Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-272).

The main objective of this study is to develop requisite models for information and communication technology (ACT) adoption and diffusion in the banking industry in Thailand. The research, combining two study areas of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) and system dynamics (SD), is conducted using two research methodologies: system development and a case study of the Siam Commercial Bank PCL in Thailand.The study shows how to combine the two decision-making tools of MCDM and system dynamics effectively. The requisite group models of ICT adoption and diffusion provide ways to select the most preferred technology and to allow forward planning to diffuse the adopted technology more effectively. With an embedded decision support tool, decision-makers are able to apply the models with their available information, intuition, knowledge, and experience to improve their decision-making and enhance their learning.Initially, the research revealed that the Siam Commercial Bank currently employs various types of information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate work processes, fulfil customers' requirements, and retain its competitive advantage. However, the bank still confronts problems relating to technology adoption and diffusion.A requisite group model of ICT adoption was developed using MCDM as a decision making tool. The model illustrated how to select the most preferable technological alternative that fulfilled the mission of the bank. Results from the MCDM analysis revealed that the preferred technology was Extranet banking followed by a data warehouse. The requisite group model of ICT diffusion was further developed using the system dynamics approach in order to enhance understanding of system behaviour of the selected technology and then provide ways to diffuse it more effectively. The model analyses were divided into three sub-models of information ++ / and communication technologies (ICT), a data warehouse, and Extranet banking.The generic model of ICT can be applied to any particular technology. Results revealed that the pattern of technology diffusion follows the S curve and the dominant variables that may impact on technology diffusion are training, a backlog of problems, and market potential. Furthermore economic returns are obtained only after spending substantially on technological investment. Thus, it is necessary to balance between technological investment and economic returns. The model of diffusion of a data warehouse was developed highlighting the necessity of quality and quantity of knowledge workers. Therefore, training support is an important factor to diffuse this technology. On the other hand, the model of diffusion of Extranet banking revealed that the success of this technology comes from the acceptance by customers. Thus, perceived relative advantages, positive features of the technology and promotional advertising should be taken into consideration. The S curve pattern of technology diffusion is also confirmed by the two technologies.The policy for technology adoption involves the selection of technology, which best fits with identified criteria. The policy analyses of the three technologies confirm that the core important policies that increase technology diffusion and economic gains are increasing positive features of technology, decreasing perceived complexity, increased perceived relative advantages and increasing co-operation between IT people and users. If technology is to support the work performance in an organisation, training support is the dominant policy, whereas if technology facilitates customers directly, marketing strategy such as promotional advertising is vital.The study implied that the banking industry in Thailand is able to use ICT as levers for competitive advantage. ++ / However, technological investment in each bank differs depending on size, objectives and readiness in terms of capital and human resources.All the findings have implications for the bank and could be applied to other banks and general policy makers in various business enterprises.

Au delà de la gestion de la qualité, la traçabilité répond à des enjeux stratégiques pour les entreprises. L'évolution technologique propice à une informatisation intensive et la reconfiguration du paysage logistique amènent à considérer la traçabilité, non plus seulement à l'échelle de l'entreprise mais de la supply chain dont le périmètre mouvant ne cesse de s'élargir. Notre recherche s'est ainsi intéressée à la traçabilité totale des supply chains. Définie comme la capacité à assurer le long des supply chains et si possible en temps réel, le suivi des flux physiques couplés aux flux d'informations, des flux financiers, des ressources et des activités, la traçabilité totale apparaît comme un support de pilotage des supply chains. Notre travail découle d'une question de recherche centrale, «quels facteurs expliquent et influencent la concrétisation de la traçabilité totale des supply chains ?», et prend appui sur le secteur agroalimentaire en France. L'analyse est conduite au niveau de l'entreprise (décision) et de la supply chain (mise en oeuvre), elle se base sur une méthodologie qualitative. Ce travail contribue à donner corps au concept de traçabilité totale en identifiant six dimensions fondamentales. Il propose un cadre d'analyse sur les motivations