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... order to understand human activity systems and their potential, we have to go back to the basic model of SSM (Figure 4). But first of all, it has to be mentioned that human activity systems differ from biological systems in that they have been created and designed by humans (Pidd, 2003). ...
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... The following years between 2000 and 2010 show a somewhat different result because an average staff, now of 36 people, produced only 964 units. However, this was only a symptom of the true problems, which were predominantly located in power relations that had developed over more than a decade into an oppressive social environment (Staadt, 2014). This "thinking-from-within" is a main strength of organizational ethnography (Ybema & Kamsteeg, 2009), which requires the researcher to act reflexively as well as critically in the meaning-making processes . ...
... SSM constitutes an organized learning system that is, according to Checkland and Poulter (2010), best carried out by the people within the problem situation (Herr & Anderson, 2005) and ideally is a never-ending process (Chapman, 2004). However, SSM has been criticized for its adherence to the interpretive paradigm (Flood, 2001;Jackson, 2010;Kotiadis & Mingers, 2006;Paucar-Caceres & Pagano, 2009) and the lack of a sufficient theoretical basis for the analysis of the organizational culture (Staadt, 2014). With regard to theories, Shotter (2010) argues that they are of use in representing or picturing states of affairs, and we, as individuals, use them to explain events after they have happened, to determine their antecedent causes and to make predictions (on the assumption that the future will be like the past). ...
... To protect the anonymity of the people who participated in the research project, pseudonyms have been used instead of people's real names (Van der Waal, 2009). Four different research phases (A) to (D) were performed in a sequential manner, which allowed each part of the process to be informed by the analysis of the one preceding it, thus creating a documented learning process (Staadt, 2014). As proposed by Yin (2003), the data collected were organized within a case study database ( Table 1). ...
Organizations that find themselves within a problematic situation connected with cultural issues such as politics and power require adaptable research and corresponding modeling approaches so as to grasp the arrangements of that situation and their impact on the organizational development. This article originates from an insider-ethnographic intervention into the problematic situation of the leading public housing provider in Luxembourg. Its aim is to describe how the more action-oriented cultural analysis of soft systems methodology and the theory-driven configuration model of organizational culture are mutually beneficial rather than contradictory. The data collected between 2007 and 2013 were analyzed manually as well as by means of ATLAS.ti. Results demonstrate that the cultural analysis enables an in-depth understanding of the power-laden environment within the organization bringing about the so-called “socio-political system” and that the configuration model makes it possible to depict the influence of that system on the whole organization. The overall research approach thus contributes toward a better understanding of the influence and the impact of oppressive social environments and evolving power relations on the development of an organization.
This dissertation aims to extend the current understanding of the agricultural cooperatives, and it is done by executing three studies regarding various aspects of the cooperatives. _First study_ investigates the relationship between communication, innovation, and (de)centralization in cooperatives. This study claims that the communication between members is related to process innovation, while the communication between managers and members is related to product innovation. The adopted (de)centralization depends on the two types of communication costs. _Second_, a sorting model is developed to examine how members sort themselves across enterprises and which governance structures are adopted. A cooperative pays a uniform price to all farmers to maximize members’ revenue and retains no profits, whereas investor-owned firm differentiates payments based on quality. The model shows that the farmers tend to choose the neighboring enterprise, and the farmers with high quality products tend to choose an investor-owned firm. Besides, the higher the quality payment, the more farmers are attracted by the investor-owned firm, and it has an impact on the market structure. _Last,_ this dissertation provides evidence from China for a better understanding of the different evaluations between CEOs and members, therefore helps CEOs to best serve the membership of the cooperatives. The survey shows that members have higher scores than CEOs regarding member profitability and overall performance, while CEOs have a higher evaluation regarding social influence. Moreover, the associated factors that may influence the evaluations …
Humanitarian crises like the Syrian war, Ebola, the earthquake in Haiti, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the ongoing HIV epidemic prompt substantial demands for humanitarian aid. Logistics plays a key role in aid delivery and represents a major cost category for humanitarian organizations.
Optimizing logistics has long been at the core of operations research: the discipline that explores the use of advanced analytical methods to improve decision making. The commercial sector has substantially benefited from such methods. This thesis discusses whether and how such methods can also guide policy and decision making in the humanitarian sector. This is done through in-depth analyses of three case studies. The first investigates suitability of advanced planning and routing tools. Next, we investigate decision support methods for designing networks of roadside HIV clinics. The third case study concerns the deployment of mobile teams that screen for infectious disease outbreaks.
Optimization tools come with assumptions about objectives to be reached and about their link with the decisions to be optimized. In humanitarian logistics, safeguarding adequacy of these assumptions is challenging but crucial. Throughout our case-studies, we explore how “best available evidence” can be used to link decisions to objectives, so as to enable evidence-based optimization in humanitarian logistics.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) play a very important role for innovations. They serve as a mechanism for innovators (e.g., individuals, companies, universities) to protect their intellectual property and enable the holder of the IPR to profit from the innovation. Patents and trademarks constitute the two most important and most frequently utilized IPRs. This thesis contains five empirical studies that address recent research gaps in research on patents and trademarks. With regard to patents, this thesis focuses on patenting in China, which underwent a remarkable and explosive growth recently: Only 15 years ago, Chinese applicants filed 1.9% of the patents they filed in 2014. This is because China is trying to transition itself from an imitation-based to an innovation-based economy. However, even though China is actively and prominently fostering innovation in trying to become a leading innovator, China is still far away from reaching the world’s innovation frontier. In light of this ongoing and still relatively unexplored phenomenon, this thesis addresses several important issues regarding the antecedents of patenting and the value of patents in China that are crucial, but have received little attention so far. In particular, this thesis addresses the more specific topics of university patenting, the impact of acquisitions on innovation performance, and patent value in China. In contrast to research on patenting, research on trademarking is in comparatively early stages. Trademarks are a very important IPR for firms to distinguish themselves from competitors and have been linked positively to the market valuation, survival, and productivity of firms. However, little is known on why firms file trademarks, which is the focus of the final study in this thesis.
