In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden zwei wichtige Themenbereiche untersucht - zum einen der des Risikomanagements und zum anderen der der strategischen Unternehmensdiversifikation. Beide Gebiete werden mit dem Ziel verknüpft, spezifische Diversifikationsrisiken aufzuzeigen. Ausgehend vom Ressourcen- und Kompetenzansatz des strategischen Managements werden verschiedene Arten von Diversifikationsstrategien vorgestellt und darauf aufbauend verschiedene Formen strategischer Synergieeffekte voneinander abgegrenzt. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt bildet die Verknüpfung von Risikomanagement und strategischem Management. Es wird dargelegt, wie Elemente des Risikomanagements in das Zielsystem sowie die Phasen der strategischen Planung und Kontrolle integriert werden können. Dabei wird die besondere Bedeutung von Stakeholderinteressen für das Risikomanagement herausgestellt. Im Anschluss werden diese Erkenntnisse auf die strategische Planung von Diversifikationsentscheidungen übertragen und diversifikationsbedingte Risiken aufgezeigt. / The thesis focuses on two major issues - risk management on the on hand and strategic corporate diversification on the other. The author combines these two topics in order to identify specific risks of diversification. At first different types of corporate diversification, that are founded on the insights of the resource and competence based view of strategy, are introduced, and different types of strategic synergies are defined. Secondly, the topics of risk management and strategy are linked and it is demonstrated how certain elements of risk management can be integrated into the process of strategic planning and control. Furthermore, the author emphasizes the special importance of stakeholder interests in the context of risk management. Finally, the resulting insights are applied to the process of strategic planning of corporate diversification and specific risks of diversification are identified.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:06:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo1239_1.pdf: 1301316 bytes, checksum: 95d2ade1efc83a7984e3b8ad4d177503 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O problema que motivou esta pesquisa foi o de entender como se desenvolveu a estratégia de internacionalização da Menendez Amerino, no período de 1979 e 2006. Considerando isso, foram aplicados questionários que guiaram o estudo sob a perspectiva de três teorias norteadoras: a do Modelo Sueco de Internacionalização; a Teoria dos Determinantes da Vantagem Nacional e a Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV). Buscando descobrir as perspectivas dos respondentes sobre essas teorias, um estudo de caso qualitativo foi desenvolvido. A estratégia metodológica de estudo de caso qualitativo foi considerada apropriada para esclarecer o problema de pesquisa e para investigar o processo e a dinâmica do fenômeno da internacionalização, em uma perspectiva longitudinal. Foram realizadas treze entrevistas com os seis respondentes que compõem a amostra. Utilizou-se o método de entrevistas semiestruturadas para a coleta de dados in loco, individualmente, com os sujeitos entrevistados. A análise dos dados possibilitou a descrição e a interpretação do fenômeno investigado. Foram encontradas quatro fases marcantes na trajetória de vida da empresa estudada. Na maior parte do período analisado, o processo de formação das estratégias com base no incrementalismo lógico esteve presente na organização. Do ponto de vista do Modelo Sueco, percebe-se que a empresa comportou-se de formas diferentes em dois momentos: no primeiro, corroborando; e, no segundo, parcialmente discordando. A utilização de networks como ferramenta de internacionalização, evidenciou-se desde a fundação da empresa, sendo essa uma variável crucial para sua atuação no mercado externo. A partir dos achados combinados com a análise documental, identifica-se que a vantagem competitiva presente na indústria de charutos e cigarrilhas baseia-se em um ou dois vértices do Determinante Nacional (Condições de Fatores e Indústrias Correlatas e de Apoio). Com relação aos recursos internos da Menendez Amerino, destacaram-se a cultura organizacional, o gerenciamento de informações, a mão-de-obra, a reputação, P&D e os relacionamentos específicos com fornecedores, distribuidores e clientes. Observou-se que a habilidade de gerir esses recursos resulta em certa ambigüidade perante as empresas rivais, sendo esta uma das fontes de sua vantagem competitiva sustentável

