The disruptive nature of innovations and technological advancements present potentially huge benefits, however, it is critical to take caution because they also come with challenges. This author holds fast to the school of thought which suggests that every organisation or society should properly evaluate innovations and their attendant challenges from a strategic perspective, before adopting them, or else could get blindsided by the after effects. Big Data is one of such innovations, currently trending within industry and academia. The instinctive nature of Organizations compels them to constantly find new ways to stay ahead of the competition. It is for this reason, that some incoherencies exist in the field of big data. While on the one hand, we have some Organizations rushing into implementing Big Data Projects, we also have in possibly equal measure, many other organisations that remain sceptical and uncertain of the benefits of "Big Data" in general and are also concerned with the implementation costs. What this has done is, create a huge focus on the area of Big Data Implementation. Literature reveals a good number of challenges around Big Data project implementations. For example, most Big Data projects are either abandoned or do not hit their expected target. Unfortunately, most IS literature has focused on implementation methodologies that are primarily focused on the data, resources, Big Data infrastructures, algorithms etc. Rather than leaving the incoherent space that exists to remain, this research seeks to collapse the space and open opportunities to harness and expand knowledge. Consequently, the research takes a slightly different standpoint by approaching Big Data implementation from a Strategic Perspective. The author emphasises the fact that focus should be shifted from going straight into implementing Big Data projects to first implementing a Big Data Strategy for the Organization. Before implementation, this strategy step will create the value proposition and identify deliverables to justify the project. To this end, the researcher combines an Alignment theory, with Digital Business Strategy theory to create a Big Data Strategy Framework that Organisations could use to align their business strategy with the Big Data project. The Framework was tested in two case studies, and the study resulted in the generation of the strategic Big Data Goals for both case studies. This Big Data Strategy framework aided the organisation in identifying the potential value that could be obtained from their Big Data project. These Strategic Big Data Goals can now be implemented in Big data Projects.

This thesis deals with the business strategy in the Chinese market, which is introduced a concrete example of the business strategy of Coca-Cola. According the breadth of the topic there is not included the overall business strategy of mentioned company, but corporate social responsibility, which is the third pillar of the strategy. The aim is to compare by values of social responsibility and setting the Coca-Cola's current situation on the Chinese market and local governments attitude to the main problems of this area. The first chapter is describe the economic growth and current economic development of China, which is marked by the global financial crisis. In the context of sustainable development of Coca-Cola is worth mentioning the Convention and the obligations arising from the country for membership in the ILO. This issue is devoted to the second chapter. The last chapter describes the business strategy (including the basic pillars of the strategy "4A"), with a focus on ensuring sustainable growth. This information is used not only to approach the business strategy, but also for possible access to government compared with the real situation in the country.

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IT service management is becoming more and more important in the current business environment. Especially the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a widely adopted and accepted IT service management framework (Wagner 2006). Organizations that adopt one of the IT service management frameworks expect to achieve a large range of benefits through the use of the frameworks. The major benefits that are expected to be realised include reduced costs, IT services that are tailored to the business needs, a higher quality of IT services, and improved customer satisfaction (OGC 2007a). Despite the growing importance and acceptance of IT service management and ITIL, there is not much literature that is concerned with the benefits that can be realised when one of the relevant IT service management frameworks is in place. Only a few studies were published in conference proceedings (e.g. Hochstein et al. 2005, Potgieter et al. 2005, Cater-Steel et al. 2006). Even though these studies were able to confirm some of the claims made by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the publisher of the ITIL series, there are still a lot of claims that are not evaluated to date. This thesis is taking a Monte-Carlo method based simulation approach to identify some of the benefits of the ITIL for customer service. To achieve this, an initial research model was developed that represents the four most likely benefits for customer service of the use of ITIL and their relationship with customer service and the generation of business value. Subsequently the different path ways for the relationships were explored and models for each of the possible paths were designed. These models include a mediated model, an unmediated model and a partially mediated model. After defining the estimates and constraints for the simulation, the simulation was executed using a MS Excel spreadsheet. The simulation results presented a large amount of data for each of the models and their relationships. The models produced normal distributions and showed stability for changed input and throughput parameters. The analysis of the findings showed that the changes in estimates for each of the models and the associated results of the simulation followed a linear pattern. The linearity of the models combined with the normal distribution of the results offers a lot of opportunities for the use of the developed models. A further enhancement through a test with real-life data could provide the basis for a tool to quantitatively predict the impact of an ITIL implementation on customer service and the creation of value for the business. In addition the four most likely contributors to improved customer service based on the use of ITIL have been identified from a literature review. The identified contribution towards improved customer service of these four beneficiary factors is supported by the results of the simulation. Therefore the results of this thesis provide the research community with a model that could provide the basis for further exploration of the beneficiary effects of ITIL on customer service.

