Aim. The purpose of this degree project was to assess the impact of the sudden, historically-unique COVID-19 workplace restrictions on the knowledge management and interrelated ICT utilization of a knowledge-intensive SME in Germany. Based upon the outcomes of this assessment, suggestions for future advancement were to be developed.Research Approach. The research approach entailed a qualitative case study addressing a single IT company with 42 employees. The research itself was conducted via triangulation, with the semi-structured interviews of four purposely sampled company executives serving as the focal part. Fundamental aspects of these interviews were further substantiated through four exploratory meeting observations and a company-wide questionnaire contributing 14 employee responses.Findings. Subject to the pandemic-related workspace restrictions, this company was forced to transition to predominantly virtual operations. The organization responded through the introduction of a new, integrated ICT for employee collaboration while simultaneously expediting the codification of tacit knowledge across two existing knowledge repositories. This focus on only a few essential ICTs led to a reduction of prior systems clutter and the company-wide accessibility of explicit knowledge – a quantum leap in terms of efficiency. Along with the primary collaboration via ICTs, a new interaction etiquette developed amongst employees, and IT-related staff was found to cooperate more actively than in the previous on-site environment. Given these insights, this German IT house is recommended to continue its emergently hybrid knowledge management strategy and consider the benefits of both the physical and virtual spaces for an office redesign past the COVID-19 limitations.Originality. Academic references attending to knowledge management during forced workplace restrictions were de facto nonexistent. Adding to it, previous studies on virtual knowledge management indicated a deterioration of performance as compared to on-site operations. This case study is hence not only unique by its pandemic link, but also countering apparent academic presupposition.

The complexity that digital transformation brings to the business environment requires new knowledge and expertise in different domains. To avoid the extensive costs of acquiring and managing this knowledge internally, organizations frequently collaborate with external consultancies. In this exploratory case study, we investigate what role the consultancy agencies take within client organizations' transformation journey and how this role is affected by the dynamic nature of digital transformation. The study reveals that the notion of digital transformation in the business environment is fuzzy and challenging not only to the client organization but to the consultancy agency itself which leads to the necessity to narrow down the notion of digital transformation and form a new role.

Bakgrund: Distansarbete som under de senaste åren har blivit allt mer vanligt innebär enannan typ av arbetssätt, vilket påverkar organisationens kultur. Varje organisation har en egen kultur, där ledaren har en viktig roll i att influera medarbetarna. Om kulturen är effektiv kan organisationen uppnå fördelar som ökad effektivitet och positiva resultat, både ekonomiska och gällande medarbetarna välmående. Det är därför viktigt att ledarskapet anpassas för att upprätthålla en effektiv organisationskultur, när arbetet går från en fysisk arbetsplats till distans. Då kunskapsintensiva organisationer har en teknisk vana som möjliggör att distansarbete fungerar, valdes ett IT-företag ut som studiens undersökningsobjekt. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att få en djupare kunskap om hur chefer och medarbetare på IT-företag upplever att distansarbetet har påverkat ledarskapet och deras organisationskultur. Teoretisk referensram: Studien utgår från tre huvudområden, kunskapsintensiva organisationer vilket är kontexten, ledarskap på distans och effektiv organisationskultur. Alla tre områden beskriver vikten av ledarskap och olika typer av ledarskapsförmågor inom de tre huvudområdena. Metod: Studien utgår från en fallstudiedesign där det empiriska materialet samlades in genom både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ undersökning, vilket utgör en triangulering. Den kvalitativa undersökningen har gjorts i form av intervjuer med chefer inom ett IT-företag, och den kvantitativa undersökningen genomfördes via en enkätundersökning med medarbetarna till de intervjuade cheferna. Slutsats: Ledarskapet påverkas av distansarbete i form av att ledaren inte längre kan läsa av stämningen på samma sätt, vilket leder till att det är svårare att stötta medarbetarna och se deras välmående. Ledarskapet måste därför förändras på distans, bli mer tydligt och ha tydligare kommunikation. Bristen på den sociala interaktionen bidrar även till att ledarens roll blir allt viktigare för att upprätthålla en effektiv organisationskultur, vilket kräver starka relationer och att vara en god förebild. / Background: Distance work, which in recent years has become increasingly common, involves a different type of way of working, which has affected the organizational culture. Each organization has its own culture, in which the leader has an important role in influencing the employees. If the culture is effective, the organization has the possibility to achieve benefits such as increased efficiency and positive results, both financially and the wellbeing of the employees. Therefore, it is important to adapt the leadership to maintain an effective organizational culture when work shifts from the physical workplace to working on distance. Since knowledge-intensive organizations have a technical experience which makes distance work possible, an IT-company was selected as the study's research object. