This study shows that managers of short-term insurers may improve their financial results if they can identify and manage the factors that are critical to their financial results. The development and application of the concept of critical success factors are therefore used as a basis for this study. The study reviews the functions performed by short-term insurers, focusing on the effect these functions have on their cash flows. Selection and pricing of risk are discussed in detail. The underwriting cycle in South Africa, and several possible causes of the cycle are investigated. Reinsurance, claims handling and rilanagement expenses are important components of the cash flows of short-term insurers and are therefore examined in detail. The optimum risk level at various combinations of underwriting and investment income is empirically tested, using the financial results of several insurers. The study investigates different approaches to the measurement of financial success of insurers, and the return on shareholders' funds is found to provide the fairest and most reliable method. Empirical comparisons are made on the financial results of the insurers that participated in the study to distinguish between those that are financially successful and those that are not. To discover what the industry consider to be their critical financial success factors, a postal survey was done of key decision makers in the South African short-term insurance industry. Respondents identified several success factors, but did not include some success factors discovered during the review of the literature. Respondents apparently experienced difficulty in separating strategic issues from operational ones. The survey revealed that the pricing of risk is problematic for short-term insurers. The importance of the investment function is also underestimated by the industry. The study concludes that the combined systematic risk of the investment and underwriting portfolios is a critical success factor, along with the capital base of the insurer, the ability of the insurer to use the leverage provided by using policyholders' funds as free reserves and the size and direction of an insurer's cash flows. / Business Management / D. Com (Business Management)

Marist International University College, Nairobi – Kenya is challenged with problems like duplication of work due to lack of a central repository for knowledge, loss of knowledge through expertise leaving the institution without knowledge being captured and over reliance on a few known subject experts as others have not been identified. This research thus set out to address these problems. The aim of the study was to conduct a knowledge management assessment at the Marist International University College (MIUC) in order to identify and recommend a suitable strategy for the institution. The study employed a concurrent triangulation mixed methodology approach which encompassed a questionnaire and an interview schedule to collect data from 33 academic staff and 9 members of the MIUC management respectively. These two groups were purposively selected as the target population for the study as they play the key role in knowledge creation at MIUC. All 33 copies of the questionnaires that were distributed to the teaching staff were returned by respondents and all the 9 MIUC members of management were successfully interviewed. Data transformation analysis was applied during which qualitative data from open-ended questions and interviews were quantified using content analysis. Quantitative data in the questionnaires was descriptively analysed using SPSS. The study revealed a variety of informal knowledge management structures and resources at MIUC and the challenges of managing knowledge at Marist. The main challenge was that there was no uniformity and consistency in the management of knowledge. The study hence, formulated a KM strategy for MIUC that would help leverage its knowledge assets. / Information Science / MA (Information Science)

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are now adopting the management styles that are being practised in profit-making organisations in the private sector. The top management in HEIs embark on monitoring performance of all categories of their employees, including academic staff. This has become necessary in order to encourage and enhance quality in teaching and also to achieve increased research productivity. This means that the same principles involved in managing the private sector, such as introducing performance management systems, are now applied in the public sector. Empirical evidence from previous studies suggests that the introduction and implementation of performance management systems in academic institutions often result in tension between academic employees and management, thereby heightening the age-long debate on the necessity for academic freedom in institutions of higher learning globally. The present study evaluated the perception of academic staff members regarding the implementation of a performance management system in an open distance learning institution in South Africa. The study adopted a survey research design, using a quantitative research approach. The total sample of the study comprised of 492 academic staff members of the institution. A structured self-administered web-based questionnaire that was tested for high reliability and validity content was used to collect primary data from the respondents. The data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential (one-way sample t-test) statistics. The research findings indicate that academic staff members at the institution are satisfied with the performance management system implemented by management. The study further found that academics do not consider the resultant performance bonus from the implementation of the performance management system sufficiently motivating and that it should therefore be reviewed by management. Overall, the outcome of the present study was to a large extent inconsistent with the empirical evidence presented by previous studies. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Submitted by Rodrigo Oliveira (rodrigo@fralconsultoria.com.br) on 2018-05-29T19:45:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Trabalho Aplicado rmco.pdf: 5691689 bytes, checksum: cfc44af0596b3870fae6745ebf365f25 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Simone de Andrade Lopes Pires (simone.lopes@fgv.br) on 2018-05-29T21:29:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Trabalho Aplicado rmco.pdf: 5691689 bytes, checksum: cfc44af0596b3870fae6745ebf365f25 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-05-30T14:07:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Trabalho Aplicado rmco.pdf: 5691689 bytes, checksum: cfc44af0596b3870fae6745ebf365f25 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-30T14:07:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Trabalho Aplicado rmco.pdf: 5691689 bytes, checksum: cfc44af0596b3870fae6745ebf365f25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-28 / O presente trabalho analisou o programa Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) como o instrumento econômico presente em milhares de municípios norte-americanos, para o gerenciamento dos resíduos sólidos com o objetivo de replicá-lo no Brasil. Esse sistema busca a sustentabilidade financeira da gestão de resíduos sólidos, a equidade de cobrança do serviço e a redução do impacto ambiental. Por meio do conceito do 'poluidor-pagador' é instituído o pagamento por unidade ao serviço de limpeza, semelhante ao consumo de água e energia. O programa visa a redução na geração de resíduos e consequente redução nos gastos com coleta e destinação, somada a implantação de uma arrecadação específica. As consequências diretas da redução na geração de resíduos são o crescimento no volume de material reciclado, a redução no aterramento de resíduos e a menor dependência de recursos naturais. Parte-se da percepção de que o sistema PAYT obteve êxito em seus objetivos e está presente há mais de 20 anos nos Estados Unidos e em países da Europa (Alemanha, França, Portugal, Itália, Grécia, Finlândia, etc.) e Ásia (Coreia do Sul, Japão). A partir do diagnóstico realizado, foi observada a existência de Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (FCS) determinantes para o seu funcionamento. Foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa qualitativa através de entrevistas semiestruturadas em três municípios norte-americanos, o que possibilitou entender o programa PAYT em profundidade e explorar seus FCS. Foram desenvolvidos os respectivos estudos de caso e analisados de forma cruzada. O estudo examinou o contexto brasileiro para sugerir uma forma de replicar o sistema PAYT na realidade nacional. O estudo constatou que é possível tal replicação como Pague seu Descarte (PSD). Por fim, o trabalho recomenda e sugere como cada FCS poderia ser trabalhado para a melhor implantação do programa PSD. O roteiro de ações é um estímulo para que municípios adotem o programa e contribui para que estudos empíricos possam validar sua efetividade no Brasil. / The present paper analyzed the 'pay as you throw' program as the economic instrument present in thousands of North American municipalities for the management of solid waste with the objective of replicating it to Brazil. This system seeks the financial sustainability of solid waste management, the equity of service tax collection and the reduction of environmental impact. Through the 'polluter pays' concept, payment per unit is established for the cleaning service, similar the consumption of water and energy. The program aims at reducing the generation of waste and consequent reduction in expenses with collection and destination, in addition to the implementation of a specific tax collection. The direct consequences of the reduction in waste generation are the growth in the volume of recycled material, the reduction in waste landfill and less dependence on natural resources. Considering the perception that the PAYT system has succeeded in its objectives and has been present for more than 20 years in the United States and in countries in Europe and Asia. From the diagnosis made, it was observed the existence of Critical Success Factors that are determinant for its functioning. A qualitative research was developed through semi-structured interviews in three North American municipalities that made it possible to understand the PAYT program in depth and to explore its CSF. The respective case studies were developed and cross-analyzed. The study analyzed the Brazilian context to suggest a way to adapt the PAYT system to the national reality. The study found that such an adaptation as 'Pay Your Disposal' (PSD) is possible. Finally, the paper recommends and suggests how each CSF could be worked on for the best implementation of the PSD program. The actions roadmap is a stimulus for municipalities replicate the program and enable empirical studies to validate their effectiveness in Brazil.

