This dissertation concerns the development of a new interorganizational vehicle platform in the truck industry. The studied project setting was large, and can be referred to as a mega project. I ask the question How are boundaries organized in an interorganizational vehicle platform project setting, and how can we understand the tensions which arise when such organizing is performed? I assume that tensions arise in relation to questions concerning novelty, interdependencies, and differences.  Tensions should therefore not be seen as something bad, tensions are rather a prerequisite for achieving change.   The overall aim is to create insights in how boundaries in an interorganizational platform project setting are organized between: projects and governing actors, projects and permanent organizations, projects and external organizations, projects and projects, and finally inside projects (between different functions).  A secondary aim is to understand the roles which actors, activities and objects play, and the tensions which are experienced, when boundaries are being challenged and organized.   The study was performed during the concept phase, and a practice approach was used in order to capture the inner life of projects. A project setting with three projects was studied for three months, where I performed 68 interviews and observed 32 meetings. I have used a mix of narrative and alternate templates strategies and induced themes which constitute the base for the analysis.   I assume that boundaries are socially constructed and I argue that traditional normative findings in project management studies should be complemented with findings from organizational theory, and therefore use a multidisciplinary theoretical base. I have combined theories relating to; boundary construction, projects, boundary actors, activities, objects, and coordination/integration.   My analysis consists of two parts, in the first part I analyze value-, mandate-, and structural tensions and finds that actors in the setting; organize a commonality balancing area where decisions are affected by a mandates filter and need to be understood in relation to a coopetitive tensions model. In the second part of the analysis I have found that actors in the setting balance tensions and organize boundaries by performing four major Quality improvement loops based on a fragmented value base where boundary activities should be seen as having three dimensions; administrative, sharing, and political.   The creation of the shared platform is simultaneously affected by strategic, operational, and functional efforts.  This fact in combination with the size and uniqueness of the project setting, leads to the insight that technological innovation must be accompanied by organizational innovation. Therefore I have suggested that organizing of boundaries in interorganizational vehicle project settings should be understood as being performed through Concurrent Boundary Enactment.

Implementation of a small-scale irrigation project in southern Mauritania is analyzed in this report. The main objective is to demonstrate that small-scale irrigation farming is the best suited solution for Mauritania's agriculture. To reach this objective different steps are taken in this study. The first step highlights the different aspects affecting the development of agriculture in the Senegal River basin such as climatic, environmental, and socio-economic constraints. The next step is the design of a small-scale irrigation system for a small region in the middle valley of the Senegal River called the Dirol plain. Finally, analysis and discussion of the design is made. This discussion centers on the problems faced during the design and the different assumptions made to implement it. The conclusion section addresses the feasibility of the design and gives recommendations that will help improve the design process for future work in the Senegal River basin. / Graduation date: 1996

