[pt] As firmas enfrentam hoje um cenário altamente volátil e competitivo e muito mais complexo que 10 ou 20 anos atrás. Para enfrentar este cenário, as firmas têm usado a terceirização de atividades da sua cadeia de valores para reduzir custos, melhorar o desempenho e manter o foco nas atividades que propiciam vantagens competitivas. As teorias da Economia dos Custos de Transação (TCE) e Visão Baseada em Recursos (RBV) têm sido usadas nos estudos sobre fazer ou comprar (terceirização). Na TCE, o foco da questão são as transações internas da firma e desta com o mercado, analisando as dimensões de risco, ativos idiossincráticos e freqüência de trocas. Na RBV, o centro da questão está associado aos recursos que compõem a firma, analisando os atributos desses em relação à vantagem competitiva e desempenho comparado com o mercado. O objetivo central desta tese é compreender o porquê das firmas terceirizarem atividades da sua cadeia de valores. Para este fim, uma extensa revisão das teorias TCE e RBV foi feita, com o foco de aprofundar a compreensão das questões relacionadas com a terceirização. A pesquisa examina o entendimento de seis firmas da indústria de café solúvel em relação aos fundamentos dos processos de terceirização. A pesquisa foi qualitativa, através de múltiplos estudos de casos, onde entrevistas com altos executivos das firmas foram realizadas para elucidar e avaliar os casos. A indústria de café solúvel foi escolhida pela disponibilidade de acesso aos seus dados e integrantes, bem como pelo uso da terceirização em todas as firmas. Nos casos, buscou-se observar as vantagens competitivas particulares, os motivadores e variáveis das terceirizações e quais atividades foram terceirizadas. Na análise dos casos foi encontrado que quanto maior o risco que envolve a transação, maior a tendência das firmas internalizarem atividades. Competências internas fracas aumentam a probabilidade de terceirização, enquanto que quanto maior a possibilidade de vazamento de conhecimento estratégico proprietário, menor a probabilidade de terceirização. Esta tese afirma que as teorias TCE e RBV devem ser usadas de forma conjunta para determinar as fronteiras de uma firma, fundamentando a análise se uma atividade deve ser terceirizada ou mantida internamente. Adicionalmente, este trabalho sustenta que os custos de oportunidade são relevantes para a definição da terceirização de atividades e devem ser comparados aos custos de transação. / [en] Today, firms are submitted to a highly volatile and competitive scenario, far more complex than that of ten or twenty years ago. In order to face this, firms have outsourced some of their value chain activities, in an attempt to reduce costs, enhance performance and focus on activities that result in competitive advantages. Both the Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) and Resource-Based View (RBV) theories have been applied in outsourcing studies. TCE focuses on the firm’s internal transactions and transactions with the market, by evaluating risk dimensions, idiosyncratic assets and frequency of exchanges. The core issue for RBV is related to the firm’s resources; the theory evaluates their attributes in terms of competitive advantage and performance as compared with the market. The fundamental objective here is to understand why firms outsource their value chain activities. A thorough review of the TCE and RBV theories has been performed, aimed at deepening the understanding of outsourcing related issues. The present research assesses how six instant coffee firms perceive the outsourcing process rationale. The survey was qualitative and based on multiple case studies, and high executives of these firms were interviewed for clarification and evaluation of each case. Instant coffee industry was selected due to the availability of information and access to their members, and because all firms are engaged in outsourcing. In these cases, we have attempted to observe the particular competitive advantages, motivating factors and variables of outsourcing, and which activities had been outsourced. Case study analysis has shown that the higher the risk involved in a transaction, the more firms will tend to internalize activities. Weak competences increase the probability of outsourcing, while high risk of leak of strategic proprietary knowledge reduces the probability of outsourcing. This thesis asserts that both TCE and RBV theories shall be used in conjunction in order to determine the frontiers of a firm, and underlie the evaluation of whether an activity should be outsourced or performed internally. Additionally, this paper affirms that opportunity costs are relevant in defining the outsourcing of activities, and ought to be considered and compared with transaction costs.

