Purpose: The purpose of this research was to examine and provide knowledge of how integration between enterprise risk management (ERM) t and performance measurement systems (PMS) can support the companies towards improving strategic decision-making within small Swedish manufacturing tech companies. The proceeding purpose was also to research challenges occurring when integrating enterprise risk management and performance measurement systems and further study how the challenges can be mitigated. The research questions within the study were. Methodology: In order to conduct the research, a literature review has been made in order to establish a good theoretical foundation in order to answer the research questions through an abductive approach. A qualitative method, through an exploratory approach, has been applied in order to answer the research question and the purpose of the study. Multiple case studies with interview data towards hermeneutic interviews have been selected as a strategy. The empirical data have been collected through semi-structured interviews and were provided by five respondents who work with both ERM and PMS on a daily work basis. Further, the theory and empirical data have been analyzed through cross-case synthesis and interactive spiral. Finding: The findings in this research resulted in the integration of ERM and PMS, improving strategic decisions by supporting each other's infirmity. What can be said from the findings is that ' ERM can greatly measure risk when integrating the PMS and to further help determine relevant strategic decisions. The outstanding findings regarding the challenges when integrating ERM and PMS were a large amount of data to handle and a never-ending list of potential risks. In order to mitigate the challenges regarding the integration of ERM and PMS, it is important to take into consideration the communication between the two.

Bakgrund Intresset för friluftsliv ökar markant inom Sverige. Det finns en enorm efterfrågan på svenska outdoorprodukter som är kända för sin kvalitet, design och funktionalitet -de har ett mycket gott rykte utomlands. Internationalisering blir en allt större del i outdoorföretagens verksamheter. Trots att valet av internationell marknad är ett av de mest centrala beslutenhar det gjorts förhållandevis lite forskning på området. Det är därför av betydelse att genomföra en studie med kvalitativ metodologi som på ett djupare och mer ingående sätt förklarar de svenska outdoorföretagens strategi vid internationella marknadsval. Vilken blir nästa marknad att träda in på och varför? Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med ökad förståelse för hur svenska outdoorföretag väljer internationella marknader. Metod Denna studie är en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie där sex svenska outdoorföretag har studerats. Vidare har insamlingen av empirin genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien vidtar ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv med en abduktiv forskningsansats. Slutsats I slutsatsen kan det konstateras att de svenska outdoorföretagen väljer ny internationell marknad genom olika strategier. Beslutsfattandeprocessen skiljer sig något företagen emellan, en del tenderar att vara med rationella i sina beslut, medan andra företag fattar beslut grundat på intuition. Studien undersöker företagens ställningstagande till det psykiska avståndet, i form av geografiska-, kulturella-, ekonomiska-och institutionella skillnader, där företagen är eniga. Det geografiska och kulturella avståndet har knappt någon betydelse förvalet av marknad medan ekonomiska- och institutionella skillnader kan vara direkt avgörande. De centrala egenskaper som har identifierats för att kunna expandera till en ny marknad är att ha ett starkt varumärke, erfarenhet och mänskligt kapital. Genom att besvara studiens frågeställningar uppfyller studien syftet att bidra med ökad förståelse för hur svenska outdoorföretag väljer nya internationella marknader. / BACKGROUND The interest in outdoor life is significantly growing in Sweden. There is a huge demand for Swedish outdoor products as they are known for their high quality, design and functionality - they have a very good reputation abroad. Internationalisation is becoming an increasingly important part of the companies’ operations. Although the international market selection is one of the most important decisions for them, little research has been done within this area. Therefore, it is important to conduct a qualitative study that explains the Swedish outdoor companies’ strategy in international market selection, in a deeper and more detailed perspective. Which market will be the next one to enter – and why? AIM The aim of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding of how Swedish outdoor companies select new international markets. METHODOLOGY  This study is a qualitative case study in which six Swedish outdoor companies have been studied. Furthermore, the collection of the empirical data was conducted through semi-structured interviews. The study takes a hermeneutic perspective with an abductive research approach. CONCLUSION In the conclusion it can be stated that Swedish outdoor companies choose new international markets in different ways. The decision-making process differs between the studied companies. Some tend to be more rational in their decisions, while others make decisions based on intuition. The study examines the companies’ attitude to the psychic distance, in terms of geographical, cultural, economic and institutional differences, where the companies are agreed. The geographical and cultural distance has barely any meaning for the choice of a new market, while economic and institutional differences can be decisive. The key characteristics that have been identified as crucial for the expansion into a new market, are a strong brand and brand equity, experience and human capital. By answering the research questions, the study fulfills the purpose of contributing to an increased understanding of how Swedish outdoor companies select new international markets

