While many researchers tend to agree that quality improvement efforts lead to operational and customer-related organizational gains, the financial bottom-line impact of quality efforts is still debatable. Utilizes a sample of 68 certified Portuguese firms to shed some light on the nature of the relationships between quality improvement efforts and financial performance measures. Uses factor analysis, cluster analysis, and analysis of variance to analyze the data gathered using a survey-based research instrument. Concludes that quality efforts directed toward the customer tend to be associated with higher financial performance in terms of net profit after tax.

Private Banking är en banktjänst för förmögna individer och företag som syftar till att hjälpa dem med förvaltning av deras kapital men även andra tjänster såsom hjälp med deklarationer. Storbanker idag kämpar med att återfå kunders förtroende efter finanskrisen 2008 och fokusen på riskhantering har blivit viktigare. Kunder har blivit mer känsliga för risker och därmed försöker banker dra fördel av detta genom att skapa värde i riskhanteringsprocessen. I detta värdeskapande eftersträvar man en bra relation till kunden som därmed kan generera i ökade marknadsandelar.  Vår problemformulering i uppsatsen blir då följande: ”På vilket sätt kan den svenska storbanken Nordea öka sina marknadsandelar inom Private Banking med hjälp av riskhantering?” Syftet med vår uppsats blir därmed att få en djupare inblick i hur Nordeas Private Bankingtjänst arbetar med riskhantering och hur det påverkar deras marknadsandelar. För att kunna få denna förståelse har vi genomfört en kvalitativ studie i form av en fallstudie på Senior Private Banking Managern på Nordea. Valet av Nordea grundar sig på att de vann pris för bästa aktör i Norden samt att de är den största finanskoncernen i Norden. I uppsatsen har vi använt oss av en abduktiv ansats för att kunna få fram förståelse mellan vår teori och empiri. Slutsatsen i denna uppsats är att det är kommunikation av risker som är den viktigaste biten i riskhanteringen för att kunna öka marknadsandelar samt att kunna göra en korrekt risk- samt kundprofilering. Om detta görs på rätt sätt kan Nordea som storbank och koncern skapa förtroende samt värde för kunden som resulterar i kundnöjdhet. Agentteorin som bland annat regleras av fast lön resulterar dessutom i att rådgivaren tänker på kundens behov i första hand och gör att riskhanteringen fungerar. Vårt bidrag med denna studie är att vi har visat att Nordeas arbetssätt med riskhantering är värdeskapande för kunden och är en bidragande faktor till att deras ökande marknadsandelar. / Private Banking is a banking service for wealthy individuals and companies that aims to provide help with the management of their capital but also other services such as help with declarations. Today large banks are fighting to regain their customers’ trust after the financial crisis of 2008 and the focus on risk management has become increasingly important. Customers have become more sensitive to risks and consequently banks are trying to adapt to this and create value in the risk management process. In this value creation the aim is to have a good relationship to the customer, which in turn can generate into increasing market share. Our problem formulation therefore becomes the following in the thesis: ”In what way could the Swedish large bank Nordea increase their market share within Private Banking through risk management?”  The purpose with our thesis is to get a deeper insight in how Nordea is working with risk management and how it affects their market shares. To get this understanding we have done a qualitative study in terms of a case study on the Senior Private Banking Manager in Nordea. The choice of Nordea is based on the fact that they won prize for best provider of Private Banking services in the Nordic together with being the largest financial group in the Nordic. In the thesis we have used an abductive approach to get the understanding between our theory and empirics. The conclusion of this thesis is that communication of risks is one of the most important parts in the risk management to be able to increase market shares together with being able to do a correct risk and customer profiling. If this is done in the right way, Nordea as a large bank and financial group, could create trust and value for the customer that can result in customer satisfaction. The agency theory that among other things is regulated by fixed salary results in that the advisor thinks about the customer needs in first place and therefore results in an effective risk management work. Our contribution with this thesis is that we have shown that the way Nordea is working with the risk management is value creating for the customer and is contributing to an increase in their market shares.

Profiling the customers of the e-commerce company Kalahari.net. The purpose of the study was to profile the customers of the e-commerce company, Kalahari.net which sells books, music CDs, DVDs, videos, computer software and hardware amongst others. The literature study includes a discussion of marketing management and e-commerce in South Africa. Customer profiling is discussed to indicate the need and importance of knowing the customer. The quantitative research was done amongst the customers of Kalahari.net by means of an online questionnaire in 2003. The findings concluded that the customers browse the Internet between one and five hours per week. The customers are aged between 21 and 25, mostly female, predominantly English-speaking, married, two to three people per household, have a monthly household income of more than R18 000, are well-educated and are residing predominantly in Gauteng. The study was concluded with the limitations experienced by the researcher and a short discussion of the general usability of the study. / The purpose of the study was to profile the customers of the e-commerce company, Kalahari.net which sells books, music CDs, DVDs, videos, computer software and hardware amongst others. The literature study includes a discussion of marketing management and e-commerce in South Africa. Customer profiling is discussed to indicate the need and importance of knowing the customer. The quantitative research was done amongst the customers of Kalahari.net by means of an online questionnaire in 2003. The findings concluded that the customers browse the Internet between one and five hours per week. The customers are aged between 21 and 25, mostly female, predominantly English-speaking, married, two to three people per household, have a monthly household income of more than R18 000, are well-educated and are residing predominantly in Gauteng. The study was concluded with the limitations experienced by the researcher and a short discussion of the general usability of the study. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management)

Profiling the customers of the e-commerce company Kalahari.net. The purpose of the study was to profile the customers of the e-commerce company, Kalahari.net which sells books, music CDs, DVDs, videos, computer software and hardware amongst others. The literature study includes a discussion of marketing management and e-commerce in South Africa. Customer profiling is discussed to indicate the need and importance of knowing the customer. The quantitative research was done amongst the customers of Kalahari.net by means of an online questionnaire in 2003. The findings concluded that the customers browse the Internet between one and five hours per week. The customers are aged between 21 and 25, mostly female, predominantly English-speaking, married, two to three people per household, have a monthly household income of more than R18 000, are well-educated and are residing predominantly in Gauteng. The study was concluded with the limitations experienced by the researcher and a short discussion of the general usability of the study. / The purpose of the study was to profile the customers of the e-commerce company, Kalahari.net which sells books, music CDs, DVDs, videos, computer software and hardware amongst others. The literature study includes a discussion of marketing management and e-commerce in South Africa. Customer profiling is discussed to indicate the need and importance of knowing the customer. The quantitative research was done amongst the customers of Kalahari.net by means of an online questionnaire in 2003. The findings concluded that the customers browse the Internet between one and five hours per week. The customers are aged between 21 and 25, mostly female, predominantly English-speaking, married, two to three people per household, have a monthly household income of more than R18 000, are well-educated and are residing predominantly in Gauteng. The study was concluded with the limitations experienced by the researcher and a short discussion of the general usability of the study. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management)

Companies are always trying to increase their sales and revenue, but nowadays due to technology advancement, competence and the fast moving economy this task becomes more difficult as time goes by. This is where innovation walks in, to find new ways to add value to customers, increasing profit and even find new potential markets. As part of implementing innovative practices, many companies have added corporate entrepreneurship to their structure, to look for new business models that reach diverse customers within the same industry. Getting in the mind of customers, trying to decipher unspoken needs and matching problems to new solutions is part of the insighting process that has to be done when attempting idea incubation. This research seeks to provide a methodology to make the insighting process for early idea validation, in a corporate environment, less manual and more mechanical. For this purpose the Stockholm division of Telia Company was used as study case and main source of data recollection, which brings the research results to a practical use and analysis.