The role of sales has evolved over the last decade, mostly driven by technological and social changes. One major shift is the growth in importance and in size of the inside sales function. Inside sales are sales that are conducted remotely or virtually using one or more Information Technology (IT) tools without the traditional in-person interaction. Despite the growing importance of inside sales, studies that show the key determinants and practices that can improve inside sales success are rare and have tended to focus on determinants affecting individual salesperson performance. Moreover, existing approaches to customer acquisition in inside sales often rely on subjective intuition, expert suggestions and gut feeling, which often hurts the chances of qualifying and converting leads to sales, and eventually diminishes inside sales success. This research aims to address such shortcomings by: 1) investigating the key dimensions and determinants of inside sales success by summarizing the existing body of knowledge using a systematic review and meta-analysis; and 2) develop comprehensible lead conversion models that integrate the interplay of relevant determinants in the lead conversion process. This doctoral research aims to: (1) Synthesize the literature and draw a big picture of B2B sales success by providing practitioners and scholars with a comprehensive state-of-the-art understanding of the determinants of B2B sales success and their significance in inside sales. (2) Identify and validate several key lead engagement factors crucial for inside sales success. (3) Demonstrate the potential of data-driven analytics by collecting multiple historical datasets from several companies representing different industries. This includes investigating and discovering new insights that will improve lead conversion outcomes, which contributes to the literature on the ongoing discussion of effective sales pipeline management. (4) Provide sales practitioners with comprehensible lead conversion models that integrate industry specific behavior and performance of salespeople, characteristics of leads and/or prospects, and workflow strategy aspects. This will help sales practitioners to better understand problems and opportunities in lead management, take proactive actions, and improve their sales success.

En el presente trabajo se ha llevado a cabo un análisis minucioso de la visión de las capacidades dinámicas, específicamente enmarcadas en el área de dirección estratégica, con la intención de proponer y testar empíricamente un modelo integral en el que se contemple la influencia que pueden ejercer las capacidades dinámicas sobre el rendimiento de una organización junto con la incorporación de otras variables organizativas reseñables. Dicho modelo ha sido aplicado en uno de los sectores más relevantes de la economía española, el turístico, en concreto en el sector hotelero, El trabajo queda dividido en ocho capítulos que abordan la idea principal desde un punto de vista teórico y práctico, precedidos de un capítulo introductorio, En esencia, en los primeros capítulos se profundiza teóricamente sobre los orígenes de la visión de las capacidades dinámicas. En los siguientes capítulos se leva a cabo un análisis preciso de la metodología de investigación utilizada, se describe el contexto empírico objeto de aplicación y se plantean los resultados obtenidos y su correspondiente discusión. Finalmente, las conclusiones principales, limitaciones y futuras líneas de investigación del proyecto son expuestas, tomando un especial interés la reflexión sobre los efectos del Covid-19 en el sector turístico, dada la relevancia y actualidad de estos hechos en el momento de finalización del proyecto de tesis doctoral.

