Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Inter-organizational systems'

While IS research into on-line Inter-Personal (IP) Social Networks (SN) is highly visible, there has been surprisingly little focus on the use of on-line social networks for Inter-Organizational (IO) communications, interactions, and goal achievement. We explore the issues and challenges facing organizations in their design and use of inter-organizational social network information systems (IO SNIS). Artifact design principles are drawn from a new and insightful model that contrasts the advantages of existing innovative inter-personal (IP) SNIS artifacts with Social Network Theory on differences between IP and IO Social Networks. This research extends the existing streams of IS social networking research into the inter-organizational domain and encourages additional IS research into the analysis, design, and build of artifacts that animate the social behavior of organizations. We develop a key design concept for IO SNIS and establish the design principles underlying the general artifact design and the specific design features that apply the design constructs to an exemplar IO social domain. This dissertation uses Action Design Research (ADR) approach within the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm to formulate the research opportunity and anticipate a practice-inspired and theory-ingrained artifact. The researcher works with a practitioner team in the domain of mid-market private equity (MMPE) to explore the model and evaluate existing on-line inter-organizational artifacts to establish specific design features for an IO SNIS artifact. We find that the design principles can generalize from the IO SNIS Design Concept Model to other IO Social domains and that the design features can be used to build an instantiation of IO SNIS in the Private Equity domain.

Despite the extensive research being done in inter-organizational systems (IOS) adoption in the industry-to-industry field, there seems to be a lack of similar research being done in the IOS adoption for the university-to-industry context. This study takes up this lack of research and focuses on what factors that affect the adoption of IOS in the university-to-industry context instead of the industry-to-industry one. The purpose of this paper is to find how different factors influence IOS adoption decision in the university-to-industry context from the university’s perspective. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach. Five interviews were conducted with coordinators and researchers from different research units at Linnaeus University. The study found seven inter-relationships among the influential factors and how they affect the IOS adoption decision. A model that describes the relations is presented by the end of the study. The study is conducted in the qualitative nature and the sample size is rather limited. Therefore, the findings of the study cannot be generalized.

The overarching purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of an innovation in the North American quitline network using qualitative data and a systems approach. The innovation chosen to explore in more depth was evaluating effectiveness of the tobacco cessation quitlines. The three research questions guiding the study were 1) What are the factors influencing implementation of the innovation, 2) How do system structure and dynamics impact implementation of the innovation, and 3) What strategies can be used to achieve successful implementation of the innovation. To answer the research questions, 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted with decision-makers in the quitline network. The interview data were analyzed using a thematic analysis technique and a systems change framework from the literature. The findings suggest that there were a broad range of factors influencing implementation of the innovation at multiple levels of the system. The findings also provide insights into how differences in quitline structure and system dynamics influenced implementation of the innovation. Lastly, these findings were used to identify potential strategies and provide recommendations to improve future implementation efforts in the quitline network.

Given the unique nature of crises, a key capability of the crisis response system is to facilitate adaptive response structures in relation to the circumstances of any given crisis. This thesis views the crisis response system as complex adaptive system, in which adaptive response is an emergent phenomenon that occurs through the interactions of crisis response organizations within the crisis response system. Training cooperative capabilities needed to foster adaptive crisis response has proven difficult, as well as reporting learnings from collaborative exercises in a useful manner.   Based in these challenges, this thesis aims to investigate the potential of using boundary stories as pedagogical tools for learning of inter-organizational cooperative capabilities. This exploration is structured in relation to three research questions:   1.       How can inter-organizational boundaries be described through the lens of systems theory? 2.     What can be learned from inter-organizational work during the Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate learning of cooperative capabilities within the crisis response system? 3.     How can boundary stories be empirically defined and constructed to capture learnings and experiences from inter-organizational boundary work during crises?   It is suggested that inter-organizational boundaries be described as the interactional connections between crisis response organizations through which the organizations communicate and cooperate. Boundary structures can further be understood as one of four types of bureaucratic adaptation, as a function of structure and tasks.   The Covid-19 pandemic has produced entirely new circumstances in relation to how crises are usually thought of within the crisis response system. The long timeframe of the pandemic has forced integrations of crisis and everyday structures, thus producing entirely new inter-organizational structures. The core challenge in establishing these structures is fostering a common understanding between the involved actors.   Finally, a two-part concept of boundary stories and boundary narratives are suggested. The first refers to the enacted living story of the inter-organizational structure, and the latter refers to a simplified, constructed narrative version of the story with the purpose of mediating the experiences of inter-organizational work in an understandable manner to actors not directly involved in the boundary setting to foster learning of cooperative capabilities for future crisis response.
Givet att varje kris är unik i sin karaktär så är en av de viktigaste förmågorna hos ett krishanteringssystem att kunna upprätta adaptiva responsstrukturer i relation till de unika omständigheterna för varje uppkommen kris. Den här uppsatsen betraktar krishanteringssystemet som ett komplext adaptivt system där adaptiv respons förstås som ett emergent fenomen som uppstår genom interaktioner mellan organisationer i krishanteringssystemet.    Träning av de samverkansförmågor som krävs för att upprätta adaptiv respons, samt att rapportera lärdomar från samverkansövningar på ett användbart sätt har visat sig svårt i tidigare studier. Med grund i dessa utmaningar syftar den här uppsatsen till att undersöka potentialen hos gränshistorier som pedagogiskt verktyg för lärande av interorganisatoriska samverkansförmågor. Undersökningen struktureras i relation till tre frågeställningar:    1.       Hur kan interorganisatoriska gränser beskrivas genom systemteori? 2.     Vilka lärdomar från interorganisatoriskt arbete under Covid-19-pandemin kan fångas upp och nyttjas för lärande av samverkansförmågor inom det svenska krishanteringssystemet? 3.     Hur kan gränshistorier definieras och skapas på empirisk grund med syfte att fånga lärdomar och erfarenheter från interorganisatorisk samverkan under kriser?   Uppsatsen beskriver interorganisatoriska gränser genom de interaktionsmönster som etableras och uppstår mellan organisationer i krishanteringssystemet, genom vilka organisationer kommunicerar och samverkar. Gränsstrukturer kan fortsatt förstås som en av fyra typer av byråkratiska anpassningar som en funktion av struktur och uppgifter.   Covid-19-pandemin har medfört helt nya förutsättningar i relation till den arketypiska bilden av kriser som finns etablerad i krishanteringssystemet. Det faktum att pandemin pågått under så lång tid har tvingat fram integreringar av vardagliga organisatoriska strukturer och krishanteringsstrukturer, vilket har medfört nya interorganisatoriska samverkansformer. Kärnutmaningen i dessa samverkansstrukturer har varit att lyckas etablera en gemensam förståelse mellan de involverade aktörerna.    Slutligen har ett tvådelat koncept innefattandes gränshistorier och gränsnarrativer föreslagits. Gränshistorier syftar till de pågående, levande historierna som utspelar sig i det interorganisatoriska gränsarbetet. Gränsnarrativer ska förstås som förenklade, konstruerade narrativa versioner av gränshistorier med syftet att förmedla olika erfarenheter av interorganisatoriskt arbete på ett sätt som kan förstås och ligga till grund för lärande av samverkansförmågor för att stärka framtida krishantering.

Knowledge management has been extensively studied from the single organization (intra-organizational) perspective for many years. Although the literature on intra-organizational knowledge is extensive, there still exist gaps in the literature with regards to knowledge being shared by multiple organizations (inter-organizational knowledge). Inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction is gained when the organizations successfully embody the knowledge gained via the cooperation and crystallizes that knowledge within the organization. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of a model for predicting inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction utilizing task characteristics and the knowledge conversion process. The purpose of the study was to predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction for a contract company. The research question addressed how task characteristic and knowledge conversion can predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction. The theoretical frameworks include Nonaka's theory on organizational knowledge creation and Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal's theory for task characteristics. The study is a correlation research design using multiple linear regression as the data analysis method. An online questionnaire was administered to all executives, first- and mid-level managers, and professionals. The predictor variables task characteristic and knowledge conversion are used to predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction (IOKS). Predictor variables accounted for 35.3% of the variance in the IOKS score. This study contributes to social change by helping organizations gain a competitive advantage through developing and implementing both creative and timely knowledge management initiatives to gain inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction.

