Yes / Brand champions are responsible for encouraging employee commitment to the corporate brand strategy. They strongly believe in and identify with the brand concept—the company’s selected brand meaning, which underpins corporate brand strategy implementation. We conducted research to explore why and how brand champion behaviour operates within companies implementing a new corporate brand strategy. Against a backdrop of growing interest in brand champion behaviour in corporate branding research, we grounded our study in social identity theory and rhetorical theory from change management literature. Our findings show that articulating a compelling brand vision, taking responsibility, and getting the right people involved are the most widely used strategies by brand champions. We uncover how rhetorical strategies within brand champion behaviour generate employee commitment to a new corporate brand strategy. The dimension of brand champion behaviour that is effective depends on the type of brand evolution, involving shifts in the brand concept. We make suggestions for further studies underpinned by social identity theory and rhetorical theory to investigate brand champion behaviour processes within companies introducing a new corporate brand strategy.

Resistance of subsidiaries of multinational corporations to global coordination efforts by their headquarters is an important contemporary research subject in the field of international business studies. This case study of sales and marketing organizations in five international subsidiaries of a highly divisionalized corporation illustrates how the capabilities and the willingness to adopt and pursue global strategies is strongly influenced by local situational and organizational factors. The defining business problem was different in each country organization, ranging from product related issues such as quick innovation cycles and price competition, to economic concerns like emerging market dynamics and economic crisis, and other problems related to cultural dissimilarity. A large degree of divisionalization seems to dilute central leadership, as central managers compete for the attention and the resources of the subsidiaries and local managers behave like independent distributors, picking and choosing the most favorable offerings. In order to establish successful leadership in the absence of hierarchical control, intermediate central sales and marketing managers need to first of all internally coordinate their activities towards their local counterparts. Top management needs to establish legitimate authority of intermediate managers by clear definitions of international matrix roles and management procedures. Central sales and marketing managers need to have enough international field experience to be able to correctly assess the different local situations, advance their initiatives in a diplomatic way on all local hierarchy levels and to become overall credible and accepted partners for the local teams. Directly engaging in field activities with local customers and sales teams seems to help achieving these objectives and thus to contribute to the successful enforcement of global strategies.

Unemployment rate is all time low in Europe and this results in shortage of skilled workers. At same time technology changes are on their boom which puts new requirements of skills including diversifying competencies. The companies like consultancy faces issues to find right people with right skills and at right time. This unavailability of resources impacts the strategic goal of company. Smaller companies need to compete with mid-size and large companies over the same skilled workforce. Due to the lack of branding and company recognition, this can cripple the companies to grow and gather a completive advantage. Previous work has failed to address this issue, especially related to the smaller IT consultancies which is the fastest growing segment. The 99% of all business in Europe represents by small or medium size companies. IT consultancy companies represented the most growing and major contributor in value creation in information and communication sector in Europe. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to answer in what way the low unemployment rate affects the strategical process and execution for small IT consultancy companies. Furthermore, this study looked into the role of recruitment process to attract and retain skilled employees. A qualitative approach combined with semi-structured interviews was used as the main methodology to gather empirical data and answer the key problems of this study. The semi-structured interviews were chosen due to the possibility to give the interviewers a freedom to speak and explain moderately, especially strategy processes, which are different from one company to other ones. This study found that small IT consultancy companies had little or no formal structure in the strategical processes in relation to the literature available in the topic, but still highlighted and expressed that strategy is important for the companies. Although if small IT companies want to grow, they must rethink the organizational structure. All studied companies are providing high salaries, freedom of work, technology learning, and job satisfaction as a key tool to attract talent. All companies in general asked the most critical questions on how to grow their business with the basis of their own limitations. Unfortunately, none of the companies reviewed and monitored their objectives on frequent and regular basis.  This study found that the low unemployment rate plays a critical role which can increase the profit margin, but cannot increase the number of employees and potentially minimize the importance of the strategical process. The study also found that low unemployment rate creates a healthy competitive environment where all large and small consultancy companies enables each other to grow instead of competing.

