It is generally believed that Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce has a great impact on business performance improvement. Considerable research also shows that another dependent variable, B2B e-commerce success, can be a good overall measure of B2B systems. This paper investigated and examined the impact of several factors, which are either internal or external to the firm on B2B performance improvement and B2B e-commerce success. It is suggested that the various factors affect B2B success through business performance improvement. A research model was developed to test and evaluate these factors. A survey instrument was developed to examine the relationships between these factors and business performance. Survey data was collected online from 143 companies in the U.S.A. and Taiwan where their B2B e-commerce systems were operational for more than 1 year. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was used to assess the measurement and the structural model. Analyses and results of the pooled survey data suggest that the following factors are significant in the B2B e-commerce environments: (a) alignment of business and e-commerce strategy has a positive impact on business performance, (b) strong relationships between the trading partners have a positive influence on business performance, and (c) B2B e-commerce success is significantly influenced by business performance improvements. Thus, firms that seek to implement successful B2B systems should focus on business performance improvements.

In 2018 the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) funded a study in which data were collected to evaluate performance measures for UDOT's Incident Management Team (IMT) program. After that study was completed, UDOT received funding to expand the size of its IMT program. Additionally, TransSuite, a data source used by the UDOT Traffic Operations Center to log incident-related data, was reconfigured to provide a higher quantity of performance measure data. This study made use of the new data source, in addition to Computer Aided Dispatch logs provided by the Utah Highway Patrol that were used in the first study, to collect performance measure data of the expanded program and measure the impacts of the IMT program expansion. Using these two datasets, a reanalyzed 2018 dataset and a new 2020 dataset, a comparison of performance measures was made. Performance measures studied included those defined as important by the Federal Highway Administration's Focus States Initiative in 2009, namely Roadway Clearance Time, Incident Clearance Time, and Response Time. These performance measures were calculated for IMT responders at 320 incidents in 2018 and 289 incidents in 2020. In addition, data regarding the affected volume associated with incidents, the excess travel time accumulated due to incidents, and the excess user cost associated with incident congestion were gathered. In 2018, 188 incidents were analyzed for these user impacts, and in 2020 144 incidents were analyzed. Statistical analyses were conducted to compare IMT performance between the two years and to determine relationships between performance measures and user impacts. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic affected traffic volumes during this study, and statistical analyses were adjusted to account for volume differences between the two years. Results indicated that the expansion of the IMT program has allowed UDOT to respond faster to incidents, and respond to a larger quantity of incidents over a larger coverage area and in extended operating hours. Performance of the expanded IMT program has had significant effects in reducing incident-related congestion and its costs.

This master´s thesis is focused on evaluation of the current state and business performace of company Remarkplast Group a.s. using the Balanced Scorecard. The theoretical part defines the concept of business performance and methodology of the Balanced Scorecard. The analytical part describes the current situation of the company and based on acquired theoretical knowledge analyze the financial, customer, internal proceses and perspektive of learning and growth. At the conclusion of the thesis, is a proposal for the implementation of the BSC concept to company. The strategic goals and scales with target values are proposed to help Remarkplast Group a.s. to improve its overal performance in the coming years.

Most optimisation problems in everyday life are not static in nature, have multiple objectives and at least two of the objectives are in conflict with one another. However, most research focusses on either static multi-objective optimisation (MOO) or dynamic singleobjective optimisation (DSOO). Furthermore, most research on dynamic multi-objective optimisation (DMOO) focusses on evolutionary algorithms (EAs) and only a few particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithms exist. This thesis proposes a multi-swarm PSO algorithm, dynamic Vector Evaluated Particle Swarm Optimisation (DVEPSO), to solve dynamic multi-objective optimisation problems (DMOOPs). In order to determine whether an algorithm solves DMOO efficiently, functions are required that resembles real world DMOOPs, called benchmark functions, as well as functions that quantify the performance of the algorithm, called performance measures. However, one major problem in the field of DMOO is a lack of standard benchmark functions and performance measures. To address this problem, an overview is provided from the current literature and shortcomings of current DMOO benchmark functions and performance measures are discussed. In addition, new DMOOPs are introduced to address the identified shortcomings of current benchmark functions. Guides guide the optimisation process of DVEPSO. Therefore, various guide update approaches are investigated. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of DVEPSO is conducted to determine the influence of various parameters on the performance of DVEPSO. The investigated parameters include approaches to manage boundary constraint violations, approaches to share knowledge between the sub-swarms and responses to changes in the environment that are applied to either the particles of the sub-swarms or the non-dominated solutions stored in the archive. From these experiments the best DVEPSO configuration is determined and compared against four state-of-the-art DMOO algorithms. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Computer Science / unrestricted

