This dissertation addresses the topic of manufacturing strategy, especially the manufacturing capabilities and operational performance of manufacturing plants. Manufacturing strategy research aims at providing a structured decision making approach to improve the economics of manufacturing and to make companies more competitive. The overall objective of this thesis is to investigate how manufacturing companies make use of different manufacturing practices or bundles of manufacturing practices to develop certain sets of capabilities, with the ultimate goal of supporting the market requirements. The thesis aims to increase the understanding of the role of operations management and its immediate impact on manufacturing performance. Following the overall research objective three areas are identified to be of particular interest; to investigate (i) the relationship among different dimensions of operational performance, (ii) the way different performance dimensions are affected by manufacturing practices or bundles of manufacturing practices, (iii) whether there are contingencies that may help explain the relationships between dimensions of manufacturing capabilities or the effects of manufacturing practices or bundles of manufacturing practices on operational performance. The empirical elements in this thesis use data from the High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project. The HPM project is an international study of manufacturing plants involving seven countries and three industries. The research contributes to several insights to the research area of manufacturing strategy and to practitioners in manufacturing operations. The thesis develops measurements for and tests the effects of several manufacturing practices on operational performance. The results are aimed at providing guidance for decision making in manufacturing companies. The most prominent implication for researchers is the manifestation of the customer order decoupling point as an important contingency variable to consider when studying manufacturing operations.

Cette thèse, s’intéresse aux pratiques de calcul au sein des PME, aux facteurs pouvant influencer l’utilisation des pratiques de calcul des coûts les plus développées ainsi qu’à la contribution opérationnelle et stratégique de l’utilisation de ces pratiques au sein des PME tout en faisant une comparaison avec les caractéristiques des entreprises de taille intermédiaire. Nous avons fait recours à la théorie de contingence pour fonder notre travail de recherche. Nous avons contacté 8 entreprises par des entretiens en face à face et 70 entreprises par un questionnaire. Nous avons trouvé que les caractéristiques des PME en matière de calcul des coûts sont différentes. Cette différenciation peut être expliquée par trois facteurs: la taille de l’organisation, la diversité des produits et la structure décentralisée de l’entreprise. Également, nous avons trouvé que l’utilité opérationnelle de l’utilisation des instruments de calcul des coûts est perçue comme étant plus élevée par les entreprises qui utilisent les nouvelles méthodes que par les entreprises qui ne les utilisent pas. Cependant, la perception de l’utilité stratégique ne diffère pas entre les utilisateurs et les non-utilisateurs des nouvelles méthodes. / This thesis is interested in accounting practices within SMEs, factors that are able to influence the use of accounting practices, the most developed costs as well as the operational and strategic contribution of these practices within the SMEs while making a comparison with the characteristics of midsize companies. We resorted to the contingency theory to set up our research. We contacted eight companies through several face- to -face interviews, and seventy companies through questioning. We found out that the SMEs characteristics as regards accounting of costs are different. This difference can be explained by three factors: the organization’s size, the product's diversity, and the decentralized structure of the company. Equally, we found out that the operational utility of instruments of accounting costs is looked as the most mannered one by companies that do not use them. However, the perception of the strategic utility do not differ between users and non-users of new methods

Si au cours des vingt dernières années la pratique en matière de mesure barométrique de la satisfaction clients s’est largement développée auprès des entreprises, la fiabilité des indicateurs de performance issus de ces mesures n’est pas forcément maitrisée. La satisfaction comme indicateur de performance est aujourd’hui admise par les managers, néanmoins son utilisation au quotidien pose quelques questions, notamment celle qui touche la capacité des indicateurs produit à partir de la mesure barométrique d’évaluer fidèlement la performance. La question théorique que nous traitons dans cette thèse concerne l’étude de la représentativité et de la sensibilité des indicateurs de satisfaction face à l’existence de certaines sources exogènes (facteurs sociodémographique et géographique) que nous avons qualifiées de facteurs de contingence. Notre recherche repose sur l’examen des indicateurs de satisfaction lorsque ces derniers sont utilisés comme des instruments de comparaison entre magasins : d’un point de vue transversal (comparaison entre unité de gestion) et d’un autre longitudinale (l’évolution dans le temps des indicateurs). Par le biais de trois propositions, nous avons confronté une série de facteurs de contingence au fonctionnement des indicateurs satisfaction afin de connaitre si les indicateurs remplissent bien leurs rôles. Pour arriver aux résultats, un cadre théorique explicatif de l’action