The paper reports an interview-based study that considers market driving and market-driven activities within the disaggregated components of the business model. The empirical study is of IKEA in China over a 10 year period. Market orientation is considered as a position on a continuum rather than as binary positions. The components of the business model are developed from the Osterwalder and Pigneur structure. Over the study period, the balance between driven and driving orientations within components of the business model changed in multiple ways. This article's contribution is the illustration of disaggregating the market orientations of driven or driving activities and associating these with the particular components of the business model and so studying what happens to the driven-driving balance over time. The approach has wider applicability for attempts to understand the dynamics of international retailing.

Purpose – The study aims to explore how concept stores (theoretically) differ from other experience-based retail formats, and hence, how they (practically) contribute to a diversified retail store portfolio. Design/methodology/approach – Case study based on semi-structured, qualitative interviews with seven IKEA retail managers, three industry experts and 26 customers of IKEA concept stores in London and Stockholm. Findings – The concept store represents a conceptual departure from other experiential store formats. It is neither fully experiential in the sense that it is not only about marketing communications nor is it sales or profit focused. Its aim is to be an accessible touchpoint that reduces friction on a diversified customer journey with its value to the retail portfolio being that it attracts new and latent customers, mitigates existing inhibiting factors and drives them to other touchpoints. Research limitations/implications – Ideas about the different characteristics of new store formats and their potential to shape the customer experience are extended. New formats reflect innovation in retailing and are part of a retail portfolio which generates different customer expectations and determinants from traditional store formats which provide the customers’ existing reference point. Practical implications – The contributions of new formats should be evaluated in light of other existingformats in the portfolio and not isolated. This is particularly true when considering format cannibalisation and the potentially extended customer journey that arises when customers use traditional format stores and new concept format stores simultaneously. Originality/value – Previous research, using sales metrics and market-based results as performance determinants, suggests negative outcomes for format diversification. Our study suggests that the contributions of the concept store format should be viewed from an overall customer journey perspective and the “performance” of different format based touchpoints are not best captured through traditional sales evaluation methods.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a retailer’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and image influence consumer perceptions regarding the firm’s social responsibility, and how CSR aspects influence consumers buying decisions in store for a specific product.

Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case study method is used, including interviews, document studies and observations. The CSR approach of a Swedish retailer is investigated at corporate level and in the store, and how this interacts with the views of consumers as they make decisions regarding the purchase of a disposable product.

Findings – The authors propose the concept CSR identity to capture the internal efforts and positioning that a retailer attempts to achieve. Store activities and external independent stakeholders will have a main influence on whether the identity is regarded as credible by consumers. Furthermore, factors such as self-image and influences from the social network will influence whether a consumer will be committed to prioritize CSR aspects in the store.

Practical implications – Gaps between the retailer and the consumer perspective on CSR, particularly relevant for disposable, low-involvement products are identified. It is critical for retailers to be aware of and address these gaps.Originality/value – The study captures corporate level, store level and consumer behaviour for a single retailer and is able to reflect upon how specific activities from the retailer interact with consumer attitudes and activities in the store. The authors connect various streams of research on CSR andretailing into one consistent framework.

The aim of this study is to further explore (a) the extent to which retailers deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) best practices to ensure social and environmental sustainability in international supplier relationships and (b) the association between firm characteristics and the retailers' CSR activities in the supply chain. As a first step, the study identifies eight best practices based on earlier research and the authors' qualitative studies of IKEA. As a second step, a survey of Swedish retailers was conducted. The results of the study suggest that a significant amount of the actors in the Swedish retail sector do not follow the majority of best practice as outlined and discussed in this study. Furthermore, it is found that sector belonging has a considerable impact on the extent that a retailer follows best practice, while firm size and internationalization experience also have a significant, albeit limited, impact on retailer behavior.

Purpose – The purpose is to explore the different and often contradictory perceptions individual managershave about corporate sustainability within a global retailer.

Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case study method is used, including interviews anddocument studies. The authors study the global retailer IKEA. In total the authors have interviewed respondents on both the global level and the country level, within the sustainability organization as well ascorporate, sales and communication management. The study includes managers in Sweden, the UK andGermany.

Findings – The research is based on institutional theory, focusing upon cognitive and normative aspects; theauthors propose that managers may have a proactive, forceful view on sustainability or a reactive view. These need to coexist. The authors also show how global retailers can balance sustainability goals with otherbusiness considerations, as well as about the implications of the sustainability approach for the retailer’sbusiness model.

Practical implications – Retail managers need to recognize and integrate the contradictory views onsustainability that managers hold. The authors show how sustainability can be given different impactdepending on the context and the strategic issue it is linked to.

