Purpose: To investigate if accessible luxury fashion brands discriminate overweight and obese consumers.

Design/methodology/approach: The physical sizes of garments are surveyed in-store and compared to the body sizes of the population. A gap analysis is carried out in order to determine whether the supply of clothes match the demand of each market segment.

Findings: The surveyed accessible luxury garments come in very small sizes compared to the individuals that make up the population.

Research limitations/implications: The survey is limited to London while the corresponding population is British. It is therefore possible that the mismatch between assortments and the population is in part attributable to geographic and demographic factors. The study’s results are however so strikingly clear that even if some of the effect were due to extraneous variables, it would be hard to disregard the poor match between overweight and obese women and the clothes offered to them.

Practical implications: For symbolic/expressive brands that are conspicuously consumed, that narrowly target distinct and homogenous groups of people in industries where elitist practices are acceptable, companies can build brands via customer rejection.

Social implications: The results highlight ongoing discrimination of overweight and obese fashion consumers.

Originality/value: The study is the first to provide quantitative evidence for brand building via customer rejection, and it delineates under which conditions this may occur. This extends the theory of typical user imagery. © Emerald Publishing Limited 2018

This paper identifies that guest selection at exclusive nightclubs is a brand building process, and that the guests’ primary value to the clubs therefore is the image they bestow on the brand. The paper contributes to theory by providing empirical support for several mechanisms that have previously been stipulated in literature. It validates that companies build brand personality by controlling typical user imagery, and that for self-expressive product categories, negative user stereotypes are particularly powerful. It supports the theory of symbolic brand avoidance, as well as the notion that social rejection encourages people to elevate their perceptions of their rejecters and strengthens their predilection to affiliate with them. For practitioners, the paper shows managers in the hospitality industry that it is possible to build brands by controlling who is allowed to become a brand-user, and under which conditions this applies. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if intermediate luxury fashion brands discriminate overweight and obese consumers.

Design/methodology/approach: 1,454 intermediate luxury garments were tallied and measured in-store in London. The physical sizes of the garments were matched to the body sizes of the population, and a gap analysis was carried out in order to determine whether the supply of clothes match the relative importance of each market segment.

Findings: While previous research shows that mass-market fashion companies do not discriminate overweight and obese consumers, intermediate luxury garments come in very small sizes compared to the individuals that make up the population.

Research limitations/implications: The findings show that purveyors of intermediate luxury fashion limit assortments of garments so they avoid fat typical user imagery.

Practical implications: Companies that market products that are sensitive to the typical user imagery can optimize their brands by limiting undesirable customer types access to their brands, provided that 1) they have the financial strength to reject customers whose image would be detrimental to the brand, 2) the companies are active in an industry in which people would tolerate customer rejection, and 3) they sell a product that actually can be denied undesirable customers.

Social implications: The study shows that fat consumers are relegated to mass-market fashion but are excluded from intermediate luxury fashion. This constitutes a social inequality.

Originality/value: The result of this study provides quantitative evidence that companies control assortments to exclude undesirable typical user imagery. It also delineates under which conditions they do it. This adds to the theory of user imagery.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of obese models vs. normal weight models on fashion brands’ attractiveness.

Design/methodology/approach: An experiment was carried out in which 1,225 university students in Sweden and Brazil rated the attractiveness of a fashion brand worn by a normal weight model and an obese model.

Findings: The overall effect of obese models’ effect on fashion brand attractiveness was insignificant. Further, neither culture, nor the consumer’s own weight had a significant effect. There was, however, a significant effect of the participant’s own gender; women rate fashion brands worn by obese models significantly higher on attractiveness than they did fashion brands worn by normal weight models. Men displayed the inverse response.

Research limitations/implications: The effect of the model’s ethnicity was beyond the scope of the experiment, and the brand attractiveness scale captured only one aspect of brand character, leaving other potential brand effects for future studies.

Practical implications: Companies can use obese models with no overall brand attractiveness penalty across markets and for marketing to women of all sizes. Given men’s negative reactions, such models might however be unsuitable for the male-to-female gift market.

Social implications: The results support the use of obese models, which can lead to greater representation of larger women in the media, and consequently, reduced fat stigma.

Originality/value: The study validates the theory of user imagery, and it extends the theory by examining how different target consumers react to user imagery traits and thus provides evidence for gender bias towards obese models. © Emerald Publishing Limited 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the weight of ideal users affects the perception of mass market fashion brands. Design/methodology/approach: An experiment was carried out in which 640 university students replied to a web survey, rating the brand personality of jeans and shirts according to Aaker's Big Five construct. The garments were worn by thin, overweight, and obese models. Findings: The findings show that consumers' impressions of mass market fashion brands are significantly affected by the weight of ideal users. Slender models lead to the most positive brand perception followed by obese models. Overweight user imagery is for pure fashion brand building the least attractive kind. Research limitations/implications: A limitation of this study is the use of convenient student samples. Consequently, the generalization of the results beyond this convenience sample may be limited. It is further possible, even probable, that high fashion would suffer more from the negative imagery of overweight and obese users than mass market fashion. It would therefore be interesting to replicate this experiment using clothes of higher fashion grade and price. Practical implications: The demonstrated effects of user imagery support the industry practice of slim ideal female imagery. Social implications: The results inform the debate over skinny models vs real women in advertising. Originality/value: Previous research regarding the effectiveness of real women in advertising has been inconclusive. This paper demonstrates not only that model weight affects consumers' brand perception, but also how. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Overweight people claim to be mistreated by the fashion industry. Fashion companies disagree. Despite the controversy, actual research has been scarce. This study compares the sizes of clothes that the four leading mass-marketing fashion retailers in Sweden offer to the body sizes of the population. Although branding theory would support the idea of rejecting fat consumers to improve user imagery for fashion brands, such practices were not evident. The main contribution of this article is that it provides the first quantified empirical evidence on the theory of typical user imagery. In the discussion, it is posited that, although mass-market fashion brands should be susceptible to negative user imagery related to overweight and obese users, the companies avoid such problems by making garments that are not directly attributable to a specific brand, thus mitigating the negative effect of overweight and obese user imagery. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of rational green packaging claims vs emotional green packaging claims on consumers' purchase propensity for organic coffee.

