Technological innovation and globalisation are driving profound economic, political and cultural changes. There is a widespread acknowledgement that organisations need to be more strategically flexible to cope with increased levels of competition and market change. The research reported here has two objectives. The first is that of identifying the causes of strategic flexibility in organisations, and the second being to implement methods of improving strategic flexibility. A model of decision-making behaviour has been developed, which identifies the areas of individual and group decision-making behaviour that affect strategic flexibility. The model has general applicability. A significant cause of strategic inflexibility is a behavioural. dysfunction in individuals that produces a much wider dysfunction in the organisation. The same model also provides the basis for the evaluation and improvement of such behaviours. This has led to the development of processes and tools to reduce the barriers to adopting high quality decision-making behaviour. However, individual behavioural. change, while being an essential foundation, is insufficient on its own to achieve high rates of organisational and technological adaptation at low levels of disruption. The second objective has been to implement a systematic process for integrating all players in a strategically flexible organisation. In the absence of a consistent, systematic process, particularly for organisational and technological innovation, a design model of the business has been originated and developed. This has been shown to be applicable to a wide range of organisational cultures and integrates recent trends in organisational thinking. Individual innovations in processes and tools, which have been central to the development and introduction of the design model, have been implemented in an organisation. These innovations are in the areas of innovation management, portfolio management, product targeting and target agreement, and are described to achieve wider application. The concept of the brand has been shown to be a powerful 'attractor' to develop an organisation's fundamental relationship with its environment in the long, medium and short term. Because the values of a brand represent basic human motivational values, they provide stability for long term planning and can align internal decision-making values, innovation and core competencies to the benefit of the organisation and their workers, their customers and the wider environment. The research work has shown that an organisation can meet the simultaneous requirements of design speed, knowledge reuse, semi-independent decision-making and creativity at the lowest possible level of the organisation. The concepts and tools are therefore valuable in supporting a step-change in the performance of conventional and virtual organisations. The modular partitioning of organisations, products and processes is compatible with the design model of the business, -and the strategies are synergistic. While modularity in a traditional organisation. could lead to decay and loss of strategic flexibility, its integration within the design model framework supports a dynamically unstable, but continuously innovative and long-lived organisation.

This thesis reports on a study conducted to investigate the relationship between the integration of mobile telephony services into micro-business processes and perceived enhanced business performance in a developing economy context, with detailed evidence drawn from a sample of 210 micro-businesses in Afghanistan and Cameroon. The research conceptualises, operationalises, and empirically tests an eclectic research model which integrates theory from the literature on the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), on information economics, on strategic management, on entrepreneurship, and on small business growth and business performance. The research data was collected through a questionnaire, and call data extracted from the mobile phone activity-logs of micro-business owner-managers. This data was supplemented by the use of carefully-chosen photographs. The collected data was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling Techniques (SEM) with the help of AMOS 17 and SPSS statistical packages. The study also used Latent Visual Data Analysis (LVDA) to corroborate the statistical outcomes of this analysis. The results of this study identified the ‘integration of mobile telephony services into micro-business operations’, the ‘entrepreneurial competence of micro-business owner-managers’ and the ‘micro-business environment’ as having a direct influence on perceived enhanced business performance because of their potential to enable substantial cost savings, provide greater integration of the internal and external environments of the business, increase operational flexibility and reduce information asymmetries. The results also identified that ‘micro-business environments’ in Afghanistan and Cameroon tend to have a negative relationship with enhanced business performance if not moderated by the use of mobile telephony services. Finally, given the importance of micro-businesses in stimulating economic growth in developing economies and their relatively high failure rates, and because of the fact that many micro-businesses perceive that the cost of mobile telephony services are ‘high-to-very high’, this research provides greater opportunity for a discussion of the kinds of intervention strategies that could be used to improve the business integration of mobile telephony services and could therefore enhanced business performance.

