Titel: Kunden har alltid makt – En studie av Customer Empowerments inverkan på företag inom retailbranschen.    Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi    Författare: Jacob Cedergren och Christin Rampeltin Molin    Handledare: Anna Ljung och Akmal Hyder   Datum: 2021– januari      Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera företagens uppfattning av Customer Empowerment och dess inverkan på företag inom retailbranschen.   Metod: Vi har valt att använda oss av ett induktivt tillvägagångssätt. Det empiriska materialet har inhämtats genom en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning, med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Företagsrepresentanter inom retailbranschen har utgjort studiens urval, då vi anser att deras kundkontakt och möte slutkunden är viktigt för att kunna besvara studiens frågeställningar.   Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att respondenterna uppfattar att de idag styrs av kunden och kundens behov. Intervjupersonerna beskriver att internet har ökat kundens inflytande och makt, på grund av tillgången till en obegränsad mängd information. Respondenterna beskriver en maktförskjutning från företag till kund. Studien visar att begreppet Customer Empowerment, CE, har förändrats från en företagsinitierad strategi för att skapa kundengagemang och nöjdhet, till en okontrollerbar kundmakt, vilket innebär att kunden har övertagit flera av företagens roller. Ett koncept vi har valt att namnge omvända roller då kunderna, enligt respondenterna, styr och innehar makt över företagen medan företagen försöker anpassa sig efter kundens behov och önskemål.    Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar då den beskriver begreppet Customer Empowerment, CE, och dess inverkan på retailföretag, utifrån företagens perspektiv. Tidigare forskning av begreppet CE har framhållit dess fördelar. Denna studie beskriver att kunden idag inte bara erbjuds inflytande utan även har övertagit makt och kontroll från företagen. Denna maktförändring leder till negativa effekter, vilket beskrivs i två teoretiska figurer. Det praktiska bidraget är att studien beskriver de negativa effekterna som kundens makt kan inneha på företag, inom retailbranschen.    Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Denna studie bygger på 10 intervjupersoner, från retailbranschen, vilket gör att studiens generaliserbarhet endast speglar en del av retailbranschen samt en liten del av svenska företag. Det vore intressant att undersöka företagens syn på CE inom andra branscher, exempelvis inom B2B- branschen.    Nyckelord: Customer Empowerment, Kundmakt, Kundfokus, Kundorientering, Retail, Retailbransch / Title: The customer always has power - a study of how Customer Empowerment affects companies in the retail industry.   Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration    Author: Jacob Cedergren and Christin Rampeltin Molin   Supervisor: Anna Ljung and Akmal Hyder    Date: 2021 - January     Aim: The study aims to investigate and describe companies' perceptions of Customer Empowerment, CE, and its impact on companies in the retail industry.   Method: We have chosen to use an inductive approach. The empirical material has been obtained through a qualitative interview survey with semi-structured interviews. Company representatives in the retail industry have made up our selection, as we believe that their customer contact and meeting the end customer are essential to answer the study's questions.   Result & Conclusions: The study shows that the respondents perceive that they are governed by the customer and the customer's needs. The interviewees describe that the internet has increased the customer's influence and power due to the unlimited amount of information. The respondents describe a shift in power from the company to the customer. The study shows that CE's concept has changed from a company-initiated strategy to create customer engagement and satisfaction, to an uncontrollable customer power, which means that the customer has taken over several of the companies' roles. This concept we have chosen to name reverse roles, as the customers, according to the respondents, control and hold power over the companies while the companies try to adapt to the customer's needs and wishes.   Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes as it describes Customer Empowerment, CE, and its impact on retail companies, from the companies' perspective. Previous research on the concept of CE has highlighted its benefits. This study describes that the customer today is offered influence and has also taken over the companies' power. This change in control leads to adverse effects, which are described in two theoretical figures. The practical contribution is that the study describes the damaging effects of the customer's power on companies in the retail industry.   Suggestions for future research: This study is based on ten interviewees, from the retail industry, which means that the study's generalizability only reflects a part of the Swedish companies. It would be interesting to investigate whether this view of customer power is also valid in other industries or, for example, in the B2B industry.   Key words: Customer Empowerment, Customer Power, Customer Focus, Customer Orientation, Retail, Retail Industry

