Innovation är numera en central del av företagens aktiviteter för att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft och definieras som den praktiska tillämpningen av idé till en ny produkt eller tjänst. Tidigare forskning inom ämnet har främst fokuserat på produkt- och processinnovation inom tillverkning och industri. Parallellt har ett nytt intresse inom tjänsteinnovation uppkommit där antalet studier och undersökningar har ökat som ett resultat av en växande tjänstesektor och dess påverkan på ekonomin. Ett annat ämnesområde som hjälper företaget att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft och tillväxt, är identifikation och analys av kritiska framgångsfaktorer. Majoriteten av undersökningarna kring kritiska framgångsfaktorer är produktcentrerade och undersöker den industriella produktmarknaden. Trots att tjänsteinnovation har en alltmer betydande roll för den ekonomiska tillväxten finns dock förhållandevis lite forskning kring vilka kritiska framgångsfaktorer som existerar i tjänsteinnovativa företag. Bakgrunden till studien är ett tidigare samarbete med Innu-Science där man tillsammans tagit fram ett nytt tjänstebaserat städkoncept och syftet blir att föreslå rekommendationer för Innu-Science vid etablering. Baserat på tidigare litteratur användes en viss metodik ”Temporal/Intuitive factors” för att kunna identifiera olika kritiska framgångsfaktorer hos fyra tjänsteinnovativa svenska företag. Med hjälp av en induktiv kvalitativ studie har företagen undersökts och analyserats, för att kunna identifiera de kritiska framgångsfaktorerna. Faktorerna har därefter jämförts mot varandra för att undersöka eventuella mönster och samband. Resultat från studien visar att alla fyra företag har följande faktorområden gemensamt: Försäljning, Tjänstedynamik (kundanpassning och flexibilitet) samt Referenser. Slutligen har resultat, analys och slutsats legat till grund för vidare rekommendationer till Innu-Science, som utgör ett beslutsfattande stöd när verksamheten ska etableras. / Innovation is considered as a key activity within companies for achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage. Innovation can be defined as “The practical implementation of an idea into a new device or process”. Previous research in this subject has mainly focused on productandprocess innovation in manufacturing firms and ignoring the inherent opportunities that service innovation provides. Because of a changing economy towards more service-based companies, which is a central driver for economic growth, we see an increasing amount of studies regarding the opportunities that service innovation provides. Another interesting topic is critical success factors, which are essential for creating growth and success within a company. A majority of earlier studies of the subject, is mainly product-centric based and examines the industrial product market. Although service innovation shows an increasing significance for the economic growth, there is a relatively small amount of research papers examining the role of critical success factors in service innovation firms, which creates further incentives for future research. The purpose of this study emerged from a previous partnership with Innu-Science and KTH, which resulted in a new service-based and innovative cleaning concept, where the goal of the project is to help realizing the business plan into an operational service company. Furthermore, there is a need to identify and analyze the underlying reasons behind critical success factors in service innovation companies, where the result and analyses acts as basis for further recommendations to Innu-Science. Based on the theoretical framework a specific method of "Temporal/ Intuitive factors”, was used to identify the critical success factors. Four Swedish service innovation companies have been investigated and analyzed as a part of an inductive approach for a qualitative research, where the identification of different critical success factors have been made through observation and analysis. Moreover, the different identified factors were compared against each other to find potential patterns and similarities. Results from the study show that all four companies have the following factors in common; Sales, Service dynamic (customization and flexibility) and References. Finally, the results and analysis provide insight regarding important aspects for the established companies, where the recommendations will serve as support for future decisions ofthe establishment of the service at Innu-Science.

Informed decision making is part of any successful organization. Decision support systems help organizations to make more educated decisions by assisting decision makers in consolidating and analyzing information. Successfully introducing decision support systems is very challenging and risky because many factors need to be taken into account. In this thesis, structured and semi-structured interviews are carried out with employees at a Nordic construction company to discuss critical success factors in connection to introduction of decision support systems. The identified critical success factors are grouped into the following categories: organizational, project, technical, information quality, system quality, service quality and net benefits.

Today's organizations are characterized by digitization, development and growth. A wellimplemented ERP-system that match the processes of an organization can lead to a number of benefits. ERP-implementations and critical success factors are a well-researched area. Nevertheless, a great number of ERP-implementations are still considered as failures, which makes further research around the area considered relevant. This study aims to investigate what is critically related to important success factors in implementing ERP-systems. The study began with a literature study in which 15 scientific articles were reviewed, of which 69 success factors were identified. Of those, the six most common were selected as the basis for this study. In order to answer the purpose of this study, interviews were conducted with project managers who had a lot of experience from ERP-implementations. Using the results from these, as well as the collected theory, comparisons have been made between them. This, in turn, has resulted in a finding that communication is a key part of the entire ERP implementation and in all the critical success factors investigated in this study. Hence, the interaction between supplier and customer is seen as critical in ERP implementations, so they understand each other, have shared expectations and a realistic commitment to ERP implementation.

