Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:40:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação analisa as estratégias adotadas pelas incorporadoras de Porto Alegre frente às alterações que ocorrem no ambiente. Apresenta revisão de literatura abordando o ambiente externo, através do macroambiente, análise setorial, indústrias fragmentadas, verticalização e alianças; bem como o ambiente interno, através dos temas de vantagem competitiva, cadeia de valor, e estratégias competitivas. Apresenta pesquisa de caráter exploratório descritivo, com abordagem qualitativa, através de estudo de casos múltiplos. Coleta dados através de informações de associações comerciais, revistas especializadas, departamentos de economia e estatística, e estudos sobre a indústria da Construção Civil, além de entrevistas semi-estruturadas aplicadas as representantes de três empresas incorporadoras que têm como mercado a cidade de Porto Alegre/RS. Analisa os dados sobre o ambiente externo destacando a questão das incorporadoras e a Construção Civil; variáveis econômicas; regulamentação e governo; e panorama da ativi / The research analyzes the strategies adopted by real state developers of the city of Porto Alegre, facing the alterations that occur in the environment, and presents a literature review approaching the external environment, through the macroenvironment, sectorial analysis, fragmented industries, alliances and verticalisation; as well as the internal environment, via the themes of competitive advantage, value chain, and competitive strategies. The dissertation presents a research with a descriptive-exploratory character, with a qualitative approach, using multiple-case studies, collecting data through information of commercial associations, specialized magazines, economy and statistic departments, and studies about the construction industry, in addition to semi-structured interviews applied to the representatives of three real state development companies that have as market the city of Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This study examines the data about the external environment emphasizing the q

As cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar tornaram-se formas alternativas de produção, comercialização e consumo de alimentos, redefiniram as relações e as interações com os espaços sociais e com o ambiente institucional, criando novas ligações entre os produtores e os consumidores. Também permitiram ao consumidor fazer novos juízos de valor com base no seu próprio conhecimento e experiência, fazendo com que, além das diferenças intrínsecas e funcionais do alimento, como sabor, nutrição e saúde, as características externas como a saúde pública, meio ambiente, ética e justiça social se tornassem critérios de avaliação, competição e características de qualidade. Em breve pesquisa bibliométrica, observou-se que os estudos sobre as cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar abrangeram uma variedade de temas, como por exemplo, desenvolvimento rural, geografia econômica, sustentabilidade e segurança alimentar, além de temas mais atuais, como agricultura urbana e comportamento do consumidor. Ou seja, observou-se uma mudança no foco analítico visto que os estudos passam a considerar as práticas de consumo alimentar como pontos centrais de análise. No entanto, considerando o aumento das preocupações com a natureza da colaboração e do conflito entre os atores envolvidos, esta tese buscou na abordagem da cocriação de valor uma forma de estudar e analisar essas relações nos três tipos de cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar. Abordando uma realidade na qual o consumidor deixou de ser um ator passivo e passou a ter papel de fundamental importância no mercado, a cocriação de valor tem ganhado um espaço cada vez maior na literatura empresarial, porém, como esta tese irá demonstrar, ainda não foi aplicada em cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar, revelando o caráter inédito deste estudo e uma oportunidade de pesquisa valiosa. Baseando-se nos estudos de Prahalad e Ramaswamy e Vargo e Lusch, assume-se que a cocriação de valor ocorre no mercado e no momento de uso de um produto ou serviço, pressupondo a existência de um novo contexto, no qual o valor está na experiência e não mais no produto em si, ou seja, ela ocorre quando o consumidor e a empresa estão intimamente envolvidos em, conjuntamente, criar o valor, que é único para o consumidor individual e para a sustentabilidade da empresa. Sendo assim, partindo dessas premissas e baseando-se nos elementos descritos pelos autores como fundamentais para se caracterizar uma relação cogeradora de valor − diálogo, acesso, risco e transparência (DART) − esta tese procura responder à seguinte pergunta de pesquisa: Existe cocriação de valor nos diferentes tipos de cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar? Para tanto, realizou-se 04 estudos de caso em diferentes regiões do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, abrangendo a tipificação de cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar descrita por Renting et al. (2003). Revisão integrativa de literatura, entrevistas on-line e pessoais, assim como observação direta foram as ferramentas escolhidas para o levantamento dos dados secundários. Os resultados revelaram que não há evidências de cocriação de valor em todas as cadeias curtas de abastecimento alimentar estudadas, ressaltando que as mesmas possuem especificidades importantes que precisam ser consideradas quando se analisam as relações entre os atores envolvidos. / Short food supply chains have become an alternative way of producing, selling, and consuming food, and redefined relations and interactions with social spaces and with the institutional environment, creating new connections between producers and consumers. They have also allowed the consumer to have new value judgements based on their own knowledge and experience, allowing, besides the intrinsic and functional differences of the food, such as flavor, nutrients and health, external characteristics, such as public health, environment, ethics, and social justice to become criteria for evaluation, competition and characteristics of quality. Through a brief bibliometric research, it was observed that studies about short food supply chains have covered a broad range of topics such as rural development, economic geography, sustainability, and food safety, and more current topics such as urban agriculture and consumer behavior. That is, there was a change in the analytical focus, and studies began considering food consumption practices as central points for analysis. However, considering the increase in the worries about the nature of the collaboration, and the conflict between the parts involved, this thesis tried, through the co-creation of value approach, a way to study and analyze these relations in the three kinds of short food supply chain. Approaching a reality in which the consumer went from a passive role to playing a fundamental part in the market, co-creation of value has been gaining more space in the business literature, but, as this thesis will show, still has not been applied to short food supply chains, then revealing the unprecedented character of this study, and a valuable research opportunity. Based on Prahalad and Ramaswamy and Vargo and Lusch, it is assumed that co-creation of value occurs in the market and in the moment the product or service is being used, presupposing the existence of a new context in which the value is in the experience, and not anymore in the product itself, which means it occurs when the consumer and the company are intimately involved in, together, creating a value that is unique for the individual consumer and for the sustainability of the company. So, starting from these premises and based on the elements described by the authors as fundamental to characterize a relation that co-generates value – the dialogue, access, risk and transparency (DART) – this thesis tries to answer the following research question: is there co-creation of value in the different kinds of short food supply chains? For that, four case studies were made in different regions of the Rio Grande do Sul state, covering the classification of short food supply chains described by Renting et al. (2003). Integrative review of the literature, online and personal interviews, as well as direct observation, were the tools chosen for secondary data collection. The results showed that there is no evidence of value creation in all the short supply chains studied, emphasizing that they have important specificities that should be considered when analyzing the relationships among the actors involved.