<p dir="ltr">The objective of this research was to evaluate the impact of salespeople’s characteristics on their sales process. A cluster analysis procedure was used to develop a segmentation of business-to-business salespeople. The segments were developed by seven variables that describe the percentage of time salespeople spend on specific selling activities: prospecting, building trust/ relationship, probing, presenting products/ services, handling objections, negotiating/ obtaining commitment, and service/ follow-up.  The result indicated the presence of three clusters: customer-focused, sales-focused, and balance segments.  Differences across these segments have essential implications on the choice of sales strategy. </p>

近二十年來台灣經濟發展快速，國民生活所得提高，使得生活水平不斷上升，消費意識跟著抬頭，新公共管理學派「顧客導向」蔚為風潮，並同時強調價值的調和與課責的概念，因此「評鑑」是決定績效或品質的有效方法。而有鑑於過去殯葬市場資訊封閉，民眾（消費者）在資訊不完全、不對稱的情形，無從得知殯葬禮儀服務業者的優缺點、服務項目與收費、申訴管道等，復以民眾對於喪葬儀式與服務品質亦有所新要求，政府應如何實施殯葬評鑑以提供民眾資訊，加強業者的企業倫理與社會責任，己刻不容緩。 本文旨對台北市政府自民國89年實施殯葬禮儀服務業評鑑之情形做一探討，以質性研究及文獻分析對不同規模葬儀業者、評鑑承辦人員及殯葬消費者等360度績效評估方法進行訪談，以期了解葬儀業者是否依評鑑的要求進而提高其人員素質及服務品質；另民眾對殯葬消費方式的選擇是否會受評鑑結果的影響，以及對殯葬服務之滿意度，這些就成為目前政府與民眾所關注的重要議題，也是本文探討的核心焦點。 本研究發現：一、殯葬禮儀服務業者與殯葬消費者均對辦理殯葬評鑑表示接受或肯定；二、殯葬評鑑的確會提升葬儀業者的人員素質及服務品質；三、殯葬評鑑宣導不足；四、殯葬評鑑未達獎優懲劣效果。再依研究發現提出七項建議：：一、針對業者規模「量身訂做」評鑑評分表；二、評鑑委員的配置需以不同領域之專家學者同組；三、評鑑獎項多元化；四、提供多元管道，加強宣導殯葬評鑑的資訊；五、殯葬消費價格及項目公開化；六、合理對殯葬業者獎優懲劣；七、加強對業者及民眾之教育。 目前國內生死意識抬頭、且生死教育正在起步，惟國內外均無殯葬評鑑之相關研究，期望本研究之濫觴，促使政府及民眾對殯葬評鑑之重視。 / The living standard has risen dramatically together with its consumers’ rights consciousness due to the rapid economic growth and the raising income in recent twenty years in Taiwan. In addition, the customer orientation of new public management has become a tendency and the reconciliation of its value and the concept of accountability are highly valued at the same time. Therefore, it is an effective way to decide the result or the quality by the evaluation. In view of the information of funeral markets is closed in the past and customers cannot know the advantage, disadvantage, service, charge and grievance system of morticians under the situation with incomplete information. Moreover, customers have new demand for the funeral ceremonies and the quality of services. Hence, the government should implement the funeral evaluation immediately in order to provide more information to customers and reinforce the business ethics as well as social responsibility of undertakers. The research aims at exploring the situation of implementing the funeral service evaluation of Taipei city government since 1990. This paper researched qualitatively and analyzed the literature by interviewing different scale of undertakers, people who are responsible for the evaluation and customers with multi-source assessment model in order to understand if morticians enhance their quality and services according to the demand of the evaluation. On the other hand, whether the evaluation’s results influence customers’ choice of a particular funeral service provider and their satisfactoriness become the important issues which the government and the public concern a lot at present. Furthermore, they are also the main focuses that this paper discusses about. It is found that both morticians and customers show their acceptance or approval of the funeral service evaluation. In addition, the funeral service evaluation indeed raises the quality and services of undertakers. Next, the education of the funeral service evaluation is not enough. Last, the funeral service evaluation does not achieve its effect of rewarding and punishing. Furthermore, seven suggestions are presented according to the research. First, make appropriate evaluation form in accordance with the scale of morticians. Second, the arrangement of evaluation committee members should be composed of scholars and experts in different fields. Third, the evaluation reward can be diversified. Fourth, provide various ways to reinforce the instruction of the funeral service evaluation information. Fifth, the prices and details of funeral services should come into the open. Sixth, reward the good and punish the bad undertakers reasonably. Finally, reinforce the education of morticians and the public. The public pay more attention to the consciousness of life and death at present and the education of life and death is beginning but there is no related research about the funeral service evaluation in Taiwan or abroad. The researcher hopes the source of this study will promote the government and the public value the funeral service evaluation.