Design/methodology/approach - Three within-subjects experiment were carried out (N=87, N=245, N=60). The experimental design encompasses packaging with rational green claims, emotional green claims, as well as a neutral (control) claim. Measured variables are introduced to assess participants' environmental commitment and information processing ability. A manipulated between-subjects variable is introduced to test how distraction interacts with preference for the claims.

Findings - Overall, consumers prefer products with green claims over those with neutral (control) claims, and products with emotional green claims to those with rational green claims. The studies also reveal that this effect is moderated by participants' environmental commitment, information processing ability and by distraction. The findings were statistically significant (p<0.05).

Research limitations/implications - As a lab experiment, the study provides limited generalizability and external validity. Practical implications - For most organic FMCG products, it is advisable to employ emotional packaging claims.

Social implications - The presented findings provide marketers with tools to influence consumer behavior toward sustainable choices.

Originality/value - The paper validates previous contributions on the effects of product claim types, and extends them by introducing comprehensive empirical data on all the Elaboration Likelihood Model's criteria for rational decision-making; motivation, opportunity and ability.

Purpose: This paper aims to expand the emerging field of symbolic green consumer behavior (GCB) by investigating the impact of anticipated conspicuousness of the consumption situation on consumers’ choice of organic products. In addition, the paper also explores whether self-monitoring ability and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) influence GCB in situations of anticipated high conspicuousness.

Design/methodology/approach: Two experiments test the study’s hypotheses.

Findings: The results of both experiments show that the anticipation of conspicuousness has a significant effect on GCB. Moreover, in Experiment 2, this effect is moderated by consumers’ level of ATSCI but not by their self-monitoring ability.

Research limitations/implications: Because ATSCI significantly interacts with green consumption because of the anticipation of a conspicuous setting, although self-monitoring ability does not, we conclude that social identification is an important determinant of green consumption.

Practical implications: Marketers who focus on building green brands could consider designing conspicuous consumption situations to increase GCB.

Social implications: Policymakers could enact change by making the environmental unfriendliness of non-eco-friendly products visible to the public and thus increase the potential for GCB.

Originality/value: The results validate the emerging understanding that green products are consumed for self-enhancement, but also expand the literature by highlighting that a key motivating factor of GCB is the desire to fit in.

E-Cars challenge prevailing business practices, especially in industrial sectors that heavily depend on the use of fossil fuels such as the automobile industry. The sustainable powertrain has to fight against prejudices towards a lack of performance, long charging times, the fear of too short driving ranges and a long list of other concerns. However, hazardous environmental pollution in Chinese megacities as well as changes among the consumers’ mindsets and purchasing behavior claim for a change in the product portfolios of today´s car manufacturers. In the western world we can see a successive (although hesitant) penetration of the markets by E-Cars. However, the Chinese market is still almost untouched and car manufacturers have just started to show the first signs of action. This phenomenon is mainly based on differences among the markets, especially the customer segment, partnerships and the proposition of value in China differ compared to the western markets. Furthermore, there are dissimilarities between China and the western car markets when it comes to political, legal and social aspects. To successfully introduce E-Cars to China, car manufacturers have to develop business models that transform the specific characteristics of E-mobility to create economic value and overcome the barriers that preclude them from penetrating the market. Of course, not an entirely new Business Model is needed. However, car manufacturers have to consider various aspects to innovate among their existing ones. A key prerequisite to enter a market with new products or services is to understand it. Based on a qualitative analysis about the introduction of E-Cars to China we therefore conducted an in-depth PESTEL-Analysis by hand of secondary data as well as an interview with a Shanghainese Business Manager of the Auto Components Working Group from the European Chamber of Commerce in China. After this market description we analyzed the Business Models of two German car manufacturers from the premium segment, which on the one hand operate successfully in the Chinese market and on the other hand, already show some movement in terms of E-Cars – the BMW AG and the Daimler AG. In our analysis we give valuable information about the two companies’ current Business Models, according the nine building blocks of the business model canvas and in regard to the data emerging from the PESTEL-Analysis. The conclusion chapter gives an overall discussion of the most important findings emerging from the analysis with regard to the business operations and the existing business models of the two car manufacturers. Findings have been evaluated on a global level and substantially transferred to a national level on the Chinese market by hand of the information from the PESTEL-Analysis. Furthermore, we offer important implications for the adaption and adjustment of high consideration areas of a car manufacturer Business Model as well as the future of the Business Models of a car manufacturer to successfully introduce E-Cars to China.  

The aim of this study was to identify key success factor for SME customers of cloud based Business Intelligence products. A deep interview was made with four producers and a questionnaire was carried out among 36 SMEs. The findings suggest that the most important CSFs were the level of software functionalities, the ubiquitous access to data, responsive answers to customer support requests, handling large amounts of data and implementation cost. Each of these factors addresses a specific area that customers pay close attention to during the adoption process of a cloud BI solution. Offering ubiquitous access to date and respsonsive answers to customer requests are particularly emphasized for SMEs. We also found that industry tailored software is preferred, monthly or quarterly billings, and contact by email or phone for service. The paper shows recommendations, implications of research and suggests further research on the topic.

Research question: To examine what aspects affect some consumers to avoid e-bikes and others to desire them.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to see if e-bikes have a symbolic value. We aim to see if e-bikes is associated as an environmentally friendly product. We will examine stereotypes and brand avoidance. Further we will see what attributes consumers associate with typical users of e-bikes.

Theory: To test our research question we chose our main theory of the matching process between self-image and typical user. Prior studies on e-bikes in areas as typical users and environment were analyzed. Previous studies on e-bikes were analyzed in areas such as environment and typical users.

Methodology: A survey was made on two groups who are underrepresented in sales of ebikes. Students aged 21-30 and cycling enthusiasts.

Results and conclusions:

• We found that e-bikes have symbolic value.

• Many respondents perceive e-bike users as environmentally friendly, comfortable and lazy.

