A Conceptualisation of Circular Business Models and Explanation of Their Adoption: Evidence From Four In-Depth Case Studies

The scale of the ecological crisis and a combination of socio-economic and regulatory trends (rising global demand for goods, increasing resource price volatility and legislative efforts to reduce waste), are severely undermining the viability of linear operating business models which rest on a take-make-dispose logic. It is within this context that the circular economy gains relevance by proposing more resource efficient industrial processes that mirror the cyclical functioning of the eco-system where waste does not occur. A crucial constituent in the achievement of a circular economy is business model innovation. However, the academic literature on sustainable business models is still in its early days and pays very little attention to the circular economy and to circular business models. Hence, this research contributes to the sustainable business models literature by proposing a conceptualisation of circular business models and by illustrating the processes leading to their emergence and development. Organisational (resources and capabilities) and institutional (regulatory, normative and cognitive) perspectives have been applied mostly separately in the management literature examining why companies pursue ecological and social sustainability goals. This research attempts to reconcile the above agency versus structure dichotomy in explaining the adoption of circular business models. To accomplish this task, a qualitative, hermeneutical study has been conducted. Four holistic British case studies, considered as a form of contextualised explanation and chosen via purposive selection, delineate this research strategy. Participant observations, shadowing and semi-structured interviews (n=33) are the methods used for collecting primary data. Using narrative and comparative analyses, this thesis conceptualises circular business models as characterised by enhanced customers’ value, diffused and interconnected value creation, boundary spanning relational structures and idiosyncratic value capture mechanisms. It finds that their emergence and development is dependent on a combination of organisational and institutional influences

The construction of client organisations and contract structures in outsourcing within dynamic contexts: a longitudinal case study approach

This explorative study investigates how bureaucratic public sector client organisations deal with information technology (ITO) and business process (BPO) outsourcing in terms of internal management. To supplement the lack of studies emphasising pre-existing client organisational structure and the contextual and internal changes intertwined with and required for outsourcing, the thesis develops theoretical underpinnings that incorporate change, time, dynamism and context. These consist of a structuration theory-informed formal organisation perspective and a processual analysis-informed multidimensional outsourcing configuration framework. This thesis primarily seeks answers to 'why' and 'how' questions such as: why bureaucratic client organisations are concerned about IT outsourcing or BPO; in consequence, how they construct or change their strategy, organisational arrangements and outsourcing contracts; and, what are the contexts and social processes that let those constructions go forward? Studied by means of a longitudinal case study approach, with elements of comparison, the two cases are the IT outsourcing of the Public Procurement Service of Korea‘s e-government procurement system and the BPO of the Teachers‘ Pension Scheme administration of the British Department for Children, Schools and Families. Through contextual and micro-level analyses, the research found that client organisations appear to work at transforming outsourcing-related strategy, contract structure, and their own organisations—which are mutually interrelated—in the context of five IT governance concerns: strategic alignment, delivery of business value, performance management, risk management, and control and accountability. Institutionalised human behaviours were found to be strongly involved with these processes. The thesis provides rich data on how the organisations decomposed and recomposed existing bureaucratic structures and processes. This thesis also found three standards emerging as rationales for the strategic choices of the client organisations when they moved to outsourcing. These were: core vs. non-core perception of outsourced functions; high vs. low supplier switching costs; and high vs. low variability of business and applied IT. Against expectations, explicit distinctions such as cultural differences between two government environments and differences between ITO and BPO, did not sufficiently explain the core phenomena regarding outsourcing and client organisational change. In practice, core/non-core perception was found to be the key shaper of the outsourcing contracts and client organisation construction, though each outsourcing arrangement emerged as distinctively different in terms of relevant decisions, context, and processes. Overall, the research supports Kallinikos's formal organisation perspective for explaining outsourcing as an enabler of organisational change, and provides an enriched and extended outsourcing configuration framework for disaggregating and studying, and for practitioners helping to manage, outsourcing arrangements in depth

Exploring employer behaviour in relation to Investors in People

"This report explores employer behaviour in relation to choices they make about Investors in People (IIP) accreditation in order for the future IIP strategy to ensure IIP is relevant, adds value to employers and tackles any barriers to successful delivery. The research focuses on the decision-making processes and experiences of three key groups of employers: employers that have held IIP accreditation for a number of years; employers who previously held IIP accreditation but have let this lapse; and employers who committed to gaining IIP accreditation but subsequently did not to go through the assessment process" - page 1

Understanding and Specifying Information Security Needs to Support the Delivery of High Quality Security Services

In this paper we present an approach for specifying and prioritizing information security requirements in organizations. It is important to prioritize security requirements since hundred per cent security is\ud not achievable and the limited resources available should be directed to satisfy the most important ones. We propose to explicitly link security requirements with the organization’s business vision, i.e. to provide business\ud rationale for security requirements. The rationale is then used as a basis for comparing the importance of different security requirements.\ud Furthermore we discuss how to integrate the aforementioned solution concepts into a service level management process for security services, which is an important step in IT Governance. We validate our approach by way of a focus group session

A Business Goal Driven Approach for Understanding and Specifying Information Security Requirements

In this paper we present an approach for specifying and prioritizing\ud information security requirements in organizations. It is important\ud to prioritize security requirements since hundred per cent security is\ud not achievable and the limited resources available should be directed to\ud satisfy the most important ones. We propose to link explicitly security\ud requirements with the organization’s business vision, i.e. to provide business\ud rationale for security requirements. The rationale is then used as a\ud basis for comparing the importance of different security requirements.\ud A conceptual framework is presented, where the relationships between\ud business vision, critical impact factors and valuable assets (together with\ud their security requirements) are shown