<p>The overall purpose of this study is to examine what consequences might be connected to Swedish meat consumption. To illustrate this, the production chain of beef meat, produced in Brazil and consumed in Sweden, has been mapped and investigated. The analytical focus of this study has been on power distribution within the chain, aiming to outline its socio-economic consequences in the Brazilian context. The empirical data was collected partly from secondary sources, but also from primary sources through interviews with key informants in the buyer-end of the production chain. The Global Value Chain approach served as a methodology for mapping the production chain and as a theoretical device for analysing the embedded power structures.</p><p>The main result, besides an overview of the beef production chain, was an identification of the chain as buyer-driven. Power is particularly concentrated around supermarket chains, which have very specific requirements on production and processing, implemented by the importing firms, thus also having a huge influence. Power concentration was also discovered in the levels of farming and processing, where the number of acting units declines frequently. The Swedish beef consumption thus seems to contribute, however small-scaled, to the process of power concentration along the chain of production, making market entrance a scarce asset. Potential socio-economic consequences of this process, besides unequal access to influence, might be longer travels or changed city of residence for workers, or even employment losses due to inadequate education. Low-income consumers might become vulnerable since cheap low-quality meat becomes inaccessible. Moreover, this thesis has also raised additional questions, suitable for further research, regarding the impacts of Swedish meat consumption.</p>

<p>Denna studie handlar om storbankernas interna värdeskapande processer med de anställda för att kunna skapa lojala kunder. Fokus ligger på just den interna marknadsföringen då denna måste vara effektiv för att den externa marknadsföringen ska bli framgångsrik. Ambitionen med undersökningen är att analysera vilka marknadsföringsstrategier de traditionella storbankerna bör använda sig av för att skapa lojala kunder. Detta krävs då den svenska bankmarknaden idag karaktäriseras av en mättad marknad. Konkurrensen är hård på grund av att både mindre svenska nischbanker och nya utländska aktörer försöker ta storbankernas marknadsandelar.</p><p>För att storbankerna ska kunna skapa lojala kunder måste de få dem hög involverade. Utifrån denna undersökning kan man dock se att bankkunderna inte är involverade när det gäller relationen till sin bank. Kunderna är viktigare för banken än vad banken är för kunderna.</p>

<p>The aim of this study is to find out the dynamics of rice supply chains and their impacts on the small-scale rice producer in Magugu village. The problem addressed in this study is the changes in the food trading paradigm and how it is shaping power relations at a local level. The empirical material in this study has been collected during a fieldtrip to the Babati district in Tanzania from the 25th of February to the 19th of March (2008). The First Mile Project (FMP) in Tanzania had the purpose to teach farmers how to build more equal and efficient supply chains and linking the producer to the consumer. A comparison between a regular rice supply chain and one involved in the FMP was made to explore how the two was forming in the changing food trade paradigm and how the farmers were adapting to this fact. Several methods were employed in this study. These include: case study method, qualitative methods, and secondary data. The results in this study was analysed with the use of the Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis and the Network theory. The conclusion was that depending on how the networks and the power relations within them, actors in the leading position in the GVC determines how the product is going to be: produced, processed, and marketed, at what time and to what price and establish requirements of the GVC. The rice farmers involved in the FMP were the once most able to adapt to the requirements of the GVC and food trading paradigm because of the cooperation among the group and good relations with other actors along the supply chain.</p>

Innovating is essential to sustained industrial growth and profitability. But experience amply demonstrates how difficult innovation is, especially for large companies. The synthesis of valued offerings by aligning customer needs with technology possibilities lies at the heart of innovation. System architects working at the strategic level are ideally positioned, as a consequence of their experience and training, to play a key and even a leadership role in enabling, energizing, and leading this synthesis. The scope of the architecting effort must include the process architecture of the entire value chain as well as the more conventional product architecture to address all potential wellsprings of innovation. This paper outlines an architecture-centric approach to innovation, based on the concept of the system platform architecture. / Center for Innovation in Product Development, MIT