This Master's thesis utilizes random forest and leave-one-out cross-validation to predict the success of megaprojects involving infrastructure. The goal was to enhance the efficiency of the design and engineering phase of the infrastructure and construction industries. Due to the small sample size of megaprojects and limitated data sharing, the lack of data poses significant challenges for implementing artificial intelligence for the evaluation and prediction of megaprojects. This thesis explore how megaprojects can benefit from data collection and machine learning despite small sample sizes. The focus of the research was on analyzing data from thirteen megaprojects and identifying the most influential data for machine learning analysis. The results prove that the incorporation of expert data, representing critical success factors for megaprojects, significantly enhanced the accuracy of the predictive model. The superior performance of expert data over economic data, experience data, and documentation data demonstrates the significance of domain expertise. In addition, the results demonstrate the significance of the planning phase by implementing feature selection techniques and feature importance scores. In the planning phase, a small, devoted, and highly experienced team of project planners has proven to be a crucial factor for project success. The thesis concludes that in order for companies to maximize the utility of machine learning, they must identify their critical success factors and collect the corresponding data. / Denna magisteruppsats undersöker följande forskningsfråga: Hur kan maskininlärning och insiktsfull dataanalys användas för att öka effektiviteten i infrastruktursektorns plannerings- och designfas? Denna utmaning löses genom att analysera data från verkliga megaprojekt och tillämpa avancerade maskininlärningsalgoritmer för att förutspå projektframgång och ta reda på framgångsfaktorerna. Vår forskning är särskilt intresserad av megaprojekt på grund av deras komplicerade natur, unika egenskaper och enorma inverkan på samhället. Dessa projekt slutförs sällan, vilket gör att det är svårt att få tillgång till stora mängder verklig data. Det är uppenbart att AI har potential att vara ett ovärderligt verktyg för att förstå och hantera megaprojekts komplexitet, trots de problem vi står inför. Artificiell intelligens gör det möjligt att fatta beslut som är datadrivna och mer informerade. Uppsatsen lyckas med att hanterard det stora problemet som är bristen på data från megaprojekt. Uppsatsen motiveras även av denna brist på data, vilket gör forskningen relevant för andra områden som präglas av litet dataurval. Resultaten från uppsatsen visar att evalueringen av megaprojekt går att förbättra genom smart användning av specifika dataattribut. Uppsatsen inspirerar även företag att börja samla in viktig data för att möjliggöra användningen av artificiell intelligens och maskinginlärning till sin fördel.

Dagens samhälle genomgår förändringar av betydande karaktär som i stor utsträckningdrivs av digitalisering. En av de mest påtagliga förändringarna som påverkar företagenär förändringarna i konsumentbeteendet. Dessa dramatiska förändringar utgör enbetydande utmaning för företag då traditionella metoder för kundhantering inte längre ärtillräckliga.Betydelsen av Customer Relationship Management (CRM), utifrån ett analytiskttillvägagångssätt, blir då avgörande för att bättre hantera kundrelationer i dagens högtkonkurrerande arbetsmiljö. Analytisk CRM är ett IT-beroende arbetssystem däranvändaren av data och analys utför processer och aktiviteter som gör att erbjudnaprodukter och tjänster i högre grad möter kundernas behov. Studiens övergripande målär att genom insikter förstå hur beslutsfattare upplever olika faktorers påverkan påderas förmåga att använda analytisk CRM för att stödja deras beslutsfattande samt desociotekniska förändringar som genereras av det. För att uppnå detta antogs enkvalitativ forskningsmetod där djupintervjuer genomfördes. Sju respondenter, medvarierande roller som Business Analyst, Data Scientist, Marknadschef och CRMansvarig intervjuades för att få deras insikter och erfarenheter om analytisk CRM.Studiens resultat och slutsats visar på att beslutsfattare anser kundcentrering ochinformationsteknik som avgörande faktorer för användningen av analytisk CRM.Kundcentreringen skapar en datadriven miljö som främjar datadriven beslutsfattandegenom användningen av data och analys. Det genererar sociotekniska förändringar påbåde djupare och ytmässiga nivåer. Informationstekniken spelar en avgörande roll iinsamling, hantering och analys av data. Detta påverkar beslutsprocesserna till att blidatadrivna och stärker beslutsfattarnas förmåga att fatta välgrundade beslut.Sociotekniska förändringar som generades av informationstekniken var på ytliga nivåer. / Society today is undergoing significant changes largely driven by digitalization. Onetangible change that impacts businesses is the shift in consumer behaviour. Thesedramatic changes pose a significant threat for companies as traditional methods forcustomer management are no longer sufficient.The significance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), based on an analyticalapproach, therefore becomes crucial to better manage customer relationships in today’shighly competing work environment. Analytical CRM is an IT-reliant work system whereparticipants of data and analysis perform processes and activities that enable offeredproducts and services to better meet the needs of customers. The overall goal of thestudy is to understand through insights how decision-makers' experience variousfactors' impact on their ability to utilize analytical CRM to support their decision making,as well as the sociotechnical changes generated by it. To achieve this, a qualitativeresearch method was adopted, where in-depth interviews were conducted. Sevenrespondents, with varying roles as Business Analyst, Data Scientist, Marketing Managerand CRM Manager, were interviewed to get their insights and experiences on analyticalCRM.The study’s results and conclusion show that decision-makers consider customercentricity and information technology (IT) as a pivotal factors' influencing the use ofanalytical CRM. Customer centricity fosters a data-driven environment that promotesdata-driven decision-making through the utilization of data and analysis. It generatessociotechnical changes on both deeper and surface structures. IT plays a critical role inthe collection, management, and analysis of data. This impacts decision-makingprocesses to become data-driven and enhances the decision-makers' ability to makedata-driven decisions. Sociotechnical changes generated by information technologywere at surface structures.