• E-bikes being perceived as environmentally friendly can be a pre-purchase indicator for students, but not for cycling enthusiasts

• Different groups of students have conflicting user imagery, one group describe e-bikers as lazy, and another group describe e-bike users as healthy

• The stereotype that e-bike users are old is not very frequent

• Viewing e-bike users as lazy influences impacts the perceived value and are likely to lead to brand avoidance

I denna rapport analyseras samhällseffekter av satsningar på akademisk utbildning genom att se på hur akademikers involvering i kunskapsintensivt företagande under perioden 2004-2009 bidrar till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt. I rapporten fokuseras särskilt fyra huvudsakliga grupper av akademiker: civilekonomer, civilingenjörer, jurister samt läkare/ tandläkare (medicinare). Rapporten är författad av Lina Ahlin; verksam vid CIRCLE och Nationalekonomiska institutionen/Lunds Universitet, Jonas Gabrielsson; verksam vid CIRCLE/Lunds Universitet och Sektionen för Ekonomi och Teknik/Högskolan i Halmstad, samt Karl Wennberg; verksam vid Centrum för Entreprenörskap och Affärsskapande/ Handelshögskolan i Stockholm och Ratio - Näringslivets Forskningsinstitut.

Rapportens resultat visar genomgående att akademikers företag bidrar till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt i betydligt högre utsträckning än andra företag. Det finns även stora skillnader mellan företag som startas och drivs av individer med olika akademiska utbildningsinriktningar. Civilekonomers och civilingenjörers företag skapar betydligt fler nya arbetstillfällen än juristers och medicinares företag. Samtidigt är bidraget från civilekonomers företag till nya arbetstillfällen cirka 20 procent högre än civilingenjörernas företag.

Utöver sammanställningen av akademikerföretagens bidrag till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt presenterar vi också ett antal pedagogiska och användbara nyckeltal för att mäta den entreprenöriella avkastningen från investeringar i akademisk utbildning. Denna avkastning baseras på akademikerföretagens bidrag till nya arbetstillfällen och ekonomisk tillväxt i förhållande till statens kostnader för olika typer av akademiska utbildningar. I analysen finner vi att om myndigheterna satsar 10 000 kronor på en akademisk utbildning så har detta generellt sett en god entreprenöriell avkastning för samtliga utbildningsgrupper.

Vi finner även att resultaten skiljer sig markant åt mellan olika akademiska utbildningar. Våra resultat visar att juristers och framförallt civilekonomers företag genererar betydligt fler nya arbetstillfällen per statlig utbildningskrona jämfört med civilingenjörers och läkares/ tandläkares företag, framförallt eftersom kostnaden för att utbilda de senare grupperna är så pass mycket högre. Skillnaderna i entreprenöriell avkastning mellan de olika akademiska utbildningsgrupperna i termer av löneutbetalningar och skatteintäkter baserat på företagens omsättning är mycket snarlika de skillnader som vi finner för nya arbetstillfällen.

För att driva på tillväxten och den industriella utvecklingen i ekonomin behöver Sverige individer och företag som kan omsätta teknologi och ny kunskap till produkter och tjänster. Förhoppningen är att rapporten skall bidra till den fortsatta debatten kring hur akademiker bidrar till den samhällsekonomiska utvecklingen genom involvering i kunskapsintensivt företagande och entreprenörskap.

Officers in today’s Swedish Armed Forces are part of an organization that for more than 30 years has been going through a constant flow of political and economic cut backs, with a drastic reduction in both size, numbers and importance as a result. However, as a consequence of the deteriorating security situation in the Baltic Sea region, the Swedish Armed Forces are now about to enter a phase of expansion again for the first time since the Cold War. Ever since the occupation of the Swedish military officer got professionalized sometime during the 17th cen- tury, it has gone through a number of similar phases – not only regarding its practice, but also its stature in society. Well into the 1900s, being a military officer in Sweden was associated with social status and was almost considered as much of a lifestyle as a profession. Today, the situation is quite different.

What raised our curiosity is how we as officers, together with our professional community as a whole, view our profession today, in particular given the background above. How proud are we really to be military officers these days? Do we wear our uniforms with the same pride and self- assurance as we did 30 years ago? It soon became clear that the answers lie hidden within something both frail, complex and changeable that we as officers carry with us in everything we do: our professional identity.

The ambition with this study is to explore the professional identity among today’s officers in order to understand what the main aspects are that shape it and drive it. We have chosen to do so by studying a population of eleven senior officers who all to some degree have experienced the journey the Swedish Armed Forces has taken from being one of society’s key institutions, to becoming more of a marginalized government body among others.

Our work has resulted in a few key findings. Firstly, we have seen how the core of the profes- sional identity is shaped early on in the career as the individual is being socialized into the institution. The professional identity will then change and transform during the course of a career, but this core will largely remain the same throughout.

We have also seen how important the feeling of being useful and needed at work is in order to uphold a strong professional identity. Different people have different needs to fulfill in order to achieve this, but regardless – the greater the fulfillment, the more positive the impact. When the institution manages to offer a professional situation where these needs are fulfilled, this will have a strengthening effect on the professional identity. If not, the result will be the opposite.

The professional identity is also being affected by the general climate in society. The many years of downsizing and cut backs of the Armed Forces, together with general societal changes in attitude toward the institution, have had an obvious negative impact. However, the prospects of expansion and increased funding seem to have spurred a positive change for the professional identity.

Finally, we have noticed how the individual may be forced to compromise with these needs in order to facilitate a positive career progression. Accepting a job that lies far from the own idea of being useful and needed, but that is favorable for the process of reaching a higher rank, may well have a negative impact on the professional identity.

This thesis describes how we have arrived at these conclusions.

The present article analyses why and how Ericsson Telecom assumeda greater responsibility than was legally required when it dismissedmore than 23,000 employees in Sweden at the beginning of the21st century. The analysis starts from neoinstitutional theoryand is based on case studies of the company’s closuresin Norrköping and Linköping. The article focuses,in particular, on the interaction between Ericsson, the tradeunions, the County Administrative Board, the County Labour Board,the Public Employment Service, the Swedish Employment SecurityCouncil, the government and the respective municipalities. Itis shown that the greater responsibility taken by Ericsson wasbased on its desire to maintain legitimacy by taking into considerationprevailing societal expectations regarding the company’sbehaviour.

