Hence, the findings from the doctoral study fill this gap and contribute to the academic knowledge by providing practise based qualitative evidence. This doctoral study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, building on previous research articles, six elements of B2B professional relationships were refined and tested through qualitative interviews in order to explore their relevance in the B2B professional relationship between the project managers and self-employed consulting engineers. As a result from the first phase, a conceptual model of shared values was developed. In the second phase, the conceptual model of the shared values developed from the first phase was explored and validated through the experience of the project managers and self-employed consulting engineers.

Social media is considered an important marketing tool for B2B companies that are operating in the current decade (Andersson and Wikström, 2017; Brink, 2017; Itani, Agnihotri and Dingus, 2017). As social media has become a well-researched topic over the last decade, it has become more popular for businesses and individuals to use (Andersson and Wikstrom, 2017; Lacka and Chong, 2016; Michaelidou, Siamagka and Christodoulides, 2011). However there are limited research on how specific industries are adopting social media (Siamagka et al., (2015). Therefore, this thesis will contribute with research on why the industrial industrys adopt social media as well as how they are using it (Ibid).   Ten industrial businesses working in Sweden have been used for the empirical data collection. A qualitative approach have been used for this study in order to satisfy the purpose. All of the interviewees have experience within social media adoption or are working with social media on a daily basis. The interviews were conducted through phone and lasted approximately 20-50 minutes.   The conclusion of this study is that academic research within this field are somewhat in an agreement with the empirical data provided within this study. The main reasons to why industrial B2B businesses are adopting social media is because businesses can reach their target customers in an easy and fast way, also the pressure from stakeholders and customers have been an important factor to why some of the practitioners within this study have adopted social media. The barriers and benefits of using social media goes hand in hand. As one of the main benefits is the communication with customers and the main barrier is the negative comments that businesses can get. Although this study has indicated that the benefits outweigh the barriers when adopting and using social media. Findings from this study has shown that LinkedIn is the most useful social networking sites for businesses to use and this statement is also confirmed with the academic research done within this field.

A gestão do valor para o cliente é uma estratégia de marketing fundamental para que as empresas em ambientes altamente competitivos obtenham vantagem competitiva e ofereçam valor superior aos clientes, contribuindo assim para suas estratégias de crescimento de forma sustentável. Neste contexto, esta tese teve por objetivo propor um novo esquema integrado para mapeamento e gestão do valor para o cliente, que contribuísse para melhorar as estratégias competitivas das organizações no mercado empresarial, de forma que ofertem e obtenham valor superior. Para atingir tal objetivo, foram analisadas inicialmente a hierarquia das estratégias, iniciando pelo estudo da estratégia de crescimento. Em seguida foram estudadas as estratégias competitivas, onde foram analisados em profundidade os modelos propostos por diferentes autores. Na seqüência, foram analisadas as estratégias funcionais, em específico as de marketing, no que tange à orientação para mercado, segmentação e posicionamento, com foco no mercado empresarial. Por fim, foram estudadas as teorias acerca da gestão de valor para o cliente, com foco no mercado empresarial, identificando suas implicações e impactos para as estratégias corporativas e competitivas das organizações. Ao final da revisão da literatura, foi proposto um esquema integrado para gestão do valor para o cliente, onde se procurou combinar os aspectos que melhoram o valor da oferta de uma organização ao mercado, a análise da mudança dos atributos valorizados ao longo do tempo pelo cliente, a melhor comunicação dos valores oferecidos e a análise da performance de mercado. Para complementar e enriquecer o esquema proposto, foi realizada uma pesquisa de campo por meio de um estudo de caso no mercado empresarial. A escolha da EMPRESA K se deu em função de sua relevante participação no segmento de mercado em que atua, e devido às importantes inovações tecnológicas que contribuem para o desenvolvimento do setor. Foram entrevistados dezesseis colaboradores de diferentes níveis hierárquicos, das áreas comercial, de marketing e de serviços. A análise das entrevistas realizadas na EMPRESA K foi importante para melhorar o esquema integrado proposto na revisão da literatura. Assim, foi possível delinear um novo esquema integrado, composto de seis etapas, visando contribuir para a elaboração de modelos de gestão do valor para o cliente e proporcionar às empresas do mercado empresarial uma ferramenta que contribuirá para a obtenção de performance superior. / Customer Value Management is a marketing strategy for companies in highly competitive environments that want to gain competitive advantage and deliver superior value to their customers, and as a consequence, to contribute to their growth strategies in a sustainable way. In this context, this thesis aims to propose a new integrated scheme for mapping and managing customer value, which contributes to improving the companies competitive strategies in the business to business market in order to provide and obtain superior value. To achieve this goal, the concept of strategy hierarchy was firstly analyzed taking into consideration the study of growth strategy. Secondly, the idea of competitive strategies was studied and it was developed an in-depth analysis of the models described by different authors. Then, the concept of functional strategies was analyzed, specially the marketing one, regarding market orientation, segmentation and positioning, focused on business to business market. Finally, the theories about Customer Value Management were researched, focused on business to business market, by identifying its implications and impacts to corporate and competitive strategies in organizations. At the end of the literature review, an integrated scheme was presented for Customer Value Management, which proposed to combine the aspects that improve the delivering value of a company in the market, the analysis of its changing attributes valued over time by the customer, the best communication of these values and the analysis of its market performance. To complement and enrich the proposed scheme, it was made a field research through a case study in the business to business market. COMPANY K was chosen since it has had a considerable market share in the segment in which it operates, and also due to its important technological innovations that have contributed to its sector development. Sixteen business collaborators from different hierarchical levels were interviewed, such as sales, services and marketing departments. The analysis of the interviews in COMPANY K was important to improve the proposed integrated scheme in the literature review. All in all, it was possible to outline a new integrated scheme, composed of six steps in order to contribute for the development of Customer Value Management models and to provide a tool which will help the companies to achieve a top performance in the business to business market.

Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to develop a better understanding on how businesses should communicate their sustainability strategy to their stakeholders. Businesses are facing the challenge of designing sustainability communications strategies that appeal to stakeholders of various interest and knowledge on the topic, and stakeholders whose objectives might even be contradictory to that of the company. In order to facilitate the communications process to encourage a better uptake of sustainability initiatives by corporations and the public, it is essential to find solutions to these communications challenges. Methodology: The study focuses on the food and drink value chain in Western Europe and is based on empirical evidence from a multiple case study methodology involving in-depth interviews with 25 senior managers and directors from food and drink manufacturing companies, retailers, and some of their stakeholders. Findings: A framework for corporate sustainability communications is developed, depicting five communications strategies. The framework also offers an insight how stakeholders can be categorised into the most appropriate communications strategy through the application of certain segmentation attributes. It is further illustrated how the application of strategic ambiguity can add value to the communications process in order to stimulate interest, initiatives and innovation from stakeholders. Theoretical and practical implications/originality: Previous research on corporate communications strategies, has seen limited empirical validation, is primarily focussed on consumers, and more importantly is lacking in advice regarding how to craft communications that not only appeal to a multitude of stakeholders, but that also encourage collaboration. The findings therefore add confirmation and extension to the previous research and, importantly, it provides a link between theories of strategic ambiguity and the corporate communications literature. The framework also offers practical value as it provides managers with a clear guidance on how to design effective corporate sustainability communications, ensuring diverse appeal and/or engagement for collaboration. Thus it provides a tool that has the potential of facilitating holistic sustainability progress in a value chain.

Date June 12, 2008 Program IT Management Authors Jessica Jarrell, 820506. Västerås Rais Iqbal, 791229. Västerås Supervisor Ole Liljefors Title Business-to-Business IT Integration Introduction As business world has moved into digital era, new trends in business models have been emerged to do business. Digital infrastructure provided by internet enables enterprises to extend their boundaries for new customer and trading partners. Extending the enterprise without a solid IT infrastructure is incomplete, this is the reasons that enterprises are investing more and more in IT to build an IT integrated infrastructure where all its trading partners are linked together. On the other hand, technological world provides solutions and services to build IT integration for such extended enterprises. A wide variety of IT integration solutions and patterns available for enterprise to meet their integration goals, but this often brings unclear situation where companies have to think a lot before implementing IT integration patterns. A slight mistake in this scenario could shake the equilibrium between IT and business, to keep the equilibrium steady companies need to thoroughly examine their short-term and long-term goals and then different integration patterns can be employed to meet these goals. Research Question What approaches can be helpful for companies to accomplish successful business-to-business IT integration pattern for their short-term and long-term goals? Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to describe the concept of extended enterprises and, identify and describe the existing B2B IT integration approaches employed by extended enterprises. Method The research is of qualitative type and secondary data is used to conduct this research. Books and research papers has been used to construct theoretical framework. Electronic databases available at library of Mälardalen University such as Google scholar, Emerald and interlibrary network of Sweden (Libris) are used to search for secondary data. Analysis Findings from the detailed literature study are analyzed to answer the research question. Integration patterns are analyzed described by the different authors of integrations patterns in three different ways. Firstly, integration patterns were analyzed in term of their advantages and disadvantages with technology and business, secondly, maturity of these integration patterns are analyzed and finally these integration patterns are analyzed for company’s short-term and long-term goals. Conclusion Business process oriented and method-oriented approaches are good for long-term goals due to handling of business process management in both approaches and reusability aspects of method oriented approach. For short-term goals portal-oriented approach dominating in the integration community, application interface oriented approach is also good to meet the short-term goals. However, combinations of different approaches are found feasible.

Att kundrelationer är viktiga för företagen är något som har varit känt sedan länge, samtidigt som fler företag tillämpar e-handel. Problemställningen i denna undersökning syftar till är att ta reda på i vilken utsträckning svenska företag, som utöver ordinarie försäljning erbjuder sina produkter över Internet, kan skapa långsiktiga relationer med kunderna som tillämpar e-handeln. Informationen från undersökningen ger även svar på vilket tillvägagångssätt företagen använder för att skapa långsiktiga kundrelationer. De slutsatser som drogs är att företagen delvis kan skapa varaktiga kundrelationer över Internet. Det behövs dock ett komplement till e-handeln i form av personlig kontakt med kunden via besök och telefonsamtal. Tillvägagångssättet för att skapa varaktiga relationer anses vara personliga och regelbundna besök och telefonsamtal, bra kvalitet gällande produkter, hålla leveranser, ärlighet samt ge relevant information till kunden.

