Innovation and internationalization are quite often regarded as important strategies for companies to grow and succeed in the fast pacing market battlefield. Literature has deeply investigated these subjects, separately and together. However, papers on the relations of innovation capability and internationalization degree are still scarce and therefore, under researched. Moreover, although studies on the relations of the innovation capability of a company and business performance pop up quite frequently, they still lack conclusiveness. In order to deepen the understanding on those relations and unveil practical recommendations for managers, this study aimed at describing (1) the relations between innovation capability and internationalization degree and (2) the relations between innovation capability and business performance of companies operating in Brazil. Literature review encompasses concepts on innovation drivers, internationalization, and business performance as well as the relations of (1) innovation and internationalization, and (2) innovation and business performance. As innovation capability is not directly measureable, the conceptual model included a proposal of a construct of innovation capability as a weighted contribution of a set of innovation drivers. The conceptual model provided the foundations for the questionnaire and therefore, the whole field research, which included the delivery of questionnaires to students of graduate programs of three Business schools in Brazil. 528 questionnaires were filled out and they represented 386 different companies. Methodological procedures included a quantitative analysis that encompassed (1) descriptive statistics for demographics, (2) the non-parametric Wilcoxon test for mean comparison, (3) exploratory factor analysis for variable reduction, (3) cluster analysis to identify the association of importance and practice of drivers, and (4) multiple linear regression to identify descriptors of internationalization degree and business performance. Idea generation, people, leadership, and intellectual capital are considered the most important innovation drivers as opposed to funding and portfolio management. Regarding practice, although there was no evidence to distinguish most practiced drivers, structure, time, and reward system were considered the less practiced. When considering importance and practice at the same time, five clusters of drivers were depicted: (1) the most practiced, (2) the most important, (3) the least important, (4) the least practiced, and (5) not the most, not the least. Although drivers of cluster (2) are considered the most important, they are not the most practiced. As a result, in general terms, drivers pertaining to this cluster-- people, intellectual capital, generation, conversion, and leadership--should be prioritized while implementing innovation initiatives. Next, while identifying descriptors, funding and diffusion drivers explain 10.6% and innovation capability explains 6.8% of internationalization degree. Findings on the identification of descriptors of business performance are more promising: diffusion, values, strategic alliances, and technologies drivers explain 41.8% of the business performance variability while innovation capability explains 28.1%. Although literature has highlighted the importance of all innovation drivers, the results of this study provide managers with a prioritization when implementing innovation initiatives within their companies, depending on whatever internationalization or business performance output are pursued. / inovação e internacionalização são recorrentemente tidas como estratégias importantes para empresas crescerem e se sobressaírem no mercado em constante mudança. A literatura já se aprofundou na discussão desses dois temas, de forma separada e em conjunto. Por outro lado, artigos sobre as relações entre competências organizacionais para inovar e grau de internacionalização ainda são raros e, portanto, o tema merece ser mais explorado. Além disso, embora estudos sobre as relações entre competências organizacionais para inovar e desempenho organizacional apareçam com frequência, muitos não são conclusivos. De maneira a se aprofundar nos estudos dessas relações e propor recomendações práticas para gestores, este estudo pretende descrever: (1) as relações entre competências organizacionais para inovar e grau de internacionalização e (2) as relações entre competências organizacionais para inovar e desempenho organizacional de empresas que atuam no Brasil. A revisão da literatura incluiu conceitos de impulsionadores da inovação (innovation drivers), internacionalização, desempenho organizacional, assim como as relações entre (1) inovação e internacionalização e (2) inovação e desempenho organizacional. Já que o conceito de competências organizacionais para inovar não é mensurável diretamente, o modelo conceitual deste trabalho incluiu uma proposta de competências organizacionais para inovar como uma contribuição ponderada de um conjunto de impulsionadores da inovação. Tal modelo conceitual serviu de base para a elaboração do questionário e, portanto, para a pesquisa de campo: preenchimento do questionário por alunos de pós-graduação de três escolas de negócios no Brasil. 528 questionários foram preenchidos, representando 386 empresas diferentes. Os procedimentos metodológicos incluem análises quantitativas, como (1) estatística descritiva para parte demográfica de respondentes e empresas, (2) teste não-paramétrico de Wilcoxon para comparação de médias, (3) análise fatorial exploratória para redução do número de variáveis, (4) análise de agrupamentos para identificação da associação entre importância e prática dos impulsionadores para inovar e (5) regressão linear múltipla para identificação de descritores do grau de internacionalização e de desempenho organizacional. Geração de ideias, pessoas, liderança e capital intelectual são consideradas pelos respondentes como os impulsionadores para inovar mais importantes. Em relação à prática, não houve evidências para distinguir os impulsionadores: estrutura organizacional, tempo e sistema de remuneração foram considerados os impulsionadores menos praticados. Considerando importância e prática dos impulsionadores ao mesmo tempo, cinco agrupamentos de impulsionadores são apresentados: (1) os mais praticados, (2) os mais importantes, (3) os menos importante, (4) os menos praticados e (5) nem os mais e nem os menos. O agrupamento 2 de impulsionadores para inovar são considerados os mais importantes, mas não são considerados os mais praticados. Portanto, de maneira geral, impulsionadores desse agrupamento (pessoas, capital intelectual, geração de ideias, conversão e liderança) devem ser priorizados quando da implantação de iniciativas para inovar. A seguir, na identificação de descritores, os impulsionadores de financiamento e de difusão explicam 10,6% e a competência organizacional para inovar explica 6,8% da variação do grau de internacionalização. Já os achados na identificação de descritores do desempenho organizacional são mais promissores: impulsionadores de difusão, valores, alianças estratégicas e tecnologias explicam 41,8% da variação do desempenho organizacional enquanto que a competência organizacional para inovar explica 28,1%. Ainda que a literatura ressalte a importância de todos os impulsionadores para inovar, os resultados deste estudo fornecem sugestões de priorização quando gestores estão considerando implantar iniciativas de inovação em suas empresas, dependendo do resultado que se pretende alcançar: internacionalização ou desempenho organizacional.

