Background: Covid-19 has accelerated digitalization and pressured companies across multiple sectors to digitally transform their operations. Such adaptation requires businesses to rethink and change their existing business models, thus, business model innovation (BMI). Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), whose success is highly dependent on their experimentation and development of new technologies, are struggling with this adaptation.   Problem: SMEs, the heart and backbone of economic growth, struggle with implementing digitalization due to their lack of awareness, evaluation, knowledge, and resources. Regardless of their struggle, they are now forced to change their structures and business models. While there is an abundance of research on the impact of digitalization on BMI those studies rarely focus on how the acceleration of digitalization has influenced SMEs BMI.  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore how the acceleration of digitalization has impacted BMI of Swedish SMEs. The findings from this research are expected to contribute with academic value to the theoretical fields under investigation, Swedish policymakers, and business authorities, along with providing guidance for individual SMEs.  Method: This study has an exploratory approach, an inductive design within the interpretive philosophy. To collect the primary data, ten qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with business developers who possessed strong expertise and knowledge within the investigated fields. The data analysis followed Charmaz’s (2006) constructivist grounded theory, which emphasized a coding process including initial and focused coding.   Conclusion: The empirical findings shed light on important attributes and actions for a successful BMI which set the basis for the proposed model. The 6-step model explains the process of how an SME can successfully adapt and change under external pressure, such as the acceleration of digitalization and a crisis like Covid-19. The 6 steps include Create Awareness, Develop a Clear Strategy, Acquire Knowledge, Develop an Organizational Culture, Pursue Experimentation, and Implement the New Business Model. This process is not only crucial for a business’ competitive advantage but rather for its survival.

Purpose: This purpose of this study is to deconstruct market orientation to explore how culture interrelates with conduct and value-creating innovation and its effect on performance. The authors suggest that market orientation is an organizational identity that can be built and managed for sustained competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a split sample of 553 Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in both the manufacturing and technical service sectors. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis is used to test the main hypothesis that culture moderates the relationship between conduct and innovation. Support for the respective hypotheses is determined by the statistical significance of each focal variable.Findings: The study finds that culture does in fact moderate the relationship between conduct and innovation but only in service firms, not in manufacturing firms.Research limitations/implications: Theoretical implications include establishing support for the main premise of the paper, namely, that market-oriented culture interacts with the behavioral component of market orientation influencing the firm’s ability to create value through innovation.Practical implications: Managerial implications include the refinement of the many conceptualizations of the innovation construct by establishing innovation as value-creating. It also provides insight on how firm culture relates to the systems and processes used to operationalize both a market and innovation conduct within the firm.Originality/value: This paper provides a unique insight into the marketing/innovation interface, specifically in the context of SMEs.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer small to medium-sized organizations (SMOs) with global business aspirations an innovative approach to performance measurement and management. Design/methodology/approach: The first phase of this research is based on a literature review. The second phase capitalizes on the literature review to offer a conceptual framework aimed at improving the performance measurement approach utilized by SMOs. The advocated approach stresses performance measurement, benchmarking, and effective implementation. Findings: The conceptual approach offered in this study represents the main outcome of this applied research. The advocated approach integrates several frameworks in an effort to address practical concerns related to performance measurement, management, and improvement. Research limitations/implications: The research offered in this study has practical and theoretical implications. The proposed approach offered by this study should be refined and validated through future research. Practical implications: The approach presented in this study offers practicing managers a systematic and practical approach to performance measurement, management, and improvement. Originality/value: The approach offered in this study capitalizes on several methodologies and tools to offer managers a benchmarking-based performance management approach suitable for SMOs with global operational aspirations.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute to China's economic growth and help maintain social stability. However, SME business leaders have cited access to finance as an obstacle of SMEs' survival and success. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify main strategies SME entrepreneurs and business leaders used to attract venture capital (VC) investments to achieve financial sustainability and business expansion. Data were collected from a purposive sample of 23 entrepreneurs and leaders from 4 SMEs in China and an analysis of organizational artifacts. The resource-based view theory served as the primary conceptual framework. The data analysis process entailed using coding techniques to identify keywords, narrative segments, and concepts. Member checking ensured the credibility and trustworthiness of the data interpretation and analysis. The process led to 4 themes including developing a unique and pioneering business model, assembling a management team with industry experience, indicating use of raised capital in investing in technology, and engaging with superior principal endorsements during the fund-raising efforts. The implication for positive social change included the potential to enhance the capability of SME entrepreneurs and business leaders to obtain VC funding to support their businesses, which can increase economic development and improve the social stability of local communities in China. The findings from the study may contribute to the development of the SME sector in China and benefit their owners, business leaders, employees, future entrepreneurs, the local community, as well as economy of China.

