In Quality Management and Total Quality Management (TQM) customer focus and customer value creation is of importance and in organisations it is of high priority. Quality Management has had an internal focus when it comes to customer value creation but in the 21st century there is a need for an outward orientation and to go beyond the organisational borders. Also an increasing interest in social, societal and environmental issues can be seen, for instance by customers, organisations, quality awards and within the quality area. An area that considers these issues is the societal entrepreneurial sector.   The purpose of this thesis has been to contribute to the knowledge and understanding about customer value creation from a system view. Additionally the purpose has been to contribute to the development of Quality Management. In order to fulfil the purpose, case studies have been performed. Cases within the societal entrepreneurial area have been studied and seven studies have been performed. Data have been collected through interviews, direct observations, participating observations and documents. All data have been collected empirically except in one study where a literature case study was used. The data were analysed through tools such as process mapping, attribute value mapping and rich picture process maps combined with analytical methods for case study research. The research journey started out from TQM and an internal perspective on customer value creation. As the studies went on, the system borders became wider as other areas important to customer value creation were identified: the customer value creating system went from an internal perspective to include an external perspective.    The findings contribute to earlier research findings and give a comprehensive and simplified picture of a complex phenomenon and an opportunity to understand customer value creation from a system view. This thesis provides an overall map of the customer value creating system. Additionally it contributes to the development of Quality Management by expanding the view on customer value creation to include both an internal and an external oriented perspective. It also contributes by suggesting a fifth step in the quality management movement ´System Quality Management´ that considers social, societal and environmental factors through continuous improvement before, during and after value creation for customers. Further it contributes with a developed view on customers and the concept of customer value creation.   The overall map provided includes three areas. Growth and development of societal entrepreneurial initiatives. The result shows important components for the creation of societal value based on the growth and development of societal entrepreneurial initiatives. Included are the processes, input and output important for societal value creation from unidentified needs until societal value can be delivered, management process and support process fields.  Customer value creation in the customer sphere.  Customer value has been found to be created beyond the use or purchase of a product or service. Value has also been found to be created for those that are not in direct contact with an initiative or its product or service. Customer value has been found to spread into society like ripples in a complex system of value creation. And Value Ripple Logic has been developed to describe this phenomenon. Management role in customer value creation. The management’s role in value creation has been found to be of importance in the creation of customer value in an indirect way through interaction with the surroundings and the initiative.  Factors and behaviours have been found which are connected to the leaders and their essential management processes along with their input and output.   The findings presented in this thesis have considerable potential for development. Further studies need to be done within the area concerning how customer value is created and to achieve an even more comprehensive picture of the customer value creating system and the suggested fifth step. The results presented in this thesis are a contribution to the knowledge and understanding about customer value creation from a system view and the development of the Quality Management. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 6 accepterat för publicering och delarbete 7 inskickat.</p><p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 6 accepted for publication and  paper 7 submitted.</p>

After the initial excitement about the Internet as a space outside of governmental control has evaporated and courts in several states have applied national laws to ‘Cyberspace’, there is now a consensus among scholars that regulators have in principle the authority and capacity to regulate the Internet. Nevertheless, the application of the established tools of regulation - legislation and adjudication - to the current challenges to copyright regulation posed by the Internet has proven to be ineffective and produced undesirable side effects. Although market self-regulation has been suggested as a more efficacious approach to regulating the Internet and has proven effective in content regulation and Internet governance, the market has so far been unsuccessful in providing an effective and efficient remedy to the challenges to copyright regulation. The purpose of this thesis is to examine a novel approach to regulation and analyse its benefits and limitations. The novel approach defies the conceptualisation as co- and self-regulation, but introduces the solution from outside the regulated environment through entrepreneurship and innovation, and relies