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There is still very little known about network dynamics (Bell et al., 2006), especially when focusing on interorganisational networks (Provan et al., 2007). There is also limited empirical evidence on leadership within these complex network contexts (Davenport, 2005; Osborn et al., 2002). This thesis addresses these limitations by developing a theoretical framework for process leadership in the complex, often unpredictable and turbulent context of the interorganisational networked ecosystem. Understanding the complexity of networks and leadership is crucial to advancing network research, which this study aims to accomplish. Although previous studies indicate leader characteristics and behaviours (Huxham & Vangen, 2000), less evidence on the processes and dynamics of leadership within networks exists. Few studies have longitudinally examined the multiple boundaries and multi-level interactions within a complex interorganisational network, as the unit of analysis, as this thesis achieves. Moreover, little research has been conducted to understand network leadership processes, which represents a major gap in the network theory and complexity leadership literatures. In order to address these gaps as well as the gap between the two literatures, this thesis presents a comprehensive, longitudinal case investigation of network process leadership (NPL) within an interorganisational network embedded in the British National Health Service (NHS). By analysing processual dynamics, this thesis’s contribution is the foundation of a preliminary NPL framework. Based on analysing a public sector healthcare network over time, the findings emphasise four dominant thematic constructs surrounding NPL that emerged as highly significant: leveraging strategic system stressors and turbulence; adopting focal and non-focal roles; maximising social proximity; and the complementary, reciprocal formal and informal coproduction of leadership. These constructs provide the empirical and analytical grounds to help explain the critical leadership processes that drive a complex, interorganisational public sector network. Significantly, social capital dimensions underlie these interrelated higher order themes; thereby affecting wider inter-organisational network processes. As a primary contribution of this thesis, I argue that social capital is the critical concept linking network and complexity leadership theories, in order to provide a better understanding of NPL. The findings suggest network leadership calls for NPL and its relational, collective, facilitative approach involving social capital among multiple participants in a complex interorganisational network context. This is highly differentiated from studying unidirectional effects of a hierarchical, central leader within a single organisation. Theoretically, I argue the importance of social capital in the complex nature of leadership processes within interorganisational networked contexts. The research contributes to an understanding of how networks and social capital can be adapted or created by formal and informal leaders within networks to reflect changing processes to shape practices and network-wide development over time. Finally, I offer several operational mechanisms policymakers and network leaders could pragmatically employ to manage, lead, and facilitate interorganisational network processes. Overall, the significance of this study involves: filling gaps in the literature, offering a longitudinal case study on an interorganisational network over time, providing a foundation for theoretical development on leading in networks, illuminating insights into professional leadership within networks, and identifying policy and practical implications for leaders and managers.

IT projects are temporary organizations of strategic importance. Companies invest large amounts of money, time, and resources into business-embedded IT projects in order to change and gain a competitive advantage. Extreme cases of failures were previously only analyzed as case studies, e.g., Denver Airport, London Stock Exchange Taurus, London Ambulance Service. The research poses an important question: What is the risk of these outliers, that is markedly deviant observations of IT project performance? What causes outliers in IT project performance? Only very few studies problematized the frequency of outliers directly. Reported numbers range from 33% to as low as 0.2%. The variation has been explained through biases in planning processes of organizations and as artefact of data collection. An alternative explanation is that the true nature of IT projects contains more variation than commonly assumed. A rich body of organizational, project management, and IT project management literature offers antecedents of outliers. The extant literature falls broadly into three schools of thought: (1) system-centric, (2) event-centric, and (3) process-centric theories of why outliers occurred. System-centric explanations focus on the question of system design, based on theories of normal accidents and high reliability organizations. Event-centric explanations focus on how organizations respond to rare events that impact the organization, based on theories of crisis management, management of organizational turbulence, and strategic surprises. Process-centric explanations focus on the role of managing uncertainty and risk over time, based on theories of man-made disasters, escalation of commitment to a failing course of action, and the normalization of deviance. The study is based on the archival research of 4,307 IT projects from 190 organizations. The findings show that the tail of the cost, schedule, and effort performance distributions is best fitted by a power law, with overwhelming goodness of fit. Moreover, the findings show that system-centric explanations and process-centric theories offer explanations for the thickness of the tail and the odds of an outlier occurring. In particular five variables were associated with outliers: estimated cost and duration, perceived uniqueness of the project, the qualification and motivation of the project team, and the effectiveness of monitoring and controlling. The results show that outliers are not chance events; they follow patterns that are describable. The study showed how design factors, that are often conceptualized as system complexities, and execution factors, that are often conceptualized as the effectiveness of project processes, explain project outliers. Lastly, the thesis draws implications for research and practice.

