För att företag ska nå framgång gäller i de flesta fallen att verksamhetsstyrningen är tydlig och väl utarbetad. Strategin bör vara kopplad till mål och indikatorer som talar om huruvida företaget är på rätt väg eller ej. Inom den konservativa installationsbranschen relateras detta arbete ofta till den traditionella ekonomistyrningen. Det balanserade styrkortet är en teoretisk modell utarbetad för att balansera upp styrningen och inte bara se till det finansiella. Syftet med studien är att genom det balanserade styrkortet visa på ett konkret förslag hur arbetet med en mer balanserad styrning kan tillämpas. Arbetet har baserats på den undersökning i form av intervjuer samt enkäter som gjorts på fallföretagets östra region. Studien har visat på flera olika framgångsfaktorer över styrkortets perspektiv där respondenterna ofta varit eniga om vad NVS bör utveckla. Flera av dessa kan antas gälla generellt inom branschen, andra är delar som berör fallföretaget specifikt. / Important for a company to reach success in today's market is that the management is explicit and well worked-out. The strategy should be linked to aims and indicators who tell whether the company makes correct things or not. In the conservative installation-sector this work is often related to the traditional way of management through financial control. The Balanced Scorecard is a theoretical model to make the management more balanced, and not only focus on financial aspects. NVS, one of the biggest operators in the business, are searching for tools and knowledge to implement a more balanced way of management. The purpose pf this study is to show how this work could develop through The Balanced Scorecard,. The method used in the report is based on interviews made at NVS together with a questionnaire sent out to all employees at NVS East. The study has shown several critical factors for success in every perspective used in the scorecard.  The responders were often agreeing on which parts of the business NVS must improve. Most of these parts can be presumed to be valid in the installation-business as a general, others are only affecting NVS.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made an impact on the tourism industry which has caused a myriad of businesses to change in order to combat the crisis. The purpose of this study was to investigate companies’ decision-making processes behind innovation of business models to create value during Covid-19 pandemic. It is also to understand requirements for business success. The study focused on companies within the tourism industry operating in Gothenburg. The study was conducted with a qualitative research method through interviewing four companies in the tourism industry representing accommodation, activities, transport, and dining. From the study’s findings, business model innovation, or innovation in general, is critically important when the company has been affected by a crisis. The study showed that it helps a company to gain benefits such as insight about its capabilities, vulnerabilities, customers, and competence in order to combat a crisis and get competitive advantage. Moreover, the study also found a connection between businesses using business model innovation to create value for customers when the business is pull-oriented and focuses on assisting in the value co-creation process. It was evident that the Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on decision-making which resulted in additional business opportunities. Lastly, the study contributed to a new finding in which business success was associated with forced motivation and motivational force.

Background: How business is conducted is constantly developing and the design of the business model is a crucial part to have a clear vision of the company’s goals. Simultaneously, technologies are developed which generate new business opportunities. To fully exploit these opportunities, companies need to innovate their business model. The description of digitalization within previous literature has been mainly holistic, without much reference to specific mechanisms and activities enabling business model innovation. Little is known about the mechanisms of digitalization and their effect on business model innovation.  Purpose: The purpose of this is to understand how digitalization affects business model innovation in firms. It aims to identify mechanisms of digitalization and how they affect the underlying dimensions of business model innovation.  Method: An exploratory research design was applied within this qualitative study to fulfill the purpose. The data collection was done through nine semi-structured interviews with employees at manufacturing companies with good insight of the company’s digitalization process. Using an inductive approach, the data has been analyzed through a thematic analysis.  Conclusion: This study has shown what mechanisms of digitalization affect each of the dimensions of the business model. Further, it has contributed with an understanding of how the dimensions are affected by the mechanisms. The analysis resulted in the development of an emergent framework which depicts what the mechanisms are and how they can lead to a perceived positive effect on business operations.