The New Zealand construction supply chain today is inefficient. From a literature review it is found that non value adding activities including waste of time and materials are caused by islands of information with ineffective communication between supply chain participants. This represents an opportunity for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide a strategic supply chain management model for the industry enabling interaction and shared information between all parties. To evaluate the performance of ICTs in the New Zealand construction supply chain, this thesis uses as a case study newly launched software---BlueSky. BlueSky was developed by the Building Integration Software Company located in AUT Technical Park. BlueSky was designed to integrate the fragments of the current information flow of the chain from architect through to the end property owner. Supporting Data was gathered by distributing a structured questionnaire designed to find the opportunities and inhibitors for utilizing ICTs to facilitate the synthesis of the chain. 200 responses were received. The study was funded by a TEC grant. The BlueSky case study is based on two pilot sites; one is an architectural design company and the other is a master contractor company in Auckland. The case study also evaluated the potential problems which may bring risks to supply chain members and provide possible recommendations for future research. The study found from the results of the questionnaire that a significant shift in the mindset of participants of the supply chain will be necessary in terms of collaboration and team work if mutual benefits are to be achieved. It is found that in the two pilot sites BlueSky did make a significant difference in terms of reduced cost, accuracy of information, improved documentation management, and overall increased speed and clarity of information. In the wider community of the industry as a whole considerable education is needed to break down mistrust between members. In general each member appears to be determined to secure the best result as individuals rather than considering the overall outcome for the whole chain. This reluctance to co-operate is coupled with a reluctance to utilize ICTs. Recommendations are made to overcome this mindset.

In 2004, 6% of the Crowne Plaza Auckland Hotel's guests were Priority Club members. Two years later, this number has more than doubled to 13%. Are the Priority Club guests contributing to leverage the hotel's profitability? This research is aimed at answering the question if the continuous increase in the number of Priority Club guests staying at the Crowne Plaza Auckland Hotel is an opportunity for the property to effectively optimise its revenue generation performance. The study is essentially focused on assessing the ability of the loyalty programme to generate revenue to the hotel. The Priority Club Rewards is a demand-based, revenue-orientated marketing strategy which is predominantly aimed at 1) promoting and attracting its 30 million members worldwide to stay at the company's extensive portfolio of hotels as well as 2) to entice the club members to spend money on the hotels' services and facilities. In return for their loyalty, these customers are entitled to receive benefits that correspond to their membership level. From a revenue management perspective, the programme exists to strategically help hoteliers not only to achieve higher occupancy levels through repeat visits from the club members but to also leverage the hotel's revenue generating performance through encouraging its members to not only stay in suites and club rooms but also to use the property's services and facilities more regularly. In other words, the objective of the Priority Club Rewards is to help hoteliers attract customers to their properties and at the same time encourage them to spend money whilst onsite. It was found that the Priority Club programme is fulfilling its first core objective, which is to bring more customers to the Crowne Plaza Auckland property. Hence, this research is predominantly focused on assessing the rewards programme's ability to also assist the Auckland hotel to increase profitability. The objective of this project is to analyse whether or not the increasing growth in the number of club members staying at the property can also be interpreted as a growth in the hotel's revenue generation performance. Firstly, a thorough review of the literature was conducted in order to identify any previous academic work that specifically analysed the relationship between the areas of revenue management and loyalty marketing. However, no extensive previous research was found that effectively analysed how these two fields interact with each other, particularly in the hotel industry. Nevertheless, research from Internet articles and other web-based media resources was highly beneficial to the success of this research. There were two data collection processes employed in this research: a Priority Club Survey identified the needs and preferences of the club members when staying at the Auckland hotel and, secondly, a Spending Pattern Analysis was conducted based on the hotel guests' account statements. The results from these two research methods were then carefully analysed and interpreted in order to achieve an accurate set of resourceful conclusions and recommendations.

The aim of this study was to identify how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) affects business processes and service delivery within hotels and how ICT interacts with strategic issues confronting hotel managers. The areas of exploration were: 1) the business context of ICT; 2) the main role of ICT in day to day business; 3) ICT's impact on service delivery to hotel guests; and 4) the role of ICT in the future.As the study was exploring the General Managers' (GMs) perceptions, interviewing was selected as the most appropriate data gathering method. The sample covered a range of Auckland hotels which differed according to location, size and quality. Semi-structured interviews were used to facilitate the comparison of data between interviewees. Common themes and concepts were identified which were compared to the demographic characteristics of the hotels as well as previous research detailed in the literature.The contextual issues identified were staff availability and retention, competition (particularly price wars resulting from discounting), and location and infrastructure issues. Only half the GMs interviewed identified benefits from ICT in the day to day operation of their business. All of them described challenges or disadvantages posed by ICT. The impact on service delivery to guests was viewed more positively but there were still misgivings about the potential barriers which ICT created. There was a strong view that staff were of overwhelming importance to service delivery. Finally, envisioning the future, ICT was perceived as having the ability to make a strong contribution to business development but this ability would be constrained by staffing problems. Analyses of the findings suggest that ICT has a dual role of gathering management data and providing guest services, and GMs appear unaware of how this dual role contributes to the challenges posed by ICT. Similarly, there was limited awareness of the interaction between human agents in a business, the organisational structures, and ICT.The business implications of these findings suggest that GMs would benefit from being aware of the roles of ICT and addressing the needs of staff for a clearer understanding of how their role, and the ICT that supports it, fits into their broader operation of the business.This study is the one of first to examine the impact of ICT in New Zealand hotels, and, in particular, how this interacts with the broader social issues, and offers insights into the areas of potential conflict and ways to manage the impacts of ICT in hotels.

