The innovative capacity of firms fundamentally relies on the organization of strategic human capital. Highly skilled and talented employees drive knowledge creation through their expertise and creativity. As such, the organization and redeployment of knowledge workers across global subsidiaries and teams is a pivotal capability underpinning firms’ competitive edge. However, firms must operate within and adhere to the macro regulatory environments in the countries where they are located. With increasingly global interconnectedness, there is also a rise in nations’ announcing changes to their immigration policies to support national interests. These changes to immigration policies may affect firms' ability to organize human resources in a way that is most conducive for their knowledge creation and innovation objectives. Firms may then respond strategically to meet their innovation objectives while protecting their knowledge from leaking to competitors in foreign or local geographies. This dissertation examines how changes to immigration policies prompt strategic responses from firms in terms of meeting their innovation objectives by reorganizing their human capital and further proposes a three-dimensional framework for an immigration policy that supports economic growth and innovation in the destination country. The first chapter lays the groundwork for the dissertation and review conceptual foundations of each of the following essays. The second chapter examines the strategic response by multinational enterprises (MNEs) when their ability to deploy knowledge workers across national boundaries is affected by restrictive immigration policies. The third chapter examines individual- and firm-level responses to an increase in employees’ bargaining power. Findings reveal that the regulation afforded greater bargaining power to ethnic inventors, leading to greater interfirm mobility, positional changes in the intrafirm collaboration network, and a change in innovation performance. Finally, the fourth essay then argues that in addition to formal human capital, foreign knowledge workers contribute unique social capital which benefits their MNE employers in terms of innovation outcomes and puts forth a comprehensive three-dimensional immigration policy framework integrating migrants’ skillsets with their bridging potential across nations, contingent on inter-state relations. By accounting for security trade-offs and variations in bilateral collaborative intent, this multidimensional perspective allows calibrated screening of talent from allied versus adversarial origins. Synthesized together, the three studies highlight how regulations pertaining to high-skilled immigration significantly disrupt organizations’ access to strategic foreign talent, necessitating trade-offs to reconfigure innovation capabilities. This dissertation contributes to strategic management and international business literature by underlining the global organization of human capital as pivotal to understanding MNE responses to external constraints on foreign talent deployment. Further, it informs immigration policy debates through a multifaceted evaluation of skillsets, bridging ties and bilateral relations that influence productive integration of foreign talent. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

A phishing email is a crime where a scammer sends an email to get sensitive data. Everyday phishing email attacks impact billions of people worldwide. Preparing users to better identify phishing and avoid risky engagement with it is essential to combat this threat. We consider that as phishing emails and email marketing aim to target email clicks, scammers can use marketing practices in phishing emails to achieve their goals. However, the security research community doesn't explore deeply the similarities between phishing and email marketing. This study presents a distinctive framework known as the Phishing Engagement Marketing Optimization (PEMO). The primary objective of PEMO is to provide practices commonly used in email marketing to be applied to phishing simulations. This work presents the methodology to apply PEMO to phishing simulations and a hypothetical scenario to help understanding. We also determined which PEMO practices have a significant effect on phishing email engagement. To address the research problem, we ran an experiment with 400 participants to evaluate how they engage with 100 emails, where 92 were original emails and 8 were phishing emails. We also collected information about the motive of the decision-making behavior. Results showed that lower-risk participants, classified here as non-offenders, were not able to recognize phishing which applied Usability and Influence or Persuasion and Usability practices. In addition, higher-risk participants, classified here as offenders, increased replied and forwarded engagements with phishing which applied Persuasion practices. This work can help information security specialists better prepare users to avoid risky engagements with phishing attacks that apply marketing practices by designing phishing simulations that leverage those same practices.

