The past decade spotlighted a trend, which is that of individual users taking the role of innovators and physically creating their own products by explooting model additive manufacturing techniques. This trend emphasized the need for facilities able to serve as a platform for passionate makers to share knowledge, meet others and provides opportunities to realize their ideas. One of these platforms is Karlskrona Makerspace (KMS). KMS is located at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and provides 3D printing service, CNC milling machine and other facilities to help companies and individuals build physical prototypes. The purpose of this thesis is to expand the business of KMS and offer their service to more people. The study collects customer needs from potential KMS customers and aims at obtaining a viable business model after ranking risks. The main methodology used for building a business model is Running Lean Methodology to clear up complex associations in a business. The result shows that the business model identifies target customers, and clarifies the solutions to increase funding for KMS.

<p>A significant problem in the construction industry is the losses sustained as a result of the theft of tools and equipment from construction sites. The case study company, referred to as PSS, have successfully developed and commercialized a technological solution to prevent such theft within Sweden. The next step in the commercialization of PSS is to seek growth and leverage their investment and innovation.</p><p>Our purpose is to undertake a UK market analysis, in order to investigate if PSS's business model has opportunities in the UK, and recommend how PSS might approach internationalization, using a resource based perspective.</p><p>PSS’s existing business model has been developed to fit the Swedish market conditions, and has been demonstrated to perform. We find market conditions in the UK are similar, albeit in greater proportions. The nature of the problem, the industry structures, and the competitive environment is similar to the domestic conditions, and the competitive position of PSS is replicable, with a high level of strategic fit.</p><p>We recommend PSS pursue its desire to internationalize to the UK based on similarity of the fit with the local market (which has been demonstrated to result in acceptable performance). We would recommend entry through a sales subsidiary to facilitate the establishment of customer relationships. In addition a possible license agreement with a partner may help to facilitate speedy access to UK distribution industry networks.</p>

洗衣產業是傳統服務業，近年隨著社會與科技的進步，讓商業模式一成不變的洗衣產業出現了些變革，本研究透過訪問兩家創新商業模式之業者與二手資料輔助，以實際案例探討及分析洗衣產業之創新與傳統商業模式之差異、帶給顧客的價值與關鍵成功要素，希望對未來欲投資洗衣產業之業者有參考價值。 研究結論發現每種商業模式都有解決顧客不一樣的痛點與帶來不同的價值，前店後廠的現場洗滌中型洗衣店重視顧客感受與服務，便利超商洗衣打破顧客送洗時間的限制，App洗衣主打快速到府服務與24小時送回。洗衣產業之關鍵成功要素不在壁壘要高或提高顧客轉換成本，而是市場定位要準、有效的規模擴張、差異化與技術創新，又以前三項為主因。

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the National Math and Science Initiative’s Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program (APTIP) on the number of students taking AP science courses and their performance. The study evaluated 39 schools over a six-year period in six states that participate in the APTIP. The National Math and Science Initiative provided data for cohort I. A general linear model for repeated measures was used to evaluate the data. Data was evaluated three years prior to the intervention and three years during the intervention, which will actually continue for two more years (2012 and 2013) since cohort I schools were awarded five years of support. Students in APTIP schools enrolled in more AP science exams (AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, and AP Physics-B) over the course of the intervention. The quantity of students earning qualifying scores increased during the intervention years. APTIP is a multi-tiered program that includes seven days of teacher training, three six-hour student prep sessions, school equipment, reduced exam fees, and monetary incentives for students and teachers. This program positively impacted the quantity of enrollment and qualifying scores during the three years evaluated in this study. Increases in the number of female and African American students’ test takers their and qualifying scores were seen in all three years of the APTIP intervention. This study supports the premise that the first step to increasing the Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline is giving access to advanced courses to more students in high schools