高階主管在面臨日益艱難的經濟情勢與經營環境〈主要是來自消費者(Customers)、競爭(Competition)及變動(Change)等3C的壓力）時，依賴傳統組織架構及報告系統來獲取決策資訊的作法，其有效性正受到強烈的質疑。高階主管資訊系統(Executive　Information Systems,EIS)可說是九○年代電腦資訊系統應用的新領域，它以易學易用的圖形使用者介面、多維分析及往下展開的特性，使高階主管能迅速存取各種攸關其企業成敗的關鍵性資訊。由於其親切易用，近年來EIS的應用更沿組織階層向下發展，成為Everyone Information Systems。在企業發展EIS日趨普遍的情況下，一套系統化的分析設計方法更形重要。 　　然而，在相關的文獻中對EIS的發展方法並沒有提出具體的執行步驟，只有概念性的描述，不易引導開發人員及高階主管將其策略理念轉換為資訊需求，而許多發展EIS失敗的例子，正是由於系統資訊需求不正確、時間與成本超出預算、操之過急及政治因素等所造成。因此實務界人士據其顧問經驗提出一個EIS快速發展方法，強調雛型系統的快速建立以爭取高階主管的持續支持及系統的後續發展。但因仍缺乏系統化的需求分析方法，系統發展者往往需經多次歷練才能領悟其中訣竅，也不易將個人經驗傳授於他人。因此雖然企業組織眾人已感受到EIS的重要性，相關的軟硬體工具也可親易用，而EIS的成功推展卻仍受到相當限制。 　　有鑑於此，本論文以符合文獻中對EIS發展方法之概念性描述的「資訊導向」觀念為基礎，並參考快速雛型系統發展方式，運用「中間擴散」(Middle-Out)方向，整合策略分析及資訊系統規劃的具體作法，發展一套結構化的EIS發展方法，稱為EISAD，含目標分析、關鍵成功要素分析、主要績效指標分析、資料分析、資料庫設計、輸出設計、轉換設計、程序及控制設計等步驟。並以金融業為例：說明此方法論的實際運用過程。以期在理論上對EIS發展方法論，及實務上對金融資訊系統應用層次之提昇有所貢獻。 / Due to the rapid changes of business environment and the increasing customer demands and competition pressure, it is getting important to have Executive Information Systems(EIS) to help executives access to high-level strategic information. Recently, EIS has even evolved down the organization hierarchy to become "Everyone Information Systems". The increasing EIS demand endues the needs for EIS development methodology. However, the literature contains only a few academic studies of EIS development methods which are broad and vague. The EIS development has not been researched in a rigorous and systematic manner. Many practitioners adopt a rapid prototyping approach to attract the executives for further support. Due to the lack of a systematic approach to help extracting the user requirements, it is usually up to the developer's experience to informally address the executives' information needs and this experience is hard to be transferred to others. In this thesis, we propose an EIS development methodology, called EISAD, based on the information-oriented concepts and middle-out system development direction. EISAD integrates related tools in strategic analysis and information systems planning as a structurized EIS development methodology. The step by step explanation of the EISAD is illustrated using a banking example.

Bibliography: pages 184-207 / Digital records are either stored in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or electronic content management (ECM), or managed without the benefit of either system. In many countries, public and private organisations have implemented ECM systems, some have implemented ERP systems and others generate digital records without the benefit of any controlled system. In most organisations such systems are not integrated resulting in duplication and fragmentation of records. The South African Water Utility company, Rand Water, has implemented both ERP and ECM systems. Investing in these systems as an organisation comes at a cost but it can add value when used optimally to improve the organisation’s productivity and efficiency. To achieve high productivity and efficiency, integration of an ERP system into an ECM system is a requirement but remains lacking. This qualitative study utilised the Actor Network Theory to explore the integration of ERP into ECM at the South African Water Utility company, Rand Water, with a view to developing a framework for integration of the systems. The study utilised a system analysis case design with fourteen interviews conducted at different levels in the organisation and diverse business units using ERP and ECM to perform their operational deliverables in line with the organisation’s business objectives. The interviews were augmented with data from document analysis of policies, specifications and functionalities of the systems to determine the feasibility of integration. The study established that the water utility company has implemented ERP systems (SAP) since 1994 and ECM system since 1991 (Papertrail and later IBM FileNet) with only information flow module integrated. The study suggested that to integrate ERP into ECM, human and non-human actors need to collaborate to ensure that the actor network being integrated is achieved. The study also presents a strategy discussion for integrating ERP into ECM. A further study on the transfer of digital records in ECM into archival custody is recommended. / Information Science / D. Phil. (Information Science)