Abstract  Background & Problem: Risk assessment is a central part of the audit process. Previous audit failures have increased the importance further. Several suggested determinants of risk assessments have been explored within literature. However, literature has not up until now explored what reflection environmental uncertainty has on the risk assessment process. Due to the ongoing pandemic, COVID-19, the opportunity to explore the reflection of uncertainty has been made feasible.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how societal challenges reflect on auditors’ risk assessments of entities. The thesis is conducted using COVID-19 as an event signifying societal challenge.  Methodology: This thesis uses an exploratory and abductive research approach. With a qualitative strategy, empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with authorized auditors as participants.  Findings: Our findings conclude that the four aspects being firm, environment, individual, and audit client together form the risk assessment. In contrast to literature, the audit client aspect was argued as more important. Further, environmental uncertainty is reflected in risk assessments through these four aspects and can affect each aspect individually in various ways.  Future research: Since this study explores reflections of a crisis, while it is still present, we would find it interesting to examine its aftermath. In line with previous literature and our empirical findings, we foremost would suggest future researchers to explore the impact of a societal challenge on audit quality and whether differences are present concerning audit firm size.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make the backbone of virtually all economies but most of them are only marginally engaged with global markets, particularly those from developing countries. Our ability to advise these firms is currently limited for two major reasons: on the one hand, conventional International Business literature treats the firm as a black box and does not advance in decision-making dynamics that are critical to SMEs' foreign expansion; on the other, recent SME internationalization studies have achieved important progress but seem dependent on the use of Effectuation theory to represent the decisions that guide SME internationalization. This thesis focuses on closing this gap, developing a treatment of SME internationalization that focuses specifically on characterising internationalization-related decisions as being based on firms’ control of their own means, which allow them to proactively create opportunities and take advantage of contingencies (that is, the control principle). Empirically, this thesis builds on a quantitative research design based on survey data collected from 851 SMEs distributed in Brazil, China, Italy, Poland, and Sweden. Analyses of these data were performed with multiple regression equations and structural equation modelling using partial least squares. Results show that SMEs seem more inclined to adopt control-based decisions during internationalization when under uncertainties related to their business networks and when they come from emerging markets. They also reveal that the paths toward the realization of international market performance with control-based decisions seem to involve both firm-level and individual-level dynamics, with social networking playing a critical role. Finally, the findings collectively make it possible to draw a picture that clarifies the conceptualization of the control principle and hints on the multi-level nature of control-based internationalization. Despite limitations, such findings contribute to both International Business and International Entrepreneurship literatures while advancing extant understanding of the nature of the control principle and its role in SME internationalization.

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The hospitality industry confronts continuous challenges from external environments, such as the COVID pandemic, the proliferation of short-term rentals, and the disruptive innovations of Generative AI. For businesses, understanding these external conditions and adapting strategies accordingly is crucial yet challenging, especially considering environmental uncertainties. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the effectiveness of different strategies in navigating market, competitive, and technological uncertainties, through a big-data analytical approach. It incorporates three studies, each focusing on one specific strategy and its varying outcomes under environmental changes. These studies employ machine learning algorithms to quantify strategies and utilize econometric models to infer the causal relationships between strategies and their outcomes. The first study examines how standardization affects short-term rental unit survival across two market conditions: pre-COVID growth and during-COVID decline. The results indicate that the risks arising from standardization are heightened under market decline. In addition, the effectiveness of standardization varies with design attributes to which the strategy is applied. Standardizing functional design boosts unit survival in the growing market but leads to a higher failure rate during the decline. Aesthetic standardization, on the other hand, negatively impacts survival in both conditions, with a stronger effect in the declining market. The second study identifies the impacts of differentiation on unit performance in the short-term rental context in two competitive environments: local versus city-level. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of differentiation increases with competitive pressure. At the local level where firms face localized competition, differentiation enhances unit performance. Conversely, in city-level environments where direct competition diminishes, it yields negative outcomes. Moreover, competition intensity, as reflected by the number of competitors and the degree of market concentration, is found to amplify the benefits of and mitigate the drawbacks of differentiation. The third study explores if adopting Generative AI to hotel online review response can improve customer feedback, under varying technological settings. It finds that simulated AI adoption improves customer perceptions when Generative AI models operate at high temperatures, while models with low temperatures lead to negative outcomes. The findings further underscore the importance of task-technology fit, revealing that Generative AI's effectiveness varies with review valence. Specifically, high-temperature settings for positive reviews generate significant benefits, whereas low-temperature settings lead to adverse effects. Conversely, for negative reviews, AI adoption demonstrates more stable outcomes across temperature settings, indicating balanced benefits of both low and high temperatures. In short, this dissertation identifies that the effectiveness of standardization, differentiation, and AI adoption strategies is contingent on environmental conditions. It underscores the importance of strategic adaptation in navigating contemporary challenges. / Doctor of Philosophy / It is difficult to operate hospitality businesses because this industry faces constant challenges from ever-changing external conditions, including the COVID pandemic, the rise of short-term rental platforms, and the breakthroughs in technology like Generative AI. It is important but challenging for hotels and short-term rentals to understand these conditions and plan their operations accordingly. Thus, this dissertation aims to help business operators to understand how to deal with different external changes. It carries on a series of studies based on big data, using various analytical tools. This dissertation is composed of three studies. The first one finds that, generally, it is risker for short-term rental hosts to make one property similar to his/her other properties when the whole market declines. There are differences identified between functionality and aesthetics. Keeping the functionalities, such as WIFI and coffeemaker, consistent among multiple properties will make the property more likely to survive when the market grows but it increases the likelihood of failure when the market demand decreases. When deciding property aesthetics, like color or layout, it is risky to have properties similar to each other, no matter if the market demand grows or drops. The second study concludes that short-term rental hosts should decide the product design relative to their competitors from different scopes of areas. They are suggested to make their properties' interior design style different from their nearby competitors to gain high revenues, especially when there are more neighboring supplies managed by a large number of hosts. On the contrary, it is more beneficial to follow the general trend of properties located in the same city when deciding one property's aesthetic style. The third study guides hotels to apply Generative AI like ChatGPT to generate response to customer online reviews. It found that, to reply to online reviews with four- or five-star ratings, hotels should not use the default GPT model to increase the quality of customer communication. Instead, they need to use the professional OpenAI API and set the parameter called temperature to 2. However, when hotels reply to online reviews with lower star ratings, like one or two, there is no big difference between low and high temperatures (0 to 2). They can simply use the default model. In general, there are no one-size-for-all solutions to deal with external challenges. Hospitality operators are highly recommended to adjust their operations to fit different conditions.

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a theory that helps explain the conditions under which firms select certain project evaluation techniques. This study uses contingency theory to analyze the impact of environmental uncertainty on the choice of project evaluation techniques. In addition to a direct measure of uncertainty, several dimensions of uncertainty are included in this study. These dimensions of uncertainty include control structure, method of financing, foreign assets, method of growth, and product domination. This study also analyzes the use of project evaluation, management science and risk management techniques in US firms over time and in UK firms over time in order to compare to prior research. A comparison of firms in the two countries are also provided. The primary method of data collection was a survey instrument. Data were also collected from annual reports and various other public sources. The variables that appear significant in the choice of project evaluation technique in US firms are environmental uncertainty, control structure, method of financing, foreign assets, and product domination. The variable that appear significant in the choice of project evaluation technique in UK firms is method of financing. US firms favor discounted cash flow techniques although this study detected a slight decrease over time. UK firms continue to use non-discounted cash flow techniques, although the use of discounted cash flow techniques is widespread. There are significant differences between US and UK firms. US firms tend to use discounted cash flow techniques to a greater extent than UK firms. This research makes a significant contribution in attempting to develop a theory explaining the use of project evaluation techniques in firms in the US and UK. In addition, several other developments relating to project evaluation, management science and risk management are discussed. The results of this study can be used by managers in refining and improving their existing project evaluation processes.