This master thesis focuses on the process of globalization and its consequences that allowed for the formation of multinational corporations. The current environment is characterized by the fast pace of changes that requires firms react flexibly, which demands new approaches to managing employees, creating more flexible organizational structures supporting creative people, and innovation because people and innovations are the key sources of competitive advantages. The goal of this thesis is to analyze changes at O2 after Spanish telecommunications firm Telefónica S.A. sold a majority stake to PPF in 2013. The changes associated with the switch in ownership can chiefly be seen in the firm's goals, its organizational structure, its policy toward employees, in customer satisfaction, and in its investments and share price.

The aim of this thesis is to elaborate the strategic analysis of the Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s. company, i.e. to analyse both the company environment and the inner resources and abilities, to reveal strengths and weaknesses of the company and even oportunities and threats. The aim is also to identify specific merits of the firm and finally to mention strategic recommendations with regard of elaborated analysis. The whole thesis is divided into two main parts: the theoretical part, where are described methods and procedures of the strategic analysis and the application part, where these methods are applied to the Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s. company.

Disruptive technologies continue to pose challenges for industries worldwide, and firms are constantly learning how to adapt in order to remain competitive. Family businesses are not immune to these “shocks” in their industry, and they too need to harness the potential advantages of novel technology just as much as corporations do. While there is extensive research on the methods and strategies employed by multinational corporations, the study of how a family business could or should adapt is virtually unexplored. There is a need to understand the intricate decision making process of business leadership in dealing with disruptive technology, particularly in regards to maintaining or gaining a competitive advantage. This study conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with three Swedish family businesses, all who were successful in adopting disruptive technologies to their benefit. Although each of the businesses took different paths for technology adaptation and to maintain their competitive advantage there was a consistent thread in the leadership strategy. The results revealed that strong family leadership, in the form of stewardship, was essential to maintaining their competitive advantage while dealing with the challenges of disruptive technology. Stewardship places emphasis on family core values, the drive to improve the performance of the business for the benefit for family and the employees, and a commitment to long-term goals. Stewardship proved to be the determining factors for these families in their successful disruptive technology adaption.

Denna kandidatuppsats syftar till att förklara och förstå hållbarhetsansvarigas upplevelser av företags möjligheter och svårigheter att arbeta med social hållbarhet, samt fånga deras upplevelser av motiverande av såväl företagsledning som medarbetare. Därtill vilka sociala förutsättningar de uppfattar behövs för att möjliggöra arbete med social hållbarhet. På grund av företags paradoxala strävan efter vinst och hållbarhet är detta fenomen viktigt att förstå utifrån en sociologisk vinkel. Studien är genomförd med ett kvalitativt angreppssätt där åtta respondenter från sju olika företag intervjuades. Resultatet analyseras med hjälp av två teorier; Ahrne och Papakostas teori om tröghetens mekanismer och förnyelsens förutsättningar (2014) samt Asplunds teori om social responsivitet och abstrakt socialitet (1987). Studien visar att hållbarhetsansvariga upplever att det krävs engagemang från företagsledningen och en tydlig intern kommunikation för att skapa förutsättningar där ett arbete med social hållbarhet är möjligt. Studien visar också att sociala interaktioner bidrar till en känsla av stolthet och meningsfullhet och är det främsta redskapet för att bemöta negativa synsätt på arbete med hållbarhetsfrågor. Genom att arbeta med social hållbarhet kan företag påverka såväl marknaden som samhället i helhet till det positiva och därmed använda hållbarhetsarbetet som en konkurrensfördel. Näringslivet har en stor påverkan i utvecklandet av social hållbarhet, såväl globalt som lokalt, och därmed är företags samhällsansvar en viktig del i skapandet av en socialt hållbar framtid. / This candidate thesis aims at explaining and understanding sustainability managers experiences of their company’s opportunities and difficulties in working with social sustainability. As well as capturing their perceptions on motivating both company management and employees, and what social conditions are needed to enable work with social sustainability. Due to companies paradoxical pursuit of profit and sustainability it is important to understand this phenomenon from a sociological angle. This study is conducted with a qualitative approach in which eight respondents from seven different companies were interviewed. The result is analyzed by using two theories; Ahrne and Papakostas’ theory about inertia's mechanisms and the conditions of renewal (2014) and Asplund’s theory about social responsiveness and abstract sociality (1987). The result shows that sustainability managers experience a need of commitment from the management and a distinct internal communication in order to create conditions where work with social sustainability is made possible. The study shows that social interactions contribute to a sense of pride and meaningfulness and are the primary tool to counteract a negative view on working with sustainability issues. By working with social sustainability, companies can have a positive influence on both market and society and thus use sustainability efforts as a competitive advantage. Business has a major impact on the development of social sustainability, both globally and locally, corporate social responsibility is therefore an important part of creating a socially sustainable future.

When developing this thesis the main goal was to see how corporations impact society through new legislations giving them the right to act as individuals or humans. Gradually examining the impact on humans through CSR with analysis on how the implementation of CSR affects the performance of the business. A more theoretical approach is taken since Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Personhood are hard to classify since interpretation is dependent on individuals and cultures implemented within. The approach taken was to examine two cases including Enron and British Petroleum and see how their social practices affected society and the environment in general. Also the examination of research done from others was analyzed in order to find whether there was a correlation between CSR and the performance of the firm. The results concluded that there is a positive correlation between corporations implementing CSR initiatives and the overall performance of the business. It is also seen that businesses implement CSR to offset negative impacts. This supports the outcome of Enron and British Petroleum that if CSR would have been implemented correctly there is a great chance of success for the future. In overview it shows that for a corporation to improve it is success and become more competitive within the industry it is best to implement CSR tools in the correct way to create a competitive advantage. Reinforcing that being transparent and true will help the business succeed.