“Agent-based Inter-organizational Systems (ABIOS) in Advanced Logistics Operations” explores the concepts, the design, and the role and impact of agent-based systems to improve coordination and performance of logistics operations. The dissertation consists of one conceptual study and three empirical studies. The empirical studies apply various research methods such as a multiple-case study research, coordination mechanism design, and predictive analytics using big data. The conceptual study presents a theoretical exploration and synthesis explaining the demand for inter-organizational systems (IOS) and the corresponding IOS functionalities. The first empirical study presents a multiple-case study exploring real-life ABIOS implementations in the warehousing and transportation business. The second empirical study provides an auction based coordination mechanism design for the container’s pick-up/delivery appointment reservation problem that involves the seaports and drayage operators. The third empirical study presents a seaport service rate prediction system that could help drayage operators to improve their predictions of the duration of the pick-up/delivery operations at a seaport by using the subordinate trucks’ trajectory data. Based on these studies, the dissertation offers new insights on the role of inter-organizational systems in mitigating coordination equivocality and uncertainties; the interplay among the ABIOS applications, required structural adjustments, and the potential of business performance improvement opportunities; and the development of two ABIOS prototypes: an auction based coordination mechanism and a predictive analytics application based on big data.
In the last thirty years, global developments including advancements in ICT and process and product modularization have made the network form of organization more widespread than ever before. In many industries large vertically integrated organizations have been supplanted by flexible networks of independent organizations. In other industries and sectors, individual organizations continue to operate through the traditional organizational form of a business network. The proliferation of business networks presses the need to move theoretical development on processes and outcomes forward, beyond actor and dyadic level to the whole network level of analysis. Network performance studies however, have been scattered both across time and across management disciplines, and offer diverse concepts, measures and drivers, which slows down the theoretical build up. A related problem is that the conceptual issue of what constitutes performance on network level, has been left unaddressed. The main purpose of this dissertation is therefore to conceptualize and explain the performance of interorganizational networks. This is done by executing three studies: conceptualization research laboratory experiments and a field case study. Step by step an integrated framework is built in this dissertation that represents the information-based view on network performance and its theoretical mechanisms. This dissertation pushes the boundaries of knowledge on network performance, increases the understanding and ability of practitioners to manage their networks and sets the agenda for future network performance research.
Digital computers entered our homes, landed on our desktops, slipped into our pockets, and have seemingly become ubiquitous. At an ever faster pace, these devices have become highly interconnected and interoperable. Consequently, our archives, our work, our actions, and our interactions are increasingly digitalized and stored in databases or made accessible via the Internet. This data, generally characterized by high volume, variety, and velocity (i.e., accumulation rate), has come to be called “Big Data”. As of yet, Big Data has seldom been utilized in management research. Therefore, this dissertation explores the opportunities that Big Data brings for management scholars and describes three distinct projects that show how Big Data can be utilized in management research.
Barter exchange markets are markets in which agents seek to directly trade their goods with each other. Exchanges occur in cycles or in chains in which each agent gives a good to the next agent. Kidney exchange is an important type of barter exchange market that allows incompatible patient–donor pairs to exchange kidneys so the involved patients can receive a transplant. The clearing problem is to find an allocation of donors to patients that is optimal with respect to multiple criteria. To achieve the best possible score on all criteria, long cycles and chains are often needed, particularly when there are many hard-to-match patients. In this paper we show why this may pose difficulties for existing approaches to the optimization of kidney exchanges. We then present a generic iterative branch-and-price algorithm that can deal effectively with multiple criteria, and we show how the pricing problem may be solved in polynomial time for a general class of criteria. Our algorithm is effective even for large, realistic patient–donor pools. Our approach and its effects are demonstrated by using simulations with kidney exchange data from the Netherlands and the United States.
Living donor kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease. In order to alleviate the shortage of kidney donors, many advances have been made to improve the utilization of living donors deemed incompatible with their intended recipient. The most prominent of these advances is kidney paired donation (KPD), which matches incompatible patient-donor pairs to facilitate a kidney exchange. This review discusses the various approaches to matching and allocation in KPD. In particular, it focuses on the underlying principles of matching and allocation approaches, the combination of KPD with other strategies such as ABO incompatible transplantation, the organization of KPD, and important future challenges. As the transplant community strives to balance quantity and equity of transplants to achieve the best possible outcomes, determining the right long-term allocation strategy becomes increasingly important. In this light, challenges include making full use of the various modalities that are now available through integrated and optimized matching software, encouragement of transplant centers to fully participate, improving transplant rates by focusing on the expected long run number of transplants, and selecting uniform allocation criteria to facilitate international pools. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