Although M&A’s have the greatest probability of failure in organizations, the major reasons for this outcome is the integration process. M&As have been a popular strategy for accessing new markets, introducing new products, expanding their knowledge base, and enhancing competitive advantage. In this study, we explore a case of technology acquisition, and we propose a theoretical framework based on literature that identifies phases in post-acquisition process. The process involves three stages: knowledge absorption, operational phase and commercial phase that is explored and evaluated with the empirical data of the case study. Then, thematic analysis was utilized in this study to identify common themes related to the role of acquisition. The related functions and benefits were grouped under acquisition roles. Since the case study was a successful acquisition, it was easy to figure out the roles and dimensions of integration from it. Both the methods contribute in addressing, the necessary phases that need to be organized with integration and deriving different functionalities to achieve common goals. Finally, we present a discussion and bring out the relationships that emerged from this study from different themes and have been mapped to stages in the post-acquisition process, resulting in outcomes from each role. Thus, this study puts an emphasis on the range of factors that create value from successful technological acquisition and conclude as post-acquisition process with integration elements is the initial pivotal position for the consequences.

In recent years, there has been a considerable interest in Malaysian manufacturing firms in New Product Development (NPD) which is considered to be indirectly a booster for the success of a firm. The purpose of the study is to highlight the NPD processes and methods used in Malaysian industry. This paper focuses only on the formal NPD-processes and NPD-strategies. From the available database, it is found that there are 250 confirmed companies from automotive, chemical, and electrical industries, which have R&D facilities; out of which 36% have agreed to participate in the survey, and 29% questionnaires have been used. The results show that the best firms have their R&D and NPD departments either overseas or partially in Malaysia.

Global warming is expected to have large impacts on high alpine and Arctic ecosystems in the future. Here we report effects of 18 years of experimental warming on two contrasting high alpine plant communities in subarctic Sweden. Using open-top chambers, we analysed effects of long-term passive experimental warming on a heath and a meadow. We determined the impact on species composition, species diversity (at the level of rare, common and dominant species), and phylogenetic and functional diversity. Long-term warming drove differentiation in species composition in both communities; warmed plots, but not control plots, had distinctly different species composition in 2013 compared with 1995. Beta diversity increased in the meadow, while it decreased in the heath. Long-term warming had significant negative effects on the three orders of phylogenetic Hill diversity in the meadow. There was a similar tendency in the heath, but only phylogenetic diversity of dominant species was significantly affected. Long-term warming caused reductions in forbs in the heath, while evergreen shrubs increased. In the meadow, deciduous and evergreen shrubs showed increased abundance from 2001 to 2013 in warmed plots. Responses in species and phylogenetic diversity to experimental warming varied over both time (medium (7 years) vs long-term (18 years)) and space (between two neighbouring plant communities). The meadow community was more negatively affected in terms of species and phylogenetic diversity than the heath community. A potential driver for the changes in the meadow may be decreased soil moisture caused by long-term warming. © 2021

The construction industry has of recent been blamed for lack of innovation. Lack of innovation in the industry is believed to be responsible for the decreasing or stagnant levels of productivity in comparison with other industries. This paper reviews the major barriers and enables to innovation in general. Propositions were made about the factors that affect innovation in the construction industry which were then formulated into a questionnaire. A survey was made on building contractors in Uganda, a developing country, targeting those with financial strength, large in size, and with high capacity to carry out big projects. The identified factors were then ranked and correlated. The level of training in science, engineering and technical education, and the level of research and development at the industry level are looked at as the greatest innovation enablers in building that will drive forward labour productivity. The size of the domestic market and the level of security are the worst innovation barriers that lead to low productivity in the building industry in Uganda. Contractors, policy makers and the government should address the identified factors in order to improve productivity.

Embedded Intelligent Systems (EIS) is the joint research field of the four collaborating laboratories at the School of Information Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering (IDE) at Halmstad University. The research of the four labs is integrated into a strong concerted research environment within embedded systems (EIS) - with a perspective reaching from the enabling technology via new system solutions and intelligent applications to end user aspects and business models. It is an expanding research area with many applications, not least ones that exist in everyday life.EIS is an important research environment contributing to the regional Triple Helix innovation system Healthcare Technology which the region has pointed out as a prioritised development sector. With its strong connections to both established and new, expanding firms hived off from the university, the research environment is active in the Healthcare Technology Alliance, a network of around sixty companies, counties and health care providers in south-western Sweden with the aim of developing the region into a leading arena for the development of health technology products and services. Several projects together with these participants concern both research and technology transfer.An integrated gender and gender equality perspective in innovations within the health technology area is necessary in order to be able to meet the needs of an ageing population with quality innovations. The relevancy of a gender perspective is clear in relation to the fact that about 70% of all those older than 75 years are women. Older women are on average cared for in hospital twice as long as men, partly due to differing disease panoramas, but also because men are more often cared for in the home by a woman while the women who live longer more often live alone. With the expansion of home-help and home nursing new needs follow and it is likely that a gender perspective will become necessary for the development of products and services that can make daily life easier for the elderly. The gender perspective also has relevance from the point of view of care staff. New technology is developed for application within the health and care sector where the larger professional groups consist mainly of women. The technology, most often designed by men, is used by women. With this in mind it is clear that an important aspect of good innovations is that the end users are involved in the innovation process.Based on an awareness of the need for a more articulated gender perspective within the research environment, in order to meet the needs expressed above, an application for a gender inclusive R&D project was handed in to the VINNOVA programme Applied Gender Research in Strong Research and Innovation Environments. The G-EIS project (Gender Perspective on Embedded Intelligent Systems - Application in Healthcare Technology) was approved and started in 2009. The project involves researchers from the EIS research environment as well as representatives from companies and the public sector.The project participants are on the whole agreed on the need for a gender perspective in the R&I environment, but struggle with the meeting of two epistemologically opposed theories of science. The understanding within gender studies that research and production both create reality and are informed by it is not always accepted within the areas of natural science. Engineering and other technological sciences not only consider aspects of science to be separate from reality, but also seek positivistic proof in research, something not always possible in the more qualitative research of the social sciences. Researching how these two perspectives meet within this specific project is the topic of this paper.

