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Bakgrund: Identifiering av immateriella tillgångar har visat sig vara ett problemfyllt område både för företagen och andra utövare. Tidigare studier har visat på att en stor del av köpeskillingen fördelats till goodwill vilket delvis kan vara ett resultat av immateriella tillgångar inte identifieras i tillräcklig utsträckning. Det har även påpekats att det finns ett stort svängrum inom regelverket som tillåter mycket individuella bedömningar.   Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka om det finns skillnader mellan branscher på den svenska marknaden avseende noterade företags identifiering av immateriella tillgångar vid det första redovisningstillfället efter rörelse-förvärv och i så fall vad orsakerna kan vara. Vi vill även undersöka om det går att urskilja en branschpraxis för identifiering av tillgångar och fördelning av köpeskillingen. Genomförande: Både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ undersökning har genomförts. Branschjämförelser har gjorts för genomförda rörelseförvärv på Stockholmsbörsen under perioden 2005 till 2011. Den kvalitativa undersökningen, har baserats på intervjuer med fyra värderingsexperter.   Resultat: Av undersökningen framgår att det finns skillnader för hur företagen fördelat köpeskillingen till de tre tillgångslagen immateriella tillgångar, goodwill och netto materiella tillgångar men att det är svårt att göra en koppling till branschpraxis. Från intervjuer har vi dock konstaterat att det sannolikt förekommer att företag följer varandra vilket kan förklara skillnader mellan branscher. Fördelningarna påverkas också i stor utsträckning av förvärvets väsentlighet i förhållande till företaget som helhet. / Background: Identification of intangible assets has proven to be a problematic area for both the companies and accountingproffessionals. Previous studies have shown that a large part of the purchase price was allocated to goodwill, which may partly be a result of intangible assets not being recognized sufficiently. It has also been pointed out that there is a wide range in the regulatory framework that allows a lot of individual assessments.   Aim: The aim is to examine whether there are differences between industries in the Swedish market for listed companies' identification of intangible assets at initial recognition for business combinations and, if so, what the reasons may be. We also want to investigate whether it is possible to discern an industry practice for the identification of assets and the allocation of the purchase price.   Completion: Both qualitative and quantitative research has been conducted. The quantitative part consists of industry comparisons of acquisitions on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm listings Small, Mid, Large Cap during the period 2005 to 2011. The qualitative part is based on interviews with four valuation experts.   Results: The study shows that there are differences in how the companies divided the purchase price between the three asset classes intangible assets, goodwill and net tangible assets, but that it is difficult to make a connection to industry practice. From the interviews, we have found that it is likely that companies follow each other, which may explain the differences between industries. The distributions are also influenced largely by the acquisition materiality in relation to the company as a whole.

This dissertation examines the strategic choices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in host countries that become engaged in war. By combining the resource-based view and resource management theory, and drawing additional insights from research on real options and foreign strategic exit, I link the costs attributable to war to the strategic responses of the MNE at the subsidiary level in a novel firm-vulnerability framework. In particular, I develop theory regarding whether a subsidiary will exit from a host country, and if so, the timing (early or late) and mode (whole or partial) of exit. I test my hypotheses on a sample of 626 subsidiaries from 386 Japanese MNEs representing 51 industries in 23 countries at war, both interstate and civil, over the period 1988 to 2006. In analyzing the exit likelihood and timing decisions with time-varying covariates, I employ an extended Cox proportional hazard model, which allows for random-effects modeling of predictor variables at the subsidiary, parent MNE, and host country levels. To determine the exit mode of subsidiaries that choose exit over staying, I use binomial logit models. To correct for potential sample selection bias, I replicate my exit mode results with a Heckman probit model. My findings suggest that iv increasing strategic flexibility can counterbalance the potential disadvantages associated with leveraging strategically salient resources in high-risk locations. In examining war as a broad-based perturbation capable of destroying not only institutionalized values, but also the physical infrastructure and human capital of firms, this dissertation empirically demonstrates how political violence influences the strategies of MNEs. Furthermore, my interdisciplinary approach in integrating theoretical lenses from climate change and natural environment sustainability with existing management literatures to examine the effect of war on firms serves to enhance our understanding of individuals and collectives in extreme conditions.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilken affärsmodell som born globals använder vid internationalisering och vilka faktorer som påverkar valet av modell. Studien har använt sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och har genomförts som en fallstudie. Vidare utgörs studien av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien kommer fram till att born globals vid internationalisering har en affärsmodell som är freemium och att det resursbaserade synsättet samt bransch är viktiga bakomliggande faktorer till valet av affärsmodell. Faktorerna globalisering och entrepenören har mindre direkt påverkan medan nätverk endast har en begränsad påverkan i valet av affärsmodell för born globals vid internationalisering. / The purpose of this study is to examine the business model that Born Globals use during their internationalization, and the factors that influence the choice of model. The study has used a qualitative research method and has been implemented as a case study. Furthermore, the study consists of semi-structured interviews. The study concluded that the internationalization of born globals has a freemium business model, and that the resource-based approach, and industry are important factors behind the choice of business model. Less direct impact has globalization and entrepreneur while networks have only a limited impact on the choice of business model for internationalization of born globals.

