Management Succession Planning and Corporate Survival in Nigeria: A Study of Banks In Portharcourt

This study examined management succession planning and corporate survival in Nigeria:  A study of banks in Port Harcourt. The objective was to investigate the extent to which management succession planning dimensions- management development (MD), mentoring (ME), and retention effort (RE) affect corporate survival measures - adaptability (AD) and dynamic capability (DC). The study had the 21 existing deposit money banks in Port Harcourt as population. In the course of this study primary data were sourced through questionnaire administered to the population and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman Rank correlation and multiple regressions with the aid of Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Three multiple regression equations were formulated and t-test were used to determine the level of significance and F-test statistics shows the overall fitness of the models. In model I, the result shows a strong relationship between the dependent variable measure adaptability and the independent variable dimensions Management Development (MD), Mentoring (ME) and Retention Effort (RE), with an R2 of 99.6%. In model II, the result also revealed a strong relationship between the dependent variable measure dynamic capability and the independent variable dimensions Management Development (MD), Mentoring (ME) and Retention Effort (RE) with an R2 of 0.9811 representing 98.1%. In model III, the result shows a good relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variable with an R2 of 0.691 which accounts for 69.1% variations in the explanatory variable. The study concludes that management succession planning has a positive correlation with corporate survival. We therefore, recommend that management team –cum- policy makers should integrate succession planning into corporate management policies to enhance corporate survival in Nigerian banking industry. Keywords: Management Succession, Corporate Survival, Dynamic Capacity, Retention Effort, Adaptability and Mentorin

Disruption analytics in urban metro systems with large-scale automated data

Urban metro systems are frequently affected by disruptions such as infrastructure malfunctions, rolling stock breakdowns and accidents. Such disruptions give rise to delays, congestion and inconvenience for public transport users, which in turn, lead to a wider range of negative impacts on the social economy and wellbeing. This PhD thesis aims to improve our understanding of disruption impacts and improve the ability of metro operators to detect and manage disruptions by using large-scale automated data. The crucial precondition of any disruption analytics is to have accurate information about the location, occurrence time, duration and propagation of disruptions. In pursuit of this goal, the thesis develops statistical models to detect disruptions via deviations in trains’ headways relative to their regular services. Our method is a unique contribution in the sense that it is based on automated vehicle location data (data-driven) and the probabilistic framework is effective to detect any type of service interruptions, including minor delays that last just a few minutes. As an important research outcome, the thesis delivers novel analyses of the propagation progress of disruptions along metro lines, thus enabling us to distinguish primary and secondary disruptions as well as recovery interventions performed by operators. The other part of the thesis provides new insights for quantifying disruption impacts and measuring metro vulnerability. One of our key messages is that in metro systems there are factors influencing both the occurrence of disruptions and their outcomes. With such confounding factors, we show that causal inference is a powerful tool to estimate unbiased impacts on passenger demand and journey time, which is also capable of quantifying the spatial-temporal propagation of disruption impacts within metro networks. The causal inference approaches are applied to empirical studies based on the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR). Our conclusions can assist researchers and practitioners in two applications: (i) the evaluation of metro performance such as service reliability, system vulnerability and resilience, and (ii) the management of future disruptions.Open Acces

Investigating the Relationship between Governance Mechanisms and the Disclosure of IT Control Weaknesses

The current research is concerned with exploring the quality of information technology (IT) control over financial reporting systems as reported under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. More specifically, this dissertation examines the association between organizational governance mechanisms and the occurrence and subsequent disclosure of IT control weaknesses. Despite the adverse impact of IT control weaknesses on internal control quality and financial reporting reliability, research on IT controls in general and IT control weaknesses in particular remains largely anecdotal with limited reliance on theory. The current work proposes and tests an integrated theoretical model of the antecedents of IT control weaknesses. The proposed model draws upon agency theory to provide a theoretical perspective of the occurrence of IT control weaknesses and upon corporate governance literature to solicit potential factors that influence the achievement of effective IT control over financial reporting. Drawing upon agency theory, this research views the existence of IT control weaknesses as a manifestation of an agency problem caused by information asymmetry and lack of alignment between the overall organization represented by its board of directors as a principal and its information systems (IS) organization represented by the top IS team as an agent. Drawing on corporate governance literature, this dissertation proposes two categories of governance and contracting mechanisms that the board of directors can employ to reduce information asymmetry and align the interests of the top IS team with those of the firm thereby reducing the agency problem. These categories are: IT governance mechanisms and IT executive incentive alignment mechanisms. The IT governance mechanisms involve two elements: first, the IT background element which includes (a) the IT background of the board of directors as reflected by two of its main committees, namely the corporate governance committee and the audit committee and (b) the IT background of the top management team; second, the IT executive element as reflected in terms of the structural and the expert power of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The IT executive incentive alignment mechanisms include two elements: (a) the CIO’s absolute compensation level and (b) the pay disparity between the CIO and other members of the top management team. A research model integrating these elements is developed and tested with empirical data. For testing the proposed model, this dissertation uses a sample of firms with IT control weaknesses and a control group of similar firms with no IT control weaknesses for the years 2005-2009. Empirical results provide support for five of the seven hypotheses put forth in this research. Regarding the IT governance mechanisms, study findings indicate that a lower likelihood of disclosing IT-related control weaknesses is associated with having audit committee and corporate governance committee members with IT expertise. Furthermore, the study findings provide support for the contention that the goal congruence is contingent on the CIO’s power. To this end, the study finds that a lower likelihood of disclosing IT-related control weaknesses is associated with having CIOs with higher levels of structural and expert power. As for the incentive alignment mechanisms, empirical results provide support for the assertion that goal congruence is contingent on perceived pay equality between the CIO and other members of the top management team. The results indicate that the lower the pay disparity between IT executives and business executives in the top management team, the lower the likelihood of disclosing IT control weaknesses. The present study contributes to the current body of knowledge of literature in several ways. It is the first study to propose and test an integrated model of the antecedents of IT control weaknesses. The proposed model adds to the current literature by introducing agency theory as a theoretical basis of the antecedents of IT control weaknesses. Furthermore, this study adds to the current literature by introducing and providing empirical evidence linking the IT background of the corporate governance committee, the structural power and expert power of the CIO, and the CIO relative pay to the disclosure of IT control weaknesses over financial reporting. Lastly, this research contributes to practice by offering a much needed understanding for managers, directors, auditors, and regulators in their effort to improve the quality of IT control and the reliability of financial reporting

