Recently, both Japan and South Korea put efforts on the concept of ¡§ubiquitous¡¨ & ¡§Intelligent Living Spaces¡¨; therefore, the ¡§Intelligent Living Spaces Industry¡¨ which takes various related or non-related industries¡¦ cooperation comes out. Among these cooperating industries, Taiwan possesses some advantages on IT Hardware Industry. Viewing on this, this study would like to benchmark the successful experiences in both Japan and South Korea to Taiwan, to make Intelligent Living Spaces Industry develop well in Taiwan, and further to make the associated industries¡¦ development flourish with Taiwan¡¦s advantages on IT Hardware Industry. Also, for no matter in Taiwan, Japan or South Korea, the government plays the most important role on the development of Intelligent Living Spaces Industry, this study then takes Diamond Model of Porter to analyze the development of Intelligent Living Spaces Industry in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, expecting to absorb the successful experiences from Japan and South Korea for the benchmarking. This study makes the analyses through the four scopes¡Xfactors conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries, firm strategy and structure and rivalry, expecting to come out the developing strategy of Intelligent Living Spaces Industry through the aspect of the government and the industry. Finally, based on the Porter¡¦s Diamond Model, this study found that Taiwan still have some advantages on IT Hardware Industry, but needs to put more efforts on IT Software Industry and the professionals training, and even to reinforce the communication and cooperation among the associated industries, and then Intelligent Living Spaces Industry would flourish in Taiwan.

While the European-owned information technology multinationals, as represented in the IT Roundtable, exerted a preponderant influence on the development, approval and implementation of ESPRIT in the early and mid-1980s; by the early 1990s, they appeared unable to translate their policy preferences into policy outcomes.' This thesis seeks to establish whether or not these companies lost some of their influence over the European Community and, if so, why. It argues that the IT Roundtable members' corporate diplomacy was less effective in the late 1980s and early 1990s than it was in the early and mid-1980s, for the following three reasons. First, the effectiveness of the IT Roundtable as a channel of political activity was undermined by its declining representativeness, following the structural changes taking place in the industry; by its lack of internal coherence caused by the diverging interests of its members; and by the perception that the Roundtable was suitable for articulating preferences in the area of R&TD but inappropriate for voicing broader preferences on industrial policy. Second, doubts about the necessity of an indigenous IT capability depreciated the perceived value of the asset which conferred political weight on the Roundtable companies: their capability to supply economically and militarily strategic technologies and products. While the realization of short-term economic objectives became more important - even amongst those governments paying lip-service to the necessity of an indigenous IT capability - public investments into the Roundtable companies, ridden by crisis, were not perceived as yielding "value for money", particularly in terms of employment and social and economic cohesion. Third, the EC's ability to realize the IT Roundtable's policy preferences was hampered by the lack of consensus amongst the national governments; the latter's insistence on subsidiarity, national solutions and juste retour; their resistance to spending money, and the fragmentation of the EC's decision-making structure. The EC's ability to supply the policies requested was further hampered by the increasingly globalized nature of the IT industry, and the EC's limited economic leverage over Japan and the US in international negotiations on IT.

