Innovation in the services sector is becoming increasingly important to understanding the innovative behavior of the US economy, as more and more sectors become increasingly populated with services. Traditional goods-manufacturing sectors remain a dominant theoretical and empirical force with respect to the measurement and management of innovation activity at different levels of the economy. This includes industry, sector, and firm levels of theory and practice. As the shifting trajectory away from traditional technology-manufacturing to services, it becomes incumbent on researchers in service dominated sectors such as tourism to better understand effective ways to measure and manage innovation in services. This dissertation comprises three essays which singly and in combination, focus on the measurement and management of innovation in services with specific and increasing attention to the role of the destination management organization. The major bodies of literature used in these essays are the innovation literature, destination marketing and management, and networks. There are multiple lenses used to analyze services within the tourism context at the industry, destination, and organization levels. In addition to multiple lenses, multiple analytic methods are employed raging from latent growth modeling techniques to convergent parallel mixed methodology. The thesis contributes to the destination management and marketing literature in three ways. First, the thesis integrates tourism production industry into the comparison of between and within group trajectories. Second, the study empirically tests the mediating effect of network orchestration, and contributes mixed methods to the tourism field. / Tourism and Sport

Denna studie kombinerar enkätundersökning med kvalitativa intervjuer i syftet att identifiera och jämföra motivationsfaktorer för eget ledarskap i självstyrande organisationer kontra formella ledare. I studien ingår åtta respondenter från en självstyrande organisation och för att identifiera vilka drivkrafter och psykologiska behov dessa besitter genomfördes en enkätundersökning. Underlaget för studien baserar sig på MyNeeds, ett analysverktyg utvecklat från Self-Determination Theory. Utifrån denna teori har de identifierat sex psykologiska behov som ofta är omedvetna och genom verktyget kan mätas på individnivå. Analysresultatet från studien har därefter jämförts med data från en kontrollgrupp som tagits fram vid Malmö Universitet genom det samarbete som finns med MyNeeds. I syfte att närmare undersöka hur respondenterna själva ser på sitt ledarskap i en självstyrande organisation och vad de motiveras utav i sin befattning, genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultat av studien visar att det finns skillnader i hur drivkrafterna fördelar sig i jämförelse mellan respondenter och kontrollgrupp, studiens deltagare hade större benägenhet att drivas av ett behov av samhörighet än de formella ledarna som ingick i studiens jämförelseunderlag.

This research has developed a research relationship model for understanding the relationship between volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention using volunteer motivation and volunteer satisfaction as mediators. The model uses social exchange theory, human resource management theory, volunteer functional inventory and volunteer satisfaction index as part of the theoretical underpinning for its validation and contributed to gain knowledge on the application of management theory widely used in the for-profit organisations to the non-profit and volunteer dependent sectors. A comprehensive literature review provided the basis to identify the research gap, formulate the research questions, aim and objectives, leading to the development of the theoretical framework and the research relationship model. The theoretical framework in turn enabled the researcher to develop the research methodology to collect data and test the model. The main research gap was the lack of knowledge about the correlates of volunteer management practice as determinants of volunteer retention and influence of volunteer motivation and volunteer satisfaction as mediators. The concept of mediation was introduced in this research as a novel technique that enabled the researcher to conduct a deeper investigation into the relationship between volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention. However prior to the introduction of the mediator concept, the original model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) was tested and found to be statistically insignificant. This provided the basis for modifying the model investigated by Cuskelly et al. (2006) leading to the development of the research model for this research. The various relationships developed in the research model were hypothesized. The model was tested using the data collected through the research instrument developed for the purpose. Quantitative research method was used to collect data from a sample set of volunteers using survey questionnaire in a context-free environment. Pilot survey enabled the researcher to confirm the utility of the instrument for using in the main survey. 386 participants provided their response to the online questionnaire that was posted on a web portal. The collected data was subjected to rigourous statistical tests. Descriptive statistics, reliability tests and validity tests were conducted on the data. Exploratory Factor analysis revealed underlying factors of volunteer management practice different from those identified by other researchers namely Cuskelly et al. (2006) whose model was used as the base model in this research. Further, structural equation modelling was used to test the model and verify hypothesis. The results indicated that two volunteer management practice correlates namely volunteer training and support and volunteer performance management and recognition, were found to indirectly influence volunteer retention. Volunteer training and support influenced volunteer retention through volunteer motivation as well as volunteer satisfaction. Volunteer performance management and recognition influenced volunteer retention through volunteer satisfaction. In addition volunteer planning and recruitment was identified as a moderator of volunteer training and support and volunteer performance management and recognition as correlates. These findings contribute significantly to helping both volunteer managers and volunteers in improving the intention of volunteers to stay longer with an organisation. Thus by implementing the findings of this research; volunteer managers can enhance their volunteer management practice leading to retention of volunteers for longer periods than now. The research findings contribute to theory in terms of widening the understanding of the operationalization of social exchange and HRM theories in a combined manner in understanding the relationship between volunteer management practice and volunteer retention.