This thesis describes a technology selection framework for manufacturing technology selection. Technology selection has been identified as a major area of decision making in a company's manufacturing strategy and is highlighted as a manufacturing objective that can provide competitive advantage to a company. The research identifies the emergence of global supply chains as a major phenomenon that has revolutionised the global business environment. Considering the presence of global supply chains and their ever increasing importance the research has proposed a process for manufacturing technology selection keeping in view the supply chain perspective. The technology selection framework introduces the concept of risk evaluation of available technology alternatives for strategic technology selection. The risk associated with technology alternatives is evaluated in the shape of opportunities and threats. The decision making environment for technology selection is divided in a way to consider intra as well as inter-organisational factors. The classification of the decision making environment, inclusion of risk calculations and consideration of a supply chain perspective enables the developed technology selection framework to thoroughly evaluate a technology alternative before its strategic selection. The research presented in this thesis is composed of two main sections. The first section deals with the development of the technology selection framework, whereas the second section describes the application of the developed framework in an aerospace manufacturing company in detail. The application of the framework in industry helped in understanding the issues surrounding the technology selection process and provided an insight into how the existing technology selection processes can be improved and why it is necessary to address the supply chain factors functionally as well as holistically in manufacturing technology selection. The major contribution of this research is a technology selection framework integrating manufacturing and the supply chain. Academically the research establishes a link between manufacturing technology selection and the supply chain and emphasises the importance of alignment between manufacturing and supply chain objectives.

Drawing on data from Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004, this thesis assesses the uptake of High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs), the factors associated with the uptake of HPWPs and the relationship between HPWPs and performance (also termed the "HPWP-performance link") in small and medium-sized firms. The findings show that medium-sized firms have a higher uptake of HPWPs compared to small firms in general. They also show that the extent of the use of HPWPs in small firms tends to be influenced more by internal than external factors, while the opposite holds true for medium-sized firms. Although the widely reported HPWP-performance link holds in large firms, the findings suggest only a specific bundle of HPWPs seeking to develop opportunities for employees to participate in management decision making and use their skills and abilities at work are related to improved financial performance in small firms. However, neither the overall use of HPWPs nor any specific bundles of practices are associated with better performance in medium-sized firms. In medium-sized firms, some HPWPs are positively associated with performance and some others are negatively associated with performance. These findings suggest the HPWP-performance link in medium-sized firms is distinct from that in small and large firms. Overall, the findings suggest small and medium-sized firms should be analyzed as two distinct groups and the HPWP-performance link is not universal. The lack of a consistent HPWP-performance link in medium-sized firms has important implications for HRM theory, the HR advice that medium-sized firms should be offered, and government support and employment policies targeted at medium-sized firms.

Energy is a resource of fundamental importance and if there is one thing that the world is going to need more in the future, it's energy. Increased energy demand is a major factor for the energy industry to invest in innovative technologies by developing processes and products that deliver improved efficiency and environmental performance. With oil continues to satisfy a major part of the energy needs, it is important for oil companies to invest wisely in Research and Development (R&D) projects. Literature is full of methods that address the problem of R&D portfolio selection. Despite their availability, R&D portfolio selection methods are not used widely. This is due to lacking several issues identified by researchers and practitioners. As a result, R&D portfolio selection is still an important area of concern. This research proposes a multi-attribute decision making methodology for selecting R&D portfolios with a case study of implementation of the methodology in the Saudi oil refining industry. Driven by the research question and some gaps identified in the related literature review, the methodology has been modified and improved. The methodology includes methods and techniques that aim to give insights to decision makers to evaluate individual projects and select the R&D portfolio. The methodology is divided into three stages with different steps in each stage by combining and modifying two well-known multi-attribute decision making methods: the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The case study describes further methods such as Integer Linear Programming (ILP) and Monte Carlo simulation for generating data to test the validation and operationality of the methodology. It is designed in a step-by-step, easy to apply way and considers the decision making type in a national oil company. It includes the preferences of the decision makers and takes into consideration the multiple, monetary and non- monetary, attributes that ought to be considered to satisfy not only the objectives of the Saudi national company (Aramco), but the strategic goals of the Saudi government as well.

