Title: Internet of things and cloud computing adoption within manufacturing among small to medium sized enterprises in Sweden. Authors: Tim Kari and Wesley Kleinreesink Background & Problem discussion: Industries in Europe are facing economic challenges related to global societal and technological developments. The adoption of industry 4.0 technologies such as IoT and cloud computing within manufacturing can be used as a solution to these challenges. SMEs form the backbone of the Swedish economy, making up a large amount of the employment and added value within the country, making them important in this context. Little is known about the maturity levels of IoT and cloud computing and the challenges encountered during adoption of of these technologies by Swedish SMEs. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate maturity levels of IoT and cloud computing adoptions and the associated adoption challenges by looking at Swedish SMEs in the manufacturing industry that are adopting or are interested in adopting IoT and cloud computing technologies within their manufacturing. By addressing the maturity levels and adoption challenges found among the cases and providing more insight into the context in which these are occurring. These insights can then be used for the purposes of addressing maturity levels as practitioner and contributing to current literature regarding maturity levels and adoption challenges found. Method: Following an exploratory research strategy, qualitative data has been gathered both in the form of a literature review as well as a multiple case study through semi-structured interviews. The data has then been analyzed by conducting a conceptual analysis, a cross-case synthesis and pattern matching Findings & Conclusion: The findings indicate that the levels of maturity vary highly between categories and cases, with only a few examples of reaching higher (integrated) levels of maturity. Adoption challenges found were mainly centered around organizational and human challenges as opposed to technical ones, indicating that further focus needs to be put on organizational change management. Furthermore, an apparent lack of knowledge among the case companies may explain both the narrow and simple implementations of IoT and cloud computing as well as the lack of drivers for further adoption. The implications of this means that managers need a larger focus on change management and more comprehensive implementation plans. There is also the need to consider the need for digitalization and to do it in an efficient and useful manner. Further research is needed on these topics, with possible avenues being a focus on smaller companies, a study with a larger sample size or a focus on industries with a higher volume of production as the ones presented in this study were all relatively low-volume.

For numerous companies today, one of the key elements for successful competing in the market is an optimized inventory management. Inventory management is about satisfying the customer need, while keeping the inventory costs as low as possible. This report discusses the functionality assessment of inventory management software for small to medium sized enterprises (SME). It is an investigation motivated by the fact that high-end inventory management solutions are becoming financially available for SME via the SaaS technology. The main question that this study aims to answer is therefore what functionalities and functionality characteristics in external high-end inventory management solutions enable competitive advantage for SME’s. A survey complimented by a number of interviews was conducted in order to gain a broad picture of what the SME’s need from these solutions. The answers obtained from the SME respondents were compared to relevant literature, and from that the conclusions were drawn. Furthermore, a QFD analysis was made to evaluate how well an existing high-end-solution matches the SME requests. The result of the study shows that there are many similarities between what the SME need and what the large companies need in terms of functionalities in these systems. However, the study also shows that, for optimal use, these functionalities must be delivered by the system developers in a way that is better suited for SME’s. / För många företag idag är en av nyckelkomponenterna för framgångsrik konkurrens på marknaden en optimerad lagerstyrning. Lagerstyrning handlar om att tillfredsställa kundernas behov samtidigt som lagerkostnaderna hålls så låga som möjligt. Den här studien utvärderar funktionaliteter i lagerstyrningsmjukvaror för små till medelstora företag. Det är en undersökning som är motiverad av det faktum att avancerade lagerstyrningssystem blir mer och mer finansiellt tillgängliga för små till medelstora företag via den så kallade molnteknologin. Huvudfrågan som detta examensarbete ämnar besvara är därför vilka funktionaliteter och funktionaliteters egenskaper i avancerade externa lagerstyrningssystem som möjliggör konkurrenskraft för små till medelstora företag. En enkät kompletterad av ett antal intervjuer genomfördes för att skapa en bred bild av vad de små till medelstora företagen behöver från dessa system. Svaren som erhölls från de undersökta företagen jämfördes med relevant litteratur och från detta har slutsatser dragits. Dessutom har en så kallad QFD-analys gjorts för att utvärdera hur bra en existerande system stämmer överens med vad de små och medelstora företagen efterfrågar. Resultatet av detta examensarbete är att det finns många likheter mellan vad de små till medelstora företagen behöver och vad de stora företagen behöver angående funktionaliteter i dessa system. Emellertid visar denna undersökning att, för optimal nytta av dessa system, måste dessa funktionaliteter anpassas för de små och medelstora företagen.

