The aim of the diploma thesis is to design a comparison process for reporting tools with accent on managerial decision-making needs, and to demonstrate its use in practice by comparing two selected reporting tools. Theoretical foundation, on which the thesis is built, is created first. The main accent is put on introducing performance measurement and management and the role, which is played by reporting in relation to it. Reporting itself is subsequently addressed in more detail separately. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on analysis and synthesis of findings stemming from review of literature, theses dealing with related topics, and scientific articles published electronically. The practical part of the thesis deals with the introduction and utilization of the designed comparison process for reporting tools with respect to the tools' suitability for supporting decision-making. The process was used to compare Tableau Desktop and Eclipse BIRT. Outputs in the form of graphs and dashboards from Tableau Desktop, which - given the chosen criteria and their weights - achieved higher score in comparison to Eclipse BIRT, were used to demonstrate their possible use in the context of decision-making. In the practical part of the thesis comparison is used based on the designed process, defined method of calculating criteria weights and evaluation system. Criteria weights are calculated using Fuller's pairwise comparison method. Generic information shown is based on the analysis and synthesis of related publicly accessible business, economic, marketing and product information. The thesis puts reporting into the context of decision-making process, more specifically into the context of its role within performance measurement and management. The conclusion that can be drawn is that even though there are numerous processes, approaches, methods, disciplines etc. dealing with performance measurement and management, it is reporting that provides the means enabling smoother decision-making. Thanks to reporting it is possible to access large volumes of data and information stored in the source systems, transform them and present them to users in a way which will support their decision-making needs. The contribution of the thesis lies in the creation of a flexible process for reporting tools comparison. The introduced process can be used by any organization dealing with the matter of choosing the most suitable reporting tool from more alternatives. The introduced process enables organizations to use a clearly defined sequence of steps, while at the same time allowing them to choose appropriate parameters best fitting their needs. Thus, the introduced process reflects the fact that priorities and needs of organizations may differ and therefore it is not possible to introduce a set of rigid criteria suiting the needs of all in general.

<p>This dissertation focuses on managerial decision making, and specifically explores conditions wherein managers may increase their propensity to escalate commitment towards a failing project. Escalation researchers (e.g. Schmidt and Calantone, 2002) have listed four classes of factors that may impact a manager's propensity to escalate commitment towards a failing project, and have called for research into how exactly these factors impact escalation. In this dissertation, we explore two such factors. The first factor relates to the characteristics of the decision process used by firms to evaluate the project. Here, for example, researchers have looked at whether the manager was also involved in making decisions about the project in a prior period, and Boulding, Morgan and Staelin (1997) have shown that such manager's positive beliefs about the project (formed in a prior period) make a manager more likely to escalate commitment. The second factor relates to project characteristics. Here, for example, researchers have looked at whether or not the project relates to a product that is perceived as new, and Schmidt and Calantone (2002) have shown that managers are more likely to escalate commitment towards a failing project relating to a new product. </p><p>The first dissertation essay uses three experiments to examine how a hitherto unexplored characteristic of the decision process might lead to increasing escalation of commitment. Specifically, building off research into the illusion of control, we examine whether the opportunity to use managerial skill during the decision process makes a manager more willing to escalate commitment towards a failing project. We find that whenever managers act on cues that cause them to think they can use their managerial skill to control some outside factor (even though in reality they cannot), managers overestimate their ability to "control the odds" related to this outside factor. Such beliefs feed forward and lead managers to make suboptimal decisions about the overall project.</p><p>The second dissertation essay looks at how project characteristics might make a manager more (or less) likely to escalate commitment towards a failing project. We explore this issue in the hitherto unexplored real options setting. Real options have emerged as an important part of marketing strategy, and have been used to structure new product alliances, value customers etc. We run a controlled experiment and we examine whether differences in option-structure (which is a project characteristic) impact the propensity to make suboptimal option-exercise decisions. We find that managers are more likely to make suboptimal option-exercise decisions in the case of put options (vis. call options), and - as predicted by the endowment effect literature - this increased propensity to make a suboptimal decision is mediated by/ explained by the psychological ownership construct.</p> / Dissertation