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:04:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo1114_1.pdf: 937478 bytes, checksum: 12adb7e3c4013e97e8ca9c00d36c97e3 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Esta dissertação tem por objetivo geral analisar características do processo de formação das estratégias internacionais da empresa Acumuladores Moura S/A, principalmente no período de 1983 a 2007, sob as teorias de Uppsala, Resource-Based View (RBV) e Paradigma Eclético da Produção Internacional. As estratégias internacionais adotadas pela empresa e os modelos de internacionalização foram analisados em relação aos preceitos de Pettigrew (1987). A pesquisa é qualitativa, exploratória, analítica, longitudinal e retrospectiva. É um estudo de caso, e a unidade de análise, a Acumuladores Moura S/A. A amostra compõe-se por oito executivos da administração estratégica ou que vivenciaram cargos de gerência da exportação. A coleta de dados baseou-se em entrevistas semi-estruturadas, pesquisa documental e observação não-participante. Contextualiza-se a empresa e sua trajetória internacional. Nenhum modelo de internacionalização explicou, isoladamente, as ações tomadas pela empresa na sua internacionalização. O modo de formação das estratégias internacionais modificou-se por experiências anteriores e recursos disponíveis. O ritmo da mudança foi ditado tanto por rupturas, quanto por mudanças orgânicas e evolucionistas. Destacam-se as dimensões defendidas pela Escola de Uppsala, como aprendizagem, networks, e gradualismo. Distinguem-se, entre os recursos competitivos, o principal empreendedor, a cultura de qualidade, know-how tecnológico, recursos humanos e a marca. As vantagens de propriedade e internalização do Paradigma Eclético da Produção Internacional evidenciaram-se com o desenvolvimento dos recursos da empresa

It has been recognised that exporting is an engine for growth at both country and firm levels. However, the challenging nature of international business often prevents companies from entering and surviving in international markets. In the Small and Medium-size Business context, lack of resource is normally the main reason behind the inability of firms to overcome export barriers. In recognition of the issue and for promoting exporting, the governments have been offering the so-called Government Export Promotion Programmes (GEPPs) to act as “resource supplements”. While there have been extensive practices, the mechanism and effectiveness of these programmes have not been thoroughly explored and analysed. In some academic studies, criticisms and doubts about these programmes have been raised. Against this background, the thesis investigates the working mechanism of these programmes and tests their effectiveness in terms of export initiation, performance and regularity. Using an extended version of the Resource Based View, two integrative and comprehensive conceptual models are developed in order to reveal the indirect impacts of GEPPs on export behaviour. The models are then tested with a total of 495 completed questionnaires collected from two sample countries; namely, Algeria and the UK. These were analysed through a multivariate analysis using a variance-based statistical technique known as Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The findings of this thesis are two-fold. First, with respect to the critical resources affecting export behaviour, the study finds that while both Algerian and UK firms’export intention are affected by management resources only, firms’ export performance and regularity are instead mainly influenced by management and organisational resources in the UK and management and relational resources in Algeria. Second, regarding the impact of GEPPs on export intention, the study confirms its indirect nature through the management resources in both countries. However, when it comes to their effect on export performance and regularity, the indirect effect was only established in the UK and mainly through management and organisational resources. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications in that the results have provided empirical evidence on the indirect impact of GEPPs and can serve as an indication in practice for both firm managers and policy makers in deploying key resources for different stages of internationalisation.