Planning and scheduling are considered as one of the most difficult but most important processes from perspectives of project management. These processes involve implementation of a widerange of planning methods used by different organizations with various levels of planning knowledge. The planning methods for scheduling can be classified as traditional methods (e.g. line of balance, Gantt chart and critical path) and modern methods (e.g. last planner and critical chain). Over time these methods had advanced from paper based to computer based. However, some project planners still prefer using the traditional methods despite other new alternatives. Users of those methods have different perspectives about the efficiency and effectiveness of the different planning methods used to manage different projects. Evidences from the secondary data found from extensive literatures have been used to assess the planning and scheduling methods mentioned above. A taxonomy describing each of the method in terms of their theories, key features, application areas, benefits and limitations is presented. The preliminary outcome of this paper may provide a tool to aid organizations in selecting and prioritizing the most appropriate methods to be developed and implemented in planning and scheduling of their projects. It also initializes a theoretical base for more rapid taxonomy studies on the use of different planning and scheduling approaches. As an overall, the present paper reminds practitioners of common ground about its important insights on how such taxonomy studies have potential to make scope of those methods and tools clearer, especially when they compare among them within the same application contexts.

Malaysian manufacturing firms are interested in New Product Development (NPD) methods, due to the fact that they are competitive tools for survival. The purpose of the present study is to investigate NPD practices in Malaysia, in particular the outsourcing of NPD and the organizing of NPD. We achieved our objectives by conducting a survey of 72 companies in the automotive, chemical, and electrical industries and analyzing the results. Managers involved in NPD will benefit from the findings presented in this paper. The results indicate that the NPD practices used in Malaysian firms focus more on production cost and manufacturability, whereas the need for increased knowledge receives lower priority.

Western firms are generally advised to rely on emerging market partners when attempting to develop frugal innovations for these developing markets. Underlying such advice is the idea that the requirements of emerging market consumers may not be familiar to Western firms and local developers will better understand local needs. We propose an alternative approach for high-tech firms—one that relies on home-based breakthrough R&D focused on emerging market needs. Three frugal innovation projects at a Swedish medical devices manufacturer serve to illustrate both how home-based breakthrough R&D can help managers reconceptualize their core products and the contextual factors favoring such an approach. © 2016, Industrial Research Institute.

High technology innovation performance relies on a skilful utilization of human resources. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of interpreted outcome and process uncertainties on the effective management of human resources for technology innovation. This is achieved through an insider-outsider based case study approach of three medical device innovations with varying degrees of radicalness. Findings suggest that uncertainties in process and outcome strongly influence what constitutes effective management of human resources for technology innovation. Findings also offer insights into when certain innovation theories hold, and suggestions on how to manage human resources and technology innovation under various conditions of uncertainty.

Innovation is paramount to success. Over time firms must maintain their ability to innovate in order to maintain their competitive edge. In this paper we explore the role human resource management has in nurturing and enhancing the innovative capability of the firm. To explore HRM activities, functions and processes that enhance or impede innovativeness we conducted a literature review. Following this review, 10 propositions have been made that link HRM to both incremental and radical innovativeness respectively. Our results include suggestions for empirical studies to validate our propositions as well as some managerial implications.

Purpose: This paper aims, by a direct comparison, to address the differences and similarities of the internationalization processes of multinational companies both from developed and emerging countries.

Design/methodology/approach: This study employed qualitative approach, using an integrated model of internationalization process. Multiple case studies, with two companies with significant involvement in foreign markets and originating in countries with different levels of development, were carried out.

Findings: The results reveal that the case companies show some differences with regards to their use of ownership advantages to facilitate their internationalization. On the other hand, learning and experience of internationalization, coupled with the use of networks, have been factors that have influenced the pace and the pattern of the case companies' internationalization. An integrated model, which includes variables related to networks and learning/experience, may contribute to the understanding of the case of multinational companies from emerging economies.

Originality/value: Although the research field of emerging multinationals has been growing lately, very few attempts have been made in the sense of directly comparing the internationalization process of firms from both developed and emerging countries. The authors proposed an integrated analytical model that draws on insights from the eclectic paradigm and the Uppsala internationalization model. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Choosing the right Business Intelligence (BI) software is critical to increasing productivity and effectiveness in organizations today. At the same time it is a very elaborating and complex process to choose the right software due to the fact that a large number of BI products exist on the market, which are quite different and updated frequently. The objective of this study is to develop and test a model for the evaluation of BI Software. The findings of the study revealed that it is difficult to declare what is the most competitive BI software as what is good for one user might not be good for another depending on their different business needs. Having said that the study initiated a new classification of BI Software vendors depending on the degree to which they comply with the functions in the Competitive Intelligence (CI) cycle. The software tested was divided into five categories: Fully complete, Complete, Semi Complete, Incomplete and Insubstantial. We conclude that the SSAV (Solberg Søilen, Amara, Vriens) Model Together with some proposed non technological variables and a classification developed can be used as a user's selection tool for deciding which BI Software to purchase.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how and what drives corporate social responsibility (CSR) in host communities of mining companies in developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach

To address this knowledge gap, this paper used Ghana as a test case and conducted 24 in-depth interviews with participants drawn from mining host communities.

Findings

The paper discovered that while CSR is broadly understood and encompasses six thematic categories in the mining host communities, there are emphases on philanthropic and environmental responsibilities. Contrary to the evidence found in other studies, this paper discovered that CSR rhetoric plays a more positive/significant role than so far explored in CSR research, as it incentivizes the host communities to push for the fulfilment of their CSR expectations and/or CSR initiatives proposed by mining companies.

Research limitations/implications

Quantitative studies are needed to strengthen the findings from the present paper.

Practical implications

Because developing countries share similar socio-economic and geo-political realities, the findings of this paper may be applicable not only for CSR advocates, but also for policy-makers in developing countries.

Originality/value

The paper provides new inputs from a developing country perspective to the current debate about the CSR performance of the extractive industry. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose – The objective of this study is to provide insights into the role of leadership in promoting creativity and innovation at the level of the firm, and how these may translate into improving firms’ own context of competitiveness in their respective markets through CSR initiatives.

