1,721,039 research outputs found
Managing Sustainable Performance and Governance in Higher Education Institutions : A Dynamic Performance Management Approach
No full textThis book aims to cover about a decade of research activities devoted to university management, exploring its specific organizational complexity, and adopting systemic approaches to managing its performance generation mechanisms. It also draws on the field experience spent as the academic delegate for scientific support to strategic planning, management control, performance evaluation, and statistical reporting at the University of Palermo, Italy. This work is included in a series on “System Dynamics for Performance Management.”
The fast-changing evolutionary process of global higher education systems systematically poses new challenges related to the appearance of innovative elements that lead academic governing bodies to question current managerial structures and methods. Due to this, theory and practice have gathered multiple contributions and experiences to support and further develop this evolutionary pathway during the past few decades.
In the same vein, this book aims to draw on this flourishing debate on higher education policy and management and explore an innovative systemic perspective to design and implement sustainable performance management systems for academic institutions. The conditions for the success of universities, the critical issues underlying the creation of academic value, the dynamic complexity characterizing academic governance settings, the pluralistic audience of stakeholders and related expectations, and the causal interplays between organizational performance variables represent some of the central themes around which this work is developed.
More specifically, the book suggests and discusses the adoption of a dynamic performance management (DPM) approach to frame the inherent organizational complexity of higher education institutions, thus supporting a strategic learning perspective to design and implement relevant performance measures. This approach originates from the combination between conventional performance management and system dynamics modeling. Many research and practice contributions prove that this methodological combination can boost the understanding and interpretation of value creation processes by identifying and exploring the causal connections among
strategic resource allocation and consumption, corresponding performance drivers, emerging outputs, and outcomes
Supporting public sector management through simulation-based methods: a dynamic performance management approach
No full textThough it draws a number of precursors, simulation-based techniques applied to traditional performance management frameworks constitute a novel approach to support public sector institutions in framing organizational performance dynamics and, as a result, improving public service delivery. This paper aims at contributing to the improvement of the outcomes achievable from the use of traditional performance management systems in the public sector by combining them with a simulation-based method named System Dynamics modeling. Such an approach is called Dynamic Performance Management
Designing a Multi-Sided Platform business model assessment framework: a Dynamic Performance Management perspective
No full textThe purpose of this research is to offer an assessment framework to validate multisided platform business models. For this aim, we propose a systemic perspective based on the dynamic performance management approach. This approach is particularly effective to make explicit the net of relationships between internal and external strategic resources, the value creation and capture drivers, and the way such drivers influence platform performances. The developed multisided platform business model assessment framework has been tested by using a success and a failure case, respectively, Airbnb and Take Eat Easy. Research originality results from the combination of multisided platform value creation/capture drivers and innovative approach like the dynamic performance management to assess platforms business models. Findings show that neglecting the role played by value creation and capture drivers and those cause-and-effect mechanisms aimed at leveraging critical internal and external strategic resources can lead to platform failure
A dynamic business modelling approach to design and experiment new business venture strategies
No full textBusiness Modelling has evolved as a key activity to reflect new business venture strategy by framing the way a firm will operate and how it will function in achieving its goals (e.g., profitability, growth, innovation, social impact). However, scholars and practitioners have criticized the adoption of a too static perspective in the design and use of conventional Business Model representations. Such a static perspective prevents nascent entrepreneurs experimenting with their Business Models and, as a result, identifying the most effective strategies, especially in terms of business sustainability and profitability. In this paper, we argue that combining conventional Business Model schemas with System Dynamics modelling results in a strategy design tool that may overcome several limitations related to a static view of Business Model representation. Mapping the different key elements underlying value creation processes into a system of causal interdependencies – through the use of simulation – allows strategy analysts and entrepreneurs to experiment and learn how the business reacts to strategic and organizational changes in terms of performance, innovation and value creation. As such, Dynamic Business Models provide useful insights to strategy formulation and business venturing by capturing how critical Business Model elements interact to produce enduring competitive advantages over time
Introducing a strategic perspective in lean thinking applications through system dynamics modelling: the dynamic Value Stream Map
No full textPurpose: Lean Thinking is an operation management discipline which aims to identify, map and analyse the activities forming a process to detect “value waste” and outline the most effective flow of activities to execute in sequence. Process mapping is often developed in lean projects through the use of the Value Stream Map (VSM). Like many other management tools, the VSM adopts a static and non-systemic perspective in the representation of an organizational process. This may result in the implementation of Lean projects inconsistent with the overall organizational long-term strategy, thus leading to dysfunctional performance. In order to overcome this limit, the paper suggests combining VSM with System Dynamics (SD) modelling. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a review of the literature on VSM. This review is matched with an analysis of SD modelling principles aimed at explaining the practical and theoretical contribution of this approach to operation and strategic management practices. An illustrative case study is then provided to explore the practical implications of the proposed approach. Findings: Our results show that SD modelling provides robust methodological support to VSM and Lean Thinking due to its inner characteristics, namely: simulation, systemic view, explicit link between system structure and behaviour and effective visual representation. Originality/value: This research proposes a novel approach to design VSMs aimed at fostering a strategic perspective in Lean Thinking applications. Such an approach connects two fields of research and practice – i.e. VSM and SD modelling – which have traditionally been kept separated or, at least, partially combined for specific organizational sub-systems, thereby neglecting a broader strategic view of the entire process system
La misurazione della performance accademica: un'analisi applicata al "costo standard per studente in corso"
No full textThe recent introduction of the “standard cost per regular student”, as a criterion adopted by the Italian Ministry of Education to measure public university performance, implies a deep afterthought of those methods underlying the design of performance management and measurement systems in Italian universities. This has also to be extended – through a systemic perspective – to the evaluation of the Third Mission activities influencing the corresponding socio-economic context.
