Yes / Working collaboratively with internal and external partners (suppliers, customers and internal stakeholders) has been at the epicentre of product design. Knowledge sharing has been well recognised in this context. However, there is limited research that has addressed the role of social media/Web 2.0 in facilitating knowledge sharing for sense- and decision-making within product design. To address this gap, this study draws on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and two vignettes that relate to ‘collaborative co-design’ and ‘collaborative design-to-order’. We illustrate the role of social media/Web 2.0 in building knowledge sharing capabilities for sense- and decision-making for internal and external partners during product design. Limitations and further research into the use of social media/Web 2.0 are also discussed.

Yes / This study examines the antecedents and market performance outcomes of disruptive business models on one hand and the boundary conditions of the disruptive business model–market performance relationship on the other hand.

Syfte: Företagens miljömässiga ansvar har blivit en allt mer central fråga för företagets intressenter. Tidigare studier som har behandlat relationen mellan Corporate Environmental Performance CEP och Financial Performance FP har resulterat i varierande utfall. Två faktorer som anses påverka denna relation är olikheter mellan branscher och brister i det interna organisationsarbetet. För att få en tydligare bild av relationen mellan CEP och FP behöver forskningen utvecklas för företag som agerar i en ur miljösynpunkt tung bransch. Syftet med studien är att förklara om det finns ett samband mellan CEP och FP i fossila bränsleintensiva företag och se om sambandet är starkare eller svagare om företaget använder en CSR-kommitté. Metod: Studien utgår från en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en deduktiv ansats. Studien har en kvantitativ strategi och har formats av en longitudinell design, där sekundärdata har inhämtats för åren 2014-2017 från databasen Thomson Reuters Datastream. Detta har genererat ett urval bestående av 827 publika bolag från hela världen vars data har analyserats i statistikprogrammet SPSS och presenteras i tabeller. Resultat & slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att det finns ett positivt samband mellan miljödimensionen CEP och den finansiella prestationen mätt utifrån både redovisningsmåttet ROE och marknadsmåttet Tobins Q för fossila bränsleintensiva företag. För de fossila bränsleintensiva företagen med en CSR-kommitté visade även resultatet ett starkare samband mellan CEP och FP än för företag utan CSR-kommitté. En jämförelse mellan olika sektorer visade en tydlig variation mellan resultaten, där vissa sektorer hade ett negativt samband mellan CEP och FP. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till den empiriska forskningen och utökar förståelsen för relationen mellan CEP och FP genom att studera fossila bränsleintensiva företag, som är en miljömässigt tung bransch. Studien bidrar även med teoretisk information om huruvida kontinuerligt arbete via CSR-kommittéer påverkar denna relation. Vidare ger studien ett praktiskt bidrag genom att uppmuntra företag att engagera sig i CEP-aktiviteter, istället för uppkomsten av tvingande miljöregleringar, för att nå lönsamhet. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till fortsatt forskning är att gå djupare ner bland fler sektorer för att kunna se skillnader mellan branscher och göra djupare analyser mellan dessa för att få en större förståelse om relationen mellan CEP och FP. Det kan också finnas skillnader mellan företag av olika storlek, därför är ett andra förslag att dela upp och jämföra resultaten mellan stora och små företag. / Aim: The company's environmental responsibility has become an increasingly central issue for the company's stakeholders. Earlier studies that have addressed the relationship between Corporate Environmental Performance CEP and Financial Performance FP have resulted in varying outcomes. Two factors that are considered to affect this relationship are differences between industries and shortcomings in internal organization work. In order to get a clearer picture of the relationship between CEP and FP, research needs to be developed for companies acting in an environmentally heavy industry. The purpose of the study is to explain if there is a connection between CEP and FP in fossil fuel firms and see if the association is stronger or weaker if the company uses a CSR committée. Method: This study is based on a positivistic research philosophy with a deductive approach. The study has a quantitative strategy and has been formed of a longitudinal design, where secondary data has been collected for the years 2014-2017 from the Thomson Reuters Datastream database. This has generated a sample of 827 public companies worldwide whose data has been analyzed in the SPSS statistics program and presented in tables. Result & Conclusions: The result of the study shows that there is a positive correlation between the environmental dimension CEP and the financial performance, measured based on both the accounting measure ROE and the market measure Tobins Q for fossil fuel firms. For the fossil fuel firms with a CSR committée, the result also showed a stronger relationship between CEP and FP than for companies without a CSR committée. A comparison between sectors showed a clear variation between the results, where some sectors had a negative link between CEP and FP. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to empirical research and understanding of the relationship between CEP and FP by studying fossil fuel firms, which is an environmentally heavy industry. The study also contributes with theoretical information about whether continuous work through CSR committees affects this relationship. The study also provides a practical contribution by encouraging companies to engage in CEP activities, instead of the emergence of compelling environmental regulations, to achieve profitability. Suggestions for future research: A proposal for further research is to go deeper into more sectors to see differences between industries and to make deeper analyzes between them to gain a better understanding of the relationship between CEP and FP. There may also be differences between companies of different sizes, so a second proposal is to divide and compare the results between large and small companies.