Bakgrund: Varje år utses, av Dagens Industri, cirka 1000 företag till gasellföretag vilket motsvarar färre än 0,5 % av alla svenska aktiebolag.  Dessa företag uppfyller vissa kriterier där tillväxt är den viktigaste. Gasellföretagens tillväxt är viktig för Sverige då de både bidrar ekonomiskt och står för många nya arbetstillfällen. Dock är det få företag i Sverige som har kunskapen att växa. För att ett företag ska kunna uppnå tillväxt ligger det i grunden en tillväxtstrategi som måste implementeras inom organisationen på bästa sätt. Vilka tillväxtstrategier använder gasellföretag och hur implementerar de dem? Syfte: Beskriva gasellföretagens utformning och implementering av strategier samt förklara deras tillväxt genom att identifiera tillväxtfaktorer. Genomförande: Studien är av kvalitativ art och baserad på intervjuer med fyra fallföretag. Slutsats: Vi har utifrån vår fallstudie identifierat vilka tillväxtstrategier och ekonomiska styrsystem som gasellföretag använder. Vi har även identifierat och sammanställt sju faktorer, varav sex interna och den sjunde är den externa situationen företaget befinner sig i. Tillsammans är faktorerna av högsta vikt för ett företags tillväxt. Slutsatsen presenteras i en modell framtagen av oss. / Background: Every year an average of 1000 companies, which stands for less than 0,5 % of all Swedish incorporated companies, are appointed the Gazelle reward from Dagens Industri. These companies live up to certain criteria’s where growth is the most important one and they are of great importance to Sweden since they contribute both economically and work opportunity wise. There are few businesses that possess the competence to grow. To be able to reach positive growth a company needs a strategy, which is implemented throughout the organization in a good manner. What strategies do gazelle companies use and how do they implement them? Purpose: Describe gazelle companies’ strategies and the implementation of those. Also explain their growth by identifying growth factors. Completion: This a qualitative case study based upon interviews with fourcompanies. Results: We have from our case study identified what growth strategies and management control systems gazelle companies’ use. We have also identified seven factors, of which six are internal and the seventh represent the external situation the company experiences. Together they are of great importance for a company’s growth. The results are presented in a model developed by us.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 daniellecastro.pdf: 1730759 bytes, checksum: d3cea0aa26ca5148920a11fa32f99583 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-09 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / This study examined the characteristics of a Performance Measurement System applied to a business organization since the model developed by Ferreira and Otley (2009), aiming to empirically research its adherence and identify how this model can be used to improve a measurement system in an existent enterprise. This study aimed to reduce the existing gap between theory and practice of management accounting by empirically testing the adherence of a framework. Construction Company Tecnisa was the case investigated and, to answer the research question, a questionnaire based in the authors of the model was used. Nine focused interviews with senior executives and managers of the company were obtained. For data evaluation, the Content Analysis was adopted as well as On-site Observation and Documental Analysis. Although the results have allowed to infer that Tecnisa s current Performance Measurement System serves the needs of the company, it was possible to identify some elements such as measurement of learning and growth perspective, increasing of in time reports, share liquidity, speed of achieving of the goals and use of the corporative TV for disclosure of critical success factors that deserve attention, with which agreement of company s management was obtained. Findings indicate that the model of Ferreira and Otley (2009) is applicable to business reality and useful for evaluating the suitability of a current Performance Measurement System and also to identify points for improvement. Findings suggest that one possible cause for non adherence of the system to the current reality of the company is due to the absence of including performance indicators closely aligned with the goals of investors, which have become an important group of stakeholders after the company's entry on capital market. / Este trabalho estudou as características de um Sistema de Medição de Desempenho aplicado a uma organização empresarial a partir do modelo desenvolvido por Ferreira e Otley (2009), com os objetivos de averiguar empiricamente a sua aderência e identificar como este modelo pode ser utilizado para melhorar um sistema de medição já existente em uma empresa. Este estudo visou diminuir o gap existente entre as teorias e as práticas de Contabilidade Gerencial, testando empiricamente a aderência de um framework. O caso estudado foi a Incorporadora Tecnisa e para responder a questão de pesquisa utilizou-se um questionário adaptado do utilizado pelos autores do modelo, sendo obtidas nove entrevistas focadas com os principais executivos e gerentes da companhia. Para análise dos dados foi empregada a Análise de Conteúdo, além de observação in loco e análise documental da companhia. Muito embora os resultados tenham permitido inferir que o atual Sistema de Medição de Desempenho da companhia atende as necessidades da companhia, foi possível identificar que alguns pontos como a medição da perspectiva de aprendizado e crescimento, aumento da tempestividade dos relatórios, liquidez da ação, velocidade de atingimento das metas e utilização da TV corporativa para divulgação dos fatores críticos de sucesso merecem atenção, com os quais se obteve concordância da direção da empresa. Os resultados evidenciados neste trabalho permitiram concluir que o modelo de Ferreira e Otley (2009) é aplicável à realidade empresarial e útil para avaliar a adequação de um Sistema de Medição de Desempenho já implementado e também para identificar pontos de melhoria. Os resultados sugerem que uma das possíveis causas do sistema não estar aderente à realidade atual da empresa, decorre da não inclusão de indicadores de desempenho mais alinhados com os objetivos de investidores, os quais passaram a ser um grupo importante de stakeholders após a entrada da empresa no mercado de capitais.

