Examensarbete, Civilekonomprogrammet, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet, Företagsekonomi, 4FE17E, VT-2018. Författare: Jeanette Elbe och Ludvig Eriksson Handledare: Andreas Jansson Examinator: Karin Jonnergård Titel: Ekonomifunktionens roll för beslutsfattarna - Intern eller extern funktion i förhållande till organisationen? Sökord: Outsourcing, Ekonomisk administration, Kostnadslogiken, Strategiska logiken, Transaction Cost Economics, TCE, Resource-based View, RBV, Ekonomifunktionens roll   Bakgrund: Att betala en extern part för att utföra bolagets ekonomiska administration är ett växande fenomen och outsourcing av ekonomiska företagsprocesser är högaktuellt att förstå sig på. I outsourcinglitteraturen finns det två perspektiv som kan lyftas upp för att förklara outsourcingbeslutet och genom att studera beslutsfattarnas logik till outsourcingbeslutet tror sig författarna kunna bidra till en djupare förståelse inom ämnet.   Syfte: Studien syftar till att öka förståelsen för de logiker som ligger till grund för beslutsfattares outsourcingbeslut av den ekonomiska administrationen.   Metod och genomförande: Genom användandet av idealtyper bygger författarna upp två differentierade logiker för att utreda olika beslutsfattares förhållningssätt till outsourcing av ekonomisk administration - kostnadslogiken och den strategiska logiken. Logikerna har sedan studeras empiriskt genom en intervjustudie kopplad till ledande befattningshavare i medelstora företag lokaliserade i den småländska GGVV-regionen.   Slutsats: Studien visar att beslutsfattare som outsourcar större delar av den ekonomiska administrationen förhåller sig till kostnadslogiken. Den strategiska logiken är istället nära sammankopplad med den rationalitet som föreligger hos beslutsfattare som väljer att inte outsourca sin ekonomiska administration. Däremellan sker även ett möte mellan logikerna. De beslutsfattare som outsourcar mindre delar av den ekonomiska administrationen tar taktiska beslut vilket visar på ett yttrande gentemot kostnadslogiken. Dock blir det tydligt att det samtidigt finns ett bakomliggande strategiskt tankemönster i hur dessa beslutsfattarna resonerar kring ekonomifunktionen. Beslutsfattarna som omfattas av den strategiska logiken hämmas därför i dessa fall att outsourca större delar av ekonomifunktionens arbete. / Master Thesis in Business Administration, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, 4FE17E, 2018. Author: Jeanette Elbe and Ludvig Eriksson Supervisor: Andreas Jansson Examiner: Karin Jonnergård   Title: The role of the accounting function for decision makers - An inhouse or outhouse function in relation to the organization? Keywords: Outsourcing, Accounting, Logic of cost, Strategic logic, Transaction Cost Economics, TCE, Resource-based View, RBV, The role of the accounting function   Background: Paying an external party to perform the company’s financial administration is a growing phenomenon and outsourcing of accounting and financial processes are highly relevant to understand. In the outsourcing literature, there are two perspectives that can be raised to explain the outsourcing decision, and by studying the decision makers’ logic to the outsourcing decision, the authors believe that they can contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject.   Purpose: The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of the logic that underlies decision makers' outsourcing decisions of the financial administration.   Method: Using ideal types, the authors build up two differentiated logics to investigate different decision makers' approaches to outsourcing of financial administration - the logic of cost and the strategic logic. The logics have been studied empirically through an interview study linked to senior executives in medium-sized companies located in the GGVV-area in the province of Småland in Sweden.   Conclusion: The study shows that decision makers who outsource major parts of the economic administration relate to the logic of cost. However, the strategic logic is closely linked to the rationality of decision makers who choose not to outsource their financial administration. In between, there is also a meeting between the logics. The decision makers who outsource smaller parts of the economic administration carry out tactical decisions, which indicates a relationship to the logic of cost. Anyhow, it becomes clear that there is an underlying strategic thinking pattern in how these decision makers argue about the financial function as a hole. The decision makers covered by the strategic logic are therefore in these cases hampered to outsource major parts of the financial administration.