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-10-23T14:33:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Vargas_.pdf: 699271 bytes, checksum: 8399743b1b3e02bf72ed6e89100442ef (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-23T14:33:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Vargas_.pdf: 699271 bytes, checksum: 8399743b1b3e02bf72ed6e89100442ef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-28 / Nenhuma / São crescentes os estudos sobre implementação da estratégia dada a sua importância para que a empresa alcance vantagem competitiva. Porém, existe a necessidade de se compreender com mais aprofundamento os requisitos para a implementação bem sucedida da estratégia no varejo. Há espaço na literatura no campo da estratégia de varejo para um melhor entendimento da relação entre estrutura, implementação e desempenho organizacional nesse setor. A literatura da área de estratégia apresenta diversos estudos que analisam a relação entre estrutura organizacional e implementação. Há contudo aspectos a se compreender nessa relação, um deles se refere às dimensões que podem moderar essa relação. Este estudo entra nessa discussão teórica, analisando a influência da estratégia de negócio e da incerteza ambiental moderando a relação entre estrutura organizacional e a implementação da estratégia. Além disso, este estudo se propõe a compreender como essas relações se manifestam no contexto do varejo de alimentação fora do lar. Neste sentido, a presente pesquisa, através de uma survey do tipo corte-transversal, avalia empiricamente o efeito contingencial da estratégia de negócio na relação entre a estrutura organizacional e a implementação da estratégia de marketing. Para isso, foram considerados 171 questionários coletados junto a empresas de pequeno porte do setor varejista de alimentação fora do lar. Os resultados do levantamento demonstraram que a descentralização da estrutura organizacional influencia positivamente a implementação da estratégia, assim como, confirmou-se que a formalização influencia negativamente a implementação da estratégia. Além disso, os resultados encontrados indicaram que a estratégia de negócio modera a relação entre estrutura e implementação. / Studies on implementation of the strategy given its importance for the company to achieve competitive advantage are increasing. However, there is a need to understand with more depth the requirements for the successful implementation of the strategy in retail. There is room in the literature in the field of retail strategy to better understand the relationship between structure, implementation, and organizational performance in this sector. The literature of the strategy area features several studies that examine the relationship between organizational structure and implementation. There are however ways to understand this relationship, one refers to dimensions that can moderate this relationship. This study goes into this theoretical discussion, analyzing the influence of business strategy and environmental uncertainty moderating the relationship between organizational structure and strategy implementation. In addition, this study aims to understand how these relations are manifested in the power retail environment outside the home. In this sense, this research through a survey of the cut cross-sectional empirically evaluates the contingent effect of business strategy on the relationship between organizational structure and implementation of the marketing strategy. For this, they considered 171 questionnaires collected from small businesses in the retail sector of food outside the home. The survey results showed that the decentralization of the organizational structure positively influence the implementation of the strategy, as it was confirmed that the formalization negatively influences the implementation of the strategy. Furthermore, the results indicate that the business strategy moderates the relationship between structure and implementation.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-07-15T16:32:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Fernando de Lucca Candia_.pdf: 1282320 bytes, checksum: c009f19ebfa998ca1088d2d278cdaccc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-15T16:32:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Fernando de Lucca Candia_.pdf: 1282320 bytes, checksum: c009f19ebfa998ca1088d2d278cdaccc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-19 / Nenhuma / A presente pesquisa consiste em um estudo transversal de cunho descritivo aplicado nas empresas componentes do cluster de Automação e Controle do Estado do RS. Seu objetivo é analisar se a tipologia estratégica desenvolvida por Desarbo et al. (2005) é capaz de diferenciar as estratégias de adaptação das empresas componentes da amostra considerada, bem como entender as relações existentes entre as capacidades estratégicas, as incertezas ambientais percebidas e o desempenho organizacional sob a ótica dos gestores estratégicos. Através de uma abordagem quantitativa, o estudo submeteu à amostra estudada o questionário proposto por Desarbo et al. (2005) com inserções e adaptações sugeridas pelo autor. Os dados obtidos foram então organizados e submetidos a um conjunto de procedimentos estatísticos – dentre os quais se destacam a estatística descritiva, a análise de conglomerados, a ANOVA e as análises de correlação e de regressão – com vistas a testar e validar as hipóteses investigadas. Os resultados encontrados permitem identificar diferenças nos processos de adaptação estratégica das empresas do cluster. Entretanto, não foi revelada nenhuma correlação significativa das capacidades estratégicas e incertezas com o desempenho organizacional não sendo possível, portanto, estabelecer qualquer modelo preditivo que pudesse explicar a variação do desempenho organizacional (variável dependente) pela variação dos níveis das capacidades estratégicas e das incertezas ambientais (variáveis independentes). / This research consists of a cross-sectional study with descriptive nature applied to the cluster Automação e Controle RS. Its goal is to analyze whether the strategic typology developed by Desarbo et al. (2005) is able to differentiate adaptation strategies in the companies which are part of the sample, as well as understand the relationship among strategic capabilities, environmental uncertainties and firm performance from the perspective of strategic management. Thru a quantitative approach, this study used the framework proposed by Desarbo et al. (2005) with some additions and adaptations suggested by the author. The data collected were organized and submitted to a set of statistical procedures - including descriptive statistic, cluster analysis, ANOVA and correlation and regression analysis - in order to test and validate the hypotheses investigated. It was possible to identify differences in the strategic adjustment processes in the cluster. However, no significant correlation among strategic capabilities, uncertainties and organizational performance was revealed. Because of this, no predictive model that explained the variation in the organizational performance (dependent variable) by varying the levels of strategic capabilities and environmental uncertainties (independent variables) was suggested.

