Denna studie utgår från fältet PR och marknadskommunikation med inriktning mot employer branding. Landstinget i Jönköpings län har nyligen inlett ett arbete med employer branding och som ett led i detta arbete söker de nu kunskap om vad som bör kommuniceras till presumtiva medarbetare för att på så sätt skapa ett attraktivt employer brand. Syftet med studien var att identifiera de attribut som Landstinget i Jönköpings län med fördel kan lyfta fram i den marknadskommunikation som riktas till presumtiva medarbetare. För att besvara syftet utfördes en kvantitativ enkätundersökning bland studenter vid Högskolan i Jönköping för att få en bild av vilka attribut de ansåg viktiga hos en arbetsgivare samt hur de såg på Landstinget som arbetsgivare. För att få ytterligare substans i studien valde vi att ställa resultaten mot teorier om inre och yttre motivation för att på så sätt undersöka vilken typ av motivaton som de tillfrågade studenterna drivs av när de väljer arbetsgivare. Studiens resultat ger en tydlig bild av vad som anses vara mest respektive minst attraktivt hos en arbetsgivare, där goda relationer med kollegor är det attribut som värderats högst och förmånersamt bonus värderats lägst av respondenterna. Goda relationer med kollegor är även det attribut som respondenterna ansåg som mest troligt att Landstinget kunde erbjuda som arbetsgivare. Sammanfattningsvis har studiens resultat visat att psykologiska attribut som kan härledas till inre motivation är de som värderats mest attraktiva. Vidare visar resultatet att de ekonomiska attributen, som kan härledas till yttre motivation, inte anses vara lika attraktiva. Studenterna vid de olika utbildningsprogramen som ingick i studien visade sig värdera attraktivitet och image på ett likvärdigt sätt, vilket har möjliggjort en rekommendation av ett employer value proposition för Landstinget i Jönköpings län.

“The War for talent” – the fight for talented people, that can improve an organisation’s performance – is getting tougher every day. This study focuses on the topic of employer branding, which is becoming a popular “weapon” in this battle. Private organisations, being used to applying marketing principles, have already discovered this tool. However, the public sector, with a lack of marketing experience, is perceived to have a weaker employer brand. This is why this study has been conducted with regards to public administrations. The aim of this paper has been to uncover potentials within a public organisation, that could be used to highlight the advantages of a public employer.In order to build a framework for the problem, a literature review, considering theoretical concepts about the “War for talent”, the employee value proposition and employer branding has been carried out. To gain a deeper understanding of the matter, qualitative research in the form of semi-structural interviews has been executed using the case of a Swedish municipality. Further empirical ascertainment has been achieved by reviewing recently used job advertisements.The analysis of the data has shown that the municipality’s employer brand image is perceived as rather weak, however, there are strong indicators for potential within the organisation. It is possible to say that the conveyed employer brand image is not congruent with the brand identity.Moreover the analysis of the employee value proposition has shown factors that can help to narrow the target group of applicants. One significant result considering this issue is the highlighting of social responsibility as one of the more prominent potentials.Keywords: The war for talent, employer branding, employee value proposition, public administration, recruitment

In this thesis major challenges of creating business models at incumbents within mature industries are identified along with a mitigation plan. Pressure is upon incumbent organizations in order to keep up with the latest rapid technological advancements, the launching of startups that almost cover every field of business and the continuous change in customers’ tastes and needs. That along with various factors either forced organizations to continually reevaluate their current business models or miss out on great opportunities. How some incumbents have dealt and are dealing with business model innovation challenges over the past few years is demonstrated through several cases of incumbents. The sources surveyed include recent scientific articles, books, firsthand accounts with executives in the area of business models, innovation and business development, online sources and contemporary business publications. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose a framework which is derived mainly from the sources mentioned above. In order to overcome such challenges, thesis propose a framework that can be used to successfully engender new business models and make a transition from current to new business model. By successful business model innovation, firms can increase the extent of their offerings, meet yet unmet market demands and untapped customer segments. Additionally, organizations can create new value propositions and gain highly sustainable competitive position through business model innovation which is not easy to imitate or copy by the competition. Our findings attest to the fact that business models are highly situational however there are general steps for incumbent organizations that would lead to a successful business model innovation approach. First an organization must have a clear strategy. Establishing separate innovation centers for firms do enhance and foster the mindset of innovation as they take innovation outside the parent organization’s logic. Other approaches include open innovation, partnerships and ensuring that resources are constantly allocated to create disruptive innovations internally and is led by the right personalities. Solving customer needs should be the core of any business and finally there are no best practices in business model innovation. The significance of our findings gives insights on how to overcome some challenges in practice for incumbents to create suitable business models and contributes to theory since there were some empirical findings that weren’t pronounced in literature.

