Academic literature on the topic 'Business values'

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical framework to examine business purchase decisions using the concept of “values” (personal values (PV), organizational values (OV) and values-congruency). Design/methodology/approach The data for the study were collected from members of the Supply Chain Management Association of Canada. The relationships between perceived PV/OV/ values-congruency (IVs) and perceived role values played in business purchase decisions (DV) were hypothesized. Three factors, namely, humanity, bottomline and convention were identified using exploratory factor analysis. The hypotheses were tested using polynomial regression, which is a preferred method for measuring congruency or fit (Edwards, 1994). Findings Perceived humanity (humaneness or benevolence) values of an organization were found to have a positive relationship with the perceived role that humanity and convention (risk aversion or compliance) values played in business purchase decisions. Perceived purchase function formalization within buying organizations was also found to have a positive relationship with the perceived role of humanity, bottomline and convention values played in business purchase decisions. Research limitations/implications The study drew a relatively small convenience sample from a single industry association/country with a low response rate. It used the perceived role of values instead of behavioral intention or actual behavior to measure business purchasing behavior. McDonald and Gandz’s (1991; 1993) list of values may be more suitable to measure OV than PV. The study only considered the buyer side of purchase decisions and values to have positive characteristics. Practical implications Buying organizations may consider formalizing their purchase functions, clarifying their humaneness/benevolence and risk aversion/compliance values to their employees and vendors and incorporating them in the purchasing criteria/process. Similarly, selling organizations may benefit from considering these values of customers to position their products and services for better sales outcomes and business relationships. Originality/value The study explores the role of values in business purchase contexts by proposing and testing a theoretical framework. The study has implications for practitioners and academics in the field and identifies several areas for future research.

This paper explores the integration and impact of Indigenous cultural values on social, environmental and economic sustainability practices in New Zealand Māori tourism businesses. Utilising a Kaupapa Māori (Māori philosophy) paradigm, 12 respondents from 8 Māori tourism businesses were interviewed. Findings highlight the conscious implementation of indigenous cultural values through consultation processes and their extensive impact on staff, stakeholders, wider community and natural environment through sustainable relationships based on hospitality, unity, belonging and self-determination, in line with the diverse economies framework. We argue that current shifts towards sustainable business practice in tourism reduces the perceived gap between indigenous and Western business approaches.

The Schwartz Values Survey (SVS), developed by Shalom Schwartz, was used to explore the values and value priorities of undergraduate business students in a mid-sized Canadian university. These business students considered family security as their top individual value and ranked successful, healthy, and enjoying life among their top ten individual values. On the other hand, detachment, accepting my portion in life and social power were least valued. They regarded Benevolence and Achievement as their top two value types (cluster of related values), and ranked the higher order meta-value Self-Transcendence first followed by Openness to Change. The accounting and finance majors considered Hedonism as their top priority while the other business majors valued Benevolence most highly; however, overall, there were more similarities than differences between these two groups. When compared with the males, females valued the meta-value Self-Transcendence significantly more and exhibited values and value systems that have more of a social focus and less of a personal focus. First-year and fourth-year business students ranked the meta-values in the same order; however, Self-Transcendence was rated as significantly more important to the students in their first year compared to those in their fourth year.

This Master thesis investigates how values can drive value when creating sustainable business.Concepts like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development (SD) has in the last years become more and more accepted and therefore practiced in the business world. Due to alarms of the climate change, decreased biological diversity and alarming reports of child labour in the export industry, today’s society claims for more sustainable actions among global enterprises. Evidently, some organisations have a more proactive sustainable approach and therefore managed to use sustainable actions to grow and strengthen their market positions e.g. IKEA and Starbucks. Service research related to the above research area at CTF (Service Research Center) at Karlstad University pointed out that corporate values such as social responsibility and environmental responsibility (among others) can be used to create customer value, brand equity and help strategic decision-making for future growth. This thesis investigates in the specific context of Löfbergs Lila what can be learned if the above mentioned strategy is used in a medium-sized company with strong values. Which processes are required to create sustainable business and how far has Löfbergs Lila come according to selected concepts and theoretical framework in business research?

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate, in an explorative way, how values can drive value for sustainable business, both empirically through the Löfbergs in the coffee context as well as theoretically. The whole thesis can be seen as a mix of a descriptive case study and an interpretative case study where understanding of the thesis will be created in the interaction between the theoretical and empirical parts. The study has been developed using a combination of inductive and abductive methods whereby the interaction between the conceptual/theoretical framework and Löfbergs Lila, in the coffee context, have constructed a new meaning.