Esta tese se pautou nas interfaces entre a estrutura do Sistema Nacional de Inovação em Saúde e o Sistema Nacional de Saúde - componentes estratégicos para os setores econômico e social do país. Abordou-se o marco jurídico institucional que dá sustentação à Ciência e Tecnologia em Saúde, envolvendo o arcabouço político que ampara a inovação tecnológica no país e os sistemas de regulação voltados a garantir sua sustentabilidade. O propósito desta pesquisa foi o de investigar as relações e os padrões que possibilitam o estabelecimento de vínculos entre os atores e ainda favorecem a formação de redes de pesquisas, buscando identificar quais os elementos que necessitam de maior foco dos gestores de forma que as conexões estabelecidas sejam fortalecidas e facilitem o monitoramento e a avaliação das redes. Caracteriza-se por ser uma pesquisa qualitativa elaborada a partir da teoria crítica, de abordagem quantitativa, incluindo um estudo de caso exploratório e analítico sobre a Rede Nacional de Pesquisa Clínica em Hospitais de Ensino, envolvendo a triangulação de métodos, baseada na observação, na análise de conteúdo e na vertente bibliográfica. Apoiou-se nas bases da Teoria Ator-Rede, ao investigar as relações e os padrões, que acabam por se configurar como vínculos entre pesquisadores e instituições. Os resultados depreendidos do estudo acrescentam novas compreensões sobre a gestão de redes de pesquisas, cuja análise se encontra hoje permeada por uma literatura centrada em atributos individuais. Ao se perceber a pesquisa clínica multicêntrica como estratégica fomentadora de inovação para saúde, esta tese delineou alternativas de gestão para expandir as conexões relacionais passíveis de fomentar, ampliar e fortalecer o Sistema Nacional de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação em Saúde e suas associações com as necessidades do Sistema Único de Saúde / This thesis is based on the interfaces between the Brazilian National System for Innovation in Health\'s structure and the Brazilian National Health System - strategic components for the economic and social sectors in the country. The institutional legal framework that gives support to Science and Technology in Health was referred to, considering the policies that sustain technological innovation in the country and the regulatory systems aimed at guaranteeing its sustainability. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships and the patterns that make it possible to establish ties between actors and that also favor the formation of research networks, seeking to identify which elements require a greater focus from managers in order to strengthen the established ties and to facilitate network monitoring and evaluation. This study is a qualitative one that is elaborated upon critical theory, upon a quantitative approach, and includes an exploratory and analytical case study on the Brazilian National Network of Clinical Research in Teaching Hospitals, comprising a triangulation of methods, based on observation, on content analysis and on bibliographic lines. Upon investigating relationships or patterns, this study relied upon the bases of Actor-Network Theory, which result in ties formed between researchers and institutions. The results gathered from the study added new insight into the management of research networks, whose analysis is currently permeated by literature centered on individual attributes. Upon perceiving multicenter clinical trials as a strategy that fortifies innovation in health, this thesis outlined management alternatives that may expand the relational connections believed to foment, increase and strengthen the Brazilian National Science, Technology and Innovation System and its associations with Brazilian Public Health System needs

Este estudo trata do desenvolvimento e aplicação de um instrumento de gestão dos fatores indicadores de sustentabilidade de centros de telemedicina e telessaúde. Com base em referencial teórico da administração e na experiência profissional da pesquisadora foram elencadas inicialmente 36 perguntas, categorizadas em 7 áreas de domínio, para avaliação de concordância com 04 pessoas com experiência em telemedicina. As categorias de domínio foram: Institucional, Relacional, Funcional, Econômico-Financeira, Renovação, Técnica-Científica e Bem-Estar Social, que compuseram o roteiro semiestruturado para entrevistas qualitativas individuais de avaliação de desempenho com 10 centros de telemedicina e telessaúde brasileiros, originários das regiões sul, sudeste, norte, nordeste e centro-oeste. As entrevistas foram realizadas em dois momentos distintos, com um intervalo de tempo em torno de 12 meses. Em ambos os momentos foi aplicado o mesmo roteiro aos mesmos entrevistados com o ano de 2007 como períodos de referência