The constant pressure to achieve increased efficiency and profitability improvements drives companies to look at new technologies for ways to develop sustainable advantages. At the same time, the breathtakingly rapid technological development of these technologies leads, not surprisingly, to different misconceptions about the impact of IT on businesses.  This dissertation aims at clarifying some of these misconceptions by exploring one such technological breakthrough, namely wireless information systems, as used to support mobile workforces. The dissertation analyses three companies devoted to the implementation of wireless information systems, that were confronted with a number of challenges, and investigates how these challenges were met by means of different capability development activities. Evidence from the cases shows that what really matters is not the technology in itself, but how organizations use it. This study suggests that the firms that give the best performance are not necessarily those that implement different breeds of technology, but rather those that are able to learn from the challenges they are confronted with – doing so moreover on repeated occasions by means of interlinked organizational innovation processes. Thus, a piece of advice offered in this dissertation is that it is not always so important to possess all the right capabilities from the beginning, but that one needs to possess the right capabilities to develop new capabilities. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007</p>

Two of the most important issues in knowledge age are knowledge management and innovation. Companies that is able to control knowledge, able to develop the ability of innovation. Therefore, understand how to acquire, encode, diffuse, storage knowledge, and how to match knowledge and management system, is very important for organizations. Knowledge workers are the most important carrier of knowledge. They are the one who actually learn, share, use, and create knowledge. Thus, understand and pay attention to knowledge worker and the management of knowledge worker should be considered one part of knowledge management. Moreover, knowledge management should match corporation¡¦s competitive strategy. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship among organizational characteristics, knowledge management, strategy of knowledge management, organizational innovation, and consider the influence of the strategy of knowledge management and organizational characters to knowledge management and organizational innovation. The results of the research indicate that: The lifecycle of a company has significant difference on organizational innovation. The scale of a company has also significant difference on organizational innovation. In addition to difference analysis, relation analysis indicates that ¡§connect performance and reward¡¨, ¡¨improve knowledge which is already there¡¨, ¡§leadership of knowledge¡¨, ¡§institutionalize the measurement of knowledge¡¨, ¡§organic organization structure¡¨, and ¡§culture of learning¡¨ has significant influence on organizational innovation. As the result, the suggestions are: companies should develop their manager¡¦s ability of leadership of knowledge; connect performance and reward; improve knowledge which is already there; institutionalize the measurement of knowledge; establish organic organization structure; and create the culture of learning.

This doctoral thesis contains three research papers in social finance, a field concerned with the financing issues of organizations aiming to solve social problems. Intertemporal Preferences of Nonprofit Organizations This paper studies the intertemporal preferences that govern the spending decision of nonprofit organizations. I estimate the subjective discount rate and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution based on an extension of the consumption Euler model that allows for heterogeneous parameter estimates with regards to donation dependency and size. Biting the Hand That Feeds You: Effects of Embezzlement in Nonprofits This paper studies how newspaper reports on embezzlement affect donations received by nonprofit organizations. Based on a unique data set on wrongdoings by top managers in nonprofits between 1995 and 2002, I provide evidence that the cost of weak governance in nonprofits is very high. What is the Business of Business? This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of new organizational forms, such as socially responsible firms and social enterprises, which embody the private sector’s efforts to resolve problems that typically have been within the purview of government and traditional charities. The framework yields an optimal investment policy, which typically Pareto-dominates many common social investment principles, such as break-even conditions, social screening and SROI. About the author Andreas Nilsson pursued his PhD in the Department of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics. During this time, he was affiliated with the Swedish House of Finance and SIFR and spent two years as a visiting fellow at Harvard University. He is the founder of Sonanz, an asset management firm focused on social investments. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2014. Sammanfattning jämte 3 uppsatser</p>

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet, 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

Dissertation (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 30, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-216).