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, le chercheur a étudié l'impact de l’incertitude environnementale perçue tant sur le supply chain que les stratégies des entreprises et cela à travers diverses dimensions. Le terrain de l’étude concerne les entreprises Iraniennes productrices de générateur d’électricité. Les impacts de cette incertitude peuvent affecter la performance du supply chain et par voie de conséquence réduire la portée des stratégies de ces entreprises. L’objet de cette recherche est d’identifier les dimensions les plus pertinentes afin d’analyser leurs impacts sur la relation entre le supply chain et la stratégie de ces entreprises. La question de recherche est : Quels sont les principaux impacts des facteurs de l’incertitude environnementale perçue par les entreprises Iraniennes produisant des générateurs d’électricité et comment affectent-ils la relation entre le supply chain et la stratégie de ces entreprises ? Dans un premier temps une revue de la littérature a permis de définir et de caractériser le concept « d’incertitude environnementale perçue ». Et d’expliquer comment la relation entre le supply chain et la stratégie pouvait être affectée par les dimensions qui aractérisent l’incertitude environnementale perçue. Dans un deuxième temps une étude exploratoire menée auprès des managers a permis de compléter cette revue de la littérature et de construire un modèle conceptuel. . Fondé sur ce modèle conceptuel un questionnaire a été conçu et envoyé aux managers appartenant aux sociétés évoluant dans le domaine de la production des générateurs en Iran. Après un traitement quantitatif des données, les résultats montrent que toutes les entreprises connaissent des risques et des incertitud s dont les sources sont les suivantes : La demande; la prévision; la perturbation; les sanctions; les embargos; les droits de douane; les impôts; la politique; les relations diplomatiques; les questions juridiques; la volatilité de Gestion du remplacement ; la fluctuation de taux de change; l’inflation; la ondialisation, et la Macro Économie. Chacune de ces sources impacte les stratégies des sociétés soit à travers un ou plusieurs léments de la stratégie du Supply Chain soit ceux de la stratégie de l’entreprise. Par conséquent les incertitudes environnementales affectent tant les stratégies du Supply Chain que les stratégies des entreprises. Après le traitement des données, un modèle est proposé pour montrer les impacts directs et indirects de l’IEP (l'incertitude environnementale perçue) sur les SCS (Stratégies du Supply Chain) et sur la SE (la stratégie de l’entreprise). Il montre que la relation entre lastratégie du Supply Chain et la stratégie de l’entreprise est impactée par des incertitudes environnementales perçues (IEP). Lorsque l’IEP est élevée, l'ajustement entre ces stratégies devient très difficile puisqu'il n'y a plus que 68 % d’impact sur le CBS (company business strategy). Le modèle montre, par contre, que lorsque l’IEP est faible, l’IPEU (Impact de l'incertitude environnementale perçue) sur à la fois la SCS et la SE sont similaires et la moyenne correspond avec exactitude à 0,001. / In this Ph.D. dissertation, the researcher has studied the impact of perceived environmental uncertainties from various dimensions on the supply chain and business strategies of Iranian manufacturing companies in the power generation section. The impacts of PEU can generate lots of problems in their supply chain performance and the company’s business strategies. Therefore, it is significant to recognize the dimensions of PEU and related impacts. This research is conducted to recognize of the dimensions of perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) and investigate their impacts on the fit between the supply chain strategy and the company’s business strategy of Iranian power generation equipments manufacturing firms. The main question of the research is “What are the main impacts of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty’s (PEU) dimensions for Iranian power generation equipments manufacturing firms and how they affect the Fitbetween Supply Chain Strategy (SCS) and Company’s Business Strategy (CBS)?". In this research, in the first step literature review is implemented broadly to define the related dimensions of PEU and in order to find the appropriate model to explain how the strategic fit could be influenced by the PEU’s dimensions through an exploratory survey via semi-structure and in-depth interviews among related managers in the case to design the appropriate theoretical model. In the next step, an exploratory survey is done by submitting a questionnaire as a survey tool among the case and its subsidiaries and implementing the quantitative statistical research based on the answer sheets by analyzing thecollected data to derive the conclusions. Applicable questionnaire to be used in the main part of survey by distributing the questionnaires among the multi cases in the same field and applied the quantitative research based on the answer sheets to find the results. The data arecollected and analyzed to derive the conclusions.This research implies that all businesses are surrounded with lots of risks and uncertainties. The