O conhecimento tem se mostrado como uma importante fonte de vantagem competitiva para as organizações. Por isso, as empresas buscam, cada vez mais, mecanismos que alavanquem os processos de geração, gestão e disseminação do conhecimento organizacional. Uma das ferramentas, que pode potencializar a transformação do conhecimento em vantagens competitivas, é a universidade corporativa. Nesse contexto, as franquias surgem como um dos objetos de estudos que podem ajudar a explicar esta relação, pois desenvolver e compartilhar conhecimento são aspectos vitais para o franchising. Dessa forma, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é identificar elementos que possam influenciar na geração de vantagens competitivas pela implantação e gestão de universidades corporativas no franchising. Para atingir esses objetivos, foi desenvolvida uma revisão teórica focada nos conceitos de vantagens competitivas, universidades corporativas e franchising. O primeiro esforço mostrou que existe uma lacuna teórica no tema, indicando a necessidade de se realizar um estudo de campo para aprofundar o conhecimento sobre o fenômeno estudado. O estudo de caso, em conjunto com entrevistas em profundidade, foram os métodos escolhidos para realizar o objetivo proposto. Foram realizadas dez entrevistas em profundidade com especialistas em educação corporativa e no franchising, sendo levantadas informações secundárias dos processos de educação do Giraffas e das Universidades Corporativas do Banco do Brasil, Ernest Young do Brasil, Cacau Show e McDonald\'s do Brasil. Para as duas últimas empresas foram desenvolvidos estudos de caso, levantando-se informações comparativas dos seus principais concorrentes. Dessa forma, também foram analisadas informações da Chocolates Brasil, Kopenhagen, Bob\'s e Subway. As principais conclusões do trabalho foram: as universidades corporativas podem impactar de forma expressiva no desenvolvimento de vantagens competitivas no franchising; apesar de as franquias promoverem diversas ações educacionais, as universidades corporativas ajudam a organizar de forma estratégica essas ações, gerando, nos casos estudados, mais impactos que as ações isoladas; as ações que mais geram resultados e barreiras à imitação são as relacionadas à disseminação do conhecimento tácito; a relação entre unidades próprias e franqueadas parece ser importante para se estabelecer estratégias educacionais da rede; a avaliação dos impactos dos treinamentos nos resultados operacionais e financeiros é uma grande dificuldade observada; a literatura preconiza uma relação entre unidades próprias e franqueadas nos estágios de maior maturidade do negócio que não foi observada nos casos estudados; também não foram observadas uma preocupação acentuada com o envolvimento de outros stakeholders e com a busca efetiva de modelos de autofinanciamento. / Knowledge has been shown to be an important source of competitive advantage for organizations. Therefore, companies increasingly seek mechanisms that leverage the processes of generation, management and dissemination of organizational knowledge. One of the tools that can enhance the transformation of knowledge into competitive advantages is the corporate university. In this context, franchises emerge as one of the objects of study that may help explain this relationship, for developing and sharing knowledge are vital for franchising. Thus, the main objective of this work is to identify elements that can influence the generation of competitive advantages for the implementation and management of corporate universities in franchising. To achieve these goals, it developed a focused literature review on the concepts of competitive advantage, corporate universities and franchising. This first effort proved that there is a theoretical gap in the topic, indicating the need to carry out a field study to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon studied. The case study, in conjunction with in-depth interviews were the methods chosen to achieve the proposed objective. Ten interviews were conducted in depth with experts in corporate education and franchising, being lifted secondary information from Giraffas education processes and from the corporate universities of Banco do Brasil, Ernest Young of Brazil, Cacau Show and McDonald\'s Brazil, for the last two companies was developed case studies, rising comparative information of its main competitors. In this way, were also analyzed informations from Chocolates Brazil, Kopenhagen, Bob\'s and Subway. The main conclusions were: corporate universities can impact in a significant way in the development of competitive advantages in franchising; despite franchises promote various educational activities, corporate universities help organize strategically these actions, generating, in the cases studied, more impact than isolated actions; actions that generate more results and barriers to imitation are related to the dissemination of tacit knowledge; the relationship between owned and franchised units appears to be important to establish educational strategies of the franchising network; evaluating the impact of training on operating and financial results is a great difficulty observed; the literature reports a relationship between owned and franchised units in the stages of greater maturity of the business that was not observed in this study; They were also not observed a concern about the involvement of other stakeholders and the effective search of auto financing models.

