<p>Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) projects have long been considered as a strategy for organizational growth and gain of market share. Top management teams of companies take M&As into consideration since it is faster and less costly compare to internal growth and development programs. M&A project has variety of benefits such as growth in market share, increase in shareholder wealth, access to new markets, technological advantages and so on and so forth. Another benefit of such projects is the expected synergies which happen in financial, production, value chain and technological aspects of the existing company. However, according to many authors there is a high rate of failure in M&A industry. One of the main reasons of failure identified as the poor performance of post-M&A integration projects. Based on literature, a project perspective to these highly complex projects will reduce the risk of failure and will result in successful performance of new companies. However, there is a research gap in this filed.</p><p> </p><p>After identifying the research gap and formulating the problem statement, research was designed in order to study the applicability of a project management (PM) approach toward M&A and their integration projects. Through performing a case study on a Swedish company who has undergone a number of M&A projects, interviews were conducted with top management team involved in such projects in order to collect empirical data. Based on qualitative data analysis methods, the primary data was integrated into pattern and themes and then analyzed.</p><p> </p><p>Based on the findings of the research, it was identified that in acquisition projects of small and medium size companies the strategic fit is more significant than organizational fit since the new company will dissolve completely and the rest of the integration is in control of the company. Furthermore, after identifying M&A projects as temporary organizations, three aspects: project organization, human resource and governance were verified based on literature. In the context of this study, human resource and governance is considered key elements in terms of acquisition projects. Finally, a framework was proposed in order to implement project management approach by fulfilling three dimension of PM which are project organization, project life-cycle and project governance.</p>

Mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;A) projects have long been considered as a strategy for organizational growth and gain of market share. Top management teams of companies take M&amp;As into consideration since it is faster and less costly compare to internal growth and development programs. M&amp;A project has variety of benefits such as growth in market share, increase in shareholder wealth, access to new markets, technological advantages and so on and so forth. Another benefit of such projects is the expected synergies which happen in financial, production, value chain and technological aspects of the existing company. However, according to many authors there is a high rate of failure in M&amp;A industry. One of the main reasons of failure identified as the poor performance of post-M&amp;A integration projects. Based on literature, a project perspective to these highly complex projects will reduce the risk of failure and will result in successful performance of new companies. However, there is a research gap in this filed.   After identifying the research gap and formulating the problem statement, research was designed in order to study the applicability of a project management (PM) approach toward M&amp;A and their integration projects. Through performing a case study on a Swedish company who has undergone a number of M&amp;A projects, interviews were conducted with top management team involved in such projects in order to collect empirical data. Based on qualitative data analysis methods, the primary data was integrated into pattern and themes and then analyzed.   Based on the findings of the research, it was identified that in acquisition projects of small and medium size companies the strategic fit is more significant than organizational fit since the new company will dissolve completely and the rest of the integration is in control of the company. Furthermore, after identifying M&amp;A projects as temporary organizations, three aspects: project organization, human resource and governance were verified based on literature. In the context of this study, human resource and governance is considered key elements in terms of acquisition projects. Finally, a framework was proposed in order to implement project management approach by fulfilling three dimension of PM which are project organization, project life-cycle and project governance.

This study investigates the three different stages of start-ups’ life and brings lights into the impacts of knowledge management practices on the transition processes between these stages. Start-ups are described as newly created enterprises which aim to disrupt the current state of play of the industry with their innovative products or services. During their initial stages,they demonstrate similar characteristics with temporary organizations; however, as they are developed and turn into a permanent organization the similarities start to diminish. Effects of knowledge management practices during start-up’s journey from a temporary organization to a permanent organization were explored with the guidance of the following research question:How does knowledge management influence the transition of a start-up from a temporary to a permanent organization?The term start-up and its organizational practices remain a mystery in the academic literature. Moreover, there are a limited amount of academic studies about the implementation of knowledge management model within entrepreneurial enterprises. Therefore, this thesis aims to contribute to academic studies by exploring in what extent knowledge management activities are practiced and how these practices affect the development of a start-up from a temporary organization to a permanent organization. The theoretical findings are supported by the empirical findings, and a theory is built with the accordance.Grounded theory is chosen as a research methodology for this research paper due to the lack of literature and study in this research area. Thus, first eight unstructured and then five semi-structured interviews are conducted with the chosen start-ups which have successfully finalized their initialtwostages. During the data analysis, open, axial and selective coding methods are used as it is recommended for the grounded theory.The research question is investigated and answered with the guidance of the collected data from the interviews. With the empirical study, the life-cycle of start-ups is explored. Overall, the life of an enterprise consists of three stages: existence, survival and success. Start-ups share many similarities with temporary organizations during their existence and survival phases regarding the characteristics of their teams, projects (tasks) and time limitation. However, they aim to transform into a permanent organization since their goal is to grow and assure their position in the industry. Besides, knowledge management activities, including knowledge acquiring, transformation, storage and creation, have been prioritized by various types of organizations in order to improve their practices and gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Similarly, implementation of knowledge management activities within a start-up provides many benefits to development and improvement of the enterprise. Accordingly, it improves their organizational practices and enhances their transition process from the temporary organization to a permanent organization.

