In the Swedish Fast-moving consumer goods industry (FMCG), most suppliers sell their products through retailers. For a successful product-launch, retailer acceptance is essential. Up to ninety percent of all product-launches fail, thus retailers must choose wisely which products to accept. Failing product-launches cost large sums of money for both retailers and suppliers. A number of factors have been shown by previous research to affect the success of a productlaunch and retailer acceptance, but there are factors that have been previously ignored, such as inter-organizational relationships. The authors of this study have chosen to conduct a study regarding how retailer acceptance and relational factors affect the success of a product launch in the Swedish FMCG-industry. The focus of this study has been on the relationships of Swedish retailer ICA AB and three of its suppliers. ICA AB was chosen because it is the largest retailer on the Swedish market. This study shows that retailer acceptance is positively affected by mutual trust, commitment and the relationship itself between the supplier and the retailer. However, the importance of these factors varies depending on the size of supplier and type of product.

Problembakgrund: Svensk detaljhandel består till stor del av unga medarbetare i ålder 16-24 år.  Enligt Statistiska Centralbyrån (SCB) (2013) utgör åldersgruppen cirka 42,3 % av samtliga medarbetare inom denna sektor. Då medarbetarna inom svensk detaljhandel är en viktig resurs är det av stor vikt att studera av vad dessa medarbetare motiveras i arbetet. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på arbetsmotivation generellt och inte inriktat på den åldersgrupp och sektor som denna studie berör, därav upplevs behov av denna undersökning.   Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa och bidra till förståelse för vad yngre medarbetare i ålder 16-24 år motiveras av i arbetet. Även hur dess arbetsprestationer kan påverka verksamheten när medarbetarna är motiverade respektive icke motiverade. Utifrån studiens resultat har rekommendationer utformats som kan tänkas vara användbara för butikschefer.     Metod: Studien baseras på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med kvantitativa inslag. Detta i form av 12 semistrukturerade intervjuer där varje respondent även fått besvara en mindre enkätundersökning. Urvalet består av sex unga medarbetare inom angiven åldersgrupp och sektor, samt sex butikschefer inom vald sektor för ytterligare ett perspektiv på medarbetarnas arbetsmotivation. Resultat: Utifrån yngre medarbetares samt butikschefers perspektiv är relation till chef och kollegor samt uppskattning och uppmuntran viktiga faktorer som har stor påverkan för yngre medarbetares arbetsmotivation. Medarbetarna värderar även lön och anställningstrygghet som de viktigaste faktorerna för arbetsmotivationen, vilket butikscheferna inte delar uppfattning om. Medarbetarnas arbetsprestationer påverkas i stor utsträckning när de är motiverade respektive icke motiverade. Bland annat kan verksamhetens försäljning och kunder påverkas både positivt och negativt. / Problem: A large part of the Swedish retail sector consists of young employees in the age of 16-24 years. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB) (2013), this age-group represents approximately 42,3 % of the total number of employees in the Swedish retail sector. Employees in the Swedish retail sector is an important resource, therefore it is of great importance to study what motivates them in their work. The majority of previous research has focused on work motivation in general, and not on this age-group in the Swedish retail sector. Therefore the need for this study.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create and contribute to an understanding of what motivates young employees in the age of 16-24 years in their line of work. This purpose of this study is also to investigate how their work performance may affect the business when they are either motivated or non-motivated. Based on the resultat of this study, recommendations have been formulated which can be useful for store managers.   Method: This study is a qualitative research with quantitative elements. Twelve semi-structured interviews have been conducted, where each respondent had to answer a small questionnaire. The sample respondents consist of six young employees and six store managers in order, to get various perspectives on young employees’ work-motivation.   Result: According to young employees and store managers, the relationship with managers and colleagues, as well as appreciation and encouragement are important factors that have a major impact on younger employees’ motivation at work. Employees also value the salary and job security as the most important factors for work motivation, which store managers do not value as much. Employees' work performance is affected significantly when they are motivated compared to when they are non-motivated. For instance, that can affect the business’s sales and customers.

