Titel: “Ska vi arbeta hårdast eller smartast?” – En kvalitativ studie med fokus på IT-företag i Växjö och deras arbete med processinnovationer.  Bakgrund: Företag arbetar dagligen i processer. Det blir väsentligt för företag att utveckla sina processer för att säkerställa att de bedriver sitt arbete på det mest effektiva arbetssättet - med fokus på att arbeta smartare snarare än hårdare. Processinnovationer innebär att vara innovativ med fokus på att förändra sina befintliga processer och dess arbetssätt för att säkerställa effektiva processer. Resultatet av processinnovationer kan exempelvis innebära minskade kostnader, tidsbesparing och ökat kundvärde. IT-branschen har visat sig vara den mest innovationsaktiva bransch i Sverige där processinnovationer var den mest förekommande.  Syfte och problemformulering: Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse kring hur IT- företag i Växjö arbetar med processinnovationer. Studiens två problemformuleringar är: 1. Hur bedrivs processinnovationer på IT-företag i Växjö? 2. Vilka likheter respektive skillnader går att identifiera i processinnovationerna på IT-företag i Växjö?  Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen bygger på processinnovation med stöd av genomgång av innovation och processer. Dessutom görs en djupare redogörelse för centrala och essentiella delar inom arbetet med processinnovationer: öppenhet, samarbete, processkartläggning och IT-system vid processinnovationer.  Metod: Studien bygger på en fallstudiedesign med tre fall (tre IT-företag i Växjö). Den empiriska insamlingen bestod av totalt elva semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter fördelat mellan studiens tre företag. Urvalet av respondenter gjordes via ett målstyrt urval och snöbollsurval för att säkerställa medverkande respondenter som hade inblick i företagens arbete med processinnovationer.  Slutsats: Resultatet av studien visar att samtliga företag arbetar tydligt och strukturerat med processinnovation. Vi har kunnat skapa en god förståelse samt kunskap om arbetssättet kring processinnovationer på IT-företag i Växjö. Studien har även identifierat likheter och skillnader kring företagens arbetssätt vid processinnovationer.

Due to the delving range of shipping market is virtually contain entire economy of all developed & developing countries, this research merely picks out the ship owner how to spread their fleet and achieve economics of scale. This study was verified and analyzed by following documents, and secondary data: 1. The flows of shipbuilding. 2. The improvement of manufacture procedure. 3. The attentive matters from new ship order. 4. How to utilize resources, to create strategies for accelerating fleet expansion. The conclusion of the said investigation expressed following management prospect. 1. Integrate ship working process and adopt destructive innovation working way which are the key performance of shipbuilders¡¦ competence. 2. The navigator is established from developing countries, which assisted by joint operation and merge, to enlarge fleet in duly time. That strengthens their competence. 3. The shipping company exerts their facility, promote achievement, and product new core competence.

The requirements on the products and production processes within the manufacturing industry are continuously increasing according to environmental standards. The new requirements are coming from a growing awareness of what our planet can provide for example by the global challenge of climate change. The industry needs to reduce energy consumption and waste to meet the upcoming requirements. One of the processes with high environmental impact in a discrete manufacturing industry is the paint shop. Surface treatment is also of great importance to maintain a high quality product. In scientific literature, technological risk is one of the barriers in implementing environmental conscious manufacturing. Therefore the area of sustainable operations management needs building bridges with other functions and disciplines such as economics, strategies and behavioral sciences in order to manage the transitions. The supply of competence around paint shops today is usually provided by suppliers and other sources within the industry and to make the collaboration to work is essential. In this process of collaboration with external sources, substantial measurements are required to maintain the desirable quality. In order to ensure the competence of testing the quality eventuate when switching technology at a pre-treatment line, this report sets out to explore what the challenges to be taken into consideration are when to assure the product- and- process quality. To respond to this question, a multiple case study is conducted during spring 2016 where the phenomenon to study is the change process and the unit of analysis is the challenges that can be faced during the verification process. The case studied is automotive companies located in Sweden which are producing components for heavy duty vehicles. Data collection is performed by studying documents, participatory observations and semi-structured interviews. The results will give insights to academia on what challenges that are occurring during the verification process of implementing new and cleaner technologies. The conclusions are drawn upon the literature and the empirical results. The managerial implications are to increase the awareness of any potential barriers in the verification process in order to be prepared for managing the technological change process.

