Background: The economic crisis derived from the COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on the global economy and Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises are challenged to adapt their practices to the new consumer buying behaviour. As a response to economic crises, where consumer buying behaviour changes, companies are forced to innovate their marketing methods.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Swedish SMEs manage the economic crisis derived from the COVID-19 pandemic through the relatively unexplored relationship between crisis management and marketing innovation.  Method: This research is an exploratory qualitative study focusing on Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises where semi-structured interviews were held with seven participants who were marketing responsible. A thematic analysis was applied to analyse the empirical data.  Conclusion: The empirical findings and the analysis suggest three main areas when answering the research question. 1) Marketing innovation improved the crisis management practice among the interviewed enterprises. 2) Marketing innovation is a common crisis management tool among the respondents of this study, and one reason why is because of the high capacity to innovate of the interviewees. 3) A new type of crisis management is arising because of the technological advancements and business climate.

Problem Saturated markets are known to be competitive, with a wide selection of alternatives. In a saturated market is essential to differentiate a brand to compete in a market. Therefore, innovation has become a central part of a brand’s DNA when developing strategies, such as product evolvement and marketing. Today, there is a research gap of how innovation efforts are perceived by consumers of Generation Y, and how their loyalty to a brand is influenced by the phenomenon. Purpose The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate how Generation Y perceives a brand’s innovation efforts. Further, how their loyalty is influenced by the innovation efforts. One research question was developed to fulfill the purpose; how does innovation influence brand loyalty in saturated markets?   Methodology This thesis was written from a qualitative perspective. To gather empirical data, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The participants were all within the age restriction of Generation Y, and the samples were chosen through the purposive sampling approach.     Findings Several findings were identified from this qualitative research study. The two main findings were of great importance. One finding showed that within the saturated market of low-involvement products, marketing innovation plays a greater role than product innovation. Marketing innovation shows to have a large impact on establishing brand loyalty within a saturated market. Both findings were identified from the viewpoint of Generation Y.

Research studies on innovation tend to focus more on Process and Product Innovations (PPIs), while both Organisational and Marketing Innovations (OMIs) have been under-researched. The lack of prior research on these non-technological innovations has been attributed to poor data availability. Theoretical opinions show that OMIs could be necessary prerequisites needed to optimally utilise and deploy these PPIs. Organisational Ambidexterity (OA) has emerged to be crucial in achieving long-term organisational success. Ambidexterity in an organisational context refers to the ability to concurrently exploit current competitive advantage and explore new opportunities with equal dexterity. For firms to remain competitive and adaptive to continuous change in the business environment, OA has been noted as a necessary attribute, but research on ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis is limited. There is a lack of understanding of how individual ambidexterity at the lower-levels of the organisation affects the overall ambidexterity of the organisation. This research explores organisational context antecedents of OMIs capabilities; Organisational and Employee Ambidexterity, and identifies how individual employees in Small and Medium-sized Manufacturing and Service Organisations could contribute to the capability of their organisation to concurrently exploit present market opportunities and explore new opportunities, towards sustaining their competitive advantage. This study involves a two-phase sequential mixed methods design beginning with a qualitative exploratory research involving 15 in-depth Nigerian-based interviews. The first phase facilitated preliminary assessment of organisational context, measured by the Cameron and Quinn's Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument. This phase also aided the understanding of factors that promote OMIs capabilities and the development of themes used to design the survey instrument for the second phase. The second phase involved a quantitative study of 398 shop-floor and 202 managerial staff from Small and Medium-sized Nigerian Manufacturing and Service Organisations. This phase was characterised by descriptive and inferential statistics through Structural Equation Modelling. This aided identifying the organisational context that promotes Employee Ambidexterity (EA) and the relationships between EA; OA; and OMIs' capabilities. vi Drawing upon information-rich evidence, this study identified enablers that could promote EA; OA; OMIs; effective innovations; and sustainable organisational growth. Statistical evidence from the research findings shows that Organic Structure and Knowledge Sharing, plus a Flexible and Family-like Organisational Culture: 1. enhances Employee Ambidexterity and Level of Engagement; 2. improves employees' contributions to OA, OMIs and SMEs' growth; 3. optimises the internal capabilities of SMEs in order to promote their sustainable growth; 4. enables SMEs to search for new market opportunities and strengthen current market positions concurrently; and 5. promotes viable Manufacturing and Service SMEs that are needed to offset the prevalent public sector job losses. A framework that relates: Individual and Organisational Ambidexterity; Organisational and Marketing Innovations capabilities; and Organisational Performance, has been identified in this study. While Marketing Innovation capability and Exploitative Orientation of Ambidexterity target the short term organisational benefits, Organisational Innovation capability and Explorative Orientation of Ambidexterity address the long term competitive advantage of the organisations. Besides advancing literature on the study of Organisational Ambidexterity by combining the individual level of analysis with the organisational level of analysis, this study identifies frameworks that promote effective innovation and sustainable organisational performance through shop floor employees' contributions to Organisational Ambidexterity and OMIs in SMEs. Outcomes of this research have been eye-openers for the case organisations on how to optimally utilise their resources (people, materials, knowledge, technology and other assets) to achieve sustainable growth and long term success.

