As project management (PM) and information technology (IT) evolved over the last decades, an increasing number of project management software products have emerged. Project managers in IT consulting can improve the success of projects through the utilization of such software. However, the diversity of software available cannot sensibly be grasped by a single individual. Based on this context, the study aims to examine the key considerations in the selectionof project management software in IT consulting from the project managers' perspective. A literature review identifies key aspects of IT consulting projects that may be relevant to the software selection. No evidence was found that provided a view on the process of the selection of PM software in IT consulting itself. The review also unveils the lack of common terminology in regard to PM software. The study addresses these gaps by utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand the experiences made by project managers. To gather data, 17 semistructured interviews were conducted with experienced project managers. Thematic analysis was used to develop an understanding of the process employed by project managers in the software selection and the considerations they make along the way. The findings were synthesized to create a process guide, supported by a checklist and the working definition of key terminology. This study adds a broader perspective to the field of PM software through the application of qualitative methodology in an otherwise quantitatively dominated field of research. It addresses the lack of existing knowledge on the perspective of the project manager in the selection process through the generation of a 6-staged process guide. The detailed considerations of project managers were compiled into a checklist of selection criteria. These two also contribute to practice by providing a structured approach to PM selection for practitioners. The third output is a working definition of project management software as used in practice, which simplifies an exchange of knowledge between theory and practice.

Tacit knowledge sharing has featured strongly in knowledge management literature in the last two decades. Knowledge management is an essential component attributed to underpinning organisational success and tacit knowledge sharing contributes directly to enhancing knowledge creation and to obtaining a competitive advantage in the business environment. Over the same period Communities of Practice (CoP) have risen in prominence as vehicles for tacit knowledge sharing and are seen as hotbeds of informal learning processes. There is, however, limited research into what may influence tacit knowledge sharing in CoPs. Additionally, although recognised as knowledge intensive organisations there has been limited research into knowledge sharing within and across educational institutions. The higher education (HE) sector in general has undergone significant change from a complex evolving landscape of political upheaval, funding divergence and an increasingly competitive worldwide market. Knowledge creation, combining and leveraging to improve an institution's performance, should therefore be considered of critical importance. Information Technology (IT) and Digital leadership have a key role in transforming Universities to meet the challenges in a global knowledge economy. The IT community within HE has a Sector Professional Organisation (SPO) that supports a number of voluntary CoPs which have operated over the last twenty years. The aim of the research was to explore the dimensions of tacit knowledge sharing in Communities of Practice working within the Higher Education Information Technology Sector. The study was undertaken from an interpretivist stance and used a phenomenological design with semi-structured interviews with participants who had experience of membership spanning several CoPs as the key data collection technique. The analysis was thematic in nature and brought to light expected and unexpected themes from the experiences of the participants. The key contribution is centered on the study findings that link the nature and movement of tacit knowledge from the core to the periphery of the CoP with its membership and leadership behaviors that are impacting on its success. From this a conceptual model that informs future HE IT CoP design and key leadership characteristics necessary for success, whilst supporting transferability, due to the findings' close association with tacit knowledge sharing was developed and is presented.

The ubiquitous nature of e-commerce demands an innovative conceptualization of consumer behaviour that responds to various cultural preferences. Culture has been identified as an underlying determinant of consumer behaviour, and this extends to ecommerce. This research investigates this phenomenon for the Egyptian consumer. This research designed a plausible, integrated framework for investigating the target phenomenon, especially for un-explored cultures. To help to identify salient components of the phenomenon, a three-study exploratory phase, that included: interviews, a survey, and card sorting sessions, was undertaken. The exploratory results highlighted the roles of trust, uncertainty avoidance, Internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e-commerce. The research hypotheses were then developed based on the exploratory results. Finally, a model testing phase to empirically assess the research hypotheses through a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian Internet users was undertaken. The experiential survey results support the significant role of the Internet store’s perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the high uncertainty avoidance of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store’s reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of store’s familiarity on trust. The research also highlights the significant effect of trust on the attitude towards and the willingness to buy from an e-commerce site. This research, by providing an understanding of the cultural drivers of e-commerce, contributes to building a theory of consumer’s cultural trust within an Internet store context. The research reports on the development of an integrated cultural trust model that highlights recommendations for expanding the adoption of e-commerce. The systematic research framework, introduced by this research, can be a robust starting point for further related work in this area.

