<p>This paper is based on an assignment from Kvaerner Pulping in Karlstad, a company that supplies complete factories, machines, and systems to the pulp industry worldwide. The assignment was to do a customer survey looking at customer satisfaction focusing on quality.</p><p>Our main purpose with this paper is to study the concept of quality.</p><p>We wanted to know how Kvaerner Pulping’s customers’ perceptions differ. We also wanted to look at whether Kvaerner Pulping can offer what customers perceive as quality, and how customers rate Kvaerner Pulping compared to their competitors.</p><p>Kvaerner Pulping decided which of their customers should be included in the research. A quantitative research was used based on structured telephone interviews. A total of 27 respondents were interviewed. Factories from three Nordic countries and six customers from two other European countries were included in the survey. We tried to interview two respondents from each factory as far as possible, including one person from the purchase department and one from the maintenance department.</p><p>The theories that we have chosen for this paper concerns the network perspective, customer satisfaction looking at quality and customer-perceived value, after market support, and the process of ordering.</p><p>Our research shows that quality is indeed a multifaceted concept since there are differences in how customers from different departments and countries rate characteristics on how important they are in a supplier. Also the fact that we added an additional value feature to the ones constructed by Bovik, shows that quality seen as customer-perceived value is indeed a multifaceted concept.</p><p>When looking at the three characteristics with the highest general mean value (”keeps promises”, “has a good technical knowledge”, and “delivery security”), our results of the survey shows that purchase, the Nordic countries and Finland are more critical to Kvaerner Pulping’s performance than maintenance, the Other European countries and Sweden. Respondents stated that the company performs adequately on three quality categories “product quality”, “support quality” and “delivery quality”, but to get more satisfied customers, they need to be open for improvements. The customers from the research have compared Kvaerner Pulping to its competitors and the results showed that the company is “equal” on most characteristics.</p><p>Using Bovik’s models (2004) we could see that all of value features on the get-side made adequate contribution to the creation of the value. However to strengthen competitive advantage and offer customers more value improvements are needed.</p> / <p>Uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i ett uppdrag från Kvaerner Pulping AB i Karlstad, ett företag inom reservdelsbranschen som tillhandahåller kompletta fabriker, maskiner och system till den kemiska massaindustrin världen runt. Uppdraget gick ut på att genomföra en kundundersökning där vi undersöker kundnöjdhet med fokus på kvalitet.</p><p>Vårt huvudsyfte med uppsatsen var att studera kvalitet. Vi ville veta huruvida kundernas uppfattning skiljer sig åt när det gäller begreppet kvalitet. Vi ville också titta på huruvida Kvaerner Pulping kan erbjuda det kunderna uppfattar som kvalitet och hur kunderna rankar Kvaerner Pulping jämfört med konkurrenterna.</p><p>Kvaerner Pulping valde ut vilka fabriker som skulle inkluderas i undersökningen. En kvantitativ metod användes grundad på strukturerade telefonintervjuer. Totalt intervjuades 27 respondenter. Kunder från tre nordiska länder och sex kunder från andra europeiska länder inkluderades i undersökningen. Så långt som möjligt intervjuade vi två respondenter från varje fabrik, en person från inköpsavdelningen och en person från underhållsavdelningen.</p><p>Teorierna som vi har valt att använda i uppsatsen berör nätverks perspektiv, kundnöjdhet med fokus på kvalitet och customer-percieved value, aftermarket support och orderprocessen.</p><p>Vår undersökning visar att kvalitet verkligen är ett mångskiftande koncept eftersom det finns skillnader i hur kunder från olika avdelningar och länder rankar karakteristikerna när det gäller hur viktiga de är hos en leverantör. Även det faktum att vi adderade ytterligare en value feature till de som Bovik konstruerat påvisar att kvalitet sett som custimer-percieved value verkligen är ett mångskiftande koncept.</p><p>Om vi tittar på de tre karakteristikerna som har fått de högsta generella medelvärdena (”keeps promises”, “has a good technical knowledge”, and “delivery security”) visar våra resultat undersökningen att inköpsavdelningen, de nordiska länderna och då speciellt Finland är mer kritiska till Kvaerner Pulpings prestation än underhållsavdelningen, de andra europeiska länderna och Sverige. Respondenterna uppgav att företaget presterar tillfredställande på de tre kvalitetskategorierna ”product quality”, ”support quality” och ”delivery security” men för att få kunderna mer nöjda behöver Kvaerner Pulping vara öppna för förbättring. Kunderna från undersökningen har jämför Kvaerner Pulping med deras konkurrenter och resultatet visar att företaget är lika konkurrenterna på de flesta karakteristikerna.