The purpose of the study is to evaluate and describe how three large companies with Swedish presence have coped with the investment appraisal ex-ante a purchase of a BI system. Further, the paper strives to investigate how the companies evaluated the perceived benefits, which are of intangible nature and hence difficult to quantify.

During the past five years (2010-2015), U.S. universities experienced a simultaneous downturn in financial support along with rapid changes in technology and increased demand for accountability. Academic libraries, among the most central and visible units in the university system, were often at the forefront of financial cutbacks and increased pressure to demonstrate both unit effectiveness and closer alignment with the overall institutional mission. Little research existed to document academic libraries’ changes during this volatile period in history, or how the role of the academic library as part of the university system evolved during this period. Through interviews with the library leaders at four public, doctoral, comprehensive research universities in Florida, and an examination of a variety of documents, artifacts, news sources, and electronic and other resources, this qualitative multiple case study explored how four academic libraries were reframed, using the analytic lens of Bolman and Deal’s (2008) theory of reframing organizations. The evidence from this study revealed these four libraries demonstrated engagement in strategic changes across all four of the frames of Bolman and Deal’s (2008) theory of reframing organizations to become innovative, agile, pro-active organizations closely involved in the academic enterprise of their parent universities, and with a reimagined sense of place and purpose as the symbolic heart of the campus. A clear understanding of the activities of these four libraries in reframing their organizations may better inform the future evolution of academic libraries in higher education.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) came into the power when banking institutions started to become more and more competitive. The focus on CRM increased banks' abilities to understand their customers' current needs more precisely and also helped them to understand their customers' behaviours, such as what they have done in the past, and what they plan to do in the future. Such practice further helped banks to design strategies based on each customer's preferences in order to meet their customers' demands (Xu, et al., 2002). The adoption of the CRM within the banking industry chiefly depends on the overall adoption of IT culture within the country. Today, developed countries like the UK are enjoying innovative technologies, tailored-made systems, and have a high level of IT maturity within their banking industry. On the other hand, developing countries such as Pakistan are still dealing with several technological issues and the biggest one is the lack of IT alignment within most of their organizations especially within their banking industry (Kundi and Nawaz, 2006). Therefore, it is essential for researchers to further investigate the major IT-related problems faced by the banking industry, especially problems with the current use of the CRM system within the banking industry of developing countries i.e. Pakistan compared to banks in developed countries i.e. UK.This research has investigated and covered the overall operational issues of the CRM system within the banking industry of both developed and developing countries i.e. UK and Pakistan by using a qualitative case study research approach with two case studies, in which the Pakistani banking sector is selected as the developing country for case study one; for a developed country, the UK banking sector is selected as case study two. From the several existing UK and Pakistani banks, the researcher has selected some leading banks from the two countries and conducted several semi-structured interviews with different bank employees. Furthermore, the obtained interviews' results from both case studies are analyzed, compared, and discussed using an in-depth cross-case analysis approach and uncovered the similarities, differences, and several CRM operational issues within the banking sectors of both Pakistan and the UK.

Background/Purpose: Reducing the incidence and negative consequences of concussion among youth athletes is a public health priority. Fifty states have adopted legislation addressing the problem of sports-related concussions among youth-athletes. In 2010, Massachusetts adopted legislation based on Washington State’s Lystedt Law, enacting state-wide requirements for high school athletic programs. This study explored how the legislation has been implemented within Massachusetts schools and school-districts and identified factors influential to local implementation. Methods: A qualitative multiple-case study approach was utilized. US Census data concerning the household median income and population size of the school-district’s representative town(s) were used to purposively recruit cases. Semi-structured interviews with a breadth of school-district actors in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and archival records associated with participating schools were used for analysis. Interview data were analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach. Written documents were subjected to an archival analysis. Results: 19 participants from 5 schools were interviewed. Interviewed school personnel included 5 athletic directors, 5 coaches, 4 athletic trainers, 4 school nurses, and 1 health and wellness coordinator. Eight case-level themes related to how the regulation was implemented were identified, and 6 influential factors related to the regulation’s implementation emerged. All participating cases decided to utilize neurocognitive baseline testing programs to assist in diagnosing concussions. Cases also decided to place the decision making authority of removal-from-play and return-to-play situations in the hands of athletic trainers. Primary care physicians were expected to provide medical clearance for concussed student athletes. Funding and man-power emerged as a threat to schools’ ability to implement the regulation with high fidelity. Conclusions: At the local level, provisions of the Massachusetts regulation were implemented with high fidelity. However, differences and similarities regarding local-level implementation decisions existed across cases. Conducting the study qualitatively allowed the study to obtain rich detail and identify implementation decisions made within cases. However, the knowledge generated may not be generalizable to other school districts or other states. The study’s findings speak to the variability often found when implementation is relegated to the local-level.

