Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Background: Innovation is an important aspect of business today. It is important for companies to be innovative in order to stay competitive with their competitors. During the last couple of decades, technology has become more and more common both in our daily life, as well as in businesses. This has lead to an increase in technology implementation, especially within the service industry, where customers now can use self-service technologies in order to receive the service on their own. However, a lack of self-service technologies was discovered within the fast food industry. Since these types of innovations increased the service efficiency and decreased the waiting-time for customers, the authors believed that this would be very interesting for local managers within the fast food industry. Therefore, the authors began to investigate how much power local management has over these types of new innovations. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how local management affects the innovation process, within fast food restaurant chains. Method: By conducting a cross-case study with the two fast food companies Subway and Max, the authors interviewed local fast food managers in order to explore the effect local management have on the innovation process. These two cases were selected since Subway fully consists of franchisees, while Max is almost completely company owned. Therefore, the two most common organizational structures within the fast food industry are included which will provide a more fair view of the industry. Conclusion: The effect of the innovation process has a positive relationship with the amount of power distributed to the local management. However, these areas differ depending on the organizational structure, with franchisees achieving their highest amount of power within medium-sized innovations and managers in company-owned outlets maintain their highest amount of power within minor innovations. Even though the overall communication was perceived as satisfying and efficient, large opportunities for improvements occur. By implementing more horizontal communication within the local management, it is in the belief of the authors that the entire internal communication will benefit. Especially this would benefit the franchise system where an increased local communication and collaboration would lead to more efficient communication throughout the entire organization.

This paper investigates the spread of aggressive corporate tax reporting by modeling a firm's decision to adopt the corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) shelter. I use a sample of known COLI participants to examine whether certain firm characteristics are associated with the decision to adopt a COLI shelter. I find some evidence that firms with higher performance-matched discretionary accruals are more likely to adopt a COLI shelter, suggesting a positive relation between aggressive financial reporting and aggressive tax reporting. I also find that firms with greater capital market visibility are less likely to adopt a COLI shelter, consistent with a potential reputational cost for being associated with aggressive tax avoidance activities. Further, my results suggest that COLI adopters are generally R&D intensive firms with low leverage and few foreign operations. In addition to firm specific characteristics, I consider two explanations for the spread of COLI adoption motivated by theory on diffusion of innovations and institutional isomorphism. I investigate whether firms imitate prior COLI adopters and whether COLI adoption spreads through common auditors. My results are not consistent with an imitation explanation. Further, my results suggest that having the same auditor as a prior COLI adopter does not increase the likelihood that a firm will adopt COLI. / text

Företag tenderar att leverera meningsfulla kundupplevelser genom användning av kundresor. En kundresa föreställer ett händelseförlopp som innefattar kundens hela livscykel, från förköpsfas till efterköpsfas. Inom kundresor utgör företagsägda kontaktpunkter en central del, eftersom det är via dessa som företag och kunder utbyter information sinsemellan genom hela kundresan. Rätt information är A och O för att företag ska kunna kommunicera med de rätta kunderna, vid rätt tidpunkt och med relevant budskap, oavsett vilken kontaktpunkt som kunden än väljer. Rätt information förutsätter tillgång till relevanta och kvalitetsrika data samt kräver adekvata åtgärder för att möjliggöra ett entydigt och komplett informationsflöde. Detta är lättare sagt än gjort. Faktum är att det i dagsläget saknas tydliga riktlinjer för hur företag bör integrera kontaktpunkter för att säkerställa ett avbrottfritt informationsutbyte. Inom tidigare forskning saknas studier av faktiska fall. Därför har denna studie genomförts som en fallstudie med syfte att undersöka hur en enskild verksamhet inom biltillverkningsindustrin, integrerar egna kontaktpunkter. Studiens resultat tyder på att det finns negativa faktorer som försvårar informationsutbyte och samtidigt utgör ett hot mot positiva faktorer som innefattar verksamhetens kärnprocesser för att effektivisera informationsutbyte. För att upprätthålla ett effektivt informationsutbyte och för att skydda verksamheten mot negativa faktorer, bör positiva faktorer vara synkroniserade. Lösningen förutsätter en gemensam IT-arkitektur, som innefattar system och verktyg som är lämpade för kundinteraktion samt som kan sammankopplas med verksamhetens kärnprocesser. / Companies tend to deliver meaningful customer experiences by using customer journeys. A customer journey represents a sequence of events that include the customer's entire purchase cycle, from pre-purchase phase to post-purchase phase. In these journeys, company owned touchpoints constitute a key part, as it is through these touchpoints that companies and customers share information with one another throughout the entire customer journey. Accurate information is imperative for the companies to communicate with the right customer, at the right time and with a relevant message, regardless of which touchpoint the customer chooses. Accurate information requires access to relevant and high quality data, as well as adequate measures to enable unambiguous and complete flow of information. In fact, this is easier said than done. There are currently no clear guidelines on how companies should integrate touchpoints to ensure an uninterrupted information sharing. In previous research, there is a lack of studies conducted on factual cases. Therefore, this study has been conducted as a case study, which aim is to study an automobile company’s approach to integrate its touchpoints. The result of this study indicates that there are negative factors that hamper the information sharing, and at the same time pose a threat to positive factors that include core business processes to streamline information sharing. To maintain an effective information sharing, and to protect the business against negative factors, positive factors should be synchronized. This solution requires a corporate IT architecture, which includes suitable systems and tools for customer interaction, and which can be linked to the core processes of the business.

