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    Development of a conceptual overview of the strategic management of information technology and an enquiry into information technology strategy formulation in practice : a research study submitted to the Department of Information systems in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1991) Olson, Mike
    Strategy is not a new term, the word has been in use as far back in the history of man to whenever conflict between man has been evident. Today, the battleground is the business environment and the conflict has arisen through the desire to prosper (for some the need to survive) in a highly competitive and increasingly dynamic situation. Business leaders, academic theorists and researchers in general are now directing a large proportion of their skills and resources toward the topic of strategic management. Their efforts over just a short period (20 or so years), have produced a wide range and variety of approaches, concepts and practical conclusions rapidly increasing in both quantity and scope. This research study tackles the entire subject of strategic management, but in particular it goes beyond traditional boundaries to investigate the equally dynamic and high profile topic of strategic information technology (IT) management and presents both fields within the "strategic management" umbrella. There can be no conclusive result or definitive statement when dealing with an outlook as broad as this. The real benefit and intention for the study is one of education and enlightenment on the history and evolution of strategic management and its effect and influence upon IT management, to its current state of the art. This is presented as a conceptual overview as the result of a review of the literature concerning both corporate and information technology management issues. As a balancing element the study investigates from the New Zealand perspective, the impact and level of penetration that strategic management has achieved within large and successful organisations, which again focuses upon the management of information as a strategic resource. Results from 55 respondents to the study's survey questionnaire show that only eight companies (15%) do not have either an IT or a corporate strategic plan, and that conversely 26 (just under half) do have strategic plans within both corporate and IT realms. This reveals that 47, or an overwhelming majority of 85% of those that responded to the questionnaire, are currently involved in the preparation of strategic plans whether IT or corporate. The high level of interest and involvement in strategic management as indicated by the survey is reflected in the multitude of literary works on the subject and the increased attention to the topic evident in the content of new courses offered by tertiary education institutions. This report will be useful to academics, theorists and practitioners alike and can be utilised as (1) a general annotated bibliography of readily available past literature, (2) a tool for rapidly reviewing how strategic management has evolved, (3) a source of quick reference for trends and significant findings within N.Z. businesses, or (4) where an individual has not yet encroached the subject, a starting point for their appreciation of the topic. It is my desire that this work contribute in some small way to the consideration by all who read it that information and communication are the essence of our everyday lives, and that therefore the adoption of an holistic approach to each and every means for making information more communicable, more valuable, more accurate, more relevant and appropriate, and more easily and effectively communicated whether through the use of technology or not, is both a logical and a most desirable proposition.
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    The building of strategic capabilities for sustainable competitive advantage : case studies in the New Zealand seafood industry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Strategic Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2001) Bess, J Randall
    The aim of this study was to identify the process by which selected New Zealand seafood firms built firm-specific resources, referred to as strategic capabilities, to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in the context of New Zealand's economic reforms and transformation of the fisheries management system. Having identified several contextual factors unique to the seafood industry and the macro-environment, this study examined the capabilities building process using broad organisational, environmental and historical contexts. A case study approach was used to conduct the research. The case study design consisted of four medium to large-sized, highly vertically-integrated seafood firms. Data were collected from interviews, internal documents, industry documents and observations. The study concludes that the strategic capabilities building process is predominantly systemic, that is utilising and combining several firm-specific resources to develop simultaneously sources of advantage so that firms can compete successfully in the highly competitive international seafood market. The systemic nature of the strategic capabilities building process requires seafood firms to build up intangible processes and routines that link all of their value chain activities in the best possible way. Processes and routines are dynamic; they change, therefore, with the acquisition and integration of new knowledge about a firm's operations, its products and those external environmental forces that impact on the firm. This study suggests that the greatest potential gain for highly vertically-integrated firms lies in senior managers' reviewing the nature and extent of their interactions, their comprehension of value chain activities, and their firm-wide communication-oriented processes and routines that support the capabilities building process. This study also confirms that for vertically-integrated firms operating in resource-based industries, secure access rights to the resource play a critical role in firm-level competitiveness.
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    Commercialisation strategy in biotechnology start-ups : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business and Administration at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Dixon, Margaret Janette
    The biotech sector has accumulated losses of around US$40 billion since its inception in the mid-1970s. The reasons for this may lie with the science itself, with organization and strategy, with the underlying costs of developing biotechnologies and/or with the institutional environment that biotech firms operate within. This thesis assumes that better organization and commercialisation strategy will improve overall returns in the biotech sector and asks the fundamental questions ‘how do biotech firms do strategy?’ and ‘how can biotech firms do strategy better?’ Strategy is the domain of the strategic management literature. Contributions to the literature that bear directly on commercialisation strategy in the biotech sector are examined. The sector’s unique institutional context is found to create an environment of high-risk and high-uncertainty. The real options reasoning and dynamic capabilities literatures provided some useful ideas for strategy in this context. Overall, the literature identifies a shortfall in directly actionable advice for biotech practitioners. Thus, the ‘great divide’ between academic research and practice is discussed. This thesis seeks to narrow the gap by synthesizing academic theory and practitioner knowledge on commercialisation strategy in the biotech sector in the way that will extend the strategic management literature and provide a process to aid practitioners in strategic decision making. A two phase methodological approach is employed that begins with a historical review of the development of the biotech sector and three in-depth case studies. Strategic issues facing biotech start-ups at the industry-level and firm-level are examined and related to the business models that firms adopt as an embodiment of their commercialisation strategies. A solid understanding of this relationship is then combined with real options reasoning and theory on dynamic capabilities to propose a model that may help biotech practitioners improve their approach to commercialization strategy. The model is refined and validated in a second phase of research involving interviews with seasoned veterans of the biotech sector. The Commercialisation Options Model is the final output of this research.
