The objective of this thesis has been to develop a framework to support the evaluation of information strategies of UK higher education institutions (REIs). For this study the theoretical and empirical literature was extensively reviewed and four substantial pieces of empirical research were conducted. These included action research CAR), two pieces of ethnographic research, and a case study. The AR analysed problems encountered with a Student Records System at a UK university and identified both immediate and deeper causes for these problems. Ethnography I involved the researcher's participation in the information strategy development process at the same university: This included consideration of the development processes adopted and also the way that decisions were taken. Ethnography II consisted of participant observation at a range of workshops and conferences organised by the Joint Information Systems Committee on information strategy development at UK REIs. These provided a broad picture of information strategy development procedures being adopted across these HEls. The case study investigated in detail the implementation of an information strategy at a university different from that examined in AR and Ethnography I. These empirical investigations all included in-depth interviews. In total 117 people of various levels and backgrounds involved in information strategies and associated information systems within UK HEIs were interviewed. Key findings from the empirical research were: Many HEIs in the process of developing an information strategy, or about to do so, were not fully sure how this should be achieved nor the extent of the likely benefits. Most HEIs implementing information strategies were using top-down directed system approaches, leaving little room for more inclusive bottom-up emergent planning. Information strategies need to be developed and evaluated using strongly human-centred methods, primarily because it became apparent that the successful functioning of such a strategy is dependent on the motivation and competencies of the people who create and use the information. Investigations into aspects of information strategy development and implementation need to focus on people's perceptions of the situation rather than seeking an objective truth independent of the participants. This reflects a Kantian perspective of knowledge. Overall, the empirical findings supported the use of a Critical Systems Thinking approach in the evaluation of information strategies at higher education institutions. The development of the evaluative framework, the main objective of the thesis, took place in two phases: developing the framework based on the literature review and revising the framework from the empirical research investigations involving a process of critical iteration. The first phase identified a range of elements associated with an HErs information strategy, and for each element highlighted the relevant theoretical andlor empirical literature that bears on the issues being addressed. In particular, the framework is strongly influenced by insights drawn from the work of three key social theorists: Kant, Habermas and Foucault. In addition, the framework includes 'guidelines for evaluation', where these are more practical questions to ask and areas to investigate when evaluating a given element ofthe strategy. The second phase took the framework through a series of reflections and revisions based on the findings from the empirical investigations. In each case, insights were gained that related to the use or applicability ofthe framework. By combining the findings from the theoretical and empirical literature with those from the empirical research, the final framework, which is believed to have filled a gap in the theoretical literature, aims to encompass the complexity of information strategy development and implementation within HEIs. The framework reflects a human-centred and Critical Systems Thinking approach, and is designed to allow potential evaluators to identify underlying causes for the success or failure of an information strategy that is implemented at an HEI.

This thesis offers an information strategy for a small-sized webdesign business. It examines the current state of its IS/IT, whilst evaluating its benefits in business procedures and processes. This thesis envisages an IT strategy that will significantly support increase in competitiveness on the market and accomplishment of the business goals of this firm. This strategy introduces various elements of the future information system and emphasises the importance of the choice of the right solutions. The essential part of master’s thesis are also theoretical resources.

The equipment makers all over the world face the economic recession. They face many uncertainties and challenges when operation. In order to reduce the product development time to market, make the best utilization of the company resource, a suitable information system is helpful to achieve the goal. Applied Materials founded in 1976 is the world biggest equipment maker in the semiconductor industry. Because the growth rate is getting lower and lower, the company steps into other industries by merge and acquisition. Applied Materials expects to get revenue from these growing rapidly market requirements. This research is focus on Applied Materials company strategies. We analyzed the data transferred and information system structure changed during the company acquired Applied Films. We found out the information strategies aligned to company strategies. Through this research, we can understand more the suitable information system for equipment makers and help the equipment makers to get the capability to face the changing dramatically market.

In recent years, there are an increasing number of Taiwan-based enterprises building up their factories in Mainland China, possibly due to the following reasons: low manufacture cost, plentiful human resource, inexpensive land and large market. Compared to other inexpensive (or even cheapter) countries, In addition, China remains entrepreneurs¡¦ favorite destination when considering moving out factories because of the short geographic distance as well as the culture similarity. However, recent macroeconomic control, the request of labor contract and the new tax law enforced by China government dramatically increase the cost of labor, causing more risk in investment. Take stainless steel industry as an example. There is a need to exercise good competitive strategies, with the aid of information systems, so as to stay competitive in the global economy. This research, through case studies, identifies several strategies that are essential to the profitable establishment of factories in mainland China and a number of factors for successfully deploying information systems.

