Descripción de la estructura organizacional del área de responsabilidad empresarial de Ecopetrol

Este artículo tiene como objetivo documentar, mediante el uso de la descripción, el funcionamiento y desarrollo estructural del área de responsabilidad social empresarial de la compañía colombiana de petróleos Ecopetrol S.A. El trabajo se fundamenta a partir de la definición de variables como: Historia y evolución del área, plataforma estratégica, división y coordinación de trabajo. Realizando esta detallada descripción, un análisis de su funcionamiento y buscando una comprensión de sus relaciones con todas las demás divisiones de la empresa; así como, un entendimiento de la sinergia con sus grupos de interés, se conocerán los impactos que genera. Con ello se puede organizar un marco descriptivo que permita aclarar la actividad de un área de RSE; examinando los paralelos con otras empresas que harán posible, en un futuro, entender los modelos de creación y funcionamiento para otras compañías.

Smart choices for growth. Bruegel Policy Contribution 2012/21, November 2012

Recovery in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain is held back in part by structural barriers. Overcoming these requires structural reform and public investment. Given the limited availability of political and financial capital, prioritising reform efforts and spending is important, but difficult. The different success factors for individual sectors are complementary. Using the example of the high-tech industry, we make the case that only investing in one success factor (eg broadband infrastructure) without having a sufficient endowment of others (eg education) is unlikely to make the sector successful. One consequence of the complementarity of the different success factors is that public investment and reform efforts should be fine-tuned in order to match the endowment of other factors. This might imply an increase in efforts to tackle several structural barriers at the same time, but it might also imply reducing investment in less promising fields. This in turn requires strategic thinking about whether it is worthwhile pursuing development strategies that require investment in many success factors but that do not promise much success. Such a strategic approach to public investment and reform efforts might make the allocation of scarce public financial and political capital more efficient.

Towards a framework for managing IT-enabled change, sourcing and governance

In the resource-based view, organisations are represented by the sum of their physical, human and organisational assets, resources and capabilities. Operational capabilities maintain the status quo and allow an organisation to execute their existing business. Dynamic capabilities, otherwise, allow an organisation to change this status quo including a change of the operational ones. Competitive advantage, in this context, is an effect of continuously developing and reconfiguring these firm-specific assets through dynamic capabilities. Deciding where and how to source the core operational capabilities is a key success factor. Furthermore, developing its dynamic capabilities allows an organisation to effectively manage change its operational capabilities. Many organisations are asserted to have a high dependency on - as well as a high benefit from - the use of information technology (IT), making it a crucial and overarching resource. Furthermore, the IT function is assigned the role as a change enabler and so IT sourcing affects the capability of managing business change. IT sourcing means that organisations need to decide how to source their IT capabilities. Outsourcing of parts of the IT function will also outsource some of the IT capabilities and therefore some of the business capabilities. As a result, IT sourcing has an impact on the organisation's capabilities and consequently on the business success. And finally, a turbulent and fast moving business environment challenges organisations to effectively and efficiently managing business change. Our research builds on the existing theory of dynamic and operational capabilities by considering the interdependencies between the dynamic capabilities of business change and IT sourcing. Further it examines the decision-making oversight of these areas as implemented through IT governance. We introduce a new conceptual framework derived from the existing theory and extended through an illustrative case study conducted in a German bank. Under a philosophical paradigm of constructivism, we collected data from eight semi-structured interviews and used additional sources of evidence in form of annual accounts, strategy papers and IT benchmark reports. We applied an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which emerged the superordinate themes for our tentative capabilities framework. An understanding of these interdependencies enables scholars and professionals to improve business success through effectively managing business change and evaluating the impact of IT sourcing decisions on the organisation's operational and dynamic capabilities.

