In recent years, effective logistics management has been recognised as a key opportunity to improve both the profitability and competitive performance of firms. Success in the global economy is largely dependent on a company's ability to achieve a superior global logistics competitive advantage. As one of the biggest emerging markets, China represents an enormous potential for companies and the opportunities available for those who succeed in organising an effective supply chain in China are outstanding (Jenkins, 2001). Compared with its counterparts in developed countries, Chinese logistics industry is still in its infancy. All organisations that wish to obtain a global competitive advantage by operating in China must address logistics and supply chain problems. The aims of this research are sixfold: 1) to establish worldwide trends in developing and implementing modem logistics and supply chain. management (SCM), classify the current state of logistics infrastructure in China, Chinese logistics and supply chain management provision, and to compare with those prevalent in western economies, 2) to determine the potential increase in Chinese logistics demand following China's accession to the World Trade Organization, 3) by examining the existing and potential barriers to the supply of logistics services in China, sets out to identify and develop effective logistics and SCM strategies and models appealing to the specific market environment, 4) to contribute to the understanding of both domestic and foreign companies' logistics requirements, 5) to evaluate a logistics service provider (LSP) selection method and rules to enhance the competitive advantage for companies, 6) to contribute to the understanding of a way to develop a modem logistics and SCM system in China. The new contribution to knowledge generated by this research fulfils aims 3,4,5,and 6. To obtain desired qualitative information, a partly structured, partly open-ended interview was developed to enable key questions to be answered, such as companies' existing logistics strategies, major barriers to obtain logistics services, logistics requirements, logistics performance, current collaborative relationships with LSPs, and future development in China's logistics industry. 24 companies in China were interviewed. These are comprised of ten domestic manufacturers, seven foreign manufacturers and seven LSPs. All the companies were interviewed face to face in Mandarin/Cantonese depending on their requirements. All the interviewees were from senior management. A combination of note taking, recording and transcription was used for all interviews. Two case studies were applied for gaining depth in the findings of the interviews. Major issues were further explored such as effective logistics and SCM strategies and models, and a way to develop the modem logistics and SCM system in China. The two selected cases included one domestic and one foreign manufacturer. The observation technique was used for collecting behavioural and attitudinal data in two companies' operation process, particularly in their LSPs selection process and problem solving strategies. From the primary research, the existing and potential barriers to the supply of logistics services in China are examined; two effective logistics and SCM strategies and models are identified and developed. The domestic and foreign companies' logistics requirements in detail are analysed. An LSP selection method for most companies operating in China is developed in a practical way. Three main elements of core competitiveness in logistics cooperation at three different lev~ls are identified. The rules to enhance companies' competitive advantage are analysed. The primary research contributes to the understanding of a way to develop a modem logistics and SCM system in China.

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In this thesis I examine the challenges of project-based innovation management in the context of a multinational pharmaceutical company. I focus on two case project teams and examine how the project structures facilitated the uptake of a radical innovation and the challenges that this new knowledge represents to the established organisational and social order of the pharmaceutical company. The radical innovation is the introduction of bio-science informed IT tools called bioinformatics tools in the pharmaceutical R&D process and has been the outcome of the advent of biotechnology and its incursion to the pharmaceutical industry. From the data there seems to be evidence to suggest that there has to be flexibility in project management when dealing with radical innovation. Furthermore, there has to be attention to the social and political dimensions of the company as they impact the direction and success of project-based innovation management efforts.

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The concept of dynamic capabilities has been proposed as a means for addressing how a firm might sustain competitive advantages over time in the turbulent environments by extending, modifying and reconfiguring its resource base. The research focus on dynamic capabilities has been gradually diffused from conceptual discussion to practical applications. This research work focuses specifically on Chinese commercial vehicle industry. It has conducted three in-depth case studies at leading Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturers, namely, Foton, Youngman and Sinotruk. The dynamic and vibrant industry environments and company characteristics provide a good context to explore the nature and mechanism of dynamic capabilities at the firm level. There are four research findings. Firstly, this research develops a process based framework of dynamic capabilities grounded in the empirical settings. The framework includes five phases: scanning, identifying, positioning, leveraging and restructuring. The concept of dynamic capabilities is viewed as sequenced processes that enable firms to address the changing environment to achieve and sustain firm’s competitive advantage. Secondly, it is found that at the SBU or new product development level, those five phases of dynamic capabilities entail orchestration in strategic, operational and organisational levels. Thirdly, three enablers – learning, networking and entrepreneuring – have been identified that are critical to facilitate the functioning of dynamic capabilities on the firm level. Fourthly, a maturity model of dynamic capabilities is constructed, involving aspects and approaches of each of the five phases. The maturity model can be used as a benchmark for comparison and as an aid to understanding firm’s dynamic capabilities.

