Skills Assessment for Business Services: Final Report

No abstract available

Service : the new focus in international manufacturing and trade

Major breakthroughs in communications technologies in the 1980s made it possible to monitor all phases of moving a product from raw material sourcing through processing to delivery to the customer. Close monitoring revealed major inefficiencies in the traditional set-up of materials acquisition, production, and distribution - especially large inventory holdings. At the same time, patterns of customer demand began to shift more rapidly, partly because of better communications networks. The need to reduce costs and become responsive to volatile changes in customer preferences forced businesses to substantially restructure their corporate practices. With domestic factor costs rising, manufacturers outsourced intermediate production to foreign enterprises in countries with lower wages. Merchants also sought cheaper supply sources - developments that held promise for developing countries. Many developing countries have been unable to take advantage of structural changes in world manufacturing and trade because they have been unable to deliver the quality of production, fast turnaround, and reliability of delivery manufacturing businesses need to keep up with changing market demand. A new management approach - logistics management - is needed to cut business costs and to be more responsive to rapidly changing markets. Logistics management orchestrates materials acquisition, production, and marketing to reduce inventories to a minimum. Effective logistics management enables many organizations to conduct their business with less than a week's worth of supplies. Such a radical change requires major corporate restructuring and the development of strategic alliances with service providers. Outsourcing of production is projected to continue growing, and the search for less costly supply sources will continue. Developing countries can capitalize on those trends - but only if they substantially improve their infrastructure, liberalize their regulations, and begin to apply modern logistics management techniques. If they do not, their outlook is not promising.Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry,Business in Development,Business Environment,Environmental Economics&Policies

Romania’s competitive advantage within the European Union area

The central idea of the paper emphasizes Romania’s competitive advantages in the EU and there are two analysis levels herein: the correct identification of Romania’s competitive advantages and the oportunities to value them. The paper aims at achieving a competitiveness analysis of the Romanian economy during 2006-2009. The Romanian economy’s integration within the European Union does not only mean a mere inclusion or accession into/to the Community, but it also represents the belonging to a strongly competitive area. Since the Union has mainly aimed at becoming the most competitive economy at world level, Romania has to face a double challenge: redefining its competitiveness and reducing the current gaps between its economy and the average level of the main EU social and economic indices. Redefining competitiveness is actually redefining competitiveness determiners. Reaching the convergence goal is based on the Romanian economy’s sustainable competitive advantages. The essential concern is their proper identification, as they are the result of a strategic vision. Taking account of these principles, Romania’s EU accession is acquiring new traits. Is there a competitiveness gain or is there a certain loss right from the moment of the accession

The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Telecommunications Industry : An Overview of the Case of "Orange Tunisie" Operator

The aim of this paper is to present new orientations for research in the field of information systems in the context of CSR. It offers an original conceptual analysis that integrates the CSR approach, which enables decision making, governance and strategic alignment of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), business and sustainability. In the actual context of the changing environment, a consensus regarding the need to change the pattern of development and growth comes to light. The CSR emerges as a new paradigm for economics. Its alliance with other economic concepts seems to become a necessity that aims at an approach for a global and sustainable performance for the company. As long as the firms’ IT departments are energy consumers, it is of paramount importance to reconcile the new technologies and the CSR. Hence, in order for the company to stand out and increase its competitiveness, it has to think in terms of global, economic, social and environmental performance that would ensure a sustainable growth. The importance of the small and medium-sized enterprises in the Maghreb’s economies and the challenges of the CSR implementation in such institutions should prompt us to wonder about the incentives and the engagement factors of managers in favor of the CSR while incorporating the ICT. It seems interesting, then, to discover the way to combine the ICT and the social practices, in order to ensure a sustainable performance for the company. An illustration of the case of "Orange Tunisie" operator will be advanced

Using the dynamic capabilities perspective to analyse CRM adoption: a multiple case study in portuguese organisations