Detecting metro service disruptions via large-scale vehicle location data

Urban metro systems are often affected by disruptions such as infrastructure malfunctions, rolling stock breakdowns and accidents. The crucial prerequisite of any disruption analytics is to have accurate information about the location, occurrence time, duration and propagation of disruptions. To pursue this goal, we detect the abnormal deviations in trains’ headway relative to their regular services by using Gaussian mixture models. Our method is a unique contribution in the sense that it proposes a novel, probabilistic, unsupervised clustering framework and it can effectively detect any type of service interruptions, including minor delays of just a few minutes. In contrast to traditional manual inspections and other detection methods based on social media data or smart card data, which suffer from human errors, limited monitoring coverage, and potential bias, our approach uses information on train trajectories derived from automated vehicle location (train movement) data. As an important research output, this paper delivers innovative analyses of the propagation progress of disruptions along metro lines, which enables us to distinguish primary and secondary disruptions as well as effective recovery interventions performed by operators

The development of best practice guidelines for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism in the motor manufacturing industry

The research problem in this study was to identify best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. To achieve this goal, the following actions were taken: A literature study was conducted to identify the scope and impact of health-related absenteeism on organisations and the legal parameters within which health-related absenteeism should be managed. A literature study was also conducted to identify strategies to prevent and reduce health-related absenteeism and strategies to ensure the continuous provision of products and services in periods of high absenteeism. The theoretical study focused on the management of absenteeism, wellness, ill-health/mental problems and HIV/AIDS, as well as contingency strategies aimed at maintaining production and service provision. iii The findings from the literature study were integrated into a model of best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. This model was used as a basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to determine whether senior human resources practitioners, occupational health practitioners or line managers, who were responsible for the management of health-related absenteeism in organisations, agreed with the best practice guidelines developed in the study. The survey was conducted in the motor and motor component industry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropole. The empirical results from the study showed a strong concurrence with the best practices guidelines developed in the study, with the exception of the strategies aimed at maintaining undisrupted production and service provision during periods of high absenteeism. In particular, disagreement was shown with regard to alternative work arrangements such as flexible work-hours, a compressed workweek, telecommuting and job-sharing. Absenteeism, in general, is an issue that organisations are challenged with on a daily basis. The proliferation of various diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS, is contributing to this problem. An integrated and strategic approach is required to deal effectively and constructively with the immediate and expected future impact of health-related issues on absenteeism. Organisations could use the best practices guidelines, identified in this study, as a mechanism to benchmark how well they manage health-related absenteeis

Rolling Stock Rescheduling in Passenger Railways: Applications in short-term planning and in disruption management

Modern society is highly dependent on a reliable railway system for workforce mobility and easy access to the cities. However, the daily operations of a large passenger railway system are subject to unexpected disruptions such as rolling stock breakdowns or malfunctioning infrastructure. In a disrupted situation, the railway operator must adapt the timetable, rolling stock and crew to the modified conditions. This adaptation of resource allocations requires the solution of complex combinatorial problems in very short time and thus represents a major challenge for the involved dispatchers. In this thesis we develop models and solution methods for the rescheduling of the rolling stock during disruptions. The models incorporate service aspects (such as seat capacity), efficiency aspects (such as number of kilometers driven by the rolling stock), and process related aspects (such as the need for night-time relocation of rolling stock). The thesis contains applications of the developed models in three different contexts. First, we present a framework for applying the rescheduling models in the highly uncertain environment of railway disruption management, and we demonstrate the trade-off between computation time and solution quality. Second, we embed the rolling stock rescheduling models in a simulation framework to account for the dynamic passenger behavior during disruptions. This framework allows us to significantly decrease the delays experienced by passengers. Third, we apply the rescheduling models to real-life planning problems from the short-term planning department of the Netherlands Railways. The models lead to a considerable speed-up of the process and significant savings