Purpose: With the growing importance of performance measurement and management, this exploratory study intends to examine the practices of maintenance managers with regards to maintenance measures, as used in their organizations. In this process, the study attempts to uncover the relevant maintenance performance dimensions from the perspectives of the surveyed managers. In addition, the mediating effect of information availability on the main performance measures utilization is studied. Design/methodology/approach: The research at hand is survey-based. It utilizes the responses of a sample of ninety-five (95) experienced maintenance managers to identify the most relevant maintenance performance measures. Factor analysis is then utilized to uncover the important dimensions of performance, as seen by the respondents. Additionally, using the Partial Least Squares method, several models were studied. Findings: The findings of this exploratory research appear to suggest that maintenance managers are beginning to broaden their perspective with regard to performance management. While machine and plant-related performance measures are still emphasized, maintenance managers are slowly moving toward a wider organizational orientation. While the manufacturing organizations are becoming more and more customer-oriented open systems, the maintenance function of these organizations is still, for the most part, operating under the semi-open system orientation. Overall, it appears that an emerging maintenance strategy is slowly taking shape. Research limitations/implications: For the most part, performance measures and measurement related to maintenance have not received enough attention from researchers. Therefore, the literature dealing with the different facets of performance in maintenance has not been forthcoming. The study attempts to fill this apparent gap in the literature. This is important, as maintenance managers are being asked to contribute to the achievement of the competitive strategies of their organizations. Therefore, they must quickly learn how to view maintenance from a coherent strategic organizational perspective. Such a perspective should help in integrating the maintenance, resources, capabilities, and technical know-how in order to serve the strategic goal of their organization. The research at hand is limited to a sample from Portugal. Therefore, the results and conclusions must be interpreted accordingly. Practical implications: As maintenance managers struggle to move from a machine-orientation to a more organizational-wide strategic orientation, they are often left with many questions and few answers. This study attempts to bring this problem to the spotlight so that it can receive more systematic empirical and practical research. In this context, the role of maintenance managers in the process of organizational strategy formulation should be examined. Originality/value: The study presented in this article has practical, as well as theoretical contributions. It deals with an area of performance measurement, which so far has been relatively ignored. It uses a system orientation (closed vs open), in addition to the strategic orientation (single vs multi-faceted strategy) in order to shed some light on the need to have consistency between the nature of the system and its strategic objective.

E-government is basically described as using all available electronic media to provide an online public services companies, agencies, citizens or persons in certain country or region. This provision can be provided by the government institutions, agencies, or organisation, in addition to public and private sectors subject to government policies and legislation. Political instability, armed conflict, corruption and chaotic situations are considered to be an obstacle confronting public services delivery and governance in some developing countries around the world. Therefore, Libya is selected a case study of this research. Post the 2011 ousting of the Gadhafi regime in Libya, the country has been experiencing a severe and deep-rooted environment of conflict and chaos, which has destabilised and in some cases dismantled government institutions throughout the country. Within this environment, the original aim of this study was to explore the possibility of implementing e-government services that can provide public services to citizens and, if so, how and what services could be utilised. An exploratory qualitative pilot study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of e-government implementation in Libya utilising the knowledge of government officials. The study found that, the Libyan government had recently and successfully implemented an online e-passport service. An extensive literature review carried out in relation to e-government implementation to help understanding lesions learned and factors behind such success then to utilise the knowledge for further services implementations. Critical success factors of e-government implementation were addressed but available ones are related to stable countries under normal situations. This research is aiming to investigate its implementation in chaotic environment where not much of research is available. During the chaotic environment and instability, different factors may emerge to drive the implementation and the usage of e-services such environment. From government perspectives, it is noticed that cases of corruption, lack of citizens’ safety and poor infrastructure were found to be drivers behind the success of existing government institutions and departments of implement e-passport system. Social collaboration and trust in government institutions’ commitment were emerged from the citizens’ perspectives as factors encouraged the citizens to use the e-passport system. Quantitative data analysed using structural equation modelling techniques using SmartPLS (3.2.7) together with the SPSS 23 were used to analyse the collected data. The outcome were used to propose a framework that can improve the implementation of public e-services while the country at unrest. Another contribution of this studies is the proposal of social collaboration model towards better e-services in such environment.

No description available.