The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the suitability of methods of managerial decision-making in practice. The thesis highlights the diversity of selected methods, particularly in relation to the use of discrete and continuous risk factors. The methods are applied to the case of the introduction of new product in the market of commercial security services. The thesis includes a complete strategic planning cycle based on the defined objectives of the organization, security agency SECURE. From the analytical part, including the analysis of the competitive environment 5F, through the creation of strategies, author proceeds to an implementation part which is the essence of the thesis. It is represented by managerial decision-making under risk and uncertainty, particularly decision matrix and the method of Monte Carlo. The conclusion contains evaluation and comparison of different methods and their contribution to practical use.

At present, more and more demands are placed on the quality and the speed of transport of products and goods from manufacturers to suppliers and then to the end customer. This requires a lot of knowledge and experience in planning, purchasing, production and distribution. In all activities and at all levels of the organization, it is important to properly and timely to decide how to proceed in order to ensure maximum customer satisfaction at minimum cost to the company. To ensure speed and quality of distribution, it is necessary to focus on the logistics of circulatory systems. This includes both information and communication flow, and the supply, storage, transport, handling and packaging. To ensure all these services efficiently, quickly and on time, it is advisable that the company has to have developed appropriate methodology for the given process. The main aim of the doctoral thesis is to design a methodology for management decisions in the distribution area. The properly chosen methodology of distribution can help to speed up the transport of the product from the supplier to the customer or from the manufacturer to the customer, but ultimately to reduce the overall distribution costs. When deciding on the choice of distribution channel, processes and knowledge of European legislation in relation to the logistics and transport management in the Czech Republic are also important. The data collection and processing, under which the analysis of the current situation was carried out, were the bases for the methodology design. In the further step, the basic criteria for selection of the companies that could make the distribution were set up. Subsequently, the weights of importance were assigned to the given criteria. In the final decision for the selection of the distribution company, methods of multi-criteria decision-making were used. The thesis was developed on the basis of theoretical research and practical experience in businesses in the solved area. Objectives to be achieved: The aim of the doctoral thesis is the methodology design of managerial decision making in the European distribution area in connection with the Czech Republic's infrastructure in implementing the legislative requirements of the European environment while respecting the principles of integration.

Abstract At present, more and more demands are placed on the quality and the speed of transport of products and goods from manufacturers to suppliers and then to the end customer. This requires a lot of knowledge and experience in planning, purchasing, production and distribution. In all activities and at all levels of the organization, it is important to properly and timely to decide how to proceed in order to ensure maximum customer satisfaction at minimum cost to the company. To ensure speed and quality of distribution, it is necessary to focus on the logistics of circulatory systems. This includes both information and communication flow, and the supply, storage, transport, handling and packaging. To ensure all these services efficiently, quickly and on time, it is advisable that the company has to have developed appropriate methodology for the given process. The main aim of the doctoral thesis is to design a methodology for management decisions in the distribution area. Properly chosen methodology of distribution can help to speed up the movement of the product from the supplier to the customer or from the manufacturer to the customer, but ultimately to reduce the overall distribution costs. When deciding on the choice of distribution channel, processes and knowledge of European legislation in relation to the logistics and transport management in the Czech Republic are also important. The data collection and processing, under which the analysis of the current situation was carried out, were the bases for the methodology design. The basic criteria for selection of the companies that could make the distribution were set by another method. Subsequently, the weights of importance were assigned to the given criteria. In the final decision for the selection of the distribution company, methods of multi-criteria decision-making were used. The thesis was developed on the basis of theoretical research and practical experience in businesses in the solved area. Objectives to be achieved: The aim of the doctoral thesis is the methodology design of managerial decision making in the European distribution area.

