The increase in the complexity of social and societal problems that even a large actor cannot solve alone has caused pressure on many sectors, organizations and entities making the need for collaboration to be more urgent. This is because collaboration enables merging financial resources, human resources, and expertise needed to tackle complex problems. However, the increased failure of collaborations requests greater consideration and investigation of the challenges in collaboration. The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges in inter-organizational collaboration at management and employee level. To fulfill this purpose, inter-organizational collaboration towards open Skåne 2030 strategy was used as a case study. The empirical data showed that there are challenges in both the management and employee level in inter- organizational collaboration. Some of these challenges are similar for both levels while others are different. Further, the study also found that political influence is a major challenge in inter- organizational collaboration. The study makes a contribution to the adaptation of the Thomson and Perry (2006), model of collaboration process. The adapted model in the study serves to enlighten collaborators that challenges in inter-organizational collaboration are inter-linked.Keywords: Inter-organizational collaboration, collaboration process, management level, employee level.

Dans un marché mondial, de nombreuses sociétés sont passées d’une stratégie d’entreprise centralisée où les produits sont conçus dans un lieu central et fabriqués dans les centres régionaux à une entreprise décentralisée, puis à une organisation répartie sur les régions. Le contexte Industriel de la thèse est GE Renewable Energy – Hydro solutions qui conçoit et fabrique des centrales d’énergie hydraulique. L’organisation GE hydro est dispersée sur 5 régions (Amérique du Nord, Amérique Latine, Europe, Chine et Inde). Chaque région est devenue une partie de cette organisation distribuée où sont conçues et fabriquées des turbines hydrauliques / générateurs. Cependant, de nouveaux défis ont surgis dans ce processus de développement de produits distribués : les besoins spécifiques à un marché, les différentes pratiques de travail, des différentes méthodes de conception, en plus des différences culturelles entre les régions.Afin de rationaliser ces différences, le développement de produits distribués comportait plusieurs objectifs. Par exemple, la standardisation des processus d'ingénierie, le développement des guides de conception commune pour les outils d'ingénierie, l'harmonisation des procédures de qualité et de résolution des problèmes. L’organisation Hydro a confié ces objectifs aux collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels qui sont dispersés dans toutes les régions.Notre recherche vise à étudier et à soutenir les collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels dans la co-création des standards techniques propres à l'entreprise. Les collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels impliquent des concepteurs, des ingénieurs industriels, des techniciens ainsi que les utilisateurs finaux. Ils devaient collaborer à distance afin de co-développer les standards techniques et plus tard de les adopter dans les projets des clients.Les collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels ont été au cœur de notre démarche de standardisation, la thèse a abordé les questions de recherche suivantes :1."Quel processus et plateforme collaboratifs de standardisation pourront permettre aux collectifs d'ingénierie de co-développer leurs standards à distance ?"2."Quelles sont les caractéristiques des différents types de collectifs virtuels qui conviennent respectivement au processus collaboratif de standardisation ?"3."Quel processus opérationnel doit être défini pour faciliter le travail des collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels dans une organisation gérée par projets ?"De la littérature, nous avons défini et différencié les types des collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels en tant que communautés de pratiques ou d'intérêt virtuelles, des équipes virtuelles et des réseaux d'apprentissage. Grâce à des observations et des réflexions autour de la pratique, nous avons développé et testé nos propositions. Les contributions principales de la thèse sont résumées telles que :1.Un modèle de processus collaboratif de standardisation pour co-développer les standards techniques à distance.2.HySPeC - une plateforme collaboratif de standardisation - pour répondre aux différentes exigences du processus collaboratif de standardisation.3.Un modèle dynamique pour caractériser les collectifs virtuels en fonction de leurs phases de développement.4.Un cadre des collectifs virtuels pour sélectionner, différencier et adapter les collectifs virtuels en fonction des objectifs du projet.5.Un processus opérationnel des collectifs virtuels pour faciliter l'adoption et la mise en œuvre des standards d'ingénierie dans les projets.La direction chez GE Hydro a considéré les propositions comme un facteur de succès pour co-développer les standards d'ingénierie à distance. Les différents types des collectifs virtuels peuvent s’adapter au processus de standardisation collaboratif et utiliser intuitivement les fonctionnalités de la plateforme collaborative. L'approche a également fourni un processus opérationnel