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<p>The main ambition of this degree project is to illustrate the fundamental problems of today’s electric tariff regulation and the usage of the analyzing tool; The Network Tariff Model. There is a further discussion of potential problems and clear improvements of the 2012 years proposed network tariff regulation. Interviews have been conducted with specific network companies and Energimarknadsinspektionen. The proposed regulation of 2012 is discussed from the government’s proposition.</p><p>This paper clearly shows that the authority´s work has been conducted in a very unprofessional manner during the period of The Network Tariff Model. Transparency has been missing at the same time when quality control has been almost nonexistent from the authority.</p><p>The regulation itself and the usage of The Network Tariff Model generated substantial criticism. Disagreement about the model was mostly about the use of methods and parameter settings.</p><p>The new regulation of beforehand assessment of network tariffs is scheduled to be commissioned during 2012. This regulation has certain advantages compared to today’s for once because it counts for the actual costs for the corporations. At the same time this particular approach will demand a lot of resources of the authority.</p><p>When the regulating models of the future are being developed legitimacy to all parties must be ensured. The regulations must at the same time be adjusted to the resources available for the grid authority. Likewise the process and nature of putting forward new regulations should be based on continuity to greater extent.</p>

Industrial systems resist change, more often, because heavy production facilities and industrial constructions are expensive and have long economic lives, but also because people tend to defend ingrained conceptions of how things are and how activities ought to be performed. Starting out from the question: “How does technological change come about in an international, industrial system?” the thesis investigates the interplay between technological, social, and economic factors. Empirically the work is located to the steel and metals industries and covers business exchange within and between several economic entities performing international business operations. It is shown that technological change is driven by strategic intention, but that it also occurs as a result of chance or “necessity”, or follows on everyday enterprise operations. In an attempt to realize strategic intentions actors involve in games of negotiation while referring to different power bases. Backed by organizational role (hierarchic level/managerial position), personal “luminosity” (charisma/leadership), or control over critical resources (that other actors are interested in) various arguments are put to the test on “the arena for negotiations and change”. While involving in negotiations actors may relate to existing business and/or social relations for support or they may take advantage of full-blown coalitions. Constrained by the games of negotiation, which unfold in an institutional environment, the process of technological change adopts evidently evolutionary characteristics, and it follows implicitly that the single actor has at its disposal only limited possibilities to determine the process outcome. Technological change as an evolutionary process consists of three underlying sub-processes, viz. innovation, interaction, and institutionalization, it is argued.

Outsourcing can be defined as transferring an activity from internal to external control. This thesis studies outsourcing in the wood product manufacturing (WPM) sector from both a customer and supplier perspective. The research design is a multiple case study approach, and it is based on six Scandinavian companies in the door, floor and window industries and one larger supplier of raw material. This study provides an understanding of driving forces for outsourcing in a different context than previously studied and has identified cost reduction in combination with reallocating resources from non-core activities as main driving forces. Compared to several other industrial sectors, outsourcing strategies for the WPM firms have little to do with accessing external sources’ capabilities. In the literature, there is often a main focus on the strategic level of outsourcing, however, such heavy resource-based focus in terms of a core competence approach in the formulation of outsourcing strategies at the customer side risks forgetting that components can still be vulnerable to supplier failure. Here, more focus needs to be put on the operational level when considering outsourcing. This thesis illustrates customers considering outsourcing where there are not any given outsourcing supplier partners developed. At the same time, for the supplier side, forward integration and specialising by taking over outsourcing is complicated by an initial divergent production flow of sawn timber. When not all contexts have developed supplier markets for directly managing outsourcing, it should not be assumed that general outsourcing models are directly applicable. In general, the question of whether or not to outsource seems too complex to simply be considered as either “in or out”. A company needs safeguards when conducting outsourcing and in a situation where there is a non-developed supplier market, parallel in-house production becomes an alternative.