Originality/value – Most studies have focused on how sustainability is managed on an organizational leveland how different goals can co-exist. The authors’ focus is on individual managers and their perceptions ofsustainability – what it includes, how they want to manage sustainability issues, and the priority it shouldbe given.

Utan tvivel är man inte riktigt klok är ett bevingat uttryck som visar att kritiskt tänkande är drivkraften för en hållbar samhällsutveckling. Att öka förmågan till kritisk analys är därför ett centralt mål för all utbildning från förskola till universitet. Men hur gör man egentligen för att tänka kritiskt? Boken visar hur nya idéer skapas och prövas. Den digitala informationen och den globala rörligheten ökar vår förmåga att skapa nya lösningar, samtidigt som vår sårbarhet blottas. Boken reflekterar över olika situationer för problemlösning och beslut. Den presenterar tio praktiska verktyg för tillämpning av kritiskt tänkande. Checklistor och fördjupningsuppgifter ger dessutom möjlighet till diskussion i aktuella samhällsfrågor - för exempelvis lärare, journalister, jurister, socionomer, läkare, poliser och ekonomer.Förmågan till kritisk tänkande kräver tid att mogna, varför boken passar utmärkt som följeslagare från början av en högskoleutbildning fram till det avslutande examensarbetet. Den tredje upplagan av denna uppskattade bok har fått nya avsnitt om etisk prövning, norm-, bild-, statistik-, begrepps- och diskurskritik.

The rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has raised both practical and theoretical concerns. Managers face dilemmas such as when and how to invest in new technology and software. Academically, the debate is whether or not hardware changes have any significant impact on fundamental business behaviour. This article presents empirical evidence from the study of 13 Swedish SMEs during the period 1999-2004. Despite the fact that all the firms had decided to take one, long digital leap at the outset of the study in 1999, only one had actually done so five years later. We find that ICT-related changes have had a very slow impact on the SMEs, although they act within a well-developed ICT context. Contrary to some recent research suggestions, we find a step-wise model of development beneficial to both the study and adoption by SMEs of e-commerce.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore small business e-commerce development and usage of the emerging ICT-infrastructure for e-commerce in Sweden. For more than a decade firms in countries with appropriate infrastructures in place have generally been able to exploit internet technologies for business purposes.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the results from a telephone survey on Swedish small businesses. The 160 firms surveyed were independent manufacturing firms in Sweden with a number of employees ranging from ten to 50 and a turnover not surpassing e 10 million. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS.

Findings: The paper presents empirical data on e-commerce development among small businesses in Sweden. The study shows that a significant share of the studied firms have adopted internet technologies, but also that more than 70 per cent of the small businesses in the study have more than five years of experience of e-commerce. The study finds that small businesses in Sweden show remarkably high levels of e-commerce adoption. The study shows strong penetration of web site and e-mail use among small businesses in Sweden, but also that advanced applications are still not broadly applied.

Originality/value: Statistics presented by the OECD have recurrently shown that the Scandinavian countries are in the lead as regards building an ICT infrastructure. Sweden’s leading position in ICT has been confirmed by several studies. Because of scarce resources and lack of knowledge, small businesses are generally known to be lagging in terms of ICT use. This study empirically explores small business e-commerce development in Sweden and contributes to the stream of research aiming at benchmarking e-commerce development

Den här rapporten analyserar bedömningsprocessen och bedömningskriterier i tillsättningsärenden av universitetslektorer vid Ekonomihögskolan vid Lunds universitet med särskilt fokus på sju tillsättningsärenden av universitetslektorer vid den Företagsekonomiska institutionen. Rapporten gör en genomgång av regelverket och lokala föreskrifter kring tillsättningar av universitetslektorer samt hur man på myndighetsnivå och på fakultetsnivå arbetar med jämställdhets- och mångfaldsperspektivet i tillsättningsprocesser. Syftet med rapporten är att identifiera förbättringsområden i rekryteringsprocessen ur ett jämställdhets- och mångfaldsperspektiv. Min slutsats är att fakulteten har identifierat märkbara brister i jämställdhet och mångfald bland de anställda och att man utifrån detta satt sig för att arbeta med aktiva jämställdhetsmål och aktiv rekrytering, men att man trots märkbara brister ändå vidmakthåller meritokratiska bedömningskriterier i bedömningsprocessen och att akademins formuleringar kring strävan att uppnå jämställdhet och mångfald inte har fått något nämnvärt genomslag i bedömningskriterierna.Stäng

