I here have been very few studies carried out on enhancing CFC (Cross-functional Collaboration) for the product design development. nevertheless there is a clear consensus among researchers that this issue is a critical one in ne product design development. Besides, almost all of the research work, which attempted to encourage CFC in NPD situations, was carried out focused on the cross-functional team which is the most effective organisation type to encourage collaboration between other functional groups, rather than the functional organisation, which is difficult organisation to facilitate collaboration between other functional groups. On the other hand, there is still no clear evidence which proves that CFC improves the performance of' design development. Nevertheless, this proof is essential premise to support the value of producing the information to improve CFC for product design development. This research attempts to fill in this gap in the deficiency of research. This longitudinal research has been conducted with complementary research methods: a qualitative research and a quantitative research in the field. As the main body of this research, 15 key -decision makers for new product design development were interviewed and 243 questionnaires from eight leading consumer electronics companies in three countries (Korea, Japan. UK) were analysed. In conclusion, firstly, this research has proved there is a plus correlation between the level of CFC and several dimensions of the design development performance of consumer electronics products. Furthermore, a new framework model is developed and proposed after compressing and combining all vital findings of this research work. This developed model presents three major findings of this research. Firstly, the factors affecting CF C for design development of consumer electronics products, secondly, the priority of importance of these factors, and finally, factors directly contributing to design development performance in several dimensions. Overall, the findings of this research help to people what are valuable factors for building CFC climate and what are prior factor in a quandary concerning, where to concentrate their efforts so as to successfully implement their (TV to improve their design development performance. In particular, the findings of this research could further help designers and design managers who lack the experience and knowledge of collaboration situations in the rigid functional organisational boundaries, which many consumer electronics companies face.

This thesis develops a method to optimize the inventory-related performance of a VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) in retailing environments, for two successive products with overlapping lifecycles, under stock-dependent demand. The study refers to existing research in different fields, such as inventory policies and VMIs, retailing of substitutable products, stock-dependent demands and product lifecycle management. However, no study encompassing all these research streams could be found, and thus an abductive approach is developed, aiming at building new theory. The thesis draws upon a case study at Sony Germany, which has started an ambitious VMI initiative with the largest retailer of consumer electronics products in Germany. First, stock and sales data available, along with insights collected among employees, is used to understand the key profit-drivers when lifecycles of the two products overlap, and a set of indicators is propounded to measure them. The pattern of sales in relation to inventories of the two products is studied, and results in the validation of the stock-dependent demand assumption, with demand following a Poisson distribution of parameter λ [on-hand stock]. Demand for the new product is also found to be negatively affected by stock levels of the old product, in an exponential way. Second, a model is built and a scenario- based simulation embedding the patterns previously established is performed to evaluate different strategies to steer the stock levels in the VMI. Scenarios are evaluated against the proposed set of indicators, but no scenario is found to over perform consistently the others. Nevertheless interesting patterns emerge and it is possible to relate the performance observed to specificities of scenarios and product contexts. Using the patterns identified, a set of guidelines is suggested, along with proposals for practical implementation.

Hållbarhet är ett aktuellt ämne i dagens samhälle och nämns ofta i mediesammanhang. Planeten är överbefolkad, människor svälter och levnadsstandarden skiljer sig markant mellan jordens kontinenter. Även jordens resurser används i större mån än vad planeten klarar av och detta leder i sin tur till att miljön blir lidande. Detta har bidragit till att samhället idag har höga krav på hur företag arbetar kring hållbarhet. Intressenternas krav har i sin tur lett till att upprättande av hållbarhets- redovisningar har blivit allt vanligare. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur hållbarhetsredovisningar utformas i tre olika branscher i Sverige och jämföra dessa för att urskilja eventuella likheter och olikheter som kan finnas. Vidare kommer även alternativa förklaringar till likheterna och olikheterna framföras. Branscherna som har studerats är hemelektronikbranschen, klädbranschen och livsmedels- branschen. För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar har en djupgående analys av 15 företags hållbarhetsredovisningar gjorts. Sedan har dessa företag jämförts för att ha möjlighet att urskilja eventuella likheter och olikheter. Utifrån det empiriska materialet kan det utläsas att utformningen av de granskade rapporterna är olika till utseendet men att innehållet är relativt likt. Dock finns det ett fåtal skillnader i innehållet vilket kan bero på vilken miljö som respektive företag är aktiva i och vilka krav intressenterna har på ett företags hållbarhetsarbete. Likheter mellan branscherna och företagen kan förklaras med hjälp av legitimitetsteorin och den institutionella teorin. Företag vill uppnå legitimitet gentemot samhället i stort och det kan göras genom att efterlikna de företag som upprättar framgångsrika hållbarhetsrapporter. Studien är en kartläggning av hållbarhetsredovisningar i tre olika branscher där likheter och olikheter framhävs samt eventuella förklaringar till varför företag utformar sin hållbarhetsredovisning på de sätt de har gjort. / Sustainability is an up-to-date issue and it’s often mentioned in media. The planet is overpopulated, people are starving and the living conditions differ significantly between the continents. The resources of the earth are used to a greater extent than the planet is capable of. This has led to environmental problems and that the society has high demands of corporate social responsibility. Stakeholders’ requirements have led to the fact that the establishment of sustainability reports has become more common. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how sustainability reports are designed in three different industries in Sweden and compare them to distinguish any similarities or differences that may exist. Further, alternative explanations for the similarities and differences will be made. The industries that have been studied are the following: consumer electronics industry, clothing industry and food industry. In order to answer the study's purpose and questions, an in-depth analysis of 15 companies’ sustainability reports has been made. Then a comparison has been made between these companies and industries in order to determine if there are any similarities or differences. Based on the empirical material, the design of the reviewed reports is different in appearance but the content is relatively similar. However, there are also a few differences in the content and these may depend on the environment for which each company is active and what kind of requirements its stakeholders have on the company's sustainability work. Similarities between the industries and companies can be explained with the help of legitimacy theory and institutional theory. Companies want to achieve legitimacy towards the society and one way to do this is to imitate the companies that establish successful sustainability reports. The study is a mapping of sustainability reports in three different industries, highlighting similarities and differences, as well as possible reasons why companies design their sustainability report in the way they have done.