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The purpose with this essay is to study how companies use the repositioning process and identify the risks involved from a business perspective. We have chosen to base our essay on the following research questions: What reasons are there for a company to initiate a repositioning?, What does it mean for companies to implement a repositioning?, What are the risks with a repositioning? We have used a qualitative research method and have chosen to interview six respondents which in various ways are actively working with brand repositioning. Our study has been implemented with and deductive character. The most important conclusion that we observed after implementing our study is that repositioning is a high-risk project. Instead of changing their entire brand image, companies should instead make small changes and revitalize the brand by developing the strength that already exist. The biggest risks that we have identified is that a repositioning may result in that the company loses their customers, customer loyalty but also losing market shares. We consider that a repositioning only should be implemented if it is absolutely necessary and when the risks are imminent. / SyfteSyftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur företagen använder sig av ompositioneringsprocesser samt identifiera de risker det innebär ur ett företagsperspektiv. Vi har valt att arbeta med följande forskningsfrågor: Vilka anledningar finns det till att ett företag genomför en ompositionering?, Vad innebär det för företagen att genomföra en ompositionering?, Vilka risker medför en ompositionering? Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och valt att intervjua sex respondenter som på olika sätt aktivt arbetar med varumärkesompositionering. Vår studie har kommit att genomföras med en deduktiv karaktär. SlutsatserEfter att ha genomfört vår studie har vi kunnat konstatera att en ompositionering är ett högriskprojekt. Istället för att förändra sin hela varumärkesimage bör företagen istället genomföra små förändringar och vitalisera varumärket genom att utveckla de styrkor som redan finns. De största riskerna som vi har identifierat är att en ompositionering kan leda till att företaget förlorar sina lojala kunder och tappar marknadsandelar. Vi anser att en ompositionering enbart ska genomföras om det är absolut nödvändigt då riskerna är överhängande.

Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to investigate and clarify some of the factors that influence organizations to adopt or reject the social media, and if the emergence of social media influenced the organization's communication. Metohodology: A qualitative methodology has been used to execute the study. The source has been semi structured interviews with chosen representatives from several organizations. Theoretical perspective: The theoretical basis for the execution of the methodology is based on the provisional theoretical demarcation uses and gratifications theory. For analysis diffusion of innovations theory is applied. Emperical findings: The empirical material includes interviews with representatives from twelve selected organizations, defined as companies in the industry and authorities, in seven different industries. Conclusion:   The main factors affecting an adoption of social media is the organization’s open structure, the ability to see opportunities with social media and that they are seen as a natural part of development in the communications field. The main factors affecting a rejection of social media is ignorance, the organization's governance and that there must be a need that social media can fill. Neither users nor non-users believe that social media can replace traditional media. They are a complement to existing media, where the oral personal communication is superior to other forms.

<p>Författarna till denna uppsats har under de senaste åren kunnat följa en explosionsartad snabb utveckling av böcker och artiklar publicerade kring konceptet Talent Management. Dessa böcker och artiklar har gemensamt att de betonar vikten av att företag adopterar konceptet och de ödesdigra följderna om de låter bli. Talent Management är enligt många ett utav det största och senaste begreppen inom personaladministration.</p><p>Under personaladministrationens historia har emellertid en mängd olika begrepp kommit och gått ur tiden såsom Personnel Management, Human Resource Management och Strategisk Human Resource Management och många forskare har hävdat att dessa begrepp inte skiljer sig nämnvärt åt, utan snarare kan karaktäriseras som ett kontinuerligt strävande efter legitimitet och status av personalansvariga. Det huvudsakliga temat i detta strävande har varit att ett företags personal utgör en viktig och betydande del av organisationen och därigenom kan utgöra skillnaden mellan framgångsrika och icke framgångsrika företag.</p><p>Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att ta reda på de bakomliggande faktorerna och motiven till varför företag implementerar Talent Management, samt att undersöka i vilken utsträckning konceptet kan sägas karaktäriseras av ny och värdefull kunskap.</p><p>Genom att jämföra teorier om HRM och personalutveckling med normativ litteratur och intervjuer kring Talent Management har författarna kommit fram till att Talent Management inte kan sägas karaktäriseras av ny och värdefull kunskap, utan snarare som ett försök att paketera om gamla idéer och tekniker under en ny etikett. Förfat-tarna till den här uppsatsen tror att konceptet kan sägas känneteckna ännu ett försök av personalansvariga att stärka sin legitimitet och status i sina respektive organisationer.