In studying organisational change in Air Seychelles, the context, content and process of change together with the interconnections of the airline and the tourism industry in Seychelles through time is explored. The literature review shows that the substantive issues of interest to this study, contextualism as a theory of methods in management research, requires a case based research in particular with regards to the following gaps in the literature: the integration of inner and outer perspectives on sustaining competitive advantage, and conceptual insights on how strategy links firms and their environment. The study adopted a contextual and processual framework to build a theoretical perspective of competitive advantage. The study contributes to the field of strategic management and tourism development in Seychelles in the following ways: firstly, the development of a contextual and processual framework to explain the transformation of firms over time; secondly, the development of an understanding of the historical context of the tourism industry and its interactions with other sectors of the Seychelles economy; thirdly, developing an understanding of how Air Seychelles developed its resources and capabilities to sustain competitive advantage; fourthly, linking change processes and action to performance and in a sense developing an understanding on strategy implementation of strategic management practice in Air Seychelles. The study sheds some light on strategy formation and implementation at the firm level, and the dynamics between the firm and the industry. The findings suggest that firms respond opportunistically to external discontinuities in a dynamic environment - the entrepreneurial leadership of a firm prepares and support managers to operate under conditions of great uncertainty and ambiguity and allows them to behave opportunistically. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / DBL / Thesis (D. B. L.)

The dissertation consists of four self-contained essays on consumption. Essays 1 and 2 consider different measures of aggregate consumption, and Essays 3 and 4 consider how the distributions of income and wealth affect consumption from a macro and micro perspective, respectively. Essay 1 considers the empirical practice of seemingly interchangeable use of two measures of consumption; total consumption expenditure and consumption expenditure on nondurable goods and services. Using data from Sweden and the US in an error correction model, it is shown that consumption functions based on the two measures exhibit significant differences in several aspects of econometric modelling. Essay 2, coauthored with Thomas Holgersson, considers derivation of a univariate and a multivariate version of a test for asymmetry, based on the third central moment. The logic behind the test is that the dependent variable should correspond to the specification of the econometric model; symmetric with linear models and asymmetric with non-linear models. The main result in the empirical application of the test is that orthodox theory seems to be supported for consumption of both nondurable and durable consumption. The consumption of durables shows little deviation from symmetry in the four-country sample, while the consumption of nondurables is shown to be asymmetric in two out of four cases, the UK and the US. Essay 3 departs from the observation that introducing income uncertainty makes the consumption function concave, implying that the distributions of wealth and income are omitted variables in aggregate Euler equations. This implication is tested through estimation of the distributions over time and augmentation of consumption functions, using Swedish data for 1963-2000. The results show that only the dispersion of wealth is significant, the explanation of which is found in the marked changes of the group of households with negative wealth; a group that according to a concave consumption function has the highest marginal propensity to consume. Essay 4 attempts to empirically specify the nature of the alleged concavity of the consumption function. Using grouped household level Swedish data for 1999-2001, it is shown that the marginal propensity to consume out of current resources, i.e. current income and net wealth, is strictly decreasing in current resources and net wealth, but approximately constant in income. Also, an empirical reciprocal to the stylized theoretical consumption function is estimated, and shown to bear a close resemblance to the theoretical version.

In studying organisational change in Air Seychelles, the context, content and process of change together with the interconnections of the airline and the tourism industry in Seychelles through time is explored. The literature review shows that the substantive issues of interest to this study, contextualism as a theory of methods in management research, requires a case based research in particular with regards to the following gaps in the literature: the integration of inner and outer perspectives on sustaining competitive advantage, and conceptual insights on how strategy links firms and their environment. The study adopted a contextual and processual framework to build a theoretical perspective of competitive advantage. The study contributes to the field of strategic management and tourism development in Seychelles in the following ways: firstly, the development of a contextual and processual framework to explain the transformation of firms over time; secondly, the development of an understanding of the historical context of the tourism industry and its interactions with other sectors of the Seychelles economy; thirdly, developing an understanding of how Air Seychelles developed its resources and capabilities to sustain competitive advantage; fourthly, linking change processes and action to performance and in a sense developing an understanding on strategy implementation of strategic management practice in Air Seychelles. The study sheds some light on strategy formation and implementation at the firm level, and the dynamics between the firm and the industry. The findings suggest that firms respond opportunistically to external discontinuities in a dynamic environment - the entrepreneurial leadership of a firm prepares and support managers to operate under conditions of great uncertainty and ambiguity and allows them to behave opportunistically. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / DBL / Thesis (D. B. L.)

This master's thesis is oriented on software development processes improvement techniques. It presents modern approaches of process development and analyses problems of their management and usage in various life cycle phases. In connection with these techniques it brings draft of support tool, which increases automatization of processes development with pertinent cooperation with other tools, as one of presumptions of improvement of their quality.

