Many researchers have searched for evidence of organizational improvements from the huge sums invested in ICT. Unfortunately, evidence for such a pay back is spotty at best (e.g., Brynjolfsson, 1994; Meyer and Gupta, 1994; Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1998). On the other hand, at the individual level, computing and communication technologies are increasingly merging into work in ways that make it impossible to separate the two (Gasser, 1986; Zuboff, 1988; Bridges, 1995).

Abstract—Understanding how to implement software process improvement (SPI) successfully is arguably the most challenging issue facing the SPI field today. The SPI literature contains many case studies of successful companies and descriptions of their SPI programs. However, the research efforts to date are limited and inconclusive and without adequate theoretical and psychometric justification. This paper extends and integrates models from prior research by performing an empirical investigation of the key factors for success in SPI. A quantitative survey of 120 software organizations was designed to test the conceptual model and hypotheses of the study. The results indicate that success depends critically on six organizational factors, which explained more than 50 percent of the variance in the outcome variable. The main contribution of the paper is to increase the understanding of the influence of organizational issues by empirically showing that they are at least as important as technology for succeeding with SPI and, thus, to provide researchers and practitioners with important new insights regarding the critical factors of success in SPI.

To examine the effects of interorganizational network structures on acquisition decisions, we propose a model whereby firms learn by sampling the diverse experiences of their network partners. We tested this model by examining the effect of diversity of network partners ’ experience on firms ’ acquisition decisions, using data on acquisition premiums and acquirers ’ stock market performance from 1986 to 1997. Results show that firms tied to others with heterogeneous prior premium experience tend to pay less for their acquisitions and have better-performing acquisitions than those tied to others with homogeneous experience. Firms also pay lower premiums when their network partners (1) have completed deals of diverse sizes, (2) have unique information, and (3) are themselves of diverse sizes. Firms that have multiplex relationships with their partners receive even more benefit. The results extend prior research on networks and learning by showing that collective network experience affects firms’ decision quality. • 2 A substantial body of research shows that firms tend to be influenced by their network partners in decisions about and adoptions of various practices and structures. The experience of network partners is communicated in various forums and tends to be influential relative to other information sources (Haunschild and Beckman, 1998). Network partners have been found to influence many diverse

Business schools strive to meet two goals: knowledge exploration through research and knowledge exploitation through instruction. Our results indicate that research performance (pages published in leading journals) and MBA program performance (from the popular press) are different. Research performance was improved by the number of faculty, the proportion of full professors, the proportion of assistant professors, and editorships. MBA program performance was improved by the budget per faculty member, and the proportion of full professors.

An attempt is made in this article to explain the amazing growth of the consultancy market. Five different perspectives are chosen: a sociological view on the growing complexity of the environment, an analysis of what functions consultants perform for their clients and of how they enhance the demand for these services, a discussion of what difficulties clients may face when trying to evaluate the consultants' performance and, finally, a psychological view on managers' decision to increasingly and repeatedly contract consultants. A model is then proposed that draws on this analysis and offers a dynamic explanation of the "consulting explosion".

Organization concepts and models are increasingly being adopted for the design and specification of multi-agent systems. Just like agents, organizations should also be able to adapt themselves to changing environments. In order to develop a theory on how this reorganization should be performed we need a theoretical framework in which both organizational performance as well as the reorganization itself can be described. In this paper, we present a formal model for the specification of organizations and organizational change. The model is sufficiently generic to enable the comparison of different existing organizational approaches to MAS, while having enough descriptive power to describe realistic organizations. 1

The impact of knowledge management on the financial success of companies has not yet been properly researched. This paper makes a contribution by examining the relationship between sustainable sales growth and knowledge management activities in 108 Finnish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Design Data were generated from a questionnaire survey of 108 SMEs from different fields and thematic interviews with 10 companies. Findings Higher levels of KM-Maturity were found to correlate positively with long-term sustainable growth. Although Finnish SMEs display a surprisingly high awareness about KM, only a minor proportion of the sample firms has been able to benefit in terms of growth from their KMrelated activities. The results have implications for policy formulation in the field of SMEs, since half the Finnish SMEs in the sample do not grow. We found that the fast-growing companies with high KM-Maturity are applying KM-related activities in a comprehensive and balanced way, thereby raising question marks around the effectiveness of eclectic “KM

To my parents

Despite a large number of studies, the effect of organizational structure on the performance and the individual cognition of its members is still not well understood. Our research aims at developing tools and formalisms to model organizations and evaluate their performance under different circumstances. Organizational effectiveness depends on many factors, including excellence, effective planning and capability to understand and match context requirements. Different organizational structures are clearly better matched to certain problems and context requirements than others, but methods to determine which structure better fits the requirements and goals of a group are non-existent. We propose a combination of agent-based formal models and agent-base simulation that supports the analysis of the congruence of different organizational structures to different problems and requirements. 1.

Simulations of crisis scenarios have the potential to increase insight in the organizational structures needed as crises escalate. Real-life simulations involving personnel and figurants are expensive and time-consuming. Multi-agent system models allow for cost-effective simulations of changing organizational structures, enabling analysis of the implications for enactment during crisis escalation with respect to roles and communication structures. This paper presents both an organization-based model for crisis management that supports simulation of the dynamics of crisis management and a proof of concept implementation.