<p><strong>Introduction </strong>As the world is becoming increasingly integrated, many firms search for partners overseas with hope to find benefits. Internationalization is today the industrial norm, and in this new and ever-expanding environment, international purchasing has become a major challenge that firms have to face in their daily operations. Yet, despite the growing importance of international purchasing by retailers, previous studies have mainly focused on international purchasing by manufacturing firms, and as the authors have acknowledge the retailers' significance on the national markets, a gap has been identified.</p><p><strong>Purpose </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to examine and map out the current state of Swedish retailers' international purchasing activities.</p><p><strong>Method </strong>In order to fulfill the purpose, a quantitative research was chosen. In total, 74 telephone interviews have been conducted, resulting in a response rate of 80 percent. The sample was based on the 120 largest retailers in Sweden, with regards to turnover.</p><p><strong>Conclusion </strong>Swedish retailers have been grouped into four distinctive clusters; the Veterans, the Freshmen, the Cravens, and the Intellectuals. Each cluster showed clear and specific characteristics that distinguished them from each other. One common feature existed; regarding what risks that were connected with international purchasing. Almost everyone highlighted the loss of control, due to long distances, as being the main risk with international purchasing. The different clusters had diverse suggestions for how to overcome this; the Veterans focused on long-term relationship-building, the Freshmen spread their purchasing activities on multiple suppliers, the Cravens contracted trade companies to take the risk, and the Intellectuals invested in a high level of integration among all actors involved.</p>

Introduction As the world is becoming increasingly integrated, many firms search for partners overseas with hope to find benefits. Internationalization is today the industrial norm, and in this new and ever-expanding environment, international purchasing has become a major challenge that firms have to face in their daily operations. Yet, despite the growing importance of international purchasing by retailers, previous studies have mainly focused on international purchasing by manufacturing firms, and as the authors have acknowledge the retailers' significance on the national markets, a gap has been identified. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine and map out the current state of Swedish retailers' international purchasing activities. Method In order to fulfill the purpose, a quantitative research was chosen. In total, 74 telephone interviews have been conducted, resulting in a response rate of 80 percent. The sample was based on the 120 largest retailers in Sweden, with regards to turnover. Conclusion Swedish retailers have been grouped into four distinctive clusters; the Veterans, the Freshmen, the Cravens, and the Intellectuals. Each cluster showed clear and specific characteristics that distinguished them from each other. One common feature existed; regarding what risks that were connected with international purchasing. Almost everyone highlighted the loss of control, due to long distances, as being the main risk with international purchasing. The different clusters had diverse suggestions for how to overcome this; the Veterans focused on long-term relationship-building, the Freshmen spread their purchasing activities on multiple suppliers, the Cravens contracted trade companies to take the risk, and the Intellectuals invested in a high level of integration among all actors involved.

Background: Kahneman and Tversky (1974, 1979 &amp; 1992) argue that individuals are bound to numerous behavioral biases that may lead to the emergence of different irrational behaviors. This is often observed with even a higher degree among participants of financial and stock markets as agents such as investors are frequently exposed to significant level of risk and uncertainty (Kahneman, 2013; Kahneman, Knetsch &amp; Thaler, 1991; Kahneman &amp; Tversky, 1974, 1979, 1992). Also, empirical studies indicate that a significant level of herding exists among investors when they are exposed to a high degree of risk and uncertainty such as those in financial crises (Galariotis, Rong &amp; Spyrou, 2014; Litimi, 2017; Hott, 2009). Purpose: the main purpose of this thesis is to explore if the loss aversion bias has a significant causal impact on forming herding behavior among young Swedish retail investors. Method: an online analytical questionnaire including eight questions has been conducted to collect primary data, with 77 Swedish retail investors under the age of 35 participating in the study. Furthermore, a multiple regression analysis has been implemented to analyze and interpret the data. Conclusion: it can be concluded that there is not a significant correlation between the degree of loss aversion and the degree of herding behavior within the sample group of young Swedish retail investors. Hence, loss aversion bias cannot be considered as one of the major contributors of herding within the target population.

