La synchronisation des flux physiques a reçu une importante attention dans la littérature. Si le non flux physique a reçu une attention toute particulière dans des domaines tels que le SCM, le pendant financier a longtemps était délaissé. Plus inquiétant, les délais de paiement ont longtemps été perçus comme un moyen de réduction du besoin en fonds de roulement des grandes entreprises. La crise des Subprimes a eu de lourdes conséquences sur le financement des entreprises les plus modestes, mettant en danger l’existence même de ces dernières. Notre travail initial de synchronisation des flux physiques et financiers instruits dans la cadre d’un partenariat CIFRE visait à trouver des solutions à ces problématiques en proposant des modèles d’optimisation sous contraintes. Néanmoins, notre volonté de mettre en œuvre nos travaux fut vaine et notre sujet a progressivement drifté vers la découverte de l’échec du déploiement d’un système ERP. Notre enracinement au sein d’une grande entreprise du secteur de la défense française nous a permis de mettre en œuvre une recherche action canonique en trois phases distinctes et a débouché sur la production d’un modèle de diffusion de l’innovation appliqué à l’ERP. Ce modèle en 6 phases, décrits les étapes successives du déploiement, en mettant en exergue l’impact des forces politiques au sein de l’organisation. / Synchronization of physical flows received significant attention in the literature. If the non-physical flows received special attention in areas such as SCM, financial for a long time was helpless. More worryingly, payment delays have long been seen as a means of reducing the need for working capital for large firms. The subprime crisis has had a serious impact on the financing of the smaller companies, endangering the very existence of the latter. Our initial synchronization job physical and financial flows educated in the context of a CIFRE partnership aimed at finding solutions to these problems by proposing models of optimization under constraints. However, our commitment to implement our work was in vain and our subject has gradually drifted to the discovery of the failure of the deployment of an ERP system. Our roots in a large enterprise sector French defense allowed us to implement an action research canonical three distinct phases and resulted in the production of a model of diffusion of innovation applied to the ERP. This model into 6 phases, described the successive stages of deployment, highlighting the impact of political forces within the organization

The increasing government and consumer interest in, and growing concerns about environmental issues have pressured businesses to adopt eco-innovative measures and activities. These pressures have been felt particularly by the food and drink sector in Scotland, a sector that is of considerable importance to the Scottish economy. To date, few studies have considered the challenges businesses in this sector face with regard to the adoption of eco-innovations. In particular, there has been little research on the challenges faced by the SMEs in the sector and how they are adopting eco-innovations. This study seeks to address this research gap through utilization of the diffusion of innovation theory to explore the adoption of eco-innovations by the Scottish food and drink SMEs. A qualitative survey of the website of 52 businesses was used to collect data and analysed using content analysis to generate five categories of eco-innovations namely; Waste, Energy, GSCM, Carbon and Embedding. This data collected informed the next phase of the research where in-depth interviews was conducted with 18 businesses to understand their eco-innovation adoption processes. The findings revealed two groups of attitudes among the participants namely; the positive and the sceptics. The main motivators to adoption were found to be; moral principles and beliefs, eco-consumer drive, cost saving, legislation and the creation of jobs and new opportunities. The major barriers to eco-innovation were more profound and found to include; non-recyclable waste, non-compliance by suppliers, cost of adoption, lack of interest, the challenge of finding credible and reliable sources, attitudes and behaviours, and a general lack of education and awareness. Using the categorisation of eco-innovations that emerged from the website data analysis, the research developed a scale of greenness reflecting the adoption of eco-innovation along with a classification of adopter types namely; advanced, intermediate and basic adopters. The thesis contributes to the theory of diffusion by illustrating ways to capture and evidence innovation adoption without dependency on the time element and enabled a classification of eco- innovation adopters. The contribution to methodology is viewed from the application of a qualitative approach that enabled the categorisation of the forms of eco-innovation which resulted in the model depicting eco-innovation adoption and the profiling tool for innovation diffusion. Practical contributions are offered to enable businesses to understand their adoption of eco-innovation through the use of the model, adopter type classification and the application of a best practice guide to facilitate adoption. Recommendations for policy, practice and further areas for research are also proposed within the thesis.