With the intent to support a diagnostic activity related to the academic performance, this paper aims at introducing a system of output-outcome indicators – within a consistent framework – oriented to measure the drivers of the “standard unit cost to educate a regular student”, as well as their impact on the socio-economic development of the area where the university operates. We, therefore, bear in mind the following research questions: (i) What are the main elements of the standard unit cost per student and how do they interact each other? (ii) Is it possible to measure the contributions of these elements through a performance indicator system, able to balance outputs and outcomes? (iii) If and how this system could help the academic decision-making process?
In order to address these issues, we adopt a qualitative research method. The research is structured in two stages: (i) examination and application of the main theories on Public Value and Public Sector Performance Management, with specific reference to the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) analysis, and study of the relevant regulation (Gelmini Reform); (ii) design of an academic performance measurement framework, based on the elements of the “standard unit cost to educate a regular student”, according to a balanced “output-outcome” perspective.
Apart from the general doubts raised by the algorithm to calculate the “standard unit cost to educate a regular student” provided by the Legislator, the main limitations of this study are that the proposed model cannot represent the whole academic performance, but just part of it, and that it must be validated by empirical evidence afterwards. Nevertheless, we believe that this academic performance measurement framework could help academic decision makers to foster a strategic view in order to better define policies and strategies, aiming to improve the academic performance and their impact on the context of referenc
Adopting a Dynamic Performance Governance Approach to Frame Interorganizational Value Generation Processes into a University Third Mission Setting
No full textIn recent years, the literature on Higher Education policy and management emphasized an increasingly entrepreneurial role played by Universities in contributing to the socio-economic development of their regional and local areas. Besides Education and Research, this crucial role identifies a Third Mission to be fulfilled by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), which entails social engagement, networking and collaboration with other stakeholders to generate sustainable community outcomes. This chapter introduces the use of the Dynamic Performance Governance approach to analyze the academic network value generation processes underlying Third Mission activities in Universities. The emerging findings – supported by the exploration of an illustrative example focused on University-Industry-Government partnerships – suggest that this approach is particularly valuable in supporting academic networks to frame and evaluate the outcomes, and associated performance drivers, related to Third Mission activities
Il dynamic business model: una prospettiva dinamica per la progettazione dei modelli di business
No full textBuilding on the extant literature on business modelling and focussing on start-up firms, this article aims at exploring the combination between conventional business model schemes and System Dynamics methodology with the intent to overcome those limitations related to a static design approach. By mapping the multiple key elements underlying value creation processes – linked according to a cause-and-effect perspective – and with the support of a simulation-based methodology, entrepreneurs may experiment and understand how the firm reacts to strategic and organizational changes in terms of performance, innovation and value creation
Experimenting lean dynamic performance management systems design in SMEs
No full textPurpose The purpose of this paper is to frame the potential benefits of lean dynamic performance management (PM) systems for small and micro-enterprises. Such systems may exploit the entrepreneur's tacit knowledge and build on managerial competencies, by incorporating individual attributes into organisational routines.Design/methodology/approach The paper suggests the use of insight models based on the combination of lean PM tools and system dynamics (SD) modelling. Based on a number of exemplary cases, the paper discusses the potential benefits of these models, in respect to four specific contexts: artisan, new company start-up, established firm and micro-giant company. Related to such contexts, the research identifies: needs or priorities, and obstacles or impediments to pursuing business survival and development.Findings The conceptual framework discussed in the paper discloses a quite original empirical basis to outline lean dynamic PM systems that may provide entrepreneurs with a set of key-performance drivers that help them to prioritise action, in each of the four analysed contexts.Originality/value Growing interest in adopting lean PM models in small and micro-firms appears in the recent PM literature with research highlighting strengths and shortcomings. However, few attempts have been produced to overcome such limitations, while the adoption of SD is relatively new in supporting lean PM system design
Benefits from energy policy synchronisation of Brazil's North-Northeast interconnection
No full textDuring the last 10 years Brazil has accelerated the incorporation of new wind capacity into its power matrix. This situation has generated the need for increased transport capacity. However, there have been delays in the planning process for new transmission line construction, thus inducing trapped electricity in the system; in other words, electricity that cannot be dispatched to the interconnected system. Using system dynamics modelling, this paper assesses energy policy alternatives for improving the synchronisation between the construction of both power generation and transmission capacities. Simulation results show that policy synchronisation within the wind industry may provide important opportunities regarding security of supply. This paper concludes that in Brazil's case it is possible to attain a balance between wind power expansion and interconnection capacity through synchronised and systemic interventions
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