To stay competitive and sustain long-term profitability, Business Process Improvement (BPI) methodologies have become strategically important for financial institutions in recent years. These include well-known approaches such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Six Sigma and Lean. The customer-focused themes of BPI should be of particular interest to service practitioners, in order to achieve both process excellence and superlative customer service. The adoption of BPI in the financial services sector, however, still appears to be at an early stage. There is limited empirical research reported in the academic literature. This research therefore explored the existing phenomena of BPI adoption through case studies, carried out in leading Thai financial institutions. The study was carried out in three main phases, following a literature review of BPI and service quality issues, which provided the initial theory context. First, three case companies were investigated to find out how the financial institutions introduced BPI, and conducted BPI projects. The resulting insights helped to develop a theory model that aimed to provide understanding of the outcomes of BPI initiatives, in this context. The second research phase refined and validated the proposed theory model, aiming to elevate the conceptual level of the findings. The empirical data was analysed, by iterating between observed evidence and the literature, also using experts’ comments and suggestions. In the final phase, the key relationships in the evolving theory model were established and verified, employing further empirical evidence from revisiting the case studies, specifically focusing on four important areas of financial services. A final theory model was proposed, and in a further development aimed at practitioners, this model was used as the basis for a proposed BPI evaluation framework, taking account of current performance measurement approaches. This research contributes to knowledge in the area of quality management, in particular to BPI methodology and service quality for the financial services sector, but potentially also in a broader context. The main contribution is the development of a theory model to explain how financial institutions adopt BPI methodology for improving service quality, providing a better understanding for managers in accurate targeting of the operations process to be improved, through BPI adoption. The model also provides a constructive foundation for further development of a practical BPI evaluation framework, at the project level. The proposed theory model is, therefore, considered a basis for further empirical work, both qualitative and quantitative, relating to the BPI in the services context.

This research studies Mass Customization as an operations strategy and model. Opinions differ over whether MC should be a label for a specific business model in which customers select from pre-engineered product options, or whether it should be interpreted as a performance goal that has wider relevance. In this research it is viewed as the latter and a manufacturing enterprise is considered to be a mass customizer if it gives its customers the opportunity to have a product any time they want it, anywhere they want it, any way they want it and in any volume they want it, and at the same time brings the benefits that are associated with mass operations, in particular those of price and quality. In the literature MC is not one operations strategy but a family of sub-strategies and there are several classification schemes, most of which delineate the sub-strategies by the point along the value chain that customization takes place. Other than for one scheme for which correlations between technologies and MC types has been sought by means of a survey, no progress has been made in developing operations configurations models. Through the study of primary and secondary case studies several classification schemes are appraised and a new framework of five fundamental operations Modes is developed. The Modes are the kernel of a theory of MC, with the other elements being: - A model for Mode selection that uses four factors to determine when a Mode is suitable; - Indicative models of the information infrastructures of two Modes that demonstrate the Modes to be different and that they can be a foundation for configurations models; - A set of product customizable attributes that reveals the multifaceted nature of customization and extends the terminology of customization; - The delta Value concept that links the motivation for customizing attributes to differences between customers. A theory of MC is proposed, which postulates: - An MC strategy is relevant when there are differences across customers in how they value the configurations of customizable attributes; - There are five operational sub-strategies of MC; - The choice of sub-strategy for an enterprise is contingent on its organisation and its business environment. One of the five modes, Catalogue MC, is the Mode that is commonly associated with MC. It is the Mode in which all product variants are fully engineered before being ordered. A diverse set of order fulfilment models of relevance to this Mode are reviewed and organised into four types: fulfilment from stock; fulfilment from a single decoupling point; fulfilment from several decoupling points; and fulfilment from a floating decoupling point. The term floating decoupling point is coined to describe systems that can allocate a product to a customer wherever the product lies, whether it be a finished product in stock, a part processed product or a product that does not yet exist but is in the production plan. In the automotive sector this system has been called Virtual-Build-to-Order (VBTO) and in this research the generic characteristics of VBTO systems are described and key concepts developed, in particular the concept of reconfiguration flexibility. Discrete event simulation and Markov models are developed to study the behaviour of the VBTO fulfilment model. The non-dimensional ratio of product variety / pipeline length is identified to be a fundamental indicator of performance. By comparing the VBTO system to a conventional system that can fulfil a customer from stock or by BTO only, the role of pipeline fulfilment is identified and a surprising observation is that it can cause stock levels and average customer waiting time to be higher than in a conventional system. The study examines also how customer differences, in particular their willingness to compromise and their aversion to waiting, affect fulfilment and how fulfilment is dependent on reconfiguration flexibility.