</p><p>När vi använde Boviks modeller (2004) kunde vi se att alla value features på get-sidan gav ett tillfredställande bidrag till skapandet av värde. Dock för att stärka konkurrens fördelarna och erbjuda kunder et starkare mervärde krävs förbättringar.</p> / <p>Nous avons fait une étude de client fondée sur une demande de Kvaerner Pulping AB, une entreprise qui offre des systèmes de processus complet, des machines, des services et de la maintenance pour l’industrie mondiale de pulpe. La tâche était de faire une étude de client et examiner la satisfaction de la clientèle, surtout par rapport à la notion ”qualité”.</p><p>L’ objet de ce mémoire est d’illustrer les multiples aspects de la notion “qualité”. Nous voudrions savoir si les perceptions des clients se différencient. Nous voudrions aussi savoir si Kvaerner Pulping peut offrir ce qu’est la qualité selon les clients, et comment les clients notent Kvaerner Pulping auprès des concurrents.</p><p>C’est Kvaerner Pulping qui a décidé quels clients que doivent être inclus dans l’étude. Nous avons fait une étude quantitative fondée sur des entrevues structurées. Nous avons fait les entrevues par téléphone. Au total, 27 personnes ont été interviewées. Des personnes venant de trois pays nordiques et deux pays européennes. Nous avons essayé d’interviewer deux personnes de chaque usine dans la mesure du possible, incluant un employé de la maintenance et un employé du service des achats.</p><p>Les théories que nous avons utilisées dans cette mémoire concernent la perspective de réseau, la satisfaction de client (customer satisfaction) centré sur la notion de « qualité » et la notion de « la valeur perçue des clients » (customer-perceived value), le support du marché après (aftermarket support) et le processus de commande (ordering process).</p><p>Notre étude a montré que « qualité » est une notion à plusieurs aspects parce que des clients appartenant aux départements différents et venant de pays différents ont montré des opinions différentes par rapport á ce qui est important chez un fournisseur. Le fait que nous avons ajouté une caractéristique de valeur (value feature) à celles des Bovik (2004) montre aussi que la notion de « qualité » a plusieurs aspects.</p><p>Au sujet des trois caractéristiques les plus importantes en général, notre étude montre que le service des achats, les pays nordiques et la Finlande sont plus critiques à la prestation de Kvaerner Pulping que le sont la maintenance, les pays européennes et la Suède. Les interviewées ont déclaré que les prestations de Kvaerner Pulping sont adéquates par rapport à trois catégories: “product quality”, “support quality” et “delivery quality”. Pour augmenter la satisfaction des clients, l’entreprise doit faire des améliorations. Notre étude montre aussi que Kvaerner Pulping est perçu le plus souvent comme égal à ses compétiteurs par rapport aux caractéristiques utilisées dans le questionnaire.</p><p>En utilisant les models de Bovik (2004), nous pouvons voir que toutes les caractéristiques de valeur (value features) contribuent adéquatement à la création de valeur pour les clients. Kvaerner Pulping doit néanmoins faire quelques améliorations.</p>

This paper is based on an assignment from Kvaerner Pulping in Karlstad, a company that supplies complete factories, machines, and systems to the pulp industry worldwide. The assignment was to do a customer survey looking at customer satisfaction focusing on quality. Our main purpose with this paper is to study the concept of quality. We wanted to know how Kvaerner Pulping’s customers’ perceptions differ. We also wanted to look at whether Kvaerner Pulping can offer what customers perceive as quality, and how customers rate Kvaerner Pulping compared to their competitors. Kvaerner Pulping decided which of their customers should be included in the research. A quantitative research was used based on structured telephone interviews. A total of 27 respondents were interviewed. Factories from three Nordic countries and six customers from two other European countries were included in the survey. We tried to interview two respondents from each factory as far as possible, including one person from the purchase department and one from the maintenance department. The theories that we have chosen for this paper concerns the network perspective, customer satisfaction looking at quality and customer-perceived value, after market support, and the process of ordering. Our research shows that quality is indeed a multifaceted concept since there are differences in how customers from different departments and countries rate characteristics on how important they are in a supplier. Also the fact that we added an additional value feature to the ones constructed by Bovik, shows that quality seen as customer-perceived value is indeed a multifaceted concept. When looking at the three characteristics with the highest general mean value (”keeps promises”, “has a good technical knowledge”, and “delivery security”), our results of the survey shows that purchase, the Nordic countries and Finland are more critical to Kvaerner Pulping’s performance than maintenance, the Other European countries and