<p>The hotel industry in Stockholm is characterized by intense competition, and within the next couple of years the construction of a number new hotels is planed. As the number of hotels in Stockholm increase, the competition will increase and the importance of having well functioning strategies will become vital. The purpose of this essay is to examine how two hotels within the hotel industry in Stockholm experience and handle the competition. The two hotels that are included in the study are Clarion Hotel Stockholm and Scandic Continental. The essay derives from models and theories that are related to marketing and competition. Our study shows that the perception of competition varies, in addition to the fact that choice of competitive strategies varies dependent on the hotel’s concept. The hotel industry in Stockholm is divided into different areas, depending on which area hotels choose to serve the competitive environment will differ. A hotel with a specific niche will limit its competitors to a narrow number that operate within the same niche. The results of our study show evidence that the competition in the hotel industry in Stockholm is divided, and that this divisional competition will continue to increase as the industry develops. The building of new hotels in the next couple of years will aid the progress of a possible collaboration between the hotels in Stockholm in the future, and thus attract larger meetings and events.</p> / <p>Hotellbranschen i Stockholm kommun präglas av intensiva konkurrensförhållanden, och inom de nästkommande två åren planeras tio nya hotellbyggen i Stockholm kommun. I takt med att nyetableringarna ökar intensifieras konkurrensen mellan aktörerna och det blir allt viktigare att för aktörerna att hitta passande strategier för att hantera den rådande konkurrensen. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två aktörer inom hotellbranschen i Stockholm kommun uppfattar och hanterar konkurrensen. De aktörer som ingår i undersökningen är Clarion Hotel Stockholm samt Scandic Continental. De teorier och modeller som uppsatsen har utgått ifrån är relaterade till marknadsföring och konkurrens. Vår studie visar att uppfattningen om konkurrens, samt valet av strategier, skiljer sig åt beroende på vilken inriktning hotellen väljer. Hotellbranschen i Stockholm kommun är indelad i olika inriktningar och beroende på vilken inriktning man som aktör väljer att betjäna möts man av skilda konkurrensförhållanden. Ett hotell som väljer en specifik inriktning begränsar sina konkurrenter till ett få antal som är verksamma inom samma område. Resultaten visar tydliga tecken på en splittrad konkurrens inom Stockholm kommun samt att denna splittring troligtvis kommer att fortsätta öka i takt med utvecklingen av branschen. De nyetableringar som kommer att ske de nästkommande åren kommer att underlätta för ett möjligt samarbete mellan hotellen i Stockholm kommun för att locka till sig olika möten, kongresser och evenemang.</p>

<p>The main purpose of this study is to identify and compare classical pianists´ understanding of sight-reading. Six pianists were interviewed, four professionals and two students. All of them concidered good sight-reading ability to be an advantage, especially when rehearsing, but most important is to be a good musician performing music thoroughly gone through.</p>

This thesis examines labour conditions in Vietnam, and the impact of Swedish investments and trade on these conditions. The thesis is a qualitative investigation that includes a theoretical and an empirical part. The theories we use are international trade theory, focusing on comparative advantage and the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. We also utilise Solow’s growth model and the theory about FDI. The concept of social dumping and the effect of imposing a social clause is also discussed. We are using the ILO’s eight core conventions about minimum standards on labour conditions as a measuring instrument. Three Swedish lead multinational corporations have been chosen for the investigation, namely ABB, Ericsson and IKEA. Swedish companies currently have only small investments in Vietnam, but co-operation between the two countries have existed for a long time. Sweden is known to have good labour conditions and it is interesting to see if these are transferred through the Swedish companies. To investigate the labour situation in Vietnam, we have also conducted interviews with people working on these issues at ministries, UN organisations and representatives for trade unions.

