<p>Att kundrelationer är viktiga för företagen är något som har varit känt sedan länge, samtidigt som fler företag tillämpar e-handel. Problemställningen i denna undersökning syftar till är att ta reda på i vilken utsträckning svenska företag, som utöver ordinarie försäljning erbjuder sina produkter över Internet, kan skapa långsiktiga relationer med kunderna som tillämpar e-handeln. Informationen från undersökningen ger även svar på vilket tillvägagångssätt företagen använder för att skapa långsiktiga kundrelationer.</p><p>De slutsatser som drogs är att företagen delvis kan skapa varaktiga kundrelationer över Internet. Det behövs dock ett komplement till e-handeln i form av personlig kontakt med kunden via besök och telefonsamtal. Tillvägagångssättet för att skapa varaktiga relationer anses vara personliga och regelbundna besök och telefonsamtal, bra kvalitet gällande produkter, hålla leveranser, ärlighet samt ge relevant information till kunden.</p>

<p>Detta examensarbete behandlar ämnet standardisering av affärsprocesser för elektronisk handel mellan företag (B2B). I ett par decennier har EDI varit den enda standarden för att elektroniskt överföra standardiserade dokument. EDI är en dyr och komplex teknologi, vilket har lett till att den används av främst större företag i samarbete med deras största leverantörer/kunder. Standarden XML kom år 1998, den lämpar sig även för mindre företag och är anpassad för Internet.</p><p>Arbetets syfte har varit att studera vilka standards som används och varför, i vilka affärsprocesser de används, påverkan på affärsprocesserna, samt hur företagen ser på framtiden inom området. Undersökningen baseras på en enkätundersökning med åtta större företag i olika branscher.</p><p>Resultatet visar att valet av standards oftast inte styrs av vilken teknologi företaget behöver utan de flesta företag ingår i ett nätverk av samarbetspartners som påverkar varandra. För att alla företag ska kunna ta del av de effektiviseringsvinster som en standardisering innebär krävs enklare och webb-baserade lösningar.</p>

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to show what advantages and opportunities social media offer for B2B-companies (business-to-business), and how they can be used for marketing communications.</p><p>We have studied how companies can use social media, for example evolving the organization, developing products/services, staying up-to-date, building relations, creating customer loyalty and engagement, building the company’s identity and image, and affecting the buying decisions. We have also studied how B2B-companies can choose media channels, set goals, and measure the results.</p><p>We have carried out interviews, through phone and visits, with four chosen companies that fit our criterias: Swedish B2B-company that is successful in social media.</p><p>The result of the interviews show that B2B-companies use social media for various purposes, for example networking (to create and build long term relations with other companies) and to improve the company’s image among the end customers. Most of our interviewees reach their end customers (consumers) in first place and customers (companies) in second place, since many B2B-companies do not yet use social media.</p><p>Half of our respondents mention that social media should not be used for advertising and campaigns (one way communication). Instead they should be used for building relations and conversations (two way communication).</p><p>The majority of our respondents believe that it is essential to participate in the social channels where their consumers are, and let the target group control the choice of the channels. By being next to the consumers, a relationship will be formed that will lead to an increased loyalty. Three of the interviewed companies have noticed a growth in demand and sales, and a better recognition of the company.</p><p>Most of our respondents are strongly convinced that their presence in social media has an effect on the customers’ buying decisions, though they cannot statistically prove it. They do however see that the preference that individuals form around the brand have a significant meaning.</p><p>All of the companies that we interviewed state that they use both quantitative and qualitative measurements to find out what effect their activities in social media have on sales, commercial benefits, and what subjects that will raise interest and engagement. From one extreme to another, one of the companies can directly see, with help of statistics, if the activities in social media are increasing the sales, while another company claims that it is impossible to jump to conclusions about that connection, since there are many things that affect the customers’ buying decisions.</p>