Sweden. Respondents stated that the company performs adequately on three quality categories “product quality”, “support quality” and “delivery quality”, but to get more satisfied customers, they need to be open for improvements. The customers from the research have compared Kvaerner Pulping to its competitors and the results showed that the company is “equal” on most characteristics. Using Bovik’s models (2004) we could see that all of value features on the get-side made adequate contribution to the creation of the value. However to strengthen competitive advantage and offer customers more value improvements are needed. / Uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i ett uppdrag från Kvaerner Pulping AB i Karlstad, ett företag inom reservdelsbranschen som tillhandahåller kompletta fabriker, maskiner och system till den kemiska massaindustrin världen runt. Uppdraget gick ut på att genomföra en kundundersökning där vi undersöker kundnöjdhet med fokus på kvalitet. Vårt huvudsyfte med uppsatsen var att studera kvalitet. Vi ville veta huruvida kundernas uppfattning skiljer sig åt när det gäller begreppet kvalitet. Vi ville också titta på huruvida Kvaerner Pulping kan erbjuda det kunderna uppfattar som kvalitet och hur kunderna rankar Kvaerner Pulping jämfört med konkurrenterna. Kvaerner Pulping valde ut vilka fabriker som skulle inkluderas i undersökningen. En kvantitativ metod användes grundad på strukturerade telefonintervjuer. Totalt intervjuades 27 respondenter. Kunder från tre nordiska länder och sex kunder från andra europeiska länder inkluderades i undersökningen. Så långt som möjligt intervjuade vi två respondenter från varje fabrik, en person från inköpsavdelningen och en person från underhållsavdelningen. Teorierna som vi har valt att använda i uppsatsen berör nätverks perspektiv, kundnöjdhet med fokus på kvalitet och customer-percieved value, aftermarket support och orderprocessen. Vår undersökning visar att kvalitet verkligen är ett mångskiftande koncept eftersom det finns skillnader i hur kunder från olika avdelningar och länder rankar karakteristikerna när det gäller hur viktiga de är hos en leverantör. Även det faktum att vi adderade ytterligare en value feature till de som Bovik konstruerat påvisar att kvalitet sett som custimer-percieved value verkligen är ett mångskiftande koncept. Om vi tittar på de tre karakteristikerna som har fått de högsta generella medelvärdena (”keeps promises”, “has a good technical knowledge”, and “delivery security”) visar våra resultat undersökningen att inköpsavdelningen, de nordiska länderna och då speciellt Finland är mer kritiska till Kvaerner Pulpings prestation än underhållsavdelningen, de andra europeiska länderna och Sverige. Respondenterna uppgav att företaget presterar tillfredställande på de tre kvalitetskategorierna ”product quality”, ”support quality” och ”delivery security” men för att få kunderna mer nöjda behöver Kvaerner Pulping vara öppna för förbättring. Kunderna från undersökningen har jämför Kvaerner Pulping med deras konkurrenter och resultatet visar att företaget är lika konkurrenterna på de flesta karakteristikerna. När vi använde Boviks modeller (2004) kunde vi se att alla value features på get-sidan gav ett tillfredställande bidrag till skapandet av värde. Dock för att stärka konkurrens fördelarna och erbjuda kunder et starkare mervärde krävs förbättringar. / Nous avons fait une étude de client fondée sur une demande de Kvaerner Pulping AB, une entreprise qui offre des systèmes de processus complet, des machines, des services et de la maintenance pour l’industrie mondiale de pulpe. La tâche était de faire une étude de client et examiner la satisfaction de la clientèle, surtout par rapport à la notion ”qualité”. L’ objet de ce mémoire est d’illustrer les multiples aspects de la notion “qualité”. Nous voudrions savoir si les perceptions des clients se différencient. Nous voudrions aussi savoir si Kvaerner Pulping peut offrir ce qu’est la qualité selon les clients, et comment les clients notent Kvaerner Pulping auprès des concurrents. C’est Kvaerner Pulping qui a décidé quels clients que doivent être inclus dans l’étude. Nous avons fait une étude quantitative fondée sur des entrevues structurées. Nous avons fait les entrevues par téléphone. Au total, 27 personnes ont été interviewées. Des personnes venant de trois pays nordiques et deux pays européennes. Nous avons essayé d’interviewer deux personnes de chaque usine dans la mesure du possible, incluant un employé de la maintenance et un employé du service des achats. Les théories que nous avons utilisées dans cette mémoire concernent la perspective de réseau, la satisfaction de client (customer satisfaction) centré sur la notion de « qualité » et la notion de « la valeur perçue des clients » (customer-perceived value), le support du marché après (aftermarket support) et le processus de commande (ordering process). Notre étude a montré que « qualité » est une notion à plusieurs aspects parce que des clients appartenant aux départements différents et venant de pays différents ont montré des opinions différentes par rapport á ce qui est important chez un fournisseur. Le fait que nous avons ajouté une