As organizations grow larger, so does the information base of the organization, and the need to findimportant information increases along with it. However, many organizations are neglecting theimportance of information. Enterprise search lets users search for information in multiple informationrepositories from one single application, without having to know where the information resides. The focalfirm of this research, Findwise AB, is a Swedish IT consultancy firm specialized in delivering searchsolutions to its customers. It has been shown that not many organizations have a strategy for their internalwork with enterprise search. Therefore, Findwise wants to be able to deliver enterprise search strategies toits customers. Such a strategy would facilitate the customers’ development of their internal enterprisesearch management. However, this requires the ability to define an organization’s current and future statewith regard to enterprise search management, something that, up until now has not been possible.Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an enterprise search management maturity (ESMM)model, which Findwise’s consultants can use for assessing an organization’s current state, as well aspossible future state within enterprise search management. Through an extensive literature study, incombination with an empirical study consisting of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, theESMM model was developed. The themes of the identified maturity levels of enterprise searchmanagement are; knowledge, management, priority, standardization, and sustainability. It is concludedthat the parameters to evaluate on each of these maturity levels are the three parameters information,technology, and user. Each of these parameters consists of three specific factors to evaluate, providingguidelines for what to look at in an assessment. This will enable Findwise to define an organization’scurrent and future state within enterprise search management, as well as enable organizations to gain themost benefit out of their enterprise search solution. / När organisationer växer ökar även deras interna informationsmängd. I takt med detta, ökar även behovetav att finna relevant information inom organisationen. Tyvärr är detta något som ofta försummas avdagens organisationer. Enterprise search är en sökapplikation som möjliggör sökning i flera olikainformationskällor från endast en applikation. Detta innebär att istället för att söka igenom olikainformationskällor via separata sökfunktioner, behöver användare av en enterprise search-lösning endastgöra en enda sökning. Findwise AB är ett svenskt IT-konsultbolag som är specialiserade på att utvecklasådana enterprise search-lösningar. Ett stort problem är att organisationer ofta saknar ett konkretarbetssätt och en strategi för enterprise search. Detta leder till att det blir mycket svårt att dels realiseravärdet av söklösningen, men även till svårigheter med att definiera hur det interna arbetet kringsöklösningen bör se ut. På grund av detta vill Findwise kunna erbjuda sina kunder enterprise searchstrategier.En sådan strategi skulle underlätta kunders interna utveckling av styrprocesser för enterprisesearch. Detta kräver dock förmågan att definiera en organisations nuvarande och framtida tillstånd medavseende på styrningen av enterprise search, något som fram tills nu ej har varit möjligt. Således varsyftet med detta arbete att ta fram en mognadsmodell för utvärdering av styrprocesser för enterprisesearch. Denna mognadsmodell ska bistå Findwise-konsulter med ett verktyg för att definiera vilkenmognadsnivå en organisation befinner sig på i dagsläget, men även se var man vill befinna sig iframtiden. Från denna utvärdering kan sedan de aktiviteter identifieras, som behöver utföras för att uppnåett framtida mål och skapa en strategi för enterprise search. Denna rapport beskriver utvecklandet av ensådan mognadsmodell för styrning av enterprise search. Modellen utvecklades genom en kvalitativfallstudie på Findwise AB, där resultat från en enkät och semistrukturerade intervjuer utgör grunden förstudien. Fakta och diverse koncept har även grundats i teori. Resultatet blev en mognadsmodell beståendeav fem olika mognadsnivåer: kunskap, hantering, prioritering, standardisering och hållbarhet. Dessaanvänds för att utvärdera mognaden inom tre huvudområden av enterprise search: information, teknik ochanvändare. Inom varje område är tre olika faktorer identifierade, som bidrar med riktlinjer för vad manbör titta på vid en utvärdering av enterprise search. Modellen möjliggör för Findwise att kunna definieraen organisations nuvarande- och framtida tillstånd med avseende på styrning av enterpris search. Dessutom skulle en sådan modell möjliggöra för organisationer att få maximalt utbyte av sin enterprisesearch-lösning.

