This thesis addresses the development of industries manufacturing in the renewable energy sector. As the most mature of the renewable energy technologies, it specifically assesses the development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry up to the present in order to address what lessons may be learned for the future development of the industry and for other renewable energy industries. Data is presented in the form of a number of case studies which detail the comparative successes of Denmark, Germany, Spain and the UK in encouraging the growth of wind turbine industries. Three areas of study are identified, and the data collected in the case studies applied to each. Firstly, the question of whether it is still possible for countries to stimulate national industries to successfully gain entry to the wind turbine manufacturing industry. Applying the historical data in the context of a typological theory on entrepreneurial success with regard to industrial phase, it is argued that such entry is still possible. The remaining two areas of study are linked in that they both address what lessons might be learned from the international development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry in order for the UK to replicate the success of other nations. The first of these areas specifically addresses how lessons from elsewhere might enable UK access to the wind turbine manufacturing industry. The second area addresses the extent to which experiences in the wind turbine industry might provide lessons for entrants to the industries of newer, less mature renewable energy technologies.

<p>Internet of Things (IOT) has become the key theme of the world since 2009 and been considered as the third wave in the information industry after the waves of Computer, Internet and Mobile Radio Communication. It is expected to have a strong influence on small and medium companies (SMEs). However, little research on what and how the influence of IOT on the SME’s development can be found in the literature. The purpose of the thesis is to examine how IOT influences the organizational changes in SMEs. Finally, suggestions for strategy developments will be proposed to assist the SMEs in making their organization changes successfully. Two main models are applied for this part: change model (OD model) and business model. Moreover, the SWOT theory is adopted to identify the SMEs position in IOT era. We collect the primary data through launching the survey on internet. After data documentation, we apply “Approximation of the Probability Hypothesis Testing” Method to conduct data analysis. After researching, we found out the IOT brings “revolution” change to the Logistics of SMEs while only “adapting” change for Manufactures’ business development. Compare to logistic industry, the manufacturing SMEs seldom adopts IT technologies for their selling channel because they are lacking of resources and knowledge for the new technologies. We suggest the logistic SMEs should establish logistic network between the logistic companies to enhance information and resource integration. For the manufacturing SMEs should apply knowledge management and change the companies into learning organizations. In future, IOT will bring radical changes for manufacturers, which are the biggest area with application of IOT technology. Nevertheless, the logistics industry might go out of fashion. In other words, logistics industry may die out or change to other functions.</p>

Internet of Things (IOT) has become the key theme of the world since 2009 and been considered as the third wave in the information industry after the waves of Computer, Internet and Mobile Radio Communication. It is expected to have a strong influence on small and medium companies (SMEs). However, little research on what and how the influence of IOT on the SME’s development can be found in the literature. The purpose of the thesis is to examine how IOT influences the organizational changes in SMEs. Finally, suggestions for strategy developments will be proposed to assist the SMEs in making their organization changes successfully. Two main models are applied for this part: change model (OD model) and business model. Moreover, the SWOT theory is adopted to identify the SMEs position in IOT era. We collect the primary data through launching the survey on internet. After data documentation, we apply “Approximation of the Probability Hypothesis Testing” Method to conduct data analysis. After researching, we found out the IOT brings “revolution” change to the Logistics of SMEs while only “adapting” change for Manufactures’ business development. Compare to logistic industry, the manufacturing SMEs seldom adopts IT technologies for their selling channel because they are lacking of resources and knowledge for the new technologies. We suggest the logistic SMEs should establish logistic network between the logistic companies to enhance information and resource integration. For the manufacturing SMEs should apply knowledge management and change the companies into learning organizations. In future, IOT will bring radical changes for manufacturers, which are the biggest area with application of IOT technology. Nevertheless, the logistics industry might go out of fashion. In other words, logistics industry may die out or change to other functions.

