The increased globalization has brought increased interdependency between countries as well as markets.  The  2007  financial  crisis  impacted  companies  on  a  global  scale  and  the  need  for companies  to  be  socially  responsible  has  increased.  Corporate  social  responsibility  (CSR)  can build reputation and lead to societal and competitive advantage, which can be especially useful for  small  and  medium  sized  enterprises  (SME)  with  limited  resources.  CSR  has  traditionally been  the  domain  of  multinational  corporations  and  little  is  known  about CSR in  SMEs. Recent research  shows  mixed results  of  how  the  financial  crisis  has  affected  CSR  strategies.  The purpose of this study is to explore how stakeholders‟ issues and CSR strategies change during times  of  market  turbulence  and  SMEs  conform  to  the  changes  of  the  internal  and  external environment. This was studied through a qualitative case study of three Swedish exporting SMEs and  their  key  stakeholders.  Interviews  with  managing  directors  of  the  companies  and  key stakeholders  together  with  secondary  data  constitute  the  gathered  empirical  data.  Key stakeholders,  key  issues,  legitimacy  with  stakeholders,  company  matching  with  the  external environment and the CSR strategy,  as well as changes during crisis were analyzed based on the empirical data. We found an increased need for CSR activities during times of turbulence. Two companies  increased  their  CSR  activities  while  one  decreased the  activities.  The results  of  the study  indicate that  the  external  environment  changes  during  times  of  market  turbulence  and companies  need  to  adapt  to  the  newly shaped  environment.  CSR  activities  became  more important  for  some  stakeholders  during  market  turbulence.  Companies  which  adapted  to  the changes  of  the  external  environment  improved  legitimacy  with  their  stakeholders  and  moved toward enhancing their competitive advantage as well as improved their performance. The study contributes  to  the  knowledge  of  how  SME  form  CSR  strategy  as  well  as  how  this  strategy  is changed  during  times  of  turbulence.  We  found  CSR  strategies  of  the  studied  SMEs  to  be emergent  and  intuitive,  and  that  CSR  strategy  changed  in  a  mixed  direction  during  the  crisis. Finally,  a  recommendation  is  made  based  on  the  results.  SMEs  can  strategically  use  CSR activities  in  order  to  develop  a  competitive  advantage through  differentiation by  a  creating societal advantage.

The world economy is in a transition period never experienced before, One of the main realising factors, boosting economy growth, is the catch up of many emerging countries. The emerging countries impose new competitive dimensions to the global economy, forcing well established multinational corporations into new competitive situations, brining both opportunities and threats. The construction equipment industry has entered a condition of unprecedented growth. The total market demand has increased significantly and the demand development is prospected to continue for many more years. To keep up with the market demand and the sales opportunities, it is important to have machines available in the market. This impose that the logistic strategy is getting more important for companies in order to keep up with the prospected sales opportunities. This Masters thesis is initiated by our case company, Volvo Construction Equipment International, currently suffering from an inefficient logistics strategy constraining international growth. Based on our analysis and conclusion, Volvo Construction Equipment is recommended to move from transaction selling, spot market like international logistics strategy towards a relationship marketing based logistics strategy establishing in-depth collaborations with key account shipping suppliers. Furthermore, we recommend that Volvo CE should consider a logistics management function in order to facilitate the inter-organizational flow of logistics information.

The international environment today has been undergoing unprecedented change and many companies are seeking new ways to stand out from the competition by sustaining their competitive advantage. Internationalization and firms’ consolidation increase competition in the dynamic marketplace .Companies are no longer staying competitive simply through focusing on product quality and pricing as customers are becoming more high-demanding related to customer service offer. This issue directs the companies’ main focus today to address the customer needs in the ever-changing environment.In order to be the winners in the marketplace, timing and superior customer service are becoming the keys to attain competitive advantage for a company. Time-based competition is an important issue that many companies are facing currently as customers are becoming more time-sensitive and time-oriented in terms of better services, reliability and delivery. To keep up with the changes in demand from customers, it is important to satisfy customers’ objectives and needs in order to provide superior customer service, thus, establish good relationship with them. In the ever-changing and dynamic business environment company needs to adapt and exploit the changes in order to meet the new challenges in the marketplace. It is crucial for the company to respond to changing needs of existing customers and seeking to serve new customers externally. The ways to renew the customers’ services and how they are delivered are critical capabilities for many companies to acquire nowadays. This leads to increasing interaction between marketing and logistics where logistics is considered a platform for supporting new strategic moves on the market.This master thesis originates from a need to research the links between customer service improvement and Just-in-time distribution in order to sustain competitive advantage. We propose to extend the Just-In-Time concept to incorporate a customer perspective, which results in changes the warehousing, ordering and delivering routines. Subsequently, this creates timing ability as well as coordination of information and material flows through timely decisions, which are difficult for competitors to emulate. Based on our analysis and conclusion, companies are recommended to shift from the traditional production-oriented to market-oriented focuses through incorporation of customers' perspective into the value chain. To deploy this, companies should start from the customer end and understand customers' needs and establish mutual beneficial relationships with customers. Long-lasting business relationships ultimately determine the success of the company. Furthermore, we conclude that successful learning to change the routines requires time for the transformation of traditional delivery practice to perform direct deliveries activities. They are based on the common understanding of the tasks and rules as well as common codes of internal coordination processes.

