This dissertation studies firms' strategic interactions in anticipation of random service disruption following technology failure. In particular it is aimed at understanding how contracting decisions between a vendor and one or multiple clients affect the firms' subsequent decisions to ensure disruption response and recovery are managed as efficiently as possible. This dissertation consists of three studies that were written as standalone papers seeking to contribute to the literature on contract design and technology management in operations management. Together, the three studies justify the importance of structuring the right incentives to mitigate disruption risks. In the first study we contribute to this literature by means of an analytical model which we use to examine how a client and vendor should balance investments in response capacity when both parties' efforts are critical in resolving disruption and each may have different risk preferences. We study the difference in the client's optimal expected utility between a case in which investment in response capacity is observable and a case in which it is not and refer to the difference in outcomes between the two cases as the cost of complexity. Firstly, we show that the cost of complexity to the client is decreasing in the risk aversion of vendor but increasing in her own risk aversion. Secondly, we find that a larger difference in risk aversion between a client and vendor leads to underinvestment in system uptime in case the client's investment is observable, yet the opposite happens when the client’s investment is not observable. In the second study we further examine the context of the first study through a controlled experiment. We examine how differences in risk aversion and access to information on a contracting partner’s risk preferences interact in affecting contracting and investment decisions between the client and vendor. Comparing subject decisions with the conditionally optimal benchmarks we arrive at two observations that highlight possible heuristic decision biases. Firstly, subjects tend to set and hold on to an inefficiently high investment level even though it is theoretically optimal to adjust decisions under changing differences in risk preferences. Secondly, subjects tend to set and hold on to a penalty that is too high when interacting with more risk averse vendors and too low in case the vendor is equally risk averse. Furthermore, cognitive feedback on the vendor’s risk aversion appears to have counterproductive effects on subject’s performance in the experiment, suggesting cognitive overload can have a reinforcing effect on the heuristic decision biases observed. In the third study we construct a new analytical model to examine the effect of contract design on a provider's response capacity allocation in a setting where multiple clients may be disrupted and available response capacity is limited. The results show that while clients may be incentivized to identify and report network disruptions, competition for scarce emergency resources and the required investment in understanding their own exposure may incentivize clients to deliberately miscommunicate with the vendor.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:39:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 19 / Nenhuma / Diante do atual cenário de concorrência internacional, o sucesso de uma empresa multinacional está cada vez mais atrelado à forma como ela gerencia suas operações internacionais. Para tanto, as empresas devem tirar o máximo de proveito diante das oportunidades e desafios que o mercado internacional apresenta. Porém, ainda são poucos os estudos sobre a estratégia de atuação internacional das empresas multinacionais brasileiras, principalmente quanto à forma como estas configuram e coordenam sua rede de fábricas no exterior para garantirem vantagem competitiva frente aos seus concorrentes. Sendo assim, este estudo aplica modelos e tipologias da área de operações internacionais num estudo de caso descritivo da WEG Motores S.A., com foco na rede de fábricas formada pelas subsidiárias produtoras de motores elétricos na Argentina, México, Portugal e China. Os resultados apontam que as principais vantagens estratégicas conquistadas pela empresa diante da atual configuração de sua rede de fábricas destacam-se a cap / In international competition, the success of a multinational is related to the way they manage its international operations are managed. Also, the factories located overseas must try to take advantages in the presence of opportunities and challenges in international markets. Although, there are few studies about how Brazilian multinationals companies operates internationally, mainly on configuration and co-ordination of their international network abroad in order to sustain competitive advantage. This study reviews theoretical models and typologies, where international operations of the company WEG Motors S.A are analyzed in a descriptive case of study. The focus is the international factories of electrical motors, located in Argentina, Mexico, Portugal and China. The results point out that the main strategic advantage conquered from the actual configuration from their international factories network are better comprehend the local and regional market demand where the plants are located and transferring th