Aquesta tesis presenta un estudi interpretativista sobre els processos d'estandardització i integració relacionats amb la implementació d'un sistema d'informació inter-organitzatiu (SIIO) sectorial en el Port de Barcelona. Aquest treball adopta una perspectiva de conjunt sobre els SIIO. Per un costat, des d'aquesta perspectiva un SIIO està en constant en moviment durant la implementació i el seu posterior ús. Per tant, la implementació del SIIO ve condicionada per configuracions prèvies, ja que els sistemes existents influencien en les opcions i trajectòries que pot prendre la implementació. Per altre costat, de la mateixa manera la implementació ve determinada tant per aspectes materials i/o tecnològics com per aspectes socials. És a dir, la implementació es pot veure com un procés de canvi socio-tecnològic que evoluciona al llarg de la implementació del SIIO sectorial.
L'objectiu d'aquesta tesis és investigar la naturalesa socio-tecnològica del procés de implementació d'un SIIO i identificar aspectes teòrics i pràctics que puguin explicar les dinàmiques que es produeixin al llarg de la implementació. En base a un estudi de cas intepretativista i en profunditat, el qual combina l'ús de grounded theory i actor-network theory, realitzo un anàlisi del procés d'implementació, i formalitzo una sèrie de contribucions teòriques i pràctiques. El primer gran tema d'estudi d'aquest treball ha estat l'estandardització que ha tingut lloc abans i durant la implementació del SIIO sectorial. El segon tema ha estat la integració dels sistemes de informació prèviament existents amb el SIIO sectorial.
Les contribucions d'aquest treball tenen implicacions per la recerca. En primer lloc, aquest treball amplia el limitat, tot i que creixent, nombre de investigacions que s'han centrat en la naturalesa processual i socio-tecnològica dels SIIO. Igualment aquest treball complementa la literatura existent en SIIO, que ha proposat models de factors, ja que explica com i perquè alguns d'aquests factors són importants. En segon lloc, aquest treball contribueix a la recerca que ha fet estudis longitudinals en l'àrea de sistemes d'informació ja que proporciona una interpretació contextual i en profunditat sobre els processos d'adaptació i canvi que tenen lloc durant la implementació d'un SIIO. Finalment, aquesta tesis contribueix a la literatura sobre estandardització de SIIO mitjançant l'establiment de lligams entre els estudis que proposen models de procés i els que es centren en l'anàlisi dels grups d'interès que participen en l'estandardització.
Per altre costat, aquesta tesis té legitimitat pragmàtica ja que pot servir d'ajuda per millorar la pràctica. En primer lloc, aquest treball confirma el dinamisme dels interessos dels actors que participen en els processos d'estandardització, i posa de relleu que aquests actors tenen un ampli ventall d'interessos que varia en funció de la naturalesa dels propis actors i que condiciona la seva actitud al llarg del procés. És, per tant, molt important realitzar una constant identificació dels interessos dels actors. En segon lloc, aquesta tesis mostra que la gestió de SIIO ha de posar èmfasi i dedicar recursos no solament al disseny, a preveure escenaris futurs, i a desenvolupar estratègies i accions per fer front a aquestes previsions. La gestió també ha de prestar atenció i comprendre els esdeveniments no previstos i els canvis emergents que succeeixen durant l'ús del SIIO. Finalment, la implementació de SIIO requereix que els directius donin resposta per tal de reforçar o atenuar aquests canvis emergents. És a dir, la gestió de SIIO no es pot concebre únicament com una intervenció que es pot predefinir i planificar, sinó també com una forma de reacció i resposta al context i el comportament dels altres. Aquesta tesis també suggereix una sèrie de maniobres que poden ésser d'ajut als directius i professionals involucrats en projectes d'implementació de SIIO.
Esta tesis presenta un estudio interpretativista sobre los procesos de estandarización e integración relacionados con la implementación de un sistema de información inter-organizativo (SIIO) sectorial en el Puerto de Barcelona. Este trabajo adopta una perspectiva de conjunto sobre los SIIO. Por un lado, desde esta perspectiva un SIIO está en constante movimiento durante su implementación y posterior uso. Por lo tanto, la implementación del SIIO viene condicionada por configuraciones previas, ya que los sistemas existentes influyen en las opciones y trayectorias que puede tomar la implementación. Por otro lado, igualmente la implementación viene determinada tanto por aspectos materiales y/o tecnológicos como por aspectos sociales. Es decir, la implementación puede verse como un proceso de cambio socio-tecnológico que evoluciona a lo largo de la implementación de SIIO sectorial.
El objetivo de esta tesis es investigar la naturaleza socio-tecnológica del proceso de implementación de un SIIO e identificar aspectos teóricos y prácticos que puedan explicar las dinámicas que se producen durante la implementación. En base a un estudio de caso en profundidad e interpretativista, el cual combina el uso de grounded theory y actor-network theory, realizo un análisis del proceso de implementación, y formalizo una serie de contribuciones teóricas y prácticas. El primer gran tema de estudio de este trabajo ha sido la estandarización que ha tenido lugar antes y durante la implementación del SIIO sectorial. El segundo tema ha sido la integración de los sistemas de información que ya existían previamente con el SIIO sectorial.
Las contribuciones de este trabajo tienen implicaciones para la investigación. En primer lugar, este trabajo amplia el limitado, aunque creciente, número de investigaciones que se han centrado en la naturaleza procesual i socio-tecnológica de los SIIO. Igualmente este trabajo complementa la literatura previa en SIIO, la cual ha propuesto modelos de factores, ya que explica cómo y por qué algunos de estos factores son relevantes. En segundo lugar, este trabajo contribuye a la investigación que ha realizado estudios longitudinales en el área de los sistemas de información ya que proporciona una interpretación contextual y en profundidad sobre los procesos de adaptación y cambio que tienen lugar durante la implementación de un SIIO. Finalmente, esta tesis contribuye a la literatura sobre estandarización ya que establece vínculos entre los estudios que han propuesto modelos de proceso y los que se centran en el análisis de los grupos de interés que participan en la estandarización.
Por otro lado, esta tesis tiene legitimidad pragmática ya que puede servir de ayuda para mejorar la práctica. En primer lugar, este trabajo confirma el dinamismo de los intereses de los actores que participan en procesos de estandarización, y pone de relieve que los diferentes actores tienen una amplia gama de intereses que varía en función de la naturaleza de los propios actores y que condiciona su actitud a lo largo del proceso. Es, por lo tanto, muy importante realizar una constante identificación de los intereses de los actores durante la implementación. En segundo lugar, esta tesis muestra que los directivos encargados de la implementación de SIIO han de poner énfasis y dedicar recursos no sólo a diseñar, prever escenarios de futuro, y desarrollar estrategias y acciones para cumplir con estas previsiones. La gestión también ha de prestar atención y comprender los acontecimientos no previstos y los cambios emergentes que se sucedan durante el uso del SIIO. Finalmente, la implementación de SIIO requiere que los directivos den respuesta con el fin de reforzar o atenuar estos cambios emergentes. Es decir, la gestión de SIIO no se puede concebir únicamente como una intervención que puede ser predefinida y planificada, sino también como una forma de reacción y respuesta al contexto y al comportamiento de otros. Esta tesis también sugiere una serie de maniobras que pueden ser de ayuda para los directivos y profesionales involucrados en proyectos de implementación de SIIO.
This dissertation presents an interpretive study of standardization and integration processes related to the implementation of an industry inter-organizational information system (IOIS) in the Seaport of Barcelona. This thesis adopts an ensemble view of the IOIS. First, from this perspective an IOIS is in constant flux as it is implemented and used in practice. Thus implementation becomes path dependent in the sense that existing systems influence the implementation choices and paths. Second, the implementation is being partly materially determined and partly socially constructed. That is, implementation may be viewed as socio-technical change processes that evolved around the implementation of the industry IOIS.
The objective of this thesis is to inquire into the socio-technical nature of IOIS implementation process and identify theoretical and practical issues that can provide a relevant explanation of the implementation dynamics. Based on an in-depth interpretive case study, which is combined with actor-network theory and grounded theory, I conduct an analysis of the implementation process and formalize a set of theoretical and practical implications. The first main theme of this work has been the standardization effort that has taken place before and during the implementation of the industry IOIS. The second main theme is related with the integration of the adopters' pre-existing systems with the industry IOIS.
The contributions that arise from this research have implications for research. Firstly, it adds to the limited but growing group of researchers that have focused on the processual and socio-technical nature of IOISs, as well as adds to the factor-based IOIS literature by detailing how and why some of these factors become important. Secondly, it contributes to longitudinal IS research by providing a deeper contextual understanding of the processes of adaptation and change that underlie IOIS implementation. Finally, it contributes to IOIS standardization literature by establishing links between the process and stakeholder models.
On the other hand, this thesis has pragmatic legitimacy as it may serve as a helpful guide from which to improve practice. Firstly, this work confirms the dynamism of the stakes during the standardization process and highlights that the stakeholders that participate in the standardization have a range of stakes that vary among their nature and drive their attitude towards the process. Thus a continuous identification of participants' stakes appears to be very important. Secondly, this thesis shows that IOIS management has to place emphasis and devote resources not only to design, predict future conditions, and develop strategies and actions to meet those predictions, but also to pay attention and understand the unexpected events and emergent changes that arise during the use of the IOIS. Finally, IOIS implementation requires management to respond in order to reinforce or attenuate the emergent changes. That is, the IOIS management cannot only be conceived as predefined planned intervention, but also as a form of reaction and response to situational demands and others' behavior. In addition, this thesis provides a set of maneuvers that may guide managers and practitioners involved in the implementation of IOISs.

Mestrado em Gestão de Sistemas de Informação
Actualmente, poucas são as organizações que conseguem sobreviver sem estabelecerem parcerias de negócio com outras organizações. A utilização de sistemas de informação inter-organizacionais como suporte para o estabelecimento dessas relações traz grandes benefícios para as partes envolvidas. Um desafio crítico para os gestores seniores de uma organização é determinar quais os melhores investimentos para a sua arquitectura de sistemas de informação. A identificação dos potenciais benefícios que um investimento num novo sistema de informação possa proporcionar toma-se num processo fundamental, ajudando a organização a obter um melhor portfolio aplicacional e a maximizar os proveitos do investimento. Este trabalho de investigação procura contribuir para uma melhoria no processo de identificação dos potenciais benefícios que a introdução de um sistema de informação inter-organizacional pode proporcionar às organizações envolvidas. É analisado o caso da implementação do sistema de informação inter-organizacional da receita médica electrónica no território português. Este sistema de informação permite a troca de informação sobre receitas médicas entre os sistemas de saúde, as entidades prescritoras, as farmácias e os utentes. Para identificar os potenciais benefícios do sistema de informação, foi desenvolvido um framework, específico para os sistemas de informação inter-organizacionais que ajuda os gestores no processo de identificação dos potenciais benefícios que a implementação de um sistema deste tipo pode proporcionar.
Very few organizations are nowadays able to survive without establishing partnerships with other organizations. Therefore, the utilization of inter-organizacional information systems, used to support those partnerships, will bring huge benefits to ali parties involved. A difficult challenge for any sénior manager of an organization is to determine whose the best investments are suitable for the existent information systems architecture. The identification of ali potential benefits that the investment made in a new information system may bring, is itself a fundamental work that will help the organization to have a better application portfolio and to maximize the investment made. This investigation study aims to contribute finding a better process of identifying the potential benefits that the introduction of a new inter-organizacional information system may offer to the entities involved. It is studied the case of the implementation of an inter-organizacional information system of electronic medicai prescription in Portuguese territory. The information system in analysis allows the interchange of information conceming medicai prescriptions, between the health care system, the prescriptive entities, the pharmacies and the patients. In order to identify the potential benefits of that information system, it was developed a framework, specially designed for inter-organizacional information systems, that helps the managers in the process of identifying the potential benefits arisen by the implementation of a system like this.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2007.
Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Manufacturing Management and Engineering." Bibliography: leaves 215-235.