Many firms are today established in China via intermediaries, such as distributors or agents. However this establishment is not valuable in a long-term perspective if the industry environment offers a possible higher return on investment by establishing on its own. Furthermore, when a firm establishes more committed in a foreign market, it gain control over the marketing activities and the sales channel. When entering new markets, problems occur in cases of cultural barriers, institutional distances and lack of contact with the customers within the market. The focus of this master thesis is the establishment of relationships in order to achieve competitive advantages through enhanced understanding of market specific factors and the adaptation towards the market. The thesis is initiated by our interest for firms expanding in international markets. We have recognized the importance of the relationship establishment when entering China. Based upon the identified problem we build a theoretical framework and apply the empirical findings from our case company Dako A/S, which are about to establish in the Chinese market with more commitment. We have for this master thesis collected data from our case company. We have, via semi-structured interviews, conducted the material within the division for the establishment in China. The purpose of the thesis is to introduce findings that will help Western firms to enhance their understanding of the importance of establishing, developing and maintaining customer relationships in China in order to gain a competitive advantage. The central phases of the thesis, is our theoretical framework, the findings from the case company and the establishment of competitive advantages through relationship and choosing the right entry mode. Throughout our research and our seeking towards answering the above purpose we can draw the following main conclusion; it is crucial for a foreign firm to develop its capabilities in order to establish a competitive advantage. The organizational capabilities have to be addressed the market specific knowledge and the feedback towards the organization in order to exploit the competitive advantages. We summarize the findings in a conclusion, which can be applied for Western firms in different industries, in order to establish competitive advantages in China. Finally, we provide recommendations to our case company and their establishment in China, within the research area of this thesis.

The Front End of innovation (FEI) or early innovation presents one of the greatest opportunities for improving an entire innovation process in any firm. The purpose of this thesis is to study how customers can be involved in the early phase of innovation in the IT industry. In this study, we did analyze the customer types, their methods of involvement and key elements within the early innovation process or front end of innovation. In accordance with theoretical concepts, this study shows that all fifteen (15) companies working within the I.T industry in Sweden agreed working with innovation/NPD and, equally involve customers in their front end of innovation (FEI). In the I.T industry, innovation comes mainly from the users (customers) and from within the companies (R&D). To a lesser extend, from technological trends, market and suppliers. Amongst the identified phases (elements) of the front end of innovation, Opportunity Identification was found to be the dominant phase for customer involvement. Normal customers, lead, empathic design customers and virtual customers, proved the most dominant customer types integrated within the front end of innovation in the I.T industry.

In this dissertation, I investigate how capabilities drive firm performance as an industry evolves. I show that in spite of significant research on firm capabilities, we do not understand whether technological capabilities continue to drive firm performance as an industry evolves or whether they become weaker drivers of performance over time. This question is also important to managers because its answer would inform whether in a given context, firms should invest in building technological capabilities or not. I predict and find that in low complementarity contexts, as technology advances, customer demand for greater product performance becomes satiated. As a result, customers neither pay for greater product performance nor buy higher performing products pre maturely. As firms lose these two levers by which technological capabilities drive performance, they find that technological capabilities become weaker drivers of performance. I also propose that when technological capabilities become weaker drivers of performance, firm performance becomes more persistent, in the sense that past performance drives future performance. Through a rigorous quantitative analysis, complemented by an in-depth qualitative analysis of the US CT scanner industry from its inception, I find support for the theory. Using robust regression and multinomial logistic regression models, I find that as technology in an industry advances, technological capabilities become weaker drivers of firm performance. I discuss the shortcomings of this research and potential for future research. I also discuss the implications of this research on capability theory, resource based view, and on existing explanations of industry shakeout. / Dissertation

