Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2009

Zugl.: Siegen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Zugl.: Krems, Univ., Masterarbeit, 2007

Zugl.: München, Univ., Diss., 2009

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Many firms are transitioning from being a classic goods-focused company to becoming a solutions provider, a phenomenon called servitization. Evolving towards a service focus entails several challenges that need to be addressed in order to benefit from the opportunities that servitization entails. As most servitization research has focused on business-to- business contexts, this thesis applies servitization literature in a business-to- consumer context. By examining the challenges in a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews and observations within three automobile dealerships selling premium brands, this thesis aims to further enrich the understanding of the phenomenon servitization by comparing the collected data with previously researched challenges. The thesis concludes that many of the challenges, such as creating integrated solutions, adequately charging for services and manage internal resistance, could be viable in a business-to- consumer context.

This study utilize the goal-driven methodology, from Wu et al (2006), to derive high-level strategies concerning the value activities and potential competitive advantages, and thereby determine the requirement specification of core e-services for a B2C Website development. A real word case of B2C Website application development from H Company firm is use to illustrate its concept, elicitation process and applicability. The results indicate that this approach not only provides e-business managers a framework to help them develop differentiated EC strategies and gain the competitive advantages, but also assists system designers to effectively translate the core e-services into critical system requirements.

During the soaring information economy of the last decade, organizations spent large sums of money on the development of Web sites without much knowledge of their performance value. In time, organizations realized that measuring Web site performance to determine value was fundamental. For transactional, e-commerce Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Web sites, this effort is straightforward because value is attached to sales. Measuring performance to determine the value of non-transactional B2C Web sites (i.e., sites that provide information, not sales) is more complex. This study examined the underexplored subject of evaluating non-transactional Web sites. Performance was defined as outcomes ranging from site visitor attributes to business impacts. Value was defined as the degree to which the site contributed to achieving business objectives. The resulting qualitative, exploratory study involved 45-60 minute semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 employees from four corporations across diverse industries regarding evaluation of non-transactional sites. Each interview was recorded with participant consent and transcribed. Interview results were aggregated, analyzed, and grouped based on themes and patterns. Logical groupings of participant opinions on topics such as associating Web initiatives to company business strategy, how Web success is defined, comfort with subjective measurement, and value placed on subjective measurement were identified and placed on several continuums. The study's result is a three phase process to evaluate non-transactional Web sites. Phase one is comprised of four components: 1) identify the company's Web belief system, 2) clarify the company's level of expectation for non-transactional Web sites, 3) determine which viewpoint (business, customer, or both) the company will use to evaluate Web site effectiveness and success, and 4) identify the purpose of evaluating the performance of Web sites. Phase two includes two components: 1) select applicable metrics and 2) collect appropriate data. To supplement Phase two, three tools/guides were developed: 1) expectations/evaluation considerations matrix, 2) sample business viewpoint metrics and 3) sample customer viewpoint metrics. Phase three consists of two components: 1) analyze the data and identify insights and 2) act upon the results. Together, this three phase process and accompanying tools constitute a practical framework for evaluating non-transactional Web sites.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how companies have linked their corporatestrategy with their digital- and social media strategy. The authors believed that these strategieshad to be connected somehow and wanted to research it further.Qualitative research methodology was utilized in this study. The research data consisted oftwo semi-structured interviews with one employee at Hestra Gloves and one at Kronfönster.The interviews were made after the same protocol in form of questions and documentation.The result of the interviews revealed that both Hestra Gloves and Kronfönster had overallbusiness core values which were reflected in their strategies. Hestra Gloves had a generalbusiness idea which was used as a corporate strategy, they also had a social media strategyand they had working guidelines for their digital channels. Kronfönster followed their corevalues which permeate the whole organization and they had guidelines for both corporatelevel, digital level and social media level.The findings show that the companies which were investigated have linked their corporatestrategy with their digital strategy in a medium way. The findings also show that theinvestigated companies have linked their corporate strategy with their social media strategy ina medium way. The authors conclude that some strategy components are linked in a strongway and that some components are linked in a weak way.

<p>Människan har under lång tid bedrivit handel med varor och tjänster. Genom att nya hjälpmedel för handel utvecklas, förändras handeln och dess former. Elektronisk handel kan bedrivas via Internet. Elektronisk handel via Internet medför flera fördelar, men också nackdelar, problem, konsekvenser och risker för företag som inför/bedriver Internethandel.</p><p>Det finns skilda meningar om huruvida specialvaror bör säljas via Internet, och om företag som tillverkar och/eller saluför denna typ av varor bör bedriva Internethandel mot konsument. En litteraturstudie och en intervjustudie har genomförts för att undersöka om det är lämpligt för specialvaruföretag att införa Internethandel mellan företag och konsument. Resultatet av undersökningen påvisar många fördelar med Internethandel, men att problem med exempelvis befintliga kunder i form av återförsäljare bör beaktas och lösas för att möjliggöra införande av Internethandel för specialvaruföretag.</p>