pour faciliter l'intégration et le travail des collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels au sein de l'organisation hydro. / In a global economy, the conquest of exploring and acquiring new markets has led many companies to expand their business around the globe. Many companies adopted a strategy of shifting from a centralized company where products were designed and manufactured in one region to a decentralized company, and then to a distributed organization over the regions. Our thesis context is GE Renewable Energy – Hydro solutions that designs and manufactures hydraulic power plants. GE hydro organization is scattered over 5 regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, China and India). Each region became part of this distributed organization where they participated in the designing and the manufacturing of the hydraulic turbines/ generators. However, new challenges arose in this distributed product development process: specific market needs, different working practices, various design methods, multitude of design tools in addition to the cultural differences among the regions.In order to rationalize the regional differences, the distributed development of hydraulic turbines and generators entailed several objectives. For example, standardization of engineering processes, development of common design guides for engineering tools, harmonization of quality sheets and troubleshooting procedures. Hydro organization has entrusted these objectives to the virtual engineering collectives who are dispersed in all the regions.Our research aimed at studying and supporting the virtual engineering collectives in the co-creation of corporate engineering standards and guidelines. The virtual engineering collectives involved the designers, industrial engineers, technicians as well as the end-users. They had to remotely collaborate in order to co-develop the engineering standards and later on to adopt them in customer projects.Since the virtual engineering collectives were at the core of our standardization approach, the thesis addressed the following research questions:1- “which collaborative standardization process and platform could enable the engineering collectives to co-develop their standards at distance?”2- “what are the characteristics of the different virtual collectives’ types which suit respectively the collaborative standardization process?”3- “which operational process has to be defined to ease the work of the virtual engineering collectives within a project based management style?”From the literature, we defined and differentiated the virtual engineering collectives’ types as virtual communities of practice and/or interest, virtual teams and networks of learning. Through observations and reflections from the practice, we have developed and tested our propositions. The main thesis’ contributions are summarized as follows:1- The collaborative standardization process to co-develop the engineering standards at distance.2- HySPeC templates – the collaborative standardization platform - to respond to the different requirements of the collaborative standardization process.3- The virtual collectives’ dynamics (VCD) model to characterize the virtual collectives in function of their development phases.4- The virtual collectives’ framework (VCF) to select, differentiate and fit the virtual collectives in function of the project’s objectives.5- The virtual collectives’ operational process to facilitate the adoption and the implementation of the engineering standards in the customers’ projects.The top management at GE Hydro found the proposed collaborative standardization approach able to co-develop the engineering standards at distance. The different virtual collectives’ types can fit and adapt to the collaborative standardization process and intuitively use the collaborative platform’ functionalities. The approach also provided an operational process to facilitate the integration and the work of the virtual engineering collectives within the distributed hydro organization.

Social media (SM) is an innovative strategy used to develop new forms of communication channels and platforms. This has led to a positive transformation in the marketing strategy for both small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises. There has been a lot of research conducted on the utilization of SM by Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing. However, the use of SM in Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing has not been explored as much in comparison to B2C marketing. The aim of this study is to understand the role of SM channels in B2B service-based SMEs, while also analyzing the challenges and opportunities incorporated by the integration of the SM platforms and the impact it has on B2B relationships. Our research builds on the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) related “Activities-Resources-Actors (ARA) Model” and the interconnection between the three layers to understand and analyze the utilization of SM.  