</p> / <p>The authors of this thesis have found that, during the last years, the world has witnessed a dramatic explosion of articles and books about the concept Talent Management. These books and articles, all emphasise the urgency for companies to adopt the concept and the devastating consequences if they don’t. The concept is by many re-searchers seen to be the top issue and, the latest trend within Human Resource Management.</p><p>Nevertheless, throughout the history of the personnel profession the world has witnessed several different concepts such as Personnel Management, Human Resource Management, and Strategic Human Resource Management and several researches have claimed that these concepts describes the same thing. Some researchers have argued that the different concept instead represent a continuous rhetoric struggle by HR professionals to enhance their legitimacy and status by becoming more business oriented and demonstrate that employees indeed can make a difference in distinguish-ing successful organizations from others.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the underlying reasoning and logic to why companies adopt talent management and explore what the concept represents in terms of new knowledge.</p><p>By comparing traditional theories of HRM and HR planning with normative literature and interviews on Talent Management the authors have found that the concept does not represent any new and distinctive knowledge, but rather can be considered as an effort to repackage old ideas and techniques with a new label. The authors of this thesis believe that Talent Management is another illustration of the struggle by HR professionals to enhance their legitimacy and status in their organization.</p>

Introduction (Purpose) - The main purpose for this study is to study internal communication challenges from a managerial and employee perspective in two interrelated IT departments. Furthermore this study aims to give suggestions for how organizations can improve their internal communication within and between departments. Design/methodology/approach - The research setting took place in a Swedish telecom company where data was collected during 10 weeks. An abductive scientific approach was used with an extension of mixed methods with a triangulation design. Interviews and survey were made to both managers and employees as primary data, whereas different kinds of observations, informal interviews and meetings, intranet and employee satisfaction scores were used as secondary data. Findings - Findings show several internal communication challenges, such as different definitions of what internal communication stands for, too many media channels put strains on the internal communication within and between IT departments which results in unsynchronization. The organizational structure itself creates internal communication challenges as a result of not sharing common goals and strategies, but also responsibility issues which leads to misunderstanding and conflicts. To improve internal communication challenges between the departments, some of the following examples were found; the need of overcoming unsynchronization, shared goals and strategies, common messages from head managers in order to reduce problems related to co-operation between the departments and desideration of an interactive communication tool. Practical implications – Deal with misunderstandings to prevent internal communication challenges. Interrelated departments should strive for alignment through common goals and strategies. More interactive communication tools such as social networks could promote more effective internal communication. Originality/value – Rich data collection by using mixed methods resulted in empirical findings that address internal communication challenges between two IT departments with an organizational structure that reminds of a line-and-staff organization from a managerial and employee perspective. / <p>This thesis has been professionally proofread</p>

Omfattande, och frekventa, köp av konsulttjänster är idag vanligt förekommande hos statliga myndigheter i Sverige. Trots att inköpen, och på det sätt konsulter används, är av stor strategisk betydelse för organisationer, inklusive myndigheter, har kunden fått begränsad uppmärksamhet inom konsultforskningen. Därför är det angeläget med fler empiriska studier som belyser kundens roll som konsultanvändare, och hur denna konstruerar konsultanvändning inom ramen för de kontextuella förutsättningarna. Utifrån denna bakgrund har en kvalitativ studie genomförts för att öka insikten om myndigheters bakomliggande motiv till konsultanvändningen samt hur myndigheter kan anta en aktiv roll för att strategiskt hantera konsulter. Den kvalitativa studien består av totalt sju djupintervjuer med explorativ karaktär, som har genomförts på fyra olika myndigheter med representanter på chefsnivå. Den empiriska studien har identifierat ett flertal motiv bakom inhyrningen, som kan tolkas utifrån konstruktionen av konsulten som expert, resurs eller produkt. Vid konstruktionen av konsulten som expert råder ett asymmetriskt kunskapsförhållande i favör till konsulten. De motiv som har identifierats inom expertdimensionen är tillgång till spetskompetens som är olönsam att utveckla internt, tillgång till experter som är svåra att rekrytera, tillgång till konsultens branschkunskap, nya infallsvinklar på verksamheten, och användning av konsultens opartiskhet. I andra fall råder det ett symmetriskt kunskapsförhållande varvid konsulten konstrueras som resurs. Motiven för sådan inhyrning har identifierats som numerisk flexibilitet och snabb förstärkning