Recent research findings have reinforced the importance of soft skills for managerialsuccess. Consequently, there is an ongoing practical need for and research interest ineffective soft skill training. In order to improve the soft skills of their employees,companies have begun to turn to performing artists in the hope of achieving a hightraining effect. While this phenomenon has created excitement, it has hardly been thesubject of serious investigation guided by research questions and executed researchmethodologies. In particular, hardly any insights exist into the exercises artists use whenproviding soft skill training and coaching for a business audience. In order to exploresuch activities in a systematic way, this thesis turns the attention to the performing artshigher education curriculum for identifying relevant exercise categories and for linkingthem to soft skills. This is accomplished through in-depth interviews conducted withclassical singing and drama teachers in Germany. In order to achieve a transfer to thebusiness world, HR representatives from German-based management consulting firmsare also questioned through in-depth interviews in order to explore relevant soft skillsaddressable by performing arts interventions. The results show transfer links betweeneight performing arts curriculum items and seven soft skill categories. Apart fromexploring the relationship between arts-based exercises and managerial soft skills, theresearch results confirm the benefit rationale for arts-based training and highlightsuccess factors. The outcomes are visualised in a suggestive model aimed at providing asystematic orientation for arts-based trainers and for organisations considering soft skilltraining based on the performing arts. However, the research has also limitations,especially a too conservative number of connections between performing arts curricularitems and soft skill categories. Other limitations include a regional and cultural focus onGermany, as well as the reduction of arts-based training activities to the boundaries offormal performing arts education. These shortcomings are used for motivating futureresearch.

IT innovations have reshaped banking and will continue to do so. They are a manifestation of indispensable progress, yet risks emerge from IT innovations. Historic data and accounts of emerging risk experiences are rather scarce. Hence, they present a special challenge to risk management as they are hard to identify. Moreover, traditional risk management practices, relying on historic data, may not be fully adequate. What solutions can be offered by risk management to manage these risks? When is an uncertainty understood as an emerging risk? Who needs to be involved in the risk management process?The research asks the seemingly obvious question, yet this important topic has been regularly neglected in academics as well as in practice. Both literature and theoretical basis have only recently developed so as of yet there is little availability of varying viewpoints and reliable theories. 70% of the banks interviewed do notactively consider emerging risks in their risk management process. The banks take a reluctant position in general, waiting to see how things develop. Only three banks have a proactive approach and manage emerging risks from IT innovation in using an enterprise-wide approach such as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).Therefore, this work develops a conceptual framework which aims to fill the research gap between ERM as an approach to holistic portfolio risk management and the lack of academic and practical work on emerging risks. The conceptual framework explores how banks can apply ERM to manage emerging risks in the future. Researching this topical phenomenon, extending today's common application and understanding of emerging risks and ERM in practice and academia is one of the most challenging tasks confronting future risk management (Bromiley et al., 2015).To the author's knowledge, this project is one of the first to take this challenge.

Increased concerns have been raised regarding the lack of coherence between interior design education and its industry in China. Although this phenomenon persists, there have been limited research studies addressing the issue. The underlying causes of the lack of coherence remains, and the industry's expectations remain unclear. Therefore, the overall aim of this study is to explore the interactive dynamics in client-designer relationships during the design process, in order to define the industry's expectations on essential designer skills that will enable the closure of the gap between education and practice. In-depth interviews were conducted as the data collection method in this study. Twelve participants comprising six clients and six designers were selected under a purposive sampling procedure. Data collection, analysis and limitations of the study were explored. The current industry context was identified from the literature. Five broad themes were identified from the findings: progression in design perceptions; interactive dynamics; power relations; client-designer relationship; and features in design process. The inter-relations between the current industry context and themes were examined and a framework for interior designer training and ‘model' skills for interior designers are proposed, and the industry's expectations and situated influences were identified that addressed the long standing knowledge gap between education and practice. The framework comprises three aspects of client-designer relationships that reflect different designer's roles in the current industry context. The ‘model' skills may serve as sets of criteria to support or examine the conditions. The framework and its ‘model' skills could be adapted into strategic plans and developed into practical client-management techniques; this may help designers or organizations operating proactively, to be prepared to encounter either familiar or challenging situations.

