Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2015-11-03T20:00:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Luiz Spinelli Schelini.pdf: 3106922 bytes, checksum: 850f251e3ff6e168bed2787804516a04 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-03T20:00:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Luiz Spinelli Schelini.pdf: 3106922 bytes, checksum: 850f251e3ff6e168bed2787804516a04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-12 / Firms face challenges of various natures in different competitive environments, depending on the target market, the business model and corporate strategies. Operate in international markets is a constant challenge on the schedule of firms in the global environment to start their internationalization process. Are challenges since the capitalization of resources, new markets and customers, development of competencies and capabilities, directed to the strategic formation of the company's internationalization, among others. This study focuses on three theoretical areas: project management, internationalization of companies and the resource-based view (RBV). Thus defined the following research question: "How the project management maturity contributes to internationalization of Brazilian companies from the perspective of resource-based view?” Particularly analyzed the contributions of mature project management for internationalization features in international Brazilian companies from the RBV-VRIO analysis, ie, examined whether the mature nature of the management of projects adopted by the selected companies are considered strategic resources, with implications competitive, sustainable competitive advantage for the company. The research strategy adopted was a multiple case study of descriptive exploratory approach within-case analysis and cross-case method, in internationalized Brazilian companies from different business segments. As a result, the study found that the project management features: sustainability of the project, involvement of stakeholders, defining objectives and strategies, change management and risk management, have the greatest contribution to the internationalization of selected companies, with implication of competitive advantage sustainable, considering the RBV-VRIO analysis. Thus, the research presents contributions for companies that are or intend to initiate a process of internationalization, so the process is clearer and driven to a better use of market opportunities. / As empresas enfrentam desafios de diversas naturezas em diferentes ambientes competitivos, dependendo do mercado-alvo, do modelo do negócio e das estratégias corporativas. Atuar em mercados internacionais é um desafio constante na pauta das empresas no ambiente globalizado ao iniciar seu processo de internacionalização. São desafios desde a capitalização de recursos, conquista de novos mercados e clientes, desenvolvimento de competências e capacidades, instruídas para a formação estratégica de internacionalização da empresa, entre outros. Este estudo concentra-se em três eixos teóricos: a gestão de projetos, a internacionalização de empresas e a visão baseada em recursos (RBV). Assim, definiu-se a seguinte questão de pesquisa: “Como a maturidade em gestão de projetos contribui para internacionalização de empresas brasileiras sob a ótica da visão baseada em recursos?”. Particularmente foram analisadas as contribuições das características da gestão madura de projetos para internacionalização em empresas brasileiras internacionais a partir da análise RBV-VRIO, ou seja, analisou se as características maduras da gestão de projetos adotados pelas empresas selecionadas são consideradas como recursos estratégicos, com implicação competitiva, de uma vantagem competitiva sustentável para empresa. A estratégia de pesquisa adotada foi de estudo de múltiplos casos, de abordagem exploratória descritiva com método de análise inter-caso e intra-caso, em empresas brasileiras internacionalizadas de diferentes segmentos empresariais. Como resultado, o estudo identificou que as características da gestão de projetos: sustentabilidade do projeto, envolvimento dos stakeholders, definição de objetivos e estratégias, gerenciamento da mudança e gerenciamento de riscos, possuem alta contribuição para internacionalização das empresas selecionadas, com implicação de vantagem competitiva sustentável, considerando a análise RBV-VRIO. Com isso, a pesquisa apresenta contribuições para as empresas que estão ou pretendem iniciar um processo de internacionalização, de forma que o processa seja mais claro e orientado para um melhor aproveitamento das oportunidades de mercado.

