Small business enterprises (SBEs) are significant contributors to business growth and employment in the United States, but despite governmental support, the failure rate of SBEs is high. Some small business leaders lack the critical management skills to detect or discover when underperformance in revenue-generation is due to gaps in organizational knowledge or business practices associated with managing knowledge assets. Guided by the knowledge-based view of the firm, the purpose of this multiple case study was to address that gap by exploring the skills needed by leaders to understand how deficiencies in their knowledge management practices contribute to underperformance. Semistructured interview data were collected from a sample of 10 small business leaders in the northeast and west. Data from publicly available documentation consisting of sales brochures, press releases, and participant company websites were also collected. Data analysis entailed using keyword frequency comparisons, coding techniques, and cluster analysis. The key themes indicate that the participants' document management practices and misaligned core business practices impeded value creation. The recommended change in business practices for small business leaders is to formalize social engagement with customers, use document management tools, and adopt process management techniques. The implications for social change include mitigating the harmful effects of business failure on society associated with job loss, stress-related disabilities, and reduced charitable donations to groups serving disadvantaged citizens. The beneficiaries of this research include small business leaders, business practitioners, and policy makers.

Les systèmes PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) permettent une traçabilité de l'information et facilitent la réduction du cycle de développement des produits. Ils ont vocation à fédérer l'ensemble des données techniques nécessaires à l'élaboration de nouveaux produits et contribuent aussi à l'amélioration des processus de l'entreprise.Nos travaux de thèse proposent une méthodologie globale de déploiement d'un système PLM qui intègre la dimension spécifique de la capitalisation des connaissances. A partir d'une formalisation des processus métier, des éléments de connaissance sont extraits et permettent d'enrichir le modèle de données. Ce modèle s'articule autour de deux axes: un axe "information" et un axe "connaissance". Chaque axe est composé de quatre étapes : identifier, modéliser, utiliser et évaluer. L'étape d'identification permet de définir le modèle de données du système et de repérer les activités nécessitant des connaissances métier particulières. La phase de modélisation consiste à paramétrer le système pour intégrer le modèle défini dans le PLM mais également formaliser les connaissances tacites extraites. l'utilisateur intervient ensuite dans le cadre de l'utilisation du système paramétré. Enfin, nous proposons d'évaluer le système d'un point de vue de la modélisation Produit, Process, Organisation mais également d'un point de vue des connaissances générées au sein du système.L'étude de cas d'un processus d'appel d'offre de l'entreprise Marmillon SAS, sous-traitant de rang 2 dans le secteur de la plasturgie et spécialiste des processus d'injection et d'extrusion pour des pièces du secteur automobile, a permis de valider notre démarche. / PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) Systems allow traceability of information and facilitate the reduction of products development cycle. Besides the aspect related to information management, they aim at bringing together all technical data needed to develop new products and also they contribute to improve business processes. Our PhD work define a methodology of PLM system deployment that incorporates the knowledge capitalization dimension. Based on a business processes formalization, elements of knowledge are extracted and used to enrich the data model. This model revolves around two axes: an "information" axis and a "knowledge"axis. Each axis is devided into four steps: identify, model, use and evaluate. The identification stage is to define the data model of the system and activities requiring specific business knowledge. The modeling phase is to configure the system to integrate the defined model in the PLM system but also to formalize extracted tacit knowledge. Then comes the user through the use of the system. Finally, we propose to evaluate the system from product, process and organization modeling but also from generated knowledge within the system. The case study of a process of bidding for the Marmillon SAS company which is a subcontractor in the field of plastics, specialist of injection and extrusion processes for automotive parts allow to validate our approach.