caractéristique de valeur (value feature) à celles des Bovik (2004) montre aussi que la notion de « qualité » a plusieurs aspects. Au sujet des trois caractéristiques les plus importantes en général, notre étude montre que le service des achats, les pays nordiques et la Finlande sont plus critiques à la prestation de Kvaerner Pulping que le sont la maintenance, les pays européennes et la Suède. Les interviewées ont déclaré que les prestations de Kvaerner Pulping sont adéquates par rapport à trois catégories: “product quality”, “support quality” et “delivery quality”. Pour augmenter la satisfaction des clients, l’entreprise doit faire des améliorations. Notre étude montre aussi que Kvaerner Pulping est perçu le plus souvent comme égal à ses compétiteurs par rapport aux caractéristiques utilisées dans le questionnaire. En utilisant les models de Bovik (2004), nous pouvons voir que toutes les caractéristiques de valeur (value features) contribuent adéquatement à la création de valeur pour les clients. Kvaerner Pulping doit néanmoins faire quelques améliorations.

<p>Strategisk roll av informationssystem har börjat diskuteras i allt större utsträckning i och med uppkomsten av den Internetbaserade elektroniska handeln mellan företag, Business-to-Business (B2B). För att kunna uppskatta den strategiska betydelsen av införandet av ett sådant system krävs att företagen begrundar sin allmänna affärsstrategi utifrån informationssystemets potential. Befintliga ramverk för informationssysystemsutveckling innehåller riktlinjer för kartläggning av de strategiska förändringarna men räcker inte till för att enskilt utvärdera B2B:s strategiska bidrag. En sammanställning av flera befintliga ramverk har resulterat i ett nytt ramverk som mer enhetligt kan analysera företagens allmänna affärsstrategi med avseende på B2B. I sin tillämpning har ramverket uppvisat förmågan att väcka en diskussion kring de potentiella förändringarna i företagens strategiska läge utifrån deras informationssystems utvecklingsmöjligheter.</p>

A review of the literature reveals that companies‟ brands and their management have dominated the marketing of goods and services to consumers but the idea of measuring brand equity has been slow to take hold in business to business (B2B) marketing. On-going relationships between businesses and their industrial customers are receiving renewed interest in marketing and the building of strong customer relationships has been suggested as means of gaining a competitive advantage particularly for service businesses. The importance of benefits recieved through relationships indicates that customer value is not linked to the the product or service received, but is also derived from the benefits recieved from relationships with the organisation. The study seeks to determine the importance relationships have on the brand equity of organisations that operate in a B2B services environment. This is achieved by focusing on the drivers of brand equity in a B2B services environment, consisting of price, product quality, service quality and relationship benefits.The findings offer important insightas to the drivers of brand equity in the B2B services industry. The results indicate that the benefits a buying organisation receives from having a relationship with the organisation providing the service is significant to improving itsbrand equity . The other drivers that significantly influence the brand equity of the orgnsiations providing the service is the quality of the product or service it provides followed by the price.The research involved a two phase approach. Phase one involved face-to-face interviews with five Learning and development professionals from various industries in South Africa, namely Financial Services, Manufacturing, Telecommunications and Retail sectors. The data gathered from the interviews, together with the reviewed literature was used to develop an instrument that was used to measure the importance relationship benefits have on brand equity in the B2B services environment . One hundred and twenty one questionairres were processed. The data was subjected to inferential and multivariate statisical analysis.This research provides both an academic contribution to the relationship marketing field as well as a practical implication for marketing managers within B2B service organisations. The main contribution for academic purposes involves confirmation from hypothesised relationships. This research is of specific value to managers who are responsible for increasing brand equity within their organisations. With a more dedicated focus on improving the benefits the buying organisation receives from the organisation providing the service will allow managers to improve their brand equity. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study aims to extend previous research studies investigating drivers of customer equity in a business-to-business environment. The study also aims to address the role of relationship benefits on customer equity in a business-tobusiness environment beyond psychological, functional and social benefits. Furthermore the study focuses on the importance of building relationships influencing customer equity in organisations operating in a business-to-business environment. The study is based on two phases. Phase one consisted of face-to-face interviews with experienced professional individuals from three different industries. These industries covered financial services, utility services and property development within a South African demographic. The data gathered from these interviews was combined with literature to understand the drivers of customer equity and the role that relationship benefits play on customer equity. Data was also gathered from a 146 questionnaires and statistically processed. Significant findings made in the study reflect the importance of customer equity within business-to-business environments. Further focusing on the importance for organisations to build long-term relationships with their customers. this will finally explain the significant impact that relationship benefits have on customer equity beyond psychological, functional and social benefits for organisations in business-to-business environments. The study recognises that the individual customers and the organisation on its own will both benefit from developed customer equity, highlighting the fact that not one driver of customer equity is exclusive to the next. Contributions made for academic purposes include hypothesised variable on customer equity, with the main aim on relationships. This study will be beneficial for various departments in organisations that interact with customers and want to improve their customer relations, specifically organisations operating in a business-to-business environment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

No intuito de melhor entender a situação atual, objeções, limitações e perspectivas de uso da internet na pós-venda de serviços business-to-business, este estudo objetivou avaliar por que e como a internet está sendo ou não utilizada nas atividades de pós-venda de serviços de impressão corporativa e propor sugestões de melhoria desse uso para o público acadêmico científico e para os praticantes de gestão. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória usando estudo de casos com duas revendas de serviços de impressão corporativa. Como síntese dos padrões das descobertas, tem-se que: a internet tem sido utilizada para obter maior agilidade na correção de problemas e na leitura dos contadores de impressão nos equipamentos; os recursos mais utilizados são o e-mail, o portal e o acesso remoto a equipamentos do cliente, o que representa um uso básico e, à medida em que se evolui na oferta de serviços de impressão, o uso da internet se torna mais complexo; a mídia social, incluindo as redes sociais, não é utilizada nem existe uma estratégia definida para seu uso; o estilo de venda voltado para a solução de problemas e o planejamento baseado em valor influenciam o uso da internet, enquanto que a venda pessoal gera no cliente uma expectativa de que a pós-venda também seja presencial; esse uso da internet pode impactar positivamente o composto de marketing, apesar de muitos dos benefícios não estarem sendo explorados; por parte dessas revendas, a internet não tem sido melhor utilizada por falta de conhecimento de seus benefícios e de suas restrições e por falta de enfoque estratégico e prioritário dos seus gestores; o próximo passo seria usar melhor o que já existe implementado e expandir esse uso para os demais clientes. Por fim, foram apresentadas sugestões de melhoria desse uso. / In order to better understand the current situation, objections, limitations and perspectives of internet use in the business-to-business after-sales services, this study aimed to evaluate why and how the internet is being used or not in activities of after-sales service in corporate printing and propose suggestions for improvement of such use to the scientific academic public and to the practitioners of management. For such, an exploratory study using case study with two resellers of corporate printing services was conducted. As summary of the findings of the patterns it follows that: the internet has been used to achieve greater agility to correct problems and to read the counters on the printing equipment; the most used resources are e-mail, portal and remote access to customer equipment, which represents a basic use and, as it evolves in offering of printing services, internet usage becomes more complex; social media, including social networks, is not used, nor is there a defined strategy for its use; the selling style oriented to problem solving and the value-based planning influence the use of internet, while the personal selling, used by such resellers, generates an expectation that the after-sales attendance is also a personal one. That use of the internet can positively impact the marketing mix, although many of the benefits are not being exploited; by those resellers, the internet has not been used for lack of better knowledge of its benefits and of its restrictions and lack of strategic and priority focus of its leaders; the next step would be to make better use of what is already in place and expand that use to other customers. Finally, suggestions have been made to improve such use.

