Purpose: The purpose of this study is the purpose of this study is to gain a more in-depth understanding of customer experience management and how it enables growth within an organization. Background: Customer Experience Management has been described as a process where the entire experience of a customer with a product/service and a company is strategically managed. It has been highlighted as a key area for organisations to focus on, yet, CEM is continuously being researched both by researchers and business practitioners as there is still a vague understanding on the topic. Nonetheless, CEM has been displayed as a successful process, however, very little research has gone into showing that it could enable organizational growth.

Aim: The aim of this research is to investigate whether CSR can be used as a marketing tool by the readymade garment suppliers in Bangladesh to attract international buyers. Method: This study is conducted by applying qualitative method. The data has been collected through semi-structured interview and using secondary data.   Result and Conclusions: The study reflects that that CSR implementation generates various benefits such as, creates good corporate image, reputation and opportunity for innovation and offers competitive advantage.  As international buyers’ foremost requirement is to verify suppliers’ social compliance, the CSR practices and benefits act as marketing instrument by the garments suppliers to attract international buyers and grab more business. Suggestions for future research: This study considered multiple large (1st tier) garments suppliers and multinational buying organization which calls for further research such as, a comparative study on taking both large and small scale suppliers as well as more international buyers. One of the findings indicates that buyers’ support is important in CSR implementation which can also be considered for further investigation. Contribution of the thesis: This study investigates suppliers’ CSR practices from the marketing perspective in relation to buyers in business to business context which has not been considered in previous literature. Further CSR as marketing tool has not been addressed in developing country context while this study includes empirical study on garment suppliers of Bangladesh. This study suggests that managers need to be aware of the significant role of CSR as marketing tool while designing and implementing CSR programs effectively to increase business. Moreover, CSR activities benefit both the company as well as other stakeholders (customer, employee, public, shareholder, government) of the society by way of meeting those stakeholders’ interest.

在今日瞬息萬變的產業環境裡，策略學者Porter (1980)所提出的五力分析只能告訴我們在某個時點中企業是否具有競爭優勢。但是，我們卻無法解釋企業的競爭優勢從何而來？又該往哪裡去？Hamel & Prahalad (1990)認為企業應該以未來的表現作為主要競爭的舞臺，建立核心競爭力來進行創新與變革才是企業獲取長久競爭優勢的主要手段。 Teece (1997)進一步提出動態能耐的概念，探討廠商在動態環境中，進行變革所需的能耐。Zott (2003) 利用電腦進行了寡佔的競爭賽局模擬，証實了動態能耐的三個屬性：組織執行力、變革成本、學習效應，是影響組織具有超額利潤的重要關鍵。 本研究另外引用其他文獻，如Jovanovic & MacDonald (1994)、Klepper (1996)、Winter (2003)，重新建構了理論模式以進行電腦模擬。我們將模擬的架構做出以下修正：增加廠商數目、有淘汰廠商的機制、產品創新與製程創新之間會互相影響、增加學習效應的種類，並修正目標函數與動態過程，讓模擬更符合實際狀況，來了解以下三個問題： 一、在動態能耐的屬性高低皆相同的情形下，廠商是否會有超額利潤？ 二、不同程度的執行力對競爭優勢有何影響？ 三、不同種類的學習效應對廠商競爭優勢有何影響？廠商的學習效應除了從事變革時的學習外，還有在執行變革的過程中從事學習的情形。我們將會模擬擅長不同學習效應的廠商，那一方能獲得超額利潤。 根據我們的實驗，本研究的結論如下： 一、動態能耐是產業內出現不同利潤表現的因素之一，當廠商動態能耐的強弱相同時，創新的策略思是影響競爭優勢的原因。我們發現最成功的廠商會在產業初期提升產品創新，在產業成熟之後大量投入製程創新，與Klepper (1996)的發現相同。 二、組織執行力會影響超額利潤。但是必須在所有廠商的變革成本處於較低的狀態，或有較好的學習效應時，執行力較高的廠商才會有明顯的競爭優勢。 三、如果廠商的組織執行力相同，注重在執行變革的學習效應，能幫助廠商獲得競爭優勢。相對地，注重在尋找變革策略上的學習，對競爭優勢的幫助較為有限。 本研究不僅展現了動態能耐對競爭優勢多方面的影響，並提供一個架構來闡述一家公司從策略到能耐的競爭結構。要怎麼結合這個架構與策略地圖是我們後續可以研究的方向。 / In the dynamic environment of competitive industry, we have problem to know how a company will perform in the future with Five-Force-Model (Porter 1980). Five-Force-Model can tell us the competitive advantage of a company at that time, but we can’t explain how the company got that competitive advantage and whether it could be kept or not in the future. The theory of Core Competence (Hamel & Prahalad 1990) notifies that company should compete for future, and accumulate its core competence for innovation to keep the competitive advantage. Basing on Resource Based View, Teece (1997) further discussed the Dynamic Capability which is needed by enterprise in dynamic competition. Zott (2003) simulate a Cournot Game to study the attributes of dynamic capability. He finds that execution, strategic switching cost and learning ability affect the superior profit of firms of intra-industry. This research rebuilds the simulation of Zott (2003) and modifies the simulation by incorporating the insights from Jovanovic & MacDonald (1994), Klepper (1996) and Winter (2003). We increase the number of firms, set up the mechanism which can shake out the less competitive firms. We also remodel the settings of innovation and learning and modify the dynamic process and profit function to investigate the following question. First, when the level of dynamic capability is the same, will firms in an intra-industry perform differently? Second, could execution ability affect the superior profit? Third, is the learning effect of switching strategy more important than the learning effect of implementing strategy? Three propositions can be drawn from this simulation. First, when all firms have equal dynamic capability, the strategy of innovation will affect the competitive advantage. We find that the most successful firm will increase production innovation at first then put more resources into process innovation, which is compatible with the empirical study of Klepper (1996). Second, execution ability will affect the superior profit in some condition. When all firms have low strategic switching cost or good learning ability, the firms which have higher execution ability earn superior profit in simulation. Third, when all firms have the same execution ability, the firms which have higher learning ability of implementing strategy will earn the superior profit. In contrast firm’s learning ability of switching strategy does not make great difference. This research not only demonstrates the various impacts of dynamic capability, but also provides a framework to depict the competitive structure of a firm. The integration of this framework and strategy map deserves the further research.