This thesis examines the operational delivery systems of information-centric Mass Claims Processes. Empirical data is presented which builds upon existing literature within the Operations Management discipline. This thesis aims to extend the area of knowledge which focuses on the rendering of assistance to very large groups of individuals disadvantaged through particular events such as armed conflict, civil unrest, acts of government and other similarly sweeping actions. One such approach of aid delivery is through a legal process known as a Mass Claims Process which delivers assistance. This research examines how this assistance is rendered to the individual, the ‘claimant’, through a legally guided and controlled analysis of claimant-provided information. Such organisations are typically either publicly funded or funded through social schemes, which introduces significant pressure for efficiency. Similarly, the legal nature of MCPs emphasises the need for accuracy in the delivery of justice and law. The research addresses a number of areas not fully explored by the extant literature. There is a lack of research which explores the apparent trade-off between efficiency and accuracy in large scale legal services. Little empirical evidence exists on the application of Postponement strategies in information-centric operations. This research also investigates a previously unexplored context in which strategic frameworks must find optimal alignment between the service concept and the design of the delivery system in a restricted and challenging environment. Fieldwork was carried out over a three year period in two separate organisations, and utilised a polar case approach to increase the validity of the findings. The phenomenon of information interrelation, previously unidentified in the literature, is shown to have significant impact in this context. Several models are presented to describe the dynamic relationships between the characteristics and the strategic choices of the MCP. The results produce a set of findings illustrating optimal design choices for the key delivery system characteristics associated with MCPs. The financial impact of such organisations reaches into the billions (USD), and will continue to be a significant economic consideration for the foreseeable future. As such, research in this area has the ability to increase the efficient use of organisational resources for the organisations, while improving the service for the applicants. Whilst this thesis contributes to the body of knowledge for delivery system design, further research is welcomed, especially on the phenomenon of information interrelation, for the growing area of information-centric organisations.

The rapid advance of information technologies largely facilitated firms' data-driven decision making. Particularly, in operations management practices, firms could continuously collect information to refine their demand knowledge, and integrate this process into their relevant operational decisions, e.g. pricing, inventory, and market entry, known as demand learning. Demand learning in complex business systems is often tangled with complex strategic interactions, thus requiring a deep understanding of how it affects the strategic relationship among players in various business setups. This thesis aims to contribute to the demand-learning literature by studying the strategic interactions in two different business relationships, one vertical and the other horizontal. First, I consider the interactions between a retailer and a supplier in a supply chain subject to demand censorship (i.e. unobservable lost sales) when the retailer is engaging in demand learning through dynamic inventory experimentation. I study the supplier's optimal wholesale prices when the retailer is in three different situations, and find that the retailer and the supply chain may actually benefit from either myopia or censorship in contrast to the existing results, due to the supplier's different collaborative or exploitative responses to the retailer's "willingness to learn". I also identify that, with demand censorship, the collaborative behavior between the players for information acquisition may improve the system's performance. Second, I study an online retail platform's learning process and entry policies as well as the independent seller's pricing distortion behavior to slow down this process, motivated by Amazon.com's unique dual role as both a marketplace and a merchant that allows it to use the transaction data generated by its third-party sellers to decide if to sell the same product itself. I developed a Bayesian statistical model for the platform's demand learning, proposed two types of heuristic entry policies for the platform owner. The model predicts a pattern of price distortion, and describes the product offering choices made by the independent seller. These could potentially serve as testable results for empirical studies.

O plano de revitalização da construção naval brasileira e a demanda explosiva criada pelas descobertas das enormes jazidas de petróleo abaixo da camada de sal motivaram pelo menos 20 anúncios de novos estaleiros no país. Nesse contexto e colimada com o desafio de erguer uma indústria competitiva, esse trabalho visa contribuir com uma maior racionalidade nas decisões associadas à estratégia de produção para estaleiros brasileiros. O objetivo da pesquisa é desenvolver um modelo de formulação dessa estratégia e reunir o conhecimento crítico sobre cada uma das 18 áreas de decisão apontadas no modelo. O processo de formulação de estratégia desenvolvido segue uma ordem sistemática de identificação do status quo, definição do futuro que se deseja perseguir, identificação de ações necessárias, escolha da melhor solução e implementação. O conteúdo da estratégia consiste no detalhamento das áreas de decisão, que a teoria mostrou estarem organizadas em cinco grupos: Planta e equipamentos; Planejamento e Controle da Produção; Gestão dos Recursos Humanos; Desenvolvimento Tecnológico; e Aspectos Organizacionais. Ao final, as principais recomendações tecidas para um novo estaleiro brasileiro foram: utilizar produção automatizada até a submontagem, realizar a edificação com megablocos, implementar uma logística interna aprimorada e o sincronismo na produção; realizar o planejamento com software que otimiza a carga de trabalho nas oficinas; controle total da produção; atribuir maior