The main problem in this thesis is: How should research and development results regarding production methods be represented for better adoption by SMEs? Manufacturing SMEs in Sweden have in general low profit margins and risk to go bankrupt. Different production methods could facilitate the needed performance improvement. Networking provides an arena where research and development needs could be determined and effective transfer activities could be carried through. How new production methods could be characterized and represented are presented. Several case studies, surveys and literature studies have been carried through. The results from these studies have been analyzed and compared to literature on the production method diffusion process – Dissemination-Clustering-Transfer. This analysis has resulted in a specification of requirements on how new production methods should be presented for better adoption by SMEs. One suggestion to the specification of requirements, the DFMTsme process, is described. The process is based on a repeated development procedure and follows a six-step development process in five phases. It is concluded that the DFMTsme process works. The research project is finally reviewed due to verification, validation and the contribution to knowledge. Implications for actors in the production method diffusion process as well as for policy makers are discussed. / QC 20100729

This thesis accomplishes two major goals: 1. it establishes an innovation decision making framework suitable for the public service sector; and 2. it provides in-depth understanding of the established framework through two detailed accounts of innovation in Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation. The major benefit from applying the findings from this research is a disciplined and structured approach to managing innovation. This in turn significantly increases the chance of innovations success. <p>The decision making framework identifies the most important success drivers that influence the innovation process from conceptual ideas to diffusion. The accompanying idea to launch innovation stage gate model is a structured and disciplined approach to managing innovation and allocating resources in a most optimized way. Both the guiding innovation framework and the idea to launch process maintain a strong strategic focus and provide an environment for intelligent risk taking.

This thesis accomplishes two major goals: 1. it establishes an innovation decision making framework suitable for the public service sector; and 2. it provides in-depth understanding of the established framework through two detailed accounts of innovation in Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation. The major benefit from applying the findings from this research is a disciplined and structured approach to managing innovation. This in turn significantly increases the chance of innovations success. <p>The decision making framework identifies the most important success drivers that influence the innovation process from conceptual ideas to diffusion. The accompanying idea to launch innovation stage gate model is a structured and disciplined approach to managing innovation and allocating resources in a most optimized way. Both the guiding innovation framework and the idea to launch process maintain a strong strategic focus and provide an environment for intelligent risk taking.

Tablet PC is not a brand-new idea. But it did not draw much attention of consumers in the past. However tablet PC became the hottest product since Apple released the iPad in April 2010 which hit 15 million sales record in less than nine months. And this fever drives all of the IT, PC, mobile companies to start their production line. A war of tablet PC is about to begin in 2011. But from consumers¡¦ perspective, is tablet PC so different from its counterpart being utilized currently that attracts consumer to use it? What are the factors influencing the intention to use tablet PC? To answer the question, this study presents an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) integrating innovation diffusion theory and perceived price to examine the factors that influence the adoption of tablet PC. And the proposed model was empirically tested through data collected from an online questionnaire with 536 samples. And principal analysis, ANOVA, multiple regression as well as descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze the data. The findings indicate that all of the factors proposed in the model anticipate potential users¡¦ intention to use tablet PC. Among the factors, perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, relative advantage have the most significant influence and image is the least one. This study may extend use of TAM and provide further insights into tablet PC marketing strategies.