Essa dissertação pretende identificar uma forma de fazer com que as indústrias incorporem objetivos de preservação ambiental aos seus sistemas de produção de forma mais fácil, rápida e sem perda da competitividade, para contribuírem mais significativamente com o esforço mundial pela sustentabilidade do planeta. Para isso, o trabalho se propõe a alcançar dois objetivos. O primeiro é organizar o conhecimento disponível até agora em torno dos modelos de produção com preocupação ambiental e fazer uma comparação entre eles, de modo a auxiliar o gestor interessado em adotá-los a fazer sua opção. O segundo objetivo é pesquisar a viabilidade da utilização de ferramentas de gerenciamento de produção simples e disponíveis a qualquer empresa, para obter uma melhoria de rendimento também no aspecto ambiental, além da melhoria da produtividade e da qualidade. A pesquisa foi feita com empresas do setor de fundição no Estado de São Paulo, por ser este um setor de grande importância na economia e apresentar um alto potencial de degradação ambiental. O método escolhido foi o estudo de casos múltiplos, com levantamento de dados em 10 empresas. Através de entrevista pessoal, foram avaliados quesitos referentes à aderência das empresas ao modelo da Produção Enxuta e ao modelo da Produção mais Limpa. O modelo da PE foi escolhido como objeto de estudo por ser um modelo muito difundido e suas práticas serem bem conhecidas. Além disso, baseia-se na redução de desperdícios, que tem uma identificação grande com a racionalização de recursos do modelo da P+L. Este modelo, por sua vez, foi selecionado a partir do resultado das comparações efetuadas na busca do objetivo 1. Por ser um modelo ligado mais diretamente aos processos de transformação, este modelo mostra-se mais adequado para ser adotado nos processos de produção. Os dados coletados serviram para responder a três questões de pesquisa, através da análise da correlação entre o grau de aderência aos dois modelos. Além dessa relação, foram estudadas a influência da certificação do sistema de gerenciamento ambiental e a necessidade de medidas complementares à PE para melhorar o rendimento ambiental. A conclusão da pesquisa mostrou que é possível alcançar metas de desempenho ambiental com a utilização de práticas de PE. Além de não implicar em aumento de custos, por não se tornar uma atividade extra, a empresa ainda se beneficia com o aumento da produtividade e da redução de desperdícios. / This thesis aims to identify a way to make the industries incorporate goals of environmental preservation to their production systems more easily, quickly and without loss of competitiveness, and then to contribute more significantly to the global effort for sustainability of the planet. For this, this paper aims to achieve two goals. The first is to organize the available knowledge about the production models with environmental concerns and make a comparison between them, to assist managers of manufacturing firms interested in adopting them to make his choice. The second objective is to investigate the feasibility of using simple management tools production, available to any company, to get increased revenue, also to the environmental aspects, as well as improving productivity and quality. The research was conducted with companies in the foundry sector in the State of São Paulo, because it is a very important sector to the economy and has a high potential for environmental degradation. The method chosen was multiple case study with data collection in 10 companies. Through personal interview, questions were evaluated regarding adherence to the model of Lean Manufacturing and to the model of Cleaner Production. The LM model was chosen as the object of study to be a widespread model and its practices well known. Furthermore, it is based on the reduction of waste, which has a large identification with the resource rationalization aspects of the model of P + L. This model, in turn, was selected from the results of the comparisons made in the pursuit of the goal number one. Being a model more directly linked to the transformation processes, this model seems to be more suitable to be adopted in production processes. The data collected served to answer three research questions by analyzing the correlation of the adherence level to the two models. Besides this relationship, it has been studied the influence of the certification of environmental management systems and the need for additional actions to the LM to improve environmental performance. The conclusion of this study showed that it is possible to achieve environmental performance goals by the use of LM practices. Besides not resulting in increased costs, because it will not become an extra activity, the company will still have benefits from increased productivity and reduction of waste.

In the United States, microenterprises, critical segment of the small business population, accounts for 110 million small businesses that source new jobs. Despite the increase in the number of created businesses in the U.S., more than 70% of microenterprise business owners are unsuccessful after 2 years. The multiple case study included 6 participants living in Houston, Texas, and intended to explore business strategies microenterprise event management owners used to succeed in business beyond 2 years. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was the 5-stage small business growth model and the 5-stage of the evolution of entrepreneurship theory. The data collection process consisted of interviews resulting in transcripts, review of company documents, and interview observations notes. The data analysis process while triangulating the data consisted of creating thematic codes, and clustering keywords, and ideas from the data. Development of visual aids assisted with organizing information, synthesizing, and generating new ideas. Text, word, and matrix coding queries were conducted and summarized for a cross-case analysis as relating to the interview questions. Thematic analysis and cross-case analysis revealed 3 major themes: customer relationship management, education/work experience, and promotional activities. Implications for social change include encouraging entrepreneurial and small business development programs to develop innovative curriculums that microenterprise business owners may benefit from to increase more business opportunities. An increase in microenterprises may help provide more employment opportunities that meet the needs of local communities, and improve socioeconomic conditions.

Employee retention is a critical issue for business leaders. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported over 4.5 million employee separations in 2014 because of resignations, layoffs, or terminations. Hospitality managers face some of the lowest employee retention rates of any industry, which leads to poor customer satisfaction and decreased profitability. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the perceptions of 3 hospitality managers from 3 different mid-sized hospitality organizations in Brevard County, Florida. The conceptual framework for this study was built upon motivation theory; existence, relatedness, and growth theory; and expectancy theory. The data were collected through document and artifact review, a reflective journal, and semistructured interviews. Member checking was completed to strengthen credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretation of the participants' responses. Four themes emerged from the data: the motivational outcome, leadership characteristics, most effective retention strategies, and the least effective strategies influencing employee retention. The findings from this study may educate inform hospitality managers on how to stabilize employment, improve retention, and increase customer satisfaction and profitability.