Method/approach – This paper employs literature study, which is descriptive in nature, to explore the relationships between leadership, creativity/innovation, and CSR. We sought to describe the relationships between the three concepts: leadership, creativity/innovation, and CSR, as practically as possible. In employing exploratory research strategy, we draw insights from extant literature, drawn from the management sciences to describe leadership, creativity/innovation and CSR in organizations. In doing so, we explore, by arguing, how leadership can stimulate creativity/innovation in employees and how firm-level innovation-directed activities can connect to CSR activities.

Findings - The model suggests that leaders can stimulate employees’ creativity/innovative behaviour and this in turn may influence the rate at which innovation manifest in the products and processes of the organization. These, in turn, may be closely related to the CSR initiatives that the organization pursues. The study has argued that for creativity/innovation to be embedded in the organization’s product and processes, leadership of organization remains a key factor in terms of either enabling or inhibiting individual employees’ innovative behaviour. Leadership of organizations and individual employees’ innovative behaviour appear to influence the nature of CSR initiatives that is undertaken and may contribute in defining organization’s own competitiveness. Organization’s CSR initiatives can connect with efforts at improving its own competitiveness through, leadership of organization and stakeholder partnerships.

© www.iiste.org

The overall purpose of this thesis is to explore why and how institutional distance and contextual differences influence MNCs’ CSR-related behavior in African developing-countries. In order to achieve the purpose stated above, the thesis seeks to answer the overarching research question: How do institutional distance and contextual differences influence MNCs’ CSR-related behavior in African developing countries? To answer the research question this thesis employed an interpretive methodological approach in order to increase my understanding of the CSR phenomenon in a specific contextual environment characterized by different institutional distance through different theoretical and empirical perspectives (Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Lincoln and Guba, 2000). The thesis consists of two qualitative case studies, a systematic literature review, a conceptual paper focused on analyzing distance and MNC foreign subsidiaries’ CSR-related behaviour, and a longitudinal content analysis of annual CSR reports.

The thesis found that the most prevalent CSR themes addressed in journal articles focused on developing-countries have been social issues, followed by environmental issues as a distant second, with ethics-related issues receiving the least attention. The findings further indicate that CSR rhetoric plays a more positive and significant role than so far explored in CSR research, as it incentivises the host-communities to push for the fulfilment of their CSR expectations or CSR initiatives proposed by the mining companies. Soft’ regulations to which members of industry associations voluntarily adhere mitigate the absence of enforcement of more stringent hard regulations by the state for companies. In doing business in distant or different institutional contexts, institutional duality of MNC subsidiaries renders business activities complex and even conflicting when it comes to seeking internal and external legitimacy. This finding and the proposed model extend Hillman and Wan’s (2005) argument of the existence of ‘institutional duality’ of MNC subsidiaries. The 60-item disclosure index is in itself a contribution to research as it provides a measure of ‘disclosure quality’ in relation to the disclosures of CSR-related performance information and CSR-related governance information.

The main theoretical contribution of the thesis is that CSR expectations in developing-countries are distinct and may be more important to know how these empirical realities are taken into account when firms with their origin in developed-countries internationalize and enter markets in developing-countries. Second, an extended model is proposed which illustrates the roles of organizational fields, institutional pressures, legitimating environments, and legitimating strategies for MNC subsidiaries’ voluntary disclosure of CSR performance information. The overall contribution of the thesis is that it deepens our understanding of the CSR phenomenon, and of the role of host-communities and MNC subsidiaries’ managers from the context of developing-countries.

© Gideon Jojo Amos

This study explores how multinational enterprises (MNEs) should implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) to build external legitimacy, especially in subsidiaries operating in host-countries, where the effects of distance is felt most by MNE foreign subsidiaries. For long, international business (IB) research has analysed the effects of distance on MNEs’ expansion to host-countries, while a parallel strand of work in economic geography investigates the dimensions of proximity and how they influence firms’ knowledge development, especially in the varying host-countries they operate. Despite the noticeable relatedness and complementarities, these two bodies of literature have so far poorly interacted. Moreover, despite increased strategic motivation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, we still lack understanding of the effects of distance on MNEs’ CSR behaviour in host-countries. The present study addresses this limitation by analysing and integrating the extant literature on how MNEs can, through their CSR behaviour in host-countries, cope with and mitigate the effects of distance. It provides perspectives on what may constitute appropriate CSR strategies in varying host-countries’ institutional environments (i.e., what CSR strategies might be appropriate for MNEs to adopt in a more proximate/less distant and less proximate/more distant institutional contexts and their implications for the effects of distance). Based on an analysis of the extant literature, the present study discusses patterns of complementarities across distance and proximity, and draws attention to avenues for future research that, in a more effective way, interact the two strands of literature, thereby setting the ground for empirical testing of a conceptual framework proposed by this study.

Purpose: This paper aims to present a systematic review of scholarly articles focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries and published during the period 2004 to 2014 in international journals.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper applied a bibliometric analysis to 101 articles on CSR research focused on developing countries.

Findings: The study confirms that the most prevalent CSR themes addressed in journals have been social issues, followed by environmental issues in a distant second, with ethics-related issues receiving the least attention. Also, as CSR research in developing countries constitutes an emerging stream of literature, an overwhelming dominance of empirical (qualitative) papers aimed at exploring and/or seeking interpretations to CSR motivations have been confirmed.

Research limitations/implications: An important limitation of this study is in relation to the methods applied. In the first place, this review is based on two electronic databases: ABI/INFORM Global (ProQuest) and Web of Science Core Collection: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED). This means that research published in international journals that are not included in either of these databases will be omitted.

Practical implications: This review provides useful guidance for future CSR research focused on developing countries thereby providing a foundation for future research in this stream of CSR research.

Social implications: The findings of this study suggest that much CSR knowledge in developing countries reflects the unique social issues that call for companies to adopt different CSR interventions when operating in developing countries.

Originality/value: Although this paper is not the first to systematically review CSR research, but it is one of the initial attempts, to the best of the knowledge, to systematically review the state of CSR knowledge in the context of developing countries.

