Dissertation, Jacobs University Bremen, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Columbia University. / Vita printed inside back cover. "This dissertation is identical with a Conference Board Report published under the same title in July 1948." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-94).

Thesis--Columbia University. / Vita printed inside back cover. "This dissertation is identical with a Conference Board Report published under the same title in July 1948." Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation--Universität St. Gallen, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

This thesis was written in response to the increasingly evident need for the most complete information possible on planning activity and practices among South African firms. It was also dictated by an urgent necessity to clarify the methodologies, techniques and frameworks used at present in business planning. Alas, only too often scholars and practitioners alike assume that a comprehensive and general theory on planning exists, complete with methodologies, models, frameworks and so forth. But anyone examining the vast amount of literature on planning and related subjects published during the past twenty years would find this to be a fallacy, and may experience the same desire for the clarification of the present status of the planning art as we did. This desire became one of the principal stimuli for our investigation. Some studies may be built on already well-established foundations, but this is unfortunately not the case in our enquiry as there is as yet no appreciable base consisting of a distinct body of knowledge and relevant theories. In attempting to delineate this knowledge, a necessary point of departure is an appraisal of the current state of human knowledge. We shall, therefore, start with a broad review of this knowledge and narrow it down to areas which are particularly relevant to business planning. This attempt will, hopefully, point to a body of distinct knowledge indispensable to modern planners and show that, - whilst a large body of this knowledge lies within a discipline called 'management science', other relevant knowledge is found in economics, organisation theory and theory of knowledge. This analysis will, at the same time, highlight the present status of the relevant theory of planning, and indicate gaps between the state of the art and the needs of the business. We shall suggest that a general planning theory must come from an interdisciplinary approach. The aim of these efforts is to develop a broad framework and guide for our analysis of planning activity, concepts and methodologies at present used by South African firms. On the basis of these findings we shall than make judgements on the manner in which South African planners address each of the descriptive and normative planning topics, and suggest possible directions for further research. Finally, we shall attempt to formulate a conceptual long-range planning model as we see it, and discuss the usefulness of formal, mathematical planning models as revealed by our study and survey.

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1977 / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

No description available.

The intent of this exploratory case study was: (1)to compare a model of expected formal business plan content with the content of actual business plans developed within a single company, (2)to develop a modified model of formal business plan content which recognizes organizational influences on plan content, (3)to propose a method for evaluating business plans based on this modified model. The firm studied was Fast Delta Corporation, a "Fortune 500" multidivisional manufacturing company in a high technology industry. The business plan content analyzed in this study was produced through a planning system similar to those implemented by other multidivisional companies. In this study, planning by middle managers rather than top management was the primary focus. The study method was based on the analysis of formal plan content rather than direct observation or inquiry about the planning process. Study steps included: (1)test of goodness of fit between a simple model of expected business plan content and the actual content of business plans produced through the Fast Delta Corporation planning system. (2)analysis of deviations of the actual content from the expected content model. This analysis included comparison of actual formal plan content with non-content characteristics of the formal plans, with the content of business strategy case studies from other firms, and with the content of Fast Delta Corporation managers' responses to case studies in business strategy. The results of this study showed that Fast Delta Corporation formal business plan content was influenced by several factors. These included short-term corporate-wide concerns; shared assumptions among managers about the strengths and limitations of the study firm; and constraints on strategy which may be characteristic of other firms with similar structure, at a similar life cycle stage, or within the same industry. From these results a modified model of business plan content was developed which considered these influences. The validity of this model suggests that the plan analysis techniques used in this study were effective techniques for identifying the planning assumptions which underlie business plan content produced through a firm's formal business planning system. The results and conclusions of this study are significant for top management, middle management, corporate planning staff, and those doing research in strategic planning.