de avaliação. As respostas das perguntas de cada centro foram convertidas em valores numéricos. Depois foram apresentados graficamente em forma de um polígono, que tinham morfologia e área própria. Não foi possível comparar os polígonos de um centro com outro. Foi feita a avaliação das diferenças das pontuações das categorias de perguntas entre as 2 entrevistas. Verificou-se que as pontuações nas avaliações feitas na 2ª entrevista foram menores que as da primeira. A esta diferença, foi denominada de fator de ajuste, e foi associado como decorrente da experiência e maturidade adquiridas pelos entrevistados ao longo do tempo. O instrumento foi aplicado para avaliar retrospectivamente a evolução de um centro ao longo de 10 anos de atividades, em cortes bianuais de 1998 a 2008. Essa aplicação do instrumento gerou morfologias e áreas de ocupação do polígono com coerência evolutiva dos traçados. Para completar o monitoramento deste centro foram levantados os acontecimentos relevantes de cada período, o que mostrou a existência de sincronia dos fatos com os indicadores numéricos. Esse procedimento possibilitou verificar que o instrumento desenvolvido foi útil quando aplicado numa mesma instituição ao longo de um período de tempo. O trabalho mostrou que foi possível criar um instrumento que representasse graficamente as 7 categorias de sustentabilidade, e que quando utilizado numa mesma instituição ao longo do tempo, permitiu acompanhar o processo de gestão, principalmente quando complementados com fatos relevantes. Quando utilizado para avaliar o momento atual, foi mostrado a necessidade de uma contra-checagem num período posterior, para evitar falhas de avaliação (fator de ajuste). Quando aplicado com sistemática para levantamento e identificação das características específicas do CTMS, este instrumento pode ser utilizado para fins de desenvolvimento organizacional dos CTMS. / This study is about the development and application of an instrument for the management of indicative factors of the sustainability of the telemedicine and telehealth centers (TMHC). Based on different theoretical sources of data and the professional experience of the researcher, some questions regarding the determinant factors of sustainability of TMHC were elaborated, categorized into 7 groups and submitted to four other telemedicine experts for evaluation. The seven categories were: Institutional, Relational, Functional, Financial, Renovation, Tech-Scientific and Social Welfare, all part of the semi-structured question script to be used as an instrument to carry out individual interviews with the coordinators of ten Brazilian telemedicine and telehealth centers. The interviews were done in two distinct moments at interval of 12 months. The interviews were conducted to the same group of ten people individually to evaluate the year 2007 as reference. The answers were converted into numbers and from numbers in graph form of a polygon. Each TMHC had its own graphic. It was not possible to make any comparison between the TMHC graphics because of the differences of economics, culture and services provided by the different TMHC. In order to analyze the collected data in a different perspective, it was made a comparison of the data collected in the first interview (group a) with the data collected in the second interview (group b). It was verified that the scores of the second evaluation were lower, considered to be under an adjustment factor. This adjustment was associated to the larger experience and maturity the coordinators achieved as time passed by. The instrument was also applied to a 10-year TMHC. Its coordinator answered the same questions taking 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 as the years of evaluation. All the answers were converted into numbers and from numbers to graphics. The 10-year morphologies and relative graphic areas were compared, and . an evolutionary tendency was noticed. To complete the monitoring of this TMHC, the relevant facts over the period of evaluation were registered, which demonstrated a synchronicity with the found sustainability indicators. The study showed that it was possible to develop an instrument that depicted in graph form, the seven categories of sustainability of a TMHC and it was useful to monitor the management process, especially when used in the same institution for a long period of time, and complemented with relevant facts to support the numerical indicators. When used to evaluate the present moment, it was clear that a second evaluation in a later period is necessary, in order to avoid misinterpretation (adjustment factor). When systematically applied, it can also be of utility to identify the specific characteristics of the TMHC in order to support its organizational development.

