A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg 1991 / The purpose of this thesis were to investigate the effective strategic options aVailable to professional service orgtanizations in the face of the challenging and changing south African environment. Since these organizations are viewed as integrated archetypes of organizational form, strategy and the personal Characteristics, perceptions and values of their top management, they were researched from this perspective. The professions are also viewed as progressing along a continuum of industrialzation, as theoretically defined, and the progress of the organizations along this route was examined to establish their position as a predictor of possible future trends.A model of the effectiveness of professtional service organizations in the face of the environmental challenges is also tested. The research was conducted with the assistance of the partners and clients of 56 prominent organizations from six professions in south Africa, covering three different industrial sectors, the commercial sector, the building and construction sector and the health care sector. Theory indicated certaint possible adaptive options aVailable to organizations in general, but due to the lack of speCific theoretically researched models for professional organizations, an inductive approach was taken to the research problem. In this way, the research findings would dictate the eventual correspondence to the theory. Multiple operationalism was used as a research approach in different stages of the research process, as was triangulation of research methods to arrive at the research results. The findings indicate that there are five groups of professional organizations representing different configurations of adaptation to the South African environmental circumstances. Using the model developed in the research to measure organizational effectiveness, it was found that three of these groups appear to be effective, while the other two are less effective. Some of the attributes of these five groups were contingent on the type of industry and the type of profession. The profiles of the partners provided a particularly fertile area of theory development and a number of propositions were generated which can be tested in future research. It was concluded that an integrated typology Of five groups of strategy, organization and the profile of the top management team did exist and that three of the options proved to be more effective that the other two. Further guidelines for the management of professional organizations, included the examination of the consequences of co-operative strategies, particularly in the light of a possible increase in consolidation within the industries, are given.

This report evaluates the business plan at Eskom's Matla power station by comparing it to grounded theory to establish whether the strategies selected prepare the station to be competitive in a commercialised environment. It is assumed that the key success factors in a commercialised environment would be low cost operation and service delivery to meet customer demands. It is shown that the business plan is deficient in many regards, but the strategies selected are adequate in preparing the station for operation in a commercial environment. A questionnaire is used to determine management buy-in to the strategies selected to gauge support for the strategies. Reasons for strategies not meeting all objectives are also looked at and recommendations are made to improve· the business plan and the implementation of the strategies selected. The question of whether the strategies support corporate strategy is answered by comparing the vision, mission and strategies selected by the station to the vision and mission of Eskom Holdings and Eskom Generation. The findings here were that, although long and awkward, the mission statement supports corporate mission, while the vision contradicts corporate vision. Matla's vision supports growth through diversification while Eskom Holdings and Eskom Generation focus on core business. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Thesis (M. Sc. (Urb. Plan.))--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Management Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Most of the conceptual and empirical work to date leads one to conclude that the contingency approach to understanding strategic planning systems is still in a formative stage. Overall, there seems to be few potential generalizations that emerge from these contingency based studies and even these few are tentative in nature. Furthermore, it seems that most of the contingency based studies had inadequate research designs. This inadequacy probably contributed to the relatively low degree of conclusiveness that has emerged from these studies. This study is intended to be a step forward in filling some of the gaps revealed in the literature. Its purpose is to better understand what strategic conditions need to be considered when designing strategic planning systems. The research questions triggering this research were: (1) What is the impact of the external environment on the design of strategic planning systems? (2) What variables determine the intensity, and structure of strategic planning? (3) What variables determine the role of the corporate planning staff, and CEOs in the planning process? The data were collected by a mail questionnaire and from published data of 174 firms (a response rate of 43.5%). A contingency model linking some contextual variables of business firms to a number of design parameters of strategic planning systems was developed. The findings point out that both the extent and different design parameters (e.g. the planning horizon) of planning systems are influenced by the unpredictability of environmental changes. In addition, other contextual variables such as organization technology are found to influence the extent and structural characteristics of strategic planning systems. Finally, the roles of both the corporate planning staff and chief executive officers in the planning process are identified. These roles are found to be influenced by a variety of contextual variables and non-contextual variables such as the type of industry.