Local retail jewelry leaders of Saudi Arabian (S.A.) small to medium enterprises (SMEs) have struggled to survive through declining profits and increasing business foreclosures, thus threatening the sustainability of the Saudi retail sector and the Saudi economy. A globalization strategy to enhance profitability for jewelry retail SMEs in S.A. is needed, given the limited options for improving profitability. Despite this acknowledged need, leaders in S.A. have refrained from such a strategy because they lack knowledge of economic attraction features to target in the globalization process. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study using discriminant analysis was to examine specific countries' economic attraction features in the historical globalization strategy of a leading U.S. global jewelry company that could facilitate the implementation of a successful globalization strategy for a local Saudi jewelry SME retail company. The study addressed the effects of 6 independent predictor variables of 25 target countries' economic attractions on the dependent grouping variable, which distinguished among 3 order-of-entry groups according to the U.S. company's date of entry in each country between 1972 and 2009. Results indicated that except for the Hofstede index, no other variable had a significant role in the classification of the target countries. Because there was a scarcity of research on this topic, the study is beneficial for its theoretical and academic value, and may be practical for the derivative benefits of catalyzing business growth by empowering leaders of local, successful luxury brands in S.A. to implement their own globalization expansion process and increase employment in the Middle East.

[pt] Colaboração na cadeia de suprimentos (SCC) é um tema que tem sido amplamente discutido na literatura e é aceito que a criação de uma cadeia de suprimentos sincronizada leva ao aumento da capacidade de resposta e a menores custos de estoque. O Planejamento, Previsão e Reabastecimento Colaborativo (CPFR) é considerado por muitos autores como a mais avançada e abrangente iniciativa em SCC. Apesar do crescente número de publicações sobre CPFR, a literatura acadêmica revela a ausência de uma pesquisa que sintetize o estado da arte sobre CPFR. Desta forma, esta dissertação tem como objetivo, por meio da revisão sistemática da literatura, reunir e integrar o conhecimento sobre CPFR como um processo de negócio e como uma prática de gestão. Foram analisados 629 resumos e 47 artigos foram selecionados para a revisão e classificação. A dissertação analisa os modelos de CPFR, apresenta os principais facilitadores e barreiras para a implementação do CPFR e as diferenças entre CPFR e outras iniciativas de SCC e seus impactos no desempenho da cadeia de suprimentos (SC). Um modelo conceitual (framework) é proposto para guiar e organizar a revisão da literatura. A estrutura do framework abrange todos os elementos constitutivos necessários para descrever os elementos individuais do CPFR (contexto, insumos, estrutura e processos e resultados), suas relações e o impacto sobre o desempenho da empresa. O framework também mostra o papel funcional vertical do CPFR em construir uma ponte entre os negócios e planos estratégicos corporativos dos membros da SC com as operações conjuntas na SC. Apesar de existirem vários modelos para o CPFR, não há um consenso sobre as diferentes configurações para o CPFR. Estas diferenças são atribuídas ao estágio de desenvolvimento em modelos de maturidade, a diferentes contextos e estratégias de implementação, de acordo com a pesquisa da contingência em gestão de operações, e a singularidade dos recursos e dependências entre as empresas na cadeia de suprimentos, conforme a visão baseada em recursos e a visão baseada na dependência. A responsividade aparece como o principal objetivo na implementação do CPFR e o custobenefício do CPFR deve ser comparado com os de outras iniciativas de SCC para a escolha da mais adequada à cadeia de suprimentos. Apenas três estudos confirmatórios relatam o impacto do CPFR na cadeia de suprimentos. Esta dissertação contribui para uma melhor compreensão do tema e fornece indicações para futuras pesquisas e práticas em CPFR e SCC. / [en] Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) is considered by many researches to be the most advanced and the most comprehensive Supply Chain Collaboration (SCC) initiative. Despite its relevance and growing number of publications, efforts to synthesise the overall state of the art in CPFR have been rather limited to date. As an effort to fill this gap, this dissertation aims to go beyond the highly dispersed work on CPFR by providing a systematic review of the literature and the key findings on the topic. The dissertation analyses CPFR models, discusses main enablers and barriers for implementation and CPFR and other SCC impact on Supply Chain (SC) performance. A framework is also proposed as an aide to assemble and organise the literature review. The structure of the framework embraces all the constitutive elements required to describe individual CPFR elements (context, inputs, structure and processes, outcomes and results), their relationships and impact upon firm performance. The framework also shows the vertical functional role of CPFR in bridging business and corporate strategic plans from SC members to joint SC operations. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of the field and provides directions for future research and practice in CPFR and SCC.