The master thesis focuses on problems connected with the life cycle cost of property owned by the city. It analyses general issues of the life cycle cost of construction, but it mainly analyses the ways in which local authorities manage their properties and their cost. Those methods are applied in a case study, that addresses the cost and management of swimming pool sites which are owned by the city Brno.

This research investigates the impact of social identity on employee engagement with companyowned social media platforms and how employees' identification with their organization influences their willingness to engage with these platforms. Drawing on Social Identity theory (SIT), this study explores how constructs like social categorization, social identification, and social comparison shape employee behaviors on company-owned social media (CoSM). A qualitative methodology was employed, involving 15 semi-structured interviews with employees from Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer. Participants ranged from Quality Control Associates to Team Leaders, providing a comprehensive view across different roles within the company. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns and insights relevant to the research questions. Findings indicate that social identity significantly influences employee engagement on CoSM through themes such as Professionalism and Representation, Sense of Belonging and Unity, In-group Favoritism and Fairness, and Shared Values and Mission Alignment. Employees align their social media activities with professional and company values, contributing to a sense of belonging and unity while navigating the dynamics of in-group favoritism and shared organizational values. The study also reveals that employees' identification with their organization affects their willingness to engage with CoSM platforms, driven by themes such as Commitment to Organizational Goals, Influence of Leadership Actions, Job Satisfaction and Loyalty, and Personal Values and Organizational Fit. Engagement on CoSM reflects and reinforces commitment to organizational goals, influenced by leadership behaviors and aligned with personal values and organizational mission. The research highlights the practical implications of using CoSM for enhancing employee engagement, suggesting that organizations can leverage these platforms to foster a cohesive and committed workforce. Theoretical implications emphasize the role of SIT in understanding digital interactions within organizational contexts. Limitations include the focus on a single organization and the qualitative nature of the study, suggesting avenues for future research to explore diverse organizational settings and quantitative analyses. / Denna forskning undersöker effekten av social identitet på anställdas engagemang med företagsägda sociala medieplattformar och hur anställdas identifiering med sin organisation påverkar deras vilja att engagera sig i dessa plattformar. Med utgångspunkt i teorin om social identitet undersöker denna studie hur konstruktioner som social kategorisering, social identifikation och social jämförelse formar anställdas beteenden på CoSM. En kvalitativ metod användes, 15 semistrukturerade intervjuer med anställda från Northvolt, en svensk batteritillverkare. Deltagarna var allt från kvalitetskontrollmedarbetare till teamledare, vilket gav en heltäckande bild av olika roller inom företaget. Data analyserades med hjälp av tematisk analys för att identifiera mönster och insikter som är relevanta för forskningsfrågorna. Resultaten tyder på att social identitet i hög grad påverkar medarbetarnas engagemang på CoSM genom teman som Professionalism och representation, känsla av tillhörighet och enighet, favorisering och rättvisa inom gruppen samt gemensamma värderingar och uppdragsanpassning. Anställda anpassar sina aktiviteter i sociala medier till professionella värderingar och företagsvärderingar, vilket bidrar till en känsla av tillhörighet och enighet samtidigt som de navigerar i dynamiken i gruppfavorisering och delade organisatoriska värderingar. Studien visar också att medarbetarnas identifikation med sin organisation påverkar deras vilja att engagera sig med CoSM-plattformar, som drivs av teman som engagemang för organisatoriska mål, inflytande av ledarskapshandlingar, arbetstillfredsställelse och lojalitet samt personliga värderingar och organisatorisk passform. Engagemang i CoSM återspeglar och förstärker engagemanget för organisatoriska mål, influerat av ledarskapsbeteenden och i linje med personliga värderingar och organisationens uppdrag. Forskningen belyser de praktiska konsekvenserna av att använda CoSM för att öka medarbetarnas engagemang, vilket tyder på att organisationer kan utnyttja dessa plattformar för att främja en sammanhållen och engagerad arbetsstyrka. Teoretiska implikationer betonar SIT:s roll för att förstå digitala interaktioner inom organisatoriska sammanhang. Begränsningar inkluderar fokus på en enda organisation och studiens kvalitativa karaktär, vilket föreslår vägar för framtida forskning för att utforska olika organisatoriska inställningar och kvantitativa analyser