<p>The object of this thesis is to analyse how a co-operational network can come about, operate and progress to contribute to industrial dynamics within the locality. The thesis is a case-study of the HomeCom Project, to learn whether this project has the required features to contribute to the clustering process and thus higher levels of industrial dynamics and competitive advantage of the home communications industry in Linköping. The theoretical platform is based on Porter’s Diamond-model, which explains the occurrence of clusters. Theories of external economies complement Porter’s theories, while oligopoly theory will be introduced to offer a different perspective. The empirical findings show that the HomeCom Project may be considered to contribute to the clustering and in consequence promote industrial dynamics and competitive advantage. But there are also difficulties and attitudes that may impede the reaching of the project’s goals.</p>

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The Internet is becoming a more and more influencing factor in our everyday life. It affects many of our daily tasks and it is a determining factor we built our decisions on. Especially in Sweden, retrieving information about products or services online prior to the purchase is a matter of course and emphasizes therefore its importance. A website offers a costefficient potential for smaller firms with limited resources to be visible for consumers and to compete on the larger market. However, the website adoption has been neglected amongst 41% of Swedish micro Small- and Medium sized Enterprises (SME), which raises the question why this phenomenon exists. Existing literature does not provide a solid explanation of this occurrence and this is where our study steps in. In order to answer our research question and to fill this gap, the study is designed as a qualitative multiple-case study with twelve semi-structured interviews conducted amongst the owner-managers of micro SMEs in different parts of Sweden. The study aims to fill the theoretical gap by identifying and explaining the reasons why micro SMEs in Sweden do not adopt a website. The empirical contribution is the development of managerial recommendations about how micro SMEs can overcome the barriers to adopt a website.  This research was guided by a conceptual framework, including strategic, consumer and customer, communication and interaction perspectives, as well as the perspective of the perception of websites. In order to carry out a profound analysis, we decided to apply two steps. The first step of the analysis was to connect the themes itself to theory in order to explore what the collected data represents so that reasons explaining why micro SMEs do not adopt a website could be found. The second step of the analysis included the exploration of the identified reasons in order to understand why these exist. The results from this study are expressed as six reasons why the owner-managers of micro SMEs in Sweden have not adopted a website. These reasons are: a wrong perception of a website, the lack of resources and competences, precaution, being a contractor to an umbrella company, being unaware of a website’s impact on the business and having successful network and offline-communication methods. The findings leave practitioners and researchers with an idea about what reasons are leading owners of micro SMEs to neglect a website and why these reasons exist.

Our interest in this thesis is based on the discussion we had in previous courses about the development of emerging countries. Since two of the writers of this thesis are from Poland we tried to found a common interest, hence the relationship between the Polish subcontractors and Swedish customer is analyzed. Poland is also known as a low cost country and that make it favorable when it comes about hiring subcontractors. The subcontractors in Poland are also known for the skills and expertise to produce quality. Something that is important for many foreign companies. IKEA has more than 40 subcontractors in Poland; the reason is just the factors mentioned above, to be able to produce good quality to low cost. (www.ikea.com) Earlier research indicate that Poland is developing rapidly compare to other emergent countries in Eastern Europe. There have been and will be changes in the environment that most likely will affect the competitive advantage that the subcontractors are the leader in. In other words these changes might lead to that Poland loses its customers which choose other markets that still are able produce at lower costs. The main problem for the thesis is to investigate how can polish subcontractors cope with environmental changes to sustain competitive advantage? In order to answer this, we used a qualitative approach where the characteristics of a case study are conducted. We collected and analyzed data in an abductive way. The interviews with the three Polish subcontractors were made in a semi structure form via telephone. To be able to solve the above problem an environmental analysis of Poland was done, in order to found those factors that are mentioned as worries and are likely to change in the future. The changes are presented from subcontractors’ perspective and recommendation how to cope with them is given.

No description available.

To remain competitive in a global market, many organizations are transforming their operations from traditional management approaches to the lean philosophy. The success of the Toyota Production System in the automotive industry serves as a benchmark that organizations continually seek to emulate in search of similar results. Despite the abundance of lean resources, many organizations struggle to attain successful lean transformation. To facilitate investigation of the failure mechanisms and critical success factors of lean transformation, this dissertation addresses the following research questions: (1) Why do transformations from traditional organizational philosophies to lean fail? (2) What are the critical factors for lean transformation success? (3) What is the role of an organization’s human resource performance management system during the lean transformation journey? This dissertation utilizes a multi-method, multi-essay format to examine the research questions. First, managers from organizations in various stages of lean transformation are interviewed to establish a foundational research framework. Subsequently, a theoretical model is empirically tested based on data gathered from a survey of industry professionals with expertise in lean transformation. Data analysis techniques employed for this dissertation include: Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, case descriptions, and case comparisons. Very few studies of lean transformation investigate behavioral influences and antecedents. This dissertation contributes to practitioners and researchers by offering a refined understanding of the role that human resource performance management can play in the overall lean transformation process. In an effort to characterize organizational outcomes resulting from lean transformation, this research introduces a new construct, Lean Transformation Success, to the literature.

