Using the attention-based view, this study is concerned with two levels of board of directors’ interaction relating to strategic entrepreneurship: (1) how individual board members may affect the attention of the entire board, and (2) how the board may affect the attention and resource allocation of the firm. Unique to prior literature, this study considers contextual factors at each level of interaction and views the board room communications through unprecedented access. Multiple regression and negative binomial regression analyses are used to test the theoretical hypotheses.

Using the attention-based view, this study is concerned with two levels of board of directors’ interaction relating to strategic entrepreneurship: (1) how individual board members may affect the attention of the entire board, and (2) how the board may affect the attention and resource allocation of the firm. Unique to prior literature, this study considers contextual factors at each level of interaction and views the board room communications through unprecedented access. Multiple regression and negative binomial regression analyses are used to test the theoretical hypotheses.

Background: The rise in ethical consumerism has become evident through an increase in sales of fair trade products in recent years. Consumers are prepared to pay a premium for fair trade chocolate, and with a steady future growth in the fair trade movement, this is an attractive market for new entrants. Of particular focus are the Swedish and German markets for fair trade chocolate as they show promising growth rates and interest in this field. Problem:       The chocolate industry is very competitive, and the observation that consumers reward companies that act socially responsible presents an opportunity for ethical companies to compete. This is attractive for entrepreneurial firms, but there exist numerous motivations why firms choose to engage in fair trade. Purpose:        The purpose of this thesis is to understand the role of fair trade in corporate strategy (either in partial or entire assortment), its relation to entrepreneurial opportunity-seeking behaviour, and examining how the strategic resource of Fairtrade certification is used to gain competitive advantage. Method:         A qualitative interview study was applied, and ten chocolate companies active in the Swedish and German markets were included in the sample. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews (four telephone interviews and six email responses), and complemented with secondary data from company websites and press releases. The interviewees were mainly representatives of the marketing department and CEOs. Empirical findings were analysed using relevant models and theories, and organized under the two categories of ‘firm use of fair trade’ and ‘visibility of fair trade.’ Conclusion:   The findings in this thesis show that there are multiple reasons why chocolate companies engage in fair trade including reputation, spreading awareness, proactive opportunity-seeking behaviour, strategic differentiation, as a means of communicating to producers and consumers, and for quality insurance of raw ingredients. Fair trade engagement is visible through its role as a social resource. This image is created by ethical and social commitment and wholeness in values, non-exploitative respectful business network relationships, consistency in firm behaviour, and through wealth creation in terms of benefiting the firm, society, and the environment. The Fairtrade label is not imperative to achieving a state of competitive advantage, but can inevitably lead to that result through the firm wholeness created by mission- and vision-driven values.

No description available.

No description available.

This research develops a theoretical framework explaining how University-Industry Linkages (UILs) affect the performance of tourism clusters in Thailand. Significant external and internal factors affecting Thai tourism industry are examined. The research questions are significant given the importance of successful tourism cluster through University-Industry Linkages (UIL). These questions recognized tourism clusters, the role of university, the linkages between university and industry, influential factors are contextual, and as a result, the author explores four tourism clusters in Thailand and using multiple case studies explains the nature and character of tourism cluster and University-Industry Linkages (UILs) between tourism cluster and its universities. The findings demonstrated that UILs, strategic entrepreneurship and leadership play key role to successful tourism cluster in developing countries.

The concept of strategic entrepreneurship has received increased attention over the past ten years. Viewed as the intersection of entrepreneurship and strategy, this field of research is populated by conceptual studies which focus mainly on the nature and perceived benefits of strategic entrepreneurship. Similarly, the study of entrepreneurship in a public sector context has gained increasing support in recent years, but also remains underexplored. To address these gaps, this thesis considers: What are the underlying elements and financial implications of strategic entrepreneurship in New Zealand’s state-owned enterprises [SOEs]? New Zealand’s SOE sector, comprising 17 government-owned, commercially focused organisations, is considered to be a prime subject for this research. Well known for their implementation of new public management [NPM], many New Zealand SOEs have also been publicly recognised as both innovative and entrepreneurial. The research question is addressed by first developing a preliminary framework of strategic entrepreneurship from literature on entrepreneurship and strategy. This framework is then examined in the context of case studies on activity which is entrepreneurial and/or strategic within 12 of the 17 SOEs operating in New Zealand as at 2006. Transcripts from a series of interviews, and publicly available documents are analysed thematically. SOEs’ financial statements over a five year period are also analysed. The thesis contributes in two broad areas. First, much-needed empirical support is lent to the concept of strategic entrepreneurship. Key elements of strategic entrepreneurship identified include opportunity identification, innovation, acceptance of risk, flexibility, vision, growth, and leveraging from core skills and resources such that existing knowledge and skills are transferred and applied to create new products, services, and markets. Important supporting elements identified include an open, flexible, and progressive culture, operational excellence, and cost minimisation. The nature of each of these elements is also investigated. A detailed understanding of the relationship between strategic entrepreneurship and wealth creation reveals various internal and external factors which may influence the nature and strength of the relationship. These factors include changes within the organisation, as well as changes in the economic and political environment, and are important influences on the resulting returns realised. Second, this thesis offers valuable evidence in support of emerging change in the public sector towards the adoption of strategic entrepreneurship. Support for the value of NPM is provided, with clear evidence of financial returns from New Zealand’s SOE sector. Further, a key finding is the structured and systematic approach to entrepreneurial activity within the context of NPM in several New Zealand SOEs. Such behaviour is referred to in this thesis as new public entrepreneurship. This form of activity offers the potential for competitive advantage and financial gain traditionally associated with entrepreneurial activity, but also limits the respective risks through its structured, systematic approach.