autonomia às equipes com poder de decisão sobre problemas no chão de fábrica; engenharia deve ter foco em padronizar processos e buscar o aumento da eficiência dos recursos; garantir a transmissão da estratégia de produção para os gerentes e operários (caminho crítico, prazos). / The revitalization of the Brazilian shipbuilding industry, further reinforced with the discovery of enormous oil reserves in the subsalt layer, motivated at least 20 projects for new shipyards to be deployed in the upcoming years. In this context, and in line with the proposition of developing a competitive industry, this work aims to contribute with a greater rationality in the decisions associated with the Brazilian shipyards production strategy. The objective of this research is to build up a model to formulate this strategy and bring together the critical knowledge on each of the 18 decision areas pointed out by the model. The process for formulating the strategy follows a systematical order of identifying the status quo, determining the future that should be sought, identifying the necessary actions, selecting the best solution, and implementing it. The content of the strategy consists in the detailing of the decision areas, which theory illustrated to belong to one of five groups: Plant and equipment, Production Planning and Control; Human resource management; Technological development and Organizational issues. Main recommendations to a new shipyard in Brazil were: use of automation in the manufacturing of panels up to the subassembly, erection of the ship with megablocks, enhanced internal logistics and synchronism of the production; use of software that optimizes the work flow in the shops during the planning process; total control of production; assignment of greater autonomy to teams with decision power over problems at the shop floor; focusing of the engineering department on standardizing processes and striving for increased efficiency of assets and labor; assurance that the transmission of production strategy to managers and employees (critical paths, deadlines).

O ensino de Administração da Produção e Operações (APO) foi investigado em quatro formas complementares: através da revisão da literatura; análise dos conteúdos dos livros didáticos; análise das questões do Exame Nacional de Cursos (Provão) e análise dos programas das disciplinas de APO dos cursos de graduação em Administração de Empresas da FEA-PUC-SP, FEA-USP e FGV-EAESP, que foram consideradas as principais escolas de Administração do município de São Paulo. Quanto aos conteúdos de APO, os resultados convergiram para uma lista de 25 tópicos principais que deveriam ser tratados tanto nos livros didáticos de APO, quanto nos cursos de graduação em Administração de Empresas. Através das respostas aos questionários enviados aos professores, bem como contatos telefônicos, por e-mail e in loco, foram obtidas informações que complementaram a análise do conteúdo de APO, mas também permitiram as seguintes comparações: as três escolas possuem de quatro a cindo disciplinas obrigatórias de APO, totalizando 230 horas no curso, que ainda conta com disciplinas optativas, sendo que a FEA-USP oferece apenas uma disciplina, enquanto a FEA-PUC-SP e a FGV-EAESP oferecem oito; Slack et al. (2002) é o livro mais recomendado para as disciplinas de Administração da Produção e operações, mas para as disciplinas ligadas à Administração de Materiais não há um livro que predomine, além disso, os professores têm complementado seus cursos com apostilas; o método de ensino e o sistema de avaliação nas três escolas possuem vários pontos em comum e o Provão não tem sido utilizado como recurso didático; finalmente, nas três escolas o corpo docente está organizado em áreas ou departamentos, sendo a área de produção uma das menores na FEA-USP e na FGV-EAESP. Sendo poucos os professores, deveriam, então, ter alto número de carga horária. Apesar disso, os professores do Departamento de Produção da FGV-EAESP possuem a menor carga horária na graduação, quando comparados com as outras duas escolas. / Production and Operations Management (POM) teaching has been investigated in four different supporting ways: from literature review, books content, Brazil´s National Exam questions, and discipline program analysis, all of them related to POM, and taking place in FEA-USP (Faculdade de Economia e Administração – Business Economics College of University of São Paulo) Business Management Courses, PUC-SP (Catholic University of São Paulo), and FGV-EAESP, most renowned Business Schools in São Paulo. Results concerning POM drove to 25 main listed topics which should be referred not only in POM school books, but also in Management graduation courses. Upon answers to the questions sent to professors, phone contacts, e-mails and locals, some information was collected, which led to the following comparison levels: the mentioned schools above have 4 or 5 primary course disciplines related to POM, totalizing 230 hours, and there are still free choice program students. FEA-USP offers just one disicipline, while FEA-PUC-SP, and FGV-EAESP offer eight. Slack et al. (2002) is the most recomended book concerning POM disciplines, but for the ones related to Material Management there is no such prevailing book. Besides, professors have been meeting their courses content goal using their own notes. Teaching methods, and grading systems in those schools have common views and the National Exam has not been used as a reference or a pattern. Finally, the faculty in those three schools is divided into areas or departments. The Production area is one of the smallest in FEA-USP and FGV-EAESP, and as a result of it, FGV-EAESP Production Department professors have the smallest number of classes in graduation courses, compared to the other two schools, though as they are so few, those teachers were expected to have great numbers of classes.