av resurser. Slutligen motiveras köpen ibland utifrån de modeller eller koncept som konsulten säljer vilket belyser produktdimensionen av konsulttjänsterna. De representerade myndigheterna har olika uppfattningar om huruvida konsulter bör, eller kan, användas inom kärnverksamheten. Studien indikerar att detta beror på organisatoriska olikheter, och möjligheten att konstruera en kompetensmix, av konsulter och fastanställda, som arbetar tillsammans i olika projekt. För att hantera konsultanvändningen strategiskt belyser examensarbetet tre strategiska processer; legitimering, selektering och styrning. Utifrån dessa processer föreslås bland annat att formella riktlinjer och policys tas fram, att åtgärder vidtas för att säkerställa kunskapsöverföringar, att resurser tillsätts för att utföra kontinuerliga marknadsanalyser, samt att ramavtal används då det är möjligt. Det har dock framkommit att de upphandlingsregler och finansieringssystem som präglar myndigheterna innebär att den strategiska anpassningsbarheten begränsas, vilket kan påverka resultatet av konsultanvändningen negativt. En paradox är att byråkratin tvingar myndigheterna att agera strategiskt vid inköpen då inhyrningen måste ske enligt en byråkratisk och rationell process. / Public spending on consultancy services in Sweden is today substantial and frequent. Even though such procurements are of great strategic importance for client organizations, including government agencies, there is limited research concerning strategies for clients. Therefore empirical studies are needed to shed light on the client perspective, and how the client designs its use of consultants. Against this background a qualitative research method has been conducted to gain insight of the underlying motives for using consultants, and how clients can create value by attaining a strategic exposure with consulting. In total 7 in-depth interviews, with an explorative design, were conducted across four government agencies with directors. The empirical study has identified a number of motives, which can be interpreted from the construction of the consultant as an expert, resource or product. The construction of the consultant as an expert refers to an asymmetric relation of knowledge in favour of the consultant. The motives that have been identified within the expert dimension are: access to expertise not profitable developing internally, access to experts that are difficult to recruit, access to industry specific knowledge, new insights and use of the consultant's impartiality. In other circumstances there is a symmetric relationship whereby the consultant is instead viewed as a resource. The motives for such usage have been identified as numerical flexibility and rapid reinforcement. Finally the purchases are sometimes motivated based on the models and concepts that the consultants sell which underline the product dimension of the consultancy services. The participating authorities have different views on whether consultants should, or can, be used in the core business. The study indicates that this is due to organizational differences, as well as the possibility of constructing a mix of consultants and permanent employees, working together in various projects. In order to deal with consultants strategically the thesis emphasize three strategic processes; legitimation, selection and control. Based on these processes it is proposed, among other things, that formal guidelines and policies are developed, that measures are taken to ensure knowledge transfer, that resources are allocated to carry out continuous market analyzes, and that framework contracts are used when possible. However, it has emerged that the procurement rules and funding structure that characterize the public sector entails a limited strategic adaptability, which may have a negative impact regarding the outcome of the use of consultants. Paradoxically the high level of bureaucracy forces the agencies to act somewhat strategically when dealing with consultants considering the rational, rule-governed, procurement process.

Non-profit organizations’ communicational challenges in a glocal market – A pre-study to a communication plan for the non-profit organization Humlan. This study intends to examine and analyze the current strategic position of the non-profit organization Humlan, and how the organization can develop their communicational efforts to make themselves more competitive in the glocalized market in which they compete. This has been examined by qualitative interviews with the employees of the Humlan, and a quantitative survey of Humlans potential target group, students.  The results of the interviews showed that the employees of Humlan experienced the competition in the market as fierce, and that they experienced a need to communicate their uniqueness as a non-profit organization. The employees also expressed a wish for the Humlan brand to become associated with quality. In turn, the student survey showed that the students had a low knowledge-level regarding Humlan, that they were interested in a wide array of cultural expressions, and that they mainly wanted to communicate with Humlan by taking part of information such as news. In summary, the study showed that Humlan could develop their communicational efforts by creating awareness about the organization and its uniqueness among students. However, the study showed that this could be problematic due to the students’ communicational preferences. The results also showed that it is possible to see a resemblance between the communicative issues faced by Humlan and communicative issues faced by other types of non-profit organizations.

