Purpose: The aim of the study is to explore how the digitalization has affected international business relations, with a focus on Swedish and Chinese relationships. This will be studied through a qualitative study of Swedish SMEs with Chinese partners within the manufacturing industry, but also through interviews with Business Sweden and Swedish Chamber of Commerce for an objective approach. Research Questions: The main research question is: How does digitalization affect Swedish SMEs business relations with Chinese partners in the manufacturing industry? The subquestion is: Which positive and negative aspects does the digitalization bring? Methodology: This thesis is a qualitative study conducted with an abductive approach. A multi-case study design was applied, researching four Swedish SMEs and two objective organizations. Conclusions: After accomplishing this research, we were able to draw the conclusion that Swedish SMEs with Chinese business partners are affected by the digitalization on many levels. Areas mainly affected by the digital development are the communication methods and work tasks. The positive outcomes are opportunities to save money and time, as well as maintaining frequent communication which can increase trustworthiness. The negative outcomes are the decreased personal interactions and the risk of sharing sensitive information, because of the fact that information is stored on digital devices.

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Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been around since the mid 2000's and is a practical option in contrast to the on-premise IT solutions where SMEs need to invest on purchasing or building their own IT infrastructures which means install the software themself, design the applications and have a whole IT division employed by the company to keep up with everything. Regardless of whether SaaS applications have been around for some time, SMEs actually have a ton of inquiries on whether these applications are a suitable choice for them.  This research explores the factors that contribute to adoption of SaaS solutions in the Swedish SMEs. The factors are explored through the usage of technological, organisational, environmental framework that contribute towards adoption of SaaS in the Swedish small and medium sized companies. In order to answer the research question of this study and to understand the Swedish SMEs perspective, a qualitative study was conducted with a deductive approach. Six semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with respondents from six different SMEs who have already been in the process of adopting and have adopted SaaS.  This thesis resulted in finding a significant process contributing to adoption of SaaS from Swedish SMEs perspective. The process is found to have a specific pattern because of the effect of the factors involved.

Den här uppsatsen syftar till att ta fram vilka utmaningar det finns för svenska tillverkande Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) att implementera ett Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP-system). Den här studien undersöker parametrar som avgör en lyckad eller misslyckad implementering av ett ERP-system hos SMEs och hinder som är viktiga att beakta för att inte misslyckas med parametrarna. Tidigare studier har använts för att ta fram viktiga parametrar och hinder som har testats genom intervjuer med olika företag. Undersökningen i uppsatsen har begränsningar som att det bara har intervjuats fyra företag, inom fyra branscher och enbart personer med ledarpositioner. Det togs fram tre parametrar vilka är att hålla implementeringen inom budget, implementationstid och välfungerande ERP-system. Det togs även fram sex hinder vilka är brist på engagemang och ledarskap från ledning, otillräcklig utbildning, brist på kommunikation, otillräckliga resurser, felaktiga förväntningar på ERP-system och för lite engagemang från medarbetare. / This paper aims to bring out which challenges exist for Swedish manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP- system). This study investigates parameters which lead to a successful or unsuccessful implementation of an ERP- system at SMEs and obstacles that are important to consider in order to not be unsuccessful with the parameters. Previous studies have been used to identify important parameters and obstacles which have been tested through interviews with different companies. The investigation in this paper has limitations as only four companies have been interviewed, in four different industries and only people with leadership positions. Three parameters where identified, these are to keep the implementation within budget, implementation time and well functioning ERP-system. Six obstacles were also identified, these are lack of commitment and leadership from management, insufficient training, lack of communication, insufficient resources, inaccurate expectations on ERP-system and too little commitment from coworkers.

Open innovation is a phenomenon that has gained vast attention since its introduction in 2003. It has been identified that organizations are experiencing a shift from the innovation process towards an open innovation approach. However, research on open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has shown to require more attention in the literature. This study investigated the effect of resources and capabilities in Swedish SMEs to address the challenges of liability of smallness. The purpose of this research is to investigate the challenges that Swedish SMEs in the high-tech industry face while opting for an open innovation approach. For that, the following research question was answered: How do resources and capabilities affect Swedish SMEs in engaging in open innovation to overcome the liability of smallness?  A resource-based theory has been implied in this study which examines from five distinct perspectives namely, strategy, process, corporate structure, cross-company network, and culture.  This thesis paper is a qualitative study that has been conducted by semi-structured interviews with five Swedish SMEs. The empirical data was then thematically analyzed and seven themes have been developed from the data analysis. The findings reveal that firstly, Swedish SMEs in the high-tech industry are open to external collaboration and accepting innovative ideas coming from both internal and external sources. Therefore, empirical evidence shows that Swedish SMEs are not always reluctant to make a shift towards open innovation. Rather it has been found that SMEs are open to opportunities to tackle the obstacle of smallness. Secondly, resources and capabilities have a positive effect on the performance of the SMEs. Allocation of resources both financial and human resources results in the successful commercialization of a project, thus by gaining a competitive advantage the performance of the firm improves significantly. Thirdly, whilst the liability of smallness has shown to have an impact on Swedish SMEs in the high-tech industry, it has also been identified how smallness also can be viewed as an asset. Smallness as an asset has been found to make an impact on Swedish SMEs in the high-tech industry and the unique opportunities that they possess. Leveraging open innovation and capitalizing on flexibility, linear corporate structure, inclusive culture, and leveraging formal and informal networks to engage in external collaboration has been shown to have an effect on SMEs and contribute to smallness as an asset. Therefore, a comprehensive conceptual framework has been developed in this study that integrates insights gained from the research.