117 research outputs found

    Facilitating Information Sharing in Organizations using Electronic Content Management Systems (ECMS): Towards a Model

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    This research-in-progress paper explores how the use of ECMS facilitates the sharing of business process- related information that supports end-to-end processes between business units in an organization. Based on an in-depth literature review, we propose a theoretical model to explain ECMS-use in two different types of business processes namely (1) processes with high or low Standardisation and (2) processes with high or low Integration. The model which will be tested in later stages of this research will provide a deeper explanation on how and why organizations may use ECMS in different ways as shaped by the Standardisation and Integration aspects of the organization’ s particular business process. Therefore, this study provides a deeper understanding on the use of ECMS and the value they can bring to organizations in terms of improving the sharing of information that supports the way the business operates

    Exploring the use of enterprise content management systems in different types of Organisations

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    Researchers and practitioners are starting to realize that it is unlikely that the full advantage of Electronic Content Management Systems (ECMS) can be realized unless both the technology capabilities and organisational context are taken into consideration. This study explores ECMS use in Replication, Diversification, Unification and Coordination type of organisations. A framework of ECMS-use is proposed suggesting different ways of using ECMS to support diverse organisational needs. Following a qualitative case study research approach, interviews were conducted with IT and business managers and ECMS users from each of the four types of organisations. Results suggest that, depending on the organisation&rsquo;s business needs, ECMS use in organisations can be categorized as 1) Minimal-use, 2) Standard Adoption-use, 3) Customized-use or 4) Leveraged-use. Findings suggest that managers can gain more realistic benefits from ECMS use by understanding why and how different types of ECMS-use can support the way in which their businesses operate.<br /

    Exploring the Use of Enterprise Content Management Systems in different types of Organisations

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    Researchers and practitioners are starting to realize that it is unlikely that the full advantage of Electronic Content Management Systems (ECMS) can be realized unless both the technology capabilities and organisational context are taken into consideration. This study explores ECMS use in Replication, Diversification, Unification and Coordination type of organisations. A framework of ECMS-use is proposed suggesting different ways of using ECMS to support diverse organisational needs. Following a qualitative case study research approach, interviews were conducted with IT and business managers and ECMS users from each of the four types of organisations. Results suggest that, depending on the organisation’s business needs, ECMS use in organisations can be categorized as 1) Minimal-use, 2) Standard Adoption-use, 3) Customized-use or 4) Leveraged-use. Findings suggest that managers can gain more realistic benefits from ECMS use by understanding why and how different types of ECMS-use can support the way in which their businesses operate

    An exploration of the global development of emerging country multinationals : a study of strategic ambitions and talent management in China and India