Control predictivo basado en modelos (MPC) es una metodología de control ampliamente utilizada en la industria por su habilidad para controlar procesos multivariable con restricciones en sus entradas y sus salidas. Se distinguen dos fases en la implementación de MPC: identificación y control. El propósito de esta tesis es doble: realizar contribuciones en la identificación para MPC y proponer una nueva metodología de control MPC. La respuesta en bucle cerrado de una implementación de MPC depende, en gran medida, de la capacidad de predicción del modelo; luego la identificación del modelo es un punto crucial en MPC y la parte que a menudo exige la mayor parte del tiempo del proyecto. El primer objetivo que cubre la tesis es la identificación para MPC. Puesto que un modelo es una aproximación del comportamiento de un proceso, dicha aproximación se puede hacer teniendo en cuenta el fin que se le va a dar al modelo. En MPC, el modelo se utiliza para realizar predicciones dentro de una ventana futura, luego la identificación para MPC (MRI) tiene en cuenta dicho uso del modelo y considera los errores de predicción dentro de dicha ventana para el ajuste de los parámetros del modelo. En esta tesis, se cubren tres temas dentro de MRI. Primero se define MRI y las distintas formas de abordarlo. Luego se compara en términos de MRI el ajuste de un modelo con múltiples entradas y múltiples salidas con el ajuste de varios modelos con múltiples entradas y una salida concluyendo que el ajuste de un único modelo con múltiples entradas y múltiples salidas proporciona mejores resultados en términos de MRI para horizontes de predicción lo suficientemente grandes. Por último, se propone el algoritmo PLS-PH para implementar MRI con modelos paramétricos en el caso de correlación en los datos de identificación. PLS-PH es un método de optimización numérica por búsqueda lineal basado en PLS (mínimos cuadrados parciales). Se muestra en un ejemplo como PLS-PH es capaz de proporcionar mejores modelos que las técnicas convencionales de MRI en modelos paramétricos en el caso de correlación en los datos de identi ficación. Una vez obtenido el modelo se puede formular el controlador predictivo. En esta tesis se propone LV-MPC, un controlador predictivo para procesos continuos que implementa la optimización en el espacio de las componentes principales. / Laurí Pla, D. (2012). MPC: Relevant Identification and Control in the Latent Variable Space [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/15178

Yes / The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision-making model for supporting the management of risks in supply chain. This proposed model is applied to the case of the oil industry in Nigeria. A Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) is developed to measure the significance of the influence of risk management strategy on mitigating disruption risks and their correlations with the performance of activities in the supply chain and relevance of key performance measures in the organisation. The model considered seven aspects: behavioural-based management strategy, buffer based oriented management strategy, exploration and production risks, environmental and regulatory compliance risks, geopolitical risks, supply chain performance, and organisational performance measures. A survey questionnaire was applied to collect data to populate the model, with 187 participants from the oil industry. Based on the PLS-SEM methodology, an optimised risk management decision-making method was developed and accomplished. The results show that behavioural-based mechanism predicts the capacity of the organisation to manage risks successfully in its supply chain. The approach proposed provides a new and practical methodology to manage disruption risks in supply chains. Further, the behavioural-based mechanism can help to formulate risk management strategies in the oil industry.

"Hotel customers' interactions with service robots are becoming increasingly common, raising questions about how these interactions impact their experience. To address this gap in knowledge, this dissertation develops and validates a novel robotic service quality (ROBOQUAL) scale. Drawing on social exchange theory, the study examines the reciprocal relationship between hotel customers and artificially intelligent service robots, exploring how robotic service quality influences customers' perceptions of experience quality, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth intentions. The research employs focus-group studies, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and partial least squares equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to develop and validate the ROBOQUAL scale."