El trabajo considera uno de los puntos centrales de la investigación de gestiones estratégicas: ¿cómo crear y mantener una ventaja competitiva a largo plazo ? Está basado en una estructura orientada a los recursos y capacidades centrándose en aquellas firmas/empresas con capacidades-clave.Este planteamiento se basa en el concepto de que las firmas/empresas de industrias en continuo desarrollo no pueden sostenerse sobre sus capacidades-clave durante un periodo muy largo. Tienen que desarrollarse, adaptarse y renovar estas capacidades para seguir siendo competitivas. Este proceso de desarrollo de capacidades depende en gran medida del camino seguido anteriormente. Por eso es crucial para el sostén de esta ventaja competitiva la interacción entre el pasado y las necesidades futuras de la empresa.A menudo existe una relación ambivalente entre las capacidades-clave de la empresa y el desarrollo de nuevos proyectos. Los proyectos se ven dificultados por la inercia inherente de la empresa contra toda nueva forma de comportamiento laboral. Los proyectos especiales que se aplicarán a una gran extension desde el negocio principal podrian convertirse en un foco de tension dentro de la organizacion.El trabajo fue conducido con la ayuda de estudios de casos descriptivos/comparativos en el sector de la industria de alta tecnologia. Los datos fueron obtenidos de revistas empresariales, internet, paginas web, entrevistas personales, y observaciones participativas. Un proceso de "pattern matching" fue utilizado para relacionar descubrimientos empiricos con 3 "patterns" construidos apriori.El trabajo puede servir para complementar el marco general de referencia para el manejo de "core-capabilities" dinamicas. El acercamiento busca tambien promover el enlace entre la "intrapreneurship" y la capacidad de aproximacion conducida en el campo de manejo estrategico, corroborando que el contexto intraprenurial soporte la construccion de una organizacion focalizada en los recursos y las capacidades. / The dissertation considers one of the central themes of strategic management research: How to create and maintain a competitive advantage over a longer period of time? It is based on a resource- and capability-oriented framework focussing on the firms' "core-capabilities". The approach follows the idea that firms in fast changing industries cannot rest on their current core-capabilities for a longer time frame. They have to develop, adapt, and renew theses capabilities to stay competitive. This capability development process depends to a great extend on the firm's former development path. Therefore it is crucial for the sustainment of the competitive advantage how the corporate management makes a link between the experience from the past and the firm's future needs.Often there is an ambivalent relationship between the firm's core-capabilities and new development projects. The projects are hindered by the inertia of the incumbent organization against new forms of working behaviour. Especially projects that depart to a great extent from the main business may become a focal point of tension inside the organization. The research was conducted with the help of descriptive/comparative case-studies in the high-technology industry sector. Data were gathered from firm brochures, internet sites, personal interviews, and participating observations. A pattern matching process was used to match empirical findings with 3 apriori constructed pattern. The work may serve to complement the frame of reference for the management of dynamic core-capabilities. The approach seeks also to foster the link between intrapreneurship and the capability-driven approach in the field of strategic management, corrobating that the intrapreneurial context supports the building of a resource- and capability-focussed organization.

During the summer 2012 a bachelor’s thesis was performed at Autoliv Sweden AB inVårgårda regarding potential improvements on launches, with focus on the purchasingprocess. The activities that were needed to be able to reach the main goal, proposals ofpotential improvements, were divided into three interim goals. The interim goals can beseen as activities along the way containing necessary information that was needed to beable to come up with potential improvements. The approach for the thesis was to first do a literature review on value stream mapping, how development projects at Autoliv Sweden AB are performed and on launches in theautomotive industry based on scientific articles. After the literature review a case study wasmade, using value stream mapping as a tool, on one development project at AutolivSweden AB for investigation of the launch. The result of the case study was presented intwo maps over the administrative stream for the components in the development project;one according to project time plan and one according to how the activities in the launchactual were performed. Based on the literature and the maps from the case study, three potential improvements, that would be relatively easy and inexpensive to implement, were found; (1) Involve thesupplier more and at an earlier stage in the development project, (2) involve the Logisticsdepartment more and (3) implement control level definition on the development projectsas well, not just the parts. The conclusion for this thesis was that if Autoliv Sweden AB decides to implement allproposed improvements both money and time will be saved.