Författarna har genom studien funnit att faktorerna engagemang, tidigare internationell erfarenhet, systematiskt tillvägagångssätt, företagets storlek,nätverk och kunskap haft tydligast påverkan på de studerade svenska företagens internationalisering och framgång i Ryssland. Dessa framgångsfaktorer tycks även likna de faktorer som generellt framträder i tidigare forskning. Dock framstår möjliga marknadsspecifika element som kan kopplas specifikt till den ryska marknaden. Dessa framgångsfaktorer kan inte enskilt förklara företagens framgång, utan ger en nyanserad bild av de studerade företagens främsta attribut vid etableringen. / It can be concluded that commitment, previous international experience, systematic approach, company size, network and knowledge has had the most prevailing outcomes in regards to successful companies in this study. These success factors tend to be in line with previous research conducted on the area. However these factors cannot alone account for the success for the individual companies, but can give guidance of important attributes that influenced the internationalisation for the enterprises in this study.

Social entrepreneurship and other new forms such as ecological or sustainable entrepreneurship have emerged as promising new solutions to solve societal problems. Therefore these types of sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship also increasingly attract the interest of researchers, but there is no clear theoretical concept for these emerging research areas yet. As for commercial entrepreneurship, existing research has neglected the influence of contextual factors on the entrepreneurial process. Therefore this topic is not well researched yet and requires an increase in knowledge to keep up with its popularity and potential impact on society. Therefore the research purpose of this study was to systematically analyse how contextual factors, i.e. political & legal, economic, technological, environmental, social and cultural factors, influence the stages of the entrepreneurial process and if this influence differs for commercial and sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs. To fulfill this purpose a theoretical framework depicting the entrepreneurial process in its context was developed, which incorporates the different types of entrepreneurship based on the value they create. In order to adequately explore the research purpose our theoretical framework was applied to the context of Central America. In line with our interpretivistic standpoint we followed an inductive approach with a qualitative, comparative research design of an exploratory nature. We collected secondary data about Central America and conducted a multiple-case study in which we collected primary data from 13 interviews with entrepreneurs being active in Central America. The empirical findings were thoroughly analysed and discussed leading to several interesting results which were used to revise our theoretical framework. Despite a great variety among entrepreneurs we realised that they all undergo the entrepreneurial process and we could therefore successfully apply our theoretical framework. All entrepreneurs are differently influenced by contextual factors in their entrepreneurial process, but disparities are mostly due to the background of the entrepreneurs or the type of venture. Some political and legal, and economic factors have been found to influence commercial and sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs differently, while other economic and social factors rather determine differences between non-profit and for- profit oriented entrepreneurs. This study contributes to theories regarding the influence of contextual factors and concepts in the field of (sustainability-oriented) entrepreneurship as well as methodologies used in this field. It provides considerable practical contributions to entrepreneurs and recommendations for policy-makers which can lead to valuable societal contributions. Throughout the research ethical issues have been considered and quality criteria applied to ensure the trustworthiness of this research.

Title: Political Parties’ in Social Media - A case study of political parties’ crisis management in social media Introduction: The emergence of social media platforms has transformed how organizations communicate with stakeholders. The concept of social media is top of agenda for many business executives today. While some argue social media to provide unique opportunities for organizations, others argue the opposite. The rise of social media enables crises to escalate, implying that organizations need to have well-established crisis management strategies. In the Swedish election of 2014, social media is predicted to have enormous influence on the end result for the political parties. Prior to this thesis, no previous research has looked deeper into the context of crisis management in social media for political parties in Sweden. It is in the political context where this study contributes to the research area. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate political parties’ crisis management in social media, using strategies developed for commercial organizations, and thereby contribute to the research of non-commercial organizations. Methodology: A triangulation method was used of semi structured interviews and archival analysis on four crises of political parties. Eight parties in the Swedish parliament where deliberately selected. However, only four of the parties, Socialdemokraterna (S), Sverigedemokraterna (SD), Vänsterpartiet (V) and Centerpartiet (C), had the possibility to participate in the study. Conclusion: (S), (V) and (C) all used both Facebook and Twitter as a crisis communication channel especially due to its speed and spread. However, (SD) did not use social media as crisis communication channel. The crisis management in social media of each party could improve immensely, however limited resources of employees and finance was found to be the main reasons holding the progress back. Conclusively, dialogue strategies and to some extent response strategies used by commercial organizations are indeed frequently used by political parties as well.

