The fast moving global market has pushed the companies into becoming more and more global and today some companies are even born in the global world. These companies that operate on many markets at the same time are referred to as born global. This study attempts to connect the context of a born global company to the topic of innovation. Literature explains that a company’s level of innovation is related to their competitive advantage in the industry or sector. This thesis concentrates on the trading sector and tries to evaluate how the internal environment of a born global company influences the development of processes of innovation, whereas internal factors are evaluated the organizational structure, strategy and culture.   Since this study is an explorative research on how certain internal factors can be of influence on the process of innovation in a company, we have chosen to conduct a qualitative single case study, for which we have addressed ourselves to the born global trading company The Bufab Group, a worldwide trader of fasteners and small parts. The Group has its head quarter in Värnamo, Sweden and has around 35 sister companies around the world.   Our empirical findings show how this trading company uses its structure, strategy and culture to influence their processes of innovation. The six innovations that have been developed in the last five years and that are a result of the ongoing process of innovation are the implementation of an automated warehouse, realizing a universal ERP system, employing the EDICOM software, using the concept of a HUB-system, introducing an Educational Manager and the introduction of a Global Account Team.   For the reason that the study is a single case study this research cannot provide any general conclusions for the sector of trading. However, our in-depth study of the Bufab Group as a born global trading company has taught us that their structure, strategy and culture show to have a positive effect on the processes of innovation. Firstly it shows how the born global context is of influence on the internal factors of the organizations. Secondly, it shows how a company that has one centralised strategy for the whole group with a relatively centralised decision making system can still manage to maintain a rather low hierarchical structure with short communication lines and an open and transparent culture. Lastly, all of these forces together have managed to enhance good communication, knowledge sharing and the creation of ideas that have been of influence on the enablement of the process of innovation.

This thesis addresses important operational aspects relating to fundamental components of any successfully executed NPD strategy: the processes, incentives and structure of decision rights that should be implemented given the objectives and capabilities of the firm. The first chapter outlines when a firm might prefer to compensate members of a NPD project team either, as individuals (e.g. based on their functional contribution to overall value) or as a team (e.g. based on the overall profit generated). We find that neither team nor individual based compensation is preferred for all types of projects. Specifically, when there is higher uncertainty, the firm can benefit by employing team-based compensation. We discuss the implications of our findings towards the firm's ability to pursue different types of projects. In Chapter 3, we look at the strategic resource allocation processes that are employed by firms in order to decide whether NPD initiatives get funded or not. We find that there is not a "one size fits all" resource allocation process that all firms should employ. Furthermore,we extend this finding by further by providing a rationale explaining why even a single firm could benefit by employing multiple processes internal to the firm. Finally, in Chapter 4, we empirically explore how key managerial levers of the firm (i.e. incentives, tolerance for failure, and project management structure) affect an individual's propensity to invest in a project. Our analysis brings forth several under-explored and novel aspects. We examine how multiple managerial levers work in concert with one another (revealing interactions that, to our knowledge, have not been exposed). We also recognize an important aspect of most (if not all) NPD contexts: the probability of success is strongly tied to the level of resources that are invested.