Strategic change projects allow companies to align their strategy to the turbulent external environment in today’s marketplace and are therefore crucial for retaining the competitive advantage of the firm. The identification of the critical success factors for these projects has become increasingly important, because of the reported high failure rates in the implementation of such projects. The important role of SMEs for the social and economic development of a country is well-known. However, SMEs as an area of study are not often discussed by researchers and an appropriate set of critical success factors for them is lacking. Therefore, it is vital to identify the critical success factors for the implementation of strategic change projects in SMEs to ensure the success of their efforts. This study, which seeks to determine the critical success factors for the implementation of strategic change projects within the context of SMEs makes use of a multiple-case study strategy. The cases are based in two companies where semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to obtain the primary data required. The information retrieved from the selected cases was analysed using a qualitative approach. For the elaboration of the conclusion, an iterative process was followed, moving from the data collected, to the theoretical background and to the development of theory. At the end of the study it was possible to identify a set of eleven critical success factors that answers the research question of this thesis. In addition, a conceptual model was derived from the theoretical and empirical studies of this work, outlining three dimensions that are considered to influence strategic change project success in the SME-setting. The present study would be beneficial to the practitioners of SMEs as the identified set of critical success factors can be used as a checklist of points to concentrate on when implementing strategic change projects. This will assist them in ensuring that the crucial factors and issues are addressed during implementation. For academics, the study contributes new knowledge to the field and offers a common language for discussing the critical success factors of strategic change projects in SMEs.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) scramble for Africa which begun in 1980 and 90’s as a result of the introduction of Structural Adjusted Policies (SAP) by the neo-liberalist which are; International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank was purposely meant for free market economy, less government intervention in the economy in order to raise competition, induce rapid growth and economic development. The introduction of SAP resulted to a vacuum in the provision of welfare in Ghana especially in the remote areas. Since the introduction of SAP bilateral and multilateral institutions are increasingly entrusting NGOs to carry out the needs of the people more than government. This has led to a myriad explosion of local and international NGOs in Ghana for development purposes. Though the rural poor are the primary aim for NGOs and District Assembly (DA) activities, they are often the least to be contacted on the implementation and formulation of programs or projects in terms of priorities and interventions. The materials and methods used in the write up of this thesis include field survey, interviews and literature study. Both primary and secondary data was used. Purposive sampling is adopted based on the objectives of the study. Forty households were selected in order to interview project participants since they were expected to have first-hand knowledge of the organizations projects and activities. This was supplemented with interviews with focus group discussion, key informants, international and local NGOs and government officials’ interviews were made. The study emphasized that NGOs suffer from external agenda-setting which makes their programs or projects rigidly defined and create new dependencies. This prevents them from carrying out other actions apart from those initially foreseen in the project or program (not flexible) (top-down). Interventions have not benefited the people and lack of transparency and co-ordination among the NGOs and the DA is a primary problem in the study area. The stakeholders often contribute to an all-ready decided projects or programs and participated in past development programs or projects as laborers. Clientelist has weakened the DA system in Lambussie. There has not been any training for sustainable self-reliant organizations by the nine NGOs operating in Karni. Also it was evident from the study that farmers have not made any collective efforts to improve their marketing situation in the area and neither has NGOs and DA made any effort to improve farmers marketing situation. The study made the following suggestions; access to improved infrastructures, availability of unrestricted funds from donors, education and gender issues, enhancing micro-credit schemes and small scale industries, modernization of agricultural productivity, transparency and accountability—of which would help to improve DA and NGOs activities and achieve sustainable food security in Karni.

Abstract The educational budget system and relevant decree have been promulgated since 2000. One of the important changes is the budget of each educational institute has been changed to funds system. Each educational institute should funds raised by itself. Come down a few years, inside in educational institute get up asymptotic change. They should have more interaction with the societies in order to obtain more resources. Because of the change and development of the social attitude, government¡¦s public affair budget has adjusted by a wide margin. Increase in the social welfare expenditure, comparatively, the budget of public construction are squeezed. The Law for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects, which was promulgated on Feb. 9, 2000, espouses the spirit of vigorous innovation and, from the aspect of creating benefit, establishes partnership relations between the government and the private sector. The main features of this law include the following: 1. Embodiment of general-type legislation. 2. Embodiment of the civil contract concept. 3. Maximization of private participation. 4. Maximization of government carefulness. The law builds the new bridge between public sector and private sector for working together. This research takes educational institute as an example, besides offering private participation opportunity; the project find the way to renew the facilities in the institute. The result of this research shows, consider the factors, such as the investment benefit, the right of consumers, the reasonable market price, etc, then adjust the proportion of investment, contract time, and find the way balancing between the public and private sector. It shows by the feedback plan to the institute or public sector. When the public sector carrying out BOT plan, should consider different plan characteristics, scale, market value, etc. adjust the relation with the private sector. Find the way working together, and make the project success. KEYWORD¡G educational institute, budget, Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects, investment feasibility study

Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (fuzzy ANP) is a helpful approach for the selection cooperative R&D projects developed by firms in collaboration with government. A technical committee for Industrial Technology Development Program (ITDP) in Taiwan regularly evaluates and decides proper public subsidiary of cooperative R&D projects. In this paper, we first discuss important decision criteria and establish decision model for ITDP projects selection. We apply fuzzy ANP to integrate decisions of members in the technical committee. In addition, we use simulation to analyze how decisions of technical committee change. Our results indicate that scientific & technology merit criterion is most important considered in overall technical committees. Besides that, the project execution is more important criteria than potential benefits and project risk in ITDP selection. Generally speaking, the paper reveals below results: (1) the fuzzy ANP is an appropriate method in multi-criteria technology R&D projects selection; (2) the decisions of technical committee will change under different decision risk and different risk attitude; (3) the interviews of technical committee indicate that ITDP is very important policy for improvement firms¡¦ R&D abilities.

Abstract The development of engineering business enterprises in Taiwan began around 1960 to meet the demands of economic development. In the early days, the majority were judicial organizations with government involvement, their growth were slow and small in operation scale. It is only in recent years that few engineering enterprises became capable of handling complete facility turnkey projects, and be able to participate in larger projects internationally. The so-called ¡§engineering enterprises¡¨ in the early days were a blend of engineering consultants and constructors. The services provided by both entities are oriented toward public works. The engineering consultants would be responsible for engineering planning, design, supervision and tender administration. The constructors would be responsible for supply of materials and construction works. This research is a case study of the business strategy of a turnkey engineering enterprise in Taiwan. The subject enterprise is the only full engineering, procurement and construction service turnkey enterprise domestically. Relevant literatures, both locally and abroad, were reviewed and discussed, and, senior management of the subject enterprise interviewed. The industry in which the subject enterprise operates and its competitiveness were analyzed. Research findings were collated and discussed. Eight conclusive points and eight recommendations were tabled for the subject enterprise. This report provides a reference for domestic turnkey engineering enterprises in drafting their business strategy. Eight conclusive points were raised: (1) success comes from seizing internal and external environmental opportunities, more importantly is to have core competitive strength, (2) a superior business culture nurtures superior staff, (3) growth is derived from a long term loyal relationship with clients and subcontractors, (4) adopt key diversification strategies with high probabilities of success, (5) oligopoly of domestic market and competition in the international market, (6) participation of renowned international enterprises in the domestic market will enhance the competitive advantage, (7) attaining accreditation of ISO management system facilitates entering the international engineering market, and (8) the next five years are great opportunities for the subject enterprise to grow domestically and internationally. Eight recommendations were made to the subject enterprise: (1) acquisition of upstream product processes and patents, (2) adopt a product concentration strategy in the international market, (3) adopt a ward-off strategy in the domestic market, abandon the medium and small competitors, (4) development of new products and branch into new discipline, (5) elevate working level and expand operations, (6) expand international market, promote international exposure, (7) focus more on product R&D and quality, and (8) adopt a water reservoir management method. Two suggestions for future research: (1) comparative study of business strategy of internationally renowned engineering enterprises, and (2) risk management of turnkey projects.

Industrially supported projects, which are an important part of industrial design education, have been carried on with an increasing pace in universities in Turkey for a long time. This thesis develops strategies to improve collaborative projects with industry in industrial design education, by examining how collaboration member benefit from each other&rsquo / s and which problems do they encounter with collaboration / and to find out what the needs and expectations of all members are through a case study of graduation projects. As a case study, the graduation project course in the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University in 2005 spring semester was chosen, where collaboration with industry has been regularly held since 2002. Results of questionnaires with all collaboration members namely the students, educators and company representatives were evaluated in order to develop strategies. As a conclusion, implications to facilitate further developments of university- industry collaboration projects and academic schemes are reached.