The employer, the state, long had the right to unilaterally set wages and determine working conditions. The goverment employees lacked the right to negotiate and sign agreements and to strike. This dissertation focuses on government employees, analyzing their identity and the strategies they chose to deal with their relationship to their employer. The perspective is that of the railway stations staff, postmen and other low-ranking civil servants employed by the Swedish National Railway and the Royal Post Office 1897-1937. The state became bureaucratized during the latter part of the 19th century. Bureaucratization of the goverment´s status as employer was necessary, but at the same time not sufficient to meet the demands of securing operations and of loyal personnel. Therefore bureaucratization was combined with other strategies, especially patriarchalism at the beginning of the 20th century. Through the growth of a discourse concerning "we in the department" strong bonds were created between superiors and subordinates in the department. Later the bureacracy was combined with corporative elements in the employer strategy of the state. For the Railway Workers´Union and the Postal Workers´Union a political strategy became the main and natural choice, considering the employer´s position of superiority. The political role of the employer was a foundation for the state employees´choise of strategy. This political strategy was one of servility and respect at the beginning of the 20th century, but later on borrowed elements of and actual content from trade union and professional strategies. The ideal for a state employee became that of a man with regular post who wore a uniform. There was a close connection between the collective identity of lower civil servants and the identity they were ascribed by their employer. Because of the strenght of the masculine identity this bore the characteristics of brotherhood.

This research explores how an open strategy approach can be used to manage organisational legitimacy in a pluralistic context, characterised by the competing demands of key stakeholders. Open strategy demonstrates an interest in strategising processes becoming more inclusive and transparent (Hautz et al., 2016). Open strategy work to date has focused on its uses and implications, and how strategic inclusion and transparency are being displayed in different organisational contexts. Much open strategy literature also associates the central purpose of open strategising activity with organisations seeking to manage legitimacy (e.g. Chesbrough and Appleyard, 2007; Whittington et al., 2011; Tavakoli et al., 2017), particularly through ensuring that their actions are desirable in the opinion of key stakeholders (Suchman, 1995). Whilst a small number of studies have explicitly focused on open strategy and legitimacy, these do not go beyond illuminating legitimacy as a potential effect (Gegenhuber and Dobusch, 2017) or outcome (Luedicke et al., 2017). Absent has been research attempting to specifically understand open strategy as a process of legitimation (Uberbacher, 2014), and there remains a need to unpack and elevate the significant potential of open strategy approaches for managing legitimacy further. To address this gap, this research presents an in-depth single case analysis of an organisation undertaking the development of a new four-year strategic plan using an open strategy approach. A number of data collection methods were used, including completion of 30 semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and collection of significant social media and documentation data, to explicate the concepts of open strategy and organisational legitimacy, addressing the question; How does an open strategy approach represent a process of legitimation for managing the competing demands of organisational stakeholders? . A pluralistic context, a UK-based professional body, is the basis for the empirical work. It is acknowledged that interrogating the intricacies of strategising in pluralistic contexts, and the inherent competing demands of stakeholders, might offer new perspectives, and a useful means of expanding the contextual base of practice-based strategy work (Jarzabkowski and Fenton, 2006). However, studies of open strategy in pluralistic contexts remain near non-existent in the literature (Lusiani and Langley, 2013). In the organisational legitimacy literature, there is much discourse on how legitimacy is managed and gained through specific legitimation processes and strategies, and increasingly such a focus has been adopted to recognise how organisations might manage legitimacy demands in contexts defined by plurality, amidst diffuse power and divergent objectives (Denis et al., 2007). In this study, a practice-based activity theory framework is used (Jarzabkowski 2005; Jarzabkowski and Wolf, 2015) to explore legitimacy in relation to organisational direction and priorities, and as a means of redefining the organisation s core goals in an enactment of strategic openness. The work here conceptualises how the case organisation has adopted a plethora of open strategising practices for legitimacy effects (Suddaby et al., 2013), providing a detailed account of how different dynamics of open strategising activity connect to specific forms of legitimation over time. The findings indicate that different open strategy dynamics represent the case organisation switching between distinct approaches to legitimation, as a means of managing the competing legitimacy demands of organisational stakeholders in a flow of activity. Through this narrative, a greater perception of legitimation as a core purpose of open strategy is provided. Overall, this research offers an important contribution by accentuating the principal relevance of organisational legitimacy in open strategising, particularly through elevating legitimacy beyond being understood as an effect or outcome in open strategy work. Further, this more explicitly brings open strategy into close alignment with the organisational legitimacy literature and its theoretical conceptions (Lawrence et al., 2009; Suddaby et al., 2013), which is imperative for understanding the potential importance of open strategy as a means of legitimation.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate which product attributes lead consumers to prefer startups’ products over established companies’ products in the specialty product category. The research object is the electric vehicle market in Germany and the product attributes that are researched are alignable attributes, non-alignable attributes and the price. Design/Methodology/Approach – Quantitative data was collected via an internet questionnaire by means of the non-probability sampling techniques convenience and snowball sampling. The data of 408 members of the German Generation Y (age 17 – 38) was used to test six hypotheses by applying ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings – It was found that established companies possess a pioneer advantage in comparison to startups for the specialty product ‘electric vehicle’. This advantage can be overcome when startups differentiate their electric vehicles by implementing superior alignable attributes, a valuable non-alignable attribute or a lower price. Superior alignable attributes had the strongest positive influence on consumers’ preferences towards the startup’s electric vehicle, followed by the lower price and a valuable non-alignable attribute. Limitations/Implications – This study is limited to investigating consumers’ preferences without focusing on the reasons behind the preferences. Further, the category of specialty products is represented by only one example, namely the electric vehicle industry. Practical Implications – Startups can benefit from the results by adopting differentiation strategies that were found to be successful in overcoming pioneer advantage. Originality/Value – This study contributes to pioneer advantage literature by researching how startups can successfully overcome pioneer advantage in the specialty product category.