des entreprises à déployer une traçabilité totale et les éléments qui influencent sa mise en oeuvre. Il ressort ainsi que la traçabilité totale est une préoccupation présente dans les entreprises, mais que leurs intérêts sont variés. Des facteurs, favorables (ou non) à sa mise en oeuvre, sont aussi repérés. Ils sont liés aux caractéristiques de l'entreprise, de la supply chain et aux relations inter-organisationnelles. / Traceability is a relevant and up-to-date issue for companies. The main challenges for companies are not only related to quality, they are of concern from a strategic point of view. Changes in technology and the globalization have contributed to develop traceability of supply chains. Indeed, traceability is to be achieved not only at the company level, but also for supply chains, which have been extended. The research focuses of « total traceability of supply chains ». The total traceability can be defined as the ability to monitor, along supply chains and if possible in real time, physical flows and related information and financial flows, as well as resources and activities. The question we tried to answer was: « what are the factors influencing and explaining the implementation of a total traceability of supply chains? ». The research is based on the case of french agri-food sector. We conducted a twofold qualitative analyses; enterprise and supply chain level because the decision is a choice of the company, and the total traceability is organized at the supply chain level. The main contribution is to provide a conceptual framework of the total traceability concept. Six dimensions characterize the concept. Furthermore, we present an analytical framework to identify what are the enablers and which factors explain the implementation of total traceability. It appears that total traceability is a current interest in every interviewed company, but their motivations are diverse. The identified factors that explain the implementation are related to the characteristics of the company, of the supply chain, of the inter-organizational relationships between the actors.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:53:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloRCB.pdf: 649782 bytes, checksum: 7b869bb155abf3578ea09e633db4f807 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The knowledge management has received major attention from product designers because many of the activities within this process have to be creative and, therefore, they depend basically on the knowledge of the people who are involved in the process. Moreover, Product Development Process (PDP) is one of the activities in which knowledge management manifests in the most critical form once it had the intense application of the knowledge. As a consequence, this thesis analyzes the knowledge management aiming to improve the PDP and it also proposes a theoretical model of knowledge management. This model uses five steps (creation, maintenance, dissemination, utilization and discard) through the verification of the occurrence of four types of knowledge conversion (socialization, externalization, combination and internalization) that it will improve the knowledge management in this process. The intellectual capital in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managed efficiently and with the participation of all employees has become the mechanism of the creation and transference processes of knowledge, supporting and, consequently, improving the PDP. The expected results are an effective and efficient application of the proposed model for the creation of the knowledge base within an organization (organizational memory) aiming a better performance of the PDP. In this way, it was carried out an extensive analysis of the knowledge management (instrument of qualitative and subjective evaluation) within the Design department of a Brazilian company (SEBRAE/RN). This analysis aimed to know the state-of-the-art of the Design department regarding the use of knowledge management. This step was important in order to evaluate in the level of the evolution of the department related to the practical use of knowledge management before implementing the proposed theoretical model and its methodology. At the end of this work, based on the results of the diagnosis, a knowledge management system is suggested to facilitate the knowledge sharing within the organization, in order words, the Design department / A gest?o do conhecimento tem recebido grande aten??o dos profissionais que atuam no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP), pois muitas das atividades deste processo t?m um car?ter criativo e, portanto, dependem fundamentalmente do conhecimento das pessoas que o realizam. Al?m disso, o PDP ? um dos processos onde a necessidade da gest?o do conhecimento se manifesta de forma mais cr?tica devido a intensa aplica??o do conhecimento. Assim, esta disserta??o analisa a gest?o do conhecimento com o objetivo da melhoria do PDP e prop?e um modelo te?rico de gest?o do conhecimento. Este modelo utiliza-se de cinco passos (cria??o, manuten??o, dissemina??o, utiliza??o e exclus?o) atrav?s da verifica??o da ocorr?ncia de quatro tipos de convers?es do conhecimento (socializa??o, externaliza??o, combina??o e internaliza??o) que poder? potencializar a gest?o do conhecimento nesse processo. O capital intelectual nas pequenas e m?dias empresas gerenciado