s the dependence of IS/IT has grown in modern organizations, IT investments have soared in the last couple of decades. Large amounts of money are spent with the hope that the investments will generate value for the business organizations using the systems. It is hence easy to understand the needs for methods to assess the business value of IT-investments. The investment decision is basically about selecting the best IT-system or the best combination of IT-systems, i.e. the system(s) that provides the most business value in dimensions that are important business-wise. However, a problem with many of the avail-able methods is that they often fail to concretely explain what technical characteristics the IT systems(s) should have to achieve the business value desired. A complicating aspect of IT-investment evaluations is also that the evaluations usually include a high degree of un-certainty. In this thesis, an IT investment evaluation method is presented that indicatively assesses the differences in contribution to business value from IT-investment alternatives. The method provides, at a relatively low cost of investigation, indications of not only the technical differences between the IT-investment alternatives in a specific investment situation, but also an assessment of the differences in types and amounts of their business value. The presented method has been applied in a large case study at an electric power company. Furthermore, it also incorporates concepts found within Enterprise architecture (EA), particularly in how the information used in the evaluation is collected. The presented thesis is a composite thesis that, besides an introduction, includes five papers (paper A-E). Paper A presents an outline of the method as well as its application in the case study. It also presents the theoretical fundaments for the criteria used for the technical evaluation and the business value assessment including the method’s applications in relation to Enterprise architecture. The following two papers primarily present necessary steps in the development of the method. First, paper B presents the process to develop a functional reference model (used for the functional assessments in the method), including its application in the case study. Second, a breakdown of the term business value into a set of IS/IT-affected value dimension is presented in paper C. The last two papers present the final steps, i.e. the technical evaluation of the investment alternatives (paper D) and the final business value assessment (paper E). The papers include the methods to perform these analyses as well as the application of the method in the case study and the results of the case study. / QC 20100608

Knowledge as a resource and knowledge formation as a process are seen as central to providing nations and regions as well as firms with a competitive advantage. This is captured by the view that the economic and industrial landscape is currently undergoing a transformation towards a knowledge-based economy. This dissertation engages with two views that have gained great influence in the discussions – in academia as well as in policy – on this industrial transformation. This concerns the view on which types of knowledge formation processes that are seen to actually provide a competitive advantage. There is today a prevailing tendency to connect the creation of competitive advantage to research-intensive, so-called high-tech, activities. It also concerns the view on where these knowledge formation processes take place. Much inspired by innovative and high-tech regions, competitive advantage is often closely associated with the role of geographical proximity for knowledge formation. The aim of this dissertation is to develop our understanding of the role of those knowledge formation processes that currently fall outside what is captured by these prevailing views. Three research questions are addressed. First, what is the role of non-research intensive knowledge formation processes in the creation of competitive advantage? Second, how can knowledge formation processes connected to the creation of regional competitive advantage be promoted? Third, what is the role of proximity in knowledge formation processes in the creation of competitive advantage? A qualitative case study approach is adopted for the empirical part of the research, consisting of one case study where low- and medium-tech industrial activities are studied and one case study where the regional dimension of knowledge formation is studied. Personal interviews constitute the major part of the empirical material. The research findings give evidence that reveals shortcomings in theory as well as in policy practice in regards both these prevailing views. It is shown that low- and medium-tech activities are still highly relevant, not only on their own but for the industry as a whole. Further, current forces of globalisation call for an approach to regional development that includes a dual focus of strengthening regional connections as well as facilitating and promoting extra-regional connections. This is particularly important in small, open economies such as Sweden. Further, the finings are in line with those requesting a multidimensional approach to the concept of proximity – one that regards proximity not only as a concept with geographical connotation but also with reference to proximity in context, cognition or value-systems. The dissertation suggests instead that an approach to industrial activities that assumes that those firms, regions and countries that can manage complex knowledge formation processes may develop competitive advantages. It is this ability to achieve and manage sticky processes in a slippery world that is essential for the creation of competitive advantage. And we are more likely to identify these particular competitive advantages on the firm level than on the industry level. Within every industry, there are firms that can manage more suitable ‘bundles’ of knowledge bases, network connections etc, which enable them to adapt at a lesser cost (costs can for instance be measured in terms of efforts, money or time) than other firms within the same industry. This is important to acknowledge – in policy as well as in theory – in order to not exclude important parts of what contributes to industrial competitive advantage in the knowledge-based economy. / QC 20100715

