ABSTRACT
The various challenges a company meets when facing globalization emphasize more than ever the role of strategic management. Many companies conduct SWOT analysis as part of the strategic planning process, yet criticism in employing SWOT pinpoints the fact that the analysis lacks the possibility of comprehensively appraising the strategic decision-making situation.
On another hand, a company’s strategic decision making impacts and is impacted at the same time by the different groups that contour its direct environment. The three most important ones are the shareholders, the organization’s employees, represented by the unions, and the board of directors.
This paper sets out to take an integrative approach to SWOT analysis through the use of an econometrics model in order to quantitatively determine the importance of each of the factors to be evaluated. Therefore, this paper introduces ESWOT as a theoretical framework through the integration of econometrics and SWOT analysis, in order to measure the impact of global strategies, strategic business units, human resource policies and policy change strategies on IBM’s evolution from three perspectives: the board, the shareholders and the employees.
The focus of the research is hence twofold: it provides a novel, quantitative approach to a veteran strategic analysis tool, as well as it tackles IBM’s strategy through this new perspective.
By using the ESWOT analysis we successfully explain the relationships between the border, the stockholders and the unions’ interests. IBM must focus its future objectives on its core business that enables it to create a niche in the market, and recruiting the right staff, especially the right CEO to lead the team in achieving the substantial goals of the company and guiding it through the future challenges brought upon by the global financial crisis.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract I
Table of Contents II
List of Tables IV
List of Figures VI

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter Overview 1
Background of the Study 1
Purposes of the Study 4
Questions of the Study 5
Testing Hypothesis 6
Significance of the Study 12
Delimitations and Limitations 13
Definition of Terms 14

CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW 19
Chapter Overview 19
The SWOT Analysis 19
ESWOT 26
IBM Profile 30

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY 35
Chapter Overview 35
Research Framework 35
Research Model 40
Research Procedure 42
Research Methods 43

CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 45
Chapter Overview 45
Descriptive Statistics 45
Empirical Results 52

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 71
Chapter Overview 71
Conclusions 71
Recommendations 81
REFERENCES 83

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1. Evolution of EPS and Revenue from the Regional Variables 47
Table 4.2 Evolution of Revenue from the SBU 49
Table 4.3 Evolution of HR policies 51
Table 4.4 Multiple regression analysis of Earnings and Regional variables, Strategic Business Units, Human Resource Policy and Institutional Change 52
Table 4.5 Significant variables for Earnings 53
Table 4.6 Multiple regression analysis of Revenue and Regional variables, Strategic Business Units, Human Resource Policy and Institutional Change 56
Table 4.7 Significant variables for Revenue 57
Table 4.8 Multiple regression analysis of Earn Per Share and Regional variables, Strategic Business Units, Human Resource Policy and Institutional Change 60
Table 4.9 Significant variables for Earn Per Share 61
Table 4.10 Multiple regression analysis of Individuals benefiting from a Retirement Plan, Regional varibles, Strategic Business Units and Institutional Change 64
Table 4.11 Significant variables for Earn Per Share Individuals benefiting from a Retirement Plan 65
Table 4.12 Multiple regression analysis of Number of Employees, Regional variable, Strategic Business Units and Institutional Change 67
Table 4.13 Significant variables for Number of Employees 69
Table 5.1 The ESWOT Analysis 72
Table 5.2 The ESWOT for the board 73
Table 5.1 The ESWOT the stockholders 76
Table 5.1 The ESWOT the unions 7

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 SWOT outline 15
Figure 2.1 Strategic planning process 22
Figure 3.1 Research framework 36
Figure 3.1 Research process 42
Figure 4.1 Time sequence evolution for EPS 45
Figure 4.2 Time sequence evolution for Revenues from Europe/ Africa/ Middle East, Asia and America regions 46
Figure 4.3 Time evolution for Global Service, Hardware and Software strategic business units 48
Figure 4.4 Time sequence evolution for number of employees and retirement plan beneficiaries 50

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