No description available.

Entrepreneurship and business training programs have been created and administered throughout the world and particularly in developing economies to help entrepreneurs open new businesses and grow their current businesses. Evaluations of these programs have shown that most of them successfully help entrepreneurs expand their knowledge and understanding of business principles and practices, but few entrepreneurs will then apply or transfer what they learn into their businesses. Without many entrepreneurs making changes in how they run their businesses, it is no surprise that these training programs generally show little impact on sales or profits. This research explores how business training programs in developing economies can help entrepreneurs go beyond just learning about business principles to making changes in their businesses based on those principles. Put simply, this research explores how training programs can help entrepreneurs act on what they learn. The research for this dissertation is presented in three articles. Article 1 includes a review and analysis of findings from a decade of evaluations and research on entrepreneurship training programs in developing economies around the world. In this analysis, I identified factors that have been found to positively affect training transfer, and then based on these findings I developed a theoretical framework of how training transfer can be facilitated. Article 2 is a multiple case analysis of seven trainers from two different entrepreneurship training programs based in Lima, Peru. This article includes an analysis of six months of in-field observations and interviews conducted in Peru, revealing several challenges trainers face while helping entrepreneurs apply what they learn as well as strategies the trainers use in their efforts to overcome those challenges. Article 3 includes a field experiment to test if using learning contracts in a training program will help more entrepreneurs begin following new business practices. This article also includes a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of the training program as a whole on entrepreneurs' business knowledge, application of business principles, and sales and expenses. The learning contracts showed some impact but not on all business practices. The training program as a whole had a statistically significant impact on knowledge and application but the impact on sales was not statistically significant.

Background: As technology is advancing day by day, people tend to produce enormous volumes of data. This exceptional growth in data is leading to an increase in the development of intelligent systems that make use of this huge data available. We group the development of such type of intelligent software systems and term them as "Data-Centric Systems (DCS)". Such systems include AI/ML components in an aself-driving car, Recommender systems any many more. Developing DCS is complexin the Software development life cycle process; one of the main reasons behind this complexity is the ineffective handling of requirements. Moreover, the literature suggests that a large percentage (48%) of development problems begin during the requirements phase and fixing requirements-related problems consumes a high cost of rework in later stages of software development. To design DCS effectively, RE techniques are considered one of the essential factors, since it is required to promote the combination of a system’s functional and implementation expectations from two entirely different perspectives, such as customers and developers. Although RE frequently plays a critical role in DCS, little is known about how RE can effectively be incorporated into developing such systems. Objectives: This thesis aims to focus on understanding industry experiences in the development of DCS with the main emphasis on RE and investigate the techniques/approaches used in DCS designing during the RE process and identify the challenges practitioners face during the development process. Methods: Two workshop-style interviews are conducted to identify the design process of RE and the practitioners’ challenges during DCS development. To complement the results from the workshop and scaling up the target population, an online survey is conducted. Results: From the workshops, we have identified that no explicit stakeholder is involved during the RE phase of DCS. Still, all people collectively take the decisions when it comes to developing in agile, and the role varies depending on the type of projects the stakeholder is involved in. Four categories of requirements were identified, namely regulatory, infrastructure, data, safety and security requirements. Techniques/approaches used to elicit, document, analyse and validate the requirements were identified. Based on the data received, we have identified ten challenges faced by the practitioners during the DCS. Based on the number of responses recorded in the survey, the categorisation and the techniques/approaches used for RE were prioritised based on the highest number of responses received. A total of 15 themes were generated for the challenges based on the responses received from participants. Conclusions: To conclude, a specific RE architecture needs to be designed to help the practitioners during the development of DCS. We believe that the analysis of these insights provides the industry with a structured overview of the DCS development process in RE. Besides, this thesis allows the academic community to steer future research based on an understanding of industry needs in RE for DCS.