Elektronisk handel är en av de starkaste trenderna inom IT-området just nu. För företag som är snabba på att tillgodogöra sig och bemästra tekniken öppnas nya dörrar mot nya marknader. Det är viktigt att företagen förstår att elektronisk handel inte bara är datorer, programvaror och nätverk utan att det handlar mer om affärs- och organisationsutveckling. Detta examensarbete behandlar ämnet elektronisk handel mellan företag, business-to-business. Syftet med denna rapport är att belysa hur långt de medelstora tillverkande företagen i Sverige kommit i processen att införa elektronisk handel. Undersökningen, som bedrevs för att erhålla svar på problemformuleringen, genomfördes med hjälp av intervjuer via telefon och personliga besök samt utskick av enkäter till företag. Resultatet som undersökningen genererat är att intresset för elektronisk handel är väldigt stort inom den utvalda kategorin, svenska medelstora tillverkande företag. Även om det är ett stort antal företag som hittills inte har infört elektronisk handel så var majoriteten av de undersökta företagen intresserade av ett införande.

Detta arbete har som fokusering att studera vad som driver utvecklingen av system för elektroniska affärer mellan företag. Syftet är dels att belysa vilka krav som företag som har infört system för elektroniska affärer ställer på systemet och dels att ta reda på de faktorer som driver utvecklingen framåt. Undersökningen har genomförts genom intervjuer med företag som utvecklar system för elektroniska affärer mellan företag. Sammanlagt har sex intervjuer gjorts genom besöks- och telefonintervjuer. Området har delats in i två olika typer av system för elektroniska affärer beroende på mot vilken del i förädlingskedjan de riktar sig. De två typerna är inköpssystem och försäljningssystem och de sex företagen representerar båda dessa typer av system. Två av de intervjuade företagen representerar inköpssystem, två representerar försäljningssystem och de sista två täcker hela förädlingskedjan. Det resultat som har framkommit efter undersökningen visar på olika faktorer som svarar på problemformuleringen i arbetet. Det handlar bland annat om spridningen av elektroniska affärer, beslutsfattarnas roll, tillgängligheten av information, små företags alltmer framträdande roll och köparnas inflytande.

Strategisk roll av informationssystem har börjat diskuteras i allt större utsträckning i och med uppkomsten av den Internetbaserade elektroniska handeln mellan företag, Business-to-Business (B2B). För att kunna uppskatta den strategiska betydelsen av införandet av ett sådant system krävs att företagen begrundar sin allmänna affärsstrategi utifrån informationssystemets potential. Befintliga ramverk för informationssysystemsutveckling innehåller riktlinjer för kartläggning av de strategiska förändringarna men räcker inte till för att enskilt utvärdera B2B:s strategiska bidrag. En sammanställning av flera befintliga ramverk har resulterat i ett nytt ramverk som mer enhetligt kan analysera företagens allmänna affärsstrategi med avseende på B2B. I sin tillämpning har ramverket uppvisat förmågan att väcka en diskussion kring de potentiella förändringarna i företagens strategiska läge utifrån deras informationssystems utvecklingsmöjligheter.

It is clear that there is a strong drive for organisations to adopt the shared service model with the intention to gain some economic benefits. This research also acknowledges the theory on supplier relationship management, as well as relationship quality management and how these two bodies of knowledge are connected to shared service and ultimately how they affect the relationship benefits between buyers and sellers in business to business environments. With the growing importance to distinguish one’s business from others to gain competitive advantage, relationships have become a crucial differentiator. It is important to appreciate whether the shared service model enhances relationships or not. This research therefore sought to examine the relationship quality measure elements such as trust, satisfaction and commitment as well as the relationship benefits; social, psychological and functional which are impacted by the introduction of a shared service. The research findings offer some important insights into how the introduction of a shared service model into an organisational structure impacts these relationship benefits. When comparing a shared service structure to that of a decentralised model it was evident that all elements of relationship quality and benefits changed. The results indicated that once the shared service became the central point of contact and communication for many of the suppliers, relationship quality and relationship benefits declined. Further, the results found were that many of the anticipated benefits of shared service were also not seen or experienced by the suppliers. This research involved two phases, a qualitative phase component and a quantitative phase. The qualitative phase involved face-to-face interviews with five significant suppliers to Sasol, companies in industries such as Civil, Manufacturing as well as industrial goods suppliers. The quantitative phase involved an electronic survey, distributed to all of Sasol’s suppliers. The data gathered from these interviews and surveys, together with the reviewed literature helped to measure the affects of shared service on supplier relationships. One hundred and forty questionnaires were processed and data was subjected to a variety of statistical analysis. This research will add to the limited knowledge of shared service as well as equip managers implementing shared service with some strategic insights. When implementing shared service it is imperative to look beyond mere cost savings and to also consider the relationship affects for all concerned when changing the relationship dynamics. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted