This thesis is an empirical exploration of supply strategy content and process. The investigation uses a single-sector case study methodology to explore the scope of supply strategy content, the interaction between supply strategy content and context, and supply strategy process within four aerospace sector companies. The research also uses an extant Integrative Framework to subsequently identify the ‘modes’ of supply strategy process that best describe supply strategy process in the case studies. While the scope of supply strategy content suggested by the supply management literature is theoretically broad, supply strategy process is represented in the literature as chiefly derived from business / corporate strategy. Recognising that details of the processes / practices that create supply strategy and the scope of content within supply strategies have been under-explored empirically, this investigation seeks to contribute to a developing understanding of supply strategy content and process ‘in practice’ and in particular, the role of actors in supply strategy process - which is largely absent in related studies. The research contributes to existing knowledge by finding that the opportunity / autonomy actors have to enact supply strategy process is broadly determined by contextual factors. Furthermore, the investigation finds that supply strategy process, actors and context all have a moderating effect on the scope of supply strategy content. It is also shown that different actors engage in the formulation and implementation stages of strategy process. Finally, the investigation identifies one dominant ‘mode’ of supply strategy process and distinctive combinations of ‘secondary’ modes in each case study. For practitioners, this investigation illustrates that the opportunity and facility to think / act strategically in supply is dependant upon more than just resolve and motivation; it is the product of a complex interaction of strategy context, content, process and actors. The thesis concludes by making a number of recommendations for practice and by identifying opportunities for further research in this field.

The thesis deals with using informatics in sports. Especially it's aiming to a small football club, where will be modern trends of IT applied to. There are introduced basic terms related to the theme including differences between a sport club and a classic business company in the theoretical part. One of the goals was also to analyze a usage of informatics in top division football clubs and a usage of tools ITIL and Cobit. The main goal of practical part is to do a process analysis of the football club and a draft of an information strategy. There are used methods like SWOT analysis and Balanced scorecard.

The master's thesis deals with the issue of the strategy-making process and the development of the strategic planning cycle in sports organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a qualitative study of how managers of the hockeyball club SK Suchdol nad Lužnicí are working with the strategy within the whole strategic planning cycle. The aim of this thesis is to point out the differences between theory and practice and to offer some recommendations for the improvement of the efficiency of the strategy-making process in the above mentioned club. The theoretical part of this thesis is concerned with the research and the synthesis of the contemporary Czech and foreign literature related to the strategy, strategic planning cycle and its perception in the sports environment. The practical part of this thesis deals with the analysis of the strategy-making process in the hockeyball club SK Suchdol nad Lužnicí. This analysis is executed by the qualitative method, i. e. by personal interviews with the individual members of the club, who are participating in the strategy-making process and working within the strategic planning cycle. To conclude this thesis, specific outputs are generated, which are based on a comparison of the obtained information with the theory. These outputs can serve as recommendations for the improvement of the efficiency of the strategy-making process, both for managers of the analysed sports club, as well as for other executives and managers of similar sports organizations.

The diploma thesis deals with the compilation of a business plan for establishing a company specializing in selling outdoor equipment in the Zlín region. The theoretical part includes a detailed description of the business process, the analytical and research methods used in planning and the structure of the business plan. The second part the thesis provides an analysis of the business environment using selected methods as well as a primary survey of potential customers with the goal to validate ideas and identify key factors for the assessment and selection of the market strategy. The design part of the thesis describes the chosen strategy and business model breakdown.

The objective of this Thesis is selection and adaptation of a suitable concept of a product being created. Selecion of the suitable concept is based on the designated concept and its testing. The testing is performed by the poll method among representatives of the public and business spheres. Determination of the final product concept as well as proposal of the marketing strategy for managers of Malované Mapy, s.r.o company is the outome. It will enable the managers to work on the further steps of developnent of new products. Based on the information from technical literature, the theoretical part explains the basic marketing terminology associated with the theme of the Thesis. This terminology is then applied in the practical part in the area of information processing by the company managers.