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: This paper seeks to explore perceptions of local employees regarding MNE subsidiaries’ attitudes in relation to local customs, values, and belief systems prevalent in the settings in which they operate. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design was used as the methodological grounding for the study. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Ghana with a total of 20 participants (16 males and 4 females). Interviews were audio-taped, with permission of the participants. A convenience sampling method was used, and all 20 participants were recruited via initial personal visits by the researcher and subsequent follow-up visits and phone call. Interviews were transcribed via thematic analysis. The views of participants were organized into four major themes: relevance of CSR (business ethics) to local employees; local employees’ attitude towards firms’ (un)ethical behaviour; educating managers and employees of foreign-owned companies; and attractiveness of company and ability to draw resources. Findings: Our interpretive research in the Ghanaian context suggests that most of the participants appreciate the salient role of cooperation between companies and traditional authorities in identifying and resolving potential tension that could evolve out of non-compliance with local socio-cultural values and belief systems. In respect to this, the findings from the present study reinforce the insights of Kjonstad and Willmott (1995) that reliance on rule-based approaches to business ethics is deficient, as it has been found to be ineffective or at best, less ‘empowering’ when it comes to influencing organizations in their ethical behaviour. The findings further suggest that inadequate information about local customs, values and belief systems, partly explains the seeming ‘irresponsible’ posture of foreign-owned companies towards aspects of local socio-cultural values and belief systems. Thus, as scanty information is available to the companies and their managers, few are able to either integrate them into their core CSR practices and/or encourage employees to uphold them in their processes. Research limitations/implications: Findings are based on a single-country investigation. This limitation, combined with a relatively small sample size (20 participants, across firms that belong to 6 industry-groupings), may have implications that the results might not be readily generalizable. Moreover, as the present study employed an interpretive methodological approach, the findings could have been impacted by self-evaluation (i.e., self-narratives from participants), resulting in socio-cultural preferences and response biases, on the part of the participants. Practical implications: Although results of this study is based on single-country (Ghana) study, given similarities in socio-cultural characteristics across developing-countries, this study is likely to have wider relevance and applicability in developing-countries, as a whole. Originality/value: The present study explored relatively unexplored ground by investigating the perceptions of local employees regarding MNE subsidiaries’ attitudes in relation to local customs, values, and belief systems, prevalent in the settings in which companies operate. Most importantly, these initial attempts at exploring the perceptions of local employees regarding MNE subsidiaries’ attitudes in relation to local customs, values, and belief systems, can hopefully be further explored and validated through future research directed at this topic. © www.iiste.org

Purpose – The objective of the present study is to investigate opportunities for integrating innovation and CSR in the context of firms’ activities. This is explored by investigating the extent to which innovation may complement CSR activities of MNE subsidiaries in developing-countries.

Method/approach – This paper employs literature study to describe how innovation complements CSR in the search for competitiveness at the level of the firm. In doing so, the competitiveness of firms, which is often driven by the demands for responsible behaviour and innovativeness, is derived from studying the extant literature. By drawing from multiple theoretical lenses (i.e., legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, CSR literature, firms’ reputation, and innovativeness), we aim at evaluating their collective impact on firms’ competitiveness.

Findings - The model suggests that firm’s contextual capabilities (e.g. legitimacy, innovation, and stakeholders) can define its CSR activities (e.g. CSR ethical, CSR social, and CSR environmental). The cumulative effects of these, define firm’s reputation, which eventually, produces firm’s own competitiveness. The study has argued that there is more to firms’ stakeholders than ordinary resources required in furtherance of firms’ economic objectives. It therefore follows that stakeholders’ potential to constitute a pool of resources and capabilities that the firm can blend with to realize its strategic objectives ought to be stressed. Consequently, markets and for that matter firms, are subject to CSR and innovation demands through, for example, more socially responsible productive behaviour. This requires that MNE subsidiaries in developing-countries connect different strategies towards improving their own competitiveness. This may be accomplished through, re-packaging CSR into bundles of interrelated activities, collaborating with stakeholders to jointly create and deliver social and economic values, and integrating CSR into productive activities that may lead to bundles of products to suit local market conditions.

© www.iiste.org

Companies often build an innovation strategy that is mostly reliant on internal knowledge and resources. This can lead to failure to meet customer needs (von Hippel 1986). By interacting with customers, companies can obtain crucial information and have the opportunity to involve customers in innovation and product development processes (Füller and Matzler 2007; Hadjikhani and Bengtson 2004; Laursen 2011; von Hippel 2009).

Marine energy technologies can contribute to meeting sustainability challenges, but they are still immature and dependent on public support. This paper employs the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework to analyze the development and diffusion of Swedish marine energy up until 2014. While there were promising device developers, relevant industrial capabilities, and world-class research, the system suffered from weaknesses in several important innovation processes. Finally, the analysis identifies the lack of informed political direction as a critical blocking factor and highlights its connection to domestic market potential. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

Implementation of BIM in the construction industry relies on sufficient knowledge and skills about BIM in order to gain momentum and success. Thorough understanding of the possibilities as well as challenges related to the application of BIM constitutes essential drivers for the adoption of BIM among all the industry actors throughout the construction process. Thus, there is a need for supply of knowledge and skills about BIM and its implications on the organisation, communication, management, business models etc. in construction. Accordingly, universities play an important role as a knowledge and skills supplier that helps to provide the necessary conditions for the implementation of BIM in the construction industry. This study investigates how the curricula of engineering and architectural teaching programs at Swedish universities and university colleges have responded to the apparent and increasing demand for BIM competences in industry. The study relies on a survey of 10 universities and 8 university colleges that provide engineering and architectural teaching programs at a master’s and/or a bachelor’s level. The findings show that bachelor’s engineering programs at university colleges generally have adopted BIM into the curricula to a somewhat larger extent compared to engineering programs at a master’s level. The BIM-adoption in architectural programs is, however, significantly limited. Further, the degree of BIM-adoption differs significantly between the respective teaching programs. Only few universities have adopted BIM as an integrated subject in courses that deal with general construction related issues. The predominant approach is to implement BIM-subjects as discrete teaching modules, i.e. stand-alone courses, rather than as a cross disciplinary aspect implemented in a number of the existing courses. Besides, a considerate mismatch is identified between the technical characteristics of the BIM curricula at universities and the process-oriented approach to BIM represented by the industry. Thus, the universities would benefit from a closer collaboration with the industry in BIM-related matters and they need to take on a strategic approach to BIM at an overall university or program level in order to avoid isolated BIM initiatives at a single course level.