on the forces of the market to become effective. In this thesis, I analyse the regulatory systems implemented by two private organisations, Noank Media and Creative Commons, in China’s reportedly ineffective copyright law environment and find that their market-based and innovative approach to regulation can be understood as a form of social entrepreneurship. Social enterprises have been claimed to deliver social goods more effectively and efficiently than governmental intervention, because they are said to rely on local knowledge, to be driven by the demand of the stakeholders, and to be focused on social value creation. Based on quantitative and qualitative fieldwork with Noank Media’s and Creative Common’s stakeholders in China I analyse to what extent these two enterprises managed to successfully leverage the assets of social entrepreneurship. I conclude that while the novel approach has demonstrated the potential to produce more effective and more efficient regulation, it does not automatically result in Better Regulation. Further efforts are required to ensure participation, transparency, and public accountability, and to avoid regulatory fragmentation.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carolina Bohorquez Herrera.pdf: 1215974 bytes, checksum: b6abc7d5c8a0773aae4ad37bc13dcb32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The objective of this research is to show the emergence of a new type of company that seeks to reconcile two dimensions using the traditional tools of the market: the pursuit of profit and generate social impact. This type of development is the social business, which itself is far from covering a single concept. Different perspectives from some regions of the world are explained in this work, to show and need to define the concept and legal frameworks that support the corporate business, for the contribution in social development achieved by this type of business asserts its importance in the context current crisis and search for options on income generation and poverty alleviation. From the analysis of the concepts studied four perspectives: the Asian perspective, the European perspective, the perspective of the United States and the perspective of Latin America and Brazil, the research seeks to adapt the concepts considered central to each of a single model, termed as model proposed by the research. The work focused on project experience MidiaCom.net, in the municipality of Aquiraz, Ceará. Fruit of Advanced Vocational Technology Institute-ITEVA, MidiaCom.net born as social enterprise within the legal terms of a Brazilian cooperative, but analyzed in detail and according to the parameters and characteristics explained in this research can consider it as social business. After identifying a need assessment of the community, and using technological tools creatively MidiaCom.net the project is part of the solution which effectively tries to break a cycle of poverty and ignorance in the region where it operates. Social business MídiaCom.net has a positive impact on the region through training and integration of young teenagers in the labor market of qualified digital communication. Social business identified, invests directly in the evolution of society and the alleviation of social problems through an enterprise project and complementary training to help enter the market for skilled labor, young teenagers, mostly low-income, coming from public school and under conditions that would eventually be conducted prior to the informal economy or even marginalization. In short, institutions that believe in training young people invest in a company with promising future. MidiaCom.net is demonstration of that fact, to be created as a social business from a social project and a research institute. It is a social business that generates wealth and social opportunity for choice / O objetivo desta pesquisa é mostrar o surgimento de um novo tipo de empresa que busca conciliar dois dimensões utilizando as ferramentas tradicionais do mercado: a busca pelo lucro e gerar impacto social. Este tipo de empreendimento é o negócio social, que por si mesmo está longe de abarcar um único conceito. Diferentes perspectivas provenientes de algumas regiões do mundo são explicadas no trabalho, a fim de mostrar e necessidade por definir o conceito e os marcos jurídicos que respaldem os negócios sociais; pois o aporte no desenvolvimento social alcançado por este tipo de negócio afirma sua importância no contexto atual de crise e busca por opções na geração de renda e diminuição da pobreza. A partir da análise de conceitos das 4 perspectivas estudadas: a perspectiva asiática, a perspectiva europeia, a perspectiva dos Estados Unidos e a perspectiva de América latina e o Brasil, a pesquisa busca adaptar os conceitos considerados centrais de cada uma num único modelo, denominado como modelo proposto pela pesquisa. O trabalho centrou-se na experiência do projeto MidiaCom.net, no município de Aquiraz, Ceará. Fruto do Instituto Tecnológico Vocacional Avançado- ITEVA, MidiaCom.net nasce como empresa social dentro dos termos jurídicos brasileiros de uma cooperativa, mas analisado em detalhe e segundo os parâmetros e características explicadas nesta pesquisa é possível considerá-lo como negócio social. Depois de identificar uma real carência da comunidade, e usando ferramentas tecnológicas com criatividade o projeto MidiaCom.net é parte da solução que busca romper efetivamente um ciclo de pobreza e ignorância na região onde está inserido. O negócio social MídiaCom.net tem um impacto positivo na região através da capacitação e inserção de jovens adolescentes no mercado de trabalho qualificado da comunicação digital. O negócio social identificado, investe diretamente na evolução da sociedade e na atenuação dos problemas sociais, através de um projeto empresarial e de formação complementária para ajudar a inserir no mercado de trabalho qualificado, jovens adolescentes, principalmente de baixa renda, vindos da escola pública e que em condições anteriores acabariam sendo conduzidos à economia informal ou, mesmo à marginalidade. Em suma, instituições que acreditam na formação dos jovens investem numa sociedade com futuro promissório. MidiaCom.net é demonstração desse fato, ao ser criada como o negócio social proveniente de um projeto social e de um Instituto de pesquisa. É um negócio social que gera riqueza social e oportunidade de escolha