Background: The Swedish retail pharmacy industry is a dynamic industry that has undergone many changes throughout the past decades. Presently, the pharmacy industry in Sweden consists of five nationwide pharmacy chains (Apoteket AB, Apotek Hjärtat, Kronans Apotek, Apoteksgruppen, and LloydsApotek), three strictly e-commerce pharmacy companies (Apotea, Meds, and Apohem), and 40 private players.    Problem: Due to digitalization, retail industries are nowadays dealing with customers that have different expectations and exhibit changed shopping behaviours. The retail pharmacy industry in Sweden has not been an exception to the trend of having to go through a digital transformation based on society changes and changed customer behaviour.    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to research how the Swedish retail pharmacy companies have adapted to meet customer expectations and created value for the customer, as a result of digitalization.   Method: A qualitative approach with seven semi-structured interviews have been conducted on company representatives from the Swedish retail pharmacy industry.     Results: Despite the Swedish retail pharmacy industry being controlled by regulations put in place by the state, they have successfully managed to restructure their operations through their digitalization process. This has been done with the customer primarily in mind, through meeting their expectations and continuing to create value.

<p>The retail banking market in Sweden is highly concentrated and oligopolistic. This has been confirmed by numerous reports from different competition authorities within the EU, for example the Swedish competition authority. A considerably high number of different sorts of competition barriers has been pointed out in these reports. The competition barriers are mainly directed to the smaller banks and the potential competition. The retail banking market in Sweden is dominated by four major banks, which together has over 80 percent of all market shares. These four dominating banks more or less control the payment systems and have a great deal of influence within the payment systems. It is necessary for all banks to be able to take part of the payment systems. The control that the four dominants have over the payment systems has been more significant considering their cooperation in so called infrastructure clubs. It is these clubs that have formed the conditions in every contract between the infrastructure club members and other smaller banks, who wants to be able to provide their customers a diversity of banking services. The dominating banks purpose with this infrastructure cooperation is to lower the network-expenses for the owners and to provide a more effective network-system. According to my results, these infrastructure clubs could help create a harder market climate and higher entry barriers for non-members than what ought to be considered as normal for such a market climate. Smaller banks who want to provide a variety of services, so called full-service banks, meet the hardest obstacles to overcome. Therefore there has not started a new full-service bank since 1993. The almost only payment system which the four dominants do not control is Riksbankens payment system “RIX”. The European commission has many different criteria in their search for different violations of abuse and dominant position. I have used nine of these in my paper. Eight of these criteria were concordant with my results whether or not connections exist to abuse and dominant position. My results have pointed out some problems that could be in dispute with Swedish competition law, considering the market position and the key role the members in an infrastructure club possesses. Despite the fact that detailed decisions from the European court of Justice (ECJ) especially obliges dominants to protect and not to distort competition in any way exists, my opinion is that there could be some parallels to a distorted competition on the Swedish retail banking market. Furthermore, the three different steps within the payment system are represented through the dominants participation when they are members in the same infrastructure club. This gives the result that their cooperation is vertically integrated. The cooperation involves important information about the member’s financial strengths and their ability to compete as a market actor, but also information of great importance of the infrastructure and its development and further efficiency. According to my results, the economical cooperation that the members of the infrastructure clubs have, could not be referred to as an “economic entity” in the same way as the ECJ used it regarding their investigations of collective dominance. The dominants cooperation, according to me, is better described as a collective behavior. The dominants cooperation in these infrastructure clubs could also be of that character as referred to in 6 § konkurrenslagen. I do not consider the payment systems owned by the dominants to have the same character as “essential facilities”, since smaller niched banks have entered the market and thus have chosen other channels than the dominants payment systems to reach their customers. I also have the opinion that every effect caused by the cooperation between the dominants could not be defendable as acceptable objective grounds. Due to the above mentioned arguments, I find it sensible to investigate further whether or not the dominants purpose with their infrastructure club is concordant with its means.</p>

