The restaurant industry is the second largest employee workforce in the United States. However, less than 35% of independently owned restaurants succeed beyond the first three years of operation. Some restaurant managers do not use innovation strategies to succeed beyond three years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore innovation strategies that some independent nonfranchise restaurant owners in Omaha, Nebraska used to succeed beyond 3 years. The conceptual framework utilized in this study was dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities create avenues of innovation to restaurant owners who do not have quick access to resources, such as an innovation team or a (R&D) department. The restaurant owners have to collaborate with their employees, suppliers, and consumers to be members of their innovation team to determine the innovation strategies needed to sustain competitive advantage as they apply to dynamic capabilities. Formal semistructured interviews were conducted with 4 independently owned nonfranchise restaurant owners. Triangulation linked the transcribed interviews with secondary and tertiary data to gather enough information to saturate the key themes discovered in the research described by the dynamic capabilities framework. Secondary data included atmospherics, service innovations, menus, social media, and websites. Tertiary data comprised newspaper and magazine articles. The 3 themes were marketing innovations, restaurant innovations, and innovation measurement. The implications for positive social change include the potential to boost the local community's economy by encouraging more independent nonfranchise restaurant owners to enter the market that may increase the employees' wellbeing, strengthen their family economics, and benefit the independently owned nonfranchise restaurant market in Omaha, Nebraska.

Information technology (IT) organizations have become an integral part of many firms, with increasing strategic significance. Consequently, investments in IT represent a significant percentage of a firm's expenditure. Despite the investment, the business value of IT has been difficult to quantify, creating uncertainty about a firm's investments in IT innovation. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine relationships between a firm's innovativeness and 3 IT organizational design factors: knowledge creation, dynamic capabilities, and communication structures. The research questions addressed the relationships between a firm's ability to innovate and specific design elements of the IT organization. The study was based on Nonaka's dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation, Schumpeter's industrial market structure, and Wernerfelt's resource-based view of the firm. Data were collected from an online survey with 115 employees of firms that depend on IT to deliver their products or services. Pearson product-moment correlational analysis revealed statistically significant relationships between the IT organizational design factors and a firm's ability to innovate. The implications for positive social change stemming from this study affect managers of firms that rely on IT to deliver products or services. The findings suggest that the design of the IT organization influences the performance of the firm through cost reduction and its sustainability through innovation, both of which lead to community economic empowerment thus benefiting the general public.

No description available.

Background:             Internationalisation for businesses has been researched for decades and has been well understood. However, new types of organisations have emerged in the digital age, disrupting the organisational landscape. One of these disruptive organisations is born digitals (BD), which have become more prominent in recent years. Some of the biggest companies today are BDs, including Google and Spotify. However, how they internationalise and their processes look is not well understood. Because of this, it is of interest to understand how these organisations internationalise as they have been such a disruptive force in the international market.  Purpose:                       The purpose of the study is to investigate the internationalisation process of a BD firm, to recognise what internal and external factors influence their decision-making and whether specific strategies are being used. It aims to utilise prior internationalisation theories to provide a further understanding of these organisations and the way they work. The goal of the study is also to provide a framework that BDs can use to internationalise successfully.  Method:                         This study implemented a qualitative research design with an inductive approach and a single case study for the research design. The case company works with search engine optimisation (SEO) within the online service providers (OSP) industry. It included interviews with six employees from the company, with a total of nine interviews. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner to create flexibility in the interview design.   Conclusion:                  The key points of the study results were the following: (i) several internal and external factors and how they influenced BDs' internationalisation were identified, and which factors had a more significant impact on their processes. (ii) It was identified that they do not plan for specific internationalisation strategies, however, it was seen that they do develop strategies, although done unconsciously. (iii) This resulted in the development of a new framework that aims to provide insights into the process BDs undergo when internationalising.