The shift towards electric vehicles has during the last years increased; nevertheless, the rate has not been fast enough. Electric vehicles have several environmental benefits as reduced CO2 footprint and a lower climate impact. On the other side, the reality shows that there are several adoption barriers on an individual level for electrical vehicles. These are technical, economic, infrastructure, policy, and social. However, a low amount of literature focuses on the business sector. This thesis examines and explores what the different adoption barriers are concerning battery electric vehicles for small and medium enterprises in Sweden, and why they occur. The purpose of this is to fill the current research gap and provide valuable data to vehicle providers/manufacturers in Sweden. To reach the objectives, an extensive theoretical framework has been created to accurately utilize current literature. In the thesis, five small and medium enterprises participated, and interviews were conducted with nine informants at the specific companies. The findings display that the technical, economic, and infrastructure barriers have the most negative effect on the possibility to adopt battery electric vehicle. It further shows two new barriers, planning and customer/competitors which influence the adoption of battery electric vehicles. These findings solely display the barriers for small and medium enterprises, and by linking together with current literature, new barriers have been presented in terms of planning and customers/competitors.

There’s increasing evidence that activities from humans are affecting the earth system to a degree that is crossing the planetary boundaries. During the last decade, Circular Economy has gained attention from both academia, companies, and policymakers and is seen as one way to address economical and sustainability issues. A circular transition requires the implementation of innovative business models, but the uptake of circular business models is still slow. In Sweden, 99,9% of all companies are classified as small and medium-sized enterprises. Those companies play an important role in the circular transition, but the process is however slow due to internal factors like lack of resources and competencies alongside other barriers like regulations, market, and lack of support. Despite a lot happening in the field of circular transition for small and medium-sized enterprises, there's still little research focused on the ongoing state of circular economy in practice. In this exploratory study, semi-structured interviews have been used to explore the ongoing state in Sweden. The aim of the study is to explore how intermediaries are supporting small and medium-sized enterprises with adopting circular economy in Sweden and what kind of challenges and opportunities the intermediaries have experienced along the circular transition process. The results show that we should go beyond the general drivers and barriers for adopting a circular economy. The challenging barriers might not be a lack of resources and regulations, it might be the lack of awareness and interest from companies themselves. What became clear during the interview study was that the environmental benefits of adopting circular economy is not the driving force but rather a result of adopting circular economy. The motivation in the first place for adopting circular economy is that it can create a better and a smarter business. There was a consensus among the intermediaries that when one is workings with companies, one must highlight the business values of a circular economy: profitability, resource efficiency, loyal customers, etc. If companies don’t see the opportunities and benefits of adopting circular economy, they won’t prioritize and allocate resources for it. The complexity of a circular transition also requires collaboration on different levels: between companies, regions, business developers, municipalities, research institutes, policy developers, etc. To enable the overall collaboration, there’s a need for a comprehensive facilitator or coordinator on different levels (national, regional, and local) that can unify the national transition.

Die Förderung von Innovation und Kreativität, und die gezielte Entwicklung innovativer Dienstleistungen stellt insbesondere kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen (KMU) vor Herausforderungen, da sie oft über begrenzte Ressourcen (Kapital, Personal, Zeit) und unstrukturierte Innovationsprozesse verfügen (Disselkamp, 2015). Dies gilt gleichermaßen für den spezifischen Fall von industrienahen Dienstleistern (IND), bei denen es sich in erster Linie um KMU in einer Business-to-Business (B2B)-Umgebung handelt. Ein prominenter Ansatz für Innovationsentwicklung ist Design Thinking (DT), ein explorativer, lösungsoffener Prozess, der die Benutzerperspektive zur Entwicklung innovativer Produkte auf der Grundlage heterogener Teams und Kreativität einnimmt (Brenner, Uebernickel, & Abrell, 2016; Brown, 2008; Johansson-Sköldberg, Woodilla, & Çetinkaya, 2013). Bislang gibt es wenige Beispiele, wie DT durch IND in der Praxis eingesetzt werden kann (Joyce, 2017). Eine mögliche Erklärung hierfür ist, dass der DT-Ansatz in erster Linie für Produktinnovation entwickelt wurde (Disselkamp, 2015; Matthing, Sandén, & Edvardsson, 2004). Insbesondere die Prototyp-Entwicklung, als eine Phase im DT-Prozess, zeigt deutlich, dass der DT-Ansatz und seine kohärenten Methoden auf die spezifischen Bedürfnisse von IND erst noch angepasst werden muss. Dieser Beitrag weist das bisher nicht ausgeschöpfte Potential von DT für IND auf, und dient somit als Handlungsempfehlung für die Wissenschaft.