The explorative study of Löfbergs Lila (or AB Anders Löfberg) presents an understanding of how values have affected the strategy and operation of this organization and is still doing so to this very day. Every company can work with sustainability, but strong corporate values incorporated into the business model are an advantage. There is a fundamental basis for more “sustainable growth” when these values drive “true” environmental and social progress, including accountability. This thesis claims that true core values are deep-rooted in the company and drive value for Löfbergs’ customers in the name of sustainable business.

The theoretically- and conceptually-driven findings, built on five (re)-constructed thick descriptions from Löfbergs Lila in the coffee context, end up in five general concepts for valuesbased sustainable business

1. Service Logic

2. Values-based service

3. Values-based service quality for sustainable business

4. Managing Value chain responsibility

5. Creating the service experience

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine the process of creating values in a purchasing organisation; meaning in which areas created values can be added and what affects the possibility to do so. In addition, the study looks into what can be improved to further enlarge the business spectrum. Through these outlines, a survey has been made to investigate the view on created values from a purchaser, management and supplier perspective. This gives several aspects of within which areas you can work with added values. The study is based on a questionnaire to 60 purchasers at Scania CV AB. The thesis demonstrates that to a certain extent sourcing managers already work with increasing the business spectrum by adding values. But even though Scania is a company with a mature purchasing organisation there are still several areas where the work with created values can be improved, for example within process development and administration.

Executive Summary

A company needs guidelines for the organization and its employees to act in the same direction. Core values constitute a fundamental part of a company but they have to be “lived” by the members of the organization in order to be valid. When a company undergoes many

changes, there is a risk of losing the core values as focus is put on the survival of the company. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to reach a solution for the maintenance of the core values at Atea Logistics, a company which has faced turbulent periods. However, in order to do so, a first requirement was to get in touch with Atea

Logistics’ culture in order to later correctly apprehend the organization’s core values. Hence, this research was guided by the following research question:

“How to maintain core values at Atea Logistics?”

The conducted study consists of a case study made at Atea Logistics in Växjö, which is a part of the Atea Holding AB. The currently successful group, Atea, was created in 1985 under the name of Owell. Atea is a company which helps organizations and companies increase the

benefits of Information Technologies (IT) by providing products and services that simplify the management, operation and development of IT infrastructure. As an IT product supplier, Atea covers the entire cycle from the supply of new IT products to the recycling of old ones.

Since we aimed at providing the company with a research that it could benefit from, this thesis has its base in discussions with managers of Atea Logistics. Empirical data were mostly gathered through interviews with several employees and finally interplay between empirical

data and theoretical findings occurred. The findings of this complex study comprise that core values have been neglected within the company for several years because of repetitive changes. However, employees have been aware of this situation but still have not focused on this aspect.

Several core values have been discovered which have remained since the Owell-time: respect, participation, openness, trust, responsibility and family-friendly. In order for Atea Logistics to maintain these values, several aspects need to be developed such as their clear statement, their communication via different tools (i.e. printed documents, corporate events, an integration process for newcomers, etc.) as well as the alignment of employees with them.

This study examines the relationship between personal values, perceived organisational values and organisational commiunent. The study builds on the work of Finegan (2000). It is argued that the greater the congruence between a person's personal values and the perceived organisational values of the employing organisation, the greater would be their commitment to that organization. This study examines this issue in a school context, examining the teachers' values and their perceptions of their schools' values. As part of the study a survey was administered to a sample of teachers at eight schools that represented the three main streams within the Australian education system; namely Government schools, independent Christian schools and Catholic schools. In this case, personal values and perceived organisational values were measured using Schwartz's (1991) Values Scale and their congruence was calculated using Savery's (Savery, 1993. 1983, 1981) approach. Commitment was measured using Meyer and Allen's (1990) Organisational Commitment Scale. Perceived organisational support and professional commitment were also measured through Eisenberg's (1986) and Blau's (1985b) scales. The study suggests that teachers' backgrounds have little impact on commitment. It further suggests that personal values have only a minimal effect on continuance conunitrnent, although they have a stronger relationship with affective commitment. While congruence between the two types of values do impact on affective commitment, teachers' perceptions of their organisations' values (irrespective of their own values) are stronger predictors of commitment. Personal values are also shown to affect professional commitment. Although the major focus of the study is to explore the relationship between values congruence and organisational commitment, the results suggest that the most significant predictors of affective organisational commitment are perceived organisational support and teachers' perceptions of organisational values.