台灣資訊科技產業發展迅速，目前已在國際中居重要地位，不論在IC封裝、測試、TFT- LCD 與光碟機的表現都是數一數二。也同時是筆記型電腦、電腦主機板、伺服器等產值全球第一的國家。然而在此亮麗的成績背後，台灣電子資訊業雖有完整的垂直分工模式與產業聚落，也累積了許多專業技術。但廠商為了擴大下單，持續壓低代工價格，導致獲利一路下滑，無法脫離「紅海競爭」。 本研究探討台灣資訊科技產業代工廠目前的競爭優勢，以5家台灣IT廠商作為個案研究對象，評估可行之未來發展策略，以脫離價格競爭的紅海。研究問題如下： 一、台灣資訊科技產業廠商目前擁有哪些競爭優勢？面臨哪些困難？ 二、代工廠商如何在「紅海競爭」中維持領導優勢且持續成長？ 研究發現，台灣代工廠商擁有健全的產業供應鏈與全球佈局、優秀的研發能力與人才，最重要的是具有很高的成本優勢，且生產製造效率很高。然而面臨產業競爭度高導致的殺價競爭、利潤降低的困難，規模雖然坐大，卻稀釋了核心資源的足夠深度。而代工廠商發展品牌不易，需在通路出口的投資和關鍵零件/組件的掌控多努力。 研究建議，若代工廠商選擇發展品牌，就需強化國際行銷並有長久投入資源的決心。若繼續投入代工，則建議下列三個策略：a.市場滲透策略：提高協同設計的比例，增加產品開發、設計流程的速度，從OEM、ODM走向 JDM(Joint Design Manufacturing)，也可更進一步整合客戶需求，提供多樣化的加值服務，並且強化全球運籌之能力，以就近支援與服務。 b. 多角化營運：憑藉著台灣廠商的研發能力與豐富的代工經驗，拓展代工產品項目，如3C、資訊家電等輕薄短小的產品，或是軍用、醫療用電子產品等。 c. 產品/服務發展策略：藉由提升研發能力、製造技術與提供全面性服務，增加與品牌廠商的合作關係。 / With its fast growth rate and well-developed infrastructure, Taiwan's IT (Information Technology) Industry holds a key position in the world. Taiwan is well known for its global leadership position in the shipments of notebook computer, desktop computer, server and mother board, but it is perhaps less recognized for its top global ranking in the production of TFT LCD displays, input devices, and IC packaging and testing. Although Taiwan's IT Industry takes advantage of vertically integrated supply chains, years of technical experience, and manufacturing scale of economies, it is not able to differentiate itself from "Red Sea" competition and is subject to continued pricing pressure and decreasing margins. This study will explore the existing Taiwanese OEM/ODM’s competitive advantage through surveys and interviews of 5 vendors and will evaluate and develop any possible solutions or strategies for future growth and avoid from "Red Sea" pricing competition. The following questions will be addressed: 1. What are the competitive advantages of Taiwan's IT companies? What are their challenges? 2. How can these companies sustain their competitive advantage and continue to grow in the "Red Sea"? Accordance with the study finding, Taiwan's IT Industry established a very healthy supply chain integration. Well-trained R&D talent, highly efficient and productive manufacturing process management, and cost-driven mindsets are in place. Nevertheless, every OEM/ODM company is faced with huge margin pressure which started when the whole industry fell into a pricing cut situation. While production volumes have increased through growth and industry consolidation, it also diluted the depth of their core competence and resources. There are difficulties for OEM/ODM to develop their own brand business, not only huge investment on product development and marketing promotion but also impact to the relationship with existing customers. OEM/ODM must strengthen international marketing capability as well as channel sales strategy as a long-term investment if they want to move toward own brand business. If they chose to continue moving forward OEM/ODM business, there are three recommended strategies, which are offered in accordance with the study. 1, Penetration – Move to JDM (Joint Design Manufacturing), alliance or partner with customers in new product development, speed up products design processes, increase manufacturability, provide integrated and value added service from production all the way up to the new product stage. 2, Diversification – Leverage the existing scale, experience and capability to move into new markets such as 3C, medical or military products…etc. 3, Product and service developments – Continue to develop core competences, key components strategy investment, processes innovation, W/W production and logistics management, after purchased services and RMA…etc, offer total solution to enhance the partnership with branding company.

