In recent years, the size of the sporting goods industry in mainland China is developing so rapidly that led many Chinese national sports brand to the market. Among them, the most representative brands, Li Ning and Anta, not only have outstanding performances in the Chinese market, but more gradually into the international sports market. But sporting goods industry as a mature market, especially under the domination of international brands such as NIKE and ADIDAS, it is very difficult for a new luxury brand to survive as a late-mover. In this research, based on New Business Model (Hamel, 2000) and Second-Mover Advantage Theory (Varadarajan et al, 1992), developing a structural model to discuss how could a new sporting goods brand succeed competing with existing brands and go international. Li Ning and Anta, two new China sproting brands, are taken as our study cases. Several important findings are as following: 1. The national character is the competitive advantage of the sporting goods company. Companies should integrate into the China element in the product, and also go to explore the spirit of China's unique culture. 2. Differentiation from competitors through brand positioning, to find their own niche markets. 3. Through continued sponsorship of international competition, the well-known players, not only can produce international visibility, and better able to establish its brand image. 4. China's overall environment provides the opportunity to develop sporting goods company. Key Words: Li Ning, Anta, Sporting Brands, Second-Mover, Competitive advantage

Background: A common assumption in business research is that first-movers in new markets often tends to have competitive advantages that sequent companies find difficult to compete with. Recently the formal research usability has begun to be questioned. The empirical basis there search of this area rests on, is criticized of being too homogenous. The research that’s been done have often focused on specific industries with certain types of entry barriers. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study if there are benefits to being a first-mover in the industry for grocery bags online. The study will use a methodological triangulation in an effort to make a methodological contribution in this research field. Theory: The theoretical framework used in the study is First-mover advantage and Later-entrant advantage. Delimitations: The quantitative part of the study will analyze 15 companies dealing with grocery bags online in Sweden. In the qualitative part of the study a delineation of the population will be made. Five companies were chosen for this part of the study. Methodology: A methodological triangulation was used to increase coherence in the study. Information about the 15 companies consisted of different types of documents such as annual reports and press releases. In the qualitative part of the study semi-structured interviews with different respondents at the different companies was done. / Bakgrund: Ett vanligt förekommande antagande inom företagsekonomin är att företag som är först in på en marknad ofta har långtgående konkurrensfördelar som efterföljande företag har svårt att konkurrera med. På senare tid har forskningens användbarhet börjat bli ifrågasatt. Det empiriska underlaget som forskningsfältet vilar på kritiseras för att vara för homogent. Forskningen är ofta gjord på industriella företag med specifika inträdesbarriärer. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka faktorerna som avgör en first-movers fördelar samt resultatet av fördelarna. Studien undersöker företag som levererar färdiga matkassar på internet i Sverige. Med hjälp av en metodologisk triangulering kommer ett bidrag att göras till forskningsfältet. Teoretiskt perspektiv: Det teoretiska ramverk som använts i undersökningen är first-mover advantage och Later-entrant advantage. Avgränsning: Undersökningen är avgränsad till att undersöka registrerade bolag i Sverige som levererar färdigplanerade matkassar på internet. Urvalet för den kvantitativa undersökningen består av 15 företag. I den kvalitativa undersökningen, består urvalet av 5 företag. Metod: Undersökningen är uppdelad i två delar där två olika metoder användes. Dels en kvantitativ undersökning och en kvalitativ undersökning. En metodtriangulering genomfördes för att öka samstämmigheten i undersökningen. Information om de 15 företagen hämtades från olika typer av dokument, som årsredovisningar och pressmeddelanden. I den kvalitativa undersökningen genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med olika nyckelpersoner på företagen.

Bakgrund: Ett vanligt förekommande antagande inom företagsekonomin är att företag som är först in på en marknad ofta har långtgående konkurrensfördelar som efterföljande företag har svårt att konkurrera med. På senare tid har forskningens användbarhet börjat bli ifrågasatt. Det empiriska underlaget som forskningsfältet vilar på kritiseras för att vara för homogent. Forskningen är ofta gjord på industriella företag med specifika inträdesbarriärer. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka faktorerna som avgör en first-movers fördelar samt resultatet av fördelarna. Studien undersöker företag som levererar färdiga matkassar på internet i Sverige. Med hjälp av en metodologisk triangulering kommer ett bidrag att göras till forskningsfältet. Teoretiskt perspektiv: Det teoretiska ramverk som använts i undersökningen är first-mover advantage och Later-entrant advantage. Avgränsning: Undersökningen är avgränsad till att undersöka registrerade bolag i Sverige som levererar färdigplanerade matkassar på internet. Urvalet för den kvantitativa undersökningen består av 15 företag. I den kvalitativa undersökningen, består urvalet av 5 företag. Metod: Undersökningen är uppdelad i två delar där två olika metoder användes. Dels en kvantitativ undersökning och en kvalitativ undersökning. En metodtriangulering genomfördes för att öka samstämmigheten i undersökningen. Information om de 15 företagen hämtades från olika typer av dokument, som årsredovisningar och pressmeddelanden. I den kvalitativa undersökningen genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med olika nyckelpersoner på företagen