Abstract

Historically, value was believed to be created and embedded in the manufacturing process, implying that companies were the creators of value. Conversely, the notion of value-creation changed during the last decades and has implemented the customer orientation and service centred view. Instead, researchers currently believe that companies only can offer value-propositions, which means that value is to be created by the customers. Services and goods are much about values and identity today, which people connect to therefore it is important that positive values are associated with the company.

The purpose of this case study is to present if values can drive value for sustainable business. In order to illustrate this we have chosen Konsum Värmland for our investigation, an independent consumer co-operative own by its 126 000 members. Konsum Värmland has advantages by being independent from KF (the co-operative union in Sweden), this by being able to set its own strategies and visions.

This thesis aspires to illustrate which values Konsum Värmland stands for and to see if Konsum Värmland has succeeded to communicate these values to their stakeholders.

We will present the theoretical framework and how values-based management is an excellent performance measurement for co-creating values together with its stakeholders. We chose to use a narrative approach for our empirical analysis. The narratives are based on interviews, observations and secondary data that we obtained in forms of literature, articles and previous research.

We have chosen to investigate four areas for our case study, which are obvious of creating values. The areas are; the history Konsum Värmland, the brands Nästgård and Värmlandsgrisen, and the adapting and developing Konsum Värmland. These areas give the reader an insight to the value creation efforts of Konsum Värmland.

It is important for companies to differentiate themselves from others, in order to stay competitive in the everyday retail branch. This is something that Konsum Värmland has done by standing for values that contributes to the region of Värmland

This case study shows how the consumer co-operative thinking is becoming more modern, in co-creating common values and meanings. The consumer co-operative thinking also tells us that is can be used as a competitive strategy, to be able to predict and to adapt to the market.

In this study we can see that local produced goods generate value, which makes the customer want to buy the goods even if they are more expensive. The values are communicated through the brands Värmlandsgrisen and Nästgård and the goods are offered in form of values-based service quality. We have created a model that illustrates how the vision, organization and the value-creation have to be in balance, to create values that can drive value for sustainable business.

Résumé

Historiquement des valeurs et leur création étaient vues comme un élément de la procédure de fabrication ce qui voulait dire que seul l’entreprise prenait le rôle du créateur de valeur. En parallèle le regard sur la création de valeur a évolué pendant ses dernières décennies vers une perspective s’orientant plus vers le client et donc plus accentuée « service ». Ces deux approches sont complétées par un avis des experts modernes qui défend la position que seule une offre basée sur des vraies valeurs peut réussir et émerger de son univers concurrentiel. Uniquement les produits, proposant une base de valeur, réussissent à influencer la perception des clients de manière durable. Des services et des produits peuvent émerger donc seulement à travers de leurs valeurs, c’est à dire à travers de leur identité, puisque les gens arrivent mieux à se mettre en rapport ce qui crée idéalement un attachement. C’est pour ça que c’est important que l’entreprise associe des valeurs à ses marques et surtout de le rend percevable aux clients de manière crédible.

Le but de cet analyse est de montrer comment des valeurs peuvent durablement porter le succès économique d’entreprises. Afin de l’illustrer pour notre étude nous avons choisi Konsum Värmland, qui compte 126 000 membres en tant que coopérative indépendante. Grâce à cela Konsum Värmland a des avantages, puisque il est indépendant du syndicat suédois KF et donc autonome de réaliser ses propres stratégies et visions.

Au delà de ça cet analyse veut montre quelles valeurs Konsum Värmland représente, et veut également examiner si Konsum Värmland a réussi à les communiquer à ses membres et ses clients.

A travers un model théorique nous allons montrer comment le management à base de valeur est un excellent indicateur pour la création de valeur mutuellement avec les membres de la coopérative. Nous avons donc choisi une approche narrative pour analyse empirique. Les conclusions se basent sur des interviews, nos observations ainsi que d’autres données que nous avons obtenu dans la litérature, des articles de la presse et par une recherche préliminaire.

Pour cet étude de cas nous avons décidé d’examiner quatre secteurs de la création de valeur qui sont l’histoire d’entreprise de Konsum Värmland, ses deux marques Nästgård et Värmlandsgrisen, ainsi que leur adaptation et évolution menées par Konsum Värmland. Ces secteurs donnent au lecteur une compréhension approfondie de la création de valeur stratégique à Konsum Värmland.

Dans l’intention de rester compétitif dans l’environnement quotidien de grand distribution, il est important pour l’entreprise de se différencier des autres. Konsum Värmland a réussi à le faire grâce à exploitation intelligente des valeurs ancrées dans la région de Värmland.

Par ailleurs cet étude de cas montre comment le raisonnement des clients évolue vers une création mutuelle des valeurs communes entre demande et offre. Ce comportement nous

amène à la conclusion qu’il utilisable davantage dans une stratégie de compétition afin d’anticiper des changements de marché dans l’objectif de s’adapter vite au nouveau contexte.