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper knowledge of how managers and employees in IT companies experience how working on distance has affected the leadership and their organizational culture. Theory: The study is based on three main areas, knowledge-intensive organizations which is the context, distance leadership and effective organizational culture. All three areas describe the importance of leadership and different types of leadership abilities, within the three main areas. Method: The study is based on a case study design, where the empirical material was collected through both a qualitative and quantitative study, which constitutes a triangulation. The qualitative study was conducted in the form of interviews with managers in an IT company, and the quantitative study was conducted through a questionnaire survey with the employees of the interviewed managers. Conclusion: The leadership is affected by distance work when the leader can no longer read the atmosphere in the same way, which leads to it being more difficult to support employees and their well-being. The leadership must therefore change when on distance, to become clearer and to have clearer communication. The lack of social interaction also contributes to6the role of the leader becoming increasingly important to maintain an effective organizational culture, which requires strong relationships and being a good role model.

Bakgrund Distansstyrning anses som den moderna organisationens sätt att styra sina anställda mot att uppnå vad som är bäst för organisationen. De styr primärt sina anställda genom att fastställa organisatoriska mål för att vägleda de anställda i rätt riktning. För att uppnå en god styrning krävs det att organisationerna har en god kommunikation med sina anställda, inte minst då information kring målen skall kommuniceras. De senaste årens teknologiska framsteg kring kommunikation har bidragit med att organisationer utvecklat sitt sätt att kommunicera till sina anställda. Inom organisationer är det viktigt att ha en rad olika och fungerande strategier för hur de ska kommunicera och uppnå sina organisatoriska mål. Utvecklingen av kommunikation har således lett till att organisationers ledning kan förmedla sina organisatoriska mål med hjälp av en rad olika kommunikationskanaler. Litteraturstudien pekade på att organisationer använder distanskommunikation alltmer i sin verksamhet. Ledningen inom konsultföretag har en ständig distansfaktor att ta hänsyn till när det kommer till styrning av deras organisationer. Samt att deras anställda jobbar för två organisationer vilket leder till att de har en flerorganisationskultur. Konsultbranschen blev således intressant att undersöka på grund av sin distansstyrning, distanskommunikation och flerorganisationskultur då även övriga branscher tenderar att gå mot den här organisationsstrukturen. Syfte Den här studien avser att undersöka hur kunskapsintensiva organisationer i form av konsultbolag styr sin verksamhet med hjälp av organisatoriska mål. Stor fokus kommer att ligga på kommunikationen kring de organisatoriska målen mellan företagsledning och anställd. Metod Det här är en explorativ studie där ett par konsultbolag ingick i en fallstudie för att undersöka hur kommunikation kring de organisatoriska målen uppfattas och hanteras av de inblandade konsulterna. Studien är uppbyggd så att konsultbolagets ledning står för ena parten och konsulterna för den andra. Sedan har deras uppfattning av kommunikationen gällande de organisatoriska målen undersökts med hjälp av intervjuer och enkätundersökningar. Vidare jämfördes de båda parterna för att identifiera eventuella olikheter i deras uppfattningar. Anledningen till att just konsultbolag valdes var för att en stor del av den här studien kommer rikta in sig på distansdimensionen av kommunikation. Detta för att ledningen inom konsultbolaget och konsulterna i regel inte bedriver sitt vardagliga arbete under samma tak. Resultat Resultatet tydde på att det finns diskrepans på specifika kommunikationsaspekter mellan ledningen inom konsultbolaget och konsulterna. På andra aspekter speglar de båda parternas uppfattning varandra bättre. De största likheterna som identifierades var medvetenheten om de organisatoriska målens existens och dess betydelse för företaget i stort. Uppfattningarna skiljdes dock något åt när det kom till de organisatoriska målens betydelse på lokal nivå. Utefter resultatet går det att vidare ifrågasätta huruvida effektiv respektive konsultbolags styrning hanteras med avseende på de organisatoriska målen. Slutsats Några slutsatser som drogs var att konsultbolagen i studien lägger stort fokus av deras styrningsarbete på att förmedla, återkoppla och skapa en god förståelse bland