Integrating research from the strategic management and the supply chain management (SCM) literatures promises a fertile area of research that can enrich both areas. In this work, an attempt was made to answer the recent calls for incorporating perspectives from each field into the other. These calls were further encouraged by the new competitive landscape characterized by hypercompetition and network versus network competition. Thus, the field of Strategy, with its emphasis on gaining and sustaining competitive advantage, and SCM, with its emphasis on managing processes spanning organizational boundaries, stand to benefit greatly by this integration. The introduction chapter briefly describes what this research tried to achieve. In the supply chain management literature review chapter, the importance of managing supply chains in this era of network versus network competition is shown and the strategic demand network management (SDNM) concept is presented as an evolution of supply chain management and as a more suitable name reflecting the processes involved. In the third chapter, a selected list of supply chain management practices is presented and explained. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters will endeavor to carry on three developments. These developments seek to integrate strategy and SCM research in three ways. In the first development, the dynamic capability perspective from the strategy field and the SDNM capability are integrated in order to suggest how demand network management enables dynamic capabilities. On the other hand, dynamic capabilities perspective were used to guide the SDNM practices. In the second development, alliance management capability from the strategy field was integrated with SDNM capability and SDNM practices to show how concepts from both areas can enrich the other. And finally the third development builds on the first two developments to explore how SDNM capability can facilitate strategic entrepreneurship (SE) and SE based boundary decisions.

The concept of strategic entrepreneurship has received increased attention over the past ten years. Viewed as the intersection of entrepreneurship and strategy, this field of research is populated by conceptual studies which focus mainly on the nature and perceived benefits of strategic entrepreneurship. Similarly, the study of entrepreneurship in a public sector context has gained increasing support in recent years, but also remains underexplored. To address these gaps, this thesis considers: What are the underlying elements and financial implications of strategic entrepreneurship in New Zealand’s state-owned enterprises [SOEs]? New Zealand’s SOE sector, comprising 17 government-owned, commercially focused organisations, is considered to be a prime subject for this research. Well known for their implementation of new public management [NPM], many New Zealand SOEs have also been publicly recognised as both innovative and entrepreneurial. The research question is addressed by first developing a preliminary framework of strategic entrepreneurship from literature on entrepreneurship and strategy. This framework is then examined in the context of case studies on activity which is entrepreneurial and/or strategic within 12 of the 17 SOEs operating in New Zealand as at 2006. Transcripts from a series of interviews, and publicly available documents are analysed thematically. SOEs’ financial statements over a five year period are also analysed. The thesis contributes in two broad areas. First, much-needed empirical support is lent to the concept of strategic entrepreneurship. Key elements of strategic entrepreneurship identified include opportunity identification, innovation, acceptance of risk, flexibility, vision, growth, and leveraging from core skills and resources such that existing knowledge and skills are transferred and applied to create new products, services, and markets. Important supporting elements identified include an open, flexible, and progressive culture, operational excellence, and cost minimisation. The nature of each of these elements is also investigated. A detailed understanding of the relationship between strategic entrepreneurship and wealth creation reveals various internal and external factors which may influence the nature and strength of the relationship. These factors include changes within the organisation, as well as changes in the economic and political environment, and are important influences on the resulting returns realised. Second, this thesis offers valuable evidence in support of emerging change in the public sector towards the adoption of strategic entrepreneurship. Support for the value of NPM is provided, with clear evidence of financial returns from New Zealand’s SOE sector. Further, a key finding is the structured and systematic approach to entrepreneurial activity within the context of NPM in several New Zealand SOEs. Such behaviour is referred to in this thesis as new public entrepreneurship. This form of activity offers the potential for competitive advantage and financial gain traditionally associated with entrepreneurial activity, but also limits the respective risks through its structured, systematic approach.

The aim of this thesis is to expand current knowledge on the development of corporate entrepreneurship and to contribute new theoretical and empirical insights into strategic entrepreneurship. To those ends, the thesis attempts to answer two research questions. First, how has the field of corporate entrepreneurship research evolved in terms of main themes, applied methods and theory, and what do these developments reveal about the future trajectories of the field? Second, what is the relationship between internal organizational factors and strategic entrepreneurship in the form of sustained regeneration, organizational rejuvenation, and strategic renewal? To answer the first question, a systematic and comprehensive review of 344 articles addressing the development of research on corporate entrepreneurship during 1969–2017 was conducted. To answer the second question, a survey was administered at a major financial services company to examine the relationship among four internal organizational factors and three forms of strategic entrepreneurship. The overall conclusion of the literature review is that corporate entrepreneurship is a growing and, in several respects, maturing field of research. Signs of its maturity are undermined, however, by the lack of commonly applied theories and theoretical frameworks. Those findings take support from the overall conclusion of the second study, which highlights the need to develop and further test empirically existing frameworks, constructs, and theoretical connections within literature on strategic entrepreneurship. Taken together, the findings of the thesis suggest that corporate entrepreneurship faces the difficult challenge of developing a set of more distinct, unifying theories and conceptual frameworks. Concerning strategic entrepreneurship, it is concluded that research on this topic should consider specific organizational structures and conditions of the company and, at the same time, it should also develop greater sensitivity to the effects of industry and institutional settings. The findings also highlight that internal organizational factors could have differentiated effects on the main forms of strategic entrepreneurship. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för framläggningen av avhandlingen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 1 (inskickat), delarbete 2 (inskickat).</p><p>At the time of the defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 1 (submitted), paper 2 (submitted).</p>