A progressive shift from cash and card –based in-store payments, towards contactless mobile payments, is currently in the making on the European market. This shift would imply payments in stores to be performed in a fast, simple, secure and preferably less costly manner, between a consumer´s mobile phone and a merchant´s payment terminal. Technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) and the use of Quick Response (QR) -codes, both facilitate such contactless payments, and have already built momentum in many European countries. This implies an undoubtedly very tempting new payment experience by the use of mobile phones. However, this shift entails several uncertainties and issues regarding the crystallization of the new “industry” that is forming. These issues regard social, organizational as well as market –related aspects, and adhere to stakeholders on both the provider- and user- side of contactless mobile payment products and services. It has been found that there is a great need for new research on this matter, from a more holistic perspective, where theories on industrial dynamics, developments and user adoption could be used to guide and explain these new industry-impeding issues as well as reveal new ones. This master thesis aims to answer this call – by using such theories in conjunction with a multi-stakeholder perspective from a wide base of empirically gathered data – in order to find, interpret and shed new light on key issues that impede the development and adoption of contactless mobile payments on the European market. It was deemed necessary to first conduct a thorough literature review on the current mobile payments landscape in Europe, in order to find out which key issues seem to be existent on the European market (adhering to both providers and users of mobile payment solution), with the intention to presuppose from those issues for further guidance of choices in theories and construction of empirical data gathering methodology. The theoretical framework was in such way built upon five different but highly interconnected theoretical concepts on new industry evolvement, strategy and adoption. The empirical data was gathered from a two-day conference on mobile payments in Europe, as well as from 10 in-depth interviews with different key stakeholders on the Swedish and European market. The theoretical framework and the empirical data was later merged for analysis purpose, in order to find, interpret and shed new light on these and other issues on contactless mobile payment development and adoption on the European market. This has led to some key findings or conclusions. Firstly, the literature review on the current mobile payments market in Europe revealed some key issues. On the provider-side of the stakeholder spectra; issues mainly revolve around collaboration and competition, where business models are hard to standardize due to the unevenly distributed control and power over the users. This was seen to relate heavily to the NFC Secure Element (SE) -placement, holding the consumers´ payment credentials, since different stakeholders prefer different SE -placements (on the SIM –card or integrated in the mobile phone). Some big actors have also created their own – more of end-to-end - contactless payment solutions, complicating the evolvement even further. This might further lead to issues related primarily to; early and late movers among providers, alternative mobile payment solutions, as well as issues related to interoperability between solutions/technologies as well as across borders. Security concerns have also been highlighted in the literature as a prioritized matter. Among the user-side of the stakeholder spectra; key issues relate to the adoption of in-store contactless mobile payments, such as investment costs for merchants to implement new hardware and/or software (terminals, mainly NFC -compatible), security concerns, reluctance in behavioral change among consumers´ payment habits, and uncertainties in the perceived added value through these new types of payments compared to foremost card payments. Secondly, after merging the theoretical framework with the empirical data for analysis purpose, it was revealed that the uncertain role of mobile network operators creates tensions in the ecosystem on various levels and to various extents. Secondly, preemption strategies utilized by indigenous firms in European countries shows the possibility of hampering payment interoperability, and first-movers risk hurting not only themselves, but the entire mobile payment ecosystem, if security breaches are discovered due to technological uncertainties. This is one strong reason for banks to move slower, but they mightcontradictively risk losing some of their high trustworthiness towards other stakeholders if being too passive. Moreover, two additional trade-off issues were discovered (technology/business model standardization versus innovation, and too many features in the provided offering versus too few features in the provided offering). The first of these trade-offs is further damaging for the ecosystem since there are strong differences in opinions on the matter, as well as what might increase adoption speed. The second trade-off is important to take into consideration where payment card penetration-rate is high. An additional factor carrying issues was the explicit focus of providers on only one side (consumers) in a two-sided market (consumers and merchants). Also, merchants can not be seen as a homogenous group. Finally, the “chicken and egg” –problem seem do not seem to be such a big of a problem after all.

當身處一個競爭激烈的行業，企業想要保持發展，就必須與時俱進，積極創新。但企業應該從哪裡找到創新的機會？除了技術和產品之創新，越來越多企業開始關注商業模式的創新。過去，對商業模式創新的討論大部分集中在企業的內部系統活動改造，或是期待從開放創新中尋找機會。本研究嘗試把商業模式理解為一種敵我對應關係，從主流企業與後進者的攻防戰中理解創新的調適過程。通過分析「非主流」的後進者如何回應主流設計，並由主流企業之迷思理解後進者如何找出商業模式創新的可能。本研究發現，商業模式創新的本質是動態的，而其過程是調適的。後進者可以由主流企業建構商業模式之迷思中，找到自身商業模式創新的諸多樣貌與調適的巧思。 / In an industry that faces intensified competitions, firms need innovate constantly and timely so as to maintain steady growth. But where could firms identify opportunities for innovation? In addition to the innovation of technologies and products, more and more firms pay attention to business model innovation. Previously, our understanding of business model innovation is limited to firms’ business activity systems, or to seek opportunities from open innovation. This thesis attempts to consider the business model as a kind of responsive process between rivals; and to analyze the adaptation of business model within the defensive process between the mainstream firms and the second mover. By analyzing how the non-mainstream player may respond to the evolving dominant design, it is posisble to recognize the myths of the development of mainstream business models. This research suggests that business model innovations are dynamic in their nature and adaptive in their developmental process. The second mover could identify various patterns of new business models and conceive creative adaptation from the mainstream firms’ myths in building their own business models.