organisationens konsulter kring organisatoriska mål. Det går också att konstatera att de inblandade konsultbolagen arbetar aktivt med metoder och tillvägagångsätt kring kommunikationen av de organisatoriska målen som är väl grundade i teorin om kommunikation. Konsultbolagen löser primärt problematiken kring distansfaktorn och flerorganisationskulturen genom att mestadels kommunicera organisatoriska mål genom fysiska möten med sina konsulter. Konsultbolagets ledning är väl medvetna om att de organisatoriska målen initialt ofta är abstrakta. Vilket innebär att de måste brytas ner och konkretiseras, helst med hjälp av konsulterna så att de lättare ska kunna applicera dem på sitt vardagliga arbete. Resultatet påvisar också att det finns en viss problematik kring konflikter mellan konsultbolagets organisatoriska mål och kundbolagets organisatoriska mål. / Background Distance management is regarded as the modern organization's way of directing its employees to achieve what is best for the organization. They primarily control their employees by setting organizational goals to guide employees in the right direction. In order to achieve good management, it is necessary that the organizations have good communication with their employees, not least when information about their goals is to be communicated. Recent technological advances in communication have helped organizations develop their way of communicating to their employees. Within organizations, it is important to have a variety of different and functioning strategies for communicating and achieving their organizational goals. The development of communication has thus led to the management of organizations to convey their organizational goals by means of a variety of communication channels. The literature study pointed out that organizations are increasingly using distance communication in their operations. Management within consulting companies has a constant distance factor to take into account when it comes to managing their organizations. And that their employees work for two organizations, which leads to a multi-organizational culture. The consulting industry thus became interesting to investigate because of its distance management, distance communication and multi-organizational culture as other industries also tend to go against this organizational structure. Purpose This study aims to investigate how knowledge-intensive organizations in the form of consulting companies control their activities with the help of organizational goals. A major focus will be on communication about the organizational goals between company management and employees. Method This is an explorative study where a couple of consulting companies were included in a case study to investigate how communication about the organizational goals is perceived and managed by the consultants involved. The study is structured so that the management company management stands for one party and the consultants for the other. Since then, their perception of communication regarding the organizational goals has been investigated with the help of interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, the two parties were compared to identify any differences in their views. The reason why a particular consulting company was chosen was because a large part of this study will focus on the distance dimension of communication. This is because the management within the consulting company and the consultants usually do not do their everyday work under the same roof. Result The result indicated that there discrepancy in specific communication aspects between the management within the consulting company and the consultants. In other aspects, the two parties' views reflect each other better. The biggest similarities identified were awareness of the existence of organizational goals and its importance to the company as a whole. However, perceptions differed somewhat when it came to the significance of organizational goals at the local level. Further to the result, it is possible to further question whether the management of the respective respective consulting companies is managed with regard to the organizational goals. Conclusion Some conclusions that were drawn were that the consultancy companies in the study place great focus on their management work on mediating, feedback and creating a good understanding among the organization's consultants about organizational goals. It can also be noted that the consultancy companies involved are actively working on methods and approaches to the communication of the organizational goals that are well founded in the theory of communication. The consulting companies primarily solve the problems regarding the distance factor and the multi-organizational culture by mostly communicating organizational goals through physical meetings with their consultants. The management company's management is well aware that initially the organizational goals are often abstract. Which means they have to be broken down and concreteized, preferably with the help of the consultants so that they can more easily apply them to their everyday work. The result also shows that there is a certain problem of conflicts between the consulting company's organizational goals and the customer company's organizational goals.

