A website today is indispensable for any retail operation, no matter how small. The Internet is an integral part of the shopping experience. Not every online retail experience is the same. Grocery stores might offer coupons, office supplies stores might offer coupons and the opportunity to purchase products, and sites such as BarnesandNoble.com are full-service […]
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The traditional wisdom declares that companies that have their sights on export markets must first become innovators in their domestic markets. Innovation will give them the competitive advantage required to succeed in export markets. Another theory, however, argues for a relationship in the other direction. In other words, in addition to innovation leading to exporting, […]
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Public sector organizations are multirational organizations. They do not fall under a single rationality archetype — for example, they are not uniquely political organizations or economic organizations or legal organizations, but rather all of the above. Two researchers from St. Gallen University, Ali Asker Guenduez and Kuno Schedler, build on the social systems theory of […]
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Since 2005, the business units of California-based health care company Allergan has used cloud computing for a wide range of functions, from field sales effectiveness and travel and expense processing to HR performance planning and identity management. In 2010, the company adopted a ‘Cloud First’ policy, looking for cloud computing options before buying or building […]
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Founder and director of the China Supplier 1000 Project, Neale O’Connor, a former visiting associate professor at the National University of Singapore Business School, conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,000 suppliers in China and Hong Kong. Among the core lessons for buyers, Neale writes, is that China retains its strength vis-à-vis other countries, but is facing some […]
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The increasing sophistication of communication technologies and channels, data analytics, market intelligence, and virtual working in organizations has dramatically increased the strategic importance of information. At the same time, digital literacy in the boardrooms of the organizations this affects remains far too low. This has created a leadership vacuum that the CIO can potentially fill. […]
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How are organizational routines — routines in an organization that involve more than one individual — related to the effectiveness of an organizational design or redesign? Answering this question begins with understanding two important characteristics of organizational routines: purpose and business-unit specificity. Routines in an organization will have one of two purposes: an operational purpose, […]
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The IT innovations that have emerged on the consumer market in recent years have led employees, familiar with the benefits consumer products offer, to expect the same level of technology to be provided by their corporate IT departments. This trend, referred to as the ‘consumerization of IT’, has increasingly brought consumer innovations into the workplace; […]
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The apparel industry (which includes clothing, footwear, accessories, etc.) is one of the world’s largest, due partly to the relatively low barriers to entry. According to Euromonitor International, there were more than 1,400 retail brands at the start of 2013. All of these brands are concerned about meeting growing demands and getting their collections out […]
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New technologies and the digitization of the economy have extended the use of offshore outsourcing beyond manufacturing to services. India, which has its own ‘Silicon Valley’ in Bangalore, has become a leading centre for IT and now takes care of around 60 per cent of the world’s information systems development. However, around half of such […]
Read More… from Reducing the Risks of ‘Offshore’ IT