Esta tese se pautou nas interfaces entre a estrutura do Sistema Nacional de Inovação em Saúde e o Sistema Nacional de Saúde - componentes estratégicos para os setores econômico e social do país. Abordou-se o marco jurídico institucional que dá sustentação à Ciência e Tecnologia em Saúde, envolvendo o arcabouço político que ampara a inovação tecnológica no país e os sistemas de regulação voltados a garantir sua sustentabilidade. O propósito desta pesquisa foi o de investigar as relações e os padrões que possibilitam o estabelecimento de vínculos entre os atores e ainda favorecem a formação de redes de pesquisas, buscando identificar quais os elementos que necessitam de maior foco dos gestores de forma que as conexões estabelecidas sejam fortalecidas e facilitem o monitoramento e a avaliação das redes. Caracteriza-se por ser uma pesquisa qualitativa elaborada a partir da teoria crítica, de abordagem quantitativa, incluindo um estudo de caso exploratório e analítico sobre a Rede Nacional de Pesquisa Clínica em Hospitais de Ensino, envolvendo a triangulação de métodos, baseada na observação, na análise de conteúdo e na vertente bibliográfica. Apoiou-se nas bases da Teoria Ator-Rede, ao investigar as relações e os padrões, que acabam por se configurar como vínculos entre pesquisadores e instituições. Os resultados depreendidos do estudo acrescentam novas compreensões sobre a gestão de redes de pesquisas, cuja análise se encontra hoje permeada por uma literatura centrada em atributos individuais. Ao se perceber a pesquisa clínica multicêntrica como estratégica fomentadora de inovação para saúde, esta tese delineou alternativas de gestão para expandir as conexões relacionais passíveis de fomentar, ampliar e fortalecer o Sistema Nacional de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação em Saúde e suas associações com as necessidades do Sistema Único de Saúde / This thesis is based on the interfaces between the Brazilian National System for Innovation in Health\'s structure and the Brazilian National Health System - strategic components for the economic and social sectors in the country. The institutional legal framework that gives support to Science and Technology in Health was referred to, considering the policies that sustain technological innovation in the country and the regulatory systems aimed at guaranteeing its sustainability. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships and the patterns that make it possible to establish ties between actors and that also favor the formation of research networks, seeking to identify which elements require a greater focus from managers in order to strengthen the established ties and to facilitate network monitoring and evaluation. This study is a qualitative one that is elaborated upon critical theory, upon a quantitative approach, and includes an exploratory and analytical case study on the Brazilian National Network of Clinical Research in Teaching Hospitals, comprising a triangulation of methods, based on observation, on content analysis and on bibliographic lines. Upon investigating relationships or patterns, this study relied upon the bases of Actor-Network Theory, which result in ties formed between researchers and institutions. The results gathered from the study added new insight into the management of research networks, whose analysis is currently permeated by literature centered on individual attributes. Upon perceiving multicenter clinical trials as a strategy that fortifies innovation in health, this thesis outlined management alternatives that may expand the relational connections believed to foment, increase and strengthen the Brazilian National Science, Technology and Innovation System and its associations with Brazilian Public Health System needs

Este estudo trata do desenvolvimento e aplicação de um instrumento de gestão dos fatores indicadores de sustentabilidade de centros de telemedicina e telessaúde. Com base em referencial teórico da administração e na experiência profissional da pesquisadora foram elencadas inicialmente 36 perguntas, categorizadas em 7 áreas de domínio, para avaliação de concordância com 04 pessoas com experiência em telemedicina. As categorias de domínio foram: Institucional, Relacional, Funcional, Econômico-Financeira, Renovação, Técnica-Científica e Bem-Estar Social, que compuseram o roteiro semiestruturado para entrevistas qualitativas individuais de avaliação de desempenho com 10 centros de telemedicina e telessaúde brasileiros, originários das regiões sul, sudeste, norte, nordeste e centro-oeste. As entrevistas foram realizadas em dois momentos distintos, com um intervalo de tempo em torno de 12 meses. Em ambos os momentos foi aplicado o mesmo roteiro aos mesmos entrevistados com o ano de 2007 como períodos de referência de avaliação. As respostas das perguntas de cada centro foram convertidas em valores numéricos. Depois foram apresentados graficamente em forma de um polígono, que tinham morfologia e área própria. Não foi possível comparar os polígonos de um centro com outro. Foi feita a avaliação das diferenças das pontuações das categorias de perguntas entre as 2 entrevistas. Verificou-se que as pontuações nas avaliações feitas na 2ª entrevista foram menores que as da primeira. A esta diferença, foi denominada de fator de ajuste, e foi associado como decorrente da experiência e maturidade adquiridas pelos entrevistados ao longo do tempo. O instrumento foi aplicado para avaliar retrospectivamente a evolução de um centro ao longo de 10 anos de atividades, em cortes bianuais de 1998 a 2008. Essa aplicação do