自從90年代以來，網際網路商業化的普及，打破了時間和空間的限制，使得諸多不合理的商業制度有了新的解決方案。雖然在蝴蝶蘭產業裡，我國蝴蝶蘭的出口量為世界排名第一位，占全球60%的產量，然而在國際市場上始終只是扮演的生產者角色，最終通路一直為國外中間商所把持。因而長久以來，我國的蝴蝶蘭栽培業者，獲取的利潤非常微薄，議價能力非常有限，風險更需自行承擔。面對即將加入世界貿易組織的壓力，必須及早為產業未來發展的方向做好準備。本研究運用網際網路及資訊科技輔以流程再造的理念來改善蝴蝶蘭運銷上遭遇的瓶頸，從而增進我國蝴蝶蘭產業在全球的競爭力，進而增加花農的利潤。 / The e-commerce is popular since 1990, it breaks the limit of the time and the distance, and it let unreasonable business models get new solutions. The exportation amount of phalaenopsis in Taiwan has sixty percent in the world, however, we have been playing the role of original supplier, and overseas importers have been monopolizing the marketplace. Therefore, the phalaenopsis planters of Taiwan gained slender profits, had limited ability of price negotiations, and should take risks by themselves. To come up against the pressure of joining World Trade Organization, it is necessary to plan a future business model as soon as possible. This paper tries to use Internet, information technology and take advantage of business process reengineering (BPR) to improve the phalaenopsis business, and then to strengthen the competition and to increase profits of planters.

While several approaches exist for modeling goals and business processes in organizations, the relationships between these two views are often not well defined. This inhibits the effective reuse of available knowledge in models. This thesis aims to address this issue through the introduction of a Goal-oriented Pattern Family (GoPF) framework that helps constructing business process models from organization goals while expanding these goals, establishing traceability relationships between the goal and process views, and improving reusability. Methods for extracting domain knowledge as patterns, which are composed of goal model building blocks, process model building blocks, and their relationships, and for maintaining the patterns over time are also presented. The GoPF framework provides the infrastructure for defining pattern families, i.e., collections of related patterns for particular domains. The foundation of GoPF is formalized as a profile of the User Requirements Notation, a standard modeling language that supports goals, scenarios, and links between them. A method for the use of GoPF is defined and then illustrated through a case study that targets the improvement of patient safety in healthcare organizations. The framework and the extraction/maintenance methods are also validated against another case study involving aviation security in a regulatory environment. The GoPF framework is expected to have a positive impact on the scientific community through the formalization, evolution, and reuse of patterns in domain-specific business domains. From an industrial viewpoint, this framework will also help intermediary organizations (such as consulting firms) who are required to repeatedly create and document goal and process models for other organizations in their business domain.

The Business Process Management (BPM) lifecycle consists of four phases: design and analysis, configuration, enactment, and evaluation - also known as performance analysis and improvement. Performance analysis and improvement of business processes, one of the core phases in the BPM life cycle, is becoming on top of the agenda for many enterprises. An emerging approach to that is to use the business intelligence approaches that attempt to facilitate the analytical capabilities of business process management systems by implementing process-oriented data warehouse and mining techniques. However, little work has been has done on developing core methods and tools for performance analysis and improvement of business processes. In particular, adequate methods, clearly defined steps or instructions that can guide process managers for analyzing and improving processes using process warehouse (PW) are not available. In the absence of such methods, guidelines or clearly defined steps, important steps may be ignored and credible improvements steps cannot be taken. This research addresses the described limitations by developing a method for performance analysis and improvement of business processes. The key feature of the developed method is, it employs business-orientation in the design and utilization of a PW. The method is composed of three steps, building goal-structure, integrating goal-structure with PW, and analyzing and improving business processes. During the first step, a set of top-level performance goals are identified for the process of interest. Subsequently, the identified  goals are decomposed to generate a goal-structure that is aligned with the functional decomposition of the process of interest. The second step describes a technique for integrating the generated goal-structure with PW. The third step describes, a performance estimation model, a decision model and a step by step approach that focuses on utilizing PW for analysis and improvement of business processes. In order to facilitate the use of the proposed method a prototype is developed. The prototype offers a graphical user interface for defining goal structure, integrating goals with PW, and goal-based navigation of PW. In order to evaluate the proposed method, we first develop an evaluation framework and subsequently use it for the evaluation of the proposed method. The framework consists of three components, each representing a type of evaluation. The components are, methodological-structure evaluation, performance-based evaluation and perception-based evaluation. The results of the evaluation show partial support for the methodological structure. However, the results of performance and perception evaluation show promising results of the proposed method. / <p>QC 20121217</p>