有關科技創新在擴散上的研究已行之有年，且有不少有關的研究發現及案例。但是創新的層面不只侷限於科技，在近年來服務創新、行銷創新等概念的興起，產生了創新領域內新的研究目標。而這些類型的創新擴散研究更是相當稀少，故本研究希望從此一方向進行探索性研究，期望同時有助於實務與學術的發展。 社會與科技的快速發展，促使網際網路的使用普及化，也影響到公司與消費者間的溝通及行銷模式。行銷創新：Inbound Marketing也是在這樣的情境下誕生。而近來台灣大量公司也採行Inbound Marketing作為重要的行銷手段時。讓公司不斷採納Inbound Marketing的理由及想法應該有可解釋的背後因素，所以本研究期望藉由研究的結果回答三點研究問題：(1) 影響行銷創新採用的重要關鍵因素為何？(2) 行銷創新擴散主要因素為何？(3) 不同產業在採用行銷創新上的異同為何？ 本研究藉由文獻與學理的回顧，進一步探討Inbound Marketing行銷創新。以創新擴散、科技接受模式及兩階段理論作為基礎，發展出個案研究的基礎架構。研究架構將創新採用的過程，以創新決策流程作為基礎，區分為動機、啟發、執行及常規化等四個階段，並結合科技接受模式及兩階段理論中所討論的要素，進一步發展出構面。動機構面中含括創新、環境及組織等要素，啟發構面則包含設定標的及尋求創新等項目，執行構面則有重新定義及釐清兩個步驟，最後的構面則是常規化階段。本研究採用多重個案研究法，依前述的架構構面與變項進入深入的探討。 本研究所得到的初步結論包括：(1) 資源、環境及競爭要素是影響行銷創新採用的重要關鍵因素。(2) Inbound Marketing的高創新可近性是行銷創新擴散的主要因素。(3) 消費性電子及連鎖餐飲業在Inbound Marketing行銷創新採用的比較中，產業差異並不顯著。本論文最後進一步提出實務上及後續研究上的建議。 / Studies in innovation distribution and diffusion field have been researched for decades, but most innovation target will focus on technology innovation. Marketing innovation is still a new issue in innovation diffusion field. The study wants to be a base for following research in this topic. Internet quickly developing has totally changed communication tools between customers and companies, and forced new marketing method (or “marketing innovation”) “Inbound Marketing” was generated. And in these years, more and more companies adopt inbound marketing as a regular marketing tool. This study tries to explain the factors and motivation of company adopts marketing innovations, main reason of marketing innovation diffusion and differences of marketing innovation adoption between different industries. This study review innovation, marketing innovation related research, and make sure study target” Inbound Marketing” as a marketing innovation. And the study frame combines innovation diffusion, technology adoption model and two stage theory to analyze all study cases. The study structure is divided into four stages: Motivation, Inspiration, Execution and Routinization. Motivation contains “Innovation”,” Environment” and “Organization” factors. Inspiration includes “setting targets” and “seeking innovation”. Execution has ” Re-define” and “clarify” two stages. Finally companies adopt innovation and “Routinization”. The study finds “Resources”, “Environment” and “Competition” would be the main reason of marketing innovation adoption. And the high accessibility of inbound marketing with “Environment ” and “Competition” is the main factor of marketing innovation diffusion. Finally ,comparing “ Consumer Electronics Industry” and “ Chain restaurants” two industries, the difference in marketing innovation adoption is not obvious.