Submitted by Ariela Zanetta Simoni (arielazsimoni@gmail.com) on 2018-04-18T21:21:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Nunes Ferreira (debora.nunes@fgv.br) on 2018-04-20T17:07:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-04-20T17:34:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-20T17:34:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_ArielaSimoni_VF2_2018.pdf: 2154592 bytes, checksum: 3ed46fe4510f5360ed0ab60012235df1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-14 / No âmbito das atividades políticas corporativas (CPA) com auxílio das variáveis de recursos, rotina e capacidades da Teoria da Visão Baseada em Recursos (RBV), esta pesquisa pretendeu analisar como as atividades políticas corporativas de Lobby das empresas são realizadas em ambientes de mudanças políticas. O Lobby é uma das táticas mais utilizadas de CPA. Estudos que visam a compreensão por intermédio de fatores econômicos e de outras naturezas são de suma importância na explicação da variação dentro de um determinado sistema, porém, raramente levam em consideração o ambiente político doméstico de um país (YADAV, 2008). O contexto de imprevisibilidade gera incertezas a respeito do ambiente no qual implementa-se a tática de Lobby e diminui a capacidade de previsão de cenários. A consequência disso é a possibilidade de redução da vantagem competitiva das firmas as quais se engajam em estratégias de não mercado. Além disso, ambientes de mudanças políticas caracterizam-se por trocas de executivos no poder provenientes de eleições nacionais (YASUDA; MITSUHASHI, 2017) ou por impedimento em completar o mandato governamental. O cenário político e econômico do ano de 2016 no Brasil serviu como laboratório para o estudo, na medida em que apresenta características do ambiente de mudanças políticas necessárias à pesquisa. Por intermédio de uma pesquisa qualitativa positivista com triangulação de dados primários – obtidos por meio de entrevistas – e secundários – principalmente para entendimento do ambiente político, a pesquisa justifica-se pela importância no aprofundamento da compreensão do fenômeno. / In the scope of corporate policy activities (CPA) aided by resource variables, routine and resource-based capabilities (RBV), this research aimed to analyze how corporate lobbying activities are carried out in politically changing environments. Lobby is one of CPA's most commonly used tactics. Studies that aim at understanding through economic and other factors are indeed important in explaining variation within a given system, but rarely take into account a country's domestic political environment (YADAV, 2008). The context of unpredictability creates uncertainties about the environment in which lobby tactic is implemented and reduces the predictability of scenarios. The consequence of this is the possibility of diminishing the competitive advantage of companies that engage in non-market strategies. In addition, politically changing environments are characterized by exchanges of power executives from national elections (YASUDA; MITSUHASHI, 2017) or by impediment in completing the government mandate. The political and economic scenario of 2016 in Brazil served as a laboratory for the study, as it presents characteristics of the environment of political changes demanded for the research. Through a qualitative positivist research with triangulation of primary data - obtained through interviews - and secondary data - mainly for understanding the political environment, the research is justified by the importance of deeper understanding of the phenomenon.

Background: Sweden is known for encouraging entrepreneurship where 99.9% of the business organizations are SMEs. Including Sweden, several other countries in the world provide significant importance to family firms, as their contribution is noteworthy to the global economy. Due to numerous reasons such as globalization and growth aspects, FSMEs are forced to gain competitive advantage through international diversification. Internationalization of FSMEs can be influenced by unique characteristics of family firms.Purpose: Internationalization is a process where the decision of internationalization can be affected by several factors including resources. Among unique characteristics of family firms, FSMEs also possess family-specific resources that may influence these decisions. Hence the purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding on which and how family-specific resources influence internationalization decisions.Method: With the use of a single case study method, we gained valuable insight of a Swedish candy manufacturing family firm which engaged in internationalization successfully. The data was collected through in-depth interviews, observations, company website, published press interviews, press articles and other databases.Conclusion: Internationalization can be a daunting decision for family firms where availability of resources play a major role. The key family-specific resources that influenced the decision of internationalization of the family firm studied in this thesis were bridging social capital, human capital and governance capital. The remaining capitals may have contributed to the internationalization process. Other than the family-specific resources, factors such as generational change and ability to gain substantial financial support in further influenced their internationalization decisions. These findings likewise confirm the existence of heterogeneity of family firms which makes them unique.