In order to stay sustainably competitive and provide low cost, high quality products safely and on schedule, China Steel Group must depend on a highly automated and sophisticated electric control system for dynamic and optimized control. Therefore, the promotion of group synergy as well as integration and management of the resources of China Steel Group¡¦s electric control system become the main purpose of this study. This study is based on resource-based theory, Collis & Montgomery's strategy and the literatures on Group Company¡¦s management. Management system of Formosa Plastics Group, three Japanese and one Korean Steel Groups were also investigated as benchmarking practices. Following issues have been analyzed via 4 experts¡¦ interviews and 135 questionnaires: 1).Core electric control resources with sustainable competitive advantage of China Steel Group, 2).The electric control resources¡¦ integration and management system of China Steel Group, 3).The necessity and direction to establish China Steel Group¡¦s general management office. Findings and conclusions of this study are shown as follows: 1) . Core electric control resources with sustainable competitive advantage of China Steel Group: a. Expertise is the most important core resources of electric control system; process and operation domain knowledge, process control maintenance knowledge and basic engineering of electric control project are the most sustainable competitive advantage in daily business operation. b. Process domain knowledge in rolling mill is the most valuable and difficult electric core resource and need to be enhanced first. c. The most important factors to evaluate the performance of electric control business are: quality, time schedule, safety and environmental protection, technical ability, communication and coordination services. 2) . The electric control resources¡¦ integration and management of China Steel Group: a. Through resources, business and organization as well as by the coordination and monitoring system, the integration and management of the electric control resources of China Steel Group will become more effectively. b. In addition to the original electric control maintenance and engineering business, China Steel Group should strengthen the function of electric control professional staff to integrate the group¡¦s resources. c. The way to integrate electric control resources are: technology and information integration, material and logistics integration, process/organization and human resources integration. d. Project detail design and software maintenance for DCS and PLC should be subcontracted to subsidiary company, InfoChamp System Corp., to enhance its capability in addition to keep core capability inside China Steel Group. e. Maintain the existing district-based electric maintenance system; Integrate group-wide resources to set up group¡¦s electric control engineering company responsible for all group's electric control projects; Functions of companies¡¦ electric control department shall be transformed into group¡¦s professional staff. 3) . The necessity and direction to establish China Steel Group¡¦s general management office: a. The performance of resource integration in China Steel Group is very important. b. More than 85.2% of respondents considered Group¡¦s general management office should be established or expand the parent company (China Steel Corp.) existing organizations to integrate the resources of China Steel Group. Finally, the result of this study is not only meaningful for China Steel Group but also can be applied in other industry group companies and engineering companies.

In respond to the trend of globalization and IT applications, the pressure by big international companies on cost reduction to OEM companies required a 3%-5% goal every year. What OEM companies need is to keep on with the goal fulfillment and to work on some innovation programs with their business model. They change business model from OEM to ODM to make them survive through challenges and gain profit margin. OEM companies in Taiwan are mostly smaller in many ways in contrast to foreign companies, although they are good at precision manufacturing as their core and manufacture high quality products. It is suitable for those companies to adopt a strategic alliance to integrate their competences to create synergies. This can build up a solid supply chain collaboration platform and new business model with a vantage position and competitive advantages. GMTC, the case company, applied for industrial technology development projects sponsored by the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) as strategies to introduce their new collaborating-commerce business model around year 2002 to 2006. They invoked their strategies to integrate the supply chains for expansion through startup a new business model for partners to understand, communicate and improve the value chain to link to the global companies. The performances cause high impacts on collaborative effectiveness among value chain partners. This thesis, based on a case study of GMTC, is to analyze and find the key factors make strategies success and to demonstrate how. Organizational learning - learning history is used in this study to analyze and research the strategies in order to find out what GMTC have done in the past. Implications for planning and moving a new business model or strategy on supply chain are discussed and future research suggestions are provided.

In recent years, tourism has been recognized as the most potential industry. Kaohsiung is a city which has a very rich cultural and natural resources such as mountains, sea, river and sea port to develop the tourism industry. Due to the official opening of high speed railway and completion of Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit increased accessibility to attract many tourists. The most popular tourist accommodation is the new "daily rental suites" instead of the traditional hotels or motels. Through the competitive advantage matrix analysis model to find out the competitive advantage of daily rental suites, one dimension is from the outside analysis the key success factors of the industry, the other dimension is from the inside analysis the assets and capabilities of the daily rental suites which select three well-known ones in Kaohsiung as my study cases. The main contribution of this research is summarized six competitive advantages of daily rental suite through the matrix as (1) location, (2) the reputation and the brand, (3) service quality, (4) price, (5) atmosphere and (6) room equipment and decoration. The results show that daily rental suite¡¦s core resources how match with the key success factors. By examining their feature of the core resources to reinforce his internal assets as well as capabilities, so as to keep and create its competitive advantage.

This research analysis automobile industry of China and Germany, based on theory of the competitive advantage of nations. Currently China is the largest market of automobile production and sales of the world. The huge domestic market demand is sufficient to reflect the rapid growth of the automobile industry for the Chinese automotive industry, while Germany automobile industry has long been acknowledged by the average consumer due to its technology and quality assurance. Global warming and energy consumption has led to global environmental awareness, which influence the cooperation model of China and Germany on automobile industry. In this thesis the cooperation model will be analyzed, the conclusion of analyze could be as the positive advice for the development of Taiwan automobile industry in the future.