The container shipping industry is essentially a service industry, based on the derived need of shippers wanting to transport their goods to buyers around the world. The industry relies on the volume of world trade and consequently is highly cyclical with its profitability being dependent, in large part, on the health of the global economy. It is also a highly capital intensive industry that requires large amount of investment in large scale fixed assets, such as ocean vessels, ports facilities, terminal equipments, global office networks and communication infrastructure. The industry has been undergoing a period of restructuring and consolidation in the 1990s, reflected in both merger and acquisition and in the formation of global alliances. This paper will explore the literature on growth alternatives and competitive advantages of the industry. The specific case on NOL/APL growth path and its key success factors of strategy-performance relationship will also be identified. This paper will conclude by making some suggestions on longer-term strategy for the company in order to generate sustainable profitability and financial success for the NOL/APL group.

Background The external requirements for the European top clubs within the UEFA football industry are changing. Due to mismanaged finances during a significant period of time derived from the clubs’ ruthless aim for short-term sporting success, UEFA (The Union of European Football Association) has decided to change the rules of the game. UEFA’s newly implemented financial fair play regulations, with the main requirement of breaking even, force clubs that aim to participate in future UEFA competitions to drastically improve their financial performance. Consequently, we are witnessing a fundamental shift in the European top club’s upcoming strategy. From now on, the club must go from pursuing a short-term strategy almost exclusively based on the quest for sporting success, to successfully implement a long-term strategy that besides being based on the main purpose of sporting success also is characterized by the quest for financial success. Purpose The purpose with this thesis is to provide guidance towards the European top club’s adjustment to UEFA financial fair play and its simultaneous achievement of competitive advantage within the changing UEFA football industry. Approach With the more decisive aim for profitability, the similarities between the European top club and a profit-seeking firm become evident. Consequently, the authors apply and adapt business strategic management theories to formulate a long-term strategy based on the simultaneous achievement of profitability and improved sporting performance.   Results Formulating a long-term strategy based on the simultaneous quest for financial and sporting success, the authors finally come to an understanding of how the European top club possibly could comply with financial fair play and simultaneously create conditions for competitive advantage within the changing UEFA football industry.