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    Governing the local : a case study of the use of markets and strategic performance measurement systems in a local authority in New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Accountancy, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2004) Nyamori, Robert Ochoki
    This study seeks to illuminate how markets and private sector managerial practices, especially strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS) have come to be a central part of the government of the local domain and with what effects, following far-reaching reforms to the New Zealand public sector commencing in the mid 1980s. The study uses Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality to interpret the way people are governed through regimes of practice that present certain ways of being as true and others as false, utilising traditional devices of sovereignty and discipline, as well as technologies of the self. Parliamentary bills to reform New Zealand local government were analysed as was the literature on local government reform. These illuminated the rationalities and technologies underpinning the reforms. Literature on strategic planning and management in the public sector were analysed to provide insights into the discursive formation of SPMS as a technology of government. The researcher also interviewed the city manager, managers of all the units, some non-managerial staff, The Mayor and one councillor of Future City Council The pseudonym has been adopted for purposes of confidentiality.(FCC), a New Zealand local authority. He also collected and analysed numerous internal documents from the case study. The analysis involved a transcription of all interviews and then identification of common themes from among the interviewees. The individual interviewee's response to a theme were analysed against that of other interviewees and the internal documents so as compare their interpretation of the introduction and effects of markets and SPMS. The results of this analysis were then interpreted employing the concept of governmentality. The aim was to establish the extent to which this concept could explain the changes to local government and their effects. The reforms to local government in New Zealand were driven by the same rationalities as those of the larger New Zealand public sector, namely, efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. The study found that these rationalities were associated with regimes of practice that sought to constitute citizen and staff as autonomous entities that could govern themselves, while at the same time gazing over each other. These practices included the separation of policy making from management, commercial operations from non-commercial ones, business from non-business departments and the introduction of competition through internal markets. These changes were associated with discourses that promoted citizens as active participants in their communities but who were at the same time autonomous individuals who could take care of themselves and who had the rights of consumers. These dividing practices sought to change the nature of the relationship between staff and citizens, supplanting trust with technologies of mistrust, enabling government without obvious intrusion hence overcoming the dialectic between control and freedom that is the hallmark of advanced liberal societies. These rationalities were also associated with SPMS programmes and technologies that sought to reconfigure local spaces into communities bounded by local authorities. Since annual planning and the long-term financial strategy required consultation with their communities, citizens were interpellated into their own government. Consultation and citizen participation enabled the needs and aspirations of these communities to be known to staff of the FCC who would be expected to work towards their fulfilment. These needs and aspirations in turn became the basis for programmes of governing the conduct of the staff and elected representatives of the FCC. SPMS incited citizens to evaluate the FCC and various facets of their lives on the basis of the logic of the economic, which became the vehicle and basis for far- reaching changes to the FCC. These practices enabled FCC individual staff's work to be delineated into objectives, to which they were assigned. This in turn enabled the individual performance of staff to be calculable, measurable and visible hence tying their daily working lives with the rationalities of government. The dreams of reformers however, do not always accord with practice, as was evident at the FCC. The changes while embraced by some were resisted by others, who though subsequently defining the organisation in terms of strategy and markets, do not appear to have been overwhelmed by it. This study hopefully contributes to accounting research in a number of ways. While the bulk of Foucaultian studies are historical, this study combines both historical and contemporary analysis of the evolution and instantiation of a discourse of markets and private sector managerialism. The study is able to show how the subject constitutes and is constituted by a discourse of community, customer and enterprise, contrary to previous studies that have relied on the study of discourse as an intermediary to the subject. The study extended previous by show how the subject is not a mere pawn of discourse, but is able to appropriate and resist discourses that contradict his or her prior identities. The study also shows the potentially rich insights, which can be gleaned from looking at accounting as part of the larger modalities for governing organisational and social life. It shows how accounting data and personnel are appropriated by staff in various units to develop and interpret strategy and measure its progress within the organisation. Importantly, accounting logic is used to link individual work with the political rationalities of strategic planning. The researcher hopes that a healthy debate would ensue regarding the reasons, means and effects of neo-liberal modes of government in the local sphere.
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    The search for sustainable competitive advantage : a stakeholder management perspective : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Wu, Minyu
    Competitive advantage and stakeholder management are two important research streams that have attracted much attention during the past two decades. Although competitive advantage is the core issue of strategic management in which stakeholder management is rooted, the two topics have developed seemingly independently in the literature. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore how stakeholder management influences competitive advantage. The research is guided by a theoretical framework that employs a stakeholder perspective, linking three perspectives of competitive advantage—the resource-based view, the relational view, and the activity-position view. The general research approach chosen is a qualitative, multiple-case study. Ten cases were selected, from leading firms of several industries in Taiwan, and in-depth interviews were conducted. Results showed that a firm’s competitive advantage comes from its resource capacity (superior resources, unique capabilities, and solid relationships) and a mix of activities that respond to the competitive context. Competitive advantage, too, can be analysed in terms of two components: resource advantage and positional advantage. Stakeholder management can have significant influences on resource advantages as stakeholders play important roles in the process of value creation. They are the providers who supply valued resources to the firm and, as such, can act as catalysts or hindrances that either facilitate or impede the generation of valued resources. Successful stakeholder management strengthens a firm’s resource profile and thus enhances its resource advantages. Stakeholder management also has considerable influences on positional advantages, as stakeholders are relevant to activities and drivers that determine cost and differentiation. Moreover, stakeholders are key players in the competitive context, who help to shape the competitiveness of the firm. The study reported that stakeholder management helps to sustain competitive advantage through advancing a firm’s resource capacity—resource commitment, developing capabilities, and building relationships. Stakeholder management also generates several isolating mechanisms that preserve competitive advantage, including time compression diseconomies, causal ambiguity, social complexity, and transaction costs. However, in the face of ever-changing situations, managers need to adopt different strategies for managing stakeholder relations. To achieve sustained competitive advantage in a dynamic context, firms not only have to strengthen the capacity of resource advantage to fit the competitive strategy, but also need to use innovative and entrepreneurial approaches for managing their stakeholder relations.
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    Strategies, uncertainty and performance of small business startups
    (Kluwer, 2000) Van Gelderen, Marco; Frese, Michael; Thurik, Roy
    Personal strategies of owners/founders of small business startups are related to performance and to environmental uncertainty. This is done using a longitudinal data set. Personal strategies are operationalized by a behavioral measure of the manners in which small business founders deal with situations. The results suggest a dynamic process between strategy and performance. Business owners that perform poorly employ a Reactive Strategy, with poor performance leading to increased use of reactive behavior. High performing business owners start out focussing on the most crucial issues (Critical Point Strategy), with high performance leading to a more top-down (Complete Planning) approach. These relations are controlled for characteristics of the environment of the firm. Strategy use is dependent upon the type and level of environmental uncertainty. Complete Planning strategy is used less frequently in a fast changing environment and more often in a complex environment. Use of Opportunistic Strategy is negatively related to the complexity of the environment, while the Reactive Strategy is used more frequently in a non-munificent environment.
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    Outsourcing versus in-house facilities management : framework for value adding selection : a research thesis presented in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Construction, Institute of Technology & Engineering, College of Sciences, Massey University at Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Kamarazaly, Myzatul Aishah
    Investment in the physical infrastructure and the provision of facilities management (FM) services should be geared toward achieving the strategic objectives of an organization, which largely aim at value creation. Sole focus on the financials while choosing between outsourcing and in-house FM options excludes other non-financial measures such as the extent to which the FM route contributes to improving internal business processes and the overall strategic health of the organization. This paper presents the results of investigations into a holistic perspective on the key variables to consider in choosing between outsourcing and in-house FM in order to provide value added service and improve organizational performance. The study was limited to the views expressed by facilities and property managers registered with the Property Institute of New Zealand Property and the Facilities Management Association of Australia. The descriptive survey method was used, which comprised qualitative data gathering using unstructured interviews and quantitative data gathering using structured questionnaires. Content analyses, multi-attribute methods and Spearman’s rank correlation tests were used in the analysis of the data and the testing of the research propositions/ hypotheses. Results showed that four broad categories constitute the holistic FM functional areas: strategic, operational, property development/project management and general services. Outsourcing was perceived to be more suited than in-house for providing operational, property development/ project management and general services; in-house was more suited for the provision of strategic FM functions. The relative importance of the value adding criteria underlying the broad categories of FM services, as well as the suitability of the use of outsourcing and in-house approaches in meeting each criterion were established. Using the concept of Overall Suitability Score, a process chart was developed for use in making a strategic choice between outsourcing and in-house FM service provisions. The use of this chart is recommended to property and facilities managers, and other stakeholders who may be faced with the dilemma of choosing between outsourcing and in-house approaches to providing FM services. The methodology developed in this study could be replicated in related contexts to resolving strategic decision dilemma involving making choices amongst competing alternatives.