No intuito de melhor entender a situação atual, objeções, limitações e perspectivas de uso da internet na pós-venda de serviços business-to-business, este estudo objetivou avaliar por que e como a internet está sendo ou não utilizada nas atividades de pós-venda de serviços de impressão corporativa e propor sugestões de melhoria desse uso para o público acadêmico científico e para os praticantes de gestão. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória usando estudo de casos com duas revendas de serviços de impressão corporativa. Como síntese dos padrões das descobertas, tem-se que: a internet tem sido utilizada para obter maior agilidade na correção de problemas e na leitura dos contadores de impressão nos equipamentos; os recursos mais utilizados são o e-mail, o portal e o acesso remoto a equipamentos do cliente, o que representa um uso básico e, à medida em que se evolui na oferta de serviços de impressão, o uso da internet se torna mais complexo; a mídia social, incluindo as redes sociais, não é utilizada nem existe uma estratégia definida para seu uso; o estilo de venda voltado para a solução de problemas e o planejamento baseado em valor influenciam o uso da internet, enquanto que a venda pessoal gera no cliente uma expectativa de que a pós-venda também seja presencial; esse uso da internet pode impactar positivamente o composto de marketing, apesar de muitos dos benefícios não estarem sendo explorados; por parte dessas revendas, a internet não tem sido melhor utilizada por falta de conhecimento de seus benefícios e de suas restrições e por falta de enfoque estratégico e prioritário dos seus gestores; o próximo passo seria usar melhor o que já existe implementado e expandir esse uso para os demais clientes. Por fim, foram apresentadas sugestões de melhoria desse uso. / In order to better understand the current situation, objections, limitations and perspectives of internet use in the business-to-business after-sales services, this study aimed to evaluate why and how the internet is being used or not in activities of after-sales service in corporate printing and propose suggestions for improvement of such use to the scientific academic public and to the practitioners of management. For such, an exploratory study using case study with two resellers of corporate printing services was conducted. As summary of the findings of the patterns it follows that: the internet has been used to achieve greater agility to correct problems and to read the counters on the printing equipment; the most used resources are e-mail, portal and remote access to customer equipment, which represents a basic use and, as it evolves in offering of printing services, internet usage becomes more complex; social media, including social networks, is not used, nor is there a defined strategy for its use; the selling style oriented to problem solving and the value-based planning influence the use of internet, while the personal selling, used by such resellers, generates an expectation that the after-sales attendance is also a personal one. That use of the internet can positively impact the marketing mix, although many of the benefits are not being exploited; by those resellers, the internet has not been used for lack of better knowledge of its benefits and of its restrictions and lack of strategic and priority focus of its leaders; the next step would be to make better use of what is already in place and expand that use to other customers. Finally, suggestions have been made to improve such use.