The focus of this thesis is to provide a complex framework for design of process-based organizational structure, which is currently lacking in the academic literature. Thesis starts with development of a complex process improvement framework, continues by developing process/activity owner assignment framework and connects the process management with design of organizational structure. The developed framework consists of two parts, the "As Is" analysis, capturing the current state of affairs and the "To Be" design developing an optimal arrangement. A basic evaluation tool is provided to assess the effects of changes to the process structure. Practical part applies newly developed framework in a business entity. The process improvement is used to design new process-based organizational structure, which in terms of efficiency surpasses the current matrix organizational structure. JEL Classification L1, L22, L25, M12, M13 Keywords Organizational structure, Process-based organization, Process improvement, Process management, Process mapping, Strategic management Title Strategic Approach to an Entity Setup: Designing a Process-based Organizational Structure Author's e-mail vladas777@seznam.cz Supervisor's e-mail balcar.petr86@gmail.com

Using an adaptation of O’Connor and Shumate’s (2018) theoretical propositions, this research examines interorganizational communication through the lens of multidimensional networks. Twitter data was crawled from a selection of emergency management organization accounts to measure affinity, representational, flow, and semantic networks. These data included the organizations’ followed accounts, retweets, replies, and mentions. A thematic analysis of the organizations’ mission statements was also conducted in order to inform the examination of the semantic networks. The results show a significant relationship between the number of accounts an organization follows and the likelihood of having its message shared. This research provides a further theoretical application of a network analysis method of studying interorganizational communication as well as a practical application for organizations seeking to increase their engagement on Twitter.

Due to confirming characteristics, events can be considered to be specification of projects. Large events are particularly described by their complexity and the many stakeholders involved. Because of these characteristics, the achievement as well as the evaluation of project success are extremely difficult. This is aggravated by the diverse perspectives on success by the many different stakeholders involved. A key stakeholders in large events are destination management/ marketing organization (DMO) of the host community. Rationale is the tremendous impact events have on the destination. Particularly, the enhanced tourism development, the increase of tourist arrivals as well as the improvement of the destination’s image and brand awareness can be highlighted. By marketing a destination to potential tourists, establishing a destination’s image and managing an increasing international attention, DMOs play a primary role in handling these major impacts. Nevertheless, managing the major impacts as well as leveraging them into sustainable benefits for the host destination is extremely difficult. Like any other stakeholder, DMOs have certain expectations for large evens and may determine success based on whether these expectations were met. Identifying certain success criteria allows the stakeholders involved to evaluate whether a project was successful and whether it met ones expectations. This thesis shall increase the understanding on the evaluation of project success from the DMOs’ perspective as a key stakeholder in large events. In order to identify the role of DMOs in large event as well as their perception of project success and the success criteria used for evaluation, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted. By doing so, managers of particular DMOs were interviewed, while each DMO represents another large event. It was found that DMOs of a host destination are usually neither involved in the organization of large events nor in managerial tasks. In fact, the large event is used for marketing purposes and is further included in marketing activities to promote a destination to the specified target markets. In order to draw the potential benefits from a large event, it needs to be implemented in a DMOs long-term strategy. At the same time, cooperation between a DMO and a large event is crucial. This underlines the important role DMOs have in large events. DMOs perceive large events as successful if the related marketing activities fulfill the previous set expectations for amount and content of media coverage. In addition, success is perceived by the DMOs if a sustainable destination development can be recognized. Within the distinct task areas of a DMO, different perspectives on success become apparent. Multiple different success criteria used by the DMO to evaluate success are identified, which can be allocated to three different success concepts. First, event success is marked by the impact on the tourist and impact on the DMO. Moreover, destination success can be recognized, while organizational success is specified by preparing for the future and for future large events. In addition, the success concepts can be allocated to medium- and long-term dimensions. It becomes apparent that a short-term dimension and a success concept related to project management success can be neglected, as DMOs are less involved in project management tasks related to the event. From the empirical material collected and the existing theoretical matters, a framework is developed accordingly.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes appendices. Bibliographical references: leaf 175-181.