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No / The study of interest representation is well established in the context of the European Union1 (EU). For more than five decades, scholars have debated the role played by interest groups (particularly business interests) in comparison to other policy actors in the 'bottom-up' process of European integration. Recently, scholarship about the EU as a political system has shifted to focus on the 'top-down' impact of the EU on national and sub-national actors, a process referred to as Europeanization. This article addresses lacunae in that literature and brings fresh evidence to light by exploring the EU effect on UK and French business interest representation. Drawing on a combination of political and management studies concepts and tools, this article compares and contrasts UK and French firms located in two industrial sectors directly affected by the EU's single market programme, namely the telecommunications and energy sectors. The research, an extensive qualitative study based on more than 50 elite semi-structured interviews, elicits the firms' and other actors' perceptions, understandings and impressions of each other and the political processes at work. Some important similarities and differences between the UK and French firms emerge from the data. Most significantly, some narrowing in the dissimilarities is apparent, which may, in part, be attributed to the process of Europeanization itself.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Department of Defense (DoD) has been challenged to formulate and make strategic decisions, especially in areas related to the Department's "business operations." Strategic decisions are those that focus on setting long-term organizational direction. This has proven difficult because a rather simplistic (and somewhat comforting) DoD organizational orientation toward an "either/or" or "us versus them" decision-making mindset that was once ubiquitous and appropriate, given the nature of political and military threats, has been hard to shake. This study reviews a particular manifestation of this dilemma: the decision-making arrangements associated with the provision of military depot maintenance services. An historical review of this topic shows a mixture of problems, progress, and promise. A strategic decision-making approach that draws upon Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is proposed to improve the situation. It addresses key problems identified in the analysis and rests upon an approach to strategic decision making that is politically rational in nature. This approach, called a Strategic Improvement Agenda, is offered as a potential foil to the "us versus them" orientation. / Ph. D.

Changes and challenges that have occurred in the past two decades have forced a radical shift in the basic foundations of how business is conducted. Internal, as well as external forces have forced organisations to constantly monitor their surrounding environment in order to create an awareness of opportunities and threats to allow them to survive in their competitive environment. Organisations need to gather all the information at their disposal, and turn the raw data into intelligence through a process of analysis and an exercise of human judgement. By utilising the potential offered by information systems in the process of generating intelligence and creating a corporate knowledge base to be used in strategic decision-making will lead to competitive advantage and constant innovation. Strategic Intelligence has information as its foundation. This research proposes that through its ability to absorb sources of information, the synergy of Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, and Knowledge Management combined to form Strategic Intelligence, will allow organisations to incorporate all of their information and intellectual capital into a single database or system which will meet the intelligence requirements of management. The purpose of this study is to identify the current use of Strategic Intelligence in the Long-term Insurance Industry in the South African environment, and through the use of a survey questioned the benefits or problems experienced by executive management who have not yet implemented and used Strategic Intelligence as an input to the Strategic Management process, and identified the perceived value Strategic Intelligence could add in the decision-making process. The research study shows that organisations have not yet fully embraced a model for a cooperative global internal corporate Strategic Intelligence System or Portal that will incorporate all aspects of Strategic Intelligence into a single, easily manageable resource for management’s strategic planning and decision-making process, even though it could enhance their ability to withstand the onslaught of global competitors and expand their business into new markets, protect their local market or identify potential merger or acquisition targets, and increase innovation within the organisations. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management

Changes and challenges that have occurred in the past two decades have forced a radical shift in the basic foundations of how business is conducted. Internal, as well as external forces have forced organisations to constantly monitor their surrounding environment in order to create an awareness of opportunities and threats to allow them to survive in their competitive environment. Organisations need to gather all the information at their disposal, and turn the raw data into intelligence through a process of analysis and an exercise of human judgement. By utilising the potential offered by information systems in the process of generating intelligence and creating a corporate knowledge base to be used in strategic decision-making will lead to competitive advantage and constant innovation. Strategic Intelligence has information as its foundation. This research proposes that through its ability to absorb sources of information, the synergy of Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, and Knowledge Management combined to form Strategic Intelligence, will allow organisations to incorporate all of their information and intellectual capital into a single database or system which will meet the intelligence requirements of management. The purpose of this study is to identify the current use of Strategic Intelligence in the Long-term Insurance Industry in the South African environment, and through the use of a survey questioned the benefits or problems experienced by executive management who have not yet implemented and used Strategic Intelligence as an input to the Strategic Management process, and identified the perceived value Strategic Intelligence could add in the decision-making process. The research study shows that organisations have not yet fully embraced a model for a cooperative global internal corporate Strategic Intelligence System or Portal that will incorporate all aspects of Strategic Intelligence into a single, easily manageable resource for management’s strategic planning and decision-making process, even though it could enhance their ability to withstand the onslaught of global competitors and expand their business into new markets, protect their local market or identify potential merger or acquisition targets, and increase innovation within the organisations. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management