Recent studies depict the general need to increase and improve innovation in the construction industry. Innovation processes are traditionally described and analysed either on a macro level or a micro level. Production in construction is basically project oriented, as opposed to manufacturing industries for which most of these theories are developed. It is not fully sufficient to study innovation from a micro or a macro level due to the effects of the project orientation and the large number of actors in the construction industry. The objective of this paper is to present a model of the construction innovation systems from a sector systems approach. The study rests upon findings in the area of innovation systems in general and construction innovation systems in particular on one hand and construction sector systems analysis on the other. This paper presents arguments for the development of activity based innovation systems at a construction sector level.

This study was conducted to explore the external sources of knowledge that are present around the eco-innovation firms. Our study has focused on eco-innovations with the aim  to find sustainable solutions, leading the reduction in greenhouse gases, on the extraction of renewable energy sources, since studies have indicated a link between the industrialization and the impact on the climate. 

The purpose formulated for this study was to explore the external sources of knowledge that are present around the eco-innovation firms. By conducting this exploratory study we will contribute to existing research by adding empirical evidence to identifying what the external sources of knowledge are and further explore what kind of knowledge eco-innovation firms gain from these external sources. The participating companies in the study was chosen since they represent Swedish firms in the development of eco-innovations with the goal to minimize the environmental impact. 

We conducted the thesis with a qualitative approach and the empirical data was gathered from four different companies in the field of wave and tidal power. The four interviews were executed through telephone interviews with both the researches acting as interviewers. The respondents were either the CEO of the company or a board member, since these persons were most likely to possess the relevant information for this study. 

In our study we have found the external sources of knowledge to be of significant importance to the eco-innovation firms. Based on our theoretical framework, we have identified the external assets as suppliers, customers, competitors, governmental actors and research institutions. These external sources have different importance depending on the character of the knowledge that is gained. The external sources showed to contribute with important knowledge in areas of R&D capabilities, technology development, market orientation and regulation. By assessing the external sources of knowledge firms will unlock great potential knowledge that would otherwise be very costly. A conclusion was that as eco-innovation firms acquire knowledge by their external assets in parallel there are signals, unconsciously communicated going out to the external environment. Since our study has shown that academic experience among the founders seemed to have been helping the firms in their contact with governmental actors in order to attract subsidies and in the approval process for test sites, this indicates that what seems to be communicated from within the eco-innovation firms to their external environment is certain legitimacy, credibility and reputation that strengthen the relationship with governmental actors.

This study was performed as a multiple case study on four different eco-innovation firms working with development of technology to extract energy from renewable energy sources in terms of wave and tidal power. Our choice to only interview one person on each firm, due to a limited time frame and resources, might make it hard to generalize the findings since there is a possibility of biased data. Other limitations that make it hard to draw to much from the results are the fact of focusing on a limited area on eco-innovation in only one country, since regulations play an important role this might differ between different countries.

This article is an argument in favour of the importance of having different perspectives for different situations in marketing. Since the 1990s, relationship marketing has become an accepted stream in marketing research. However, this type of marketing consists of many different perspectives. Here, the network approach is covered. Its origin and its divergence from the mainstream marketing mix approach are discussed. It is concluded that Swedish culture and context influenced the development of the network approach. However, the network view is not pertinent to all marketing situations in Sweden and the approach is also useful outside of the Swedish context. Finally, it is argued that marketing research should benefit from many different perspectives and approaches that could be applicable to different marketing situations.

The aim of this book is to provide a wider perspective of the marketing field, particularly at a time when the field of marketing is expanding and developing in new and different directions. Unlike the more traditional literature, this book affords a deeper insight into the new marketing avenues of services marketing, business-to-business marketing and relationship marketing. Several other relevant marketing-related areas are also presented.

An international team of distinguished authors contribute their expertise, which provides a comprehensive overview of recent marketing developments. (Från förlaget)

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of a born global firm’s early internationalization process and the entrepreneur’s decisions regarding internationalization by using effectuation theory.

Design/methodology/approach

An explorative case study is used to explore if effectuation theory is a fruitful alternative perspective compared with the dominant paradigm (causation), which is primarily used in earlier studies on born globals.

Findings

The study shows how a born global company could enter many markets in short time, by co-operating with local network partners. The founders’ prior knowledge and networks were important to understand the rapid international expansion. Effectuation theory focuses on the entrepreneurs’ ability to create opportunities together with network partners and is a useful tool to understand the development in the born global firm.

Research limitations/implications

The study shows that effectuation theory holds promise for developing the international entrepreneurship area. Future research is recommended to focus not only on the entrepreneur’s competencies but also on the entrepreneur’s behaviour, including during the time before they started the firm.

Practical implications

Decision-makers in the early development of born global firms are recommended to use his/her own and his/her company’s resources and network. Also advantage should be taken of opportunities when they are recognized or created, instead of focusing on traditional planning activities.

Originality/value

There are few studies which have used effectuation theory as a basis for understanding the early development of a born global firm.

Vad utmärker det växande företaget? Vilken betydelse har entreprenören för det växande företaget? Dessa och många andra frågor besvaras i denna bok.

Vad utmärker det växande företaget? Varför växer vissa företag medan andra stagnerar eller rent av minskar i storlek? Vilken betydelse har entreprenören för det växande företaget? Agerar växande företag på ett sätt som skiljer dem från andra företag? Använder växande företag speciella strategier och organisationsformer? I vilka miljöer växer företag? Ovanstående frågor – och många andra – besvaras i den här boken.

Den vänder sig till studenter, praktiker och beslutsfattare som är intresserade av att fördjupa sina kunskaper om växande företag och hur de fungerar. Boken bygger på författarens forskning om svenska snabbväxande företag, och de teoretiska diskussionerna illustreras med exempel från svenska företag.