Information system purchase and integration contingencies when companies merge

This study grounds empirically the purchasing and further integration of an implemented information system set in the frenzied context of a corporate merger. A single longitudinal case study from the Norwegian pelagic seafood industry provides a detailed long-term account of developing the information system prior to, during and after a merger in the seafood industry that relies on wild catch. It is characterised by high dependence on features of nature and society to secure sustainable production. Contingency theory together with a process view of production reveals how interactions unfold over time to develop the new unified information system. Features of integration, interaction and interdependency represent different facets of information system purchase and development. The merger process represents an abnormality for the organisation as a continuous entity. Information system development in the case, therefore, takes place in a weakly integrated network of merging firms with severe time constraints. Given high uncertainty, solutions emerge through interaction. Deterministic optimisation is, in this context, a fluffy managerial dream. Normally, information system purchase and information system development involve reciprocal interdependencies involving mutual adjustments through intensive technologies and tight interaction among all parties involved. The coercive behaviour of management seeking efficiencies overrules these planning ideals. This indicates that purchasing, in a corporate merger context, is complex and approached as a complex system in a network. Solutions used in this approach originate because of emergent-networked interaction.publishedVersio

Interacting Strategically within Dyadic Business Relationships: A case study from the Norwegian Electronics Industry

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to our understanding of how firms can act strategically vis-à-vis others when the objective is to enhance the way resources are economised on across firm boundaries. The organisational science literature offers numerous perspectives on the idea of strategy where the dominating ones view strategy as an individual firm activity that the single firm formulates, communicates and executes independently of others. In this thesis, the idea of strategy is viewed as a relationship activity and a process that the single firm does together with counterparts. The term interacting strategically is therefore introduced and builds on the idea that strategy is a dynamic and bilateral process carried out through interaction within dyads. The Industrial Network Approach (INA) serves as the theoretical basis of the thesis and represents one school of thought that deals with the idea of strategy. The empirical base concerns one single case study of a dyadic business relationship (a product developer and subcontractor/producer) from the Norwegian Electronics Industry. The research techniques used to gather the material concerns primarily face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews and participation in business meetings. The material is cased chronologically. It is also split into three main subcases, where each case is marked with a critical event that the parties dealt with within the frame of the partnership arrangement. The case study is an example of how firms can interact strategically and the tactical, and the strategic decisions needed to deal with the limitations and opportunities experienced in the strategy process along the way. The findings demonstrate how firms relied on two purposeful acts to support and improve the way resources were economised on within the focal dyad. The first act concerns the efforts to initiate, develop and manage purposeful networking processes within the dyad. Specific groups of individuals became responsible for managing this networking and would function as connecter units responsibility for ensuring intra –and inter-firm alignment of various tactical and strategic decision-making processes taking place within the relationship. The second purposeful act concerns the introduction of various purposeful interaction programmes. These programmes represented specific attempts to formulate specific rules of conduct between actors involved in the industrialisation process. The aim was to help these individuals prioritise certain acts and interacts that the focal firms believed would activate specific subsets of resources enabling them to reach their economising objectives. The study then reveals some of the factors that support and/or constrain the parties from achieving the strategic objectives pursued in the relationship

Information system purchase and integration contingencies when companies merge

This study grounds empirically the purchasing and further integration of an implemented information system set in the frenzied context of a corporate merger. A single longitudinal case study from the Norwegian pelagic seafood industry provides a detailed long-term account of developing the information system prior to, during and after a merger in the seafood industry that relies on wild catch. It is characterised by high dependence on features of nature and society to secure sustainable production. Contingency theory together with a process view of production reveals how interactions unfold over time to develop the new unified information system. Features of integration, interaction and interdependency represent different facets of information system purchase and development. The merger process represents an abnormality for the organisation as a continuous entity. Information system development in the case, therefore, takes place in a weakly integrated network of merging firms with severe time constraints. Given high uncertainty, solutions emerge through interaction. Deterministic optimisation is, in this context, a fluffy managerial dream. Normally, information system purchase and information system development involve reciprocal interdependencies involving mutual adjustments through intensive technologies and tight interaction among all parties involved. The coercive behaviour of management seeking efficiencies overrules these planning ideals. This indicates that purchasing, in a corporate merger context, is complex and approached as a complex system in a network. Solutions used in this approach originate because of emergent-networked interaction

Additive Manufacturing: Currently a Disruptive Supply Chain Innovation?

Directs attention to additive manufacturing in a supply chain context. Analysis questions the degree it currently is a disruptive innovation. A case study consisting of interviews with 15 companies, including observations of some of these companies, providing a varied set of subcases. The research describes individual companies’ histories of using 3D printing tools, its current use and future prospects, as perceived by various informants. In the supply chain, additive manufacturing moves production closer to the product user, albeit currently on a small scale. Some firms are already specializing in providing additive manufacturing as a service. Networking and sourcing emerge as increasingly important issues to govern the development and use of additive manufacturing technology in the value chain of each studied company. Findings reveal how additive manufacturing at current is in its infancy and has limited impact on the networked production structure: it has not yet reached the stage of being a disruptive innovation. Investigation also reveals perceptions on how additive manufacturing in the near future may change the logistics flow structure in global supply chains, then becoming a disruptive innovation

Additive Manufacturing: Currently a Disruptive Supply Chain Innovation?

Directs attention to additive manufacturing in a supply chain context. Analysis questions the degree it currently is a disruptive innovation. A case study consisting of interviews with 15 companies, including observations of some of these companies, providing a varied set of subcases. The research describes individual companies’ histories of using 3D printing tools, its current use and future prospects, as perceived by various informants. In the supply chain, additive manufacturing moves production closer to the product user, albeit currently on a small scale. Some firms are already specializing in providing additive manufacturing as a service. Networking and sourcing emerge as increasingly important issues to govern the development and use of additive manufacturing technology in the value chain of each studied company. Findings reveal how additive manufacturing at current is in its infancy and has limited impact on the networked production structure: it has not yet reached the stage of being a disruptive innovation. Investigation also reveals perceptions on how additive manufacturing in the near future may change the logistics flow structure in global supply chains, then becoming a disruptive innovation