The inability of the public sector to satisfy social needs - like poverty alleviation, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, unemployment, health and education - are redefining the relationship between the governments and their citizens by making the latter play an active role as the provider of the welfare state. Citizens through their entrepreneurial activity have been pulled to the third sector leading to the emergence of new organizational forms like social enterprises and social franchises. The main focus of this research study is the investigation of the new interorganizational format of social franchising which has received ‘scunt’ research attention up to now. The behaviour of actors and organizations in the social economy sector are influenced by the properties and dynamics of elements coming from the political, social, organizational and individual level. We have adopted a systems approach of social network theory. A grounded theory named Social Franchise Model (SoFraM) has been induced from an exploratory empirical mixed method study conducted at various stages and from different sources during a time frame of thirty months. Primary data were raised through six case studies in the UK and Greece, more than 143 interviews with social entrepreneurs and various stakeholders and three action research projects which were the subject of analytic induction supported by archival analysis of secondary data coming from governmental, European Commission, local authority and other sources. Our findings indicate that the formation, growth and success of social franchises is heavily shaped through: firstly, law, regulations, and incentives introduced by centralized or formal institutions- both supranational and national- as well as their driving logics; secondly, the relational and structural embeddedness of actors in networks and the social norms that subsequently emerge; thirdly, the characteristics of the individual social entrepreneurship profile; and finally elements of the social innovation model adopted. The properties of the system of informal or decentralised institutions of networks have been further explored through a pilot quantitative study on mainstream franchises in the UK and Greece. An online self-administered questionnaire has been created based on our conceptual framework of the Franchise Network Model (FNM) drawn from existing scales from literature. The findings indicate that relational and structural embeddedness of actors and organizations in networks determine choices of formation, partner selection, governance mode and the subsequent performance of franchise systems.

Els sistemes d’aigua dolça, com ara rius, llacs o zones humides, proporcionen una infinitat de béns i serveis ecosistèmics a les societats humanes. Tot i això, la gestió d’aquests sistemes és complexa, interorganitzativa i sovint insostenible des d’una perspectiva ecològica. La investigació en estudis d’organització i gestió, tot i que pot ser fructífera, no pot contribuir a resoldre aquest problema, si no inclou aspectes conceptualment ecològics dels sistemes d’aigua dolça o no té una perspectiva del sistema. Aquestes recomanacions conceptuals i metodològiques són més fàcils a dir que a fer. Com poden els estudis d’organització i gestió integrar la gestió interorganitzativa d’un sistema d’aigua dolça amb les condicions ecològiques d’aquest sistema? Aquesta tesi doctoral intenta aprendre fent i estudia la relació entre la gestió interorganitzativa dels sistemes d’aigua dolça i l’estat ecològic d’aquests sistemes de diverses maneres, amb un enfocament interdisciplinari. Es desenvolupen tres assajos i tres enfocaments metodològics: una revisió sistemàtica de la literatura de gestió existent sobre la gestió de l’aigua dolça, un estudi qualitatiu de la inserció ecològica i una prova quantitativa dels resultats ecològics de les diferents formes de participació dels actors.
Los sistemas de agua dulce, como ríos, lagos o humedales, proporcionan una gran variedad de bienes y servicios de los ecosistemas a las sociedades humanas. No obstante, la gestión de esos sistemas es compleja, interorganizacional y, a menudo, insostenible desde una perspectiva ecológica. La investigación en estudios de organización y gestión, aunque potencialmente fructífera, no puede contribuir a resolver este problema mientras no incluya aspectos conceptualmente ecológicos de los sistemas de agua dulce o no adopte una perspectiva de sistema. Tales recomendaciones conceptuales y metodológicas son más fáciles de decir que de hacer. ¿Cómo pueden los estudios de organización y gestión integrar la gestión interorganizacional de un sistema de agua dulce con las condiciones ecológicas de ese sistema? Esta tesis doctoral busca aprender haciendo y estudia la relación entre la gestión interorganizacional de los sistemas de agua dulce y la condición ecológica de esos sistemas de diversas formas, con un enfoque interdisciplinario. Se desarrollan tres ensayos y tres enfoques metodológicos: una revisión sistemática de la literatura de gestión existente sobre la gestión del agua dulce, un estudio cualitativo de la integración ecológica y una prueba cuantitativa de los resultados ecológicos de las diferentes formas de participación de los actores.
Freshwater systems - such as rivers, lakes or wetlands - provide a myriad of ecosystem goods and services to human societies. Nonetheless, the management of those systems is complex, inter-organizational and often unsustainable from an ecological perspective. Research in organization and management studies, although potentially fruitful, cannot contribute to solving this issue as long as it does not include conceptually ecological aspects of freshwater systems, or does not take a system perspective. Such conceptual and methodological recommendations are easier said than done. How can organization and management studies integrate the inter-organizational management of a freshwater system with the ecological conditions of that system? This PhD thesis endeavors to learn by doing and studies the relationship between the inter-organizational management of freshwater systems and the ecological condition of those systems in various ways, with an interdisciplinary approach. Three essays and three methodological approaches are developed - a systematic review of the existing management literature on freshwater management, a qualitative study of ecological embeddedness, and a quantitative test of the ecological outcomes of different forms of actors' participation.

Purpose: The purpose is to investigate and analyse the impact of intra-organizational purchasing synergy on periodic price adjustment (PPA) process. Specifically, paper provides a view on how  purchasing process synergy through an operational IT platform can increase process reengineering opportunities within PPA.  Methodology: So, to fulfil the purpose of the research, the in-depth case study approach is chosen as a strategy that goes along with exploratory nature of the study, aimed at gaining rich insights in the context in which the phenomenon happens. Findings: The findings emphasize the importance of global process standardization and balanced governance among regional affiliates in successful implementation of PPA process synergy. We also identify a set of specific process reengineering needs  in PPA such as company wide information sharing,  standardization of part specifications and cost bases, and joint world-wide cost reduction activity within global buyer community (BGC). Then it is observed that all these process reengineering initiatives will not be possible without solid and flexible IT infrastructure  to improve buyer productivity and support their further development.   Research limitations/implications: Primarily, this study was conducted on single in-depth case study which makes it difficult to completely generalize the findings. Next, there are many factors impacting intra-organizational pricing processes besides global synergy projects. In fact, regional and organizational contexts are of high importance, which are addressed but not analysed in detail in the current study.   Practical implications: Together, the findings contribute to our understanding of the step-by-step pricing activity from industrial customer perspective and how buyers can improve cost competitiveness through various tangible and commercial part cost reduction activities.   Originality/value: Current study has addressed the pricing process from industrial customer perspective. It has two main theoretical contributions: (1) Detailed step-by-step description of PPA process between OEMs and their suppliers happening after SOP; and (2) groundwork for implementation guidance on intra-organizational price revision process synergy.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2007.
Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Manufacturing Management and Engineering." Bibliography: leaves 153-194.

Abstract The aim of the study is to reveal the nature of learning in local land-use planning activity and to examine the possibilities for the development of planning as a form of learning activity. The theoretical approach draws on the pragmatist and dialectical reorientation of systems theory and the related theory of learning organizations. The traditional, positivist systems approach to land-use planning is considered both to depoliticize planning and to make it unreflective. Critical theory as a basis of planning theory is also shown to be inadequate. Communicative planning theories that draw on critical theory are rather theories of emancipation in the context of planning than theories of planning per se. An alternative systems-theoretical view to land-use planning activity is presented, where critical and constructive aspects as well as ethical and pragmatic aspects are interlinked in the dialectical dynamics of planning as organizational and inter-organizational learning activity. Three subsystems within the system of local land-use planning are identified: expertise, politics and economics. The subsystems of land-use planning build upon the basic distinction between legitimate and illegitimate conduct. For each subsystem, the context of its existence is formed by the interaction of all subsystems. By acting, each subsystem inevitably changes its dialectical relationship to this context. Harmful changes are felt within the subsystem as inner contradictions that interfere with its decision-making activity. If the subsystem is unable to face these contradictions but instead resorts to the use of pathological power, they may develop into paralyzing double bind situations. The resolution of a double bind situation requires expansive learning by the subsystem. However, there are also contradictions in land-use planning that the subsystems are unable to resolve by expansive learning. Such inter-systemic contradictions stem from the dialectical relationship between the overriding requirement of legitimacy on one hand and the basic goals of expert knowledge and economic profit on the other. In the study a hypothesis is formulated, according to which these basic - and, in the conditions of modern society, permanent - contradictions in local land-use planning require such inter-organizational learning, which enables the creation of planning solutions that provide means for their task-related harmonization, and, in the longer term, contributes to the emergence of a participative planning culture where the contradictions can be handled legitimately, if not resolved.

This research aims to assess the role of Social Funds&rsquo
organizational and institutional characteristics for community participation processes in development projects. The research is based on a case study of the Peruvian Social Fund, FONCODES, and utilizes a qualitative data collection approach. It mainly relies on semi-structured interviews with FONCODES&rsquo
staff and community members, unstructured interviews with experts, and analysis of operational documents. The research concludes that several organizational and institutional characteristics affect community participation in FONCODES projects but the direction of this influence depends on how specific areas of the organization&rsquo
s context are structured as well as on political variables in the institutional environment.

