No description available.

No description available.

Many domains and disciplines have claimed territory in the field, yet knowledge management remains an extraordinarily difficult field to describe. It has an enormous breadth of relevance and has been regarded as an irreconcilable collection of concepts and techniques, a vague subject that is difficult to clarify and delineate. Diversity has been seen to afflict practitioners; displaying disorganised activities, being difficult to explain, risky, diluted by rebadged technology, and theory diverging from practice. An inductive research strategy was used to study diversity and divergence. A literature review established that diversity and divergence have been observed by literature, but their causes have not been formally studied. A review of literature discussing practice found far more concern for implementation issues, and that private sector KM appeared more likely to be generic than public sector. A review of the backgrounds, trends and PEST factors found that the South African context was unique and its knowledge management should reflect that. The study of research employed a content analysis method applied to a large volume of literature. This discovered that literature has a predominantly practical focus, verified the presence of diversity in literature, and that knowledge management diversity is far broader than recognised in literature. No single model or framework comprehensively embraces all the diversity found without being impractically abstract. The study of practice compared the theoretically derived models to the solutions constructed by practice. This found the projects did not tailor their solutions to the unique environment, practitioners chose to use a small subset of theory, and there was a strong bias towards technology. A Grounded Theory Method was then applied to four large South African knowledge management initiatives. This identified twenty phenomena that influenced project direction, many of which inhibiting diversity and few having previously been considered as factors by research. It is concluded that knowledge management should be regarded as an umbrella label and that a body of knowledge approach is the most suitable path forward for both research and practice in light of the diversity and divergence.

Theory on entrepreneurship suggests that the relationship between an entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance is positive. In explaining performance, entrepreneurship researchers have focused on its financial aspects, paying less attention on firm growth as a nonfinancial performance dimension. Moreover, when attempting to depict influences that reinforce this relationship, research attention emphasizes factors external to the firm, thus neglecting the effects of internal firm characteristics. In parallel, the resource based view, focusing on the nature and characteristics of internal firm assets, proclaims that the basis for achieving sustainable performance is related to the capacity to develop dynamic capabilities. As the debate on these higher order assets is emerging, the present study attempts to investigate their nature and performance implications by taking into account the unique physiognomy of small firms, presenting dynamic capabilities as aspects of firms' flexibility. Moreover, this study examines their complementary effects on the entrepreneurial orientation - small firm growth relationship, in terms of their moderating and collective effects. Drawing from a sample of 143 Greek small firms, analysis demonstrated that: a) an entrepreneurial orientation contributes to small firm growth, b) dynamic capabilities have positive effects on small firm growth, c) the entrepreneurial orientation - small firm growth relationship is influenced by dynamic capabilities and d) speed of responsiveness emerges as the most fundamental dynamic capability both in terms of its direct effects to performance as well as its moderating effect on the entrepreneurial orientation - small firm growth relationship. These results contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by demonstrating a unified picture that depicts a series of key competencies, offering a conceptual and empirical path to better understand the uniqueness of smaller organisations

Trade facilitation is a concept which considers how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved to reduce associated cost burdens and maximise efficiency while safeguarding legitimate regulatory objectives. It has recently received considerable attention in the context of security, trade policy, development and customs modernisation programmes. Yet, very little research has been conducted to examine the complex cross-border environment in which business and government stakeholders interact. This thesis presents a case study of the current UK cross-border environment, introducing trade facilitation as an aspect of supply chain management (SCM). Guided by seven research propositions, its aim is to show that the relationship between business and government can be understood within an extended version of SCM theory. Drawing on interview data collected from representative stakeholders at UK ports, practitioner observations and a survey targeted at UK importers, the thesis offers: a comprehensive trade facilitation review; a detailed analysis of the UK cross-border environment; revealing accounts of operational practices and transaction cost at the UK's borders (ports); and accounts of how trade facilitation is implemented. Although this montage is UK focused, the findings will be recognisable to practitioners in cross-border operations and policy elsewhere. The thesis holds that there are three elements to trade facilitation research. The first takes a systems view that looks at how business and government actors can improve day-to-day operations. The second takes an institutional view, which holds that the regulatory environment, in which cross-border operations take place, can be influenced. The third element considers the interests of actors in shaping the cross-border environment. The thesis offers a timely addition to SCM theory and consideration to the question of how to implement trade facilitation programmes at local, national, regional and international levels.

