The following Bachelor’s thesis explores the different uses of crowdsourcing by private organisations and analyses them internally, in terms of strategic capabilities. The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis is to show the reader the different internal strategic issues resulting from the use of crowdsourcing by private organisations. The authors focused namely on crowd creation, crowdfunding and crowd voting through three private organisations using one of these types respectively in their business processes. The qualitative research was conducted through a multiple case study design and through interviews for the primary data collection. The results from the research varied from case to case. Firstly, the Ricola case has shown that crowd creation can especially have impacts on its physical strategic capabilities. Secondly, La Biscuiterie Jeannette’s case has indicated that crowdfunding strongly impacts its financial strategic capabilities. Thirdly, the case of Schneider has enabled to highlight on the one hand the growing importance of crowd voting and on the other hand that crowd voting had no major impacts on its strategic capabilities, yet. Finally, this research intended to give inspiration to other researchers into the field of crowdsourcing and its three subtypes. Therefore, this thesis can be a basis for further researches in this field.

Background: Strategic capabilities are vital components for organisations to include in their business. Another essential elements in a strategy that can affect the performance of an organisation in both a negative and positive direction are critical success factors. This research will study if it possible to evaluate organisations CSFs in order to see whether a well performed CSF also can be identified as a strategic capability. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate organisations CSF in order to identify strategic capabilities Research question: What CSFs can be identified? Which CSFs are identified as strategic capabilities? Methodology: This thesis involved a qualitative pre-study consistent of a content analysis and semi-structured interview that were used to provide measurements to the quantitative survey. Conclusion: The findings indicate that it is possible to identify strategic capabilities by evaluating CSFs. In this study transportation, number of stores and the atmosphere were considered as strategic capabilities.

Increasingly the services sector is seen as important to economic development. In recent years competition has increased within this sector, in particular, within the professional service sector. Consequently, as competition increases service firms need to provide value for clients and need to differentiate their service offerings from those of competitors. In other words, service firms must be innovative in order to attain and maintain profitable organisational performance. Innovation is seen as a core capability, and a key source of competitive advantage. Nonetheless, despite the importance of innovation to all organisations, prior research has focused on manufacturing and high-technology industries. While this has contributed to our understanding of innovation within these industries, the role and significance of innovation in service industries is less well understood. Importantly, our understanding of innovation within the professional service sector is underdeveloped. This research addresses this significant gap. The aim of the thesis is to create new knowledge by providing a clearer understanding of the organisational innovation capabilities and their effects on organisational performance within professional service firms (PSFs). Specifically, the research is designed to: (1) develop and validate an organisational innovation capabilities scale for PSFs; and (2) model the relationships between dimensions of organisational innovation capabilities and dimensions of organisational performance in PSFs. An integrated multi-methods research program was undertaken. First, a critical review of relevant literature was conducted to identify the key constructs and theories on organisational innovation. Second, Study 1 consisted of thirty-seven semi-structured in-depth interviews with professional service providers. The key objective of Study 1 was to determine the types of innovation capabilities specific to PSFs. Additionally, the interviews assisted in refining constructs for the conceptual model. Third, Study 2a involved the development of a multi-dimensional innovation capabilities scale for PSFs (n = 255) which was validated on a sample of professional executives (n = 208). Refinement of existing organisational performance measures was also carried out. Fourth, Study 2b tested the hypothesised relationships of the structural model, and provided insights into the firm characteristics that influence organisational innovation capabilities. The findings of this research highlight the importance of innovation within a professional service context. Specifically, this research found that the ability to innovate is viewed as a way to add value for clients, differentiate the firm and the firm’s services and products and to attain competitive advantage. Professional service innovation capabilities was found to be a multi-dimensional construct comprised of client-centred solutions, marketing strategy and technology innovation capabilities. The results support a positive and significant relationship between client-centred solutions innovation capability and customer performance, and in turn, firm performance. The results also support a positive and significant relationship between marketing strategy innovation capability and firm performance. Interestingly, no support was found for a relationship between technology innovation capability and firm performance. Further, PSFs in country and regional areas had a higher level of total innovation capability and technology innovation capability than their city counterparts. Small PSFs, where the total number of employees was approximately three, and whose main client-base were individual or corporate clients had a higher level of client-centred solutions innovation capability. Finally, the findings and frameworks developed in this thesis provide a basis for the development of a clearer understanding of the conceptual and empirical links between organisational innovation capabilities and performance outcomes within the professional service firm context, thus contributing to theory and practice.