Magister Educationis - MEd / When it comes to education, the legacy of apartheid in South Africa has had major implications for the higher education system. The White population group long dominated the nrolment of students in higher education institutions, although they were, and still are, one of the minority population groups in the country. The under-preparedness of black students means that they require structures to prepare and assist them within the higher education environment. In order to assist these disadvantaged students, higher education institutions have established certain Academic Support Programmes. One such programme is the Career Preparation Programme (CPP) being offered at the University of the Free State. This study attempts to measure the success rate of the Career Preparation Programme and to time to completion of graduates. / South Africa

Value and waste are concepts that are used in improvement projects. In lean the concepts are fairly simple. Reduce the waste and the value has increased. However, value is both multidimensional and differs over time. If the concepts value and waste are to be used, the concepts must be clearly defined and measured. Otherwise, value can be reduced for the customer/user and the cost increased for the producer/seller. The purpose in this thesis is to investigate how value and waste are perceived by different stakeholders, how value and waste are related, and how value and waste are measured. The focus of the study is the improvement of production and services. The study does not investigate the product/service development. The conclusions are based on a number of cases and research from different fields such as resource-based view and marketing. The study use mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Measures of forecasting accuracy and their relations where explored with different statistical tools in order to understand the influence of measures and dimensions. The view of value concerning energy efficiency was examined in a statistical analysis of a survey concerning stakeholders’ view of a specific value, energy efficiency, as well as their influence on the value creation process. A multiple qualitative case study explores the relation between value and waste in different settings and the consequences of waste focus. The findings in the multiple case study are confirmed and elaborated further by an additional case study, both qualitative and quantitative, of value stream mapping.Value and waste are analysed with the use of order winners and qualifiers. Also, a model to clarify the consequences of mixing value creation and value exchange for customer/user and producer/seller have been defined and used in the analysis.Depending on the stakeholder there is a difference between whether value can be regarded as a use value, exchange value or both. Even if exchange value is related to a specific moment in time, use value is not. The view of value differs among stakeholders which increase the risk of sub-optimisation in production.Value and waste have multi-dimensional properties and there are links between the different dimensions. The relationships depend upon the situation in question. The lean seven types of waste are not independent dimensions. Also, the concept of waste as anti-value is too simplistic. In all cases studied the focus is on waste, not value. Also, it is often the symptoms of waste that are of interest in measures taken not the root causes. Reduction of waste without considering the value can create new waste. Since waste is a dependent variable, it should not be measured without considering value. Another complication is that value and waste often occurs at different points in time and in different settings.Single measures are sensitive to its environment. Several measures are more robust. Measures distort and influence the perception and thereby the decision of the studied phenomena. Also, the notion of value and waste becomes harder to define and trace as the resolution and detailing of the studied process increases. / Godkänd; 2016; 20151028 (petwal); Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen. Namn: Peter Wallström Ämne: Byggproduktion /Construction Engineering and Management Avhandling: On Value and Waste Opponent: Docent Kristian Widén, Avd för Byggproduktion, Institutionen för Byggvetenskaper, Lunds tekniska högskola, Lund. Ordförande: Professor Ove Lagerqvist, Avd för byggkonstruktion och -produktion, Institutionen för samhällsbyggnad och naturresurser, Luleå tekniska universitet, Luleå. Tid: Onsdag 14 september, 2016 kl 13.00 Plats: F1031, Luleå tekniska universitet

This dissertation is one of the earliest to systematically apply and empirically test the resource-based view (RBV) in the context of nascent social ventures in a large scale study. Social ventures are entrepreneurial ventures organized as nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid organizations whose primary purpose is to address unmet social needs and create social value. Nascent social ventures face resource gaps and engage in partnerships or alliances as one means to access external resources. These partnerships with different sectors facilitate social venture innovative and earned income strategies, and assist in the development of adequate heterogeneous resource conditions that impact competitive advantage. Competitive advantage in the context of nascent social ventures is achieved through the creation of value and the achievement of venture development activities and launching. The relationships between partnerships, heterogeneous resource conditions, strategies, and competitive advantage are analyzed in the context of nascent social ventures that participated in business plan competitions. A content analysis of 179 social venture business plans and an exploratory follow-up survey of 72 of these ventures are used to analyze these relationships using regression, ANOVA, correlations, t-tests, and non-parametric statistics. The findings suggest a significant positive relationship between competitive advantage and partnership diversity, heterogeneous resource conditions, social innovation, and earned income. Social capital is the type of resource most significantly related to competitive advantage. Founder previous start-up experience, client location, and business plan completeness are also found to be significant in the relationship between partnership diversity and competitive advantage. Finally the findings suggest that hybrid social ventures create a greater competitive advantage than nonprofit or for-profit social ventures. Consequently, this dissertation not only provides academics further insight into the factors that impact nascent social value creation, venture development, and ability to launch, but also offers practitioners guidance on how best to organize certain processes to create a competitive advantage. As a result more insight is gained into the nascent social venture creation process and how these ventures can have a greater impact on society.