Antecedentes ao sucesso na operação de PMO’s: um modelo estrutural

O objetivo deste estudo explano-exploratório é determinar os fatores chave de sucesso para a operação de PMOs (Project Management Office) nas organizações. Como meio de alcançar o objetivo traçado, realizou-se o levantamento bibliográfico para: (a) conceituar gerenciamento de projetos e PMOs; (b) identificar as diferentes formas de atuação de PMO; (c) identificar os fatores chave de sucesso na operação de PMOs; (d) identificar os fatores que influenciam o sucesso na operação de PMOs; (e) elaborar um meta-modelo contendo os fatores que influenciam e definem o sucesso na operação de PMOs; (f) desenvolver questionário estruturado como instrumento de coleta de dados e (g) levantar metodologia aplicável para o uso de equações estruturais. Durante o período de aplicação do instrumento de coleta de dados, foram obtidas 553 respostas válidas, preenchidas por especialistas em gerenciamento de projetos, sendo 489 do Brasil e 64 de diversos países no mundo. A partir dos dados obtidos, a pesquisa valeu-se das técnicas de Análise Fatorial Exploratória (AFE), Análise Fatorial Confirmatória (AFC) e Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (SEM) para confirmar o meta-modelo teórico proposto. Verificou-se que o meta-modelo inicial não foi confirmado sendo, portanto, necessário a realização de ajustes, os quais foram implementados com justificativas teóricas adequadas. Ainda assim, o meta-modelo final, obtido após as alterações realizadas, explica cerca de 7% da variância dos fatores de sucesso na operação de PMOs.

O impacto da implantação de escritório de gerenciamento de projetos (EGP) nas organizações públicas: o caso da Polícia Federal

Este estudo teve por objetivo investigar os efeitos positivos e negativos percebidos pelos gerentes de projetos, membros dos escritórios de gerenciamento de projetos e patrocinadores após implantação do EGP na Polícia Federal do Brasil. Argumenta que a implantação de EGP tem se evidenciado como um fator crítico para o sucesso para as organizações públicas, pois os projetos são mudanças estruturantes que visam inovações organizacionais. Metodologicamente, trata-se de uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa onde foram aplicadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os membros dos EGP’s, gerentes de projetos e patrocinadores dos EGP´s do Órgão central da Polícia Federal e das Superintendências da Polícia Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo e Minas Gerais, totalizando quatros estudos de caso. Os resultados indicam o tipo de influência que o EGP exerce na organização. As descobertas apontam os impactos positivos, negativos, dificuldades e desafios dos EGP´s, além dos serviços básicos e tradicionais executados pelos EGP´s como desenvolvimento de metodologias, capacitação e treinamento e distribuição de relatórios para alta administração.

Unidades estratégicas de negócios: uma ferramenta para gestão competitiva de empresas

Este artigo tem por objetivo discutir e apresentar algumas considerações acerca das vantagens e implicações da utilização do conceito de UEN - Unidade Estratégica de Negócios, na gestão de empresas, de modo geral. O artigo discute algumas relações que devem ser esclarecidas antes da plena adoção do conceito. Baseado na literatura e na experiência do autor em consultoria em empresas, o artigo propõe uma abordagem metodológica para permitir que gerentes possam definir, analisar e compreender os efeitos da utilização do conceito de UEN - Unidade Estratégica de Negócios, considerando as dimensões competitivas ou Fatores Críticos de Sucesso típicos e intrínsecos da natureza de cada negócio.

Diversidade de líquens em leguminosas da Reserva Biológica de Mogi-Guaçu, SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo sobre uma turbina a gás instalada em uma refinaria de petróleo

The gas turbine (GT) is known to have: low cost of capital over the amount of energy, high flexibility, high reliability, short delivery time, commissioning and commercial operation at the beginning and quick departure. The gas turbine is also recognized for its superior environmental performance, manifested in air pollution containment and reducing greenhouse gases (Mahi, 1994). Gas turbines in simple cycle mode (SC) have long been used by utilities to limited power generation peak. In addition, manufacturing facilities use gas turbines for power generation units on site, often in combination with the process of heat production, such as hot water and steam process. In recent years, the performance of industrial gas turbines has been improved due to significant investments in research and development, in terms of fuel to electricity conversion efficiency, plant capacity, availability and reliability. The greater availability of energy resources such as natural gas (NG), the significant reduction of capital costs and the introduction of advanced cycles, have also been a success factor for the increased use of gas turbines to load applications base (Poulikas, 2004). Open Cycle Gas Turbine with a greater degree of heat to the atmosphere may alternatively be used to produce additional electricity using a steam cycle, or to compose a cogeneration process. The combined cycle (CC) uses the heat from the gas turbine exhaust gas to increase the power output and increase the overall efficiency of more than 50% second (Najjar, 2001). The initial discovery of these cycles in the commercial power generation market was possible due to the development of the gas turbine. Only from the 1970s that gas turbine inlet temperature and therefore the exhaust gas temperature was sufficiently high to allow a better efficiency in the combined cycle ... (Complete Abstract click electronic access below)

KNOWLEDGE-BASED MANUFACTURING STRATEGY AND METHODS FOR FOUNDRIES

The European foundry business is a traditional less RTD intensive industry which is dominated by SMEs and which forms a significant part of Europe’s manufacturing industry. The efficient design and manufacturing of cast components and corresponding tooling is a crucial success factor for these companies. To achieve this, information and knowledge around the design, planning and manufacturing of cast components needs to be accessible in a fast and structured way.

