The application of Global Internet gives birth to a new trading method, electronic commerce (EC). Because EC possesses advantages such as rapid circulation, far-reaching, low cost, and anytime and anywhere etc., the development of EC replaces the information, contacts, and consultation processes in some traditional sales channels and even develops into direct mode of shopping. Tourism products belong to intangible experiential services with characteristics such as heterogeneity, intangibility, and perishability etc., which makes the travel industry an information intensive industry and is very suitable for the development of EC. Resource-based theory is used as a framework to study its application on the travel industry in this research. It is combined with field interviews and case analysis to study the tourism EC. The critical success factors for travel agencies to develop EC are summarized through the analysis and comprehensive comparison of two different types of travel agencies. It is found that the profitability of tourism EC is mainly dominated by cost leading strategy with the differentiation strategy as a supplement. However, the differentiation strategy can attract customers and lock them in; the most important among them is to enhance the added values. Enterprises will transform their organization structure and strategies according to their own characteristics and resources during the development of EC and the tourism industry belongs to information flow intensive industry in which the deployment of EC requires a set of suitable and complete business model to have a high possibility of success. The research results show that ¡§fully understanding customers¡¦ needs¡¨ is the necessary capability to develop EC successfully and customer and member base is the critical success factor. Also, ¡§value creation¡¨ can be achieved through the development of social networks and blog marketing; at the same time, the research also shows that travel agencies are gradually developing cross channel integration in the process of developing electronic commerce: whether it is virtual travel agency moving from virtual to brick and mortar or traditional agency moving from brick and mortar to virtual, they tend to move toward the integration of click-and-mortar. EC is not just simply establishing a web site: it also includes solving problems such as internal process transformation, computerization, networking, and communicating with external resources etc. It bounds to change certain part of work which employees perform currently and induces behavior changes in consumers. The critical point to the success of the tourism EC is how to coordinate so that employees will accept the new work model and consumers will accept new consumption method.

Automation Industrial were developed in Taiwan more than 20 years, from particular Home Factory, Mechanical Machine, Precision Mechanical Machine develop¡K since single machine to communication integration, the software and hardware innovation created different application and used in different industrial, there are more and more unobvious boundary between business model and marketing situation, the new comer get more high entry level into automation marketing. A company is one of the Global Manufacture Enterprises, their main business are focus on Automation and Power Industrial, they are top five worldwide marketing position, according to worldwide bad economical situation, the large system projects are decadency, but the middle and small projects are growth, from feeder factory point of view: how to create middle and small marketing share to improve product quality and create service value for customer, satisfy customer niche continuative; it needs create a strong partnership strategy, therefore A company start push automation control system partnership policy. A case study of Taiwan A company automation control system partnership create and long term development setup policy. How to create new profit between partner and A company? How to achieve win-win collaboration? How to use A company¡¦s product to improve partner and client relationship? It makes win-win-win collaboration. Base on Resource-Based Theory (RBT) structure, dynamically weave resource and understand the new business model on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to satisfy with both partner and client. With this to know how to enhance sufficient satisfied. To be the guideline of company operation¡Btraining and after service content.

<p>Background: It is necessary for a company to hold some unique and irreplicable competitive advantage in order to be able to succeed in a market. In a market where public procurement is an important part the competitive advantages will be characterized by the fact that some of the participants on the market are public organizations and that their actions as for procurement fall under the legislation LOU. The characteristics of competitive advantage also depend on and change with continuous changes on a market. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the competitive advantages that are presenton a current market characterized by public procurement and how these are created. The purposes is also to based on the trends on the market today study and predict the nature of the competitive advantage on the market in the future as well as the changes that we think will occur on the relevant market. </p><p>Realization: We have performed a case study of the market for enteral nutrition where data have been gathered from interviews with participants in the market and from studying the law of public procurement. The data is gathered and analysed based on an adapted model that we have derived from two theoretical perspectives of competitive advantage. The model that looks to the nature and the origin of competitive advantage has been tested and evaluated through application on the market. </p><p>Results: Strategic assets are of great importance in order for a company to create a competitive advantage in the form of being established, relations, being established in municipalities and the offer on the market of enteral nutrition today. These strategic assets and competitive advantages will in the future be characterized by the trends that are present on the market today. These trends are identified as an increasing knowledge, products for specific diseases, cooperation, limited procurements, alternative distribution channels and working towards the patients. The creation and the nature of competitive advantage is shaped by an interaction between the resources and capabilities of the firm and the needs and the needs and the demands of the market.</p>