Introduction At the start of 2020 Sweden gets their first documented case of Covid -19. On March 16th the Public Health Agency of Sweden recommended that schools and universities should conduct their education on distance mode. These recommendations would also apply to businesses all around Sweden where it is possible to work remotely. Previous studies have shown that working remotely requires that leadership must take more responsibility. Additionally, the need for clear management control and communication. Purpose The purpose of this study is to research how management control and communication works and have changed within knowledge intensive organizations where daily operations has gone on distance mode due to the corona pandemic. Method The research has been conducted using a qualitative method where both managers and employees have been interviewed. The interviewed people represent three different organizations, a management company, the industrial unit within the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and a legal unit within Swedish Public Employment Service. Result and contribution According to our research, remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic has led to informal meetings on the workplace has been heavily reduced or completely seized. This change has affected managers ability to retain a healthy relationship to their employees. The study show that a management control based on trust and a leadership based on trust has been an advantage, especially within knowledge intensive organizations. The underlying challenge for the managers has been missing communication and knowledge sharing. / Inledning  Den 31 januari 2020 får Sverige sitt första konstaterade fall av Covid-19. Den 16 Mars presenterar Folkhälsomyndigheten rekommendationerna om att svenska gymnasieskolor, universitet, högskolor och övrig utbildning att ske på distans. Dessa rekommendationer kommer även att gälla för samtliga verksamheter i Sverige som har möjlighet att arbeta på distans. Under distansarbete visar tidigare forskningen på ett ökat behov av en medveten och välutvecklad arbetsledning, samt behovet av en tydligare styrning och kommunikation.  Syfte  Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur styrningen och kommunikationen fungerar samt förändrats inom kunskapsorganisationer där verksamheten har gått över till distansarbete, som en följd av pandemin.   Metod  Undersökningen är utförd med en kvalitativ metod där vi har intervjuat chefer och medarbetare. De olika kunskapsorganisationer vi undersökt är ett managementbolag, Industrienheten inom Naturvårdsverket och rättsavdelningen på Arbetsförmedlingen. Resultat och bidrag Distansarbetet har enligt samtliga respondenter, lett till att informella möten på arbetsplatsen minskat eller helt upphört. Det har påverkat chefernas förmåga att upprätthålla en viktig relation till medarbetarna, men även inverkat på informationsflödet. Denna studie visar att en tillitsbaserad styrning och ett tillitsbaserat ledarskap är fördelaktigt under distansarbetet, speciellt inom kunskapsorganisationer. De stora utmaningarna för de chefer som intervjuats kan härledas till bortfall av kommunikation och kunskapsdelning.

None of the company, including small businesses, if they want to survive in the current dynamic environment and growth, can not remain static, so some level of adjustment, improvement or change becomes an essential part of operating a business. In order for organizations to grow and survive in the current environment, they must respond to external and internal stimuli and develop systematically. Over time, organizations have developed a strong and persistent pattern of behavior. The aim of the dissertation thesis is to identify and explain the development approaches of small enterprises from the chosen service sector in the Czech Republic through strategic and other internally realized organizational changes and capturing the overall patterns of behavior in the form of the interactive effect of the attributes of the development of these enterprises. The thesis is based on the literature on corporate behavior in organizational theory and the subcategory of organizational changes due to the focus on aspects of decision making in organizations in a changing environment that deals with issues related to the different nature, context and process of change and their proactive or reactive character. The thesis is based on the researcher's pragmatic attitude in the form of a mixed research strategy implemented by a combination of quantitative and qualitative research on a sample of small firms falling under the category of knowledge intensive services. Based on the triangulation of the empirical data obtained from the questionnaire survey and the outputs in the form of a comparative case study on the two most represented in this category representatives (IT services and architectural activities), the results are presented with a view to answering the research questions and objectives stated in this work . The outputs of the dissertation identify specific developmental approaches in the behavior of the Czech population of knowledge intensive services as subsets of SMEs and also reveal the content of the context between the individual attributes of the development of these companies. The results of the research bring practical and theoretical benefits, which are discussed in the conclusion of this work.