Netzwerke, insbesondere für organisationsübergreifende Innovationsaktivitäten, gewinnen weiter an Bedeutung. Zunehmend kann auch ein Wettbewerb der Netzwerke und Allianzen attestiert werden. Innovationsfähigkeit kann hierbei zum wichtigen Wettbewerbsvorteil werden. Diese Studie gibt Aufschluss über wesentliche Treiber von Innovationsleistung in Netzwerken. Innovationen werden dabei zum einen als marktbezogene Produkt -und Dienstleistungsneuheiten, zum anderen i.S.v. netzwerkinternen neuen Maßnahmen und Prozessen verstanden. Hierzu wurden 757 Manager/Koordinatoren innovationsorientierter Netzwerke angeschrieben. Auf Basis der gewonnenen Daten wird die Wirkung von Innovationsstrategien, Innovationskultur, Wissensaustausch, Kospezialisierung, Führungsstil und Reflexivität auf die Innovationsleistung von Netzwerken aufgezeigt. Die vorliegende Studie ist Teil eines umfangreichen empirischen Forschungsprojekts mit Förderung aus Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) und des Europäischen Sozialfonds im Förderschwerpunkt "Innovationsstrategien jenseits traditionellen Managements"

In this thesis major challenges of creating business models at incumbents within mature industries are identified along with a mitigation plan. Pressure is upon incumbent organizations in order to keep up with the latest rapid technological advancements, the launching of startups that almost cover every field of business and the continuous change in customers’ tastes and needs. That along with various factors either forced organizations to continually reevaluate their current business models or miss out on great opportunities. How some incumbents have dealt and are dealing with business model innovation challenges over the past few years is demonstrated through several cases of incumbents. The sources surveyed include recent scientific articles, books, firsthand accounts with executives in the area of business models, innovation and business development, online sources and contemporary business publications. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose a framework which is derived mainly from the sources mentioned above. In order to overcome such challenges, thesis propose a framework that can be used to successfully engender new business models and make a transition from current to new business model. By successful business model innovation, firms can increase the extent of their offerings, meet yet unmet market demands and untapped customer segments. Additionally, organizations can create new value propositions and gain highly sustainable competitive position through business model innovation which is not easy to imitate or copy by the competition. Our findings attest to the fact that business models are highly situational however there are general steps for incumbent organizations that would lead to a successful business model innovation approach. First an organization must have a clear strategy. Establishing separate innovation centers for firms do enhance and foster the mindset of innovation as they take innovation outside the parent organization’s logic. Other approaches include open innovation, partnerships and ensuring that resources are constantly allocated to create disruptive innovations internally and is led by the right personalities. Solving customer needs should be the core of any business and finally there are no best practices in business model innovation. The significance of our findings gives insights on how to overcome some challenges in practice for incumbents to create suitable business models and contributes to theory since there were some empirical findings that weren’t pronounced in literature.

In this thesis major challenges of creating business models at incumbents within mature industries are identified along with a mitigation plan. Pressure is upon incumbent organizations in order to keep up with the latest rapid technological advancements, the launching of startups that almost cover every field of business and the continuous change in customers’ tastes and needs. That along with various factors either forced organizations to continually reevaluate their current business models or miss out on great opportunities.How some incumbents have dealt and are dealing with business model innovation challenges over the past few years is demonstrated through several cases of incumbents. The sources surveyed include recent scientific articles, books, firsthand accounts with executives in the area of business models, innovation and business development, online sources and contemporary business publications. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose a framework which is derived mainly from the sources mentioned above.In order to overcome such challenges, thesis propose a framework that can be used to successfully engender new business models and make a transition from current to new business model. By successful business model innovation, firms can increase the extent of their offerings, meet yet unmet market demands and untapped customer segments. Additionally, organizations can create new value propositions and gain highly sustainable competitive position through business model innovation which is not easy to imitate or copy by the competition.Our findings attest to the fact that business models are highly situational however there are general steps for incumbent organizations that would lead to a successful business model innovation approach. First an organization must have a clear strategy. Establishing separate innovation centers for firms do enhance and foster the mindset of innovation as they take innovation outside the parent organization’s logic. Other approaches include open innovation, partnerships and ensuring that resources are constantly allocated to create disruptive innovations internally and is led by the right personalities. Solving customer needs should be the core of any business and finally there are no best practices in business model innovation. The significance of our findings gives insights on how to overcome some challenges in practice for incumbents to create suitable business models and contributes to theory since there were some empirical findings that weren’t pronounced in literature.

Background: In a world that is becoming more knowledge-based and where it gets harder to find value-adding employees, employer branding could be used as a way to attract and retain employees, which later can create competitive advantage. Research Question: In order to experience competitive advantage, how do SMEs use the strategies and tools of employer branding as a way to attract and retain value-adding employees? Purpose: The purpose with this study was to explore how employer branding is used by SMEs as a way to experience competitive advantage. Method: A qualitative research method with six case studies of SMEs located in different industries was adopted. Primary data was based on semi-structured interviews with respondents at the different SMEs. Theoretical framework: With the basis of the RBV, theories about this and the human capital as a resource as well as a competitive advantage, is presented. This continues with theories about the employer brand, attractive attributes about employers, employer branding strategies, and what the outcomes of employer branding is.  Findings and Conclusions: SMEs do not use the strategies and tools of employer branding in the generic way. Instead, much communication is carried out first when the recruitment process starts, with the aim to find employees who could deliver competitive advantage through their fit with the organization. Once onboard, different benefits are provided in order to retain them. Involvement and engagement are the most prominent ones, due to SMEs ability to offer cross-functional management.