ABSTRACT Inter-organizational Relationship Portfolio Management: A Digital Enablement Perspective of Process Alignment and Process Innovativeness BY Xinlin Tang July 25, 2007 Committee Chair: Dr. Arun Rai Major Academic Unit: Center for Process Innovation Inter-organizational relationship (IR) has been considered a strategic asset that can help firms achieve both exploitation and exploration benefits. The capability to manage inter-organizational relationships, or a firm’s “relational capability” (Dyer and Singh 1998), is considered strategically crucial in order to compete in the contemporary business world. However, there are significant challenges that must be addressed to establish this capability. First, striking a balance between exploitation and exploration benefits (March 1991) through IR management is especially challenging due to the uniqueness embedded in each relationship (Lee 2004). Second, in order to serve a specific strategic purpose, firms usually need to maintain a relationship portfolio, or to be involved in multiple, simultaneous relationships that vary from arm’s length, transaction-based arrangements to close, collaborative partnerships (Cannon and Perreault 1999; Dyer et al. 1998). This has made IR relationship management even more difficult since relationship portfolios cannot be effectively managed by a “one-size-fits-all” strategy. Instead, different strategies and process capabilities need to be developed, based on the strategic segmentation of the relationships and the unique requirements of each relationship (Dyer et al. 1998). Though it has been suggested that process alignment capability is necessary to obtain exploitation benefits, and process innovativeness capability is needed for exploration benefits, these two processes have been considered to be contradictory (e.g., Adler and Goldoftas 1999; Teece et al. 1997). Firms are challenged to pursue these two types of process capabilities simultaneously, or to become ambidextrous organizations (Benner and Tushman 2003). Yet, in this context, how should firms operating in different environments manage the “process alignment - process innovativeness” paradox across their IR portfolios with dominant upstream and downstream partners to realize gains in competitive performance? In addition, how should they structure their business-to-business information technology assets to establish a digital platform that supports both process innovativeness and process alignment capabilities across their IR portfolio? We argue that B2B digital platform ambidexterity must be developed to support an organization that exhibits both process alignment and process innovativeness, i.e., an ambidextrous organization. B2B digital platform ambidexterity represents the digital platform’s capability to simultaneously integrate and reconfigure IT resources and assets to support the requirements of an IR portfolio. By combining the existing process alignment perspective of IT business value and real options theory, we propose that B2B digital platform ambidexterity can create value through two mechanisms: (i) by enabling process alignment across the IR portfolio to generate position exploitation benefits and (ii) by enabling process innovativeness for both offering flexibility and partnering flexibility to produce option exploration benefits. The proposed research model was tested based on data collected through a multi-industry survey. Data were collected for both supplier relationship portfolios and channel partner relationship portfolios at the level of the main product line. Measurement instruments were developed through standard procedures (Churchill 1979; Gerbing and Anderson 1988; Straub 1989). The questionnaires went through two-stage Q sorting, were reviewed by panels of academic professionals and practitioners for content validity, and were then pre-tested by procurement professionals and sales professionals prior to survey administration. After data collection, traditional procedures were applied for scale validation. Safeguards against common method bias were developed through the recommended procedural remedies (Podasakoff et al. 2003) during the research design process. Its effects were further investigated using the Harmon's one-factor test for common method variance after the data collection phase (Podasakoff and Organ 1986). Then, the hypotheses were tested and analyzed using Partial Least Squares and the implications for theory and practice were discussed. The manuscript concludes with directions to future research.

There is a growing interest and research on improvement of business processes as an essential part of effective quality management. Process improvement is possible with measurement and analysis of the process performance. Process performance measurement has been studied to a certain extend in the literature, and many different approaches have been developed such as Sink-Tuttle Model, Performance Measurement Matrix, SMART Pyramid, Balanced Scorecard Approach, Critical Few Method, and Performance Prism Framework. These approaches require that process owners and analysts define appropriate measures based on general guidelines for each process separately. Recently, with the advancement of information technologies, modeling and simulation of processes on a computer aided platform has become possible / standards and software support regarding such applications have been developed. Even though increasingly many organizations have been building their process models on computers, only a few manages effective use of such models for process improvement. This is partly due to difficulties in defining appropriate performance measures for the processes. The purpose of this study is to propose a method that can be used for defining performance measures of business processes easily and effectively according to specific nature of these processes. The proposed performance measure definition system is based on the idea of using generic process performance measures published by trusted business process frameworks for high level processes and adapting them for lower level ones. The system, using a search mechanism available on a computer, allows users to easily find and define appropriate performance measures for their processes. The proposed system is used for a research project management process and a creating research opportunities process of a public university and the results are discussed.