The retail banking market in Sweden is highly concentrated and oligopolistic. This has been confirmed by numerous reports from different competition authorities within the EU, for example the Swedish competition authority. A considerably high number of different sorts of competition barriers has been pointed out in these reports. The competition barriers are mainly directed to the smaller banks and the potential competition. The retail banking market in Sweden is dominated by four major banks, which together has over 80 percent of all market shares. These four dominating banks more or less control the payment systems and have a great deal of influence within the payment systems. It is necessary for all banks to be able to take part of the payment systems. The control that the four dominants have over the payment systems has been more significant considering their cooperation in so called infrastructure clubs. It is these clubs that have formed the conditions in every contract between the infrastructure club members and other smaller banks, who wants to be able to provide their customers a diversity of banking services. The dominating banks purpose with this infrastructure cooperation is to lower the network-expenses for the owners and to provide a more effective network-system. According to my results, these infrastructure clubs could help create a harder market climate and higher entry barriers for non-members than what ought to be considered as normal for such a market climate. Smaller banks who want to provide a variety of services, so called full-service banks, meet the hardest obstacles to overcome. Therefore there has not started a new full-service bank since 1993. The almost only payment system which the four dominants do not control is Riksbankens payment system “RIX”. The European commission has many different criteria in their search for different violations of abuse and dominant position. I have used nine of these in my paper. Eight of these criteria were concordant with my results whether or not connections exist to abuse and dominant position. My results have pointed out some problems that could be in dispute with Swedish competition law, considering the market position and the key role the members in an infrastructure club possesses. Despite the fact that detailed decisions from the European court of Justice (ECJ) especially obliges dominants to protect and not to distort competition in any way exists, my opinion is that there could be some parallels to a distorted competition on the Swedish retail banking market. Furthermore, the three different steps within the payment system are represented through the dominants participation when they are members in the same infrastructure club. This gives the result that their cooperation is vertically integrated. The cooperation involves important information about the member’s financial strengths and their ability to compete as a market actor, but also information of great importance of the infrastructure and its development and further efficiency. According to my results, the economical cooperation that the members of the infrastructure clubs have, could not be referred to as an “economic entity” in the same way as the ECJ used it regarding their investigations of collective dominance. The dominants cooperation, according to me, is better described as a collective behavior. The dominants cooperation in these infrastructure clubs could also be of that character as referred to in 6 § konkurrenslagen. I do not consider the payment systems owned by the dominants to have the same character as “essential facilities”, since smaller niched banks have entered the market and thus have chosen other channels than the dominants payment systems to reach their customers. I also have the opinion that every effect caused by the cooperation between the dominants could not be defendable as acceptable objective grounds. Due to the above mentioned arguments, I find it sensible to investigate further whether or not the dominants purpose with their infrastructure club is concordant with its means.