instrumento gerou morfologias e áreas de ocupação do polígono com coerência evolutiva dos traçados. Para completar o monitoramento deste centro foram levantados os acontecimentos relevantes de cada período, o que mostrou a existência de sincronia dos fatos com os indicadores numéricos. Esse procedimento possibilitou verificar que o instrumento desenvolvido foi útil quando aplicado numa mesma instituição ao longo de um período de tempo. O trabalho mostrou que foi possível criar um instrumento que representasse graficamente as 7 categorias de sustentabilidade, e que quando utilizado numa mesma instituição ao longo do tempo, permitiu acompanhar o processo de gestão, principalmente quando complementados com fatos relevantes. Quando utilizado para avaliar o momento atual, foi mostrado a necessidade de uma contra-checagem num período posterior, para evitar falhas de avaliação (fator de ajuste). Quando aplicado com sistemática para levantamento e identificação das características específicas do CTMS, este instrumento pode ser utilizado para fins de desenvolvimento organizacional dos CTMS. / This study is about the development and application of an instrument for the management of indicative factors of the sustainability of the telemedicine and telehealth centers (TMHC). Based on different theoretical sources of data and the professional experience of the researcher, some questions regarding the determinant factors of sustainability of TMHC were elaborated, categorized into 7 groups and submitted to four other telemedicine experts for evaluation. The seven categories were: Institutional, Relational, Functional, Financial, Renovation, Tech-Scientific and Social Welfare, all part of the semi-structured question script to be used as an instrument to carry out individual interviews with the coordinators of ten Brazilian telemedicine and telehealth centers. The interviews were done in two distinct moments at interval of 12 months. The interviews were conducted to the same group of ten people individually to evaluate the year 2007 as reference. The answers were converted into numbers and from numbers in graph form of a polygon. Each TMHC had its own graphic. It was not possible to make any comparison between the TMHC graphics because of the differences of economics, culture and services provided by the different TMHC. In order to analyze the collected data in a different perspective, it was made a comparison of the data collected in the first interview (group a) with the data collected in the second interview (group b). It was verified that the scores of the second evaluation were lower, considered to be under an adjustment factor. This adjustment was associated to the larger experience and maturity the coordinators achieved as time passed by. The instrument was also applied to a 10-year TMHC. Its coordinator answered the same questions taking 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 as the years of evaluation. All the answers were converted into numbers and from numbers to graphics. The 10-year morphologies and relative graphic areas were compared, and . an evolutionary tendency was noticed. To complete the monitoring of this TMHC, the relevant facts over the period of evaluation were registered, which demonstrated a synchronicity with the found sustainability indicators. The study showed that it was possible to develop an instrument that depicted in graph form, the seven categories of sustainability of a TMHC and it was useful to monitor the management process, especially when used in the same institution for a long period of time, and complemented with relevant facts to support the numerical indicators. When used to evaluate the present moment, it was clear that a second evaluation in a later period is necessary, in order to avoid misinterpretation (adjustment factor). When systematically applied, it can also be of utility to identify the specific characteristics of the TMHC in order to support its organizational development.

Government call centers (311) were first created to reduce the volume of non-emergency calls that were being placed to emergency 911 call centers. The number of 311 call centers increased from 57 in 2008 to about 300 in 2013. Considering that there are over 2,700 municipal government units across the United States, the adoption rate of the 311 centers is arguably low in the country. This dissertation is an examination of the adoption of 311 call centers by municipal governments. My focus is specifically on why municipal governments adopt 311 and identifying which barriers result in the non-adoption of 311 call centers. This dissertation is possibly the first study to examine the adoption of 311 call centers in the United States. The dissertation study has identified several significant factors in the adoption and non-adoption of 311 government call centers. The following factors were significant in the adoption of 311 government call centers: managerial support, financial constraints, organizational responsiveness, strategic plan placement, and technology champion. The following factors were significant barriers that resulted in the non-adoption of a 311 government call center; no demand from citizens, start up costs, annual operating costs, unavailability of funding, and no obvious need for one.If local government entities that do not have a 311 government call center decide to adopt one, this study will help them identify the conditions that need to be in place for successful adoption to occur. Local government officials would first need to address the barriers in setting up the 311 call centers.