As organizações como um todo, estão envolvidas em ambientes altamente dinâmicos e competitivos. A filosofia Lean adaptada ao Processo e Desenvolvimento de Produto (PDP) vem a contribuir com as estratégias competitivas para o desenvolvimento de produto visto que dentro das empresas o PDP é um dos mais expressivos processos, responsável pela agregação de valor ao negócio. A pesquisa que se configura como um estudo multicaso propõe uma avaliação de fatores considerados importantes para a implantação do Lean no PDP. Para tanto, analisou-se a implementação do Lean no PDP em cinco organizações, observando quatro elementos macro estruturantes: Liderança e Gestão, Cultura Organizacional, Ferramentas e Ambiente. Tais elementos foram desdobrados em categorias e variáveis relacionadas. Esta tese utilizou como instrumento de pesquisa, questionários semiestruturados e analisou junto aos informantes-chave os cenários anterior, posterior e atual relacionados a implementação da filosofia Lean no PDP. Os resultados encontrado apontam que a atuação constante dos elementos macro estruturantes Liderança e Gestão e a Cultura Organizacional, voltadas para o Lean são pilares fundamentais para fortalecer a implementação do Lean no PDP e as variáveis equipe selecionada e treinada, habilidade e competências foram vistas como importantes em todos os casos nos três cenários (anterior, posterior e atual). / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2014-11-12T12:03:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Zaida Cristiane dos Reis.pdf: 5763068 bytes, checksum: 34c2784d3401118fe9ab8dec2294b491 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-12T12:03:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Zaida Cristiane dos Reis.pdf: 5763068 bytes, checksum: 34c2784d3401118fe9ab8dec2294b491 (MD5) / Organizations as a whole are involved in highly dynamic and competitive environments. The Lean philosophy and adapted to the Product Development Process (PDP) is to contribute to the competitive product development within companies since the PDP is one of the most important processes responsible for adding value to the business strategies. The research that is configured as a multi-case study proposes an evaluation of factors considered important for the implementation of Lean in PDP. To this end, we analyzed the implementation of Lean in PDP in five organizations, noting four macro structural elements: Leadership and Management, Organizational Culture, Tools and Environment. Such elements were broken down into categories and related variables. This thesis used as a research tool, semi-structured questionnaires and analyzed with the key informants anterior, posterior and current scenarios related to implementation of Lean philosophy in PDP. The results show that the constant presence of structural macro elements and Management Leadership and Organizational Culture, focused on Lean are fundamental pillars for strengthening the implementation of Lean in the PDP and the variables selected and trained staff, ability and skills were seen as important in all cases the three scenarios (anterior, posterior and current).

As organizações como um todo, estão envolvidas em ambientes altamente dinâmicos e competitivos. A filosofia Lean adaptada ao Processo e Desenvolvimento de Produto (PDP) vem a contribuir com as estratégias competitivas para o desenvolvimento de produto visto que dentro das empresas o PDP é um dos mais expressivos processos, responsável pela agregação de valor ao negócio. A pesquisa que se configura como um estudo multicaso propõe uma avaliação de fatores considerados importantes para a implantação do Lean no PDP. Para tanto, analisou-se a implementação do Lean no PDP em cinco organizações, observando quatro elementos macro estruturantes: Liderança e Gestão, Cultura Organizacional, Ferramentas e Ambiente. Tais elementos foram desdobrados em categorias e variáveis relacionadas. Esta tese utilizou como instrumento de pesquisa, questionários semiestruturados e analisou junto aos informantes-chave os cenários anterior, posterior e atual relacionados a implementação da filosofia Lean no PDP. Os resultados encontrado apontam que a atuação constante dos elementos macro estruturantes Liderança e Gestão e a Cultura Organizacional, voltadas para o Lean são pilares fundamentais para fortalecer a implementação do Lean no PDP e as variáveis equipe selecionada e treinada, habilidade e competências foram vistas como importantes em todos os casos nos três cenários (anterior, posterior e atual). / Organizations as a whole are involved in highly dynamic and competitive environments. The Lean philosophy and adapted to the Product Development Process (PDP) is to contribute to the competitive product development within companies since the PDP is one of the most important processes responsible for adding value to the business strategies. The research that is configured as a multi-case study proposes an evaluation of factors considered important for the implementation of Lean in PDP. To this end, we analyzed the implementation of Lean in PDP in five organizations, noting four macro structural elements: Leadership and Management, Organizational Culture, Tools and Environment. Such elements were broken down into categories and related variables. This thesis used as a research tool, semi-structured questionnaires and analyzed with the key informants anterior, posterior and current scenarios related to implementation of Lean philosophy in PDP. The results show that the constant presence of structural macro elements and Management Leadership and Organizational Culture, focused on Lean are fundamental pillars for strengthening the implementation of Lean in the PDP and the variables selected and trained staff, ability and skills were seen as important in all cases the three scenarios (anterior, posterior and current).

The aim of the thesis is to project possibilities of expansion of winter season resort to a summer season resort. The work aims at mountain ski resort and the development of its further activities for summer season. The particular example on which is this development adopted is mountain ski resort Donovaly. For particular projects was used theoretical knowledge of marketing and its tools. Theoretical analysis follows that the best way how to develop present-day's destinations is complex management. There are created destination management organizations for this purpose. It was used resort's analysis focused on basic requirements of tourism to process the project. Further development of the resort is based on these basic requirements of tourism. The analysis includes also customers' questionnaire survey. Theoretical knowledge and analysis are translated into practical projects of development possibilities of ski resort Donovaly to become also a summer resort of tourism.