CIOs' perspectives of critical success factors in ERP upgrade projects

Enterprise resource planning systems have required significant upgrades in the 21st century as many of the systems obtained prior to 2000 have become outdated due to vendor changes. SAP and Oracle have emerged as dominant vendors, and SAP has announced discontinuance of support in the future for its primary R/3 system. This study reports interviews with the chief information officers (CIOs) of 15 institutions that have undergone (or are undergoing) enterprise system upgrades, with focus on discussion of major critical success factors for ERP upgrade projects.     

Managerial Success Factors

Abstract

This article reports on an exploratory study conducted in the People's Republic of China (PRC) to identify the managerial success factors perceived by Chinese managers to be important in their market economy. The study also looked at how these factors are exhibited by recent graduates of Chinese universities now working in Chinese firms. Questionnaire responses were collected from managers in 113 Chinese state-owned exnterprises (SOEs) and private firms. Managers in both types of firms agreed on the relative importance and presence of the following factors: work habits, teamwork, creativity, ethics, communication, leadership, and business area knolwedge. Respondents gave higher ratings to the importance of each factor than to its presence in the recently hired gradutes. The results of this study provide a management profile of knowledge, skills, and abilities considered desirable by Chinese managers for today's market economy in the People's Republic of China. The identification of gaps between importance ratings and presence ratings provides valuable insight into changes that should be considered by educators in the design of business area currucula in Chinese universities.     

Business process re-engineering in the logistics industry: a study of implementation,success factors,and performance

As business process re-engineering (BPR) is an important foundation to ensure the success of enterprise systems, this study would like to investigate the relationships among BPR implementation, BPR success factors, and business performance for logistics companies. Our empirical findings show that BPR companies outperformed non-BPR companies, not only on information processing, technology applications, organisational structure, and co-ordination, but also on all of the major logistics operations. Comparing the different perceptions of the success factors for BPR, non-BPR companies place greater emphasis on the importance of employee involvement while BPR companies are more concerned about the influence of risk management. Our findings also suggest that management attitude towards BPR success factors could affect performance with regard to technology applications and logistics operations. Logistics companies which have not yet implemented the BPR approach could refer to our findings to evaluate the advantages of such an undertaking and to take care of those BPR success factors affecting performance before conducting BPR projects.     

Evolutionary perspectives on strategy

We advocate studying strategic management from an evolutionary perspective: using dynamic, path-dependent models that allow for possibly random variation and selection within and among organizations. We argue that this perspective directs our attention to some of the most interesting problems in strategic management. The papers in this special issue are summarized, along with some of their implications for the advancement of an evolutionary perspective on strategy. Collectively, the papers draw on various theoretical rationales, illustrating how an evolutionary perspective can help to integrate the diverse and otherwise separate theoretical traditions that meet within the field of strategic management.     

浅谈Partnering模式应用的CSFs及其障碍

Partnering模式正被广泛应用在各种不同领域中，评定Partnering模式应用的CSFS及其障碍越来越被组织或学者重视，逐步成为了项目管理中的一项议程。总结了前人的研究成果，提出了普遍认为的CSFS，具体分析了Partnering模式应用的障碍，为Partnering模式的推广提供了借鉴作用。     

External labor market strategy and career success: CEO careers in Europe and the United States

In this paper, we examine the career histories of the chief executive officers (CEOs) affiliated with the 500 largest organizations in Europe and the 500 largest in the United States. Our purpose is to determine whether frequent career moves across employers, a phenomenon we label an “external labor market strategy,” brings greater career rewards than moves inside the same organization. The results reveal that an external labor market strategy is negatively related to career success. On both continents, CEOs who have spent a smaller fraction of their career in their current organization or have changed employers more often have taken a longer time from the start of their career to be promoted to the most influential corporate positions. The labor market institutions in the 22 countries sampled do not influence the relationship between an external labor market strategy and career success, while the specific geographic region in which the employers are located has a limited impact on this relationship. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

比尔芬格柏格——大型综合服务集团

阐述了比尔芬格柏格的发展历程，分析了比尔芬格柏格的经营业绩和市场分布情况，介绍了比尔芬格柏格的业务范围。从公司治理结构、合规制度、人力资源管理和可持续发展4个方面剖析了比尔芬格柏格的企业经营管理状况，并指出清晰的战略定位、成功的增值并购、完善的采购管理和风险管理是比尔芬格柏格取得成功的重要因素。在借鉴其成功经验的基础上，对我国建筑企业的未来发展提出了几点建议。     

Strategy, organization structure and success in the lodging industry

Has Hyatt's success been the result of the way it has structured its organization? Research evidence has accumulated indicating that the way an organization is structured can have profound effects on its performance.Should every lodging organization adopt the same type of structure? Probably not! However, determining the appropriate organizational structure for a lodging organization requires considerable thought and analysis.The results of some of the more compelling research findings relative to the factors that affect the structuring of an organization and the relationship between organizational strategy, structure and effectiveness are examined. Some of these concepts are then applied in an analysis of the structure of three different lodging organizations.     

“边缘地带”解决“三农”问题成败规律探析

研究“三农”问题成败的角度有很多,但从地缘政治视野中去探究“边缘地带”这一特定空间区域的成败经验,目前尚属空白。二战后的“四小龙”、日本和以色列都是成功的案例,而印度、伊拉克、伊朗则是失败的案例。总结其中成功的经验和失败的教训后可得出这样一个结论,即“边缘地带”的国家和地区,必须采取符合当时形势要求的外交战略和自身定位,通过至少与一个全球强权国家结盟,争取机遇和资源,实现“三农”问题的解决。     

Incompetency training: Theory, practice, and remedies

“Incompetency training” includes formal and informal instruction that consciously (purposively) or unconsciously imparts knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior (including procedures) that are useless, inaccurate, misleading, and/or will lower performance outcomes of the trainee versus no training or training using alternative training methods. “Imparts” in the definition refers to exposing a trainee to incompetency training; such exposure is not a guarantee that the training increases the trainee's incompetence. This editorial is to stimulate research interest among scholars in incompetency training theory, evidence, and the efficacy of remedies. The editorial offers an early workbench model of incompetency training theory. The theory includes the proposition that executives and associates in firms, academia, and government organizations consciously as well as unknowingly offer incompetency training in many contexts. Increasing trainees' vigilance and ability to recognize exposure to incompetency-training may help trainees to decrease the effectiveness (impact) of exposures to incompetency training—advancing incompetency training theory and knowledge of incompetency training practice may be necessary conditions for remedying negative outcomes that follow from trainees receiving such training. Available evidence supports the first proposition and, to a limited extent, the second proposition.