Over the last 20 years, the Chinese corporations have accumulated essential technological competencies such as those in the consumer goods manufacturing and information technologies. Therefore, Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) have high global ambitions to expand their reach into the foreign markets as an important role in contributing to the rising economic power of China. They are establishing greenfield subsidiaries from the ground up to penetrate into foreign markets. On the other hand, service offerings and service solutions are becoming the popular options for the consumption of our daily life. It has a huge potential for company to increase the customer engagement and “lock in” the customers. The term “servitization” is going viral nowadays which refers to an organizational transformation of companies from being a product-centered organization to being a service provider for customers. However, given the more and more integrated world economy, the servitization difficulties that are faced by companies, especially Chinese MNEs, are even more complex due to the changing environment and the involvement of different stakeholders in a global environment. This problem of servitization, especially for the greenfield subsidiaries of the Chinese MNEs, gets even difficult to be handled.

This research explains the reasons of why the Chinese MNE greenfield subsidiaries are facing many obstacles. By looking into the characteristics of the organization, this research suggested that the performance of the servitization is correlated to the organizational features. Using agent-based model OperA to study the servitization in the organization is served as an exploration of a new approach to study the servitization. The insights that are explored from this approach is able to assist the future studies of other research problems regarding the servitization. On the other hand, people in the industries of different countries could be aware of the challenges of the globalization of Chinese MNEs, as well as the issues that they are facing. Understanding their problems will be helpful to establish better business cooperation and networking connections with the Chinese MNEs.

There has been a quick shift on the way organizations look at the IT value proposition. If in the past decades it was considered a cost-reduction driver, now CIOs view it as a new source of novelty and innovativeness - key factors to respond to changes in the economic, social, and technological environments. IT vendors are required not only to support various IT functions, but also to enhance business value through the internal development of cutting-edge applications and breakthrough services. In addition, CIOs are increasing the number of strategic collaborations as to take advantage of the vendors’ innovation capabilities. This is in line with the Open Innovation paradigm, which has been successfully applied in many domains but whose benefits are still unreap in the IT field.
These trends rise several complications, due to the various challenges that innovation-oriented inter-firm collaborations imply from a managerial perspective. Specifically, it has been argued that inter-firm alignment is a fundamental element to successfully initiate IT innovation partnerships. However, little guidance is available concerning the management of the first phases of such collaborations.
To address this problem, this study explores the vendor-client relationship from three different but complementary perspectives (e.g., organizational, contractual and social), which have been identified as the main dimensions to be considered in the study of inter-firm collaborations and whose alignment between firm is necessary to build successful innovation partnerships. As such, this research proposes a conceptual model where the organizational, social and contractual dimensions represent the independent variables and where inter-firm alignment represents the dependent variable. Furthermore, our model incorporates two additional elements, namely vendor size and relationship age, which represent the moderator variables and influence the abovementioned relationship.
This qualitative study has been carried out in the working setting of AirFrance-KLM Group, a world leader in the airline service industry. Through the analysis on embedded case study consisting of three study cases, it has been possible to capture the three different facets of vendor-client collaborations and identify those elements and conditions critical to achieve inter-firm alignment during the formation of innovation partnerships with strategic IT vendors.
The findings of this research suggest that while all three dimensions need to be addressed during the initial phases of a strategic partnership oriented to innovation activities, the interrelations between social and contractual dimensions and between social and organizational dimensions required a more careful consideration. In regards to the intertwine between social and contractual dimensions, the results indicate that during the early stage of a joint innovation project in the IT environment, a governance based on relational and behavioural elements tends to substitute formal governance, due to a fluidity of goals, requirements and expectations. In regards to the linkages between organizational and social elements, the findings suggest that shared and well-defined organizational practises are critical to foster inter-firm social interactions and support the development of trust and commitment. Interpersonal exchange and mutual understanding are likely to increase when the governance of the collaboration is less centralized and formalized, as well as when more autonomy is given to its members and an integrative work structure exists.
Drawn from the analysis of the moderator variables, Vendor Size turned out to have a great influence in achieving inter-firm alignment. Difference sizes represented an important element that had to be taken into account in aligning the various facets of the collaboration. A smaller vendor requires less effort in building a positive social context, as well as in achieving organizational coordination. On the other hand, it requires more resources to assess its real long-term value and contribution. A larger vendor is characterized by more layered and complex structures, and thus necessitates higher efforts to align processes and actions. However, it also provides a larger sets of skills and capabilities, as well as more industry knowledge and experienced people. In regards to the second moderator, Relationship Age greatly influenced the causal relationship: a longer relationship allowed to avoid complex contractual agreements. On the other hand, a lack of previous joint experience necessitated a higher initial efforts to build trust and assess each other commitment. Conversely, the findings suggest also that long-lasting business relations do not necessarily support initial inter-firm alignment in innovative vendor-client collaborations. Specifically, the study cases provide evidence that also the type of content exchange and the focus of previous business relations may also represent another moderating factor in achieving inter-firm alignment.
Furthermore, this Thesis provides a set of actions to be undertaken to achieve inter-firm alignment by covering the three different dimensions of vendor-client collaborations.
Follow-up research could further support the findings through more quantitative approaches, as well as provide additional insights on the dyad relational and contractual governance, as well as on those organizational factors and practises that enhance the relational and social elements necessary to foster inter-firm alignment.