Online customer reviews are web content voluntarily posted by the users of a product (e.g. camera) or service (e.g. hotel) to express their opinions about the product or service. Online reviews are important resources for businesses and consumers. This dissertation focuses on the important consumer concern of review utility, i.e., the helpfulness or usefulness of online reviews to inform consumer purchase decisions. Review utility concerns consumers since not all online reviews are useful or helpful. And, the quantity of the online reviews of a product/service tends to be very large. Manual assessment of review utility is not only time consuming but also information overloading. To address this issue, review helpfulness research (RHR) has become a very active research stream dedicated to study utility-sensitive review analysis (USRA) techniques for automating review utility assessment. Unfortunately, prior RHR solution is inadequate. RHR researchers call for more suitable USRA approaches. Our current research responds to this urgent call by addressing the research problem: What is an adequate USRA approach? We address this problem by offering novel Design Science (DS) artifacts for personalized USRA (PUSRA). Our proposed solution extends not only RHR research but also web personalization research (WPR), which studies web-based solutions for personalized web provision. We have evaluated the proposed solution by applying three evaluation methods: analytical, descriptive, and experimental. The evaluations corroborate the practical efficacy of our proposed solution. This research contributes what we believe (1) the first DS artifacts to the knowledge body of RHR and WPR, and (2) the first PUSRA contribution to USRA practice. Moreover, we consider our evaluations of the proposed solution the first comprehensive assessment of USRA solutions. In addition, this research contributes to the advancement of decision support research and practice. The proposed solution is a web-based decision support artifact with the capability to substantially improve accurate personalized webpage provision. Also, website designers can apply our research solution to transform their works fundamentally. Such transformation can add substantial value to businesses.

Submitted by Marlene Aparecida de Souza Cardozo (mcardozo@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-27T12:58:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline Gonzaga Ramos.pdf: 853701 bytes, checksum: 81249d049c81fcc6ebfd4ec5364dfb1b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-27T12:58:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline Gonzaga Ramos.pdf: 853701 bytes, checksum: 81249d049c81fcc6ebfd4ec5364dfb1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-29 / This work analyzes the Science Without Borders Program - SwB in a higher educational institution – HEI, seeking to comprehend aspects related to contributions to the academic education of scholarship students. This Program aims on the idea to focus on innovation and strengthening the technology and industry with the formation of highly qualified human resources in strategic areas to generate economic growth and social development. The actions seek student and professional mobility, making possible an exchange of experience in educational institutions and the world of research and international companies. Thefore, the analysis of the SwB Program becomes crucial so that the work becomes increasingly effective. The methodology used for this work was documentary research and application of questionnaire to the scholarship students to support the assumptions made about the aspects related to the academic education of scholarship students and the implementation of the Program. The results evidence that the Program is important to the academic and professional education of scholarship students, but some problems, such as lack of information, monitoring of the exchange and validation of subjects studied were detected and are liable to solution, thus seeking, excellence in institutional performance of the Brazilian HEI and the achievement of the objectives outlined by the Program / Este trabalho analisa o Programa Ciência sem Fronteiras – CsF em uma Instituição de Ensino Superior – IES, buscando compreender aspectos relacionados às contribuições para a formação acadêmica dos bolsistas. O Programa aposta na ideia de se focar na inovação e no fortalecimento da tecnologia e indústria com a formação de recursos humanos altamente qualificados em áreas estratégicas para a geração de crescimento econômico e desenvolvimento social. As ações buscam a mobilidade estudantil e profissional, tornando possível uma experiência de intercâmbio em instituições de ensino e de pesquisa do mundo e em empresas internacionais. A análise sobre o Programa CsF se faz crucial para que a atuação se torne cada vez mais eficaz. A metodologia utilizada para este trabalho foi pesquisa documental e aplicação de questionário aos bolsistas para subsidiar as hipóteses levantadas acerca dos aspectos relacionados à formação acadêmica dos bolsistas e da implementação do Programa. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que o Programa é importante para a formação acadêmica e profissional dos bolsistas, mas que alguns problemas, como falta de informações, acompanhamento do intercâmbio e convalidação das disciplinas cursadas foram detectados e são passíveis de solução, buscando assim, a excelência no desempenho institucional da IES brasileira e o alcance dos objetivos delineados pelo Programa

The operational advantages of a pull system are very well documented. These advantages include not only operational efficiency and quality, but also the enhancement of the customer oriented of the organization. The objective of this field study is to examine the applicability and potential advantages of a pull operational system in a mid-size manufacturing organization. Philosophies, tools, and concepts of Just-in-Time, Theory of Constraints, Business Process Re-engineering, and Root Cause Analysis are used to analyze the existing operational system, to identify its weaknesses, and finally to re-engineer it to be more consistent with a pull operational system. The results of this field study appear to be consistent with reported findings in the literature. The results point to both operational gains and customer related benefits which can be attributed to the pull operational system philosophy. Conclusions and recommendations are presented and discussed in light of their practical and theoretical implications.