Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Parallel Sessions (Advertising): Growth Of Business Schools On Social Media: A Comparative Analysis With Focus On Iba Karachi A Case Study, Erum Hafeez

International Conference on Marketing

When the Institute of Business Administration Karachi established a presence on various social media platforms in 2009, its audience and followers grew dramatically. Face book, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn all proved to be useful tools to disseminate information for its target audience including prospective and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and industry. By 2012, however, social media activity became somewhat stagnant, as it was observed that content on various interfaces, although informative, lacked engagement and interaction with the audience. After several months of close monitoring, a number of issues were identified; for example, content only consisted of program and …

Essays On Failure Management Of Nonprofit Organizations, Junesoo Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

No matter how well an organization is managed, we face some inevitable failures such as deficient volunteers, excess demands for service, unstable grants, etc. Paradoxically however, successful organizations have been using their failures creatively. Beyond such successful use of failure, can benefits of failure be systematically described? What would be the generic ways to benefit from failure? In order to answer that question, three essays were written with the following details.

The Functions Of The Executive At 75: An Invitation To Reconsider A Timeless Classic, Paul C. Godfrey, Joseph T. Mahoney

Faculty Publications

The year 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Chester I. Barnard’s classic, The Functions of the Executive, a groundbreaking contribution to management theory. We maintain that Barnard’s work provides a valuable perspective on the causes and potential solutions to challenges facing capitalism, business, and management consequent to the scandals and financial crises of the early 21st century. We believe Barnard would see a systemic failure of the moral dimension of organization as a driver of these crises, and that management theory and practice need to focus on both the science and the aesthetics of management. We look …

Conversational Dynamics: Decision Making As Discourse, Zackary R. Edens

Theses and Dissertations--Management

This dissertation examines decision making as discourse to capture subtle characteristics and processes within top management team discussions and examines their influence on decision outcomes. Additionally, this approach allows for exploration of decision making processes in real time by utilizing audio analysis techniques that can provide a more dynamic and integrative view of conversations and discussions as they relate to the dialogue and debate that goes on within top management teams, as well as providing an alternate pathway of study for top management team and group research, decision making studies, and the fields of communication and conversational analysis.

Bridge Over Troubled Strategies, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

If strategy is the future of an organisation, implementation is its bridge. And successful implementation should be straightforward. But it isn’t. A new website has the answers...

The Conscious Alignment Of Strategy And Culture And Its Affect On Project Work: A Case Study Of Three It Departments Following A Transition In Leadership, Alan P. Hyatt, Dr. Michael P. Thompson, Dr. Ernest J. Nielsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My study provided the research for my honors thesis. The thesis discusses and develops the Theory of Conscious Alignment (TCA). The theory states that leaders and managers who consciously mold the strategy and culture of their organizations, and align the two intangible elements, will be much more effective. By aligning these two critical elements, the ongoing project work of the organization will also be aligned with them both, and the espoused strategic objectives and initiatives will be accomplished.

Sustainability Of Expansion In An African Airline: A Case Study, Sisay Asefa, Allen Batteau, Lisa Whittaker, Hung-Sying Jing

International Journal of African Development

Ethiopian Air Lines (Ethiopian) has committed to the purchase of 41 new aircraft, nearly doubling their fleet and introducing three new, state-of-the-art types (the A350-900 and the 787-8, and the DA40NG) into a fleet currently consisting of seven models. In a logistically complex industry, this represents a substantial increase in resource commitments and management responsibility in many areas including maintenance, pilot training, facilities, and route planning. The purpose of this paper is to examine this growth strategy, its underlying assumptions, and its sustainability given long-range industry trends in both the developed and the developing world. Using corporate and industry data, …

Regional Jet Aircraft Competitiveness: Challenges And Opportunities, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna L. Rhoades, Blaise P. Waguespack Jr.

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

The regional jet aircraft is a unique market niche. Particularly suitable for providing capacity in the 30 to 90 seat range, these jets are often used to connect smaller airports to network carrier hubs, as well as to fill in during slow periods. The market is currently dominated by two manufacturers: Brazil's Embraer and Canada's Bombardier. Due to the nature of the global aircraft industry, Embraer and Bombardier are largely dependent on the international sale of their aircraft for steady revenue streams. Orders and deliveries of aircraft with fewer than 100 seats have grown rapidly over the past ten years. …

Aligning Strategy And Talent In Creative Professional Service Firms, Deirdre Canavan, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Vincent Mangematin

Articles

Purpose – Reliance on individual talent and motivation renders creative professional service firms (PSFs) highly dependent on their ability to attract and mobilise the right individuals. This paper aims to build an integrated framework showing firstly how creative industry PSFs can differ in their strategy for growth, and secondly how these alternative strategies for growth can influence the firm's approach to organising and the type of talent required.

Design/methodology/approach – The findings are based on a series of interviews with managing directors, senior management and practitioners of architectural organisations in a single country, combined with an extensive literature review.

