This thesis synthesises theoretical and empirical knowledge from four strands of the innovation literature and then uses this knowledge to develop a framework for analysing the determinants of innovation. The framework is tested on one part of the New Zealand economy - the biotechnology sector - an area of rapid technological change where innovation is of particular significance. Theoretical approaches to the economics of innovation and technological change are reviewed with particular reference to the neo-classical, endogenous growth, evolutionary and systems of innovation approaches. Alternative methods of measuring innovation output and innovation rate are also discussed. This is followed by a series of hypotheses regarding the determinants of innovation and a review of their place in the innovation literature. The thesis includes a detailed description of the New Zealand biotechnology sector based on a re-analysis of the first comprehensive (1998/99) survey of biotechnology in New Zealand, data from an original (2002) survey conducted by the author, data from interviews with senior management in a sample of biotechnology firms and a detailed review of secondary sources. This material is used in chapter 5 to address the question 'Does New Zealand have an innovation system for biotechnology?' Count data regression models and data from the 1998/99 and 2002 surveys are then used to test the framework's innovation hypotheses. Hypothesis testing focuses on the effects of several determinants (firm size, firm type, conduct of R, involvement in modern biotechnology, specialisation, and alliances) on innovation output and the innovation rate. Results relating to the effect of demand, technological opportunity and appropriability are also reported. The analysis in this thesis confirms the importance of most of the innovation determinants included in the framework. It also provides a detailed examination of the biotechnology sector and empirical insights into the innovation behaviour of biotech enterprises in New Zealand. Prior to the analysis in this thesis, knowledge of the sector's parameters was very limited or absent.

This study is premised on the assumption that because of increased globalisation the trend towards strategic alliances is going to increase in the 21st century. This is evident in the phenomenal growth towards the establishment of alliances the world over despite high failure rates. The study also makes an important assumption that a major cause of alliance failure is managerial in nature and therefore relates to the task performed by alliance managers.Whilst research in the West has attempted to focus on such failings, few researchers have attempted to understand the state of alliances in developing country contexts as well as the reasons for the lack of their successes or otherwise. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by exploring the managerial issues surrounding alliance management in a developing country, Papua New Guinea. It was found that alliance managers in countries such as Papua New Guinea faced managerial challenges similar to those in their counterparts in developing countries. However, the similary ends there.The research demonstrated that governmental and socio-cultural factors predominate in the national and local environments.It also found that resource deficiencies made alliances highly susceptible to misalignment in strategic intent and structure.Several other findings are discussed in detail. The research resulted in the development of a holistic approach to the study and management of strategic alliances. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The research stream on interpartner learning in international strategic alliances has evolved in recent years. Although several research problems have been addressed, there remain gaps in the literature about the facilitators and outcomes of knowledge acquisition in international joint ventures. To bridge these gaps, this research has two main objectives. Firstly, it identifies various antecedents and tests their effects on the acquisition of marketing know-how by the local partner from the foreign partner. Secondly, it investigates how the acquired marketing know-how impacts on the learning outcomes in an IJV.The findings of this study show the effects of eight antecedents on the acquisition of tacit and explicit forms of marketing know-how. Research gaps have been bridged by this study in several ways. The thesis has also answered the call for empirical studies to provide statistical evidence with respect to inter-organizational learning in the international arena. It contributes new measurement scales as well as suggests effective ways of acquiring marketing knowledge from foreign partners in IJV. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 416-460).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / 1 electronic text (111 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Title from title screen. Dr. Ben Oviatt, committee chair; Brett Anitra Gilbert, Detmar W. Straub, William C. Bogner, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Mar. 28, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-111).

Background Strategic alliances have become increasingly popular within the business world, they can be seen as a way to improve the total output of the firm. Over the last 10 years, the industry endured trying times, the most notable being the events of September 11, 2001. That event drastically changed airline traveling all across the world. It also showed the importance of collaborations in order to stay competitive. Star Alliance began in 1997 and has since then grown into the world’s largest airline alliance with a total market share of 25.1%. Purpose The raison d’être of this study is to quantify and analyze the augmentation of load factors over time, in terms of distribution, as they pertain to capacity performance of allied carriers within Star Alliance. Method In order to fulfill the purpose, a deductive approach to the research has been taken. Furthermore, due to the nature of the data, a quantitative approach has been used within. Two hypotheses will be stated and several research questions as well. Result It can be clearly seen that distribution of load factors has transformed during the years. There is a shift in both the skewness and the kurtosis of the distributions that can be seen when examining the frequency distribution charts. The kurtosis increases and the skew decreases, measures that are positive for the airlines, while the anomalies of 0% and 100% load factor have remained stable throughout the years. A general increase in the average load factors has also been seen. Conclusion By analyzing the empirical findings, it is clear that the load factor of the allied members has increased and that the proportion of the denied boardings decreased in relation to the average load factor. This means that the alternative hypothesis was accepted in the first hypothesis and that the second alternative hypothesis was accepted in the second hypothesis. The research also reveals a generally increased mean which together with the changes in the skew and kurtosis lead to an acceptance of the beta distribution. Furthermore, higher load factors were shown to have a strong correlation with the increase in efficiency and decrease in overselling.