The literature on offshore outsourcing (OSO) has focused mainly on countries with large software export markets, such as India, while neglecting other developing countries which apparently lack the resources thought necessary to succeed in software development. Globalisation is seen to offer an opportunity for the development of IT industries in these neglected contexts, however, mainly due to the prevalence of information and communication networks. With the ongoing debate on globalisation and its contested effects, though, it would seem important and timely to study OSO within such under-researched contexts. This thesis thus focuses on proximity-based models of offshore outsourcing, such as nearshore and onshore outsourcing, which represent arrangements that seek to exploit geographical closeness to the client. In promoting locational competitive advantage, they seek differentiation from traditional offshore models in temporal, spatial and cultural terms. As a means of examining these claims, this thesis will explore the themes of time, space, culture and distance in OSO. An exploratory approach was employed incorporating both survey and case study methodologies. Three groups of offshore software industry stakeholders were surveyed to provide a broad-based background to the study, while three specific cases of proximity outsourcing were investigated using interpretive methods. A grounded approach to theory was adopted using the concepts of time, space culture and distance as a guideline for analysis. The survey findings confirm an awareness by stakeholders of the significance of proximity, location and the persistence of cultural differences in OSO. The case results broadly reflect but also pose challenges to globalisation theories, such as increased economic and social integration, powerlessness of the state, economic development and the apparent irrelevance of space and time made possible by advances in IT. The thesis thus makes its contribution in both extending the debate on globalisation with respect of OSO in new contexts and adding to the under-researched area of spatio-temporal research in the IS field.

The importance of the exploratory ‘front-end’ of strategy is well established in fields such as foresight and knowledge management. However, it has received little consideration by roadmapping practioners and researchers. This thesis addresses this gap in understanding. Given the lack of previous research in this area, a grounded theory methodology is adopted, whereby a number of key concepts are identified and developed to lay the foundations for further investigation. The first of these is the concept of exploratory roadmapping, for which a new theoretical basis is advanced by making connections to previously unrelated concepts from the foresight and knowledge management literature. The design and application of an exploratory roadmapping process is also comprehensively described, explaining how roadmapping concepts, approaches and workshop techniques were refined and developed to create an exploratory roadmap for the consumer packaging sector. A key contribution is to structure and make connections between process activities and learning outcomes by establishing an abstracted theoretical framework to characterise the exploratory roadmapping process developed. The outputs of the roadmapping process are also investigated. A questionnaire survey validates the exploratory roadmapping process developed by establishing that the packaging roadmap was considered useful and applicable across the sector. Detailed analysis is also facilitated by robust and systematic methods for collecting, analysing and processing the outputs from workshops. A key finding is that the traditional approach for developing sector-level roadmaps, through a series of multi-organisation workshops, is potentially less comprehensive than a roadmap developed by a single organisation. Furthermore, the ability to identify a high consistency of knowledge between organisations contributes to the understanding of how to draw the boundaries for participation in a sector-level roadmapping activity.

In study of economic organisations, four questions seem rudimentary: 1) Why do we need the organisation like the firm, instead of the market, in many circumstances? 2) What are the factors that determine the inner structure of the firm ? Or, in what respect the firm is endowed with greater capacities than the market ? 3) What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of organisational substitution in the real world ? 4) Is the theory of organisational substitution, deriving from Coase's theory of the firm, applicable to analysis of economic reform under way in East Europe and the former Soviet Union (EEFSU) and China, and helpful to explain the consequent divergence in economic performance among these nations? Focusing on the first two issues - - the <I>existence</I> and the <I>organisation</I> of the firm, part one explores the nature of the firm as a governance structure and the determinants of the structure. Considering organisational substitution as a social process of organisational transformation instead of simply a choice of organisation, part two sets out to find the factors that would incur transition costs, i.e. the costs of changing organisation throughout the process of transition. Positive transition costs explain the stability or persistence of organisation, and the co-existence of efficient with inefficient organisations, etc. Assuming there are alternative approaches to reform, part three centres on the issue concerning rationality of approach to reform, specifying why and how rational choice of approach to reform has the purpose and effect of economising on transition costs, based on a comparative study of the "big bang" reform in EEFSU and the "gradual" reform in China, and a simulation of the evolutionary process of China's "gradual" transition to a market economy from the perspective of resource allocation.

In this thesis, we propose to use Monte Carlo (MC) simulation to assess maintenance down time (MDT), which cannot be assessed <I>a priori</I> by traditional MIL-STD-471 (or now MIL-HDBK-470), at the early design phase based on various maintainability and provisioning options. Also, by using MC, we can perform a more rigorous in-progress maintainability demonstration during the design reviews. By following the MC approach in the MDT assessment at the early design phase, we can study the cost item related to revenue loss <I>a prior</I> for a commercial system design. This thesis proposes the use of MC simulation to estimate the MDT and thus the downtime-orientated profit loss along with other LCC items at the early design phase. This extends the US military standards to provide an accurate overall picture of a commercial system life cycle aspect for both the manufacturer and the user in performing integrated logistic support design trade-off at the early design phase. In order to stress the importance of this cost item about profit loss and keep the original military LCC structure undisturbed, we append the profit loss to the LCC and make a new economic trade-off factor, the "life cycle revenue loss" (LCRL). This definition of LCRL is stressed from the point of view of the user's life time. With a simple three-module water-level-control system, we demonstrate how to use MC in logistic trade-off problems based on LCC and LCRL at the early design phase. Our research shows that LCRL is more sensitive than LCC in handling a commercial system with profit concerns. We also develop a MC inventory trade-off approach based on LCRL and show that we may use the LCRL to integrate the concerns of the manufacturer and the user.