The Issue of Post-Merger Integration Boundary Management: A Sociomaterial Perspective

This study analyzes the interactions among individuals engaged in two information system development (ISD) projects aimed to support an organization created by the merger of previously independent entities. The literature on post-merger integration (PMI) suggests that new information systems (IS) that would span the boundaries of the previously independent firms need to be implemented to facilitate a specific level of integration. Yet, there is a lack of studies on the issue of post-merger boundary management during ISD projects. We draw on a sociomaterial perspective to analyze two ISD projects in a PMI context of a merger of three hospitals. In both projects, the final IS-enabled practices differed from the post-merger practices that had been planned by the new hospital management. Our analysis suggests that post-merger practices were the result of dialectic processes of resistance to, and negotiation of, the two systems reconfiguration after their implementation

A Hybrid Strategic Development and Prioritization Model for Information and Communication Technology Enhancement

The information and communication technology (ICT) sector has fostered the growth of several developed and developing countries. Recent studies on ICT-related businesses indicate that focusing on national policies is insufficient and underlines the importance of local and/or regional policies in promoting ICT. The authors propose a hybrid strategic development and prioritization framework for ICT enhancement and use the Delphi method and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to assist the formulation of the ICT strategies. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to weigh the SWOT factors and the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used to prioritize the ICT strategies. A comprehensive action plan with internal and external indices is derived from the strategic evaluation and assessment process to monitor the ICT enhancement progress. An application of the proposed framework is presented to demonstrate the simplicity and efficacy of the procedures and algorithms in a three-year study conducted for the State Office of Higher Education in a developing country

Innovation, sustainability and organizational change in a social Portuguese organization: a strategic management perspective

Social economy organizations are mission driven with the purpose of creating social value, overcoming a social problem and contributing to attain sustainable social development. In this chapter, a particular weakness underlying those organizations is addressed: lack of managerial skills and the importance of a well-structured process of strategic management and organizational innovation. Based on the analysis of a Portuguese case study, the goal is to increase the knowledge on the facilitating factors and barriers to the improvement of the quality of service and the efficiency of the management of a social economy organization, in order to understand how it creates and delivers social value and ensures its future sustainability. The findings highlight a number of best practices in the design of a structured innovation process which were supported by the Portuguese Program Q3-Qualifying the Third Sector, which may help similar organizations to improve their innovation and organizational processes

Innovation, sustainability, and organizational change in a social Portuguese organization: a strategic management perspective

Social economy has been a prominent topic among scholars, politicians, and practitioners. Social economy organizations are mission-driven with the purpose of creating social value, overcoming a social problem, and contributing to attain sustainable social development. In this chapter, a particular weakness underlying those organizations is addressed: lack of managerial skills and the importance of a well-structured process of strategic management and organizational innovation. Based on the analysis of a Portuguese case study, the goal is to increase the knowledge on the facilitating factors and barriers to the improvement of the quality of service and the efficiency of the management of a social economy organization, in order to understand how it creates and delivers social value and ensures its future sustainability. The findings highlight a number of best practices in the design of a structured innovation process which were supported by the Portuguese program Q3-qualifying the third sector, which may help similar organizations to improve their innovation and organizational processes

Examining strategic fit and innovation in terms of competitive strategies and knowledge management

Employees working for knowledge management change traditional concept of labor and become an important activator of organizational value. Therefore, in the age of technology, organizations started to give importance to "knowledge management" to reach their performance targets. Knowledge management plays a key role in organizations' accumulation of intangible assets and the organizations use information resources of social networks to maintain their competitive advantage and increase their level of competitiveness. Knowledge management is an important intangible asset for the organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to examine how the information and knowledge management affect organizational performance, and what are the best strategies to achieve good impact. The path to successful strategy and innovation goes through well-implemented knowledge management