This dissertation seeks to provide insight to how e-commerce adoption and utilization change the condition of U.S. Manufacturing establishments, by answering two interrelated questions: (1) What are the characteristics of manufacturing establishments that were early adopters of e-commerce activities?; (2) Once e-commerce is adopted, how has adoption affected employment within manufacturing establishments? The U.S. manufacturing industry was selected for analysis as manufacturing has been and continues to be an important sector for employment and the overall U.S. economy and has been the primary sector responsible for the majority of Business-to-Business e-commerce activity. Using two econometric models, seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and three stage-least squares (3SLS), this dissertation confirms previous research pertaining to the characteristics of firms that were early adopters of e-commerce. However, this dissertation also provides insights for how manufacturing firms change after the implementation of e-commerce. Specifically, findings suggest that e-commerce adoption has a negative effect on manufacturing jobs between 1999 and 2005. Simultaneously, the loss in jobs does not translate into an increase in wages for those still employed. The findings of this dissertation also do not provide a positive outlook for a “spatially equitable landscape” to develop via the dissemination of e-commerce in the U.S. manufacturing industry. Rather, the results suggest that the application of e-commerce will continue to reinforce the geographical advantages of firms in urban areas verses those located in more rural areas.

No description available.

Between 1991 and 1996 the number of German second home owners in Sweden increased from about 1,500 to more than 5,500. The purpose of this thesis is to give a comprehensive description and analysis of the German cottage purchases in Sweden, 1991-96. In detail, the motives of the cottage buyers, the circumstances, the geographical patterns of cottage ownership, its diffusion, the integration of the cottage owners, and their expenses in the receiving areas are investigated. The analysis is based on two main sources; (a) an unique database UMCOBASE covering all second homes in Sweden; (b) a survey among 91 German second home owners. Second home ownership is considered as touriste product and as semi-permanent migration to the countryside. These perspectives have in common the importance of the role of the positive image of the countryside. Differences in property prices and climate may also attract second home owners to a specific area. It is argued that changes in the German society form a considerable driving force. Stress and life in the large metropolitan areas as well as the political situation after German reunification contribute not only to this interest for second home living, for the countryside, but also for Sweden, often seen as a shining example. Many German images of Sweden are based on popular writings and movies of the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren. Sweden provides the German cottagers with the requested environments and the availability of housing, cheap property prices, and rather short distances make the interior parts of southern Sweden an ideal destination for the mixture of households with different individual motivations and preferences mainly from Hamburg and Berlin. The internationalization of the economy and the globalization of culture make it easier to purchase a second home abroad. In this case, the growth of German second home ownership in Sweden can be considered as a colonization of the Swedish countryside. The diffusion of cottage ownership is enhanced and directed by the innovators who due to their social networks attract new cottagers to the same area. A very important precondition for the increased German interest in Swedish cottages was the decline of the Swedish currency in 1992 allowing purchases at a cheaper price. The fact that the real estate agencies focused on the German market may be another reason for the increase, and also for the distribution of German cottage ownership within Sweden. The German second home patterns are also analyzed employing multiple regression analysis. It is shown that the distance between ferry harbors and second homes is a major restriction for the distribution of German cottage ownership in Sweden. Even future growth will take place in areas where German cottage owners are present today. The multi-functionality of the countryside caused competition regarding land-use and decision-making power between rural residents, tourists, and agents of other interests. Even if second home tourists and the permanent residents share a lot of interests, integration into the local community can be difficult. It is argued that the German cottagers are leisure gentrifiers consuming the countryside as a leisure resource only. Second home owners are faithful tourists who visit the second home area frequently and stay for a long time. This entails that they also spend a considerable amount of money in the host community. Hence, some jobs in the research area are more or less dependent on the expenditures of the German cottage owners. Despite being motivated, most German cottagers have problems integrating into the host community. The German cottagers seem to adapt to this situation by meeting with each other and by applying a conservative eco-strategy, thus converting their surroundings into their imaginary Swedish countryside. The post-war societies in the western world are characterized by rapid changes. The recent interest in second homes can be read as a rejection of modern life, because the cottage might be the continuous place in life. It is argued, however, that the second home is attractive because it blurs the strict separation of everyday life and tourism. / digitalisering@umu

Zugl.: Basel, Univ., Diss., 2007