Title: The Role of Organizational Culture on Green Marketing Level: Final Thesis for Master’s Degree Program Authors: Lucia Gido Chuwa  and Ukpemeobong Usen Ibokette Supervisor: Dr. Daniella Fjellström Examiner: Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama Date: June 2020   Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the influence of organizational culture on green marketing. Method: This study applies a qualitative research approach on seven selected companies in Sweden and Nigeria.  We interviewed seven people using seven semi-structured interview questions and we carried out thematic data analysis by grouping the findings into common themes to guide our discussion. Result & Conclusions: This study concludes that organizational culture influence implementation of green marketing as it dictates what happens within the organization and how it happens. The organization that embraces environmental values in its culture needs to disseminate it to all employees to create common understanding and commitment towards its implementation. We also discovered a lower level of customer awareness on green marketing which requires more efforts by organizations and stakeholders to create this awareness or advocacy which will help firms investing on green marketing to sell their products. Suggestions for future research: We suggest a future study which could complement this study using a bigger sample size. We also propose a comparative future study which may help to highlight how implementation of green marketing in developed countries like Sweden differs from the developing countries like Nigeria. Furthermore, we suggest an explorative study on how best the customer awareness on green marketing can be enhanced so that to support green marketing. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to the body of knowledge about organizational culture, environmental sustainability and green marketing through highlighting how organizational culture influence implementation of different components of green marketing mix, which was an underexplored area. We also contribute that customer awareness is an important aspect to encourage green marketing Key words: Green marketing, green marketing mix, organizational culture, Sweden, Nigeria, environmental sustainability and Natural Resource Based View Theory.

Informatics is a deep area of science with having information system as well as technology, and in recent times, Information technology organizations cannot exist without a functioning information system. It facilitates and promote the information flow within an organization, at all levels, particularly it allows set of data to reach the right persons, in the right format, and at the right time, generating a positive and beneficial contribution to the organization. The world has become a global village where every nation including Nigeria is striving to attain a high level of electronic governance to bring about inclusiveness, effectiveness, integration, and accountability. Which is why this thesis aims to examine the role of management information systems in enhancing interoperability between e-governance systems in Nigeria.  Interpretive qualitative research was carried out to examine the practices and performance of management information systems in Galaxy backbone in Nigeria to examine how it can be better enhanced interoperability within the organization. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and Focus group discussions and was analysed thematically to generate four themes. The findings were discussed in relation to the research questions and previous literature and were discussed with the use of Resource-based theory.  The result of the findings reveals that management information system important to enhance interoperability in the organization and it will go a long way bring about an integrative nature of information flow within the organization, it will change the physical and manual way processes to accommodate internal networks and departmental integrated systems. For a functional management information system, resources like Information communication technology infrastructure, skills, human resources must be available for effective interoperability. this shows that, management information systems will enhance interoperability between government systems and initiatives to make the government more open to citizen participation and involvement and be a tool for better governance. Management information systems will allow governments, through their departments and ministries, to easily generate, analyse, share, disseminate and manipulate information.

Den tilltagande digitaliseringen och framväxten av flersidiga plattformar har intensifierat konkurrensen på marknaden. Vilket i sin tur försvårat e-handlarnas strategiska arbete för att upprätt hålla konkurrensfördelar. E-handlarnas innovationsförmåga utmanas och allt större uppmärksamhet har riktats mot affärsmodeller, att bli mer konsumentcentrerade samt att reagera snabbare på de förändringar som sker inom handeln för att vara konkurrens kraftiga.Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur svenska e-handlare arbetar med sin affärsmodell och vilka strategier de väljer att implementera för att upprätthålla konkurrensfördelar i och med ökat inträde av flersidiga plattformar. Intervjuer av två fallföretag har genomförts med teoretiska utgångspunkter i resource-based view, fenomenet Big data och value creation. Dessa intervjuer visar att insamling och analys av konsumentdata anses vara en grundläggande förutsättning för att e-handelsföretag ska kunna vara konkurrenskraftiga. Med hjälp av data kan e-handelsföretagmöta konsumenternas behov i större utsträckning. Slutligen visade även resultatet av studien att det uttrycktes en positivitet från respondenterna gällande Amazons lansering på den svenska marknaden.