<p>Changes in sectors and industries have brought new challenges to corporations as well as been important driving forces for the dynamics in strategy at the corporate level. With the dramatic developments of the 1990’s in mind, such as multilateral free-trade agreements, liberalization, privatization, sharp industry growth/decline, increased competition and globalization, in particular within the telecom and the construction industry, this study contributes to describing and understanding strategic change at the corporate level as well as changes in the division of work within value chains. Strategy is defined as intentions, decisions and actions that relate to bundling and unbundling at different strategic levels, aiming to establish and reestablish a value chain position. Thus, outsourcing, M&As, modularization and systems development and sales are important strategic components which are examined from a value chain perspective. From a value chain perspective, the purpose of this study is to describe and understand strategic change at the corporate level in the telecom and construction industries during the 1990’s. More specifically this study shall contribute to describing and understanding (i) the dynamics of and between M&As, outsourcing, modularization and systemization, as well as (ii) industrial and financial drivers to strategic change.</p><p>The conclusions describe strategic change from a value chain perspective using three descriptive patterns, including an increasing degree of specialization and need for interorganizational coordination across the value chain. In addition, outsourcing and modularization of systems and an increased scope of offering through systemization and BOT-projects, result in the fact that due to M&As the horizontal boundary of the firm sometimes goes beyond the industry scope while the vertical scope is often narrowed through outsourcing. The conclusions also focus on understanding the content of strategic change, that is to say the dynamics of and between mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, modularization and system sales. These findings are summarized in nine explanatory patterns. These patterns show that the strategic decisions of bundling and unbundling at the corporate and functional level through mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, systemization and modularization are guided by an industrial as well as a financial logic. By considering the descriptive and explanatory patterns found this study, the conclusions also include what to expect during the next decade with regard to corporate strategy from a value chain perspective in five predictive patterns.</p>

Changes in sectors and industries have brought new challenges to corporations as well as been important driving forces for the dynamics in strategy at the corporate level. With the dramatic developments of the 1990’s in mind, such as multilateral free-trade agreements, liberalization, privatization, sharp industry growth/decline, increased competition and globalization, in particular within the telecom and the construction industry, this study contributes to describing and understanding strategic change at the corporate level as well as changes in the division of work within value chains. Strategy is defined as intentions, decisions and actions that relate to bundling and unbundling at different strategic levels, aiming to establish and reestablish a value chain position. Thus, outsourcing, M&amp;As, modularization and systems development and sales are important strategic components which are examined from a value chain perspective. From a value chain perspective, the purpose of this study is to describe and understand strategic change at the corporate level in the telecom and construction industries during the 1990’s. More specifically this study shall contribute to describing and understanding (i) the dynamics of and between M&amp;As, outsourcing, modularization and systemization, as well as (ii) industrial and financial drivers to strategic change. The conclusions describe strategic change from a value chain perspective using three descriptive patterns, including an increasing degree of specialization and need for interorganizational coordination across the value chain. In addition, outsourcing and modularization of systems and an increased scope of offering through systemization and BOT-projects, result in the fact that due to M&amp;As the horizontal boundary of the firm sometimes goes beyond the industry scope while the vertical scope is often narrowed through outsourcing. The conclusions also focus on understanding the content of strategic change, that is to say the dynamics of and between mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, modularization and system sales. These findings are summarized in nine explanatory patterns. These patterns show that the strategic decisions of bundling and unbundling at the corporate and functional level through mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, systemization and modularization are guided by an industrial as well as a financial logic. By considering the descriptive and explanatory patterns found this study, the conclusions also include what to expect during the next decade with regard to corporate strategy from a value chain perspective in five predictive patterns.

SUMMARY The final work of postgraduate studies, 97 pages, 25 pictures, 5 tables, 48 references, 4 appendices in Lithuanian language. Key words: local development strategy, the process of strategy arrangement, consultation of strategy arrangement, local action groups, consultation methods. The subject of investigation is consultation of local development strategy arrangement. The aim of investigation is to research the process of local development strategy consultation and prepare recommendations for consultation of local development strategy arrangement groups. The tasks: 1. To analyze the general theoretical regularities of strategy arrangement. 2. To identify peculiarities of local development strategy arrangement. 3. To establish the problems that mostly confront the organizers and consultants of strategies. 4. To prepare the model of consultation of local development strategy arrangement groups. The subject of investigation is consultation process of local development strategy. Investigation period – 2001-2006. The methods of investigation. To solve scientific problems were chosen methods of analysis of scientific literature, systemic research method; qualitative inquest methods: arrangement of local development strategy groups and their consultants’ telephonic inquest (Cati), arrangement of local development strategy groups and their consultants’ questionnaire, systematizing of primary and secondary sources of information, analysis and synthesis, comparing methods... [to full text]