des facteurs de contingence et des analyses statistiques basées sur les procédures bayésiennes pour le calcul de l’importance ont été mis en place. Les données d’analyse sont issues de deux baromètres de satisfaction. Les cumuls en termes d’individus interrogés dans chaque baromètre sont de 175000 individus pour le premier et de 40000 individus pour chaque trimestre (16 trimestres sont disponibles) pour le second. Les conclusions de nos travaux pointent la défaillance de l’indicateur de satisfaction issu des baromètres à concorder avec les exigences des instruments de contrôle de performance. Le tout avec des actions importantes des facteurs de contingence type géographique. / Even if during the last twenty years the practice of barometric measurement of customer satisfaction has developed significantly among companies, the reliability of performance indicators derived from these measures has not necessarily been mastered. Satisfaction as a performance indicator is now accepted by managers however, its everyday use poses some issues, including those affecting the ability of barometric indicators to accurately assess performance. The theoretical question we address in this thesis is the study of the representation and the sensitivity of indicators of satisfaction which are affected by the existence of certain exogenous sources (demographic and geographic factors), which we refer to as contingency factors. Our research is based on the review of indicators of satisfaction when they are used as instruments for comparing shops: on a transverse view (comparison between management units) and another longitudinal view (changes in time indicators). Through three proposals, we have looked for a series of contingency factors on operating satisfaction indicators to know if the indicators fulfill their roles. To achieve the results, an explanatory theoretical framework for action of contingency factors and statistical analysis based on the methods of calculating fiducial-Bayesian importance were established. Data analyses are based on two satisfaction surveys: accumulations in terms of individuals interviewed in each barometer with 175 000 individuals in the first one and 40 000 individuals for each quarter (16 quarters are available) in the second one. The conclusion of our work shows the failure of the barometric satisfaction indicator to match the requirements of theperformance monitoring tools. The most important of these being the geographical contingency factors.

El trabajo se centra en el estudio de la influencia de las tecnologías de la información (TI) en los resultados de las empresas desde la enfoque de recursos y capacidades. A partir del análisis controvertido de la bibliografía existente hasta la década de los 90, se propone un modelo de medida de las TI, de las ventajas competitivas internas y externas que dichas tecnologías son susceptibles de generar y su repercusión sobre el rendimiento de las empresas. El análisis empírico realizado sobre una muestra de 186 empresas, determina relaciones significativas entre el esfuerzo inversor en TI y las ventajas competitivas generadas, que junto con la existencia complementaria de factores organizativos contingentes influyen de forma positiva sobre el rendimiento de las empresas. / The work concentrates on the study of the information technologies (IT) influences on the results of the companies from the Resource-based Approach. From the controversial analysis of the existing bibliography until the decade of the 90, we propose a measurement model of IT, its internal and external competitive advantages that these technologies are susceptible to generate and its repercussion on the companies performance. The empirical analysis made on a sample of 186 companies, determines significant relations between the investing effort in IT and the generated competitive advantages, that along with the complementary existence of contingent organizational factors, influence in a positive way on the firms performance.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a software solution which offers the opportunity to strengthen the company's effectiveness, integrating the business processes across functional areas. In order to obtain the expected benefit, a successful implementation of the ERP project is crucial.  The aim of this thesis is to understand which different leadership styles can be applied during the ERP implementation phase, how they influence the overall project outcome and what leadership style can lead to the successful overall project outcome. The research covers following questions. To begin we will study ​which different leadership styles are applied in ERP implementation projects and study the leader’s trait & behavior through the project implementation process. ​Afterwards we will study how significant the leadership style is to achieve a successful overall project outcome and which style better suits the general context of an ERP implementation project.  Survey questions were prepared either to project managers with experience in ERP implementation projects within their company or managers working for consultancy service firms. Concepts from multi-grounded theory i.e. open-, axial- and selective coding for empirical grounding are used as a methodological approach in the thesis. After the empirical and theoretical analysis, the conclusion we could draw was that the task structure and demand for the given situation, in which different type of team members are involved, is determining the factors to achieve the leadership effectiveness and consequently it is considered to be the major element determining the leadership style to be applied during the project.