Over the Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI) was established in 1992 mainly to provide a platform for small and medium sized companies to raise money for their capital requirements. It is a well defined dealer market with market makers giving bid and ask quotes. It was established with state-of-the art technology with ringless, scripless trading. In this study, we develop a theoretical model to decompose spread into its three components in a dealer market. This model is further empirically examined by using OTCEI data. We find that Inventory holding cost to be the highest on OTCEI followed by Adverse Information cost and Order Processing cost. The result reflects market microstructure which is peculiar to OTCEI. The methodology developed in this study is basically a generalization of S toll's (1989) methodology. . Roll(1984) shows that in a pure order processing world, spread equals the square root of negative of serial covariances of successive differences of transaction prices. Stoll (1989) relates spread to the covariance of successive difference of transaction prices and that of the quotes. Stoll introduces two parameters, 5, which is a measure of magnitude of price change and JI, the probability of reversal of type of transaction, that is, from Bid to Ask or vice-versa, to model the Bid/Ask price movements from one transaction to the next. Thus Stoll, from this model, establishes a theoretical relationship between serial covariances of successive differences of transaction and quote returns and spread. 5 and n are estimated via regression of serial covariances of transaction and quote, returns on average proportional spread square. With these two parameters, Stoll finally decomposes spread into three components. δ, is the amount of price change between transactions for two reasons- Inventory holding reason and adverse information reason. Stoll explains these price changes due to two reasons with just one parameter, 5. This forms the main motivation of this study. In our study, we let 8 assume two different values, 5i and 82 which attempts to capture the price changes due to the two different causes viz inventory holding and adverse information. It is convenient to think of these two S's being associated with two different states of transactions. However, these states themselves are indeterminate . In other words, the price change could be due to inventory reasons, or due to trading with an informed trader, or due to both. Thus, while Stoll assumes only one 8, in our study, we have two different values of 8. Thus, with three parameters, 81, 82 and n, this study attempts to estimate the relevant parameters and realistically decompose the three components of spread in a dealer market. Just like Stoll, the developed theoretical model also relates serial covariances of transaction price changes and quoted price changes to spread square. However, unlike Stoll, now there are 3 parameters, namely, 5j, 82 and n. As it is impossible to solve three unknowns with just two equations, it becomes necessary to introduce one more equation relating the three parameters to the spread. It is here that we introduce, for the first time, the serial covariance of the second order differences of the transaction price changes, which is related to spread via an equation. Intuitively, we can explain this relationship using Roll's result. Roll(1984) has shown that spread equals square root of the negative serial covariances of transaction price changes in a pure order processing world. Since the second order difference is nothing but the rate of price changes, it also must be related to spread, since the price change themselves are related to it, empirically, we find that spread square significantly affects the serial covariance of second order difference of price changes as well. Besides explaining the price changes with just one 5, Stoll's method of decomposition is not realistic. Though his method of decomposition does yield three components of spread, in reality, it lumps Adverse information cost and Inventory holding cost together. In our study, we make use of the state-of-the art Huang and Stoll's (1997) methodology of decomposition of spread. We first embed the developed theoretical price-movement model into that of Huang and S toll's this yields a functional relationship between 5i and 52 and a and |3 of Huang and Stoll, which directly refers to the adverse information and inventory holding components respectively. Thus, in our study, we realistically decompose the components of spread and OTCEI and empirically too, we find that the components estimated from our methodology does reflect the market microstructure of OTCEI. Apart from developing and empirically testing the theoretical model, we also see if it fits the observed data on OTCEI. We find that the theoretical model does not exactly conform to the observed data in OTCEI, necessitating some empirical fine-tuning. We build an empirical model which is again used to get the three components of spread. We also estimate components of spread in OTCEI using Stoll's and Huang and Stoll's methodology and we compare them with the estimates obtained using our methodology. We find that Stoll's methodology overstates the Adverse information component of spread and understates the inventory holding component of spread and Huang and Stoll's methodology and Our methodology and model yields estimates of components of spread which is more in tune with the market micros tructure of OTCEI. The estimates obtained from empirical model too conforms to the market microstructure of OTCEI.