Changing trends in customer preference, competitors’ offerings, new technologies and development techniques may disrupt a firm from its current leading market position and may favor other firms that prioritize innovation. Once a market opportunity is identified (i.e., find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question), firms need to engage in a series of activities and information processing to determine an appropriate way to monetize that opportunity – that is, firms need to find an answer to the ‘how to do’ question. Alternately, a firm may first identify a technological opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘how to do’) and then find a market opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question) to make use of the technological opportunity. Two scales that measure the capabilities of firms to address the following two questions – ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ - were reported; these were labelled as market-scanning capability (MktScan) and technology-scanning capability (TechScan); and these two scales were also tested in a broader research model. In turbulent environments, marketing and R&D become more challenging, since they face an uncertain future. Firms need to learn systemic scanning and decoding of apparently random changes in their business environment and imagine a pattern that makes sense. One cannot plan for uncertainty. A better strategy is to be prepared for it. One way to prepare is to develop the capabilities that would help the firm to become more adaptive. Drucker (1992) also argued that instead of planning for the long term that is uncertain, firms needed to become adaptive to tackle uncertainty. The ability of a firm to adapt to the changes depends on its ability to sense the nature of the changes in its business environment and respond to those. Sense-and-respond framework (Haeckel 1999; Haeckel 2000; Day and Schoemaker 2006) was proposed to emphasize the identification of weak signals (Ansoff 1975) to tackle increased uncertainty in business environment. In current days, effectiveness of firm’s activities often depends on the richness of its sources of information and its capability to process the collected information to identify the patterns of change happening in its business environments. Information processing may happen in two dimensions: in market dimension and in technology dimension. Firms’ capabilities for information collecting and processing in these two dimensions were measured using two firm-level constructs. These are market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability. Resource-based theory helped to understand how firms use their tangible and intangible resources to compete in the market. Specific problem-solving aspects of the processes, activities, and cultural norms enable firms to make decisions about engaging the available resources and capabilities in ways that maximize customer value, by realizing the identified opportunities into product and service offerings. This research identified the characteristic strength of this problem-solving approach of firms – collecting information both internally and externally about possible market opportunities and technological options, organization-wide processing of that information, and taking actions to respond using insights gained – as two latent constructs called ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’. The concepts of ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’ were first defined and then, scales were developed to enable researchers and managers to measure these firm-level constructs. Next, the predictive roles of these capabilities on firm performance were examined. Empirical analysis for scale development and validation of the research model were performed with data collected through a web-based survey of Canadian manufacturing firms. Firm performance was captured in two stages – first, by product innovation performance, and second, by overall firm performance. Product innovation performance was used as an intermediate performance measure to examine the direct influence on it of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability, and then, to relate product innovation performance to final business outcome measured using ‘overall firm performance’ scale. The study validated the notion of resource-based theory by supporting the belief that higher levels of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability would lead to improved product innovation performance. The role of environmental turbulence was also examined for its possible moderating effect. Two measures of environmental turbulence, namely, technology and market turbulence were used to test the moderation effect. The technology turbulence construct was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between technology-scanning capability and product innovation performance, indicating that firms needed to focus more attention on the changes in the technology landscape when turbulence in the technological field was perceived to be higher, in order to keep the same level of product innovation performance. Insight gained from the study contributed to a knowledge-base that might be useful to both practitioners and researchers. The combination of TechScan and MktScan scales could be used as a benchmark tool by managers to assess firms’ readiness to take advantage of the opportunities that existed. On the theoretical side, the study contributed to the understanding by showing that both market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability had direct and indirect influences on firm performance. Also, it was found that the indirect influence of a certain scanning capability became important when firms were pre-disposed to emphasize the other scanning capability.