Über zwei Drittel der deutschen Bevölkerung leiden an Bewegungsmangel (Finger et al., 2017b). Körperliche Aktivität kann dem entgegenwirken. Gezielte Interventionen im Rahmen eines umfassendes Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement (BGM) können den Bewegungsmangel reduzieren und werden von der WHO (2019) empfohlen. Die Führungskraft spielt bei der Umsetzung eine entscheidende Rolle. Sie kann über Motivation, eine positive Beziehung, das Imitationslernen nach Bandura (1977, 1991) und den Führungsstil Einfluss auf die Gesundheit der Mitarbeitenden nehmen. Der gesundheitsorientierte Führungsstil (Franke & Felfe, 2011) umfasst die Dimensionen Achtsamkeit, Wichtigkeit und Verhalten und scheint daher ein geeignetes Modell für die Fragestellung zu sein. Das zugehörige Instrument HoL (Health-orientied Leadership) wurde bereits validiert (Pundt & Felfe,2017) und in verschiedenen Studien verwendet. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, zu prüfen, inwieweit sich die Sport- und Bewegungsaktivität durch den gesundheitsorientierten Führungsstil vorhersagen lässt. In Studie 1 wurde zunächst der Fragebogen auf Reliabilität und Validität überprüft. Nicht alle Items erfüllten die Gütekriterien und mussten daher ausgeschlossen werden. Es konnte dennoch verkürzte Konstrukte ermittelt werden, die in das Strukturgleichungsmodell (Studie 2) integriert wurden. Studie 2 untersuchte den Zusammenhang zwischen dem gesundheitsorientierten Führungsstil und der Sport- und Bewegungsaktivität von Mitarbeitenden anhand eines Strukturgleichungsmodells. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Modellgüte des Gesamtmodells zu gering ist, um allgemeingültige Aussagen zu treffen, die Prognosekraft ist nicht ausreichend. Es konnte allerdings ein signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen der SelfCare der Führungskraft und der Sport- und Bewegungsaktivität belegt werden, moderiert durch die SelfCare der Mitarbeitenden. In Studie 3 wurde die Teilnahme der Mitarbeitenden an BGF-Maßnahmen näher untersucht. Es zeigt sich, dass die Motivation zur Teilnahme an den BGF-Maßnahmen durch die Führungskraft mit einer zweimal so hohen Teilnahme-Wahrscheinlichkeit der Mitarbeitenden assoziiert ist. Nimmt die Führungskraft teil, ist die Teilnahme-Wahrscheinlichkeit 2,5 mal so hoch. Die Arbeit liefert wichtige Erkenntnisse zur Rolle der Führungskraft bei der Bewegungsförderung von Mitarbeitenden mit einer sitzenden Tätigkeit. Kritisch anzumerken ist die mangelnde Prognosekraft des Strukturgleichungsmodells und die geringe Modellgüte der Modelle in Studie 3. Weitere Studien sollten daher weitere Aspekte, die zur Bewegungsförderung beitragen können, mit einbeziehen. Außerdem sollten zukünftige Studien persönliche Barrieren erheben, um zu prüfen, wie die Beteiligung an BGF-Maßnahmen gesteigert werden kann.:Inhalt Zusammenfassung Abstract Abbildungsverzeichnis Tabellenverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis 1 Einleitung 2 Relevanz der Arbeit 2.1 Bewegungsmangel und dessen Auswirkung auf die Gesundheit 2.2 Der sedentäre Lebensstil 2.3 Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz 2.3.1 Einfluss von Arbeit auf die Gesundheit der Mitarbeitenden 2.3.2 Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement und betriebliche Bewegungsförderung 2.3.3 Gezielte Interventionen am Arbeitsplatz 3 Definition von Führung 3.1 Einfluss der Führungskraft auf die Gesundheit 3.1.1 Motivation 3.1.2 Imitationslernen 3.1.3 Positive Beziehung und Interaktionen 3.1.4 Führungsstil 3.2 Der gesunde Führungsstil – begriffliche Abgrenzung der Theorien 3.2.1 Gesundheitsförderliche Führung 3.2.2 Gesundheitsorientierte Führung 4 Fragestellungen der empirischen Studien 5 Methodik 5.1 Methodisches Vorgehen 5.2 Instrumente 5.2.1 HoL – Health-oriented Leadership 5.2.2 Bewegungs- und Sportaktivität 5.2.3 Weitere Daten 6 Studien 6.1 Studie 1: Teststatistische Überprüfung des Fragebogens HoL 6.1.1 Methodik 6.1.2 Ergebnisse 6.2 Studie 2: Der Zusammenhang von Führung und körperlicher Aktivität 6.2.1 Methodik 6.2.2 Ergebnisse 6.3 Studie 3: Betriebliche Gesundheitsförderung 6.3.1 Methodik 6.3.2 Ergebnisse 7 Diskussion 7.1 Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Studie 1 7.2 Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Studie 2 7.3 Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Studie 3 7.4 Übergreifende Diskussion und Schlussfolgerungen 