Uppsatsens titel: Stockholm – the fashion capital of Scandinavia? En studie i strategiskplanering utifrån detaljhandelns företagsperspektiv, i samverkan med turismsektorn. Kurs: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, inriktning marknadsföring, 15 hp, StockholmsUniversitet Författare: Linda Holdo, Hanna Jäderholm och Mariah Lindborg Handledare: Doktorand Andrea Lucarelli Nyckelord: Detaljhandeln, turismsektorn, strategisk planering, varumärkesbyggande,destination, detaljhandelsmarknadsföring, Stockholms stad Problemformulering: Handeln vill nyttja den växande turismsektorn för att vinnamarknadsandelar. Problematiken för detaljhandeln är avsaknad av strategisk planering, isamverkan med turismsektorn, som bottnar i bristande kunskap och erfarenhet. Syfte: Syftet är att skapa ett förslag på strategisk planering som detaljhandelsföretagen, i samverkan med turismsektorn, kan använda för att fylla det praktiska gap som i dagsläget existerar. Metod: Studien har genomförts med 12 stycken kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med relevanta personer inom respektive bransch. Deltagande i två seminarier samt granskning av fyra rapporter utgör primärdata. Sekundärdata är baserad på vetenskapliga artiklar samt litteratur. Tolkning av insamlad data har gjorts utefter en hermeneutisk ansats. Teori: Teoridelen utgörs av litteraturgenomgång följt av teoretisk referensram. Litteraturgenomgången presenterar citymarknadsföring utifrån ett destinationsperspektiv. Teoretiska referensramen behandlar huvudämnet strategisk planering med anledning att skapa en tillförlitlig strategisk modell ur ett företagsperspektiv. Därefter redogörs faktorer som ligger till grund för strategisk planering. Därefter redovisas varumärkesbyggande med fokus på image och- identitetsskapande samt skapande av kundvärde ur ett företagsperspektiv. Ämnet fördjupas sedan i detaljhandelns värdekedja, kunddrivet värdesystem, kundlojalitet ochrelationsmarknadsföring samt upplevelser som en betydande faktor för detaljhandeln. Slutsats: Slutsatsen består av en modell för detaljhandelns strategiska planering. Modellen inleds med definiering av målgruppen. Därefter kartläggs turistgruppens behov samt lösning inom respektive kärnaktivitet i företaget. Nyttjande av strategin resulterar i en tillfredsställd kund, vilket kan generera ekonomiska fördelar, public relations samt marknadsandelar. Det krävs att en aktör tar övergripande ansvar för att verkställa den strategiska planeringen och skapa tydlig kommunikation mellan detaljhandelsbranschen och turismsektorn. / Thesis titled: Stockholm – the fashion capital of Scandinavia? A study in strategic planningbased on retail company perspective, in collaboration with the tourism sector. Course: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, focus on marketing, 15 credits, Stockholm University School of Business Author: Linda Holdo, Hanna Jäderholm and Mariah Lindborg Supervisor: PhD Andrea Lucarelli Keywords: Retail, tourism sector, strategic planning, brand building, destination, retail marketing, Stockholm city. Problem: The trade want to utilize the growing tourism sector in order to gain market share. The problem for retailers is the lack of strategic planning. Purpose: The aim is to create a proposal on strategic planning that retail companies, in collaboration with the tourism sector, can use to fill a practical gap that currently exists. Method: The study was conducted with 12 pieces of qualitative semi-structured interviews. Participation in two seminars and examining four reports provides the primary data. Secondary data are based on scientific papers and literature. Interpretation of the collected data has been made along a hermeneutical approach. Theory: The theory part consists of a literature review followed by a theoretical framework.The literature review presents city marketing from a destination perspective. Theoretical framework addresses head of strategic planning with the need to create a reliable strategic model from a business perspective. Then outlines factors that form the basis for strategic planning. Brand building is recognized as a factor with focus on image and identity. It then looks at the creation of customer value from a business perspective. The subject deepened with the retail value chain, customer grated value systems, customer loyalty and relationship marketing and experiences as a significant factor for retailers. Conclusion: The conclusion consists of a formed strategic model containing factors that are considered important for retailers future strategic planning. The model starts by mapping the definition of the target audience. Then the tourist group demand is mapped in a needs assessment in each core activity of the company. Along the client's needs a solution. Use of the strategy result in customer satisfaction, which can generate economic benefits, public relations and market share. It requires that an operator takes an overall responsibility for the execution of the strategic planning and creating clear communication between the retail and tourism sectors.