The main goal of this dissertation thesis is to design and verify a new concept of process management principles, procedures and tools application, utilizable in the software development project management field. Emphasis is placed on creating a general (i.e. generally usable) concept, derived from solid theoretical background and suitable for further expansion and modifications. The theoretical part of the thesis has two main chapters. In the "Process management" chapter, the individual derived principles (Effectiveness, Added value, Coherence, Portability, Adequate standardization, Measurability, Clarity, Integration, Accountability, Continuous improvement) and procedures (Initiation, Identification, Definition, Validation, Implementation, Revision) are described and interconnected into an integrated concept, usable for the introduction and development of process management in the organization, supported by appropriate ICT tools (mainly from four selected areas -- Modeling and Simulation, Performance measurement, Change management, Administration). In the "Project Management" chapter, the project management area is embedded in the broader context of a process-driven organization in line with modern models of strategic ICT governance and ICT services management. The main dimensions of project management as well as the process approach to project management, which helps to bridge the gap between unique/temporary projects and repeatable/stable processes, are described. Basis for the normative project processes design in the following part of the thesis is set by the evaluation of selected models of the project life cycle and project management methodologies. The practical part of this thesis is basically a verification of the concept, described in the theoretical chapters. Firstly, an original project management methodology, suitable for deriving process model of the subject area, is presented. On this basis -- and by using the previously described principles, procedures and process management tools -- the major artifacts of a reference project processes model are elaborated (such as Conceptual model of the subject area, List of events and natural processes, Process pyramid, Process model, Organization model, Indicators pyramid or RACI matrix of roles and processes/indicators /SLAs; setup of selected process model is also verified experimentally by simulations). Critical evaluation of the presented model is an important input for the final assessment of the thesis goals' achievement and proposal of further research fields.

本論文從IBM在軟體的策略，尤其是軟體的產業解決方案作為研究的核心。2008年的金融海嘯造成全球經濟大衰退，IBM適時提出了智慧的地球的計劃與願景，並積極推動從客戶實際需求與價值思考出發的產業解決方案(Industrial Solution)，結果IBM驗證了其營運與業績不但沒有受到影響並且在營收與獲利上繼續穩健成長。本論文首先依時間軸對IBM自1993年葛士納總裁接任後針對服務與創新的轉型；到2003年帕米沙諾接班後的併購計劃與智慧的地球創新策略；乃至於2012年羅美蒂繼任後推動之商業分析，軟體產業解決方案以及最重要的2015年成長計劃等各項重要改革與執行策略做一詳細的整理與分析，個案研究針對IBM公司所面臨的挑戰與企業經營策略及轉型架構進行分析與探討並延伸至軟體產業解決方案，以Michael Porter的五力分析架構對IBM公司在軟體產業與產業解決方案的產業競爭態勢予以深入探討分析，並針對IBM與其主要競爭對手的軟體產業解決方案以SWOT做一完整的分析，此外也從IBM的軟體事業群的成長與轉型策略，來驗證IBM對軟體的產業解決方案的重視與策略意涵，並針對軟體之產業架構(Industry Framework)的發展與導入的「客戶導向與客製化產業解決方案開發策略(client focused & tailored execution strategy)」與成功要素予以分析並歸納。 最後結論中對國內軟體產業以Michael Porter的鑽石模型做一分析，並對未來台灣軟體產業可能的發展方向提出建議以提供產業與政策制定者參考，如何面對與開發國際市場以及如何從人才面發展並建立台灣的軟體產業競爭優勢將是值得我們仔細深入思考的方向，希望未來台灣的軟體產業也能創造出典範移轉，發展出如同IC設計與製造產業的規模與競爭優勢。 / The development of this paper is focused on IBM`s software strategy，especially on the strategy of IBM`s software industrial solution as the research focuses。When the financial tsunami caused the serious economic recession around the world during 2008 year end，IBM raised the「smarter planet 」initiative and vision to drive the execution of series of industrial solution centric projects according to the client real requirements and values。IBM proved that its operation and business performance were not affected by this crisis，moreover IBM continued to grow steadily in the areas of both income and margin。In the context of this paper，I will first analyze the IBM`s transformation history in the three key stages under three CEOs，including Lou Gerstner`s service & innovation transformation since 1993；Sam Palmisano`s Merge & Acquisition plan & smarter Planet initiative；and Ginni Rometty`s 2015 roadmap plan to shoot for at least US$ 20 EPS by year 2015。 In the case study we will analyze the challenges which IBM was facing from corporate operation and transformation standpoints. For IBM`s software & software industrial solution strategy，Michael Porter’s five forces framework will be used to do an analysis to have a clear view on IBM`s competitiveness in the software & software industrial solution industry. SWOT analysis will also be applied to gain an in-depth view on IBM and its major software industrial solution competitors。From IBM software group’s growth and transformation strategy，we can also verify the strategic imperatives on IBM`s focuses on industrial solutions。Finally we use the example of how IBM successfully developed the various Industry Frameworks through client focused & tailored execution strategy to illustrate IBM`s asset-based solution development concept。From the recent organizational transformation of IBM software group in 2012，we can also prove that the transformation direction is toward solution centric。 In the summary of this paper I will analyze Taiwan`s software industry using Michael Porter’s Diamond model to come out several suggestions for the reference of software development vendors and government policy makers in Taiwan。How to develop the international market and build the talent resources to increase Taiwan`s competitiveness advantage will be the key focuses which we need to think deeply。Hopefully the software industry in Taiwan will have a paradigm shift and grow to the scale of the IC design and manufacturing industry with competitiveness。