<p>The traditional view of middle managers is that they play a role to receive and deliver information upwards and downwards in the organization. With this position in the hierarchy the middle manager is said to feel stuck in the middle due to conflicting expectations from upper and lower levels in the organization. Researchers have provided theories whether the middle manager is needed or not in the modern organization. When organizational structure begins to change due to downsizing and decentralization the roles of the middle managers begin to change. With the organizational change theorists then argue about the different effects on the middle manager. But how does the middle manager actually perceive his or her role in the new organization?</p><p>This thesis aims at reaching a greater understanding of the middle manager’s perceived role within the organization and how the role is affected by the relationships with the upper management levels.</p><p>To answer the purpose of this thesis a qualitative method is used. A sample of 50 middle managers from four different organizations is taken from an inhouse database belonging to a research program in collaboration between Jönköping International Business School and Umeå University. The technique chosen is therefore to analyse secondary data originally collected in recent research within the field of middle management.</p><p>How the middle manager’s role is perceived differs between the individual middle manager and his or her experience, which indicates that the middle manager’s identity is the most influencing factor on the perceived role.</p> / <p>Den traditionella synen på mellanchefer är att de spelar en roll att ta emot och ge vidare information uppåt och neråt i organisationen. Med den här positionen i hierarkin sägs mellanchefen känna sig klämd i mitten på grund av motstridiga förväntningar från över och under-ordnade. Olika forskare har kommit med olika teorier om mellanchefen behövs i den moderna organisationen eller inte. När organisationsstrukturer börjar förändras på grund av nedskärningar och/eller decentralisering förändras mellanchefens roll. Teoretiker argumenterar om förändringarnas olika effekt på mellanchefen. Men hur uppfattar egentligen mellanchefen sin roll i den nya organisationen?</p><p>Den här uppsatsen syftar till att nå en större förståelse för hur mellan-chefen uppfattar sin roll i organisationen och hur denna roll påverkas av relationerna med de övre chefsnivåerna.</p><p>För att besvara syftet med den här uppsatsen har en kvalitativ metod använts. Ett urval på 50 mellanchefer från fyra olika organisationer har tagits från en intern databas tillhörande ett forskningsprogram i samarbete mellan Jönköping Internationella Handelshögskola och Umeå Universitet. Den valda tekniken är att analysera sekundärdata från forskning om mellanchefer.</p><p>Hur mellanchefen uppfattar sin roll skiljer sig mellan den individuelle mellanchefen och dennes erfarenhet. Detta visar att mellanchefens identitet är en nyckelfaktor till mellanchefens upplevda roll.</p>

The purpose of this study was to identify how employees in the University of South Florida System (USF System) perceived changes in their organizations and the system as a result of having separate accreditation for each campus in the USF System. This survey research provided a "snapshot" of employee perceptions at a particular point in time. The study was unique because it provided a picture of the perceptions of employees while each campus was at a different point in the organizational change process. The theoretical concept from Bolman and Deal's (2003) four frame theory was used to develop the dependent variables and capture the perceptions of employees. The four dependent variables were organizational structure, employee relations, inter-campus relationships, and campus identity. Quantitative data were collected using a survey instrument. The data were analyzed by campus, employment category, gender, and years of employment using multivariate analysis of variance to identify significant differences in the means between the categories for each dependent variable. Additional comments provided by the survey respondents were analyzed using qualitative analysis to identify emerging themes during the organizational change process.

The purpose of this study is to answer the research question of how a service company (ServiceCo) could achieve a transfer price of its services. This is of particular interest, due to the growth of service firms that have rapidly increased and surpassed the manufacturing firms, as well as the dominant logic shifting towards services. However, the problem with this field of study is that transfer pricing with regards to the service industry, is a rather unexplored phenomenon in which the guidelines and theories are mostly directed towards manufacturing firms. This study uses a single case study approach where ServiceCo’s organizational characteristics were analyzed in order to attain the information required to understand how ServiceCo could achieve a transfer price of its services. Furthermore, this study uses the Eccles (1983) MAP and the OECD Guidelines, as well as incorporating Porter’s (1985) value chain. This study assesses that ServiceCo, in its current state, uses a sub-optimal transfer pricing method of its services. Therefore, a change in the transfer pricing method was suggested to ServiceCo. Given the organizational characteristics of ServiceCo, the results led to the conclusion that ServiceCo could benefit from a residual analysis in the profit split method, in which an actual full cost plus mark-up compensation could be used on its routine functions, and the residual profit could be split between the entities based on the intangible assets employed, functions performed and the risks carried.