O objetivo desta tese é verificar se, e como a Estratégia Modular implementada por uma montadora de automóveis influencia os fornecedores de componentes que ocupam o 2º. nível da cadeia de suprimento modular. A estratégia visa aumentar a eficiência e a rentabilidade da produção e do negócio, e integra ações para reduzir custos e aumentar a produtividade através de montagem final em módulos, e para reduzir riscos do investimento via externalização de atividades de produção e projeto para os fornecedores. O método estudo de caso foi utilizado na análise de duas cadeias produtivas (mesma montadora), uma convencional e outra modular, e que produzem carros semelhantes. Foram selecionados dois módulos de cada carro: suspensão e cockpit. Em cada cadeia, foram estudados dois níveis de fornecedores: 1º. (ou sistemistas) e 2º. (fornecedores de componentes). Comparada à convencional, a organização modular se caracteriza pelo fluxo físico consolidado (de conjuntos e módulos), pela redução de número de fornecedores diretos da montadora, e criação de um nível intermediário, o do sistemista (fornecedor de módulo), entre outros. De modo amplo, os fornecedores sistemistas assumem atividades da produção, projeto e gestão de fornecedores, antes exclusivas da montadora, além de se instalarem perto da linha final. Entretanto, a pesquisa revelou dois tipos de sistemistas: montador, que gerencia compras de peças, monta os módulos e os entrega na linha final participação (atuação em projeto muito limitada) e o integrador que participa do projeto dos componentes (desde o conceito do produto até a produção), coordena técnica e comercialmente os fornecedores para que preços, prazos de entregas e qualidade estejam em conformidade, e garante a funcionalidade do módulo. A estratégia modular da montadora afeta, embora menos, os fornecedores nível 2, sendo que as mudanças são mais fortes para os que fornecem para o sistemista integrador pois a chance de perder contato direto com a montadora é maior e, junto, se perde acesso a novos projetos, melhorias tecnológicas e oportunidades rentáveis. O maior valor agregado ao produto do sistemista e a externalização causam várias mudanças de produto, processo e relações de suprimento entre o integrador e o nível 2. Quanto ao fornecedor do sistemista montador, as mudanças se concentram basicamente em logística e gestão da qualidade. / The objective of this dissertation is to verify and to understand how does the modular strategy being implemented by the car assembler influences the suppliers in the 2nd. level of the automotive chain. Modular strategy is conceptually based on modularity (more added value to components as they become modules) and outsourcing (suppliers’ involvement in activities usually made only by the assembler). Method case was used in the analysis of two productive chains of a single assembler, one is conventional and the other is modular, producing similar subcompact cars. We studied two modules of each car: suspension and cockpit. Each chain is composed of one car assembler, some 1st. tier suppliers (also called systemists or module suppliers) and some 2nd. tier suppliers (the components producers). The modular organization characterizes for the consolidated physical flow (assemblies and modules), the reduction of direct suppliers to the assembler, and the new role of the module suppliers. We found two kinds of modular supplier: first one is the 'assembler systemist' and it basically purchases the components of the module, assembles it and deliveries it at the final assembly line. The other type is the 'integrator systemist', to whom the changes are more significant. The 'integrator systemist' assumes relative responsibilities for development and many responsibilities for production and supply management. Generally speaking, the second tier suppliers (producers of components) are not very influenced by the Modular Strategy but when we consider the differences among the module suppliers, several points are distinguished. Effects of modularization and outsourcing are more intense on the second tier suppliers that work for the 'integrator systemist', since they face changes in the components development, in commercial practices, in productive processes and also in the supply system.