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    Since Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist, coined the acronym of the BRIC countries in 2001 the concept has attracted an infectious logic. The growth of the four BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, is evidenced by their emergence as the most rapidly industrialising countries. These BRIC countries represent a building block for powerful annual events, the first conducted on the sidelines of the United Nations in 2006, then in 2010, and then most recently in New Delhi in March, 2012. In broad terms, Brazil has been considered as the world farm, Russia as an enormous gas station, India as the back office, and China as the factory floor. Collectively, the group represents a quarter of the world’s GDP, almost one half of the gold reserves, nearly 30 per cent of the total land mass, and over 40 per cent of the international population. During the past 10 years their combined growth has been favourably comparable to the world economy including the modern Japan and Germany. Estimates are that by 2050 the combined values of the real, rouble, rupee, and renminbi are expected to eclipse that of today’s richest countries. The heightened importance of China and India are the focus of the investigation reported in this Dissertation.The remarkable economic growth of China and India has drawn a considerable amount of attention. The trajectory of their internationalisation process along with the unique strategic management approaches has effectively facilitated the global economic integration of these two nations. Despite extensive investigations of emerging country multinationals (ECMs) from China and India a lack of attention has been given to the accumulated legacies of managerial mindsets, and cultural priorities, that impact the competitive dynamics of these two nations. As these ECMs hold prominent economic positions in the global arena it is surprising there has not been more rigorous and systematic investigation to establish if specifically Western talent management systems are being incorporated into the traditional nuances of the ECMs. Consequently, this study was undertaken to identify how Chinese and Indian ECMs strategically integrate resources at the international level to attain global business success. The findings of this research have potential to contribute to the generation of theoretical and empirical paradigms that will assist the understanding of the processes of fusion between Western and Eastern theories, and especially the Chinese and Indian contexts.This research employed a mixed method, which incorporated both the quantitative assessment (e.g., questionnaire) and the qualitative technique (e.g., interviews). Several scholars have convincingly argued that culturally related investigations are likely to be enhanced when employing both quantitative and qualitative assessments. Several pilot studies were undertaken with Chinese and Indian respondents in an endeavour to establish the literal meaning of the survey instrument, which was developed by employing the back translation procedure. A feature of the quantitative dimension of this study was the use of an extensive questionnaire, which enabled the collection of data to establish the foundations for evaluating the constructs of talent management, the global business system development as well as the global ambition vision and the connections of these variables in a research model that incorporated the investigation of mediating influences.The research targeted owners or executive managers of ECMs in China and India, who were business executives, selected for their overall successful business and managerial careers in their respective organisations as well as their contribution in strategic decision making for facilitating the global ambition of their firms. A total of 50 Chinese and 51 Indian managers completed a complex questionnaire, and the demographic and organisational attributes of these respondents was also captured in the questionnaire. To complement the quantitative technique and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the quantitative findings, interviews (21 participants from each country) were undertaken with representatives of the senior managers or owners of ECMS in China and India, who completed the questionnaire. The exceedingly rich and extensive information provided by these respondents was recorded and evaluated with Nvivo software and presented in diagrammatic formats and elucidated with accompanying text.Several statistical analyses were employed to evaluate the quantitative data. For instance, exploratory factor analysis and reliability assessments were conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the instruments, and the results revealed the instruments had robust validities and reliabilities. To test the numerous relationships of the study research model, that was generated from the relevant literature, several vbivariate relationship assessments such as correlation, regression, mediated regression as well as path analyses were performed. These analyses provided two broad patterns of results. One outcome was the generation of a number of creditable instruments, while a second achievement was the detection of relationships with task acquisition practices and institutional global business systems, particularly in the Chinese data. Nevertheless, the fuller results demonstrated a large number of the hypothesised connections were not significantly substantiated, and this observation provided a fruitful platform for further investigation with the qualitative assessments to better understand alternative frameworks to the predicted connections between the constructs.Independent interviews were undertaken with 21 Chinese and 21 Indian senior executives of the ECMs. A salient observation was both the Chinese and the Indian managers highlighted the significant importance of acquiring and maintaining highly skilled and experienced talents in their ECMs, but the challenge of retaining these managerial personnel was escalating and to minimise the implications of talent shortages compelled the ECMs to install a wide range of relevant human resource management practices and mechanisms. One important dimension of the analysis of the qualitative responses was both the Chinese and Indian managers perceived that the strategic ambition of their company was driven by a wide range of external and internal forces. The external forces gave ‘push’ and ‘pull’ market and monetary influences, while local regulations obliged ECMs to operate within compliance and regulatory local frameworks to be aligned with the prominent aspects of government policies.Furthermore, the qualitative analytic results revealed that the rich and dynamic Chinese and Indian cultures significantly influenced how the ECMs develop their global business systems to become global players. Collectively, these factors when coupled with personal differences in values, expectations and belief systems lead to the development of institutional architectures flavoured with crossvergence approaches for the managing of global operations. In short, the Chinese and Indian ECMs are adapting in the pursuit of global business sustainability. Evidence generated from the Chinese and Indian respondents is shown as results in Chapter Four to demonstrate a number of key similarities and differences in the formulation of internationalisation strategies to achieve global ambitions. Elucidation of the comprehensive set of results is systematically undertaken in Chapter Five to provide a greater appreciation of the relativity between the study findings and the research questions.The implications of this study can be founded on theoretical and empirical grounds. The first contribution of this study is advancement to the existing theories and models for internationalisation that were outlined in Chapter Two. The evidence obtained by undertaking this study is that the theoretical conceptions will benefit by a greater inclusion of the national country nuances more as mainline central dimensions of the model rather than as mediating influences. A second theoretical contribution of the study was to evaluate the credibility of Western assumptions in non Western contexts, and while these Western theories provided useful foundation their translation in explaining business philosophies in a non Western economies notions of abstraction will require greater development to focus on elements of cultural relativity. Furthermore, this research can potentially make a third contribution in providing valuable information for gaining a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of business concepts in the Eastern business environments, especially the Chinese and Indian contexts. In addition to these theoretical contributions empirical benefits were acquired.Undertaking this study had three practical achievements. The first empirical contribution is the generation of sound inaugural seven point Likert scales, constructed especially for this study from the relevant literature, that can be used in Chinese and Indian institutions. A second empirical contribution is the revelation Western management strategies and approaches did not readily translate into operational practices in a non Western business environment of the ECMs. It was suggested by the respondents (of the qualitative study design feature) the differences in patterns of operations in their countries were substantially influenced by political restrictions and regulations that allowed institutions to embark on business destinies. A third practical contribution is to provide a greater, more complete and dynamic picture of how firms in emerging countries develop their strategies for pursuing global ambitions, and especially the Chinese and Indian ECMs. This research provides additional insights by examining managerial viewpoints of whether their organisations’ global business system development has an impact on achieving global ambitions.Three prominent concluding features have emerged from this research. Firstly, the concepts and constructs being developed and tested in the Western literature might be used in the Eastern contexts, but considerable attention should be paid to the cultural nuances and the institutional forces. More specifically, the national culture underpins the management philosophies of a particular firm, and in turn these business practices were determined by the political frameworks in which the organisations are operating. Arguably, the importance of culture and institutional architectures are deemed as cornerstones for facilitating the pursuit of global ambitions. Secondly, the results of this study suggest that the employed Western developed terminologies in the study questionnaire did not fully address the business ideology of the Chinese and Indian ECMs.One possible explanation is that the literal meaning of the words and phrases might not have been entirely transmitted and conceptualised when the questionnaire was administrated to capture the Chinese and Indian responses, and such an observation maybe linked to the cultural differences as well as the background of the individual participants. Finally, the combination of both quantitative and qualitative approach in cross cultural setting studies is likely to yield a more insightful understanding of the study findings. Consequently, the study findings suggested that the qualitative assessment is an essential technique to capture information that was not attainable through the more confined quantitative approach, and cross cultural studies can be better facilitated when a mix method design is employed