Problem: Recently, the demand for more sustainable farming and production has increased due to climate changes and the decreasing biodiversity. Furthermore, in Sweden, more and more milk producers are facing bankruptcy because of the present situation in the dairy industry which also demands social responsibility towards them. Therefore, dairy companies need to embed sustainability into their business model. Previous literatures indicate that sustainable business models which integrate sustainability into organization could maintain and increase profitability and at the same time ensure social and environmental capital in the future. However, there is still a lack of information and empirical data on the scope of how sustainability is embedded into a business. Purpose: to increase understanding of sustainability in dairy company and what sustainability aspect might be important to embed into their business model. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework is developed for the purpose of this research. It discusses the definition of Business model and Sustainable business model. Also, two sustainable business model canvases that could be used as analyzing tools to investigate an organization and its operational activities which are presented and compared. This part focuses on presenting framework and explanation of Flourishing business canvas which will be implemented in the analysis. Methodology: The study approaches on a qualitative study of an extreme case where parts of empirical data has been collected from interviews with the case company, the rest of empirical data has been gathered from the case company’s CSR reports and their annual reports. The case company is working with sustainability in their business. Conclusion: As findings of purpose and research question, Arla have embedded sustainability into their business model, however they still need to develop further in their work with sustainability to benefit more from their business model. The case company has embedded all three main contexts of sustainability: economic, social and environmental contexts. However, the focus is more on the financial context. Limitation: The findings need more investigation of other dairy companies to be generalized. Furthermore, this thesis only investigated the current business model.

Internet adoption and e-business has been of particular interest amongst researchers and practitioners, however, most of the studies focus on large organisations and only recently there has been a shift of interest to e-commerce/business adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with little or no reference to dot-com initiatives. It is well documented that SMEs have significant and different challenges in comparison to large organisations in the brick and mortar domain. Therefore, investments in the e-business domain (such as dot-com start-ups) present even more challenges to SMEs. Consequently, this research offers an in-depth study of the start-up process of a dot-com company by examining the stages, phases, and components that are key for this process. The empirical contexts of this research are three projects with three different SMEs that have actively participated in the creation of a new dot-com venture. These were analysed using an action research approach with interpretative and qualitative analysis. The main component of the action research approach covers a longitudinal study (2 years) divided in four cycles, followed by two case studies used for the evaluation of the findings of this research. These results of all research cycles, which in turn, can be considered the contributions to theory and practice of this research, can be seen in two ways: the development of a start-up framework for SMEs, and a Business Information Database (BID) that supports the implementation of the framework. The framework is designed to visualise, from a strategic perspective, the stages that an organisation have to go through in order to initiate a new dot-com venture. Is proved that organisations have, directly or indirectly, followed specific steps related to the phases described in the framework. Hence new entrepreneurs can use the phases of the framework to facilitate and ease their start-up process looking at the main features of each phase. The BID was constructed under two premises: a) to structure the main documents and corresponding building blocks used in industry and in the proposed framework, such as the Strategic Plan, Business Model, Business Plan, and Business Case, and b) to identify the relationships among the building blocks of all the aforementioned documents. The BID and related documents can be used to identify how a particular piece of information (e.g. building block) affects other aspects of the dot-com initiative. The BID can be also be used as an independent artefact to assist organisations through the structure of the business documents in the start-up process, even if the organisation is not following a specific framework. Hence the BID itself can assist entrepreneurs to start-up firm without the need to have an overarching framework. Last but not least, practical recommendations are offered to practitioners and stakeholders interested in developing new ventures within the dot-com domain.

In recent years the world has witnessed an increased attention to matters concerning sustainable development; consumers today put higher pressure on organizations to change their old unsustainable practices for newer, more sustainable ones. Within scholarly business literature, the concept of business models has gained more traction over the past two decades, however there is still some disparity in the views of what a business model really is. So far three perspectives on business models have emerged: business models as attributes of real firms, business models as cognitive schemas, and business models as formal conceptualizations. In this thesis, we adopt the perspective of business models as attributes of real firms, more explicitly, we view them as systems of activities that allow firms to create value for everyone involved. As the stream of business model research as expanded, so has the literature on how they change, also referred to as business model innovation. Here the three dominant perspectives are the rational positioning view, the evolutionary view, and the cognitive view; we argue in line with the rational positioning view that business models may change as a response to a change in the environment in which it is embedded. Knowing that our planet is changing, the question then arises: what can be done? We believe that changing the business model of a firm toward sustainability may be part of the answer. Hence, in order to generate more knowledge about how this can be done, we set out to answer the research question:  what are the motivators of – and how do they influence – business model innovation for sustainability?  We do this by investigating three firms that have changed their activity systems to incorporate sustainability. Our findings indicate that there are some motivators and influencers to the process of business model innovation for sustainability: we identify the motivators zealous leadership, sense of obligation, future hygiene factor, employer branding, goal-setting, synergy, and competitive advantage; and the influencers financial barriers, technological barriers, and cultural barriers. Further, we give practical suggestions to managers on how they can enhance the motivators and lower the barriers; we discuss the societal implications of our findings, and propose avenues for further research.