Crowdfunding is becoming a new form of funding used by entrepreneurs in Sweden who seek financing for their ventures or projects. This form of funding of which the crowdfunders invest in a nontraditional alternative requires a relationship between the crowdfunders and the entrepreneurs. This thesis aims to provide extensive information into how entrepreneurs and crowdfunders interact with each other. While considering research that has been carried out so far on the growth of crowdfunding, the author wishes to provide more detailed findings and an understanding of how crowdfunders and founders operate after equity crowdfunding.The empirical findings were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from 20 Swedish entrepreneurs that are currently engaged with equity Crowdfunding and have received funding for their ventures. The basis for the design of the questionnaire was built upon a literature review and previous researches. The research was carried out as an exploratory study using a qualitative approach known as thematic method of data analysis to investigate entrepreneur and crowdfunders relationships and what successes can be recorded based on the relationship.This thesis indicates that the entrepreneurs were largely satisfied with the relationship and benefits they derived from equity crowdfunding. However, this research also presented challenges and benefits of crowdfunding as experienced by the respondents. The benefits of the crowdfunders-entrepreneurs relationship as a factor have contributed to entrepreneurs' wellbeing as described by the participants.

Modern supply chains are often characterized by carefully planned and interconnected processes that seamlessly integrate with each other. Supply chains are often efficientduring a stable business environment but are highly vulnerable to risks and disruptions.When any link in the supply chain is negatively impacted, challenges can arise for all the companies in the supply chain. This has expanded the goal of supply chain management tocreate resilient supply chains that incorporate event readiness, provide efficient and effective responses, and can return to their original state after a disruption. During Covid19 businesses all over the world were affected and the pandemic led to disruptions in supply chains. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) were especially affected because of lack in financial resources, technical capabilities, and low resilience. SMEs play a crucial role in the global economy but there is still a limited amount of research onhow SME can achieve resilience in their supply chains. Furthermore, there is a lack ofresearch comparing changes in supply chain resilience before and after Covid-19. To address this research gap, the purpose of the study is to explore how Covid-19 affected the supply chain resilience in Swedish SMEs. To understand the effects of Covid-19 we will examine supply chain resilience in SMEs before, during and after the pandemic. To address our purpose, we have conducted a qualitative study using an inductive approach and exploratory research design. We collected primary data from semi-structuredinterviews with nine managers from manufacturing Swedish SMEs. The data gathered through the interviews was analysed by using a thematic analysis that led us to our findings. Our findings revealed that prior to the pandemic, risk awareness was not a top priority for the respondent companies. However, Covid-19 exposed vulnerabilities in their supply chains highlighting the importance of both proactive and reactive strategies. Swedish SMEs experienced various challenges including transportation problems, component shortages and fluctuations in customer demand. Tomeet these challenges, the companies showed flexibility by changes in product assemblingand increased inventory levels during Covid-19. Furthermore, strengthened communication with suppliers and customers played a significant role in increasing supply chain visibility and collaboration. As a result of the Covid-19 disruption, our study show that the responding companies have become more aware of risks and incorporated practices into in their operations as adoption of alternative suppliers, optimization of safety stocks and improved communication. Overall, the findings suggested that the pandemic prompted the respondent SMEs to strengthen their supply chain resilience. By learning from the impact of the crisis, these companies have become more resilient and created supply chains that can better withstand future disruptions. This study contributes to understanding how supply chain resilience in Swedish SMEs was affected by Covid-19 and how SMEs can enhance their supply chain resilience

Research from the international business field have demonstrated that firms operating both in domestic and foreign markets have a greater exposition to market turbulences and disturbances. The literature has established that dynamism, flexibility and agility are crucial capabilities. In fact, firms displaying the previously listed capabilities have a greater chance to survive to turbulent and disturbing market events. Given the current Covid-19 crisis impacting the global market, this paper is further justified by the need for diverse and deeper research on how firms develop so-called “resilience” to survive to disruptive events such as the current pandemic. Furthermore, Business Model Innovation is proposed by the literature as a way to build that organizational resilience. Especially, the adaptation of the Business Model to a more Digital Business Model. The literature presented Digital Business Model as a way for firms to build flexibility and agility capabilities. More specifically, the study aims to analyze how Swedish international manufacturing SMEs develop organizational resilience. Thanks to the four semistructured interviews carried out with four top manager part of Swedish international manufacturing SMEs, this qualitative study has been able to answer the given research question: “How can international manufacturing SMEs develop resilience through adapting a digital business model in order to survive during disruptive market changes?” The primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed according to the constructed conceptual framework. In conclusion, it can be noticed that the findings, based on empirical data, are aligned with the literature and demonstrate that in order to navigate in those turbulent international market environments firms need have a flexible and agile organizational structure. Furthermore, those findings highlight that the implementation of a Digital Business Model enables firms to develop that flexibility and agility, therefore leading to organizational resilience. However, surprisingly, the data shows that if most of the firms did implement Digital Business Model, those Business Model Innovation are not permanent but rather temporary.