Bakgrund: Svenskarna ligger idag i topp på listan över andelen internetanvändare i befolkningen. Hela 94 procent av Sveriges befolkning använder internet och av dem har hela 84 procent någon gång handlat på internet. E-handeln växer så det knakar och det gör att konsumenternas krav på leveransservice ökar. Man kan se det som att leveransservice har utvecklats till ett nytt konkurrensmedel för att kunna överleva på en hårt konkurrensutsatt marknad. Syfte och forskningsfrågor: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera svenska ehandelsföretags leveransservice för att bidra till en ökad förståelse för betydelsen av leveransservice. För att uppfylla syftet har följande forskningsfrågor utformats: Hur arbetar utvalda svenska e-handelsföretag med leveransservice som konkurrensmedel? Hur lever utvalda svenska e-handelsföretag upp till konsumenternas krav på leveransservice? Metod och tillvägagångssätt: Datainsamling har skett genom två metoder. Utvalda ehandelsföretag har intervjuats i syfte att ta reda på hur de arbetar med leveransservice. Detta har kombinerats med en enkätundersökning där konsumenters förväntan på leveransservice undersökts. Datan har tolkats och analyserats på ett kvalitativt sätt för att skapa en förståelse för ämnet. Slutsats: Studien visar att svenska e-handelsföretag lever upp till konsumenternas krav på leveransservice samt att de arbetar kontinuerligt för att fortsätta med detta. Resultatet av studien har bekräftat att leveransservice är ett viktigt konkurrensmedel men att det är svårt för e-handelsföretagen att hitta den optimala nivån att ligga på. I takt med att konsumenternas krav på leveransservice ökar gäller det för företagen att följa denna utveckling och ständigt arbeta med effektiviseringar.

Many organisations use strategic management as an imperative to gain competitive advantages. Theorists have not been able to ascertain whether prescriptive or emergent strategic approaches will be most suitable within an organisational climate for sustaining these competitive advantages. The notion of creativity has been identified as a source of competitive advantage that organisations may make use of within their strategic frameworks. However, within the organisational climate, there may be various barriers to creativity that will impede performance outcomes, efficiency and potential competitive advantage for an organisation. The study concerns itself m d y with an investigation into the strategic and organisational climates within selected higher education institutions in South Africa, as these institutions are in need of an assessment regarding potential sources of competitive advantage, in order to survive. The imperative to remain competitive is primarily due to the turbulent and changeable environments that these institutions find themselves in. This instability has occurred as a result of various changes in higher education due to the merging of several higher education institutions and the changes in the configuration of others. The study has shown that creativity is a source of competitive advantage. This was done by determining which barriers to creativity were present within the organisational climates of the selected institutions, as well as which strategic management approaches were being employed by the said institutions. The information obtained from the data gathered was compared to two competitive advantage measures (throughput and research output rates) of those higher education institutions. Three pivotal questions were asked and answered by the study in this regard. What are the prevalent prescriptive strategy dimensions and processes being employed by selected South African public higher education institutions? What are the prevalent creativity barrier dimensions that exist with selected public higher education institutions in South Africa? What relationships can be observed between the prescriptive strategy dimensions, the creativity barrier dimensions and the organisational competitive advantage performance output dimensions of throughput rate and research output in selected public South African higher education institutions? Non probability, judgment sample was obtained from four selected higher education institutions located in the Gauteng province in South Africa during the latter half of 2004. The survey requested certain biographical information on respondents (who had to fulfill the criteria of being full-time academic employees working for the institution in question), information on the strategic climate and barriers to creativity with the organisational climate. The last section of the questionnaire contained open-ended questions. Data on the throughput and research output rates of the institutions was obtained separately from the South African Department of Education (DOE), and correlated against the data obtained from the questionnaire. The questionnaire was testing for eight pre-determined creativity factors within the organisational climate (identified from the literature review and previous studies), and a separate dimension of prescriptive strategic planning. Overall only five of the creativity barriers were found to be most predominant within the selected higher education institutions, namely: Insufficient Resources; Lack of Team Unity; Lack of Organisational Support; Organisational Hindrances and Workload pressure. The factors were compared to the measures of competitive advantage and it was determined that there was a positive correlation between a higher prevalence of barriers and a lower performance output, which indicated that creativity could be identified as a source of competitive advantage within those institutions. This lent evidence to support the initial, first hypothesis of the study. Furthermore, it was discovered that those institutions that were utilising prescriptive strategic management approaches were more inched to achieve higher performance in terms of their throughput rates. Refuted the second hypothesis of the study that was advocating that emergent strategy was more likely to result in competitive advantage. More education institutions, known for their typically bureaucratic approaches might be more able to utilise formal procedures to obtain increased competitive advantage than utilising a more informal, emergent approach, as academic employees might more freely be able to explore creative alternatives under the security of prescriptive strategic approaches. It is likely that any organisation would wish to improve their competitive performance in order to be more effective. Higher education institutions also need to be concerned about their performance in order to continue operating effectively. It is necessary, then for those higher education institutions, to take note of these potential barriers to creativity with their organisational climates, which were highlighted by the study and to proactively remove them to ensure they remain competitive into the future. In addition, these institutions should consider which strategic management approaches they are currently utilising and streamline them to cement the competitive advantage. It was advocated that South African higher education institutions should be adopting formalised strategic management approaches in this regard. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

