In this research I investigate the intersection of information and communication technology (ICT), contract and knowledge in the networked economy as illuminated by the “life” of contract management software (CMS). The failure of CMS to fulfill market expectations provides the motivating question for this study. Based on interview, survey and archival data, I construct a “biography” of CMS from a market perspective informed by the theory of commoditization as well as studies of markets from economic sociology. From the latter, I draw upon the theory of performativity in markets to identify in the failure of CMS a series of breakdowns in performative assumptions and operations normally at work in the making of a packaged software market, ranging from a failure in classification performativity to a detachment of marketized criteria, in the form of analyst ratings, from the underlying software product and vendors. This catalog of breakdown indicates that packaged software production implicates multiple levels of commoditization, including financialized meta-commodities and marketized criteria, in a dynamic I theorize as substitution of performance. I explore the implications of my findings for packaged software and for process commodities more generally, suggesting, inter alia, that process commoditization may revolve around contract and information exchange rather than product definition. I go on to propose an open theorization of contract as a technology of connectedness, in a relationship of potential convergence, complementarity and substitution with ICT, interpenetrating and performative. My contributions are to information systems and organizations research on the topics of packaged software and the relationship of ICT, contract and organizational knowledge; and to economic sociology on the topics of performativity in markets and product qualification in process commoditization.

Several studies of inter-firm accounting have shown how accounting and controls are implicated in the management of supply chains. This consideration is relevant because the supply chain network consists of firms whose activities transcend legal boundaries, and accounting and controls may therefore help to manage the complexities of supply chain processes. Much remains to be known about the operation of accounting and controls and the consequences to supply chains. This thesis reports on a field study of the uses of accounting and controls and their relationship to management of supply chains in a multinational food manufacturer and its network of customers (retailers and dealers). It aims to understand the ways in which, for instance, open book accounting and performance measurement systems were implicated in a network of supply chains. More specifically, it examines the uses of accounting and controls in the everyday operations of managing supply chains. To this end, the study draws on ethnographic materials collected through interviews, observations and review of documents involving managerial and operational employees from both the manufacturer as well as its customers. This thesis draws on multiple theoretical perspectives to understand the dynamics and complexities of supply chain management. These include theories of enabling and coercive bureaucracies and control system and multiple cultural perspectives - integration, differentiation and fragmentation - to supply chain identities. The thesis sheds light on this area of study by providing three main findings. First, in contrast to the notion of dichotomous enabling/coercive supply chain accounting, it has been found that an enabling and coercive framework is useful in understanding the coexistence of uses of supply chain accounting and controls; in addition, the study demonstrates the implication of simultaneous presence of enabling and coercive elements, where enabling supply chain accounting and controls can become exploitative. Second, the intertwining of open book accounting practice with the role of liaison in managing customers is explained. In particular, the enabling features embedded in open book accounting allow the manufacturer to strengthen its commitment to the inter-firm relationship. Finally, the study also illustrates the manner in which accounting and control systems are implicated in supply chain identity phenomena. The uses of supply chain accounting and controls symbolize multiple identities. In contrast to previous studies of identity in inter-firm accounting, where accounting has been shown as incidental, my study demonstrates that accounting has assisted in articulating how identity phenomena are central to the theoretical point; they have been used far more centrally to the explication of the key supply chain process in the field.

Complex Problem Solving is an area of cognitive science that has received a good amount of attention, but theories in the field have not progressed accordingly. In general, research of problem solving has focussed on identifying preferable methods rather than on what happens when human beings confront problems in an organizational context Queseda, Kirtsch and Gomez (2005) Existing literature recognises that most organizational problems are ill-defined. Some problems can become well-defined whereas others are and remain ill-structured. For problems that can become well-defined, failure to pay attention to the area of problem definition has the potential to jeopardise the effectiveness of problem-formulation and thus the entire problem solving activity. Problem defining, a fundamental part of the problem-formulation process, is seen as the best defence against a Type III Error (trying to solve the wrong problem). Existing literature addresses possible processes for problem-formulation and recognises the importance of applying problem domain knowledge within them. However, inadequate attention is given to the possible circumstances that, within an organization, the participants do not know enough about the problem domain and do not recognise the importance of applying adequate problem domain knowledge or experience to the problem-formulation process. A case study is conducted into exactly these circumstances as they occurred and were successfully addressed within Eskom Holdings Ltd (Eskom), the national electricity utility in South Africa. The case study is a fundamental part of this research project, which explores the gap in the existing body of knowledge related to the circumstances described above and specifically to problems that can become well-defined, and provides the basis for the innovation developed herein that addresses that gap.