[pt] A melhoria dos processos de negócios é considerada importante para o suporte da competitividade e sustentabilidade das companhias, ganhando assim, destaque na comunidade acadêmica. Neste sentido, a obtenção de melhorias nos processos organizacionais pode ser obtida por meio do (re)desenho dos processos de negócios, o qual é considerado a etapa de maior valor agregado dos projetos de gestão de processos de negócios. Contudo, apesar da existência de uma literatura ampla a respeito da temática de (re)desenho de processos de negócios, as metodologias ou procedimentos estruturados que visam garantir o entendimento da transformação dos processos atuais as-is para futuros to-be ainda são escassos. Neste contexto, visando preencher esta lacuna presente na literatura, este estudo apresenta os achados empíricos e as lições apreendidas durante a realização de uma pesquisa ação com o objetivo de (re)desenhar os processos logísticos de uma empresa de produção cultural. O estudo empírico teve duração de nove meses. Um modelo conceitual de síntese de (re)desenho de processos de negócios organizacionais foi proposto a partir da literatura. Este modelo incorporou três camadas (i.e., organização, processos de negócios e implementação) e guiou a condução do estudo empírico. Diferentes fatores críticos de sucesso e barreiras foram identificados e analisados com foco nas dimensões organizacionais, sociais e técnicas, resultando em contribuições para pesquisadores da academia e para os especialistas da indústria em abordagens de (re)desenho de processos de negócios. / [en] The improvement of business processes is considered important to support companies competitiveness and sustainability, therefore, being highlighted in the academic community. In this way, the improvement of the organizational processes can be achieved through the business processes redesign, which is considered the most value-added phase in a business process management (BPM) project. However, despite the existence of an extensive literature on the subject of business processes redesign, methodologies or structured procedures that aim to understand the transformation from the as-is to the desired to-be processes are still scarce. Within this context, in order to fill this gap in the literature, this study presents the empirical findings and the lessons learnt from an action research with the objective of redesigning the logistic processes of a cultural production enterprise. The empirical study lasted nine months. A synthesis conceptual model for redesigning organizational business processes was proposed based on the literature. This model incorporated three tiers (i.e., organization, business processes and implementation) and provided guidance for conducting the empirical study. Different critical success factors and barriers have been identified and analyzed with a focus on organizational, social, and technical dimensions, resulting in contributions to scholars and to practitioners in redesigning business process approaches.

Business survival requires that decision makers understand the critical knowledge resources that support the business' core competencies, while also facing the challenges of current labor trends. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of the management staff at a west Tennessee manufacturing facility about industrial technician skill losses. This phenomenological design included semistructured interviews of 20 managers, supervisors, and engineers and was an exploration of the potential losses from skilled worker attrition. The foundations of labor theory; knowledge management; and accounting measurements of intangible assets in advanced technology, communications, and economic systems provided the key elements of the conceptual framework. Interview data were sorted and grouped into 6 principle themes: attrition/succession planning, skills technology support, training requirements, economic benefits, support to lean operations, and skills alternative sources. These findings may enhance positive social change by informing manufacturing business leaders on the benefits of active learning organizations, collaboration with administrators of technical educational programs for improved training, replacement technologies, and utilization of the global economy for replacement workers. For skilled technical employees, the social impact of this study might ensure another generation of craft workers to help promote the prosperity of American industries and provide competitive paying worker jobs to the supportive employers, communities, and institutions.