Cette thèse étudie la période de transition associée à l’externalisation d’une activité d’une organisation vers une autre et a pour objectif de décrire la manière dont un dispositif de contrôle hybride entre marché et hiérarchie émerge au cours de cette période. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes appuyé sur une étude in situ de quinze mois d’un projet mondial d’externalisation de l’activité IT d’un client auprès de trois centres de services mutualisés d’un prestataire. La description du terrain s’articule autour de deux voies de passage conceptuelles ancrées dans l’Actor Network Theory. La première propose de partir de la Théorie des Coûts de Transaction pour aller vers une « économie des coûts de traduction ». La seconde avance le concept d’accumulation de petits points de contrôle fondée sur l’étude d’un « contrôle en train de se faire » (Vosselman & Van der Meer-Kooistra, 2006). La description de la phase de transition émet l’idée que les coûts de traduction et l’accumulation de petits points de contrôle forment un « registre en double » permettant de tracer le mouvement de co-construction de la prestation de services et du dispositif de contrôle associé. Au cours de cette période, les faits locaux furent circonscrits par l’équipe projet pour les ramener au sein du centre de services mutualisés. Ce travail permit d’amorcer un cycle d’accumulation des connaissances. Ce mouvement rendit progressivement le projet et la prestation de services plus réels, mais au prix d’un éloignement irrémédiable avec ce qui avait été spécifié dans le contrat. Dorénavant, le coût pour agir à distance était réduit et le centre de services mutualisés pouvait a priori être considéré comme un dispositif « économe ». Cependant, le processus d’externalisation conduisit à une transformation profonde de l’activité externalisée et de l’identité des différents groupes d’acteurs associés. La comparaison entre les deux situations, avant et après l’externalisation, était rendue complexe du fait de l’existence des coûts de traduction inhérents au passage du contrat au dispositif sociotechnique nécessaire à la réalisation de la prestation de services
This dissertation is dedicated to the transition period related to the outsourcing of an activity from an organization to another one. Its objective is to describe the emergence of a hybrid control device between market and hierarchy. We studied during 15 months a global IT outsourcing project from a client to three customers’ shared service centers. The field analysis is based on two “conceptual ways” grounded in Actor Network Theory. The first moves from Transaction Cost Economics to “Translation Cost Economy”. The second one puts forward the concept of small points of control accumulation responding to Vosselman & Van der Meer-Kooistra’s call to investigate “control in the making” (2006). The transition phase shed light on the proposition that costs of translation and small points of control accumulation created a “double register” tracing the movement of services co-construction and the related control device emergence. The local facts were framed by the project team and brought into one of the shared IT service center. An accumulation cycle of knowledge was running. This movement made both the project and the service actual but at the cost of translating the initial service defined by the contract. The price to act at distance was reduced and the shared IT service center could be considered as “economic”. However, the outsourcing process led to a transformation of the IT activity and modified the identity of the groups of actors. The comparison between the two situations, before and after outsourcing, was made difficult because of translation costs inherent to the transformation of the contract into a socio-technical device implemented to deliver the service

Particulièrement lors de collaborations dans le cadre de chaînes logistiques ou d'entreprises virtuelles, établir les workflows collaboratifs est une étape laborieuse car souvent réalisée soit de façon humaine, soit avec des méthodes manquant de flexibilité. Sur la base d'un réseau social d'entreprises, cette thèse vise à faciliter cette étape en proposant un service de déduction de processus collaboratifs inter-organisationnels. Cela soulève trois problèmes: (i) trouver les activités qui doivent être exécutées pour remplir les objectifs de la collaboration (Quoi?), (ii) sélectionner les partenaires pouvant réaliser ces activités (Qui?) et (iii) ordonner ces activités en un processus métier collaboratif (Quand?). Dans le cadre d'un réseau social, il est attendu que plusieurs organisations soient capables de fournir les mêmes activités. Dans un tel contexte de concurrence entre les organisations, une optimisation globale permet de trouver un processus final quasi-optimal, en prenant en compte ces trois questions de manière simultanée : trouver l'ensemble des "meilleurs" partenaires et leurs activités dans un contexte de collaboration spécifique. A cette fin, des ontologies de collaboration ont été développées et permettent de représenter et collecter des connaissances sur les collaborations. Ainsi, quand les utilisateurs remplissent leurs profils sur le réseau social, le système peut comprendre (i) les attentes des utilisateurs lorsqu'ils fournissent leurs objectifs de collaboration et (ii) les capacités qu'ils peuvent fournir. Un outil d'aide à la décision, basé sur un algorithme d'optimisation par colonies de fourmis permet ensuite d'exploiter les ontologies de collaboration afin de trouver un processus quasi-optimal répondant aux attentes et objectifs de la collaboration. Les résultats de cette thèse s'inscrivent au sein du projet FUI OpenPaaS dont le but est d'établir un nouveau réseau social d'entreprises visant à faciliter leurs collaborations intra et inter-organisationnelles
Especially in the context of collaborative supply chains and virtual enterprises, the step of designing the collaborative workflows remains laborious because either it is still carried out humanly or the methods lack of flexibility. Based on an enterprise social network, this thesis aims at facilitating this step by proposing a service for the deduction of collaborative processes. It raises three main issues: (i) finding the activities to execute that answer the objectives of the collaboration (What?), (ii) selecting the corresponding partners (Who?) and (iii) ordering the activities into a collaborative business process (When?). Moreover, it is expected that many companies could be able to provide the same activities, on the enterprise social network. In this competitive context, a global optimization should be set up in order to find the quasi-optimal collaborative process that answer these three questions simultaneously. A three-dimensional solution is proposed here. First, a non-functional framework has been set up in order to determine the criteria that make a « good » partner in a specific collaborative context. Then, collaborative ontologies have been implemented and enable the representation and the acquisition of collaborative knowledge, so that the IT system can understand (a) the user's needs when they model their objectives of collaboration and (b) the user's capabilities when they model their profiles on the enterprise social network. And finally, a tool for decision support has been implemented thanks to an ant colony optimization algorithm that exploits the collaborative ontologies in order to provide a quasi-optimal process that fits the context of the collaboration and answers its objective. The results are in line with the FUI French project OpenPaaS which aims at offering an enterprise social network to facilitate their collaborations

Inter-organisational trust is increasingly important among supply chain participants, where threats are building up from sources out of organisational control. The same problem is faced in the cyber security field, where threat level increases from the changes outside organisational boundaries. Each value chain participating in the supply chain must be secured. Trust building is mandated among all trust network members. The business interaction between supply chain participants is enabled by building inter-organisational trust first. This study provided ways to build this inter-organisational trust by considering steps to take in information security management system (ISMS) implementation. ISMS is set of processes, documentation, activities and resources that together secure assets within an organisation. It must be assembled to support strategic business goals and comply selected requirement criteria. Due to different ways and purposes, organisations implement ISMS’s and obtain the security standard certification; it is not a proof of secure business processes or trust per se. Instead, it is a good starting point for trust building. This study used narrative literature review to find supporting and resisting elements of inter-organisational trust that can consider in ISMS. The study limited the research into a very narrow area between information processing science, behaviour sciences and discipline of management. The research found several elements (102) that can be considered in ISMS to have the effect to interorganisational trust building. The findings were categorised using ISO/IEC 27001 (2013) ISMS implementation steps to provide concrete support for security professionals. There are none or very limited number of research literature on exact combined topic of inter-organisational trust building and ISMS. The multidisciplinary phenomenon of information security coupled with inter-organisational trust requires more attention from the research community. Schools teaching information security should develop their course coverage to support this multidisciplinary phenomenon in several view points, not just from their own discipline to achieve producing suitable resources for the industry
Yritysten välinen luottamus on yhä tärkeämpää toimitusketjuihin osallistuvien organisaatioiden keskuudessa, missä uhat syntyvät yritysten tietoturvakontrollien ulkopuolelta. Sama ongelma kohdataan kyberturvallisuudessa, missä uhkataso kasvaa muutoksista organisaatiorajojen ulkopuolella. Jokaisen toimitusketjuun osallistuvan on suojauduttava. Luottamuksen rakentamisen tehtävä on kaikkien jäsenien yhteinen asia luottamusverkostossa. Toimitusketjuun osallistuvien on rakennettava organisaatioiden välinen luottamus ennen liiketoiminnan aloittamista. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarjotaan keinoja kehittää organisaatioiden välistä luottamusta tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmän toteuttamisessa. Tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmä koostuu prosessien, dokumentaation, toimintojen ja resurssien yhdistelmästä, mitkä yhdessä turvaavat tietovarannot organisaation sisällä. Se on koostettava tukemaan liiketoiminnan strategisia tavoitteita ja täyttää valitut kriteeristöt. Koska tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmiä sertifioidaan eri tavalla, sekä eri tarkoituksia varten, niin sertifioitu standardi ei itsessään takaa turvallisia liiketoimintaprosesseja, vaan se toimii hyvänä lähtöpisteenä luottamuksen rakentamiselle. Tässä tutkimuksessa sovellettiin kirjallisuuskatsausta yritysten välisten luottamusta edistävien ja estävien elementtien löytämiseksi, mitä tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmän toteutuksessakin voitaisiin soveltaa. Tutkimus toteutettiin rajatulla alueella tietojenkäsittely-, käyttäytymis-, sekä hallintotieteiden yhtymäkohdassa. Tutkimus löysi useita elementtejä (102), mitkä huomioimalla tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmässä voidaan vaikuttaa yritysten välisen luottamuksen rakentamiseen. Löydökset jaoteltiin ISO/IEC 27001 (2013) tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmän toteutusaskelien mukaisesti, jotta tulokset tukisivat parhaiten tietoturvallisuuden asiantuntijaa konkreettisella tasolla. Tutkimuspapereita ei ole yhtään, tai niitä on hyvin rajoitetusti missä tietoturvallisuuden hallintajärjestelmän ja yritysten välisen luottamuksen rakentaminen yhdistetään. Monitieteinen tietoturvan ilmiö yhdistettynä yritysten välisen luottamuksen rakentamiseen vaatii enemmän huomiota tiedeyhteisöltä. Tietoturvallisuutta kouluttavien oppilaitosten tulisi kehittää tietoturvallisuuden kurssitarjontaansa tukemaan monitieteellistä lähestymistapaa ei vain oman tutkimusalan näkökulmaa, jotta teollisuus saisi sopivampia resursseja käyttöönsä

Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, May, 2020
Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 27-29).
The ability of multiple organizations to effectively collaborate in pursuit of shared goals is important across many fields, but perhaps nowhere more so than in sustainable development. Advancing sustainable development requires addressing numerous highly interconnected issues across multiple sectors. The interconnections present not only a substantive challenge, but an organizational one as well. Despite widespread agreement on the need for more integrative approaches and strong motivations to implement them, many organizations working on different aspects of sustainable development persistently fail to integrate their work effectively. I examine the puzzle of persistent integration failure in the context of the UN development system (UNDS), which plays an important normative and operational role in guiding development efforts worldwide. Using causal loop diagrams informed by field observations and expert interviews, I present a dynamic explanation of the relationships between various parts of the UNDS and the challenges of coordinating work on sustainable development. I demonstrate how intendedly rational attempts to improve efficiency and performance by UN agencies and the countries that control them inadvertently set off self-reinforcing processes that drive persistent fragmentation and integration failure. Unless these dynamics are accounted for, ongoing attempts to improve integration in the system are likely to fail.
by Tse Yang Lim.
S.M. in Management Research
S.M.inManagementResearch Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

The purpose of this study was to identify how employees in the University of South Florida System (USF System) perceived changes in their organizations and the system as a result of having separate accreditation for each campus in the USF System. This survey research provided a "snapshot" of employee perceptions at a particular point in time. The study was unique because it provided a picture of the perceptions of employees while each campus was at a different point in the organizational change process. The theoretical concept from Bolman and Deal's (2003) four frame theory was used to develop the dependent variables and capture the perceptions of employees. The four dependent variables were organizational structure, employee relations, inter-campus relationships, and campus identity. Quantitative data were collected using a survey instrument. The data were analyzed by campus, employment category, gender, and years of employment using multivariate analysis of variance to identify significant differences in the means between the categories for each dependent variable. Additional comments provided by the survey respondents were analyzed using qualitative analysis to identify emerging themes during the organizational change process.