This thesis explores the social construction of the project manager role and its enactment within an organizational context. The research builds on the themes of the Rethinking Project Management agenda in focusing on research that is about, in and for project management practice (Winter et al. 2006b). The complex organization context of project practice is engaged with and themes such as role legitimacy, organizational power, organizational boundaries and the nature of project and organizational time are explored. The importance of the influence of the professional association’s project management model to the construction of the organizational project manager role and enactment is investigated. The research utilizes an empirically focused treatment of structuration theory (Giddens 1984) as a conceptual framework in addressing the social construction of the project managers’ role and its enactment. The research was conducted using a case study approach in which multiple instances of project managers’ practice in a shared IT organizational context were examined from the perspective of interactions across the boundary between the projects and the organization. The case study data was analysed and findings were generated through the iterative engagement with the organizational phenomena, the conceptual framework and the research questions being explored. The conclusions of the research support the Rethinking Project Management agenda and propose a wider and more social consideration of projects and their management that takes into account the social construction of projects, the importance of boundary spanning activities and objects, and the social nature of time as key elements in rethinking the role and practice of project managers.

This thesis examines the conception, implementation and outcomes of corporate management change strategies through an ethnographic study of a commercial vehicle manufacturing plant in Southern India with a history of labour-management conflict. Participant observation and interviews were carried out mainly within one manufacturing facility between July 2008 and June 2009, with a further visit in 2011. Towards the end of my fieldwork I also interviewed trade union conveners, activists and a cross-section of workers. The change management programme at the case study firm sought to implement the precepts of lean manufacturing by removing systemic inefficiencies in inventory management and production processes and installing a new organisational culture that promoted greater participation and self-initiative among workers and managers. Investigating the reasons for this programme’s very partial success made it possible to understand better the contradictory pressures faced by corporate management, the challenges encountered by senior plant managers and the factors shaping the reception of management policies by middle managers and workers. The thesis furthers our understanding of the limits of managerial agency by integrating two largely independent strands of enquiry: the rich ethnographic studies of the labour process, by Delbridge [1998], Milkman [1997], Durand and Hatzfeld [2003] and others, that consider the implementation and denouement of Japanese modes of work organisation such as lean manufacturing, and the granular focus on managerial subjectivities that shape managerial activity and condition managerial agency, represented by the work of Watson [1994], Jackall [1988] and Dalton [1950]. In addition, it documents the importance of broader political-economic contexts in determining the outcomes of management initiatives.

The contribution of this research is a set of novel insights on the interplay of knowledge assets during decision making. Knowledge is conceptualised as a dynamic resource. Its value is a function of the contribution it makes relative to other knowledge stock at a point of application. The information flows can renew the resource, and the influence of power makes the knowledge development process subject to reconciliation of local interests. The focus on dynamics of knowledge development through a set of value-adding processes also moves the analysis away from the rational and political perspectives of knowledge in decision making. This offers an alternative view on how the value of knowledge can be assessed and understood. The research proposes how the decision making process could be a useful mechanism for the development of dynamic capabilities. The findings stem from the view of knowledge developed in this research as a knowledge capsule comprised of two or three knowledge assets which can draw upon two other types of knowledge from outside the decision process. The analysis relies on two in-depth strategic decision case studies and suggests that the value of knowledge can be identified from the point at which the central decision is generated. The value of each interplay can be assessed in a 'transactional' space where three types of knowledge 'meet'. Decision making is a knowledge-creating activity. The interplay of knowledge assets is a source of value in decision making and, this thesis argues, the basis of heterogeneity of this strategic asset between organisations. Power impacts the contribution of knowledge assets and through application is redistributed during the decision making process. As knowledge stocks interplay, some knowledge is attuning and some advancing the work in decision episodes. The value can be identified by assessing the outcomes of interplay such as insights and decisions. The managerial implications focus on the challenges for developing knowledge assets and the extraction of value from existing knowledge assets during strategic decision making.