This study takes a qualitative case study approach to answer the research question formulated in this study by conducting semi-structured interviews. The interviewees included five respondents: two from the focal company and three from their existing business networks. From the findings, three themes were formulated to understand and analyze the data collected: Adoption decision of SM channels in the case SME and the network firm, Collaboration process with the business customers, and Content co-creation. Based on the findings we conclude that SM is an emerging tool for SMEs to incorporate it in their marketing strategy. It can help the firm to improve the bonds between the actors within the organization as well as with their customers and networks. However, the successful utilization of SM in SMEs depends on the commitment of SMEs to incorporate SM tools effectively in their operations. This can be achieved by the “Hybrid approach” by integrating SM communication with the conventional modes of communication for B2B marketing.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur socialtjänsten och skolan upplever att samverkansprocessen fungerar mellan verksamheterna när det kommer till ungdomar i högstadiet med drogrelaterad problematik. Studien är kvalitativ i sin form och grundar sig på ett abduktivt synsätt och en hermeneutisk tolkningslära. Studiens empiri har insamlats genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna har genomförts med fyra stycken socialsekreterare på Barn- och Ungdomsenheten på socialtjänsten, två stycken lärare samt två skolkuratorer. Ett målstyrt bekvämlighetsurval har använts i studien och en tematisk analysmetod har använts för att analysera empirin. Empirin har även analyserat med hjälp av två teoretiska ansatser: systemteori och Bourdieus teori om maktens fält samt kunskapsöversikten. Resultatet visar att det finns ett flertal faktorer som påverkar samverkansprocessen mellan socialtjänsten och skolan, faktorer som handlingsutrymme, makt, sekretess, okunskap och resurser. Det finns en önskan hos båda parterna om mer samverkan mellan verksamheterna för att ungdomar med drogproblematik skall kunna upptäckas i ett tidigt skede och få de insatser som de behöver. Konsekvenserna av en icke fungerande samverkan kan leda till att ungdomar med drogproblematik missas och faller mellan stolarna vilket leder till att de inte får den hjälp och stöd som de behöver. / The aim of this study is investigate how social services and school experience how the collaboration process works between them when it comes to youth in high school with drug- related problems. The study is qualitative in its form and is based on an abductive approach and a hermeneutic interpretive theory. The empirical material includes semi-structured interviews collected through a goal oriented convenience sample. The interviews include four social workers in the child and youth unit on social services, two teachers and two school counsellors. A thematic analysis method has been used to synthesize data. Two theoretical approaches were used in the analysis of the results; systems theory and Bourdieus field theory of power, as well as previous research. The results show that there are many factors that affect the collaboration process between the social service and the school, factors like scope of actions, authority, secrecy, lack of knowledge and resources. There is a desire among both parts to create more collaboration between them so that the young people with drug-related issues could be detected at an early stage and get the interventions they need. The consequences of a non-functioning collaboration can lead to young people with drug-related problems being missed and falling between the cracks, which leads to them not receiving the help and support they need.

Obwohl virtuelle Ideencommunities (VIC) ein erfolgreiches Mittel zur Externalisierung von Kundenwissen darstellen, ist der Ausarbeitungsgrad der erzeugten Ideen oftmals zu gering, was zu einer verschlechterten Adaptierbarkeit der Ideen führt. Aus diesem Grund wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit ein Workshopdesign theoretisch entwickelt, welches zur gemeinschaftlichen Ausarbeitung und Strukturierung von Ideen, die in VICs erzeugt wurden, verwendet werden kann. Zur Erarbeitung des neuen Designs wird auf die Prinzipien des Collaboration Engineering zurückgegriffen, mit Hilfe dessen sich kollaborative Aufgaben systematisch analysieren und Gestaltungsempfehlungen für deren Design ableiten lassen. Als Resultat entsteht ein neues Workshopdesign, welches mit Hilfe einer detaillierten Agenda dargestellt wird. Damit liegt ein Konzept zur nahtlosen Erweiterung der, aus einer VIC resultierenden, Zusammenarbeit zwischen Kunden und Unternehmen im Rahmen des Open Innovation vor.

Obwohl virtuelle Ideencommunities (VIC) ein erfolgreiches Mittel zur Externalisierung von Kundenwissen darstellen, ist der Ausarbeitungsgrad der erzeugten Ideen oftmals zu gering, was zu einer verschlechterten Adaptierbarkeit der Ideen führt. Aus diesem Grund wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit ein Workshopdesign theoretisch entwickelt, welches zur gemeinschaftlichen Ausarbeitung und Strukturierung von Ideen, die in VICs erzeugt wurden, verwendet werden kann. Zur Erarbeitung des neuen Designs wird auf die Prinzipien des Collaboration Engineering zurückgegriffen, mit Hilfe dessen sich kollaborative Aufgaben systematisch analysieren und Gestaltungsempfehlungen für deren Design ableiten lassen. Als Resultat entsteht ein neues Workshopdesign, welches mit Hilfe einer detaillierten Agenda dargestellt wird. Damit liegt ein Konzept zur nahtlosen Erweiterung der, aus einer VIC resultierenden, Zusammenarbeit zwischen Kunden und Unternehmen im Rahmen des Open Innovation vor.