As empresas podem responder por mudanças significativas em prol da sustentabilidade por meio de inovações, através do desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias, serviços ou produtos que se destinam a reduzir os problemas ambientais e climáticos - nomeadamente inovações verdes. Estas são conduzidas por recursos internos, bem como forças institucionais e algumas capacidades organizacionais, tais como a capacidade de absorção, podem ser relevantes em melhorar o desempenho em inovações verdes. Portanto, este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar empiricamente a relação entre as forças institucionais e capacidades internas na condução de inovações verdes no setor de energia elétrica brasileiro. A técnica de equações estruturais (PLS) foi aplicada aos dados coletados por meio de uma survey realizada entre dezembro de 2015 e maio de 2016. A validade do modelo estrutural foi assegurada através de vários testes e os resultados permitiram concluir que os condutores internos são positivamente relacionados com as forças institucionais e a capacidade de absorção. Ainda, estes mediam a relação entre estes construtos. Além disso, os condutores internos estão positivamente relacionados com o desempenho da inovação verde em produtos e processos. Portanto, o estudo tem várias implicações teóricas para área de gestão, especialmente em capacidades dinâmicas, VBR e teoria da inovação verde. Além disso, as implicações políticas do estudo estão relacionadas com a composição de políticas de um país, a fim de desenvolver regulamentações ambientais que favoreçam a inovação. / Green innovations can be an answer that companies develop as ways to mitigate climate change. These are driven by internal resources as well as institutional forces, and some organizational capabilities such as absorptive capacity can be relevant in spurring green innovations performance. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing empirically the relationship among institutional forces and internal capabilities in driving green innovations in the Brazilian electricity power sector. Partial Least Square Structural Modelling Equation was applied to the data collected through the survey conducted between December 2015 and May 2016. The structural model validity was validated through several tests and the results have indicated that Internal Drivers are positively related to the Institutional Forces and Absorptive Capacity, and mediate the relationship among those constructs. Also, the Internal Drivers are positively related with Green Innovation Performance in products and processes. Therefore, the study has several theoretical implications for management area, especially on dynamic capabilities, RBV and green innovation theory. Also, policy implications of the study are related to the composition of a country\'s policy mix in order to develop environmental regulations which favour innovation.

As empresas podem responder por mudanças significativas em prol da sustentabilidade por meio de inovações, através do desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias, serviços ou produtos que se destinam a reduzir os problemas ambientais e climáticos - nomeadamente inovações verdes. Estas são conduzidas por recursos internos, bem como forças institucionais e algumas capacidades organizacionais, tais como a capacidade de absorção, podem ser relevantes em melhorar o desempenho em inovações verdes. Portanto, este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar empiricamente a relação entre as forças institucionais e capacidades internas na condução de inovações verdes no setor de energia elétrica brasileiro. A técnica de equações estruturais (PLS) foi aplicada aos dados coletados por meio de uma survey realizada entre dezembro de 2015 e maio de 2016. A validade do modelo estrutural foi assegurada através de vários testes e os resultados permitiram concluir que os condutores internos são positivamente relacionados com as forças institucionais e a capacidade de absorção. Ainda, estes mediam a relação entre estes construtos. Além disso, os condutores internos estão positivamente relacionados com o desempenho da inovação verde em produtos e processos. Portanto, o estudo tem várias implicações teóricas para área de gestão, especialmente em capacidades dinâmicas, VBR e teoria da inovação verde. Além disso, as implicações políticas do estudo estão relacionadas com a composição de políticas de um país, a fim de desenvolver regulamentações ambientais que favoreçam a inovação. / Green innovations can be an answer that companies develop as ways to mitigate climate change. These are driven by internal resources as well as institutional forces, and some organizational capabilities such as absorptive capacity can be relevant in spurring green innovations performance. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing empirically the relationship among institutional forces and internal capabilities in driving green innovations in the Brazilian electricity power sector. Partial Least Square Structural Modelling Equation was applied to the data collected through the survey conducted between December 2015 and May 2016. The structural model validity was validated through several tests and the results have indicated that Internal Drivers are positively related to the Institutional Forces and Absorptive Capacity, and mediate the relationship among those constructs. Also, the Internal Drivers are positively related with Green Innovation Performance in products and processes. Therefore, the study has several theoretical implications for management area, especially on dynamic capabilities, RBV and green innovation theory. Also, policy implications of the study are related to the composition of a country\'s policy mix in order to develop environmental regulations which favour innovation.

