Relatively few studies in MIS research have examined computerized systems to support value-based decision-making behavior using system feedback. This dissertation developed a model of value-based decision-making behavior and explored how this behavior can be influenced by value specific system feedback. The experiment also tested the effect of self-monitoring behavior and the value-choice decision frame as part of the decision-making model. Operant theory and reactance theory are used to explain behavior in response to feedback. A computerized system is developed that supports a value-laden decision-making task in which subjects allocated funds among competing organizations. The system provided cognitive feedback that included information on the decision maker's values, previous performance and future task information. No support was found for the influence of self-monitoring behavior or the magnitude of consequence of the value-choice frame on value-based decision-making behavior. The results do indicate that value-based decision-making behavior can be influenced by the tone of the system feedback. The supporting toned feedback produced results consistent with operant theory. When subjects received challenging toned feedback, they responded with reactance to the suggested behavior from the feedback in a manner consistent with the predictions of reactance theory. This research indicates that it is important for practitioners and researchers to consider operant and reactance theories as explanatory mechanisms when developing a system component that supports a decision maker's values. Practitioners and researchers can also benefit by using the tested and validated instruments in this study to measure the value preferences of decision makers. An updated and revised experimental value task based on current value measurement method and theory can be beneficial to researchers. Future research should explore the longitudinal aspects of feedback to determine if feedback becomes more or less effective over time. Exploring the impact of decision maker reactance and value content resistance to change to isolate the effect and provide more detail on the interplay of values and system feedback. Finally, further research into the relationship between system designer, user and organization is an important next step in this stream of research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / June 20, 2006. / System Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Decision Support Systems, Values / Includes bibliographical references. / David Paradice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pamela Perrewe, Outside Committee Member; Joey George, Committee Member; Kathy Chudoba, Committee Member.

The failure of the centralized top down approach to management of common pool resources such as forests led policy makers and donors to conclude that devolution of forest management to local communities can be the only solution to such failures. Developing countries have thus resorted to devolution of forest management to forest adjacent communities through approaches such as joint forest management (JFM) and participatory forest management (PFM). PFM is part of the initiative towards devolution of power of management and decision making from government to local communities. Communities therefore self-organize into community forest associations (CFAs) or forest user groups to manage forest resources. In Kenya for instance, the recent and ongoing forest sector reforms as envisaged in the Forest Act (2005) and the Forest Act (2016) led to devolution of forest management through CFAs and provision of incentives such as plantation establishment and livelihood improvement scheme (PELIS), eco-tourism, harvesting of forest products among others. These efforts were aimed at deepening community participation in forest management and improving welfare of forest adjacent communities. However, despite the numerous efforts aimed at empowering communities to sustainably manage forest resources through PFM and provision of various incentives, the success of PFM in terms of efficiency, equity, accountability and environmental outcomes have been mixed. In this thesis, we contribute empirically to the understanding of how PFM can be successfully implemented and make suggestion for more inclusive, equitable and sustainable forest management in Kenya from a micro perspective using household and community level data collected from 22 CFAs in the Mau forest conservancy. We take into account the values and preferences attached to salient forest ecosystem services by local communities and how this can be used to design incentive schemes like PES to incentivize local communities and also influence devolution of forest management. We also assess the impact of existing incentives specifically PELIS on welfare of forest adjacent communities as well as the environment and the heterogeneous impact of the scheme on household welfare. We then look at the context specific factors influencing the varying levels of success among the CFAs. The thesis therefore, comprises of three separate, but related analysis chapters.