Dans cette analyse nous pouvons voir comment des produits locaux peuvent profiter des valeurs éthiques ce qui favorise une relation dans laquelle les clients sont prêts à acheter des produits même s’ils sont plus chers qu’ailleurs. Ces valeurs sont communiquées à travers les marques Värmlandsgrisen et Nästgård dont on propose les produits en s’appuyant sur une qualité de service à valeur ajoutée. Nous avons développé un model qui montre quelle vision, organisation et création de valeur doivent être balancés l’un à l’autre. Seulement à ce moment là il est possible de créer des valeurs, qui portent durablement le succès économique de l’entreprise.

Zusammenfassung

Ursprünglich wurden Werte and Wertschöpfung in der Wirtschaftsgeschichte als Teil des Herstellungsprozesses angesehen, was wiederum bedeutet das Unternehmen als Werterzeuger auftraten. Parallel veränderte sich die Bedeutung von Wertschaffung in der letzten Jahrzehnten in Richtung einer mehr Kundenorientierten und damit service-ausgerichteten Ansicht. Diesen beiden Perspektiven gegenüber steht, dass Wirtschaftsforscher heute davon ausgehen, dass Unternehmen ausschliesslich durch wertebasierende Angebote im Markt erfolgreich sein können. Nur diese schaffen es durch deren Empfinden den Kunden nachhaltig zu beeinflussen. Dienstleistungen und Waren sind also durch deren Werte und damit deren Identität erfolgreich, da Menschen diese besser mit ihren eigenen in Verbindung bringen können was im Idealfall eine stärkere Bindung bedeutet. Daher ist es wichtig, dass Unternehmen positive Werte mit ihren Marken verbinden und vor allem für die Kunden glaubhaft erlebbar machen.

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu zeigen wie Werte den nachhaltigen wirtschaftlichen Erfolg von Unternehmen fördern können. Um dies zu veranschaulichen haben wir für unsere Untersuchung Konsum Värmland gewählt, welches als unabhängige Vereinigung 126 000 Mitglieder zählt. Konsum Värmland hat dadurch Vorteile, da es einerseits unabhängig von der schwedischen Gewerkschaft KF ist und andererseits damit in der Lage ist seine eigenen Strategien und Vision umzusetzen.

Diese Arbeit hat den Anspruch zu erläutern für welche Werte Konsum Värmland steht, und darüberhinaus zu untersuchen, ob Konsum Värmland es gelungen ist diese erfolgreich seinen Mitgliedern sowie Kunden zu kommunizieren.

Wir werden mit Hilfe eines theoretischen Rahmenmodells zeigen wie wertebasiertes Management ein exzellenter Ergebnismesser für gemeinsame Wertschaffung mit den Mitgliedern der Kooperative sein kann. Wir haben für diese empirische Analysis daher einen erzählerischen Ansatz gewählt. Die erzählerischen Schlussfolgerungen basieren auf Interviews, eigenen Beobachtungen sowie weiteren Daten welche wir aus Fachliteratur, Zeitungsartikeln and vorangegangener Forschung erhielten.

Für dies Fallstudie haben wir uns entschieden vier Bereich der Wertschaffung zu untersuchen. Diese sind die Unternehmensgeschichte von Konsum Värmland, die beiden Handelsmarken Nästgård und Värmlandsgrisen, sowie deren Anpassung durch und Entwicklung von Konsum Värmland. Diese Bereiche geben dem Leser eine tiefere Einsicht in die strategische Wertschaffung von Konsum Värmland.

In der Absicht im alltäglichen Einzelhandelsumfeld wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben, ist es für Unternehmen dabei wichtig, sich selbst von anderen zu differenzieren. Dieses gelang Konsum Värmland durch deren erfolgreiche Nutzung von in der Värmland-Region verankerten Werten.

Diese Fallstudie zeigt wie sich modernes Konsumentendenken hinzu einer kooperativen Schöpfung gemeinschaftlicher Werte und Bedeutungen entwickelt. Dieses

Kundendenken veranlasst uns zu der Schlussfolgerung, dass es in einer Wertbewerbsstrategie genutzt werden kann um Marktveränderung rechtzeitig zu erkennen und sich daran anzupassen.