Doutoramento em GestãoCustomer Relationship Management (CRM) adoption is both a relevant research topic in academia and a challenge for practitioners. We understand CRM as a complex concept that includes technology, strategy and philosophy. In this research, we propose an analysis of CRM organisational competences and capabilities. The main goals are: to observe organisational competences and capabilities in order to find ways in which companies obtain success with their CRM initiatives; and to apply a dynamic capabilities perspective as the main theoretical point to analyse how companies can improve their competences related to customer relationship management. In order to achieve the purpose of this study a qualitative, interpretative, case-based research strategy was implemented. We first conducted an exploratory case study in a Brazilian Telecommunications company in order to define the focus of the research and research questions. Afterwards, we conducted a main case study in a Portuguese Telecommunications company for one year, and finally, we conducted four more case studies in Portuguese organisations to develop the research findings. These multiple case studies were based on semi-structured interviews and document analysis. We used qualitative techniques to analyse the collected data and ground our interpretation in two theoretical approaches: value focus thinking and dynamic capabilities. We propose a theoretical framework related to CRM dynamic capability that is corroborated with empirical evidence. We believe that because organisations which adopt a CRM strategy are in a competitive environment, a dynamic model needs to be used to analyse and explain how they can improve their CRM strategy in order to achieve success. As a second contribution we identify a set of competences that need to be developed in order to manage customer relationships effectively.A adopção de Customer Relationship Management (CRM) é um tema considerado relevante para as investigações académicas e um desafio para os praticantes. CRM neste trabalho é entendido como um conceito complexo que envolve tecnologia, estratégia e filosofia. Esta investigação propõe uma análise sobre as competências e as capacidades organizacionais relacionadas ao CRM. As principais motivações deste estudo referem-se às problemáticas observadas nas adopções de CRM, sendo que as lentes da teoria das Capacidades Dinâmicas mostram-se relevante na análise das capacidades e competências organizacionais necessárias ao sucesso da iniciativa de CRM. A fim de alcançar o propósito deste estudo, foi realizada uma investigação qualitativa, interpretativa e baseada em estudos de caso. Primeiramente foi conduzido um estudo de caso exploratório numa empresa Brasileira de telecomunicações com o intuito de melhor definir o foco da investigação e das questões de investigação. Após foi conduzido o estudo de caso principal em uma empresa de telecomunicações Portuguesa ao longo de um ano. Finalmente foram conduzidos outros quatro estudos de caso em organizações Portuguesas com o intuito de aprofundar a discussão dos resultados da investigação. Foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas e análise de dados secundários. Para a análise dos dados foram utilizadas técnicas qualitativas e duas teorias ajudaram a suportar as interpretações realizadas: value focus thinking e dynamic capabilities. Como contribuições desta investigação tem-se a proposição de um framework teórico sobre a capacidade dinâmica CRM que foi corroborado com evidências empíricas. As organizações que adoptam CRM estão inseridas em ambientes de grande competitividade e um modelo dinâmico precisa ser utilizado para analisar e explicar como elas aprimoram suas estratégias de CRM para ter sucesso. Como segunda contribuição foi identificado um conjunto de competências organizacionais que são necessárias para a gestão do relacionamento com o cliente

Romania’s competitive advantage within the European Union area

The central idea of the paper emphasizes Romania’s competitive advantages in the EU and there are two analysis levels herein: the correct identification of Romania’s competitive advantages and the oportunities to value them. The paper aims at achieving a competitiveness analysis of the Romanian economy during 2006-2009. The Romanian economy’s integration within the European Union does not only mean a mere inclusion or accession into/to the Community, but it also represents the belonging to a strongly competitive area. Since the Union has mainly aimed at becoming the most competitive economy at world level, Romania has to face a double challenge: redefining its competitiveness and reducing the current gaps between its economy and the average level of the main EU social and economic indices. Redefining competitiveness is actually redefining competitiveness determiners. Reaching the convergence goal is based on the Romanian economy’s sustainable competitive advantages. The essential concern is their proper identification, as they are the result of a strategic vision. Taking account of these principles, Romania’s EU accession is acquiring new traits. Is there a competitiveness gain or is there a certain loss right from the moment of the accession?competitive advantages, export performance, competitiveness analysis

The impact of e-business technologies on supply chain operations: a macroeconomic perspective

New information technologies and e-business solutions have transformed supply chain operations from mass production to mass customization. This paper assesses the impact of these innovations on economic productivity, focusing on the macroeconomic benefits as supply chain operations have evolved from simple production and planning systems to today's real-time performance-management information systems using advanced e-business technologies. While many factors can influence macroeconomic variables, the impact of IT-enabled supply chains should not be overlooked. We find evidence that the impact of e-business technologies on supply chain operations have resulted in a reduced "bullwhip effect," lower inventory, reduced logistics costs, and streamlined procurement processes. These improvements, in turn, have likely helped to lower inflation, reduce economic volatility, strengthen productivity growth, and improve standards of living.Information technology ; Macroeconomics ; Productivity

Skills Assessment for Business Services: Final Report

No abstract available

Turning Dust to Gold: How to increase inimitability of Enterprise System

There is an on-going debate over the long-term value propositions of enterprise systems (ES) for competitive advantage, with many arguing that ES have lost their potential to contribute to competitive advantage in the contemporary hyper-competitive markets. While acknowledging that an ES is a valuable, rare and non-substitutable resource that is common to all competitors, it is further questionable how ES contribute to competitive advantage. Using the fourth characteristic of the resource-based view, we investigate how inimitability of ES can contribute to competitiveness. Using qualitative evidence from nine case studies this study derives three conditions that facilitate ES to be inimitable