Sales is an essential department for organizations, it connects the products and services with the customers. The literature highlights that sales has faced a number of changes in the past years, especially with the introduction of new technologies that aim to contribute in the sales process, making it more precise and efficient. However, the previous studies have not yet explored how the companies are innovating in their sales process to adopt the new technologies that have been developed. In this research, we are studying how these elements are connected in real life, bringing a perspective of how Swedish B2B companies are adopting technology to innovate in their sales process. As the theme of this research is relatively new to the literature, we adopted an inductive approach, conducting qualitative research. To collect the data we used semi-structured interviews, which allowed our interviewees to speak freely about the research topics. Our aim was to capture new insights and avoid preconceptions based on sales studies executed in another context, such as the USA market. To analyze the data we used thematic analysis, which is based on generating codes and connecting them according to their relationship. The analysis also connected concepts of the Theoretical Framework with the empirical data. Thereby, we identified the connection between sales process innovation and technology adoption in the context of the participants.  The results of our research showed that sales process innovation is, most of the time, not a priority for the companies. The participants were using technologies in different ways, according to the particularities of their sales process. The innovation in the sales process is very incremental in the adoption of CRM and Sales Automation Technologies. The companies have not had significant innovations in the way they sell to adopt new technologies. Thus, they are satisfied with the current structure of their sales process and the outcome of it. Our findings contribute to the literature by casting light over sales innovation and technology adoption in a context outside the USA. We also contribute academically by connecting the process innovation and technology adoption models and performing an empirical research on the subject. In the managerial contribution, we presented a variety of insights about the reasons that lead to technology adoption. With our constructionist approach, we also expect to have a contribution to the development of the sales departments in the participant by promoting the reflection and debate around sales process.

The three essays that comprise my dissertation are drawn from a longitudinal field study of the work process innovation of sourcing professionals at a large multinational paper products and related chemicals manufacturing firm. The focus of this study is an examination of how characteristics of the work process innovation context impact enterprise system (ES) acceptance, rich ES use behavior and the resulting individual-level job outcomes realized by knowledge workers in a strategic business process. The ES, an enterprise sourcing application, was introduced to innovate the work processes of employees who perform the sourcing business process. Over a period of 12 months, we collected survey data at four points in time (pre-implementation, immediately following training on the new system; following six months of use; and, following 12 months of use) to trace the innovation process as it unfolded. The three essays that comprise my dissertation focus on three key gaps in understanding and make three corresponding key contributions. The first research essay focuses on the transition from an emphasis on behavioral intention to mental acceptance in mandatory use environments. This essay contributes to the technology acceptance literature by finding that work process characteristics and implementation characteristics are exogenous to beliefs about the technology and that these beliefs are important to understanding mental acceptance as well in mandatory use contexts. The second and third research essays emphasize the transition from lean use concepts to conceptualizing, defining and measuring rich use behaviors and show that use must be captured and elaborated on in context. This is pursued through the development of two rich use constructs reflective of the sourcing work context and the complementary finding of countervailing factors in the work process that may impede the positive impact of rich use behaviors on job benefits.