Conflitos são fenômenos sociais que ocorrem em qualquer organização; entretanto, apresentam-se mais contundentes (e menos compreendidos) na dinâmica da empresa familiar, em função de efeitos psicodinâmicos exclusivos da interação entre família, gestão e propriedade. Paralelamente, conflitos são também particularmente salientes no contexto ambíguo e complexo das decisões estratégicas, especialmente em ambientes colegiados como os conselhos de administração e consultivos - o alto escalão diretivo das organizações, também considerados a \"caixa-preta\" da governança corporativa. Interseccionando as áreas, este estudo mensura o impacto de potenciais antecedentes das facetas cognitiva e afetiva dos conflitos intragrupais, assim como suas consequências em métricas do processo decisório estratégico (qualidade e adoção da decisão), no contexto particular de conselhos (administração ou consultivo) de empresas familiares brasileiras. Investigando 81 processos decisórios estratégicos em conselhos de 81 empresas familiares distintas, mediante estratégia metodológica survey, verifica-se que: i) o percentual de conselheiros independentes não influi na intensidade das discordâncias cognitivas; ii) enquanto que conselhos caracterizados por elevada \"confiança baseada em competência\" tendem a reduzir conflitos afetivos (pessoais), o percentual de familiares apresenta efeito contrário, elevando-os; iii) a qualidade das decisões estratégicas não é influenciada pelos conflitos cognitivos, mas sim pela faceta afetiva, cuja relação (estatisticamente significativa) apresenta sentido negativo. Implicações teóricas e práticas, assim como sugestões de pesquisa, são discutidas na conclusão. / Conflicts are social phenomena liable to occur in any organizational type; however, they´re more intense (and less understood) in the dynamics of family businesses, due to the unique psychodynamic effects of the interaction between family, management and property. At the same time, conflicts can also be particularly salient in the ambiguous and complex context of boards (the \"black box\" of corporate governance), by the intimate connection with strategic decisions. Intersecting the areas, this study identifies and measures the impact of antecedents and consequences of the cognitive and affective dimensions of intragroup conflicts in the strategic decision-making process (regarding the quality and adoption of strategic decisions), in the particular and favorable context of Brazilian family firms´ boards of directors. Investigating 81 decision-making processes in boards of 81 different family businesses, through survey, it is verified that: i) the percentage of independent directors does not influence the intensity of cognitive disagreements; ii) while boards characterized by high \"trust based on competence\" tend to reduce affective (personal) conflicts, the percentage of family members has an opposite effect, raising them; iii) the quality of strategic decisions is not influenced by the cognitive conflicts, but by the affective facet, presenting negative and significant relation. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as research suggestions, are discussed at the conclusion