On different levels and with different strategic importance, business managers face technology decisions every day. These decisions concern not only which technologies to use, but also which ones not to use. Technology is a strategic issue in business in the sense that decisions to reject or adopt a specific type of technology, at either firm or industry level, can in the long run have an impact on the ability to develop and fulfill market needs. The purpose of this thesis is to empirically explore information and communications technology (ICT) adoption in an industrial context in order to challenge prevalent conceptualizations of adoption. The thesis proposes that ICT adoption in an industrial context needs to be understood and evaluated through a processual and longitudinal approach. The thesis specifically concerns organizational level adoption (cf. individual/user level adoption) of ICT applications for processual support (cf. manufacturing technology or product technology) in an industrial marketing context (cf. consumer marketing context). Through an empirical exploration of five cases of ICT adoption processes found in the Swedish Automobile industry, this thesis presents a view on adoption as interaction that is different from prevalent conceptualizations within the field.The empirical material was collected through in-depth interviews with key actors in the five adoption processes and observations made over time in the adoption processes under study. The study has a focus on capturing rich descriptions concerning five entities constituting a conceptualization of adoption: object of adoption, subject of adoption, process of adoption, outcome of adoption and context of adoption. The thesis contributes with an alternative view on adoption in the industrial setting with a focus on adoption as a process of interaction. Through an exploration of my empirical materials, I challenge prevalent conceptualizations of adoption. I conclude that given the embedded and organic nature of the adoption process, it is necessary to approach adoption as a process of interaction. For the presented conceptualization and given the industrial context, this thesis asserts that the object of adoption technology is to be viewed as an open solution (cf. given product), that the subject of adoption is to be viewed as something ongoing between and within an actor (cf. adoption as a single-firm issue), that the process of adoption is to be viewed as an ongoing process of interaction (cf. linear), that the context of adoption is to be viewed as embedded interaction and context as part of the process (cf. context as ‘out there’), and that the outcome is to be discussed in terms of status (cf. binary).

This special issue of the International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research brings together six selected papers presented at the 6th Nordic Retail and Wholesale Conference (NRWC) held in Reykjavik in November 2018 and hosted by the Icelandic Centre for Retail Studies and the Institute of Economic Studies, University of Iceland, with organizational support from the Centre for Retail Research at Lund University, Sweden. The conference was financially supported by the Hakon Swenson Foundation and the Swedish Retail and Wholesale Council. The aim of the NRWC is to create a forum where Nordic researchers can exchange experiences, promote scientific development and inspire or initiate new research. Although the aim of the conference is to gather researchers from the Nordic countries, NRWC 2018 also attracted a number of participants from countries outside the Nordics. In total, the conference attracted around 100 researchers and practitioners. Prior to the main conference, a doctoral colloquium was held that attracted 18 doctoral students from the Nordic countries. Around 20 full papers were submitted for evaluation before the conference and 16 full papers were presented at the conference after a double-blind review process. For the special issue, and based on the outcome from the review process, the authors of six full papers were invited to submit revised manuscripts. The papers selected for this special issue concern many different aspects of retailing and retail management – representing the broad scope of the field in terms of both research topics and research methods. The article by Olsson, Bantigan Paredes, Johansson, Olander and Ritzén focuses on the organizational climate for innovation and creativity in Swedish retail organizations. The paper notes that innovation and innovativeness in retailing is an understudied topic and presents a comprehensive empirical study, based on a mixed-method approach. The study contributes insights into the conditions for retail innovation and finds that retail organizations are still struggling to incorporate innovation on the strategic level. The next two articles reflect, in their respective ways, the increasing digitalization of retail and the growth of e-commerce. In the second article, Ortlinghaus, Zielke and Dobbelstein focus on the impact of risk perceptions on the attitude toward various types of multichannel practices. The study contributes to the field by providing normative advice on how to improve consumer’s attitudes toward selected multichannel technologies by influencing their perceptions of different risk dimensions. This paper was awarded best paper at the 6th Nordic Retail and Wholesale Conference by the Hakon Swenson Foundation and the Swedish Retail and Wholesale Council for its practical relevance. In the third paper, Kolesova and Singh aim to shed light on how grocery retail should depict products online. The main finding in this paper is that visually complex images, i.e. images with many products instead of one, have a negative effect onTHE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF RETAIL, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMER RESEARCH 2019, VOL. 29, NO. 3, 241–242 https://doi.org/10.1080/09593969.2019.1598468© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.affective and cognitive states, resulting in decreased behavioral intentions in the online context. The next two articles reflect the pivotal role of distribution and logistics in retailing. In the fourth paper, Vukalenko, Shams, Hellström and Hjort seek to uncover the role of last mile delivery in online retailing and present a paper that bridges the fields of retail marketing and retail logistics. The findings support the assertion that last mile delivery experience mediates the relationship between customer’s perception of the online shopping experience and customer satisfaction. In the fifth paper, Haag, Sallnäs and Sandberg present a multiple case study that focuses on how supply-chain-oriented capabilities facilitate in the internationalization processes of retail operations. This paper is based on an empirical study of three Swedish retail companies and introduces a framework of three supply-chain-oriented capabilities present in the internationalization process: leadership, integration and learning. In the sixth and final paper of this special issue, Söderlund focuses on loyalty programs and how labeling customers as ‘members’ can influence the customers’ sense of belonging and satisfaction. The paper, constructed by two connected studies, finds that customers visiting a store as members of a loyalty program responded with higher levels of a sense of belonging and higher levels of customer satisfaction than non-members, even if there were no particular belonging-related benefits. All in their own respective ways, the papers in this special issue reflect the ongoing changes in the retail landscape. In the age of online retailing, retailers need to adjust to a changing customer journey, and we need to better understand the conditions of the online environment. As new business models and new retail actors emerge, the traditional retail model needs to adapt. Traditional retail needs to find new innovative ways to stay relevant and to provide a customer experience that creates a competitive edge. The dynamic and insightful discussions at the 6th NRWC gives me a good reason to be hopeful that the Nordic landscape of retail research will continue to grow and produce research that is relevant for both practice and fellow retail research colleagues. The next NRWC conference will be held at the beginning of 2020 hosted by Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics, Sweden.

