Business Commons^™

Do Moocs Pose A Threat To Higher Education?, Todd A. Finkle, Evan Masters

Todd A Finkle

Using Strategic Partnerships To Create A Sustainable Competitive Position For Hi-Tech Start-Up Firms, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

In most cases these companies chose or were forced to engage in a technology partnership in order to develop and survive. As one would expect, some of these partnerships succeeded whilst others failed. With hindsight it occurred to the author that success or failure was not necessarily a random event, or idiosyncratic to one particular company, but that there seemed to be a pattern. Some partnerships failed because they were a strategic misfit, others probably because they were badly implemented. Based on these clinical case studies, The author addresses these questions: when and under what conditions a partnership is needed; …

Manufacturing Operations In Europe: Where Do We Go Next?, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud De Meyer

Extrapolating from the results of a 10-year INSEAD Survey, the author offers some views on the future for manufacturing in Europe. The model on which the Survey was based indicates that competitive priorities and action plans in manufacturing changed over the 10-year period. Taking lessons from these, the author makes some 'informed guesses' on the future implications for European manufacturers in the form of seven normative features: innovation in the value package; close integration between manufacturing and service; the importance of internationalism; flexible project-based organisation; more integrated management of the value added chain; successful transformation of operational programmes into strategic …

Technology Strategy And China's Technology Capacity Building, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

China has the potential to become a major source of innovation for the world. The scientific investment is in place and rapidly growing. But in order to reap the benefits of this investment its organisations will have to become better at managing innovation. One of the key elements of innovation management is the determination and implementation of a sound technology strategy. The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework and a detailed overview of what it entails to develop and implement a technology strategy. The paper emphasizes the alignment of the strategy with the organisational competencies and the …

How Microlending Affects Innovation And Entrepreneurship: Evidence From Ethiopia, Robert Hirth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advocates of microlending suggest it is a sustainable intervention that reaches the poor directly and offers them the means to invest and improve their incomes (Khavul, 2010; Morduch, 1999; Yunus, 2007); yet, impact studies of these interventions have suggested they often have little or even a detrimental impact on borrowers (Van Rooyen, Stewart & De Wet, 2012). This dissertation examines the efforts to promote entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty in developing countries through microlending. I begin by reviewing the microlending literature, and in particular, impact studies of the effect microlending is having in developing countries. Next, I review theory and empirical …

Tripping And Falling Into The Future: An Eolithic Perspective, Keri Schwab

Keri Schwab

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Thirty years ago, Dustin and McAvoy (1984) published an essay in Environmental Ethics titled “Toward Environmental Eolithism.” The article compared and contrasted two distinct orientations to environmental planning and management: the design mentality and the eolithic mentality. The authors concluded that the more popular design mentality lacked obscure eolithic mentality was a superior orientation to environmental planning and management. Environmental Ethics and then discuss how an eolithic perspective might complement the strategic planning process. We begin by describing the similarities between strategic planning and the design mentality as well as the shortcomings of strategic planning in a rapidly …

Essays On Corporate Finance, Hari Prasad Adhikari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We compare acquisition activity, method of payment choice, and the long-run value implications of acquisitions by newly public single-class and dual-class US companies. Our results show that dual-class IPO firms make relatively more acquisitions in innovative industries and are less likely to pay with stock as compared to single-class IPO firms. We provide evidence that the reluctance of dual-class firms to pay with stock is not related to the insiders' cash-flow rights but it is significantly positively related to the insiders' voting rights and wedge between the insiders' voting rights and cash-flow rights. We also find that acquiring dual-class IPOs …

The Formation Of Cross-Sector Development Partnerships: How Bridging Agents Shape Project Agendas And Longer-Term Alliances, Stephan Manning, Daniel Roessler

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

Cross-sector development partnerships (CSDPs) are project-based collaborative arrangements between business, government, and civil society organizations in support of international development goals such as sustainability, health education, and economic development. Focusing on public private partnerships in development cooperation, we examine different constellations of bridging agents and their effects in the formation of single CSDP projects and longer-term alliances. We conceptualize bridging agency as a collective process involving both internal partner representatives and external intermediaries in initiating and/or supporting roles. We find that the involvement of external intermediaries eases the formation of single projects and longer-term alliances. However, when projects are initiated …

Constructing Corporate Capability In Changing Contexts: The Innovation Journey Of Strategic Management Development At Bankwest, Moira Watson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is about an unfolding management development process over time. Interconnections influencing corporate capability are explained and insight provided into the social construction of strategic organisational change. Studies of strategically-focused change don’t generally address the part management development plays in innovation and corporate capability construction. This research thus fills a persistent knowledge gap in the understanding of the way management development is provided within organisations and the value of the process.

This empirical study is in the process research tradition. A longitudinal, in-depth case study of BankWest, an Australian financial services company undergoing significant change between 1997 and 2009, …

The Transient Collaboration Model: Theory Building, Structural Formation, And Operationalization, Adrian C. Tan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis seeks to describe the Transient Collaboration Model as a business model, its underlying theoretical principles, its empirical evidence, and its types of possible collaboration structures. The research seeks to determine how companies may build sustained competitive advantages through the structural design of their collaboration associations as a strategic option. Companies' ability to retain long-term competitive advantages is limited in more unpredictable environments. Companies could not afford to internally build and hold all the possible varieties and quantities of resources and capabilities to build future competitive advantages. Collaboration can provide companies with access to multiple partners with diverse resources …