environmental uncertainties could be caused by several sources which they are studied among the defined population in manufacturing companies in power generation felid in Iran. The environmental uncertainties could be perceived through several aspects such as Demand; Forecasting; Disruption; Sanctions; Embargo; Tariffs; Taxes; Political issues; Diplomatic relation; Legal Issues; Management Volatility (Replacement); Exchange-rate Fluctuating; Inflation; Globalization; Macro Economy and so on. Each of these indexes is impacting the company’s strategies via affecting one or more elements in the supply chain strategy or company’s business strategy elements. Therefore, the environmental uncertainties are affecting both supply chain strategies and the company’s business strategies. This research proposed a model to show how PEU impacts the SCS and CBS, directly and indirectly impacting their infrastructures. Then, it is explored that the supply chain strategic fit -fit means matching the supply chain strategies with the company’s business strategy- how is influenced by perceived environmental uncertainties (IPEU). Furthermore, when the PEU is high, the fit between these strategies is approximately lost, because there is 68% more impact on the CBS. Whereas the model shows when PEU is low, the IPEU are matching on the both SCS and CBS and their average become fit together with accuracy of 0.001. Besides, through this dissertation, there are proposed equations illustrating the relation between the indexes.

No description available.

Det finns i management control-litteraturen en efterfrågan på studier som tar ett helhetsperspektiv på styrsystem (Management Control Systems, MCS) och som förklarar hur dessa system bidrar till effektivitet hos organisationer. Utifrån ett contingency-synsätt undersöker vi i denna studie hur kulturell styrning och prestationsmätning som delar av MCS, tillsammans med den kontextuella variabeln osäkerhet i omgivningen, påverkar hur effektiva organisationer är. Vi antar en systemansats och önskar studera relationen mellan fler variabler, och därför tillämpas en klusteranalys där datamaterialet delas in i grupper med liknande karaktäristika. Då det är tveksamt om det finns en skillnad i effektivitet mellan de kluster vi identifierar, och för att få en bättre förståelse för vårt resultat, väljer vi att analysera detta utifrån två olika perspektiv. Utifrån det ena perspektivet antas organisationernas effektivitet skilja sig från varandra. Sett från detta perspektiv verkar en hög grad av prestationsmätning tillsammans med en hög grad av kulturell styrning vara effektivt under hög grad av osäkerhet i omgivningen. Utgångspunkten i det andra perspektivet är däremot att alla de företag som existerar och kan studeras är effektiva, och utifrån denna analys verkar det tvärtemot den tidigare analysens resultat som att en lägre grad av prestationsmätning tillsammans med en lika stor grad av kulturell styrning är mer effektivt i osäkra omgivningar, även om detta samband är något oklart. Under låg grad av osäkerhet i omgivningen visar analyser ur båda perspektiven att en hög grad av kulturell styrning tillsammans med en låg grad av prestationsmätning är en effektiv kombination. Dessutom visar det sig utifrån det sistnämnda perspektivet att även hög grad av båda styrmekanismerna är effektivt i mindre osäkra omgivningar. / Within the management control literature, studies have been requested that take a holistic view of Management Control Systems (MCS) and that explain how these systems contribute to organizational effectiveness. In this study, from a contingency perspective, we examine how cultural control and performance measurement as parts of the MCS, together with the contextual variable environmental uncertainty, affect the effectiveness of organizations. Adopting a systems approach we wish to study the relationship between several variables and therefore use a cluster analysis to divide the data into groups with similar characteristics. Since it is not clear whether there are any differences in effectiveness between the identified clusters and to get a better understanding of our findings, we choose to analyze the results from two different perspectives. Adopting one of the perspectives, the organizations are assumed to be unequally effective. From this perspective a high degree of performance measurement combined with a high degree of cultural control seem to be effective under high degrees of environmental uncertainty. From the other perspective it is implicitly understood that all of the observed organizations are effective since they exist. Seen from this, second, perspective it seems that a lower degree of performance measurement together with an equal degree of cultural control is more effective in uncertain environments, even though this relationship is somewhat vague. Under a low degree of environmental uncertainty, analyses from both perspectives show that a high degree of performance measurement together with a low degree of cultural control in an effective combination. Furthermore, the analysis from the second perspective indicates that also a high degree of both of the control variables is effective in high degrees of environmental uncertainty.