The internet has had a profound effect on communication, entertainment, buying, and selling (Webb 2002) and, in particular, as a distribution channel (Van den Poel and Leunis 1999). Increasingly companies in a variety of industries have established their own online direct sales channels instead of merely relying on conventional intermediaries (Coughlan et al 2006). Hence, multi-channel distribution strategies, combining both off- and online channels are being adopted. Frazier (1999:232) argues: “The utilization of multiple channels of distribution is now becoming the rule rather than the exception”. Companies which combine physical and web channels have been referred to as “clicks and mortar,” “bricks and clicks,” “surf and turf,” “cyber-enhanced retailing,” or “hybrid e-commerce,” (Gulati and Garino 2000; Steinfield et al 2002 a b; Agatz et al 2008; Sharma and Mehrotra 2007). Despite the apparent popularity of internet channels, adding an internet channel to the distribution mix creates potentially significant challenges for channel managers (Webb 2002). A major concern is that by going multi-channel, a firm might face ‘channel conflict’ between channel members (Sharma and Mehrotra 2007). As Rosenbloom (2007:7) claims: “Perhaps the most significant obstacle to building successful multi-channel strategies is the emergence of conflict between the different channels used for reaching customers”. The main objective in this study is to explore the impact of the internet as being a distribution channel within the multi-channel system. Three research issues which have seldom been discussed in previous literature are explored in this study. These three questions are: Q1: What are the factors encouraging manufacturers to develop the internet channel, especially manufacturers with a well established distribution channel? Q2: What are the channel design patterns of the multi-channel structure? Q3: How can channel conflict arising from the development of the internet channel be minimized? Interview was utilized as a main data collection method in this research. A total of 25 interviews were conducted and the majority of interviewees are managers in Taiwanese IT companies. The main product lines in their firms included wireless equipment, DRAM module, motherboard, and scanner. In addition, a wide range of documents were examined as a secondary data source and compared with data from the interviews. According to the statements from interviewees, six main factors were identified as encouraging the manufacturer to develop the internet channel. These are: (1) customer information management, (2) retailer management issue, (3) launching a new product, (4) to be a secondary channel, (5) management support, and (6) me-too strategy. Furthermore, it seems that when firms are at the different stages of the product life cycle, managers would design their multi-channel structure into different patterns. In addition, a further two conflict resolution styles, communication and differentiation, were found in the sample of firms studied which have seldom been mentioned in previous research and firms appear to adopt different conflict resolution styles according to stage in the product lifecycle.

<p><strong>Purpose</strong> – The purpose of this dissertation is twofold. First, to identify and design a theoretical model of different factors that are important when evaluating fast changing industry environment. Second, to conduct interviews designed after the model and determine what factors are important within the company’s specific industry.</p><p><strong>Design/methodology/approach</strong> – A range of published research literature on Industry environment such as clusters, innovation and hyper competition has been used in this thesis. Our main approach has been to follow Porter’s Five Forces Model and applying it on the modern IT-industry.</p><p><strong>Findings</strong> – This research identified three additional forces for evaluating industry environment, namely Innovation, Complementary product & Cooperation and Customer Readiness.</p><p><strong>Limitations</strong> – The research was limited to northeastern Öresundsregionen, Sweden. The interview questions where limited to pre-designed factors. </p><p><strong>Originality/value</strong> – The findings of this research provide the companies and researchers with a context for understanding this specific type of industry environment. It will also provide companies with a set of tools and best practices to apply when evaluating their own environment.</p>

Purpose – The purpose of this dissertation is twofold. First, to identify and design a theoretical model of different factors that are important when evaluating fast changing industry environment. Second, to conduct interviews designed after the model and determine what factors are important within the company’s specific industry. Design/methodology/approach – A range of published research literature on Industry environment such as clusters, innovation and hyper competition has been used in this thesis. Our main approach has been to follow Porter’s Five Forces Model and applying it on the modern IT-industry. Findings – This research identified three additional forces for evaluating industry environment, namely Innovation, Complementary product &amp; Cooperation and Customer Readiness. Limitations – The research was limited to northeastern Öresundsregionen, Sweden. The interview questions where limited to pre-designed factors.  Originality/value – The findings of this research provide the companies and researchers with a context for understanding this specific type of industry environment. It will also provide companies with a set of tools and best practices to apply when evaluating their own environment.

This paper puts forward the hypothesis that the characteristics of followers of the pecking order theory of capital structure are explicitly distinct from those of non-followers. The factors determining financing behavior are far beyond the conventional perception of asymmetric information. Sampling from the IT industry in Taiwan, we observe that pecking order followers are associated with higher profitability, adequate cash, and other broadly recognized variables.