Submitted by Geyciane Santos (geyciane_thamires@hotmail.com) on 2015-10-27T15:32:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-10-27T20:23:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-10-27T20:37:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-27T20:37:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-28 / Não Informada / The system of managerial control (SCG) is shaped by the environment and by contingent factors that surround, and the structure of the SCG and the artifacts of managerial accounting using depend on the ability to adapt the internal factors to changes in the environment. The goal of the research is to assess the influence of contingent factors about setting and changing the system of managerial control of a group for classifying it as descriptive case study, bibliographic, documentary, qualitative and quantitative survey. The target population of the survey were the directors and managers of a group for the North region of Brazil, with 70 years of existence and 22 companies, having been validated 28 questionnaires. Were used Cronbach's alpha, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (MEE). The results indicated that the economic group faces a scenario with high level of complexity and diversity and that the most important strategies are speed in delivery, effective after-sales service, the broad distribution channel and low-cost production, in addition to the heavy use of financial and non-financial indicators, with decisions based on the goals of the planning. The economic group is proud of the social and environmental actions that undertakes, positioning within the Organization of sustainable best practices, using the marketing in favor of appreciation of your image and brands. It was concluded that: (i) the internal contingencies influence the SCG configuration; (ii) the internal contingencies has low influence on the changes in SCG, which occurs indirectly through the SGC configuration; (iii) the configuration of the SGC and the environment have a direct influence on the mutation of the SCG; (iv) external factors have little influence on the occurrence of internal contingent factors; (v) external contingent factors not directly influence the SCG configuration of the economic group. / O sistema de controle gerencial (SCG) é moldado pelo ambiente e pelos fatores contingenciais que o cercam, sendo que a estrutura do SCG e os artefatos de contabilidade gerencial usados dependem da habilidade de adaptação dos fatores internos às mudanças do ambiente. O objetivo da pesquisa é avaliar a influência de fatores contingenciais sobre a configuração e mutação do sistema de controle gerencial de um grupo econômico, classificando-se como descritiva, estudo de caso, documental, bibliográfica, de levantamento, qualitativa e quantitativa. A população alvo da pesquisa foram os diretores e gerentes de um grupo econômico da região Norte do Brasil, com 70 anos de existência e 22 empresas, tendo sido validados 28 questionários. Foram usados alfa de Cronbach, estatística descritiva e modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE). Os resultados indicaram que o grupo econômico enfrenta um cenário com alto nível de complexidade e diversidade e que as estratégias mais importantes são a velocidade na entrega, o efetivo serviço de pós-venda, o canal de distribuição amplo e a produção a baixo custo, além do uso intenso de indicadores financeiros e não financeiros, com decisões fundamentadas sobre as metas do planejamento. O grupo econômico tem orgulho das ações sociais e ambientais que realiza, posicionando a organização entre as de melhores práticas sustentáveis, usando o marketing em favor da valorização de sua imagem e marcas. Concluiu-se que: (i) as contingências internas influenciam a configuração do SCG; (ii) as contingências internas tem baixa influência sobre as mutações do SCG, o que ocorre de maneira indireta por meio da configuração do SCG; (iii) a configuração do SCG e o ambiente possuem influência direta sobre a mutação do SCG; (iv) fatores externos pouco influenciam na ocorrência dos fatores contingenciais internos e; (v) os fatores contingenciais externos não influenciam diretamente na configuração do SCG do grupo econômico.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de déterminer l’influence des facteurs de contingence sur l’utilité des tableaux de bord dans le pilotage de la performance des ETI. Pour atteindre un tel objectif, la revue de littérature a permis d’un côté, d’appréhender les principaux concepts théoriques utilisés dans ce travail, et d’autre côté de présenter un cadre de la recherche qui constitue la pierre angulaire sur laquelle est fondée la conception de notre modèle théorique. Issu d’une méthodologie hypothético-déductive et d’un positionnement positiviste, un modèle explicatif de l’utilité des tableaux de bord dans le pilotage de la performance des ETI est élaboré. Ce dernier incorpore une variable à expliquer « utilité des TB dans le pilotage de la performance », dix variables explicatives, et une variable médiatrice « diversité d’utilisation des indicateurs de TB ».Ensuite, ce modèle est testé auprès de 156 ETI implantées en France. Les données recueillies sont examinées en utilisant l’analyse en composantes principales et la méthode de régression linéaire multiple. Les résultats de cette étude quantitative exposent les facteurs de contingence expliquant l’utilité des TB dans le pilotage de la performance. Ainsi, cette thèse permet d’enrichir les travaux théoriques antérieurs relatifs aux défis de mesure de la performance, et pratiquement de procurer aux directeurs financiers et aux contrôleurs de gestion un cadre explicatif des nouvelles pratiques de mesure de la performance des ETI. / This thesis aims to determine the influence of contingency factors on the utility of balanced scorecards in the performance management of ISEs. To achieve this objective, the literature review has allowed, on the one hand, to understand the main theoretical concepts used in this work and, on the other hand, to present a research framework which is the cornerstone of our theoretical model. From a hypothetical-deductive methodology and a positivist position, an explanatory model of the utility of balanced scorecards in the performance management of ISEs is developed. The latter incorporates one dependent variable which explains the "utility of balanced scorecards in the performance management", ten explanatory variables and one mediating variable "diversity of use of BSC indicators".Then, this model is tested on 156 ISEs established in France. The data collected is examined using the principal components analysis and the multiple linear regression method. The results of this quantitative study expose contingency factors explaining the utility of BSC in the performance management. Thus, this thesis enriches the previous theoretical works on the challenges of measuring performance, and practically, provides CFOs and management controllers with an explanatory framework of the new practices of ISEs’ performance management.