Cette thèse s’intéresse au problème du chômage et de la dette en économie — problème que l’on peut considérer comme majeur dans nos économies contemporaines occidentales. Cependant, ce n’est pas pour en dresser des bilans et des constats supplémentaires que cette recherche fut engagée mais plutôt pour tenter de résoudre de manière convenable ce problème, ce que, dans les faits, aucune théorie économique n’est parvenue à obtenir jusqu’à présent. Ces travaux abordent plus particulièrement la conjecture du plein emploi et la thèse repose sur une triple ambition : montrer comment espérer accéder à un plein emploi total et durable, prouver comment sortir économiquement du capitalisme, impulser une révolution scientifique en économie, ces trois thématiques étant indissociables. La recherche vise à expliquer les raisons conduisant à devoir forger un nouveau modèle d’entreprise — nommé SARS : Société à responsabilité sociale. Cette conceptualisation se caractérise par trois innovations fondamentales destinées à conférer aux SARS des avantages concurrentiels imparables, si tant est que ces entreprises puissent entrer en concurrence avec les modèles existants (EURL, SARL, SA, SCOP, SNC, SAS, SCIC, SOSE, etc.). L’idée centrale prend pour hypothèse que ce modèle doté de propriétés émergentes bénéfiques grâce à de puissants avantages concurrentiels, finirait à long terme par devenir dominant et à faire disparaître les anciens modèles devenus désuets face à l’attrait de cette nouveauté économiquement et socialement performative. Alors introduite dans l'économie et amenée à se développer, cette forme entrepreneuriale inédite contribuerait à fonder les bases d’un nouveau régime économique autre que le capitalisme et le collectivisme. Ce futur régime économique, permettant un changement de procès dans la répartition des richesses à petite puis à grande échelle, conduirait (contrairement au capitalisme) à un plein emploi total et durable. Par-delà la prédiction, propriété essentielle d’une théorie scientifique, cette étude entend fournir les clés d’accès pour engager une épreuve expérimentale, celle d’une réalité en devenir, à laquelle chaque théorie doit être soumise afin d’établir sa validité. S’appuyant sur le champ de la prospective, elle s’essaye à une description d’un avenir possible dans la mesure où, cette thèse obtenait quelque crédit et que l’opération expérimentale devienne une réussite. / This thesis addresses the problem of unemployment and of the debt in the economic context—problem that could be regarded as a major issue in our Western contemporary societies. However, it is not with the goal of making some more assessments and additional findings that this research was hired, but in order to try to resolve in a proper manner this problem, fact that, in practice, no single economic theory has been able to obtain so far. These studies focus in particular on the conjecture of full employment and the thesis is based on a threefold ambition: showing how to access to a comprehensive and lasting full employment, proving how to get out of capitalism from an economic point of view, stimulating a scientific revolution in the economic field, as these three subject areas are intrinsically linked. The research aims to explain the reasons that lead to the creation of a new business model — called SARS: Society with a social responsibility. This conceptualization is characterized by three fundamental innovations aimed at giving to the SARS unstoppable competitive benefits, if these companies can compete with existing models (EURL, SARL, SA, SCOP, SNC, SAS, SCIC, SOSE, etc.). The central idea assumes that this model endowed with beneficial emergent properties thanks to powerful competitive benefits, would eventually become dominant in the long term and make disappear the older models that became outdated with regard to this novelty seen as being economically and socially performative. Then, inserted into the economy and set to develop, this innovative entrepreneurial form would contribute to lay the foundations for a new economic system different from capitalism and collectivism. This future economic regime, allowing a change in the distribution of wealth in a small-scale and afterwards in a large-scale, would lead (unlike capitalism) to a comprehensive and lasting full employment. Across the prediction, essential property of the scientific theory, this study intends to provide access keys in order to institute an experimental testing, experimental testing of a reality in the state of becoming, to which each theory has to be submitted to establish its validity. Building on the prospective field, it is trying to provide the description of a possible future to the extent that this thesis got some credits and that the experimental operating would become a success.

The characteristics of nurses acting as organizational champions, as well as the ways that clinical leaders systematically harness the energy of these champions in support of innovation, were explored in this qualitative descriptive study. The specific aims were guided by prior empirical evidence and identified research needs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 formal nursing leaders (e.g. managers, educators, administration) in an academic medical center. This study, including the interview guide, was informed by Kouzes and Posner’s (2007) Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Two models were developed to describe the data. Overall, participants echoed prior empirical findings identifying a need for organizational champions’ support of innovation and explained how some nurses seem to have “innate” characteristics that make them champions. Participants identified the champion as the “go to” person who can see the bigger picture and who seems to “own their own practice”. They described the importance of being truly present on the unit in order to harness the energy of these champions. Once champions are identified, leaders match the champions’ talents to the innovation planned, secure buy in from the champions, and actively work to support champions and get a culture of innovation “in the drinking water.” This work enhances the leader’s experience and makes him/her feel inspired and engaged. The two models developed based on the participants’ description of their experience working with staff nurses acting as organizational champions provide a framework for clinical leaders to identify and engage organizational champions in their clinical areas in support of innovation.