Mestrado em Economia e Política Social
Partindo da identificação de problemas inerentes aos processos de produção de Diagnósticos Sociais no âmbito da Rede Social, o estudo coloca em evidência a fragilidade e inconsistência dos mesmos associados à concepção de políticas sociais e programas de intervenção ao nível local. Seguindo o percurso proposto pela orientação metodológica da investigação-acção apresentado na primeira parte, faz-se a descrição do programa Rede Social e implementação na Grande Lisboa e procura-se de seguida, compreender o contexto onde se insere, procedendo-se a uma breve revisão teórica sobre a concepção da política social e do papel do Estado ao longo dos tempos, concluindo com a noção de território como o novo paradigma da política social na actualidade. Na terceira parte e na assumpção do Desenvolvimento Social Territorial enquanto matriz da intervenção social local, analisam-se os mecanismos de produção dos Diagnósticos Sociais da Grande Lisboa e apresentam-se os resultados. Com a Equipa de Trabalho Intermunicipal criada no âmbito da Plataforma Supraconcelhia da Rede Social da Grande Lisboa desenvolve-se um processo de reflexão em torno dos mesmos e numa tentativa de incorporar esta reflexão na mudança das práticas profissionais e na natureza da própria intervenção social, definem-se contributos para a concepção de um sistema de informação que melhor se adeqúe e responda às necessidades identificadas ao nível da produção de diagnósticos sociais sempre que um profissional, um dirigente ou um decisor político deva tomar decisões ao nível da definição de medidas de política social e programas de intervenção ao nível local.
Starting from the identification of several problems with production processes of Social Diagnostics under the Social Network, the study highlights the fragility and inconsistency of information systems related to the design of social policies and programs of action at local level. Following the direction proposed by the methodological guidance of research-action presented at first, then tries to understand the context in which falls the Social Network program, proceeding to a brief review on the theoretical concept of social policy and the role of the state over time, concluding with the notion of territory as the new paradigm of social intervention at present. Thirdly, on the assumption of Social Development Territorial matrix of social intervention as a local study, were analysed the mechanisms of production of Social Diagnostics in the Great Lisbon area and presented the results of the study conducted by the team involved. With the Intermunicipal Task Team involved a process of reflection is developed on the results and an attempt to incorporate this thinking in changing professional practice and the nature of social intervention itself, contributions are defined to the design of an information system that best suits and meets the needs identified at the production of diagnostic units each time that a professional, a leader or a policy maker has to make decisions in the definition of social policy measures and intervention programs at the local level.

This study aims to analyze ways of creating and managing knowledge in Petrogas Sergipe Network. Accordingly, we analyze various forms of knowledge generated in the network, as well as its management. It presents significant content based on discussion Enterprises Networks, Local Production - APLs based on normative concepts and experiences in Oil and Gas Networks. Emphasis is also important concepts on Knowledge Management and organizational knowledge. The context presented by Petrogas Sergipe Network provides understand that organizations acquire competitiveness and market innovative, admittedly competitive process required by the economy, in which companies increasingly need to improve their skills for business continuity. Strategy that includes work in interorganizational network, presents itself as appropriate, because that constitutes a privileged space for interaction and cooperation between different actors that are part of the network. At the same time, you can see that the process of knowledge organizational management comprises an important condition in the development of interorganizational business networks in order to add value to the companies that comprise it. Therefore, Petrogas Sergipe Network has important significance for the economy in Sergipe, in terms of income generation, employment and business opportunities, especially as an arrangement also fundamental for the consolidation of System Innovation and knowledge generation in State of Sergipe.
O presente trabalho tem como objetivo, analisar formas de criação e gestão do conhecimento, na Rede PETROGAS Sergipe. Nesse sentido, são analisadas diversas formas do conhecimento gerado nessa rede, bem como sua gestão. Apresenta-se significativo conteúdo com base na discussão sobre Redes de Empresas, Arranjos Produtivos Locais - APLs com base em conceitos normativos e experiências em Redes de Petróleo e Gas. Enfatiza-se também, importantes conceitos sobre o Conhecimento Organizacional e a Gestão do conhecimento organizacional. O contexto apresentado pela Rede PETROGÁS Sergipe, proporciona entender que as organizações adquirem competitividade inovativa e mercadológica, reconhecidamente exigida pelo processo concorrencial da economia, no qual as empresas necessitam cada vez mais aprimorar suas habilidades para continuidade dos seus negócios. Desta forma, a estratégia que compreende o trabalho em rede interorganizacional, apresenta-se como adequada, em virtude de que se constitui como espaço privilegiado de cooperação e interação entre diversos atores que fazem parte da rede. Ao mesmo tempo, é possível perceber que o processo de gestão do conhecimento organizacional, compreende uma condição importante no desenvolvimento de redes empresariais interorganizacionais, no sentido de agregar valor às empresas que a compõem. Portanto, a Rede PETROGÁS Sergipe apresenta importante significado para a economia sergipana, do ponto de vista da geração de renda, emprego e oportunidades de negócios, destacando- se também como um arranjo fundamental para a consolidação do Sistema de Inovação e de geração de conhecimento no Estado de Sergipe.

Partant de l’idée que des filiales d’une entreprise sont en mesure de remettre en cause les décisions de la direction générale (maison-mère), l’approche holistique développée dans ce travail part du principe qu’une organisation peut être un « être », laissant entendre ainsi que les informations dont elle dispose seraient extérieures aux individus qui la composent. Ce qui conduit à s'interroger s’il est concevable d’ignorer l’individu dans une telle relation de domination. Cette thèse propose justement un modèle autour de résultats qui montrent la difficile exclusion de l’individu dans un contexte méta-organisationnel (dans lequel les membres seraient des organisations et non des individus). Dans cette veine, ce sont les dynamiques humaines de l’organisation qui sont au cœur de ce travail : il existe par et au travers de l’individu une dynamique issue de l’activité réelle qui permet de faire vivre l’organisation par elle-même, mais également qui permet au prescrit de cette dernière d’évoluer. Bien que les résultats obtenus montrent que l’organisation n’est pas un objet mort et sans force et qu’elle a bien la possibilité de vivre par elle-même, ce sont les individus qui — par leurs engagements conditionnels — permettent cette existence propre de l’organisation comme structure intra-consciente qui impose des droits et des obligations. Dans cette perspective, le modèle proposé vise à dessiner les structures de la réalité sociale abstraite (dénommé dans la recherche menée, l’Entité X) en montrant les forces et les contraintes organisationnelles qui pèsent sur les individus-membres, tout en relevant les capacités humaines à sortir des structures prescrites par la co-construction de liens et de structures transversales de coopérations issus de l’activité réelle
Based on the idea that the subsidiaries of a company are able to call into question the decisions of senior management (the parent company), the holistic approach developed in this study assumes that an organization can be a “being”, implying thereby that the information in its possession is external to the individuals who compose it. This raises the question of whether it is conceivable to ignore the individual in such a relationship of domination. This thesis proposes a model based on the results which show the difficult exclusion of the individual in a meta-organizational context (in which members would be organizations and not individuals). Along these same lines, the organization’s human dynamics are at the heart of this research: there exists by and through the individual a dynamic resulting from actual activity that allows the organization to live by itself, while also allowing prescribe to evolve. Although the results show that the organization is not a dead and strengthless object, and it has the opportunity to live by itself, it is the individuals who —through their conditional commitments— allow the separate existence of an organizational structure’s intra-consciousness, which imposes rights and obligations. In this perspective, the proposed model aims to draw the structures of abstract social reality (referred as Entity X in this study) by showing the strengths and organizational constraints that weigh on individual members, while raising the human capacity to emerge from the structures prescribed by the sensemaking of links and transversal structures for cooperation that originate from the actual activity

碩士
國立政治大學
資訊管理研究所
95
IOS (Inter-Organizational Systems) is defined as automated information systems shared by two or more companies. While more and more enterprises use IOS to promote the collaboration between companies, what kinds of values are derived from IOS and how to evaluate these IOS become important to enterprises. This research aims to provide a quantitative approach to measure IOS values, not only considering the benefits within internal enterprise, but also paying attention to those from external processes with suppliers. We try to propose a new evaluated model. In order to justify our framework, we take one Taiwanese PC manufacturer as a case and do the post-hoc analysis. Through the case study, we prove that our model is validated. We propose new four perspectives in our IOS quantitative framework: IT infrastructure perspective, internal business process perspective, business supplier perspective and business performance. Afterwards, we try to determine the processes in each perspective according to perspectives and then find the quantitative indicators to support our measurement. Lastly, we can even calculate the return on investment (ROI) and break-even point that make enterprises can know the IOS operation more clearly. Therefore, the contribution of this research can be two-folded: first, enterprises can build an IOS quantitative framework to evaluate both intra-firm and inter-firm IOS values quantitatively. Second, enterprises can exactly know how the IOS work, inclusive of detailed processes and interactions with suppliers and how many investment and rewards that enterprises really get.

碩士
國立政治大學
資訊管理研究所
95
Nowadays, firms usually develop inter-organizational systems (IOS) with their suppliers to exchange information and give each other faster responses to sustain their competency under a fast-changing environment. This study reviewed past literature and developed a research framework to evaluate IOS performance based upon two theoretical perspectives: process view and dynamic capabilities. This framework proposed that firms’ dynamic capabilities-- supply chain integration capability and supply chain coordination capability might be an important mediator between IOS investment and firm performance.