The traditional theories developed by Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 1990) and other researchers ofinternationalisation have long been questioned because of the fast-changing environment and deregulations. In particular, for Born Global firms, namely a company that has achieved a foreign sales volume of at least 25% within three years of its inception and that seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sales of outputs in multiple countries (Andersson and Wictor, 2003, p. 254), itis a question of surviving by establishing in many markets in a short period of time.This thesis summarises five papers. Paper 1 showed that the CEO´s perception and the fast changing environment push small firms to internationalise and that younger CEOs have an important role in expanding the firm. This is often because of their experiences accumulated inthe organisation over time or because the entrepreneur has been exposed to the international arena and information technologies, which can explain why some small firms continue to expandtheir international activities.The conceptual framework in paper 2 comprises four factors that influence Born Global firms:entrepreneurs, networks, industry and globalisation. To succeed in establishing a global firm it isimportant to have certain resources, such as an entrepreneur with international experience and strong networks. A Born Global entrepreneur is distinguished by his interest and motivation todo business abroad and his vision for the future.Paper 3 focuses on the importance of Born Globals’ foreign market channel strategies. The decision to establish a new market is of great importance for the long-term survival of the company. In this comparative case study, four companies that display different foreign entrymodes are compared. We found that these companies had very different market channel strategies even though they internationalised rapidly.Paper 4 is a study of four companies that indicates that their CEOs are active and involved in making strategic decisions in all parts of a Born Global firm’s value chain activities. Decisions on localisation and outsourcing are influenced by the entrepreneur’s definition of his firm’s core competencies. However, factors outside the firm are also an influence: potential suppliers,outsourcing of manufacturing and potential partners in distribution, especially relating to the riseof new emerging markets (e.g. China). The importance of coordinating value chain activities also influences the localisation of different activities. Entrepreneurs aim to arrange value-creating networks to secure their core manufacturing processes and close relations with local suppliers when they outsource products. In such a case, the entrepreneur can be seen as an orchestrator ina virtual organisation. The ‘global factory’ concept can be adjusted to fit locally for a Born Global company and its environment. Paper 5 focuses on a Born Global company’s way to grow and is a longitudinal study of acompany over 17 years (1990–2007) and its development in the different stages in the growth/life-cycle curve. From inception, the vision is already strong to go global. During thea bove period, the founder, external CEO I and CEO II were interviewed to assess whatcharacterises the different stages of growth over time compared with the growth/life-cycle model of Smallbone and Wyer (2006). The company is still growing and very entrepreneurial. The leadership has changed from a deciding style to a more coaching way of leading. Themanagement and organisation have changed to be more professionalised and team-oriented over8time. Entrepreneurial teams have also become more and more important for transferring knowledge to individuals in the organisation.The traditional models of Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 1990) point out that learning at an organisational level is a main factor in international development over time. However, a way to speed up the development of Born Global firms is entrepreneurial background with long experience and different knowledge serving his vision for the company. Nevertheless, theknowledge transfer from the entrepreneur and his team to the organisation is important. Knight and Cavusgil (2004, p. 137) find that “Born Globals pose an important new challenge to traditional views on the internationalization of the firm”.Johanson and Vahlne (2003) study what happens in companies because of rapid changes in the environment. They suggest that the Uppsala model is still valid, but that the early stage of a firm’sinternationalisation is important to study. Organisational learning is carried out at an individual and an entrepreneurial level. Johanson and Vahlne (1977) focus on the importance of the people working in a market and their learning. In their latest published article by Schweizer et al. (2010,pp. 368–369), they argue that “it is the liability of outsidership rather than the liability offoreignness that gives rise to internationalization difficulties. Outsidership implies that the firm isnot a member of relevant networks. Internationalization can be seen then as taking steps tobecome an insider in relevant networks in focal foreign markets … In their last study it emphasizes the entrepreneurial facets of a firm’s internationalization process”. The above defined background of the entrepreneur, his entrepreneurial way of working and his experience from former jobs also means that he already has the networks necessary for international expansion.The entrepreneur and his team in a Born Global company must from the beginning have the capability and knowledge of the environment and market in a country to establish in the new market as well as the understanding of how to manage the company and organisation. If they do not have this knowledge, they must have a network from which to extract this information. The entrepreneur has to be strongly involved in building and sustaining relationships with both customers and suppliers. In the organisation, he also has to build a powerful culture with decentralisation and empowered employees. The leadership in these companies is charismatic,employees are empowered in their jobs and the teams are entrepreneurial. Employees are therefore also allowed to make their own decisions within certain limits. Networks are important to overcome “perceived barriers on cultural and regulatory issues, those associated with locating partners, plus other matters deemed important to specific management teams” (Crick, 2009, p. 466). Coviello and Cox (2006) find that a company’s network is aresource when it is working with acquisitions and important recruitments. For companies growing over many years such as the Rubber Company studied herein, networks change and the chairman’s networks can be of great importance when core individuals should be recruited as an important part of the company’s strategies.