Bakgrund: Klusterbegreppet introducerades under 1900-talet, men fenomenet erkändes redan under tidigt 1900-tal. Trots att marknaderna idag blir mer globaliserade, är klusterbegreppet fortfarande aktuellt. Som exempel på områden som kännetecknas av starka länkar mellan företagen kan Silicon Valley och Sophia-Antipolis nämnas, även kända som ”Industriella Hollywoods”. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera interaktioner mellan aktörer inom ett lokalt ”Industriellt Hollywood” – Mjärdevi Science Park. Hur förhåller sig aktörerna till fördelar med att befinna sig inom ett närområde, i hur stor utsträckning utnyttjas dessa agglomerationsmöjligheter och varför? Metod: Denna studie är baserad på djupintervjuer med sexton företagsrepresentanter från Mjärdevi Science Park och en professor från Linköpings Universitet. Resultat: Aktörerna verkar vara medvetna om vilka agglomerationsfördelar som föreligger, dock utnyttjas dessa inte i någon större utsträckning. Störst kontakt har aktörerna på det sociala planet, tack vare en gemensam bakgrund samt ihärdiga försök från Mjärdevi Science Park AB:s sida att initiera kontakt mellan företagen. / Background: Porter introduced the concept of clusters in the 1990’s, but the phenomenon has been acknowledged since the beginning of the 20th century. In spite of the fact that markets are becoming increasingly more global today, the concept of clusters is still very much alive. Regional agglomerations of companies, commonly referred to as clusters, are exemplified by so- called ”Industrial Hollywoods”, such as Silicon Valley and Sophia-Antipolis. Purpose: We are intrigued by this paradox development of the markets and want to analyse interactions between actors within the local ”Industrial Hollywood” – Mjärdevi Science Park. This in order to find out whether these actors recognise any advantages of being located in a cluster of companies and to what extent agglomeration possibilities are exploited. Research Method: This study is based on interviews with sixteen actors from companies located in Mjärdevi Science Park, and one professor from Linköping University. We have also used secondary sources. Result: The actors recognise advantages to company agglomerations but do not seem to exploit these advantages to a great extent. However, several of the actors are in some way inter-connected, mostly on a social level due to common backgrounds and continuous attempts by Mjärdevi Science Park AB to initiate contact between companies.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Turkey&rsquo / s export competitiveness in the first 15 members of the European Union (EU-15 market) against non-EU-15 competitors. The study covers the recent period since the Customs Union agreement signed between Turkey and the EU at the end of 1995. Turkey&rsquo / s position in the EU-15 market is analyzed in detail by focusing upon major dimensions of export competitiveness / such as &lsquo / export similarity&rsquo / , &lsquo / export diversification&rsquo / , &lsquo / intensive and extensive margins&rsquo / , &lsquo / revealed comparative advantages&rsquo / , &lsquo / dynamic market positioning&rsquo / and &lsquo / competitive threat&rsquo / . We use various indexes from the literature and develop some original indexes as our own contributions. In terms the subject-matter, time dimension and data-detail of our study, all indexes utilized in this thesis are applied to Turkey&rsquo / s case for the first time. Examining price and quantity differences across countries and within each industry, Turkey&rsquo / s competitive position in the EU-15 market is analyzed as compared to 30 countries for more than 3000 export-product groups classified according to their technological characteristics. Based on the results, suggestions at the levels of countries, products and technological categories are made for Turkey to improve its export strategy in terms of seizing the existing but unexploited opportunities in the EU-15 market against its competitors. Policy possibilities are also discussed for directing Turkey&rsquo / s competitiveness towards higher value-added products in a rational and strategic way.

Program: MIMA student – International business and Entrepreneurship Course name: Master Thesis (EFO705)Title: Imitation as Organization’s StrategyAuthors: Voravej AssavapisitkulSataporn Bukkavesa Supervisor: Sven-Åke NyströmProblem: Does imitation really benefit organization? Purpose: The authors are writing this topic because the authors feel that this topic is not widely been investigated, moreover, it is a very interesting topic for the authors. According to the course literatures that the authors have read, the authors perceived that most of them focused on innovation and seems like they ignored or mentioned little on the topic of imitation and how can imitation benefits organization. Therefore, the authors are personally interested in the topic. The authors hope that the readers would gain more knowledge on the topic and would be able to apply with their business or study. Method: Interpretivist; Documentary; Interview Summary: In this Master Thesis, the authors have discussed several dimensions of imitation with examples. First, the authors discussed about imitation during the early stage of industrialization with the examples in Korea. This topic discussed of the opportunity provided through imitation process for the new firms to be able to catch up and compete with experienced firms. The next topic is on unique capability. Firms can apply imitation as their own capability that can prevent others’ imitation, moreover, they can become successful in the new market. Then the authors found that there are ways to imitate other firms’ knowledge legally in the form of strategic alliances. In the topic of creation of strategic alliances, the authors suggested four patterns of engagement that firms can select according to their objectives. Under the topic of firms experience, there are some empirical data supported that the degree of imitation has negative relationship with firms’ experience curve. Moreover, the authors discussed about the how competitors’ actions affect the firms to select different strategy of organization management in the topic of the choice of alliances and mergers and acquisitions by competitor’s move. Then the authors discussed about how successful were the imitations by reverse-engineering implemented by Korea’s electronics industry. Furthermore, the authors also provide examples of imitations in other industries. The next topic is limitation and prevention on imitation. Then the authors provided the reasons why do firms imitate. Moreover, the authors discussed about the factors that affect the speed of imitation process and show how the speed of imitation related to benefits and losses of the firms. Next, the authors suggested some successful strategies for product imitation. Then the authors discussed about the drawbacks of imitation with some examples. Finally, the authors provided the results and analysis of the interviews as primary data collection to show the success of firms that implemented imitations, people’s attitudes toward imitation, and the degree that originality and product origin can limit imitation.