This analysis will characterize the informal sector in Managua, Nicaragua as small-scale units engaged in the production and distribution of goods and services whose primary objective is to generate employment for the participants rather than maximize their profits. Managua's informal sector employs forty-eight percent of the total employed urban population and plays an important role in the development of the country. Historically, informal sector growth has been constrained by the inaccessibility of credit. However in recent years, credit programs that focus on micro-enterprise lending have been established and are significantly stimulating informal sector activities. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of micro-enterprise credit as a tool for promoting socio-economic development for informal-sector participants. Its principal findings are that micro-enterprise credit promotes economic development by generating income and employment, increasing borrower assets, and facilitating expansion of micro-business enterprises. Secondly, micro-enterprise credit promotes social development by empowering females in the home and business, benefits to children, and improving borrowers' personal well being. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

This study is motivated by several factors. First, the current increase in the number of products developed for business labeled “social software” to support social networking at work. Secondly, there is a great deal of skepticism and question marks concerning social software’s usefulness, usability and added value to the corporate world. There is also uncertainty of the side effects and how these factors can be measured and concerns if a SSE can act as an integrated part of the daily routines for employers work or not.

No / A two-step modelling strategy is applied to a panel of 5,861 foreign-invested and 7,697 indigenous Chinese firms for the period 1998¿2001 to investigate whether export spillovers may represent a mechanism underpinning Dunning¿s Trade Development Path hypothesis. ¿ Such spillovers are found, and the results emphasize the importance of a wide spectrum of spillover channels involving labour mobility, spatial agglomeration, technological imitation and the diffusion of exporting experience. ¿ Multinational enterprises in China positively affect local Chinese firms¿ exports through various spillover channels, and inward FDI brings significant, indirect spillovers.

No / Enterprise strategies, governance structure and performance: a comparative study of global integration, Regional Studies. This paper is positioned within a voluminous body of literature exploring the processes of global integration. The research presented here broadens the scope of scholarly inquiry through a process of constructive and critical engagement with the Global Commodity and Value Chain approaches. This is achieved by focusing on the enterprise as a purposive agent that is contextualized in chains and localities; and exploring the broad spectrum of strategies that can result to robust performance. This argument is supported with the findings of a survey of 755 firms in the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland, Estonia, and Bulgaria.

Yes / This article examines a ‘deprived’ UK community to identify how (dis)connections between context and enterprise are produced within accounts of a particular locality. We used a discursive psychological approach to examine how the community depicted itself as a context for enterprise. Our analysis identified three discursive repertoires mobilised by a range of voices in the community which combined to portray an unenterprising community and create a conceptual deadlock for enterprise. We suggest it is too deterministic to assume context is fixed and controls the potential for entrepreneurial development. Instead, we should consider social practices, including talk, that help construct the contexts in which entrepreneurship is expected to occur. / The research resorted in this article was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship.

No / Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a system designed to bring processes and resource together by sharing data and information across functional areas. The use of ERP consultancy is becoming essential to the enterprises in China. However, many issues have risen in the process of ERP implementation. This paper aims to investigate the major obstacles in the way of ERP implementation among ERP consultancy and client organisations. It has found that the quality of Chinese consultancy is far from that expected as leading ERP products were not widely mastered by consulting firms. Efficient information system is essential for companies to stay in the competition. However, transparent information flow across functional areas is hard to achieve in China. A good understanding of ERP system and business processes can help Chinese enterprises to ease unrealistic expectations from ERP implementation.