7.4.1 Motivation 7.4.2 Vorbild 7.4.3 Führungsstil 7.4.4 Positive Beziehung 7.4.5 Sport- und Bewegungsaktivität 7.4.6 Methodendiskussion 8 Fazit und Ausblick 9 Literatur 10 Anhang Anhang: Tabellen zu Studie 2 / Over two thirds of the German population suffer from a lack of exercise (Finger et al., 2017b). Physical activity can counteract this. Targeted interventions, as part of a comprehensive workplace health management (WHM), can reduce physical inactivity and are recommended by the WHO (2019). Managers play a decisive role by implementing the WHM. Managers can influence employees’ health via motivation, a positive relationship, imitation learning according to Bandura (1977, 1991) and their leadership style. The health-oriented leadership (Franke & Felfe, 2011) encompasses the dimensions of values, awareness and behavior and therefore seems to be a suitable model for investigating employees’ health and the role management plays. The associated instrument, HoL (Health-oriented Leadership), has already been validated (Pundt & Felfe, 2017) and used in various studies. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which physical activity can be predicted by a health-oriented leadership style. In study 1, the questionnaire was first tested for reliability and validity. Some items did not fulfil the quality criteria and therefore had to be excluded. Nevertheless, shortened constructs could be determined, which were included in the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) (Study 2). Study 2 investigated the relationship between health-oriented leadership and employees’ physical activity levels using PLS-SEM. The results show that the model quality is insufficient to make generally valid statements; the predictive power is low. However, a significant correlation between the manager’s SelfCare and employees’ physical activity could be found, moderated by the employees’ SelfCare. In Study 3, the participation in workplace health-promotion programs (WHP) was analyzed in more detail. It was found that the motivation of the manager is associated with an almost twice as high probability of employee participation. Management participation in the WHP is even associated with a 2.5 times higher probability of employees’ participation. The study provides important insights into managers’ role in promoting physical activity among employees who have a sedentary workplace. The lack of predictive power of the SEM and the low model quality of the models in Study 3 have to be seen critically. Future studies should thus encompass other factors contributing to physical activity promotion. In addition, future studies should also investigate personal barriers in order to examine how participation in WHP can be increased.:Inhalt Zusammenfassung Abstract Abbildungsverzeichnis Tabellenverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis 1 Einleitung 2 Relevanz der Arbeit 2.1 Bewegungsmangel und dessen Auswirkung auf die Gesundheit 2.2 Der sedentäre Lebensstil 2.3 Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz 2.3.1 Einfluss von Arbeit auf die Gesundheit der Mitarbeitenden 2.3.2 Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement und betriebliche Bewegungsförderung 2.3.3 Gezielte Interventionen am Arbeitsplatz 3 Definition von Führung 3.1 Einfluss der Führungskraft auf die Gesundheit 3.1.1 Motivation 3.1.2 Imitationslernen 3.1.3 Positive Beziehung und Interaktionen 3.1.4 Führungsstil 3.2 Der gesunde Führungsstil – begriffliche Abgrenzung der Theorien 3.2.1 Gesundheitsförderliche Führung 3.2.2 Gesundheitsorientierte Führung 4 Fragestellungen der empirischen Studien 5 Methodik 5.1 Methodisches Vorgehen 5.2 Instrumente 5.2.1 HoL – Health-oriented Leadership 5.2.2 Bewegungs- und Sportaktivität 5.2.3 Weitere Daten 6 Studien 6.1 Studie 1: Teststatistische Überprüfung des Fragebogens HoL 6.1.1 Methodik 6.1.2 Ergebnisse 6.2 Studie 2: Der Zusammenhang von Führung und körperlicher Aktivität 6.2.1 Methodik 6.2.2 Ergebnisse 6.3 Studie 3: Betriebliche Gesundheitsförderung 6.3.1 Methodik 6.3.2 Ergebnisse 7 Diskussion 7.1 Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Studie 1 7.2 Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Studie 2 7.3 Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Studie 3 7.4 Übergreifende Diskussion und Schlussfolgerungen 7.4.1 Motivation 7.4.2 Vorbild 7.4.3 Führungsstil 7.4.4 Positive Beziehung 7.4.5 Sport- und Bewegungsaktivität 7.4.6 Methodendiskussion 8 Fazit und Ausblick 9 Literatur 10 Anhang Anhang: Tabellen zu Studie 2