Leaders of small businesses need dynamic capabilities created through careful implementation of information technologies (ITs) to enhance efficiency, performance, and output. The purpose of this multicase study was to explore strategies leaders of small businesses used in developing countries to implement ITs for improved business performance. The framework for this study was the technology, organization, and environment model. The sample population consisted of 10 leaders of small businesses located in the Accra region of Ghana. The study participants had at least 5 years of experience working with small businesses that implemented IT. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and review of companies' strategic and project plans. The data analysis process included methodological triangulation, coding, the identification and congregation of themes, and the interpretation of inferences. Five themes emerged: top management support for IT implementation, investment in appropriate IT infrastructures, engaging in appropriate IT knowledge and skills training, creating an organizational culture of IT acceptance, and embracing legal and regulatory frameworks for IT. Findings from this study might assist leaders of small businesses in gaining insights into key IT strategies required for improving small business survivability. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to facilitate employment generation and reduce poverty in developing countries by improving small business performance.

There is a large body of research supporting the importance of market orientation in determining performance. A growing body of research supports the notion that strategic alliance management competencies positively influence performance. Few empirical investigations have examined the importance of market orientation in the biotechnology industry, much less the effect of alliance orientation on performance, or the combined effect of market and alliance orientation on performance. This study explores these relationships among Canadian biotechnology companies with medical/healthcare focuses. Of the 394 Canadian medical/healthcare biotechnology companies identified, 81 usable responses were received, yielding a response rate of 20.6 percent. It was found that market orientation positively and significantly influenced business performance, supporting the first hypothesis. Additionally, alliance orientation positively and significantly influenced business performance, supporting the second hypothesis. However, when market and alliance orientation were examined together, alliance orientation’s effect on business performance remained positive and significant, but market orientation’s effect on business performance became negative and non-significant. This prompted a further analysis that investigated the presence of a mediation relationship. Market orientation was fully mediated by alliance orientation in its relationship with business performance. This study contributes academically by adding to market and alliance orientation research and by the successful development of a biotechnology-specific performance instrument. This study contributes to marketing and management strategy, as it outlines performance indicators that enable high performance.

ABSTRACT Due to the change of consumption patterns, the shorter product life cycle coupled with the global competitions, how to provide customers quickly the best quality of products and to maintain a certain profit in changing markets , become the best weapon when competitions. So companies have to put in efforts in supply chain management, from raw material supply to product sales, distribution, various species of strategies set to achieve the best management of the results. The most widely discussed and use of supply chain strategies , that is lean and agile strategies . The purpose of this study is to discuss the impact on supply chain capability and business performance with the implementation of lean strategy and agile strategy , and using the questionnaires, to specify the statistics showing the correspondence of lean /supply chain strategy and business performance.