博士
國立中央大學
資訊管理學系
102
Recently, firms have increasingly relied on inter-organizational systems (IOS) to facilitate tighter integration with trading partners. This dissertation aims to understand the antecedents and consequences of IOS integration under the conditions of interdependence and power imbalance between dyadic firms. Three studies are conducted for this objective. The first study analyzes the various impediments, such as adversarial behaviours and conflicts when two interdependent firms attempt to integrate with each other through IOS. This study applies the concept of compromise to develop two constructs critical for IOS integration, inter-firm process compromise and technology compromise. These two compromise constructs, treated as relational investments, are proposed to affect the attainment of higher IOS integration. We also assess the importance of interdependence between firms in shaping the negotiation environment. Based on 147 matched-pair data collected from the top 2000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms, the findings demonstrate the importance of technology compromise and inter-firm process compromise for implementing IOS integration. The results also suggest that these compromises are key mediators between interdependence and IOS integration. This study provides theoretical and practical implications that contribute to our understanding of the role of compromise in facilitating IOS integration and the interdependence structure in shaping compromise. The second study analyzes the condition of power imbalance in which dominant firms often try to exert their power to influence their dependent firms to implement IOS integration. Misunderstanding about how power operates will impede firms for developing IOS integration. Based on the circuits of power framework and the concept of obligatory passage point (OPP), this study identifies three factors that should mediate the effect of power on the implementation of IOS integration, including competitive necessity, expected benefits, and firm readiness. We accordingly develop a theoretical model with nine hypotheses. Based on a sample of 135 manufacturing firms tested with PLS, seven out of the nine hypotheses receive empirical support. The findings show that the flows of exercised power and potential power into IOS integration indeed circulate through those mediators. The theoretical and practical implications of the results contribute to our understanding of how power operates in developing IOS integration. Supply chain agility (SCA) is vital to the performance of firms and their supply chain partners in today’s turbulent and highly competitive environment. The third study attempts to better understand the roles of IOS integration, long-term orientation, supply chain flexibility, and analytical ability supported by IOS in enabling SCA based on the dynamic capabilities view, real options theory, and the relational view. With 147 matched-pair samples gathered from the top 2000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms, the results support the effects of IOS integration and long-term orientation on supply chain flexibility, including offering and partnering relationship flexibilities, which in turn facilitates SCA. We also demonstrate that the analytical ability supported by IOS indeed moderates the effect of SCF on SCA. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the research fields of IOS implementation by showing the antecedents and consequences of IOS integration. We provide the guides for firms under interdependence and power imbalance to attain IOS integration, and to drive SCA. The theoretical and practical implications advance our understanding of IOS integration implementation.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
資訊管理系
104
Service innovation is become an important issue toward IOT in supply chains. Many innovative practices in supply chain have been developed based on the IOT. Service innovation is the use of new solutions to meet new or existing customer and market requirements, and its importance in both manufacturing and service industries is well recognized. This study uses organizational structure to apply contingency theory to develop a novel research model to examine how the supply chain flatness affect the service innovation. We analyze data collected from 295 of the top 2500 Taiwanese manufacturing firms in 2014 Chinese Credit Information Service. The results show that, supply chain flatness is major factor contributing to service innovation. The findings of the study provide practical insights that developing supply chain flatness, IOS to achieve information flow and customer demand response is the key competitive advantage to deliver service innovation. This study fills the gaps by identifying organizational structure and investigating their influences the service innovation in supply chain.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
資訊管理系碩士班
95
Traditionally, Businesses are developing information systems based on their own needs and processes. Nevertheless, due to the rapid developments of information technology and global economical reorganizations, in order to enhance global competitiveness, enterprises need not only reengineering their own processes but also integrating with their collaborating partners effectively. The growing popularity of Internet and the increasing emphasis of customer-oriented philosophy have made the coordination and collaboration of inter-organizational systems an important research issue. This study surveys related literature intensively to develop a research framework, and then investigate on Yulon-Nissan Motor Dealer Service System regarding its inter-organizational information developments. Specifically, an object-oriented coordination structure analysis is first conducted to profile the highly complicated collaboration relationships and structures between automobile distributors and dealers to improve resources allocation and communications. Next two methodologies proposed by Farrukh (2003) as “Collaboration Maturity Grids” and “Collaboration Life Cycle Analysis” are adopted to find ways to improve the car dealer system as well as related risk management. Major research findings can be listed as follows. Case company’s performance on Collaboration Maturity Matrix shows toward maturity level on all stages beside Task Allocation stage, which leave much space for improvements. Major suggestions for this are: (1) Gathering project members to specify coverage of collaboration at initiative stage, (2) Participating jointly on related training courses by all project members, (3) Integrating information systems and reengineering process simultaneously, and (4) Including project objectives into KPI and motivating project members.

Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Informática, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially the Internet, have been gradually changing the playing field for organizations. The unparalleled connectivity achieved at minor costs altered the balance between transaction and coordination expenditures as well as the social, commercial, and geographical boundaries between companies. Inter-organizational networks flourished and their participants were given the chance to define new processes with different business rules and innovative value propositions. In these new and complex settings, organizations can cooperate and share goals while competing for a particular advantage. They can also leverage resources and intelligence to generate solutions that no firm alone would be able to achieve. Inter-organizational business models are frequently decentralized environments, without a single point of authority for decision-making or a hierarchy mandated to assign roles to the stakeholders. These can share interests but can also possess different and conflicting expectations. Moreover, the interconnected nature of inter-organizational networks makes it difficult to identify their boundaries and handle their dynamics. To maintain stability in the long run, the networked business model must be able to provide attractive and balanced value propositions for all those involved. Due to the difficulty in satisfying individual expectations and simultaneously promote the network goals, there is a need for guidelines to assist in designing and tuning the right business model. We developed a new approach, called BIZ2BIS (from Business Models to the Blueprint of the Information System) to discuss, design, and evaluate inter-organizational business models and derive high-level requirements for the underlying information system. It consists of an iterative and incremental process that involves the various stakeholders in seeking a set of value propositions that ensure that the various elements are willing to participate in a sustained manner. To conceive BIZ2BIS, we started with an exhaustive literature review on business models, which disclosed key topics and underlined the importance of their socio-technical nature. To address this dimension, we grounded our approach on the tenets of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The approach also uses insights obtained from the study of business models to systematically identify the high-level requirements of their underlying information system in a business model driven way. We used the first draft of BIZ2BIS and two of its updated versions to analyze our three case studies: HowMuchIsIt, publishing an online journal, and GreenHomes. This allowed us to weed out potential preliminary problems and progressively enhance the approach maturity. In our last case, InovWine, we had the chance to act on its scenario. Action research guided BIZ2BIS application and our intervention. The process and instruments proposed in BIZ2BIS enable the systematic reasoning about inter-organizational business models, thus facilitating the discovery of potential dependencies, problems, and solutions to better the chances of getting the sustained commitment of the parties in these complex settings. It also provides an initial blueprint of the supporting information system.
A evolução protagonizada pelas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, em particular a Internet, tem alterado gradualmente a forma como as organizações operam e interagem. O fenómeno da comunicação em rede atingiu níveis sem precedentes, com custos de suporte comportáveis para a generalidade das instituições e dos cidadãos, o que alterou o equilíbrio entre as despesas de transacção e coordenação, assim como as fronteiras geográficas, sociais e comerciais. Proliferam redes inter-organizacionais que possibilitaram a definição de novos processos, com regras de negócio e propostas de valor inovadoras. Neste contexto, as organizações têm a possibilidade de explorar formas de cooperação que lhes sejam vantajosas. Os modelos de negócio inter-organizacionais são usualmente ambientes descentralizados desprovidos de um único ponto de controlo ou de uma hierarquia bem definida à qual seja reconhecida a capacidade de coordenar e atribuir papéis. Se por um lado as entidades envolvidas podem partilhar interesses, por outro podem possuir expectativas antagónicas. A complexidade das relações existentes cria ainda dificuldades adicionais à identificação dos limites da rede criada, ao papel de cada um dos seus elementos, à forma como interagem e à percepção da dinâmica da rede. Para manter a sua estabilidade a longo prazo, os modelos de negócio devem ser capazes de proporcionar propostas de valor atractivas, que fomentem o alinhamento dos diferentes interesses coexistentes e que promovam a participação de todos os envolvidos. A dificuldade em conciliar interesses individuais com os objectivos da rede enfatiza ainda a relevância de propor orientações para o desenho e refinamento do modelo de negócio. Nós desenvolvemos uma nova abordagem, denominada de BIZ2BIS (from Business Models to the Blueprint of the Information System) que possibilita a discussão, desenho e avaliação de modelos de negócio inter-organizacionais, bem como a identificação dos requisitos de alto nível dos seus sistemas de informação de suporte. Consiste num processo incremental que envolve os elementos da rede na procura de um conjunto de propostas de valor que os motive a participar na solução adoptada. A proposta teve como base uma revisão detalhada da literatura em modelos de negócio, o que nos permitiu identificar tópicos a abordar e detectar a importância de considerar a sua natureza sócio-técnica. Para abordar esta dimensão, inspirámo-nos nos princípios da Actor-Network Theory (ANT). A BIZ2BIS também utiliza contribuições obtidas a partir de modelos de negócio a que recorremos como casos. A sua primeira versão e duas posteriores actualizações foram utilizadas para analisar três estudos de caso: HowMuchIsIt, revista online e GreenHomes, o que nos permitiu, numa fase preliminar, eliminar potenciais problemas e progressivamente contribuir para a maturidade da abordagem. No quarto caso, InovWine, as nossas sugestões resultaram em alterações à forma como o modelo de negócio estava a ser concebido. A investigação-acção orientou o uso da BIZ2BIS e a nossa intervenção. O processo e os instrumentos propostos possibilitam o estudo sistemático de modelos de negócio inter-organizacionais, facilitando assim a descoberta de dependências, problemas e soluções que promovam o envolvimento sustentado das partes envolvidas. Este conhecimento é utilizado pela abordagem para especificar os requisitos de alto nível dos sistemas de informação de suporte.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
資訊管理系碩士班
90
Following the vigorous development of the information technology (IT) and the popularity of Internet in term with the challenges from the changes of the inner and outer environment, the call for Government to bring in new technologies so to provide better services becomes loud. Consequently, Government Service Network (GSN), the system promoting integrated automation of public services and implementing inter-organizational information networks, is newly developed in Taiwan. Electronic Document Interchange, implemented by RDEC (Research Development and Evaluation Commission), is one of the important technologies to construct an electronic Government public service infrastructure among organizations. Due to the update of the information operating platform as well as the drive of e-government from the Executive Yuan, it comes to a major issue that the Local Government has to, with no exception, operate more effectively and effectively, in term with IT for Electronic Document Interchange, in an increasing competitive environment to sustain or improve their relative positions. This study employed Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze the operating productivities of a set of 23 local governments in 2001. Number of equipments, investments of IT, operating scale was identified as the three input factors. For the output factors, the receive ratio、the un-received or the missed ratio of electronic document interchange、the ratio of electronic bulletin posting、post cost saving、number of mail substitutions、the ratio of time consuming between electronic and manual in receiving and handling, and the ratio of time consuming between electronic and manual in sending and handling were included. The main findings were threefold. First, the technique efficiency acted on the operating performance of city government was the best in the whole local governments. Second, there were thirteen local governments have to decreasing the investment of IT and downsizing the operating scale in order to achieve higher productivity. Third, the local governments must re-allocate resources (IT investment) and re-think the efficiency of administrative management for reaching optimal outputs to approve operating performance.