Manufacturing systems face now more than ever the effects of an uncertain environment, which is triggered by constantly changing customer needs. Numerous approaches have been proposed to provide manufacturing systems with the capability to satisfactorily perform under situations of uncertainty, particularly by improving their level of responsiveness. Manufacturing flexibility is a dimension of responsiveness which aims at reacting to unpredictable events with little penalty on performance. Nonetheless, there is a strong perception that the achievement of manufacturing flexibility exclusively depends on the availability of highly automated equipment. This is a misleading belief considering that manufacturing systems are a collection of interacting components sharing a common objective and therefore there must be alternative system’s aspects, other than automation, contributing to the achievement of manufacturing flexibility. This study expands on existing knowledge by exploring the concept of manufacturing flexibility through the investigation of the dimension of uniformity. The analysis of this dimension has provided a valuable perspective from which to improve understanding of flexibility in manufacturing and identify alternative ways to achieve it. By combining the analytical capabilities of discrete event simulation, statistical design of experiments and optimisation, it has been possible to identify specific factors, optimal system configurations and response trade-offs that, within the context of semi-automated cellular manufacturing systems, constitute a significant contribution in the attainment of manufacturing flexibility.

This research aimed to identify any common factors that have enabled and/or motivated SMEs to successfully implement ISO 14001 whilst the majority have not. It also identified what challenges and barriers SMEs face in doing so and how some have overcome these. The existing literature suggests that the majority of SMEs perceive their environmental impacts to be proportional to their size; have a poor understanding of environmental issues; have a poor awareness of environmental regulations; do that have the necessary expertise or leadership to address environmental issues and that SMEs with an environmental management system such as ISO 14001 are very much the minority. The main factors that influenced whether an SME had implemented ISO 14001 were: competitive advantage, regulatory compliance, supply chain pressures, leadership, expertise, resources and external support. This research used qualitative analysis of interviews with managers and directors from 8 SMEs with ISO 14001 and 4 without. All of the SMEs were based in the West Midlands or Staffordshire. Interviews were also conducted with 3 organisations offering support to businesses on environmental issues and with 1 large business who was engaging their suppliers (which included SMEs within this sample) on environmental issues. The research found that there were four main factors that enabled or motivated the SMEs to implement ISO 14001, these were: leadership, supply chain pressures, external support and SMEs' history and experience of accredited management systems. The main challenges that these business had to overcome and that prevented the other SMEs from achieving ISO 14001 were: achieving regulatory compliance, perceived financial cost, lack of perceived competitive advantage, access to relevant and affordable support and for those SMEs without ISO 14001 there was very little perceived external pressure or need for them to do so.

This Thesis reports on the principles and usefulness of Performance Rating as developed by the writer over a number of years. In Part one a brief analysis is made of the Quality scene and its development up to the present. The need is exposed for Performance Rating as a tool for all areas of management*. At the same time a system of Quality Control is described which the writer has further developed under the title of 'Operator Control'. This system is based on the integration of all Quality control functions with the creative functions required for Quality achievement. The discussions are mainly focussed on the general philosophy of Quality, its creation and control and that part of Operator Control which affects Performance Rating. Whereas it is shown that the combination of Operator Control and Performance Rating is both economically and technically advantageous, Performance Rating can also usefully be applied under inspection control conditions. Part two describes the principles of Area Performance Rating. *The need for, and the advantages of, Performance Rating are particularly demonstrated in Case study No.1. From this a summation expression is derived which gives the key for grouping of areas with similar Performance Rating (P). A model is devised on which the theory is demonstrated. Relevant case studies, carried out in practice in factories are quoted in Part two, Chapter 4, one written by the Quality manager of that particular factory. Particular stress is laid in the final conclusions on management's function in the Quality field and how greatly this function is eased and improved through the introduction of Area Performance Rating.