In the current literature, a gap is identified concerning how SMEs can achieve eco-efficiency through digitalisation. This study sets out to explore how firms can achieve eco-efficiency objectives by employing digitalisation as a resource. It does so by viewing digital resources through the lens of the resource-based view which concerns the link between resource heterogeneity, mobility of resources, and the competitive advantage benefited by the firm. The study employs an explorative investigation using qualitative data collection in the form of interviews with six case companies. All of the cases operate within the Swedish logistics industry. The selection of the logistics industry was made since it is cost and efficiency-oriented, burdensome on the environment, and reliant on digital technologies. The data revealed that the cases have a stronger inclination towards one of two main eco-efficiency motivations. Some are more economically motivated, and others are more environmentally motivated. In either case, the types of digital resources employed are characterised by whether they are configurable or generic. The firms share a commonality in that they all strive to make their digital resources more productive by combining them with digitalisation capabilities, which are a specific form of capabilities that enable companies to deploy digital resources more effectively and efficiently towards eco-efficiency. They do this to separate themselves from the competition and create a sustained competitive advantage.

Företagsvärdering handlar om att uppskatta och beräkna det ekonomiska värdet på ett företag genom olika metoder och modeller. De finns dock en problematik med att de klassiska värderingsmetoderna utesluter en stor del av de icke-finansiella faktorerna. Dessa faktorer kan ha en betydande roll på företagets värde men utesluts då de inte finns något enkelt sätt att väga in deras betydelse i värderingsmodellerna. Flera tidigare studier lyfter fram humankapital som en av de viktigaste tillgångarna i ett företag. I små företag tenderar dessutom ägaren vara starkt kopplad till företaget. Detta beror på att ägaren ofta besitter förmågor och företagsspecifik kunskap som gör denne mycket betydelsefull för företaget och dess drift.  Syftet med rapporten är att undersöka vilken betydelse en ägare i små företag har på ett företags värde vid en försäljning. Den teorin som använts för att svara på rapportens syfte är den resursbaserade teorin och VRIO-ramverket, med ett urval av tre delar. Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med företagsvärderare.  Studien har visat att en ägare oftast ses som betydelsefull i små företag. Hur betydelsefull ägaren anses vara kan däremot variera beroende på ett antal olika faktorer. En ägare kan besitta kunskap och förmågor som gör denne värdefull, sällsynt och icke-imiterbar i det specifika företaget. Det finns flera olika tillvägagångssätt för att ta hänsyn till ägaren vid en företagsvärdering, gemensamt är dock att alla värderare tittar på vilken risk som uppkommer när ägaren lämnar företaget. Ju mer betydelsefull desto större blir risken och desto mer påverkas företagets värde. Av studien har det framgått att det är kriteriet icke-imiterbar som har allra störst påverkan huruvida hänsyn tas till ägaren vid värderingen eller inte. Studien visar också att det finns ett flertal problem och svårigheter när hänsyn ska tas till ägaren och vid värdering av små företag. / Business valuation is about estimating and calculating the economic value of a company through various methods and models. However, there is a problem with the fact that classical valuation methods exclude a large part of the non-financial factors. These factors can have a leading role in the business’ value but are excluded since there is no easy way to weigh in importance in the valuation models. There are several studies which lift human capital as one of the most important assets. Moreover, in small businesses, the owner tends to be strongly linked with the company. This is because the owner often has a skillset and domain specific knowledge which make them significant for the business and its operation. The aim of the report is to investigate the impact of an owner in small firms on the value of a firm in the event of a sale. The theory used to answer the purpose of the report is the resource based theory and the VRIO-framework, with a selection of three parts. The study has a qualitative research method and the empirical material has been gathered through semi structured interviews with business valuators. The study has found that an owner is often viewed as a valuable asset in a small firm. How impactful the owner is varies on a number of factors. An owner can have knowledge and abilities that make them valuable, rare and non-imitable. There are several approaches to taking the owner into account in a business evaluation, a common denominator is that all business valuators look at the risk that incurs when the owner would leave the company. The more impactful the higher the risk will be which affects the value of the business. The study shows that the criteria non-imitable has the highest impact when it comes to if the owner will be taken into account or not. The study also shows that there are several difficulties and problems when taking the owner into account when valuating small businesses.

