Firms today are confronting a dynamic business environment such as change of customer preferences, demographics, business and organisational models and the emergence of new technologies. Changes in the business environment can lead to knowledge-based firms transforming their business structure and risking losing their competitive advantage by ignoring their value in human capital. Human capital originates from intellectual capital which consists of both social and organisational capital as well. The combination and utilisation of these capitals is the basis for organisations to achieve higher levels of productivity and competitiveness. However, when facing a transformation, organisations tend to struggle to maintain competitive advantage. Thus, in a knowledge-based industry, human capital along with the other capitals, are essential to manage during a transformation to not risk losing competitive advantage. To address this topic, we chose to investigate a Swedish company in the machine manufacturing industry undergoing a transformation, referred to as Company X. Company X consists of highly educated and competent personnel, who previously have operated as a project-based organisation. They are currently transforming their organisation towards standardising their production and their employees’ competences. This transformation is directly affecting their work methods, competence demand and overall human capital. We found that Company X has a recruitment strategy which acts as a proactive measure which allows them to procure necessary human capital to maintain their competitive advantage and prepare for change. It was also concluded that Company X struggles with communication which affects their social capital, and thus their human capital. The lack of communication affects the vision and goal of the transformation which becomes unclear for the employees, causing confusion. We concluded that Company X lacks a decent strategy of utilising best practices, which is common for project-based organisation, but becomes more problematic as they become product-based and are more dependent on previous experiences.

Tillväxten hos små och medelstora företag är viktig då den är en förutsättning för överlevnad, dynamik och jobbskapande. 2019 uppstod fyra av fem nya jobb bland små och medelstora företag. Särskilt viktiga för Sveriges ekonomi är små och medelstora industriföretag, då de står för en femtedel av Sveriges ekonomi samt cirka tre fjärdedelar av detsamlade exportvärdet. Denna studie avser att beskriva och analysera om det finns ett statistiskt signifikant positivt samband mellan användningen av kortfristiga skulder och tillväxt bland 150 tillverkande små och medelstora företag (SMF) i Sverige under femårsperioden 2015–2019.  Genom tillämpning av en linjär regressionsanalys har resultatet i denna studie påvisat ett statistiskt signifikant negativt samband mellan kortfristig finansiering och tillväxt. Resultatet har analyserats och diskuterats med hjälp av Resource-based view (RBV) och tidigare forskning inom det studerade ämnet.

This thesis investigates strategic alliances in the aviation industry, focusing on resource sharing, using Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) within Star Alliance and SkyTeam as case studies. It examines the operational and competitive benefits of these collaborations through qualitative research, including interviews with executives and experts. The study highlights alliance dynamics like antitrust immunity, code sharing, and the resource-based view. Findings show alliances improve operational efficiency, competitive positioning, and customer service. It also considers the impact of new technologies and global events on alliances, which pool tangible (technology, infrastructure) and intangible assets (brand reputation, identity), fostering deeper integration. This research enhances understanding of strategic drivers in airline alliances and the complexities of resource sharing in the global aviation sector.