The purpose of this study was to determine which specific resources contribute to the strategy-to-performance gap of small businesses trading in the Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area, from a resource-based perspective of strategic management. The research was prompted by a study conducted by Marakon Associates, the purpose of which was to investigate how successfully companies translate their strategies into performance and what steps they take to close the resulting strategy-to-performance gaps. The main reasons advanced for poor strategy-to-performance results are inadequate or unavailable resources. The research design in the study is quantitative and descriptive in nature. The data was collected from a structured questionnaire comprising of 18 questions emailed to the owners using LimeSurvey. The findings of the survey show that the businesses surveyed lack resources, which leads directly to strategy-to-performance gaps. The most important resources they lack are financial and human resources. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

With rapidly advancing technologies and digital innovations, companies face the need to adapt to the new digital world and to digitally transform their business models. For executing the digital transformation process, more and more companies decide to entrust a new C-level manager with all challenges and complexity arising from digital transformation, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO). As the CDO position is still fairly new, research in this field is limited and requires further attention by scholars. Therefore, this study aims to address three fundamental research questions concerning the nature of the CDO position and corresponding implications not only to inform practitioners but also to enrich the scholarly discussion on CDOs. By understanding existing literature on CDOs based on a systematic literature review, this thesis answers the first research question regarding what characterizes the CDO position. Building on these insights and drawing from a comprehensive theoretical framework consisting of upper echelons theory, contingency theory, human capital theory and the resource-based view, hypotheses are developed for answering research questions two and three. While the second research question focuses on factors, which influence CDO presence within a company, the third research question addresses the impact of a CDO on company performance. Based on a large-scale sample of panel data comprised of S&P 500 companies, generalized estimating equations models, propensity score matching and fixed effects regression models are exploited in order to derive answers for both research questions two and three. As influencing factors for CDO presence, the results show that especially early tenure CEOs and CEOs of larger companies are more likely to employ a CDO. Although no evidence can be observed for positive performance implications of CDOs, also given different company contingencies, the insights of this study's analyses show that certain CDO characteristics as well as in combination with CIO presence and varying CEO characteristics are more favorable over others in terms of company performance measured by return on assets and Tobin's Q.

This study consisted of two distinct research phases, performed within the context of the South African Council for Science and Industrial Research (and its current and potential research alliances). The purpose of the study was to develop a decision making model that would enable strategists at publicly financed research and development organisations to analyse and predict governance mode decisions, as well as select optimal governance mode structures (ranging from quasi-market structures, such as once-off contracts, to quasi-hierarchy structures, such as research joint ventures) for research alliances. During the qualitative first phase, the study aimed to identify impact domains within South Africa’s new Bayh-Dole-like Intellectual Property Rights legislative framework that consists of the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act, as well as the Technology Innovation Agency Act, which could potentially influence research alliances (based on the Transactional Cost Economics, Resource-based View and Real Options Approach perspectives) with publicly financed research and development organisations. This was followed by the quantitative second phase, which attempted to verify the validity of a value-mediated governance mode model that included the highest ranked impact domains identified during the first phase as formative indicators for the perceived Intellectual Property Rights regime strength uncertainty factor. A qualitative online survey amongst senior managers at the Council for Science and Industrial Research, followed by Theme Extraction combined with Constant Comparative Method analysis, as well as a weighted frequency analysis, constituted the research methodology employed during the first phase’s identification and ranking of impact domains within the South African legislative framework. This phase demonstrated that the highest ranked impact domains (primarily driven by the Transactional Cost Economics perspective) included the choice of Intellectual Property Rights ownership, state walk-in rights on undeclared Intellectual Property, and benefit-sharing policies for the creators of Intellectual Property. The second phase consisted of a quantitative online survey, distributed amongst current and potential research alliance partners of the Council for Science and Industrial Research, followed by Structural Equation Modelling of a value-mediated governance model that included, amongst others, the perceived Intellectual Property Rights regime strength as an uncertainty factor. This phase revealed not only that the impact domains identified during the first phase could be used as formative indicators of the perceived Intellectual Property Rights regime strength, but also that stronger perceived regimes are positively related to the preference for quasi-hierarchy research alliance governance modes. Furthermore, it established that the expected value of a research alliance, which was shown to be positively influenced by the strength of the perceived Intellectual Property Rights regime, acted as a mediating factor on the relationship between the perceived Intellectual Property Rights regime strength and the preferred research alliance governance mode. Keywords: Bayh-Dole, Formative Indicators, Intellectual Property Rights, Research Alliances, Real Options Approach, Resource-based View, Quasi-Market Governance Modes, Quasi- Hierarchy Governance Modes, Structural Equation Modelling, Transactional Cost Economics, Value-mediated Governance Model. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Digitalization is an important aspect for future growth of all organizations, and especially in times like the past year where most of the world has been faced with covid-restrictions and lockdown. Dermarome is a leading skincare and beauty distributor and are currently in the process of launching a new B2B website and web-shop. The aim of this research is to provide an answer to the following interrelated research questions:   1. How do the management of Dermarome decide on their investments in the business- to- business IT infrastructure?    2. How will the launch of the business- to- business website affect the purchasing behaviour of the business- to- business customers?    To answer these research questions a qualitative study has been made and the top management at Dermarome has been interviewed for this purpose. 5 interviewees were selected based on their knowledge and experience. All interviews that participated in this research were anonymous.    The result of this thesis is divided up into two parts, firstly, it describes how Dermarome has used the Payback rule and SWOT in order to make a decision regarding the investment in the B2B website. Secondly, it describes how Dermarome believes the saloon and spa customers purchasing behaviour will change due to this website, as it will lead to an increase in Dermarome’s sales.