Researchers have found that 90% of financial advisors leave the life insurance industry in first year, 68% in the second year, and 50% in the third year. Researchers have noted the importance of mentorship aimed at work attitudes, yet there is a lack of research concerning attrition and its effects on the industry. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine managers' and financial advisors' perception of a mentoring program on advisors productivity and retention. Social learning theory was applied as the theoretical framework for this study. Data were collected from financial advisors and their managers across 13 branch offices from a major life insurance company. Data analysis included Pearson product moment, the independent t test, and analysis of variance. Specific quantitative findings indicated (a) a low but statistically significant positive correlation (r = .13) between advisors' number of years of working and mentoring scores, (b) low but statistically significant negative correlation coefficient ( r = -.19) between financial advisors' years of employment and productivity. The findings invite future research on the development of a mentoring program for advisors productivity and retention. The conclusion is that mentoring could be used to improve self-esteem and self-efficacy among advisors and a good applied recommendation would be that company leaders formulate policy to implement mentoring programs at all branches to improve job productivity and retention. Social change implications include opportunities for advisors to improve their job performance, thereby contributing revenue to the organization and the national economy.

<p>Indirect Management Consulting (IMC) is a new concept within organizational change management consulting. The basic principle is to make the client more active in the change effort compared to conventional management consulting where the consultant actively drives the change. With IMC, the client is provided with a tailored set of skills and methods that makes him able to lead a change project and to make sure that the new organization is sustained. The IMC-model is a combination of management consulting and e-learning, where the consultant has an indirect role in supporting the client.</p><p>This study has shown that the IMC-model increases the chance for successful change implementation by increasing knowledge and involvement of the managers in the client organization. A common problem with conventional consulting is that the new organization fails to persist some time after the change project has ended and when the consultants have left the organization. This is overcome by the IMC-model since it transfers necessary knowledge and tools to the client’s managers who then can drive the change as well as ensure sustainability long after the project itself is completed.</p><p>The IMC-model is more cost-efficient than conventional consulting since less involvement is required by the consultant and since the customization of the e-learning systems can be made efficient by modularization. The lower costs make it possible to compete with a lower overall price and the combination of high quality of the organizational change with low prices makes the IMC-model an attractive complement to conventional management consulting.</p> / <p>This study is a part of an evaluation of the potential of a new business concept within the field of management consulting. The study is written to give insight of the functionality of the concept as well as the market barriers that a new company can expect to encounter if it decides to start up a business based on the concept.</p><p>Indirect Management Consulting (IMC) is a new and unproven concept within change management consultancy and can in a simplified manner be described as a mix between e-learning and traditional management consultancy. The basic principle is that the client is given instructions and tools to be able to lead the change project by following a model similar to an e-learning program. The contents of the program are custom-built by a management consultant according to the needs of the change project. The consultant monitors the progress of the organizational change and adapts the model and gives feedback to the client as the project progresses. By following the IMC model, the client does the majority of the work while he does not require initial knowledge of change management since he is continuously provided with the information, tools and templates needed to analyze the organizational performance and implement the change successfully.</p><p>The functionality of the IMC concept was evaluated in two ways: First by comparing the contents of the IMC-model with existing change management theories in order to find out if the model covers the most critical aspects of the theories. Secondly, the market for the IMC model was analyzed mainly by using Porter’s five-force theory.</p><p>This study has shown that IMC can be an efficient method for implementing organizational change. Its efficiency comes from a number of sources, mainly related to the fact that the organization’s own managers have, compared to conventional management consulting, a high degree of involvement in the analysis of the organization and the implementation of the change. This in turn leads to better communication of the change plan and makes it easier to motivate employees to accept to the organizational change and make them feel a ‘sense of urgency’ for participating to successfully implement the project. The model was also found to make it easy for the manager to formulate a change strategy and to implement the change in a structured manner.</p><p>For the consulting company, IMC means that costs (and consequently prices) can be kept much lower than for conventional consultant services. One main reason is that the model does not have to be built from scratch for each client. The contents of the model are relatively easily adjusted to suit most types of organizational changes. A second reason for the lower cost is that time the consultant spends at the client’s offices is minimized or eliminated. This gives an advantage compared to conventional management consulting.</p><p>While the management consulting industry have relatively low entry barriers, that is however not equivalent that it is easy for a company to enter the market based on the IMC-model. A high quality of the services is crucial and, if that cannot be proven, the advantage of having a low price is diminished. It is therefore important for a new starter in this industry to have a portfolio of successfully implemented projects. For the IMC concept, this is problematic since the model is new and unproven. It can therefore be difficult to find the first clients and alternative entry strategies such as partnering or simply advocating a “non-profit” strategy for the first clients might be necessary.</p>