O conhecimento tem se mostrado como uma importante fonte de vantagem competitiva para as organizações. Por isso, as empresas buscam, cada vez mais, mecanismos que alavanquem os processos de geração, gestão e disseminação do conhecimento organizacional. Uma das ferramentas, que pode potencializar a transformação do conhecimento em vantagens competitivas, é a universidade corporativa. Nesse contexto, as franquias surgem como um dos objetos de estudos que podem ajudar a explicar esta relação, pois desenvolver e compartilhar conhecimento são aspectos vitais para o franchising. Dessa forma, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é identificar elementos que possam influenciar na geração de vantagens competitivas pela implantação e gestão de universidades corporativas no franchising. Para atingir esses objetivos, foi desenvolvida uma revisão teórica focada nos conceitos de vantagens competitivas, universidades corporativas e franchising. O primeiro esforço mostrou que existe uma lacuna teórica no tema, indicando a necessidade de se realizar um estudo de campo para aprofundar o conhecimento sobre o fenômeno estudado. O estudo de caso, em conjunto com entrevistas em profundidade, foram os métodos escolhidos para realizar o objetivo proposto. Foram realizadas dez entrevistas em profundidade com especialistas em educação corporativa e no franchising, sendo levantadas informações secundárias dos processos de educação do Giraffas e das Universidades Corporativas do Banco do Brasil, Ernest Young do Brasil, Cacau Show e McDonald\'s do Brasil. Para as duas últimas empresas foram desenvolvidos estudos de caso, levantando-se informações comparativas dos seus principais concorrentes. Dessa forma, também foram analisadas informações da Chocolates Brasil, Kopenhagen, Bob\'s e Subway. As principais conclusões do trabalho foram: as universidades corporativas podem impactar de forma expressiva no desenvolvimento de vantagens competitivas no franchising; apesar de as franquias promoverem diversas ações educacionais, as universidades corporativas ajudam a organizar de forma estratégica essas ações, gerando, nos casos estudados, mais impactos que as ações isoladas; as ações que mais geram resultados e barreiras à imitação são as relacionadas à disseminação do conhecimento tácito; a relação entre unidades próprias e franqueadas parece ser importante para se estabelecer estratégias educacionais da rede; a avaliação dos impactos dos treinamentos nos resultados operacionais e financeiros é uma grande dificuldade observada; a literatura preconiza uma relação entre unidades próprias e franqueadas nos estágios de maior maturidade do negócio que não foi observada nos casos estudados; também não foram observadas uma preocupação acentuada com o envolvimento de outros stakeholders e com a busca efetiva de modelos de autofinanciamento. / Knowledge has been shown to be an important source of competitive advantage for organizations. Therefore, companies increasingly seek mechanisms that leverage the processes of generation, management and dissemination of organizational knowledge. One of the tools that can enhance the transformation of knowledge into competitive advantages is the corporate university. In this context, franchises emerge as one of the objects of study that may help explain this relationship, for developing and sharing knowledge are vital for franchising. Thus, the main objective of this work is to identify elements that can influence the generation of competitive advantages for the implementation and management of corporate universities in franchising. To achieve these goals, it developed a focused literature review on the concepts of competitive advantage, corporate universities and franchising. This first effort proved that there is a theoretical gap in the topic, indicating the need to carry out a field study to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon studied. The case study, in conjunction with in-depth interviews were the methods chosen to achieve the proposed objective. Ten interviews were conducted in depth with experts in corporate education and franchising, being lifted secondary information from Giraffas education processes and from the corporate universities of Banco do Brasil, Ernest Young of Brazil, Cacau Show and McDonald\'s Brazil, for the last two companies was developed case studies, rising comparative information of its main competitors. In this way, were also analyzed informations from Chocolates Brazil, Kopenhagen, Bob\'s and Subway. The main conclusions were: corporate universities can impact in a significant way in the development of competitive advantages in franchising; despite franchises promote various educational activities, corporate universities help organize strategically these actions, generating, in the cases studied, more impact than isolated actions; actions that generate more results and barriers to imitation are related to the dissemination of tacit knowledge; the relationship between owned and franchised units appears to be important to establish educational strategies of the franchising network; evaluating the impact of training on operating and financial results is a great difficulty observed; the literature reports a relationship between owned and franchised units in the stages of greater maturity of the business that was not observed in this study; They were also not observed a concern about the involvement of other stakeholders and the effective search of auto financing models.