This publication-based dissertation examines the phenomenon of incumbent adaptation to changing environments with a dynamic capabilities perspective. Its core consists of four research papers that are self-contained and have been developed to be published in double-blind peer-reviewed academic journals. This intellectual body is framed with an introduction (Section 1) that introduces the current state of research on dynamic capabilities, summarizes the four research papers, and presents the current publication status of the work; the concluding Section 6 presents the overall contributions, limitations, and avenues for future research. The first research paper (Section 2) is a systematic literature review of empirical studies that identify idiosyncratic dynamic capabilities in practice. Its main finding is a taxonomy of dynamic capabilities that introduces 19 dynamic subcapabilities and connects them to existing conceptual literature. The second research paper (Section 3) is a longitudinal single case study of Axel Springer, a leading media corporation that has exercised dynamic capabilities to convert from a print publisher to an internet company. The study finds iterations, overlaps, and interconnections between sensing, seizing, and transforming. Based on the findings, a generalized conceptual model for dynamic capabilities in incumbent adaptation is constructed. For the third research paper (Section 4) an action research approach is applied to explore how managers’ mental models can engender erroneous resource cognition. The study discovers five cognitive biases that may distort resource cognition. The fourth research paper (Section 5) is a teaching case study building on the strategic challenge for Somedia, a Swiss media firm, to diversify from its declining legacy business by leveraging its resources and capabilities. This publication-based dissertation enhances the understanding of incumbent adaptation and presents applicable implications and recommendations for practitioners.

This thesis proposes a collaboration framework for the Web of Things based on the concepts of Service-oriented Architecture and integrated with semantic web technologies to offer new possibilities in terms of efficient asset management during operations requiring multi-actor collaboration. The motivation for the project comes from the rise in disasters where effective cross-organisation collaboration can increase the efficiency of critical information dissemination. Organisational boundaries of participants as well as their IT capability and trust issues hinders the deployment of a multi-party collaboration framework, thereby preventing timely dissemination of critical data. In order to tackle some of these issues, this thesis proposes a new collaboration framework consisting of a resource-based data model, resource-oriented access control mechanism and semantic technologies utilising the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology that can be used simultaneously by multiple actors without impacting each other’s networks and thus increase the efficiency of disaster management and relief operations. The generic design of the framework enables future extensions, thus enabling its exploitation across many application domains. The performance of the framework is evaluated in two areas: the capability of the access control mechanism to scale with increasing number of devices, and the capability of the semantic annotation process to increase in efficiency as more information is provided. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is fit for purpose.