¡@¡@Because of recession of investment environment and deregulation of Mainland policies in Taiwan since the early 1990s, Taiwanese manufacturing industries were attracted with cheap production costs and regional development policies in Mainland China, led investment of Taiwanese manufacturing industries and export of Taiwan to Mainland China rose quickly. Since foreign investment policies had been changed, problems of labor shortages and rising wages got worse in Mainland China in recent years, led production advantages of Taiwanese manufacturing industries lost gradually. In order to look for supply chain process cheaply and effectively, Taiwanese manufacturing industries were developing toward localization and domestic market in Mainland China, led its¡¦ demands of Taiwanese supply chain reduced gradually. In order to increase importance of Taiwanese supply chain, Taiwan government should promote industrial restructuring and upgrading, and attract Taiwanese manufacturing industries establish R & D sectors about technology-intensive and knowledge-intensive in Taiwan. We can use advantages of logistics and channels about Taiwanese service industries, it will maintain and raise importance of Taiwanese supply chain by the high quality and high value-added part.

The traditional manufacturing industry in Taiwan in these few years have been severely challenged by the changing business environment. Under the public opinions that how the traditional industry gets rid of the fate of becoming the declining industry, there are still some companies achieving their success implicitly. To accompany with human resource practices, they create unique competitive advantages and values to overcome the threat by the economic depression and globalization competitiveness. A case study method is used in this thesis. Ten companies in traditional manufacturing industry with superior organizational performance and histories of transformation or related actions for business growth are targeted to explore how the traditional manufacturing industry strengthens or develops different human resource abilities according to different transformation strategies while facing different evolutional opportunities. In this thesis, internal fit of universalistic perspective and external fit of contingent perspective are used to investigate the internal mutual fitness among the human resource practices within the organization respectively. A set of core human resource practices which fit the characteristics of traditional manufacturing industry in Taiwan will be proposed as the core of integrated human resource practices. In addition, from the point of external fit, this thesis also explores the fitness of human resource practices and organizational strategies. To the companies with different transformation strategies, including changing strategic frame, investing resources, changing processes, and solidifying relationships, appropriate human resource practices should also be addressed to strengthen and develop the correspondent dynamic human resource abilities as needed. Therefore, the following propositions are proposed in terms of the inductive inference of interviewing with the ten cases and reviewing the related literature extensively. Propositions 1: The core human resource practices for traditional manufacturing industry in Taiwan are: Focus on employees¡¦ steadiness, hard-working spirits, and employee disciplines while recruiting, high wages, extensive benefits, incentives with cash payment, behavior-oriented and results-oriented performance appraisal, on-the-job training and skill development, promotion from within, harmonious employer-employee relationship, and long-term job security. The more the organization implements those practices, the more the organization could attain competitive advantages and receive superior organizational performance. Propositions 2: In accordance with different transformation and growth anchors, the human resource practices are also different. There are four anchors of transformation strategies including strategic frames, resources, processes, and relationships. Proposition 3: In terms of reengineering strategic frames as the transformation strategy, the organization should emphasize innovative ability while implementing human resource practices. To reverse employees¡¦ value by hard-culture reengineering, the organization could receive knowledge and ability which is different from the one supporting the old strategic frames. Proposition 4: In terms of investing resources as the transformation strategy, the organization should emphasize intensive ability while implementing human resource practices. To intensify and retain the original core techniques, the organization could upgrade the core techniques to the advanced level in order to expand the potential markets. Proposition 5: In terms of changing processes as the transformation strategy, the organization should emphasize participative ability while implementing human resource practices. The organization could accentuate operation efficiency in order to attain the main purposes of reducing cost and improve quality. Proposition 6: In terms of solidifying relationships as the transformation strategy, the organization should emphasize service ability while implementing human resource practices. The organization could draw on the strength of each to offset the weakness of the other among the stakeholders in order to develop competitive advantages.