Abstract Technological advancement in the field of information-and-communication technologies (ICT) was rapid during the first decade of the new millennium. Universities started to use the new information-and-communication technologies more in their core processes, which speeded up their transformation from the traditional campus mode toward virtual universities. Research done in this thesis first investigates the traditional campus university’s change process toward the virtual university model. During the implementation process a geographically distributed e-learning concept was also developed for university use. This concept was transferred and researched in the small and medium enterprise (SME) context in the last part of this research. In large and complex organizations such as universities, it is difficult to find out how the change really was implemented. The literature on change management is voluminous but is dominated by descriptions of single projects. To overcome the limitations of such case studies, this research applies a longer and wider perspective to the change process and, by the introduction of an overarching method that categorizes the investments, shows more clearly the trends, stages of, and the barriers to the development. This long-term study is based on 116 development projects during a ten-year period in a decentralized and networked development environment. In the company setting, conventional training is being replaced more and more by e-learning. To scaffold SMEs in their e-learning adaptation, the concept of e-learning was transferred to the SME environment. The company cases’ part of the thesis presents how the transferability of geographically distributed e-learning concept was developed and tested in the SME environment. As a result, the principles that guided ICT strategy implementation and how the strategies were implemented during a ten-year period are presented. The concept for geographically distributed e-learning environments and its development are also introduced. Finally, the process and results from the concept implementation to the SME environment are presented. This thesis presents university management with an understanding of how larger long-term trends give us the possibility to better understand today’s fast-paced changes. It also gives company managers an example of how models developed in the university environment can be transferred to the company environment. / Tiivistelmä Tietotekniikan kehitys on ollut nopeaa vuosituhannen vaihteen jälkeen monilla aloilla. Yliopistoissa sitä on alettu käyttää yhä enemmän osana perustoimintoja, mikä on edistänyt niiden kehitystä traditionaalisista kampusyliopistoista kohti virtuaaliyliopistoja. Tämän tutkimuksen ensimmäisessä osassa on tarkasteltu perinteisen kampusyliopiston muutosprosessia kohti aktiivisesti uutta teknologiaa hyödyntävää yliopistoa ja toisessa osassa muutosten yhtenä tuloksena syntynyt konsepti siirrettiin yritysympäristöön. Yliopistossa muutos toteutettiin määrittelemällä ensin tavoitteet strategioiksi ja sen jälkeen niiden toimeenpanoprosessin avulla. Suurissa organisaatioissa, kuten yliopistoissa, on vaikea hahmottaa kuinka muutokset todellisuudessa toteutetaan. Kirjallisuutta ja tutkimusta organisaatiomuutoksen toteuttamisesta on paljon, mutta suuri osa siitä keskittyy tarkastelemaan yhden projektin aikana tapahtunutta muutosta. Tässä tutkimuksessa on pyritty esittämään laajempi ja pitkäkestoisempi kuva muutosprosessista. Tutkimus pohjautuu 116 kehitysprojektin saamaan rahoitukseen kymmenen vuoden ajalta. Sen avulla on tarkasteltu yliopiston kehitystrendejä ja keskeisiä kehityskohteita. Rahoitus on jaettu projekteille strategioissa määriteltyjen tavoitteiden mukaisesti strategioiden toimeenpanemiseksi. Osana toimeenpanoprosessia syntyi yliopistokäyttöön maantieteellisesti hajautetun oppimisympäristön konsepti. Yritysympäristössä perinteinen koulutus on korvattu yhä useammin teknologiaa hyödyntävillä koulutuksen muodoilla. Pienillä ja keskisuurilla yrityksillä on kuitenkin varsin rajoitetut resurssit koulutuksessa käytettävien teknologioiden käyttöönottoon ja tehokkaaseen käyttöön. Tämän tutkimuksen toisessa osassa yrityksen maantieteellisesti hajautetun oppimisympäristön käyttöönottoa pyrittiin tukemaan tarjoamalla sen käyttöön valmis yliopistoympäristössä kehitetty konsepti. Tämän konseptin siirrettävyyttä ja käyttöönottoa tutkittiin tutkimuksen toisessa osassa. Tämän tutkimuksen tuloksena esitetään periaatteet, jotka ohjasivat yliopiston tieto- ja viestintätekniikan opetuskäytön strategian laadintaa ja toimeenpanoa vuosina 2000–2009. Lisäksi esitellään maantieteellisesti hajautetun oppimisympäristön konsepti. Lopuksi esitellään konseptin käyttöönottoa yritysympäristössä. Tämä väitöskirja esittelee yliopiston johdolle ja toimijoille, kuinka pitkäkestoisten trendien tunteminen auttaa ymmärtämään nykyhetkeä ja sen nopeita muutoksia. Yritysjohdolle väitöskirja tarjoaa esimerkin, kuinka yliopistoympäristöön kehitetty konsepti voidaan siirtää yritysympäristöön.