The aim of this study is to understand the importance of public relations activity in non-profit organisations. The study emphasizes the bearing public relations activities can have on non-profit organisations in the contemporary world. This is especially true in an over communicated society where the vast majority of organisations compete to gain access to the scare media resources to put their message across to their potential clients, supporters and customers. Non-profit organisations generally have to depend on the donor agencies and therefore fail to attract a sizeable public relations budget. On the one hand, these organisations lack the resources to launch a successful public relations campaign and on the other the lack of knowledge and interest among general staff members makes it even harder for a public relations campaign to be developed or successfully launched. In this study, I used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to collect and analyse data. The data were collected from two non-profit organisations based in New Zealand working in the area of child welfare. The primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. A single semi-structured interview was conducted with each team leader of the two selected organisations. However, this was like skimming the surface and in-depth interviews would have helped me to collect richer data. On the other hand the data collected was sufficient for this research and it helped me to create a holistic understanding of the topic. The findings of the research highlight that most non-profit organisations working in the area of child welfare find it hard to market themselves due to a lack of funds and employee involvement. Although the findings from the study are significant; caution is necessary in applying the results to other scenarios and in making generalizations. One of the key findings from this research is that both organisations did not use public relations as a strategy. Most decision related to public relations was made on random basis and no long term strategic plan was made to adopt public relations as a core strategy to build creditability among their stakeholders.

近年來，Google 成為全球最夯的企業。Google 何以迅速開始獲利並保持獲 利，幾乎從未面臨困境？在全球競爭者眾多的情況下，Google 憑靠什麼而快速崛起，穩坐全球搜尋引擎的龍頭，遙遙領先第二名的對手？Google 是否是真的無懈可擊呢？Google 的成長模式以及策略行為，成為一個相當值得探討的議題。 企業的策略行為，往往會因為公司所擁有的資源以及能力而有所差異。Google 在短短的數年之間，從一小型公司，變成全球最有價值，研發能力最強大，全球工作者最嚮往之跨國企業。在不同的階段，經營策略也會有所不同，因此，對於Google 成立至今經營策略的變化，也是值得探討的。 過去在衡量企業的績效，往往著重於各種財務性指標，或是企業的產品研發 能力。但是單從這兩方面，很難清晰地描繪出企業的實際營運績效以及其真正的價值。非財務性的指標往往才能衡量企業的競爭力及真正的價值所在。 本文以Google 為個案研究對象，透過仔細探討Google 的發展歷程，分析其 總體策略，人才管理措施以及產品創新，配合其績效、成本以及獲利的分析，以期完整評估Google 的企業價值。此外，本文也探討Google 的各項併購行為，發現Google 於不同時期之發展方向與被併購之目標公司有非常大的相關性。最後，本文亦解析Google 在知識資本以及人力資源等重要層面之經營策略，以評估Google 之經營優勢及劣勢。本文旨在透過對個案公司經營模式演進過程之整理，從中尋找出網路服務平台之演進概念，以提供處於不同發展時期之網路公司一個參考樣本。 / In recent years, Google had become the hottest company around the world. How could Google maintain profitability and nearly never faces any difficulty? The key purpose of the research is to discuss the key factors of Google when he faces the critical environment of multi-competitors. Is Google a perfect model of the search engine company? The growth model and strategy are worth discussing. The strategic behavior of a company depends on its own resource and capability.Google, the most valuable company and the most innovative business, has been attracting the first-rate talent in the world during these years. It is interesting to discover the change of the business strategy in a rapid development company like Google. The related research in the past years, scholars try to measure the performance of the company from the financial indicators, or the innovation degree. But these indicators may not fully describe real value and the performance of a company. Non-financial indicators are the key factors to create the competitiveness and theirreplaceable value. The major axis of the research focuses on the development history of Google. By analyzing the overall strategy, the human resource management, the innovation of the products, and the verification of the performance, costs and the profits, this research try to draw a full-range analysis of Google’s Value. Besides, we also discuss the mergers and acquisitions of Google. From these activities, Google gain lots of knowledge capabilities and talents. Through the analysis of the evolution process of Google’s business model, the research shows some implication that could be used as guidelines for other internet platform companies when they need a reference for their business model.

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