本研究以質性研究之深度訪談法以及次級資料分析法，探討美商資訊業台灣分公司女性最高領導人現象，以及他們的領導風格在運用轉換型領導四構面時之情形。 本研究透過與這幾位女性領導者或是其直屬部屬的直接訪談，深入了解女性領導者之領導特質與領導風格，並從女性領導人的言語之間，獲得其思想意涵及生命經驗的陳述。 本研究發現可歸納為下列三點： 1. 在美商資訊業分公司女性領導人之共同特質及背景方面：由四個個案的背景可歸納出，學經歷等專業技術背景，並非外商公司挑選領導者的重要考量，擁有外商分公司的運作經驗，掌握分公司運作的文化，為分公司賺取高額業績及利潤，才是能獲得全球營運總部青睞的領導人選。 2. 領導風格方面：本研究將美商資訊業台灣分公司女性領導人之領導風格以Bass & Avolio（1993）的轉型領導理論四構面來進行分析： (一) 在「魅力或理想化影響」構面中，美商資訊業女性最高領導者，都擁有極佳的溝通能力，她們透過溝通的方式來影響員工，取得員工的信任，並主動接納來自員工的意見，積極營造組織內部互動的氛圍，減少層級間的隔閡，欲塑造一種「平民式的魅力」。 (二) 在「激發鼓舞」構面中，美商資訊業女性最高領導者強調目標的明確性，並願意提出優渥資源，作為獎勵，在總公司設計，較輕鬆且人性化的員工活動中，表揚這些達成甚至超越目標的優秀員工，如同母親對小孩一般，或擁抱、或口頭讚賞的方式，營造家庭和諧氣氛，讓被讚賞的員工獲得鼓舞，並激發其他員工見賢思齊。 (三) 在「智識啟發」構面中，美商資訊業女性最高領導者展現的類型為「存在導向」與「理想導向」。關心安全、信任與團隊合作的提昇，並願意融合多方知識及多元看法，為企業經營激發創意。 (四) 在「個別化關懷」構面中，美商資訊業女性最高領導者表現較多在「發展取向」與「個別化取向」。領導者願意栽培部屬，開發部屬潛能，並給予更具挑戰性的工作。同時也願意與部屬培養互信情誼，重視與員工的互動，建立一對一的關係。 3. 最後，本研究結合受訪者的觀點以及次級資料，認為這幾位女性領導人，在20世紀末同時站上美商資訊業分公司最高領導者的位置主要是因為台灣社會對於女性領導人的接納、美商企業兩性平等的文化、女性善於溝通勇於表現的特質，符合美商企業文化、以及女性積極經營人際關係的特質，滿足美商資訊業台灣分公司領導人，需與國際採購及協力廠商充分配合的角色。 然而，女性領導在台灣本土企業卻無法普遍，本研究也探討出其限制包括：工作環境的壓抑、女性在職場中的角色仍未被充分認識、女性的自我設限。 展望未來，由於女性典範已建立、女性自我期許提升、企業注重女性福利及成長等因素，台灣女性領導者在台灣將越來越普遍並被接納。 / This research applies the deep interview method of qualitative research and second-handed data analysis to study the situation of woman leadership in Taiwan Branch of American IT Company in the end of 20th century. And analyst their leader style by the 4 scopes of transformation theory. The research findings can be concluded to 3 points. 1. According to the 4 cases, we can find that the real experience of foreign business, understanding of business culture, and earning revenue and profit are the key concerns when choosing the leader in the branch of American company. 2. According to the Bass & Avolio’s (1993) transformation theory, we can find that the female leadership in Taiwan Branch of American IT Company: A. In the scope of “Charisma or idealized influence”, they all have excellent communication skills; they can influence their employees through communication, and gain the trust from employees. They accept the opinion from employees and actively build the atmosphere of fully interaction. B. In the scope of “Inspirational motivation”, they all emphasize on the clear objective and would like to offer premium or even surprise as motivation. They praise the employees who performed well or even beyond expectation in the casual, public occasion. With hug like mother to her children or orally praise, they can build the harmonious and motivate other employees to act as these models. C. In the scope of “Intellectual stimulation”, these female leaders act as existentially oriented intellectual stimulation and idealistically oriented intellectual stimulation. They concerned about the upgrade of safe, trust, and team spirit, and would like to blend the knowledge and thinking from different aspects. D. In the scope of “Individual Consideration”, they performed in the way of “develop orientation” and “individual orientation”. They would like to develop their employees and give those potential employees challenging mission. They also would like to build the trust with their employees, interact with them and have one by one relationship. 3. Last but not least, the research also combined the interviewees’ opinions and second-handed data, concluded that these female leaders can all attend this position right in the end of 20th century are mainly from the following reasons: The acceptance of this society, the culture of the American entrepreneur, the characteristic of the female which include good at communication, willing to perform themselves, and aggressively improve their relationship, which can satisfy the role of leader in Taiwan branch- need to be the bridge of headquarter and the supplier in Taiwan. However, female leadership is not common in local company in Taiwan. This research also finds the limitation comes from: the constrain of the work environment, the unknown of the role of female in working place, and the limit from female themselves. Seizing the future, due to the role model of female leader has been set, the self-expectation of female has been upgraded, and the entrepreneur put more and more effort on the female welfare and growth, the female leadership will be more popular and accepted.