The previous chapters described in detail the literature, theory and research on Co-alignment, RBV and SHRM that was the basis for the development of a construct for the conceptualization of HPWP in the casual theme restaurant sector of the US hospitality industry for management. Firms able to implement such HPWP systems possessing universality, i.e. complementary internal fit, have been shown to increase the intangible value of their human capital (employees) and create greater economic value (Delery, 1998). This study used the co-alignment principle in conjunction with concepts in SHRM and RBV to develop a theory for a HPWP system for casual theme restaurants in the US, which is named a High Performance People System (HPPS). The co-alignment model for hospitality organizations which is the foundation of the theoretical model for this research (Olsen, West, and Tse;1998) describes the relationship between four key constructs, i.e. the environment, strategy choice, firm structure, and firm performance. Briefly, the four constructs in the model must be in alignment with each other in order for the firm to produce the greatest value for its stakeholders. Co-alignment theory purports that, "if the firm is able to identify the opportunities that exist in the forces driving change, invest in competitive methods that take advantage of these opportunities, and allocate resources to those that create the greatest value, the financial results desired by owners and investors have a much better chance of being achieved" (Olsen et al. 1998, p.2). SHRM researchers have been advocates of the theory that supports the causal relationship between HRM practices, sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) and firm performance. Several strategic human resource management researchers such as, Cappelli & Singh (1992),Wright & McMahan (1992), Pfeffer (1994), Lado & Wison (1995), Huselid (1995), Jackson & Schuler (1995),Becker & Gerhart (1996), Delany & Huselid (1996), Boxall (1998), Pfeffer (1998), Schuler & Jackson (2000), Ulrich & Beatty (2001), Lepak & Snell (2002), Hartog (2004) and others have directly or indirectly made attempts to theorize the effects of single or multiple human resource management variables on firm performance. These efforts have led to the incremental development of the strategic human resource management literature that stresses the relationships between the HRM practices, SCA and firm performance. There is an emergent body of evidence demonstrating that "the methods used by an organization to manage its human resources can have a substantial impact on many organizationally relevant outcomes" (Delery, 1998, p. 1). Convoluting the research on HPWP is incongruity among researchers on the micro HRM practices which are included in the SHRM system; there is little concurrence among scholars with respect to specifically which human resource practices should be incorporated (Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Rogers & Wright, 1998; Chadwick & Cappelli, 1999). RBV is one of the ten schools of thought in the field of management theory (Mintzberg, 2000) and is predicated on the concept that in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage and produce value for the firm, individual policies or practices produce the greatest results when they operate in a complex system that is not easily imitated (Barney, 1995). Resources are the "physical things a firm buys, leases or produces for its own use or the people hired on terms that make them effectively part of the firm" (Penrose, 1959: 67). Wernerfelt (1984) defines a firm's resources as "tangible or intangible assets which are tied semi-permanently to the firm" (p. 172). Barney (1991) further suggested that resources which can be used to create a SCA must have value, rareness, inimitability and substitutability The research focused on the discovery of the components of a HPWP system construct in the US casual theme restaurant segment for operating managers and the performance metrics used to judge their effectiveness. An exploratory study, in part using the Delphi method, serves as the overall research approach. A cross section of restaurant industry experts including company executives, consultants, academics and investors/owners contributed to the study. The outcome is a list of HRM work practices that are common to the casual theme restaurant industry and performance metrics. Based on prior empirical work the study started with 14 HRM work practice dimensions (See Table 3.1) and 3 performance measurements of productivity, turnover and financial performance (Huselid, 1995; Huselid & Becker, 1995; Delery & Doty, 1996; Becker & Huselid, 1996; Huselid & Becker, 1997; Hartog, 2004). These dimensions and performance metrics were presented to the panel of expert's making up the pilot study group as a starting point in the development of the HPWP system construct for the casual themed restaurant industry. After compiling the results of the pilot study and pretesting the survey instrument, the first Delphi survey (see Appendix 3) and a subsequent reminder were sent out electronically to the preselected Delphi participants for the study. A consensus on the research questions was not reached from the first-round survey according to the protocol Therefore, the second round was administered which provide opportunity for participants to change their position to help the group reach a consensus. Since consensus was reached according to the protocol (see tables 4.9, 4.12 & 4.13), the Delphi was concluded at this point. In summary, figure 1.1 put forth a conceptual model to clarify the relationships between the above mentioned schools of thought and firm performance. Figure 1.2 presented a working theoretical model which expounds on the relationships between the key concepts in the conceptual model and firm performance. Finally, figure 5.1 displays the results and the relationships of the study which methodically confirms the components of a HPPS for unit level managers, and identifies appropriate evaluation criteria for determining the performance of HPPS in the US casual restaurant market. / Ph. D.