published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

The biggest barrier for expansion and adoption in the field of sharing economy is risk and fear regarding safety. This new company form has resulted in higher competition in the service industry, resulting in increased focus on high quality. Since sharing economy is a new phenomenon a comparison with traditional companies has been made in order to see how the different forms of companies work with quality management. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how sharing economy companies within ridesharing and on demand rides, compared to traditional taxi companies, work with quality management. The thesis answers three subordinate questions: 1) How do companies work with quality assurance during the recruitment process? 2) How do companies work with continuous quality control and evaluation? 3) Is there a difference between the investigated industries within sharing economy and traditional taxi companies? Based on theories from management control and service quality management a theoretical framework was designed which provides guidance as to how researchers and managers can work with quality management in the service industry. A qualitative study was further performed through semi-structured interviews, where the gathered empirical material was presented through the theoretical framework. One conclusion that can be made in this thesis is that sharing economy companies have automated their services, as well as big parts of their quality management. Traditional companies seem to move more towards automating their services, as well as some parts of their quality control, but many parts are still handled manually. Another conclusion is that both types of companies have differences that lie in the nature of being a traditional company versus being a sharing economy company, and at the same time they have some fundamental similarities.

本論文計一冊，共分六章十九節，全文約六萬餘字。 本文乃以個案研究法探討國內三家關係企業——台塑、國泰和台南紡織關係企業的企業策略與組織結構間的關係。第一章為緒論。說明本論文研究動機與研究目的、研究範圍、研究設計與研究方法以及研究限制，以期對本研究在觀念上與研究的過程有一個較明確的認識 第二章首先將關係企業有關的定義加以說明，其次探討學者在企業策略與組織結構方面的學說與研究，以作為本研究的學理依據，同時建立研究的觀念性架構，並進一步提出本研究的研究假設。 第三章簡單描述了三家關係企業的組成分子企業、組織演變過程及其目前的業務情況，俾有助於瞭解該關係企業的一般性概況。 第四章以台塑關係企業為例，闡述該企業 於成長遇程中所採取的幾種不同的多角化經營策略以及組織結構上的安排與作法，並歸納出存在於兩種之間的關係。 第五章也是在探討企業多角化經營策略與組織結構間的關係，不過，研究的對象則換成國泰和台南紡織關係企業。 第六章乃根據上述章節的說明，歸納出研究結果，初步證實了本文的研究假設：若企業採取不同的多角化策略，則組織結構會有所不同。同時並提出對進一步研究企業界和政府當局的建議。

Media industry has been through various changes in past two decades due to technological advancement, merger and acquisition. Also, privatization and de-regulation took places throughout of 1980s, which has caused various changes and provided opportunities for the media industries. This thesis aims to find out the financial performance of two media companies in Taiwan whilst such changes and opportunities took place and also to highlight whether so call “synergy” created through diversification, mergers and acquisitions provides real financial incentives and whether public interests are the sacrifice of such financial incentives and highlight the legal framework which affects the media industry in Taiwan. The media industry covers a wide range of businesses, it is almost everything we live with; technological changes made the boundaries between media blurry and common trend of convergence occurred and this has a strong social impact of who is really controlling the information that is provided through the different media. Therefore, the analysis of content control in the media industry will be evaluated with reference to the theories of public interests. Furthermore, conglomeration becomes a phenomenon from 1990’s when many industries consolidated in the economic downturns. Especially, in the USA and Europe, media industries were soon riding the wave of the phenomenon from more than a hundred companies reduced to less than a handful of the gigantic big six media corporations. On the other hand, Taiwan’s media companies are also dominated by a few big business conglomerates and two of them have substantial business interests in the media industry. The two media companies under the two biggest conglomerates in Taiwan are chosen to examine their financial performance and using statistical tool to forecast its key ratios. Keywords Media industry, Synergy, Public interests, Conglomerates, Convergence, Social impact, Business integration, media regulation, Media democracy, global media.

<p>Denna studie undersöker hur privata vårdföretags webbplatser bör utformas för att förmedla en hög trovärdighet mot användare och potentiella kunder. Antalet privata vårdföretag blir allt fler och det blir allt viktigare att synas och framförallt att synas på rätt sätt. Därför väljer många privata vårdföretag att marknadsföra sig med hjälp av en företagswebbplats för att framhålla sig själva och sina produkter och tjänster.</p><p>Utifrån en stegvis modell för att utvärdera trovärdighet har ett antal faktorer identifierats som ligger till grund för hur användare uppfattar trovärdighet i sammanhanget. Genom att studera hur personer från målgruppen upplever trovärdighet på ett antal utvalda webbplatser har en djupare förståelse för de framkomna resultaten uppstått. Resultaten visar på att det bör läggas stor vikt på fokusering av målgrupp, bilder och bildspråk, den grafiska utformningen och informationsstrukturen vid utveckling av webbplatser för privata vårdföretag. Genom att tillämpa de faktorer som studien har resulterat i, på ett privat vårdföretags webbplats, finns det större chans till att användare från målgruppen kommer att uppleva en hög trovärdighet i samband med interaktion.</p> / <p>This study examines how a private healthcare company's website should be designed to convey a high level of credibility to users and potential customers. The number of private healthcare companies is increasing and it is important to be visible and above all to be seen properly. Many private healthcare companies promote themselves through a company website to highlight themselves and their products and services.</p><p>Based on a progressive model to evaluate the credibility have a number of factors been identified as the basis for how users perceive trust in the context. By studying how people from the target audience perceive credibility on selected sites, have a deeper understanding of the present upon the results emerged. The results show that there should be emphasis on the focus of the audience, images and imagery, graphic design and information architecture for the development of websites for private healthcare companies. By applying the factors identified in this study to the website of a private healthcare company, there is a greater chance that users from the target group will experience a high level of credibility in the context of interaction.</p>