Kundenorientierung ist ein maßgeblicher Erfolgsfaktor für Unternehmen. Entscheidenden Einfluss hierauf besitzen Mitarbeiter mit Kunden-Kontakt, die sich in Bedürfnisse der Kunden einfühlen können und die ihr Wissen mit anderen Mitarbeitern im Unternehmen teilen. In einem schrittweisen und systematischen Vorgehen werden in dieser Arbeit betriebswirtschaftliche und neurowissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse zusammengeführt und hierdurch dargelegt, welche Faktoren im Unternehmen diese Gehirnleistung des Einfühlens begünstigen. Die Mehr-Ebenen-Analyse erfolgt ausgehend von der Unternehmensebene, insbesondere Phänomenen der Unternehmenskultur, über die Ebene der Beziehungen zwischen Kunden und Mitarbeitern bis hin zur Ebene des sozialen Gehirns.

Increasing and maintaining customer loyalty has been shown to enhance service firm profitability. This research focuses on the antecedents of customer loyalty in a large national North American banking organisation, in particular the relationship between employee loyalty and customer loyalty, and further within the organisation, the antecedents of the employee loyalty-customer loyalty relationship. Thus the current research investigates the chain of events from managerial actions to customer loyalty with the aim of identifying relevant managerial practices and their influences within the organisation that lead to customer loyalty. The research provides tangible evidence supporting the importance of providing organisational resources to increase employee loyalty as a means of increasing customer loyalty in service organisations. To achieve this goal, the study suggests that a comprehensive set of managerial practices will enhance an organisation's service climate, foster positive employee attitudes and behaviours in relation to service provision, that impact on employee loyalty, service quality, and ultimately customer loyalty. These practices include support provided by senior leadership, the provision of resources that facilitate effective work practices, a positive management orientation on customers, and the use of employee evaluation and remuneration based on service-oriented behaviours and attitudes. By instituting these managerial practices, management can increase employee perceptions of self-efficacy, employees' beliefs in the abilities to perform well in their jobs, increase employee satisfaction, which in turn drive employee loyalty. These managerial practices also enhance the favourable nature of the organisation's service climate so that customer perceptions of service quality are likely to be more positive. Overall the study provides evidence to support the existence of a chain of events from managerial actions to employee and customer loyalty intentions. Evidence also exists to support the relationship between employee loyalty and customer loyalty, so that higher levels of loyalty within service a service organisation can potentially lead to higher levels of customer loyalty. The implications of the research are that management within service organisations can impact customer loyalty by focussing directly on service delivery issues and by providing a favourable service climate. Managers can also influence employee beliefs about their abilities to do their jobs and the level of satisfaction employees have within those organisational roles. The study also suggests that a service organisation's service climate is an important mechanism by which management can communicate to both employees and customers that a customer orientation is a primary managerial imperative. Finally, the study provides valuable insight into the processes by which employees perceive managerial orientation and support, and how those perceptions influence customer perceptions of service quality and impact on their loyalty intentions towards service organisations.