Dans un marché en permanente progression et pour répondre aux besoins des brasseurs en malt de qualité, la maîtrise du procédé de maltage est indispensable. La qualité du malt est fortement dépendante des conditions opératoires, en particulier des conditions de trempe, mais également de la qualité de la matière première : l'orge. Dans cette étude, nous avons établi des modèles polynomiaux qui mettent en relation les conditions opératoires et la qualité du malt. Ces modèles ont été couplés à nos algorithmes génétiques et nous ont permis de déterminer les conditions optimales de maltage, soit pour atteindre une qualité ciblée de malt (friabilité), soit pour permettre un maltage à faible teneur en eau (pour réduire la consommation en eau et maîtriser les coûts environnementaux de production) tout en conservant une qualité acceptable de malt. Cependant, la variabilité de la matière première est un facteur limitant de notre approche. Les modèles établis sont en effet très sensibles à l'espèce d'orge (printemps, hiver) ou encore à la variété d'orge utilisée. Les modèles sont surtout très dépendants de l'année de récolte. Les variations observées sur les propriétés d'une année de récolte à une autre sont mal caractérisées et ne sont donc pas intégrées dans nos modèles. Elles empêchent ainsi de capitaliser l'information expérimentale au cours du temps. Certaines propriétés structurelles de l'orge (porosité, dureté) ont été envisagées comme nouveaux facteurs pour mieux caractériser la matière première mais ils n'ont pas permis d'expliquer les variations observés en malterie.Afin de caractériser la matière première, 394 échantillons d'orge issus de 3 années de récolte différentes 2009-2010-2011 ont été analysés par spectroscopie MIR. Les analyses ACP ont confirmé l'effet notable des années de récolte, des espèces, des variétés voire des lieux de culture sur les propriétés de l'orge. Une régression PLS a permis, pour certaines années et pour certaines espèces, de prédire les teneurs en protéines et en béta-glucanes de l'orge à partir des spectres MIR. Cependant, ces résultats, pourtant prometteurs, se heurtent toujours à la variabilité. Ces nouveaux modèles PLS peuvent toutefois être exploités pour mettre en place des stratégies de pilotage du procédé de maltage à partir de mesures spectroscopiques MIR / In a continuously growing market and in order to meet the needs of Brewers in high quality malt, control of the malting process is a great challenge. Malt quality is highly dependent on the malting process operating conditions, especially on the steeping conditions, but also the quality of the raw material: barley. In this study, we established polynomial models that relate the operating conditions and the malt quality. These models have been coupled with our genetic algorithms to determine the optimal steeping conditions, either to obtain a targeted quality of malt (friability), or to allow a malting at low water content while maintaining acceptable quality of malt (to reduce water consumption and control the environmental costs of malt production). However, the variability of the raw material is a limiting factor for our approach. Established models are very sensitive to the species (spring and winter barley) or to the barley variety. The models are especially highly dependent on the crop year. Variations on the properties of a crop from one to another year are poorly characterized and are not incorporated in our models. They thus prevent us to capitalize experimental information over time. Some structural properties of barley (porosity, hardness) were considered as new factors to better characterize barley but they did not explain the observed variations.To characterize barley, 394 samples from 3 years of different crops 2009-2010-2011 were analysed by MIR spectroscopy. ACP analyses have confirmed the significant effect of the crop-years, species, varieties and sometimes of places of harvest on the properties of barley. A PLS regression allowed, for some years and for some species, to predict content of protein and beta-glucans of barley using MIR spectra. These results thus still face product variability, however, these new PLS models are very promising and could be exploited to implement control strategies in malting process using MIR spectroscopic measurements