Titel: Morotens väg till motivation – En flerfallsstudie om belöningssystem i IT-företag Författare: Alexandra Gustafsson, Minda Langmoen &amp; Amanda Tamme Examinator: Elin Funck Handledare: Anders Jerreling  Bakgrund &amp; Problem: IT-branschen är en ung bransch som präglas av snabb förändring och utveckling. Utifrån Contingency-teorin kommer företags ekonomistyrning att skilja sig beroende på aspekter gällande storlek, strategi och miljö. Belöningssystem som en del av ekonomistyrningen, kan vid rätt utformning användas som ett effektivt styrmedel, men problemet ligger i att hitta lämplig utformning som sedan skapar motivation hos anställda. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva, förklara samt jämföra hur belöningssystem är utformade inom tre olika IT-företag. Vidare syftar arbetet till att utreda hur denna del av ekonomisystemet motiverar företagets medarbetare. Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och vid insamling av empiriskt material har semistrukturerade intervjuer på IBM, NAB Solutions och Atea genomförts. Utifrån uppsatsens syfte valdes flerfallsstudie som forskningsstrategi. Det insamlade materialet presenteras först på företagsnivå sedan görs en jämförelse mellan de tre företagen. Slutsats: Samtliga företag har ett belöningssystem bestående av både monetära och icke- monetära belöningar, där de intervjuade har uppgett att det generellt sett är de icke-monetära belöningarna som bidrar till att skapa motivation. De avgörande faktorerna för företagens utformning av belöningsssystem antas vara storleken, strategin och dess ålder. Att IT- branschen är så pass ung kan leda till att företagen snabbt kan bli tvungna att göra om sina belöningssystem. Beroende på contingency-aspekterna storlek, strategi och miljö förväntas utformningen mellan företagen att skilja åt.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-11-04T14:42:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Afonso Curcio Tomedi_.pdf: 1207726 bytes, checksum: 51ea768d9404e9f53df1f211a51f0b15 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-04T14:42:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Afonso Curcio Tomedi_.pdf: 1207726 bytes, checksum: 51ea768d9404e9f53df1f211a51f0b15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-17 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa analisou como os relacionamentos de negócios, os sociais e os institucionais, localizados no mercado doméstico e externo, influenciam o processo de internacionalização das firmas de Tecnologia da Informação (TI) brasileiras, em suas diferentes fases. Para tanto, adotou a tipologia exploratória, com abordagem qualitativa, e ao fim examinou as firmas amostradas através de seis estudos de casos. Os principais resultados encontrados apuraram que as firmas necessitam dos relacionamentos - principalmente os institucionais no mercado doméstico, em sua fase inicial enquanto que os relacionamentos sociais e os de negócios frequentemente acontecem nas fases secundárias, tanto no mercado doméstico como no externo, quando a firma já experimentou pela primeira vez o movimento de internacionalização. Os resultados detalham que há uma necessidade das firmas - principalmente as Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PMEs) - utilizarem os relacionamentos para a internacionalização e sua contínua aplicação, no intuito de criar novas oportunidades de negócios. / This research examined how business relationships, social and institutional, located in the domestic and foreign market, influence the process of internationalization of Brazilian Information Technology (IT) firms, in its different phases. For this purpose, it was adopted an exploratory research with qualitative approach, and at the end examined the firms sampled through six case studies. The main findings ascertained that firms need relationships - mainly institutional at the domestic market, in its initial phase while social relationships and business often take place in the secondary phases, both domestically and externally when the firm already first experienced the movement of internationalization. The results detail that there is a need of firms - mainly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – to use relationships for internationalization and its continued application in order to create new business opportunities.