Innovative technologies and products, high-performance materials and multi functional fibres are nowadays emerging and are known as technical textiles. This phenomenon, which is quite new in our vocabulary, but the technique and heritage of using textile as functional applications is rather old. The purpose of this thesis is to track the technical textile industries and product segment in Swedish history since the beginning of the industrial revolution and hereby contribute to a broader insight in the Swedish technical textile history. Five different technical textiles segments have been described with a company example after each. A case study methodology is chosen to deepen the analysis of two companies that acted in this particular segment of technical textiles. The companies Jonsereds Fabriker AB and Göteborgs Remfabriks AB were selected. By applying the business model canvas is this thesis trying to illustrate why the companies experienced difficulties to keep up the technical textile production during the 1970s and finally had to close down. By applying a modern business model to historical companies is this thesis furthermore proposing to additional research in the emerging technical textile field. / Program: Applied Textile Management

The Investment bank industry is considered to be an essential element of not only the financial system but also the whole economy. Understanding multiple business models employed by multi-services industry such Investment bank is a matter of great significance for Investment banks’ executives, regulators and analysts. In 2008 the business model that had been employed by investment banks for almost two decades vanished due to the global financial crisis. Investment banks were forced to change and innovate their traditional business models. This research intends to develop a conceptual framework which helps to realize and study investment banks’ business models with the core components and related activities. Multiple business models mapping for investment banks is developed to give seniors executives core and possible activities and alternatives to innovate and change various business models for different lines including asset management, brokerage, investment banking and custody services. In addition, the business model (innovation) drivers are investigated to empirically explore the most powerful drivers on investment banks’ multiple business models (innovation), potential changes and degree of alteration on its activities for each business line. For these aims, a systematic literature review was carried to synthesise the recent advancements in the business model literature and explore how firms approach business model innovation. As result, a conceptual framework for business model (innovation) was developed, which encompasses four components value proposition, operational value, human capital and financial value. This framework can be utilized by practitioners as a 'navigation map' to determine where and how to change their business models. By using the qualitative methodology through semi-structured interviews with 29 senior executives from 10 fully-licensed investment banks in Saudi Arabia and secondary data including financial statements, annual reports and pillar III disclosures, the empirical study mapped the investment banks’ multiple business models and identified a business model for each business line. Sixteen activities for each business line were determined to provide core and possible activities and alternatives. This research contributes to our understating of managing and innovating multiple business models in the industry when investment banks should run these multiple business models. The Investment banks’ business models are different in terms of business lines, core offerings, clients, key assets, key process, revenue streams and costs structure. Over and above, each line shows diverse business models applied by investment banks. Furthermore, unlike other studies, this research contributed by investigating drivers that force investment banks to change their existing business models, the degree of changes and which activities did investment banks consider when responding to particular drivers. This study found that clients, crisis and economic changes, rivalry, top management and regulations are the five drivers forcing investment banks to not only embark on change events, but also carry out business model changes in most investment banks’ business lines.

Innovative Business Models (BMs) are essential in commercialising new technologies that are initially seen as inferior. Battery second use (B2U) brings used batteries from an electric vehicle (EV) into a secondary storage application and holds the potential to improve the sustainability of EVs while generating value for stakeholders across the automotive and energy sectors, as well as for the environment and society (Gohla-Neudecker et al. 2015; Neubauer et al. 2015). However, important knowledge gaps exist as the potential value of second-life batteries and how to better extract that value are still poorly understood by both practitioners and researchers. To fill the knowledge gap, this study explores the BMs of repurposing a second life for the retired EV batteries through rich empirical case studies. The main outcomes of the research are firstly, a deeper understanding of the sustainable value of second-life batteries as is currently being achieved by industry, which also provides a comprehensive view of the potential value of B2U. Secondly, the critical B2U challenges are identified from a multi-stakeholder’s perspective across the value chain that present a fresh overview of the key factors that might impair the potential value of B2U. Thirdly, an empirically-generated typology of existing B2U business models is proposed that shows how B2U stakeholders are interacting in different ways to create and capture value from B2U. Fourthly, three critical BM design elements, namely, lifecycle thinking, system-level design and the shift to services are proposed as helpful aspects for B2U stakeholders to consider to better design their B2U business models. Fifthly, Business Model of a Technology (BMoT) is proposed as a new perspective to understand the value potential of second-life batteries and how to maximise the total value creation from B2U at the system level. The research has filled a literature gap, has met an industrial need, and has made contributions to knowledge on sustainability and BMs in the specific context of B2U. Practically, the findings have the potential to inspire practitioners toward better understanding the potential value of second-life batteries and improve their BMs to better extract value from B2U.