Nowadays, the activities of "Performance Management" have spread very broadly in actually every part of business and management. There are numerous practitioners and researchers from very different disciplines, who are involved in exploring thedifferent contents of performance management. In this thesis, some relevant historic developments in performance management are first reviewed. This includes various theories and frameworks of performance management. Then several management science techniques are developed for assessing performance management, including new methods in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Soft System Methodology (SSM). A theoretical framework for performance management and its practical procedures (five phases) are developed for "classic" organizations using soft system thinking, and the relationship with the existing theories are explored. Eventually these results are applied in three case studies to verify our theoretical development. One of the main contributions of this work is to point out, and to systematically explore the basic idea that the effective forms and structures of performance management for an organization are likely to depend greatly on the organizational configuration, in order to coordinate well with other management activities in the organization, which has seemingly been neglected in the existing literature of performance management research in the sense that there exists little known research that associated particular forms of performance management with the explicit assumptions of organizational configuration. By applying SSM, this thesis logically derives some main functional blocks of performance management in 'classic' organizations and clarifies the relationships between performance management and other management activities. Furthermore, it develops some new tools and procedures, which can hierarchically decompose organizational strategies and produce a practical model of specific implementation steps for "classic" organizations. Our approach integrates popular types of performance management models. Last but not least, this thesis presents findings from three major cases, which are quite different organizations in terms of management styles, ownership, and operating environment, to illustrate the fliexbility of the developed theoretical framework.

Within information systems governance, there has been intense and at times, heated discussion on whether the deployment of information systems frameworks enhance or hinder organisational maturity. Some authors advocate that frameworks provide guidelines for the evaluation of information processes, while others argue that information systems governance is qualitative and that distillation into a set of predefined processes freezes an organisation, which has to exist in a fluid and dynamic environment. The research endeavours to identify the effects of information systems frameworks on organisational maturity in the identified areas of importance and influence in information systems governance. The scope of this research focuses on three case studies in order to evaluate maturity levels within identified areas, which entailed periodic meetings with stakeholders, such as commissioning managers, clients and delivery staff who were chosen as being key to implantation, along with the development and completion of framework and maturity questionnaires. The object of the study is to critically evaluate the use of information systems frameworks and their impact on organizational maturity; identify any propositions or sub-questions derived from each research question and the measures to be used to investigate the propositions; identify problems associated with the deployment of information systems frameworks resulting in poor adoption and Distinguish between those maturity characteristics, which either promote or hinder the success in bringing the implementation of information systems framework initiatives to favourable completion, for example, degree of maturity, the maturity of processes, people and organisational climate. The major findings of this research indicate that there are low levels of maturity in organisations, low levels of information systems initiative delivery and that the use of information systems frameworks does not impact on organisational maturity unless maturity as a goal is an initiative outcome, however respondent replies placed high importance on information systems initiative delivery. This research contribution to existing knowledge by addressing the question; Does the use of regulatory frameworks in information systems frameworks enhance or hinder organisational maturity. An analysis of the findings, indicate that they have the potential to enhance maturity. However, there was little evidence of a link between frameworks and maturity. Organisational maturity should be a goal within its own right. The effects of low levels of organisational maturity on information systems initiatives have a negative impact on information systems initiative delivery. Historically, business and information systems structures within organisations, have, for the most part, operated in isolation from each other. Each structure does not have a clear understanding of the contributions and requirements of the other. It may be time for those in the upper echelons of organisational management to have the vision and discipline required to adopt proven maturity models in order to create profitable synergy between business initiatives and information systems initiatives. By doing so, this will build firm foundations on which will rest the organisational architecture that will be adaptable enough to match the pace of technological advancements, so that their information systems initiatives consistently support their organisational goals and strategies.

There is currently a trend for companies to invest in Business intelligence (BI) systems and integrate them with their original ERP systems in order to enhance their management decision-making capability. Even though much attention has been paid to the decision-making benefits of integrated systems in practice, limited academic research has investigated the issue of decision-making improvement. Therefore. the motivation for this study is to examine the impact of integrated ERP and BI (abbreviated as ERPBI) systems on decision-making and overall organisational performance, and to explore the relationship between decision-making performance and organisational performance. The study introduces a comprehensive measurement instrument for assessing the impact of ERPBI systems on both decision-making and organisational performance. A survey was conducted involving 108 companies in the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. The results of the survey indicate firstly, that ERPBI system usage in organisations is positively related to decision-making performance. Secondly, decision-making performance can mediate the effect of ERPBI system usage on organisational performance. Thirdly, organisations using ERPBI systems achieve higher levels of decision-making and organisational performance compared to organisations which only use ERP systems. The theoretical implications of the research include developing multidimensional measurement scales to assess decision-making performance and organisational performance. The decision-making performance construct consists of five dimensions: decision-making process, system quality, data quality & system reliability. decision communication and system flexibility. Based on the balanced scorecard approach developed by Kaplan and Norton, the organisational performance construct consists of four dimensions: financial, customer, internal process, and learning & growth perspectives. The measurement scales were tested using rigorous statistical methods including convergent validity, discriminant validity, reliability, and the validation of second-order constructs. The development of these measurements is expected to stimulate and facilitate theory development and empirical investigation in this field. The work facilitates understanding of the current adoption rate of ERPBI systems and the characteristics of those adopted in Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Moreover. the survey instrument of the study could be employed in the post-implementation phase of ERP or ERPBI systems as a diagnostic mechanism to assess whether anticipated decision-making benefits were realised, to examine whether the usage of the new system improved the overall firm's performance, and to explore how to further improve decision-making and organisational performance.