The construction of wind power is strongly associated with negative local externalities in terms of noise, shadows, visual impact and effects on local environment. To compensate for these negative effects, wind developers seek to find methods to create more local value. The purpose of this study has thus been to identify and evaluate potential methods to increase the local value creation from onshore wind power projects, mainly in the Swedish context. Firstly, from the literature review and interviews, four different approaches to create local value has been identified. The four identified methods to create local value are (1) community funds, (2) local ownership, (3) modernization and (4) local content. Of these identified methods, local content is deemed to have most potential in creating local value. The use of local content has generally been strong in the UK, why this study comprises a field study that reveal that British wind developers manage to appoint up to 20-30 % of the total capital expenditure to local companies. Compared to Sweden, the same number is as little asone percent. The explanation to this significant difference could be explained by “three I:s”,, namely, (1) Identification of local companies, (2) Information of opportunities and requirements and (3) Incentive creation for the main contractors. For Swedish developers to overcome the problems associated with the three I:s, the study presents seven activities that are possible to implement directly into the development process of wind power. Together these activities create a comprehensive way of enhancing the possibility for local companies to be involved in the construction phase, and by doing so, increasing the local value creation.

Abstract: Background: In the southern areas of Sweden, around the birthplace of household brands such as IKEA, Peab, and Husqvarna, widespread entrepreneurial ventures have grown and seen their first few years of success. Alongside our collaborating private equity firm Entreprenörinvest we are trying to further expand the knowledge and descriptive concepts of what makes these entrepreneurial ventures successful. Purpose: The thesis builds on our pre-existing idea of developing research that would aim to bring the research fields of management and finance together while examining literature taught during our bachelors’ program. The managerial and finance-oriented literature rarely explain equity transactions on a regional level, in smaller companies. M&A practices are useful when firms look for organic growth yet want to continue their growth journey at a sustainable pace.  Method:  A qualitative research method has been used together with case studies, and case interviews from our collaborating company.  Conclusion: This thesis is written in collaboration with the private equity firm Entreprenörinvest. The literature would suggest that a structure such as the Acquisitional Paradigm would be used since private investments have many unknown factors and risk possibilities. The Case studies predict certain concepts brought up by the Acquisitional Paradigm while explaining and defining the core idea or rather the philosophy of the investment. The research concludes that the aspects of the entrepreneurial process are more related to proper due diligence rather than relations and people involved in the transaction. However, the entrepreneurial process also roots itself in the knowledge and relationship between buyers and sellers. Usually, more entrepreneurial business owners tend to prefer investing alongside their pre-existing relationships.

Nowadays, cruise tourism is playing a significant role in international tourism and has brought vital economic benefits to ports and destinations. Apart from the economic impact, cruise tourism can also influence a destination in social and environmental aspects. Many researchers have highlighted that understanding how value creation can be achieved from cruise arrivals is vital to local businesses and cruise destinations. However, current research on the value creation of cruise tourism has some gaps such as the limited study sites and the lack of research on social and environmental aspects of sustainability. Gotland is the largest island in the Baltic Sea. As a newly constructed cruise destination, research about the island is not yet as much as destinations like the Caribbean, and the existing research has primarily used qualitative methods. This thesis draws on data from the sustainable visits project in 2018 and uses multiple regression research methods to construct three regression models for empirically analyzing the relationships between on-shore activity, tourism information and tourist's satisfaction on Gotland, and the impact of destination satisfaction on expenditure behavior. The purpose of this thesis is to study the sustainable value creation of cruise tourism on Gotland, Sweden, and contribute to the sustainable development of it as a tourism destination. The study results show that the more abundant on-shore activities one enjoys, the higher the cruiser’s destination satisfaction. The more tourism information about the destination one knows, the higher the cruiser’s destination satisfaction. The higher the cruiser’s destination satisfaction, the larger the cruiser's expenditure in the destination is. Thus, it is suggested to all stakeholders work on enriching on-shore activities as well as providing more high-quality tourism information through collaboration, and thus bringing more tourism expenditure.

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.