Problemformulering: Vilka fördelar finns det för B2B-fokuserat företag med att marknadsföra sitt varumärke på sociala medier? Hur använder B2B- fokuserat företag sociala medier för att stärka sitt varumärkesvärde? Vilka sociala mediekanaler är lämpliga för ett B2B-fokuserat företag? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur B2B-fokuserade företag använder sig av sociala medier för att stärka sitt varumärkesvärde. Metod: Uppsatsförfattarna har använt sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med sju semistrukturerade intervjuer för insamling av empiri. Slutsatser: Slutsatsen av undersökningen visade att det finns tydliga fördelar i användningen av sociala medier som ett marknadsföringsverktyg inom B2B-företag. Till exempel framhävning av varumärket och långvariga relationer mellan varumärkeskännedom och varumärkeslojalitet. Värdesättningen av marknadsföringen i de olika företagen vi intervjuade baserades inte på företagets storlek. Små, medelstora och stora företag använder sig av marknadsföring i olika grader. / Problem formulation: What are the benefits for B2B-focused companies of marketing their brand on social media? How do B2B-focused companies use social media to strengthen their brand value? Which social media channels are suitable for a B2B-focused business? Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to study how B2B-focused companies use social media to strengthen their brand equity. Method: The essay authors have used a qualitative research method with seven semi-structured interviews to gather empirical data. Conclusions: The study's conclusion showed that there are clear advantages to the use of social media as a marketing tool in B2B companies. For example, brand highlighting and long-standing relationships between brand awareness and brand loyalty. The marketing valuation in the different companies we interviewed was not based on the company's size. Small, medium and large companies use marketing to varying degrees.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how implicit processes determine individual and organisational behaviour in the context of business to business (B2B) decision making. A broad literature review suggests that implicit cognition has a significantly more powerful influence than therefore assumed. The author calls for further research into the motivations driving professional behaviour in B2B situations as new study challenges the classical economic theory of the homo economicus, and focuses on the role of implicit motives as a possible driver. As a first objective, the study attempts to reveal a typical structure of implicit motives based on hierarchy and gender. The second objective is to delineate the interplay between the implicit motives and the decision making process in B2B. The third objective is to examine the consequences and implications for business to business marketing. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary mixed method approach. To address the gaps in existing knowledge, an experiment and a survey (n=175) in different sectors were conducted. For the analysis, a variety of techniques such as operant motive tests, cluster- and multivariate analysis were employed to analyse the empirical response. Semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews (n=8) were carried out to detect the consequences and the implications of the new findings for practice. The findings of the research indicate that marketing is much more a selective communication as assumed. The impact of marketing communication is not always consciously perceived by customers and the most part is implicit. In conclusion, there seems to be an interplay between implicit motives and the B2B decision making process. Hypotheses about the interplay of implicit motives and business to business decision making were confirmed in personal, management and group decision experiments. As a contribution to existing theory on the subject, it can be postulated that rational choice in B2B decision making may play a limited role. In addition marketing experts from various industry sectors emphasise the importance and the potential impacts for future B2B marketing. Experts stress the need to reveal the real motivational drivers in marketing communication.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera samt analysera karaktärsdrag, trender och potentiell utveckling för mässan som verktyg för relationsbyggande B2B. Vi har i denna uppsats valt att göra en kvalitativ studie med en induktiv ansats med deduktiva inslag. Detta då vi ville få en djupare förståelse för ämnet snarare än att se till det bredare perspektivet. Insamlingen av empiriskt material skedde genom sex intervjuer med personer som arbetar med att marknadsföra sitt företag på mässor. Tre intervjuer genomfördes personligen, två via videokonferens och en via telefon. Genom analysarbetet har vi identifierat att mässan har stor betydelse för relationsbyggande mellan företag. Detta speciellt då den fungerar som ett verktyg som underlättar för företag att underhålla befintliga relationer samt skapa nya. Vi har även identifierat en trend som indikerar på att företag mer specifikt väljer ut vilka mässor de ska närvara vid, där en definierad målgrupp värderas högt för att företagens budskap ska nå fram. Vi har kommit fram till att virtuella mässor bör fungera som ett komplement snarare än ersätta den traditionella mässan eftersom det personliga mötet är av stor vikt inom B2B. Generationsskiften på arbetsmarknaden bidrar till att andra förhållningssätt till teknologi kommer att råda. Detta gör att företag måste förstå vikten av de förändringar som sker och agera därefter.