In this thesis major challenges of creating business models at incumbents within mature industries are identified along with a mitigation plan. Pressure is upon incumbent organizations in order to keep up with the latest rapid technological advancements, the launching of startups that almost cover every field of business and the continuous change in customers’ tastes and needs. That along with various factors either forced organizations to continually reevaluate their current business models or miss out on great opportunities.How some incumbents have dealt and are dealing with business model innovation challenges over the past few years is demonstrated through several cases of incumbents. The sources surveyed include recent scientific articles, books, firsthand accounts with executives in the area of business models, innovation and business development, online sources and contemporary business publications. In order to overcome those challenges, we propose a framework which is derived mainly from the sources mentioned above.In order to overcome such challenges, thesis propose a framework that can be used to successfully engender new business models and make a transition from current to new business model. By successful business model innovation, firms can increase the extent of their offerings, meet yet unmet market demands and untapped customer segments. Additionally, organizations can create new value propositions and gain highly sustainable competitive position through business model innovation which is not easy to imitate or copy by the competition.Our findings attest to the fact that business models are highly situational however there are general steps for incumbent organizations that would lead to a successful business model innovation approach. First an organization must have a clear strategy. Establishing separate innovation centers for firms do enhance and foster the mindset of innovation as they take innovation outside the parent organization’s logic. Other approaches include open innovation, partnerships and ensuring that resources are constantly allocated to create disruptive innovations internally and is led by the right personalities. Solving customer needs should be the core of any business and finally there are no best practices in business model innovation. The significance of our findings gives insights on how to overcome some challenges in practice for incumbents to create suitable business models and contributes to theory since there were some empirical findings that weren’t pronounced in literature.

Employer Branding är ett strategiskt verktyg som ökat i popularitet i dagens organisationer för att attrahera, rekrytera och behålla personal. I näringslivet talas det om tre starka skäl att arbeta med Employer Branding. För det första motsvarar inte den kvalificerade arbetskraft den kommande efterfrågan på arbetsmarknaden, för det andra ställer människor i dagens samhälle högre krav på arbetsgivaren och för det tredje har organisationers medarbetare ett mer betydande ansvar i informell marknadsföring. Denna studie genomförs på uppdrag av Centrala studiestödsnämnden (CSN) och datamaterialet har samlats in genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med medarbetare från en avgränsad del av organisationen. Studien syftar till att försöka förstå vilka aspekter som anställda ser som attraktiva med arbetsgivaren men även hur de identifierar sig med den. Resultatet visar att det som medarbetarna ser som attraktivt är en relativt samlad bild. Däremot när det gäller identifiering med organisationen är resultatet inte lika entydigt. Medarbetarna upplever vidare att kännedomen om organisationen ur ett externt perspektiv är lågt. Förbättringsområden som framträder i resultatet cirkulerar främst kring frågor om kommunikation och förändring. Slutligen kopplas studiens resultat samman med litteratur inom ämnesområdet.

Idag marknadsförs mängder av produkter vars funktionella värde, av olika anledningar, är svårt för konsumenterna att konkret utvärdera. De Value Propositions som tillverkare och återförsäljare av dessa produkter förmedlar skiljer sig potentiellt från de Value Propositions som konsumenterna faktiskt använder sig av vid sina köpbeslut. Dessa produkters natur medför att konsumenterna tar aktörer, andra än producenterna och återförsäljarna, till sin hjälp för att vidareutveckla ursprungligt Value Proposition. Denna process utgörs av interaktion med exempelvis andra konsumenter i samma fysiska och/eller virtuella sociala nätverk. Nätverket blir då ett system för utformning och vidareutveckling av Value Propositions. Uppsatsen undersöker hur nätverket av och omkring styrketräningsutövare som använder kosttillskottsprodukter, formar de Value Propositions som associeras med produkterna. Studien finner att dessa Value Propositions formas av aktörer andra än producenterna/återförsäljarna via word-of-mouth samt electronic word-of-mouth. Studien identifierar vidare faktorer som påverkar det inflytande aktörerna har i utformningen.