Over the last three decades, scholars in management, policy, and geography have examined the growing economic, social, and spatial impact of the financial sector. Venture capital firms have been a focus, generating a contested but deep literature around the roles of such "value-adding" capital providers in supporting the growth of firms, industries, and various territorial innovation models. In parallel, there has been substantial government support-financial, regulatory, and otherwise-of these private sector financial intermediaries, despite scepticism. The past twenty years have seen the emergence and rapid growth of analogous funders in the third sector, itself the realm of substantial experimentation and growth. These new intermediaries, "venture philanthropists", have become important players in shaping, structuring, and channelling funding to the third sector. The activities and effects of venture philanthropists are underexplored, as are their growing interactions with governments-despite intentional and striking similarities between the evolution of venture capital and that of venture philanthropy. This dissertation addresses these gaps by systematically examining the emergence, evolution, and operational practices of two influential British venture philanthropy funds: the first such fund in Europe (Impetus Trust) and the first fund in the world co-created with the state (Inspiring Scotland). The two venture philanthropy organisations (VPOs)-one with roots in venture capital, the other with roots in the voluntary and government sectors-both conducted the venture capital-inspired operational model of venture philanthropy in similar ways. That said, the VPOs reflected the logics and practices of their founders and funders. Impetus Trust more closely resembled early-stage venture capital, with a reliance on London-based networks, funders, and service providers-and a heavily London-focused portfolio. Inspiring Scotland evidenced the logics of government rather than charity in several instances, with substantial original research into social issues, heavily structured portfolios on set timelines, and regionally-distributed staff. This approach broadened access, allowing support of SPOs and their clients across various (and underserved) geographies, but limited options for opportunity-driven or expressive functions of philanthropy. I surveyed the CEOs of most organisations supported by the two venture philanthropy funds (82 of 98 charities and social businesses), supplemented by interviews of selected CEOs and the founders and staff of the two funds. I find that, overall, the two VPOs each engaged in seven core activities of venture capital, intentionally adapting them to the third sector: sourcing and selection, due diligence, an engaged relationship, provision of funding, provision of non-financial support, creation of network linkages, and intentional exiting of relationships. As in venture capital, this process had broader effects: providing signals of investee quality, preparing investees for subsequent funding, and expanding networks. The combination of long-term relationships and high formal reporting requirements imposed significant costs for SPOs-and also created a virtuous cycle of trust and collaboration between VPOs and SPOs. The venture philanthropy model also had broader societal effects, creating data regarding individual organisations and the efficacy of responses to social issues, which in both cases informed policy. As intermediaries, venture philanthropists decreased power differentials and improved the flow of (oft-anonymized) information amongst funders, statutory bodies, and funded organisations, facilitating several types of collaboration. SPO managers indicated that they received, on average, approximately ten different types of non-financial support-like strategy consulting, human resources support, or legal counsel. These managers reported in interviews and surveys that the non-financial services provided by venture philanthropists were highly valued, on average. Further, managers believed these services provided more value than it cost the VPOs to provide them. Likewise, managers highly valued most forms of new networking connections (though not all services or linkages were found to be valuable). Smaller SPOs valued services and network links more highly than larger SPOs, although all sizes of SPOs indicated both were valuable, on average. Importantly, this data was provided by SPO managers and focused on the SPO-VPO dyad-rather than provided by VPOs and focused at the portfolio or trust level. This filled an important gap in the literature: academics and practitioners often lament that the voices of charities supported by foundations are not often enough heard, which limits our understanding of many aspects of organizational philanthropy and its effects-in particular the burdens and benefits for recipient