<p>Det går att se på en systemutvecklingsmetod på olika sätt. Dels kan man studera den utifrån dess beståndsdelar, och dels kan man studera de processer i utvecklingsarbetet som leder fram till slutresultatet. I detta examensarbete diskuteras en del av de kognitiva krav som ställs vid inlärning av en systemutvecklingsmetod.</p><p>Inom ramen för en litteraturstudie diskuteras vad som är viktigt att lyfta fram när en systemutvecklingsmetod ska presenteras och vilka inlärningsproblem som finns i samband med detta.</p><p>Rapporten innehåller även en fallstudie där en systemutvecklingsmetod (Enterprise Knowledge Development) presenteras i HTML-format i en så kallad Electronic Guide Book. Examensarbetets bidrag till EGB består i att ge exempel på hur valda delar av EKD kan presenteras i HTML-format.</p>

<p>Companies are always trying to enhance their functioning to achieve a competitive advantage in a given market. Some of the tools that are used to improve organizational functioning include ERP systems. In fact, ERP systems are becoming very popular among firms, to the point where they are considered by some as an ailing business savior. Nevertheless, despite the attractive functions that an ERP system may display to an interested company, implementing such a system successfully is a task that is far from being easy. Several problems may arise in the implementation phase, and a failure to address them correctly can have terrible consequences on the general functioning of a firm. Two of the main factors that contribute to a failed ERP system implementation are training and resistance to change. A tool that may actually help with the ERP system implementation failure is ERP simulation.</p><p>The main purpose of this thesis is to study the potential effect that ERP simulations can have on a potential ERP system user skills and knowledge, and thereafter find the potential impact that they may have while being used during an ERP implementation to facilitate training and reduce resistance to change.</p><p>The tools that were used to successfully accomplish this research were a personal interview with an ERP simulation expert, a detailed survey with ERP simulation participants, and various information that were collected from books, articles, reports and websites.</p><p>This thesis main results show that ERP simulations can enable ERP users to improve their knowledge of ERP systems effectively, and also have potential to contribute during the implementation phase by reducing the possible problems that may arise from the training and the resistance to    change perspectives.</p>

Zugl.: Magdeburg, Univ., Diss., 2009

Thesis (M. Inst. Agrar.(Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes summary. Includes bibliographical references.

Changing conditions within an organisation's environment necessitate enactment of the strategy realisation process to produce relevant coping strategic intents to successfully reconfigure current, or potential, process networks to better exploit potential opportunities or minimise impacts of a potential threats. Literature regarding strategy realisation has not produced a coherent approach to describe and decompose the subprocesses of the strategy realisation, i.e., several different approaches have been taken to enact some components however there is no formal decomposition of such process. A revision of the strategy realisation literature was conducted and a formal decomposition model for the strategy realisation process was conceived. Various modelling tools, methods and techniques were surveyed to enable the underpinning of the proposed strategy realisation conceptualisation. Utilising a combination of static, causal and simulation modelling methods and tools, a research methodology was proposed to underpin aspects of the enterprise which would facilitate the decision making process of the strategy realisation process. Two case studies were identified in which the proposed methodology could be implemented. In the first case study, two differing strategic intents were analysed within the same organisation under opposing economic conditions. The second case study observed the implementation of a different system configuration to achieve a strategic intent. The strategy realisation process was studied using the described conceptualisation and the enterprise was modelled. Key variables, set by senior management were observed and quantitative analysis was undertaken and reported. It was concluded that the use of modelling methods providing quantitative and qualitative analysis facilitated the decision process within an organisation. A new conceptualisation of the strategy realisation process and the integration of modelling methods, tools and techniques were devised.

