What is the influence of Information Technology (IT) capability, and customer relationship management (CRM) capability on organisational information privacy protection behaviour, and ultimately how do these relationships impact on organizational performance? What are the relationships between different types of IT capabilities (i.e. outside-in, inside-out, and spanning capabilities) and how do they impact on performance (i.e. directly or indirectly)? This survey study attempted to answer these questions by empirically testing a research model based on the Resource Based-View (RBV) of the firm and the Comparative Advantage Theory of Competition to examine these relationships in the context of New Zealand firms engaged in IT supported CRM activities. RBV theory claims different subsets of a firm's resources (i.e. assets and capabilities) enable it to achieve initial and long-term competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). The role of different types of IS resources in achieving advantage has not been fully explored with some prior work finding evidence of direct effects but most finding only indirect effects of IS resources in general (Wade & Hulland, 2004). In addition, Comparative Advantage Theory claims a comparative advantage in resources leads to a competitive advantage in market position which in turn leads to superior financial performance (Hunt & Morgan, 1995). In turn, an organisation's use of customer information primarily for internal knowledge or external relationship building may be related to its privacy protection capability and how it measures performance (Greenaway & Chan, 2005) but these propositions had not yet been empirically tested. A review of the Information Systems literature showed that very little prior work had been done on organisational level privacy protection behaviours. The findings from my study begin to address these gaps in the literature. This research makes the following contributions to the academic literature on CRM. First, it empirically tested proposals found in the literature which suggested considering information privacy protection as a resource based on claims made by RBV theory. Second, the research splits IS capabilities into three groups (IS inside-out capability, outside-in capability and spanning capability), splits CRM capabilities into two groups (customer knowledge capability and customer relating capability) and splits organisational performance into two groups (effectiveness and efficiency) in order to assess the role of privacy protection practice as a mediating mechanism between different IS and CRM capabilities and organisational performance outcomes. The response data was analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis based on the Partial Least Squares parameter estimation technique, a form of Structural Equation Modelling. The findings show inside-out (internally focused) IT capabilities have a weak negative direct effect on customer relating capability. However, this can be mediated by investing in IT outside-in and IT spanning capabilities which have a positive impact on customer relating capability. Interestingly, IT Outside-in (externally focused) capabilities had a direct positive influence on customer knowledge capability. This was unexpected as earlier work predicted this relationship would be mediated by IT spanning resources. As expected, a comparative advantage in customer knowledge capability had a moderate direct positive impact on efficiency, measured as financial performance. It also had a moderate direct positive impact on producing a comparative advantage in customer relating capability. This supports CRM theory which claims that a better understanding of customers based on collecting and processing customer information can lead to a better customer relating capability. But, as predicted, no relationship to privacy protection capability was found. In contrast, using IT to gain a comparative advantage in customer relating capability had a direct positive impact on establishing privacy protection behaviours that exceed guidelines. Treating privacy protection as a resource also appears to lead to greater effectiveness which in turn leads to greater efficiency. In addition to contributing empirical evidence to support the conditions under which the proposed theoretical model applied, the results had several implications for practice. First, the findings provide organisations with greater awareness of how others in their industry are using IT to support customer relating and customer knowledge capabilities and how safeguarding or not safeguarding information privacy contributes directly to effectiveness and indirectly improves financial performance. Second, the findings are useful for raising consumer awareness about actual organisational information privacy practices. Most organisations in New Zealand reported meeting or exceeding industry guidelines. If the reported safeguards are in place and fair information handling practices are being followed, awareness of the results may help to reduce the high levels of privacy concern reported in consumer surveys. Lastly, privacy protection capabilities have a positive impact on performance, giving organisations an incentive to implement them.