This paper explores the ideas of culture and leadership as a unified phenomenon and a means to face challenges caused by implementing new ways of working in knowledge intensive organizations. By creating a supportive culture and trusting in employees, managers can give decisive authority to employees, which will increase motivation, and enable managers to focus on strategy and vision. The research was conducted as a case study at one of the larger Nordic banks. The findings suggest that a cultural perspective on leadership can be used to increase motivation, and help understand the challenges of complex organizations. / Den här uppsatsen utforskar idéer kring kultur och ledarskap som ett gemensamt fenomen och som ett verktyg för att bemöta utmaningar som uppstår då nya sätt att arbeta implementeras i kunskapsintensiva organisationer. Genom att skapa en stödjande kultur och genom att lita på de anställda kan chefer beslutande ansvar till de anställda, vilket kommer öka motivationen bland de anställda samt ge cheferna mer tid till att fokusera på att utveckla strategi och vision. Forskningen utfördes som en case-studie på en av de större nordiska bankerna. Slutsatserna i den här uppsatsen pekar mot att kulturellt ledarskap kan användas som ett verktyg för att öka motivation, och för att förstå och bemöta the utmaningar som uppstår i komplexa organisationer.

I denna studie undersöks hur personer med ledarskapsroller inom kunskapsintensivt arbete (LIKA) upplever att möjligheterna och utmaningarna med digitala arbetssätt på distans påverkar deras arbete och deras välmående. Studien baseras på semi-strukturerade intervjuer med 13 deltagare med sådan yrkesbefattning, och resulterar i en bred mängd möjligheter från digitala arbetssätt – som exempelvis att arbetet blir mer effektivt och kan utföras oberoende av tid eller geografisk plats. Eftersom dessa digitala arbetssätt däremot är så pass nya förekommer även en del utmaningar, då hanteringen av denna teknik fortfarande är under en inlärningsperiod. Några av utmaningarna som deltagarna i denna studie uttryckt är att förväntningarna på hastigheten som arbete utförs i ökar med digitala hjälpmedel, samt att det är svårare att särkoppla arbete och privatliv eftersom båda dessa är så lättillgängliga med hjälp av informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT). Under det distansarbete som deltagarna utövat upplevde de även en ökad svårighet att separera arbete från privatliv eftersom dessa delade samma fysiska yta: hemmet. Effektiviteten och tillgängligheten bidrar till en ökad upplevelse av flexibilitet och att själv kunna styra över sin tid. Detta upplevdes som positivt av deltagarna, och enligt föreliggande forskning är dessa faktorer centrala för att uppfylla delar av livsbalansens dimensioner, som enligt studier är väsentligt för välmående. Genom digitala arbetssätt får således deltagarna en förbättrad livsbalans eftersom de själva har möjlighet att styra över sin tid samtidigt som deras produktivitet ökar. Med uteslutande digitala arbetssätt blir däremot gemenskapen på arbetsplatsen bristande. Deltagarna önskade därför att efter rådande pandemi orsakad av COVID-19 kunna kombinera digitala arbetssätt med traditionella arbetssätt på sin arbetsplats, och på så vis kunna träffa sina kollegor fysiskt och känna en starkare tillhörighet till sin arbetsgrupp. Genom exklusivt arbete kunde deltagarna utföra sitt arbete, men saknade ändå traditionella arbetssätt på grund av de sociala faktorerna. Digitalt arbete kan därför ses ha praktiska fördelar, men emotionella utmaningar, och en kombination av båda – traditionellt arbete på arbetsplatsen och digitalt arbete på distans – torde därför kunna bidra till ökad produktivitet, en förstärkt frihetskänsla och en bevarad social gemenskap, och således gynna individens livsbalans och välmående. / This study examines how people with managerial positions within knowledge intensive work experience that the opportunities and challenges of remote digital work affects their work and their well-being. In the study, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals of such positions, and resulted in a broad variety of possibilities derived from digital work – e.g. being able to work more efficiently and regardless of time or place. Nonetheless, due to digital work still being relatively new, challenges also arise as a consequence of being in a learning process of how digital work may be handled. Some of the challenges mentioned by the participants of the study include the speed of which work is expected to be performed at when utilizing digital tools, or that the separation between work and private life has been aggravated due to the increased accessibility. Additionally, as a consequence of the current pandemic, the participants were working remote from their homes, which was explained as a factor contributing to a heightened difficulty of separating their work life from their private life. The reason for this being work life and private life sharing the same physical space: their homes. However, the participants described the gained efficiency and availability from digital work as contributing to an increased experience of flexibility and being in control of their time and productivity. This was described as a positive effect of digital work, and according to theory essential to improve life balance. Hence, the participants have a possibility of improved life balance through digital work as it allows them to control their time whilst also improving their productivity. Nevertheless, the participants still aspired for a combination of digital work and traditional work post pandemic, due to the solidarity within the workplace being experienced as insufficient via solely digital mediums. Therefore, a combination of digital work and traditional work was desired to allow for effective work without social diminution. The employees could perform their work through exclusively digital mediums, yet still expressed missing traditional ways of working due to the social factors. Digital ways of working may therefore be seen as with practical benefits, and emotional challenges. A combination of digital and traditional work could therefore maximize productivity and increase flexibility whilst still maintaining social connections, thus favoring life balance and well-being.