Social entrepreneurship is a phenomenon of increasing economic and cultural importance. A key challenge for social enterprises is resource acquisition. However, how social entrepreneurs acquire the resources needed to grow their ventures is not clear. Moreover, social enterprises differ from traditional ventures in several key ways which suggest that research developed from studying traditional entrepreneurs does not fully apply to social entrepreneurs. The focus of this dissertation is how social entrepreneurs use narratives to gather resources. This topic is examined using a multi-study, inductive, theory-building design based on 121 interviews, observation, and archival data. In Study 1, I interview 75 entrepreneurs, investors, and ancillary participants in the social enterprise sector. In Study 2, I construct case studies of eight technology-focused social ventures. The result is a framework explaining how differences in entrepreneurs' narrative tactics and characteristics are associated with differences in their resource acquisition success. Specifically, from Study 1 I develop a typology of social enterprise narratives, identify three narrative-types (personal, social-good, and business), and show that they possess unique elements. Findings from Study 2 demonstrate that the three narrative-types serve as the building blocks for communication with external stakeholders, particularly investors and the media. I find that successful social entrepreneurs used narratives to engage in two tactics -- tailoring and linking -- and constructed narratives with a unique characteristic: multiplexity. These findings contribute to three literatures that formed the basis of the study -- social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial resource acquisition, and organizational narrative theory -- and have implications for work on competing institutional logics and emotion in stakeholder evaluations. / text

M. Tech. Business Administration / An Enterprise Resource Planning system is complex software that ties together and automates the processes in a business. The benefits of having an Enterprise Resource Planning system included having a single database that allowed the data to be available across all business units. Small, Medium Enterprises, and Large South African companies, have introduced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a means of improving productivity and efficiency over the past few years. Various South African companies have experienced difficulties in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems because they are costly in terms of finance and time. This study aims to analyse the degree to which the South African company Iliad Africa has benefited from the implementation of an ERP system.

D.Tech. Organisational Leadership. Business School. / The development of a quality framework for services in a shared services environment was the focus of the study. The shared services model has recently become an attractive organisational structure with many conglomerate multinational corporates. Shared services can be defined as a concentration of internal support services, professionally managed as an internal services business unit rendering the necessary services to the organisation’s business units. The shared services concept is not about centralisation. It is based on the existence of an internal supplier-customer relationship, where the power of the demand and nature of the services rest with the various business units. The literature has shown that the benefits of the shared services model include a reduction in the operating costs, improvements in efficiency of the corporate and in a higher level of internal customer satisfaction. Many practitioners have documented the fact that a reduction of operating costs stems from the elimination of duplicated services and providing service offerings at a greater economy of scale. In addition, business units can concentrate their efforts on the improvement of sales, thus lowering the percentage of the cost of sales. Efficiencies are improved by acquiring better technologies made possible by proportioning the costs to the various business units. The customer satisfaction levels of services from shared services centres have not materialised as per the literature. In recent research, shared services customers reported that they were dissatisfied with the quality of services and felt that there is a need for intervention to improve the quality of the services. One of the popular interventions for improving quality is a quality model.