Increasingly the services sector is seen as important to economic development. In recent years competition has increased within this sector, in particular, within the professional service sector. Consequently, as competition increases service firms need to provide value for clients and need to differentiate their service offerings from those of competitors. In other words, service firms must be innovative in order to attain and maintain profitable organisational performance. Innovation is seen as a core capability, and a key source of competitive advantage. Nonetheless, despite the importance of innovation to all organisations, prior research has focused on manufacturing and high-technology industries. While this has contributed to our understanding of innovation within these industries, the role and significance of innovation in service industries is less well understood. Importantly, our understanding of innovation within the professional service sector is underdeveloped. This research addresses this significant gap. The aim of the thesis is to create new knowledge by providing a clearer understanding of the organisational innovation capabilities and their effects on organisational performance within professional service firms (PSFs). Specifically, the research is designed to: (1) develop and validate an organisational innovation capabilities scale for PSFs; and (2) model the relationships between dimensions of organisational innovation capabilities and dimensions of organisational performance in PSFs. An integrated multi-methods research program was undertaken. First, a critical review of relevant literature was conducted to identify the key constructs and theories on organisational innovation. Second, Study 1 consisted of thirty-seven semi-structured in-depth interviews with professional service providers. The key objective of Study 1 was to determine the types of innovation capabilities specific to PSFs. Additionally, the interviews assisted in refining constructs for the conceptual model. Third, Study 2a involved the development of a multi-dimensional innovation capabilities scale for PSFs (n = 255) which was validated on a sample of professional executives (n = 208). Refinement of existing organisational performance measures was also carried out. Fourth, Study 2b tested the hypothesised relationships of the structural model, and provided insights into the firm characteristics that influence organisational innovation capabilities. The findings of this research highlight the importance of innovation within a professional service context. Specifically, this research found that the ability to innovate is viewed as a way to add value for clients, differentiate the firm and the firm’s services and products and to attain competitive advantage. Professional service innovation capabilities was found to be a multi-dimensional construct comprised of client-centred solutions, marketing strategy and technology innovation capabilities. The results support a positive and significant relationship between client-centred solutions innovation capability and customer performance, and in turn, firm performance. The results also support a positive and significant relationship between marketing strategy innovation capability and firm performance. Interestingly, no support was found for a relationship between technology innovation capability and firm performance. Further, PSFs in country and regional areas had a higher level of total innovation capability and technology innovation capability than their city counterparts. Small PSFs, where the total number of employees was approximately three, and whose main client-base were individual or corporate clients had a higher level of client-centred solutions innovation capability. Finally, the findings and frameworks developed in this thesis provide a basis for the development of a clearer understanding of the conceptual and empirical links between organisational innovation capabilities and performance outcomes within the professional service firm context, thus contributing to theory and practice.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-07-15T16:32:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Fernando de Lucca Candia_.pdf: 1282320 bytes, checksum: c009f19ebfa998ca1088d2d278cdaccc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-15T16:32:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Fernando de Lucca Candia_.pdf: 1282320 bytes, checksum: c009f19ebfa998ca1088d2d278cdaccc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-19 / Nenhuma / A presente pesquisa consiste em um estudo transversal de cunho descritivo aplicado nas empresas componentes do cluster de Automação e Controle do Estado do RS. Seu objetivo é analisar se a tipologia estratégica desenvolvida por Desarbo et al. (2005) é capaz de diferenciar as estratégias de adaptação das empresas componentes da amostra considerada, bem como entender as relações existentes entre as capacidades estratégicas, as incertezas ambientais percebidas e o desempenho organizacional sob a ótica dos gestores estratégicos. Através de uma abordagem quantitativa, o estudo submeteu à amostra estudada o questionário proposto por Desarbo et al. (2005) com inserções e adaptações sugeridas pelo autor. Os dados obtidos foram então organizados e submetidos a um conjunto de procedimentos estatísticos – dentre os quais se destacam a estatística descritiva, a análise de conglomerados, a ANOVA e as análises de correlação e de regressão – com vistas a testar e validar as hipóteses investigadas. Os resultados encontrados permitem identificar diferenças nos processos de adaptação estratégica das empresas do cluster. Entretanto, não foi revelada nenhuma correlação significativa das capacidades estratégicas e incertezas com o desempenho organizacional não sendo possível, portanto, estabelecer qualquer modelo preditivo que pudesse explicar a variação do desempenho organizacional (variável dependente) pela variação dos níveis das capacidades estratégicas e das incertezas ambientais (variáveis independentes). / This research consists of a cross-sectional study with descriptive nature applied to the cluster Automação e Controle RS. Its goal is to analyze whether the strategic typology developed by Desarbo et al. (2005) is able to differentiate adaptation strategies in the companies which are part of the sample, as well as understand the relationship among strategic capabilities, environmental uncertainties and firm performance from the perspective of strategic management. Thru a quantitative approach, this study used the framework proposed by Desarbo et al. (2005) with some additions and adaptations suggested by the author. The data collected were organized and submitted to a set of statistical procedures - including descriptive statistic, cluster analysis, ANOVA and correlation and regression analysis - in order to test and validate the hypotheses investigated. It was possible to identify differences in the strategic adjustment processes in the cluster. However, no significant correlation among strategic capabilities, uncertainties and organizational performance was revealed. Because of this, no predictive model that explained the variation in the organizational performance (dependent variable) by varying the levels of strategic capabilities and environmental uncertainties (independent variables) was suggested.