In their highly influential work on the labour market impact of unions termed the collective voice/institutional response model (CVIR), Freeman & Medoff (1984) proposed that whether the unions monopoly or voice face would prevail greatly depended on the unions and managements willingness to compete or cooperate, respectively. However, these authors and the researchers that tested their ideas afterwards neither theorized about nor tested this key moderating condition of a unions impact. The result has been a confusing, mixed and generally inconclusive litany of research findings about the impact of unions at both the individual and organizational levels of analysis. I attempt to resolve this gap in CVIR by using the appropriateness framework (March 1994) to identify when and under what conditions management and unions, along with their members, will respond cooperatively or competitively toward each other. My empirical results are consistent with the idea that management response is a key moderating mechanism of a unions power and thus impact, contributing to zero or negative sum outcomes when management chooses to compete (i.e., union power is exerted in the direction of harmful monopoly effects) and positive sum outcomes when management chooses cooperation (i.e., union power is exerted in the direction of beneficial voice effects). In particular, when environmental cues lead the union and/or unionized employees to believe that management values voice, they will consider cooperation an appropriate response under the circumstances and reciprocate in-kind with other-regarding behaviors. On the other hand, when environmental cues lead the union or unionized employees to believe that management may potentially behave opportunistically, they will consider competition appropriate under the circumstances, and respond in-kind with self-serving, competitive behaviours. Drawing upon the resource-based view of the firm, I argue how a cooperative union-management relationship can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Barney, 1991). / Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations

我國傳統產業的發展由早期台灣經濟的中流砥柱，歷經產業變革、環保意識抬頭打壓後，至今被戲稱為「夕陽產業」，主因為產品生命週期進入低毛利成熟期。大部分傳統產業廠家積極尋求多角化轉型以突破困境，但在無法抽離製造代工心態下，積極投入非核心相關領域，無非是落入另一紅海。目前支撐台灣主要經濟命脈產業仍以資訊科技業為主，傳統產業雖非主流，但改變製造心態，堅持投入核心技術研發仍能伺機尋求切入點。 然而，過去強調創新升級轉型的研究不勝枚舉，但鮮少以國內傳統產業模範廠商為個案進行完整詳細地分析，基於此點，本研究針對我國傳統產業廠商「多角化」進行研究，以企業核心資源為基礎，試圖以較為整體性的架構，探討其多角化之相關議題，期能對「傳統產業多角化」，提供一些實務上與學理上的貢獻。 本研究之研究問題有五：（1）傳統產業廠商多角化的動機為何？（2）傳統產業廠商如何進行多角化？（3）傳統產業廠商企業核心資源為何？（4）傳統產業廠商多角化過程中新產品開發流程為何？（5）傳統產業廠商多角化後的新創組織作法為何？ 透過深度訪談個案公司高階經理人，並配合相關次級資料蒐集與整理，進行彙整及分析之後，本研究獲得以下之主要結論：（1）企業核心資源中之個人專長能力的展現為多角化轉型基礎；（2）創新研發過程中，知識資源的累積是技術發展的原動力；（3）順暢的組織內部溝通有助於新產品或新事業的發展；（4）對新產品開發而言，技術資源的彈性運用與高度整合有利於發展新事業；（5）以創新研發為導向之企業與智慧財產權之管理具高度關聯性。 / The domestic conventional industries were the mainstay of Taiwan economics. Because of the transformation of industries and then suffered from the lift of environmental consciousness. It ultimately turned to be the so-called “Sunset Industries”. The root cause was the low margin profit in mature stage of product life cycle. Most of conventional industries firms strove to break through the hardship by diversification. Not to withdraw the ideology from OEM mindset, the conventional industry firms invested in non-core relevant businesses painstakingly. It was just trapped to another red sea. For the moment, the dominant anchor of Taiwan economics was information technologies not the conventional industries. Nevertheless, just switched the manufacturing viewpoint and persevered to the development of core technologies to look for the niche points. Although, the studies in the past focused on innovative upgrading transformation were too numerous and there was scarcely to portray the leading company elaborately in domestic conventional industries. Based on this concept, the thesis paid attention to the study of diversification of domestic conventional industries. Endeavor to apply the comprehensive framework which was founded on the core resources of enterprises and discussed the correlative issues of diversification. Looking forward to the diversification of conventional industries could facilitate the contributions in practical and theoretical domain. The study aimed to investigate the questions: (1) What were the motivations drove the conventional industry firms to diversify? (2) How the conventional industry firms to execute the diversification? (3) What were the core resources of conventional industry firms? (4) What was the procedure of new product development in conventional industry firms during the duration of diversification? (5) What were the practices to construct the new business unit after diversification in conventional industry firms? This study exerted the deep interview methodology of qualitative researches and secondary data analyses to rearrange. The preliminary research findings included: (1) The performance of individual capability in enterprise core resources was the foundation of diversification. (2) During the innovative R&D process, the accumulation of knowledge resource was the motivation of technology of development. (3) The fluent communication in organization was conducive to develop the new products or new businesses. (4) As far as the new product development was concerned, the flexible exertion and high integration of technology resources was favorable for integrating and exploring new businesses. (5) Innovative R&D oriented enterprises were in high connection with management of intellectual property rights.

近年來，有線電視多系統經營商（MSO）在統合台灣地區各家系統業者的集團化經營模式之下，已逐漸成為國內電訊產業中的主要營運平台之一，其發展也受到眾多產業研究者的重視。隨著全球性的數位電視發展趨勢，以及國內數位傳播科技的蓬勃提升，台灣的四大MSO業者先後在2009年推動數位電視服務，有線電視數位化的市場動能開始浮現，也帶來了國內傳媒產業的嶄新期待。 本文以MSO業者為主要的研究分析對象，輔以系統業者與跨業經營有線視訊服務的中華電信MOD作為交相對應之依據，並以組織資源學理的角度出發，探究有線電視MSO如何以資源運用與整合的方式，來推動數位電視服務。研究發現，原有的收視戶規模、工程技術、人力資源、數位內容與財務規劃等因素，雖然是首要的組織核心資源，但是能否進一步運用內部管理與行銷推廣能力，進而形構出超越傳統市場形象的數位化品牌價值，方為MSO業者的營運思維之關鍵所在。 總體論之，MSO應當將自身調整至電訊服務營運商（Telecommunication Service Operator）的角色定位，並積極引入跨領域背景的未來人才，且必須重視對於旗下系統業者的良好整合與管理、顧客關係管理的妥善執行、雙向互動之科技；而本地內容業者的數位化程度、政策制訂與產業發展的配合亦相對重要。另外，理想的組織外部資源整合，以及明確的數位有線電視服務定位，皆將對於該產業的市場發展性影響深遠。本文亦期盼該研究能對數位有線電視平台業者、內容提供者或其它的相關產業鏈局之業者，產生實質上的參考價值。