Magistro darbe nagrinėjamas statybinės įmonės veiklos valdymas įdiegus kokybės ir aplinkos apsaugos vadybos standartus, išaiškinamos ISO 9000 serijos standarto kokybės vadybos sistemų diegimo problemos visuotinės kokybės vadybos atžvilgiu. Išsamiai analizuojami vadybos sistemų integravimo ypatumai, kokybės ISO 9000 ir aplinkos apsaugos ISO 14000 vadybos sistemos standartų reikalavimai bei juos įtakojantys veiksniai, kokybės bei aplinkosaugos sistemų naudą įmonėje. Teoriniai sprendimai pagrįsti: Abramavičiaus Š., Adomėno V., Jucevičiaus R., Paulauskaitės N., Rutkausko J., Vanago P., Gardin D., Hoyle D., Tsiakals J., West J. bei kitų autorių moksliniais straipsniais ir knygomis, kuriose teoriniais aspektais analizuojamos ISO 9000 serijos standarto kokybės vadybos sistemų diegimo problemos, vadybos sistemų integravimo ypatumai, Aplinkos vadybos sistemų diegimas Lietuvos įmonėse. Atlikta anketinė apklausa, siekiant identifikuoti įmonės veiklos valdymą įdiegus kokybės ir aplinkos apsaugos vadybos sistemas. Patvirtinama autorės suformuluota mokslinio tyrimo hipotezė, kad VKV – į kokybę orientuotas UAB „NCC titanas“ vadovavimo būdas, pagrįstas visų jos narių dalyvavimu, siekiant ilgalaikės sėkmės tenkinant klientą ir naudos visiems savo organizacijos nariams bei visuomenei. Tačiau visgi UAB „NCC titanas“ reiktų didesnį dėmesį skirti paslaugų ir darbuotojų veiklos kokybės gerinimui, VKV žinių tobulinimui, komunikavimo procesui bei vidinių ir išorinių klientų lūkesčių tenkinimui. / This work analyses the practice of constructional enterprise administration after introducing into it the quality and anti-pollution standards, also the problems of ISO 9000 quality of standard management system implemention regard to general quality management. The management system integration peculiarities are analysed as well as the requirements for quality of ISO 9000 series and anti-pollution ISO 14000 series management system standarts, factors that influence them, quality and anti-pollution systems benefit in enterprise. Theoretical decisions are based on: Abramavičius Š., Adomėnas V., Jucevičius R., Paulauskaitė N., Rutkauskas J., Vanagas P., Gardin D., Hoyle D., Tsiakals J., West J. and other authors memoirs and books in which the ISO 9000 series quality standards of management systems implemention problems and pecularities, anti-pollution management system installation in Lithuania companies and so on are analysed by theoretical aspects. The survey was made by seeking to identify the administration of enterprise after implemention of quality and anti-pollution management systems. The hypothesis of author that the style of leadership TQM, which is oriented to JSC „NCC titanas“ and based on participation of all members, trying to reach permanent success to meet the requirements of customer and get a big benefit for all members of organization and society was confirmed. Though still JSC „NCC titanas“ should pay more attention to development of the service and the... [to full text]

Information technology (IT) is more pervasive than ever before, constituting a significant factor for performance and survival in the business arena. It is essential that IT within organizations understands what the Business needs in order to provide the necessary support and bring value, which is also true when IT is also the main value creator. Therefore, alignment between the Business and IT within organizations is an issue of great concern and it is still open for solvency both for business and IT executives and practitioners. This work is scoped to the alignment linkage between business strategy and information systems (IS), where business strategy typically constitutes the primary exponent of the Business and IS typically encapsulates the elements of IT sustaining an organization. Current approaches are either focused on detailed aspects of IS and treat business strategy abstractly or use distinct business strategy formulations (e.g. Value Chain) but deal with IS only partially. This is problematic because the abstract use of business strategy hinders traceability of strategic intentions and initiatives towards features/aspects of IS, which are aimed to actualize and support such intentions. Because approaches using distinct business strategy formulations are not relevant to all organizations and are limited only to the IS aspects addressed. Introducing a model-driven approach for the alignment linkage is aimed at addressing the outlined shortcomings. Following a design science research paradigm, the main artifact developed is the Unified Business Strategy Meta-Model (UBSMM), which is based on conceptualizing established business strategy formulations (e.g. Value Chain) and integrating them. UBSMM supports mappings to IS models used in organizations, such as IS requirements, enterprise models and enterprise architecture, and provides unambiguous utilization of business strategy for the alignment linkage. Contributions of this thesis are grounded both on the process of building UBSMM and mapping to IS models, as well as the artifact itself. Conceptualizing and integrating business strategy formulations provides a less ambiguous and unified view of strategic concepts. This limits variations in interpretation and reinforces mappings to IS models, which are defined based on inter-schema properties across models. Therefore, UBSMM can link business strategy to IS models enhancing their communication in a traceable manner, ergo, support alignment. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 10: Submitted. Paper 11: Accepted.</p>