本研究旨在探討台灣地區零售業目前行銷創新的現況。以往之文獻顯少涉及廠商特性與行銷創新間的關係，本研究則以細緻化後的行銷創新分類，實證探討台灣區零售業廠商特性與行銷創新間的關係。 首先，本研究探討了台灣地區零售業相較於非零售業之服務業而言，特別會進行哪些類型的行銷創新，以瞭解零售業的行銷創新特性；接著，本研究探討了會進行各種不同類型的廠商有何廠商特性，以瞭解零售業廠商特性與行銷創新間的相關性；最後，本研究進一步鎖定零售業廠商的市場範圍廣度及主要顧客類型此兩個構面，而去研究廠商的市場範圍廣度及主要顧客類型對零售業廠商進行行銷創新是否有顯著的影響。 本研究的分析方法採用probit迴歸模型，實證結果發現： 1.台灣地區零售業廠商行銷創新之比例高於非零售業之服務業的行銷創新之比例，且零售業廠商進行任何一種行銷創新之比例也都高於非零售業之服務業。零售業廠商所進行的各類行銷創新當中，有進行該創新的廠商比例為由高到低為：銷售通路、產品/外觀/形象設計、廣告促銷推廣、產品展示方式/管道、包裝、定價付款。 2.除了定價付款的創新之外，零售業廠商市場範圍包含海外市場數目越多，對於廠商進行其他五種行銷創新皆有正向影響；亦即，廠商的市場範圍越廣，則越容易進行此五類的行銷創新。 3.當零售業廠商的主要顧客類型包含消費者時，除了產品展示方式/管道的創新之外，此項廠商特性對於廠商進行其他五種類型的行銷創新皆有正向影響。當零售業廠商主要顧客類型包含非母企業集團之其他公司時，本研究結論無足夠證據支持其對進行此六種行銷創新是否有正向或負向之影響。當零售業廠商的主要顧客類型包含政府單位時，對於進行產品展示方式/管道的創新有正向影響。 / This research is to study the market innovation of the retail industry in Taiwan. Previous researches had rarely studied on the relationship between firm characteristics and market innovation. This research uses an empirical method to investigate the relationship between characteristics of retail firms in Taiwan and market innovation. This research first finds out what sorts of market innovation that the firms in the Taiwan retail industry tend to do, then identifies the relationship between firm characteristics and marketing innovation, and finally investigate the impacts of customer types and market area upon market innovations of these retail firms by probit regression model. The main findings of this research are in the following. I. Firms in the Taiwan retail industries have higher level of market innovation in every aspect as compared to firms in other service industries. The ranking of the percentage of each sort of market innovation, from high to low, is as follows: channel, design, promotion, display, package, and pricing. II. The increase of the number of overseas markets will contribute to higher level of five sorts of market innovation, except for the pricing innovation. In other words, the higher the retail firms’ market area, the more likely the firms will have marketing innovation. III. If the retail firms’ major customers include final consumers, firms are more likely to have channel, design, promotion, package, and pricing innovation, except for the display innovation. If the major customers include the government, retail firms are more likely to have display innovation, but less likely to have channel, design, promotion, package, and pricing innovation.

The topic of the Master's thesis is focusing on the quality management systems in connection with the competition ability of the company or with the impact to increasing ability to compete. Currently one of the main targets of almost every company is a competition fight. One of the ways to be able to compete is a quality of the provided services eventually quality of sold goods. Existence of the quality management system, which is implemented and maintained, is practically a big necessity for the nowadays companies that want to win this fight.