<p>No organisation has an endless and unlimited supply of money, especially in a recessive economy, and therefore decisions have to be made as to which areas an organisation will invest in. As organisations, such as YZ1 financial services organisation, are focused on seeing returns on investment (ROI), implementing software that is not being used&nbsp / will not render any benefits to the organisation. Research problem: Project Managers (PMs) in YZ organisation&rsquo / s IT department need to perform mandated processes, as&nbsp / defined in their centralised repository. PMs need to use Financial and Planning Software (FPS)2 software to perform certain project management activities, as required by their&nbsp / job function. However, it was found that MPP3 software, another tool, was used for more detailed project schedules, as well as activities that were not strictly enforced by&nbsp / management, the Project Office or the Quality Assurance team. Therefore, from this discovery, it was not clear whether the intended benefit of implementing this mandatory&nbsp / software (FPS) was being realised &ndash / since implementing software that is not being utilised fully would not deliver the intended benefits to the IT department (Devaraj &amp / Kohli&nbsp / 2003), even if the software is termed &lsquo / mandatory&rsquo / . Objective: The primary objective of this research was to explore and optimise the key success factors for an effective&nbsp / implementation of mandatory software in a department, in order to derive the intended business benefits. Literature Review: Literature was reviewed in the search for models or&nbsp / theories that explore the relationship between the use of mandatory software and the achievement of business benefits. The Information Management Body of Knowledge&nbsp / (IMBOK) was selected as this framework defines the relationship between IT and the realisation of business benefits, and ultimately the achievement of any business strategy. The literature review focused predominantly on the level of user involvement, change management, as well as factors that influence the usage of mandatory software by&nbsp / individuals. 1. The name of the organisation utilised has been changed. Refer to Ethical Consideration 2. The name of the tools utilised has been changed. Refer to Ethical&nbsp / Consideration and list of acronyms 3. The name of the tools utilised has been changed. Refer to Ethical Consideration and list of acronyms. Focus was given to organisational factors affecting usage, such as top management support and organisational processes. A model was compiled using unique constructs in the Technology Acceptance Model&nbsp / (and TAM2), the Motivational Model (MM) and the Model of PC Utilisation (MPCU) &ndash / in order to test user acceptance of mandatory software. The literature study concludes with a&nbsp / review of an approach to benefits management including five stages, namely: identifying and structuring benefits, planning for the realisation of benefits, executing the plan, in&nbsp / addition to the evaluation and the review. Research design and methodology: A case study was used in this research, as it examined the phenomenon in its natural setting,&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / employing multiple methods of data collection to gather information from a few entities (groups and data sources). In this way, it was not limited to only qualitative or quantitative&nbsp / approaches, but utilised mixed methods instead. A mixed methods approach was used in order to elaborate, enhance and clarify the results from the qualitative research&nbsp / through the results of the quantitative analysis. Findings: The main finding, based on the compilation of three models of user acceptance, proved that FPS was not being utilised&nbsp / as intended. There was also no evidence of an improvement in business operations. Therefore, benefits management was negatively impacted. Organisational processes were&nbsp / dentified as the most important organisational factor, influencing the usage of FPS software. Own technological capability was considered to be the least important factor,&nbsp / as respondents believed that they had sufficient IT skills in order to learn how to use FPS software. Change management was rated negatively / and as a result, it impacted the&nbsp / usage of FPS, as users were not involved in the decision to implement, and had limited interaction in the implementation process. In addition, there was no evidence found that&nbsp / benefits management was conducted in the IT department / and therefore, the impact of using alternative software could not be quantitatively assessed. Recommendations: In concluding this research, it is recommended that the &ldquo / best practice&rdquo / , derived from the pertinent literate should be followed more diligently if YZ organisation is to benefit from the&nbsp / implementation of mandatory software. For example, in this research, it was found that top management&rsquo / s support of FPS (second most important organisational factor influencing use) was lacking, despite the literature suggestion that senior management involvement in changing technology is crucial for organisational commitment. It is&nbsp / suggested that a more formal approach to benefits management should be implemented. It is also recommended that further study should be conducted &ndash / in order to explore&nbsp / the applicability of the Japanese framing (achieving benefits from IT software through the concept of strategic instinct, rather than strategic alignment) in the context of a&nbsp / developing country (such as South Africa).</p>