Since the early 2000s, Social Media has become part of the everyday activity of billions of people. Museums and galleries are part of this major cultural change - the largest museums attract millions of Social Media 'friends' and 'followers', and museums now use Social Media channels for marketing and audience engagement activities. Social Media has also become a more heavily-used source of data with which to investigate human behaviour. Therefore, this research investigated the potential uses of Social Media information to aid activities such as exhibition planning and development, or fundraising, in museums. Potential opportunities provided by the new Social Media platforms include the ability to capture data at high volume and then analyse them computationally. For instance, the links between entities on a Social Media platform can be analysed. Who follows who? Who created the content related to a specific event, and when? How did communication flow between people and organisations? The computerised analysis techniques used to answer such questions can generate statistics for measuring concepts such as the 'reach' of a message across a network (often equated simply with the potential size of the a message's audience) or the degree of 'engagement' with content (often a simple count of the number of responses, or the number of instances of communication between correspondents). Other computational analysis opportunities related to Social Media rely upon various Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques; for example indexing content and counting term frequency, or using lexicons or online knowledge bases to relate content to concepts. Museums, galleries and other cultural organisations have known for some time, however, that simple quantifications of their audiences (the number of tickets sold for an exhibition, for example), while certainly providing indications of an event's success, do not tell the whole story. While it is important to know that thousands of people have visited an exhibition, it is also part of a museum's remit to inspire the audience, too. A budding world-class artist or ground-breaking engineer could have been one of the thousands in attendance, and the exhibition in question could have been key to the development of their artistic or technical ideas. It is potentially helpful to museums and galleries to know when they have inspired members of their audience, and to be able to tell convincing stories about instances of inspiration, if their full value to society is to be judged. This research, undertaken in participation with two museums, investigated the feasibility of using new data sources from Social Media to capture potential expressions of inspiration made by visitors. With a background in IT systems development, the researcher developed three prototype systems during three cycles of Action Research, and used them to collect and analyse data from the Twitter Social Media platform. This work had two outcomes: firstly, prototyping enabled investigation of the technical constraints of extracting data from a Social Media platform (Twitter), and the computing processes used to analyse that data. Secondly, and more importantly, the prototypes were used to assess potential changes to the work of museum staff information about events visited and experienced by visitors was synthesised, then investigated, discussed and evaluated with the collaborative partners, in order to assess the meaning and value of such information for them. Could the museums use the information in their event and exhibition planning? How might it fit in with event evaluation? Was it clear to the museum what the information meant? What were the risks of misinterpretation? The research made several contributions. Firstly, the research developed a definition of inspiration that resonated with museum staff. While this definition was similar to the definition of 'engagement' from the marketing literature, one difference was an emphasis upon creativity. The second set of contributions related to a deeper understanding of Social Media from museums' perspective, and included findings about how Social Media information could be used to segment current and potential audiences by 'special interest', and find potential expressions of creativity and innovation in the audience's responses to museum activities. These findings also considered some of the pitfalls of working with data from Social Media, in particular the tendency of museum staff to use the information to confirm positive biases, and the often hidden biases caused by the mediating effects of the platforms from which the data came. The final major contribution was a holistic analysis of the ways in which Social Media information could be integrated into the work of a museum, by helping to plan and evaluate audience development and engagement. This aspect of the research also highlighted some of the dangers of an over-dependency upon individual Social Media platforms which was previously absent from the museums literature.

This thesis deals with problems of development and future heading of IS/ICT at the University of Economics Prague. Its main focus is on application integration. First part of this thesis is aimed towards explanation of corporate and information strategy, its need, benefits and possible risks. Second part of this thesis covers possible approaches to integration, mainly to the integration of various applications. Last part discusses actual situation at the university. Primary goal of this thesis is to determine actual IS/ICT conditions and lay down possible ways of improvement in each area. Secondary objective is to develop a base documentation for project aimed towards implementing an integration platform to the university. Those goals were achieved by thorough analysis of present situation accompanied by discussions with experts about possible development in IS/ICT at the university supplemented by literature research. Main benefits of this thesis lay in detailed revision of current state if IS/ICT along with specification of next possible projects towards having an advanced IT at the university. Partial benefits are in the area of preparation of contractual documents for project of implementing an integration platform.

The goal of this paper is to explore corporate and information strategies, focus is put on new and modern business models. I accentuate alignment between corporate and information strategy. Theoretical overview of corporate and information strategies is followed by description of modern trends that were discovered by author. All new trends are analyzed from IT and business point of view. Some trends are demonstrated on real companies in the paper. The analysis consists of corporate strategy and searching for the way how IT can support business and how to be in alignment. Two types of companies are included. First type is company that built up business model based on IT/ICT strategy. The other type includes companies that are running business for longer time and new IT/ICT strategy deployment or better alignment between strategies brought improvement and better market position. The paper includes basic model representing strategic management that is presented at the end. This gives an overview to all readers how the process goes from corporate and information strategy to application portfolio. The paper is destined for professionals and nonprofessionals who are interested in modern strategies. It is also useful for IT/ICT managers when working on own strategies.

The aim of the thesis is information strategy development for a particular nonprofit foun- dation in the Czech Republic that would mark the strategy as a valuable contribution to its organizational planning. Then these thesis point theoretical findings, which has not been clear in the beginning and which are probably generalizable. The development method was designed specifically for OSF in Prague and is based on MMDIS, COBIT a Gartner IT strategy framework. These approaches are discussed in the theoretical part, then, in the analytical part, are inputs to the information strategy that are followed by the information strategy itself. The conclusion deals with the foundation feedback and names potentially generalizable findings. Despite them, the thesis contribution is in description of a real in- formation strategy development process in the Czech foundation environment with includ- ed feedback. It can inspire other works focused practically in the field of nonprofit and information technology or it can be a contribution to the theoretically focused works to discuss their findings.

This master's thesis is focused on the design of the project and the subsequent implementation of the information system into the newly created e-commerce. In the theoretical part, I describe the chosen company and the problematics which I encountered to during this thesis and conversely in practical part I propose a concrete solution tailored to the monitored company. My thesis's goal is to design information system, so it was connected to e-shop, warehouse, accounting and the other necessary elements.

This master’s thesis focuses on a comprehensive analysis of the information system in the company ELMO. The knowledge gained has been used for specific proposals for improvement in selected areas of the information system. This work may also serve as an initial step in the development of the corporate information strategy.