This thesis draws attention to understand how firms in the B2B commodity industry seek to utilize value-creating activities to achieve competitive advantage, which is also the overall purpose of this thesis. The premise of this thesis is of empirical nature, thus empirically applicable and experienced by other companies inside the commodity industry. In order to reach the purpose of this thesis a case study of Alpha International, Beta and Delta has been carried out which involved personal interviews with different respondents from the companies. The theoretical framework involves a description of competitive strategy, value creation, value chain, value proposition and finally value delivery. The empirical study is based on building a framework of how the companies create value by using different value creating activities.   In the analysis the theoretical framework is related to the results of the empirical study. It is here discussed how the different case companies value creating activities leads to a competitive advantage. In addition to analyzing the value creation activities; the value proposition of the case companies is analyzed and how these are delivered. It is concluded that the case companies studied seeks to utilize value-creating activities to achieve competitive advantage in many different ways.   Generally speaking, it is found that the case companies most commonly try to achieve similar types of value; delivery reliability and quality. However this is achieved in different ways; through different types of activities such as services, different types of integration strategies or a certain type of technology that surrounds the product offering that is utilized by different types of labor in the companies. The companies also have different ways in offering and communicating the value towards the customer by using a value proposition; depending on what type of benefit the customer seeks. At last, discussion and implications are given to present managerial and theoretical implications together with further research.

Background Wearable technology, which is a part of the Internet of Things (IoT), appears to be an upcoming trend with increasing importance within the business world. Nevertheless, no clear business model for companies working with wearables had been defined yet taking the influences wearables have on businesses and especially their value proposition into consideration. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to offer input to the lack of existing literature within business models and wearables technology. The aim is to unfold a general business model that can be used within wearable companies/IoT businesses and show the influence these technologies have on them. Methodology In order to conduct an empirical research a multiple case study has been conducted, based on semi-structured interviews with eight companies, which core business consists out of wearable technology. The frameworks on business models by Gassmann et al (2014) and Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) serve as the basis for this study and its analysis, which is based on a grounded theory approach. Results It appears that a great amount of similarities can be found through the cross-case analysis between the cases. This makes the construction of a new business model possible. The unfolded model gives also a new contribution to the theory of Hui (2014) regarding a new area of value creation and value capture within IoT businesses.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explain and to create an understanding how incorporating an external actor to administer payment services has an effect on the value propositions offered to the consumer. Design/methodology/approach - The study adopts a qualitative approach, since the purpose is to explain and gain understanding about how incorporating an external actor to administer payment services has an effect on the value propositions offered to the consumer. The data has been collected through 13 interviews conducted with respondents from the consumer-, service provider- and payment intermediary segments. Findings - The results from the study illustrates that payment intermediaries do have an effect on the value propositions offered to consumers. However, since value is subjectively interpreted, the findings of this study indicate that incorporating a payment intermediary does not always result in a contribution of value. Furthermore, it is clear that it could influence consumer purchasing decision drastically in specific contexts. Research limitations - The study is conducted on Swedish e-commerce, which means generalizations between the countries cannot be made. Future research for other countries are needed for the findings to be applicable. Practical implications - Findings of this study indicate that incorporating a payment intermediary could influence consumer purchasing decision drastically, in a positive as well as in a negative manner, dependent on the context. Consumers prefer and expect to have a number of payment alternatives with the option to include or exclude an external actor if desired. Keywords - E-commerce, value proposition, value, payment intermediary, customer relationship management

Bristen på kvalificerad arbetskraft är idag utbredd över många branscher. IT-sektorn är en av de branscher som är hårdast drabbad och de närmaste åren förväntas bristen öka. Denna studie syftar till att hjälpa företag inom IT-branschen att se vad som får potentiella medarbetare att söka sig till en specifik arbetsgivare. Denna kunskap ska sedan kunna användas som ett verktyg för att utveckla sitt arbete med employer branding och genom det kunna attrahera, rekrytera och behålla kvalificerade medarbetare. Studien genomfördes på ett företag från Umeå som valt att vara anonyma, hädanefter kallat företag X. Datainsamlingen grundade sig i en värdefaktorsmodell och två olika metoder användes för att samla in datan. För det första genom en enkät som besvarades av 35 potentiella medarbetare, alltså personer som sökt arbete hos företag X. För det andra genom fem semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes med medarbetare på företag X. Resultatet visade att det finns en diskrepans mellan vad potentiella medarbetare söker och vad företag X i nuläget erbjuder. Det potentiella medarbetare värderar högst hos en arbetsgivare är att kunna lita på sina chefer och ledare samt att få möjlighet att utveckla sina kompetenser, vilka av medarbetarna på företag X upplevs som utvecklingsområden hos företaget. Denna diskrepans utmynnade i ett förslag i hur företag X kan utveckla sitt arbete med employer branding och genom detta möta de förväntningar potentiella medarbetare har.