Title: Discovering the Dark Side: A Multiple Case Study of IOMC Instability in Triadic Relationships Authors: Adam Hargrave, Iqra Ashfaq Mian, and Jan Peter van der Zwet Background: Within IORs, knowledge, activities, and resources are increasing shared amongst organisation members to obtain some sort of strategic advantage. Typically, forming a triadic relationship. Therefore, IOMC practices are regularly used to shape, support and control activities across the triadic relationship, but conversely, literature has not explored the instability certain shared IOMC systems can bring to partners through its complexity, triadic complexity, and instability drivers. Therefore, the investigation of IOMC’s instability influence on triadic relationships is investigated to contribute to the academic literature and organisations studied.  Purpose: The purpose for the research conducted is to investigate the shared IOMC in triadic, inter-organisational relationships that influence instability in buyer-supplier triadic relationships. Methodology: A multiple case study has been conducted through semistructured interviews. A critical realism perspective, descriptive-exploratory, and abductive research methodology was enacted. Analysis and Discussion: The multiple cases show that complexities in the from of triadic complexity and IOMC design complexity may lead to the drivers that introduce IOMC instability in the triadic relationships. The literature discussed is linked to the empirical findings and a research model is proposed. Conclusion: The conclusion discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of the presented research and possible future research opportunities of IOMC instability in triadic relationships.

Local public agencies turn to public-private partnerships (PPPs) to allow greater participation by private firms in delivering public services. In the last 25 years, private organizations had been reluctant to form PPPs with local government agencies because of the complex procurement processes and the bureaucratic business environment. Guided by the decision theory and complex adaptive systems theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to identify what information leaders within third-party administrators (TPAs) need regarding the contracting process in the formation of PPPs. The data collection process consisted of face-to-face interviews with 4 executive leaders of 3 Wisconsin state licensed TPAs and examination of contracts and plan service agreements (PSAs) between TPAs and local government agencies. Dada was analyzed using the Yin 5-step data analysis method and cross-case analysis. The results indicated that TPA leaders must understand collaborative leadership, key players, roles and responsibilities, and specialized services in the formation of a PPP; change and transfer of controlling interest, and understanding the strengths and weakness of contract provisions are complex business systems that influence the decision to form a PPP; ERISA and compliance with applicable federal and state laws are critical contract stipulations to consider in the formation of PPPs; that market assessment, health care reform, and transparency between private and public partners are critical in the formation of PPPs. The implications for social change include new insights for PPP leaders that may enhance the effectiveness of social services and save taxpayers' money.

Importance of the Study: Over the last decade or so the B2C organizations are making full usage of the social media platform as a tool of their marketing mix. However, the adoption of social media in the marketing activities of the B2B sector has not quite registered the growth which the B2C organizations have. The reason behind this being previous failed experiences of the B2B sector with the social media marketing usage. Furthermore, the B2B firms do not put many efforts in their social media activity as compared to B2C firms. Thus, the study of social media on the marketing management of the B2B firms becomes important. This was done by studying the case of multiple B2B firms and drawing best practices inferences from it. Purpose of the study: The reason why this study has been undertaken is due to the fact the previous studies have focused upon ‘why’ B2B firms have failed to achieve the success which B2C firms have achieved using social media marketing platforms. There is a lack of quality research studies on what techniques the B2B organizations are using currently as there have been rare cases of finding the success with the use of social media for the B2B firms. Thus, the purpose of this study was to research successful marketing techniques used by the organizations which have found success using social media and which can be used by other B2B firms. Methods: The mixed research method was adopted for this study as the study has been divided into two parts qualitative case study method and the quantitative survey method. The cases of five B2B firms namely Huawei, Accenture, Novartis, American Express and Lucid Press was taken to draw inferences about the best marketing techniques for B2B firms on social media. These findings were further validated by the quantitative survey which had 50 B2B marketing professionals randomly selected. Major Findings: Some of the major findings were that the B2B firms use e-books, webinars, case studies and infographics in order to present top to bottom information about their products and services to their B2B clients. Furthermore, when it comes to social networking websites, it was found that LinkedIn was more popular than the Facebook for the marketing of the B2B firm's products and services.