Companies are becoming more and more aware of the competitive advantage that can be realised through effective sourcing. The trend towards more outsourcing and effective supply chain management shows the importance of advanced purchasing management. This book, by leading experts in the field, covers a wide range of purchasing topics by focusing on the change processes involved in creating competitive advantage.

This paper explores and extends the concept of transparency, as transparency-related terminology in marketing management research is limited in its typological development. Building on previous research, it outlines four types of transparency and extends them by adding three related facets. The four types are: cost transparency, supply transparency, organizational transparency and technological transparency. The expanded concept of transparency is discussed and analyzed using four illustrations, based on case studies conducted at two focal firms in the Swedish manufacturing industry. The study contributes to the field of marketing management research by showing the interrelatedness of information technology exploitation, trust and transparency. In addition, the study highlights the dynamic aspects of the transparency concept. In contrast to results of former studies, the present findings indicate that increased transparency in buyer–supplier relationships brings about not only positive, but also some negative effects.

The purpose of this research is to explore how a stakeholder interaction perspective can add to the understanding of the dynamics of the process of corporate social responsibility (CSR) development in retail buyer–supplier relationships. Firstly, we find that interaction with suppliers and other stakeholders seems to have a pivotal role in the development towards sustainable retail supply chains. Secondly, and by addressing the phases of initiation, implementation and maturation of CSR development, we find that the role and intensity of interaction in stakeholder interaction changes over time and that the salience of particular stakeholders can be pivotal in the phases of the process of CSR development. Thirdly, we find that there is not necessarily one active and one passive party in the stakeholder interaction. Although suppliers in developing countries are typically asked to follow codes of conducts of retailers, suppliers are also acting and taking initiatives, and organizing themselves to better meet the demands on CSR.

By applying a resource-based view on SME development and analysing empirical data collected from qualitative and longitudinal research on e-commerce development among 20 Swedish SMEs, the authors identify and discuss the post-adoption decision dilemmas – or Balancing Acts – faced by managers. The study contributes to the existing literature on SME e-commerce development by suggesting that SME management faces three major decision dilemmas: e-commerce capacity and competence development, e-commerce scope and e-commerce development drive. By outlining a set of managerial aspects of e-commerce development, we point out the contextual and resource dependence of SME management.

Handelsbranschen står inför omfattande utmaningar och möjligheter som kan – och kommer – att förändra verksamheten i grunden. En av dessa genomgripande förändringar är handelns digitalisering och dess konsekvenser för detaljhandelns styrning och utveckling av multikanalserbjudanden. Från en situation där kunder och handel primärt tänker fysisk butik, till en situation där handel via internet präglar det mesta som händer; från hur kunder handlar till hur företagen tänker strategiskt på sitt erbjudande. Det är en lång resa som långtifrån är färdig och som hänger samman med digitaliseringen av samhället i stort, big data och andra möjligheter (och utmaningar) som den tekniska utvecklingen innebär.