Multinational companies (MNCs) often choose to locate near other MNCs in order to gain advantages from each other. This is one ingredient in creating a cluster, an area composed of companies, institutions and/or organisations, sharing a similar technology or knowledge base with mutual benefits for the cluster participants. Market forces have created the majority of the clusters in the world. Still, governments frequently aim at creating clusters in order to promote regional development and growth. This is the case with the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in Malaysia that was launched in 1996. My purpose with this thesis is to examine if the creation and running of the MSC has had economical benefits for Malaysia and to examine the MSC’s potential to become profitable and productive. The MSC is a new technological area and it is still under construction. The return on investment seems to be negative and the area is dependent on the Malaysian government for its development. The infrastructure, political and economical factors seem, according to my analysis, to be sufficient for creating the MSC. However, the low level of human resource is a problem for the cluster. Furthermore, Malaysia’s comparative advantage does not seem to be in high-technology production but rather in high-quality manufacturing. Even though the MSC is unlikely to develop into a world leading high-technology cluster, it can help to transfer Malaysia into a new phase of development.

Problem: In today’s competitive business world, companies are faced with challenges due to increasing competition, changes in customer demands, new technologies, and globalization. Due to these changes, competition does not take place between single companies anymore but rather whole SCs. To cope with such challenges, more and more companies focus on SCI. Business managers and academics emphasize the potential of integration. However, existing literature shows a gap concerning the integration of LSPs. In this thesis, LSPs are divided into three different types; carriers, intermediaries, and 3PL providers. Due to differences in their business focus and the deriving logics, their way of integrating with customers will likely differ. Hence, based on these differences and the gap in literature concerning the integration of LSPs, this thesis focuses on an investigation of two carriers, two intermediaries, and two 3PL providers. Purpose: The purpose of this Master thesis is to explore how and why LSPs integrate with their main customers. Therefore, motivators and obstacles, advantages and disadvantages, as well as the extent of integration and possible integration approaches are investigated. Method: This qualitative study makes use of a case study strategy which includes six companies. Data is gathered from semi-structured interviews and documentary secondary data. The findings are analyzed using a two-stage process. First, a comparison of the findings for each of the three types of LSP is conducted. Second, a cross-analysis among carriers, intermediaries, and 3PL providers is performed in order to identify similarities and differences. Conclusions: The findings of this thesis reveal integration of technologies and systems, flows, and relationship evaluation as approaches for LSPs. Further, LSPs integrate externally, upstream and downstream in terms of intermediaries and 3PL providers and downstream in regards to carriers, and on different levels ranging from relatively shallow in case of carriers to deep in terms of 3PL providers. Moreover, LSPs are motivated by factors such as competition, differentiation, and business safety, whereas aspects such as resource investments and customer power differences present potential obstacles. Furthermore, LSPs benefit from integration, e.g. due to improved problem-solving ability, expansion of business, and better responsiveness to market changes. In contrast, aspects such as increased customer expectations, the risk of sunk costs, and dependence present potential disadvantages for LSPs.

Since the mid-eighties, progress in European economic integration has contributed to changing conditions for the conduct of business in many sectors of the economies. Such is the case in Sweden, whose commitment to the formal integration process also has changed in recent years, from a free trade arrangement (EFTA) via the European Economic Area (The EFTA states' affiliation to the European Union's Internal Market), to membership in the European Union. A theoretical point of departure for this thesis was the finding that although economic integration entails strategic consequences for firms, studies treating economic integration with a general business strategy perspective were rare. Hence, the main purpose has been to achieve knowledge about the European Internal Market's strategic consequences for Swedish firms, with the focus on manufacturing SMEs. Empirically, it is examined how integration has been experienced in firms through two questionnaires, sent in earlier and later stages of the formal integration process. Although the responses indicate a limited impact from the Internal Market, they present some arguments for an increased internationalisation. There are, however, reasons to believe that factors other than political initiatives were behind such a development. In the theoretical part of this thesis, obstacles to international competition, and the corresponding competitive advantages, are seen as being central for understanding integration effects as well as for the possibilities to respond to them. An essential distinction is made between different types of obstacles, based on origin or main causes. One or other of these categories may be crucial for a firm when defending a strategic market position, or may hinder the firm from competing in other markets. Furthermore, obstacles in the different categories are in principle influenced by integration measures to a varying degree, and the survey indicated that the type of obstacle that is primarily influenced by integration measures is the one with the least perceived influence on firms' competitive strength. In the last part of the thesis, and with several different points of departure - trade and integration theory, international business, strategic management, and the Internal Market's institutional framework - a model for analysis of integration effects in business strategy terminology is developed and presented. The model is constituted by a geographic dimension and a dimension concerning the product and distribution in a broad sense. For firms with strategic positions which are affected according to the analysis, two principal strategic responses are discussed: to re-establish former competitive advantages or to adapt to the new situation by re-orienting the business. / digitalisering@umu

This essay investigates the development of the cash crop coffee. It gives a historical background of the good and shows how it developed to be one of the most important and traded community in the world. Tanzania’s position and how it came to that position in the world market is shown. During a three week field study in the Babati District in 2004, some interviews with coffee farmers were made. These interviews were made with interpreters and were gathered with the help from the LAMP project. The connection to Swedish coffee consumption is also shown. One of the results was that if farmers move on to grow organic coffee they could get a larger profit. There is also an increasing demand after organic coffee in countries as Sweden so LAMP instructs the farmers in Babati to start growing organic coffee. Another result was that the farmers in the Babati district intercropped their coffee with other crops to spread the risks and lower the dependence to the world coffee market.