Dans une économie de la connaissance mondialisée, les organisations sont invitées à ne plus se reposer essentiellement sur leurs connaissances internes pour innover, mais à en puiser en externe. Le projet collaboratif labellisé par un pôle de compétitivité est un levier permettant une innovation ouverte sur lequel les acteurs doivent être en mesure de capitaliser. De nombreux modèles mettent en évidence les manières de procéder pour capitaliser sur les connaissances dans des dynamiques intra-organisationnelles. Toutefois, à l’échelle inter-organisationnelle, les méthodes de capitalisation au sein des projets collaboratifs ou des clusters restent inexplorées. Les enjeux de réutilisation des connaissances créées dans un projet collaboratif sont pourtant clés afin d’assurer une continuité dans le développement des activités des entreprises et leurs innovations, et pour créer une valeur partagée entre les partenaires. Il s’agit ainsi de se questionner sur l’opérationnalisation de la capitalisation des connaissances inter-organisationnelle au sein des clusters. Pour analyser ce phénomène, une investigation empirique de nature qualitative, sur le modèle d’une étude de cas multi-sites, a été menée sur 4 pôles de compétitivité. À l’issue de 67 entretiens semi-directifs avec des acteurs directement impliqués dans le processus de capitalisation, et l’observation de 5 évènements-clés de la vie des pôles de compétitivité, deux capacités dynamiques inter-organisationnelles complémentaires sont identifiées. La première relève des cellules d’animation des pôles de compétitivité qui, à travers leur rôle de boundary-spanner, accompagnent les projets collaboratifs jusqu’à leur valorisation. La seconde se réfère à la capacité des membres d’un projet collaboratif à s’appuyer collectivement sur les résultats d’un partenariat pour développer un nouveau projet. / In a globalized knowledge economy, in order to innovate, organizations are invited to no longer rely mainly on their internal knowledge, but also to draw on new knowledge from external sources. Collaborative projects, labeled by French Competitiveness Clusters, can act as a lever for open innovation on which actors must be able to capitalize. Many models identify how to capitalize on knowledge in intra-organizational dynamics. However, at the inter-organizational level, such knowledge capitalization methods within collaborative projects or clusters have yet to be explored. Nevertheless, the knowledge reuse issues created within collaborative projects are key to ensure a form of continuity in the development of business activities and innovations, and to create a shared value between partners. It is therefore essential to question how inter-organizational knowledge capitalization can be operationalized within clusters. To analyze this phenome-non, a qualitative empirical investigation, on the basis of a multi-case study, was conducted over 4 French clusters. The results stem from 67 semi-structured interviews among different actors directly involved in the capitalization process, and by observing 5 key events in the life of clusters. Two complementary dynamic capabilities are identified. The first is the responsibility of the cluster coordination unit that acts as a boundary-spanner by accompanying collaborative projects from their initiation until their valorization. The second refers to the ability of collaborative project members to collectively build a new project based on the results of their partnership.