Die Arbeit befasst sich mit Methodenproblemen in der Strategischen Managementforschung. Auf Basis einer Meta-Analyse zum Zusammenhang zwischen Ressourcen im Sinne des Resource-based view und der Performance von Unternehmen werden verschiedene Erklärungen für die zu beobachtende Ergebnisheterogenität in den Primärstudien empirisch gegenübergestellt. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass die Operationalisierung des Konstrukts "organisationale Leistung" den größten Beitrag zur Erklärung der Varianz der Studienergebnisse erbringt. Die Appropriationstheorie liefert einen überzeugenden Erklärungsansatz zum systematischen Zusammenhang zwischen Leistung und Studienergebnissen. / The dissertation thesis contrasts various explanations for heterogeneity in strategic management research findings using meta-analytical techniques. I evaluate research results for a well-known research questions in strategic management research, the relation between performance and resources in the framework of resource-based view, and find that the way how the construct ‘performance’ is being operationalized explains a significant part of the observed heterogeneity in research findings, distinctly more than problems like population selection or the unclear temporal link between dependent and independent variables. Appropriation theory is shown to provide a convincing explanation for the observed outcome.

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.

The purpose of this study was to determine which specific resources contribute to the strategy-to-performance gap of small businesses trading in the Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area, from a resource-based perspective of strategic management. The research was prompted by a study conducted by Marakon Associates, the purpose of which was to investigate how successfully companies translate their strategies into performance and what steps they take to close the resulting strategy-to-performance gaps. The main reasons advanced for poor strategy-to-performance results are inadequate or unavailable resources. The research design in the study is quantitative and descriptive in nature. The data was collected from a structured questionnaire comprising of 18 questions emailed to the owners using LimeSurvey. The findings of the survey show that the businesses surveyed lack resources, which leads directly to strategy-to-performance gaps. The most important resources they lack are financial and human resources. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

The corporate political activity field has focused on the study of political capabilities that allow firms to influence governments and regulators. Building on previous studies, this thesis examines a set of capabilities that allow host firms to adapt to rather than influence political environments. Specifically, this set of adaptive political capabilities can be used by firms to confront host country political contexts in emerging economies that share two characteristics: authoritarian regimes and weak institutions. The findings of this thesis show that host firms can develop and use adaptive political capabilities rather than political capabilities to start and sustain their operations in this type of political contexts. This entails attuning firm processes, structures, and practices to local norms and political behaviors, rather than attempting to shape the host country political environment in its own likeness. Our results suggest host firms can develop adaptive political capabilities to enhance their strategic repertoire when starting or sustaining operations in emerging economies with such characteristics. Our contribution is that by using mixed methods, we provide and test several exploratory propositions that support the conceptualization of a framework to guide the development of adaptive political capabilities by host firms and we make explicit a taxonomy of corporate adaptive political strategies that can enable firms to envision how they can adapt to host political contexts.

Literature review about corporate social responsibility (CSR) suggests that there are organisational benefits to be gained from unintentional discretionary expenditure in laudable behaviour. With this in mind, the methodology integrates insights from the ‘stakeholder theory’ and the ‘resource-based view theory of the firm’ to sharpen the strategic base for CSR investment. Quantitative and qualitative research techniques have been used to discover how business organisations are creating shared value for themselves and for society. The main study was carried out amongst hotel enterprises in Malta. The quantitative analysis tested the relationship between Strategic CSR (in terms of the organisational benefits) against the firms’ commitment, behaviour and resources devoted to CSR. Secondly the qualitative phase of this study involved an analysis of interviews with owner-managers across the Maltese hospitality industry and with experts who are responsible for setting policies in the tourism regulatory context. The results have indicated that responsible behaviour led to the firms’ financial performance and market standing, effective human resources management and operational efficiencies. Following the empirical findings a model representing the ‘creation of shared value’ for business and society has been put forward.

This study aims to investigate the relative contribution of tangible and intangible resources, and capabilities on firm performance based on the measures of market share, sales turnover and profitability and explore the complex interaction and foundation of different resource sets and capabilities in the process of performance creation within the context of resource-based theory. In order to address these objectives, a mixed-methods research approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative components was utilised. Hence, a sequential explanatory design is employed, commencing with qualitative methods including in-depth interviews along with the literature review to define and organise resources and capabilities in a coherent system that will form the basis of survey instrument, leading to quantitative methods which empirically test a series of hypotheses regarding the contribution of resources and capabilities on firm performance. Whilst qualitative data analysis indicated organisational culture, reputational assets, human capital, business processes and networking capabilities as the most important determinants of firm performance, the survey that was conducted on a total of 243 questionnaires obtained from 951 firms revealed that intangible resources and capabilities contributed more greatly to firm performance compared to tangible resources. However, in contrast to the proposition of resource-based theory that views capabilities as the most important skills that underpin the development and deployment of both tangible and intangible resources, capabilities offered rather limited additional explanatory power to the prediction of firm performance only with respect to profitability against the combined effects of tangible and intangible resources. All findings were explained especially within the context of Turkish business environment that shows typical emerging market characteristics. Moreover, some noteworthy results were elaborated based on the developed and emerging market differences. Overall, the study raises some questions with respect to resource contributions on firm performance and offers a fruitful avenue for further research.

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.