Indexation serves as a cornerstone of the asset management field. As such, asset managers across the globe are constantly testing different methodologies to find one which provides consistent superior performance against the rest. While previously, market capitalization weighted indexes have been the popular and simpler method to implement, the search of outperformance has evolved from only focusing on picking securities from larger institutions and has expanded to trying out various weighting methods so as to maximize on the best performing instruments. As yet, there is no definite winner, with the success of most methods being largely influenced by the type of market for which the index is intended as well as the macro-economic environment prevailing during the period. However, the fundamental indexation method has recently gained popularity, particularly in the global equity markets. This research paper explores the method of fundamental indexation and applies it to the corporate fixed income section of the South African market. The main aim is to determine whether the significant outperformance, which has been found in global fixed income markets as well as global and domestic equity markets, will hold true when the method is implemented on domestic bonds. This investigation uses the current domestic market corporate bond index, the OTHI, as a benchmark against two alternative bond indexes created using the fundamental indexing methodology. The first alternative index is a direct replication of the OTHI and has identical constituents to those of the original. This is called the OTHI_ALT. However, finding that the OTHI is heavily influenced by the debt issues of the government and other parastatal companies, a second more diverse index is created. This is named the SAFI_ALT, which maintains the same number of constituents in each period as the OTHI, but uses different universe selection methods and thus has different constituents. The study creates four sub-indexes for both the OTHI_ALT and the SAFI_ALT, using the fundamental metrics of the companies whose securities are included in the index. The fundamentals used are Sales, Cash Flow and Book Value, and in addition a Composite of all three fundamentals.

Accessing and exploiting organizational resources plays an integral role in not only a firm’s propensity to achieve a competitive advantage, but also its mere survival in a competitive environment (Ulrich & Barney, 1984). One of the most common means of resource acquisition for both large administrative firms and smaller entrepreneurial enterprises is interorganizational alliances (Ireland, Hitt, & Vaidyanath, 2002). Utilizing the resource-based view of the firm within a strategic alliance framework, this dissertation examines a particular type of interorganizational exchange relationship permeating the marketing discipline. The promotional alliance is defined within this research as a strategic alliance based on resource exchange between a promoting enterprise and a firm seeking to fulfill promotion-based objectives through an ongoing collaboration with the enterprise. Each of the two sides of the promotional alliance relationship served as a focus for one of the two studies presented within this work. In the first study, a longitudinal survival model was employed to investigate the dependency of a promotional enterprise on external resource acquisition via alliances with promotion-seeking firms. Also at issue were the heterogeneity of resources accessed and the dynamics of the institutional forces regulating such alliances. Alliances with sponsoring firms offering financial and performance-based resources, as opposed to operational resources, were found to have a significant influence on the survival of sponsored enterprises. However, these dependencies were subject to changes in institutional support and the potential for diminishing returns. The second study approached promotional alliances from the perspective of the firms seeking promotion. Relying on the theory of efficient capital markets (Fama, 1970), an event study analysis was undertaken to determine the impact of internationally prominent promotional alliance announcements on the equity value of the sponsoring firms, which theoretically reflects investors’ expectations of future cash flows. Contrary to prior research, the initiation of these alliances demonstrated a negative impact on shareholder value. Several alliance, firm, and promoting partner characteristics were hypothesized to influence alliance outcomes to varying degrees within the cross-sectional sample of promotion-seeking firms. Surprisingly, only the magnitude of the sponsoring firm’s alliance investment and the nationality congruence within the alliance were influential in predicting investors’ reaction to such alliances. Each study was embedded within the institutional context of Formula One (F1) motor racing and focused on the promotional alliances involving corporate partners (sponsoring firms) and their affiliated racing teams. In this context, the racing teams acted as the promoting enterprises charged with providing the marketing platform to meet their sponsoring firms’ objectives. With annual races on four or more continents; a global television audience rivaled only by the Olympics’ opening ceremony, FIFA World Cup finals, and the NFL’s Super Bowl; direct competition between promoting teams; and sponsoring firms hailing from fifteen different nations and over twenty diverse industry sectors; F1 provided an ideal setting for the evaluation of interorganizational alliances’ impact on the survival of promoting enterprises and a promotion-seeking firm’s value implications. To compliment and strengthen the applied contribution of both studies, the analyzed results were subjected to a discussion with industry experts representing both sides of the promotional alliance relationship (Lane & Jacobson, 1995). Not only did this closing analysis reinforce the relevance of the research offered here, but it also presented a practitioner-focused examination of the industry challenges inherent in the theoretical tenets underlying such research.