Much research has been undertaken to gain insight into business alignment of IT. This alignment basically aims to improve a firm’s performance by an improved harmonization of the business function and the IT function within a firm. The thesis discusses previous approaches and constructs an overall framework, which a potential approach needs to fit in. Being in a highly regulated industry, for airports there is little space left to increase revenues. However, the retailing business has proven to be an area that may contribute towards higher income for airport operators. Consequently, airport management should focus on supporting this business segment. Nevertheless, it needs to be taken into account that smooth airport operations are a precondition for successful retailing business at an airport. Applying the concept of information intensity, the processes of gate allocation and airport retailing have been determined to appraise the potential that may be realized upon (improved) synchronization of the two. It has been found that the lever is largest in the planning phase (i.e. prior to operations), and thus support by means of information technology (for information distribution and improved planning) may help to enable an improved overall retail performance. In order to determine potential variables, which might influence the output, a process decomposition has been conducted along with the development of an appropriate information model. The derived research model has been tested in different scenarios. For this purpose an adequate gate allocation algorithm has been developed and implemented in a purposewritten piece of software. To calibrate the model, actual data (several hundred thousand data items from Frankfurt Airport) from two flight plan seasons has been used. Key findings: The results show that under the conditions described it seems feasible to increase retail sales in the magnitude of 9% to 21%. The most influential factors (besides the constraining rule set and a retail area’s specific performance) proved to be a flight’s minimum and maximum time at a gate as well as its buffer time at gate. However, as some of the preconditions may not be accepted by airport management or national regulators, the results may be taken as an indication for cost incurred, in case the suggested approach is not considered. The transferability to other airport business models and limitations of the research approach are discussed at the end along with suggestions for future areas of research.

Uppsatsen, som tar avstamp i Ekonomistyrningsverkets kritik från 2008 och 2010, handlar om hur Försvarsmakten kan arbeta med processorientering för att möta Ekonomistyrningsverkets kritik avseende styrning och kontroll av organisationen. Intervjuer har genomförts med Högkvarterets analyschef på PlanEk och med kvaliteschefen på Södra Skånska Regementet P7 i Revingehed. Resultatet visar att det är stora skillnader mellan förbandet P7 och Högkvarterets syn på processorientering. Utbildning och en gemensam vision om processorienteringen kan vara nyckeln för att Försvarmakten ska vara en organisation som nyttjar processorienteringen på ett effektivt sätt / The essay, which have The Swedish National Financial Management Authority criticism from 2008 and 2010 as a starting- point, deals with the question how Swedish Armed Forces can adopt Business Process Orientation in order to respond to the criticism mentioned above. Interviews have been carried out at Armed Forces Headquarters (Head of Analysis at PlanEk) and South Skåne Regiment P7 (Quality Manager). The result of the study shows major differences between South Skåne Regiment and Armed Forces Headquarters referring to Business Process Orientation. Education and a common vision of what business process orientation is all about may be the key to how Swedish Armed Forces can use the Business Process Orientation to reach efficiency.

Maturity models represent a feasible approach towards assessing business processes and identifying their potential improvements. Specifically, the Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM) has attracted much attention since its publication in 2007. However, few studies have explored its practical applicability. The large size of some business processes suggests that assessing their maturity at a sub-process level can help to uncover hidden inefficiencies and understand more accurately existing complexities. This paper therefore aims to examine the degree of applicability of the PEMM to an individual sub-process. To this end, an action research study was conducted in an organizational sub-process at a large Swedish organization. Data collection entailed in-situ participant observations involving employees and managers who were working in the sub-process. The results indicate that the PEMM was a useful framework for conducting an in-depth maturity analysis and identifying feasible improvements, which evidence that the model was applicable to the studied sub-process.