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No description available.

Executive Information Systems (EIS) are information systems designed for the direct use of the Executive to access business relevant information, including information about customers, competitors, key performance indicators, internal operations, stock prices and news. Classified as high-risk projects, just like any other IS projects, organizations have been cautious and critical in ensuring EIS successful implementation and continuous usage by their intended users, the Executives. Unilever South Africa is no exception, and would thus like to ensure a successful implementation and acceptance of its EIS. An EIS system that once implemented will be used, accepted and adopted by executives to drive the achievement of its strategic objectives. This research is intended to investigate and identify potential factors that are likely to affect user acceptance, usage and adoption of an EIS implemented by Unilever South Africa. The research investigation was based on a proposed model derived from Davis (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that explores the phenomena of 'perceived usefulness' and 'perceived ease of use', as drivers of user acceptance and illustrates the dynamics of the factors that affect the users' acceptance of the system. The research data was obtained via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews of users from the Unilever EIS user group. The feedback obtained was then analysed and tested against three hypotheses. All three hypotheses were accepted leading to the conclusions that: (a) Users' attitudes towards usage of the Unilever EIS are positively influenced by both their 'perceived usefulness' and 'perceived ease of use' of the system. (b) The Unilever EIS users' 'perceived usefulness' of the system positively influences their 'perceived ease of use' of the system. (c) The Unilever EIS users' 'perceived ease of use' of the system has a greater influence on their attitude towards the system usage than their 'perceived usefulness' of the system. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This is a quantitative study that focuses on the lack of differentiation within the forecourt convenience store industry within Cape Town area and the use of an information system to build a differentiation strategy for major oil companies. A critical literature review was conducted to provide a theoretical framework for this study. The literature provided a foundation for the study and revealed that previous researchers have found that it is vital to differentiate within the retail industry due to the highly competitive nature of the industry. It was also made evident in the literature that companies need to become knowledgeable about the customer, the store attributes and products that can contribute to developing a differentiation strategy. Previous researchers recognized the value of having a robust information system that can provide key information required for the strategic planning process of retail companies. The literature review assisted in placing this study in context and preparing for the collection of primary data to answer the research questions. The Chevron retailers within the Cape Town area participated in the study and responded to a questionnaire that focused on the value of differentiation and information systems within the convenience store industry and the subsequent effect it has on the profitability and brand equity of a company. The survey strategy was chosen as the most applicable research method and the findings from the analysis of the data shows that the retailers are in strong agreement that differentiation will enable an oil company to rise above the competitors within the forecourt convenience store industry and also agreed that an information system is required to provide the critical information to assist in developing a differentiation strategy. There appears to be a strong positive correlation between differentiating and an information system from the responses received from the sample of retailers. From the synthesis of the results the most important factors that can be used to differentiate in the industry are store location and customer service. It was also found that the information system must contain data on customers, store attributes and products. This is seen as important ingredients for the strategic planning process and this information will ultimately contribute to an increase in profitability and brand equity if used appropriately. The recommendations made to an oil company that operates within the forecourt convenience store industry are to focus on strategic store locations and customer service to increase profitability and brand equity. Additionally a back-office system must be implemented that enables the capture of pertinent customer, store and product information. It was also recommended that a further study be undertaken using qualitative data gathering techniques and the scope to include the entire convenience store industry in South Africa. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

The aim of this study was to investigate the current ERP selection processes that are used by KwaZulu-Natal organizations, in order to determine what problem factors were evidenced during the selection process. In order to obtain a KwaZulu-Natal organizations' perspective of the ERP selection process, two stages were used to gather survey data. The first stage consisted of an electronic mail and fax survey; the second stage was a door to door survey done in business parks and industrial parks/zones in the Greater Durban region - this was for purposes of remedying the low response rate obtain during the first stage. Sixty-three respondents from a wide range of industrial sectors in KwaZulu- Natal responded to the research questionnaire. In terms of response information: more than 55% of respondents had recently acquired an ERP solution and their ERP systems were fully integrated 12.7% of respondents had bought ERP software, but it was not fully implemented 6.3% of respondents were at the ERP selection stage, they were without an ERP system but had already commenced the selection process 23.8% of respondents did not have ERP nor did they intend to obtain ERP in the future 1.6% of respondents did not have ERP but indicated that they may have such a system in the future. Respondents were randomly chosen from medium sized and large sized organizations in KwaZulu-Natal. They are determined as large in turnover, total asset and number of employees by South African standards and aremostly hierarchical and centralized organisations with a divisional/functional structure. The study revealed that although ERP selection was considered to be making a significant contribution to organizations7 IT/IS strategy, the ERP selection process was not paid enough attention in practice in KwaZulu- Natal organizations due to a number of obstacles deduced from this study. Therefore, this study can be of benefit to organizations in identifying these obstacles and in recommending strategies that could be employed to overcome them. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

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No description available.

This thesis examines knowledge management from a social networking perspective, arguing that knowledge, as a social construct, has at its basis, people; and their interaction with one another. Knowing is an act of interpretation. From this perspective, knowledge management becomes more focused on managing these interactions and seeing staff as inquirers and generators of new knowledge. Thus, this research will explore the research question: Do managers perceive that the social network perspective of knowledge management, offers them a wider range of options of how to manage knowledge in dynamic environments? / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2009

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2004.

Alignment of information systems (IS) with business activities has been an important problem for practitioners for many years even though there has been considerable research in the area. A criticism of some past research into IS/business alignment is that it has ignored organisational complexity and context. This is partly due to the dominant paradigm in use within IS research. One result of this paradigm is that there are numerous prescriptions provided in the literature for improving alignment but little in the way of theory development that explains the behaviour of practitioners when confronted with the task of attaining alignment. To address these criticisms a grounded theory approach was adopted using a coding family that encouraged the discovery of systems of interaction between variables rather than assuming linear causality. Data was collected via three unstructured focus groups that limited the effect of prior reading of the literature, an important consideration when conducting a grounded theory study. These were followed by semi-structured individual interviews. The instruments for the latter were developed after the focus group interviews were analysed, so reducing the impact of a prior reading. Analysis of the focus group interviews found that the major concern of practitioners was aligning IS strategies to either business strategies documented in business plans or the business strategies in use. This is a similar result to earlier alignment research. As a result of analysis of the focus group interviews the research question stabilised. This research investigated how factors within an organisational setting impact the ability of senior IT managers to identify, then act upon, the business strategies in use. It confirmed many of the enablers and inhibitors to alignment identified in earlier research. However, it also identified two variables that are rarely given prominence in the literature: the mental models held by managers; and the motivation and measurement schemes applied to managers. It is believed that both these variables have a significant impact on the alignment of IS and business strategies. The theory developed here demonstrates that a system of variables will tend to encourage IT managers to either collaborate with their business peers, or retreat from the business and concentrate on providing a low cost reliable technical IT solution. In the former situation alignment of IT managers’ actions to those of their business peers is encouraged. In the latter situation there will be little alignment between business and IS strategies nor between the actions of business and IT managers. A feedback loop of actions by actors within the system tends to reinforce the situation making a change in response extremely problematic. This, then, helps explain the intractable nature of alignment that has been observed for many years.