Search results

The social context in Polish high-rise neighbourhoods varies from one in Western Europe. This typology is not associated with social housing and the ownership of the dwellings mixed. Moreover, nearly half of the population of Poland lives in this type of real estates. Sociological research shows that the subjective quality of life is decent. Nevertheless, the dwellings are still considered a rather poor place to live and there are various aspects that need to be improved. Widzew is a typical example of the 1970s and 80s concrete high-rise housing area. Many similar developments have been built during the communist era in Eastern Europe. There are many degenerated buildings, while new developments intrude the existing environment, obstructing social and urban structure. The purpose of this paper is to analyse this environment and investigate the social problems and the urban context.

The authors have conducted sociological surveys and field observations to measure the subjective quality of life. After analysing the data, several problems appeared, such as lack of maintenance, poor quality of public space, the sense of insecurity and lack of social cohesion. The main scientific question is if and how the crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) method can address those issues. This paper wants to address major problems found in the social research by using a combination of CPTED solutions.

The necessity to apply the CPTED analysis in the quasi-public space is clearly noticeable. It is this space that is often perceived by the inhabitants as dangerous. It appears that it can be easily assessed via four criteria – visibility, accessibility, territoriality and attractiveness.

The novel idea was to compare the findings of a sociological survey on quality of life with the results of space analysis based on the CPTED method. This study might bring general recommendations for high-rise neighbourhoods in Eastern Europe.

Today enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications are a substantial proportion of many corporations' capital expenditure and the effective management of this pliable asset has significant consequence for business performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the corporate strategy of a global corporation that, in pursuit of competitive advantage, deployed ERP applications.

This inductive case study research examines the corporate processes utilised to strategically manage ERP in a global corporation. The approach is explorative and method qualitative. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted over a period of a year with senior executives, IT directors, IT managers, financial controllers, country managers and end‐users.

The study found that devolving responsibility of ERP applications to subsidiary organisations increased cost and hindered corporate parenting. The considerable cost of centralising IS management and standardising ERP processes was found to be greatly exceeded by the numerous benefits. The primary benefits being reduced cycle time, the ability to benchmark subsidiary performance, improved customer satisfaction and increased market share.

The research is limited by the analysis being of a single corporation. The major implication for future research is the need to understand the manner of ongoing management and control of ERP applications in different types of organisations. Particularly, their relationship with strategic management, how ERP enable and inhibit strategy, and ongoing management of operational ERP systems.

The dissemination of the management practices that have been employed to achieve a very successful ERP application‐based business strategy is helpful to the many organisations that have or intend to implement ERP applications. It is particularly noteworthy that centralised corporate objectives, when mandated and focused upon, provide benefits that could not be achieved in the ad hocracy that existed prior to the ERP implementation.

The dearth of theory about ongoing management of ERP and the plight of the many organisations that are having difficulty understanding how to strategically manage these ubiquitous systems in a rapidly changing business landscape makes the study significant to both theory and practice.