In the competitive world of manufacturing, the companies would like to produce their products at reduced price and superior quality. In the production system, the company faces many problems during the production of their products. Over the past years the manufacturing industry follows suitable techniques in their production system for the improvements in production. Still, companies are in search for new technology or techniques to improve their production in radical ways during a short period of time. Many researchers have discussed the development of production system through continuous improvements. Techniques like lean, kaizen etc are implemented in the production system but the effect of these techniques is realized in production unit only after many years. Kaikaku is another technique in lean production which occurs in a radical way to eliminate waste to provide a greater value. It is a radical process improvement which takes place in short period of time. Kaikaku is normally used when Kaizen techniques are not providing enough positive results to keep an organization effective. Still, radical improvements often need capital investment. It is often focused on introducing new technology, new strategies, or completely new production system. This main objective of this thesis is to understand and analyze the production system development process in manufacturing industries and suggest how it is effective to keep an organization competitive. The basic conception and research aid of various authors are explained in the theoretical framework, and is done for the enhanced understanding of the reader and also a new conceptual theory structure framework is done to introduce the new concept of process innovation for radical improvements in the company. The proposed structure framework can help companies to practice the process innovation in the production system for development in short period of time.  Based on the conceptual structure and relevant theoretical understandings, the interview questions are framed and case companies are analyzed for the process improvements and process innovation performance in the production system. The empirical data is collected from case companies through interviews. With the help of empirical results and the related theoretical results, an analysis and discussion is made which clearly explains about the problems faced in the production system and how they can be solved through in a radical way.

What is the role of frontline project leadership in organizational learning in incremental business process improvement (iBPI)? Current literature is sparse on the topic of contributions to organizational learning made by frontline employees leading iBPI projects. To bridge this gap, we use an embedded longitudinal multiple case to study the process of leadership of four frontline iBPI projects. The 4I model (intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing) of organizational learning serves as a theoretical lens to study how the insights originating from frontline employees unfold through group-level integration and organization-level institutionalization. Mapping the flow of key project events to the relevant social and psychological processes of the 4I model, we identify how organizational learning unfolds within and through the three levels of the model. The granularity of the 4I model creates a valuable foundation for informing the role of frontline project leadership in iBPI programs and the capacity to leverage insights originating from frontline employees into organizational learning. Practitioners and engaged scholars will find this level of granularity helpful for program design, evaluation, and learning interventions.

Process innovation is an important topic in business research. It enables competitive advantages for companies if managed properly. It is previously acknowledged that uncertainty in process innovation is common and previously research show that it has a negative impact on process innovation projects, as it can cause a waste of resources for the company. For SME’s, where resources are limited, it is imperative that uncertainty do not affect process innovation projects negatively. Previous scholars do not identify sources of process innovation uncertainty in SME’s or how it can be managed, thus leave a gap in theory that is important to fill. The purpose of the study was to investigate how uncertainty in process innovation arises in an SME and how it can be reduced by an investigation on how SEO, as an instance of process innovation, was perceived before and after an implementation process and if a change in perception was related to uncertainty. A single case study with qualitative interviews, combined with an implementation process of SEO, was used to investigate the topic and generate in-depth knowledge. Our findings identify sources of process innovation uncertainty in SME’s, arising from either a resource perspective or from an organizational perspective. Furthermore, we suggest how to manage the identified sources of uncertainty through either information, communication or results. Organizations can use these findings to manage process innovation uncertainty before it arises, thus achieve successful process innovation.

The aim of this diploma thesis is compiling a business plan which deals with innovating the process of compressor assembly in Ekom manufacturing company. The basis of this innovation is investing in the assembly line in order to ensure a more effective production process. After consulting professional literature and familiarizing with the practical use of the assembly system, values which confirm the effective implementation of the assembly system into the production process are obtained.

This thesis deals with the technology platforms that bring together different types of actors in the same sector by supporting the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation. The aim was to use three case studies to assess the functioning of technology platforms and their benefits to its members. The thesis is mainly qualitative in nature. Research questions focus on the membership structure and activities of technology platforms, the importance of various types of proximity in cooperation with its members and the impact on their competitiveness. Thanks to the paper I found out the benefits of technology platforms to deepen relationships and mutual trust, which proved important for the mutual cooperation. Social and cognitive proximity are the two most important types of proximity in cooperation with actors. The thesis also revealed deficiencies in meeting the objectives of technology platforms consisting in the definition and implementation of the vision of the field. Negative finding is the absence of government among members of the technology platforms. Technology platforms are with their activities shaping the emergence and spread of knowledge and innovation for mutual cooperation among actors from different backgrounds. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)