An exploratory analysis in low-dimensional objective space of the vector evaluated particle swarm optimization (VEPSO) algorithm is presented. A novel visualization technique is presented and applied to perform the exploratory analysis. The exploratory analysis together with a quantitative analysis revealed that the VEPSO algorithm continues to explore without exploiting the well-performing areas of the search space. A detailed investigation into the influence that the choice of archive implementation has on the performance of the VEPSO algorithm is presented. Both the Pareto-optimal front (POF) solution diversity and convergence towards the true POF is considered during the investigation. Attainment surfaces are investigated for their suitability in efficiently comparing two multi-objective optimization (MOO) algorithms. A new measure to objectively compare algorithms in multi-dimensional objective space, based on attainment surfaces, is presented. This measure, referred to as the porcupine measure, adapts the attainment surface measure by using a statistical test along with weighted intersection lines. Loosely based on the VEPSO algorithm, the multi-guided particle swarm optimization (MGPSO) algorithm is presented and evaluated. The results indicate that the MGPSO algorithm overcomes the weaknesses of the VEPSO algorithm and also outperforms a number of state of the art MOO algorithms on at least two benchmark test sets. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Computer Science / PhD / Unrestricted

Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en djupare förståelse för ekonomistyrning hos små och medelstora företag genom att undersöka hur och varför de arbetar med ekonomistyrningens formella styrmedel. Metod Studien har sin utgångspunkt i teori och använder en kvalitativ metod där data samlats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta olika företag. Vid val av informanter genomfördes ett strategiskt urval. En förklaring av studiens olika steg presenteras för att tydliggöra hur arbetet sett ut praktiskt. Slutsats Studien visar att formella styrmedel används inom SMF, men att utformningen av praktiska arbetet kan variera. Vad för typ av verksamhets som bedrivs har en stor inverkan på hur arbetet ser ut. Kontroll och uppföljning lyfts fram som huvudsakliga syften med styrningen. / Purpose The purpose of this study is to create a deeper understanding of management accounting in small and medium-sized enterprises by examining how and why they use the formal control systems of management accounting. Method The study has its base in theory and uses a qualitive method where data is collected through semi-structured interviews. A strategic selection was used when choosing the informants for the study. All steps are explained and presented to clarify how the study was conducted. Conclusion The study shows that formal control systems are used by SME, but how they are applied can variegate. The kind of business has a big impact on how the formal control systems are being used. Control and follow-up are presented as the main reasons for management accounting.