Aim. The purpose of this degree project was to assess the impact of the sudden, historically-unique COVID-19 workplace restrictions on the knowledge management and interrelated ICT utilization of a knowledge-intensive SME in Germany. Based upon the outcomes of this assessment, suggestions for future advancement were to be developed.Research Approach. The research approach entailed a qualitative case study addressing a single IT company with 42 employees. The research itself was conducted via triangulation, with the semi-structured interviews of four purposely sampled company executives serving as the focal part. Fundamental aspects of these interviews were further substantiated through four exploratory meeting observations and a company-wide questionnaire contributing 14 employee responses.Findings. Subject to the pandemic-related workspace restrictions, this company was forced to transition to predominantly virtual operations. The organization responded through the introduction of a new, integrated ICT for employee collaboration while simultaneously expediting the codification of tacit knowledge across two existing knowledge repositories. This focus on only a few essential ICTs led to a reduction of prior systems clutter and the company-wide accessibility of explicit knowledge – a quantum leap in terms of efficiency. Along with the primary collaboration via ICTs, a new interaction etiquette developed amongst employees, and IT-related staff was found to cooperate more actively than in the previous on-site environment. Given these insights, this German IT house is recommended to continue its emergently hybrid knowledge management strategy and consider the benefits of both the physical and virtual spaces for an office redesign past the COVID-19 limitations.Originality. Academic references attending to knowledge management during forced workplace restrictions were de facto nonexistent. Adding to it, previous studies on virtual knowledge management indicated a deterioration of performance as compared to on-site operations. This case study is hence not only unique by its pandemic link, but also countering apparent academic presupposition.

Problematiseringen i den här studien har visat att det redan har gjorts en omfattande forskning avseende hållbarhetsrapportering, SME:s och motivationen bakom hållbarhetsaktiviteter. Emellertid har ett forskningsgap identifierats angående varför små och medelstora aktiebolag som inte har lagstadgad skyldighet att hållbarhetsrapporterar ändå gör det. Därigenom är syftet med den här studien att undersöka varför svenska små och medelstora aktiebolag frivilligt upprättar en hållbarhetsrapport, samt vad rapporterna innehåller. För att besvara syftet har legitimitetsteorin, intressentteorin och tidigare forskning främst angående inre och yttre motivationsfaktorer använts för att skapa ett teoretiskt ramverk. Den här studien bygger på en abduktiv forskningsansats och främst med en interpretivistisk forskningsfilosofi. Studien genomförs med fem semistrukturerade intervjuer och en innehållsanalys av åtta svenska SME:s hållbarhetsrapporter. Resultatet antyder att främsta yttre motivationsfaktorer var att hållbarhetsrapporten användes som ett hållbarhetsbevis, marknadsföringsverktyg och för att vinna nya kunder. Resultatet antyder att den främsta inre motivationsfaktorn var stolthet. Dessutom identifierade följande tre tidigare okända inre motivationsfaktorer: “träning”, “helhetsöverblick” och “försvarande av bransch”. Studiens resultat antyder slutligen på att yttre motivationsfaktorer är mer drivande än inre, vilket framkommer ur empirin främst i form av att hållbarhetsrapporten användes som ett marknadsföringsverktyg och för att vinna upphandlingar. Studien visade även att hållbarhetsrapporterna innehåller brister i kvaliteten främst i avseendet jämförbarhet, tydlighet, aktualitet och granskningsbarhet. / The problematization in this study has shown that extensive research has already been done on sustainability reporting, SME’s, and the motivation behind sustainability activities. However, a research gap has been identified as to why SME:s voluntarily prepares a sustainability report, although they do not meet the legal requirements, as well as what the reports contain. To answer the purpose,  legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory and previous research mainly regarding internal and external motivational factors have been used to create a theoretical framework. This study is based on an abductive research approach and primarily with an interpretivistic research philosophy. The study is conducted with five semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of eight Swedish SME sustainability reports. The results suggest that the main external motivational factors were that the sustainability report was used as a sustainability certificate, marketing tool and to win new customers. The result suggests that the main internal motivation factor was pride. In addition, the following three previously unknown internal motivational factors were identified as: "training", "holistic overview" and "defense of industry". Finally, the results of the study suggest that external motivational factors are more driving than internal, which emerges from empirical evidence mainly in the form of the sustainability report being used as a marketing tool and to win procurements. The study also showed that the sustainability reports contain deficiencies in quality mainly in lack of comparability, clarity, timeliness and reviewability.