eficientemente e com a participa??o de todos que a comp?e vem se tornando o mecanismo fomentador dos processos de cria??o e transfer?ncia de conhecimento, auxiliando e, conseq?entemente, melhorando o PDP. Os resultados esperados s?o uma efetiva e eficaz aplica??o do modelo proposto para a cria??o da base de conhecimento numa organiza??o (mem?ria organizacional) atingindo, assim, um desempenho no PDP superior ao diagnosticado anteriormente. Desse modo, foi realizado um diagn?stico de gest?o do conhecimento (instrumento de avalia??o qualitativa e subjetiva) no setor de Design do SEBRAE/RN na tentativa de saber o estado da arte do setor com rela??o ? gest?o do conhecimento. Esta etapa ? imprescind?vel para avaliar em que n?vel o setor se encontra com rela??o ?s pr?ticas de gest?o do conhecimento antes de implementar o modelo e sua metodologia. Ao final do trabalho, mediante os resultados do diagn?stico, sugere-se uma ferramenta de gest?o do conhecimento para facilitar o compartilhamento do conhecimento dentro da organiza??o, no caso, do setor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:53:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloECC.pdf: 1930969 bytes, checksum: a18acd846ec916fc7e0ef038e923a6b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The knowledge management has received major attention from product designers because many of the activities within this process have to be creative and, therefore, they depend basically on the knowledge of the people who are involved in the process. Moreover, Product Development Process (PDP) is one of the activities in which knowledge management manifests in the most critical form once it had the intense application of the knowledge. As a consequence, this thesis analyzes the knowledge management aiming to improve the PDP and it also proposes a theoretical model of knowledge management. This model uses five steps (creation, maintenance, dissemination, utilization and discard) through the verification of the occurrence of four types of knowledge conversion (socialization, externalization, combination and internalization) that it will improve the knowledge management in this process. The intellectual capital in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managed efficiently and with the participation of all employees has become the mechanism of the creation and transference processes of knowledge, supporting and, consequently, improving the PDP. The expected results are an effective and efficient application of the proposed model for the creation of the knowledge base within an organization (organizational memory) aiming a better performance of the PDP. In this way, it was carried out an extensive analysis of the knowledge management (instrument of qualitative and subjective evaluation) within the Design department of a Brazilian company (SEBRAE/RN). This analysis aimed to know the state-of-the-art of the Design department regarding the use of knowledge management. This step was important in order to evaluate in the level of the evolution of the department related to the practical use of knowledge management before implementing the proposed theoretical model and its methodology. At the end of this work, based on the results of the diagnosis, a knowledge management system is suggested to facilitate the knowledge sharing within the organization, in order words, the Design department / A gest?o do conhecimento tem recebido grande aten??o dos profissionais que atuam no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP), pois muitas das atividades deste processo t?m um car?ter criativo e, portanto, dependem fundamentalmente do conhecimento das pessoas que o realizam. Al?m disso, o PDP ? um dos processos onde a necessidade da gest?o do conhecimento se manifesta de forma mais cr?tica devido a intensa aplica??o do conhecimento. Assim, esta disserta??o analisa a gest?o do conhecimento com o objetivo da melhoria do PDP e prop?e um modelo te?rico de gest?o do conhecimento. Este modelo utiliza-se de cinco passos (cria??o, manuten??o, dissemina??o, utiliza??o e exclus?o) atrav?s da verifica??o da ocorr?ncia de quatro tipos de convers?es do conhecimento (socializa??o, externaliza??o, combina??o e internaliza??o) que poder? potencializar a gest?o do conhecimento nesse processo. O capital intelectual nas pequenas e m?dias empresas gerenciado eficientemente e com a participa??o de todos que a comp?e vem se tornando o mecanismo fomentador dos processos de cria??o e transfer?ncia de conhecimento, auxiliando e, conseq?entemente, melhorando o PDP. Os resultados esperados s?o uma efetiva e eficaz aplica??o do modelo proposto para a cria??o da base de conhecimento numa organiza??o (mem?ria organizacional) atingindo, assim, um desempenho no PDP superior ao diagnosticado anteriormente. Desse modo, foi realizado um diagn?stico de gest?o do conhecimento (instrumento de avalia??o qualitativa e subjetiva) no setor de Design do SEBRAE/RN na tentativa de saber o estado da arte do setor com rela??o ? gest?o do conhecimento. Esta etapa ? imprescind?vel para avaliar em que n?vel o setor se encontra com rela??o ?s pr?ticas de gest?o do conhecimento antes de implementar o modelo e sua metodologia. Ao final do trabalho, mediante os resultados do diagn?stico, sugere-se uma ferramenta de gest?o do conhecimento para facilitar o compartilhamento do conhecimento dentro da organiza??o, no caso, do setor