Zugl.: Witten, Herdecke, Univ., Diss., 2009 u.d.T.: Schulz, André: Diversitätsmanagement als strategische Konzeption der internationalen Unternehmensführung

This purpose of the research is to investigate the relationship between the implementation of an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and corporate governance within the public sector. Furthermore, the study focused on the role of internal audit in ERM implementation as well as the relationship between ERM and risk communication. Questionnaires designed to collect data were e-mailed to risk managers; internal auditors and senior managers. The survey confirmed a positive association between the implementation of an ERM framework and corporate governance as well as risk communication. The majority of respondents further confirmed that corporate governance concerns were the main driving force behind the implementation followed by the impact of HIV/AIDS on their respective organisations. Of those surveyed 38% confirmed that their ERM process is embedded and they have also created the position of chief risk officer or similar. However, it is important to note that the role of internal audit in ERM implementation is not fully integrated.

Talent management has been viewed both as a relatively new phenomenon that can deliver competitive advantage and as the latest management fad that is nothing more than a sub-section of human resources. Much has been written on the subject, albeit predominantly by consultants, so there is little academic rigour on the subject. Moreover, the majority of the literature focused on highlighting the diminishing supply of talent and providing advice to practitioners around recruiting, retaining, developing and rewarding talent. This thesis reviewed the existing literature to provide a holistic view on talent management in order to add value both at the academic and practitioner level. It focussed on what conditions an organisation is advised to put in place in order to leverage the performance of talent and whether talent can have a significant impact on organisational performance. The secondary research suggested that talent could act as a lever for organisational performance. This was tested through primary research, from the organisational and individual perspective, and resulted in the identification of four conditions that impacted on the performance of talent. These conditions were grouped into a model, which was tested both by the case study organisations and by organisations that had not been involved in the research. The findings were used to adapt the model and this is offered for subsequent researchers to further develop in order to explore generalisability for all organisations.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Airport performance is highly depended on effective retail management and management of airport concession. This thesis is tend to find the answer for two research questions developed, with a purpose to offer optimization of the dependency in a most convenient way:   What are the factors influencing successful retail operations in airports? and How to increase profit maximization and customers satisfaction through effective concession management?   The purpose of these research questions is to discover what is retail management in airport business sector. How airport operations management planning, implementing and evaluating their strategic decisions to generate revenues. More specifically, the purpose is focused on customers satisfaction and profit maximization approaches discovering airports. What is a correlation between attributes affecting airport revenue generation and operations management approaches, applied in different cases, when building relations with concessionaires. After conducting the survey with thirty international airports around the world, the importance of each attribute creating direct impact on customer satisfaction was measured and evaluated. The correlation between airport concession management types and the profit maximization was also identified and discussed. The research also became a starting point to investigate more factors influencing retail operations in airports.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Project Management) / Successful implementation of whole lifecycle management (WLCM) for facilities depends upon the seamless flow of information between the development and operational stages of facilities, which in turn depends upon the ability of the project manager to integrate various requirements of project stakeholders (Edum-Fotwe, et al., 2003); (Meng, 2013); (PMI, 2008). Traditionally, design is separated from the facilities management (FM) stage, and concepts such as early FM involvement are advocated as instruments that can be used to achieve integration between these stages (Meng, 2013). Early FM involvement is the integration of FM practitioners in the design stage and thus, allowing for valuable FM information to be included at an early stage of development. However, most of the available academic literature on early FM involvement either focus on the significance of early FM involvement without specifying the actual framework, similarly where frameworks are defined, only focus in one particular function of FM such as maintainability, without regard for operability, serviceability and other aspects of WLCM (Liu & Issa, 2013); (Meng, 2013). Therefore, the basis for this research was founded on the realisation of the silo approach between project management (PM) and FM stages, and lack of comprehensive frameworks for early FM involvement, resulting in facilities that are costly to maintain and operate. This research sought to provide a comprehensive performance management framework (PMF) for early FM involvement, here after called the PMF, within the South African context.