Abstract Drucker (1954) in the book "The Practice of Management¡¨ mentioned each enterprise the manager gives the corporate life and energy and the resources is in the hands of "people". A good manager have large-minded¡Bthe integrated ability and remove the personal preferences in order to have everyone is competent at his job and achieve the best configuration at the human resources allocation, so this study is to understand the behavior of the leadership of the branch manager for the bank is assets or liabilities. This study is focus on the manager's diagnostic control system and interactive control systems under the management control systems and the leadership qualities of transformational leadership and transactional leadership has a positive correlation with business performance. The study method is by T Bank's questionnaire then collection data, collation and analysis. From this study find out the good operator must be sustained and indeed encouragement to employees, to be optimistic for the future and positive thinking when encounter something, the branch's performance appraisal should bulletins regularly to keep their employees informed manager treat everyone as fair without black box, year-end performance appraisal and promotion is fair, to encourage their employees to think about how to solve problems, and to train them the ability to solve problems independently. Resourcefulness in the service attitude depend on the different customer's requirements, for customer must has empathy instead of static regularization service will make customers feel hypocritical can not impress the customer.

While the lack of publicly available literatures examining the applications of managerial accounting information in service organizations, this study uses the international tourist hotel as an example to determine the relationship between managerial accounting information, the organization, strategies and business performance. Multi-national comparison is another important issue of this paper. As background the paper cited a popular text by Horngren and Sundem (1999), which delineated three types of managerial accounting information: scorekeeping, attention directing, and problem solving. The purposes of the study present as follows: 1.Have an outlook of managerial accounting information exercising in international tourist hotels in the Netherlands and Taiwan. 2.To analyze the effects of organization characteristics and strategies on managerial accounting information and business performance. 3.Through multi-national case comparison, both countries could see the differences of managerial accounting information exercising between each other and the reasons behind. Both countries can use them as a reference for future operating improvement. This study interviewed four international tourist hotels in the Netherlands and Taiwan. To minimize the interference from international chain hotels on decision makings, the target of case research hotels were all focused on independent operated, belonged to the range of 4 to 5 stars. The results of these case studies suggest: 1.Due to the differences of multi-national environment and accounting regulations, the international tourist hotels in the Netherlands and Taiwan exercise different degrees of managerial accounting information. 2.The result partly proved that international tourist hotels need sufficient managerial accounting information to cooperate with Cost Leadership Strategy. 3.The hotels emphasizing corperate governance attach more importance to managerial accounting information. Besides, the accounting sections within these companies are usually more professional operated. 4.The hotels in the Netherlands which follow Differentiation Strategy need abundant accounting information to support decision makings; while those hotels in Taiwan usually rely on the rich experiences of top managers to make decisions. There is no significant relationship between managerial accounting information and Differentiation Strategy in Taiwanese hotels. 5.In the Netherlands, relevant relationship was observed between managerial accounting information and business performance; whereas there is no direct conclusion for Taiwanese hotels.

In the phases of Taiwan¡¦s economic growth, state-owned enterprises were playing important roles in accelerating economic development, so as to satisfy the needs to downstream industries. State-owned enterprises had successfully played a key role as the ¡§locomotive of Taiwan¡¦s economy¡¨. But after the 1980s, liberalization of economy, free competition and privatization were the thoughts that became the central theme of government¡¦s economic development. Hence, how to improve the operation of state-owned enterprises and remove restricting regulations, so as to improve the operation performance and bring about synergetic results of state-owned enterprises, soon became the main objective of state-owned enterprises business management. Entrepreneurship is the fundamental criteria in management of every business. But, what problems have state-owned enterprises encountered in implementing entrepreneurship in its management? Why, after many years of effort, state-owned business still could not unleash itself of the image that ¡§state-owned business = poor operations performance¡¨. This background motivated the study of the problems in entrepreneurship in state-owned enterprises. It is hoped that the study of this problem will result in finding ways to tackle the problem. State-owned enterprises that are suitable for free market competition are the subject of this study. External limitations and internal worries faced by state-owned enterprises were investigated. Furthermore, the study looked at the problems and barriers encountered by state-owned enterprises in improving its operating efficiency. With reference to modern management theory on corporate environment and behavior between organization and members, interview questions were developed. Middle to senior management personnel whose work was related to entrepreneurship development of state-owned enterprises were interviewed. Written records of the interview were maintained, interviewers were asked to check the description for any inconsistency with their expressions. Then, the content of the interview were cross-analyzed with the extent of influence of various internal and external stakeholders in state-owned enterprises in implementing entrepreneurship. The process attempted to clarify the best response to problems faced by state-owned enterprises in promoting entrepreneurship. It is found from the analysis, ¡§free market competition mechanism¡¨ is the source of energy for state-owned enterprises in implementing entrepreneurship. However, the factors that influence this program not only include ¡§restriction by unnecessary regulations¡¨ and ¡§passive state serviceman mindset¡¨, as discussed often in related studies, the other three important forces are: government decision and execution, practicality of leadership, and redefining the role of unions. Because state-owned enterprises must operate in balanced-power network consisting of leadership level, government, shareholder, consumer, civilian representatives, union, employee, supplier, and, competing suppliers, the aforementioned 5 influencing factors may seem independent in affecting the extent of state-owned enterprise in implementing entrepreneurship, but in reality they are highly interactive. This situation stagnate state-owned enterprises, stalling them to catch up with private businesses. Since entrepreneurship is the basis of business management, state-owned enterprises can only through its own strength and effort, do away the influence of this invisible balanced-power. Only by doing so, can state-owned enterprises break out of its limitations and show real revolutionary change.