The emergence of digitalization and its prevalence is constantly changing the environment inwhich business operates, and consequently the firm’s way of conducting business. Having theability to work with digital maturity is thus a prerequisite for a firm that wants to survive thecompetitive market that prevails today. Despite Sweden's strong infrastructure and greataccess to digitalization skills, Swedish manufacturing SMEs demonstrate an alarmingly lowdegree of digital maturity in their international work. Through a qualitative interview studywith an abductive research approach, this research has explored and unpacked existingtheories on digital maturity, to recommend a proposal for further development of existingframeworks and how Swedish SMEs can work with digital maturity to utilize digitalization intheir internationalization process through export. Furthermore, this study has throughsemi-structured interviews from eight companies, explored Swedish manufacturing SMEs’digital maturity to understand how they use digitalization in their export process.The findings of this study indicates that Swedish SMEs need to stay up to date with the latestdigitalization strategies for internationalizing through export and that the most critical keyfactor is to have human resources with the right competence and capabilities to managedigital change management and work with digital maturity. Hence, to enable Swedishmanufacturing SMEs to utilize digitalization in its export processes and consequently, gaincompetitive advantages necessary to survive in the fast-changing digitalized internationalenvironment.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is established among a majority of small and medium sized companies in Kista Science City and seems to have a positive effect on organizational effectiveness. Kista Science City is Sweden’s largest corporate centre, with more companies and employees in a limited area than anywhere else in Europe. This study looks at the level of adoption of ERP functions, perceived organizational effectiveness and critical success factors. The most common use of ERP is for financial control and reporting, followed by order entry and purchasing. A significant relationship between the level of adoption and organizational effectiveness was found. Although Enterprise Resource Planning has become an established phenomenon the investments in ERP software are far from fully utilized. Most companies have started to use ERP to integrate functional areas but few companies have moved to extended ERP (ERPII). The adoption of functionality for customer relationship management seems to have started, but the use of e-commerce, business intelligence and supply chain management is very low. Different reasons for the low level of adoption are discussed and it is suggested that the interrelationship between SMEs and ERP-consultants be investigated further. ERP-consultants are important change agents and knowledge transfers for ERP and one way to interpret the data is that ERP-consultants are caught in a negative spiral where they focus on installations and technical maintenance of core ERP, which prevents them from developing new, extended ERP competence. An analysis of critical success factors showed that although technical competence was important socially oriented factors such as project teamwork and composition as well as communication had a greater effect on organizational effectiveness. Surprisingly enough, project management did not have any effect on organizational effectiveness. Common implementation methods for ERP focus on project management. It is suggested to further analyse if these methods could be improved by an increased adaptability to differences in company settings and requirements as well as through a better use of critical success factors. Organizational effectiveness can be measured in many ways and it was found that the success factors varied in terms of how they correlated with different measures. In the next step, the doctorial thesis, it is suggested that a prototype environment is developed to stimulate an increased use of extended ERP among small and medium sized companies. Several actors, such as SMEs, consultants, vendors and students would be involved. The prototype environment could facilitate enhancements of implementation methods and reduction of implementation costs through the development of reusable objects such as add-on solutions, process maps and system configurations. It could also help small and medium sized companies to investigate the business benefits of ERP by increasing involvement and familiarity while on the same time decrease costs and risks. / QC 20100713

Purpose: Due to the current climate crisis and the fact that the food industry accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, it is more important than ever that green initiatives in the food industry flourish. In recent years new food sources (NFS) have emerged as a consequence of trying to shift the world's consumption behaviours and making the food industry more sustainable. However, NFS companies are generally small companies with scarce resources and difficulties in expanding. Thus, the purpose of this report is to investigate which capabilities are necessary in order to succeed with a sustainable expansion within the New Food Sources industry, and to develop a framework that puts the capabilities in relation to different stages of sustainable expansion.  Method: In order to investigate these main areas, a multiple case study in the NFS sector has been conducted where several companies have been interviewed to enable the identification of success factors that enable a sustainable expansion. A total of 21 interviews were held with the case companies, people from the traditional source companies (e.g., traditional dairy corporations), and people with expertise within the field of NFS were interviewed. The interviews were later on analyzed through a thematic method.  Findings: The study resulted in identifying five stages of sustainability work that acts as drivers for sustainable expansion. Further, eight categories of capabilities were identified in order to reach the driver for sustainable expansion. The capabilities were then ranked in a gradual manner, from fundamental to gaining competitive advantage. Lastly, the five stages of sustainable expansion were linked to the capabilities, providing a roadmap for what capabilities that are necessary in each stage in order to proceed with a sustainable expansion.  Theoretical and managerial contributions: This study provides a sustainable perspective on expansions within NFS companies, meaning that the focus is not only economic growth but also how the company contributes to the society as a whole and how it affects the world. Furthermore, these insights have resulted in a roadmap that can be applied by managers in NFS- producing companies to get a better understanding of what capabilities that are essential in each stage of sustainability work. This will help managers in NFS companies to navigate through expansions and will help them understand what to focus on.