En ce qui concerne la perception du tourisme durable, on constate que les directeurs publics ont la même approche ou définition. Mais, en matière de stratégies, les moyens manquent dans tous les domaines pour développer un tourisme durable. De façon plus précise, les contraintes se résument aux cinq enjeux qui sont liés aux ressources humaines, aux méthodes de travail, au cadre juridique, à l'appui institutionnel et financier, et à la sensibilisation publique dans le secteur touristique du Cambodge. Ces insuffisances ont entraîné une exploitation peu réfléchie des potentiels de ressources touristiques et ont provoqué des fuites économiques élevées à l'étranger. Sans planification pensée à long terme, certaines attractions ne sont plus en mesure d'assurer leur durabilité, menant à la dévastation de trésors touristiques, à l’altération des valeurs socio-culturelles et d'identité nationale; ce mécanisme évolutif pourrait conduire à un développement incontrôlé contribuant à dégrader rapidement la communauté locale et l’environnement. Comme le ministère du Tourisme au Cambodge l’a souligné, s'il n'est pas correctement géré, le développement du tourisme permettra d'enrichir une petite minorité tout en excluant la majorité de la population du pays. Dans ces conditions, les directeurs provinciaux chargés du tourisme, en tant que représentants du ministère, jouent un rôle déterminant dans le tourisme durable et influencent directement à la fois le pouvoir politique et la prise de décision locale et même nationale. Leur rôle s’applique à la gestion interne et la coopération externe qui sont fortement dépendantes de la qualification personnelle des individus, c’est les « ressources et compétences ». Cependant, si les directeurs locaux sont aujourd’hui confinés dans un rôle plutôt de gestionnaires, avec de faibles moyens, nous estimons qu’ils pourraient devenir de véritables directeurs locaux susceptibles de faire travailler ensemble les acteurs dans le cadre d’une politique claire. / Current issues concerning the sustainable tourism in Cambodia based on the action of Local Tourism State Actors (LTSA) in terms of Resources and Competences, particularly defining the roles of the LTSA, are systematically explored in this research. The LTSA are the director of provincial or city tourism department who take a lead role in managing a localized tourism industry of the government. The central research question focuses on the “Strategy towards Sustainable Tourism in Cambodia, according to the perceptions of the LTSA”. In investigating to this context, the qualitative methods were used to collect primary data through in-depth interviews (semi-structured) with all the 25 LTSA. The data was further analyzed through a content analysis with a usage of NVivo10, a computer based program for coding or categorizing. The findings indicate that there are five main local challenges to Cambodia’s sustainable tourism: (1) Professional Tourism Skills and Qualifications, (2) Working Attitudes of Managers and Employees, (3) Tourism Law, Regulations, and Circulars, (4) Finances and Facilities, and (5) Public Tourism Awareness and Participation. These challenges can be broadly categorized as personal, institutional, and external problems; particularly related to the lack of financial resources, and especially human resources in regards to both quality and quantity of professional tourism officials. In order to effectively transcend sustainable tourism and local tourism management challenges, state actors play important roles. Firstly they have an internal managing role as a local manager, and secondly they have an external cooperating role which is closely defined as a local ambassador. Moreover, the state actor should strive for a third role: referred to as the personal advancing role. This is where the managers become a learner in order to improve personal skills and capacity based on experiential learning. Personal advancing roles can be further augmented through self-directed studies, workshops, seminars, training and education. As highlighted in the findings and discussion section, the quality of managing and cooperating roles of LTSA are heavily dependent on personal advancing roles. The role of LTSA has significant influence on sustainable tourism because the manager is the most central actor dealing directly with all relevant sustainable tourism stakeholders, especially for their contributions to the policy and decision making. Thus, the continuous advancement of qualifications, effectiveness and efficiency of LTSA in implementing their role is a priority and highly needed. State actors should focus on personal advancing roles to enhance managing and cooperating roles.

SME companies are of greatest importance to our society. They contribute to job opportunities for a large portion of the population and account for 60 percent of the total revenue in the Swedish Enterprise. Given that there are a lot of SME:s, it is crucial to obtain efficient production.  In today's manufacturing industry, a major issue is the fact that value-added time is low compared to the total time it takes to manufacture a product. Lean production is a well-designed and proven method to apply to streamline production. With the help of Lean tools, continuous improvements can be made by eliminating unnecessary and inefficient processes in production. The aim of this study has been to investigate how SME:s can streamline their production using value stream analysis, and the questions that have been answered are:  - What methods can be used to evaluate production efficiency? - What parameters affect production efficiency? - How can a value stream analysis be used to streamline production and identify improvement measures?  