Christina Öberg

Customer roles in innovations

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and classify the roles of customers in innovations. In literature on innovations, customers have been increasingly emphasised as a source for innovations and also in how they help develop ideas in their early phases. This paper exemplifies various customer roles in innovations through three case studies. These describe the customer as initiator, as co-producer and as inspiration for business development. Through using role theory to discuss customers in innovations, it becomes explicit how customers may play their traditional roles, add roles or transfer to new roles beyond the scope of being a customer. Furthermore, the paper shows that customer roles change during the innovation process from added or transferred towards more traditional ones.

Acquisitions and network identity change

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to discuss whether or not an acquisition changes the network identity of an acquired firm and, if so, how. This study aims to bring new insights to the corpora ...

Customer relationship challenges following international acquisitions

Purpose: An important task following international acquisitions is to coordinate customer relationships; that is, to organise customer interfaces and possibly establish new relationships between cu ...

What Do We Know About Post-Merger Integration Following International Acquisitions?

This chapter presents a review of the state of the art on the topic of knowledge transfer following post-merger integration (PMI) in international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and identifies points of agreement and disagreement, recognizes underexplored areas and provides suggestions on how they could be explored in future studies. The chapter points to the limited amount of literature that describes knowledge transfer following international acquisitions, while highlighting it as an emerging field of research. The knowledge transfer literature mainly refers to innovation and innovation capabilities, while areas such as marketing and customer knowledge are vitally absent in the literature. In any international acquisition, such knowledge transfer would be of fundamental importance, given the acquisition motive to reach new markets or customers. Two case studies on the transfer of knowledge about customers following international acquisitions are provided. The case illustrations point to a focus on knowledge transfer on strategic levels in the post-merger integration following international acquisitions, while the operational sales forces’ transfer of knowledge is largely disregarded in practice. Since much of the tacit knowledge about customers is handled on that level, it needs to be recognized and developed. The chapter indicates that raising the awareness of the transfer of knowledge about customers following international acquisitions is important from a practitioner’s as well as a research point of view.

Building a new supply chain position: an exploratory study of companies in the timber housing industry

Innovation is an important source of growth for many companies. It is also challenging, as it may require that the companies build a new position in the supply chain. The literature is devoid of analysis of different ways to build such positions in the construction industry. The purpose here is to explore the challenges involved in implementing innovations that require companies to establish new positions in a construction supply chain. Three in‐depth case studies in the Swedish timber housing industry illustrate different challenges that arise with the different modes of repositioning of organic growth, collaboration and acquisition, and with moving either backward or forward in the supply chain. Organic growth is a slow process that prevents companies from taking a first‐mover advantage. Acquisitions can involve difficulties with exploiting acquired competences. Collaboration brings the risks of diversity of interests and transient solutions. Furthermore, and as shown in the cases studied, challenges are associated with pre‐existing competencies and relationships, with technology‐oriented companies facing customer‐related difficulties and market‐oriented companies mainly facing ones involving technological solutions. The construction industry’s idiosyncrasies amplify these challenges, as its fragmentation makes it difficult to connect with external companies at new positions. Stronger ties with business partners are likely to enable construction companies to exploit more easily innovations that require repositioning in the supply chain.

How smart cities will change supply chain management: a technical viewpoint

Abstract Smart city initiatives could be expected to radically change the ways businesses are organised. This paper is a first step to understand the role of smart cities in supply chain management, with a specific focus on supplier networks. In this paper, the following question is posed: How will smart cities change supply chain management? Further, a conceptual framework for understanding the important factors that appear to affect the integration of smart city initiatives in the supply chain is developed. Additionally, examples are collected that illustrate the interplay of smart city initiatives with supply chain management. Ultimately, the objective is to identify the key elements driving integration and their influence on supply chain management, as well as provide insights on productive methods for developing, introducing and managing smart city innovation.

Customer roles in mergers and acquisitions: A systematic literature review

Customers are important stakeholders for any company; yet, they seem not to be widely discussed in merger and acquisition research. This chapter synthesizes the current body of research on customers in mergers and acquisitions through presenting a systematic literature review. The chapter is based on a systematic literature review resulting from a search in EBSCO Host for any research item that refers to “customer” and “consolidation or merger of corporation.” All articles were coded to specify how customers are described, with a focus on whether customers are expected to affect and/or be affected by the merger or acquisition. Articles were compared with regard to their year of issue and research disciplines of publishing journals. The review indicates how customers continue to be discussed only to limited extent. The customer roles array from them as an acquirable customer base to customers as actors, whose activities become the very reason to merge or acquire. Literature also refers to them as victims and affected by the merger or acquisition, and reacting parties. In addition to the description of welfare transfer from consumers to acquirers in law and economics studies, the different ways of referring to customers extend beyond specific research disciplines. The literature review indicates more multifaceted ways of describing customers in recent research. No systematic literature review on customers in merger and acquisition literature has previously been conducted. The comparison of research disciplines, years of issue, and customer roles provides new insights into developments in the merger and acquisition field of research.

The core-customer concept

The purpose of this paper is to define and discuss the core-customer concept. This concept examines how a company develops its operations around a single or only a few customers. The customer steers what products and services the supplier develops, which means that it is the customer that dictates the suppliers operations. The core-customer concept may be one method for designing a companys operations, but the paper also aims to challenge companies to consider how they think about customers. The paper contributes to research on customer value and extended service offerings by indicating a business-development strategy based on the customer rather than the suppliers operations. Building a company around a single customer, requires flexibility and competences in finding collaboration partners or in adjusting the organisation to new requirements. The paper refers to these as secondary/supporting competences, while the core competence upon which the company builds its operation is the customer.

Do competition authorities consider business relationships

Purpose: Companies engage in business relationships for a variety of reasons, including specialization, product development, and building competitive networks. Research has demonstrated that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) may challenge ongoing business relationships. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether and how competition authorities consider business relationships when evaluating M&As. Methodology: The article uses the documentation from 450 M&As reported to the Swedish competition authority to capture the way in which an authority evaluates M&As. The Swedish competition authority evaluation corresponds to other national and international evaluation procedures. Findings: The findings indicate that the competition authorities neglect an important aspect of business life, namely companies forming business relationships. The competition authorities evaluate M&As on the basis of risk for price increases, and consequently disregard such issues as heterogeneity in demand and offerings, and values built into existing business relationships. Originality/Value/Contribution: The article contributes to research on business relationships through exploring how a public authority deals with such relationships. It also contributes to research on mergers and acquisitions through examining how these activities are evaluated by competition authorities. Furthermore, the article contributes to competition research by reflecting on competition law concerning M&A regulations in relation to business relationships.

Acquiring once, acquiring twice - Lessons learned from repeated acquisitions of innovative firms

This paper describes and discusses learning in repeated acquisitions of innovative firms. Researchers have pointed to how companies may improve performance through conducting repeated acquisitions, while they have not previously focused on repeated acquisitions of innovative firms. Findings of this present study are summarised in five learnings: forming a professional organisation that deals with acquisitions; acquiring present, ready-for-market innovations rather than innovative capabilities; acquiring complementary rather than diverse innovations; keeping the innovator and disbanding from him/her; and the slow process of integration. The findings indicate risk reductions and decreased diversification foci in later acquisitions. They also pinpoint learning on how to handle acquisitions, not just knowledge related to the acquired party. The paper contributes to research on acquisitions of innovative firms through discussing performance improvements and what expectations to place on acquisitions. It also contributes to the learning literature through providing a case illustration on a company that changed its acquisition strategy based on knowledge accumulated through previous acquisitions.