In this dissertation, strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship are combined in a single empirical research investigating the influence of business strategic management practices on organisational entrepreneurial orientation. Understanding this relationship has progressively become crucial in today’s hypercompetitive global environment where businesses, regardless of national location, size, age and industry, are facing incessant and dynamic change. Specifically, the influence of strategic management practices on corporate entrepreneurship in medium to large corporations in the financial and business services sector in South Africa is analysed by testing hypotheses that predict the relationship between strategic management dimensions of locus of planning, scanning intensity, planning flexibility, planning horizon, and strategy control attributes, and entrepreneurial orientation. By applying factor, cluster and multiple regression statistical analyses, the study made four key findings. First, the results confirm that selected dimensions of strategic management practices influence the entrepreneurial orientation of firms. This in turn effect the position a firm occupies along a conceptual conservative-entrepreneurial continuum. Second, the study indicates that firms with perceived higher entrepreneurial orientation exhibit better performance measures. This finding supports the thesis that entrepreneurial orientation is an integral component for business performance in attaining sustainable competitive advantage, achieving above-average earnings and wealth creation. Third, a methodology that combined strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship in a single research generated new knowledge confirming that entrepreneurial orientation is a key construct in both subdisciplines. Fourth, the results show that divergent organisational entrepreneurial orientation profiles help in classifying firms along the entrepreneurial continuum. Furthermore, the research made a provisional finding that there are four possible distinct and excusive clusters of business groups along the conservative-entrepreneurial continuum in determining corporate entrepreneurial orientation in organisations

Key words: supply chain management, capacity planning, spot market, long-term contract, contract theory / The long-term supply commitment is made deal through strategic interactions between the players of the supply chain. Game theoretical analysis is conducted to study the bargaining behaviors of the players. Optimal contract design can be obtained in various bargaining power scenarios: Contract Manufacturer Stackelberg, OEM Stackelberg, and Vertical Nash game. We also extend the analysis for single Contract Manufacturer and single contractual customer to multiple customers. The multi-units auction mechanism is also discussed briefly. / This thesis studies the problem of strategic capacity planning for make-to-stock manufacturing systems in the presence of a spot market and a long-term contractual channel in a continuous-time infinite horizon setting. The spot market is run by a B2B online exchange where the sales and prices are random over time while the long-term contractual channel is established by a structured contract in which the price and volume to be delivered are pre-negotiated. / Typically, we consider a supply chain which consists of an upstream manufacturer (e.g. Contract Manufacturer) and a downstream manufacturer (e.g. OEM). The two parties of the supply chain are linked by a long-term contract and both of the parties can trade in the spot market. To study the strategic behaviors of the contract manufacturer and the OEM, we first characterize the optimal operating strategies of the players under a specific contract and then analyze the influence of the contract terms on the optimal policies and the expected profit functions. We find that the optimal contracting strategy of the contract manufacturer can be characterized by a supply curve, which is a price-volume pair and strictly upward slopping, and the optimal contracting strategy of the OEM can be characterized by a demand curve, which is strictly downward slopping. / Pang, Zhan. / "August 2007." / Adviser: Youyi Feng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: B, page: 1305. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left">This study has evaluated the strategic planning and management of the University of Namibia. The crucial objective was to assess the strategic planning process of the University of Namibia to see if the strategic plans were properly developed and also determine how the Northern Campus feature in the overall strategic plan of the University of Namibia. The research has used the body of knowledge on strategic planning and management to investigate the problem. The secondary objective was to develop a theoretical understanding of strategic planning and management. The study will record and develop a case study on the strategic planning of the University of Namibia, and see how planning has been able to address the issue of development. On the basis of the findings, the research has suggested alternative guiding principles of the planning process. At conclusion the research has made numerous recommendations for the decision makers on how properly planning process can be followed.</p> </font></p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.