The development within the area of information and communications technology (ICT) has been rapid during the last couple of decades. Advancements in mobile technology, such as smartphones and other portable devices with embedded sensors, rapid expansion of communications infrastructure, and increased spectrum utilization, has had a major impact on civilian society, but increasingly also on professional organizations such as the Swedish Armed Forces. While this technology allows for enhanced capabilities in the areas of command and control, situational awareness, and information management, it also leads to new challenges in such areas as cyber security and privacy. For armed forces in many parts of the world, being able to deploy in new types of missions, such as humanitarian assistance and response operations due to natural or man-made disasters, is an increasingly sought-after capability. Such operations commonly require collaboration amongst several heterogeneous organizations, which in turn requires technical as well as organizational interoperability. While the actors must be able to share certain information efficiently, with regards to integrity and availability, sensitive or classified information must be safeguarded in terms of confidentiality. This thesis is concerned with studying emerging ICT for use on the battlefield of tomorrow, investigating how it can lead to more effective operations, and what preconditions that must be met in order for the technology to be of utility for inter-organizational collaboration. In particular, the thesis studies how an acceptable level of information security can be upheld in interconnected tactical communications networks. It is found that Mobile Ad-hoc Networks, Software-Defined Radio and Cognitive Radio are emerging technologies that, while still immature, can contribute to improved capabilities for communications, command and control, and information collection. Furthermore, Hastily Formed Networks is found to be an effective framework for collaboration between heterogeneous actors. However, in order for emerging ICTs to provide military utility, several non-technical requirements must be met. These include usability, trust, legality, cost, and verifying that the technology is in accordance with current military doctrine. Antagonistic as well as unintentional threats must also be mitigated, including information leaks caused by cyberattacks or insiders, and possible consequences of reduced user privacy. Besides to the Swedish Armed Forces, this thesis should be of interest to armed forces of comparable countries, and for professional organizations faced with similar challenges. Among the drawn conclusions, the thesis recommends continuously evaluating emerging ICT in support of new capabilities, through academic research as well as internal concept development. Adopting an incremental and modular process is also recommended when developing or procuring new ICT systems, instead of making long-term investments in proprietary technology. Furthermore, a focus should be put on promoting military requirements in future civilian ICT standards. In this way development costs can be reduced, while facilitating tactical use of commercial off-the-shelf products. Regarding information security in tactical networks for inter-organizational collaboration the thesis concludes that employing best-effort methods could allow for efficient information exchange between actors, while upholding acceptable risk levels regarding data leakage.
Informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) har under de senaste årtiondena varit under stark utveckling. Ökad tillgänglighet av mobil teknik, såsom smarta mobiltelefoner och andra bärbara enheter med inbyggda sensorer, kraftig utbyggnad av kommunikationsinfrastruktur samt framsteg inom spektrumeffektivitet, har haft en stor betydelse för civilsamhället samt i ökande grad även för insatsorganisationer såsom Försvarsmakten. Tekniken bidrar till ökad förmåga till ledning, situationsuppfattning och informationshantering, men medför samtidigt flera utmaningar inom områden som cybersäkerhet och personlig integritet. Nya uppgifter som parallellt kommit i fokus för försvarsmakter i många länder inkluderar förmågan att kunna delta i stödjande insatser i samband med naturkatastrofer, terrorattacker, eller att kunna erbjuda humanitärt bistånd i internationella miljöer. Sådana insatser kräver vanligtvis samverkan mellan många olika heterogena organisationer, vilket medför ett behov av såväl teknisk som organisatorisk interoperabilitet. Viss information måste kunna delas effektivt mellan de ingående aktörerna med avseende på riktighet och tillgänglighet, samtidigt som känsliga uppgifter måste skyddas avseende sekretess. I denna avhandling studeras taktiskt användande av framväxande IKT på morgondagens slagfält, hur tekniken kan bidra till mer effektiva operationer, samt vilka förutsättningar och krav som måste uppfyllas för att tekniken ska kunna vara till nytta vid interorganisatorisk samverkan. Särskilt undersöks möjligheten att upprätthålla en acceptabel nivå av informationssäkerhet i gemensamma taktiska sambandssystem, samtidigt som dessa kan användas effektivt under påfrestande förhållanden. Avhandlingen finner att tekniker som mobila ad hoc-nätverk, mjukvarudefinierad radio och kognitiv radio, trots att de ännu är omogna, kan komma att bidra till förbättrade eller helt nya förmågor inom bland annat samband, ledning och informationsinhämtning. Vidare dras slutsatsen att ramverket Hastily Formed Networks är effektivt för samverkan mellan heterogena aktörer. För att framväxande IKT ska kunna vara av militär nytta krävs dock att flera icke-tekniska krav kan mötas. Dessa inkluderar användbarhet, tillit, legalitet, kostnad, samt att tekniken ligger i linje med rådande militär doktrin. Såväl antagonistiska som oavsiktliga hot måste samtidigt hanteras, såsom informationsläckor orsakade av cyberattacker eller insiders, samt konsekvensen av en minskad personlig integritet för användarna. Avhandlingen förväntas vara av intresse för såväl Försvarsmakten som organisationer med liknande förutsättningar i Sverige och jämförbara länder. Som slutsats rekommenderas i avhandlingen att framväxande IKT till stöd för nya förmågor kontinuerligt utvärderas genom såväl akademisk forskning som intern konceptutveckling, samt att en inkrementell och modulär modell bör väljas vid utveckling och anskaffning, snarare än att göra omfattande investeringar i proprietär teknik. Fokus bör även vara på att tidigt få med militära krav i civila IKT-standarder. På så vis kan utvecklingskostnader reduceras, samtidigt som militär användning av kommersiellt tillgängliga produkter förenklas. En slutsats gällande informationssäkerhet är att man med metoder som baseras på så kallad ”best-effort” kan effektivisera utbytet i ett gemensamt informationssystem, samtidigt som risken för dataläckage kan behållas på en acceptabel nivå.

博士
國立交通大學
資訊工程系所
93
Workflow management systems (WfMSs) are accepted worldwide due to their ability of modeling and controlling business processes. In the past, we defined an intra-organizational workflow specification model, Process LANguage PLAN. PLAN, with the associated tools, allows user to describe the graph specification for processes, artifacts and participants’ organization. PLAN has been successfully implemented in Agentflow to support workflow (Agentflow) applications. PLAN and most current WfMSs are designed to adopt the centralized architecture such that they can be applied in an organization only. However, the participants of Agentflow applications in different organizations can hardly serve each other with workflows. In this dissertation, a service-oriented cooperative workflow model, Cooperative Agentflow Process LANguage (CA-PLAN) is presented. CA-PLAN proposes a workflow component model to model inter-organizational process. In CA-PLAN, an inter-organizational process is partitioned into several intra-organizational processes. Each workflow system inside an organization is modeled as an Integrated Workflow Component (IWC). Each IWC contains a process service interface specifying the process services provided by the organization, in conjunction with a remote process interface specifying what the remote processes are used to refer to remote process services provided by other organizations, and intra-organizational processes. IWC is a workflow node and participant. An inter-organizational process is made of connection among these process services and remote processes with respect to different IWCs. Besides, the related service techniques and supporting tools provided in Agentflow system (architecture and implementation) are also presented. Besides, we also present an intelligent and personalized enterprise process portal. The scenarios of workflow applications are no longer limited to small user groups operating the document management or data processing applications. Meanwhile, business process automation and integration are getting more sophisticated. The system deploys workflow applications inside the Enterprise Process Portal to help employee’s assistants in daily works as well as manager’s advisor in executive decision.

Cette thèse étudie la période de transition associée à l’externalisation d’une activité d’une organisation vers une autre et a pour objectif de décrire la manière dont un dispositif de contrôle hybride entre marché et hiérarchie émerge au cours de cette période. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes appuyé sur une étude in situ de quinze mois d’un projet mondial d’externalisation de l’activité IT d’un client auprès de trois centres de services mutualisés d’un prestataire. La description du terrain s’articule autour de deux voies de passage conceptuelles ancrées dans l’Actor Network Theory. La première propose de partir de la Théorie des Coûts de Transaction pour aller vers une « économie des coûts de traduction ». La seconde avance le concept d’accumulation de petits points de contrôle fondée sur l’étude d’un « contrôle en train de se faire » (Vosselman & Van der Meer-Kooistra, 2006). La description de la phase de transition émet l’idée que les coûts de traduction et l’accumulation de petits points de contrôle forment un « registre en double » permettant de tracer le mouvement de co-construction de la prestation de services et du dispositif de contrôle associé. Au cours de cette période, les faits locaux furent circonscrits par l’équipe projet pour les ramener au sein du centre de services mutualisés. Ce travail permit d’amorcer un cycle d’accumulation des connaissances. Ce mouvement rendit progressivement le projet et la prestation de services plus réels, mais au prix d’un éloignement irrémédiable avec ce qui avait été spécifié dans le contrat. Dorénavant, le coût pour agir à distance était réduit et le centre de services mutualisés pouvait a priori être considéré comme un dispositif « économe ». Cependant, le processus d’externalisation conduisit à une transformation profonde de l’activité externalisée et de l’identité des différents groupes d’acteurs associés. La comparaison entre les deux situations, avant et après l’externalisation, était rendue complexe du fait de l’existence des coûts de traduction inhérents au passage du contrat au dispositif sociotechnique nécessaire à la réalisation de la prestation de services
This dissertation is dedicated to the transition period related to the outsourcing of an activity from an organization to another one. Its objective is to describe the emergence of a hybrid control device between market and hierarchy. We studied during 15 months a global IT outsourcing project from a client to three customers’ shared service centers. The field analysis is based on two “conceptual ways” grounded in Actor Network Theory. The first moves from Transaction Cost Economics to “Translation Cost Economy”. The second one puts forward the concept of small points of control accumulation responding to Vosselman & Van der Meer-Kooistra’s call to investigate “control in the making” (2006). The transition phase shed light on the proposition that costs of translation and small points of control accumulation created a “double register” tracing the movement of services co-construction and the related control device emergence. The local facts were framed by the project team and brought into one of the shared IT service center. An accumulation cycle of knowledge was running. This movement made both the project and the service actual but at the cost of translating the initial service defined by the contract. The price to act at distance was reduced and the shared IT service center could be considered as “economic”. However, the outsourcing process led to a transformation of the IT activity and modified the identity of the groups of actors. The comparison between the two situations, before and after outsourcing, was made difficult because of translation costs inherent to the transformation of the contract into a socio-technical device implemented to deliver the service

