The Development of an Evaluation Framework for eGovernment Systems

This paper is a positioning paper which outlines a proposal for engaging in the evaluation of eGovernment systems. The primary purpose of our proposed research is to develop, apply, test, and disseminate an evaluation framework which can support continuous, adaptable, and reflective evaluation of eGovernment systems. The theoretical bases for the methodology will be the Information Systems (IS), Soft Systems Methodology, SSM (Checkland and Scholes, 1990) which provides the platform for the analyses of the ‘soft’ aspects (e.g. human, political, cultural and organisational factors) and the Hard Systems Methodology (HSM) which provides methods and tools for quantitative measures and analyses of the system. A further three interrelated bases are: Reflective Practice, Organisational Learning (OL), and Information and Knowledge Management (IKM). Some of the key underlying principles to a successful evaluation framework are good data collection and analyses methods, an evaluative reflective practice approach whichentails the complete process of identification and analysis of strengths and problems, followed by rigorous testing, implementation, and revision of solutions. Such a cycle encourages organisational learning and promotes continuous improvement to both the evaluation framework and system. Additionally, it aims to cultivate an organisational culture that supports evaluation through reflection, continuous learning, and knowledge management which facilitates knowledge creation, capture, sharing, application and dissemination

Does Shareholder Concentration Matter in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)? Empirical Evidence from SMEs in manufacturing sector in Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER)

Memandangkan peranan penting yang dimainkan oleh Perusahaan Kecil and Sederhana (PKS) dalam pertumbuhan ekonomi negara, satu daya saingan yang kuat diperlukan oleh industri ini demi menjayakan Wilayah Ekonomi Koridor Utara (NCER). Given the important role of SMEs as a growth factor in local economy, ensuring a strong and competitive development for this industry segment has become a key concern in making the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) a success

Composite indicators in energy and environmental modeling

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

On the rationality of decision aiding processes

International audienc

Studies of strategic performance management for classical organizations theory & practice

Nowadays, the activities of "Performance Management" have spread very broadly in actually every part of business and management. There are numerous practitioners and researchers from very different disciplines, who are involved in exploring the different contents of performance management. In this thesis, some relevant historic developments in performance management are first reviewed. This includes various theories and frameworks of performance management. Then several management science techniques are developed for assessing performance management, including new methods in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Soft System Methodology (SSM). A theoretical framework for performance management and its practical procedures (five phases) are developed for "classic" organizations using soft system thinking, and the relationship with the existing theories are explored. Eventually these results are applied in three case studies to verify our theoretical development. One of the main contributions of this work is to point out, and to systematically explore the basic idea that the effective forms and structures of performance management for an organization are likely to depend greatly on the organizational configuration, in order to coordinate well with other management activities in the organization, which has seemingly been neglected in the existing literature of performance management research in the sense that there exists little known research that associated particular forms of performance management with the explicit assumptions of organizational configuration. By applying SSM, this thesis logically derives some main functional blocks of performance management in 'classic' organizations and clarifies the relationships between performance management and other management activities. Furthermore, it develops some new tools and procedures, which can hierarchically decompose organizational strategies and produce a practical model of specific implementation steps for "classic" organizations. Our approach integrates popular types of performance management models. Last but not least, this thesis presents findings from three major cases, which are quite different organizations in terms of management styles, ownership, and operating environment, to illustrate the fliexbility of the developed theoretical framework

Measuring organisational performance using a mix of OR methods

Performance measurement has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. In spite of the remarkable progress that has been achieved in this area of research, many performance measurement initiatives fall short of their potential in supporting decision-making. This paper argues that adopting a multi-method approach to assessing performance has the potential to result in more comprehensive and effective performance measurement systems. To support this assertion, the paper discusses the development of a performance measurement system for a Business Tax Department, which combined the use of several operational research (OR) techniques including qualitative system dynamics, data envelopment analysis and multiple criteria decision analysis. The use of these OR techniques was influential in developing and implementing the performance measurement system and has the potential to be transferred to other contexts

How Do Financial Globalization, Institutions and Economic Growth Impact Financial Sector Development in European Countries?

This paper examines the role of financial globalization, institutions and economic growth on the development of financial sector in European countries. We use panel data covering the period of 1989-2016. Using the composite index of financial development covers various dimensions of financial market, that is, depth, access and efficiency and four-way classification of institutions as suggested by Rodrick (2005) and Law et al. (2018), the empirical results indicate that economic growth and institutional quality are positively associated with financial development. Contrarily, financial globalization hinders the process of financial sector development. The results are robust to using alternative proxies of economic growth, institutional indicators and capturing the period of financial crisis. These empirical findings suggest policy guidelines to develop financial sector by using globalization, institutional quality and economic growth as economic tools

Bank productivity growth and convergence in the European Union during the financial crisis

This paper examines the bank productivity growth and integration process for the 28 EU countries during three main phases of the financial crisis: the U.S. subprime crisis (2007–2008), the global financial crisis (2009–2010) and the sovereign debt crisis (2010–2012). We extend the Malmquist Productivity Index by applying an additive two-stage DEA model. This allows us to explore the sources of growth in different stages of production. Furthermore, we assess the integration of European banks by analyzing the β-convergence and σ-convergence of the two-stage Productivity Index. Our results show a productivity growth during the U.S. subprime crisis, but a consistent decline during the global financial crisis. The loss of competitiveness of the European banking system is due to the drop in growth of the performance stage and technical change. Finally, we find a strong convergence pattern during the financial crisis, mainly driven by the catch up process of some Eastern countries and the drop in performance of Western countries