Findings …

Strategic Anticipation: Toward An Understanding Of How Managers Anticipate Strategic Moves, Gabriel Berczely

Student Scholarship

Strategic anticipation refers to the capacity to anticipate possible future strategic scenarios and thus anticipate required strategic moves in response to them. The academic community has produced significant literature regarding strategy formulation and implementation, but very little has been published in regard to what managers actually do, and should do, to anticipate the need for a strategic change. This study aims to uncover factors that influence the capacity for strategic anticipation. This paper reports on a qualitative, interviewed based, grounded theory study I conducted on the strategy practices of successful CEOs in Chile. I discovered that Mintzberg’s critique of the …

Financial Services Innovation: Opportunities For Transformation Through Facial Recognition And Digital Wallet Patents, Debora S. Bartoo

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Bringing innovation to the marketplace for new products and services involves creativity, a culture in which change flourishes, and leadership that thrives on transformation and complexity. This study explored the potential for market disruption or change based on innovations involving patents granted to nonfinancial services organizations that could affect financial services, specifically consumer or retail bank products. It involved analyzing documents related to recently granted patents and completing a mixed methods survey integrating the Delphi research technique. This method required multiple iterations of a survey presented to expert panelists or industry thought leaders to attempt to gain consensus ("Consensus", 2011) …

The Fruitcake Capital Of The World, Sara J. Grimes, Michael P. Mcdonald, John Leaptrott

Management: Faculty Publications

Two different fruitcake companies in the same small town are discussed and their widely different strategies are presented. Each of the entrepreneurs began working with a “master baker” as little boys but later followed different paths to develop a successful fruitcake business. A brief history of the fruitcake is offered as evidence that the product has been around for hundreds of years and will likely not go away anytime soon in spite of the ridicule and humor that has surrounded fruitcakes during the past twenty-five years.

Determinants Of The Success Of Active Vs. Passive Investment Strategy, Richa Birla

Business/Business Administration

This study documents the monthly performance of active versus passive investing over the last 25 years. It also identifies several variables that are closely related to the current and next month’s success of one over the other. Three useful factors identified include the Fed funds rate, the VIX volatility index, and Russell Investments’ CrossVolTM index. All three are valuable in explaining and predicting the success of active management to certain extent.

Aligning Strategy And Talent In Creative Professional Service Firms, Deirdre Mcquillan, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Vincent Mangematin

Articles

Purpose: Reliance on individual talent and motivation renders creative Professional Service Firms (PSFs) highly dependent on their ability to attract and mobilise the right individuals. This paper builds an integrated framework showing firstly how creative industry PSFs can differ in their strategy for growth, and secondly how these alternative strategies for growth can influence the firm’s approach to organising and the type of talent required. Design/methodology/approach: Findings are based on a series of interviews with managing directors, senior management and practitioners of architectural organisations in a single country, combined with an extensive literature review. Findings – Our framework illustrates how …

Capacity Rationalisation And Exit Barriers In The Irish Printing Industry, Kathleen Hughes

Conference papers

Decisions regarding capacity and capital investment are among the most critical for firms, as reflected in the extensive literature devoted to this subject. However, substantially less work has been carried out on the decision to disinvest. This is unfortunate as in some situations, such as recessionary times, the main competitive moves pertain to disinvestment, rather than investment. This study aims to contribute to this subject, in particular it aims to identify why industries with a concentrated structure can when proactively rationalise when required, while fragmented ones cannot. Research methodology a case study approach, comprising in-depth interviews with six industry experts …

Roadmap For The Survival Of Nascent Social Entrepreneurial Ventures, Aparna Katre

Student Scholarship

Facing issues of survivability, social-purpose entrepreneurs are reinventing to better balance market and mission goals. Addressing the deficit of empirical data about how they do it and, in particular, a gap in knowledge about the crucial start up phase of the social entrepreneurial process we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 31 North American founder/CEO's at various points in early stage social venture creation. The data revealed a four-stage early venture developmental continuum featuring progressive critical success factors on which we mapped successful, struggling and failed ventures in our sample. While effective execution of each factor helps secure incremental legitimacy with …

Strategic Planning In Irish Quantity Surveying Practices, Roisin Murphy

Other

No abstract provided.

What Makes Strategy Making Across The Sales-Marketing Interface More Successful?, Avinash Malshe, Ravipreet S. Sohi

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

Extant research on marketing strategy making (MSM) lacks process-based theoretical frameworks that elucidate how marketing strategies are made when sales and marketing functions are involved in the process. Using a grounded theory approach and data collected from (a) 58 depth interviews with sales and marketing professionals and (b) a focus group with 11 marketing professionals, we propose that MSM within the sales-marketing interface is a three-stage, multifaceted process that consists of Groundwork, Transfer and Follow-up stages. Our process-based model explicates the specific activities at each stage that are needed to develop and execute marketing strategies successfully, the sequence in which …

Supreme Seafoods, Thomas Cooney

Case studies

Fintan Barrett’s four year old daughter would often turn to him while playing and exclaim “what to do, Daddy?” Indeed, this very question of what to do next had frequently swirled around his own head as he considered the options that were now available to him and his business Supreme Seafoods. Some commentators had described the recent economic crisis as ‘a perfect storm’ and that analogy was particularly apt for someone operating in the fish industry. Although Fintan’s family had worked in the fishing industry for many generations, whether out at sea or processing and selling fish on land, the …