In December 2004, at the SoDIS® (Software Development Impact Statements) symposium in Auckland, an industry certification as a method of credentialing teachers and analysis of SoDIS was mooted. SoDIS, a process of ethics-based risk assessment and analysis of downstream risk to project and software stakeholders, including the public, is currently in the process of progressing from prototype to commercial product. Certification was proposed to ensure the integrity of the process and the quality of service to stakeholders.Certification sponsored by industry, commercial organisation, or professional association (collectively referred to as industry certification, or certification) has been a form of credentialing for over half a century. Industry certification was adopted by the IT industry when Novell, Inc. began testing and certifying IT industry and IT network professionals in 1986 (Cosgrove, 2004; Novell, 1996). Global certification testing centres were established in 1990 by Drake International (now Thomson Prometric) (Foster, 2005).During the 1990s, industry certification became a veritable juggernaut: a "multi-billion dollar business" (Cosgrove, 2004, p. 486), an industry that has arisen in its own right (Adelman, 2000) and driven by several dynamics (Hitchcock, 2005). In 2000 there were over 300 discrete IT certifications with approximately 1.6 million individuals holding approximately 2.4 million IT certifications (Aldelman, 2000). The total number of available certifications is impossible to quantify (Knapp & Gallery, 2003). Many academic institutions both at tertiary and secondary level are integrating industry certification, especially IT certification, into their curricula.Is industry certification, however, a pedagogically robust form of credentialing? Does it have value to its stakeholders? Is it an appropriate form of credentialing for the SoDIS process? This research, using both Phenomenography and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a joint methodology, focuses on the experiences of actors with the phenomenon of industry certification and extracts both the essence of the understanding and perceptions of the value and validity of industry certification, and the essence of industry certification itself.Due to the vast amount of literature found describing industry actors' perceptions of and experiences within the phenomenon, the research is predominantly literature-based. Further data was collected from interviews with a small, purposive sample of industry certification holders and employers, with the research further informed by my own experiences within the domain which is the focus of the research. The methodology paradigm is interpretive: the research aims to interpret the social construction that is the phenomenon of industry certification.While this research does not attempt to single out specific industry certifications to determine their value or pedagogical robustness, the findings suggest that, in general, well designed and well administered certifications with integrity and rigour of assessment processes, are indeed pedagogically sound, with significant value. The research identifies both benefit and criticism elements of typical certifications, along with elements of the various certification programmes categorised into standard (typical), and more rigorous (less typical) certification programmes.The research develops and presents a paradigm for building an appropriate vendor specific or vendor neutral certification programme that is pedagogically sound with value for its stakeholders. The contrasts and complementary aspects of industry certification and academic qualifications are highlighted. It is therefore concluded, and supported by data from the interviews, that such a credential is indeed appropriate for teachers and analysts of SoDIS.