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The overall purpose of this study is to examine what consequences might be connected to Swedish meat consumption. To illustrate this, the production chain of beef meat, produced in Brazil and consumed in Sweden, has been mapped and investigated. The analytical focus of this study has been on power distribution within the chain, aiming to outline its socio-economic consequences in the Brazilian context. The empirical data was collected partly from secondary sources, but also from primary sources through interviews with key informants in the buyer-end of the production chain. The Global Value Chain approach served as a methodology for mapping the production chain and as a theoretical device for analysing the embedded power structures. The main result, besides an overview of the beef production chain, was an identification of the chain as buyer-driven. Power is particularly concentrated around supermarket chains, which have very specific requirements on production and processing, implemented by the importing firms, thus also having a huge influence. Power concentration was also discovered in the levels of farming and processing, where the number of acting units declines frequently. The Swedish beef consumption thus seems to contribute, however small-scaled, to the process of power concentration along the chain of production, making market entrance a scarce asset. Potential socio-economic consequences of this process, besides unequal access to influence, might be longer travels or changed city of residence for workers, or even employment losses due to inadequate education. Low-income consumers might become vulnerable since cheap low-quality meat becomes inaccessible. Moreover, this thesis has also raised additional questions, suitable for further research, regarding the impacts of Swedish meat consumption.

Denna studie handlar om storbankernas interna värdeskapande processer med de anställda för att kunna skapa lojala kunder. Fokus ligger på just den interna marknadsföringen då denna måste vara effektiv för att den externa marknadsföringen ska bli framgångsrik. Ambitionen med undersökningen är att analysera vilka marknadsföringsstrategier de traditionella storbankerna bör använda sig av för att skapa lojala kunder. Detta krävs då den svenska bankmarknaden idag karaktäriseras av en mättad marknad. Konkurrensen är hård på grund av att både mindre svenska nischbanker och nya utländska aktörer försöker ta storbankernas marknadsandelar. För att storbankerna ska kunna skapa lojala kunder måste de få dem hög involverade. Utifrån denna undersökning kan man dock se att bankkunderna inte är involverade när det gäller relationen till sin bank. Kunderna är viktigare för banken än vad banken är för kunderna.

The study is focus on intangible assets of medical biotech industry, which is to analyze the factors of value drivers. It is utilizing the value chain, complementary assets, type of industries evolve and momentum formula of physics to build up the model of intangible assets value drivers. The power of intangible assets value drivers can be described as a formula as: (mass ¢® velocity)•direction of industries evolve. Not only we can understand the meaning of factors of intangible assets value drivers through the model, but also we are able to analyze the power of intangible assets value drivers about Taiwan medical biotech industries. Following, is the result of this study: 1. Taiwan biotech pharmacy/chemical pharmacy and gene detector chip industry don¡¦t have ability of intangible assets value drivers. 2. Taiwan medical device industry has the lower ability of intangible assets value drivers. 3. The direction of Taiwan medical biotech industry evolvement is the creative type. 4. All factors of intangible assets must be taken care. If any factor is neglect, the overall power of intangible assets value drivers will have a lower affection. Following, is the meaning of the result of this study: 1. Both of internal resource and external industry structure will influence the power of intangible assets value drivers in medical biotech industry. 2. The companies strive hard by placing more resources and trying to produce the intangible assets, which might not be able to create the value positively. 3. The three key factors of intangible assets all must be taken care in order to create the value. It is impossible to be success, if only depends on single factor that even has the good performance.