Background: COVID-19 has brought so many changes in the business environment and in the ways of doing business. Food retail companies in Sweden have been trying to cope with the changes and challenges and have made necessary decisions to become resilient. It is in their urge to become resilient; however, the implementation is arduous at times. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is two-folded. One is to know the supply chain inefficiencies, and the other is to understand how the inefficiencies can be mitigated through the actions of the supply chain professionals. Method: Semi-structured questions have been asked in the interviews to gather in-depth insights from the industry expert. The interviews were taken from the branch managers of food retail stores in Sweden. The analysis has been done based on the content analysis. Findings: Content analysis assisted the emergence of the factors. It was done by analyzing the quotes from the branch managers. Therefore, the relationship between the characteristics and the RBV theory has been scrutinized. Conclusion: The purpose of the thesis was to find the inefficiencies of the food retail supply chain in pandemic times. Also, it was to find the solution about how the supply chain inefficiencies can be tackled to ensure supply chain resilience in the food retail stores in Sweden. For that purpose, data have been collected right from the field where the action takes place, and therefore, the data have been analyzed. Hence, the problems have been found, and the solutions have been recommended.

In a complex and challenging global economy for supply chains to improve their performance, different types of technologies are deployed. The Internet of things (IoT) as one of these technologies enables devices to be connected via a network, i.e. internet. This connectivity provides a variety of possibilities, capabilities, and values to the chain. The scope of this study is to analyze the impacts of IoT on the SCM of e-commerce. By deploying a qualitative approach, the study aims to identify the capabilities enabled by IoT and find a connection between the capabilities and challenges that e-commerces faces in their supply chain management. The research is based on reviewing existing literature, followed by empirical investigation, conducting interviews, and secondary data driven from 3PL to cover focal actors in the case of e-commerce SCM.  IoT technology and the knowledge around it as a resource to SCM of these firms is studied in a resource-based view to understand what role IoT plays in gaining competitive advantage for such firms.  The empirical of this thesis is gathered by interviews with supply chain managers of medium-sized e-commerce firms and a warehouse associate. In addition, the DHL fulfillment center is used as the secondary data stream.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / A reputaÃÃo corporativa pode ser entendida pela reuniÃo das diversas perspectivas que os stakeholders possuem da empresa atribuindo-lhe a caracterÃstica de um recurso estratÃgico capaz de gerar visibilidade, credibilidade e valor para as organizaÃÃes que a possuem, com suporte na Teoria da SinalizaÃÃo e na VisÃo Baseada em Recursos. Por sua vez, a literatura (FOMBRUN; SHANLEY, 1990; DUNBAR; SCHWALBACH, 2000; ROBERTS; DOWLING, 2002; BRITO, 2005; SÃNCHEZ; SOTORRÃO, 2007; HORIUCHI, 2010; THOMAZ; BRITO, 2010; CARDOSO et al., 2013; TISCHER; HILDEBRANDT, 2013) versa que quanto maior for a reputaÃÃo corporativa, maior à a capacidade da empresa de criar valor aos seus acionistas e produzir desempenho superior em relaÃÃo aos seus concorrentes. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo tem o objetivo de investigar a relaÃÃo entre a reputaÃÃo corporativa e a criaÃÃo de valor nas empresas de capital aberto listadas na BM&FBovespa. Para tanto, considera-se que a reputaÃÃo corporativa à construÃda a partir da percepÃÃo do mercado (stakeholders), com base nos seguintes sinais emitidos pelas empresas: disclosure socioambiental, adoÃÃo de melhores prÃticas de governanÃa corporativa, inovaÃÃo, internacionalizaÃÃo e reputaÃÃo do diretor executivo (gestÃo) e do acionista majoritÃrio (controle). O estudo se justifica na medida em que busca contribuir para a ampliaÃÃo da discussÃo sobre a temÃtica reputaÃÃo corporativa. AlÃm disso, apresenta diferencial por discutir aspectos da construÃÃo da reputaÃÃo corporativa e os seus reflexos nas organizaÃÃes. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, de natureza quantitativa, utilizando-se o procedimento documental, no qual foram aplicados os testes estatÃsticos: AnÃlise Fatorial, Teste de CorrelaÃÃo, RegressÃo Linear MÃltipla e Teste de DiferenÃas entre MÃdias. Para a anÃlise dos sinais construtivos da reputaÃÃo corporativa foi analisado o perÃodo de 2010 a 2012, a reputaÃÃo corporativa se refere ao exercÃcio de 2012 e a criaÃÃo de valor leva em conta o exercÃcio de 2013. Por meio da AnÃlise Fatorial, foi construÃdo o fator reputaÃÃo corporativa composto pelos sinais: disclosure socioambiental, inovaÃÃo, internacionalizaÃÃo e reputaÃÃo do acionista majoritÃrio. O Teste de CorrelaÃÃo permitiu validar a reputaÃÃo corporativa por sinais (gerada pela AnÃlise Fatorial), pois apresentou relaÃÃo positiva e significante com a reputaÃÃo corporativa por rankings. Com a execuÃÃo da RegressÃo Linear MÃltipla, pode-se verificar que a reputaÃÃo corporativa por sinais influencia positivamente a criaÃÃo de valor (MVA e EVA); e, a reputaÃÃo corporativa por rankings està relacionada positivamente com a criaÃÃo de valor na perspectiva de mercado (MVA). AlÃm disso, verificou-se que a intangibilidade e a oportunidade de crescimento colaboram na criaÃÃo de valor (MVA e EVA) e o tamanho da empresa favorece a criaÃÃo de valor somente quando à analisado em conjunto com a reputaÃÃo corporativa por sinais. A realizaÃÃo do Teste de DiferenÃas entre MÃdias apontou que as empresas com reputaÃÃo corporativa criam maior valor aos acionistas considerando a perspectiva de mercado (MVA). Portanto, conclui-se que, considerando a amostra do estudo, a reputaÃÃo corporativa à um recurso estratÃgico gerado por meio de sinais emitidos ao mercado, conforme a Teoria da SinalizaÃÃo, que, quando percebidos pelos diversos stakeholders, reflete em vantagem competitiva, sendo capaz de influenciar na criaÃÃo de valor das empresas, de acordo com os preceitos da VisÃo Baseada em Recursos. / A reputaÃÃo corporativa pode ser entendida pela reuniÃo das diversas perspectivas que os stakeholders possuem da empresa atribuindo-lhe a caracterÃstica de um recurso estratÃgico capaz de gerar visibilidade, credibilidade e valor para as organizaÃÃes que a possuem, com suporte na Teoria da SinalizaÃÃo e na VisÃo Baseada em Recursos. Por sua vez, a literatura (FOMBRUN; SHANLEY, 1990; DUNBAR; SCHWALBACH, 2000; ROBERTS; DOWLING, 2002; BRITO, 2005; SÃNCHEZ; SOTORRÃO, 2007; HORIUCHI, 2010; THOMAZ; BRITO, 2010; CARDOSO et al., 2013; TISCHER; HILDEBRANDT, 2013) versa que quanto maior for a reputaÃÃo corporativa, maior à a capacidade da empresa de criar valor aos seus acionistas e produzir desempenho superior em relaÃÃo aos seus concorrentes. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo tem o objetivo de investigar a relaÃÃo entre a reputaÃÃo corporativa e a criaÃÃo de valor nas empresas de capital aberto listadas na BM&FBovespa. Para tanto, considera-se que a reputaÃÃo corporativa à construÃda a partir da percepÃÃo do mercado (stakeholders), com base nos seguintes sinais emitidos pelas empresas: disclosure socioambiental, adoÃÃo de melhores prÃticas de governanÃa corporativa, inovaÃÃo, internacionalizaÃÃo e reputaÃÃo do diretor executivo (gestÃo) e do acionista majoritÃrio (controle). O estudo se justifica na medida em que busca contribuir para a ampliaÃÃo da discussÃo sobre a temÃtica reputaÃÃo corporativa. AlÃm disso, apresenta diferencial por discutir aspectos da construÃÃo da reputaÃÃo corporativa e os seus reflexos nas organizaÃÃes. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, de natureza quantitativa, utilizando-se o procedimento documental, no qual foram aplicados os testes estatÃsticos: AnÃlise Fatorial, Teste de CorrelaÃÃo, RegressÃo Linear MÃltipla e Teste de DiferenÃas entre MÃdias. Para a anÃlise dos sinais construtivos da reputaÃÃo corporativa foi analisado o perÃodo de 2010 a 2012, a reputaÃÃo corporativa se refere ao exercÃcio de 2012 e a criaÃÃo de valor leva em conta o exercÃcio de 2013. Por meio da AnÃlise Fatorial, foi construÃdo o fator reputaÃÃo corporativa composto pelos sinais: disclosure socioambiental, inovaÃÃo, internacionalizaÃÃo e reputaÃÃo do acionista majoritÃrio. O Teste de CorrelaÃÃo permitiu validar a reputaÃÃo corporativa por sinais (gerada pela AnÃlise Fatorial), pois apresentou relaÃÃo positiva e significante com a reputaÃÃo corporativa por rankings. Com a execuÃÃo da RegressÃo Linear MÃltipla, pode-se verificar que a reputaÃÃo corporativa por sinais influencia positivamente a criaÃÃo de valor (MVA e EVA); e, a reputaÃÃo corporativa por rankings està relacionada positivamente com a criaÃÃo de valor na perspectiva de mercado (MVA). AlÃm disso, verificou-se que a intangibilidade e a oportunidade de crescimento colaboram na criaÃÃo de valor (MVA e EVA) e o tamanho da empresa favorece a criaÃÃo de valor somente quando à analisado em conjunto com a reputaÃÃo corporativa por sinais. A realizaÃÃo do Teste de DiferenÃas entre MÃdias apontou que as empresas com reputaÃÃo corporativa criam maior valor aos acionistas considerando a perspectiva de mercado (MVA). Portanto, conclui-se que, considerando a amostra do estudo, a reputaÃÃo corporativa à um recurso estratÃgico gerado por meio de sinais emitidos ao mercado, conforme a Teoria da SinalizaÃÃo, que, quando percebidos pelos diversos stakeholders, reflete em vantagem competitiva, sendo capaz de influenciar na criaÃÃo de valor das empresas, de acordo com os preceitos da VisÃo Baseada em Recursos.

Abstract The rapid development of digital technology and software in recent years has created great variety of totally new business opportunities. Software startups are commonly considered to be the fastest in exploiting the new opportunities and the most innovative in creating new products and services. At the same time, software startups are often small, immature enterprises with limited resources and inexperienced teams. The initial team plays a key role in the early stages of a software startup. This research focuses on the initial team from the perspective of human capital – the knowledge, experiences, skills, and other cognitive abilities. It studies the initial team empirically, utilizing the multi-case study and triangulation methods applying the human capital, resource-based view, capability, and the opportunity discovery and creation theories. The empirical data were gathered from thirteen software startups in Italy, Norway and Finland, and from a student experiment. From the analysis of this data, a generic structure of a software startup’s initial team was identified, consisting of three different roles, with each having a specific human capital profile. This team structure sought a balance between the team’s human capital and problems and challenges to be solved. The level of the initial human capital of the team and the means to strengthen it varied, and affected the progress of the work in the studied startups. Though the components of the team’s human capital were not rare and inimitable in terms of the resource-based view, building a balanced startup team created a unique and task-specific setup, which is a key capability of a software startup. The balanced startup team structure is proposed to be the generic human capital model of a software startup’s initial team. / Tiivistelmä Digitaalitekniikan ja ohjelmistojen nopea kehitys viime vuosina on synnyttänyt suuren joukon kokonaan uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Ohjelmistostartup-yrityksiä pidetään yleisesti nopeimpina hyödyntämään uusia mahdollisuuksia ja erityisen innovatiivisina luomaan uusia tuotteita ja palveluita. Kuitenkin samalla, ohjelmistostartup-yritykset ovat usein pieniä, kehityksensä alussa olevia yrityksiä, joilla on pienet resurssit ja kokematon henkilökunta. Varhaisen vaiheen ohjelmistostartup-yrityksissä alkutiimin merkitys on keskeinen. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan alkutiimiä inhimillisen pääoman, osaamisen, kokemuksen ja taitojen, näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan alkutiimiä kokeellisesti, käyttäen monitapaustutkimuksen ja triangulaation menetelmiä ja soveltaen inhimillisen pääoman, resurssipohjaisen näkemyksen, kyvykkyyden ja liiketoimintamahdollisuuksien hyödyntämisen teorioita. Kokeellinen tutkimusaineisto on kerätty kolmestatoista yrityksestä Italiasta, Norjasta ja Suomesta ja yhdestä opiskelijoilla tehdystä kokeellisesta tutkimuksesta. Tutkimuksessa löydettiin alkutiimin yleinen malli. Mallissa on kolme roolia, kullakin oma inhimillisen pääoman profiili. Mallissa on tiimin inhimillisen pääoman ja ratkaistavien ongelmien tasapaino. Tiimien inhimillisen pääoman määrä ja sen kehitystavat vaihtelivat, ja vaikuttivat tutkittavien yritysten edistymiseen. Vaikka alkutiimien inhimillisen pääoman komponentit eivät olleet ainutkertaisia resurssipohjaisen näkemyksen kannalta, tasapainossa olevan alkutiimin rakentaminen synnytti ainutkertaisen, tehtävänmukaisen tiimirakenteen, jota voidaan pitää yrityksen keskeisenä kyvykkyytenä. Havaittu tiimirakenne esitetään yrityksen alkutiimin inhimillisen pääoman yleiseksi malliksi.

Cette thèse, au travers d’une étude croisée d’un secteur – les firmes de services professionnels – et d’un champ fonctionnel global – l’éducation au management – traite en réalité d’une question principale: comment vont diriger les leaders issus de la génération Y ? Les systèmes actuels d’éducation au management sont-ils en état d’aider à préparer l’émergence d’une génération dont les codes ne pourront plus être ceux – stables – de ces soixante dernières années ? De nouveaux acteurs sont déjà en émergence, prêts à accompagner le développement exponentiel de la classe moyenne mondiale ; mais les entreprises ne pourraient-elles pas, au travers de vingt ans d’expériences innovantes dans leurs universités internes, autant que d’une emprise réelle sur des terrains de recherche opérationnelle, baliser la voie de nouveaux modes d’apprentissage, voire d’organisation, pour peu qu’elles réalisent un effort d’ouverture ? De structures de production à forte concentration capitalistique, n’ont-elles pas vocation à devenir ces lieux de management et de développement de savoir que recherchent les membres les plus talentueux et convoités de cette génération Y ? Les sociétés de services professionnels, confrontées avant toutes autres à ces phénomènes de transformation, sont une avant-garde originale de ces questions, jusque dans leur gouvernance associative et la place centrale des ressources humaines dans leur modèle économique. / This work sits at the crossroads of an industry – professional services – and a global functional field – management education, and seeks to answer one question: how are millenials going to lead? Are current management education systems, which proved robust and effective for the past sixty years, capable of adapting to this new generation, helping them create their own leadership codes? New players in the field of education are emerging to take advantage of the rise of a massive middle class around the world. With their vast bodies of empirical research and their innovative practices in the design and delivery of management education through their corporate universities, can companies, provided they open up, pioneer new formats of executive education? Can these corporations shift from capital-intensive organisations to knowledge-intensive campuses, the latter seemingly favoured by the most talented and sought-after Millenials? If a shift is underway, Professional Service Firms are at the forefront of the transformation: based on a purely people-intensive business model, selling only knowledge, and governed through partnerships, PSFs have long had management education at the heart of their operations. Moreover, a large majority of their staff belong to the Y generation. This work therefore examines how to foster education-based innovative HR and leadership development strategies in Professional Service Firms, and draws lessons for the larger corporate world.