The resource based radical change from semiconductor manufacturing into the artificial plant factory is studied by understanding the resource capabilities in each industry separately. Due to lack of scientific research in the resource re-utilization process, the phenomenon is explored by studying the role of three different resources from a holistic view. By a qualitative research method, the motivating reasons for the change, the resources involved in the change, duration, and the resource based information were studied. The collected data are analysed under three different categories such as knowledge, infrastructure, and production technology. The identified problems were the unsatisfied resource capabilities, which have to be solved during the change process. As a result of the analysis, a framework is developed by combining all the three resources from a holistic view, in the change process. The framework is structured in three separate phases and inferred to support the resource re-utilization in the radical change process.

Traditionally, research investigating marketing's role and influence within the firm has focused on the marketing department and its ability to affect future firm strategies. Consequently, little is known about the antecedents of a Chief Marketing Officer's (CMO) role or influence. Yet the position of CMO is quite unique. Unlike other executive officers (e.g., CFOs), no reliable external validation or accreditation is generally recognized, required, or mandated. Similarly, firms are increasingly calling for their CMOs to justify their own existence, and many are even considering abandonment of the position entirely.The goal of this investigation is to understand how CMOs can generate influence within their respective firms given a lack of reliable external credentials. However, the current business press seems to suggest that there currently exists a great bias towards marketing in general and CMOs in particular. As a result, the current investigation uses a competing models approach to study CMO influence. Drawing upon the literature pertaining to competition, the author suggests that individuals, like firms, can generate their own competitive advantage by possessing unique bundles of resources (e.g., information). This is the common element in both models. As the uniqueness of the information provided by the CMO increases, other executive officers within the firm are more likely to confer expertise power to the CMO, which in turn leads to greater influence. The two models diverge as organizational legitimacy is introduced. In one model, the Socially Contingent model, the CMO can only garner expertise power to the extent that s/he possesses organizational legitimacy. In such a case, CMOs that lack organizational legitimacy will be unable to realize any gains in expertise power regardless of the uniqueness of their informational resources (i.e., organizational legitimacy moderates the relationship between the uniqueness of the information provided and expertise power). In the second model, the Merit-Based model, organizational legitimacy mediates the relationship between a CMO's expertise power and his/her influence. As a CMO's perceived expertise increases, other executive officers are more likely to support the CMO's initiatives, which in turn lead to greater influence during strategy design and implementation.

This study investigates the relationship between gender, social capital and resilience in four of British Columbia’s rural, island communities. Each community’s unique circumstances provide a distinctive context in which to study the interaction between these concepts. This study utilizes quantitative data from several sources, including Statistics Canada, BC Stats, and a mail out survey conducted by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP). This study also utilizes qualitative data from several sources, including two sets of RCP interviews, interviews carried out in the Haida First Nation community of Old Massett, and participant observation. The results of these case studies confirm the necessity of taking context into consideration in any study of the operation of social capital. Within this specific context, social networks operate very differently than in an urban setting. The small size of these rural communities means that the entire community functions as one social network, within which residents have ties of differing strengths. The strength of their ties determines their access to resources within the network, as access to these resources is only given to those who are accountable and trustworthy. Through visible and repeated social interaction, residents built strong ties to one another. These ties allow for processes of generalized reciprocity to take place, wherein residents give to others with no immediate expectation of receiving back, knowing that should they need help, it will be available. This process relies entirely on the trust built up through repeated interactions and the sanctions imposed on those who break it, and contributes greatly to community resilience. Women play a particular role within these communities. Unlike studies that find that women are disadvantaged by their social networks, the results of this study find that women have parlayed their higher levels of involvement in the social life of the community and the informal economy into beneficial social networks based on trust and reciprocity. In addition, their higher levels of education put them at the forefront of the new service economy with lower levels of unemployment and equal likelihood of self-employment, all of which contributes not only to individual resilience, but community resilience as well.

