Helén Anderson

Can You Buy a Business Relationship?: On The Importance of Customer and Supplier Relationships in Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions have become a popular strategy for gaining growth. Studies show, however, high failure rates for acquisitions. Earlier literature concentrates on the strategic or organizat ...

Position and role-conceptualizing dynamics in business networks

The authors propose a deeper and intensified study of dynamics in business networks. They argue that although changeability is often claimed to be an important feature of networks, this characteristic has been somewhat disregarded in research. The authors, addressing in particular the industrial network research, suggest a more elaborate framework for a better understanding of business dynamics as a social process, containing both a stability and a change dimension. Inspired by role theory they introduce the position concept as the stability dimension, and the role concept as the change dimension. In this way, the dynamic nature of the network structure can be elucidated more explicitly. The authors argue that the dynamics in business networks can be further explored by using their suggested position-and-role framework, which is illustrated in two cases, one from the food-distribution industry and one from advertising.

The Consumer's Changing Role : The Case Of Recycling

Purpose – The emerging material flows of recycled goods have effects on roles, responsibilities and positions of a range of industrial actors, but also on the consumer as a part of the industrial recycling process. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the changing role and position of the final‐product customer, the consumer, as recycling is introduced into the supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper, building on theory and concepts from literature on marketing channels, industrial actors and material flows. Those concepts were developed basically for traditional forward material flows, while recycling complicates their application and further development.Findings – Through recycling the consumer is given a new role; as a supplier, however, not as a seller in traditional terms. This new nature of its role complicates the conception of the consumers position, vis‐a‐vis the recycler. It also addresses the consumer seen as an economic entity vis‐a‐vis other actors.Originality...

Recycling calls for Revaluation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop the value concept for recycling contexts.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a conceptual discussion supported by empirical illustrations of value development for recycled paper and electric and electronics products.Findings – Demonstrates the fundamental effects of applying the economic value concept for recycling. Suggests that value can be seen as negative and decreasing, besides positive and increasing. The end customer actually and voluntarily pays in both monetary terms and own work in order to help another actor further along the supply chain to exploit the value created.Research limitations/implications – Any supply chain analysis including recycling must also consider the consumption of value. Traditional models and concepts are based on the end customer as the endpoint. In striving for a societal development towards “closing the circles” this more holistic understanding of value development becomes crucial.Practical implications – Recyclin...

The Project as an Arena for Innovation : Images of projects and their implications

In this chapter we suggest that images of a project have implications for the innovative activities performed within a multi-project organisation, images that we as individuals hold which are the means through which we construct our reality. Technological development can range from continuous improvement to radical innovations and in between these there are development activities that deal with known core products and processes with the ambition to prolong commercial lifetime. These latter technological activities performed within projects need, in our view, special attention because of the balance between the required creativity and control. We approach the problem with a case and use different images of projects as our analytical tool.

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.

Innovation Through Interaction for Bathroom Suppliers

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 (Fuller and Matzler 2007; Hadjikhani and Bengtson 2004; Laursen 2011; von Hippel 2009).

Handling innovations which do not fit

The concepts incremental, modular, architectural and radical innovations introduced by Henderson and Clark (1990) highlights the interdependence between innovation and organizations. Competition forces the established competing firms to create efficient organizations for producing and developing products. Organizations will organize around the products main components, since they are the key subtask of the design and production problem [H. Mintzberg, 1997]. Architectural and radical innovations representing new and different products are difficult to handle for established organizations because there is a misfit between the new innovation and the established organization. The organization thus works as a strong conserving force for innovations that require changes in product design. And, as a consequence the innovative capability is not nourished.