<p>Background: Today firms are facing increased global competition, and it results in shor-ter product life cycles. The present situation demand firms to focus more on marketing and how to communicate with the customers. In the mar-keting field there has always existed a perceived dichotomy between B2B and B2C markets. It is said that B2B markets must be handled differently than B2C markets. Recently the perceptions have changed and it is said that B2B and B2C markets have more similarities than previously as-sumed, and this might affect the decision about which marketing tools to implement. This could even change the old way of thinking, which states that B2C marketing tools cannot be used effectively in a B2B market. Theories show that brand awareness is of crucial importance in B2C mar-kets. Will the change of market structure make brand awareness equally important in a B2B market?</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to critically analyze the attitudes towards dif-ferent B2B marketing tools and the possible appropriateness of using B2C marketing tools in a B2B market in order to achieve brand awareness.</p><p>Method: A qualitative approach has been used in order answer the purpose of the thesis. ROL AB has been used as a case study, and 13 open phone inter-views have been conducted with existing and potential customers of ROL AB. Furthermore, two interviews have been conducted with firms that successfully use B2C marketing tools in B2B markets.</p><p>Conclusions: The typical characteristics of B2B markets show a tendency to blur. This insinuates that brands are gaining importance in the B2B market. In order to react to this change, B2B firms need to increase their brand awareness. The traditional relational (B2B) marketing tools seems no longer to be suf-ficient to be used alone but now need to be accompanied with transac-tional (B2C) marketing tools.</p>

<p>This bachelor thesis sets its goals in explaining the e-business idea formation. This paper inflicts different aspects of a e-business formation with the purpose of explaining the importance of analysis and reasoning, simulation and execution and careful approaches toward the goal. This thesis explores some of the principal issues surrounding the formation of an e-business. The main objective is to research small and middle sized enterprises preparations in the are mentioned above for success factors, renewing. This paper suggests to businesses that have the goal of entering the market to evaluate their different options when forming their strategies, as I see it the e-business should be the means to an end and not the end it self.</p>

Investigating an important overlooked phase of interorganizational relationship evolution, which is currently hypothesized to progress through five stages of awareness, exploration, expansion, commitment, and dissolution, this dissertation proposes that in the long road between commitment and dissolution, the quintessential interfirm relationship is likely to be characterized by aprolonged period of relationship alienation, which then becomes the immediate precursor to the dissolution stage. The dissertation utilizes social learning theory, behavior constraint theory, and alienation theory to explain apathetic behaviors of franchisees. The principal proposition is that certain characteristics of the franchise system’s operating environment inadvertently condition franchisee estrangement and failure, and the maladaptive behaviors persist even after environmental changes make success possible again. The dissertation proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model of franchisee alienation. Data from dyadic franchisee-franchisor relationships (N=185) across a wide variety of industries were obtained through a survey of franchisee organizations that were members of the Franchise Council of Australia (FCA). The results render support to the central hypothesis that franchisee alienation occurs as a result of the franchisee organization disconnecting its own actions from the outcomes of its interactions with the franchisor. Franchisee alienation is shown as a phenomenon that is extremely toxic for the franchise system as a whole, as the alienated franchisee is likely to engage in opportunistic behaviors, exhibits reduced productivity, and is inclined to litigate against the franchisor and to dissolve its relationship with the franchisor. On the basis of the findings, the dissertation offers a prescription in terms of the different strategies that can be used by the franchisor to prevent and combat franchisee alienation.