Since the beginning of the 2020’s the world has drastically changed and forced organisations to re-adapt, adjust and reconfigure their business in order to survive. The Covid-19 pandemic rewrote the map of conducting business, as well as the war in Ukraine was a catalyst for inflation, and thereafter rising interest rates. Simultaneously, the climate is suffering greatly from the human footprints, forcing humanity to act swiftly to avoid collapse of ecosystems and an irreversible global warming. Organisations and societies are therefore forced to change their way of production and consumption, to be able to adapt to these changes. However, there is limited research inwhat successful aspects make environmentally sustainable SMEs outlast business environments embedded by turbulence. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the capabilities required and answer the research question: How do Swedish SMEs maintain their environmentally sustainable business practices when faced with a turbulent business environment? The raison d'être of this thesis is to investigate and deliver insights on how Swedish Small- and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) manoeuvre their environmentally sustainable business practices in an uncertain environment, and what characteristics are proven to be successful to cope with such conditions. In order to answer the research question and fulfil the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews with 8 top managers within environmentally sustainable SMEs, were conducted under an inductive approach. Henceforth, the primary data offers important insights in how environmentally sustainable SMEs navigate through business environments embedded by turbulence. The findings suggest how the turbulent conditions of today are both of economic, as well as environmental aspect, forcing SMEs to implement environmentally sustainable practices at the core of their operations to be able to succeed. Hence, the SME must constantly manage the balance between profitability and environmental sustainability in order to make a positive impact on society. The findings further indicate that in order tomanage these turbulent conditions, it is evident that it is vital to be close to the market and understand its changing conditions, in combination with having the ability to be proactive and reactive towards the changes. Aside from this, the findings also emphasise the importance of valuable stakeholder relationships, as well as having an active and independent owner, in order to stay competitive during tough times. In conclusion, this study contributes to the theoretical aspects of Dynamic Capabilities and VUCA with emphasis on environmentally sustainable SMEs. Nevertheless, it also contributes with practical knowledge regarding how these types of organisations manage their environmentally sustainable business practices when times are tough.

Product configuration systems (PCS) have the ability to significantly streamline the internal sales process within engineering-to-order (ETO) companies due to its ability to e.g. automate design and quotation processes. This is made possible through the accumulation of product specific knowledge put into a software which is used to create customer adaptable products at lower costs. PCS development is regarded resource heavy endeavors, and many projects have thus a hard time achieving an overall profitability. Recent studies have tried to establish frameworks that supports companies in achieving successful implementation processes. However, these studies mainly focus on technical implications and monetary benefits while lacking to establish and consider a comprehensive picture for the likelihood of PCS success. Thereby, this case study establishes a holistic framework for executives of ETO companies to consider when deciding on whether to invest in a PCS. The findings show that PCS provides benefits to its adopting organization by reducing engineering time and lead time during the sales process, increasing product specification quality, improving knowledge facilitation, contributing to the development of a streamlining mindset among its employees and provide the organization with an increased digital agility. For the organization to reap these benefits, it is highly dependent on its current setting (e.g. available resources, competences, organizational identity etc.), which should be evaluated thoroughly before deciding for investment. The study show that PCS investment should, in addition to streamlining sales process, be seen as a strategic investment. In a society influenced by digital solutions, PCS investment can be regarded a catalyst for organizations to become malleable, which have been suggested as a prerequisite for organizations in order to adopt to a digitally driven business environment. Additionally, implementing a PCS showed to contribute to the three pillars of sustainability by streamlining both the sales process as well as the, to some extent, assembly and production processes.

Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis was to extend the understanding of the capabilities needed to enable the organizational transformation required throughout the servitization process. This research aims to identify what capabilities for servitization were important for the case company and understand how these capabilities were developed by adopting a dynamic capability perspective. Methodology – This research adopted a single-case study design to collect and analyze in-depth information about the interviewee’s experiences and perceptions about the case company’s servitization process. Findings – This research developed a holistic set of capabilities for servitization which were critical for the case company to enable organizational transformation within the context of product-oriented servitization. Four main capabilities for servitization were uncovered Strategic Alignment, Customer Relationship, PSS Innovation, and PSS Delivery. Moreover, a framework was created dividing the capabilities into higher- and second-order dynamic capabilities, hence explaining the importance of dynamic capabilities for the development of capabilities. Theoretical Implications – This study extended the understanding of capabilities for servitization by mapping them within the context of the case company. This research also displayed the role of high-order dynamic capabilities as the case company’s capacity to transform and manipulate the organization with the purpose to build second-order dynamic capabilities; therefore, denoting a capability hierarchy by which to distinguish between high- and second-order dynamic capabilities within the context of servitization. Managerial Implications – This research provides managers with a comprehensive collection of capabilities to take into consideration when formulating or executing strategy within the context of product-oriented servitization. Additionally, the distinction among high- and second-order dynamic capabilities for servitization may provide servitizating manufacturers with a new approach to map, organize and prioritize capability development based on the understanding of their function and related micro-foundations.