Submitted by Fabricia Fialho Reginato (fabriciar) on 2015-07-27T23:53:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VitorFabianBrock.pdf: 5588420 bytes, checksum: cc04dab6ecfa9bf81fa60c3ef89ef429 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-27T23:53:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VitorFabianBrock.pdf: 5588420 bytes, checksum: cc04dab6ecfa9bf81fa60c3ef89ef429 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-26 / Nenhuma / O presente trabalho objetivou a incorporação dos conceitos de sustentabilidade na formulação da estratégica de operações. O modelo proposto compreende cinco vértices: o contexto externo, as decisões e práticas de manufatura, as atividades da Rede de Valor em Operações (com ênfase na área de suprimentos), os sistemas de aprendizado organizacional (troca de conhecimento interno e externo), assim como o desempenho em manufatura (dimensões competitivas). A principal contribuição teórica deste modelo é que a sustentabilidade é tratada de maneira intrínseca, apresentando a sua interação com cada uma das vértices, expandindo os conceitos tradicionais. O principal consenso encontrando na literatura é a influência do ambiente externo para a adoção de práticas sustentáveis. Assim, esta pesquisa se apoiou em duas teorias organizacionais: a teoria dos stakeholders e a teoria institucional. Enquanto a primeira busca compreender as demandas específicas por práticas sustentáveis, a segunda compreende um sistema de valores mais amplos e profundos na estrutura social. Para validar empiricamente o modelo proposto, foi desenhado um estudo survey de corte transversal, dirigido aos gerentes das fábricas metal-mecânicas e eletroeletrônicas. Essas fábricas estão localizadas no Brasil e foram extraídas da base das Federações das Indústrias. A amostra resultou em 277 empresas, as quais foram contatadas individualmente, por telefone, sendo a pesquisa apresentada aos diretores industriais. Posteriormente, os dados foram coletados, usando-se um questionário estruturado, com escalas previamente validadas em outros estudos na área de operações e novas escalas formuladas especificamente para este estudo. Houve 62 respondentes válidos, representando uma taxa de resposta de 22%. Os dados coletados serviram para dois estudos. O primeiro estudo relaciona as pressões dos stakeholders com as práticas de gestão de manufatura, voltada para melhoria no desempenho ambiental da empresa. Os resultados evidenciam que stakeholders mais coercivos são os regulatórios (através de leis e normativas), os clientes locais e internacionais e os acionistas. O segundo estudo relaciona a aprendizagem organizacional, a gestão de processos sustentáveis, a gestão de suprimentos sustentáveis e as dimensões competitivas. Para avaliar o fator institucional, dados de uma pesquisa realizada no Canadá foram incorporadas ao segundo estudo. A base canadense foi coletada com as mesmas escalas da base brasileira, endereçando os mesmos ramos industriais. Além disso, apresenta as mesmas características nos respondentes e na taxa de resposta: 18%. Dessa forma, a variável país foi utilizada como fator moderador nas relações. Verificou-se que, no Brasil, onde o custo de mão-de-obra é menor e os equipamentos de produção são mais caros, a troca de conhecimento interno desempenha um papel fundamental nas relações com gestão de processos sustentáveis e suprimentos. Já nas fábricas canadenses, onde o cenário é o oposto, mão-de-obra cara e equipamentos mais baratos, a troca de conhecimento externos é importante. O desempenho em manufatura não apresentou diferenças, sendo que, em ambos países, a troca de conhecimento interno influencia o desempenho em entrega e a troca de conhecimento externo impacta no desenvolvimento de novos produtos. As principais contribuições deste trabalho são fornecer subsídios para a literatura emergente e para as práticas de gestão na área de operações. / The aim of this dissertation is to incorporate the concepts of sustainability into the formulation of operation strategies. The proposed model is composed of five vertices: the external context, manufacture decisions and practices, operations value chain activities (with an emphasis on suppliers), organizational learning (internal and external knowledge exchange), as well as the manufacture performance (competitive dimensions). The main theoretical contribution of this model is sustainability being treated intrinsically, with its interaction with each one of the vertices, which expands traditional concepts. The main consensus that has been found in all the literature is the adoption of sustainable practices often driven by the influence of the external environment. Thus, this research has been based upon two organizational theories: the stakeholders’ theory and the institutional theory. Whereas the first aims at understanding specific demands for sustainable practices, the second one encompasses a system of broader and deeper values in the social structure. In order to empirically validate the proposed model, a cross-section survey was applied on the managers of the metalworking, electrical appliances and electronics industry. Such plants are located in Brazil, and have been exacted from the local industry directory database. Hence 277 plants were contacted one by one by telephone, and the survey addressed plant manager. Afterwards, the data were collected with a structured questionnaire, with scales previously validated in other studies in the operations research area, as well as with new scales that were formulated for this particular study. There were 62 valid respondents, which accounted for a response rate of 22%. The collected data were employed in two studies. The first study relates stakeholders’ pressure to the green manufacture practices that is the plant initiative for improving its environmental performance. The results shown that the most coercive stakeholders are the regulatory, through laws and norms, local and international clients, and shareholders. The second study deals with organizational learning and knowledge; the green management practices, green supply management, and manufacture performance. In order to assess the institutional factor, data from a previous research carried out in Canada have been incorporated into the second study. The Canadian dataset was collected with the same scales as the Brazilian one, addressing the same industries. In addition, that dataset shows the same characteristics both in the respondents profile and in the response rate: 18%. Thus, the variable “country” was set as a moderating factor in the relations. It has been verified that, in Brazil, where the labor cost is cheap and the production machinery is expensive, the internal knowledge exchange plays a pivotal role in the relations with green manufacture process and green supply management. In the Canadian plants, where the scenario is the opposite, expensive labor force and cheaper machinery, external knowledge exchange is important. The manufacture performance did not show differences, with both countries having the internal knowledge exchange influence the delivery performance. Also, in both countries, the external knowledge exchange has an impact on the new products development. This dissertation main contribution is to provide insights for the literature in operations as well as proper information to plant manager and practitioners in operations management.