Weltweit sind immer mehr Unternehmensgründer Migranten. Ihre Gründungsaktivitäten werden mit den individuellen Ressourcen der Migranten und den Möglichkeiten in den Zielregionen erklärt (vgl. z.B. „Mixed-Embeddedness“-Ansatz von Kloosterman et al. 1999). Zu den Ressourcen zählen das Humankapital sowie das soziale und ökonomische Kapital. Veränderte Nachfragestrukturen, rechtliche, institutionelle und technologische Rahmenbedingungen sowie Entwicklungen auf den Arbeits- und Immobilienmärkten im Zielland beeinflussen ferner die Chancen für Migrantengründungen. Auffällig ist, dass transnationale Kompetenzen (Koehen und Rosenau 2002), wie z.B. Mehrsprachigkeit oder das Wissen über mindestens zwei länderübergreifende Kontexte nicht mit zu den individuellen Ressourcen gerechnet werden. So können Akteure, die unterschiedliche kulturelle Deutungsschemata kennen, z.B. bei Geschäftsverhandlungen Bedeutungsgleichheit mit unterschiedlichen Geschäftspartnern herstellen (Pütz 2004, 28). Ziel der Arbeit ist, die Bedeutung transnationaler Kompetenzen für unternehmerisches Handeln in Bezug auf die Entdeckung von Gründungsideen und die Entwicklung von Marktbearbeitungsstrategien herauszustellen und dadurch eine weitere Determinante zur Erklärung der Struktur von Migrantenökonomien zu identifizieren. Der theoretische Teil der Arbeit befasste sich mit der Rolle transnationaler Kompetenzen für die Selbstständigkeit. Die Auswertung 54 problemzentrierter Interviews mit Selbstständigen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund zeigte, dass transnationale Kompetenzen vor allem für hochqualifizierte Migranten der zweiten Generation in wissensintensiven Dienstleistungsbranchen eine Ressource für ihre Selbstständigkeit darstellen. Sie können zwischen diversen Marktbearbeitungsstrategien wählen und heterogene lokale, nationale und transnationale Netzwerke aufbauen, die sie wiederum dazu befähigen, eine unbediente Nachfrage aufzudecken und spezielle Dienste anzubieten. / The number of entrepreneurs in Germany is expected to decrease by more than half a million within the next 40 years (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag 2008). Experts propose that migrants may be able to secure the business founding sector in the future. Today already more migrants with foreign nationality found businesses than Germans without a history in migration (Statistisches Bundesamt 2012b). The Research field of Migrant Entrepreneurship explains that some of the reasons for the increase in self-employment among migrants are difficulties in finding jobs, and struggle with legal conditions in the receiving country, as well as business opportunities due to migrant resources (e.g. “co-ethnic” support networks, see Waldinger et al. 1990). Surprisingly, individual transnational competences (Koehn and Rosenau 2002) as multilingualism and the knowledge of diverse cultural contexts are often overlooked. I assume that these competences have an impact on creativity, the exploration of market opportunities and the development of business strategies. Moreover they foster the chance to set up diverse local, national or transnational networks. In the first part of this thesis a summary of former and recent concepts to explain migrant entrepreneurship is presented. The next part deals with the definition of transnational competences (Koehn and Rosenau 2002). Afterwards I raise the question how to gain these competences and what impact they might have for the motivation of getting self-employed. The analysis of 54 structured interviews with self-employed workers of Turkish origin in different sectors in Hamburg shows that transnational competences are indeed advantageous, especially to second generation migrants in the knowledge intensive service industry (i.e. legal and health-care consultation). They develop innovative founding ideas and they can choose between diverse market strategies due to their special competencies and transnational networks.