    Cross-cultural management in the subsidiaries of Indian multinationals in Western countries : an exploratory study

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    L'expansion de la mondialisation par rapport au flux des entreprises multinationales peut être divisée en trois grandes phases. Phase 1 examine le processus d'interaction entre les entreprises de différents pays qui sont en grande partie développés. Plus tard, la phase 2 reconnaît le flux entre les pays développés et en développement, avec les multinationales des pays développés s'orientant vers les pays en développement. Plus récemment, nous vivons la phase 3, qui est un demi-tour des événements avec le flux des multinationales de pays en développement vers non seulement d'autres pays en développement mais aussi vers des pays développés. Cette dernière phase est une réalité de nos jours. Elle constitue notre domaine de recherche. Les multinationales des pays émergents (ECM) ont grimpé régulièrement l'échelle du succès. Elles ont émergé comme des solides prétendants mondiaux. Leur croissance a été réussie en dépit de diverses complexités existantes dans leurs régions ou pays, notamment, le retard économique qui fait en sorte qu'elles sont assez souvent dépassées. Les multinationales se sont révélées être les plus grandes animatrices de la mondialisation et de la grêle à partir de plusieurs régions émergentes comme l'Inde, la Chine, l'Indonésie. Elles sont devenues une partie importante de l'économie mondialisée d'aujourd'hui. Les différentes perspectives de ces multinationales sont importantes car elles ont adopté des styles de gestion uniques. Nous avons essayé de découvrir en détail, ces différents aspects dans l'article 1 en répondant aux questions des Qui, pourquoi, où, comment et quand. Ces questions ont été soigneusement choisies pour permettre l'inclusion de la recherche telle qu'elle s'applique à la thèse, ainsi que d'aider à mieux comprendre et gérer la complexité du sujet dans l'avenir. Plus de 70% de la population mondiale vit dans des pays qui ne sont pas développés. D'autant plus, les recherches qui ont été faites concernent surtout les pays développés. En raison de leur importance croissante et leur participation dans la chaîne de valeur mondiale, il est impératif d'approfondir des études sur ce sujet, afin d'avancer notre compréhension de ce monde. Notre intérêt réside dans l'internationalisation des multinationales Indiennes et de leur adaptation culturelle réussie dans les pays développés en Amérique du Nord (Canada et États-Unis). Ce départ à l'étranger soulève la question suivante : quelle culture les entreprises multinationales indiennes suivent dans leurs filiales ? L'article 2 traite de l'adaptation culturelle que ces entreprises doivent mettre en place et des facteurs pertinents qui peuvent influencer sur cette adaptation, tels que l'environnement institutionnel, les pratiques RH, les expatriés, la mission de la multinationale, etc, et ce, en utilisant un modèle conceptuel reposant sur une revue de littérature. Nous proposons plusieurs relations qui pourraient être considéré comme un guide pour les recherches futures dans ce domaine émergent. Pour faire progresser la recherche, l'article 3 se focalise sur le.s pratiques RH pratiquées dans le siège et la filiale. Plusieurs auteurs soutiennent l'idée que la culture de gestion d'une entreprise peuvent être vues à travers leurs pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines.Les pratiques de gestion indiennes peuvent ne pas avoir nécessairement le même effet ou avoir des valeurs similaires dans leurs filiales des pays développés, en raison de nombreuses différences culturelles et institutionnelles. Nous avons discuté de la culture de gestion sur les Indiens, par rapport et en contraste avec la culture de gestion de l'Ouest, Nous avons conclu que les meilleures pratiques dans une culture peuvent ne pas avoir nécessairement la même valeur dans une autre culture. En outre, nous présentons également les stratégies transversales de gestion des cultures, ainsi que le cadre conceptuel pour la recherche future. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous effectuons une étude empirique en se basant sur notre cadre conceptuel théorique. Nous discutons de l'absence d'études empiriques dans le domaine des ECM et nous justifions notre objectif de la recherche. Par la suite, nous entamons une explication élaborée de notre intérêt pour la recherche et le choix des pays. Nous proposons enfin notre question de recherche et un cadre qui identifie également les pratiques de gestion qui incluent la délégation de pouvoir, la rémunération, de promotion et de récompense, l'évaluation du rendement et de la formation, le développement et la planification de carrière. Celles-ci ont été utilisées comme un processus pour étudier les adaptations culturelles de multinationales indiennes dans leurs filiales nord-américaines. Ces pratiques de gestion ont été expliquées avec leur opérationnalisation. Enfin, la méthodologie qualitative en utilisant des études de cas se justifie pour cette recherche particulière. Nous continuons par une présentation des études de cas multiples et leur analyse. Nous concluons l'étude avec ses contributions, les défis, limites et autres avenues pour la recherche