The need to manage an unpredictability and to defuse uncertainties in the market is of great interest for SMEs, especially since many actors are forced to interact almost instantly upon inception. The strategic management of SMEs, within a networking context and through their internationalization process, is the primary focus of this research paper. Building on discoveries from the clean tech industry and facilitators surrounding those actors, the knowledge of firm´s network embeddedness and the importance of a network proficiency for business development is discussed as a point of supply to strategic actions in a highly competitive environment. A conceptual model is constructed, building on existing theories regarding internationalization to further expand current theories regarding networks, entrepreneurial effectuation, International Entrepreneurship (IE), International Business (IB), in order to create an applicability for an industry that is notably influenced by the political sphere. The analysis, stemming from an explorative multiple case study, illustrates the empirical data through the conceptual model. Key findings include that the environment can be said to be partly non-conducive for SMEs international venturings, due to the disruptive nature of the technologies and at times opposing cognitive mindsets. The conclusion points to a general need for an ability to augment a liable position through a mastery within networking realms along with a purposeful cognition, something these authors have labeled a Networking intelligence (NI) in its entirety. NI would, for this reason, be equivalent to obtaining a mastery within three networking dimensions with the additional feed-in mechanism of purposeful cognition. NI would as such constitute an advantage, ultimately leading to firms gaining a greater impact in regards to a commercial development through an internationalization processes. NI would in this regard act as a facilitator for growth, promoting more effective, efficient, and possibly more balanced actions on the international scene. NI would also enable SMEs to mirror the capabilities of an embedded MNC, with its heterogeneous resources.

Central to this dissertation is a discourse in contemporary Swedish planning practice referred to as the ‘new reality’. The name of this discourse reflects the notion that planning practice interprets the conditions of today as differing from those which occurred previously. The urban landscape is perceived as increasingly complex, dynamic, and competitive, where strategic alliances must be built between municipalities and private and public actors at different levels. Both the influence of private actors and such factors as climate effects contribute to that much of what may happen in the future being experienced as uncertain and unpredictable. In this context of complexity, uncertainty, and governance, municipalities must find a way to manage planning tasks connected to the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability, tasks that may be at the same time interdependent and contradictory. The social and environmental dimensions of sustainability provide the municipality with a spectrum of tasks that range from local welfare tasks to national and global environmental and climate concerns, the time span ranges between short-term and long-term, and the degree of concreteness ranges from the specific to the vague. Furthermore, tasks connected to the wellbeing and safety concern not only the own citizens but also humankind in general, and both today and in the future. Tasks of economic sustainability are, in the ‘new reality’ discourse, closely connected to growth. As growth is regarded as desirable, the assumed situation of competition between cities, municipalities, regions and nations means that it is considered important to find ways to be attractive to both the market and to new potential citizens. That notwithstanding, municipalities must also handle the effects from growth. The starting point of the dissertation is that it is easier to make good decisions (short-term, emergent) based on previous decisions (long-term, structure), in order to make gains in terms of social, environmental and economic sustainability, but also to bring efficiency gains in development decisions. Legislation assumes that the comprehensive plan serves such a function – it should both constitute political decisions for future development, and a planning data that allows holistic assessments. However, today, in many municipalities, it does not function as such. With reference to recently revised planning legislation’s intention to strengthen the strategic role of the comprehensive plan, this dissertation elaborates upon a development of the comprehensive plan based on a strategic perspective. The dissertation contributes to knowledge by outlining a way in which comprehensive planning could be developed based on a strategic perspective, that could provide municipalities with a possibility for an active role in development within the conditions of the ‘new reality’ discourse. It does so by visualising the use of strategic elements and approaches in Swedish municipalities’ work with planning and development; the application of elements such as strategic contextual awareness, strategic selectiveness, strategic responsiveness, and strategic governance. Furthermore, as the design of the comprehensive planning process is discussed from the perspective of forums-arenas-courts (Healey, 1997; Bryson 2004), the view of what in fact is planning is expanded, thereby including formal as well as informal, visible as well as invisible, processes and decisions on different levels and with difference degrees of concreteness, that influence development. Comprehensive planning concerns a variety of processes that take place not in the planning game, but in the development game. / QC 20111020