Strengthening Resilience of Supply with Essential Goods through Public-Private Emergency Collaborations: Challenges and Incentives

Private actors ensure the supply of essential goods such as food, drinking water, and medicine to the population. However, crises such as natural disasters, human-caused conflicts, or pandemics can cause disruptions of private supply chains and, subsequently, supply shortages in the market. In this case, public actors need to become active and responsible for supplying the population with essential goods. Nevertheless, the ability of public actors to provide essential goods in a crisis is constrained due to limited resources and a lack of knowledge about the relevant commercial supply chains. Therefore, companies that produce, distribute, or sell essential goods can be valuable partners but must be adequately motivated to participate in crisis management. A promising form of collaboration to strengthen resilience lies in the concept of public-private emergency collaborations (PPECs), elaborated in different studies within the dissertation. The necessity of PPECs and their public acceptance depends on the attitude and preparation of the population, which is why the empirical investigation of these accompanying questions is another central part of the dissertation. Five studies published as companion articles address necessary prerequisites and approaches to the design of collaborations in crises: Study A examines the PPEC concept and puts it into a more specific framework, considering logistical requirements in a game-theoretic model. The model addresses private actors’ incentives to collaborate, such as a positive reputation or learning effects for internal processes. Both can provide a substantial —- not least financial —- advantage for the company in the long run. Study B investigates crises and PPECs from a company perspective by evaluating an empirical study with 398 responses from essential goods and logistics companies. The results show companies’ high interest in participating in PPECs. Nevertheless, the data reveals that certain conditions, such as adequate compensation or consideration of companies’ operational procedures, must be fulfilled for collaboration with public actors. Study C addresses the attitude of the population in a survey of 402 randomly selected participants and finds that the population highly values companies’ involvement in PPECs. The companies’ communication strategy and the population’s risk perception affect the attitude. Study D analyzes the stockpiling behavior of the population in two door-to-door surveys, the first with 330 participants and the second with 402. The timing of the before-and-after survey provides a special value: The study considers possible changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show low stockpiling levels and that stockpiling has only marginally increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study E examines an economic experiment with 262 participants in 13 sessions to clarify the importance of safety-stock levels for companies’ reputation in a failure-prone supply chain. The design made it possible to disentangle indirect losses due to customer churn and direct losses due to disruptions, thus quantifying firm reliability and customer loyalty. Four general recommendations for the stakeholders in crisis management, public actors, private actors, and the population, are derived: First, all stakeholders must adapt their behavior and improve current protection measures and strategies against global crises and supply chain disruptions. Second, humanitarian crisis management is a team effort involving many actors. Therefore, understanding synergies, mutual attitudes, and the incentive constellation of the actors involved is a crucial prerequisite for success. Third, crisis management also includes the right communication strategy. It is not only important to contribute but also to communicate it in a successful and convincing way. Fourth, collaborative approaches, as in PPECs, where each stakeholder brings his or her strengths into the collaboration, are beneficial for all parties involved, and increase society’s overall resilience. Consequently, this dissertation provides valuable insights into the status of humanitarian crisis management from the perspective of different stakeholders. It offers the potential to improve this field of research through collaborative approaches, as in PPECs, addressing the strengths and incentives of stakeholders accordingly

Understanding Malicious Attacks Against Infrastructures - Overview on the Assessment and Management of Threats and Attacks to Industrial Control Systems

This report describes approaches to the assessment and management of malicious threats and attacks relating to critical infrastructures in general, and electric power infrastructures in particular. Securing infrastructures implies taking into account both the natural and man-made (intentional) events. While protecting against the natural disruptive events is a feasible (yet not trivial) task, benefiting by well-established practices, dealing with intentional attacks comes up across many difficulties, especially due to the unpredictability of such events. The report outlines the state-of-the-art in dealing with threats and malicious attacks, considering both physical and cyber actions. Several approaches taken at national and international levels towards securing the critical infrastructures are also provided.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit

Assessing Supply Chain Resilience During the Pandemic Using Network Analysis

Disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic have wreaked havoc in supply chain networks. To gain an understanding of the dynamics that had been at play, we construct a real supply chain network (scale-free) based on a seed firm (Apple), its customers, and its first- and second-tier suppliers, yielding a network of a total of 883 firms. We then use visualization to derive insight into various network characteristics and develop an agent-based model to capture the disruption of the network over a period of 400 days from the onset of the pandemic. The disruptions experienced by firms depend on the stringency of measures taken to curb the pandemic in their respective countries and the severity of disruptions experienced by suppliers in a specific region. We specifically find that spatial complexity, degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality have changed significantly throughout our observation period. We thus subsequently theorize on the influence of some of these characteristics on supply chain resilience (SCRes), and through our empirical tests, we find that, at the network level, Average degree and spatial complexity significantly influence SCRes. At the firm-level, we find that powerful firms within the network influence SCRes based on their betweenness centrality and closeness Centrality. Implications for managerial practice and academic research are discussed