The rapid development of information technology (IT) has impacted the competitive environment between properties. Today, more and more companies introduce information system to flow internal messages freely, reduce the communication cost and provide support the important messages to managers for fast decision. By this way, the enterprise could maintain its competitive advantage. To introduce the information system¡]IS¡^ is really costly, companies should probe the effects before and after the investment of IS . We have learned from literatures that measurement of service quality is the proper means to gauge the information system. This study is to assess information system at the base of ¡uIS-adapted SERVQUAL instrument¡v and ¡uThree-column format¡v. A survey, which adapted to individual company, was conducted with some measures modified from the viewpoint of captioned company. 436 valid samples were taken from more than 8600 employees by stratified random sampling. The major findings are (1) instead of four dimensions expected from the original model, only two service components, attitude perspective and skill perspective, are identified in the service quality of information system for manufacturing industry,¡]2¡^the difference between ¡¥perceive quality¡¦ and ¡¥self-confident quality¡¦ is significant, ¡]3¡^Following the demographic variables among ages, positions, working departments and academic degrees, it appears no significant difference in the attitude perspective and skill perspective of service quality concerning information system.

This study is about the relations between ¡§technology innovation kinds¡¨ and ¡§knowledge management kinds¡¨, and takes ¡§the performance of new product development¡¨ for measuring it. The concept of technology innovation kinds is by Henderson and Clark(1990), which depends on the ¡§Component knowledge¡¨ and ¡§Architectural knowledge¡¨ enhanced or destroyed, gets 4 kinds: incremental¡BArchitectural¡BModular¡Band Radical. On the other hand, concept of knowledge management kinds is developed by this study, which depends on ¡§the environment for sharing knowledge¡¨ formal or informal; ¡§the source of knowledge¡¨ from inside the company or outside, gets 4 kinds: database¡Bspace for communicate¡Bnetwork¡Band real time communicate. Besides 4 cases for explaining the relations, this study uses statistic for studying manufacturing industry, and finds: 1. Every of the technology innovation kinds prefers its own knowledge management kinds. Like: ¡¨ incremental¡¨ prefers ¡§ database¡¨¡B¡¨ Architectural¡¨ prefers ¡§space for communicate¡¨¡B¡¨Modular¡¨ prefers ¡§network¡¨¡Band ¡§Radical¡¨ prefers ¡§real time communicate¡¨. 2. The technology innovation kinds correspond to its own knowledge management kinds, and the performance of new product development will be higher. 3. The high-tech industry¡¦s new product development performance is higher than the traditional industry¡¦s as their innovation kinds correspond to its own knowledge management kinds. 4. The smaller company¡¦s new product development performance is higher than the larger one as their technology innovation kinds correspond to its own knowledge management kinds.

One of the most enigmatic phenomena to explain in social and business sciences is the functioning and economic growth of organisations and national economies. This is testified by the several theoretical frameworks, which, with varying degrees of success, attempt to unravel the growth puzzle. This dissertation focuses on the network theory, with particular reference to small business growth in the contemporary competitive global economy. The primary focus is the isolation thesis which maintains that although small business growth is constrained by a number of factors, isolation rather than size is the key problem and that the answer lies in networking and clustering. Hypothesising that fraternal network is the most significant type of network for small business growth, the dissertation investigates the structural properties of networks in relation to the performance of the small clothing manufacturing enterprises (SCMEs) in the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA). Combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches, descriptive network data and hermeneutic analyses, the dissertation argues that the growth and development of small business may be understood by the framework of relationships between the scopes of fraternal and factor networks, the medium of communication and the human factor. The dissertation empirically confirms the isolation thesis and the widely documented view that networks have positive impact on business performance although they could also be detrimental. The study finds that although clustering may be necessary it is certainly not a sufficient condition for inter-firm co-operation and joint action to a level that promotes individual firm performance and collective efficiency. The study argues that the widely documented poor performance of the clothing industry in the Durban Metropolis is, to a large extent, due to inadequate network relationships. The observed minimal network relationships among the sampled firms is largely the result of human factor decay manifesting as mistrust, selfishness, dishonesty, greed etc. Conceding that human factor decay is largely a consequence of the process of modernisation or the transition from Germeinschaft (Community) to Gesellschaft (Association), the dissertation maintains that human factor decay among the sampled SCMEs is exacerbated by the apartheid system, which undermined social and economic relationships. Of the three types of networks identified in the literature - factor, fraternal and communication networks - the study confirms the latter as the most significant to SCMEs in Durban. The study also confirms the view that the use of electronic networks or new information and communication technologies (ICTs) contributes significantly to economic performance. Although reverse causality is a possibility, the dissertation concludes that small firms are likely to be better off through increased electronic connectivity, as compared to face-to-face (FTF) interactions. By this finding and conclusion the study, on one hand, fails to confirm the hypothesis that fraternal networks are the most significant types of networks among the SCMEs in Durban. On the other hand, it confirms Castells' theory of a universal trend of social change towards a network society, a global informational economy and a culture of 'real virtuality'. The impact of ICTs use on the effectiveness and efficiency of networks, however, depends on the scope of networks but more importantly, on the human factor (HF) i.e., appropriate human personality traits, e.g., information management skills and knowledge, trust, honesty, reciprocity, loyalty and creativity. In the concluding chapter, the dissertation explores the policy implications of the findings and offers recommendations that could inform trade and industrial policy for small business growth and development through the network perspective. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