The traditional view of middle managers is that they play a role to receive and deliver information upwards and downwards in the organization. With this position in the hierarchy the middle manager is said to feel stuck in the middle due to conflicting expectations from upper and lower levels in the organization. Researchers have provided theories whether the middle manager is needed or not in the modern organization. When organizational structure begins to change due to downsizing and decentralization the roles of the middle managers begin to change. With the organizational change theorists then argue about the different effects on the middle manager. But how does the middle manager actually perceive his or her role in the new organization? This thesis aims at reaching a greater understanding of the middle manager’s perceived role within the organization and how the role is affected by the relationships with the upper management levels. To answer the purpose of this thesis a qualitative method is used. A sample of 50 middle managers from four different organizations is taken from an inhouse database belonging to a research program in collaboration between Jönköping International Business School and Umeå University. The technique chosen is therefore to analyse secondary data originally collected in recent research within the field of middle management. How the middle manager’s role is perceived differs between the individual middle manager and his or her experience, which indicates that the middle manager’s identity is the most influencing factor on the perceived role. / Den traditionella synen på mellanchefer är att de spelar en roll att ta emot och ge vidare information uppåt och neråt i organisationen. Med den här positionen i hierarkin sägs mellanchefen känna sig klämd i mitten på grund av motstridiga förväntningar från över och under-ordnade. Olika forskare har kommit med olika teorier om mellanchefen behövs i den moderna organisationen eller inte. När organisationsstrukturer börjar förändras på grund av nedskärningar och/eller decentralisering förändras mellanchefens roll. Teoretiker argumenterar om förändringarnas olika effekt på mellanchefen. Men hur uppfattar egentligen mellanchefen sin roll i den nya organisationen? Den här uppsatsen syftar till att nå en större förståelse för hur mellan-chefen uppfattar sin roll i organisationen och hur denna roll påverkas av relationerna med de övre chefsnivåerna. För att besvara syftet med den här uppsatsen har en kvalitativ metod använts. Ett urval på 50 mellanchefer från fyra olika organisationer har tagits från en intern databas tillhörande ett forskningsprogram i samarbete mellan Jönköping Internationella Handelshögskola och Umeå Universitet. Den valda tekniken är att analysera sekundärdata från forskning om mellanchefer. Hur mellanchefen uppfattar sin roll skiljer sig mellan den individuelle mellanchefen och dennes erfarenhet. Detta visar att mellanchefens identitet är en nyckelfaktor till mellanchefens upplevda roll.

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The main purpose of this study is to understand the organizational structures of Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs and explain the network mechanisms of them in the context of new social movements. This study is based on a social movement research / thus, both organizational structures and network mechanisms of Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs are explained and analyzed in terms of the features of new social movements, to answer the question of &lsquo / whether Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs are potential and possible actors of a possible Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s movement in Turkey&rsquo / . The fieldwork of the present study was conducted on Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs, which were selected according to a purposive sampling. 4 NGOs were selected, of which founders and the active members are all Islamist/Islamic women, from 4 cities of Turkey, One NGO was selected from each city. The semi-structured interviews and deep interviews were the main data collection techniques used to get information about their organizational structures and network mechanisms. The responses were analyzed through the issues of organizational diversities, three different levels of network mechanisms, and networking types in the context of formation a new social movement. As network mechanisms, the three levels of networks defined in the study: relations with the state and local governments, networks with the NGOs outside the sampling group and networks among the NGOs inside the sampling group, in the framework of the role and potential of Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s NGOs to form an Islamist/Islamic women&rsquo / s movement.

This study aimed to comparatively examine school management practices in the US and Turkey in light of the two distinct administrative paradigms:Anglo-Saxon and Napoleonic traditions. In this study, a comparative case study method was used. The study was conducted in a basic education school (grades 1-8) in Ankara, Turkey, and in an elementary school (K-5) in Madison, the capital city of the state of Wisconsn, US. The sample contained 13 teachers and 4 administrators in the Turkish case, and 10 teachers and 1 school principal in the US case. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and written document analysis. Findings revealed that at the Turkish school, school management practices were not carried out effectively mainly due to the centralized education system, poor physical conditions of the school, lack of participatory and collaborative understanding of the staff members, lack of communication among the staff and limited school budgeting. On the other hand, the management practices in the American school were implemented successfull owing mainly to the school&#039 / s embedded decentralized structure, participatory and collaborative understanding among the school staff, effective communication strategies of the principal, and various options of in-service training offered for the school staff.

Diss. Stockholm : Univ., 2004. / Pp. 202-213: Bibliography.