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The purpose of the chapter is to develop and substantiate the necessity for delegating authorities in the process of decision making in modern business systems, as well as conditions, principles, and criteria of successful delegation in view of the applied approach. The methodology of the chapter is based on the method of analysis of causal connections, which is used for determining the necessity and essence of delegation, evaluating and comparison of the possible concepts and means of its implementation in the process of decision making, and studying the managers' opinions for determining the problems of delegation. This allows determining the conditions and criteria of successful delegation and developing an optimal set of principles that allow for effective implementation of the process of delegating authorities. As a result, the authors determine conditions and limitations that determine the possibility of delegating authorities in the process of decision making and offer criteria of successfulness of the process: preliminary task setting, interest and readiness of employees, briefing, written form of delegating authorities for complex and responsible tasks, accessibility of any necessary information, support from manager, and controllability of the process and result. The concepts of delegation are studied, and priority of its new model is established. Based on this, 11 principles of successful delegation were formulated: determination of goal, certainty, parity of rights and responsibility, adequate support, motivation of effective solutions, participation, “finite character,” structural limitations, complex nature of tasks, succession, and vision of perspective.

Complexities of the process of delegation in the process of decision making in business systems are described – their knowledge helps developing own styles of delegation and improving it.

While few would disagree that high data quality is a precondition for the efficiency of a company, this remains an area to which many companies do not give adequate attention. Thus, this paper aims to identify which are the most important barriers preventing companies from achieving high data quality. By improving awareness of barriers on which to concentrate, companies are put in a better position to achieve high quality data.

First, a literature review of data quality and data quality barriers is carried out. Based on this literature review, the paper identifies a set of overall barriers to ensuring high data quality. The significance of these barriers is investigated by a questionnaire study, which includes responses from 90 Danish companies. Because of the fundamental difference between master data and transaction data, the questionnaire is limited to focusing only on master data.

The results of the survey indicate that a lack of delegation of responsibilities for maintaining master data is the single aspect which has the largest impact on master data quality. Also, the survey shows that the vast majority of the companies believe that poor master data quality does have significant negative effects.

The contributions of this paper represent a step towards an improved understanding of how to increase the level of master data quality in companies. This knowledge may have a positive impact on the data quality in companies. However, since the study presented in this paper appears to be the first of its kind, the conclusions drawn need further investigation by other research studies in the future.

This paper identifies the main barriers for ensuring high master data quality and investigates which of these factors are the most important. By focusing on these barriers, companies will have better chances of increasing their data quality.

The study presented in this paper appears to be the first of its kind, and it represents an important step towards understanding better why companies find it difficult to achieve satisfactory data quality levels.

This paper aims to shed light on how family firms execute open innovation strategies by managing internal and external knowledge flows.

First, through a comprehensive literature review, the paper identifies the barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in open innovation processes. Second, it presents and discusses the results of an exploratory case study on Loccioni, an Italian family firm providing high-tech measurement solutions, highlighting how this family firm managed to overcome the barriers in executing an open innovation strategy.

The case study shows that Loccioni faced specific challenges in acquiring and transferring knowledge in its open innovation processes and developed two idiosyncratic capabilities – labelled imprinting and fraternization – that helped the firm overcome the barriers to knowledge acquisition and transfer. The analysis shows that these two capabilities are enabled by the distinctive goals and social capital characterizing family firms.

The paper creates a link between open innovation and family business research with an empirically grounded model illustrating how the idiosyncratic capabilities of a family firm help overcome the critical barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in executing an open innovation strategy.

In the realm of energy behaviour studies, very little research has been done to understand industrial energy behaviour (IEB) that influences the willingness to adopt (WTA) energy-efficient measures. Most of the studies on energy behaviour were focused on the residential and commercial sectors where the behaviour under investigation was under volitional control, that is, where people believe that they can execute the behaviour whenever they are willing to do so. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing the industry’s intentions and behaviour that leads to enhanced adoption of energy efficiency measures recommended through energy audits. In particular, this paper aims to extend the existing behaviour intention models using the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) method and expert feedback to develop an IEB model

TISM technique was used to determine the relationship between different elements of the behaviour. Responses were collected from experts in the field of energy efficiency to understand the relationship between identified factors, their driving power and dependency.

The results show that values, socialisation and leadership of individuals are the key driving factors in deciding the individual energy behaviour. WTA energy-saving measures recommended by an energy auditor are found to be highly dependent on the organisational policies such as energy policy, delegation of power to energy manager and life cycle cost evaluation in purchase policy.