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-05-08T15:58:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Debora Moehlecke.pdf: 980082 bytes, checksum: fdb15528a7aada1f0dafab6b637180c8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T15:58:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Debora Moehlecke.pdf: 980082 bytes, checksum: fdb15528a7aada1f0dafab6b637180c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-09 / Nenhuma / Para que as empresas possam sobreviver e principalmente prosperar, novos serviços são desenvolvidos, por vezes aproveitando a ideia de um cliente ou mesmo uma oportunidade percebida no mercado. O desenvolvimento de novos serviços (DNS) já foi visto como um mero acontecimento que se tornava possível devido à sorte ou intuição. Porém, com o aumento dos estudos sobre o tema, o conhecimento foi ampliado e atualmente defende-se a necessidade de planejamento do DNS e uma maior compreensão gerencial para que assim as empresas possam alcançar o desempenho esperado. A fim de buscar entendimento da capacidade das empresas em utilizar recursos e rotinas para obter sucesso no novo serviço lançado no mercado, em um estudo anterior foi elaborado um modelo de competência em DNS considerando cinco dimensões: i) Foco no processo de DNS; ii)Acuidade de mercado; iii)Estratégia de DNS; iv)Cultura de DNS; e v)Experiência em Tecnologia da Informação (TI). Utilizando este modelo, o presente estudo visa verificar a relação entre as dimensões formadoras da competência em desenvolvimento de novos serviços e o desempenho das empresas no desenvolvimento destes novos serviços, por meio de hipóteses de pesquisa. Tendo em vista a importância do setor de serviços intensivos em conhecimento para a economia mundial e o crescimento destas empresas no Brasil, buscou-se através de uma survey com 239 organizações, confirmar a relação que há entre as cinco dimensões no DNS, validar o instrumento de “modelo de competência” para o desenvolvimento de novos serviços e também verificar como as dimensões contribuem em conjunto para o desempenho das empresas de serviços intensivos em conhecimento (ESIC). Por meio de testes estatísticos como a técnica de análise fatorial exploratória e a análise de regressão múltipla, verificou-se que quatro fatores podem ser considerados responsáveis por 30% do desempenho em DNS das empresas analisadas. Destaca-se que a dimensão Acuidade do mercado foi considerada a de maior efeito em desempenho, seguida da Experiência em TI, Cultura de DNS e Foco no processo de DNS, entretanto a dimensão Estratégia de DNS não pode ser avaliada pois suas variáveis foram eliminadas durante a análise fatorial exploratória. / In order to enable companies to survive and succeed in the market, new services are developed, sometimes availing some customer idea oreven a perceived market opportunity. New service development (NSD) had been seen as a result of luck or intuition. However, due to the increase of studies on the subject, the knowledge has been expanded and now is believed the need of NSD planning and greater managerial understanding so that companies can achieve the expected performance. In order to seek understanding of the ability of firms to use resources and routines to succeed in the new service launched in the market, on a previous study a NSD competence model was developed considering five dimensions: i)NSD process focus; ii)Market acuity; iii)NSD strategy; iv)NSD culture and; v)Information Technology (IT) experience. Using this model, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between all competence dimensions in new service development and the performance of some companies in developing new service through research hypotheses. Given the importance of knowledge-intensive service sector in the world economy and the growth of these companies in Brazil, we attempted through a survey with 239 o rganizations to confirm the relationship between these five dimensions during the new service development, also to validate the instrument “model of NSD competence” as well as to check how all dimensions contribute to the knowledge-intensive service company performance. By statistical tests such as the technique of exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis, it was found that four dimensions can be considered responsible for 30% NSD performance. It is noteworthy that market acuitywas found to have more effect on performance, followed by IT experience, NSD culture and NSD process focus. However, NSD strategycould not be evaluated as their variables were eliminated during exploratory factoranalysis.