As technology accelerates the dynamism in the global markets, companies are forced to adapt to the changing landscape. A company’s success in navigating the external environment depends on their dynamic capabilities. One of the most critical moments for many companies’ is when they conduct an IPO. Research into how an IPO affects a firm is necessary since newly listed firms have been shown to underperform compared to private firms. Dynamic capabilities have been observed to be of critical importance for IPO firms and previous research suggests that an IPO changes processes that affects a firm's ability to develop dynamic capabilities. This study explores how the development of dynamic capabilities is affected by changes to microfoundations following an IPO. The study gains insight into the subject by conducting interviews with executives from Swedish firms that underwent the IPO process during 2018-2020. The empirical findings indicate that seven microfoundations are affected by going public. The study contributes to prevailing literature by laying the groundwork for future research on how a firm's ability to develop dynamic capabilities is affected by going public and it has the potential to be a practical tool when making strategic decisions during and after an IPO process.

This research is a qualitative case study at the knowledge-intensive start-up company Magstrom. The purpose of the study is to investigate and thus understand how knowledge management processes can be utilized to facilitate dynamic capabilities within a knowledge-intensive start-up context. Therefore, the following research question has been formulated: How can knowledge management processes be utilized to facilitate dynamic capabilities within a knowledge-intensive start-up company? To answer the research question, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with the employees of Magstrom. The collected data was then analyzed using a thematic analysis. The findings correlate with the literature and connects knowledge management processes to dynamic capabilities in a start-up context. More specifically the knowledge management processes of absorptive capacity, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application to the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities that are sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring respectively. The knowledge management processes are identified to create a foundation for dynamic capabilities to develop from. Furthermore, the empirical data identified many factors of importance for knowledge management processes in a start-up context. Most significant were increasing customer interactions, open formal and informal communication, enabling access to the stock of knowledge, a flat organizational structure, decision-making, continuous innovation, putting effort into recruitment, and interactions between departments creating inter-functional teams. An important challenge is managing the ambiguity, the tacit nature of the technical knowledge, and organizing the scattered knowledge within the organization. Also, being able to handle the uncertainty of the start-up context and having confidence to use knowledge to make informed decisions. To conclude, dynamic capabilities can, according to theory and the findings of this study, be facilitated by knowledge management processes in a start-up context. More specifically, by improving the absorptive capacity, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application by exploiting the important factors identified.

This thesis provides insight to the dynamics that come with the emergence of IoT in the furniture and kitchen manufacturing industry. The study is empirically grounded in an explorative case study that involves interviews with six manufacturing companies in the different industry sectors. The purpose has been to shed light on how incumbent companies adapt and implement IoT and the study highlight product features, aspects and challenges that companies are investigating and dealing with as they set out to work with IoT and connected products. The results indicate that companies are viewing IoT as an enabler that better can respond to customer needs and provide users with new experiences. By implementing the concept of IoT companies are currently evaluating how internal knowledge and skillsets correspond to the new technical requirements that the emerging digital setting outlines and by directing internal research they are learning more about IoT and connected products as they proceed. One current major problem is that there are no open protocols that can connect all products regardless of supplier. Nevertheless, implementation of IoT does not solely involve technical aspects and companies are also faced with the dilemma on how to design and develop corresponding commercial processes. To this point early product implementations have arrived on the consumer markets and the future vision is to achieve full integration that imbeds connectivity and interaction among all products in the home.