The Adoption of E-commerce in SMEs: An Empirical Investigation in Egypt It is recognised widely that e-commerce can offer substantial opportunities for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) to compete in the global market. In developing countries, e-commerce opportunities can be a meaningful approach for SMEs to be able to compete with large businesses and to access, with lowest possible costs, international markets. However, the current situation shows that SMEs continue to lag behind in maximising their capabilities in taking these chances. Universally, they are reported to be slow adopters of new technologies as a result of limited financial resources and lack of expertise. The importance, of SMEs, emerged from their positions since they contributed more than 90% to many developed or developing countries’ economies and they were considered to be the backbone of any economy. Hence, the main purpose, of conducting this research, was to increase the body of knowledge about the process of the adoption of e-commerce. This was done by a primary empirical focus on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt. SMEs represented about 90% of all Egyptian businesses (ITP, 2012). This study aimed to investigate the factors which could influence the SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce. In order to accomplish this objective, the researcher investigated the previous studies, on the same approach, in order to identify the gap, within the literature, regarding the adoption of e-commerce amongst SMEs. Additionally, the researcher integrated existing theories on the adoption of innovation in order to develop a conceptual framework for the determinants of the adoption of e-commerce in the SMEs sector. The researcher reviewed the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI); Resource Based View of the Firm (RBV); Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) Model; and Technology Acceptance Models (TAM) to give constructive information about the firm and decision makers, within the firm, who were believed to have an impact on the adoption of innovation. 3 The proposed model was tested using quantitative research data. The data was collected by means of an online questionnaire survey and, subsequently, due to the high rate of non-respondents, changed to a face-to-face survey. A total of 130 usable responses were generated for purpose of analysis. The study contributed to the existing research by providing valuable information about the factors which influenced the SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce. As the results showed, there were 6 groups of factors which impacted mainly on the adoption processes. Namely, these were: Decision maker characteristics (education level, position within the firm, management support, management attitude); organisational characteristics (firm activity, firm size, firm’s assets/capital, firm age, employee’s IT knowledge, firm marketing capability); innovation characteristics (Perceived Relative Advantage); e-readiness (Individual and organisation e-readiness); government support; and barriers to e-commerce. This study’s findings offered important information for Egyptian government, policy makers and managerial participants; those were the people who encouraged the Egyptian SMEs to adopt e-commerce. These findings could be generalised to be applied to other countries with similar conditions to Egypt, as well as being applicable to Egyptian SMEs in other sectors.

In marketing research, customer relationship management (CRM) is often described as a strategy for collecting customer information through an IT- infrastructure in order to manage customer relationships (e.g. Boulding et al 2005; Keramati et al 2010; Nguyen and Mutum 2012). Most of the existing research within CRM has focused on IT-infrastructure and implementation issues rather than on how CRM can enable knowledge sharing among individuals and working teams. Difficulties regarding information and knowledge creation, as well as sharing knowledge in both formal and informal ways, are not particularly well addressed in CRM literature. Hence, this study adopts a holistic approach to CRM and aims to “Understand how a B2B-organisation organise for strategic CRM”, and “Investigate how organisational aspects can act as drivers or barriers for learning about customer relationships”. The holistic approach implies that organisational aspects (such as co-workers, organisational culture, internal processes and affordance, c.f. Finnegan and Currie 2010) should be captured and seen as integrated parts of strategic CRM together with the more tangible CRM- system. Besides that, this study attempts to answer the question, “How does a B2B-organisation work with CRM to learn about their customer relationships”. Previous research has shown that intra-organisational problems emerge when implementing and using CRM with both researchers and software providers approaching CRM from a technological perspective with a heavy emphasis on IT-infrastructure (e.g. Bohling et al 2006; Coltman et al 2011). Despite its importance, IT-infrastructure is just one aspect that managers have to consider when making decisions about implementing and organising for CRM. From previous research we can learn that organisational aspects, such as co-workers, internal processes, and organisational culture (e.g. Finnegan and Currie 2010; Jayachandran et al 2005) are important to consider when implementing and using CRM. Thus, discovering how B2B- companies organise for strategic CRM necessitates the use of a holistic approach to CRM, based on the philosophy of relationship marketing (e.g. Grönroos 2008a; Nguyen and Mutum 2012; Storbacka and Lehtinen 2000). The empirical context in this study is the accounting and auditing industry. During recent years Swedish accounting and auditing firms have faced changes in the macro environment due to changes in legislation, which hasviitransformed the industry to become more customer oriented and CRM has been brought to interest in many firms. Based on that, a third and more practitionary aimed aim for this study is to ”Identify for accounting and auditing industry relevant organisational aspects for use of CRM”.In the theory chapter I first review the philosophy of relationship marketing, highlights the differences between B2B- and B2C-contexts and shows the nature of B2B-relationships, where multiple parties often are involved in the relationship. The study then sheds light on current research streams in CRM-literature and identifies two major research streams, the technology- oriented one and an organisational-oriented one. The thesis proceeds to review information, knowledge and learning domains and integrates relevant theoretical frameworks from these research areas into CRM-literature. The theory chapter rounds off by presenting and discussing “communities of practice” as an organisational approach that enables and cultivates learning in organisations.The study adopts an explorative research approach connected to the research question and purposes and the empirical inquiry is conducted through an abductive approach and investigates a large auditing and consulting firm, a major actor in the Swedish audit- and accounting business, during the time period of 2,5 years. The empirical data is comprised of 44 meeting observations of key account teams, as well as a sales group and 31 in-depth interviews with members of the groups. Moreover, several meeting observations with members of a sales team and a responsible-advisor team were conducted in one of the auditing firm ́s local offices to provide an understanding of how CRM as an organizational strategy is adopted and used by different individuals and groups working with different types of customers.In the analysis I built on the theoretical framework and case findings to empirically identify relevant themes connected to the customer relationships, to the development and learning processes in working teams and among individuals, and to intra-organisational prerequisites and structures. The identified themes were then further analysed in order to find out how CRM as a strategic approach is used to learn about customer relationships. This study shows that managers have to integrate relevant intra- organisational aspects to be able to organise for and implement CRM with a purpose to generate learning about customer relationships in a successful way. While previous research have shown that the organizational aspects may vary depending on company-context, size and type of customers, this study suggests that managers should consider “strategic communities of practice” as an important strategy to enable knowledge sharing, and thusviiicultivate learning processes among individuals, groups and divisions. However, enabling and cultivating for strategic communities of practice is not suitable for all groups of individuals due to their work tasks, or what goals and objectives managers have with the particular group or team. This finding is important to address since CRM, when narrowly approached as an IT-infrastructure, does not capture all relevant information and results in a lot of important knowledge about customer relationships getting stuck in minds of smaller working groups - instead of being shared with colleagues in networks or communities of practice, and thus contributing to organisational learning about customer relationships. The study shows that if CRM is to act as an enabler for relationship-specific knowledge sharing, managers have to enable interactive knowledge sharing among co-workers through for example communities of practice. These interactions, along with traditional information collection are strongly needed, especially in the context of B2B-services companies. To conclude, CRM-literature have to be re-examined to further incorporate discussions regarding learning processes and knowledge sharing to target a deeper, as well as a more holistic, understanding of customer relationships.