Nous présentons dans cette thèse une méthode d’évaluation de l’efficience basée sur la modélisation temporelle et stochastique et de la simulation de la propagation des fautes dans les systèmes industriels. Les TRS (Taux de Rendement Synthétique) est devenu au travers de la norme NF E60-182 l’un des indicateurs majeurs de l’efficience du pilotage des systèmes de production. Il intègre essentiellement 3 notions (Qualité, Productivité et Disponibilité). Si son expression pour un composant est assez simple, sa modélisation pour l’évaluation du comportement fonctionnel et dysfonctionnel l’est beaucoup moins (prise en compte des facteurs d’échelle, des désynchronisations et du facteur humain). Afin de permettre une prise en compte des contributions individuelles de chaque composante du TRS et de chaque partie constitutive des systèmes de production (technique et humaine), nous avons utilisé les automates d’états comme haut langage de description. Les attendus débouchent en amont sur un apport formel pour l’établissement d’une méthodologie d’analyse et de conception, et en aval sur une fourniture d’indicateurs décisionnels. Les résultats sont implantés autour d’un démonstrateur basé sur AltaRica Data-Flow langage à la fois formel et graphique et véritable outil de modélisation / simulation. / We present in this thesis a method to assess a system efficiency based on modelling of the temporal and stochastic spread of faults. The OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) has become through the NF E60-182 standard one of the major indicators of the effectiveness in piloting production systems. It includes 3 main concepts (Quality, Performance and Availability). If its evaluation can be easy for a single system, the modeling of its components for the global efficiency assessment is much more difficult (taking into account redundancies, temporal scale factors…).in order to take in account the local contribution of each component of complex production system, a notion of OTE (Overall Throughput Effectiveness) is developed. The purpose of OTE is twofold: it measures factory-level performance and factory-level diagnostics such as bottleneck detection. The expected result gives a formal contribution to establishment a methodology for analysis, design, and decision-making. The results are discussed using a demonstrator based on AltaRica Data-Flow, language in both formal and graphic and real tool modeling / simulation.

Managers at automotive manufacturers are seeking ways to reduce energy consumption, costs, carbon emissions, and waste from production processes. Researchers and practitioners perceive energy efficiency as the least expensive and most effective way to deal with issues related to climate change, but adoption of energy efficiency measures has been slow among industrial facilities. The topic of this research study was the decision-making process for energy efficiency projects in the U.S. automotive manufacturing industry. Flaws in this decision-making processes are preventing changes that can dramatically reduce energy usage, cost, and pollution. The study was grounded in the theories of energy management, organizational learning, systems thinking, and strategic management. Data is from open-ended question interviews and questionnaires of 21 decision makers in automotive manufacturing companies in the United States about their perception and experiences regarding the decision-making process for energy efficiency projects. The data were coded to identify themes. The findings indicated that organizational leaders with responsibility over energy management should include energy management standards and frameworks such as ISO 50001, Six Sigma DMAIC, and Energy Star as guidelines for selecting energy efficiency projects. Decision makers may find these results useful in improving their decision-making processes for evaluating energy efficiency projects. This research has the potential to promote positive social change in the automotive industry by reducing energy consumption and business costs, and it could benefit communities by reducing pollution through increasing energy efficiency in the automotive manufacturing industries.