A prática da terceirização por parte das organizações é uma prática que vem sendo utilizada há muito tempo e tornou-se cada vez mais comum. O mesmo também ocorre em relação às atividades da área de Tecnologia da Informação, onde a terceirização vem assumindo um papel muito importante devido ao crescente do número de organizações que estão adotando essa prática, pelos altos valores envolvidos, ou ainda pelas formas e arranjos cada vez mais inovadores que estão se formando para o uso da terceirização em Tecnologia da Informação. Diversas são as razões que levam os executivos a terceirizar, parcial ou totalmente, suas diferentes atividades e serviços na área de Tecnologia da Informação, sendo muitos deles associados à redução de custos, melhoria da qualidade e foco nas atividades essenciais da organização. Os motivos pelos quais as organizações terceirizam têm sido foco de muitos estudos acadêmicos importantes, onde ainda são identificadas lacunas. Nesse contexto, esse trabalho tem como objetivo identificar os fatores que impactam no processo decisório de terceirização em Tecnologia da Informação. Diante disso, o principal objetivo desse trabalho é responder a seguinte questão: “que fatores devem ser considerados no processo decisório com relação à terceirização da Tecnologia da Informação?” O método utilizado é a pesquisa Survey realizada a partir de modelo validado apresentado pela literatura. O modelo precisou ser adaptado para a área de Tecnologia da Informação que resultou em um modelo contendo as dimensões Estratégia, Ambiente, Características do Processo de TI, Custos e Características dos Fornecedores de TI. O processo de validação e refinamento utilizou a Análise de Confiabilidade (Coeficiente Alfa de Cronbach) e a Análise Fatorial Fatorial Exploratória Discriminante. A partir do resultado dessas validações, foi identificada a possibilidade de diferentes arranjos de variáveis nas dimensões, porém manteve-se o padrão validado anteriormente sem contestação da literatura. A principal contribuição dessa pesquisa para a prática gerencial é o fornecimento de um instrumento de pesquisa que prevê a identificação dos fatores de determinantes para a decisão de terceirização em Tecnologia da Informação sob o ponto de vista do contratante. Esse modelo pode auxiliar executivos na decisão de terceirizar ou não suas atividades em Tecnologia da Informação. / The practice of Outsourcing by organizations has been used for years and it has become more and more common. The same has been occurring as to the activities of the area of Information Technology , where outsourcing has been occupying a relevant role due to the growing number of companies adopting this practice, the high amounts involved, or, still, the more and more innovating arrangements being formed for the utilization of outsourcing in Information Technology. There are many reasons for the executives to outsource, partial or totally, their different activities and services in the area of Information Technology, many of them associated to the reduction of costs, quality improvement and focus on the essential activities of the organization. The reasons why the organizations outsource have been the focus of many important academic studies, where many gaps are still identified. In this context, the aim of this work is to identify the factors that impact on the decision process of outsourcing in Information Technology. So, the main goal of this work is the answer for the following question: “which are the factors that shall be considered in the decision process relating to outsourcing of Information Technology".This work is a survey developed from a validated model presented by literature. The model had to be adapted to the area of Information Technology and resulted in a model containing the following dimensions: Strategy, Environment, Features of IT Process, Costs and Characteristics of IT Suppliers. The validation process and refining have used the Analysis of Reliability (Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient) and Discriminatory and Exploratory Factor Analysis. From the result of such validations, it has been identified the possibility of different arrangements of variables in the dimensions; however, it has been maintained the standard previously validated with no objection of literature. The main contribution of this survey for the managerial practice is the supply of a research tool which foresees the identification of determinant factors for outsourcing in Information Technology related to the contractor. The model may help the executives decide on the outsourcing of their activities related to Information Technology or not.