Measuring Consumers' Willingness to Pay. Which Method fits best?

Gauging the maximum willingness to pay (WTP) of a product accurately is a critical success factor that determines not only market performance but also financial results. A number of approaches have therefore been developed to accurately estimate consumers’ willingness to pay. Here, four commonly used measurement approaches are compared using real purchase data as a benchmark. The relative strengths of each method are analyzed on the basis of statistical criteria and, more importantly, on their potential to predict managerially relevant criteria such as optimal price, quantity and profit. The results show a slight advantage of incentive-aligned approaches though the market settings need to be considered to choose the best-fitting procedure.

Assimilation of Compliance Software in Highly Regulated Industries: An Empirical Multitheoretical Investigation

In this paper we follow a theory-based approach to study the assimilation of compliance software in highly regulated multinational enterprises. These relatively new software products support the automation of controls which are associated with mandatory compliance requirements. We use institutional and success factor theories to explain the assimilation of compliance software. A framework for analyzing the assimilation of Access Control Systems (ACS), a special type of compliance software, is developed and used to reflect the experiences obtained in four in-depth case studies. One result is that coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures significantly effect ACS assimilation. On the other hand, quality aspects have only a moderate impact at the beginning of the assimilation process, in later phases the impact may increase if performance and improvement objectives become more relevant. In addition, it turns out that position of the enterprises and compatibility heavily influence the assimilation process.

Vertical integration and information sharing — an empirical investigation in the German apparel industry

Despite the astounding success of the fast fashion retailers, the management practices leading to these results have not been subject to extensive research so far. Given this background, we analyze the impact of information sharing and vertical integration on the performance of 51 German apparel companies. We find that the positive impact of vertical integration is mediated by information sharing, i.e. that the ability to improve the information flow is a key success factor of vertically integrated apparel supply chains. Thus, the success of an expansion strategy based on vertical integration critically depends on effective ways to share logistical information.

A practical approach to project management in a very small company

This article shows how a very small company has tailored Scrum according to its own needs. The main additions made were the “sprint design” phase and the “sprint test” phase. Before the sprint 0, the requirements elicitation and the functional specification were made in order to meet deadlines and costs agreed with clients. Besides, the introduction of an agile project management tool has supported all the process and it is considered the main success factor for the institutionalization of the Scrum process.

La relación entre la gestión de la calidad y el rendimiento empresarial en el sector hotelero

La mayor competitividad del sector hotelero a nivel mundial y la mayor exigencia de los turistas ha provocado que la gestión de la calidad se haya convertido en un factor importante para el éxito de los hoteles. Ante esta situación, este estudio empírico tiene como objetivo analizar si la gestión de la calidad mejora el rendimiento empresarial que alcanzan los hoteles. Para ello, en primer lugar, los hoteles se han clasificado en dos grupos, los que tienen un compromiso medio con la gestión de la calidad y los que tienen un compromiso alto. En segundo lugar, se comprueba que los hoteles que tienen un compromiso alto son los que alcanzan mayores rendimientos empresariales. Por lo tanto, se obtiene una relación positiva entre el compromiso con la gestión de la calidad y el rendimiento en el sector hotelero.

Measuring firm innovativeness: towards a composite innovation index built on firm innovative posture, propensity and performance attributes. ACES Working Paper No. 12, 2008

The ability to innovate is generally accepted as a critical success factor to growth and future performance of firms. Yet, this acceptance obscures a comprehensive perspective on how firms can influence their innovation capacity and resulting performance. This paper proposes a '3P' construct of innovation measurement that simultaneously considers the Posture, Propensity and Performance related to a firm's innovation capabilities. We propose and provide empirical support showing that robust measurement of the performance implications of innovation requires the consideration of input, throughput and output factors simultaneously. Single or more limited indicators do not offer the degree of fine-tuning to a firm's innovation system that managers require. Thus, we propose the development, and future research into contingent variations, of a Composite Innovation Index (CII). We further demonstrate its use in comparing innovators and allowing managers to design a firm's innovation system.