Reverse logistics is different from forward logistics in objectives, operations, pricing, quality, quantity, packaging, product and information flow. Further, management of the returned products and their information is a major challenge since it is difficult to predict the time, place of origin, quantity and quality of the goods that will be returned. To establish the importance of reverse logistics as a business process and to understand related issues for information management, this research was undertaken with data from the Australian Manufacturing and E-Business organisations. This research examined six dimensions of reverse logistics. These were: (1) Factors that compel Manufacturing and E-Business organisations to manage reverse logistics; (2) Operations in product return process; (3) Methods of capturing value from returned goods; (4) Barriers to reverse logistics management; (5) Information management issues in reverse logistics; and (6) Product return trends in the E-Business industry. This research was exploratory in nature and was accomplished via a quantitative research method. It adopted a positivist epistemology and followed a deductive approach to capture reverse logistics knowledge. Research data from Manufacturing and E-Business industries was elicited with postal questionnaire surveys using structured questions. Since the data collected from the two main surveys was mainly nominal and ordinal, it was quantitatively analysed using non-parametric tests, Fisher's exact test and one sample Wilcoxon test. It also employed frequency distributions, binomial test and one sample t-test. An additional statistical test was carried out on each set of data to triangulate the finding. The tests were undertaken in Minitab spreadsheet computer packages. This research highlights the fact that reverse logistics management is an important business process in the Australian Manufacturing and E-Business industries. It is a strategic advantage, as well as an important customer service. Although substantial monetary value can be recovered from returned goods, at present two industries investigated have not tapped into this potential. Findings of this research also indicate that a lack of efficient information management is a problem in reverse logistics. Information management in the two industries is based on land-line telephone, fax and computers. This research identified that from E-Business sales error in ordering, customer change of mind on receipt of good and inefficient forward logistics operations (picking, packing and delivery) are important reasons for returns. It also established that e-businesses resell the returned goods and recapture value. The value recovery process in this industry is different from the manufacturing industries where the prevalent value recovery processes are repair, resale and recycle. Further research issues emanating from this project include evaluation methods for recapturing value from returned goods, effective information management strategies for return management and the impact of a law for returning certain types of used goods. This research is an initial effort undertaken to establish returns management in the Australian industries. It establishes that reverse logistics should be recognised as a business process in these industries.

The objectives of this research project are threefold: (1) to identify the key marketing innovation factors which drive successful export marketing strategy in Thai manufacturing companies, (2) to test the proposed model 'The Full Model of Export Performance' on Thai export manufacturing companies, and (3) to suggest recommendations to Thai export manufacturing companies in order to improve their export performance.