The purpose of this study was to study how the global events of the last decade have changed and impacted organizations strategies such as, financial structure and placement strategies to prepare for uncertainties within the real estate market. The study was based on the theory of Corporate Strategy, Financial Structure, and Private Placement Strategies. An epistemology methodology was followed. The findings show that businesses want to own the property where they conduct their business since it seems like a less unstable option compared to leasing properties or facilities. Furthermore, banks see investments into real estate as a secure investment therefore the need for changes in capital structures are not necessary. Even if valuation of properties goes up and down according with different economical events, businesses that operate in the real estate market still see their real estate investments as valuable and not as volatile as the market predicts. To conclude, businesses and organizations are today more prepared for future uncertainties and unexpected financial events than prior to 2008. Organizations can use these findings to map, strategize, and prepare for future uncertainties within the real estate market by controlling risks.

No description available.

Decision‐makers in organisations and businesses make numerous decisions every day, and these decisions are expected to be based on facts and carried out in a rational manner. However, most decisions are not based on precise information or careful analysis due to several reasons. People are, e.g., unable to behave rationally as a result of their experiences, socialisation, and additionally, because humans possess fairly limited capacities for processing information in an objective manner. In order to circumvent this human incapacity to handle decision situations in a rational manner, especially those involving risk and uncertainty, a widespread suggestion, at least in managerial decision making, is to take advantage of support in the form of decision support systems. One possibility involves decision analytical tools, but they are, almost without exception, not efficiently employed in organisations and businesses. It appears that one reason for this is the high demands the tools place on the decision‐maker in a variety of ways, e.g., by presupposing that reliable input data is obtainable by an exogenous process. Even though the reliability of current decision analytic tools is highly dependent on the quality of the input data, they rarely contain methods for eliciting data from the users. The problem focused on in this thesis is the unavailability and inefficiency of methods for eliciting decision information from the users. The aim is to identify problem areas regarding the elicitation of decision data in real decision making processes, and to propose elicitation methods that take people’s natural choice strategies and natural behaviour into account. In this effort, we have identified a conceptual gap between the decision‐makers, the decision models, and the decision analytical tools, consisting of seven gap components. The gap components are of three main categories (of which elicitation is one). In order to study elicitation problems, a number of empirical studies, involving more than 400 subjects in total, have been carried out in Sweden and Brazil. An iterative research approach has been adopted and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods has been used. Findings made in this thesis include the fact that decision‐makers have serious problems in many decision situations due to not having access to accurate and relevant data in the first place, and secondly, not having the means for retrieving such data in a proper manner, i.e. lacking elicitation methods for this purpose. Employing traditional elicitation methods in this realm yield results that reveal an inertia gap, i.e. an intrinsic inertia in people’s natural behaviour to shift between differently framed prospects, and different groups of decisionmakers displaying different choice patterns. Since existing elicitation methods are unable to deal with the inertia, we propose a class of methods to take advantage of this natural behaviour, and also suggest a representation for the elicited information. An important element in the proposed class of methods is also that we must be able to fine‐tune methods and measuring instruments in order to fit into different types of decision situations, user groups, and choice behaviours.

The thesis deals with the decision-making of the expert in real estate valuation. Due to the complexity of the process and the difficulties of valuation it can be assumed that the decision will be an arduous process. It is obvious that the choice of an expert is crucial to the result of the valuation process. This topic is currently relatively little explored, and therefore the work will deal with the analysis and formulation of decision problems expert in real estate valuation. The thesis analyses the current status of forensic engineering and decision-making regarding to real estate valuation. The general decision-making process, divided into seven steps, is adapted to the requirements of expert decision-making in real estate valuation. As in the managerial decision-making process, property valuation is also divided into three levels. These three levels considered the described fundamental decision problems that lead to the formulation of the expert decision-making principles in real estate valuation. For better understanding the extensiveness of the decision-making process in the valuation of real estate the author created a decision tree respectively schemes whose functionality has been verified at the end of the thesis, exemplified with the help of a specific case study of the determined price in real estate valuation.