A presente pesquisa visou levantar dados que permitissem aprofundar o entendimento sobre as habilidades organizacionais de resolução de conflitos e sua relação com o consenso entre os gestores no processo decisório estratégico de organizações inseridas em ambientes organizacionais dinâmicos, complexos e não munificentes (DCM-). Desenvolveu-se, para tanto, um conjunto de hipóteses relacionando esses construtos, que foram testadas com dados sobre o processo decisório estratégico de organizações do segmento de Telefonia Fixa do setor de Telecomunicações da economia brasileira. Os dados foram coletados pela aplicação de 39 questionários em gestores selecionados, via amostragem aleatória simples, de uma população alvo de 55 gestores. As hipóteses foram testadas usando-se as técnicas estatísticas de análise de significância univariada e de análise de regressão bivariada e multivariada. Os resultados mostraram que as características do ambiente organizacional DCM- influenciam o desenvolvimento de competências organizacionais de resolução de conflitos nas organizações nele inseridas, gerando duas possíveis abordagens para a solução dos conflitos que emergem entre os gestores no processo decisório estratégico. Na primeira, os conflitos são resolvidos em conjunto pelas partes opositoras, a partir de uma postura cooperativa. Eventuais impasses são resolvidos por mediação e/ou por um terceiro com autoridade legítima, com base na cooperação das partes. Essa abordagem está associada com um maior nível de racionalidade e compreensão da decisão pelos gestores e com um maior nível de consenso no processo decisório estratégico. Além disso, vincula-se a menores níveis de atividade política e ao maior comprometimento dos gestores. Na segunda, os conflitos são resolvidos por atividades políticas e eventuais impasses por mediação. Essa abordagem vincula-se a um menor nível de comprometimento dos gestores. Esses resultados levam a duas implicações. A primeira é que as competências organizacionais de resolução de conflitos determinam padrões interativos recorrentes entre executivos que influenciam o processo decisório estratégico tanto quanto as características da decisão. Isso contrasta com abordagens anteriores que colocam as características da decisão como soberanas. A segunda é que a alta administração deve estar atenta ao balanceamento do uso das abordagens cooperativa e competitiva na resolução dos conflitos no processo decisório estratégico, de forma a dosar os níveis de atividade política, cooperação, inação, e consenso que se deseja manter na organização. / The present research aimed lifting data that could permit to deepen the comprehension about organizational abilities of conflict resolution and its relationship to the consensus among managers on the strategic decision-making process of organizations inserted in dynamic, complex and few-munificent organizational environments (DCM-). Thus, it was developed a set of hypotheses relating these constructs, that were tested with data about strategic decisionmaking processes of organizations from the Fixed-Voice segment of the Telecommunications industry of the Brazilian economy. Data were collected by applying 39 questionnaires to managers selected, via simple random sampling, from a target population of 55 managers. Hypotheses were tested using the statistical techniques of univariate significance analysis and of bivariate and multivariate regression analysis. The results showed that the characteristics of the DCM- organizational environment influence the development of conflict-resolution organizational competences in the organizations inserted in it, generating two possible approaches for solving conflicts that emerge among managers on the strategic decision? making process. In the first approach, opposite parties, upon a cooperative posture, solve conflicts jointly. Eventual impasses are solved by mediation and/or by a third party with legitimate authority, with cooperative support from parties. This approach is associated with a higher level of rationality and comprehension of the decision by managers and with a higher level of consensus among managers on the strategic decision-making process. Besides, it is bound to lower levels of political activity and higher commitment of managers. In the second approach, conflicts are solved via political activities and eventual impasses are solved by mediation. This approach is associated with a lower level of commitment of managers. These results lead to two implications. The first implication is that conflict-resolution organizational competences determine recurrent interactive patterns among executives that influence the decision-making process as much as the decision characteristics. This contrasts with previous approaches that argument that decision characteristics are sovereign. The second implication is that top management should be attempted to the tradeoff between the use of the cooperative and competitive approaches for conflict resolving, so that it be possible to dose the levels of political activity, cooperation, inaction and consensus that are desired in the organization.

Este trabalho propõe o uso de Sistemas de Informação e Inteligência Empresarial visando a Análise Inteligente de Falhas para Apoiar Decisões Estratégicas em Projetos de Sistemas Críticos. Tal proposta estabelece uma correlação entre a dinâmica proveniente de recursos e ferramentas de Sistemas de Informação e Inteligência Empresarial, e a necessidade de se obter informações precisas, em intervalos de tempo aceitáveis para agregar valores tangíveis na segurança, confiabilidade, disponibilidade e mantenabilidade de Sistemas Críticos. A proposta aqui apresentada vem ao encontro da necessidade premente de disponibilizar, com maior eficácia, informações precisas para a aferição de indicadores importantes ao Projeto de Sistemas Críticos, e favorecer a implementação de ações mitigadoras de falhas que possam vir a comprometer o funcionamento desses sistemas. De forma a completar e consolidar a proposta em questão desenvolveu-se um ambiente computacional, utilizando-se dos fundamentos teóricos e das melhores práticas de Sistemas de Informação e Inteligência Empresarial, com as especificidades inerentes a Sistemas Críticos. Avaliou-se tal ambiente em um estudo de caso desenvolvido no Sistema Metroviário de São Paulo. Esse estudo de caso contribuiu, no aspecto conceitual, com a realização de ensaios de análises qualitativas e quantitativas de falhas, fornecendo informações relevantes para apoiar possíveis decisões estratégicas no sistema estudado. / This work proposes the use of Information Systems and Business Intelligence aiming an Intelligent Analysis of Failure that supports Strategic Decision Making in Critical Systems Projects. This proposition establishes a correlation between the dynamics of resources and tools from Information Systems and Business Intelligence, and the need to obtain accurate information within an acceptable time interval to add tangible value in security, reliability, availability and maintainability of Critical Systems. The proposition presented here meets the need to provide, more efficiently, accurate information to measure relevant indicators of the projects in Critical Systems, and favor the implementation of failure mitigating actions that could come to compromise the functioning of these systems. In order to complete and consolidate the proposition in question, a computational environment was developed, making use of the theoretical bases and of the best practices of Systems of Information and Business Intelligence, with the peculiarities inherent to Critical Systems. Such environment was evaluated in a case study in the Metrorail Company of São Paulo State, in which qualitative and quantitative analysis of failures were tested, providing relevant information to support possible strategic decisions in the system studied.