中小企業一向是經濟成長的主力，然而受限其資源的短缺，往往無法提供顧客更好的商品或服務。雖然文獻指出中小企業可以透過資訊科技與夥伴和顧客合作來克服它先天的弱勢並提供更好的服務，但仍有許多模糊未解的問題。例如，哪一種中小企業較願意導入以資訊科技為基礎的協同合作模式(IT-enabled Collaboration)？而這樣的合作模式是否能真正的提升他們的績效表現呢？本研究以資源基礎理論和服務導向邏輯理論(service-dominant logic)為基礎，將資源分為operant資源、operand資源、資源互補性及資源相似性，試圖找出在何種資源模式下，中小企業會偏向使用以資訊科技為基礎的協同合作模式。研究方法採用個案研究，並以宜蘭縣枕頭山休閒農業區的八家中小型業者為目標進行訪談。在資料蒐集和分析之後，本研究發現operand資源與operant資源皆會正向的影響到中小企業對科技化合作的參與，其中又以operant資源的影響為更大。此外，從研究中也驗證了科技化合作能促成中小企業績效的提升。根據研究結果，本研究將operant資源視為影響中小企業導入科技化合作模式進而達成績效提升的主要關鍵資源。 / Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main force to economic growth, but they usually restricted by resource shortage when they want to upgrade goods or services. Past literature has indicated collaboration with partners and customers through information technology (IT) may overcome their weakness and serve better. However, there still are blurs, like what kind of SMEs are more likely to engage IT-enabled collaboration? Will IT-enabled collaboration really enhance SMEs performance? Our research framework based on resource-based view and service-dominant logic categorizing SME resources into (1) operand resources, (2) operant resources, (3) resource complementarity and (4) resource similarity. We attempt to find out what key resources in SMEs are related to the usage of IT-enabled collaboration and the contributions to SME performance. We conduct case study with 8 SMEs in Mt. Pillow Leisure Agriculture Area. After data collection and analysis, we figure out that both operand and operant resources have positive impact on IT-enabled collaboration; furthermore, operant resources contribute more for SMEs to communicate and coordinate with each other and customers. In addition, from our research, we demonstrate that IT-enabled collaboration helps SMEs to perform better. Therefore, we suggest operant resources as important resources for SMEs engaging in IT-enabled collaboration and consequently enhancing their performance.

汽車貨運業一直以來都為台灣的經濟帶來極大的貢獻，雖然之前相關的研究提供了這個產業許多價值，但是目前還沒有是針對汽車貨運公司主要所載的商品來做研究，如此的把所有汽車貨運公司一視同仁忽略了承載不同的商品有不同的競爭程度的事實，倒置這些研究所提出來的架構無法解釋許多這個產業裡發生的現象。 將會焦點放在承載鋼鐵的汽車貨運公司，這份研究延伸策略管理的相關文獻來了解這個產業的運作，以質性研究之案例研究法來了解是什麼因素影響了公司表現、公司行為，以及產業所衍生的問題。研究發現產業的狀態，公司所擁有的資源，與正式和非正式的制度錯中交雜的影像了產業間的行為與競爭程度，所以管理者應該避免過度專注於某一層面的策略，他們應該在擬定策略時考慮到策略管理中的產業基礎理論、資源基礎理論、與制度基礎理論。 / The trucking industry has been a major contributor to Taiwan’s economy for decades. Previous research concerning strategic management practiced in the industry, while insightful, did not pay enough attention to the specific commodity primarily carried by trucking companies. The generalization that all trucking companies carry the same commodity neglects the fact that competitive intensity varies considerably within the industry depending on the commodity carried. Consequently, many phenomenons could not be explained using frameworks from previous researches. This study concentrates on trucking companies primarily carrying steel and extends various disciplines from the strategic management literature to the trucking industry. Using the qualitative method of case study, this research attempts to understand the underlying drivers of firm performances and behaviors in addition to challenges faced by the industry. The findings suggest that industry conditions, firm resource portfolio, and formal and informal institutions collectively affect the behaviors and competition in the industry, therefore managers should avoid focusing on a single strategy and bear in mind the industry-based view, the resource-based view, and the institution-based view.