Die Broschüre dokumentiert die Ergebnisse einer Studie zum Wertschöpfungsanteil des Gartenbausektors in Sachsen. Dabei werden die einzelnen Sparten des Gartenbaus als Kernbereich und in weiteren Ebenen die vor- und nachgelagerten sowie stufenübergreifenden Wirtschaftsbereiche betrachtet. Die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Gartenbausektors geht weit über den Kernbereich hinaus. So lag die Bruttowertschöpfung bei 580 Mio € und damit 2,5-mal so hoch wie für den Gartenbau allein. Die für den Gartenbausektor ermittelten 26.500 AK-Einheiten entsprachen 1,8 % des gesamten Arbeitsvolumens in Sachsen. Der Umsatz wurde zu 98 % durch den Kern- und nachgelagerten Bereich erwirtschaftet. Damit ist der Beitrag der vor- und stufenübergreifenden Bereiche praktisch zu vernachlässigen.

Abstract. Business model innovation and design is an important tool in successful implementation of an organizational strategy. The purpose of this study is to explore value creation throw business model innovation. In this case is proposed to consider the possibility of implementing so-called virtual classes or interactive training. The purpose of this master thesis is to gain a better understanding of how value creation can be achieved throw business model innovation, using digital solution.  More specifically, this research aims to increase the understanding of factors that affect customer value by examining customers’ needs.  And understanding of factors that transformer need take into account to organization's part on this way, reaching the win-win situation for all participants. And how these factors can become drivers of value creation. This study applies the Amit and Zott’s (2001,2012) theoretical lenses to propose a new business model. This thesis uses a case study approach, which is based on qualitative data gathered from 2 semi-structured interviews with management of the fitness club and a survey with 16 club members.  The gathered data were analysed through an abductive analysis approach and a thematic coding. The findings show that value creation achieves could be achieves throw satisfaction of customers’ needs and make conditions where company’s need will be also take into account. The first is that the customers want to have available, diverse and new training experience that can be achieved through a digital solution. The digital experience is their second wish.  The third relates to the fact that customers want to keep a relationship with that fitness club. The fitness club, in turn, having a client-oriented model, aims to satisfy these needs, keeping a financial balance, since this is a profitable organisation.  The proposed transformation of the business model foe fitness club will most likely attract more new members, and therefore will increase the financial flow by increasing the number of purchased subscriptions. Economic calculation to substantiate this statement is proposed as future research.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is twofold. First, the relevant literature is reviewed briefly to provide a strategic context of the different views on strategy development. In the process, the linkages between the e-commerce view of strategy and previous views are explored. As such, the perspectives of different schools of thought on strategy are briefly highlighted. Second, the different dimensions of the e-commerce strategy and their impact on organizational performance are investigated. Design/methodology/approach – Asurvey integrating different theoretical views of value creation was developed and sent to Portuguese e-commerce firms to assess the underlying dimensions of their strategies through factorial analysis. Then, a clustering analysis was performed to determine strategic groups to compare corporate performance. Findings – Three e-commerce dimensions were identified: marketing, innovation and efficiency. Results of data analysis suggest that differentiation factors have impact on corporate performance in the context of virtual markets. Research limitations/implications – Although the Portuguese specific nature of the study could be seen as a limitation of the generalization of the findings, in the authors’ view, it is not truly a limitation because Portuguese executives face the same challenges that other countries counterparts, due to the universal application of e-commerce. Moreover, the use of a Portuguese sample validates findings from other cultural settings, contributing toward a unified theory and testing its applicability. In this way, it is an opportunity rather then a limitation. Practical implications – The research identifies what is strategic and highlights the competitive methods that enhance differentiation in virtual markets, which could be useful as a framework for strategic formulation. Moreover, it provides a theoretical rational for investments in intangible assets. Originality/value – The development of a survey to assess e-commerce strategies and the identification of the e-commerce strategic dimensions are the main contributions of this research, which highlights the importance of differentiation factors in virtual markets.