E-handel är en revolutionerande industri som växer ständigt och kommer med all sannolikhet att fortsätta växa i en accelererande fart. Syftet med denna studie är att få en överblick över vilka faktorer som påverkar svenska konsumenters köpbeteende i samband med e-handel. Samt vilka faktorer som spelar en anspelande roll vid val av leveransaktör för e-handelsföretagen. Studien visar hur valet av leveransaktör kan påverka både konsument och företag och vilka krav som ställs i samband med en leverans.  Insamlingen av teori och data genomfördes med hjälp av en litteratur studie, enkätundersökningar och intervjuer. De viktigaste faktorerna som påverkar konsumenternas köpbeteende vid hemsidans utformning visade sig vara websidans pålitlighet (säkerhet) och websidans användbarhet följt av interaktivitet Konsumenterna ansåg att en marknads mix och en estetisk tilltalande hemsida inte påverkar deras köp avsevärt.  Vid val av den logistiska aspekten så som frakt, ses en leverans som ankommer i tid, och en fri frakt vara av störst betydelse bland deltagarna. De angivna faktorerna visade sig även påverka återkommande köp från samma hemsida i framtiden. E-handelsföretagen ser inte leveransalternativet som ett konkurrensmedel bland sina konkurrenter då alla de ledande distributörerna erbjuder samma tjänster så som spårbar frakt, korta leveranstider och enkelhet. Vid val av leveransaktör har samtliga företag rangordnat leverans tid, möjligspårning och snabb respons tillsammans med pris och godsförlust/godshantering som dem två viktigaste faktorerna.

This graduation paper researches the principles of Electronic collaboration systems. It overlooks what technologies ant methods may be used for better collaboration between business entities. Here is discovered the benefit of international classification of economic activities, products and services. This method of international classification is used in system we made-up and it’s defining the structure of catalogs. Also we overlooked the possibility to use data warehouse system which may by applied for direct customers data bases integration with confederate system. System project was build using two CASE technologies. User requirements and demands represented using UML specifications, final systems specifications phase was build using Oracle Case tools.