This study has a few limitations that warrant consideration in future research. First, the data came from a small sample of energy experts based on a convenience sample of Indian experts. This limits the generalizability of the results. Individual and organizational behaviour analysed in this study looked into a few select characteristics, derived from the literature review and expert feedback, which may pose questions about the standard for behaviours in different industries.

Reasons for non-adoption of energy audit recommendations are rarely shared by the industries and the analysis of individual and organisational behaviour through structured questionnaire and surveys have serious limitations. Under this circumstance, collecting expert feedback and using the TISM method to build an IEB model can help to build strategies to enhance the adoption of energy-efficient measures.

Various policy level interventions and regulatory measures in the energy field, adopted across the globe, are found unsuccessful in narrowing the energy-efficiency gap, reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global warming. Understanding the key driving factors can help develop effective intervention strategies to improve energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions.

The industry energy behaviour model with driving, linking and dependent factors and factor hierarchy is a novel contribution to the theory of organisational behaviour. The model takes into consideration both the individual and organisational factors where the decision-making is not strictly under volitional control. Understanding the key driving factor of behaviour can help design an effective intervention strategy that addresses the barriers to energy efficiency improvement. The results imply that it is important to carry out post energy audit studies to understand the implementation rate of recommendations and also the individual and organisational factors that influence the WTA energy-saving measures.

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the foundational characteristics of the effective delegation of authority. Taken from a broad array of research and opinion, the fundamental aspects are given clear exposition.

Addressed in this paper are several areas that establish the basis for effective delegation to include the psychology of delegation, potential benefits, delegation and high performance human resource management practices, and fears of actually delegating authority.

Findings are grounded on actual practices which have been researched. There is a “science” to manager delegation of authority, and the critical information about how to delegate is presented.

This work gives shape to the actions that help to create effective delegation. There are many benefits that accrue from effective delegation, and these benefits are often under-represented.

This chapter examines one of the specific manifestations of political–administrative relationships, namely the delegation of powers to managers. The first part of the chapter is a literature review of political–administrative relationships in both developed and developing countries. This is followed by a discussion of the framework for delegation in South Africa that was laid down in the late 1990s. Next is an analysis of the implementation of delegation in the 2000s, along with the National Planning Commission recommendations in 2012, which has led to a resurgence in delegation initiatives. There is a well-developed government monitoring system of delegation that has led to some improvement in compliance with delegation, but the overall delegation levels are on the low side. Delegation to officials is often thwarted by Ministers who wish to retain control and/or promote patronage. Further, in some cases, managers lack capacity or are unwilling to manage and take responsibility for delegated authority.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

We studied the barriers to the development of self‐organization in three teams by means of questionnaires and observations. We found that the level of self‐organization pertaining to “routine work” is rather high. With respect to “machine‐related tasks”, the opportunities provided by the maintenance support group, and the complexity of some of these tasks are the main barriers to delegating more of these tasks. “Shift‐related tasks” are delegated to the team, but actually are done by the group coordinator only. “Communication tasks” have not been delegated to the teams, although the need to do so is high. Barriers lay in the shift system and in the skills of the workers. With respect to “sophisticated tasks” and the “tasks directed to the environment”, we conclude that the requisite of delegating them to the team is low. A moderate level of participation, however, seems appropriate here.

This paper provides a systematization of the existing body of literature on both employee participation goals and the intervention formats in the context of organizational change. Furthermore, degrees of employee involvement that the intervention formats address are identified and related to the goals of employee participation. On this basis, determinants of employee involvement and participation in the context of digital transformation are unveiled.

Based on a systematic literature review the authors structure and relate employee participation goals and formats. Through a workshop with expert practitioners, the authors transfer and enhance these theoretical findings in the context of digital transformation. Experts rated the three most important goals and identified accompanying success factors, barriers and effects.

The results show that it is not necessarily the degree of involvement but a context-specific selection of measures, the quality of their implementation as well as the actual uptake of suggestions and activities developed by employees that contribute to employees accepting and participating in goal-directed transformations. Moreover, employees must have sufficient information and time for their participation in transformation processes.

This paper is based on a transformative approach, combining literature analysis to identify formats and goals of employee participation with experiential knowledge of digital transformation practitioners. In addition to relating intervention formats to goals pursued in organizational change processes, empirical and experiential perspectives are used to identify three very relevant goals and respective determinants in digital transformation processes.