La France est constellée de plus de 2 000 festivals de musiques qui représentent des enjeux socio-économiques importants en péril du fait de la combinaison d'une réduction des financements et d'une hausse des charges. Bien loin d'être anecdotique, ce constat trouve un écho particulier au regard du chercheur en Sciences de Gestion qui voit dans ces festivals des cas extrêmes d'organisations aujourd'hui omniprésentes : les Organisations Temporaires (OT). La recherche s'oriente alors sur la compréhension de l'articulation entre continuité organisationnelle et management logistique dans les OT, dans l'optique d'identifier l'impact de cette relation sur la pérennité d'OT récurrentes, à l'image des festivals de musiques, mais aussi des interventions humanitaires ou militaires. La question de recherche suivante est alors posée : "Comment la continuité organisationnelle et le management logistique peuvent-ils contribuer conjointement à la pérennité d'une organisation temporaire ?". La thèse s'appuie sur une méthodologie qualitative d'étude de cas de festivals de musiques actuelles et se scinde en deux temps : un premier, focalisé sur la continuité organisationnelle, conduit à la mise en évidence d'un phénomène pulsatoire d'évolution de la structure et des modes de coordination, puis un second, orienté sur le management logistique, note la place centrale des compétences logistiques dans la pérennité des OT. Il ressort de la thèse que l'un des enjeux pour les gestionnaires de festivals de musiques actuelles réside dans le développement, la conservation, et la mobilisation de compétences logistiques, principalement durant des phases transitoires en amont et en aval des événements. / Today, France is dotted with more than 2 000 music festivals, which represent important social and economic issues, threatened by the combination of a funding decreasing and charges increasing. Far from trivial, this finding has a special resonance for the management researcher who saw these music festivals as an extreme case of pervasive organizational form: the Temporary Organizations (TO). In this context, the thesis work on understanding the articulation between organizational continuity and logistics management in the TO to try to identify the impact of this relation on continuation of TO with repetitive projects like music festivals but also like humanitarians or military interventions. A research question can then be asked: " How organizational continuity and logistics management can they jointly contribute to the continuation of a temporary organization ?". The thesis is supported by a qualitative methodology based on four case studies of French actual music festivals and is split in two parts: the first one focused on the organizational continuity and highlight a pulsatory phenomena which lead to evolutions of the structures and the ways of coordination in the organization, the second part is focused on the logistics management and show the strategic place of the logistics competencies on the continuation of TO. At the end, the thesis show that one of the most important challenge for music festival managers resides in the development, the conservation, and the mobilisation of specifics logistics competencies, especially in transitional phases in upstream and downstream of the events.

Bakgrund: För att förbättra kommunikationen mellan aktörer i byggprojekt under produktionsskedet finns stor potential i att implementera nya information- och kommunikationsteknologier. I litteraturen förklaras implementeringar av dessa teknologier utifrån flera olika aspekter. En aspekt vars inverkan dock inte studerats i stor utsträckning är hur den tidpunkt som byggprojektet befinner sig i påverkar implementeringen, trots att tidsaspekten är en av projektet som organisationsforms viktigaste särdrag. Syfte: Studien syftar till att utforska förutsättningarna för implementering av informations- och kommunikationsteknologier i byggproduktion under olika faser av produktionsskedet. Metod: Studien utgår från teorier kring innovationsprocessen, implementering av innovation och teknologi tillsammans med teorier kring projektbaserat arbete och spårbundenhet i organisationer. Studien är genomförd som en fallstudie på byggbolaget Skanska där två byggprojekt undersöks i dess produktionsskede. Intervjuer genomfördes där faktorer bakom implementeringsprocessen av informations- och kommunikationsteknologier och förändringar av förutsättningar för denna process mellan två tidpunkter, produktionsstarten och mitt i produktionsskedet, kunde visas. Slutsatser: Studien visar att förutsättningarna för implementering av teknologier i byggproduktion förändras under produktionsskedet. Två huvudsakliga skillnader i förutsättningar identifierades, större tillgänglighet av tidsresurser och förekomst av aktiviteter som formar normen vid produktionsstarten jämfört med mitt i produktionsskedet. Studien visar även att dessa förutsättningar har en stor inverkan på implementeringen av teknologier vilket hindrar implementering av teknologier efter produktionsstarten. / Background: To improve communication between actors in construction projects during production phase there is great potential of new information and communication technologies. The literature explains the implementations of these technologies from several aspects. One aspect, which needs further research, is how the period which a construction project is in impacts the implementation, since the time aspect is one of the most important characteristics of a project. Purpose: This study aims to explore the prerequisites for implementing new information and communication technologies in production during different periods of the production phase of a construction project. Methodology: This study is based on theories on the innovation process, implementation process of innovation and technology together with theories on project management and path dependency in organizations. The study was conducted as a case study at the construction company Skanska, where two construction projects were investigated in their respective production phase. Interviews were conducted where factors behind the implementation process of information and communication technologies were shown. Changed prerequisites for this process between two of the project’s phases, the production start and the middle of production phase, were also revealed. Conclusions: This study shows that the prerequisites for implementing technologies in construction change during the construction phase. Two major differences were identified; greater availability of time resources and the presence of activities that form the norm, at the start of production compared to the middle of the production phase. This study also shows that these prerequisites have a major impact on the implementation of technologies, which result in difficulties in implementing the technologies after the start of the production.