As the broadband transmission and data compression are being advanced in digital technology at the same time, these enable multimedia easily to exchange and interconnect with each other. The phenomenon to present is generally called ¡§Digital Convergence¡¨. In order to cater to the customers who demand whenever and wherever possible, ubiquitously access to converging services and networks as well, the broadband wireline and wireless access technologies have made significant progress to support and to further ICT (information and communications technology) industry to invest the research and development on the relevant technology, pruducts and services. The development trend of converging in the face of industries, services and networks, FNOs(fixed network operators), who are facing the fixed to mobile substitution(FMS), attempt with the seamless communications proposition to resolve the discontinuous problems caused when or where the user¡¦s handset roams across heterogeneous networks or switches between the fixed and mobile network, so as to motivate user demand for data and multimedia services as well as to restrain the decline of revenue from circuit-switched voice service; On the other hand, MNOs(mobile network operators) are also facing the market saturation on basic voice service gradually, in order to sustain the revenue growth, dual-mode mobile handsets enable the users access to fixed wireless network that substitutes for expensive indoor radio access to mobile network, and make differentiation from competitors to stimulate user demand for value-added services so as to raise ARPU(average revenue per user). Therefore, the business model for FMC(fixed-mobile convergence), is an innovative option to surmount the dilemma of business growth of telecommunications service operators. No matter FNOs, MNOs or SBOs(service-based operators) begin integration among the horizontally layered access networks, e.g. wireless LAN, WiMAX, broadband wireless, 3G, 3.5G and 4G, and change the existing business model varied with the shifting industrial value chain as well in face of emerging convergence and advancing wireless communications technology. The study gives the result with conclusions: 1.The introduction of FMC business is the most advantageous to full-licensed operators or telecom groups; Secondly FNOs can fight against FMS threat to restrain the revenue declined and to gain the revenue stream from MVNO services. 2.Telecom operators who provide with FMC offerings can strengthen competitive advantages with differentiation in the telecom services market to increase revenue and profitability. 3.Telecom operators offer FMC products and services, which help improvement in ARPU of existing customers and acquisition of new ones. 4.FMC offering can increase stickiness on customer retention besides lowering customer churn rate. 5.No matter incumbent or potential new entrant operators who introduce FMC service offering to market, they should take advantages of resources and competence in themselves to address their customer value proposition and positioning, and to adjust the business model to rival with advantageous competitive strategy. Besides, they should consider the timing for the investment on convergence of heterogeneous network varied with industrial environment and regulation so as to raise ROCE. 6.FMC business model is a set of architectural framework, not merely products or services portfolios, applications and selling. The operators must pay close attention to the shift of the external environment and business operation conditions, change the existing business model and strategy so as to keep the business growth and sustained development for lasting enterprises. The study finally suggests: Telecom operators, potential new entrants and the Government in Taiwan should pay close attention to the spectrum licensed for the new technology WiMAX and digital convergence which may come into being ¡§horizontally layered integration¡¨ or ¡§operation beyond the regulated business scope¡¨. The demarcation of regulation the Government takes effect can give consideration to the economic efficiency of market liberalization with fair competition. Asymmetric regulation and deregulation make sure not in implementing ¡§by waiting to become¡¨, and make distribution with choice for the radio frequency spectrum which benefits industry's development as well as adopt explicitly gradual deregulation on the policy and supplementary measure so as to can give consideration to the regulatory function, build the fair market environment and sound telecommunications industry in parallel to further the development in economy.