This dissertation reports the results of case studies on innovation and new product development in eight Scottish food companies and a subsequent triangulation survey of 85 innovative Scottish companies. The case studies are carried out using qualitative research methods and a realistic inductive research strategy. It is found that the case study companies use an informal and cross-functional innovation process, which is independent of the age of enterprise. It is also discovered that these companies develop new products, often luxuriant variants of their existing products, which are mainly indulgences rather than healthy foods and are sold mostly to large retailers. Use of production methods that are amenable to quick changes in final products and networking with customers, suppliers, other food companies and Scottish Enterprise is also observed. Creative people with high innovative proclivity, who often travel to new locations in search of product ideas, drive the process. The case study companies are high-variety-low-volume businesses, possess good understanding of customer needs and circumstances and are able to achieve a good fit between needs of the market and their own resources. Not facing financial constraints, these companies are able to attract and retain talent, needed to develop new products. Continuously learning from their NPD endeavours, they sell their products without any major advertising or marketing effort. The subsequent triangulation survey of 85 innovative Scottish companies, from food as well as non-food sectors, confirms most of the above-mentioned findings. Contrary to the case study results however, the survey discovers that innovative Scottish companies face financial constraints while developing new products, do not sell most of their new products to large retailers or undertake travel to new locations in search of product ideas. The main contributions to knowledge by this research include crystallisation of the new product development practices in Scotland, highlighting difference in product innovation between various sub-groups of enterprises, a new conceptual construct within which all notions and definitions of innovation can be accommodated and identification of a basic flaw in the present innovation policy in Scotland.

When the Labour Government won the election in 1997, one of the biggest challenges they faced was restructuring the public sector. This forced the new Government to move the public sector away from managerialism to become a more collaborative organisation, with greater employee engagement (Senior, 2008). This was when the work of developing new ways of partnership working was started in the NHS (Munro, 2002; Farnham et al., 2003).In order to assist the restructuring of the public sector, the Government introduced change in response to human capital needs, this included the implementation of the Agenda for Change Programme which was the biggest alteration to the pay structure of NHS staff in 50 years. Agenda for Change covered over one million NHS employed staff (with the exception of doctors, dentists and some senior management positions), and aimed to offer fairer pay based on new job evaluation, and to move towards harmonised conditions of service for NHS staff, to build links between career and pay progressions (DoH, 2004a). A partnership approach was seen as being a critical success factor in implementing this change. This thesis focuses on partnership working through the implementation of Agenda for Change in the NHS. It aimed to explore the perceptions of different levels of participants of Agenda for Change Implementation Teams in relation to organisational change and partnership working. Four research questions were considered to address the above aim: 1). What were the perceptions of the Organisational Change which occurred within the NHS? 2). What key aspects of Partnership Working were employed in the NHS to address Organisational Change prior to the implementation of Agenda for Change? 3). What were the key constituents of Partnership Working that facilitated Agenda for Change and how were they developed by its implementation? 4). What were the incentives and challenges in implementing Agenda for Change? As a phenomenological study, this research intended to interpret people's perceptions and experience of partnership working and Agenda for Change. Some 18 individual interviews were conducted with selected members of the implementation teams across three Health Boards in Scotland. Particular attention was given to the organisational change context, Agenda for Change, and partnership working in the Scottish context. This research confirms the perceived view that there has been a period of continuous planned change within the NHS and these changes have transformed the culture of the organisation to become more business focused. Agenda for Change, was perceived, in the main, through the whole organisation, as a positive one offering an easier and fairer pay system allowing workforce flexibility. However there were indications that partnership working does not go on at all levels and where it is present it places a great strain on staff and resources which in the main, is in decline. The Agenda for Change structure has distinguished characteristics of organisational development. Unions and employees had much influence through the change process since partnership working existed at three levels: strategic, functioning, and workplace. However, findings suggest that despite the well maintain partnership at the strategic and functioning level, a partnership arrangement cannot be fully supported at workplace level. Workplace manager's faced pressure from the Government's targets and deadlines, as well as financial budget cuts; which were some of the challenges of encouraging partnership working at workplace level.