    Financial reporting in emerging capital markets : a case study of Ghana

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    This thesis investigates the evolution and quality of financial reporting in Ghana from 1988-1997. The issues examined are comparability of accounting measurement methods, adequacy of disclosure and relevance, promotion and observance of the standards of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). The impact of three factors, namely, firm size, listing status and accounting regulation on financial reporting are evaluated. The accounting measurement and disclosure practices in Ghana were ascertained from the 1988-1997 annual reports of fifteen non-financial companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on 31 December 1997. Interviews with the executives and auditors of the sample companies, financial analysts and regulators of financial reporting in Ghana were also conducted. The data were analysed using nonparametric statistical techniques. This study reveals that the establishment of the Ghana Stock Exchange and the introduction of new accounting regulations in Ghana did not alter significantly the accounting measurement methods used by the companies studied from 1988-1997. While mandatory disclosure declined, overall disclosure, voluntary disclosure and, in a large measure, the disclosure of categories of information increased over the ten years. Firm size and listing status were found to be significantly positively associated with overall disclosure and voluntary disclosure. Accounting regulation was significantly positively associated with overall disclosure, but not mandatory disclosure. The impact of firm size, listing status and accounting regulation on disclosure of categories of information was mixed. IASC standards were perceived by corporate executives, statutory auditors, financial analysts and regulators of financial reporting in Ghana to be an influential factor in the development of the Ghana Stock Exchange. The Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana) and public accounting and auditing firms of the sample companies were noted to be active promoters of IASC standards in Ghana. On the whole, the observance of IASC standards in Ghana increased from 1988-1997 and was comparable overall to levels found in other countries. Listing status and accounting regulation, rather than firm size, were found to be significantly positively associated with the observance of IASC standards in Ghana from 1988-1997

    Environmental management control systems:Exploring the economic motivation behind their implementation

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    Environmental management control systems (EMCSs) effectively integrate environmental objectives into corporate decision-making, yet implementation costs may discourage their adoption. To understand firms’ economic motivation for implementing EMCSs, we theorize that internal and external factors drive both their economic performance and the decision to implement EMCSs. We argue that the environmental costs induced by firms’ pollution intensity drive the economic benefits of EMCSs as well as their implementation. Additionally, we suggest that this relationship depends on society's environmental awareness. By introducing an archival measure of EMCS implementation, we test these hypotheses on a longitudinal dataset of European and US firms. Our results support the argument that environmental costs drive EMCSs’ economic benefits and implementation. We also find that environmental awareness in societies influences the impact of environmental costs. Our study highlights the importance of environmental awareness in society for aligning environmental and economic goals and thus to increase corporate environmentalism.</p