Den ökade mängden realtidsdata som bland annat IoT-utvecklingen för med sig gör business intelligence (BI) i realtid mer relevant än någonsin. Då många BI-projekt tenderar till att misslyckas är förståelse av kritiska framgångsfaktorer vitalt. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilka skillnader i kritiska framgångsfaktorer som utmärker implementationer av realtids-BI (RBI) system jämfört med BI-implementationer. Semistrukturerade intervjuer baserade på forskning kring framgångsfaktorer för BI har använts för att undersöka utmärkande drag för RBI. Studien har identifierat att RBI kräver en arkitektur designad för att stödja analys av strömmande data samt att RBI kräver ett mer visionärt och experimentellt förhållningssätt. Slutligen belyser studien att risken för feltolkning och felaktiga slutsatser ökar då beslut tas utifrån rådata. Därmed krävs en högre datakvalitet vid RBI för att data ska anses vara av en hållbar kvalitet. / The increased amount of real-time data, such as IoT's development, makes business intelligence (BI) in real-time more relevant than ever before. As many BI projects tend to fail, the understanding of critical success factors are vital. This study aims to investigate the differences in critical success factors that characterize implementations of real-time BI (RBI) systems versus BI implementations. Semi-structured interviews based on research of critical success factors for BI has been used to investigate distinguishing features for RBI. The study has identified that RBI requires an architecture designed to support analysis of streaming data and that a more visionary and experimental approach is required. Finally, the study highlights that the risk of misinterpretation and incorrect conclusions increases when decisions are taken based on raw data. Therefore, higher data quality is required to be considered to be a sustainable quality in the RBI context.

Background: Over the years literature mainly focussed on time, cost and quality, also known as the triple constraint or ‘iron triangle', as the main factors to be considered as important for project success. Since then, many other factors were considered by various authors with the most cited being the work of Pinto and Slevin in 1988 who produced the Project Implementation Profile (PIP) which expanded on the triple constraint and listed ten Critical Success Factors (CSF) to be considered toward project success. The indication was that the success of projects can be improved if these factors were considered across the lifecycle of the project and they can be tailor-made to be specific to a particular industry. With this in mind, this research study has been conducted at a nuclear power plant (NPP) and it explores the applicability of the CSFs of the PIP towards nuclear project success. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis/dissertation was to gain and understanding from various stakeholders of what constitutes CSFs for projects undertaken at a NPP in South Africa; testing if those listed in the PIP would suffice or if additional factors need to be included specifically for nuclear projects. Research objectives: The research study considered the following research objectives: Understanding which CSFs of the PIP were important for nuclear projects and evaluate which of them are perceived by various stakeholders to be important to nuclear project success. Thereafter some CSFs of the PIP were analysed towards identifying if there were factors not included in the PIP but that were pertinent to nuclear project success. Research design and methodology: A mixed methods approach was adopted to this research. An interpretive case-study was conducted post event to understand phenomena through the participants' interpretation of their context. The case-study methodology was chosen and data collected using multiple data sources such as interviews with project managers who had successfully implemented projects and some system engineers who had conducted effectiveness reviews on such projects, gleaning the database of completed projects as well as Operating Experience (OE) / lessons learnt at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station (KNPS). This was done to determine the common factors that led to the analysed projects' individual success. Multiple cases at KNPS and the factors considered for nuclear project success, outside of the CSFs of the PIP were used to conduct the research. The design methodology used towards getting to the CSF framework for nuclear projects was informed by factors considered by the World Organisation of Nuclear Operators (WANO), Institute for Nuclear Plant Operators (INPO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), all organisations that are key role players in the nuclear field. This paper utilised tools and techniques to demonstrate how a framework for determining nuclear project success can be adopted. Research findings: The results revealed that while CSFs were generally understood but not known in the PIP format. Furthermore, in order for the CSFs to be applicable to nuclear project success, additional factors that are pertinent to nuclear projects needed to be included and a specific framework developed accordingly. Research Limitations: The research study focused on projects within the nuclear project management department (NPM), in order to simplify the data collection process. Strategic information that was deemed as sensitive or confidential could not be revealed explicitly during the course of data gathering and therefore inferences had to be made. Another limitation was the timing of the distribution which took place during an outage, yielding a low response rate during the allotted time compelling the Researcher to extend the time period for data collection. Finally, the uneven distribution of responses in the various phases of the nuclear project lifecycle posed a challenge with the Execution Phase being the dominating phase. This uneven distribution of results meant that the overall findings would be governed by the Execution Phase. This had an implication on the generalisability of the results. Furthermore, with the respondents' ratings of the CSF being subjective; this may have had an impact on the accuracy of results. Originality: The CSF framework for nuclear project success, when applied can provide valuable pointers for Koeberg and the nuclear industry when implementing nuclear projects for success. Practical implication: This information can be shared across NPM and related departments who form part of the nuclear project lifecycle. The information and lessons learned can also be shared in the nuclear industry by way of OE. The paper will benefit other NPP operators in applying the CSFs that are introduced in the framework to nuclear projects and provide them with the ability to monitor and control nuclear project success at each phase of the nuclear project lifecycle towards ensuring nuclear project success. The framework will allow the project manager and project team to identify, analyse, respond and monitor and control CSFs that project participants should plan for to ensure nuclear project success so as not to negatively impact the plant and the business at large with dire consequences that are introduced by project failure.

