Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business communication'

The last decades in the communication and IT industry have been influenced by the introduction of numerous new business actors and technological systems. They have brought with them a wide variety of business actors operating on different levels of the value chain, or together in complex value constellations. Old platform specific standards have started to fade away, and new platforms with more streamlined layers have appeared. These new platforms are part of the Next Generation Network (NGN). Services of this network utilize a number of service enablers. The new service platforms deliver services to the end user as a set of service portfolios. The new NGN communication and IT services are heterogeneous in two ways; technologically and business-wise. Technologically, they consist of pervasive and ubiquitous services, run by heterogeneous and distributed service platforms. Business-wise, multiple business actors with a variety of business models cooperate to produce the services. Valuation of these new heterogeneous NGN communication and IT services has proved to be challenging. Forecasting of demand and acceptance is difficult due to limited historical experience. The interacting business actors and their variety of business actors also bring with them conflicts of interest. In addition to the challenge of getting their technical systems to work together, they have to agree on a revenue share agreement to share the revenue from the co-produced services. The purpose of this thesis has been to perform a business analysis of a communication and IT service portfolio, with an emphasis on business actor positions and incentives. To make well informed investment decision regarding such service portfolios, it is vital to valuate the projects quantitatively. To account for and compare different business situations and market development, scenarios are used. These scenarios need to describe business actor relations and strategies. This thesis proposes a quantitative model framework (CF model) for the analysis of a communication and IT service portfolio. The model is based on the work of Langøygard (2006) and Zoric & Lassen (2005). Relevant technical and economic theory is researched to provide a sound background for the model. Two new aspects are included in the model; bargaining power and revenue share. The model developed evaluates a content provisioning portfolio, where the bargaining power of the content providers is important to the outcome of the project. This bargaining power is important because it decides the price of the service enablers provided by the content providers. The revenue share agreement is important because it decides each business actor’s share of the revenue from the services sold, and because it affects the incentives of all business actors. A proof-of-concept test is conducted to test the functionality of the model and to investigate the profitability of the service portfolio subject to valuation. The test shows that the model functions as intended, accounting for aspects such as user acceptance, demand, market development, and the relation between business actors. The results from the model suggest that the valuated service portfolio is profitable to all business actors for most of the market developments. The results also show that the content providers are better off when their concentration is low and when they have built up barriers to entry by participating in the service platform cooperation. This is because these factors increase their bargaining power and enables them to charge a higher mark up over marginal cost. This higher mark up more than outweighs the costs of participating in the service platform. The model results also show that a solution acceptable to most business actors can be reached with most of the scenarios. The scenarios include a net present value threshold for some business actors to account for strategic considerations. The new revenue share functionality has to redistribute the revenue in some of the original solutions to reach a feasible solution. Furthermore, the new revenue share functionality is shown to align the incentives of the participating business actors.

This research study examined the general business problem that ineffective communications caused project management outcomes that lead to increased business costs. The specific business problem was complexity experienced by virtual teams, due to the lack of physicality, contributed to environmental barriers and ineffective communications. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to capture the lived experiences of project leaders who managed the complexity associated with virtual communication environmental barriers. The research question was: What are the lived experiences and informed perceptions of project leaders who managed the complexity associated with virtual communication environmental barriers? The conceptual framework guiding this inquiry was comprised of complexity theory’s complex adaptive systems framework to include project leadership, team dynamics, virtual communication environments, communication method selection, and the management organization as the integrating components that influenced complexity. Data was gathered through telephone interviews conducted with 14 certified project management professionals sourced from LinkedIn, all of whom experienced project complexity and communication challenges within the virtual environment. The resulting data transcripts were analyzed using NVivo 11. The research question was answered through the findings that revealed a central theme and sub-themes of managing complexity due to virtual environments and communication barriers. The research findings indicated sub-themes of five virtual environments experienced by the research participants, created by the type of communication tools’ attributes that were experienced. The virtual environments were established from the types of communication links by using specific tools, and not defined as the physical environments based on locations of the senders and receivers. Secondly, the research findings indicated sub-themes of internal environmental barriers that were created inside of the project teams by people, language, culture, training, and leadership. Thirdly, the research findings indicated sub-themes of external environmental barriers that were created outside of the project teams by executive leadership, organizational structure, and customer relationship. Fourth, the research findings indicated sub-themes of task and project outcomes included project failure, project success, and project recovery. The results of this study contributed to the business practice through the findings that indicated how the participants managed communication environments through implementing processes, leadership escalations, communication tool selection, reduced feedback delays of communication, and built relationships among the team members that were central to managing the complexity in virtual teams. In addition, this study contributed to research by providing a holistic description of the virtual environments, identification of communication environmental barriers, and consolidated understandings from other studies.

The purpose of this study is to explore global leadership communication competencies, as the communicative knowledge, skills and abilities of current business leaders do not meet the current sophisticated and fast-paced business demands of the interconnected global marketplace. Specifically, this study examines what attributes comprise communication competency for corporate leaders with global responsibilities, how those competencies are developed, and finally the impact the competencies have on organizations. A qualitative field study was conducted with two global leaders from two different regions of the world as they interacted with others from different cultures. A separate quantitative survey was administered to 95 global leaders from North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Findings from a review of the literature combined with the correlation of these two studies are as follows: (a) virtual communication efficacy may be greatly enhanced when the terms and conditions associated with non-verbal clues is deliberate and modeled by leadership; (b) foreign language competency is deemed more important by global leaders outside of North America, but all respondents report general dissatisfaction with the corporate support of foreign language competency; (c) the concept of facework, and its associated competencies, are key to working across borders but awareness and understanding of this concept is very low. The findings of this study demonstrate a business case for building global leadership communicative competency with new skills, in new ways, for new demands in the face-paced and interconnected business environment.

The question is regularly posed within communication academia as to whether computer mediated communication (CMC) is a "richer" form of communication than face-to-face (FtF). Similarly, the necessity of meeting FtF with regard to business has been repeatedly called into question since the downturn of the economy in 2008-2009. One reason professionals gather FtF is for tradeshows.

This thesis looks at the quality of the communication that takes place at FtF tradeshows, and reveals attitudes and opinions with regard to the importance of the relationship-building and commerce that occurs in person and/or online. The results inform what we can and cannot accomplish in these different environments.

331 professionals who have worked in tradeshows as a planner, an exhibitor, an attendee, or an executive took an online survey designed to reveal how they felt about the relationship-building and commerce that occurs in the tradeshow environment. The questions were focused on whether FtF, CMC, or a combination of the two is the solution, exploring the value and necessity of tradeshows. Additionally, an autoethnography highlights some personal experiences, having served within each of the professional roles with regard to tradeshows.

The results showed the respondents felt that CMC is not a replacement for the FtF communication that occurs at tradeshows, but it is a useful supplement to the FtF experience. The autoethnography echoed these sentiments, in addition to echoing the short answers of many of the respondents.

Godkänd; 2005; 20061215 (haneit)