Internationaliseringen har blivit en av de största och viktigaste trenderna för detaljhandeln idag. Vanligtvis börjar företag först expandera till länder som ligger nära både geografiskt och kulturellt. Det kan dock bli problematiskt att träda in på en närliggande marknad om företaget inte är förberedd på de skillnader som finns och underskattar den marknaden.      Syftet med denna studie var att skapa förståelse för de utmaningar svenska detaljhandelsföretag kan stöta på vid etablering till närliggande marknader samt hur dessa kan hanteras.     För att kunna besvara studiens syfte har sex semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts. Två av dessa utfördes med respondenter från detaljhandelsföretagen Stadium och Jula. De resterande intervjuerna gjordes med experter från Business Sweden som arbetar bland annat med att hjälpa svenska företag med sin internationalisering.        De utmaningar som visade sig finnas på de närliggande marknaderna för de intervjuade företagen var exempelvis kulturella, politiska och ekonomiska skillnader som påverkade modebilden, konsumtionsmönstret, prisbilden, sortimentet, ledarskapet, konkurrensen, marknadsföringen, hyresnivåerna och etableringen på marknaderna.      De olika marknaderna och sortimenten bidrog med olika utmaningar, dessutom upplevdes vissa utmaningar vara större än andra för företagen. De intervjuade företagen hanterade utmaningarna på olika sätt men framförallt genom konsulter, konkurrenter, marknadsundersökningar, kunskap, lärande över tid samt genom anpassning till de närliggande marknaderna. / Internationalization has become one of the largest and most important trends for retail trade today. Usually, companies start expanding to countries that are both geographically and culturally close. However, it may become problematic to enter a nearby market if the company is not prepared for the differences that exist and if the company underestimates the market.      The aim of this essay was to investigate the challenges that may occur for Swedish retail companies when establishing to nearby markets and how these challenges can be handled.       In order to respond to the aim of this study, six semi-structured interviews have been held. Two of these were held with respondents from Stadium and Jula. The remaining interviews were held with experts from Business Sweden who, among other things, works to help Swedish companies with their internationalization.      The challenges that were found in the nearby markets of the companies interviewed were for example cultural, political and economic differences affecting the fashion image, consumer pattern, price range, assortment, leadership, competition, marketing, rental levels and the establishment in the markets.      The different markets and assortment contributed to different challenges, in addition, some challenges were experienced to be greater than others for the companies. The interviewed companies handled the challenges in different ways especially through consultants, competitors, market research, knowledge, learning by time and through adaptation in the nearby markets.

Under det senaste decenniet har den svenska elektronikhandeln präglats av en allt hårdare konkurrenssituation och lägre lönsamhet. Det har lett till att stora butikskedjor gått i konkurs. För att vända trenden måste företagen hanterar sina butiksverksamheter effektivt. Det blir därmed avgörande hur butikschefen sköter butiken. Av den anledningen är det intressant att undersöka butikschefers arbetssätt för att se vad som leder till hög lönsamhet. Vår genomgång av tidigare forskning visar på att det finns en kunskapslucka gällande hur en butikschef bör arbeta för att öka lönsamheten. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur butikschefer arbetar och utifrån det identifiera faktorer i butikschefers arbetssätt som påverkar resultat och leder till skillnader i butikers prestationer. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och bygger på intervjuer med 10 butikschefer. Respondenterna har delats in i en högpresterande fokusgrupp och en jämförelsegrupp för att tydliggöra skillnader i arbetssättet. Studien visar på flertalet skillnader i hur butikschefer i fokusgruppen hanterar de vardagliga arbetsuppgifterna. Den största skillnaden består i ledarfilosofin butikscheferna utövar, vilket genomsyrar alla beslut butikscheferna i fokusgruppen tar. / Background During the latest decade the Swedish electronic industry has been exposed to intensified competition and lower profitability. The consequences have been that major retail chains have gone out of business. In order to survive, the companies need to handle their stores as efficiently as possible. As a result it’s crucial how the store manager operates the store. Therefore it is interesting to study how store managers practice their work in order to see what leads to high profitability. Our review of research reveals that there’s a knowledge gap of qualitative studies regarding how store managers should work. Aim The aim of the study is to investigate how store managers works and from that identify factors in the store managers way of work that affects the result and leads to differences in store performance. Methodology The study is made with a qualitative approach and is built on data from interviews with 10 store managers. The respondents have been divided in to a high-performance focus group and a comparison group in order to clarify the differences in their approach of work. Conclusion The study shows a number of differences in how high-performance store managers handle their work. However, the biggest difference is the leadership philosophy they choose to practice, which affect everything they do.