The empirical case study was conducted using data collection methods that included interviews with employees at the case company, time measurements, and observations. These methods formed the basis for the creation of the present value analysis as well as the calculations of the OEE-values.  The result shows that SMEs can use value stream analysis as a way to identify inefficiencies and thereby implement improvement measures that increase production efficiency.  Keywords: SME, Lean, Value-stream mapping, Muda, 5S, RBV / Små- och medelstora företag är av yttersta vikt för vårt samhälle. Det bidrar till jobb åt en stor del av befolkningen och det bidrar till 60 procent av den totala omsättningen i det svenska näringslivet. Med hänsyn till att det finns så många SMF är det av yttersta vikt att erhålla en effektiv produktion. I dagens tillverkningsindustri är ett stort problem det faktum att den värdeskapande tiden är låg i jämförelse med den totala tiden det tar för att tillverka en produkt. Lean production är en välutformad och beprövad metod att tillämpa för att effektivisera en produktion. Med hjälp av Lean-verktyg kan ständiga förbättringar ske genom att eliminera onödiga och ineffektiva moment i produktionen. I studien har syftet varit att studera hur SMF kan effektivisera sin produktion med hjälp av en värdeflödesanalys och frågeställningarna som besvarats har varit: - Vilka metoder kan användas för att utvärdera produktionseffektiviteten? - Vilka parametrar påverkar produktionseffektiviteten? - Hur kan en värdeflödesanalys användas för att effektivisera produktionen och identifiera förbättringsåtgärder? Den empiriska fallstudien har genomförts med hjälp av datainsamling i form av intervjuer med anställda på fallföretaget, tidmätningar och observationer. De här metoderna har legat till grund för skapandet av nuvärdesanalysen samt beräkningar av TAK-värdena. Resultatet visar att SMF kan använda värdeflödesanalys som ett sätt för att identifiera ineffektivitet och därigenom genomföra förbättringsåtgärder som ökar produktionseffektiviteten.

Syftet med denna studie är att öka medvetenheten kring vilka resurser som är viktiga för att småföretag inom detaljhandeln ska överleva i Visby Innerstad. Vidare avser studien att delge tankar kring handeln i Visby innerstad utifrån den lokala konsumentens perspektiv. Studien har för avsikt att undersöka vilka resurser som ägarna till respektive småföretag anser viktiga för företagets överlevnad. Studien avser även att ta del av den lokala konsumentens tankar kring handeln i innerstan.   Det empiriska materialet består dels av nio djupgående semistrukturerade intervjuer med ägare till småföretag, dels av två fokusgrupper med totalt tio lokala konsumenter. I resultatet framkommer att butikernas kunder, läge, ägare och personal är de resurser som ägarna anser vara de mest centrala för att överleva i Visby innerstad. Ägarna ser turister och lokala kundrelationer som centrala delar inom immateriella resurser. Gotland är en dyr turistdestination vilket leder till att många av turisterna har ett stort finansiellt kapital. Enligt ägarna är det viktigt att lokala kunder förstår att de gör skillnad för småföretagen när de handlar i butikerna.    Inom materiella resurser anses läget vara mest betydelsefullt. Ägarna anser att det är fördelaktigt med en butik belägen i Visby innerstad medan konsumenterna anser att butikerna ligger avsides. Ägarnas åsikter kring vart i innerstan det är mest fördelaktigt att ha en butik skiljer sig åt, där en ägare menar att det är fördelaktigt med ett läge där det går färre människor. En annan ägare betonar att det vore fördelaktigt ifall butiken var belägen vid ett gångstråk. Ägarna och personalen framkom som centrala delar inom mänskliga resurser. Personalen är en meningsfull tillgång men det är ägaren som driver företaget framåt. Eftersom alla människor besitter olika kunskaper innebär det att ägare och personal kompletterar varandra. Konsumenterna poängterar att personalen som arbetar i butikerna i innerstan är mer personliga samt ger en högre service än vad som upplevs i butikskedjor. / The purpose of this study is to increase the awareness for which resources play an important role in the survival of small retail businesses in the inner city in Visby. This is done through investigating the business owner and consumer perspectives.    The empirical material is based on nine in-depth semi-structured interviews with business owners, and two focus groups conducted with a total of ten local consumers. The results show that the business’s customers, the store’s location, the owner, and the employees are the foremost resources. The owners see the tourists and local customers as important resources. Gotland is an expensive tourist destination, attracting financially strong tourists. Nevertheless, the owners emphasize the importance of the local customers who make a significant contribution when they shop in central Visby.   All owners see an advantage to being located in the inner city, whereas local customers consider it somewhat inconvenient. The owners disagreed on whether it is best to be on a busy versus low traffic inner-city location. The owners see their own role as important for survival; they develop the business. They see the personnel as important as well because they bring complementary skills and knowledge to the business. In the focus groups, the customers emphasized the superior personal service they experience from inner-city stores, much above what they experience in chain stores.

No description available.