<p>Problem: Record companies are facing a downturn in sales of music. This is seen as consequence of the growth of distribution of music through Internet by file sharing networks such as BitTorrent networks. On one side there are record companies who feel threatened of the illegal file sharing, and on the other side file sharing BitTorrent networks has increased dramatically in number of users since they first approached. Some record companies have responded by taking hostile actions towards the BitTorrent networks and their users with lawsuits and penalties for illegal file sharing. Other record companies and artists have joined forces with BitTorrent networks and see them as an advantage. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze if, and how record companies can collaborate with the BitTorrent networks. Method: A hermeneutic inductive approach is used, in combination with qualitative interviews with both record companies and BitTorrent networks. Conclusions: It is argued that record companies can find a way in communicating and cooperating with BitTorrent networks. Instead of adopting hostile approaches and trying to restrict the technologies adopted by end users, companies should open themselves up and accept the current changes initiated and developed by BitTorrent networks. Thus, it was concluded that companies have to concentrate around collaborating with BitTorrent networks rather than fiercely protecting old business models. By opening up to the users, record companies will adopt open innovations approach that is characterized by combining external and internal ideas, as well internal and external paths to market, thus obtaining future technological developments. As for the BitTorrent networks, by going from outlaw to crowdsourcing mode, the networks’ creative solutions can be further harnessed by record companies. Finally, strengthening relationships between customers and music artists can be considered as beneficial for both record companies and BitTorrent networks. Thus, giving opportunities for customers to win special items, tickets for concerts, watch sound check, eat dinner backstage with the group, take pictures, get autographs, watch the show from the side of the stage, etc. can lead to valuable relationship in a long run.</p>

Corporate environmental responsibilities of organizations have become an eminent consideration among organizational managers and scholars in recent years. Environmental issues have gained much momentum that virtually every group of stakeholders is now demanding environmental efficiency from contemporary organizations. This study investigated environmental practices of two logistics companies in Sweden with the aim to shed light on the measures taken by these companies in response to the environmental impacts of their business activities. We investigated: How and why are logistics service providers in Sweden responding to the demand for environmental responsible business practice?   Based on a qualitative research design, a case study was conducted with DHL and PostNord AB. The results of the study show that the case companies perform environmental practices to reduce the carbon emissions of their business operations due to stakeholders demand. The findings identify stakeholders such as, customers, the Swedish government and shareholders/investors as those that exert the most pressure on the case companies regarding their environmental practices and initiatives.

The mining industry plays an important role in the economy of South Africa. This industry is an employer of thousands of people and the development of South Africa has depended on the development of the mining industry in more than one way. However, working conditions in the mining industry is poor, harsh and dangerous and employees are also faced with job insecurity. This may lead to stressors in the working environment and these stressors, which are closely related to work characteristics, may have negative effects on employees as well as on their productivity levels. Studies relating organisational resources to work-related flow have provided additional evidence for the motivational potential of resources. The focus of this study is on job characteristics, consisting of job demands and job resources and whether these characteristics can foster work-related flow. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between job demands, job resources and work-related flow and to determine whether the availability of job resources and the lack of job demands foster the experience of work-related flow. The research method consisted of a literature review and an empirical study. A cross-sectional survey design was used o collect the data. An availability sample (N = 326) from employees in the mining industry was taken. The Job Demands and Resources Scale (JDRS) (which was developed for the purpose of this study to measure job demands and job resources for employees in the mining industry) and the Work-Related Flow scale (WOLF) and a biographical questionnaire were also administered The statistical analysis was carried out with the help of the SPSS programme and AMOS programme. The statistical methods utilised in the article consisted of descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients , Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and structural equation modelling methods. Pearson product moment correlation in this study showed that Supervision correlated positively with Task Freedom, Support, Pay and Benefits, Opportunities for Growth and Resources Availability. Workload correlated positively with Working Conditions. Working Conditions correlated positively with Working Hours and negatively with Resources Availability. Task Freedom correlated positively with Opportunities for Growth and Intrinsic Motivation, and Support correlated positively with Opportunity for Growth Pay and Benefits correlated positively with Opportunity for Growth and Resource Availability, whereas Opportunity for Growth correlated positively to Work Enjoyment. Resources Availability correlates negatively with Working Hours, and Absorption indicates a positive correlation to Work Enjoyment and Intrinsic Motivation. Work Enjoyment correlates positively to intrinsic Motivation A structural model of work-related flow for employees in the mining industry comprising of job demands, job resources and work-related flow was tested. Job Resources (i.e. Supervision, Task Freedom, Support, Pay and Benefits, Opportunity for Growth, and Resource Availability) may have a positive impact on Work-Related Flow and could increase the levels of work-related flow of employees in the mining industry. Job Demands (i.e. Workload, Working conditions, Job Security, and Working Hours) has a negative impact on Work-Related Flow, thus job demands may negatively influence the experience of work-related flow in employees in the mining industry. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.