This thesis forms part of a PhD by Publication based on the research and scholarly work of Sheila Wright. It explores her contribution to the field of Competitive Intelligence & Insight Management (CI&IM) made through ten articles published between 2002 and 2010. The research projects that involved the collection of primary data were carried out within a qualitative research methodology using a semi-structured interview or case study method and typically adopting a pragmatic paradigm. Through this work, it has been possible to present a best-practice framework for CI&IM. Similarly, it has been possible to develop an operational framework for CI&IM, which identifies the inter-connectivity of the CI&IM tasks as well as the organisational influencing factors which can aid or hinder successful implementation. As well as engaging in a critical evaluation of current CI&IM practice the thesis indicates how the articles offer solutions which can aid the delivery of improved performance to practitioners as well as academics who teach and research the subject. The thesis also identifies the place of CI&IM in the business discipline and draws attention to the cross-boundary, inter-disciplinary nature of its reach. The development of bibliometric software and citation identification programmes has enabled the inclusion of a citation analysis for each article which also identifies the context within which that citation was made. This is presented as supporting evidence for the contribution to knowledge and value of the body of work. Through this mechanism it has also been possible, not only to identify the frequency with which the articles have been cited, but more importantly, the impact and contribution this has had on scholars who have subsequently used the output and frameworks as a basis for their own research.

“Knowledge is the only treasure you can give entirely without running short of it (African proverb cited in IFAD, 2007).” And it has been largely recognised by organisations that knowledge is a resource that they can leverage on. As Bryan (2004) mentioned, the proprietary knowledge that resides in the minds of a company’s top professionals are a source of Competitive Advantage. Therefore, organisations that leverage on Knowledge Management to promote a Knowledge Management Strategy can achieve Competitive Advantage in a world of rapid change and growth where only organisations who keep on learning and adapting will survive. Therefore, this thesis work aims to answer the following research question: “How does leveraging on Knowledge Management promotes the delivery of Knowledge Management Strategy to achieve Competitive Advantage through the Dynamic Capabilities View?” The purpose of this research is to understand more about the practical path which aims to evolve into a dynamic path for organisations to leverage on Knowledge Management (KM) in order that its strategy consecution delivers Competitive Advantage. The authors explore the subject matter by building from existing literature on the main theoretical areas encountered, and then design the research and its approach from the research question. The research followed a qualitative approach and method by utilising semi-structured interviews done to 7 international development organisations, where 13 respondents contributed with their experiences and insights from their involvement in KM in their organisations. Moreover, secondary data was used to complement, support, compare and contrast the findings of the empirical research as the authors used qualitative documents related to the topic published by the organisations. As a result, all primary and secondary data were analysed in an inter-subjective interpretative way deriving from the theoretical framework in order to answer the research question. The research revealed that the identified gap in literature between Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Strategy is also existing in practice. It was identified that it depends on the maturity of KM in the organisation and/or the organisation’ maturity itself. But is not only restricted to that, the success of a KMS is directly linked to how the organisation articulates KM, and the importance given to it is based on the sense and utilisation of the dynamic nature of KM. Thus, it can turn its organisational capabilities into Dynamic Capabilities and achieve a Competitive Advantage, this is fundamental in international development organisations in the nonprofit sector, which is increasingly striving for resources where every organisation aims to be “the partner of choice.”