organisations. I documented the co-creation of the first government-supported venture philanthropy fund through eleven interviews with founding managers and government officials. This model, in which state, private, and civil society actors collectively founded and funded a value-adding capital provider, militates against neoliberal assumptions of an ever-diminishing state, as does the leveraging of private resources in alignment with state aims-though it raises concerns around democratic processes, accountability, and local control. This work helps inform the changing nature of the voluntary sector and its relationship with the state. I focus on the increasing interaction of actors between and across systems-sometimes in new roles and coordinated by new intermediaries-in the allocation of resources and delivery of services in the public interest. These new interactions inform broad bodies of work that seek to understand changing sectoral roles, most notably discourses surrounding neoliberalism(s), financialisation, and public management. Overall, I find privately- and publicly-funded venture philanthropy playing a role in the third sector analogous to the role of venture capital in the private sector, with similar practices and concomitant effects in data generation, network formation and strengthening, facilitating partnerships, and signalling the quality of supported organisations. By examining two such emerging models of capital provision, I contribute grounded understanding of the way such systems are created and function across the private, public, and third sectors.

(in English) The aim of this master's thesis is to find out possibilities of elderly people employment in social businesses in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part describes a social entrepreneurship, defines it and gives its legal frame and examples of such businesses in Europe and in the Czech Republic. The elderly are defined according to their characteristics and also according to the possible link to long term unemployment. The empirical part of the thesis focuses on the overall situation of the elderly in social businesses and on factors possibly affecting their employment in this kind of businesses. It was found out in the research that the selected target group is one of those most at risk on the labour market. At the same time, this group is one of the least supported and monitored not only in the social businesses. However, persons 50+ may become a significant group on the labour market in the future. The final part of this thesis stresses out that it is vital to change our point of view on this target group and their support on the field of active labour market policy, but, above all, to make use of the opportunity to employ these people in social entrepreneurship. Keywords (in English) social economy, social entrepreneurship, social business, elderly, people 50+, long term...

The diploma thesis focuses on social enterprises and their use of marketing tools for their communication. In its first part the field where they operate within the Czech Republic is laid out including the legislative setting. Since the concept is relatively new here, approaches and inspiration from abroad are a cited. The part dedicated to marketing introduces different approaches to marketing presentations and to the overall communication of social enterprises and social firms. The outcome of this was to portray the possibilities of their communication with their target audiences. The research itself looks at the communication of social enterprises from several viewpoints. First of all it aims to show the approach taken by the subjects of social economy themselves. This is done through questionnaires and content analysis of documents. Also the view on the matter is expressed through an interview with a consultant of NESsT, an organization which deals with the theme of social entrepreneurship. The last angle, which is represented by a questionnaire for a selected segment of the public looks at their view of social enterprises and firms and their communication.

Background:  Over the years, traditional entrepreneurs started businesses due to either pull or push factors within their environments. Research has been carried out in profiling different types of entrepreneurs and their characteristics. The social media influencers are new forms of entrepreneurs who recently appeared due to changes in the technological environments. The existence of social media platforms has enhanced the possibility of entrepreneurial activities online. The platforms are available for everyone, but some have more entrepreneurial orientation or characteristics than others.  Purpose: The aim of this research is to measure the entrepreneurial orientation and the characteristics of social media users, compare social media influencers with other social media users, to determine if differences exist. Methods:       This research uses the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation scale (Bolton &amp; Lane, 2012) and the Individual Personality Traits measuring scale (Al Mamun, Bin Yusoff, &amp; Ibrahim, 2018). This is a deductive study, testing the above-mentioned theories on social media users, and a quantitative study aided using data collected from online survey. Conclusion:   The results of this study show that Social Media Influencer have higher entrepreneurial traits than non-Social Media Influencers.  The result also supports the three-factor structure and satisfactory reliability of the IEO scales and subscales. Subsequently, I found out that non-SMIs do create online contents and carry out entrepreneurial activities online too.