<p>No organisation has an endless and unlimited supply of money, especially in a recessive economy, and therefore decisions have to be made as to which areas an organisation will invest in. As organisations, such as YZ1 financial services organisation, are focused on seeing returns on investment (ROI), implementing software that is not being used&nbsp / will not render any benefits to the organisation. Research problem: Project Managers (PMs) in YZ organisation&rsquo / s IT department need to perform mandated processes, as&nbsp / defined in their centralised repository. PMs need to use Financial and Planning Software (FPS)2 software to perform certain project management activities, as required by their&nbsp / job function. However, it was found that MPP3 software, another tool, was used for more detailed project schedules, as well as activities that were not strictly enforced by&nbsp / management, the Project Office or the Quality Assurance team. Therefore, from this discovery, it was not clear whether the intended benefit of implementing this mandatory&nbsp / software (FPS) was being realised &ndash / since implementing software that is not being utilised fully would not deliver the intended benefits to the IT department (Devaraj &amp / Kohli&nbsp / 2003), even if the software is termed &lsquo / mandatory&rsquo / . Objective: The primary objective of this research was to explore and optimise the key success factors for an effective&nbsp / implementation of mandatory software in a department, in order to derive the intended business benefits. Literature Review: Literature was reviewed in the search for models or&nbsp / theories that explore the relationship between the use of mandatory software and the achievement of business benefits. The Information Management Body of Knowledge&nbsp / (IMBOK) was selected as this framework defines the relationship between IT and the realisation of business benefits, and ultimately the achievement of any business strategy. The literature review focused predominantly on the level of user involvement, change management, as well as factors that influence the usage of mandatory software by&nbsp / individuals. 1. The name of the organisation utilised has been changed. Refer to Ethical Consideration 2. The name of the tools utilised has been changed. Refer to Ethical&nbsp / Consideration and list of acronyms 3. The name of the tools utilised has been changed. Refer to Ethical Consideration and list of acronyms. Focus was given to organisational factors affecting usage, such as top management support and organisational processes. A model was compiled using unique constructs in the Technology Acceptance Model&nbsp / (and TAM2), the Motivational Model (MM) and the Model of PC Utilisation (MPCU) &ndash / in order to test user acceptance of mandatory software. The literature study concludes with a&nbsp / review of an approach to benefits management including five stages, namely: identifying and structuring benefits, planning for the realisation of benefits, executing the plan, in&nbsp / addition to the evaluation and the review. Research design and methodology: A case study was used in this research, as it examined the phenomenon in its natural setting,&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / employing multiple methods of data collection to gather information from a few entities (groups and data sources). In this way, it was not limited to only qualitative or quantitative&nbsp / approaches, but utilised mixed methods instead. A mixed methods approach was used in order to elaborate, enhance and clarify the results from the qualitative research&nbsp / through the results of the quantitative analysis. Findings: The main finding, based on the compilation of three models of user acceptance, proved that FPS was not being utilised&nbsp / as intended. There was also no evidence of an improvement in business operations. Therefore, benefits management was negatively impacted. Organisational processes were&nbsp / dentified as the most important organisational factor, influencing the usage of FPS software. Own technological capability was considered to be the least important factor,&nbsp / as respondents believed that they had sufficient IT skills in order to learn how to use FPS software. Change management was rated negatively / and as a result, it impacted the&nbsp / usage of FPS, as users were not involved in the decision to implement, and had limited interaction in the implementation process. In addition, there was no evidence found that&nbsp / benefits management was conducted in the IT department / and therefore, the impact of using alternative software could not be quantitatively assessed. Recommendations: In concluding this research, it is recommended that the &ldquo / best practice&rdquo / , derived from the pertinent literate should be followed more diligently if YZ organisation is to benefit from the&nbsp / implementation of mandatory software. For example, in this research, it was found that top management&rsquo / s support of FPS (second most important organisational factor influencing use) was lacking, despite the literature suggestion that senior management involvement in changing technology is crucial for organisational commitment. It is&nbsp / suggested that a more formal approach to benefits management should be implemented. It is also recommended that further study should be conducted &ndash / in order to explore&nbsp / the applicability of the Japanese framing (achieving benefits from IT software through the concept of strategic instinct, rather than strategic alignment) in the context of a&nbsp / developing country (such as South Africa).</p>