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.

The main theme of this diploma thesis is the drafting of the implementation information system for company, which is defined by the individual's requirements and objectives for which it is drawn up. In the theoretical part deals with basic information about the innovation, especially implementation information system for company, based on the theoretical knowledge and the information collected. The practical part is directly focused on implementation information system including economic assessment and analysis of risk join with this innovation process.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate how organizations successfully can implement sustainability strategies. To fulfill the purpose, three research questions were established: What factors are important to consider when implementing environmental sustainability strategies? How do these factors affect the implementation of an environmental sustainability strategy? How can these factors enable a successful implementation of sustainability strategies? Method – To achieve the purpose of this study, a case study has been conducted at an organization where empirical data has been collected through interviews, observations, and document analyses. Further, a literature review was carried out to establish a theoretical framework. The empirical data and theoretical framework have been compared and analyzed in order to answer the research questions and fulfill the purpose. Findings – The findings provided six important factors in the implementation of environmental sustainability strategies: organizational structure, organizational culture, internal communication, management control, leadership, and employee motivation. The factors affect the implementation by hindering and facilitating alignment, common understanding, efficient communication, employee involvement and motivation. Further, the factors can enable a successful implementation by creating a mutual understanding of the strategy's vision and goals and establishing an organizational alignment in relation to the strategy. Last, the research indicates that a holistic consideration of these factors is needed. Implications – The research did not contribute to new theories, however, it provided increased knowledge on various factors that affect and enable environmental sustainability strategy implementation. Further, the research suggests that the factors should be considered holistically and simultaneously to achieve organizational alignment and mutual understanding. Limitations – The study is a single case study where one organization has been explored and a limited number of interviews have been conducted. The credibility of the study is believed to have increased further if multiple organizations had been studied with more interviews.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was twofold. First, we wanted to increase knowledge about what is important to address within an organization, when formulating and implementing a corporate sustainability strategy. Second, we wanted to explore how the level of achievement of corporate sustainability influences the ability of an organization to integrate sustainability within its own organization. Method – We used an abductive approach within this study. In total, we conducted 20 interviews which we analysed through a thematic analysis. We also conducted two surveys. Findings - We have found six crucial aspects that will affect the formulation and implementation of a corporate sustainability strategy; conceptual confusion, motivation, action, cooperation, guidelines, and communication. We have also found that all dimensions of sustainability need to be understood and incorporated into the organization, in order for a corporate sustainability strategy to have impact. Theoretical and practical contributions - We have contributed to previous literature by connecting the five stages of achieving corporate sustainability with obstacles and solutions within the phases of strategy formulation and implementation. Further, we have provided a framework that can be useful to organizations when trying to achieve corporate sustainability. Limitation of the study - We have only analysed four out of almost 60 savings banks in Sweden, and the ones part of this study is also part of a sustainability project. It is therefore of essence that another more expansive study is performed that integrates more savings banks.