Management and Marketing - Theses
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ItemThe alignment of business and information strategies( 1990)The aim of this study was to explore the nature and extent of the alignment of business and information strategies, and organisational factors which might be related to that alignment. The study was undertaken in two parts: an extensive literature analysis to identify possible factors and models of alignment, followed by empirical case study based research examining factors which might be related to the alignment of business and information strategy in some large information intensive organizations. The conceptual frameworks for the study were drawn from the literatures of strategy development, organizational design, and theories and practices of information systems and services. The literature review and analysis for this study was purposely extensive in order to encompass a wide range of conceptual and research based literatures about the management of information systems and services which inform the study. the literature review revealed burgeoning interest in the area of business and information strategy alignment from different, though often narrow, paradigms. At the same time there was plenty of rigorous, empirically based and cumulative studies of direct relevance to the research question. Areas of potential importance to the alignment of business and information strategy, drawn from the conceptual and research based literature, were examined in a hypothesis-generating empirical case study analysis of four of Australia’s five largest firms in the financial services sector.
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ItemCommercialising innovation: the management of technology partnerships( 1998)The management of innovation has two stages, comprising of innovation and commercialisation. It is becoming increasingly unusual for a firm to have all the necessary resources and skills to manage these two very different activities, so getting access to these through the use of partnerships has become an increasingly important part of the innovation process. However, the use of a partner brings the problem of coordination, as well as the danger of opportunistic behaviour by the partner, either in the form of not fulfilling its responsibilities or seeking to size a larger share of the rewards from the innovation. This thesis examines the way in which innovative firms manage partnerships formed for the purpose of commercialising new technology. Drawing on a sample of 130 innovative firms, the arrangements with the partner are examined using ideas drawn from a synthesis of transaction cost economics and political economy models of organisations. The analysis is concerned with the use of explicit or formal arrangements based around rules and policies, and the use of implicit or informal arrangements based around norms of co-operation, shared values and shared rewards. Importantly, the approach in this thesis recognises that these two types of arrangements are both likely to be present in the relationship. The choice is not between one type of arrangement to the exclusion of the other, but rather, the circumstances when one type of arrangement is more in evidence. The results show that a large proportion of the preference for particular types of arrangements can be explained by the variables included in the analysis. In addition, the effect of different types of arrangements on the performance of the partnership is considered. The results show that implicit arrangements built around normative behaviour outperform explicit arrangements across each dimension of performance included in the thesis. The results are also compared to previous research into partnerships. The comparison shows that the analysis compared well statistically, although the type and performance of arrangements with partners are very different to the results in previous research. While there are a number of factors which contribute to these differences, the special case of innovative firms is considered as well as the context of partnerships dealing in the commercialisation of new technologies. The thesis concludes by suggesting directions for future research.
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ItemWork team effectiveness in high technology manufacturing( 1995)The purpose of this study is to formulate and test a causal model of work team effectiveness among work team members at a large automotive manufacturing company. The study seeks to integrate previous work team theories, but adopt a more parsimonious approach to work team effectiveness by taking into account the developmental stage or “maturity” of the work teams being studied. The study examines also the issue of level of analysis. The level of analysis is an important issue for this study because of the multiple-level phenomena that comprise the model of work team effectiveness. This issue is examined from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Having identified the development of the work teams in the study to be at the storming and norming stages of development (Tuckman, 1965), team development theory is used to formulate hypotheses about the criteria of work team effectiveness and its determinants. The dependent variables in the causal model comprise several work team effectiveness criteria that are identified by team development theory, such as team satisfaction, acceptance of team norms, team citizenship behaviour and work team viability. A fifth measure of work team effectiveness, team performance, is drawn from the broader theoretical literature on work teams. Team factors, such as role clarity, team cohesion, interpersonal conflict and team leadership, are predicted by team development theory to be important determinants of work team effectiveness at the storming and norming stages of development. Other independent variables in the model, such as task and organisational factors, are drawn again from the broader theoretical literature on work teams. The results of the study provide general support for the model of work team effectiveness. Moreover, several developmental hypotheses are confirmed. In particular, the results support the important role of team leadership, team cohesion and interpersonal conflict, and the reduced role of external leaders in predicting work team effectiveness at the storming and norming stages of development. The theoretical, methodological and practical implications of the study are discussed.
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ItemContract and expansion: sovereignty, transitional economies and Australian MNEs( 1998)Property rights regimes crucially affect the structure of economic activity, by defining the 'rules of the game'. Each country's 'rules of the game', or its institutional structure, is the outcome of a path dependent historical process. Given the institutional environment, MNEs expand internationally by writing a complex web of contracts with JV partners, wholly-owned subsidiaries, foreign licensees and the state. The first contribution of the thesis is the specification of a model of firm-state contracting based in New Institutional Economics. This expands and modifies traditional approaches to MNEs that take as given the property right regimes. Based on the concept of sovereignty, the thesis shows that the state is the key player in the definition, allocation and enforcement of the property rights regime. The state also contracts explicitly or implicitly with MNEs. These contradictory roles are explored theoretically. It is argued that the state is not a unitary actor but a series of political organisations comprising individuals subject to cognitive limitations and degrees of choice as to their behaviour. Manipulations of the investment environment occur not only through formal regulations and policy statements but also through corruption of office for private gain. State behaviour is motivated by unique sets of rules and players in each location. The thesis then studies how Australian firms met this contractual challenge in the transitional economies of India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Each country experienced fundamental shifts in their institutional environment with the re-opening of their economies to foreign investment. Each country was marked by a property rights regime that was unstable, changing and ill-defined. The hallmark of the study is the reliance on firm-specific data to analyse how Australian MNEs contracted in these newly opened economies. The data reveal that Australian MNEs competitive advantages lay predominantly in the expertise of their human capital and the co-specialisation of this tacit knowledge with codified organisational processes and tangible product technology. Given the institutional regimes in Indonesia and Vietnam, Australian firms wrote intermediate contractual arrangements governed by the notions of relational contract or formed JV agreements with firms possessing knowledge of the complexities of local commercial and political processes. In India, Australian firms under-estimated the institutional complexities. Despite negligible host country experience, Australian firms eschewed joint ventures, acquisitions and non equity alliances with local companies able to decipher the Indian institutional environment. Correspondingly, the firms experienced difficulties with the environment confronting them. In contrast to the successful performance of Australian firms in Indonesia and Vietnam, the firms in India expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of their activities. The types of multinational experience possessed by Australian differed across the three country samples. From their Asian networks of subsidiaries, Australian firms in Indonesia captured learning and information advantages that aided their entry and performance in Indonesia. In Vietnam, firms similarly possessed concentrated subsidiary networks in Asia, which were influential in the assessments of risk factors and the design of contractual arrangements. In India, prior multinational experience afforded few advantages in interpreting the complexity of the institutional environment. This study emphasises the importance of understanding the institutional regimes within which international business is conducted. It argues that these institutional regimes emerged as a path dependent historical process. Facing complex and opaque institutional environments, Australian firms designed contracts to capture returns in enlarging and promising economies. History and sovereignty were the defining variables in the expansion of Australian MNEs in India, Indonesia and Vietnam.