The making and breaking power of leadership has never been disputable. It is believed to be the single most important factor by which organizations used to exploit opportunities and survive hardships. Despite the fact that all functional areas are not immune to the consequences of good and bad leadership, marketing is uniquely sensitive. Unarguably, all leadership styles are not expected to equally impact marketing performance. A leader of character who inspires followers, helps employees to use their potentials, allows employees to make and fix errors, and pave ways for employee advancement is a one typically needed by organizations. This kind of leader is even more critical for those organizations operating in a brutally competitive market; like the brewing one in Ethiopia. This study is designed to investigate the direct and indirect impact of Transformational Leadership on marketing performance. Moreover, the moderating effect of leaders’ experience and the impact of group difference in leaders’ gender, leaders position and brewery sizes are studied. The unit of analysis are managers and decision makers (committee members) from the four sample breweries (St. George Brewery, Meta Abo Brewery, Raya Brewery, and Habesha Brewery). The data are collected from 211 respondents. In the study, in addition to the data cleaning procedures, all the multivariate data analysis assumptions are ensured. A model is developed and tested using a survey methodology. Four properly validated instruments, one selfdesigned (for marketing performance construct) and three adopted (for transformational leadership, organizational learning, and customer orientation constructs) are used. The validation work is ensured through factor analysis (exploratory and confirmatory). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) are worked out using SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 packages respectively. Data is analysed through the structural equation modelling technique. Results show that, Transformational Leadership style is positively and significantly associated with marketing performance, organizational learning and customer orientation. Moreover, it is found that Transformational Leadership indirectly and positively impacts marketing performance. Nevertheless, the hypothesized moderation effect of experience for the impacts of Transformational Leadership on customer orientation is failed to be significant. The study contributes a lot by narrowing the wide literature gap existed in the topic area in the context of the developing world. Secondary evidences are strongly discussed on the antecedents and outcomes of Transformational Leadership and marketing performance. Thus, it is the researcher’s belief that now because of this study; value is added to the body of knowledge and the study can benefit practitioners and academicians alike. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Viele Industrieunternehmen sind auf der Suche nach neuen Strategien für eine zukunftssichernde Produktentwicklung. Die Gründe dafür sind in den Herausforderungen zu suchen, die häufig in schnelle Änderungen von Kundenwünschen, der Verbreitung moderner Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien, kürzeren Technologielebenszyklen, Forderungen nach ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit wie auch in der weiteren zunehmenden Vernetzung der Wirtschaft zu suchen. Die heutige Entwicklungsumgebung in Unternehmen, mit meist starren Abteilungsstrukturen, wenig Kommunikation mit den Kunden und zwischen den Abteilungen im Unternehmen sowie der Auslieferung eines auf einem einmal erstellen Lastenheft basierenden Produkten wird den Anforderungen nicht mehr gerecht. In diesem Zusammenhang rücken agile Vorgehensweisen gepaart mit additiven Fertigungsverfahren für physische Produkte in den Fokus der Entwicklung.

Problem: In this study, tour operators' perceptions of market changes linked to the pandemic have been investigated. Based on their perceptions, the most effective competition strategies have been described both before and after the pandemic. Aim: The study's intention was to gain an understanding of how Swedish tour operators experience changes in the tourism industry linked to Covid-19 and what competition strategies the companies use before and plan to use after the pandemic. Method: The study uses a qualitative research strategy with an inductive approach and grounded theory as a method. The collected data material has been analyzed mainly by in-depth interviews which were then transcribed and coded from Glaser’s point of view, containing open, selective, and theoretical phase. This resulted in two core categories that expressed the study's main problems: competition strategies and the tourism industry and competition in Sweden. Conclusion: The study results have shown that the most effective competition strategies according to Swedish tour operators are customer orientation, vertical integration, and digitalization. Regarding perceptions of market changes, respondents believe that there have been no major changes in the tour operator market, but the pandemic has affected the tourism industry and competition in general, where market demand and competition between other industries have changed. In addition, the competition strategies used by companies before the pandemic were effective and provide competitive advantages, which results in that these strategies will be largely unchanged after the pandemic. / Problemställning: I denna studie har researrangörernas uppfattningar om marknadsförändringar kopplade till pandemin undersökts. Baserat på deras uppfattningar har de mest effektiva konkurrensstrategierna beskrivits både före och efter pandemin. Syfte: Studiens avsikt var att få förståelse över hur svenska researrangörer upplever förändringar i turistbranschen kopplade till Covid-19 samt vilka konkurrensstrategier företagen använder sig av innan och planerar att använda efter pandemin. Metod: I studien används en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med induktiv ansats samt grundad teori som metod. Det insamlade datamaterial har analyserats främst med hjälp av djupintervjuer som sedan transkriberades och kodades utifrån Glasers syn, innehållande den öppna, selektiva och teoretiska fasen. Detta resulterade i två kärnkategorier som uttryckte studiens huvudproblematiken: konkurrensstrategier och turistbranschen och konkurrensen i Sverige. Slutsats: Studien resultat har visat att de mest effektiva konkurrensstrategierna enligt svenska researrangörer är kundorientering, vertikal integration och digitalisering. När det gäller uppfattningar om marknadsförändringar anser respondenterna att det inte har skett några större förändringar på researrangörsmarknaden, men pandemin har påverkat turistindustrin och konkurrensen i allmänhet, där marknadens efterfrågan och konkurrens mellan andra industrier har förändrats. Dessutom ansågs de konkurrensstrategier som företag använde före pandemin vara effektiva och ge konkurrensfördelar, vilket resulterar i att dessa strategier kommer i stort sett att vara oförändrade efter pandemin.