The phenomenon of Born Globals in particular to the internationalization process has been highlighted by many scholars. The insufficient of the existing researches to the ability of Born Globals going international since their inceptions with limited resources encouraged us to study more in-depth. Resource-based View (RBV) and firm‟s competitive advantage are chosen as the theoretical framework. Three Swedish Born Globals were chosen as case studies, the data was collected by semi-structure and e-mail interviews which within-case and cross-case analysis were applied. The empirical data and analysis draws us to the conclusion that human resource especially entrepreneurs and network are the key firm resources that significantly contribute to Born Globals‟ establishment, internationalization and competitive advantage. However, the finding is highlighted that entrepreneur has a crucial role to both establishment and internationalization stages. Entrepreneur‟s personal network has high contribution when Born Globals is started up while firm‟s network plays more important role at the internationalization stage. By using network, Born Globals gain an easier way to find financial and operating resource. Moreover, entrepreneur‟s capability is the main key resource that creates competitiveness to Born Global firms. Future research suggestions and implications are discussed in the conclusion.

With advances in information technology, various cloud computing related research and development has become a hot trend. Except the vast amount of studies and reports appearing in local magazines and newspapers, government agencies have also set up corresponding R & D projects. However, most of these studies focus on the infrastructure or platform level of the cloud. For example, the projects for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) include the Cloud Computing Center for Mobile Application at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the Cloud Service and Technology Center at Information Industry Institute (III) and the already launched ¡§hiCloud¡¨ at Chunghwa Telecom Corporation. In the business side, there is TCloud Computing that does the development of both "Infrastructure" and "Platform as a Service" (PaaS). As to Software as a Service (SaaS) related research, III has gathered 10 domestic companies to participate the co-operation plans for education cloud, manufacture cloud, ¡K and practice cloud, a total of nine cloud services. However, they are all in the early stages without much success stories or usages. The study of this thesis is angled toward business needs, from the point of resource-based analysis to see how a firm will be affected if introduction of SaaS to business. In particular, we will study this subject from four dimensions, which are the competitiveness of enterprises, IT outsourcing strategy, cost structure analysis and data security technology, to identify the possible critical factors for the introduction for cloud computing services. As most people are perceived, cloud computing has a comparative advantage of cost saving over traditional approach.

LCD panel industry is one of the most promising industries in the world. Taiwanese LCD panel makers have performed quite well in the past few years. On the controversy, the BLU has been viewed as a low entry barrier industry with many suppliers and its profit margin seems to have been squeezed due mainly to its position between big giant LCD panel makers and limited key materials suppliers. However, BLU is one of Taiwan's few competitive industries in the global market because of its high self-sufficient rate and leading technologies over their Korean and Japanese competitors. Sometimes, Taiwan¡¦s BLU industry is even performing better than other component industries within the LCD industry supply chain. It's worth examining the competitive advantages for Taiwan BLU industry by analyzing "Company R", one of the leaders in Taiwan BLU industry. We start our research by highlighting the key characteristics of the LCD industry and the dynamics of the BLU supply chain. After analyzing the marketing, technology, and management requirements for the BLU industry, we have concluded the key success factors of the BLU industry. Then with a brief introduction of ¡§Company R¡¨, we have identified the company's competitive advantages and potential long-term strategies by analyzing the company¡¦s unique positioning and resources, and comparing those with the above-mentioned key success factors of the BLU industry. According to our study, demand for BLU should continue to grow with increasing demand for LCD TVs, in longer term. The major issue for LCD panel industry will be "demand and supply" relationship, while for BLU industry is the "volume" and its "competitive advantages" for each company. The technology development for BLU will continue. BLU is not just a so-called ¡§assembling business¡¨, and its industry entry barrier is much higher than before. Besides, the cluster effect and vertical integration are inevitable for LCD panel makers. To be successful in BLU industry, a company not only needs to focus on these key success factors, but also needs to keep developing and improving its core competencies relative to its competitors.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:55:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 68040200502.doc: 292352 bytes, checksum: 22dffcda589aef3d9497f0594e7f3828 (MD5) 68040200502.doc.txt: 166000 bytes, checksum: 2edc537ffecac2f01599eb83aff7b2b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-03T00:00:00Z / Com Deng Xiaoping a China deixou a luta de classes e partiu para uma estratégia focada no crescimento. Com o apoio do governo conseguiu implementar a estratégia genérica de liderança em custo. Esse trabalho utiliza a ferramenta VRIO para concluir que essa estratégia pode ser considerada como uma vantagem competitiva sustentável