The focus of this research questions the role of change management in successfully implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in the retail industry. The importance of the study could reveal a change approach more useful and relevant to the retail industry and offer opportunities for further research in this industry. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Mobile technology has developed rapidly in the recent years and considerably changed the way organizations work. Mobility can bring great benefits to the organizations of which they are at, by e.g. improving employee satisfaction and increase efficiency and productivity. Despite this the development of mobile solutions have grown much faster for individuals than for organizations, with a plethora of devices and applications. The slow enterprise adoption is partly due to the fact that companies need to take information security risks into account at the same time as IT systems need to be rebuilt and customized to accommodate the new mobile way of working. Employees, unlike most other technologies, largely drive mobile strategies at organizations. Organizations are not developing in a fast enough pace and many scientist are describing a research gap in organizations adoption of mobility. This study aims to examine how research in the area has been presented and how enterprise mobility is viewed and utilized. The study has been implemented through qualitative research with a interpretative and exploratory approach. A case study was conducted at two organizations, demonstrating the possibilities and obstacles of enterprise mobility, and also strengthened the existing definition of the field. Additionally the case study illustrated discrepancies in IT solutions and the adoption of enterprise mobility within two different industries. Both researchers and organizations have shown a great interest in exploring this area additionally. Further studies can be extended to include the effects of how companies have adapted to enterprise mobility. / Den mobila teknologin har utvecklats i snabb takt under de senaste åren och således förändrat organisationers sätt att arbeta. Mobilitet kan möjliggöra för organisationer att t.ex. förbättra de anställdas tillfredsställelse, öka effektiviteten och produktiviteten, samt minimera kostnader. Trots den snabba utveckling av såväl mobila lösningar som mobila enheter, så har utvecklingen gått betydligt snabbare för privatpersoner än för organisationer. Detta kan delvis förklaras av det faktum att organisationer, i större utsträckning än privatpersoner, måste ta hänsyn till de säkerhetsrisker som mobilt arbete kan medföra. Det kan också förklaras av att många IT-system kräver vidareutveckling och anpassning för att kunna möta det nya mobila sättet att arbeta. Att organisationer inte utvecklas i tillräcklig snabb takt ligger till grund för att många forskare beskriver att det finns ett forskningsgap i organisationers antagande av mobilitet. Denna studie syftar därför till att undersöka hur begreppet enterprise mobility presenteras i tidigare forskning samt hur det uppfattas och tillämpas bland anställda. Studien har använt en kvalitativ forskningsansats med ett undersökande och tolkande förhållningssätt. En fallstudie har genomförts på två olika organisationer för att identifiera möjligheter och utmaningar med enterprise mobility, men också för att stärka den befintliga definitionen av begreppet. Fallstudien presenterar också skillnader i anpassade IT-lösningar och antagandet av mobilitet inom två olika branscher. Både forskare och organisationer har uttryckt ett stort intresse av att utforska detta område ytterligare. Denna studie ligger till grund för att senare undersöka effekterna av hur företagen har anpassat sig till enterprise mobility.