The field of study on coopetition has been given a growing emphasis in the recent years by researchers and business practice. Coopetition is a term integrating the notions of cooperation and competition happening as an intensive simultaneous process where actors seek to leverage the value created by other companies in their business network. These complex and paradoxical interactions are acknowledged as needing further research about the effects of coopetition and the different types of coopetitive interactions involved when firms coopete. The business network highlighted in the current study concerned the Swedish Cleantech industry. It offers an interesting ground as Sweden has been investing substantial amounts in environmental protection technologies. Moreover, SMEs in Sweden play an increasingly significant role in the national economy by their rapid technological development. Nonetheless, these SMEs battle to sustain opportunities and are facing many challenges such as lack of key resources, a limited market presence, and liabilities of newness. Thereby, collaboration is essential among Cleantech SMEs in order to overcome these challenges and sustain competitive advantages. This study sets out to fill this gap through the following objectives: by describing the cooperative and competitive activities happening of SMEs inside the Swedish Cleantech industry, by understanding how SMEs select their cooperative relationship with their competitors inside their business network, and by analyzing how coopetition can be implemented by SMEs as a strategy to develop sustainable competitive advantage. This research was conducted through a qualitative case study and semi-structured interviews of seven Swedish SMEs operating in the Cleantech industry. The findings underline that coopetition can be used as a matching strategy between the internal and the external environment of the firm. Further, before coopetition can lead to sustained competitive advantages, companies first need to develop societal advantages in the form of economic value, social value, and natural value.

Thesis describes the role of creative concepts in ATL and integrated communication. Due to the detail analysis of the advertising creation process defines the key aspects for effective setting of the complex communication campaigns and creative concepts.

This work is about trading futures markets. It defines rules of two different intraday strategies with the same basic trading idea on e-mini NASDAQ 100 market. First strategy is more mechanical, second is more discrete. These strategies are tested via backtest and papertrading. The results of tests are evaluated and based on that is chosen one strategy, which is then applied on live trading. Results from live trading are compared with the results of previous tests for a purpose finding a difference between them and identifying the causes of these differences.

This diploma thesis deals proposing of a business strategy for a newly established company. Further identify areas for effective use of ICT in the industry. The diploma thesis summarizes the theoretical background, analysis of the business environment and the design of business strategy with the support of ICT.

This diploma thesis deals with strategic planning and is elaborate for company which carry business in sector gastronomy. The aim of the work is by the help of theoretical solutions and strategic analysis to propose a change that would help the company further develop its business, which is plan for year 2011.

The thesis solves a new proposal strategy of the company KOSYKA, Ltd.. The theoretical part specifies options strategy and its types. The practical part of the thesis analyzes the current condition of the company and the resulting proposal for a new strategy.

Finland makes an exception to its Nordic neighbors in the Second World War in that it first fought and outlasted great power aggression alone, later fought alongside the Axis, and finally remained under Soviet pressure for the duration of Cold War. With the ambition of contributing to research regarding small power at large and Finland in particular, this study looks at Finnish military strategy from its independence till its’ final peace with the Soviet Union. It identifies what strategies Finland employed and what factors influenced these strategies. The study conducted a qualitative text analysis in a thematical approach driven by theoretical perspectives on small powers. Contrary to preferences of small power strategy suggested by previous authors, the results indicate that Finland adhered mostly to a strategy of courting. Partly to the international community through the League of Nations and too by efforts of forming defensive measures with its neighbors. The external environment, including its neighbors’ worries of greater powers and the German conquests in the west, played a vital part in shaping Finnish strategy. When no other alternative seemed viable, Finland pursued a strategy of bandwagoning for profit.