Prestationsmätning och daglig styrning är två frekvent förekommande styrmedel i verksamheter oavsett bransch. I samband med att styrmedel ifrågasätts blir förändringsprocesser aktuella för företag. En vanligt förekommande förändringsprocess idag är en omorganisering. I denna fallstudie identifieras faktiska insikter om prestationsmätning och daglig styrning i en koncern med olika verksamheter. Syftet är att analysera samt förklara utformning och användning av prestationsmätning och daglig styrning på enhetsnivå i en verksamhet som genomgått en omorganisation. Studien bygger vidare på tidigare studiers slutsatser om målöverensstämmelse med prestationsmätning efter en omorganisation och har sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i målstyrning tillsammans med målsättningsteorin. Studiens metod är kvalitativ med inslag av deduktion och induktion. I fallstudien används semistrukturerade intervjuer vid insamling av empiri. Studien visar att det finns ett samband mellan utformning samt användning av prestationsmätning och daglig styrning trots att det är olika verksamheter som bedrivs. Sambandet mellan utformning och användning grundar sig i att båda faktorerna är beroende av ett företags målstyrning och hur de bryts ner för respektive verksamhet. Hur en verksamhet utformar och använder prestationsmätning och daglig styrning beror på verksamheten som bedrivs. Följaktligen utformas och används olika kombinationer av finansiella, icke-finansiella, individuella samt kollektiva mål och mått. Studiens slutsatser är att målstyrning är en viktig faktor när ett företag utformar samt använder prestationsmätning och daglig styrning. Omorganisering är en mindre yttre faktor men kan vara bidragande för att identifiera samordningsvinster som inte tidigare existerade. / Performance measurement and daily control are two frequently occurring policy instruments in businesses regardless of industry. In connection with the questioning of instruments, change processes become relevant for the business. Today, a well-known change process is a reorganization. This case study identifies actual insights about performance measurement and daily control in a group with various businesses. The purpose is to analyze and explain the design and use of performance measurement and daily control at unit level in a business that has undergone a reorganization. The study isfurther based on previous studies’ conclusions about goal congruence with performance measurement after reorganization and the theoretical framework used is management by objectives combined with the goal-setting theory.The method of the study is qualitative with elements of deduction and induction. In the case study, semi-structured interviews are used for collecting empirical data. The study shows that there is a connection between design and the use of performance measurement and daily control, even though different businesses are conducted. The connection between design and use is based on the fact that both factors depend on a company's management by objectives and how they are broken down for each business. How a business designs and uses performance measurement and daily control depends on the business being conducted. Consequently, different combinations of financial, non-financial, individual and collective goals and measures are designed and used. The study concludes that management by objectives is an important factor when a company designs and uses performance measurement and daily control. Reorganization is a minor external factor but can help in identifying synergy effects that did not previously exist.

In 2009 the Federal Highway Administration published a report regarding a Focus States Initiative that had been conducted with 11 states to discuss the development of national Traffic Incident Management (TIM) standards. Performance measures were defined, and a national TIM dashboard created, but very little data has been added to the dashboard since. In this research study, performance measures of the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) TIM program were analyzed. Data availability was first assessed to determine whether these performance measures could be calculated. It was determined that crash response data available from the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) could be used to calculate the performance measures of Incident Management Teams (IMT) and UHP units; however, roadway clearance data were missing. UHP personnel agreed to collect additional data regarding crash roadway clearance for six months of the study. Performance measures of response time (RT), roadway clearance time (RCT), and incident clearance time (ICT) were calculated for responding units at 168 crashes. Using the crash response data from UHP and traffic speed, travel time, and volume data from UDOT databases, 83 of the 163 crashes that met additional criteria were evaluated to determine the volume of traffic affected (AV) by each incident and the associated user cost (EUC). Statistical analyses to determine relationships between different measures such as RT, RCT, ICT, AV, and EUC were conducted to assist UDOT in optimizing the allocation of their IMT resources.

Alignment of information technology (IT) projects remains a concern for business executives and negatively impacts IT investments through failed projects. Drawing from the theory of systems thinking and the concept of holism, the purpose of this correlational study was to provide executive leaders with information about influences associated with the independent variables of project alignment and performance outputs, and the dependent variable, project success rates. Accordingly, the research question addressed the relationship between the 2-predictor variables and the outcome variable. Data collection involved a nonprobability, purposive sample of 49 credentialed project managers from Arizona who completed an online survey. Results from multiple linear regression analysis indicated statistically significant relationships between the predictor variables (F (2, 46) = 111.08, p < .001). The regression model predicted 82% of the variation resulted from the independent variables. The study's findings provide corporate leaders with a better understanding of project alignment, performance outputs, and project success rates from the operations perspective of project management professionals who contribute to the organization's competitive advantage through the implementation of strategic IT projects. The positive social change implications of this study include increased organization benefits, such as substantiated IT investments and higher profits. Increased project success rates substantiate IT investments through improved customer satisfaction and financial performance. Improved financial performance leads to higher profits, which leads to higher wages. Higher wages contributes positively to society-at-large through an enhanced quality of life.

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