What Are They Thinking About R&D? A Strategic Core Competence, Or An Operational Business Decision?, Beth Fitz Gibbon

Student Scholarship

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nineteen senior North American business practitioners in multinational corporations to understand their experiences with strategic planning and resource allocation for R&D. In particular, we sought to elicit insight about where planning and allocation overlap, and how they are executed today, vs. five to ten years ago. Findings indicate the outsourcing of R&D is rapidly increasing. R&D is becoming an operational business function as opposed to an internal investment in key knowledge for future firm sustainability. R&D also appears to no longer be a major focus of the strategic planning effort at the highest management levels. …

From Learned To Learning: Why Addiction To Learning Is Vital To Renewing Competitive Advantage, Radhashyam Giridharadas

Student Scholarship

Business strategists seek to create a sustainable competitive advantage so that their organizations thrive. Yet in industry after industry the corporate graveyards are lined with companies that once led an industry and were subsequently ousted by smaller, nimbler competitors or new entrants. The long list of failed organizations underscores the challenge to the notion of sustainability. Clearly competitive advantage is subject to constant erosion, and companies seeking a sustainable competitive advantage may be chasing an illusory goal. To thrive, companies must learn to adapt their skills, resources and experience and transform them into renewable competitive advantages that are commensurate with …

How Unilever Hpc-Na Sold Its Employees On The Balanced Scorecard, Bridget Lyons, Andra Gumbus

WCBT Faculty Publications

Unilever Home & Personal Care-North America (HPC-NA) not only takes marketing its products very seriously, but it heavily promotes its balanced scorecard to employees as well. No wonder Unilever HPC-NA successfully designed a unique strategy to communicate awareness of the BSC while encouraging its participation and use. Their experiences should prove valuable to other organizations implementing a balanced scorecard and to those just beginning to formulate a communications approach to internal stakeholders about its role, significance, and use. The Unilever HPC-NA marketing campaign provides an effective strategy that other firms may consider when marketing a balanced scorecard internally. The HPC-NA …

It Competency And Firm Performance: Is Organizational Learning A Missing Link?, Michael J. Tippins, Ravipreet S. Sohi

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

Many companies have developed strategies that include investing heavily in information technology (IT) in order to enhance their performance. Yet, this investment pays off for some companies but not others. This study proposes that organization teaming plays a significant role in determining the outcomes of IT. Drawing from resource theory and IT literature, the authors develop the concept of IT competency. Using structural equations modeling with data collected from managers in 271 manufacturing firms, they show that organizational learning plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT competency on firm performance.

The Balanced Scorecard At Philips Electronics, Andra Gumbus, Bridget M. Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

The drive to implement the balanced scorecard at Philips Electronics came from the top down - as a directive from the Board of Management in Europe to all Philips divisions and companies worldwide. The directive went to each of the companies and their quality departments, with the effort in the medical division headed by the Quality Steering Committee that reports to the president of Philips Medical Systems. Philips Electronics has used the balanced scorecard to align company vision, focus employees on how they fit into the big picture, and educate them on what drives the business. An essential aid to …

The Integration Of Firm Resources: The Role Of Capabilities In Strategy And Firm Performance, Daniel Lynch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Distinctive capabilities are defined as a firm’s accumulated skills and knowledge that may lead to competitive advantage (Day 1994). Distinctive capabilities are founded upon Resource-Based Theory (Barney 1991) that focuses on internal resources as opposed to external market forces (Porter 1980). The present research discusses the integration of distinctive capabilities into this framework; that is, do certain distinctive capabilities (resources) create superior firm performance when linked to the appropriate generic business strategy?

The literature on firm performance has a rich history and is theoretically grounded in several disciplines including economics, sociology, and organizational behavior (Anderson 1982). However, there has not …

Dynamic Immunization And Transaction Costs With Different Term Structure Models, Eliseo Navarro, Juan M. Nave

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

A bond portfolio selection model is developed in a dynamic framework using different term structures, but without transactions costs. We show that the optimal portfolios are consistent with Khang's dynamic immunization theorem, i.e., the optimal path consists of making portfolio duration equal to the investor's horizon planning period. The model is then extended to include transaction costs. The resulting optimal portfolios are no longer consistent with Khang's dynamic immunization theorem. In fact, the strategy for constructing the optimal portfolio consists of initially choosing a portfolio with a duration that is smaller than the horizon planning period.

View Point On Strategic Issues, N C B Nath

IIMB Management Review

No abstract provided.

Hindusthan Special Tube Limited: A Case On Turnarround Strategy, N Bhattacharyya

IIMB Management Review

The Hindustan Group of Companies, which originated in 1976 in a leading North Indian metropolis, started with a medium-sized steel rolling mill. Within a short time span of three years, the rolling mill trebled its turnover and raised hopes of becoming a successful group - though with a difference. The Group is not a family concern. It was started by a team of highly qualified professionals-turned-entrepreneurs who had rich industrial experience in India and abroad. The success of the group was mainly attributed to the professionalism, zeal and vision of the entrepreneurs. They attracted talented and experienced individuals from well-known …