碩士
國立嘉義大學
管理研究所
94
Nowadays enterprises are in the environment of changing swiftly. Nearly none enterprise could provide all demands and resources for production by itself or resist environmental pressure by its strength. Therefore, enterprises form natural divisions based on their own specialties, and in the meantime they rely on each other and develop collectively. Due to the great progress of information technology now, these collaborated enterprises almost deliberate about adopting inter-organizational information system to reduce transaction cost and increase Time-Based competition. This study analyses relationships of inter-organizational cooperation and adopting inter-organizational information system from the viewpoint of trust. It also discusses minutely for integrated problems of information technology when inter-organizational operation processes are omitted or abbreviated by adopting the these system. This study interviews two cases via case study. Among which, the formations of trust adopt perspective of Zucker, and the levels of trust take Lewicki and Bunke』s theory to understand interactions between enterprises. Through the results of interviewing enterprises, the five key propositions are obtained in this study. Hope it will be helpful to develop cooperative relationships of enterprises in the future and have references of management and operation while adopting the inter-organizational information system.

碩士
國立高雄大學
資訊管理學系碩士班
98
In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, more and more businesses are adopting information technology to sustain or enhance their competitive advantages. Inter-organizational information systems are especially employed by several businesses to improve supply chain performance. However, information technology does not necessarily benefit businesses unless it can integrate with the businesses’ processes and practices. That is, the assimilation of information technology into routines is crucial to the formation of competitive advantages. The technology-organization-environment framework has been frequently employed by several studies to investigate the antecedents of information technology adoption or assimilation. However, the role of top management has been not addressed in these studies. The top management can be regarded as a “boundary spanner”who is directly confronted by environmental uncertainty. In this study, we argue that the pressure from the business environment will directly affect the top management’s attitude and support toward information technology, and later lead to the assimilation of information technology. We also argue that the assimilation of information technology will lead to performance enhancement through improvements in two dynamic capabilities—supplier responsiveness and flexibility. The antecedents and consequences of the assimilation of inter-organizational information system are investigated in this study from the perspective of the mediating roles of top management and dynamic capability. Based on data collected from 72 respondents, the results confirm the mediating role of top management’s support and dynamic capability. Implications for researchers and practitioners are also addressed.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
資訊管理系
96
Supply chain management (SCM) can help companies reduce costs. Information technology can help enterprises do a good job in the supply chain information processing. Information technology can make that the information in the supply chain more transparent and enable the creation of a new strategy model. For example, Dell's virtual integration model uses information technology not only help companies create new competitive edge but also create new knowledge. This usage of business to business information systems is a kind of inter-organizational information system (IOS) 　　With the advent of a knowledge-based economy, the creation of new knowledge will bring competitive advantage. In a supply chain, enterprises and other partners hope to create new knowledge through mutual cooperation and good interaction. Therefore, knowledge management is an important topic in the supply chain management. In the theories of knowledge management, social capital gradually been proposed by many scholars. Social capital is generated by the interaction of individuals or groups. Its emphasis is on the relationship of interaction. Enterprise knowledge creation is mainly due to the interaction between enterprises and its other partners. Therefore, this study aims at understanding the influence of inter-organizational information system on enterprise knowledge creation based on the social capital theory. 　　Our empirical results revel that: (1) inter-organizational information system’s capability positively affects the creation of social capital; (2) social capital positively affects knowledge creation. Therefore, firms can enhance social capital through the use of inter-organizational information system, and increase their market knowledge.

碩士
國立中央大學
資訊管理學系
85
In recent years, because many companies establish long- termrelationship with their manufactures through strategic alliance, etc., and because of the advanced technology, many companies can establish close relationship by the connection of the inter-organizational system(IOS). Furthermore, it forms the so-called network organization. However, the application of IOS requires the cooperation and coordination of all participants, and then by the electronic integrationcan it function well. By the questionnaires, the research discovered the proactive degreeof company and its manufactures is the important factor that affectselectronic integration. When the proactive degrees of company and itsmanufactures increase, the degree of the electronic integration willincrease, too. And the proactive degree between the company and itsmanufacture will affect each other. And the results will sometimes be decided by the power between the company and its manufactures.

博士
國立臺灣大學
資訊管理學研究所
99
“Pandora’s Hope,” an artifact in Greek mythology, is used as the title of Latour’s (1999) “Essays on the Reality of Science Studies.” The phrase means that one should never speak of ‘data’ – what is given – but rather of sublata, that is, of “achievements” (p.42). Using the term analogously for “let the data speak for itself,” this thesis applies organizing vision as a theoretical framework to trace the adoption and diffusion of a financial inter-organizational information system (IOIS) in Taiwan Offshore Fund Industry. Our objective is twofold: to go beyond the organizational boundaries and inquire into the socio-economic nature of the IOIS implementation process; and to enhance our understanding of implementation dynamics associated with IOIS diffusion. Using Taiwan Offshore Fund Industry as the institutional setting and Straight-Through-Processing (STP) as the financial IOIS, this research applies the concept of organizing vision in conjunction with three research perspectives on industry transformation to reveal the dynamics of interpretations, adoption rationales, and implementation actions among different social actors. The community discourses on STP over a 10-year period were analyzed to explore how different industry actors have played different roles at different times, and contributed different types of knowledge towards STP’s implementation. The findings highlight the need for the inclusion of alternative views on the conceptualization, construction and development of IOIS by paying close empirical attention to the various contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act toward a common vision. To initiate and stimulate the implementation process, it is crucial to learn about the local practices and culture to ensure that the understanding of STP aligns with the business problem of the local community. The theoretical contribution of this research arises from the illustration of how different contextual elements constitute, constrain and redefine the evolving discourse during the IOIS implementation process. The methodological contribution lies in demonstrating the value of combining an interpretive case study with grounded theory as an analytical tool in interpretive information systems research. The practical contribution of the thesis is that it points to the importance of discourse in shaping the interpretation and understanding of IS innovation.

碩士
義守大學
資訊管理學系碩士班
92
Inter-organization system (IOS) is the most widely applied B2B e-commerce. However, many domestic small and medium enterprises that want to introduce IT to their upper and lower supplier chains are facing numerous problems, such as deficient in resources, subcontractors’ reject and etc. Therefore, the introduction of IOS shall not only start from technological aspect, but also have to evaluate as a whole from collaboration, organization and technology. Hence, this research is based on the three major scopes of IOS addressed by Kumar and Crook (1999), and explores inter-organizational collaboration’s influence on IOS through social exchange theory and transaction cost theory; furthermore, combines TEMPLET evaluation model to analyze enterprise’s organization and technology capability to predict the possibility for domestic small and medium enterprises to promote IOS in the future. This research adopts qualitative research method and combines secondary literature to discuss the pioneer enterprises ADI and COMPEQ’ ISO promotion processes, which participated in government’s B project, and through the analysis to verify and correct the initial concept model and theoretical claims of the research framework. Furthermore, in terms of case analysis, the research object is the aluminum extrusion companies and their subcontractors of the aluminum extrusion industry. Aluminum extrusion industry is one of the traditional domestic industries, which required highly specialty and labor division, all of its products have to be closely cooperated between manufacturers and subcontractors, so it is the model of standard upper and lower supply chains relationship, however, its supply chains still lack of information system’s support till now. Therefore, it is expected to estimate the feasibility for aluminum extrusion industry to promote ISO to upper and lower supply chains through this research, and bring up appropriate leadership model and relevant suggestions according to research results. This research shows that case enterprise’s IT capability is inferior to the pioneer enterprises, on one hand it is because of the different industrial natures, and on the other hand is limited by organization’s scale. In terms of organization management capability, case enterprise has less organization levels, so it has adequate operating flexibility, however, to see as a whole, it does not have enough measures and systems to engage with the changing market caused by IT. Furthermore, with regard to the most important cooperation relationship in promoting IOS, the case enterprise is same as the pioneer enterprises because they all need to mutually depend upon their subcontractors and work together to gain benefits. Therefore, there is a high feasibility to promote IOS to subcontractors with closer cooperation and larger transaction amounts by use of forceful leading method; but if the case enterprise adopts forceful leading method to promote IOS, it is likely to reject by subcontractors and damage the cooperation relationship. So, to view from case enterprise, the most appropriate leadership model shall be organization’s forceful attempt and assist with gentle persuasion. Although the case enterprise belongs to traditional industry, which usually does not have sufficient concepts of total supply chains to information management, if it could spread out its determination to promote IOS completely, and continue to update information software and hardware to strength IT capability, to seek for information consultants and government institutions assistance actively, there are still great chances for it to promote IOS successfully. The promotion of IOS tests the persistence and endurance of inter-enterprises’ cooperation relationship, therefore, this research gives the small and medium enterprises that want to promote ISO 7 specific suggestions and listed below: 1. Review organization’s management capability and flexibility; 2. Improve enterprise’s information infrastructure and staff’s information capability; 3. Evaluate enterprise’s supply chain’s position; 4. Continue the cooperation with partners; 5. Select partners to involve in IOS carefully; 6. Strive for government’s assistance to small and medium enterprises; 7. Establish IOS step by step. The purpose to promote IOS is to increase the sustainable cooperation between enterprises, therefore, how to actually achieve IOS’s existence purpose and increase total supplier chains’ competition ability is testing relevant organizations’ wisdom. It is also expected to provide more valuable references for small and medium enterprises that want to promote IOS by this research.