The main focus of this study is on the impact of vertical knowledge transfer from Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) to indigenous Polish suppliers. It concentrates on the type of knowledge transferred by foreign subsidiaries and acquired by local suppliers as well as to the extent to which vertical linkages increase the capacity of local firms helping them to create new knowledge. The data analysed were collected through a mail survey and semi-structured interviews with two groups of firms: foreign subsidiaries and locallyowned suppliers in the Polish automotive sector. Using firm-level data both the type and extent of knowledge transferred by foreign subsidiaries and acquired by suppliers are analysed. The context of influencing factors such as inter-firm relationships and firm-level characteristics was taken into consideration. Furthermore, the impact of knowledge acquisition on local firms' capabilities and potential for new knowledge creation IS investigated. Using a sample of 64 companies (23 foreign subsidiaries and 41 locally owned suppliers) empirical evidence shows that foreign subsidiaries transfer knowledge to their Polish suppliers, and that locally owned suppliers, particularly those with a higher degree of technological penetration, are able to create new knowledge as result of their business interaction with foreign owned customers. The type of knowledge most frequently transferred/acquired comprises organisational and managerial know-how as well as product technology support. Looking at influential factors, empirical evidence shows that (a) subsidiary characteristics (autonomy in supply related decisions, role, age) influence the transfer of knowledge to suppliers, and also relationship characteristics (quality of relationship between subsidiary and local firms) playa relevant role in stimulating the transfer process; (b) relationship characteristics (length and quality of relationship) influence the acquisition of knowledge by domestic suppliers; (c) knowledge acquisition influences positively the performance improvement of locally owned suppliers; (d) locally owned suppliers characteristics (R&D intensity) and relationship characteristics (quality of relationship) have a positive influence on the creation of new knowledge. The key contributions of this study are twofold: it provides a comprehensive view of buyer-supplier knowledge transfer, taking both foreign subsidiaries and locally owned suppliers into account, and it proposes a framework that links knowledge transfer to absorption and impact on firms' competitiveness and innovativeness.

The integrated governance model was introduced in NHS organisations as part of the government's initiative to improve governance arrangements which were in silos. Alpha, as part of the larger NHS, embarked on the implementation of integrated governance immediately after it was publicised. This thesis explores the various aspects of organisational change involved in the adoption of a new governance framework. In particular, this thesis focuses on understanding the underlying reasons which trigger the need for change, explaining the process of change involved in the conceptualisation and installation of the integrated governance approach, and understanding organisational responses to change and the subsequent implications of the operationalisation of the new governance approach to the functioning of the board. The sensemaking approach is set out as an overarching theoretical framework to explain the empirical findings at Alpha. The sensemaking approach also borrows insights from the 'institutional context' and 'active agency' arguments to reinforce understanding of the factors that shape organisational change. Furthermore, it highlights the notion of ambiguity as an antecedent for sensemaking. This thesis argues that the adoption of integrated governance is a strategic response to institutional pressure to gain legitimacy from its higher governing bodies. The timing of the adoption, which was almost instantaneous despite the lack of guidelines from the government, suggests that the substantial driving force pushing the integrated governance agenda was internal. This argument led to the identification of the role of the institutional entrepreneur as the main impetus for organisational change. The ambiguous notion of integrated governance also triggers the sensemaking process enacted by the institutional entrepreneur. The seven properties of the sensemaking process (Weick, 1995) were appraised in explaining integrated governance change. Some properties were appraised more explicitly and appeared more relevant than others in explaining the change occurrence. Because of the context in which the board operated, the use of the integrated governance approach to inform the board process during public board meetings was downplayed. Arguably, understanding the operationalisation of integrated governance inadvertently sheds light onto the actual processes, challenges, complexities and dilemmas of the workings of a public sector board like Alpha's. In conclusion, studying the integrated governance change exemplifies the external and internal factors that jointly explain the nature, form and timing of change at Alpha. And appraising the outcome of change penetrates the 'black box' myth of board working, giving insights into what happens behind the closed doors of the boardroom. 8