La tesis se compone de dos partes. En la primera (capítulo dos) se presenta una extensión de un modelo de entrada "à la Dixit". Se considera un marco en el que las decisiones de entrada del líder pueden revelar información acerca de la rentabilidad de los mercados a un seguidor. En este contexto se caracteriza el comportamiento estratégico del líder. Asimismo, se demuestra que cuando la rentabilidad esperada de los mercados se situa a un nivel intermedio el líder opta por una estrategia de introducción secuencial con el fin de retrasar la entrada del competidor. Por el contrario, cuando la rentabilidad esperada de los mercados es menor, el líder tiende a introducirse en todos ellos al mismo tiempo, con el fin de evitar la entrada de la otra empresa. En la segunda parte de la tesis (capítulos 3 a 6) se estudia la manera en que las empresas organizan sus acuerdos de cooperación. En el capítulo 3 se proporciona una introducción al tema. En los capítulos 4 y 5 se presentan dos modelos teóricos. En el primero se utiliza un marco de contratos incompletos y se analiza el rol que el aprendizaje del know-how del partner juega en el desarrollo de dos modos de organización de alianzas estratégicas, esto es, Joint Ventures y acuerdos de contratos. Se demuestra que cuanto mayor es la asimetría en la capacidad de aprendizaje de las empresas, mejor es la Joint Venture. El modelo presentado en el capítulo 5 combina las herramientas y métodos de dos áreas de la literatura económica: inversión bajo incertidumbre y teoría de la búsqueda. El objetivo principal del modelo consiste en relacionar la forma de gobierno elegida por las empresas involucradas en la alianza con las características del sector en el que la alianza tiene lugar. Se demuestra que cuanto mayor es la incertidumbre a la que se enfrentan las empresas, mayor es la probabilidad de que elijan formas de gobierno más flexibles, como los acuerdos de contratos. El último capítulo se dedica a la investigación empírica del tema. Se contrastan algunas de las predicciones que pueden ser derivadas de los modelos presentados en los capítulos 4 y 5, así como aquellas que han sido destacadas en otros trabajos teóricos. / The thesis is composed of two distinct parts. In the first one (chapter 2), I present an extension of an entry model "à la Dixit". I consider a setting in which the entry decisions of the first mover might reveal information about the markets' profitability to a second entrant. In this context, I characterize the first mover's strategic behavior. I show that when priors about markets profitability are at an intermediate level, then the first mover enters them sequentially trying to delay the competitor's entry. On the contrary, when priors are lower, the first mover tends to enter all the markets at the same time trying to preempt the other firm. In the second part of the thesis (chapters 3,4,5,6), I consider the issue of the governance form of strategic alliances. That is, I study the way in which firms organize their cooperative arrangements. In chapter 3, there is a brief introduction to the topic. In chapters 4 and 5, I present two theoretical models. In the first one, I employ an incomplete contracts setting and I analyze the role of learning the partner's know-how on the performances of two typical modes of organizing strategic alliances, namely Joint Ventures and Contractual Agreements. I show that the more asymmetric firms' absorptive capacities are, the better a Joint Venture performs. The model of chapter 5 combines the tools and methods of two strands of economic literature: investment under uncertainty and search theory. The main objective of the model is that of relating the form of governance that partners choose for their alliance to the typology of the project undertaken and to the characteristics of the sector in which the alliance takes place. It is proved that the larger the uncertainty that partners face, the more likely that they choose more flexible forms of cooperation such as Contractual Agreements. The last chapter is devoted to an empirical assessment of the topic. I test some of the predictions that can be derived from the models of chapters 4 and 5 as well as those that have been put forward by other theoretical studies dealing with the same issue.

One way states can mitigate external threats is by entering into military alliances. However, threatened states are reluctant to enter into military alliances because alliance membership can require significant policy concessions. An important and unanswered question is: when will states be willing to make policy concessions in exchange for military alliances? This is the question that is investigated in this project. To address this question I develop a simple three actor bargaining model of alliance formation that endogenizes both external threat and policy concessions. I test the model's implications with two sets of large N analyses and find strong support for the hypotheses. The first set of empirical analyses uses a novel research design that takes into account the attributes of challengers to evaluate states' alliance formation decisions. The second set is based on the same research design and provides one of the first analyses of foreign policy concessions among alliance members. The results suggest that threatened states are willing to make more concessions in exchange for an alliance when they are unlikely to defeat their challengers alone and when their allies have a large effect on their probability of defeating their challengers. This research highlights both the security and non-security motivations for alliance formation and demonstrates that alliances have important influences beyond international security.

<p>Background</p><p>Strategic alliances have become increasingly popular within the business world, they can be seen as a way to improve the total output of the firm. Over the last 10 years, the industry endured trying times, the most notable being the events of September 11, 2001. That event drastically changed airline traveling all across the world. It also showed the importance of collaborations in order to stay competitive. Star Alliance began in 1997 and has since then grown into</p><p>the world’s largest airline alliance with a total market share of 25.1%.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The raison d’être of this study is to quantify and analyze the augmentation of load factors over time, in terms of distribution, as they pertain to capacity performance of allied carriers within Star Alliance.</p><p>Method</p><p>In order to fulfill the purpose, a deductive approach to the research has been taken. Furthermore, due to the nature of the data, a quantitative approach has been used within. Two hypotheses will be stated and several research questions as well.</p><p>Result</p><p>It can be clearly seen that distribution of load factors has transformed during the years. There is a shift in both the skewness and the kurtosis of the distributions that can be seen when examining the frequency distribution charts. The kurtosis increases and the skew decreases, measures that are positive for the airlines, while the anomalies of 0% and 100% load factor have remained stable throughout the years. A general increase in the average load factors has also been seen.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>By analyzing the empirical findings, it is clear that the load factor of the allied members has increased and that the proportion of the denied boardings decreased in relation to the average load factor. This means that the alternative hypothesis was accepted in the first hypothesis and that the second alternative hypothesis was accepted in the second hypothesis. The research also reveals a generally increased mean which together with the changes in the skew and kurtosis lead to an acceptance of the beta distribution. Furthermore, higher load factors were shown to have a strong correlation with the increase in efficiency and decrease in overselling.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.