Background: ERP systems constitute the technological ‘backbone’ for organisations since all business process are mapped within the system. In the recent years, there is a transition to cloud-based ERP systems that large companies consider following. The implementation of a CERP system is a joint effort between the adopting company and the consultancy. Therefore, CSFs need to be defined that are essential for the success of the CERP project from both the consultant and client-side project manager perspective.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how consultants and client-side project managers perceive CSFs for the successful implementation of a cloud-based ERP system in large companies. Herein, commonalties in perception as well as perception gaps were analysed. Method: This study adopted an abductive qualitative approach. A multiple case study including seven cases was carried out. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews. A cross-case analysis was carried out to shed light on commonalties in perceptions as well as perception gap and the reasoning behind it. The findings were then compared to existing literature. Conclusion: The findings of these study discovered that there are commonalties in perceptions as well as perception gaps of the CSFs. Most importantly, the CSFs ‘Communication’, ‘Involvement of users and training’ as well as ‘System testing’ are deemed as critical by both consultants and client-side project managers.

The purpose of this study was to determine principals' perceptions of how effective mentoring programs and university-based principal preparation programs are in developing the skills necessary to carry out the 13 critical success factors identified by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). A review of the literature addressed what it means to be an effective principal and what an effective mentoring program should look like. The quantitative study was conducted using a survey developed from the SREB's 13 critical success factors that have been developed to determine what makes a successful, effective principal. Each factor was developed into a question about whether or not Northeast Tennessee principals perceive that they were adequately prepared to be successful principals in their principal preparation programs and if they received any training through a mentoring program on these same 13 factors once they received their principalship. The overall results indicated that few principals participated in a formal mentoring program and those who did received a marginal amount of assistance on the critical factors identified by the SREB. The results also showed that, overall, the respondents indicated that they received more adequate leadership training during their principal preparation programs on the SREB's factors in their classroom experience than they did through their hands-on experience; although, respondents did not give particularly high marks to either experience. Furthermore, respondents who belong to a cohort scored their training higher than those who did not belong to a cohort, and those who received a degree higher than a master's degree reported a higher level of training than did their peers with only master's degrees on some of the SREB's critical success factors.

No description available.

KM is the process of creating value from the intangible assets of an enterprise. It deals with how best to leverage knowledge internally in the enterprise (in its individual employees, and the knowledge that gets built into its structures and systems) and externally to the customers and stakeholders. As KM initiatives, projects and systems are just beginning to appear in organisations, there is little research and empirical field data to guide the successful development and implementation of such systems or to guide the expectations of the potential benefits of such systems. In addition, about 84 per cent of KM programmes failed or exerted no significant impact on the adopting organisations worldwide due to inability to consider many critical factors that contribute to the success of KM project implementation. Hence, this study is an exploratory investigation into the KM implementation based on an integrated approach. This includes: (1) a comprehensive review of the relevant literature; (2) a comprehensive analysis of secondary case studies of KM implementations in 90 organisations presented in the literature, in order to arrive at the most critical factors of KM implementation and their degree of criticality; (3) exploratory global survey of 92 organisations in 23 countries that have already implemented or are in the process of implementing KM; (4) in-depth case studies of four leading organisations to understand how KM implementation processes and the critical factors identified are being addressed. Based on the empirical findings of the study, 28 critical factors were identified that must be carefully considered in the KM implementation to achieve a successful project. Moreover, the study proposes an integrated model for effective KM implementation which contains essential elements that contribute to project success. / Government of Saudi Arabia represented by King Saud University.