The COVID-19 crisis has brought uncertainty to the global economy and companies around the world have been significantly affected by the pandemic. Companies in the traveling and hospitality, retail, and pharmaceutical industries have been particularly affected. This paper studies the impact of COVID-19 on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee well-being in these industries among small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) and larger-sized ones. The results showed that COVID-19 has had a negative effect on CSR and employee well-being in ten case study companies, based in the European Union. This negative effect could be overturned, however, if companies adopt certain measures. More concretely, five key factors have been identified: (i) leadership/management style; (ii) CSR form and orientation; (iii) alignment of CSR with the institutional environment, (iv) organizational changes, and (v) positive employees’ perceptions and reactions. Therefore, companies at all levels should pay more attention to the impact of COVID-19 on CSR and employee well-being and take countermeasures in order to mitigate the effects on the industry and advance sustainable development.

By using the cross-sectional data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, this dissertation selects a sample of over 3000 firms from 16 Central and Eastern European countries during the 2008 financial crisis, to assess (1) How effective priori classifications are to identify financially constrained and unconstrained firms in times of economic recession (2) What the main robust determinants are at the firm and country-level that affect SMEs' degree of financing obstacles (3) What experiences and lessons we can learn from 2008 crisis to combat with 2020 and future emerging recession. Our evidence indicates that during the economic crisis happened in 2008, size, industry, ownership and EU dummy are useful priori classifications while distinguishing firms' different degree to financing troubles, although some of other priori classifications appeared on other literature are ineffective. Smaller firms, foreign-owned and firms in manufacturing are more likely to report the financing trouble and have less access to formal sources of finance. However, government-owned firms and firms with adequate educated workers are less likely to be financially constraint. The result confirms that economic freedom, financial market and trade integration all have a significant relationship with SMEs' access to finance. For...

This cumulative dissertation covers four papers on the management and governance of family firms. The first paper provides a systematic review of the literature on family-related determinants of the board of directors’ tasks, composition and processes in family firms. The review clusters and synthesizes the literature into six major determinants, details the methods used, and provides recommendations for future research in the field. The second paper develops a contingency approach to board task needs of family firms. The paper identifies five contingency factors and demonstrates how board task needs typically evolve over the ownership stages of family businesses. The third paper constitutes a qualitative empirical study on the role of board control in controlling owner family businesses. Based on a multiple case study approach, the study shows that controlling owners frequently use board control as a self-governing mechanism to mitigate self-control problems. Additionally, the study provides insights on favorable board processes and board composition in the controlling owner setting. Overall, the dissertation underlines the importance of factoring in the influence of family firm heterogeneity on the board of directors. The fourth paper concludes the dissertation with a teaching case study on a small family firm that is exposed to the threat of a disruptive innovation in its industry.:1 Introduction 1.1 Research Objective 1.2 Summary of the Research Papers 1.3 References 2 Determinants of Boards in Family Firms: A Systematic Literature Review 2.1 Abstract 2.2 Introduction 2.3 Boards of Directors in Family Firms 2.4 Research Method 2.5 Findings on Family-Related Determinants 2.6 Synthesis of Results 2.7 Future Research 2.8 Conclusion 2.9 Appendix 2.10 References 3 The Board of Directors in Family Firms: One Size Fits Forever? 3.1 Abstract 3.2 Introduction 3.3 Board Tasks in Family Firms 3.4 Development of a Conceptual Model 3.5 Limitations of the Model 3.6 Conclusion 3.7 References 4 Self-Control Through Board Control: Formalized Governance in Controlling Owner Family Businesses 4.1 Abstract 4.2 Introduction 4.3 Theoretical Foundations 4.4 Research Method 4.5 Findings 4.6 Discussion 4.7 Conclusion 4.8 References 5 Teaching Case Study ATB: Digital Disruption in the Manufacturing Industry 5.1 Abstract 5.2 Case Manuscript 5.3 Teaching Note 5.4 References 6 Conclusion 6.1 Contribution of the Dissertation 6.2 Limitations and Avenues for Future Research 6.3 References