In this dissertation I offer explanations for how sustainability reporting has developed from a peripheral practice into a more widely accepted and adopted one. I qualitatively analyse the history of sustainability reporting over the last 25 years by focusing on the Dutch sustainability reporting field. I draw on a combination of 94 semi-structured interviews and a collection of secondary data sources. Overall I question the organisation-centric, static, ahistorical and instrumental accounts that explain sustainability reporting based on a business case, managing legitimacy or stakeholder expectations. Instead, I draw on, and contribute to, various literatures (most notably institutional entrepreneurship, the garbage can model, commensuration and sociology of worth) to explain the more dynamic and historical aspects of sustainability reporting as a complex practice developing in a pluralistic institutional environment. First, I find that sustainability reporting’s institutionalisation was a muddled process in which serendipity played an important role in enabling collective action of distributed actors. I contribute to the institutional entrepreneurship literature by questioning the role of the heroic individual institutional entrepreneur endowed with a great deal of strategic agency. Instead, I draw on insights from the garbage can model and nuance these assumptions by stipulating the enabling role of historical contingencies and the collective processes involved in enacting these. Second, my study adds to our understanding of the dynamics of commensuration. I find that commensuration transformed sustainability reporting from a values-based to a value-based practice while it also changed from environmental to triple bottom line to integrated reporting. I chart various dimensions of commensuration and explain the process driving the development of these dimensions. In particular, shifts in the dominant dimensions of commensuration over time can be explained by emerging pathologies that drive the development of the succeeding phase. These pathologies emerge because of instances of means-ends disconnection, professional insulation and cultural contestation. Third, I analyse integrated reporting and focus on the possibility of, and impediments to, reconciling its multiple logics of valuation, or orders of worth, in order to forge a legitimate compromise. I find that a successful compromise based on finding a common interest, avoiding clarification and maintaining ambiguity is problematic to attain as integrated reporting risks being captured by investors and accountants privileging a market/industrial worth at the expense of a civic/green worth. This leads to a local private arrangement rather than a durable legitimate compromise. This contributes to unpacking the process through which a complex new accounting practice in a pluralistic environment gains legitimacy. In addition to these respective contributions, more generally I show how sustainability reporting is neither just a corporate smokescreen nor a panacea for corporate sustainability. It is a practice that is a consequence of its modern rational environment, yet at the same time constitutive of this very institutional environment as it helps to further elaborate and institutionalise sustainability (reporting) as an economy entity. Fully realising and acting upon the implications of this pivotal role of an accounting practice such as sustainability reporting may help policy makers and practitioners move towards a more sustainable world.

There is currently little research or literature on performance evaluation in the Arabic and United Arab Emirates (UAE) cultural context. The rapid changes and development of the UAE economy has lead to a growing interest in performance management in the public sector in the UAE. This current research explores performance evaluation in the UAE public sector, its practices, processes and the linkage between performance evaluation, and the impact of the UAE national culture on those processes. This work examines and compares private and public sector practices of performance evaluation. This comparison enables a broader assessment of approaches to performance evaluation, and therefore, the understanding of the impact of national culture on such processes. The research aimed to understand the social context of phenomena through participants’ thoughts, opinions and beliefs. The research combined a mixed research method of qualitative and quantitative approaches. For the mixed methods, pragmatism opens the door to multiple methods, different worldviews, and different assumptions, as well as to different forms of data collection and analysis. Data was collected through surveys to provide a larger amount of data from a wider population, therefore the questionnaire survey was sent to mid-level employees who have experienced performance evaluation from both private and public sectors. Interviews gathered more in depth insights on participants’ attitudes, thoughts and actions. The original contribution of the research was to provide a deep understanding of the performance evaluation process in UAE’s public sector. This study is one of a few to be carried out in the UAE, so it provides new findings for cultural influences on the performance evaluation procedure research and literature in the Arabic and Islamic contexts. Cultural values and practices affect the performance evaluation procedure, cultural values such as gender, Wasta, power distance, cultural diversity, and Arabic and Islamic values. The findings indicated that since the announcement of the UAE government strategy of 2008, some public organisations have developed and improved their performance evaluation practices considering factors, such as the employees’ involvement in the process. On the other hand, other public organisations conduct the evaluation as a routine job and do not evaluate the actual employee’s contribution. Furthermore, the evaluation does not affect the employees’ careers. The investigated private organisations have an evaluation system that is improved constantly and is linked to the employee’s careers and frequent and constructive feedback is obtained that enables the employees to make improvements to their performance on a regular basis. UAE culture is shaped and influenced by Arabic culture and Islamic values as well as national policy such as Emiritisation. UAE national culture has an impact the process of performance evaluation in the public and private sectors. For instance Wasta, part of the Arabic and UAE culture, influences the process. Wasta starts with recruiting candidates regardless of their qualification and is based on relationships; therefore, these employees are evaluated and treated differently, affecting both the organisation’s and employee’s performances. In addition, Wasta led to a UAE process for performance evaluation that built discrimination among employees. Addressing and managing the inappropriate elements of Wasta increases the effectiveness of the performance evaluation processes. The view of the role of women in society and the segregation between genders impacts the performance evaluation process; it affects communication in terms of providing feedback and guidance to enhance performance. However, there have been slight changes in the view of women’s roles in the UAE and the communication between genders is improving. As a result of these findings this study contributes a UAE culturally focused conceptual framework for performance evaluation.