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Esports, or competitive video gaming competitions, have grown in popularity to have millions of global fans, spectators, and participants. Sport organizations, including leagues and teams, are increasingly affiliating, or dovetailing, with esports organizations. Although the meteoric rise of esports presents sport organizations with growth opportunities to connect with these markets, esports remain shrouded in uncertainty, stigma, and stereotypes that impede the convergence of industries. The growing affiliation between these two industries allows researchers to gain insight into the strategic actions of sport organizations despite the institutional constraints that influence their behavior. This dissertation includes three essays that address—with respect to esports—the (1) strategic resources and core competencies of sport organizations; (2) sensemaking of actors within sport organizations; and (3) institutional creation strategies within heavily regulated fields. Essay one consists of an explanatory, qualitative study of professional sport teams diversifying into the esports industry. As sport organizations mature, they will need to seek growth opportunities beyond their core industry and compete with formally tangentially related firms. The nascent esports industry has been embraced by sport organizations (e.g., leagues, teams), many of whom use existing resources and best practices from traditional sport to manage their esports property. This trend provides a salient context to identify how sport organizations are using their resources in a new marketspace and what they can provide to non-sport organizations. Guided by strategic management perspectives of the resource-based view (RBV), knowledge-based view (KBV), and resource orchestration (RO), the purpose of essay one is to examine how sport organizations leverage their core competencies to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The findings support the hypothesis that the existing resources of sport organizations such as physical venues and existing departments (e.g., legal, marketing, sales departments) are used to support sport organizations operations in the esports industry. Moreover, the findings identify that the tacit knowledge embedded in the human capital of sport organizations is a salient resource that helps them generate a competitive advantage against non-sport organizations. While tacit knowledge is a driver of competitive advantage, it is the supporting structures and departments that allows sport organizations to use this knowledge efficiently and effectively. Thus, by operating at the intersection of sport, entertainment, and media, sport organizations are increasingly competing with formally tangentially related firms, and can use their embedded resources and structure when competing with these firms. Essay two focuses on the integration of esports by a first-mover sport organization. Essay two employs an exploratory case study of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball League (NBA) and their integration of an esports team. The 76ers were the first North American professional sports organization to purchase and integrate an esports team. Novel technologies and practices, such as esports, are surrounded by uncertainty and are generally met with resistance (Huber, 1990) with their integration contingent upon internal and external constituent support. Actors, individuals within the 76ers, had to position and garner support for esports, which are representative of the novel practices and technologies influencing the way sport organizations are managed. In essay two an institutional creation work perspective is linked with sensemaking and related constructs to examine how actors within the 76ers helped create and give meaning—sensemaking—to esports. The findings of essay two support how actors within the 76ers were able to foster a progressive culture to create a shared understanding of esports and use this understanding to influence the sensemaking of others—sensegiving. In particular, the 76ers linked the managerial components of operating a sports team to operating an esports team. Yet the 76ers were deliberate in their approach, limiting cross-promotions between the fanbases of the 76ers and their esports team. By connecting institutional creation work with sensemaking, essay two contributes to how actors can proactively take actions to garner constituent support. Moreover, the findings of essay two support that sensemaking is a critical antecedent of sensegiving, as a shared understanding within an organization is a necessary prerequisite to influence the sensemaking of others (i.e., sensegiving). Essay two provides actors within the field of sport integrating novel practices and activities (e.g., augmented and virtual reality, in-game sports betting, wearable fitness devices, mediated sports consumption) strategies to proactively garner support for their integration. Essay two focuses on the integration of esports by professional sport organizations. Essay three utilizes an exploratory qualitative approach to identify the institutional creation strategies associated with integrating collegiate esports programs within the heavily regulated field of U.S. collegiate athletics. The findings of essay three support how actors need to go beyond creating a shared understanding to integrate novel activities. Actors must also influence the cognitive schema of other actors to facilitate the integration of novel practices and activities. Specifically, they can build on the concept of sportification (Heere, 2018) to both communicate and present esports in a manner consistent with traditional sports, using the concept of sport as a legitimizing agent. Collectively, the three essays support how sport organizations can seize growth opportunities with respect to their institutional environment. Sport organizations must recognize their institutional confines, but also can be strategic in their actions by focusing on their financial performance and sustainability in lieu of their constraints. This research contributes to a deeper understanding regarding how the institutional and strategic concerns of sport organizations influence their efficient and effective management. The research lays a foundation for a stream of future research on the strategic growth and long-term viability of sport organizations both within and beyond the esports industry. / Tourism and Sport

This study has theoretical, substantive, and methodological objectives following Brinberg and McGrath (1985). First, the resource-based view of the firm provides a context to support relationships determined from theory in Sociology, Finance and Entrepreneurshp. Using these interdisciplinary theories, the expected contributions of National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) member venture capital firm networks' human-based factors to the performance of initial public offerings are examined. Second, the substantive domain-venture capital-lacks articulation and quantification regarding the impact of venture capital firms on the start-up firms they support, which in this study is identified as IPO performance. Third, methodologically, the operationalization of organizational-related capital is proposed. The independent variables (human-based factors) include reputational capital, cumulative experience, social capital, and organizational-related capital. Organizational-related capital is a construct representing a firm's strategy that incorporates preferences specific to the venture capital industry, namely financing stage preference, industry relatedness, and geographic proximity. Venture capital firm networks are assessed at the syndicate and constellation levels (within and between industries) and bounded by membership in the National Venture Capital Association. Abnormal IPO stock price performance (the dependent variable) is assessed as the new issue's stock price benchmarked to the NASDAQ index and compounded over 21-day periods for up to 126 consecutive days after offering. Control variables were gleaned from economic-based theories found in the finance literature. Positive relationships were hypothesized between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Data constraints limited the number of observations examined, and the selection of IPOs investigated displayed little variance. Thus, explaining additional abnormal performance variance in IPOs backed by NVCA-member venture capital firms above and beyond that controlled for by economic-based theory was not fruitful. Although this study's findings were not statistically significant, many insights were generated that may positively influence future research in this area. The quest to better understand venture capital firms' contributions to entrepreneurial firms and the impact they have on publicly traded stocks remains meaningful. / Ph. D.

Yes / Despite the significant role that multiparty international joint ventures (MPIJVs) play within multinational enterprises, we know little about the significant challenges associated with the management of these ventures. Therefore, we combine the Resource-based View of the Firm and Transaction Cost Economics to investigate the effects of the key aspects of partner diversity (i.e., variety, balance, and disparity) on MPIJV dissolution. We test our hypotheses using a dataset of 248 MPIJVs in China. We find empirical support for a U-curve shaped effect of variety and a negative linear effect of balance on MPIJV dissolution.

Yes / From a perspective of the resource-based view, this paper analyses the inter-connection between technology adoption and creation in affiliates of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in an emerging economy. Operating below the international technological frontier, multinational affiliates are more motivated to adopt technologies already existent from their MNEs than create new technologies, as the former already gives them competitive advantages over local firms. When technology creation is required, multinational affiliates will adopt further technology-based resources from their MNEs as they are unavailable in an emerging economy. As a result, technology adoption is a necessary but not sufficient condition for multinational affiliates to conduct technology creation. Given that networks are particularly important for working around institutional voids in the context of an emerging economy, this paper also investigates the different roles of R&D support from internal and external networks of multinational affiliates in technology adoption and creation. Hypotheses are tested and partially supported based on unique data from 465 multinational affiliates in China.