This study within organization theory takes a process perspective and focuses on how the dialectic interaction between the structuring and improvisational parts of organizing is handled in construction sites. In studies of organizing where reality is seen as socially constructed with focus on the subjective source of organizations reality, the individuals understanding of the identity and the rolecan be seen as central to interpret the social processes. Depending on how the actors understand their role in the context, the acting/interacting is going to beinfluenced. In times when the different orders of organizing have contrastingcontents the understanding of the role and the context is going to challenge. The actors then have to consider and reconsider the understanding of the role.To make the identification perspective possible to study a theoretical framework is constructed where community, meetings, insecurity and sense making arehighlighted as important aspects in the identification process. The empirical partis based on narratives from ten construction clients. The narratives were initiatedby descriptions of four situations, describing four occurrences, which provide four different attitudes to how the dialectic interaction between different ordersof organizing can be handled. The analysis of the narratives is based on how theactors in there argumentation express doubt and faith. Expression of doubt andfaith is used as tools to make the identification process concrete to be possible tostudy in a fruitful way.The study points out how doubt and faith are used to create pictures of the actors understanding of the role and its context. The analysis gives three identificationpatterns. The characteristics and content of the patterns are different whichinclude a difference between the understandings of the tension in the dialecticinteraction of different organizing orders. We can therefore say that the threepatterns give different starting points for action and interaction. Finally the implications of the results from the study are discussed in relation to management accounting and organizational change. / QC 20100811

To better understand the forces propelling the excess which characterizes much of Western society and culture, management scholars increasingly appear to be addressing notions such as play and playfulness. Through a number of narratives, homing in on a do-it-yourself movement within the heavy trucks industry in which users are displaying a keen interest in aesthetic aspects of their work tools, this book attempts to further and complement such discussions. It does so by exploring the creative processes which seem to constitute a certain playfulness, a certain playful practice set on excessive decoration of heavy duty vehicles — a practice which, moreover, appears to be spreading aesthetic values more generally within this industry. From a psychoanalytical perspective, and emphasizing and examining the relationship between fantasy and desire, it argues that in order to understand the driving mechanisms at work in such processes, one has, however, to look beyond the idea of the playful as being something thoroughly harmonic or pleasurable. Drawing mainly on Slavoj Zizek’s readings of the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, it argues that we must instead look beyond the pleasure principle in order to understand why something always emerges, where nothing really seemed to be needed. / QC 20100812

The research objective of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of institutional arrangements, with respect to vertical integration and cooperation, on competitive advantages within the commercial printing industry, with specific focus on digital printing. This dissertation comprises six research papers, based on four qualitative case studies and a quantitative survey study, all carried out in Sweden in the years 2004-2008.The results show that vertical integration is a way to achieve competitive advantages in the commercial printing industry and is a widely used strategy in Sweden. Being able to contract full service companies is appreciated by customers to printing houses, especially direct customers, due to their need for a supplier of complete solutions for printed matters. Consequently, a vertically integrated company can provide value added services which makes it possible for customers to minimize their organization regarding production and purchasing of printed matters. Other reasons for vertical integration are the need to ensure fast deliveries to customers and having a steady supply of appropriate jobs. Despite the believed strategic importance by the industry, the results show that the level of vertical integration has no significant impact on profitability. Vertical integration is strategically important for digital printing houses in order to develop their business because digital printing allows for fast deliveries, on-demand printing and variable data printing. Despite the commoditization of printed matter, the findings indicate that the industry, in general, focuses on providing a high service level even though it means having to set higher prices. Furthermore, the results point toward that this strategic positioning is beneficial for digital printing houses because they experience a lower degree of competition and a lower price pressure.Vertical integration can, however create inflexibility due to ownership and employment. The findings suggest that cooperation can be used to achieve fast access to valuable resources, such as production equipment and knowledge, and, hence, increase printing houses’ resource flexibility. Even though internal control of resources is regarded as important to be able to satisfy customers’ needs and produce customers’ orders on time, cooperation with partners can create similar strategic effects. Furthermore, cooperation can give cost and flexibility advantages compared to vertical integration by reducing internal need for production capacity and allowing access to complementary resources. Nevertheless, it is common to combine vertical integration with cooperation to create competitive advantages and make a company more flexible and dynamic toward market changes. / QC 20100827

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