本研究旨在呈現日本泡沫經濟崩潰之後，企業變革的方向，觀察日本式經營從過去至今的演化過程，並以「究竟何為日本式經營？」為中心，研究分析日本式經營的優勢及核心所在，瞭解日本企業如何藉此厚實自身能力資源，在劇烈變動的環境中，掌握未來企業的變革方向。如今世界正面臨全球化、IT網路化等，此種前所未有的結構上的變化，透過泡沫經濟崩潰，讓日本企業提早面臨環境改變，迫使其進行策略方向的轉變及組織變革。由於現在企業面臨的環境不確定性提高，此寶貴的經驗對於現在及往後的企業變革，將具有高度的參考價值。 本研究先根據既有的研究，以日本式經營的演進，將日本經濟分為三個階段，形成期：1955至1973年高度成長期、適應期：1974至1991年安定成長期到泡沫經濟崩潰、轉換期：1992年迄今 泡沫經濟崩潰之後的經濟停滯。從「企業實體」、「策略」、「系統」等 三個層面，歸納每個階段的日本式經營特徵、瞭解日本式經營從過去迄今，維持及改變的部分為何。並以現在--轉換期的日本企業實際的做法為例，整理分析從今以後日本式經營的變革方向。 若將過去學者的眾多研究歸納整理，日本式經營從1955年迄今始終存在著不變的特徵，「長期性」及「培育人才」。這是日本式經營的核心，也是企業的優勢。日本企業即使在轉換期的變革中，也是以此優勢為中心，繼續進行變革。並且也繼續實行將既有的優勢再建構及深化，將弱點持續改善，藉由企業社會責任的實踐及強化，以企業成長及地球環境共存為目標，穩健進行提高利潤、結構改革等，厚實因應外在環境變化的基石。 / The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the direction of business change after the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy by observing the evolution process of Japanese firms. With the question, “What is Japanese management?” as central focus, research was aimed at analyzing the core and advantages of Japanese firms to discover how, amid a strong changing environment, firms used their solid resources and abilities in mastering their direction of future change. Currently, the world is confronted with globalization and the combination of IT and Internet; this new structural change caused the collapse of the bubble economy, leading Japanese firms exposed to early environmental changes, compelling them to change their strategies and organizations. Nowadays, since firms face increased uncertainty, the Japanese experience has high referral values for current and future business changes. Based on the findings of existing studies, this study divides the evolution of Japanese firms into three stages: the formation period: from 1955 to 1973 as the period of high growth, the adaptation period: from 1974 to 1991 as the period from stable growth to collapse of bubble economy, and the transition period: from 1992 onwards as the period of economic stagnation following the bubble burst. The characteristics of Japanese firms in each stage are induced and the changes and non-changes throughout the history of Japanese firms are identified. Furthermore, by studying Japanese firm’s case during the transition period, the study hopes to discover insights that point to the direction of Japanese Management’s future change. If past researches are collected and analyzed, the everlasting Japanese firm characteristic from 1955 onwards is the “long-term” quality and the “investment in human capital” quality, both of which are the core and advantage of Japanese management. Even during the transition period, organizational changes were centered on these advantages. These advantages were reconstructed and deepened, whereas weaknesses were tweaked. Profit margins were increased and structures were changed via the implementation and strengthening of a company’s social responsibility as well as the goal of coexistence between firm continual growth and world environment.