This thesis discusses the challenges of modern organizations in their efforts of designing relevant project governance systems. To address the challenge the paper proposes using resource-based view on project-based organizations in order to evaluate and identify key governance resources. Given that prevailing rational and standardized models in project-related literature provide organizations with homogeneous resource-base, this paper invites attention to those resources, which have the potential to deliver unique character to the organizations. The thesis first discusses the relevance of exploring projects as governance resources at project-based organizations, next screens the projects through VRIO framework of resource-based theory. Derived intangible resources and organizational resources are further explored at a case study organization. The findings are analysed through complex adaptive systems theory, where intrinsic motivations appear as sources for emerging project governance systems, while principal trust serves as a resource for self-organization of projects and project governance unit.

This study investigates the relationship between firm resources, positioning strategies and performance in the smaller firm. Porter’s generic strategies have been useful in describing how firms compete in the marketplace, and the resource based view has shown that resources can lead to a sustained competitive advantage. The strategic management field has begun to combine the two theories and examine the link between them. Small firms must make the best use of their relatively scarce resources. It is proposed that the relationship between resources and performance is contingent upon the positioning strategy the firm competes on, although there has only been limited supporting research to date. This research builds on work by Edelman et al. (2005) by examining the relationship between human, organisational and physical resources, and the strategies of quality/ customer service, innovation, and cost leadership in 447 retail, engineering, and professional service firms in New Zealand. Using Structural Equations Modelling this research finds that positioning strategies are the mechanism by which firms can leverage their resources into higher performance. This relationship can be modelled as mediated or moderated, with statistical analysis sensitive to model complexity. The firm’s environment influences this relationship with different resources required to support each position depending on the industry. Specifically human, organisational, and physical resources appear to be viable sources of competitive advantage when they are leveraged by a strategy of quality/ customer service, innovation or cost leadership when the industry environment is conducive to the resource – strategy combination.

Background: In a world that is becoming more knowledge-based and where it gets harder to find value-adding employees, employer branding could be used as a way to attract and retain employees, which later can create competitive advantage. Research Question: In order to experience competitive advantage, how do SMEs use the strategies and tools of employer branding as a way to attract and retain value-adding employees? Purpose: The purpose with this study was to explore how employer branding is used by SMEs as a way to experience competitive advantage. Method: A qualitative research method with six case studies of SMEs located in different industries was adopted. Primary data was based on semi-structured interviews with respondents at the different SMEs. Theoretical framework: With the basis of the RBV, theories about this and the human capital as a resource as well as a competitive advantage, is presented. This continues with theories about the employer brand, attractive attributes about employers, employer branding strategies, and what the outcomes of employer branding is.  Findings and Conclusions: SMEs do not use the strategies and tools of employer branding in the generic way. Instead, much communication is carried out first when the recruitment process starts, with the aim to find employees who could deliver competitive advantage through their fit with the organization. Once onboard, different benefits are provided in order to retain them. Involvement and engagement are the most prominent ones, due to SMEs ability to offer cross-functional management.

Cloud computing is becoming a viable option for Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) and business stakeholders to consider in today’s information technology (IT) environment, characterized by shrinking budgets and dynamic changes in the technology landscape. The objective of this study is to help Federal Government decision makers appropriately decide on the suitability of applications for migration to cloud computing. I draw from four theoretical perspectives: transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, agency theory and dynamic capabilities theory and use a conjoint analysis approach to understand stakeholder attitudes, opinions and behaviors in their decision to migrate applications to cloud computing. Based on a survey of 81 government cloud computing stakeholders, this research examined the relative importance of thirteen factors that organizations consider when migrating applications to cloud computing. Our results suggest that trust in the cloud computing vendor is the most significant factor, followed by the relative cost advantage, sensing capabilities and application complexity. A total of twelve follow-up interviews were conducted to provide explanation of our results. The contributions of the dissertation are twofold: 1) it provides novel insights into the relative importance of factors that influence government organizations’ decision to migrate applications to cloud computing, and 2) it assists senior government decision makers to appropriately weigh and prioritize the factors that are critical in application migration to cloud computing.