Browsing Ph.D. theses (OM/PEØ) by Title
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Kinra, Aseem (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The spatial scope of organisations has recently been reemphasised in the context of supply chains and supply chain management. This scope is usually accompanied by uncertainty to organisations, especially for the extended supply chain with geographically dispersed operations and activities, thus posing environmental complexity in the form of risks and costs that organisations need to contend with. The main purpose of this dissertation is to create a deep understanding of this environmental complexity facing the extended supply chain, and the main research objective is to develop a construct, consisting of factors and measures, that can aid in describing its state in the context of logistics. Overall, the dissertation assumes an international business (IB) standpoint in undertaking this task whereby it is argued that countries and borders matter, and that differences between country environments lead to environmental complexity in the geographically dispersed supply chain. Country-oriented constraints may then exist at macro-economic level, or the micro-/meso- e.g. firm, network and industry levels of the business environment. In this dissertation, supply chain (logistics) environmental complexity is developed and operationalised in terms of the range and heterogeneity of country-oriented macro- logistics factors that need to be considered in extended, cross-border, or global supply chain (logistics) operations. The remainder of this dissertation is thereafter dedicated to finding these factors, and their respective information measures, by the application of a decision-making approach. A decision factor is one that influences the decision on selection with regards to environmental complexity, and an information measure is a unit of measurement that aids decision-making by providing some information on the factor. The findings of this dissertation are based upon multiple literature reviews, content analyses and expert opinions, and suggest the importance of 17 such decision factors and 187 different types of information measures, which describe the state of environmental complexity in extended, cross-border, or global supply chain operations. The study is particularly relevant from the perspective of strategy and design issues in global supply chain management, international operations management and international business, and more specifically for environmental scanning and decision-making applications such as site location and transport mode selection. By applying the results of this dissertation decision-makers may, for example, get a preliminary idea of the environmental complexity surrounding their extended supply chains. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7823 Files in this item: 1
Aseem_Kinra.pdf (28.74Mb) -
Strategies for dealing with organizational paradoxesMaalouf, Malek (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Within a dynamic and changing world business order, the management of tensions and paradoxes affect the long term adaptability of the organization. The extant literature recommends that, by adopting the paradoxical perspective through the alternation of two opposing strategies for dealing with paradoxes – acceptance and resolution - companies are more likely to achieve transformation and change. As for lean sustainability, it is argued that the adoption of the paradoxical perspective can facilitate the interactions between lean and the physical, social and psychological structures of the company, which creates the necessary energy for change within the social system that facilitates second order learning and the shift in the mental models of the individuals involved in the lean initiative. Through the identification of the paradoxes emerging during lean implementation in three case companies and mapping the strategies used for dealing with these paradoxes, this thesis contributes to lean sustainability - theory and practice - in two ways. First, this study claims that, by adopting the paradoxical perspective, companies are more likely to succeed in sustaining lean. The main argument is that, in addition to the resolution of the paradoxes which is the main focus of the rational approach, the paradoxical perspective takes into consideration the acceptance of the paradoxical tensions which entails that paradox is also seen as an opportunity for learning and for the generation of creative insights. Second, this study concludes that the process of alternation between the acceptance and resolution of lean paradoxes is more likely to be effective if it is intermediated by the reframing of the link between the two opposing poles of the paradox. Thus, reframing becomes an indicator for shifting between acceptance and resolution strategies. It is implicit in this argument that if managers move from acceptance strategy to a resolution strategy without achieving the reframing of the relation between the two opposing poles of the paradox, then attempts for sustaining lean will be restricted. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8816 Files in this item: 1
Malek_Maalouf.pdf (2.247Mb)
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