    The integrity of digital technologies in the evolving characteristics of real-time enterprise architecture

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    Advancements in interactive and responsive enterprises involve real-time access to the information and capabilities of emerging technologies. Digital technologies (DTs) are emerging technologies that provide end-to-end business processes (BPs), engage a diversified set of real-time enterprise (RTE) participants, and institutes interactive DT services. This thesis offers a selection of the author’s work over the last decade that addresses the real-time access to changing characteristics of information and integration of DTs. They are critical for RTEs to run a competitive business and respond to a dynamic marketplace. The primary contributions of this work are listed below. • Performed an intense investigation to illustrate the challenges of the RTE during the advancement of DTs and corresponding business operations. • Constituted a practical approach to continuously evolve the RTEs and measure the impact of DTs by developing, instrumenting, and inferring the standardized RTE architecture and DTs. • Established the RTE operational governance framework and instituted it to provide structure, oversight responsibilities, features, and interdependencies of business operations. • Formulated the incremental risk (IR) modeling framework to identify and correlate the evolving risks of the RTEs during the deployment of DT services. • DT service classifications scheme is derived based on BPs, BP activities, DT’s paradigms, RTE processes, and RTE policies. • Identified and assessed the evaluation paradigms of the RTEs to measure the progress of the RTE architecture based on the DT service classifications. The starting point was the author’s experience with evolving aspects of DTs that are disrupting industries and consequently impacting the sustainability of the RTE. The initial publications emphasized innovative characteristics of DTs and lack of standardization, indicating the impact and adaptation of DTs are questionable for the RTEs. The publications are focused on developing different elements of RTE architecture. Each published work concerns the creation of an RTE architecture framework fit to the purpose of business operations in association with the DT services and associated capabilities. The RTE operational governance framework and incremental risk methodology presented in subsequent publications ensure the continuous evolution of RTE in advancements of DTs. Eventually, each publication presents the evaluation paradigms based on the identified scheme of DT service classification to measure the success of RTE architecture or corresponding elements of the RTE architecture

    An international marketing framework for Ford South Africa in Nigeria

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    Africa is seen as the last investment frontier and according to literature will have a GDP of $1.5 trillion by the year 2016 and a population that is double the size of Europe. The rapid expansion of infrastructure and construction in African countries, such as Mozambique and Zambia has increased the demand for commercial vehicles. This has sparked unparalleled marketing opportunities for automotive manufacturers and the continent is fast attracting major players in this sector. The international marketing literature still lacks detailed studies and research into the marketing deliberations and trades in Africa. Therefore, according literature a greater representation of African culture within the international marketing literature would provide relevance and richness in the global market place and offer greater insight to organisations who are seeking to invest and expand their businesses in Africa. The management issue here is to comprehend the diversity and vastness of this region and putting together all spheres to ensure growth and creating brand loyalty. The key challenge here is for management to be able to grasp and understand not only the various cultures but also the way of doing business in such a vastly different region. It is therefore imperative for Ford Motor Company to fully understand these factors so as to take full advantage associated with entering a market early which is commonly referred as first-mover-advantage. A case in point is when General Motors entered the Chinese automotive industry in 1997 when the Chinese market was relatively small. General Motors’ enthusiasm and commitment back in 1997 was driven by a belief that China would ultimately become an economic powerhouse and emerge as one of the world’s largest automotive markets. By the year 2010 China was one of the world’s biggest automotive markets and General Motors was a dominant force in this market. Africa has all the key elements for the growth and development of a robust automotive market. By studying past experiences and outcomes from empirical studies on international marketing with emphasis on the automotive industry, it will be possible to draw lessons and experience about the potential growth of the automotive sector on the African continent. This study will also be of great significance to other automotive manufacturers and suppliers looking to expand their business and market share across Africa due to the increase of the middle class. Therefore creative strategies and thinking of how to circumvent challenges in the African cultural environment, creativity in managing bureaucracy and due diligence about business and investment opportunities will uncover unprecedented volumes of profitable business that lies untapped on the African continent. Data from the quantitative study suggest that culture, political environment, country-of-origin, competition and country infrastructure in Nigeria, are essential factors to the development of a successful international marketing strategy for Ford South Africa. This study therefore concludes that Ford Motor Company of South Africa can utilize this framework in order to gain greater market share and ultimately success in Nigeria. Recommendations were also made for future research studies that can contribute to the international marketing literature with emphasis on the African market
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