For the past years more and more well-managed middle-size enterprises in Taiwan have tried to be more competitive and become multination-base enterprises through diversification. A lot of research indicates that the diversification can result in unique competitive advantages. However it also indicates that the degree of diversification is no more one of the important indexes of business performance. This study was conducted to investigate how to integrate resources within a diversified enterprise to create the management synergies and channel them back to subsidiaries for more growth. Based on various theories regarding resource-base view, diversification, resource building and resource leverage, this study empirically documented that the resource integration among subsidiaries is positively related to the existence of business groups and their growth within a mature industry. The results of this study indicate that: 1. Business profits can be generated through resource-integration strategy even during the period of a macro-economic recession. 2. Either related diversification and unrelated diversification could be achieved when enterprises are able to effectively use related techniques and resources. 3. The diversified enterprises can exploit resources to create new management synergy through resource building, resource leverage and resource integration. 4. Whether resource integration can be achieved hinges heavily on the subsidiaries willingness to cooperate. Key Words: Resource-Based View Theory, Diversification, Resource Leverage, Resource Building, Resource-Integration, And Business Performance

Computer industry is one of the most outstanding paradigms of value growth in the twentieth century. And Taiwan¡¦s computer-related industry has also developed since the early beginning of the twentieth century. Since 1980, the electronics industry in Taiwan has taken only twenty years or so to be the main competence advantage, which creates the highest value of output. Seeing the module characteristic of Taiwan¡¦s electronics industry, and the awareness of the entrepreneur network, this study hopes to combine the two concepts to have a clear understanding of the phenomenon about how the electronics industry rose rapidly in Taiwan, and also hopes to figure out the business performance of each leading firm in the most important five component areas in Taiwan¡¦s electronics industry. This study has chosen current operating value (COV) to be the main concept, which was advocated by G. Bennett Stewart (1990). And through the study of each company¡¦s free cash flows, this study then further examines the relationships among the free cash flows (FCF), the company¡¦s current operating value (COV) and market value (MV). That is, this thesis is to study whether a firm makes proper use of its cash flows will help bring positive market values to itself, and to see the range of the market value added (MVA) it will bring to the firm. This study has used the dimensions mentioned above. Based on the references, the sample firms are those with a long history or the leading companies in the areas of the top five components in Taiwan¡¦s electronics industry. And all the finance-related information of the sample firms is derived from the TEJ Database with a period of from 1991 to 2006. The variables then are calculated, and the hypotheses are defined and testified. At last, statistics is used to analyze the data of the outcomes. The study shows that if we examine a firm¡¦s performance by way of the free cash flows, the more stable business performance the sample firms has, the more the firm¡¦s current operating value at the t period can anticipate the firm¡¦s market value at the t+1 period. Besides, for those component firms with a higher accumulated operating cash flows than accumulated investment cash flows, their current operating value can create more added market values. Based on the two results, a firm¡¦s conduction of free cash flows will have a direct influence on the firm¡¦s stability of business performance, and those firms with more stable performance will create positive added market values.

No business can effectively be managed without the proper management and information that reflects and creates the milieu it operates in. Business performance management creates the framework in which a structured approach can be followed in setting the scene for a predictive and controllable environment. Business intelligence creates the information structures; information relationships and a reflection of the value chain of the business. By combining the two methodologies it creates a total business solution that harmonises all aspects of value creation in an objective manner. The aim of this study is to conduct a thorough theoretical study on the relevant aspects involved in business performance management and business intelligence, and to assess the relationship of business performance management and business intelligence within the South African natural resource' mining and manufacturing sector. The various processes of business performance management and business intelligence are discussed in the literature study. During the literature research several approaches to business performance management implementations and the pros and cons of business performance management are discussed. A broad look at business intelligence is done, with key focus on delivering of information. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.