Nearly 70% of process improvement projects are failing to provide the expected benefits (Grant 2002). The cost of process improvement projects can be quite substantial and the number of these projects occurring within organisations continues to increase. John Thorp (1998) describes an environment in which managers are struggling to demonstrate the connection between costs and expected business benefits. This eighteen month master's research project has identified a gap in both the academic literature and the business practices of most organisations. This thesis aims to make explicit the selection of processes to improve and to provide the link between process objectives and organisational goals (Davenport 1993; Hammer and Champy 1993). Published literature, coupled with the experience of the research team, has resulted in the development of a targeting methodology for defining and ranking critical processes, and then selecting which of those critical processes to improve first. Although the research team believes that the methodology is applicable to many industries, the research was undertaken in the application hosting centre (AHC) and application service provision (ASP) industry. A focus group and follow on Delphi study was used to ensure that the processes and functional area focused upon was of importance to the participants of the research. This research project was funded by the Australian Research Council's Linkage projects and undertaken with support by REALTECH. The participants included the top three information systems outsourcing companies in Australia and another in the top ten of this industry. The study commenced with identifying critical processes in the ASP environment. This involved both a focus group session and a Delphi study. The Delphi study was followed by four action learning cycles using case studies (action, observe, reflect and revise). These action learning cycles using case studies have revealed that the methodology (which includes the steps to implement the methodology) meets the needs of organisations to identify and select 'critical' processes for improvement. It provides business and researchers with a logical and explicit method to reduce the 'squeaky wheel' and 'latest fad' approaches to process improvement projects. These prior approaches improve processes not necessarily critical for achieving organisational goals consuming limited resources for little gain. The targeting method makes the alignment of process objectives with goals by explicitly linking processes to organisational goals possible. The limitations of this research project are that it does not intend to verify the achievement of business benefit, document the change to an organisation due to its use of the targeting methodology or determine the long term benefits to an organisation using the targeting methodology. These questions might be answered in a longer and larger study as this project is limited to an eighteen month time frame. As for generalisability, the study has focused on the AHC and ASP industries, and the participants, while operating within this industry, are quite different. For the different phases of this project the participants come from in-house providers, multinational outsourcing providers, commercialised government providers, specialist niche product providers, and enterprise system suppliers.

Background: Changing market conditions and increasing competition drive companies to increase their collaboration along the supply chain. Technological innovations enable businesses to increase their integration tremendously. The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) enables the integration of information technology with industrial technology. The adoption of Industry 4.0 includes many complex technologies that come with challenges for many organizations. Previous research suggests that conventional manufacturing might have to be adjusted to Industry 4.0. Purpose: This thesis identifies and analyzes potential challenges of Industry 4.0 adoption for electronics manufacturers and machine manufacturers and analyzes how processes in manufacturing need to be adjusted to successfully implement Industry 4.0. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to successful Industry 4.0 adoption in the manufacturing process and therefore to contribute to technological advancement. Method: This thesis conducts a multiple case study and gathers qualitative data by conducting semi-structured interviews. Findings & conclusion: Challenges identified for most companies are standardization, management support, skills and costs. Most companies face data and compatibility challenges. Some companies face the challenge of complexity, information security, scalability and network externalities. Companies with higher levels of maturity are less likely to face environmental challenges.Lean Management was identified as a prerequisite for Industry 4.0 adoption. The adoption of Industry 4.0 is likely to lead to a paperless factory. Furthermore, changes concerning the infrastructure are a main finding. Moreover, it was found that Industry 4.0 does not require major changes from conventional manufacturing processes.