Key words: IT Service Industry, Open Innovation, IT Relationship Management, IT Collaborations, Airline Service Industry, AirFrance-KLM

Self-driving cars have developed rapidly in recent years, diminishing the technological barriers blocking the introduction of the technology. Besides these technological barriers however, there are other issues, such as user acceptance, that need to be dealt with in order for autonomous vehicles to be successfully introduced to the market. One of these issues is user acceptance. Getting a clear view of the user acceptance of self-driving cars is especially relevant for parties such as the national government and the automotive industry, who might benefit from the introduction of autonomous vehicles, and would therefore like to ensure that the technology becomes a success. This master thesis research looks into the factors that influence the user acceptance of self-driving cars through a series of interviews, after which the implications of these factors the government and the automotive industry are considered.

In a traditional view, innovation is seen as a silver bullet to bring well-being to society. However, various reports seem to prove that this assumption is no longer valid. Almost always, the adverse impacts of innovation endorse that innovation is no longer a sole province of innovators. In many areas, innovations interact with stakeholders from multiple backgrounds. In order to allow a ‘better society with a better innovation’, scholars then raise a concern to take into account an ethical perspective in the innovation processes. Several frameworks have been offered to fulfill such demands. However, it seems that these prior concepts find little fit with the current challenges that society faces. This then drives the emergence of a new innovation approach, namely responsible innovation.

However, current conceptions of responsible innovation suffer from a failure to take a quantitative assessment into account. Regrettably, this failure becomes a shortcoming of current rationale in the responsible innovation arena. Of particular concern is the absence of a scale to measure a level of individual behavior in regards to the responsible innovation concept, namely a responsible innovation scale. At this moment, this scale is arguably a necessity in the business context because it allows the innovators to measure how responsible they are while undertaking their jobs.

In order to develop such a scale, a survey was firstly administered to 244 respondents. Subsequently, the response was examined using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Stability of factor structure that was derived from EFA was then assessed using coefficient comparability in a large amount of random half sample. The most stable factor structure was subsequently validated using multiple statistical analytic methods. The finding showed that such measurement tool can be operationalized using eight questions. Finally, study limitations and fruitful future studies were offered to improve the scale in certain contexts.

Keyword: responsibility, innovation, responsible innovation, responsible innovation scale, business, individual behavior, factor analysis

Information Technology [IT] is increasingly being integrated into the modern society. Novel IT solutions are Cloud based. Cloud solutions from Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS are examples of services which offer the benefits of cloud computing. For IT providers, leveraging novel IT artefacts may require the development of a new service model. IT services enable new service delivery models and have the ability to disrupt whole industries. Spotify, Airbnb, and Uber are examples of successful businesses using IT driven service models. The academic community researches aspects of IT governance, frameworks, architecture, and business model innovation, management and organisational theories in order to develop a more successful IT service delivery model. The heterogeneous body of these academic theories addresses different parts of the service model development. However, current IT service delivery models lack sufficient support for contextualisation. In a case study at Dutch IT services provider KPN, Agent Based modelling is used to develop future scenario’s for the IT services organisation. With a strong focus on the organisation and the agents in the organisation, the Agent Based modelling approach OperA is applied. By Using semi-structured interviews to collect data throughout the services delivery chain, a future scenario with the IT broker as a new role was developed. Consequently, roles facilitating legacy platforms are expected to discontinue. From the future scenario, a roll-out plan using three phases is developed using the social structure of the organisation model. The environments of the OperA model enable the research to focus on the social structure of IT services delivery and the analysis of interactions between roles. The OperA model is a sufficient model for strategic decision making in IT services delivery. Further work could generate tools to fully automated the validation of the OperA model and connect it to real life phenomena with real time adaption to changes.

In the light of the fourth industrial revolution, referred to as Industry 4.0, big data is becoming the key resource of modern companies. In order to safely harvest the potential benefits of the Industry 4.0, a high level of data quality is essential. Yet, modern companies experience poor data quality levels, mainly in human generated datasets. To improve human generated data quality, the IT usage behaviour should be studied. This research investigated the influence of team-technology acceptance and satisfaction on human generated data quality. The research was conducted at Royal Vopak and studied the data from the Decision Support System: INFOR. The study followed a multimethod comparative field study design, in which interviews combined with a literature review provided input and practical validation for a survey and a data quality assessment. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) regression was conducted to investigate the relation between TAM variables and data quality of the Decision Support System (DSS). Results confirmed that the perceptions of riskiness, ambiguity had effect on data quality levels. Also, evidence for the influence of perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use on overall satisfaction was found. Future research should use these results in developing training and development programs to improve team-technology interaction and data quality levels.

To understand the full impact of broadband implementation to development, investigations beyond its relationship with economic measures are needed. In this study, we particularly want to assess the impact of broadband to human development. The objective of this study is to build knowledge and insight into impact assessment in the field of human development and broadband by developing a methodology of human development impact assessment and applying it to Palapa Ring Project. Palapa Ring project is a backbone network deployment to all the municipalities in Indonesia, mainly in the form of fiber optic cable. After the methodology was developed by doing literature review, twelve interviews to various governmental and non-governmental organizations in Jakarta, Nusa Tenggara, and Papua as well as desk research are conducted as parts of applying the methodology. As a result, is it found that mostly positive impacts are expected in the productivity and empowerment components of human development, while equality and sustainability components are expected to receive positive and negative impacts. Based on the result, it is recommended to take measures to enhance the positive impacts and mitigate the negative impacts, most notably by addressing implementation issues related to broadband utilization, promoting e-literacy, engaging less privileged groups, and promoting environmentally sustainable use of broadband. Ultimately, this study has contribute in developing methodology of human development impact assessment that can be applied to other cases as well as giving feedback to the literatures on broadband impacts to human development.