This thesis contributes to our knowledge on the emergence of environmental entrepreneurs. The study is guided by the research question, “how do UK environmental entrepreneurs start to form their distinctive environmental entrepreneurial thinking” and analyses the development of the environmental entrepreneurial mindset in the UK, through a theory of practice perspective. Based on a three-stage data collection process (preliminary focus group, semi-structured interviews and life stories), the study (1) conceptualises the construction of the environmental entrepreneurial mindset, (2) investigates the experiences of constraints for practice and (3) analyses differences in habitus and constraints on the basis of the sampling dimensions, type (social environmental and commercial) and gender (male and female). The study was undertaken under a social constructivist perspective and follows the naturalistic paradigm (Guba, 1978). The rigour (or trustworthiness) of the qualitative approach has been established according to perspectives by Mason (2001) and Guba and Lincoln (1985). The empirical basis of the study is comprised of a three stage design of discursive interviews, involving overlapping collective (focus group) and individual (life stories, in-depth interviews) data collection techniques, with a partly gathering structure (through semi-structured questions). A preliminary focus group identified key themes relevant to the study’s objectives and the concepts of the theory of practice (field, capital, and habitus). Three life stories refined the themes and analysed them within the context of entrepreneurs’ lives. The two stages enabled the development of questions targeting themes for the in-depth interviews and the cross case content analysis. For sampling purposes, the Maximum Variation Sampling (MVS) strategy was employed, which enabled identification and analysis of common and divergent themes (Miller & Crabtree, 1999) and by over-coming the limitations of the sample size, it provided a conditional representativeness. The findings show that environmental entrepreneurs accumulate divergent forms of cultural, social and economic capital, which shapes their entrepreneurial and environmental mindsets, triggering the creation of a disposition (habitus) towards setting up an environmental enterprise. Studying the formation of the environmental entrepreneurial mindset addresses a relevant knowledge gap and offers theoretical and methodological contributions. It also confers implications for practice, with a particular reference to entrepreneurial education and policymaking.

Text in English / The aim of this research is to assess the impact social capital has had on Somali businesses. It argues against the perception that Somali business expertise is derived solely from the principles of economics. It argues that social capital plays a pivotal role in shaping the Somali spirit of entrepreneurship. The role of social capital in the creation of Somali human and financial capital is examined. This thesis, being a qualitative study, used semi-structured, unstructured interviews and direct observation as data collection methods. / Sociology / M.A. (Sociology)

An ontology describing the constructs and their inter-relationships for business models has recently been built and evaluated: the Business Model Ontology (BMO). This ontology has been used to conceptually power a popular practitioner visual design tool: the Business Model Canvas (BMC). However, implicitly these works assume that designers of business models all have a singular normative goal: the creation of businesses that are financially profitable. These works perpetuate beliefs and businesses that do not create outcomes aligned with current natural and social science knowledge about long term individual human, societal and ecological flourishing, i.e. outcomes are not strongly sustainable. This limits the applicability and utility of these works. This exploratory research starts to overcome these limitations: creating knowledge of what is required of businesses for strongly sustainable outcomes to emerge and helping business model designers efficiently create high quality (reliable, consistent, effective) strongly sustainable business models. Based on criticism and review, this research project extends the BMO artefact to enable the description all the constructs and their inter-relationships related to a strongly sustainable business model. This results in the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Ontology (SSBMO). To help evaluate the SSBMO a practitioner visual design tool is also developed: the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas (SSBMC). Ontological engineering (from Artificial Intelligence), Design Science and Systems Thinking methodological approaches were combined in a novel manner to create the Systemic Design Science approach used to build and evaluate the SSBMO. Comparative analysis, interviews and case study techniques were used to evaluate the utility of the designed artefacts. Formal 3rd party evaluation with 7 experts and 2 case study companies resulted in validation of the overall approaches used and the utility of the SSBMO. A number of opportunities for improvement, as well as areas for future work, are identified. This thesis includes a number of supplementary graphics included in separate (electronic) files. See “List of Supplementary Materials” for details.