In dieser Studie können wir sehen wie lokal erzeugte Güter ethische Werte zu nutzen, was die Kunden wiederum dazu bewegt die Produkte zu kaufen, selbst wenn diese leicht teurer sind. Die Werte werden mittels der Handelsmarken Värmlandsgrisen und Nästgård kommuniziert, indem deren Erzeugnisse über eine wertebasierte Servicequalität angeboten werden. Wir haben dazu ein Model entwickelt, welches zeigt wie Vision, Organisation und die Wertschaffung auf einander abgestimmt sein müssen. Nur dann können Werte geschaffen werden, welche den nachhaltigen wirtschaftlichen Erfolg von Unternehmen fördern können.

Different internal and external causes make differences in doing business. Changes within an organization may be caused by mergers and acquisitions, crises, organizational culture, and application of new technology, but also by external changes such as sustainable development, digitalization, and COVID19. Changes in business environment affect the change in behaviour, competencies and values as well as in business activities, all in order to achieve organizational goals. Sustainable development brings sustainable practice into business. Each organization considers economic, social, and environmental dimensions of their business and implementation of ESG (environment, social, and governance) criteria. Digitalization affects business by adapting and combining different technologies that provide the creation of new products/services, processes, decisions, relations between companies, employees and customers, and business performance. There are also relations between the causes. Digitalization impacts sustainability and vice versa. Moreover, sustainable development and digitalization influence how an organization adapts and runs its business.

The 21st century represents a century in which the world has flourished through technological progress, transforming many businesses in line with digitalization, social networks, and the tendencies brought by the internet generations. In sociological terms, many problems have remained the same despite progress. In this sense, women continue to fight for one of the fundamental human rights - gender equality and non - discrimination against male - female in the social, business and political environment. However, there are many positive examples of women leaders today, presidents of governments and large companies, successful women entrepreneurs, and they dominate in certain branches of the economy. Although care, pharmacy, education, and the like have so far been considered "typically female" professions, the business of intermediation in the sale and lease of real estate is attracting more and more attention of female gender. Whether women dominate such a significant branch of the economy, and why, the author will try to answer by looking at the results and statistics of one of the most developed real estate markets in the world - the real estate market in the United States. Whether women are naturally gifted in the field of mediation in buying or selling real estate or have managed to dominate the market with their professionalism and motivation, are questions that occupy the scientific public, but it is gratifying to see examples of so many successful women in the real estate with amazing careers and results. It can be concluded that it would be commendable if this trend spread over to other branches of the economy, as well as to other countries in the world.

The purpose of the article is a theoretical and empirical analysis of the job insecurity due its influence on the employee job attitudes. Design. The design of the study was longitudinal. The empirical results were collected in 2018–2019. The empirical basis of the research is the separate structural department of the bank. The organization has realized downsizing project during the collection of empirical data. It has made possible to analyze the job satisfaction and work engagement before, during and after the downsizing project. The measures used in the present study are: 1) the “Utrecht Work Engagement Scale”; 2) “Brief Job Satisfaction Measure; 3) “The Job Insecurity Scale”. An empirical analysis of the dynamics of job attitudes in the groups differ in age and gender has found out a short-term motivating effect of the threat of job loss. The motivating effect of the threat of job loss is lost during six months. The most significance motivating effect was wound out in within the group of ordinary employees in the senior category over 45 years. The threat of dismissal also has the greatest impact on the behavior change of that part of the staff that is most susceptible to experiencing job insecurity. The employees who perceived the job insecurity are more satisfied with their work and value it more highly.

In social sciences, values are perceived as constructs helpful in understanding human attitudes, views, norms and behaviors. Leadership is still current and deeply explored research problem in the science of nowadays management. The aim of the paper is to identify leadership values, using the perspec-tive of potential managers from Poland and Ukraine. Additionally, the aim of it is to systematize knowledge concerned leadership values treated as an important category functioning in management sciences. It seems to be necessary to underline that the notion of values is used by representatives of many sciences. The conclusions are supported by the results of quantitative research conducted among future managers from Poland and Ukraine. In the questionnaire, the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) was used.

Over 50 approaches, methods, and techniques have been developed in recent decades to achieve more efficient business systems operations. Due to the increasingly rapid changes in the business and social environment, the question of which method or technique will have the most significant impact on increasing its competitive advantage is becoming increasingly important. In the presented research, due to the scope of the issue, we focused on an overview of the most often used methods and techniques and their similarity. For this purpose, we prepared an overview of the frequency of particular methods and techniques in the sources collected in multidisciplinary databases. We were also interested in which phases of business process improvement a particular method or technique is used. Based on the knowledge gained in this way, we designed a set of appropriate methods and techniques for improving business processes. The performed research can serve as a starting point for solving this problem. It would be necessary for its integrity to check other properties of methods and techniques and their practice efficiency.