Denna utveckling är mångfacetterad och det är viktigt att belysa den ur flera perspektiv. Centrum för handelsforsknings verksamhet är unik i den bemärkelse att vi i samtliga forskningsprogram arbetar tvärvetenskapligt där forskare från alla de discipliner som är representerade i Centrum finns med i varje forskningsprogram. Detta garanterar en mångsidig belysning av de forskningsproblem som vi tar oss an. Under 2014–2015 har vi drivit forskningsprogrammen E-handel och Kunniga kunder. Därefter startade vi programmen Retail destination och Retail innovation.

I denna skrift sammanfattas forskningsresultaten från forskningsprogrammet E-handel. Programchef för E-handel har Jens Hultman varit. Deltagande forskare i programmet har varit Klas Hjort, Veronika Tarnovskaya, Ulf Johansson och Christian Fuentes. Under 2014 och 2015 (och även 2016) har resultat från programmet presenterats i olika sammanhang. De har presenterats vid forskningsseminarier och workshops som Centrum har arrangerat, de har presenterats vid vetenskapliga konferenser och vid praktikerkonferenser och de har tidigare också beskrivits i rapporter och vetenskapliga artiklar. Nu presenterar vi resultaten inom ramen för Handelsrådets rapportserie.

This research aims at contributing to the literature on global sourcing and particularly to the literature on global sourcing development over time. Using case study materials on the home furnishing retailer IKEA, this research constitutes a picture of the sourcing landscape of IKEA from the 1950s onward. The case of IKEA's global sourcing development over time is discussed over three dimensions: sourcing market development (where?), sourcing scope development (what?), and sourcing mode development (how?). The results of the study imply that modelling the linkages between the dimensions and the overarching operational principles of the firm provides a more comprehensive view on how, and why, global sourcing development evolves over time.

A changed technological landscape and radically changed consumer behavior are forcing retailers to rethink their business models, retail formats, and retail offerings. The global retailer IKEA is no exception in this development. Recently, the traditional IKEA format, which has been so successfully duplicated across the world over the years, has been complemented with other formats that are new and innovative for IKEA. Based on an empirical investigation of consumer perceptions of the store format development in Hamburg-Altona, Germany, the present study explores format development and its influence on store image and clientele, considering also the purpose of visiting IKEA and how this seems to have changed with the introduction of the new format. We also discuss the core aspects of the IKEA formats, and the fact that although some things have changed, others have stayed the same to preserve the IKEA image.

This study explores the process of global sourcing through a case of the Swedish furnishing retailer IKEA from an interaction perspective. With a point of departure in the streams of existing research on global sourcing and the internationalization process of firms through networks, a research question is proposed concerning supply network interactions as an influence in the global sourcing process. The study uses an in-depth qualitative case study methodology, focusing on IKEA and its development of a supply network for the PAX wardrobe system during the years 2003–2009. The findings draw on 29 interviews in Sweden and China, ranging from interviews with the supply management function of IKEA to interviews with Swedish and Chinese suppliers and sub-suppliers. The findings show that the global sourcing process is influenced by interactions and network effects between supply network actors. In particular, we find that relationships between suppliers were identified and set up by IKEA, but cascaded into deeper interactions amongst suppliers at different supply network tiers. Our study contributes to global sourcing research in indicating the importance of interaction amongst supply network actors, showing how the global sourcing strategy of one actor may significantly influence the sourcing strategies of other actors. Global sourcing decisions therefore need to be understood and coordinated across global supply networks.

Purpose – Using service-based logic as its theoretical lens, this study aims to approach residents’ place satisfaction in a novel way. The purpose is to explore residents’ perception of the place in which they live and to shed new light on their place satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on explorative qualitative focus group research. Data were collected in two typical municipalities in southern Sweden. The sampling procedure was purposive, resulting in six focus groups, consisting of a total of 33 residents. The empirical material was transcribed and analyzed using a structured content analysis inspired by grounded theory.

Findings – A model for understanding residents’ perceptions of what constitutes a good place to live is introduced. The model shows that many value propositions are produced in the provider sphere, independent of the user, for example by the municipality or the business sector. Other value propositions are co-created in a joint sphere, meaning that the user is actively involved in the production of these value propositions. The resident then uses different value propositions to create value-in-use in the resident sphere, independent of theprovider, and to co-create value-in-use in the joint sphere.

Originality/value – The study creates a bridge between the stream of research on place satisfaction andstudies that take stakeholders and co-creation into consideration; it shifts from the prevalent provider perspective on place branding and static place attributes to a focus on the relationship between users and providers.