Entrepreneurship and critical success factors in manufacturingindustry: A Case Study for Johnson Controls Lammhult, Sweden

Abstract: In the last 30 years has seen a cutthroat competition among many organizations across the world.The Swedish industries were not an exception in this phase of globalization. However,entrepreneurs in Sweden, especially, in the manufacturing sector, are rapidly losing competitiveadvantage in the global marketing environment, a concern some researchers have attributed tolow productivity, and poor organizational performance. Therefore, this paper will identify criticalsuccess factors in entrepreneurship, with reference to Johnson Controls ManufacturingCompany. The instruments used to collect and analyse data, discourse analysis, interview andopen coding, were tested and proved to be efficient and consistent with the research method.Furthermore, the collected data was tested and found reliable with a high coefficient of 0.8,which is considered qualified. Through the data collection instrument, the study generated eightcritical success factors for Johnson Controls. The factors include leader management andstructure, competitors, manufacturing operational excellence, stakeholder‟s engagement, andproduct. These factors were then cast onto 6 broader themes as generated from open coding,which included top management, human resource, organization culture, quality management, andregulatory practice. These themes were useful in describing and correlating the critical successfactors with the basic units of the organization. Also, based on a discourse analysis, this studywas able to establish that there is a strong relationship between primary data and secondary data.Therefore, the study concluded that the eight identified critical success factors, leadermanagement and structure, competitors, manufacturing operational excellence, stakeholder‟sengagement, and product, could be used to change the current status of entrepreneurs in Swedenand help them improve their performance standing in the global business environment.