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[pt] As corporações estão sendo cada vez mais cobradas por uma atuação ambientalmente sustentável, principalmente nos mercados mais maduros, e tratam-se de importantes atores no atingimento das metas para o controle do aquecimento global. O Brasil tem uma participação protagonista no comércio mundial de alimentos, e seu papel torna-se mais relevante ao passo que as taxas crescentes de aumento populacional colocam o mundo em alerta para as questões climáticas e de segurança alimentar. Trazendo ainda mais foco para a temática, o país possui uma das maiores biodiversidades do planeta e é detentor de grande parte da Floresta Amazônica, a maior floresta tropical do mundo e responsável por parte do equilíbrio climático do globo, ao passo que a agroindústria responde pelo consumo de mais de 78 porcento dos recursos hídricos brasileiros, ocupa em torno de 21 porcento do território nacional e é responsável por 74 porcento das emissões de gases de efeito estufa do país. Nesse contexto, fundamentado na Resource Based-View e Teoria Institucional foi construído um modelo com o objetivo de analisar o impacto dos fatores organizacionais (capacidades dinâmicas) e do ambiente institucional (sociedade, regulação e concorrência) nas estratégias de sustentabilidade ambiental e como estas estratégias impactam o desempenho de exportação das empresas da agropecuária brasileira. Na literatura há poucos estudos empíricos com foco em analisar as relações entre esses constructos e nenhum deles no âmbito da agroindústria brasileira. Ademais, buscou-se uma contribuição adicional ao analisar como o nível de maturidade em sustentabilidade ambiental dos países de destino influencia na relação entre as estratégias de sustentabilidade e o desempenho de exportação. Para o teste do modelo, foi realizado um levantamento de dados com gestores de 143 empresas exportadoras da agroindústria brasileira, através de um questionário on-line e foi utilizada a Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (PLS-SEM) para a estimativa de parâmetros. Os resultados empíricos corroboram parte das hipóteses apresentadas, revelando a significância da relação principal do estudo (estratégias de sustentabilidade e desempenho de exportação), além de apresentar o engajamento da liderança na temática da sustentabilidade como o principal fator interno da adoção deste tipo de estratégia, assim como a pressão percebida da sociedade estrangeira e da concorrência como os principais fatores externos. Contudo, a principal contribuição teórica do estudo é advinda da análise do fator de moderação. Os resultados evidenciam que no âmbito do grupo de empresas que exportam para países com uma maior maturidade na temática de sustentabilidade ambiental, a relação entre as estratégias de sustentabilidade ambiental e o desempenho de exportação foi mais expressivo do que para o grupo de empresas que exporta para países menos maduros no assunto. / [en] More and more the corporations are being charged for Environmental Sustainability performance, especially in developed markets and this indicator is essential for reaching the global warning control targets .Today Brazil has a significant share of the global food trade and has a leading hole taking into consideration the alert for climate changes and food security issues that are becoming relevant due to global population growth. Bringing even more focus on this subject, the country has one of the largest biodiversity of the planet and holds the greatest share of the Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world and responsible for part of the global climate balance, while the agroindustry is responsible for the consumption of more than 70 percent of Brazilian water resources, occupies around 21 percent of the national territory and accounts for 74 percent of the country s greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, rooted in Resource Based- View and Institutional Theory, a model was constructed for the purpose of analyzing the impact of organizational factors (dynamic capacities) and the institutional environment (society, regulation, and competition) on environmental sustainability strategies and how these strategies impact export performance of Brazilian agricultural companies. In the literature there are few empirical studies focused on analyzing the relationships between these constructs and none of them within the scope of the Brazilian agroindustry, besides that, an additional contribution was sought when analyzing how the level of maturity in environmental sustainability of the countries influences the relation between the sustainability strategies and export performance. For the model s test, a data survey was conducted with managers of 143 exporting companies from the Brazilian agroindustry, through an online questionnaire and the Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to estimate parameters. The empirical results corroborate some of the hypotheses presented, revealing the significance of the main relationship of the study (sustainability strategies and export performance) and distinguishes between the organizational factors and the external environment that most impact on the adoption of these strategies, besides to present the leadership engagement in the sustainability as the main internal factor of the adoption of this type of strategy, as well as the perceived pressure of foreign society and competition as the main external factors. However, the main theoretical contribution of the study is derived from the analysis of the moderation factor. The results show that the relationship between environmental sustainability strategies and export performance was more significant in the group of companies that export to countries with a greater maturity in the area of environmental sustainability, than in the group of companies that export to least mature countries in this theme.