A Kaizen event (KE) may be defined as a structured improvement project that uses a cross-functional team and specific improvement goals to improve a targeted work area or process in an accelerated time frame. KEs, also known as Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs), have been utilized within hospitals to achieve beneficial operations, stakeholder (i.e., social), financial, and clinical outcomes. Due to their potential to achieve positive results in a rapid timeframe, understanding the determinants of KE success within a hospital environment is a valuable research undertaking. To date there has been limited rigorous empirical quantitative research focused on identifying success factors (SFs) influencing socio-technical outcomes of hospital-based KEs. Hence, this empirical research study seeks to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) for KEs in hospitals. For the first phase of this research work, a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to identify the success factors (SFs) for KEs in hospitals as reported in the literature. This SLR resulted in the identification of 54 unique success factors mapping to four broad success factor categories, KE Task Design, KE Team Design, Organization, and KE Process. Thereafter, the second phase, which involved the variable reduction process, was performed to determine the strength of effect, or importance, of the SFs in order to determine a feasible number of SFs to include in further empirical work. Two robust methods were applied; a Meta-synthesis Evaluation and an Expert Survey, to query the SFs and to determine high priority factors for the empirical study. As a result, a total of 30 factors were finalized for empirical study. Next, the last phase, the empirical study to investigate and determine the CSFs for KEs in hospitals, was executed using a retrospective field study survey research design. Specifically, a survey questionnaire was designed to elicit feedback on perceptual measures from targeted hospital KE facilitators/leaders on the criticality of SFs on socio-technical outcomes for KEs in hospitals. Sixty usable responses were obtained, which were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), which were used to identify latent factor constructs and to determine the significance of the SFs, respectively. The results of this study identified seven significant direct relationships. Kaizen Event Design Characteristics (KEDC) and Target Area Buy-in (TABI) were found to have significant direct effects with both dependent variables, Performance Impact (PI) and Growth in Kaizen Capabilities (KCG). In addition, KEDC also had a significant direct relationship with Performance Culture (PC) and Team Dynamics (TD), respectively. Also, PC has a significant direct relationship with TD. Furthermore, Logistic Regression was utilized to test the SFs impact on the one objective technical outcome measure in the study, Goal Attainment (GOALATT). This analysis revealed one significant negative relationship occurring between TD and GOALATT. Overall, the study's findings provide evidence-based results for informing hospital managers, leaders, and continuous improvement practitioners on the key factors or value-added practices that can be adopted in their hospital KE initiatives to achieve beneficial socio-technical outcomes, as well as overall hospital KE success. Furthermore, this research can enable academia/researchers to strategize more confirmatory analysis approaches for theory validation and generalizability. / Doctor of Philosophy / The focus of this research study is to identify the most significant factors for Kaizen events (KEs) in hospitals, referred herein as critical success factors (CSFs). A KE may be defined as a structured improvement project that uses a cross-functional team and specific improvement goals to improve a targeted work area or process in an accelerated time frame. The aim of the study is to ultimately improve KE practice in hospitals through increased understanding of CSFs that can be planned or designed into KE processes to increase the likelihood of successful event outcomes. Various research formulation, development, and testing techniques are applied to frame the research study according to the aims and objectives and to achieve targeted research outcomes. The overall research design encompasses a retrospective study approach, performing a large-scale field study using a survey questionnaire to empirically identify the CSFs for KEs in hospitals. To help frame the research, a systematic literature review (SLR) along with bibliometric analyses were conducted. To help refine and select the success factors for empirical study, a meta-synthesis evaluation and an expert survey study were conducted. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) along with mediation analyses (MA) were performed to identify key factors, determine the significance of those factors, and to understand the influential relationships of those factors to hospital KE success. Results from this study aim to inform healthcare managers, healthcare improvement practitioners, researchers, and other relevant stakeholders about the critical components needed to achieve hospital KE success. The dissertation is documented according to a "manuscript style," using a journal/conference paper format to organize and report on the key findings and results obtained from the investigation. The Introduction chapter is provided to introduce the research study topic, study significance, indicate the overall research aims and objectives, present the overall research approach and design methodology, and to enumerate the main publication outputs and outcomes from this dissertation work. The Conclusions chapter summarizes the overall research outcomes, key study findings, study limitations, and provides areas for future research.