Tidigare forskning har visat att kundinvolvering kan ske på olika nivåer, där dehögsta nivåerna bidragit till bland annat ökad kundnöjdhet, konkurrenskraftigafördelar och förbättrat införande av nya tjänster hos organisationerna. Syftet medstudien har varit att bidra med kunskapsutveckling kring Radikal Kundinvolveringinom tjänstesektorn. Begreppet var nytt för forskningsområdet och få tidigarestudier visade effekterna av djupgående kundinvolvering. Den teoretiskareferensramen inleddes med kundfokus inom Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling,kundengagemang och kundinvolvering för att slutligen mynna ut i begreppetRadikal Kundinvolvering. Den kunskapsteoretiska utgångspunkten i studien harvarit hermeneutisk med abduktiv ansats. Kvalitativa djupintervjuer har använts sommetod för datainsamling. Till intervjuerna valdes fyra organisationer sombedömdes ha arbetat med Radikal Kundinvolvering och frågor rörandeerfarenheter, effekter och framtidsutsikter ställdes utifrån en semistruktureradintervjumall. Intervjumaterialet analyserades med utgångspunkt frånforskningsfrågorna. Förutom att stärka resultaten från tidigare forskning, visadeförfattarnas slutsats på att organisationerna kombinerade olika metoder förkundinvolvering och att effekterna av Radikal Kundinvolvering blev stärktorganisationskultur, ökad kommunikation och delaktighet. Arbetet ledde också tillatt kundgrupper vars åsikter vanligtvis inte fångades genom traditionella metoderblev hörda. / Previous research shows that customer involvement can occur on different levels,where the highest ones have had effects like increased customer satisfaction,competitive advantages and improved introduction of new services for theorganisations. The purpose of the study was to develop a deeper knowledge ofRadical Customer Involvement within service development. The term was new tothe field of research the and few studies had mentioned the effects of deepercustomer involvement. The theoretical framework leads the reader from customerorientation within Total Quality Management, customer engagement and customerinvolvement to Radical Customer Involvement. The research method washermeneutic with an abductive approach. Qualitative in-depth interviews wereused to collect data. Four organisations that were considered working with RadicalCustomer Involvement were chosen for the study and questions involvingexperiences, effects and the future of the field were asked with the help of a semi-structured interview guide. The analysis was based on the questions of the study.Besides strengthening previous research, the authors conclusion showed that theorganisations combined different methods of customer involvement and thatRadical Customer involvement had positive effects on the organisations culture,communication and participation. It also helped raise the voice of customers thattraditional methods were unable to reach. / <p>2019-06-27</p>

Kundenorientierung ist ein maßgeblicher Erfolgsfaktor für Unternehmen. Entscheidenden Einfluss hierauf besitzen Mitarbeiter mit Kunden-Kontakt, die sich in Bedürfnisse der Kunden einfühlen können und die ihr Wissen mit anderen Mitarbeitern im Unternehmen teilen. In einem schrittweisen und systematischen Vorgehen werden in dieser Arbeit betriebswirtschaftliche und neurowissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse zusammengeführt und hierdurch dargelegt, welche Faktoren im Unternehmen diese Gehirnleistung des Einfühlens begünstigen. Die Mehr-Ebenen-Analyse erfolgt ausgehend von der Unternehmensebene, insbesondere Phänomenen der Unternehmenskultur, über die Ebene der Beziehungen zwischen Kunden und Mitarbeitern bis hin zur Ebene des sozialen Gehirns.