The Resource-based view (RBV) of the firm sees a firm as a bundle of resources, and proposes that organisational performance differences arise from firms possessing heterogeneous sets of resources. However, there have been a limited number of research studies that explore how firms come to possess a particular resource set. The Dynamic RBV postulates that firm resource heterogeneity arises from subjective managerial processes. More specifically, firms come to possess a heterogeneous resource system via two managerial processes: resource conceptualisation and resource management. This thesis follows the notion of the Dynamic RBV and examines a resource-developing managerial process using three empirical studies. The first study observes two group-based resource conceptualisation processes and identifies two different orientations towards the resource system being conceptualised; namely systemic vs. discrete orientation. Having a systemic orientation is found to enhance the structure of the group resource conceptualisation process and improve effectiveness of cognitive conflict. The second study is conducted to further explore the notion of the effectiveness of cognitive conflict, by incorporating the concept of mental model convergence as part of a group strategy decision process. The study, through observation of the strategy development processes of six groups, finds evidence of two processes of mental model convergence: first, a group-driven convergence process where members harmoniously converge their mental models through deeply embedded trust between the members; and second, an individual-driven convergence process where the convergence is achieved via active discussion and cognitive conflict between the group members. The last empirical study tests another notion developed from the finding of the first empirical study: the role of systemic understanding in managing a resource system. The study confirms that managers who develop a systemic understanding of the resource system engage in an effective resource management process by adopting proactive resource management behaviour, making less biased decisions, and achieving effective learning from their performance. Through the three research studies, the doctoral research postulates that managerial processes affect the development of a firm’s resource system.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how different dimensions of power influence knowledge integration throughout innovation processes in aerospace supply chains. The existing literature covering innovation in supply chain contexts has mainly focused on the resource-based view of power, on individual levels of analysis and has, to some extent, treated knowledge as something that appears to be easily transferrable, both within and across firms. Furthermore, various facets of power have been treated in isolation rather than in an inter-related fashion. The relationship between power and knowledge integration has also hardly been established in supply chain contexts. These are important issues that need to be addressed because knowledge is dispersed throughout supply chains in the aerospace industry and has to be drawn together to enable the development of existing and new products. Furthermore, different dimensions of power are recursively intertwined, and most management problems involve multi-level phenomena. Innovation and knowledge integration are also socially mediated and highly politicised processes, which are shaped and owned by internal and external stakeholders who periodically form part of these processes. This under-researched area will be addressed in this study by adopting a multi-dimensional framework of power, by examining multiple levels of interactions (the inter-organisational, intra-organisational, and intra-project levels) in supply chains and by acknowledging the politics of innovation and knowledge integration processes. The objectives of this study were achieved by building theory based on four case studies. Each case study is made up of one original equipment manufacturer and one or two suppliers who work together along the innovation process. 10 organisations formed part of this study. Data were collected through 67 semi-structured interviews and documents. The data were then analysed by using template and matrix analysis. The result of this study is a configurational view at three different levels of analysis that highlights generative and degenerative effects of different dimensions of power on knowledge integration. In total, 23 power/knowledge integration configurations were identified; seven at the inter-organisational level of analysis, ten at the intra-project level, and six at the intra-organisational level. Furthermore, a comparison of power/knowledge integration configurations across analysis levels is provided. This was used to identify commonalities and differences of configurations across analysis levels.