Thesis (PhD) -- Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis has as its focus the engineering of integrated knowledge networks (IKNs) through the use of a reference architecture. The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the constructional principles underlying this class of collaborative networks. Although IKNs and enterprise engineering are both seen as promising approaches to the challenges of the Information Age, significant challenges still exist in the engineering of IKNs. Our globalised and commercialised society may currently be characterised by both extreme complexity and extreme rates of change. Enterprise engineering is seen as a promising approach to equip enterprises with the characteristics that are desirable in the modern economy, including flexibility and agility. Enterprise architecture contributes to this endeavour by providing a high-level design of the enterprise that allows for integrated engineering of the enterprise. From a commercial point of view, it has been widely recognised that the ability to innovate and generate new knowledge through the development of new products, services and processes is a key factor in the survival of enterprises. The latest trends in innovation management, however, show that the innovation process is no longer one that is executed inside a single enterprise, giving rise to the development of inter-organisational innovation networks. Furthermore, the importance of knowledge as a dynamic enabler of this networked innovation approach is highlighted. This has lead to the emergence of IKNs in which knowledge is created and shared between network stakeholders in order to foster sustainable innovation. The increasing rate of change means that enterprises, including IKNs, have progressively less time to react to market changes and opportunities. The emphasis is therefore on the potential of the EE and EA disciplines as tools to adapt to the dynamic landscape of the Information Age. At present, the ability to apply comprehensive enterprise engineering to IKNs is hampered by the lack of resources that describes sound constructional principles for these networks. The focus of this study is therefore on the application of the enterprise engineering discipline to IKNs through the development of a reference architecture. The reference architecture for IKNs is developed through design science research within a pragmatic and qualitative research strategy. The research problem is first identified and motivated. Various solution objectives are subsequently defined. This is followed by the design and development of the reference architecture through four iterative design cycles. A qualitative systematic review is conducted and serves as the foundation for the development of various reference models. The reference architecture for IKNs is demonstrated and evaluated through a series of illustrative scenarios, after which the utility, novelty and design rigour of the artefact is communicated. It was found that the reference architecture provides constructional principles in the engineering of IKNs, thus enabling the design, operation and research of this class of collaborative networks. The study therefore takes a first step toward extending the concept of EE to IKNs, and collaborative networks in general. This enables the greater adaptability of these networks to the dynamic environment of the Information Age. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die ontwikkeling van geïntegreerde kennisnetwerke (GK’s) aan die hand van ‘n verwysingsargitektuur. Die doel van die studie is om ’n beter begrip van die onderliggende ontwerpbeginsels van hierdie klas kollaborasie netwerke te kry. Alhoewel beide GK’s en ondernemingsingenieurswese beskou word as belowende benaderings tot die uitdagings van die Inligtingsera, bestaan beduidende uitdagings steeds in die ontwikkeling van GK’s. Ons geglobaliseerde, gekommersialiseerde samelewing word tans gekenmerk deur beide buitengewone kompleksiteit en buitengewone tempo-verandering. Ondernemingsingenieurswese word beskou as ’n belowende benadering om ondernemings toe te rus met die eienskappe wat in aanvraag is in die moderne ekonomie, insluitend aanpasbaarheid en vlugheid. Ondernemingsargitektuur dra by tot hierdie poging deur ’n hoëvlak ontwerp van die onderneming te voorsien wat geïntegreerde ontwikkeling van die onderneming toelaat. Vanuit ’n kommersiële oogpunt word dit ruim aanvaar dat die vermoë om te innoveer en nuwe kennis te ontwikkel deur die ontwikkeling van nuwe produkte, dienste en prosesse ’n kernfaktor in die oorlewing van ondernemings is. Die jongste benadering in innovasiebestuur toon aan dat die innovasieproses nie meer slegs in een onderneming uitgevoer word nie. Dit lei dan tot interorganisasie-innovasienetwerke. Die belangrikheid van kennis as ’n dinamiese instaatsteller van hierdie netwerk-innovasiebenadering word verder beklemtoon. Dit het gelei tot die ontstaan van GK’s waarin kennis tot stand gebring en gedeel word tussen netwerk belanghebbendes om sodoende volhoubare innovasie te bevorder. Die toenemende tempo in verandering beteken dat ondernemings, insluitende GK’s, toenemend minder tyd het om op markveranderings en -geleenthede te reageer. Die klem val daarom op die ondernemingsingenieursweseen ondernemingsargitektuur-dissiplines as hulpmiddels om by die dinamiese landskap van die Inligtingsera aan te pas. Tans word die vermoë om omvattende ondernemingsingenieurswese in GK’s te beoefen, gekniehalter deur die tekort aan hulpbronne wat grondige konstruksie-beginsels vir hierdie netwerke beskryf. Die fokus van hierdie studie is daarom die toepassing van die ondernemingsingenieurswese-dissipline op GK’s deur die ontwikkeling van ’n verwysingsargitektuur. Die verwysingsargitektuur vir GK’s word ontwikkel deur ontwerpwetenskapnavorsing binne ’n pragmatiese en kwalitatiewe navorsingstrategie. Die navorsingsprobleem word eers geïdentifiseer en gemotiveer. Verskeie oplossingsdoelwitte word vervolgens bepaal. Hierna geskied die ontwerp en ontwikkeling van die verwysingsargitektuur deur middel van die vier herhalende ontwerpsiklusse. Die verwysingsargitektuur vir GK’s word gedemonstreer en geëvalueer deur ’n reeks beeldende scenario’s, waarna die bruikbaarheid, nuutheid en ontwerpstrengheid van die artefak gekommunikeer word. Dit is bevind dat die verwysingsargitektuur konstruksiebeginsels in die ontwikkeling van GK’s voorsien en sodoende die ontwerp, werk en navorsing in hierdie klas kollaborasie netwerke moontlik maak. Dié studie neem ‘n eerste tree in die rigting om die konsep van ondernemingsingenieurswese tot GK’s uit te brei. Dit maak die groter aanpasbaarheid van hierdie netwerke by die dinamiese omgewing van die Inligtingsera moontlik.