This thesis deals with finding competitive advantages of the company X and the key factors for improvement. The aim of this work is to find through the research the competitive advantages of the chain company X, which provides fast food on the Czech market, it's deficiencies and key factors, that can help the Company to improve in the future time. The theoretical part consists of five chapters, beginning with a chapter on marketing services, the following chapters deal with the purchase decision-making process in the service market and market category and competitive advantage. Methodology chapter closes then all the theoretical part. The practical part includes chapters examining the importance of a fast food restaurant in the world and the current market trend in the Czech Republic. Other parts deal with the characteristic of market and market category, analysis of competition, characteristic of the company X. The most important chapters in this section are the practical results of the survey, suggestions and recommendations to the company.

The task of this thesis is to assess the market position of briefly existing company euTERM.cz Ltd., perform internal and external analysis and find a competitive advantage for the determination of the recommended strategy of this company.

The reasons, why doctoral thesis named ?Competitive advantage based on working capital management during the economical recession period? has been compiled, are indentified as follows: ? Due to existing economical recession there is a deficiency of free foreign capital on the market and the price of capital is rapidly growing. ? There are some companies on the market, which are able to maintain the turnover dynamics and their business results (their ROI ratios) are significantly better than a market average. The two objectives of research have been stipulated: ? To prove whether there is a relation between the value of company?s working capital divided by the total turnover in the current period and the change of company?s turnover in the following period. The change of market value average shall be taken into account. ? To prove whether there is a relation between the company?s most liquid assets (receivables and short-term financial assets) divided by the value of total assets in the current period and company?s ROI ratio in the following period. These objectives have been achieved through extensive theoretical research at first, secondly through evaluation of empirical resources from a survey done based on data from 44 German companies connected with building industry between the years 2004 and 2007 and finally, the analysis and synthesis of these resources. The doctoral thesis clarifies the essential targets of working capital management, methods of company?s working capital optimization and reasons, why effective value of working capital could be seen as a source of company?s competitive advantage during economical recession period. The conclusions have pointed out that there is obvious delay of working capital optimization positive effects onto the company?s turnover dynamics and ROI ratios.

Cette thèse traite des fonds d’Investissement Socialement Responsables (ISR) français. D’après la Théorie Moderne du Portefeuille leur performance devrait être inférieure à celle des fonds traditionnels. Cependant des recherches antérieures présentent des résultats contradictoires. Nous choisissons de faire appel à la Resource Based View (RBV) pour interpréter cette incohérence entre théorie et pratique.Nous employons une méthodologie qualitative exploratoire, combinant des entretiens avec une analyse lexicale. Nous validons quantitativement une partie de nos résultats qualitatifs en modélisant la performance d’un fonds ISR par rapport à son indice de référence à l’aide d’une régression linéaire multiple. En se basant sur notre grille de lecture nous pensons avoir identifié deux ressources stratégiques à la disposition des fonds ISR, transformées en avantage compétitif par le biais de deux leviers stratégiques. Les deux ressources sont la compétence du gérant du fonds ISR et la subvention indirecte des frais du fonds ISR par leur Société de Gestion de Portefeuille (SGP). Les deux leviers sont la disposition de la SGP à la différentiation et l’apprentissage organisationnel à l’intérieur de la SGP.Notre recherche présente un triple apport : pour les universitaires, elle offre un cadre théorique alternatif au MEDAF qui expliquerait mieux la performance erratique des fonds ISR ; pour les praticiens, elle nous permet de faire des propositions aux fonds ISR concernant leur organisation ; pour les consommateurs, elle décortique les fonds ISR dans leurs composantes, leur proposant un aperçu non-conventionnel de leurs fonctionnements et leurs motivations. / The focal interest of this doctoral thesis is French Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds. According to Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) their performance should be inferior to “traditional” fund performance. The results from previous research however have been contradicting; we have thus chosen to make use of the Resource Based View (RBV) in order to interpret this incoherency between theory and practice and shed some light into the complex interactions that govern their behavior.We approach the field using an exploratory qualitative methodology, combining interviews with lexical analysis. We validate part of our qualitative results quantitatively through a multiple linear regression of SRI funds’ performance relative to their benchmark. Based on our framework, we believe we have identified two strategic resources available to SRI funds, leveraged into competitive advantage by two drivers. The two resources are the fund manager’s competency and the indirect subsidizing of the fund’s fees by its Asset Management (AM) company. The two drivers are the tendency of AM companies to diversify their services and organizational learning inside AM companies.Our research should appeal to three types of readers: researchers, since RBV offers a more compelling (as per Occam’s Razor) interpretation of SRI funds’ erratic performance than MPT; managers, since it enables us to formulate proposals for SRI funds’ organization; and laymen, since it breaks down SRI funds to their components, offering a rarely seen view of their inner workings and ulterior motivations.

The author of diploma thesis "The looking back to projects of operational programme The development of human resources in Pardubice Region: Or how it is uneasy to be an applicant for European money" focuses on difficulties which was battled by the applicants from Pardubice region. These difficulties are uncovered by questionnaires and they are faced with discrepances between documents written both at European and national level. The author looks for theoretical resources in the theory of organization and in the linear model of public administration in order to come to the conclusion that this model is strictly complied. She tries to discover possible causations of this problem and reason for its (non)solution. So she makes use of an actor analysis to uncover relationships between actors and their definitions of the problem. At the close, she compares these preferred solutions and she chooses one of them for the reason that this solution would be the best to deal with the problem.