Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 282-313).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, the Faculty of the Graduate School of Business. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Keith Debbage; submitted to the Dept. of Geography. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-63).

This study was evoked by a discussion with one of Dimension Data’s Service Management Executives. The discussion was centred around customer service management focus and on how to bring all stakeholders within the organisation to share this common goal. The critical aspect does not merely mean improving quality, but to exceed customers’ expectations according to Manning (1989:63). Quality and customer service have become a way of life rather than, short-term projects that can begin and end at will emphasises Manning (1989:91). There is a myriad of evidence to suggest that services are becoming critical to economic growth in most developing economies, one of such is South Africa. Thus South African industry requires substantial reflection both from the government and private sector regarding issues of service. Organisations therefore need to understand products and services as complex clusters of value adding satisfactions. The main problem of this research is as follows: What customer service management strategies are at the disposal of an information technology organisation? The main problem will be solved in the form of three sub-problems, by identifying what customer service management is. Secondly, depicting a customer service management model and lastly recognising customer service strategies that exist within Dimension Data.

Cloud providers need to optimize the container deployments to efficiently utilize their network, compute and storage resources. In addition, they require an attractive pricing strategy for the compute services like containers, virtual machines, and serverless computing in order to attract users, maximize their profits and achieve a desired utilization of their resources. This thesis aims to tackle the twofold challenge of achieving high performance in container deployments and identifying the pricing for compute services. For performance, the thesis presents a transport-adaptive network architecture (D-TAIL) improving tail latencies. Existing transport protocols such as Homa, pFabric [1, 2] utilize Shortest Remaining Processing Time (SRPT) scheduling policy which is known to have starvation issues for long flows as SRPT prioritizes short flows. D-TAIL addresses this limitation by taking age of the flow in consideration while deciding the priority. D-TAIL shows a maximum reduction of 72%, 29.66% and 28.39% in 99th-percentile FCT for transport protocols like DCTCP, pFabric and Homa respectively. In addition, the thesis also presents a container deployment design utilizing peer-to-peer network and virtual file system with content-addressable storage to address the problem of cold starts in existing container deployment systems. The proposed deployment design increases compute availability, reduces storage requirement and prevents network bottlenecks. For pricing, the thesis studies the tradeoffs between serverless computing (SC) and traditional cloud computing (virtual machine, VM) using realistic cost models, queueing theoretic performance models, and a game theoretic formulation. For customers, we identify their workload distribution between SC and VM to minimize their cost while maintaining a particular performance constraint. For cloud provider, we identify the SC and VM prices to maximize its profit. The main result is the identification and characterization of three optimal operational regimes for both customers and the provider, that leverage either SC or VM only, or both, in a hybrid configuration.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of the study was to identify an effective and appropriate framework or process for evaluation of software developers. Critical review of existing literature on the subject revealed that there are various factors that influence the evaluation of software developers for employment including the impact of the skills shortage; changes in the way software developers evaluate employers; and a fresh look at expanding the resource pool where software developers can be found. In addition to the literature review opinions of 11 purposively selected participants in the Westem Cape, which deal with this issue on a daily basis were obtained. For the research an interpretivist philosophy shaped the approach to a research strategy of grounded theory and data collection that was based on semi-structured interviews without pre-conceived theories, which gave the research its inductive and qualitative character. The research results presented findings that covered the following applicable areas: recruitment policies; minimum criteria that software developer candidates must meet; skill levels; desired characteristics; market related critical success factors; resource channels; evaluation processes and techniques in practise. In keeping with the approach to grounded theory research three major categories were identified namely: finding suitable software developers; the profile of a suitable software developer; and lastly, the approach to evaluate candidates. Analysis of the relationship between these categories and associated sub-categories led to the following conclusions: • in order to effectively assess a software developer's technical skill, it is necessary to administer a practical test or assignment; • formal and recognised tests of behavioural characteristics are not essential to form an accurate assessment of a candidate's character, but is advisable; • recruitment agencies may well be most effective as a source of candidates but cannot be regarded as the most effective channel to find suitable candidates. Herein lies a comparison of quantity versus quality. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die studie was om 'n effektiewe en gepaste raamwerk of proses te identifiseer vir die evaluasie van sagteware programmeerders. 'n Kritiese oorsig van bestaande literatuur op die onderwerp het laat blyk dat verskeie faktore 'n invloed het op die evaluasie van programmeerders met die oog op indiensstelling. Hierdie faktare sluit in die impak van die huidige vaardigheids tekort; verandering in die wyse waarop programmeerders potentiële werkgewers evalueer; en vernuwe denke met betrekking tot bronne waar sagteware programmeerders gevind kan word. Tot aanvulling van die literatuur is opinies op die onderwerp van 11 doel-geselekteerde verteenwoordigers van organisasies in die Wes-Kaap ingewin. 'n Navorsing strategie van 'gegronde teorie' and data insameling by wyse van semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude is gevolg. Versigtigheid om nie vooropgestelde idees en teorieë te laat geld nie het aan die navorsing 'n induktiewe en kwalitatiewe karakter gegee. Die bevindinge het die volgende toepaslike areas gedek: werwings beleid ; minimum kriteria waaraan programmerings-kandidate moet voldoen; vaardigheidsvlakke; verlangde karakter eienskappe; mark-verwante kritiese sukses faktore; werwings bronne; evaluasie prosesse en tegnieke. Onder leiding van die benadering tot gegronde teorie is die volgende drie hoof kategorieë geïdentifiseer: die vind van gepaste programmeerders; die protfel van 'n gepaste programmeerder en laastens, die benadering tot evaluasie van kandidate. Analise van die verwantskappe tussen hierdie, sowel as sub-kategorieë het tot die volgende slotsom gelei: • die afneming van 'n praktiese toets of taak is noodsaaklik vir effektiewe evaluasie van 'n programmeerder se tegniese vaardigheid; • formele en erkende toetse van gedrags eienskappe is nie noodsaaklik nie, maar wel aanbevole, om 'n akkurate beeld van 'n kandidaat se karakter te vorm; • werwings-agentskappe mag 'n effektiewe bron van kandidate wees, maar kan nie beskou word as die mees effektiewe bron van gepaste kandidate nie. 'n Vergelyking tussen kwaliteit en kwantiteit is hier ter sprake.

by Yip Wai Ling, William. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [60]-[61]). / Chapter Chapter1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2. --- Objectives --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter2 --- Literature Search --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1. --- Organizational Life Cycle --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1.1. --- Evolution And Revolution As Organizations Grow --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1.2. --- Crises In a Developing Organization --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.3. --- A Longitudinal Study of The Corporate Life Cycle --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2. --- Family Business --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.1. --- The Problem of Institutional Overlap --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.2. --- The Role of Founder in Creating Organizational Culture --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter3 --- Research Methodology --- p.15 / Chapter Chapter4 --- Finding and Analysis --- p.17 / Chapter 4.1. --- Birth Phase (1951 - 1961) --- p.18 / Chapter 4.1.1. --- Situation --- p.18 / Chapter 4.1.2. --- Strategy --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1.3. --- Impact of Family Business --- p.21 / Chapter 4.1.4. --- Implications --- p.22 / Chapter 4.2. --- Growth Phase (1961 -1966) --- p.23 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- Situation --- p.23 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Strategies --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.3. --- Impact of Family Business --- p.28 / Chapter 4.2.4. --- Implications --- p.29 / Chapter 4.3. --- Maturity Phase (1967-1971) --- p.30 / Chapter 4.3.1. --- Situation --- p.30 / Chapter 4.3.2. --- Strategy --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3.3. --- Impact of Family Business --- p.34 / Chapter 4.3.4. --- Implications --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4. --- Revival Phase (1972 - 1984) --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4.1. --- Situation --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4.2. --- Strategies --- p.44 / Chapter 4.4.3. --- Impact of Family Business --- p.46 / Chapter 4.4.4. --- Implication --- p.47 / Chapter 4.5. --- Decline Phase (1984 - ) --- p.48 / Chapter 4.5.1. --- Situation --- p.48 / Chapter 4.5.2. --- Strategy --- p.51 / Chapter 4.5.3. --- Impact of Family Business --- p.51 / Chapter 4.5.4. --- Implications --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter5 --- Implications - Managing the conflict between family business and company growth --- p.53 / Chapter Chapter6 --- Conclusion --- p.57 / References / Interview

Thesis (MTech. degree in Business Information Systems.) / The study aims to investigate the intervention programmes that are currently being implemented in South African organisations in an effort to increase the recruitment and retention of women in the Information and Communication Technology industry.

Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / In the run-up to the Millennium Development Goals of 2015, the United Nations Global Compact and others are targeting major corporations to play an active leadership role in promoting sustainable development. Increasingly, corporations are encouraged to do so while pursuing profit-making business opportunities yielding social good in developing countries. Beyond corporate citizenship, the ideal of “inclusive capitalism” is popularized by C.K. Prahalad, who evangelizes to corporations about the benefits of marketing to the untapped market opportunity offered by the 4 billion poor consumers that make up the “Bottom of the Pyramid”. Hewlett Packard, under former CEO Carley Fiorina embraced this concept; and, supported by President Thabo Mbeki, launched a high profile project to test this proposition at the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Launched as a three year Public Private Partnership between Hewlett-Packard, the Limpopo Province and the Mogalakwena Municipality, the project aimed at “creating breakthrough models of sustainable development, not altruism, at global replication, not local exclusivity”. Influenced by the author’s status as an IT industry insider in Africa, this narrative case study draws on privileged access to sources. While a single case study cannot serve to validate or discredit a development model, it can effectively expose tensions and contradictions within a model The case examines what happened in the company’s search for these “breakthrough models” in South Africa, and reveals how the competing logics between business realities and development imperatives are not easily reconciled. Early language around the inclusive capitalism or BOP discourse emphasizing unlimited business opportunities and poverty eradication through profits may set unrealistic expectations for business executives.